Brian Mahoney will graduate this year with degrees in both chemistry and physics. His research has been in the chemistry department with Wade Downey, and he spent his summer developing a new way to synthesize propargylic alcohols. These compounds are frequently used as starting points for further sythesis of drug compounds by the pharmaceutical industry, and Brian has worked to make the sythesis faster and more economical. Brian began working with professor Downey during his freshman year. This fall, he will present his work at a chemistry conference in Nashville, TN.
Archive
Junior Garrett Graham just spent a year in China. While there, he participated in a Mandarin immersion program at Nanjing University, traveled for two months, and then volunteered with a school for migrant laborers’ children and a Chinese sustainable development NGO. A math and physics double major, this year he plans to work with Dr. Ovidiu Lipan researching mathematical biology.
Junior Alex Cooke, together with sophomore Adam Hake, spent his summer doing research with professor Ovidiu Lipan in biological physics. Alex, a physics major, has been emersed in wet-lab molecular biology this summer, which has whetted his appetite for the study of genetics in the biology department. He currently plans to major in interdisciplinary physics with a concentration in biology. He has been studying iron uptake system in the bacteria E. Coli, which is usefule for understanding the general problem of iron regulation in cells. He will continue his research with professor Lipan this year.
Physics major Calina Copos, ‘10, spent her spring semester studying at University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She studied Archeaology and Mathematics while she was there, and also had a chance to travel around Europe, enjoying digestives and tea as often as possible, and hiking around the Highlands with the Hillwalking Society of Edinburgh. Calina has been active in research at UR since the summer before her first year, studying nuclear physics with professor Con Beausang.
Four physics students traveled with professor Ted Bunn to the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in St. Louis, Missouri this summer, to present their work. Pictured below are (from left to right) Austin Bourdon, Brent Follin, Ben Rybolt, Ted Bunn, and Jeff Zheng.
Sophomore Matt Jordan spent his summer working with professor Jerry Gilfoyle to analyze the systematic uncertainties in measurements taken at the CEBAF particle accelerator at Jefferson National Lab. They are are part of a large, international collaboration studying the structure of the deuteron particle, and the results of their experiments will ultimately be used to test current theoretical models of nuclei. The bulk of their work was performed here at UR on the physics department’s powerful supercomputer cluster. Matt began working with professor Gilfoyle during his freshman year. Their research continues this academic year, and in October the two will travel to to present their work at a conference in Oakland California.
Physic major Nat Mason did research over the summer with professor Ovidiu Lipan in the field of Biological physics. Nat is working on the heat shock system in mammalian cells. He is looking for ways to undderstand the response of the cells to a double heat pulse. This research will open new perspectives on heat shock memory (thermotolerance). Nat has worked with professor Lipan since his first year, and continues his research this fall.
Sophomore Adam Hake spent his summer doing research with professor Ovidiu Lipan in biological physics. Although Adam has been emersed in wet-lab molecular biology, he is also highly interested in the theoretical aspects of biological systems. He has been studying iron uptake system in the bacteria E. Coli, which is usefule for understanding the general problem of iron regulation in cells. He will continue his research with professor Lipan this year.
Brent Follin, a double major in physics and philosophy, spent the spring of his junior year in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh. While he was there, Brent studied optics and condensed matter physics, and reports developing a fondness for Scotch Whiskey. He also spent some time traveling in Italy and Spain. This semester, Brent continues his research in Cosmology with professor Ted Bunn.
Haoxuan (Jeff) Zheng started research in Ted Bunn’s research group during his freshman year and continued during the summer afterwards. He examined theoretical models of dark energy, the mysterious phenomenon that is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. He used observations of supernovae, the microwave background radiation, and other observations to see what limits we can place on the physical properties of dark energy.
Ben Rybolt worked in Ted Bunn’s research group during the summer of ‘08 and during the school year before then. His work has focused mostly on testing methods for diagnosing and removing contaminants from maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He presented his work in a poster at the summer 2008 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in St. Louis.
Brent Follin has worked in Ted Bunn’s research group for the summers of 2007 and 2008, focusing on issues related to the construction of MBI, a new telescope being constructed for observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Along with Peter Hyland (U. Wisconsin and McGill U.), Brent and Ted solved an important problem related to finding the best possible design for this sort of telescope. Brent presented preliminary results in a poster at an American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis this summer, and we just submitted a paper for publication. Ted wrote a bit more about this in his blog.
Austin Bourdon has worked in Ted Bunn’s research group for the past two summers, examining a bunch of possible explanations for some unexplained features in maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He presented his work in a poster at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Denver this summer, and he is coauthor on a paper recently submitted to the journal Physical Review D. Bunn wrote more about this on his blog, and you can see the paper here.
Cosmin Pancratov ‘10 is first author on a series of three articles just published in the journal Computing in Science and Engineering. The articles describe the optimization of a numerical routine used for image analysis, work done with physics professor Matt Trawick, computer science professor Kelly Shaw, and Jake Kurzer ‘10, all coauthors. Cosmin and Jake both began doing research with Trawick during their freshman year.
Current senior physics majors:
Current juniors
(This is our best guess about the sophomore class. Some of these pictured haven’t declared yet; others not here may still declare later.)
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Cain Bonniwell Belle Haven, VA Research: |
Adam Hake York, PA Research: Biological Physics (since pre-2nd year) |
Matt Jordan Columbus, MS Research: Nuclear Physics (since pre-2nd year) |
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Mark Moog Downingtown, PA Research: Nuclear Physics (since pre-2nd year) |
Nicol Traynor Basking Ridge, NJ Research: |
Jordan Wolfinger Cary, NC Research: |
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Haoxuan “Jeff” Zheng Nanjing, China Research: Cosmology (since 1st year) |
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