Physicists to be Honored at PAC'97

Two physicists will be honored for their work in particle and beam physics at the 1997 Particle Accelerator Conference (PAC'97), to be held 12-16 May 1997 in Vancouver, BC. Andrew Sessler of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will receive the 1997 Robert R. Wilson Prize, and Linda Klamp Spentzouris, a research associate at Fermi National Laboratory, will receive the 1997 award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Beam Physics.

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1997 ROBERT R. WILSON PRIZE

Established in 1986, the Wilson Prize is intended to recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in the physics of particle accelerators.

Andrew Sessler
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Citation: "For a broad range of theoretical and conceptual advances in particle beam dynamics, leading to important accelerator performance improvements; for contributions in the areas of synchrotron rings, including negative mass instability and resistive wall instability, and free electron lasers; for the two-beam accelerator concept; for helping shape the very language of beam physics; and for inspiring and guiding several generations of accelerator scientists and serving as a statesman of science."

Currently the APS President-Elect, Sessler received his PhD from Columbia University in 1953. In 1961, he joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he was instrumental in initiating an Energy and Environment program. He served LBNL's director from 1973 to 1980, and is presently a Distinguished Senior Staff Scientist in the Accelerator Fusion Research Division. A past chair of the Federation of American Scientists, Sessler has been active in human rights matters, being one of the co-founders of the Sakharov, Orlov and Shcharansky (SOS) Society, and was the first recipient of the APS Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service in 1994.

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OUTSTANDING DOCTORAL THESIS RESEARCH IN BEAM PHYSICS

Established in 1990 by the Division of Physics of Beams, this award is supported by the Universities Research Association. It is intended to recognize doctoral thesis research of outstanding quality and achievement in beam physics and engineering.

Linda Klamp Spentzouris
Northwestern University

Citation: "For her pioneering measurement of nonlinear coherent phenomena in high-energy hadron beams, building upon the rich theoretical development in plasma physics over the last several decades. Her findings include the identification of three-wave interactions in beams, and a related phenomenon, echoes, which provides a means to detect extremely weak diffusive processes at work in the beam. Her work serves as a starting point for the understanding of saturation and turbulent states in high-energy synchrotrons."

Spentzouris received her BA in physics from Colorado College in 1979. During the intervening years between her undergraduate degree and entering graduate school, she worked in the operations group of the Accelerator Division at Fermilab. She received her PhD in physics from Northwestern University in 1996. The subject of her disseration was coherent nonlinear longitudinal phenomena in unbunched synchrotron beams. These phenomena include the weakly nonlinear three-wave coupling process of parametric coupling and beam echoes, as well as moderately nonlinear wave- particle interactions. She has recently been hired as a research associate by Fermilab, to work on a high-intensity photoelectron source now under construction. The source will be used as a prototype injector for the Tesla Test Facility. Experiments at Fermilab are planned which will use this source as a driver for a plasma-wakefield advanced accelerator.