CANADIAN ASSOCIATION
OF PHYSICISTS		 ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES
PHYSICIENS ET PHYSICIENNES

PRESS RELEASE / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2000 BROCKHOUSE MEDAL

for Outstanding Contributions to Condensed Matter Physics

awarded to

DR. THOMAS TIMUSK

"I would like to thank the CAP for this honour. This recent work owes its success in large measure to a highly talented team of postdocs, graduate students and collaborators, particularly the crystal growers, but also to the support of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research through its superconductivity program."


Ottawa, March 21st, 2000 - The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2000 Brockhouse Medal will be awarded to Thomas Timusk, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University, for recent significant contributions to the understanding of high Tc superconductors. This work has included studies of the infrared properties of the "pseudogap", establishment of the non-Fermi-liquid-like character of c-axis transport, and measurement of the absolute value of the penetration depth to high precision.

Tom Timusk is a world leader in measurements of the infrared properties of high temperature superconductors. He measured and named the so-called "pseudogap", a precursor to the superconducting gap which appears far above the superconducting transition temperature. He and his collaborators showed that, in the normal state, high Tc superconductors appear insulating perpendicular to the layers, while they act metallic in the layers. Nevertheless, Timusk's measurements clearly show that they superconduct both between and within the layers. His group has also performed the best measurements of the absolute value of the superfluid density along the different crystallographic directions of various high Tc materials.

Tom's former students occupy key positions in university and government labs. These include Doug Bonn at UBC, Dimitri Vasov at UC San Diego, Chris Homes at Brookhaven, David Crandles at Marshall College, and Maureen Reedyk at Brock University. Tom is a highly sought-after speaker at international conferences and the author of a number of reviews of the infrared properties of superconductors.

The CAP's Brockhouse Medal was introduced in 1999. It is awarded for outstanding experimental or theoretical contribution to condensed matter and materials physics, the branch of science devoted to understanding, predicting and controlling the diverse physical properties of matter and materials. The Medal is named in honour of distinguished Canadian scientist Bertram Brockhouse, who was awarded the 1994 Nobel prize in physics. The Medal is co-sponsored by the CAP's Division of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. The 2000 Medal will be presented to Dr. Timusk during the CAP's awards banquet to be held at York University on June 6th, 2000.

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.

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

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