Kuhn Wins ODU Research Award; Expo Poster Winners Announced

Sebastian Kuhn, professor and eminent scholar of physics, was named the winner of Old Dominion University's 2008 Faculty Research Achievement Award at the 5th annual Research Expo held Wednesday at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

More than 1,000 people attended the all-day event, which was capped by an awards ceremony.

Kuhn is a nuclear physicist who conducts experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News. His work on the spin-or angular momentum-composition of the proton and neutron has had an important influence on our understanding of matter.

At Jefferson Lab, Kuhn has led collaborations of close to150 physicists from 35 institutions, and the experiments have produced data of unprecedented accuracy. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2007 "for his leadership on measurements of the nucleon structure functions, in particular in the non-perturbative and valence region."

Gail Dodge, chair of ODU's Department of Physics and a nuclear experimentalist herself, said Kuhn was instrumental in developing the scientific motivation for the proposed $310 million upgrade of the continuous electron accelerator at Jefferson Lab. 

"Sebastian's work has led to a significant improvement in our understanding of the distribution of quarks inside protons and neutrons," Dodge added. "He is an outstanding physicist and a wonderful colleague. We are thrilled that his work has been honored by ODU in this way."

The Research Expo, which was jointly sponsored by ODU, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education, showcased about 300 posters and exhibits of research, scholarship and artistic achievement by faculty and students of the participating institutions.

NSU presented its faculty research achievement award to Sam-Shajing Sun, professor of chemistry and materials science, and the EVMS research award went to Dr. David F. Archer, professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Here are the first-place winners in the poster competitions:

Undergraduates-Tiffany Adams, Crinesha Brooks and Shyonda Adams, NSU, for "August Wilson Geneology" in humanities and liberal arts; Patrick Ellis, Erin Hollembeak, Wesley Myers and Virginia Selz, ODU, for "Temporal and Spatial Variability in Hoffler Creek: Response to Local and Regional Forcing" in physical sciences; Tanisha Robinson and T.Y. Jervey, NSU, for "Reporter Gene Transfer of the Human Cytomegalovirus UL98 Promoter Mutants" in life sciences.

Graduate students-Timothy Goodale, Krista Trono, ODU, and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., for "Assessing Ocean Literacy" in education; Nate Phillips and Irina Novikova, College of William and Mary, and Alexey Gorshkov, Harvard University, for "Optimal Control of Light Pulse Storage and Retrieval" in physical sciences; Girish Singh Rajput and Associate Professor Zia-Ur Rahman, ODU, for "SUSAN Edge Detection for Detecting Hazards on the Runway" in engineering; Crystal Bertoncini, William and Mary, Associate Professor Gayle McCombs, ODU, and Professor Mark Hinders, William and Mary, for "Ultrasonographic Periodontal Probe" in health sciences.