UF Scientists Named American Physical Soceity Fellows
January 21, 2005
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Three UF professors have been named fellows
of the American Physical Society. Physicists Paul Avery and Peter Hirschfeld
and chemist Frank Harris each were elected for their original research
and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science
and technology.
Avery, who has taught at UF since 1985, was noted for his leadership in developing grid-computing resources for high-energy physics and other sciences. He is the director of two National Science Foundation projects, GriPhyN and the International Virtual Data Grid Laboratory. Both are collaborations of computer scientists, physicists and astronomers conducting grid research applied to several national and international experiments with massive computational and data needs.
Hirschfeld’s research focuses on high temperature superconductors, and he was cited for his distinguished contributions to the theory of disordered unconventional superconductors that helped to identify d-wave pairs. He came to UF in 1988 after earning his PhD from Princeton University.
Frank Harris is a member of UF’s Quantum Theory Project, a group of researchers based in the chemistry and physics departments. He was honored for his contributions over a 50-year period for developing methods of electronic structure computation for atoms, molecules and solids. Harris came to UF as an adjunct professor of chemistry in 1998 after teaching chemistry and physics at the University of Utah for 35 years.
“Three professors being named fellows in one year is quite impressive,” said Alan Dorsey, chair of the physics department, who also was named a fellow in 2002. “It is certainly an indication of the quality of the faculty, and the esteem in which they are held by their colleagues.”
Seventeen of the 49 full-time faculty members in UF’s physics department are fellows, including three professors in the Quantum Theory Project. Four chemistry faculty who are part of the project also are fellows. No more than one half of one percent of the society’s total membership is selected for fellowship status each year.
The American Physical Society was founded in 1899 when 36 physicists gathered at Columbia University and proclaimed the mission of the new society to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics. The fellowship program was created to recognize members who may have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication.
Contact
Alan Dorsey, (352) 392-0521
Paul Avery, avery@phys.ufl.edu
Peter Hirschfeld, pjh@phys.ufl.edu
Frank Harris, harris@qtp.ufl.edu