What's New in UCI Physics and Astronomy

Dennis Silverman

This What's New is Being Continually Updated

Jonathan Dorfan, who received his Ph. D. at UCI in 1976 working for Paul Condon, has been appointed the new director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He has been SLAC associate director and leader of the B Factory project. His official duties will begin in Sept. 1, 1999.

Steven White was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in Computational Physics. He was cited "For the development of the density matrix renormalization group method which provides a powerful numerical technique for investigating the properties of strongly correlated electron systems."  He was also elected Division Councillor for the division of Computational Physics of the American Physical Society.

Hank Sobel was elected an APS fellow in Particles and Fields. He was cited "For many contributions to the study of neutrino physics and the investigation of nucleon stability."

We all mourn the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Frederick Reines, Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1995. He died on August 26, 1998 at the age of 80. Please see the letter by Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone, and the Nobel Edition Newsletter on our website from the Winter 1996. There will be a Frederick Reines Symposium celebrating his research in March, 1999.

Our previous Dean of Physical Sciences Ralph J. Cicerone became Chancellor of U. C. Irvine in July, 1998. The new Dean is Prof. Ron J. Stern of mathematics. He was Chair of Mathematics from 1989 to 1993. He also won the school's Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1995.

Physical Sciences I was dedicated Rowland Hall on October 9, 1998, in honor of Prof. F. Sherwood Rowland, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. A statue, building plaque, and garden area were also presented, and are complemented by the renewal of our "infinity" fountain, which was built by Gus Hrushka. Speakers at the presentation were Chancellor Cicerone, Dean Stern, Director of the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Jim McGaugh, our founding Physics Chair, Prof. Ken Ford, and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland.

Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone has been awarded the 1999 Bower Award and Prize for Scientific Achievement. The award was presented by the Franklin Institute. Chancellor Cicerone was recognized for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of greenhouse gases and the depletion of the ozone layer. He has also been a leader in advancing public policy to protect the global environment. The award goes to a distinguished scientist of any nationality for outstanding work in the physical or life sciences and carries a prize of $250,000.

UC Irvine is now rated the eighth best public university by U.S. News and World Report, moving up one position from last year. It is also rated the 36th best university overall, moving up from number 41.

The School of Physical Sciences Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education Award for Physics and Astronomy was earned by Prof. Michael Dennin.

The Academic Senate Celebration of Teaching for Physical Sciences Award was earned by Prof. Bill Heidbrink.

Prof. Virginia Trimble is currently chair of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and will become chair of the History of Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society in January, 1999 and of the Astrophysics Division of the American Physical Society later in the year.

Prof. Walter Bron has been appointed a divisional associate editor for Physical Review Letters.

The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), which was invented here at UCI in 1992 by Prof. Steven White, was the subject of an international conference in Dresden, Germany this September. DMRG is a numerical method for solving quantum mechanical systems, and is now used by dozens of groups worldwide. Entitled "Density Matrix Renormalization Group and other recent advances in Numerical Renormalization Group Methods" (http://www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~dmrg98/announcement/announcement.html), the two-week conference was attended by about 50 physicists (including, of course, Professor White) from a variety of countries, including China, Japan, India, Argentina, as well as the U.S. and Europe.

Prof. and author Gregory Benford will be publishing a nonfiction book of general scientific interest in January, "DEEP TIME - HOW HUMANITY COMMUNICATES ACROSS MILENNIA", from Avon hardcover. His latest science fiction novel "COSM", set in the physics and astronomy department at UCI, has been optioned by Fox studios for a film.

Graduate student Nathan Noble received the Marco Vekic' award for the highest score on the Ph.D. qualifying exam for 1998. Michael Overlin received the award for 1997.

Other student awards were outstanding TA to Jeffrey Phillips, Undergraduate Research & Departmental Service to Rob Badzey, Outstanding Senior to Steve Dawson, and the Herbert H. Chen Outstanding Junior Award to Steve Drasco.