MELVILLE, NEW YORK, 24 May 2006 — The American Institute of Physics (AIP) announced today that Prof. Hsueh-Chia Chang has accepted the position of Editor of AIP's new rapid-publication, open access journal, Biomicrofluidics (http://bmf.aip.org). Dr. Chang is Bayer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Director of the Center for Microfluidics and Medical Diagnostics at the University of Notre Dame. He has done extensive work on biological applications of microfluidics and on pattern-formation dynamics driven by hydrodynamic and electrochemical, biological, thermal, and reaction-diffusion instabilities.
As an electronic-only, Web-based, open access journal with rapid publication time, Biomicrofluidics will be responsive to the many new developments expected in this field. The interdisciplinary approach, including applications, inherent in biomicrofluidics research draws scientists from diverse fields such as engineering, physics, materials science, chemistry, and biology. Biomicrofluidics will seek to unite these various disciplines that together form this vibrant field of study. The journal is scheduled for launch by January 2007.
"With the number of biomicrofluidics researchers growing exponentially, and the fast-paced development of biomicrofluidic devices, there is a strong need within the community for a widely read, rapid-publication journal such as Biomicrofluidics," said Hsueh-Chia Chang, Editor of Biomicrofluidics. "As an inherently interdisciplinary field, open access to the journal will allow researchers to build on each others work, thereby spurring significant research activity and leading to major breakthroughs in applications such as diagnostic technologies."
With a primary focus on original research articles, the journal also will organize special sections and issues that will help elucidate and define specific challenges unique to the field of biomicrofluidics. The journal will cover topics such as DNA and molecular manipulation, microfluidics and nanofluidics, wetting and nano-rheology, drop and digitated platform, electrokinetics and magneto-hydrodynamics, pathogen and molecular concentration, and separation and sorting devices.
"With budgetary constraints hampering the efforts of many libraries to acquire all the research their patrons need, new connections are needed between those publishing research and those needing to utilize it," stated Marc H. Brodsky, AIP Executive Director and CEO. "In order to fulfill AIP's mandate, which involves the diffusion of knowledge for the benefit of human welfare, we are pursuing new avenues to enhance the free flow of information. Open access publication is one such avenue."
Organized into four issues per year, Biomicrofluidics will publish each article online in final citable form as soon as it is available. As an open access journal, the full-text version of every published article will be made freely available to any online user - no subscription is required.
The American Institute of Physics is a not-for-profit corporation with a mission to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics and related fields of science and engineering and its applications to human welfare. Publishing and publishing services are part of that mission. In addition to publishing magazines and journals, AIP provides composition, printing, fulfillment, marketing, and other services to science and engineering publishers. AIP also fulfills its mandate by operating Scitation, the online home of more than 150 leading journals published by twenty science and engineering societies.
For further information, please visit http://bmf.aip.org or contact:
Mark Cassar
Manager, Journal Development
American Institute of Physics
Phone: +1 516-576-2219
Fax: +1 516-576-2450
Email: mcassar@aip.org
Kevin B. Marvel, a research astronomer who specializes in stellar radio astronomy, has been named executive officer of the American Astronomical Society. He succeeds Robert Milkey, who will retire in July after 11 years of service.
A search committee's recommendation to select Marvel as head of the society was approved unanimously by the council of the society at a conference-call meeting last December. He will take office on 8 June during the AAS summer meeting in Calgary, Canada.
Marvel, 38, joined the AAS executive office in 1998 as the head of policy programs and subsequently undertook additional responsibility as deputy executive officer and manager of AAS-printed publications. In a recent interview with PHYSICS TODAY, Marvel said his first priority as executive officer of the society will be to continue to seek, sustain, and increase federal funding for astronomical research. The AAS has a well-coordinated grass-roots coalition that springs into action whenever funding is threatened by legislation, Marvel said, and he will work to ensure that the coalition remains strong. Marvel said he also wants to make sure the AAS newsletter continues to inform and advise society members on such issues.
"Sometimes Congress needs to be reminded to support research in astronomy, and that's what the AAS is here to do," Marvel said.
Robert Kirshner, AAS president and search committee chair, lauded the committee's selection of Marvel as the society's new chief.
"Kevin has been a terrific addition to the AAS Washington office, energizing our public policy work," said Kirshner in a prepared statement. "He has the energy and drive to make sure the American Astronomical Society succeeds in all parts of its mission. I'm sure he will be an excellent executive officer for the AAS."
Marvel said continuing to manage the AAS's five journals is another important aspect of his new post.
"We're trying to improve them to make it easier for members to submit, easier for readers to use," he said, "and we're actively trying to continue decreasing page charges."
With 5500 US members and 1000 from other countries, the AAS still needs to boost its membership, Marvel said, adding that he will work to build it. Under his direction the society just created a new class of membership that he says will be especially attractive to potential members from outside the US.
Prior to joining the AAS staff, Marvel graduated from the University of Arizona, obtained a PhD at New Mexico State University, and was a postdoctoral researcher under Anneila Sargent at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory of the California Institute of Technology.
Marvel praised the work of his predecessor and said he hopes to follow up on Milkey's accomplishments.
"Bob Milkey got the society finances in fantastic shape and developed new systems that generated big savings for our members," Marvel said. "I hope to keep all that in good running order. There's a good stable foundation."
Neal D. Shinn, a manager at the US Department of Energy Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, is president-elect of AVS, the Science and Technology Society, for 2006. He succeeds Christie Marrian (see PHYSICS TODAY, March 2005, page 82), who is now the society's president. Shinn will become president in 2007.
In a prepared statement, Shinn said AVS sets itself apart from other scientific societies and must continue to do so by creating and nurturing professional communities for interdisciplinary science and emerging technologies.
"To remain a vibrant society, [we] must stimulate and challenge attendees [in our symposia] . . . and also be a vehicle for AVS members to establish technical leadership with international impact," Shinn said in his statement. "AVS is well positioned to champion the opportunities for science and technology to solve global challenges in energy, water and health care."
The user program manager at the DOE center, a new national user facility jointly operated by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, Shinn earned his BS in chemistry and mathematics from the Pennsylvania State University in 1978 and his PhD in chemical physics from MIT in 1983. He was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at NIST, where his research involved the elucidation of molecular adsorbate structure and identification of reaction intermediates on metal surfaces using vibrational spectroscopies. He joined Sandia in 1985 as a senior member of the technical staff and led the lab's research and mission-related programs at the National Synchrotron Light Source.
Shinn is also an adjunct physics professor at Utah State University and serves on external advisory committees for the College of Engineering at Penn State, the biomedical engineering department at the Ohio State University, and the physics department of New Mexico State University. His research interests include using acoustic techniques to understand how molecular structure and ensemble ordering determine the visoelastic mechanical properties of self-assembled molecular monolayers on solid surfaces.
In other AVS election news, Joe Greene (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) remains the society's clerk/secretary and John Coburn (University of California, Berkeley) retains his position as treasurer. The new AVS directors are Bridget R. Rogers (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee), Peter Sheldon (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado), and Robert A. Langley (retired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Sandia). The society's newly elected trustees are Susan B. Sinnott (University of Florida, Gainesville) and Rudolf Ludeke (IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York).
Andy Kraynik has taken office for a two-year term as president of the Society of Rheology and plans to focus on maintaining the high quality of society membership benefits, including its journal and meetings.
Kraynik succeeded Susan Muller (see PHYSICS TODAY, December 2003, page 80) and took office last October after the society's annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. In an interview last month with PHYSICS TODAY, he said he wants to sustain the high level of service to the society that Muller provided during her term as president.
"When a new president comes in, we always joke, 'Don't mess it up,' " he said with a laugh. "Susan Muller was just absolutely superb in every way. . . . Our society is incredibly high functioning. Our dues are $40 a year and that includes PHYSICS TODAY and the Journal of Rheology."
According to Kraynik, society membership, domestic and international, totals about 1600 and boosting the number of student members is among his principal aims. Incentives for students include lowered annual membership dues and student travel grants, which pay for four nights of lodging for every society meeting.
Organizing the SoR's International Congress on Rheology from 3 August to 8 August 2008 in Monterey, California, is also a major task for him while he is in office, Kraynik said. The meeting takes place every four years, and the 2008 session is the first one to be held in the US in at least 30 years, he added.
A principal member of Sandia National Laboratories' technical staff in the multiphase transport processes division in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kraynik received his PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1973. He joined Sandia in 1976, working in a variety of materials science and engineering science divisions. Kraynik joined the SoR in 1973, and in addition to rheology, his areas of interest include the microrheology of gas–liquid foams and liquid–liquid emulsions, the micromechanics of cellular solids, and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, viscometry, and polymer processing.
The society's new vice president is Robert K. Prud'homme (Princeton University). A. Jeffrey Giacomin (University of Wisconsin–Madison) retained his position as secretary and Montgomery T. Shaw (University of Connecticut, Storrs) was reelected treasurer. John F. Brady (Caltech, Pasadena) was elected editor of the society's Journal of Rheology. The new member-at-large on the society's executive committee is Daniel J. Klingenberg (University of Wisconsin–Madison); Timothy Lodge (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) and Lynn Walker (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) were reelected.
Six professors, a researcher, and a staff astronomer are receiving awards from the American Astronomical Society.
AAS and the American Institute of Physics are jointly awarding the 2006 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics to Marc Davis, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of California, Berkeley, "for his pioneering work on the large-scale structure in the Universe." The committee choosing the prizewinner recognizes Davis for "his innovative and influential contributions to observations, simulations and instrumentation, and his outstanding mentoring of students, as examples of outstanding work in the field of astrophysics."
J. Roger Angel, director of the Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory, director of the Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics, Regents Professor of Astronomy, and Regents Professor of Optical Sciences, all at the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the recipient of the Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation for 2006. He was selected "for his superlative work spanning two decades on the development of a new generation of large telescopes, his establishment of the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab and a host of extraordinary conceptual ideas that have been turned into practical engineering solutions for astronomy," according to the award citation.
The 2006 Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize goes to John E. Carlstrom, professor in the departments of physics and of astronomy and astrophysics and a professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute, all at the University of Chicago, and director of the university's Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica. He is cited "for his innovative work on the use of interferometry to study the early Universe through cosmic-microwave background radiation fluctuations and polarimetry and the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect. He has produced results that strongly constrain cosmological models of the amount and nature of dark matter and energy and the influence of cosmic inflation."
Bryan M. Gaensler, head of the gallium sulfide research group in the high-energy astrophysics division of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a professor in the astronomy department at Harvard University, is the winner of the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy for 2006. He was selected "for his work on the interactions between neutron stars and their surroundings, which led to our appreciation of the wide diversity of magnetized neutron stars."
The Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy for 2006 is being handed out to Lisa J. Kewley, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, "for her powerful work on theoretical modeling and analysis of galaxy spectra. She developed and maintains the online MAPPINGS code to model galaxy spectra, and she devised new techniques for simultaneously deriving star formation history, metallicity and reddening. She leads the way in measuring the star formation and chemical enrichment history of the Universe."
Bohdan Paczynski, Lyman Spitzer Jr Professor of Astrophysics at the Princeton University Observatory, has won the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship for 2006 "for his highly original contributions to a wide variety of fields including advanced stellar evolution, the nature of gamma-ray bursts, accretion in binary systems, gravitational lensing, and cosmology. His research has been distinguished by its creativity and breadth, as well as the stimulus it has provided to highly productive observational investigations."
The 2006 Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy goes to Re'em Sari, associate professor of astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech, "for his diverse contributions to the theoretical understanding of relativistic explosions, gamma-ray bursts and the dynamics of solar system bodies."
Sidney Wolff, staff astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, is the recipient of the AAS Education Prize for 2006 "for her extraordinary commitment to science education throughout her career, beginning with authoring an introductory textbook, and culminating in the first professional, refereed, astronomy education journal," the Astronomy Education Review. The citation also praised her championing of astronomy education and her leadership of the NOAO, AAS, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Three scientists share this year's Bruno Rossi Prize—the top award given annually by AAS's high-energy astrophysics division—for their work on developing an understanding of the exotic environment around fast-spinning neutron stars. The recipients are Tod Strohmayer, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Deepto Chakrabarty, an associate professor of physics at MIT and a researcher at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research; and Rudy Wijnands, a member of the University of Amsterdam's high-energy astrophysics group. They were awarded the prize "for their pioneering research which revealed millisecond spin periods and established the powerful diagnostic tool of kilohertz intensity oscillations in accreting neutron star binary systems."
The solar physics division of AAS is awarding the 2006 Karen Harvey Prize for accomplishment by a young scientist to Steven Cranmer, an astrophysicist in the solar, stellar, and planetary sciences division of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is receiving the prize "for his major theoretical and observational contributions toward understanding the roles of waves and turbulence in heating and accelerating the solar wind."
James G. Williams of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is receiving the 2006 Brouwer Award from AAS's division on dynamical astronomy "for his many outstanding contributions to celestial mechanics."
The historical astronomy division of AAS awards its LeRoy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy to Steven J. Dick, chief historian at NASA in Washington, DC. He receives the award "for his distinguished career and publication record," which has significantly increased understanding of the history of astronomy.
Spiro K. Antiochos receives the 2005 George Ellery Hale Prize from AAS's solar physics division "for his work on the thermodynamics and stability of coronal magnetic fields and for his outstanding public service to the solar research community." Antiochos is an astrophysicist at the E. O. Hulburt Center for Space Research at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.
Dan Vergano of USA Today, Michelle Nijhuis of High Country News, and the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) are receiving the American Geophysical Union's 2006 journalism awards.
Vergano is receiving the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—News for his article "The Debate's Over: Globe Is Warming," USA Today's cover story on 13 June 2005.
Nijhuis takes the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism—Features for a three-part series with the overall title "Hot Times: Global Warming in the West," which appeared on the front page of the western Colorado-based bimonthly newspaper High Country News on 24 January, 18 April, and 17 October 2005.
The Times-Picayune, a daily newspaper, will receive a special award for its coverage of scientific research demonstrating the vulnerability of New Orleans to hurricanes and other environmental impacts in the years prior to Hurricane Katrina, according to a statement by the AGU.
In choosing Vergano's USA Today article, the Perlman Award selection committee said, "Rather than rehashing the debate of the existence of global warming and the accuracy of predictive climate models, his exceptional article . . . propels us forward through an emerging realization of the global, severe societal impact of global warming to the harsh economic, moral, and technical realities facing industry and policy makers."
In recognizing Nijhuis's reporting in High Country News, the Sullivan Award selection committee said, "This series of articles did a particularly good job of combining science, policy, and human interest in telling the story of global warming from a regional perspective. . . . By writing a series of articles on a common underlying topic, Nijhuis is able to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of global warming research and its effect on nature."
The special AGU award to the Times-Picayune originated with a recommendation from AGU's public information committee, which praised the newspaper's efforts over a period of years to inform its readership about such matters as wetland preservation, land subsidence, levee reinforcement, storm surge, and hurricane prediction.
The election of 76 new members and 9 foreign associates to the National Academy of Engineering brings the organization's total US membership to 2216 and its foreign associates to 186. Of the new members and associates, who will be inducted during the academy's 41st annual meeting in Washington, DC, this October, 20 are involved in physics-related work:
Ilesanmi Adesida, interim dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Cristina H. Amon, Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dimitri A. Antoniadis, Ray and Maria Stata Chair of Electrical Engineering at MIT
Mark A. Barteau, Robert L. Pigford Professor and chair of the department of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, Newark
Samuel Wright Bodman, secretary of the US Department of Energy
William J. Boettinger, research fellow at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland
Gary Harold Glover, professor of radiology and director of the Radiological Sciences Laboratory of Stanford University in Stanford, California
Michael D. Griffin, administrator of NASA
George M. Homsy, professor of mechanical and chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Frederick Jelinek, Julian Sinclair Smith Professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland
Thomas L. Koch, Daniel E. '39 and Patricia Smith Chair and director of the Center for Optical Technologies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
James C. M. Li, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York
Hans Thomas Rossby, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett
William S. Saric, professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station
Ricardo B. Schwarz, fellow in the materials science and technology division at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico
Ching Wan Tang, distinguished research fellow at Eastman Kodak Co in Rochester, New York
Vaclav Vitek, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
The following newly elected foreign associates are physicists or work in physics-related areas:
Jörg Imberger, professor of environmental engineering and chair of the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia in Nederlands, Australia
Markus V. Pessa, professor and research director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at Tampere University of Technology in Tampere, Finland
Anthony P. F. Turner, head of Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, UK.
Professors, researchers, and businessmen are among recipients of awards distributed by the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of outstanding scientific achievement. The organization is handing out the honors during its 143rd annual meeting this month in Washington, DC. Of the 15 receiving awards, 4 are involved in physics-related work.
The academy's most prestigious honor, its Public Welfare Medal, goes this year to Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp in Bethesda, Maryland, and head of the influential National Academies panel that authored the 2005 report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," which warned of the growing need for the US to invest in science education and research. Augustine is receiving the honor "for contributions to the vitality of science in the United States by bringing to industry and government a better understanding of the crucial role that fundamental scientific research must play in our long-term security and economic prosperity."
David Goldhaber-Gordon, deputy director of the NSF-Stanford-IBM Center for Probing the Nanoscale in Stanford, California, and assistant professor of physics at Stanford University, is this year's recipient of the NAS Award for Initiatives in Research "for his fundamental studies of electron correlations in mesoscopic structures." The award is accompanied by $15 000.
Klaus Keil, interim dean at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, is the recipient of the J. Lawrence Smith Medal "for his pioneering quantitative studies of minerals in meteorites and important contributions to understanding the nature, origin, and evolution of their parent bodies." He receives a medal and prize of $25 000.
The Mary Clark Thompson Medal is being handed out to Steven M. Stanley, a research professor in the geology and geophysics department at the University of Hawaii, "for research and leadership in bivalve functional morphology and the macroevolution of disparate animals, including hominids, in the context of Earth's physical and chemical history." He receives a medal and a prize of $15 000.
Ten professors and a staff scientist are being honored by the American Geophysical Society, which will present them with medals at a ceremony during the fall meeting in San Francisco in December.
Carl Wunsch, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography in the Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences department at MIT, is being awarded the William Bowie Medal "for his wide-ranging research in the study of the ocean and its roles in shaping Earth's climate and its changes, and for unselfish cooperation in the field of physical oceanography."
E. Bruce Watson, Institute Professor of Science and professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, is receiving the Walter H. Bucher Medal "for fundamental contributions to understanding crustal processes through physical chemistry."
The Maurice Ewing Medal is going to G. Michael Purdy, director of the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory and professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, "for significant and original contributions to our understanding of oceanic crustal structure and as a developer of new geophysical instrumentation for use in the deep sea."
Subir K. Banerjee, I. T. Distinguished Professor and director of the Institute for Rock Magnetism at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, is receiving the John Adam Fleming Medal "for pioneering contributions to important applications of rock magnetic principles to terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials."
The Harry H. Hess Medal is being handed to Alexandra Navrotsky "for important contributions to our understanding of minerals and other materials through a wide range of theoretical and experimental applications of thermodynamics." She is the Edward Roessler chair in mathematical and physical sciences; distinguished professor of ceramic, Earth, and environmental-materials chemistry; and director of the Nanomaterials in the Environment, Agriculture, and Technology organized-research unit at the University of California, Davis.
Thomas Schmugge, the Gerald Thomas Professor of water resources at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, is being awarded the Robert E. Horton Medal "for contributions to improving both the theory and application of microwave and infrared radiative transfer to the remote sensing of the land surface, soil moisture, surface temperature, and emissivity."
The James B. Macelwane Medal is being awarded to Daniel J. Frost, Jerry Goldstein, and Jun Korenaga "for significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability." Frost is a research scientist at the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics at the University of Bayreuth in Bayreuth, Germany. Goldstein is an adjoint assistant professor in the physics and astronomy department at the University of Texas and a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, both in San Antonio. Korenaga is an assistant professor in the geology and geophysics department at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
John E. Kutzbach, associate director, emeritus professor of atmospheric oceanic sciences and environmental studies, and the Bascom– Plaenert Professor of Liberal Arts at the Center for Climatic Research in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is receiving the Roger Revelle Medal "for his leadership in the science of climate change and its relation to the history of our Earth system."
The Charles A. Whitten Medal is going to John M. Wahr "for outstanding achievement in research" on Earth's dynamics and form. Wahr is a physics professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The society also recently announced the recipients of several 2006 awards, which will be distributed later this month at a ceremony in Baltimore.
Pembroke J. Hart is receiving the Edward A. Flinn III Award "for major contributions to the interrelated International Upper Mantle Project and its successor programs, the Geodynamics Project, and the Lithosphere Program; [for his work on] the international exchange of geophysical data through the World Data Center System; and for a lifetime of dedicated and exemplary staff support of advances in the geophysical sciences from the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958 to the 1990s." Hart is a retired staff officer at the National Academy of Sciences–National Research Council in Washington, DC.
Tom Siegfried, Texas-based freelance writer and former science editor of the Dallas Morning News, has been named the winner of the Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He is receiving the award for more than 20 years of "distinguished reporting and analysis of scientific discoveries, for creating and nurturing a model newspaper science department, and for training and encouraging a new generation of talented science writers."
The AGU's ocean sciences section award is being handed out to Worth D. Nowlin Jr, Distinguished Professor in the oceanography department at Texas A&M University, College Station. "The award is presented for outstanding and long-standing service to the ocean sciences," the citation says.
Contributions by scientists, engineers, and journalists were recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world's largest international general scientific societies, during a February awards ceremony in St. Louis, Missouri.
Norman R. Augustine, former chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp in Bethesda, Maryland, won the 2005 AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize. Augustine was cited "for his outstanding contributions to US science and technology policy, his unrelenting work to maintain US scientific and technological preeminence and his initiatives to strengthen the scientific partnerships between academia, industry and government." He is a member of both the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the US Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Council.
A 2004 Science paper showing the spin effects in semiconducting materials induced by electric fields along the length of the material has won the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, the oldest award conferred by AAAS. The paper's authors are Roberto C. Myers, Arthur C. Gossard, and David Awschalom, all researchers at the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Yuichiro K. Kato, now a postdoctoral scholar in the chemistry operations department at Stanford University in Stanford, California. In a paper published 10 December 2004, they reported the first observation of the spin Hall effect (see PHYSICS TODAY, February 2005, page 17).
Four scientists from the US and three from Russia are sharing the 2005 International Scientific Cooperation Award. The US corecipients are Kyle T. Alfriend, the Distinguished Research Chair Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University; Paul J. Cefola, a lecturer in MIT's aeronautics and astronautics department in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an independent consultant in the aerospace industry; Felix R. Hoots, group manager of space programs for San Antonio, Texas–based AT&T; and P. Kenneth Seidelmann, dynamical astronomer and research professor in the astronomy department at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Award recipients from Russia are Andrey I. Nazarenko, chief scientist of the Space Observation Center in the information technologies department at the Russian Aviation–Space Agency in Moscow; Vasiliy S. Yurasov, a project manager for Space Informatics Analytical Systems (KIA Systems) in Moscow; and Stanislav S. Veniaminov, an engineer and leading scientist at the Scientific Research Center of the Russian Department of Defense. The team was honored "for collaborative scientific efforts and pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art space surveillance for the benefit of the global astrodynamics community and the safety of human activity in space."
The Franklin Institute has given out awards to 10 scientists, educators, and businessmen in recognition of innovative work that has benefited humanity, advanced science, launched new fields of inquiry, and deepened our understanding of the universe. The Philadelphia-based institute has been bestowing the honors, considered among the most prestigious in science, for 182 years. Of this year's winners, five are involved in physics-related work.
Giacinto Scoles, Donner Professor of Science at Princeton University and a professor in the biophysics and condensed matter physics departments at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati in Trieste, Italy, and J. Peter Toennies, associate professor in the physics department at the University of Göttingen in Göttingen, Germany, are the corecipients of the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics. They are receiving the award, according to the citation, "for the development of new techniques for studying molecules, including unstable species that could not be examined otherwise, by embedding them in extremely small and ultra-cold droplets of helium. Their work also led to a better understanding of the extraordinary properties of superfluid helium, such as its ability to flow without friction."
The late Luna B. Leopold, professor emeritus in the geology and geophysics department and the landscape architecture department at the University of California, Berkeley, and M. Gordon Wolman, B. Howell Griswold Jr Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, are joint recipients of the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science "for advancing our understanding of how natural and human activities influence landscapes, especially for the first comprehensive explanation of why rivers have different forms and how floodplains develop. Their contributions form the basis of modern water resource management and environmental assessment."
The 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering is being handed out to Ray W. Clough, professor emeritus in the civil engineering department at UC Berkeley, "for revolutionizing engineering and scientific computation and engineering design methods through his formulation and development of the finite element method, and for his innovative leadership in applying the method to the field of earthquake engineering with special emphasis on the seismic performance of dams."
Awards were distributed during an April ceremony in Philadelphia.
"Wow—I'm touched."
That, said Arthur H. Rosenfeld, was his reaction on learning he was the winner of the coveted Enrico Fermi Award, the federal government's oldest award for scientific achievement.
Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission whose career has focused on energy efficiency and savings—and who holds the distinction of being Fermi's last graduate student—received the honor from the US Department of Energy "for a lifetime of achievements ranging from pioneering scientific discoveries in experimental nuclear and particle physics to innovations in science, technology, and public policy for energy conservation that continue to benefit humanity. His vision not only underpins national policy but has helped launch an industry in energy efficiency."
The former longtime experimental particle physicist now leads the California Energy Commission's R&D and demand-response committees and is active in its energy-efficiency committee. Rosenfeld earned his PhD in 1954 from the University of Chicago, and in 1955 he joined the physics group at the University of California, Berkeley, where for the next 18 years he was a key developer of bubble-chamber physics. But in 1973, after OPEC began its embargo on oil sales to the West, Rosenfeld recognized the potential for energy savings in the building sector and founded a program that grew into the Center for Building Science at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Under Rosenfeld's direction, the center developed numerous technologies to boost energy efficiency, including electronic ballasts for fluorescent lighting—a key component of compact fluorescent lamps—and low-emissivity windows, which have a coating that allows light in but blocks heat from entering in the summer or escaping in the winter.
Rosenfeld also developed DOE-2, a computer program for energy analysis and design of buildings that in 1978 was incorporated into California's building code, which has served as a model for other building codes around the nation.
Since joining the California Energy Commission in 2000, Rosenfeld has been implementing the demand-side technology and incentives he advocated during the previous 30 years. Rosenfeld received his award, including a medal and $375 000, in June during a ceremony in Washington, DC. With the purse he plans to set up the Rosenfeld Fund with San Francisco's Energy Foundation to finance projects in energy efficiency worldwide.
The Fermi Award was established in 1956 as a memorial to the 1938 Nobel laureate in physics, who achieved the first nuclear chain reaction and thereby initiated the atomic age. The honor recognizes scientists of international stature for their exceptional achievement in the development, use, control, or production of energy, defined to include the science and technology of nuclear, atomic, molecular, and particle interactions and their effects on humankind and the environment.
The American Geophysical Union has announced the recipients of two awards and a medal.
Robert H. Eather, owner and president of Keo Consultants in Brookline, Massachusetts, and a consultant, received the Athelstan Spilhaus Award "for developing low-light-level filming technology, carrying out on-site auroral filming, and, from these, producing text and media products on auroras and geospace that have reached, informed, and inspired millions of people worldwide." The award recognizes AGU members who have worked to express the excitement, significance, and beauty of the Earth and space sciences to the general public.
The Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training won the Excellence in Geophysical Education Award. COMET, established by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Weather Service and operated by UCAR in Boulder, Colorado, received the award "for outstanding efforts to provide and improve access to quality science education materials worldwide." The award recognizes sustained commitment to excellence in geophysical education by a team, individual, or group. Eather and COMET received the awards in May during AGU's joint assembly meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
John A. Knauss will take home the Waldo E. Smith Medal. Dean and professor emeritus at the University of Rhode Island, Knauss is a former administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and cofounder of Sea Grant, a national network of programs that provide support, leadership, and expertise for university-based marine research and education. He is receiving the medal "for five and a half decades of extraordinary contributions to geophysics during which he led academic, research, and federal agency communities in developing innovative research programs, providing advice to state and national policy and decision-makers, creating and leading institutions, fostering the responsibility of scientists to serve the nation, fostering the careers of young scientists, and fostering a climate for open research of the highest scientific merit."
The medal honors those who have played unique leadership roles and whose accomplishments have greatly strengthened and helped advance the geophysical sciences. Knauss will receive the honor during AGU's meeting in December.
Charles Townes, actor Alan Alda, and the chairman of Intel Corp are among this year's winners of awards presented by the National Science Board, the governing board of NSF, in recognition of their contributions to science. The honors were presented during a May ceremony in Washington, DC.
Townes, a Nobel laureate considered to be the father of quantum electronics, is the co-recipient of the 2006 Vannevar Bush Award, the NSB's top honor. A professor in the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, Townes received the award "for his notable scientific discoveries and research in the fields of quantum electronics and astrophysics, and [his] distinguished public service influencing federal policies on science and technology issues." Work by Townes, whom NSB credits with inventing and demonstrating the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and its optical counterpart, the laser, kick-started a new generation of modern communications, global networks, and photonic science and technology. His work has led to such developments as the atomic clocks that keep the world's time and the ultrasensitive radio receivers that were part of the first communications satellites. Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for accomplishments in quantum electronics.
Emmanuel J. Candes, professor of applied and computational mathematics at Caltech, received the Alan T. Waterman Award "for his fundamental research in computational mathematics and statistical estimation, with applications to signal compression and image processing." The board, which cited Candes's development of new mathematical tools that allow efficient digital representation of wave signals together with his discovery of new methods to translate analog data into a cleaner, tighter digital form, said the work promises to improve the digital processing of signals in a vast array of modern technologies.
Alda, a well-known Hollywood actor who is host of the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers, won a Public Service Award "for his contagious enthusiasm in fostering wonder and discovery by bringing complex scientific concepts to all audiences through television and the dramatic arts." Craig R. Barrett, chairman of the board of directors of Intel, garnered a Public Service Award "for his outstanding promotion of science education, dedicated commitment to the public's understanding of science, and positive influence on science and technology policy." Under Barrett's leadership, Intel now invests about $100 million annually in programs to improve science and mathematics education in more than 50 countries. Barrett's interest in teachers led him to direct Intel to undertake "Teach to the Future," a program that has trained more than 3 million US teachers on how to integrate technology into their classrooms.
The group Public Service Award went to the Association of Science-Technology Centers, a major supporter and representative of science centers and museums, "for excellence and innovation in informal science education to advance public understanding of science among diverse audiences worldwide." ASTC, based in Washington, DC, supports new science and technology centers and helps members develop innovative ways to boost comprehension and appreciation of science.
Peter A. Gilman, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and a former director of its High Altitude Observatory, is the recipient of the 2006 George Ellery Hale Prize from the solar physics division of the American Astronomical Society. Gilman was selected "for his unique insights and substantial scientific achievements in understanding the dynamics of the solar convection zone and the mechanism of the Sun's magnetic dynamo and for his leadership and support of solar physics research programs." He receives the honor at the division's meeting in Calgary this month.
In recognition of their distinguished and original research, the National Academy of Sciences has elected 72 new members and 18 foreign associates. With this year's election, held in April during the academy's 143rd annual meeting in Washington, DC, active NAS members total 2013 and foreign associates—or nonvoting members with citizenship outside of the US—total 371.
Of the new members, 34 are involved in physics-related work.
Edward H. Adelson, professor of vision science at MIT
Leonard M. Adleman, Henry Salvatori Chair in computer science and professor of computer science and biological sciences at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles
Wolfhard Almers, senior scientist at the Vollum Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland
David Baker, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor in the biochemistry department at the University of Washington in Seattle
Jillian F. Banfield, professor of geomicrobiology and environmental biogeochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley
Paul F. Barbara, director of the Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology and R. J. V. Johnson-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin
Francisco Bezanilla, professor and Pritzker Scholar in the Institute of Molecular Pediatric Sciences at the University of Chicago
David M. Ceperley, staff scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and professor of physics, both at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ruth S. DeFries, professor in the department of geography and at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland, College Park
William A. Eaton, chief of the chemical physics laboratory in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland
Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine
Donald W. Forsyth, James L. Manning Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island
Joachim Frank, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, professor of biomedical sciences and adjunct professor of biology at the State University of New York at Albany, and head of the Laboratory of Computational Biology and Macromolecular Imaging at Health Research Inc at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, New York
James G. Fujimoto, professor of electrical engineering at MIT
Steven M. Girvin, professor of physics and applied physics at Yale University
Peter H. Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California
Stephen P. Goff, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Higgins Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and professor of microbiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City
Laura H. Greene, professor of physics and Swanlund Endowed Chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Leslie F. Greengard, professor of mathematics and computer science at the Courant Institute at New York University in New York City
Eric J. Heller, professor of chemistry and physics at Harvard University
David M. Karl, professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu
Robert C. Kennicutt Jr, Plumian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, UK
John E. Kutzbach, associate director, senior scientist, emeritus professor of atmospheric oceanic sciences and environmental studies, and Bascom–Plaenert Professor of Liberal Arts at the center for climatic research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Charles H. Langmuir, professor of geochemistry at Harvard University
Robert P. Lin, professor of physics and director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley
Ann E. McDermott, professor of chemistry at Columbia University
Jose N. Onuchic, co-director of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics and professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego
Lyman A. Page Jr, Henry DeWolf Smyth Professor of Physics at Princeton University
E. Ward Plummer, Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and distinguished scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Melvyn J. Shochet, Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten Jr Distinguished Service Professor in Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago and chair of the US Department of Energy's High Energy Physics Advisory Panel in Washington, DC
Charles C. Steidel, Dubridge Professor of Astronomy and executive officer for astronomy at Caltech
Mark H. Thiemens, dean of the division of physical sciences, a professor of chemistry, director of the Center for Environmental Research and Training, and Chancellor's Associates Chair in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego
David A. Tirrell, Ross McCollum– William H. Corcoran Professor, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering, and chair of the division of chemistry and chemical engineering at Caltech
Stanford E. Woosley, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The following newly elected foreign associates are physicists or work in physics-related areas. Their country of citizenship is listed in parentheses.
Chunli Bai, executive vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (People's Republic of China)
Vladimir B. Braginsky, visiting associate professor in physics at Caltech and a research professor at Moscow State University (Russia)
Lennart A. E. Carleson, professor emeritus of mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology and the University of Uppsala (Sweden)
Luiz Davidovich, professor of physics in the Institute of Physics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Christopher J.R. Garrett, Landsdowne Professor of Ocean Physics at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (Canada and UK)
Harold W. Kroto, professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee (UK)
Tullio Pozzan, professor of general pathology at the University of Padua and scientific director at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (Italy).
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