People.

* Jim Luxon resigned as director of DIII-D Operations at General Atomics and will take a position as senior technical advisor.

* Larry Papay has left his position as senior vice president of Bechtel Corp. to become a sector vice president at Science Applications International Corp.

* Steve Obenschain has been named head of the Laser Branch at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, succeeding Steve Bodner, who has retired.

* Mark Crawford, freelance science writer, has joined the U.S. Department of Commerce.

* Ron Cohen and Andris Dimits, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have received the Gordon Bell award for their state-of-the-art contributions to advanced supercomputing.