Heiken named interim leader of Lab's Geophysics and Planetary Physics Institute

Contact: James Rickman, elvis@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9203

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Jan. 24, 2001 -- Geologist Grant Heiken has been chosen as interim director of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

Heiken, a Laboratory staff member for more than 25 years, will take over the helm of IGPP from former Institute Director Charles "Chick" Keller, who has gone on a six-month sabbatical to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, Calif.

IGPP was founded in 1946 at University of California-Los Angeles and comprises branches that later were added at other UC campuses and facilities. The Los Alamos branch was founded in 1980; it was established to provide formal research connections between Laboratory scientists and students and faculty at universities.

"I am delighted to be able to serve the Laboratory in this interim position," Heiken said. "IGPP has a phenomenal track record in collaborative research. This is an exciting place to be."

Research at Los Alamos' IGPP examines planetary and space physics phenomena. Recently, the Laboratory's IGPP has stimulated scientific dialogues on global warming, is creating computer models that track ocean currents and help gain insight into climatic changes and meteorological phenomenon, and is gathering clues about Earth's magnetic fields, processes in the planetary interior and plate movement. The institute each year hosts dozens of scientific collaborators and sponsors a notable program designed to give college students a summer's worth of intensive, hands-on training in geophysical research.

The search for a permanent IGPP director has begun and Laboratory officials hope to announce their selection by late spring.

Keller has worked as a Los Alamos scientist for about 30 years, spending the last 13 as Los Alamos' IGPP leader. After his sabbatical, Keller, an astrophysicist as well as an expert on Southwest native plants, plans to return to Los Alamos and continue working in research.

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