By Karrie Sue Hawbaker, Editor

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the December issue of The Photon! As another semester comes to a close, I want to take a moment to congratulate the many students who, in just a few weeks, will be earning their degrees and embarking on exciting new careers. I wish all of you the best and encourage you to check out this month's alumni spotlight. Dr. Hutcherson (Ph.D. 1994), who has extensive experience in federal government laboratory research and in research and development for private industry, offers an interesting look at these two potential career paths and advice for young physicists entering the field.

In this issue, we also have an interesing research article from Dr. Ott on chaos theory and weather prediction as well as a news page filled with exciting accomplishments from faculty and alumni.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to
contact me.

May you all enjoy your holidays and a well-deserved break!

Best regards,