The Michigan Tech chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been selected as one of the Distinguished SPS Chapters. The Michigan Tech chapter is part of Zone 09. SPS Chapter Awards are selected by Zone Councilors and Associate Zone Councilors of the SPS National Council.
Chapter recognition is based outreach efforts, community service, and other criteria.
The PH3210 Optics Lab would like to invite you to a poster session, which will be happening on Tuesday, December 9th from 3:00pm-4:00pm in the Fisher Atrium.
The Optics Lab students will be presenting posters detailing experiments they have performed in class or projects that they have created themselves related to the coursework. We would love for you to come and ask questions and see what the Optics Lab has been up to this year.
Since 1999, the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum has recognized individuals for excellence in earth science education with the Charles A. Salotti Earth Science Education Award. Now the mineral museum has a new partner in selecting the awardee: the Michigan Earth Science Teachers Association (MESTA).
“I am delighted that MESTA has agreed to partner with the museum to advance informal earth science education,” said John Jaszczak, museum adjunct curator and professor of physics, who has played a key role in the Salotti Award since its inception. “My own path to becoming a scientist started with informal mentoring in the mineral collecting hobby.”
Naturally GraphiteTM is a local business that started as a project of Nanotech Innovations Enterprise, a former Enterprise program at Michigan Tech operated by undergraduate students. The business, advised by Professor of Physics Dr. John Jaszczak, supplies high quality natural graphite crystals and substrates for research, industry, and education. Jaszczak also serves as adjunct curator at the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum.
Naturally Graphite was recently credited with supplying graphite crystals to a research group at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec in Canada. The research, published in Physical Review Letters, involved the use of high-speed electron diffraction techniques to study electron-phonon coupling in graphite.
High quality graphite crystals from Naturally Graphite are also routinely sought by laboratories around the world for the production and study of graphene. As a single layer of carbon atoms in graphite, graphene often generates much interest in carbon-based nanotechnologies. Graphene exhibits unique and amazing mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. It is strong, highly conductive, transparent, elastic, and impermeable.
Naturally Graphite also donated graphite crystals to K-12 for an outreach event, Family Math Night based in Rocklin, California. The event involved simple experiments with graphite, including an activity for cleaving the graphite into layers using scotch tape. This was the original experiment by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester that led to the discovery of graphene and a Nobel Prize in 2010.
Learn more about the graphene sheet lesson plan in the 22-minute video Family Math Night Collaborative Project: Graphene Sheet by Elementary Mathematics Specialist Karyn Hodgens,. The description of the experiments begins at about 16:20.
Fisher Hall has reached a milestone this fall: the big 5-0.
Anyone attending Tech within the last fifty years knows this campus landmark, which has been many things for many people—home for mathematics and physics majors, headquarters for gen ed courses, terror for first-years in chemistry, budget entertainment, and even a venue for true love (more on that later). Fisher has a character all its own—an identity that is as much tied to the Huskies who walked its halls as it is seated in the building’s physical attributes.
Fisher Hall is dedicated on October 7, 1964, replacing Hubbell Hall as the new home for the mathematics and physics department and engineering graphics. Much fanfare follows.
Read more at Michigan Tech Magazine Fall 2014, by Karina Jousma.
Jae Yong Suh, PhD
Jae Yong Suh joins the Department of Physics as an assistant professor. Suh comes to Michigan Tech from Northwestern University.
Suh earned a PhD in Physics from Vanderbilt University and a master’s in physics from Korea University.
Suh has been published in Nano Today, Nature Nanotechnology, Nano Letters and the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Suh also holds three patents.
Work on “Flipped Faculty Development” by Mike Meyer and Jeff Toorongian of the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning has been recognized as a finalist for the national POD innovation award.
POD, the Professional and Organizational Development network, has been one of the premiere faculty development organizations since 1976. Meyer will travel to Dallas to present the work and attend an awards dinner where a single winner will be selected from among the finalists.
Graduate School Announces Summer 2014 Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Awardees
The Graduate School is pleased to announce that Douglas Banyai, PhD candidate in Physics, has earned a Doctoral Finishing Fellowship.
Physics Department Picnic and Social
Where: Houghton City Park (same location as last yr)
Located by the Super 8 Motel
When: Thursday, August 28th, 2014, at 11:30 AM
Who: Everyone – Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students,
Undergraduate Students and Families etc.
Need a ride or directions: contact Diana or Taana, Room 118 Fisher, 7-2086
Graduate School Announces Award Recipients for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014
The Graduate School is pleased to announce that Colin Gurganus, PhD candidate in atmospheric sciences, is a recipient of the Doctoral Finishing Fellowship.