Gustavus Physics

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE September 2002 PHYSICS DEPARTMENT On-Campus Edition Gustavus Physics

Radiations from Olin Hall

This annual newsletter captures high- lights of the 2001-2002 academic year, Inside this issue: and news from current students, recent graduates and faculty. Upgraded Computers 3

Faculty Summer Activities 4 Enrollments in our courses continue very strong, and the U.S. annual num- Student Summer Intern- 6 ships ber of physics B.A./B.S. graduates is Visiting Lecturers and 7 again rising, with a good slope. Our Alumni graduates from the Class of 2002 are Graduating Class of 2002 8 pursuing their further educations and Faculty Comings and Goings careers in a variety of ways. First-year Study Abroad 9 Dennis Henry succeeded Steve and returning students will find some Mellema as department chair on June new equipment and computers in Olin J Term 2002 Courses 10 2, and began a new three-year term in Hall, and many opportunities for fun that familiar position. He plans more with physics. research projects with students in the area of electromagnetic interference. (Continued on page 2) Fall Semester 2002 Dates to Remember • Sep. 4 Classes begin Students Receive Departmental Awards • Oct. 1-2 Nobel Con- ference At the end of the 2001-2002 academic longtime Gustavus professor of physics • Oct. 18-21 Fall Break year, the physics department recog- (who taught here from 1933-1969) and • Nov. 4-19 January nized several of our rising senior ma- is awarded annually to a junior physics Term and Spring Reg- jors with awards for the 2002-2003 major on the basis of interests and istration academic year. scholarly achievements. • Nov. 28-Dec. 1 Erik Brekke and Eric Nordberg have Troy Anderson and Sean Hosein re- Thanksgiving Break been selected as the winners of the ceived the Gerald and Julia Swanson • Dec. 16-19 Final Ex- Milward T. Rodine Memorial Physics Scholarship in Physics. This scholar- ams Award. This cash prize is named for the (Continued on page 2) Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 2 Faculty Comings and Goings

(Continued from page 1) Steve Mellema will be on a sabbatical Tom Huber has retained his mix of leave for the 2002-2003 academic duties, in advance of his sabbatical year. From October 15 through April leave coming in the 2003-2004 aca- 15 he will be a Fulbright Fellow at- demic year. He continues as advisor tached to the School of Physics at Uni- for pre-engineering and dual-degree versiti Sains Malaysia (the Science programs, coordinator for summer in- University of Malaysia) in Penang. ternships, webmaster for the physics During his time he will lecture, col- department, and he represents us in li- laborate on research projects, and give Faculty members juggle brary, teacher education, and curricu- presentations and workshops on the some new assignments lum matters. He will also be pursuing creation of web-based materials for outside the classroom his acoustic research, as outlined in the teaching physics. this year. “Faculty comings and goings section.” (Continued on page 3)

Annual Student Awards

(Continued from page 1) department (1967-69) and awarded to ship was established to honor the work the student with “the greatest potential of the physics department faculty who for contributing to physics and society”. provided Gerald Swanson with a back- ground that prepared him for graduate In consultation with the Physics Depart- study in physics and for a career with ment, the Department of Mathematics/ the Bendix Corporation. The scholar- Computer Science has chosen Chat ship is to encourage physics students of Custer and Erik Brekke as the winners promise who are enrolled full-time at of the 2002-2003 John Borneman Prize the College. Par Excellence in Mathematics. This award is named in memory of John Jeremiah Jazdzewski was awarded the Borneman, a 1955 Gustavus graduate, John Chindvall Scholarship in Physics. by his family. It is presented annually This endowed scholarship was estab- to an outstanding student in the fields of Students majoring in lished in memory of 1970 Gustavus mathematics and physics. physics are eligible for graduate John Chindvall by his parents a number of awards. and friends. It is awarded annually to a In addition, Jeremiah Jazdzewski and student majoring in physics. Eric Nordberg have also been named

Physics Departmental Assistants for Brian Collins was selected to receive the Julian A. Crawford Memorial Prize Fall Semester, 2002. This position has a in Physics. This prize consists of a one- nominal expectation of four hours per year membership in the American As- week in research, course development sociation of Physics Teachers (AAPT). or other activities that will assist in the The prize is named in memory of the work of the department. former chair of the Gustavus physics Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 3 More Faculty Comings and Goings

Chuck Niederriter continues to clustering behavior in nature. shoulder the burden of physics network computer manager for another Todd Coleman joins the physics fac- year, but with the collective under- ulty as Visiting Assistant Professor, standing that this responsibility reside replacing Steve Mellema. Todd has in a support specialist position in fu- just completed his Ph.D. in theoretical ture years. He will again be the fac- elementary particle physics at the Uni- ulty advisor for the Gustavus SPS versity of Wisconsin-Madison, where (Society of Physics Students) chapter. he became acquainted with Gustie He has accepted the campus position physics graduates Jay Anderson of co-director of General Education. (‘95), Karl Vigen (‘95), and Nate Blair (’92). Todd received his B.S. Paul Saulnier returns from his on- from Wittenberg University. He will campus sabbatical and takes back re- be teaching the combined sections of sponsibility for the department’s pro- General Physics, one lab section each gram of outside speakers. Paul will of General Physics I and Classical III, also be the coordinator of the Faculty and Senior Seminar this fall. He and Shop Talk series as well as serving on his friend Rellen Hardtke, who is the Faculty Development committee. completing her Ph.D. in particle astro- He will be engaged in student-faculty physics at Madison, are taking up resi- research projects throughout the year. dence in Shakopee. These include optical scattering experiments as well as simulations and experiments dealing with swarming or

Upgraded Computers in the Physics

This summer all of the physics depart- II machines running at a blazing 266 ment lab computers were upgraded to MHz. These machines also received Windows XP. The goal of this up- memory upgrades. (This means one grade was to take advantage of XP’s fewer excuse for the Experimental ease of operation and faster boot times. Modern Lab students.) Although the interface is somewhat different, the operation of these ma- Every student enrolled in a course in This means one fewer chines should be familiar to everyone, the department will receive instruc- excuse for the Experi- as the networking and programs re- tions on the use of the new network mental Modern Lab students. main almost the same. during the first week of classes.

In addition, the eight Modern Lab computers were replaced with post- tornado Omnitechs, which are Pentium Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 4 How I Spent My Summer (by the Physics Faculty)

The faculty members in the department Tom Huber has been busy with sev- had a busy summer. eral projects this summer. The major one was a continuation of his work on A. Jennings Ellis writes: “Other than organ pipe acoustics which is being several trips down to the farm in Iowa carried out in collaboration with and some Minnesota sight-seeing, I Charles Hendrickson ('59, owner of have stayed around St. Peter. The to- Hendrickson Organ Company), Brian matoes and okra started early; the rasp- Collins ('03), and Mario Pineda Poly- berries were as prolific as usual, and tec PI Incorporated). He has been busy still are, but the roses have been disap- with analysis of the measurements that pointing this year. I have started film- were taken in April of the vibrational ing new versions of the chemistry vid- modes using a Polytec scanning laser eos. The technology has progressed vibrometer for different reed organ remarkably since I started doing this pipes. A laser vibrometer uses the project nine years ago. It is all digital Doppler shift of reflected light to de- “The tomatoes and now; in a few months, the last maker termine the velocity of a moving sur- okra started early; the of VHS camera will cease production face, in this case the vibrating reed. raspberries were as altogether.” The results have been quite interest- prolific as usual...” ing - the modes are significantly more Dennis Henry writes: “The summer, complicated than previously expected, which seemed to start late and end and yet have some consistency with early, included registering first-year theoretical models of a vibrating bar. students for two days in June, upgrad- One exciting development in this area; ing the home computer network, and Tom has been able to obtain funds spending a relaxing week at Lake Le from the Dean's office to purchase a Homme Dieu near Alexandria. July used laser vibrometer. This unit would was dominated by preparing the lead- be worth about $75,000, but only cost off invited lecture on teaching elec- less than 10% of that amount! This tronics courses at the AAPT summer will allow him to continue to make ex- meetings in Boise, Idaho in early Au- citing measurements in this area. gust. It was fun to see former students (Advertisement - Tom is looking for Dave Seely (‘81) and Rauha Rahkola students who are interested in working (‘97) there. Another article in the with him on this project). He will be works is on the physics of railroad applying for an National Science hump yards for the forthcoming Ency- Foundation grant to allow Gustavus clopedia of North American Railroads, students to work on this project during being published by Indiana University the next three summers. Press. In late August I attended one day of the IEEE Electromagnetic Com- Tom also attended the American Asso- patibility Society International Sympo- ciation of Physics Teachers meeting in sium in Minneapolis, where I heard Boise, Idaho in early August. He pre- some interesting papers, saw some neat sented a paper on using portable CD lab demonstrations, and talked shop players in the electronics laboratory with EMC professionals and students.” (Continued on page 5) Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 5 Faculty Summer Activities (concluded)

(Continued from page 4) cerning budget, general education, and (which will be familiar to any students a proposal to the Howard Hughes who have taken Electronics I here). foundation. On the way back from the meeting, he spent an enjoyable few days in Yel- Paul Saulnier writes: “The summer of lowstone with the family. Finally, 2002 was filled with research, class Tom has been busy preparing for the prep, and a family vacation. The re- fall semester, especially continued research consisted of two projects; time- finements of the Experimental Modern resolved photon correlation spectros- Physics course. copy and the use of radial distribution functions as a means to study swarm- Steve Mellema and family made a ing behavior in nature. The first of one-month trip in June to Malaysia, these projects involves studying the with the primary goal of arranging a behavior of small particles suspended Gustavus Travel course there for Janu- in a fluid while the second dealt with ary Term 2004. Arrangements are now investigating the organizational struc- in place for the course, which will ex- ture of swarms in nature as observed pose students to everything from the under varying conditions. Rob Mark rich cultural and religious traditions of worked on the light scattering experi- Asia to the ecology of the tropical train ment while Amit Bohara led the swarm forest and the surrounding coral reefs. investigation. Significant progress was If you’re interested, watch for next made in both investigations. year’s January Term 2004 catalog!

It was a busy summer for Chuck Niederriter, beginning with the graduation from St. Peter High of his oldest son, Brad. After all of the party preparations, completion of house projects, and visits from the grandparents, most of the month of June was gone, leaving only a little time before the Photographer-induced Niederriter’s foreign exchange student behavior at the spring returned to Italy. Then there was some physics picnic. time for traveling, camping, and, of course, the annual trip to Pennsylvania. Between all of these activities, Chuck found time to upgrade the physics computers to XP, repair several weather stations, write physlets for the astronomy class and naked eye observ- ing sessions for art history courses, and attend many meetings on campus con- Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 6 Student Summer Internships

This newsletter is being written before Would you like to do a summer students have returned for the fall se- internship? mester. However, the following summer internships and research opportu- A high percentage of our majors will nities were reported to Steve Mellema complete at least one research intern- at the end of the spring 2002 semester. ship or experience before they graduate As usual, we expect to hear many in- from Gustavus.. These experiences teresting student talks at SPS meetings take place in the summers between the this year. sophomore and junior or the junior and

senior years, but there are programs Tutu Adenle (‘03), Rose-Hulman. that will accept students between their Troy Anderson (‘03), Notre Dame. freshman and sophomore years. Amit Bohara (‘03), GAC with Paul

Saulnier. A research experience is valuable in Erik Brekke (‘03), Materials Science, many ways. It gives students a taste of Northwestern University. what the “real world” of research is Brian Collins (‘03), Materials Re- like and helps them to plan for future search Science and Engineering Cen- graduate studies and jobs. And, in both ter, University of Minnesota. those cases, having such an internship Chad Custer (‘03), National Institute on your resume can open a lot of of Standards and Technology. doors. Melissa Haugen (‘03), University of

Toledo. So, if the kinds of appointments listed Jeremiah Jazdzewski (‘03), Materials at the left and described by students in Research Science and Engineering SPS meetings this year sound interest- Center, University of Minnesota. ing, talk to your advisor or to Tom Andy Konicek (‘04), Electrical Engi- Huber, who is the department's intern- neering, Mayo Clinic. ship coordinator. Rob Mark (‘03), GAC with Paul Saul-

nier.

Eric Nordberg (‘03), Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, working with Greg Haugstad (‘85). Andy Ohrt (‘02), Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa. Kevin Quealy (‘03), University of Milwaukee. Tom Schmit (‘03), Materials Science, Cornell University. Scott Stephens (‘03), Michigan State.

Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 7 Visiting Lecturers and Alumni

The department’s program of outside speakers and the many SPS meetings brought a rich and varied group of speakers to the campus. Pictured above are eight physics alums who gathered to tell students and faculty what the real world was like. From left to right they are Kari Treichel (‘96), Kris Fredrick (‘96), Rob Corey (‘95) and his friend who is studying medicine, Aaron Schmidt (‘95), Scott Blomberg (‘90), Erik Therien (‘92), Ben Leadholm (‘90), and Phil Miesle (‘95).

Dr. Thomas Rossing, Northern Illinois University, “The Physics of Gui- tars,” October 11, 2001.

Mr. Kevin Buchs (‘82), Mayo Foundation, “Research in Electrical Engi- neering at the Mayo Foundation,” October 24, 2001.

Dr. Doug Finnemore, Iowa State University, “Superconductivity in MgB2,” November 5, 2001.

Dr. Nathan Miller (‘97), University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Using NASA’s New Chandra X-ray Observatory to Probe Hot Star Winds,” No- vember 19, 2001.

Dr. John Huchra, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harlow- Shapley Lectures: “Large Scale Structure of the Universe” and “Age and Fate of the Universe,” March 4-5, 2002.

Dr. Laurie McNeil, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gustavus Lecture Series: “Optical Materials Today” and “Physics of Optical Materi- als,” April 9-10, 2002.

Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 8 Graduating Class of 2002

Commencement ceremonies are al- Amanda Havnen (‘02), Medical Engi- ways memorable, but they do tend to neering, Wake Forest University. follow a template. Not this year. The Jon Jennings (‘02), candidate for po- predicted rain soaked those marching sition in actuarial firm, Lincoln, Ne- as well as the assembled multitude on braska. Hollingsworth Field. A disorderly re- Todd Johnson (‘02), Physics, Univer- treat to the Lund Arena was an- sity of Wisconsin-Madison. nounced, followed by a much abbrevi- Jon Miller (‘02), Theoretical Physics, ated and yet meaningful approxima- University of Maryland-College Park. tions to the key elements of the pro- Matthew Miller (‘02), Physics, Uni- gram. We had our traditional reception versity of Wisconsin-Madison. in the Olin lounge, at which each of David Paulsen (‘02), Dual-Degree in the 12 seniors introduced himself or Electrical Engineering, Minnesota herself to the families and friends, and State-Mankato. talked about future plans. Again, from Andy Ohrt (‘02), Dual-Degree in Me- Steve Mellema’s board, we report: chanical Engineering, University of Minnesota. Corey Bishman (‘02), seeking techni- Laura Owen (‘02), Materials Science, cal employment. Washington State University-Pullman. Mike Bland (‘02), Geophysics, Uni- versity of Arizona. Lance Breitenbach (‘02), Aerospace Engineering, Old Dominion University Paul Good (‘02), Astrophysics, Uni- versity of Iowa. Gustavus Physics On-Campus Edition

Page 9 Members of the Class of 2005 practice for their graduation

Study Abroad Possibilities Gustavus has one of the highest per- There are also programs at the Univer- centages in the country of students sity of Lancaster, England, and the who choose to study abroad during Gustavus exchange program with the their college career. For physics ma- Science University of Malaysia. None jors, careful planning for a study of these programs requires any knowl- abroad experience is essential, given edge of a foreign language, and the highly sequential nature of the courses may be taken to fulfill both courses required for the major and for physics-major and general-education There are several study- adequate graduate-school or career requirements. abroad programs available that can integrate preparation. There are several study- more easily with our abroad programs available that can in- Be sure to talk with your advisor if you major. tegrate more easily with our major. are interested in studying abroad.

The semester– or year-long program For more information contact the Of- with the physics department at the Uni- fice of International Education located versity of Wollongong in Australia al- in the International Center next door to lows students to take a full range of Olin Hall. The study-abroad coordina- physics courses. tor is Carol Moline (x7546). GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE

Olin Hall Editor’s Note: This Newsletter is issued at the begin- 800 West College Avenue ning of the fall semester for the benefit of current and prospective students, alumni, faculty and others inter- Phone: 507-933-7308 Fax: 507-933-6104 ested in the physics program. Students enrolled in the major course sequence will also be receiving copies of

Editor: Dennis C. Henry the current physics curriculum and advising guide, the E-mail: [email protected] fall activity calendar, and a users’ guide to the physics software on the department’s computer network. Sen- iors have received copies of the new edition of the AAPT brochure “Planning for Graduate Studies in Physics and Related Fields”, written by Dennis Henry, and juniors will receive copies this fall. All students are reminded to make an appointment to visit with their faculty advisor early in the fall semester, We’re on the web! to discuss study abroad, January and Spring registra- http://physics.gac.edu tion, or any other items mentioned in this newsletter.

January Term 2003

The Physics Department will offer four Paul Saulnier will be teaching courses this coming year. PHY100 Physical World, for its first offering in some years, and the first in Dennis Henry will be again be teach- January Term. This course provides a ing PHY310, Electronics and Instru- one-semester introduction to classical mentation II. The prerequisite for this and modern physics for students out- course is PHY270, Electronics and In- side the sciences. It is being offered strumentation I. This course will move with a focus on students meeting re- to an alternate-year January-Term-only quirements in teacher education. pattern after 2003.

Todd Coleman plans to offer an intro- Chuck and Debbie Niederriter will ductory course in particle physics, ac- again be teaching PHY112, Australia- cessible to students who have com- Astronomy of the Southern Skies, but pleted the Classical Physics sequence. this popular course is already full, with Students interested in this course a waiting list. Interested students should see Todd for more information. should contact Chuck.