The Michigan Tech News story “Beyond Silicon: Transistors without Semiconductors” has been picked up and shared by several news outlets.
Dr. Bhabana Pati visited the department on Friday, July 12, 2013. Bhabna graduated in 1997 with a Ph.D. after working with Dr. Jacek Borysow as a “laser junkie.” She developed the single mode tunable titanium sapphire laser and subsequently tunable ultraviolet laser via sum frequency generation in a non-linear crystal.
Today she is a principal scientist at Q-Peak Co. and still a “laser junkie,” trying among many other things to shoot lasers at the Moon to find out its composition via Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.
Michigan Tech has launched a new virtual tour of campus and the local area. Fisher Hall is included among the virtual walking tours. There are interactive panoramas of Fisher 135 and a First-Year Physics Lab as well.
CBS Detroit and its Technology Report published a story about Professor Bryan Suits’ (Physics) course titled Physics Behind Music. See CBS Detroit.
From Tech Today.
Demonstrating Physics and a Passion for Teaching
Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Kevin Hodur.
Painting for Justice
Miguel Levy is a mosaic: a physicist who loves to paint, an atheist who honors his Jewish heritage while harboring a deep sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
He started participating in demonstrations, which inspired his art. However, most of his paintings are based on photographs that appeared in news media, including Free Gaza! perhaps his favorite work.
Read more at Michigan Tech Magazine, by Marcia Goodrich.
2007 physics alum Carly Robinson has been selected as the 2013-2014 Arthur H. Guenther Congressional Fellow by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and the Optical Society (OSA). Robinson is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder. She will serve a one-year term working as a special legislative assistant on the staff of a U.S. congressional office or committee in Washington, D.C.
Read more at SPIE Press Releases.
2013 recipient Tyler Plamondon (right) accepts the award from Dr. Will Cantrell (left).
Back Row: Raymond Shaw, Ethan Miltenberger, Jacob Smock, Jonathan Curtis, Jeremy Dobbs, Mac Brennan
Front Row: Eric Kaphengst, Clarence King, Kathryn Cox, Tyler Plamondon, Abigail Dillon, Derek Van Damme
The Discover blog “Out There” features Professor Robert Nemiroff’s (Physics) research on the nature of spacetime. In “Dispatches from AAS: The Not-There Universe,” editor Corey Powell writes about three discoveries that are remarkable for what they did not find and quotes Nemiroff as saying “perhaps the golden age of cosmology is not over just yet. There may be more discoveries out there.”
Special for classic rock fans: Powell draws a parallel with the 1960s Zombies hit “She’s Not There.”
From Tech Today.
Dispatches from AAS: The Not-There Universe
Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity implies that space should be smooth at very small distances, just as it is smooth at the distances we experience. Some newer theories, which attempt to go beyond relativity, suggest otherwise: They predict that sub-subatomic space is a froth of unseen particles and energy. Nemiroff figured out a way to see who is right. He tracked gamma rays—radiation that is like light but much more energetic—from an exploding star roughly 7 billion light years from Earth, and looked for signs that they had scattered off any frothy space along the way. He found none. For the umpteenth time, a challenge to Einstein has failed.
Read more at Discover Magazine, by Corey S. Powell.
Once again the Michigan Tech chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been selected as one of the Outstanding SPS Chapters. This is the third year in a row for such a distinction with this chapter.
The Michigan Tech chapter is part of Zone 09. The award criteria include K-12 outreach, community service, interactions with alumni, and other considerations.