New and Noteworthy
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Physics Student-Research Seminar Series
Bibek Raman Parajuli'2010 gives a seminar "Design and Fabrication of multi-dimensional photonic crystals" [Work done under the supervision of Professor Paul V.Braun, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign during summer 2009]
By using the kinetic difference of physiochemical processes, highly porous or discrete metal structures can be obtained. Through theoretical modeling and geometrical design, the research expected to obtain metal structure with superior optical properties. My research was to develop a multi-layered stack of a photonic crystal.
Friday, November 20 , 2009 at 4:00 PM
Physics Student-Research Seminar Series
Adam Chambers' 2010 gives a seminar on 'Superconductivity and the Proximity Effect in Nb/Cu Bilayers' [The research was done during summer 2009 under the supervision of Professor Laura Greene at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.]
Friday, November 6, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Physics Student-Research Seminar Series
Ryan Goetz' 2011 "Detecting Nonlinear Correlations in VIRGO Data Channels"
June 15, 2009
Nicholas Timme '2008, now a Ph.D. student at Indiana University and Dr. Andrew Morrison, now a visiting faculty member at Northwestern University, publish a paper " The mode shapes of a tennis racket and the effects of vibration dampers on those mode shapes" in Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 125 (6) June 2009, pp 3650-3656
April 7, 2009: Physics Crystal Ball Coffeehouse
Six physics alumni, Jane Andrew'1986, Steve Zimmerman'2000, Prakrit Jena'2005, Ryan Smith'2007 and Andy Nelson' 2008 visited the Hart Career Center and spoke to 23 current physics students about their careers after their physics degree from IWU. Many thanks to Professor Spalding, Professor Detweiler, the Hart Career Center and the Alumni Relations Office for helping plan and execute this valuable experience for our current students.
April 3-4, 2009: During the Spring Meeting of ISAAPT:
Three students made oral presentations at the Student Research Symposium:
Alison Smith, Mark S. Kasperczyk, Nathan H. Frank Observation of a Resonance State in 25F.
Leah Goldberg RPC Modifications for the PHENIX Collaboration Muon-Trigger Upgrade.
Mark Kasperczyk, Alison R. Smith, Nathan H. Frank Observation of a Resonance State in 26F.
Alison Smith won the prize for the Top Student Presentation at the Spring Meeting of the ISAAPT, for her paper.
Prof. Lew Detweiler offered a workshop "Hands On Astronomy" at the Mark Evans Observatory, and chaired a session.
Prof. Linda French chaired a session, presented a Take -Five and organized a viewing on the quad by Twin City Amateur Astronomers, Lee Green and Dan Miller.
Prof. Narendra Jaggi organized the conference and presented a paper titled: "Embedding: An Approach to Integrating Computational Skills in the Curriculum."
Prof. Thushare Perera presented an Invited Talk : "Measuring Ancient Light."
Prof. Gabe Spalding chaired a session and presented a Take-Five.
April 3-4, 2009: The department hosted the Spring Meeting of the Illinois Section of American Association of Physics Teachers (ISAAPT) at IWU: 66 attendees, 22 papers, Student Research Symposium, three workshops. http://helios.augustana.edu/isaapt/s09/isaapt.html
March 12, 2009: Prof. Thushara Perera published a paper titled "An AzTEC 1.1mm survey of the GOODS-N field - I. Maps, catalogue and source statistics" in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), volume 390, pages 1227-1238, year 2009
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.391.1227P
February 23, 2009: Barrel Crush! SPS posted video of its recent play-time activity on Vimeo.
http://vimeo.com/3313931
February 6, 2009: Prof. Bruno deHarak accepted our offer to join IWU as an Assistant professor of physics, starting August 2009.
February 2009: Prof. Nathan Frank presented a talk titled "Cutting-Edge Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Physics" to the 2009 American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting in Chicago, IL.
February 2009: Prof. French has been awarded two weeks of telescope time at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in May and July 2009.
January 2009: Prof. French presented "An Early Astronomical Observation by John Goodricke" to the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society at their annual meeting in Long Beach, California.
November 2008: Alison R. Smith presented a talk, based upon her research with Prof. Frank, titled "Observation of a Low-Lying Neutron Unbound State in 25F" to the 19th Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics at Argonne National Laboratory.
October 2008: Prof. Jaggi and senior, John Meuser presented a paper "Use of Mathematica in Intermediate Quantum Mechanics" at the Fall Meeting of Illinois Section of American Association of Physics Teachers ( ISAAAPT) at ISU, Normal, IL, October 10-11, 2008 http://helios.augustana.edu/isaapt/f08/details-15.html
October 10, 2008: The department completed a comprehensive Self-Study for the period 1997-2008, including its students, curriculum (theoretical, experimental and computational), faculty and support staff, and facilities.
September 16, 2008: IWU research trip to observatory in Chile just completed:
Prof. Linda French and IWU physics major Kundan Chaudhary have just returned from their trip to an observatory in Chile, as part of their research work. A blog describing the trip is available online at: http://blogs.iwu.edu/factrack/
September 5, 2008: Liquid NItrogen and Soap Bubbles at the SPS PIcnic:
On Sunday, August 31, 2008, the IWU Society of Physics Students organized a picnic at the historic Franklin Park. See the videos on YouTube online at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MadScientist3889
April 24, 2008: Dr. Thushara Perera joins the department as tenure-track Assistant Professor of astronomy and physics. Click on the URL below to learn more about Professor Perera.
http://www.astro.umass.edu/~perera/iwu_blurb/
April 24, 2008: Professor Spalding gives the "Charles Lindberg Lecture" at UW-Madison. The title of his talk: "Small Masses Require Small Forces: Micro-mechanical Control via Transfer of Optical Momentum."
April 22, 2008: Professor Jaggi elected Chair of Promotion and Tenure Committee for 2008-09.
April 21, 2008: Beginning Fall 2008, Ikenna Odinaka ' 08 will pursue his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Washington University.
Jay Christensen' 08 (physics minor) will be attending Rush Medical College in the Fall.
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April 18, 2008: Ed Price' 08 is joining Teach for America! He'll be teaching secondary Chemistry in Memphis,TN.
April 16, 2008: Ryan Esch '08 has been accepted into the dual-degree program at Bradley, where he plans to study Civil Engineering. He plans to pursue a Masters Degree.
Scott Swisher '08 (physics minor) has been admitted into the graduate Econ programs at Cornell, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Michigan State.
April 14, 2008: After numerous visits around the country, Becky Carlton '08 finally accepts the offer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to pursue her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering.
After much deliberation, Nick Timme '08 has accepted the offer from Indiana University to pursue his Ph.D. in Physics.
April 12, 2008: Professor Jaggi is the keynote speaker at the Phi Kappa Phi induction ceremony. The title of his talk: "New wine in old wineskins?: Is nuclear the new green?"
Three physics students present papers at the John Wesley Powell Research Conference.
"Investigation into Factors Affecting the Operating Deflection Shapes of a Mandolin" by Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor) and Prof. Morrison;
"The mode shapes and frequencies of carbon fiber plates" by Nick Timme '08 and Prof. Morrison;
"Stock Index pricing with random walk and agent based models" by Scott N. Swisher IV '08 (physics minor) and Prof. Seeborg
April 10, 2008: Colin Komar '08 will enter the Ph.D. program at West Virginia University where he will study Plasma Physics.
April 9, 2008: Professor Wilson presents a workshop, "Hiroshima and Nagasaki for Teachers,"at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, San Juan, Seventh Conference: Science, Environment and Society, La Ciencia al Servicio de la Paz y los Derechos Humanos (Science in Service of Peace and Human Rights)
April 9, 2008: Alex Boecher '08 will pursue his graduate studies in Environmental Studies at UW-Madison.
April 8, 2008: Sawyer Campbell '08 accepts the offer from The College of Optical Sciences at The University of Arizona to do his PhD. in Optics.
April 6, 2008: In Fall 2008, Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor) will do environmental work for United Oil Products, in their R&D division, on developing renewable fuels.
April 5, 2008: Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor) ( working with Prof. Morrison) and Sawyer Campbell '08 present research papers at the ISAAPT Spring 2008 Meeting in Urbana, IL .
"Investigation into Factors Affecting the Operating Deflection Shapes of a Mandolin"; Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor), Illinois Wesleyan University.
"Calibration of Webcams for Imaging"; Sawyer Campbell '08, Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University
March 2008: Dan Haeger '08 accepts offer from UCSB to pursue his Ph.D. in Materials Science Engineering.
Read about the exciting summer research done by Dan Haeger '08 at UC Santa Barbara on blue lasers. http://www2.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases08/stn_DanHaeger_308.shtml
March 2008: Professor Spalding is President of a new national organization called ALPhA (for "Advanced Lab Physics Association"), which is working to establish a network of instructors interested in the experimental part of the undergraduate curriculum, emphasizing the arc of development desired beyond the introductory level. In this capacity, Prof. Spalding hosted open meetings for Advanced Lab instructors from across the nation both at the Winter Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), which was held in Baltimore, and at the annual March Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), which was held in New Orleans. ALPhA is working collaboratively with both APS and AAPT and can already point to a number of new resources that are coming together to help Advanced Lab Instructors. -- So far, these include:
A listserv:
An Advanced Lab website (with content coming on line):
March 1-20, 2008: Colin Komar, Becky Carlton, Dan Haeger, Nick Timme and Alex Boecher travel to universities around the country to decide which offer (of admission into graduate school and scholarship/fellowship) they will accept.
January 2008:
December graduate Janelle Bailey '08 accepts position at Farmer's Insuarance Company.
December graduate Andy Nelson '08 accepts position (as research engineer) at the U.S. Army Core of Engineers (CERL).
December 2007: December graduate Janelle Bailey '08 receives the prestigious full-ride scholarship to attend law school at the University of Kansas City Law School, starting Fall 2008; she accepts it.
November 2007: December graduate Andy Nelson '08 successfully defends his Research Honors thesis : "Visualizing a Fourth Dimension: Hypercubic Resistor Networks".
Read about his work at http://www2.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsrelease07/fac_Jaggi_607.shtml
November 2007: Prof. Nathan Frank publishes, with co-authors, " Exploring Neutron-Rich Oxygen Isotopes with MoNA" in Proton Emitting Nuclei and Related Topics-PROCON2007 edited by L. Ferreira and P. Arumugam.
October 2007: Professor Wilson conducts a workshop, A Natural -- Nuclear Physics, Nuclear War. Is It Missing from Your Physics Curriculum? at the IL-AAPT Fall Meeting at Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, IL.
August 2007: Six students return to campus after exciting and successful summer research at different research universities: Andy Nelson at UIUC, Becky Carlton at Washington University, Colin Komar at Baylor University, Dan Haegar at UC Santa Barbara, Ikenna Odinaka at UIUC, and Nick Timme at Kansas State University.
August 2007: Prof. Linda French starts her term as the Director of IWU's London Semester Program.
August 2007: Prof. Gabe Spalding co-chairs the topical Conference on Optical Trapping and Optical Micro-manipulation IV (sponsored by SPIE), San Diego, California. For conference proceedings, click here
August 9, 2007: Prof. Ray Wilson guides a workshop at the International Institute on Peace Education, 25th Anniversary Symposium at the United Nations, "Missing from Your Curriculum?"
August 2007: Santanam Kasturi, M.Tech., appointed as Adjunct Instructor for Fall 2007
August 2007: David Wolfe, Ph.D., reappointed as Adjunct Associate Professor for Fall 2007
August 2007: Nathan Frank, Ph.D., joins the department as Visiting Assistant Professor
July 2007: Prof. Andy Morrison presents paper titled "Incorporating space missions into a fundamental astronomy course" at the AAPT Summer Meeting in Greensboro, NC.
une 2007: Prof. Ray Wilson conducts Hiroshima and Nagasaki for College Teachers: A One-week Workshop, June 25 - 29, 2007 (click here for workshop webpage)
April 2007:Thomas Traynor'08 (working with Professor Morrison) wins the first priize for student research at Spring 2007 Meeting of ISAAPT. "Construction of an Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometer" Thomas Traynor, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61701.
March 2007: Prof. Ray Wilson, presents a paper, "Missing from Your Physics Curriculum?"at the IL-AAPT Spring Meeting at WIU, Macomb, IL.
August 2006: Prof. Gabe Spalding co-chairs the topical SPIE Conference on Optical Trapping and Optical Micro-manipulation III (sponsored by SPIE)
August 2006: David Wolfe, Ph.D., appointed as Adjunct Associate Professor for Fall 2006
July 2006: Prof. Narendra Jaggi chairs the session on Upper Level Curricular Issues at the National Conference of Physics Department Chairs (sponsored by the American Physics Society) in Maryland. www.aps.org/programs/education/ chairs/upload/SessionII_1.pdf
July 2006: Prof. Beth Cunningham presents an invited talk at the National Conference of Physics Department Chairs (sponsored by the American Physics Society) in Maryland.
July 2006: Beth Cunningham, Ph.D., the new Provost and Dean of Faculty at IWU, joins the department as Professor of Physics.
June 2006: Prof. Ray Wilson conducts Hiroshima and Nagasaki for College Teachers: A One-week Workshop7 (click here for workshop webpage)
August 2005: Prof. Gabe Spalding co-chairs the topical SPIE Conference on Optical Trapping and Optical Micro-manipulation II in San Diego, California.
June 2005, Andrew Morrison, Ph.D., joins the department as Visiting Assistant Professor
June 2005, Deadly Objects In Space: Prof. Linda French charts objects in the solar system, some of which come quite near Earth. French says new evidence leads her to believe asteroids and comets may be comprised of the same materials. WGLT's Jim Browne talks with her about her studies.
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May 05: Prof. Linda French is the recipient of a Cottrell College Science Award from the Research Corporation |
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May 05: SPS designs and builds a giant trebuchet (click here to see a videoclip) |
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April 05: Class of 2005 (Left to Right): Gautham Narayan to Harvard, Prakrit Jena to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Kayode Karunwi to Georgia Institute of Technology, Brian Simoins to NIST. Not pictured: Jason Forster to Yale, Sam Stahnke to Washington Univ, |
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November 04: Groundbreaking work in optical sorting by Prof. Gabe Spalding featured in "Optics in 2004" issue of Optics & Photonics News. |
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August 04: "Character critical to liberal arts education"; Narendra Jaggi speaks at FY Convocation |
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May 04: Prof. Gabe Spalding and Ram Mohan win Cottrell College Science Awards from Research Corporation |
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April 04: Joe Binder '04 was named a 2004 "Lincoln Laureate" by the State of Illinois. This honor followed on the heels of his Goldwater Scholarship. |
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October 03: Prof. Narendra Jaggi, elected IWU Professor of the Year for 2003 , was also named the 2003 Illinois Professor of the Year by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation. |
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April 03: Alex Laurie '03 was named a 2003 "Lincoln Laureate" by the State of Illinois. |