Congratulations to David Johnson, one of two NC State winners of a 2004 Gates Cambridge Trust Scholarship. He will pursue a certificate of advanced mathematics at Cambridge, a master's course of study that will allow him to focus on number theory, particularly the study of large prime numbers and their applications in cryptology and computing. He plans to obtain his doctorate in mathematics.

David graduated summa cum laude from NC State in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in physics.

Both a John T. Caldwell Alumni Scholar and a Robert C. Byrd Scholar, Johnson earned many honors while at NC State, including the 2003 Physical and Mathematical Sciences Graduating Senior Award for Scholarly Achievement, the 2002 Levine-Anderson Award for Mathematics, and the 2001 Meritorious Winner for COMAP Math Modeling Contest. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Golden Chain Honor Society.

Congratulations to the Physics students invited to join Phi Beta Kappa, Brian D. Hehr and Daniel E. Sikes.

Congratulations to John Hubisz, PAMS nominee and now NC State winner of a 2004 Alumni Outstanding Extension and Research award. John will receive the award at the May 13^th Honors Baccalaureate dinner, and will be acknowledged in the Spring 2004 Commencement.

Congratulations to Richard Thomson recipient of the SURA/JLAB fellowship this year. He is currently working on the virtual nucleon Compton scattering calculation under the direction of Chueng Ji.

Congratulations to Lucas Wagner, who was just awarded a 3-year NSF Graduate Research Fellowship There were 900 awards in all scientific disciplines.

Astronomy Outreach. Asif ud-Doula gave a presentation on our solar system, and Lisa Lowe and Andrew Janca set up telescopes to view the fortunate alignment of planets at the third annual Astronomy Night for sixth graders at Centennial Campus Middle School.

(Please note corrected day) The annual Physics Faculty Retreat is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12, at the conference room at Lake Wheeler Park. All regular faculty, teaching faculty, and research faculty are invited to attend.

The GPSA President is invited to attend, and this year we are also inviting SPA staff for the lunch, and SPA staff are also invited to attend the morning session to learn more about the Department's various activities.

The morning session will feature the usual Department overviews and a mini research symposium (like last year) where everybody has a opportunity to talk for 3 minutes about "The most exciting / interesting / unusual topic you are thinking about right now." Issues for general discussion will include restructuring of the undergraduate Physics majors' curriculum and "Department long range plans beyond Partners and Riddick."

If you have topics you would like to see discussed please contact Chris Gould or any member of the Advisory Committee.

Please let Becky Savage know by May 5 if you will be attending. A map to the retreat will be distributed at a later date.