CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICISTS

ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES PHYSICIENS ET PHYSICIENNES

Ottawa, May 14^th, 1999 - The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) and the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM) are pleased to announce that the 1999 CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics will be awarded to David J. Rowe, Professor at the University of Toronto for developing a microscopic foundation for the models and theories of nuclear collective states by the application of elegant techniques from group theory and mathematical analysis.

Together with his students and associates, Dr. David J. Rowe has been able to develop a detailed picture of important system, based on the underlying properties of the protons and neutrons that form the nucleus. In doing so, he also developed a number of new mathematical tools that have used to explain other classes of phenomena.

Rowe's research has introduced many techniques of modern mathematics into physics, a strategy that allowed him to make significant steps in the development of modern nuclear theory. Understanding the atomic nucleus has been considered an intractible problem, as it involves simultaneously describing the behaviour of hundreds of particles, all interacting strongly under the force that binds together the nucleus. Rowe's contributions have enable us to view this system as literally a fluid, albeit one with unusual properties. The mathematical techniques he has introduced have found application in many other areas of physics, especially in those cases where the underlying patterns or symmetries of the system change. Rowe's impact on theoretical physics has therefore extended far beyond the original scope of his work on the structure of the atomic nucleus.

Prof. Rowe received B.A.s in 1959 from Cambridge University and Oxford University. In 1962, he obtained his M.A. from Oxford University as well as a D.Phil (Thesis: ‘Studies of Nuclear Structure using Medium Energy Protons'). After spending a year as a lecturer at a Royal Air Force Radio School, Dr. Rowe worked as a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Neils Bohr Institute followed by a three years with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (Harwell). He was a Research Associate at the University of Rochester from 1966-68 and joined the faculty at the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor in 1968. He became full Professor in 1974. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1986.

Dr. Rowe has received a number of honours, including an A. P. Sloan Fellowship (1972), the Rutherford Memorial Medal (1983) of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada (1986) and an Isaac Walton Killam Senior Research Fellowship from 1990-92.

The annual CAP-CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics was first introduced in 1995. Dr. Rowe will receive the 1999 Prize during the CAP's awards banquet to be held at the University of New Brunswick on June 8th, 1999.

The Canadian Association of Physicists, founded in 1945, is a professional association representing over 1600 individual physicists and physics students in Canada, the U.S. and overseas, as well as a number of Corporate and Departmental Members. In addition to its learned activities, the CAP also undertakes a number of activities intended to encourage students to pursue a career in physics.

The Centre de recherches mathématiques is a national research centre in mathematics and theoretical physics jointly supported by the federal government, the province of Quebec, and the Université de Montréal where it is based. Among the activities of the CRM are thematic years, summer schools, workshops, seminars, and the publication of monographs, proceedings, and lecture notes in mathematics and physics.

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For more information, please contact:
Canadian Association of Physicists
Tel: (613) 562-5614 Fax: (613) 562-5615
E-mail: cap@physics.uottawa.ca

or Centre de recherche mathématiques
Tel: (514) 343-7501 Fax: (514) 343-2254