News – Page 21

Congrats to Kasra Nowrouzi for Receiving the Spot Award from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Spot Award Purpose: The purpose of the Spot Recognition Award program is to acknowledge and reward outstanding individual and/or team workplace contributions that occur on a day-to-day basis. (For safety-related recognition, please see the Safety Spot Award Program Guidelines). Contributions should impact the quality, cost, service, safety, or resource utilization of an organizational unit, team, or department.

Congrats to Margaret Murnane for Receiving the Presidential Distinguished Service Award

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Simon Coveney, T.D., today announced the names of the recipients of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad for 2018.

The Presidential Distinguished Service Award was established by the Government following the 2011 Global Irish Economic Forum as a means to recognise the contribution of members of the Irish diaspora, and the first awards were made in 2012.

Announcing the recipients of the award, the Tánaiste said:

“I am delighted to have the opportunity once again this year to formally recognise the achievements of some of the finest members of our global family, our diaspora.”

“The diverse contributions of these individuals extends across six different categories. Through their work, they contribute to building an invaluably positive image of Ireland and Irish people around the world.”

“This is the seventh year in which recipients have received this Award, and the ceremony remains a very important opportunity to acknowledge those who have contributed to realising Ireland’s place as an island at the centre of the world.”

Novelists Edna O’Brien and William Kennedy among winners of award for Irish abroad

Limerick-born Prof Margaret Murnane will be given the award for the science, technology and innovation award, which will be presented to her in the US. Prof Murnane is regarded as being one of the leading optical physicists of her generation. She is Director of the National Science Foundation STROBE Science and Technology Center on functional nano-imaging, a fellow at JILA and Distinguished Professor at the Department of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado.

Paper on diffractive optics shows 3D holograms become reconfigurable by computer

Diffraction refers to a variety of phenomena occurring when a wave encounters an obstacle and bends around it. Diffractive optics are widely used today in imaging, holography, microscopy and manufacturing. Previous work has shown that extending diffractive optics from two dimensions to three dimensions enables new functionality and improves system performance. The paper suggests a way to make the two-dimensional waves three-dimensional in real time with a simple modification to existing devices controlled with a computer.

Congrats to the COSMIC team for receiving the 2018 Kalus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation

The 2018 Klaus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation at the ALS was given to the COSMIC ptychography team “for the development of the microscopy endstation at the COSMIC beamline, featuring an ultra-stable x-ray microscope, computational methods for data reconstruction, and a high-speed data acquisition system.” The award, which was sponsored by Aerotech, Inc., was presented at the ALS User Meeting to team members David Shapiro, Rich Celestre, Kasra Nowrouzi, Bjoern Enders, Young-Sang Yu, Lee Yang, Hari Krishnan, Stefano Marchesini, and the Science IT-HPCS group led by Susan James.

Expanding the Infrared Nanospectroscopy Window

An innovative infrared-light probe with nanoscale spatial resolution has been expanded to cover previously inaccessible far-infrared wavelengths.

The ability to investigate heterogeneous materials at nanometer scales and far-infrared energies will benefit a wide range of fields, from condensed matter physics to biology.

Congrats to Stan Osher for being Cited in the Top 100 Computer Scientists in the United States

Four researchers in computer science in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have been ranked in the top 100 computer scientists in the United States based on their productivity and influence in the field.

Stan Osher, a professor of mathematics and computer science, electrical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering, ranked 39. He is known for his many contributions in shock capturing, level set methods, and PDE-based methods in computer vision and image processing.

Electronic activity previously invisible to electron microscopes revealed at UCLA

New imaging technique may lead to improved functionality of devices such as PCs, smartphones.

The chips that drive everyday electronic gadgets such as personal computers and smartphones are made in semiconductor fabrication plants. These plants employ powerful transmission electron microscopes. While they can see physical structures smaller than a billionth of a meter, these microscopes have no way of seeing the electronic activity that makes the devices function. That may soon change, thanks to a new imaging technique developed by UCLA and University of Southern California researchers. This advance may enable scientists and engineers to watch and understand the electronic activity inside working devices, and ultimately improve their functionality.

The study, which was published online in Physical Review Applied, was led by Chris Regan, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute.

Congrats to Roger Falcone for being Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The strength of the Academy lies in the intellectual leadership of its members and the wide range of expertise they bring to its studies and publications.

The Academy membership encompasses over 4,600 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members and reflects the full range of disciplines and professions: mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, the social sciences and humanities, business, government, public affairs, and the arts. Among the Academy’s Fellows are more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Congrats to Ke Xu for Receiving an NIH Director’s New Innovator Awards

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, established in 2007, supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators who are within 10 years of their final degree or clinical residency and have not yet received a research project grant or equivalent NIH grant.