Year: 2021

I am sorry to announce that our friend and colleague professor Jian He has passed away. Jian was a prolific scholar, caring teacher, conscientious academic citizen and most importantly a good friend.

Jian earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and came to Clemson as a postdoc in 2004. In 2008, he joined the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy as an assistant professor and climbed the ranks to full professor in 2021. Jian was a prolific scholar who published more than 257 peer-reviewed papers on a variety of topics in condensed matter physics. The esteem in which he was held by his colleagues is reflected by the large number of invited talks he has presented at conferences around the world. His collaborators spanned North America, Europe and Asia. He was also selected as a member of the board of reviewing editors for the journal Science. He mentored countless numbers of students in his lab and had a particular passion for undergraduate research. Condolences have been pouring in from students and colleagues around the world.

In addition to his excellence as a scholar, he was a caring mentor to his graduate and undergraduate students. His students have been recognized with numerous awards and honors from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Jian went above and beyond in providing the signature Clemson Experience for students.

We physicists have a reputation for having a bit of an ego, and Jian certainly earned the right to one. But perhaps no other scientist I’ve ever known has done more to shatter that stereotype. Jian was kind, helpful and unfailingly gracious. A few years ago, I hurt my ankle and Jian happened upon me while I was limping to my car. He told me to wait where I was, and he would be right back. He ran back to Kinard and a few minutes later came back with a pair of crutches. He told me he kept a set in his office for times when he sprains his ankle playing soccer (his other passion). This is just one of many stories we could tell that exemplify his kindness.

Jian will be missed but not forgotten. His example will serve as motivation to pursue excellence in our scholarly and teaching efforts as well as in showing kindness to those around us. To honor this passion for student engagement, we have established the Jian He Memorial Fund to provide support to undergraduate research in our department. Gifts can be sent to the Clemson University Foundation, P.O. Box 1889, Clemson SC 29633-1889 or call 864-656-5896. Online gifts can be made here.

Prof. Emil Alexov has been awarded the Dr. Wallace R. Roy Professorship. This Professorship recognizes a high degree of collaboration with Prisma Health, success in health research funding and scholarship, evidence of leadership for multidisciplinary health research teams and mentoring of graduate students. Dr. Alexov is entering his 17th year as a member of the faculty of Physics & Astronomy. During this time, he has developed into one of the leaders of our department in all capacities.  He was instrumental in leading the efforts to build our current biophysics program that now includes three other outstanding faculty. He is now leading our search for the Dr. Waenard L. Miller, Jr. ’69 and Sheila M. Miller Endowed Chair in Medical Biophysics. Additionally, he has taken the lead on forming our new M.S. and Ph.D. programs in Medical biophysics. To accomplish this task, he has brought together 35 faculty across 10 departments at Clemson as well a three doctors from Prisma Health. This program will provide outstanding opportunities for students who will be prepared to apply fundamental physical principles to clinically relevant biophysical problems.

He has served as a CUSHR fellow and developed productive collaborations with clinicians at Prisma Health thus demonstrating to translating the insights that have emerged from his fundamental scientific work to application in a clinical environment. His research has garnered $4.3M in support and resulted in over 170 peer-reviewed publications. He maintains a software package, DelPhi, for analysis of macro-biomolecules that has been downloaded over 7000 times from users in 137 different countries. His research is integrated with education as well. To date, Dr. Alexov has graduated 9 Ph.D. students, 3 M.S. students, and 9 undergraduate students. He has also mentored 9 postdocs. His current group is comprised fo 3 postdoctoral researchers, 2 PhD students, 1 MS student, and 1 undergraduate student.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Alexov for his excellence in transformative research and mentorship.

In 2018 a group of researchers in the Netherlands reported the discovery of a Majorana fermion – an important candidate for comprising the qubits in topological quantum computing. Unfortunately the paper had to be retracted. In the news reports on this retraction, our very own Sumanta Tewari (who was not involved in the retracted study) was asked to comment. Read more about the study, its retraction, and Sumanta’s comments here.

Please join me in congratulating Lea Marcotulli for earning a NASA Hubble Fellowship. Open to astrophysicists around the world within three years of earning their PhD, this is among the most prestigious prize fellowships available to young astrophysicists. This year, there were 24 fellowships awarded, and Lea will be taking hers to work at Yale. Her scholarship is focused on the study of Active Galactic Nuclei. Using observational tools spanning the electromagnetic spectrum, she studies the accreting supermassive blackholes at the center of these galaxies. This is a great honor for Lea and a testament to her hard work, talent, and creativity.