Dear Colleagues,

Some news items ...

1) The department commencement ceremony will be held at 9:00
on May 17 (S240).  This is an opportunity for us all to
honor our graduating students and I hope that each of you
will make every attempt to join us for this event.   Jay
Dickerson, who has won a special award for graduating PhD Turner Fellow
from the Graduate school, will be the speaker at our ceremony.
Jay is completing his Ph.D. under Emilio Mendez supervision.

2) Kevin Holochwost, a graduating senior in Physics and Math
has been selected as a class valedictorian candidate.

3) Matthew Cashen and Shu-Chiuan won 2 of the 5 President's awards
for distinguished doctoral students finishing their PhDs
this year.  Matthew is supervised by Hal Metcalf and Shu-Chian
by Robert Shrock.

4) Constantinos Constantinou won the certificate of excellence award
from the Student Affairs office, based on his research in
Chang Kee Jung's lab.
 

                with regards,
                Paul