3/1/2004

Spring Break: March 8 through 12. No classes.

"Spotlight on..." Physics Staff. Our continuing series for recognition of the SPA staff in Physics. Every two months we'll feature another staff member on a poster in the glass cases near the Cox elevators and the "Physics News" bulletin board outside the main office toward Dabney.

February- March's featured person is CJ Hathorne

CJ has been with the Physics Department since June 2000. Take a look at her "Spotlight" when you pass by the bulletin board.

There will be a pizza lunch for CJ in the Patty Room, 200 Daniels Hall, at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, March 17. Everyone is invited!

It's time for faculty to order their gown, cap, hood and tassel, for graduation in the Catalyst Department of the NC State Bookstores. Orders must be in by March 10, 2004 to guarantee school colors. If the colors of your university are not available, NC State school colors will be substituted. Orders received after April 1 will be charged an $8.00 late fee. All orders must be prepaid. An order form should have been in all faculty mailboxes on Wednesday, February 24.

Congratulations to Celeste Sagui, recipient of an NSF Career Award for 2004-2006. Her research project is "Critical Issues for Biomolecular Simulations: Organic Solvents, Protein-Protein, and Nucleotide-Protein Interactions." Celeste joins four other winners from PAMS and one winner from Engineering.

Steve Jenkins and the Physics Department's Computer Operations office are moving to the USTL. Steve's new office will be USTL 138. The best way to contact Steve is via his pager, 507-9629, or via e-mail at: steve_jenkins@ncsu.edu .

NC State ranked in top 100 universities in the world. Don't take our word for it, go to ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm and see for yourself.

This first ever study of six hundred world universities (discussed in The Economist a few months ago) was carried out in 2003 by a group at Shiang Jiao Tong University in China. The metrics of quality include Nobel prize winners, highly cited researchers, articles published in Nature and Science, articles in the science and social science indexes, and academic performance per faculty member. As might be expected, US universities dominate the list.

Chris Gould, to Washington, DC, for the National Research Council Assistantship Program Review for 2004.. He will serve a three year term on the Physical Science Panel to select NRC Post Doctoral candidates at federal research laboratories.

John Hubisz, to Princeton, NJ, to present an Invited talk at the Joint Meeting of the New Jersey Section & the Southeast Pennsylvania Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and to College Park, MD, to attend the AIP Committee on Committees Meeting.

Saturday, March 20, 1:49 AM EST.