UCSB Physicist Awarded Distinguished Professorship

Daniel Hone, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been awarded the prestigious Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship for 2007-08.

A condensed matter theorist, Hone currently serves as the director of outreach and education at UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Previously, he has served as KITP's deputy director, acting and associate dean in the College of Letters and Science, and chair of the UCSB physics department.

The Dickson professorship provides $10,000 in funding for research-related activities. Hone, whose areas of research include magnetism and magnetic resonance, superconductivity, and the theory of polymers and colloids, among others, plans to use the award for research travel and for support of outreach and education efforts. "I am honored by this recognition, to join the group of distinguished previous Dickson Professors, and I am grateful for the financial support the award provides."

In nominating Hone for the Dickson professorship, David Gross, director of the KITP, said: "His contribution during this last 10-year period-when he was already an emeritus-was incalculable. In 2004, the Institute became a National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Center, and it became clear that we would need someone to take charge of our outreach and educational activities in order to achieve the goals set forth by the NSF."

"Dan has contributed his time, volunteering his services to be our Director of Outreach and Education. In this role, he participates in a wide range of institute activities," Gross added.

The KITP is committed to communicating to a broad audience the excitement of science at the frontier.

One of the institute's most successful outreach programs brings postdoctoral students to high school physics classes to discuss their own research.

"By talking about their own research, the post-docs help the high school students realize that science is a vital, ongoing enterprise, and that there remain a lot of interesting classrooms because students already have the perception of scientists as inaccessible greybeards, remote from their own lives," said Hone. "With this program, however, we have people closer to their own age talking about something that excites them. They serve as role models for the high school students."

The Kavli Institute supports a variety of other outreach activities. The KITP Scholar's program supports the research efforts of faculty members not working at major research institutions by funding a series of visits to the institute at UCSB.

The KITP Teachers Conferences bring secondary school science teachers to UCSB to hear from and interact with some of the world's preeminent physics researchers. The KITP hosts public lectures several times a year, where current scientific research is presented at a level accessible to non-scientists. The Journalist in Resident program promotes excellence in scientific communication by putting journalists and science writers in contact with physicists working at the frontiers of science, allowing writers to share their professional experience and to suggest how researchers might better communicate their science to the public. The Art, Image, and Science initiative includes rotating exhibitions and public talks at the KITP as well as cooperative programs with local museums and artists.

All scientific talks at the KITP have been made available on the Internet, with both audio and PowerPoint or slide presentations included.

Hone received his doctorate in physics from the University of Illinois. Over the course of his career he has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and has been a visiting researcher at Oxford, the University of Paris, and the Weizmann Institute. Also, he was a fellow with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Tokyo University's Institute for Solid State Physics. A prolific author, he has written more than 100 articles and papers for professional journals and other publications.

The Dickson Emeriti Professorship is named in honor of Edward Dickson, who served as a regent of the University of California from 1913-1946. His vision is credited with helping to make the Los Angeles campus a reality. The Dickson Emeriti Professorships, which exist at each of the UC campuses, were established by a philanthropic gift from Dickson, the longest-serving UC Regent.