Physics Newsblog

Category: Research

SURF Award for Colin Scheidler

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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.

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Physics Senior Research Colloquium 2015

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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

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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

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Physics Graduate Poster Session 2015

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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

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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

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Up in the Air in Research Magazine 2015

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Pico MountainAtop a volcanic peak deep in the eastern Atlantic, Tech researchers sample and study aerosol particles—and determine how they may affect Earth’s climate.

The new collaboration features Tech faculty Lynn Mazzoleni (chemistry), Claudio Mazzoleni (physics), Noel Urban (CEE), Judith Perlinger (CEE), and Chris Owen (MTRI). Also involved are collaborators from the University of Colorado and the University of Illinois, as well as Universidade dos Açores and the Instituto de Meteorologia in Portugal.

Read more at Michigan Tech Research Magazine 2015, by Kevin Hodur.

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Cloud Control in Research Magazine 2015

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Cloud ChamberAtmospheric science researchers at Michigan Tech no longer have to cross their fingers for cooperative weather—the University’s innovative new cloud chamber allows them to head into the lab and make their own.

“You’re in an aircraft going a hundred meters a second, and it’s impossible to replicate what you’ve just seen,” says fellow physicist Will Cantrell. “You know the old Taoist saying, you never step in the river twice? You never fly through the same cloud twice either.”

Read more at Michigan Tech Research Magazine, by Marcia Goodrich.

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

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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.

VIEW THE PHOTO ALBUM

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Communicating Nanoscience and Engineering

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PhD Students Learn to Communicate their Research

Alex Mayer, the Charles and Patricia Nelson Presidential Professor at Michigan Tech, runs a fellowship program that teaches PhD students in a variety of fields to explain their research in K-12 classrooms and to write news releases to communicate with the public through the media.

Here are this year’s student releases.

Communicating Nanoscience and Engineering – Possibilities and Pitfalls

Nanoscale science and engineering is a flourishing field that holds great potential for solving current and future problems.

But what is the best way to communicate with an audience unfamiliar with the nanoscience and engineering community? Yoke Khin Yap, professor of physics and adjunct professor of materials science and engineering, says, “In order to communicate really effectively, you need to speak in their language.”

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Jennifer Donovan, Anika Kuczynski and others.

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Yoke Khin Yap on the Faculty Fellow Program

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Faculty Fellow Program Information Session Jan 27

The Vice President for Research Office will host an information session on the Faculty Fellow Program from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 27. The session will be held in room 404 of the Administration Building.

This session will be presented by the 2014 Faculty Fellow recipients: Adrienne Minerick, Yoke Khin Yap and Larry Sutter. They will provide information on the program and share their experience.

The Faculty Fellow Program expands familiarity with Sponsored Program Administration and strategic planning among the faculty, develops leadership capacity among the faculty and improves Sponsored Programs Administration and strategic planning through faculty input. To learn more about the Faculty Fellow Program, please visit the Faculty Fellow Program website.

Registration begins today and ends on January 26. To register, please visit the event’s site.

There will be desserts and beverages provided; please bring your own lunch.

For additional information please contact Cathy Codere at 7-3043 or cmbanfie@mtu.edu.

From Tech Today.

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