1

Greetings from the Chair —Greetings from the Physics Departmentat Yale. This newsletter is a joint ven-ture of the Department and the Gradu-ate School to keep you abreast of devel-opments in Yale physics. Since this isthe first of what we hope will be an an-nual publication, we include news thathas accumulated over the last few years.

The Department developed a Long-Range Plan a few years ago. We recog-nized that, while it was important topreserve and rebuild existing strengthin some core areas, the changing over-all landscape of physics required us to build new strength in areas that would beimportant in years to come. The plan thus had three components: retainingexisting strength in Experimental and Theoretical Particle Physics, Experimen-tal and Theoretical Nuclear Physics and Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics;rebuilding strength in Atomic Physics; and building in the new areas of Astro-physics and Experimental Condensed Matter Physics. Partly as a consequenceof the unanimous adoption of the Long-Range Plan, the Department has enjoyeda period of cohesion and a spirit of cooperation among the faculty. Six tenuredappointments (almost one third of the tenured faculty) were made during theseyears – those of Professors Casten, Harris, Kasevich, Barrett, Mochrie and Urry.A total of nine junior faculty appointments were also made during this period.These appointments not only added new breadth to the department, but haveadded new vigor and excitement to the faculty.

This period also marked the retirement of three esteemed colleagues, Profes-sors Frank Firk, Bill Lichten, and Jack Greenberg. Their departure represents areal loss to the department. We wish them the best in their leisure years to come.

During these years we have set up two active committees to reevaluateboth the undergraduate and the graduate teaching programs to keep our pro-grams up to date in a changing world. The Graduate Studies Committee hasrecommended, and the faculty has adopted, some fairly substantial changes inthe curriculum and requirements. The work of the Undergraduate Studies Com-mittee is still in progress.

The Department has also paid attention to volunteer service and commu-nity outreach. In this regard the Yale Physics Olympics, held annually for thelast three years, has attracted the attention of a large number of local high schoolscience teachers and students, and has enjoyed considerable success.

During the past few years we have developed cooperative ties with our neigh-boring departments of Applied Physics and Astronomy. The successful buildingof strength in Condensed Matter Physics has been a joint effort with AppliedPhysics, and the building of new strength in Astrophysics has been in coopera-tion with the Astronomy Department. The new Yale Center for Astronomy andAstrophysics is also a joint venture of the Physics and Astronomy Departments.

We were delighted by recent renovations in Sloane Physics Laboratory. Theteaching laboratories from the third floor of Sloane have been relocated in new

Yale Department of Physics Newsletter

Inside this Issue —

Summer 2001

Sloane RenovationsVisitors to the Sloane Physics Laboratorymay no longer recognize it. The homeof the Physics Department underwent a$1 million renovation that turned thebuilding into a bright, comfortable placeto work, study, and socialize. Many fac-ulty and staff offices have been repainted,recarpeted, and relighted giving them abrighter, warmer feel and the old depart-mental lounge has been converted intonew faculty offices. Remodeled student

continued on page 2

SNEAP’s 33rd meeting .................... 3

Yale faculty symposia ....................3-4

Faculty news ........................... 4-5, 7-9

Yale Physics Olympics ..................... 6

Graduate student news ............ 9-10

Alumni news .............................. 10-11continued on page 2

2

space on the sixth floor of Gibbs Labs. The third floor of Sloanewas then renovated to house a beautiful new departmental loungeand new space for graduate student offices. We are grateful to theuniversity for these wonderful new facilities.

This academic year marks the end of my second term aschair of the department. We are all delighted by the appoint-ment of Professor Ramamurti Shankar as the new Chair. Welook forward to productive and prosperous years ahead.

Charles Baltay ’63 PhD, ChairEugene Higgins Professor of Physics

and Professor of Astronomy

Sloane Renovations continued from page 1

Your comments, suggestions and news are most welcome!

Julia DownsPhysics NewsletterP.O. Box 209010New Haven, CT 06520-9010julia.downs@yale.edu

Contributing Writer: Charles Baltay

Photo Credits: Harold ShapiroMark Caprio (Physics Olympics)T. Charles Erickson (Firk & Greenberg)Mohan Kalelkar, Rutgers University,

provided images of Weidner & WignerMichael Marsland (Barrett & Hughes)Laura Miller (Urry)

Newsletter Design: Elaine Piraino-Holevoet/PIROET

Thanks to: Diane AltschulerCon BeausangJo-Ann BonnettLaurelyn CeloneLinda Ford

Chair’s Message continued from page 1

offices have been furnished with new desks and chairs. Over-all, departmental office space has been greatly improved andexpanded.

All this notwithstanding, the highlight of the renovationproject is the new departmental lounge occupying the length ofSloane’s third floor (see photos above). The lounge is signifi-cantly larger than its predecessor and allows the department tohold functions that would have previously required the use ofoutside space. Light streams through several large windows thatprovide views of Science Hill. The lounge is stocked with arm-chairs, couches, and coffee tables that allow for easy gatheringand conversation. Underfoot is new carpeting and overhead isa modern lighting system. The walls are adorned with numer-ous scientific prints and Ansel Adams photographs. Severalshelves hold journals, newsletters, and brochures available forperusal or serious consideration. Audio-visual equipment anda projection screen allow for presentations and colloquia. Akitchenette – with ample shelving and cabinet space, a refrig-erator, microwave, and coffee makers – is located at one end ofthe lounge. All in all, the renovations of Sloane Laboratory haveassured its place as the beloved home of the Physics Depart-ment for years to come.

Newsletter to be published annually by the Department ofPhysics and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Editor: Julia Downs

Writer/compiler: Mark Krasovic

3

Symposium of Northeastern Accelerator Personnel

Two Yale Faculty Honored withSymposia

Symposium in Honor of Jack Sandweiss

In March 2001, friends of the Phys-ics Department gathered in NewHaven to celebrate the seventiethbirthday of Professor JackSandweiss. The festivities includedan opening reception, a special sym-posium, and a dinner during whichparticipants honored the life andwork of the Donner Professor ofPhysics.

The celebration began in thenewly remodeled Physics Depart-ment lounge on the third floor of the

Sloane Labs. Yale faculty and students, as well as visitors whomade the trip for the special occasion, attended an evening wel-coming reception. The symposium was held the next day in LuceHall and was titled “Perspectives in Physics and Physics Technol-ogy.” The morning session began with Charles Baltay, “Status ofthe Standard Model and Prospects for the Future” and continuedwith “Electrons in Cryogenic Liquids” by William J. Willis ’58 PhDof Columbia. Yale’s Thomas Appelquist continued the programwith “Particle Theory: Status and Future Directions.” Columbia’sT. D. Lee followed with “Theoretical Frontiers in Quantum Phys-ics.” Lunch was followed by Brookhaven National Laboratory’sThomas Ludlam ’69 PhD and his talk “RHIC and Its Future.” PeterBraun-Munzinger of Germany’s GSI-Darmstadt then told the audi-ence about a new collaboration building a dedicated heavy-iondetector to exploit the unique physics potential of nucleus-nucleusinteractions at LHC energies in his talk, “ALICE, Plans and Pros-

continued on page 4

The Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Yale sponsored the33rd meeting of the Symposium of Northeastern Accelerator Per-sonnel (SNEAP) October 8-11, 2000. Each year, SNEAP assemblesa wide spectrum of individuals to discuss the construction, op-eration and application of electrostatic accelerators and boost-ers. The organizers and hosts of the meeting were Jeff Ashenfelterof WNSL accelerator operations; John Baris, director of WNSLcomputer facilities for physics; and Tom Barker of WNSL researchsupport for physics. Corporate sponsors provided continentalbreakfasts andperiodic repastsfor symposiump a r t i c i p a n t s .Guests stayed atthe OMNI NewHaven Hotel,which also servedas the site formost of theweek’s activities.

Opening remarks came courtesy of Yale’s Peter Parker andReiner Kruecken. The first day consisted mainly of laboratorypresentations from such notable institutions as the University ofNotre Dame, Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, WesternMichigan University, and Kansas State University. The evening’smain event was a special tour of the Wright Nuclear Labs duringwhich guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres washed down by select Con-necticut wines. The following day, the Brookhaven and Oak RidgeNational Laboratories, along with the University of Georgia, con-tinued the laboratory presentations. Papers by SUNY-Albany’sArthur Haberl and Oxford University’s Richard Hyder were de-livered in the morning. That afternoon, guests were treated to afoliage excursion to historic Litchfield County, Connecticut,where they enjoyed a tour of the Hopkins Vineyards and visitedmajestic Kent Falls, at 250 feet, the state’s highest waterfall. Thefinal day’s schedule consisted of several papers presented by AlfredPriller of the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator, Karlvon Reden and Robert Schneider of the National Ocean SciencesAccelerator mass spectrometry facility at the Woods Hole Ocean-ographic Institution, Greg Harper of the University of Washington’snuclear physics laboratory, and Marco Poggi of Italy’s NationalInstitute of Nuclear Physics. In the afternoon, James D. Larson

Bottom left: The ESTU-1 Tandem Van de Graaf Accelerator (also in detaildirectly left). Above: Anazoba Ezeokoli, research development technician.

led two opticsworkshops. Theguests later en-joyed a classicalmusic trio as theydined at NewHaven’s historicQuinnipiack Club.The evening wascapped off with anaddress given byD. Allan Bromley,Sterling Professor of the Sciences. SNEAP 2000 came to an endthe following day with two open-forum group discussions.

4

pects.” Next came Maury Tigner of Cornell who discussed “Accel-erators Beyond the LHC” and Martin Blume of the Physical Re-view who talked about “The Future of Scientific Publishing.”

The events concluded with a dinner at the New Haven LawnClub. Yale’s Robert Adair served as the master of ceremonies andBrookhaven National Laboratory’s past director Nicholas Samiosdelivered the keynote address, “What Lies Ahead for Particle andNuclear Physics?” His talk was a fitting conclusion to the sympo-sium, as attendees were invited to consider the future of a fieldjust as they recalled its past and the work Jack Sandweiss has doneto shape both.

Vernon Hughes Symposium

The life and work of ProfessorVernon W. Hughes were celebratedat a special symposium on May 11,2001. In honor of the eightiethbirthday of Hughes, the SterlingEmeritus Professor of Physics,friends from around the countryand the world gathered in theSloane Physics Laboratory to de-liver and hear lectures and to en-joy the company of a man whosefriendship and work have touchedmany lives.

The afternoon began with a warm welcome from ProfessorCharles Baltay ’63 PhD, current chair of the Physics Department.His welcome was followed by an address entitled “Muonium” byGisbert zu Putlitz of the University of Heidelberg who has workedand published on muon physics in collaboration with ProfessorHughes and other scholars. Next came Cornell’s Toichiro Kinoshita,who has also worked with Hughes and Putlitz in muon physics,and his address “Theory of Muon g-2.” The ensuing coffee breakallowed for socializing and catching up with old friends. RobertJaffe, professor of physics and director of the Center for Theoreti-cal Physics at MIT, kicked off the afternoon session with his lec-ture, “Nucleon Spin Structure.” CalTech nuclear physicist EmlynHughes followed with an address on the Stanford Linear Accelera-tor Center entitled “Parity Violation at SLAC.” Guests of the sym-posium then enjoyed cocktails and a lavish banquet in the KlineBiology Tower. Dinner was followed by an address by another in-ternational visitor, Waseda University Advanced Research Insti-tute for Science and Engineering’s Kunitaka Kondo who spoke ofscientific collaboration between Japan and the United States. Pro-fessor Kondo has written, among many other things, a chapter dis-cussing the collaboration of Professor Hughes and Japanese scien-tists in the study of spinning particles. William Marciano of theBrookhaven National Laboratory ended the evening with his for-ward-looking lecture, “The Future of Muon Physics.”

Ten years ago, a distinguished group of scholars collaboratedon A Festschrift in Honor of Vernon W. Hughes to mark theiresteemed friend’s seventieth birthday. With this year’s success-ful symposium in celebration of another decade in the life of Pro-fessor Hughes, the bar has been set impressively high for the fu-ture planners of his ninetieth birthday festivities.

Faculty News —Physics Department’s Newest SeniorFaculty Member: Megan Urry

The Physics Depart-ment’s newest seniorfaculty member arriveswith an impressive sci-entific record and an in-spiring sense of serviceto the discipline. In thedepartment’s long-rangeplan, the faculty recog-nized the need tostrengthen research inseveral key areas,among them astrophys-ics. In hiring ProfessorMeg Urry, the depart-ment has taken an im-portant step in that di-rection. Professor Urrycomes to Yale straightfrom her work at the

Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) – which carries outthe science program of the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA –where she has worked since 1987. Her research concerns ac-tive galaxies, those with unusually luminous cores that are likelypowered by massive black holes. She has identified one of theprincipal causes of this extreme activity: relativistic jets prob-ably formed in the vicinity of supermassive black holes at theheart of active galaxies. In addition to her own research, Pro-fessor Urry has headed the STScI Science Program SelectionOffice that solicits, reviews, and approves observing proposalsfor the Hubble Telescope. Urry arrives just in time for the open-ing of the new Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Yaleand says she is excited to be in the department at such a dy-namic time.

Professor Urry’s involvement with the sciences goes beyondher astronomical research. Perhaps more than anyone else,she has brought to the scientific community’s attention the rela-tive scarcity of women scientists in graduate school and in teach-ing and research. She was the chief organizer of the 1992 Womenin Astronomy conference out of which grew the historic Balti-more Charter that addressed “the need to develop a scientificculture within which both women and men can work effectivelyand within which all can have satisfying and rewarding careers.”In a 1994 resolution, the American Astronomical Society (AAS)threw its support behind the charter. Since then, the issue ofwomen in the field has received much attention and ProfessorUrry has led the way. In 2000-2001, she was chair of the AAS’sCommittee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, edited thecommittee’s biannual newsletter, and helped maintain a data-base of women in the profession.

In the fall, Professor Urry will bring her exciting researchand sense of service to New Haven, where she will be the firsttenured woman in the history of physics at Yale.

Symposia continued from page 3

5

Faculty News — Recent Additions to the Senior Faculty

Sean Barrett was promoted to ten-ure from within the department in1999. He joined the department in1994 having earned his PhD fromthe University of Illinois two yearsearlier. In his work with the Experi-mental Condensed Matter Physicsgroup, he has been using OPNMR(optically pumped nuclear mag-netic resonance) to study electron-doped GaAs quantum wells in thepresence of large magnetic fields.In recognition of his work, his

graduate alma mater conferred on him the 1995 William L.McMillan Award, a prize given annually to a young condensedmatter physicist for distinguished accomplishments in the field.That same year, the National Science Foundation presented himwith a Faculty Early Career Development Award. ProfessorBarrett has been the leader of a research team, consisting of physi-cists from Yale and Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs, that has de-veloped new, non-invasive techniques to study electron spin statesdeep inside semiconductors. Their research in the relatively newfield of spintronics may lead to improvements in the speed ofcomputer chips and to the development of more efficient semi-conductor lasers. Before coming to Yale, he spent a two-yearterm as a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Labs. He has served as thedepartment’s Director of Undergraduate Studies since 1999 andis a recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

John Harris joined the departmentin 1996 following a distinguishedterm as senior scientist at theLawrence Berkeley Laboratory atthe University of California. His re-search interests are focused on un-derstanding the behavior of nuclear,hadronic, and partonic matter athigh energy densities. He was in-volved in the original proposal toinitiate a nucleus-nucleus experi-mental program at CERN to searchfor a possible QGP (quark-gluon

plasma) phase transition, and has been an active member in theplanning, conceptual design, construction, data acquisition andphysics of two ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus experiments atthe CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. He has been spokespersonfor the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) experiment since itsinception in 1991. After earning his PhD in 1978 from SUNY StonyBrook and serving as a research associate at the Berkeley Lab fortwo years, Professor Harris was a senior guest scientist at GSIDarmstadt (Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung) in Germany.In 1984, he returned to Berkeley where he would remain until1996 and his move to New Haven. He has been Visiting Scientistat the University of Heidelberg and at CERN, and an Alexandervon Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the University of Frankfurt.In 1995, Frankfurt awarded him its Senior U.S. Humboldt Prize.

Mark Kasevich was hired as a fullytenured associate professor in1997 with a mandate to help re-store the department’s eminencein the field of atomic physics inlight of the departure or retire-ment of several key scientists.After receiving his PhD fromStanford University in 1992, Pro-fessor Kasevich joined theStanford faculty as an assistantprofessor. There, he was the re-cipient of two Young InvestigatorAwards (one from the NationalScience Foundation, the other from the Office of Naval Re-search), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Frederick E.Terman Fellowship from Stanford. Since coming to Yale, theformer Rhodes Scholar has led an atomic physics group whoseinterests include atom optics and interferometery and the studyof quantum many-body effects in dilute atomic vapors. Thegroup’s current experimental efforts include the developmentof a precision gravity gradiometer based on atom interferencetechniques; the development of a precision atom-interferom-eter gyroscope for tests of General Relativity; the study of theproperties of Bose-Einstein condensed 87Rb; and the atomcounting statistics of quantum degenerate bosonic (7Li) andfermionic (6Li) sources.

Simon Mochrie came to Yale in2000 as a full professor special-izing in experimental condensedmatter physics. A native of Lon-don, he earned a bachelor’s de-gree from Oxford and completedhis PhD work at MIT in 1985. Hethen did a postdoc at MIT beforebecoming a member of the tech-nical staff at AT&T Bell Labora-tories in New Jersey. He is aguest scientist at the NationalSynchroton Light Source at theBrookhaven National Laboratory and has been a guest scien-tist at the Riso National Laboratory in Denmark and a re-search collaborator in the physics department at Brookhaven.In 1990, he was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. Hewas a professor of physics at MIT from 1987 until coming toNew Haven. Professor Mochrie’s work has primarily consistedof experimental studies of the phase behavior and phase tran-sitions of soft matter, surface and biomaterials, using high-resolution x-ray scattering methods. His most recent workhas focused on long chain polymers and polymer films andhe is currently the leader of a collaborative access team atthe Argonne National Laboratory.

6

2000 Yale Physics Olympics — Physics is Fun!

cocted by the eventorganizers, but wereoften first-class andin some cases ex-ceeded the organiz-ers’ expectations.

While the teamswere treated to atour of the WrightNuclear Science Lab,event organizerstallied the scores.Every team was awarded t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, and aphysics book for their school libraries. The physics departmentmachine shop made “gold” (brass), “silver” (aluminum), and“bronze” (copper) medals for the top teams. But the most covetedprize was the Yale Physics Olympics perpetual lightguide trophy,which currently resides at Connecticut’s Branford High Schoolthanks to the efforts of their Team Atom. A special prize was alsoawarded to the team with the best costumes.

Last October, thirty-eight teams fromtwenty-two differenthigh schools visitedScience Hill to com-pete in the 3rd AnnualYale Physics Olym-pics. Con Beausang,associate professor of

physics, organizes the Olympics each year in order to demon-strate that “physics is fun.” Students from public and privateschools in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and NewYork came to New Haven to learn and to demonstrate their knowl-edge of physics in an enjoyable environment. They came in teamsof four accompanied by teachers and, in some cases, cheerleadingsquads to compete for a spot on the winners’ stand.

The day was split into morning and afternoon sessions. Themorning’s competition consisted of three events, each scheduledfor 30 minutes. Theevents are conceivedby faculty and graduatestudents in the physicsdepartment and arepracticed several timesbefore the competitorsarrive in order to deter-mine the correct ormost efficient solu-tions. These effortsnotwithstanding, according to Professor Beausang, the high schoolstudents invariably derive more accurate results than their IvyLeague colleagues. One event, for example, required the Olym-pians to gauge the height of paper stars taped to a top-floor win-dow of Gibbs Laboratory. Beausang said that members of thephysics faculty were amazed at the accuracy of their results –the teams that scored highest in the event came within centime-ters of the actual height! Another event required students toconstruct a boat from tin foil and swizzle sticks. The goal was toshape a hull with the capacity to carry the maximum number ofnuts and bolts. At least one team of students was able to build aboat capable of carrying much more weight than that constructed

by any of the organiz-ers in their practiceruns. Yet anotherevent asked the stu-dents to find a way tomove frisbees along astring suspended be-tween two columns ofthe Kline BiologyTower. They weregiven two frisbees, aweight, string, andmasking tape. Theresulting solutionswere not always thesame as those con-

According to Professor Beausang, the rewards of the PhysicsOlympics extend well beyond prizes and recognition of individualstudents and schools. Many of the physics teachers who bringteams to the event have returned to their schools with new teach-ing ideas to be used in their ongoing efforts to convey the excite-ment of physics to an up-and-coming generation of scholars. TheYale graduate and undergraduate students who help organize theevent benefit from the opportunity to deploy their knowledge ofphysics as teachers and guides for the competing students. Fi-nally, the entire physics community benefits from the excitementgenerated by the event and from the formation of a group of youngphysicists who may go on to shape the future of the sciences.

The next Physics Olympics will be held October 13, 2001.If past experience is any guide, about 75% of participating schoolswill return with teams. The competition has proven so popular, infact, that within two weeks of mailing out the invitations for thenext Olympics, 26 teams had accepted! Anyone interested in es-tablishing a similar event at his or her own institution is welcometo contact Con Beausang (cornelius.beausang@yale.edu).

7

Faculty News for 2000-2001

Yoram Alhassid published or submitted fourteenpapers, including an invited review on quantumdots for Reviews of Modern Physics. He also madenumerous presentations associated with his workon Monte Carlo methods for nuclear structure andon quantum dots. Teaching duties involved gradu-ate courses in advanced dynamics and statisticalphysics.

Thomas Applequist is completing a two-year ap-pointment with the National Research Councilwhere he has chaired a committee of fourteenphysicists preparing an overview of the field. Inaddition, he was elected to a three-year term aschairman of the board of the Aspen Center forPhysics. Professor Applequist offered a graduatecourse in quantum mechanics this year.

Charles Baltay ’63 PhD, in addition to his dutiesas chair of the department, served as co-spokes-man of the SLD Experiment at the Stanford Lin-ear e+e- Collider, as well as the co-leader of theUnited States and International Study of the Phys-ics and Detectors of High-Energy e+e- Collider.He served as the leader of the QUEST Project tostudy gravitational lensing to measure cosmologi-cal parameters of the universe. As such it was histeam that discovered a new plutino this past year.Professor Baltay taught courses in classical fieldtheory and general relativity.

Sean Barrett has served as the department’s di-rector of undergraduate studies since July 1999.In addition to several publications and talks, heis the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fel-lowship that has just been extended for anotheryear. This past year, Professor Barrett taught theundergraduate General Physics Lab and Introduc-tion to Mathematical Methods of Physics.

Cornelius Beausang has led the development ofthe YRAST Ball array that has drawn increasingattention to the largest university-based gamma-ray spectrometer in the world. He also played amajor role in the development of the nuclearstructure program at the Wright Nuclear StructureLab. Professor Beausang also served as the chair-man of the Yale Physics Olympics committee andtaught Classical Mechanics and General Physics.

D. Allan Bromley has worked this past year toendow the Thomas J. Golden Professorship in En-gineering. In addition, he has been working toobtain industrial support for the Combustion Re-search Center. Professor Bromley has also workedwith the Senate Science Census to stabilize andincrease federal funding for engineering and thephysical sciences.

Richard Casten ’67 PhD continued his tenure asthe director of the Wright Nuclear Structure Lab.In addition to his numerous advances in his re-search of nuclear structures, Professor Casten haswritten twenty-one journal publications and de-livered twelve invited conference talks. His teach-ing duties involved graduate courses in introduc-tory nuclear physics and advanced topics innuclear physics. He has also been working on arevision of his textbook Nuclear Structure froma Simple Perspective.

David DeMille’s achievements this past year in-cluded three publication, six talks, two grantsfrom the National Science Foundation, and anAlfred P. Sloan Fellowship. He taught undergradu-ate Experimental Research Studies II and Gen-eral Physics Lab.

Colin Gay was appointed the Horace Taft Assis-tant Professor of Physics. In addition to numer-ous journal publications, Professor Gay taughtcourses in classical mechanics and introductoryparticle and nuclear physics.

Kurt Gibble has continued his work with atomicclocks, increasing the precision with which theytell time. He has been working with grants fromNASA and from the National Science Founda-tion. This past year, he taught a required gradu-ate-level laboratory and advanced general phys-ics for undergraduates.

John Harris served as spokesperson of the STAR(Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC) experiment thatcommenced operations in the summer of 2000.This international scientific collaboration of 430scientists is conducting an experiment to recre-ate conditions that occurred several microsec-onds after the beginning of the universe and mayoccur in the cores of the densest stars. Profes-sor Harris has formed and is leading at Yale oneof the premier STAR groups. He has reportedtheir findings in numerous publications and lec-tures that have taken him all over the world. Hehas also worked to revise the teaching of Phys-ics 110 – Themes in Modern Physics – to en-courage student participation and interactionand has taught graduate students Topics in Mod-ern Physics Research.

Franco Iachello initiated a program to study sym-metries of differential equations with discontinu-ous potential functions. He has continued thedevelopment of algebraic methods in physics withthe following major results: the introduction ofthe concept of symmetries and its application innuclear physics, the development of an algebraicmodel for clustering in nuclei, and the comple-tion of a project on strange baryons. In additionto thirteen publications and six lectures in theU.S., Mexico, Europe, and Australia, ProfessorIachello taught the graduate course in group theo-retical methods in physics.

Mark Kasevich has been working on the experi-mental observation of squeezed atomic states. Hewas also a Frew Fellow of the Australian Acad-emy of Sciences and a NASA Jet Propulsion Labo-ratory Distinguished Visiting Scientist. This pastyear, he taught the graduate-level introduction toatomic physics.

Reiner Kruecken has been conducting nuclearstructure research using gamma-ray spectroscopywith a special focus on the measurements of tran-sition matrix elements using Doppler-shift tech-niques. He is the leader of the project to installthe gas-filled magnetic separator SASSYER (for-merly SASSY 2) at the Wright Nuclear StructureLab Extended Stretched TransUranium (ESTU)Tandem Accelerator. Professor Kruecken pro-

duced thirteen journal publications and servedas the instructor in charge of the undergraduategeneral physics laboratory.

Gerd Kunde took the first Relativistic Heavy IonCollider (RHIC) dataset at Au+Au at 130 GeV/Cas project leader of the STAR-RICH subsystem.He was also the head instructor of the under-graduate physics lab sequence in modern physi-cal measurement.

Dimitri Kusnezov continued his research in theareas of nuclear structure and many-body phys-ics, complex quantum systems, and exactly solv-able models and symmetry methods. He has alsobeen doing work at the Relativistic Heavy IonCollider at BNL on physics far from equilibrium.He has also written over ten publications and de-livered eleven talks in Italy, Japan, France, Bra-zil, and the U.S. Professor Kusnezov taught agraduate course in classical electrodynamics. Hiscommunity work included work at the Yale Phys-ics Olympics, judging projects at local middleschool science fairs, and visiting local grade schooland high school classrooms to talk to studentsabout physics.

Samuel MacDowell has continued to work andpublish on solar and atmospheric neutrinos andthe determination of parameters of the Kobayashi-Maskawa neutrino matrix. He taught undergradu-ate advanced general physics. ProfessorMacDowell has also continued to be active at theSt. Thomas More Soup Kitchen.

Simon Mochrie collaboratively carried out andanalyzed experiments to investigate the motionof long chain polymers in a polymer blend andalso investigated the surface dynamics of thinpolymer films. He also served as the director ofthe Collaborative Access Team that is implement-ing the beamlines at Sector 8 at the AdvancedPhoton Source at the Argonne National Lab. Assuch, he leads a multi-institutional collaborationconsisting of Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, McGill,University of Toronto, and IBM. Finally, Profes-

8

sor Mochrie continues to serve on the ScientificAdvisory Committee for the Linear Collider LightSource, envisaged to be built at the Stanford Lin-ear Accelerator Center (SLAC).

Vincent Moncrief continued his research in col-laboration with other scientists on the global ex-istence properties and asymptotic behavior oflarge classes of cosmological solutions toEinstein’s equations and developed further theconnection of this work to geometrization con-jectures for 3-manifolds. In addition to numer-ous publications and talks, Professor Moncrief wasa co-organizer of the Mathematical CosmologyWorkshop held at the Erwin Schrödinger Inter-national Institute for Mathematical Physics (ESI)in Vienna. He continued as the director of un-dergraduate studies for the math/physics majorand developed and taught a graduate course en-titled “Einstein’s Equations and 3-Manifold Ge-ometrization Conjectures.”

Homer Neal joined the BaBar experiment at theStanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) andformed a new research group at Yale to workon the task of understanding the source of mat-ter dominance in the universe using the BaBardetector. On the OPAL (Omni-Purpose Appa-ratus at LEP) experiment at the European Or-ganization for Nuclear Research (CERN), hecompleted the searches for the chargino and-neutralino supersymmetric particles at thehighest energy electron positron collision everused. On the SLD experiment at SLAC, Profes-sor Neal completed a search for oscillationsbetween the matter and antimatter states of theBs meson contributing to much more stringentlimits on the rate of oscillation. In addition, hetaught the undergraduate course Themes inModern Physics.

Peter Parker, as a member of the nuclear astro-physics program, continued his study of breakoutfrom the HotCNO cycle to the rp-process, andthe early stages of the rp-process, using bothstable-beam spectroscopy experiments and di-rect radioactive beam measurements. Over thepast year, his work has mostly focused on locat-ing the important resonances for key reactionsin these processes. A program to determine thestrengths of these resonances by measuring theiralpha-particle and proton decays has been initi-ated. Professor Parker and his group have alsocontinued their participation in radioactivebeam experiments at Argonne and Oak RidgeNational Labs and have helped in the testing ofdetectors for experiments that will start at theTRIUMF/ISAC (Vancouver) in 2001. His teach-ing duties included Fundamentals of Physics andExperimental Research Studies. He also servedas the associate director of the Wright NuclearStructure Lab.

Erich Poppitz’s work this year included fillingan important gap in the understanding ofsupergravity and showing the existence of dualyd descriptions in higher-dimensional gravity-localizing backgrounds. He presented this workin several publications and eight talks through-out the U.S. and in Germany and Russia. Pro-fessor Poppitz taught undergraduate QuantumMechanics.

Nicholas Read’s research has progressed with ad-vances in 2-dimensional Ising model, related todisorder in superconductors and paired fractionalquantum Hall states. Professor Read deliveredseveral invited talks on his work at internationalmeetings and taught undergraduate StatisticalThermodynamics.

Subir Sachdev continued his research on thetheory of quantum phase transitions with appli-cations to the high temperature superconductorsand other complex oxides. Professor Sachdev de-signed and implemented a new curriculum for thegraduate course in statistical physics, taughtQuantum Many-Body Theory, had twelve journalpublications, delivered eleven invited talks, con-ducted colloquia at six physics departments, andwas visiting professor at the University ofFribourg, Switzerland, in July 2000.

Jack Sandweiss continued his duties as editorand chairman of the Divisional Associate Edi-tors of Physics Review Letters. He continued asspokesman of experiment E-864 at Brookhaven’sAlternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). In itssearch for novel forms of matter, the experimentestablished that strange quark matter is not pro-duced in the high-energy heavy ion collisionsstudied. Professor Sandweiss also collaboratedon a paper quelling fears concerning RHIC’s pro-duction of strange quark matter. He joined theSTAR experiment at Brookhaven NationalLaboratory’s RHIC where he is in the process ofdesigning an experiment which will make it pos-sible to study the direct production of electro-magnetic radiation from the initial stages of theheavy ion collision and should clearly show prop-erties of the quark gluon plasma.

Michael Schmidt ’79 PhD has been leading theefforts of the Yale group collaborating on theCollider Detector Facility at Fermilab. The groupcompleted, installed, and commissioned criticaltrigger and data acquisition electronics this year.Data taking began in the spring. ProfessorSchmidt served as the department’s director ofgraduate studies and chair of the committee re-vising graduate curriculum and examinations.

Ramamurti Shankar completed a long papersummarizing nearly three years of work on theQuantum Hall Effect. His work shows in detailhow one can compute a variety of quantitiesab initio, along the more usual path taken inphysics of deriving the answer within an ap-proximate scheme. He served as acting directorof the Division of Physical Sciences and Engineer-ing in spring 1999. Professor Shankar deliveredthe Heinz Pagels Memorial Lecture at the invita-tion of the Aspen Center for Physics. His lecturewas entitled, “When You Come to a Fork in theRoad, You Gotta Take It: Yogi Berra’s Guide tothe Quantum World.” He continued work on hisbook Methods of Quantum Field Theory in Con-densed Matter Physics (to be published by Cam-bridge University Press) and gave twelve talksincluding the MIT Retreat Lectures in January.His teaching duties involved the undergraduatesequence in intensive introductory physics.Professor Shankar began his term as the newestchair of the department in July.

Samson Shatashvili continued work in the fieldof string theory. He was able to derive an exactequation for the tachyon field for open strings –the first known exact result in strong field theory.His publication of the results in September 2000has drawn considerable attention and has stimu-lated further research. Professor Shatashvili washonored with the Department of Energy’s Out-standing Young Investigator Award. He taught agraduate course in quantum field theory.

Donald Shirer, as the department’s director of in-structional labs, wrote a new introduction to sta-tistical data analysis currently being used by stu-dents in Modern Physical Measurement and re-vised the lab experiments for this class, the Gen-eral Physics Laboratory, and Experimental Re-search Studies. He continued to track downmisalignments and misadjustments in the 1 MeVVandeGraff accelerator introduced during the re-building two years ago. In addition, ProfessorShirer published four journal articles.

Charles Sommerfield continued his efforts to findthe vacuum state of the matrix theory of M theory.He also taught courses in advanced general phys-ics for undergraduates and a graduate class inquantum field theory.

Tilo Wettig continued research on the low-energyfeatures of quantum chromodynamics and col-laborated on an invited review article on the sub-ject summarizing the current state of the field.He also had numerous publications and deliveredeight talks in the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Pro-fessor Wettig revised and taught a course on math-ematical methods in physics for first year gradu-ate students and advanced undergraduates.

Michael Zeller had numerous publications ac-cepted by journals and gave several presenta-tions to the NSF telling of his research on theKOPIO experiment at Brookhaven that measuresthe decay of Ko -> pi0 nu nubar. He also taughtthe undergraduate course in the fundamentalsof physics.

9

Recent Faculty Retirements —

made important contributions to the detection of neutrons, includingthe development of the widely used lithium-6-loaded glass scintilators.Professor Firk has been an active member of the department, servingas director of graduate studies from 1970 to 1973 and as departmentchair from 1980 to 1983. He was associate director, then director, ofYale’s Electron Accelerator Laboratory from 1968 until 1984; directorof the Summer Sciences program at Yale in 1977; and director of theuniversity’s Natural Science Center in 1978. From 1982 to 1987, hewas master of Trumbull College and in 1983 he was awarded the YaleCollege Teaching Prize.

Bill Lichten (1998) –Atomic PhysicsProfessor Lichten came to Yale in 1964 witha PhD from the University of Chicago and astrong record in the areas of experimentaland theoretical atomic physics. His schol-arship has been recognized with fellowshipsand grants from the National Science Foun-dation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundationand he has been an elected fellow of theAmerican Physical Society and a fellow atYale’s Institution of Social and Policy Stud-ies. Professor Lichten has put to much use

his strong interests in teaching and academic testing. He has served thedepartment on numerous committees, including the faculty advisory com-mittee for the Teacher Training Program at Yale College and the JuniorAppointments Committee. Since retirement, the Professor Emeritus ofPhysics, Engineering, and Applied Science has been conducting a study ofthe Advanced Placement exams conducted by the College Board. In hispublished report of June 2000, Professor Lichten demonstrates that, counterto claims made by the College Board, the average test performance levelhas dropped and recommends that the College Board’s concentration onnumbers of participants should yield to an emphasis on student perfor-mance and program quality.

Jack Greenberg (2000) –Experimental Nuclear PhysicsProfessor Greenberg joined the physics fac-ulty in 1956 after earning his doctorate fromthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology.In addition to serving as the director ofgraduate studies of the department, he hasheld visiting professorships at numerous in-stitutions. He received the British Associa-tion Medal, the Rutherford Memorial Fellow-ship, a Travelling Fellowship from Canada,and the Senior U.S. Scientist Award of theAlexander Von Humboldt Foundation. Pro-

fessor Greenberg’s work has been wide-ranging and includes research innuclear, atomic, and elementary particle physics. His experimental inves-tigations have particularly focused on areas involving fundamental aspectsof collective structure in nuclei, weak interactions, the development ofhigh-energy atomic physics with very high-Z atomic systems for studies ofquantum electrodynamics of strong fields, and the possible production ofnew low-mass lepton states and hyperon states.

Frank Firk (1999) –Experimental Nuclear PhysicsA London native who took his doctorate fromthe University of London, Professor Firk ar-rived at Yale in 1965 as a senior researchassociate after having worked in Harwell,Oxfordshire, at the headquarters of theUnited Kingdom Atomic Energy Authorityand in Tennessee at the Physics Division ofthe Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1968,he was promoted to associate professor andbecame full professor in 1977. During theseyears, his work on double neutron scatter-

ing gained increasing attention from the scientific community. He has

Graduate Student News — Entering graduate students:

Fall 2000[Note: The fields listed for these students are the ones in which they areworking for their summer research appointment. Sometime during the nextacademic year, they will begin a formal association with a thesis advisor thatmay or may not involve the same field as their summer research.]

Atomic: Sarah Bickman (Amherst College); Yong Jiang (Universityof Science and Technology of China); Wei Li (University of Scienceand Technology of China)

Condensed Matter/Experimental: Grace Chern (UC Berkeley);Zhipan Li (Peking University); Dale Li – (UC Berkeley); MingchangLiu (University of Science and Technology of China); Aric Sanders(University of North Texas); Veronica Savu (California Instituteof Technology); Benjamin Turek (Stanford University); Qian Wan(University of Science and Technology of China)

Nuclear/Experimental: Betty Bezverkhny (Tufts University); SevilSalur (UC Berkeley)

Nuclear/Theoretical: Sabas Abuabara (Texas A&M University)

Particle/Experimental: Keith Henseler (Wright State University);Chun Yang (Peking University)

Particle/Theoretical: Adam Hopper (University of New Hampshire)

Undeclared: Zhenyu Han (University of Science and Technology of China)

Fall 1999Atomic: Matthew Fenselau (Franklin & Marshall College); RussellHart (University of Wisconsin); Ruoxin Li (University of Science andTechnology of China); John Rees (Oxford University); Jeremy Sage(Brown University); Yoav Shaham (Tel Aviv University)

Condensed Matter/ Experimental: Minghao Shen (Peking Univer-sity); John Teufel (University of Toledo)

Condensed Matter/Theoretical: Anatoly Polkovnikov (St. PetersburgState University of Technology)

General Relativity: Mary Vasu (Stanford University)

Nuclear/Experimental: Jonathan Gans (Vassar College); MichaelMiller (Michigan State University)

Nuclear/Theoretical: Yuan Huang (Peking University)

Particle/ Experimental: Fei Du (University of Science and Technologyof China); Ke Li (City College of New York); Yi Wei (University ofScience and Technology of China); Haibin Zhang (University of Sci-ence and Technology of China)

Particle/Theoretical: Ho-Ung Yee (Seoul National University)

Other: Jie Lin (Fudan University and Creighton University), YanceyQuinones (UC Santa Cruz), Zhong Tao (Peking University)

10

Graduate Student Dissertations, Advisors, and Job Placements —

2000-2001Hei-Chi Chan, “Generalized Seiberg-Witten Equa-tions”; Gregg Zuckerman; Mathematical Sciences,University of Illinois at Springfield.

Jia Chen, “Molecular Wire, Switches and Memo-ries”; Mark Reed; Semiconductor Research andDevelopment Center, IBM Corporation, EastFishkill, NY.

Ming Deng, “Distance Scale to Gamma RayBursts”; Bradley Schaefer; System Engineer,Caxton Associates, LLC.

Michael Ibrahim, “Molecules and Nuclei: An Alge-braic Sampler”; Francesco Iachello; Safeweb, Oak-land, CA.

Pankaj Khandelwal, “OPNMR in the Quantum HallRegimes”; Sean Barrett; Safeweb, Oakland, CA.

Jonathan Lenaghan, “Effective Theories for theChiral Symmetry Restoring Phase Transition inQuantum Chromodynamics”; Tilo Wettig; NielsBohr Institute, Denmark.

Shichang Liu, “Monte Carlo Methods for theNuclear Shell Model and Their Applications”;Yoram Alhassid; Software Engineer, Tradeworx Inc,New York City.

Michael Mahoney, “The Computational StatisticalMechanics of Simple Models of Liquid Water”; Wil-liam Jorgensen; Postdoc, Department of Chemis-try, Columbia University.

David Mitchell, “Statistical Processes in Many BodyProblems”; Dimitri Kusnezov.

Bruce Roscherr, “Select Radiation Transfer Prob-lems in Astrophysics”; Paolo Coppi; PrincetonConsultants (PCI), Princeton, NJ.

Dimitrios Tsimpis, “Aspects of Branes in StringTheory”; Gregory Moore; Postdoctoral Fellow,Chalmers University of Technology and GöteborgUniversity, Sweden.

Mei Wang, “Synchroton Resonance Maser: Experi-mental and Theoretical Studies”; Jay Hirshfield;Software Engineer, CA.

Rodney Yoder, “Design and Operation of an In-verse Free-Electron-Laser Accelerator in the Mi-crowave Regime”; Jay Hirshfield; Physics Depart-ment, University of New Haven.

1999-2000Daniel Bardayan, “Explosive 17F (p,gamma) 18NeBurning Through the 3+ State in 18Ne”; PeterParker; Wigner Fellow at Oak Ridge National Labo-ratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Alan Chen, “The Structure of 22mg and Its Impli-cations for Explosive Nucleosynthesis”; PeterParker; TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory forParticle and Nuclear Physics, Vancouver.

Hanh Do, “Improved Limit for the DecayK+( pi+mu+e-”; Michael Zeller; Postdoctoral associ-ate, Yale University, Experimental Particle Physics.

James Hormuzdiar, “QCD and Hadronic MatterUnder Extreme Conditions”; Alan Chodos; Centrefor High Energy Physics, McGill University.

Nicholas Kuzma, “Optically Pumped NMR Studyof Electron Spin Dynamics in the Fractional Quan-tum Hall Regime”; Sean Barrett; Postdoc, PrincetonAtomic Physics Group.

Thomas Moore, “B Mixing with Inclusive Leptonsat SLD”; Charles Baltay; Postdoc, University of Mas-sachusetts, Physics Department.

Stephen Pappas, “Polarization of Decays of B Me-sons to Two Vector Mesons”; Michael Schmidt;Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics, CalTech and Visit-ing Fellow, Nuclear Studies Laboratory at CornellUniversity.

Jazmin Schwartz, “Coulomb Excitation of a Ra-dioactive Beam of 78Rb”; Peter Parker; ArgonneNational Laboratory.

Kevin Walsh, “Quantitative Characterizations ofCoflow Laminar Diffusion Flames in a Normal Grav-ity and Microgravity Environment”; Marshall Long;Mars & Co. Consulting.

Qiang Wu, “Imaging Spectroscopy of a NarrowGaAs/AIGaAs Quantum Well Using a Solid Im-mersion Lens Microscope”; Robert Grober; IBMCorporation.

1998-1999Seongsik Chang, “Lasing Characteristics of De-formed Microcavities”; Richard Chang;Postdoctoral Associate in Applied Physics, YaleUniversity.

Kedar Damle, “Turning on the Heat: Non-ZeroTemperature Dynamical Properties of QuantumMany Body Systems”; Subir Sachdev; Postdoc,Harvard University.

Evan Finch, “Invariant Multiplicity of Neutronsin 11.5 A GeV/c Au-Pb Collisions”; JackSandweiss; postdoctoral research scientist, YaleUniversity with the STAR experiment at the Rela-tivistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BrookhavenNational Laboratory.

Nigel George, “Kinematic and Centrality Depen-dencies of Light-Isotope Production in Relativis-tic Au-induced Nucleus-Nucleus Reactions”; JackSandweiss/B. Shiva Kumar; postdoctoral researchscientist, Argonne National Laboratory, stationedat Brookhaven National Laboratory on thePHOBOS experiment at the Relativistic Heavy IonCollider (RHIC).

Ilya Gruzberg, “Supersymmetry Method in theStudy of Disordered Systems”; Nicholas Read; In-stitute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cali-fornia, Santa Barbara.

Junseong Heo, “Quantum Field Theory and Grav-ity: Black Holes and Dark Matters”; ThomasApplequist; Research Associate, University ofColorado.

Andras Kaiser, “Symmetry Breaking in CurvedSpacetime”; Alan Chodos.

Ronald Legere, “Quantum Scattering in a Jug-gling Atomic Fountain”; Kurt Gibble; MIT Lin-coln Lab.

Sergei Redin, “Preparation and First Result of BNLExperiment E821: A New Precision Measurementof the Muon (G-2) Value”; Vernon Hughes; Associ-ate Research Scientist, Yale University.

Jun Xie, “Factors Affecting Nuclear Magnetic Reso-nance Measurements of Aparent Diffusion”; JohnGore; Timber Hill LLC.

Zhangbu Xu, “Strange Quark Matter Search andMeasurements of Light Nuclei Production in Rela-tivistic Heavy Ion Collisions at the AGS Energies”;Jack Sandweiss; staff physicist at Brookhaven Na-tional Laboratory, STAR experiment at RHIC.

Alumni Notes —

Robert Birgeneau ’66 PhD, president of the Univer-sity of Toronto, delivered the fourth talk in the YaleGraduate School’s Tercentennial Lecture Series, “Inthe Company of Scholars” in April 2001. His talkwas titled “High Temperature Superconductivity:Why Is It So Interesting and So Intractable?”

Carmen A. Catanese ’70 PhD was promoted toexecutive vice president for corporate strategicdevelopment at the Sarnoff Corporation inPrinceton, New Jersey, where he has worked since1970 on a number of key projects, including thedevelopment of digital satellite-to-home TV service;the reation of COTY, the world picture tube stan-dard; and the development of multi-layer ceramiccircuit boards for low-cost electronics.

Two Yale physics alumni have been awarded YaleGraduate School’s Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal inrecent years. David M. Lee ’59 PhD, professorof physics at Cornell University and a 1996 NobelPrize winner for his contributions to the discov-ery of superfluidity in helium-3, returned to Yaleto receive the Wilbur Cross medal in 1998. AllenLee Sessoms ’72 PhD, president of Queens Col-lege of the City University of New York from1995–2000, was a Wilbur Cross medalist in 1999.

11

In Memoriam: ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

William Waggaman Ennis ’51 PhD on September 23, 1999. Born in Hous-ton, Mr. Ennis graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, second inthe class of 1942. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he earneda doctorate in nuclear physics from Yale in 1951, and retired from theNavy in 1963 with the rank of commander. He then worked in the Wash-ington, D.C. area for BellComm and Vitro Corporation, and in New Jerseyfor Bell Telephone Laboratories and RCA. He retired in 1990.

Cellissa Norcross Gowdy (PhD ’66, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry)on February 21, 2001. She was the wife of Robert Henry Gowdy (PhD ’68,Physics) and a good friend of his classmates and the department.

Richard C. Morrison ’65 PhD on May 1, 1999. He received a bachelor’sdegree from Princeton University in 1959, and was most recently profes-sor of physics at the University of New Haven. He is survived by his wife,Patricia, and four daughters.

Russell A. Peck, Jr. ’45, ’47 PhD on March 7, 1999. He was a retiredprofessor of physics at Brown University, where he had taught since 1948.He conducted research in experimental nuclear physics. For the past

two decades, his work had centered on cellular biophysics and the effectsof radiation on tumor cells. In 1979 he developed a project laboratory,still in use, for teaching college physics. He is survived by two children.

Oswald F. “Mike” Schuette Jr. ’49 PhD on August 6, 2000. After serving inWorld War II and teaching at the College of William and Mary, he receiveda Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Max Planck Institute in Mainz, Ger-many. From 1954 to 1958, he was a science liaison officer in West Ger-many for U.S. Navy Intelligence and played a key role working with defect-ing scientists. He then worked briefly at the National Academy of Sciencesand spent the early 1960s as deputy director for space research at theDefense Department. Professor Schuette joined the physics faculty at theUniversity of South Carolina in 1963. He retired two decades later. He issurvived by four siblings, three children, and six grandchildren.

Richard T. Weidner ’48 PhD, a retired dean and professor emeritus ofphysics at Rutgers University, on January 1, 2000, at the age of 78 inAllentown, Pennsylvania. (Please see the above article on ProfessorWeidner for more information.)

Two Rutgers Awards Named for Yale Physics Alumni

Editor’s Note: Upon being notified of the death of Richard T. Weidner ’48 PhDand learning more about his life and work, the editors of this newsletter learnedthat the physics department at Rutgers University had established an under-graduate prize in his name. It was then that we discovered that another Yalephysics graduate – Mary Wheeler Wigner ’32 PhD – had also been so honored.The following are brief accounts of their work and lives.

The Richard T. WeidnerPhysics Prize is awardedannually to one or moreRutgers undergraduateswho, in the judgment of thephysics faculty, have dem-onstrated outstanding aca-demic performance inphysics. Weidner joinedthe Rutgers physics depart-ment in 1948, after servingin the U. S. Navy as a physi-cist at the Naval ResearchLaboratory in Washington,D.C. He received his PhDfrom Yale in 1948. In ad-

dition to his accomplishments in research and writing, during his40-year career at Rutgers, Professor Weidner was acclaimed forhis skill and enthusiasm in the classroom. Indeed, according tohis son, Christopher L. Weidner, he would have characterized hisgreatest professional achievements in terms of teaching. In 1984,he received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching fromRutgers. Four years later, the Rutgers Society of Physics Studentsnamed him Outstanding Teacher of the Year. He once wrote thatthe one basic requirement for good teaching was a passionate be-lief in the value of what one is teaching, and continued, “One otherelement is crucial, I believe, especially for physics. It is to pointout to the students, regularly, sensitively, powerfully what I havecome to call the ‘message of physics’: the universe does make sense,with just a few basic ideas of great power, and it is truly astonish-

ing that we mere mortals can actually see how things are put to-gether, how they work. The most exquisite moments of my teach-ing career have always come when I’ve told some anecdote or ap-plication that ended with my saying something like, ‘See, that’sthe message of physics!’ Such moments were charged with an al-most transcendent energy, as a hush falls, and we are all for amoment— students (at least some) and lecturer alike— lost inwonder.” Professor Weidner was a recognized expert in the fieldof electron-spin resonance. In addition to co-authoring severaltextbooks, including the pioneering Elementary Modern Phys-ics in 1960, he published the highly successful Physics in 1985.Professor Weidner retired from Rutgers in 1988, and died onJanuary 1, 2000 (see below).

Established in 1985, the MaryWheeler Wigner Memorial Schol-arship is awarded to one or moreRutgers physics majors in recog-nition of academic excellence. Anative of Vermont, Wigner gradu-ated from Wellesley College witha degree in physics and receiveda PhD from Yale in 1932 after com-pleting her dissertation, “MagneticSusceptibilities of Alpha-Manga-nese and Beta-Manganese.” Forthe next eighteen years, she wasa faculty member in the VassarCollege physics department. Af-ter moving about the country for several years with her husband,future Nobel laureate Eugene Paul Wigner, the family settled downin Princeton. After a sabbatical semester in Holland in 1956-57,Professor Wigner joined the physics department at Douglass Col-lege, formerly the New Jersey College for Women and currently acollege within Rutgers. She continued to teach physics at Rutgersuntil her retirement in 1965. She died in 1977.

12

Yale University Department of PhysicsP.O. Box 209010New Haven, CT 06520-9010

Return Service Requested

Nonprofit Org.U.S. PostageP A I DNew Haven, CTPermit No. 526

Physics Department — Recent Statistics

Graduate Students Entering Program:2000-2001: 181999-2000: 21

Actively Enrolled Graduate Students:2000-2001: 88

Undergraduate Majors:2000-2001: 321999-2000: 291998-1999: 39

PhD Degrees Granted:2000-2001: 131999-2000: 101998-1999: 12

MPhil Degrees Granted:2000-2001: 71999-2000: 71998-1999: 9

MS Degrees Granted:2000-2001: 121999-2000: 141998-1999: 9

BS Degrees Granted:2000-2001: 121999-2000: 81998-1999: 14

Below: Graduate student Deseree Meyer ’01 at workin the Wright Nuclear Structure Lab.

Above: Professor Barrett and graduate student Anatoly Dementyev pose bythe department's new NMR magnet, a world-class facility unique to Yale.Below: Graduate student Jeff McGuirk and postdoc Greg Foster gaze intothe department's gravity gradiometer.