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PHYZINFO
Number
7, November, 2005
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Faculty Editor: Dr. R. Ochoa Staff Editor: C. Calu Click here to
access the |
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CONGRATULATIONS
TO THE CLASS OF 2005.
Commencement
was held on Friday, May 13.
Departmental ceremonies were held for twelve Physics graduates and
their families. CLASS OF 2005 (left to right) Back Row: Paul Ippolito, Dan McGovern, Marcus
D'Amelio, Scott Hamilton, Scott Hayward, and Andy Bazergui First Row: Steve Meigh, Kim Cox, Chris Voinier, Erica Caden, Lindsey
Talarowski, and Brian Refsdal The annual Fink-Moses-Pregger
Physics Award was given to Chris Voinier. FACULTY RESEARCH
AND ACTIVITIES Dr. Marty Becker continued his research in fossil sharks and related animals from New Jersey
and Arkansas. These studies resulted
in publication of threepapers in national and international journals that
included: Evidence
for a Shark-Bitten Turtle Costal from the Lowermost Navesink Formation
(Campanian-Maastrichtian) Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Becker, M., Chamberlain, J., 2006:
Northeastern Geology and Environmental Science, in press. Anormuran Microcoprolites from the Lowermost Navesink Formation (Maastrichtian) Monmouth County, New Jersey. Becker, M., Chamberlain, J., Ichnos-The International Journal of Trace Fossil Studies, in press. Results of this study were presented at the Geologic Society of America national meeting this fall in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Tony Beesley has joined the faculty a temporary professor in Earth Science topics. With a Ph. D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington in Seattle, he comes to TCNJ with seven years of research experience in meteorology, cloud physics, and sea-ice geophysics. His area of expertise is the climate of the Arctic, and has participated in field experiments at Barrow, Alaska, and on an ice breaker in the Arctic Ocean. His most recent research in the numerical modeling of Arctic climate change was conducted at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, NJ. Earlier this year he presented his results at the Annual Conference of the American Meteorological Society and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Although focusing almost entirely on teaching geology classes since arriving at TCNJ, he maintains research collaborations with former colleagues GFDL. This spring he plans on advising one or two students performing independent research on cloud and climate variability in the Arctic. Dr. Romulo Ochoa was promoted to Professor this year. As the advisor of the Physics Club he helped co-organized (with Drew University) a very successful Society of Physics Students (Zone 3) meeting. More information on the event can be found at http://www.spsnational.org/societynews/zone_03_report.htm . Dr. Ochoa also directed two summer research projects in which sophomore Brandon Bentzley and junior Michael Richman participated. More information on the research experience can be found below (Student Research) and at http://summerresearch.project.tcnj.edu/ Dr. Raymond J. Pfeiffer continues to serve as the Chairman of the School of Science Curriculum Committee and is now on the search committee for a new dean for the School of Science. His 12th edition of "Manual for Introductory Astronomy" has been published by Thomson International. Dr. Pfeiffer continues his research on the dynamical, gravitational, and radiative interactions between stars in binary systems. Independent
Study - Fall, 2004 Four students completed Independent
Research Projects and two spoke about summer internships at the Celebration
of Student Achievement presentations on December 8, 2004. Chris Voinier (Senior PHYA) studied
Astronomical Observations of Distant Objects with Dr. Wickramasinghe. Scott Hayward worked with Dr. Ochoa on Faraday Rotation of Plane Polarized Light. Scott Hamilton (Senior PHYA) studied Raman
Spectroscopy Dating of Shark Teeth, with Dr. Ochoa. Andy Bazergui (Senior PHYA) continued work
on Optical Tweezing of Polystyrene Spheres mentored by Dr. Ochoa. Richard Ottens (Junior PHYA) gave a
presentation on his summer research at Los Alamos National Laboratories which
involved Injection Locking and Bose-Einstein Condensation. Also completing a summer research program
at PPPL, Chris Voinier spoke about his work involving Response of
Electrostatic Dust Detector vs Particle Size. Independent Study - Spring, 2005 Ten students
gave presentations at the Celebration of Student Achievement which was held
on April 27, 2005. Rich Ottens
(Junior PHYA) researched Temperature Dependent Raman Spectra of Dynasil under
the supervision of Dr. Ochoa. Steve Meigh
(Senior PHYT) worked with Dr. Becker on Fossil Fish from the Upper Cretaceous
of Arkansas. Andrew Bazergui
(Senior PHYA) studied Fracture Precursors in Silica Glass with Dr. Ochoa. Brian Refsdal
(Senior PHYC) worked on a project involving Measuring Earth’s Orbital
Speed with Dr. Wickramasinghe. Chris Voinier
(Senior PHYA) and Scott Hayward (Senior PHYA) researched Optical Tweezers of Polystyrene Micro-Spheres with
Dr. Ochoa. Kevin Iannone
(Senior ENGL) completed a project on Fossil Crocodiles from the Upper
Cretaceous of Monmouth County, New Jersey with Dr. Becker. Christine Baker
(Non-Matric PHYA) gave a presentation on Patent Applications Analysis with
regard to Physics Lab Apparatus with Dr. Ochoa. Erica Caden
(Senior PHYA) spoke about Gravitational Lensing with Lenses in Motion under
the supervision of Dr. Wickramasinghe Scott Hamilton
(Senior PHYA) constructed and demonstrated a “Sumo Robot” under
the direction of Dr. Ochoa. Summer Research Brandon Bentzley (Sophomore PHYA) took part in the Summer
Research Experience funded by The College of New Jersey. He worked with Dr.
Ochoa on using laser light to trap and control polystyrene microspheres.
Brandon designed and optimized various set ups to optically trap
microparticles. He presented his work, "Optical Tweezers," at the
School of Science Building dedication. Knicole Colon (Junior PHYA) participated in the National Science Foundations Research for Undergraduates (REU) Program at Lehigh University. She worked under the supervision of Professor Michael Stavola and two graduate students (Gang Shi and Suppawan Kleekajai) on Suppawan’s thesis while using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) Spectroscopy to study the vibrational properties of GaPN:H a semi-conducting material. They studied vibrational modes to see where N-H bonds were present and to see whether experimental findings correlated to theoretical predictions. Kathleen Hummel (Senior PHYA) worked with Professor Giovanni Zocchi at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research was conducted in a Molecular Biophysics lab and funded by an REU. Kathleen studied nucleation of bubbles in DNA. Rich Ottens (Senior PHYA) worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). He designed and constructed an electronics feedback circuit to control a DC current supply for electromagnets in a Bose-Einstein condensate experiment. Rich presented a poster at LANL's 2005 Student Symposium. Mike Richman (Junior PHYA) participated in the Summer Research Experience funded by The College of New Jersey. He worked with Dr. Ochoa on computer simulations of fracture in amorphous silica. Mike wrote several programs to analyze and visualize processes involved in fracture. He presented his results, "Fracture Precursors in Amorphous Silica," at the School of Science Building dedication. DEPARTMENT
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES Spring, 2005 The annual dinner for faculty and staff members was
organized and hosted by the Physics Club. It was held at Lamberti’s
Retaurant in Lawrenceville and good food and conversation were enjoyed by all. The TCNJ Physics Club (Lindsey Talarowski, President, Dr. Ochoa, Advisor) co-organized with the Physics Club at Drew University a Zone 3 (NJ, Eastern PA, and South Eastern NY) SPS regional meeting on February 26. The event lasted all day. Over 80 participants from 13 different institutions attended. Alumni Rob Klueg, Paul McCracken, and Dave Pustai participated as panelists. Alumnus Rich Santillo gave a talk. Tours of the facilities were led by students, planetarium demos were given by Dr. Pfeiffer. On March 17 Dr. Dr. Michael J. Mumma, Astrobiologist,
Planetary Scientist, and Director of the Astrobiology Institute at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center gave a talk entitled Methane
on Mars: Geophysics or Biology?.
Considered an expert in his field, Dr. Mumma was invited to TCNJ by Dr.
Thulsi Wickramasinghe and the members of the Astronomy Club. The SPS Honor Society Induction was held on April 13. Andy Bazergui, Erica Caden, Kim Cox, Sean Elmes, Kathleen Hummel, Paul Ippolito, Kelsey Kirkpatrick, Kristen Litwinka, Sal Mastrogiovanni, Dan McGovern, Steve Meigh, Janice Ogin, Rich Ottens, Bryan Rahter, Brian Refsdal, Lindsey Talarowski, and Chris Voinier were inducted that day. Many parents and friends attended the ceremony. Dr. Dave Pustai gave a talk, "Planar photonic crystal devices: the IC of the future," before the induction ceremony. Senior dinner was held at The Washington Crossing Inn on May 4th. Members of the Class of 2005 were able to dine with faculty and share fond memories of their undergraduate experience and announce their post-graduate plans. Fall, 2005 The Egg Drop and Paper Airplane contests were held on October 26. Irene Ning (Freshman) teamed up with Brandon Bentzley (Sophomore) to win the Egg Drop contest with a 13.5 gram aluminum device. Shane Gallagher (Freshman) won the Paper Airplane contest with Rich Ottens (Senior) finishing second. The Physics Club, under the leadership of Knicole Colon, has organized several activities this semester. The club also organized a talk by alumnus Jason Malatesta. Members participated in a "Gumdrop and Spaghetti tower" competition, Six Flags fundraiser, and the School of Science building dedication. On October 29 the Physics Department participated in the School of Science building dedication. Majors Brandon Bentzley, Knicole Colon, Kathleen Hummel, Rich Ottens, and Mike Richman contributed with poster presentations. They, along with A. J. Richards, Jason Nieusma, and John Gannon, also conducted tours of our facilities. Drs. Dalafave, Ochoa, Pfeiffer, and Wickramansinghe prepared and/or conducted demonstrations of various instruments and equipment.
Our recent graduates have moved on to various post-graduate activities: Andrew Bazergui is a teaching assistant in the Physics Department at the University of Delaware. Andy is pursuing a Ph. D. degree. Erica Caden has taken a teaching assistantship at Drexel University. Erica is in the doctoral program in the Physics Department. Marcus D'Amelio accepted a position at Lawrence Township High School (NJ). Scott Hayward is working as a Laser Technologist at David Pollock Consultants in Fort Monmouth, NJ. Dan McGovern is teaching at Union County Magnet High School on the campus of the Union County Vocational-Technical Schools. He teaches AP Physics and honors high school physics. Steve Meigh is teaching at Wayne Regional High School, NJ. Brian Refsdal is working at the Smithsonian-Harvard Center for Astrophysics. He is working on developing data analysis and application software for the Chandra X-ray telescope. Lindsey Talarowski accepted a
position teaching physics in a middle school in central Florida and is
pursuing a Master's degree in education at the University of Central
Florida. News from other alums: Maggie Benoit, (Class of
’99) successfully defended her dissertation, "The Upper Mantle
Seismic Velocity Structure beneath the Arabian Shield and East Africa," in June.
She received her Ph. D. in Geoscience from Penn State University.
Maggie is now a
postdoctoral associate, working in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and
Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working on the
structure of the crust beneath central Turkey. Dan Costantino (Class of '04) e-mailed informing that he is starting his research at Penn State. He is studying the bulk properties of granular media. Adrian Griegel (Class of ’99) let us know that he is living in Germany and working for Mummert Consulting doing IT (specifically database) consulting. Adrian lives and his wife Magdalena have a new baby daughter, Emily. Michael Keat informed us that he is teaching at Rahway High School. There
he has started a chess club and is the class of '07 advisor. Mike got married
last July 1st. Rob Klueg (Class of ’97) of
Galaxy Scienfiic wrote to let us know that he is finishing up the development
of a CT imaging technique that measures both the mass density and atomic
number of unknown materials. Kyle Van
Gilson (Class of ’02) is very busy at Galaxy working on image
processing to map complicated 3-D surfaces into a prototype security system,
and Brian Cahill (Class of ’00) is continuing his work on X-ray
diffraction spectra on explosives. Galaxy
Scientific was recently purchased by SRA International, Inc. Jason Malatesta (Class of ’03) is pursuing his MBA while working at Factiva. He is working in the area of “Text” or “Data” Mining, as well as the taxonomy of business news and documents. Ray McAlarnen (Class of '93) informed us
that he received an MBA from Rutgers Graduate School of Management in Newark.
He is currently a Senior IT Audit Manager at CIT Group Inc. Steve Morrow (Class of ’96) is an Aviation Systems Engineer working for Scientic Applications International Corp. (SAIC) as a contractor for the Army’s Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center. He is living in Huntsville, AL and still flies for the Army National Guard on the UH-60A helicopter. Yawar 'Spaz' Qadri (Class of '03) informed us that he and Thomas Holdbrook
(Class of '03) have passed the first step of the USMLE licensing exam with
competitive scores. Spaz is working on ion channels in brain tumors while
pursuing a Ph. D. Kristi Sorrentino (Class of '02) sent us an update on her activities.
In 2004 she received an M. S. in Environmental Science from the New Jersey
Institute of Technology (NJIT). Kristi is currently working as an
environmental consultant at PMK Group in Farmingdale, NJ. ATTN: Physics Alumni
Keeping in touch is as simple as
sending your information to physics@tcnj.edu. We
will be happy to include it in an upcoming issue of PHYZINFO. We
would like to feature an alumni article in every issue, so please let us
know when there are significant events in your life which you would like to
share with our readers. This information is not only of interest to the
members of the department and your fellow classmates, but it often serves as
a recruitment tool for prospective students. We are very proud of our
graduates and welcome the opportunity to share your accomplishments, and the
many ways your education at TSC/TCNJ has led to a successful career and a
continuing interest in science. |
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CONTENTS Faculty Research and Activities Departmental
News and Activities
Please click thumbnails to enlarge images
Graduates
Faculty and
graduating students.
Students -
Faculty dinner
Graduating students-faculty dinner.
Picnic - Spring '05
Independent Study presentations
SPS Zone 3 Meeting
Egg Drop Contest
2005
School of Science Dedication
Jason Malatesta's Talk
Summer Research BBQ
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