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24-KARAT RESEARCHER

Astronomer Andrea Ghez, who has done groundbreaking work on the origin and early life of celestial bodies, has been awarded the 2004 Gold Shield Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence. The prize, presented to a UCLA faculty member every second year, recognizes extraordinary accomplishment in research, outstanding teaching and distinguished university service. Earlier this year, Ghez was recognized with three premier academic honors: election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Sackler Prize. The Gold Shield prize, which includes a $30,000 award for unrestricted research funding, is presented by Gold Shield Alumnae of UCLA, an honorary service and philanthropic organization for women graduates of UCLA whose members are chosen based on their university service and outstanding professional and community achievements.

NEW FUSION CENTER

UCLA and the University of Maryland have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to host a new, $6.4-million Fusion Science Center that will bring together scientists from applied mathematics and theoretical and computational plasma physics. The two universities will run the Center for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics jointly, using facilities at both campuses. Steven Cowley, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, will direct the center with William Dorland of the University of Maryland. Participating will be researchers from Princeton University, MIT and the University of Michigan. “Plasma physics has been a traditional strength at UCLA,” noted Tony Chan, dean of physical sciences in the UCLA College. UCLA’s Basic Plasma Science Facility is the best facility in the world for physicists to conduct controlled experiments to understand the properties of plasma.

STANFORD PROF TO HEAD LAB

The UC Board of Regents recently named Steven Chu, professor in the physics and applied physics departments at Stanford University and a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, the new director of the UC-managed Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu will take office Aug. 1, replacing departing director Charles Shank.