In a ceremony this spring at his official residence, president of Mexico Vicente Fox is presenting Constantino Tsallis with the 2003 Mexico Prize for Science and Technology, which includes a medal and a cash prize of 440 000 Mexican pesos (about $40 000). Tsallis, who heads the department of condensed matter and statistical physics at the Brazilian Center for Research in Physics in Rio de Janeiro, is being cited for his proposal of, and work on, the generalization of the Boltzmann–Gibbs statistical mechanics. The award is given annually by the Mexican government to one person from the Caribbean, Central or South America, Portugal, or Spain (Mexico is excluded) “of recognized professional prestige who has significantly contributed to universal scientific knowledge or to technological advances or to the development of the social sciences.”
Chris Walter joined Duke University’s physics department in January as an assistant professor; he is starting a new...
