It is with much sadness that the Department of Physics announces the passing of several members of our community. 

• Aziza Baccouche (PhD, '02), the first Black woman to earn a PhD in physics in the state of Maryland, died in June.  Baccouche, blind since childhood because of a brain tumor, studied nuclear theory and wrote her thesis, Phenomenology of isoscalar heavy baryons, working with Tom Cohen. She also launched a successful career as a science communicator and advocate for underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities in STEM.
• Tom Day, a UMD professor of physics and Vice Chancellor for Academic Planning and Policy who later became the president of San Diego State University, died on June 15.
• Beth Hadley, the wife of Prof. Emeritus Nick Hadley, died in July. She was an attorney and public health advocate.
• Mahavir Jain (PhD, '69) died in June after a long career at Los Alamos National Lab.
• Joel Megonigal, husband of Sally, died in August. He was a budget analyst at the Washington Navy Yard and a licensed pilot. 
• Sibyllle Sampson, who assisted John Toll as he built the Department of Physics, died in August. 
• Walter Slavin (BS, '49), author and award winning spectroscopist,  died in August.
• Charles Smarsh, who worked in the department's teaching labs and information technology sector for decades, died in August. 
• Howard D. Wactlar (M.S. '68), a Carnegie Mellon researcher, died on March 1, 2021.

Alumnus William E. Caswell (BS, '68) is remembered on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Caswell received his PhD from Princeton in 1975, and held a faculty appointment here from 1979-83, before moving to the Naval Surface Weapons Center. Caswell died on American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. Caswell's contributions are recalled in a Physics Today remembrance by Curtis Callan and Frank Wilczek.