Year: 2016

The latest version of the Schroedinger’s Tiger newsletter is available now.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy honored this year’s departmental award recipients in its annual ceremony on April 1 and also acknowledged college-level and national scholarship awardees. Department awardees names are forwarded to the college for consideration in the CoES awards.

• Outstanding Graduate Researcher: Girish Sharma
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant: Amber Porter
• L.D. Huff Junior Award: Gary Vestal
• L.D. Huff Sophomore Award: Joshua Hanson
• Erin Samantha Cawthorne Award: Jaclyn Schmitt
• SPS Senior Award: Emily Thompson

• Outstanding Graduate Researcher: Girish Sharma (Condensed Matter, advisor: Professor Sumanta Tewari)
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Dhruva Kulkarni (Condensed Matter, advisor: Professor Chad Sosolik)
• Outstanding Senior in the Sciences: Emily Thompson
• Outstanding Junior in the Sciences: Gary Vestal

Emily Thompson, a graduating senior, is awarded an National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions. For the 2016 competition, NSF received close to 17,000 applications, and made 2,000 award offers. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy would like to congratulate Ms. Thompson on her accomplishments and outstanding work at Clemson and are excited to be see her research, science, and discovery in the years to come.

Dr. Feng Ding, Assistant Professor, is awarded an National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development grant for his work in nano-bio interactions. His award was featured in a post on the Clemson Newstand. Learn more about Dr. Ding’s research.

Change is coming to Clemson Physics and Astronomy. The creation of a new College of Science is the most significant element of the university’s college reorganization plan. There are both opportunities and risks for Physics and Astronomy in this plan. We will move from the largest college to a relatively small one, with four other like-minded departments. Most of the essential work of the university: teaching, research, and service, are accomplished by the faculty in departments. Colleges, at their best, simply facilitate this work. It is becoming clear that the new college will have to be constructed over the next several months mostly by the faculty and leadership of the Science and Mathematics departments, rather than by the central administration. This will be a challenge in our environment of limited resources, but we will have the opportunity to define our priorities and values. We learned from the previous reorganization twenty-one years ago that for a sound department to thrive a reasonably well-organized college can be more important than shared philosophy. Now we have a chance to develop both. We have enjoyed a successful run in the current College of Engineering and Science, including many fruitful collaborations with researchers who will remain in CoES. We expect to continue those, and to develop new and stronger connections to our Life Sciences units. Watch this space to see how it turns out. At least the next few Chair’s messages will be authored by Terry Tritt, who is taking over as Interim Chair.

After twenty-one years in the College of Engineering and Science, Clemson Physics and Astronomy will move to the College of Science in 2016. We will join the departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Genetics and Biochemistry, and Mathematical Sciences in the new college. This structure becomes official on July 1, 2016 for business, fiscal, and personnel matters, and after the August graduation for academic matters. The two Life Sciences departments are moving out of the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences. The present college structure emphasizes applications over curiosity-driven science, but Clemson University is making a renewed commitment to fundamental scientific research.

The apparent convergence of math and physical science principles and techniques with forefront problems in the science of living systems presents a significant opportunity for the new college. These five units share not only core research values, but similar educational cultures as well. Mathematics and science general education courses, taken by every Clemson undergraduate, will be housed in the new college, as will the many service courses taken by all STEM majors. Seemingly inevitable enrollment increases have very similar impacts on all the departments in the College of Science. Graduate teaching assistants in these units are essential instructors in hundreds of laboratories, recitations, and lectures every semester.

The current Chair of Physics & Astronomy, Dr. Mark Leising, has moved to Interim Dean of the College of Science as of December 1, 2015. He will oversee the development of budgets, tenure and promotion practices, bylaws, business and research services, and student advising over the next seven months. Leising joined Clemson in 1991 as an assistant professor. He held a Humboldt Fellowship from 1997 to 1998 in Garching, Germany. In 2011, he became Interim Chair of the university’s Physics and Astronomy Department and was named Chair in 2013. He has directed Clemson’s astronomy labs and the Clemson Planetarium since 1994. Moreover, Leising was inducted into the Thomas Green Clemson Academy of Scientists and Engineers in 2014.

Terry Tritt, professor of Physics and Astronomy, has taken over as Interim Chair. While Physics and Astronomy has fared well in the College of Engineering and Science, with many productive collaborations with researchers, the faculty regards this change as a significant opportunity for new directions and improved support for the department.