In 2001, the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Executive Committee established the Katherine E. Weimer award to "recognize and encourage outstanding achievement in plasma science research by a woman physicist in the early years of her career."

Dr. Katherine E. Weimer was a pioneering research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. She made many important contributions in magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and stability theory for magnetically confined plasmas. Her obituary, written by John Johnson and John Greene, appeared in September 2001 in Physics Today. A list of her peer-reviewed journal publications may be found at Publications.

The Division of Plasma Physics has historically experienced significantly lower representation of women in its ranks compared to other divisions (4% vs. 8% in 2001). This award will play an important role in recognizing the contribution and potential of women in plasma science and will help to attract and retain women in this field.

The announcement of the 2008 Katherine E. Weimer Award is at Announcement. The standard APS prize and award guidelines, which apply here, may be found at this address.

The Award endowment was funded with $15,000 from DPP and $15,000 raised from generous contributions from friends and colleagues of Katherine Weimer and includes contributions from discretionary funds of fusion/plasma science research laboratories.

The 2008 Weimer Award
The award is open to any female plasma scientist. The nominee's Ph.D. must have been received within the ten-year period prior to the nomination deadline of April 1, 2008. Nominations are active for one selection cycle (three years). The award consists of $2,000 and funds for travel to the annual meeting where the award is to be presented, as well as a certificate citing the contributions made by the recipient. The recipient will be invited to give a talk at the Division's annual meeting.

Previous award recipients
Professor Yu Lin of Auburn University (2002) "for creative and significant contributions to theoretical and computational research in nonlinear physics in the boundary layers of space plasmas"
Dr. Elena Belova of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (2005) "for pioneering analytical and numerical contributions to the fundamental physics of magnetically confined plasmas"

Award Committee 2008
Nominations should be sent to the chair:
Dr. Catherine Fiore
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NW21-203 190 Albany Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: 617-253-8440
Fax: 617-252-1808

There is no provision for online submissions; however, electronic submissions may be emailed to fiore@psfc.mit.edu.

 

Committee members:
Catherine Fiore, Chair, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
fiore@psfc.mit.edu

Mary Ann Sweeney, Vice-Chair, Sandia National Laboratories masween@sandia.gov

 Joel Fajans, Past-Chair, University of California Berkeley joel@physics.berkeley.edu

 Elena Belova, 2005 Winner, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory ebelova@pppl.gov

 Mary Hall Reno, University of Iowa
mary-hall-reno@uiowa.edu