Stephen Padalino (SUNY Geneseo photo/Matt Burkhartt)
Stephen Padalino, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Physics at Geneseo, has been selected to receive the American Physical Society’s 2025 Excellence in Physics Education Award. The award recognizes a team, collaboration, or exceptional individual who has exhibited a sustained commitment to excellence in physics education.
“Dr. Padalino has made valuable contributions to the field of physics as a teacher, mentor, and researcher, and this award is a well-deserved honor,” says Geneseo President Denise A. Battles. “His holistic approach to teaching students inside and outside classroom, research, and laboratory settings has had, and will continue to have, a positive and lasting impression on our students who have been inspired to engage in research throughout their careers.”
A SUNY Geneseo Department of Physics and Astronomy member since 1985, Padalino helped establish a collaboration with the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) 30 years ago. The successful collaboration was instrumental in Geneseo receiving funding for the 2007 purchase of a 1.7 MV Pelletron accelerator. The College is one of only a handful of primarily undergraduate institutions with such an instrument.
“Dr. Padalino has engaged nearly 500 students in high-impact transformational physics research experiences,” says Mary C. Toale, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “He has contributed to the department's ranking as one of the country's top producers of bachelor's degrees in physics.”
As Geneseo’s LLE project director for more than 30 years, Padalino has involved 15 to 25 undergraduate students annually whose research regularly results in presentations at national meetings. He has also received more than 30 external grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Energy, and the National Laser User Facility that have yielded more than $13 million dollars in funding.
“With this well-deserved recognition from the American Physical Society, Dr. Padalino has elevated the profile of Geneseo’s Department of Physics and Astronomy to the national level,” says Savi Iyer, professor and physics department chair. “In addition, many faculty colleagues in the department have benefited from the highly effective collaboration he has established over decades with the LLE.”
Padalino was awarded SUNY’s highest rank of Distinguished Teaching Professor in 2007 and was named an American Physical Society Fellow in 2017. Over the years, he also received SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Teaching (1992) and Excellence in Research and Scholarship (2006) and was named CASE Professor of the Year for New York State (Council for Advancement and Support of Education; 2001). Padalino holds master’s and doctoral degrees in nuclear physics from Florida State University.