Regal earns prestigious Hertz Fellowship

Ed Maxwell

(Quinn Lake)

Senior Cindy Regal recently won the coveted Hertz Fellowship for her work in physics. The fellowship exists to support the graduate education of students who have outstanding potential in the area of applied physical sciences. Through the Hertz Fellowship, she will receive $25,000 per year for five years to attend graduate school.Regal won the fellowship after undergoing a rigorous selection process. A panel of scientists at the Fanny and John Hertz Foundation reviewed her application and decided that she merited further consideration, so they had a colleague in Madison interview her. Their colleague, a physical chemist, asked her many questions on scientific topics. After assessing her responses, he recommended that Regal receive another interview.

For the third round of evaluations, a physicist from the foundation, who was interviewing all of the Midwestern candidates, interviewed Regal. He posed a number of questions to her regarding current scientific research and problems of estimation. He asked questions about estimation because the fellowship is for those who show tremendous promise with applying scientific concepts to laboratory experiments.

Regal has decided to use the Hertz Fellowship to study and research at the University of Colorado in Boulder. She will be doing research in the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics on atomic molecular optics (AMO). She plans to focus on researching degenerate Fermi gasses.

Regal first heard of the Hertz Fellowship while doing research on AMO at the institute last summer. The foundation notified her in early fall that she would be a strong candidate for the fellowship, and when she consulted Professor Brandenberger, he encouraged her to apply. After winning the Hertz Fellowship, she declined the National Science Foundation Grant.

Regal has received much recognition for her work in physics prior to winning the Hertz Fellowship. She has won the Brackenridge Award for Physics and the Goldwater Scholarship.