The Randall D. Ledford Scholarship in Physics at Wake Forest University

The Scholarship

The Department of Physics is pleased to announce the Randall Ledford Scholarship for students entering Fall 2007. This is a four-year half-tuition scholarship awarded to a promising incoming physics major attending Wake Forest University. The award is worth a minimum of $64,280.

How to apply

To apply for this award:

1. Complete the Wake Forest University application for admission either in paper or online. See http://www.wfu.edu/admissions/.
2. Complete the Application for Merit-based Scholarships. The applications for admission and scholarships are available from your guidance counselor or by download from http://www.wfu.edu/admissions/finaid/merit-based_apply.html.
3. Arrange for the letters of recommendation called for by the above applications. At least one recommendation should come from someone who can comment on your potential in science.
4. Include a brief letter asking to be considered for the Ledford Scholarship, describing how you became interested in science, and describing your career aspirations.

This application will qualify you, not only for the Ledford scholarship, but also for most merit scholarships at Wake Forest. Deadline for the Ledford Scholarship and most other merit-based scholarships is January 1. If you also want to be considered for the Reynolds Scholarship, please complete your application by December 1.

The Presidential Scholarships and Poteat Scholarships require separate applications.

Physics at Wake Forest University

Wake Forest offers unsurpassed opportunities for students who wish to study physics. Wake Forest combines the values and emphasis on close faculty-student interaction that is characteristic of small colleges, while offering the opportunity to engage in research with internationally recognized scientists.

At Wake Forest, nearly all your classes will be small, and your physics classes will average only ten students. More important than class size is what happens outside the classroom. Your teachers are accessible; our faculty come here because they sought what we so uniquely offer – an opportunity to balance teaching and research, a place where they can continue to make new scientific discoveries while still having time to work one-on-one with undergraduates aspiring to become scientists.

You will be encouraged to participate in research. We do not require it, but most of our students choose to pursue this experience. You will not just read about science – you will become a scientist. There is a good chance that you will co-author a publication or present a scientific paper at a national meeting.

We have special grants available to allow you to stay here for the summer working on research. Other grants fund student travel to national meetings to present their work. You will be able to work with biophysicists who are probing the fundamental processes of life, astrophysicists who are modeling things from the beginning of the universe to the creation of gravity waves during black hole collisions, solid state physicists who are laying the groundwork for the next generation of lasers and radiation detectors. You will have an opportunity to work, not only with our own fourteen physics faculty, but also with the scientists from around the world who frequently visit to collaborate and use our facilities.

We have remarkable facilities, from perhaps the world’s top short-pulse laser lab (featured on the cover of Laser Focus World) to a leading center for nanotechnology to the speedy DEACNET parallel scientific supercomputing cluster used by the computational physicists in the department. And these facilities are all available to our undergraduates.

Smaller universities have historically been the most effective at preparing future scientists, as demonstrated by the demographics of those who hold doctorates in physics. Wake Forest, with its rare blend of outstanding facilities, extraordinary faculty, and small college values, is uniquely suited for developing in students a passion for learning and exploration that is the hallmark of all great scientists.

The University

Wake Forest is unusual. Those familiar with our reputation are often surprised to find how small we are. We have 4,000 undergraduates, making us the second smallest NCAA Division IA school. All our classes (except for some one credit labs) are taught by faculty, not by graduate students. The beautiful 340-acre campus in Winston-Salem, NC is perhaps the most technologically advanced in the country. Every entering student gets a hot laptop computer, and each student gets a replacement at the beginning of the junior year. Our campus has complete wireless coverage with speedy 802.11G and A networks, complemented by 17,000 network jacks.

Our student body has a tradition of community service, from building houses for Habitat for Humanity to working with the City of Joy. The University seeks students who have the ability and the desire to make a difference in the world.

Randall Ledford

This scholarship is funded through the generosity of Dr. Randall D. Ledford, WFU class of 1972. Through this gift Dr. Ledford expresses his appreciation for the undergraduate experience he enjoyed, both in the classroom and in research labs, as a major in physics at Wake Forest.

Dr. Ledford is Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Emerson Electric Company, one of the world’s leading electronics companies. Before joining Emerson Electric, Dr. Ledford was president and general manager of several divisions of Texas Instruments Inc. including software, digital imaging, enterprise solutions and process automation. He began his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories where he worked on UNIX development, fiber optic communication and microwave transmissions. While at Texas Instruments, Dr. Ledford led the company’s development of the Digital Light Processor (DLP). The size of a postage stamp, this device is the world’s most complex microelectromechanical machine, with 1.3 million parts. The DLP was featured in the first digital theater premiere of a major motion picture, Star Wars: Episode I.

Questions?

Want to find out more about our department or the scholarship? Please come and visit. We can coordinate your visit with one to our admissions office and a campus tour. Give a call, write, or send e-mail to our chair:

Thank you for your interest in physics. We hope that you will take the time to find out more about us.