Physics and Astronomy ommuniqué C Autumn 2019 Alumnus’ Generosity Benefits Department By Sheena Rice, MU News ment will provide support for both ued to give back to the very pro- Bureau (edited for style) undergraduate and graduate stu- gram that he credits for his career. When Ronald J. Boain, a 1965 grad- dents studying astronomy and These new gifts will ensure that uate of the University of Missouri, physics for expenses related to pro- many students who want to study made his first donation to his alma fessional development, such as on- the stars can have the same suc- mater, the gift was small—just $5— campus speakers, career fairs, and cess after graduation that he expe- but it was the first of what was to support of students participating in rienced.” become 50 years of financial sup- internships. Additionally, Boain gave Boain, a devoted alumnus with port. On August two degrees from 23, MU officials an- MU, knew he wanted nounced that Boain to attend the same recently gifted a total school his father at- of $1.28 million to the tended. Unlike his Department of Phys- father, who came to ics and Astronomy in the university to play the College of Arts football under Don and Science to sup- Faurot, he wanted to port student success. study astronomy, as “The same year that he loved observing Ron supported the the planets and stars. first manned mission He enrolled in the to the moon while College of Arts and working with NASA, Science in 1961 and he also made his first completed his bache- gift of $5 to his be- lor’s and master’s de- loved alma mater— grees by 1967. Mizzou,” MU Chancel- After graduation lor Alexander N. Cart- Department of Physics and Astronomy Chair Sashi Satpathy, Arts Boain began a ca- wright said. “Now, 50 and Science Dean Pat Okker, Cathy Boain, Ron Boain, and Chancellor reer in the aerospace years later, Ron and Alexander Cartwright at the gift announcement. industry, eventually Cathy continue to be working for NASA’s some of our most loyal donors. To- $30,000 to set up the Boain PhD Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where day’s $1.28 million commitment to Dissertation Award in Physics and he was involved with several space help expand professional develop- the Boain PhD Student Travel Fund projects, including planetary explo- ment opportunities for our students to support graduate students. ration projects and designing spe- underscores that loyalty.” “Ron and Cathy’s generosity will cial satellites to observe the water The Ronald J. Boain and Cath- have an amazing impact on stu- content of clouds around the globe. erine J. Rangel Boain Endowment dents,” says Patricia Okker, dean His work with satellites earned him fund was established with a be- of the College of Arts and Science. an Exceptional Achievement Medal quest of $1.25 million. The endow- “For five decades, Ron has contin- Continues on Page 4 2 Communiqué From the Department Chair years. In terms of the student credit We would appreciate any help our hours (SCH) taught, some 15,000 alumni and friends can provide in SCHs were taught in physics last our effort to find appropriate in- year, which is a little more than 4 ternship positions. percent of the total taught by the The productivity of our faculty College of Arts and Science in the and students remains high, and same period. they continue to garner impressive I am happy to report that our awards, many of which are listed in faculty search last year was suc- this newsletter. According to a re- cessful, and Maria Mills, formerly cent report by the provost’s office, a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH four of our faculty members (Guang in Washington, D.C. has joined the Bian, Aigen Li, David Singh, and department as an assistant profes- Giovanni Vignale) were placed in Dear alumni, colleagues, and sor. Maria’s expertise is in experi- the top 50 among all MU faculty friends, mental biophysics, and she joins a members in terms of number of very active group of biophysicists published papers, with David top- The University of Missouri contin- in the department. The depart- ping the entire list. Sergei Kopeikin ues to show a decidedly positive ment is also proud to recognize published his singularly impressive trend, and we are cautiously opti- and congratulate Deepak Singh, single-author 109-page article con- mistic that the trend will continue. an experimental condensed-matter taining his original research work Mizzou’s freshman class showed a physicist, who was awarded tenure on equations of motion of extend- strong upturn in number this year, and became an associate profes- ed bodies in Physical Review D, a going up from 4,700 last year to sor. After many years of service to highly respected research journal. In 5,600 this year, and for the first the department, three faculty mem- terms of grants and contracts, the time in several years, the total en- bers, Meera Chandrasekhar, Linda faculty received new external grants rollment increased over the previ- Godwin, and Bowen Loftin, retired amounting to a little under $3 mil- ous year, to about 30,000 students this year. Bowen will move to Texas, lion this year. This is a remarkable now. Last year, Mizzou celebrated but I’m delighted to say that Meera achievement in light of the tight its first Nobel Prize winner, George and Linda will stay in Columbia and funding situation. P. Smith, who was awarded the No- continue their association with the The department has been able bel Prize in Chemistry. department. Meera will continue to to maintain its activities thanks to The physics department has oversee her $1-million WIPRO pro- the new revenue streams such as thrived in spite of the budget chal- gram, and Linda will continue part supplemental fees, online teaching lenges of the past. In the past five of her outreach activities. In ad- incomes, and generous donations years, we have hired five new facul- dition to the retirements, Angela from alumni and friends, for which ty members. Our graduate student Speck moved to the University of we are deeply grateful. We are in- number has remained stable, fluctu- Texas, San Antonio as physics chair, debted to Physics Leader Ronald ating between 45 and 55 students and Karen King moved to Rock Boain and his wife Catherine Ran- over the past decade. This year, Bridge High School in Columbia, gel Boain for their major $1.28-mil- eight doctoral students graduated Missouri, to be a physics teacher, lion gift to the department, an- and 12 new students joined the de- her long-time passion. nounced this past August. I express partment, bringing the total num- We have redoubled our efforts to my sincere gratitude to the physics ber of graduate students to 48. The improve the quality of our under- alumni, leaders, and friends for their number of undergraduate physics graduate program and in the re- continued support, and for their majors remained more-or-less sta- cruitment of physics majors, e.g., time, interest, ideas, and commit- ble above 100 over the past several with new outreach activities and in- ment to the department. years. The department has about troduction of honors courses. Silvia I thank the faculty and students 10 postdoctoral fellows. The faculty Bompadre, the director of under- for maintaining an intellectually size, currently 25 including three graduate studies, spearheads that stimulating and collegial work at- non-tenure-track faculty members, effort. Silvia is also the coordina- mosphere in the department. Many has suffered a dip this year due to tor of student internship, both for of us were drawn to physics for the retirements and departures. We graduate and undergraduate stu- intellectual challenge of the field. hope to get additional faculty posi- dents, and we hope to place some During the recent gift announce- tions as the budget situation of the of our students as summer interns ment, Ron Boain quoted his for- university improves in the coming in industry and government labs. Continues on Page 4 Autumn 2019 3 A Need for Speed: NSF Awards Grant for Ultrafast Laser System By Jordan Yount, College of Arts fast, so a tool like this ultrafast laser For example, Guha says another and Science helps us.” team member, Assistant Professor A University of Missouri team of re- In fact, Guha says improved so- of Physics Guang Bian is conduct- searchers has been awarded a Ma- lar cells could be one application of ing research into quantum materi- jor Research Instrumentation award this new technology. Current solar als, two-dimensional materials, and from the National Science Founda- cells are silicon based, but her team nonlinear optical phenomena. Guha tion (NSF) that will allow the team has been conducting research into says the new system also will allow to purchase an ultrafast researchers like Bian to amplified laser system study the symmetry of that will facilitate re- materials and symme- search in condensed- try-breaking phenom- matter physics, material ena, which she says is at science and engineer- the heart of condensed- ing, chemistry, chemi- matter physics. cal engineering, biology, Physics Professor bioengineering, and Ping Yu, also a co-prin- medicine. Principal in- cipal investigator, says vestigator Suchi Guha, the short pulsed laser a professor of physics, system can be used says probing materials for diagnosing disease with ultrafast short laser as well as for some la- pulses allows research- ser surgeries. He says ers to capture some of the system also can be the most fundamental used for high-resolution physical processes that Professors Suchi Guha and Ping Yu bio-imaging, producing occur at extremely short three-dimensional im- timescales.