Dear friends,

Another in the irregular series of newsletters from the Department of
Physics and Astonomy:

1.  We are pleased to welcome Prof. Concha Gonzalez-Garcia to Stony Brook as
the newest faculty member of the Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics and the
department.  Almost coincident with her physical arrival in Stony Brook,
Concha's work on the solar production of neutrinos was featured in the
March 19 Physics News published by the American Physical Society.

2.  Laszlo Mihaly was awarded the President's Award for Excellence in
Teaching.  Apparently all those hammer blows to the solar plexus translate into
a visceral teaching impact!

3.  Remember that the visiting graduate students who have been admitted
for Fall 2003 will be on campus this weekend.  We will host a dinner
($35 per person to Pat Peiliker) at the Harbor Hills Country Club on
Friday evening.  On Saturday (March 29), visiting students will be in
the department looking to talk with faculty in all the research groups.
Please help!

4.  One of the seven semifinalists for the Intel Science Talent Search
competition tutured in Physics and Astronomy has become one of the
40 finalists nationwide.  Hilary Fleischer of South Side High School in
Rockville Centre worked in the Laser Teaching Center under the tutelage
of John Noe and Hal Metcalf.  The Laser Teaching Center was recently the
recipient of a gift from the Simons Foundation for their work.

5.  The induction of new members in the Sigma Pi Sigma honorary society
will be  held on Friday April 25 at 4PM in S240.  We urge all to attend this
nice ceremony.

6.  On April 1, Dr. Praveen Chaudhari will take the directorship
of Brookhaven National Lab.  Dr. Chaudhari comes from IBM where his research
centered on the optical properties of matter, and he served as the
vice president for science.   Peter Paul has served for 18 months as
interim director, and will stay on as deputy director during the
coming months.

7.  We learned that Ayse Erzan, a graduate student in the department in the
early 1970's won the L'Oreal/UNESCO award of $100,000 for her studies.
Ayse is now at the Istanbul Technical University.

8.  The Center for Environmental Science has been initiated with joint
participation of Stony Brook and BNL.  A recent press release can be found at:
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2003/bnlpr031303.htm .  Chris Jacobsen and
Janos Kirz are members of this Center.

9.  A reminder:  the departmental commencement ceremony will be held
on Friday May 23 at 9AM.  We have invited Dr. Tina Kaarsberg, a
Stony Brook Ph.D. who is now a staff member on the U.S. House Science Committee
to give the commencement address.   The university commencement will follow our
ceremony.

10. The liquid mirror telescope pioneered by Paul Hickson in Vancouver
was featured in the March 14 issue of Science.  This telescope serves
as a presursor of the LAMA project that is being pursued by a collaboration of
Stony Brook, Columbia and American Museum of Natural History.

11. Applications for Fulbright fellowships are now open for faculty
for lectureships and research awards in 2004 - 2005.  Traditional award
periods vary between two months and an academic year. New programs support
visits for two to six week visits.  Visit http://www.cies.org for more
information.

12. Those faculty interested in becoming a member of the Defense
Science Study Group (DSSG) for the 2003 - 4 program run by DARPA should
look at the information available in the chair's office.

13. The campus-wide Academy of Teacher-Scholars is seeking new fellows
for next year.  The goal is to enable those engaged in curriculum
innovations.  There is a stipend of $5000 to the individual, and a similar
grant given to the department.  Information is available in the
chair's office.

14. Did I miss something?  Let me know!

                Paul Grannis