CU-Physics Alum Wins 2007 Professor of the Year National Award

by Prof. Emer. William O'Sullivan

Photo: Kansas State University Media Relations

Chris Sorensen is currently a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics at Kansas State University. The relevance of the above to our Department is simply that Chris received his Doctorate in Physics at The University of Colorado in 1977.  While Chris’s contributions to education at KSU form the essential motivation for this award, Chris remains very much one of our own and our Department is proud to recognize his achievements. CU-Physics can now claim that Carl Wieman, one of its own faculty, as well as one of its own students, Chris Sorensen, has won this award. No other academic institution in Colorado, much less at the University of Colorado can match this.

Chris came to CU Physics after receiving a B.S. in Physics at Nebraska and following a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. His research at CU was carried out within the now defunct ”Underground Quantum Optics Group”  (long since morphed and expanded into the Condensed Matter Physics Group) working under the direction of Professors Bill O’Sullivan and Dick Mockler (both also now defunct). A few of the older folks still hanging on to faculty positions may remember the remarkable Physics Colloquium Chris gave in 1977 on his thesis topic, “ A Dynamic Droplet Model Description of Light Scattering Experiments on Critical Fluids”. While some complained about the “salty language” that peppered the talk, all were amazed when Chris performed an unassisted handstand on the display table in G-030 and delivered a part of his talk in an inverted vertical position (something for our current students to think about).

Chris’s research programs at KSU generally apply light scattering techniques to a wide range of issues in “Soft Condensed Matter Physics and Chemistry”. The teaching award is in recognition of the innovative advances in curriculum development that Chris has pioneered at KSU.