Brian Bunton, Ph.D., an associate professor of physics in the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University, has made a financial commitment to support students majoring in physics at the University. He has established the Dr. Brian Bunton Endowed Scholarship for Physics and also has designated a portion of his estate to the University to further fund the scholarship. The gifts support the University's I'M IN endowment campaign, which has a goal of increasing CCU's endowment $20 million by 2020. Learn more about the campaign at I'M IN.

To be eligible for the scholarship, recipients must be full-time students at Coastal majoring in physics, have a GPA of at least 2.00 and demonstrate financial need.

"Last year, a student told me he had to drop out of CCU because he couldn't afford to continue," said Bunton, an avid fan of the Chanticleer baseball program. "He wasn't a straight-A student, so he wasn't eligible for many academic scholarships. Had he stayed, though, he most likely would have successfully graduated and gone on to a job he wanted in his field. I'm sure there are others with similar stories. It is my hope that my scholarship can help those students avoid such situations. I feel very lucky to have had the educational opportunities I've had in my life, and I want to help young men and women who have not had those advantages."

Bunton joined the Coastal faculty in 2007. He will become the inaugural chair of the Department of Physics and Engineering Science in July 2017. Bunton also serves the University as faculty senate chairman and as a member of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. His research area is theoretical particle physics, investigating effective theories of the strong nuclear force.

Bunton earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Clemson University in 2000, and master's and doctorate degrees in physics from Duke University in 2003 and 2007, respectively.