Events

The National Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics (T-TEP) is concluding its two-year investigation of the professional preparation of teachers of physics in the U.S.

Colin Shear is a senior in Physics and in the University Honors College. His thesis work was supervised by Prof. Brady Gibbons of Materials Science/Mechanical Engineering.

Daniel Gruss is a graduating senior in Physics and in the University Honors College. The public portion of his Honors thesis defense will be from 4:00-4:30 pm.

Optical tweezers are capable of trapping micron sized particles through the transfer of the
momentum of light. These capabilities are expanded through the use of computer controlled holograms
for beam shaping. This hologram creation is facilitated through the use of a spatial light modulator,
which is a liquid crystal device used to vary the phase information incident laser light. This thesis

Spring Picnic and Awards

The final project for PH575 (Introduction to Solid State Physics) is the calculation of electronic band structures and other properties of materials using Wien 2k, a density functional theory software package. The students have chosen different materials of interest to them and will present posters showing their calculations and investigations into these different materials systems.

There will be tea and coffee, and maybe some cookies if the students are inspired.

The senior class will present talks on their research (15 minutes including questions). A program will be be posted shortly. The presenters will be
Bice, Patrick
Brinkley, Steven J.
Bussell, Steven E.
Carlsen, Christopher T.
Cibula, Matthew A.
Dauenhauer, Alex Y.
Gruss, Daniel S.
Holmes, Jeffery N.
Nielson, Michael E.
Schaefer, Keith W.
Shear, Colin D.
Stickel, Andrew D.
Torrel, Sol

Dinner for graduating seniors and faculty. Contact Jeferey Holmes for more information.