FACULTY AWARD: Charles Gentile wins Christopher Columbus Award

By Staff on Oct. 12, 2010, 2:59 p.m.

Charles Gentile, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, is a recipient of the 2010 Homeland Security Award sponsored by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and AgustaWestland North America. Gentile was among four honored during an Oct. 5 ceremony in Washington, D.C., for "cutting edge technology in the diverse arena of homeland security." Gentile received the $25,000 award in the field of Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Chemical and Explosive Attacks for his work in the development of the Miniature Integrated Nuclear Detection System which can rapidly identify radioactive materials.

In 1999, faced with the task of decommissioning the legendary Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), officials at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) realized they needed something that didn't yet exist -- a way to detect exactly what "hot" elements were lacing the inner vessel of the doughnut-shaped reactor. So they asked a team from the lab to invent a device that would identify each element in the reactor and how much was there.

Celebrate Princeton Invention: Charles Gentile .

A profile of Princeton inventor Charles Gentile, head of tritium systems at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL.

FACULTY AWARD: Three faculty honored by American Chemical Society .

Three Princeton University faculty members have been honored by the American Chemical Society with national awards for 2011. Robert Cava, the Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry, will receive the society's award in inorganic chemistry sponsored by Aldrich Chemical Co., Inc. Francois Morel, the Albert G. Blanke, Jr., Professor of Geosciences, will receive the award for creative advances in environmental science and technology sponsored by the society's division of environmental chemistry. David MacMillan, chair of the Department of Chemistry and the A.

Hunt for Big Bang neutrinos may provide fresh insight on origin of universe .

At the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Professor Chris Tully is readying a facility to detect neutrinos that appeared one second after the Big Bang, during the onset of the epoch that fused protons and neutrons to create all the light elements in the universe.

PPPL physicists propose new plasma-based method to treat radioactive waste .

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are proposing a new way to process nuclear waste that would reduce both the cost of disposal and the byproducts from the process. Known as plasma mass filtering, the new mass separation techniques use a plasma-based centrifuge that would supplement chemical techniques.

FACULTY AWARD: Jones wins Packard Award .

William Jones, an assistant professor of physics, has been named a 2010 recipient of a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. Jones was recognized for his research in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology and for his work testing models of the genesis and evolution of the early universe. Each fellow will receive an unrestricted research grant of $875,000 over five years. The program supports "unusually creative professors early in their careers," according to the Packard Foundation.

Princeton scientists win major physics prizes .

The American Physical Society announced today that Pablo Debenedetti, Ali Yazdani, Frank Calaprice, Nathalie de Leon and Pierre-Thomas Brun have won major APS awards. The laureates will receive their awards and deliver lectures at a future APS meeting.