Vol. III Winter 1997-98 E=mc2

This is the third annualphysics newsletter for theWinter of 1997-98 and again

we rely for assistance on the skillsof Bob Guthrie in the PublicRelations Office for newsletterdesign and layout.

We have received encouragingresponses to Newsletters one andtwo and continue to look for inputfrom our graduates, who are amajor part of our departmentfamily. In particular we would likehelp in locating Dr. HirojiNoguchi (B.S. ’82, M.S. ’83, andM.D. ’87). He seems to have leftthe Los Angeles area where he wasa resident in surgery and may havereturned to Japan.

The Family Grows: A year ago,we had a total of 207 B.S. gradu-ates. On May 17, 1997, these werejoined by B.S. graduates Andrea L.Schiemann of Plattsmouth, NE,Brian D. Struby of Coppell, TX,Michael A. Torres of El Paso, TX,and Timothy E. Volcheck ofOmaha, NE.

Andrea is in the physics Ph.D.program at the University ofWisconsin-Madison. Brian isapplying to Medical School and isdoing osteoporosis research at St.Joseph’s Hospital in Omaha.Michael is a physics M.S. studentand TA at Creighton. Tim plans topursue a career in medicine oroptometry.

New Master’s Graduates: Alsoa year ago, we had a total of 81Master’s graduates, of whom 27had previously received B.S.degrees from Creighton. Addi-tional M.S. grads this past yearwere Peter R. Colarco fromOmaha, NE, Paul J. Teeter fromCoronado, CA, Tracey E. Tessier

Response to Physics Newsletters Is Encouragingfrom Bellevue, NE, Kendall E.Bond, from East Wenatchee, WA,Jeffrey D. McClure fromNorthglenn, CO, and John E. Stahlfrom Winnebago, IL.

Peter is a Ph.D. student inatmospheric science at the Univer-sity of Colorado in Boulder. Paul isin the Physics Ph.D. Program at theUniversity of California-Irvine, but

is also considering graduate workin English. Tracey is in the AirForce at Albuquerque, NM.Kendall is in the astrophysicsprogram at the the University ofArizona - Flagstaff. Jeff is a HighSchool science and math teacher inFrench Gulch, CA. John is a dataanalyst with Mutual Indemnity inOmaha.

Two recent news items in-volved Creighton physics M.S.

graduate Major Michael Ander-son and juniorphysics majorJenniferSebby (seepages 2 and 4).

Creighton’sAstronaut: OnJanuary 22,1998,CreightonPhysics alum-nus MajorMichael P.Anderson wasone of theseven-membercrew on theSpace ShuttleEndeavor thatwas launchedfor a rendez-vous with theRussian MirSpace Station. He was a missionspecialist on the nine-day flight,monitoring shuttle instrumentsduring launch and reentry anddoing scientific experiments inorbit.

Major Anderson graduatedfrom Creighton with an M.S.degree in physics on December 15,

1990 while hewas stationedat Offutt AirForce Base. AtOffutt, hepiloted theAirborneCommandPost (LookingGlass). Hecompleted aMaster’s thesiswith Fr.McShane, S.J.,entitled“FractalInterpolationand AffineTransforma-tions Appliedto SyntacticPattern Recog-nition”. He iscurrently

stationed at the Lyndon B. JohnsonSpace Center in Houston, and isassigned to the NASA spaceshuttle program through 2001.

Present at the launch at Cape

Physics Alum on Space FlightMichael Anderson Aboard Shuttle

(Continued on Page 2)

Creighton alum Maj. Michael Anderson

2 Physics Newsletter • Creighton University

Canaveral in Florida were Physicsfaculty Dr. Alan DeWeerd, Fr. TomMcShane, and Dr. Tom Zepf,graduate TA’s Paul Nienkamp andKevin Welsh and junior physicsmajors Alicia Dwyer and JenniferSebby. The Creighton Society ofPhysics Students (Physics Club)hosted a launch party in theReinert/Alumni Memorial LibraryUnion Pacific Room that includeda live TV broadcast of the launch.

A visit to Creighton by MajorAnderson is planned for later inthe year. He took into space atelescope spectrometer from theCreighton Observatory and aCreighton pennant (draped overhis locker) which will become partof Creighton memorabilia. ThePublic Relations Office, directedby Steve Kline, cooperated withFr. McShane and the CreightonPhysics Club in organizingCreighton’s participation in thisevent.

Physics majors Jennifer Sebby (left) and Alicia Dwyer went to the Space Shuttle launchto see Creighton alum Michael Anderson blast off. Here they are seen in their atom

trapping research.

Physics PupilsSee AlumnusBlast Off(Continued from Page 1)

The Physics Newsletter is published periodically by CreightonUniversity's Department of Physics. Editor is Clarence M.Wagener, S.J.

Creighton University email: cmw@creighton.eduPhysics Department FAX: (402) 280-21402500 California PlazaOmaha, NE 68178

The U.S. News and World Reportfor several years has ranked

Creighton highly among Midwest-ern Regional Universities. The 1998Best Colleges Edition listsCreighton as #1 in this category.Specific recognition of the scienceswas given when the departmentsof atmospheric sciences, biology,chemistry, and physics wereinvited to submit descriptivelistings in the 1996 edition ofPeterson’s Top Colleges for Science.

Undergraduate Physics Re-search has been getting increasedemphasis in the department. TheCouncil of Undergraduate Re-search (CUR), based at the Univer-sity of North Carolina in Asheville,

had an impressive listing ofCreighton’s activity in this area inthe 3rd Edition of Directory ofResearch in Physics/Astronomy atPrimarily Undergraduate Institutions(1994). The picture above showsjunior physics majors Jenni Sebby(left) and Alicia Dwyer (right) intheir laser cooling and atomtrapping research.

Recognition for Dr. Zepf: At aFaculty Luncheon on Feb. 18, 1997,Dr. Thomas H. Zepf was recipientof the Dean’s Award for Excellencein Teaching. As a department, werejoice in this highly-deservedhonor to our former Chairman of22 years.

Creighton Physics DepartmentRecognized for Excellence

Alicia Dwyer captured the Endeavor launch inthis photograph.

Physics Newsletter • Creighton University 3

For six months the departmenthas been holding meetings with

Dr. Michael Cherney as coordina-tor to deal with two related long-term issues: updating our entirephysics program and remodelingthe present Rigge Science Building.The first issue has priority sincehow the building is to be remod-eled will depend on what thescience departments located in thebuilding plan to be doing ten yearsdown the road.

Planning for our generalprogram revision has been guidedby Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL),based in Washington, DC, whichdoes research on science teaching,including content, techniques,equipment, and facilities. Facultyhave attended Project Kaleido-scope conferences held at Louisi-ana State University in BatonRouge, LA (1996) and at the Uni-

versity of Nebraska at Lincoln(1997) and plan to attend the 1998conference at Grinnell College inGrinnell, IA. Grinnell College isthe alma mater of Dr.Seger, who isa member of the PKAL Faculty Forthe 21st Century. Project Kaleido-scope research has shown theimportance of active studentparticipation in the learningprocess.

Plans for the remodeling of theRigge Building have reached thestage of making a selection of anarchitect for planning the project.Though we still think of the RiggeBuilding as the new science build-ing, the fact is that the first classesthere were offered in February,1968,—thirty years ago,—andfeatures such as plumbing showthe familiar signs of creepingdeterioration associated in humans

Meetings Held to ConsiderBuilding, Curriculum Changes

(Continued on Page 4)

Arthur G. Bucknell. (B.S.’67) visited the departmentearly in January during a

visit to his father, who died onJanuary 25 in Omaha. Art is Super-intendent of Maintenance at FerroCorporation in Cleveland, OH.Ferro is a heavy industry manufac-turer.

Timothy C. Ingoldsby (B.S.’69) visited in July. He is Directorof New Products Development forthe American Institute of Physicsand lives in Shoreham, NY.

Dale A. Whittaker, (B.S. ’74)stopped in while visiting relativesin Council Bluffs, IA. He is aReliability Engineer with LucasNova Sensor in Antioch, CA.

Paul A. Marquard (B.S. ’79)sent an e-mail inquiry whethersolutions to Dr. Kennedy’s famous(infamous?) “Terrible 20” mechan-ics problems were available. Paulhas been assigning these problemsto his engineering students atCasper College in Casper, WY. Fr.Clarence M. Wagener, S.J. sentwhat he had with the warning to“take as is”. Paul has an MS degreein E.E. (’82) from USC and anM.S.degree in physics (’86) fromUNL at Lincoln, NE.

Kevin A. Ingoldsby (B.S. ’80,M.S. ’82) visited in September. Heis a Launch Operations Engineerfor Martin Marietta at Titusville,FL.

Mark E. Mildebrath (B.S, ’81,M.S. ’83) visited June 5, 1997. Heworks with optical coatings atEsseler of America, St. Petersburg,FL.

Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst (B.S.’82) is kept busy with her 18-month-old son Nathaniel and herteaching duties in the Dept. ofElectrical Engineering at GeorgiaInstitute of Technology in Atlanta.Her husband, Dr. Martin A.Brooke, who like Nan has a Ph.D.in E.E. from USC, is also on theE.E. faculty. His parents came fromNew Zealand to help with baby-sitting.

Dr. Brian J. Hopkins (M.S. ’88)visited in December. He has

moved to Houston, TX where heworks for CRC Evans AutomaticWelding, as does ShankarRajagopalan (M.S. ’89). Brian has aPh.D. in Physics fromTexas Chris-tian University at Fort Worth.

Dr. Dulip A. Welipitia (M.S.1989) received a Ph.D. degree inphysics from the University ofNebraska-Lincoln in 1997. He has aresearch staff position at AppliedMagnetics in Santa Barbara, CAand lives at 403 Elwood BeachDrive, Goleta , CA 93117.

Dr. Sudhir S. Malhotra (M.S.’90) received a Ph.D. degree inphysics in 1996 from the Univer-sity of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is amember of the technical staff atHMT Technology Corporation inFremont, CA.

Mrs. Susan Hoefler Coster(B.S. 91) wrote of her recent mar-riage. She is working at Raytheonin Dallas, TX. While at TexasInstruments (purchased byRaytheon) she was a member ofthe Defense group working with

Gallium Arsenide SemiconductorTechnology, qualifying chips forsatellite applications. She has MSdegrees (’95) from the Universityof Oklahoma-Norman in Physicsand in Industrial Engineering andManagement.

Patrick N. A’Hearn (B.S. ’92)stopped by while visiting relativesin Nebraska City and taking abreak from ocean research on anArctic Ocean ice floe. He receivedan M.S. degree (’96) in oceanogra-phy from the University of Wash-ington in Seattle. Besides his NorthPole address, he has a residence at6755 27th Avenue NW, Seattle, WA98117.

Capt. Michael W. Dolezal(M.S. ’95) visited the departmentrecently and presented a specialseminar on “The Spectroscopy ofDiatomic Molecules”. He is work-ing toward the Ph.D. degree inphysics at the Air Force Institute ofTechnology at Wright Air ForceBase in Ohio.

News About Alums from Around the WorldNews About Alums from Around the World

4 Physics Newsletter • Creighton University

In our Second Newsletter, wereported the deaths of our first

two physics Masters Graduates,Marie Savickas (M.S. ’70) whodied 11/14/96 in Carnegie, PA andof Alan J. Blotcky (M.S. ’71) whodied 1/1/97 in Omaha, NE. Anearlier but recent death was that ofFumiaki Iwasaki (B.S. ’87 and M.S.’89) who died of cancer 4/7/94. Hewas doing graduate work inbiophysics,we believe, at SUNY inBuffalo, N.Y.

The Alumni News announcedthe death in St. Louis, MO on 7/16/95 of another physics graduate,Eugene B. Fuchs, (B.S. ’70). Genereceived an M.S. degree in physicsfrom St. Louis University. Hetaught physics and math anddirected drama at Mehlville SeniorHigh School in St. Louis.

The Physics Departmentgratefully acknowledges a $10,000gift left in Gene’s will to the De-partment of Physics of CreightonUniversity. The picture above,taken in June, 1977, shows Genewith Dr. Sam Cipolla at the AAPTSummer Meeting in San Juan,Puerto Rico.

Junior Physics major JenniferSebby has been moving in

Nobel circles. This past summerthe physics major from Clarion,Iowa, participated in the SummerUndergraduate Research Fellow-ship (SURF) at the National Insti-tute of Standards and Technology(NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD .

The area of her research wasthe Cold Atom Fountain Clock, a

next generationatomic clockwhich uses theprinciples oflaser coolingand trapping ofatoms. Applica-tions of a moreprecise atomicclock includegreater securityin messagetransmsissionand improve-ment of the

Global Positioning System. Jenni’sspecific contribution to the project

was the design and construction ofthe optical and electronic compo-nents of the laser launch beams.

During the current academicyear, Jenni is continuing work inthe Laser Physics Research Groupat Creighton with graduate studentMatt Szymczak, junior physicsmajor Alicia Dwyer, Dr. AlanDeWeerd, and Dr. Tom Zepf onthe construction of a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) for lasercooling and trapping of rubidium-85 atoms.

Jenni plans to return to NISTnext summer and either continueworking on the Fountain Clock orbegin research on the Bose-Einsteincondensate. Her future plans are toattend graduate school and pursuea career in atomic physics research.

Of particular interest is the factthat the director of Jenni’s projectat NIST, Dr. William D. Phillips,was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prizein Physics. The accompanyingpicture (taken by Jenni) shows Dr.Phillips at a party in Jenni’sapartment.

Junior Physics Major Moves inNobel Circles with Dr. Phillips

Dr. Phillips

with incipient senility. It is antici-pated that this remodeling mightbegin as early as 2000. One of theproblems that needs to be faced iswhere to offer courses and whereto store large equipment duringthe reconstruction process. Thisproblem could be eliminated byconstructing a new building inanother location. Constructioncosts for a new building could be

comparable to those of remodelingthe Rigge Building.

Search for New Faculty: TheDean of the College of Arts andSciences, the Reverend MichaelProterra, S.J., has approved a newtenure-track physics faculty posi-tion and also renewed a one-yearfaculty position. Dr. Janet Seger iscoordinator of the search commit-tees for these positions.

(Continued from Page 3)

Many Creighton undergradu-ates plan careers in the health

sciences. Few of these have choseneither our B.S. or our B.S. PHYprogram for their major, partlybecause of scheduling problemswith pre-med prerequisites. TheCreighton University Bulletin for1997-99 includes a new special

B.S. Program Changes for Med Sidetrack in our Bachelor of ScienceProgram (B.S) which is designedfor such students. The new B.S.track, which appears in thecatalgue as Physics Major—Health Sciences Program, will bespecially suited for studentsconsidering fields like medicalresearch and medical physics.

Dr. Cipolla (left) and Fuchs in 1977.

Obituaries

Iwasaki, FuchsAmong LatestDeaths Known

Curriculum, Building Changes Debated