Alumni News
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How are you doing? Where are you now? How did a degree from the Department of Physics at Western Michigan University help you?
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2024 Alumni Early Career Excellence Award
Dr. Katrina Koehler, Ph.D. ’19, is a distinguished scientist renowned for her significant contributions to physics and engineering, as well as her dedication to mentoring the next generation of scientists. She earned her doctorate in physics from Western Michigan University in 2019, where she was awarded the George E. Bradley award for exceptional research performance. She now serves as key researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and as an assistant professor at Houghton University.
At LANL, Koehler has spearheaded pioneering advances in high-performance detector technologies. Her notable accomplishments include the development and implementation of the Hyperspectral X-ray Imaging (HXI) detector, which won the 2023 R&D Award, and the co-development of the Spectrometer Optimized for Facility Integrated Applications (SOFIA), recognized with the 2022 R&D 100 Award. Additionally, Koehler received the 2022 Distinguished Performance Award from LANL for her contributions to the Trinity experiment anniversary special issue of “Nuclear Technology”. In 2019, she was honored with the LTD18 Young Researcher Poster Award, second place, for outstanding poster presentation within five years of receiving her Ph.D.
Beyond her research, Koehler is actively engaged in the academic community. She serves as the faculty advisor for the Houghton University Intercultural Student Association and is a member of the Academic Council and Faculty Development Committee. She has also authored multiple papers in peer-reviewed journals on her extensive research in nuclear physics and spectroscopy. Her work often includes contributions from students she mentors, emphasizing her role in academic development and dedication to cultivating the next generation of scientists.
2024 Alumni Achievement Award
Dr. Muhammet Fatih Hasoglu, M.S.’04, Ph.D. '08, received the David Carley Memorial Graduate Fellowship in 2003, the Leo R. Parpart Physics Scholarship in 2006 and the Graduate Research and Creative Scholar Award from the Department of Physics in 2008. After graduation, he worked as a teaching assistant and lab instructor at Marmara University in Türkiye.
He is a professor at Hasan Kalyoncu University (HKU) in Gaziantep, Türkiye. Throughout his career, he has held various administrative and academic roles, including chairman of the Department of Computer Engineering, member of the University Senate for the Engineering Faculty and vice director and director of the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. He was promoted to associate professor in 2015 and granted professorship in 2020. For the past two years, he has been the dean of the Faculty of Aeronautics and Aerospace. Hasoglu’s technical expertise includes advanced programming in Fortran, C, and Python, as well as proficiency with atomic structure codes and operating systems. From May 2017 to April 2018, he served as primary investigator and project coordinator for a TUBITAK 1002 project focused on calculating the photoabsorbtion cross section of the silicon atom in the X-ray region.
In 2015 and 2016, his leadership and academic work was honored with the Academic Service Appreciation Award. He has also been a member of several professional organizations, including the American Physical Society’s Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics.
Hasoglu’s dedication to education, research and service has made significant contributions to his field and institutions showcasing an unwavering commitment to advancing knowledge and fostering academic growth.
Alumni profiles
Enrique Gamez
Shortly after graduating with a B.S. in physics from WMU, Gamez won a highly competitive and prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which covers three years of graduate school tuition and provides a generous stipend.
Now pursuing his doctoral degree in theoretical particle and astrophysics at the University of Michigan, Gamez is especially interested in studying the mysteries of dark matter. Dark matter accounts for five times as much mass in the universe as ordinary matter, but has thus far evaded efforts to detect it directly.
Dr. David Hoogerheide
With undergraduate degrees in physics and chemistry from WMU, Hoogerheide earned his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University with research in surface chemistry and the stochastic dynamics of ions in nanopores. Hoogerheide stayed at Harvard, turning to nanopore-based studies of the dynamics of DNA molecules.
After Harvard came a joint research associateship between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health. His current work at the NIST focuses on neutron reflectometry of membrane proteins.
Sarah Hulbert
After earning her B.S. in physics from WMU, Hulbert went on to graduate study in biophysics at The Ohio State University. During her first semester there, she published a paper with her advisor on diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease using new EEG and imaging analysis methodologies.
Hulbert’s research uses concepts from physics, such as chaos theory, to analyze complex brain signals. She hopes her work will improve the diagnosis and treatment of brain system diseases.
Dr. Marc Humphrey
Since earning his B.S. in physics and applied mathematics from WMU and his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University, Humphrey has applied his training in unconventional ways, such as working as a Peace Corps volunteer and as a computer programmer with the Centers for Disease Control in Mali.
Humphrey then turned his attention to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, working at the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Energy and most recently at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
For more alumni profiles, see our careers page.
Alumni updates
Western Michigan University physics alumni are pursuing exciting careers around the globe.
- Shahin Abdel Naby, Ph.D.'10, is an assistant professor at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
- Dan Adams, M.A.'08, is a cleaning and metrology engineer with Dow Corning, Midland, Michigan.
- Mohammad Al-Amar, Ph.D.'11, is serving as a post-doctoral researcher associate at the University of Toronto, Canada.
- Aeshah M A Alasmari, M.A.'15, is an assistant professor in the college of science at University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. She received her Ph.D. in physics from UK.
- Salem AlFaidy, Ph.D.'11, is an assistant professor at King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
- Abdelkareem Almeshal, M.A.'15, is an assistant professor, Dean of Faculty Science and Arts in Al-Mithnab at Qassim University, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia.
- Ali Alnaser, Ph.D.'02, is associate professor and chair of the Department of Physics at the American University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.
- Katie Ballman, B.S.'12, is an applications engineer in the Advanced Optics Division of Corning.
- Ian Brown, B.S.'16, is pursuing a Ph.D. at the Leonard E. Parker Center for Gravitation, Cosmology, and Astrophysics at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
- Dennis Chitko, B.S.'15, builds femtosecond fiber laser systems for IMRA America in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- Susanta Das, M.A.'06, Ph.D.'09, is an assistant professor at P.K. University, Shivpuri, M.P. India.
- Tamer Elkafrawy, Ph.D.'12, is a postdoctoral research associate at the CMS, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Xuan Gao, Ph.D.'13, teaches at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Chongqing, China.
- Subramanian Ganapathy, Ph.D.'13, is a postdoctoral research associate at the Centre for Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Bangalore, India.
- Elias Garratt, Ph.D.'13, is working as a postdoctoral research associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
- Khalil Hamam, Ph.D.'13, is an assistant professor in the Applied Physics Department at Tafila Technical University in Jordan.
- M. Fatih Hasoglu, Ph.D.'08, is an associate professor at Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep, Turkey.
- Kevan Hess, B.S.'12, is working alongside his father in real estate with Jaqua Realtors, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
- Mady Higinbotham, B.S.'15, is a sensing systems engineer at Evigia in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- William Hollerman, M.A.'85, is a professor of physics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
- Darshika Keerthisinghe, Ph.D.'15, is an instructor of physics at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
- Joan DeVries Kelley, M.A.'70, worked for IBM for 34 years as a system programmer specializing in large mainframes.
- C. Nalaka Kodituwakku, Ph.D.'07, is a scientist with Exelis Optics in New York.
- Katrina Koehler, M.A. 2014, Ph.D.'19, has a new position as a faculty member at Houghton College (her undergraduate alma mater).
- Vladislav Malyshkin, Ph.D.'97, is a senior scientist at the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Scott Marley, Ph.D.'12, is an assistant professor of physics at Louisiana State University.
- William Millar, M.A.'85, received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from James Cook University, Townsville, Australia and has retired as professor of physics from Grand Rapids Community College.
- Manjula Nandasiri, Ph.D.'13, is a postdoctoral research associate in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.
- Adam Newton, B.S.'14, is employed by General Electric Aviation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
- John Novak, B.S.'10, develops analytics for auditors in his position with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Andra Petrean, Ph.D.'00, is associate professor of physics at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
- Daniel Renusch, Ph.D.'99, is an engineer with General Electric in Fairfield, Connecticut.
- Ayman Said, Ph.D.'04, is a staff scientist with Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois.
- Buddhika Senarath Dassanayake, Ph.D.'11, is a senior lecturer in physics with the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
- Valentina Tobos, Ph.D.'01, is an associate professor of physics at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan.
- Michelle Tuel, M.A.'04, works in business operations for Boeing in the state of Washington.
- Lucian Undreiu, Ph.D.'05, is an associate professor of physics at University of Virginia’s College at Wise, Virginia.
- Xue Wang, Ph.D.'07, is an associate professor in the Department of Physics at the Hebei University of Engineering.
- Samanthi Wickramarachchi, Ph.D.'15, is an assistant professor of physics at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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