Three Colorado State Professors Named Fellows of American Physical Society in 2005

Three professors from two colleges at Colorado State University have been awarded fellowships in the American Physical Society, a prestigious organization for physicists.

Honored in 2005 were Nancy Levinger, a chemistry professor in the College of Natural Sciences; Jorge Rocca, electrical engineering and physics professor in the Colleges of Engineering and Natural Sciences ; and Walter Toki, physics professor in the College of Natural Sciences.

Fellowship in the American Physical Society recognizes members who have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication or made significant and innovative contributions to the application of physics to science and technology. Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the current membership of the organization is recognized by their peers with this honor.

About the honorees:

– Levinger has pioneered work on the dynamics of molecules and chemistry in the condensed phase, especially molecular assemblies, molecules at liquid interfaces and in confined environments by ultrafast spectroscopic techniques and neutron scattering. She helped develop the Distinguished Women in Science and Engineering Lecture series that brings accomplished women to Colorado State to lecture each semester. She obtained her doctoral degree in 1990 from the University of Colorado and completed her NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

– Rocca is a world leader in the development of compact X-ray lasers and their applications. He serves as director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology, a collaborative effort with the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California at Berkeley. New laser technologies developed out of the center impact numerous applications such as the development of the next generation of integrated circuits, nanofabrication, high-resolution imaging, spectroscopy and the diagnostics of dense plasmas. Rocca, who obtained his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Colorado State in 1983, is also a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

– Toki has made significant contributions to measurements of charm, tau and B meson decays. He is the program director of Colorado State’s High Energy Physics Group where he is also principal investigator of a U.S. Department of Energy grant. The High Energy Physics Group is involved in several high-profile projects including the Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina, where more than 370 scientists from 16 countries are investigating the origins of cosmic rays. He obtained his doctoral degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976.

The American Physical Society is the world’s largest professional body of physicists. Founded in 1899, it now represents over 43,000 physicists in academia and industry worldwide.

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