Physics in the 1990s
1990
The Department of Physics celebrates a century of leadership in research, education, and public service.
1991
The Science and Technology Center for Superconductivity is established in Urbana (funded by the National Science Foundation) to study the materials, the phenomenon, and possible applications of high temperature superconductivity. Center physicists, chemists, materials scientists, and engineers, including theorists and experimentalists, collaborate to design and carry forward an integrated research and education program under the leadership of Miles V. Klein (Physics).
1992
David K. Campbell, a condensed matter theorist who was a postdoc in Urbana in the early 1970s, moves from Los Alamos National Laboratory to become the eighth head of Physics. Campbell will increase the diversity of the faculty (four women and one African-American hire during his tenure), catalyze a renaissance in undergraduate teaching, emphasize outreach and public service, and greatly expand the biological physics program.
1993
Nick Holonyak, Jr. is appointed the first John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics.
Laura H. Greene is recruited from Bell Labs as a full professor, only the second woman in the department to attain this rank.
David Hertzog starts the " Saturday Physics Honors" program, a series of lectures on modern aspects of the physical sciences.
The Materials Research Laboratory is renamed in honor of Frederick Seitz.
1994
Assistant Professor of Physics Mats A. Selen starts the Physics Van outreach program, using undergraduate students to bring the wonder and discovery of science to elementary school children throughout central Illinois. (In the next 12 years, more than 200 undergraduates will delight more than 80,000 children in more than 500 "Van shows.")
Physics establishes, with NSF funding, a summer "research experiences for undergraduates" (REU) site program in complex systems.
Tony Liss is the "convener" of the collaboration at Fermilab that discovers the top quark.
1995
A new building linking the MRL and the CSL is completed to house the Science and Technology Center for Superconductivity and to provide new offices for the MRL.
A core group of high-energy and nuclear physics faculty, led by Gary Gladding, initiate a massive revision of the introductory physics sequence for engineers; Physics 106 is taught for the last time at Illinois.
1996
The Physics Van is invited to participate in the University of Wisconsin's Engineering Expo—and wins third prize!
1998
A Physics Advisory Board is created to provide advice and counsel on strategic issues facing the department.
Frederick Lamb is invested as the first holder of the Brand and Monica Fortner Endowed Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics, the department's first chair solely endowed for Physics and a gift of alumnus Brand Fortner (BS, '77; MS, '82; PhD, '93).
A formal "physics education research" group is established by Gary Gladding and receives its first NSF funding to analyze and document the efficacy of the revised introductory curriculum.
