Cailin Plunkett Wins the American Physical Society's LeRoy Apker Award

It’s official! Recent lab alumna Cailin Plunkett ‘23 has been recognized by the American Physical Society with the prestigious LeRoy Apker award. Each department in the country can nominate only one undergraduate thesis in physics for the award, and only two undergraduates receive it each year - one at a PhD granting institution and one at a non-PhD granting institution. It’s been 40 years since an Amherst College graduate won the award, and we are all exceptionally proud of Cailin.

Finalists for the Apker are invited to Washington, D.C. to interview and explain their work to the committee. It’s a testament not only to the brilliance of Cailin’s thesis itself, in which she quite literally invented a new way to think about protoplanets at the population level, but also to her ability to clearly communicate it that she’s received this honor.

The American Physical Society even appears to be awarding Cailin with a PhD a few years early in addressing their letter to “Dr. Plunkett”. She’s only a couple of months into her PhD program in Physics at MIT. Oversight or premonition?

Congratulations Cailin!!