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Graduate Awards

Student Teaching Awards

“The university only exists to find and to communicate the truth” – Robert Maynard Hutchins

In addition to collaborating with faculty and postdocs to produce new world-class science, our Physics graduate students contribute in important ways to the educational mission of our department. Each Spring, the Physics Department honors several of its best Teaching Assistants with Graduate TA Awards.

Since Spring 2005 this has included our highest award, the Stan Shepherd Teaching Award, named in honor former Penn State Physics faculty colleague, Stan Shepherd. The Stanley Shepherd Graduate Teaching Assistant Award is given to a senior Physics graduate student who has excelled in teaching and who has contributed to the instructional mission of the Physics  Department above and beyond their assigned TA duties

Stan Shepherd was a Penn State Physics faculty member from 1961 until his retirement in 1991. He was born in Jamaica and received his education there and in the United Kingdom. He joined the Penn State system as an assistant professor of Physics at the PSU Altoona campus in 1961, moving to the University Park campus in 1965. During his tenure at PSU he won numerous teaching awards, including the C.I. Noll from the Eberly College of Science (1972) and the Amoco Teaching Award (1979). He was a much beloved teacher and advisor to many generations of Physics (and other) majors. After his death, friends in the Physics Department collected funds to endow the “Stanley Shepherd Graduate Teaching Assistant Award” which is “…given to a senior Physics graduate student who has excelled in teaching and who has contributed to the instructional mission of the Physics Department above and beyond their assigned TA duties. This award honors Prof. Shepherd whose record of teaching and service to undergraduate students at Penn State was marked by such a commitment to excellence.”

Winners in recent years were:

2022-2023

  • Julian Mintz (Stan Shepherd)
  • Autumn Hendricks
  • Luis Martinez
  • Cort Posnansky
  • Joshua Black
  • Joseph Balsells

2021-2022

  • Kevin Honz (Stan Shepherd)
  • Nathan McKee
  • Daniel Godzieba
  • Erick Muino Garcia
  • Eric Duque Gonzalez
  • Leonardo Tavares
  • Miguel Fernandez Flores

2020-2021

  • Jackson Henry (Stan Shepherd)
  • Shio Sakon
  • Jiali Liu
  • Diwakar Pranav
  • Kallan Berglund
  • Brett Green

2019-2020

  • Anna Binion (Stan Shepherd)
  • Kevin Honz
  • Mingzu Liu
  • Autumn Zender
  • Jackson Henry

2018-2019

  • Monica Rincon (Stan Sheperd Teaching Award)
  • Mohamed Umar
  • Anna Binion
  • Yang Ge
  • Meghan Tanner

2017-2018

  • Lavish Pabbi (Stan Sheperd Award)
  • Justin Rodriguez
  • Monica Rincon Ramirez
  • Jamyang Phuntsok
  • Sachin Vaidya

2016-2017

  • Beatrice Bonga(Stan Sheperd Teaching award)
  • Jonathan Guglielmon
  • Sean Crowe
  • Justin Rodriguez
  • Zhong Lin

2015-2016

  • Sumithra Surendra Lal (Stan Sheperd Teaching award)
  • Michael Bell
  • James Delaunay
  • Shafat Mubin
  • Lavish Pabbi

2014-2015

  • Seth Hulsey (Stan Sheperd Teaching award)
  • Piali Aditya
  • Brian Zakrewski
  • Justin Lanfranchi
  • Alan Coleman

2013-2014

  • Warren Wright (Stan Shepherd Teaching Award)
  • Beatrice Bonga
  • Shan Gao
  • Karen Govil
  • Seth Hulsey

2012-2013

  • Michael Koop (Stan Shepherd Teaching Award)           
  • Aruna Kesavan
  • Jason Wittenbach
  • Sumithra Surendra Lal
  • Shaun Mills

2011-2012

  • George Paily (Stan Shepherd Teaching Award)
  • Garret Evans
  • Thomas Flanagan
  • Warren Wright
  • Ian Gilbert

2010-2011

  • Colin Campbell (Stan Shepherd Teaching Award)
  • George Paily
  • Andrew Balk
  • J. D. Dulny

Penn State University Graduate Teaching TA Fellowship 2008 - Gerardo Giordano (worked with Prof. Irina Mocioiou)

Penn State University Graduate Teaching TA Fellowship 2008 - Gerardo Giordano (worked with Prof. Irina Mocioiou)