The Physics Department Award

 

2011	Daniel G. Hampton	If the Physics Department could make additional assignments beyond graduation, this year's recipient of the Physics Award would be going to graduate school in physics.  He has excelled in every way during his study of physics at Davidson: from insightful and creative work in the classroom and laboratory to spot-on presentations of his research at regional and national physics meetings, culminating in two publications on defects in semiconductors.  He is one of those special students that visibly delights in learning, giving teachers instant gratification for their effort and making the process truly inspirational for both.  But this year's recipient is not going to physics graduate school - he's heading to medical school, and he is bound to be a superb doctor.
2010	Caroline McCraw Vaughan	For excellence in the study of physics, for research on puzzling aspects of light generation in semiconductors, for an award-winning presentation of this work at a national meeting of the American Physical Society, and for ever cheerful service to our department.
2009	Robert Henry Mohr	For outstanding academic achievement in the study of physics, for his positive leadership among his peers, for laboratory research in photodetachment spectroscopy from the oxygen negative ion, for the development of computer models for a national digital library, and for service to the Davidson College Physics Department.
2008	Kelly Michelle Howell	For outstanding academic achievement in the study of physics, for her cheerful spirit and positive leadership, for research on the physics of thin films and on atmospheric microwave radiation, and for service to the Davidson College Physics Department and the Society of Physics Students.
2007	James Edwin Wells	For outstanding academic achievement in the study of physics, for original contributions to laboratory research on the atomic physics of photodetachment spectroscopy, for positive leadership among his peers, and for service to the Davidson College Physics Department.
2006	Laura Patterson Gilbert	For outstanding achievement in the study of physics, for her numerous awards and honors including the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award from the North Carolina Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, for distinguished theoretical quantum-mechanical research that has yielded published papers and an Honors thesis titled "An Analytic Study of the Quantum-mechanical Asymmetric Infinite Square Well," and for effective presentations at regional and national meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
2005	Kiril Rangelov Simov	For outstanding achievement in the study of physics, for research done with three faculty members in such diverse areas as the measurement of transient capacitance in semiconductor diodes, computational simulations of optics and relativity, and the interfacing of equipment and data acquisition for spectroscopic measurements, for the effective presentation of this work at meetings of the American Physical Society, the North Carolina Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and in the Physics Department seminars, for service to the Society of Physics Students local chapter and as an elected National Associate Zone Councilor, for his service to the department as a work-study student; and for his enthusiasm for his major field.
2004	Rachel Patton McCord	For outstanding achievement in the study of physics, for work at Oak Ridge National Laboratories on calorimetric spectroscopy and plant genetics, for the construction and application of an optical tweezers device in a study of the cell motility of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtil, and for the effective presentation of this work at meetings of the Biophysical Society, the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society, and the North Carolina Academy of Science.
2003	Sharon Elizabeth Meidt	For outstanding achievement in the study of physics, for service to the Department, for contributions to the research of optically active ions in sol-gel glasses, for her participation in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory Project and for her work in computational general relativity.
2003	John Peter Campbell	For his commitment to excellence in the study of physics, for distinguished research on the emission of low-energy light by lattice-mismatched semiconductors, and for the effective presentation of this work at the National Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
2002	Diana Marie Pendergrast	For outstanding academic achievement in the study of physics, for original contributions to laboratory research on the atomic physics of photodetachment dynamics, for positive leadership among her peers, for service to the Davidson College Physics Department, and for continued dedication to physics education.
2001	Franklin Emmett Weindruch	For outstanding achievement in the study of physics, for original contributions to research on the optical properties of lattice-mismatched semiconductors, and for the effective presentation of this work at meetings of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America.
2000	James Hilton Nolen	For outstanding Achievement in and enthusiasm for the study of physics, for honors thesis work on Upconversion in Erbium-doped Sol-Gel Glasses, and for his Molecular Dynamics simulation which won the best student software award in the 1999 Computers in Science and Engineering software competition.