Graduate Awards

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

Graduate students contribute to the life of our department in research and teaching. Often, graduate students go above-and-beyond the expectations of our teaching assistantship program to engage with students, craft learning material, and create a positive atmosphere that encourages students to continue in the study of physics. We recognize such contributions with this award.

Lightner-Sams Outstanding Graduate Research Award

The fund that supports this was originally created based on a generous donation from the Lightner Sams Foundation. This award was reissued starting in 2021 to recognize excellence in graduate research. Nominations are made by the faculty and a finalist is selected by the Physics Graduate Committee. The only criterion is excellence. In the past, the Lighter-Sams Award made possible both recognition of graduate excellence and support for graduate students to conduct their research and/or present their findings.

Gary McCartor Memorial Dissertation Award

External Awards

Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Fellowship (SCGSR)

The SC-GSR is a nationally competitive fellowship awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to PhD candidates to support research activities with strong ties to a national laboratory. Students are awarded assistantship support and relocation costs to the national laboratory where the research activity is conducted. Students are co-mentored by a faculty member at SMU and a PhD researcher at the host laboratory.

Robert S. Hyer Award of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society

The Robert S. Hyer Research Award, of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society, is be presented each year to two pairs of recipients. The first pair will consist of a recipient who must have been a graduate student when the research was performed, and this student's research advisor. The second pair will consist of a recipient who must have been an undergraduate student when the research was performed, and that student's research advisor. The only criterion is excellence, including potential impact in the relevant scientific community. The research must be in physics or a physics-related subject, and it must have been presented at a Texas APS meeting within the past two years by either the student or the advisor, both of whom must have been TSAPS members at the time. We are proud of the students and their mentors who have been co-recipients of this highest research award from the Texas Section of the APS. If you believe a student-faculty pair is deserving of this award, please be sure to nominate them; the TSAPS holds nominations for up to 2 years.