2021 News
Vitaly Podzorov appointed as the Donald H. Jacobs Chair in Applied Physics
Dec 7, 2021
Please join us in congratulating Vitaly Podzorov on his appointment by the University Board of Governors as the Donald H. Jacobs Chair in Applied Physics. This is an endowed 3-year term Chair and the appointment includes a generous research account. In awarding Vitaly this honor, the BOG noted his international leadership in applied physics, particularly in the area of novel semiconductors, devices and charge transport.
- Profile(s): Podzorov, Vitaly
Matt Buckley wins Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
Nov 16 , 2020
Please join us in congratulating Matt Buckley on winning a 2020-2021 Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. The award is coupled to Matt’s recent promotion to Associate Professor and is in recognition of his outstanding teaching accomplishments since he joined the Rutgers faculty.
- Profile(s): Buckley, Matthew
Sanghyuk Lee wins 2020-2021 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education
Dec 2, 2021
Congratulations to Sanghyuk Lee on receiving the 2020-2021 School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education at the Assistant Professor rank.
- Profile(s): Lee, Sang-Hyuk
Chaz Ruggieri wins 2020-2021 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education
Dec 2, 2021
Please join us in congratulating Chaz Ruggieri on receiving the 2020-2021 School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education for the Special Award for Pandemic Pedagogy.
- Profile(s): Ruggieri, Charles M.
Eric Gawiser wins 2020-2021 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education
Dec 2, 2021
Professor Eric Gawiser has been selected as a recipient of the 2020-2021 School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education at the Professor rank.
- Profile(s): Gawiser, Eric
Blakesley Burkhart wins the APS 2022 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award
Oct 18, 2021
Blakesley Burkhart has been selected for the 2022 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award of the American Physical Society. This award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, is given to only one individual annually.
- Profile(s): Brooks, Alyson M., Burkhart, Blakesley
Geraldine Cochran promoted
Sept 9, 2021
We are please to announce that our colleague Geraldine Cochran has been promoted to Associate Professor of Practice.
Congratulations to Geraldine on her well-deserved promotion!
Awards and Scholarship winners 2021
May 5, 2021
We are happy to announce the many year-end awards for this year. Despite all the problems of this last year, our students have done an extraordinary job. Congratulations to all our award winners, as
well as all our graduating students for a job well done.
- Profile(s): Mastbaum, Andrew
Tai Wai Hu awarded Goldwater Scholarship
March 26, 2021
We are pleased to announce that for the 12th year in a row (and in 14 of the last 16 years) a Physics & Astronomy major
was been awarded a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.
This year's winner is Tai Wai Hu. Tai Wai is working with Professor Eva Halkiadakis in experimental high energy physics.
Congratulations to Tai Wai!
The Goldwater Scholarship is awarded to 410 students nationwide each year, to student in mathematics,
computer science, engineering, and the natural sciences. Rutgers has two Goldwater winners this year, with Jacqueline Mehr, from Life Sciences, joining Tai Wai. Congratulations to them both.
- Profile(s): Halkiadakis, Eva
Matt Buckley Promoted
Apr 15, 2021
At its meeting on Wednesday April 14, 2021, the Board of Governors approved the promotion of our colleague Matt Buckley to Associate Professor with tenure.
The promotion is effective July 1, 2021.
Please join us in congratulating Matt on his well-deserved promotion.
- Profile(s): Buckley, Matthew
Kristy McQuinn interviewed about James Webb Space Telescope
Apr 15, 2021
Our colleague Kristy McQuinn was interviewed by WMBC-TV about the new frontiers in astrophysics that she and her colleagues will be exploring upon the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Profile(s): McQuinn, Kristen B W
Andy Mastbaum receives 2021 NSF CAREER Award
Mar 3, 2021
We are very happy to announce that Andy Mastbaum of the HEX group has received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award. The NSF CAREER Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
- Profile(s): Mastbaum, Andrew
Kristy McQuinn and Alyson Brooks on Webb Space Telescope Early Release Science Team
Feb 26, 2021
Kristy McQuinn and Alyson Brooks are on one of only 13 "Early Release Science" teams, chosen world-wide, for the soon-to-be-launched (10/31/2021) Webb Space Telescope. These teams, chosen via a highly competitive process, will be among the first users of the WST. Kristy is scientific leader and Alyson collaborator on the team selected to study resolved starts in nearby galaxies.
- Profile(s): Brooks, Alyson M., McQuinn, Kristen B W
Blakesley Burkhart and Jed Pixley named Sloan Fellows
Feb 17, 2021
Blakesley Burkhart and Jed Pixley were named 2021 Alfred P. Sloan Fellows. Blakesley and Jed are Rutgers’ only Sloan Fellows this year.
Nationally each year over 1000 researchers across eight scholarly areas are nominated for Sloan Fellowships, with only 128 fellowships awarded, so Blakesley and Jed are indeed in rare company.
No institution had more than 2 Physics awardees this year. Rutgers is tied with Harvard, UT Austin, and U Penn. No other physics department has more than one.
Blakesley and Jed join current and former colleagues Jacqui Noronha-Hostler, Alyson Brooks, JP Chou, David Shih, Kristjan Haule, Emil Yuzbashyan, Alex Morozov, and Valery Kiryukhin, making it ten young faculty members who have won Sloan Fellowships in our Department since 2001.
- Profile(s): Burkhart, Blakesley, Pixley, Jedediah H.
Hughes elected Fellow of AAS
Feb 2, 2021
Distinguished Professor Jack Hughes, has been elected a 2021 Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. Jack has the distinction of being in the first class of annually elected Fellows of the AAS. AAS Fellows are recognized for their contributions toward the Society's mission of enhancing and sharing humanity's scientific understanding of the universe.
Jack’s citation reads: “For outstanding accomplishments in X-ray astronomy, including critical contributions to the development of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.”
- Profile(s): Hughes, John P.
