STEM Sell - 04/21/10

Another Wednesday, another edition of "STEM Sell". We were finally able to break the vicious stranglehold of JMU faculty on the coveted guest position. We interviewed Dr. Rajeev Vaidyanathan (pronounced "Vyed-ye-NA-than"), a researcher at SRI's branch in the Shenandoah Valley, the Center for Advanced Drug REsearch (CADRE). Rajeev is investigating insect-borne viruses, particularly the diseases dengue fever and leishmaniasis. These diseases are not so well-known as many other diseases, but dengue fever, prevalent in many more tropical areas of the world, is starting to make inroads in the southern U.S. Leishmaniasis is being reported in increasing numbers among U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East. The biochemical interactions between the virus and insect and human host are exceedingly complex and it's a fascinating challenge to unravel this Gordian Knot.

As usual, Brian and I engaged in witty repartee--at least, that's how I like to remember it--as we reported on some STEM-related tidbits in the news (a recording of the show is available at the STEM Sell website):

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is on the cusp of a first-ever-in-the-U.S. vaccine for cancer. This vaccine is specifically for prostate cancer. The whole process of performing trial treatments and analyzing the results and performing new trials has lasted many years. The company seeking the FDA's approval started the trials in the early 90's. Therefore, the technology behind it, although sounding rather sophisticated as it involves tailoring the vaccine to individual patients, is actually 15-20 years old and there are more up to date treatments being studied.
• The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull (pronounced "Oh-WAH-de-LU-na-yam", say it loudly and quickly for best effect) has precedents in the recent past, according to the historical record. And among those eruptions, there was often a second, larger eruption in the nearby volcano Katla with the most recent pair of eruptions occurring between 1821 and 1823. Naturally, scientists are keeping close tabs on Katla.
• Researchers at the University of New Mexico have performed painstaking analyses of the genomes of 1983 people taken from all around the world and come to an unexpected obstacle. Assuming the rate of genetic mutation has remained more or less constant, comparing the genomes of the different populations with what is known about human migration patterns over the last 100,000 years, there appeared to be two distinct events of genetic disturbances that required another explanation. The researchers hypothesized that Homo sapiens populations interbred with Homo neanderthalis populations on two different occasions in two different locations to create these changes. The first hypothetical interbreeding took place about 60,000 years ago in the region of the eastern Mediterranean and the second 45,000 years ago in eastern Asia. Bolstering their hypothesis is that the genomes of people from Africa show no such disturbances.
• Current wisdom among paleontologists is that Homo erectus populations may have existed as recently as 30,000 years ago. However, there is now some controversy over the radioisotope dating of the rock layers on the island of Java in which the H. erectus fossils are found, indicating that they may have been buried about 550,000 years ago. Scientists will undoubtedly be wrangling over these results for the foreseeable future.
• One of the tools used in the relief efforts following the recent major earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China are high-altitude overhead flights with high-resolution optical cameras able to identify objects as small as 1 foot across. These cameras survey the affected area and, using computer analysis, are able to distinguish between structures that have collapsed and structures that have not collapsed. These observations allow rescue workers to quickly identify locations where survivors might be trapped.
• NEPTUNE-Canada is an oceanographic project in which cameras and sensors of all sorts have been placed in different locations in the vicinity of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. The cameras and sensors offer free, real-time feeds on the internet for anybody to observe.
• Physicists working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado have set a new record for the smallest measurable force, lowering the bar to 174 yN (that prefix "y" is a metric prefix meaning "x 10^-24"). They did this by putting together 60 beryllium-9 ions into a flat plane and shining a laser beam on it and determining where the reflection went. After disturbing the plane of ions ever so slightly, they measured the change in the orientation of the beam's reflection to determine the force. To achieve this, they had to lower the temperature of the ions to an astonishingly low 0.5 mK to minimize thermal disturbances. While there are no applications of this technology on the table, researchers suggest that this technique may some day be used to measure tiny quantum-level fluctuations and maybe even the effects of quantum gravity.
• Many extrasolar planets in young solar systems exhibit retrograde orbital motion, orbiting their primary star in directions backwards relative to the rotations of both the star itself and the cloud of dust and gas surrounding them. Some other planets have planes of orbital inclination at a relatively large angle of 20 degrees. Gravitational perturbations from a second, large body are naturally assumed to be the culprit. The Kozai Mechanism is one possible explanation of this phenomenon.
• We here at "STEM Sell" suggest another candidate for the Ig Nobel Prize--researchers at the Zoological Institute and Museum of the University of Hamburg have discovered that males of a particular common species of European orb-web spider can more successfully mate with their own sisters than with unrelated females. Here, "successfully" means "does not get eaten afterwards".

And so we let the tale of arachnid incest bring this week's entry to a close along with our traditional admonition, "You have a brain, don't be afraid to use it."

STEM Sell - 04/14/10

Last night's edition of "STEM Sell" is now one with eternity. Our guest this time was Sean Scully, meaning that we could trade lots of geeky physics jokes while on the air. We got him to expound upon his interest and research into cosmic rays both of the low energy and high energy varieties. Their relationship to the Big Bang model as well as determining if there was evidence that went against the predictions of Einstein's theory of Special Relativity were also on the docket. We spent a little more time discussing his role in the Astronomy Park and the types of activities performed by his research students.

Apart from Sean, there were the usual tidbits of news accompanied by verbal nonsense ranging from inanity to depravity. Fortunately, Brian was more coherent, although both of us almost fell off the Monty Python precipice towards the end. Here's a rundown of what we talked about:

• JMU is hosting a talk by Chad Mirkin, a very renowned nanotechnology scientist who is known as the most cited chemist in peer-reviewed literature. He'll be on campus April 19-20 and will deliver the Faraday Lecture in Science while here.
• DNA identification techniques were used to discover that high-end restaurants in Santa Monica, CA and Seoul, South Korea, were using illegally obtained whale meat in their sashimi. The California restaurant has since closed.
• In an ironic environmental twist, oil companies are paying good money for carbon dioxide, not out of any sense of obligation but because they pump the gas into underground oil reserves in order to build up pressure to bring oil to the surface.
• Finally, some good has come from Texas Stadium, former home of the most justifiably reviled team in professional sports ;-) . With demolition scheduled for April 11th, geologists in the area mobilized an array of seismic wave detectors. When the sequence of explosions occurred, the ground waves generated from them were measured. Analysis is ongoing, but scientists are hoping that the measurements will improve our understanding of the geology of the region, known as the "Oauchita Deformation", which is somewhat interesting as it was the site of a collision of supercontinents about 300 million years ago.
• British scientists have successfully transferred genetic material from one fertilized human egg to another that had its genetic material removed, where "successfully" means that some of the retooled eggs started to develop into embryos. The result is remarkable in that only the genetic material was transferred, the rest of the structure of the cell was essentially left behind. This procedure could prove useful in treating diseases involving mutations in the cell outside the genetic part, such as in the mitochondria of the cell (mitochondrial mutations give rise to type II diabetes and some neuromuscular diseases).
• Turtles have displayed a greater than expection level of cognition. Some turtles were trained to perform a particular task to obtain food. Other turtles observed the first group of turtles while a third group didn't observe the first group. The second group was more successful at performing the same task as the first group than the non-observers were. This offers some unexpected data in the development of reptilian brains.
• The amount of wind energy in the United States was briefly discussed with a little bit of surprise over the fact that the state of Iowa now gets 14.7% of its electrical energy from wind-powered turbines.
• The ability of small, non-conductive particles to spontaneously gain significant electrical charge was briefly discussed and the implication that understanding could have in the manufacture of some materials such as polyethylene.

Another fine picnic ...

In Purcell park and Shelter 2 (the one next to the castle playground), the department spring picnic was held on April 10^th. A good crowd gathered to enjoy the burgers and 'dogs cooked by Gabe and served out by Sean.

There was climbing on the children's playground:

headstands:

whip cracking:

and soccer:

Oh yeah, everybody had something to eat as well:

A good time was had by all.

Congratulations to our newest Tenured and Promoted Faculty

The official word is out...

Gabriel Niculescu, Scott Paulson and Brian Utter have all earned tenure and promotion this year.

Also this year, Chris Hughes is promoted to full professor.

Congratulations to four people who have worked hard to make the department an outstanding place for students to learn through research, to learn in the classroom and grow into the next generation of physicists.

The department is proud of their many accomplishments and look forward the continued fruits of their labors.

Research Support from the NSF

March is the season for hearing from the National Science Foundation about the success (or failure) of a proposal. This year all the nuclear physics folks - Steve Whisnant, Kevin Giovanetti, Ioana and Gabriel Niculescu - were on pins and needles as all waited for the news on pending proposals.

The good news that both Ioana and Co. and Steve were funded!

Ioana, Gabe and Kevin submitted a proposal entitled "RUI: Probing Subatomic Physics Via Lepton Interactions" For the three years of the grant, they've been funded for $358,000.

Steve's proposal, "RUI: The Study of Photonuclear Physics with Polarized Beams and Targets" was funded for three years for a total of $171,000.

This means three more years of student research opportunities in nuclear physics. Three more years of student participation in nuclear research both on- and off-campus. And three more years of quality preparation of our students for entry into the workforce and graduate school.

Congratulations all around.

"STEM Sell" - April 7, 2010

Another airing of STEM Sell, the radio program devoted to issues in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, has come and gone. Our guest was Kristen St. John from JMU's Department of Geology and Environmental Science. From our perspective, the interview went by very rapidly and we found ourselves at the end with a lot of questions we still wanted to ask. Nevertheless, we were able to discuss her work in extracting and analyzing cores taken from deep sea beds. She's able to use those cores to study the Earth's climate for as far back as 100 million years! Too bad she gets seasick during those ocean voyages. We also discussed her ongoing efforts to improve curricular materials by incorporating inquiry-based learning techniques as well as up-to-date results from her research.

In addition to the interview with Kristen, Brian Utter and I discussed the following topics, often interspersed with stream-of-consciousness thoughts that had little bearing on the subject at hand:
- A report on how the United States government is considering establishing a free online database accessible by anyone for science publications that were partly or entirely funded by taxpayer dollars
- The synthesis of the nucleus of element 117, an element within an "island" of relative nuclear stability that exists around element 118
- Animals--small on our scale of life but visible to the naked eye, making them decidedly larger than microbial life--existing without oxygen in deep sea deposits at the bottom of the Mediterranean
- The surprisingly large costs of doing an internet search, thanks to the maintenance necessary for the huge numbers of dedicated servers
- A study published in the prestigious journal Nature that shows how pigeons in a flock follow the leader (I personally think this study is a candidate for the Ig Nobel Prize, thanks to the backpacks that researchers placed on the pigeons)
- The discovery on the Phillipine island of Luzon of a new species of lizard, heretofore unknown to science, that is about 2 meters long and, according to natives, is rather tasty
- The susceptibility of thousands of different protein molecules towards the development of fibrils along the "sticky" parts of the molecule and how that can lead to such conditions as Alzheimer's Disease
- The editor of the last of the non-peer reviewed journals in mainstream science literature, Medical Hypotheses, has been told that it's time to go to a peer reviewed system, which will disrupt the journal's reputation as being a resource for some more controversial ideas
- The search for what gave rise to the seeds of the weak but gigantic magnetic fields generated by galaxies

The next airing of STEM Sell is Wednesday, April 14th at 8:00 p.m. on WXJM 88.7. And please remember that you have a brain, don't be afraid to use it!

2010 Spring Symposium Winners

This year three students distinguished themselves by presenting excellent papers on their research work. The faculty select the top three papers and small monetary prizes are awarded.

This year the first prize goes to Christopher Willis for his paper "Direct Observation of the Sigma- hyperon in electroproduction using the CLAS Detector at Jefferson Lab". This work was done with Drs. Ioana and Gabriel Niculescu.

Second place goes to Collin Wilson for the work he did with Dr. Sean Scully on "Testing the Influence of Stochastic Processes on the Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Spectrum"

And third place goes to Patrick McCauley for "Formaldehyde... In Space! Determining the densities of protostellar cores" done with Dr. Harold Butner.

Congratulations to these outstanding students! We are proud of them.

"STEM Sell" - March 31, 2010

STEM Sell, the radio program hosted by Brian Utter and me and dedicated to STEM issues, had its most recent airing on March 31st. Our guest was the Physics Department's own Kevin Giovanetti. A recording of the show will soon be posted on the STEM Sell website, http://www.jmu.edu/stem/outreach/stemsell.html. Kevin discussed some of the physics that will be explored by the Large Hadron Collider. We also discussed with him some of the things he and JMU students are doing at Jefferson Lab in Newport News.

Some of the other things we talked about were:

• Astronomy Night at JMU on April 2nd
• Replacing bar codes using radio frequency identification technology and the possible replacement of cashiers
• Genetically enchanced muscle-trout and the troubles they might cause the ecosystem
• A mini-Ice Age that followed the last Ice Age that ended 13,000 years ago due to the melting of a glacier
• A small satellite using a solar sail not only for gaining momentum, as you'd normally expect, but also for a relatively gentle slowing down due to collisions within the extremely rarefied atmosphere
• Computer simulations of comets delivering glancing blows to planetary surfaces and, in turn, the possible generation of biochemical molecular precursors within the comets
• The discovery that identical twins don't have identical sets of bacteria within their intestines, a finding that resulted from the in-depth study of their fec. . . well, perhaps I've said too much.

If you want to follow up on any of these, send Brian and me an e-mail at JMUScienceRadio@gmail.com. And let me remind that you have a brain--don't be afraid to use it!

Angular behavior of optical phonons

Phonons are important for energy harvesting and conversion. How do they behave when radiation illuminates then at changing angle? Researcher have started to investigate this problem. Results have been recently published:

G. Scarel, J.-S. Na, and G.N. Parsons, “Angular behavior of the Berreman effect investigated in uniform Al2O3 layers formed by atomic layer deposition”. J. Phys. Condens. Matter vol. 22, 155401 1-9 (2010).

Spring Symposium

Once again time for the Spring Symposium in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. There are 12 presentations to be given by out students. the keynote speaker is James B. Roberto, Director of Strategic Capabilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He will speak on The Search for Superheavy Elements: Expanding the periodic Table and Exploring the "Island of Stability".

Each year the student presentations that are judged by the faculty and the top three students are awarded small cash prizes and are recognized at the department honors banquet on April 7. An update will be forthcoming on the winners and their presentations.

ALD at JMU: great thickness uniformity

Aluminum oxide films fabricated on silicon surface using the new ALD reactor at JMU exhibit an uniformity with less than 1% variations over a 2 square cm area. Silicon surface preparation, growth temperature, heat treatment, and other factors (e.g. growth parameters) are under examination to improve the result.

Thickness response of the Berreman effect

A team of researcher including JMU faculty has unveiled the response of the berreman effect to the thickness of oxide layers. The results are published in:
G. Scarel, J.-S. Na, B. Gong, and G.N. Parsons, “Phonon response in the infrared region to thickness of oxide films formed by atomic layer deposition”. Appl. Spectrosc. vol. 64, p. 120-126 (2010).

New atomic layer deposition reactor at JMU-Physics

A new atomic layer deposition reactor is working at the Physics Department - JMU! The reactor is "home-made" and can easily fabricate thin and uniform oxide layers at low and high temperatures!

In these hard times, we all want a good value

Well, look no further. JMU is the place to be. According to Yahoo! Finance, we are at the top of the list.

The value of undergraduate research

A new study published by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, documents the many benefits of undergraduate research for both faculty and students. A summary by James M. Gentile, President of Research Corporation.

The summary is very interesting and there is a link to the book, free on-line.

Undergraduate research is central to the mission of the JMU Department of Physics and Astronomy.

This is why we study physics!

If you want to understand why we study physics...here it is:

How many tries did this take?

This is addictive...

Cargo Bridge. Design bridges so they support the load.

What do physics majors do when they graduate?

Anything they want to!

Perhaps a more complete and useful answer is found in lots of places on the web. For example, WorldWideLearn has a nice discussion of physics and notes that

[W]hile some physics majors go on to become professional physicists, the majority pursue careers in fields where they can put their knowledge to more practical applications. Nearly 90 percent of all "physicists" are working in medicine, education, industry, or other professions.

With their skills in problem-solving, mathematical reasoning, computer programming, and organizing and interpreting scientific data, physics grads can move into government and industrial jobs that require an ability to think logically and creatively. Physics majors are well-suited to jobs that require step-by-step problem solving using math skills and good observational and communicational skills.

Some of the better-known careers for physics majors include academic and industrial research, electronics, alternative energy development, communications or the vital area of medical physics. Physicists are in demand for their analytical skills in many financial, fund management and research roles, in law, as weather forecasters, computer programmers, and as physics and science teachers.

The Canadian Association of Physicists notes that

Despite popular belief, physics graduates are actually highly sought after employees. A physics education emphasizes problem solving and abstract thinking and this training makes physics graduates very desirable employees in a wide variety of areas including education, finance, and journalism. These fundamental skills as well as training in practical subjects such as optics, lasers, computer interfacing, image processing and electronics also make them very desirable employees in high tech companies.

and the American Physical Society offers guidance for deciding what is the right career choice for you along with advise on how to get there. Included in the advice on how to maximize your undergraduate experience is the following points.

• Take lots of science and math courses
• Get involved in research as early as possible
• Get to know your professors
• Join the Society of Physics Students

PandA@JMU is ideally suited to pursuing these goals:

• As a large undergraduate department, we can offer a wide variety of courses for our students. There are several courses that we take turns teaching with the math department.
• Our students commonly get involved in research in the summer after their freshman year and some even start in their second semester.
• All your physics (and astronomy) classes at JMU are taught by full-time faculty. You will get to know them (and they will get to know you) very well. Perhaps better than you wish!
• We have an active SPS chapter that engages our students in lots of fun activities.

Bottom line...a physics major can be anything you want to be and JMU is ideally suited to getting you there.

Liquid Hydrogen at JMU

In the process of preparing high purity Hydrogen Deuteride (HD) for the production of frozen spin-polarized targets for the study of the nucleon (protons and neutrons), the gas is liquified and distilled in a unique low temperature distillery.

What you see in the photo above is a webcam view of the liquid hydrogen in the distillery. The still is equipped with narrow windows on either side for viewing the liquid. The webcam comes with with a fixed focus lens so an additional lens is added and held at the right distance with a cardboard tube...hence the circular vignette. This permits a close focus on the boiling liquid. On either side of the window is a frame held in place with bolts. The liquid is seen boiling away between the middle two pairs of bolts.

The top of the distillation column is held at 17K at the moment and the bottom of the still, near where this photo is taken is near 25K. The liquid is being caused to boil by the application of heat by passing a current through a resistor on the bottom of the still. The heater power is set at about 1 W. Liquid hydrogen appears to have a viscosity close to that of water and is colorless.

Just not something you see every day.

People are Beginning to Notice...

Every so often, PandA must go through an extensive self-study process and review by an external comittee. The external review happened in the spring of 2009. As a direct result, some good things are beginning to happen.

One of the external reviewers was Dr. Ruth Howes. She is one of the PI's on the SPIN-UP project. The Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) is organized by the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics. The Task Force received support for SPIN-UP from the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and a generous grant from the ExxonMobil Foundation. Between 2000 and 2002, visits were made to 20-odd physics departments that were deemed to be "thriving" to try to learn about what makes them so. Now the SPIN-UP folks are trying to use what they learned to help others departments also thrive.

One of the observations in the initial study was that the number of graduates (and total number of students) and their increase is a pretty good surrogate for other less easily measured characteristics of a thriving department. Given that our number of majors has grown from a bit over 60 in 2001 to about 110 now, we are identified as a thriving department.

As a result of Dr. Howes' visit to learn about our department, Dr. Whisnant was invited to discuss our program at a SPIN-UP workshop in Raleigh, NC, September 11-13, 2009. This went very well. This all leads to the current news...

On February 15th, Our department will once again be showcased as an example of a thriving department. This time it is at the joint meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society in Washington, DC. This gives us a national forum to tell everyone about the good things that are going on here.

So, we've arrived on a national stage as an example of what a vibrant undergraduate department can be. To give just a flavor of the progress we've made in the last decade:

• Since 2000, the number of majors has doubled.
  
• Since 2000, the number of graduates/year has tripled.
• Since 2000, the number of faculty has doubled.
  
• In 2008, our faculty brought in over $3.3M in external grants to support research with our undergraduates.
• We've added an astronomy park, the planetarium underwent a major upgrade, added astronomy to the department name, moved to a new building, and we're about to initiate a major new track in applied nuclear physics.
  
• According to the number of graduates, the 2008 AIP report places JMU ranked 9th (13 departments larger) among undergraduate only institutions and 30th (70 departments larger) among all physics departments in the US.

There's no telling what might happen as a result of this new opportunity to tell everyone about our department.

Alumni Update: New Astronomy Research at JMU

Many of you may have seen me looming around the department and might know I am currently working with Dr. Anca Constantin. What have I been doing, you ask? Well, I have been doing data analysis on spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) towards a paper on the aperture dependence of the nuclear galactic nebular line emission. This week, I will be starting on data from the Multi-Mirror Telescope. Now, that’s a good sound byte, but what does that even mean? You’ll say, “come on -- what have you really been up to? And why is it that, if you’re doing research, every time I pass by, you’re just staring at that 27-inch iMac screen?”

The project is centered on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). An AGN is black hole sitting in the center of a galaxy and actively accreting matter. We know these super-massive beasts must be accreting matter because we see emission lines in the spectra coming from the very central regions of galaxies, and those emission lines are consistent with matter being accelerated to relativistic speeds. Keep in mind, spectra are our only tool to probe Astronomical objects; they tell us what they’re made of, how fast they’re moving, how big they are, how far away they are – the list goes on. Those amazing emission-line spectra are what I play with all day. This would be a jump back to Physics 270 -- remember the Balmer series for the Hydrogen atom and all that? “Of course I remember the Balmer series. Pish-posh! What I want to know is, how do you play with spectra?”

Well, when I first started I downloaded a bunch of 2-D spectra from the HST archives. (Warning: begin “slight lie”) Remember that to get a spectrum, I hold a prism up to a light source and break the light into its components. So you can think of a 2-D spectrum as being “wavelength” along the x-axis, “physical horizontal distance” along the y-axis, and “flux” as the z-axis – graphed as color scale. (End “slight lie”) First, I had to extract a 1-D spectrum from the 2-D spectrum using this technical software called IRAF. IRAF is all text based, most astronomers use it, and a few months passed before I built up any kind of intuition with it. My previous computer know-how was mostly GUI-based with a few exceptions for programming (shout out to Dr. Ingham’s Matlab topics course, circa 2006). Once I have all my spectra extracted, I have to clean them.

You see, the crazy thing about space-based detectors is, you have much better resolution but you get so much space-noise. High-energy particles (alpha, electrons, etc) are flying around everywhere, zapping your detector. They show up as huge spikes on my spectrum. So to get rid of them, I take two images of the same region, overlay them, and get rid of any signal that’s not on both. I do this, again, with IRAF.

You know, it turns out IRAF will do just about anything you want it to – extract, reduce, plot, clean, cook, etc -- as long as you scream obscenities and throw enough things around the room. Luckily, I’m very good at both of these things, so my IRAF does whatever I want it to. I say jump, IRAF says “ERROR: floating point invalid operation.” …. doh.

Moving into a more recent timeline, I just spent the last week, give or take, carefully plotting fits to the extracted, cleaned, Doppler-corrected spectra. The normal emission lines I would expect to see are narrow. In other words, when I look at a graph of Flux versus Wavelength, I expect a slim peak at some wavelength that is indicative of a specific atom, ion or molecule. I spent a long time making sure I had the best fits I could obtain using 5 narrow Gaussians -- representing a doublet for singly ionized Sulfur [SII], Hydrogen-alpha [Ha], and a doublet for singly ionized Nitrogen [NII]. (This is a slight lie for brevity. I also had a 6^th, linear component that I used to fit the background from just the galaxy.) When my fits just didn’t seem to work and I felt like giving up, I introduced a broad Gaussian for [Ha]. “Wait, wait. What? You just told me that emission lines were narrow. Why would you fit a broad Gaussian to something that’s supposed to be narrow?”

It turns out that when matter is pretty close to the super-massive black hole in the center of a galaxy, it orbits at incredible speeds. This means that the narrow line I expect is actually Doppler shifted – both into the blue (coming towards me) and the red (going away from me). I still see a narrow line from Hydrogen that is further from the AGN, and as I look at Hydrogen that is closer and closer to the nucleus, I see more and more Doppler shifted lines. Of course, I see all of these “individual lines” at the same time; so add all these up and I get one big, broad “hump” where I’d normally expect a thin line. This is what I fit with the broad Gaussian component.

Let’s take a break from technical mumbo-jumbo. We’ve just reached the exciting part! The broad component is what I want; that’s where the science really starts for me! Doing analysis on the broad component is what tells me about the region closest to the black hole. I can recover the mass of the black hole and a swarm of other properties. I am probing the centers of galaxies from my lab in the JMU Physics and Chemistry building!

“… well … what do you expect to find?” If you find yourself asking that question, then my sinister plan has worked and I should tell you that Dr. Anca Constantin is actively looking for people to come join her team! You can come see her in office hours or stop by the lab and ask some questions. She has lots of other projects for people interested in Active Galactic Nuclei or other extra-galactic Astronomy research. Also, if you’re interested from that teaser, members of Dr. Constantin’s research team, including myself, will be presenting in the JMU Research Symposium that is coming up.

This is where I, foregoing transition, should say that I have been given a unique opportunity to be a paid Astronomy researcher (with a BS in Physics), paid for by NASA grant, at a University that does not have post-docs. Letting the Physics majors get a better glimpse of this position is what inspired a Blog update -- specifically because in the future, more of these opportunities might exist. This opportunity has been a great learning experience, resume builder, and an amazing preparation for graduate study. I think it would be well worthwhile for any graduating or rising seniors to keep eyes out for opportunities such as these in the future.

JMU Science Radio on WXJM

Yes, you read that correctly.

WXJM 88.7, JMU’s own student-run radio show now features a weekly science talk radio show on Wednesdays from 8-9 PM that focuses on issues related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The show, “STEM Sell,” includes interviews with JMU students and faculty involved in STEM education and research, current science news, and features on science in everyday life.

Two JMU Physics faculty members host the show – Mark Mattson, the creator of STEM Sell, and Brian Utter – which has been on the air since October (with a steep learning curve on the workings of amateur radio, I assure you). Guests have so far included students and faculty from biology, chemistry, mathematics, and integrated science and technology, with guests from a variety of STEM fields lined up for the spring semester. Tonight, the show features JMU Physics Professor Chris Hughes.

Podcasts of the show are available at www.jmu.edu/stem/outreach/stemsell.html and can be streamed live from WXJM every Wednesday at 8PM. Comments, questions, or suggestions for topics and guests are always welcome at JMUScienceRadio@gmail.com.

Quoting Mark's traditional sign off and our mantra for the show: Remember, you have a brain. Don't be afraid to use it.

Web page updates coming

The department is in the process of updating the web site. We should soon have a new look and a more organized web site for you to navigate. The faculty is busy updating research pages. Good things are coming!

Spring Semester 2010

Who would have thought that we'd all make it to a time like 2010?

Last fall was a busy time and postings were few. This semester we promise to do better. We are currently in the throws of several faculty searches. One of these is in applied nuclear physics, one in soft materials/non-linear dynamics and a third is for a non-tenure track, two-year position.

These vacancies come about for several reasons. first, Dr. Ingham is retiring at the end of the year. While this has been expected for some time, we also were surprised to learn that Dr. Rudmin will retire at the end of the year. In addition, Alexandra Landsman, hired in 2007, decided to leave in 2008 and we are now searching to fill her position.

In the spring of of 2009, Dr. Mark Mattson became full-time in the department to help us deal with the initiation of the engineering program and there is now a search in progress for a new person (non-tenure-track) to be half-time physics/half-time learning center to man that position.

Lots of changes and lots of excitement as the department continues to move forward and grow.

One of the items that occupied our time in the fall was the completion of a strategic plan for the department. This is our "five year plan" and a big deal for helping us move forward in a productive way in these tight budgetary times.

Once again, Dr. Staib is the point man for our student recruiting. Latest word is that there are 75 or more applications for the coming fall. We expect to pass 100 as we have in recent years. There is a good number of these candidates that are truly outstanding and we are aiming go get as many as possible of these to join us in the fall.

We have several irons in the fire, and as the semester unfolds, more information will be forthcoming. Stay tuned.

Chris Carlson Chimes in with a few thoughts

We continue to get feedback from out graduates. This week, Chris Carlson (2005) chimes in with his take on life with a physics degree from JMU. If you have things to share with use, drop us a line.

Chris writes:

Studying physics at James Madison University is an excellent path for any student interested in science and mathematics. While the coursework is challenging, the rewards can be great. Many classmates from my year (2005) finished JMU and moved directly into first-rate graduate programs at schools like UNC, Duke, and Boston University. Others (myself included), pursued jobs in a wide variety of areas such as scientific consulting, web design, and even specialty foods (one classmate started out as the world’s youngest organic, free-trade cacao bean roaster and has since moved into flavor development). Studying physics at JMU opens doors.

Here are some of the best aspects of the department:
· Strong faculty. The professors make themselves available whenever possible to answer questions. Students are the first priority.
· Great research opportunities. Many of the professors have collaborations with external laboratories (CERN, Brookhaven National Lab, Jefferson Lab) that provide opportunities to travel in the summer for internships. Some of the key research areas include Particle and Nuclear Physics, Materials Science, and Astrophysics.
· Small class sizes. It’s very easy to get to know one’s peers in the major. Upper-level classes tend to be 10-20 students maximum. This is extremely beneficial for study groups, office hour sessions, etc.
· Physics major ≈ Physics major + Mathematics minor. The math minor is embedded within the physics degree requirements. Just fill out a form to make it official before graduation. This bonus makes you more marketable.
· Close knit community. Some of the best memories of my time at JMU include the fall/spring department picnics at Purcell Park and wild science demos for Harrisonburg schools. These events are great opportunities to get to know the professors and other students better – and to see/make things explode.
· Eccentric people. Physics majors (and faculty) tend to be a bit odd. One of my
classmates rode a giant unicycle to class and owned a pet flying squirrel (no joke).

For these reasons and many others, Physics at JMU is a great choice of major.

A short note from Lori Jackson

We here at the PandA blog, we recently heard from Lori Jackson. She writes...

Working at NRL is really great! A lot of it is very similar to the research at JMU with the detectors. Except I mostly use software that models the runs we would do to see if it's worth building a certain detector setup. The software is only linux and mac based, so I get very frustrated going home to my PC that really can't do much of anything.

To be more succinct I use SWORD (SoftWare for Optimisation of Radiation Detection) to model real life scenariors and determine the potential outcome based on various factors.
Everyone here is very nice and easy to work with. This job is truely a better oportunity than I could have hoped for in todays economy.

.
.
.

She's applying for graduate school to study nuclear engineering.
With a degree from JMU, how can she go wrong?!

Another entry from Lawrence Lewis

Lawrence is moving on with this career and felt the need to once again to drop us a line and update his earlier comments. We are always glad to hear from you, so send a note.

Here's Lawrence's latest note:

The greatest benefit of studying science, and I would argue physics or astronomy in particular, is that it prepares you for almost anything afterwards. The varied paths of my life and that of many of my friends in the major add great credence to that statement.

Physics majors are among the highest scorers on the GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and GMAT (which are the standardized tests to enter graduate school, medical school, law school, and business school, respectively). This is not because the smartest freshmen decide to take up physics (definitely not me), but rather that a scientifically and mathematically rigorous education provides people with strong skills in reasoning and analysis. It requires skill and ingenuity to craft from scratch an original solution to an abstract unsolved problem. (And that feeling of working weeks upon weeks on a research project and finally getting an answer, discovering something nobody else knows, is simply incredible.) It is these skills that you develop through research experience and problem set after problem set (after problem set after problem set…) that prepares you for almost any path afterwards, like it did for me. Despite my words above, it is my real experience as a JMU Physics & Astronomy major and the implications that it had for my life afterwards that reveal how versatile and indispensible a physics education truly is.

I decided to do physics on a whim. I was undecided as an incoming freshmen and hated being as much. So, I closed my eyes and randomly pressed my finger to the page (literally). At first, I struggled to break into the middle of the pack. I debated leaving the major for something I found easier. However, the smallness of the major and the general approachability and likeability of the professors convinced me to stick around (I had Dr. Hughes, Dr. Utter, and Dr. Whisnant my first semester—I was spoiled from the start). The professors are what make JMU Physics & Astronomy so great. They avidly try to get to know you, make sure you succeed, and get you in the lab (I have actually witnessed fights over which professor gets which student for research). The relationship between the faculty and students is something I have seen nowhere else at JMU. My professors definitely had a genuine interest in me, and it paid off. After earning my first ‘A’ in Phys 240, I was hooked. Over the next four years I reveled in studying the intricacies of everything from quantum mechanics to the life cycles of stars. But something I consider more valuable than what I learned at JMU is what I learned in the labs during the summers.

I started researching early, the second semester of my freshman year, and it was probably one of the best decisions I made at JMU. I researched in nuclear physics, materials science, condensed-matter physics, and cosmology. Researching paid really well and allowed me to work at JMU, NIST in Colorado, NASA, and Northwestern University. I worked on everything from a hydrogen distillery operating at -425 degrees Fahrenheit to a 2000 Watt laser with a beam you couldn’t even see (a very scary thought). The diversity of my experiences, beyond any doubt, gave me a unique and unparalleled undergraduate experience. It also gave me an appreciation for science that I decided to share with others after I graduated.

After earning my diploma, I decided to take the altruistic route as a high school teacher in New Orleans. My familiarity with the application of math allowed me to enthrall my students and enrich their learning experience. Afterwards, I moved into the business world (admittedly a little further from that altruistic path), working as an IT consultant. Although unfamiliar with business in general, my experience with practical problem-solving, research, and computer programming allowed me to maintain pace with my peers conventionally educated in business.

Despite leaving academia, my love for research has not waned. I have just been offered one of my dream jobs as a nuclear forensic scientist (tracing illicit nuclear material) in the SF Bay Area. This job will culminate with my entrance to graduate school, where I will earn my Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and (hopefully) begin a fruitful scientific career at the International Atomic Energy Agency in nuclear security.

Many students were scared off from physics during high school because they had terrible teachers. The opposite is the case here. The professors at JMU (again, the department’s best asset) are clamored for because they can make the subject clear (but not simple—we’re not at Hogwarts). It is an intimidating major, but without question one of the most rewarding JMU offers. I would not have the same appreciation for my education if my finger had landed elsewhere on the page. Choosing to study physics, without a doubt, was the best decision I made at JMU, and it opened more doors than I ever could have imagined.

Graduation - December 2009

After a long semester (aren't they all?), we've reached the end. Today, the December graduation ceremony was help in the Convocation Center. The speaker was J. Craig Williams, a 1979 graduate.

This year, four physics majors graduated:

• Thomas John Dowd


• Richard Bennett Dunlap
  (Also met the requirements for teaching licensure)


• Suzanne Ellen Lynch
  (Magna Cum Laude)


• Kevin Connor Nash
  (Cum Laude)

We are indeed proud of these students and their accomplishments.

JMU Astro visits Green Bank

One of the benefits to our location is the close proximity to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, WV. The JMU Astronomy Club organized a trip there this fall and the folks in the folks in our public affairs office gave it some coverage. Read the story here.

Elkton Middle School Physics Lab! Part II

Execution of the plan:

When we got to Elkton Middle School we started with the Lenz’s tube. Rick tricked the students into thinking that if the person holding the tube was better at sports, than the metal slug would fall slower, which really got the boys upset when they found out the girls were better at sports than them. Of course we had to tell them the truth that he had been switching the metal slug with a magnet, but made a perfect lead into that day’s activities. We then broke the students up into two groups of four where one group would be building and experimenting with electromagnets and the other group would be doing Galileo’s experiment.

The students loved building the electromagnets and it sounded like Laura and Curtis were running their own little gossip table, but it wasn’t gossip, it was physics. It seemed to really peak their interest when after building their electromagnets, they actually worked and in fact had a little competition going to see who could get more paper clips on their magnet. Our winner of the day with a total of 80 paper clips (the picture to the right shows about 25 paper clipsThen they were asked why some people would have more paper clips than others, showing them that more coils would actually produce a stronger magnet. The students were also asked if this effect could happen backwards, or if you could use a magnet to create a current by moving that magnet through a coil of wire.

While Rick was running Galileo’s experiment all we heard was a constant 1….2….3….GO, as they were trying to synchronize their stopwatches to when they were dropping the carts down the tracks. There were constant measurements being taken of the height of the drop to how far is rolling down the hill to how much time does it take to get there. They were really excited to see that when they put their data that they measured into the excel program, they were able to get really close to the acceleration due to gravity. We were able to get 9.5 m/s² and 10.5 m/s² by running this experiment, which was really close.

Then we brought all of the students back together to show how what they researched today helped them out with solving their initial problem of how the Lenz’s Tube worked, with the induced magnetic force pushing back up against the force of gravity to slow it down!

Elkton Middle School Physics Lab!

Planning out the strategy:

Laura Simone, Curtis White, Rick Dunlap went to Elkton Middle School with Lynn Lucatorto to share a little physics. Here's there story:

We wanted to find a unique way of explaining Lenz’s Tube to middle school students that would break it down to help them to see the forces that acted on the magnet as it fell through the aluminum tube. To do this we needed to look at the electromagnetic force as well as the gravitational force. We decided to break it down into two labs: building and testing electromagnets and Galileo’s experiment to find the acceleration due to gravity.

The idea of electromagnets was thought up as a great way to show the relationship between electricity and magnetism as well as it would a great project for each of the students to make and would be able to take home with them. Curtis and Laura had to figure out what materials were needed and what was necessary during the construction to make sure that it went smoothly. A simple idea was to wrap a copper wire around a non-galvanized nail and connect it to a D battery.

Galileo’s experiment for finding “g” by rolling balls down an inclined plane was used because up until this point the students know that gravity is pulling them down, but did not know how fast. So this would give them the chance to measure “g” themselves.

To do this, Rick set up a frictionless track and cart on a movable stand that would allow the students to change the height and therefore chance the angle that it dropped at. They would then be able to time each drop at each angle. The math did seem a bit difficult so an excel spreadsheet was created to help them out with that.

Fall Picnic

Once again it is time for the semi-annual department picnic. Here we see Ryan Burke armed with the tools necessary for good Physics and Astronomy picnic: a unicycle and a bull whip. I mean, come on... what else do you need for a good picnic?

Well it sure doesn't hurt to have two jolly and able cooks. Instead we have Dr. Scully and Dr. Niculescu stoking the fires and manning the "kitchen".

Nevertheless, lots of eating occurred and fun was had all around.

Fun and games for everyone!

We'll do this again in the spring...don't miss it!

The Fall Semester Begins!

And part of the process of starting up is a day of meetings. Since we're all together (one), it seemed like a good time to make a group photo.

From left to right: the back row... Steve Whisnant, Mark Mattson, Geary Albright, Brian Utter, Lynn Lucatorto, Harold Butner, William Alexander, Jim Butt, Thomas O'Neill; The middle row... Bill Ingham, Art Fovargue, Sean Scully, Chris Hughes, Scott Paulson, Anca Constantin, Gabriel Niculescu; The front row... Kevin Giovanetti, Joe Rudmin, Dorn Peterson, Giovanna Scarel, Ioana Niculescu, Don Chodrow.

There are 22 of us in the picture, 21 full time. We're now a pretty big department. Just one big happy family.

Another reason to attend JMU and study Physics and Astronomy

In case you needed another reason to spend

your life looking at the sky, here it is.

Sometimes looking at nothing can be very rewarding.

So you want an air cannon?

This is one serious air cannon!

Robotics Workshop

Between July 20 and 25 Kevin Giovanetti and Gabriel Niculescu joined forces with Nick Swayne in education to present a robotics workshop. This workshop for in-service high school and middle school teachers is part of the Virginia Initiative for Robotics in STEM Education (VIRSE). Teachers from the valley and as far away as Richmond and Martinsville attended.

The grant supporting this workshop also purchases large and small robots for potential use in the FIRST Robotics Competition and the FIRST Lego League. Kevin and Gabe taught the participants how to program the robots and how to incorporate them into the the sort of classroom activities that contribute to the Virginia SOLs.
Shown at the right is one of the smaller robots equipped with a pen it can move up and down. By suitable programming, it can draw figures on a sheet of paper. If the paper is graph paper, students can then compute slopes and connect to some math. By timing the motion of the robot we can determine the velocity and connect to a bit of physics.

Laurence Lewis Tells All...

In 2008, Laurence Lewis graduated from JMU with his Physics degree in hand. He's taken a few minutes to send a note about his experiences while here and in the wider world...

The greatest benefit of studying science, and I would argue physics or astronomy in particular, is that it prepares you for almost anything afterwards. If my life after JMU (and that of many of my friends) is any indication, then this is indeed true.

Physics majors are among the highest scorers on the GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and GMAT (which are the standardized tests to enter graduate school, medical school, law school, and business school, respectively). This is not because the smartest freshmen decide to take up physics (definitely not me), but rather that a scientifically and mathematically rigorous education provides people with unmatched skills in reasoning and analysis. It is fairly straightforward (though tedious) to write a paper for Political Science or History. However, it requires skill and ingenuity to craft from scratch an original solution to an abstract unsolved problem. (And that feeling of working weeks upon weeks on a research project and finally getting an answer, discovering something nobody else knows, is simply incredible.) It is these skills that you develop through research experience and problem set after problem set (after problem set after problem set…) that prepares you for almost any path afterwards, like it did for me. Despite my words above, it is my real experience as a JMU Physics & Astronomy major and the implications that it had for my life afterwards that reveal how versatile and indispensible a physics education truly is.

I decided to do physics on a whim. I was undecided as an incoming freshmen and hated being as much. So, I closed my eyes and randomly pressed my finger to the page (literally). At first, I struggled to break into the middle of the pack. I debated leaving the major for something easier…maybe Business or ISAT. However, the smallness of the major and the general approachability and likeability of the professors convinced me to stick around (I had Dr. Hughes, Dr. Utter, and Dr. Whisnant my first semester—I was spoiled from the start). The professors are what make JMU Physics & Astronomy so great. They avidly try to get to know you, make sure you succeed, and get you in the lab (I have actually witnessed fights over which professor gets which student for research). The relationship between the faculty and students is something I have seen nowhere else at JMU. My professors definitely had a genuine interest in me, and it paid off. After earning my first ‘A’ in Phys 240, I was hooked. The trend continued for the next four years while I studied the intricacies of everything from quantum mechanics to the life cycles of stars. But something I consider more valuable than what I learned at JMU is what I learned in the labs during the summers.

I started researching early, the second semester of my freshman year, and it was probably one of the best decisions I made at JMU. I researched in nuclear physics, materials science, condensed-matter physics, and cosmology. Researching paid really well and allowed me to work at JMU, NIST in Colorado, NASA, and Northwestern University. I worked on everything from a hydrogen distillery operating at -425 degrees Fahrenheit to a 2000 Watt laser with a beam you couldn’t even see (a very scary thought). The diversity of my experiences, beyond any doubt, gave me a unique and unparalleled undergraduate experience. It also gave me an appreciation for science that I decided to share with others after I graduated.

After earning my diploma, I decided to take the altruistic route as a high school teacher in New Orleans. My familiarity with the application of math allowed me to enthrall my students and enrich their learning experience. Afterwards, I moved into the business world, working as an IT consultant. Although unfamiliar with business in general, my experience with practical problem-solving, research, and computer programming allowed me to maintain pace with my peers conventionally educated in business.

Despite leaving academia, my love for research has not waned. I have just been offered one of my dream jobs as a nuclear forensic scientist (tracing illicit nuclear material) in the SF Bay Area. This job will culminate with my entrance to graduate school, where I will earn my Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and (hopefully) begin a fruitful scientific career at the International Atomic Energy Agency in nuclear security.

Many students were scared off from physics during high school because they had terrible teachers. The opposite is the case here. The professors at JMU (again, the department’s best asset) are clamored for because they can make the subject clear (but not simple—we’re not at Hogwarts). It is an intimidating major, but without question one of the most rewarding JMU offers. I would not have the same appreciation for my education if my finger had landed elsewhere on the page. Choosing to study physics, without a doubt, was the best decision I made at JMU, and it opened more doors than I ever could have imagined.

-------

In about 3 weeks, Laurence is off to LLNL to be a nuclear forensic scientist!

Catching Up With Alums - Simon Hale '04

Simon Hale (shown in the center of the picture at right taken while he was in the REU program in 2002) graduated from James Madison University, VA in May 2004 with a B.S. in Physics. During his time at JMU, Simon completed course work in theoretical, experimental, and computational physics as well as worked in a number of different labs. His lab work included the collaborative projects of the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) detector and the MUon Lifetime ANalysis (MULAN). Simon’s longest research project started as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in material science with the former Professor Rama Balasubramanian. This research continued during the school year and culminated in a poster presentation at the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
Simon is currently completing the Industrial Leadership in Physics, Ph.D. program at Georgetown University. He completed course work in condense matter physics and supplemental courses in business and finance. As part of the program at Georgetown he spent a year at IBM's Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, California. He worked under Dr. Barbara Jones on problems related to increasing the storage density of magnetic materials used in magnetic tapes for archival storage. Simon’s current work is in the field of theoretical condensed matter physics under his advisor Professor Jim Freericks. This work deals with utilizing dynamical mean field theory to solve problems related to thermal and electrical transport in multilayered nanodevices.

If you are a JMU Physics & Astro alum, let us know what you are doing so we can show the world how many different things you can do with a degree in physics.

Want to get a good paying job?

Major in Physics!

Of course, the best place to do this is right here at JMU! A July 20 article in the New York Times shows the results of a survey that puts physics very high on the list.

Assuming that you're interested in coming to JMU, then of the majors listed in the graphic, you have three choices for a high paying job: economics, physics and computer science. Why be a computer scientist when you could study physics or economics and get a better paying job and have a lot more fun? Economics edges out physics in the long run, but physics starts out a bit better. And seriously, wouldn't you really rather study physics?! We have all the lab toys, cool software, and use them for exploring the universe. Now we learn that we actually can get paid pretty well for this.

And keep in mind that an undergraduate degree in physics is an excellent entree to graduate school in engineering.

Kinda like learning that besides tasting good, chocolate is good for you!

You'll also see that this article lists the median starting and mid-career salaries for all students at some really prestigious schools. Take note that the starting and mid-career salaries for all graduates from Yale is about the same as physics. Only eight of these 20 top-rated institutions have better averages for all their students than physics majors.

Just something to tell Mom and Dad when they ask for the 475th time what physics is and why you want to study it.

John C. Wells Planetarium

William Alexander made the news this week by showcasing our fine state-of-the-art planetarium. Check out the story and the photos at the News Leader.

What's up this summer - Part 1

Most academic physicists feel a responsibility to "spread the word" about science and try to help people see why they find science, mathematics, engineering, and technology so fascinating. One of the ways we do this at JMU is through our outreach programs whether helping out at the Harrisonburg Children's Museum, hosting school groups at the John C. Wells Planetarium, or working with in service teachers. This week the lab classrooms on the second floor of the PHCH building have been taken over by robots. JMU physics profs Kevin Giovanetti and Gabriel Niculescu have been helping Nick Swayne, external relations director for the JMU College of Education, host teachers from across Virginia for a workshop on robotics as a tool for teaching math and science. The program has gotten attention not only on campus but also in the local media. Thanks to Kevin, Gabe, Nick and all the others involved in making this a great experience for everyone involved.
UPDATE: This got coverage on the local TV news, too.

A Snapshot of the Department

Each spring we gather information to get an idea of where the JMU PandA stands in relation to other physics departments in Virginia and the nation. Some data comes from the State Commission on Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV) and some comes from the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The SCHEV data is from 2008 and the AIP data is from the 2007 report.

What we see this year is similar to what we've seen in recent years: JMU is a large department. The figure above shows the integrated number of physics departments smaller than a given size for all (reporting) institutions and for undergraduate-only institutions. As you can see, there are only 10 undergraduate-only institutions in the national larger than us! When considering all institutions, JMU is larger than all but 72 physics departments. This means that only 10.4% of all (reporting) physics departments in the nation are larger than us! Since the people who don't report almost always have nothing to report, we're almost certainly in the top 10% of all departments.

This is really an amazing statistic and promises to only get better. This year Giovanna Scarel and Anca Constantin have joined our faculty and Jamey Szalay has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship. With our outstanding (and growing) faculty and the ability to recruit more excellent students like Jamey (we awarded ten scholarships this year to freshmen!), we are on track to really add quality to our program, no just size.

If you look at the most recent SCHEV data (2008) on graduation rates from Phyiscs Departments in Virginia, we find that only two departments produced more physics graduates than JMU: University of Virginia (21) and William and Mary (18). Our 17 graduates puts us very much in contention with these two universities.

And just to be sure you get the point, consider the number of junior and senior physics majors as a measure of the size of the department. According to the AIP, there are only 8/461 undergraduate-only programs larger than us (we had 50 in 2007) and 66/690 larger out of all institutions.

So, here's the point: If you want to be part of a vibrant undergraduate physics department that's large enough for lots of opportunities but not so large you get lost, JMU is the place for you. Both size and quality - we've got them both!

Graduation: May 9, 2009

So, the big day finally arrives. It was cloudy and looked like rain all morning but we managed to get through all the festivities without anyone getting wet.

The graduate school has grown to the point where it has finally been given its own separate ceremony on Friday night so that Saturday morning is all about the undergraduates. This shortens the main ceremony and gives it a clear focus on what JMU is really all about: undergraduates. The speaker this year was Paul Holland ('82). Paul has become an important actor in the green movement and he gave what most people reckoned was probably an above average commencement address.

The satellite ceremony for the College of Science and Mathematics was held again this year on the lawn next to the East Campus Library. We had a good crowd. There was a reception afterwards with food and drink provided by the College. A good time was had by all.

Continuing with our new tradition of having a speaker at the College ceremony as well, this year we heard from Mathematics professor, Dr. David Pruett. He gave a thoughtful and inspiring talk and it was well received. the photo above shows David in one of his reflective moments at the reception.

We tried to gather all the PandA grads for a photo after the ceremony and we got most of them. As you can see in the photo, only the guys showed up. More photos are going on the PandA web page soon so you can see all the details of who was there.

There were a total of 15 grads this spring. Adding in the 2 from December, we have a total of 17 again this year. JMU PandA continues to be a strong and vibrant program.

We wish our graduate well and hope they come back often to visit and keep us up to date on their lives and careers. We wouldn't be upset if some were to make lots of money are remember us either!