 Physicist, artist win grad awards
A doctoral candidate in physics and an accomplished grad student who has brought the beauty of art to many aspects of her life are the two recipients of Montana State University's 2001 Foundation Graduate Achievement Awards. Monty Mola, who will receive a doctorate in physics at graduation, and Julie Comnick, who will receive a Master's of Arts degree in fine arts May 12, both will receive the honor and a $500 cash award. Monty Mola has excelled in research that has focused on electrodynamic properties of superconducting materials. Originally a physicist working in the field of theoretical astrophysics, he changed his field to research of material physics. Soon after he switched his emphasis, he helped built a spectrometer that many consider the best in the world. Mola is also a prolific author with five published articles in refereed journals, seven more accepted for publication and five more in development. Mola will again change directions when he graduates. Instead of a researching post at Los Alamos National Labs, Mola has opted to return to his native California to join the faculty at Humboldt State University in California. Stephen Hill, the head of Mola's research group, said that as a result of Mola's hard work in the past three years, "the national and international scientific communities in my field of research have really started to take notice of Montana State University." Julie Comnick is an excellent artist and an outstanding teacher who taught five semesters of the challenging representational drawing class required of all art majors. A recipient of the MSU Presidential Scholarship in 1998, Comnick has excelled not only in art, but in other humanities courses she has taken as part of her curriculum. Comnick's paintings were recently included in a recent national exhibition, "New American Painting," which enhances an already strong regional reputation as an up and coming painter. Both Mola and Comnick will receive their awards at the Honors Night dinner Friday. Also receiving a student award that night will be Lindsey Nussbaum, recipient of the 2001 Williams E. Parkins Engineering-Physics Award honoring the MSU student with the top grade point average in engineering and physics courses. Lindsey Nussbaum, of Great Falls, who is a senior majoring in electrical engineering, will receive a $1,100 scholarship. He plans to graduate next spring with minors in both mathematics and music. Nussbaum was the recipient of a national Barry Goldwater Scholarship for excellence in science and math. He has been involved in optics research in the lab of David Dickensheets of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and also was a research assistant under Philip Luers at the Goddard Space Flight Center last summer. He also enjoys composing and performing music. He is a member and arranger for the MSU pep band and plans to study music history and theory in Italy this summer, followed by an internship at a technical company. He recently produced his first CD of original piano solos. Nussbaum is the president of HKN, the electrical engineering society,and is a member of both the IEEE and the Philosophy Club.
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