The 17th annual Steinmetz Symposium was held on May 4-5 2007, and featured 400 Union students giving 250 scholarly presentations on topics from all academic disciplines. These included 14 students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, presenting talks in three oral sessions and one poster session.
Richard Bonventre ’08, “Fiducial Cuts for the CLAS G3 Data Set”
Bob Marvel ’07, “Development of a Relativistic Dynamics Experiment”
Stephen Po-Chedley ’08, “Muon Lifetime Measurements and Determination of the Weak Force”
Christian Shultz ’08, “Momentum corrections for the CLAS g1c and g3a data sets”
Nathaniel Hawes ’07, “Theoretical Modeling of Exploding Black Holes”
James Read ’07, “Mapping the Magnetic Field of a Compact Radio Galaxy”
Crystal Smith ’08, “The Analysis of Proton- and Neutron-rich Elemental Abundances created in Outflows from Gamma-Ray Burst Accretion Disks”
Joshua Smith ’07, “Spectroscopy of the Orion, Eskimo, and Ghost of Jupiter Nebulae at the Union College Observatory”
Steve Herron ’09, “Laser Ablation in Art Restoration”
Matthew Lockwood ’08, “Anti-Reflective Coating of a Diode Laser System”
Mike Mastroianni ’07, “Radioactive Background Measurements using Atom Trap Trace Analysis”
Thomas Mazur ’07, “Exploring the Quantum Behavior of Light Experimentally Via Spontaneous Parametric Downconversion”
Luther Vucic ’07, “An Introductory Look at Sonoluminescence: Converting Sound into Light”
Sam Madden ’07, “SHG Characterization of NLO Dyes included within Laponite Nanoclay Films”
NCUR is a national conference featuring presentations from some 2,200 undergraduates from more than 250 colleges and universities. The Union contingent was one of the largest groups attending, and presented talks and poster on subjects from physics to chemistry to history to sociology. The students were accompanied to the conference by Prof. Brad Bruno from Mechanical Engineering, and Prof. Chad Orzel from Physics and Astronomy.
Students involved in the college’s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) won a Spirit Award for enthusiasm and sportsmanship at the recent regional Science Bowl Competition in Rochester.
Senior [Physics major] Matt Roginski, an Obenzinger Scholar for the Kenney Community Center, coached the two teams of Schenectady High School students four days a week since November to prepare for the competition.
“I’m extremely proud of both teams,” said Roginski. “They have all come such a long way in their understanding of the sciences.”
An article by Rebecca Surman, associate professor of Physics, appears in the journal, Physical Review D. “Supernova Neutrinos: The Accretion Disk Scenario” is co-authored by G.C. McLaughlin of North Carolina State University. Surman presented this and other work in a plenary talk at the international nuclear astrophysics meeting, “Nuclei in the Cosmos IX,” in Geneva, Switzerland last summer.