Three years ago, I agreed to chair the department at a time when several years of financial hardship at the College was beginning to take its toll. I am happy to report that we have made progress in the past three years toward achieving our goal of becoming a first-rate research department and are looking forward to continued growth and improvement in all areas of our academic endeavors. Following are some highlights...
Academic Programs. One of the most exciting recent academic initiatives in the department is the creation of a Joint Caltech/USC Center for Theoretical Physics, thanks to the hard work of Professor Itzhak Bars and others in the theoretical physics group. Having launched its inaugural symposium in January at Caltech, the Center offers weekly seminars and workshops at USC. (Please see article on page 8 for more details.) A second major academic initiative is the development of a Master's degree program, Physics for Business Applications, largely through the effort of Professor Hans Bozler and others, with the support of a grant from Sloan Foundation. This new degree program offers an alternative professional track for students with a strong science and technology background for a career in corporate environments. (Please see article on page 3 for more details.) In addition, we have allocated more departmental resources to invite outstanding guests to present talks at our weekly departmental colloquium. For example, this year, thanks to a joint effort with the Center for Theoretical Physics, our speakers have included highly regarded scientists such as Gerard `tHooft (1999 Nobel Laureate) and Edward Witten (Field Medalist). Professors Bergmann, Bozler, Gould, and Kresin have also been working on a three-year project to renovate our upper division laboratories with a matching fund from the College.
Faculty. During 1997-99, we hired two promising junior scientists, Professors Stephan Haas and Maxim Olshanii , who joined our faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor. The addition of Stephan and Maxim has already enhanced our faculty resources in several key areas of theoretical/computational physics. This year, we continued our faculty improvement by recruiting Professor Chiara Nappi, a world renowned theoretical physicist, as a full professor. The total full time faculty in the department has now increased to twenty-three, after the early retirement of Professor Mel Daybell this year, who has enjoyed a long and distinguished career at USC. Three of our faculty, Gene Bickers, Werner Däppen, and Dennis Nemeschansky were promoted to the rank of Full Professor in 1998. Congratulations also go to Vitaly Kresin for his recent promotion to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure.
In addition to the continuing success in their scholarly pursuits, many of our faculty have also been recognized by their peers during the past three years. Professor Darrell Judge was elected to the Fellowship by the American Physical Society in 1998, increasing the number of Fellows among faculty in the department in various professional societies to nine. Professor Werner Däppen was elected as the Churchill-College Fellow at Cambridge in 1999. Within the University, Professor Gene Bickers was honored with the 1999 USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. Professors Nick Warner and Edward Rhodes were the recipients of the General Education Teaching Awards for 1998 and 1999, respectively. Professor Gibson Reaves was recognized this year when he received the Distinguished Emeriti Award for his outstanding career at USC. Professor Nick Warner and myself were honored by the College for excellence in teaching, research, and service as the recipients of the Raubenheimer Distinguished Faculty Award in 1997 and 1998, respectively. To end the list, I am happy to share with you the latest honor that I received when the USC Academic Senate presented me with a Distinguished Service Award this spring.
Students. I am also delighted to report that we have gradually increased the incoming graduate student class back to approximately 15 students this Fall after a substantial decline in recent years. The quality of our graduate students has also improved with twelve students successfully passing the Screening Examination at Ph. D. level this spring and we look forward to soon reaching our goal of a graduate student body of between 50 and 60.
Thanks to a very generous gift from Henry Lee, we have established two permanent annual teaching assistant awards for Outstanding Teaching Assistant and Most Improved Teaching Assistant. The recipients of the 1999 awards are George Tikhonov (Outstanding Teaching Assistant) and Jeff Nuttall (Most Improved Teaching Assistant). In addition, Charles Rathfelder was recognized as the Outstanding General Education Teaching Assistant by the College in 1998.
The department has started a serious effort to strengthen our undergraduate research opportunities. Led by Professors Gerd Bergmann, Hans Bozler, Vitaly Kresin, Nick Warner and others, we have received consecutive years of funding for undergraduate research projects from the Office of the Provost at USC. This funding, along with departmental and alumni support, has resulted in department undergraduates Doug Garrett and Shak Hossain receiving top awards at the USC Undergraduate Research Symposium as well as being able to present their work at national meetings of the American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers. We were also honored as a department when B.S. Physics student Alex Small was named the 1998 USC Salutatorian.
Staff. Under the able leadership of Ty Buxman, Director of Undergraduate Affairs in Physics and Astronomy, our technical staff have worked diligently to upgrade our undergraduate laboratories. A major Hewlett Packard equipment grant has enabled Kris Sabo, Bill Talbert, and Hung Nguyen to systematically upgrade our instructional laboratories for service courses during the past three years. A new General Education laboratory curriculum has been successfully developed by Robert Knol and David Mehrania has been busy installing many new high tech demonstrations in the recently renovated Stauffer Lecture Hall.
Our office staff has also changed significantly with the departure of Michelle Murray, Peter Smith, and Danielle Swearengin and the recent additions of Lisa Swanson and Margo Burrows. Lisa, who joined our staff last Fall, has quickly mastered the faculty affairs and Margo, arriving late last year, is responsible for our alumni relations and serves as the Editor of our Newsletter. Our graduate and undergraduate affairs continue to be in the good hands of Betty Byers and Beverly Ferguson. Last, but certainly not the least, our beloved Julia (now a Caulder) has decided to devote herself full time to what she loves most - a singing career - starting this summer. She will surely be missed by all of us and we wish her a smashing success.
Coming Years. What's next? With a new College Administration this summer and a united faculty in Physics and Astronomy, we will continue our pursuit to increase our faculty strength in a few selected thrust areas as an essential component of achieving our goal of being a first-rate research department. To increase the research opportunity for our graduate students, we are in the process of identifying research programs and seeking partnerships with other academic units at USC which require students with a strong background in physics/astronomy. On the undergraduate side, we are working to enhance our major programs (e.g., biophysics) to meet the changing needs of a new generation of college students.
Finally, I would like to congratulate you for your outstanding achievement after you left USC. For those of you who have contributed generously to the department, I thank you and I want to assure you that we are confident that, together, we will achieve our goal soon. Also, I would like to invite you to join us in the Fall at our annual get-together luncheon for faculty, staff, alumni, and former associates, if you are in the area. (Please check with Margo for the time and location in late August.) Stay in touch (213-740-1133 and tnchang@usc.edu) and we wish you all the very best.
Department of Physics & Astronomy / USC Physics & Astronomy Newsletters /