Overview
We are proud to announce the second year of the O'Sullivan Family Graduate Fellowship Award, funded by William and Dorothy O'Sullivan. Their gifts the last two years, and their commitments for the future, will provide critical fellowship support for the department's best and brightest incoming graduate students.
The O'Sullivan Family Graduate Fellowship Award will maintain a legacy of one of the Department's most distinguished faculty members and provide graduate fellowships for future generations of graduate students.
Award Winners
- 2012 - John Corson and Theresa Christian
About The O'Sullivans
Dr. William J. O'Sullivan is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Colorado Department of Physics. His distinguished career lasted over 35 years, from 1968 to his retirement in 2002. Between 1988 and 1966, Dr. O'Sullivan served as Chair of the Department of Physics, a period of remarkable growth and success, largely due to his leadership.
Dr. O'Sullivan's research area was experimental condensed matter physics. Twelve Ph.D. Students in physics graduated under his mentorship, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in science. He and his students published 75 refereed physics journal articles and book chapters.
Dr. O'Sullivan earned a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1952, his M.S. in Physics from the University of Southern California in 1954, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1958. He was an assistant professor of physics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School 1958-1959, staff scientist at Space Technology Laboratories 1959-1963, and staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories 1963-1968.
Professor O'Sullivan was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was twice awarded University of Colorado Faculty Research Fellowships. Dorothy J. O'Sullivan is the wife of William O'Sullivan and mother of the couple's three children. Professor O'Sullivan's many successes would have been impossible without her steadfast assistance.