The Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures Funded by the National Science Foundation

The Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures (CMAP) was just awarded $12.96 million toward research focusing on understanding the physics and astrophysical implications of matter under pressures so high that the structure of individual atoms is disrupted. The Principal Investigator is Rip Collins, University of Rochester Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and LLEÕs Associate Director for Academics, Science, and Technology. The program will be hosted at the University of Rochester in collaboration with researchers at MIT, Princeton, the Universities of California at Berkeley and Davis, the University at Buffalo, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This is the first major initiative from the National Science Foundation in the field of high-energy-density science, and the research will help discover the nature of planets and stars throughout the universe, as well as the potential for new revolutionary states of matter here on Earth.

Scientists Selected for Landau-Spitzer Award

The American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics and the European Physics Society Plasma Physics Division have recognized LLE Chief Scientist Riccardo Betti and LLE Senior Scientist Wolfgang Theobald as well as Xavier Rebeyre and Alexis Casner from the Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications with the Landau-Spitzer Award. They have been awarded for “major advancements of the shock-ignition concept through collaborative experimental and simulation efforts in inertial confinement fusion research.” The Award is given to an individual or group of researchers for outstanding theoretical, experimental, or technical contribution(s) in plasma physics and for advancing the collaboration and unity between Europe and the United States of America by joint research or research that advances knowledge that benefits the two communities in a unique way.