Featured Alumni

A procession of graduates and faculty in academic regalia

 

Erin Foster Drennan Class of  2016, 2022 Stetson Physics Featured Alumna
Erin Foster Drennan '16

An Open Letter to Stetson Physics Majors and Minors by Featured Alumna Erin Foster Drennan ('16)

The Stetson University physics department proudly salutes the accomplishments of all our alumni with this page. We invite you to meet our featured alumni:

  • Carla Ramsdell '88 - Practitioner in Residence and Pre-Engineering Advisor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sustainability Liaison, College of Arts and Sciences, Appalachian State University
  • Paul Stuk '03 - Manager in the Asset and Liability Management division of Zions Bancorporation
  • Sarah Caudill '06 - Research Scientist at the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef)
  • Todd Du Bosq '01 - Physicist at the Modeling and Simulation Division of the U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate
  • Wes Langston '05 – strategic planner, Northrop Grumman Corporate Analysis Center
  • Brandon Marsell '07 – company owner, Freedom Engineering, LLC and aerospace engineer, NASA
  • Glenn Teeter '92 - surface analysis group manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • David Hill '98 - research assistant professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UNC Chapel Hill and Department of Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill.
  • Robert Bedford '98 - senior electronics engineer, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
  • Renée (Dickinson) Butler '05 - medical physicist, Department of Radiology, University of Washington Medical Center
  • Rick Sowers '85 - transportation engineering consultant, focusing on water resources and environmental permitting
  • Amanda (York) Ely '00 - research scientist, RTI Biologics
  • April (Teske) Van Hise '01 - assorted technical positions at National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, DuPont Central Research and Development, Forensic Analytical Services, Inc., DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise
  • Paul Hastings '87 - vice president, sales and business development, Impact Weather, Inc.
  • Joshua Colwell '85 - researcher in atmospheric and space physics, professor, Center for Microgravity Research and Education, University of Central Florida
  • Garrett Granroth '93 - instrument scientist, Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Amy (Johnson) Hayes '96 - high school physics teacher
  • Dave Morton '87 - professor of mechanical engineering, University of Texas at Austin
  • Raoul Sanchez '90 - pediatrician
  • Sean Washburn '76 - associate professor and chair of the physics and astronomy department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Dan Stevenson '74 - director, Center for Advanced Network Research
  • Tom Moore '78 - professor of physics, Rollins College
  • Bill Newsome '74 - investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of neurobiology at Stanford University

Learn more about career paths in physics

What can you do with a physics degree?

 A group three smiling students along with a faculty member in a black robe and a gold stole

One of our alumni, Renée (Dickinson) Butler '05, wrote back to us a year or so after she graduated to tell us about how she was adjusting to graduate school. She's since obtained a master's degree in medical physics, in part because of contact she had with one of our featured alumni. She shares this comment:

"I remember pondering on several occasions during my time at Stetson where I would be headed after graduation. The Physics Department at Stetson established an annual 'Featured Alum' where they invite an alum to come back and share their experiences beyond their BS education. The one featured alum I can recall speaking with was David Morton and it was during that afternoon I realized there are so many more options for Physics majors than taking the next 'logical step' of getting a PhD in Physics. That was my junior year. Between then and now, I took an internship at Clemson in Bioengineering and have ultimately ended up in Medical Physics. I guess what I am saying is...

...explore your options. Determine what you like and don't like. Do a bit of research. You may just stumble on to a field you could spend your life learning more and more about while thoroughly enjoying it (or at least the majority of)!"