News Release

Carnegie's Russell Hemley to receive 2009 Bridgman Award

Grant and Award Announcement

Carnegie Institution for Science

Washington, D.C.—The International Association for the Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology has awarded Carnegie's Russell Hemley, director of the Geophysical Laboratory, the 2009 Bridgman Award. Hemley will receive the honor in Tokyo, Japan, next July.

The Bridgman Award is presented at the association's conferences "to a person who has made outstanding contributions to this field." The award is named for P. W. Bridgman who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946 for his discoveries in high-pressure physics and for inventing many high-pressure techniques.

Reinhard Boehler, president of AIRAPT, remarked: "The list of potential candidates for the Bridgman Award 2009 that the members of AIRAPT and the selection committee put together was quite impressive. It therefore should be regarded as a very special honor for Rus Hemley to emerge as the winner. Through presenting this award to Rus, we are honoring him for his many outstanding contributions to science and acknowledging his excellent leadership in high pressure research."

Hemley explores matter under intense pressures and temperatures and has uncovered many new discoveries about the nature of materials under extreme conditions. He has also discovered entirely new materials and his work has shed light on the interiors of planets. Hemley and his team are also leaders in developing new tools, many of which have become worldwide standards.

"This recognition by the international community reflects Russell Hemley's world leadership in high-pressure and high-temperature research," stated Carnegie president Richard Meserve. "He and his team continue to define this discipline and we are very proud of him."

In 1984, Hemley joined the Geophysical Laboratory as a Carnegie fellow and became a research associate in 1986. In 1987 he joined the scientific staff and became department director in 2007. He has published over 500 scientific papers.

Previous winners include Francis Birch (well-known Harvard geophysicist), Francis Bundy (who synthesized diamond in the 1950s at General Electric), Sergei Stishov (discoverer of stishovite), Vladimir Fortov (physicist and former Russian Minister of Science), Neil Ashcroft (theoretical physicist from Cornell), and Ho-kwang Mao (of Carnegie)

Hemley received the 2005 Balzan Prize in mineral physics, the 2003 Hillebrand Medal of the American Chemical Society, and the 1990 Mineralogical Society of America Award. He was a visiting professor at The Johns Hopkins University and at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon, France. Hemley is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Physical Society, the Mineralogical Society of America, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Honoris Causa Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

###

The Carnegie Institution for Science (www.CIW.edu) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

More information about the International Association for the Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology http://www.ct.infn.it/airapt/


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.