http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews News, accomplishments, and opportunites for Richmond physics students Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:34:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Two physics faculty members, Ted Bunn and Jerry Gilfoyle, have just been awarded a $160,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to buy a new supercomputing cluster for their research.  Ted and his students will use it to simulate new telescopes that are being designed for observations of the cosmic ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/09/10/new-computing-cluster/ It's time for incoming first-year students to register for classes for the fall semester.  We in the physics department are looking forward to meeting you all in the fall. Here's some information about the physics courses available for new students.  If anything here isn't clear, or if you have any questions ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/07/20/physics-courses-for-new-first-year-students/ Our department just took delivery of a new 14″ telescope, to be used for classes, student projects, and public observing nights: As you can see, it’s not in the  best possible observing location at the moment.  Plans are in motion to give it a permanent home on the roof of our ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/05/21/new-telescope/ UR Physics alumnus Andrew Hearin went off to graduate school in mathematics, but before too long he saw the light and returned to physics.  He's now a Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh, and he just recently published a paper on a possible novel test of general relativity.  (That ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/05/05/andrew-hearin-03/ If you are a newly admitted student planning to attend Richmond in fall 2009, please drop us a line!  We like to stay in touch with potential physics and engineering students over the summer, to pass on information on course selection and research opportunities.  (Probably only a couple of notes over ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/04/23/welcome-admitted-physicists-and-engineers/ Last week all UR students doing original research had a chance to share their work with others at Richmond during the 2009 student symposium.  As usual, the physics department was well represented, with nine students presenting posters of their work, on topics ranging from cosmology to biological physics.  Afterwards, the ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/04/23/2009-ur-student-symposium-highlights-undergraduate-research/ Researchers tend to get very specialized, working mostly in just one area.  But every once in a while, it's fun for a researcher to work on something completely different.  UR Professor Ted Bunn, who normally does astrophysics, just had an article accepted for publication that talks about biological evolution and ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/04/01/evolution-and-entropy/ If you are a prospective physics student visiting UR this spring, we would be happy to let you sit in on a physics class!  It's a great way to get a feel for what a Richmond physics class is really like.  To set up a classroom visit, please contact our department ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/03/25/visiting-ur-yes-you-can-sit-in-on-a-physics-class/ A couple of the students in Ted Bunn's research group published papers recently on their research in cosmology.  You can find more details about their work in some posts on Ted's  blog. Junior Austin Bourdon and Bunn published a paper analyzing some puzzling results from the WMAP satellite.  WMAP is a ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/03/16/cosmology-research-at-richmond/ Caroline Zegetosky graduated from Richmond in spring of 2007, having completed the Engineering dual degree program.  She spent her first three years at UR, then continued as an undergraduate engineering student at the University of Virginia, one of our partner schools, where she is now a graduate student in civil engineering.  Carrie uses ... http://blog.richmond.edu/physicsnews/2009/03/12/carrie-zegetosky-07-engineering-with-concrete/