{"id":944,"date":"2026-06-17T20:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/?p=944"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:55:35","slug":"2026-physics-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/2026\/06\/17\/2026-physics-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Physics Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At the annual awards picnic on June 4, 2026 recent awards were announced by newly confirmed Department Head&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2026\/05\/ethan-minot-appointed-head-of-oregon-state-physics\">Ethan Minot<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2026 Physics<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Graduate Research Award<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Nathan Walker &#8211; Davide Lazzati advisor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2026 Physics Graduate Teaching Assistant Award<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Brett Pentecost<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Honorable mention: Aubry Lines and Jacob Rodgers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Writing in Class Undergraduate Thesis Award&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kieran King &#8220;Optoelectronic Characterization of Charge Carrier Dynamics in Organic Thin Film Phototransistors\u201d advised by Oksana.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Honorable mention: Payton Sprando<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The department also awarded $2,000 scholarships to 18 undergraduate students. Scholarships are supported by generous alumni and friends of the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Second Breakthrough Prize for a Physics Faculty<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Member<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emeritus Professor&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/physics.oregonstate.edu\/directory\/heidi-m-schellman\">Heidi Schellman<\/a>&nbsp;is a co-recipient of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her work on the tracking system for the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/muon-g-2.fnal.gov\/\">Fermilab g-2 experiment<\/a>. Professor<a href=\"https:\/\/science.oregonstate.edu\/directory\/xavier-siemens\">&nbsp;Xavier Siemens<\/a>&nbsp;was a co-recipient of this award in 2016 for his work on the LIGO experiment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the annual awards picnic on June 4, 2026 recent awards were announced by newly confirmed Department Head&nbsp;Ethan Minot 2026 Physics&nbsp;Graduate Research Award 2026 Physics Graduate Teaching Assistant Award Writing in Class Undergraduate Thesis Award&nbsp; The department also awarded $2,000 scholarships to 18 undergraduate students. Scholarships are supported by generous alumni and friends of the&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/2026\/06\/17\/2026-physics-awards\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6866,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2027,2368,3428,911,173126,1138647],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards","category-faculty","category-graduate-students","category-students","category-teaching-and-learning","category-undergrad_research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6866"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":948,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spectrometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}