Faculty and Staff 

• Alessandra Buonanno recevied the 2022 Tomalla Prize for her research in gravitational wave physics.
• Josiland Chambers received the department's Staff Excellence Award.
• The American Physical Society (APS) has honored Professor Emeritus Alex Dragt with the 2023 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators
• Clay Daetwyler received the Lorraine DeSalvo Chair's Award for Outstanding Service.
• Sankar Das Sarma has again been included on Clarivate Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers, a compilation of influential names in science.
• Manuel Franco Sevilla received the CMNS Board of Visitors’ Junior Faculty Award.
• Jim Gates was quoted in a The New York Times story about the Webb telescope and again about Ukraininan scientists.
• Alexey Gorshkov was elected a Fellow of Optica. He also spoke with the Caltech Heritage Project about quantum science advances.
• Xiangdong Ji was quoted in Physics World.
• Müge Karagöz was elected Vice President of Chesapeake Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (CSAAPT) for a 1-year term. 
• Dan Lathrop was quoted in Physics Today.
• Wolfgang Losert was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
• Rob McIntire received the department's Sibylle Sampson Award.
• Ed Ott retired on December 31. 
• Lester Putnam joined the department as a machinist.
• Bruce Rowley retired from the machine shop.
• Naomi Russo received the department's Staff Excellence Award.
• Roald Sagdeev gave the John S. Toll Lecture.
• Bonnie Seal-Filiatreau received the department's Staff Excellence Award.
• Stephanie Williams joined the department as an academic advisor.
• Victor Yakovenko and the LecDemo operation were credited by Sam Teitelbaum (BS., '10) for inspiring a love of physics.
•  At a recent luncheon, Physics staff members were recognized for their years of service to the state of Maryland
  • Allen Monroe, 40 years
  • Doug Bensen, 35 years
  • Sally Megonigal, 35 years
  • Jack Touart, 30 years
  • Bonnie Seal-Filiatreau, 25 years
  • Cheryl Ekstrom, 20 years
  • Melissa Britton, 15 years
  • Mark Conners, 15 years
  • LaVita Williams, 15 years
  • Roy Arunkumar, 10 years
  • Omar Torres, 5 years

 Students

•  Anthony Munson was interviewd in the Diamondback.

 Alumni

• Siegfried Bleher (Ph.D., '89) accepted a position at Middlebury College.
• Marten L. denBoer (Ph.D., '79) was named Radford University’s interim provost for academic year 2022-23.
• Emily Edwards (Ph.D, '09) was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. 
• Alexei Fedotov (Ph.D. ’97) was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
• Alan Henry (B.S., '02) discussed his book "Seen, Heard and Paid" with Ebony magazine.  
• Tian Li (Ph.D., '17), of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is developing a new microscopy technique.  
• Slava Merkin (Ph.D. ’04) of the APL Center for Geospace Storms is the PI of a new NASA $15M, five-year research project understand and predict space weather.  
• Ana Maria Rey (Ph.D. ’04) was featured by Optica in The (Atomic) Clockmaker. 

Department News

• In October, the department hosted attendees of the Physics Congress (PhysCon).
• The Society of Physics Students won an Outstanding Chapter Award from the SPS National Office.
• An IonQ Professorship has been established with support from IonQ and the Marland E-Nnovation Initiative. 
• The Maryland Quantum-Thermodynamics Hub, supported by a grant from the Templeton Foundation, launched in the fall. 

In Memoriam

• Chris Aggour, a former Space Physics employee, died on December 23.
• Maria Dworzecka, a nuclear theorist in the department from 1974-82 who later collaborated with UMD physics education researcher, died on January 16.
• Ernie Goebel, an electronics technician for three decades, died on November 9.
• James J. Griffin, a nuclear theorist, died on December 13. 
• Walter Hernandez (Ph.D., '66) died in October.