As the 2002-2003 academic year begins, the department is embarked in new directions. This follows the visit last October of the Physics Advisory Board,  composed of members of the Board of  Trustees and distinguished physicists  from around the country. The Board’s  subsequent report to President Cohon was extremely complimentary and supportive and will be very helpful as the department moves forward over the next few years.

Our top priority, strongly endorsed by the Board, was an initiative in biological physics that would involve hiring three new faculty members. Soon after the Board’s visit, Carnegie Mellon’s administration accepted their recommendation  and the department proceeded  with an intensive, worldwide search conducted by a committee chaired by Steve Garoff. The whole department was involved in the process of hearing  and talking with the top candidates.  We will let you know the outcome.

With the fall semester, the physics  part of the new undergraduate science  labs between Wean and Doherty Halls will be fully open for business. This  replaces the ancient facilities you may fondly (?) remember. Indeed, some of the old lab equipment appears in a small museum near the entrance. Not only are the three new physics labs  state of the art, but they have been  specifically designed to reflect the new curriculum in the introductory courses. As such, PCs are found at each lab  position to carry out the computer visualization of the solution of various physics problems.

Our undergraduate program more generally continues to build and innovate. We are proud of Steve Garoff for receiving this year’s Undergraduate Advising Award, which recognized  his devotion over the years to improving our program and especially the attention given to issues outside the  curriculum itself and to building an undergraduate physics community.

This year’s Buhl Lecture was by Saul  Perlmutter from UC Berkeley. His talk, on "Supernovae, Dark Energy, and the Accerating Universe" was delivered to a packed, standing-room-only audience. This was perhaps the best Buhl Lecture yet if measured by the incredible enthusiasm of the audience, including a large group of undergraduates who virtually surrounded Perlmutter and peppered him with questions during the reception that followed.

A number of our alumni have been  able drop by during the last year. The turnout at Homecoming time was particularly gratifying and coincided with the announcement of a new endowed fund for physics undergraduate education contributed by  T. Parkinson and his wife. We hope to see you at this year’s reception for Physics alumni, but in any case, even  if you cannot visit us in person when  you are in the area, please keep in  contact, even with a brief email (to physics@andrew.cmu.edu) or letter.