2022 – 2023 Department of Physics & Astronomy Annual Awards
We celebrate the accomplishments of students, faculty and staff who have gone above and beyond to advance their academic work, their research and the prestige of the Department.
Catherine Deibel – LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Undergraduate Faculty award, nominated by students in the department.
Ken Schafer – The LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Graduate Faculty award, nominated by students in the department.
Phil Sprunger – LSU Distinguished Faculty Award, recognizing his accomplishments and acknowledging his superb teaching, research and service at LSU.
Associate Professor Catherine Deibel received the College of Science award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mentoring (Tenure-Track Faculty) at the 2023 Choppin Honors Convocation
Post-Doc Adrià Delhom I Latorre received an award for his PhD dissertation “Theoretical and Observational Aspects of Metric-affine Gravity (A field theoretic perspective)” from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Spain.
Doug Granger LaSPACE Analyst 3 – Data Processing / Computer Services staff member received the LSU Foundation Outstanding Staff Service Award. Doug’s technical support of the LaSPACE program is the backbone of our success.
Michael Gravois – 2023 Keen-Morris Award, named for 2 faculty members who retired from LSU in the 1970s. It is annually awarded to an outstanding graduating senior for demonstrating excellence in all areas of academics, service, leadership and research.
Trang Huynh – Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate Research Award, presented to a student who has shown outstanding academic excellence and class performance, coupled with strong research experience.
Miscia Fortna – Byrd Ball Outstanding Physics & Astronomy Undergraduate Research Award, named after Mr. Ball who received his bachelor's degree in physics from LSU in 1961 and passed away in 2019. During his time at LSU, he was a member of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets as well as the campus leadership society Omicron Delta Kappa.
Emily Desoto – Ball Undergraduate Award for continuing academic excellence and research performance.
Nils Sommerfeld – Ball Undergraduate Award for continuing academic excellence and research performance.
Olivia Crowell
Nathaniel Wrobel – Barbara and Barry Coon Annual Physics and Astronomy Scholarship, in honor of Barry Coon, who received his PhD at LSU in 1966. Coon is a retired Vice President at Conoco Phillips and he and his wife set up a scholarship to support physics students.
Ashley Patron – The Department of Physics & Astronomy Service and Outreach Award goes to undergraduates for their dedication and volunteer work in the tutor center and community STEM events.
Anthony Grant – The Department of Physics & Astronomy Service and Outreach Award goes to undergraduates for their dedication and volunteer work in the tutor center and community STEM events.
Rebekah Slocum – Tiger Athletic Foundation Student Scholarship Award, provided through the support of the LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation and awarded to full-time students enrolled in University College who have completed a minimum of 15 hours of college-level work and earned a 3.25 or higher gpa.
Felix Schafer – Tiger Athletic Foundation Student Scholarship Award, provided through the support of the LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation and awarded to full-time students enrolled in University College who have completed a minimum of 15 hours of college-level work and earned a 3.25 or higher gpa.
Dimitrios Kranas – The Callaway Award is given in memory of LSU Boyd Professor Joseph Callaway to assist graduate students majoring in physics or astronomy. It is annually awarded to an outstanding PhD student who has shown excellence in research.
In addition, we recognized three PhD students for outstanding research proposals:
- David He
- Ashley Elliott
- Riley Dawkins
Maxwell Cole – Roussel Family Graduate Student award in Communication, recognizes exemplary research coupled with the ability to succinctly present the research findings. 1974 PhD alumnus, Keith Roussel conducted his PhD dissertation with LSU Boyd Professor Robert F. O’Connell. Dr. Roussel and his family established an award for graduate students who excel in communicating their research.
Outstanding Physics and Astronomy TA/Grader award goes to 4 students for the 2022-23
academic year:
- Ashley Elliot: Grader for Intro astronomy
- Chloe Ditusa: Grader for Undergrad Quantum
- Riley Dawkins: Grader for Graduate Quantum
- Zachary Yarbrough: TA for Astronomy Labs
Alexander Igl – The Department Outreach and Service Award, recognized for the dedication and incredible amount of work he has contributed to assist with the LSU Saturday Science Program.
Pratik Barge – Coates Research Scholar award, his dedication and significant contributions to research and other activities.
Kai-Cheng Chuang – Coates Travel Research awardresearch involves effective connectivity, based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time series signals, is the quantification of how strongly brain activity in a certain source brain region contributes to brain activity in a target brain region, independent of the contributions of other source regions.
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Mimi LaValle
LSU Physics & Astronomy
225-439-4633
mlavall@lsu.edu