APS Member History

1	Name:	Dr. Ronald D. Ekers
	Institution:	CSIRO, Australia Telescope National Facility
	Year Elected:	2003
	Class:	1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
	Subdivision:	101. Astronomy
	Residency:	International
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1941

	Professor Ron Ekers was appointed Foundation Director of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility in 1988 and he continued in this role until March 2003, when he took up his Federation Fellowship. He graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1963 and gained his Ph.D. in astronomy at the Australian National University in 1967. His professional career has taken him to the California Institute of Technology, the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, UK, the Kapteyn Laboratory in Groningen, The Netherlands, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. He was director of the VLA, the major national radio telescope in the USA, from 1980 until 1987. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Foreign Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science and a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society. He is the president of the International Astronomical Union. Dr. Ekers's research interests include extragalactic astronomy, especially cosmology, galactic nuclei and radio astronomical techniques.

2	Name:	Dr. Jacob Ziv
	Institution:	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
	Year Elected:	2003
	Class:	1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
	Subdivision:	103. Engineering
	Residency:	International
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1931

	Jacob Ziv has made important theoretical and practical contributions to information theory. On the theoretical side, he developed techniques for estimating the capacity of various channels and showed the centrality of the Rate-distortion function. On the practical side, he (with A. Lempel) developed a compression algorithm for data compression which is widely used for efficient storage of large data bases. Jacob Ziv has also contributed to the well being of science in Israel both in his capacity as the Chair of the Planning and Grants Committee (which looks after the quality and funding of the Israeli universities), and as the president of the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Since 1983 Dr. Ziv has been Technion Distinguished Professor and Herman Gross Professor of Communications at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He has an extensive technical knowledge and deep concern for the well being of science.