We are pleased to recognize the recent grants, publications, presentations, awards and honors of the members of the College of Arts and Sciences.

We are pleased to recognize the recent grants, publications, presentations, awards and honors of members of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Zee Hakimoglu’s first laboratory was a rock under a makeshift fort that she and her sisters built alongside a small creek at her family’s home in New Jersey. Hakimoglu, then 11 or 12 years old, spent her days and evenings at the water’s edge, studying the spiders and wondering about the constellations. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in physics from California State College, Sonoma, and her master’s in physics from Drexel, Hakimoglu accepted an associate engineering position at aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin, in their Silicon Valley office.

Several Drexel Physics alumni recently received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education.

Black holes remain one of the most mysterious and intriguing objects in our universe. One of the newest celestial objects to be studied — they were only first theorized in the 20th century — black holes are areas in space that have such strong gravity that not even light can escape them.

However, there is little known about them. We don’t even have a real picture of one. That knowledge gap is where Rebecca Phillipson comes in. A physics graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, Phillipson dreams of discovering more about what makes black holes work.

Since the 1940s, a member of the Kaczmarczik family has studied, taught or worked on campus. Three generations of Kaczmarcziks have accumulated over 80 years of combined educational and professional experience at Drexel.

Congratulations to Physics majors E. Callaghan, S. Ciocys, J. Gaison, W. Giang, B. Goddard, M. Parsons, M. Seaman and R. Smith awarded at the 2015 CoAS Honors Day event!

Robyn Smith, physics senior, was recognized with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service for Graduating Seniors for her outstanding leadership and service to Drexel's campus life and the surrounding community while maintaining academic excellence.

Doctoral candidates Maxwell Henderson and Matthew Voelker shared first prize in the Computation and Bio-Modeling category during Drexel Research Day 2015. Congratulations!

The Society of Physics Students was recognized by the American Institute of Physics with a Chapter Research Award and the Future Faces of Physics Award.

Associate Professors Brigita Urbanc and Luis Cruz Cruz have been awarded tenure at Drexel University. Congratulations Brigita and Luis on this great achievement!

Congratulations to Physics majors Leo Bellefleur, Jeremy Gaison, Robyn Smith, Joseph Tomlinson and Charles Unruh who won awards at the CoAS Honors Day event, held on May 22, 2014, at Behrakis Grand Hall.

Jeremy Gaison, physics and mathematics junior, has achieved national distinction as a recipient of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. The Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,166 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. Jeremy plans on earning a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics and to conduct research in particle cosmology and mathematical physics while teaching at the university level.

Congratulations to the following Physics undergraduate students who have won awards at the CoAS Honors Day event, held on May 23, 2013, at Behrakis Grand Hall.

As part of city’s vibrant scientific and technological community, Drexel University will play a big role in the 2013 Philadelphia Science Festival and Philly Tech Week on April 18-28. From a 29-story video game, to cutting-edge robotics, to an interactive Jazz concert, Drexel’s students, faculty and professional staff will be part of the programming for both week-long celebrations of the inquisitive and innovative spirits that are part of the fabric of the city.

We are pleased to announce that 2012 Nobel Laureate Dr. David Wineland will be our 18th Kaczmarczik Lecture speaker. Dr. Wineland will be presenting "Superposition, Entanglement, and Raising Schrödinger’s Cat".

Dr. Marisa Roman and doctoral candidate John Schreck were recognized with the Guoliang Yang Awards for excellence in Biophysics research.

DrexelNow spoke with Dr. David Goldberg, associate professor of physics at Drexel, in the days after the CERN research center in Switzerland announced the possible identification of the Higgs boson. We asked him what it means and why we should care.

Physics doctoral candidates, Derya Meral and Runcong Liu won 1st and 3rd Prize at CoAS Research Day. Congratulations!

Drexel Chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) won three national awards from the American Institute of Physics.

Joey Lambert, doctoral candidate, was awarded a Sigma Xi grant-in-aid for his research proposal "Macroscopic Quantum Effects in Al/Graphene/Al Josephson Junctions" under the direction of Dr. Roberto Ramos.

Dr. Gordon Richards is the recipient of a Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Germany-based Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Dr. Jelena Maricic, assistant professor of physics, is hosting the ANT 2011 meeting, October 10-12, 2011 at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia.

Dr. Steve McMillan, professor of physics, and collaborators built a high-performance computer cluster that is capable of delivering 176 Teraflop of GPU performance. The system comprises 68,352 NVIDIA GPU cores and 48 TB RAID disk storage.

With profound sadness we mourn the loss of our friend and colleague, Professor Guoliang Yang, who passed away at midnight on August 14, 2011 after a brief but intense bout with liver cancer.

The DYCOEC group at the Universite de Rouen hosted the workshop “From Laser Dynamics to Topology of Chaos” to celebrate Dr. Robert Gilmore’s 70th Birthday.

Sajjan Mehta, physics’ senior, is the recipient of a 2011 national SPS Outstanding Leadership Scholarship award.

Danny Pan successfully defended his PhD thesis "Cosmic Voids and Void Properties ". Danny's advisor was Dr. Michael Vogeley. Congratulations Danny!

Two of our students, Sajjan Mehta, physics major (shown in the photograph), and Alfred Whitehead, DC candidate, received the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award at the 218th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Congratulations to the following Physics undergraduate students who have won awards at the CoAS Honors Day event, held on May 19, 2011, at the Mandell Theater.

Travis A. Hoppe successfully defended his PhD thesis "On the Role of Entropy in the Protein Folding Process". Travis' advisor was Dr. Jian-Min Yuan. Congratulations Travis!

For the fifth straight year, the Drexel Chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) received the National Marsh White Outreach Award from the American Institute of Physics. The proposal was written by Sajjan S. Mehta, Wendy B. Harris, and Nick E. Kruczek, undergraduate students of physics.Congratulations!

The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Dr. Tejinder S. Virdee will be presenting "Exploring Nature Moments after the Big Bang: The LHC Accelerator and the CMS Experiment" in the 16th Kaczmarczik Lecture on April 27th, 2011.

Physics Students Win Awards at Drexel Research Day 2011 Physics students won several prizes at this year Drexel Research Day. Congratulations to the winners of and all those who presented posters.

Congratulations to the Physics students who won and thank you to all students who participated in the event! Undergraduate Sciences: Amanda White, physics ’11, first place. James Monahan, physics ’11, third place. Graduate Sciences: Austen Groener, graduate student, third place.

Physics alumni Joseph Angelo '10 (currently at Boston University) and Alyssa Wilson '09 (currently at Harvard University) were chosen as 2011 NSF Graduate Research Fellows. This program provides financial support to top students who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in fields within the NSF's mission. Students must demonstrate both intellectual merit and the broader impacts of their research.

Physics Junior Sajjan Mehta has achieved national distinction as a recipient of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Sajjan plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics conducting research in particle cosmology and mathematical physics while teaching at the University level.

Drexel Chapter of the Society of Physics Students was selected as an Outstanding SPS Chapter for the 2010 academic year. This is the second consecutive year that the SPS has received this national award.

The Double Chooz collaboration completed its neutrino detector which will see anti-neutrinos coming from the Chooz nuclear power plant in the French Ardennes.

James Monahan, physics major, under the direction of Dr. Charles Lane, received Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid in the amount of $400 for his research proposal “Cherenkov Signal Simulator for Water Detectors”.

Marc Doyle, physics major, was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of the SPS national publication "The SPS Observer". Marc did an internship at the University of Delaware's Magnetics Materials Lab. He is a STEM Scholar and a member of Dr. Roberto Ramos’ Low Temperature Group.

The Physics section of UNIV 101 did an outstanding job helping to feed the homeless at Saint John’s Hospice of Philadelphia. The students prepared seven large casseroles and approximately 14 dozen cookies.

Daniel Cross successfully defended his PhD thesis "Representation Theory of Dynamical Systems". Dan's advisor was Dr. Robert Gilmore. Dan found a position at Bryn Mawr College. Congratulations Dan!

John Parejko successfully defended his PhD thesis "Hosts and Environments of Low-luminosity Active Galaxies in the Local Universe: The Care and Feeding of Weak AGN. " John's advisor was Dr. Michael Vogeley. John found a position as a postdoctoral associate at Yale University.

Zenghui Liu, graduate student, was the recipient of the 2009-10 Teaching Excellence Award, Graduate Studies Office, Drexel University. Congratulations Zenghui!

Steven Carabello, graduate student, was awarded a Sigma Xi grant-in-aid for his research proposal "High-resolution studies of superconducting energy gap structure in differential conductance measurements of MgB2-based Josephson Junctions" under the direction of Dr. Roberto Ramos. The Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research program has a highly competitive application process and only approximately 20% of applicants receive any level of funding.

Steven Carabello, Daniel Cross, Austen Groener, Timothy Jones, Tze Yee Lim, Asher Leff, Sajjan Mehta, Crystal Moorman, Marisa Roman, Kevin Trainer, Stanley Jordan Viss, Douglas Wentzel, Amanda White, and Dr. Joseph Trout, teaching faculty, were inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma National Physics Honor Society. A formal Induction Ceremony and dinner banquet was held on campus on April 17 2010 under the direction of Dr. Roberto Ramos, assistant professor. Amanda White, was selected the Most Outstanding Physics Student.

Micholas Smith, graduate student, won first place for his poster “Effects of Ions on The Folding Dynamics of Amyloid Beta Peptide Fragment (21-30)” in the Computation and Modeling (non-bio) category, Drexel Research Day, Micholas' advisor is Dr. Luis Cruz, associate professor. Great job Micholas!

Physics Junior Amanda White has achieved national distinction as a recipient of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Amanda was among 278 students chosen from 1,111 nominees who were recognized for success in math, sciences, and engineering. Goldwater Scholars have very impressive academic qualifications. Amanda's career goals include conducting research in the areas of extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, and developing new observational techniques for astronomers.

Pubudu Galwaduge, undergraduate student in physics, CoAS, won “Best Physics Poster Award” at the 2010 March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Portland, OR, for his poster "Laser Induced Structural Modification in Single-layer and Bilayer Graphene". The work was done under the direction of Dr. Roberto Ramos.

Travis Hoppe, graduate student, was one of the finalists in the Student Research Achievement Award for his poster “Wang-Landau Density of States Calculation in Crowded Protein Environments” presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Biophysics Society San Francisco, CA, February 20-24, 2010.

For the fourth straight year, the Drexel Chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) received the National Marsh White Outreach Award from the American Institute of Physics. The proposal was written by undergraduate students Wendy Harris, Amanda White, Nick Kruczek and Jerome Mlack. Dr. Roberto Ramos, assistant professor, is the chapter advisor.