Shari Herman of the Department of Physics has been selected to receive the 2011 Graduate Administrative Assistant Award. In making the announcement, Dean of the Graduate School Greg Sterling emphasized, “as with the Director of Graduate Studies award, there were several nominees worthy of the honor; however, the selection panel was impressed with the excellence of Shari’s achievements in all aspects of Physics graduate students’ experience. We learned that Shari is involved in such diverse activities as helping to design and produce a recruiting poster; building a data base for Physics’ 500 Ph.D. alumni; and organizing a Thanksgiving Day celebration for international students to teach them about American culture.”

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University of Notre Dame astronomer David Bennett is co-author of a new paper describing the discovery of a new class of planets — dark, isolated Jupiter-mass bodies floating alone in space, far from any host star. Bennett and the team of astronomers involved in the discovery believe that the planets were most likely ejected from developing planetary systems.

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