From the 2012 Physics Alumni Newsletter
This past year has been an excellent one for the Physics Department. Our students and faculty have received a number of awards including a Rhodes Scholarship for graduating senior Brandon Turner, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for graduating senior Claire McLellan and WFU graduate student Jeremy Ward, and a Fulbright Research Scholarship (in Germany) for graduating senior Soham Banerjee. In late April a public talk by Nobel Laureate William Phillips was sponsored by the Society of Physics Students in conjunction with the Physics Department, and two physics conferences, were held on the WFU campus. Some details on these and other activities and awards are given below.
Our graduation rates continue to be relatively high. This past year we had 17 graduating seniors, one student who graduated with an MS in Physics, and 8 Ph.D. recipients. Our tradition of undergraduate research continues. Last year over 30 undergraduate students engaged in research with our faculty. If you look around Olin, you will see posters and publications in our halls bearing the names of both our undergraduate and graduate students. You can also read about some of the students and their research projects at http://www.wfu.edu/physics/profiles/profiles.html
We are very happy to have a new scholarship for students applying to the University who intend to major in Physics. Its purpose is to help recruit students from the state of North Carolina. It has been generously endowed by alumnus Dr. Randall D. Ledford ’72 and is the second scholarship for prospective physics majors that he has endowed. The new scholarship has also been partially supported through the generosity of a number of other Physics alumni. We thank them for their support. See http://www.wfu.edu/academics/physics/news/20/11f-12s/ledford/announcement.html for more information.
After many years of turnover of the faculty due to retirements and promotions, and a slight expansion in the staff (addition of a Business Manager in 2009), we have had a quiet year with only one change. Our Staff Assistant Gale Burns retired in March after serving the Physics Department for ten years. She has been a valuable member of our Department, who will be remembered for her dedication and hard work, and for taking excellent care of the weekly seminar teas, and other social events in the Department. We thank her for making the Department a pleasant place to work. She has been replaced (in July) by Heather Chapman, the wife of Eric Chapman our Instructional Resources Manager. We are very happy to have Heather working with us.
Professor Oana Jurchescu was awarded a Wake Forest University Faculty Endowment Fund Fellowship. This award is for a two-year period, from July 1, 2012-June 30, 2014, and is in recognition of the outstanding work that she does in the classroom, in research, and in service. She also received the Physics Department Excellence in Teaching Award at the Department’s May awards ceremony.