First Arthur Compton Professor in Arts & Sciences announced

Kenneth F. Kelton, who directs the Laboratory for Materials Physics Research at Washington University in St Loius, will become WUTSL’s first Arthur Holly Compton Professor in Arts & Sciences. He was also recently appointed chair of WUTSL’s physics department.

Kelton is an expert in nucleation (see Physics Today July 2003), which is the most common way that physical systems change from one phase to another — such as the formation of a crystal from a liquid — and is a governing process in nearly all phase transformations. He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2005. “Most physicists are either experimenters or theorists, but usually not both,” says Patrick C. Gibbons, a physics colleague. “Ken is an exception in that he has done theoretical work and computer simulations of nucleation and growth processes, usually in amorphous metal alloys that are beginning to crystallize during heat treatments.” More information can be found at the universities newpaper The Record .