Kyla de Villa won the 2024 John C. Jamieson Student Paper Award
Kyla de Villa, a Ph.D. student in the Earth and Planetary Science Department at UC Berkeley, received the John C. Jamieson Student Paper Award in the 2024 Mineral and Rock Physics section.
Sara Seager won the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics
Sara Seager, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, won the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, “for their ground-breaking work on the discovery and characterization of extra-solar planets and their atmospheres.”
For “distinguished contributions to Condensed Matter Physics, particularly for his seminal groundbreaking work in high energy density science of matter at extreme pressures.”
This is the first time since 2009 that three faculty members have been elected in one year, as 2023 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Designation as an AAAS fellow is a distinguished lifetime honor within the scientific community.
Thomas Duffy, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, was awarded as an American Geophysical Union College of Fellows Distinguished Lecturer in 2023-24, in Earth Interior, Mineral and Rock Physics for his abstract, “Journey to the Center of a Super-Earth.” He was also selected as a 2023 Mercator Fellow in the Matter Under Planetary Interior Conditions Research Unit by the German Research Foundation.
Ian Ocampo, a graduate student in the High-Pressure Mineral Physics Laboratory at Princeton University, has been awarded the 2023-24 Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship.
Danae Polsin received the 2023 Outstanding Young Alum Award from the SUNY Geneseo Alumni Association
Danae Polsin, a scientist in the High-Energy-Density Experimental Physics Group at the Laser Laboratory for Energetics and an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester, received the 2023 Outstanding Young Alum Award from the SUNY Geneseo Alumni Association.
Sara Seager received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Toronto in 2023
For her leadership in the fields of astrophysics and planetary science and as a leader in the field of exoplanet atmospheres, Sara Seager received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto in June 2023.
Maureen Zhang won second place in the category of physics and astronomy at ISEF Regeneron 2023
Maureen Zhang, a CMAP Research Experience for High Schoolers (REH) program alumna, won 2nd place in the category of physics and astronomy at ISEF Regeneron 2023, a highly competitive international science competition for high school students with nearly 3,000 student attendees. M. Zhang presented a machine learning project to determine the number of exoplanets in planetary systems.
Jessica Shang selected as a 2022 Rochester Engineering Society Young Engineer of the Year Finalist
Jessica Shang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester was selected as a 2022 Rochester Engineering Society Young Engineer of the Year Finalist.
Afreen Syeda received an Outstanding Poster Award at the NNSA’s 2023 Stewardship Science Academic Programs Symposium
Afreen Syeda, a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester, received an Outstanding Poster Award at the NNSA’s 2023 Stewardship Science Academic Programs Symposium in February 2023.
Miki Nakajima, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester, is the recipient of a 2023 NSF CAREER award for her project, “CAREER: GLOW: Investigation on the evolution of magnetic fields of early Earth and beyond with cutting-edge research opportunities for future scientists.”
Jessica Shang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester was elected Member-at-Large (a 2-year term) of the APS Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter (GSCCM).
Eva Zurek named 2022 APS Fellow
Eva Zurek, professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, has been named an American Physical Society (APS) Fellow for 2022. The APS Fellowship Program was created in 1921 for those in the physics community to recognize peers who have contributed to advances in physics through original research, innovative applications, teaching, and leadership.
Richard Kraus selected as recipient of the inaugural American Physical Society’s 2023 Neil Ashcroft Early Career Award
Richard Kraus, research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the recipient of the inaugural American Physical Society’s 2023 Neil Ashcroft Early Career Award for Studies of Matter at Extreme High Pressure Conditions. Kraus is recognized for his outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions by an early-career scientist to studies of matter at extreme high-pressure conditions.
Poster Award at AAPPS DPP 2022
Poster Award for “The Impact of Magnetic Fields on the Melting Curves of Warm Dense Matter” at the Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS) Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics in October 2022. Authors: I. N. Erez, R. Betti, J. R. Davies, J. L. Peebles, and P.-A. Gourdain.
Hussein Aluie, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester and staff scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, has been recognized with the 2021 Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES), an American Geophysical Union journal.
Hao Yin, PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester, was selected to participate in the Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing (ATPESC), to be held July 31 – August 12, 2022, at the Q-Center in St. Charles, IL.
Jessica Shang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester was selected as a 2022 NSF CAREER Award recipient for her project “Multiscale modeling of perivascular flow in the brain.”
Hussein Aluie, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester and staff scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, has been selected as one of up to two Young Observers in the U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM) program in 2022.
Eva Zurek elected Vice Chair of APS/DCOMP
Eva Zurek, professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, has been elected by the Division of Computational Physics (DCOMP) of the American Physical Society (APS) as its next Vice Chair. She will serve in the DCOMP Executive Committee as Vice-Chair for one year starting in May 2022, then for one year as Chair-Elect, followed by one year as Chair, and then as Past Chair in the final year.
Hussein Aluie, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester and staff scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, is the 2022 Chair-Elect of the APS Topical Group on the Physics of Climate.
J. J. Ruby awarded Lawrence Fellowship
A graduate student in the High Energy Density Physics Experiments Group at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and IMAXED/CMAP, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, effective October 2021.
On-air commentary, popular books, advising for Marvel—the award recognizes the Rochester astrophysicist’s ‘sustained efforts’ to make science broadly accessible.
Bethany Chidester awarded Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Bethany Chidester of UC Davis was awarded a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, effective July 1, 2021.
Eva Zurek, professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, was awarded The State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2021. The award recognizes Eva’s sustained scholarship and significant, pioneering contributions in computational chemistry.
Ian Ocampo of Princeton University selected for the Best Graduate Student Poster Award at the 2021 Omega Laser Users’ Group Annual Meeting.
Eight appointed to named professorships
Adam Frank, a professor of physics and astronomy, has been jointly appointed to the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, announced in September 2020.