|
Conference shows off science department
Texas physics societies meet to show their work and new research developments.
Contributor to The Shorthorn
The Shorthorn: Rebekah Workman
Physics graduate student Vikas Nandwana, left, discusses his discovery on a way to produce high-energy magnets with Gan Liang, Sam Houston State physics professor, during the Fall 2006 Joint Meeting Friday afternoon in the University Center Rio Grande Ballroom. Liang said Nandwana’s display on bimagnetic nanoparticles and nanocomposite magnets was exciting new information.
With presentations and posters on superconductivity and diamond-silicon carbon composites, the Fall 2006 Joint Meeting of several Texas physics societies was like a science fair on a whole other level.
More than 300 people attended the conference, which included a banquet Friday night and numerous lectures Friday and Saturday, said physics administrative assistant Amy Osborn. UTA last hosted the event in 1996, but the new buildings and faculty had a good effect on visitors.
“I study high-energy physics, and we wanted to develop a particle detector for hadron,” physics junior Heather Brown said during the posters session Friday.
She said the conference provides a wonderful forum for student physicists.
“You get to see their work and also see where the competition is because if there was another student working on GEM [Gas Electron Multiplier] stuff I would want to know,” she said. “Maybe we got entirely different information.”
Several people crowded around the UTA Large Perpetual Cloud Chamber research project and stared intently into a glass tank looking for “cosmic rays.”
“There’s dry ice on the bottom plate and alcohol vapors on top, making it a supersaturated state,” physics associate professor Jaehoon Yu said. “A charged particle disturbs the vapor, and it cools down real fast. When charged particles go through, they lose energy and disturb the vapor, which makes a cloud.”
Dr. Yu, who is also the adviser for the Society of Physics Students, said they started the project a year ago after receiving a $2,000 grant, one of six in the nation. They hope to finish the design soon and have a much larger chamber for display in the Chemistry and Physics Building lobby.
“We got so many compliments,” Osborn said. “A lot were surprised how many students we had, our research and the planetarium. I think they’re surprised at the direction UTA is going in.”
John Garza, McMurry University physics senior, liked the campus and thought the conference helped physics students decide what to do after school.
“I’m looking at graduate school, but I can see all of my options here,” he said.
Science Dean Paul Paulus said it was a great marketing tool for the university.
“It brought on campus many undergraduates, graduates and top faculty who were exposed to our campus and are now able to take the story back to their institutions,” he said.
as posted in The Shorthorn
|
