Department News
News 2010-11
September 2010
Albion College's innovative curriculum includes the Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (FURSCA) where students receive funding to pursue independent study in their area of interest. Holly Farris, '12, builds a telescope: Read more about Holly's experiences.
Aaron Miller had a paper accepted in Physics Review Letters - A.
Nicolle Zellner was awarded a $108,000 grant from the National Science Foundation that will support her studies of lunar impact glasses. The grant also provides a student stipend and student travel.
August 2010
Chris Creighton spent the summer at the University of Michigan, investigating dark matter. Read Creighton Returns from Internship with Knowledge to Share on the Albion College News site.
Nicolle Zellner was awarded two grants from the American Astronomical Society, one of which will be used to explore a new research project with Chemistry professor Vanessa McCaffrey.
News 2009-10
May 2010
Congratulations to our graduates and engineering transfer students!
Andrew Sharp ('10) will study patent law at the University of Colorado.
Kent Bornemeier ('10) will pursue teacher certification at Eastern Michigan University.
Laura Pollum ('10) will study physical chemistry at Oxford University.
Brandan Walters ('12) will study biomedical engineering at Columbia University.
Marie Galante ('12) will study chemical engineering at the University of Michigan.
Yang Chen ('12) will study financial engineering at Columbia University.
In the News
Physics students Dugan Karnazes ('12), Brandan Walters ('12), and Laura Pollum ('10), along with Dr. Aaron Miller, were recently featured in an Albion College News video. Check it out here.
April 2010
Congratulations to our award winners!
Chris Creighton ('11): The Physics Alumni and Faculty Endowed Scholarship
Holly Farris ('12): The Dorothy and David Kammer Scholarship in Physics
Andrew Malicowski ('12): The Howard H. Pettersen Outstanding Sophomore Award
Andrew Malicowski ('12): Albion College Fellow
Andrew Malicowski ('12): The Ronald C. Fryxell and Carol J. Fryxell Scholarship in Computer Science
Laura Pollum ('10): Outstanding Senior Chemistry Major
Culver Redd ('11): Sigma Xi
Andrew Sharp ('10): The Jack F. Padgett Award in Philosophy
Kristian Wright ('12): The Physics Alumni and Faculty Endowed Scholarship
March 2010
Student to attend Oxford University
Laura Pollum, a chemistry major and physics minor, will be attending Oxford University in the fall with the aide of the prestigious Clarendon Scholarship. Laura will pursue doctoral studies in physical and theoretical chemistry. More about this fantastic opportunity can be found here. Congratulations, Laura!
Successful Proposal
Aaron Miller and his colleagues recently received an NSF award. Read about it here.
October 2009
Alumna in the News
Physics graduate Lesley Simanton ('09) reaches for the stars.
Student Research
Sam Strasser ('11) worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory over the summer. A nice article about her work can be found here.
Physics Major Marie Galante ('11) was recently featured in the Albion College news. Information about her summer research project can be found here.
Fellowship Opportunity
The Department of Energy Office of Science has established a program to support outstanding students to pursue graduate training in basic research in areas of physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computational sciences, and environmental sciences relevant to the Office of Science and to encourage the development of the next generation scientific and technical talent in the U.S. Information about this program can be found here.
August 2009
Distinguished Alumni Award Winner
The Physics Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Wilbur Hurst, Class of 1961, has been chosen as one of this year's Distinguished Alumni Award winners. Wilbur was a physics major while at Albion College and has recently retired as a physicist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His award will be presented at Homecoming. Congratulations!
July 2009
Conference Organizing Committee
Aaron Miller is a member of the organizing committee for the 13th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors to be held at Stanford/SLAC.
Paper Published
Nicolle Zellner and her colleagues published a paper titled "Evidence from 40Ar/39Ar ages of lunar impact glasses for an increase in the impact rate ~800 Ma ago". It appears in the August issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (volume 73).
June 2009
Student Research Projects
Seven physics students are participating in summer research projects around the country:
Kent Bornemeier ('10): FURSCA, Albion
Chen Chen ('11): FURSCA, Albion
Chris Creighton ('11): TARDEC, Warren, MI
Joe Cybulski ('12): FURSCA, Albion
Marie Galante ('11): National Renewable Energy Lab, Colorado
Culver Redd ('11): FURSCA, Albion
Samantha Strasser ('11): Oak Ridge National Lab, Tennessee
All of them will be presenting results of their summer work during the Physics Seminar series in the fall.
Conference Presentation
Nicolle Zellner presented results of her research at the Goldschmidt Conference in Davos, Switzerland. Travel funding was provided by an Albion College Faculty Development Grant.
News 2008-09
May 2009
Student Award Recipients
We are pleased to announce the following Physics Majors and pre-engineering students who received awards at the Honors Convocation in April:
E.T.S Walton Award: Ryan Graham, Tim Rambo, Lesley Simanton
Dorothy and David Kammer Scholarship: Chris Creighton, Samantha Strasser
Norma J. Taber Scholarship: Marie Galante
Howard E. Pettersen Prize: Chen Chen, Chris Creighton
Jenkins Award for Outstanding Senior Honors Thesis: Ryan Graham
April 2009
Elkin Isaac Symposium, April 23
The following Physics students will be participating in the Elkin Isaac Symposium this year: Ryan Graham ('09), Tim Rambo ('09), Culver Redd ('11), and Lesley Simanton ('09). Times for their talks and poster presentations can be found through links on the EI page.
Conference Presentation
Culver Redd ('11) will be presenting the results of his FURSCA-sponsored telescope work at the 23rd National Conference on Undergraduate Research in LaCrosse, Wis., April 16-18. Redd has been working on perfecting imaging techniques with the 11" Celestron telescope. The abstract of his presentation can be found here.
March 2009
Engineering at Albion College
Astronomy videos on YouTube
December 2008
Grant Announcement
Nicolle Zellner is part of a multi-institutional collaboration that was recently awarded a NASA Astrobiology Institute. The title of the winning proposal was "Setting the Stage for Life: From Interstellar Clouds to Early Earth and Mars".
October 2008
Conference Presentations
Nicolle Zellner and Lesley Simanton ('09) presented their research at the 13th Annual Michigan Space Grant Consortium Conference. Culver Redd ('11) also attended.
Conference Proceedings
Dave Seely has three conference articles in press. This research was presented at the 20th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry (CAARI) in Ft. Worth, TX, August 10-15, 2008.
D. G. Seely, F. W. Meyer, H. Zhang, and C. C. Havener, "Production of long-lived H2 -, HD-, and D2- during grazing scattering collisions of H2+, H3+, D2+, D3+ and D2H+ ions with KBr, KCl, and LiF surfaces."
J. D. Thomas, T. J. Kvale, S. M. Z. Strasser, D. G. Seely, and C. C. Havener, "Production, Characterization and Measurement of H(D) Beams On THE ORNL Merged-Beams Experiment."
C. C. Havener, D. G. Seely, J. D. Thomas, and T. J. Kvale, "Isotope Effects In
Low Energy Ion-Atom Collisions."
June 2008
Student Award Recipients
We are pleased to announce that the following incoming students have received Physics scholarships:
Charles Ricker Scholarship: Holly Farris, Dugan Karnazes
Dorothy and David Kammer Scholarship: Dan Klarr
Physics Major Tim Rambo ('09) was recently featured in the Albion College news. Information about his summer research project can be found at Tech Tracks for Solar Energy.
May 2008
Student Award Recipients
We are pleased to announce that the following Physics Majors and pre-engineering students received awards at the Honors Convocation in April:
E.T.S Walton Award: Marci Howdyshell ('08), Andrew Fidler ('08)
Alumni/Faculty Scholarship: Ryan Graham ('09)
Dorothy and David Kammer Scholarship: Lesley Simanton ('09)
Norma J. Taber Scholarship: Yang Chen ('11)
Howard E. Pettersen Prize: Jarrett Dunn ('11)
Dr. Aaron Miller receives an HP grant: Teaching and Technology Grant Awarded
