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Meet Our Legacy Circle Members

We are thankful for those who have made an estate gift to the American Physical Society. Here are their stories.

Benefactor Jay Jones Funds New APS Medal

The newly created APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research will be the first Society-wide annual award to recognize achievement of researchers across all fields of physics. It is funded by a generous donation from Jay Jones, the founder and former president of Olympic Medical Corporation.

Industrial Physicist Selects APS as Sole Beneficiary of Generous Estate Gift

After obtaining his degree and carrying out postdoctoral research on amorphous semiconductors, Suha Oguz worked as a scientist at the corporate research lab of a defense contractor. His career followed a path into technical management, and he eventually retired after 11 years as vice president of Research and Development for a $7 billion business. He credits his success to being able to bridge the gap between the engineers and scientists working on technical research, on the one hand, and the business development staff and lawyers on the other.

Erol Oktay Knows the Importance of Collaboration and Leaving a Legacy

Plasma physicist Erol Oktay knows the importance of collaboration. Now retired, Oktay was for many years involved in one of the world's most complex and collaborative endeavors—the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) being built in France to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our sun and stars. And as a member of the APS Legacy Circle, he values the way physicists can come together to support their professional society through the APS planned giving programs.