December 3, 2013
Professor Gabe Spalding has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society, upon the recommendation of the Forum on Education. This is a high honor; only one half of one percent of the membership of APS is elected to the Fellowship of the Society. The citation reads, in part: " For his work to create a community of physics educators focused on physics laboratory instruction beyond the first year; ..."

October 16, 2013
Professor Gabe Spalding has been selected to receive the 2014 Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT.  "Besides being a past member and Chair of the AAPT Committee on Laboratories, he has been active on multiple AAPT committees as either a committee member or friend of the committee. He has been an organizer or contributor to a session at nearly every AAPT semi-annual national meeting for years. He has also been active behind the scenes and on task forces and subcommittees, and served on the AAPT Nominating Committee during 2012-13."

October 15, 2013
Professor Gabe Spalding spoke with Susan Saunders of WJBC, about Bloomington's Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Clinton Davisson. Click here to listen to this conversation. 

October 14, 2013
Precise observations of asteroids by three Illinois Wesleyan University physics majors have resulted in the designation of the University’s Mark Evans Observatory as an official observing site. The three are: Kyle Connour ’15 and Chelsea Davitt ’14, both of Bloomington, and Daniel La Rocca of Palatine, Ill., a 2013 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan.
For more information, click here. 

October 1, 2013
Professor Gabe Spalding chosen to receive the prestigious 2014 Jonathan Reichert and Barbara Wolff-Reichert Award for Excellence in Advanced Laboratory Instruction. The Prize was established to recognize and honor outstanding achievement in teaching, sustaining (for at least four years), and enhancing an advanced undergraduate laboratory course or courses at US institutions.  It consists of $5,000 and a certificate with the appropriate citation. The citation that will appear on the certificate reads as follows:
“For introducing contemporary concepts and significant enhancements to “beyond-first-year” physics laboratory courses, and for playing a key role in organizing the nation-wide Advanced Laboratory Physics Association and being its first president.”

September 23, 2013
Professor Linda French and D. La Rocca (IWU'13) are co-authors on these papers.
1) "A Troop of Trojans:  Lightcurves of 24 Trojan Asteroids," by L. M. French, R. D. Stephens, D. R. Coley, L. H. Wasserman, F. Vilas, and D. La Rocca
2) "Lightcurve for (152756) 1999 JV3," by R. D. Stephens and L. M. French.
These papers are available online here.

September 9, 2013
llinois Wesleyan's Mark Evans Observatory is now an official observing site recognized by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), due to the efforts of Kyle Connor ('15), Chelsea Davitt ('14) and Daniel La Rocca ('13).  The three physics majors worked over the summer under the direction of Physics Professor Linda French to install a new telescope and electronic camera at the observatory. Their observations of a wide range of asteroids were of sufficiently high precision for the MPC to designate a permanent code to the Evans Observatory.  The MPC is housed at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union.

September 6, 2013
Professor Thushara Perera receives a grant from a National Science Foundation grant to study the properties of cosmic dust through. The $178,261 grant will support obtaining laboratory instruments and fund the stipends for two student research assistants each year of the two-year grant period. 
https://www.iwu.edu/news/2013/09-NSF-funds-cosmic-dust-study.html

August 26, 2013
Sam Birsa'2014 received the 2013 Bill Murphy Summer Research Award to set-up single quantum interference experiments for our upper-level laboratory curriculum.

August 25, 2013
Patrick Dahl'2013 and Professor Gabe Spalding are co-authors of a paper titled  "(Not) just torquing around  " at Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation X  Authors: Gabriel C. Spalding, Illinois Wesleyan Univ.; Christine E. M. Demore, Zhengyi Yang, Institute for Medical Science & Technology (United Kingdom); Patrick M. Dahl, Illinois Wesleyan Univ. and Institute for Medical Science & Technology (United Kingdom); Peter Glynne-Jones, Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom); Andreas Melzer, Michael P. MacDonald, Sandy Cochran, Institute for Medical Science & Technology (United Kingdom)

August 25-29, 2013
Professor Gabe Spalding is co-organizer of the SPIE conference  and co-editor of its Proceedings.
Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation X, Proceedings SPIE Conference 8810, edited by K. Dholakia, G. C. Spalding

August 2, 2013:
Professor Bruno deHarak gave an invited talk at the International Symposium on (e, 2e), Double Photo-ionization and Related Topics & 17th International Symposium on Polarization and Correlation in Electronic and Atomic Collisions in Hefei, China. The title of the talk was "New experimental studies on laser-assisted electron atom scattering"

August1, 2013:
Professor Perera and IWU students Alejandro Mancera'2015 and Jesse Schaar'2012, co-authored a research paper titled "An Efficient and Optimal Filter for Identifying Point Sources in Millimeter/Submillimeter Wavelength Sky Maps"
in PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC, 125:838–848, 2013 July
T.A. Perera (IWU), G.W. Wilson (Umass, Amherst), K.S.Scott (NRAO), J.E. Austermann (CASA), J.R. Schaar (IWU), and A. Mancera (IWU).

June, 2013:
Professor Bruno deHarak presented two posters at the 2013 Joint Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics and the CAP Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics, in Quebec City, Canada. The first (with co-authors K. Bartschat and N.L.S. Martin) was titled "Energy dependence of the (e,2e) recoil/binary peak ratio across He autoionizing levels". The second (with co-authors B. Nosarzewski, M. Siavashpouri, and N.L.S. Martin) was titled "Eletron-helium laser-assisted free-free scattering for incident energies from 30 - 200 eV: effects of polarization direction".

June 6, 2013: 
Professor Thushara Perera gave a contributed talk at the summer meeting of
the American Astronomical Society (AAS meeting 222) titled
"An Efficient and Optimal Technique for Identifying Point Sources in Millimeter/sub-millimeter Sky Maps"

May 9, 2013
Christopher Jent '15 and Nickolas Miller '16 presented a poster at a reception for the IWU Board of Trustees. The poster described work on 3D tracking that they performed with Professor Bruno deHarak.

April 20, 2013:
Seven students, working on various research projects with Prof. Bruno de Harak, presented their work at the annual John Wesley Powell Research Conference at IWU.
Juan GomezVelez '14 and Kyle French '14 presented a poster on "Laser-Based Pressure Measurement"
Victoria Halevy '14 presented a poster on "The Iridescence of Morpho Butterfly Wings"
Xi Lin '16 and Madeline Lyons '16 presented a poster on "Characterization of Dust"
Christopher Jent '15 and Nickolas Miller '16 presented a poster on "Determining the Location of an Object In 3 Dimensional Space Using a Two Camera System"

Jan. 18 – 20, 2013:
Chelsea Davitt ’14, Tory Halevy ’14, and Margaret McCarter ’15 attended the 6th Annual Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women In Physics (This is the third year in a row that a group of our students has attended the conference).

November 12, 2012
Professor Bruno deHarak co-authored a research paper in Physical Review A,
"Dipole-quadrupole interference spectroscopy: Observation of an autoionizing He 1D Rydberg series"
Phys. Rev. A 86, 053408 (2012)

September 20, 2012:
Professor Linda French and Dan Larocca '12 travel to the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory near La Serena, Chile, to study asteroids.

September 7, 2012:
Professor Linda French leads NSF-funded study of asteroids. Adding to the body of knowledge regarding the formation and evolution of our solar system will be the focus of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study led by Illinois Wesleyan University Chair and Professor of Physics Linda M. French and involving astronomers from Georgia State University, Lowell Observatory in Arizona, and the Center for Solar System Studies in California.
https://www.iwu.edu/news/2012/09-faculty-french-NSF-grant.html

August 27, 2012:
Professor Linda French becomes the Chair of IWU Physics Department.

July 2012:
Professor Gabe Spalding is co-editor of the Proceedings of SPIE.
Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation IX, Proceedings SPIE 8458, edited by K. Dholakia, G. C. Spalding (SPIE, Bellingham, WA 2012).

June 6, 2012:
Professor Bruno deHarak presented a poster at the 43nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in Anaheim, California, "Electron-helium laser-assisted free-free with variable laser polarization".

April 20, 2012:
Professor Gabe Spalding explains his collaborative research that may lead to technology for more precisely targeting and destroying tumors.

April 14, 2012:
Four students, working on various research projects with Prof. Bruno de Harak, presented their work at the annual John Wesley Powell Research Conference at IWU.
Jonathan Castro '15 and Alejandro Mancera '15 presented a poster on "Nature of Friction within System of Interleaved Sheets".
Joseph Lim '13 presented a poster titled "On Edwin H. Land's Retinex Theory: Developing a Classroom Demonstration for Color Vision.
" Alan Russian '15 (also mentored by Prof. Liffiton) presented a poster on " Monte Carlo Simulations of Electron Scattering Experiments."

April 11, 2012:
Chair and Professor of Physics Narendra Jaggi has been named the 2013 winner of the Kemp Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence at Illinois Wesleyan University. It is the University's highest teaching honor: https://www.iwu.edu/news/2012/04-honors-recap.html

January 15, 2012:
Marissa DeWeese '12, Azma Rehman '13, Chelsea Davitt '14, and Margaret McCarter '15 attended the Undergraduate Women In Physics conference at Case Western University (Cleveland, Ohio) from January 13th through 15th, 2012.

August 29, 2011:
A team led by Professor Gabe Spalding has been awarded a grant of more than $450,000 from the National Science Foundation. Professor Spalding is the principal investigator on a project aimed toward improving laboratory instruction in physics for undergraduate college students in the United States.“
https://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases11/fea_NSFGrant_00811.shtml

August 21, 2011: 
Professor Gabe Spalding is, with Kishan Dholakia, Chair of the Conference on Optical Trapping & Optical Micromanipulation (OTOM'11), which took place in San Diego, August 21-25.

August 15, 2011: 
Professor Gabe Spalding has co-authored a paper Gunnsteinn Hall, Gabriel C. Spalding, Paul J. Campagnola, John G. White, and Kevin W. Eliceiri, "Fast localized wavefront correction using area-mapped phase-shift interferometry," Opt. Lett. 36, 2892-2894 (2011)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-36-15-2892

August 3, 2011: 
Professor  Gabe Spalding is featured in a brief video from the summer meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOegQeIYnCY

July 29, 2011:
"Nathaniel Wolanyk, a 21-year-old rising senior from Illinois Wesleyan University, said he was “mind-boggled” by the research and extensive materials available at UAB. He got to work with diamonds during his research of the superconductivity of iron-selenium compounds at high pressures." " I walk away from this experience more confident in myself and have a larger appreciation of research,” said Wolanyk, who now plans to attend graduate school at UAB.
http://uabnews.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html

July 28, 2011 :
Professor Bruno deHarak presented a poster entitled
"Electron-helium free-free scattering in the presence of a laserfield"
at the XXVII International Conference on Photonic, Electronic and Atomic Collisions in Belfast, UK.

July 2011:
Patrick Dahl conducted research under the auspices of the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Case Western Reserve University. 
Casey Hennesey conducted research under the auspices of the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.
Nathaniel Wolanyk conducted research under the auspices of the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He studied the effects of ultra-high pressures on the superconducting properties of newly discovered superconductors.

July 7, 2011:
Professor Thushara Perera  took part in a 5-person discussion panel at the U of I student/postdoc job search retreat.  Their web site is:
http://www.grad.illinois.edu/careerservices/retreat

June 14, 2011:
Professor Bruno deHarak presented a poster at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in Atlanta, GA,
"Using Laser Induced Breakdown To Probe Pressure" 
Dan LaRocca '13, Evan Baker '11, and Nicholas Goble '11, were co-authors. 

Professor Bruno deHarak was also a co-author for another poster at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in Atlanta, GA,
"Development of a multipass cell for atomic collision experiments in the presence of a laser field".

April 1, 2011:
Physics Department Chair and Professor Narendra Jaggi presented a paper at the Spring Meeting of ISAAPT, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
" Visualizing the Process of Minimization of Functionals Using Mathematica"
http://helios.augustana.edu/isaapt/s11/isaapt.html

April 1, 2011:
Professor Gabe Spalding heads up a new initiative to bring contemporary experiments in quantum mechanics into the undergraduate curriculum:
http://www.advlab.org/spqm.html

March 29, 2011:
Physics Department Chair and Professor Narendra Jaggi  presented  the Physics Colloquium: "Measurable Consequences of Extra Spatial Dimensions," 
at Illinois State University, Normal, IL.
http://mediarelations.illinoisstate.edu/report/1011/march22/physics.asp

March 15, 2011:
Professor Gabe Spalding is co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation proposal that just received $49,687 in funding. The proposal supports a nationwide initiative for faculty-staff training in contemporary advanced laboratory instruction in physics.

February 10, 2011:
Professor Bruno deHarak had one more research paper published:
"High-energy electron-helium scattering in a Nd:YAG laser field"
B. A. deHarak, L. Ladino, K. B. MacAdam, and N. L. S. Martin
Phys. Rev. A 83, 022706 (2011) 

December 9, 2010:
Professor Bruno deHarak published a paper in "Physical review A":
"Out-of-plane (e,2e) angular distributions and energy spectra of helium L = 0,1,2 autoionizing levels"

B. A. deHarak, K. Bartschat, and N. L. S. Martin
Phys. Rev. A 82, 062705 (2010) 

November 28, 2010:
Professor Linda French will give a talk on John Goodricke and his colleagues to the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society on January 8.  It's entitled "The 'Three York Astronomers' and the Royal Society of London." 

November 22 ,2010:
Professor Gabe Spalding has been invited to lead a session on  Lab Faculty/Staff Development Opportunities & CMMP Physics at the 2011 Winter Meeting of AAPT in Jacksonville, Florida,  January 8-12, 2011.
http://www.aapt.org/Conferences/wm2011/sessions.cfm?type=other

November 21, 2010:
The APS Forum on Education supports the upcoming Conference on Laboratory Instruction Beyond the First Year (BFY) organized by the Advanced Laboratory Physics Association, of which Professor Gabe Spalding is the President. 
http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/fall2010/spaldin.cfm

November 10, 2010:
Junior Derrick Rohl has been accepted into the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (REU) of the National Science Foundation. Derrick will spend January to March of 2011 conducting research at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in La Serena, Chile. His research, supervised by  Professor  Linda French, focuses on Trojan asteroids, which revolve around the sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. 
https://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases10/stn_DerrickRohl_01110.shtml

October 25, 2010: 
Senior Evan Baker presented a talk entitled “Using Laser Induced Breakdown as a Probe to Measure Pressure” at the 26^th annual conference of the Division of Laser Science in Rochester, NY. The talk covered research he is conducting along with Nicholas Goble, and Dan LaRocca under the mentorship of Professor Bruno deHarak.
http://www.frontiersinoptics.com/ConferenceProgram/SpecialSymposium/LSUndergradProgram.pdf

October 19, 2010:
Professor Gabe Spalding gives an invited colloquium entitled "Optical Momentum and Angular Momentum" at Illinois State University.
http://www.phy.ilstu.edu/events/PhysicsColloquia.shtml

October 11, 2010:
Professor Linda French is named a winner of the 2010 Herbert C. Pollock Award for her efforts to bring attention to the work of 18th-century deaf astronomer John Goodricke.
https://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases10/fea_FrenchandGoodricke_01010.shtml

October 9, 2010 (Homecoming):
40th anniversary celebration  of the Mark Evans Observatory  and a reception honoring the contributions of Professor Ray Wilson and Professor Lew Detweiler to the physics department. 
https://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases10/hmc_ObservatoryHistory_00810.shtml

October 6, 2010:
Derrick Rohl was a co-author with Professor Linda French and others on a presentation at the meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Title of the presentation: " Rotation Properties of Three Jovian Trojan Asteroids."

October 1, 2010:
Professor Bruno deHarak gives an invited colloquium "Laser-assisted electron impact autoionization of Helium" at Western Illinois University.
http://www.wiu.edu/physics/colloquia.fall10.shtml

Fall 2010:
Professor Gabe Spalding is the Vice-Chair of the national  AAPT Committee on Laboratories for 2010-2011, and he  will be the Chair of this prestigious committee during  2011-2012. 
http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/organization/laboratories.cfm

Fall 2010:
Professor Bruno deHarak is the co-editor of the Proceedings of the International Symposium on (e,2e), Double Photoionization and Related Topics & 15th International Symposium on Polarization and Correlation in Electronic and Atomic Collisions. The symposium was held during summer 2009, and the Proceedings have just been published as a special issue of J.Phys.
Nicholas L S Martin and Bruno A deHarak 2010 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 212 011001
http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/212/1/011001

September 2010:
Junior Taiyo Wilson conducted  research in Gamma-ray Astrophysics during Summer 2010 at the NSF/REU program at the University of Notre Dame.  His work was published in the annual report  and you can read his paper at the following URL.
http://physics.nd.edu/assets/29008/wilson_taiyoreupaper2.pdf

September 2010:
Junior Nick Goble conducted research  during Summer 2010 at the NSF/REU program at Case Western Reserve University. He worked  with Prof. Philip L. Taylor of CWRU and investigated the  "Equilibrium Shape of a Dielectric Droplet in an Electric Field"
http://www.phys.cwru.edu/reu/2010/

You can watch his final presentation at the following URL
http://www.phys.cwru.edu/reu/2010/presentation.php?name=Goble

August 2010:
Ryan Goetz conducted research during Summer 2010 at the NSF/REU program at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign.
http://physics.illinois.edu/undergrad/reu/projects.asp?2010

August 2010:
Kundan Chaudhary conducted research during Summer 2010 at  the  Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign . He worked in the research group of Prof.  Jennifer Lewis, and explored the application of so-called  'Janus rods' in microfluidic devices using confocal microscopy.

August 17, 2010:
SPIE publishes the conference-proceedings titled " Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation VII", co-edited by Professor  Gabe Spalding.
http://spie.org/x4318.xml?event_id=894260

Fall 2010:
Professor Gabe Spalding and Professor Linda French return to the department after their sabbatical leaves.

July 1, 2010:
Professor Thushara Perera and Professor Bruno deHarak attend the AAPT workshop for New Physics and Astronomy Faculty in Washington, DC, June 28- July 1, 2010
http://www.aapt.org/Conferences/newfaculty/upload/NFW_Program_2010.pdf

Spring 2010:
IWU Magazine runs a highly readable article by Tim Obermiller about the research conducted by  Professor Thushara Perera; it is titled " A Universe Filled With Questions". To read this article and learn about Professor Perera's research, click on the URL below. 
https://www.iwu.edu/iwunews/magazine/pastissues/10_Spring/questions_perera.shtml

Spring 2010:
Professor  Linda French maintains a blog during her sabbatical leave  in York, England, where she is researching the life of York astronomer John Goodricke.To follow her blog, click on the URL below.
https://blogs.iwu.edu/lfrench/

January 9, 2010:
Professor Gabe Spalding helped lead a workshop, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, on Reforming Introductory Physics for the Life Sciences. The workshop was held at Centre College in Kentucky on Jan. 9.
http://www.colleges.org/faculty_renewal/reports/2010/CentreCentenary_LockettRodriguez_finalreport.pdf

Spring 2010:
Professor Gabe Spalding gave an invited talk at a combined conference of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Physical Society in Washington, D.C., about a national survey regarding laboratory instruction during the final three years of the undergraduate physics major.

December 4, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Physics Student-Research Seminar Series
Bibek Raman Parajuli'2010 gives a seminar "Design and Fabrication of multi-dimensional photonic crystals" [Work doneunder the supervision of Professor Paul V.Braun, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign during summer 2009]

By using the kinetic difference of physiochemical processes, highly porous or discrete metal structures can be obtained. Through theoretical modeling and geometrical design, the research expected to obtain metal structure with superior optical properties. My research was to develop a multi-layered stack of a photonic crystal.

Friday, November 20 , 2009 at 4:00 PM
Physics Student-Research Seminar Series
Adam Chambers' 2010 gives a seminar on 'Superconductivity and the Proximity Effect in Nb/Cu Bilayers' [The research was done  during summer 2009 under the supervision of Professor Laura Greene at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.] 

Friday, November 6, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Physics Student-Research Seminar Series
Ryan Goetz' 2011 "Detecting Nonlinear Correlations in VIRGO Data Channels"

June 15, 2009
Nicholas Timme '2008, now a Ph.D. student at Indiana University  and Dr. Andrew Morrison, now a visiting faculty member at Northwestern University,  publish a paper " The mode shapes of a tennis racket and the effects of vibration dampers on those mode shapes" in  Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 125 (6) June 2009, pp 3650-3656

April 7, 2009: Physics Crystal Ball Coffeehouse 
Six physics alumni, Jane Andrew'1986, Steve Zimmerman'2000, Prakrit Jena'2005, Ryan Smith'2007 and  Andy Nelson' 2008 visited the Hart Career Center and  spoke to 23 current physics students about their  careers after their  physics degree from IWU.  Many thanks to Professor Spalding, Professor Detweiler, the Hart Career Center and  the Alumni Relations Office for helping plan and execute this valuable experience for our current students.

April 3-4, 2009: During the Spring Meeting of ISAAPT:

Three students made oral presentations at the Student Research Symposium:
Alison Smith, Mark S. Kasperczyk, Nathan H. Frank  Observation of a Resonance State in 25F. 
Leah Goldberg  RPC Modifications for the PHENIX Collaboration Muon-Trigger Upgrade.
Mark Kasperczyk, Alison R. Smith,  Nathan H. Frank  Observation of a Resonance State in 26F. 
Alison Smith  won the prize for the Top Student Presentation at the  Spring Meeting of the ISAAPT, for her paper.

Prof. Lew Detweiler offered a workshop "Hands On Astronomy"  at the Mark Evans Observatory, and chaired a session.
Prof. Linda French chaired a session, presented a Take -Five and organized a viewing on the quad by Twin City Amateur Astronomers, Lee Green and Dan Miller.
Prof. Narendra Jaggi organized the conference and presented a paper titled: "Embedding: An Approach to Integrating Computational Skills in the Curriculum."
Prof. Thushare Perera presented an Invited Talk : "Measuring Ancient Light."
Prof. Gabe Spalding chaired a session and presented a Take-Five.

April 3-4, 2009: The department hosted the Spring Meeting of the Illinois Section of American Association of Physics Teachers (ISAAPT)  at IWU:  66 attendees, 22 papers, Student Research Symposium, three workshops.  http://helios.augustana.edu/isaapt/s09/isaapt.html

March 12, 2009: Prof. Thushara Perera published a paper titled  "An AzTEC 1.1mm survey of the GOODS-N field - I. Maps, catalogue and source statistics" in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), volume 390, pages 1227-1238, year 2009
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.391.1227P

February 23, 2009: Barrel Crush!   SPS posted video of its recent play-time activity on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/3313931

February 6, 2009: Prof. Bruno deHarak accepted our offer to join IWU as an Assistant professor of physics, starting August 2009.

February 2009: Prof. Nathan Frank presented a talk titled "Cutting-Edge Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Physics" to the 2009 American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting in Chicago, IL.

February 2009: Prof. French has been awarded two weeks of telescope time at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in May and July 2009. 

January 2009:  Prof. French presented "An Early Astronomical Observation by John Goodricke" to the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society at their annual meeting in Long Beach, California.

November 2008: Alison R. Smith presented a talk, based upon her research with Prof. Frank, titled "Observation of a Low-Lying Neutron Unbound State in 25F" to the 19th Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics at Argonne National Laboratory.

October  2008:  Prof.  Jaggi and senior, John Meuser presented a paper "Use of Mathematica in Intermediate Quantum Mechanics" at the Fall Meeting of Illinois Section of American Association of Physics Teachers ( ISAAAPT) at ISU, Normal, IL, October 10-11, 2008 http://helios.augustana.edu/isaapt/f08/details-15.html

October 10, 2008: The department completed a comprehensive Self-Study for the period 1997-2008, including its students, curriculum (theoretical, experimental and computational), faculty and support staff, and facilities.

September 16, 2008:  IWU research trip to observatory in Chile just completed:
Prof. Linda French and IWU physics major Kundan Chaudhary have just returned from their trip to an observatory in Chile, as part of their research work. A blog describing the trip is available online at:https://blogs.iwu.edu/factrack/

September 5, 2008: Liquid NItrogen and Soap Bubbles at the SPS PIcnic:
On Sunday, August 31, 2008, the IWU Society of Physics Students organized a picnic at the historic Franklin Park. See the videos on YouTube online at:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MadScientist3889

April 24, 2008: Dr. Thushara Perera joins the department as tenure-track Assistant Professor of astronomy and physics. Click on the URL below to learn more about Professor Perera.
http://www.astro.umass.edu/~perera/iwu_blurb/

April 24, 2008: Professor Spalding  gives the "Charles Lindberg Lecture" at UW-Madison. The title of his talk: "Small Masses Require Small Forces: Micro-mechanical Control via Transfer of Optical Momentum."

April 22, 2008: Professor Jaggi elected Chair of Promotion and Tenure Committee for 2008-09.

April 21, 2008: Beginning Fall 2008, Ikenna Odinaka ' 08 will pursue his Ph.D. in  Electrical Engineering at  Washington University.
Jay Christensen' 08 (physics minor) will be attending Rush Medical College in the Fall.
.
April 18, 2008: Ed Price' 08 is joining Teach for America!  He'll be teaching secondary Chemistry in Memphis,TN.April 16, 2008: Ryan Esch '08 has been accepted into the dual-degree program at Bradley, where he plans to study Civil Engineering. He plans to pursue a Masters Degree.Scott Swisher '08 (physics minor) has been admitted into the graduate Econ programs at Cornell, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Michigan State.April 14, 2008: After numerous visits around the country, Becky Carlton '08 finally accepts the offer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to pursue her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering.After much deliberation, Nick Timme '08 has accepted the offer from  Indiana University to pursue his Ph.D. in Physics.April 12, 2008:  Professor Jaggi is the keynote speaker at the  Phi Kappa Phi induction ceremony.  The title of his talk: "New wine in old wineskins?: Is nuclear the new green?"

Three physics students  present papers at the John Wesley Powell Research Conference.
"Investigation into Factors Affecting the Operating Deflection Shapes of a Mandolin"  by  Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor) and Prof. Morrison;
" The mode shapes and  frequencies of carbon fiber plates"  by Nick Timme '08 and Prof. Morrison;
"Stock Index pricing with random walk and agent based models"  by Scott N. Swisher IV '08 (physics minor) and Prof. Seeborg

April 10, 2008: Colin Komar '08 will enter the Ph.D. program at West Virginia University where he will study Plasma Physics.

April 9, 2008: Professor  Wilson  presents a workshop, "Hiroshima and Nagasaki for Teachers,"at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, San Juan,  Seventh Conference: Science, Environment and Society,  La Ciencia al Servicio de la Paz y los Derechos Humanos (Science in Service of Peace and Human Rights)

April 9, 2008: Alex Boecher '08 will pursue his graduate studies in Environmental Studies at UW-Madison.

April 8, 2008: Sawyer Campbell '08 accepts the offer from The College of Optical Sciences at The University of Arizona to do his PhD. in Optics.

April 6, 2008: In Fall 2008, Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor) will do environmental work for United Oil Products, in their R&D division, on developing renewable fuels.

April 5, 2008:  Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor) ( working with Prof. Morrison) and Sawyer Campbell '08 present research papers at the ISAAPT  Spring 2008 Meeting in Urbana, IL .

"Investigation into Factors Affecting the Operating Deflection Shapes of a Mandolin";  Thomas Traynor '08 (physics minor), Illinois Wesleyan University.

"Calibration of Webcams for Imaging"; Sawyer Campbell '08,  Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University

March 2008: Dan Haeger '08 accepts offer from UCSB to pursue his Ph.D. in Materials Science Engineering.
Read about the exciting summer research done by Dan Haeger '08 at UC Santa Barbara on blue lasers.https://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases08/stn_DanHaeger_308.shtml

March 2008: Professor Spalding is President of a new national organization called ALPhA (for "Advanced Lab Physics Association"), which is working to establish a network of instructors interested in the experimental part of the undergraduate curriculum, emphasizing the arc of development desired beyond the introductory level. In this capacity, Prof. Spalding hosted open meetings for Advanced Lab instructors from across the nation both at the Winter Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), which was held in Baltimore, and at the annual March Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), which was held in New Orleans. ALPhA is working collaboratively with both APS and AAPT and can already point to a number of new resources that are coming together to help Advanced Lab Instructors. -- So far, these include:

A listserv:
An Advanced Lab website (with content coming on line):

March 1-20, 2008: Colin Komar, Becky Carlton, Dan Haeger, Nick Timme and Alex Boecher travel to universities around the country to decide which offer (of admission into graduate school and scholarship/fellowship) they will accept.

January 2008:
December graduate Janelle Bailey '08 accepts position at Farmer's Insuarance Company.
December graduate Andy Nelson '08 accepts position (as research engineer) at the U.S. Army Core of Engineers (CERL).

December 2007: December graduate Janelle Bailey '08 receives the prestigious full-ride scholarship to attend law school at the University of Kansas City Law School, starting Fall 2008; she accepts it.

November 2007: December graduate Andy Nelson '08 successfully defends his Research Honors thesis :  "Visualizing a Fourth Dimension: Hypercubic Resistor Networks".
Read about his work at https://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsrelease07/fac_Jaggi_607.shtml

November 2007:  Prof. Nathan Frank publishes, with co-authors,  " Exploring Neutron-Rich Oxygen Isotopes with MoNA"  in  Proton Emitting Nuclei and Related Topics-PROCON2007 edited by L. Ferreira and P. Arumugam.

October 2007: Professor Wilson conducts a workshop, A Natural -- Nuclear Physics, Nuclear War.  Is It Missing from Your Physics Curriculum?  at the IL-AAPT Fall Meeting at Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, IL.

August 2007: Six students return to campus after exciting and successful summer research at  different research universities: Andy Nelson at UIUC, Becky Carlton at Washington University, Colin Komar at Baylor University,  Dan Haegar at UC Santa Barbara, Ikenna Odinaka at UIUC, and Nick Timme at  Kansas State University. 

August 2007: Prof. Linda French starts her term as the Director of IWU's London Semester Program.

August 2007: Prof. Gabe Spalding co-chairs  the topical  Conference on Optical Trapping and Optical Micro-manipulation IV (sponsored by SPIE),  San Diego, California.  For conference proceedings, click here

August 9, 2007: Prof. Ray Wilson guides a workshop at the International Institute on Peace Education, 25th Anniversary Symposium at the United Nations, "Missing from Your Curriculum?"

August 2007: Santanam Kasturi, M.Tech., appointed as Adjunct Instructor for Fall 2007
August 2007: David Wolfe, Ph.D., reappointed as Adjunct Associate Professor for Fall 2007
August 2007: Nathan Frank, Ph.D., joins the department as Visiting Assistant Professor

July 2007: Prof. Andy Morrison presents paper titled  "Incorporating space missions into a fundamental astronomy course"   at the AAPT Summer Meeting in Greensboro, NC.

une 2007:  Prof. Ray Wilson conducts Hiroshima and Nagasaki for College Teachers: A One-week Workshop, June 25 - 29, 2007 (click here for workshop webpage)

April 2007:Thomas Traynor'08 (working with Professor Morrison) wins the first priize for student research at Spring 2007 Meeting of ISAAPT.  "Construction of an Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometer"   Thomas Traynor, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61701. 

March 2007: Prof. Ray Wilson, presents a paper,  "Missing from Your Physics Curriculum?" at the IL-AAPT Spring Meeting at WIU, Macomb, IL.

August 2006: Prof. Gabe Spalding co-chairs  the topical SPIE Conference on Optical Trapping and Optical Micro-manipulation III (sponsored by SPIE)
August 2006: David Wolfe, Ph.D.,  appointed as Adjunct Associate Professor for Fall 2006

July 2006: Prof. Narendra Jaggi chairs the session on Upper Level Curricular Issues at the National Conference of Physics Department Chairs (sponsored by the American Physics Society) in Maryland. www.aps.org/programs/education/ chairs/upload/SessionII_1.pdf

July 2006: Prof. Beth Cunningham  presents an invited talk at the National Conference of Physics Department Chairs (sponsored by the American Physics Society) in Maryland.
July 2006: Beth Cunningham, Ph.D., the new Provost and Dean of Faculty at IWU, joins the department  as Professor of Physics.

June 2006:  Prof. Ray Wilson conducts Hiroshima and Nagasaki for College Teachers: A One-week Workshop7 (click here for workshop webpage)

August 2005: Prof. Gabe Spalding co-chairs  the topical SPIE Conference on Optical Trapping and Optical Micro-manipulation II in San Diego, California.

June 2005, Andrew Morrison, Ph.D.,  joins the department as Visiting Assistant Professor
June 2005, Deadly Objects In Space: Prof. Linda French charts objects in the solar system, some of which come quite near Earth. French says new evidence leads her to believe asteroids and comets may be comprised of the same materials. WGLT's Jim Browne talks with her about her studies.

 August 04: "Character critical to liberal arts education";   Narendra Jaggi speaks at FY Convocation

For another story, click here.

• Alexander J. Laurie and Narendra K. Jaggi published an interdisciplinary study combining urban sociology and physics. 
  Laurie, A. J., & Jaggi, N. K. (2003). Role of' vision' in neighbourhood racial segregation: a variant of the Schelling segregation model. Urban Studies,40 (13), 2687-2704.

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