Faculty MeetingSeptember 23, 2008

3:30 p.m.Room 202 Brace

AGENDA

1. Some Announcements - Dan

2. Discussion on Waiving Graduate Requirements - Tim Gay

3. A proposal to update our 400/800-level Special Topics courses - Steve Ducharme

4. Safety Audit and unidentifiable chemicals - Peter Dowben

5. Emeritus Status for Kam Leung

6. Adjunct Appointment for Luis Rosa

7. Graduate Faculty nomination of Andrei Sokolov

8. Advisory Committee Elections

Welcome new faculty member: Ilya Kravchenko

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Best wishes to new Associate Dean: Greg SnowNot A

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Evgeny Tsymbal - [Committee Chair] MRSEC Director David Sellmyer - NCMN Director, MRSEC IRG1 Leader Christian Binek - MRSEC IRG2 Leader Shireen Adenwalla - MRSEC IRG1 and IRG2 member Peter Dowben - MRSEC IRG2 member Alexei Gruverman - CMMP group representative Mathias Schubert - outside representative, Electr. Eng.

Tony Starace - [Committee Chair] AMOP PoE Director Ilya Fabrikant - theorist: electron-molecule interactionsTim Gay - experimentalist: collisions w/ polarized electronsBrad Shadwick - theory: intense plasma interactionsKees Uiterwaal - experimentalist: femptosec laser processesDon Umstadter - Director of DIOCLES Natasha Kravchenko - outside representative, Astronomy Lecturer

AMOP Search Committee

CMMP Search Committee

4 Physics & Astronomy Faculty go up for tenure this fall!

Christina Binek

Kees Uiterwaal

Ken Bloom

Aaron Dominguez

early tenure request

- after tenure clock resumed

Donald Schneider Named Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics                      

01 August 2008 - Donald Schneider, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, has been named Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State in recognition of his exceptional record of teaching, research, and service to the University community.

Schneider is best known for techniques to measure distances to galaxies, and breaking (his own andothers’) records numerous times in the discovery of the most-distant known object in the universe.

For the past decade, his research has been devoted to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a large international effort to produce a comprehensive digital map of the sky. Schneider has served as both the chairman of the quasar science group and science publications coordinator for the project. The survey has identified 100,000 quasars - the most luminous known objects - measured the distances to over a million galaxies.

In 2006, Schneider received a C.I.Noll Award for Excellence in Teaching. Sponsored by the Eberly College of Science Student Council and Alumni Society, the C.I.Noll Award is presented annually to instructors who demonstrate a record of excellence both in teaching and in their interactions with students. Schneider received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics, with highest distinction, from the University of Nebraska in 1976. He received a doctoral degree in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1982 and was a research fellow there from 1982 to 1985. From 1985 - 1994, he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He joined the faculty at Penn State in 1994 as an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, and was promoted to professor in 1999.

The Foundation has created the Menno Fast Memorial Fund.

Menno FastLaboratory Manager 1968 - 81

Check the link at the bottom of our department webpage!

We’ll add a similar link for the Ted Jorgensen Fund!

Kirill Belashchenko awarded$100,000 Cottrell Award from the Research Corp

IRG1David J. Sellmyer (coordinator) Shireen AdenwallaAxel EndersRoger D. KirbySy-Hwang LiouRenat SabirianovJeffrey ShieldRalph SkomskiXiao-Cheng Zeng

IRG2Christian Binek (coordinator)Shireen AdenwallaKirill BelashchenkoPeter A. DowbenStephen DucharmeJody RedepenningRenat SabirianovAndrei SokolovMathias Schubert Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

…award letter still pending, but recommended for ~$8.1M / 6 years

Joan Drelling

Malcolm Tassi

Roger Bach Juan Colon-Santana

Steve DucharmeBrad ShadwickKees UiterwaalShireen AdenwallaTim GayHerman BatelaanKirill BelashchenkoDan Claes

Shawn HilbertAxel AndersKen BloomRoger KirbyGreg SnowIlya FabrikantSy-Hwang Liou

Study Hall MonitorsInstructors

Every Friday: Lunch & Bull Sessions

Shawn: Q&A: Life as a Graduate StudentKees: Good Study Habits: the Nature of ExamsShireen: Hard Work: Expectations in the LabHerman: Training Your AdvisorEllen Wiessinger: Academic IntegrityKirill: Academic RigorMichelle Howell Smith: University Resources

Each instructor covering 5 chapters in 1 week of daily 3-hour sessions.0.3 FTE of completely voluntary teaching

Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:41:27 -0500From: Ellen M Weissinger <eweissinger1@unlnotes.unl.edu>To: Dan R. Claes <dclaes@unlhep.unl.edu>Cc: Prem S Paul <ppaul@unlnotes.unl.edu>, Monica M Norby <mnorby@unlnotes.unl.edu>, Kimberly Andrews Espy <kespy2@unlnotes.unl.edu>, Michael J Zeleny <mzeleny@unlnotes.unl.edu>, Michelle Howell Smith <mhowell2@unlnotes.unl.edu>Subject: Re: Successful Summer Bridge Program

Dan,The summer bridge program was an incredible success - beyond my expectations. I am so impressed that the faculty volunteered their time to create week long courses in their specialty. The students told me that they learned a lot about physics and filled in various gaps in their undergrad preparation, established good relationships with a large group of the faculty in a short time, felt much more confident and committed to completing a PhD, felt like the department was making an investment in them, etc. The proof of your effectiveness is in the outcome - four successful, well prepared, happy, engaged domestic grad students (including a woman!). We have to continue the program. Let's meet soon to discuss possible federal funding sources. Kudos to Michelle, too, for her excellent logistical leadership and for helping the students to feel welcomed and comfortable. This was a resounding success and an excellent investment.

Ellen

Ellen Weissinger, Ph.D.Professor of Educational PsychologyDean of Graduate Studies

Faculty MeetingSeptember 23, 2008

3:30 p.m.Room 202 Brace

AGENDA

1. Some Announcements - Dan

2. Discussion on Waiving Graduate Requirements - Tim Gay

3. A proposal to update our 400/800-level Special Topics courses - Steve Ducharme

4. Safety Audit and unidentifiable chemicals - Peter Dowben

5. Emeritus Status for Kam Leung

6. Adjunct Assistant Professor Appointment for Luis Rosa

7. Graduate Faculty nomination of Andrei Sokolov

8. Advisory Committee Elections

3. Update our 400/800-level Special Topics courses - Steve

2. Discussion on Waiving Graduate Requirements - Tim Gay

4. Safety Audit and unidentifiable chemicals - Peter Dowben

Two years ago, when the University of Nebraska first attained a number one rating on the football field, University administrators used the occasion to propose a similar rating for academic fields. Last fall, while the football team was slipping to number two in the Big Eight Conference, at least one academic area was reaching that number one status. And it's not an area one would expect Nebraska to excel in ... astronomy.

The quick and consistent rise of the astronomy program began early in 1970 with the aid of two unexpected bonuses. First, the physics department was able to lure Dr. Kam-Ching Leung away from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, to take charge of the NU program. Second, over $200,000 was received from Waiter Behlen and the Behlen family of Columbus, Nebraska.

Prior to these major developments, astronomy education was practically nonexistent at NU. There was only one astronomy course--taught on an irregular basis by professors with major areas of study elsewhere in physics.

From NEBRASKA ALUMNUS March 1973

Kam-Ching Leung came to the university in 1970 from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York because he "relished the challenge of building a good astronomy program where none previously existed.”

"When I was still in Arizona," Don Taylor recalls, "Kam started sending me things and asking me what I thought. He had me write up the specifications for a telescope.”

Leung himself was putting in long hours, developing an astronomy course curriculum and trying to find money to build an observatory and buy a telescope.

Waiter D. Behlen, who had donated money to build Behlen Laboratory in the 1960s, agreed to put $160,000 left over from that project to be put toward the observatory project. He promised another $45,000 donation. Originally, Leung planned to purchase a 24-inch telescope, but the availability of an unused building at UNL's Agricultural Research Center at Mead made it possible for him to put the money toward the purchase of a 30-inch telescope. The university also experienced savings on the telescope by joining the University of Washington in Seattle in choosing the same manufacturer, Bollen & Chivens, for its construction. Bollen & Chivens which has since merged with Perkin Elmer, the nation's foremost producer of quality telescopes, built telescopes for both universities, passing on cost savings to both universities as the result of the dual order.

From VISIONS Fall/Winter 1992

Last Fall Kam Leung’slatest book was published

as well as the proceedings he has edited

The preface to which is a glowing tribute to his contributions in the Pacific Rim!

Luis G. Rosa, Ph.D. Department of Physics and ElectronicsUniversity of Puerto Rico - Humacao100 Road 908Humacao, PR 00791Cel. 402-770-4492 Off. 787-850-0000, ext. 9551Department Phone. 787-850-9381 E-mail: U.S. Citizen A. Educational Background

• University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ph.D. 2005.

My dissertation work, Water interaction with the ferroelectric copolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride) with trifluoroethylene, received the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Graduate Research Assistance Award. • University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Physics and Astronomy, M.Sc. 2003.

• University of Puerto Rico-Humacao, Department of Physics and Electronics, B.Sc. 2001.

Research Experience November 2005 – 2007 Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr. Giacinto Scoles

Molecular electronics and Nanocontacts•nanolithography & Dip-Pen lithography: grafting thiol molecules on gold surfaces •Characterized by conducting probe AFM measuring electrical properties of molecular layers in dicyclohexyl liquid environment and friction properties extracted from the lateral force mode and structural profile from height and deflection AFM modes. •designed a micro device using a micro heater and a micro thermocouple to provide small local heating which will not affect the AFM piezoelectric system to give temperature dependence of the electrical, structural and frictional properties

August 2002 – 2005 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska Graduate Research Assistance to Dr. Peter A. Dowben • gas-surface chemistry of water vapor absorption into ferroelectric organic polymer surface - characterize by thermal desorption, angle resolved thermal desorption, photoelectron emission spectroscopy, inverse photoemission spectroscopy. • developed laser induced thermal desorption spectroscopy to probe water absorbed in the bulk of the ferroelectric organic polymer system (later effort produced the observation of the influence of local dipole orientation on thermal desorption spectroscopy).

• electronic structure characterization of the ferroelectric organic co-polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride with trifluoroethylene) P(VDF-TrFE) 30:70 and the dipole order polymer of polymethylvinylidenecyanide (PMVC). Specifically on the observation of the vibronic coupling in the valence band photoemission on such dipole order systems.

Andrei SokolovEducation1996 Ph.D. Physics and Mathematics, Moscow State University1988 M.Sc. Electronics and Engineering, Moscow Institute of

Radio-Engineering, Electronics and Automation

Publications: 34 peers-reviewed papers (including Nature Nanotechnology, PRL, APL) 10 contributed papers, 4 invited presentations, 1 patent and 1 invention disclosure

Current AppointmentResearch assistant Professor, Physics Dept. University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Research directionsElectrochemical methods and controlled break-junctions techniques

ballistic transport in metalsmolecular conductancenon-equilibrium magnetic phase transitions driven by spin-polarized current;

Effects of proximity of ferroelectric on magneto-transport properties;Spin-dependent tunneling and tunneling magnetoresistance;Electro-resistive switching in transition-metal oxides

The research has been featured by: The Economist, (UK), Materials Today (USA), The American Institute of Physics (USA), the Institute of Physics,( UK), Computerra (Russian), Futura-Sciences (France)Physics News in 2007 (published by AIP ) etc.

MRSECIRG2

Kirill Belashchenko

Ken Bloom Tim Gay Tony Starace

7. Advisory Committee Elections for 2008/2009

Greg and Tim's elected 2-year terms, and Kirill's 1-year appointment, have expired.

Ilya and Christian are half-way through their 2-year terms.

So there are 2 positions to be filled by election.