Drake Physics and Astronomy News

Fall 2008

• Senior physics student Paul Wiecki presented his research work at the Annual Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society (APS) that was held in Oakland, CA (October 23-26). Paul's participation was funded by the APS in recongintion of the quality of his work. Paul participated in the Conference Experience for Undergraduate students (CEU) part of the program.
• Senior astronomy student Jordan Mirocha earned a very prestigious internship to participate in the REU program at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), in La Serena, Chile (mid-January through mid-March, 2009).
• We hear that physics 2005 alumna Kavitha Pundi , now at the Mayo Clinic Medical school, took the Step I USMLE boards test and scored in the top 1%! She has spent three months working on a molecular genetics lab identifying cardiac channel mutations in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and traveled to Chiapas, Mexico with a volunteer group to practice rural pediatrics for two weeks. Next January and February she will be at Mayo, Jacksonville, FL, doing cardio-thoracic surgery and emergency medicine.

Spring and Summer 2008

• The following physics and astronomy students earned interships for summer research experiences: Brant Abeln (University of Nevada at Las Vegas), Dan Weflen (Los Alamos National Lab), Jason Sauer (Des Moines University), Meghan Shanks (European Center for Nuclear Research - CERN), Julie Liefeld (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Deanna Berget (Florida Tech.), Nathan Tomer (Johns Hopkins University), Paul Wiecki (DUSCI - Dr. A. Petridis, mentor), Kory Kreimeyer (DUSCI - Dr. C. Nelson, mentor). In addition Jordan Mirocha will work with Dr. Nelson on a summer astronomy project.
• We are very pleased and proud to announce that 03-graduate Allison Renee Harris has obtained her Ph. D. at Carnegie Mellon University in environmental engineering. Dr. Harris will continue her research on enviromentally friendly engineering solutions.
• The department is delighted to celebrate the Ph. D. degree of 03-graduate Seamus Riordan at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Riordan will continue his research on experimental nuclear physics.
• Congratulations to our graduating seniors: Zach Kertzman, Jon Botts and Zack Oler.
• Jon Botts will pursue graduate studies in acoustics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
• Alumna Khinlay Win (physics 2006) is pursuing graduate studies in nanotechnology at the University of California, Irvine.
• DUCURS 08 was held with great success. Physics students Zach Kertzman, Meghan Shanks, Jordan Mirocha, Dan Weflen, and Brant Abeln presented posters and Julie Liefeld gave an oral presentation on her research related to active galactic nuclei.
• The 2008 recipient of the Helmick Award, given to the best graduating senior, was Zach Kertzman. While very interested in research Zach decided to "think about it" for a while. The 2008 Helmick Scholarship recipient was Paul Wiecki.
• The 2008 Physics Olympics competition was conducted successfully. Several physics students helped with judging events. Special thanks to Dan Weflen, Faizan Syed, and Brant Abeln for their help.

Spring and Summer 2007

• The Department of Physics and Astronomy is participating in the second summer DUSCI fellowship program. Student Zack Kertzman has earned a fellowship to work with Dr. Petridis. Also student Julie Liefeld is working with Dr. Nelson on an astronomy project funded by the Research Corporation. Physics students Zack Oler and Jon Botts, who are also majoring in computer science and mathematics, respectively, also earned DUSCI fellowships for this summer to work with faculty in those departments.
• Student Jason Sauer has earned a summer internship to work in the biomechanics laboratory at Des Moines University.
• Student Megan Shanks spend the summer at Columbia University for a research experience.
• Graduating senior Paul Klein was accepted for graduate studies in physics at several universities. He decided to attend State University of New York at Stony Brook.
• Graduating senior Quentin Roper (Q) will pursue graduate studies in physics at the University of Iowa.
• The Drake Quizbowl team, led by physics student Quentin Roper ranked 5th in the national turnament.
• The Physics Olympics were held with great success. A new physics-inquiry-based event was introduced. Several students from the department helped with the event.

Summer 2006

• The Department of Physics and Astronomy is participating in the first summer DUSCI fellowship program. Student Carl Jensen has earned a fellowship to work with Dr. Nelson and student Khinlay Win has earned a fellowship to work with Dr. Petridis.
• The 2006 Physics Prize winner, Mark Fang, will work with Dr. Petridis on a summer project.

Spring 2006

• Graduating senior Joshua Goldberg was accepted by the following Law Schools:
  American University, Washington College of Law - Washington, DC
  Brooklyn Law School - Brooklyn, NY
  George Mason University School of Law - Arlington, VA
  University of Maryland School of Law - Baltimore, MD
  University of Wisconsin Law School - Madison, WI
  Josh has decided to attend George Mason University.
• Graduating senior Tim Weinzirl was accepted by the following graduate schools in Astronomy:
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  University of Colorado at Boulder
  University of Texas at Austin
  New Mexico State University
  Boston University
  Tim has decided to attend the University of Texas at Austin.
• Graduating senior Wendy Bennett will pursue graduate studies in Astronomy at Iowa State University.
• Graduating senior student Khinlay Win presented a poster entitled "Time-dependent solutions to the Dirac equation", at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society, in collaboration with Dr. Petridis.
• Graduating senior Ben Krueger will pursue an engineering degree at the University of Washington in St. Louis.
• The following students secured research internships for the summer:
  Wendy Bennett, NRAO in Socorro, NM
  Zack Kertzman, Southern Illinois Univ.
  Paul Kline, College of William & Mary
  Mark Madland, Univ. of Alabama
  Quentin Roper, Los Alamos National Laboratory
  Tim Weinzirl, NRAO in Socorro, NM
  
• The 2006 winner of the Drake Physics Prize is Mark Fang of Ames High.

  Dr. Staunton presesents Mark Fang with the Drake Physics Prize.

• The recipient of the 2006 Helmick Award was Tim Weinzirl while Quentin Roper was recognized as the best junior student.

  Tim Weinzirl recieves the Helmick Award from Dr. Staunton.

• Drake University organized one more time a Conference on Undergraduate Research in the Sciences (DUCURS) on April 27, 2006. This time the event was held under the auspices of the Drake Undergraduate Science Collaborative Institute (DUSCI). Physics and Astronomy students and faculty participated with 8 posters and 2 talks. Tim Weinzirl and Quentin Roper gave oral presentations and Wendy Bennett, Alan Hulsebus, Mark Madland, and Khinlay Win presented posters. In addition Dr. Bartschat together with visiting scientists Drs. Vorov and Zatsariny also presented some of their latest research results. Senior student Quentin Roper organized and conducted the by-now traditional science quiz-bowl. Dr. Petridis presented the speakers and, of course, Dr. Nelson was a member of the organizing committee.

  Wendy Bennett presenting her poster on Astronomy.

  Quentin Roper giving his talk on plasma physics.

Spring 2005

• Graduating senior Mallory Knodel has been accepted for graduate studies in physics at the University of Utah at Salt Lake City and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. She has opted to teach high school in New York and obtain a Master's degree in Science Education.
• Graduating senior Kavitha Pundi has accepted an offer to pursue a Medical Doctor's degree at the Medical School of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota with a scholarship. Kavitha has had an impressive range of interviews and has been accepted by other medical schools, including Case Western Reserve University at Cleveland and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She is also the winner of the physics graduating senior award.
• Junior students have been offered summer research internships: Wendy Bennett will spend the summer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Soccoro, New Mexico. Tim Weinzirl secured an intership at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. Ben Krueger will spend the summer at the University of Minnesota and Quentin Roper (Q) at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
• Physics and Astronomy students are helping with the State Physics Olympiad, held on Drake campus.
• We keep receiving news from alumni of the department. They are all successful in their graduate studies and professional careers. Bob Gilliam is finishing his Master's degree in Medical Physics and has had excellent job offers. Drew Fustin has passed the Ph.D. candidacy exam at the University of Chicago. Greg VerSteeg, Catherine McGleam, Seamus Riordan, Derek Lamb, Sarah Ragan, Andrew Thompson and Allison Renee Harris are making great progress towards their Ph.D. Aaron Plasek is progressing towards his Master's of Fine Arts at the Chicago Institute of the Arts. Earlier graduate Joy Acharyya is also working on his Ph.D. in engineering.
• Alumna Melissa Spencer (born Fisher) was featured on the April 6, 2005 issue of the Des Moines Register. The article discussed the decision by the Education Board to increase the science and math requirements for graduation from High School. It is a welcome and difficult project and Des Moines is lucky to have Melissa teach science at North High.

  Melissa Spencer (born Fisher) has been featured in the Des Moines Register. She is teaching science at North High School.

• The 2005 winner of the Drake Physics Prize is Joshua Moloney of Ames High.
• The 2005 winner of the Helmick award is Tim Weinzirl.
• DUCURS 2005 was held on April 15 with great success. Physics and Astronomy students, Tim Weinzirl, Wendy Bennett, Aaron Frazier, and Alan Hulsebus presented posters on research projects they do with Dr. Nelson. Tim also presented work he did during an REU last summer. Mallory Knodel presented a poster based on mathematics. Dr. Bartschat together with visiting scientists Drs. Vorov and Zatsariny also presented some of their latest research results. Quentin Roper (Q) organized and hosted an interesting and funny quiz-bowl match. Graduating senior Kavitha Pundi was extreemely helpful in the organization of the conference and, of course, Dr. Nelson was one of the four faculty organizers and founders of the event. The conference was honored by the presence of President Maxwell's, Provost Troyer's and several alumni of the University.
• Junior student Ben Krueger performed Rachmaninov's second piano concerto with the Drake Symphony Orchestra, conducted by professor John Canarina. The performance was excellent, at the highest level, and was received by the audience with great applause.
• Congratulations and best wishes to Patty Graziano (born Michaels) who became a mother of a lovely girl, named Riordan.
• Alumnus Jon Vermedahl got his master's degree in Astronomy at the University of Minnesota and is taking a break from graduate studies working as a "space vehicle specialist" at the space center in Washington DC, attending to the needs of 77 satelites! - "A relaxing job", he says!
• Alumnus Drew Fustin, now a physics graduate student at the University of Chicago, has won the Wentzel Award for best first year teaching assistant at his new department.

Spring 2004

• Drake University organizes a Conference on Undergraduate Research in the Sciences ( DUCURS) on April 9, 2004. Physics and Astronomy students and faculty are participating with 8 posters and 2 talks. Detailed information is available at the DUCURS web site.
• Physics students Aaron Frazier, Kavitha Pundi, and Ben Krueger with a little help from Dr. Petridis, the Society of Physics Students Advisor, have obtained a grant from the American Institute of Physics to cover the expenses of the assembly of the electron microscope that has been donated to the department. This device will be used for physics experiments and offers the opportunity of multidisciplinary projects with biology. Six grant-proposals were approved nation-widely. Details can be found in here.

  From left to right: Mallory Knodel (SPS co-president), Aaron Frazier, Dr. A. Petridis (SPS advisor), Kavitha Pundi, and Ben Krueger. The group is standing in from of the electron-microscope that is being assembled.

• Physics student Kavitha Pundi was offered a summer internship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. This is her third internship of this kind.
• Three seniors are graduating in May 2004. They have received the following graduate school offers (the institution in italics is the one the student chose to attend):
  • Drew Fustin (Physics): University of Texas at Austin, Duke University (fellowship), University of Washington at Seattle, University of Chicago, University of Maryland at College Park, Brown University, University of California at San Diego.
  • Matt Powell (Physics): University of California at Irvine.
  • Marc Trachy (Physics): State University of Washington, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Texas A & M University (fellowship), Kansas State University.
• Drake physics/astromony and english graduate Aaron Plasek was admitted to the Master's of Fine Arts Program in writing at the prestigious School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
• Physics/astronomy and english graduate Aaron Plasek has founded and is the editor of the journal "Dimebag of Poetry". Three issues of this journal have been published so far and the circulation has reached 1000 copies. It is freely distributed at several bookstores in the Des Moines area as well nation-widely including such prestigious bookstores as the "City Lights" in San Francisco, the "Prairie Lights" in Iowa City and some in New York. The journal also organizes poetry readings. The Des Moines Register has written extensive articles on these activities.
• The 2004 winner of the Drake Physics Prize is Kaustea Roy of Des Moines Central High.

  The 2004 Physics Prize winner, accompanied by his high school physics teacher, Mrs. Kuiken, receives the award from Dr. Staunton, chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

• Sophomore student Courtney Terrel earned a summer internship to work on the "Mars ice-probe" project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• Physics graduating students Drew Fustin and Marc Trachy presented talks at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society in Denver Collorado in collaboration with Dr. Petridis. Drew's work is on theoretical nuclear physics. Marc has worked on numerical relativistic quantum mechanics. At the same conference physics and astronomy graduate Aaron Plasek presented a poster on work he has done with Dr. Petridis.

  Aaron Plasek presents his poster entitled "Classical Particles Subject to a Gaussian-distributed Random Force" at the April Meeting of the APS in Denver, CO.

Fall 2003

• AREA RESIDENTS FLOCK TO DRAKE OBSERVATORY TO VIEW MARS
  (excerpt from "On Campus", published in September 2003)
  

  More than 1,500 people went to the Drake Municipal Observatory in Waveland Park on August 27 and 28 to get a rare glimpse of Mars in its closest proximity to Earth (known as opposition) for 60,000 years.

  "On Wednesday night, we had more than 1,000 visitors," said Dr. Charlie Nelson, assistant professor of astronomy. "People were standing in line from the observatory out to the entrance to the Waveland Golf Course. Some people waited in line for hours, while others gave up and left. We estimate that 800 people were able to view Mars through our telescopes. We were there until 4 in the morning."

  Both WOI-TV and WHO-TV featured live broadcasts from the observatory on their 10 p.m. newscasts Wednesday.

  On Thursday night, the lines were long, but a lot shorter than Wednesday, Dr. Nelson said. All of the 500 visitors were able to view the Red Planet that night, when the observatory stayed open until 2:30 a.m.

  "It was much more manageable since we anticipated that people would arrive as much as two hours early and were ready for them," Dr. Nelson added. "That happened the first night and really threw us off in getting started. The reason was that people got our observatory confused with Ashton Observatory in Baxter, which is run by the Des Moines Astronomical Society and had public viewings starting at 8 p.m. We definitely had a good time, but I must say I'm glad its over."

  In addition to Dr. Nelson, other members of the Drake community assisted with the viewings of Mars. Morris Mason, physics lab assistant, and Aaron Plasek, AS'03 graduate, ran telescopes while the following students helped with crowd control: Wendy Bennett, Drew Fustin, Tom Heuser and Courtney Terrel. Mr. Harry Wood of the Des Moines Astronomical Society also provided valuable assistance. The observatory's fall season of public presentations and stargazing started on Friday, Sept. 5, with "The Big Gang: Time, Energy, Particles, Forces. How Do We Know?" The presentations, which are free and open to the public, start at 8 p.m. The fall presentations will continue through Oct. 24.

• Senior student Drew Fustin presented a poster at the Fall Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society on work done with Dr. Petridis on multiquark cluster formation in nuclei.

Spring 2003

• Graduating seniors have received the following graduate school offers (the school in italics is the one the student chose to attend):
  • Greg VerSteeg (Physics): California Institute of Technology (fellowship), Columbia University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland at College Park.
  • Seamus Riordan (Physics): Carnegie-Mellon University.
  • Derek Lamb (Astronomy): University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, Boston University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Pittsburg, Johns Hopkins University.
  • Catherine McGleam (Astronomy): University of Hawaii, Johns Hopkins University, Indiana University, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of California at San Diego, University of Colorado at Boulder.
  • Robert Gilliam (Medical Physics): University of Kentucky, Wayne State University, University of Oklahoma.
  • Jennifer Reinig (Physics): University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, University of Iowa (fellowship), Notre Dame University (fellowship), Washington University at Saint Louis.
  • Sarah Ragan (Astronomy): Michigan State University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.
  • Andrew Thompson (Physics): University of Minnessota at Minneapolis, University of California at Riverside, University of California at Davies, Iowa State University.
• Senior student Catherine McGleam, a soprano, has given her graduation vocal-music recital presenting works by Richard Straus, Mozart, Debussy, and Style.
• Junior student Kavitha Pundi was accepted by Mayo Clinic for a summer internship. This is her second such appointment at Mayo.
• Junior student Kavitha Pundi has won a prestigious Goldwater Fellowship.
• Junior student Drew Fustin earned a summer internship at the University of Washington in Seattle.
• Sophomore student Mallory Knodel earned a summer internship at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).
• Senior student Greg VerSteeg spent three weeks in Australia doing research with Professor Bartschat and other physicists.
• Professor Nelson, in collaboration with scientists from Cal Tech and Carnegie Observatories (A. Barth PI) was awarded 8 orbits in Cycle 12 on the Hubble Space Telescope. The project is entitled "Calibrating the Black Hole Mass Scale for Quasars".
• Senior student Aaron Plasek presented a poster at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society with Dr. Petridis.
• Junior student Drew Fustin, together with Dr. Petridis, presented a paper at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society.
• Junior student Marc Trachy earned a summer internship at Texas A&M University.
• Freshman student Courtney Terrell earned a summer internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• The 2003 Drake Physics Prize winner is Zane Shi of Mancato Minnesota.

Fall 2002

• Professor Nelson, Director of the Drake Municipal Observatory, was interviewed by WHO radio.
• An electron microscope has been donated to the department by Dr. Tom Sult, MD. The microscope will be assembled by senior students Andrew Thompson, Derek Lamb, and Robert Gilliam.
• Senior student Greg VerSteeg gave a talk on Atomic Physics at a meeting of the Society for Laser Physics.
• Senior student Greg VerSteeg presented a poster on Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics at the Fall Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society.
• Senior student Catherine McGleam, as a member of the Drake Choir, performed Mozart's Requiem at the Des Moines Civic Center. Sophomore student Kristin Zubay and physics alumnus Allison Renee Harris participated in the select orchestra playing the violin.

Spring -Summer 2002

• Professor Bartschat is going to Harvard on a sabbatical leave in Fall 2002.
• Professor Lutz retired after many years at Drake. He will be coming back to teach in the spring of 2003.
• Junior student Greg VerSteeg won a prestigious Goldwater Fellowship.
• Senior student Jon Vermedahl was accepted to the astronomy graduate program of the University of Minnesota, Saint-Paul with a fellowship.
• Senior student Allison Renee Harris was accepted to the enviromental science graduate programs at MIT, U.C. Berkeley, University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.
• Senior student Allison Renee Harris won a prestigious NSF graduate fellowship.
• Junior students earned summer internships at various institutions: Greg VerSteeg (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Catherine McGleam (Cornell University), Andrew Thompson (California Institute of Technology), Derek Lamb (Clemson University), Sarah Ragan (Iowa State University), Drew Fustin (Stanford University).
• Sophomore student Kavitha Pundi earned a summer internship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota.
• The 2002 Drake Physics Prize winner is Pavel Batrachenko of Rochester Minnesota.
• Junior student Aaron Plasek, is working with Professor Nelson on a summer project funded by the Iowa Space Grant.
• Senior student Jon Vermedahl presented a paper at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society.
• Junior student Catherine McGleam, as a member of the Drake Choir, gave two performances at Carnegie Hall in New York.
• Junior students Greg VerSteeg and Seamus Riordan have co-authored a paper on atomic physics with Professor Bartschat.
• Junior student Greg VerSteeg presented a paper at a meeting of Atomic Physics and Optics Division of the American Physical Society.