Rate My Professor John Fry

John Fry is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington, a position he has held since 2010 after joining the faculty in 1971. During his extensive career, he served as Chair of the Physics Department twice, including from 1980 to 1990, and taught virtually every class offered in the department. Fry was instrumental in fostering the growth of the Physics Department, organizing meetings for the Texas chapter of the American Physical Society, and advocating for the development of key facilities such as the Chemistry and Physics Building and the Planetarium. His dedication to teaching and departmental leadership has benefited the university tremendously, as noted by university officials, and he is recognized as a pioneer in the department's history. The John Fry Endowed Scholarship in Physics honors his contributions to the program.

Fry's research focuses on computational physics, with significant work in giant magnetoresistance (GMR). In 1992, he collaborated with Peter Levy from New York University on complex calculations supporting the GMR discovery, for which Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg received the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics. Fry and Levy co-authored three papers on this technology, which enabled advances in magnetic data storage adopted by companies like IBM. Other key publications include 'Origin of Planck's Constant in Galilean Relativity' presented at the American Physical Society in 2009 with Zdzislaw Musielak, and a 1991 paper in the Journal of Applied Physics on magnetic multilayers with Levy and colleagues. Fry's expertise has influenced student research, as acknowledged in multiple Physics dissertations from UTA. His computational contributions and extensive teaching record have left a lasting impact on the field of physics at UTA and beyond.