Physics Alumni elected to APS Fellowship

April 03, 2014

Bogdan Dobrescu earned his Ph.D. in 1997, with a thesis titled "Towards a Natural Theory of Electroweak Interactions". Bogdan is now a Scientist in the Theoretical Physics Department at Fermilab, specializing in Beyond the Standard Model physics. His citation: For original and influential extensions of the Standard Model involving extra dimensions and new gauge dynamics, and for leadership in bridging the gap between new theoretical ideas and experimental tests.

Charles Ferguson earned his Ph.D. in 1997, supervised by Bill Klein. His thesis research was on understanding  the statistical distribution and physical nature of the initiation process of earthquakes . Since then, Charles has worked in the field of nuclear non-proliferation, for which he was elected to Fellowship. Charles is currently the President of the Federation of American Scientists. His citation: For applying technical knowledge to public policy on nuclear issues, including nuclear energy, nonproliferation, nuclear and radiological terrorism, and nuclear safety and security; and for communicating that knowledge to society.

Mark Messier earned his Ph.D. in 1999, writing his thesis topic on the discovery of neutrino oscillations by the Super-Kamiokande experiment. Mark's thesis advisor was Jim Stone. Mark is now a professor at Indiana University. He is co-spokesperson of the NOvA experiment, a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using a beam of neutrinos from Fermilab to northern Minnesota. His citation: For study of neutrino mass and mixing from discovery with atmospheric neutrinos by Super-Kamiokande, confirmation and precision measurements using MINOS, and leadership of the NOvA long-baseline experiment to further refine the fundamental nature of neutrino oscillation.