Vancouver native Walter Wasserman, a first-year student from the Science One program at UBC, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Erich Vogt First Year Student Research Experience (FYSRE) award. The award mimics the federal NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards program, which is not available to first year students, by offering these students a paid research experience over the summer months. Walter will spend his summer working at the Laboratory for Atomic Imaging Research at UBC.
The FYSRE award was established in 2008 by TRIUMF and UBC Physics and Astronomy to honour TRIUMF co-founder and long-time UBC physics professor Erich Vogt. Professor Vogt is remembered not only for his pioneering role in Canadian nuclear physics, but also for his dedication to undergraduate physics education. It was estimated that he taught more than 5000 students since he joined UBC in 1965 until his retirement at age 80. Professor Vogt passed away in February 2014 at the age of 84.
Erich's son, David Vogt, commented on what this award means to his father. "My father believed that the first year experience offers the most transformative opportunity for young people to imagine their true potential as scientists and human beings. He invested boundless energy in that belief, and would have delighted in meeting Walter."
Walter was selected among several outstanding student candidates. He is working under the supervision of Dr. Doug Bonn in a team of students and scientists on the final stages of commissioning the new low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope in the Laboratory for Atomic Imaging Research.
Only several weeks into his research experience, Walter explained how the FYSRE Award has already made a difference. "The Erich Vogt First Year Research Experience has been an amazing chance to find out what working in a research lab entails, and I have learned about things well beyond the scope of any class I've taken so far. It has allowed me to develop my critical thinking, decision making and literature researching skills, many of which are not skills emphasized in first year courses. I am honoured by the award, and am particularly fond of the specification of it going to first year students, for whom it can be extremely difficult to find a paid research position."
TRIUMF is delighted that an award dedicated to Erich Vogt’s legacy and commitment to first-year physics education has found such a worthy inaugural recipient in Walter, and we wish him the best for his academic career!
–Marcello Pavan, Outreach Coordinator, TRIUMF and Theresa Liao, Communications Coordinator, UBC Physics and Astronomy
Top photo: Walter Wasserman accepting FYSRE award from Erich Vogt's son, Dr. David Vogt (left) and UBC Physics and Astronomy Dept. Head Prof. Colin Gay (right).
Bottom photo: Walter (centre) hard at work in UBC Prof. Doug Bonn's lab.
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To contribute to the FYSRE fund, or to share your memory of Erich, visit the "Erich Vogt In Memoriam" website.