Brookhaven Town Honors Two Brookhaven Lab Women
March 15, 2007
UPTON, NY - Jean Logan and Fulvia Pilat, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, were honored for their accomplishments in science at the Brookhaven Town-sponsored Women's Recognition Night at Brookhaven Town Hall on March 15. They were among fourteen women honored for contributions to various fields in a ceremony to celebrate National Women's History Month.
Chemist Jean Logan developed a graphical analysis method to interpret data for Brookhaven Lab's Positron Emission Tomography (PET) program. PET is a medical imaging method that measures the concentration and movement of radiotracers - radioactive isotopes - in living tissue. Over the last twenty years, the Laboratory's PET program has gained international recognition for studies in human addiction, brain aging and degeneration, obesity, and drug research and development.
Logan's kinetic model describes the uptake and loss of a radiotracer in living tissue over the course of an experiment. Her method transforms a general set of model equations into a linear plot, the slope of which is related to the number of tissue-binding sites. It is an important tool for researchers at PET facilities around the world, since it allows them to interpret data without solving complex mathematical equations. She also devises methods to analyze kinetic data for new radiotracers.
After she earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Louisiana State University, Logan joined Brookhaven Lab as a research associate. In 1980, she joined the Laboratory's PET program as an assistant chemist. She was promoted to associate chemist in 1989, and to chemist in 1994.
"It's nice that Brookhaven Town gives this honor to women," said Logan. "Not so long ago - within my lifetime - women were not well-represented in science. In fact, they were sometimes discouraged from attending graduate school. We've made significant progress since then."
Brookhaven physicist Fulvia Pilat helped to design, commission and run Brookhaven's largest accelerator, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Currently, she is head of operations for RHIC and its injector accelerators. Physicists from around the world conduct experiments at RHIC to explore a state of matter that existed one millionth of a second after the Big Bang. Overseeing a staff of about 30, Pilat is responsible for the smooth operations and system maintenance of the 2.4 mile-round collider and three smaller accelerators that prepare ions for acceleration to nearly the speed of light in RHIC.
The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at Brookhaven, where scientists study the effects of radiation in space on humans, and the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer, which creates nuclear medicine agents, also depend on the smooth functioning of these accelerators.
In addition, Pilat is the coordinator of the Accelerator Physics Experimental Program at RHIC, in which she leads about 40 physicists and engineers who develop new techniques and instrumentation for the better operation of RHIC and future accelerators.
"My job is very demanding but also very exciting," Pilat said. "It's a pleasure to work at Brookhaven Lab, which has state-of-the-art facilities and very enthusiastic staff, and it's an honor to be recognized by Brookhaven Town for my work. I hope honors like these will make young women more aware of the opportunities that are now increasingly available to them in science."
Born in Trieste, Italy, Pilat received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Trieste in 1986. She began her physics career at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics in Geneva, Switzerland. After six years at CERN, Pilat came to the U.S. to work on the Superconducting Supercollider in Texas. She also worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory before joining Brookhaven in 1994. She was promoted to her current position in 2005.
NOTE TO LOCAL EDITORS: Jean Logan and Fulvia Pilat are both residents of Setauket, NY.
2007-10602 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
