Student Earns Excellence in Physics Award

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Nicholas Gagliardo, a civil engineering major at Florida Institute of Technology, has earned the university’s James G. Potter Award for Excellence in Physics. He qualified for the award based on his all-around academic excellence and his top score in a physics question and calculation competition.

A resident of Port St. Lucie, Fla., Gagliardo completed 54 college credits at Indian River State College while still attending Lincoln Park Academy High School in Fort Pierce. As a high school student, he participated in the Math Olympics and Brain Bowl regional competitions.

At Florida Tech, he has remained on the Dean’s List for his high grade point average. He participated in the 2010 American Society of Civil Engineers regional competition and was active on his department’s steel bridge building team. In the 2010-2011 academic year, he will be steel bridge team captain.

Potter, the award’s namesake, retired as head of the physics department at Texas A&M University and became head of the physics department at Florida

Tech in 1968. In the 1980s, he retired as department head, but continued operating the physics laboratories and training graduate student assistants as instructors.

The Potter Award has been given in his memory since his death in 1992.