Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had established a cosmology center where multidisciplinary observational, theoretical, experimental, and computational efforts will focus on the elucidation of the dark matter and dark energy that are believed to dominate the cosmos and on their role in cosmic evolution. The Bruce and Astrid Williams Center for Cosmolgy, named after its major benefactors, was ceremonially opened on athe Carnegie-Mellon campus on 22 April. The day's festivities included the 2008 Buhl Lecture, "A Brief History of Dark Matter," by Joel Primack from the University of California, Santa Cruz. (more after the jump)
Physicist to discuss history of dark matter in Buhl lecture.
by Jocelyn Duffy (first appeared in the local university newspaper, the Piper)
Ninety-five percent of the universe is made of things that we know nearly nothing about — dark matter and dark energy. They are crucial to the growth of the universe and the formation of structure in it. But they cannot be seen, and the evidence of their existence comes from the gravitational pull dark matter exerts and the accelerating expansion of the universe that dark energy creates.
Evidence of dark matter was first found in the 1930s, but it took almost 50 years for most astronomers to become convinced that most of the mass holding together galaxies and clusters of galaxies is invisible. It took nearly another 20 years for the standard cosmology model to be accepted, with the “double dark” combination of cold dark matter — particles of matter different from the matter that makes up planets, stars, and even us — and dark energy.
One of the developers of the cold dark matter theory, Joel Primack, will present Carnegie Mellon’s annual Buhl Lecture at 4:30 p.m., April 22 in the Mellon Institute Auditorium. His talk, “A Brief History of Dark Matter,” will include astronomical videos that will give attendees a window into the evolution of the universe. “The challenge now is to understand the underlying physics of the particles that make up dark matter and the nature of dark energy,” Primack said.
Primack is a professor of physics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society
(APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has recently chaired the APS Forum on Physics and
Society, as well as the AAAS Committee of Science, Ethics and Religion. Primack served on the recent “Beyond Einstein” study of the
National Academy of Sciences.
The Buhl Lecture is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Physics. The lecture is funded under the auspices of the Buhl
Professorship in Theoretical Physics, which was established at Carnegie Mellon in 1961 by The Buhl Foundation. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The Society of Physics Students (SPS) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2008 SPS Outstanding Student Awards for Undergraduate Research: Therese Jones, Pennsylvania State University; Rachael Roettenbacher, Ohio Wesleyan University; and Jodie Barker-Tvedtnes, Utah State University. They will represent the United States and SPS and present their research at the 2008 International Conference of Physics Students (ICPS) in Cracow, Poland. August 6-13, 2008.
The Avenir Foundation, which has been interested in the American Institute of Physics (AIP) for many years, has made a gift of three million dollars ($3,000,000) to the AIP to endow the Spencer R. Weart Directorship of the Center for History of Physics at AIP. This is the largest gift ever given to AIP and establishes the first endowed position at the Institute.
"We are deeply gratified by this very generous gift from the Avenir Foundation," says AIP Executive Director and CEO H. Frederick Dylla, Ph.D. "The Center for History of Physics is a unique resource for scholars and institutions worldwide. The authors of most of the hundreds of books on the development of modern physics and allied sciences published in recent decades have relied on the resources of the History Center and the Archives in their research. This endowment will ensure the Center's stature and growth into the foreseeable future."
The Avenir Foundation ("avenir" means "future" in French) has a special concern for the sciences. The principles of physics are basic to human existence, and it is of vital importance that a historical record of the application of these principles be preserved. The Foundation's board is helping to make this possible by supporting the work so ably conducted at the American Institute of Physics by Spencer R. Weart.
The position is named in honor of Spencer R. Weart, Ph.D., the Center's current director who is retiring after 35 years. The new director will oversee the History Center and its programs promoting the understanding and dissemination of the history of modern physical science and its role in society.
"The way we live," says Weart, "our entire society today would be utterly different without the physics discoveries of the past couple of centuries-and much worse off. The physics community has long recognized a need to figure out how all this happened and explain it to the public. The Center has given exceptional support to the work of historians and archivists. Friends of our enterprise, like the Avenir Foundation, have also been wonderfully far-sighted. They have given the AIP’s History Center a matchless capacity to advance our knowledge of one of the most crucial forces in modern history."
On 9 May 2008 Professor Andy Fabian of the University of Cambridge will
become President of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the largest
professional astronomical body in Europe. Professor Fabian will take
over from incumbent President Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson at the
annual general meeting of the RAS and will serve until May 2010.
Professor Fabian has been active in professional astronomy since the
early 1970s, having received his degrees from the University of London
(BSc, King's; PhD, University College). His current research interests
are black holes, clusters of galaxies and X-ray astronomy. In
recognition of his work he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
in 1996 and awarded an OBE in 2006. He was awarded the Rossi prize
(jointly with Y. Tanaka) of the American Astronomical Society in 2001
and the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics by the American Physical
Society and the American Astronomical Society in 2008. He is Vice Master
of Darwin College, Cambridge.
Professor Fabian is delighted to be taking up his new role. He comments,
"It is a great honour to take up the office of President of the RAS. In
today's uncertain funding climate, astronomers, space scientists and
geophysicists need the support of a professional body more than ever.
Over my two years I will be working very hard to make sure that our
voice is heard and that our work receives the recognition it deserves.
Some of the most exciting cutting-edge discoveries are made in
astronomy, space science and geophysics and the public rightly holds
them in high esteem. Our science has a bright future - provided we
receive the support we need."
ESS Scandinavia’s new Science Advisory Group has had its constituent meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Lund, Sweden. The Group will
contribute to developing the science of the European Spallation Source in order that future researchers have maximum use of the ESS.
The Science Advisory Group has been set up to contribute with international expertise and external advice within three specific
areas: how to set up a model for the organisation and operation of the ESS in Lund, the scientific priorities for the ESS, and cooperation with other European research facilities.
‑ We have chosen ten scientists that are both young and renowned, says Dr Christian Vettier, Head of Science at the ESS Scandinavia and former Head of Science at the ILL in France. European researchers must be able to develop the ESS according to how they themselves want to use during the coming decades. We want to build a scientific tool for the future, not for today’s needs.
The members of the Group have expertise in various fields of applications of neutron science and also broad experience from other
large‑scale research facilities. The Group is chaired by Professor Robert McGreevy and will meet twice a year. The members are:
Professor Robert McGreevy, Head of Science at ISIS, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Dr Dimitri Argyriou, Hahn‑Meitner Institute, Berlin
Assoc. professor Lise Arleth, University of Copenhagen
Dr Wim G. Bouwman, Technische Universiteit, Delft
Professor Stefan Egelhaaf, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf
Assoc. professor Aleksandar Matic, Chalmers Technical University, Gothenburg
Professor Joel Mesot, PSI, Villingen, Schweiz
Professor Tommy Nylander, Lund University
Dr Julian Oberdisse, University of Montpellier
Dr Helmut Schober, ILL, Grenoble
Chapman University confirmed today that its new computational science and physics team – the university’s first – will include five nationally renowned scientists from George Mason University. They include Yakir Aharonov, Ph.D., the co-discoverer of one of the cornerstones of modern physics, the Aharonov-Bohm Effect and considered one of the most highly regarded scientists today; and Menas Kafatos, Ph.D., leader of the team, who has an extensive administrative international reputation, research record and interdisciplinary experience in astrophysics, Earth system science, hazards and global change, and computational science. The team, which will become the foundation of Chapman’s new Department of Physics, Computational Science and Engineering, also includes Jeff Tollaksen, Ph.D., Keun Hang Yang, Ph.D. and Hesham Al-Askary, Ph.D.
More team members will be announced soon – the eventual team will probably end up numbering between seven and nine instructional faculty and several research faculty members. Dr. Kafatos has been named Chapman’s Vice Chancellor for Special Projects as well as director of the new Center for Excellence ( details below ).
Effective June 1, Chapman University will create two new colleges: the College of Science, which will house the new Department of Physics, Computational Science and Engineering as well as the already established biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics, physical therapy and psychology departments; and Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which will house the departments of English, languages, religious studies, philosophy, communication studies, history, political science and sociology as well as Chapman’s Albert Schweitzer Institute and Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education. Janine Hill, Ph.D., will serve as interim dean of the College of Science, and Roberta Lessor, Ph.D., will serve as dean of Wilkinson College. These two colleges join the already established schools and colleges within Chapman: the Argyros School of Business and Economics, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, College of Performing Arts, School of Education and School of Law.
“A true genius” and a stellar team
“These are scientists of the first magnitude,” said Daniele Struppa, Ph.D., chancellor of Chapman University, of the new computational science and physics team. “Aharonov is a true genius, and you won’t hear me use that word easily; he is Einstein quality, and I am not overstating the case. We are delighted and proud to be welcoming them all to Chapman, and we cannot stress how much this will positively affect our students. To have scientists of this caliber working with our undergraduate and graduate students will be very exciting. Having this group as the foundation of our new Department of Physics, Computational Science and Engineering is a true honor indeed.”
Chapman President James L. Doti, Ph.D., said, “The strength of every university is measured by its faculty, and a great university is built on the shoulders of its faculty. The addition of this renowned team of scholars will propel Chapman’s science program to an academic level approaching that of the nation’s most elite research institutions. But unlike larger institutions, Chapman’s advantage is in its focus on small classes and individualized attention. These distinguished scientists will not only be carrying out some of the most important research in physics today, but they will be sharing their immense knowledge directly with those they teach.”
This is the second team of researchers that Chapman has acquired from George Mason University, where Dr. Struppa was formerly dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Last year, Chapman attracted a distinguished team of GMU scholars in economic science, headed by Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith, Ph.D., to establish its new Economic Science Institute, a multidisciplinary unit that straddles the Argyros School of Business and Economics, the Chapman School of Law and Wilkinson College of Letters and Sciences.
Dr. Struppa added that the two new Chapman colleges are being created for some very specific reasons. “On the one hand, the sciences at Chapman are now in a position to achieve national preeminence with this acquisition of this world-class new team of researchers, and that can best be achieved with a structure focused on science,” he said. “On the other hand, we want to build on Chapman’s distinguished liberal arts heritage, and the Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Science will be the structure that allows us to focus on that heritage. It will carry on the historic name of Wilkinson to honor the service and legacy of our late alumnus and trustee Harmon Wilkinson, whose daughter Karen continues to serve on our Board of Trustees.” The official naming of the College of Science will be announced at a later date, Struppa said.
Wide-ranging research
The new Department of Physics, Computational Science and Engineering will be self-contained but – as is always the case at Chapman – there are no barriers between disciplines, and it is likely that the new computational science and physics team will be involved in research projects spanning such fields as climate change and hazards, quantum mechanics, computational neuroscience, information science, supercomputing, earth observing, quantum coherence, environmental science and cosmology. They will also identify and offer support to new fields evolving in mathematics and the social, biological, computational, economic and physical sciences.
The team’s focus is on computational science in general, and by joining the Chapman faculty they will immediately promote Chapman to national prominence in two particular niche areas: applications to earth observations and earth system science, and quantum computing.
“Of great interest to California and our local community is the focus on earth observations, with specific applications in regional hazards and their connection to climate change,” said Dr. Struppa. “They are experts in the wide application of hazards that concern Californians, such as forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons as well as modeling of the environment. In particular, Kafatos and the team moving to Chapman have a long history of working with the media as well as local, state and federal agencies on the occurrence of fire, flood, hurricanes and other natural disasters and emergencies. This team’s expertise would be perfect to work with our local constituencies on disaster forecasting, prevention and management.”
More specifically, the team can map the spread of smoke during wildfires, have developed coupling of observations to modeling to follow hazards, download and analyze earth observation data daily from NASA satellites for Google Earth, and have invented hyper-capable devices that speed up information processing for the U.S. military.
A new department, a new Center of Excellence and new degrees
Upon arrival at Chapman, the team will immediately create the Department of Physics, Computational Science and Engineering and develop a new Center of Excellence with two research units that focus on Quantum Studies and Earth Observing. A new undergraduate degree in physics, with concentrations in computational science, climate and hazards, and engineering, will be created, with prospects of putting in place graduate programs within four years.
Chapman’s prestigious new Center of Excellence will be established with the ambitious goal of being the number one center of its kind in the world. Its mission will be:
• To attract the top scientists in the world and stimulate collaborations and synergy: “Computational science is by its very nature interdisciplinary and allows teams of experts to work together,” said Dr. Kafatos;
• To work on applied science areas of concern to society and California in particular, such as hazards research, adaptation to climate change and earth observing;
• To communicate the relevance and importance of earth science and quantum studies to the broader public through a lecture series and other outreach efforts; and
• To provide a focal point for institutions, state and national governments and industry around the world for the advancement and funding of applied and fundamental science, such as computational science fields and the foundations and applications of quantum mechanics.
“The nation views California as being on the cutting edge of the future,” said President Doti. “Innovation and growth in this state have propelled the national economy, and California’s issues are the world’s issues: natural disasters, energy solutions, economic challenges. Whether in emerging technology, biotechnology, marine resources, real estate development, travel and tourism, entertainment or agriculture, the research produced at Chapman will transcend local, national and even international borders. The establishment of our new Department of Physics, Computational Science and Engineering and the corresponding Center of Excellence at Chapman University has enormous, unlimited potential that we’ve only just begun to realize.”
Three Virginia Tech students, each with an impressive record of undergraduate research and leadership experience, have received highly competitive Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for the 2008‑09 academic year.
The scholarship winners from Virginia Tech are Thao Do, a sophomore from Springfield, Va., majoring in mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering; Kevin Finelli, a junior from Yorktown, Va., double majoring in mathematics and physics in the College of Science; and David Tatum, a junior from Midlothian, Va., double majoring in chemistry in the College of Science and biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Through undergraduate research experiences at Virginia Tech, Harvard University, and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C., Do says he has developed an interest in nanotechnology because of its potential applications in the biomedical field. She has focused her research on developing robust microscopic channels and particles.
"These can be used for medical diagnosis and treatments, as well as DNA analysis," said Do, who has filed for a patent related to one project at Harvard. "My research experiences have inspired me to integrate my education in mechanical engineering with physics and biomedical fields."
She co‑authored a journal article and delivered a presentation to the American Physics Society. In addition, she found time to help with the Human‑Powered Submarine Team and the Society of Women Engineers, for which she organizes a Girl Scout Day to inspire 46 local students to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Finelli, who is a member of the Society of Physics Students and the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics National Honor Society, has conducted undergraduate research in Virginia Tech's Department of Physics and Department of Mathematics as well as the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va. His physics research is a part of the QWeak collaboration, an experiment that will be the first precision measurement of the weak charge of the proton.
"Since it turns out that nature, at its most basic level, behaves very differently than we intuitively would expect, physics is also a very interesting discipline to study," said Finelli, who has a 4.0 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at Virginia Tech and was valedictorian of York High School in Yorktown, Va., in 2005. "Understanding the vast complexity involved in even the most seemingly simple events that surround our daily lives helps me to gain an appreciation for what physicists have been working on for centuries."
Through the Physics Outreach Program, Finelli has helped bring physics to primary and secondary school students in the community in stimulating and relevant ways. In the fall, he also organized the Hillcrest Academic Assistance Program, which helps younger students seek out older students willing to offer tutoring in any academic subject.
A member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Tatum has studied the trafficking of sulfur in bacteria with the Department of Biochemistry and, more recently, molecule‑based magnets with the Department of Chemistry.
"Magnetic substances found in nature, like the magnets you would find on a refrigerator, are atom‑based where the magnetic properties arise from aligned, unpaired electrons on metal atoms," said Tatum, who was named an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America in 2005. "Our research concerns molecular complexes that are magnetic in nature due to an overall net magnetic moment between organic radicals and metal ions."
This semester, Tatum is not only continuing his research pursuits but also teaching two recitation sections of a general chemistry course. He is also a member of the Virginia Tech Club Volleyball A Team, which placed No. 9 in Division I of the national tournament last year.
All three winners are members of the Hillcrest Honors Community and say they plan to pursue a Ph.D. so that they can teach and conduct research at a major research university. Since the program's inception in 1986, Virginia Tech has had 37 Goldwater scholars, including this year's winners.
This year, 321 sophomores and juniors from a field of 1,035 applicants nationwide at colleges and universities around the country received the scholarships. Goldwater scholars are selected for academic merit and each is awarded up to $7,500 per year for tuition, fees, books, and room and board. Congress established the scholarship program in 1986 to honor the late Sen. Barry Goldwater and to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.
Texas A&M University is one of four international institutions selected by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia to host an inaugural quartet of interdisciplinary scientific research centers dedicated to collaborative excellence on a global scale.
Texas A&M, along with Cornell University, the University of Oxford and Stanford University, stands to receive as much as $25 million during the next five years under KAUST’s Global Research Partnership (GRP) to help support a new research center for applied mathematics and computational science, one of four priority areas identified by KAUST, a new graduate-level university under development in Saudi Arabia set to open in September 2009.
“We chose these first KAUST GRP centers from an exceptionally competitive pool of proposals, which represented some of the most talented research teams in the world,” said KAUST President-designate Choon Fong Shih. “Following a highly rigorous technical review process, we selected four very top-quality proposals that best complement KAUST’s institutional priorities at this time in its development.”
The four were selected from a pool of 17 finalists narrowed down from 41 applications initially submitted to KAUST last fall. According to KAUST officials, each was chosen on the basis of scientific merit, quality of the proposed research, demonstrated research center capability, five-year organizational plan for research execution, ability to collaborate in a team environment and direct relevance and benefit to KAUST’s overall mission. A total of 65 international experts — drawn from the community of academic and industrial researchers around the world — contributed reviews.
“The final 17 proposals were all from institutions that KAUST would like to have as partners and all of a quality we would be proud to be associated with,” said KAUST Interim Vice President for Research Dr. Mohamed Samaha. “Given the exceptionally high quality of all of the final proposals, it was a challenge to pick the ones that best fit KAUST’s vision, mission and current needs.”
Texas A&M President Dr. Elsa A. Murano attributes Texas A&M’s selection to its renowned reputation in international research and evident flair for collaboration and teamwork, both in the initial proposal and in the eventual research center it hoped to create.
“We truly live in a global society, and finding solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges will require collaborations not only from across academia, but across international boundaries,” Murano said. “Texas A&M is appreciative of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology recognizing the tremendous value of our interdisciplinary research approach, as well as the impact that our research has around the world.”
Dr. James A. Calvin, Texas A&M interim vice president for research and a professor of statistics, will serve as principal investigator for the proposed Texas A&M Institute for Applied Mathematics and Computational Science (IAMCS), which will be formally presented to The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents for approval this summer. The institute is intended to stimulate collaborative research and graduate education in all related areas through joint development and pursuit of annual research themes, weekly seminars and semi-annual and annual research working sessions between Texas A&M and KAUST.
“Our partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology will provide an opportunity to work on significant problems of global importance,” Calvin said. “We believe that the expertise in our partnership brings a cohesive approach to addressing issues in science and engineering. As a part of the research program, we will develop new paradigms in training future researchers and give them a broad perspective to solve complex problems. This approach is a testament to KAUST’s strong vision for the future of international collaborative research, and we look forward to our partnership in this area.”
Calvin said the new institute will engage mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists on problems that span the earth sciences, materials science and the bio-sciences. Applications include reservoir modeling, thermo-acoustic and photo-acoustic imaging related to disease diagnosis, gene expression modeling and complex data, including seismic and genomic information.
In addition to basic and applied research activity, Texas A&M plans to offer graduate and post-graduate fellowships to help encourage graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in their pursuit of advanced degrees and group and individual research projects at both Texas A&M and KAUST.
Dr. Raymond J. Carroll, distinguished professor of statistics, nutrition and toxicology and deputy director for IAMCS research, credited KAUST for its global vision and the breadth of opportunities it creates for the actual researchers involved and their broader professions.
“The unique aspect of our institute is in bringing mathematicians, statisticians and computational scientists together to solve problems of practical importance,” Carroll said. “We are very excited about the discoveries that this multidisciplinary group will make over the next few years.”
Dr. Jay R. Walton, professor of mathematics and aerospace engineering, will serve as deputy director for education within the new institute. Like Carroll, he emphasized the importance of a team approach — from institutions to disciplines — to making global progress on today’s increasingly complex scientific issues.
“Finding solutions for many of the ‘grand challenge’ problems in the earth sciences, materials science and engineering, and the life sciences requires an interdisciplinary approach including mathematicians, statisticians and computational scientists,” Walton said. “This institute holds the promise of creating the necessary interdisciplinary critical mass needed to make significant progress on these problems as it offers a new paradigm for training students to work in such an interdisciplinary setting.”
Institute research will be focused in three thematic areas: multiscale modeling and simulation, led by Dr. Yalchin Efendiev, associate professor of mathematics; deterministic and statistical methods, led by Dr. Peter Kuchment, professor of mathematics; and data-driven computational sciences and visualization, led by Dr. Marvin Adams, professor of nuclear engineering.
KAUST officials said each of the four centers will work with partners from industry and other institutions, assist in setting up laboratories at KAUST, spend time on the KAUST campus, open classrooms to KAUST students via the Internet, conduct joint seminars, training and workshops for junior faculty, exchange faculty and students for teaching and learning opportunities, and participate in curriculum development.
As one of the United States’ leading public research universities, Texas A&M University invests nearly $570 million each year in research projects throughout the world, ranking it among the top 20 research universities nationwide. In addition, Texas A&M is one of a select few U.S. universities to hold land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant designations, reflecting the broad scope of its basic and applied research mission.
WASHINGTON, April 30—The Optical Society (OSA), along with co-sponsors SPIE and the Materials Research Society (MRS), has selected its 2008-2009 Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows. Robert Saunders, a post-doctoral fellow in the Duke Advanced Imaging Laboratories, will serve as the Arthur H. Guenther Congressional Fellow (co-sponsored with SPIE) and Amit Mistry, a science policy intern at Research! America, will serve as the OSA/MRS Congressional Fellow. Saunders and Mistry will each serve one-year terms working as special legislative assistants on the staffs of members of Congress or congressional committees.
“This year, we had a significant increase in the number of applications for our fellowship programs,” said Elizabeth Rogan, OSA executive director. “Rob and Amit were standouts among a group of highly qualified applicants. We are proud to sponsor and support them as they continue their careers in science policy. Their technical backgrounds and passion for policy-making will serve the U.S. Congress well.”
Saunders and Mistry will begin the program in early September in Washington, starting with an intensive orientation facilitated by AAAS for all Congressional and Executive Branch Fellows from more than two dozen scientific societies. Following orientation, the new fellows will go through an interview and selection process with offices of senators, representatives and committees on Capitol Hill. Offices will extend offers, and Saunders and Mistry will each choose the office in which they will spend their fellowship year.
The purpose of the Congressional Fellowships program is to bring technical backgrounds and external perspectives to the decision-making process in Congress. Typically, fellows conduct legislative or oversight work, assist in congressional hearings and debates, prepare briefs and write speeches as a part of their daily responsibilities. By applying their scientific expertise in this policy environment, Saunders and Mistry will help to broaden awareness of the value of scientist- and engineer-government interaction.
Each year, following a formal application process, finalists are interviewed and fellows are selected by committees comprised of volunteer members from OSA, SPIE and MRS. For more information on the selection process, visit http://www.osa.org/news/congressionalfellowships/default.aspx.
About the Guenther and OSA/MRS Fellows
Robert Saunders, the Arthur H. Guenther Congressional Fellow, is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Duke Advanced Imaging Laboratories. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in physics from Duke University in 2006, where he built Monte Carlo models of X-ray breast imaging systems to optimize early detection of breast cancer. While at Duke, Saunders served as president of the Duke Graduate and Professional Student Council, working on student health insurance, childcare and transportation policies. Additionally, he interned with the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology, where he examined the influence of science and technology on state economies.
OSA/MRS Fellow Amit Mistry completed his Ph.D. in bioengineering from Rice University in April 2006. There he studied nanotechnology, biomaterials and regenerative medicine and completed his dissertation titled “Degradation and biocompatibility of a fumarate-based/alumoxane nonocomposite for bone tissue engineering.” Mistry is currently a science policy intern at Research! America, a not-for profit group that advocates for health research. Prior to his current position, he was a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering, where he worked on a resource for engineering educators. In addition, Mistry served as a high school science and math teacher for two years with Teach for America.
About OSA
Uniting more than 70,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society (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.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Photos and complete bios of Robert Saunders and Amit Mistry can be found at
http://www.osa.org/News/congressionalfellowships/ArthurHGuenther/Saunders/default.aspx and http://www.osa.org/News/congressionalfellowships/osamrs/mistry/default.aspx.
Contact:
Angela Stark
Optical Society
202.416.1443
astark@osa.org
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