Awards
Penn State Intercom......January
17, 2002
Presidential Early Career
Award goes to Coutu 
Stephane Coutu, assistant professor of physics, is a recipient of the 2002 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young scientists and engineers at the outset of their independent research careers.
Established by President Clinton in February 1996 and administered by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, the award provides up to five years of funding for research in support of government missions. Coutu was nominated for the award by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Coutu is an experimental physicist whose primary research interests are elementary particles and fields. His projects include high-energy cosmic rays and air showers; particle astrophysics; and the origin, propagation and composition of high-energy cosmic particles -- both matter and antimatter.
Coutu is involved in several NASA-supported missions including the High-Energy Antimatter Telescope program, a series of high-altitude balloon-borne experiments flown to the edges of the atmosphere, essentially into space, to study antimatter in cosmic radiation. He also is involved in the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass project, an effort to build an advanced balloon payload to measure the mass composition of very-high-energy cosmic rays.
Coutu is a participant in studies for the next generation of space-borne high-energy cosmic-ray detectors, such as NASA's ACCESS detector scheduled to be launched in about 2007, which could be operated on the International Space Station.
Coutu's non-NASA activities include participation in the Pierre Auger Observatory project, is a large international undertaking with contributions from 12 countries. Auger is an ambitious plan to construct two huge arrays of detectors, each the size of Rhode Island, one in the northern hemisphere, and one in the southern, to study the highest-energy particles in the universe and to open up a new window on the physical world.
Packard Fellowship
allows pursuit of research
Ari Mizel, assistant professor of physics, has received a five-year, $625,000 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
The fellowship provides unrestricted funds to young faculty members in science and engineering who have demonstrated unusual creative ability in research. Mizel is one of 24 nationwide who were selected to receive the award this year.
Mizel is a condensed-matter theorist who said his research interests concern bizarre quantum effects in solid materials.
"Modern physics tells us that solid objects are actually swarms of quantum-mechanical particles capable of very bizarre behavior," Mizel explained. "My research program focuses on analyzing and potentially harnessing this bizarre quantum behavior in real materials."
His specific interests include the design of quantum computers, semiconductor electronics and spintronics, and vortex dynamics in superconductors. He said the support provided by the Packard Foundation Fellowship will
enable him to pursue these endeavors by hiring a team of research personnel and equipping them with a powerful computational infrastructure.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowships were established in 1988 to develop future scientific leaders, to further the work of the nation's most promising young scientists and engineers, to encourage networking among these researchers and to support efforts to attract talented graduate students into university research in the United States.
Staff service awards
are presented to 3
The College of Arts and Architecture recently named three employees as recipients of the 2001 Staff Award for Outstanding Service.
* Lisa Faust, audience services coordinator in the Center for the Performing Arts, was recognized for her commitment to making every performance a success through her energy, accommodating nature and ability to give guests the "royal Penn State treatment." Faust's colleagues noted that her skill in handling recent renovations to Eisenhower Auditorium made it possible for all work to be completed before this season's opening show.
* Corry Kurzinger, administrative assistant in the Department of Art History, was honored for her excellence in dealing with administrative needs and requirements of faculty and students in art history.
* Rosalie Bailey, staff assistant in the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, was recognized for providing exemplary service for faculty and graduate students throughout the college. Bailey also was noted for her skill at managing several budgets and various grant monies to assist faculty and graduate students in completing research projects.