The Kettering University Physics Department held its 2015 A-section Department Awards Event on March 10. Awards were presented or announced in several categories, including academics, research, service and organization.
The Outstanding Physics Performance Award was given to students who achieved a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average in all the introductory Physics courses (114, 115, 224, 225). The following students received this recognition: Stephan Barthel, Thomas Cady, Natalie Eliachevsky, Benjamin Fick, Eric Golab, David Mitchell, Thomas Symons, Jonathan Wesley, Cheyne Westerman
Nathaniel Mosher was recognized for his receipt of a Society of Physics Students (SPS) Travel Award and Emily Perkins-Harbin was recognized for her receipt a SPS Reporter Award. The awards were granted to offset travel expenses to attend the 2015 American Physics Society March 2015 meeting in San Antonio, Texas, to present their research on the specific absorption rate of iron oxide nanoparticles in frozen ferrofluids.
The department also recognized Brandon Aho, Benjamin Fick, Austin Smith, Nathan Butler and Daniel Peterson for their assistance to the department as A-section Physics Supplemental Instruction (SI) leaders. SI is an academic assistance program at Kettering that utilizes peer-assisted study sessions for historically difficult courses like PHYS-114 and PHYS-224. During the SI sessions, students learn how to integrate course content and study skills while working together. To be an SI leader for a course, a student must have complete the course at Kettering, received a grade of A− or better, have an overall GPA of 3.5 or better, and be recommended by a Kettering professor.
The department also recognized the following 2014‒15 A-section Physics Club officers for their service to the department: Robert Weiss (President), Nicholas Sovis (Vice-President), Nathan Waters (Treasurer) and Cody Grant (Secretary). The Physics Club’s mission is to promote interest in physics and related career fields and to provide students with hands-on physics activities and access to information on physics research. Among other activities, the club worked to build a plasma generator, co-sponsored lectures by Dr. Lisandro Hernandez de la Peña on the physics of relativistic particles and by Dr. Ronald Kumon and Dr. Gillian Ryan on graduate school.
The Awards Event included the Sigma Pi Sigma (ΣΠΣ) Physics Honor Society induction ceremony. To be eligible for ΣΠΣ, a student must have junior or senior standing, have an overall GPA of 3.0 or greater, have completed at least four physics courses of three credits or more, have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or more in those physics courses, have standing in top one-third of their graduating class at the time of induction, and demonstrate service to the Physics Department. Since its inception in 2003, the Kettering University chapter has only inducted a total of 66 students between both sections. This year’s A-section student honorees were Jeremy Eekhoff, Daniel Knopp, Nicholas Sovis and Kiran Vekaria. Physics department head Dr. Kathryn Svinarich and faculty members Dr. Greg Hassold and Dr. Ronald Kumon were also inducted into the society.
The A-section chapter of the Society of Physics Students was also recognized by the national organization with a Distinguished SPS Chapter Award, placing it among the top 20 percents of chapters nationwide.