In brief

Jay Marx, an experimental particle physicist who in recent decades has directed several high-profile physics projects around the country, has been named executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) at Caltech. Marx succeeds Barry C. Barish, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Caltech, who led the LIGO project through its construction and into its first major science runs. Barish has said he will now focus on directing the global design effort for the proposed International Linear Collider, although he will continue to be involved in LIGO research. Marx, who began at his new post on 14 March, had been a senior physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1981.

Raymond E. Goldstein has been named Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems in the applied mathematics and theoretical physics department at the University of Cambridge, UK. A professor of physics and applied mathematics at the University of Arizona, Tucson, since 1996, Goldstein begins on 1 September at his new post, where his research will focus on theoretical and experimental studies of nonlinear and nonequilibrium systems with particular emphasis on biological physics. At the University of Arizona, where he is also a member of the B105 Institute, he did influential work on biophysical elasticity, the fluid dynamics of collective bacterial swimming, and the dynamics of stalactite growth.

Atsuto Suzuki, vice president of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and director of its Research Center for Neutrino Science, is the new director general of KEK, the Japanese high-energy accelerator research organization. He took over from Yoji Totsuka on 1 April and will serve for three years. Prior to joining Tohoku University, Suzuki was involved in underground neutrino experiments at the Kamioka Observatory in Gifu province.

Yuri Kovchegov, an assistant professor in the nuclear theory group of the physics department at the Ohio State University, and Thomas Glasmacher, professor in the physics and astronomy department and associate director for operations at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, are the recipients of the 2006 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences. Kovchegov was selected for “groundbreaking contributions to theoretical understanding of quantum chromodynamics at very high energies and gluon densities,” and Glasmacher won for his “development of new sensitive methods of studying nuclear structure, utilizing Coulomb excitation with fast beams of rare isotopes.” The prize is administered by Tel Aviv University.