Research Highlights Archive

2007 National Medal of Science

Professor Fay Ajzenberg-Selove receives the 2007 National Medal of Science from President Bush in September 2008

Fay, as she is known affectionately in the nuclear physics community, was a former Chair of the Division of Nuclear Physics, the first woman elected to lead an APS unit. An accomplished nuclear experimentalist and distinguished educator, she is best known for her compilations of nuclear structure and reaction data of light nuclei. This work not only fostered fore-front nuclear physics research, but was an important resource for applications of nuclear physics, including carbon-14 dating and nuclear medicine. Fay is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. Her citation reads

"for her contributions in nuclear physics that have advanced research into applications including energy generation from fusion, dating of artifacts, and nuclear medicine.