Category: Academic

Ramy El-Ganainy is a Guest Focus Editor for New Journal of Physics

NJPAssistant Professor of Physics Ramy El-Ganainy is a co-guest editor for an upcoming “focus on” issue article in the New Journal of Physics (NJP). The focus is entitled “Parity-Time Symmetry in Optics and Photonics.” Focus issue articles are invited-only contributions from experts in the field. They provide an overview of the current status of this research field and serve as a guiding compass for future developments.

NJP articles are open access and completely free to read. NJP offers the unusual opportunity for authors to submit video abstracts as a new content stream. Video media enable authors to go beyond the constraints of the written article and to further increase the visibility of the authors and their work.

NJP “focus on” articles are published incrementally during their windows for submissions. For “Parity-Time Symmetry in Optics and Photonics,” the window for submissions is August 1, 2015 to February 15, 2016.

MAGS Honorable Mention for Amanda Shaw

Amanda ShawThe Graduate School is pleased to announce that Amanda Shaw was awarded Honorable Mention for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award at the master’s level. Shaw was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award at Michigan Tech in the spring of 2014.

One of her most notable accomplishments as an instructor has been redesigning how Introduction to Astronomy is taught on campus and online. In the classroom, she utilizes many active learning techniques, including astronomy playing cards, manual clicker cards, in-class projects and mini-lectures. Shaw adopts a similar format online, involving students in mini-lectures created with Camtasia and embedded with rich video content from NASA and quizzes. She plans to publish a paper comparing and contrasting the student learning outcomes in the on campus and online version of the identical course.

Shaw was nominated by Ravi Pandey (Physics) and is advised by Alexander Kostinski (Physics). She is pursuing a Masters in Physics.

From Tech Today.

SURF Award for Colin Scheidler

Physics major Colin Scheidler is a recipient of the 2015 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Award for his project “Growth of Molybdenum Disulfide Monolayer Films by Chemical Vapor Deposition.” Colin’s advisor is Dr. Yoke Khin Yap.

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Recipients Announced

This summer, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program will fund 23 students from across the University with funds from the Vice President for Research and the Honors Institute. Some matching funds were provided by the Biotechnology Research Center and PI Adrienne Minerick. The total funding for the program this year is $92,000.

Since 2002, the SURF program has funded 270 students. In that time, SURF recipients have co-authored 60 peer reviewed publications.

From Tech Today.

Physics Senior Research Colloquium 2015

Department of Physics Senior Research Oral Presentations
Michigan Technological University
Thursday, April 16, 2015
3:00-5:00 pm
Room 139, Fisher Hall
All Are Welcome

Undergraduate Presentation Abstracts

View the Abstracts

Jeanine Chmielewski
Advisor: Dr. Aleksey Smirnov
Investigation of the Effect of the Verwey Transition on Remnant Magnetization in Magnetite

Luke Schroeder
Advisor: Dr. Ramy El-Ganainy
Supersymmetric Single Mode Lasing Arrays

Raven Stone
Advisor: Dr. Claudio Mazzoleni
Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy of Light Absorbing Aerosols

Adam Laxo
Advisor: Dr. Raymond Shaw, Physics
Effect of Charge on Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation

Michael Small
Advisor: Dr. Yoke Khin Yap
Towards the Fabrication and Construction of Quantum-dot Sensitized Nanowire-based Photovoltaic Devices

Eric Morris
Advisor: Dr. Sean J. Kirkpatrick (Biomedical Engineering)
Analysis of Reperfusion in a Hand Using Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging

Cody Bell
Advisor: Dr. L. B. King, MEEM
Construction of a Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA) for an Ion Thruster

Physics Graduate Poster Session 2015

Department of Physics Poster Session
Michigan Technological University
Thursday, April 16. 2015
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Aftermath Atrium in Fisher Hall
All Are Welcome – Refreshments will be served.

Graduate Poster Abstracts

View the Abstracts

Search for Sub-Planckian Length Scales in GRB 090510A and GRB 130427A
Chad Brisbois
Advisor: Dr. Robert Nemiroff

Quantum Inspired Non-reciprocal waveguide arrays on Garnet deposited Silicon-On-Insulator Platform
Dolendra Karki
Advisor: Dr. Miguel Levy

Freezing Water with Ionic Salts
Joseph Niehaus
Advisor: Dr. Will Cantrell

Ab Initio Study of the Structural and Electronic Properties of MgV2O4
Kevin Waters
Advisor: Dr. Ravi Pandey

Barium Concentrations in Rock Salt by Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Kiley Spirito
Advisor: Dr. Jacek Borysow

Effect of Turbulence on Droplets in Precipitation
Neel Uday Desai
Advisor: Dr. Raymond Shaw

Towards Using Smartphones to Refine Sunrise and Sunset Time Models
Teresa Wilson
Advisor: Dr. Robert Nemiroff

Using LiDAR and RaDAR to Calculate Drizzle Rates in Marine Stratocumulus Clouds
M. Amanda Shaw
Advisor: Dr. Alexander Kostinski

Physics Graduate Colloquium

Physics Colloquium

Oral Presentations
Michigan Technological University
Thursday, March 19, 2015
3:30-5:00
Fisher Hall 139

Synthesis of 1D and 2D Boron Nitride Nanomaterials for Novel Electronic Devices
Shiva Bhandari
Advisor: Yoke Khin Yap

Synthesis of Two-Dimensional Molybdenum Disulfide Films and Their Optical Properties
Mingxiao Ye
Advisor: Yoke Khin Yap

Efficient computation of spontaneous emission dynamics in photonic structures
M.H. Teimourpour
Advisor: Ramy El-Ganainy

Phosphorene Oxide: Stability and electronic properties of a novel 2D material
Gaoxue Wang
Advisor: Ravindra Pandey

The Superluminal Pair Events in Sweeping Laser Beams: Theory and Experiment
Qi Zhong
Advisor: Robert Nemiroff

View Abstract Set 1

View Abstract Set 2

Physics Faculty, Graduate Students, Alumni at 2015 March APS Meeting

MM15logo-web-grayMembers of the Department of Physics and alumni attended the 2015 Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) on March 4-9 in San Antonio, Texas.

Attendees affiliated with Michigan Tech were alumni Saikat Mukhopadhyay (’12, now at Oak Ridge National Lab), Partha Pal (’11, now at Northwestern University), Subhasish Mandal (’12, now at Yale University), Pradeep Kumar (’13, now at University of Wisconsin–Madison), Xiaoliang Zhong (’13, now at Argonne National Lab), physics graduate students Gaoxue Wang and Kamal Dhungana, Prof. Ranjit Pati, and Chair of Physics Prof. Ravi Pandey.

The APS March Meeting 2015 had over 10,000 in attendance.

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