News from SUNY Cortland

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Brice Smith to Chair Physics Department at SUNY Cortland

CORTLAND, NY (08/25/2008; 1610)(readMedia)-- SUNY Cortland has appointed Brice Smith of Ithaca, N.Y., as chair of the Physics Department in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Smith, an assistant professor of physics who has served the College for two years, began his three-year term on Aug. 1.

The Physics Department provides a foundation in physics as well as a background in applied mathematics, computer skills and familiarity with electronic equipment, which are used in many areas of technology, engineering, business, teaching and industry. The program offers a B.S. in physics; a B.A. or B.S. in physics/engineering, which leads to a degree preparing students for work in an engineering field; a B.A. or B.S. in adolescence education: physics; and a B.A. or B.S. in adolescence education: physics and mathematics. The Department also offers a physics minor and a concentration in environmental science or geophysics.

Smith, who joined the College's Physics Department in 2006, serves on the College's Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee and the Carbon Neutrality Committee. He is co-faculty advisor for the SUNY Cortland Physics and Engineering Club and faculty advisor for Cortland Students Advocating for a Valuable Environment (C-SAVE).

Currently, Smith is a senior consultant for the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Md., where he worked as a project scientist and then a senior scientist from 2003-06.

A native of Denver, Colo., Smith has a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and a doctoral degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

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