Category: Student Awards

The Clemson University College of Science held an awards ceremony on April 10 to honor outstanding students, including two from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Maggie Marte received the Phi Kappa Phi Certificate of Merit, awarded to a graduating senior with a GPA of 3.4 or higher who has demonstrated leadership, service, and creative contributions. Maggie, a physics major with a minor in mathematical sciences, has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA while conducting research on piezoelectric materials for quantum devices. Her efforts have led to an accepted publication and several awards, including Best Engineering Oral Presentation at the 2023 South Carolina Academy of Science. She is also a Goldwater Scholar and Astronaut Scholar. Outside academics, she is vice president of the Society of Physics Students, part of the College of Science Student Ambassadors, and a member of the Clemson club gymnastics team. This fall, she will pursue a Ph.D. at MIT in quantum systems.

Sumit Banerjee, a Ph.D. candidate, was recognized for his community engagement efforts. His research models 1.8 MeV gamma-ray emissions from Al-26 decay in the Milky Way. He developed a pirate-themed summer reading and science program for public libraries and has led over 40 planetarium shows. Banerjee also volunteers for campus outreach events like solar eclipse viewings and the Clemson Women in Physics meeting and serves as a teaching assistant.

Adapted from: https://news.clemson.edu/top-2024-25-college-of-science-students-honored/

Clemson University Ph.D. students Som Dixit and Shinto Francis were awarded $25,000 fellowships by Hitachi High-Tech America Inc. to support their doctoral research in additive manufacturing and quantum computing, respectively. This marks the first time two fellowships have been awarded in the program’s 10-year history.

Dixit, an automotive engineering student, focuses on developing advanced materials like metal-ceramic composites and high-entropy alloys for applications in sectors such as military and energy. His research leverages electron microscopy to analyze microstructures and defects in additively manufactured components, advancing material innovation. He is mentored by Shunyu Liu, assistant professor of automotive engineering.

Francis, a physics and astronomy student, is working on quantum computing, with the aim of reducing interference in qubits by creating nitrogen vacancy centers using focused-ion beam microscopy. His work could enhance quantum computing systems’ stability. Francis is mentored by Ramakrishna Podila, associate professor of physics and astronomy and fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Both researchers use the Clemson University Electron Microscopy Facility, which Hitachi has supported since the 1990s. The facility houses some of Hitachi’s most advanced microscopes and plays a pivotal role in fostering innovation, student training, and industry collaboration. The partnership aligns with Clemson’s goals of advancing research and student experiences.

Written by David Brandin

Adapted from Hitachi awards two fellowships to Clemson Ph.D. students | Clemson News

Our very own physics undergraduate student, Maggie Marte, is one of the 5 students at Clemson University that have been awarded the Goldwater scholarship. The 2024 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship recognizes students who show exceptional promise of advancing research in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. This scholarship provides recipients with $7,500 in financial support towards their undergraduate studies and associated expenses for up to two years. 

Read more here: 
Five Clemson students awarded prestigious 2024 Goldwater scholarships | Clemson News

Dr. Ross Silver (Ph.D., 2023) was recently featured in NASA’s “Early Career Scientist Spotlight” series. After graduating with his Ph.D. in 2023, Dr. Silver accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His research is centered on active galactic nuclei (AGN), and since joining NASA, he has contributed to three proposals and one paper. Dr. Silver said his research experience at Clemson, with his Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Marco Ajello, prepared him well for his current position. We’re so proud of Dr. Silver’s accomplishments! You can read NASA’s article about Dr. Silver here. 

Congratulations to PandA doctoral student, Madeline Clyburn! Clyburn, who works with Dr. Jonathan Zrake, recently won a prestigious NASA FINESST award for her research on black holes! The award includes a stipend as well as financial support for computing equipment and to attend astronomical conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Learn more about Clyburn’s research and the FINESST award at https://news.clemson.edu/clemson-researcher-wins-nasa-finesst-award-for-physics-research-on-merging-black-holes/. 

     Clemson Physics and Astronomy alumna, Emily Thompson (B.S., 2016) has received an award for her Ph.D. thesis from the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. After graduating from Clemson, Thompson enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Germany. Her dissertation focused on the search for long-lived supersymmetric particles. Her work represents the first attempt to search for such particles using the ATLAS detector.
     The ATLAS Collaboration is a vast technological and human undertaking, consisting of more than 5,500 people in over 180 institutions all around the world. Nearly a fifth of the collaboration members are Ph.D. students. A dedicated committee selects up to six awards every year to recognize outstanding doctoral dissertations within the collaboration.
“Emily was a fantastic Ph.D. student, and thus I am not surprised that ATLAS awarded this competitive prize to her!” says Thompson’s supervisor, DESY Research Director Beate Heinemann.
     Thompson’s award-winning Ph.D. research helped her earn a coveted Chamberlain Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. “Dr. Thompson was one of our most outstanding students,” remarks CU Physics and Astronomy Chair, Dr. Sean Brittain, “As a department, we are committed to integrating research with education to help our students reach their goals. Seeing her continue to excel at the highest level in physics is incredibly gratifying.”
    The Department of Physics and Astronomy congratulates Dr. Thompson, and we look forward to following her promising career!

Adapted from: https://www.desy.de/news/news_search/index_eng.html?openDirectAnchor=2589&two_columns=0 

Graduate student Komal Kumari has been elected student representative to the NSF CEDAR Science Steering Committee where she will serve a two year term. The Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Program, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division, studies the interaction region of the Earth’s tenuous upper atmosphere. For over 25 years, CEDAR brings together the U.S. aeronomy community to combine observations from ground based and space based platforms, theory and modeling. As student rep, Komal will provide graduate student input to the CEDAR programmatic priorities and organize the one day student workshop that is part of the annual CEDAR conference. Please join me in congratulating Komal on this well deserved honor.

Bishwambhar Sengupta, a PhD student with Prof. Takacs, has just accepted an offer for a post-doctoral position at the University of Washington in Seattle. He will join the group of Eric Floyd in the department of Radiation Oncology. Let’s congratulate Bishwambhar on this next excellent next step in his career.

Our students continue to excel! Second year graduate student, Jordan Eagle, has been awarded the Chandra X-ray Observatory Predoctoral Fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Chandra X-ray Center is the Science and Operations Center for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). After completing her coursework at Clemson, she will spend two years doing research at the forefront of high energy astrophysics. Please join me in congratulating Jordan for this well deserved honor.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy honored this year’s departmental award recipients in its annual ceremony on April 14 and also acknowledged college-level and national scholarship awardees. Department awardees names are forwarded to the college for consideration in the College of Science awards.

• Outstanding Graduate Researcher: Yufei Liu and Bo Wang
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant: Nicolas Underwood
• L.D. Huff Junior Award: Joshua Hanson
• L.D. Huff Sophomore Award: Adam Miller
• Erin Samantha Cawthorne Award: Matheu Spencer
• SPS Senior Award: Jacob Covington

• Outstanding Graduate Researcher: Bo Wang (condensed matter, advisor: Professor Feng Ding)
• 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