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Browse Dimensions, the Physics & Astronomy Newsletter |
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April, 2008 — Prem Kumar is the recipient of a Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) for 2008-09. The Distinguished Lecturer Awards program is designed to honor excellent speakers who have made technical, industrial or entrepreneurial contributions of high quality to the field of lasers and electro-optics, and to enhance the technical programs of LEOS chapters. Eight Lecturers are selected each year with some Lecturerships extended for a second term. Each Lecturer is provided with travel reimbrusement to give a minimum of six lectures at LEOS chapters. Recipients need not be members of the IEEE or LEOS. March, 2008 — Horace Yuen, along with Jeffrey Shapiro of MIT, will jointly receive the 2008 Quantum Electronics Award from the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) of the IEEE. Their citation for the Award will read: "For pioneering and seminal contributions to the theory of the generation, detection, and applications of novel states of light". The Award will be presented at the 2008 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics to be held in San Jose, California. The Quantum Electronics Award is given to honor an individual (or group of individuals) for outstanding technical contributions to quantum electronics, either in fundamentals or applications, or both. The Award may be for a single contribution or for a distinguished series of contributions over a long period of time. Candidates need not be members of the IEEE or LEOS. The Award consists of an honorarium of $4,000 and a medal. March, 2008 — Undergraduate student Ryosuke Kita has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship for 2008-09. Ryosuke is a student in Northwestern's Integrated Sciences Program, majoring in Earth and Planetary Sciences, who has been conducting research in the area of extrasolar planet dynamics under the supervision of Prof. Fred Rasio. Goldwater Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit from mathematics, science, and engineering programs nationwide. The scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established by an act of Congress in November 14, 1986, to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, and it is now the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. March, 2008 — We hear that Andy Richter (PhD 2000, advisor Pulak Dutta) and David Marasco (PhD 2002, advisor Michael Bedzyk) have been promoted to Associate Professor at Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, Indiana) and Foothill College (Los Altos, California), respectively. December, 2007 — It was recently announced that Professor Mel Ulmer has been designated a Fellow of the SPIE (Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers). December, 2007 — Graduate student Anastasios ("Tassos") Fragkos is the recipient of a Northwestern Presidential Fellowship for 2008-2010. His research focuses on the formation and evolution of binary stellar systems which include a black hole or a neutron star, known as X-ray binaries. He performs simulations of whole populations of X-ray binaries in order to interpret observations from space-based X-ray observatories and to understand how the properties of the host galaxies affect the formation and evolution of these populations. His thesis advisor is Vicky Kalogera. October, 2007 — Our own Schmidt and Schmitt (Arthur and Michael) recently appeared on the web sites for Channel 2 News and Fermilab, respectively, as part of educational outreach programs. Check out these links: October, 2007 — Vicky Kalogera is the winner of the 2008 Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. The award is given by the American Physical Society to recognize outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert-Mayer. The award consists of $2,500 plus a $4,000 travel allowance to provide opportunities for the recipient to give lectures at four institutions and at the annual meeting of the Society. September, 2007 — New faculty. We are pleased to have three new faculty joining us this Fall: May, 2007 — ASG Teaching Awards. Michael Schmitt and David Meyer have recently won recognition from the student body for their teaching. To quote the letters they received: "The Associated Student Government is pleased to inform you that you have been selected by the Northwestern student body as one of the outstanding Faculty of the Year for 2006-2007." May, 2007 — Teaching Awards. Mike Smutko is the recipient of a 2006-07 Arts and Sciences Alumni Teaching Award. Fred Rasio has received the 2006-07 Research Mentor Award from the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences in recognition of his outstanding record as a mentor of undergraduates. April, 2007 — Physics majors Yoni Kahn and James Kath have been named as Goldwater Scholars for 2007-08. Kahn, a junior, has been working in Prof. Michael Schmitt's research group on a new experiment to search for dark matter. This summer he will go to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, to continue his research in particle physics. Yoni is a joint major in Physics and Music Performance. Kath, a sophomore, was until recently working with Prof. Kalogera on a project related to the age determination of stellar clusters using cooling processes of white dwarfs. He will be joining Prof. John Marko's research group this summer as an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) student. James is a double major in ISP and Physics. Goldwater Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit from mathematics, science, and engineering programs nationwide. The scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established by an act of Congress in November 14, 1986, to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, and it is now the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. March, 2007 — Senior Steve Ehlert has been awarded a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, or German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship for 2007-08. DAAD was founded in 1971 to support academic exchange between the US, Canada, and Germany, and provides fellowships for both graduate and undergraduate students to study in Germany. Steve will be based in Heidelberg, where he will work on the HESS Project (High Energy Stereoscopic System), which is an array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes designed to study cosmic gamma rays in the 100 GeV energy range. Steve intends to enter graduate school in astrophysics after he returns from Germany, most likely at Stanford. February, 2007 — Northwestern graduate Vesna Mitrovic (PhD, 2001) has recently been named a 2007 Sloan Fellow by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Dr. Mitrovic conducted her thesis research in the NMR laboratory of Professor William Halperin, and later was a Research Associate at CNRS in Grenoble, France. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Brown University. Dr. Mitrovic was previously the winner of an NSF Career Award (2006). February, 2007 — Northwestern graduate Sean Fleming (PhD, 1995) has recently been named an Outstanding Junior Investigator by the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Physics. Dr. Fleming conducted his thesis research in particle theory under Prof. Eric Braaten (now at Ohio State), and was a Research Associate at Case Western and the University of Toronto. Dr. Fleming is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, whose research involves the application of QCD theory (Quantum Chromo-Dynamics) to nuclear structure. January, 2006 — Two of our faculty, Fred Rasio and Bill Halperin, have recently had their research highlighted by Northwestern's Newscenter, an on-line newspaper. You can read the full text at: (for Fred Rasio) Triple Interactions of Supermassive Black Holes Found To Be Common In Early Universe, and (for Bill Halperin) Physicists Set 'Speed Limit' for Future Superconducting Magnet. November, 2006 — Hui Cao, John Marko, and Fred Rasio have been elected Fellows of the American Physical Society. The APS Fellowship Program was created to recognize members who have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication or made significant and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology. Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the current membership of the Society can be elected as Fellows. Cao has also been elected a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. June, 2006 — Fred Rasio has been promoted to full Professor with tenure. Professor Rasio joined our faculty in September, 2001, from MIT, where he was an Associate Professor. Rasio works in the areas of general relativity, planetary formation, and compact objects. May, 2006 — Vicky Kalogera has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Professor Kalogera joined our faculty in September, 2001, and works in the area of theoretical astrophysics. May, 2006 — Lecturers Andy Rivers and Mike Smutko have been been elected to the Associated Student Government's (ASG) Faculty Honor Roll for 2006. To recognize faculty in a way that is independent of the administration, the ASG publishes the faculty honor roll using the results from an online survey, to recognize those faculty who have positively affected students' lives. May, 2006 — Graduate student Gabriel Juarez has been chosen as the Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year by the College of Arts & Sciences. This marks the first time that a graduate student from Physics & Astronomy has won this prestigous award. May, 2006 — Sara A. Solla, Professor of Physiology and of Physics & Astronomy, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has also been appointed to the Steering Committee at the KITP for three years. March, 2006 — Graduate student Chunglee Kim has been awarded the 2006 Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister Award by the Association of Women in Science (AWIS) Education Foundation. This award is given annually to an outstanding female graduate student in physics. It is awarded for exceptional academic achievement, the importance of the research being addressed, the quality of the research, and the applicant's potential for future contributions to the field of physics. Ms. Kim is in her final year of working with Prof. Vicky Kalogera on the merger rates of binary pulsars. She expects to graduate in May, 2006, and begin postdoctoral study at Cornell this summer. December, 2005 — Graduate student Paul Cadden-Zimansky has been awarded a Northwestern Presidential Fellowship for 2006-08. These two-year Fellowships are awarded by the Graduate School and funded by the President of the University, and are the most prestigious Fellowships awarded by Northwestern. Paul's thesis advisor is Venkat Chandrasekhar. October, 2005 — Professor Fred Rasio has been named to the editorial staff of the Astrophysical Journal, one of the leading journals in astrophysics. His appointment as Scientific Editor will be for 2005-2008. As Scientific Editor, he will be responsible for handling approximately 200 manuscripts per year. September, 2005 — Professor Hui Cao is the winner of the 2006 Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. The award is given by the American Physical Society to recognize outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert-Mayer. The award consists of $2,500 plus a $4,000 travel allowance to provide opportunities for the recipient to give lectures at four institutions and at the annual meeting of the Society. July, 2005 — Two Northwestern graduates have won CERN Fellowships, the most prestigious particle physics fellowships in Europe. Paolo Rumerio is already working on the Electromagnetic Calorimeter for the LHC CMS experiment. This is the main detector for (Higgs boson —> 2g) decays. Teresa Fonseca did her PhD research at the CERN NA48 experiment, which looks at CP violation in rare kaon decays. Rumerio's and Fonseca's thesis advisors were Jerome Rosen and Mayda Velasco, respectively. June, 2005 — Northwestern graduate Jan Kmetko (PhD, 2003) has been appointed Assistant Professor at Kenyon College. Located in Gambier, Ohio, Kenyon is a prestigious liberal-arts college that enrolls about 1500 students. Kmetko's thesis advisor was Pulak Dutta. June, 2005 — Professor Fred Rasio has been elected to the Associated Student Government's (ASG) Faculty Honor Roll for 2005. The ASG believes that students should award faculty for their positive work in a way that is independent of the administration. Hence, the ASG publishes a faculty honor roll, using the results from an online survey, to recognize those who have positively affected students' lives. April, 2005 — Professor Horace Yuen, who has a joint appointment in Physics & Astronomy and in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has recently been made a Fellow of the American Physical Society. April, 2005 — The research of Professor Venkat Chandrasekhar and graduate student Zhigang Jiang was recently featured in Physical Review Focus, where selected papers are summarized for physics students and general audiences. Chandrasekhar and Jiang have shown that a magnetic field can control the heat flow across a wire loop, thanks to interference between quantum waves. April, 2005 — Senior physics major Mia Ihm has won an NSF Fellowship which will support her PhD studies for three years at U. C. Berkeley. Mia has worked with Professor Vicky Kalogera on understanding gravitational-wave signals from relativisitic binary stars. National Science Foundation Fellowships are awarded to outstanding students who demonstrate the potential to complete graduate degrees in the sciences. April, 2005 — Sophomore physics major Jeffrey Kaplan has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for 2005-06. Jeffrey has been working with Professor Vicky Kalogera on how fast the black holes in black-hole neutron-star binaries spin, and he is also working with Professor Michael Schmitt on the search for narrow di-muon resonances at the Tevatron. Goldwater Scholars are selected on academic merit from a field of over 1000 science and engineering students nominated by colleges and universities nationwide. March, 2005 — Senior physics major Laura Blecha has been awarded a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship to pursue her research on intermediate-mass black holes under the supervision of Sir Martin Rees. She began work in this area with Professor Vicky Kalogera, and it forms the subject of her senior thesis. Laura plans to continue her graduate studies at Caltech after she completes the one-year stay in Cambridge, England. Gates-Cambridge Scholarships are awarded on the basis of a person's intellectual ability, leadership capacity, and desire to contribute to society by providing service to their community. Approximately 100 new scholars are selected annually. February, 2005 — Northwestern graduate Guillaume Gervais (PhD, 2002) has been awarded a Sloan Fellowship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Fellowship is for two years, and carries a $40,000 grant which can be used for any expense related to the Fellow's research. February, 2005 — Professor Vicky Kalogera has been awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award (NSF CAREER Award) in Astronomy. This is one of the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards, and is given in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. CAREER awardees are selected on the basis of creative proposals that effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. January, 2005 — Northwestern graduate Yoonseok Lee (PhD, 1997) has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship for 2004-06. This comes on top of a previous NSF Career Award (2003), and a President's Award from the Association of Korean Physicists in America for Outstanding Young Researcher (2002). Lee is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, where his research interests center on ultra-low-temperature phenomena in strong magnetic fields. Lee's thesis advisor was William Halperin. January, 2005 — Northwestern graduate Guillaume Gervais (PhD, 2002) has been appointed Assistant Professor at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). Professor Gervais is interested in the strongly correlated electronic properties of low-dimensional nanostructured systems. Examples include the fractional quantum Hall effect, anyons, non-abelian quantum statistics, skyrmion crystals, Luttinger liquid behavior, and other quantum-coherent phenomena in quantum dots and wires. Gervais's thesis advisor was William Halperin. October, 2004 — Junior physics major Rebecca Miller has won a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. These scholarships support students in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The award is for $7500. The Goldwater Program awards about 300 scholarships per year in the U.S. and its territories. Rebecca is currently working in a research project that studies high-energy proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Collider Detector (CDF). Her advisor on this project is Michael Schmitt. September, 2004 — Northwestern graduate Vesna Mitrovic (PhD, 2001) has been appointed Assistant Professor at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island). Her research is focussed on quantum phenomena arising in strongly correlated electron systems at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. Specifically, she uses NMR spectroscopy to study quantum magnetism and unconventional superconductivity. Her thesis advisor was William Halperin. June, 2004 — Northwestern graduate Thomas Toellner (PhD, 1996) has received a 2004 Distinguished Performance Award from the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago operates Argonne National Laboratory, where Toellner is a Staff Physicist. Toellner and his co-worker, Wolfgang Sturhahn, are the first scientists to discover and extract the phonon density of states from nuclear resonant scattering data. Their ideas and technical innovations were crucial to the development of nuclear resonant techniques at the Advanced Photon Source and other third-generation synchrotron radiation sources. Toellner's thesis advisor was John Ketterson. May, 2004 — Professor Vicky Kalogera has been awarded a Cottrell Scholar Award (one of 11 granted this year) by the Research Corporation. The Cottrell Awards are designed for young faculty members in PhD-granting astronomy, chemistry, and physics departments in U.S. and Canadian universities. The purpose of the awards is to "enable recipients to implement their plans to become outstanding scientists and educators as well as tomorrow's academic and scientific leaders." May, 2004 — Professor Hui Cao has been awarded a prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She will utilize this award to conduct research on nano-optics at the Max-Planck Institute for Optics, Information, and Photonics in Germany during the 2004-2005 academic year. December, 2003 — Graduate student Chunglee Kim and her advisor, Professor Vicky Kalogera, are part of a team that is receiving considerable attention for their theoretical interpretation of a recently discovered, strongly relativistic, double neutron-star system. The theory was announced on December 4, 2003, in Nature and was featured on the cover. The work has attracted world-wide interest, and articles about it have appeared in other astronomy publications such as Sky & Telescope and Astronomy. Find out more from the Northwestern press release, or from these references! May, 2003 — Northwestern graduate Linda Klamp-Spentzouris (PhD, 1996) has received a National Science Foundation Career Award. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the Foundation’s most prestigious award for new faculty members. The CAREER program supports the early career activities of those scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. The title of Prof. Spentzouris' five-year project is "Particle Beams of the Future", and it is aimed at strengthening the national effort in basic research in particle-beam physics. Klamp-Spentzouris is currently an Assistant Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). March, 2003 — Northwestern graduate Geralyn "Sam" Zeller (PhD, 2002) has been awarded the 2003 Mitsuyoshi Tanaka Dissertation Award. This award recognizes outstanding PhD thesis research in the area of particle physics. Dr. Zeller is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Columbia University, and continues to conduct her research at Fermilab. Her thesis advisor was Heidi Schellman |
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