June 1, 2005

NSLS Physicist, Zhong Zhong, Awarded Tenure

BSA granted tenure on June 1 to five Brookhaven scientists. They are: Ivan Bozovic, Materials Science Department; Sergei Lymar, Chemistry Department; James Misewich, Materials Science; Werner Vogelsang, Physics Department; and Zhong Zhong, National Synchrotron Light Source Department.

Tenure appointments are granted by action of the BSA Board after a rigorous selection procedure overseen by the BSA Science & Technology Steering Committee.

Zhong Zhong

In making tenure decisions, the BSA Board is advised by members of the Brookhaven Council, an elected body that advises the Director on matters affecting the scientific staff.

At the NSLS, Physicist Zhong Zhong has received tenure for his contributions to instrumentation, leadership, and for his innovative and creative original research at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). "Zhong is widely recognized for his major and creative contributions to the design and implementation of novel x-ray optics and as the co-inventor of a new medical imaging technique that has great potential as a powerful and unique diagnostic tool," said Steven Dierker, Brookhaven's Associate Laboratory Director for Light Sources.

Conducting theoretical and experimental studies, Zhong devised a novel method for focusing high-energy x-rays and also a powerful new tool for fluorescence detection - offering scientists new ways to study previously inaccessible materials. Zhong is also coinventor of diffraction-enhanced imaging, or DEI, a technique that makes use of variations in how tissues refract and/or scatter x-rays, rather than absorption, which can be used to visualize soft tissues as well as bone at considerably lower x-ray doses than traditional radiography. DEI shows promise in diagnosing breast cancer and other soft-tissue diseases. In addition, Zhong serves as spokesperson for two NSLS beam lines, and is expected to help establish a Biomedical Imaging Research Resource at the facility.

According to Dierker, "Zhong's talent and expertise in finding creative solutions to the most challenging optics and instrumentation problems will be especially crucial at NSLS-II, which will present new and difficult instrumentation challenges to take advantage of its world-leading brightness."

Zhong received a B.S. in physics from Beijing University in 1990, an M.S. in applied physics from Michigan Technological University in 1992, and a Ph.D. in physics from Stony Brook University in 1996. He joined the NSLS as a postdoctoral research associate in 1997, and has since been promoted to assistant scientist (1998), x-ray ring manager (1999), associate physicist (2000), and physicist (2002). He has also been an adjunct assistant professor in biomedical engineering at Stony Brook University, since 2001.

ARTICLE BY: Karen McNulty Walsh