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Ithaca College Physics Department
News From Summer 2005 to Graduation 2006
You can also Read About This Year's Events in the Monday
Mornin' Memo |
We had six physics graduate students this year (3 more than the national average). The department wishes all of the graduates well and hope that they stay in touch so that we can help them succeed. |
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Physics Professor Michael "Bodhi" Rogers was selected as this year's Excellence in Teaching receipient |
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The College recognizes three faculty members out of the entire College faculty for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship, and Service. This is a great honor for both Bodhi and the physics department.
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The physics department celebrated the end of another academic year at our annual Spring Banquet |
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The physics department had another great spring banquet with nearly 80% of the department members attending. Great food, Great awards, a Great time. (see the photos here)
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J.C. Séamus Davis of Cornell gave this year's Physics Café |
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This year's Physics Café celebrates the 50th anniversary of the creation of School of Humanities and Sciences in 1956. In 1956 John Bardeen was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on semiconductors. In 1972 Bardeen became the only person to win two Nobel Prizes in physics. His 1972 award was for his role in the theory of superconductivity. Professor Davis will discuss his work on superconductivity and describe the development of "wavefunction imaging" scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) techniques that allow us to visualize complex electronic matter directly at the atomic scale.
Check out the photos |
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The Ithaca College Chapter of the Society of Physics Students 2nd Bowling Night was a great success |
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We had 9 students and 2 faculty participating. We headed directly from school to the Cornell Bowling alley to eat pizza before bowling. We spent 2 hours bowling 2 games. The event made SPS about $15, but we only charge $10 per person for both pizza and the bowling.
Check out photos and the scores |
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Chris Tennant (IC Physics '01) gave a physics seminar on his graduate studies at Jefferson Labs. (See his talk here)
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2006 J. J. Whalen Academic Symposium
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Laptop thefts in the physics department
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| If you haven't heard, the physics department had one Dell laptop stolen last fall and two Apple Powerbooks early this spring
out of the pilot study classroom. Now that we know that we have a security issue we've moved all of the laptops to secure storage.
The Ithaca College and Ithaca police have a suspect in campus computer thefts, and we may get two of our laptops back. |
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Congratulations are in order for the Ithaca College Chapter of the Society of Physics Students.
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Our chapter won an outstanding chapter of the year award for 2004-2005. Only 10% of all chapters are selected for this honor; that
corresponds to approximately one chapter per state. |
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Professor Luke Keller gives another of his "How to use the physics department machine shop and not cut off a body part" class. Actually, Luke teaches students how to use the machine shop independant of supervision. We have several students using the shop to machine parts used in support of student-faculty research collaborations.
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The department receives 37 Apple Powerbooks and 3 Dell laptops in support of the new physics classroom.
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Charlie Tilton and Bodhi Rogers get the laptops ready for action in the
pilot study classroom. The bummer news is that we had two of these brand new powerbooks stolen from the classroom two weeks after this photo was taken. This makes three laptops
taken from the pilot study room by perpetrators ripping out the security cables. We've had to remove all of the laptops from the room, and we are working on a more secure system.
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Ithaca College Welcomes in the New Year by Changing the Date on the Towers
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Each year Ithaca College welcomes
in the New Year by changing the date on the Ithaca
College Towers at midnight. Place your mouse over
the picture to the left to see the date change. test
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The physics department machine shop gets a new lathe on indefinite loan.
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Matt Sullivan is making progress on creating his superconductivity
lab with the help of physics students George Debeck and Penyo
Michev. (see the evolution here)
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Faculty and students in the Center for Natural Sciences begin
a collaborative project on Alternative Landscaping for the lawn
north of CNS.
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In an effort to make the Center for Natural Sciences more sustainable,
a group of Ithaca College faculty and students is going alternative.
Along with Michael Rogers, assitant professor of physics, CNS
students are experimenting with an idea Rogers and his colleagues
call alternative landscaping, or growing native wildflowers
and grasses rather than traditional plants. Rogers said he hopes
this kind of landscaping will help reduce the building’s
environmental impact.....
Read
the entire article
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Professor Michael Rogers teaches physics freshman Rhea Hanrahan
how to use a total station to map the alternative landscape plot.
Photograph by Jamie SIegel/The Ithacan
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Physics students present the results of their summer research experiences at the physics department seminar series
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Physics Professor Luke Keller is featured in an Ithacan article
on balancing work and family
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Luke Keller, assistant professor of physics, plays with his 3-year-old
daughter, Amelia. Keller has brought his daughter to several college
faculty meetings.
Read
the article
Photograph by Jamie SIegel/The Ithacan
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The physics department's work on creating a Performance-based
Physics classroom by implementing and adapting SCALE-UP is featured
in the Ithacan
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The physics department is testing a pilot program that brings
lecture and laboratory work together in a single classroom.
Student Centered Activities for Large Enrollment Undergraduate
Programs, SCALE-UP, is a collaborative, hands-on and computer-rich
learning experience already in use at more than 20 colleges
and universities across the country, including the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology....
Read the entire article
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Professor Michael Rogers guides freshman Bianca Fonseca, left, and
sophomore Semeret Munie in collecting data through sound pulses using
SCALE-UP in the classroom Wednesday. Photograph by Jamie SIegel/The
Ithacan |
Members of the physics department featured in the Ithaca College
Quarterly article on The East Hill Connection by Jim Roberts
and Maura Stephens |
IC's Luke Keller with his Cornell colleague, astronomer Terry
Herte
Chris Hillman -- Cornell University Photography
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Astral Alliances
Perhaps the most high-visibility collaborative
research projects between South Hill and East Hill are among
astronomers. ....
Read the entire article |
The physics department enjoyed another excellent physics fall
picnic; held once again at Robert H. Tremen State Park (Upper
Pavilion).
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Professor Rogers and Professor Thompson get the grills going.
Check
out all the photos.
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3-2 Engineering student Reuben Gergan works on Cornell Statics
homework while at the picnic. Many 3-2 engineering alumni can
probably relate to the non-stop demand of statics homework.
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Convocation 2005
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For the first time in several years all 6 tenure-track faculty
members of the physics department were at Convocation. This
was made possible by Matt Sullivan joining the team and filling
the position that Charles Spenser retired from.
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CNS-206 is going through a make-over (and returning to hosting
physics classes)
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As part of the physics department's high-priority initiative
to implement SCALE-UP at Ithaca College CNS206 has been transformed
into a pilot study classroom for our eventual goal of establishing
Performance-based Physics for all of our introductory classes.
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Before
Pilot Study |
Our new faculty member (Assistant Professor Matthew C. Sullivan)
arrives on campus
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Matt Sullivan and his fiance Kelley finally made it to Ithaca
after their cross continent journey from Portland, Oregon. They
anticipated arriving in NY mid-July, but the closing date on
their new house in Trumansburg got them to NY many weeks later.
Matt still has that deer-in-the-headlights look, but he is starting
to find his place in the Ithaca College and the IC physics department
communities.
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Summer Visit to Cornell's Cave |
We took a brief break from summer research to go visit Cornell's "Cave" (Cornell's virtual reality facility) . The tour was given by 3-2 Engineering student Jay Schuren.
Click on the pictures to the right to see larger versions.
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Summer Research 2005: There is lots of research activity in the department this summer |
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Dan Varney is working with Dan Briotta
Eric Leibensperger and Nitin Rajan are working with Beth Clark Joseph
Michael Pacelli, Sweta Shah, and Maksim Sipos are working with Luke Keller
Kevin Faehndrich
and Kristyan Georgiev are working with Michael Rogers
Tayza Yeelin is working with Bruce Thompson studying asteroid
occultations.
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