Physics Tracks · St. Xavier’s College Clark Casarella, North Georgia College Yingying Chen,...
Transcript of Physics Tracks · St. Xavier’s College Clark Casarella, North Georgia College Yingying Chen,...
The Department of Physics saw
32 undergraduate majors and
10 Ph.D. graduates receive
their degrees at the May com-
mencement events.
One of this year’s honorary de-
gree recipients is Dr. John
Mather. A co-recipient of the
2006 Nobel Prize for Physics,
Mather is a senior astrophysi-
cist in the Observational Cos-
mology Laboratory at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center
and senior project scientist for
the James Webb Space Tele-
scope. The department hosted
a reception for Dr. Mather on
the Friday before graduation,
and he attended the depart-
mental ceremony in Jordan Hall
on Sunday, May 22.
Outstanding Senior
Major Award Winners:
Nicholas J. Mancinelli
Kimberly J. Schlesinger
Outstanding Undergraduate
Research Award:
Justin E. Browne
Bachelor’s Degrees
Benjamin Andersen
Nicolas R. Anderson
Anamaria T. Baluyut
Justin E. Browne
Joseph S. Burnett
Brad G. Cordova
Emily G. Craven
Brian Dentino
Christopher T. Freise
Dominic A. Golab
Elizabeth A. High
Daniel Insulza
James R. Irving
Frederick W. Jung
Luke A. Kippenbrock
John B. Kramb
Kurt M. Krautmann
Joseph M. Livingston
Nicholas J. Mancinelli
Andrew J. McGauley
Colin A. McNamara
Katherine A. Mohrig
Samuel J. Novario
Dakota L. O’Dell
John J. Pardo
Ralph Sean J. Pennino
Daniel J. Quinlan
Robert H. Schafer
Kenneth Schlax
Kimberly J. Schlesinger
Andrew E. Taylor
Michael P. Troy
Continued on page 3
Congratulations to the 2011 physics graduates
2011 physics faculty teaching award winners
Professor
Christopher
Kolda is the
2011 Shilts/
Leonard Award
recipient. This
award is the
premier teaching award within
the College of Science. Kolda is
a theoretical high energy physi-
cist who joined the university in
2000. He has served in a num-
ber of administrative positions
for the department, college, and
the university including a cur-
rent appointment as a Provost’s
Fellow.
Professor
Anthony
Hyder, Director
of Undergradu-
ate Studies for
the Department
of Physics, re-
ceived the
2011 Rev. Edmund P. Joyce,
C.S.C. Award for Excellence in
Undergraduate Teaching. The
twenty winners of the Joyce
teaching excellence awards
represent faculty who have had
a profound influence on under-
graduate students through sus-
tained exemplary teaching.
The Department of Physics con-
gratulates Profs. Kolda and
Hyder on their awards.
Physics Tracks May 2011
Contact information
Phone: 574-631-6386
Fax: 574-631-5952
E-mail: [email protected]
225 Nieuwland Science Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Web site:
physics.nd.edu
Alumni—please send us a note
with your recent achievements
and appointments. We look for-
ward to hearing from you!
Inside this issue:
Inaugural Hichwa Summer
Fellowship awarded
2
Faculty promotions and
reappointment
2
Faculty retirement 2
Incoming graduate students 3
Faculty honors, awards, and
appointments
3
Recent special lectures and events 4
Physics alumnus receives
prominent fellowship
4
A physics alumni has donated
to the Department of Physics to
generously support a research
fellowship for an undergraduate
physics major.
Prof. Bryant Hichwa is a 1973
Ph.D. graduate from the depart-
ment . He was advised by Prof.
Paul Chagnon and was part of
the nuclear physics research
group. After graduation, Prof.
Hichwa worked in both academ-
ia and in private industry, in-
cluding a position as President
of MetroPhotonics USA. He
taught for many years at Sono-
ma State University, where he
recently took Emeritus status.
On Friday, April 15, Prof. Hichwa
visited the department and
gave a lunchtime talk to a group
of graduate students about
industry career expectations.
The graduate students in at-
tendance appreciated his ad-
vice and reflections on careers
in physics.
The inaugural Diane and Bryant
Hichwa Summer Fellowship was
awarded to Adam Alongi. Adam
will graduate in May 2012.
This summer he will be working
with Prof. Xiaodong Tang in the
area of experimental nuclear
research.
Inaugural Diane and Bryant Hichwa Summer Fellowship awarded
Prof.
Colin P.
Jessop
has been
promoted
to Profes-
sor. He
joined
Notre Dame in 2004, and Prof.
Jessop’s experimental research
is focused on the search for
new physical interactions be-
yond the model theory of parti-
cle physics.
Prof. Chris-
topher F.
Kolda was
promoted to
Professor.
Professor
Kolda is a
theoretical
particle physicist and is well-
known for his work on super-
symmetry. He joined Notre
Dame in 2000.
Prof. Zoltán
Toroczkai
has been
promoted to
Professor.
Prof. To-
roczkai’s
research
focuses on complex network
theory, biophysics, computing,
and agent-based system. He
joined Notre Dame in 2006 and
holds a concurrent faculty ap-
pointment in Computer Science
and Engineering.
Prof. Kevin
P. Lannon
was reap-
pointed to
Assistant
Professor.
Prof. Lannon
is a high en-
ergy particle experimentalist
who joined Notre Dame in
2008.
Faculty promotions and reappointments
The University of Notre Dame
has announced the following
four faculty promotions and one
reappointment for Department
of Physics faculty, each effec-
tive July 1, 2011
Prof. J. Chris-
topher Howk
was promoted
to Associate
Professor with
Tenure. Profes-
sor Howk has
been at Notre
Dame since 2005. His research
is focused on understanding
the evolution of galaxies and
the build-up of the elements
since the Big Bang.
Page 2 Physics Tracks
Prof. Bryant Hichwa, ND
Physics Ph.D. ‘73
Prof. Gerald Arnold announces retirement
Prof. Arnold is a Condensed Matter
theorist who has been in the Depart-
ment of Physics since 1978. His re-
search focused on superconductivity.
After thirty-tree years of service to the
University of Notre Dame Prof. Gerald
Arnold will assume Emeritus Profes-
sor status as of July 1, 2012.
University on Friday, March 25.
LightSprite, led by Professors
Steven Ruggiero and Carol
Tanner, finished second and
received $15,000.
Ani Aprahamian, the Frank
M. Freimann Professor of Phys-
ics, has been appointed to Ar-
menia’s Expert Advisory Com-
The College of Science has ap-
pointed Professor Margaret
Dobrowolska-Furdyna as the
Rev. John Cardinal O’Hara,
C.S.C. Professor of Physics.
This is a five-year collegiate
chair.
The inaugural Nanotechnology
New Ventures Competition was
held on the campus of Purdue
mittee. The committee will ad-
vise Armenia’s Minister of Econ-
omy and the director of A.I.
Alikhanyan National Science
Laboratory (AANL) in developing
a science strategy for the labor-
atory, in establishing an evolv-
ing administrative structure,
and in evaluating scientific
programs .
Faculty honors, awards, and appointments
2011 Physics Graduate
Research and Dissertation
Award:
Xinghai Zhao
Title: Cosmic Expansion in
Inhomogeneous Cosmologies
and the Formation of Local-
group Like Systems
2011 Larry O. Lamm
Memorial Award in Nuclear
Physics:
Daniel Robertson
Doctoral Degree Recipients
(and Faculty Advisor)
Andrea Asztalos
(Prof. Zoltan Toroczkai)
Mary Beard
(Prof. Michael Wiescher)
Kyle Knopfel
(Prof. Colin Jessop)
Paul J. LeBlanc
(Prof. Michael Wiescher)
Frank Li
(Profs. Carol Tanner and
Steven Ruggiero)
Georgios Magkotsios
(Profs. Michael Wiescher and
Francis Timmes)
Daniel Robertson
(Prof. Philippe Collon)
Christopher Schmitt
(Prof. Philippe Collon)
Jared Coughlin,
Villanova University
Xu Han,
University of Georgia
James Kapaldo,
Illinois Institute of
Technology
Edward Lamere,
Hamilton College
Madan Lamichhane,
University of Memphis
Zuohong Li,
Beijing University
The Department of Physics
extends a warm welcome to the
incoming first-year graduate
students who will begin their
studies in Fall 2011:
Aboutaleb Amiri,
University of Yazd
Aparna Bhattacharya,
St. Xavier’s College
Clark Casarella,
North Georgia College
Yingying Chen,
Dalian University of
Technology
Anna McCoy,
Grinnell College
David McKenna,
Brigham Young University
Michael Moran,
Michigan State University
Charles Mueller,
Michigan State University
Andrew Nystrom,
Concordia College at
Moorhead
Dilhari Peiris,
University of Colombo
Graduation news continued from page 1
Welcome to incoming graduate students
Page 3
Sandor Volkan-Kacso
(Prof. Boldizsar Janko)
Xinghai Zhao
(Prof. Grant Mathews)
Michael Planer,
University of Minnesota
Kevin Siegl,
North Carolina State
University
Melinda Varga,
Babes Bolyai University
MacKenzie Warren,
Reed College
Jason Wiggins,
Syracuse University
Christopher Wotta,
Denison University
has won a Charlotte W. New-
combe Doctoral Dissertation
Fellowship from the Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship
Foundation.
Hedahl, a doctoral
candidate in phi-
losophy at
Georgetown Uni-
versity, is one of
21 Fellows select-
ed from 585 appli-
cants. His disser-
tation, Owing It to
Us: Duties Di-
rected to One’s
Marcus Hedahl, who graduated
from Notre Dame with a bache-
lor’s degree in physics in 1995,
Own, deals with the duties that
individuals owe to groups of
which they are a member.
Hedahl said his experience at
Notre Dame—both rigorous big-
picture study of physics and the
campus emphasis on communi-
ty—prepared him for the study
that led to the dissertation.
“What drew me to physics were
the fundamental questions
about the way the world works
and the way things operate;
those same questions later
drew me to philosophy” he said.
Physics alumnus receives fellowship from Woodrow Wilson Foundation
Check the
department’s web
site for a full listing
of seminars,
colloquia, and
special lectures.
together nearly
120 people to
discuss recent
results and future
prospects for the
CMS experiment
at the Large Had-
ron Collider (LHC)
in Cern, Switzer-
land. The Notre
Dame High Ener-
gy Physics group
is playing an im-
portant role in
this experiment
and organized
this meeting for
the collaboration.
Several members
of the Notre
Dame experi-
mental group
presented talks
at the meeting,
and Prof. Chris Kolda gave a
plenary talk discussing LHC
physics from a theoretical physi-
cist’s point of view.
Prof. Joe Incandela, of the UC
Santa Barbara Physics Depart-
ment and the recently named
US CMS spokesperson, gave a
colloquium on May 4 titled
“Searching for the genetic code
of our universe: The CMS exper-
iment at the LHC.”
Dr. Chris Quigg of Fermi Nation-
al Accelerator Laboratory deliv-
ered a lecture on May 6,
“Revolutions in Particle Phys-
ics.” Dr. Quigg is the co-winner
of the 2011 Sakurai Prize of the
American Physics Society. This
event was sponsored by the
John A. Lynch Lecture Series.
Special lectures & events in Spring 2011
The department hosted special
lectures and conferences in
addition to the weekly colloquia
and seminars in Spring 2011.
In late March, the Large Bin-
ocular Telescope (LBT)
Board Meeting was held. The
meeting brings together many
of the leaders of the LBT pro-
gram to discuss the current
status and future plans for the
telescope. After several years of
construction and commission-
ing, the LBT is starting to pro-
duce high-quality results and
should continue to do so for
many years in the future. Notre
Dame astrophysicists Peter
Garnavich, Chris Howk, Nicolas
Lehner, and Terrence Rettig are
all active users of the LBT. Sev-
eral of our undergraduate phys-
ics majors have been able to
join these professors and ob-
serve at the telescope.
LBT Director Richard Green
delivered a public lecture sup-
ported by the Nieuwland Lec-
ture Series, “The LBT: A New
Era in Astronomy and Engineer-
ing” on March 29.
From May 5-7 Notre Dame host-
ed the US CMS Annual
Meeting. This meeting brought
US CMS meeting on Thursday, May 5 in Jordan Hall of Science.
“I think my scientific background
helped develop the analytic skills
and sense of inquiry and imagi-
nation required for modern phi-
losophy. My time at Notre Dame
as well as my time in the service,
both with strong senses of com-
munity, has fundamental shaped
my approach to philosophy.”
The 12-month, $25,000 New-
combe award supports Ph.D.
candidates in the humanities and
social sciences who are address-
ing questions of ethical and reli-
gious values.