Fiftieth Anniversary Banquet Speaker Information

To honor the history of the WKU Chapter of Sigma Pi Sigma we have selected alumni from each of the five decades of our chapter’s existence and asked them to speak briefly at the banquet about their experiences both during and after their studies at WKU.  Biographical sketches of each of the speakers are given below.

Dr. William G. Buckman, Sr. [1960’s]

Professor of Physics Emeritus, WKU
Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Buckman Jet Drilling Inc.

Bill Buckman was one of thirteen members inducted into the inaugural class of the WKU Chapter of Sigma Pi Sigma on May 25, 1960.  He served as the President of the WKU chapter during it’s first year of existence.  He received a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics with honors from WKU and went on to Vanderbilt University where he completed a MS in Physics.  After studying at the Solid State Physics Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he went to the University of North Carolina where he completed a Ph.D. in Radiological Physics.

During his studies he received the Prestigious United States Atomic Energy Commission Health Physics Fellowship and a National Institute of Heal Research Traineeship.

After a one-year appointment as the Department Head for the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Kentucky Wesleyan College, Professor Buckman joined the WKU Physics and Astronomy faculty where he served for over thirty years and presently holds the rank of Professor of Physics, Emeritus.  While on the WKU faculty he served one year as interim department head, one year as the President of the WKU Chapter of the Sigma Xi Undergraduate Student Research Club, seven years as Kentucky’s representative to the American Association of Physics Teachers, and ten years as the Faculty Regent for the WKU’s Board of Regents.  He was instrumental in the development of a new Introductory Physics and Biophysics course for life-science students that is still a major component of the WKU curriculum.  In addition he authored a textbook called College Physics: Principles and Applications and associated student and instructor guides.  Finally, he was also named a Distinguished Professor of Research and Scholarly Investigations by WKU.

His dissertation research and early work while at WKU focused on the thermoluminescence and associated physical phenomena of irradiated ionic crystals. This work, like all of his subsequent work, was very applied in character and led to numerous published papers and patents.  Another area of scholarly focus for Dr. Buckman while at WKU involved the development of methods for measuring concentration of the radioactive gas radon.

After forty years of scientific research, he decided to focus his creative abilities on improving the oil and gas drilling business. Dr. Buckman applied principles of physics together with advances in metallurgy and more reliable tubular goods and equipment to invent and patent tools and methods designed specifically for micro-boring oil producing rock strata. This patented approach provides a very precise and economical solution for near-well bore remediation services resulting in significant enhancement opportunities. These innovative types of equipment and processes are now available to oil and gas operators through the  product lines of his company Buckman Jet Drilling, Inc.

Dr. Dwight P. Russell [1970’s]

Associate Professor of Physics
Baylor University

Dwight Russell was inducted into the WKU Sigma Pi Sigma chapter in 1977.  He received the George V. Page Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Physics before graduating Summa Cum Laude with a BS in Physics from WKU.

Following his undergraduate studies he worked for a period at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.  He then returned to pursue graduate study in nuclear physics at Vanderbilt University which led to a MS and Ph.D.  He moved into the area of surface physics for a post-doctoral research appointment at Vanderbilt before joining the faculty in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas El Paso.  At UTEP Dr. Russell supervised a large number of master’s theses as well as undergraduate student research projects. He was named the Rho Sigma Tao – Robert Schumaker Chair in Physics at UTEP.

In 2001 he moved to his present position on the physics faculty at Baylor University.  Here he has served as the Director of the Graduate Program for the Physics Department and has been very active in the Texas Section of the American Physical Society where he served as Chair from 2007 – 2009.

Dr. Russell’s excellent teaching has been rewarded with Outstanding Teacher Awards both while at University of Texas El Paso and at Baylor University.

Mrs. Melissa Smith Rudloff [1980’s]

SKyTeach Master Teacher
Western Kentucky University

Melissa Smith Rudloff was inducted as a member of the WKU Chapter of Sigma Pi Sigma in 1989.  She completed a B.S. in Physics Education and a M.A. in Math and Science Education both from WKU.

Following graduation from WKU she joined the faculty at Greenwood High School in Bowling Green, KY where she taught high school algebra, physics and astronomy, and advanced placement physics courses for thirteen years.  She served as the Science Curriculum Coordinator at Greenwood from 1997 to 2002.  Throughout her career she has been extremely active in various educational service activities including teaching in the summer VAMPY (Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth) program, teaching in the Super Saturday Seminars for the WKU Gifted Studies program, facilitating numerous Astronomy and Space Science Workshops for Teachers at WKU, as well as serving as a Trainer and Resource Teacher for the Writing in Math and Science program.

Mrs. Rudloff has received numerous awards for her outstanding teaching over the years.  The first of these accolades was the Sallie Mae Outstanding First-Year Teaching Award which is awarded nationally to only 100 persons.  This was followed by the Ashland Oil Golden Achiever Award which is a multi-state teacher recognition award.  She was also recognized by the WKU Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society as the Outstanding Middle/High School Science Teacher in 1993 and the 1995 Warren County Teacher of the Year.

She is presently back at WKU as a member of the SKyTeach program where she serves as a Master Teacher involved in the training of future middle and secondary science and mathematics teachers.  In addition she is supported by an EXPLORE grant as a Professional Development Presenter for various science education initiatives in the GRREC consortium.

Dr. Idelfonso J. Guilaran [1990’s]

Associate Professor of Physics
Union University

Ildefonso (Fonsie) Guilaran was received into the WKU Chapter of Sigma Pi Sigma in 1997.  He graduated Summa Cum Laude from WKU with a B.S. degree in Physics in 1998.  While at WKU he also received the George V. Page Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Physics.  Fonsie continued his studies in physics at Florida State University where he received both the M.S. and Ph.D performing research in the area of experimental condensed matter physics.

Following his graduate studies Dr. Guilaran joined the faculty of Earlham College as an assistant professor of Physics and later moved to Union University where he has recently been promoted to an Associate Professor of Physics.  At Earlham Fonsie taught a wide range of physics courses from introductory general physics to Quantum Mechanics and Condensed Matter Physics.  He was also extremely active in leading undergraduate students in research activities especially through summer opportunities.  At Earlham Dr. Guilaran organized and established a new Society of Physics Students chapter and served for one year as Department Head.

Dr. Gavi E. Begtrup [2000’s]

Congressional Science Fellow
Office of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona

Gavi Begtrup was inducted into the WKU Sigma Pi Sigma chapter in 2001 and received a BS from WKU in 2002 with a double major in Physics and Mathematics and a minor in Computer Science.  He served one year as the president of the Society of Physics Students, was the first recipient of the Randall Harper Award for Outstanding Research in Physics, and also received the George V. Page Physics Award for Excellence in Scholarship.

Gavi earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.  His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled “Silicon Nitride Membranes for Electrical and Thermal Transport Studies of Nanotubes,” and his graduate research spanned the breadth of nanotechnology research, from synthesis and characterization to micofabrication and analysis of devices. By developing a novel silicon nitride platform, he was able to observe with atomic precision the evolution of nanotube devices during their operation, resulting in the study of the high-temperature (3000K) local properties of carbon nanotubes as well as the creation of a new type of nanoscale memory element. His discoveries have applications in electronics heat management and future data storage.

Gavi’s growing interest in policy led to his involvement in student politics on both a local and national level. During graduate school, he served as the Vice-President of External Affairs for the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly as well as the Chair of the American Physical Society Forum on Graduate Student Affairs. After completing his Ph.D., he spent the Fall of 2008 as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow at the National Academies of Science. He worked with the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy on a project related to the efficacy and utility of large-scale science projects, such as the proposed “Manhattan Project for Energy”.

After completing his fellowship at the National Academies, Gavi took a position as an analyst with Analytic Services, a nonprofit defense and homeland security contractor. There he worked on systems thinking approaches to addressing large systems problems such as defense acquisition and identity management.

Gavi presently serves as a Congressional Science Fellow in the office of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. Congresswoman Giffords serves on the Science and Technology, Armed Services, and Foreign Affairs committees. She is the chair of the subcommitte on Space and Aeronautics. He handles her science and technology portfolio, including her focus on energy and especially solar. His two largest projects are working on energy issues in the Department of Defense, the world’s largest consumer of energy, and working on the reauthorization of NASA, aka determining the future of NASA and human spaceflight.