Grant Awarded: Professor Hans Pfister was awarded a
Keystone Innovation Zone grant of $10,000 to support his project
"A Sun Tracking Solar Heat Exchanger."
Fulbright Scholar: Physics Major Michael Deceglie has received a
Fulbright award
for 2006-2007. He will be studying photovoltaics at
the University of Queensland in Australia. Congratulations, Mike!
Science Dinner: The 21st Annual Student Science Research Symposium
will be held in the Social Hall of the Holland Union Building on
Monday, April 24. All senior physics majors will be presenting a poster
of their research projects. The schedule is:
4:30 PM - Poster Session
5:30 PM - Dinner
6:30 PM - Keynote Address by Marie Helweg-Larsen, Dept. of Psychology
Publication: Professor David Jackson published
"Dancing Paperclips and
the Geometric Influence on Magnetization: A Surprising Result," in
the American Journal of Physics.
Publication: Professor Kerry Browne was guest editor for the April, 2006
theme issue of the American Journal of Physics. In this issue, he
co-authored the editorial
and the article "Why is Ampere's
Law so Hard? A Look at Middle Division Physics".
New Major Induction: On Monday, March 20 at 4:30 pm, we
will welcome the newest member of the department. Come meet
the latest students who have declared physics as their major.
New Member of the Department?: Professor Tony Morgan and his wife
Amy Winans are the proud new parents of a baby girl. Aurelia was born on
Dec. 2, 2005 in Guatemala and was adopted on March 15, 2006. Professor
Morgan will be on leave for the remainder of the semester. Congratulations
Tony and Amy!
Publication: Professors David Jackson and Priscilla Laws
published "Syringe Thermodynamics:
The Many Uses of a Glass Syringe," in the American Journal of
Physics.
Publication: Professor Ken Laws
published "The Indirect
Measurement of Biomechanical Forces in the Moving Human Body," in
the American Journal of Physics.
Publication: Professor Hans Pfister and Dickinson Graduate
Elizabeth Bouzarth ('03)
published "Helicity Conservation Under
Reidemeister Moves," in the American Journal of
Physics.
New Hire! We'd like to welcome Dr. Catrina Hamilton-Drager,
the newest member of the department. Catrina will begin teaching
duties in the Fall semester.
Grant Awarded: Professor David Jackson was awarded a
CPC-Mellon grant of $6,000 to support his project
"Investigating Finger Width in Magnetic Liquids."
We're Hiring: It's official! We are hiring for the 2006-07 academic
year. More information can be found on our
search page.
Senior Talks: The seniors will be presenting their
research projects on Tuesday, Dec. 6 and Thursday, Dec. 8. Lunch
will be served on both days at 11:45 and the talks will begin at
12:05. More information is available on the
colloquium page.
AAPT Honor: Professor Priscilla Laws was chosen as one of
75 outstanding physicists during the past 75 years
by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in
recognition of her contributions to enhancing
physics education. The College's
news
release provides more information on this tremendous honor.
Congratulations Priscilla!!
Sigma-Pi-Sigma:
On Monday, Nov. 21 at 4:30, we will be holding an
induction ceremony to welcome the newest members of Sigma-Pi-Sigma,
the national physics honor society. Sean Finnegan (Dickinson class of
2001), a Ph.D. candidate at the University of West Virginia, will be
giving the keynote address on his research in plasma physics. This will
be followed by dinner with the entire department. Mark your calendars!
Open House: Professor Hans Pfister presented "The human
slingshot and other kinesthetic experiments" at an open house for parents
and alumni on Saturday, Oct. 29 from 10:00-11:00am in Tome 101.
Observing Run: Professor Robert Boyle was on an extended observing
run. He first went to Kitt Peak
National Observatory near Tucson Arizona
and was later joined by Dickinson students Maria Shrautemyer and
Kristin Jekielek at Lowell Observatory
in Flagstaff Arizona.
Glover
Memorial Lecture! Professor
David Lee,
a Nobel Laureate from Cornell University was the recipient of the
2005 Glover Medal. His lecture, titled
"Superconductivity and Superfluidity, A Century of Discovery,"
took place in the Great Room of the Stern Center on
Wednesday, September 28, at 7:00 pm.
Sabbatical: Professor Windsor Morgan will be on sabbatical leave
during the fall 2005 semester. We wish him luck on his sabbatical projects.
Welcome Back: We hope you had a great summer.
We'd like to welcome back all of our students,
particularly those seniors who will be spending their last year with
us.
Engagement: Congratulations to Professor Kerry Browne who recently got engaged to Rachel Sanders! They are planning a wedding for summer 2006 in Providence R.I.
A Warm Welcome: We'd like to offer a warm welcome to Professor Richard Greenberg who will be visiting us this fall. Professor Greenberg is an astronomer from the University of Arizona and will be teaching one of our introductory astronomy course. He also just recently finished a book (written here at Dickinson) titled Europa, the Ocean Moon that can be ordered from Amazon.com
A Fond Farewell: The Department would like to offer a fond farewell to Melanie Cluss who has divided her time between doing research in the physics of dance and being an assistant track coach. She is off to pursue a Ph.D. in Kinesiology at the University of Michigan. We wish her well in her future endeavors.
Summer Courses: Professor Hans Pfister offered both sections of the calculus-based introductory course (131-132) again this summer.
Past departmental news can be found in the news archive.