Jeremy Tinker
(BS Astronomy, Physics 1997) has completed his Ph.D. in Astronomy at Ohio State and is heading to the University of Chicago to work as a postdoc with Andrey Kravtsov . He'll be working on cosmological hydro simulations and hopefully on some Sloan galaxy clustering analysis. The picture above is from a seminar Jeremy gave while visiting the department last summer.
December 30, 2004
Graduate student Brian Thomas has
received a Dissertation Fellowship from KU to support the completion of his Ph.D. research.
Brian is currently working on computing models of the response of atmospheric
chemistry to the impact of a gamma-ray burst in our own galaxy, which
may have had a role in past terrestrial mass extinctions.
WEIRD SCIENCE
From the Lawrence Journal World (12/07/04) comes an on the subject of crank science by Department alumnus, Katie Green (MS Physics 2004), featuring faculty member Prof. Adrian Melott.
ALUMNI NEWS
November 17, 2004
Congratulations!
The Honors Program has selected four nominees for the National Goldwater Scholarship Competition; three are majors in our Department. Best wishes for continued success at the next level to Shawn Henderson, David Hover, and Hannah Swift.ALUMNI NEWS
Daniel Nunes (BS: Astronomy, Physics 1997) has defended his thesis in Space Physics at Washington University, St. Louis and has accepted a postdoctoral position at the Lunar & Planetary Institute in Houston.
Research Impact
The KU website detailing the role of research at the University and its impact internally and externally lists nine projects covering the entire scale of the Universe. Three of these involve research within Physics & Astronomy dealing with Astrophysical Extinctions, Chaos, and Subatomic Particles.
October 08, 2004
CHANCELLOR'S CLUB SCHOLARS!
The list of 16 Chancellor's Club Scholars for 2004-2005 is out and 3 of 16 are majors or joint majors in the Department. Congratulations to Charles J. Pye, physics,Andrew Lake Wooten, engineering physics, and Gianna I. Short, civil engineering, engineering physics and environmental studies.
October 04, 2004
Congratulations:
Undergraduate Physics major David Jones is the second recipient of a Prosser Award, which includes a $500 prize, for the current academic year.PICTURES FROM THE FALL 2004 PICNIC AT DAD PERRY PARK
September 07, 2004
Another new addition to the Department family: Grad Student Majeed Ameeni and his family have a new addition to the family: A baby boy named Hussain.
September 02, 2004
Recent Honors/Awards
for students within the Dept.: Freshman BS major in Astronomy, Christopher
Lloyd Huff of Aledo, TX, son of Lloyd & Susan Huff, has been
named a Mt.
Oread Scholar. Physics major Daniel Hogan
has received the Prosser
Award from the Department for the current academic year, which includes
a $500 prize. Daniel is currently working on research in Astrobiology.
August 23, 2004
Prof. Barbara Anthony-Twarog became the latest winner of the Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence. The Prize Patrol, led by Provost Shulenberger (above), surprised her during her evening ASTR 196 lab. She is also featured on the 2004-2005 KU Women's Calendar of Distinction.
CONGRATULATIONS:
Another new addition to the Department family: Chris Fischer and family expanded by one on Saturday, August 21, 2004. The baby girl, Emily Elizabeth, weighed in at 6 lb. 10 oz. and was 20 inches long.
CONGRATULATIONS:
A new addition
to the Department family: Michael Murray
and family expanded by one at 12:11 PM Friday,
August 6, 2004. The baby girl, Mariclare,
weighed in at 10 lb. 10 oz. and was 21.5 inches long
July 05, 2004
KU
Grad Student Research Makes APS News
The research by grad student Brian Thomas and his
KU colleagues on the possible impact of gamma rays on extinctions in the
Ordovician Era, presented in a paper at the April APS meeting, was featured
in the July APS News Bulletin (pg. 6).
June 09, 2004
KU
researchers part of group unlocking
secrets of the 'top quark':The Experimental High Energy Research Group
was featured in a University press
release discussing the recent results raising the mass of the top
quark and its impact on the detection of the Higgs particle.
May 21, 2004
The good news for observational astronomy in northeast Kansas continues. The 27-inch mirror that served as the primary optics for the Pitt telescope at KU was donated to the Topeka amateur astronomy group, NEKAAL two years ago. NEKAAL learned this week that they have been awarded a grant from NASA to rebuild the 27 inch telescope for use in the search for Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Above, Steve Shawl and Lt. Col. Lindley Johnson, KU alum (1980) and director of the NASA program, discuss the telescope and old times in Topeka.
May 19, 2004
SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH GRANT WINNERS included a large number of students associated with our department. Sara Holt, sophomore in mathematics and engineering physics will be studying Gamma-Ray Bursts; Karl Byleen-Higley, junior in electrical engineering, will be working on Proton Production in ggg and gggamma Upsilon Decays and qqbargamma Electron-Positron Annihilations; Miles Garrett, senior in physics, African and African-American studies and philosophy, looks into Simulating Electromagnetic Signals Through Layers of Polar Ice; Shawn Henderson, junior in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, studies Extraction of QCD Parameters from Radiative Y (1S) Decays. All of the above are under the supervision of Dr. Dave Besson. Daniel Hogan, sophomore in physics and computer science, looks at Nitrogen Concentration in the Mallowa Salt: Implications for the Ordovician Gamma Ray Burst Theory with Dr. Adrian Melott; Alan Dibos, senior in mathematics and physics, investigates Measuring the Electrical Resistance of a Single Boron-Based Nanowire with Dr. Judy Wu; David Hover, junior in mathematics and physics, looks at Improving the Efficiency of Track Reconstruction in Silicon Strip Detectors with Dr. Alice Bean; Jesse Noffsinger, senior in mathematics and physics, studies Development of a Dual-Probe Device for Characterization of Nanometer Scale Features with Dr. Judy Wu; and Dana Maher, junior in physics, will look into Stress Propagation in Sandpiles With Invasive Objects with Dr. Jeff Olafsen. Luis Vargas, sophomore major in Astronomy, Math, and Physics, received a J. Michael Young Undergraduate Research Award to study Statistical Correlations in Fossil Databases in the Ordovician Extinction with Dr. Bruce Lieberman, associate professor of geology and courtesy associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. Additionally, Lindsay Mayer, junior physics and astronomy major, will study Cluster CCD Photometry as a Tombaugh Fellow under Dr. Barbara Anthony-Twarog.
May 14, 2004
Congratulations
to Katie Greene on the successful defense of
her Master's Thesis in Physics titledA Comparative Study of Electrically Pumped and Optically Pumped Mid-Infrared Light Emitting Diodes. Her thesis committee was composed of her thesis advisor, Dr. Linda Olafsen, and fellow committee members, Drs. Jeff Olafsen and Judy Wu.
April 30, 2004
Congratulations to Dr. Tom Cravens on receiving a 3-year grant from NASA totalling $244 K for his proposal titled
The Effects of External Plasma and Radiation on
Planetary Atmospheres: Mars, Titan, and Jupiter. The
grant period is from 8/1/04 to 7/31/07. A writeup
on the Cassini Mission, which includes projects involving
Drs. Tom Cravens, Tom Armstrong, and
Jerry Manweiler, appeared in the University
Daily Kansan on 04/29/04.
April 26, 2004
Congratulations to Misty Cracraft on the successful defense of her Master's Thesis in Computational Physics and Astronomy. Her thesis, entitled Matchcode.cpp: A C++ Program to Register and Correlate Image Data from CCD Frames, was reviewed by her thesis advisor, Dr. Barbara Anthony-Twarog, and fellow committee members, Drs. Alice Bean and Steve Shawl.
April 23, 2004
The
induction ceremony for SPS took place on
Friday afternoon in 3005 Malott. The 11 new inductees are pictured above
and include Hannah Swift, Rainer Schiel, Wei Qiu,
Ben Anhalt, Andrew Womack, Jan Kurzidim, Peter Bryant, Hua Zhao, Jacob
King, Shawn Henderson, and Ian Lewis.
April 21, 2004
Congratulations Drs. Adrian Melott and Mikhail Medvedev on receiving funding of $418 K over three years from NASA Astrobiology to study Do Gamma-Ray Bursts Damage Planetary Biospheres? The highly interdisciplinary proposal included KU collaborators at the Biodiversity Research Center (Larry Martin), the Department of Geology and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Bruce Lieberman) and KUCR (Claude Laird). It also features collaboration with researchers at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center (Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics and Laboratory for Atmospheres).
April 17, 2004
The 34th Annual MARAC meeting was held at Linda Hall Library at UMKC, generating a record attendance of 54 participants. The invited guest for the Apr.16/17 meeting was Dr. Rocky Kolb, who gave an outstanding public lecture on Friday evening and an equally informative technical talk to the meeting participants on Sat. morning. A full list of the papers presented at the meeting may be found at the MARAC website, including 10 from KU.
April 15, 2004
Congratulations to Prof. Linda Olafsen, recipient of a $458 K DEPSCoR grant over 3 years to investigate High Efficiency, Room Temperature Mid-Infrared Semiconductor Laser Development for IR Countermeasures. The Department of Defense award is targeted to enhance infrastructure at KU through acquisition of equipment and education and training of graduate students. Professor Olafsen is one of only 20 investigators to receive a DEPSCoR award this year, and she is the only recipient from the State of Kansas.
April 01, 2004
Undergraduate Physics and Computer Science major Stephen Floor was the subject of a feature article on the front page of the Lawrence Journal World as a followup to his selection for a Goldwater Scholarship (see Previous News)
March 29, 2004
Congratulations to undergraduate Physics and Math major Sarah Feldt on receiving the Class of 1913 Award, one of the 2004 Chancellor's Student Awards in recognition of academic, volunteer and leadership accomplishments during their undergraduate years. Sarah will be one of 9 graduating seniors to share the podium with the Chancellor at graduation ceremonies in May.
March 25, 2004
Congratulations
to undergraduate Physics and Computer Science major Stephen
Floor for his selection as a recipient of a 2004 Barry M. Goldwater
Scholarship. Stephen was one of two national winners selected from KU.
March 20, 2004
Congratulations to undergraduate Physics and Math major Andrew Womack for
his 2nd Place finish in the KU
Mathematics
Prize Competition,
Senior Level.
A belated congratulations
to postdoc/instructor Ina Robertson. She
was selected by the American Geophysical Union to receive an Outstanding
Student Paper Award for her presentation at the 
Fall
2003 meeting. Her paper on Heliospheric X-rays was coauthored with Prof.
Tom Cravens of KU and Steve Snowden of Goddard Space Flight Center.
March 16, 2004
Congratulations to Amanda & grad student Brian Thomas on the birth of their daughter, Arianna Lynn, weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long.
March 05, 2004
Press Release
4 KU Juniors Compete for National Goldwater Scholarships
The KU Honors Program officially announced the university nominees for
the National Goldwater Scholarships, to be selected in April. Two of the
four are majors within the department, Alan Dibos and Stephen Floor. Brief
sketches of the nominees and their work may be found in the press
release. Congratulations again, and good luck next month!
March 01, 2004
Public Event: Frontiers of Astrophysics Lecture
Gamma Ray Burst Extinction
Adrian Melott, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas
Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, NYC
7:30 PM
February 18, 2004
What event of astronomical significance occurred on this day in 1930? Hint: it involves an alumnus of KU. To learn the answer, ask an astronomy student or visit www.kuhistory.com for Feb. 18.
January 21, 2004
The success of the Mars Lander and the recent announcement of a long-term plan for NASA to focus on a new manned mission to the Moon and eventually to Mars have generated significant comment and discussion. Listen to a radio interview of Professor Tom Cravens on the NASA success, the prospects for this proposal, and what it may mean to NASA and the space sciences.
January 08, 2004
Recent work on the potential effects of gamma rays from nearby supernovae on extinction rates on Earth by Adrian Melott, Mikhail Medvedev, Brian Thomas and Claude Laird, among others, was a featured press release from the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta. The item from CNN.com is Supernova, sun combo blamed for mass extinction. This follows on an article entitled KU researchers believe gamma-ray burst caused extinctions, coolingin the Lawrence Journal World from 12/29/03
December 17, 2003
David Hover and Dana Maher, have been awarded this year's Prosser Scholarship, established to recognize outstanding sophomores majoring in physics or engineering physics. Mr. Hover has worked on two research projects with the experimental high energy physics group, diagnosing problems with the electronics hybrids used in the D0 experiment at Fermilab and studying noise problems in the D0 silicon microstrip detector. Mr. Maher has been designing two new experiments in the ISLE Lab to investigate sound propagation in granular media. The results of his experiments will help improve landmine detection in shallow sand beds. Congratulations to David Hover and Dana Maher for their outstanding work in the both the classroom and the research lab.
December 11, 2003
It has been a busy semester for students completing Master's work within the Department. Congratulations toTodd McAlpine in Physics for Measuring the Impulse Response of a Photoconductive HgCdTe Detector for Pulsed Semiconductor Laser Applications (Dr. Linda Olafsen), Enamul Khan in Physics, Orathai Kheawpum in Physics for Estimating the Largest Lyapunov Exponent from LHC Data and Biology Data, Lori Sue Perry in Physics for Vertexing Neutrino-Ice Interactions at Antarctica (Dr. Dave Besson), Delora Chere Tanner in Computational Physics & Astrophysics for The Development of Photometric Analysis Tools for the Study of NGC 2420 (Dr. Barbara Anthony-Twarog), and Zhongwen Xing in Physics for the Investigation of the Mechanism of Cation Exchange between Tl-based and Hg-based HTS.
November 10, 2003
The recent passage beyond the solar system of the Voyager probe resulted in an extended interview of Dr. Tom Armstrong for the Lawrence Journal-World, touting the extraordinary success of the mission.
November 6, 2003: CONGRATULATIONS to Undergraduate majors Stephen Floor and Alan Dibos on their selection as KU nominees for the national competition for the Goldwater Scholarship.
October 27, 2003: The Society of Physics Students and some Faculty took part in the annual Dark at the Top of the HIll for 2003 at the Kansas Union, providing an entertaining mix of fun, physics, and fantasy to appreciative children and adults.
October 16, 2003: Congratulations to three outstanding undergraduates. Sophomores Hannah Swift, double-major in Physics and Astronomy, and David Hover, Physics major, were selected as University Scholars, while Daniel Hogan, double-major in physics and computer science was selected as a Chancellor's Club Scholar. Hannah and Daniel are working with Adrian Melott in the Cosmology Group, while David is working with Dr. Alice Bean in high energy physics.
October 08, 2003: KU Astronomy and Aerospace Engineering lead $1.4 million ULTRA Project to develop a new-technology, lightweight telescope.
October 02, 2003: Two press releases linked to Department faculty within Cosmology have appeared recently. The first is a News Update from Nature on Mass Extinction and Gamma Rays detailing the collaborative work of Adrian Melott, while the second is a KU report by Roger Martin on the work of Sergei Shandarin and Topographic Maps of Galaxies.
September 20, 2003: ~25000 Tour the KU Campus during the Open House, including Physics & Astronomy. PICTURES
September 13, 2003: Dozens of former students and colleagues descended upon Malott Hall for the Armstrong Symposium to honor the work and career of Dr. Tom Armstrong, retiring as a full professor from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at KU.
August 27, 2003: ~1000 visitors came by Lindley Hall to view the closest approsch of Mars in over 50,000 years. PICTURES.
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