Roe Vice Chair
Of APS Division

Roe

Berkeley Lab physicist Natalie Roe has been elected vice chair of the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Particles and Fields (DPF). She is now in line to become chair of the group in 2007. As vice chair, her duties will include organizing DPF sessions at the society's annual meeting, organizing joint activities with other divisions, and assisting with the selection of APS fellows.

Nanocrystals Show
Quick Route to Change

From left, Yin, Son and Hughes

Just as the Micro- technology Age was built upon the introduction of impurities into crystals of semiconductor materials, so, too, will crystalline doping be the bedrock upon which the Nanotechnology Age is built. To advance the arrival of this next technological era at a faster pace, however, scientists need a better understanding of what happens to nano-sized crystals under the various forms of doping. Researchers at Berkeley Lab (including Paul Alivisatos, Yadong Yin, Dong Hee Son and Steven Hughes) and UC Berkeley have shown that for nanocrystals, the doping process in which one type of positively charged atom, or cation, is exchanged for another, takes place at a much faster rate than for crystals of extended size, and is fully reversible. Full story.

Battelle Selected to Run
Idaho National Lab

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham recently announced that the Department of Energy has selected the Battelle Energy Alliance to establish the Idaho National Laboratory as the nation's premier laboratory for nuclear energy research, development, demonstration, and education within a decade. The Idaho National Laboratory will combine the research and development components of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory West. The lab will begin operating under this new name and contract on Feb.1, 2005. The term of the contract is 10 years and has an estimated value of $4.8 billion. Full story.