In Brief

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority gave the nod to Chris Llewellyn Smith to direct its Culham division, located near Abingdon, England. A senior research fellow in physics at Oxford University, Llewellyn Smith took his post on 8 September. He succeeds Derek Robinson, who died in December 2002.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, has added a new faculty member. In July, Sriram Shastry joined the university as a professor of physics. He previously had been a professor of physics at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India.

At the Third International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications in Monterey, California, last month, the American Nuclear Society bestowed its 2003 Edward Teller Medal on two recipients: Larry Suter and Hideaki Takabe. Suter was cited for his “seminal work on almost all aspects of laser hohlraum physics.” He is the associate program leader for inertial confinement fusion theory and design at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Takabe, who is a professor in the Institute of Laser Energetics at Osaka University in Japan, was acknowledged for his “pioneering work on laser–plasma interactions, atomic physics, and hydrodynamic instabilities of laser implosions.”

After 16 years as director of the Russian-based Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, Zhores Alferov stepped down in June to become the institute’s scientific supervisor. Andrei Zabrodskii, former deputy director of the institute, is the new director.

Joe Kilkenny became manager of the General Atomics inertial fusion technology division in La Jolla, California, in June. Formerly a senior physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Kilkenny replaced Jill Dahlburg, who is now a senior scientist for science applications at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.

The Pennsylvania State University’s physics department has added two new assistant professors to its ranks. Alejandro Perez joined the faculty in August and Réka Albert became a faculty member in June.