The 2003-2004 academic year finds the department continuing to move in the directions endorsed by our Advisory Board two years ago. Our top priority, strongly endorsed by the Board, was an initiative in biological physics that would involve hiring three new faculty members. Last year’s Buhl lecture by Steven Chu from Stanford on "Single Molecule Biology: It’s More Than Just Showing Off" reflected this emphasis as well. We are continuing in the search for a senior person as the first of those hires. We have found that there are some excellent candidates who would make a good fit to the strengths of Carnegie Mellon, and hope that this year will bring success to what has been a central focus of my activities as chair.

It has been my pleasure again this year to brag about our faculty as leaders in research on the national and international scene. To cite a few examples: Professor Randall Feenstra is the PI of a large, multi-institution proposal that was renewed to study nano-porous materials; Professor Richard Griffiths is the scientific PI for the Dark Universe Observatory satellite (DUO), a proposal selected by NASA for Phase A study; and Professor Curtis Meyer is deputy spokesman for the scientific upgrade  of JLAB, one of the projects now under way in the Department of Energy’s Twenty-Year Facilities  Plan for frontier 21st-century science.

The department gained two more endowed graduate fellowships this year, one as a result of a bequest from the estate of Joseph A. Kane (M.S., Ph.D. 1956) and the second as a generous gift by Arnys Clifton Lilly (M.S. 1963). The university also received the papers of the late Clifford Shull (B.S. 1946, Nobel Prize 1994), which will be publicly available through the Carnegie Mellon Libraries.

As always, we hope to see you at the reception for Physics alumni. October 2004 will be special, in that we will be honoring the distinguished career of Professor Hugh Young, who is retiring in June. Even if you cannot visit us in person, please keep in  contact, even with a brief email (to physics@andrew.cmu.edu) or letter.