Celia M. Elliott
Celia Elliott is an academic professional with extensive experience in grant and proposal writing and journal publishing. She works closely with the department head and associate heads to develop external and internal resources to allow the department to meet its missions of education, research, and public service, and she works with faculty to increase external funding of their research programs.
A significant part of her responsibilities is to ensure that the Department of Physics presents an engaging, coherent, responsible "face" to the outside world, including other university units and administrators, prospective students and faculty, alumni, donors, and corporate sponsors. She is the editor of Physics Illinois News and, despite being technologically impaired, has been the the Physics webmaster since 2000. In addition, she team-teaches (with Professor Lance Cooper ) a course on technical communications and research skills for advanced undergraduate physics students.
Physics words to live by: Never confuse motion with action—Benjamin Franklin
Publications
IEEE/NPSS 16th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, eds. G.H. Miley and C.M. Elliott (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 1996). 2 volumes, 1625 pp.
The Eighth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems, eds. A.V. Zrodnikov, A.L. Shimkevich, C.M. Elliott (IPPE, Obninsk, Russia, 1997). 2 volumes, 825 pp.
D.K. Campbell, G.E. Gladding, and C.M. Elliott, “Parallel Parking an Aircraft Carrier: Revising the Calculus-Based Introductory Physics Sequence at Illinois,” Forum on Education of the American Physical Society (Summer 1997).
C.M. Elliott, B.V. Litvinov, Fundamentals of Publishing in Western Technical Journals (VNIITF, Snezhinsk, Russia, 1998). In Russian.
C.M. Elliott, How to Develop Successful Technical Proposals (ISTC, Moscow, Russia, 2000). In Russian.
C.M. Elliott, How to Develop Successful Technical Proposals (MRDA, Chisinau, Moldova, 2001). In Romanian.
Proceedings/Special Issues Edited
Report of the APS Study Group on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense, Rev. Mod. Phys. 76, 1307 (2004).
Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena, ed. G.H. Miley (AIP Press, Woodbury, New York, 1994). 696 pp.
First Carolus Magnus Summer School on Plasma Physics, Trans. FT 25 (1994). 396 pp.
Eleventh Topical Meeting of the Technology of Fusion Energy, Fusion Technol. 26 (1994). 965 pp.
Sixth Intern. Toki Conf. on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nucl. Fusion, Trans. FT 27 (1995). 590 pp.
Fifth Topical Mtg on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications, Fusion Technol. 28 (1995). 1185 pp.
Laser and Particle-Induced Shock Waves, Laser and Particle Beams 14 (1996). 278 pp.
Honors and Awards
Chancellor's Academic Professional Award, 2002
Physics Haiku Grand Champion, American Physical Society, 2004
Civilian Research and Development Foundation Recognition Medal, 2005
Other Activities
Since 1993, Celia has assisted former nuclear weapons and bioweapons scientists from the former Soviet Union (FSU) to adapt to their new world, traveling to the FSU 31 times. She helps them write technical reports and scientific papers in English, prepare proposals for Western funding agencies, and find U.S. collaborators so that they can redirect their research to peaceful civilian applications. She has presented workshops on these topics at Moscow State University, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Moscow), the Science Information Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (Obninsk), the Institute of Metal Physics (Ekaterinburg), the Institute of Chemical Physics (Chernogolovka), the Science and Technology Center (Nizhnyi Novogorod), Tomsk Polytechnical University, Kemerovo State University, the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (Koltosovo), South Ural State University, the State Research Center of Applied Microbiology (Obolensk), the Russian Federal Nuclear Center/Institute of Experimental Physics (Sarov), and the Russian Federal Nuclear Center/Institute of Technical Physics (Snezhinsk).
Supported by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Sigma Xi, Celia has conducted training workshops on grant-writing and Internet resources for scientists for the Moldovan Research and Development Association, the National Foundation for Science and Technology of Armenia, the Georgian Research and Development Foundation, and the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. She conducted workshops for scientists in Tbilisi, Georgia and Baku, Azerbaijan in June 2003, Odessa, Ukraine in October 2004, and Almaty, Kazakhstan in September 2006.
Celia is the author of two books that have been published in Russian by the International Science and Technology Center, one on preparing grant proposals and one on preparing scientific papers for publication in Western technical journals, and is finishing a third book on technical communications for scientists and engineers. Her work in Russia was featured in the November/December 2004 issue of the UI Alumni Association magazine.
Museum of Nuclear Weapons
All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics
Snezhinsk (formerly Chelyabinsk-70), Russia
November 1995
The following resources have been prepared especially for scientists from the former Soviet Union. All materials are in English and presented in PDF, unless otherwise indicated. Because I am most familiar with resources for physicists, there is a strong "physics" flavor to the information presented here, although I have tried to include sources of interest to scientists of all disciplines.
Partial support of this work has been provided by the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Civilian Research and Development Foundation, Sigma Xi, the Biotechnology Engagement Program of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, the International Science and Technology Center, the Elliott Family Vacation Fund, and many friends and colleagues and is gratefully acknowledged.
Note that I frequently update these materials; the English-language version is the most recent.
Successful Technical Proposals—Introduction to Research Funding (English) (Russian)
Successful Technical Proposals—Preliminary Planning (English) (Russian)
Successful Technical Proposals—Goals and Objectives (English) (Russian)
Successful Technical Proposals—The Project Summary (English) (Russian)
Successful Technical Proposals—The Project Description (English) (Russian)
Successful Technical Proposals—The Statement of Work and Management Plan (English)
Successful Technical Proposals—Some Final Suggestions (English) (Russian)
Preparing a Proposal Budget (English) (Russian)
Budget Questions a Reviewer Would Ask (English)
Preparing a CV for a Research Proposal (English)
Finding What You Need on the Internet—Navigation and Search (English)
Finding What You Need on the Internet—Resources for Bioscientists (English)
Finding What You Need on the Internet—Resources for Astronomers and Astrophysicists (English)
Finding What You Need on the Internet—Prospective Collaborators (English)
Writing to a Prospective Collaborator (English) (Russian) (Armenian)
Guidelines for Technical Progress Reports (English) (Russian)
Presenting an Oral Talk at a Scientific Meeting (English) (Russian)
Presenting a Poster at a Scientific Meeting (English)
Additional Resources for Scientists from the FSU
Electronic Resources for Scientists (Romanian) (Armenian)
Developing Successful Technical Proposals (Romanian) (Armenian)
Technical Communications for Scientists and Engineers (Russian)
Guidelines for Publishing in Western Technical Journals (English) (Russian)
Resources for Technical Writers and Students
Style Guide for Writing Numbers in Technical Documents
Hyphens, Dashes, and Minus Signs (more than you ever wanted to know)
Capitalization in Physics
Voice and Tense: Making Verbs Work
Proper Use of Four-Letter Words in Scientific Writing
Acronyms, Initialisms, and Abbreviations in Scientific Writing
Common Latin Terms in Scientific Writing
Effective Titles
Effective Abstracts
Help with English Spelling