Emily Churchman ’19 has been named a finalist for the American Physical Society’s (APS) 2019 LeRoy Apker Award. As a finalist, she is invited to present her research to the selection committee in Washington, D.C., on August 9. Churchman, a physics major, is the first graduate in TLU history to receive this honor and just one of six finalists in the nation.

As an Apker Award finalist Churchman will receive $2,000 honorarium and the TLU Physics Department will also receive $1,000 to support undergraduate research.

The LeRoy Apker Award recognizes outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students and provides encouragement to young physicists who have demonstrated great potential for future scientific accomplishment. Each year, two awards are presented, one to a student from a Ph.D. granting institution, and one to a student from a non-Ph.D. granting institution.

The award consists of $5,000 for the recipient, $5,000 for the institution's physics department to support undergraduate research, a certificate, and reimbursement for travel to an APS meeting to give an invited talk. As a student, Churchman received two prestigious ELCA Rossing Scholarships totaling $15,000 and was a leader in TLU’s nationally-recognized Society Of Physics Students chapter.

In April 2019, her research project, "Characterization of ParTI Phoswiches Using Charged Pion Beams," was featured at the 23^rd Annual Posters on the Hill event in Washington, D.C. Her poster was just one of 60 submissions displayed out of more than 350 competitive applications received.

She will begin a Ph.D. program in physics this fall at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.