General NewsAwards and HonorsStudent and Alumni NewsColloquiaSeminarsPresentations and TalksPublicationsProposalsTravel and ConferencesVisitorsUpcoming Events| General News |
Awards and Honors |
Student and Alumni News |
Colloquia |
| Seminars |
Presentations and Talks |
Publications |
Proposals |
| Travel and Conferences |
Visitors |
Upcoming Events |
February 2001
Recommendations of Hart-Rudman National Security Report: R&D
"Second only to a weapon of mass destruction detonating in an American city, we can think of nothing more dangerous than a failure to manage properly science, technology, and education for the common good over the next quarter century."
U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century
GENERAL NEWS
Neil Cornish and Jamie Schroeder were married February 18th in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Congratulations Neil and Jamie!
We welcome Professor Choi Bum Sik and his family to the department. Professor Choi is from Jeonju University, Jeonju Korea. He is spending his sabbatical year in the Ion Beams Group with Dick Smith, studying the growth and structure of thin films.
Please welcome Mark Linton to the MSU solar group for the next two months, through the end of March. He's another guy who is interested in solar magnetism, flux tubes and various other mhd phenomena from the point of view of theory and modeling.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Loren Acton has been selected to receive the Karl G. Henize Dedicated Service Award from the
Planetary Studies Foundation of Palatine, IL.
Loren Acton has also been invited to give the Bunyan Lecture on the Nature of the Universe and the Origin and Destiny of Man at Stanford University in May.
Piet Martens will be co-chair (together with Loren Acton), of the Scientific Organizing Committee for the Yohkoh 10th Anniversary Meeting in Hawaii, in September 2001.
Stephen Hill invited to serve a 2-yr term on the Condensed Matter Sciences sub-committee of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) Research Program Committee (RPC).
STUDENT and ALUMNI NEWS
Ran Sivron, PhD '95, accepted a tenure track position in Hastings College, in Hastings, Nebraska.
"I guess Nebraska was calling. I was also offered a position in Creighton, Omaha, but chose
Hastings because of their excellent support, and the location." says Ran. The college only has
1200 students, and about 10-15 majors. Hastings is the size of Bozeman 10 years ago, and looks
like Bozeman except for the lack of mountains on the horizon. They also have a nice observatory,
planetarium in an adjacent museum. It is next to the Platte river, and about 1 1/2 hour drive from
Lincoln, 2 hours from Omaha, and 5 hours from Denver and Laramie, so Bozeman is less than a day
drive! Ran hopes to visit Bozeman summers.
COLLOQUIA
"Self-organized Nanonstructures on Silicon Surfaces", Franz Himpsel, University of Wisconsin at
Madison, Feb. 2.
"Lawbreakers? Emission by superluminal sources in the laboratory", John Singleton, Oxford University, Feb. 9.
"What's in a Word?" Michael S. Reidy, Montana State University, History and Philosophy, Feb. 16.
"The Mystery of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays", Angela Olinto, University of Chicago, Feb. 23.
SEMINARS
Relativity, Astrophysics, Solar and Space Seminars
"On quantization on Rindler space", Hector Calderon, Feb. 1.
"The Kitt Peak Advanced Observing Program", Mike Murray and Shane L. Larson, Feb. 8.
"MEROPE: Montana's First Satellite", George Hunyadi, Steven Jepsen, Brian Larson, and Mike Obland, Feb. 15.
"Properties of Magnetic Clouds Resulting from Eruption of Coronal Sigmoids", Robert Leamon, Feb. 22.
Condensed Matter Physics
"Electrons in Spintronics", Prof. Franz Himpsel, Dept. of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Feb. 2.
"An Introduction to Density Functional Theory", Adam Stern, Feb. 14.
PRESENTATIONS AND TALKS
Invited Talks
"Online Resources in Astronomy for Montana's Math/Science Teachers", David Caditz, invited talk at
the Montana Math/Science Teachers Extravaganza, Feb 17.
"Cyclotron resonance in the perovskite superconductor Sr2RuO4", Stephen Hill, New3SC3, Honolulu, HI, Jan. 17.
"Magnetoelectrodynamic and thermodynamic studies of the vortex state in k-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2", Stephen Hill, National High Magnetic Field Lab., Gainesville, FL, Jan 29.
"Systematics of 4f Electron Energies Relative to Host Bands by Resonant Photoemission of Rare Earth Doped Optical Materials", C. W. Thiel, H. Cruguel, Y. Sun, G. J. Lapeyre, R. M. Macfarlane, R. W. Equall, and R. L. Cone, International Conference on Dynamical Processes in Excited States of Solids, Lyon, France, July 1-4, 2001.
Contributed Talks
"Spectral hole burning by simultaneous absorption of two photons", Alex Rebane, Spectrum
Lab Seminar, Feb. 5.
"Two Through Your Head Every Second: Cosmic Rays!" John Belz, Keynote address at 2001 Montana AstroFair, Museum of the Rockies, Feb. 24.
"Spectral hole and laser dynamics: What happens when a laser is stabilized to a regenerative spectral hole frequency reference?", G. J. Pryde, T. Böttger and R. L. Cone, International Conference on Dynamical Processes in Excited States of Solids, Lyon, France, July 1-4, 2001.
"Site Occupancy Determination in Pr3+:Y2SiO5 by Optical Nutation and Absorption", Y. Sun, F. Könz, R. L. Cone, and R. W. Equall, International Conference on Dynamical Processes in Excited States of Solids, Lyon, France, July 1-4, 2001. "Spectral Diffusion at 1.5 microns in Er3+ Compounds Measured with a Diode Laser Frequency Stabilized to a Spectral Hole", T. Böttger, G. J. Pryde, G. Reinemer, Y. Sun, and R. L. Cone, International Conference on Dynamical Processes in Excited States of Solids, July 1-4, 2001.
Abstracts Submitted
"The Montana State University NASA Space
Grant Explorer-1 Science Reflight Commemorative Mission," Obland, M., G. Hunyadi, S. Jepsen,
B. Larsen, D. M. Klumpar, C. Kankelborg, and W. Hiscock, submitted to 15th Annual AIAA/USU
Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, UT Aug. 13-16.
"Montana EaRth Orbiting Pico Explorer (MEROPE): A Student Satellite Project", Hunyadi, G., M. Obland, S. Jepsen, B. Larsen, D. M. Klumpar, C. Kankelborg, and W. Hiscock, submitted to 5th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, UT Aug. 13-16.
"Semiclassical perturbations of extreme black holes", W. A. Hiscock, P. R. Anderson, and B. E. Taylor, submitted to the National (April) APS meeting.
"Er3+ 4I15/2 and 4I13/2 Levels and Magnetic g-Tensors for C2 and C3i Sites in Y2O3 by 1.5 ?m Diode Laser Spectroscopy", G. Reinemer, T. L. Harris, Y. Sun, R. L. Cone, and R. W. Equall, for oral presentation at March Meeting of the American Physical Society, Seattle, Washington, March 12-16, 2001.
"Compact Laser Frequency Stabilization at 1.5µm Using Spectral Hole Burning", T. Böttger, G. J. Pryde, N. M. Strickland, and R. L. Cone, for oral presentation at 2001 Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, May 6-11, 2001.
PUBLICATIONS
Publications Submitted
"Zero and near-zero temperature black holes in semiclassical gravity", P. R. Anderson,
W. A. Hiscock, and B. E. Taylor, submitted to Proceedings of the Ninth Marcel Grossmann Meeting
on General Relativity and Gravitation, to be published by World Scientific Press.
"Systematics of 4f electron energies relative to host bands by resonant photoemission of rare earth ions in aluminum garnets", C. W. Thiel, H. Cruguel, H. Wu, Y. Sun, G. J. Lapeyre, R. L. Cone, R. W. Equall, and R. M. Macfarlane, Submitted to Phys. Rev. B February 8, 2001.
"Origin and Evolution of Filament-Prominence Systems", Petrus C. Martens and Cornelis Zwaan. Submitted to ApJ.
Publications Accepted
"Quantum melting of the quasi-two-dimensional vortex lattice in k-(ET)2Cu(NCS)2" by M. M. Mola,
S. Hill, J. S. Brooks, and J. S. Qualls, Phys. Rev. Lett.
"Electron magnetic resonance imaging of the Fermi surface of Sr2RuO4" by C. Palassis, M.M. Mola, S. Hill, J.S. Brooks, Y. Maeno, and Z.Q. Mao, Physica C.
Comment on the Anisotropy of the Superconducting Order Parameter in k-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2, S. Hill, N. Harrison, M. Mola and J. Wosnitza, Phys. Rev. Lett.
"Phases in relaxor ferroelectric crystals", V.H. Schmidt, C.-S. Tu and B.-C. Cheng, Proc. of the 12th IEEE International Symposium on the Application of Ferroelectrics (in press).
"Dielectric, hypersonic and domain anomalies of (PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3)1-x(PbTiO3)x single crystals" by Chi-Shun Tu, C.-L. Tsai, V. Hugo Schmidt, H. Luo, and Z. Yin, to appear in J. Appl. Phys.
"Phase and domain structures in relaxor-based ferroelectric (PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3)0.69(PbTiO3)0.31 single crystal" by Chi-Shun Tu, Li-Fang Chen, V. Hugo Schmidt, and Chih-Long Tsai, to appear in Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.
Publications
"Bringing Extra-solar Planets into the Introductory Physics Classroom", Ed Prather,
The Physics Teacher, pp. 120-122, Feb. 2001.
"Bringing Extra-solar Planets into the Introductory Physics Classroom", Ed Prather and Tim Slater, The Physics Teacher, Feb. 2001 (pp. 120-122).
"Ripples on a Cosmic Sea" Shane L. Larson, QUANTUM, Vol 11, No 4, pg 4, Mar./Apr. 2001.
"Brillouin scattering in relaxor ferroelectric crystal," C.-S. Tu, H. Luo, C.-H. Yeh, V. H. Schmidt and C.-L. Tsai, Proc. of the XVIIth International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy, p.396-397 (2000).
"Molecular Nanomagnets: Controlling Quantum Effects for Data Storage and Quantum Computing." DOE, PIs Andrew Kent (NYU), Stephen Hill, George Christou (Indiana U), Naresh Dalal (FSU) and David Hendrickson (UCSD).
"Advanced Materials for Three-Dimensional Zero-Gravity Position Control," submitted to the NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Program by Jil Hallenberg (M.E. graduate student) and Hugo Schmidt, for flights in July or August.
Proposals Funded
"Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) Time-of-Flight Energy Angle Mass Spectrograph (TEAMS)
Mission Operations and Data Analysis," $45k, Lockheed Martin, Dave Klumpar.
"Multi-Dimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Relaxor Ferroelectrics," funded by USA-Slovenia Cooperation in Science and Technology program, March 1, 2001 to Feb. 28, 2003. It provides funding for two Slovene scientists to participate in NMR experiments in Hugo Schmidt's lab, and $1,500 each year for accommodation of researchers from Schmidt's lab to work in the Stefan Institute NMR lab in Ljubljana. The first visitor will be graduate student Alan Gregorovic, who will visit here April 11 to 24.
"A Cosmic Ray Spark Chamber for Astronomy Education and Public Display", $34,795, Montana Space Grant Consortium, John Belz.
Dana Longcope traveled to Washington, DC, for NASA workshop/collaboration at NRL/meeting of NASA NDWG, Jan. 30-Feb. 6. Dana also participated in a NASA Advisory Panel meeting (SECAS) in Washington, DC., Feb. 19-22.
Yves Idzerda served as a reviewer for NSF Panel Review on Nanoscale Science & Engineering, Washington, DC, Jan. 31-Feb. 3.
Gary Bohannan and Hugo Schmidt traveled to Williamsburg, VA, for a Ferroelectrics workshop, Feb. 3-7.
Bill Hiscock and David Klumpar traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida, Feb. 10-12 as part of a Space Grant group meeting with representatives of the Florida Space Institute and the Florida Spaceport Authority, in search of free (or very low cost) sounding rocket launches for student payloads.
Dave Klumpar traveled to Orlando, FL, Cape Canaveral to visit Florida Space Institute with Space Grant group to discuss opportunities for space access, Feb. 10-12. Dave also participated in a NASA Advisory Panel meeting (SECAS) in Washington, DC., Feb. 19-22.
John Belz Travelled to Salt Lake City and Dugway, Utah Feb 14th-18th to attend group meetings and operate HiRes cosmic ray observatory.
Recep Avci traveled to Idaho Falls, ID, to collaborate with INRA/INEEL personnel, Feb. 15-16.
Piet Martens participated in an Ullssi workshop in Berkeley, CA, Feb. 27-Mar. 2.
Stephen Hill attended the Third International Conference on New Discoveries, Theories and Applications of Superconductors (New3SC#) in Honolulu, HI. Stephen Hill travelled to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Gainesville to attend a meeting and present a talk.
One of the biggest astronomy events of the year, "The Montana Astro Fair," took place Saturday, February 24 at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. To kick off this event, Dr. Angela Olinto from the University of Chicago gave a talked entitled "The Highest Energy Messengers From The Sky." Special guest speaker, John Belz, a particle astrophysicist with the High Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory project, gave a keynote address entitled "Two Through Your Head Every Second: Cosmic Rays!" A full spectrum of afternoon activities was presented on "backyard astronomy," the space program, and how you can enjoy watching the sky, day or night! Programs planned for this year's Fair included planetarium shows, telescope workshops, guest speakers, solar observing, demonstrations on the International Space Station, and special activities for children and families. Astro Fair 2001 was hosted by the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society and the Museum of the Rockies. Events were sponsored by the Montana Space Grant Consortium, the "Astro Stuff" telescope store, and the Southwest Montana Astronomical Society.
John Singleton from the Clarendon Laboratory (Oxford), currently on a years sabbatical at Los Alamos National Labs, visited Steve Hill's group and gave a colloquium entitled "Lawbreakers? Emission by superluminal sources in the laboratory."
