Each spring the department recognizes its outstanding students, not with a huge formal banquet or candlelit ceremony as other academic units sometimes do, but with a casual, friendly air that allows half of the audience to show up in shorts and T-shirts. This laidback approach, however, doesn’t detract from the importance of the awards, which acknowledge the work of top students in a demanding major. From those inducted into the physics honor society to the winner of a $25,000 graduate fellowship, all students worked hard for their respective honors. Sigma Pi SigmaThis year’s Honors Day event was April 24. The ceremonies began with the induction of students into Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society. Open to both graduate and undergraduate students, Sigma Pi Sigma at UT requires at least a junior standing with an overall grade point average of 3.25 and a physics GPA of 3.5. The six students inducted this spring were undergraduates Donald Hornback, Brian Irick and George Noid; along with graduate students Hye Jung Kang, William Newton and Korey Sorge. Dr. Jim Parks, associate department head, oversaw the induction.
Undergraduate AwardsAfter the Sigma Pi Sigma inductions came the Outstanding First Year Student Award. The awards committee found it impossible to select only one student for the 2001-2002 academic year, so they decided to name two honorees. Oak Ridge native Nick Moore and Anton Naoumov from Russia shared the award. The Douglas V. Roseberry Award is the highest honor the department bestows on an undergraduate student. Named for the late Doug Roseberry, a stellar student in his own right in the 1950s, it recognizes not only academic achievement and scholarly potential, but also contributions made to the department in terms of innovation and creativity. Erin McMahon was named the 2002 Roseberry Winner. She is a former Lide Citation winner for her contributions to the astronomy labs. Just this spring she won three awards at UT’s Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement: the Natural Science Division Award of Excellence; the Phi Kappa Phi Natural Science Division Award of Excellence; and the College of Arts and Sciences Natural Science Division Award. Erin will move to Austin this fall to begin her Ph.D. work in astrophysics at the University of Texas.Lide CitationsThe Robert W. Lide Citations recognize students who have made exceptional contributions to the undergraduate instructional laboratories. They are named in honor of the late Dr. Bob Lide, who came to campus each week, even after he retired, to help out with the physics labs. This year the department awarded Lide Citations to two students: Jason Smith and John Meyer. Jason began helping in the labs last summer by working on the new optics lab. He has also taken the initiative to clean out and organize the lab storage space, getting rid of archaic equipment to make room for the new. John is known for his diligence in monitoring the newsgroup for the online Astronomy 162 course and giving detailed answers to students’ questions. He has also taken the initiative to schedule open extra credit and help sessions for these students and has researched new ideas for present and future virtual labs.Graduate AwardsMost graduate students get their first taste of teaching by taking on the undergraduate physics and astronomy laboratories, a tough crowd by anyone’s standards. Each year the department honors one student with the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award as determined by evaluations from the students themselves, who are often harsh critics. This year’s winner was Chad Middleton, who came to UT from Eastern Illinois University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics and a minor in math. He is a Ph.D. candidate working with George Siopsis studying six dimensional gravity.
The Paul H. Stelson Fellowship in Physics is named for the former director of the ORNL Physics Division who oversaw the funding, construction, and operation of The Holifield Heavy Ion Research Facility. Dr. Stelson was also an adjunct professor of physics at UT from 1967 until 1992 and served as a mentor for many young scientists. His family established this award to assist aspiring physicists in their education and to continue the strong physics relationship between UT and ORNL. This year’s Stelson Fellow has already begun an impressive career in experimental condensed matter physics. Korey Sorge has eight papers published, in press, or submitted, including five on his current work on nanomagnetic particles. He has recently been elected as an associate member in the Sigma Xi Scientific Society and has given four presentations at national and international conferences.
The Fowler-Marion Outstanding Graduate Student Award was established to recognize, as the name implies, outstanding achievement by a graduate student. The 2002 winner, Izabela Szlufarska, is a native of Wroclaw, Poland. She previously won three scholarships from the Polish Ministry of National Education, as well as recognition from the Wroclaw University of Technology and the Polish Physical Society for extraordinary laboratory performance, creative writing, and best master’s thesis. She also won the physics department’s outstanding GTA award in 2000. Izabela graduated in May and is headed to LSU for a post-doctoral position.
The Tennessee Advanced Materials Laboratory is a $5 million center dedicated to exploring the creation of new materials through computer modeling and experimental research. Part of TAML’s mission is to attract top graduate students to UT to study materials science through TAML Fellowships, $25,000 fellowships for students in the core departments of chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science & engineering, and physics & astronomy. Although primarily a recruiting tool, this year the fellowship committee decided to acknowledge the exceptional performance of a current graduate student, John Pierce. He works with the surface/interface physics group at UT and the ORNL Solid State Division. In 2001 he won a University Citation for Academic Achievement and Professional Promise, as well as our own Fowler-Marion Award.
Last year the Society of Physics Students instituted the SPS Teacher of the Year Award as a way to make a contribution to the physics department. The undergraduate physics majors nominate faculty members they believe are superior instructors and then elect one professor to receive the award. This year the students chose Dr. Stuart Elston, who teaches the electronics laboratory.
After the awards, Dr. Mark Rhoades-Brown of Renaissance Technologies Corporation gave the Honors Day Lecture. His talk, entitled, “My Life in a Hedge Fund: Physics and Economics Meet the Real World,” underscored the possibilities of taking a science education into the world of business. A nuclear theorist by training, Dr. Rhoades-Brown said that his company employs 185 people, half of whom are technical. “The biggest chunk are physicists,” he added. He also pointed out the value of critical thinking as an asset many scientists possess and one “that has value in the outside world beyond physics.”
Among the guests for the ceremonies were Dr. Sam Hurst, Dr. John Fox, and Dr. Glenn Young (all members of the department’s board of visitors), Mrs. Jane Ann Nielsen, Dr. Don Cox (Associate Dean of Academic Programs, College of Arts and Sciences), Dr. Susan Martin (Associate Dean for Academic Personnel, College of Arts and Sciences), Dr. Lynn Champion (Director of Academic Outreach, College of Arts and Sciences), and retired physics professor Dr. Ed Harris.
Cross Sections, Spring/Summer 2002 Contents Page UT Physics News & Notes Page UT Physics Home Page This page was last updated on June 6, 2002. Please send comments to cal@utk.edu. |