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Robert Aymar Honoured at CERN CERN Courier July/August 2011 Faces & Places C e l e b r a t i o n Robert Aymar honoured at CERN On 24 May, Robert Aymar, CERN’s director-general from 2004 to 2008, was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic in recognition of his outstanding scientific career. A renowned French physicist, he was director of the superconducting tokamak Tore Supra from 1977 to 1988, director of material sciences at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in 1990–1994 and director of the ITER project in 1994–2003. During his term of office at CERN he oversaw the commissioning and start-up of the LHC, which he inaugurated on 21 October 2008 (CERN Courier December 2008 p23). Aymar was presented with the award during a colloquium held at CERN in honour of his 75th birthday. After an introduction by the current director-general, Rolf Heuer, a series of presentations from leaders in the Above: Robert Aymar, right, was presented various fields recalled many of Aymar’s with the medal of the Legion of Honour by important contributions from the early days Bernard Bigot, chairman of the CEA, left. at Tore Supra to the completion of the LHC. Catherine Cesarsky, high commissioner Right: Aymar enjoys a presentation during for atomic energy, provided a contribution the colloquium in honour of his birthday. by video. Bernard Bigot, chairman of the CEA, presented Aymar with the medal of the For the full programme and presentations, Legion of Honour, during his contribution see http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay. towards the end of the colloquium. py?confId=134627. a w a r d s Suzuki and Petcov receive the 2010 Pontecorvo Prize The Pontecorvo Prize for 2010 has been awarded to Yoichiro Suzuki, of the University of Tokyo and director of the Kamioka Observatory, and Serguey Petcov of SISSA, Trieste. Suzuki receives the prize for his “outstanding contribution to the discovery of atmospheric and solar neutrino oscillations in the Super-Kamiokande experiments”, while Petcov is honoured for his “fundamental contribution to the investigation of neutrino propagation in matter, μ→eγ, μ→3e processes and Majorana properties of the neutrino”. Yoichiro Suzuki, left, with Mikhail Itkis, Serguey Petcov, left, with Itkis. (Image The awards ceremony was held on centre, and Alexander Olchevsky. credits: JINR.) 18 February at the 109th session of the JINR Scientific Council. Mikhail Itkis, Laboratory of Nuclear Problems and chair Victor Matveev, and the Scientific Council acting director of JINR, and Alexander of the international prize jury, presented warmly greeted the new laureates, who both Olchevsky, director of the Dzhelepov the awards. The new director-elect of JINR, gave presentations on their work. 43 CCJulAug11-FacesPlaces.indd 43 05/07/2011 18:26 CERN Courier July/August 2011 Faces & Places EPS Accelerator Group announces 2011 prizewinners The European Physical Society Accelerator Group (EPS-AG) has announced the winners of the EPS-AG/ IPAC’11 Accelerator prizes, to be presented at the International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC’11, which will take place on 5–9 September in San Sebastián. Shin-ichi Kurokawa of KEK receives the Rolf Wideröe Prize for outstanding work in the accelerator field (without age uranium. [This was] based on an ambitious limit). He is rewarded for “demonstrating plan involving a new ECR ion source and excellent leadership over many years RFQ injector, followed by a chain of three [making] significant contributions to rings that required the... construction of the the automated control and performance world’s first superconducting sector-magnet of high-energy colliders, as well as to cyclotrons.” international collaboration in the field of The Frank Sacherer Prize, for an particle accelerators”. He was responsible individual in the early part of his or her for the design, construction and operation career, having made a recent significant, of the control system for KEK’s TRISTAN original contribution to the accelerator field, collider – the first full computer control for a goes to CERN’s Rogelio Tomás García. large accelerator in Japan – and set up and led “Among many significant contributions in a the team that brought the KEKB B-factory relatively short career, he is particularly well into being. known for his innovative work in measuring The Gersch Budker Prize, for a recent resonance driving terms and the localization significant, original contribution to the of lattice errors, for optics design including accelerator field, with no age limit, also non-linear properties of beamlines with recognizes Japanese work with the award to applications to the final focus of linear Yasushige Yano, senior adviser and former colliders, and for his contributions to the director of the RIKEN Nishina Center. He LHC operations and its upgrades.” was “responsible for turning the RIKEN Cyclotron Laboratory into the world’s most Clockwise: Shin-ichi Kurokawa. (Image powerful source of cw radioactive isotope credit: KEK). Yasushige Yano. (Image beams for all elements from helium to credit: RIKEN.) Rogelio Tomás García. INR awards the 2011 Markov prizes The Institute for Nuclear Research (INR) The 2011 Markov prize laureates, of the Russian Academy of Sciences left to right: Igor Zeleznykh, Aston in Moscow has awarded the 2011 M A Komar and Alexey Kurepin. Markov Prize to Alexey Kurepin and Igor (Image credit: INR.) Zeleznykh, of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Aston Komar of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They received the awards at the 9th Markov Readings in Moscow on 13 May. other elementary particles”; and Komar for elementary particle physics, nuclear physics Kurepin is recognized for his “great his “great contribution to theoretical and and neutrino astrophysics, was established contribution to researches in the field of experimental studies in elementary particle by INR in memory of Moisey Alexandrovich relativistic nuclear physics and discovery of physics”. Markov (1908–1994), who was one of new properties of nuclei and nuclear matterˮ; The M A Markov Prize, which is awarded the founders of the institute. The Markov Zeleznykh for “proposals and developments for essential contributions to theoretical Readings are held each year on 13 May to of new methods for detecting neutrinos and and experimental studies in the field of commemorate his birthday. 44 CCJulAug11-FacesPlaces.indd 44 05/07/2011 18:27 CERN Courier July/August 2011 Faces & Places L e a r n e d s o c i e t i e s Cifarelli and Stachel rise to the top The European Physical Society (EPS) has its first woman president, since Luisa Cifarelli of the University of Bologna and INFN took over from Maciej Kolwas, at the close of the EPS Council meeting held on 1–2 April. She was elected president by the EPS Council at the meeting held on 19–20 March 2010 and will serve a two-year term, before becoming a vice-president for a further year. Cifarelli studied at the universities of Rome and Bologna, where her thesis supervisor was Antonino Zichichi. Her research work has taken her to CERN, DESY and the Gran Sasso National Laboratory. For Luisa Cifarelli, the first woman president of the past 10 years she has been involved in the EPS. (Image credit: Mike Struik.) the design, construction and running of the huge time-of-flight detector of the ALICE Johanna Stachel with the first supermodule experiment at the LHC, which is based on of the ALICE TRD ready for installation in multigap resistive plate chamber technology. 2006. (Image credit: A Saba/CERN.) She has served on a number of councils, committees and commissions, including German Physical Society (DPG). She will University of Mainz before conducting CERN Council and the INFN Board of be the first female president of the society research with Stony Brook University Directors. when she takes over from Wolfgang Sander and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Johanna Stachel, professor of physics at in 2012. Founded in 1845, the DPG is the She has received many research awards, the University of Heidelberg and a member world’s oldest physical society and also the including the Federal Cross of Merit in 1999. of the ALICE collaboration at the LHC, largest, with 59 000 members. Within ALICE, she is project leader of the has been elected as the next president of the Stachel received her PhD from the transition radiation detector (TRD). Herwig Schopper becomes honorary member of EPS The European Physical Society (EPS) the development of optics, thin metal layers, has elected Herwig Schopper to honorary nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, membership. Schopper was director-general detector development and accelerator of CERN from 1981–1998, a period that saw technology (CERN Courier November 2009 the approval and construction of the Large p36). The EPS also recognizes Schopper Electron-Positron collider in the 27 km for his successful work as the society’s tunnel now occupied by the LHC. He is president, in transferring the headquarters to honoured for his scientific contributions to Mulhouse. Schopper at CERN in 2009. Venetian academy honours CERN theorist In a ceremony at the Doge’s Palace in Venice the advancement of mathematical, physical on 29 May, Gian Giudice of the theory unit and natural sciences, as well as the at CERN, was nominated academician of the humanities and arts. Past members of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ad Arti academy include the mathematicians Tullio (IVSLA) “for his outstanding contributions Levi Civita and Gregorio Ricci Curbastro, to the field of particle physics, and the the scientists Guglielmo Marconi and Luis development of supersymmetry and theories Pasteur, the writers Alessandro Manzoni Gian Giudice, left, at the ceremony with with extra dimensions”. and Ezra Pound, and the sculptor Antonio president of the Academy, Gian Antonio The institute is an academy that promotes Canova.
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