IN THE NEWS Spring 2008 We are saddened to report that Dr. George A. Victor, research scientist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and former Director fo the Visitor Program at ITAMP, died on March 4, 2008 at the age of 71. The announcement in the Boston Globe can be viewed at http://www.legacy.com/BostonGlobe/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=105206185 Spring 2007 Dr. Robin Santra (ITAMP Postdoc 2004) was named the winner of the first IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in AMO Phyiscs. Dr. Santra is currently an Assistant Physicist in the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Group of the Chemistry Division of Argone National Laboratory. He was selected among a large number of nominees identified in a world-wide search. Santra, who received his Ph.D. in physics from Heidelberg University in 2001 and was an ITAMP Postdoc in 2004 was cited for his pioneering Theoretical contributions in the AMO field in particular to the phenomenon of interatomic Coulombic decay. The Young Scientist Prize was created by the IUPAP General Assembly Meeting in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 2005 to recognize outstanding young scientists who have already made significant contributions to their field of research early in their career within the first 8 years after completion of the Ph.D. The award ceremony will take place during the XXV International Conerence on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions (ICPEAC) in Freiburg, Germany, July 25-31, 2007. Fall 2007 Dr. Vasili Kharchenko's retrospective of the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch and it's impact on his generation living in Russia was published in the Opt Ed section of the Boston Globe on Oct 9, 2007. Read his article "Behind the Iron Curtain". Dr. Peter Rabl, who has just joined ITAMP in Sep. 2007 as a Postdoctoral Fellow, was awarded the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Prize of the Austrian Physical Society (OePG). Peter Rabl received this prize in recognition of his Ph.D.-Thesis: "Towards Hybrid Quantum Processors: Interfacing Quantum Optical and Solid State Physics", which he submitted at the University of Innsbruck in October 2006. In this work Dr. Rabl studied coherent interactions between AMO and solid state based qubits in the context of new quantum computing architectures. The Ludwig-Boltzmann Prize is granted by the OePG every other year to a talented scientist under the age of 35 for significant contributions in the field of theoretical physics. The prize is currently endowed with a monetary sum of 2200 Euros and is considered the highest Austrian award for young physicists. The award ceremony takes place in the presence of the Austrian Minister of Science at the annual meeting of the OePG in Krems. Dr. Ana-Maria Rey Ayala, was awarded this year's Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences prize by the Alejandro Angel Escobar Foundation in recognition of her Ph. D. Thesis titled "Ultra-cold bosonic atoms in optical lattices". This work was done during her graduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and focused on the dynamics of bosonic atoms loaded in optical lattices close to the Mott Insulator transition. The Alejandro Angel Escobar Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, devoted to the promotion of scientific investigation and social development programs in Colombia through the annual awarding of the Alejandro Angel Escobar Prizes in science and solidarity (www.faae.org.co/html/foundation.htm). These prizes are considered as the highest scientific recognition in Colombia, not only for the high qualifications of those who have received them but also for the rigorousness of the juries that have awarded them year after year. Annually, one prize in each of the following fields is awarded to fully completed works undertaken by Colombian citizens: Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and Environment and Development. Spring 2006 Dr. Ana-Maria Rey, ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow, who won the 2005 The American Physics Society's Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research Prize in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, has joined ITAMP as a postdoctoral fellow in Fall 2005. She was presented with the prize in the 2005 DAMOP annual meeting in Lincoln, NE. You could read on her citation for the prize here, http://www.aps.org/praw/dissdamo/05winner-rey.cfm. Dr. Thomas Pohl, ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow, was chosen as a finalist in the 2006 APS Thesis Prize. He will present his thesis in an invited talk in the 2006 meeting of DAMOP in May 2006. Dr. Thomas Pohl, ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow, was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max-Planck-Society on July 12, 2006 in a ceremony in Frankfurt. The citation for his medal reads: "For pioneering work on the theory and simulation of ultracold plasmas, and in particular for the prediction, that laser-cooling of a freely expanding plasma an lead to its crystallization." Summer 2006 Prof. Eric Heller, ITAMP Scientist and Professor of Physics and Chemistry at Harvard University, elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Fall 2006 RIKEN Institue Research has featured a recent article by T Pohl, H. Sadeghpour, Y. Nagata and Y. Yamazaki (PRL 2006), on cooling of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap. http://www.rikenresearch.riken.jp/research/151/ The report was also picked up by Asahi Shinbun, one of the biggest newspaper companies in Japan.   Fall 2005 Three Atomic Physicists, Including a Theorist Win the 2005 Nobel Prize Mikhail Lukin's Profile in the Harvard Gazette Fall 2003 December 11, 2003, CNN News, Technology. In a scientific first, Dr. Mikhail Lukin explains of how light pulses have been brought to a halt without losing energy. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/12/11/frozenlight.advance.ap/index.html Spring 2001 May, 2001, Dr. Bernard Zygelman publishes "Anti-molecule predicted" Summer 2001 August 16, 2001, Harvard Gazette. Dr. Alex Dalgarno and Dr. Bernard Zygelman explain why antimatter matters so much. http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/08.16/antimatter.html Fall 2001 January 29, 2001, Physical Review Letters, D.F. Phillips, A. Fleishhauer, A. Mair, R.L. Walsworth, M.D. Lukin publish a paper on Light Trapping Prediction Realized. Fall 2000 December 14, 2000, Harvard Gazette, Former ITAMP Director, Dr. Eric J. Heller exhibits his art based on science. http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/12.14/20-physicist.html September 18, 2000, Chris Greene, A.S. Dickinson, H.R. Sadeghpour, publish in Phyiscal Review Letters, Trilobite Molecules predicted to exist in Ultracold Environments. Spring 2000 May 15, 2000, P. Froelich; S. Jonsell; A. Saenz; B. Zygelman; A. Dalgarno, publish in Physical Review Letters, "Collisions of hydrogen and antihydrogen." May 1, 2000 in Physical Review Letters,  M. D. Lukin, S. F. Yelin, and M. Fleischhauer, publish "Light trapping predicted".