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Awards for Physics Faculty
by Amruta J. Deshpande

If you tend not to visit our department website much, there's some awards news that you might like to know. Certain UF physics professors, that's right, the people who teach you what those equations are all about when you'd rather be sleeping, have been recognized by the physics and other communities for what they do in and out of your class. NSF has selected Dr. Ho Bun Chan, a relatively new addition to UF Faculty in the field of Nano-technology, for the Early Career Development Award, which is NSF's most prestigious award for junior faculty. It provides a $500,000 support for his proposal "CAREER: Activated Escape in Nonequilibrium Micromechanical Oscillators - Research and Education Program" over a 5 year period.

If you took PHY2060, there's a good chance you had it with Professor John Yelton. He's been selected as an APS fellow in the division of Particles and Fields for his work which contributed to the understanding of the quark structure of the Hadron.

Another APS Fellow selection is Professor David Reitze. He may have taught you Modern physics or you may have him for Electronics Lab now. He was cited by APS (general) for leadership in the applications of lasers to diverse areas from gravitational waves to the ultrafast response of matter.

In 2006, Professor Guido Mueller received the International Educator Award (junior category). The UF International Center presents this award to faculty who makes significant contribution in its field, increase international awareness in their students, and improve UF's profile as a major research university. You may have him for your optics class, or perhaps you took Advanced Lab with him last year.

Upon receipt of the AIP fellowship, Professor James Dufty had the following remark:

"The fellowship is a rare opportunity for me to observe and learn the process by which such difficult decisions are made and to influence some of them during my tenure," he says. "I am honored by the expectation of my peers that I can reflect the value and expertise of scientists in the quite different forum of political policy formation." Through the development of the State Department fellowship program in 2001, the AIP became the first scientific society to financially support one scientist annually to work in a bureau or office of the State Department to provide scientific expertise to those who make the nation's foreign policy.

Other recent recipients of recognition include Yoonseuk Lee, Khandker Muttalib, John Klauder, and Pierre Sikivie. Read about their achievements at http://www.phys.ufl.edu/department/announcements.html and learn about their contributions to physics and society.