The article is titled “Sounding of the plasmasphere by Mid-continent Magnetoseismic Chain (McMAC) magnetometers. Visit spc.igpp.ucla.edu/mcmac for more information about the chain of instruments, one of which is at the MSUM Regional Science Center, Buffalo River site.

There were 3,000 students who made oral or poster presentations. Abate encourages other students to present. Register here.

Abate made an oral presentation about his summer research “Fabrication and Characterization of Metal-Patterned SrCo0.9Nb0.1O3-delta Thin film cathodes with well-defined geometry for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.”

He also made two presentations during the Student Academic Conference. One about his summer research and the other was about a physics lab he did, along with another student.

To be considered for induction, physics majors must maintain a high overall and major GPA and they must have had significant involvement in research and/or public outreach.

The three MSUM students inducted into the Sigma Pi Sigma honors society this year are: Hollee Johnson, Tyler Lane, and Thomas Rydeen.

Friday, April 5, 2013
3-3:50 p.m.
325 Hagen Hall

Students were involved in observational astronomy research at the Paul P Feder Observatory since spring 2011. Photometric data of an SX Phoenicis star, XX Cyg were obtained via the DFM engineered 16” Cassegrain optical telescope, an Apogee Alta U-Series CCD Camera. Reduced data were analyzed using the MaxIM DL IP (Image processing) software. Using the Period 04 software and the Periodogram services of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, the period of the star was estimated and compared with the current accepted values. An instruction manual for how to work with the SBIG SGS Spectrograph was also prepared.

Bhattacharya was awarded the National Society of Physics Student’s Reporter Award to attend this meeting. In addition to his poster session, he attended two press conference sessions, a plenary session on Martian atmosphere, a career session for undergraduate physics students and a career workshop for scientists given by Dr. Peter Fiske. Bhattacharya said, “I have never attended any press conference before. It was absolutely an amazing experience. I was surprised to see how quickly and efficiently scientists delivered their research findings to the science reporters.”

Bhattacharya’s trip was financed in part by the undergraduate travel support fund from the Dean’s Office of the College of Social & Natural Sciences (MSUM), the Department of Physics & Astronomy (MSUM), the Office of Student Activities (OSA, MSUM) and the National Society of Physics Students. Bhattacharya will be working as a summer research assistant for American Association of Variable Star Observes (AAVSO) in Boston this summer. He said, “The OSA and I are in a process of organizing a meeting to spread out the message of why one should consider attending an academic or professional meeting. So far, we picked April 23 for the meeting. We will send out a reminder through the dragon listserv.”

http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/

By: Anna G. Larson, INFORUM

FARGO – “To infinity and beyond” is more than Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase from “Toy Story” – it’s what keeps five North Dakota women interested in astronomy.

“Space is inherently cool. We’re just such a small part – it’s fun learning about things outside of our daily lives, thinking about what other life there might be,” Katrina Jackson, of Grand Forks, says.

Jackson, along with Kristin Brevik, Scarlet Gray Bernard, Carrie Leopold and Annie Wargetz, is a Solar System Ambassador this year in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory public outreach program.

Through the volunteer program, the women organize community events in the state about space and NASA missions. They’re able to connect with mission scientists and offer the public in-depth, understandable information about the solar system through presentations and events.

“We live in an area where you can get a telescope and use it,” Brevik, of Fargo, says. “Some places, you can’t do that.”

There are nearly 500 ambassadors in 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Ambassadors are “geared toward getting the word out about science,” Wargetz, of Grand Forks, says.

North Dakota has been previously underrepresented in the Solar System Ambassador program.

“It’s a high-needs area – not a lot of people in this area doing it,” Leopold says.

The women’s passion for astronomy and the sciences stems from education, curiosity and a desire to share knowledge. Gray Bernard, who has a background in English and music, explains that astronomy and sciences aren’t limited to mathematical equations and mixing chemicals in a lab.

“It can be very interdisciplinary – it can be history, music, art and creation,” the Fargo resident says.

For example, artists illustrate concepts developed by NASA scientists to help the scientists better understand ideas.

“There is a place for everybody somewhere in science,” Leopold, of Fargo, says. “I think sometimes people are very intimidated by the sciences. You don’t have to be the A-plus student to go into science. You have to be a hard worker and have a passion.”

The women hope to encourage people, especially women and girls, to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Although women fill close to half (48 percent) of all jobs in the U.S., they hold less than 25 (24 percent) percent of STEM jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration.

Women with a STEM degree are also less likely than their male counterparts to work in a STEM occupation. They are more likely to work in education or health care.

“The major faces of science and astronomy in the media have still all been primarily male – Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, Brian Cox,” Jackson says. “I hope to eventually give my own female face to that.”

The percentage of women in STEM careers has been gradually increasing, although women are still underrepresented in many fields, particularly in mathematical and computer sciences and engineering, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Wargetz attended the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ SPACE 2012 conference last year in Pasadena, Calif., and says it felt like there were only 10 females in the crowd of 1,500.

The deputy administrator of NASA, Lori Garver, spoke at the event, and Wargetz says it was inspiring to see a female executive since most are male. She hopes to inspire other women through her work in the sciences.

“My primary goal is to give females a face to look up to and say ‘Hey, girls can do this, too,’ ” Wargetz says.

She and Jackson will present “Outer Space in the Great Plains: Resources for Aliens” at the next North Dakota Solar System Ambassadors event on April 6.

The interactive presentation will focus on where aliens might find useful resources in our solar system.

The women encourage the public to come to solar ambassador events to be entertained and learn more about “infinity and beyond.”

“There are big, profound scientific discoveries every single day, and it affects everything,” Leopold says.

North Dakota’s Solar System Ambassadors can be contacted via www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador or ndssa.wordpress.com.

If you go

What: Outer Space in the Great Plains: Resources for Aliens

When: 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on April 6

Where: Clifford Hall, Room 210 at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks

Info: The event is free and open to the public.

Meet the five women

Kristin Brevik

Hometown: Wahpeton

Education: Undergraduate degree in physics from Minnesota State University Moorhead and currently pursuing a graduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of North Dakota

Other: She was the International Year of Astronomy Ambassador for North Dakota in 2009.

Scarlet Gray Bernard

Hometown: Valley City

Education: Music and English undergraduate degrees from Valley City State University and a graduate degree in English from UND

Other: She’s been a planetarium assistant at MSUM since 2006 and is a member of the Fargo-Moorhead Astronomy Club.

Katrina Jackson

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Education: Currently pursuing graduate degree in the space studies program at UND

Other: She previously interned at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Office of Communications in Greenbelt, Md.

Annie Wargetz

Hometown: Houston

Education: Current graduate student in the space studies program at UND, where she volunteers for the UND Observatory and is a research assistant for the Human Spaceflight Laboratory

Other: She has a background in technical communications and teaching in the software industry.

Carrie Leopold

Education: Undergraduate degree in biology from MSUM and a master’s in education from the University of Mary in Bismarck, currently pursuing her doctorate in education research at UND

Other: Leopold is the STEM Outreach Co-ordinator for the North Dakota College of Science. She is also part of NASA’s professional development network, which provides resources and training to area teachers.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/393917/

What is Psychophysics?
Michael Mangini, Ph.D.
Professor of Cognitive Psychology
Department of Psychology, Concordia College, Moorhead

Friday, March 22, 2013
3-3:50 p.m.
118 Science Lab

What is the relationship between the physical world and the perceptions in our minds? Before Sigmund Freud was born, the founders of experimental psychology developed the theories and methods to investigate this relationship. Psychophysics strives to determine the quantitative functional relations between the bodily and mental, the physical and psychical world. In this talk I will provide a bit of history on this topic, present a few of the seminal findings in the field, and describe some of my research that aims at discovering how we categorize complex images like faces and how these methods can even give us a glimpse into the mind of non-human primates.

FacultySeminarFlyerMar22

Sylvio May, Associate Professor
Department of Physics, North Dakota State University

Friday, March 8, 2013
3:00-3:50 p.m.
325 Hagen Hall

In this talk I will argue that the biophysics of lipid membranes is a very susceptible field for doing theoretical research (yes, using paper and pencil), even for undergraduate students. The reason is that there are plenty of relevant problems that require creativity and ideas rather than fancy mathematics (ok, some math skills can be useful). Moreover, the field is interdisciplinary and developing fast – not surprisingly because lipid membranes are central to many biological, technological, and pharmaceutical processes. I plan to highlight some “hot” research fields such as the search for alternative resistance-free antibiotics, the design of lipid-based DNA carriers for gene therapy, and the entry of some viruses into cells. In the main part of the talk I will illustrate how “doing theory” actually works. To this end, I will discuss a simple method for calculating electrostatic membrane properties.

Shouvik Bhattacharya, the Sigma Pi Sigma Student Representative of MSUM, said, “The last zone meeting was held at the UW-River Falls back in 2010 and it was a joint meeting with the Wisconsin and Minnesota sections of American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The MSUM SPS Chapter has been active in the past two and a half years. I realized it would be the right time to host a regional meeting and spread the words of our accomplishments as a group and discuss what we can do collaboratively with physics students from other universities in the near future.” The Zone 11 encompasses five states: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

The Society of Physics Students was founded in 1968 specifically to address questions and concerns of the undergraduate physics students. The Society of Physics Students Chapter at Minnesota State University Moorhead was established in 1973. The SPS bridges the gap between the professional (American Institute of Physics and its members and affiliated societies) and the academic world (Sigma Pi Sigma, the Physics Honor Society). Bhattacharya said, “I worked as an SPS National intern last summer in Washington DC. It totally changed my views on how the SPS group can serve better both for society and for the physicists. For example, the recent sequestration will directly impact the researchers and students across the nation. All scientific professional organizations have been working hard to minimize the effect due to budget cut. Along with many other aspects, the Society of Physics Students allowed me to develop a perspective on how physicists can interact with the congressmen.”

The SPS Zone 11 Meeting started on Friday evening at 6 pm with the public talk given by David Weinrich, the former President of the International Planetarium Society and the current Director of the MSUM Planetarium. Tyler Antony, the Society of Physics Students Chapter President at NDSU joined the MSUM SPS group. Dr. Rinita Dalan (Chair and Professor of Anthropology) also came to this talk. Bhattacharya thinks this must be considered as an interdisciplinary leap. Later, meeting attendees watched a full dome movie, Galileo in the MSUM Planetarium (Bridges 167).

There were several talks and poster presentations on March 2, the second day of the zone meeting. Audrey Burkart (the Associate Zone Councilor of the SPS Zone 11) and Jordan Kuiper drove all the way from Sioux Falls to Moorhead to attend this meeting. Both Burkart and Kuiper presented their posters with the MSUM students Meredith Mc Linn and Iwnetim Abate. The MSUM SPS members arranged a small demo on making ice cream with liquid nitrogen during lunch in CMU 101. Later in the afternoon, Bhattacharya presented his last official talk (as an MSUM SPS official) prepared for the Zone Meeting attendees, which explained why team work is essential in today’s ever changing world. Physics Alum, John Harris (2010) who is pursuing a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics at NDSU, presented a talk on what to expect in graduate school and how to develop a critical mind for research. The meeting ended with Dr. Matthew Craig’s (Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy, MSUM) talk on photometric research done at the Paul P Feder Observatory in the Regional Science Center, MSUM.

Bhattacharya said, “Three intuitions from three different states joined this meeting. The Society of Physics Students Chapters from those three schools have potentials to prepare leaders who can communicate science beyond the realm of academia. I hope the meeting attendees will carry this message in their future endeavors. In addition to the meeting attendees, I would like to thank every single faculty professor of the department of Physics & Astronomy, MSUM, Joy Lindell, Dana Carlson, Dr. David Wahlberg, Dan Heckaman, and Mary Beckerleg to make this event possible.”

The SPS Zone 11 Meeting attendees and Presenters: Back row: Thomas Brenner, Anthony Woltman, Annika Bordak, Dana Jo Koczur and Kyle Salk. Lower row: Audrey Burkat, Jordan Kuiper (Augustana College), Shouvik Bhattacharya (MSUM), Tyler Antony (NDSU), Meredith Mc Linn (MSUM), Tyler Lane (MSUM), and John Harris (NDSU). — at Science Lab | Minnesota State University Moorhead. Copyright ©2013 The MSUM Society of Physics Students

SPS Schedule

The meeting will start on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Science Lab 104. David Weinrich, the former President of the International Planetarium Society and the present Director of the MSUM Planetarium will give the opening talk on The Modern Planetarium- a digital, immersive, data visualization experience at 7 p.m. in Science Lab 104. This talk is free and open to public. Later in the evening, the meeting attendees will have an opportunity to see Galileo, a full dome movie, at the planetarium. Regular viewers are also welcome to attend the movie show, but tickets are limited. On Saturday, several posters and oral presentations are scheduled (from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.) at the Science Lab atrium. Anyone is welcome to attend those sessions. The meet-up will end at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 2 with the closing talk by Dr. Matthew Craig, Chair, Department of Physics & Astronomy at MSUM. The MSUM chapter members are excited to meet with new students and expand their horizons this meet-up.

The MSUM SPS chapter has been very active for the past two and a half years. Last fall, the MSUM chapter sent two students (Pragalv Karki and Andrew Larson) to attend the Quadrennial Physics Congress in Orlando, Florida, at which Karki presented his senior year project on Helmholtz coil. The SPS chapter teamed-up with the MSUM Planetarium last October and celebrated Halloween with a public outreach night named The Scary Sky Show and Spooky Science Night on October 27th. The chapter sponsored the MSUM University Physics Competition team (Meredith Mc Linn, Pragalv Karki and Shouvik Bhattacharya) in mid-November. The chapter also presented their Second Annual Physics Demo Show this past February (February 17, 2013).

The Society of Physics Students is a sister organization of American Institute of Physics. The mission statement of the Society of Physics Students reads as follow: “The Society of Physics Students (SPS) is a professional association explicitly designed for students. Membership, through collegiate chapters, is open to anyone interested in physics. The only requirement for membership is that you be interested in physics. Besides physics majors, our members include majors in chemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics, medicine, and other fields.”

https://www.facebook.com/SPSZone11

Andrew B. Croll, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics, North Dakota State University

March 1
3-3:50 p.m.
325 Hagen Hall

Polymeric materials have many interesting and useful properties that have lead to their ubiquitous use. Many of these properties are related to the fundamental physics of how these long chain molecules fill the space given to them. While much is known about polymers in a bulk setting, their properties can change dramatically if any of the material dimensions become small (for example in a nanometer thick film). Here we show how we can carefully examine the mechanics of polymer films in order to improve our understanding of what changes when films become thin. We will present the results of several short experimental studies conducted in our materials physics laboratory at NDSU. In particular, we will show some details of how a simple elastic instability (wrinkling) can and cannot be used, what happens if films become discrete rather than continuous and finally some details of what happens if films are forced to wrap a sphere.

Jan. 24 Abate won an award for being in the top three out of two hundred students from across the U.S. at the National Collegiate Research Conference hosted by Harvard University.

Abate will also give a presentation at the National Conference of Research at the University of Wisconsin and American Physical Society in Denver. Both of them will be in April.

Here is the link to the award, “People’s Choice Award” at the National Collegiate Research Conference. The other two People’s Choice Award winners were from Harvard University and UC Berkeley.

Presented by: Dennis Jacobs from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Minnesota State University Moorhead

Friday, Feb. 15
3-3:50 p.m.
325 Hagen Hall

Because of increasing problems with Climate Change all industries should consider techniques to lower their future carbon footprints. The aircraft industry is very carbon intense and must consider low carbon alternative to the internal combustion engine. Dr Jacobs with the help of MSUM students has been designing and building an electrical powered aircraft over the past year. The construction is almost complete, the electric propulsion system has been tested and we hope to have the aircraft flying by early summer. The presentation will discuss the research and design progress in this project.

Bhattacharya said, “Heating an ordinary oven requires to hold the principles of thermodynamics, commonly known as convection and conduction process of the heat transfer. Solving a 2D-heat equation involves challenging computations. For example, I modeled the critical meltdown of a nuclear reactor last year for the math modeling class I took. For simplicity, we assumed a one-dimension rod which could prevent the meltdown. Similarly, we simplified the boundary conditions inside the oven by assuming the heat flux works only in one direction.” The MSUM team received an honorable mention in the last year’s contest. Like last year, Dr. Damiano Fulghesu advised this year’s team. The competition was financed by the department of Mathematics at MSUM.

http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/

Luiz A. Manzoni, Ph.D.
Department of Physics
Concordia College, Moorhead

Friday, Feb. 8
3-3:50 p.m.
325 Hagen Hall

We consider the longstanding problem of defining the time for a particle to tunnel through a potential. After describing the difficulties that plague the field, we consider the problem from the point of view of the Salecker-Wigner-Peres quantum clock and, by taking into account the requirement of localizability and by performing a post-selection of the final state, obtain a new definition for an average transmission time. The properties of this average transmission time are discussed both in the non-relativistic and relativistic scenarios and, in particular, it is shown that it does not exhibit the Hartman effect (nor its generalized version).

Erik K. Hobbie
Department of Physics, Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials
North Dakota State University

Friday, February 1, 2013
3-3:50 p.m.
325 Hagen Hall

An overview of opportunities for graduate study in Materials and Nanotechnology at NDSU will be presented, along with a summary of our ongoing research. Recent work in our group has demonstrated significant improvements in both the photoluminescence quantum yield of silicon quantum dots and the energy conversion efficiency of carbon-nanotube photovoltaic devices through nanoparticle purification and self-assembly. I will present some of our recent findings related to the harvest and generation of light using these purified nanomaterials and discuss both the underlying scientific breakthroughs and the potential applications.