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Message from the Chair
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It is with mixed emotions that I write my first message as the chair of the engineering physics department. Our society has been shocked by events that were truly beyond what we would have imagined. As a colleague noted, Sept. 11, 2001, will stand as a defining date and remain as an indelible moment in our collective history and our personal lives. For those alumni who have been affected by this tragedy, I offer my heartfelt sympathy.
On the UW-Madison campus, and in the College of Engineering as well as our department, our staff and students have worked hard to ensure that our initial response has been one of thoughtful reflection, prayer and support. It is during a tragedy such as this that we are reminded that our strength lies in our sense of community. In the days following this tragedy, faculty, students and staff developed many programs and activities to help people understand the tragedy and cope with its aftermath.
In the midst of all this sorrow, our department has continued to change and improve in many ways, and this should make us all proud and give us hope for the future. Professor Gil Emmert, chair of the department over the last nine years, retired this summer and remains with us in an emeritus status, doing teaching and research. Also, Richard Cashwell, the UW Nuclear Reactor director, retired at the end of the summer and works with us in a part-time status. Robert Agasie has been named the new director of the UW Nuclear Reactor.
We are also fortunate to have a number of new faculty and staff joining the department to work with our undergraduate and graduate students. Carl Sovinec joined the department this summer from Los Alamos National Lab as an assistant professor. His area of research interest is plasma theory and computation, specifically multi-dimensional MHD analysis.
Paul Wilson also joined the department this summer as an assistant professor as part of the UW Energy Systems and Policy cluster hire. Paul was a research associate in the Fusion Technology Institute and has research interests in neutronics and transport theory as well as fuel-cycle analysis.
This fall, Chris Hegna will join the department as an associate professor. Chris' research interest is theoretical plasma physics — particularly stability phenomena.
Finally, we are happy to welcome Patricia Arnold, who joined us as our new student services coordinator for our undergraduate and graduate students.
One of the most encouraging signs for our department is the strong growth in the number of our undergraduate and graduate majors. This year we will have more than 150 undergraduate students and more than 70 graduate students in EMA and NEEP, with more than 25 graduate students from other departments that our faculty advise and financially support. In addition, our students are some of the top academically in the college. This is clearly the most important sign of the interest and vitality in our department.
Sincerely,
Michael Corradini
Michael L. Corradini
147 Engineering Research Building
1500 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1687
Tel: 608/263-1646
Fax: 608/263-7451
E-mail: ep@engr.wisc.edu