Physics professors Jacek Furdyna, Walter Johnson and emeritus physics professor Neal Cason were selected by the American Physical Society to receive the inaugural Outstanding Referee Award on March 10, 2008. This highly selective, lifetime award recognizes scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in APS journals including Physical Review Letters, Physical Review and Modern Physics.
The APS Journals expressed “appreciation to all referees, whose efforts in peer review not only keep the standards of the journals at a high level, but in many cases also help authors to improve the quality and readability of their articles—even those that are not published by APS.”
This year the society emphasized the lifetime of work contributed by each referee including the quality, number and timeliness of reports. The award was given to honorees from 33 countries with large contingents from the US, Germany, UK, Canada, and France.
Condensed matter physicist Jacek Furdyna, the Marquez Chair in Information Theory and Computer Technology, investigates the preparation of new semi conducting compounds and the investigation of their physical properties. Theoretical physicist Walter Johnson, the Frank M. Freimann Chair in Physics, investigates relativistic and correlation effects in heavy atoms using relativistic many-body methods derived from Quantum Electrodynamics. Particle physicist Neal Cason, the former chair of the department, conducts research in experimental high energy physics at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermi lab) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).
The American Physical Society is the world's largest professional body of physicists, representing over 45,000 physicists in academia and industry in the US and internationally.