UW-L Physics NOWDear Alumni, Students, and Friends,

In this secondeditionofUW-LPhysicsNOW, I amhappy to sharewith you someof the exciting activities and accomplishments of our department since our lastissue. Our department continues to grow and is currently ranked as the 2nd

largest physics program in the nation by the American Institute of Physics (AIP)in terms of yearly physics graduates from a BS-only granting program. Inaddition, we were cited by the AIP Careers Pathways Project as a modelprogram with regard to our ability to place our students in STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering andMathematics) careers. Our department strives touse best practices in teaching, to contribute to the advancement of physics andphysics education through student/faculty collaborative research, and toinspire and inform the general public through outreach. We have active studentorganizations that contribute to the close-knit, scholarly environmentwithin ourprogram. I’m happy to announce that the UW-L Chapter of the Society ofPhysicsStudents (SPS)hasbeennamedanOutstandingChapterbySPS for the2013/2014 academic year.

On the research front, our department has a long tradition of providing ourstudents with opportunities to conduct research in a variety of areas. Last yearalone, 49 of our physics students worked with faculty and staff within thedepartment on researchprojects. During that time,members of our departmentpublished ten articles in research journals and two book chapters. In addition,they gave 29 presentations at conferences and meetings. To fund theirundergraduate research groups, our faculty has raised over $600,000 inexternal research grants since June of 2013.

Since our last newsletter, our department has hosted a number of events that have brought world-renowned scientists to theUW-L campus. OurDistinguished Lecture Series in Physics (DLS) is as popular as ever. InOctober of 2014,we hosted the 2011Nobel Laureate, Dr. AdamRiess, as our 15th DLS speaker. We also hosted Dr. M. Darby Dyar in April 2014 as part of our SpringPhysics Lecture Series. Physics faculty were also instrumental in hosting two recent academic conferences on the UW-Lcampus: the74th AnnualPhysical ElectronicsConference (June2014) and theMidwestRegionalBiophysicsSocietyNetworkingMeeting (October 2013).

In addition to these activities, we are excited about the addition of a new staff member to the department and a new physicsscholarship for students. In the fall of 2014, Dr. Sarah Lantvit joined our department as an analytical scientist. Dr. Lantvit earneda PhD in Chemistry from Colorado State University and will organize, design and facilitate research projects within the Collegeof Science andHealth. In 2014, an endowed physics scholarshipwas established by the family of the late Dr. Robert Uber, whowas a professor in the Physics Department from 1955 to 1983.

I hope you enjoy this issue of UW-L Physics NOW. As always, please let us know what you are up to and stop by to say helloif you are in the area. This fall, we will be hosting the 2004 Nobel Laureate, Dr. David Gross, as our 16th DLS speaker. To helpsustain the DLS and the other activities of the UW-L Physics Department, please considermaking a donation. With recent cutsto UWSystem budgets, nowmore than ever, we could really use your help. If you would like tomake a contribution of any size,please see the instructions below.

Best wishes,

Sudha

Winter 2015

The UW-L Physics Department provides many opportunities to extend education outside of theclassroom, including undergraduate research, The Distinguished Lecture Series in Physics and thePhysics Public Lecture Series. Our Planetarium is open to kids of all ages andweperform annual lasershows for area school children. In times of uncertain State budgets, we would like to call on you tohelp us keep these programs as part of our long tradition of education and community outreach.

Please donate to the Physics Department by visiting the UW-L Foundation webpage https://foundation.uwlax.edu/. Click on the iconshown above and specify the Physics Department in your gift. Thank you.

Faculty HighlightDr. Jennifer Docktor

I joined the Physics Department as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2011. I specialize inPhysics Education Research (PER) and I also work closely with the School ofEducation’s Secondary Teacher Education Preparation (STEP) program to preparefuture science teachers.

I’m originally from North Dakota, and as an undergraduate student I attended NorthDakota State University (Fargo, ND) with a major in Physics and a secondary major inPhysics Education which is the teaching license program there. During my studentteaching experience, I made a decision to pursue graduate studies in Physics at theUniversity ofMinnesota (Minneapolis,MN).While atUMN I receivedaMaster’sdegreein High Energy Physics in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Physics Education in 2009. Then I spenttwo years as a postdoctoral fellow in Cognitive Science at the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technologybefore coming to UW-L.

My research focusesonphysics learning andcognition. I use eye-tracking technologyto investigatehowpeopleviewand interpretmultiple representationsof information important for solvingphysicsproblemssuchaswords, pictures, diagrams, graphs, andequations. I also studydifferent formats forworked-out exampleproblems, howmathis used in physics problem solving, and online environments for learning physics (such as online homework tutors).

We have purchased two eye-trackers in the science education research lab at UW-L: a stationary system which is used witha computer screen and amobile set of eye-tracking glasses. An eye-tracker is a device that uses infrared beams (which are notvisible and not dangerous) to reflect off of a person’s corneas producing a bright-pupil effect, similar to red-eye with cameras.The eye tracker combines this information as well as the contrast between someone’s white and dark parts of their eyes tocompute a “point of gaze” which is the x and y-pixel coordinates of where they are looking on the computer screen (or lookingaround a room) at any moment. Since an eye-tracker records data at a rate of 1000 times per second, there is a substantialamount of information collected. In a study I did recently about motion graphs, UW-L students have assisted me in analyzingthe time study participants spent looking in each region of the graphs. They have also listened to audio recordings of studyparticipants as they explained the reasoning for their answers and we have begun to link those responses to eye-gazemovements.

In addition to this PER research, I help leadsummerworkshops in physical science for in-service elementary, middle, and high schoolteachers. I also conduct research onrecruiting and retaining future physicsteachers through a grant from the PhysicsTeacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC).Some of my goals include increasing thenumber of physics-certified teachersgraduating from UW-L and to improve thequality of the experience that students have inthe STEP program.

M. Darby Dyar during her publiclecture on Mars rover.

M. Darby Dyar gave the 2014 PublicLecture in Physicswith a talk titled "AYearin the Life of Curiosity on Mars: NewDiscoveries from the Red Planet" and aphysics seminar titled "CalibratingChemCam: Analytical Chemistry at Arm'sLength". Her visit was co-sponsored bythe Physics Department and a generousgrant from the Wisconsin Space GrantConsortium. Dr. Dyar is the Kennedy-Schelkunoff Professor of Astronomy atMount Holyoke College, a member of thescience team for NASA's Curiosity Marsrover, and is active in research whichspans astronomy, physics, chemistry, andgeology. During her stay she alsomet withstudents to discussed graduate schooland life with the Mars rover.

Since the fall of 2000, the UW-LDistinguished Lecture Series inPhysics (DLS) is co-sponsored bygenerous funding from donors, theUW-LFoundation, Inc., theDepartmentof Physics, and the College of ScienceandHealth. Thepurposeof the series isto bring to La Crosse a world-renowned physicist whose significantaccomplishments and communicationskills can inspire and enrich the careersof students, faculty, and the generalpublic. In 2013, we were delighted to

host Dr. DavidWineland as our DLS speaker. Dr. Wineland isa scientist at the National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) in Boulder, CO and co-winner of the 2012Nobel Prize in Physics. Dr.Wineland presented a great publiclecture titled, “Superposition, Entanglement, and RaisingSchrödinger’s Cat”. He followed that with an illuminatingdiscussion of “Single Atom Clocks” at our physics seminar.

The 15th Nobel Laureate to visit UW-L was Dr. Adam Riesswho served as our 2014 DLS speaker. Dr. Riess was co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work relatedto the discovery of dark energy. From his positions at JohnsHopkins University and the Space Telescope ScienceInstitute, he remains involved in studying some of the mostpowerful explosions stars can produce. The LaCrosse publicwas very entertained by his lecture, “Supernovae Reveal anAccelerating Universe”, while faculty and students alikelearned what it means to make “Precision Measurements ofthe Hubble Constant and PASS” at the physics seminar.

As always, the Physics Department webpage(www.uwlax.edu/physics) is the hub for information onupcomingDLSspeakers–makeaplan tocomeenjoy the talkswith us! The 2015 speaker will be Dr. David Gross from UCSanta Barbara and the Kavli Institute, co-winner of the 2004Nobel Prize in Physics. If you would like to help support theDistinguished Lecture Series in Physics, please contactSudha at gsudhakaran@uwlax.edu.

Dr. Helen Quinn of Stanford University will give two lectures as part of the 2015 PublicLecture in Physics series over the two day period of April 8 - 9, 2015. These will be twolargely non-technical talks about the interconnection of ideas and observations. Thephysics lecture will cover how thinking about cosmology helped suggest an answer toa puzzle in fundamental particle physics leading to the idea known as Peccei-Quinn

Symmetry. The public lecture will cover the research-basedvision for ScienceEducation presented in theNational Academyreport "A Framework for K-12 Science Education". These talksare free and open to the public. Pleasemark your calendars andkeep an eye on the physics webpage for more information.

Distinguished LectureSeries in Physics

Dr. Adam Riess,winner of the 2011

Nobel Prize in Physics

This past year, the UW-L Physics Family received some concerningnews when Jolene Harris, the wife of the department’s electronicstechnician Steve Harris, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma – acancer of the blood. To help Steve and Jolene with the cost oftreatment, theDepartment teamedwith friendsand familymembersof theHarris’ and local businesses to organize abenefit. ThebenefitwasheldonSaturday,November8,2014at theOvertimeSportsBarin La Crosse and included an authentic Indian dinner, a silentauction, and raffles. Department faculty and student members ofthe Physics Club served dinner at the benefit which drew over 200attendees.

We are very happy to report that Jolene has responded remarkablywell to treatment. Her cancer is in complete remission. ThePhysicsProgram is very thankful to all those that contributed to the benefitand to all those who have supported the Harris family through theirchallenges.

PublicLectureSeries inPhysics

Helen Quinn, the 2015Public Lecture inPhysics speaker.

April 8 - 9, 2015

Benefit for Jolene Harris

Above: Steve and Jolene Harris.

Right: Colin Egerer and KaylaBushweiler, undergraduate studentsat UW-L, serving dinner at thebenefit.

Left: Jolene Harris surroundedby family and supporters atthe benefit.

Contact detailswww.uwlax.edu/~physics

Undergraduate Research

Congratulations

As a department we believe student participation in research is of equal importance to traditional classroom activities. Research allows thestudents toapplywhat theyhavebeen taught in theclassroomto"realworld"experiences.During theacademic term, studentswork in researchlaboratories for class credit and through fellowships. In the summer, students are chosen to work in the laboratories full-time to feel the fullresearch experience. This is what our students were up to in the summer of 2014.

Two studentswere accepted into prestigious Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs at Ivy League Schools.Colin Egererspent the summer at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and Lance Hildebrand attended the program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,MD. Sarah Geierwas a biomedical intern at Foedtert in Milwaukee. Brett Rosiejka used his Russian in La Crosse's sister city Dubna, Russiawhile working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in their search for new elements.

Dominic Putala conducted research in biophysics with Taviare Hawkins as the Sudhakaran Summer Research Applied Physics LaboratoryFellow.

Eric Gansen had five students working with him over the summer on developing optoelectronic devices. Hayden Peterson received theWisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) Undergraduate Research Fellowship andMiranda Elkins was awarded the College of Scienceand Health Dean's Fellowship. Cole Paulsen was awarded a UW-L Research and Creativity Grant for his work and two additional students,Zach Koop and Ben Vinz, were supported from an external grant.

Zach Tully worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory supported by the Department of Energy.Marcus Lowe worked with Shelly Lesher atthe University of Notre Dame supported by her NSF grant. Both of them researched nuclear physics.

To our students who received awards andpresented at conferences this year.

Attention AlumniAlumni of the UW-L Physics department arerequested to sendcurrent contact information tothe department chair. We also hope you willsend in your recent accomplishments to sharewith fellow alumni in upcoming issues.

gsudhakaran@uwlax.edu www.facebook.com/148114179608

Elizabeth Camenga (Class of 2014)received the 2014 Murphy Award forAcademic Excellence. Each year, only twograduating seniors from UW-L areselected to receive this award. Elizabethgraduated inMay 2014with aBSdegree inPhysics with Biomedical Concentrationand has been accepted into the MDprogram at the Medical College ofWisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.

Miranda Elkins and Taylor Baileypresented a poster at the MRSEC/CNFMConference for Undergraduate Women inPhysics (WOPHYS) and received theOutstanding Poster Award.

ZachKoopandTaylorBaileypresentedaposter at the Wisconsin Science andTechnology Symposium.

Zach Tully and Marcus Lowe presentedtheir summer research at the AmericanPhysical Society Division of NuclearPhysics Meeting in Maui, Hawaii.

"Comparing Alternate Approaches toSpacetime Diagrams: The LoedelDiagram" was the title of Tobias Nelson's

poster presented at the National AAPTSummer Meeting in Minneapolis.

Colin Egerer presented a summary of hisresearch work, “Clarifying the Role ofThermodynamics in Self-gravitating DarkMatter Systems”, at the 2014 WisconsinSpace Conference in Madison. Colinreceived an Undergraduate ResearchFellowship from the Wisconsin SpaceGrant Consortium which supported thiswork.

Dominic Putala presented his research atthe Midwest Regional BiophysicsConference in October 2014.

Marcus Lowe (above) and Zach Tully (below)

Dominic Putala (on left)

Tobias Nelson