Physics

Awards

Physics department chair Kristine Lang with 2022 physics departmental award winners Jess Lyons and Cole Thumann
During the 2022 Honors Convocation, physics department chair Kristine Lang is pictured with department award winners Jess Lyons and Cole Thumann. Jess Lyons is the recipient of the 2022 Wilbur Wright Memorial Prize and Cole Thumann is the recipient of the 2022 Cowperthwaite Award for Excellence in Physics.

Departmental Awards

David Cowperthwaite was a member of the Colorado College class of 1960 and his wife, Karen, was enrolled as a member of the class of 1962 when they were killed by lightning during a mountain expedition in 1960. The David and Karen Smith Cowperthwaite Award for Excellence in Physics was instituted by their parents in their memory in 1962, the year Karen would have graduated.

Award Winners

  • 2023 Annika Zettl
  • 2022 Cole Thumann
  • 2021  Marta Nowotka
  • 2020  Kate Herman and James Zeng
  • 2019  Zoe Krauss, Jackson Schrott, and Sohair Abdullah
  • 2018  Maddy Lucy 

This award was established in memory of Professor Wilbur Wright, a student at Colorado College in 1938 and a member of the faculty from 1956 to 1984, for his contributions to the Physics Department, his many Colorado College students, and the college community. This award is for a graduating physics major or majors who exemplify Wright's standards and interests in physics and in academic work outside the department. That is, the award winner or winners should show enthusiasm for the study of physics through hard work and achievement, though they need not have the highest GPA. Similar efforts in a discipline outside physics should show an understanding of the importance of the liberal arts for a science student.

Award winners

  • 2023 Eli Asarch
  • 2022 Jess Lyons
  • 2021  Benjamin Brandt
  • 2020  Walter Brose and Pan Tan
  • 2019  Changzhe Xu and Nathan Agarwal
  • 2018  Ben Pitta and Victor Torres

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Non-Departmental Awards

This prize is given to a woman student in the natural sciences who exemplifies Barbara Whitten’s model of achieving personal scientific excellence while helping others do the same.  Personal scientific excellence is a combination of an excellent academic record in the natural sciences, and/or exceptional research in a scientific field.  The recipient should also demonstrate a significant commitment to the advancement of women or underrepresented groups in the sciences through scholarly, community, pedagogical, or other work. 

Award winners

  • 2023  Eugenie Blake Haring (Geology)
  • 2022  Anni Zettl (Physics)
  • 2021  Allie Kreitman (Molecular Biology)
  • 2020  Haley Colgate (Math)
  • 2019  Darryl Filmore (Computer Science)
  • 2018  Alana Aamodt (Physics)

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Report an issue - Last updated: 05/29/2023