Katherine Manfred, a senior Chemistry and Physics major, has been awarded a Clarendon Scholarship to study at Oxford University, one of the world's top five universities and the oldest university in the English-speaking world. These elite Scholarships are presented to academically excellent students with the best proven and future potential, who are nominated by their academic departments based on academic record and ability to contribute significantly to their field of study. Less than 7% of all applicants, across all disciplines, are selected for this highly competitive scholarship. Awarded by the Department of Chemistry, this scholarship will cover tuition and college fees in full, including a generous grant for living expenses, for three years. Katherine will pursue a Ph.D in Physical Chemistry under Dr. Grant Ritchie starting in October, about which she is "very excited!" Katherine is a member of the John Fourkas group, working on "using ultrafast optical Kerr Effect (OKE) spectroscopy to relate the intermolecular dynamics of confined and bulk liquids."

Listen to Jim Gates, reveal why string theory stretches our imaginations about the nature of reality, on a recent episode of On Being. http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2012/codes-for-reality/gates-symbolsofpower.shtml

Tom Cohen and Paul Lett are among the 149 new Outstanding Referees selected by the editors of the APS journals. Initiated in 2008, the highly selective Outstanding Referee program recognizes scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in the APS journals. Selections are based on two decades of records on the number, quality and timeliness of referee reports.

The 2012 honorees come from 31 different countries, with large contingents from the US, Germany, UK, Canada, and France.

The full list of Outstanding Referees is located at, http://publish.aps.org/OutstandingReferees

James F. Drake has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Only one in a thousand memebers is elected a Fellow each year. Professor Drake will be honored in person at the December 2012 Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco, CA.

The discussion aimed at a non-scientist, non-expert crowd.

More information available at: http://www.dcswa.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=131141