Professor of physics and astronomy Claudio Pellegrini is the recipient of the 2001 Robert R. Wilson Prize from the American Physical Society in recognition of his pioneering work in the analysis of instabilities in electron-storage rings and his development of the theory of free-electron lasers. The prize is given annually to honor and encourage outstanding achievements in the physics of particle accelerators.... Adrienne G. Lavine, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The title is conferred on those who have made significant contributions to the field. Lavine's specialty is heat transfer and the thermal aspects of manufacturing processes.

Martha Krebs, former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy, has been named the founding director of the California NanoSystems Institute and associate vice chancellor for research. Krebs will direct operations of the new institute, which will conduct research into the manipulation of structures atom by atom to engineer new materials, devices and systems. CNSI is a joint enterprise of UCLA and UC Santa Barbara.... Andrew Neighbour has been appointed director of the Office of Intellectual Property Administration and associate vice chancellor for research. He will direct and expand the university's efforts to transfer the results of its research programs to the commercial marketplace. An immunologist and microbiologist, he has held a similar position for the past three years at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lawrence Clark Powell, UCLA's second university librarian, founding dean of the former School of Library Service and namesake of the campus' historic Powell Library Building, died March 14 in Tucson, Ariz. He was 94. Powell earned a bachelor's degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles, a doctorate from the University of Dijon in France and a certificate in librarianship from the School of Library Service at UC Berkeley. He began his career at UCLA in 1938 as a junior assistant in the library's acquisitions department. In 1944, he became university librarian and director of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and directed the UCLA Library over the next 17 years. During his tenure, the Library's holdings grew from 400,000 to 1.5 million volumes. Powell was also a prolific writer, producing biographies of Robinson Jeffers and Charles Edward Pickett, bibliographies and essays on Western writers from Zane Grey to Raymond Chandler. "Larry Powell was a great bookman who understood clearly what a research library required," said University Librarian Gloria Werner. "During his years here he developed the foundations for the Library's remarkable collections, which have grown to support UCLA's acclaimed programs of study and research in many fields."