Physics | News | College of Arts and Sciences, American Univeristy, Washington, DC

Recent News

Welcome to Astrophysicist U.J. Sofia, new chair of the Department of Physics at American University. Prof. Sofia was William K. and Diana R. Deshler Chair and Professor of Astronomy at Whitman College and will be bringing his exciting research program and fantastic teaching to AU starting next fall.

Congratulations to William Flynn (double major in physics and math) for being selected as a 2009 Goldwater Scholar. This scholarship is widely considered the most prestigious national award conferred on undergraduates studying the sciences in the U.S. His proposal was based upon his research on entanglement with Physics professor Nate Harshman.

Congratulations to Erek Alper (physics major) for winning the 2009 Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference Best Science Paper by Junior or Senior and for winning the 2009 Honors Capstone Research Conference Award. Erek's talk, "Computer Models of Spacetime Dynamics," concerned work done with physics Prof. Phil Johnson on alternative models for dark energy and cosmic inflation.

Congratulations to William Flynn (physics and math double major) for winning the Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference Best Sciences Poster by a Junior or Senior. His poster "Entanglement Mechanics of the Quantum Harmonic Oscillator" was on work done with physics Prof. Nate Harshman.

Physics Prof. Phil Johnson's paper "Nonequilibrium quantm dynamic in ferromagnetic nanoparticles: conditions for Bose-Einstein condensation" was recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics [JAP 105, 07E115 (2009)].

McFarland Middle School Science Fair
(24 February 2009)
For their first outreach event of the semester, SPS members Erek Alper ('09), Bill Flynn ('10), Ginny Perkey ('11), and Adam Goler ('09) visited McFarland Middle School in DC as guest judges for their first ever science fair. Of over 30 projects spread across the earth, physical, and life sciences, the guest judges assisted in selecting the top three projects that would go on to compete in the upcoming city wide science fair. SPS is looking forward to working again with the McFarland Middle School Science department with more outreach events in the future.

School Without Walls E+M Demonstration Medley
(2 March 2009)
This past week, SPS members Bill Flynn ('10), Brian Kelleher ('10) and Adam Goler ('09) visited the School Without Walls AP Physics class with a series of electrifying demonstrations. Each SPS member devised a lesson plan and a worksheet with several discussion questions for one of three demonstration sections, which spanned the use of a Jacob's Ladder, a Rail gun, and a Van de Graff Generator. The 2 hour demo was greatly enjoyed by the 20 attending students. In the future, SPS hopes to send this and other physics classes on a private tour of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Life of Brian
How the Life of Brian Could Come to an End on 30 December, 2043: Brian Hewitt (BS Physics, '92) applies his physics background to explore the boundaries of science, art, and life.

Kiersten Batzli (philosophy and physics double major, '09) was accepted to and attended the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Yale (CUWPY) on January 16–18, a three-day conference for undergraduate physics majors in the northeastern United States. CUWPY's goal is to help young women continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas.

Three physics majors won awards at the Fourth Annual Honors Award Ceremony: Brian Waligorski (math and physics, '11) was recognized as Outstanding Honors Sophomore and Bill Flynn (math and physics, '10) as Outstanding Honors Junior. Additionally, Josh Levitz (biology and physics, '09) received the Honors Scholar Award for his research on several projects related to the biophysics of nerve cells supervised by researchers at AU and NIH.

Physics and Math double-major Adam Goler was chosen as a NASA International Year of Astronomy Student Ambassador. In this role, Adam will encourage undergraduate and graduate students to participate in NASA's IYA activities and to help generate excitement about NASA scientific discoveries in astrophysics, planetary science and solar physics within their local communities and beyond.

Congratulations to AU graduate student Andrew Dumm for winning the Marine Corps Marathon and to senior physics major Erek Alper, who also finished the race, his first marathon.

Senior physics students Adam Goler and Michael Levin team up with Professor Phil Johnson to research superconducting qubits

Erek Alper and the Franklin Institute:
Astronomy course launches career path

Recent Happenings

On October 1st, American University’s philosophy honors society, Phi Sigma Tau, welcomed physics professor Nathan Harshman as guest speaker in the Simmering Thoughts lecture series. Professor Harshman spoke on the topic of “Mathematics: Created or Discovered?,” encouraging students, staff and faculty in the audience to challenge their previously held beliefs about mathematics and to think critically about its heritage. Professor Harshman asked the audience to consider whether they believed math to have been created, discovered, or neither. Professor Harshman spoke about several important numbers and mathematical concepts within the framework of different schools of thought regarding the birth of mathematics. The lecture was well attended and offered a fascinating look into the philosophical and scientific theory behind mathematics.
SPS has chosen officers for the year: Brian Kelleher (president), Erek Alper (vice-president), Bill Flynn (treasurer), and Adam Goler (special projects).
Associate Professor Teresa Larkin presented two talks at the summer meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July 2008: "Learning the ‘Write’ Way in the Physics Classroom and Laboratory" and "Writing: An Active Learning Tool in Physics and Engineering Education."
Assistant Professor Jessica Uscinski joins the department this fall. She received her PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics from the University of Arizona in Summer 2008. She looks forward to seeing students in PHYS-220 Astronomy and PHYS-370 Modern Physics.
Bill Parsons (MS Applied Physics, Johns-Hopkins '07, and JD, Virginia '84), has been appointed Physicist-in-Residence for AY 2008-2009. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he is overhauling the undergraduate advanced laboratory equipment and curriculum.
On September 3rd, physics faculty, students, and friends celebrated the reconstitution of the Department of Physics with the Year Zero Party. Angela Wu, Chair of the Department of Computer Science, was recognized for her service to the physics program as chair of the former CAP Department for two years. Nathan Harshman presented a visual history of the past 100 plus years of the McKinley Building. And, of course, there was cake!
Assistant Professors Phil Johnson and Nathan Harshman presented talks at the 2008 Meeting of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (DAMOP) of the American Physics Society (APS) at Penn State in May 2008. Undergraduate Bill Flynn (BS, double major in math and physics) joined them for five days of talks and activities.