Hauger named Callaway Chair
Joseph A. Hauger, a professor in Augusta State University’s Department of Chemistry and Physics, has been named the university’s Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair. Hauger is only the third ASU faculty member to ever receive this prestigious honor.
Funded by the Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Trust, the special recognition was begun in 1968 by the Callaway Foundation to enrich the academic programs in selected Georgia colleges and universities. Forty chairs were established by the Trust to honor Fuller E. Callaway, Sr., and his special interest in higher education.
According to Carol Rychly, vice president for academic affairs at ASU, Hauger was chosen for this distinguished chair to recognize his superior teaching abilities and for his overall commitment to the academic success of ASU students.
“Students find his passion for physics to be contagious,” said Rychly. “Dr. Hauger’s wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of physics, his engaging instructional style, and his commitment to undergraduate research make him very deserving of this prestigious honor.”
Before joining ASU in 1996, Hauger was a visiting professor at DePauw University. In 2004, Hauger became the director of the university’s Honors Program. Serving more than a year as director, Dr. Hauger took a fellowship in medical physics at Vanderbilt University. He returned to ASU in 2006 to become chair of the university’s Department of Chemistry and Physics.
In 2010, he relinquished his duties as department chair to begin serving as the director of ASU’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship. Hauger also took on the position as the co-director of ASU’s Savannah River Scholars Program (SRSP), a research initiative funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Hauger is an eight-time recipient of the ASU Student Ambassador Board’s Most Valuable Professor Award and a Medical Physics Fellow at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Hauger also is a recipient of the DePauw University Mortar Board Teaching Excellence Award, the Navy Achievement Medal, and the Instructor of the Year Award from the United States Naval Nuclear Power School.
He is a member of several professional organizations including the Georgia Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
Hauger is very involved in the community—having presented several fun, educational workshops to local elementary, middle, and high schools. He also has been an event coordinator for Georgia’s Science Olympiad, and he has taught radiation physics courses in Georgia Health Sciences University’s Radiation Therapy Program.
Hauger earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a master’s and doctoral degree, both in physics, from Purdue University.
