Congratulations to the 2026 CoS Graduate Student Award Winners (Physics)
The Department of Physics is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 College of Science (CoS) Graduate Student Awards (Physics). These annual honors recognize graduate students for excellence in scholarship, service, and teaching. This year’s awardees Anna Roche, Chloe Marzano, and Shelbi Foster were recognized at the College of Science Graduate Award Ceremony.
Graduate Scholarship: Anna Roche
Graduate Service: Chloe Marzano
Graduate Teaching: Shelbi Foster
Graduate Scholarship: Anna Roche
Anna joined our program as a University Fellow, which carries high expectations. Throughout her time here, she has exceeded these expectations in her research. Anna’s work with Prof. Brian LeRoy has been centered around a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM), which is a specially designed instrument that achieves resolutions better than the usual optical limit. The instrument at Univeristy of Arizona is the first of its kind in the US, and when it was time to set it up, experts were unavailable for site visits due to COVID travel restrictions. Anna led the effort to commission and calibrate the device, with the end result that it achieved resolution better than the manufacturer’s specification.
Anna proceeded to use the SNOM to perform world-class measurements, scanning 2D materials with resolutions of order 50 nm, leading to multiple publications. This work also formed the basis for her PhD thesis, which she successfully defended last month. Anna is now moving on to a postdoc position at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, where she will continue her work on near-field microscopy.
Graduate Service: Chloe Marzano
Chloe quickly established herself as a leader after arriving at the University of Arizona, and is currently serving as president of the Physicists for Inclusion and Equity (PIE) group. PIE is dedicated to ensuring that students from all demographic categories feel welcome in our department and in the field of physics in general. Through Chloe’s leadership, PIE has helped tremendously in creating a sense of community in our department, both among the students and between the students and faculty.
Chole was also highly engaged in our graduate recruiting efforts, helping to organize a campus tour, panel discussion, and social events for the visiting prospective graduate students. Those students have since cited these among the highlights of their visit. Chloe’s efforts helped us to attract an excellent class of incoming students. She has made a lasting contribution to the department in numerous ways.
Graduate Teaching: Shelbi Foster
A few years ago, our algebra-based physics courses were in crisis; the material was not engaging the students, and student outcomes were poor. As a result, we completely overhauled the way those courses were taught, shifting to the “studio” approach where lectures, problem-solving exercises, and hands-on experiments were integrated to provide a complete learning experience. Shelbi was assigned as a TA for the first semester of the studio class (PHYS 110) and as such she not only carried out the usual TA duties but was also helped to improve the course materials to better connect with the students. Shelbi quickly proved to be a popular instructor, and her office hours were often crowded.
The following semester she led the training of additional TA for PHYS 110, and over the summer she was appointed as the lead instructor for the course. Thanks largely to Shelbi’s efforts, the studio approach has proven to be a huge success, with student outcomes dramatically better than they were in the old-style courses.
___________________________
Each of the awardees also won $1000 Dale and Jenny Shellhorn Scholarship that was established last year by a generous estate gift from the late Dale (UA Physics Alumni) and Jenny Shellhorn.
The department congratulates Anna, Chloe, and Shelbi on these well-deserved honors and thanks them for their exceptional contributions to research, teaching, service, and the broader physics community. Their achievements reflect the excellence and dedication of our graduate students and the vibrant scholarly environment of our department.
