Physics and Astronomy News

Kaitlyn O’Brien ’11 traveled with her advisor, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Rebecca Koopmann, to the second annual NSF-sponsored ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Undergraduate Team Workshop at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico recently. O’Brien joined 18 undergraduate students from 14 colleges and universities across the United States to learn about radio astronomy, observing at Arecibo Observatory, and applications to the study of other galaxies.

The ALFALFA project uses the Arecibo telescope, the world’s largest, to search for radio emission by hydrogen gas in other galaxies. For her sophomore project, O’Brien is researching a concentration of galaxies within the ALFALFA survey area to determine which galaxies are gravitationally associated and how their proximity has influenced their evolution. The undergraduate student workshop was made possible by an NSF grant to Union, and was organized by Koopmann and collaborators at Arecibo Observatory, Cornell University, and other institutions.

(See also the Union college Chronicle)

Prof. Samuel Amanuel and Anna Gaudette ‘09 co-authored a paper with Prof. Sandy Sternstein of RPI in the December issue of the JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE PART B-POLYMER PHYSICS. The paper, titled “Enthalpic Relaxation of Silica-Polyvinyl Acetate Nanocomposites” was based on work done by Gaudette in Prof. Amanuel’s lab at Union. They studied the effect on of adding nanoparticles on the glass transition in a rubber compound.

The paper shows that nano particles substantially reduce physical aging in polymers, which has immediate application in industry such as determining shelf life, and predicting and enhancing long-term reliability of polymer products. The paper also provides crucial evidence to understand the underlying mechanism of reinforcement in polymer composites and polymer nanocomposites.

Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics, was co-author of ten articles published in 2008 by the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer Collaboration at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. Eight of these articles appeared in the journal Physical Review C and two were published in Physical Review Letters. All of these papers are aimed at developing an understanding of nuclear structure in terms of the fundamental constituents — quarks and gluons.

On December 6, 2008, the Department of Physics and Astronomy held the first annual Union College Physical Constants Workshop for high school physics teachers and students. Seven teachers and 17 students worked in teams to perform experiments to measure fundamental physical constants and gain experience with modern instrumentation and laboratory techniques such as high-resolution video analysis, scattering experiments with a particle accelerator, and scanning electron microscopy.

The workshop included five schools from the Capital District, and also two Union alumni, Justin King ‘06 and Nicole Sabbatino ‘06, who are now teaching at Commack and North Shore high schools on Long Island. Six faculty members from the Department of Physics and Astronomy ran experiments for the workshop, along with two current students, Brandon Bartell ‘10 and Tom Perry ‘09.

The goals of the workshop are to stimulate students to study physics and pursue careers in science, provide teachers with an exciting and enriching professional development experience, and to establish a network through which the Department of Physics and Astronomy can support local high school physics education. The workshop was supported by the New York State Section of the American Physical Society and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

(See also the story in the Union college Chronicle)

Four members of the Union Chapter of the Society of Physics Students visited Schenectady’s Katharine Burr Blodgett Elementary School on November 6, to perform physics demonstrations for an audience of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. The four students, Tom Perry ‘09, Shivani Pathak ‘10, Hilary Bauer ‘11, and Dan Otto ‘11, spent about an hour at the school, demonstrating the behavior of liquid nitrogen by freezing a variety of objects, and producing sparks with a van de Graff generator.

The visit was arranged through the Union College Kenney Community Center’s SAIL (Studying Arithmetic in Literature) program.

For more information (and pictures of the event) see the Union College Chronicle

Physics students Anna Gaudette ’09 and Hillary Bauer ’11 presented their work at the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference at the University of Toronto recently. Both Anna and Hilary worked with Prof. Amanuel, who accompanied them to the meeting.

Gaudette presented on studies of mechanical reinforcements of polymer nanocomposites. Bauer’s work focused on the phase transition of physically restricted molecules in the nano scale. The conference drew 272 delegates from 39 institutions across Canada and the United States.

(For pictures, visit the Union College Chronicle)

Union dedicated a bronze plaque this week in honor of Ralph Asher Alpher, a distinguished research professor of physics and astronomy and a pioneering architect of the Big Bang model for the origin of the universe. Alpher died Aug. 12, 2007 at age 86.

[…]Alpher taught at Union from 1986 to 2004 and was director of the Dudley Observatory. He also spent more than 30 years at the GE Research and Development Center in Niskayuna.

In 1948, as a young doctoral student, he wrote the first mathematical model for the creation of the universe and predicted the discovery of cosmic background radiation that proves the Big Bang theory.

Hundreds of people showed up at George Washington University for his dissertation defense, but the work of Alpher and his colleagues went largely unrecognized. In 1965, two radio astronomers in New Jersey who were tuning their equipment stumbled on proof of Alpher’s background radiation and were eventually awarded the Nobel Prize.

While the Nobel Prize eluded Alpher, he collected a host of other prestigious awards and honors, including the National Medal of Science, which is administered by the National Science Foundation and is the highest honor for science.

Read the full story in the Union College Chronicle.

Jay Newman, R. Gordon Gould Professor of Physics, has authored a textbook Physics of the Life Sciences, just published by Springer. The full-color text has its origins in a course developed here at Union College and is designed to show the fundamental connections between physics and modern biology and medicine. With over 900 photos and drawings to illustrate the principles and applications of physics, and a large collection of homework problems for students, the 700 page book, weighing in at almost 5 pounds, is designed for a two semester (or trimester) course in introductory physics.

The text fills a large niche in providing an interdisciplinary book for those who study physics at the college/university level.

For more information about the book, see the Physics of the Life Sciencespage at springer.com.

Union College was invited this year to become an affiliate member of the NASA NY Space Grant consortium, a program to support and enhance science and engineering education at 20 institutions across NY State. The program sponsored summer research projects by three Union students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The program also makes Union students eligible for internships at NASA centers and at industrial partners across the country.

John Robens ’09 worked with Prof. Rebecca Koopmann on a project titled “Searching for Optical Counterparts of Galaxies and Tidal Streams Detected by the ALFALFA Survey.” He analyzed optical images from the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile, via the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System, to search for visible-light signs of galaxies detected at radio wavelengths by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

David Barker ’09 and Daniel Barringer ’11 used the Union College Observatory 20-inch telescope in their research with Professor and Observatory Manager Francis Wilkin. Both projects used the telescope to monitor small changes in the light from distant stars. Barringer’s project, “Searching for Eclipses of Extrasolar Planets,” used the telescope to look for a slight dimming of the light from a distant star as a planet orbiting that star passes between it and Earth. Barker’s project, “CCD Photometry of Variable Stars and Transiting Planets,” is aimed at tracking how the light output of variable sources changes in time.

For more details, see the Union College Chronicle.

Prof. Chad Orzel gave an invited talk at the Science in the 21st Century conference at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics on September 8th. The meeting was an international, interdisciplinary conference discussing the interaction between science and society, and the ways in which not information technologies are changing that interaction.

Prof. Orzel’s talk was titled “Talking to My Dog About Science: Weblogs and Public Outreach,” a reference to his forthcoming popular-audience book on quantum mechanics. The full presentation can be viewed on the web via the Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive collection for the conference.

Union’s annual Prize Day was held on May 3, 2008, and several students from the Department of Physics and astronomy earned honors from the college.

Senior Physics major Steve Po-Chedley earned top honors, winning the Frank Baily Prize, awarded annually to “the senior who has rendered the greatest service to the College in any field.” Steve was honored for his many accomplishments in the areas of environmental activism and sustainability advocacy, including his impressive efforts at launching the campus-wide recycling program. Steve also received a Meritorious Service Award from the Student Affairs Council.

Bilal Mahmood ‘08 was also honored, sharing the Ronald M. Obenzinger Prize, awarded to “premedical students who are selected for high academic merit and personal worthiness” with Syed Hussnain. Bilal was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa along with fellow senior Physics/ Math double major Richie Bonventre ‘08.

Finally, sophomores Brandon Bartell and Ben Miles shared the James Henry Turnbull Prize, awarded annually to “the outstanding student(s) in the sophomore class in physics.”

Congratulations to the Physics winners, and all the exceptional students honored at Prize Day!

A paper by a team of researchers including Union Prof. Rebecca Surman has been featured in the March 20th, 2008 issue of Physical Review Focus. The paper, “Fission Cycling in a Supernova r Process” by J. Beun, G. C. McLaughlin, R. Surman, and W. R. Hix appeared in the March 2008 issue of Physical Review C, one of the top journals in physics. It presents new calculations of the formation of heavy elements in supernovae, and is described as “one of the most complete [models] to date.”

Physical Review Focus is an online journal produced by the American Physical Society highlighting approximately one paper per week from the Physical Review journals, and presenting an explanation suitable for students in all fields of physics.

Samuel Amanuel from the Department of Physics and Astronomy (in collaboration with Sanford Sternstein of RPI) presented their paper on “Enthalpic Relaxation of Silica-Polyvinyl Acetate Nanocomposites” at the American Physical Society meeting in New Orleans, March 10-14, 2008. Their thermal measurements on glassy polyvinyl acetate revealed that nano silica particles reduced the extent of relaxations in the polymer. This could imply that nano particle can alter the ageing mechanism of polymers and improve their shelf life.

The annual March Meeting of the APS is the largest physics conference of the year. This year’s meeting was held in New Orleans, LA, with more than 7,000 paper presented by speakers from all over the world.

Nathan Calabro ’08 presented results of his senior thesis project at the first ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) Undergraduate Team Workshop at Arecibo Observatory in January.The observatory, located in Puerto Rico, is home to the 305-m diameter Arecibo telescope, the largest telescope in the world. Calabro’s project is contributing to the development of an interactive exhibit showcasing ALFALFA results, to be displayed at the observatory’s Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center.Astronomers around the world are collaborating on the ALFALFA project, led by astronomers Riccardo Giovanelli and Martha Haynes of Cornell University.The project is mapping a large area of the sky at radio wavelengths appropriate for the detection of neutral hydrogen gas in other galaxies and is expected to detect more than 30,000 galaxies out to a distance of 750 million light years.“Calabro’s exhibit will allow visitors to explore the properties of galaxies and compare observations made at radio wavelengths at Arecibo to optical and other wavelength observations made at other observatories,” said Rebecca Koopmann, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy.The Undergraduate ALFALFA Team workshop, made possible by a National Science Foundation grant to Union, was organized by Koopmann and collaborators.“The workshop highlight was an ALFALFA observing run in which each student had the chance to control the telescope to make ALFALFA observations,” Koopmann said. Students also had the opportunity to tour the facility, including the 450-foot high platform above the reflecting surface.See the story in the Union College Chronicle.

Three Union College students showcased their work in the first “Independent Sector Undergraduate Research Exposition” this week at the Legislative Office Building in Albany.The students were among 70 chosen statewide by a faculty review panel for the daylong event, which featured a display of student research posters and special presentations. A book chronicling all of the research projects will be given to state legislators. […]Crystal Smith ’08Faculty sponsor: Rebecca Surman, Physics and Astronomy“Analysis of Proton-Rich Elemental Abundances Created in Outflows from Gamma-Ray Burst Accretion Disks”[…]Prof. Surman said the event will help legislators “appreciate the value of undergraduate research experiences and understand the resources required to make it happen.”(Read the full story at the Union College Chronicle.)

Students, faculty and staff will join more than 1,500 campuses nationwide Thursday, Jan. 31 for the “Focus the Nation” teach-in for global warming designed to mobilize people beyond the discussion level to demand real solutions.

Focus challenges 50 faculty members on each campus to spend 10 minutes discussing sustainability in their classrooms.

Campus-wide activities kick off Wednesday, Jan. 30 with a live, one-hour Webcast of “The 2% Solution” in the F.W. Olin Center Auditorium at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Audiences will be invited to weigh in with cell phone voting.

[Physics major] Steve Po-Chedley ’08 is coordinating Union’s student events. He has created a Web site, http://www.vu.union.edu/~sustain/focus/, which includes links to sustainability efforts on campus, a sign-up form and a list of participating faculty.

“This event not only encourages faculty to demonstrate a commitment to and foster an awareness of these imminent problems, it will allow them to reach out to a great deal of students on campus, shedding light on issues of sustainability and climate change,” Po-Chedley said.

(Read the full artilce in the Union College Chronicle.)

Three physics majors presented posters at the Fall Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society (DNPAPS) in Newport News, VA, October 11-13. Richie Bonventre (’08) presented his work on the “Extraction of Yields for Neutral Meson Photoproduction from the Proton and Helium-3 with the CLAS Detector at Jefferson Lab.” “Fiducial Volumes for Photons Detected in the Forward Calorimeters of the CLAS Detector at JLab” was the title of the poster presented by Christian Shultz (’08). Crystal Smith reported on her work on the “Analysis of Proton-Rich Elemental Abundances Created in Outflows from Gamma-Ray Burst Accretion Disks.” Richie and Christian work with Prof. Michael Vineyard on their projects and Crystal is working with Prof. Rebecca Surman. Ninety-seven undergraduate posters were presented at the meeting, and all three of the Union College students were awarded lodging and travel grants from the Conference Experience for Undergraduates program of the DNPAPS.

Pictures from the meeting: Richie Bonventre, Christian Shultz, Crystal Smith

(See also the story in the Union College Chronicle)

Union College Associate Professor Rebecca Koopmann has been awarded funding ($172,495) for a five-year collaborative NSF grant entitled “The Undergraduate ALFALFA Team,” to develop undergraduate research opportunities within the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey, a major astronomy observational survey led by astronomers Riccardo Giovanelli and Martha Haynes of Cornell University. The project is mapping a large area of the sky at radio wavelengths appropriate for the detection of neutral hydrogen gas in other galaxies, using the Arecibo radio telescope, the largest telescope in the world, at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Estimated to take 6-7 years to complete, the survey is expected to detect more than 20,000 galaxies out to a distance of 750 million light years. Koopmann has been collaborating with the ALFALFA group since the beginning of the survey two years ago, using the data in her work on the star formation and gas properties of nearby galaxies. She spent her sabbatical year 2006/2007 at Cornell University as a as a guest of the Department of Astronomy and a Visiting Scientist at National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center which runs Arecibo Observatory.

The grant provides undergraduate students and faculty at Union and 13 other primarily undergraduate institutions access to a major, ongoing, scientific research project involving a collaboration of astronomers around the world. Koopmann will work with Colgate University astronomer Thomas Balonek and Georgia Southern University astronomer Sarah Higdon to develop the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team program. Core components include an annual group workshop at Arecibo, observing runs for several groups per year at Arecibo, a summer student research stipend program supporting 7 students per year culminating in a presentation at a national meeting, and funding to provide computers to each team school. The annual workshops will be modeled after two NSF-sponsored ALFALFA workshops held at Union College in the summers of 2005 and 2006. The workshops at Arecibo Observatory will feature observing sessions and lectures and group activities about Arecibo science. The first workshop is scheduled for January 2008.

This grant makes it possible for undergraduates to contribute to the scientific output of the ALFALFA extragalactic HI survey and followup studies while learning valuable lessons about the way that a science collaboration functions through their interactions with their faculty mentors, their peers, and the leaders of the ALFALFA project.

As part of the grant, Koopmann will also collaborate on curriculum and public outreach endeavors with Jose Alonso, Director of the Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center at Arecibo Observatory, resulting in publicly-available activities and exercises written in English and Spanish.

Astronomers around the world are collaborating on the ALFALFA project. One of the main goals of the project is to discover low mass, ’starless’ galaxies, which contain hydrogen gas but have not yet formed stars. The abundance of these “dark” galaxies, their characteristics and location are key clues to understanding how galaxies form and evolve throughout the universe.

Four Union College students have participated to date in ALFALFA research and activities (Nathan Calabro, ‘08, Michael Gillin, ‘08, Bilal Mahmood, ‘08, and Jay Read, ‘07′). Mahmood is a co-author of the first data catalog paper released by the ALFALFA collaboration. Calabro is currently working on a senior thesis with advisor Koopmann.

(See the story in the Union College Chronicle for more.)

Associate Professor Rebecca Koopmann presented two papers in June at an International Astronomy Union Conference entitled “Dark Galaxies and Lost Baryons”, held in Cardiff Wales. The papers, entitled “Virgo Early-Type Dwarfs in ALFALFA” and “A 500 kpc HI Tail of the Virgo Pair NGC 4532/DDO 137 Detected by ALFALFA” describe Koopmann’s research on the hydrogen gas contents of nearby galaxies as revealed by the ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) survey. Koopmann spent her sabbatical 2006/2007 year at Cornell University as a Visiting Scientist with the  National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) , which operates the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

The 2007 Stillman Prize for Excellence in Teaching was awarded to Professor Rebecca Surman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The prize is awarded annually at Convocation to a faculty member nominated by students, and selected by a committee of faculty and students.

Professor Surman does her research in the area of theoretical astrophysics, publishing ten papers and receiving two large grants in the past few years. She has also supervised a large number of student research projects, in addition to teaching a wide range of course in the Department of Physcis and Astronomy. She has served as the faculty advisor for the local chapter of the Society of Physics Students, helping to organize field trips, public outreach activities, and career information sessions.

She was cited particularly for her enthusiasm and approachable demeanor, and her ability to encourage questions in upper-level classes. For more information, see the Union College Chronicle.

Cardiologist Aaron Feingold ’72 began amassing rare books and historical artifacts while in medical school. His collection grew to include hundreds of medical texts and records, World War II pharmacy coupons from the European ghettos, archeological artifacts from Egypt and 19th century Italian Hagaddahs, as well as the entire transcript, in English, of the Nuremberg trials.

Among his vast holdings are two items of particular interest to Union: a first edition of Albert Einstein’s “Relativity: The Special and the General Theory” (1920, Henry Holt & Co.) and a rare, annotated typed manuscript by Charles Proteus Steinmetz, which dates to 1921.The Steinmetz manuscript is the second of four lectures the Union faculty member and prominent GE scientist gave at Schenectady’s Unitarian Church on Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Feingold presented these historical treasures to President Stephen C Ainlay at the Terrace Council and Ramée Circle Society Reception at the Nott Memorial during ReUnion weekend. Alumni and friends who gathered included Trustee Stephen Ritterbush ’68; Ellen Fladger, head of Special Collections at Schaffer Library; Librarian Thomas McFadden; and faculty members John Spinelli, chair of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Chad Orzel, assistant professor of Physics.

From the Union College Chronicle.

Senior Physics major Mike Mastroianni ‘07 was one of five students chosen to present in the special Undergraduate Research Session at the 38th meeting of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society. The DAMOP meeting is an international physics conference attended by nearly 1,000 physicists from around the world, and this year’s meeting was held jointly with the Division of Atomic and Molecular Physics and Photonic Interactions of the Canadian Physical Society, in Calgary, Alberta June 5-9.

Mastroianni’s presentation, “Trapping Single Krypton Atoms for Radioactive Background Measurements,” was based on his senior thesis work with Prof. Chad Orzel of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He was one of five students chosen to give twenty-minute oral presentations at the meeting, out of dozens of applicants. Mike plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Connecticut after graduation from Union.

Senior Physics major Nathaniel Hawes ’08 has been named the winner of the Astronomical Society of New York’s Undergraduate Student Prize for his research on primordial black holes, supervised by Prof. Jon Marr of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The prize will be awarded at the Fall 2007 ASNY meeting.

Physics major Nate Hawes ‘07 won the annual Sigma Xi research award, given every year to a student for distinguished research as an undergraduate student at Union. Hawes won for his presentation on “Theoretical Modeling of Exploding Black Holes,” a project he did under the supervision of Prof. Jon Marr in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Hawes was one of two Physics majors nominated for the year’s award, along with Mike Mastroianni ‘07. The other two nominees were Felicia Spector ‘07 and Brianne Phillips ‘07.

Sigma Xi is a national honor society recognizing students involved in scientific research. The annual research award is given by the Union College chapter, based on presentations given at the Steinmetz Symposium.

The 17th annual Steinmetz Symposium was held on May 4-5 2007, and featured 400 Union students giving 250 scholarly presentations on topics from all academic disciplines. These included 14 students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, presenting talks in three oral sessions and one poster session.

• Richard Bonventre ‘08, “Fiducial Cuts for the CLAS G3 Data Set”
• Bob Marvel ‘07, “Development of a Relativistic Dynamics Experiment”
• Stephen Po-Chedley ‘08, “Muon Lifetime Measurements and Determination of the Weak Force”
• Christian Shultz ‘08, “Momentum corrections for the CLAS g1c and g3a data sets”
• Nathaniel Hawes ‘07, “Theoretical Modeling of Exploding Black Holes”
• James Read ‘07, “Mapping the Magnetic Field of a Compact Radio Galaxy”
• Crystal Smith ‘08, “The Analysis of Proton- and Neutron-rich Elemental Abundances created in Outflows from Gamma-Ray Burst Accretion Disks”
• Joshua Smith ‘07, “Spectroscopy of the Orion, Eskimo, and Ghost of Jupiter Nebulae at the Union College Observatory”
• Steve Herron ‘09, “Laser Ablation in Art Restoration”
• Matthew Lockwood ‘08, “Anti-Reflective Coating of a Diode Laser System”
• Mike Mastroianni ‘07, “Radioactive Background Measurements using Atom Trap Trace Analysis”
• Thomas Mazur ‘07, “Exploring the Quantum Behavior of Light Experimentally Via Spontaneous Parametric Downconversion”
• Luther Vucic ‘07, “An Introductory Look at Sonoluminescence: Converting Sound into Light”
• Sam Madden ‘07, “SHG Characterization of NLO Dyes included within Laponite Nanoclay Films”