Brookhaven Lab's Ralph James Honored with Harold Wheeler Award from Engineering Society
January 31, 2007
UPTON, NY- The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Long Island Section has chosen Ralph James as the recipient of the Harold Wheeler Award. James is the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy, Environment & National Security at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. Wheeler was a world-famous engineer, who made important technical contributions at Wheeler Labs and Hazeltine Corporation. The IEEE Long Island Section has about 3,000 members.
James will receive the award on April 13 at an IEEE meeting in Melville, Long Island. Specifically, he will be honored for "outstanding management and enduring technical accomplishments in nonlinear optics, lasers, infrared through gamma-ray detectors, and portable instrumentation for spectroscopy and imaging."
In his current position at Brookhaven Lab, James is in charge of 241 staff members in the Environmental Sciences Department, the Energy Sciences and Technology Department, and the Nonproliferation and National Security Department. All together, these departments are working on over 700 scientific projects funded by more than 50 sponsors, from federal agencies to private companies. The projects encompass a wide range of basic and applied research, including aerosol chemistry and how it affects air pollution and global warming; research in biological and chemical processes to produce ultra-clean fuels; and the development of new technology to safeguard nuclear materials.
James does his own research in several areas, including how to make infrared lasers work effectively for a wide variety of applications, from medical to the military. Funded by DOE's Office of Nonproliferation Research and Development, James developed a new class of small semiconductor-based radiation detectors that can efficiently detect both x-rays and gamma rays at room temperature, and they can identify specific isotopes responsible for radiation. He also developed lightweight, hand-held instruments incorporating these detectors. Many of the detectors have been commercialized, and applications include medical imaging, nuclear nonproliferation, environmental monitoring and nuclear and space sciences.
After earning a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, in 1976, James earned an M.S. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, in 1977; another M.S. in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in 1978; and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Caltech, in 1980. He was a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1981-1984, and, in 1984, he joined the staff of DOE's Sandia National Laboratories, where he worked as a distinguished member of the technical staff. In June 2001, James came to Brookhaven Lab to assume his current position.
James holds nine patents, has authored or co-authored more than 350 scientific publications, and has edited 15 books. In addition, he is recognized for a long history of mentorship and leadership contributions to professional societies. For example, he has served as chair or co-chair of over 20 international conferences sponsored by scientific and engineering societies.
James's scientific accomplishments in the area of advanced radiation detectors won him Discover magazine's "Innovator of the Year" award in the field of imaging in 1997. He also is a four-time winner of R&D Magazine's R&D 100 Award, which honors the top 100 inventions of the year, and the National Association for Seed and Venture Capital Funds selected James as co-winner of one of the "World's 50 Best Technologies" awards. In 2004, James was honored with the Room-Temperature Semiconductor Radiation Detectors Scientist Award at IEEE's Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference. In addition, the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Physics Society honored James with the 2005 Radiation Instrumentation Outstanding Achievement Award.
James is a Fellow of IEEE, as well as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Society for Optical Engineering.
NOTE TO LOCAL EDITORS: Ralph James is a resident of Ridge, NY.
2007-10584 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
