April 2, 2001 — Two graduating seniors at Trinity University have received National Science Foundation Fellowships to apply to graduate study. Both students are completing senior honors thesis projects and both were named Outstanding Physics Students for the 2000-2001 academic year.

The NSF Graduate Fellowship recipients are Wesley "Wes" Campbell of The Woodlands and Alexis Thompson of Corpus Christi. Working with Associate Professor Daniel Spiegel, both students recently co-authored a paper that appeared in The Journal of Chemical Physics, a leading national journal published by the American Institute of Physics. Mr. Campbell, who is majoring in physics, plans to attend graduate school in physics at the University of Texas at Austin or at Harvard University. Miss Thompson, who is a double major in physics and chemistry, is deciding between chemistry doctoral programs at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"The NSF Graduate Fellowship program is extremely competitive, and I feel that this accomplishment is truly remarkable," Professor Spiegel says. "It is certainly a privilege to work with students of this caliber." He describes Mr. Campbell as having "an incomparable scientific intuition and an almost uncanny ability for innovation in scientific research. When he encounters a new experimental research project, not only does he immediately understand the experiment and its relevance; but he immediately improves the project." Professor Spiegel says Miss Thompson has "an insatiable curiosity and an unbounded passion for new scientific knowledge and understanding. Her steel-trap mind and her remarkable intellectual abilities have already made her a top-notch laboratory scientist," Professor Spiegel says.

Trinity University, founded in 1869, is a highly selective, professionally oriented liberal arts and sciences institution. This residential, primarily undergraduate coeducational university is noted for its superb facilities and undergraduate research opportunities. It is a learning community that has charted its course with a steadfast commitment to excellence for more than 130 years.