There were two faculty promotions in 2010: Edward F. Brown and Chong-Yu Ruan, both promoted to Associate
Professor with tenure.
Edward Brown has been at MSU since 2004. He received his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of California at Berkeley.
His research lies at the interface between astrophysics and nuclear physics. The primary thrusts of his interests and work are
using neutron stars to probe the dense matter equation of state and developing a theoretical understanding of the divesity
of type 1a supernovae.
Ching-Yu Ruan also came to MSU in 2004 as an Assistant Professor. His PhD was from the University of Texas at Austin
in 2000. Before coming to MSU he hald a postdoctoral position at California Institute of Technology where his research was with
Nobel Prize winner A.H. Zewail. His principal research emphasis is on developing new tools for real-time molecular imaging
applied to the studies of complex molecules and nanometer scale materials. This has recently involved first generation
ultrafast electron crystallography.
As an example, his work has demonstrated for the first time the ability to image the defect growth process with ultrafast time resolution.
Recent
years' Physics and Astronomy Department Promotions
Other Recent Awards, Offices and Honors
The Distinguished Faculty Awards have existed at Michigan State University
since 1952. They have been presented annually at the convocation in early February
when the University President presents the "State of the University" address.
In the early days the awardee was selected by President John A. Hannah and
the number of recipients for the first several years was one or two.
In the early '60s the number receiving these prestigious awards was increased to
six (still selected by President Hannah from a list of twelve recommended by
a University committee from the nominations of individuals, departments and colleges).
The number awarded by the University each year is now ten. In 2010, the Distinguished Faculty Awards
included Bernard Pope. Professor Pope was cited for his many years of scholarly research in experimental
high energy physics as well as his years of excellent classroom teaching at all levels, especially with science courses for
non-science majors. Currently most of Professor Pope's research is centered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN where he
and his group are associated with the ATLAS detector.
Previous
years' Physics and Astronomy Department recipients of the Distinguished Faculty Awards
On June 15, 2007 the Board of Trustees approved the title of
University
Distinguished Professor for two
of our faculty members, Tim Beers and
Wolfgang Bauer.
They are the latest recipients in our department to receive this distinguished designation.
Tim Beers is an astronomer/astrophysicist whose research is on the oldest stars in the universe.
He is instrumental in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics and
with MSU's participation in the Soar Telescope. Wolfgang Bauer is a nuclear
physicist with other research activities in astrophysics, medical physics and physics education, in particular
the LON-CAPA project.
The well-deserved honor of University Distinguished Professorships reflects their overall
contributions to the department, the college and the university, and is a
high point of their very distinguished careers. We are proud of them!
The designation of University Distinguished Professor (UDP) was only given
to a total of 10 MSU faculty members, bringing the total number to 104
across the University. Tim Beers and Wolfgang Bauer join Brad Sherrill, Gary Westfall, Sam Austin
(Emeritus), Walter Benenson, Henry Blosser (Emeritus), Konrad Gelbke,
Edwin Kashy (Emeritus), and Michael Thorpe (Emeritus) in the UDP ranks,
making ours the most successful department on campus in this respect.
Previous
years' elevation to University Distinguished Professorships
Upon his retirement from the University Presidency, John Hannah was honored by the Board of Trustees
with the establishment of the John A. Hannah endowed Professorships. Currently there are six faculty
in the University who have these endowed chairs. The most recent Hannah Professor in the University is Wolfgang Mittig
who also has a joint appointment at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and the Physics and Astronomy Department.
He came to MSU from GANIL in France. The late Professor P. Gregers Hansen, who had a joint appointment
at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and the Physics and Astronomy Department, was a Hannah Professor
since 1995 until his passing.
In past years David Scott and George Bertsch, also then at the NSCL and P-A Department, were Hannah Professors.
MSU Physics-Astronomy Awards Page, maintained by Julius
S. Kovacs.
Updated May 29, 2007