We proudly recognize members of our community who recently garnered major honors, began new positions and more.
Faculty and Staff
- Brian Clark will join the faculty as an Assistant Professor on January 1, 2023.
- Sankar Das Sarma discussed the timeline for useful quantum computers. and wrote an opinion on the matter in the MIT Technology Review.
- Sylvester James Gates, Jr. returned to UMD and received the AIP Germant Award and the AAPT Oersted Medal.
- Rick Greene was named a Distinguished University Professor.
- Carter Hall was quoted in news stories about the LZ experiment in the Sanford Lab.
- Daniel Lathrop, geology Associate Professor Vedran Lekić and doctoral student Heidi Myers were honored with the Information Sciences Invention of the Year award at an Innovate Maryland ceremony on May 3, 2022.
- Michelle Girvan was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.
- Ed Ott was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
- Ho Jung Paik's Superconducting Earthquake Early-warning Device (SEED) was featured in Cosmos.
- Nathan Schine has joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor.
- Angel Torres joined Student Services as Outreach Coordinator.
- Meletke Truneh began as Business Director on September 12.
- Ellen Williams was named Chair of the NASA Science Committee and a member of the NASA Advisory Council.
Students
- Elizabeth Bennewitz received a DOE Fellowship.
- Thomas Ersevim was a finalist for the University Medal.
- Patrick Kim was named a Goldwater Scholar.
- Howard Milchberg's lab was featured in New Scientist.
- Anthony Munson was named a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow.
- Pradeep Niroula is a Ph.D. student contributor to Physics World.
- Ela Rockafellow and Colin Yancey received NSF Fellowships.
- Yukari Yamauchi received the Ching-Hung Woo Award.
Alumni
- John "Yiannis" Antoniades (Ph.D., '83) was named Executive Vice President of Meta Materials.
- Laird Egan (Ph.D., '21) described hasty preparations for COVID-mandated remote control of an experiment in a JQI podcast.
- Joe Grochowski (M.S., '10) teaches physics at West Shore Community College in Scottville, Michigan.
- Alan Henry (B.S., '02) wrote a book, Seen, Heard & Paid. Henry will give the CMNS Diversity Lecture on Thurs., Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. in 0202 E. St. John Bldg.
- Scott Kordella (B.S., '81) is the Director of Space Systems at The MITRE Corporation.
- V. Bram Lillard (M.S., '01, Ph.D., '04) was named director of the Operational Evaluation Division of the Institute for Defense Analyses.
- Scott Moroch (B.S., '21) received a $250k Hertz Fellowship.
- Guido Pagano, a former UMD/JQI postdoc, has received a DOE Early Career Award.
- Julia Ruth (B.S., '14) was featured in Symmetry magazine.
- Sylvie Ryckebusch (B.S., '87) was named Chief Business Officer of BioInvent.
- Pablo Solano ( Ph.D., '17) was named a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar.
Department News
- The National Science Foundation has awarded an S-STEM grant for Chesapeake Scholars in the Physical Sciences, with Eun-Suk Seo as PI and Carter Hall, Chandra Turpen, Donna Hammer and Jason D. Kahn (chemistry) as co-PIs.
- IonQ was named one of Time's Most Influential Companies.
In Memoriam
Alfred George Lieberman (M.S., '72), who spent much of his career at NIST/Gaithersburg, died on June 25.