Physics weekend affairs again: the CAA Undergraduate Research Conference

The weekend of the April 13th-15th , I [Jimmy Corcoran, a junior physics major] had the opportunity to participate at the Colonial Academic Alliance (CAA) Undergraduate Research Conference [at Old Dominion University in Norfolk].  Initially I wasn't sure I was skeptical about whether or not I would enjoy the experience, but I was quickly reassured.  There were events spaced out throughout the entire weekend, enough so that you always knew you were kept in an academic mindset, but not so many that you felt overwhelmed and didn't have enough time to relax.  Everything over the course of the trip went smoothly, both of the keynote speakers were fantastic speakers and were able to captivate the entire audience, regardless of their academic focus; the spacing out of all of the student presentations, and even all of the meals prepared for everybody were fantastic.  Overall I thought it was really a fantastic experience to be around so many people involved in undergraduate research in their respective fields, and also for the opportunity to share the research I've been doing with my peers from the entire CAA.  

Jimmy  was one of the 3 physics majors representing JMU physics and astronomy undergraduate research (out of a total of 10 JMU selected undergraduates): Jimmy the astronomer was accompanied by Ethan Cummings and Thomas Hoke (both juniors) who presented their findings on some novel materials' behavior at this 10th annual CAA conference.   Here are the three of them ( ...musketeers in quest for scientific answers to how the world works):

and here are some details about their presentations, as described in the Madison Scholar. 

What can we say, they have their own ways of saving the world!

We heard not once that "they were excellent presenters!"

JMU Researchers Get Gold to Stick to Plastic

Getting gold film to adhere to plastics is a tricky task. Finding a sure-fire, low-cost way to accomplish it would be a real breakthrough for a number of industries from biomedicine to computer chip manufacturers. Professors Brian Augustine (JMU Chemistry) and Chris Hughes (PandA), along with students they advised, are on to something.  Check out their story in the latest issue of  Madison Scholar.

New Faculty Member: Giovanna Scarel

We are excited to announce that in July, Giovanna Scarel will join our department. 

Giovanna earned her Laurea in 1994 from the University of Treste, Italy. She earned her Ph.D. in materials engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 2001 using infrared spectroscopy to study TiO2 films. From 2001-2007 she was a postdoc and research associate at the CNR-INFM-MDM National Laboratory in Milano, Italy. She comes to us from a postdoc position at North Carolina State University.

Her research is focused on the study of the thin films produced using atomic layer deposition techniques using IR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and ellipsometry. Of particular interest is the effect that sample geometry has on the optical properties at infrared wavelengths.

Giovanna has published 64 refereed papers and book chapters and been a Co-PI on 8 funded proposals (on 3 of these she took the lead). 

We are delighted to have such an accomplished and capable scientist join our department. We anticipate many exciting new opportunities for our students and new collaborations and directions for the materials science group.

Welcome Giovanna!