Jim Eckert wins APS Prize to a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution

Professor James C. Eckert was named this year’s winner of the American Physical Society’s Prize to a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution. ‚ÄúThe Prize was established to honor a physicist whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to physics and who has contributed substantially to the professional development of undergraduate physics students.‚Äù Prof. Eckert’s research program has been extraordinarily productive, leading to dozens of papers and presentations, and to two winners of the prestigious Apker Award for the outstanding undergraduate in physics.

The award citation reads:

“For the significant contributions he has made to the understanding of the complex exchange biasing mechanism crucial to spin-valve sensors used in the read-write heads of hard disks and for his skilled and enthusiastic inclusion of undergraduates in physics research.”

Prof. Eckert will receive his award at the APS annual meeting in March, 2009, where he has been invited to give a talk on his research on the exchange bias between adjacent ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers.

Congratulations to Prof. Eckert on this richly deserved recognition.