The Department of Physics saw

32 undergraduate majors and

10 Ph.D. graduates receive

their degrees at the May com-

mencement events.

One of this year’s honorary de-

gree recipients is Dr. John

Mather. A co-recipient of the

2006 Nobel Prize for Physics,

Mather is a senior astrophysi-

cist in the Observational Cos-

mology Laboratory at NASA’s

Goddard Space Flight Center

and senior project scientist for

the James Webb Space Tele-

scope. The department hosted

a reception for Dr. Mather on

the Friday before graduation,

and he attended the depart-

mental ceremony in Jordan Hall

on Sunday, May 22.

Outstanding Senior

Major Award Winners:

Nicholas J. Mancinelli

Kimberly J. Schlesinger

Outstanding Undergraduate

Research Award:

Justin E. Browne

Bachelor’s Degrees

Benjamin Andersen

Nicolas R. Anderson

Anamaria T. Baluyut

Justin E. Browne

Joseph S. Burnett

Brad G. Cordova

Emily G. Craven

Brian Dentino

Christopher T. Freise

Dominic A. Golab

Elizabeth A. High

Daniel Insulza

James R. Irving

Frederick W. Jung

Luke A. Kippenbrock

John B. Kramb

Kurt M. Krautmann

Joseph M. Livingston

Nicholas J. Mancinelli

Andrew J. McGauley

Colin A. McNamara

Katherine A. Mohrig

Samuel J. Novario

Dakota L. O’Dell

John J. Pardo

Ralph Sean J. Pennino

Daniel J. Quinlan

Robert H. Schafer

Kenneth Schlax

Kimberly J. Schlesinger

Andrew E. Taylor

Michael P. Troy

Continued on page 3

Congratulations to the 2011 physics graduates

2011 physics faculty teaching award winners

Professor

Christopher

Kolda is the

2011 Shilts/

Leonard Award

recipient. This

award is the

premier teaching award within

the College of Science. Kolda is

a theoretical high energy physi-

cist who joined the university in

2000. He has served in a num-

ber of administrative positions

for the department, college, and

the university including a cur-

rent appointment as a Provost’s

Fellow.

Professor

Anthony

Hyder, Director

of Undergradu-

ate Studies for

the Department

of Physics, re-

ceived the

2011 Rev. Edmund P. Joyce,

C.S.C. Award for Excellence in

Undergraduate Teaching. The

twenty winners of the Joyce

teaching excellence awards

represent faculty who have had

a profound influence on under-

graduate students through sus-

tained exemplary teaching.

The Department of Physics con-

gratulates Profs. Kolda and

Hyder on their awards.

Physics Tracks May 2011

Contact information

Phone: 574-631-6386

Fax: 574-631-5952

E-mail: physics@nd.edu

225 Nieuwland Science Hall

Notre Dame, IN 46556

Web site:

physics.nd.edu

Alumni—please send us a note

with your recent achievements

and appointments. We look for-

ward to hearing from you!

Inside this issue:

Inaugural Hichwa Summer

Fellowship awarded

2

Faculty promotions and

reappointment

2

Faculty retirement 2

Incoming graduate students 3

Faculty honors, awards, and

appointments

3

Recent special lectures and events 4

Physics alumnus receives

prominent fellowship

4

A physics alumni has donated

to the Department of Physics to

generously support a research

fellowship for an undergraduate

physics major.

Prof. Bryant Hichwa is a 1973

Ph.D. graduate from the depart-

ment . He was advised by Prof.

Paul Chagnon and was part of

the nuclear physics research

group. After graduation, Prof.

Hichwa worked in both academ-

ia and in private industry, in-

cluding a position as President

of MetroPhotonics USA. He

taught for many years at Sono-

ma State University, where he

recently took Emeritus status.

On Friday, April 15, Prof. Hichwa

visited the department and

gave a lunchtime talk to a group

of graduate students about

industry career expectations.

The graduate students in at-

tendance appreciated his ad-

vice and reflections on careers

in physics.

The inaugural Diane and Bryant

Hichwa Summer Fellowship was

awarded to Adam Alongi. Adam

will graduate in May 2012.

This summer he will be working

with Prof. Xiaodong Tang in the

area of experimental nuclear

research.

Inaugural Diane and Bryant Hichwa Summer Fellowship awarded

Prof.

Colin P.

Jessop

has been

promoted

to Profes-

sor. He

joined

Notre Dame in 2004, and Prof.

Jessop’s experimental research

is focused on the search for

new physical interactions be-

yond the model theory of parti-

cle physics.

Prof. Chris-

topher F.

Kolda was

promoted to

Professor.

Professor

Kolda is a

theoretical

particle physicist and is well-

known for his work on super-

symmetry. He joined Notre

Dame in 2000.

Prof. Zoltán

Toroczkai

has been

promoted to

Professor.

Prof. To-

roczkai’s

research

focuses on complex network

theory, biophysics, computing,

and agent-based system. He

joined Notre Dame in 2006 and

holds a concurrent faculty ap-

pointment in Computer Science

and Engineering.

Prof. Kevin

P. Lannon

was reap-

pointed to

Assistant

Professor.

Prof. Lannon

is a high en-

ergy particle experimentalist

who joined Notre Dame in

2008.

Faculty promotions and reappointments

The University of Notre Dame

has announced the following

four faculty promotions and one

reappointment for Department

of Physics faculty, each effec-

tive July 1, 2011

Prof. J. Chris-

topher Howk

was promoted

to Associate

Professor with

Tenure. Profes-

sor Howk has

been at Notre

Dame since 2005. His research

is focused on understanding

the evolution of galaxies and

the build-up of the elements

since the Big Bang.

Page 2 Physics Tracks

Prof. Bryant Hichwa, ND

Physics Ph.D. ‘73

Prof. Gerald Arnold announces retirement

Prof. Arnold is a Condensed Matter

theorist who has been in the Depart-

ment of Physics since 1978. His re-

search focused on superconductivity.

After thirty-tree years of service to the

University of Notre Dame Prof. Gerald

Arnold will assume Emeritus Profes-

sor status as of July 1, 2012.

University on Friday, March 25.

LightSprite, led by Professors

Steven Ruggiero and Carol

Tanner, finished second and

received $15,000.

Ani Aprahamian, the Frank

M. Freimann Professor of Phys-

ics, has been appointed to Ar-

menia’s Expert Advisory Com-

The College of Science has ap-

pointed Professor Margaret

Dobrowolska-Furdyna as the

Rev. John Cardinal O’Hara,

C.S.C. Professor of Physics.

This is a five-year collegiate

chair.

The inaugural Nanotechnology

New Ventures Competition was

held on the campus of Purdue

mittee. The committee will ad-

vise Armenia’s Minister of Econ-

omy and the director of A.I.

Alikhanyan National Science

Laboratory (AANL) in developing

a science strategy for the labor-

atory, in establishing an evolv-

ing administrative structure,

and in evaluating scientific

programs .

Faculty honors, awards, and appointments

2011 Physics Graduate

Research and Dissertation

Award:

Xinghai Zhao

Title: Cosmic Expansion in

Inhomogeneous Cosmologies

and the Formation of Local-

group Like Systems

2011 Larry O. Lamm

Memorial Award in Nuclear

Physics:

Daniel Robertson

Doctoral Degree Recipients

(and Faculty Advisor)

Andrea Asztalos

(Prof. Zoltan Toroczkai)

Mary Beard

(Prof. Michael Wiescher)

Kyle Knopfel

(Prof. Colin Jessop)

Paul J. LeBlanc

(Prof. Michael Wiescher)

Frank Li

(Profs. Carol Tanner and

Steven Ruggiero)

Georgios Magkotsios

(Profs. Michael Wiescher and

Francis Timmes)

Daniel Robertson

(Prof. Philippe Collon)

Christopher Schmitt

(Prof. Philippe Collon)

Jared Coughlin,

Villanova University

Xu Han,

University of Georgia

James Kapaldo,

Illinois Institute of

Technology

Edward Lamere,

Hamilton College

Madan Lamichhane,

University of Memphis

Zuohong Li,

Beijing University

The Department of Physics

extends a warm welcome to the

incoming first-year graduate

students who will begin their

studies in Fall 2011:

Aboutaleb Amiri,

University of Yazd

Aparna Bhattacharya,

St. Xavier’s College

Clark Casarella,

North Georgia College

Yingying Chen,

Dalian University of

Technology

Anna McCoy,

Grinnell College

David McKenna,

Brigham Young University

Michael Moran,

Michigan State University

Charles Mueller,

Michigan State University

Andrew Nystrom,

Concordia College at

Moorhead

Dilhari Peiris,

University of Colombo

Graduation news continued from page 1

Welcome to incoming graduate students

Page 3

Sandor Volkan-Kacso

(Prof. Boldizsar Janko)

Xinghai Zhao

(Prof. Grant Mathews)

Michael Planer,

University of Minnesota

Kevin Siegl,

North Carolina State

University

Melinda Varga,

Babes Bolyai University

MacKenzie Warren,

Reed College

Jason Wiggins,

Syracuse University

Christopher Wotta,

Denison University

has won a Charlotte W. New-

combe Doctoral Dissertation

Fellowship from the Woodrow

Wilson National Fellowship

Foundation.

Hedahl, a doctoral

candidate in phi-

losophy at

Georgetown Uni-

versity, is one of

21 Fellows select-

ed from 585 appli-

cants. His disser-

tation, Owing It to

Us: Duties Di-

rected to One’s

Marcus Hedahl, who graduated

from Notre Dame with a bache-

lor’s degree in physics in 1995,

Own, deals with the duties that

individuals owe to groups of

which they are a member.

Hedahl said his experience at

Notre Dame—both rigorous big-

picture study of physics and the

campus emphasis on communi-

ty—prepared him for the study

that led to the dissertation.

“What drew me to physics were

the fundamental questions

about the way the world works

and the way things operate;

those same questions later

drew me to philosophy” he said.

Physics alumnus receives fellowship from Woodrow Wilson Foundation

Check the

department’s web

site for a full listing

of seminars,

colloquia, and

special lectures.

together nearly

120 people to

discuss recent

results and future

prospects for the

CMS experiment

at the Large Had-

ron Collider (LHC)

in Cern, Switzer-

land. The Notre

Dame High Ener-

gy Physics group

is playing an im-

portant role in

this experiment

and organized

this meeting for

the collaboration.

Several members

of the Notre

Dame experi-

mental group

presented talks

at the meeting,

and Prof. Chris Kolda gave a

plenary talk discussing LHC

physics from a theoretical physi-

cist’s point of view.

Prof. Joe Incandela, of the UC

Santa Barbara Physics Depart-

ment and the recently named

US CMS spokesperson, gave a

colloquium on May 4 titled

“Searching for the genetic code

of our universe: The CMS exper-

iment at the LHC.”

Dr. Chris Quigg of Fermi Nation-

al Accelerator Laboratory deliv-

ered a lecture on May 6,

“Revolutions in Particle Phys-

ics.” Dr. Quigg is the co-winner

of the 2011 Sakurai Prize of the

American Physics Society. This

event was sponsored by the

John A. Lynch Lecture Series.

Special lectures & events in Spring 2011

The department hosted special

lectures and conferences in

addition to the weekly colloquia

and seminars in Spring 2011.

In late March, the Large Bin-

ocular Telescope (LBT)

Board Meeting was held. The

meeting brings together many

of the leaders of the LBT pro-

gram to discuss the current

status and future plans for the

telescope. After several years of

construction and commission-

ing, the LBT is starting to pro-

duce high-quality results and

should continue to do so for

many years in the future. Notre

Dame astrophysicists Peter

Garnavich, Chris Howk, Nicolas

Lehner, and Terrence Rettig are

all active users of the LBT. Sev-

eral of our undergraduate phys-

ics majors have been able to

join these professors and ob-

serve at the telescope.

LBT Director Richard Green

delivered a public lecture sup-

ported by the Nieuwland Lec-

ture Series, “The LBT: A New

Era in Astronomy and Engineer-

ing” on March 29.

From May 5-7 Notre Dame host-

ed the US CMS Annual

Meeting. This meeting brought

US CMS meeting on Thursday, May 5 in Jordan Hall of Science.

“I think my scientific background

helped develop the analytic skills

and sense of inquiry and imagi-

nation required for modern phi-

losophy. My time at Notre Dame

as well as my time in the service,

both with strong senses of com-

munity, has fundamental shaped

my approach to philosophy.”

The 12-month, $25,000 New-

combe award supports Ph.D.

candidates in the humanities and

social sciences who are address-

ing questions of ethical and reli-

gious values.