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No. 16, October 2003

Editor: F.B.Stumpf

A Note from the ChairFeature Article: The NeutrinoDepartment NewsAlumni NewsLast Page

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8/14/2014 Dept's Newsletter 16 --- A Note from the Chair

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No.16, October 2003

A Note from the Chair Louis E. Wright

The editor is Burt Stumpf with contributions from Louis Wright. We are indebted toCindy White for her many years of fine help in preparing the disc for printing.

Volume 16


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8/14/2014 Alumni Newsletter 16 --- feature article

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No.16, October 2003

Feature Article: The Neutrino

A lot of attention has been focused on neutrinos lately in fact, two of the three NobelPrize laureates in Physics for 2002 are Raymond Davis Jr and Masatoshi Koshiba "forpioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmicneutrinos." Neutrinos have been puzzling scientists since they were first postulated byW. Pauli [1] in 1930 to explain what appeared to be energy nonconservation inradioactive decays. Neutrinos are so enigmatic it took another 23 years to observethem experimentally [2], and with the discovery of each new characteristic theybecome more and more curious. Yet neutrinos are one of the fundamental particlesand an understanding of them affects the fields of nucleosynthesis (the evolution of allelements from fundamental particles), nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics, andcosmology (the evolution of the Universe). The research of many nuclear and particlephysicists has led to what is called "The Standard Model of Elementary Particles andForces", which fits nicely in the following chart. The particles, which come in twogroups, namely quarks and leptons, fall in three families with each family group muchmore massive than the previous one. The first family is made up of the up and downquarks, the electron, and the neutrino that is associated with the electron ( e). Thenext family also has two quarks, the charm and strange quarks, the muon which is likea heavy electron ( ), and the muon's neutrino ( ). The top and bottom quarks are in thethird family, as are the tau lepton (an even heavier electronlike particle, ), and theneutrino associated with the tau ( ). The Standard Model of Elementary Particles andForces Particles Force Carriers Force Type Quarks u d c s t b g Strong ElectromagneticLeptons e e Z Weak W Weak The quarks have fractional electric charge (either +2/3 or1/3) and cover an extremely wide range of masses. Quarks are subject to all theforces shown in the table, which makes them relatively easy to study. Neutrinos areperhaps the most fascinating particles in the set in that they have no charge and, upuntil recently, it was thought that they had no mass. Quantum Mechanics requires atleast one of the neutrino families have mass if they are to "mix" with neutrinos ofeither of the other two families. Mixing, or oscillating from one family to another, hadnot been observed, nor was it expected. With these sets of characteristics, neutrinosare only affected by the weak force, which means they only rarely interact with eachother or anything else. Only one in a billion neutrinos will interact with a typicaldetector weighing about 1000 tons; the remaining neutrinos pass through theequipment undetected. Thus detecting enough neutrinos to study their characteristicsrequires a lot of neutrinos and a huge detector system. When a neutrino does interactwith a detector, a shower of particles is produced that indicates the characteristics ofthe original neutrino. This particle debris produces an electromagnetic shock wave as itpasses through the detector which appears as blue light. The blue light is detected bylight sensors, measured, and recorded for further analysis. There are four primary setsof experimental data that indicate neutrinos do indeed undergo "mixing". These areThe Solar Neutrino Problem, and measurements with atmospheric neutrinos (theSuperK experiment), solar neutrinos (the SNO experiment), and antineutrinosproduced as byproducts in nuclear reactors (the KamLAND experiment). Neutrinos andthe weak force play an important role in making stars shine. Stars turn hydrogen into



helium, electrons, electronfamily neutrinos, and energy through nuclear fusion. Thisprocess takes place via the weak force and is well understood. We have goodmeasurements of the brightness and relative amounts of hydrogen and helium in ourclosest star, the Sun. However, the first experiment to look for electronfamilyneutrinos hitting the Earth from the Sun found only onethird the expected amount,even when accounting for all experimental inefficiencies [3]. This inconsistency cameto be called The Solar Neutrino Problem and in spite of much effort, neutrinoobservations could not resolve the problem, until recently. Either the Solar modelswere incomplete or the detectable neutrinos were disguising themselves in some way.In the summer of 1998 an international collaboration presented its results [4] onneutrino observations that were carried out with a huge neutrino detector deep in azinc mine called Kamiokande in Japan. The detector had to be deep underground toshield it from unwanted signals and to allow the rare neutrino signals to be seen. Thisexperiment was sensitive to neutrinos in the middle family, which are associated withmuons ( ), and are produced by highly energetic cosmic rays interacting in the upperatmosphere of the Earth. The number of 's observed when they were produced highover the detector was far greater than the number observed when the 's wereproduced in the atmosphere on the other side of the Earth and had to pass through theEarth to get to the detector. These results strongly supported the possibility that the 'swere changing into neutrinos of another family to which the detector was not sensitive,i.e. oscillating from one family to another. If these 's could oscillate, perhaps the e'sthat originate in the Sun could also oscillate, and this might explain the deficit of Solarneutrinos. However, no data existed that directly supported this. In 2001, acollaboration working at the Solar Neutrino Observatory (SNO) which has its detectorin a mine in Ontario, Canada, presented its results showing direct evidence of e's fromthe Sun oscillating into one of the other neutrino families [5]. The latest results onneutrino oscillations comes from an experiment also located in the Kamiokande mines,designed to detect antineutrinos of the electron family (KamLAND) [6] produced at the69 nuclear reactors in Japan and South Korea. This experiment clearly showed thatelectron antineutrinos do indeed oscillate into antineutrinos of the muon and taufamilies. Such oscillations require neutrinos and antineutrinos to have a nonzero, butstill tiny, amount of mass. The number of neutrinos in the Universe is astoundinglyhigh. In fact, here on Earth one million neutrinos pass through an area the size of athumbnail each second. With such a large number of neutrinos in the Universe, theymay add up to a significant portion of the total mass of the Universe, and may even beable to slow down the expansion of the Universe that resulted from the Big Bang.Neutrinos may even account for at least a part of the dark matter which is needed inour models of Universe structure. The realization that neutrinos have mass was anexciting shift of the Standard Model, and it opened new frontiers for exploration.Knowing that neutrinos have mass does not complete our picture of them; we need tounderstand in what ratios they can oscillate between families and we need to quantifytheir mass differences. Many of the nuclear physicists at OU have joined acollaboration to quantify the rate at which e's oscillate into 's by producing a beam ofe's at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab and detecting 's that appear 730 kilometersaway [7]. The experiment is in the beginning stages and OU is enthusiastic about thisexciting experiment. References [1] While never published, Pauli's ideas on theexistence of a new particle were put forward in an address in a nuclear physicsconference in Tubingen, December 4, 1930. [2] F. Reines and C.L. Cowan, Phys. Rev.92, 830(L) (1953). [3] R. Davis Jr., Phys. Rev. Lett. 12, 303 (1964). [4] Y. Fukuda, etal., Phys, Rev. Lett, 81, 1562 (1998). [5] Q.R. Ahmad, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87,071301 (2001). [6] K. Eguchi, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 021802 (2003). [7] Seehttp://wwwnumi.fnal.gov/ This article on neutrinos was written by Dr. Allena Opper,an experimental nuclear physicist. Allena earned her Ph.D. at Indiana University in1991 and is now an Associate Professor. She has had her research on chargesymmetry breaking for neutronproton reactions reported in Science News in April2003.



Volume 16





8/14/2014 Alumni Newsletter 16 --- Department News

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No.16, October 2003

Department News

Faculty NewsThe physics and astronomy faculty have been active in improving teaching, inconducting significant research with nearly three million dollars in grants, and in givingservice to K12 science instruction. Here are some faculty activities to promoteteaching: Two faculty members at Ohio University gave papers at the Fall 2002Meeting of the Appalachian Section of AAPT at Franciscan University in Steubenville,Ohio. There were Arun Venkatachar at Ohio University – Chillicothe and Burt Stumpf onthe Athens Campus. Several faculty members are using interactiveteaching orstudentparticipation methods during large lecture sessions. For example, in one of thelarge introductory science survey classes, a PowerPoint computer system projectsonto a large projection screen a multiple choice question. The four or five choices arealso displayed on the screen for the whole class. The students answer the questionsusing an infrared system that has two infrared receivers at the front of the classroom.Each student has a handheld infrared transmitter which is employed to answer thequestion by pointing it at the detector. Computer software allows the display of thenumber of students who picked a given answer and aids in the analysis of responses.This method of teaching gives immediate feedback to the students and the professor.This, in turn, aids the student in evaluating his understanding and indicates to theprofessor how well the students are learning. Students are thus also active classparticipants which improves learning. In large classes for several years we have beenusing CAPA. CAPA stands for ComputerAssisted Problem Assessment and is used topresent homework problems on the computer monitor and then grades the answersimmediately. The faculty is also planning an undergraduate major in engineeringphysics. The degree will be offered in the College of Engineering at Ohio University.Special efforts are being used to recruit physics students – invitation letters and openhouse tours of the physics department. Activities to support and help physics majorsare: the Student Physics Society, personal advising, undergraduate research projects,offices, etc. Here are some faculty activities for outreach to schools: Our faculty isalso active in outreach to schools in Southeastern Ohio through: Help with sciencefairs, participation in the Women in Science Program in April each year, holdingseveral sky observation nights for the public, counseling prospective education majorswho wish to teach science and physics, and sending Science Teachers' Newsletterstwice a year to all high schools in Ohio. Some of our faculty visit schools also. Hereare research activities for the department: There are over 25 faculty in theDepartment of Physics and Astronomy whose current research activities span a widerange of areas. These research activities include: acoustics, astrophysics, condensedmatter and surface science, geophysics, nonlinear systems and chaos, and nuclear andintermediate energy physics. Most, if not all, research groups have several faculty –some in experimental physics and some in theoretical physics. Over 2.5 million peryear in sponsored research comes from NSF, DOE, DOD, ONR, BMDO, NASA and theState of Ohio. The several facilities used in this research are: a 4.5 MV highintensitytandem accelerator, scanning tunneling microscopes, xray diffraction equipment,atomicforce microscope, laser system to study thermoacoustics, LEEM (low energy



electron microscope), PEEM (photoelectron emission microscope) and TEM(transmission electron microscope). The astrophysicists have used for their researchthe Chandra (xray) space telescope, the Hubble (optical) space telescope and MMT(optical) telescope at Mt. Hopkins in Arizona. For major computer facilities used by theresearch groups, there are the Ohio Supercomputer Center and a Beowulf cluster.Several faculty have received awards or other significant recognitions: Jean J.Heremans received the National Science Foundation Career Grant entitled "MesoscopicSpinDependent Transport in TwoDimensional Systems." David Drabold is now aPresidential Research Scholar. This was awarded to him by Ohio's President Glidden forhis significant achievement in research and excellent future research prospects. ArtSmith continues to do research under his PECASE Award. PECASE stands for thenational Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Steve Grimeswas honored in a ceremony in March for his selection as a Distinguished Professor. Theaward honors his scholarly achievements. Brian McNamara, who has studied galaxyclusters using xrays, has had his research results published in recent issues of theNew York Times (January 15 and 20, 2002), Sky and Telescope (May 2002), and Sterneand Weltraum (June 2002). Allena Opper had her research on the chargesymmetrybreaking for the neutronproton experiment reported in Science News for April 12,2003. The results for the experiment come from the different quark masses andelectromagnetic fields. Ken Hicks and Daniel Carman have shown by experiment, alongwith others, that there exists a particle which is a pentaquark. It is an exotic baryonwith five quarks. The discovery has been reported in: MSNBC News of TV, the LosAngeles Times, New York Times, AIP, Physics News and others. Mark Lucas receivedthe College of Arts and Sciences Group II Outstanding Faculty Award for 2003. Markcoordinates the introductory physics program and has made major contributions tosetting up the CAPA (ComputerAssisted Personalized Assignment) system for theintroductory physics courses. This has been a banner year for our physics faculty whohave had their work appear on TV and print media. Their research (McNamara, Opper,Hicks and Carman) is important enough to merit this widespread media reporting. Thismedia attention is a tribute to our fine faculty and the academic quality of OhioUniversity. New Faculty The department has three new faculty for a total of 28. Thenew faculty are: Michael Moore who comes from a postdoc at HarvardSmithsonianCenter for Astrophysics. His Ph.D. in 1999 is from the University of Arizona and hisresearch is in theoretical atomic and molecular physics. Ido Braslavsky, who will bedoing research in experimental nanoscience. Ido's Ph.D. in 1998 was from the IsraelInstitute of Technology in Haifa. He has held postdoc positions at the WeizmannInstitute of Science in Rehovot and later at the California Institute of Technology inPasadena. Alexander Neiman, who is a biophysicist applying nonlinear dynamics andstochastic methods to biological systems. He holds a Ph.D. earned in 1991 from theSaratov State University in Russia. Alexander comes from the University of Missouri atSt. Louis where he was a research associate professor. Retired Faculty We are sorry toreport the death in March 2003 of our former Chair and Distinguished Professor John E.Edwards. John was 95. He had been chair during 19511957. John was recognized forhis Xray studies with a bentcrystal spectrometer with which he discovered a new pairof Tellurium atoms. John earned his B.S. in 1930 and his M.A. in 1932 from OhioUniversity and earned the Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1947 from Ohio State University.Our tandem accelerator laboratory was named after him. John's service at Ohiospanned 40 years when he retired in 1972. Recently we have learned that John'sclassmate Dr. Robert W. Young died also. Robert graduated in 1930 with a B.S. inphysics. In the past, he worked for the Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego andhad a distinguished career in acoustics. He was President of the Acoustical Society ofAmerica (ASA) in 19601961 and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 1997.Robert also received the Society's Distinguished Service Citation in 1973. Another ofour alumni, Dr. Lawrence Crum, Ph.D. in 1967, was President of ASA in 1997. He is aprincipal physicist with the Applied Physics Lab of the University of Washington inSeattle. Several of our retired faculty still live in Athens. They are: Charles Chen, EarleHunt, Roger Finlay, James Dilley, Ray Lane, Roger Rollins, Ernst Breitenberger, Jack



Rapaport, Charles Brient, David Onley and Burt Stumpf. In addition, many of ourfaculty have moved from Athens. Ronald Cappelletti lives in Montgomery Village inMaryland. Seung Yun moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Charles Randall lives in OrmondBeach, Florida. James Shipman has a home in Bellington, West Virginia and Ft.Lauderdale, Florida. Tomoyasu Tanaka still lives with his wife in TsuchiuraShi, Japan.Jerry Barry makes Gainesville, Florida his home. Gene Stoppenhagen, who retiredfrom teaching physics and physical science at Ohio University – Lancaster, retired toBremen, Ohio nearby. He earned the Ph.D. in 1968 from our department. Roger Finlayled his research in experimental nuclear physics. As reported earlier, Edward Sanfordand Darrell Huwe are deceased. Memorial funds have been established in their names.Regional Campus Faculty News Arun Venkatachar at Ohio University in Chillicothe gavea paper entitled "Data Analysis for a Variable ‘g' Pendulum" at the AAPT AppalachianSection Meeting on November 2, 2002 at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.Two of our recent graduates have taught or are now teaching at our regionalcampuses. David Pascoe, B.S. 1997, is teaching at Ohio University – Zanesville. Heteaches physical science and also introductory physics courses. David has a mastersdegree from the College of Education. Gary Steinberg, M.S. 2002, has taught physicalscience and physics courses at Ohio University – Eastern in St. Clairsville, Ohio.Postdocs The following are postdocs with the department this year. The country fromwhich each came is also shown. M. Bektasoglu (Turkey), P. Biswas (India), H. Chen(China), J. Mahon (USA), J. Oldendick (USA), V. Pascalutsa (Moldova), M. Sharma(India), J. Shuai (China), R. Wheeler (USA) H. Yang (China), J.O. Sierra (Columbia), A.Tkabladze (Georgia), Y. Liang (China) and W. Zhang (China). They do research in all ofour research groups – condensed matter, nuclear physics, biophysics and astronomy.The venues for their work include: Athens, Brookhaven National Laboratory andJefferson Laboratory. Their contribution to our research program is most valuable.Suvendra N. Dutta was a former postdoc in astronomy with our department. He is nowdoing research at Harvard in teaching – specifically in the field of interactive learningin classrooms. Suvendra came to Athens this June to give a colloquium on this topic.Staff News The department staff is most important to the department's health andgrowth. Our staff does a fine job and also continues to work well together. We arefortunate to have their contribution to our success. There are some changes in staffmembers to report to you this year. We are sorry to report that two former membersdied in 2003. Ennice Sweigart replaced Paula Hale for the position of assistantdepartment administrator for the graduate program. Tracy Inman has joined thedepartment as an administrative assistant. Paul Beasley, who was our former shopsupervisor, died in February 2003. He was with the department from 1963 until hisretirement in 1988. His fine skills and service were an important contribution tobuilding and maintaining our research and instructional equipment. Army Rist died inJuly in Athens. He gave 37 hears of service s a physics technician. Army was anamateur radio operator and served during the second World War in the Army inBurma. His devoted service was appreciated by the faculty, staff and students. Severalof our former staff are living in the Athens area. They are: Betty Craddock, Paula Hale,Roxanne Dicken, Bob Young, Tom Tigner, David Sturbois, Scott Mash, Karen Baker andRoger Smith, who again works with Randy Mulford in the department shop. Some stillwork at Ohio University in other departments. Clyde Baker, M.S. 1968, and his wifeKaren are retiring from the department after more than 40 years as introductoryphysics and physical science lab curators. Clyde, an assistant professor, also taughtintroductory physics and physical science courses at the Athens campus as well as atthe Ohio University regional campuses in Portsmouth, Chillicothe and Belmont County.We appreciate the many years of fine service they gave to the department. CharlesRandall was Clyde's advisor for the M.S. Interesting Items About the Department Wehave 66 graduate students this year (2003). They come from 24 countries all over theworld and greatly enrich our program in physics and in astronomy. The countries fromwhich these students come are: Austria, Bolivia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cyprus,Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Jordan, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan,Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam and



Yugoslavia. There are 14 American students or 21% of the total number. Thedepartment has two research assistant professors and 12 postdocs. Tom Massey andNancy Sandler are the research assistant professors. Tom does research inexperimental nuclear physics and Nancy in theoretical condensed matter physics. Seeprevious note on postdocs. The Ohio Section of the American Physical Society (OSAPS) is holding its Spring Meeting at Ohio University on April 16 and 17 in 2004. Thetopic for the meeting is "Extragalactic Astrophysics – a New Era of XRay Astronomy."Brian McNamara and Thomas Statler are organizing the meeting in our new lecture hallacross the street from the Convocation Center. We hope that some of our physicsalumni might attend for the meeting and to see the new building. You are mostwelcome to attend. We have had several visiting scientists this year. They are JoseVillas Boas (Brazil), Carlos Diprinzio (Argentina), Ben Hu (Malaysia) and Jungwol Jo(Korea).

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8/14/2014 Alumni Newsletter 16 --- Alumni News

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No.16, October 2003

Alumni News

Previous Graduates

We are sorry that many of our physics and astronomy alumni are not included in thisnewsletter. Please email or send in the attached form and give us information aboutyou. Use [email protected] or [email protected]. If you have information on otheralumni, please also send it to us. You are important to our Ohio University physicsfamily.

Physics alumni living in the Athens are and working at Ohio University are:

James Dilley, BA. 1955 and M.S. 1956;Laurence Larson, B.S. 1956;Joshua Thomas, B.S. 1998;Robert R. Conatser, Jr., M.S. 1987;Mary Louise Trivett(Mary Louise Cooke, B.S. 1967) is a departmentaladministrator for the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology;Don Weekley, M.A. 1994.Clyde Baker, M.S. 1968, is an Assistant Professor in our department and liveswith his wife, Karen, in The Plains, near Athens.Ralph Kelsey, Ph.D. 1986, is an instructor in computer science. His advisor wasDr. Koshel.David Resler, Ph.D. 1987, recently joined Ohio University at CommunicationsNetwork Services.Andrew Russ, B.S. 1984, also is part of a research group in our engineeringcollege.Ellsworth Holden. B.S. 1955 and M.A. 1959, has been on the faculty in ourDepartment of Management Information Systems.Devon Jacobs, B.S. 1994 and M.S. 1998, is an accelerator engineer in ourdepartment.Peter HoffmanPinther, Ph.D. 1973, spends summers in Athens and is aprofessor at the University of Houston Downtown Campus.

19601969

John Bowdle, B.S. 1966, was featured in a Columbus Dispatch article on March1, 2003. He lives on an ancestral farm near Chillicothe. The article is importantas Ohio celebrates its 200 years and Chillicothe as the first capitol. John hasbeen a Research Staff Member at the Portsmouth Ohio Gaseous Diffusion Plant.Laurence Crum, Ph.D. 1967, is a research professor at the Applied Physics Labof the University of Washington in Seattle. His research is in acoustics. He waspresident of the Acoustical Society of America, is a Fellow, and received theSociety's Silver Medal in 2000. His research mentor was Burt Stumpf in

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experimental acoustics.Don Henry, B.S. 1964, retired as Dean of the School of Science and Mathematicsat Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Don is teaching fulltimenow.Frank Lukman, M.S. 1960, wrote us recently and described his interestingcareer. His M.S. research was with Burt Stumpf in experimental acoustics whichled to a publication in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Frank isretired.James Powers, M.S. 1968, has retired from the Naval Undersea Warfare Centerin Newport, RI and is at EDO Ceramics Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hehas been active in the Acoustical Society of America and is a Fellow. Hisresearch was in the acoustics group (Dr. Yun and Dr. Stumpf) while at Ohio.Roger T. Richards, M.S. 1969, has been chair of the Committee on RegionalChapters of the Acoustical Society of America for several years. He works inacoustics at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI. Roger earned aPh.D. at Penn State. He was in the Acoustics Group (Dr. Yun and Dr. Stumpf) forhis research at Ohio.Charles Smith, Ph.D. 1968, andCharles T. Hess, Ph.D. 1967, are on the physics faculty at the University ofMaine. Edward Sanford (deceased) was Smith's mentor and Richard Koshel ledHess's research.

We are sorry to report the death of William E. Updegraff, Ph.D. 1969, on June15, 2002, in Glennalen, Alaska. His recent career involved working at RiponCollege in Ripon, Wisconsin, and volunteered service at Alaska Bible College as acomputer systems administrator. William did his research with David Onley innuclear theory. Carol, his wife, volunteered in Alaska as a nurse.Merwyn Vanderlind, Ph.D. 1964, has been a senior vicepresident at BattelleMemorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. He lives in Dublin, Ohio.

19701979

David Eldridge, Ph.D. 1974, retired as Registrar in 2002 from Shepherd Collegein Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Into 2003 he will work parttime in institutionalresearch and degree audit processing. Edward Sanford (deceased) was hisdissertation advisor. His research was in experimental solidstate physics.James Fearday, Ph.D. 1971, has been on the physics faculty at Slippery RockUniversity. Roger Rollins led his doctoral research in experimental solid statephysics.John W. Hanneken, B.S. 1971, is on the physics faculty at the University ofMemphis. He earned the M.S. from the University of Houston in 1974 and thePh.D. from Rice in 1977.Clement Lam, Ph.D. 1970, has taught at North Harris County Community Collegein Houston, Texas. His research in experimental acoustics was led by BurtStumpf.David Maloney, M.S. 1973, gave a workshop at the national AAPT meeting inJanuary 2003 in Austin, Texas. The title was "Tasks Inspired by Physics EducationResearchTIPERS." He also gave, along with others, two papers at the IndianaSection of AAPT meeting in April 2002. He teaches at Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Indiana. He also gave papers and workshops atthe August 2003 AAPT meeting.Lakshmi Munukutla, Ph.D. 1979, is an Associate Dean at Arizona StateUniversity. Her research was in solid state physics with Ron Cappelletti, who isat NIST in its Center for Neutron Research.Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D. 1976, was elected to the British Royal Academy inMay 2003. It is the equivalent of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Hisresearch has been in the field of biophysics. Venki's research mentor at Ohio was



Tomo Tanaka in theoretical solid state. Venki does research at the MedicalResearch Council Lab in Cambridge and previously was at the University of Utah.He is a senior scientist who contributed to the determination of the atomicstructure of the 30S ribosomal subunit which helps to understand the action ofantibiotics.Richard L. Schneider, B.S. and A.B. 1972, retired recently from a position incomputer systems and lives in Bridgewater, New Jersey.Keith Snail, B.S. in the Honors Tutorial College in 1978, is a section head in theOptical Sciences Division at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. Keithalso has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His family with three childrenlives in Silver Spring, Maryland.Kallarakal N. Thomas, Ph.D. 1972, retired from Baring Union College in India.He has moved but still lives in India. His Ph.D. research was with Burt Stumpf inexperimental acoustics. He has taught, written and served as an administrator.He lives in Kottayam in Kerala state in India. We recently heard from hisdaughter, Bena, who is a postdoc in biochemistry at Texas Tech in Amarillo,Texas.Jerome Wagner, Ph.D. 1971, has been in the physics department at RoseHulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. His research advisor wasRoger Rollins in experimental solid state physics.Roger White, Ph.D. 1977, is a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory in California. Ray Lane led his research in experimental nuclearphysics.Jerry Wilson, Ph.D. 1970, still lives in Greenwood, South Carolina, where heretired from Landers University. Jerry recently has been involved with the 6thedition of a lab manual and the 5th edition of his physics text and a 10th editionof the physical science text.Jim Shipman, M.S. 1953, former professor and department chair, is a coauthorof the physical science textbook and lives in West Virginia. He was chair from1968 to 1973.Robert Wood, B.S. 1978, works at the Boeing Company and lives in the St.Louis area.Barry Wyerman, B.S. 1971, works at the Lear Corporation in the InteriorSystems Division in Dearborn, Michigan. He and his family live in Novi, Michigan.Barry earned a Ph.D. at Penn State in acoustics.

19801989

Ricardo Alarcon, Ph.D. 1985, is a professor of physics at Arizona StateUniversity in Tempe. His research for the Ph.D. was with Jack Rapaport.Cornelius Bennhold, Ph.D. 1987, and Frank Lee, Ph.D. 1995, are on the physicsfaculty at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.Naseer Chugtai, M.S. 1983, has been teaching mathematics at Walnut Hills H.S.in Cincinnati. Seung Yun led his research.Steve Coy, B.S. in Math 1984, visited the campus and department in the first ofthe year from Albuquerque where he works. He completed the B.A. in physics atOhio and is now Principal Scientist for MZA Associates Corporation inAlbuquerque. His stepfather is James Dilley of our physics faculty.Lawrence Gochioco, M.S. 1982, has relocated recently from Pittsburgh toHouston, Texas, where he is still working in geophysics. So far in his career, hehas published 20 technical papers. His work has resulted in internationalrecognition. Lawrence is chairelect of the TLE board of geophysics. Seung Yunled his research in experimental ultrasonics.Dennis Hunt, B.S. 1981, is a consultant to Silicon Valley companies. His fatherEarle Hunt recently retired as Full Professor of Physics and lives in Athens.Didarul Islam, Ph.D. 1989, is a member of the physics faculty at CentralMichigan University. His research mentor was Ron Cappelletti in condensed



matter physics.Javier M. Joo, M.S. 1984, is Director at Virtual Dynamics and develops softwarethat is a set of "General Physics Simulators." He did his research with Earle Huntwhich involved chaos computer simulations.Three of our Ph.D. graduates are on the faculty at Ball State University inMuncie, Indiana. They are Mahfuza Khatun, Ph.D. 1985, Md Saiful Islam, Ph.D.1986 and Yong Suk Joe, Ph.D. 1992.Steve Mellema, Ph.D. 1983, gave a paper on bilingual physlets for languagetransition in Malaysia at the AAPT National Summer Meeting in August 2003. Heis on the physics faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.Roger Finlay led his research in experimental nuclear physics.Charles Niederriter, Ph.D. 1985, gave a paper on observational exercises forastronomy courses at the August 2003 national meeting of AAPT. Charles is onthe physics faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota. Hisresearch mentor in experimental solid state physics was Ronald Cappelletti, whois now at NIST in Maryland.Charles Niederriter, Ph.D. 1985, and Steve Mellema, Ph.D. 1983, are on thephysics faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. RonCappelletti led Charles' research and Roger Finlay led Steve's research. Charlesis the Section Representative for the Minnesota Section of AAPT to the NationalCouncil.Shailendra Shukla, Ph.D. 1981, has been a medical physicist at the VA hospitaland University of Florida in Gainesville. Seung Yun was his research advisor atOhio in experimental acoustics.Philip Spickler, M.S. 1988, earned the Ph.D. at William and Mary College andhas taught at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Virginia. While at Ohio he published,with Seung Yun and Burt Stumpf, papers on ultrasound in liquid mixtures. Philipis currently on the physics faculty at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater,Virginia.Farid Zamani, Ph.D. 1984, is in the physics department at Villanova University.David Onley led his research in nuclear theory.

19901999

Dominic Alfonso, Ph.D. 1995, is a postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh. Herecently gave a seminar for the Condensed Matter and Surface Sciences Group atOhio University. Dr. Ulloa was his advisor.Vince Ballarotto, Ph.D. 1998, works for the National Security Agency in CollegePark, Maryland. His advisor was Martin Kordesch in experimental condensedmatter physics.Derek Beck, B.S. 1999, was recently promoted to Captain in the Air Force and isin a program at MIT.Henry Clark, Ph.D. 1993, is at Texas A&M doing research in experimentalnuclear physics. His research at Ohio was with Ken Hicks.Jianjun Dong, Ph.D. 1998, recently received a DOE grant for his research intheoretical condensed matter physics. He is an assistant professor in the physicsdepartment at Auburn University in Alabama. David Drabold was his researchmentor.Mark Little, B.S. 1995 and Ph.D. 2001, recently received a federal researchgrant with others. Mark is on the faculty at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.His research was done in experimental condensed matter physics with MartinKordesch.Rodney Michael, Ph.D. 1995, is on the physics faculty at Ashland University inAshland, Ohio. Ken Hicks led his Ph.D. research in experimental nuclear physics.Eric Montei, Ph.D. 1996, is employed by Intel. Martin Kordesch was his researchmentor in experimental condensed matter physics.Punit Parmananda, Ph.D. 1993, is at the Autonomous University of the State of



Morelos in Mexico. His research in experimental nonlinear physics was directedby Roger Rollins.Joseph Shovlin, Ph.D. 1996, works at Fairchild Semiconductor in Portland,Maine. Martin Kordesch led his research in experimental condensed matterphysics.Jairo Sinvoa, B.S. 1994, has a Ph.D. in physics from Indiana University. He gavea colloquium in our department in November 2002. Jairo is a faculty member atTexas A&M. Jairo's research area is condensed matter physics. His wife isBarbara (Adams) Sinova, who has a B.S. in physics from Ohio in 1994.Raul EsquivelSirvent, Ph.D. 1995, and his wife Cecelia Noguez are both at theInstitute of Physics at the National University of Mexico in Mexico City. Raul didhis Ph.D. research in acoustics with Seung Yun and Doug Green in GeologicalSciences. His masters' research in experimental acoustics was with Burt Stumpf.Jin So, Ph.D. 1998, who finished a postdoc at Penn State, is now doing researchat Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Seung Yun, who lives inPhoenix, was his Ph.D. research advisor in experimental acoustics.Petra Stumm, Ph.D. 1997, has been at Siemens Microelectronics in HopewellJunction, New York. David Drabold was her research advisor in theoreticalcondensed matter physics.Benjamin Tan, who was in our physics graduate program in 1990, is on thefaculty in Chiayi Teachers College in Chiayi, Taiwan. His research in ultrasound inliquids was published with Burt Stumpf and others in the Acoustics Group.Steve Weppner, Ph.D. 1997, has been teaching physics at Eckerd College in St.Petersburg, Florida. His research mentor was Charlotte Elster in theoreticalnuclear physics. Recently he was given tenure and promoted.

2000present

Steven Allen, B.S. 2001, and Nathaniel Bishop, B.S. 2002, both graduates ofour Honors Tutorial College program, are in the Electrical Engineering graduateprogram at Princeton.Xuewen Bai, Ph.D. 2000, works at Micron Tech in Boise, Idaho. Martin Kordeschserved as her research advisor in experimental condensed matter physics.Jakob Bak, Ph.D. 2000, works for a financial firm called Pareto Partners. TomStatler led his research in astronomy. Murat Durandurdu, Ph.D. 2002, is apostdoc at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is in the Material Scienceand Engineering Department doing theoretical work on the basic physics ofglasses and amorphous materials. David Drabold was his advisor.Charles Fulton, B.S. 2001, is in the physics graduate program at North CarolinaState University in Raleigh.Yixiu Kang, Ph.D. 2002, is a postdoc at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.She does research in the Department of Radiation Oncology. David Ingram washer research advisor in condensed matter physics.Eric Mortenson, M.S. 2002, is at the University of Arkansas in Fayettevillestudying several foreign languages. He is preparing to teach English as a secondlanguage in another country.Serge Nakhmanson, Ph.D. 2001, gave a Condensed Matter and SurfaceSciences seminar in March 2003 to our department. He was visiting from NorthCarolina State University, where he is a postdoc. David Drabold was his researchadvisor.James Oldendick, Ph.D. 2002, and Raymond Wheeler , Ph.D. 2002, have beenpostdocs in experimental nuclear physics with Steve Grimes, their dissertationadvisor.Florentina Perjeru, Ph.D. 2001, works at Intel in Portland, Oregon. Her advisorin experimental condensed matter physics was Martin Kordesch.Gabriela and Andi Petculescu Ph.D. 2002, are doing research at the National



Center for Physical Acoustics at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. LarryWilen led their research projects.Bethany Revill, B.S. 2002, is doing research on neural network systems inlobsters. Her work is conducted in the labs of our new Biological SciencesResearch building on campus.Russell Ryan, B.S. 2002, is a graduate student in astronomy at Arizona StateUniversity in Tempe, Arizona.Bassem Sabra, Ph.D. 2000, is a postdoc in the astronomy department at theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville. His research was done with Joe Shields.Jarrod Schiffbauer, M.S. 2001, is now in graduate school at West VirginiaUniversity in Morgantown. He recently left his teaching position at Grand ValleyState University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. David Onley led his research for thethesis.Gary Steinberg, M.S 2002, has a position in the physics department at ColumbiaUniversity in New York City. Gary also volunteers at the American Museum ofNatural History which houses the Hayden Planetarium. David Onley led hisprogram for the Master's degree.Chris Stevenson, B.S. 2001, is in Law School at Ohio State University inColumbus.

Recent Graduates

We hope that these recent graduates will have successful and satisfying careers.

Recent Ph.D. Graduates

Murat Durandurdu, Ph.D. 2002, is a postdoc at the University of Michigan. Seeprevious note in the Alumni News section.Yin Zhou, Ph.D. 2003, works for Agilent Technologies in the L.A. area ofCalifornia.

Recent M.S. or M.A. Graduates

Jebreel Khoshman, M.S. 2003, is pursuing the Ph.D. in physics at OhioUniversity.Ameenah AlAhmadi, M.S. 2002, is in our graduate program for the Ph.D. inPhysics.Costel Constantin, M.S. 2002, is pursing the Ph.D. at Ohio.Yurii Pidopryhora, M.S. 2003, is in our Ph.D. program.Greg Babonis, M.S. 2003.Aurangzeb Khan, M.S. 2003, continues for the Ph.D. at Ohio.

Recent B.S. or B.A. Graduates

Elaine Richardson, B.S. 2003. She is working at a museum in Washington, D.C.Daniel Wik, B.S., Honors Tutorial College, 2003. He is in the graduate programin Astronomy at the University of Virginia.

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Gifts to Ohio University

Please consider designating the Physics/Astronomy Department when you give yourgift to Ohio University. Our Department needs money for books, travel funds forstudents and faculty, small equipment items, recruiting graduate students, grantmatching funds and paying speakers to visit. In this list, the greatest need is forundergraduate scholarships. These funds are much needed, and we would be mostappreciative of your financial support. The level of state funds does not allow us toaddress these needs adequately. Specifically you may wish to give to the JamesShipman Scholarship Fund, the Darrell Otto Huwe Scholarship Fund, Mark GrimesMemorial Funds (for undergraduate and extracurricular activities), the Physics andAstronomy Department Discretionary Fund, Computers in Physics Fund or PhysicsObservatory Fund or the Edward R. Sanford Astronomy Fund. In addition, we haveestablished recently an endowment fund called the Department of Physics andAstronomy Fund. The interest from the Fund will be used to support departmentalactivities. Be sure you and your company, if they match your donation, designate thePhysics/Astronomy Department for the gift. Thanks are extended again to those whohave contributed generously already.

News from Alumni

Please downlod following avaliable forms and fill out and send it to:

Dr. Louis Wright or Dr. F.B. StumpfDepartment of Physics and AstronomyClippinger Research LabsOhio UniversityAthens, OH 45701.

It will help us here in the Physics Department to renew contacts with you andwill also let our alumni and your friends get to know more about you and yourcareer. We are very much interested in hearing from you. Even though youresponded previously, if there is a change or new development, please returnthis form so we can keep current with your career. If you have information onother OU physics alumni, please add it to the end of the form. Thank you. The email addresses are: [email protected] or [email protected].

Downlod: PDF & WORD2000

Note: Downlode free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and write PDF document.

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