special issue

Careersphysicsworld.comCareers and peopleUK grants for ‘world’s best’ studentsUp to 100 research students will have theirfees and expenses part-funded by the UKgovernment as part of a £2.5m scheme toattract talented students from aroundthe world to UK universities. TheNewton Scholarship programme will provide£25 000 each to 100 highlyskilled candidates who wish to pursuepostgraduate studies in the UK. Withmedian annual tuition fees reaching£11 900 for overseas students onlaboratory-based research courses in 2009,the new scholarships will not, however,cover the full cost of a PhD. Nevertheless,the director of the Russell Group of eliteuniversities, Wendy Piatt, praised thescheme, calling it a “welcome initiative”in the face of “increasingly fierce globalcompetition” for top students. The firstNewton Scholars are expected to begintheir studies in the autumn.New chief for French nuclear physicsJacques Martino has been appointeddirector of the National Institute ofNuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3), theumbrella group for elementary particlephysics within CNRS, France’s nationalscience agency. Martino, an experimentalnuclear physicist, has led the Subatechnuclear-physics laboratory at theEcole des Mines de Nantes since 2001, andhas also served on numerous scientificpolicycommittees since gaining hisdoctorate in 1982. As head of theIN2P3, he will oversee operations at32 laboratories (most of which are run inconjunction with universities in France)and 40 international projects, with acombined budget of about 745bn.He replaces the particle physicistMichel Spiro, who was elected president ofthe CERN council in December 2009.GPS pioneer honouredA physicist whose method for trackingSoviet satellites during the height of theCold War evolved into the modernGlobal Positioning System (GPS) has beeninducted into the US National InventorsHall of Fame. Roger L Easton, who beganhis career at the Naval ResearchLaboratory during the Second World War,was honoured for developing and testingthe concept of “time navigation”:exploiting the accuracy of space-borneatomic clocks to pinpoint the location andtrajectory of objects on Earth. Initiallyintended for the military, GPS devices arenow found in numerous civilianapplications, including sat-navs in cars.Movers and shakersThe CERN theorist John Ellis hasbeen appointed Clerk MaxwellProfessor of Theoretical Physics atKing’s College London.Herbert Mook Jr of the Oak RidgeNational Laboratory has won theNeutron Scattering Society of America’sClifford E Shull Prize.The Astronomical Society of the Pacifichas awarded its top prize, the Bruce GoldMedal for lifetime achievement inastronomy, to Gerry Neugebarger of theCalifornia Institute of Technology.The 2010 Grote Reber Gold Medal forradio astronomy has been awarded toAlan Rogers of the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology’s Haystack Observatory.Space scientist Alan Title of LockheedMartin has been inducted into theSilicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.Next monthin Physics WorldTackling cancerEfforts to understand cancer have traditionally involvedviewing it in terms of chemistry and genetics. But physicistsare now bringing their expertise to bear by consideringliving cells as mechanical objects that can be controlledArizona State UniversitySymbols of powerTheoretical physicists have long sought to describe theuniverse in terms of equations. Could a new class ofsymbols, known as adinkras, be the way forward?Fits and startsFor two years Albert Einstein blocked Theodor Kaluza frompublishing what became the foundation for string theory.This, it turns out, was partly due to the human behaviour ofprioritizing, which results in delays and bursts of activityPlus News & Analysis, Forum, Critical Point, Feedback,Reviews, Careers and much morephysicsworld.com60Physics World May 2010