The Richard T. Weidner Prize is awarded annually to one or more Rutgers undergraduates who, in the judgment of the physics faculty, have demonstrated outstanding academic performance in physics. The Prize was established in 1977 by anonymous donors in honor of Prof. Richard T. Weidner and his wife. Prof. Weidner was a distinguished physics faculty member at Rutgers for 41 years. The prizewinners are announced at the Departmental Awards Banquet in April, sponsored by the Rutgers Society of Physics Students .
A photograph of Prof. Weidner is shown above. Click on the picture to see a larger image.
Richard T. Weidner, born in Allentown PA, was a summa cum laude graduate and valedictorian of Muhlenberg College Class of 1943. He served in the U.S. Navy as a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, and received a Ph.D. in physics from Yale University in 1948, where he was instructor. He joined the Rutgers Physics Department in 1947, and remained until his retirement in 1988. He was twice Executive Officer of the Department, and later Associate Dean and Acting Dean of Rutgers College.
During the first part of his career he was active in research in electron-spin resonance and became a recognized expert in this field. In 1960 he published his first textbook-- Elementary Modern Physics with R. L. Sells. It filled an important, and until then unmet need, soon became widely known, was translated into several languages, and established him as a successful author. It was followed by a series of further texts with Sells, one with H.Y. Carr, and later Physics under his own name. He served as thesis supervisor for seven graduate students who earned PhDs in physics, and was known as an outstanding teacher. He received the Lindback Award for distinguished teaching in 1984, and the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award of the Society of Physics Students in 1988.
He was for many years a member and then president of the Bridgewater-Raritan School District Board of Education. He was an active member of his local Lutheran congregation, and supported Lutheran Campus Ministry at Rutgers. Throughout his life he performed as a serious amateur on trumpet, playing with the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra and other community orchestras. He was an avid enthusiast of big band jazz, and became the Associate Editor and a columnist of the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild.
I came to see that there really are no secrets to being a good teacher. There is but one basic requirement-- that you believe passionately in the value of what you are teaching and that, with continuous self-examination and -criticism, you become sensitive to whether you are succeeding...
One other element is crucial, I believe, especially for physics. It is to point out to the students, regularly, sensitively, powerfully what I have come to call the "message of physics": the universe does make sense, with just a few basic ideas of great power, and it is truly astonishing that we mere mortals can actually see how things are put together, how they work. The most exquisite moments of my teaching career have always come when I've told some anecdote or application that ended with my saying something like, "See, that's the message of physics!" Such moments were charged with an almost transcendent energy, as a hush falls, and we are all for a moment-- students (at least some) and lecturer alike-- lost in wonder.
| 1978 | Alfred Kriman | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | (no award) | |||
| 1980 | David Kortbawi | |||
| 1981 | Mary Badiak | James McTiernan | ||
| 1982 | Peter A. Becker | |||
| 1983 | John Tkaczyk | |||
| 1984 | Hugh Williams | |||
| 1985 | David Turner | |||
| 1986 | Scott Axelrod | |||
| 1987 | Jason Weisman | |||
| 1988 | William Butler | |||
| 1989 | Rebecca Kozodoy | |||
| 1990 | Helen Dorsett | Aubrey Hanbicki | Corey Weiss | |
| 1991 | David Clayton | Michael Thayer | ||
| 1992 | Paul Epp | Amy Wyrsch | ||
| 1993 | Carynelisa Erlick | David Wolinski | ||
| 1994 | N. Peter Armitage | Oskar Liivak | ||
| 1995 | Eva Halkiadakis | Eric Sharkey | Brian Utter | |
| 1996 | Danna Rosenberg | |||
| 1997 | David Fish | |||
| 1998 | David Medvigy | |||
| 1999 | Taro Sato | |||
| 2000 | Adam Cunha | Donglai Gong | ||
| 2001 | Nicholas Butch | |||
| 2002 | Stephen Healey | |||
| 2003 | Robert Friedman | Liam mac Lynne | John McClain | King Tsoi |
| 2004 | Tamer Elkholy | |||
| 2005 | Steven Cavanaugh | Joshua Kallman | ||
| 2006 | Joseph Walsh | |||
| 2007 | Pablo Mosteiro | Kinga Partyka | Joseph Wolf |
Click on any picture to see a larger image.
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Prof. Mohan Kalelkar and prizewinner Nicholas Butch at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 12, 2001. | ||
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Prizewinner Stephen Healey at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 16, 2002. | ||
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Prizewinners Robert Friedman (left) and Liam mac Lynne (right) at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 22, 2003 with their research advisers Profs. Jack Hughes and Gordon Thomson respectively. | |
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Prizewinners John McClain (left) and King Tsoi (right, with research adviser Prof. Sang-Wook Cheong) at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 22, 2003. | |
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Prizewinner Tamer Elkholy. The prize was presented at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 20, 2004. | ||
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Prizewinners Steven Cavanaugh (left) and Joshua Kallman (right) at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 26, 2005. | |
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Prizewinner Joseph Walsh. The prize was presented at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 18, 2006. | ||
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Prizewinners Pablo Mosteiro (left), Kinga Partyka (middle), and Joseph Wolf (right) at the Departmental Awards Banquet on April 24, 2007. |
