News and Events

General 

On May 9, 2016, the Department hosted a public viewing of the transit of Mercury, in conjunction with the Bays Mountain Amateur Astronomy Club.  The viewing was held on the ETSU campus.  ETSU Physics majors Macon Magno (left) and Ashton Morelock (right) assisted at this event.

Dr. Lee Anne Willson from Iowa State University visited the Department for three weeks in October and November 2015 as the Basler Chair of Excellence.    For more information about her background and her activities at ETSU, click here.  In the picture on the right, Dr. Willson (6th from left) is shown with Society of Physics Students Ashton Morelock, Susan Olmsted, Cole Woo, Patrick Kennedy,  Thomas Holden Dingus, Hannah Greene, David Frost, Blake Urban, Danielle Latham, and Logan Norton.

 

The American Institute of Physics named the ETSU Physics and Astronomy Department as a `Top Performer' among Universities and Colleges without graduate programs in Physics.  For more information, click here. 

Picture taken at the Observatory Open House September 19, 2015

 A second picture taken at the Open House on September 19, 2015.    Physics majors Thomas Holden Dingus and Andrew Boghozian have their arms raised.

 

 

 

 

 

The dome of the 14 meter telescope at Powell Observatory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students

 Six Physics majors graduated in May 2016: William Asbury,  Brandon Henard, Gudmundur Kristjansson,  Susan Olmsted, Austin Patrick, and Yujia Wang.  Yujia Wang is shown at left.

 

 

 

 

Physics major Susan Olmsted won the "Outstanding Student in Physics" prize for 2016, for being the graduating senior with the highest overall GPA.   Here she is shown at the April 20, 2016 Department Lunch honoring the graduating seniors.    In addition, graduating seniors Austin Patrick, Gudmundur Kristjansson, and Susan Olmsted were awarded prizes for graduating with distinction, with overall GPAs higher than 3.5. 

  Two of the graduating seniors at the Spring 2016 lunch: Brandon Henard (left) and Yujia Wang (right).  

 

 

 

 A few other pictures from the Spring 2016 Dept lunch.  Leftmost picture: Ashton Morelock and Logan Norton. 

 

On April 25, 2016, Physics major Austin Patrick presented his Honors thesis.  It is titled `Photoinduced Electron Transfer and Its Applications'.

 

 

Physics major Thomas Holden Dingus presented his Honors thesis on Monday April 18, 2016.  It is titled `Flickering Analysis of CH Cygni using Kepler Data'.

Four Physics majors presented posters at the Appalachian Research Forum, held on campus Thursday April 7, 2016.    Macon Magno's poster was titled `A Survey of Equal Mass Mergers in the Infrared, Ultraviolet, and X-Ray'.   Ashton Morelock presented a poster titled `Emission Line Ratios and Oxygen Abundances in Interacting vs. Spiral Galaxies'.   Susan Olmsted's poster was titled `Star Formation in Ring Galaxies', while Phillip Wheeler's poster was titled `An Infrared Study of Type II Cepheid Stars from the WISE Satellite'.  Susan Olmsted's poster won first place in the Natural Science Division.

Four Physics majors gave talks at the Boland Undergraduate Research Symposium, held March 31 at the Millenium Centre in Johnson City Tennessee.   Susan Olmsted spoke on `Star Formation in Ring Galaxies'. Austin  Patrick gave a talk on `Photo-Induced Electron Transfer and its Applications'.   Thomas Holden Dingus gave a presentation titled `A Flickering Analysis of Chi Cygni using Keper Data'.    Dustin Gilmer gave a talk on `Focal Adhesion Kinase'. 

 Physics major Susan Olmsted presented her Honors thesis Monday March 21, 2016.  It was titled `Star Formation in Ring Galaxies'.

 

 

Ten ETSU Physics/Astronomy majors/minors participated in a workshop on radio astronomy March 4 - 6, 2016, at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Center in Brevard North Carolina.   Left to right:  Susan Olmsted, Patrick Kennedy, Holden Dingus, Hannah Green, Macon Magno, Nicolas Woo, Josh Cassels, Katelyn Sobota, Christian Givens.  For more pictures and more information, click here.

 

 

 

 

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Physics major Susan Olmsted participated in the `Posters at the Capitol' event February 24, 2016 in Nashville.  She presented a poster entitled `Star Formation Rates in Ring Galaxies'.

 

 

 

The ETSU Society of Physics Student organization was named a `Notable SPS Chapter' by the National SPS organization, for the year 2014/2015.

 

 

 

 

Three ETSU Physics majors, Ashton Morelock, Susan Olmsted, and Brianne Dunn,  attended the Undergraduate Women in Physics Conference held in Atlanta Georgia January 15 - 17, 2016.    Ashton Morelock presented a research poster entitled `Emission Line Ratios and Oxygen Abundances in Interacting vs. Spiral Galaxies'.  Susan Olmsted presented a poster titled `Nuclear Data Compilation for Beta Decay Isotopes.'

 

Two Physics majors graduated in December 2015: Andrew Boghozian and Yonghui Wang.   Andrew is shown on the left (with Physics major Susan Olmsted).; Yonghui on the right 

 

 

Three Physics majors at the December 9, 2015 End-of-Semester/Holiday Party.   In back: Susan Olmsted.   In front left to right: Thomas Holden Dingus and David Frost.

 

 

Physics major Susan Olmsted attended the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics meeting  in Santa Fe New Mexico October 28-30, 2015.   She presented a poster entitled ``Nuclear Data Compilation for Beta Decay Isotopes''.  She conducted this research last summer as part of a summer research program at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory.

 

 

 

 

 

Physics major Will Asbury gave a research talk at a conference for undergraduate research  held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville October 30, 2015.  The conference was titled the Tennessee Experiential Learning Symposium.  His talk was titled  `Polarized light observations of the eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae'.  Dr. Richard Ignace from the ETSU Department of Physics and Astronomy also attended this meeting.   

 

The Society of Physics Students painting on the ETSU Pride Walk.  Left to right:  Tim Payne, Susan Olmsted, Ashton Morelock, David Frost, Hannah Greene.

 

 

 

 

Students in the Variable Stars course, posing with the 14 inch telescope at Powell Observatory. Left to right:  Marc Cloyd, Hannah Greene,  Ashton Morelock, and Macon Magno.  Marc Cloyd is an Astronomy minor; the other three are Physics majors.

 

 

 

Students in the Variable Stars class, running the telescope.  Left: Marc Cloyd.  Right: Ashton Morelock.

 

 

 

Another picture of students in the Variable Stars course.  Left to right: Ashton Morelock, Macon Magno, and Marc Cloyd.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Twelve Physics Majors attended a lunch for majors in the Department August 21, 2015.

 

 

 

Alumni

Devanshu Agrawal (Physics and Math double major, class of 2014) completed a masters in Mathematics from ETSU in May 2016.

 

 

 

Recent Physics graduates Elizabeth Williams and Ben McKinney (both class of 2015) attended the Spring 2016 Dept lunch held on April 20, 2016.  Elizabeth is now a graduate student in the Masters of Teaching program at ETSU, and Ben works at Woodridge Hospital in Johnson City.

 

 

 

 

 Three Physics alumni attended the December 9, 2015 End-of-Semester/Holiday Party.   Left to right:  Ben McKinney (Class of 2015), Elizabeth Williams (Class of 2015), and Chance Brown (Class of 2013).

 

ETSU Physics graduate Sabrina Hurlock (Class of 2010) started a new job teaching high school math/science/engineering at a charter school called Knowledge Academies, located outside of Nashville Tennessee

 

 

Physics and Mathematics graduate William Jamieson (Class of 2013) was in the news for receiving a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship.   He is now a graduate student in Math at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

 

 

ETSU Physics graduate Joseph T. McNeil (Class of 2015) started graduate school in Physics at the University of Florida in Gainesville in Fall 2015.

 

 

 

 

ETSU Physics graduate Kristen Campbell (Class of 2015) started medical school at the University of Tennessee in Memphis this fall.

 

 

 

 

ETSU Physics graduate Elizabeth Williams (Class of 2015) started graduate school in Education at ETSU this fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ETSU Physics graduate Zhicheng Zhang (Class of 2015) started graduate school in Mathematics at ETSU this fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 ETSU Physics major graduate Sharon Gray (Class of 2009) started a job as a lecturer in the Physics and Astronomy Department at ETSU.   After graduating from ETSU, Sharon obtained a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Tennessee.

 

 

 

Faculty

Dr. Richard Ignace won the College of Arts and Sciences Research Award for 2015/2016

 

 

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Department faculty Dr. Beverly Smith and Dr. Mark Giroux attended a meeting of the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) in Baltimore Maryland March 4 - 6, 2016.   They presented a poster entitled `Back to the Classroom: Teaching Radio Astronomy'.   This described a program in which Physics/Astronomy majors/minors participated in a radio astronomy workshop, then did classroom presentations on radio astronomy.   For more information and pictures of the workshop, click here.

Retired Physics Professor Harry D. Powell attended the Dec 9, 2015 End-of-Semester lunch.

 

 

As noted above, former ETSU physics major Sharon Gray started a job as a lecturer in the Department in Fall 2015.

 A picture of Department faculty member Beverly Smith at the Physics major lunch, August 2015.