Dr. Lorin Matthews is named as a new Physics Department chair

Dr. Lorin Matthews has been a member of Baylor Physics Department since 2000. She received her B.S. in Physics, summa cum laude, Honors with Distinction in 1994, and her Ph.D. in 1998, both from Baylor University. From 1998-2000 she worked for Raytheon Aircraft Integration Systems in the Flight Sciences Department, where one of the main projects she worked on was NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory. She joined the Baylor faculty in 2000 as a lecturer in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and Physics Department and Senior Research Scientist in the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics, and Engineering Research (CASPER).

In 2006 she became an assistant professor in the department of physics, and was promoted to full professor in 2017. She has been very active in the plasma physics and space sciences, and has been awarded several external grants from NSF, NASA, and DOE, including the prestigious NSF Career Award.

Dr. Matthews comments, "Since I was an undergraduate, my husband has always teased me that the only thing I do when I'm in my office is roll around in my chair. (This is in reference to the chair races that the *other* physics students held in the hallways of Marrs McLean Science building during late-night study breaks.) Now I am the chair -- I guess I'm really rolling!"