11 Undergraduates Present at Society of Physics Students Annual Conference

Ohio University’s Society of Physics Students recently hosted the 8th annual SPS Research Conference at OHIO’s Athens campus.

Eleven undergraduate students presented an overview of their projects undertaken during the previous summer. The topics ranged in scale from supernovae to solar thermal application of electrospinning fibers. The presentations were reviewed by a panel of three Physics & Astronomy faculty judges. SPS Faculty Adviser and Associate Professor Dr. Julie Roche facilitated the morning’s program and judging by three faculty members.

Students presenting included Jack Bruno, Jamison Lahman, Ari Blumer, Zak Blumer, Zachary Bernens, Miles Lindquist, Joseph Pincura, Esther Grossman, Brandon Niese, Taylor Gardner, and Jacob Williamson.

Dr. Julie Roche presents Zak Blumer with a certificate for best presentation. Blumer worked with Dr. Martin Kordesch on the project, “The Electrospinning and Investigation of Titanium Nitride Particles in High-Temperature Polymer Fibers”.

Miles Lindquist (second from left) received ‘Honorable Mention’ and is congratulated by the faculty judges including Roche and Drs. Zach Meisel, and Douglas Clowe. Lindquist’s project is titled, “Optimization of a growth process for as-grown 2D materials-based devices”.

(L to R) The Department of Physics and Astronomy wish to thank conference organizers Brandon Coleman (SPS President), Jacob Williamson (SPS Vice-President), Zach Bernens (SPS Treasurer and conference coordinator), and Katelynn Nichols (SPS Secretary) for their efforts.

Internships Offer Life-Changing Opportunities

Undergraduate research offers life-changing opportunities to dig deeper into the mysteries of the universe and to enjoy the journey to discover how things work. The projects give students hands-on experience with research equipment and analysis techniques and a chance to interact with a faculty mentor and graduate students. This experience inspires students to excel in their courses and helps them to identify career options in industry or academia, including topic areas that they might want to work on for a Ph.D., or that they don’t want to work on for a Ph.D.

“Our faculty have the strong record of federal funding needed to support our Ph.D. program, so we’ve been able to offer up to 20 paid summer research projects per year for interested undergraduate students,” explains Dr. David Tees, Associate Professor in the Department and the undergraduate adviser. “More than 75 percent of our graduating undergrads have done research internships with faculty during their time at Ohio University,” he continues.

“From a student’s perspective, it’s an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member, which is useful when looking for letters of recommendation for graduate school and employment. From the point of view of our faculty members, it’s a chance for an enthusiastic extra pair of hands for analyzing and collecting data, or for developing the expertise needed to bring a new technology or technique to the lab.”

SPS Conference Presenters Learn By Doing

Zachary Bernens “Fast Scaler BCM Calibration for DVCS Experiment”

Ari Blumer “Methods for Growth and In-Situ Observation of Monolayer TMD Growth”

Zak Blumer “The Electrospinning and Investigation of Titanium Nitride Particles in High-Temperature Polymer Fibers”

Jack Bruno “Pulsed Laser Deposition”

Taylor Gardner “Spatial Distributions of Type 1a Supernovae in Early-Type Galaxies”

Esther Grossman “Simulation of Glass Formation near Covalently Grafted Nanoparticles”

Jamison Lahman “The Structure of White Dwarfs”

Miles Lindquist “Optimization of a growth process for as-grown 2D materials-based devices”

Brandon Niese “Biophysics: fabrication and testing of microconstriction array microfluidic devices for characterizing cancer cell mechanical properties”

Joseph Pincura “A Search for Echoes of Old Tidal Disruption Events”

Jacob Williamson “SN 2005da: A Spectroscopic and Photometric Analysis of a Peculiar type Ic Supernova”