Dear colleagues,

Some recent news items --

1.  You may recall that Seth Aubin was noted as a semifinalist
for the Optical Society Award, with the final prize to be
awarded at a meeting at end of May.  Seth was the grand prize
winner in this competition, and received his cash award ta
the OSA meeting.   Congratulations to Seth, and advisor Luis
Orozco!

2.  David Fossan has been named the winner of the newly formed
Chancellors' award for Excellence in Reseach and Scholarly
Activities.   This is a well-earned recognition for David's
studies of nuclear structure and the properties of highly 
unstable nuclei over many years.   I'm delighted that the Physics
and Astronomy Department was in on the inaugural round of this
award.

3.  Those at our last colloquium heard, but let me repeat for
all, that Pat Peiliker won the Dean's award for Excellence in
Service to Graduate Education by a Graduate Program Coordinator.

4.  I am sorry to inform the department that Igor Aleiner has
decided to move to Columbia University in September.  Igor will
officially be on leave for the fall semester.  We wish Igor the
all the best! 

5.  Sasha Abanov been appointed as the Physics and Astronomy
Department Simons Fellow for next academic year.  The Fellowship
will allow Sasha some teaching relief and the opportunity to 
bring visitors to Stony Brook to share their work on topological
and non-perturbative correlated systems.

The Department is joining with the Math Department and Institutes
for Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Sciences to host a 
conference on Quantum Computing, with Vladimir Korepin as 
the organizer.  This Conference, to be held just after classes 
finish in May 2003, is also sponsored by the Simons Foundation.  

6.  Graduate student Yiing-Rei Chen won the Gertrude Goldhaber
prize for an outstanding woman student at Stony Brook or working
at Brookhaven Lab.  Yiing-Rei works with Phil Allen.

7.  Prizes for graduate and undergraduate students were announced
at our last colloquiuim or at the departmental graduation exercises.
They are:
Graduate Students:
    Di Tian Prize (outstanding Asian student):  
        Xiyue Miao
    Max Dresden Prize (outstanding theoretical dissertation research)
        Andrew Steiner
    David Fox prize (outstanding TA):
        Sasa Ratakovic
    Peter Kahn prize (for travel):
        Tirthabir Biswas, Matt Cashen, Loic Grandchamp, Yildirim Mutaf
    T.A. Pond prize (Highest comprehensive exam score):
        Jorge Casalderrey
    Henry Silsbee prize (academic recognition)
        Neil Christenson
    Soroff prize (outstanding student recognition)
        Jay Dickerson
    Lee Wilcox prize (outstanding experimental thesis):
        Michael Feser, Abid Patwa

Undergraduate students:
    John Toll prize (outstanding senior)
        Kevin Holochwost
    Arnold Feingold Prize (introductory astronomy):
        Raheel Khan, Jessy Miner, Mary Potocnik, Lauren Esposito,
        Erik Jones, Zachary Kelly
    Jefferson Award (academic recognition in Astronomy): 
        Corrine Lamb
    Edward Lambe prize (Science teaching preparation)
        Brett Clarin, Paul Lang, Carlo Maltempi

and the undergraduates recognized Emilio Mendez as the outstanding
teacher.

8.  The awards for Distinguished Doctoral Students went to five students
campus wide, including two of our students, Matt Cashen and Shu-Chiuan Chang,
advised by Hal Metcalf and Robert Shrock respectively.

9.  Department Committee reports for the year may be found at 
    http://sbhep1.physics.sunysb.edu/~grannis/deptcommittee.html

10. A proposal on behalf of the department for the Dean's Excellence in
Departmental teaching award can be found at :
    http://sbhep1.physics.sunysb.edu/~grannis/teach_excel.html

11.  Have a great summer!

                Paul