Faculty Member in Residence

Steve Whisnant has been selected to be the Faculty Member in Residence in London for the spring semester 2014.

It is time to take a little JMU physics to the international stage and include some non-majors in the experience.

Giovanetti Selected for Provost's Award

The 2012 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship goes to our own Dr. Kevin Giovanetti! Congratulations!!

More details are found on this page.

Just as an added bit of information: This recognition was first awarded in 2008 so this marks only the 5th year. Of the five recipients, two are in Physics and Astronomy -- Kevin and Ioana Niculescu.

Our plan to take over the world is on track.

Radiative polaritons at JMU

Radiative polaritons are known since their theoretical description by Fuchs and Kliewer in the sixties.  However, the reason why they are radiative was not explained, the existence of the radiation emitted was not proved, and the frequency range of that radiation was never found.  Three undergraduate students at JMU with the help of collaborators at the University of Utah and Howard University have done all this: Anita discovered why radiative polaritons are radiative, and Yosyp discovered the existence of the emitted radiation.  Yosyp and Harkirat found that the "radiated" radiation exists in the microwave to far-infrared frequency range.  For more details see the paper:  A.J. Vincent-Johnson, Y. Schwab, H.S. Mann, M. Francoeur, J.S. Hammonds, and G. Scarel, “Origin of the low frequency radiation emitted by radiative polaritons excited by infrared radiation in planar La₂O₃ films”.  J. Phys: Condens. Matter 25, 035901 (2013).