Note from Head

Greetings fellow Boilermakers,

It has been another exciting year in the department!

Our biggest news, as you might be able to tell from the cover, is that Chris Greene was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. Chris, the Albert Overhauser Distinguished Professor of Physics, is only the second Physics and Astronomy faculty member to be elected while at Purdue. The other was (you guessed it) Albert Overhauser. By funny coincidence, Chris occupies Al's old office. Chris joins his department colleague Jay Melosh, who was already an academies member when he came to Purdue.

We have continued to act on the College of Science quantum information initiative and have added several faculty to bolster that effort. You can learn about Alex Ruichao Ma, Arnab Banerjee, Nima Lashkari, Shawn Cui, and Jonathan Hood. In addition to these five, Niranjan Shivaram (AMO physics) and Shalini Low-Nam (biophysics) joined the department in the fall. We are continuing this effort and will be searching again this year in quantum information, as well as biophysics, computational astrophysics and experimental particle physics. It's very exciting but also very damaging to the waistline as faculty search dinners out are many!

In January we are hosting an external review committee of outstanding thought leaders in physics to evaluate our programs. We are feverishly preparing for their pending visit and look forward to the guidance they will provide. Last March we also empaneled, for the first time, a strategic advisory committee of alumni from the department to provide input into our strategic plans for the future. With the assistance of these two groups, we can focus our efforts into the future and continue to improve the department.

This year I made several trips to interact and talk with you about the exciting things going on, and to hear stories about your careers and how the department has impacted you. These were very enjoyable experiences and I look forward to more in the future. With that in mind, the department is hosting alumni receptions at both the March and April APS meetings in Denver, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. I want to issue a special invitation to each of you to join us, if you are in the area or attending either meeting. I hope I get an opportunity to see you on the road.

BOILER UP!

All my best,
John P. Finley