Cardiologist Aaron Feingold ’72 began amassing rare books and historical artifacts while in medical school. His collection grew to include hundreds of medical texts and records, World War II pharmacy coupons from the European ghettos, archeological artifacts from Egypt and 19th century Italian Hagaddahs, as well as the entire transcript, in English, of the Nuremberg trials.
Among his vast holdings are two items of particular interest to Union: a first edition of Albert Einstein’s “Relativity: The Special and the General Theory” (1920, Henry Holt & Co.) and a rare, annotated typed manuscript by Charles Proteus Steinmetz, which dates to 1921.The Steinmetz manuscript is the second of four lectures the Union faculty member and prominent GE scientist gave at Schenectady’s Unitarian Church on Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Feingold presented these historical treasures to President Stephen C Ainlay at the Terrace Council and Ramée Circle Society Reception at the Nott Memorial during ReUnion weekend. Alumni and friends who gathered included Trustee Stephen Ritterbush ’68; Ellen Fladger, head of Special Collections at Schaffer Library; Librarian Thomas McFadden; and faculty members John Spinelli, chair of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Chad Orzel, assistant professor of Physics.
Senior Physics major Mike Mastroianni ’07 was one of five students chosen to present in the special Undergraduate Research Session at the 38th meeting of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society. The DAMOP meeting is an international physics conference attended by nearly 1,000 physicists from around the world, and this year’s meeting was held jointly with the Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics and Photonic Interactions of the Canadian Physical Society, in Calgary, Alberta June 5-9.
Mastroianni’s presentation, “Trapping Single Krypton Atoms for Radioactive Background Measurements,” was based on his senior thesis work with Prof. Chad Orzel of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He was one of five students chosen to give twenty-minute oral presentations at the meeting, out of dozens of applicants. Mike plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Connecticut after graduation from Union.
Senior Physics major Nathaniel Hawes ’08 has been named the winner of the Astronomical Society of New York’s Undergraduate Student Prize for his research on primordial black holes, supervised by Prof. Jon Marr of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The prize will be awarded at the Fall 2007 ASNY meeting.
Physics major Nate Hawes ’07 won the annual Sigma Xi research award, given every year to a student for distinguished research as an undergraduate student at Union. Hawes won for his presentation on “Theoretical Modeling of Exploding Black Holes,” a project he did under the supervision of Prof. Jon Marr in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Hawes was one of two Physics majors nominated for the year’s award, along with Mike Mastroianni ’07. The other two nominees were Felicia Spector ’07 and Brianne Phillips ’07.
Sigma Xi is a national honor society recognizing students involved in scientific research. The annual research award is given by the Union College chapter, based on presentations given at the Steinmetz Symposium.
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.