HAMMOND and WESTVILLE, Ind. — Purdue University Northwest (PNW) Professor of Physics Neeti Parashar has been elected as a 2024 Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
Parashar is recognized with the prestigious distinction from APS “for outstanding mentorship, teaching and leadership over two decades by creating and providing groundbreaking research and educational opportunities for minority students and young physicists from many nations, and for wide ranging contributions to the Compact Muon Solenoid program and its pixel detector at the Large Hadron Collider.”
“This is one of the highest honors a U.S. physicist can earn, so it’s very gratifying to know that I am recognized for my work, and included in the top tier group of physicists worldwide,” said Parashar. “Professionally, I have done everything possible in my capacity to support undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, high school teachers, high school students and fellow colleagues. Personally, it’s the human values that surpass all else. I am very grateful for the love, respect and support from my PNW family. PNW is home.”
“I am proud to join others as we celebrate this momentous achievement of Dr. Parashar,” said PNW Chancellor Kenneth C. Holford. “She is an accomplished researcher and passionate educator that has dedicated her career to advancing science and serving our community. We are fortunate to have Dr. Parashar as one of our esteemed faculty members who is elevating the impact of our scholarly contributions at PNW.”
“We are delighted and proud that Dr. Parashar has been elected to the APS Fellows,” said Marie T. Mora, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at PNW. “With Dr. Parashar’s outstanding research, leadership, teaching and mentoring – including providing educational opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students in STEM – this recognition is well deserved. It is always exciting when professional societies and associations like APS recognize the importance of mentoring in addition to research. As Purdue Northwest continues to build our research and scholarly activities, we expect that our faculty will continue to remain firmly committed to the success of our students, as Dr. Parashar has been doing throughout her career.”
APS recognizes society members who have made advances in the field of physics through original research and publication, made significant innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology, made remarkable advancements in the teaching of physics, or displayed exemplary service and participation in APS activities. Each year, no more than half of a percent of the society’s membership are elected as fellows.
At PNW, Parashar facilitates learning and research opportunities for postdocs, undergraduate students and Northwest Indiana school students as the director of the university’s Center for High Energy Physics and PNW QuarkNet Center on education and outreach.
Parashar, as a scholar specializing in high energy physics, provides students opportunities to observe and contribute to National Science Foundation-funded research performed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill. and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. Parashar and students collaborate on and present research focused on new particles in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider and the silicon pixel detector in use at the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, which are housed at CERN. Parashar has also mentored postdoctoral fellows that have transitioned into research roles in labs and academic settings as faculties.
“At PNW, I take great pride in leading our discovery-driven research endeavors,” said Parashar. “I provide all members of my research team with the needed resources and guidance. But more importantly, I give them the freedom to ask questions, experiment and discover, because that is when you do science the best.”
“Recognition as a ‘fellow’ by the professional society that you are part of is something the professorate strives for throughout academia in the sciences and engineering,” said Bruce Berdanier, dean of the College of Engineering and Sciences at PNW. “This recognition really is considered one of the pinnacles of a career in teaching, research and service, and Dr. Parashar has greatly accomplished that in her work in high energy physics throughout the world and with students here at PNW.”
Parashar was part of the research team, comprised of several thousand scientists, who in 2012 discovered the Higgs boson particle at CERN. The Higgs boson responsible for the origin of mass is dubbed as “the God particle” in an attempt to explain the genesis of life’s existence. The scientists’ discovery helped Peter Higgs and Francois Englert earn the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for their predictions of the existence of the Higgs boson particle.
Parashar has been a faculty member at PNW since 2005. She earned her Ph.D. in High Energy Physics from the University of Delhi. She has authored or co-authored over 1,900 research articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.
APS is a premier professional society and nonprofit scientific organization committed to advancing physics and creating a welcoming professional home for the world’s physics community.