PHYSICS
FLASH
News
from the Department of Physics ~ May 2008
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PHYSICS
FLASH |
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ASU PHYSICS |
2008 Awards & Recognition Ceremony 2007-2008 Graduates
Ph.D - James Degraffenreid, Craig Jolley, Fuze Wu, Quinn Spadola, Erik Dykeman
Masters - Mohammed Abdullah
Bachelors - Jeffrey Ammon,
Christopher Anderson, Daniel Bank, Derek Caselli, Brian Craft,
Christopher Durot, Paul Emigh, Brenton Jackson, Matthew Jenners, Surani
Joshua, Jonathan Koliner, Jonathan Lewton, Joel Lynn, Jason Mueller,
Candice Rider, Mark Sanger, Cory Stephenson, Cynthia Thai, Hosam Yousif,
Kevin Winn |
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Physics lab manager receives staff award
Timothy Cook was
awarded the 2008 Denise Jackson Staff Award on Monday, April 14 in a
luncheon and ceremony held at the University Club. The award is given in honor of Denise Jackson who served the Department of Physics as a staff member for 21 years. In 2005, a fund was created in her memory
to recognize a full-time ASU Physics
staff member who has demonstrated outstanding performance above and
beyond the requirements of his/her position. The spirit of the award
intends to also recognize sustained excellence such as that demonstrated
by Denise Jackson during her entire career at ASU. The fund also
provides for an annual staff appreciation luncheon to honor the
contributions of all ASU Physics staff members. |
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Cause
to celebrate
ASU Physics received welcome news this past month with the announcement
of the 2008 Regents' Professor honorees. Four ASU faculty were chosen to
receive the title "Regents' Professor" which is the university's highest
faculty honor. Of those four, two honorees are from ASU Physics. |
ASU Meson Physics Group peers inside frosty protons
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Physics Flash welcomes your feedback. Please send comments, questions, and suggestions to margaret.stuart@asu.edu. |
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(excerpts from prepared comments given at the 2008 Awards & Recognition Ceremony held on May 2)
It is hard to believe that it has been 12 whole months since we last gathered for an Awards & Recognition Ceremony. So much has happened that we can be proud of. Among the highlights: We have substantially enhanced our collaborative research environments in Biological Physics, Nanoscale Science, and Particle-Astro Physics. Our goal is to develop research environments where students, faculty and distinguished researchers openly interact and share concepts, ideas and critical analysis as they work together to build the basis of knowledge that will advance our society. Our research programs are indeed driven by student involvement. Our students first learn and then they discover and innovate and substantially contribute to advancing the forefront of knowledge. We hosted a very impressive colloquium series, and Distinguished Lecturer series, and three weekly seminar series in biological physics, nanoscale physics, and particle astrophysics - once again allowing our students and faculty the opportunity to interface with quality scientists from all over the world. Our faculty have played leadership roles in the development of their fields as evidenced by their hosting of conferences that drew the scientific community to ASU. This is ALWAYS a good thing as it brings ASU Physics to the forefront of scientific discussion and collaboration. We continue to make progress in our efforts to expand research programs - particularly through collaborative projects. This is a key component of our departmental vision and our faculty are dedicated to focusing and enhancing collaborative interactions. We have started developing plans to build interactions with national laboratories and facilities and we have set a focus to build inter American collaborations to solve problems faced by our region. I believe that ASU is uniquely positioned in this area. In every measurable way, our educational programs are growing - perhaps a better word is burgeoning! Our undergraduate program - under the leadership of Professor Mike Treacy and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator Sabrina Mathues - witnessed a near doubling of the number of incoming freshman in Fall 2007. This is remarkable and can be attributed to not only our growing reputation, but also to the remarkable efforts of Mike, Sabrina, and the rest of the Undergraduate Program Committee. Our graduate program has had exceptional incoming student classes for the last two years. Next Fall’s incoming class represents the highest average GRE Scores in our department’s history (and possibly in the history of the University). The word is out and we are beginning to attract the cream of the crop. Thanks to Professor Bruce Doak, Graduate Programs Coordinator Eboni Anderson, and the Graduate Program Committee. Every semester nearly 3500 students learn the concepts of Physics in their General Studies courses and laboratories. This past year, we have developed an organizational structure focused on student success, we have enhanced the laboratories with web based lab submissions and we have initiated the development of web based course introductions to sharpen our students mathematical and analysis skills. The result is a continued increase in enrollment and a student-centered service model for students from all across the campus. Thanks to Dr. Carl Covatto and General Studies Coordinator Karen Burrington for their tremendous work on defining and understanding the needs of our general studies courses and students. The Master of Natural Science program brings together high school teachers from Arizona and around the US to become skilled at the modeling approaches developed at ASU. Thanks to Professor Bob Culbertson, Director of the MNS Program in Physics and to Dr. Jane Jackson for helping to coordinate the program. This last year under John Venables care and attention we completed the planning of a new degree program - the Professional Science Masters’ in Nanoscience. We expect that the PSM-Nano will provide a strong and hands-on education in nanoscience in courses and projects by leaders of the field. Thanks to John for helping at every step of the way. We celebrate the hiring of new faculty and the excellence of existing faculty. We brought two new faces to the faculty last year - Professors Cecilia Lunardini and Robert Ros both of whom have hit the ground running. Our faculty continues to grow with the recent hiring of Dr. Sara Vaiana who will start next January as an Assistant Professor. We look forward to the interesting ways all of our new faculty will help define ASU Physics. We celebrate the achievements of all physics faculty who continue to do remarkable research work while mentoring and teaching our students. In particular, we recognize Professor Michael Treacy who was just awarded the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Quality Teaching Award. To many of us here, this comes as no surprise - we’ve always known of Mike’s outstanding commitment to teaching and students. Congratulations Mike! We also recognize our two newest Regents Professors - Stuart Lindsay and Otto Sankey. What an honor not only for them individually, but for ASU Physics in general. This speaks volumes about our faculty! Congratulations Stuart and Otto - we are very proud of your many successes in research and teaching!
There are many more successes to note, but we would be here until
midnight. Hopefully, you get a sense of the tremendous work,
dedication, and creativity that has occurred in ASU Physics. We
appreciate and are very proud of each and every contribution. - Robert J. Nemanich Professor and Chair |
In the News... Congratulations to Professor Michael Treacy 
who was awarded the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences'
Distinguished Teaching Award. Treacy received the award in
recognition of his outstanding success in the classroom and the high
regard in which he is held by students. Treacy has previously received
the Department of Physics' Outstanding Teaching Award.The Seventh International Symposium on Semiconductor Light Emitting Devices was held in Phoenix from April 27-May 2, 2008. This is the first ISSLED symposium to be held in the United States. The symposium was chaired by ASU Physics Professor Fernando Ponce and featured an opening talk by Shuji Nakamura of UCSB and formerly of the Nichia Corporation. ISSLED deals with the basic science behind light emitting devices, and in the past has focused on blue LEDs and laser diodes. The focus is now shifting toward green and UV light emitters. Congratulations to Professor Ponce and the International Advisory Committee on a successful conference. ASU Physics Professor Joseph Comfort has been elected as President Elect of the Academic Assembly  and Senate of the Tempe campus. Comfort will rotate through a
3-year cycle from President Elect to President, and finally Past
President. With faculty approval of a new Constitution and Bylaws, a
change is being made from senates on each of the four ASU campuses to a
university-wide senate. The groups of three presidents from each campus
will be members of the University Academic Council, which takes on the
role of an executive committee for the combined Assembly.Congratulations to 2008 Summer Graduate Research Fellowship recipients. Each recipient will receive a $4000 stipend to perform guided research this summer with their respective mentors. This year's recipients are: Shuai Chang, Jay Matthews, Jianheng Liu, Lang Yu, Alexander Fuhrmann, Jie Zhang, Rui Wang, Zhi Guo, Steven Summers and Ti Li. Congratulations to ASU Physics graduate student Shuai Chang who has been accepted to participate in the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) program this summer. The DAAD program invites bachelors, masters, and PhD students from the U.S. and Canada to participate in a professional summer internship program in Germany. Program placements provide students the opportunity to live and work in an international context, to gain confidence in their practical and professional skills, and to improve their German. The internship should be a source of mutual cultural and professional enrichment for both the interns and their host companies. Through the internship, Chang will conduct detailed work involving the use of reflectometry to characterize thin film adsorption as well as rewriting of software for data acquisition. Chang is a member of Professor Robert Nemanich's lab at ASU. Congratulations to Professor Timothy Newman of the Center for Biological Physics who has been awarded a Human Frontier Science Foundation grant. Newman's proposal, entitled Gastrulation in the Chick Embryo: a Quantitative Study Using Live Imaging and Computer Modeling, was selected from an initial pool of 774 pre-proposals and was one of only 18 to be funded. The $750K award will be shared between ASU and Newman's collaborators at the University of Dundee. |
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2007-2008 Award Recipients
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Keep in touch and
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Carson
Ballroom of Old Main. ASU Physics Chair Robert Nemanich welcomed the
audience of about 150 including faculty, staff, students,
administrators, and friends and family of ASU Physics. 
regalia.
The hooding ceremony was a new addition to the event this year. The
department plans to continue the hooding tradition at next year's
ceremony.
provides
instructional support to labs and lectures in the ASU Physics. 
During the luncheon, ASU Physics Chair Robert Nemanich presented Cook
with a certificate and a monetary award. Jackson's mother Mary, brother
Tom, and nephew Timothy were on hand to congratulate Cook.
Both
scientists are veteran faculty at ASU with distinguished records of
teaching and service.
f
Illinois. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University.
Sankey is recognized as an international authority in computational
condensed matter physics particularly for his work in molecular dynamics
and electronic structure. Recently, Sankey's research efforts have
expanded to include biological physics as core faculty in the 
or
nuclear physics research; and (3) a new “frozen spin” polarized
cryogenic hydrogen target, “FROST.” The combination of polarized photons
and polarized protons will allow access to information about the
distribution of angular momentum within the proton. 
From
the Chair