In Brief

After 20 years in Bell Labs research in Murray Hill, New Jersey, most recently as a distinguished member of the technical staff, R. Bruce van Dover joined Cornell University in October as a professor of materials science and engineering.

In October, the National Academy of Engineering presented its 2002 NAE Founders Award to Stuart W. Churchill at the academy’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, for his “outstanding leadership in research, education, and professional service, and for continuing contributions in combustion, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics for over half a century.” He is the Carl V. S. Patterson Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. The award included a $2500 cash prize and a gold medal.

At its annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in October, the Academia Europaea, located in London, awarded its 2002 ERASMUS Medal to Harold W. Kroto, cowinner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A research professor at the UK’s University of Sussex at Brighton and president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Kroto was honored for his “significant contributions to European scholarship, both through his discoveries of ‘Buckminsterfullerene’ [buckyballs] and through his major efforts in the fields of scientific literacy, education, and public awareness of the value of science.”

The South African Institute of Physics gave its highest award, the De Beers Gold Medal, this year to Walter Dieter Heiss at its 47th annual conference in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in September. Heiss, professor of physics at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, was recognized for his “contributions to quantum theory and the potential of his latest work to greatly influence ideas and thinking which are fundamental to our understanding of chirality and how left–right symmetry might be broken.”

The London-based World Technology Network has announced the individual and corporate winners of its World Technology Awards for 2002. Of the individual winners, four work in physics-related fields. Angela Belcher, associate professor of materials science and engineering and of biological engineering at MIT, was named the winner in the materials category. Roger-Maurice Bonnet collected an award in the space category. He is the deputy director general for science at the French Space Agency (CNES) and former director of the science program at the European Space Agency. The winner in the energy category is Ashok Gadgil, senior staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In the information technology-hardware category, the winner is Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials and director of the Center for Solid State Lighting and Displays at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The awards honor both individuals and companies that contribute significantly to the advancement of promising technologies for the benefit of business and society.

Fusion Power Associates presented its Special Awards for Education and Outreach last June. The two award winners were Paul Rivenberg and Paul Thomas, both of whom work at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Rivenberg is the communications and educational outreach coordinator. Thomas, a technical supervisor, is also known by his colleagues and the public as “Mr. Magnet”—for bringing hands-on electromagnetism demonstrations to elementary and middle schools in New England.