Professor Emeritus Roger E. Mills, a faculty member of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 1969-1995 passed away on July 25, 2020. Professor Mills had a long and successful career at the University of Louisville and contributed to the field of Statistical Mechanics. One of the lasting contributions of Professor Mills to the university is that he contributed to the design of the Foucault pendulum that is on public display under the dome of the Grawemeyer Hall. To be specific, he designed the pendulum support and the magnetic drive for the pendulum. He served on various leadership roles and faculty governance positions within the university. At the department, he will be remembered for the cutting-edge instructional laboratory that he designed for the introductory Mechanics laboratory using the National
Science Foundation funding. To this date, many of these experiments are still being used in this laboratory course. Roger was also committed to the professional development of junior faculty members. After his retirement, his family created an endowment for fostering junior faculty member’s professional enrichment. Anyone wishing to make contributions to this endowment in remembrance of Professor Roger E. Mills, please make your check payable to the University of Louisville Foundation and mail it to the Director of Development, College of Arts &s; Sciences, 2323 South Brook Street, Louisville, KY 40292. Please write “Roger E. Mills Endowment (E1896)” on the face of the check. Professor Mills will have a special place in the hearts and minds of students and faculty and his legacy will be cherished for a very long time in our department.
