Sylvester James "Jim" Gates, Jr. participated in a live webcast event on June 4, 2014 at 7:00 pm ET. His talk, From the Mathematics of Supersymmetry to the Music of Arnold Schoenberg, was a part of the Perimeter Institute's Public Lecture Series. The webcast is available at, http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/node/92581, and was followed with an online chat discussion on Perimeter Institute's website.
Victor Yakovenko described his econophysics work in an episode of the TV series Through the Wormhold with Morgan Freeman on the Science Channel. The episode, Is Poverty Genetic?, first aired in June, 2014.
The appearance on the Science Channel follows coverage of Victor's econophysics work in Science Magazine last month it he the special Science of Inequalitly issue. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6186/828.full
Noah Mandell has been chosen to receive the University Medal, which is awarded each year to the graduating senior who best exemplifies academic distinction, outstanding character and extracurricular contributions to the university and public communities. Mandell, who studied nuclear fusion with Bill Dorland, will receive a bachelor's degree in physics with a minor in math. In the fall, Mandell will start his graduate studies in astrophysical sciences at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Robert W. Zwanzig, Distinguished University Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, died quietly in his sleep on May 15. Bob Zwanzig had a very distinguished career as a teacher and researcher in the field of statistical physics. He joined the faculty of the University of Maryland in 1968 and retired in 1988, after which he joined the Chemical Physics Division of the National Institutes of Health. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972, was awarded the Debye Prize from the American Chemical Society in 1976 and received the Langmuir Award from the American Chemical Society in 1984.
A brilliant theoretical physicist and chemist, Bob was well known for his ability to describe a wide variety of physical phenomena using very sophisticated model systems of his own invention, and he possessed the mathematical skills to obtain results from them with striking clarity. His deep insights into equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics have influenced these fields profoundly. Bob's 1954 paper on thermodynamic perturbation theory, published in the Journal of Chemical Physics when he was in his mid-20s, provides one of the foundations of modern computational thermodynamics.
Bob may best be known for his “projection operator method,” which allows one to obtain equations for time-dependent distributions and correlation functions in a very simple and direct way, showing that a technical breakthrough can lead to a deeper conceptual understanding of the behavior of many-particle systems. This method continues to be widely used by workers of all generations in his field.
Bob Zwanzig was a great teacher of graduate students and mentor to younger scientists. With insights and skills that were greatly admired, in many instances he helped his colleagues to successfully find their way in their own research efforts. He will be greatly missed.
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