Dorothea Altorfer, wife of one of our faculty members, created an event at the Fete de la Nature in Arnaudville, LA
Chansey Champagne and Kevin Starlard share the first John R. Meriwether Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Physics
Mon, 05/16/2022 - 6:13am
The inaugural John R. Meriwether Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Physics has been awarded to two Physics students, Chansey E. Champagne and Kevin Starlard. The scholarship was recently established by family and friends to honor Meriwether's legacy and contributions to the Physics Department and the University.
Meriwether was a faculty member at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for 46 years. He chaired the Physics Department for two terms (1971-1980 and 1998-2007). A strong adept of diversity, John taught courses in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics. Furthermore, he developed an outstanding interdisciplinary curriculum in the Honors Program spanning science and art. Presently, Meriwether is one of only three professors at the University to hold both UL Lafayette Foundation's Distinguished Professor Award (1971) and Outstanding Teacher Award (1998), the highest university awards for faculty. He published and presented over 90 papers in Nuclear Physics, Chemistry, Ecology, and Environmental Science. The scope of his research ranges from theoretical nuclear physics to determining environmental properties through measurements of natural and induced radioactivity. As an Emeritus Professor since 2012, Meriwether continued his radioactive dating research of Louisiana marshes in cooperation with the USGS Wetlands Center and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. He served as advisor and mentor to many undergraduate and graduate physics majors.
The Physics faculty congratulates Champagne and Starlard for their academic integrity and overall performance, their high ethical standards and their contributions to the departmental life. We also applaud to their progress in undergraduate research projects. Champagne works on finding and analyzing micrometeorites on urban rooftops. This semester, she led the student team to propose a research mission to the Moon as part of a NASA educational initiative. Starlard has devoted time in the lab to understanding ultrasonic techniques and building low-temperature instrumentation. In the next phase of his research project, he will use the probe he has helped build to study additively manufactured alloys.
We wish Chansey and Kevin the very best in their upcoming senior year at UL Lafayette!