From the 2015 Physics Alumni Newsletter
As in previous years some of our faculty have received awards. Oana Jurchescu was awarded Wake Forest University’s 2015 Excellence in Research Award at Founder’s Convocation on Feb. 19, 2015. This award recognizes the wonderful achievements of a faculty member who is an Assistant Professor or early in an Associate Professor position at Wake Forest University. She was also recently promoted to Associate Professor. Timo Thonhauser was awarded the Reid-Doyle Prize for Excellence in Teaching at Founder’s Convocation. This award recognizes the dedication and high quality of teaching by a faculty member who is an Assistant Professor or early in an Associate Professor position at Wake Forest University. It is Wake Forest’s highest teaching award for junior faculty members. And, David Caroll has received the Innovation Award from Wake Forest Innovations for his contributions to the field of alternative energy.
Some of our students have also received awards. Graduate student Wenxiao Huang, together with his collaborators from the University of Connecticut, made it to the final four in the BASF 150th Anniversary North American Science Competition. BASF is the world’s largest chemical producer. Graduate Students Nicholas Lepley and Evan Welchman took first and second place respectively for the Reynolda Campus in the Graduate Research Day Three Minute Thesis Competition on March 20. And senior Derek Fogel won the Best Presentation Award in the undergraduate session at the APS March Meeting that took place this year in San Antonio, Texas.
At the Physics Department’s annual awards ceremony last April Professor Martin Guthold received the Physics Department Excellence in Teaching Award. Graduate students Stephen Baker and Wei Li won the Outstanding Teaching Assistant award, graduate student Jeremy Ward won the Outstanding Peer Mentor award, and senior Abdulmalik Obaid received the Speas award. This fall he will be a graduate student at Stanford University.
From left to right, front row: Stephen Baker, Wei Li. From left to write back row: Keith Bonin, Jeremy Ward, Martin Guthold, Abdulmalik Obaid.
The number of students in our Department remains high. This fall we will have 2 sophomores, 29 juniors, and 25 seniors for a total of 56 majors. There will also be 38 graduate students. Our tradition of undergraduate research continues. Last year more than 35 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 .