Department of Physics and Astronomy awards scholarships and prizes at annual event

Last month the Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted its annual Vaden Miles Memorial Lecture.  This lectureship was established by Mrs. Maxine Miles to commemorate the memory of her husband, Professor Vaden Willis Miles, former faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  A distinguished physicist is invited to present a lecture with the purpose of inspiring, educating, and promoting physics and astronomy to students, the WSU Community, and the general public. The guest speaker also spends time with physics students in an informal setting where they can discuss physics and astronomy topics and career paths.

This year, the speaker was Dr. John Mather of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  Dr. Mather won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 with George Smoot for his leading role in the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) a satellite that confirmed the expanding universe model to extraordinary accuracy through mapping the cosmic microwave background radiation.  Most recently Dr. Mather was the Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA’s latest flagship mission that launched in December 2021.  At the Vaden Miles event, he gave a fascinating talk on JWST to a standing-room-only audience.

Before the lecture, Dr. Mather helped hand out annual prizes and scholarships to faculty and students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  Through generous donations from alumni and friends, we were able to award $86,000 in scholarships to students.  Dept. Chair, Prof. Ed Cackett said “Scholarships can make such an impact on students.  It is always joyful to be able to recognize student achievement and provide encouragement for their continued progress.”

In addition, the Sultana N. Nahar prize for Distinction in Teaching Physics and Astronomy was awarded to Prof. Jian Huang. Prof. Jian Huang is recognized for the plurality and high quality of the courses offered to the students of our Department.  Prof. Renee Ludlam received the Sultana N. Nahar prize for Distinction in Research in Physics and Astronomy for her achievement in receiving the 2023 American Astronomical Society (AAS) Newton Lacy Pierce Prize and the 2022 AAS High-Energy Astrophysics Division Bruno Rossi Prize.  The Alburuj R. Rahman prize for the Best Ph.D. Dissertation in Physics and Astronomy was shared between 3 graduate students: Timothy Hasse, Jake Miller, and Mitra Subedi.  Timothy Hasse was recognized for his original and groundbreaking developments in computational biophysics, Jake Miller was recognized for his leading role and contributions to the study of the variability of Active Galactic Nuclei, and Mitra Subedi was recognized for his groundbreaking experimental work in the study of synthetic antiferromagnetic materials.  Congratulations to all our scholarship and award winners!