Distinguished University Professor, and IPST faculty member Ellen D. Williams was interviewed by Jermey N. A. Matthews on page 18 of the January 2012 issue of Physics Today. After spending three decades in academia conducting nanotechnology research, Professor Williams, a chemist-turned-physicist, is now tackling the energy problem in the faster-paced industrial environment. She is currently on leave from the University of Maryland to serve as British Petroleum's chief scientist.
Alessandra Buonanno has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society. She is being recognized "for revolutionizing our understanding of quantum optical noise in interferometric gravitational-wave detectors (with Chen), creating the effective-one-body (EOB) approach to 2-body dynamics (with Damour), and leading the creation of template families for searches for gravitational waves from compact binaries."
Founded in 1899, the APS is the world's second largest organization of physicists. Fellows are recognized by their peers for advances made in knowledge, through original research and publications. The total number of newly elected Fellows in any one year cannot exceed one per cent of Society memberships.
Thomas Antonsen has been named a 2011 Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Fellow. He is being recognized for his contributions to the theory of magnetically confined plasmas, laser-plasma interactions and high-power coherent radiation sources.
The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership.
Professor Antonsen joined the University of Maryland in 1980. He currently holds a joint academic appointment as Professor of Physics and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a member of the Institue for research in Electronics and Applied Physics.
The kind and patient Ralph J. Vendemia Jr., who welcomed and assisted innumerable Terps in the Slawsky Clinic over 11 years, succumbed on January 17, 2012. He projected such vitality here in the John S. Toll Building that many of his friends and colleagues were stunned to read that he was 84 years of age.
Ralph received his degrees at this campus before embarking on a career in applied physics, first at the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation and then, for decades, at the Applied Physics Lab. He specialized in aerodynamics and the wind-tunnel testing of guided missiles. His studies included the analysis of external aerodynamic characteristics of missiles, underwater missile launchings using telemetry data and pressure distributions over bodies of revolutions. He helped to develop a calculational procedure for computing pressures and loads on various nose shapes and afterbody lengths, and he assisted in pre-test planning to determine the aerodynamics for various missile configurations.
He is survived by his wife, Lucille M. Vendemia, children Martin Vendemia and Luanne Smith, and grandchildren Brian and Sarah. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Cheverly or to the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, 110 Paca Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
Daniel P. Lathrop has been appointed Associate Dean for Research for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS). The announcement was made by Dean Jayanth Banavar, "Dan will work on identifying new opportunities for funded faculty research through large scale grants and on encouraging and supporting the development of successful proposals for these; strengthening old and building new partnerships with federal labs and agencies, increasing program development with support from private foundations, and enhancing opportunities with the private sector; and encouraging new areas of interdisciplinary collaboration by college faculty."
