FPS to Honor Award Winners and New Fellows

FPS will hold its annual awards session on Monday, May 4, at 1:30 pm during the APS spring meeting in Denver. The recipients of two FPS-sponsored awards will receive their certificates and then give a talk.

Raymond Jeanloz will be given the 2009 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award “for contributions to development of sound public policy for nuclear weapons management and nuclear non-proliferation.” He will speak about “Science and International Security.”

Jeanloz is a professor of earth and planetary science and of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He chairs the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control, which focuses on scientist-to-scientist dialogs around the world on topics ranging from nuclear weapons and non-proliferation to biological threats and counter-terrorism. Jeanloz previously chaired the National Research Council’s Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, and has served as an adviser to numerous governmental agencies and national laboratories. Jeanloz’s scientific research concerns the properties of materials at high pressures and temperatures and the constitution and evolution of planetary interiors. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a MacArthur fellow, and fellow of several scientific societies. Jeanloz earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College in 1975 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1979. He was on the Harvard University faculty before moving to UC Berkeley in 1981.

Patricia Lewis will receive the Joseph A. Burton Forum Award “for her contributions to arms control and international security, through experiments to demonstrate verifiability of arms control treaties and through her leadership of two international institutes, VERTIC and UNIDIR.” Her talk is titled: “Remembering our Humanity: The Deep Impact of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto.”

Lewis is the Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Prior to this appointment, she was the Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva. From 1989 to 1997, she was the Director of the Verification Technology and Information Centre (VERTIC) in London. She holds her BSc(Hons) in physics from the University of Manchester (1978) and her PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Birmingham (1981). Before taking her position with UNIDIR, Lewis worked in India, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

From 2004-06, Lewis served on the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Dr. Hans Blix. In 1998–99, she was a Member of the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, having previously served as an external reviewer for the Canberra Commission. Currently, Lewis is an Advisor to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. She was appointed UK Governmental Expert to the 1990 UN Study on the Role of the UN in Verification and appointed consultant on conventional forces verification to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1989-90. Dr. Lewis sits on the Advisory Boards of the Bonn International Conversion Center and the Center for Policy Studies in Moscow.

Also at the Awards Session, FPS will introduce the 2008 APS fellows nominated under FPS auspices. The new fellows and their citations are as follows:

Michael Berman of the Air Force Office of Science Research. Citation: For his outstanding leadership, advocacy, and support of physical science research and for fostering and developing innovative and visionary multidisciplinary partnerships.

William S. Hammack of the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign. Citation: For enhancing public awareness about physics, science, and technology via his radio commentaries and for his governmental service at the State Department.

Allen Sessoms of the University of District of Columbia. Citation: For exceptional contributions to the global society in understanding and addressing the challenges posed by nuclear and other advanced energy technologies.

Dean Wilkening of Stanford University. Citation: For his extensive contributions to understanding ballistic missile defense, bioterrorism and civil defense, and for his training of the next generation of physicists involved in arms control.

This contribution has not been peer refereed. It represents solely the view(s) of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of APS.