Physics Newsblog

New Funding

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Professor Emeritus David Nitz (Physics/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $249,804 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.

This three-year project is titled “WoU-MMA: Enhancing the Neutrino Sensitivity of the Pierre Auger Observatory.”

The Pierre Auger Observatory is used by researchers from across the world to study high energy cosmic rays – high energy particles that can travel through space at speeds approaching the speed of light. This project will support the AugerPrime upgrade to the observatory, increasing the detection efficiency of the observatory’s surface detectors.

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Professor Emeritus Michael Wertheim Passes Away

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Professor Emeritus Michael Wertheim passed away on Friday, September 24 in Madison, Wisconsin. Dr. Wertheim was a well-respected scholar and teacher in statistical physics. He was a deep thinker, making fundamental advances in the theory of simple and polar fluids. His foundational paper, published in Physical Review Letters (1963), is still well-cited by the scientific community.

Dr. Wertheim received his Ph.D. from Yale University in nuclear physics in 1957 and began his professional career at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He joined Michigan Tech in 1990 as a professor of physics and retired in 2003. Prior to joining Michigan Tech, he also worked at Universität Frankfurt, Germany; University of New Castle, U.K.; University of Alberta, Canada; and Rutgers University, U.S.

Dr. Wertheim was on the editorial board of the Journal of Statistical Physics and was a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Besides physics, he will be remembered for regularly swimming in Lake Superior at McLain State Park during the summer months.

https://www.mininggazette.com/obituaries/2021/10/michael-s-wertheim/

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Physics Colloquium – Henrike Fleischhack

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Dr. Henrike Fleischhack, postdoctoral fellow at Catholic University of America and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, will be presenting at this week’s physics colloquium.

Fleischhack’s presentation is titled “AMEGO-X: 
MeV ɣ-ray Astronomy 
in the Multi-messenger Era.”

Please register in advance and join the colloquium tomorrow (Sept. 2) at 4 p.m. via Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from Dr. Giusarma containing information about joining the event.

Read more about Fleischhack’s research background and the presentation on the Events Calendar.

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New Funding

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Raymond Shaw (Physics/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $2,903,682 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.

Shaw, co-investigators Will Cantrell, Kartik Iyer, Claudio Mazzoleni, and researchers from institutions across the country will collaborate on the project titled “A Community Laboratory Facility for Exploring and Sensing of Aerosol-Cloud-Drizzle Processes: The Aerosol-Cloud-Drizzle Convection Chamber.”

The proposed ACDC2 cloud chamber will be a world class facility, capable of producing droplets up to the size of drizzle while allowing air motion analogous to that in real clouds.

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Andrea Lappi Retires After 40 Years at Tech

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The Department of Physics will not be the same without Andrea Lappi, who begins a new chapter in life this month.

Andrea has been a part of the Physics family for 21 years — from 1991 to 1998 and 2007 to 2021. She joined Michigan Tech in 1981, and initially worked in Employee Relations, Education and Public Services offices. Later, she worked with the Graduate School, the Vice President of the Michigan Tech Fund and the Vice President of Advancement.

Andrea has always gone above and beyond as a key person in helping students, staff and faculty in the department. We wish her an enjoyable retirement!

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Yap named University Professor

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Yoke Khin Yap, a professor in the Department of Physics, was selected to become Michigan Tech’s newest University Professor during the 2019-2020 academic year, through a highly selective process. Yap joined the Department of Physics in 2002 and was promoted to full professor in 2011. Ravi Pandey, chair of physics, said “Dr. Yap is enthusiastic about both teaching and research and treats the two as inseparable.”

Read more in Tech Today.

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