Khriplovich hits 70
Iosif Khriplovich, a prominent theorist from the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), was 70 on 23 January. His career has been closely related to the institute, which he joined in 1959. He is known for his contributions to the gauge field theory of fundamental interactions, violation of fundamental symmetries in atoms and nuclei, and the physics of black holes and general relativity.
In 1968 Khriplovich performed the first correct calculation of the charge renormalization in Yang–Mills theory and clearly explained an unusual sign of the effect. In 1974 he suggested an experiment to search for the optical activity of atomic bismuth vapours, which L Barkov and M Zolotorev carried out at BINP. This resulted in the first observation of macroscopic parity violation and the discovery of the weak interaction of electrons with nucleons via neutral currents.
In the 1980s, together with his students, Khriplovich predicted that atomic parity violation depending on nuclear spin was in the main due not to neutral currents, but rather to the electromagnetic interaction of electrons with a so-called anapole nuclear moment arising from parity-violating nuclear forces. These calculations were later confirmed by the discovery of the anapole moment by Carl Wieman's group at JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Working closely with experimentalists, during recent years Khriplovich has been actively involved in preparing a deuteron EDM experiment. For many years he has also taught at Novosibirsk State University, giving lectures on quantum mechanics, general relativity and the history of physics.
Dylla leave Jefferson Lab to take the reins at the AIP
Frederick Dylla will be the next executive director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). On 1 April he will succeed Marc Brodsky, who will retire after more than 13 years at AIP's helm.
Dylla has worked at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia, since 1990. He concurrently held an adjunct professorship at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. While at Jefferson Lab he served as the chief technology officer and associate director for the Free-Electron Laser (FEL) programme funded by the US Office of Naval Research. He was responsible for initiating, building and operating the FEL, which generates high-power light in many regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Before moving to Jefferson Lab, he held various research and management positions from 1975 to 1990 at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he helped to develop technology for nuclear-fusion reactors, particle accelerators and materials processing.
Dylla is a past president of the American Vacuum Society: Science & Technology of Materials, Interfaces and Processing, where he was elected a fellow in 1998 and is currently a distinguished lecturer. He is also a fellow of the American Physical Society and founding member of its Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics. He has served on many advisory committees for US agencies such as the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation.
Bogoliubov prize goes to Barrau for black-hole research
Aurélien Barrau from the Laboratory for Subatomic Physics and Cosmology, and Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, has won the 2006 Bogoliubov Prize for young scientists, established by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in 1999. He receives the prize for a series of papers on astrophysics and cosmology.
Barrau studies quantum physics in the vicinity of black holes, one of the most fascinating fields of physics (see CERN Courier November 2004 p27). He visited Dubna to receive his prize and gave a seminar on Black holes and quantum fields: from paradox to paradigm at the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, JINR. Barrau received the prize from JINR director Alexei Sissakian on 15 December at the meeting of the JINR Directorate with the CNRS delegation.