Laura Marcucci of Newport News, a doctoral student in physics, received the Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister Award this spring from the Association for Women in Science Educational Foundation, marking the second straight year that the honor has gone to an Old Dominion student.

The Meyer-Schutzmeister Award, a national honor given to an outstanding female student pursuing a doctorate in physics, is named for a former physicist at Argonne National Laboratory who helped perform measurements of gamma rays produced in nuclear reactions and conducted studies of the behavior of nuclei.

By summer's end, Marcucci, a native of Italy, will receive her doctorate in physics, based on her work in theoretical nuclear physics at the Jefferson Lab. After graduation, she will return to Pisa. She said she would like to collaborate in the future with her colleagues at the Lab.

Last year, the Meyer-Schutzmeister Award was presented to Luminita Todor, another Old Dominion graduate student, for her work in experimental nuclear physics. This is the first time in the history of the award that winners in two successive years have come from the same university, according to AWS officials.