Tucson, AZ, May 2, 2002 -- Professor Emeritus Jack D. Gaskill of The University of Arizona's Optical Sciences Center presented the first ever Jack D. Gaskill Endowed Scholarship Award to Joshua Gordon, an undergraduate student in Optical Sciences.
"This Scholarship is only open to our own junior and senior level BS degree students and their response to our call for Scholarship applications was excellent," Dr Gaskill said. "We received more applications than we expected and selecting a recipient from so many high-caliber candidates was a difficult task. Joshua was an absolutely outstanding applicant and it is a pleasure to present him with the award."
A committee of Optical Sciences Center faculty members, including Dr. Gaskill, selected Joshua for the award based on merit, achievement, and potential within the optics industry. The committee made the award after reviewing Joshua's academic records, his essay titled Why I Became Interested in Optics, and an interview.
And why did Joshua become interested in optics? His interest began some years ago with the sheer boredom of a night-shift job at a grocery store deli counter and a nearby rack of science magazines. Scientific American, Popular Science, Astronomy Magazine -- Joshua bought and read them all.
"I've always loved science, but was never much of a math student in high school and hadn't decided on education or career goals," Joshua said, "so it seemed reasonable and productive to take my general education courses at the community college near home. I did my math, physics, and chemistry classes there and it was those classes -- the physics with calculus actually -- that brought everything together. Something clicked and it was time to commit to a course of study."
Joshua applied to the University of Arizona and entered as a sophomore. He will be a senior this fall and currently maintains a 4.0 GPA. He credits the excellent courses at community college with preparing him for optics classes at UA. "I learned the language of science there," he said.
And since coming to UA? "Since I'm interested in astronomical instrumentation, I considered Astronomy, but I looked at optics too. Everyone here is great. The treatment and attention given to the students at the undergraduate level is outstanding. I would say that my professors make it a point to take on the role of mentor in addition to educator. It is truly a pleasure to be a part of an institution central in the role of shaping the future and evolution of optical science."
This semester, Joshua took Dr. William Dallas' Optical Systems Analysis class where the text is the classic Linear Systems, Fourier transforms and Optics by Jack Gaskill. "It was a great class," Joshua said. "Dr. Dallas is a superb teacher, and it's exciting to be selected for this award after working with the material in Dr. Gaskill's book this semester."
"I will be pursuing my PhD after graduating, haven't made long-term plans for after that. For the short term, I'll be working this summer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, with the Keck Telescope Interferometer Group. Their primary goal is to develop instrumentation and techniques used in finding planets around other stars -- extrasolar planets -- and their current efforts are geared toward a future NASA mission called the Terrestrial Planet Finder."
Joshua said, "I'm very honored to be chosen to receive the Jack D. Gaskill Endowed Scholarship Award. The application process was a great opportunity to participate in the writing and interviewing processes and it is incredibly encouraging to be selected to receive this award. I would like to thank Dr. Gaskill and the Optical Sciences Center for the Scholarship."
For more information, visit www.optics.arizona.edu
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