From the UA News Center | The University established the Premier Awards to recognize UA students, faculty and staff who exemplify the highest standards of scholarship, service, leadership and character.
The Catherine Johnson Randall Award recognizes the most outstanding graduating senior based on GPA, rigor of course of study and extraordinary scholarly or creative endeavor.
Despite the common stigma that physics does not affect the layperson, Sarah Deutsch, a physics major and Randall Research Scholars student, believes that societal progress is driven by fundamental research.
Deutsch’s research pursuits have included X-ray analysis of medieval artifacts, simulation studies of components of radiotherapy machines for cancer treatment and machine learning studies for CMS, an international particle physics experiment.
Driven by an appreciation for the arts and humanities, Deutsch desires to help bridge the gap between society and science through research and outreach. By restarting UA’s Society of Physics Students, she hopes to help build a sense of community in the physics department and pass along information to help her peers get the most out of their undergraduate experience, while hoping to promote inclusion and work toward equality in the field.
She said she sees great value in interdisciplinary exposure, and she studied electrical engineering and mathematics in addition to physics. Her research endeavors have opened the door for her to travel to Switzerland for a summer internship at CERN, and she’s earned several awards for poster presentations at national conferences.
Her parents are Chris and Joyce Deutsch.