Jordan A. Goodman Professor and Chair Department of Physics

From the Physics Chair

By Jordan A. Goodman
Professor and Chair

Dear Colleagues,

2005 was another impressive year, here, at the University of Maryland 's Physics Department. And I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of our highlights with you.

Our plans for the new Physical Sciences Complex have made great strides in the past few months. The planning stage is moving forward and it has officially been put on the State plan. Alum Miguel Rios is heading our committee for the PSC and the campus is strongly committed to its development. In fact, we've begun working with the School of Architecture to create concept designs and the University has invested over $200,000 into a next level study. To view some concept designs, go to: http://www.physics.umd.edu/PSC/ . These designs have already created a buzz throughout the department.

More importantly, our faculty, staff, students and alumni have created a department to be proud of. In the past three months, alone, Dr. Redish received the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher award, Dr. Gates has been awarded a Discovery Grant, William Dorland and Daniel Lathrop have been elected Fellows of the APS, Keith Schwab was awarded a Young Scholars Prize and several of our faculty have appeared “In the News” (Ted Jacobson had a cover story on the December Scientific American). The Photon archives are filled with the various honors and awards received by our department this past year---and the list was remarkable. It's truly an honor to have all of you represent our department. Your endless achievements have made a positive impact in the physics community and the university.

I am confident that your help can secure our reputation as a top-ranked physics program. In the past, contributions have allowed us to give Banneker-Key scholarship recipients, the University's highest award, the added incentive of a laptop through our Scholarship and Award Fund. These laptops greatly aid in our recruitment of bright young scientists. Notably, our undergrad enrollment has doubled over the past years and is now one of the largest in the country. Retention has been successful as well. We received an exceptionally positive external review from an external review committee, earlier this year, and after discussions with several students, their experience was described as strong and healthy in all respects . Your financial support will continue to provide our students with state-of-the-art equipment, scholarships and several other academic initiatives. Thank you, again, for everyone's hard work this past year. As always, feel free to contact me with any questions at goodman@icecube.umd.edu .

Sincerely,

Jordan A. Goodman
Professor and Chair