Name: Virginia L. Trimble
Present Positions: Professor of Physics, University of Calfornia Irvine and
Visiting Professor Astronomy, University Maryland, College Park
Organizations: University of California, Irvine and University Maryland, College Park
Address: (Jan-June) Physics Dept., FRH 4129
University of California
Irvine, CA 92697-4575
Telephone: 949-824-6948
FAX: 949-824-2174
E-mail: vtrimble@uci.edu
(July-Dec) Astronomy Dept., CSS 1204
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-2421
Telephone: 301-405-5822
FAX: 301-314-9067
E-mail: vtrimble@astro.umd.edu\
Chapter Affiliation: University of California, Irvine
Candidate's Statement: We all know what Sigma Xi's problems are, including (a) the gentle decline in membership, as stalwarts move into emeritus status and beyond, while newly-elected associate members frequently drop out; (b) more rapid decline of the population of industrial research scientists, as companies focus on short-term productivity, (c) lack of recognition of our name and mission on the part of both students and colleagues, and (d) some uncertainly about what we can/should be doing within the various kinds of chapters. I do not have a solution, though I have some tentative ideas, like, (1) consider electing graduating seniors who do not plan going on to graduate school (at least immediately) but into industrial/technological firms that have historically had research arms, (2) make sure we get permanent addresses for graduating seniors and PhDs who are new assoc. and full members, so that we do not lose them when their college addresses self-destruct in a few months; (3) give prizes (803 invented a couple of new ones this year), co-sponsor talks and research exhibits, and generally remember that there is some truth in the Hollywood dictum that "there is no such thing as bad publicity." Anyhow, I still have the membership pin that my father received more than half a century ago and am willing to try to make it continue to mean something in the scientific community.
Sigma Xi and Other Activities: Sigma Xi: Director-at-large 1996-99; Committee on Awards 1996-99; Committee on Meetings 1997-2003; Committee on Qualifications and Membership, 1996-97. President, Secretary-Treasurer UCI Chapter (various terms). Other: President, Division of Galaxies and the Universe of the International Astronomical Union 2000-2003; Vice-President, American Astronomical Society 1997-2000; Member, Executive Board, American Physical Society 1998-2001; Chair, Commission 19 (Astrophysics), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics 2002-05.
Biographical Information: VIRGINIA L. TRIMBLE. BA UCLA 1964 (physics and astronomy); MS Caltech 1965 (physics and astronomy); PhD Caltech 1968 (astronomy); MA Cambridge University 1969 (honorary). Recent Publications: Cosmology: Man's Place in the Universe (A Deconstruction). American Journal of Physics 70, 1175 (2003); Astrophysics in 2002, PASP 115, 514-591 (2003, with M. Aschwanden);Emergent Structure: the First Two Centuries of the First Two Eons, in S.S. Holt and C. Reynolds, eds. The Emergence of Cosmic Structure, AIP Conf. Series(2003, in press); How Much is There of What? Measuring the Mass Density of the Universe, in W. Freedman and L. Ho, eds, Measuring and Modeling the Universe, Cambridge Univ. Press Carnegie Symposium Series (2003, in press); Supernovae: Ground Zero and the Aftermath, in R. Bandiera et al. eds., Texas Tuscany Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, World Scientific (2003 in press). Research interests: The structure and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the universe, and of the communities of scientists who study them.
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