UW-L Physics Now Newsletter 2015

UW-L Physics NOW

Winter 2015

Dear Alumni, Students, and Friends, In this second edition of UW-L Physics NOW, I am happy to share with you some of the exciting activities and accomplishments of our department since our last issue. Our department continues to grow and is currently ranked as the 2nd largest physics program in the nation by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in terms of yearly physics graduates from a BS-only granting program. In addition, we were cited by the AIP Careers Pathways Project as a model program with regard to our ability to place our students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. Our department strives to use best practices in teaching, to contribute to the advancement of physics and physics education through student/faculty collaborative research, and to inspire and inform the general public through outreach. We have active student organizations that contribute to the close-knit, scholarly environment within our program. I’m happy to announce that the UW-L Chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been named an Outstanding Chapter by SPS for the 2013/2014 academic year.

On the research front, our department has a long tradition of providing our students with opportunities to conduct research in a variety of areas. Last year alone, 49 of our physics students worked with faculty and staff within the department on research projects. During that time, members of our department published ten articles in research journals and two book chapters. In addition, they gave 29 presentations at conferences and meetings. To fund their undergraduate research groups, our faculty has raised over $600,000 in external research grants since June of 2013.

Since our last newsletter, our department has hosted a number of events that have brought world-renowned scientists to the UW-L campus. Our Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics (DLS) is as popular as ever. In October of 2014, we hosted the 2011 Nobel Laureate, Dr. Adam Riess, as our 15th DLS speaker. We also hosted Dr. M. Darby Dyar in April 2014 as part of our Spring Physics Lecture Series. Physics faculty were also instrumental in hosting two recent academic conferences on the UW-L campus: the 74th Annual Physical Electronics Conference (June 2014) and the Midwest Regional Biophysics Society Networking Meeting (October 2013).

In addition to these activities, we are excited about the addition of a new staff member to the department and a new physics scholarship for students. In the fall of 2014, Dr. Sarah Lantvit joined our department as an analytical scientist. Dr. Lantvit earned a PhD in Chemistry from Colorado State University and will organize, design and facilitate research projects within the College of Science and Health. In 2014, an endowed physics scholarship was established by the family of the late Dr. Robert Uber, who was a professor in the Physics Department from 1955 to 1983.

I hope you enjoy this issue of UW-L Physics NOW. As always, please let us know what you are up to and stop by to say hello if you are in the area. This fall, we will be hosting the 2004 Nobel Laureate, Dr. David Gross, as our 16th DLS speaker. To help sustain the DLS and the other activities of the UW-L Physics Department, please consider making a donation. With recent cuts to UW System budgets, now more than ever, we could really use your help. If you would like to make a contribution of any size, please see the instructions below.

Best wishes, Sudha The UW-L Physics Department provides many opportunities to extend education outside of the classroom, including undergraduate research, The Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics and the Physics Public Lecture Series. Our Planetarium is open to kids of all ages and we perform annual laser shows for area school children. In times of uncertain State budgets, we would like to call on you to help us keep these programs as part of our long tradition of education and community outreach.

Please donate to the Physics Department by visiting the UW-L Foundation webpage https://foundation.uwlax.edu/. Click on the icon shown above and specify the Physics Department in your gift. Thank you.

Faculty Highlight Dr. Jennifer Docktor I joined the Physics Department as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2011. I specialize in Physics Education Research (PER) and I also work closely with the School of Education’s Secondary Teacher Education Preparation (STEP) program to prepare future science teachers.

I’m originally from North Dakota, and as an undergraduate student I attended North Dakota State University (Fargo, ND) with a major in Physics and a secondary major in Physics Education which is the teaching license program there. During my student teaching experience, I made a decision to pursue graduate studies in Physics at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN). While at UMN I received a Master’s degree in High Energy Physics in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Physics Education in 2009. Then I spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in Cognitive Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology before coming to UW-L. My research focuses on physics learning and cognition. I use eye-tracking technology to investigate how people view and interpret multiple representations of information important for solving physics problems such as words, pictures, diagrams, graphs, and equations. I also study different formats for worked-out example problems, how math is used in physics problem solving, and online environments for learning physics (such as online homework tutors).

We have purchased two eye-trackers in the science education research lab at UW-L: a stationary system which is used with a computer screen and a mobile set of eye-tracking glasses. An eye-tracker is a device that uses infrared beams (which are not visible and not dangerous) to reflect off of a person’s corneas producing a bright-pupil effect, similar to red-eye with cameras.

The eye tracker combines this information as well as the contrast between someone’s white and dark parts of their eyes to compute a “point of gaze” which is the x and y-pixel coordinates of where they are looking on the computer screen (or looking around a room) at any moment. Since an eye-tracker records data at a rate of 1000 times per second, there is a substantial amount of information collected. In a study I did recently about motion graphs, UW-L students have assisted me in analyzing the time study participants spent looking in each region of the graphs. They have also listened to audio recordings of study participants as they explained the reasoning for their answers and we have begun to link those responses to eye-gaze movements.

In addition to this PER research, I help lead summer workshops in physical science for inM. Darby Dyar gave the 2014 Public service elementary, middle, and high school Lecture in Physics with a talk titled "A Year teachers. I also conduct research on in the Life of Curiosity on Mars: New recruiting and retaining future physics Discoveries from the Red Planet" and a teachers through a grant from the Physics physics seminar titled "Calibrating Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC).

ChemCam: Analytical Chemistry at Arm's Some of my goals include increasing the Length". Her visit was co-sponsored by number of physics-certified teachers the Physics Department and a generous graduating from UW-L and to improve the grant from the Wisconsin Space Grant quality of the experience that students have in Consortium. Dr. Dyar is the Kennedythe STEP program.

Schelkunoff Professor of Astronomy at Mount Holyoke College, a member of the science team for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, and is active in research which spans astronomy, physics, chemistry, and geology. During her stay she also met with M. Darby Dyar during her public students to discussed graduate school lecture on Mars rover. and life with the Mars rover.

Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics Since the fall of 2000, the UW-L Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics (DLS) is co-sponsored by generous funding from donors, the UW-L Foundation, Inc., the Department of Physics, and the College of Science and Health. The purpose of the series is to bring to La Crosse a worldrenowned physicist whose significant accomplishments and communication Dr. Adam Riess, skills can inspire and enrich the careers winner of the 2011 of students, faculty, and the general Nobel Prize in Physics public. In 2013, we were delighted to host Dr. David Wineland as our DLS speaker. Dr. Wineland is a scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, CO and co-winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics. Dr. Wineland presented a great public lecture titled, “Superposition, Entanglement, and Raising Schrödinger’s Cat”. He followed that with an illuminating discussion of “Single Atom Clocks” at our physics seminar.

The 15th Nobel Laureate to visit UW-L was Dr. Adam Riess who served as our 2014 DLS speaker. Dr. Riess was cowinner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work related to the discovery of dark energy. From his positions at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute, he remains involved in studying some of the most powerful explosions stars can produce. The La Crosse public was very entertained by his lecture, “Supernovae Reveal an Accelerating Universe”, while faculty and students alike learned what it means to make “Precision Measurements of the Hubble Constant and PASS” at the physics seminar.

As always, the Physics Department webpage (www.uwlax.edu/physics) is the hub for information on upcoming DLS speakers – make a plan to come enjoy the talks with us! The 2015 speaker will be Dr. David Gross from UC Santa Barbara and the Kavli Institute, co-winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics. If you would like to help support the Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics, please contact Sudha at gsudhakaran@uwlax.edu.

Public Lecture Series in Physics

Benefit for Jolene Harris This past year, the UW-L Physics Family received some concerning news when Jolene Harris, the wife of the department’s electronics technician Steve Harris, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma – a cancer of the blood. To help Steve and Jolene with the cost of treatment, the Department teamed with friends and family members of the Harris’ and local businesses to organize a benefit. The benefit was held on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at the Overtime Sports Bar in La Crosse and included an authentic Indian dinner, a silent auction, and raffles. Department faculty and student members of the Physics Club served dinner at the benefit which drew over 200 attendees.

We are very happy to report that Jolene has responded remarkably well to treatment. Her cancer is in complete remission. The Physics Program is very thankful to all those that contributed to the benefit and to all those who have supported the Harris family through their challenges.

Above: Steve and Jolene Harris.

Right: Colin Egerer and Kayla Bushweiler, undergraduate students at UW-L, serving dinner at the benefit.

Left: Jolene Harris surrounded by family and supporters at the benefit.

Dr. Helen Quinn of Stanford University will give two lectures as part of the 2015 Public Lecture in Physics series over the two day period of April 8 - 9, 2015. These will be two largely non-technical talks about the interconnection of ideas and observations. The physics lecture will cover how thinking about cosmology helped suggest an answer to a puzzle in fundamental particle physics leading to the idea known as Peccei-Quinn Symmetry. The public lecture will cover the research-based Helen Quinn, the 2015 vision for Science Education presented in the National Academy Public Lecture in report "A Framework for K-12 Science Education". These talks Physics speaker. are free and open to the public. Please mark your calendars and keep an eye on the physics webpage for more information.

April 8 - 9, 2015

Marcus Lowe (above) and Zach Tully (below)

Congratulations

poster presented at the National AAPT Summer Meeting in Minneapolis.

To our students who received awards and presented at conferences this year.

Colin Egerer presented a summary of his research work, “Clarifying the Role of Thermodynamics in Self-gravitating Dark Matter Systems�, at the 2014 Wisconsin Space Conference in Madison. Colin received an Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium which supported this work.

Elizabeth Camenga (Class of 2014) received the 2014 Murphy Award for Academic Excellence. Each year, only two graduating seniors from UW-L are selected to receive this award. Elizabeth graduated in May 2014 with a BS degree in Physics with Biomedical Concentration and has been accepted into the MD program at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.

Dominic Putala presented his research at the Midwest Regional Biophysics Conference in October 2014.

Miranda Elkins and Taylor Bailey presented a poster at the MRSEC/CNFM Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (WOPHYS) and received the Outstanding Poster Award.

Zach Koop and Taylor Bailey presented a poster at the Wisconsin Science and Technology Symposium.

Zach Tully and Marcus Lowe presented their summer research at the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics Meeting in Maui, Hawaii.

"Comparing Alternate Approaches to Spacetime Diagrams: The Loedel Diagram" was the title of Tobias Nelson's

Tobias Nelson

Dominic Putala (on left)

Undergraduate Research As a department we believe student participation in research is of equal importance to traditional classroom activities. Research allows the students to apply what they have been taught in the classroom to "real world" experiences. During the academic term, students work in research laboratories for class credit and through fellowships. In the summer, students are chosen to work in the laboratories full-time to feel the full research experience. This is what our students were up to in the summer of 2014.

Two students were accepted into prestigious Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs at Ivy League Schools. Colin Egerer spent the summer at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and Lance Hildebrand attended the program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Sarah Geier was a biomedical intern at Foedtert in Milwaukee. Brett Rosiejka used his Russian in La Crosse's sister city Dubna, Russia while working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in their search for new elements.

Dominic Putala conducted research in biophysics with Taviare Hawkins as the Sudhakaran Summer Research Applied Physics Laboratory Fellow.

Eric Gansen had five students working with him over the summer on developing optoelectronic devices. Hayden Peterson received the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Miranda Elkins was awarded the College of Science and Health Dean's Fellowship. Cole Paulsen was awarded a UW-L Research and Creativity Grant for his work and two additional students, Zach Koop and Ben Vinz, were supported from an external grant.

Zach Tully worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory supported by the Department of Energy. Marcus Lowe worked with Shelly Lesher at the University of Notre Dame supported by her NSF grant. Both of them researched nuclear physics.

Attention Alumni Alumni of the UW-L Physics department are requested to send current contact information to the department chair. We also hope you will send in your recent accomplishments to share with fellow alumni in upcoming issues.

gsudhakaran@uwlax.edu

Contact details www.uwlax.edu/~physics

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