Honored researcher

By Rachel Rundengan |Opinions Editors|

Physics professor Tim Usher has been selected as the university’s 2015-2016 Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activities Award winner.

 
Every two years, the award goes to one CSUSB faculty member presented during CSUSB’s Meeting of the Minds student research symposium.

 
The award is based on a professor’s sustained research efforts in their field.

 
This year, Usher stood out amongst all the other candidates.

 
In his speech Usher said that it was a great honor to have received the award.

 
“It is also a great honor and privilege to work with outstanding students and excellent faculty at CSUSB, nationally, and internationally,” continued Usher.

 
Usher covers 26 years of work here at CSUSB.

 
He has more than 20 peer-reviewed publications, 60 poster presentations at regional, national, and international conferences, and 30 invited talks based on his research in the area of experimental materials science.

 
In addition, he has landed himself to many highly regarded agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and the National Science Foundation just to name a few.

 
Currently, he’s the prime investigator for the largest research grant in the sciences ever awarded at CSUSB, the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) grant.

 
The grant has six faculty investigators, as well as collaborations with the University of Nebraska and the University of Buffalo, amounting to more than $5 million.

 
The CREST program provides support to enhance the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions (MSI) through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research.

 
The grant will be used to establish the Center for Advanced Functional Materials at CSUSB as well as help in recruiting students into the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

 
In 2008-2009, Usher used a Fulbright Scholarship he had been awarded to go to University College Dublin in Ireland.

 
He also served as a visiting professor at North Carolina State University’s Materials Research Center from 1999-2000.

 
Moreover, he was one of the two co-inventors of the first intellectual properties commercially licensed by CSUSB.

 
The system is called NI-ELVIS and is the first system of its kind for teaching electronics.

 
His countless works and years of contributions do not go unnoticed.

 
Usher has taught over 40 different preparations, ranging from high-school physical science to advanced quantum mechanics.

 
He was the main architect on the applied physics option at CSUSB, and served on the committee to develop the first engineering program at CSUSB, computer engineering.

 
His achievements in research and scholarship, on top of his great career at CSUSB and outside of CSUSB made Usher the clear and definite choice for this award.