Mark Rowland, a physicist in Livermore’s Global Security Principal Directorate, was named a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Since joining the Laboratory in 1984, Rowland has primarily worked in the field of radiation detection. He has led or worked on development efforts for various instruments, including detectors that measure gamma-ray and neutron emissions, a gamma-ray camera, a large neutron scintillator multiplicity array, an x-ray fluorescent analyzer, and robots that performed fuel characterization at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. Since 1990, he has served as an adviser and policy expert to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence. Fewer than 8 percent of IEEE members attain the level of senior member, which requires 10-plus years of professional experience and significant contributions, achievements, publications, and course development or technical direction in IEEE-designated fields.
Christopher Keane and Jane Long were honored as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This year, AAAS awarded the distinction to 702 members.
Keane was recognized for “distinguished technical and scientific leadership in developing inertial confinement fusion and high energy density science, and leading a robust global science community in this area.” During his career at Lawrence Livermore, the Department of Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Keane has worked on increasing the collaborative efforts of U.S. inertial-confinement fusion and high-energy-density science research in the United States and internationally. He currently serves as director of the National Ignition Facility’s User Office.
Long, who recently retired from the Laboratory, was recognized by AAAS for “distinguished contributions to assessing the societal implications of technology development, including in areas of climate change, geoengineering, nuclear waste and energy technology.” A senior contributing scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, Long is also a visiting researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, consultant for geoengineering at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and chairwoman of California’s Energy Future Committee for the California Council on Science and Technology. During her tenure at the Laboratory, Long served as the principal associate director at large, a fellow in the Center for Global Security Research, and associate director for Energy and Environment.
Laboratory scientist Steve Homann received a Secretary of Energy Achievement Award for his work on the Mars Science Laboratory Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermal Generator (MSL MMRTG) team. This award is bestowed on a group or team of employees who together accomplished significant achievements on behalf of the Department of Energy.
Between June and November 2011, the MSL MMRTG team delivered a radioisotope thermoelectric generator to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the MSL mission, which launched on November 26, 2011. As senior science adviser, Homann played a lead role in the radiological emergency preparedness system designed to monitor a NASA launch.
Plastic scintillator technology developed by Livermore researchers won first place in the best nuclear/radiation detection category in the fourth annual Homeland Security Awards competition sponsored by Government Security News. The new technology is the first plastic material that can efficiently distinguish neutrons from gamma rays. Laboratory researcher Steve Payne leads the plastic scintillator development team with materials scientist Natalia Zaitseva. The technology has been commercially licensed to Eljen Technology in Texas.