The Daphne Chang Memorial Award ( http://www.phy.duke.edu/about/
DaphneChang/ ) was established to honor students who excel in undergraduate research in the Duke Physics Department.
The award is named in honor of Daphne Y. Chang (Trinity 2005), a Duke Physics major, who passed away on December 21st, 2009 at the age of 26. Daphne's accomplishments in undergraduate research serve as a prime example on what enterprising students may accomplish as Physics majors in the Duke Physics
Department: after joining the nuclear theory group for an independent study/ research sequence in her sophomore year, her research led to a first-author publication of a letter in a well-known scientific journal, several talks and posters at national and international conferences and the completion of an honors thesis at the end of her junior year. At the time of her passing, Daphne was a graduate student in Astrophysics at Caltech.
The call for nomination is announced once a year, towards the middle of the spring semester. The winner will be announced prior to the end of the semester. The awardee will be given a certificate together with a $1000 award. To nominate a student, please send your nomination letter to the Director of Undergraduate
Studies prior to April 10th. The nomination letter should describe the research project the nominee has been involved in and be detailed about the nominee's specific contributions to the project. The selection committee will pay particular attention to the following criteria:
• did the nominee take intellectual ownership of the research project?
• did the nominee present results of the research at conferences (talks or posters)?
• did or will the research result in a publication or an important technical/analysis note for large-collaboration experiments with a (co-)authorship of the nominee?
• did the research result in an honor's thesis?
The selection committee consists of the Director for Undergraduate Studies as well as two other faculty to be appointed by the Department Chair. The annual deadline for the nomination is April 10th.