Nia Imara, '03 writes that she successfully completed her first
year in grad school. Nia is in the Department of Astronomy at Berkeley.
This year was mostly classes and her three classes this semester
(Interstellar Medium, Fluid Dynamics, and Galactic Astronomy) all had
oral final exams! Regarding her Interstellar Medium course she says
"...who knew that dust coould be so interesting?"
George Markakis, '94, reports significant milestones in his life
during a reunion weekend visit. Surely the most important is his
marriage to Maria. He has also reached the ABD stage in his Ph.D. work
in opthomology at OSU and has completed his first year of medical
school at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo.
Frank Peiris, Ben Schumacher, Jamie Keller (Chemistry), Paula
Turner, and Tim Sullivan were awarded a $100,000, one-year grant from
the National Science Foundation. The
grant will support the creation of educational modules to teach
nanoscience concepts at all levels of the physics and chemistry
curriculum. Support includes the funds to purchase an atomic force
microscope and to create a source of entangled photons.
John
Yukich, '90 has been granted tenure at Davidson College!
John
writes that he is starting a new biophysics collaboration using optical
tweezers to measure cellular motility. John, his wife Shirley, and
their children
Peter, Paul, Mary, and Thomas built a new home in Davidson, NC.
Physics major Topher White, '04, won the most prestigious prize
offered by the College to students at this year's Honors Day. The
citation of the Malcolm Anderson Cup says it all: "to the student who
has done the most
for Kenyon in the past year."
Brian Karrer, '06, was named this year's winner of the Elbe H.
Johnson Prize in Physics. The prize is given annually to "the
student who
shows the most promise in physics."
Frank Peiris was awarded Kenyon's Tomsich Prize for outstanding
research in the natural sciences!
Frank Peiris and Tim Sullivan just got back from attending a
meeting of the American Physical Society in Montreal (I know what you
are going
to say, but it was held in conjunction with the Canadian Association of
Physicists). It was an exciting meeting with some 6000 papers presented
in 39 parallel sessions. Frank Peiris presented his work with Zach
Weber,
'06.
Some summer research opportunities for students are set. Lindsey
Bleem, '05 will be doing research at the University of Michigan this
summer. Bethany Anderson, '05 will be at Notre Dame. Zach Weber, '06 is
going to Argonne
National Lab. Brian Karrer, '06 will be working at Penn State and Joey
Neilsen,
'06 will be at Harvard. Here at Kenyon, Lee Kennard, '07 will be
studying
with Ben Schumacher. Jeremy Spater, '07 and John Hungerford, '07 will
be
working in Frank Peiris' lab. It is going to be fun hearing about all
of
this activity when they return.
Neil Hall, '02, continues with his professional football
career(!)
He has moved from the NFL (the Norwegian
Football League) to the Swiss
American Football League. He was the MVP while quarterbacking the Landquart Broncos
to a Swiss Super Bowl win. He says that American football is gaining
popularity in Europe and he sees more participants every year. Check
out the coverage of his return to Switzerland by clicking on the
English news. Notice the Kenyon
sweats.
Nia Imara, '03, writes that she is happy, if a bit nervous, as a
new grad student in astronomy at Berkeley (one of four new students
this year, all from small schools). She is a TA for two, 30 person
sections of intro astronomy (the whole class is 300!) and taking
courses in cosmology, radiation processes in astronomy, and stellar
dynamics and galactic structure
Alex York, '02, sends word that he is "doing very well and
enjoying his studies" while working on his master's thesis in
mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University. His research
is on modeling and control of piezoelectric actuators (the things that
position tips in atomic force microscopes.) Alex plans to continue on
for his PhD. He has also been teaching statics and dynamics to
undergraduate ME majors. His fiancee, Laura Higbie, '02, is working on
her master's degree in romance languages.
Eric Christiansen, '03, has put up a web site at www.eachristiansen.com.
He has some cool pics of graduation and of his flight training.
Assistant Professor Frank Peiris has been awarded a Cottrell
College Science Award from the Research Corporation in support of his
research. The funded project is entitled "Investigation of the
electronic excitation structure of spintronics-based, diluted magnetic
semiconductors using spectroscopic ellipsometry."
Alexander (A.J.) Franz, '04, won the Franklin Miller Award
in November. Miller awards are given to students who "make unusual or
significant contributions to the academic environment of the College."
A.J.'s award
was given in recognition of his work with Professor Peiris on the
optical
properties of semiconductor alloys that resulted in a manuscript
submitted
to the journal Physica B and a presentation at an international
conference on II-VI semiconductors held in Niagra Falls, NY. A.J. was
the
only undergraduate student who made a presentation at the conference.
Nick Ferarro, '00, is working for the Defense Intelligence
Agency
as a technical analyst for the Measurement and Signature Intelligence
(MASINT) division. He is considering going to grad school to explore
some of the
interesting technologies he has learned about on the job.
Jada Twedt, '01, just completed a second B.A. in philosophy and
psychology at Oxford University, earning a first-class degree.
She is now beginning a one-year master's course in applied math and
theoretical physics at Cambridge University.
Pictures of Laura Glennie, '98's wedding are online at www.lauraandsteve.com.
They have recently added pics of their new house.
Dave Wiant, '02, passed his physics candidacy exam at Kent State
University. He joins Professor Jim Gleeson's lab doing work on liquid
crystals
and granular matter.
Ben Williams, '95, just completed his Ph.D. at the University of
Chicago! His research involved imaging of cancerous cells using
electron
spin resonance of oxygen atoms. In October, Ben will move to a post
doctoral
research position in the Radiology Department at Dartmouth's Medical
School.
Twenty physics students (representing all classes) and three
professors have just returned from a physics "road trip." Saturday
morning was spent at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab in Batavia, IL,
where alumnus Greg Davis, '97, gave us a tour of the accelerator, the
control room, and took us inside the gigantic DZero detector, where the
top quark was discovered. After downing some deep dish Chicago pizza
for lunch, the group headed to the Adler Planetarium to see the
planetarium show "Skywatchers of Africa." Dinner was at Navy Pier and
the trip climaxed with a viewing of "Matrix Reloaded" at the Navy Pier
IMAX theater.
Eric Christiansen, '03, will be attending Embry-Riddle's CAPT
program starting in October. Eric survived a rigorous screening process
in order
to enter the program. This 10 month course of study will train Eric to
be first officer on a commercial airliner. Embry-Riddle is considered
the premiere aviation school in the country.
Natalia Kuznetsova, '95, has accepted a postdoctoral research
position at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. She will be working in the
area of experimental astrophysics/cosmology using the SNAP (SuperNova
Accelerator Probe), a space-based telescope to observe type IA
supernovae.
Former Visiting Assistant Professor Keith Rielage (now at the
University of Washington) was quoted in
an article describing the innovative way in which Kenyon and other
Ohio colleges have access to the same library resources as any research
university in the state (thanks to the Ohio Board of Regents' OhioLink
program.)
An article
about Jada in the 25 January 2001 issue of the Kenyon Collegian.
Profile
of physics alumnus R. Michael Bundgaard (KPhys '65), who runs
hot-air balloon safaris in Africa. More proof that a physics major can
do anything.
Profile
of physics alumnus John A. Woollam (KPhys '61), distinguished
physicist and engineer, whose company makes spectroscopic ellipsometers.
Professor of Physics Thomas B. Greenslade is an expert
on
the history of physics and physics apparatus. We knew this, of course,
but
the College's media
guide makes it official.
The March 17th, 2003 Fortnightly has an article
on Terry Klopcic, Director of Laboratories for Physics and
Mathematics
Kenyon Physics on the World Wide Web
Hamilton
Smith , who taught physics and chemistry at Kenyon in the 1850's
and 1860's, was the inventor of the tintype.
" The
Quantum's Plight ", a 1927 poem on quantum physics by Elbe H.
Johnson, Kenyon
Physics professor. This poem was recently re-published in the 23
November
1996 issue of Science
News.
The American Institute of Physics
issued a major press release on a 1997 paper on quantum information
theory co-authored by Associate Professor Benjamin Schumacher. Here is
the short
version , and here is the main AIP web page on
the paper. (Stories based on this press release appeared in various
papers and magazines across the country.)
