Department of Physics Alumni
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.
2008 Outstanding Alumni Award
Dr. Nitin Samarth
Samarth is a professor and associate head of the physics department at Pennsylvania State University. He completed his undergraduate education in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India, in 1980 and earned his doctorate in experimental condensed matter physics from Purdue in 1986. He joined Pennsylvania State after postdoctoral research at the University of Notre Dame. He was named a fellow at the American Physical Society in 2003, won the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching at Pennsylvania State in 2007 and the Faculty Scholar Medal in physical sciences from the university in 2008. (Personal Website)
2008 Distinguished Science Alumni Award
BS '71, Purdue University
MS '73, Purdue University
PhD '75, Purdue University
2007 Outstanding Alumni Award
The 2007 Physics Outstanding Alumni visited Purdue University on Friday, 4 October. Recipients Mario Paniccia, William Morse, J. Thomas Gruenwald, and Celeste Bottorff were honored for their contributions and leadership within their professions. During their visit the honorees met with the College of Science Dean, Jeffrey Vitter, addressed the faculty, and toured the campus and the Physics department.
