Gustavus Physics
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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 net- work 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 ex- periments 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.