Neal Lane, director of the National Science Foundation and a physicist by training, will be among the key speakers at the 50th anniversary celebration of Cornell University’s School of Applied and Engineering Physics (A&EP) on Sept. 20 and 21.

Lane, former provost at Rice University, will join Cornell President Hunter Rawlings; Paul Horn, senior vice president, research, IBM; and Gerold Yonas, vice president, information and pulsed power research and technology, Sandia National Laboratories, in addressing a symposium in honor of the school on Friday morning, Sept. 20.  Talks at the symposium, “Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century,” are free and open to the public.  They will take place in Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall, beginning on Friday.

Leaders in various aspects of applied and engineering physics from around the country will share with participants cutting-edge developments and describe the state of research in their fields in a session called “New Frontiers in Applied Physics” beginning at 2 p.m. Friday, also in Schwartz Auditorium.

Cornell President Emeritus Dale Corson, who was an early member of the A&EP faculty and then dean of the College of Engineering during some of the important years of the development of the program, will give an address at the Friday evening banquet at the Triphammer Lodge and Conference Center, starting at 6:30 p.m.  Also scheduled to speak is an alumnus  of the school, Naren Shankar (’84, Ph.D. ’90), producer and writer of The Outer Limits whose credits include Star Trek, The Next Generation.  A registration fee is required for the banquet.

Applied and Engineering Physics is an academic discipline in which students learn real-world engineering applications of physics and mathematics.  Research covers a vast array of technology and science, including, for example, high-temperature superconductor devices for cellular transmitters and satellite communications, biomedical imaging and biophysics, optical devices and nanotechnology, solid state physics, plasma physics for energy production, scientific instrumentation and lasers.

“Research in our school is designed to advance technology and its applications to the world,” said Robert A. Buhrman, professor of applied and engineering physics and director of the school.  “Rigorous training prepares students for a variety of technical achievements in industry and academia.  This is more than building the storehouse of knowledge, which by itself is important; it’s looking into the science that has applications in technology and in the economic marketplace.”

An interdisciplinary field, faculty associated with the school may have expertise in physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry and biology, among others.  The school’s faculty members were instrumental in starting several of Cornell’s current research centers, including the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, the Materials Science Center and the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility.

To register for the symposium or for more information, contact Lorraine Hollister, (607) 255-0639.

 

Applied and Engineering Physics 50th Anniversary Symposium

“Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century”

Sept. 20-21, 1996

Friday, Sept. 20

Morning Session – Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century

Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

9 - 9:30 a.m.    Introduction by Robert A. Buhrman

    Director, School of Applied and Engineering Physics

Welcome by Hunter Rawlings, president, Cornell University

9:30-10:30 a.m.    Neal Lane, director, National Science Foundation, “Leadership in the 21st Century”

10:30-11 a.m.    Paul Horn, senior vice president, research, IBM, “The Promise of Information Technology”

11-11:30 a.m.    Break

11:30-Noon    Gerold Yonas, vice president, information and pulsed power research & technology, Sandia National Laboratories, “Future National Security Challenges for Science and Technology”

Afternoon Session – New Frontiers in Applied Physics

2-2:30 p.m.    David A.B. Miller, professor, electrical engineering, Stanford University

    “Advanced Optoelectronics – Physics Enabling Applications”

2:30-3 p.m.    John Lindl, physicist, inertial confinement fusion, Lawrence Livermore National     Laboratory, “The Path to Fusion Energy Using Inertial Confinement”

3-3:30 p.m.    Break

3:30-4 p.m.    Steven M. Block, associate professor, molecular biology, Princeton University,

    “Nanometers and Pisonewtons:  Using Optical Tweezers to Study Biological Motors”

4-4:30 p.m.    David E. Moncton, associate laboratory director, Argonne National Laboratory,

    “Between the Tube and Laser:  X-ray Research in the Synchrotron Era”

    

4:30 - 5 p.m.    Donald Eigler, IBM Fellow, Almaden Research Center,

    “Nanoland – The Land Of Opportunity”

6:30 p.m.    Reception/Dinner at Triphammer Lodge and Conference Center

        Introduction – Robert A. Buhrman

        Remarks – Dale Corson, president emeritus

        Naren Shankar, writer/producer, “The Outer Limits”

Saturday, Sept. 21

9:30-11:30 a.m.    Facility Tours