Alumni Updates
September 2024
In 2018 we implemented a new alumni award. The award is given to a Physics Department alumnus for exceptional achievements and/or service. The award is not limited to physics but covers all areas that our alumni excel in.
If you can think of someone to nominate for next year, please send a letter to the Department Chair, Daniel Kim-Shapiro or email (shapiro@wfu.edu) describing why that person is a good candidate for this award. Please send nominations by 12/1/2024. Note that the award will have a modest monetary component.
Alumni News
Richard Whitcomb graduated from WFU in 1988 and 1989 with a BA and an MS working with George Holzwarth. I’ve been living in Atlanta, GA since 1990. I currently work in a family enterprise with my dad and brother and sister. Almost all of my work is in management, budgeting, looking at financial statements, and considering investment opportunities. I’m sorry that a career in science did not work out, but I’ve had a fantastic career and raised four kids, and I’m still married. I spend tons of time in Key West Florida. I fish and play golf and still play ultimate frisbee. I keep up with Wake sports through a fraternity group chat, although I haven’t been back to campus in ten years!
Jason Howard, PhD, graduated in 2018 after working with Dr Natalie Holzwarth. I teach physics at Wake Technical community college while also working part time as a contractor for Argonne National lab. For the lab I perform advanced simulations of advanced battery materials both solid state and molecular. Another thing I had to share is that, although I am trained as a computational physicist, I have found myself in a strange position that I have hybridized more types of basil than anyone in the world. I am in my second year of getting a start-up business going called Basically about Basil. We cultivate fresh basil for sale, sell seeds from our hybrids, and sell basil clones. I am currently working with a horticultural company to commercialize some of our varieties. I like to think of my basil breeding as experiments in “magic” matter physics. Basil is very interesting biologically speaking. Maybe someone in the biology department there would be interested in collaborating on a basil related biology research project? If you know anyone in the biology department, I’d be grateful if you’d mention it. I certainly wish you all the best there. It was a very nice time in my life to study at Wake Forest.
Yonas Abraham, PhD, Class of 2005. After graduating in May 2005, I worked as a researcher at Targacept LLC, a now-defunct drug discovery company in downtown Winston-Salem. In May 2008, I moved to Houston, Texas, to work as a quantitative analyst at Quantlab Financial. I am still working at the same company as the Director of Quantitative Strategy Management.
We have four boys. Benhur graduated from UT Austin with an Electrical Engineering degree and now works as an engineer at NXP in Austin. Siem is a senior at UT Austin studying Biomedical Engineering. Yaphet is a sophomore at Texas A&M in College Station studying Business. Our youngest is Ezra, who is in the 7th grade.
Rhett Herman, PhD, BS Class of 1985. I’ve had a blast with my current research in “MacGyver’ing” microcontroller based sensors for my arctic geophysics work. Every other year, I teach the year-long Arctic Geophysics Research Experience and the pinnacle of that experience is the week that the students spend deploying their sensor creations in Utqiagvik, Alaska, in late February/early March. I’m there for 2 weeks since half the class comes up each week (1-2 students with more involved projects will stay the entire 2 weeks).
I’m sending a couple of pictures along from this past year’s experience and trip. I snapped this “hammer of the gods” moment when one of my students just couldn’t contain himself as he crossed seeing the aurorae off of his bucket list in unfettered fashion. Of course, we get real work done on the sea ice as shown in IMG_6520. And certainly, when all the work is done, we get to take the greatest class picture of them all, right there in 35F-below-zero glory (IMG_6643)! Who woulda thought this as I was sitting in Rick Matthew’s intro physics class 4 decades ago, in the relative warmth and comfort of the downstairs of Salem Hall!
Now, as usual, I had already started to plan for the 2025-2026 Alaska Cycle on the plane ride back from the 2024 Alaska trip. Sign-up is this coming April, so I’ve got to be ready!
Doug Agopsowicz (class of 2003) I am currently working as a Senior Attorney (R&D procurement) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Technology Programs Law Division. Prior to my federal service, I practiced patent law at several law firms in the DC area for over 15 years.
And many other alumni have told us their news. Just go to our Alumni Profile page. Please visit this page to see how people are doing. If you would like to submit your own profile and photo, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!
