From Granular Flows to X-ray Emitting Pulsars

It may sound like a journey, and it may in fact be, but you are going to guess how that is done. Here, you're going to read about the astronomical end of this journey, which, may be a beginning in itself. Richard Knoche, one of our PandA seniors, sent us some notes on what he experienced while attending the 217th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), the largest astronomical meeting where the science in hot, the schmoozing is essential, the students are promising. And all in spite of the fact that during the semester/class time, Richard's been concentrating on understanding various properties of the granular flow at JMU. Which only says: summers are special, and they deserve to be treated well, i.e., with some astrophysics.

Like one of those who saw the light, Richard undertook an REU appointment in astrophysics at NASA Goddard last summer. His enthusiasm and hard work won him a trip to Seattle to present his results, to meet other astronomy aficionado undergraduate and graduate students, and surprisingly even for him, to get new ideas about research he might pursue in the future:

Last summer I was lucky enough to have an internship at NASA Goddard. I worked on two projects there, one studying gamma ray bursts and the other studying x-ray emissions in pulsars, and was awarded a travel grant for my work. My research advisor and I decided it would be best to use the grant to present some of my findings at the national AAS conference in Seattle, so at the beginning of this semester I took a week off from school and flew across the country to my first big conference.

I wasn't sure what to expect before I arrived in Seattle, and was pretty nervous about how my presentation would go. Luckily, I had a day off before I presented so I had plenty of time to walk around and attend some of the talks and poster sessions. For the most part the talks covered subject matter that was a bit over my head, but it was still exciting to hear about the cutting edge research that was going on in astronomy. Even more exciting was the people I got to meet. I was able to meet plenty of other undergraduate students, current graduate students, professors, and even a Nobel Laureate; and each person I met had interesting and useful information to share about research, graduate school, or the conference itself.

The next day my presentation went off without a hitch. Foot traffic in the poster area was very busy, and there were plenty of people who seemed interested in my research. I was expecting the poster session to consist of me giving a similar presentation to people all day, and not getting much out of it for myself. However, I found that the researchers at the conference were much more engaging. Although there were some tough questions asked, there were plenty of people that shared insight into what would be interested to look into next with my research.

Overall the conference was a great experience. I learned a lot about graduate school, researching in astronomy, and even what I could do next with my own research. I'd definitely recommend going to a conference like this if any students are offered the opportunity.

Here is the big smile that proves what's been said above is true:

Recruiting season begins

This week begins the annual freshman recruiting season for PandA. Those of you that have been through the process will remember it well: the phone calls from Dr. Staib (still doing our recruiting after all these years!), the visit, the scholarship exam, lunch with faculty and the department tour.

Between now and the first week of March we will host perhaps 40 prospective students and their parents. Not all will choose to attend JMU. Our job is try to convince that they should be here. The range of research options and opportunities for getting involved in the freshman year is central to our pitch. We are the place to be in Virginia.

The university is continuing the Madison Achievement Awards (MAS) and the Second Century Scholarships and the department continues the Presidential and Gordon Scholarships. Altogether we have about 14 scholarships total to award! Given the size of our typical freshman class, this means that nearly 1/2 of the freshman class will be on scholarship. This is an amazing ratio.

We're looking for the best and brightest for in-state and out-of-state (the MAS are targeted to out-of-state students). The number and quality of applicants in recent years have make a clear impact on our program. These scholarships are having a clear effect. This year we will continue on this path of growth and improvement.

In the histogram at the right is distribution of the number of graduates from undergraduate only physics departments in the US for the 2009-2009 school year. This data is the most recent was collected by the American Institute of Physics. The largest department graduated 30. In 2010, we graduated 21. This growth and the steady improvement in the quality of students (both due, in part, to the number and quality of scholarships we have to award) mean we are slowly but surely on track to be one of the very larges undergraduate physics departments in the country.

Saturday Morning Physics Lecture 3: A Tale about Fundamental Ingredients of Our Universe and the Interactions Between Them

We are now half way through our inaugural 6-lecture program, Saturday Morning Physics at JMU!!

This morning Prof. Niculescu of JMU Department of Physics and Astronomy talked to us about "Building Blocks for the Budding Scientist: A Tale about Fundamental Ingredients of our Universe and the Interactions Between Them".

Podcast and pictures to follow!

Why Study Physics?

The American Physical Society has a very good web page that gives lots of reasons why it is to your advantage to study physics. I'll just highlight one here. The one you are thinking about. Money.

Consider this:

You will note that the starting salaries for physics majors is very competitive with all the highest starting salaries in fields like chemical and electrical engineering. Fields like chemistry and biology are distinctly lower. This makes physics an especially advantageous choice for those who are considering medical school. Even if you don't get in (and physics will improve your chances of doing this), you've have better prospects of a high paying job starting with physics.

You can learn more about what's good about a physics degree at the APS education web site.

Saturday Morning Physics Lecture 2: Unveiling Star Formation

This past Saturday, Professor Harold Butner gave a fascinating talk entitled "Tracing the Invisible: Star Formation Behind Closed Curtains" as part of the inaugural Saturday Morning Physics program. Well over 50 participants and their parents attended the talk and the accompanying planetarium show "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity". The lecture was taped and will soon be available to be streamed online at: http://csma31.csm.jmu.edu/physics/Public/saturday.html

You can also find photos from the event and Prof. Butner's slides at the same location.

This upcoming Saturday, Feb. 5, Prof. Gabriel Niculescu will deliver lecture 3 entitled "Building Blocks for the Budding Scientist: A Tale about Fundamental Ingredients of our Universe and the Interactions Between Them". You can find more details about this lecture and the remaining SMP lectures at http://csma31.csm.jmu.edu/physics/Public/saturday.html as well as via our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/SMP.JMU

Shanil Virani

The First Saturday Morning Physics

On Saturday morning, we had our first installment of of the Saturday Morning Physics. Adriana Banu described nuclear physics for a full crowd of folks.

Many students were accompanied by their parents and many of the parents joined them in the lecture. We are excited to have some many people interested in seeing what we are up to in our research.

How Often Do Giant Black Holes Become Hyperactive?

If you've ever wondered how often the biggest black holes have been active over the last few billion years, here are some answers.

Last December (yes, we're a bit late with these news, but they are still hot...) the (NASA) press released a story on "How Often Do Giant Black Holes Become Hyperactive?" (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/10-169.html)

Here you can read about how supermassive black holes grow and about possible implications for how the giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way will behave in the future. The conclusions are based on the first direct determination of the fraction of field galaxies in the local Universe that contain active supermassive black holes, which is important to know because this is directly related to how often these giant black holes flare up, since that's when they go through a major growth spurt.

Anca Constantin, one of the lively JMU's astropysicists, is a co-author on the paper presenting the science being this story. So, no wonder you are hearing about these fantastic results from this blog.

Making Stuff NOVA Show Premiers Tonight on PBS

Tonight at the PBS NOVA will kicking off the Making Stuff series with the first episode: Stronger!

David Pogue takes viewers on a journey into the world of materials science. Dr. Costel Constantin of JMU was part of Material Research Society's NOVA committee which helped with scientific ideas throughout the production of the show.

Enjoy it!

Programming the “specialist-of-all-trades” in the PHYS 372 class

Jack-of-all-trades would simply not work. With a single microcontroller, one can control sophisticated machines that perform highly specialized jobs. With hard work and passion, last semester students from PHYS 372 class programmed PIC 16F877 microcontrollers by using EasyPic6 development boards. This movie shows some of our students' projects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e23ySDL0_2k

Biomaterials research at JMU-Physics

The Biotechnology Journal has just accepted a new paper from the NCSU-JMU collaboration working on engineering the properties of biomaterials using atomic layer depsition. The new paper is entitled "Atomic layer deposition of titania on cellulose acetate for enhanced hemostasis". The contribution from JMU comes from Dr. Scarel and her group. Dr. Scarel has performed infrared spectroscopy analysis of the samples before and after the ALD treatment.

Spring Semester is Upon Us

On Monday Morning, bright and early, spring semester 2011 begins. We'll soon have snow days to make up (forecast for Tuesday, perhaps) and exams to prepare.

Another fun time of teaching and learning physics.

What happens when there are no classes

Some may wonder what happens on a university campus when the students aren't around. Here's the answer  to this big question. CONSTRUCTION!

Standing in Kim's office and looking out the window, this is what we see. The new Biology building is moving right along. The contractor has taken the opportunity with no students to do some underground plumbing and currently have the several trenches dug in "our front lawn". In the photo is the largest of the holes.

We're told this will all be covered by Monday morning so the buses can park and the students can get to class.

For those still visiting campus, you'll notice that the steel on the building itself has all gone up since final exams.

Lunar Eclipse

According to Wikipedia (that source of all things true and correct),  the eclipse on December 21, was the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Northern Winter Solstice (Southern Summer Solstice) since 1638, and only the second in the Common Era. Not sure that the timing makes it special, but it sure make it rare.

Here is a time-lapse video of the eclipse for those who could not stay awake or, like me, were in a cloudy spot.



You earn extra points for explaining the ruddy color of the moon during the totality and why it is not simply black (invisible).

What to do with a physics degree

Even if you know that you like physics, this can be a confusing question to answer. Fortunately, there are resources available to help you work through this decision.

• Guide to Career Education
• Occupation Outlook Handbook
• UNC Wilmington
• Society of Physics Students
• UC Berkeley, Career Center

And for a much broader view, check out Engineering, Science and Math Careers for an extensive list of possibilities to explore.

There are tons of career options and the list is growing as our society becomes more technically based. Physics (and Astronomy) are excellent choices for a broad range of science careers.

PandA@JMU is the very best place to start this journey. But you knew that, right?

Fall semester has ended

Today was the December graduation ceremony. The house was full and everyone was happy and cheering. Three of our majors graduate this semester and we are indeed proud of them.

We're at the halfway point of the academic year. At this point we pause to catch our breath and celebrate the season with friends and family. We here in the PandA wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

In January we are all busy again. Dr. Butner has a full schedule for the spring seminar series already. Among the visitors are James Green the Director of Planetary Science at NASA and Gary White the Director of the Society of Physics Students.

The Saturday Morning Physics program promises to be exciting. Enrollment is at capacity (about 60, last check) and we are preparing for bringing the excitement of physics to many students, parents and teachers in the region. The high school physics video contest is well advertised and we already know of several schools in the area that will have students entering.

We have many dedicated students working on research with our faculty preparing for the spring symposium (last year's is here). Several students will also be using the symposium as a preparation for taking their work on the road to regional and national conferences. We will recognize our outstanding students at the annual honors banquet on Wednesday April 6.

The first installment of our planned applied nuclear physics track will be offered this spring. Dr. Banu will teach a new course in introductory nuclear science and a lab to go with it. The new Madison Radiation Laboratory (the old RMH Cancer Center) is slowing beginning to take shape as we start through the licensing process so we can the turn on our linacs and x-ray machine.

A busy year ahead, indeed. Stay tuned as we move forward with these exciting programs.

Oh yeah. I forgot. We will also be teaching.

...and a good time was had by all!

This year's holiday party was another success in a long line of successes. Everyone had pizza and sodas and great (read=silly) gifts were exchanged by the seniors and the faculty. There was dancing by Santa and his helpers (above, left to right: Gabriel Niculescu (Santa), Art Fovargue (Chief Elf), Adriana Banu (Mrs. Santa), and Kevin Giovanetti(Elf)) and great merriment. The senior video was well done and everyone had a good laugh.

The pizza and sodas were eagerly consumed.

See all the photos here.

Space Shuttle

For those of you out there that are devoted space shuttle fans, here's the video for you. I have always thought that the lift off was a graceful and dramatic event with the roll maneuver happening just after it clears the tower. On this lengthy video you can see it in slow motion.

The multiple camera angles and the high-speed photography are truly impressive. Enjoy this farewell to the end of an era.

PandA will soon have it's own memento of this amazing machine and the exploration it made possible. We have ordered a tile from one of the decommissioned shuttles. The thermal properties are still difficult to conceive even after all these years of seeing it work.

USA Science and Engineering Festival 2010

Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall (Washington, DC) for the USA Science and Engineering Festival, which ran from Sunday, Oct. 10, through Sunday, Oct. 24. On October 24, Dr. Costel Constantin together with seven physics major and one nursing major volunteered with both Nanoscale Informal Science Education Networked/Material Research Society, and PBS WGBH/NOVA Making Stuff booths. The students who come with me are Anita Vincent-Johnson (Physics), Anthony Chieco (Physics), Jimmy Hauver (Physics), Cheyenne Shafte (Physicss), Denise McKaig (Physics), Alexandra Iuga (Physics), Christina Hanks (Physics), and Emily Schofield (Nursing). Our students explained how the properties of materials change with size. After the event, we were fortunate to be invited to the radio show “STEM SELLS” hosted by Prof. Brian Utter, and Prof. Mark Mattson from Physics and Astronomy Department. Related to this event, there is an article published in the Madison Magazine titled "Lego robotics, hydrogen cars, geospatial tech on the D.C. Mall". The article can be found at page 14, in the latest winter 2011 edition of Madison Magazine. Here I am carbon-copying the paragraph in which we were mentioned within the article “Dr. Costel Constantin (Physics and Astronomy) volunteered with both Nanoscale Informal Science Education Networked/Material Research Society and PBS WGBH/NOVA Making Stuff booths, with the help of JMU students Anita Vincent-Johnson (Physics), Anthony Chieco (Physics), Jimmy Hauver (Physics), Cheyenne Shafte (Physicss), Denise McKaig (Physics), Alexandra Iuga (Physics), Christina Hanks (Physics), and Emily Schofield (Nursing). They explained properties of carbon nanotubes, nano sands, and strengths of nanofabrics to Festival visitors.” I would like to thank all our student volunteers for doing a great job.

A New Look

We've finally upgraded the blog design. Hope you like it.

Annual Holiday Party is coming Friday

This Friday (December 10), we will again have a visit from the jolly fellow with the white beard in room 2122 at 2:15 as we celebrate the end of the semester in the department holiday party. You realize of course that the jolly fellow to which I refer is D. Gabriel Niculescu in disguise, right? You didn't really think it was Santa did you?

Come if you can. There'll be pizza, sodas and a good time have by all.

This is what happens when you aren't a physics major.

As you may recall, in a previous post to this blog the strong preparation for medical school that a physics degree offers was pointed out. Let me see if I can add a little fuel to this fire.

In the journal in Diabetes Care we find the following article:

A mathematical model for the determination of total area under glucose tolerance and other metabolic curves. M M Tai 

Diabetes Care February 1994vol. 17 no. 2 152-154

From the title it sounds suspicious  already. Check out this excerpt from the abstract:

OBJECTIVE--To develop a mathematical model for the determination of total areas under curves from various metabolic studies. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS--In Tai's Model, the total area under a curve is computed by dividing the area under the curve between two designated values on the X-axis (abscissas) into small segments (rectangles and triangles) whose areas can be accurately calculated from their respective geometrical formulas. The total sum of these individual areas thus represents the total area under the curve. 

It seems the M. M. Tai has re-invented that process all physics (and math) majors learn in their second semester of calculus...we call it integration. Sort of sounds like the trapezoidal rule, eh? Clever that the author names the "model" after himself, isn't it?

While it is true that a physics major who becomes an MD would never try to publish this since it is old hat and we all know this, just think of all the new things you could publish: the energy required to lift a patient is proportional to the patient's mass and the change in height, the rate of flow through a hypodermic is proportional to the pressure applied to the piston, the time rate of change of a disease can be determine by the an examination of the change between two successive measurements. The list is endless. Why, you could publish your way into tenure at any hospital, no sweat. Just think of the wondrous new effects you could name for yourself!

Did I mention that this paper has 75 citations?

 

Chromatography of Hydrogen Isotopes, part II

The paper in progress over the summer by Dr. Whisnant, Travis Kelly and Patrick Hansen has been accepted by the Review of Scientific Instruments. Final corrections are in progress and it should be published early next year.

The figure shows the chromatogram and our fit to it for a sample that is about 6.6% H₂ and 3.5% D₂. The scale has been expanded by dividing the data for the HD peak by 10. As you can see, the p-H₂ and  o-H₂ peaks are well separated and the HD tail under the D₂ is small. The fits are difficult to distinguish from the data since they are so good! There's no fit to the HD peak shown, it is numerically integrated.

They also have a nice model for understanding the plateau between the p-H₂ and  o-H₂ peaks in the region around 15 minutes retention time, but you'll need to read the paper to get the details.

Congratulations to Travis and Patrick...two more of our undergraduates published in a peer-reviewed journal.

We have a logo!

In an effort to develop an identity for our department as we increase our marketing and outreach, we have created a department logo to plaster all over everything PandA. After many faculty meetings and much discussion, we have landed on this design. We went with monochrome to simplify reproduction. The design comes in the JMU purple and gold and in black as shown below. In addition to the versions listed here, we also have version with "transparent white" so the background color shows through. This will give us plenty of variation while still presenting the same design.

Look for one of this graphics to start showing up everywhere. The next step is to get this on all department web pages and start printing it up for distribution on stickers and the like.

We hope that soon, everyone will think of JMU PandA when they see this design.

Open House

Today from 9-12, the admissions office sponsored another open house. There was a larger total turnout for this event than the one in September by about 40%. This attendance was, more or less, reflected in our workload. The numbers in the formal presentations were about the same order of magnitude as before, but there seemed to be somewhat more activity in the hallways and lab tours.

If we are seeing about 15 or so each time, we're on track to another solid recruiting year. Perhaps not a stellar one with the economy in the tank, but a very respectable one, nonetheless.

Steve Whisnant is the 2011 CSM Madison Scholar!

Congratulations to our own Steve Whisnant who was recently named the Madison Scholar from the College of Science and Mathematics for 2010-11. Steve joins a list of esteemed colleagues in our college who have demonstrated the highest level of scholarship throughout their careers in their research and publishing and is the first in our department since Kevin Giovanetti in 2004. Next fall, Steve will give the Madison Scholar lecture to all of the college and tell us more about his work in nuclear physics. Join us in congratulating Steve.

Quark-Gluon Plasma Created at CERN

The ATLAS collaboration is reporting evidence of the quark-gluon plasma. The results were submitted to Physical Review Letters and accepted in fewer than 24 hours. This is really (really, really, really) fast, indicating how significant this is.

Details can be found at The Canadian Broadcasting Co. and in the CERN press release.

Here's some interesting stats

So. This blog is interesting primarily if you are interested in PandA @ JMU. We do occasionally put a few things of more general interest up, but we mostly blog about our department.

Thus, this leads to my surprise to find that we are being visiting from around the world. Consider the statistics for the last week:

United States 49 Russia 7 Germany 5 Canada 2 France 2 Indonesia 2 Israel 2 Italy 2 Latvia 2 United Kingdom 1

I understand that most are from the US and there are a few curious folks in the UK or Latvia, but this week, like every week...like the entire time the blog has been up...there are consistently folks in Russia and Germany checking us out. Germany and Russia are always in the top two spots after the US.

This could be navigation accidents, but to keep this up for months sounds like real curiosity about us. Isn't that interesting?!

Welcome one and all.

Helping out at Explore More

On Sunday, November 21, the folks at the Harrisonburg Childrens Museum (now known as the Explore More museum) held an open house to show off their beautiful new space on Main Street in downtown Harrisonburg. They invited JMU Physics and Astro faculty to come help out in the science lab room. Drs. Anca and Costel Constantin entertained the kids with images of galaxies and stars and fold up paper "buckyballs". They also showed kids the power of electricity and magnetism with the museum's collection of magnet toys and Van de Graaff generator. Later, Dr. Chris Hughes joined them and showed the kids and their parents how things like spinning tops and slinkies look different at high speed. We're always glad to help out in the community and congratulate our friends at HCM on their move to a new facility.

Happy Thanksgiving

The students are all home by now. The faculty are scattering as well and the university is settling into an angle of repose that is only possible when it is quite and empty. Everyone is now preparing for an excessively large meal of their favorite dishes.

Have a safe and happy holiday. See everyone in a week.

Video Contest!

Here in the PandA@JMU, we are always excited by new opportunities to learn and explore new physics phenomena. We want to get you excited as well, so we announcing the First Annual Video Contest. This is where you create a video to compete for cash prizes for you and your school. Here's how it works: your team creates an original video which demonstrates and explains something related to physics. You submit it to us for judging and the top 5 teams will be invited to JMU for an awards presentation.  All finalists will receive a monetary prize.

To submit an entry in this contest, a video less than 3 minutes in length must be emailed to Scott Paulson. The deadline for submissions is 9:00 a.m. EST March 14, 2011. All standard video formats will be accepted.

For complete details, visit the video contest web page.

Meet the Scientist: Saturday Morning at JMU

In spring semester 2011, PandA in collaboration with the Office of Outreach and Engagement cordially invite high-school students and secondary-school teachers to take part in an engaging learning outreach program.

Participants will explore fascinating cutting-edge research topics in physics and astronomy in six easy-to-follow scientific lectures. Each lecture is followed by a visit to the John C. Wells Planetarium. There will be interactive quiz sessions... fast-paced competitions using electronic clickers to buzz in with a response. The students will have the chance to win prizes and review what they have learned at the end of each Saturday morning lecture.

Certificates of attendance, College credits for students and CEUs for teachers can be earned.

No pre-requisites necessary! (except for your curiosity…)

Register soon and Start your adventure! For details see our web site for details.

Keep up with the fun and excitement on our SMP facebook page as well.




To go directly to the registration page and bypass the department page, visit official registration page here.

Balloons, Bowling, Bots & Warm Gas

On October 15th, the 2010 JMU Physics Alumnus of the Year, Professor Joseph Howard from Salisburg University, came back to campus. Things were a little bit different from when he graduated in 1990. The Physics Department has moved from Miller Hall over to the new Physics and Chemistry Building on the east side of campus. It also has changed its name to become the Physics and Astronomy Department with over a hundred physics majors, four major research groups, and 20 faculty.

Professor Howard also experienced a lot of changes after he graduated from JMU in 1990. He went on to the University of Oklahoma where he got an MS (1993) and a PhD (1998). From there he went to Salisbury University where he became an assistant professor, then associate professor, and is now the Chair of the Department. He is active in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) research - looking for ways to improve STEM teaching for college bound high-school students. He has been a two-time winner of the CUL Salisbury University Faculty Member of the Year, and nominated for several teaching and mentoring awards.

As the 2010 JMU Physics Alumnus of the Year, Prof. Howard talked to our current crop of physics students about the great opportunities that a degree in physics can prepare you for. In his case, his research includes detailed studies of nebula in the nearby galaxy M101. That lead to balloon borne astronomical studies, and involving his students on analyzing the data. A student project led to a long-term project for he and his students developing robots. Most recently, he and his students worked on a detailed study of bowling ball physics. All of these projects reflect his attitude in research; that you have to prepared for unforeseen opportunities. Professor Howard pointed out he learned at JMU that a background in physics can give you the flexibility you need to explore lots of different opportunities; be it studying distant astronomical objects floating in space, launching rockets, building robots that can learn, going bowling, or ...well that last one is up to you!

This is how to use a Yo-yo!

Check out this practical example of controlling angular momentum.

The moons of Jupiter attract a crowd!

On October 1st, the JMU Physics and Astronomy Department held a "planet" party at our Astronomy Park, located just behind the Physics and Chemistry Building. The guests of honor were Jupiter and its 4 major moons - this fall they are making their closest approach to earth in the past 50 years. Clear skies and light breezes made for good viewing conditions. Jupiter and its moons were seen by over 400 people through one of our two 10-inch telescopes during the 3.5 hour "planet" party.

Every semester the JMU Physics and Astronomy Department hosts several "star" parties - where we use several of our 10-inch diameter telescopes to probe the night sky. Such shows are free and open to all JMU students, staff, and the general public. We announce the star parties through the main JMU webpage a few days in advance. The telescopes are also used by the JMU Astronomy Club, who can often be found at Astronomy Park checking out the moon, planets, galaxies, and other astronomical objects.

Six methods for Successful Learning

In a recent article by Roald Hoffmann and  Saundra Y. McGuire in the September-October issue of the American Scientist, the magazine of Sigma-Xi, we are given a list of valuable methods of successful learning and teaching. The full article is found here. The learning strategies are:

1. Take class notes by hand, don't rely on handouts. Each evening, rewrite your notes, compressing and adding to make sure that you really understand.
2. If you miss a class, get notes from a friend that you must copy and work through. Again, avoid class handouts as the sole source of information.
3. Form study groups and mix individual study with group study.
4. Treat textbook examples as worked homework problems. Master the method, not simply the solution. Practice working problems without assistance (as in an exam setting).
5. Teach the material to others.
6. Set your goals realistically.

You will recognize here several notions that are often repeated to our physics students. The sooner you can master these techniques, the more quickly you can master physics. One interesting technique for doing well on exams is to practice making your own version of the exam. What would the instructor ask and why? What is important to know to master the material? Asking yourself this sort of questions and figuring out the answers is a valuable technique for mastering the exams and the material.


The teaching strategies are also important and can give a learner good ideas about how to best learn. See the article for more details.

JMU Physics now making book cover art!

Dr. Brian Utter recently authored a chapter for a new book on soft condensed matter physics. The book, Experimental and Computational Techniques in Soft Condensed Matter Physics is being published by Cambridge University Press. An image from Brian's lab has been featured as the cover of the book. In the image, the propagation of stresses through a network of polymer particles can be seen by using polarized light. More information about the book can be found here.

Well done by Brian and his students.

Open House

Today we had the first of two open house days for us folks in the STEM fields. These events, created by the good folks in admissions offer the opportunity for prospective students and their parents to visit JMU and see what we are all about. We open the labs and give tours. There's a time to hear a set presentation about the department. All around, it is good time to meet and greet.

While there was over 1000 students plus their parents here, as usual, few were interested physics. Best estimate is that fewer than 20 students and their parents visited our department, probably closer to 15. While this sounds like small numbers, it isn't so bad. Consider: our freshmen class runs about 25-30. If 15 come now and again on December 4 for the next open house, that's a pretty good turn out.

It is always the case that our best tool for recruiting is one-on-one contact. Having a chance to talk with these 15 or so students today is a good way to increase the likelihood of getting them to come to JMU. If today we encouraged a few more to apply for admission, then we have another chance to get them on campus during the scholarship exam season. Another chance to communicate one-on-one.

We continue to build a strong program and today's effort is part of this process. A politician once noted that 99% of everything that is done during a campaign is a waste. Think of the money we could save if we only did the right 1%. The problem is that no one knows what that right 1% happens to be. The same is true of recruiting.

Fall Picnic

Today there was glorious weather for the annual fall picnic for PandA. We had a great turnout with at least six freshmen attending (maybe more) and goodly cross section of the upperclassmen. Costel Constantin took charge of the ritual cooking of the of the burgers and 'dogs and a fine job was done. There was lots of games and fun with the students enjoying themselves with the faculty children as well as each other. See more of the fun and games.

Fall 2010

The time has arrived for the summer's research to fade into the fall's teaching. The new semester is upon us and the new faculty are with us. As part of our day of meetings on Friday, we all gathered for a few minutes to take a photo.

Standing from left to right: Chris Hughes, Sean Scully, Kim Emerson, Adriana Banu, William Alexander, Giovanna Scarel, Geary Albright, Anca Constantin and Steve Whisnant.

Seated in the middle row: Shanil Virani and Costel Constantin.

Seated in the front: Mark Mattson, Scott Paulson, Art Fovargue, Kevin Giovanetti, Harold Butner, Brian Utter, Klebert Feitosa and Dorn Peterson.

Not present: Ioana Niculescu, Gabriel Niculescu and Don Chodrow.

JMU research presented to the collaborators at NCSU

On Friday July 16 2010 Dr. Scarel presented to the collaborators at NCSU the work on "Modeling transmission infrared absorbance of oxide fibers prepared using atomic layer deposition". The work was performed by Dr. Scarel partly with the NCSU collaborators and partly with the JMU students Anita Vincent-Johnson (Physics) and Kyle Vasquez (Chemistry). A paper on the topic will be submitted soon!

Gas Chromatography of Hydrogen Isotopes

Over the last couple years, Patrick Hansen has made steady progress on the gas chromatography system used to separate H₂, HD and D₂ in Dr. Whisnant's lab. Building on the work of Laurence Lewis, Travis Kelley and Ryan Burke, Patrick has now put the system in a state where it can be reliably used to assay gas from the distillery before it is sent to JLab for use in polarized target production.

He has reviewed the literature and found that no one else has obtained results as good or had been so quantitative about the interpretation of the results. Thus, at the moment, he is busy writing his results up for publication.

Paper in progress. Stay Tuned.

JMU HD Distillery

The HD distillery, housed in the basement of the HHS building, has been struggling for the past year as attempts have been made to get it working after a long hiatus. The majors problems appear to be ones related to too much heat in the wrong places.

Dr. Whisnant's collaborators at JLab are working on a redesign on the distillation column now. The new piece should be in-hand in late July and the process of starting up will resume.

In the mean time, Brittany Rash, has made good progress on a major computer (hardware and software) upgrade for the facility. The previous system used two very old computers (one dating from 2001!) to monitor and control pressure transducers, boil-up power and the vacuum pump. All this is now moving to a new computer with dual monitors (Dr. Whisnant is known for his love of a two monitor system!). Brittany has one program up and going and is working on the second one. With improved software (and stability!) and some additional hardware to clean up the computer-instrument interface, the revived distillery shouild purr like a kitten in August.

Stay tuned.

Road Trip!

Starting on the 6^th of July, Dr. Whisnant will be taking James Hauver and William Henderson to Duke University for two weeks to do some photon scattering. The reaction of interest is photon induced neutron emission. The targets under consideration include Sn, Ta and Cd. There will also be data taken on U and Pu as well later on in July.

Most of these targets have been studied before with this reaction. The new thing is that we will do it with polarized gamma-rays. The plan is to help establish a database of reaction data that can be used to look  fro fissile (and non fissile) materials in shipping containers.

So, bright and early on July 6, the adventure begins!

JMU-Physics at ORNL

Early results on "Infrared energy harvesting using surface phonon-polaritons in thin atomic layer deposited oxide films" were presented by Giovanna Scarel on June 8 2010 at the Center for Nanophase Materials Science - Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge (TN).

A little chemistry, just for fun