Alumni Profiles

"First of all, I want to say thanks to all of you. The education I received in the department has made the transition to grad school hardly a transition at all. Although I found much of undergrad to be very difficult and demanding, I am thankful that you made us work so hard."  Dan Valente has recently completed his Ph.D. at Penn State and is doing biophysics research on the "Integration of Gene and Neural Nets" at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

"Studying physics at Hope was an extraordinary experience. The degree program is broad and comprehensive, but the true strength of Hope's physics department is the professors and their approach to teaching and interacting with students. The opportunity to be involved in read, graduate-level research as a junior and senior allowed me to apply the classroom lessons to real-world problems and prepared me for graduate school better than the average entering graduate student with little or no research experience. But even that is not the most significant part of the Hope experience. THe friendships I forged with other students and especially the faculty have persisted to this day. Hope faculty are now professional colleagues and collaborators of mine. Hope is truly a unique place to 'do' physics."  Dr. Donald Peterson, Ph.D. Research Associate, Oregon State University

"I though that I would let you know that I passed the qualifying exam that I had to take. Some might even say I passed with flying colors, but those are other's words and not mine. I am having a great time here and I feel that I am learning so much so fast."  Matt Goupell has recently completed Ph.D. in acoustics at Michigan State University and is currently "studying sound localization for people with cochlear implants" at the Austrian Academy for the Sciences.

"My undergraduate training in physics at Hope prepared me to be a leader in graduate school, as well as in the corporate research world. Hope's combination of challenging coursework, hand's on laboratory experiences, cutting-edge research, and faculty dedicated to undergraduate education was unbeatable. It was truly a privilege to be a student there."  Dr. Robert Kryger is the Innovation Director at Danisco Cultor, Inc.

Other Hope Alumni on the web:

• Recent Hope Alumni in the Michigan State University News
• Jill Pinter presents her recent work.
• Matthew Goupell published his work "Spectral Analysis for the Ear" in the Proceedings of the 18th International Congress on Acoustics in Kyoto, 2004.
• Tina Pike is doing research characterizing an X-ray source for medical imaging.
• Robert H. Austin is a member of the Physics faculty at Princeton University
• Bruce Vogelaar is a member of the Physics faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
• David Hofman is a member of the Physics faculty at the University of Chicago
• Todd Adams is a member of the Physics faculty at Florida State University
• John Vander Velde is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan.
• Scott Wissink is on the Physics faculty at Indiana University.
• Gregory Caskey is a co-owner of Lakeshore Vision & Robotics Systems.