Plenary Session and Awards Ceremony

Unveiling a Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy
Andrea M. Ghez
Univ. of California at Los Angeles, USA

Abstract: More than a quarter century ago, it was suggested that galaxies such as our own Milky Way may harbor massive, though possibly dormant, central black holes. Definitive proof, for or against, the existence of a massive central black hole lies in the assessment of the distribution of matter in the center of the Galaxy.  The motion of the stars in the vicinity of a black hole offers a way to determine this distribution.  Based on 10 years of high resolution imaging, Dr. Ghez's team has moved the case for a supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center from a possibility to a certainty. Additionally, spectroscopy has revealed that the stars orbiting in such close proximity are apparently massive and young; the origin of these stars is difficult to explain, given the strong tidal forces, and may provide key insight into the growth of the central black hole.

Biography: Andrea M. Ghez, professor of physics and astronomy, is one of the world’s leading experts in observational astrophysics, whose work sheds light on how our Milky Way Galaxy, Sun and Earth came to be.

Working in the field of high resolution imaging, Professor Ghez has used the Keck telescopes to demonstrate the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, with a mass 4 million times that of our sun. She has also discovered that most, if not all, stars shortly after birth have companion stars and that in most cases the separations of these companions pairs are smaller than the size of our solar system. For her research at Keck, Professor Ghez was named in Discover Magazine's 20th anniversary issue (2000) as one of the top 20 scientists in the country under 40, who “have demonstrated once-in-a-generation insight” and “will likely change our fundamental understanding of the world and our place in it.” Her work at the center of our Galaxy was also selected by the journal Science as one of the top 10 science results for 2002.

A member of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) faculty since 1994, Professor Ghez also serves as a member of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. She received a B.S. from MIT in 1987 and a Ph.D. in physics from Caltech in 1992. Before coming to UCLA, she was a Hubble Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Arizona's Steward Observatory. Her honors and awards include a MacArthur Fellowship (2008), Aaronson Award from the University of Arizona (2006), election to the National Academy of Sciences (2004) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2004), the Sackler Prize from Tel Aviv University (2004), the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award from the American Physical Society (1999), the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society (1998), Sloan Fellowship (1996), and a Packard Fellowship (1996).

Professor Ghez has served on numerous national committees and boards. Currently, her service work includes membership on the National Research Council’s Board on Physics and Astronomy and the Thirty-Meter-Telescope’s Science Advisory Committee.

X-Ray Microscopy
Janos Kirz
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, USA

Abstract: X-rays penetrate objects opaque to electrons and visible light. X-ray spectra near absorption edges reveal the local chemical environment. Linear and circular dichroism provide contrast in magnetic materials. Advances in X-ray optics, as well as lensless imaging methods, provide high spatial resolution. X-ray free-electon lasers coming on line may open the door to sub-nm resolution imaging of macromolecules.

Biography: Janos Kirz received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963. He spent most of his professional life at Stony Brook University, where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus. His interest in X-ray microscopy dates to a stay at Oxford University in 1972–1973. During the past 5 years he has been at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where he served as Acting Director (2004–2006) and is currently Scientific Advisor.

Robert L. Byer
Stanford Univ., USA
2009 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Endowment Recipient

Ives Medal Lecture: TBA

Biography: Robert L. Byer has conducted research and taught classes on lasers and nonlinear optics at Stanford University since 1969. He has made extraordinary contributions to laser science and technology including the demonstration of the first tunable visible parametric oscillator, the development of the Q-switched unstable resonator Nd:YAG laser, remote sensing using tunable infrared sources, and precision spectroscopy using Coherent Anti Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS). Byer’s ongoing research includes development of nonlinear optical materials and laser diode pumped solid-state laser sources for applications to gravitational wave detection and to laser particle acceleration.

Currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Applied Physics, Byer has served as vice provost and dean of research at Stanford as well as chair of the Department of Applied Physics, director of the Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, and Director of the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory. He is a founding member of the California Council on Science and Technology and served as chair from 1995–1999. He has been a member of the National Ignition Facility since 2000 and was a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board from 2002–2006. He has served as president of both OSA and IEEE LEOS.

Byer has published more than 500 papers and holds 50 patents in the fields of lasers and nonlinear optics. He is a fellow of OSA, IEEE, APS, AAAS, and LEOS, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Science.

Robert W. Field
MIT, USA
2009 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science Recipient

Schawlow Prize Lecture: Acetylene: Just Large Enough

Abstract: What can acetylene (H-C≡C-H) do that a diatomic molecule cannot? It can undergo bond-breaking isomerization. The minimum energy isomerization path from acetylene to vinylidene is a very large-amplitude local-bend. How are large-amplitude motions encoded in a spectrum? At high vibrational excitation, anharmonic interactions between vibrational normal-modes become very strong and all of the textbook energy level patterns, upon which assignments are based, are shattered. Most vibrational eigenstates are complex, one might even say “ergodic,” mixtures of many normal-mode basis-states. However, large-amplitude-motion states comprise a tiny fraction of all eigenstates. How does one gain access to these rare large-amplitude states? How does one distinguish a large-amplitude state from an ergodic state in a spectrum? How does one use large-amplitude states to map the chemically interesting isomerization path on the S₀ potential energy surface? Access is provided by a “local-bender pluck” state, which exploits anharmonic interactions on the S₁ potential energy surface to escape Franck-Condon restrictions in the S₁→S₀ Stimulated Emission Pumping (SEP) spectrum. A relatively low trans-cis isomerization barrier on S₁ provides spectroscopic access to eigenstates proximal to a high barrier on S₀. Electronic properties (such as the electric dipole transition moment) serve as embedded reporters on the existence and extent of large-amplitude motions. However, electronic properties give rise to minuscule level splittings. How does one combine a survey over a wide spectral region in search of rare large-amplitude local-bender states yet simultaneously achieve the extremely high resolution necessary to read what the embedded reporter has written? Brooks Pate (University of Virginia) has developed “Chirped Pulse Microwave Spectroscopy (CPMW),” which combines the previously unimaginable combination of survey (10GHz), high-resolution (100kHz), and accurate relative-intensity (1 part in 104) capabilities. The CPMW scheme is perfectly suited to 20 Hz repetition rate pulsed supersonic jet molecular beams and Q-switched Nd:YAG pumped pulsed tunable lasers, upon which most small-molecule spectroscopists depend.

This research has been supported by the Department of Energy (Grant: DE-FG0287ER13671).

Biography: Robert W. Field majored in chemistry at Amherst College (AB thesis with Cooper H. Langford, 1965). He became a physical chemist in the research group of William Klemperer at Harvard University, where he discovered his affinity for multiple resonance spectroscopies and spectroscopic perturbations (PhD, 1972). As a post-doc with Herbert P. Broida and David O. Harris at University of California at Santa Barbara (1971–1974) he performed the first microwave-optical and optical-optical double resonance studies of diatomic molecules using tunable lasers and showed how to extract global insights into the electronic structure of the alkaline earth monoxides from the systematic study of spectroscopic perturbations. At MIT (Assistant Professor 1974, Associate Professor 1978, Professor 1982, Haslam and Dewey Professor 1999) his students and post-docs have continued to develop new laser spectroscopic techniques (most notably Stimulated Emission Pumping) with a goal of uncovering and exploiting unconventional patterns that encode the mechanisms of far-from-equilibrium molecular dynamics, particularly Intramolecular Vibrational Redistribution, Doorway-Mediated Intersystem Crossing, and energy exchange between a Rydberg electron and a molecular ion-core. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), The Optical Society (OSA), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Broida (1980) and Plyler (1988) Prizes of the APS, the Lippincott (1990) and Meggers (1996) Awards of the OSA, and the Bomem-Michelson Award of the Coblentz Society. His favorite molecules have been CO, CaF, and acetylene. His book (co-authored with Helene Lefebvre-Brion, 2004), “The Spectra and Dynamics of Diatomic Molecules,” is the user’s guide for both theorists and experimentalists.