In Brief

At its inaugural American Conference on Neutron Scattering held in Knoxville, Tennessee, in June, the Neutron Scattering Society of America announced the establishment of the Clifford G. Shull Prize in Neutron Science, which carries a purse of $5000. Shull, who died in March 2001 (see Physics Today, October 2001, page 86 ), shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics with Bertram Brockhouse. Beginning in 2004, the NSSA will award the prize every two years to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to neutron science.

During a ceremony last month in Leiden, the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded the Lorentz Medal to Frank Wilczek, Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT and editor-in-chief of Annals of Physics. He was honored for his “pioneering work in particle physics, including his research on particles that can only move in a two-dimensional plane, as well as his involvement in the discovery of the phenomenon known as ‘asymptotic freedom.’ “

In August, Pennsylvania State University added three individuals to its physics faculty. Bernd Brügmann, formerly a research staff member at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, is now an associate professor of physics in the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. Doug Cowen is an associate professor of physics and of astronomy and astrophysics. He previously was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania. Also joining the department as an assistant professor of physics is Benjamin J. Owen, formerly a research associate in the Center for Gravitation and Cosmology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

At a ceremony last April in Washington, DC, the government of France awarded Harold P. Smith Jr the rank of Commander in the Legion of Honor. Smith, Distinguished Visiting Scholar and professor in the Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, was recognized for his work while serving as the assistant to the secretary of defense (nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs) in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1998.

Kirsten Tollefson has joined the physics faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor of experimental high-energy physics. She previously was a research associate at the University of Rochester.