January 2019 – July 2022
Renowned heavy-element chemist Polly Arnold has been elected as a member of Academia Europaea. Arnold was recently appointed Chemical Sciences Division Director at Berkeley Lab. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/09/24/european-academy-elects-polly-arnold/
Robert Kaindl (Materials Sciences) and Ji Qiang (ATAP) were named as American Physical Society fellows. The honor recognizes exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise. Holger Mueller, Sayeef Salahuddin, and Ting Xu, who have UC Berkeley joint appointments, were also named. https://www.aps.org/newsroom/pressreleases/fellows2019.cfm
Merlin Lopez, an electrical coordinator for the ALS-U project, emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador, stays connected to his culture through food and music, and counts his parents as role models. Learn more about Lopez as part of Elements’ Hispanic Heritage Month “Three Questions For” series. https://stratcomm-elements.lbl.gov/2019/09/17/three-questions-for-merlin-lopez/
Eleanor Blakely of the Biosciences Area was awarded the Gray Medal last month at the International Congress of Radiation Research in England. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, radiation protection, and radiation science. https://biosciences.lbl.gov/2019/08/26/blakely-awarded-the-gray-medal/
Markita Landry (Biosciences), Alessandra Lanzara (Energy Sciences), Niren Murthy (Biosciences), and Kenichi Soga (EESA) were named UC Berkeley Bakar Fellows, an honor that gives the fellows the money and time to translate their laboratory breakthroughs into technologies ready for the marketplace. https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/09/05/seven-new-bakar-fellows-already-are-making-an-impact/
Kam-Biu Luk of the Physics Division is one of four researchers to win the 2019 Future Science Prize. He and Wang Yifang were honored for their discovery of a new type of neutrino oscillation, which is key to understanding the matter-anti-matter asymmetry in the universe. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/09/c_138378114.htm
Frank Ponce, a technician with Berkeley Lab’s AAALAC-accredited Animal Care and Use Program, received the 2019 Al Marshal Animal Technician of the Year Award from the Northern California Branch of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science.
Maria Żurek, a postdoc in the Lab’s Nuclear Science Division, attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in early July. In a Q&A, she discusses how she got invited, her feelings of imposter syndrome, the experience of speaking one-on-one with Nobelists, and why others should apply to attend. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/09/05/qa-with-berkeley-lab-nuclear-scientist-maria-zurek/
Twelve SLAM finalists will take to the Building 50 Auditorium stage Thursday, Sept. 19, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. for the 2019 Lab SLAM competition. Each gets three minutes to share their science work for cash prizes of over $5000. Read more about the six judges who will decide the winners. https://sites.google.com/lbl.gov/slam/about-the-slam/2019-judges
Sally Floyd, a former Lab computer scientist and one of the inventors of Random Early Detection, or RED, an algorithm widely used to handle internet congestion, died Aug. 25 in Berkeley. Read her New York Times obituary (subscription required). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/science/sally-floyd-dead.html