Physics Spring 19 Newsletter

Be sure to check out our new social media presence! Like our page and follow us to stay up to date on colloquia and other events. In this issue:  Faculty Highlights  New Faculty  Workshops and Summer Programs  Emeriti News  Faculty Retiring  Physics Banquet 2019  Degrees Granted  Society of Physics Students  Student Awards and Interviews LETTER FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD Hello to our alumni and friends, First, on behalf of the department, I want to thank you for your ongoing support. Our students, facul- ty and staff are motivated and enthusiastic; you can really feel the energy in the department. As you will read, Profs. Perk and Nandi have retired. While they are freeing up their time, they are still around and working on their research – one ad- vantage of being theorists. Their retirements, combined with previous retirements and departures, has enabled us to hire five new faculty members beginning this Fall; it is crazy hec- tic, but exciting. You can read about them further in the newsletter. We want to acknowledge the Dean’s office of the College of Arts and Sciences for their ongoing support of the department and being open minded to our suggestion that we hire so many new faculty in one fell swoop. The number of undergraduate physics majors continues to grow, which I largely attribute to our efforts to integrate them into the de- partment’s research programs. Our chapter of the Society of Physics Students is quite active (golf clap for Joe Haley, their faculty advi- sor). A special shout out goes to graduating senior, Addy Evans, for conceiving and coordinating Spooky Physics Night, which was a re- sounding success. Prof. Shull is working on the final phase of the Mendenhall Observa- tory! We will keep you informed on the grand opening scheduled for the upcoming year. It is an exciting new chapter of OSU Physics and I plan to have even more to report in the upcoming years. Once again, please plan on visiting the department the next time you are in town. Lastly, I want to thank our administrative assistant, Beth Bridenstine, for putting together the newsletter. Cheers, Dave @physics145 @OkstatePhysics NEWSLETTER