Above: Sohang Gandhi (right, front) with fellow members of the UCF chapter of the national physics honor fraternity, Sigma Pi Sigma.
Physics, Honors Student Sohang Gandhi Named to USA Today All-Academic Team
by Chad Binette (cbinette@mail.ucf.edu, 407-823-6312)
ORLANDO, Feb. 16, 2006 -- Sohang Gandhi, a University of Central Florida senior and honors student, was one of 60 students nationwide selected to USA Today's All-USA College Academic Team this week.
Gandhi, a physics major from Casselberry, was one of 20 students named to the College Academic Third Team. USA Today honored him for his research related to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Relation, which is critical to the understanding of quantum mechanics.
Gandhi is the second UCF student selected to a USA Today College Academic Team in the past two years. Andrea Wesser, a graduate student in engineering who helped to design a wheelchair for young victims of land mines, was named to the second team in 2005. Like Gandhi, Wesser attended UCF's Burnett Honors College.
"This second USA Today winner in two years confirms the fact that the Burnett Honors College and UCF are attracting stronger, better students and, once we get them here, we're able to give them better research opportunities and mentors who help them shine when they apply for competitive awards," said Alvin Wang, the college's dean.
USA Today reported Tuesday that more than 600 students were nominated for the 17th annual all-academic teams.
Gandhi never thought of pursuing a career in physics until a lesson on Newton's Laws of Motion inspired him during his senior year of high school. Since then, he has impressed UCF faculty and administrators with his academic success and high-quality research.
Gandhi spends about 30 hours a week on research through UCF's selective Research And Mentoring Program and Student Mentor Academic Research Teams. He works mainly with his mentor and physics professor Costas Efthimiou.
Wang said Gandhi's award is "an affirmation of all of the hard work that he has put into his research. We're talking about a student who, even as a sophomore and junior, was doing high-level theoretical physics research."
Gandhi runs the UCF Society of Physics Students' group research project, which provides students with an introduction to the research process. Through his involvement with the society's Youth Outreach Program, he created a "Reel Physics" initiative that aims to attract the interest of middle and high school students in physics through the showing of popular films.
Gandhi received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a premier award for undergraduates in mathematics, science and engineering. He was one of 320 students nationwide who won the scholarship in 2005. The award covers up to $7,500 of the cost of his tuition, fees and books for the 2005-06 school year.
He was one of two U.S. students who received the Society of Physics Students' Outstanding Student Award for Undergraduate Research in May. As part of this honor, Gandhi presented his research in July at a conference in Portugal.
Gandhi is secretary of the Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society. He also is president of the Society of Physics Students and president of the Campus Freethought Alliance, which promotes the acceptance and application of science, reason and critical thinking in all areas of human behavior.
After completing his studies at UCF, Gandhi hopes to pursue graduate research, possibly at Cornell University, Harvard University or the University of California at Berkeley. He wants to stay in academia because "the university environment nurtures ideas and is all the richer for it."
To read the USA Today coverage of the all-academic teams, go to http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-14-allstars-third-team_x.htm.
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