2:18 p.m., Oct. 24, 2008----The University of Delaware's Francis Alison Society announced that Michael Shay, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, has received its Young Scholars Award for 2008.

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The Francis Alison Young Scholars Award is highly competitive and given to a tenure-track assistant professor at UD who has demonstrated outstanding research and academic teaching excellence.

Gerard J. Mangone, University Research Professor and secretary of the Francis Alison Society, said, “The judges were greatly impressed by the qualifications of all the assistant professors nominated by their department chairs in the University, but finally settled on the outstanding publication and teaching record of Dr. Shay.” The award consists of a bronze plaque and check, which was presented on Oct. 23 at the Blue and Gold Club.

“I was overwhelmed to be selected for the Young Scholar Award,” Shay said. “I understand there were many very good candidates, and it is a great honor to have been chosen.”

Shay studies plasma physics, plasma being a fourth state of matter beyond solid, liquid or gas and found in the composition of stars, lightning and the solar wind. In these plasmas, huge explosive events can occur when energy stored in magnetic fields is suddenly released, leading to shock waves and extensive particle acceleration. This energy is released through magnetic reconnection, which is the primary focus of Shay's research program.

Magnetic reconnection plays an important role in a diverse set of phenomena. It drives space weather events, including solar flares, coronal mass ejections on the sun, and energizes particles in the Earth's magnetosphere that can damage or destroy satellites. It plays a critical role in star formation, and it must be understood and minimized if controlled fusion reactors, such as tokomaks, are to be successful in producing energy.

For his research, Shay uses analytical theory and massive parallel computer simulations, often running simulations on 2048 computers simultaneously for 50 hours at a time. These simulations are performed at national computing facilities such as the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center in Berkeley, Calif.

Last year, Shay received a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). One of NSF's highest honors, the award recognizes and supports young faculty who are deemed most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. Shay is receiving an estimated $470,000 in NSF funding over five years to support his research on magnetic reconnection, a process that can allow high-energy particles from the solar wind to enter the Earth's magnetic field, endangering astronauts in space and electrical systems on Earth.

He also has received grants from NASA. NASA's Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission awarded Shay a 10-year subcontract award, and he was named as a principal investigator of a NASA Geospace Science program grant to study small-scale plasma activity during reconnection. NASA's Heliophysics Theory program awarded a grant to William Matthaeus and John Bieber, professors of physics and astronomy at UD, and to Shay for a study of energy regulation in the solar and interplanetary environments.

The Alison award recognizes teaching as well as research. Shay said he loves to teach and has taught at all levels from introductory courses to the graduate level. He has been nominated twice for UD's Excellence in Teaching Award, and he said he was gratified to get good feedback and top marks for his teaching from students in his classes.

Shay, who joined the UD faculty in 2005, received his bachelor's degree in physics from Grinnell College and his doctorate in physics from the University of Maryland.

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Kathy Atkinson