Each year the Physics Department recognizes outstanding graduate and undergraduate students with the awards described below. These awards are presented at a special banquet in May.

2007 Awards Dinner Photos

2008 Awards & Winners

Award Descriptions

Past Award Winners

2008 Awards & Winners

The Andersen Scholarship: Risa Wong

Faculty Excellence in Graduate Teaching: Steve Sharpe

Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: Boris Blinov

Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching: Kristan Jensen

The Henderson Prize: Tom Butler, Tim Fister, and Jeff Sherman

The Higgs-Osborn Prize: Joanna Salacka and Jenne Driggers

The Karrer Prize: Kristan Jensen and Joe Wasem

The Karrer Scholarship: Jared Rinehimer

The Miller Award: Rosalie McGurk, Brian Stephanik, and Zenghui Wang

The Joseph Weis Prize: Paul Chesler

The Hans G. Dehmelt Prize: Matt Dietrich

The Mary L. Boas Endowed Scholarship: Ming Li

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Award Descriptions

AAPT Teaching Assistant Award
This award is made by the American Association of Physics Teachers to an outstanding teaching assistant nominated by the Physics Department. Since 2004, this award has been included with the Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award.

Mary L. Boas Endowed Scholarship
After her illustrious career, Dr. Boas is happy to be able to offer a small repayment to the department where she got her start and encourage other women to be theoretical physicists. Dr. Boas received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Washington in 1938 and 1940, and her Ph.D. from M.I.T. Dr. Boas spent 30 years on the faculty of the Physic Department at DePaul University in Chicago and continued to teach, learn and write in the field of mathematical and theoretical physics. She is the author of Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences which is widely used across the country, including in the UW undergraduate Mathematical Methods courses.

This is the first year the Boas Scholarship has been awarded. The scholarship recognizes undergraduate women students in the Department of Physics for outstanding academic achievements.

The Dahlstrom Prize
This award was established in 1993 in the name of Robert K. Dahlstrom who in 1934 received the first Ph.D. in Physics awarded by the University of Washington. His thesis work was directed by Professor Joe Henderson, founder of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the UW. He left Eastern Washington State College to do defense work during World War II. After the war, he worked for the APL in Silver Spring, MD, applying his physics to various defense problems. In his memory we honored outstanding graduate students who passed the General Examination in experimental physics. This award closed in 2000.

Hans G. Dehmelt Prize in Experimental Physics
This Prize was established by the distinguished Nobel Laureate Professor Emeritus Hans G. Dehmelt. Dr. Dehmelt completed his Master’s thesis in 1948 and his Ph.D. in 1950, both from University of Göttingen. Dr. Dehmelt was invited to Duke University as a postdoctoral associate in 1952, later accepting an assistant professor position at the University of Washington in 1955. He conducted his research work on ion traps, receiving the Davisson Germer Prize in 1970, elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989 and the National Medal of Science in 1995. In September 2002, after a brilliant career, Dr. Dehmelt retired from the University of Washington as Professor Emeritus.

The purpose of this award is to recognize students in the Department of Physics for outstanding achievements in the area of “table-top” experimental physics. This award is given to an undergraduate or graduate student based on academic merit.

Gregory Lynn Andersen Scholarship
This Scholarship Fund is dedicated to the memory of Gregory Lynn Andersen, who graduated with great promise from the department. Gregory Andersen received the Bachelor of Science in Physics cum laude from the University of Washington in December 1980. He died tragically in an automobile-bicycle accident only a month later. Gregory Andersen had been an outstanding physics student. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and of the Physics Honors Program. He received the Emilie Peaslee Scholarship for high academic achievement. As a student, he participated in the research program of the University of Washington Nuclear Physics Laboratory. At the time of his death he was engaged in the design and construction of a magnetic spectrometer for the laboratory.
The Scholarship Fund was established in 1983 as a memorial to him by his parents, the Norman A. Andersen family, and friends. It is awarded each year to a Physics Major for academic excellence, and is a full tuition scholarship for the junior or senior year.

Faculty Excellence in Graduate Teaching
This award was established in 2004 to honor excellence in teaching graduate level courses. The awardee is selected by the graduate students.

Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
This award was established in 2004 to honor excellence in teaching undergraduate courses. The awardee is selected by the undergraduate student organization, the Society of Physics Students.

Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching
This award was established in 2004 to honor excellence in serving as a teaching assistant and includes the AAPT award of a subscription to the American Journal of Physics

Henderson Prize
The Prize commemorates Professor Joseph Henderson and his wife. Prof. Henderson joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 1929. Mrs. Henderson was precluded from regular faculty appointment by the anti-nepotism rules in effect, although she taught occasional courses. The first Ph.D. awarded by the Department of Physics was earned by one of Professor Henderson's students in 1934, and in all 25 students received Ph.D.'s under Prof. Henderson's guidance. Research in nuclear physics here began when he and his students undertook to build a high voltage x-ray source for the Swedish Hospital to use in cancer therapy. Prof. Henderson contributed substantially to the physics war effort in World War II and he established the Applied Physics Laboratory here afterwards. He served as Director of the Laboratory until 1969.
The Prize is financed by the Henderson Family Fund, established in 1983 by the gifts from Prof. and Mrs. Henderson, their family, friends, colleagues, and former students. It is awarded for an outstanding Ph.D. thesis.

Higgs/Osborn Prize
The Prize commemorates two early faculty members of the Department. Professor Higgs earned a degree from the Department in 1919 and he taught here from then until his retirement in 1966. He was outstanding for his talent as an experimentalist and for his many contributions to teaching, particularly in bringing physics alive through the design, construction, demonstration and use of laboratory equipment. Professor Osborn came to the University in 1902 as the first Professor of Physics and Director of the Physics Laboratories.He served as department head until his death in 1942.
The Prize is awarded to undergraduate students who have shown exceptional ability in laboratory courses.

Huckabay Teaching Fellowship (UW Graduate School Fellowship)
The Huckabay Teaching Fellowships were created in 1995 by an endowment from University of Washington alumni Durward and Susan Huckabay. Each year, nine graduate students from across the campus are selected by an interdisciplinary faculty committee to receive these one-quarter awards. See more details at the UW Graduate School web site

Sebastian Karrer Prize & Sebastian Karrer Memorial Scholarship
These awards were established from a gift from Annie May Hurd Karrer in memory of her husband Dr. Sebastian Karrer. Dr. Karrer received his undergraduate and master's degrees in Physics at the University of Washington in 1911 and 1913, and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1918. Dr. Karrer had a distinguished career in thermoelectricity, refrigeration and solid state physics at several universities, government laboratories and industries. He was consultant to the office of Scientific Research and received the National Defense Research Award of the Office of Naval Ordinance.
The Karrer Memorial Scholarship was first awarded in 1989. It is given to an outstanding student in the first year of graduate study.
The Karrer Prize was first awarded in 1947. It is given to an outstanding student in the first three years of graduate study.The Award is made to a senior or graduate student on the basis of need, scholarship, and good character.

John M. Miller Scholars
This award honors the memory of Eugene Kenneth Miller, who was a graduate student in the Department of Physics at the time of his death. It is made possible through a bequest from Mr. John M. Miller.

Joseph H. Weis Prize
The Prize honors the memory of an outstanding young theoretical physicist and former member of this Department, who died in a mountain climbing accident in 1977. Joseph Weis was known for his enthusiasm and dedication to physics and for his concern for teaching.
This award was established in accordance with these commitments. It provides for a travel grant each year to support a graduate student's trip to a conference, a workshop, or a visit to a laboratory.

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Past Award Winners

Andersen Prize
Frederick C. Mackintosh(1983); Charles Dunn (1984); Jon Sandberg (1985); Douglas Mar & Eugene Wong (1986); Gary Loechelt (1987); Richard Kodama (1988); Blair Zajac(1989); Martin Platte (1990); Jeffrey Miller & Kimberly Shilcutt (1991); Greg Wilson (1992); Iya Khalil (1993); Katherine Pullen (1994); Nathan Bramall (1995); Brent Jones (1996); Joshua Bloom (1997); Jonathan Jerke (1998); Emma Brunskill (1999); Annika Peter (2000); Jeffrey Giansiracusa (2001); Matthew White(2002); Laura Kogler (2003); Imai Jen-La Plante (2004); Owen Biesel (2005); Jeremy M. Morales (2006); Ryan Bowler (2007); Risa Wong (2008)

Dahlstrom Award
Michael Moore (1993); Paul Vetter (1994); Uwe Hessinger (1995); Michael Moore (1996); Bill Klipstein (1996); Kristi Hendrickson (1997); Michael Schacht (1997); Alex Cronin (1998);William Schief (1999); Karsten Heeger (2000)

Faculty Excellence in Graduate Teaching
Larry Yaffe (2004); Larry Sorensen (2005); Martin Savage (2006); Ann Nelson (2007); Steve Sharpe (2008)

Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Oscar Vilches (2004); Blayne Heckel (2005); Andreas Karch (2006); Anton Andreev (2007); Boris Blinov (2008)

Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching
Andrew Crouse (2004); Zenghui Wang (2005); Brian Smigielski (2006); James Prager (2007); Kristan Jensen (2008)

Hans G. Dehmelt Prize in Experimental Physics
Matt Dietrich (2008)

Henderson Prize
Jacquelene Krim (1984); Marc Bernstein (1985); Hoydoo You (1986); Steve Lamoreaux (1987); Yan-Jun Ma (1988); Valdis Zeps (1989); Calvin Johnson (1990); Michael Edgaum & Alejandro Garcia (1991); Jim Jacobs (1992); Paul Green & Feng-Chuan Liu, (1993); Felix Von Oppen (1994); Hwi Kim (1995); Paul Vetter (1996); Alex Ankudinov (1997); Carlos Wexler (1998); Jeffrey George (1999); Allen C. Price (2000); Shuang Meng (2001); Charles Hoyle (2002); Miles Smith (2003); Yongle Yu (2004); Sarah Veatch (2005); Max Schlosshauer & Steve Tait (2006); Michael Pierce (2007); Tom Butler, Tim Fister & Jeff Sherman (2008)

Higgs/Osborn Prize
Gregg B. Franklin (1976); Glen A. Wurden (1977); David W. Hicks (1978); William M. Miller (1979); Winston Saunders (1980); Edward A. Celarier (1981); Amin Samsavar (1984); Robert Tjoelker (1984); David Imel (1985); Charles Dunn (1985); Brad Thayer (1986); Darrell Armstrong (1987); Christopher Ekstrom (1988); Gary Loechelt (1989); Yucong Huang (1990); Ronald Legere (1991); Junji Urayama (1992); Marshall T. Depue (1993); Frank Lind (1994); Peter Saxby (1995); Kevin Strecker (1996); Kim Mauldin (1997); Erin (Behne) Miller (1998); Marcus Collins (1999); Dawn Erb (2000); Richard Ben Corn (2001); Dan Vandervelde (2002); Chris Pearson (2003); Laura Bodine & Kristopher Yirak (2004); Imai Jen-La Plante (2005); Craig Dowell & Mayumi Fugami (2006); Lucas Svec & Kipp Krause (2007); Joanna Salacka & Jenne Driggers (2008)

Karrer Prize
James Crickson (1947); Robert Bradford (1948); Wilbur Gross (1949); Howard Blood (1950); C. H. Chang (1951); Frank Blatt (1952); Franz Mohling (1954); Walter Tanttila (1955); Martin Rickey (1956); Timothy G. Kelley (1957); David K. McDaniels (1958); Chang Young Kim (1960); Ernest R. Parkinson (1961); David L. Hendrie (1962); James T. Tough (1963); David U. L. Yu (1964); Nelson S. Gillis(1965); Philip Ekstrom (1966); Graeme A. Blake (1967); Jerry Mitchell & George Moe (1968); Robert L. Siddon (1971); David Mikkelsen (1973); Larry D. McLerran & David E. Roberts (1974); John E. Bussoletti & John J. Stoltenberg (1975); James C. Evans& Mark L. Rosenquist (1976); Bruce A. Bunker & David W. Holengren (1977); Stephen B. Hurlbut (1979); Michael Toney (1980); Larry J. Carson (1981); Michael J. George (1982); Robert E. Plaag (1983); Christopher Hearty (1984); Kristian Helmerson (1985); Calvin Johnson (1986); Hong Jung (1987); Feng Chuan Liu (1988); Karen Wosiliat (1989); Felix Von Oppen & Adam Szczepaniak (1990); Zuhui Fan (1991); Chen Ying Zhai (1992); Ethan Bradford (1993); Janghun Han (1994); Andy Stachyra (1995); Miles Smith (1996); David Wright (1997); Luke Campbell (1998); Chen Shan Chin (1999); Daniel Kapner (2000); Clark Griffith (2001); Brian Tiburzi & Sarah Veatch (2002); Claire Cramer, Arti Garg & Steven Tait (2003); Erin Lay (2004); Matthew Bowen (2005); Dima Pesin & Xiaoli Li (2006); William Terrano (2007); Kristan Jensen & Joe Wasem (2008)

Karrer Scholarship
Celia Bitz & Cliff Slaughterbeck (1989); Keith Forst (1990); Ethan Bradford & Shyan-Ming Perng (1991); Carlos Wexler (1992); Allen C. Price (1993); Douglas Davidson & Francois Lepeintre (1994); David Kaplan & Jian-Ming Tang (1995); Karsten Heeger & Carl Woll (1996); Karsten Heeger, Anton Ryzkov & Carl Woll (1997); Marina Hruska, Thomas Luu & Travis Norsen (1998); Clark Griffith (1999); Brian Tiburzi (2000); Matthew Feig (2001); Tom Butler (2002); Iuliana Radu (2003); Joaquin Drut (2004); Ethan Thompson & Michael Marino (2005); Joe Wasem & Wei Chen (2006); Mike Marino & Tracy Lovejoy (2007); Jared Rinehimer (2008)

Mary L. Boas Endowed Fellowship
Ming Li (2008)

Miller Prize Daniel A. Krueger (1962); Donald C. Clark (1963); Derek W. Storm (1964); Howard Brandt (1965);David Johnson (1966); Paul W. Alley (1967); Borut Laurencie (1968); Prem Bharadwaja (1969); Micahel Bretz (1970); Michael J. Delay (1971); Peter McCardell (1972); Howard H. Wieman (1973); C. David West (1974); James P. Cassidy (1975); Carlos A. Kohman (1976); Sara A. Solla (1977); Paul B. Schwinberg (1978); Robert L. Rosenbladt (1979); Richard E. Stoner (1980); Richard J. Muirhead (1981); Brian R. Hill (1982); John S. Brown (1983); Jose Mustre de Leon (1984); Richard Gray (1985); Zhe Zhang (1986); James Jacobs (1987); Bodin Dresevic (1988); Gar Kenyon (1989); Shawn Hogan (1990); Yucong Huang (1991); David Wright (1992); Michael Moore &Vincent Sacksteder (1993); Marshall Depue (1994); Stephen Bailey (1995); John O'meara (1996); Mathew Monahan (1997); Tate Wilson (1998); Daphne Hildebrand (1999); Adrian Fehr (2000); Paige Randall (2001); Chris Pearson & Ruth Van de Water (2002); Chihak Ahn & Joseph Haley (2003); Thomas Gadfort, Darren Puigh & Jeff Sherman (2004); Laura Bodine & Matthew Randall (2005); Andre Walker-Loud (2006); Can Kozcaz (2007); Rosalie McGurk, Brian Stephanik & Zenghui Wang (2008)

Shell Scholarship
Andrew Boudreaux (1993)

Teaching Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction in Physics (presented by the class of 1969)
Dr. John F. Streib, Jr. (1969-1970); Dr. Philip C. Peters (1970-1971); Dr. E. Norval Fortson (1970-1971 and 1971-1972); Dr. Michael Schick (1972-1973); Dr. Joseph E. Rothberg(1973-1974); Dr. John J. Rehr (1975-1976); Dr. Michael Schick (1983-1984)

Weis Prize
Pankaj Agrawal (1989); Jeon & Ying Sangyong (1990); Keith Clay & Kar Lee (1991); Jeon Sangyong & Fan Zuhui (1993); Ethan Bradford & David Makovoz (1994); Chang-Liang Song & Yan Zhang (1995); Michael Fosmire & Fei Zhou (1996); Anthony Goodson (1997); David Kaplan & Noam Shoresh (1998); Cheng Pang Liu (1999); Lincoln Carr (2000); Rob Fardon (2001); Tom Luu & Mithat Unsal (2002); Pavel Kovtun (2003); Matthew Bowen (2004); Ruth Van de Water (2005); Andy O'Bannon & Tom Butler (2006); Adam Kleczewski (2007); Paul Chesler (2008)

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Questions?
Andreas Karch karch@phys.washington.edu