Greetings from Department Chair Jennifer Klay 2023

Dear Alumni and Friends of Cal Poly Physics, 

Greetings from all of us in San Luis Obispo! I am thrilled to introduce myself as the new department chair and share with you some exciting updates on the happenings within our department. Our newsletter was on hiatus in 2022 so there is a lot to catch you up on.

First and foremost, I’d like to extend my enthusiastic thanks to Karl Saunders, who stepped down as chair so that I could assume the role in September 2023. This year has been an opportunity for me to grow and learn the joys and challenges of this position and I am so grateful to have such a wonderful group of faculty, staff, and students who have supported me through this transition.

I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all of our alumni and friends for your continued support of our department and our mission to provide a top-notch undergraduate education with a strong emphasis on student research. Your generosity and dedication to our department have played a crucial role in our success, and we are incredibly grateful for your ongoing support.

I am excited to report that as we are emerging from the challenges of the pandemic, our department has been bustling with activities, and our students and faculty have been making remarkable strides in their research endeavors. Our commitment to fostering a vibrant research culture among our undergraduate students has yielded remarkable results. Over the past several years, our students have had the opportunity to work on cutting-edge research projects with our esteemed faculty, resulting in numerous publications in reputable physics journals and presentations at national and international conferences. Our students' research has spanned a wide range of areas, including condensed matter physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and quantum computing, among others. It is truly inspiring to witness our students pushing the boundaries of knowledge and making meaningful contributions to the field of physics.

And now for some news about faculty comings and goings. This year we hired three new experimental physicists, Hilary Jacks, A. Pasha Tabatabai, and Isinsu Baylam Toker, who will join us as assistant professors in Fall 2023, expanding the expertise of our department into new areas and providing excellent Learn by Doing research experiences for our students.

While we are excited about the new members joining our department, we also have some departures that we wish to share with you. Last year, Senior Lecturer Lizza Demsetz retired. Dr. Demsetz was one of our most beloved and experienced instructors with a passion and dedication for student success. We are fortunate that she is still in the area and will continue to teach for us part-time as her schedule allows.

This year, Professor Nilgun Sungar will fully retire from teaching in our department after 34 years. Professor Sungar was the first female faculty member in our department, first woman to serve a term as chair, and has been a mentor and friend to many. We are grateful for her leadership and dedication to our department over her long career and we look forward to her engagement with our department as she continues some of her innovative research activities as a volunteer.

Professor Matt Moelter will also retire at the end of this year, but he will continue teaching for a few years through the Faculty Early Retirement Program. Professor Moelter served as department chair twice in his career at Cal Poly and we are grateful that he will continue to teach and inspire students and faculty alike with his good nature and vast knowledge.

Finally, with sadness and a heavy heart, I share the news that Professor Emeritus David Hafemeister passed away this spring. His interesting and accomplished career included working with the U.S. Senate and State Department on issues related to nuclear arms control and disarmament. While he retired in 2000, he continued to be a champion of our department and was an inspiration to many of us. We wish his family and friends our deepest condolences.

This spring, the William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation opened, with a dedication ceremony on May 5, 2023. Several of our current faculty and one new one are moving their experiments into two new beautiful state-of-the-art research labs, where they will continue to make ground-breaking discoveries with their undergraduate students.

As part of a multi-year effort to build a stronger community and cultivate belonging, we have launched a new course, PHYS 100: Introduction to the Physics Major, also known as the “First-Year-Experience”, that brings together physics majors who are new to Cal Poly (whether freshmen or transfers) for activities, conversations, and food that help them build their physics identities and create community. We also use this course to support students through academic advising and career counseling for what they can do with their physics degree. As you can attest, there are many ways to build a career from a Cal Poly physics degree, and we want them to know that their effort and accomplishments will take them wherever they wish to go. On that note, if you are ever interested in being an alumni guest (in person or over Zoom) to share your pathway and advice, please reach out to me. We would love to host you and introduce you to the next generation of Cal Poly physics grads.

As you may have heard, Cal Poly is undergoing a major transition in 2025-2026, when we convert from quarters to a semester-based calendar. This endeavor was mandated by the CSU Office of the Chancellor, with one of our primary goals to increase opportunities for transfers students to earn a Cal Poly degree. We have been hard at work on the challenge of converting our curriculum and I believe we will continue to provide an excellent and nationally recognized program of Learn by Doing instruction for our physics majors. You will be pleased to know that our upper division laboratory courses, including the heart of our curriculum, the “Q-Lab” sequence, will continue to provide students with excellent hands-on training. We are excited about the opportunities that this transition will bring and as we look to the future, I want you to know that the faculty and staff of our department remain steadfast in our commitment to excellence in undergraduate physics education and student research. We are dedicated to nurturing the next generation of physicists and empowering them to succeed and thrive in whatever career path they choose to pursue.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express once again my sincere appreciation for your ongoing support of Cal Poly Physics. Your generosity has had a profound impact on our department and has helped us create an exceptional learning environment for our students. I look forward to keeping you updated on our department's progress and achievements in the coming years. If you are ever in the area, please do not hesitate to visit us and witness the incredible work being done by our students and faculty. We would love to have you back on campus and show you firsthand the impact of your support and the amazing new facilities that are enabling us to include our students in ground-breaking research.

Once again, thank you for your continued support of Cal Poly Physics. Together, we are shaping the future of physics education and undergraduate research through Learn by Doing.

With warmest regards,

Jennifer Klay

Department Chair, Physics Cal Poly San Luis Obispo