The purpose of the ITP Scholar program is to support research efforts of faculty at non-Ph.D. granting universities. The program will fund summer study and collaboration for each of the next three years with some of the leading theoretical physicists on the planet. The ITP is located at the University of California at Santa Barbara and serves as host for approximately 800 visiting physicists.
Dr. Sebhatu's research focuses on understanding the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces found in nature. He has developed mathematical expressions that effectively model the strong force with few parameters. Dr. Sebhatu maintains a number of close collaborations with theoretical physicists all over the world. Recently, his approach to the strong nuclear force has attracted the attention of a number of nuclear scientists at Hamburg University in Germany. Dr. Sebhatu's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Winthrop University Research Council.
Dr. Sebhatu received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Clemson University
and has been a member of the Winthrop faculty since 1978. Prior to
coming to the US in 1970, Dr. Sebhatu taught math and physics in Ethiopia.
From 1991-1992, Dr. Sebhatu served as the King-Chavez-Parks Visiting Professor
of Physics at Michigan State University. At Winthrop, Dr. Sebhatu
teaches the two semester calculus based physics course, modern physics,
thermodynamics, astronomy, and the new "Energy and the Environment" course
that he recently developed.