UMSL Physicist Department of Physics & Astronomy http://www.umsl.edu/~physics December 2015

Note from Chair

This has been another exciting year for the Department of Physics & Astronomy. First, I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Eric Majzoub was promoted to full Professor in 2015. I would also like to officially welcome Dr. David Horne, who joined our faculty as an Assistant Teaching Professor in January 2015. There are several projects currently underway that are improving our academic program. Since the last newsletter, the Electricity & Magnetism lab renovation, funded by a $250,000 gift from the Peabody Energy Company, was completed. Construction on the new science laboratory building is in its final phases, and we anticipate that it will open in the summer of 2016. Once that is complete, work will start on renovating Benton Hall. The new renovations will include modernized classrooms, comfortable study spaces for students, modernized utilities, and improved administrative and faculty spaces. Michelle and Tim Kirchoff on the Hill Perhaps the most exciting news is our newly renovated and upgraded planetarium. We replaced our old projector with a new Spitz SciDome Touch digital planetarium Alumni Lecture Focuses on Io projector system, courtesy of funding provided by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. With the new facility we The Annual Alumni Luncheon and Lecture was held May have expanded our outreach programs, improved educational 8 and was highlighted by a lecture by Michelle (Oakes) experiences for our undergraduate students, and will be Kirchoff. Michelle, who received her UMSL B.S. degree in expanding collaborations with other departments and 2001, earned her Ph.D. in 2006 in Earth and Planetary disciplines. Dr. Horne has been especially instrumental in Science from Washington University in St. Louis. In her development of new shows for our outreach program and lecture, “Forming Mountains on Jupiter’s Moon Io”, she undergraduate astronomy curriculum. proposed that despite Io being the most volcanically active We are very pleased to announce the creation of a new body in the solar system next to Earth, the mountains on Io scholarship, the Don C. and Susan Winter Endowed were not volcanic in origin but rather due to thermal stresses Scholarship in Physics & Astronomy. Don is an UMSL produced by varying eruption rates. Michelle has been a physics alumnus (B.S. 1976, M.S. 1980) who received an research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in UMSL Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010. He retired Boulder, CO since 2009. Her research deals primarily with from Boeing in 2014. Susan Winter is currently employed at the properties of the moons of the giant planets. Michelle Boeing. The scholarship will award $4200 per year to an was accompanied by her husband Tim Kirchoff (M.S. 1999, incoming freshman or current undergraduate student. On see Alumni Information). behalf of our current and future students, we would like to Prior to the lecture, we held our annual awards ceremony. extend a sincere thank you to both Don and Susan Winter. Senior Henry Hamper received the Jeffrey Earl Award for Please keep us up to date on your activities. As always, the Outstanding Physics Senior and a $500 gift card. Junior we thank you for your continued support and encourage you Taylor Savage received the Senior Alumni Award ($500). to read the short biographies on our scholarship recipients. Tera Glaze and Shane Meyer each received the Outstanding We wish you and your family all the best in 2016. Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, which consists of a $250 prize and a one-year subscription to the American Erika Gibb Journal of Physics.

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Join APS Local Links! Faculty Promotions

UMSL alumni and students have brought a new way to Dr. Eric Majzoub was promoted this fall to Professor of stay connected with St. Louis area physicists by launching Physics. Dr. Majzoub joined the Department as an Assistant the American Physical Society Local Links program. APS Professor in 2007 and was tenured and promoted to Local Links is aimed at providing the opportunity for St. Associate Professor in 2010. He conducts an active research Louis area physicists to meet with focused discussions or to program in the study and design of new materials for energy network, informally, on a regular basis. Dawn King, who conversion. Eric is currently serving as the Associate recently defended her PhD dissertation on November 20th, Director for the Center for Nanoscience. founded this group in March this year. Cofounders include You can read about Eric’s recent activities in the Faculty doctoral alumni Adam Scott (2014) and Tim Mason (2011), Updates section. as well as Master’s alumni and current doctoral students Stephen Ordway (2015) and Zak Jost (2011). Currently, Meet the Scholarship Recipients Adam Scott, Stephen Ordway, and Dawn King run the monthly meet-ups. APS membership is not required, and the The Department supports four students annually with meet-ups are open to industry professionals, professors, $2000 awards. Three students are supported with Physics & early career physicists, and students. Topics have ranged Astronomy Alumni Scholarships and one with the Richard from mentoring students and young professionals to industry D. Schwartz Scholarship for Physics Majors. to touring specific industry facilities in St. Louis. This group is particularly open to any ideas, or sponsorships, of monthly Brigid Costello – Brigid is a returning student, having events. If you would like more information, have an event previously attained a BA and MA in Early Childhood and idea, or would like to sponsor an event please contact: Elementary Education from Maryville University. After Dawn King at [email protected]. graduation, she tentatively plans to continue her education to To receive updates on upcoming events you may also join achieve a Ph.D. in physics. She is currently working on a our LinkedIn research project in microscopy involving zero- (https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=8289841) loss/deflection. Outside of school, Brigid is an active black and Facebook group belt student of Kuk Sool Won Martial Arts, and enjoys (https://www.facebook.com/groups/apslocal.stlouis/). reading and learning how to do new things.

Stephen Wedekind is a senior undergraduate working on a B.S. in physics with a math minor. He is also working with Dr. Fraundorf developing a web application in HTML5/JavaScript that uses fast Fourier transforms to display a log-frequency, sheet music view of sound in real- time, and with Dr. Bahar modeling and exploring non- equilibrium critical dynamics in biological evolution simulations in MATLAB. Outside of school, Stephen enjoys fixing computers, tinkering with Linux, and playing the piano. After graduation, he plans to continue his education, pursuing a Ph.D. in physics.

Taylor Savage, a transfer student from Saint Charles Community College, is progressing towards a BS degree in General Physics. He has had an interest in a breadth of things theoretical and conceptual since an early age. Taylor enjoys programming and is interested in computational physics--currently he is involved in research and simulated Doctoral alumnus Nathan Dees, now Principal Data annealing concerning the formation of presolar graphite Scientist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses onions in the atmosphere of asymptotic giant branch stars. his experience about transitioning to industry at the November 30th meeting held at Three King's Pub in the Cameron Nunn is a junior working on a Physics degree Delmar Loop, while Dawn King (center) and Adam Scott with emphasis in Astrophysics, minoring in math. She is a (right) look on. member of the Pierre Laclede Honors College, where she is also a mentor for incoming Honors freshmen. Through the Physics Department, she has been a teaching assistant for Astronomy 1001 and has completed a few hours of research with Dr. Gibb, with hopes of continuing both in the future. 2

She also jointly runs the UMSL Physics Club Facebook page with the president of the club. Her other campus activities Graduate Program Update include being treasurer of her sorority, Delta Zeta, and We awarded seven M.S. degrees and two Ph.D. degrees serving as a Student Government Senator. in 2015. Dan Barnett, Ashlynn Conner, Michael Cowan, Tera Glaze, Melanie Lipp, Bongani Mashele, and Stephen Benton Hall Renovation (Again) Ordway completed Master’s degrees. Tera and Stephen are continuing in our doctoral program. Dongxue Zhao Perhaps you have noticed the new Science Learning successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in June 2015. Building under construction, extending out from the Science Dongxue’s dissertation was entitled “Nano-Structured Complex to Natural Bridge Road. Upon its completion in Materials for Energy Storage Applications”. His advisor summer of 2016, it will be home to new chemistry and was Dr. Eric Majzoub. Dawn King defended in November, biology teaching labs and the physics advanced lab. When presenting her dissertation research “Evolutionary Dynamics it becomes operational, the renovation of Benton Hall, the of Speciation and Extinction”. Her advisor was Dr. Sonya campus’s oldest building, will begin. The vacated east tower Bahar. of Benton will be used as swing space and, sometime in We welcomed four new full-time students to our graduate 2017, the Physics & Astronomy Department will move program this fall: Brock Ebert, Helal Maruf, Mohammad temporarily while the central tower and 5th floor are being Saki, and Chathuri Silva. Recent UMSL graduates Nathan renovated. In addition to replacing the heating and air Roth and Jamie Roberts joined our program in January of conditioning system, office space will be updated and 2015. reconfigured for better lighting and more efficient use of Jamie Roberts, Nathan Roth, and Tim Sullivan were space. The project should be completed by May of 2018. supported by graduate fellowships or internships from the NASA/Missouri Space Grant Consortium. All presented their research at the state-wide annual meeting in April at the Missouri S&T campus. Graduate students Dongxue Zhao and Logan Brown received awards at the UMSL Graduate Fair in April. Dongxue was recognized with Graduate School and Department awards for his poster “Controlled Size Nano-particle Anatase TiO2 for Increased Capacity Lithium-ion Batteries” (advisor: Eric Majzoub).

Phil James Honored in 2015

On March 8 there was a “PhilFest” meeting at Arizona State University to celebrate Phil James’s 75th birthday, organized by Phil’s many admiring colleagues working in the field of Planet Mars. Ta-Pei Cheng attended the meeting as (self-appointed) representative of our Department and Tim Sullivan, Nathan Roth, Jamie Roberts, Alex Bretaña, gave a talk about Phil as a particle physics theorist and about Alyssa McFarlane, and Dr. Wilking at Missouri S&T his many contributions to the Department and to the American Journal of Physics. Phil was a faculty member at NASA/Missouri Space Grant UMSL from 1968-1990 and Department Chair from 1983- 1990. He left UMSL in 1990 to become Chairperson of the Consortium 24th Annual Meeting Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Toledo. The 24th Annual Meeting of the NASA/Missouri Space Grant Consortium was held on the Missouri S&T campus April 24-25, 2015. Nathan Roth discussed his study of volatiles in Comet PanSTARRS (advisor: Erika Gibb). Jamie Roberts presented her research that used electron microscopy to assess oxygen precipitates in silicon wafers (advisor: Phil Fraundorf). Young star cluster dynamics were the subject of Tim Sullivan’s presentation (advisor: Bruce Wilking). Alyssa McFarlane presented her research on improving the cycling and capacity of Lithium-ion batteries (advisor: Eric Majzoub). Alex Bretaña also described the UMSL Planetarium Program conducted for area 5th grade students and teachers. Phil James and Ta-Pei Cheng

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doctoral dissertation. On the “brain side”, I am collaborating Astrobiology Conference in 2016 with Ken Showalter at West Virginia University to study synchronized neural “chimera” states which may be The College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring a 2-day analogous to the “uni-hemispheric” sleep observed in some Astrobiology Conference in April of 2016. It is being animal species. I have also been collaborating with Gualtiero organized by Dr. Erika Gibb and will include talks from Piccinini of UMSL’s Department of Philosophy, experts in the study of extremophiles on Earth, of Mars and investigating the various types of computation that can be the possibility of life on Mars, of organic molecules in performed by neural systems; we recently published a paper comets, and the progress in the search for habitable on this topic in the journal Cognitive Science. We have also exoplanets. Registration for the conference will be open contributed a chapter on the neural correlates of early in 2016. consciousness to a volume entitled The Myth of an Afterlife, which is edited by Keith Augustine and will appear in March 2015. Lastly, I am working on a book titled The Essential Tension, to be published by Springer. The book deals with the problem of collective dynamics in biological systems, and Life Beyond Earth and the ways that physics can help to illuminate this complex issue. The book will particularly focus on problems of speciation and multiple levels of selection in evolutionary dynamics. [email protected] http://www.umsl.edu/~neurodyn/faculty/bahar.html

April 8th and 9th Bernard J. Feldman This year I published two papers, “Why Acceleration?” J.C. Penney Conference Center [US-China Educational Review A 5, 223-227 (2015)] and We bring together world-class researchers in the field of Astrobiology to discuss issues related to the search for life in our Galaxy, “An Introduction to Special Relativity,” [US-China as investigated in diverse environments ranging from planets and comets Educational Review A, 5, 772-777 (2015)]. Both papers are in our own solar system to planets around other stars and the disks of gas and dust from which they formed. intended for introductory physics classes. I also gave talks at the St. Louis Academy of Science on the Physics of Our new planetarium will be open, free, for conference participation Bridge Failures and at Kansas State University and Dr. Peter Plavchan Dr. Erika Gibb Assistant Professor Professor and Chair Southeast Missouri State University on scientific fraud. My Department of Physics Department of Physics & Astronomy MoreMissouri State Undergraduate University University of MissouriResearch - St. Louis work on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was mentioned in Dr. Boncho Bonev Dr. Ray Arvidson Research Associate James S. McDonnell Distinguished Physics Today, The Physics Teacher and the Seattle Times NASA Goddard Space Flight Center University Professor th Brigid CostelloCatholic University, Warren of America Li, Alyssa McFarlane,Washington University Stephen on the occasion of the 75 anniversary of its collapse. Dr. William McKinnon Dr. Avi Mandel [email protected] Wedekind, and Matthew Wentzel made presentationsProfessor at the Research Scientist Department of Earth & Planetary Science NASA Goddard Space Flight Center http://www.umsl.edu/~phybfeld/ annual Undergraduate Research SymposiumWashington University held on the UMSL campusDr. David on Horne May 1 and hosted byDr. Rachel the Whitaker Golden Key Assistant Teaching Professor Associate Professor, Microbiology and International Department Honour of Physics Society & Astronomy and SigmaInstitute Xi.for Genomic BiologyWarren Li Michael Fix University of Missouri - St. Louis University of Illinois received theFor more Department information contact Fern Mreen prize at [email protected] ($250) or Dr. Erikafor Gibb the at [email protected] best ph ysics or My nonteaching activities this year included continued astronomy poster, “Ice Abundances in Comet C/2002 T7” work on mapping a partial dinosaur skeleton from a site in (advisor: Erika Gibb). Southeast Missouri, which is on display in the Bollinger County Museum of Natural History in Marble Hill, Missouri. I have nearly completed the map. I also have assisted the museum by helping to identify rocks and fossils FACULTY UPDATES: brought in by members of the public. I also began collaborating with Dr. Andrew McDonald – Sonya Bahar an expert on hadrosaurs, who is very interested in studying The primary focus of my research group is on the hadrosaur (duck-bill dinosaur) from our Missouri computational models of evolutionary dynamics. My dinosaur site. His preliminary statistical analysis (a graduate students and I are studying phase transitions in cladogram) suggests that our hadrosaur is among the most evolutionary models, and investigating the effect of primitive in terms of its skull anatomy. parameters like mutation size on how evolutionary lineages [email protected] branch in space and in time. These projects are funded by a Complex Systems grant from the James S. McDonnell Ricardo A. Flores Foundation and an Interdisciplinary Intercampus Research My research interests are astrophysical cosmology and Grant. Our new research for 2015 includes studies of how applications of quantum field theory to the physics of populations recover from mass extinctions, and how the elementary particles. This past year, however, my teaching branching of their genealogies can be characterized using a load was doubled and I have not been able to complete any branch (no pun intended) of mathematics known as project. Nonetheless, I remain interested in the expected coalescent theory. This formed the core of Dawn King’s evolution in maps of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in 4 clusters, and I may return to the subject of dark matter halo Muscat, Oman. In summer 2015, I gave an invited research shape using the Bolshoi simulation carried out by my seminar on “Nanoscience: Laser-Induced Processes in collaborators. Fullerenes” at my alma mater, Gettysburg College. While there, I also presented a piano concert on women jazz Philip B. Fraundorf composers (narrated by Barbara Harbach) and gave a My research involves materials, atomic resolution presentation on the situation in Ferguson. In fall 2015, I microscopes, computer simulations, and conceptual gave a presentation (with Betty Van Uum and Prima Wagan) strategies for doing both nanoscale detective work and on “UMSL/Express Scripts International Headquarters: A curriculum modernization. We’ve long provided the region Model of University/Corporate Cooperation” at the 21st with tools not otherwise available for examining the Annual Conference of the Coalition of Urban and nanostructure of a growing variety of specimen types, Metropolitan Universities in Omaha, Nebraska (I serve as including for example aerosol catalysts, integrated circuit vice-president of the Coalition, made up of 85 universities in silicon, carbon nanotubes, extraterrestrial materials, the US and Canada). Also in 2015, I was elected as vice- ferrofluids for drug delivery, and most recently ultrahigh chair of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri, temperature materials for leading-edge surfaces on consisting of the chancellors/presidents of the four-year hypersonic aircraft. This has helped put graduates into public universities across the state. applied physics internships and jobs with companies that [email protected] include MEMC/SunEdison, Seagate, Martin-Marietta, http://www.umsl.edu/chancellor/ Mitsubishi Silicon-America, Motorola, and Cabot Electronics. Erika Gibb Of four recent intellectual challenges, one lies at the The focus of my research is on volatile composition of intersection between (i) modern-day uses for graphene comets, especially molecules like water and methane that are sheets and (ii) possible roles for carbon droplets in cool astrobiologically important. The past year was a very stellar atmospheres. Spinoffs of molecular-modeling work exciting time to perform comet research, especially with the there includes the expectation that cooling carbon gas will successful Rosetta mission to comet 67P/ Churuyumov- condense as a liquid first, an “evaporating oven” method for Gerasimenko. Several undergraduate astronomy students synthesis in this context, and a candidate for Avogadro’s again had multiple opportunities to gain real experience in integer in the new-SI. astronomical observations of comets. From my lab in 403 Another involves the studies of gigascale integrated Research, we remotely controlled a near-infrared circuit silicon, a highly-ordered material tightly connected to spectrometer on the 3-meter NASA Infrared Telescope modern technology. Specimens from SunEdison--Solar Facility on Mauna Kea, HI. In July 2015 we observed comet being annealed in ovens here show promise for elucidating C/2014 Q1 (PANSTARRS) and in November and December the behavior of a hidden or “ninja” precursor phase to 2015 we observed comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina). These precipitation of useful SiOx clusters in this material. were all part of a project to study volatiles in comets to learn A third involves quantitative detective work on atomic more about how the solar system formed and how the periodicities and energy loss reflected in electron molecules important for life were distributed. In addition to microscope images. Our most recent development here is this, we received a NASA grant to support a graduate development of JS/HTML5 browser apps for on-line student to work with a collaborator who models chemistry in electron-optics simulation and harmonic analysis of sound. protoplanetary disks. The goal is to help us understand the A 4th involves the intersection between (a) log- connection between comets and the regions in disks around probability measures, (b) the mathematical theory of model- young stars where planets form. selection and (c) the quantitative study of correlations in [email protected] complex systems with particular focus on the challenge of http://www.umsl.edu/~gibbe/ sustaining task layer-multiplicities in metazoan communities. The latest here was a recent cross-disciplinary Bob L. Henson proposal to give the Gallup-Healthways well-being index Just as in the recent past, my activities now are mostly deeper roots in the natural sciences. teaching and service for our department. Our number of On the pedagogical front, a new paper on uses for frame- physics faculty at the professorial level is much lower than it invariant proper-force is also in the works. More on recent was many years ago when our department only offered the developments may be accessed through: baccalaureate degree. I continue to teach heavy loads at both [email protected] the graduate and undergraduate levels. This past year in https://sites.google.com/site/electrondetectives/ addition to my regular teaching load, I redeveloped the graduate level statistical mechanics course, which I had last Thomas F. George taught in 1996. When time permits, I am working on some I am involved in theoretical research in various areas of mathematical physics research problems. Likewise, when laser/materials/nanophysics, including nanomedicine, and time permits I have been writing a text on mathematical am still managing to publish, on average, a paper per month. methods. As of the present, my retirement plans are In spring 2015, I gave a presentation on “Evolution of incomplete. Higher Education in the United States and Across the Globe” at the Modern College of Business and Science in 5

David Horne infrared images obtained over a 12-year period. The study Outside of my teaching duties for which I have been shows that increasing velocities of young stars with age is developing enhanced presentation material, I have been most likely due to gravitational interactions between stars heavily involved in developing new show material for the forming in small groups (2015, The Astrophysical Journal, recently renovated UMSL planetarium facility. This has v140, 330). Complementary to this study is an optical radial involved the use of diverse skills such as sound editing, velocity survey of the Rho Ophiuchi cluster undertaken in in image editing and voice acting as well as learning the collaboration with alumnus Michael Meyer in support of planetarium control software and researching show content. ESO’s GAIA mission. The results of this study, providing Preparation for these shows has taken much of my time cluster motions in the third dimension, also point to outside of the classroom of late. numerous stellar interactions soon after formation. Time has been granted at a 3-meter telescope on Mauna Kea to study Eric Majzoub radial velocities in the youngest members of the cluster I am a professor in the Department of Physics and before significant interactions have taken place. Astronomy and hold a joint appointment in the Department [email protected], http://www.umsl.edu/~wilkingb of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The research focus in my group is on the study and design of new materials for energy storage and conversion, such as hydrogen-storage materials, David R. Dawkins 1960-2015 lithium-ion batteries, and pseudo- and super-capacitors. We employ a combined experimental and computational David Dawkins passed away unexpectedly in August. A approach, utilizing first-principles techniques to understand memorial service was held on September 27 in St. Charles, the electronic, mechanical, and thermodynamic properties of MO. David received his BS in Physics degree in 1995 and the materials we study. a MS degree in 1997. David was a very good student and, in I also serve as the Associate Director of the Center for 1995, received the Jeffrey Earl Award. While a student, he Nanoscience, and along with the director George Gokel, did research projects with Dick Schwartz and Phil have been re-organizing the center to more directly utilize Fraundorf. After receiving his MS degree, David was the strengths of the CNS members from Chemistry, Physics, employed by Southwestern Bell and later Accenture, mainly and Biochemistry and Biology. Working in the CNS in IT. He and his wife Kim (who also worked toward a provides opportunities for hands-on work with large physics degree here) have been generous supporters of the industrial partners such as Boeing, Monsanto, Purina, and Department. David attended some of our alumni events and others. served on a campus career panel for the NASA/Missouri Hydrogen storage research in the Majzoub group Space Grant Consortium. David is survived by his wife Kim remains funded through the Department of Energy, Office of and 2 sons. Kim is requesting that, in lieu of flowers, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. We currently contributions can be made in his memory to the Richard D. have two grants, one joint with Sandia National Laboratories Schwartz Scholarship fund. and Hughes Research Laboratory that is focused on hydrogen storage in alloy ternary borides, as well as lithiated boranes. Our other active grant is joint with Ames Research Laboratory in Ames, Iowa and is focused on silicon-based borohydride hypersalts, and high surface area graphene for catalyst support and graphene/hydride combination systems. We have recently been awarded an additional grant from the UM-System, Intercampus Interdisciplinary Award. This project focuses on functionalizing nanoporous carbon templates to control the surface chemistry (wetting and catalysis) to make the materials favorable for hosting complex hydride materials such as LiBH4. The most recent list of publications from the group may be found at: http://www.umsl.edu/~majzoube/ Ta-Pei Cheng, Kim Dawkins, Bruce Wilking, and David Former student updates: My most recent Ph.D. student, Findley Dongxue Zhao, is assistant professor of physics at Greenville College in Greenville, IL. Two other former Ph.D. students, Tim Mason and David Peaslee, are working on the west coast. David is working at an engineering firm in Alumni Information the San Francisco Bay Area, and Tim recently accepted a position at a startup company in Seattle, WA. 1991 Michael Meyer (M.S.) will be resigning his position as head Bruce A. Wilking of the star and planet formation group at ETH Zurich to take With USNO astronomer Fred Vrba and graduate student a professorship in the Department of Astronomy at the Tim Sullivan, we have completed analysis of motions in two University of Michigan in the summer of 2016. There he dimensions of young stars in the Rho Ophiuchi cluster using will help lead an expanding exoplanet research initiative. 6

1996 James M. and Janice E. Baker Kevin Dolan (B.S., M.S. 1998, Ph.D. 2000) is currently a Paul J. and Kathy Brake Senior Scientist in the Infomatics and Data Analysis Group for Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd., in Oxford, UK Dr. Ta-Pei and Leslie S. Cheng which is a company developing novel methods and Linda Cosper technology for fast, inexpensive DNA sequencing. Prior to Norman S. Dalton his position with Oxford Nanopore, Kevin was a Senior Sandra J. Davis Scientist with Philips Research in the Netherlands working David R. Dawkins on a miniature implantable stimulator for the treatment of neural disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease and Dystonia. Kimberly A. Dawkins Dr. Lu Fei and Dr. Lucy Wenzhong He 1999 Dr. Bernard J. and Marjorie A. Feldman Tim Kirchoff (M.S.) has been an instructor of physics and Earl and Joan Fink astronomy for the Colorado Community College System since 2010, and has become the lead instructor for the Michael X. Gallagher algebra-based introductory physics courses since 2014. In Anthony F. Giordano addition to teaching, he has also been a part of a team William B. and Mary C. Harms involved in course revisions to improve the student David J. Harris and Margaret A. Diekemper experience and hopefully retention. Dr. Bo He and Xueqin Fan

2002 Richard W. Heuermann and Kathleen P. Price Amanda Truong (M.S., Ph.D. 2010) is a Physical Science Rose F. Holt Lab Instructor at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO. Shirley Johns Gary D. and Susan T. Johnson 2009 Charles F. and Carol R. Jones Nathan Dees (Ph.D.) is a Principal Data Scientist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. John M. Keller Timothy A. and Dr. Michelle R. Kirchoff Keara Wright (B.S.) is a doctoral student in the Department Kim Lang of Astronomy at the University of Florida. Since receiving Lauren M. Lester her Master’s degree in mathematics from MS&T, Keara has Gerald R. Loethen been involved in math and science education and was most recently an adjunct math instructor for Vatterott College. Steven L. and Frances C. Lopata James A. and Laura S. Malke 2011 Eleanor I. McIntyre Tim Mason (Ph.D.) is a numerical modeling engineer at Richard J. Melka Kymeta Corporation in Seattle, WA which is developing a Dr. Martin G. and Pamela E. Mlynczak liquid crystal based, electrically steerable antenna for Dennis J. and Pauline H. Moore satellite communications. Vincent G. Musielak 2012 Peabody Energy Dongxue Zhao (M.S., Ph.D. 2015) is an assistant professor Dr. David E. Peaslee of physics and engineering at Greenville College in Illinois. Dr. Ron J. and Martha E. Pieper

Dawn King (M.S., Ph.D. 2015) will begin working as a Elizabeth M. Ramirez Postdoctoral Research Associate in our department as of Dr. Lawrence W. and Mary E. Ramsey January 1, continuing her collaboration with her Ph.D. Mrs. Richard D. Schwartz advisor, Sonya Bahar. Howard W. and LaDonna R. Thoele Robert A. and Lois J. Wagner Dr. Michael J. Way Contributors 2014-2015 Drs. Bruce A. and Janet B. Wilking

Thanks to all for your generous contributions to our Don C. and Susan Winter scholarship and gift funds! Please contact us if you have Geoffrey R. and Karen Yuen made a contribution in the past year and your name does not Dr. Zhongyu Zhang appear.

Dr. Danish Adil and Nida Jawaid

Drs. Scott D. Alspach and Susan Altman-Alspach

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Enclosed is my contribution of $ . Yes, I work for a matching gift corporation.

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