2002 - Department of Physics

®
The
Physics News 2002
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
August 2002
Issue 1.1
Carl Rotter Retires After 36 Years on Faculty
C
arl Rotter, professor of physics and
an Eberly Family Professor for Distinguished Teaching, retired in May. During his
36 years on the WVU faculty, Dr. Rotter was
named an Outstanding Teacher in the Eberly
College of Arts and Sciences three times, a
WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher in
1987, and West Virginia Professor of the Year
in 1998 by the Council for Advancement and
Support of Education.
He has inspired thousands of students,
has taught hundreds of high school teachers
how to teach physics, and has served as a
mentor to dozens of faculty members at West
Virginia University. He teaches with passion,
conviction, and energy, and will be greatly
missed.
The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
and the Department of Physics hosted a
retirement reception in Elizabeth Moore
Hall, on May 2, 2002, for Rotter, and more
than 100 university administrators and
supporters, colleagues, students, and former
students attended the event.
Eberly College Dean M. Duane Nellis
remarked that Carl Rotter’s influence as an
educator extends well beyond the physics
classrooms of Hodges Hall. Dean Nellis said
that Rotter “has left a lasting legacy of service
to the state and beyond through serving as
associate director of the university-wide
Benedum project to revise teacher education
and through serving as a co-principal investigator on two National Science Foundationfunded projects in physics education.”
“Carl was especially committed to
preparing new teachers to educate tomorrow’s
youth. His efforts, while sometimes unheralded, were among his greatest contributions
to our society,” said WVU Provost Gerald E.
Lang.
After completing his B.S. in physics at St.
Mary’s University in San Antonio, Carl Rotter
taught physics and mathematics in San
Antonio and St. Louis for three years. He
returned to academia for graduate school,
and after completing a Ph.D. in solid state
physics at Case Institute of Technology (now
Case-Western Reserve University), he joined
the faculty at WVU.
Rotter’s research focused on the elastic
properties of solids as measured by ultrasonics
and neutron scattering, the latter at the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory. He supervised
four Ph.D. and four M.S. students. In the late
70s his research efforts shifted to teacher
education and teaching the basic physics
course for WVU’s engineering students. He
treasures his selection for many years, by the
senior engineers in their exit evaluations, as
one of their top five teachers at WVU.
He was associate principal investigator
(with Dr. Richard Olenick of the University of
Dallas) of two large National Science Foundation grants, titled “Mechanical Universe, High
School Adaptation (MUHSA)” and “Comprehensive Conceptual Curriculum for Physics
(C3P).” He developed the CD ROM for the
C3P project, which integrates physics pedagogy
and content and is currently being used in high
school classrooms in more than 40 states.
Rotter plans to remain active in teacher
education through his continuing development
of Web-based course materials designed for
distance learning by high school science
teachers in West Virginia and surrounding
states.
In This Issue
2
Past Chair’s Corner
3
New Chair’s Corner
3
Brian Kent Wins Goldwater
4, 6 Featured Research
• What is so attractive about
magnetism?
• Molecular-dynamics
simulations
4
Faculty Research
6
Faculty Highlights
Nearly 100 university administrators, colleagues, former students, members of
the state’s education community, and others celebrated the distinguished career
of Physics Professor Carl A. Rotter, who held the title of Eberly Family Professor
for Outstanding Teaching since 1996. Rotter (standing, center) is shown with
(standing, left to right) Eberly College Dean M. Duane Nellis, WVU Provost
Gerald E. Lang, WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr., Physics Chair
Larry E. Halliburton, and WVU benefactors Carolyn Eberly Blaney and
W. Gerald Blaney (both seated).
2
The Past Chair’s Corner
A
special hello to all of our physics graduates and friends.
I am very happy to be able to give you an update on
the department. Let me start by saying that some things
never change and other things change completely.
What has not changed is the friendly nature of our
Physics Department, where every student knows every
faculty member. Each student gets a lot of personal attention
from faculty and staff, and we all form a close-knit family.
We are proud that we are continuing to maintain this
Larry E. Halliburton
“small” department atmosphere with a clear emphasis on
taking students, at whatever level of ability, and giving them an opportunity to
transform themselves into productive scientists. We have had many success stories
over the years.
But let’s also look at the changes. The Physics Department has grown over the
last decade into one of the most dynamic and productive departments in the
nation. Not only are we recognized for our outstanding teachers, but we also have
developed a very strong research program.
Many of the seeds for this progress were planted in earlier years by faculty
such as Professors Vehse, Seehra, Rotter, Montano, and Cooper. Their efforts and
those of many other faculty have now reached maturity. It goes without saying, of
course, that much of our success is a result of the immense amount of hard work
done by our students. There is no doubt that this is a department on the move.
More than a third of our present faculty have been recognized by the Eberly
College and the University for their teaching excellence. Research funding from
industry and federal agencies has reached an all-time high this year of $3.1
million, and our graduate program is increasing in size and attracting outstanding
students. Clearly, an energized faculty are making their presence known, and
physics as a profession is doing well.
Our undergraduate program deserves special mention. As has been a
longstanding tradition, the quality of our undergraduate students is extremely
high. Jamal Derekshan, who graduated in May 2002, was one of only eight
graduating seniors (six from the Eberly College) to be named to the Order of
Augusta, the University’s top honor for undergraduates. This award is based on
academic achievements, leadership, and good citizenship. Brian Kent, a rising
senior, received a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for the upcoming year. This is
a national award with a strong emphasis on research.
In addition, the local chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) and
Sigma Pi Sigma (the national physics honorary society) continue to be very active.
They have established an undergraduate study room in Hodges Hall and have
made trips to regional industries. An annual ski trip is a highlight of each year.
When you get the opportunity, please stop and visit the department. We
would like to show you some of the new research labs, describe our latest projects,
and introduce you to faculty, staff, and our current students. Also, please drop us a
line and let us know how your careers and lives are advancing.
Best regards,
Larry E. Halliburton
Editor’s Note: Larry Halliburton announced that he would step down as chair of the
department on June 30, 2002, to allow him to spend more time on his prosperous
research program. During his 12-year tenure as chair, the external research support of
the department has grown steadily. We greatly appreciate Larry’s many contributions to
this department, and his tireless efforts in strengthening it. An internal search led by
M. Duane Nellis, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, identified a new
chair, Earl Scime, who has agreed to succeed Larry Halliburton and assumed his new
duties on July 1. Earl boasts a strong research program and is one of our best teachers,
having won the WVU Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award. The faculty, staff,
and students enthusiastically support Earl’s selection as chair.
M. Duane Nellis (left), dean of the Eberly College of
Arts and Sciences, presented the college’s Outstanding
Staff Award to three staff members during the college’s
annual Weekend of Honors Recognition Ceremony
and Brunch on April 13, in the Mountainlair
Ballrooms. This year’s recipients included Charles
“Chuck” E. Sicina, lab instrument specialist,
Department of Physics; Ann M. Levine, program
manager, Department of Political Science; and
Pamela A. Otto (right), senior administrative
secretary, Institute for Technology and Industrial
Archaeology. These individuals also were recognized
at the college’s annual Staff Appreciation Lunch in
May. Congratulations, Chuck!
Longtime Staff Member
Charles Sicina Retires
Charles Sicina, laboratory instrument specialist,
retired after serving for 25 years as a staff member for
the Physics Department. Mr. Sicina is ready to
devote more time to his community interests and to
his music. He has been a tremendous asset to this
department, overseeing the computer networks and
repairing laboratory equipment. He will be greatly
missed by all in the department.
Known around the department as “Chuck,” he
grew up in the coal fields of southwestern Pennsylvania during WWII. He did “very much hard work” on
his family farm and on other local farms. After the
war, the owner of a nearby radio-repair business
inspired Chuck to seek a career in electronics.
“I was always over there helping him after school
and became so consumed as to how these things
could talk just by plugging them into the 110 volt
outlet,” Chuck says. In the late ’50s, he left high
school and enrolled in Technician Training School, in
Uniontown Pa., receiving a 1960 diploma in
Electronics, Radio, and TV.
From 1960 to 1976, he repaired radios, televisions, and refrigeration and air conditioning systems
for Clar-mac sales in Point Marion, Pa., receiving a
certificate for refrigeration and air conditioning
training from General Motors in Pittsburgh.
In 1976, Chuck joined the WVU Department of
Physics, and, until earlier this year, he’d been here
ever since. He proved to be highly versatile, learning
(continued on page 8)
3
Physics Student Receives Goldwater Scholarship
P
hysics Junior Brian R. Kent, a native of Morgantown, is the 22nd
WVU student to capture a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship since the
program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the late Sen.
Barry M. Goldwater. The award is the nation’s premier scholarship for
undergraduate students pursuing careers in math, the natural sciences,
or engineering.
Kent is among 309 college sophomores and juniors from 50 states
and Puerto Rico to be awarded the scholarship for the 2002-2003
academic year. This year’s Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis
of academic merit from a field of 1,155 math, science, and engineering
Brian R. Kent
students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The one- and two-year scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room
and board up to $7,500 per year.
“I am so pleased for Brian and for the faculty members in the Department of Physics who
have nurtured his considerable talent. Prestigious honors like this underscore WVU’s role as the
state’s flagship research and educational institution,” said Eberly College Dean M. Duane Nellis.
Kent is the 16th student from the Eberly College and the 6th physics major to capture
the award.
Kent has participated in undergraduate research with James R. Webb, a professor at Florida
International University, and also traveled to Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona to
study active galactic nuclei and analyzed and interpreted data. He plans to continue his studies
this summer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank.
Following graduation in May 2003 with a B.S. in physics, Kent hopes to earn a Ph.D. in
astronomy and astrophysics and pursue a research-oriented career at a university, observatory or
other research facility.
He is a WVU Foundation Scholar, recipient of WVU’s top academic scholarship, and was
also named a 2001 Eberly Scholar. He is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honorary and
Golden Key Honor Society.
Kent will have an article featured in an upcoming issue of the Journal of International
Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry (IAPPP), a publication that facilitates collaborative astronomical research between amateur, student and professional astronomers.
WVU Physics Undergraduate Students
Bottom Row: Anna Zaniewski, Cathy Bernaciak, Michelle G. Miller, and
Berenice Constantino. Middle Row: Kera Averill, Bryan Smith, Jamal
Derakhshan, Aaron Steele, and Brian Kent. Top Row: Eric Schires, Brendan
McGeehan, Jaymin Upadhyay, Eric Golden, Mike Hetzer, and Ben Edwards.
WVU Physics Graduate Students and Postdocs
Bottom Row: Cristine Villagonzalo, Tatiana Seletskaia, Bob Spangler,
Brenda VanMil, Wei Hong, and Alex Punnoose. Second Row: Hongtao Shi, Jorge
Espinosa, Sean Finnegan, Lijun Wang, and Ning Ma. Third Row: Yikuan Wang,
Ke Feng, Erie Morales, Sean Evans, and Xinghai Zhao. Top Row: YaxiangYang,
Leon Muratov, Craig Swartz, Andrew Woodworth, and Yongquan Jiang.
The New Chair’s Corner
T
he WVU
Physics
Department is
arguably one of the
most dynamic and
productive programs in the
country. Much of
our success as a
department and as
Earl Scime
individuals can be
directly attributed to the support and
guidance we have each received from the
longtime department chair, Larry
Halliburton, and our colleagues.
My goal, as the incoming chair, is to
continue to create an environment where
outstanding research, teaching, and
service among the faculty are recognized
and rewarded, along with the academic
achievements of our students and the
hard work of our staff. Our undergraduate research activities, always a strength of
our department, have garnered attention
from within and outside of WVU.
Building on this strength, I intend to
introduce some new options for undergraduate physics majors who do not plan
on attending graduate school immediately
after graduating.
Gently growing the undergraduate
program, hiring a new faculty member to
replace the recently retired Carl Rotter,
and keeping the Physics Department
steering a steady course will no doubt
keep me busy in the upcoming year.
Please keep in mind that we are always
looking for outstanding students at both
the undergraduate and graduate levels.
And when you’re in the area, please
stop by! I’d love to see you, to reminisce
with you, and to show you some of our
exciting new facilities.
Best regards,
Earl Scime
4
Featured Research: What is so Attractive About Magnetism?
All matter is magnetic in that all
materials become magnetically polarized to
some extent in an applied magnetic field.
This magnetic susceptibility is caused by
electrons and the details of how they interact
with their surroundings at the atomic scale.
These interactions lead to different magnetic
properties for different materials.
The magnetic materials of most practical
use are ferromagnets (like iron, cobalt, and
nickel) in which all electron moments are
aligned along the same direction; antiferromagnets with equal but oppositely aligned
magnetic moments; and ferrimagnets with
unequal antiparallel moments. The strong
attractive magnetic force of the ferrimagnetic
mineral magnetite or lodestone (Fe3O4) has
been known for more than 2,500 years.
Magnetic materials with specifically
designed properties are used in many devices,
such as motors, generators, transformers,
audio and video tapes, hard disk drives,
magnetic sensors, transmitters, receivers, and
MRI machines.
So what is new in magnetism research?
Professors Wathiq Abdul-Razzaq, David
Lederman, and Mohindar Seehra have
focused recent research efforts on the
synthesis of new magnetic materials in
reduced dimensions (thin films, multilayers,
superlattices, nanoparticles and quantum
dots and antidots).
Compared to bulk materials, magnetic
properties at reduced dimensions and
nanoscales are very different because of the
dominant role of surface and interface atoms.
A particularly interesting example is the
exchange bias phenomenon, which is a result
of interface, short-ranged magnetic interactions between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials. Research teams in the
department are now investigating this in
transition-metal-fluoride/Co bilayers, CuO
nanoparticles and Co/MnPt bilayers. Giant
magnetoresistance and magnetic tunnel
junctions are additional focus areas. In these
materials the electrical resistance changes
drastically with an external magnetic field.
These two phenomena are currently being
exploited by companies such as IBM,
Seagate, and Motorola in new data storage
and sensing devices.
A final focus of this research area is in the
self-assembly of magnetic nanostructures,
where ordered structures at the nanometer
scale spontaneously form under favorable
conditions. These self-assembling structures
could be used in the future in the fabrication
of high-density storage devices.
The synthesis of these advanced materials
at nanoscale dimensions is done at WVU
using sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy
(MBE) for preparing films, multilayers and
superlattices, and the sol-gel technique for
synthesizing nanoparticles.
To determine what we have prepared,
structural characterization is done with inhouse x-ray diffractometers (standard and
rotating anode), electron-beam diffraction,
scanning probe microscopy, and infrared
spectroscopy. Magnetic properties of such
well-characterized materials are then
measured from liquid helium temperatures to
well above room temperature using a 7 Tesla
Squid magnetometer, a vibrating sample
magnetometer, magneto-optic measurements,
and an electron magnetic resonance spectrometer.
The electrical resistance and Hall effect
can also be measured in a wide range of
temperatures and magnetic fields. Neutron
diffraction information about these materials
is obtained in collaboration with scientists at
Argonne National Lab, Los Alamos National
Lab and NIST, in Gaithersburg, Md..
Funding from the U.S. Department of
Energy, Air Force Office of Scientific
Research, and the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
computer science and director of the Virtual
Environments Laboratory at WVU.
Alan V. Barnes, research associate professor,
studies a range of problems related to
condensed matter physics and the fundamental nature of physical law. He is presently
making a detailed measurement of the
momentum content of the static E x B field
in a vacuum and plans to extend these
measurements to material systems.
Bernard R. Cooper, the Benedum Professor
of Physics, specializes in condensed matter
theory and computational materials theory.
His group includes research coordinator
Leon Muratov; postdoctoral fellows Arun
Setty, David Djajaputra, Ning Ma, and
Cristine Villagonzalo; and doctoral students
Yaxian Yang (Ph.D. 2002), and Tatiana
Seletskaia. He studies magnetic ordering of
correlated-electron systems, defect structures
in wide band gap semiconductors, and the
thermo-mechanical properties, phase
separation, and interfacial behavior of
structural and magnetic metallic systems.
Boyd F. Edwards, professor, studies theoretical nonlinear fluid dynamics and pattern
formation, in an effort to understand
transitions leading to chaos in fluids. With
graduate student Robert Spangler, he
investigates the influence of nonuniform
fluid flow on propagating chemical reaction
fronts. Edwards recently predicted that flow
opposite to the direction of propagation
produces a trailing cusp in the reaction front,
but leaves its propagation speed unchanged.
These results await experimental confirmation. He also studies the processes that cause
rivers to meander.
Martin Ferer, professor, develops fine-scale
models of complex phenomena relevant to
applied problems. His pore-scale models of
two-phase flow in porous media are being
used to understand processes where one fluid
is injected into porous rock saturated with a
second fluid (e.g. injection of water into oil
saturated sandstone for oil recovery, or
injection of carbon dioxide into the sea-floor
to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere). He also models the fracturing
Faculty Research Programs
Wathiq Abdul-Razzaq, associate professor,
does experimental research in condensed
matter physics, including studies of magnetic
nanoparticles and the effect of magnetism on
health and the environment. He collaborates
with scientists from many disciplines
including engineers, physicians, and physicists. He is performing concurrent, systematic
studies of the atomic and magnetic structure
of nanoparticles to expand the theoretical
understanding of many phenomena associated with nanoscience.
Martina E. Bachlechner, assistant professor,
uses large-scale molecular-dynamics simulations to study mechanical properties of
materials including interfaces. Her research
assistant Andrew A. Woodworth performs
atomistic simulations corresponding to
experiments that he is conducting with
Charter D. Stinespring, in the WVU
Department of Chemical Engineering. For
visualization and sonification of materialssimulations data, she is collaborating with
Frances L. Van Scoy, associate professor of
5
processes that occur during the cleaning of
filters in high efficiency coal-fired turbines.
Nancy C. Giles, professor, does experiments
on a variety of optical and semiconducting
materials. The major emphasis is to understand the electronic energy levels caused by
point defects, and thus tie optical absorption
and luminescence emission bands to specific
defects. Recent work includes identification
of the dominant absorption bands in ZnGeP2
and CdGeAs2, which are nonlinear optical
crystalline materials used for tunable infrared
lasers. Her research group this year includes
six physics graduate students: Lijun Wang,
Lihua Bai, Ming Luo, Ke Feng, Anlin Xiong,
and Nanying Yang.
Leonardo Golubovic, associate professor,
theoretically investigates soft condensed
matter systems and interface growth phenomena. Fourteen of his 49 publications
have appeared in the prestigious Physical
Review Letters. Recently, he has shown that a
novel liquid-crystalline phase discovered in
DNA-membrane complexes is the first
realization of a new state of matter with zero
shear elastic modulus: the sliding phase of
weakly coupled two-dimensional smectics of
DNA molecules sandwiched between lipid
membranes, that themselves form a layered
three-dimensional lamellar phase. He
collaborates with graduate students Lianghui
Gao and Artem Levandovsky, and with
former student Dorel Moldovan, who is now
at Argonne National Laboratory.
Larry E. Halliburton, professor, studies point
defects in laser materials experimentally. His
research covers the entire spectrum from the
ultraviolet to the mid-infrared. He uses
electron spin resonance to identify and
characterize defects that affect the performance of optical devices. Among the
materials being studied are photorefractives,
scintillators, and nonlinear frequency
converters. One application of these lasers is
in the National Ignition Facility being
constructed at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. Another application is infrared
countermeasures intended to protect aircraft
from heat-seeking missiles. His research
group includes Nelson Garcez, Madalina
Chirila, Wei Hong, Xinghai Zhao, Yongquan
Jiang, and Sean Evans.
Mark Koepke, professor, and his group
published a joint paper in the Journal of
Geophysical Research with a Swedish spacephysics group on space observations of
velocity-shear-driven waves that cause the
most common ion heating in the ionosphere;
published a joint paper in Physics of Plasmas
with a German plasma-dynamics group on
nonlinear spatio-temporal dynamics during
mode transitions; published a paper in
Physical Review Letters that verified a new
shear-driven-wave mechanism predicted by
Valeriy Gavrishchaka, a WVU Ph.D.
graduate and a former group member; and
has published a paper in the Journal of
Geophysical Research on the role of iontemperature anisotropy in plasma waves.
David Lederman, associate professor of
physics, studies magnetic nanostructures and
their possible applications in sensor technology. His research group is currently composed of graduate students Hongtao Shi,
Erie Morales, Yiquan Wang, and Jorge
Espinosa, and undergraduate student Evan
Morgan. Lederman is especially interested in
thin films, nano wires, and dots and antidots
whose magnetic properties differ significantly
from those measured in bulk, three-dimensional materials. These reduced-dimensionality systems are fabricated and characterized in
his laboratory using state-of-the-art techniques, including molecular beam epitaxy
WVU Physics Faculty
Bottom Row: Wathiq Abdul-Razzaq, Leo Golubovic, Marty Ferer, Boyd Edwards, David Lederman, and
Martina Bachlechner. Middle Row: Arthur Pavlovic, Larry Halliburton, Mohindar Seehra, Art Weldon,
Carl Rotter, and Jack Littleton. Top Row: Mark Koepke, Nancy Giles, Alan Barnes, and Earl Scime.
Not shown: Barry Cooper, Dimitris Korakakis, Arnold Levine, A. Manivannan, Tom Myers, and
Richard Treat.
and scanning probe microscopy.
John E. Littleton, professor, is the
department’s only astro-physicist. His
research is primarily in the area of stellar
evolution. His current research with Earl
Scime’s plasma group focuses on analyzing
data from the Ulysses spacecraft, in an
attempt to understand the energy balance in
the solar wind. This is an important and
poorly understood topic associated with the
structure of our star, the Sun. A large portion
of his non-teaching time in the last two years
has been allocated to upgrading the
department’s 14-inch Celestron telescope
(atop Hodges Hall) with digital setting circles
and a spectrograph for use in the advanced
laboratory by junior and senior physics
majors.
A. Manivannan, research assistant professor,
is trying to develop sensors based on boron
doped diamond (BDD) thin films grown by
microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition
(MPCVD) technique. He recently applied
these films for the analysis of toxic trace
metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury
and demonstrated ppb detection levels. With
graduate student Carol Babyak (Chemistry),
he is involved in the trace detection of
mercury. His ultimate aim is to develop
portable on-line detectors for trace metals in
the flue gas of coal fired power plants and
during coal processing.
Tom Myers, professor, uses molecular beam
epitaxy to investigate the physics of growth
and defect formation in wide bandgap II-VI
and III-V semiconductors which can be used
as the basis of electro-optic devices, such as
blue or ultraviolet lasers or detectors. His
group consists of Dimitris Korakakis,
Krishnan Balakishna, Brenda VanMil,
Craig Swartz, Ting Liu, Huicheng Guo,
Kyoungae Lee, Chunchuan Xu, Luke
Holbert, Randy Tompkins, Eric Shires, and
Ben Edwards. They study the modification
of surface growth kinetics using non-thermal
energy sources and gas-surface interactions
and the formation and resulting physics of
point defects.
Earl E. Scime, associate professor, has
ongoing experiments in both laboratory and
space plasma physics. With his research team
of Robert Boivin, Xuan Sun, Amy Keesee,
Robert Hardin, Chris Compton, Anna
Zaneiwski, and Brendan McGeehan, he
investigates instabilities driven by ion
temperature anisotropy in space relevant
laboratory plasmas and participates in space
plasma measurements as a co-investigator on
the IMAGE and Ulysses spacecrafts. His
(continued on page 8)
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A. Rahman performed, in 1964, the first
molecular-dynamics simulations of 864 atoms
of liquid Argon using Lennard-Jones
interaction to calculate self-diffusion and
correlation functions. Through recent
developments in efficient simulation algorithms on state-of-the-art parallel computers
much larger system sizes are accessible.
In 2001 A. Nakano and collaborators at
Louisiana State University simulated a onebillion-atom ceramic-fiber nano composite
using complex interactions within silicon
nitride, silicon carbide, and silicon dioxide to
study fracture resistance in this system.
Until recently, large-scale computer
simulations have been performed only on
mainframe computers were accessible only to
a few researchers.
The enormous enhancement of computing power in today’s personal computers
nurtured the development of supercomputing
power based on commodity computers
interconnected to a cluster commonly
referred to as a Beowulf cluster.
In the WVU Physics Department,
Assistant Professor Martina E. Bachlechner,
formerly a research associate in the Concurrent Computing Laboratory for Materials
Simulations at Louisiana State, is focusing on
large-scale materials simulations of interfaces
and multilayers as commonly used in
semiconductor devices.
These efforts complement experimental
research of Professor Charter D. Stinespring’s
group in the WVU Department of Chemical
Engineering.
Since classical molecular-dynamics
simulations can be efficiently distributed on
processors with minimal communication
during the calculations, Bachlechner will
equip her computer laboratory with a
12-CPU Beowulf cluster with standard
interconnects. Future research will incorporate quantum simulations that require
extensive communication between processors,
and Bachlechner plans to seek funding to
acquire additional CPUs with high-speed
interconnects. For general-purpose applications, the extended PC cluster can be used as
a single high-performance computer.
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Featured Research: Molecular- Faculty Highlights
Dynamics Simulations
Wathiq Abdul-Razzaq recently detected
magnetite in the exhaust of diesel and gasoline
engines. This discovery is important since
magnetite inhaled by cell-phone users could
cause health problems when it interacts with
cell phone signals.
Martina E. Bachlechner’s work with Frances
L. Van Scoy and undergraduate students
Shelma Martinez, Addis Perez, and Jesir
Vargas on “Using Sonification Immersive
Technology to Understand Properties of
Materials,” was presented at the Immersive
Projection Technology 2002, in Orlando,
Fla., in March.
Alan V. Barnes was awarded two patents in
September 2001. One is for a unique
microscope that images the secondary ions
emitted when highly charged ions (Au69+,
for example) hit surfaces. The second was for
an instrument that makes use of these
secondary ions to perform microscopic
chemical analysis.
Bernard R. Cooper organized the 2001
Conference on Computational Materials in
Morgantown, West Virginia, and has
attracted funding from the National Science
Foundation and the Air Force Office of
Scientific Research to study magnetic tunnel
junction sensors and giant magnetoresistance.
Boyd F. Edwards’ work with Duane H. Smith
on meandering rivers was featured on April
5, 2002 in Physical Review Focus (http://
focus.aps.org/), which explains selections
from Physical Review and Physical Review
Letters each month for students and researchers in all fields of physics.
Marty Ferer’s modeling of two-phase flow in
porous media discovered a fractal-to-compact
transition, which affects how flows of
engineering interest behave. His recent
investigations of the fractal limit of these
flows (called Invasion Percolation) explained
why this widely studied model has characteristic percolation-like fingers.
Nancy C. Giles’ work on nonlinear optical
materials for laser devices was presented in
her invited talk at the 13th American
Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy
in August 2001 held in Burlington, Vt. Her
contributions on p-type doping in zinc oxide
appeared in Applied Physics Letters, on Feb.
25, 2002.
Leonardo Golubovic won the Marko Jaric
Prize for Outstanding Results in Physics in
March 2002 for his results in the interfacial
dynamics theory and in the statistical physics
of complex fluids, see www.ff.bg.ac.yu/Jaric/
LeonardoGolubovic_e.htm.
Larry E. Halliburton is leading a multiuniversity $5 million research effort in
chalcopyrite crystals used in nonlinear optics
and spintronics, which was recently funded
by the U.S. Air Force. Partners in the
program are Stanford, Northwestern, and
Michigan Tech.
Mark Koepke served on the 2001 American
Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma
Physics (DPP) Executive Committee,
received a 2001 WVU Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award, and was selected as a
2002 APS Distinguished Lecturer in Plasma
Physics. He presented invited talks at the
APS-DPP Annual Meeting and the Japanese
Conference on Plasma Science and Fusion
Research.
David Lederman received a $470,000 Air
Force grant to study the possibility of using
magnetic tunnel junctions as sensors for subsurface microcracks in aluminum. He has
published several papers in Physical Review B,
the Journal of Materials Research, and the
Journal of Applied Physics on the growth and
properties of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interfaces.
John E. Littleton’s work on analysis of Ulysses
data has been enhanced by a two-year grant
from NASA that began in May 2002. During
the summer of 2001 he was mentor to a local
high school student under the NASA Science
and Engineering Apprenticeship Program.
A. Manivannan’s novel observation of
mercury and other trace metals using boron
doped diamond sensor electrodes was
recently published in Analytical Letters, and
was carried out in collaboration with a
colleague at the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Tom Myers presented an invited lecture at the
First International Ibero-American School on
Epitaxial Growth of Semiconductor
Nanostructures held 19-23 November, 2001
in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Myers was one of
only two invited speakers from the United
States. Such structures are viewed as the
future of semiconductor opto-electronics.
Carl Rotter recently received an internal
University grant to develop a Web-based
distance-learning course on modern physics
for high school science teachers. The on-line
course includes an interactive, calculuscapable, mathematics interface and will be
available in Fall 2002.
Earl E. Scime’s work on ion heating and
parametric decay instabilities in helicon
plasma sources with recent Ph.D. graduate
(continued on page 8)
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7
Missing Alumni
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All contributions to the WVU Physics Department are greatly appreciated, and are greatly
needed for: (1) graduate student stipend caps and undergratuate scholarships, which are useful
in attracting top students, (2) renovation of the undergraduate study room, with new furniture,
blackboards, and computers, (3) upgrades and maintenance of the Tomchin Planetarium and
(4) research equipment for new faculty, which will help us to attract the very best new faculty.
For those individuals who can make major contributions on behalf of the physics
department, the following endowments are being accepted by the WVU Foundation through
the Building Greatness Campaign: West Virginia University, a $250 million capital campaign that
ends on Dec. 31, 2003. The foundation has raised more than $200 million toward its goal.
Endowed scholarships and professorships:
$10,000 textbook scholarship
$25,000 undergraduate scholarship
$50,000 graduate fellowship
$75,000 presidential scholarship
$100,000 academic programs endowment
$250,000 university professorship
$500,000 distinguished professorship
$1,000,000 professional chair
If you are interested in making a contribution of any amount to the Physics Department,
please use the enclosed gift card and business reply envelope or contact Dr. Rudolph Almasy,
associate dean for development, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, at 304-293-4611 or at
[email protected]. Thank you.
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We Welcome Your Investment in Our Department
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It is our goal to hear from all 335 alumni to whom this newsletter is being sent. Please share
news about yourself, your occupation, and your accomplishments for inclusion in the next
(second) issue of this newsletter on the enclosed card, or e-mail Sherry Puskar, alumni relations
coordinator, at [email protected]. This information will be valuable in demonstrating to our
students that a degree in physics at WVU can help to prepare a person for success in a wide
variety of occupations. Such news is also valuable to other alumni who would like to know what
you are doing these days. Please let us know about yourself and your successes!
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Alumni News
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television series. The show discusses the
mythology, history, and science fiction of
Mars. Information about mission findings
from Viking, Pathfinder and Mars Global
Surveyor are featured. Comparisons are made
between the climate and terrain of Earth and
Mars. The show presents current thinking
about the archeological history of the planet
and provides a rationale for future exploration. The presentation lasts about 40 minutes
and is suitable for general audiences of fifth
graders and older.
A copy of the free monthly planetarium
newsletter, Mountaineer Skies, is enclosed
with this first issue of Physics News. To make
show reservations or to subscribe to Mountaineer Skies, please see
www.as.wvu.edu/~planet/index.html or call
Mr. John Hopkins, planetarium director, at
304-293-3422 ext. 1443. When you’re in the
area on a Friday evening, please stop by and
see a show!
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The Tomchin Planeterium, in the
Department of Physics, educates and inspires
2,500 people each year through a variety of
shows that are free and open to the public on
Friday evenings throughout the year.
After each show, when the skies are clear,
those in attendance are invited to view
celestial objects first-hand through the 14inch Celestron telescope in the department’s
observatory atop Hodges Hall.
Built in 1952 along with the rest of
Hodges Hall, and revitalized by a generous
gift from Harold and Sylvia Tomchin in
1977, the Tomchin Planetarium is the
broadest outreach and education tool of the
WVU Physics Department.
The planetarium’s next show is
MarsQuest, coming in August 2002. The
show is narrated by acclaimed actor Patrick
Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard
on the Star Trek: Next Generation films and
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Tomchin Planetarium Inspires
We lack current addresses for many
alumni, and we would greatly appreciate
receiving information that might help us to
find them. A list of missing alumni by year
of graduation is provided below. If you have
any information on their whereabouts, we
would be most grateful if you would contact
Sherry Puskar, alumni relations coordinator.
Thank you!
1941 Guy B. Clark, BS
1947 Guy B. Clark, MS
1949 Wallace A. Hurd, Jr, BS
1950 Wallace A. Hurd, Jr, MS
1951 Benjamin Reed, MS
1954 Charles S. Swope, BS
1957 George W. Reissig, BA
Charles S. Swope, MS
1958 Charles D. Thomas, Jr, AB
1960 Daniel C Sullivan, BS
Robert W. Summers, BS
1961 Charles D. Thomas, Jr, MS
1962 Joseph W. Martin, BS
Daniel C. Sullivan, MS
1963 John R. Curry, AB
Montague Brown Lewis, BS
Robert W. Summers, MS
1964 Valentin B. Boelcskevy, BS
George Robert Jefferson, Jr., MS
1965 Marlene B. Baron, BS
James R. Herod, BS
Carl Edward McDonald, BS
Robert O. Null, BS
1966 David J. Connell, BA
Robert F. Dickinson, BS
Gary Edward Stout, BA
1967 David Lee Page, Sr., BA
1968 Roger Bussard, BS
Gary Edward Stout, MS
1969 Erlvada Ann Crider, BS
1970 Russell B. Devore, MS
Elmer D. Dickens, Jr., PhD
James R. Lepock, BS
William A. Tucker, BS
1972 Joseph Amb Borkowski, BS
1973 Charles D. Thomas, Jr, PhD
1974 James Elmer Galford, BS
Kenneth Anselmo Solomon, MS
1975 Joseph Amb Borkowski, MS
Narong Chaikul, MA
John M. Lafferty, Jr, BS
Robert Lee West, Jr, BS
1976 Donald William Fisher, BS
Paul Stephen Silinsky, MS
Robert Karl Tyson, MS
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(continued from page 6)
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Faculty Highlights
John Kline appeared in Physical Review
Letters in 2002. The first-ever remote ion
temperature measurements of the Earth’s
inner magnetosphere, work done with
graduate student Amy Keesee, was reported
in Geophysical Research Letters earlier
this year.
Mohindar S. Seehra, a Fellow of the
American Physical Society since 1984, was
elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics
(U.K.) in 2001. His two papers with
Professor Punnoose on the magnetic
properties of ferrihydrite and CuO
nanoparticles, appearing in Physical Review B
in 2001, were selected for listing in the
Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science &
Technology.
Arthur Weldon received new funding from
the National Science Foundation for a
project titled “High Temperature Field
Theory.”
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Department of Physics
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department Chair
Earl Scime
304.293.3422 ext. 1437
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor
Boyd Edwards
304.293.3422 ext. 1433
[email protected]
Alumni Relations
Sherry Puskar
304.293.3422 ext. 1451
[email protected]
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group is also developing a portable system
for laser induced fluorescence measurements
in laboratory plasmas.
Mohindar S. Seehra, the Eberly Family
Distinguished Professor of Physics, experimentally studies the structural, electronic,
and magnetic properties of nanoparticles
and nanostructures. With Alex Punnoose
and Seth Underwood, his recent work has
shown that properties of nanoparticles
(lattice parameters, ordering temperature,
exchange bias, coercivity) change dramatically as particle size is decreased. With
A. Manivannan, techniques to detect trace
metals in solutions at the ppb level
are being developed using boron-doped
diamond films.
Arthur Weldon, professor, performs calculations of how standard theories of elementary
particles (quantum electrodynamics and
quantum chromodynamics) will behave at
extremely high temperatures. The Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National
Laboratory is able to create temperatures of
1012 K for a brief instant by colliding heavy
nuclei (Au with Au) at ultrarelativistic
energies. The motivation for these experiments is to look for signals that quarks and
gluons were unconfined during the moment
of highest temperature.
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(continued from page 5)
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Faculty Research Program
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new technologies as they have developed, and
serving as a wonderful blessing and asset to
the department. Just prior to this retirement,
Chuck received the Eberly College’s Outstanding Staff Award for 2002.
Chuck has an amazingly rich life. He is a
paramedic and the captain of the Point
Marion Volunteer Fire Department, having
served there for 33 years. He received
paramedic training at Pennsylvania State
University, Fayette County campus. He
occasionally works as a butcher in a retail
grocery and as a policeman in Point Marion.
He has played his guitar in a band for more
than 40 years. He has served as a member
and president of the Point Marion Lions
Club, and is a member of Masonic Lodge
#459 in Masontown, Pa. He enjoys photography, hunting, fishing, and picking and
eating wild mushrooms. He and his wife,
Bonita, reside in Point Marion, Pa. They
have two children, Christopher and Wesley.
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(continued from page 2)
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Charles Sicina Retires
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1980
Anthony J. Dangelo, AB
Gordon C. McIntosh, MS
Nejad Mohamm Taghavi, BS
Robert Karl Tyson, PhD
Linda Carol Wagner, MS
William Dyson, PhD
Rex Dale Groves, Jr., BS
Alfred Michael, MS
John Montfort Pope, BS
Solomon D. Arhunmwunde, BA
Douglas Martin Brown, BS
Rex Dale Groves, Jr., MS
Monarshah Shahruddin, MS
Paul Stephen Silinsky, PhD
Nancy J. Sklower, MS
Robert Leedham Fike, BS
Aziz Khan Jahja, MS
Katherin Nitsopoulou, MS
Solomon D. Arhunmwunde, MS
Mohan Ramanathan, MS
John Duane Sine, BS
Paiboon Tangyunyong, MS
Odu Albert Yeye, MS
Sabri A. Abumansoor, PhD
Mohamed Salem Ellid, PhD
James Andrew Poston, BS
William Timothy Fox, BS
Raymond A. Burgess, BA
Leung Hung Cheng, MS
Zun Jun Mo, MS
Yadollah Aliakbar, PhD
Narad Maharaj, BS
Jesus Maria Marcano, PhD
Mohan Ramanathan, PhD
Rosman Saad, BA
Min Ke, MS
Zun Jun Mo, PhD
Jeffrey Erra Osborne, BS
Nipon Thangprasert, PhD
Robert McTaggart, BS
Stephen Bernerd Kimble, BA
Jianxi Mu, MS
John Scott McFadden, BA
Jaesun Lee, PhD
Yiwei Chen, MS
Hongyan Sun, MS
Tareq Mohd Alrefae, BA
Min Wu, MS
Eric Matthew Johnson, MS
Hongyan Sun, PhD
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8
1978
Physics News is published annually by the
Department of Physics
West Virginia University
PO Box 6315, Hodges Hall
Morgantown, WV 26506-6315
Web site:
www.as.wvu.edu/phys/index.html