DECEMBER 2, 2002

Don Jacobs

WOOSTER, Ohio - Don Jacobs, professor of physics at The College of Wooster, has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. Jacobs was recognized by his peers for contributions to the understanding of critical phenomena in liquids, and for sustained mentoring of undergraduate students engaged in research.

"This is indeed a major honor for the department and the institution," said Shila Garg, dean of faculty and professor of physics at Wooster. "We are fortunate to have a faculty member of Don's caliber among us."

Physicists must be nominated by two sponsors from a particular unit of the American Physical Society. Jacobs was nominated from the Division of Chemical Physics. Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the membership of the Society is recognized by their peers for election to the status of Fellow in The American Physical Society.

"It is a real honor to be nominated by my research colleagues and then to have been selected by the Society's governing body," said Jacobs. "So few physicists are recognized each year in this way that being selected is quite a distinction."

Jacobs is the Victor J. Andrew Professor of Physics and former chair of the department at Wooster. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of South Florida and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado before joining the Wooster faculty in 1976. Utilizing several grants awarded to him, Jacobs has established a research program at Wooster that has experimentally investigated critical phenomena in a variety of liquid-liquid mixtures and analogous systems. In addition to the American Physical Society, he is a member of Sigma Xi and the Council on Undergraduate Research.