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Descartes Prize split up
PEOPLE & PLACES
Women researchers honored
New president for MRS Alan Hurd, the director of Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico has been appointed president of the Materials Research Society (MRS) for 2007.
Mildred Dresselhaus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, renowned for her research on carbon nanotubes, is one of five women to receive the 2007 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO award. The prize is aimed at recognizing, rewarding, and advancing the role of women in scientific research.
African-American physicist rewarded Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is to receive the Vannevar Bush Award for lifetime achievements in scientific research, education, and contributions to public policy. The physicist is the first African-American woman to receive the award since it was established 27 years ago.
Two NSF awards given to junior researchers Daniel Gall of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Yong Xu of Virginia Tech have both received a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Gall will use the $400 000 grant to fund his research on nanoscale structures, while Xu will use the award to create an optical microcope with a resolution of 1 nm.
Solar cells help scientists win Jerry Olson and Sarah Kurtz from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have won the $1 million Dan David Prize, together with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate scientist James Hansen. Olson and Kurtz pioneered the multijunction solar cell that uses layers of semiconductor material to improve efficiency.
Plastic electronics scoop prize A UK team from Imperial College, London led by Donal Bradley has won the Royal Society’s $500 000 Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in the field of nanotechnology. The group propose to develop commercial production processes for plastic electronics, leading to the fabrication of high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells..
Courtesy of the Materials Research Society.
“I am honored and excited to serve as MRS president in 2007,” says Hurd. “I will spend most of my energy in advocacy for physical sciences funding.”
Death of a Nobel laureate The Nobel laureate, Alan G. MacDiarmind, of the University of Texas at Dallas, has passed away aged 79. He shared the prize for chemistry in 2000 with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa for the discovery and development of conductive polymers.
Biomaterials award goes to... The 2007 US Society for Biomaterials Founders Award will go to a non-US citizen for the first time. The honor will be given to David Williams of the University of Liverpool, UK in recognition of his contributions to biomaterials research during the past 40 years. He is currently editor-in-chief of Biomaterials and a scientific advisor to the European Commission on public health issues.
Descartes Prize split up Three European projects will share the 1 million Descartes Prize for Research, which rewards team efforts in any field of science, the humanities, and economics. One of the three winners is the Hydrosol Project, run by a team from the UK, Denmark, Germany, and Greece. It focuses on the production of hydrogen from water using the sun as a source of energy. The other winning projects were in astronomy and medicine.
Magnetoresistance a winner Peter Grünberg of Research Centre Jülich, Germany and Albert Fert of Université Paris-Sud, France will share the 100 000 Israeli Wolf Prize for their discovery of the giant magnetoresistive effect. The prize will be presented by the Israeli president in a ceremony held this month.
Raise your glasses This year’s Institute of Physics Dirac Medal for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics has been won by David Sherrington of the University of Oxford, UK for his work on spin glasses. The Institute will also present the Mott Medal for distinguished research in condensed matter or materials physics to Andre Geim of the University of Manchester, UK for his discovery of free-standing two-dimensional crystals, in particular that of graphene.
New deputy for NIST James M. Turner has been appointed the deputy director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Turner was previously assistant deputy administrator in the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Wood gets Imperial appointment John Wood has been appointed the new principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College, London, UK. Wood is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and chair of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures.
Technology transfer gets its own professor Erkko Autio has become the UK’s first professor of technology transfer in the physical sciences. QinetiQ and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are jointly funding the $2 million professorship to address the disparity in the commercialization of ideas in engineering and physical sciences compared with the medical and pharmaceutical fields. The chair will be hosted by Imperial College’s Tanaka Business School.
Funding for UK solar project A $3 million, three-and-a-half year project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council aims to develop new, cheaper ways of generating solar power. The project, which is led by Paul O’Brien from the University of Manchester and Jenny Nelson from Imperial College, London will bring together a consortium of chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and electrical engineers. They will investigate designs for energy generation that use inexpensive materials and cheap fabrication methods.
Please send details of new appointments, honors, and awards to [email protected]
MAY 2007 | VOLUME 10 | NUMBER 5
61
Women researchers honored
New president for MRS Alan Hurd, the director of Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico has been appointed president of the Materials Research Society (MRS) for 2007.
Mildred Dresselhaus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, renowned for her research on carbon nanotubes, is one of five women to receive the 2007 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO award. The prize is aimed at recognizing, rewarding, and advancing the role of women in scientific research.
African-American physicist rewarded Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is to receive the Vannevar Bush Award for lifetime achievements in scientific research, education, and contributions to public policy. The physicist is the first African-American woman to receive the award since it was established 27 years ago.
Two NSF awards given to junior researchers Daniel Gall of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Yong Xu of Virginia Tech have both received a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Gall will use the $400 000 grant to fund his research on nanoscale structures, while Xu will use the award to create an optical microcope with a resolution of 1 nm.
Solar cells help scientists win Jerry Olson and Sarah Kurtz from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have won the $1 million Dan David Prize, together with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate scientist James Hansen. Olson and Kurtz pioneered the multijunction solar cell that uses layers of semiconductor material to improve efficiency.
Plastic electronics scoop prize A UK team from Imperial College, London led by Donal Bradley has won the Royal Society’s $500 000 Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in the field of nanotechnology. The group propose to develop commercial production processes for plastic electronics, leading to the fabrication of high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells..
Courtesy of the Materials Research Society.
“I am honored and excited to serve as MRS president in 2007,” says Hurd. “I will spend most of my energy in advocacy for physical sciences funding.”
Death of a Nobel laureate The Nobel laureate, Alan G. MacDiarmind, of the University of Texas at Dallas, has passed away aged 79. He shared the prize for chemistry in 2000 with Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa for the discovery and development of conductive polymers.
Biomaterials award goes to... The 2007 US Society for Biomaterials Founders Award will go to a non-US citizen for the first time. The honor will be given to David Williams of the University of Liverpool, UK in recognition of his contributions to biomaterials research during the past 40 years. He is currently editor-in-chief of Biomaterials and a scientific advisor to the European Commission on public health issues.
Descartes Prize split up Three European projects will share the 1 million Descartes Prize for Research, which rewards team efforts in any field of science, the humanities, and economics. One of the three winners is the Hydrosol Project, run by a team from the UK, Denmark, Germany, and Greece. It focuses on the production of hydrogen from water using the sun as a source of energy. The other winning projects were in astronomy and medicine.
Magnetoresistance a winner Peter Grünberg of Research Centre Jülich, Germany and Albert Fert of Université Paris-Sud, France will share the 100 000 Israeli Wolf Prize for their discovery of the giant magnetoresistive effect. The prize will be presented by the Israeli president in a ceremony held this month.
Raise your glasses This year’s Institute of Physics Dirac Medal for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics has been won by David Sherrington of the University of Oxford, UK for his work on spin glasses. The Institute will also present the Mott Medal for distinguished research in condensed matter or materials physics to Andre Geim of the University of Manchester, UK for his discovery of free-standing two-dimensional crystals, in particular that of graphene.
New deputy for NIST James M. Turner has been appointed the deputy director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Turner was previously assistant deputy administrator in the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Wood gets Imperial appointment John Wood has been appointed the new principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College, London, UK. Wood is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and chair of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures.
Technology transfer gets its own professor Erkko Autio has become the UK’s first professor of technology transfer in the physical sciences. QinetiQ and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are jointly funding the $2 million professorship to address the disparity in the commercialization of ideas in engineering and physical sciences compared with the medical and pharmaceutical fields. The chair will be hosted by Imperial College’s Tanaka Business School.
Funding for UK solar project A $3 million, three-and-a-half year project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council aims to develop new, cheaper ways of generating solar power. The project, which is led by Paul O’Brien from the University of Manchester and Jenny Nelson from Imperial College, London will bring together a consortium of chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and electrical engineers. They will investigate designs for energy generation that use inexpensive materials and cheap fabrication methods.
Please send details of new appointments, honors, and awards to [email protected]
MAY 2007 | VOLUME 10 | NUMBER 5
61