From the 2017 Physics Alumni Newsletter
The Physics Department continues to do well and our students and faculty continue to win prestigious awards.
Last April, Keith Bonin received the Academic Leadership Award from the College Board of Visitors. Keith is the first recipient of this award. The Dean’s Office Digest says “This award recognizes Keith as a leader who embodies the best qualities of academic leadership, not only of managerial skills, but of institutional vision and an abiding commitment to academic excellence, diversity, and inclusion, classroom innovation, and commitment to students and the Wake Forest community.” When he presented the award, John Cooper, chair of the College Board of Visitors, said in part, “Tonight, the College Board of Visitors honors Dr. Keith Bonin, professor and chair of the Department of Physics, for your outstanding leadership of a vital and thriving department, your advocacy for students, your work to develop a climate where faculty do their best work, and for your visionary leadership and its impact on the college and its future.” Keith has been heavily involved in the effort to start an engineering program at Wake Forest and chaired the search committee that hired four faculty members in engineering including the new department chair. In this context, Cooper remarked to Keith that “Your fingerprints are all over Wake Downtown including the long-term vision to create an engineering department.”
In February, Oana Jurchescu received the Kulynych Family Omicron Delta Kappa Award at the Wake Forest University Founders’ Day Convocation. The Kulynych Family Omicron Delta Kappa Award was established in 1982 by the Wake Forest Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa to recognize an outstanding faculty member who bridges the gap between the classroom and student life. The recipient must contribute beyond the expected duties of teaching and research. The award is named to honor the life and contributions of Wake Forest University Lifetime Trustee, Petro Kulynych, and his family.
This past winter, undergraduate Angela Harper was named a Churchhill Scholar. As a result, she will be studying at the University of Cambridge during the next academic year. Angela is the first WFU student to receive this honor and one of only 15 recipients this year. She was also awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), and opportunities for international research and professional development. Angela has worked with Jacque Fetrow and Oana Jurchescu (separately), and spent the summer of 2016 at Cornell University working with Prof. Paulette Clancy, performing computer simulations on solar cells.
At the Physics Department’s annual awards ceremony last April, a new award called the Outstanding Service Award, which honors a Physics faculty member for distinguished service, was given to Keith Bonin for the incredible service he has provided to the Department over the past ten years as chair. Eric Carlson received the Physics Department Excellence in Teaching Award. Graduate student Ryan Godwin won the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, and senior Angela Harper received the Speas Award.
The number of students in our Department remains high. This fall we have 17 juniors, and 26 seniors for a total of 53 majors. There are also 29 graduate students. Our tradition of undergraduate research continues. Last year, more than 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 .