John Ellsworth received the 2025 President’s Appreciation Award for his work in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Ten BYU staff receive this award each year to recognize their “overall contribution and commitment to the mission and aims of the university” (staffac.byu.edu). Recipients are nominated by their fellow staff, and the nominations are reviewed by both the Staff Advisory Council and the BYU President’s Council before the final selection is made. Ellsworth is being recognized for his administrative work in the department for the past two decades, especially his efforts to coordinate with construction crews and BYU facilities during the recent construction of the ESC Annex.
Ellsworth graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, respectively. Prior to BYU he worked eleven years at the University of Utah in Computer Science, culminating in becoming the Director of Research Computing Facilities. Then, he spent eleven years as a member of the teaching faulty at Weber State University before coming to BYU as an assistant lecturer in Physics. His research interests center on laboratory nuclear astrophysics. Reflecting on his research, Ellsworth noted his passion for learning how things work. He recalled that his dad couldn’t give him anything without him trying to improve it, and this passion, along with the drive to use what he learns to improve things, is something he strives to pass on to students who work with him.
“He does so much behind the scenes to make our department research labs successful.”
- Dr. Richard Sandberg (Department of Physics and Astronomy)
Ellsworth currently serves as the Research Labs Supervisor for the Department of Physics and Astronomy and serves on the campus Radiation and LASER Safety Committee. Legal, professional, and moral standards are important to Ellsworth, and he said that in his efforts to uphold such standards he lives by the adage, “let no man regret I pass this way.” Rhett Lundell, a senior working with John, summarized his role in the department: “Everyone keeps coming to him with their problems, and he keeps fixing them.”
Authors: Scott Curtis, Shadrach Christiansen, Sam Norcross, Zachary Hampson
