2021 - 2022 Department of Physics & Astronomy Annual Awards

Ken Schafer  –  The LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Graduate Faculty award, nominated by students in the department. 

Jeanne Garriz  –  2022 Keen-Morris award, presented to an outstanding graduating senior for demonstrating excellence in all areas of academics, service, leadership and research.

Lila Ton  –  2022 Keen-Morris award, presented to an outstanding graduating senior for demonstrating excellence in all areas of academics, service, leadership and research.

Hannah Cheng – LSU College of Science Outstanding Senior Award

Arshag Danageozian –  Joseph Callaway Memorial Fellowship award, in memory of LSU Boyd Professor Joseph Callaway to assist graduate students who have shown excellence in research

Karunya Shirali  –  Joseph Callaway Memorial Fellowship award, in memory of LSU Boyd Professor Joseph Callaway to assist graduate students who have shown excellence in research

Farzaneh Zohrabi was recognized with a Callaway award for an outstanding research proposal. 

Michael Gravois –  Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate Excellence Award

Anthony Grant –  Ball Undergraduate Award for continuing excellence and outstanding class performance.

Benjamin Thirlkel –  Barbara and Barry Coon Annual Physics and Astronomy Scholarship, awarded to support physics students who look to pursue a career in industry.

Miscia Fortna – Byrd Ball Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award 

Roy Pace –  Physics and Astronomy Research Excellence Award

Elise McCullison  –  Department Service Award

Madison Pacheco –  Department Service Award

Hannah Cheng –  Department Outreach Award

Roussel Family Graduate Student award in Communication that recognizes exemplary research coupled with the ability to succinctly present the research findings. 2021-22 recipient: Rachel Shaffer –  Rachel is a graduate research assistant with Assistant Prof. Scott Marley in the CENTAUR group. Rachel is interested in studying the structure and decay properties of light-mass, unstable atomic nuclei with transfer reaction experiments then testing modern theoretical approaches to the nuclear many-body problem. She has received the award for the best poster presentation at the annual CENTAUR meeting for two consecutive years.

The Ganesar Chanmugam Award is awarded for an outstanding PhD Dissertation. This year the award goes to three graduate students:

Hunter Meyer  –  Outstanding Physics and Astronomy Grader Award 

Eklavya Thareja  –  Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

Aaron Trigg –  Outstanding Outreach and Service Award

Chia-Lung Chien –  Coates Research Scholar award, for his dedication and significant contributions to research and other activities. He is actively working on clinic-related research projects, with research advisor Dr. Rui Zhang, and receives clinical trainings at the same time.

Dimitrios Kranas  –  Coates Travel Research Award, for work with collaborators at the University of Valencia, that will provide the opportunity to extend current theoretical work to a larger family of analog black hole models, and establish a stronger connection with concrete experimental setups to validate theoretical proposals.

Eklavya Thareja –  Coates Travel Award for conference travel

Anshumitra Baul –  Coates Travel Award for conference travel

2021-22 recipient of the Coates Dissertation Award: Chapai Ramakanta advised by Professor Rongying Jin

Dissertation title “Quantum oscillations with angular dependence in PdTe2single crystals” Chapai is currently  a postdoctoral researcher in the Materials Science division at Argonne National Laboratory.

LSU Discover hosted its annual Discover Day and we would like to recognize the undergraduate researchers who presented at the event.

Poster Presentations:

  • Madison LeBlanc “Model Fitting of Boyajian's Star” with research advisor Tabetha Boyajian
  • Roy Pace “Optimizing Quantum Networks with Machine Learning” with research advisor Hwang Lee
  • Marz Newman “The Relationship Between 13CO/C18O and Star Formation Rate Surface Density” with research advisor  Matthew Penny

Oral Presentations:

  • Ashley Patron “Understanding the Effect of Earthquakes on the Lock State of LIGO Detectors” with research advisor Gabriela Gonzalez
  • Hannah Cheng and Miscia Fortna “The Feasibility of Super Absorbent Polymer Beads as Phantom Material & Microdosimetric Measurements” with research advisor Wayne Newhauser

For the 2022 University Faculty Awards:

Dana Browne –  Class of 1942 Alumni Professorship 

Shane Stadler –  LSU Alumni Association Faculty Excellence Award
 

Emmanouil Chatzopoulos – LSU College of Science Non-Tenured Faculty Research Award 

Mimi LaValle – LSU College of Science Staff Excellence Award

 

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Mimi LaValle

LSU Physics & Astronomy

225-439-4633

mlavall@lsu.edu

 

 

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