Displaying items by tag: department of physics alumni news

Physics alumna Christina Richey, Ph.D., is a planetary scientist and astrophysicist with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

April 03, 2018

Stellar

Physics alumna Christina Richey has built a successful career in the competitive, and mostly-male, field of planetary science.

For a few days in September, General Electric will use the ceiling of New York City’s Grand Central Station as a canvas to showcase the impressive accomplishments of women in scientific fields. Among them is Hadiyah-Nicole Green, Ph.D., a UAB alumna who graduated with a master’s degree in physics in 2009 and a doctorate in physics in 2012.
Daisy Wong, Ph.D., Robert Maddox, J.D., Christina Richey, Ph.D., Charles Scribner and Marcus Newell were honored at the College of Arts and Sciences' annual Alumni Awards reception on Tuesday, January 24 at the UAB Alumni House.
December 05, 2016

2016 Alumni Awards

Congratulations to our 2016 Alumni Award winners. These accomplished individuals represent the values we champion in the College of Arts and Sciences: ethical and moral reasoning, the scientific method, cultural competency, communication, and confidence in the face of complexity.
Dr. Christina Richey (NASA Headquarters & Smart Data Solutions, LLC and UAB physics alumnus) has made significant contributions to fostering equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion in planetary science in the spirit of the Harold Masursky award. 
Dr. Thomas McCauley (UAB Physics PhD - Class of 1996) has assumed a Vice President position at Shire Pharmaceuticals. Dr. McCauley joined Shire in 2010 and heads its global nonclinical development.
Recently, Nenad Velisavljevic, 2005 Physics PhD graduate from Prof. Y. K. Vohra's high pressure group and currently staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with three co-workers received a DOE-NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence.
NASA recently announced the selection of seven instrument proposals for inclusion on the next rover to be sent to Mars in 2020. Among the proposals selected, Dr. Luther Beegle, UAB physics alumnus and Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, is the principal investigator for the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC).
Beegle's role on this mission is to be something of an interplanetary safety inspector. "I am one of three surface sampling systems scientists," he says. "We're in charge of Curiosity's drill and scoop"—which are crucial to the mission goal of "finding traces of organics and understanding the habitability potential of Mars," Beegle says.