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

Students are busy this summer...

Preparing for a night out under the stars doing some observing.

Learning their around the machine shop with Dr. Peterson

Interpreting the FTIR output in Dr. Scarel's lab

Or thinking (and trying to look busy) in Dr. Whisnant's lab.

What can you do with a Physics Degree?

Although many people think that a physics degree is only something you get if you want to do research or teach, there are a myriad of possibilities. Among these are medical and law school. The American Institute of Physics has a statistical center that collects information about what physics graduates do. Recently posted is the average MCAT and LSAT scores for 2009 sorted by major. Using data provided by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Law School Admissions Council, the AIP have posted two tables that give the full results.

The short version is that Biomedical engineering and Physics are at the top of the list on the MCAT. Scores are given in three areas. Physics is best in Physics sciences (duh!) and tied in verbal reasoning. Only in biological sciences do the engineers pull ahead.  For those of you who still think it is OK to major in Biology to go to med school, note that Biology is next to last in the list. The only major worse if Premed!

On the LSAT, Physics is the clear leader. Once again, Pre-law and criminal justice are at the bottom of the list. Even Political Science, where most applicants major is well down on the list.

The clear moral of this story is that if you want to be a lawyer of a doctor, Physics is the best place to start. Of course, if you want to be researcher, teacher, engineer, business person, or anything else, choose Physics.

Graduation 2010!

Another exciting year is behind us now and a new crop of graduates are out finding their way in the world. This year's graduation speaker was our own Bill Ingham. He did an outstanding job of connecting James Madison (the man) to the qualities of our graduates and their challenges.

Except for the strong winds we had on Saturday morning, it was a beautiful day. Congratulations to all our fine graduates!

Bob Gordon does 50 years!

On April 22, we celebrated 50 years of Bob Gordon teaching in our department. Even though Bob retired in 2001, he has continued to teach part-time. As you might expect, Bob's idea of part time is what the rest of the faculty consider full-time. Even though Bob will be cutting back in the fall, he's still here teaching the next generation of budding scientists. We are honored to have such a wonderful and capable education in our department. Here's to the next 50 years!

There was a good turn out for the reception with many of Bob's former students showing up to join the festivities. More photos are found by visiting the department web site.

A new Fourier transform infrared spectrometer has arrived ......

A new Fourier transform infrared spectrometer has arrived at the department of Physics and Astronomy! The new tool can perform infrared spectroscopy at normal and variable angle in transmission and reflection. All kind of samples can be analized: insulating, semiconducting and metallic samples have no secrets for this tool.

JMU Students Present Their Research AT NCUR

This year's National Conference on Undergraduate Research was held on April 15-17 at the University of Montana. Missoula, MT. Dan Downey from Chemistry went with 13 JMU students to present their work at this national conference.

Out of the 13, 5 were from physics: Nick Herge, John Kroon, Chris Willis, Winston Hensley, and Joe Hardcastle. By all accounts, everyone had a good time and did a good job in presenting their work.