Commencement was held on Friday, May 17th.    Departmental ceremonies were held in Crowell 103 for the ten Physics graduates and their families.

The annual Fink-Moses-Pregger Physics Award was given to Neil Aaronson.

Dr. Marty Becker will attend the national meeting of The Geologic Society of America in Denver Colorado where he will present a poster on his abstract (Ref # 39773): A Survey of Non-Tooth Condrichtian Hard-Parts from the Lower Navesink Formation (Maastrichtian) in Monmouth County, New Jersey. This publication, co-authored with R. Earley and J. Chamberlain, will appear in Northeastern Geology and Environmental Science.  Recently submitted to the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology is a publication entitled: Condrichthians from the Fairpoint Member of the Fox Hills Formation (Maastrichtian) Meade County, South Dakota.  Dr. Becker also has two projects in progress...Fossil otoliths from the upper Cretaceous of New Jersey and South Dakota, and Micropaleontology of upper Cretaceous fossil fishes from red ant nests of Meade County, South Dakota.

Dr. Romulo Ochoa has published Computer Simulation Studies of Fracture in Vitreous Silica, coauthored with Michael Arief and Joseph H. Simmmons, in Materials Research Society Proceedings of the Spring 2002 Meeting.  At that meeting, held in San Francisco, TCNJ graduate, Michael Arief presented results of the computer simulation studies. Dr. Ochoa was a reviewer of  "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" by Serway and Beichner and of "Mathematical Methods for Physicists" by Lea.

Dr. Thulsi Wickramasinghe had two publications this year:  Detection of Gravitational Waves from Gravitationally Lensed Systems, T. Wickramasinghe, M. Benacquista which was published in Relativistic Astrophysics, American Institute of Physics, 2001, p.811. Number Counts of Gamma Ray Bursts in a Vacuum Dominated Universe, K. Strohmaier and T. Wickramasinghe in Gamma 2001, American Institute of Physics, 2001, p.185.  Publications in progress are Light Bending in the Spacetime of the Reissner-Nordstrom Black Hole and Emission of Gravity Waves from Falling Objects onto a Reissner-Nordstrom Black Hole.

He has continued working with astronomers at the European Southern Observatory by being awarded observing time on the telescope in Paranal, Chile.  This summer Dr. Wick traveled to Colombo, Sri Lanka to discuss the possibility of establishing an observatory there.  The new observatories will provide a opportunity for ongoing work with the CONtinuous CAMera (CONCAM) monitoring project for transient phenomena from several different positions on Earth.  TCNJ has been chosen to be the 5th CONCAM site in the world.

Mike Arief worked with Dr. Ochoa on Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Fracture in Vitreous Silica.

Dr. Becker supervised Ryan Earley in a presentation on Shark Teeth from the Upper Cretaceous of South Dakota.

Jessica Evans worked with Dr. Wickramasinghe on the Viability of Micro-Organisms Incident on the Atmosphere of the Earth.

Dr. Ochoa also supervised a project with Yawar Qadri on a Feasibility Study of Glucose using Raman Spectroscopy.

Neil Aaronson spoke about a summer internship at NEC where he worked as a research assistant on the Creation of Self-Assembly Arrays of Polystyrene Spheres on Si N.

Neil Aaronson worked with Dr. Gleeson in a presentation entitled Quantum Computing.

Dr. Ochoa supervised Mike Arief, Computational Physics major, on Computer Simulation Studies of Fracture in Vitreous Silica.

Dan Brady, an English major, became involved with Dr. Becker on a project called Discovery and Analysis of Upper Cretaceous Bony Fish Otoliths in New Jersey and South Dakota.

Ryan Earley presented his research in Non-Tooth Condrichthian Hard-Parts from the Lower Navesink Formation, Monmouth County, NJ, under the direction of Dr. Becker.

Yawar Qadri worked with Dr. Ochoa on Raman Studies of Amorphous Silica.

Jeremy Russell presented a Quantum Perturbation Theory as a result of his work with Dr. Gleeson.

Dr. Wickramasinghe supervised Physics-Teaching major, A.J. Trump, on use of the Lorentz Pendulum

Kyle VanGilson, a Computational Physics major, worked with Dr. Ochoa on a project adapting Astronomical Simulation Program (Skylab) to Visual Basic.

Junior physics major, Dan Costantino, had a research experience at Ohio State University under the direction of Drs. Thomas Humanic and Bjorn Nilsen on a simulation model for the Silicon Pixel Detectors for CERN's ALICE (A large ion collider experiment) detector. 

Sophomore physics teaching major, Irina Shnayder, worked as an assistant teacher at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab Science Department.  Thirteen students from Trenton High Schools attended the program called "Plasma Academy".  They were taught introductory physics principles from mechanics to electricity and plasma.

Junior physics major Chris Verzella was involved in a research experience for undergraduates at the University of Toledo doing time-elapsed junction photoluminescence decay for CdTe photovoltaic (solar) cells at various temperatures and laser intensities.

Junior physics major Jessica Woods, worked for Picatinny Arsenal in the Weapons, Energetics, and Combat-Support Armament Center.  Her work included the demilitarization and recycling of TNT and Tritonol as well as travel to McAlester Army Ammunition Plant and Fort Knox Kentucky.

Senior computational physics major, Karl Strohmaier, spent the first half of the summer at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab developing extension to an oceanic modeling system, and the latter part at the New Jersey Governor's School for the Sciences as a teaching assistant and counselor.

Gene Lera, physics alumnus (Class of '00), gave a talk to our students and faculty in the Fall of 2001. The presentation, "Graduate School and the Real World: What to Expect as a Physics Graduate," included his experiences at Drexel University, where he is currently a graduate student, and at Lockheed Martin.

Physics alumnus Brian Cahill, (Class of '00) spoke to our faculty and students, in the Spring of 2002, about his work at Galaxy Scientific on aviation security and advances in detection devices.

The Physics Club has been busy planning their activities for the current academic year.  Their latest project is a fund-raising event at Great Adventure to help defray the costs of an upcoming trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York, and bringing guest speakers to campus. 

On graduation day, with current and former members of the science faculty looking on, the time capsule, placed behind the cornerstone of Crowell Hall in 1963, was removed.  The contents of the capsule included brochures and information about the "Science Department" of [then] Trenton State College, as well as pictures and other memorabilia on the dedication of Crowell Hall.  We found a document containing construction costs of under $500,000 for Crowell which was completed in 1963.  Just to put this in perspective, the price tag for the new science complex is expected to be in excess of $30 million at completion.  As you view the pictures, it is interesting to note that two of the original faculty members are still teaching.  They are of course, Dr. Hiack and Dr. Kolp.

We have included a picture of the demolition of Crowell Hall which was begun on July 1, 2002.

Under the heading "All good things come to those who wait"... we have finally arrived in our new home.  After a hectic few weeks in May, we packed thirty years of accumulated "stuff" and sent it off to storage.  Our temporary location for the summer months was the fourth floor of Forcina Hall - an experience we would prefer to forget.  We were finally given the temporary Certificate of Occupancy on August 23rd. 

The last month or so we have been unpacking and settling into our new and very spacious office, lab and teaching spaces.  The new facility offers an opportunity for our faculty to update and expand their research.  The new Optics suite contains a total of four optical tables as well as an adjacent darkroom and prep area.  The areas of Astronomy Research will develop greatly over the next few months as we await the delivery of our 16" Meade LX 200 telescope which will be housed adjacent to the Celestron 14" in twin domes atop the Science Complex.  There will also be an observing platform with 8" telescopes.  The planetarium is scheduled for completion in mid-January.  This 48-seat facility will feature a Zeiss instrument and sky-scan dome.  We have also added a Geology Research Lab which has a petrographic microscope and state of the art photographic capabilities.  Our upper level research lab has allowed us to expand the capabilities of our teaching labs, especially in Modern Physics.

If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit. We are in the Science Complex, Physics/Math Building, Room P-125. Main office and faculty telephone numbers are the same, as are the fax number and e-mail addresses.  

Kyle Van Gilson ('02) has accepted a job with Galaxy Scientific working on aviation security technology.

Ryan Earley, ('02) a graduate student in Geophysics at Rutgers University, spent the summer on a research experience in Iceland.

Michael Arief  ('02) has begun his graduate studies at The University of California/Davis in San Francisco. 

Neil Aaronson ('02) is now starting a fellowship at Michigan State University.

Andrea Bachman ('02) is beginning a master's program at Montclair State University.

Kristi Sorrentino ('02) is attending the New Jersey Institute of Technology in a master's program.

J.C. Sanders ('02) is working with NASA while attending JIAFS George Washington University.

Alison Cooper ('02) is teaching physics at South Brunswick High School, and Justin Siering ('02) has also accepted a teaching position.

Maggie Benoit ('99) Ph.D.  candidate at Penn State University, has just informed us that she has passed her comprehensive exams and has progressed to final work on her dissertation.

CONTENTS

Class of 2002

Faculty Research and Activities

Student Research

Departmental News and Activities

Alumni News

Editors' Letter
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please click thumbnails to enlarge images 

Faculty and graduating students.
 

Examples of Chondrichthian teeth from the Fairpoint Member of the Fox Hills Formation, Meade Co., SD.

Examples of Hybodus sp. hard parts from the lowermost Navesink Formation, Monmouth Co., NJ.

Vertebra and cartilage fossils from the lowermost Navesink Formation, Monmouth Co., NJ.

Jessica Woods (blue shirt, white pants) during her summer work.

Brian Cahill's talk in Crowell 111.

Retrieval of cornerstone time capsule from Crowell Hall.

Science Department faculty in May of 1964.

Current photograph of Physics Department faculty members that were present in the inauguration of Crowell Hall.

Demolition of Crowell Hall, red brick area (on right side) is outside wall of room 114.