Home of Physics and Astronomy on the Idaho Palouse Newsletter Issue No. 1 MMXX Editor: J.R. Hiller URL: https://www.uidaho.edu/sci/physics/news/physics-newsletter Message from the Chair ence. Faculty quickly trained themselves in the use of Zoom and launched synchronous To say that this has been quite a year and asynchronous versions of their courses. would seem unnecessary. It has been quite Any diligent student should have been as a year for everyone. All the various dis- successful in that semester as in any other. ruptions and hardships induced by the pan- In the process, much was learned about demic came so fast that being reactive was the technology that is now the founda- usually the only course of action. For the tion for our fall-semester preparations, as University of Idaho, this came on top of we plan to deliver several courses in hy- months spent dealing with budget cuts, not brid remote/in-class combinations that ac- to mention my own summer-long effort to commodate social distancing. Only small relocate from Minnesota. classes that fit safely within their rooms will However, through it all (and continuing be delivered in the fully traditional fash- today, as we prepare for a fall semester in ion, and those only until the Thanksgiving the new normal), the Department has kept break. After that break, all instruction will its focus on our dual core missions of teach- again be fully online for the remainder of the ing and research. We pivoted to fully online semester, to prevent students from returning instruction in March, with only the week of with new infections. Spring “break” to prepare. This included a The budget cuts and spending restric- massive effort by our new Lab Director, Eric tions have not impacted the Department too Foard, assisted by Amrah Canul, to produce severely. We did lose the position held by videos to replace the in-person lab experi- Bernard Stumpf upon his retirement, but we did gain a dedicated Chair position that had him back. been filled by interim Chairs from outside So, now we look to the future. The pan- the Department. The College as a whole demic will continue to have impact, includ- has lost several faculty lines and staff posi- ing additional strains on the University bud- tions. We have been fortunate to be joined get, but the new instructional infrastructure by Jessica DeWitt, coming over from Statis- and training have opened new possibilities tical Science, to replace KarlaRose Erhard- for course delivery and research collabora- Hudson as the Department Administrative tion. Instead of traditional lectures, the Assistant. new technologies facilitate the flipped class- Gift accounts have been instrumental room approach, with short lecture videos in weathering the temporary spending re- viewed in advance and class time used for strictions. The generosity of our donors broad interaction with students through ex- has given us the financial independence to amples, questions, and discussion. Despite maintain our support for students, through the severe limitations on travel (meaning, I scholarships, instructional equipment and haven’t traveled at all), I have had more con- research opportunities, and support for fac- tact with other physicists around the coun- ulty creativity. try and the globe than I would in most previ- My own odyssey began in Duluth, Min- ous years, Zooming to meetings that I would nesota, where I was a Professor in the De- not have reached otherwise. partment of Physics and Astronomy at the I hope that you, too, can look forward local campus of the University of Minnesota, to a productive year with good health. Stay having been Department Head from 1995 to safe. And, if you have another moment, 2007. There was a house to empty, upgrade, please consider filling out and returning the and sell; a house to buy in Idaho; and, the response form on the last page. highlight of the process, a drive across North Dakota and Montana with a dog, a cat and Best regards, eight rabbits packed into a cargo van. We camped along the way and got everybody here, except the cat, who slipped his tether and jumped ship into a North Dakota corn field. With the help of a microchip, a cat person, and a pet transport service, we got PS: Here’s a building you might remember. Faculty Francesca Sammarruca, Professor and Secretary of the University Astronomy and Planetary Science Faculty, Ph.D. Virginia Polytech- nic Institute 1988 Gwen Barnes, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D. University of Arizona 2007 Staff Jason Barnes, Professor and Dyess Faculty Fellow, Ph.D. University Jessica DeWitt, Administrative Assistant of Arizona 2004 Eric Foard, Ph.D., Director of Physics Lab- Matthew Hedman, Associate Pro- oratory Education fessor and Director of Graduate Studies, Ph.D. Princeton Univer- Brian Petty, Scientific Instrument Maker sity 2002 Nava Subedi, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow Biological Physics Dinesh Thapa, Ph.D., Lecturer Andreas Vasdekis, Associate Profes- sor, Ph.D. University of St. An- drews 2008 Awards in 2020 F. Marty Ytreberg, Professor and As- sociate Director of the Institute Dean’s Award: Sam Myers for Modeling Collaboration and John B. George Award: Sam Myers Innovation, Ph.D. University of Maine 2000 Deans Graduate Award: Lokendra Khanal Condensed Matter Physics Best Physics TA: Elizabeth Atang College of Science Staff Outstanding Ser- Leah Bergman, Professor, Ph.D. vice Award: Brian Petty North Carolina State University 1995 Christine Berven, Associate Profes- sor, Ph.D. University of Oregon Donations 1995 If you would like to donate to the You Qiang, Professor, Ph.D. Univer- Physics Department, please contact Eric sity of Freiburg 1997 Bennett, the Director of Development for the College of Science at eben- Hadronic Physics [email protected], 208-885-9106, or Univer- sity of Idaho College of Science, 875 Perime- Sophia Chabysheva, Clinical Assis- ter Drive, MS 3025, Moscow, ID 83844- tant Professor, Ph.D. Southern 3025. Online donations can be made Methodist University 2009 at https://www.uidaho.edu/giving/way-to- John Hiller, Professor and Chair, give. Entering ‘Physics’ in the designation Ph.D. University of Maryland field will present you with a list of funds as- 1980 sociated with the Department. Thank you!! Ruprecht Machleidt, University Dis- tinguished Professor, Ph.D. Uni- versity of Bonn 1973 Sophia Chabysheva came to the Depart- ment as a non-tenure-track Assistant Transitions Professor. Andreas Vasdekis was promoted to Asso- Bernard Stumpf retired from his faculty ciate Professor with Tenure. position. KarlaRose Erhard-Hudson chose to move to a different path after many years Eric Foard joined the Department as the of faithful service as the Department’s new Director for the instructional lab- Administrative Assistant. oratories. Jessica DeWitt switched from a similar po- John Hiller arrived from the University of sition in Statistical Science to take Minnesota-Duluth as the new Chair. KarlaRose’s place. New Graduates Things They Can Tell Us Thesis advisor: M. Hedman Caitlin Buchanan (B.A. 2020) Rajani Dhingra (Ph.D. 2019), NASA Gunnar Edwards (B.A. 2020) Postdoctoral Program fellow at Nicholas Brubaker (Applied B.S. 2020) NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Lab- oratory. Anthony Wright (Applied B.S. 2020) Thesis title: Understanding the Surface-Atmosphere Interactions on Zach Berfanger (B.S. 2020) Titan Lochlann Dunn (B.S. 2020) Thesis advisor: J. Barnes Mason Footh (B.S. 2019) Lokendra Khanal (Ph.D. 2020) placed at Intel. Dylan Martin (B.S. 2020) Thesis advisor: Y. Qiang Samuel Myers (B.S. 2020), Planetary Sci- Christopher Ali Mirabzadeh (Ph.D. 2019), ence Ph.D. program at the University now a Research Data Scientist at Aon of Arizona in Spokane, WA. Eduardo Ramos-Arteaga (B.S. 2019) Thesis title: Optimization Problems in Computational Physics: From Matthew Young (B.S. 2020) Atoms to Molecular Assemblies Thesis advisor: F. Ytreberg Steven Kreyche (M.S. 2020) Kyle Martin (Ph.D. 2020), now a post- Dillon Morehouse (M.S. 2019) doc at the pharmaceutical company Jeff Lapp (M.S. 2020) Boehringer Ingelheim. Thesis advisor: L. Bergman Thesis advisor: F. Ytreberg Amrah Canul (Ph.D. 2020) Shahla Nemati (Ph.D. 2020) Thesis advisor: L. Bergman Thesis title: Eliciting the Effects of Cellular Noise on Growth and Antibi- Robert Chancia (Ph.D. 2019), currently at otic Response with Precision Single- RIT pursuing degree in image analy- Cell Microfabricated Assays sis. Thesis advisor: A. Vasdekis Thesis title: Dusty, Dense, Bright, Dark, Narrow, and Broad: the Rings Negar Rajabi (Ph.D. 2019) in our Solar System and a Few of the Thesis advisor: L. Bergman SPS Activities by Matt Young and Sam Callos photos by Matt Young In October of 2019, the University of Ida- hos Society of Physics Students (SPS) vis- ited the Laser Interferometer Gravitational- Wave Observatory (LIGO Hanford) located in Richland, Washington. There are cur- rently two observatories stationed in the United States, we visited the one in Wash- ington - only a three hour drive from the U of I campus, and another in Livingston, Louisiana. On our tour we learned that LIGO is meant to detect and record find- ings of gravitational waves caused by large- scale collisions of supermassive bodies such In between, when the weather was non- as black holes and neutron stars. Here’s the cooperative or test season was upon us, we group on tour at LIGO: would spend time during meetings working on course work and talking about current news in the physics community while enjoy- ing some pizza. On occasion, we would also do a crash-course on a computer language when one of the upperclassmen had the abil- ity to share tips and tricks. Our former president Matt Young gradu- ated in May 2020 and Samantha Callos will lead the SPS group as the new president go- ing into her 2nd year.