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Fresh faces are now on board to help guide the department's future directions. The first-ever Board of Visitors met April 26-27 to get an overview of departmental strengths and offer advice on meeting challenges. Selected by faculty members, this group of alumni and associates encompasses a wide spectrum of professional experience to serve as an advisory panel for the department. Representing business, research, academic, and industrial sectors, the board brings together a number of vantage points to help define and pursue physics department goals. The members, along with a brief vita of each, are as follows:
Philip B. BurtDr. Burt is a professor of physics at Clemson University. He is a graduate of UTK, earning his bachelor's degree in physics in 1956 and completing his Ph.D. in 1961. He has held previous positions as a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech and a visiting professor at the University of Southern California. He joined the Clemson faculty in 1965 and has served as head of the physics department. Dr. Burt's research area is theoretical physics and he is currently investigating several aspects of quantum theory and quantum field theory, as well as topics in nonlinear physics.
Dennis G. HallDr. Hall is the William F. May Professor and Director of the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. He earned his Ph.D. in physics at UT in 1976. His previous appointments include work for McDonnell Douglas Corporation and a faculty position at Southern Illinois University. He joined the University of Rochester in 1980. Dr. Hall has won three awards for undergraduate teaching, holds three patents, and is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, and the International Society for Optical Engineering. He has also supervised to completion 14 Ph.D. theses and six M.S. theses.
G. Samuel HurstDr. Hurst earned his doctoral degree in physics at UT in 1959. He is currently an adjunct professor of physics at UT. Dr. Hurst is a retired corporate research fellow from Oak Ridge National Laboratory where his research involved atomic physics and laser research. He was a Ford Foundation Professor from 1963 until 1966. He is also a co-inventor of resonance ionization spectroscopy, and directed the UT Institute of RIS from 1985 until 1988. He was the founder or co-founder of Consultec Scientific, Inc., Atom Sciences, Inc., and Pellissippi International, Inc. Dr. Hurst is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a winner of three IR-100 awards.
Richard M. MartinDr. Martin is a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned an undergraduate degree in engineering physics at UT in 1964. His Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago. His experience includes a principal scientist position with at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, a post he held from 1971 until 1987, when he joined the faculty at Illinois. His area of expertise is the theory of electronic structure of solids. Dr. Martin is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a winner of the Humboldt Foundation Senior Scientist Award (1994).
James B. RobertoDr. Roberto is director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Solid State Division. He has previously served as head of the division's Particle Solid Interactions Section. He holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University. Dr. Roberto is a past president of the Materials Research Society and has served on several committees for the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences. He was vice-chair of the American Physical Society Division of Materials Physics in 1996-1997. He also served as chairman of the ORNL Reengineering Steering Committee in 1996.
Gordon K. SoperDr. Soper is group vice president of Defense Group, Inc. He has more than 35 years of experience across a broad spectrum on high-profile defense technology and acquisition programs. Prior to joining Defense Group, Inc., he was principal deputy to the assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs. Dr. Soper earned his Ph.D. in physics at UT in 1964 and completed a program for senior managers in government at Harvard University in 1982. In 1998, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Defense Special Weapons Agency. He has also earned Distinguished (1996) and Meritorious (1992) Executive Presidential Rank awards.
Audrey T. S.-StelsonMrs. Stelson is a research associate at the Radiation Internal Dose Information Center, where she has more than 25 years' experience managing a bibliographic data base pertaining to information necessary to calculate absorbed radiation doses. During her tenure at RIDIC, she has also organized four international symposia on internal dosimetry. Mrs. Stelson currently serves on the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association Board of Directors and was president from 1997-1998. From 1995 until 1997, she was also president of the Arts Council of Oak Ridge. Mrs. Stelson holds a B.A. in mathematics from Lawrence College and a secondary teaching certificate in mathematics, physics, and German from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Macy W. SummersMr. Summers is vice president of business development for STM Wireless, Inc. He is a co-founder of Telecom International, Inc., a satellite communications systems integration firm that merged with STM Wireless in 1997. At Telecom, he was responsible for sales from startup through $10 million annually. His current responsibilities include management of corporate strategic accounts and partnerships, design and implementation of the VSAT/Wireless Local Loop launch plan, and development of satellite telphony and broadband data networking strategies. Mr. Summers is a 1981 graduate of the engineering physics program at UT and holds two diplomas from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.Back to Cross Sections, Spring 1999 issue. |
