Ken Moody, the Laboratory’s chief scientist for radiochemistry, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of 388 AAAS members to be elected this year. Moody joined the Laboratory in 1985 and has been a critical member of the team that discovered six new elements—113 through 118. (See Radiochemistry Renaissance in this issue.) Trained under Glenn Seaborg, Moody has dedicated his career to the scientific advancement of radio- and nuclear chemistry. In addition, Moody is one of the creators of the discipline of nuclear forensics, and applications of radiochemistry to national security and law-enforcement problems.
The American Physical Society (APS) named four scientists in the Laboratory’s Physical and Life Sciences Directorate as 2013 fellows.
Charles Cerjan was cited by the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics for “seminal contributions to time-dependent Schrödinger equation propagation algorithms and their application to particle scattering and intense field dynamics, the development of laser-produced plasma sources for advanced lithography and the investigation of the basic mechanism of magnetic multilayer material response and its application to magnetic storage devices.” Since joining the Laboratory in 1983, Cerjan has worked on soft-x-ray lithographic sources, magnetic materials for hard disk drive applications, intense laser field effects, and nuclear diagnostic analysis for the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
Marilyn Schneider was recognized for “outstanding contributions to X-ray measurements in laser-produced plasmas” by the Topical Group on Instrument and Measurement Science. Schneider joined the Laboratory in 1986 and is now group leader for Radiative Properties and functional group leader for Radiation Physics and Spectroscopic Diagnostics in NIF.
Eric Schwegler was honored by the Division of Computational Physics for “important contributions to the development of linear scaling electronic structure theory, and the use of first-principles methods to examine the properties of aqueous solutions, nanomaterials and matter under extreme conditions.” Schwegler came to Livermore as a postdoctoral researcher in 1998. In 2005, he became the group leader for Quantum Simulations.
Ian Thompson was cited by the Division of Nuclear Physics for “the development and application of all-order treatments of nuclear-cluster dynamics in peripheral reactions; leading to a new understanding of halo nuclei within a few-body framework.” Thompson joined the Laboratory in 2006, after serving as professor of physics at the University of Surrey, England. He also is a fellow of the United Kingdom’s Institute of Physics.
The four researchers join Livermore scientists John Moody and Pravesh Patel, who were recognized earlier this year. (See S&TR, January/February 2014, Awards.) In the past 30 years, nearly 100 Laboratory employees have been elected APS fellows. Election to APS fellowship is limited to no more than one half of 1 percent of the society’s membership for a given year.