Senior Spotlight: Inteha Hassan

Inteha at Woodward Camp in Pennsylvania

Up next in our Senior Spotlight series is Inteha Hassan!  Inteha is from Herndon, Virginia, where she graduated from Herndon High School in 2016, but she also spent a year of her high school career living in Texas.  She is a physics major pursuing the geophysics multidisciplinary track, and has minors in geophysics, geology, and mathematics.  Inteha currently does research with Dr. McGary from the JMU Geology Department.  Her love of nature extends beyond simply the Earth, and she loves caring for her cat, Mochi, and her many houseplants.  Inteha is also very involved with helping the broader JMU community better understand physics, being both a learning assistant for the introductory physics classes and recently named Tutor of the Week for her work at the JMU Science and Math Learning Center.  Fellow senior Teddy Chu had the privilege of interviewing her.

When most people think of geology, we tend to think it just studies rocks.  What can you tell us about the work you do in geophysics, and how you got into the work you’re currently doing?

Geophysics is more than just rocks!  I am currently working on imaging the substructure of western Virginia by measuring fluctuations in the earth's electric and magnetic field and developing the substructure's resistivity distribution. With this information, I want to assess whether western Virginia is viable for enhanced geothermal systems. I decided to pursue geophysics, and more specifically geothermal energy, because I was initially interested in the oil and gas sector of geophysics, but I came to the realization that I didn't want to contribute to climate change; renewable energy is actually really cool!

What has your favorite class been at JMU?  What about it made it your favorite?

Since I'm a hybrid of two departments, I have two favorite classes at JMU. The first class was my Global Geophysics class, GEOL 440.  Global Geophysics shed a different light on physics as a whole for me and it was incredibly refreshing to finally apply all the concepts I had learned from my previous classes.

The second is University Physics III, PHYS 260. It's one of my favorites because it inspired my interest in my research project (shout-out to Maxwell's equations) and I had a fantastic professor who made the class really enjoyable! 

Her Meowjesty, Miss Mochi

What are some of your interests outside of school and physics?  What are your hobbies?  How do you like your eggs in the morning?

Some of my interests are my cat (her name is Mochi, she's super cute), cheerleading (fun fact: I was a JMU Varsity cheerleader for 3 years), and I love going to music festivals!  I like all types of music festivals, and the last one I went to was Moonrise back in August.  I hope to go to SXSW or Lollapalooza sometime in the future!

I also like my eggs fried, with a soft yolk, on avocado toast.

What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of my job as a tumbling instructor at a summer sports camp called Woodward. When it comes to tumbling, kids must overcome several obstacles, mainly their own fear and lack of self-confidence. Being able to help children achieve new skills, giving them the confidence they need, and providing them with an experience that they'll always remember is so incredibly rewarding.  Positively impacting the youth is such a crucial factor in building a progressive future, and I will always be proud to contributing to that! 

Thank you so much for your time Inteha!  Good luck with the rest of the year!

Presenting some nifty thermodynamics

Senior Spotlight: Tyler Hain

Tyler Hain is a senior in the JMU physics department and transferred here two years ago from Blue Ridge Community College. He is a Physics and Math double major and is from Staunton, Virginia. Tyler is currently doing research with Dr. Melnikov and hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in theoretical physics after he has completed his undergraduate degree here at JMU. When he’s not solving complex physics problems, Tyler likes to play the guitar and bass in his free time. Tyler is interviewed here by a fellow senior physics major, Inteha Hassan. 

IH: What led you to choose your major and what do you like about it?

TH: I liked my intro physics class that I took at community college because it helped me understand my math classes better. That hasn't changed at JMU; I still like physics because I get to use lots of cool math. For example, in my particle physics class we learned about how fundamental aspects of nature arise from symmetries. To describe this mathematically, you must use a branch of math called abstract algebra; which, as its name implies, is the study of general algebraic structures. One wouldn't necessarily expect to use such abstract math in physics, but groups (one of the main types of algebraic structures) are the basis for much of the Standard Model of particle physics.

IH: Who have been some inspiring mentors/role models in your life?

TH: Dr. Ilarion Melnikov has actually been a great mentor for me. He's helped me figure out what I want to do academically ever since I took his class on wave mechanics. I added the math major, which led to me learn a lot pure math. This in turn inspired me to pursue grad school in theoretical physics, and I am currently doing research with Dr. Melnikov on supersymmetric quantum field theories.

IH: What advice would you give to high school or early undergraduate students who are interested in the science career path?

TH: Learn LaTeX! Being able to write up lab reports, papers, or presentations in a neat, professional way is invaluable, and LaTeX is the best and most efficient way to do it.

IH: What are you most proud of?

TH:  I am very proud of my grades. Obviously grades don't mean everything, but I'm definitely proud to have kept a high GPA through college [Editor's note: that is a 4.0, for the record]. I had to work hard in order to understand all the material in my classes, since I am double majoring in 2 STEM fields.

Senior Spotlight: Sloane McNeill

We thought you must all wonder about who our students are, about what they do, whether in our classrooms, or outside, about what their dreams are like.  So we have started a Senior Spotlight series, where one could get a (tiny) glimpse of their awesomeness.  We continue here with a spotlight on Sloane McNeill, from Avondale Pennsylvania (Avon Grove High School), who has been interviewed by Logan Zentz, another JMU senior physics major. 

LZ: What motivated you to become a physics major at JMU?  

SM: I was always very interested in my science classes in high school, especially when I took physics. I found it to be very challenging and could tell that there was much more to learn about than what the school year had time for. Once I realized I could combine my passions of astronomy and physics together, I knew I wanted to major in physics.

When looking at programs at other schools, I found JMU to be the most appealing. Since JMU does not have a graduate school, all of the research opportunities are given to undergraduates. I was excited that I could start exploring different aspects of astrophysics as early as my first year.

LZ: What were some of your favorite classes you have taken physics or otherwise?

SM: One of my favorite classes so far has been Physics 270: Modern Physics. This class was the first time in my physics education where we were taught about material I had never been exposed to previously. The course is designed to introduce the ideas of quantum physics, specifically how they relate to atomic structure and nuclear physics. Our professor, Dr. Hughes, was able to introduce all of these ideas with us, while at the same time relating it back to familiar ideas in order for us to understand easier.  I also really enjoyed the material taught in Astronomy 221: Star Systems, the Interstellar Medium, and Cosmology taught by Dr. Sean Scully. Dr. Scully always encouraged questions and was available during office hours. I had a great time learning more about cosmology as well as being introduced to my later research project: masers.

  

LZ: What do you do for your research and why were you attracted to that area of study?

SM: For the past two years, I have been working with Dr. Anca Constantin on better understanding some of the mid-infrared properties that are associated with galaxies that host megamasers in a disk-like configuration. Though they are extremely rare, these types of emissions give us direct distances to the galaxies, as well as the most accurate measurement of the supermassive black hole mass at their center. I initially approached Dr. Constantin after hearing about her research because I found very limited material on the subject and wanted to learn more.  

LZ: What are you most proud of?

SM: I am most proud of my ability to share my interests with others who have a wide range of experience with physics. I find it beneficial to be able to discuss material I have learned from classes or even my own research with some of my friends who may have never even taken a physics class before. I am proud that I have been able to share some of the things that I am passionate about with others. 

Senior Spotlight: Sean Christian

Sean Christian is a 4^th year senior here at JMU.  He is double majoring in Physics and Geology, with minors in Mathematics, Geophysics, and Astronomy, and concentrating in geophysics.  He does research with Dr. Butner.  Sean is from Springfield, VA and attended West Springfield High School.  He is a proud member of the Marching Royal Dukes (MRD) here at JMU.  After college, Sean hopes to find a career in the field of planetary science. Sean is being interviewed by Matthew Almond, another Senior physics major.  

MA: What led you to Physics as a degree?  What about your concentration?

SC: When I first took Physics in high school, I seemed to have both a bit of a natural ability and a passion for the subject.  I took the advanced physics course in my senior year of high school and that class helped me to realize that Physics is something I could see myself doing for a career.  When I arrived at JMU, I got interested in planetary science as well as sub-surface physical properties.  I found out that we had a geophysics track here.  So, it seemed like a natural decision to concentrate in geophysics.

MA: What are your interests outside of school?

SC: One of my biggest passions outside of Physics is music.  I actually almost decided to become a music major here.  So, a large part of my time is spent being a member of the Marching Royal Dukes here on campus.

MA: What pushed you to choose Physics over Music?

SC: I would say that physics provides a greater breadth of career opportunities than Music.

MA: What are your long-term career goals?  Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

SC: My career goal is to end up studying the geophysical properties of planets outside of our solar system.  I see myself moving directly into industry out of undergrad and if my employer will sponsor it, potentially going back to school to get a masters or PhD in planetary science.

MA: What are you most proud of, considering your time at JMU?

SC: Within the physics major, I am most proud of all of the knowledge I’ve gained throughout my studies. Outside of physics, I am most proud of participating in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with the MRD’s.

Senior Spotlight: Ryan Ferell

We thought you must all wonder about who our students are, about what they do, whether in our classrooms, or outside, about what their dreams are like.  So we have started a Senior Spotlight series, where one could get a (tiny) glimpse of their awesomeness.  We continue here with a spotlight on Ryan Ferell, from Woodbridge, VA, who has been interviewed by Jack Tressler, a junior physics major.  In Jack's words:

College is a great time of fun, exploration and change, and for many students, this exploration helps lead them to what they want to do in life and specifically, what sort of career path they want to follow. Personally, I found myself changing a lot through my first year in college, and even more so my sophomore year. As a Physics and Math double major I thought I knew what I wanted to do, and for a time I struggled with, if it really was what I wanted to pursue, and through struggle and self reflection this changed. Now, more than ever, I am more certain on what I want in life, but less so when it comes to what I desire as a career. Alternatively, here at JMU, we have plenty of talented students ready to display their passion for what they do, and are ready to impress, this can be seen by looking at the majority of the Physics Department as well! Ryan Ferell, a senior Physics Major with two minors in Russian and Astronomy has quite the idea of what he strives to be one day; today I got the privilege to interview him and learn a little more about what he anticipates in his future. 

What made you choose this major?   


Ryan talked very adamantly about Space, and how much it intrigued him, he told me as a kid he used some paint, string, and other assorted crafts to make a room-sized solar system model on the ceiling of his room! So it’s quite evident, he loved Astronomy, but as he explained, as he got older he realized a career in Astronomy was not very realistic so he decided to major in Physics, as it’s the closest thing that will allow him to understand and study the stars and everything encompassing them.

What does it mean to you to be a scientist?

To Mr. Ferell, the importance of being a scientist goes beyond lab safety and procedures, and he believes in the discovery of the truth to be the penultimate goal of what scientists do, not just to know, but to use this evidence based observations to shape the way we think and act about real world issues such as what goes on in politics. More succinctly, Ryan believes that science should be a major moving force in Humanity.

What are you most proud of?

When talking to Ryan about this, it was apparent it was less about a specific thing that he has achieved that he is proud of, but more so that he is proud of his progress as an undergraduate at JMU, and how much his work ethic has improved. He has said that he is proud at how far he has come in the major, despite his shallow math background when he started, and the fact that he has turned low grades at first, into very strong grades by the end of the semester. He is proud of his ability to persevere despite failures and even prove those failures wrong with each success as he grows to soon be a graduate.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? What are your long term goals?

Now when it comes to long term goals, Ryan has some big goals and he plans on achieving them! He has explained that he has solid plans to get his PhD/Masters in Physics, doing research into Deep Space.  Specifically, he has a high interest in finding the Hubble Constant, or he would like to explain the discrepancy in theoretical values of what speed galaxies spin at, versus the actual values we observe. He also explained that if he doesn’t do that, he will join the Air Force, become a pilot, so that when he retires he can become a test pilot for NASA!

Senior Spotlight: Logan Zentz

We thought you must all wonder about who our students are, about what they do, whether in our classrooms, or outside, about what their dreams are like.  So we have started a Senior Spotlight series, where one could get a (tiny) glimpse of their awesomeness.  Here it is the first, in not particular order:

Logan Zentz is a senior physics major at James Madison University with minors in mathematics and astronomy.  He attended Stuart Hall High School in Staunton, Virginia and loves to play chess and other video games, like Space Engineers. He has always been interested in science and mathematics and has enjoyed being able to implement them in the physics department at JMU.  Sloane McNeill, a senior physics major (to be featured shortly by Logan) interviewed him:

SM: What made you decide to major in physics?

LZ: I started off in the engineering department, however, I was really enjoying my introductory physics classes, so I decided to switch my major to physics. Physics seemed to apply the mathematics that I had enjoyed learning in previous classes. 

SM:What are some of the opportunities you have had to practice physics?

LZ: I had the opportunity to do an internship at the Applied Physics Laboratory for the past two summers. While there, I was able to learn more about computer programming, specifically three-dimensional modeling. 

Also, I am working on a planetary geology research project in collaboration with Dr. Shane McGary, to model dwarf planet series to evaluate the initial conditions that lead to this evolution. This came to be because I expressed interest in his previous projects about modeling Venus’s surface with asteroid impact craters to then determine the age of Venus. I noticed a lot of the material used in this project was implemented from my advanced mechanics course (Physics 340) which I loved learning.

SM: What is your favorite class you have taken at JMU so far?

LZ: My favorite class so far has been Physics 341: Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, where I got to explore systems in a more qualitative way and combine my interests of physics and mathematics. This class was taught by Dr. Illarion Melnikov, who taught us how certain examples that are familiar from other introductory classes can become chaotic and very complex when certain parameters or initial conditions are varied. 

SM: What are you most proud of?

LZ: I am most proud of my younger brother because I have been able to help him learn things like chess and soccer. I have also started to teach him some interesting things that I have learned about physics. I am proud that he has learned these things from me and is excelling in them. Experience explaining things to him has helped me when tutoring students as well as with assisting them in the classroom as a learning assistant. 

Found by JMU physics major: A triple Supermassive Black Hole system

Congratulations: Our own junior physics major Jenna Harvey co-authored a paper describing the fantastic discovery of a system of three supermassive black holes on a close collision course!

This work, which just appeared in the Astrophysical Journal, was led by graduate student Ryan Pfeifle, under the advising of Prof. Shobita Satyapal of George Mason University, and involves a team of scientists who put together observations and measurements from quite a variety of telescopes, both ground and space based.




The massive crash of three galaxies at the center of which this triple accreting supermassive black hole system has been discovered was found thanks to new techniques that exploited the power of infrared light to peer through cosmic dust that usually enshrouds, and thus hides, newly activated black holes that just started sucking matter onto them.

The paper that describes this discovery, which Jenna co-authored, provides one of the strongest observational evidence to date for such a triple interacting galaxy system, which has eluded us until now.

Jenna's contribution to this work, under the advice of professor Anca Constantin, entailed analysis of observations from the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBT).  Jenna worked on the LBT data the collaboration has for a sample of fifteen interacting galaxy pairs, and found that in one of these systems, that showed an unusual ensemble of three X-ray nuclear sources, gas is swirling at speeds of thousands of km/s (which is just a fraction of the speed of light), proving that it is through galaxy collisions events like this one that black holes begin to actively snack and therefore grow, maybe before they merge onto a larger one.

An overview of Jenna's work on the whole sample of interacting galaxies that hosted this unusual discovery can be seen in the poster that she presented at the end of summer 2019 at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

This discovery has gotten a lot of press already, check them all out: NASA press release, CNN, Space.com, The Register (UK), VICE, a German newspaper, the LBT site, and you might even have heard about it already from Fox and MSN.

Way to go Jenna!

Our Students Visit and Observe at the Green Bank Observatory

Being able to breathe a few steps away from the largest steerable thing on the surface of Earth is something an astronomy minor would not say no to, especially if that thing is a telescope which has the power to answer mankind's biggest questions.

We are talking here about the Robert C. Bird Green Bank Telescope, the site of which (The Green Bank Observatory, or GBO) our astronomy minors had the chance to visit and explore.     Eighteen of our students were accompanied by four faculty members for an overnight trip there, where they got the chance to observe with GBO's 40-foot teaching telescope and participate in quite a number of other educational programs.

Overall, the experience seemed to be overwhelmingly positive: one might not get the chance to see so many smiles and hear "wow"s from physics, computer science, or engineering majors, all while learning about the our host galaxy, Milky Way, through their own observations of Hydrogen emission.

Far away from hot O and B-type stars, the hydrogen in space is in the ground (i.e., lowest energy) state.   However, when the spin of the electron flips from being parallel to anti-parallel with the spin of the proton, there is a tiny energy difference that is emitted at the wavelength of 21 cm (or a frequency of 1420.4 MHz).   While a hydrogen atom can wait on average a few million years before it undergoes this transition (YES, it is this rare!), the large amount of hydrogen gas makes this particular emission one of the most prominent and easiest to detect with radio telescopes.

The 40-foot spectrometer allows us to detect radio waves from this particular transition by
blocking (filtering) out all of the waves but the ones coming at this exact frequency.  This 21-cm line radiation provides the best way to map the structure of the Galaxy (note: for astronomers, Milky Way is the only galaxy with capital "G").

Here is an example of detection of (the center of the) Milky Way's emission at 21 cm with the 40-foot telescope's spectrometer (sorry folks! no pic from there). The red line is a calibration measure, while the black line records the data, i.e., the intensity (in Jansky units) as a function of frequency.  The two  strong peaks at the left side of the spectrum show detection of HI at two different frequencies: the strongest peak is located at 1419.5 MHz, and the other at 1485 MHz, depicting two different clouds of Hydrogen emitting the 21-cm transition that is redshfited (smaller frequency, or longer wavelength), implying that the detected Hydrogen is moving away from us (while rotating in the disk of the Galaxy).   The peak at the far right depicts an artificially created signal of 500 Jy, for calibration purposes.

Multiple data sets from eight groups of students, acquired during the night, were collectively analyzed the next morning.   After not much debate, there was a pretty good agreement that the data shows strong evidence that Milky Way has the shape of a flat disk, that is rotating counterclockwise.

Here are some of the students' thoughts about this trip, with some cool, funny, or downright amazing things they have learnt:

* Mary Ogborn & Ebony Williams (physics majors):  This trip really illustrated aspects of radio astronomy that I wasn’t aware of before. Although I was aware of radio interference, I was not aware of how sensitive these telescopes could be to various sources [...] The control room was also impressive, as it was copper-insulated, in order to keep in the radio waves coming from all the computers and machines. [...] it was interesting to step into the past and see how the original radio astronomers operated these huge telescopes. I can’t imagine having to manually dial in the declinations, change the frequency every second by pushing the mark button, and having the chart reader draw out the peaks without any other form of labelling. [...] I now understand how observatories in the past would hire people to be ‘computers’ before the advent of computers.

*Ryan Ferrell (physics major):  I did not expect to be able to extract this much information from the data which made me appreciate how much information can be brought out of even just a little data.[...] I learned was how many common things cause radio interference. I knew previously that most electronics caused radio interference, however I did not know that signals from modern electronics are a billion times stronger than the radio waves that the GBT was measuring from the Milky Way. [...] I never knew the GBT was the largest radio telescope in the world or that the Drake Equation had been thought of there. [...] I was very surprised to find the control center so close and surrounded in a giant Faraday Box. 


* Tanna Walters (engineering major) & Brandon O'Neal (physics major):  This trip to Greenbank Observatory has taught us a good bit about the actual ways in which the data is collected and how the hardware works.  GBT actually has a clam-shaped dish and an arm that is off-center that collects the radio waves. The purpose for this is to allow for the collection of more radio waves as opposed to parabolic telescopes that have the receiver in the middle of the dish, blocking a significant portion of the incoming radio waves.   [...] we learned just how sensitive the telescopes are to interference (RFI). Even taking a picture with our phones could interfere and ruin astronomers’ data all over the world. 

In the control room of the GBT

* Tom Gagne (computer science major) & Kris Pickens (physics major):  We learned the remarkable fact that if a cell phone were placed as far away as Mars, it would still outshine the brightest distant radio sources by several orders of magnitude.  So we had to turn them off when out among the telescopes. We also learned that a shipbuilding company built one of the telescopes and put an enormous ball-bearing in it. The ball-bearing was so large that the bridges had to be fortified along the path of the train that took it there. 

* Cameron Kelahan (computer science major):  For the first time, I was able to operate a radio telescope and perform radio astronomy. I learned how to operate a 40 foot radio telescope, the equipment that goes along with it, the meaning and importance behind the 21 cm line, and how the shape of the Milky Way was originally discovered. I also got an idea of what it may be like to work at an observatory from talking with [GBT operator].  His job seems very interesting and also challenging! 12 hour shifts are something one can get used to, but there is also a lot of responsibility that goes into operating a MASSIVE TELESCOPE!  The overall experience [...] allowed me to strengthen friendships with classmates and possibly future colleagues while learning with them about something we all have a passion for.  

Demystifying the Expert: Dr. Kendra Letchworth-Weaver

To introduce the public to science in a combination of comedy and education, Dr. Anca Constantin and Dr. Klebert Feitosa host the event Demystifying the Expert. The program brings together a guest speaker, who is an expert in their field of science, and comedians from JMU’s very own New & Improv’d, who attempt to “demystify the expert.” Questions, games, trivia and improvised skits all contribute to the fun as the audience learns about the expert’s work. Podcasts for previous Demystifying the Expert events can be found here on SoundCloud!

            Kicking off the spring Demystifying series on February 28, 2018, Drs. Constantin and Feitosa and JMU’s New & Improv’d hosted Dr. Kendra Letchworth-Weaver (who typically goes by Dr. Weaver) from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  She completed her Bachelor of Science in physics at the College of William and Mary in 2007, and went on to pursue her Doctorate in physics at Cornell University in 2015.  After this, she worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and is now a first year assistant professor at JMU. 

The members of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who participated in the event were: Caroline Buddendorf, a sophomore theatre major whose favorite thing about theater is how active she gets to be, Ethan Shultze, a junior SMAD major who really hates The Incredibles II, and Noah Etka, a junior ISAT major who’s really into NASA. 

            The night kicked off with the twenty questions game, where each comedian took turns asking Dr. Weaver yes or no type questions to help them deduce what area of science she studies.  Our comedians went on a rocky start, but their questions were moving them towards the area of chemistry.  However, when asked if she studied chemistry, Dr. Weaver was only able to say that she did so half-way.  They did narrow down the field to something with materials chemistry, and in the end, our comedians deduced that Dr. Weaver worked in materials physics.

            After carefully dancing around this field, Dr. Weaver explained to everyone just what made materials physics different from materials chemistry and its applications with her elevator pitch.  She told us how, while some areas of both disciplines focus on characteristics of materials themselves, her work focused more on the interfaces between solids and liquids.  In particular, what makes these interfaces interesting to her is how they play with the properties of both solids and liquids with wildly different interactions in statistical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and quantum mechanics, all of which give a potential for many different possibilities of material property expression.  And how Dr. Weaver studies these interfaces is through the use of computer simulations, where she’ll put in some descriptions of a material that she could manufacture and then have the computer then produce information that she can extrapolate to determine what qualities this new molecule will exhibit.  Her work applies to renewable energy applications, in particular like batteries, and she also explained that cell phone fires due to poor interface design.

            The second game was the headliner game, during which the comedians guess words that complete titles of articles that relate to Dr. Weaver’s research.  From the get-go, our comedians were thrown a curveball, as the first word was actually cats!  From the headline provided by the Washington Post, “Cats are both solid and liquid, according to science,” for their propensity to have a defined shape when they want, but also occupy the space of containers that they were put into.  Dr. Weaver had a quip that showed us how these related to work, noting that since cats did this, they were very much like the nanoparticles that she works with.  The second word had a more obvious link to Dr. Weaver’s work, and was water.  As it happens, companies are working on developing materials that can act like sponges to extract water from the air and release it on demand, helping to solve a water scarcity we face.  The final word, supercomputer, gave us harrowing visions of a potential Terminator or Blade Runner scenario, with the headline stating that IBM’s new supercomputer is not only capable of taking orders, but also arguing against them!  As Dr. Weaver explained, supercomputers are being used in order to grow new knowledge out of current data and make their own decisions with neural networks, and this could be applied to materials data as well.  It remains to see if we will reach the technological singularity, but as of current, we aren’t quite there yet.

            

Next was the jargon game during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms or terms mean in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians learned about DFT, density functional theory, which is a way to approximate how packed electrons are in a certain material, and the reason for this is because if we know how packed they are, we can start to discover some more properties of how they will interact with each other and with external materials.  The second group of words showed us all how scientists have some fun in their labs, with the words being opium and pot!  Our comedians were able to deduce after some giggles that pot meant potential, like electrical potentials, but opium was harder – Dr. Weaver explained that Opium was a name for what is called an optimized pseudopotential generating code, which creates a stand-in electrical potential based off of the electrons surrounding an atom. 

            Finally, the audience got to learn more about Dr. Weaver outside of her work as a computational materials physicist with the two truths and a lie game.  First, we learned that not only is Dr. Weaver a talented physicist, but she also used to be very involved with the performing arts as well!  She participated in theatre in high school, and also did a lot of tap dance before her college years.  Not believing that Dr. Weaver could tap dance, our comedians dared her to prove it, and much to everyone’s delight, she did!  In the second round, we learned that Dr. Weaver’s path to being a computational physicist was lined by a broken spectrometer (a very useful and expensive tool in many science laboratories) that she had dropped, and that her old babysitter ended up becoming someone she would publish papers with!

            The final planned event of the night was the improvised skit with physics-themed quotes from pop culture like Alice and Wonderland and the Warriors novel series by Erin Hunter, with a new title “The Game of the Fortune Cookie!”  In a first for Demystifying history, Dr. Weaver joined our comedians in the troupe, and what a skit it was!  Our group were engaged in the office hours of Professor Ethan’s Computer Violence 101 class, and entered a theological discussion of the toxic nature of water, the Old Testament divinity of computers, and a strange venture into a live student burial to ascend to a higher plane of existence.  You can view some of this wonderful impromptu using this link to access our Facebook page!

            We’d like to thank everyone for a great start to Demystifying the Expert’s spring run, and a very warm welcome to Dr. Weaver at James Madison University!  To hear more about future Demystifying shows and when podcasts of our previous shows are released, be sure to follow our Facebook page.  We'll see you in the fall!

Prof. Constantin visits Capitol Hill to advocate for "Gee-Whiz" Science

Last week, Prof. Anca Constantin joined 14 other astronomers from the American Astronomical Society for a crash course on science policy and meetings with congressional representatives on Capitol Hill.   

Why was she there? 

By now, I have designed and implemented a variety of astronomy and physics outreach events, which made me so painfully aware of how poorly communicated or received are our achievements, our motivation, and the need(s) for continuing our work.  I wanted to be able to back up my claims to my students that I do for them more than just teaching
science or mentoring them towards a successful career in the sciences.  In a time when billions of voices are screaming into the void of social media platforms, and no one seems to listen to anyone else, it felt quite momentous to sit down and have face to face conversations with the congressional offices.  I want to make sure that we keep inspiring people to look up.

My studies employ multi-wavelength analyses of galaxies with actively accreting supermassive black holes in their centers.  My investigations are pushing back the frontier of what we know about connecting the black hole accretion phenomenon to circum-nuclear star formation in what appears to be the faintest actively accreting galactic nuclei.   I am currently developing a novel statistical analysis of multi-wavelength properties of the galaxies that host water maser emission, with the goal of significantly improving their detection rate, which is crucial for an accurate determination of the Hubble constant, for characterization of dark energy, and thus, for constraining the fate of the universe.   My expertise in manipulating optical and infrared spectroscopic data allow me to tackle pioneering identifications of black hole accretion activity in galaxy mergers, and thus in finding binary black hole accreting systems, which are imperatively needed as a laboratory for testing the loudest gravitational wave events in the Universe, and thus for testing general relativity on cosmological scales.  Further success in all of these research aspects are intimately related to recommendations in the current New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics for augmentation of the NSF’s Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants, and for enhancements to astronomical observing facilities like GBT, ALMA, and hopefully soon JWST.    

What is a Congressional Visit Day like?

We started the day by stepping in a congressional hearing titled America in Space: Future Visions, Current Issues (in Rayburn building of the House of Representatives), where one of the witnesses was Peggy Whitson, the first female astronaut to command the International Space Station twice, and the record holder for the longest single space flight by a woman (289 days, 5 hours and 1 minute).  We had only a few minutes to spare here, before we would
start our marathon of nine meetings, but it was enough to hear a politician say, with great conviction that: "If we want America to lead with a visionary and effective space program, we must be willing to commit the resources and funding stability to achieve it." So I'd say, that was a pretty good start of the day. 

During the day, I visited (together with my team of three other astronomers) the offices of Senator Kaine, Senator Warner, and Representative Cline (VA), Senator Cardin, Senator Van Hollen, and Representative Hoyer (MD), Senator Markey, Senator Warren, and Representative Lynch (MA).  This only entailed seven miles of walking and climbing lots of stairs up and down the Senate and the House of Representative buildings. 

We were warmly welcomed in each office, and the staffers were all polite and professional.  Many of them had no personal experience in science beyond high school and maybe a college course, but took great interest in our conversations,  and it was heartening to realize (or remember?) that the politicians in Washington are just people too.  Rep. Cline made a special effort to meet us, in between hearings, and in the hallway, and he and one of his staff members seemed eager to hear about how we use astronomy here at JMU as one of the most innovative training grounds for the future science and industry experts, whether for the future of our VA district, or for the rest of the world.

We talked with the staff of our congressional representatives about federal research grants, which support many scientists, both the established ones and the budding ones (our students). We discussed the need for adequate resources in order to retain young scientists in astronomy.   Many of us science faculty, at JMU or any other university, feel burned out from applying for grant after grant with success rates less than 15 percent (which leaves many "excellent" rated projects unfunded), and from hearing that the (proposed) budget cuts might not allow for the building of that amazing new telescope WFIRST that the whole organization of astronomers envisioned as the number one priority, which will open the skies for us, literally with hundreds of times better resolution and signal than Hubble SpaceTelescope did for us already. And that is mind-boggling.   

Whether or not we need a reminder, it remains true that we are all alone, yet together, sailing through this unique and largely unknown universe of ours, on our spaceship Earth.  I came home more determined than ever to share all I know and I want to find out about the Universe, with whomever will listen.