S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | 1 3 R E S E A R C H MENTORING AWARD Lesley Chow, assistant professor of bioengineering and materials science and engineering, is a 2021 recipient of the Early-Career Undergraduate ResearchMentoring Award presented by the Engineering Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research. The peer-nominated award recognizes Chow’s contributions as a mentor to undergraduate students “from a diverse range of backgrounds and identities” and her support of their efforts to share their work with the scholarly community. The recognition also confirms Chow’s track record of involving undergraduates in her research lab and her commitment to expanding experiential learning opportunities for students. Over the past six years, Chow has supervisedmore than 30 undergraduate students in research activities, withmany going on to receive prestigious awards and fellowships. Students fromher group have presented their research at the David and Lorraine Freed Undergraduate Research Symposium, hosted annually by the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, and other meetings and regional conferences. Said Sabrina Jedlicka, associate dean for academic affairs in the Rossin College, “She embodies the spirit of inclusive mentorship and has inspired many scientists and engineers—new and established— to strive for a more holistic approach to their mentorship philosophy.” Lehigh AlumWins Wolf Prize in Physics Paul Corkum is a pioneer in the field of ultrafast laser spectroscopy It was a typical Sunday morning for Paul Corkum ’67G ’72 Ph.D.—until his phone rang. Displaying a number that included too many digits to have originated in the United States or Canada, he thought it could be a spam call. Something, he said he’s not sure what, prompted him to answer. “There was a long dead time, makingme evenmore convinced that it was someone trying to giveme amillion dollars, if I only sent them something first,” Corkum said. He persevered through a bad connection, still thinking it was a spamcall, until he heard the word “Wolf.” The call was to inform Corkum, a top contender for the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics, that he was named a co-recipient of the international Wolf Prize in Physics for 2022. “I amvery glad I did not hang up,” said Corkum. A distinguished professor at the University of Ottawa, principal research officer at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and co-director of the NRC-uOttawa Joint Centre for Extreme Photonics, Corkum directs the Joint NRC/University of Ottawa Attosecond Science Laboratory. TheprestigiousWolfPrize, awardedannually since 1978, ispresented toscientists and artists for their “achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations amongst peoples.” Corkum was honored for his contributions in the fields of ultrafast laser science and attosecond—one billionth of a billionth of a second—physics. Ferenc Krausz, a Hungarian-Austrian physicist and professor of physics and chair of experimental physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and Anne L’Huillier, a French/Swedish physicist and professor of atomic physics at Lund University in Sweden, were also co-recipients of theWolf Prize in Physics. “I knew that the sub-field of physics had become important, but I didn’t know it was important enough for the Wolf Prize, and therefore, I did not know that I was a candidate,” Corkumsaid. “With the prize given to three optical scientists, the physics community has decided that attosecond science is one of the most significant sub-fields of physics today.” Corkum is a pioneer in the field of ultrafast laser spectroscopy and known for his contributions to the field of high harmonic generation and for proposing intuitive models which help explain complex phenomena. He received his master’s in physics and his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Lehigh. His dissertation was titled “The relation betweenmagnetohydrodynamics and space and time dependent correlation functions.” “The remarkable career he has made for himself is a testament to the benefits of a strong education in basic physics, which he received from his dissertation advisor, Al McLennan,” Michael Stavola, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics at Lehigh, said. “In his recent visits to Lehigh, he has presented physics colloquia in the same engaging way, explaining his remarkable work on observing the inner workings of chemical reactions on an attosecond time scale at a level that could be appreciated by students who found his research exciting and inspirational.”—Stephen Gross U O T T AWA / N A T I O N A L R E S E A R C H C O U N C I L C A N A D A Lesley Chow
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