May 17, 2002

Electronic newsroom

02-41

Stony Brook University Student Awarded 2002 Scharff-Goldhaber Prize in Physics

UPTON, NY — Yiing-Rei Chen, a doctoral student in physics at Stony Brook University (SBU), has won the 2002 Scharff-Goldhaber Prize. The $1,000 award was established to recognize substantial promise and accomplishment by women graduate students in physics who are enrolled at SBU or who are performing their thesis research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Administered by Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS), the prize honors the late nuclear physicist Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber. In 1950, Scharff-Goldhaber became the first woman Ph.D. physicist appointed to the Brookhaven staff, and, later, she became a founding member of BWIS.

Pictured (from left) are: Maurice Goldhaber, Scientist Emeritus at Brookhaven and widower of Gertrude-Scharff Goldhaber; Philip Allen, Professor of Physics, SBU, and Chen’s advisor; Yiing-Rei Chen; Pam Mansfield, BWIS Coordinator; and Alfred Goldhaber, Professor of Physics at SBU and son of Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber. (Hi-res image, 300 dpi jpeg, 1.4 MB.)

An accomplished pianist, Chen pursued her talent in music as well as her interest in physics for many years. A native of Taiwan, Chen came to the U.S. to study piano at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1992, but a hand injury prevented her from meeting her own high standards of performance. She returned to her native country to pursue physics at National Taiwan University, where she earned a B.S. in 1997. She then came to the U.S. again and attended the Manhattan School of Music. But in 1998, she decided to continue her studies in physics, and she enrolled at SBU as a graduate student in physics. She expects to graduate in May 2003 and pursue a career in teaching and/or research.