Lawrence Tech physics students win national award

Lawrence Technological University was recognized by the national association the Society of Physics Students – receiving the annual Blake Lilly Prize and being named a Distinguished Chapter.

The Blake Lilly Prize is presented each year to a chapter or individual who makes a genuine effort to positively influence the attitudes of school children and the general public about physics. The award was established by the family of Blake Lilly, a physics graduate student at the University of Arizona who died in 1990.

Brad R. Conrad, director of Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma, said the Lawrence Tech chapter was selected for their “outreach activities that promote physics education and physics appreciation.”

“Reviewers noted the quality of your chapter’s science outreach activities and were impressed with the reach and scope of your efforts,” Conrad wrote in a letter to the team.

Lawrence Tech’s chapter will be featured for its outreach efforts on the national Society of Physics Students website and in 2021 publications.

Once public gatherings are possible again, chapter president Mark Kocherovsky said the team plans to host a party to celebrate the award — as well as return to a regular schedule of game nights, guest lectures, panel discussions and experiment days.

“We’re also exploring an alumni conference where LTU alumni can come and speak on their work and research and career paths,” he said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAWRENCE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY Prior to the COVID-19pandemic, Lawrence Tech’s Society of Physics Students chapter conducted public experiment days in the university’s Buell Building.