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P E O P L E Spotlight
Name: Kyle Subramaniam. Position: Business manager for the Department of Music. Processing financial information. Making payments to colloquia guests, composers and ensemble musicians. Handling all departmental purchases. Quote: "I like everything about working at the University, including our building, the Woolworth Center. From my window I look out at the beautiful trees around Prospect House. I also enjoy attending as many of the concerts as possible, especially orchestra and jazz ensemble concerts." Other interests: Reading, particularly mysteries and books by Princeton professors. Spending time with her 15-year-old daughter, Anna, and her husband, Anand. Briefs
Masaaki Yamada and Hantao Ji, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, recently received the Kaul Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and Technology Development. The award recognizes Yamada and Ji "for the experimental investigation of driven magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma." Magnetic reconnection is the breaking and topological rearrangement of magnetic field lines in a plasma -- a hot, ionized gas. It is one of the most fundamental processes of plasma physics and has important relevance to fusion research, as well as to the physics of the Earth's magnetosphere and solar flares. Yamada and Ji conduct their research on the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment at the PPPL. The University awards the Kaul Prize to recognize a recent outstanding technical achievement in plasma physics or technology development by a full-time, regular employee of the PPPL. It includes a cash award of $2,000 for each individual. Former PPPL Director Ronald Davidson endowed the Kaul Prize by giving the University a portion of the gift he received as the 1993 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Science, Education and Physics from the Kaul Foundation. Princeton chemist Salvatore Torquato has been named the 2004 recipient of the Society of Engineering Science William Prager Medal, which is given for outstanding research contributions in either theoretical or experimental solid mechanics or both. The medal is one of the four major awards presented by this interdisciplinary society. It includes a $2,000 cash award and a symposium dedicated in Torquato's honor that will take place at the annual meeting in October. Torquato will give a separate plenary (Prager) lecture on his work at the same meeting. Torquato was cited for "his outstanding and pioneering research accomplishments in advancing our fundamental understanding of the microstructure and bulk physical properties of heterogeneous materials." Heterogeneous materials abound in man-made situations and in nature, and include such materials as particulate- and fiber-reinforced composites, thin films, colloids, packed beds, foams, polymer blends, suspensions, animal and plant tissue, microemulsions, sintered materials and sandstones. This broad research area, dating back to the work of James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein, has important ramifications in engineering, statistical physics, materials science, geophysics, chemical physics, colloid science and biology. "Torquato has introduced the solid mechanics of heterogeneous materials to all of these communities as evidenced by his publications in all of these fields," the award citation stated. A Princeton faculty member since 1992, Torquato is a professor in the chemistry department and in the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials. The Society of Engineering Science has been organized "to foster and promote the interchange of ideas and information among the various fields of engineering science and the fields of theoretical and applied physics, chemistry, mathematics, bioengineering and related scientific and engineering fields." |
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