Three UMD Students Named 2017 Goldwater Scholars

Three University of Maryland students have been awarded scholarships by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, which encourages students to pursue advanced study and careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. The Goldwater Foundation also recognized a fourth UMD student with an Honorable Mention.

UMD juniors Christopher Bambic, Eliot Fenton and Prayaag Venkat were among the 240 Barry Goldwater Scholars selected from 1,286 students nominated nationally this year. UMD junior Natalie Livingston was recognized with an Honorable Mention. The four students all plan to pursue doctoral degrees in their areas of study and to become university professors or researchers at government laboratories.

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2017 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships announced

Congratulations to 10 current students and recent alumni selected to receive prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. 
 
Twenty-four UMD students were among the 2,000 fellowship winners announced by NSF. Of those, 10 hailed from CMNS, including four current graduate students, four current undergraduate students, and two alumni who received bachelor's degrees in CMNS majors. 
 
Our announcement is posted on the CMNS home page. We will also share on social media: https://go.umd.edu/GFRP17

Phillips named member of Mexican Academy

JQI Fellow, Nobel laureate and Distinguished University Professor William Phillips has been inducted into the Mexican Academy of Sciences (la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias) as a corresponding member. The honor will be marked by an evening event held in Mexico City on March 23.

The event includes a talk by Phillips, titled "Time, Einstein and the coolest stuff in the universe," as well as a discussion between Phillips, Mexican Academy of Sciences president Jaime Urrutia Fucugauchi, and JQI Fellow and physics professor Luis Orozco, who nominated Phillips for membership. The entire program will be broadcast live beginning at 6 p.m. EDT.

DURIP Grants Awarded to Johnpierre Paglione and Mohammad Hafezi

The Department of Defense announced that Professor and CNAM Director Johnpierre Paglione (University of Maryland Department of Physics) and Assistant Professor and JQI Fellow Mohammad Hafezi (Electrical and Computer Engineering) are among those awarded the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grants. The Department of Defense awarded 160 researchers from institutions all over the country with the DURIP award. DURIP supports the purchase of high tech equipment and innovative research enabling exciting advances in science and technology.

Paglione received an award for Materials Genome Approach to the Search for Superconductivity. Dr. Hafezi's award will support research for a Cryogenic System for Quantum Optical Measurement. Both grants are from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

DoD Press Release 

2017 DURIP winners

Wellstood named new UMD Co-Director of JQI

Physics professor and JQI Fellow Fred Wellstood has been appointed the newest UMD Co-Director of JQI. He assumed the role on March 1.

"Fred has played a major role in the JQI since its founding," says Gretchen Campbell, the current NIST Co-Director of JQI. "Most recently, his tireless efforts helped to design and ultimately build the new Physical Sciences Center at Maryland that many JQI labs now call home. I look forward to working with him to carefully steward JQI's future."