Spring 2007 Prizes & Awards
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APS Announces Spring 2007 Prize and Award Recipients Thirty-nine prizes and awards will be presented theoretical research on correlated many-electron states spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation to reveal 1992. Since 1992 he has been a Permanent Member during special sessions at three spring meetings of in low dimensional systems.” the often surprising electronic states at semicon- at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Society: the 2007 March Meeting, March 5-9, Eisenstein received ductor surfaces and interfaces. His current interests Professor at the University of California at Santa in Denver, CO, the 2007 April Meeting, April 14- his PhD in physics are self-assembled nanostructures at surfaces, such Barbara. Polchinski’s interests span quantum field 17, in Jacksonville, FL, and the 2007 Atomic, Mo- from the University of as magnetic quantum wells, atomic chains for the theory and string theory. In string theory, he dis- lecular and Optical Physics Meeting, June 5-9, in California, Berkeley, in study of low-dimensional electrons, an atomic scale covered the existence of a certain form of extended Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 1980. After a brief stint memory for testing the limits of data storage, and structure, the D-brane, which has been important Citations and biographical information for each as an assistant professor the attachment of bio-molecules to surfaces. His in the nonperturbative formulation of the theory. recipient follow. The Apker Award recipients ap- of physics at Williams more than 400 publications place him among the His current interests include the phenomenology peared in the December 2006 issue of APS News College, he moved to 100 most-cited physicists. of cosmic strings and various aspects of the duality (http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/ap- Bell Laboratories in between gauge theory and gravity. Polchinski has ker.cfm). 1983, becoming a Dis- also written a widely-used two-volume textbook on Additional biographical information and appro- Einstein Prize tinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1993. In priate web links can be found at the APS web site string theory. 1996 Eisenstein moved to Caltech where he is now and can be found at http://www.aps.org/programs/ Ronald Drever honors/index.cfm/. Nominations for most of next the Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics and Ap- California Institute of Technology Irving Langmuir Prize year’s prizes and awards are now being accepted. plied Physics. His research is focused on the collec- tive behavior of two-dimensional electron systems For details, see page 8 of this insert. Rainer Weiss Gabor A. Somorjai in semiconductor heterostructures at low tempera- Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of California, Berkeley tures and high magnetic fields. He is especially 2007 PRIZES AND AWARDS interested in double layer 2D systems. He is cur- Citation: “For fundamental contributions to the Citation: “For his pioneering research in surface rently a Member-at-Large of the DCMP Executive development of gravitational wave detectors based chemistry and delineation of catalytic mechanisms.” Hans A. Bethe Prize Committee. Eisenstein is member and Fellow of the on optical interferometry, leading to the successful APS and was elected to the National Academy of operation of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Somorjai was born James R. Wilson Sciences in 2005. Wave Observatory.” in Budapest, Hungary. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory He received his PhD in Girvin earned his PhD Drever is a Profes- chemistry from the Uni- Citation: “For his work in nuclear astrophysics in physics from Princ- sor of Physics Emeritus versity of California, and numerical work on supernovae core collapse, eton University in 1977. at the California Insti- Berkeley in 1960. After neutrino transport, and shock propagation. His codes He did his postdoctoral tute of Technology. He graduation, he joined reenergized supernovae shocks, launched numerical research at Indiana Uni- relativity and magnetically driven jets.” earned his Ph.D. in natu- the IBM research staff versity and the Chalmers ral philosophy from the in Yorktown Heights, University in Göteborg, After a stint at University of Glasgow New York, where he Sweden. After serving at in 1958. He has con- remained until 1964, when he joined the faculty of Los Alamos National the National Bureau of Laboratory from 1944- ceived and carried out the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Standards (now NIST) original experiments in Faculty Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences 1946, Wilson received from 1970 to 1987, he joined the faculty of Indiana his PhD in physics several fields, including an early high-precision Division, and Director of the Surface Science and University. Girvin came to Yale in 2002 where he experiment on anisotropy of inertial mass, using a Catalysis Program at the Center for Advanced Ma- from the University of is now Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and California, Berkeley in unique earth’s-field nuclear precession technique to terials at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labora- Professor of Applied Physics. Girvin’s research set a sensitive limit to space anisotropy. Since 1972, tory. He was awarded the National Medal of Sci- 1952. He spent a year at has focused on strongly correlated quantum states Sandia National Labo- his main research work has related to the detection ence in 2002. His present research in the fields of of matter and the quantum phase transitions which of gravitational radiation. In 1979, he was invited to catalysis and surface chemistry include studies of ratories before joining separate them. He is currently working on develop- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where Caltech to initiate an experimental effort on gravi- structure and bonding at surfaces; metal nanoparti- ing circuit QED, the quantum optics of supercon- tation. He developed an exceptionally sensitive in- cle synthesis, characterization and catalytic reaction he has worked ever since. He has worked on vari- ducting electrical circuits. ous aspects of supernova modeling and numerical terferometer. This, together with a number of other studies; surface science of heterogeneous catalysis; original ideas, were key steps to the realization of molecular studies of polymer surfaces and adsorbed relativity, and modeled heavy-ion nuclear colli- MacDonald received sions and used data to make a high density nuclear the LIGO Project for a gravity-wave observatory, peptides. his Ph.D. from the Uni- now fully operational. equation of state. His current research is focused on versity of Toronto in Weiss biography unavailable at press time Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize developing a better supernova model for r-process 1978. He joined the re- calculations, has well as attempting to model the Lisa Randall search staff of the Ottawa Dannie Heineman Prize for “dark energy” induced expansion of universe by the laboratory of the Nation- Harvard University decay of sterile neutrinos. al Research Council of Mathematical Physics Canada in 1981 after a Citation: “For her pioneering work on particle Tom W. Bonner Prize period of postdoctoral re- Juan Maldacena physics and cosmology, and her tireless efforts to In Nuclear Physics search at the same insti- Institute for Advanced Study inspire and engaged both specialist and non-specialist, tution. He was a member of the faculty of Indiana by allegory and fact through publications and Stuart J. Freedman University from 1987 until 2000, when he joined Joseph Polchinski presentations.” University of California, Berkeley the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin. University of California, Santa Barbara MacDonald’s research has mainly been concerned Randall studies particle physics and Citation: “For his contributions to Neutrino Physics with the influence of interactions on the electronic Citation: “For profound developments in and the study of Weak Interactions, in particular for properties of condensed matter. Recently he has fo- Mathematical Physics that have illuminated cosmology at Harvard his leading role in the KAMLAND experiment, as well cused on spintronics, including contributions to the interconnections and launched major research areas in University, where she is as for his work on precision measurements of the beta theory of magnetic semiconductors, the spin Hall Quantum Field Theory, String Theory, and Gravity.” professor of theoretical decay of the neutron.” effect, and the influence of transport currents on physics. Her research magnetic order parameters. Maldacena was born concerns elementary Biography unavailable at press time in Argentina. He earned particles and funda- his “Licenciatura” in Davisson-Germer Prize mental forces, and has Herbert P. Broida Prize 1991 from Instituto involved the study of a in Atomic or Surface Physics Balseiro, Universidad wide variety of models, the most recent involving de Cuyo, Argentina, extra dimensions of space. She is currently working James C. Bergquist Franz Himpsel and went on to receive out the implications of extra-dimensional models National Institute of Science and University of Wisconsin a PhD in 1996 from for experiments, particularly those that will take Technology, Boulder Princeton University. place at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). She re- Citation: “For pioneering investigations of the After a postdoctoral cently completed a book entitled Warped Passages: Citation: “For seminal contributions to ultra- electronic structure of surfaces, interfaces, adsorbates, appointment at Rutgers