Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society, is proud to announce the recipients of the 2008 Sigma Pi Sigma Chapter Project Awards. These annual awards recognize chapter efforts to raise public awareness of the honor society, build Sigma Pi Sigma's student/alumni community, and promote inter-chapter activities. The winning chapters receive $500 to help them achieve proposed activities. They are: Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO; St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX; The University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL; and University at Louisville in Louisville, KY.
New Technique Could Help Doctors Screen for Asthma and Cancer
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18—A team of scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder, has shown that by sampling a person’s breath with laser light they can detect molecules in the breath that may be markers for diseases like asthma or cancer. While many studies have been done to showcase the potential of optical technologies for breath analysis, the JILA approach takes an important step toward demonstrating the full power of optics for this prospective medical application. Their findings are published in the latest issue of the Optical Society of America’s open-access journal Optics Express.
The technique, called cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy, may one day allow doctors to screen people for certain diseases simply by sampling their breath. “This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once,” says Jun Ye, who led the research. He is a fellow of JILA, a fellow of NIST and a professor adjoint at CU-Boulder’s Department of Physics.
Optical frequency comb spectroscopy was developed in the 1990s by Ye’s JILA colleague John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch of Germany’s Max-Planck Institute (they shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Roy J. Glauber for their invention). In the paper, Michael Thorpe, a graduate research assistant, Ye, and their colleagues describe the novel application of this technique to breath analysis. Optical comb spectroscopy is powerful enough to sort through all the molecules in human breath, Ye says, but it is also sensitive enough to find those rarest molecules that may be markers of specific diseases.
Every time we breathe in, we inhale a complex mixture of gasses—mostly nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, but also traces of other gasses, such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. Each time we exhale, we blow out a slightly different mixture with less oxygen, more carbon dioxide, and a rich collection of more than a thousand types of other molecules—most of which are present only in trace amounts.
Some of these tracer breath molecules are biomarkers of disease. Just as bad breath may indicate dental problems, excess methylamine can be used to detect liver and kidney disease, ammonia on the breath may be a sign of renal failure, elevated acetone levels in the breath can indicate diabetes, and nitric oxide levels can be used to diagnose asthma. When many breath molecules are detected simultaneously, highly reliable and disease-specific information can be collected. For instance, asthma can be detected much more reliably when carbonyl sulfide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen peroxide are all detected in parallel with nitric oxide. The reported approach offers exactly this kind of potential.
In the experiments performed by Ye and his colleagues, optical frequency comb spectroscopy was used to analyze the breath of several student volunteers. They showed that they could detect trace signatures of gasses like ammonia, carbon monoxide, and methane on their breath. In one of these measurements, they detected carbon monoxide in a student smoker and found that it was five times higher when compared to a non-smoking student.
The researchers had the students breathe into an optical cavity—a space between two standing mirrors. The optical cavity was designed so that when they aimed a pulsed laser light into it, the light bounced back and forth so many times that it covered a distance of several kilometers by the time it exited the cavity. This essentially allowed the light to sample the entire volume of the cavity, striking all the molecules therein. In addition, this lengthens the light-molecule interaction time thereby increasing the sensitivity. By comparing the light coming out of the cavity to the light that went in, Ye and his colleagues could determine which frequencies of light were absorbed and by how much. This information told them which molecules were present in the breath from the start. The remarkable combination of a broad spectral coverage of the entire comb and a sharp spectral resolution of individual comb lines allows them to sensitively identify many different molecules, as they show in their paper.
While the efficacy of this technique has yet to be evaluated in clinical trials, monitoring the breath for such biomarkers is an attractive approach to medicine because breath analysis is the ultimate non-invasive and low-cost procedure. Existing approaches to breath analysis are limited, because the equipment is either not selective enough to detect a diverse set of rare biomarkers, or it is not sensitive enough to detect trace amounts of the molecules exhaled in human breath. The biggest shortcoming of existing approaches is their inability to provide rapid and reliable breath measurements for many biomarkers. The new technique addresses these problems with its capability to rapidly, simultaneously, sensitively, and accurately detect many breath biomarkers. The results can qualitatively change the field of breath analysis, realizing its real potential as a low-cost, rapid, robust, and non-invasive method for health screening.
Funding for this work was provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Agilent Technologies Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NIST, the National Science Foundation, and a University of Colorado proof of concept grant.
Paper: "Cavity-enhanced optical frequency comb spectroscopy: application to human breath analysis," Michael J. Thorpe et al., Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 4, February 18, pp. 2387-2397; abstract at http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-16-4-2387.
About OSA
Uniting more than 70,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.
Congratulations to the new officers and councilors of the American Astronomical Society. Terms will being after the Annual Business Meeting on 4 June 2008 at the St. Louis Meeting.
Christine Jones
Vice-President (2008-2011)
Hervey Stockman
Treasurer (2008-2011)
C. Megan Urry
Charles E. Woodward
Nancy D. Morrison
Councilors (2008-2011)
Sara R. Heap
USNC-IAU, Cat. I (2009-2011)
Bruce W. Carney
Nominating Committee (2008-2011)
The 2008 Hale Prize is awarded to Hugh S. Hudson, UC Berkeley, for his fundamental contributions to many aspect of solar and heliospheric physics, in particular his studies of magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in solar flares, the initiation of coronal mass ejections, nanoflare coronal heating, and the variability of the solar irradiance. He is also recognized for his leadership and contributions to the solar physics community, especially his untiring support for international research collaborations.
The 2008 Karen Harvey Prize is awarded to Mark G. Linton , NRL, for his major contributions to studies of kink-instabilities in delta spots, the interactions of magnetic flux tubes, and patchy reconnection in solar flares.
Dr. Marcos Huerta was named the 2008 John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow for the American Astronomical Society. Marcos comes to the AAS from the University of Florida, where he was working as a postdoctoral associate with Elizabeth Lada. Marcos received his Ph.D. from Rice University in 2007. His doctoral research was centered around spectroscopic observations and modeling of weak line T Tauri stars to determine their effective temperature independent of spectral type.
Marcos has a background in policy areas having served as the vice president for internal affairs in the Rice University Graduate Student Association and also working in his community as an advocate for mass transit. He will begin as the John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow in mid-February and lead the annual Congressional Visits Day program on 4-5 March 2008.
The Bahcall Fellowship is a one year renewable position working in Washington, DC as the leader of the AAS Government Relations and Public Policy program. The Fellow works closely with the Committee on Astronomy and Public Policy, the AAS President and the Executive Officer to implement a coherent public policy program targeted at enhancing support for astronomy at the federal level.
The 2008 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded to Rashid Sunyaev of the Russian Space Research and Max Planck Institutes for his seminal contributions to high energy astrophysics and cosmology. His theoretical insights defined the modern paradigm for gravitational accretion, provided interpretations for a host of high energy processes in the Galaxy and beyond, and laid the foundation for the current era of precision cosmology.
The 2008 AAS Education Prize is awarded to James B. Kaler (University of Illinois) for significant contributions to many aspects of astronomy education throughout his entire career; for his inspired teaching and mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have gone on to noteworthy careers in the field; for his wider contributions to introductory astronomy education through his textbooks and many engaging astronomy books; for maintaining a popular website with a wealth of useful material regularly consulted by astronomy teachers and students; and for his contributions to the public understanding of astronomy through his prodigious number of public lectures, his work with planetarium, television, and radio programs, and for his numerous books and articles for amateur astronomers as well as the general public.
The 2008 Helen B. Warner Prize is awarded to Eliot Quataert (University of California, Berkley) for his contributions to plasma astrophysics and accretion processes, the theory of low luminosity galactic nuclei, and an extraordinary range of other topics in theoretical astrophysics.
The 2008 George Van Biesbroeck Prize, honoring an individual for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy, is awarded to Peter B. Stetson of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics’ Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in recognition of his life-long efforts to enable, counsel, and help others do effective research with the tools that he has developed, specifically the DAOPHOT family of reduction programs for the analysis of astronomical images. These programs have been incorporated into—and have served as the working base for—the community reduction programs used at major institutions around the world. He has been described as the undisputed world-wide master of digital photometric techniques for measuring stellar fluxes in every conceivable astronomical situation. His fine physical insight allows him to make continuous advancement in crowded field photometry, with steadily improved and ever more automated algorithms. Astronomers across the globe will continue to benefit from his contributions for many years to come.
The 2008 Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize is awarded to Mark Reid, Harvard-Smithsonian, Center for Astrophysics, for his precision astrometry experiments with the VLBI and the VLBA and his pioneering use of cosmic masers as astronomical tools. His innovative research in radio astronomy has enhanced our understanding of the processes in star forming regions and has resulted in primary distance measurements throughout the Local Group of galaxies.
The 2008 Annie Jump Cannon Award is given to Jenny E. Greene, Harvard University, for her studies of massive black holes and their relation to galaxy formation. She has conducted important work on galaxies with low-mass (less than 1 million solar masses) central black holes, and the comparison of the black hole mass - bulge mass relation of normal galaxies with those with active galactic nuclei. With techniques and methods that she innovated, she has discovered numerous intermediate-mass black holes with masses of 10,000 - 100,000 solar masses. Her work put a firm lower limit on the space density of intermediate mass black holes.
The 2008 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize is awarded to Lisa Kewley, University of Hawaii, for her influential contributions to both the theoretical and observational fields of galaxy evolution. Dr. Kewley has pioneered new and improved techniques to determine key physical parameters as the star formation rate, chemical compositions, and energy source (massive stars versus AGN), which have brought new insights into the history of star-forming galaxies.
The 2008 Joseph Weber Award for Instrumentation is given to James Houck (Cornell University) for his extraordinary contributions over nearly four decades to major instrumentation for infrared astronomy. From early pioneering rocket experiments and major contributions to IRAS instrumentation to most recently the design and construction of IRS for the Spitzer telescope, Houck's contributions have been seminal to make infrared astronomy among the most exciting in the entire field. Scientifically, Houck's contributions have spanned the range from HII regions to the Galactic Center to extragalactic IR sources.
The Chambliss Writing Award for 2007 is given to Imke de Pater (Univ of California, Berkley) and Jack Lissauer (NASA/Ames Research Center) for their book, “Planetary Astrophysics.” “Planetary Astrophysics” is an ambitious text, which surveys the entire field of planetary astronomy, at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. In the words of one nominating letter, it “has rapidly become the standard text for teachers of planetary sciences.”
The AAS awards the 2007 Chambliss Amateur Achievement Medal to Ronald H. Bissinger of Racoon Run Observatory, Pleasanton, California, for his many contributions to the photometric study of transiting extrasolar planets. He has been involved with NASA and University of California scientists since 2001, via the transitsearch.org team, recording transits of exoplanets across the disks of their parent stars. These observations require exquisite precision for ground-based observations, often at a level rarely achieved even by professional astronomers. Among his many contributions, Bissinger was codiscoverer of the exoplanet XO-1b; he provided the first external confirmation for several exoplanet discoveries, including HD 149026b, which produces only a 3-millimagnitude dip in its star’s brightness; he discovered anomalies in the transit light-curve shape of TrES-1; and he developed techniques now used by other researchers in their photometric studies of low-amplitude variability.
While this award is made specifically in recognition of contributions to research, we also note Bissinger’s positive service to astronomy in other ways. For example, he has worked as a docent for the National Park Service, explaining astronomy and the night sky to the public; he has advised UCSC undergraduates on observing techniques; and he was an interviewee on the Timothy Ferris PBS special Seeing in the Dark and on an American Institute of Physics video on amateur photometry.
WASHINGTON -- The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 65 new members and nine foreign associates, NAE President Charles M. Vest announced today. This brings the total U.S. membership to 2,227 and the number of foreign associates to 194.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."
A list of newly elected members and foreign associates follows, with their primary affiliations at the time of election and a brief statement of their principal engineering accomplishments.
New Members
Bernard Amadei, professor of civil engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder. For the creation of Engineers Without Borders, leadership in sustainable development education, and research on geomechanics.
Robert C. Armstrong, Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. For conducting outstanding research on non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, co-authoring landmark textbooks, and providing leadership in chemical engineering education.
Arvind, Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor, department of electrical engineering and computer science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. For contributions to data flow and multi-thread computing and the development of tools for the high-level synthesis of hardware.
Dennis N. Assanis, Jon R. and Beverly S. Holt Professor of Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For scientific contributions to improving fuel economy and reducing emissions of internal combustion engines, and for promoting automotive engineering education.
Wanda M. Austin, president and chief executive officer, The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles. For leadership in the engineering and integration of national space intelligence systems.
Ray Henry Baughman, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry and director of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson. For pioneering novel applications of conjugated polymers and related nanomaterials.
Pallab K. Bhattacharya, Charles M. Vest Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For contributions to quantum-dot optoelectronic devices and integrated optoelectronics.
Paul N. Blumberg, independent consultant, Southfield, Mich. For the synthesis of automotive-system models that has led to more effective control of emissions and improvements in fuel economy.
Gerald G. Brown, distinguished professor of operations research, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. For contributions to large-scale optimization theory and its military and industrial applications.
Howard J. Bruschi, executive consultant, Westinghouse Electric Co., Pittsburgh. For leadership in the design, development, and licensing of the passively safe Westinghouse reactors, the AP600 and AP1000.
Gary S. Calabrese, former vice president and chief technology officer, Rohm and Haas Co., North Andover, Mass. For the development of advanced electronic materials and processes for semiconductor device manufacture.
Mau-Chung Frank Chang, professor, electrical engineering department, University of California, Los Angeles. For the development and commercialization of GaAs power amplifiers and integrated circuits.
Stephen Z.D. Cheng, dean, College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. For the development of materials for liquid crystal displays and the elucidation of structure-property relationships in polymeric materials.
Peter A. Cundall, principal and senior consultant, Itasca Consulting Group Inc., Minneapolis. For advancing the understanding of rock-deformation and failure processes and the development of innovative computational procedures in rock mechanics.
Robert H. Dodds Jr., professor and department head, M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Chair of Civil Engineering, department of civil and environmental engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana. For contributions in non-linear fracture mechanics and applications to practice in nuclear power and space systems.
Cynthia Dwork, senior researcher, Microsoft Research, Mountain View, Calif. For fundamental contributions to distributed algorithms and the security of cryptosystems.
David A. Dzombak, Walter J. Blenko Sr. Professor of Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. For the development of models used in evaluating chemical behavior in water quality engineering and environmental remediation.
Anthony E. Fiorato, chairman, CTLGroup, Skokie, Ill. For research on improved concrete materials and construction, development of tests and standards, and technical leadership.
Thomas J. Fogarty, president, Fogarty Engineering, Portola Valley, Calif. For invention of the balloon catheter and devices that have revolutionized vascular surgery, and for creating companies to commercialize these inventions.
James D. Foley, professor, College of Computing, and Stephen Fleming Chair in Telecommunications, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. For contributions to the establishment of the fields of computer graphics and human-computer interaction.
Lee-Lueng Fu, senior project scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. For contributions to the development of satellite altimetry and applications in oceanography, geodesy, and climatology.
Gary Stephen Grest, distinguished member of the technical staff, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M. For development of large-scale simulations for improved understanding of metals, polymers, and particulate matter.
Barbara J. Grosz, interim dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. For pioneering research in natural language communication between humans and computers and its application to human-computer interaction.
Donald J. Haderle, president, Haderle Consulting LLC, Los Gatos, Calif. For contributions to the management of high-performance relational databases and leadership in founding the relational database-management industry.
J. Michael Harrison, Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. For fundamental contributions to stochastic networks and financial engineering.
John L. Hudson, Wills Johnson Professor, department of chemical engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. For advances in the understanding and engineering of complex dynamic chemical-reaction systems.
Michael W. Hunkapiller, general partner, Alloy Ventures Inc., Palo Alto, Calif. For the invention and commercialization of DNA and protein sequencers and DNA synthesizers that have revolutionized comparative genetics and the mapping of the human genome.
Enrique Iglesia, Chancellor Professor, department of chemical engineering, University of California, Berkeley. For outstanding contributions to the understanding of catalyst structure-function relationships, the development of novel catalysts, and leadership in the field of catalysis.
Jon M. Kleinberg, professor of computer science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. For contributions to the understanding of the structure and behavior of the World Wide Web and other complex networks.
Anthony David Kurtz, chairman and chief scientist, Kulite Semiconductor Products, Leonia, N.J. For the conception, development, and commercialization of the silicon semiconductor pressure transducer.
Burn-Jeng Lin, senior director, Nanopatterning Technology, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Taiwan, Republic of China. For technical innovations and leadership in the development of lithography for semiconductor manufacturing.
Thomas Anthony Lipo, director, Wisconsin Power Electronics Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison. For contributions to the design and development of variable-speed drives and motor controls.
Alexis C. Livanos, president, Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif. For contributions to the development and insertion of advanced semiconductor technology for commercial and government space systems.
Michael J. Lockett, corporate fellow, Praxair Inc., Tonawanda, N.Y. For contributions to the theory and practice of distillation.
David G. Luenberger, professor, department of management science and engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. For contributions to control theory, optimization algorithms, and economic dynamics.
Stephen Malkin, distinguished professor, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For pioneering research in and the implementation of grinding-system simulation and optimization.
W. Allen Marr Jr., chief executive officer, Geocomp Corp., Boxborough, Mass. For innovative applications of numerical methods, risk analysis, advanced laboratory techniques, and field instrumentation to geotechnical engineering and construction.
John C. Martin, president and chief executive officer, Gilead Sciences Inc., Foster City, Calif. For the invention, development, and commercialization of anti-viral medicines, especially treatments for HIV/AIDS.
James A. Miller, distinguished member of the technical staff, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, Calif. For research on the theory and modeling of combustion chemistry that has led to universally applied codes for combustion modeling.
David L. Mills, professor, electrical and computer engineering and computer and information sciences, University of Delaware, Newark. For contributions to Internet timekeeping and the development of the Network Time Protocol.
Shree K. Nayar, T.C. Chang Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York City. For the development of computational cameras and physics-based models for computer vision and computer graphics.
Chrysostomos L. (Max) Nikias, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. For contributions to the development and diverse applications of adaptive signal processing, and for leadership in engineering education.
Malcolm R. O'Neill, independent consultant, Vienna, Va. For exceptional leadership and innovative management of national missile-defense programs and other high-profile military-technology capabilities.
Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president and head, Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, Calif. For significant contributions to algorithms and the structure of the World Wide Web.
Yahya Rahmat-Samii, Northrop Grumman Professor, department of electrical engineering, University of California, Los Angeles. For contributions to the design and measurement of reflector and handheld-device antennas.
Marc Raibert, president, Boston Dynamics Inc., Waltham, Mass. For biomechanically motivated analysis, synthesis, control, and application of multi-legged robots.
Bhakta B. Rath, head of Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate and associate director of research, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. For leadership in advancing materials research and technology to support national security.
Rebecca Rae Richards-Kortum, Stanley C. Moore Professor and chair, department of bioengineering, Rice University, Houston. For research on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in women, and for leadership in bioengineering education and global health initiatives.
Stephen M. Robinson, professor of industrial engineering and computer sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison. For fundamental contributions to the theory of nonlinear optimization and to military planning.
Vladimir Rokhlin, professor of computer science and mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. For the development of fast multipole algorithms and their application to electromagnetic and acoustic scattering.
Thomas P. Russell, professor, polymer science and engineering department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For contributions to the processing of thin-block copolymer films to achieve well-organized nanostructures.
Robert F. Sawyer, Class of 1935 Professor of Energy Emeritus, department of mechanical engineering, University of California, Berkeley. For pioneering work in reducing energy consumption and improving the environment, and for contributions to our understanding of air pollution.
James A. Sethian, vice chair for undergraduate affairs and professor, department of mathematics, University of California, Berkeley. For the development of efficient methods of tracking moving interfaces.
Paul H. Siegel, director, Center for Magnetic Recording Research, and CMRR Endowed Chair, department of electrical and computer engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla. For the invention and development of advanced coding techniques for digital recording systems.
R. Paul Singh, professor, biological and agricultural engineering department, University of California, Davis. For innovation and leadership in food engineering research and education.
Kumares C. Sinha, Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. For contributions to the advancement of highway infrastructure engineering and management and to the education of transportation professionals worldwide.
Richard L. Sites, software engineer, Google Inc., Mountain View, Calif. For leadership in using rigorous cost and benefit analyses in processor designs, and leadership in the development of binary translation technology.
Frans Spaepen, John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor of Applied Physics, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. For contributions to the understanding of structures of melts, amorphous metals, and semiconductors.
Zhigang Suo, Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of Mechanics and Materials, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. For fundamental and applied contributions to the thermo-mechanical performance of electronic material systems, actuator materials, and composites.
David A. Tirrell, Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor and Chair, division of chemistry and chemical engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. For pioneering contributions to bioengineered materials and the synthesis of novel artificial proteins.
David R. Walt, Robinson Professor of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Mass. For the development of revolutionary sensors that can simultaneously image and perform biochemical analyses.
Andrew M. Weiner, Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. For contributions to the development of femtosecond optical-pulse shaping technology.
William W-G. Yeh, distinguished professor and chair, department of civil and environmental engineering, University of California, Los Angeles. For the development of methodologies for optimizing the management of water resources, and for inverse methods of estimating subsurface parameters.
Roe-Hoan Yoon, Nicholas T. Camicia Professor, department of mining and minerals engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg. For advancing the surface chemistry of mineral systems and developing new mineral processing technology and flotation kinetic models.
Yannis C. Yortsos, dean, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. For fundamental advances in fluid flow, transport, and reactions in porous media applied to the recovery of subsurface resources.
New Foreign Associates
Isamu Akasaki, professor, Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan. For contributions to the development of nitride-based semiconductor materials and optoelectronic devices.
Ann P. Dowling, professor and head of the division, department of engineering. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K. For advances in acoustics and unsteady flow, and for leadership in collaborative research between industry and universities.
Thomas W. Healy, professorial fellow, department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. For contributions to mineral-water interfacial phenomena, their application to mineral processing, and leadership in industry-government-academic cooperation.
Akihisa Inoue, president, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. For outstanding achievements and international leadership in the design of advanced bulk metallic glasses and other metastable materials.
Alexander I. Leontiev, professor, department of thermogasdynamics and gas turbine engines, Moscow State Technical University, Moscow. For contributions to the fundamental understanding of convective heat transfer, and for furthering international scientific cooperation.
Arthur John Robin Gorell Milner, emeritus professor, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K. For fundamental contributions to computer science, including the development of LCF, ML, CCS, and the pi-calculus.
Ekkehard Ramm, professor, Institute for Structural Mechanics, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. For contributions to the finite element analysis of plates and shells and leadership in computational mechanics.
Rutger Anthony van Santen, professor, department of chemical engineering and chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands. For pioneering work on the fundamentals of reaction mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysis.
Tadashi Watanabe, project leader, RIKEN, Tokyo. For contributions to the design and development of vector architectures for supercomputers.
[This news release is available at http://national-academies.org ]
Menlo Park, CA—Professor Burton Richter has been named the winner of the 2007 Philip Hauge Abelson Prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The prize will be awarded to Richter by AAAS President David Baltimore and CEO Alan I. Leshner at the 174th AAAS Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on Saturday, February 16, 2008.
Richter, a Nobel Laureate (Physics, 1976), is the Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences Emeritus at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at the University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Director Emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
The AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize is awarded annually to either a public servant in recognition of sustained exceptional contributions to advancing science, or a scientist whose career has been distinguished for scientific achievement and other notable services to the scientific community. Richter will be awarded the prize "for his world-class contributions to research, his successful management of a leading scientific laboratory, and his unrelenting efforts to advance science and to promote its responsible use in shaping public policy."
The AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize was established in 1985 by the AAAS Board of Directors. More information about the American Association for the Advancement of Science is available at http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/awards/abelson/index.shtml.
More information about the career of Professor Burton Richter is available at http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/do/people/richter.html.
With Business-Focused Programming and 800 Technical Paper Presentations
OFC/NFOEC is the Industry’s Most Influential Technical and Business Forum
What: Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optics Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) 2008
When/Where: Feb. 24 - 28 (Exhibits open Feb. 26-28) at the San Diego Convention Center
Details: As the largest and most comprehensive international event for both the science and business of optical communications, this year’s event will host the entire scope of optical communications, providing educational programming, exhibits and other activities for all audiences from systems companies to service providers and carriers and equipment manufacturers.
Featuring:
600 optics and electronics exhibitors (40 percent based outside the U.S.)
Comprehensive technical program, featuring both the OFC and NFOEC programs, will comprise hundreds of sessions, including workshops, short courses and paper presentations
Highlights: Business and Technical Programming:
OFC/NFOEC will deliver exclusive and timely programming this year for the 15,000 people expected to attend the conference. Visit the site periodically at http://www.ofcnfoec.org/conference_program/Index.aspx for regular programming updates. In the meantime, here’s a preview of what you can expect:
OFC/NFOEC 2008 Plenary Session, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 26, featuring:
Bob Metcalfe, General Partner, Polaris Ventures;
Herwig Kogelnik, Adjunct Photonics Systems Research Vice President, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent;
Pieter Poll, Chief Technology Officer, Qwest Communications Corporation, Inc.
Join these industry leaders for a unique perspective into today’s business realities.
Market Watch: Business and Technology - This three-day series of panel sessions, held Feb. 26-28, engage the applications and business communities in the field of optical communications. Presentations and panel discussions feature esteemed guest speakers from industry, research and investment communities. Topics include Packet-Optical Migration Strategies, ROADMs and 10G to 40G to 100G.
The Service Provider Summit is a dynamic program with topics and speakers of interest to CTOs, network architects, network designers and technologists within the service provider and carrier sector. The Service Provider Summit will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 27 and will feature a keynote presentation from Reed Hundt, former FCC Chairman. Other speakers include executives from Infinera, AT&T Labs, NeoPhotonics, NTT, Verizon, Advanced Access Technologies, Force10 Networks and Facebook, Inc.
Hundreds of educational workshops and tutorial sessions.
Private media events will include:
A media lunch panel at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26 - OFC/NFOEC representatives and participating panelists from the scientific, corporate and analyst communities will provide a high-level view of the industry and specifically the migration from 40G to 100G.
Registration: Media/analyst registration for OFC/NFOEC 2008 has begun and can be accessed online at http://www.ofcnfoec.org/media_center/MediaRegistrationForm.aspx.
Contact: Please contact us or visit the event Web site at www.ofcnfoec.org for additional information, including travel arrangement details.
Keira Shein, 410.363.9494, keira@wilkinsonshein.com
Leah Wilkinson, 703.907.0010, leah@wilkinsonshein.com
Colleen Morrison, 202.416.1437, media@ofcconference.org
About OFC/NFOEC: Since 1985, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) has provided an annual backdrop for the optical communications field to network and share research and innovations. In 2004, OFC joined forces with the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), creating the largest and most comprehensive international event for optical communications. By combining an exposition of approximately 600 companies with a unique program of peer-reviewed technical programming and special focused educational sessions, OFC/NFOEC provides an unparalleled opportunity, reaching every audience from service providers to optical equipment manufacturers and beyond.
OFC/NFOEC, www.ofcnfoec.org, is managed by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS). Acting as a non-financial technical co-sponsor is Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
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Major Research Conference to be held in San Diego, Feb. 24-28
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14—The world’s largest international conference on optical communications begins later this month and continues from Feb. 24-28 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) is the premier meeting where experts from industry and academia intersect and share their results, experiences, and insights on the future of electronic and wireless communication and the optical technologies that will enable it.
Journalists are invited to attend the meeting, where more than 15,000 attendees are expected. This year’s lineup will have many engaging talks and panels, including:
MARKET WATCH, a three-day series of presentations and panel discussions featuring esteemed guest speakers from the industrial, research, and investment communities on the applications and business of optical communications. See: http://www.ofcnfoec.org/conference_program/Market_Watch.aspx.
PLENARY PRESENTATIONS: “Toward Terabit Ethernet” by Bob Metcalfe, general partner of Polaris Ventures; “Perspectives on Optical Communications” by Herwig Kogelnik, adjunct photonics systems research vice president, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent; “Evolving Carrier Networks to Cost-Effectively Manage Proliferating Traffic Growth” by Pieter Poll, chief technology officer, Qwest Communications Corporation Inc. To access speaker bios and talk abstracts, see: http://www.ofcnfoec.org/conference_program/Plenary.aspx.
FUTURE INTERNET SYMPOSIUM, which aims to create a venue where the optical networking aspects of future Internetworking can be debated alongside computer science, related applications and other future Internet research topics, encouraging significant discussions between different research communities. See: http://www.ofcnfoec.org/conference_program/Future_Internet_Symposium.aspx.
The OFC/NFOEC meeting Web site is http://www.ofcnfoec.org. There you can find the complete conference program and information on registration and housing. Also on the site is information on the trade show and exposition, where the latest in optical technology from more than 600 of the industry's key companies will be on display.
SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS
The conference also features a comprehensive technical program with talks covering the latest research related to all aspects of optical communication. Some of the highlights at OFC/NFOEC 2008 include the following.
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GOING WIRELESS THROUGH OPTICAL FIBERS
Getting the most out of limited bandwidth will be more and more essential as wireless demands increase in the near future. Zhensheng Jia and Professor Gee-Kung Chang’s optical networking group at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta is showing how to get the most of wireless capacity and bandwidth by splitting wireless signals into separate components and then using optical fiber to carry wireless signals to their destination where they are re-integrated. The long-range linkages are provided by optical fiber, but the last few tens of meters are provided by wireless. The result: users can communicate wirelessly at a much higher bandwidth over a longer distance than is possible without using a fiber.
This convergence of optics and wireless technology is a marriage of necessity—but in the end a happy one because it means potentially supplying a greater and longstanding bandwidth to the end user, who will get the signal wirelessly. In his OFC paper in collaboration with NEC Labs America, Jia will discuss an efficient and flexible method that has been shown via experiments to be able to carry multi-channel wireless signals transmitted over 160 km of optical fiber and through 12 straight-line switches. Talk OMO3, “Transport of 8x2.5-Gb/s Wireless Signals over Optical Millimeter Wave through 12 Straight-Line WSSs and 160-km Fiber for Advanced DWDM Metro Networks” (5:15 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in room 4)
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RATCHETING UP DATA RATES
IBM has developed a transceiver capable of boosting chip-to-chip bandwidth on printed circuit boards to 300 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) – the fastest rate to date and a development that ultimately will enable even faster speeds for data transmission in homes and businesses. The device, assembled from relatively low-cost components that might someday be easily mass-manufactured, allows for a bi-directional data rate nearly twice that of an earlier generation IBM transceiver described just a year ago at the 2007 OFC/NFOEC meeting.
This increased bandwidth is the result of two specific advances. First, the new transceiver includes 24 channels for sending and receiving data compared to 16 such channels in the previous device. Second, the modulation rate of each of the transceiver's vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) has been increased by 25 percent to 12.5 billion bits per second. In an effort to speed commercialization efforts, IBM has incorporated lasers and detectors that operate at the industry-standard wavelength of 850 nanometers (nm) instead of the proprietary 985-nm technology used in the earlier transceiver.
The device was produced as part of an ongoing Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program at the U.S. Department of Defense to speed up chip-to-chip communications for supercomputers. However, better input/output technology also is related to performance of large-scale computer systems for businesses and demand by individuals for ubiquitous connectivity and on-demand access to content. Clint Schow of IBM will announce details of this work in talk OMK5, "300-Gb/s, 24-Channel Full-Duplex, 850-nm, CMOS-Based Optical Transceivers" (2:45 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in room 6D).
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ALTERNATIVE ROUTES ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY
Any savvy commuter can tell you that one of the only things to do if there are too many cars on the road is to exit and explore new routes. Likewise local governments seek to ease traffic congestion not by limiting the number of cars but by building new roads. The same analogy is true of traffic in optical communication. Data transmission capacity has grown enormously in recent years, but so has the demand for this capacity. Although the band currently used for optical communication (1.5 micron wavelength) is sufficient for the moment, the enormous increase of traffic expected in the future demands that scientists and engineers begin exploring new bands now.
Now Kenji Kurokawa and his colleagues at NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories in Ibaraki, Japan are investigating optical communication in the 1.0 micron band, introducing a brand new channel for communications and opening up a new “road” for data transmission. They are exploring high-capacity, “wavelength division multiplexed” (WDM) transmission in photonic crystal fiber. In WDM transmission, multiple optical signals are multiplexed on a single optical fiber by using different colors or wavelengths of light to carry different signals. Photonic crystal fibers offer a theoretical endless communication wavelength region, which can enable ultra high capacity transmission.
In his talk, Kurokawa will describe the first WDM transmission experiment using a broadband continuum light source in the 1.0 micron band. He will discuss the possibility of terabit optical communication in the new band and its potential impact on optical communication—essentially, no need to worry about traffic congestion for commuters on the information superhighway. Talk OMH5, “High Capacity WDM Transmission in 1.0 µm Band over Low Loss PCF Using Supercontinuum Source” (2:45 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in room 5).
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THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM—A NEW VIEW
The terahertz band is relatively unexplored and unexploited because its range of frequencies is too high for conventional electronics and too small for semiconductor lasers and detectors, but new research to be presented at OFC/NFOEC reflects what scientists have always known - the terahertz band has great potential.
Dr. Bernd Sartorius of the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin will explore the use of the terahertz band for applications in security, medicine, and materials science and the role telecommunications technologies play in its developments. Terahertz radiation, unlike other scanning technologies, can penetrate materials like paper, clothing and plastics and remain harmless to humans. So, terahertz spectra can indicate explosives or analyze complex pharmaceutical substances where today’s technologies, such as X-rays, cannot.
However, terahertz systems are impractical because they require expensive lasers, liquid helium-cooled detectors, and bulky optical benches that make field work unfeasible. Sartorius will examine the state of the art for terahertz instrumentation, stressing especially new ways that telecom technology can make terahertz systems low cost, flexible, and easily transported. Talk OMS3, “Terahertz Transmitters and Receivers” (5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in room 6D).
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Additional technical news summaries on the fastest field test for video streaming, low-cost silicon-based photodetectors, on-chip microresonators, and optical buffers can be found at http://www.ofcnfoec.org/media_center/ofc_releases/08release5.aspx.
ABOUT OFC/NFOEC
Since 1985, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) has provided an annual backdrop for the optical communications field to network and share research and innovations. In 2004, OFC joined forces with the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), creating the largest and most comprehensive international event for optical communications. By combining an exposition of approximately 600 companies with a unique program of peer-reviewed technical programming and special focused educational sessions, OFC/NFOEC provides an unparalleled opportunity, reaching every audience from service providers to optical equipment manufacturers and beyond.
OFC/NFOEC, www.ofcnfoec.org, is managed by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS). Acting as non-financial technical co-sponsor is Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 – Corning, Inc. and the OSA Foundation today announced the finalists for the inaugural Corning Outstanding Student Paper Award Competition, which recognizes future leaders in optical communications. The award and honorable mentions will be bestowed during the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition and National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) to be held Feb. 24-28 in San Diego.
The competition attracted 410 submissions, from a variety of prominent colleges and universities, both in the United States and abroad. Finalists are:
• Mohammad Alfiad, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Matthew Dummer, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Brian Koch, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Arup Polley, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
• Michael Swan, University of Michigan, USA
• Frederik Van Laere, Ghent University-IMEC, Belgium
The six finalists will present their research at OFC/NFOEC and will be judged by the conference general chairs and program chairs based on innovation, research excellence and author presentation skills. The grand-prize winner will receive $1,500 and two papers of honorable mention will receive $1,000 each during the post-deadline paper session at OFC/NFOEC on Thursday, Feb. 28.
Submissions were reviewed and scored by the OFC/NFOEC technical program committee and finalists were selected based on standard OFC/NFOEC paper review criteria.
“The program committee was extremely impressed with the quality of the submissions to the competition this year,” said Ekaterina Golovchenko of Tyco Telecommunications and one of this year’s OFC/NFOEC technical program chairs. “Many of these students’ papers were among the top-rated papers in their division, showing the next generation of scientists and engineers are already on the forefront of emerging research in their fields. We are thrilled to honor them at a conference of this size and significance.”
The finalists will present their original papers on the following topics:
Mohammad Alfiad, Eindhoven University of Technology
A 10.7-Gb/s DPSK Receiver with 4000-ps/nm Dispersion Tolerance using a Shortened MZDI and 4-state MLSE
We experimentally demonstrate a 10.7-Gb/s NRZ-DPSK receiver with 4000-ps/nm chromatic dispersion tolerance by using phase demodulation with a half-bit delay in combination with a simple 4-state maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) equalizer.
Matthew Dummer, University of California, Santa Barbara
Periodic Loading and Selective Undercut Etching for High-Impedance Traveling-Wave Electroabsorption Modulators
For the first time, selective undercut etching and periodically loaded electrodes are combined to improve impedance and velocity matching for traveling-wave electroabsorption modulators. These devices are fabricated in a platform compatible with widely tunable lasers.
Brian Koch, University of California, Santa Barbara
All-Optical Clock Recovery with Retiming and Reshaping Using a Silicon Evanescent Mode Locked Ring Laser
A novel silicon evanescent mode locked ring laser is used to perform all-optical clock recovery from 30.4 Gb/s data. The recovered clock has dramatically improved jitter, ER, and pulse reshaping compared to the input data.
Arup Polley, Georgia Institute of Technology
100 m, 40 Gb/s Plastic Optical Fiber Link
We demonstrate launch independent 40 Gb/s error free performance over 100 m of graded index plastic optical fiber. A comprehensive channel model establishes the fiber characteristics required.
Michael Swan, University of Michigan
33μm Core Effectively Single-Mode Chirally-Coupled-Core Fiber Laser at 1064-nm
The first fiber laser is demonstrated at 1064-nm using a novel index-guiding-core single-mode fiber (Chirally-Coupled-Core) with V>>2.405. Robust single-mode operation achieved at all power levels (up-to ~40W) independently of beam excitation and fiber coiling conditions.
Frederik Van Laere, Ghent University-IMEC
Multifunctional Photonic Crystal Compact Demux-Detector on InPWe demonstrate a very compact multifunctional photonic crystal device on InP membrane. Grating-coupled fibers feed a multimode photonic crystal wedged waveguide accomplishing individually selectable coarse WDM demux within 20 μm per channel toward membrane integrated detectors.
Submissions for the 2009 Corning Outstanding Student Paper Award will be accepted during the 2009 OFC/NFOEC Call for Papers process.
About Corning Incorporated
Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Drawing on more than 150 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Our products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy and metrology.
About the OSA Foundation
The OSA Foundation was established in 2002 to support philanthropic activities that help further the Optical Society of America's mission by concentrating its efforts on programs that advance youth science education, provide optics and photonics education to underserved populations, provide career and professional development resources and support OSA's Awards and Honors program. The grants funded by the OSA Foundation are made possible by the generous donations of its supporters as well as the dollar-for-dollar match by OSA. The Foundation is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is a public charity. To learn more about the OSA Foundation or to find out how to donate, please visit www.osa-foundation.org or email foundation@osa.org.
About OFC/NFOEC
Since 1985, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) has been the annual forum for those in the optical communications field to network and share research and innovations. In 2004, OFC joined forces with the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) creating the largest and most comprehensive international event for optical communications. By combining an exposition of approximately 600 companies with a unique program of peer-reviewed technical programming and focused educational sessions, audiences from service providers, manufacturers, network providers and more participate in OFC/NFOEC for the latest advances in optical communications.
OFC/NFOEC, www.ofcnfoec.org, is managed by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS). Acting as a non-financial technical co-sponsor is Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
CONTACT:
Angela Stark
OFC/NFOEC
202.416.1443
astark@osa.org
February 12, 2008 – Stuart Wolf, a professor in both the University of Virginia's Department of Physics and its Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named the new director of U.Va.'s Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Scientific and Technological Advanced Research, or "nanoSTAR."
Wolf will be formally introduced during a reception on Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Atrium of Wilsdorf Hall and will share his vision for the future of the institute including the establishment of opportunities to apply for seed funding of interdisciplinary projects and the facilitation of multischool proposals.
Key changes with Wolf's appointment include a more multidisciplinary focus to nano and quantum science and technology research and education, and new research directions, to include nanoelectronics, medicine, energy and the environment. Wolf said he intends to solicit feedback from faculty and forge ties between the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Medicine, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Curry School of Education and the Darden School of Business. In addition, nanoSTAR will work to strengthen partnerships with other academic institutions, industry and national laboratories.
"NanoSTAR will push the frontiers of science, technology and medicine using the best people, tools and ideas," said Wolf. "The goal is to turn innovation and invention into convention."
Wolf came to U.Va. as a research professor in 2003 and became a full professor with a joint appointment in physics and materials science and engineering in 2004. He has been building research capacity in nanotechnology research through U.Va.'s SpinQuest Center since the summer of 2006. Wolf previously served as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where he coined the term "spintronics" for a rapidly emerging area of nanoelectronics that uses the spin of electrons rather than their charge for data storage and logic in information systems. During Wolf's 12 years at DARPA, he conceived of and managed major programs involving academic, industrial, and government researchers.
"Stuart Wolf is recognized as a world leader in spintronics," said R. Ariel Gomez, vice president for research and graduate studies. "His track record of innovation in this area, his proven leadership at DARPA and his vision for nanoSTAR as a catalyst for multi-school research and education uniquely position him to lead the next phase of the institute's cutting-edge research initiatives."
Note Editors: A photograph of Stuart Wolf is available at
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4153
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 – The Optical Society of America (OSA) today announced its five most downloaded research papers in 2007. The papers were downloaded from OpticsInfoBase.org, OSA’s online repository for its 12 journals. All five papers were published in OSA’s premier open access journal Optics Express. A list of the papers appears below.
The research covers a range of topics in the field of optics from semiconductor lasers and electron lasers to cloaking and negative-index materials.
According to Tony Campillo, OSA’s senior director of science policy, it is likely the most downloaded paper was so popular because it details a recent advance in a current hot topic in optics called cloaking, or making an object invisible, and contains interesting multimedia files of the authors’ findings.
“In this paper, the authors consider a two-dimensional cloaking system consisting of a hollow plasmonic shell,” Campillo said. “In previous works, the object to be hidden is placed within the structure and is invisible from the outside; in this paper, the hidden object, which is either a point dipole or a polarizable line, is placed external to the cloak but nearby.”
OSA tracks the most downloaded papers each month at www.OpticsInfoBase.org.
Top Five Optics InfoBase Downloads in 2007:
1. Paper: Quasistatic cloaking of two-dimensional polarizable discrete systems by anomalous resonance
Authors: N. A. Nicorovici, G. W. Milton, R. C. McPhedran, and L. C. Botten, University of Sydney, University of Utah and University of Technology, Sydney
Issue: Optics Express, Vol. 15, Issue 10, pp. 6314-6323
Number of downloads: 12,815
2. Paper: An Optical Solution For The Traveling Salesman Problem
Authors: Tobias Haist and Wolfgang Osten
Issue: Optics Express, Vol. 15, Issue 16, pp. 10473-10482
Number of downloads: 9,177
3. Paper: High power frequency doubled GaInNAs semiconductor disk laser emitting at 615 nm
Authors: Antti Härkönen, Jussi Rautiainen, Mircea Guina, Janne Konttinen1, Pietari Tuomisto1, Lasse Orsila, Markus Pessa and Oleg G. Okhotnikov
Issue: Optics Express, Vol. 15, Issue 6, pp. 3224-3229
Number of downloads: 3,507
4. Paper: Photorealistic images of objects in effective negative-index materials
Authors: Gunnar Dolling, Martin Wegener, Stefan Linden, and Christoph Hormann
Issue: Optics Express, Vol. 14, Issue 5, pp. 1842-1849
Number of downloads: 3,484
5. Paper: Characteristics of focused soft X-ray free-electron laser beam determined by ablation of organic molecular solids
Authors: J. Chalupský, et. al.
Issue: Optics Express, Vol. 15, Issue 10, pp. 6036-6043
Number of downloads: 2,557
About OSA
Uniting more than 70,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.
Contact:
Angela Stark
Optical Society of America
202.416.1443
astark@osa.org
The 2008 Rossi Prize has been awarded to four scientists for their pioneering work on the use of X-ray observations to study the physics and evolution of clusters of galaxies, and on the use of clusters as cosmological probes.
The four, in alphabetical order, are Steven Allen (Stanford University and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center); J. Patrick Henry (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu); Maxim Markevitch and Alexey Viklinhin (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.)
The AAS High Energy Astrophysics Division awards the Rossi Prize in recognition of significant contributions as well as recent and original work in high-energy astrophysics. The prize is in honor of Professor Bruno Rossi, an authority on cosmic ray physics and a pioneer in the field of X-ray astronomy. The prize also includes an engraved certificate and a $1,500 award. The winners of the Rossi Prize will give a joint lecture at the 213th AAS meeting in January 2009 in Long Beach, Calif.
Information on previous winners of the Rossi Prize can be found at: http://www.aas.org/head/rossi/rossi.recip.html
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