- Email: [email protected]
Wadsworth to head ORNL
PEOPLE & PLACES UPDATE
Wadsworth to head ORNL UT-Battelle, which manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy (DOE), has named Jeff Wadsworth as the laboratory’s new director. “Jeff is an internationally respected scientist, outstanding leader, and innovator in such fields as materials science and homeland security,” says Raymond L. Orbach, director of DOE’s Office of Science. Wadsworth moves to Oak Ridge from his position as a senior leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a senior executive at Battelle. He replaces William J. Madia, who is now executive vice president for laboratory operations at Battelle. Morral leader John E. Morral is the new chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University. Morral is currently at the University of Connecticut, where he recently finished a term as head of the metallurgy and materials engineering department. Highest award The IEEE Medal of Honor, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ highest award, this year goes to Nick Holonyak, Jr. of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The award recognizes a research career devoted to semiconductor alloys, heterojunctions, visible lightemitting diodes, and injection lasers. Askew to bring about merger The merger of the University of Manchester and UMIST in the UK now has a leader. Norman Askew will be the first chairman of the combined universities’ board of governors when it is formed in 2004. He will also chair the company created to oversee the merger. “This is a unique opportunity in the higher education sector, to bring together two of the UK’s leading universities,” says Askew. “Our aim is to create a world-class institution that Manchester will be proud of.” Askew has previously worked in the engineering, energy, nuclear, and aerospace industries.
Light-emitting knight Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK, has been knighted for services to physics. The award was announced in the Queen’s birthday honors list. Friend is both delighted and surprised by the honor. “This is good recognition for physics, a field in which the UK has a very high standing,” he adds. Friend’s knighthood came the week after the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) presented him with its inaugural E-MRS Medal, as part of the society’s 20th anniversary celebrations. Pioneering work by Friend and coworkers on the physics and engineering of organic semiconductor devices lead to the first polymer light-emitting diode structure. Since then, Friend has developed polymer photovoltaic cells, directly printed polymer transistor circuits, and cofounded two spin-off companies. “More than any other person, he is responsible for the UK’s world leadership position in plastic electronics,” says Stuart Evans, the chief executive officer of one of those companies, Plastic Logic.
Exciting opportunity Robert Hwang will be the director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s new Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN). Hwang will take up the position in March 2004. “I’ve worked in nanoscience for much of my scientific career, and this new position at Brookhaven is an exciting opportunity for me,” he says. Hwang moves from Sandia National Laboratories where he manages the thin film and interface science department. He has previously worked at the Universities of Maryland and California at Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and the Technische Universität München, Germany. CFN is one of five nanoscience facilities to be built at the US Department of Energy’s national laboratories, where construction on the 8000 m2 facility is due to begin in 2005. “The new center will give scientists from Brookhaven and around the nation the
opportunity to do research in new areas and in new ways,” says Hwang. Brookhaven also names Steven Dierker as associate laboratory director of the new Light Sources Directorate. The directorate has been formed with the intention of upgrading the National Synchrotron Light Source facilities at Brookhaven.
Winning assessment The 2003 Sir Frank Whittle Medal, awarded by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, goes to Roland Clift of the University of Surrey. The medal recognizes Clift’s role in developing life cycle assessments for understanding and minimizing the environmental impact of technologies. His approach has been adopted by the UK government and companies worldwide, including ICI and Unilever. Clift is director of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at Surrey, a multidisciplinary group of engineers, scientists, and social scientists, which he established in 1992. “This award means a great deal, not just to me, but to my colleagues,” says Clift. “Our work represents an important new direction for engineering, putting rigorous analysis into its social, economic, and policy context.”
Andersson to head ESF The next secretary general of the European Science Foundation (ESF) is Bertil Andersson, president of Linköping University, Sweden. The ESF governing council will recommend his election at the next general assembly meeting in November. Andersson, who was recently a member of an ESF working group on the case for a European research council, will succeed Enric Banda at the end of the year. “I am confident that we have found a very capable and competent candidate to fill in the post as secretary general of the ESF,” says Reinder Van Duinen, president of the foundation.
Nanoparticles deliver large prize SmartCells has won the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) $50K Entrepreneurship Competition with a business plan for a nanoparticle drug delivery product. The five-member team, consisting of students from the Sloan School of Management, MIT, and Harvard Business School, receives $30 000 as the grand prizewinner (the other $20 000 is divided between two runners-up). SmartCells’ insulin controlled delivery system for diabetics uses biodegradable polymer nanoparticles.
Please send details of new appointments, honors, and awards to [email protected]
September 2003
43
Wadsworth to head ORNL UT-Battelle, which manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy (DOE), has named Jeff Wadsworth as the laboratory’s new director. “Jeff is an internationally respected scientist, outstanding leader, and innovator in such fields as materials science and homeland security,” says Raymond L. Orbach, director of DOE’s Office of Science. Wadsworth moves to Oak Ridge from his position as a senior leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a senior executive at Battelle. He replaces William J. Madia, who is now executive vice president for laboratory operations at Battelle. Morral leader John E. Morral is the new chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University. Morral is currently at the University of Connecticut, where he recently finished a term as head of the metallurgy and materials engineering department. Highest award The IEEE Medal of Honor, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ highest award, this year goes to Nick Holonyak, Jr. of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The award recognizes a research career devoted to semiconductor alloys, heterojunctions, visible lightemitting diodes, and injection lasers. Askew to bring about merger The merger of the University of Manchester and UMIST in the UK now has a leader. Norman Askew will be the first chairman of the combined universities’ board of governors when it is formed in 2004. He will also chair the company created to oversee the merger. “This is a unique opportunity in the higher education sector, to bring together two of the UK’s leading universities,” says Askew. “Our aim is to create a world-class institution that Manchester will be proud of.” Askew has previously worked in the engineering, energy, nuclear, and aerospace industries.
Light-emitting knight Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK, has been knighted for services to physics. The award was announced in the Queen’s birthday honors list. Friend is both delighted and surprised by the honor. “This is good recognition for physics, a field in which the UK has a very high standing,” he adds. Friend’s knighthood came the week after the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) presented him with its inaugural E-MRS Medal, as part of the society’s 20th anniversary celebrations. Pioneering work by Friend and coworkers on the physics and engineering of organic semiconductor devices lead to the first polymer light-emitting diode structure. Since then, Friend has developed polymer photovoltaic cells, directly printed polymer transistor circuits, and cofounded two spin-off companies. “More than any other person, he is responsible for the UK’s world leadership position in plastic electronics,” says Stuart Evans, the chief executive officer of one of those companies, Plastic Logic.
Exciting opportunity Robert Hwang will be the director of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s new Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN). Hwang will take up the position in March 2004. “I’ve worked in nanoscience for much of my scientific career, and this new position at Brookhaven is an exciting opportunity for me,” he says. Hwang moves from Sandia National Laboratories where he manages the thin film and interface science department. He has previously worked at the Universities of Maryland and California at Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and the Technische Universität München, Germany. CFN is one of five nanoscience facilities to be built at the US Department of Energy’s national laboratories, where construction on the 8000 m2 facility is due to begin in 2005. “The new center will give scientists from Brookhaven and around the nation the
opportunity to do research in new areas and in new ways,” says Hwang. Brookhaven also names Steven Dierker as associate laboratory director of the new Light Sources Directorate. The directorate has been formed with the intention of upgrading the National Synchrotron Light Source facilities at Brookhaven.
Winning assessment The 2003 Sir Frank Whittle Medal, awarded by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, goes to Roland Clift of the University of Surrey. The medal recognizes Clift’s role in developing life cycle assessments for understanding and minimizing the environmental impact of technologies. His approach has been adopted by the UK government and companies worldwide, including ICI and Unilever. Clift is director of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at Surrey, a multidisciplinary group of engineers, scientists, and social scientists, which he established in 1992. “This award means a great deal, not just to me, but to my colleagues,” says Clift. “Our work represents an important new direction for engineering, putting rigorous analysis into its social, economic, and policy context.”
Andersson to head ESF The next secretary general of the European Science Foundation (ESF) is Bertil Andersson, president of Linköping University, Sweden. The ESF governing council will recommend his election at the next general assembly meeting in November. Andersson, who was recently a member of an ESF working group on the case for a European research council, will succeed Enric Banda at the end of the year. “I am confident that we have found a very capable and competent candidate to fill in the post as secretary general of the ESF,” says Reinder Van Duinen, president of the foundation.
Nanoparticles deliver large prize SmartCells has won the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) $50K Entrepreneurship Competition with a business plan for a nanoparticle drug delivery product. The five-member team, consisting of students from the Sloan School of Management, MIT, and Harvard Business School, receives $30 000 as the grand prizewinner (the other $20 000 is divided between two runners-up). SmartCells’ insulin controlled delivery system for diabetics uses biodegradable polymer nanoparticles.
Please send details of new appointments, honors, and awards to [email protected]
September 2003
43