Lab scientist elected to American Physical Society California section post

LIVERMORE, Calif. – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Chief Scientist Karl van Bibber has been elected vice chair of the American Physical Society’s California Section.

A self-professed "science junkie," he said he looks forward to having a broader impact in issues such as science literacy and awareness.

He currently serves in the Physical Sciences Directorate and previously was deputy director of the Science and Technology Office and Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program, helping guide the Lab’s portfolio of early stage exploratory research projects.

One of eight regional sections nationwide, the California section hosts multi-disciplinary meetings in Northern and Southern California. The rotating location helps minimize travel expenses for scientists who wish to join colleagues. 

The most recent section meeting drew 200 attendees to Berkeley, where the Laboratory’s Hope Ishii spoke about her materials science approach to isolating comet dust from the Wild 2 mission for analysis.

The executive committee also includes member-at-large Lin Yang from the Laboratory, and a former Laboratory scientist, Jennifer Klay. She continues to collaborate on relativistic heavy ions from her new job at the California Polytechnic State University.

Van Bibber received Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and mathematics from MIT and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT. He completed post-doctoral studies in nuclear sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

He was an associate professor of physics at Stanford University from 1980–85, and has been a senior physicist, group leader and deputy director at the Lab. He became a fellow of the APS in 2007 and is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He previously served on the APS Division of Nuclear Physics Program Committee. His distinctions include publication of more than 100 research articles in scientific journals and having an endowment created in his name at Stanford by an anonymous industrialist. The first two Karl van Bibber Physics Postdoctoral Research Fellows were announced in 2007.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.