Dear Friends:

Greetings from Fayetteville. Another year has past. A lot has happened since we communicated last. The department has continued to make progress in all of its varied activities in research and teaching.

During the 1996-97 academic year, the department's share of external grant support was the highest in the college. A citation study by the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research revealed that, of the 30 most-cited researchers on this campus, 8 are from the physics department. Furthermore, among the 30 most-cited papers from this campus, 11 were written by physics faculty. During the last three years our faculty has presented more than 100 papers and presented 90 contributed and invited talks at national and international conferences.

My congratulations to Professor Lin Oliver who won an NSF CAREER Award. Another younger faculty, Professor Paul Thibado, joined the department in Fall 1997. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he came to us from the Office of Naval Research where he spent two years as a National Research Council Fellowship. Professor Thibado and Professor Salamo are setting up a state-of-the-art molecular beam epitaxy facility. This will be a big boost to our condensed matter physics, as well as our optics program.

We have continued revamping our undergraduate program. An ad hoc faculty committee appointed to study our BS curriculum has made recommendations for major changes to that curriculum. These recommendations, currently being discussed by the faculty, call for more laboratory experience and computer skills for our graduates. We are excited about this and hope that the new program will be in place by next fall.

After many years of valuable service to the Department as teacher, researcher, and Chair, Professor Charles Richardson has decided to retire at the end of the current academic year. He was recently honored by the Fulbright College with a Master Teacher Award for his dedication to teaching. We all congratulate him on this well-deserved honor and wish him well in his retired life. Professor Richardson has donated $20,000 in support of our teaching program.

Finally, I must share with you the sad news of Professor Paul Sharrah's unexpected and sudden death last July. Paul Sharrah served the department with distinction and dedication for more than 50 years. He stayed involved with the department even after his retirement. He worked hard to finish Physics at Arkansas, a history of the Physics Department. I am happy that he was able to see Physics at Arkansas in print a few weeks before his death. This book will serve to remind us of Paul and his dedication to the department. A copy of this book was mailed to all alumni for whom we have current addresses. If you have not received a copy of the book please write to us and we will be happy to send you one.

I thank you all for your continued support to the department. We would love to hear from you about your careers, job opportunities for new graduates, and any comments you might have about your studies at Arkansas. Please stay in touch and keep us informed of your current addresses. With my best wishes.

Surendra Singh, Chair