Dr. Preston has been named an ISU Promising Scholar for 2007-2008. Promising Scholars receive research grants of up to $15,000 each in an effort by the university to attract and retain exceptionally qualified faculty. The program is part of “Fulfilling the Promise - The Path to Pre-eminence,” a six-year plan to raise Indiana State to a high level of prominence in the state, Midwest region and nation. A four-year grant from the Lilly Endowment to recruit and retain intellectual capital for Indiana’s higher education institutions is providing initial support to the Promising Scholars program.
Dr. Preston’s project, The Approach to Mean Field in Driven Threshold Models, will use ISU’s high performance computing facility to study simulations of earthquake ruptures and similar failure phenomena. It will explore a complex regime of behavior where both local and long-range interactions influence the patterns of seismic activity. This work could help improve earthquake forecasting and hazard analysis, and improve our understanding of materials fracturing under increasing strain.
Dr. Zhang was named a promising scholar in 2006, so two faculty in our small department have been recognized for their research accomplishments! The full announcement can be read here.
Congratulations to out class of 2007! Our graduating physics majors are Clint Evrard, who will be going to the University of Maine for a Masters in Engineering Physics and a Ph.D. in Physics, Seth Ross who will be seeking employment in industry, and David Young, who will be entering the workforce, but may pursue graduate studies in artificial intelligence. David Young was named the outstanding senior for 2007. Good luck to all!
Dr. Guo-ping Zhang has received a grant from the Department of Energy for $150,000 to study laser-induced ultrafast magnetization in ferromagnetic materials with potential applications in magnetic recording. His goal is to reveal the mechanism of ultrafast demagnetization and to train students through active research and education. To achieve this goal, he will use nickel thin films as an example to investigate the change in magnetization induced by a femtosecond laser. He will develop an ultrafast pump-probe theory and quantitatively calculate the time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr-effects (TRMOKE) signal, in order to directly compare with experimental results. Two immediate impacts from the proposed research will be (1) to resolve a long-standing experimental controversy: Does the TRMOKE signal in the time domain correlate with the magnetization change?; (2) it will lay a solid theoretical foundation to design faster magnetic recording devices.
Congratulations Guo-ping!
The physics department awards banquet and Sigma Pi Sigma induction was held on April 26 on the 9th floor of the HMSU. Award winners this year were:
Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Clint Thompson
Gary Erwin Memorial Scholarship: Clint Evrard
John H. McCarthy Scholarship: David Young
This year’s inductees into Sigma Pi Sigma were Clint Evrard, David Young, and alumni Frank Moore (2004) and Jessica Jeffers (2004). Congrats to all!
Senior Clinton Thompson and Dr. Eric Preston traveled to the Ohio section meeting of the American Physical Society in Detroit to present their poster Space-Charge Limiting of a Photoinjected Electron Pulse. The theme of the meeting was “Physics of the Early Universe,” with plenary talks on recent cosmological research, including supernova redshift surveys, recent evidence for the quark-gluon plasma phase in heavy ion collisions, and the deep future of the universe.
A survey of data from Salary.com, published on the web by Jupiter Scientific, compares salaries in all scientific fields. Their conclusions? Physicists are the best paid scientists by a significant margin. See for yourself.
As part of its efforts to become the best university of its kind in the Midwest, Indiana State University today named 18 up-and-coming faculty members as “Promising Scholars,” awarding research grants of up to $15,000 for each of 16 projects. Among them was our own Dr. Guo-Ping Zhang, for his proposal “High Harmonic Generation in Fullerenes.” This nanotechnology project examines a new frontier of light source from materials that are one-billionth of a meter and can take a real-time picture of a moving cell in human bodies.
Promising Scholars are educators who have not yet attained the rank of professor but have demonstrated a commitment to meaningful research that has the potential to benefit the state and nation.
The program is designed to help attract and retain exceptionally qualified faculty by providing support for scholarly research early in their careers. It is part of “Fulfilling the Promise - The Path to Pre-eminence,” a six-year plan to shift the university’s mission toward providing real-world learning for students and creating solutions to community problems.
Way to go, Guo-Ping!
On September 29, 2005, Dr. Tony Leggett visited the physics department and the ISU campus. Dr. Leggett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2003 for his work in superfluidity and superconductivity. While on campus, Dr. Leggett presented two lectures relating to the practical and philosophical implications of quantum mechanics. His first talk, titled “Bell’s theorem, entanglement, quantum teleportation and all that,” drew an audience of approximately 60 in S-138. Following the talk, our physics majors had a chance to talk with Dr. Leggett. It should be noted that Dr. Leggett was very generous in sharing his time, knowledge and enthusiasm for physics the entire time he was on campus.
He also have a public lecture at 7:00 pm titled “Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics?” Leggett discussed scientists‘ popular belief that nature may be explained solely on an atomic level. He discussed the problems of this theory, popular resolutions, the current experimental situation and prospects for the future. Attendance was approximately 100 people and the entire day was a great success!
The Society of Physics Students has elected their officers for the 2005-2006 academic year.
President: Clint Evrard
VP: James Flesher
Treasurer: Dave Spalla
Secretary: David Young
An Information Technology Innovations Mini-grant has been awarded to develop technology for progressive physics-learning modules. This grant enables us to hire two or more undergraduate or graduate students who are interested in designing web-based learning modules.
All ISU students are eligible for these two positions.
Qualifications:
• Successfully passed the general physics courses
• Familiar with Windows and webpage design
• Willing to learn new technology
• Available on MWF from 9-10 or 1-2
• Punctual, enthusiastic, committed
Pay and Hours:
• $8.00/ hour or more, depending on qualifications
• 5-7 hours a week (negotiable)
How to Apply:
To apply, use your ISU account to electronically send your application
(all in pdf format) including:
• Your CV (resume) with phone number and e-mail address.
• A statement of your related experience.
• Qualifications in physics (for example your grades in physics or anything related)
• Two complete references including contact information.
Send all this information to Guoping Zhang at physics@indstate.edu as soon as possible. The search will continue until the qualified students are found. In your email your subject line must be your last name for IT Physics Job. (Smith for IT Physics Job)
For Further Information See The Physics Office S-165
Guoping Zhang and ISU student Seth Ross traveled to the 2005 American Physical Society March meeting in Los Angeles to present their work on time-dependent electrodeposition. They will be giving a talk on their experiences (see the seminars page for details).
Induction of Students, Faculty and Alumni
Departmental honors banquet
Celebration of the year of physics
Congratulations to the following inductees:
Students:
Chance Carter
James Flesher
Jared Ridge
Clinton Thompson
Ryan Tobin
Isaac Turner
Faculty:
Dr. Joseph West
Dr. Valentina French
Dr. Guo-Ping Zhang
Dr. Arthur Halpern
Alumni:
Glen Cook (’93)
Steve Beeler (’95)
High school students: sign up for the Summer Honors program in Physics now! See the physics summer honors web page for more information, and the university web page to apply.
In 1905, Albert Einstein wrote his legendary articles which provided the basis of three fundamental fields in physics: the theory of relativity, quantum theory and the theory of Brownian motion. The World Year of Physics in 2005 will provide the opportunity to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this Miraculous Year while raising the public awareness of physics. Watch for special events hosted by the Indiana State University Physics Department throughout 2005.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2004 “for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction” jointly to
David J. Gross
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA,
H. David Politzer
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA, and
Frank Wilczek
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.
To read more about the award, see the official announcement at Nobelprize.org.
All physics and pre-engineering majors are invited to attend our Fall Physics Feast at Sam’s Club in HMSU at 4:00 PM.
Come and learn about the exciting new directions we are headed this semester!!
Please join us in welcoming Michelle Baltz-Knorr to ISU. Michelle comes from Vanderbilt University where she completed her master degree.
Nick Loudon, Frank Moore, and Steve (from Science Education) presented posters during National Conference for Undergraduate Research 2004 at Argonne National Laboratory. Nick presented a poster titled Time Dependence in Two-Dimensional Electrodeposition, and Frank presented a poster titled Experimental Setup for Raman Shift in Liquids.
Together with mathematicians, chemists and physicist from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Dr. Zhang and Dr. French have been awarded a one-year grant of $100,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop a sophomore-level course in nanoscience and technology.
The grant will be used to create a textbook and electronic package for an elective course targeted toward students who have finished first-year courses in chemistry and physics. Nanoscience is playing an increasingly important role in the engineering of new materials, devices and biological applications. By introducing students to the fascinating nano-world early in their undergraduate careers, Dr. Zhang and Dr. French and their collaborators hope to be able to direct students into areas of critical national interest. This course will firstly be taught in the spring semester of 2004 at ISU, and is open for all the ISU students majoring in sciences and technology.
