EPS announces 2008 Accelerator Prizes
The European Physical Society (EPS) has announced the names of the recipients of the 2008 prizes for work in the field of particle accelerators. The prizes are awarded by the Accelerator Group of the EPS, on the recommendation of a committee chaired this year by Leonid Rivkin of PSI and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
Alex Chao of SLAC receives the 2008 achievement prize for outstanding work in the accelerator field, with no age limit, "for many ground-breaking and fundamental contributions to accelerator physics, and for the direct or indirect contribution to the design and performance of almost every major accelerator project, built or not built, over the past 30 years".
A second achievement prize for a recent, significant contribution to the accelerator field, with no age limit, goes to Norbert Holtkamp of ITER. Previously at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), he receives the award "for his role in the construction and successful commissioning of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) on time and to budget, within the constraints of a multilaboratory collaboration".
A prize for an individual in the early part of his or her career, who has made a recent, significant and original contribution to the accelerator field, goes to Viatcheslav Danilov, also of ORNL/SNS, "for numerous contributions to accelerator physics, in particular for the proposal, calculation, design, construction and demonstration of efficient laser H– stripping". The three prizewinners will receive their awards at the 2008 European Particle Accelerator Conference in Genoa on 23–27 June.
ALICE physicist will head the Mexican Academy of Sciences
Arturo Menchaca-Rocha has been elected to be vice-president of the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC).
The academy, which represents Mexican science internationally, gathers the most distinguished Aztec researchers and constitutes an important forum to guide the Mexican government on scientific policies.
Among other activities, the AMC also runs a popular outreach programme, where members give talks to the general public on Sundays in many cities throughout Mexico.
Menchaca-Rocha, who until last year directed the Institute of Physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is also a member of the collaboration building the ALICE experiment for the LHC. He is leader of the group that designed, built and operates a key part of the triggering system for ALICE, called the V0A. Vice-presidency of the AMC is a two-year post that automatically leads to the presidency for two more years.