Physics Department Announces Four New APS Fellows
January 27, 2004
Four scientists with ties to the UT Physics Department have been elected
fellows of the American Physical Society. David Dean, Anthony Mezzacappa,
Serge Ovchinnikov, and Lal Pinnaduwage will join the ranks of APS members
recognized for making significant contributions to the world of physics
through research, applications, or teaching. Every year, their peers elect
less than one-half of one percent of the current APS membership as fellows.
Dr. David Dean is an adjunct associate professor in
the department. He is a senior scientist in the physics division at Oak
Ridge National Laboratory where he is also the nuclear theory group leader.
Dr. Dean was cited for “his important contributions to understanding
of quantum many-body systems and for applications of computational quantum
mechanics to the structure of atomic nuclei.” He is currently teaching
a graduate course in physics devoted to computational methods and previously
helped coordinate a nuclear physics “summer school” for graduate
students.
Dr. Anthony Mezzacappa is adjunct professor of physics
and an astrophysics theorist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was
cited “for his pioneering work toward identifying the explosion
mechanism of core collapse supernovae and his leadership in the development
of U.S. computational science.” (Dr.
Mezzacappa’s work on understanding supernovae was featured in
the Fall 2000 issue of Cross Sections, the physics department
newsletter).
Dr. Serge Ovchinnikov is a research professor in the
physics department and was cited “for the development of the hidden
crossing and two-center Sturmian theory of ion-atom collisions, and the
hyperspherical hidden crossing theory of electron and positron interactions
with atoms.” In November 2004, Dr. Ovchinnikov and two of his colleagues
won the prestigious Konstantinov Prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Lal Pinnaduwage is a research professor in the department
and a senior scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was cited
for “his pioneering work in developing micromechanical cantilever-based
sensors for detection of explosive vapors and elucidation of fundamental
physical principles underlying the thermally-induced nanodeflagartions
for chemical selectivity.” Dr. Pinnaduwage is one of the developers
of SniffEx, a compact, low-cost vapor sensor designed to detect and locate
a variety of explosives, which won an R&D 100 Award last summer.
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