Professor Albert Young elected Fellow in APS - 2011.12.08

The Physics Department has learned that Professor Albert Young has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. His citation reads:

"For leading a collaboration that has built a new source of ultra cold neutrons in Los Alamos that leads the world in ultra cold neutron densities and that has performed the first measurements of spin correlations in neutron beta decay using ultra cold neutrons."

Professor Young becomes the twenty-sixth member of the Physics Department Faculty to achieve this distinction.

Ade group post-doc wins poster award at MRS fall meeting - 2011.12.06

John Tumbleston, a postdoctoral associate in the group of Prof. Harald Ade received a $500 poster award at this year's Fall Materials Research Society meeting in Boston. Over the course of the week long meeting, 2400 posters were presented with only 16 awards given. John's poster titled, "Compositional Variations in Nanoimprinted Bulk Heterojunction Organic Photoactive Layers Used in Light Trapping Device Architectures" details recent efforts to determine the morphology of nanomolded plastic solar cells using advanced synchrotron characterization techniques at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) elects Ade and Bernholc to Fellowships - 2011.11.22
Physics Professors Harald Ade (left) and Jerzy Bernholc (right) have been awarded Fellowships is the AAAS, an international organization "dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional organization."

Ade's citation honors his:
"transformational contributions to X-ray microscopy and soft x-ray scattering, and their resulting impact on disciplines ranging from polymer science to environmental science to meteoritics."

Bernholc's citation cites his:
"seminal contributions to the physics of materials, especially C60, nanotubes and semiconductors, and for development of methods that enable calculations of unprecedented size."

Of the prestigious AAAS Fellowships awarded to 224 North Carolina residents, NC State faculty members have garnered 42. Leading all departments at NC State, the Physics Department now boasts six AAAS Fellows.

NCSU Physics professor named a Fellow of the APS - 2011.11.18
The Council of the APS made professor Chueng Ji a Fellow at their November 2011 meeting.

The citation that will appear on the Fellowship Certificate will read:

"For his remarkable and pioneering contributions in QCD applying
light-front dynamics to fundamental aspects of hadron physics,
including spectroscopy, wave functions and form factors."

NCSU Physics' newest faculty addition wins prestigious award - 2011.10.24
Professor John Thomas, who recently moved his research program from Duke University, has won the Jesse W. Beams Award, given by the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society for significant and meritorious research.

Professor Thomas' continuing research is on Fermi gases, using ultracold lithium-6 atoms that interact strongly when exposed to a magnetic field.

The Beams Award has been given every year since 1973 and is named for Jesse Wakefield Beams, who spent most of his career at the University of Virginia, and whose many contributions to the field include constructing the first electron linear accelerator. Beams won the National Medal of Science in 1967.

Three other NC State physics professors have won the Jessie Beams Award:

• Gerald Lucovsky - 2009
• Jerzy Bernholc - 2003
• Gary Mitchell - 1997

NCSU Astrophysics Researcher solves nearly 2000 year old mystery - 2011.10.24
A long time ago, in a part of the galaxy far far away, a star in the constellation Circinus exploded. In 185 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a new "guest star" that appeared in the sky, by the 1960s, scientists determined that this was the first documented supernova and pinpointed its location, and now, in 2011, NC State Astrophysicist researcher Brian Williams tells us why it exploded, and why it's so large.

Brian, along with colleagues, took infrared observations with NASA's Spitzer Telescope at Caltech, and WISE, and previous data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Observatory to arrive at the solutions. To read more about this, please visit the Spitzer Telescope news page about Brian's findings. This new story can also be found on NCSU's news page.

Ade Group featured in Annual Report of national research lab - 2011.10.12
Professor Harald Ade's research group has been featured in the 2010 annual report[PDF] of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Their work is 1 of just a few to make it into the Highlights portion. The work of former group member Cheng Wang is also featured in the publication (article starts on page 5, photo page 6).

Current Post-doctoral Researcher Brian Collins gave one of the few plenary talks at the recent (October 4, 2011) ALS user meeting.

NCSU Musical History Made at Memorial Bell Tower - 2011.10.12
Chris Gould, Associate Dean of Administration and Physics Professor, made NCSU Musical History this past Monday, October 11. He sat in a small basement room in Holladay Hall and played NC State's Alma Mater on a small keyboard control unit for the Belltower's carillon. What makes this a historic event is the fact that this system has not played music in over 20 years.

More about this story can be found on the NCSU's alumni blog page.

Robert Beichner is a recipient of the McGraw Prize - 2011.09.23
Professor Robert Beichner has been named a recipient of the 2011 McGraw Prize in Education. The McGraw Prize in Education annually recognizes outstanding individuals who have dedicated themselves to education innovation. Honorees are chosen by a distinguished Board of Judges from the education community and receive a gift of $50,000.

The Prize was established in 1988 to honor the late Harold W. McGraw, Jr.'s lifelong commitment to education and to mark the Corporation's 100th anniversary. More about this story can be found a the PAMS College's news page.

Graduate program director to speak on Triangle Science Radio - 2011.09.16
Professor Harald Ade, director of Graduate programs and NC State physics, will be on Radio In Vivo on October 12. Dr. Ade will be talking about The physics of organic solar cells and light-emitting diodes, new methods of analyzing the composition, morphology and structure of polymeric and electronic materials at the sub-micron scale. Radio In Vivo is a radio program dedicated to Science in the Research Triangle at 11am-noon on FM 103.5 (WCOM).

UPDATE - 10/12/2011: The show is now online - go to radioinvivo.net, click on the "Program Schedule/Archive" link on the home page, scroll all the way to the bottom of that page, and you'll see the link to the podcast and some other pertinent links.

NC State Physicist "boxes up" subatomic particles - 2011.09.09
NCState Physics Professor Dean Lee, along with collaborators, have published a paper in Physical Review Letters showing that subatomic structure and spin can be probed by simulating a finite cube of space with a periodic boundary.

Read more about this at NCSU's "Abstract" pages

NC State Physicists put "a new spin on an old technology" - 2011.09.06
Collections of nanofibers are useful in such applications as water filtration and tissue regeneration due to their porous nature and light weight. Currently, a relatively inexpensive production process called needle electrospinning is used. This time-intensive process, however, does not lend itself to large-scale manufacturing.

NC State physicists Dr. Laura Clarke and Dr. Jason Bochinski, along with colleagues from engineering and textiles, have found a simple techniques that scales up nanofiber production by 40-fold in a process that is closely connected to needle electrospinning called bowl electrospinning.

Read more about this new technique on the NCSU news pages

More information, and further reading, can also be found on the Clarke group website

NC Space Grant Fellowship to Physics Grad student Eric Raymer - 2011.08.02
Eric Raymer was awarded an NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue his research of Supergiant Fast X-Ray Transients. Eric is developing large-scale hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the dynamics of wind accretion onto a neutron star to explain the observational properties of SFXTs and other high-mass X-ray binary star systems

Link to article on the Blondin Research Group website

Keith Warren elected to PIRA Presidency Cycle - 2011.08.02
Physics Senior Lecturer Keith Warren has been elected as Vice President of PIRA, the Physics Instructional Resource Association. PIRA is an association of professionals dedicated to the support and advancement of physics education. The Association works together and in alliance with physics educators and support specialists to develop effective teaching tools and techniques to aid and promote physics education. One of PIRA's most important contributions to physics education is the PIRA Demonstration Bibliography, a system that Keith was instrumental in developing when he was director of the Physics Department Demonstration Room. As VP for 2011/2012, Keith will advance to President-elect in 2012/2013 and then President in 2013/2014.

Barriers to Physics Education: Editorial published in News and Observer by Professor David Haase and colleague - 2011.07.12
Many states look to North Carolina and its Research Triangle Park as the model for attracting high-technology industries. But a recent report from the American Institute of Physics says that the state lags badly in preparing its own K-12 students to succeed in college majors in science and engineering that lead to well-paid careers at Research Triangle Park and elsewhere.

Here is the editorial as published in the News and Observer on July 8th, 2011.

John Thomas to join faculty - 2011.07.11
The NC State Physics Department is delighted to announce that Dr. John Thomas will be joining its faculty as a Professor. Dr. Thomas is an atomic physicist who is currently the Fritz London Professor of Physics at Duke University.

While he has investigated a wide variety of systems over the years, Professor Thomas' recent work centers on the study of trapped ultracold atomic Fermi gases. His research on these very fundamental systems - which began in 1997 and continues to this day - has had a significant impact on several areas of physics, ranging from condensed matter physics to nuclear physics and string theory. The cold dilute Fermi gas, first created in his laboratory in 2002, has become a new paradigm for strongly interacting quantum fluids.

The discovery is described in a 2002 Science paper first-authored by one of Professor Thomas' students, Ken O'Hara. This pivotal work includes a false-color image of an expanding gas cloud that has become an iconic image, reproduced in review articles, popular science journals, and on conference posters. The Science paper is now recognized as one of the foundational papers of the physics of cold Fermi gases.

Professor Thomas' experimental results have raised the question whether there are any fundamental limitations on fluidity, in particular, whether a very strongly correlated quantum fluid can have zero viscosity. A conjectured answer to this question has recently emerged from string theory. Based on calculations of non-equilibrium properties of black holes, string theorists have been able to determine a lower limit to viscosity. Professor John Thomas' experiments indicate that the cold Fermi gas comes within a factor of 1-4 of the proposed bound, thus suggesting that the Fermi gas trapped in his laboratory is the best fluid ever observed. These results have important implications on the intriguing connections between black holes, ultra-cold Fermi gases, and the hot plasma associated with the Big Bang.

Professor Thomas will join the Physics Department faculty this summer and will begin teaching in the fall semester.

Here is an article on Dr. Thomas' work.

Alum's Company wins R&D Award - 2011.07.11
Calabas Creek Research, a company founded by NC State Physics alumnus and Physics Advisory Board Member Lawrence Ives, has won R&D Magazine's research product award. The Award is for a cathode developed by the company that provides electron sources with the most uniform current emission yet attained and have four times the lifetime of current products. Dr. Ives is also currently working with Physics Department Professor Gerald Lucovsky on new vacuum window products for plasma systems.

More on the NCSU Alumni blog can be found here..

Physics graduate student becomes "Dirt Whisperer" - 2011.07.07
Physics Graduate Student Eli Owens, working with Assistant Professor Karen Daniels, is researching how energy, in the form of sound, might travel up force chains of compressed granular materials. The sounds might lead to a better understanding of the distribution, and thus perhaps the stability, of the granular material.

More on Eli Owens' and Dr. Daniels work can be found here.

Professor Emeritus Raymond Murray passes away - 2011.06.23
The first head of an independent Physics Department at NC State, Professor Raymond L. Murray, died on 22 June in Raleigh. From the Manhattan Project to the Three Mile Island recovery, Murray took part in milestones of nuclear engineering and atomic power.

When the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, or PAMS, was created in 1960, the Physics Department separated from Nuclear Engineering and became independent of the College Engineering. At that time, Professor Murray became the first Head of this new PAMS department. He headed the Physics Department from 1960 to 1963 when he became head of Nuclear Engineering. Professor Murray was instrumental in the construction and operation of the Burlington Reactor, the first nuclear reactor on a college campus in the world.

Here is a link to NCSU New's story on Dr. Murray.

Computationalists announce important results - 2011.06.20
In a recent press release that garnered nationwide coverage, members of the Physics Department announced a major development in the study of Parkinson's disease. The work - published in Nature Scientific Reports - is based on the work of graduate student Frisco Rose. Working closely with Research Assistant Professor Miroslav Hodak, Rose focused on a certain protein associated with the disease and other degenerative illnesses. In its usual form, this protein is long and straight. In patients with Parkinson's disease, on the other hand, the protein forms clumps. Experimental investigations failed to determine the cause for this change in morphology, but the computer simulations of Rose and co-workers tracked the changes in the protein and determined where the molecular changes begin. Professor Jerzy Berhnolc, director of the university's Center for High Performance Simulation, or CHiPS, also participated in the study.

Here is a link to NCSU New's story on Frisco's work. There is also a story about this research on the Department of Energy's website as well.

Collapsing DNA work cited as exceptional - 2011.06.17
Collapsing DNA work cited as exceptional. Recently published work undertaken by Physics PhD student Chunda Zhou has been cited has an Editor's Selection by the journal Physical Review Letters (PRL). Highlighted by the American Physical Society (APS) as "exceptional research", the work on collapsing DNA was directed by NC State Physics Assistant Professor Robert Riehn. Working with colleagues from McGill, UCLA and Princeton, the work reports that double stranded DNA collapses in the presence of an AC electric field at frequencies of a few hundred Hertz. The APS reported on the investigation in a press release stating that the research suggests that intermediate frequency fields allow large segments of the molecule, but not its entire length, to become polarized. This polarization causes charge to pile up at bends or clumps, which then attract one another, leading to collapse.

NCSU Physicists participate in 2011 National Nuclear Physics Summer School - 2011.06.17
The 2011 National Nuclear Physics Summer School (NNPSS) is hosted by the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) and held on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. NC State Physics faculty participating in the School include Chris Gould, Paul Huffman, Dave Haase, Gary Mitchell, Bob Golub, and Albert Young. The School will run for two weeks from June 20 - July 1, 2011.

The NNPSS provides broad coverage of the research topics at the frontier of nuclear physics. The School program is designed to give graduate students and postdocs an opportunity to gain a broad perspective of the field and to help foster a community of young scientists across areas of specialization in the field. The School gives young physicists opportunities to interact with and learn from leaders in the field.

There are 63 participants (graduate students and postdocs) registered for the School this year. The attendees are from 32 different US universities and one national laboratory and include five participants from foreign institutions.

Physics students, postdocs and faculty in the Triangle Area are welcome to attend the lectures and seminars. Information about the School can be found at the NNPSS website.

Professor Rowe wins Nerken Award of the AVS - 2011.05.23
The Physics Deaprtment has learned that Research Professor Jack E. Rowe is the 2011 recipient of the AVS Albert Nerken Award. Created Veeco Instruments, Inc. in 1984, the Nerken Award recognizes a researcher with an outstanding record of sustained (5 years or more) contributions to the solution of technological problems of interest to the AVS. The citation on this national award reads "For his fundamental role in the development of electron energy loss spectroscopy, photoemission and synchrotron radiation techniques and their applications to surface and interface studies".

Here's the story on the PAMS news site.

• A review of the paper
• A NC State Press Release
• Eureka Alert
• Science News
• Physorg.com
• Bonn and Bochum Press Release
• AstroBio.net
• Science Daily
• Another story at Physorg.com
• The Photonist

John S. Risley Distinguished Professorship endowed - 2011.05.12
At a ceremony in Riddick Hall on May 11, the Physics Department announced the establishment of the John S. Risley Distinguished Professorship in Physics. Dean Daniel Solomon and Department Head Michael Paesler recognized Professor Risley's contributions to the Department, the College and the University and thanked John and his wife Dellaine for their generosity in establishing this endowed chair. A member of the Physics Department for more than a third of a century, John Risley is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his work in atomic physics. John shifted his focus to Physics Education Research in the 1990's and was awarded a Distinguished Service Citation from the American Association of Physics Teachers largely for his work in developing on-line homework systems. Spinning off these efforts as a separate corporation in 1997, John developed this effort and this company as the world’s premier delivery vehicle for on-line homework called WebAssign.

CLick here for the PAMS College announcement

Kneller wins DOE Career award - 2011.05.10
Assistant Professor of Physics James Kneller has won an award through the Department of Energy's 2011 Early CAREER Research Program. In the national competition, fewer than 6% of 1150 submitted proposals were successful. The five year $750k award made by the DOE Office of Nuclear Physics is for work entitled "The Neutrino: A Better Understanding through Astrophysics."

Neutrinos are important elementary particles found in hot and dense environments, such as the core-collapse supernovae that one finds in the cosmos. Current understanding of the neutrino is incomplete and the signal from the next Galactic supernova is uncertain. By studying the behavior of neutrinos in existing supernovae and in other similar hot/dense environments, one can investigate enigmatic Galactic supernova neutrino burst signals. The goal of Professor Kneller’s project is to prepare for the detection of neutrinos from the next Galactic supernova, and to anticipate how these future observations can be used to improve our understanding of neutrinos.

Dougherty receives NSF Career award - 2011.05.05
NC State Physics' Assistant Professor Daniel Dougherty has received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.

The full story can be found on the PAMS web site.

Weninger group article most read. - 2011.05.05
A paper, published at cell.com by members of the Weninger research group is featured as the most read / downloaded article for the 30 days preceding May 12, 2011.

Professor Buongiorno-Nardelli's graphene studies featured in Science Daily. - 2011.04.25
Investigations of the latest "wonder material" graphene has been highlighted in the national science press as Science Daily reported on April 18, 2011 of important advances made by Physics Professor Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli. According to the article, "Graphene's structure is what makes it promising for electronics. Because of the way its carbon atoms are arranged, its electrons are very mobile. Mobile electrons mean that a material should have high conductivity. But NC State physicist Dr. Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli and NC State electrical and computer engineer Dr. Ki Wook Kim wanted to find a way to study the behavior of real graphene and see if this was actually the case." Their work showed that the conductivity of graphene decreases significantly when more than one layer is present. Professor Buongiorno- Nardelli stresses that he and his NC State colleagues are turning their attention to remedying this problem. The
research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the DARPA-CERA program.

Dale Sayers wins Compton Award - 2011.04.21
Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source has selected Edward Stern, Dale Sayers (posthumously), Farrell Lytle, and John Rehr as recipients of the 20111 Arthur H. Compton Award. The Award is made in recognition of their invaluable contributions to the understanding and application of x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and their resulting impact on world-leading science. Professor Sayers, a member of the Physics Department from 1976 until his untimely death in 2004, was one of the pioneers in the field of x-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Here is a link to the story at the PAMS college web site.

Senior Melissa Fender awarded PAMS Graduating Senior Research Award - 2011.04.17
Melissa Fender has been awarded the 2011 PAMS Graduating Senior Research Award in recognition of her outstanding research record. For the past 3 years, she has conducted research in the lab of Dr. Karen Daniels, studying the universal shapes formed by interacting cracks. This work culminated in an article in Physical Review Letters, and she has presented her work at the 2009 and 2011 APS March Meeting and at the 2011 Dynamics Days. Last summer, she participated in an REU at the University of Chicago, where she investigated the topology of particle packing on curved surfaces. Melissa was the 2010 recipient of the Physics Department's McCormick Award. She will be returning to the University of Chicago this fall to pursue a PhD in physics.

Hellmut Fritzsche to deliver Sayers Lecture. - 2011.04.15
The Fifth annual D.E. Sayers Lecture will be delivered by Professor Emeritus Hellmut Fritzsche on April 25 at 4 PM in the Sayers Auditorium. Professor Fritzsche, a long time colleague of Professor Sayers, is the former Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago. His studies of amorphous semiconductors dating back several decades overlapped significantly with the early EXAFS work pioneered by Professor Sayers.

The title and abstract of Professor Fritzsche's presentation are:

The Other Side of Science
The desire to understand nature around us and the forces that condition our lives and our environment is fundamental to human survival. But so is our ability of denial, of following false prophets; if our desire for understanding is so strong one wonders why mankind has made so little progress eradicating prejudice, superstition and self-delusion. We scientists believe we are untouched by any of these irrational human weaknesses, after all, we live in the world of science. I will explore with a number of examples the other side of science, a side we don't talk about. There are temptations and forces which significantly slow down the progress of science. These follow some patterns which are worth illuminating.

Physics Department hosted successful GRB conference March 2011 - 2011.04.12
NCSU Physics hosted the first Gamma-ray Bursts conference this past March. Approximately 80 scientists from as far as China and Japan attended the conference. It was a great success.

Lewis Guignard wins 2011 McCormick Award - 2011.03.31
Lewis Guignard is the winner of this year's McCormick Award for Undergraduate Research in Physics. He has worked under Dr. Harald Ade for almost two years, studying diffusion in materials of interest for photovoltaics. He most recently presented his research at the APS March Meeting in Dallas. He will receive his award and describe his work in a talk titled "Diffusion: Paving the Way to a Better Plastic Solar Cell" at the Physics Undergraduate Research Symposium, 4 pm on Monday, May 2, in Riddick Hall, room 301.

Physics Grad Student wins 3^rd place in poster session - 2011.03.22
The sixth annual graduate student research symposium was held on March 21, 2011. Somsubhra Maity, who works in the Clarke Research Group, won third place for his research poster entitled "Use of embedded metal nanoparticles as photothermal heaters in polymer nanocomposites".

Physics Professor Emeritus' work cited - 2011.03.19
Each year the Journal of Chemical Physics cites several of the papers appearing on its pages as being among "...the most innovative and influential articles in the field of chemical physics." Their recently selected listing of "notable articles" that present ground-breaking research include a paper co-authored by NC State faculty member Professor emeritus Fred Lado. The work, entitled "Effects of patch size and number within a simple model of patchy colloids," appeared in J. Chem. Phys. 132, 174110 (2010). Co-authored with colleagues from Italy and Spain, the work involves computer simulation and integral equation methods applied to so-called patchy colloids. A rich variety of structures in crystal and fluid phases is found as the patch coverage is varied.

Physics graduate student wins research award - 2011.03.16
Ruoyi Qiu, a 4th year graduate student in the Weninger research group , won the "2011 Student Research Award" at the 55th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society in Baltimore. This is a selective award, for which there are only 20 winners out of 309 participants.

Ruoyi presented results of his single molecule FRET studies of the conformational dynamics of a protein essential for repair of DNA errors. He has discovered unexpected conformational changes during the process whereby this protein identification of a single DNA base mismatch. His discoveries inform modeling of how this protein can activate cellular repair pathways that can correct flaws in DNA. Failures of this system are linked to several types of cancer.

New Atomic Force Microscope Supports Advanced Materials Research and Education - 2011.02.17
Over winter break a new Atomic Force Microscope (or "AFM") was installed in Riddick Hall. This microscope measures the variations in small forces on a sharp probe as it moves over a sample surface to map out nanometer-scale variations in surface topography. The capability to "see" surfaces at the nanoscale is crucial to cutting edge research topics like the development of low cost solar cells, self-assembly of molecular monolayers, and biomaterials characterization. In addition, experience with advanced instrumentation like AFM is crucial to training and inspiring the next generation of physicists. The new AFM will be an important part of nanomaterials training for graduate students and also a part of the Physics Department's "senior lab" course that gives students the opportunity to work on advanced independent projects. This instrument was acquired as part of the Physics department's Education and Research Lab (EaRL) that is currently under construction.

For more details, email Dan_Dougherty@ncsu.edu.

Professor Robert Beichner named ACE Fellow - 2011.01.24
Robert Beichner, Alumni Association Undergraduate Professor of Physics, has been named an American Council on Education Fellow for the 2010-2011 academic year. Begun in 1965, the ACE Fellows Program allows participants to focus on an issue of concern to the nominating institution while spending a semester working with a university president and senior officer at a host institution.

Bilal Gokce wins poster award - 2011.01.20
Bilal Gokce, who works in Dr. Kenan Gundogdu's research group, won the award for the best poster at the Southeast Ultrafast Conference, which was held in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, January 13-14. Mr. Gokce's poster was selected out of over 30 competing research posters at the nonlinear optics conference.

Assistant Professor Daniel Dougherty wins National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award - 2011.01.14
The Division of Materials Research of the NSF has announced that Physics Department Assistant Professor Daniel has won a coveted CAREER Award. This five-year supported award will allow Dr. Dougherty to pursue studies in the physics of solid surfaces and in particular in pushing the spectroscopic capabilities of the scanning tunneling microscope for versatile nanomaterials characterization. Current research topics undertaken in the Dougherty laboratory include investigations of spin transport in organic films, structure, morphology, and electronic properties at organic semiconductor interfaces, and the growth and electronic characterization of nanoporous metal-ligand surface networks.

Professor Richard Mowat wins Martin Teaching Award - 2011.01.14
The College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences has awarded the 2010/2011 LeRoy and Elva Martin Award for Teaching Excellence to Physics Professor Richard Mowat. The annual award is given to a professor in the College to recognize excellence in teaching at the graduate and/or undergraduate levels. Professor Mowat was recognized for his teaching of gateway courses, particularly in the 205/208 sequence "Physics for Scientists and Engineers." In addition to his classroom teaching, over the past several years, Professor Mowat has developed an on-line version of the course which has been widely used and has become the department’s most successful on-line course.

Professor Jacqueline Krim wins Innovation Award - 2011.01.13
Based on her previous and ongoing accomplishments in the field of nanotribology, Professor Jacqueline Krim of the Physics Department has been awarded an American Competitiveness and Innovation (ACI) Fellowship by the National Science Foundation. The ACI Fellowship includes a special Creativity Extension to her NSF Division of Materials Research Program. The citation recognizing the Fellowship reads: “For her outstanding contribution to understanding friction at the nanoscale and her exemplary efforts in broadening participation in science through maintaining a diverse research group and through explaining her research to the lay public.

Physics Professors elected APS Fellows - 2010.12.23
Four Professors in the Physics Department have been elected Fellows of the American Physical Society in three separate divisions of the society. This is the most elected to the society from the department in one election cycle in the history of the department. The Professors, their divisions, and the citations accompanying the elections are:

• Ade, Harald
  Citation: For the development and incisive use of soft x-ray characterization methods in a wide range of polymeric and organic systems.
  Instrument & Measurement Science (GIMS)
• Brown, David
  Citation: For his contributions to classical and quantum general relativity, in particular for the discovery of a quasi-local expression for the energy density, and the discovery of a central charge in the Poisson algebra of symmetries of 2+1 dimensional asymptotically Anti-deSitter spacetimes.
  Gravitation (GGR)
• Buongiorno-Nardelli, Marco
  Citation: For his seminal work on surfaces and interfaces for energy and environment applications, as made possible by his development of novel techniques for the first principle evaluation of the properties of complex and nanostructured materials.
  Computational Physics (DCOMP)
• Mitas, Lubos
  Citation: For his contributions to the development of quantum Monte Carlo methods, pioneering high-accuracy calculations of atoms, molecules, clusters and solids, analysis of many-body nodes of fermion states and application of pairing wave functions.
  Computational Physics (DCOMP)

2nd Annual Southeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics - 2010.12.08
The NC State Physics department is hosting a three-day conference for undergraduate physics majors Jan 14-16, 2011

Registration deadline is December 17th, 2010. Please visit the conference website for more details.

SCUWP's goal is to help students continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas.

Our program includes research talks by faculty, panel discussions about graduate school and careers in physics, presentations and discussions about women in physics, laboratory tours, student research talks, a student poster session, and several meals during which presenters and students interact with each other.

The NC State University Office of Undergraduate Research awards grants to 16 Physics majors - 2010.11.09
The names of those students, their faculty research mentor, and the title of their research proposal are:

Mark Schillaci (Karen Daniels)
Fractures in Soft Materials

Andy Hewitt (Dan Dougherty)
Growth and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Organic Single Crystal Semiconductors

Chengxiang Bi (Jack Rowe)
Nanoscale surface roughness of nanoscale graphene films

Cody Melton (John Blondin)
Resolving the SASI Debate

Lew Barrett (Dan Dougherty)
Modeling Image Potential States in Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Experiments

Kelby Stockstill (Kenan Gundogdu)
Characterization of Exciton and Electron Dynamics in ZnO Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Kevin Blackwell (Karen Daniels)
Continuing Research in Surfactant Visualization with Fluorescence and Laser Profiling

Phillip Phipps (John Blondin)
Tidal hypothesis and the Superhump Phenomenon

Andrew Barrette (Hans Hallen)
Development of Polar Scanning Modes for Virtual Retinal Display Applications

Garrett Pangle (Russell Philbrick)
Laser Extinction in Fog

Chris Blackwell (Davide Lazzati)
Failed Gamma-Ray Bursts involving stalled relativistic jets

Alex Mauney (Jim Kneller)
Investigating the Effects of Supernova Turbulence on Detected Neutrino Signal

James Rowland (Chueng Ji)
N-Dimensional Analogue for Neutrino Oscillations

Hamilton Whittle (Chueng Ji)
Coupled Coherent State in Quantum Mechanics

Oindree Banerjee (Leslie Sombers)
Quantification of Fenton Chemistry

David Moreau (Hans Hallen)
Near Field Photoemission

NCSU Physics major wins Scholarship - 2010.10.14
John Stout, a senior in electrical engineering, computer engineering and physics --was awarded a $10,000 scholarship. He was selected out of two finalists from the University to receive the scholarship

The story can be found online at the Technician Online .

NCSU Physics researchers find fault in solar cells - 2010.10.06
A team of researchers from NC State found that the low rate of energy conversion in all-polymer solar-cell technology is caused by the structure of the solar cells themselves.

The story can be found online at the NCSU Newsroom and at PhysOrg.com

Update 20101027 - article at the Advanced Light Source website includes pictures of current and former Ade group members.

The shapes of crossing cracks - 2010.09.17
NC State physics researchers have investigated the origin of the curved shapes made by pairs of interacting cracks, which occur in situations as diverse as dental enamel, cleaved silicon, geological faults, and planetary ice crusts. In an article published in the September 17 issue of Physical Review Letters, undergraduate Melissa Fender, postdoctoral researcher Frederic Lechenault, and professor Karen Daniels performed experiments on diverse materials to quantify this universal shape and propose a geometric model to understand how it arises. The work identifies an easily-measured shape parameter which could serve as a diagnostic tool for identifying the stress state under which cracks were formed in natural systems where history and dynamics are inaccessible.

Former NC State Physics Department Heads featured in a Raleigh News and Observer Article - 2010.08.09
Former Department Heads Raymond Murray and Worth Seagondollar were featured in a Raleigh News and Observer article highlighting their work on the atomic bomb project in New Mexico 65 years ago. Murray served as the head of the department when it split from nuclear engineering and adopted its current name as the Physics Department. Seagondollar was the head immediately following Murray.

Here is a link to the story in at the News and Observer website.

NC State Physics majors receive the Chambliss Student achievement Award of the American Astronomical Society - 2010.08.09
NC State Physics majors Mary Burkey and Blake Sharrits have received the Chambliss Student achievement Award of the American Astronomical Society. These awards continue a strong tradition of excellent undergraduate research in astrophysics undertaken in our department. Sharrits and Burkey undertook research under the direction of Professors Blondin, Borkowski, and Reynolds.

Here is a link to the story in at the PAMS website.

NC State physics alumna appointed advisor to Mongolia's Minister of Foreigh Affairs - 2010.07.02
NC State physics alumna Undraa Agvaanluvsan has been appointed advisor to Mongolia's Minister of Foreigh Affairs. Dr. Agvaanluvsan, who earned her PhD in 2002 working with Professor Gary Mitchell, recently completed her tenure as deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies of the National Security council of Mongolia. In her new position, Dr. Agvaanluvsan will work on nuclear-related issues as well as Northeast Asian security and U.S. Affairs.

NC State Physics Alumna receives prestigious Spencer Fellowship - 2010.07.02
NC State Physics Alumna Rosemary Russ has received the National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship. A recipient of Bachelors degrees from NC State in Physics, Statistics, and Applied Mathematics in 2002, Rosemary went on to obtain a PhD in physics at the University of Maryland in 2006. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University.

News of the award is available at the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy.

and you can visit Rosemary's university webpage here.

NCSU Physics Majors win award - 2010.06.17
Physics majors Mary Burkey and Blake Sharrits received the Chambliss Student Achievement Award from the American Astronomical Society. They won two of the three national awards for undergraduate research presentation at the AAS meeting in Miami in May. Mary presented her work on X-ray emission from circumstellar material in Kepler's supernova remnant, and Blake presented his work on computer simulations of the superhump phenomenon in accreting binary stars.

Click here for more details

Physics department to host 13th Eastern Gravity Meeting - 2010.05.24
The Eastern Gravity Meeting, which takes place annually in the eastern part of North America, will be hosted this year by the NCSU Department of Physics on May 21-22. The meeting typically attracts 50 or more researchers in all aspects of gravitational physics. This years event is being organized by David Brown.

Details can be found at the conference web site

Professor Emeritus Alvin Jenkins passes away - 2010.05.03
The Physics Department faculty was saddened to learn of the death of Al Jenkins, former physics department astrophysicist and Department Head. Professor Jenkins served as Department Head in the 1960s and retired from the faculty in 1992. A native of Raleigh, he obtained a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering from NC State before serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the Korean War. He later earned a PhD in physics from the University of Virginia. On the faculty at NC State his principal research focused on stellar evolution. Professor Jenkins played euphonium for many years in the local group "The Little German Band" and more recently was a Deacon and Elder in the Presbyterian Church in North Myrtle Beach. One may share condolences at www.ahlbergfuneralchappel.com.

Physics Professors receive awards and honors - 2010.04.20
In recognition of the importance of research as an integral function of NC State, the North Carolina State Alumni Association makes three awards each year for outstanding research achievements.  The awards are in the amount of $3,000 each, in addition to recognition as a distinguished NC State research person.  In the Spring Convocation this year, one of the three Alumni Association Outstanding Research Awards will be presented to Physics Professor Gail McLaughlin.

At the spring semester Faculty Awards Dinner, Physics Professor Gerald Lucovsky will be recognized as a recipient of the Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professor Award.  The Professorship recognizes outstanding graduate level teaching at North Carolina State University. The letter of notification received by the college of Physical and Mathematical Sciences particularly noted the extraordinary quality of the mentoring that Professor Lucovksy provides his students both during and after their graduate programs at NC State.

Also at the spring semester Faculty Awards Dinner, Physics Professor John Blondin will be recognized as a recipient of the Alumni Association Distinguished Undergraduate Professor Award.  The Professorship recognizes outstanding undergraduate level teaching at North Carolina State University.  Professor Blondin has long been actively engaged in developing undergraduate research in the department and for the past several years has served as the Director of Undergraduate Programs.

Several other physics professors received awards and honors. Please see our faculty awards page for more.

Physics Professors get cover treatment - 2010.04.20
Based on an invited review in the Prion Journal, Research Assistant Professor Miroslav Hodak and Professor Jerry Bernholc provided the cover image for the spring issue of Prion. The review article was based on their work entitled "Insights into prion protein function from atomistic simulations."

Pinning down a proton - 2010.04.14
A researcher at North Carolina State University has helped to develop a new method for describing the binding of protons and neutrons within nuclei. This method may improve scientists' ability to predict and understand astrophysical reactions within stars. When protons and neutrons bind, the process releases energy. This fusion energy is how stars burn. If scientists can determine where these particles are, what they are doing, and how they are binding, they will then be able to more accurately predict and understand the life cycles of stars.

NC State physicist Dr. Dean Lee and German colleagues Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs, and Ulf-G. Meissner, set out to see if there was a more straightfoward approach to describing particle interactions than currently used.

Their results were published in the April 9 issue of Physical Review Letters.

"These particles can literally be anywhere," Lee says, "so pinning them down is hard. However, we do know that there are hierarchies of attractions between particles and we were able to use these hierarchies to give us a framework for describing how the protons and neutrons could bind with one another. That hierarchy is known as effective field theory."

Lee and his colleagues used a numerical lattice which took into account all of the possible positions of the particles within the nucleus and the corresponding interaction energies. They ran a supercomputer simulation for the elements helium-4, lithium-6 and carbon-12, and demonstrated that the results of those simulations were accurate.

"Currently the indications are that our effective field theory calculations should let us describe nuclei with 16 or fewer protons and neutrons," Lee says. "But our ability to describe larger nuclei using this approach also looks promising."

Professor Robert Golub named Fellow of a national society - 2010.03.11
NC State Phyiscs Professor Robert Golub has been named a Fellow of the Neutron Scattering Society of America. In a press release dated 10 March, 2010, Professor Golub was sited:

"For pioneering research in studies of the neutron electric dipole moment, for development of the superthermal technique for production of ultracold neutrons, and for development of new methods in neutron spin echo research."

Physics Undergraduate Newsletter - 2010.03.10
The inaugural issue of the PUN is now available online.[PDF]

New APS fellows were lauded in the NCSU Bulletin - 2010.01.25
Three physics professors, Dr. Gail McLaughlin, Dr. Ruth Chabay, and Dr. John Blondin, have been named fellows of the American Physical Society. A brief write-up was published last week in NCSU's Faculty Staff Bulletin.

Physics Graduate Student Featured on the Grad. School Homepage - 2009.12.03
Brian Willians, NCSU Physics Graduate Student, has been featured on the NCSU Graduate School Homepage. Brian won first place for his poster back in May of this year(story below), and more about Brian can be found on here at NCSU Graduate School Site.

Southeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics - 2009.12.02
NC State, together with other area physics departments, is organizing a three-day conference for undergraduate physics majors Jan 15-17, 2010. SCUWP's goal is to help students continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas. Our program includes research talks by faculty, panel discussions about graduate school and careers in physics, presentations and discussions about women in physics, laboratory tours, student research talks, a student poster session, and several meals during which presenters and students interact with each other. More information, including a registration form, is available at the conference website.

Professor Robert Beichner Wins North Carolina Professor of the Year Award. - 2009.11.19
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education has announced that Physics Professor Robert Beichner is the 2009 Professor of the Year for North Carolina. The principal developer of SCALE-UP, an innovative method of classroom instruction, Professor Beichner has won several other teaching awards including being named the 2009-2010 Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher by the Society for College Science Teachers and the National Science Teachers Association.

This story can be seen on the NCSU Homepage - here is the permanent link.

Please visit the SCALE-UP site as well as the Physics Education Research Group's site for more information on Professor Beichner's work.

Lazzati animation appears on Nature website - 2009.11.19
A three dimensional video animation of a gamma ray burst explosion, produced by NC State Physics Professor Davide Lazzati, appears on the website of the magazine Nature. This movie is from a hydrodynamical simulation generated by Professor Lazzati of a relativistic jet of gamma rays propagating through a massive compact progenitor star.

The movies can be seen here at Professor Lazzati's website.

The Fourth Annual Dale E. Sayers Lecture will be held November 16th, 2009 - 2009.11.05
The Sayers Lecture Series is an annual event highlighting research based on research or techniques pioneered by Professor Sayers throughout his career.

This year's lecture speaker is Dr. Stephen Hugdens of Santa Clara University. He will be lecturing on Phase-change memory (PCM), which is now being actively developed by many semiconductor device manufacturers. His talk will describe the current understanding of PCM devices and the progress toward commercialization of this new nonvolatile memory technology.

Dr. Hudgens received his Ph.D in solid-state physics from The University of Chicago and was postdoctoral research fellow at MIT. Now on the Physics Department faculty at Santa Clara University, Dr. Hudgens spent many years directing basic and applied research at Energy Conversion Devices and - more recently - at Ovonyx Incorporated. In addition to his academic position, he is currently a consultant for several corporations based in silicon valley. His interests center on solar energy conversion and computer phase change memory applications.

Here is a flier for this year's lecture

The NC State University Office of Undergraduate Research award research grants to nine Physics majors. - 2009.10.30
The names of those students, their faculty research mentor, and the title of their research proposal are:

• Adam Keith (Karen Daniels)
  Local Measurement of Granular Size Segregation Rates
• Erik Skau (Laura Clarke)
  Engineering Omniphobic Surfaces from Beaded Nanofibers
• Barak Schmookler (Paul Huffman)
  Isotopic Purification of 4-He using Cryogenic Techniques
• Mary Burkey (Steve Reynolds)
  An Analysis of the Circumstellar Medium in Kepler?s SNR
• Kevin Barkett (John Blondin)
  Measuring Calcium Spectrum from Supernova in Circumstellar Medium
• Kate Foco (Karen Daniels)
  Effects of Particle Shape on Granular Stick-Slip Events
• Andrew Hewitt (Dan Dougherty)
  Carrier Injection in Organic Semiconductor Spin Valve Materials
• Christopher Blackwell (Davide Lazzati)
  Gamma Ray Burst Afterglow Light curves with X-Ray Flaring Activity
• Hamilton Whittle (Chueng Ji)
  Neutrino Flavor Mixing Modeled by Quantum Oscillation

Professor Thomas Schaefer describes Nearly Perfect Fluidity on American Physical Society (APS) website - 2009.10.28
The APS website that spotlights exceptional research published an article on Nearly Perfect Fluidity written by NC State Physics Professor Thomas Schaefer. The APS invited Professor Schaefer to address the question of whether there is a fundamental bound on viscosity on its website. In the article, Schaefer – who is one of the world’s experts in this field – theoretically examines the coldest and hottest fluids that laboratories are able to produce. Schaefer’s article ends with a hope that data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN will produce high temperatures in a quark-gluon plasma that will shed further light on whether hydrodynamics is still applicable at the highest temperatures experimentally obtainable.

Hamilton Whittle, Physics major, is awarded undergraduate research grant - 2009.10.28
The Office of Undergraduate Research announced that NC State Physics major Hamilton Whittle has been awarded a grant to study Neutrino Flavor Mixing Modeled by Quantum Oscillations. Working with Professor Chueng Ji, Hamilton plans to compare several models of flavor mixing in an attempt to describe neutrino oscillations in terms of quantum field theory. In addition he will examine how the mass of a neutrino can affect the oscillation and thus how the standard model must be revised.

National Academy of Sciences publishes Thomas memoir - 2009.09.30
The National Academy of Sciences has published a biographical memoir of late NC State Physics Professor L.H. Thomas that was written by Academy member John David Jackson. Professor Thomas joined the department in 1968 and remained active until his retirement in 1976. The department hosts a distinguished lecture series in his honor

Friction, force chains, and falling fruit - 2009.09.23
NCSU Physics Professor Jacqueline Krim, collaborating with Duke University professor Rober Behringer, have done a study published in Physics today titled "Friction, force chains, and falling fruit" on Friction and granular materials. The study also contains several YouTube videos demonstrating the phenomena.

NSF Spintronics Grant Will Help NC State Researchers Develop Smaller, Faster Electronic Devices - 2009.09.17
Researchers at North Carolina State University have received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Center for Chemical Innovation (NSF-CCI) to pursue research in the emerging field of molecular spintronics. The grant will fund a center for molecular spintronics at NC State and support a research coalition between scientists at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill with the aim of using this technology to develop smaller, faster, more energy-efficient electronic devices with increased storage capability.

Dr. David Shultz, professor of chemistry, is the principal investigator. NC State co-PIs include Drs. Dan Dougherty, Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli, Jack Rowe (physics), Joe Tracy (materials science and engineering) and Gail Jones (math, science and technology education). The grant is one of four awarded nationally by the NSF.

Molecular spintronics refers to the use of designed molecules containing electrons that are not involved in chemical bonds. These electrons have small magnetic fields which can then be utilized to power electronic devices with more memory storage capability, faster operation and lower energy usage.

"This is a combination of materials science and chemistry that goes beyond mere nanotechnology," Shultz says, "and that has the advantage of taking the field of electronics beyond the current limitations we have when working with materials like silicon."

The grant also allows the research team to focus on outreach and training for a new generation of scientists specializing in this technology by providing funding for graduate courses and other educational activities.

"It is an effort not only to use designed molecules to build new devices, but also to train future researchers and workers who can bring this technology into the world and marketplace," Buongiorno-Nardelli says.

This article was posted on NCSU's NEWSROOM on September 16, 2009

Professor Robert Beichner to give a keynote lecture at International Conference - 2009.09.03
Professor Robert Beichner is giving a keynote lecture on the SCALE-UP (Student Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs) Project at the International Conference on Physics Teaching in Engineering Education, 10-12 September, in Wroclaw Poland. . SCALE-UP has been adopted at more than 80 universities across the US and has a growing international presence. For more information visit the project website.

Center for Molecular Spintronics Funded - 2009.08.28
The Center for Molecular Spintronics seeks to reveal the fundamental principles underlying the optimal use of organic molecules for spin transport and manipulation through new synthesis, advanced characterization, and state-of-the-art modeling. These principles will drive the development of a new generation of low cost, low power, high performance spin-dependent device applications. The center is committed to pursuing these developments in close concert with industrial partners, science educators, and the general public to ensure wide-reaching impacts. The eight principal investigators are Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli, Dan Dougherty, Jack Rowe (all from NCSU Physics), Gail Jones (NCSU Math, Science and Technology Education), David Shultz (PI, NCSU Chemistry), Joe Tracy (NCSU Materials Science and Engineering), Frank Tsui (UNC-CH Physics) and Wei You (UNC-CH Chemistry). The grant is for Phase I funding at $1.5 million over 3 years.

Physics Faculty top list of NC State "Highly Cited" authors - 2009.08.04
On the July 2009 listing of career citations compiled by the Web of Science, thirteen NC State faculty members are recognized as being among the nation's most highly cited. The top two on the NC State list of thirteen are on the Physics Department Faculty. David Aspnes (with 18,697) and Gerry Lucovsky (with 16,031) easily out pace others with the third most-cited author having fewer than 15,000 citations. The average number of citations among the other eleven authors is 5,000. This measure of overall productivity recognizes the value placed on contributions in the literature by researchers in their respective fields. The listing clearly identifies the work of Professor Aspnes and Lucovsky as being among the most important contributions to the scientific literature made by NC State faculty. Information is available on the ISI WEb of Knowledge HIGHLY Cited page.

NCSU Physics Professor Chueng-Ryong Ji Chairs UKC2009 - 2009.07.17
On July 16-19, the Raleigh Convention Center welcomes participants of UKC2009, the US-Korea Conference on Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Conference Chair, Chueng-Ryong Ji, organized the conference and serves as President-elect of KSEA, the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association. Professor Ji, a member of the physics department since 1991, has been active in the KSEA for many years. The meeting includes presentations by a number of notable speakers from around the world including Yale University Professor and Nobel Laureate Dr. Sidney Altman.

TeraGrid 2009 Award - 2009.06.28
Samuel Kenny, an NCSU physics Undergraduate withing with Professor John Blondin, grabbed the 'Peoples Choice Award' at the Visualization Showcase held at the TeraGrid '09 Conference in Washington, DC. Follow this link for more on the story

Physics graduate students receive prestigious fellowships - 2009.06.04
In yet another example of the recognized strength of the NC State graduate program in physics on campus and beyond, two doctoral students recently received prestigious fellowships. Eric Raymer received the NC State University Andrews Fellowship and Carlos Ortiz received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

The Andrews Fellowship is NC State's most prestigious graduate fellowship. The one-year award is offered to one top entering PhD student in any discipline. The fellowship provides an annual stipend of $21,500 along with in-state tuition, fees and health insurance. The fellowship is funded through an endowment given to the University by the late Mrs. Grace Andrews of Raeford, NC.

This year's Andrews Fellowship recipient, Eric Raymer, graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2007 with a B.S. in physics and minor in mathematics with a GPA of 4.0. He joined Teach for America in the summer of 2007 and has taught science and math for the past two years at Weldon High School in Weldon, NC. While working in Weldon, Eric taught the first physics course offered in more than 10 years and developed an inquiry-driven curriculum for physical science and upper level physics. Eric will be entering the NC State physics doctoral program this fall.

"I'm honored to have been awarded the Andrews Fellowship and am very happy to be joining the PhD program in the fall," Raymer said. "I'm looking forward to an exciting and productive time at NC State!"

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship is a three-year award for doctoral candidates in science, mathematics and engineering fields. This fellowship provides a stipend of $30,000 per year and covers substantial educational expenses.

Carlos Ortiz is the NC State physics department's fourth recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. He earned his B.S. from Davidson College before coming to NC State. His research with physics faculty Karen Daniels and Robert Riehn is a study of the jamming of sub-micron particles in microfluidic channels. For Ortiz, the attainment of a PhD in physics will be yet another step in a long journey of learning and discovery.

"I was born to a single mother in South America, where I grew up speaking Spanish, playing chess and dreaming of meeting Carl Sagan," he says. "My family and I moved to Columbia, SC, seven years ago mainly seeking better schooling for my brothers and me."

While they are always exciting, honors like those earned by Eric Raymer and Carlos Ortiz are nothing new to the NC State physics graduate program. The department has always attracted quality students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, as evidenced by generations of successful alumni in academics, government and industry. A concerted effort has been instituted recently to build on this tradition and to attract more of the nation's most elite students, with higher GRE scores, improving academic success, and greater impact with their research.