Fallon Award
Leslie D. Fallon (or “Doc” as he was commonly known to his students) devoted his career
to teaching. He earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Yale University and taught
at Geneva College and the Mellon Institute (now Carnegie Mellon) before joining the
physics department at New Mexico Tech in 1961. Dedicated to undergraduate education—especially
introductory physics—he led freshman courses and supervised labs until his retirement
in 1981. Doc proved, with his quiet spiritual warmth, that religion and science can
mix.
This is an award given to the physics graduate student who does the best job of teaching
freshman physics labs or recitations. The department will evaluate this based on student
evaluations and instructor feedback and observations.
| Year | Recipient |
| 2026 | Roberto Niardi |
| 2025 | Emma Stover |
| 2024 | Andrew Douglas |
| 2023 | Genna Crom |
| 2022 | Dylan Ward |
| 2021 | James Price |
| 2020 | Kevin Turner |
| 2019 | Megan Hein |
| 2018 | Dana Baylis-Aguirre |
| 2017 | Tierra Candelaria |
| 2016 | Brandon Gray |