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The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University combines the friendly and supportive atmosphere of a liberal arts college with the excitement and challenge of forefront research. The undergraduate program consists of a focused physics education combined with a wealth of skills from the humanities and social sciences. The bachelor’s degree prepares a student for a career in the private sector or for continuing one's education in physics, astronomy, engineering, law, medicine and many other fields.

Both undergraduate and graduate students actively engage in Departmental research programs that are supported by more than $8 million in external funding annually. These research programs are at the cutting edge of traditional areas of physics as well as being a major contributor to contemporary interdisciplinary institutions and centers.


 
Recent Department News
 

Stevenson Professor of Physics, Leonard Feldman, has been awarded the Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship for 2009 by the University of Melbourne. Professor Feldman is recognized for his outstanding record of accomplishment in the field of material physics and will be representing both Vanderbilt University and Rutgers University. He has served as Stevenson Professor of Physics at Vanderbilt since 1996. He  presently serves as Vice President of Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Director of the Institute of Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology at Rutgers University. Professor Feldman will spend the most of the month of July in Melbourne, Australia fulfilling this honor.

Congratulations to the Winner and Finalists of the 2009 Vanderbilt Prize for Undergraduate Research in Physics & Astronomy.
2009 WINNER:
Oleg Sergeevich Ovchinnikov, University of Tennessee at Knoxville - "Deciphering Nanoscale Disorders”
2009 FINALISTS: (in alphabetical order)
Amanda Stevie Bergman, Smith College - “Study of Non-Minimally Couples Inflation of the Early Universe Using Phase Portraits and Poincaré Maps”
Karan Pankaj Jani, The Pennsylvania State University at University Park - “The Effect of Initial Orientation of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna on its Sensitivity Pattern”

The students will be honored at an Awards Ceremony banquet on Friday July 10, 2009 attended by the Dept. Chair, Director of Graduate Studies, the Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education, the Dean and Executive Dean of the College of Arts & Science.

Graduate student Hui-Yiing Chang has been awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. She will use the fellowship to conduct research in the Gravitational Wave sky.

 

Keivan Stassun has been selected to receive a fellowship from the Fletcher Foundation to reward work "furthering the goals and the spirit of Brown v. Board of Education". The award comes with a $50,000 cash prize.

Congratulations to our 2008-2009 Graduate Students for receiving the following Awards:

The Robert T. Lagemann Award
given annually to an "entering or first-year graduate student for exceptional promise in physics". This year’s award is shared by: Eric Appelt & Susan Kost.

The Akunuri V. Ramayya Award is given to the most outstanding physics & astronomy graduate student Teaching Assistant. This year’s winner: William “Billy” Teets

The Royal Albridge Award is given annually to the most outstanding first time physics & astronomy graduate student Teaching Assistant.  This year’s (2008) award is shard by: Jason Pawlowski & Caroline Yount.

The awards will be presented Friday May 1 at 12:00 pm in 6333 SC.

Congratulations to our 2008-2009 Undergraduates for receiving the following Awards and Scholarships:

    •    Julie Managan and Brittany Rohrman will share the Underwood Memorial Award (for the most outstanding student in Physics).
    •    Calen Henderson  received the Larry Ross Cathey Award (for the most outstanding student in Astronomy).
    •    Richard Bisson, Jonathan Kohler, and Evan MacQuarrie  will share the Ernest A. Jones Scholarship.

Presentations of the Awards will be made at a special ceremony on Friday April 17, 2009 at 3pm, in conjunction with the Sigma Pi Sigma new inductees ceremony in 6333 Stevenson Center.
For a complete list of all undergraduate majors and minors graduating, see the Undergraduate Program Web Page.

Dr. Jay Dickerson (pictured at the top of this web page) has been awarded a new research grant from the Office of Naval Research. This single investigator award of over $360,000 for the next three years is for the project Fabrication of Robust, Smooth, Homogeneous, Nanoparticulate Ceramic Coatings via Electrophoretic Deposition.

Dr. David Ernst has been selected to be a Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists. The NSBP selects one fellow each year so this is quite an honor.

 

Congratualtions to Dr. Thomas J. Weiler for receiving a Humboldt Research Award. It is conferred in recognition of his lifetime achievements in research of Neutrino Astrophysics and Extreme-Energy Cosmic Rays. This award is presented by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. As a recepient, Dr. Weiler is invited to carry out research projects of his own choice in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany in the hope of further promoting international scientific cooperation.

 

Vanderbilt's Dyer Observatory has been approved by the Tennessee Historical Commission as a site of historical significance based on the scientific research conducted at the observatory in the past.

 

While Pluto quietly orbits the solar system, we here on Earth continue to hotly debate its status - even after the 2006 International Astronomical Union decision that Pluto is not a planet, but a dwarf planetMSNBC's Cosmic Blog has recently recommended Dr. Weintraub's book Is Pluto A Planet? which has just been updated in paperback to address the "flawed logic" behind the IAU's rulings on dwarf planets and plutoids.

 

Congratulation to Calen Henderson on winning the American Astronomical Society Chambliss Award for his presentation at the AAS meeting in January 2009. The title of his presentation is "A Search for Pre-Main Sequence Stellar Rotation Periods and Eclipsing Binaries in the Lagoon Nebula". Calen is a senior doing his honor thesis with Dr. Stassun.

 

Congratulations to graduate students Alicia Aarnio and Jonathan Jarvis who received the Graduate School's Dissertation Enhancement Grant for fall 2009.

Landon C. Garland Distinguished Professor of Physics, Joseph Hamilton, was honored recently at a Symposium to celebrate his 50 years of teaching and research at Vanderbilt University. Over 40 distinguished colleagues and former students attended the two day event.

Congratulations to Vanderbilt astronomer's for achieving FIRST LIGHT at KELT-South! The KELT-South telescope is a small scientific telescope designed to detect transiting extrasolar planets in the sourthern skies over the next few years. It is located at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) observing station in South Africa's Northern Cape. KELT is an acronym for Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope and refers to the fact that the telescope observes thousands of square degrees on the sky while it is operating, compared to typical modern telescopes which observe area tens of thousands of times smaller. We eagerly await news of their first discovered planets.
 
Contact Information
Department Office:
6301 Stevenson Center
Phone: 615-322-2828
Fax: 615-343-7263
Mail:
Physics and Astronomy Dept
Vanderbilt University
1807 Station B
Nashville, TN 37235
Express Mail:
Physics and Astronomy Dept
Vanderbilt University
6301 Stevenson Center
Nashville, TN 37235

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