Berkeleyan

Awards

30 September 2004

James O’Brien

James O’Brien, assistant professor of computer science in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, has been named to the 2004 list of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review magazine. The TR100, chosen by the editors of Technology Review and a panel of judges, consists of 100 individuals under age 35 whose innovative work in technology has a profound impact on today’s world.

This year’s nominees are recognized for their contributions in transforming the nature of technology and business in industries such as biotechnology and medicine, computing, and nanotechnology. They will be honored Sept. 29 to 30 at Technology Review’s Emerging Technologies Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

O’Brien leads the Berkeley Computer Animation and Modeling Group. His work in computer animation, with an emphasis on generating realistic motion using physically based simulation and motion-capture techniques, enables simulations for use in training surgeons, soldiers, and firefighters, for reenactments that are used in courtrooms, and for visualizations of predicted disaster scenarios.

Richard Saykally

Professor of chemistry Richard J. Saykally was one of seven winners of the 2004 E.O. Lawrence Award announced by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham on Sept. 24. Each awardee will receive a gold medal, a citation, and $50,000. The award is given in seven categories for outstanding contributions in the broadly defined field of atomic energy.

Saykally, who is also a senior scientist with the Chemical Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), will receive the award in the chemistry category for his invention of new methods (such as velocity modulation spectroscopy) to study the structure of molecular ions.

Saykally is the 27th person from Berkeley or LBNL to receive the award since its inception in 1960. (The award is given every two years.) Among the awardees in 2002 was Saul Perlmutter, an LBNL researcher who this year was appointed professor of physics at Berkeley.

The Lawrence Award was established in 1959 to honor the memory of the late Ernest Orlando Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron and after whom two major Department of Energy laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore are named. The Lawrence Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 8.