Diane Marie Hoffman Award

Dr. Diane Marie Hoffman received her Bachelors degree at Akron University, cum laude, and her Ph.D. at Ohio State University in 1982. Her Ph.D. advisor at OSU was Prof. David Burnham Tanner (now at the University of Florida), and the title of her Ph.D. thesis was Infrared Optical Properties of Polyacetylene.

In August of 1985, she joined the faculty of the Virginia Tech Physics Department. Her field of research was experimental condensed matter physics, in which she was developing a promising research program. Tragically, she passed away on September 7, 1990 from a brain tumor at the young age of 35.

She was a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association of University Professors, the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society, the National Organization for Women, and the American Association of University Women for which she chaired the Women's Work-Women's Worth study group.

This award was set up in Dr. Hoffman's memory.

The Diane Marie Hoffman Award is given to an undergraduate for his/her support of the Society of Physics Students.

Past award recipients:

2000    Jaime Ruiz-Avila
1999    Theodore Brookings
1998    Mark S. Wallace
1997    Dennis S. Loo