Location

Harrisonburg, VA

Start Date

16-5-2012 11:30 AM

End Date

16-5-2012 12:10 PM

Description

In this lecture I will trace the development of Light Sources from the early days of parasitic operation to the new billion dollar dedicated facilities. Clearly, the mode of usage has changed, but so has the type of user. How have these facilities balanced the need for beyond the state-of-the art experiments and serving the needs for routine characterization of materials? How can and should these facilities address the needs for the development of a workforce needed for the next generation of machines and science? Have they produced the science and scientists anticipated? Where do we go next, what is the role of light sources in the next couple decades? To address the last question I use the DoE report “Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination” as a guide, focusing on Chapter 7 “Enabling Grand Challenge Science: The People and the Tools required [1]. Examples will be associated with emergent phenomena in complex systems, How do complex phenomena emerge from simple ingredients [2,3] or How do remarkable properties of matter emerge from complex correlations of the atomic or electronic constituents and how to control these properties [1]? What role will light sources play?

[1] Graham Flemming and Mark Ratner, “Direction Matter and Energy: “Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination,” A Report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (2007).

[2] John Timmer reported on the National Academies of Science report titled “Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: The Science of the World Around Us” in June 2007. The article is titled “Inability to Meet ‘Grand Challenges’ of Physics Likely to Hurt U. S. Competitiveness. The First Grand Challenge is, How Do Complex Phenomena Emerge from Simple Ingredients?”(see http://www.phys.utk.edu/ grandchallenges.html).

[3] “Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: The science of the World around Us,” National Research Council of the National Academies of Science (2007).

Presenter Bio

E. Ward Plummer, Professor, Physics& Astronomy, Louisiana State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory

E. Ward Plummer came to Louisiana State University in 2009 as part of the Multidisciplinary Hiring Initiative in Materials Science and Engineering. He is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy and special assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Research. He received a B.A. from Lewis and Clark College in 1962 and completed his Ph.D. degree in physics at Cornell University in 1967, working with Professor Thor Rhodin. His thesis work on atomic binding of 5-d transition-metal atoms using FIM led to him receiving the Wayne Nottingham Prize at the Annual Physical Electronics Conference of the American Physical Society in March 1968.

He is the author of more than 360 refereed papers and is included in the list of the 1,000 Most Cited Physicists, compiled by the Institute for Scientific Information, which is based on papers published between 1981 and 1997. In April 2006, Plummer was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors bestowed upon an American scientist. But what Plummer is proudest of in his long and distinguished career is the mentoring of promising young scientists. To date, this includes advising or co-advising Ph.D. theses for more than 50 graduate students, hosting more than 30 postdoctoral fellows and assisting many young scientists in advancing their careers.

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May 16th, 11:30 AM May 16th, 12:10 PM

The Role of Photon Sources in Materials Research: Past, Present, & Future

Harrisonburg, VA

In this lecture I will trace the development of Light Sources from the early days of parasitic operation to the new billion dollar dedicated facilities. Clearly, the mode of usage has changed, but so has the type of user. How have these facilities balanced the need for beyond the state-of-the art experiments and serving the needs for routine characterization of materials? How can and should these facilities address the needs for the development of a workforce needed for the next generation of machines and science? Have they produced the science and scientists anticipated? Where do we go next, what is the role of light sources in the next couple decades? To address the last question I use the DoE report “Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination” as a guide, focusing on Chapter 7 “Enabling Grand Challenge Science: The People and the Tools required [1]. Examples will be associated with emergent phenomena in complex systems, How do complex phenomena emerge from simple ingredients [2,3] or How do remarkable properties of matter emerge from complex correlations of the atomic or electronic constituents and how to control these properties [1]? What role will light sources play?

[1] Graham Flemming and Mark Ratner, “Direction Matter and Energy: “Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination,” A Report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (2007).

[2] John Timmer reported on the National Academies of Science report titled “Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: The Science of the World Around Us” in June 2007. The article is titled “Inability to Meet ‘Grand Challenges’ of Physics Likely to Hurt U. S. Competitiveness. The First Grand Challenge is, How Do Complex Phenomena Emerge from Simple Ingredients?”(see http://www.phys.utk.edu/ grandchallenges.html).

[3] “Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: The science of the World around Us,” National Research Council of the National Academies of Science (2007).