1

1Summer 2005

The Astronomy program at KU is fortunate to be part of the dual celebrations of the 75th Anniversary of Clyde W. Tombaugh’sdiscovery of the planet Pluto in 2005 and the 100th Anniversary of his birth in 2006.

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Table of Contents:

Cover Story 2Chair’s Spot 3Research

Astronomy 4Physics 5-12

Transitions 13-14Students 15-17

Engineering Physics 17Alumni 18-20Continued... 21-22Last Word 23

Teaching Award

Congratulations to ProfessorDave Besson, winner of a2005-6 Kemper Award for

teaching. Chancellor RobertHemenway made the presentationduring Dave’s first day of class onAugust 19th in Malott Hall.

Dave Besson

Clyde W. Tombaugh: This picture was taken by Professor Steve Shawl when the obser-vatory at KU was dedicated to KU Alum Tombaugh in 1980; Clyde is at our old 27-inchtelescope, that he helped make operational as part of his master’s thesis, in about 1937.

Department Kemper Award winners:

1998 Bruce Twarog2003 Phil Baringer2004 Barbara Anthony-Twarog

Department of Physics & Astronomy - University of Kansas

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PAGE TWO

Reflections on events surroundingthe 75th anniversary of Clyde W.Tombaugh’s discovery of the

planet, Pluto, held February 18, 2005:-by Barbara Anthony-Twarog

I swear, the first words out of my mouthwere “This is soooo Lawrence.” There I was,in the living room of a lovely Old WestLawrence home, preparing to give an eveninglecture to an attentive crowd of about 30folks. This was the flavor of activities theLawrence Journal World had in mind when itopined that the anniversary of the discoveryof Pluto would be “observed in events aroundLawrence.”

Readers of David Levy’s biography ofClyde Tombaugh can learn much aboutClyde’s Lawrence years, and particularlyabout the house on Mississippi Street wherehe lived for a time. The house was owned byPatsy Edson’s (Clyde’s future wife’s) family.The current owners of Clyde’s Lawrenceresidence are seeking recognition of thesmall house near 7th Street as an historic site.Neighbors with a larger living roomorganized an evening soiree to honor theanniversary and rally the neighborhoodbehind this effort.

It should come as no surprise to KUalumni that Lawrence treasures its history.Since the Department of Physics andAstronomy cherishes this bit of alumnihistory as well, it was a pleasure to addressa gathering and inform them a little bit aboutClyde’s history: his career accomplishments,the search strategy he devised for findingPluto, the coverage of the discovery storyin Kansas newspapers in 1930, and thestatus of current knowledge and researchon the 9th planet, including the work of fellowalumnus, Dave Tholen (BS astronomy,physics, 1978).

While I was sipping my chardonnay atthe Clyde Day reception, fellow KU facultyand husband Bruce Twarog was hosting themonthly meeting of the AstronomyAssociates of Lawrence. Graham Bell of theNortheast Kansas Amateur AstronomyLeague (NEKAAL) recounted the long andsometimes distressing story of the Pitt 27"

Tombaugh Anniversaries

telescope. But now, it’s a story with a veryhappy ending! With a grant from NASA,this small but dedicated group of amateursproposed a redesign of the mount of the 27"mirror removed from the roof of Lindley in2001 and consigned to NEKAAL onindefinite loan from the University. NEKAALis funded to continue their minor planetsearches and astrometry in addition to thehefty load of public service that NEKAALcarries out. We think that Clyde would bedelighted at the transformation of thetelescope he used, its translation to a darkersite and its frequent availability to studentand community groups.

We now look forward to anotherwonderful anniversary next year, the 100th

anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh’s birth.With the help of many of our alumni, we hopeto close our year of celebration with thatanniversary and the completion of thedevelopment campaign, Tombaugh 7500, fora scholarship for astronomy students named,as our observatory at KU continues to be,for Clyde William Tombaugh, class of 1936.

The newly mounted Tombaugh telescopeis already in operation at Farpoint Ob-servatory on the grounds of Mission Val-ley High School near Eskridge, Kansas.

NASA administrator and astronomy alum Lindley Johnson (BA astronomy, 1980) cameout to present a suitable decoration to NEKAAL officers Gary Hug and Graham Bell atthe April 2, 2005 dedication.

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CHAIR’S SPOT

When a physicist thinks of “mo-mentum”, at least someone whohas recently taught one of our in-

troductory classes, it is usually in terms ofeither “conservation of” or “change in”.The latter is clearly the more appropriateconnection as we consider the current stateof the department. This past year has wit-nessed a number of changes and accom-plishments for Physics & Astronomy, ashighlighted in this issue of Momentum.

The first change should be obvious toanyone who might hold on to past issues ofthis newsletter. Our long-term editor,Professor Steve Shawl, has entered intophased retirement and has passed on thenewsletter to our new editor, Professor JeffOlafsen. Steve talks about his new life in anarticle on page 14; it hardly seems likeretirement! Jeff brings new ideas on theorganization and appearance of Momentum.I was given a chance to read through thecurrent, “new” Momentum before writingthis column. I think Steve can be assuredthat the newsletter is in good hands!

For each of the past three years I havehad the honor of taking part in a surpriseKemper Award presentation. The KemperAward is one of the highest honors that theUniversity bestows on exceptional teachers.Faculty are nominated by their departments,with the testimony of past and currentstudents being a central component of thenomination package. The Chancellor or, inhis absence, the Provost makes a “surprise”visit to the winning faculty during their firstclass in the Fall semester, thus totallydestroying any plans the instructor mighthave made for this class. This year, ProfessorDave Besson received such a visit by theChancellor. Although I have thought Daveto be unflappable, I think even he wasshocked when the “suits” barged in on hisIntroductory Physics lecture! Dave’s awardbrings the total number of Kemper awardeesin the department to four—an impressive featfor any single department and one that Ibelieve reflects the high emphases that ourfaculty places on their teaching mission.

A previous Kemper awardee, ProfessorPhil Baringer, worked last year on developing

a new format for the first term of our calculus-based physics course. The changes that heimplemented, going from the traditional threelectures a week to a two lectures and onebreakout discussion session format, grewout of an earlier reassessment of ourintroductory courses that was led by lastyear’s Kemper award winner, ProfessorBarbara Anthony-Twarog. We are now inthe third term of this experiment and, by allaccounts, both the faculty and students arewelcoming the new format as one that isleading to greater learning.

As reported last year, the department isworking to develop a biophysics program.Professor Chris Fisher joined the faculty ayear ago in this area and has alreadyestablished a well functioning laboratory, asdiscussed on page 6. The student interestin this field has been very high. As we startto become attuned to talk of “DNAtranslocation” and the like, the departmentis now working to fill a second facultyposition in the area of biophysics. Thisshould bring the staffing to a level where wecan start considering curriculum changesthat will facilitate the type of interdisciplinarywork that biophysics entails.

Whether a side-effect of all the bio-speakthat we were exposed to in our biophysicssearch two years ago, or perhaps the resultof watching too many disaster movies, ormaybe just a fortuitous merging of expertiseand interests, last year saw cosmologistProfessor Adrian Melott getting togetherwith space physicist Professor MishaMedvedev to start up a new astrobiologyprogram in the department. This program,which is described on page 5, has generatedtremendous national and internationalinterest as it attempts to explain one of thelargest mass extinctions known to haveoccurred on Earth in terms of a gamma-rayburst originating from a supernova explosionin the galaxy. Adrian and Misha havebrought together an impressive array ofinterdisciplinary talent to explore this exciting,if somewhat frightening, scenario.

Rather than focusing on ourvulnerabilities to cosmic events, perhaps aneven more intriging prospect emerges with

the direct evidence that has beenaccumulated over the past few years ofnumerous extra-solar planetary systems.This observation leads to the possibility thatlife might have emerged on one of theseplanets. Barring a direct “Here we are”message, our best hope of finding evidenceof life elsewhere in the galaxy might be withultra-large optical telescope arrays that havethe resolving power to achievespectroscopic measurements of distantplanets. A project being undertaken by KUastronomers Professors Twarog, Anthony-Twarog and Shawl, together withcollaborators in the KU Engineering School,may bring us closer to being able to achievethese capabilities. As described on page 4,the KU group is in the prototyping phasefor a new type of ultra-light optical mirrorand support. By putting together a largenumber of such units, it should be possibleto create a huge, adaptable optics device thatcan probe fine details in our galaxy andbeyond.

In this space I have only been able tohighlight some of the activity going on inthe department. Elsewhere in this newsletteryou will find discussion of many other areasbeing explored by our faculty. Of course,students supply the driving force for all ofour programs. Specific studentcontributions are noted throughout thenewsletter, but on page 15 there is also a listof the many awards and accomplishmentsgarnered by this group. I think it is fair tosay that the department’s momentum isincreasing.

Steve Sanders

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RESEARCH

ASTRONOMY

In theory, there’s a formula that governsthe apportionment of faculty time: 40%to teaching, 40% to research, and 20%

to service. Although most of our faculty willlaugh if you inquire about how well thatworks at any moment, over the course of ayear, it probably averages out in similar pro-portions. What has been different recentlyis the nature of the research and collabora-tive time occupying KU’s astronomers. Alarge fraction of our work in the past yearhas been devoted to project managementand technology development, as well as theusual data reduction and textbook writing.

The ULTRA telescope project (seeadjacent story) entered its second year andmoved from a basic design phase toconstruction of a 16-inch prototype foroptical and engineering testing, the latter

An illustration for the ULTRA telescope and dome at Mt. Laguna.

ULTRA – Telescopes! carried out by our collaborators in AerospaceEngineering. A great deal was learned fromthis hands-on testing, enough to confirm thatno major obstacles exist in the current pathto building a workable 1-meter class system.The progress was significant and warrantedtwo presentations at the January AASmeeting in San Diego, with enough interestfrom the community to produce both a pressrelease and inclusion in a press conferenceat the meeting.

ACE, Inc. of Tucson won the bid for thedesign of the mount and drive system.Construction is expected to begin thissummer and, by the end of this year, we hopeto have a 1-meter telescope installed at thesite. When the eventual goal of the ULTRAtelescope as a fully remote, robotic facility iscompleted a year from now, the fun will really

Most astronomers consider a 2.5-meter telescope small, so it’s rareto find any who are interested in

building a 1-meter telescope. This, how-ever, hasn’t stopped KU Professors BruceTwarog, Barbara Anthony-Twarog, andSteve Shawl from securing an NSF grant todo just that. What makes their small tele-scope so remarkable is that it only weighsroughly 20 pounds, while most telescopesof the same measurement are as hefty as arefrigerator. Their featherweight is nearingcompletion and the team expects that it willbe ready to install in Mt. Laguna Observa-tory at San Diego State University late in2005. Once it’s up and running, KU astrono-mers will have exclusive access to 40% ofthe telescope’s operational time.

“If we just wanted a telescope, I’m notsure that we’d go through all this trouble tomake the world’s lightest 1-meter telescope,”Barbara Anthony-Twarog says. “The [grant]money is to find out whether this technologyis suitable for making telescopes.”

The technology that is crucial fortelescopes to shed pounds involvescomposite materials, and specifically acomposite mirror. Usually, a telescope usesa hand-ground mirror that is expensive andheavy. Because of the mirror’s weight, thesupporting tube must be sturdy, and isusually made of heavy steel. By buildingwith composite materials, a telescope’s loadcan be lightened in every part of theinstrument, from the base that supports it tothe precision optics inside.

A lighter telescope is useful for a numberof reasons. In the 1980’s, there was interestin lunar observatories, but the heavy,inflexibile traditional telescopes were a majorproblem. The weight and flexibility issuesturned engineers’ attention to the possibilityof making telescopes of composites, thuscreating a new industry of composite mirrors.Now, lunar observatories are not a major goal,but a lightweight telescope could still be sent

Light as a feather

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5

PHYSICS

RESEARCH

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is a new research areain our department. Much of thework in this field generally con-

cerns the possibility of life elsewhere in theUniverse, but the emphasis here at KU hasbeen on effects of astrophysical events onlife on Earth. Most people are familiar withone example: the Big Rock that likely endedlife for the dinosaurs. However, there aremany other possibilities, including bursts ofradiation for which there is increasing evi-dence. Exploring this possibility from manydifferent angles has been the focus here.

The work has been interdisciplinary fromthe beginning. The program got underwayearly in 2003 in a joint meeting betweenProfessors Adrian Melott and MikhailMedvedev in our department and ProfessorsBruce Lieberman from Geology and LarryMartin from the KU Natural HistoryMuseum. The mating of physics andpaleontology was intended to explore theidea of possible effects of gamma-ray bursts(GRBs) on the Earth. GRBs are very powerfulbursts of high-energy photons which areobserved on a daily basis coming from deepwithin the distant universe. It is easilyestimated that a large number could havegone off in our galaxy at a possiblydangerous proximity to Earth since life arosehere. Although this idea had been examinedbefore by astrophysicists, only estimates ofthe effects had been made, with no attemptat coordination with the fossil record.

Rather early in the conversations, thegroup identified a strong possibility of a GRBin one of the “big five” mass extinctions inthe Earth’s past: the Late OrdovicianExtinction, 443 million years ago. This is thesecond-worst mass extinction found in thefossil record. It came on suddenly, killingmostly shallow-water organisms. (This isimportant because there was very little lifeon land then.) It was accompanied by an iceage with no obvious cause in the middle of avery warm, stable climate period. Theshallow-water mortality may be a signatureof ultraviolet light-mediated damage,

because it requires a few meters of water toshield UV. GRBs are known to be capable ofdamaging the Earth’s ozone layer to somedegree, letting much more solar UV radiationthrough.

NASA is providing research fundingthrough its program on Astrobiology:Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology. The

early work for this study involved graduatestudent Brian Thomas, Courtesy Asst.Professor Claude Laird, and collaborators atNASA Goddard Space Flight Center.(Goddard is the home of SWIFT, a neworbiting telescope which can rapidly pinpointnew GRBs, so that observers can determine(Continued on page 22)

NASA illustration of a GRB irradiating a planet.

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BiophysicsPHYSICS

The first KU Symposium for Biophys-ical Sciences was held on January18, 2005 at Abe and Jake’s Landing in

downtown Lawrence. The organization andpromotion of the symposium was the re-sponsibility of the Biophysics InitiativeCommittee of our department which in-cludes Professors Raymond Ammar, JohnRalston, Judy Wu, Siyuan Han and ChrisFischer. The purpose of the symposiumwas to provide a venue in which researchersfrom various departments on campus couldget together to discuss common interestsand form new collaborations.

The symposium was well attended withover 60 KU faculty from the main campus inLawrence and the KU Medical Center inKansas City presenting talks or posters.John Ralston gave the introductory remarksfor the gathering and Chris Fischer gave abrief presentation summarizing thebiophysics research and expertise in thedepartment. In addition to these talks, LindaOlafsen, Jeff Olafsen and Chris Fischer eachpresented a poster covering the recentbiophysics research in their groups.

Similar events will be taking place in thefuture as we take the lead in developing aninterdisciplinary life sciences researchcommunity at KU. For example, we arecurrently planning a Biophysical SciencesWorkshop which will outline future researchdirections for the university as a whole. Thisworkshop is tentatively scheduled to takeplace later in the fall of 2005.

Focus on Biophysics

A view of science excerpted from thenew NIH roadmap, an interdiscipli-nary plan for the future of biomedi-

cal research: “Biomedical research tradi-tionally has been organized much like a se-ries of cottage industries, lumpingresearchers into broad areas of scientific in-terest and then grouping them into distinct,departmentally based specialties. By en-gaging seemingly unrelated disciplines, tra-ditional gaps in terminology, approach andmethodology might be gradually eliminated.With roadblocks to potential collaborationremoved, a true meeting of minds can takeplace: one that broadens the scope of inves-tigation into biomedical problems, yieldsfresh and possibly unexpected insights,and may even give birth to new hybrid disci-plines that are more analytically sophisti-cated.”

“It’s radically visionary,” KU physicistJohn Ralston says of the road map. “It lookslike I wrote it.” Although Ralston has workedunder the label of theoretical particlephysicist for over 20 years, questions aboutbiological research have been on his mindfor the last 25 years. He has even spentsome of his free time talking with biologistsand applying traditional physical analysisto masses of biological data. It seems thatnow the NIH is looking in a similar direction.

The KU physics department has seen thepotential advantages of interdisciplinaryresearch as well. In the fall of 2004, AssistantProfessor Chris Fischer joined thedepartment to study proteins involved inDNA structural changes. Fischer is the firstprofessor in the new biophysics researchgroup at KU. In addition to his own research,Fischer is looking to start an interdisciplinaryundergraduate program that draws onresources from the departments ofmathematics, biology, chemistry, physics andthe school of engineering.

“I would argue that a lot of theboundaries that exist between science(disciplines) are fairly artificial,” Fischer says.

So he has taken a research problem that couldbe found in a biology lab, but applies physicstools to understand the fundamentals in adifferent way. “I’m approachingbiochemistry the way a physicist wouldapproach the problem,” Fischer explains.“As physicists we’re interested in analyzingproblems quantitatively and mathematicallyas opposed to qualitatively.”

Specifically, Fischer has quantitativelyshown that a certain protein known to beresponsible for reorganizing the structure ofDNA actually marches along a strand of themolecule. “Most people in the field believethis doesn’t happen,” Fischer says. But it isimportant to fundamentally understand howthis protein works. Some people with geneticmutations that keep the protein from workingproperly have a greater chance of cancer.There is a potential for future drugs to targetprocesses that involve this protein. Butbefore this can happen, more needs to beknown about it. Fischer has started bylooking at the protein’s DNA translocation.His results are quite promising and heexpects to be ready to publish within a year.

Biophysics research is moving forwardin the physics department, and it is alsoforging ahead at the university level.Physics professors, including Ralston andFischer, helped sponsor the first KUSymposium for Biophysical Sciences inJanuary 2005. The group converged at Abeand Jake’s landing, a downtown Lawrencepub. The purpose was to start a dialoguethat would enable shared resources acrosslabs and disciplines. Beyond thesymposium, KU has also invited about adozen visitors to give biophysical talks inthe last year. “Some were quite spectacular,”Ralston says. This sort of discourse isprogress, Ralston believes. And theprogress looks good for physicsdepartments, as they are at crucial crossroadson the NIH road map.

-Katie Greene

Chris Fischer

RESEARCH

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RESEARCH

PHYSICSCondensed Matter Physics(CMP): Laser Optics

The Semiconductor Laser OpticsGroup at the University of Kansas,led by Professor Linda Olafsen, has

been expanding its study and developmentof semiconductor structures with the goalof utilizing such materials in both militaryand medical applications. Todd McAlpineand Michael Santilli continue this work to-ward their Ph.D. degrees, and first-yeargraduate student Kris Young has joined thegroup this summer. The group examines ma-terials that are real-world implementationsof the square-well problems everyone doesin their first (and perhaps several subse-quent!) quantum mechanics courses.These structures have many wells and barri-ers, but the fundamental ideas of energylevels that can be tuned with the width ofthe wells and height of the barriers still ap-ply.

The group is completing the first year offunding from a new grant from theDepartment of Defense EPSCoR(Experimental Program to StimulateCompetitive Research) Program through theAir Force Office of Scientific Research. Thisgrant totals $450,000 over three years, andwas the only such proposal from Kansasfunded last year. The Air Force is interestedin the development of semiconductorquantum wells for infrared countermeasures,i.e., to keep their airplanes from beingtargeted by heat-seeking missiles. The 3-5

The KU Quantum Electronics grouphas made significant progress in ex-ploring coherent quantum mechani-

cal processes in novel solid-state, super-conducting, information processing de-vices that are based on Josephson tunneljunctions. Professor Siyuan Han, with hisstudents, postdoctoral fellows, and col-laborators have developed new modelingtools for evaluating decoherence originat-ing from an apparatus used to manipulateand readout the states of quantum bits(qubits). Experiments at a temperature of afew tens of milli-Kelvin have shown that thecontrol and readout circuits are the domi-nant source of decoherence. Currently, thegroup is developing advanced designs forthe qubit bias and readout circuits that arepredicted to decrease contributions todecoherence by several orders of magni-tude.

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CMP: Thin Film

The KU thin film and nanosciencegroup led by Prof. Judy Wuhas been hosting two post-doctoral

researchers (Dr. Rongtao Lu and Dr.Roberto Aga), nine graduate students(Ronald Vallejo, Xiang Wang, Rose LynnEmergo, Hua Zhao, Jonathan Dizon, JavierBaca, Xin Gao, Shramana Mishra and DanFisher), four undergraduates (Alan Dibos,Jesse Noffsinger, Andrew Ra and DavidJones), and one visiting scientist, Dr.Sangho Yun, from the Royal Institute ofSweden. The group continues working onthin films, nanowires and devices of variousmaterials including high Tc superconduc-tors, ferroelectric materials, and semicon-ductors. This work is pursued through ex-tensive collaborations with national labsand other universities. Exciting progresshas been made in many research topics thegroup is carrying out (Please visit ourwebsite to see more details at http://www.physics.ku.edu).

CMP: Quantum Electronics

micrometer band of wavelengths is veryimportant for this work, in part due to thefact that the atmosphere has a “window”across this band where light is not stronglyabsorbed. The group is studyingsemiconductors that can be opticallystimulated or electrically injected, with thegoal of having a compact electrically drivenlaser or laser array that can deliver lots ofoutput power with small power input andcooling requirements. The grant includessignificant funds for equipment that enablesthe design and fabrication of novel devicesat KU—a nice complement to the clean roomthat has just come on-line.

The equipment obtained through the AirForce grant very positively impacts all otherresearch in the semiconductor group. Inparticular, the new equipment helps in acollaboration with the University of Iowa todevelop semiconductor based opticalglucose sensors for individuals withdiabetes. The new capabilities help withadhesion of metal to semiconductor surfaces(to make proper contacts) and to minimizenoise in individual detector elements, toname a few important impacts.

The quantum computation project hasinvolved an international team with leadingexperimental and theoretical groups from KU,SUNY Stony Brook, and the National Instituteof Information and CommunicationTechnology of Japan. The research isinterdisciplinary by nature involving Physics,Electronic Engineering, Chemistry, ComputerScience and Mathematics. Three Ph.D.graduate students, Bo Mao, Ming Wang, andZelin Zhang, joined the group last August.They have made rapid progress in learningthe basic skills needed to conduct researchin quantum electronics includingconstruction and operation of cryogenicequipment, ultra low-level signalmeasurement, microwave engineering, andmodeling and testing of superconductingdevices and integrated circuits.

Currently, Bo is investigating interactionsbetween microwave and superconductingqubits, Ming is working on quantumelectrodynamics (QED) using

Detector elements for glucose sensing

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Cosmology

RESEARCH

PHYSICS

The large-scale structure of the Uni-verse is the main topic of investiga-tion of the Cosmology Group (Hume

Feldman, Adrian Melott and SergeiShandarin). Recent evidence for an acceler-ating expansion of the Universe and themeasurement by astronomers, astrophysi-cists and cosmologists of the values ofmost cosmological parameters have led tothe development of the “Standard Cosmo-logical Model.” These advances have re-sulted in great excitement in the cosmologi-cal community in general and theCosmology group here at KU in particular.The members of the Cosmology Group con-tinue their large-scale structure studieswhile also starting to address a more diverserange of questions.

Prof. Hume Feldman developed anew formalism to investigate the massdistribution on universal scales, mostlyconcentrating on the motion anddynamics of galaxies and clusters. Sincegalaxies fall into deep gravitationalpotential wells, studying galactic flowsenables one to study the massconcentrations directly, rather thanhaving to deduce the location of massbased on light concentrations.Together with graduate studentDevdeep Sarkar, Prof. Feldmaninvestigates the correlation of various recentgalaxy surveys and the dynamicalinformation that can be harvested from thosetypes of observations. Devdeep Sarkarpresented some of the results at the APSmeeting in April 2005 in Tampa Florida, whileProf. Feldman presented various talks aboutthese subjects in Santa Fe and at Los AlamosNational Lab in NM; Fermilab; BenedictineUniversity, KS; and University of Missouriin Kansas City.

In the last ten years a great deal of efforthas been placed on detailed studies of thehigh-density regions, in particular theprogenitors of clusters of galaxies. Thedensity profiles, merging history,substructure and many other features have

been accurately modeled, simulated andanalyzed. These are the places where mostof the action is: first objects, galaxy formationand merging, X-rays, gravitational lensing,etc. However, recent studies indicate adiscrepancy between observations andtheory in low and mild density regions, whichare naturally associated with voids andsuperclusters respectively. Simulations showthat clumps of mass in voids seem to becapable of developing into void objects suchas clumps of stars. The morphology-densitycorrelation seems to be in contrast to whatis observed.

The study of low and medium densityregions is demanding for both observationand modeling. However, the observationalimpediment is coming to an end: large redshiftsurveys are now on-line and starting to

release data. As a result, valuable informationon the attributes of galaxies in voids andvoid walls has been obtained. The relationof the observational results to the physicalprocesses in voids and void walls does notseem to be trivial. Profs. Feldman andShandarin started a concerted effort to studylow (voids) and mild (Clusters of galaxies)density regions to address the seemingdiscrepancies between observation andmodeling.

Since we live in an evolving Universe,the structures in it are expected to alsochange over time. Clusters of galaxies arethe most recently formed in a hierarchy oflarger and larger objects. As they “settledown” after forming in mergers, one might

expect them to become more and moreuniformly spherical. This process wasconfirmed to occur in earlier analysis workdone at KU and by a group in Greece. Problemis, the process seems to have beenhappening much faster in the real Universethan in simulations that use generallyaccepted parameters. So, the unansweredquestion is “why?”

The cosmology program has a history ofinvolving exceptional undergraduates. Anexample, Stephen Floor received a covetedGoldwater Scholarship last year and will beoff to graduate school this year.

Prof. Sergei Shandarin has continued towork on several theoretical problems relatedto the large-scale structure in the universe.There are two closely related aspects instudies of the large-scale structure: nonlinear

gravitational dynamics andmorphology of the galaxy distributionin space. The morphology is simplya term for the quantitativecharacterization of sizes, shapes andother parameters astronomersmeasure in galaxy catalogs. Theorypredicts the galaxies to group in veryelongated filament-like clouds thatare connected with each otherforming a single network spreadingthroughout all observed parts of theuniverse. Astronomers seem toobserve such a structure in the

universe but have a problem in measuring it.The accurate quantitative descriptions ofsuch a system is complicated. However,modern mathematics and statistics providenew techniques that are able to grasp many,although not all, features of these complexstructures. Professor Shandarin reported hisfindings at the workshop on “MultiscaleGeometric Methods in Astronomical DataAnalysis” held at the Institute of Pure andApplied Mathematics University ofCalifornia in Los Angeles in November 2004.

Prof. Melott has done a number ofinterviews about cosmology and scienceeducation standards for local media, NPR, achurch religion and science video series, anda lecture at Hayden Planetarium in New York.

The Real (l) and Redshift Space (r)Mass Distributions to the Universe.

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High Energy

RESEARCH

PHYSICS

Members of this group, includingProfessors Phil Baringer andAlice Bean, postdoc Len

Christofek and graduate students ShabnamJabeen and Peter Bryant, are studying thetop quark system. In particular, they arelooking for electroweak production of thetop quark. Previous observations of the topquark have come from the strong produc-tion mechanism. Electroweak production isalso known as single top, because only onetop quark is produced, as opposed to thetop-antitop pair that you get in strong pro-duction. During the past year the D0 experi-ment has reported the world’s most restric-tive limit on the cross section for single top.In another year or so we hope to haveenough data to observe the process. Mea-suring the single top cross section will pro-vide unique insight into Standard Modelparameters and impose limits on possiblenew physics such as a fourth generation ofquarks or new flavor changing mechanisms.Shabnam Jabeen is writing her Ph.D. disser-tation on a search for single top in the chan-nel where the top decays to a b-quark jetand a W boson and the W in turn decays toan electron and a neutrino.

Postdoc Tania Moulik joined thegroup in Spring 2004. She has beenstationed at Fermilab where she isworking on the D0 experiment. Usingher experience from her previousjob, she has been exploring how touse electrons to tag jets that comefrom b-quarks. The D0 experimentcan currently tag such jets usingother techniques involving muonsand secondary vertices. Identifyingb-quark jets is crucial to much of thephysics we want to do at D0, so wewant to expand our ability to findthem. Top quark physics, searchesfor the Higgs and other newparticles, and, of course, studies ofthe b-quark itself, all depend uponseparating out these b-quark jetsfrom lighter quark-jets. Tania plans

to apply her new technique of taggedelectrons to studies of mixing in the Bssystem.

A major responsibility of the group isdeveloping various high precision trackingchambers made of silicon. Currently, for theD0 experiment, a four-layer detector made ofsilicon has been developed. This detectoris the closest to the collision vertex auditrecords high precision hits when a chargedparticle traverses it. The KU group underthe direction of Alice Bean is leading an effortto install a new layer of silicon even closerto the beamline this Fall which will providefor a better measurement on a particle decayvertex. Undergraduate students DavidHover, Vitaly Kheyfets, and Jake King withhelp from graduate students Peter Bryant andJustace Clutter have helped to calibrate thecurrent silicon detector and to buildelectronics for the new silicon detector.Professors Baringer and Bean, postdoc DonCoppage, and undergraduate studentsLawrence Percival and Carl Hinchey are alsohelping to construct the tracker outer barrel(TOB) silicon detector for the CMS detectorto be installed into the CERN LHC colliderstarting operation in 2007. The TOB detectorconsists of 6000 different silicon detectors

and is being constructed mostly in the U.S.at Fermilab and at the Univ. of California,Santa Barbara. Our KU group is working atFermilab on this project.

A new education effort started in thegroup about a year ago, called Quarked.Here, quark and other subatomic particlecharacters have been created in anticipationof making an animated video production fortelevision and the web. This project has ledto collaboration with the Department ofDesign, KU’s museum of Natural History,KTWU (PBS station in Topeka),scriptwriters, child psychologists, highschool physics teachers, executiveproducers, etc. Funding is currently beingsought to develop the concepts further andproduce an entertaining and educationalweb-site which includes interactive games.

Professor Baringer also hosted the 4th

annual QuarkNet workshop here at theUniversity of Kansas, during the summer of2004. This workshop brings together highschool physics teachers from all over Kansasto discuss K-12 curriculum issues, as well asexpanding the scope of their interactionswith KU Professors.

Professor Graham Wilson, a member ofthe D0 experiment, also leads the local effortto establish a leading role in the development

of the “Next Linear Collider”. Thisparticle accelerator, proposed tobegin operation within a decade,would collide electrons withpositrons at a total energy that is afactor of 10 higher than previouslyachieved. The NLC, if built, will beone of the two main particle physicsfacilities of the next century (alongwith the LHC). Prof. Wilson’s workhas involved development of the“calorimeter,” which will measurethe energies of particles producedin NLC collisions. The nationalfunding agencies have recentlybegun funding NLC-related work;hopefully, eventual construction ofthis facility will begin a new era inparticle physics.

The characters Ushi (up quark), Harold (up quark),and Danny (down quark), ride in the proton “SUV”

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Nonlinear: Beam Dynamics Isle Lab

RESEARCH

PHYSICS

Professor Jack Shi’s nonlinear beam-dynamics group has been workingon a project aimed at understanding

the collective beam instabilities in high-en-ergy particle accelerators. For many years, asignificant increase of luminosity has beena major priority of research and develop-ment for the current high-energy storage-ring colliders as well as future accelerator fa-cilities.

Our current research activities include (a)development of a compensation scheme tocontrol the long-range beam-beam effect thatis a chief factor limiting the luminosity in theTevatron; (b) the study of the coherent beam-beam instability that is important to storage-ring colliders with high-intensity beams; and(c) study of beam-beam effects in eRHIC.The eRHIC project is set to build an electronring at RHIC (Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider)in Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)with a highly polarized (>70%) 5-10 GeVelectron beam (e-beam) and will providecollisions between the electron beam and theion beam. Currently, this project is beingdeveloped in a collaboration involving MIT,BNL, DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg, Germany), and ourgroup at KU. Because of the proposed highluminosity, an understanding of the beam-beam effects in eRHIC is crucial to the designof the eRHIC facility. Our research has beenfunded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Having moved into a new lab spacein the spring and summer of 2004,the ISLE (Imaging Systems Lab Ex-

periments) lab has seen multiple transitionsin students and projects over the last year.Undergraduates Kevin Kohlstedt, SarahFeldt and David Tenny have all moved on tograduate schools.

Kevin’s first paper appeared in theJanuary 2005 issue of Physical Review E.Entitled “Far-from-equilibrium Ostwaldripening in electrostatically driven granularpowders,” the article is the first of manyanticipated to develop from Kevin’s workinvolving the ISLE lab at the University ofKansas and the Material Science Divisionof Argonne National Laboratory. Kevinspent two summers, in 2003 and 2004,working with Jeff Olafsen and Igor Aronsonon projects for both research programs.

Sarah’s paper entitled “InelasticGravitational Billiards” was published theweek of June 10, 2005 in Physical ReviewLetters. The paper is the first to report resultsof a carefully designed system toexperimentally measure the effects ofinelasticity on a gravitational billiard,confirming several behaviors theorized fromnumerical simulations pursued by otherresearch groups hoping to better understandnonlinear Hamiltonian systems.

David worked to design a new largeaspect ratio Taylor-Couette flow cell duringhis time in the ISLE lab, mixing his love ofaerodynamics and engineering with hisinterests in physics. When completed, thenext generation of his experiment shouldgenerate very interesting results.

With graduations, the face (and height!)of the ISLE lab has changed in the last year.Dana Maher and Ben Bammes are two (taller)undergraduates who have been performingresearch in the lab. Also, Nicholas Hunt, agraduate student in Civil Engineering andTareq Alrafae, a physics graduate studenthave joined the group.

Ben is continuing to develop both

experimental and numerical models ofpolymer folding using a novel macroscopicexperiment. The first results of Ben’sexperiment were reported in a paper entitled“Polymerlike folding of a two-dimensionalgranular chain in water” in the Decemberissue of the journal Chaos. The paper itselfwas the result of Ben’s award-winning videoin the First Annual Gallery of Imagescompetition at the APS March Meeting inMontreal, Canada in March of 2004. Devoidof many of the chemical and electrical detailsthat complicate real polymer systems, themodel experiment allows Ben to examine thefolding dynamic in a 2D geometry togeneralize the folding configurations that willhelp us to better understand how realpolymers fold.

Dana continued his work to develop amodel for sound propagation in shallow sandbeds to help detect invasive objects in sandyenvironments. Nicholas Hunt is working todevelop a remote sensing technique forphotogrammetric measurements of buildingsand other structures. The work is acollaborative project between AdolfoMatamoros in Civil Engineering and the ISLELab. Finally, graduate student Tareq Alrafaehas joined the ISLE group this summer. Tareqwill be developing new image algorithms forparticle tracking in granular flows of extendedparticles to better understand macroscopicmixing in multi-particle flows and to testequipartition in non-equilibrium systems.

Dislocations in a granular experimentdriven far from equilibrium

Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois

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The boundaries dividing the differentareas of physics have always beenill-defined. This is particularly no-

ticeable today in what is called “nuclearphysics.” Not so long ago it was possibleto make a rough divide between atomic,nuclear, and high-energy physics in termsof energy scales: roughly corresponding toeV, MeV, and GeV scale physics, respec-tively. Now, however, the KU “nuclearphysics” group, consisting of facultyMichael Murray and Steve Sanders, gradu-ate student Chaitanya Kavalugunta, andpostdoctoral research associates Eun-JooKim, Erik Johnson, and Selemon Bekeley, isexploring reactions with center-of-massnucleus-nucleus energies on the order totens of TeV. Moreover, the physical behav-iors are discussed in terms of hydrodynamicflow and plasmas characterized by Debyescreening lengths. Welcome to the world ofrelativistic heavy-ion nuclear physics!Here, the goal is to understand what hap-pens when the energy density in nuclearmatter exceeds the threshold where quarksfrom nearby nucleons can be freely ex-changed, effectively dissolving the con-stituent nucleons into a soup of quarks andgluons—recreating conditions of the earlyuniverse a few microseconds after the BigBang.

The KU group is currently playing a keyrole in the BRAHMS experiment at theBrookhaven National Laboratory RelativisticHeavy-ion Collider (RHIC). The group islargely responsible for the globalmeasurements that characterize the overlapof the two colliding nuclei during a RHICcollision and has built the global charged-particle multiplicity array that surrounds theinteraction region and that establishes theoverall particle production in a givencollision event. Moreover, the group isplaying a key role in understanding thehydrodynamic behavior of the createdmedium during a collision of, for example,two gold nuclei. During the past year wehave been exploring asymmetries in the

Nuclear Physics azimuthal emission of charged particles inmid-central collisions to establish thestrength of the collective azimuthal flowsignal. When two gold nuclei collide in amid-central collision, their overlap region hasa roughly oval shape. Pressure gradientslead to a preferential emission of particlesfrom this overlap region in the reaction planedefined by the impact parameter of thecollision.

The measurements at RHIC by both theBRAHMS collaboration and by the otherRHIC experiments have revealed totallyunexpected behavior corresponding to whatappears to be a strongly interacting fluid,most likely reflecting the creation of a quark-gluon plasma. However, the results of theseexperiments are not viewed as providingdefinitive evidence for the creation of thisplasma. There has been no evidence of afirst-order phase transition characterized bya specific latent heat. Moreover, the stronglyinteracting fluid that appears to be createdwas unexpected. While answering manyquestions, RHIC has raised new ones.

Professor Murray has been leading theeffort of the KU group to make a transitionto the CMS experiment at the Large HadronCollider (LHC) being constructed at CERN.When this facility comes on-line towards theend of the decade, it will allow a study ofheavy-ion collisions at energies over anorder of magnitude greater than can beachieved at RHIC. The KU activity on theCMS project ramped up significantly in thepast year. KU student Megan Lehnherr hasdone realistic model simulations of the ZDCdetector being developed for CMS.Professor Murray has been awarded an NSFCareer Grant that will fund a postdoc, OlegGrachov, working specifically on the CMSproject.

While it may once have been possible tocharacterize nuclear physics by an energyscale, such a definition would nowencompass only one part of the field.Nuclear Physics appears to be once againreinventing itself, which just adds to itsattraction for the practitioners working in thefield.

RESEARCH

PHYSICSSpace Physics

Professor Tom Cravens andpostdoctoral researcher InaRobertson have been working on

models of the upper atmosphere andionosphere of Saturn’s satellite Titan.NASA’s Cassini spacecraft arrived at theSaturn system in July 2004, and the first ofmany encounters with Titan took place onOctober 26, 2004. Prof. Cravens is a memberof the instrument team for the Ion andNeutral Mass Spectrometer, whichdetected both nitrogen and methane (i.e.,natural gas) in Titan’s atmosphere. Duringa more recent Titan encounter on April 16,2005, the INMS instrument carried out thefirst ion composition measurements ofTitan’s atmosphere. The models of Titan’satmosphere developed at KU over the lastdecade with the help of current and paststudents (including graduate student NedKeller and undergraduate Judy Yu) are nowstarting to be tested. Post-doctoralresearcher Ina Robertson, Ned Keller, JudyYu, and Prof. Cravens were all at the INMSteam meeting at the University of Michiganwhen the April encounter data wasreturned from the spacecraft.

Ina Robertson, Prof. Cravens, and Prof.Misha Medvedev are working with scientistsat NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center andat the Harvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics to unravel the detailedphysical processes responsible for x-rayemission due to solar wind charge transfercollisions with neutrals in the heliosphereand in the terrestrial magnetosheath. Prof.Cravens visited Harvard in January for aweek in order to pursue this collaboration.During the last week of May, Ina Robertsonand Tom Cravens presented their recentresults on x-ray emission and on Titan at theAmerican Geophysical Union in NewOrleans.

Professor Medvedev is also continuinga collaborative project with Prof. Cravensand Robertson on x-ray emission from Marsand what it can tell us about the solar wind(Continued on page 22)

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Theoretical Physics

RESEARCH

PHYSICS

An anonymous 21st Century proserwrites, “Some quail at scary massless doublets; Some say they fly as

swift as light. The color singlet neutral lep-tons fly matter wings in endless night.Probably!”

In Kansas we call them neutrinos, andfind them interesting. National headlineswere made when Professor Danny Marfatia,formerly of Boston University and theUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison, joinedthe KU particle theory group recently (welike to think!).

What is it about these scary particles thathave new theory faculty member DannyMarfatia and the old guard theoristsProfessors John Ralston and Doug McKayholding forth in strange tongues? Mainly itis data that has been painstakingly gatheredby clever and diligent experimenters andobservers over decades, with some bigbreakthroughs in the past couple of years.A coherent picture of neutrino properties isemerging, and the theory group is spendinga lot of its time contributing to thedevelopment of this picture, sometimes byfinding alternatives to the dominant viewthat neutrinos have tiny, fixed mass valuesand either “oscillate” from one type toanother as they fly in vacuum or slicethrough matter feeling forces fromsurrounding matter.

Danny Marfatia and his collaboratorshave been showing how mass varying

neutrinos can explain all the neutrino datafrom accelerators and from sources like thesun. This is a novel twist, requiring neutrinopropagation through space different from ourusual ideas of the vacuum. John has recentlydiscovered a remarkable feature of classicalradio wave propagation that may make thedetection of ultra-high energy (a billion-billion electron volts) cosmic neutrinos mucheasier by carrying the radio “news” of anenormously energetic cosmic neutrinocollision with atoms in Antarctic ice towaiting antennas with extraordinaryefficiency. Doug and newly minted KU Ph.D.Shahid Hussain, with John, Danny and othermembers of the RICE (Radio Ice CherenkovExperiment) have worked out theconsequences that detection of such highenergy neutrino events can have for ourunderstanding of the fundamental forcesbetween neutrinos and atoms.

The RICE experiment, conceived andimplemented at Kansas, presented its newestresults, based on data collected from 2000through 2004, at the International CosmicRay Conference in Pune, India, in August.Though no neutrinos with ultra-highenergies have been observed by RICE or anyother of the dozen or so experiments aroundthe world, RICE has placed the most severelimits of all on the numbers of these elusiveparticles impinging on us each second at thehighest cosmic ray energies. All threetheorists plus student Rainer Schiel and nowformer student, Shahid Hussain, arecollaborators on the project.

The theory group is active on a widevariety of new ideas and new problemsbesides those inspired by the “swift as light”neutrino, but the focus these days is on the“particle of the opening decade of the 21st

Century”, the once lowly, now princely,neutrino.

Captain John Ralston, Science Officer Doug McKay and Communications Expert Danny Marfatia.

Ali Soleimani methodically examines miles and miles of wire at FermilabNational Laboratory.

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TRANSITIONS

Advancing Labs

As part of a continuing effort to rein-vigorate the undergraduate cur-riculum, the department has made

significant investments in the upper-levellaboratories. Funding has come from twocompetitive “Tuition Enhancement” awardsof about $40k each, as well as about $20k indepartmental and CLAS funds. These mon-ies have been used to purchase new experi-mental equipment as well as computers anddata acquisition systems.

The experiments have been almostcompletely revamped with a strong emphasison atomic physics and quantum mechanics.For example, in PHSX 516 we now haveexperiments on quantum interference ofsingle photons, x-ray structure of atoms,Faraday rotation of light, and electroncyclotron resonance. To dovetail with thedepartment’s biophysics initiative twoNuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)experiments have been purchased.

The Advanced Laboratory class nowincludes a significant emphasis on writing.At the beginning of the semester this seemedstrange to the students. One student evenremarked that in four years at KU no onehad ever cared about her writing. However,good writing demonstrates that the studenthas understood what they have done andhas taken the time to organize their thoughts.Since several of the experiments produce richdata sets it is important that students learnto present scientific data clearly. This is

A fine adjustment of the Faraday rotationapparatus.

introduced at the beginning of the semesterwith several lectures on graphics and datapresentation.

In order to prepare themselves for theworkplace, students need to makepresentations orally as well as in writtenform. Each student gives two presentationsduring the semester, which are critiqued bytheir fellow classmates. Near the end of thesemester, all the students now prepareposters that are presented at a Society ofPhysics Students (SPS) pizza party.

New Faculty

Carsten Timm is the new condensedmatter theorist who will be joiningthe department in January of 2006.

We’ve asked him to tell us a little bit abouthimself as we look forward to his arrival inthe spring. – Editor’s Note.

Kerstin, my wife, and I both grew up inHamburg. Many physicists know this citybecause of the synchrotron being there,DESY. I studied physics at the University ofHamburg, also took some computer science,and completed my PhD in 1996. I workedwith the late Joachim (“Joe”) Appel and mythesis was about the theory of vortices inhigh-temperature superconductors. Appelhad strong ties to the U.S. and suggestedthat I go there.

So, after my PhD I went to IndianaUniversity in Bloomington as a postdoc.Kerstin, my girlfriend at that time, (who hadspent a year in Wichita, KS as part of a highschool exchange program), followed a fewmonths later. There, I worked mainly withSteve Girvin, now at Yale, on magnetism inthe quantum Hall system (the two-dimensional electron gas produced insemiconductor heterostructures in a strongmagnetic field). Kerstin and I got married inBloomington in 1997. We both enjoyed ourtime there. In 1998, we went back to Germanyand I became a postdoc in the group of KarlBennemann at the Free University Berlin.

(As an aside: There is an interesting storybehind this name. The old University inBerlin ended up in East Berlin after WW II.

While students from the western part couldstudy there, the climate was not one of openscientific debate. Therefore students fromWest Berlin formed the plan to found a newuniversity in the western part. They managedto get enough money together to do that,mainly from U.S. sources, and the new schoolwas called Free University to set it apart fromthe eastern one.)

There, I worked again on high-temperature superconductors, on magneticsystems, and on nonlinear optics. Kerstinstarted to study education at the sameuniversity. Our daughters Birte and Lina wereborn here in 1999 and 2003. We live close tothe city limits, where it is nice and green.

When Bennemann retired in 2000, I joinedthe group of his successor, Felix von Oppen,as an assistant (“Assistent”). This is atraditional position in the German system,each full professor used to have oneAssistent (although this is changing now),for example, Werner Heisenberg was theAssistent of Max Born. It is a kind of seniorpostdoc. Around this time I becameinterested in diluted magneticsemiconductors and I am still working in thisfield. In particular, I am interested in theinterplay between disorder, magnetism, andtransport. I also helped to write the proposalfor a Collaborative Research Center (a hugegroup grant) on bistable molecules onsurfaces. Our interest here is mainly intransport properties. This Research Centeris funded starting in July 2005 and I will beone of the heads of a subproject for half ayear before coming to KU.

Carsten Timm

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TRANSITIONS

Astronomer Changes Phase

Physicists have studied the condi-tions and results of phase changefrom the beginning of the field’s his-

tory. Now, astronomy professor SteveShawl, the past editor of Momentum, isstudying phase change—not in physicalsystems but in one particular living system:his own. He has entered into KU’s phasedretirement program. This program is avail-able to faculty of age 55 or greater who haveat least ten years of full-time service in theRegent’s system. The program requires re-tirement within 5 years. Employment can beat a maximum of 75% or a minimum of 25%.Salary is prorated to the amount of effortcontracted for; however, fringe benefits(health and retirement contributions) are atthe 100% level. Thus, it is similar to but bet-ter than taking five sabbatical leaves in arow!

Professor Thomas Armstrong was thefirst of the physics faculty to avail himself ofthe program; he completed five years in 2003.Professor Robin Davis is now in his secondyear. The average length of time that a facultymember usually remains in the program is

Steve Shawl at Tohono Chul Park

Steve Shawl and wife, Jeannette, set free in the wilds of Arizona

only 2 years! (You can use your imaginationas to why!)

Shawl has taken the program one stepbeyond what others have done: he sold hishouse and moved, lock, stock, and barrel toTucson! He will return to Lawrence from mid-August to mid-December to teach for thefall semester to fulfill his obligations, andthen return to his new home in Tucson.

Why Tucson after more than 32 years inLawrence? He and Jeannette lived andworked there for the two years immediatelybefore coming to Lawrence in 1972. As thehome of the National Optical AstronomyObservatories, it is a natural place forastronomers. Furthermore, having spent anumber of summers and two sabbaticalleaves there, and having given Jeannette fullcontrol of where they would retire, it was anatural place to go. Snow and cold would beencountered only when they chose to go tothe mountains! No more grass to cut! No

more hay fever! (Unfortunately, not true; thisspring was worse in Tucson for him than inLawrence!)

Steve tells us that the “retirement” partof his phased retirement has not yet kickedin. When not teaching his introductoryastronomy class for the astronomydepartment at the University of Arizona, hewas working on the fifth edition of hisintroductory astronomy textbook that is nowavailable for students around the country.There was also trying to get settled into anew house while doing bathroom andkitchen renovations!

Unbeknownst to anyone until now, hejinxed KU’s basketball team this spring whenhe told his University of Arizona class thathe was from KU, where they really knew whatbasketball was all about! We can only hopethat next time he will keep his mouth shutuntil after the NCAA tournament!

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STUDENTS

Student News

Josh Meyers was selected as the winnerof the Class of 1913 Chancellor’s Student Award for 2005 and received an

honorable mention in the competition for anNSF graduate fellowship.

Luis Vargas has been named the recipientof an APS Minority Scholarship.

Matthew Matheny graduated this summerwith a B.S. in Physics and Math and willcontinue his pursuit of quantum informa-tion research at Caltech as a new Ph.D.graduate student.

Undergraduate student Jesse Noffsingergraduated this May and is attending UCBerkeley in the fall of 2005. Besides manyother awards he has received, he is a 2005NSF graduate scholarship recipient.

Kevin Kohlstedt was awarded a McCormickFellowship to attend graduate school atNorthwestern University in Chemical Engi-neering starting in the fall of 2004. In thespring of 2005, Kevin received a DOE fel-lowship to continue his graduate studies.

Sarah Feldt chose to attend the Universityof Michigan and has been working on agraduate degree in biophysics. In thespring of 2005, Sarah received an NSFGraduate Fellowship to support her contin-ued studies.

David Tenny applied to graduate school atPurdue University and started in the springof 2005 working on a Master’s degree.

Three for Three! Congratulations to under-graduate physics majors Shawn Hendersonfrom Wichita, David Hover from OverlandPark and Hannah Swift of Olathe for theirselection as Barry M. Goldwater Scholarsfor 2005.

Charles Pye (physics), Andrew LakeWooten and Gianna Short (both engineer-

ing physics) are three of the 16 newChancellor’s Club Scholars.

Ian Lewis and Jake King will be attendinggraduate school at the University of Wis-consin beginning in the fall of 2005.

Stephen Floor will be attending graduateschool at the University of California in SanFrancisco in the fall of 2005.

Sigma Pi Sigma

This year on April 29, a group of 14 ini-tiates, comprised of undergraduateand graduate students as well as two

new faculty members in our department,were inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma, thehonor society of the Society of Physics Stu-dents. The ceremony was presided over byProfessor Jack Shi, Honors Coordinator forthe Department of Physics & Astronomy.

Photo right: Professor Jack Shi ad-dresses the new SPS inductees at theinduction ceremony.

Brian Thomas (KU PhD 2005) has takenan Assistant Professor position at Wash-burn University.

Sigma Pi Sigma induction ceremony group picture. From left to right:Daniel Hogan (U), Scott Graham (G), Leah Bowen (G), MohammedAlenezy (G), Javier Baca (G), Zelin Zhang (G), Larissa Ejzak (U),Shramana Mishra (G), Bo Mao (G), Ming Wang (G), Tareq Alrefae(G), Devdeep Sarkar (G), Chris Fischer (F), Danny Marfatia (F).(Undergraduate students: U, Graduate Students: G, Faculty: F)

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STUDENTS

The 2004 – 05 Annual DepartmentBanquet was held at Badd Jacks inTongonoxie on May 14. Prior to the

award ceremony, and while people were stillarriving, Mr. Curry and his wife providedwonderful musical entertainment. Thecrowd of over 80 faculty, students and staffenjoyed a tasty Mexican dinner while listen-ing to an extensive list of accomplishmentsfrom within the Department.

Graduating this year at the undergraduatelevel, along with their specific degree, were:

Adam G. Lohoefener (BS EngineeringPhysics), Andrew R. Bricker (BAAstronomy), Joshua E. Meyers (BS,Astronomy, Physics), Stephen N. Floor (BSPhysics), Andrew Giebler (BS Physics),Jacob R. King (BS Physics), Ian M. Lewis(BS Physics), Matthew H. Matheny (BSPhysics), Jesse D. Noffsinger (BS Physics),Andrew J. Womack (BS Physics), and JasonShea (BS Physics).

At the graduate level, graduating thisyear are: Scott W. Chambers (Ph.D. Physics),Nurur Rahman (Ph.D. Physics), Lihui Jin(Ph.D. Physics), Brian Thomas (Ph.D.Physics), Shahid Hussain (Ph.D. Physics),Mike Santilli (MS, Physics), Jan Kurzidim(MS, Physics), Darius Gallagher (MS,Physics), and Carissa Hill (MS, Physics).

Department Banquet

Awards were also given out for theOutstanding Senior in Engineering Physicsto Adam Lohoefener, the Prosser Award forUndergraduate Majors to Daniel Hogan,Luis Vargas, and David Jones, and the E.E.Slossen Award for Outstanding GraduateTeaching Assistants to Evan Guarnaccia,Rainer Schiel, and Shramana Mishra. TheUndergraduate Faculty Teaching Awardwent to Professor Judy Wu, while the SPS

Staff Person of the Year waspresented to Mr. Robert Curry.

Also recognized at thebanquet were the followingrecipients of UndergraduateResearch Awards handed out bythe University Honors Program:Lori Smith, senior in astronomy,mathematics and physics,daughter of Darrel and KathySmith; Baldwin High School,studies Correlating CosmicRay Flux with the Bone CancerRate with Larry Martin, professorand senior curator, NaturalHistory Museum andBiodiversity Research Center

and Professor Adrian Melott. Brennan R.Metzler, junior in mathematics and physics,son of Rob and Marcia Metzler; RockhurstHigh School, Kansas City, MO., studiesFront-End Electronics for the Zero DegreeColorimeter with Profs. Michael Murray, andSteve Sanders. Laura A. Stiles, sophomorein engineering physics, daughter of Markand Brenda Stiles, Shawnee Mission EastHigh School, studies Quark Chemistry: IsChemical Equilibrium Attained inRelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions? withProfs. Michael Murray and Steve Sanders.Benjamin E. Bammes, senior in computerengineering and physics, son of Eugene andRuth Bammes, Washburn Rural High School,studies Modeling Polymer Folding in aPoor Solvent with Prof. Jeff Olafsen. DanaCraig Maher, senior in physics, son of SusanN. Maher; Omaha Central High School,studies Attenuation and Dispersion in a 1DStress Chain with Prof. Jeff Olafsen.

Head cook at the fall picnic Bob Curry is cheered on by Don Nieto’s kidsand Steve Shawl.

SPS visits Fermilab

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STUDENTSEngineering Physics

Graduating seniors of the EPHX pro-gram must complete a senior de-sign course in the Department of

Physics & Astronomy: EPHX 601, Design ofPhysical Systems. The course has recentlybeen revamped as part of the curriculum re-structuring of the senior level laboratorycourses. As part of that restructuring, thecourse is now 4 credit hours and includesboth minor and major projects that requirethe seniors to culminate their knowledge ofmechanical, electrical and computationalengineering in a deliverable product for ourresearch and/or teaching laboratories.Here, we briefly profile our two graduatingEPHX seniors and their design projects.

Chris Patrick designed an LED Pulsersystem to provide high-speed switching ofvirtually any LED on the market. The deviceworks by skewing a low-speed clock signalfrom the National Instruments PCI-6221Multifunction DAQ, and by using high-speed logic circuitry on a custom circuitboard. LabView and the PCI-6221, which alsoprovides power to the unit and to the LED,digitally control the pulse settings. The LEDreceives pulses of 2.2ns to 12.2ns long,adjustable in 10ps increments. The pulsescan be repeated at any frequency up to 1MHz, either continuously or for a specifiednumber of pulses. This device is intendedto interface with a photo-multiplier for usewith Professor Graham Wilson’s research.

Adam Lohoefener worked with BobCurry to create a new user-control interfacefor thermometry experiments in ourintroductory physics labs. The projectrequired interfacing two thermometers perworkstation to the LabView platform throughthe PCI-6221 Multifunction DAQ board.Adam learned that pedagogical applicationsactually involve more, not less design, ascare must be taken to provide an interfacethat our teaching assistants can use toinstantly assess whether our lab studentsare performing their experiments correctly,while at the same time leaving the studentswith enough experiential learning

Kyle Gonterwitz (2004) is working forthe City of Lawrence Department ofUtilities Engineering Division as a

GIS Analyst (Geographical Information Sys-tems). He was well prepared by his EPHXdegree, passed the FE (Fundamentals’ ofEngineering) exam in 6 hours easily and isworking towards a PE (Professional Engi-neer). At the Utilities Department, hehandles the water treatment, distribution,and wastewater collection for the commu-nity. To continue to make use of his Aero-space Engineering background, he is also astudent pilot.

Brent Harris (2004) is now working forthe Secret Service.

Joni Jorgensen (2004) is pursuing herMasters degree in Aerospace EngineeringSciences at the University of Colorado atBoulder. She is a research assistant in theStructural Dynamics and Control Labworking on modeling the deploymentdynamics of an elastic solar array. Theprototype array is scheduled for launch thissummer.

Nicholas Shea (2002) works at anengineering company in St. Louis calledLectro Engineering, which specializes inproviding automated machinery for thedownstream blow-molded plastics industryworldwide. The company is also involvedwith many innovative, customautomation projects in a variety of otherindustries. As such, Nick has put to gooduse the design experiences from his ownEPHX 601 senior project in Professor JeffreyOlafsen’s laboratory (see associated EPHX601 story on this page). He says heappreciates the work as a combination ofelements of mechanical, electrical, andcomputer control systems design, all ofwhich he was exposed to through the

EPHX 601 Projects

EPHX Alumni

opportunities to make the labs worthwhile.The software was prepared for students inthis fall’s offering of PHSX 211 and BobCurry’s development of a laboratory onNewton’s Law of Cooling.

capstone course in Physics & AstronomyDepartment. After a year of overseas workexperience in Asia, he enjoys city life in St.Louis.

Adrienne Juett (1999) finished her PhDin Physics at MIT in May 2004. Since then,she has been a postdoctoral researchassociate at the University of Virginia in theDepartment of Astronomy working withProfessor Craig Sarazin.

Patrick De Lurgio (1999) has beenworking at Argonne National Laboratory asan Engineering Physicist. The focus of hiswork is the design of novel radiationdetectors for two user facilities at ANL: theAdvanced Photon Source and the IntensePulsed Neutron Source. He currently residesin the Chicago area with his fiancée, Vanessa.

Taimoor Noor (1998) has been workingat Sprint since July 1998, and is currently aProgram Manager for a voice-over IPproduct. He has been selected to participatein the Sprint Leadership Developmentprogram and received the company’s highestperformance ratings in 2002 and 2003.

Don Eversmeyer (1965) is enjoyingretirement in Kansas City, MO after a careerin Systems Engineering with IBM. Hisnewest interest is sailing and has led to arecent sailboat purchase.

Leo LeSage (1957) retired from ArgonneNational Laboratory in 1998 and lives inNaperville, Illinois, but has continued towork part time on various specialassignments for Argonne. In 2002, heorganized a NATO sponsored conference inMoscow on nuclear submarinedecommissioning and disposal. Morerecently, Leo has been working on variousissues related to the establishment of theWorld Nuclear University. Prior to retirement,he was Director of both the Applied PhysicsDivision and the Engineering PhysicsDivision. One of his most interesting dutiesduring this period was his involvement insome of the recovery activities at Chernobyl.Currently, he also serves as a member of theKU School of Engineering Advisory Board.

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ALUMNI

From Lawrence to London

Katie Greene, a recent Master’sgraduate of the Department ofPhysics & Astronomy, was asked

to share some of her recent experiences fromher summer internship at The Economist.– Editor’s Note.

The summer after my graduation, Ihopped the pond. Physics was on my mind,but not in my job description.

My first experience outside of Heathrowairport in London was in a queue, as theBritish say, waiting for a taxi. I had anunexpected 80 GBP in my pocket from anincredibly gracious financial analyst whom Ihad just met on the plane eight hours earlier.He had admitted to me that he was quite fondof America. On his first trip to the States, hehad the luxury of a warm welcome, andwanted to make sure I felt similarly welcomedin his country. Besides, he said with standardBritish humility, it’s a shame how much theypay people in finance.

Confident I would safely be transportedto my lodgings, I took a picture while waitingin line. “Katie’s first queue,” I thought it couldbe titled if I ever had the occasion to name it.Even though I knew it was time to startsoaking in my new surroundings, I hadn’tcompletely arrived in London yet. Mythoughts were still back in Lawrence, thinkingabout everything I didn’t have time to dobefore I left. I was actually still coming downfrom the rush of printing off the final draftsof my thesis and turning them in to thecampus bindery on the morning of my flight.

I was in London for a three-monthinternship. It wasn’t to continue research ina physics lab, however. I had earned thescience journalism internship at TheEconomist—an international magazine thatmy mother was erroneously convinced wasonly sold in airports to businessmen. WhileI waited for my taxi and thought about thatmorning’s rush to print my thesis, I feltrelieved. I had made the Graduate Schooldeadline and I would earn my Master’sdegree that summer. Yes, I thought, I justmight make a fine journalist, working most

Katie Greene

fervently under the heavy pressure of animminent deadline.

When I took the job that summer at TheEconomist, I joined the ranks of the 10% orso physics MS graduates with jobs that theAmerican Institute of Physics calls “notscience or engineering.” It was scary. I wasn’ttrained for journalism. I had just spent thelast two years of my life devoted to learninghow to design, set-up and run an experimentin Professor Linda Olafsen’s semiconductorlaser optics laboratory. My experience withthe press before the internship was limitedto reading the Science Times as a treat in

between data runs for my research project.But, in early 2004 I was finishing up my

last official semester at KU and didn’t havea distinct job opportunity. At this time, oneof my professors, Michael Murray, showedme The Economist’s annual call for theRichard Casement Intern. As their ad read,the aim was “more to discover writing talentin a science student than scientific aptitudein a budding journalist.” It seemed worth ashot. As an undergraduate, my major waschemistry at a small liberal arts school whereI was able to sneak in more than the requiredEnglish classes. I even contributed sciencearticles, over topics such as a simpleexplanation of the special theory of relativityand basic thermodynamics of the Challengerdisaster, to the school’s literary magazine. Ingraduate school, my primary writing outletwas as editor of a newsletter for the AmericanAstronautical Society group. So, once I got

it in my head that I could be the intern thatThe Economist was looking for, I becameobsessed with applying.

The application was amazingly simple: aletter introducing oneself and a sample newsarticle of 600 words. To be honest, I wasn’tup-to-date on The Economist’s science, so Iwent to the library and buried myself in recentissues, getting a feel for the writing and scopeof their science. I thought about newsworthystories that could come out of the KU physicsdepartment. My advisor, Dr. Olafsen, seemedto be a natural choice to highlight. Her labwas just starting to take-off and her projectstouched on very socially relevant issues. Oneof the projects that I worked on was thecharacterization of mid-infraredsemiconductor lasers. In particular, we weretesting the laser performance at roomtemperature to determine if their structureoffered promise for extremely sensitivechemical sensors for field use. Anotherproject in her lab involved designing andfabricating detectors for a novel glucosemonitoring system that wouldn’t require afinger prick to measure glucose in a diabeticpatient. No doubt that Dr. Olafsen’s researchwas exciting and significant, but the more Ilooked at back-issues of The Economist, themore convinced I became that the applicationarticle needed to be something unexpectedand maybe a bit more controversial.

In the end, I decided to write about AdrianMelott’s proposed theory that a gamma rayburst was responsible for the second largestmass extinction in Earth’s history. With theproofreading aid of KU’s resident sciencewriter, Roger Martin, I finalized myapplication and emailed it to London. Then,after a New York interview with TheEconomist’s science editor, I ended up asthe 2004 Casement intern.

I started out my London summer withoutany real clue about what it means to scourpress releases for the most interestingresearch (by The Economist’s standards). Ididn’t have experience contacting scientistsand asking the right questions. And it was a

(Continued on page 22)

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ALUMNI

Alumni News

Humberto Campins (BA Astronomy,1977) continues to main-tain an extremely active research program in-

volving comets. For example, in April 2005 inVarenna, Italy, he presented an invited talkat a conference on the role of water in theorigin of life. The John Templeton Founda-tion sponsored this conference. A total of 20scientists from around the world were in-vited participants, and he was the only as-tronomer invited. Then, in May 2005 hegave an invited talk at the Goldschmidt con-ference (geochemistry) on the contributionof comets to formation of the Earth’s watersupply. In July 2005, he made ground-basedvisible-light observations at Kitt Peak Na-tional Observatory of comet Tempel 1 be-fore, during and after the impact withNASA’s Deep Impact mission. Finally, inAugust 2005, he attended the “Asteroids,

Comets and Meteors” conference in Buzios,Brazil. During a two-month summer visit toTucson, he organized monthly moonlightwalks in the desert, which were attended byhis “old” KU astronomy professor, SteveShawl.

As reported in the Athens Messenger inJuly of 2005, the Department of Physics andAstronomy at the University of Ohio hasappointed Joseph Shields to be the newdepartment chairman. Joe graduated in 1985with double majors in Physics andAstronomy. He received the StranathanAward, was the Outstanding Senior inPhysics in 1985 and was selected as the Classof 1913 Award winner for graduation. Joewas also a University Scholar and aSummerfield Scholar while at KU.

Dr. Roberto Aga (PhD 2003) moved to aresearch scientist position at the Fisk

John Clark, Ph.D. student of Prof. Tom Cravens, currently on active duty (second fromleft) in Kosovo with his National Guard unit, writes: “As the S1 (Personnel Officer), Ihave adopted some additional duties: I am the primary liaison with the media here.Normally this was assigned to the S7 (Information Officer), but we had to changethings up a little on staff. This has kept me rather busy as we do several TV/Radioshows every week”

University in Tennessee in March 2005.

Dr. Albert Gapud (PhD 1999) will join thefaculty of the Physics department at SouthAlabama University in fall of 2005.

Dr. Byeongwon Kang (PhD 1998) hasbeen appointed to a faculty position in thePhysics Department of Chungbuk NationalUniversity, one of the nine state universitiesin South Korea. She is the first female facultymember appointed by this department.

Brian Black (BS Geophysics 1987, BSGeology 1987) writes to us: “Afterwandering about in Europe and Turkeygoing on various and sundry Geophysicaland Geological boondoggles, I’ve settledinto the most mysterious realm of ComputerProgramming (ASP, .NET, SQL Server, you-name-it) and watching over a gaggle ofProgrammers and Business Analystsdeveloping Enterprise-level applications forWeb deployment. I’m living in Georgia andwatching the amazing antics of the kids!”

Emeriti professors Herman Munczek andTom Armstrong converse at the annualDepartmental Picnic.

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ALUMNI

The department relies heavily on con-tributions from alumni and friends tomaintain a vibrant atmosphere of

scientific enquiry. It is only through suchdonations that we are able to support theactivities of our students.

Several years ago, Professor EmeritusFrank Prosser established a Prosser Awardfor an outstanding junior in physics orengineering physics. This was the first newscholarship program in the department sincethe Stranathan Fund was established overthirty years ago. Through generousdonations, we have now been able to addseveral new scholarship programs: This pastyear we awarded our first Lowry Fellowshipto an entering graduate student and our firstBadgley Scholarship for a womenundergraduate astronomy, physics, orengineering physics major. A newTombaugh Scholarship will help support anentering astronomy undergraduate major inthe fall. The Hansel Scholarship is nowfunding an Engineering Physics student.

The importance of these scholarshipopportunities to the overall strength of thedepartment cannot be overstated. At theundergraduate level, students (and theirparents) are being asked to carry anincreasing part of their educational expense.This is forcing some students to makedifficult decisions on where to attend collegebased on financial considerations. Theability to offer some undergraduatescholarship aid is needed if we are tosuccessfully compete for the best students.Although most of our graduate students doobtain some support through either teachingassistantships or research fellowships, asimilar dynamic is at work where it is oftennecessary to augment our normal stipend tosuccessfully compete for the best students.

With the creation of a permanentCommittee on Alumni Affairs, theDepartment has begun to actively solicitfunds to help in developing more scholarshipopportunities for undergraduate andgraduate students, as well as expandedresources for research and teaching. We

EndowmentSeptember ‘04 - August ‘05Astronomy Donors:Doug P. FayRonald L. GillilandStephen M. HillJack G. HillsJames W. LiebertJoseph C. ShieldsRonald L. SnellBarbara & Bruce TwarogEsther Storer Utchen

Physics Donors:Aventis PharmaceuticalsDr. Steven L. BallDr. Alice BeanDr. Robert & Margaret BearseDr. Leon W. & Mary V. BerubeThe Boeing Co.Dr. Patrick BriggsCapt Michael D. BroxChristopher R. Brull & Dr. Jennifer R. BrullJames S. & Jean S. CarsonDr. Rebecca C. ChakyDonald Alan CloseMary R. & John P. DavidsonDr. Gisela DreschoffMichelle Leonard & Timothy A. DumanGina L. EnfrancaDean J. FlatlandDr. Charles Lee Francis, Jr.Dr. Juan A. GomezCynthia Williams HaldersonDr. Dennis HewettDr. Gerald E. Holmberg & Dr. Margaret

Cooper HolmbergDr. Phillip A. HornungDr. Richard F. HubbardCol Brenda S. Johnson & Ltc Lindley N.

JohnsonDr. Ramona KesselDr. Chi Kin LamRichard G. Leamon

Gary E. Hanson, a 1966 BS in Physicsgraduate of the department, paid areturn visit to us on September 25,

2004. He spent the morning with SteveSanders, who showed off the departmentand brought Gary up to speed on all thechanges in research and instruction in thelast 40 years.

We welcome the opportunity to show offthe department. If you get back to Lawrencefor whatever reason, please pay us a visit!

Gary E. Hanson

hope to contact all of our alumni over thenext year to describe the various ways theymight consider helping to support theDepartment of Physics and Astronomy.

Dr. Douglas W. & Linda Dae McKayVirginia Evelyn MoatsMotorola FoundationDrs. Linda & Jeffrey OlafsenJames D. PattersonDr. James A. PintarJane Dion PrestonFrank Prosser Jr.Dr. Pamela A. Puhl-Quinn & Richard A.

QuinnDr. Brad RothStephen J. SandersRaymond J. ShuSteven E. SommarsAnn Lowry Sundeen & John E Sundeen Jr.Delora C. & Matthew TannerDavid A. VanPeltDr. Jeff A. WingerDr. Randall R. Zombola

Engineering Physics Donors:Paul M. FergusonLewis R. NashFrancis W. Prosser, Jr., PhD

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(ULTRA – Telescopes!Continued from page 4)

CONTINUED...

begin! The ULTRA project is taking most ofProf. Twarog’s research time. As animmediate benefit from the project and ourcollaboration with San Diego State, Mt.Laguna Observatory has been designated aResearch Experience for Undergraduates(REU) site by NSF. Two of our majors,Lindsay Mayer and Luis Vargas, have beenselected for the inaugural program in 2005.

Currently, we have found somefascinating science targets to meet. In a rareconfluence of luck and good weather, onerun last May at the WIYN 0.9 meter on KittPeak provided enough photometric data todetermine the reddening and metallicity ofNGC 6791, one of the oldest and richest diskclusters. Undergraduate Lindsay Mayerspent her Tombaugh Fellowship summerreducing Stromgren photometric data whileProfessor Anthony-Twarog kept pace withcalibration efforts. Using intermediate-bandphotometry of the unevolved stars in thecluster, the reddening was determined to bealmost 50% larger than recent estimates usingmore indirect techniques. The interestingissue is the inability of the standard scaled-solar stellar models to match the combinedeffects of the higher reddening and highmetallicity. Instead, a superior match isproduced using isochrones generated withnon-standard abundances for light elementsrelative to the scaled up iron abundances.Matched to “alpha-enhanced” isochroneswith heavy elements boosted by 60% abovesolar, NGC 6791 appears to be 8 billion yearsold.

Steve Shawl has entered KU’s phasedretirement program; an article on that isincluded in the Transitions section. Hisprofessional efforts since September 2003have been on the 5th edition of hisintroductory astronomy textbook,Discovering Astronomy. (He published acustom edition of the 4th edition last summer.)Since the original authors have now retiredfrom the project, he solicited two additionalastronomers as coauthors. One is past KU

Adjunct Assistant Professor Keith Ashman,who is now at UMKC. Keith was broughtinto the project as an expert on galaxies andcosmology who has previous experiencewith publishing and creative writing.Professor Beth Hufnagel of Anne ArundelCommunity College in Maryland is a stellarastronomer whose PhD is from theUniversity of California at Santa Cruz, andwhose research specialty is astronomyeducation research. Her responsibilities onthis edition were the writing of a new chapteron extraterrestrial life and working to makethe writing style of the book as user friendlyas possible.

ASTRONOMY

(Light as a featherContinued from page 4)

into space to orbit earth. The technologycould also be used to build enormous,ground-based telescopes, larger thananything that exists now.

Bruce Twarog, the principle investigatoron the grant, set the project into motionabout five years ago. A college classmate ofTwarog’s told him that his company,Composite Mirror Applications, hadsucceeded in making opticalmirrors for research qualitytelescopes. “They were looking forsomeone who they could work withto test out a small 16” telescope,”Prof. Twarog says. At the time,Twarog didn’t necessarily havemoney to fund such a project, nordid he have the facilities andtechnology to help the cause. Asit turned out, however, Twaroglearned that two KU aerospaceengineers who are, in fact, expertsin composites, were willing tocollaborate on the project. Butinstead of settling for a 16"telescope, all parties involveddecided to set their sights on auseful, one-meter instrument. “Itworked out quite well,” Twarogsays.

One of the immediate benefits

to the project and the collaboration with SanDiego State University is that NSF hasestablished Mt. Laguna Observatory as anofficial REU (Research Experience forUndergraduates) site and two KU astronomyundergraduates have been chosen toparticipate. Twarog also stresses theimportance of using a telescope for 146nights out of a year. “In a typical year, wemight get 6-10 nights [with a differenttelescope],” Twarog says, “That’s average.”

The new telescope has the potential tooperate remotely and have its imagesavailable for download over the internet.Twarog says the new images couldsupercede all of the data that’s currentlybeing used, and give more of it. “We’d liketo get large samples,” he says, “to beat theerror down and get the kind of quality datawe want.” It seems a small telescope is stillcapable of some big things.

-Katie Greene

Daniel Nunes, former KU undergraduate,has defended his thesis and has lined up apostdoctoral research position at the Lunarand Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.

Two-pound lightweight ULTRA telescope mirror.

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CONTINUED...

superconducting qubits coupled tomicrowave resonator, and Zelin is studyingcorrelations between microscopic structuraldefects, intrinsic noise, and decoherence inqubits. The senior Ph.D. student, Wei Qiu,is testing qubits that he modeled anddesigned last winter which are expected to

(CMP: Quantum ElectronicsContinued from page 7)

(From Lawrence to LondonContinued from page 18)

completely new thing for me to compile anentire article—complete with relevantbackground information—within the firsttwo days of every week.

Even though I was still honing my writingskills, I had already learned how to distill theimportant information out of a headyresearch paper while at KU. In Dr. Olafsen’sweekly group meetings we would read apaper, discuss its relevance, and often itsobfuscated writing style. For Solid StateSeminars, we had to take recent research,boil it down to its most fundamental points,supply background information and presentit orally. In classes, we were required to figureout what was going on in the overwhelmingsphere of specialized research and talk aboutit with the rest of the class. So while sciencejournalism was new to me, I was wellequipped by my graduate work at KU to dothe most fundamental task of all sciencejournalism: get to the core of the research.

Since the internship ended in the fall of2004, I’ve taken the free-lance writing tack.But lasers are not entirely in my past. In fact,I’m currently working on a feature for acertain women’s beauty and health magazinethat delves into how lasers are used fromanything from hair removal to de-wrinkling

(AstrobiologyContinued from page 5)

have much improved physical properties.Richard Alexander developed a new qubitmeasurement method that will be severalorders of magnitude faster, resulting in muchbetter resolution when applied to study timeevolution of qubits. Undergraduate studentMatthew Matheny developed most of thesoftware that has been used for manipulatingand measuring superconducting qubits.

In this past academic year the group haspublished seven papers in peer reviewedjournals including four in Physical Review Aand two in Physical Review B (including oneRapid Communication) and has presentedresults at the Applied SuperconductivityConference and APS March Meeting.

devices. For me, it’s fun to learn about allsorts of research and write about it in a waythat’s accessible to many people. I know thatthe average person isn’t interested inattending a science conference, or keepingupdated on the latest research. Chances are,however, that many would like to learn aboutscience discoveries through an interestingand engaging article or story. That’s my goal.To me, this is the joy and challenge of sciencewriting.

(Space PhysicsContinued from page 11)

flow around that planet. This project hasgrown considerably and now includesstudies of x-ray emission from the outerheliosphere as well as from atmospheres ofnearby stars. This opens the possibility ofremote studies of the composition and otherparameters of stellar winds and their localinterstellar medium. Ina Robertson will givea talk about x-ray emissions from the outerheliosphere at the Solar Wind 11 conferencein Whistler, Canada.

Medvedev also continues his researchon the physics of accretion flows andcompact cosmic objects with strong gravity:black holes (BH) and neutron stars (NS). Inparticular, he has discovered a new self-similar solution for a boundary layer thatforms when hot accreting gas settles onto arapidly spinning NS. Such a boundary layerdoes not form in BH accretion.

PHYSICS

Ali Soleimani and Jeff Wood examiningsome equipment at Fermilab

their characteristics early on.) Most recently,a paper showing the results of detailedmodeling of atmospheric ozone depletionand DNA damage appeared in AstrophysicalJournal Letters. It showed that a short tensecond burst can alter the atmosphere for adecade. NASA issued a press release onthe work, including animations, which canbe viewed at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/u n i v e r s e / s t a r s g a l a x i e s /gammaray_extinction.html.

Daniel Hogan, an undergraduate physicsmajor, was a co-author of the APJ Letter. Atotal of five undergraduates have beeninvolved so far, with other projects in theoffing. Larissa Ejzak is co-author of asubmitted paper exploring the sky-darkeningand nitric acid rain effects additionallyexpected from a “nearby” GRB. Othersworking with our collaborators are lookingat the pattern of extinctions in the Ordovicianmore closely. In addition, we are examiningmore recent events—say the last 40,000years, including flight attendant cancerrates—for signs of cosmic ray impact.

As with all of the KU Biophysics efforts,the work is inherently interdisciplinary, andso far this research has involved high-energyastrophysics, paleontology, bio-geochemistry, atmospheric science,radiation/health physics, and stellarevolution. The group wants to look at similarrisks posed by the fact that stars like ourSun have been observed to emit occasionalgiant flares (about 100,000 times strongerthan anything our Sun has been observedto emit).

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Keep in Touch!!Let your KU friends know what you’re doing…If you would like to hear from the Department more often, you might enjoy our bimonthly in-house newsletter, whichcontains more details of what individuals are doing throughout the year. You can obtain it on-line at the DepartmentWeb site (www.physics.ku.edu), or we can send you a copy if you write to Ms. Teri Leahy in the Department with the request to the address given below, or email your request to momentum@ku.edu.

Please return to:Department of Physics and AstronomyMalott Hall1251 Wescoe Hall Dr., Room 1082Lawrence, KS 66045-7582

To submit a news item for next year’s Momentum, please complete and return the following form to the above address or e-mailto momentum@ku.edu

Name: ______________________________________________________________________Home address: _______________________________________________________________City: ____________________________ State:__________ ZIP: ________Degree and date: _____________________________________e-mail: ______________________________________________________________________News for the next issue of Momentum: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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LAST WORD

From the Editor

Greetings! That may be a funny wayto end this year’s newsletter, but bynow you may have noticed that the

newsletter has a slightly different appear-ance this issue. As reported in the Transi-tions section, Steve Shawl has enteredphased retirement. As he’s no longer inLawrence during the part of the year that weconstruct the annual Momentum Newslet-ter, it was time for a new editor. I’d like tobegin by thanking Steve Shawl for helpfuladvice and warnings from afar over emailduring the preparation of this year’s issue,in addition to all of his hard work in previousyears as the editor of Momentum. Havingcompleted my first experience as editor, it

has given me a deeper appreciation for thecommitment of time that Steve made duringhis tenure.

I’d also like to take this opportunity tothank Teri Leahy for all her hard work intypesetting and generally “putting the wholething together” in its final form. If you visitthe department website in the future, you’llalso find that we’re upgrading the electronicpresence of the newsletter and givingMomentum it’s own page. On this page, weare going to have a color version ofMomentum available for downloading andprinting, as well as an archive of previousissues of the newsletter. Finally, I’d like tothank Katie Greene for contributing thefreelanced articles “Light as a feather” forthe Astronomy section, and the “Focus on

Biophysics” article for the newsletter.As usual, your feedback on how we can

improve the newsletter is always welcome.

Jeff Olafsen

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Your tax-deductible contribution to the Department of Physics and Astronomy will help us do things we otherwisecould not. So, please make your check out to KUEA, and earmark it for the Department of Physics and AstronomyDevelopment Fund, the Clyde W. Tombaugh Observatory Fund or the John W. Lowry Enhancement Fund. Youmay mail your contribution to The Kansas University Endowment Association, P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044-0928 or do it on-line at www.kuendowment.org. Your gift will go even further if your employer has a matching giftprogram. For more information, call Kathleen Brady or Rich Kaler, Endowment Development Director for the Col-lege, at (785) 832-7357, or toll-free at (800) 444-4201.

The University of KansasDepartment of Physics and Astronomy Malott Hall1251 Wescoe Hall Dr., Room 1082Lawrence, KS 66045-7582

Web site: http://www.physics.ku.edu

Editor: Jeff OlafsenDesk Top Publishing: Teri LeahyFreelance Contributor: Katie Greene

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