ODU PHYSICS DEPARTMENT BOASTS SIX AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY FELLOWS

Jay Wallace Van Orden of Newport News, a professor and eminent scholar of physics at Old Dominion University has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). He joins five faculty members in the Department of Physics who have previously received the distinction.

"This is a high honor and brings great recognition to Old Dominion University and the College of Sciences," said Dean Richard Gregory.

Each year, no more than half of one percent of the current membership of APS are recognized by their peers for election to the status of fellow. "This is a great and well merited honor," said Colm Whelan, chair of the physics department.

The College of Sciences now boasts six faculty members who have been awarded the APS fellowship, including Van Orden. Those previously honored include Professor and Eminent Scholar Anatoly Radyushkin, Professor Rocco Schiavialla, Professor Lepsha Vuskovic, Professor and Eminent Scholar Mark Havey and Professor and Physics Chair Colm Whelan.

The fellowship program recognizes members who have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication or made significant and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology. They may also have made significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service and participation in the activities of APS.

The Few Body Systems Topical Group of APS nominated Van Orden "for contributions to the understanding of relativistic effects in few- and many-body nuclei with particular emphasis on covariant calculations of the electromagnetic properties of the deutron."

Van Orden, who splits his research time between the Nuclear Physics Group at ODU and the CEBAF Center at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, joined the physics department at ODU in 1990. His contributions to the field of nuclear physics have influenced fundamental research worldwide. Present understanding of nuclei with two and three bodies is largely dependent on his work. His predictions form the basis for many of the most important experiments at the Jefferson Laboratory. Van Orden received his doctorate from Stanford University.

For more information visit www.aps.org.