DECEMBER 1996 the AMERICAN P Hysicalnews SOCIETY VOLUME 5, NO 11 Two New APS Officers Begin Tenures
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A P S N E W S APSDECEMBER 1996 THE AMERICAN P HYSICALNews SOCIETY VOLUME 5, NO 11 Two New APS Officers Begin Tenures wo new operating officers are spent the following year as NATO Tjoining the APS, one as of Novem- postdoctoral fellow at England’s Oxford ber and the other in January 1997. University. After several years as a re- Thomas McIlrath, associate dean for re- search associate at Harvard College search and graduate studies at the Observatory, he joined the faculty of University of Maryland, College Park, UMD, where he is presently a professor replaced retiring APS Treasurer Harry in the Institute for Physical Science and Lustig on November 11. Martin Blume, Technology, in addition to his deanship deputy director of Brookhaven National and role as staff physicist for the National Laboratory, succeeds retiring APS Edi- Institute of Standards and Technology tor-in-Chief Benjamin Bederson on the in Gaithersburg. He is an active mem- first of the year. ber of the APS Division of Laser Science, As the Society’s chief financial officer, which he chaired in 1988. the APS Treasurer is responsible for the The APS Editor-in-Chief has respon- preparation and administration of the sibility for the research journals Marty Blume Tom McIlrath APS budget, for the Society’s invest- published by the Society, including the ments, for business interactions with the large editorial and journal support staff Fellow at Tokyo University. After two theoretical solid state physics, magne- American Institute of Physics, for the located in Ridge, New York. Respon- years as a research associate at Atomic tism, phase transitions, slow neutron Society’s legal affairs, and for personnel sibilities include preserving and Energy Research Establishment (AERE) scattering and synchrotron radiation. policies and administration. The Trea- enhancing the quality of APS journals, in Harwell, England, he joined the staff His extensive APS service includes surer is also expected to participate in leading APS efforts in electronic pub- of Brookhaven, where he headed the stints as chair of the Panel on Public all aspects of the governance, policy for- lishing, working with senior editors to solid state physics group and chaired Affairs and Nominating Committee, as mation and administration of the Society, set journal polices, and handling ap- the National Synchrotron Light Source well as service with the Forum on Phys- and along with the Executive Officer and peals and ethics cases involving department before becoming deputy ics and Society and on the APS Council Editor-in-Chief, has the responsibility for authors. director in 1984. From 1972 to 1980 he and Executive Board. He has also supervising the APS staff. Blume received his Ph.D. in phys- was also a professor of physics at served on the editorial board of the McIlrath received his Ph.D. in physics ics from Harvard University in 1959 and SUNY-Stony Brook. Physical Review in addition to several from Princeton University in 1966 and spent the following year as a Fulbright Blume’s research interests include other publications. Data Storage, New Laser Advances Featured at ILS-XII Meeting ptical and laser scientists from two-photon absorption induced and transverse image position can be keyed to deflect specific temporal data Oaround the world gathered in changes in dye-doped plastic media set by microcomputer, thus improving patterns. According to Mossberg, these Rochester, New York, 20-24 October offer an inexpensive means of produc- image quality. Other speakers covered capabilities lead, respectively, to high 1996, for the twelfth annual Interdisci- ing high-density multilayer memories. such topics as recent advances and fu- capacity, high speed, optical RAM, and plinary Laser Science Conference Scientists at the University of Day- ture optical head architectures using content-controlled optical switching (ILS-XII). The conference serves as the ton in Ohio have discovered that increased integration; the optical de- devices. annual meeting of the APS Topical micromirrors measuring about 100 mi- sign and analysis of thin-film media Norbert Hampp of Philipps Univer- Group on Laser Science, in conjunc- crons are suitable for angle structures used to produce CD-record- sity in Germany reported that tion with the Optical Society of America multiplexing in holographic data stor- able discs; and a novel method of using bacteriorhodopsin processed into a (OSA). First held in Dallas, Texas, in age systems. Such devices demonstrate an extended recording reference to polymeric film constitutes an excellent 1985, the ILS series was established to fast response times, due to their small reduce cross-talk noise in angle- mul- medium for optical and holographic survey the core laser science areas, in- inertia, and can readily be designed to tiplexed volume holographic data recording. Bacteriorhodopsin — a rela- cluding lasers and their properties, scan over two dimensions in angle storage. tive of the visual pigment rhodopsin nonlinear optics and ultrafast phenom- while simultaneously executing dis- Thomas Mossberg of the University — is a photochromic retinal protein with ena, the physics of laser sources, lasers placements that induce phase shifts, of Oregon’s Center for Optics in Sci- a highly efficient primary photoreaction, in physics and chemistry, and other according to UD’s Steven Gustafson, ence and Technology described recent large spectral shift, and excellent laser applications. who spoke at a Monday morning ses- advances in spectral holographic opti- reversibility. The material’s photochro- sion. More practical advantages include cal data storage. The spectral recording mic and related photorefractive Optical Data Storage superior ruggedness and low cost. dimension enables multi-kilobit storage properties can be modified over a pe- The most direct means of achieving To achieve improved imaging per- at single spatial locations and the writ- large increases in the capacity of opti- formance, Stephen Kowel (University ing of frequency-dependent gratings (Continued on page 3) cal disk storage is by using three of Alabama, Huntsville) has fabricated dimensions rather than the two pres- a liquid crystal adaptive lens using a ently used, according to F.B. novel conductive ladder meshing tech- APS Members Share 1996 Nobel McCormick of Call/Recall Inc. in San nique to minimize the number of Diego, California, who maintains that control electrodes. The focal distance Prizes in Physics, Chemistry n October, the 1996 Nobel Prize in And in He-4, the superfluid state is es- IN THIS ISSUE IPhysics was awarded to David Lee sentially a Bose-Einstein condensation and Robert Richardson of Cornell Uni- of He atoms in a single quantum state, Two New APS Officers Begin Tenures ....................................................... 1 versity and Douglas Osheroff of whereas the He-3 superfluid state is a Data Storage, New Laser Advances Featured at ILS-XII Meeting ............. 1 Stanford University for their 1972 dis- condensation of pairs of atoms, which APS Members Share 1996 Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry ................ 1 covery of superfluidity in helium-3. This are magnetic and possess an internal Strangelet Searches, Spin Effects, QCD Field Theory special liquid state of matter, which can structure. In fact, superfluid He-3 ex- Highlight 1996 DNP Meeting .................................................................. 2 flow without viscosity, was detected ists in three different phases related to APS Executive Board Establishes Task Force on Career Development ..... 2 during a search for an antiferromagnetic different magnetic or temperature con- IN BRIEF.................................................................................................... 3 phase in solid He-3, after the research- ditions. The highly anisotropic nature Opinion ....................................................................................................... 4 ers chilled their sample to a temperature of the A phase (resembling a liquid OSTP Releases Report on Reducing Excess Plutonium Stockpiles .......... 6 of about 2 microkelvins. Superfluidity crystal) was recently exploited in an Improbable Researchers Gather for 1997 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony ......... 6 was discovered in helium-4 in 1938, at experiment in which vortices set in Announcements... ...................................................................................... 7 the much warmer temperature of 2 motion within an He-3 sample simu- The Back Page ........................................................................................... 8 kelvin. lated the formation of topological APS Meeting News ............................................................................. Insert Superfluidity in He-3 is very differ- defects, or “cosmic strings,” in the early ent from He-4. For instance, the former universe. [See Nature, 25 July 1996] is a fermion and the latter is a boson. (Continued on page 3) APS News December 1996 Strangelet Searches, Spin Effects, QCD Field Theory Highlight 1996 DNP Meeting ecent studies of quantum chaos in the confinement scale. However, in a Massimiliano Ferro-Luzzi of The Neth- developed a theory for the statistical R mesoscopic systems, and effective Saturday morning session, Michael Frank erlands’ NIKHEF facility. The technique properties of the conductance peaks field theory were among the topics fea- of the Institute for Nuclear Theory dis- has several advantages — including par- using random matrix theory, and his tured at the