Congratulations to Nikos Varelas who has received the first LAS Faculty Service Award. The award recognizes extraordinary contributions to LAS via direct involvement with College committees and initiatives and through service to their Departments, professions, and the community that bring benefit to and further the mission of the College.

Congratulations to Randall Espinoza who has been awarded a 2012 Silver Circle Award for excellence in teaching. This prestigious teaching award is only given once a year to a handful of faculty across all of LAS as selected by graduating seniors.

Prof. Morr has been awarded an esteemed Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation to conduct research at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany. Prof. Morr will use this Fellowship to collaborate with research groups in Dresden to understand the emergence of strong correlation effects in heavy fermion materials.

Cecilia Gerber was named UIC 2011 Researcher of the Year for the Natural Sciences & Engineering for her "leading role in discovery of the single top quark production by the international D0 collaboration at Fermilab. This is an extremely important contribution to the science of elementary particle physics".

Robert Klie was selected by the Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) to receive a 2011-2012 Teaching Recognition Award. These awards are given to a select group who exemplify "the high quality of instruction that characterizes the best of UIC

Robert Klie, principle investigator and leader of the nanoscale physics group, hosted an inaugural ceremony on January 20, 2012 for a new scanning transmission electron microscope that is the highest resolution in the USA. The 200 kV JEOL JEM-ARM200CF electron microscope is housed in the Research Resources Center and is now accessible to users.

Serdar Ogut was named an APS Fellow "for his contributions to understanding and predicting properties of nanostructures and bulk defects, surfaces, and interfaces through the development and application of first principles computational techniques". Details will be published in the March 2012 issue of APS news.

On January 25, 2011, the UIC community came together to celebrate the appointment of Siva Sivananthan to LAS Distinguished Professor at his lecture, "University Breakthroughs: Critical in War and Peace."

Juan Carlos Campuzano, UIC Distinguished Professor of Physics and an Argonne National Laboratory Distinguished Fellow, was a recipient of the prestigious Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize in Condensed Matter Physics by the American Physical Society for 2011.

Dr. Morr has worked with the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago on developing a new state-of-the-art science exhibit, called Science Storms. This exhibit opened on March 18th, 2010 and features many Wow-experiences such as an indoor tornado and lightning, a tsunami tank, and hot air balloons. If you have never been to the MSI, take this opportunity to visit it, and get blown away by science.

George Crabtree was the second person ever to earn his PhD in the UIC Department of Physics. Now this alumnus has come home to UIC. Read more starting on Page 5 of the Fall 2010 AtLAS.