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Welcome to TCNJ ! TCNJ Physics- who we are: •90 undergraduate students •10 full-time faculty •2 staff members •10 student assistants (physics majors) • CONGRATULATIONS! WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US Of 496 institutions granting bachelor-only degrees in physics, TCNJ has ranked 9th Entirely focused on teaching you, doing science with you, and leading you to a successful career Did you know that TCNJ physics majors can…

Earn a scholarship to train future high school physics teachers? TCNJ has ranked 2nd in the US in the production of high school physics teachers

Use a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope

…and atomic force microscope … Grow neurons… … launch weather balloons…

… build a plasma lab… ...study gravitational waves...

… design pharmaceuticals…

… make holograms… …and start a company… … all right here on campus… How do we make this happen?

• We are an undergraduate college. • We encourage a deep sense of community among physics students. • Our students learn physics as it is actually practiced. • Our students learn with state-of-the-art equipment (normally the domain of graduate students and professionals). • We have a diverse faculty with teaching experience and research specializations in nearly all physics disciplines. Physics Career Options • Graduate school – Prepared for MS/PhD in science and engineering (PhD is free, btw…) – MS/PhD programs prefer physics majors

• Private Industry – Diverse career options at any degree level

• High School Teaching – 100% placement rate

• Medical school/law school – Excellent route to M.D./Ph.D. programs – Physics majors score highest on MCAT exam Graduate & Professional Schools University of Pennsylvania (PhD / MS) Yale University (PhD) A sampling of University of Michigan (PhD) University of New Mexico (PhD) UCLA (PhD) where TCNJ University of Delaware (PhD) Public & Private Sector Penn State University (PhD/ MD) physics majors Princeton University Research Rutgers University (PhD) Labs UMDNJ/RWJ School of Medicine (MD) go… Thor Labs Notre Dame (JD) Actuarial Services Hofstra University (JD) Camden Health System Hamburg University (MS) Northrup Grumman Lehigh University (PhD) Teaching Positions NJ Geologic Survey University of Washington (PhD) Forked River Nuclear Power University of Iowa (MD/PhD) Robbinsville, NJ Plant University of South Carolina (MD/PhD) Deptford, NJ Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Florida State University (PhD) Montgomery, NJ Princeton Plasma Physics Lab Georgia State University (PhD) Hunterdon, NJ Picatinny Arsenal University of Wisconsin (PhD) Barnegat, NJ Harvard University Data George Mason University (PhD) Miami, FL Analyst Temple University (PhD / MS) Boulder, CO David Pollack Consultants Boston College (PhD) Lawrenceville, NJ Edmund University of North Carolina (PhD) Monroe, NJ Science News Drexel University (PhD) Westwood, NJ ______New York University (PhD) Union County, NJ NJ Department of NJIT (PhD) Hamilton, NJ Environmental Protection Virginia Tech University (PhD) Northern Highlands, NJ UC Davis (PhD) East Brunswick, NJ University of Chicago (PhD) North Hunterdon, NJ Tufts University (PhD) South Brunswick, NJ University of Nevada (PhD) Keyport, NJ West Virginia University (PhD) UC Irvine (PhD) Old Dominion University (PhD) Vanderbilt University (PhD/JD) University of Florida (PhD) Resume builders for physics majors… …what we offer to prepare you for life after TCNJ… Work as a department tech Set up labs, use a 3-D printer, work in our machine shop or observatory Work as a scanning electron microscope or atomic force microscope tech Full time, paid summer research experiences on or off campus  MUSE, REU, PPPL Take a mentored independent study course with a faculty member  A semester-long individualized research experience  You get academic credit…and the keys to the lab! …and inside the classroom we offer: Three degree paths:  Physics BS  Physics and Secondary Education BS+certification  7 year Physics BS/MD (Medical) Program

Flexibility to minor in: Computer science Mathematics Six degree specializations:  . Biology . Biomedical Physics Any engineering field . Or anything else! . . (with Chemistry) . Graduate Physics Preparatory On any given day, TCNJ physics majors: • Present at international meetings with faculty, and sometimes coauthor papers • Partner with faculty on state-of-the-art research as part of their daily education • Measure the speed of light, the spin of the electron, and the annihilation of positrons and electrons- and they build the experiments to do it

Your TCNJ experience is not just a seat in a classroom. We bring you into the global community of practicing physicists. Permanent Physics Faculty Faculty member Research area(s) and technique(s)

Dr. Angela Capece Plasma & Surface Physics Experimental Dr. David McGee Materials Physics & Photonics Experimental Dr. Nate Magee and Experimental Dr. Nicholas Nesh Computational Dr. Tuan Nguyen Biophysics Experimental Dr. Romulo Ochoa Optics and Physics Lab Development Experimental Dr. A J Richards Physics Education Observational & Experimental Dr. Thulsi Wickramisinghe Astrophysics & Cosmology Theoretical & Observational Dr. Shannon Graham Geophysics –Computational & Observational Dr. Lauranne Lanz Astrophysics –Observational & Computational Dr. Angela Capece Plasma-Materials Interactions Research What is plasma? Plasma is an ionized gas. Examples in nature are lightning, solar wind, stars, aurora borealis

Plasmas have many applications:

• Fluorescent lights, neon lights, spacecraft propulsion, medicine, fusion energy, nanomaterials synthesis

All involve plasma in contact with a material Dr. Angela Capece Plasma-Materials Interactions Research

Current Project: Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles in Ionic Liquids by Electron Irradiation

• Electron beam incident on silver salt dissolved in ionic liquid

• Electrons reduce the silver to form nanoparticles

• Particles observed with SEM and other surface analytical techniques Dr. Nate Magee My Research Interests: •Physical analysis of ice crystals and raindrops (in the lab and the sky ) •Using radar and satellite to understand severe and tornadic thunderstorms •Climate science •Instrument design for atmospheric measurements •Physics teacher education Courses I enjoy teaching: Intro Physics, Meteorology, Cloud and Climate Physics, Geology, , , Research mentoring, Seminar courses TCNJ Robert Noyce & National Science Foundation Physics Teacher Education Scholarship Program

Seven full tuition scholarships are available each year to: Junior and senior TCNJ physics students pursuing Physics Teacher Certification Program

Action needed to address critical shortage of qualified physics teachers by financially supporting our best students to choose this career Dr. Tuan Nguyen Associate Professor of Physics

Teaching Interests

• General Physics

• /

• Electricity & Magnetism and Optics

• Biophysics Research Interests • Biophysics • • Laser and Optical Techniques Research Focus To understand the physics of networks formed by many neurons

The brain is a fantastic organ formed by networks of TRILLIONS of neurons

Surprisingly, its wiring is similar to many real-world networks like the Internet

Students in my lab will stimulate spatial & temporal patterns of neurons and ask… • What are local connecting rules determine global network properties? • Can these rules be altered? • What happens when we remove the more connected neurons? • Being a self-organizing system, can the network work-around such failures? Tools & Methods

• Optical microscopy and imaging

• Laser scanning photostimulation

• Cell culture

• Patch-clamp electrophysiology

• Calcium imaging

• Numerical modeling Dr. Romulo Ochoa Professor of Physics Research Interests:

• Application of optical Teaching: techniques • Spectroscopy of materials • Intro calculus-based physics • Design of experiments for • intro and upper level physics • Analog and Digital Electronics courses • Electromagnetic Waves and Optics • Condensed Matter • (occasionally)

Physics Club Advisor Informal liaison with alumni Research Focus

• Applications of spatial light modulators (SLM’s) to 4f Fourier imaging • Understanding of inner workings of liquid crystal displays • SLM’s use to generate optical vortices • Optical tweezer applications using SLM’s • Optics experiments using SLM’s Dr. AJ Richards

• Specialty: Physics Education Research – Student reasoning • How students build understanding of complex physics topics from more basic ideas – Diversity and inclusivity in physics – Developing new classroom activities and pedagogical techniques Dr. AJ Richards

• Teaching interests: – Introductory physics – Physics courses for non-majors – Supervision of physics student teachers • I can teach you how to teach! Dr. Thulsi Wickramasinghe • – Cosmology – Gravitational Lensing – Gravitational Waves Dr. Thulsi Wickramasinghe • Observational Astronomy – Radial Velocities – Spectroscopy – Photometry – New 28-in telescope Dr. Shannon Graham Geophysicist Research interests: I use high precision GPS data to investigate ◦ Global tectonic plate motions and earthquake hazards ◦ Crustal deformation due to: EQs Afterslip ◦ Earthquake cycle (pre-, co-, and post-seismic SSE signals) ◦ Diverse fault behaviors such as slow slip events (slow earthquakes) ◦ Volcanic deformation I also use seismometers as a tool for teaching

How stuck is the fault? the is stuck How and research ◦ Measuring local seismicity ◦ Recording crowd response to sporting events ◦ Digital signal processing (filtering, correlating, and analyzing digital signals) Teaching: ◦ Next year: intro geology and advanced geology/geophysics! Max Max in EQ possible NW? the Pacific

BC Football I study the evolution of galaxies and Dr. Lauranne Lanz their supermassive black holes. Observational Astrophysicist Possible Student Projects: Make a census of supermassive black hole activity with NASA’s WISE telescope

Investigate the X-ray activity of supermassive black holes Measure the with NASA’s Chandra and ability of NuSTAR telescopes galaxies to Explore the details of black form new hole effects on nearby stars with galaxies with space- and Arecibo ground-based telescopes Dr. David McGee - Student Research Opportunities polymer modulator MEMs dynamic holography

Nonlinear Optics

optical waveguides nanoporous materials molecular design Nano Micro Macro student research circle

physics materials science

Nanostructured thin film design and fabrication Photonic applications Laser based optical analysis chemistry Biophysics Dr. Nicholas Nesh

Biophysics uses: •quantitative analysis to a greater degree than biochemistry or biology •physics, chemistry, computer modeling, and mathematics to study living systems (cells to organisms)

29 Research with TCNJ Students Computational design of active small molecules

A model of a designed molecule (Br-red, C-blue, H-white, N-pink, O-yellow)

30 Small molecules o drug-like properties o no toxicities o stable complexes with target proteins (regulate programmed cell death) o potentially inhibit cancer growth

Protein binding groove (solid spheres) with a designed molecule (yellow ball-and-stick)

31 Join the TCNJ Physics Family… … robotics competition (& pizza)… student/faculty volleyball game… … biweekly coffee & tea happy ½-hours…

end-of-year picnic… • Student Introductions • Questions • Tour of some labs