December 2004

Greetings Alums,

Welcome to our annual holiday newsletter. We sincerely appreciate all of your responses and it gives us great pleasure and joy to follow the many paths that you have taken. We again have had an excellent response rate and we hope you enjoy hearing about everyone as much as we have.

Let me first fill you in on some staff changes in the department. Rich Noer has made a successful transition to the retirement phase and next year will be Bruce Thomas’s last year at Carleton. Joel Weisberg is enjoying a sabbatical leave in Australia working on pulsar research. Arjendu Pattanayak is also on leave, spending time in Northfield and at several research institutions. Our temporary leave replacements, Stephen Parker, Matt Mewes, and Brian Rachford have adjusted well at Carleton and seem right at home at the institution and in Northfield.

We have a strong senior class of twelve majors and a junior class of around twenty. As usual, about a third of the seniors are planning to go to graduate school in physics or astronomy, a third on to other graduate programs or professional schools, and a third out into the real world. We are, of course, very concerned about the employment opportunities for physics majors, and we encourage our students to get a broad base of experiences here at Carleton and during the summers that will help them in latter years. We appreciate all the help you alumns have given our majors over the years in terms of advice and even leads toward jobs. You are a wonderful resource to have!

Again, thank you for your responses and have a fantastic and wonderful year ahead. And do stop by the department if you’re in the area. It’s always great seeing you and catching up on what you’ve been doing.

Bill Titus,
Chair