Christopher Grabowski Professor Donald Bord Photos courtesy of Ruth Dusenbery

Christopher Grabowski, a senior in concentrating in math and physics, was this year's Physics Honor Scholar. The award was presented at the Department of Natural Sciences Awaards Ceremony April 11, 2003. In presenting the award, Professor Donald Bord said the following of Chris: "Chris Grabowski has achieved a remarkable record of accomplishment in his three years here at UM-Dearborn. But his success was presaged at Catholic Central High where he completed and received transfer credit for no less than four AP courses, including Chemistry, Economics, Political Science and English. Based on that kind of effort, it was clear to us that Chris was headed for great things in his university career. And we have not been disappointed. To date, Chris has earned a cumulative GPA of 3.80 and has declared majors in both physics and mathematics. He has already completed the requirements for the BS degree in physics and will finish those for math next year. Following his graduation in 2004, Chris plans to attend graduate school in physics, mostly likely, he says, here in Michigan. Not too surprisingly, he has already gotten a jump on the research required for an advanced degree in the field by working with UM-D Professor Vaman Naik and collaborators at Wayne State University this past summer. His work there concentrated on thin film and condensed matter physics and culminated in a presentation entitled Magnetic Nanoparticles at the Argonne National Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Fall of 2002. Aside from his work in physics, Chris was also employed for more than two years in the Chemistry Dispensary, where he undoubtedly learned some of the techniques that served him so well this past summer in fabricating his nanoparticles. And, in what spare time he has, Chris continues to expand his already voluminous knowledge of the history, development and technology of television and movie cartoons. In a few minutes of conversation with Chris, I learned more about Sponge Bob Squarepants than I would ever have imagined possible! In the light of these achievements, then, it gives me great pleasure to present the 2003 Physics Honors Scholar Award to Christopher A. Grabowski. In presenting this award, we would like to acknowledge John Wiley & Sons Publishers for providing the gift of a textbook that accompanies the certificate presented to Mr. Grabowski."