From the 2017 Physics Alumni Newsletter
As mentioned above, I took over as Chair of the Physics Department on July 1st of this year. When I came to Wake Forest in 1996, Jack Williams had stepped down as Chair several years before and Howard Shields was serving as the Chair of Physics. I remember thinking that nobody could be as good or a better Chair than Howard. Well, Rick Matthews and Keith Bonin both proved me wrong. They all leave big shoes to fill. It is an honor to have this position.
My research has been going well. Two more of my graduate students received their PhD: Xiaohua Liu and Crystal Bolden-Rush. A few undergraduate students also graduated: Emily Kim, Sam Brashears, Daniel Griffin, and Julien-Fabrice Momo. This past summer, Amber Dewitt continued to work in the lab along with Emily Kim (before she leaves for a postbac program) and Aryatara Shakya. Together we published about 10 papers in the past year.
My oldest son, Soleil, is starting the Engineering program at NC State this fall. My other two boys are in 9th and 8th grade. My wife continues to work hard as a pathologist at the medical school. As usual, we are all busy, but enjoyed a great vacation in Oahu.
As we have done for the past couple of years, we have a section below where some of our faculty members briefly describe, as I have just done, highlights of the past year about themselves, either professionally or personally or both.
I want to give special thanks to all of you who designated the Physics Endowment Fund as part of your alumni giving. Many of you hopefully received an email this spring from the Wake Forest Development Office as part of The Source, the title of the current Capital Campaign designed to broaden support for the College’s departments. Many of you have generously responded, and we greatly appreciate your kind support. Your gifts have significantly benefited the faculty and students in the department by enabling us to purchase equipment and supplies for student research, which enhances faculty-student engagement, and for travel of our students to present their work at professional conferences. This enables students to not only network with their peers, but also to develop some of the ‘soft’ skills needed to be successful professionals throughout their careers. In addition, your funding has allowed us to provide lunches at the career advising events for our undergraduate and graduate students; and the funds also support the students who are members of our local chapter of the Society of Physics Students in their activities and events throughout the academic year. The members of the Physics Department and the university community sincerely appreciate the support of our alumni.
Again, we hope to see you on September 16th. Please come and join the fun if you can. We are looking forward to seeing you. If you can’t make it to Homecoming, please drop me a note or give me a call and tell me what you’re up to. If this letter was forwarded to you, please let us know your current address.
Go Deacs!
Daniel Kim-Shapiro
Professor of Physics & Chair