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Category: News

MESTA to Award Salotti Earth Science Education Award

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A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum
A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum

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.”

Read more at Tech Today.

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Naturally Graphite Supplies Samples for Study

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Graphite on Tape
K-12 students prepare graphene using graphite and scotch tape.

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.

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Mineralogical Miracles at Merelani, Tanzania

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John A. Jaszczak 
Department of Physics and the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum Michigan Technological University

 December 5,  2014, 3:00pm Chemical Science Building, Room 101

Abstract:

The Lelatema Mountains in northern Tanzania are host to one of the world’s richest flake graphite deposits, but it is the purple-blue gem variety of zoisite called “tanzanite” that has brought renown to the region since the 1960s.

Read more at the Chemistry Newsblog.

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50 Years of Fisher Hall

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Fisher Hall
Fisher Hall

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.

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Campus Campaign Spotlight on Gowtham

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Michigan Tech faculty and staff provide meaningful support for numerous University departments, programs and initiatives each year through the annual Campus Campaign.

Gowtham S., director of research computing and adjunct assistant professor in Physics/ECE, shares why he chooses to participate in the Campus Campaign.

“I contribute to the Campus Campaign because I want Michigan Tech to be in existence long after I am gone. I want it to continue to be a place where people get their education and create their careers, and in turn make contributions to the society that we live in. Also, I want my Michigan Tech degree—and everyone else’s—to have value. For that to happen, the University needs to stay here, and stay strong.”

Editor’s Note: Periodically throughout the year, Tech Today will shine a spotlight on a Michigan Tech employee who gives to the Campus Campaign.

From Tech Today.

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Proposals in Progress November 20, 2014

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PI Andrew Barnard and Co-PIs Scott Miers (MEEM) and Yoke Khin Yap (Physics), “Carbon Nanotube Speaker Efficiency Improvement and Prototype Design,” US Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research

PI Will Cantrell (Physics/EPSSI), “Collaborative Research: Bottom-Up Cloud Modeling: Building Molecular Level Foundations for Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation in Clouds,” Clemson University

PI Ranjit Pati (Physics), “Collaborative Research: Parallel Fabrication of CNT-Based Spin Transistors Toward Post-CMOS Molecular Scale Spin Logic,” NSF

Read more at Tech Today.

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Status of air quality over developing country with special reference to Indo-Ganteic plain: current policies and future air quality

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Ranjit Kumar
Ranjit Kumar

Physics Colloquium
Michigan Technological University
Thursday November 6, 2014
4:00PM Fisher Hall 139

Status of air quality over developing country with special reference to Indo-Ganteic plain: current policies and future air quality

Dr. Ranjit Kumar
Department of Chemistry, Technical College, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed University), Dayalbagh, Agra-5(INDIA)
&
Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, USA

View the Abstract

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New Faculty Member Jae Yong Suh

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Jae Yong Suh
Jae Yong Suh

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.

Read more at Tech Today.

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Meyer Recognized for Flipped Faculty Development

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POD Network 2014Work 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.

From Tech Today.

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