Back to Interactions 1996 Our Astrophysics group continues to grow, with the appointments of Richard Griffiths and Robert Nichols. They, along with Jeff Peterson, populate the 8300 corridor of Wean Hall with an enthusiastic and productive ensemble of faculty, postdocs and students. The common theme uniting this group is interest in the early universe and cosmology. Last year also saw the reestablishment of the Buhl Lectureship with John Bahcall delivering public lectures about the Hubble Space telescope and the Solar Neutrino problem.
The department is busy preparing for the visit of its Advisory Board, October 28-29. Comprising alumni and leaders in business, science and academics, this board advises the department and the university administration on all aspects of our department's goals and operation. Our first priority in the area of new faculty hiring is a junior faculty appointment in theoretical particle physics to replace Martin Savage, who left us to take a position at the University of Washington in Seattle.
This coming winter brings the retirement of Bob Schumacher after 40 years of service to Carnegie Mellon. He will remain associated with our department as professor emeritus. We wish him well in his retirement and thank him for his many contributions to our department.
Facts and figures: Our entering sophomore physics class size is 35. Last year we graduated 23 students with bachelor of science degrees, 10 master's and 12 Ph.D. degrees. Many of our students earned honors upon graduation. We are proud to mention in particular: Kurt Miller who received the University and College Research honors, a Senior Leadership award and the Pugh Memorial Scholarship; Andrea Santoro who received the University and College Research honors, the Judith A. Resnik Award and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship. Both Miller and Santoro won the department's Cutkosky Award.
Our faculty has enjoyed honors of their own. Brad Keister became a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Bob Sekerka was recently granted an honorary Ph.D. by West University of Timisoara in Romania. The degree was awarded for Sekerka's contributions to the science of crystal growth. This event holds special personal significance for Sekerka because Timisoara is the area from which his grandmother emigrated to the USA near the turn of the century.
We invite alumnae/alumni to visit the department any time you are in Pittsburgh. The departmental phone number is 412-268-6681. You can visit our World Wide Web site at http://info.phys.cmu.edu.