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Quantum leap to Germany
PEOPLE & PLACES UPDATE
Quantum leap to Germany
Engineering champion
The Wolfgang Paul
(ETB), which is set to take over from the Engineering Council, has its first chairman.
Award goes to Atac Imamoglu of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). The German Humboldt Foundation makes the award “in honor of academic achievement at an internationally excellent level”. Imamoglu will now be affiliated to the Physics Institute of Stuttgart University for two years with $2 million to spend on his research in quantum computing and the manipulation of photons. A graduate of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, Imamoglu began his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, before joining UCSB eight years ago. Commenting on the award, Imamoglu simply says “I was extremely happy, as you can imagine!”
Nanoscience crème de la crème Charles M. Lieber of Harvard University and Mark A. Ratner of Northwestern University are the recipients of the 2001 Feynman Prize. Presented at the Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in Silicon Valley, Lieber and Ratner each receive $5,000 for their experimental and theoretical research in the fields
The UK’s new Engineering and Technology Board
Sir Peter Williams will head up the ETB when it formally starts work at the start of 2002. Currently Master of St. Catherine’s College Oxford, chairman of The National Museum of Science and Industry, director of GKN plc, president of the Institute of Physics, and former chairman of Oxford Instruments plc, Williams brings a wealth of experience, from both academia and industry, to the post. The ETB aims to address the concerns of the 250,000-strong community on issues such as skills shortages and promoting engineering and technology-based careers. Leading professional engineering institutions will be united under the auspices of the ETB and a regulatory board, bringing together academia, industry, registered engineers, and other professionals.
Canada calls wood expert Australian wood scientist Phil Evans is to head up Canada’s National Centre for Advanced Wood Processing at the University of British Columbia. An expert on photostabilization and properties of wood surfaces, Evans pursued a distinguished research and teaching career at the Australian National University (ANU) since 1986. Evans also served as director of the ANU Centre for Science and Engineering of Materials (CSEM), establishing
of nanocomputing and molecular electronics, respectively. Considered a grandfather of
innovative programs to raise the profile of materials research in and outside of the university.
molecular electronics, Ratner has been an active proponent of this field for the last 25 years.
End of a New York story
Lieber’s work may allow computing to move away from semiconductor technology, realizing bottom-
After a decade leading the New York Academy of Sciences, Rodney W. Nichols is to resign.
up manufacturing and nanoelectronics.
“Rod’s commitments to expanding opportunities for women in science and to fighting for human
“These are people who have made major contributions to the objectives of molecular nanotechnology and are moving us toward Richard Feynman’s vision that he outlined in 1959,” commented previous winner Ralph Merkle. “This is the crème de la crème.”
rights of scientists all over the world have been steady and strong,” says former chair of the board and congressman Bill Green. During Nichols’ tenure the Academy drew in new members from outside the US to reach its current level of 25,000.
Please send details of new appointments, honors and awards to [email protected]
42
January 2002
New physics fellows Hiroshi Kamimura, former president of the Physical Society of Japan and tireless promoter of international relations in physics, joins the UK’s Institute of Physics as an Honorary Fellow. His career in condensed matter physics included time at the Universities of Tokyo, Cambridge, Pierre et Marie Curie, and Würzburg, as well as Bell Labs. Round peg in a square world Sir Harold Kroto, Nobel Laureate and professor at the University of Sussex, receives the 2001 Faraday Award for his work promoting the understanding of science. The presentation will be made at the Royal Society when Kroto gives the annual Michael Faraday Lecture entitled ‘Science, a Round Peg in a Square World’. Honoring aluminum The commercialization of aluminum and the work of chemist Charles Martin Hall is to be designated a ‘National Historic Chemical Landmark’ by The American Chemical Society. The landmarks program was begun in 1992 to highlight the role of chemistry in history. For further information: http://chemistry.org/landmarks Shining example Lisa C. Klein of Rutgers University is one of 15 new fellows selected for the New York Academy of Sciences in recognition of her work in developing electrochromic coatings that can darken or lighten windows. “This is a wonderful acknowledgement of her outstanding record of scholarship and achievement in the area of sol-gel science,” says dean of Rutgers’ School of Engineering Michael T. Klein. “She is a shining example.”
Quantum leap to Germany
Engineering champion
The Wolfgang Paul
(ETB), which is set to take over from the Engineering Council, has its first chairman.
Award goes to Atac Imamoglu of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). The German Humboldt Foundation makes the award “in honor of academic achievement at an internationally excellent level”. Imamoglu will now be affiliated to the Physics Institute of Stuttgart University for two years with $2 million to spend on his research in quantum computing and the manipulation of photons. A graduate of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, Imamoglu began his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, before joining UCSB eight years ago. Commenting on the award, Imamoglu simply says “I was extremely happy, as you can imagine!”
Nanoscience crème de la crème Charles M. Lieber of Harvard University and Mark A. Ratner of Northwestern University are the recipients of the 2001 Feynman Prize. Presented at the Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in Silicon Valley, Lieber and Ratner each receive $5,000 for their experimental and theoretical research in the fields
The UK’s new Engineering and Technology Board
Sir Peter Williams will head up the ETB when it formally starts work at the start of 2002. Currently Master of St. Catherine’s College Oxford, chairman of The National Museum of Science and Industry, director of GKN plc, president of the Institute of Physics, and former chairman of Oxford Instruments plc, Williams brings a wealth of experience, from both academia and industry, to the post. The ETB aims to address the concerns of the 250,000-strong community on issues such as skills shortages and promoting engineering and technology-based careers. Leading professional engineering institutions will be united under the auspices of the ETB and a regulatory board, bringing together academia, industry, registered engineers, and other professionals.
Canada calls wood expert Australian wood scientist Phil Evans is to head up Canada’s National Centre for Advanced Wood Processing at the University of British Columbia. An expert on photostabilization and properties of wood surfaces, Evans pursued a distinguished research and teaching career at the Australian National University (ANU) since 1986. Evans also served as director of the ANU Centre for Science and Engineering of Materials (CSEM), establishing
of nanocomputing and molecular electronics, respectively. Considered a grandfather of
innovative programs to raise the profile of materials research in and outside of the university.
molecular electronics, Ratner has been an active proponent of this field for the last 25 years.
End of a New York story
Lieber’s work may allow computing to move away from semiconductor technology, realizing bottom-
After a decade leading the New York Academy of Sciences, Rodney W. Nichols is to resign.
up manufacturing and nanoelectronics.
“Rod’s commitments to expanding opportunities for women in science and to fighting for human
“These are people who have made major contributions to the objectives of molecular nanotechnology and are moving us toward Richard Feynman’s vision that he outlined in 1959,” commented previous winner Ralph Merkle. “This is the crème de la crème.”
rights of scientists all over the world have been steady and strong,” says former chair of the board and congressman Bill Green. During Nichols’ tenure the Academy drew in new members from outside the US to reach its current level of 25,000.
Please send details of new appointments, honors and awards to [email protected]
42
January 2002
New physics fellows Hiroshi Kamimura, former president of the Physical Society of Japan and tireless promoter of international relations in physics, joins the UK’s Institute of Physics as an Honorary Fellow. His career in condensed matter physics included time at the Universities of Tokyo, Cambridge, Pierre et Marie Curie, and Würzburg, as well as Bell Labs. Round peg in a square world Sir Harold Kroto, Nobel Laureate and professor at the University of Sussex, receives the 2001 Faraday Award for his work promoting the understanding of science. The presentation will be made at the Royal Society when Kroto gives the annual Michael Faraday Lecture entitled ‘Science, a Round Peg in a Square World’. Honoring aluminum The commercialization of aluminum and the work of chemist Charles Martin Hall is to be designated a ‘National Historic Chemical Landmark’ by The American Chemical Society. The landmarks program was begun in 1992 to highlight the role of chemistry in history. For further information: http://chemistry.org/landmarks Shining example Lisa C. Klein of Rutgers University is one of 15 new fellows selected for the New York Academy of Sciences in recognition of her work in developing electrochromic coatings that can darken or lighten windows. “This is a wonderful acknowledgement of her outstanding record of scholarship and achievement in the area of sol-gel science,” says dean of Rutgers’ School of Engineering Michael T. Klein. “She is a shining example.”