Physics Newsblog

Yap Reviews for DOE

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discovery-scienceProfessor Yoke Khin Yap served the Department of Energy (DOE) as an onsite reviewer for the triennial review of the research program supported by the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (DMSE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Tuesday thru Thursday, April 28-30, 2015.

All research projects supported by BES undergo regular peer review and merit evaluation. For the DOE national laboratory programs, onsite reviews with a panel of external reviewers are required every three years.

The reviews were attended by the division director and program managers from the DOE, BES, DMSE, as well as reviewers from national laboratories and universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, and Yale.

The review schedule included oral presentations, poster presentations, and a facility tour.

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

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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.

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MAGS Honorable Mention for Amanda Shaw

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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.

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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

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

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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

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

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High School Girls Come to Michigan Tech to Explore Nanotechnology

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National Science FoundationProfessor Yoke Khin Yap (Physics) held a workshop for ninth-grade students from three local high schools over the weekend. The theme of the workshop was Introduction to Nanotechnology and was part of the outreach and education activities in Yap’s research grant funded by the National Science Foundation.

This workshop was co-organized by Michigan Tech’s GEAR UP, a Pre-College Innovative Outreach Institute, with the assistance of Liz Fujita. The goal of the workshop was to help stimulate the interest of pre-college underrepresented groups (girls, students with dissability, etc.). A total of 104 female students from Houghton, Calumet and Lake Linden participated with their science teachers.

During the workshop, students were introduced to the concept of nanoscale and hands-on experience in making molecular structures. Following lunch there was a discussion on the potential applications of nanoscale materials. “Since Michigan Tech is the only research-intensive university in the area, we regularly provide educational support to the local communities,” says Yap. More outreach events like this are planned during the three-year research project.

From Tech Today.

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