BlackboardMendelssohn Award to Van Sciver
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
The prestigious Mendelssohn Award was presented to Dr. Steven Van Sciver, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University (FSU) and Program Director at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee FL. He is a long-time CSA member and chair of the Boom Award Committee.
The award was presented by Dr. Tom Haruyama on July 22 during the International Cryogenic Engineering Conference-International Cryogenic Materials Conference (ICEC23-ICMC2010) in Wroclaw, Poland. The award was in three parts: a certificate, a medal and a check. Dr. Maciej Chorowski also presented Van Sciver with an award from the local organizing committee.
This award was established by ICEC in memory of Kurt Mendelssohn, 1906-1982, the founder of CEC. Persons honored by this award are selected based on their outstanding work in the field of cryogenic engineering, e.g. concerning new solutions to difficult problems, promotion of work in new fields and stimulating the community's interest in such fields and long-standing superior contributions to cryogenics.
Van Sciver was given the award "in recognition of his contribution to understanding the basic phenomena in superfluid helium and its applications to superconducting magnets.
The citation continues: "He is a distinguished academic scientist both in research and education. His textbook, 'Helium Cryogenics,' is very popular in the world, and has been referred [to] by many researchers and students for many years.
Also, his contribution to the international cryogenic community is outstanding. He has long been the editor of Cryogenics, and been the committee member of international cryogenic community."
His acceptance address was titled, "Superfluid Helium Cryogenics: From the Macroscopic to the Microscopic," and covered the research and discoveries he has experienced during a distinguished career. He spoke of the interface between science and energy and said that it was important to ask, "What did we know and when did we know it?"
