Hans Hochheimer Named New Chairman of Colorado State University’s Physics Department

Colorado State University has named Hans Dieter Hochheimer, a professor of physics, as the new chairman of the Department of Physics within the College of Natural Sciences.

"Professor Hochheimer has been a longtime member of the Colorado State faculty and promoter within the Department of Physics," said Rick Miranda, dean of the College of Natural Sciences. "I am impressed with his enthusiasm and energy – he has a lot of good ideas for the department. I am looking forward to working closely with him in areas such as new faculty hires, curriculum reform and outreach, particularly with physics’ nationally recognized program, the Little Shop of Physics."

Hochheimer began his career at Colorado State in 1988. Before joining the university, he worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 to 1988. He was a research assistant at the University of Regensburg in Regensburg, Germany, from 1970 to 1978 and was head of the High Pressure Group at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1978 to 1986.

Hochheimer studied physics and mathematics at Johann Wolfgang G?the Universit?t and received his doctoral degree from the University of Regensburg in 1974.

He served many years as secretary/vice chairman and chairman of the European High Pressure Research Group and was chairman of the Gordon Conference on High Pressure Research. For several years, he also served during the summer as acting chairman of the department of Applied Physics at the University of Ulm in Ulm, Germany. During October and November 2002, he was the first American scientist in 20 years who was allowed to perform research at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, India.

His awards and honors include a German Science Foundation fellowship at Arizona State University and an award for outstanding research in the field of Raman scattering at high hydrostatic pressures.

The physics department at Colorado State is involved in several major projects that are receiving international attention:

– A National Science Foundation proposal to develop a site and conceptual design for a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, or  DUSEL, at the Henderson Mine in Empire, Colo. The proposal was submitted by the Henderson Underground Science and Engineering Project collaboration, a national organization made up of multiple universities and organizations, in February 2005 responding to a proposal solicitation by NSF.

– The Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, where more than 370 scientists from 16 countries are investigating the origins of cosmic rays.     

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