Events

N/A

Evidence of the need for a change in physics education will be presented. It will be argued that computational physics provides a broader, more balanced and more flexible education than the traditional physics major. A survey of all computational science programs in the USA will be presented, as will be details of the BS in Computational Physics program at Oregon State University and of the educational materials developed.

Under fully developed flow conditions, the convective heat transfer coefficient is inversely proportional to the hydraulic diameter of the channel through which a coolant flows. In addition, inside a heat sink several smaller channels can be used in place of a single larger channel as a means of increasing the convective heat transfer area per unit volume. Based on this rationale, microchannels were proposed for high heat flux cooling applications. Unfortunately, for a given flow velocity the pressure drop is also inversely proportional to the square of the diameter of the flow channel.

N/A

In this talk, I will describe our experiments of using non-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) to probe local properties of nanostructures. The AFM tip is used as a mobile gate to perturb samples locally and at the same time a sensor to detect minute electrostatic forces due to single electron charging (~ 10 /f/N). This technique allows us to track the charging process of a semiconducting carbon nanotube with high spatial and energetic resolution and provide a map of its local potential fluctuations.

This isn't about solid state or optical physics, but should be of interest to current and prospective graduate students, and those who interact with them in any capacity. People who attended this conference promised to report back to their departments, and I'd like to take this opportunity to do so. An APS/AAPT-sponsored conference to focus national attention on graduate education in physics took place at the American Center for Physics (ACP) in College Park, MD from January 30 � February 2, 2008.