Home
Main Menu
 Home
 News Archive
 Contact Us
 Submission Guidelines
 CAS Website

 
 
 
Su and Thompson Named Arts and Sciences Lecturers   PDF  Print 

Dr. Q. Charles Su and Dr. Charles Thompson
Dr. Charles Su and Dr. Charles Thompson

Dr. Charles Thompson and Dr. Q. Charles Su have been named the Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 Arts and Sciences Lecturers. The Arts and Sciences Lecture Series was established by action of the Arts and Sciences Council in 1968 to honor faculty members whose scholarly contributions are particularly noteworthy and to provide a more general audience for faculty research that is too often known only to disciplinary colleagues. “Dr. Thompson and Dr. Su are very deserving of the distinction that comes along with being named an Arts and Sciences Lecturer,” said Dean Olson. “Both have not only reached the heights of scholarly achievement in their respective disciplines, but they also epitomize the values of Illinois State as they maintain an unparalleled commitment to their students.”

Dr. Charles Thompson received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology from Indiana University. After serving on a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Georgia, a post-doctoral teaching fellowship at Miami University, and on faculty at the State University of New York-Geneseo, Thompson came to Illinois State in 1978. While at ISU, Thompson has secured over $900,000 in grants. In addition, he has established a publication record of three edited books, over 50 journal articles, and numerous research abstracts. Professor Thompson has also served as a visiting scientist at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, the University of Oxford, and the University of Glasgow. Thompson's research focuses on bird behavior and ecology—in particular, the evolutionary basis of sexual selection and mate choice. "Dr. Thompson is a renowned scholar and an international authority on avian ecology and behavior," according to one of his colleagues. "He has played a major role in the recruiting and the mentoring of a large number of additional ecologists [to the Department], all of whom have together made the ecological section within Biological Sciences one of our strengths and very likely the strongest ecological group within Illinois." Thompson will deliver the Fall 2005 Arts and Sciences Lecture.

Professor Q. Charles Su came to ISU in 1994 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester and serving on a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany. His research covers a wide array of topics in laser-matter interactions, from laser controlled matter creation to non-invasive body imaging techniques, studied from classical, quantum mechanical, and quantum field theoretical viewpoints. He is the discoverer of a new field regime that revealed for the first time atomic stabilization effects, and his work led to the resolution of the 75-year-old Klein paradox. Su's work has earned external funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. His research has been published in more than 85 manuscripts in internationally renowned journals and has been cited more than 1,200 times by colleagues worldwide. Professor Su has supervised three postdoctoral fellows and directed 31 undergraduate student research assistants, including a recipient of the American Physical Society's Leroy Apker Award. His students have been selected as best undergraduate researchers in atomic molecular and optical physics six times, which is the most chosen from any institution in the nation. "He is an excellent researcher with a world-class reputation for his high-quality theoretical atomic physics," said an international colleague of Su's. "His work has been extremely influential and has defined the direction of a great deal of current work in this area." Su will deliver the Spring 2006 Arts and Sciences Lecture.

The Arts and Sciences Lecture, alongside the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievement, is the highest honor bestowed on a faculty member by the College.