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Four LLNL Scientists Named APS Fellows


LIVERMORE, Calif — Four Lawrence Livermore National Lab physicists have been named fellows of the American Physical Society.

Peter Beiersdorfer, Siegfried Glenzer David Munro, and Karl van Bibber are among the 190 new fellows named this year. Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the current APS membership are elected to the status of fellow.

The APS recognizes those who have made advances in knowledge through original research or made significant innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology.

Peter Beiersdorfer, group leader for Atomic Spectroscopy, was cited for his "many contributions to precision X-ray spectroscopy of highly charged systems and application of this spectroscopy to plasma and astrophysical problems."

"It's great," he said of the award. "It's an shonor to be selected. I was surprised and very happy when I received the letter two weeks ago."

Beiersdorfer, who joined the Laboratory in 1988, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in physics at Auburn University and his master's and Ph.D. in plasma physics at Princeton University.

Siegfried Glenzer, an experimental physicist at the Lab, was cited for "the development of Thomson Scattering for the diagnostics of high-temperature inertial confinement fusion plasmas and for important contributions to understanding of plasma waves, atomic physics and hydrodynamics of hot dense plasmas."

"I'm happy about the award," said Glenzer, who was presented his certificate at the annual APS Division of Plasma Physics meeting in November. "It shows people know about your work and think it's important. Some of this work was on Nova. Nova was hard work. It's nice to be recognized for it."

Glenzer, who is the Plasma Physics Group leader in Inertial Confinement Fusion, earned his undergraduate degree and Ph.D. at the Ruhr-Universitat-Bochum in Germany. He has been in the United States since 1994, when he first joined the Lab as a postdoctorate.
Munro, who has worked at the Lab for 21 years, is a physicist, and is involved in laser fusion target design. He was cited for "seminal contributions to the design of laser-driven Rayleigh-Taylor experiments, and to the analysis and design of shock-timing experiments for cryogenic inertial confinement fusion targets."

"It's nice recognition both of me and the work we do at the Lab," Munro said. "It's an honor not only for me, but for the people working with me."

Munro joined the Lab in 1980, shortly after earning his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His Lab career has been focused on laser fusion, and until a few years ago, mostly involved designing experiments on Nova. Currently, he is involved in target design work for NIF.

Karl van Bibber, chief scientist in the Physics and Advanced Technologies Directorate, was cited for his "leadership role in an ultra-sensitive search for dark-matter axions, and the conception of other elegant experiments for detection of the axion."

"I was stunned when I heard about it," said van Bibber. "It’s a great honor. The dark matter problem is one of the greatest challenges in science, and the award is a tribute to the Lab’s commitment to basic research and the efforts of our entire team who have contributed to this experiment."

Van Bibber received his bachelor's and doctorate at Massachusettes Institute of Technology, and came to the Laboratory in 1985 from Stanford, where he had been an assistant professor of physics. He started the high energy physics and accelerator technology group in 1991, and was the Laboratory’s project leader for the construction of the SLAC/LBNL/LLNL B Factory.

Dec. 21, 2001

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Elizabeth Campos Rajs
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