Martin L. Perl, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics for teh discovery of the tau lepton, received an honorary doctorate of science at commencement on June 14th.
Perl credits Union with his decision to study physics, thanks to classes he took while working as a chemical engineer for the General Electric Co. in Schenectady.
“I got to know a wonderful physics professor, Vladimir Rojansky,” Perl writes in his official biographical statement. “One day he said to me ‘Martin, what you are interested in is called physics, not chemistry!’ At the age of 23, I finally decided to begin the study of physics.”
An article by Rebecca Surman, associate professor of Physics, was recently published in the April issue of the journal Physical Review C. The article, “Neutron capture rates near A=130 that effect a global change to the r-process abundance distribution,” was co-authored with J. Beun and G.C. McLaughlin of North Carolina State University and W.R. Hix of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Surman gave invited seminars on her work at TRIUMF National Laboratory in Vancouver and at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University. This week, she also presented an invited talk on her work at the national nuclear structure conference, “Collective Motions in Nuclei under Extreme Conditions (COMEX 3),” in Mackinac Island, Mich.
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.”
Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics, is co-author of a recent article in Physical Review Letters, titled “Precise Measurement of the Neutron Magnetic Form Factor GMn in the Few-GeV2 Region.” This paper reports on the results of an experiment performed with the Large Acceptance Spectrometer in Hall B at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va., that provides important information about the motion of quarks inside the neutron. The experiment was proposed to the Program Advisory Committee at Jefferson Lab by Professor Vineyard and Will Brooks, a research professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Chile and formerly a Jefferson Lab staff scientist.
They seemed hesitant to talk at first, the English and physics students who gathered together for a shared class Wednesday morning. But it didn’t take long for guest lecturer Alan Lightman to kindle a conversation in the nervous silence.
“Books enlighten us about human nature, just like Einstein’s theory of relativity enlightens us about the universe,” he said.
Lightman is the author of the international best-seller “Einstein’s Dreams” and “The Diagnosis,” a National Book Award finalist. He also is a noted physicist.
Both Lightman and the students acknowledged that science and art, in this case literature, take two different approaches to studying the world. Physics is quantitative in its search for answers, while literature is more qualitative.
Still, they seemed to agree that each method has value.
“Both ways you can look at the world around you,” said [Physics major] Alex Handin ’10. “You can learn something about the world through physics, but you can also learn something about the world through literature.”
Kaitlyn O’Brien ’11 traveled with her advisor, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Rebecca Koopmann, to the second annual NSF-sponsored ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Undergraduate Team Workshop at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico recently. O’Brien joined 18 undergraduate students from 14 colleges and universities across the United States to learn about radio astronomy, observing at Arecibo Observatory, and applications to the study of other galaxies.
The ALFALFA project uses the Arecibo telescope, the world’s largest, to search for radio emission by hydrogen gas in other galaxies. For her sophomore project, O’Brien is researching a concentration of galaxies within the ALFALFA survey area to determine which galaxies are gravitationally associated and how their proximity has influenced their evolution. The undergraduate student workshop was made possible by an NSF grant to Union, and was organized by Koopmann and collaborators at Arecibo Observatory, Cornell University, and other institutions.
The Society of Physics Students and Breazzano House are hosting a showing of the NOVA special “The Elegant Universe,” based on the best-selling book by Brian Greene, at Breazzano House on Monday Feb. 16 and Monday Feb 23, at 6pm. The program uses interview clips, re-enactments, and state-of-the-art computer graphics to explain the history and meaning of string theory, the exotic theory that some physicists hope will provide the elusive “Theory of Everything.”
The annual Valentine’s Day potluck luncheon will be held on Thursday, Feb. 12 this year, at 12:00 in the department conference room. Come eat food prepared by tyour favorite professors. Because nothing says “romance” like an afternoon with physicists.
The second annual Physics and Astronomy Chili cook-Off will be held Tuesday, Jan 20th in room N304. We’ll be putting the video feed for the inauguration of President Barack Obama on the big screen, so come by to eat some spicy stew and watch history being made.
Prof. Samuel Amanuel and Anna Gaudette ’09 co-authored a paper with Prof. Sandy Sternstein of RPI in the December issue of the JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART B-POLYMER PHYSICS. The paper, titled “Enthalpic Relaxation of Silica-Polyvinyl Acetate Nanocomposites” was based on work done by Gaudette in Prof. Amanuel’s lab at Union. They studied the effect on of adding nanoparticles on the glass transition in a rubber compound.
The paper shows that nano particles substantially reduce physical aging in polymers, which has immediate application in industry such as determining shelf life, and predicting and enhancing long-term reliability of polymer products. The paper also provides crucial evidence to understand the underlying mechanism of reinforcement in polymer composites and polymer nanocomposites.
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