The Sheldon Datz Prize

 

Sheldon Datz was a pioneer in the field of atomic and molecular collision physics and a staunch supporter of ICPEAC. ‘Throughout his remarkable career, he planted seeds in different places and recruited collaborators to help the seeds grow and bear fruit, opening up several new fields in atomic physics.’¹

 

His many major achievements include

·          Pioneering reactive scattering experiments using crossed molecular beams

·          First experimental evidence for channelling in solids

·          Discovery of the first unambiguous evidence for resonant coherent excitation

·          The first dielectronic recombination experiments

·          First ultrarelativistic atomic collision experiments at CERN.

 

His work was acknowledged by the American Physical Society with the award of the Davisson-Germer Prize in 1998 and by the US Department of Energy with the Enrico Fermi prize in 2000.

 

As a life-long supporter of ICPEAC, he was International Chair of the meeting in Aarhus, Denmark in 1993 and uniquely Local Chair of two meetings, Gatlinburg, TN in 1981 and Santa Fe, NM in 2001.

 

Following his untimely death in August 2001, just after the ICPEAC meeting in Santa Fe, a fund was set up in his memory with donations from his many friends and colleagues within the ICPEAC community to support the Sheldon Datz Prize

 

The award of the Sheldon Datz Prize will support the attendance of an outstanding young scientist (graduate student, post-doc) whose personal/institutional funding situation would otherwise not enable participation at ICPEAC. Any person, who fulfils the above criteria and plans to contribute to the ICPEAC conference through either an invited talk or a presentation of a poster, should apply to the local organizers by May 31, 2007. The informal application must detail the applicant’s scientific contribution to the conference (abstract, invited talk) and his/her other funding sources. One award to the value of US $1,000 will be made by ICPEAC on the recommendation of the International Officers. The Sheldon Datz Prize will be presented at the Conference Dinner.

 

The first Sheldon Datz Prize was awarded at the Rosario meeting in 2005 to Michael Bromley of Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia.

 

1. ORNL Review 34, No 2 (2001) at http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/v34_2_01/fermi.htm

See also obituary by J Martinez et al, Physics Today 55, 88 (2002)