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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 22
NR-04-09-10
|
Lab astrophysicist Claire
Max wins prestigious E.O. Lawrence Award
LIVERMORE - Claire Max, a longtime astrophysicist at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory and a faculty member at UC Santa Cruz, is one of
seven winners of the Department of Energy's prestigious E.O. Lawrence
Awards for 2004. The award is given in seven categories for outstanding
contributions in the broadly defined field of atomic energy.
Max will receive the award in the physics category, for her contributions
to the theory of laser guide star adaptive optics and its application
in ground-based astronomy to correct telescopic images for the blurring
caused by light passing through the atmosphere. Max is a member of the
Lab's Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics and was its founding
director back in the early 1980s. She currently divides her time between
the institute and UC Santa Cruz, where she is a professor and deputy
director for the Center for Adaptive Optics.
"We are all enriched by the contributions these researchers have
made, ranging from engines with no moving parts to better ways to see
the stars," Secretary
of Energy Spencer Abraham said of this years winners, six of whom are
affiliated with the University of California. Three winners come from
Los Alamos National Laboratory and one from Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. UC manages all three laboratories for the Department of Energy.
"These awards, and the research for which they are given, show that
DOE could easily be called the Department of Science and Energy," Abraham
said.
Awardees are chosen for their work in one of seven categories: chemistry,
national security, nuclear technology, physics, life science, materials
research and environmental science and technology. Winners receive a
gold medal, a citation and $50,000. The awards will be presented in a
ceremony in Washington, DC on Nov. 8.
Max is the 25th recipient from the Laboratory since the awards were established
in 1959, in memory of Laboratory co-founder and namesake Ernest Orlando
Lawrence.
"Claire is an exemplary, internationally recognized scientist and
I extend my sincere congratulations to her," said Laboratory Director
Michael R. Anastasio. "This recognition from DOE appropriately spotlights
Claire's accomplishments in plasma physics and astrophysics and provides
us all the opportunity to join in celebrating with her these achievements
and accolades."
"
I cannot believe how good this makes me feel," said Max. 'It is
quite a thrill to receive this award."
Throughout her career, Max has made important contributions to the separate
fields of plasma physics and astrophysics, and she is considered a central
figure in the field of adaptive optics (AO) for ground-based telescopes.
Her work on laser guide stars, which are used with adaptive optics to
correct the blurring of telescopic imagery caused by turbulence in the
atmosphere, has resulted in an ongoing revolution in ground-based astronomy.
Max is one of the co-inventors of the sodium laser guide star, and she
is a leader in implementing these new artificial guide stars at astronomical
observatories. Max recalls her team's early days of research and experimentation
on laser guide stars at the Livermore site, and how "the notion
of pointing a 1000 watt laser into the sky to measure turbulence seemed
a bit absurd. Even we thought we were a little zany."
But use of laser guide stars went on to bear "important fruit, including
infrared images and spectra of storms on Neptune, hydrocarbon oceans
and ice continents on Titan, and black holes in the core of our own Milky
Way and in the center of nearby galaxies," Max said.
Max led a group that built the AO system and sodium laser guide star
for Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton., and designed the laser beacon
and AO system for the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, in a collaboration
with Keck Observatory staff.
Though laser guide star adaptive optics on ground-based telescopes is
still in its infancy, "the expanded science that can be done with
such modified telescopes is extraordinary," Max said. " The
clarity of ground-based observations is enhanced by a factor of 50 or
more so that it becomes comparable with space telescopes, but with all
the advantages of the larger telescope size that is possible from being
on the ground."
Max joined the Laboratory in 1974 as part of a new group formed to understand
the plasma physics of laser fusion. In the early 1980s, Max's career
branched out widely. She became the founding director of the Institute
of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, a position she held for nearly a
decade. She also became the first female member of the elite JASON group
of scientific advisers to the Department of Defense.
Max joins a list of Lawrence winners that includes former Lab directors
Michael May, John Foster, Herb York and John Nuckolls.
Other recipients of this year's awards include Bette Korber (life sciences),
Fred Mortensen (national security) and Gregory Swift (environmental science
and technology) of Los Alamos National Laboratory; Richard Saykally (chemistry)
of Lawrence Berkeley and UC Berkeley; Ivan Schuller (materials research),
UC San Diego; and Nathaniel Fisch (nuclear technology), Princeton Plasma
Physics Laboratory.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission
to ensure national security and to apply science and technology to the
important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of
Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Laboratory news releases and photos are also available electronically
on the Internet at http://www.llnl.gov/PAO and on UC Newswire.
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