East Tennessee State University
Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geology
Department News
Summer 2008

General News

  • The Geology program left the Department on July 1, 2008, leaving behind the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Geology merged with Geography to form the new department of Geosciences.


  • As part of the ETSU Summer Opportunities for Research in Astronomy for Teachers program, three local high school teachers are conducting research in astronomy this summer, in collaboration with ETSU astronomy faculty. Pictured above, left to right, are Ramona Pedigo (Cherokee High School, Rogersville TN), Mike Garrett (Sullivan Central High School, Kingsport TN), and Tom Rutherford (Sullivan South High School, Kingsport TN). Ramona's faculty mentor is Dr. Richard Ignace, while Mike and Tom are working with Dr. Gary Henson. This program is funded by a NASA Education/Public Outreach grant to Beverly Smith. Ramona (Raye) gave a talk on July 30, 2008 in the Dept on her research entitled `Modeling Infrared Helium Recombination Lines and the Continua of Wolf-Rayet Winds'.


  • Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Mark Hancock left ETSU in August 2008, to start a new position at the University of California at Riverside. For the last three years, Mark worked with Dr. Beverly Smith on various projects involving interacting galaxies and star clusters.

    Student Activities


  • ETSU Physics major Alfred Hopkins is working this summer with Dr. Beverly Smith on a project involving dwarf galaxies. He is funded through a NASA grant.

  • ETSU Physics major Scott Price is working this summer with Dr. Richard Ignace on colliding winds in binary stars. He is supported through the NSF-funded SARA Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.

  • Justin Rosales, a Physics major at the College of New Jersey, is working with Dr. Gary Henson this summer on polarimetry of epsilon Eridani. He is supported through the SARA REU program.

  • ETSU Physics major Sabrina Hurlock participated in the NSF-funded REU Program in Solar and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder this summer. Her faculty mentor was Curt de Koning, and her project was entitled `A Real-Time Space Weather Tool to Specify the 3-D Speed and Direction of a CME.'

  • ETSU Physics major Chris Carver married Karen Capps on Saturday, August 9, 2008. Karen graduated from ETSU with a B.S. in Chemistry May 2008. This summer, Chris did an internship in medical physics at St. Judes Hospital in Memphis. His research project was entitled `Quantifying Typical Cortical Thickness Development in Children'.

  • ETSU Physics major Wes Erbsen participated in the NSF-funded REU Program in Physics at Kansas State University. His faculty mentor was Chris Sorensen, and his project was titled `Adaptive Camouflage'.


  • Kristin Stone (Physics major class of 2005) married Jonathan Holmes in May 2008. Kristin is now a graduate student in the math dept at ETSU.


    A scene from the Dept Pizza lunch on June 3, 2008.
    Left: 2008 Physics major graduate Ryan Deskins. Ryan will be attending graduate school in Physics at Florida State University in the fall.
    Right: Physics major Scott Price.


    Another scene from the June 3, 2008 Dept Pizza lunch.
    Left: Jim Dosser, a teacher at Science Hill High School (Johnson City TN) and an adjunct faculty member in the Dept.
    Right: Retired Dept faculty member Harry Powell.
            

    News from the past...
    Fall 2007 - Spring 2008
    Summer 2007
    Fall 2006 - Spring 2007
    Summer 2006
    Fall 2005 - Spring 2006
    Summer 2006
    Fall 2004 - Spring 2005
    Summer 2004
    Spring 2004
    Fall 2003
    Summer 2003

    Last updated: 8/11/08 by B. J. Smith.