MAKING AN IMPACT: GUILFORD COLLEGE'S PHYSICS REUNION

By Karen Alley

IN MARCH, ALUMNI, STUDENTS and professors associated with the Physics Department will converge on campus for the bi-annual Physics Reunion, which is a chance for students to present their research and get a glimpse of how a degree or classes in physics can lead to a multitude of careers.

It’s also an opportunity for alumni to reconnect with colleagues and former professors and learn about the impact of philanthropic support on the experience of current Guilford students.

“As a student at Guilford College, the physics reunions were one of the most important experiences I had, meeting alumni and hearing about their work,” says William Hahn ’08. “They were at NASA, in labs at Chapel Hill, at national labs doing medical physics -- changing the world in 100 different directions.” At the reunion, William will give the 18th Sheridan A. Simon Distinguished Alumni Lecture, funded by the philanthropy of Sheridan’s family and friends. An Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Florida Atlantic University, William is founder and codirector of the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory.

“William is doing really exciting interdisciplinary work at FAU, and has created a very hands-on, interactive, student-centered research lab,” says Donald Smith, Associate Professor of Physics. “The reunion is the perfect opportunity for him to share with others his innovative way of bringing together robotics, Biology and Physics and showing what machine learning can do to help us solve all sorts of problems.”

In anticipation of the reunion, Guilford talked with William and Don about their thoughts on Physics, a liberal arts education and the Guilford experience.

William Hahn '08 and other Physics alumni attend to 2018 Physics Reunion

Photo by Michael Crouch

GC: What do you feel is one of the things that makes Guilford College unique?

Don: For me, it’s the Quaker heritage. I believe Quakerism is a faith that focuses on the journey more than the destination. There’s a very strong synergy in figuring out where I am in the universe as a physical being and where I am in the universe as a spiritual being. Here at Guilford College I can honor that, with me and my students.

William: One of the most important things I got out of my years at Guilford was the relationships and the focus on the human endeavor. You didn’t just take a class with a professor, you got to know them and work alongside them in research. It was extraordinary to have their faith in us that we would go out and change the world.

GC: Why is Physics an integral part of a liberal arts education?

Don: There’s a long history of science and math being part of the liberal arts. It’s all a part of figuring out who we are as human beings (humanities) and figuring out our part in the world (sciences).

William: One thing that really made an impression on me was in a Physics class the professor read a poem written by Richard Feynman, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. I realized these physicists I was studying were more than just two-dimensional scientists, they had all the passions and desires that I had. It really opened my eyes that there could be physicist humanitarians. I believe that in a nutshell is the goal of a liberal arts education, to help us learn to be well-rounded, thoughtful and compassionate human beings.

Don Smith, Associate Professor of Physics

Photo by Michael Crouch