01-21-94 3 Young Researchers Receive National Award

THREE RESEARCHERS NAMED NATIONAL YOUNG INVESTIGATORS

     COLUMBUS -- Three researchers at The Ohio State University
have been awarded one of the most prestigious awards in American
science and engineering: the National Young Investigators Award
conferred by the National Science Foundation.  They are: Barbara
Ryden, an astronomer; Charles Pennington, a physicist; and
Jonathan Pelz, a physicist.

     The award recipients were among 169 chosen nationwide from a
pool of 1,500 nominees.  These junior faculty members, who
received their Ph.D. degrees less than seven years ago, each
carry a normal teaching load in addition to their research
activities.

     The awardees will receive base funding of $25,000 yearly for
five years for their research.  Additionally, NSF will match
outside grants up to $37,500.

     =FE Barbara S. Ryden of COLUMBUS (43202), 32, is an assistant
professor of astronomy who studies dwarf galaxies much smaller
than our own Milky Way.  Modern telescopes have allowed better
observations of these galaxies, and Ryden, a theorist, uses new
data to learn more about these poorly understood entities.  Ryden
earned her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and her
Ph.D. at Princeton University before serving two postdoctoral
research appointments -- one with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics and one with the Canadian Institute for
Theoretical Astrophysics.  Ryden came to Ohio State in September
1992.  This spring she will teach an introductory astronomy
course to undergraduates.

     =FE Charles H. Pennington of UPPER ARLINGTON, 30, is an
assistant professor of physics who uses nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) to study exotic superconductors.  After earning
his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, Pennington received his Ph.D. from the University of
Illinois and served as a postdoctoral researcher at the
University of California at Berkeley.  Since coming to Ohio State
in September 1991, he has taught introductory physics for
engineers and "Physics by Inquiry," a laboratory-based
introduction to physics for education majors.

     =FE Jonathan P. Pelz of UPPER ARLINGTON, 34, is an assistant
professor of physics who uses scanning tunneling microscopy to
study semiconducting material at an atomic scale.  Because
electronic devices are being manufactured in smaller and smaller
dimensions, Pelz says fundamental research on how materials
behave at the atomic scale will be increasingly important to the
electronics industry.  He received his undergraduate degree from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the
University of California at Berkeley.  After a postdoctoral
appointment at IBM, Pelz came to Ohio State in September 1990.
He has taught several undergraduate courses, including
introduction to physics for engineers and introduction to physics
for pre-professionals.

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Contact:  Sarah Williams Scherrer, associate editor of science
communications, University Communications, (614) 292-9475.



[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 21 Jan 1994 16:58:05 -0500 (EST)]
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