(From left to right) Dean Jeffrey Roberts, Adam Day, Brad Pitzer, Toy Pitzer, Sam Crivello, Professor Fridolin Weber, Sebastian Gomez-Barron, Nicholas Schottle, Tim Day, Krista Day, Meghan Day, Andrew Bollman and Vice Provost Sonjia Pruitt-Lord in Thomas B. & Anne K. Day Quad. (Bryana Quintana/SDSU)
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024 Thomas B. Day Award for Excellence in Physics!
This endowment was created in memory of President Day to annually recognize and reward one outstanding teacher and one or more outstanding students in perpetuity. These prestigious awards will support faculty and students financially and in advancing their careers.
Sebastian Gomez-Barron was selected as the undergraduate recipient. An academically strong student, Gomez-Barron has worked diligently throughout his research, namely focused on how the Zeeman effect, a phenomenon arising due the presence of an external magnetic field, tells us information about the properties of a 2D hexagonal boron nitride. His research has been encapsulated in the paper ‘Hexagonal Boron Nitride Photonic Quantum Simulator: Prelude to Spin and Photonic Qubits’ which is submitted to the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano and is currently being reviewed. Gomez-Barron’s work allows us to have a better understanding of hBN’s properties which can possibly take us a step closer to achieving photonic qubits. Further, Gomez-Barron has been a grader for Math 342A and currently doing official tutoring at school. His future plans are to continue his career in physics through the MS program at SDSU and he hopes to delve into more research regarding quantum materials and potentially astrophysics.
The graduate recipient is Nicholas Schottle, who conducts research in the field of 2D semiconductors and moiré materials development. He is a co-author on the paper “Probing anharmonic phonons in WS2 van der Waals crystal by Raman spectroscopy and machine learning.” Schottle is also a co-author of another manuscript titled “Hexagonal Boron Nitride Photonic Quantum Simulator: Prelude to Spin and Photonic Qubits” which is submitted to the journal ACS Nano and contains his contributions to understanding the effect of hyperfine interactions on Hamiltonian building. His acceptance into an internship at the Air Force Research Lab underscores his ability to conduct high quality research.
Associate Chair and Professor of Physics Fridolin Weber was chosen as the faculty recipient. Weber is an internationally renowned nuclear astrophysicist and Distinguished Professor of Physics at SDSU. He has published over 170 papers and 4 books and has been very successful at securing federal grants for the last 25 years. Weber has taught a number of courses in Physics over the years and more recently, Computational Physics and Relativity courses. Weber has excellent student evaluations and students value his mastery of the subject matter, dedication to teaching and commitment to students. Over his career, he has mentored 37 undergraduates, 35 Master’s and 16 PhD students as well as 15 postdoctoral trainees. His students have won several awards at the institutional, CSU and national levels and are routinely published in peer reviewed journals. This award recognizes Weber’s teaching in the classroom as well as his one-on-one mentorships for research.
Read more about Thomas B. Day and his extensive contributions to the SDSU and physics communities.