Physics Fellowship Memorializes
June M. O. Damon, Ph.D. has established the Dwight Hills Damon Graduate Fellowship in Experimental Physics in memory of her husband, Dwight Damon, Ph.D., emeritus professor of physics, who died in September 2006. The fellowship will enable future graduate students to carry on Mr. Damon’s legacy of innovative research in physics.
Mrs. Damon’s daughters and their husbands, Candace and David Jacobson and Inger ’92 (SoM) and Greg ’89 (SoM) Armstrong, have contributed additional funds to the fellowship endowment. A number of friends of the family have added their support as well.
“There has been an outstanding outpouring of support,” says Mrs. Damon.
“Mrs. Damon and Professor Damon’s two daughters and their spouses have made an extremely generous contribution to the Physics Department through the UConn Foundation,” says Winthrop Smith, Ph.D., professor of physics, who was a colleague and friend of Dr. Damon. “The family hopes this will be an enduring memorial to the memory of Dwight Damon and to his broad interests in scientific research methodology.”
After earning a doctorate in condensed matter physics from Purdue University in 1961, Dr. Damon worked as a research scientist at Westinghouse Electric Company. He joined the faculty of the Physics Department at UConn in 1970, when he took charge of the Charles Reynolds Low Temperature Research Laboratory.
During his 27-year tenure, Dr. Damon significantly advanced physics research and education at UConn. He helped develop and served as assistant director of the Polymer Program of the Institute of Materials Science from 1980 to 1983. He was instrumental in establishing the Electrical Insulation Research Center, which he led as associate director from 1983 to 1985. Dr. Damon also developed the polymer physics curriculum for UConn’s Polymer Program.
“His colleagues and friends will remember Professor Damon as a warm and enthusiastic person, a dedicated teacher and an excellent experimental researcher,” says Smith.
The fellowship is for students following in Dr. Damon’s footsteps. It will be reserved for full-time graduate students who are seeking doctorates in experimental physics and intend to contribute to scientific research in the U.S.
“I just thought I wanted to help experimental physicists along their way,” says Mrs. Damon. She notes that the path to complete a graduate degree in experimental physics is long and difficult. “Experimental physicists are usually at their graduate work longer than theoretical physicists would be. You just feel that time and you want to finish.”
Smith adds, “[The fellowship’s] intent is to recognize talent in the experimental aspects of physics research and to help such students to complete their Ph.D. research successfully and in a timely fashion.”
Rather than erect a physical marker to memorialize her husband, Mrs. Damon chose to create a fellowship in his name in his chosen field.
“I just decided an appropriate marker for him would be a fellowship in experimental physics. It’s his marker,” Mrs. Damon explains.
To support the Damon fellowship fund, please contact Frank Gifford, director of development for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at 860.486.6798, or click here and specify that your gift is to be applied to the Damon fund.
