Faculty Meeting March 14, 2003

Agenda:

1. News – Paul Grannis

2. Graduate program – Peter Stephens

3. Report of the Nuclear Experiment search – Jac Verbaarschot

4. Undergraduate issues – Grannis for Chris Jacobsen

News

Walter Schmeling is interim Manager of the Machine Shop; we are down one person with the retirement of Richard Yoepp, so there is some loss of capability. At present the freeze on new hires precludes us searching for a permanent manager. I urge your cooperation with Walter and the shop staff during this time.

Department is asked to improve our readiness for emergencies – fire, spill, bomb threat, etc. – by designating wardens who can supervise the evacuation of the building in case of emergency. Thanks to those who have volunteered. A few more, particularly in the basement, would be appreciated. University will supply 2-way radios for communication, flashlights etc.

Commencement is Friday May 23 (department ceremony at 9AM). Department faculty party at Sunwood on Sunday May 25.

News

Web page for internal department information – Fall teaching assignments, committees, etc. http://sbhep1.physics.sunysb.edu/~grannis/dept.html

Appointment for Meigan Aronson – letter went out early January, and a companion offer from BNL for their (50%) share. A longish period of negotiation with BNL and Meigan ensued. Expect conclusion soon.

Adjunct, Research professors:

We are making such appointments now on five year terms to give us the opportunity to re-assess periodically.

My working assumption: Adjunct professors are those employed by other organizations within SB, or outside (BNL, Frascati, Marine Sciences etc.). In fact some emeritus professors who teach regular courses in the department have also been named adjunct.

n.b. Use of term ‘Adjunct’ is quite different in most other departments – there, hired guns who come in to teach courses for pay.

Research professors are those on grant support within the department who teach or need a title for grant proposals.

Averbeck, Ralf Research Assistant Professor

Ben-Zvi, Ilan Adjunct Professor

Bergeman, Thomas Research Professor

deZafra, Robert Research Professor

Dierker, Steven Adjunct Professor

diMauro, Louis Adjunct Professor

Forman, Miriam Adjunct Professor

Geller, Marvin Adjunct Professor

Lee, Linwood Adjunct Professor

Lee-Franzini, Juliet Adjunct Professor

Mould, Richard Adjunct Professor

Peggs, Steven Adjunct Professor

Prakash, Madappa Research Professor

Semenov, Vasili Research Associate Professor

Starosta, Krzysztof Visiting Assistant Professor

Swartz, Clifford Adjunct Professor

Swesty,Douglas Research Assistant Professor

Tsvelik, Alexei Adjunct Professor

Wijers, Ralph Adjunct Professor

Yanagisawa, Chiaki Research Associate Professor

Budget etc.

Understanding of University budget:

Budget indications for College of Arts and Sciences:

There is no State budget yet, no SUNY budget, no word on tuition increases, so nothing is clear.

College is planning on an effective budget cut of around 14% relative to last year.

Last year’s budget adjusted for inflation was about $57M. CAS budget is 95.6% salary, so cannot deal with just a cut on OTPS

Current advice to CAS: Plan on spending $50.5M. This would mean cutting out all adjunct professor budgets (many courses across the university taught by soft money people on semester contract); no TA/GA beyond those from Grad School, $300K total non-salary budget across the college. Estimate loss of enrollment capability of 2000 students.

Dean’s plan to keep college afloat is a budget of $53.9M allowing some adjuncts, some OTPS – but still very tight.

Further problem in that President wants to increase incoming class by 400, over mandated number -- this would cost another $0.5M for CAS.

Budget etc.

Impacts on Department:

1. Loss of some TA lines (P. Stephens talk)

2. Hiring freeze – machine shop supervisor cannot be hired now

3. Clamp on faculty hiring – originally 12 searches approved for this year; now not clear that any will culminate with offer.

But, there has been a verbal commitment by Dean, Provost to make a hire in nuclear experiment, if there is a coupling between that hire and continuation of NSF funding of Nuclear Structure Lab. It will however take an exemption from the hiring freeze.

(net cash flow is positive with grant). So, I am hopeful that this search can result in an offer.

Further, it points the way to arguing for other faculty hires – based on a cost effectiveness. I have proposed on these grounds that P&A be allowed to hire again in next year. I don’t foresee that we will be able to resolve this until the budget for next year becomes clearer.

Budget etc.

Center for Accelerator Science and Engineering

We† have prepared a draft proposal for a joint Stony Brook—BNL Center for Accelerator Science and Engineering (CASE).

Accelerator science and engineering is key to many scientific, medical and industrial applications. There are over 10,000 accelerators in the world today – about 150 particle, nuclear and light sources and the rest used for medical diagnostics, ion implantation, sterilization etc.

Stony Brook has a strong record in preparing (a few) excellent accelerator physicists, and has a strong student body; BNL has first class accelerator facilities and world-class accelerator experts. Get them together to provide training of new accelerator scientists.

Propose a new unit, patterned after YITP or Marine Sciences., with participation from several departments in Arts & Sciences and Engineering. Curriculum drawn in part from existing courses (e.g. E&M, Numerical Analysis and modelling .. ) and in part new courses taught through CASE (e.g. beam dynamics, acceleration mechanisms, advanced accelerator lab, etc.)

† Ilan Ben Zvi, Paul Grannis, Steve Peggs, Gene Sprouse, George Sterman, Bill Weng

Center for Accelerator Science and Engineering

Students would be partly matriculated directly into CASE, and partly from participating departments doing research on accelerator topics for a degree in the home department.

Faculty to be joint – ½ Stony Brook and ½ BNL. From the estimated curriculum needs, suggest steady state of 9 joint app’t faculty.

Seek federal support for students, postdocs, research program; institutional support for the faculty and staff. Both DOE and NSF are expressing strong interest in ramping up support for accelerator science.

Initial discussions with Stony Brook provost, BNL director, Graduate Dean, BNL staff have been enthusiastic.

Would need new lines to work – cannot take out of existing departments.

Preproposal: http://sbhep1.physics.sunysb.edu/~grannis/dept.html

Undergraduate Program

Curriculum changes:

Physics of Sport – Chang Kee Jung discussed last Dec. First offering in Fall 2003.

New courses on research opportunities in physics and astronomy (AST200 and PHY200) are now being offered and seem to be going well.

B.A. in Physics

A proposal for a BA in physics is being prepared. Aimed at those who do not wish to pursue further degrees in physics – pre-Law, pre-Med, teaching, business, etc.

Undergraduate Program

We have requested modification of our introductory calculus-based

curriculum. We are unusual in offering both two- and three-semester

sequences (plus honors), with all courses every semester.

Propose, starting Spring 2004:

PHY131 (PHY132) offered in Fall (Spring) only. (Remove the

off- semester version.)

PHY125 offered every semester

PHY126 and PHY127 offered in one semester only (PHY126 in

fall and PHY127 in spring?)

Fall Spring Summer I Summer II

PHY 125

PHY 126

PHY 131

(PHY 132 Fall 2003 only)

PHY 125

PHY 127

PHY 132

PHY 125

PHY 127

PHY 126

AST 101, 105, 248 and PHY 121, 122 every semester (AST101 in summer)

Introductory Physics courses

Harriman 137 capacity

Advising students on the sequenceI’m taking the PHY 121/122 sequence

You start this sequence in either the fall or the spring.I’m taking the PHY 125/126/127 sequence

My major is Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science

• If you’re starting PHY 125 in the fall, take PHY 125 (year 1 fall), 127 (year 1 spring), and 126 (year 2 fall) in that order.

• If you’re starting PHY 125 in the spring, take PHY 125 (year 1 spring), 126 (year 2 fall), and 127 (year 2 spring) in that order.

My major is Mechanical Engineering• If you’re starting PHY 125 in the fall, take PHY 125 (year 1 fall) and do

well, followed by PHY 132 (year 1 spring). You’ll miss some thermal physics covered in PHY 131 or PHY 126, but you’ll get lots of that as part of your Mechanical Engineering major (e.g., MEC 301 and MEC 305).

• If you’re starting PHY 125 in the spring, take PHY 125 (year 1 spring), 126 (year 2 fall), 127 (year 2 spring).

I’m taking the PHY 131/132 sequencePHY 131 is only offered in the fall, and PHY 132 is only offered in the spring. If you wanted to start PHY 131 in the spring, look at the above options for starting PHY 125 in the spring instead.

Math pre-req for PHY 131• We do not have a physics pre-req for course; therefore a

physics placement exam does not make sense• Math placement level 5 is an overly blunt instrument (bad

predictor)

125 students

141 students

131 students

All students

Solution: math placement level 5.5• Math placement level 5, plus 26 or more on first four parts of

calc placement exam• Math placement level 5.5 gives entry to “A” students, blocks

many “C” students.• In-place for Fall 2003

Hope by using the placement standard of 5.5, and PHY131 only in fall to better equalize the class size of PHY125 and 131

A plea: undergraduate research• Many student want options for summer, academic year;

paid, or for credit.• Projects can include:

– Read and understand a classic in the literature– Devise a physics demonstration– Assist a graduate student– Original research

• We sent a request for project ideas to faculty. 6 responses.

• One colleague: “What’s in it for me?” !!!• Please send email to John Noé (cc: Chris Jacobsen)

with 2-3 sentence description of one or more project ideas – just to give students an idea of the range of possibilities to list at

http://undergrad.physics.sunysb.edu/research/