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Maurice Ewing and J. Lamar Worzel Professor of Geophysics,Department
of Earth and Environmental Engineering
Biography
Klaus S. Lackner joined the faculty of Columbia University in 2001,
and is now the Ewing-Worzel Professor of Geophysics in the Department of
Earth and Environmental Engineering. He is also a member of the Columbia
Earth Institute’s Academic Committee and Executive Committee. He
received his Ph.D. in 1978 in Theoretical Physics from the University of
Heidelberg, Germany. He has held postdoctoral positions at the California
Institute of Technology and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center before
joining Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1983. Since then, he has
been a scientist in the Theoretical Division holding several management
positions, among them, Acting Associate Laboratory Director for Strategic
and Supporting Research, which represents roughly a third of Los Alamos
National Laboratory.
Klaus Lackner's scientific career started in the phenomenology of weakly
interacting particles. Later searching for quarks, he and George Zweig
developed the chemistry of atoms with fractional nuclear charge.
He is still participating in matter searches for particles with a non-integer
charge in an experiment conducted at Stanford by Martin Perl and his group.
After joining Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lackner became involved in
hydrodynamic work and fusion related research. In recent years, he
has published on the behavior of high explosives, novel approaches to inertial
confinement fusion, and numerical algorithms. His interest in self-replicating
machine systems has been recognized by Discover magazine as one of seven
ideas that could change the world. Presently he is developing innovative
approaches to energy issues of the future. Instrumental in forming
ZECA, the Zero Emission Coal Alliance, which is an industry-led effort
to develop coal power with zero emissions to the atmosphere, his recent
work is on environmentally acceptable technologies for the use of fossil
fuels. |