Michael Varughese ’11 worked with Prof. Jay Newman this summer, using dynamic light scattering to study the way that insulin molecules clump together over time. In addition to providing information about insulin itself, the processes by which insulin molecules aggregate are similar to those of β-amyloid, which has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.
Halley Darling ’13, shown explaining her summer research poster to Prof. Mike Vineyard, worked with Professor Koopmann using the Arecibo telescope to study hydrogen gas in a nearby group of galaxies. Their observations will help astronomers understand the evolution of galaxies and star formation within galaxies.
Mark Sullivan ’13 worked with Anna Sise ’12 (who is on term abroad this Fall) and Prof. Reich doing computer simulations of atoms in lattices. The systems they studied are related to the physics of phase transitions in magnetic materials.
Ana Mikler ’12 worked with Professor Koopmann using the Arecibo radio telescope to measure the amount of radio emission from hydrogen gas in nearby galaxies.
Pavel Aprelev ’13 spent four weeks working in Professor Orzel’s lab for the laser cooling and trapping of krypton. Pavel worked on improving the laser frequency stabilization system that allows the lasers to be tuned to exactly the right frequency for trapping metastable krypton atoms.
Students and faculty gathered in the department on Thursday, September 16th for the fourth annual Summer Research Student Poster Session, with 18 students presenting 16 posters on their research activities over the summer.
Watch this space for more details about the students and their projects.
The annual Summer Research Poster session will be held Thursday, September 16th in the Department, from 12:20 pm to 1:40 pm. Pizza and soda will be available in room N304 for people attending the poster session. You can check out the list of presenters and poster titles to get an idea of the range of activities.
This is the official kick-off of the fall colloquium season. Come see the fascinating things our students did on their summer vacations.
Once again, we are happy to have a large collection of students and faculty working on research this summer. Many (but not all) of them are shown here:
In this picture: Front row (left to right): Katie Schuff, Ana Mikler, Katie O’Brien, Colin Gleason, Chad Harrington. Second row: Anna Sise, Erin Osgood, Prof. LaBrake, Prof. Maleki. Third row: Prof. Orzel, Tim Kuehn, Prof. Reich, Mark Sullivan, Prof. Marr. Fourth row: Pavel Aprelev, Hannah Ryan, Rob Moore, Prof. Koopmann, SreyNoch Chin, Colin Turley, Prof. Vineyard. Back row: Adam Margulies, John Sheehan, Pengfei Zhang, Prof. Wilkin, Prof. Newman, Amer Khraisat, Prof. Amanuel.
For more information on summer research at Union, see the Undergraduate Research Page, or come to the Summer Student Seminar Series.
Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Rebecca Koopmann ’89 recently presented a paper at the “Galaxy Wars: Stellar Populations and Star Formation in Interacting Galaxies” Conference held at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn. “ALFALFA HI Content and Star Formation in Virgo Cluster Early-Type Dwarfs” describes Koopmann’s research on the hydrogen gas contents of nearby galaxies as revealed by the ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) survey using the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. Koopmann also hosted an NSF-sponsored Undergraduate ALFALFA Team group meeting at Union for faculty and students in July. The meeting drew participants from Siena and Skidmore colleges to campus, while participants from Cornell University, Georgia Southern University, Humboldt State University and Lafayette College joined via teleconference. Students from each institution presented summaries of ALFALFA research progress during the summer. SreyNoch Chin ’12 presented Union’s progress report.
From the Chronicle
Tom Perry said he wasn’t expecting much when he went to Memorial Chapel for Prize Day ceremonies Saturday, May 2. He planned to offer support to friends who would be taking home prizes and scholarships.
It was he who garnered one of the day’s top distinctions, the Josephine Daggett Prize for exemplary conduct and character.
A physics major and astrophysics minor from Schenectady, Perry has been active as president of the Environmental Club and of the Society of Physics Students, with which he has performed science demonstrations in local schools. He also volunteers as a coach with the Science Bowl through the Kenney Community Center.
“It’s a great feeling,” he said of winning the Daggett, “but there are other people in the Union community who deserve this, too.”
