Jirí Niederle: a voice for science and CERN
Jirí Niederle, CERN Council member for the Czech Republic, celebrated his 70th birthday in 2009. A well as being a respected theoretical particle physicist, he has been instrumental in building the scientific reputation of Czechoslovakia and, subsequently, the Czech Republic.
A native of Prague, Niederle studied in the Faculty of Technical and Nuclear Physics of the Czech Technical University in his home city. After graduating, he joined the Institute of Physics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, also in Prague, and followed his PhD studies both there and at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in Trieste. In 1967 he became a research scientist at the institute and, after defending his thesis on "Generalized Symmetries of Space–Time and their Application to Elementary Particle Physics", he became associate professor.
Over the years Niederle has made important contributions both to particle physics and mathematical physics. In particle physics he has concentrated on theories that unify fundamental particle interactions, conformal quantum field theory, gauge formulations of gravitation, and the symmetry of elementary particles. In mathematical physics he has solved problems related to the representation theory of Lie algebras and superalgebras and their corresponding groups and special functions, integrable non-linear systems, and the theory of contractions and deformations.
However, Niederle's influence on science extends beyond his contributions to theoretical physics. Science has always been one of the first fields to penetrate the artificial political barriers that separate individual countries and prevent free scientific contacts and circulation of scientists. After the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in November 1989, a radical reconstruction of the organization of international contacts and co-operation in science was unavoidable, both in the Academy of Sciences and in the country's universities. The enormous challenge that such a reorganization entailed fell to Niederle, who was president of the Council for International Co-operation of the Academy of Sciences. While in this position in 1990–1997 and in 2001–2005 he was able to help the academy to become a top scientific institution and to find its place in the community of world scientific organizations, despite the previous 40 years of communist isolation.
Niederle also contributed in a decisive way to his country's membership in CERN, initially as Czechoslovakia (in 1992) and later as the Czech Republic (1993). As president of the Czech Committee for Co-operation with CERN, a position he has held since 1992, he has rendered outstanding service in support of the collaboration of the Czech Academy and Czech universities with CERN. He has been a member of the CERN Council since 1992, and was its vice-president in 1996–1998. He was also the first Czech delegate to the NATO Science Committee, in 1994–1995.
An experienced lecturer, Niederle gave lectures at ICTP and at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste from 1964 until 1979, and wrote the three-volume work Group Theory aimed at students. He has also been visiting professor and presented many invited lectures at institutes in both Europe and the US. His communication skills are not limited to academic circles – he successfully writes and gives interviews in popular science, covering topics from special relativity and quantum mechanics to the construction and work on the Large Electron Positron collider and its successor, the LHC. He is very active in broadcast popular science programmes, such as Keys to knowledge, a five-part TV programme that won a prize for popularization. He has also made successful TV programmes about CERN and the activities of Czech experts at CERN.
Niederle has been a member of several scientific societies and associations. For example, he was a founding member of the International Association of Mathematical Physics and for many years was an elected member of the council of the European Physical Society. He has been a member of the Czech branch of the Club of Rome since 1991 and was a founding member of the Euroscience Association. He was a member of the Subcommittee for Research and Education of the Parliament of the Czech Republic in 1995–1998 and now sits on the scientific councils of a number of Czech universities and on the editorial boards of seven scientific journals.
In 1995 Niederle was appointed professor of theoretical physics at Charles University, Prague, and in 1999 he became head of the Department of the Theory of Elementary Particles of the Institute of Physics at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Dolgov and Sobel receive the 2009 Pontecorvo Prize
The Pontecorvo Prize for 2009 goes to Alexander Dolgov of the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, and Henry Sobel of the University of California, Irvine. Dolgov receives the prize for his fundamental work on neutrino oscillations and kinetics in cosmology, while Sobel is honoured for his significant contributions to experiments in neutrino oscillations.
The awards ceremony was held on 19 February at the 107th session of the JINR Scientific Council. Alexei Sissakian, director of JINR, presented the prize certificates and badges of honour. (Sissakian very sadly passed away on 1 May, see Obituaries.)
Dolgov and Sobel presented the experimental results based on the ideas postulated by Bruno Pontecorvo. Both of them noted that it was a great honour to be awarded with a prize named after one of the 20th century's most outstanding physicists.