Milchberg Selected as 2013 OSA Fellow

Professor Howard Milchberg was named a 2013 fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA). The number of OSA Members recommended for election to Fellow each year is limited to less than 0.5 percent of the total OSA Membership.  Fellows are selected based on their overall impact on optics, as gauged through factors such as specific scientific, engineering, and technological contributions, a record of significant publications or patents related to optics, technical leadership in the field, and service to OSA and the global optics community.

These distinguished Fellow Members will be recognized individually at meetings throughout 2013. Specific information on each new Fellow Member’s accomplishments are published in the February issue of Optics and Photonics News.

Finding Unconventional Superconductors by Visual Inspection

Researchers, including Steve Anlage, have discovered a new and simple experimental test to see if a superconductor is ‘unconventional’ and unusual. Many of the high temperature superconductors discovered over the past 30 years are thought to be unconventional in nature. One strategy for discovering new higher temperature superconductors is to create even more exotic unconventional superconductors. The experiment creates a clear graphical image of the properties of the superconductor in different directions, as shown below. An anisotropic image is a clear sign of the unconventional nature of the superconducting state. This image shows the four nodal directions of the d-wave superconductor YBa2Cu3O7- as enhanced response (tall, white areas). The technique can now be applied to newly discovered superconductors to test them for unconventional properties, and will help guide the search for even higher temperature superconductors.

The results appeared in a spring issue of Physical Review Letters.


                         

Buonanno and Banavar are Added to the APS Outstanding Referees List

Alessandra Buonanno and Jayanth Banavar are among the new Outstanding Referees selected by the editors of the APS journals. Initiated in 2008, the highly selective Outstanding Referee program recognizes scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in the APS journals. Selections are based on two decades of records on the number, quality and timeliness of referee reports.

The full list of Outstanding Referees is located at, http://publish.aps.org/OutstandingReferees