Award certificates will be presented before the Department Colloquium on April 10th at 3:30pm in DRL A8.
The Elias Burstein Prize
Qingyue (Austin) Wu - “For developing a calculable notion of “spread complexity” that measures the complexity of quantum dynamics in terms of the spread of the quantum wave-function through the space of possible states, and thereby inventing a better language for discussing how, and in what circumstances, the dynamics of quantum mechanical systems can transform simple initial states into complex ones.”
This award is provided from an endowment established by friends, colleagues, and students of Elias Burstein, upon his retirement as Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Physics on June 30, 1988. It is awarded to the graduate student in Condensed Matter Physics judged by the Department to have a made a significant contribution to our understanding of the subject.
Herbert B. Callen Memorial Prize
Aaron Winn - “For developing an analytical model addressing long wavelength peristaltic pumping in elastic tubes with valves, presenting a counter-intuitive prediction that has been experimentally verified. Aaron's contributions extend beyond this work, with ongoing collaborative efforts, showcasing his outstanding theoretical prowess and commitment to advancing knowledge in fluid dynamics.”
This award is provided from an endowment established by the family, friends, colleagues, and students of Herbert B. Callen to honor his memory. It is awarded to a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher judged by the Department to have made significant contribution to statistical physics.
Arnold M. Denenstein Prize
Gwen Gardner - “For driving the implementation, the ATLAS TRT Fast-OR trigger, the first ever implementation of a Level-1 trigger produced by the TRT for use in physics data taking. Gwen was responsible for timing in the trigger and performed threshold and multiplicity scans and tunings. This work along with others led to a factor of 100 improvement in the number of recorded events from ultra-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions during Run 3 of the LHC.”
Bobby McGovern - “For the production probing of the HCCStarV1 die, one of three new radiation-tolerant ASICs in the silicon-strip charged-particle tracking subsystem. Bobby modified the HCCStarV1 probing procedure to include measurements of the duty cycle of the 160Mhz clock sent to the ABCStar as part of the study of the ABCStar SRAM data-loss issue, participated in the TRIUMF PIF proton testbeam, and was the sole Penn person present at the LBNL x-ray irradiation. The work required the probing of 48,459 dies, the majority of which will eventually be used during data taking.”
This award is provided from an endowment established by the family, friends, and colleagues of Arnold M. Denenstein to honor his memory and his contributions to science. It is awarded annually to a graduate student judged by the Department, who shows the most promise of becoming and outstanding experimental physicist.
William E. Stephens Prize – William (Zijian) Niu
Provided from an endowment established by the family and friends of the late Williams E. Stephens, pioneer nuclear physicist, former Chair of the Physics Dept., former Dean of
The College, and a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania for nearly forty years. Awarded annually to the graduating physics major who has demonstrated, during the course of their undergraduate course work, the most promise for a successful career as a scientist, based on overall performance in all aspects of the undergraduate program as judged by members of the Physics and Astronomy faculty. W. E. Stephens served the Dept. of Physics and the University with distinction from 1942 until his death in 1980.
Thomas H. Wood Prize – Reagan O’Neil
Awarded annually to the undergraduate student in introductory physics who has demonstrated, during the course of their undergrad coursework, the greatest proficiency in assimilating the concepts of physics, based on overall performance in all aspects of the undergrad program as judged by members of the physics faculty.