Adam Dionne ’22 receives 2022 Apker Award from the American Physical Society

Adam Dionne '22

Adam Dionne ’22 has won the American Physical Society’s 2022 LeRoy Apker Award, the highest honor for undergraduate physics research in the United States. Only two winners are chosen each year, one each to students from PhD-granting and non-PhD-granting institutions. Congratulations, Adam!

Adam worked with Professors Henrik Ronellenfitsch and Kate Jensen on a combined theoretical and experimental thesis entitled “Self-organizing Slime: Physarum polycephalum’s Fluid Transport Network.” He is now continuing to pursue research in biological physics as a Ph.D. student in Applied Physics at Harvard University. More information about Adam’s current research at Harvard can be found here.

Adam is the sixth Williams Physics student to win the Apker Award, joining alumni Ben Augenbraun ’15, Chris Chudzicki ’10, Nathan Hodas ’04, Charlie Doret ’02, and Brian Gerke ’99. More Williams students have won the Apker Award than graduates from any other primarily undergraduate college.

Jensen Lab at the 2022 APS March Meeting

The lab had a strong showing at the APS March Meeting, with Caroline Tally ‘21.5, Adam Dionne ’22 (co-advised with Prof. Henrik Ronellenfitsch), and Woody Martineau ’22 (also co-advised with Prof. Ronellenfitsch) presenting talks, and Rose Tchuenkam ’23 attending as a co-author of Caroline’s work. (Prof. Dan Sussman ’07 — now at Emory Physics — joined us for dinner and a photo.)

Ephs at the 2022 APS March Meeting

Ephs at the 2022 APS March Meeting

Prof. Jensen awarded NSF grant to study soft adhesion

Professor Kate Jensen has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The three-year, $413,000 grant in collaboration with Purdue University will support her research project titled “Deformation-Dependent Adhesion of Stretched Compliant Networked Polymer Systems.” The project will focus on increasing understanding of how changing the shape of soft, adhesive materials (e.g., through stretching or compression) modifies their adhesive properties and may lead to the development of new responsive adhesives.

Read more at Williams Today.