Contact Information
Department of Physics525 Northwestern Avenue
West Lafayette, IN
47907-2036
Map and Directions
Telephone:
(765) 494-2970
Fax:
(765) 494-0706
The Purdue Department of Physics is proud to have been associated with a large number of quality scientists over nearly a century as students, faculty or staff. Among them are such illustrious people as Julian S. Schwinger (Purdue faculty in 1940's, Nobel Prize 1965) and Ben Roy Mottelson (BS Purdue 1947, Nobel Prize 1975).
These pages are intended as both a tribute to our alums as well as an inspiration to our students. Here you will find our stories about our Distinguished Alumni, reports of recent alumni events, and the results of an alumni survey. The survey was designed to provide a link between our alums and our students. If you have not contributed to the survey, we encourage you to do so. Be sure to come back often to keep up to date on Purdue Physics Alumni.
2012 Distinguished Science Alumni Award
 |
- BS 1964, Purdue University, Physics
- MS 1967, University of California, Los Angeles, Astronomy
- PhD 1969, University of California, Los Angeles, Astronomy
- MAS 1987, Johns Hopkins University, Management
David Leckrone is a veteran space astronomer and a leading expert on orbiting astronomical observatories. Beginning in 1969, he
worked on the first orbiting astronomical observatories leading studies on potential astronomical payloads for the Space Shuttle
program. From 1976 to his retirement in 2009, Dr. Leckrone participated in the Space Telescope Program (now known as the Hubble
Space Telescope), becoming Senior Project Scientist in 1992. In this role, he acted as the chief advocate for the Hubble’s
scientific objectives and served as scientific lead for the five Space Shuttle missions that serviced Hubble from 1993-2009.
More...
2012 Outstanding Alumni Award
 |
- BS, Purdue University, Physics
Rebecca Barfknecht has made her career in Information Technology for over 30 years in the areas of Infrastructure
Engineering and Hosting and Application development for Russell Investments, Intuit, Charles Schwab, and Pacific Bell.
More...
 |
- PhD '90, University of Illinois, Condensed Matter Physics
- BS '83, Purdue University, Physics
Mark Ramsbey graduated from Purdue University in 1983 with a B.S. in Honors Physics and from the University of Illinois in
1990 with a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics. From 1990 through 2006, Dr. Ramsbey worked for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
in their Submicron Development Center, then with nitride storage based Flash memory. By 2006 AMD had spun off its Flash
memory division into a separate company, Spansion, where Dr. Ramsbey currently works.
More...