Laboratory scientist Regina Soufli, a member of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Science Investigation Team, recently received a Group Achievement Award from NASA. Soufli’s team included Livermore’s Jeff Robinson, Eberhard Spiller, Sherry Baker, and Jay Ayers as well as collaborators from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other institutions. Launched in 2010, SDO is NASA’s most advanced solar mission to date. Soufli led a team in the design, development, fabrication, and calibration of the multilayer mirrors aboard the SDO imaging telescopes. The multilayer mirrors act as reflective lenses and are responsible for capturing the images and movies of the Sun produced by SDO at seven extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. By imaging the Sun at specific EUV emission lines from the solar plasma, the telescopes record solar activity in exquisite spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution for the purpose of studying the Sun’s extremely complex and dynamic magnetic field, its plasma, and related phenomena.
The American Physical Society (APS) has selected Andris Dimits, a physicist in the Fusion Energy Sciences Program, as a 2012 Fellow. Dimits was cited in the plasma physics category for “important insights and contributions to the theory and simulation of kinetic turbulent transport in magnetized plasmas, including the effects of self-consistent turbulence-induced velocity shear and Coulomb collisions.” He joined the Laboratory in 1990 and has worked on theory and simulation of magnetized fusion plasmas, hydrodynamic instability and turbulence, and high-energy-density physics.
APS fellowships are awarded after extensive review and are considered a distinct honor because the evaluation process relies on nomination and recommendation by one’s professional peers. Election to APS fellowship is limited to no more than one-half of one percent of the society’s membership for a given year.