2009 graduate wins national dissertation prize in nuclear physics from APS

Calem Hoffman, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the physics department at Florida State University, has written the nation’s best dissertation in nuclear physics. Hoffman accepted the 2010 Dissertation in Nuclear Physics Award on Feb. 17 in Washington, D.C. at a meeting of the American Physics Society.

“I simply had fun every day doing nuclear physics research at Florida State,” Hoffman said, “and this honor was made possible by the opportunities Professor [Samuel L.] Tabor, the physics department, and The Florida State University as a whole provided.”

Currently, Hoffman is a postdoctoral research fellow at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. “Being given the chance to view and participate in top-level nuclear research, especially as an undergraduate, paved the way to my current research position,” Hoffman said. Tabor, who served as Hoffman’s thesis advisor, said, “Calem was the top student in my introductory physics class at FSU, and he just kept getting better. Tabor, the Norman P. Heydenberg Professor of Physics, added, “[Hoffman’s] research answered longstanding questions about the structure of atomic nuclei under extreme conditions.” Department Chair Mark Riley, who remembers Hoffman as being the best graduate student in his modern physics class, said, “This is a magnificent achievement.” To read more, go to http://www.fsu.com/Featured-Stories/Former-student-has-nation-s-top-dissertation-in-nuclear-physics