Sybilla Beckmann honored with Hay Award.

Writer:  Sam Fahmy, UGA Today

Athens, Ga. - Two University of Georgia Honors Students—Tuan Nguyen and Amy Webster—have been named 2014 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars.

Clayton Shonkwiler, a postdoctoral associate in the department of mathematics, has been at the center of a very exciting set of breakthroughs in the understanding and simulation of polymers, which are long flexible molecules composed of chains of smaller units. These molecules can take many shapes and their chemical and biological properties are strongly influenced by the probability theory of the distribution of shapes.

Michael Usher, associate professor of mathematics, is recognized for his breakthrough development of a new tool known as “boundary depth,” which helps mathematicians working in the field of symplectic geometry better understand the intricacies of an important geometric space known as the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms. While Usher’s contributions are in pure mathematics, the field of symplectic geometry was born from and is strongly tied to applications in physics.