UR professor wins
prestigious optics award
UR Professor of Physics and Astronomy Joseph Eberly has been awarded the 2010 Frederic Ives Medal, which is the highest honor given by the Optical Society of America (OSA).
Over his career, Eberly has written over 350 research papers in the field of quantum optics, which uses tunable lasers to test predictions about quantum mechanics. He is also a former president of OSA and the founding editor of the journal Optics Express.
Eberly will be honored for his achievement at OSA’s annual convention, where he will give a plenary address. The meeting, coincidentally, will be held in Rochester this October.
Eberly will also receive a $10,000 honorarium with the award.
Since the award’s inception, there have been a total of 71 winners. Of these, eight have been professors at UR.
Students place 14th in
annual math competition
UR sophomores Kevin Lin and Xiaoqing ‘Sean” Tang and junior Chris Kauffman solidified their place among the strongest math undergraduates in the country, placing 14th in the annual William Lowell Putnam math competition.
Over 4,000 students from 546 colleges across North America competed in the event, which consisted of 12 extremely difficult math problems. Tang finished 44th overall, garnering him an honorable mention at the tournament.
The competition was held on Dec. 5, 2009, but the results were not made available until March 19.
First University-wide diversity conference to be held
On April 5, a conference entitled ‘Building a Stronger Community” will be held between more than 100 members of the UR community.
The first part of the conference will consist of several presentations on how diversity could be fostered on campus. Afterward, a working lunch will be held, during which participants can discuss what they’ve learned from the presentations.
To conclude the conference, UR President Joel Seligman will give an address on his vision for the future of diversity at UR.
