UCSC Physics Notable Alumni

Notable Physics Alumni

Graduation

Ways of Giving

UCSC Alumni Association

NOTABLE PHYSICS ALUMNI

The Physics Department at UCSC has awarded over 130 Ph.D., 75 terminal M.S., 454 B.A. and 179 B.S. degrees since its inception (the major changed from a B.A. to a B.S. in 1995). If you are looking for a fellow classmate and are an alumnus of UC Santa Cruz you can access the on-line community of fellow physics alumni. After creating your account login and password, you can select the "alumni directory link", click on the "advanced search option", check "major", and type in the word "physics" in the blank box to the right. We also invite you to send updates to the Physics Graduate Advisor or Undergraduate Advisor when you change jobs.

In addition to the alumni featured below, our degree recipients hold a variety of positions as postdoctoral scholars at various university, national and international labs; teaching positions at university, community college and high school-level; and have worked in the fields of engineering and computing.

ALUM FOCUS

Larry Cornman (B.A., physics/mathematics double major, '83) is a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), in Boulder, Colorado. His work on a warning system to help pilots avoid air turbulence earned him an award from NASA, which sponsored the research, and a spot on the Scientific American 50, a list of the year's outstanding achievements in technology published in the magazine's December 2003 issue. [More]

Dr. J. Doyne Farmer (Ph.D., physics, '81) is a pioneer in chaos theory and has made important theoretical contributions to other problems in complex systems, such as machine learning, a model for the immune system, and the origin of life. A former Oppenheimer Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he is now McKinsey Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, a multidisciplinary research institute that pursues emerging science.

Dr. Wick C. Haxton (B.A., physics/mathematics double major, '71) is director of the National Institute for Nuclear Theory, an educational and research institute at the University of Washington.

Dr. Abraham Seiden (Ph.D., physics, '76) is currently the director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989, and received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the Division of Natural Sciences in 1995.

Dr. Robert Shaw (Ph.D., physics, '80) is a theoretical and experimental physicist who received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 1988.

If you are looking for a mentor, please reference the Career Advising Network. After searching on the major "Physics" you will see the the job titles of individuals with expertise in a variety of areas within the scope of Physics willing to assist others.