New named professors in physics

Two faculty in the University of Delaware College of Arts and Sciences have been appointed to named professorships.

In recognition of their achievements as scholars and educators, Henry Glyde and John Xiao have been named Unidel Professors of Physics and Astronomy, effective Sept. 1.

Unidel professorships are supported by the Unidel Foundation, which was established by Amy E. du Pont, a noted sportswoman and philanthropist who supported women's education at Delaware and bequeathed her estate to create the foundation. The Unidel Foundation makes grants to finance specific projects to enrich educational programs at UD.

Henry Glyde

Henry Glyde, a Rhodes Scholar, is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy with research interests in low temperature physics and neutron scattering, quantum and classical liquids in disorder and confinement, Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum Monte Carlo methods.

In addition to more than 190 scientific publications, he has written a text on Excitations in Liquid and Solid Helium and is widely respected for both his theoretical and experimental contributions, sustained with three decades of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. He has provided exemplary service to the scientific community primarily as an ardent advocate for neutron scattering in the North America and Europe. In 1992, he chaired the committee that founded the Neutron Scattering Society of America. In 2010-11, he was also named Distinguished Guest Scientist at the Institute Laue Langevin, France.

Glyde was the driving force behind the development of university physics in Thailand in the '70s and '80s with a significant grant from the Canadian International Development Agency. In 2001, he received the John Wheatley Award from the American Physical Society, given to "honor and recognize the dedication of physicists who have made contributions to the development of physics in countries of the third world." He is a fellow of the APS and has served recently as chair of the APS Forum for International Physics (FIP), as chair of the APS Committee on International Scientific Affairs (CISA) and as APS representative to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).

Glyde came to the University as department chair of physics and astronomy, serving a total of 11 years. During this time, he secured major funding from the U.S. Department of Education for Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN). He was also interim chair of the Department of Computing and Information Sciences in 2004-5.

John Xiao

John Xiao is a professor and center director in the Department of Physics and Astronomy whose research examines spintronics, metamaterials, magnetism in nanostructures and applications based on magnetic materials.

As director of the Center for Spintronics and Biodetection for the past five years, Xiao leads the efforts to diversify research in the area of electromagnetic materials physics. Since 1996, he has served as principal investigator or project leader on grants totaling more than $9 million and as co-PI on numerous other projects funded by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

He has more than 190 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is a fellow in the American Physical Society, cited for his discovery of giant magnetoresistance in granular solids and the exploration of spin polarized transport and spin dynamics in magnetic materials.

A faculty member with the University of Delaware since 1998, he has also served as guest professor for the Institute of Materials Research at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, visiting professor for the Laboratorio de Fisica de Sistemas Peque??os y Nanotecnologia in Madrid, Spain, and visiting professor for Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has been active in developing academic partnerships between China the University of Delaware.