The Physics Department is pleased to honor three graduate students with Fellowship Awards which are among the most prestigious awards granted to outstanding graduate students in the Physics Department. These awards, announced at the beginning of the Physics Department first colloquium each academic year, were presented on Wednesday, September 18, 2013. Graduate Student Georgios Laskaris, who began his career in the Duke Graduate Physics department in the Fall of 2008, is the recipient of the 2013-2014 Walter Gordy Graduate Fellowship, in memory of a pioneer of microwave spectroscopy Duke faculty Prof. Walter Gordy. The Physics Department honors Georgio Laskaris for his recent groundbreaking work in Spin exchange optical pumping of 3HE and photo disintegration of 3HE using the polarized high intensity gamma source (HIgS). Prof. Walter Gordy, James B. Duke Professor of Physics, was a pioneer in experimental microwave research and a member of the Duke University faculty from 1946 until his retirement in 1979.
Graduate Student Abe Clark, who began his career in the Duke Graduate Physics department in the Fall of 2008, has been selected for the 2013 Fritz London Fellowship for his impressive work concerning impacts on granular materials using photo-electron particles. This work has led to a better understanding of the processes leading to momentum transfer, energy dissipation, sound propagation, stopping distance, and other phenomenon. Prof. Fritz London, James B. Duke Professor of Chemistry and Physics, was a pioneer in theoretical research, especially in the quantum theory of the homopolar bond in hydrogen, superconductivity, and superfluidity. He was a member of the Duke University faculty from 1939 until his death in 1954. Graduate Student Jun Yan, who began his career in the Duke Graduate Physics department in the Fall of 2010, has been awarded the Henry W. Newson Graduate Fellowship for his outstanding contributions to the development of two-color lasing in the optical cavity in the optical cavity of the storage ring free electron laser at the High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source (HIGS). This technology advancement will provide capability of simultaneous delivery of two gamma-ray beams on target with different energies. Prof. Henry Newson, James B. Duke Professor of Physics, was a pioneer in experimental nuclear physics and a member of the Duke University faculty from 1948 until his death in 1978. He was the founding director of the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL).
Department of Physics
