EPS prizes for nuclear physics and outreach
The European Physical Society (EPS) has awarded the Lise Meitner Prize for Nuclear Science 2004 to Bent Herskind of the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, and Peter Twin of the University of Liverpool. They receive the prize for their pioneering development of experimental tools, methods of analysis and experimental discoveries concerning rapidly spinning nuclei, resulting in particular in the discovery of super deformed bands. Medals and cheques were presented to the two laureates at a ceremony last summer during the International Nuclear Physics Conference, INPC2004, in Goteborg, Sweden.
Alessandro Pascolini of the University of Padua and INFN has been awarded the 2004 Outreach Prize of the EPS High Energy Particle Physics Board for his contribution to public awareness of high-energy particle physics, astroparticle physics and nuclear physics in Italy and Europe. A lecturer and researcher in theoretical and mathematical physics at Padua, Pascolini has for many years devoted a great deal of energy to promoting scientific culture, in particular through a variety of exhibitions in Italy and further afield. He has also collaborated with teachers and high schools, and was the founder of INFN-Notizie, the magazine of INFN. He will receive the prize at the EPS meeting in Berne in July 2005.
Yoji Totsuka
The most prestigious prize in Japan, an Order of Culture, has been awarded to Yoji Totsuka, director-general of KEK, for his distinguished research in neutrino physics, in particular for discovering the oscillation of atmospheric muon neutrinos with the Super-Kamiokande detector. Totsuka received the prize directly from the Emperor of Japan at the Imperial Palace on 3 November, the Culture Day of Japan.
The previous recipient of the prize from the field of particle physics and astrophysics, in 1997, was Masatoshi Koshiba. Koshiba taught Totsuka at the University of Tokyo and was leader of the Kamiokande collaboration that preceded Super-Kamiokande.
Spenta Wadia
TWAS, the Third World Academy of Sciences, has awarded its 2004 Prize in Physics to Spenta Wadia of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research "for his significant contributions to non-pertubative quantum field theory and string theory, in particular (i) in the use of the large N limit; (ii) two-dimensional gravity and non-critical string theory; and (iii) the treatment of black holes in string theory". Wadia has also been responsible for creating a world-class research group at the Tata Institute, widely regarded as the strongest in Asia.
Robert Cailliau
On 15 November, Belgium honoured Robert Cailliau of CERN with the distinction of Commandeur de l'Ordre de Léopold for his pioneering work in developing the World Wide Web. Cailliau, who is Belgian, worked closely with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web.