Physics MattersVol. 17 | 2013-2014 | Washington State University Department of Physics &Astronomy | www.physics.wsu.edu

“Smart” optic fibers, wireart, & the brain

Flying high: WSU flag launched into stratosphereDiscovery opens new path to superfast quantum computingAccidental discovery dramatically improves conductivity

FEATURES

Interview with Dr. Michael McNeil ForbesThe department welcomes Dr. Brian Collins

Special Feature:95 Years of Physics

Greetings from thechair

2 Physics Matters Vol. 17

Greetings from the Department of Physics and Astronomy!

The department continues to excel in research and education. Our graduateprogram is strong, graduating 12 physics Ph.D. students in 2013-2014. Ourundergraduate majors are finding interesting jobs or graduate programs, andmany of these alumni are donating generously to WSU. Lower-divisionundergrad enrollments are once again very high.

Two outstanding assistant professors joined the department in 2014. Dr. MichaelForbes is a many-body theorist and Dr. Brian Collins is an experimentalistworking with organic materials. In the near term, we will be searching for a juniortheorist in the area of computational materials physics.

As you can see from this issue of Physics Matters, the department is doing manyexciting things. This is made possible in part by generous support from ouralumni and friends. Thank you!

Dr. Matt McCluskey, professor & chair

5 Discovery opens new path tosuperfast quantum computing

8 Flying high: WSU flaglaunched into stratosphere

11 Interview with Dr. MichaelMcNeil Forbes

13 Accidental discoverydramatically improvesconductivity

14 The department welcomesAssistant Professor BrianCollins

15 Meeting the challenge:“Smart” optic fibers, wire art,& the brain

22 95 years of physics: Thedepartment, its leaders, andthe research that helpedmake it great

FEATURES

>>

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

PHYSICSMATTERSVOL. 17, 2013-2014 | www.physics.wsu.edu

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Physics Matters is a publication through the Washington State UniversityDepartment of Physics & Astronomy. Contact physics@wsu.edu for moreinformation.

Copy: Sabrina Zearott, Eric Sorensen (Washington State Magazine)Design: Sabrina ZearottImages: WSU Photo Services unless mentioned; cover image provided byElizabeth Berrien (Wire Zoo). Back cover photo by @bicycle onfreeimages.comEditors: Sabreen Yamini Dodson, Sabrina Zearott, Mary GuentherProduction: Scribus, GIMP, Adobe Acrobat

PHOTO WSU News

Physics Matters Vol. 17 3

SECTIONS

p. 19

10 Faculty

18 Department

19 Awards

21 Students

28 Friends of Physics & Astronomy

30 Blast from the PastAlumni & Affiliates

4 Physics Matters Vol. 17

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

Downtown Pullman, WashingtonPHOTO Sabrina Zearott

p. 15

p. 5

PULLMAN, Wash.—Researchers atWashington State University haveused a super-cold cloud of atomsthat behaves like a single atom to seea phenomenon predicted 60 yearsago and witnessed only once since.

The phenomenon takes place in theseemingly otherworldly realm ofquantum physics and opens a newexperimental path to potentiallypowerful quantum computing.

Working out of a lab in WSU’sWebster Hall, physicist PeterEngels and his colleagues cooledabout one million atoms ofrubidium to 100 billionths of adegree above absolute zero. Therewas no colder place in the universe,said Engels, unless someone wasdoing a similar experimentelsewhere on Earth or on anotherplanet.

At that point, the cluster of atomsformed a Bose-Einstein condensate– a rare physical state predicted byAlbert Einstein and Indian theoristSatyendra Nath Bose – afterundergoing a phase change similarto a gas becoming a liquid or a liquidbecoming a solid. Once the atomsacted in unison, they could beinduced to exhibit coherent“superradiant” behavior predictedby Princeton University physicist

involving coupling to photon fields.Because the coupling of atoms andphotons is usually very weak, theirbehavior was extremely hard toobserve, he said.

“What our colleague ChuanweiZhang realized is, if you replacedthe light with the motion of theparticles, you got exactly the samephysics,” said Engels. Moreover, it’seasier to observe. So while theircloud of atoms measures less thanhalf a millimeter across, it is largeenough to be photographed andmeasured. This gives experimentersa key tool for testing assumptionsand changes in the atomic realm of

quantum physics.

“We have found animplementation of thesystem that allows us togo in the lab and actuallytest the predictions of theDicke model, and someextensions of it as well, ina system that is not nearlyas complicated as peoplealways thought it has to befor the Dicke physics,”Engels said.

Ordinary physical properties changeso dramatically in quantummechanics that it can seem like adrawing by M.C. Escher. Photons

Researchers have managed to achieve a“superradiant” state with ultra-cold atoms.

Discovery opens newpath to superfastquantum computingSTORY Eric Sorensen. Reprinted from WSUNews (June 4, 2014).

Storyreprintedwith

perm

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Robert Dicke in 1954.

“This large group of atoms does notbehave like a bunch of balls in abucket,” said Engels. “It behaves asone big super-atom. Therefore itmagnifies the effects of quantummechanics.”

Engels’ findings appear in thejournal Nature Communications. Co-author and collaborator ChuanweiZhang, a former WSU physicistnow at the University of Texas atDallas, led the theoretical aspects ofthe work.

Funders include the NationalScience Foundation, the ArmyResearchOffice and theDefenseAdvancedResearchProjectsAgency, thecutting-edgeresearchagency knownas DARPA.

Researchersusing thesesuper-cold dilute gases have createdthe superradiant state in only oneother situation, said Engels, using afar more complicated experiment

The WSU research group. Left to right: Chris Hamner, JiaJia Chang,and Peter Engels. PHOTO Peter Engels.

“This large group ofatoms....behaves asone big super-atom.

Therefore itmagnifies the

effects of quantummechanics.”-Peter Engels

Continued p. 7

Physics Matters Vol. 17 5

Ph.D. and M.S. programs in the Department ofPhysics & Astronomy

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at WashingtonState University is built around a small but highlyproductive faculty whose research expertise providesstudents a wide variety of research experiences. The highlyrigorous undergraduate program prepares graduates to becompetitive in top graduate programs or for employment.The Ph.D. program and the thesis master's degree blenddemanding coursework with cutting-edge research toprepare graduates for jobs in academia, industry, andgovernment labs. Our programs emphasize core academiccompetency and research excellence.

Physics is the study of the material world. Its historicalmission was to push the boundaries of superlatives: thesmallest subatomic particle, the quickest time interval, themost precise measurement, the most perplexing ofunexplained phenomena. In the 21st century, thesechallenges are augmented with a need to understand howparticles interact under extreme conditions or complexsituations. Astronomy is the study of the universe from thesize scales of planets to the ultimate size scale of all. Itencompasses the risks of meteor impacts, the intricateballet of planetary systems, and the warping of spacetimenear a black hole.

The WSU Department of Physics and Astronomyaims to prepare young scientists for careers in theseand related areas. We offer bachelor's, master's, anddoctoral degrees for students that aspire to thechallenge of pushing the frontiers of humanknowledge.

Fall 2015 priority deadline:January 10, 2015.

We accept applications afterthis date but they are notconsidered priority;admissions considerationsbegin in February 2015.

Research AreasAstrophysicsExtreme matterMaterials & opticsNovel states of matter

Award-winning facultySix fellows of the AmericanPhysical Society (APS)

Three fellows of the AmericanAssociation for the Advancementof Science (AAAS)One fellow of the AcousticalSociety of America (ASA)

One fellow of the FOR760:Scattering Systems with ComplexDynamics (SSCD)

One fellow of the MaterialsResearch Society (MRS)

One fellow of the AmericanVacuum Society (AVS)

Two fellows of the InternationalSociety of Optics and Photonics(SPIE)

One fellow of the Optical Societyof America (OSA)

Four Regents Professors

Excellent standard of livingPullman is located on thePalouse in southeasternWashington. With breathtakingvistas, great access to outdooractivities, and temperateweather, along with awonderful community andschool district, Pullman wasnamed one of the “Bestcollege towns in NorthAmerica” by MSN in 2012.

www.physics.wsu.edu

6 Physics Matters Vol. 17

can be both waves and particles. A particle can go through twospaces at the same time and, paradoxically, interfere with itself.Electrons can be oriented up or down at the same time.

This concurrent duality can be exploited by quantum computing.So where a conventional computer uses 1s and 0s to makecalculations, the fundamental units of a quantum computer couldbe 1s and 0s at the same time. As Wired magazine(http://www.wired.com/2014/05/quantum-computing/#x)recently noted, “It’s a mind-bending, late-night-in-the-dorm-room concept that lets a quantum computer calculate atridiculously fast speeds.”

Eric Sorensen is the science writer for Washington State Magazine andWSU News

Discovery opensnew path tosuperfast quantumcomputing

Continued from p. 5

The laser-cooling apparatus used in the experiment. PHOTO Shelly Hanks, WSU News

NEWS

Physics Matters Vol. 17 7

PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University flaghas flown in many places around the world – from ESPNGame Day to the Great Wall of China – and now morethan 18 miles into the stratosphere.

A Cougar flag attached to a weather balloon recentlylaunched from the center of the Pullman campus reachednearly 100,000 feet. The flight was part of a WSU Physicsand Astronomy Club student project; now the flag is up forauction (see http://www.ebay.com/itm/Phyiscs-Astronomy-Club-WSU-Flag-Post-Flight-/251531402832?).

Launched from the roof of the Terrell Library during WSUMom’s Weekend in April, the balloon was projected toreach an altitude between 40,000 and 60,000 feet, saidNicholas Cerruti, senior physics instructor and clubfaculty advisor. The team was surprised by the altitude datafrom the internal monitor of the recovered balloon.

Jesse Miller, club president and a recent 2014 physicsgraduate, said team members initially thought there was aglitch in the data.

“I was kind of dubious at first because there was datarecorded for the first half hour, and then it cut out for areally long time,” he said. “Then there is 15 minutes of dataclustered right around the peak.”

That peak, said Eric Beier, club treasurer and a junior inphysics, was officially 98,093 feet above Earth. That altitudeis believed to be second only to that of a Cougar flag thataccompanied WSU alumnus John Fabian, ’62, on the SpaceShuttle Discovery in 1985.

The balloon’s predicted flight path, based on jet streammapping software, set the landing site on the Clearwater

FEATURE STORY

L-R: students Mats Johnson, Doug Dietzel, ElizabethBernhardt (graduate student), Johnny Adams, & Tim

DeRuiter with the flag near the launch site.

Reprinted from WSU News (May 15, 2014).STORY Sabrina Zearott and Joanna Steward, College of Arts & SciencesPHOTOS WSU Physics & Astronomy Club, WSU News

8 Physics Matters Vol. 17

(Continued)

Learn more about the project, seea video of the launch and watchthe full flight footage athttp://cas.wsu.edu/physics-astronomy/flag-auction.html

Sabrina Zearott is staff writer in theDepartment of Physics & Astronomy

Joanna Steward is director ofcommunications in the WSU College ofArts & Sciences

Chad Garrison, flight commanderand physics major, said the goal ofthe project was to design a high-altitude physics experiment platformthat could be repeated by futureclub members. The flag launch, hesaid, allowed for “alpha testing ofthe apparatus, making a live launchto understand the physics anddetermine procedures for futureexperiments.”

The club hopes the balloon launchwill become an annual event, muchlike their popular fall Dad’s Weekendpumpkin drop from the 12th floorof Webster Hall.

The flag auction is open until noonSaturday, May 24. Proceeds willbenefit the WSU Physics andAstronomy Club.

Plateau, about a 90-minute drivesoutheast of Pullman. The jetstream shifts slightly every day, sothe launch needed to be carefullytimed to avoid pushing the balloontoo far south or east; if the balloondescended into Hell’s Canyon orlanded in Idaho’s vast stretches offorest, recovery would be difficult.

The balloon kit purchased by theclub included a GPS unit to track itstrajectory. As the balloon and flagrose into the sky after the launch,club members watched the signalhead east over Idaho.

Even with the higher altitude, theballoon did land in the predictedregion of the plateau. The recoveryteam easily retrieved it from afarmer’s field near Nez Perce, Idaho.

A GoPro camera fitted to theapparatus captured the flag’s ascent.The two-hour footage shows therolling hills of the Palouse quicklygiving way to white clouds scatteredacross the sky. Thirteen minutes intothe flight, the balloon encounters ahailstorm, but four minutes later thesky is clear and blue.

At the balloon’s high point, the sunand blackness of space are visibleabove the curve of the Earth as theflag flutters at the bottom of thescreen.

Why the balloon went so highremains a mystery. Weather balloonsare designed to self-deflate andreturn to Earth: as a balloon rises,the surrounding air pressurebecomes lower; higher pressureinside means the balloon expandsuntil it leaks or pops.

The altitude a balloon reachesdepends upon how much helium isin it. “More helium would have alower maximum altitude, since thepressure inside the balloon would begreater and the balloon would popsooner,” said Cerruti. If the balloonhas less helium, it should rise moreslowly but stay aloft longer.

Seattle

EllensburgPullman

Landing site: nearNez Perce, Idaho

MAPRasterdatafrom

NaturalEarth Join the WSU Physics & Astronomy

Club!

Information:http://www.physics.wsu.edu/Extracurricular/

Extracurricular-Club.html

FEATURE STORY

Reprinted from WSU News (May 15, 2014).STORY Sabrina Zearott and Joanna Steward, College of Arts & SciencesPHOTOS WSU Physics & Astronomy Club, WSU News

Physics Matters Vol. 17 9

GOOD NEWS AROUND THE DEPARTMENT

Doerte Blume and Sukanta Bose have both beencollaborating with the University of Washington’sInstitute for Nuclear Theory (INT). Blume co-organized a program called “Universality in few-bodysystems: Theoretical challenges and new directions”(March 10 - May 16, 2014), which focused onexperimental and theoretical work with regard topotential universality beyond the two- and three-bodyproblems. The program involved morningpresentations from participants and afternoondiscussions. During the last week of the program,Blume and co-organizers hosted a five-day “Few-bodyUniversality in Atomic and Nuclear Physics: RecentExperimental and Theoretical Advances” workshop.Information here:http://www.int.washington.edu/PROGRAMS/14-1/

Bose is a co-organizer of a month-long summerworkshop on “Binary Neutron Star Coalescence as aFundamental Physics Laboratory” (June 30 - August1, 2014). This program brings together internationalexperts in nuclear physics, numerical astrophysics, andgravitational-wave physics as well as astronomers tobrainstorm on how the electromagnetic andgravitational wave signals emitted by merging neutronstars and black holes can be used to understand theproperties of matter under very high pressures, asmuch as a nonillion (1 x 10E30) atmospheres. That inturn can help answer how heavy elements are formedand what triggers some of the most energeticexplosions in the universe, called gamma-ray bursts.More information can be found here:http://www.int.washington.edu/PROGRAMS/14-2a

R&D Magazine recently highlighted one of MichaelMcNeil Forbes’ projects at the University ofWashington, which used one of the “largestsupercomputing calculations ever performed” tounderstand an MIT experiment’s unexpected results.See it on http://www.rdmag.com.

Philip Marston gave a seminar at Stanford Universityon “Acoustical and Optical Radiation Force andScattering Anomalies” (February 5, 2014). The talkfocused on “how the underlying wave-field geometryinfluences radiation forces.” More information here:http://hepl.stanford.edu/seminar/140205_Marston.html

Matthew McCluskey, department chair, gave thefaculty address at the 2014 Crimson Reads “1stAnnual Celebration of Faculty Authored Books”(April 3, 2014).

Steven Tomsovic co-organized a conference in Dresden,Germany, from October 22-26, 2012, called “Wave Chaosfrom the Micro to the Macroscale.”http://www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~wcmm12/announcement_soon.html

Guy Worthey published two papers:

Worthey, G., Tang, B., & Serven, J. (2014). Individualalpha elements, C, N, and Ba in early-type galaxies,Astrophysical Journal, 783, 20.http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.2603

Worthey, G., Danilet, A. B., & Faber, S. M. (2014). TheLickX spectra, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 561, A36http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2014/01/aa22287-13/aa22287-13.html

Faculty

10 Physics Matters Vol. 17

PHOTO WSU Photo Services

Superfluids, quantum physics,and coffee: An interview withMichael McNeil Forbes

STORY Sabrina Zearott, staff writer

Introducing one of the newest members of theDepartment of Physics & Astronomy.

WHEN Michael McNeil Forbestalks about his research, it’s easy tosee why he works withsupercomputers.

During my interview with him, Irecall that for most of mychildhood, I wanted to be anastronomer. I read Astronomymagazine, tried semi-successfully tooperate second-hand telescopes, andstruggled through a Harvardastronomy course out of interest.Talking to Forbes, however, is likereading an entire textbook onquantum mechanics in an hour.

“Am I overwhelming you?” he asks.“Yes,” I admit, “but keep going, thisis fascinating.”

A new assistant professor in WSU’sDepartment of Physics &Astronomy, Forbes is a native ofCalgary, Alberta, Canada. Aftergetting involved in the PhysicsOlympiad (he placed first in Canadaand 31st in the world), he went tothe University of British Columbiato earn an honors degree incomputer science and physics,followed by an M.Sc. in physics,then headed to MIT to earn a Ph.D.Most recently, he was a researchassistant professor and fellow at theUniversity of Washington’s Institutefor Nuclear Theory (INT).

Some of Forbes’ early researchfocused on the early universe and aparadox that has yet to be resolved:baryogenesis, or the formation ofmatter. The standard model ofparticle physics assumes a certaindegree of symmetry, known ascharge-parity, or CP. Violations ofCP are rare and very small - that is,there’s not a lot of observableasymmetry when it comes to particleinteractions. Yet if everything issymmetrical, there should beroughly equal amounts of matterand antimatter in the universe, andthey should annihilate each otherand leave only light.

Mathematically speaking, theformula used to describe QCD(quantumchromodynamics, orparticle interactions)contains a term that,at its “natural”value, can result inCP violation. Atsome point in theuniverse’s history,that term’s valuechanged to 0,meaning essentiallyno CP violation (orantimatter). According to Forbes,something must have happened inthe early universe to leave us withalmost no antimatter; he wants tofind out what, and to find out where

the missing antimatter is.

Ariel Zhitnitsky, Forbes’ M.Sc.advisor at UBC, proposed that theearly universe contained “domainwalls” that separated matter andantimatter, then sealed antimatteroff into bubbles. These bubbles, or“quark nuggets,” are thought to existtoday as dense grain-of-sand-sizedpieces of dark matter that weigh asmuch as a truck. The change in theQCD formula’s term was explainedby MIT’s Frank Wilczek, laterForbes’ Ph.D. advisor and the 2004winner of the Nobel Prize, whostated that the term could beeliminated using a dynamical “axionfield” – as the universe cools, theterm vanishes. Zhitnitsky and

Forbes’ argument isthat knots in this field(domain walls)provide the CPviolation necessary toseparate antimatterfrom matter and trapthe former, restoringCP symmetry.

This theory is hard totest, as dark matter isnot easily observable.

However, Forbes and colleagueshave been able to observe lightemissions that are consistent withpredicted dark-matter annihilation at

The research thatbrought Forbes toWSU is a little

different, and it’swhere the

supercomputerscome in.

PHOTO

MichaelMcN

eilF

orbes

INTERVIEW

(Continued)

Physics Matters Vol. 17 11

RECENT PRESS &PUBLICATIONS:

R& DMAGAZINESolving a physics mystery: Those“solitons”are really vortex rings

PUBLICATIONSBulgac, A., Forbes, M. M., Kelley,M. M., Roche, K. J., & Wlazłowski,G. (2014). Quantized SuperfluidVortex Rings in the Unitary FermiGas. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 025301http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4266

Bulgac, A., Forbes, M. M., &Sharma, R. (2013). Strength of theVortex-Pinning Interaction fromReal-Time Dynamics. Phys. Rev.Lett. 110, 241102http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.2172

the core of the galaxy; othersources, such as the Chandra X-rayObservatory, have found abackground emission that holds tothis model when all other possibleemission sources are removed.

The research that brought Forbes toWSU is a little different, and it’swhere the supercomputers come in.At MIT, he became interested inhigh-density particle interactions(QCD, or quantumchromodynamics) – specifically,what happens in the interiors ofneutron stars. These stars spin liketops, eventually slowing down asthey lose momentum; occasionally,they “glitch” and speed up again,and physicists have been trying tounderstand why. This is verydifficult to replicate in a lab, ofcourse, and requires the world’sbiggest supercomputers to simulate.However, Forbes tells me thatneutron stars behave very similarlyto cold atoms. This means that hecan compare computer simulationsto cold-atom experiments and thenbuild models based on the latter,bypassing the need for theenormous calculations and energyrequirements of simulating nuclearreactions in a lab. WSU had exactlythe combination of theoretical andexperimental work (Doerte Blumeand Peter Engels, respectively) thatForbes needed.

Our discussion isn’t all quantumphysics. The conversation toucheson other things as well: his collegeyears, his hobbies, his love of high-quality coffee. When he first visitedthe world-renowned MIT campus,he approached it from the“industrial area” to the south, thatgrungy urban zone located betweenHarvard and MIT; it didn’t makehim very enthusiastic aboutattending, he tells me as I laugh. Wetalk about coffee - I consider myselfa coffee fan, but it quickly becomesclear that he knows significantlymore than I do about, well, almosteverything related to it. (He brings

me a bean later so I can see whathe’s talking about.) He’s an avidcycler and skier as well, and isinterested in the science of sound.

Finally, Forbes loves to teach. Aparticular favorite of his was theScience One course at UBC, whichcombined math, physics, biology,and chemistry in a single course; hetells me that students learned toanswer “why” questions, and learnedthe requisite math for each scienceproblem they tackled, an innovativeapproach that resulted in significantprogress over a year. AlthoughWSU’s undergraduate courses aremuch larger than Science One,Forbes hopes to carry over some ofScience One’s principles and applythem here once he begins teaching.

In the meantime, he has research todo.

Sabrina Zearott is staff writer in theDepartment of Physics & Astronomy

INTERVIEW

12 Physics Matters Vol. 17

PULLMAN, Wash. – Quite byaccident, Washington StateUniversity researchers have achieveda 400-fold increase in the electricalconductivity of a crystal simply byexposing it to light. The effect,which lasted for days after the lightwas turned off, could dramaticallyimprove the performance of deviceslike computer chips.

WSU doctoral student MarianneTarun chanced upon the discoverywhen she noticed that theconductivity of some strontiumtitanate shot up after it was left outone day. At first, she and her fellowresearchers thought the sample wascontaminated, but a series ofexperiments showed the effect wasfrom light.

“It came by accident,” said Tarun.“It’s not something we expected.That makes it very exciting toshare.”

The phenomenon they witnessed —“persistent photoconductivity” — isa far cry from superconductivity, thecomplete lack of electrical resistancepursued by other physicists, usuallyusing temperatures near absolutezero. But the fact that they’veachieved this at room temperaturemakes the phenomenon moreimmediately practical.

And while other researchers havecreated persistent photoconductivityin other materials, this is the mostdramatic display of thephenomenon.

The research, which was funded bythe National Science Foundation,appears this month in the journalPhysical Review Letters.

“The discovery of this effect atroom temperature opens up newpossibilities for practical devices,”said Matthew McCluskey, co-author of the paper and chair ofWSU’s physics department. “Instandard computer memory,information is stored on the surfaceof a computer chip or hard drive. Adevice using persistentphotoconductivity, however, couldstore information throughout theentire volume of a crystal.”

This approach, called holographicmemory, “could lead to hugeincreases in information capacity,”McCluskey said.

Strontium titanate and other oxides,which contain oxygen and two ormore other elements, often display adizzying variety of electronicphenomena, from the highresistance used for insulation tosuperconductivity’s lack of

resistance.

“These diverse properties provide afascinating playground for scientistsbut applications so far have beenlimited,” said McCluskey.

McCluskey, Tarun and physicistFarida Selim, now at BowlingGreen State University, exposed asample of strontium titanate to lightfor 10 minutes. Its improvedconductivity lasted for days. Theytheorize that the light frees electronsin the material, letting it carry morecurrent.

Eric Sorensen is the science writer forWashington State Magazine andWSU News

Accidental discoverydramatically improvesconductivity

Researchers in Matthew McCluskey's labmay have found a way to “dramatically”increase photoconductivity using light.

STORY Eric Sorensen. Reprinted from WSUNews (November 14, 2013).

Marianne Tarun sealing an ampoule with a torch.PHOTO Matthew McCluskey

NEWS

Physics Matters Vol. 17 13

The DepartmentWelcomes AssistantProfessor Brian CollinsSTORY Sabrina Zearott PHOTOS Brian Collins

Brian Collins, assistant professor in theDepartment of Physics & Astronomy, comes toWashington State University from the NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology (NIST) inMaryland, where he was a National ResearchCouncil Fellow and conducted research at theAdvanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley,California.

Collins’ planned research at WSU includesinvestigating resonant x-ray/soft-matterinteractions to develop microscopy and scatteringtechniques. Soft matter absorption of x-rays altersthe materials' optical properties in specific waysthat are unique to each type of bond and molecule- what Collins calls a “resonant signature.” Thissignature can be used to improve microscopy andscattering techniques by allowing improvedcontrast and identification of observed structures.Collins hopes to apply these improved techniquesto “optoelectronically active polymers and smallmolecules for use in organic devices such as lightemitting diodes, solar cells, transistors andbatteries,” which could ultimately be printed ontoflexible materials. Such organic devices couldrepresent major advances in technology andenergy. First, however, Collins plans to focus onmeasuring, characterizing, and understanding boththe structures that are formed and theoptoelectronic processes in these devices, all ofwhich could have important implications in thefield. This research is an extension of hispostdoctoral work at NIST.

Collins earned his Ph.D. and M.S. from theUniversity of North Carolina, where he carriedout research on epitaxial films at the AdvancedPhoton Source at Argonne National Laboratory;he earned his B.A. from Gustavus AdolphusCollege in Minnesota. He is a member of both theMaterials Research Society and the AmericanPhysical Society (APS), as well as the ALS UserExecutive Committee’s first postdoctoral member.He has a wife and three daughters; hobbiesinclude reading and watching sciencefiction/fantasy, pursuing outdoor activities such ascamping and hiking, and playing the piano andsinging.

Recent publications

Steyrleuthner, R., Di Pietro, R., Collins, B. A., Polzer,F., Himmelberger, S., Schubert, M., Chen, Z., Zhang,S., Salleo, A., Ade, H., Facchetti, A., & Neher, D.(2014). The role of regioregularity, crystallinity, andchain orientation on electron transport in a high-mobility n-type copolymer. J. Am. Chem. Soc.,136(11), 4245-56. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja4118736

Tumbleston, J. R., Collins, B. A., Yang, L., Stuart, A.C., Gann, E., Ma, W., You, W., & Ade, H. (2014).The influence of molecular orientation on organicbulk heterojunction solar cells. Nature Photonics, 8,385-391. http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v8/n5/full/nphoton.2014.55.html

Resonant X-ray scattering of an organic field effecttransistor (polymer channel/dielectric bilayer on a SiNsupport). The resulting scattering pattern captured by asoft X-ray CCD (upper right) reveals orientationalalignment of orbitals responsible for intermolecularcharge transport in the channel polymer.

DEPARTMENT

14 Physics Matters Vol. 17

Meeting theChallenge

“Smart” optic fibers, wire art, & the brain

Mark Kuzyk’s lab is collaborating to address theNational Academy of Sciences’ Grand Challenge.They are working to build “smart” optical fibersthat bend in response to light, with potentialrevolutionary implications for technology and howwe treat some mental disorders. >>

FEATURE STORY

STORY Sabrina Zearott, staff writerPHOTOS Sabrina Zearott except wherenoted

Physics Matters Vol. 17 15

In a high school math classroom inLos Angeles, pairs of students make shapes using wire,pliers, and instructions written on a software programcalled Turtle. It isn’t easy: partner one has to think aboutthe outlines of the shape, then use the software to tell ananimated turtle where to go (“walk two inches, turn right,walk three inches…”). The resulting path potentially takesplace in three dimensions.

By relaying the path’s instructions to the other student,the first student can explain how to turn a wire into ashape. If the pair gets it right, partner two’s masterpieceshould resemble partner one’s original vision. Ifnot…they need to recalculate.

What sounds like a fun math project is part of a newcurriculum and science initiative, funded through the $2million National Science Foundation grant recentlyawarded to Mark Kuzyk. The grant includes outreach tothe Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and theL.A.-based Stern Math and Science School, with plans toeventually extend the program to others. However, whilewire shape construction is teaching students things likecoordinate geometry and spatial reasoning (therebyintroducing them in a non-traditional way to the STEMdsciplines, or Science, Technology, Engineering, and

FEATURE STORY

An example of wire art -"3 Circular Orbs" byElizabeth Berrien.

“Smart” optic fibers, wire art, &the brain

Meeting the National Academy of Sciences’ 2013 “Grand Challenge”

16 Physics Matters Vol. 17

Mathematics), the main purpose of the grant is to usethese concepts to develop the relatively new science ofmorphing “smart” materials. The first step to this goal isresearch on neurological disease treatment using“intelligent optical fibers,” per the National Academy ofSciences’ 2013 “Grand Challenge”: at WSU, Kuzyk andhis graduate students are developing optical fibers that canbe manipulated, Turtle-path style, inside the human brain.

Kuzyk’s group, which includes graduate studentsElizabeth Bernhardt, Nathan Rasmussen, and JosephLanska, is working to design a better “deep brainstimulation device.” Deep brain stimulation – in which athin electrode is inserted into a specific area of the brain –has been shown to help patients suffering fromneurological conditions from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s.

Such technology could be adapted for a number of uses –Kuzyk mentions that astronauts, isolated for months,could be implanted with a device that could be remotelystimulated to help prevent depression. However, thecurrent electrode design is not able to be manipulatedonce inside the brain, so the surgeon has to be incrediblyprecise to avoid having to re-insert the device.

The new optic fiber technique being developed at WSU isbased on the idea that the fiber can bend as needed bysending light through it at specific wavelengths – in otherwords, it could be manipulated once placed inside thebrain. The research is being undertaken in partnershipwith Dr. Andres Lozano, who gave a recent TED Talk onbrain stimulation; it is also being carried out incollaboration with Caltech (material synthesis/outreach)and both UMass Amherst and Kent State University(materials development and characterization).

At the moment, the goal is to perfect the fibers, whichconsist of three gold (hypoallergenic, non-rusting) wiresdrawn down through melted Poly(methyl methacrylate), aplastic also known as PMMA. Kuzyk hopes to finish this

Continued >>

PHOTO Elizabeth Berrien

From TurtleArt.org: “The Turtle follows asequence of commands. You specify thesequence by snapping together puzzle likeblocks. The blocks can tell the turtle to drawlines and arcs, draw in different colors, go to aspecific place on the screen, etc. There are alsoblocks that let you repeat or name sequences.Other blocks perform logical operations. Thesequence of blocks [is] a program that describes

an image.”

PHOTO/TEXT © 2014 TurtleArt.org

TurtleArt

FEATURE STORY

by the end of this year. Ultimately, possibly many years from now, the hope is that these fibers can be used to make“smart fabrics” that contain devices that, Kuzyk says, can “talk to each other with light” and “change shape locally.”

That’s where the art-science collaboration comes back into play: Kuzyk is working with wire artist Elizabeth Berrienand origami specialist Robert Lang to understand wire-shape construction in greater depth. Regarding smart materials,fibers (and cloth) could be locked into particular shapes, only to be unlocked as needed; they could change in responseto temperatures or other stimuli. Such technology and techniques could have vast implications, from materials scienceto the military; in the meantime, Kuzyk’s work is broadening horizons in medicine...and U.S. science curricula.

Sabrina Zearott is the staff writer in the Department of Physics & Astronomy

L-R: Ryan Hayward(University of Massachusetts -Amherst), Mark Kuzyk, PeterPalffy-Muhoray (Kent State),Zuleikha Kurji (Caltech andWSU), Elizabeth Bernhardt,Joseph Lanska, NathanRasmussen, Mykhailo Pevnyi(Kent State), & JulieKornfield (Caltech). Smallgroup meeting during theMaterials Research Society(MRS) April 2014 meeting inSan Francisco.

PHOTO courtesy of JosephLanska

Physics Matters Vol. 17 17

The WSU Planetarium (located in Sloan Hall 231) hosted several shows this spring, ranging from Stargazing 101 tomore complex “journeys” meant to help the audience understand the seasons and what might be out there in the largergalaxy. Most of the shows were presented by Kaylan Petrie, a mathematics and science education doctoral student atWSU who has done similar presentations elsewhere. Guy Worthey described the aim of the shows as “Connectingpeople to their world. People have a hunger to know their universe, and modern society has paradoxically distanced usfrom many things that people experienced before the invention of the light bulb.” “Stargazers” received star charts forStargazing 101 - Worthey said it was gratifying to “see students’ eyes light up” as they figured out how to make themwork.

Worthey has been working with the planetarium since 2001 along with Michael Allen. Approximately 25,000schoolchildren have visited in that time, Worthey said. The planetarium anticipates adding a low-fidelity digitalprojection system built here at WSU to give attendees a sense of “the benefits that a professional projector couldbring” - donations are welcome at http://secure.wsu.edu/give/. Please choose “Search by keyword” and enter“Department of Physics Development Fund.” Thank you!

Additionally, join us at Jewett Observatory (in photo) for our spring/summer star parties! Schedule can be found athttp://astro.wsu.edu/observatory.html on the right side of the page.

GOOD NEWS AROUND THE DEPARTMENT

Exploring the night sky

Did you know that the department has two new HP Z220workstations and two 22” monitors? Alumni Bobbie Riley (B.S.2009) and Kevin Daily (Ph.D. 2012, Blume) recently donated themto the department as a way to help students and to encourage them tohelp make the department even better through their owncontributions. The computers can be found in the undergraduatestudy lounge (Webster 748) and the computing room (Webster 926).The department sincerely thanks these two alumni for theirthoughtful and generous gifts.

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18 Physics Matters Vol. 17

GRADUATES

SUMMER 2013Ph.D.

JiaJia Chang (Engels)Liyanagamage (Ranga) Dias(Choong-Shik Yoo)

M.S.Charles David Bergman (Kuzyk)Tong Wan (Allen)

FALL 2013Ph.D.

Benjamin Anderson (Kuzyk)Thilina Dayanga (Bose)Shaon Ghosh (Bose)John Lang, Jr. (Gupta)Shoresh Shafei (Kuzyk)Xianjun Ye (Kuzyk)

M.S.Josef Felver (Dexheimer)Kasey Lund (Lynn)

B.S.Cory CarpenterJohn PetersKyle SchademanConnor TalbottShen Wei

SPRING 2014Ph.D.

Gustav Borstad (Yoo)Christopher Hamner (Engels)Michele Moore, Materials Science(Jonathan Wisor, WWAMI,WSU Spokane)

B.S.Kenneth DorranceDaniel FoustJesse KysarJesse MillerTyler SperlichMolly Wakeling

SUMMER 2014Ph.D.

Zhaozhe Li (Miller)Anthony Smith (Marston)

M.S.Ryan Magee (Bose)

Physics TextbookScholarship

Cory CarpenterDaniel FoustBernard HallLucas HolbertAnthony LathropLukas MemovichJesse MillerJustin NiedermeyerMolly WakelingMilo Wilkes

The Physics TextbookScholarship ($100) is “grantedto certified physics majors whoearned a semester GPA of B+(3.30) or better and are enrolledfor 12 credits or more during afall or spring semester, and inthe subsequent semester, andhave not completed their degreework.”

Undergraduate SummerMinigrants

Andrew BleasdaleMats JohnsonSarah KimJohn Minor

Minigrants ($3000) are given bythe College of Arts & Sciences

Paul A. Anderson Awardfor Excellence in Physics

Andrew BleasdaleJustin Niedermeyer

These awards consist of $600 tobe split over the fall 2014 andspring 2015 semesters.

L-R: CAS Dean Daryll DeWald, Molly Wakeling, and Dr. Michael Allen

Molly Wakeling, above center, was selected as College of Arts &Sciences (CAS) Outstanding Senior in the Department of Physics &Astronomy for spring 2014. Congratulations Molly!

Qingze Guan (Ph.D., Blume) received a summer 2014 Leon andBarbara Radziemski Graduate Fellowship in the Sciences. The $2000award is given by the College of Arts and Sciences. Guan alsoreceived a travel award of $160 from the APS Northwest Section.

Elham Mafi (Ph.D., Gu) was awarded a summer 2014 GoldingFamily Fellowship in the Sciences in the amount of $2000 from theCollege and Arts and Sciences.

GOOD NEWS AROUND THE DEPARTMENT

Awards

Physics Matters Vol. 17 19

GOOD NEWS AROUND THE DEPARTMENT

Maren Mossman (Ph.D., Forbes) was honored at theGraduate and Professional Student Association(GPSA)'s Annual Awards Luncheon - she received aGPSA Excellence Award (which includes a plaque) inthe Graduate Teaching Assistant category.

Daniel (Dan) Plotnick (Ph.D., Marston) earned aStudent and Young Presenter Paper Award in the areaof Signal Processing in Acoustics at last year’sAcoustical Society of America (ASA) meeting, heldDecember 2013 in San Francisco. Additionally, he placedsecond in the Dr. William R. Wiley ResearchExposition’s oral competition (Engineering and PhysicalSciences), held this February at WSU. The ASA paperresults can be found at http://www.acosoc.org/student/reports/sanfrancisco.html

Xiangyu (Desmond) Yin (Ph.D., Blume) was granteda Group on Few Body Systems (GFB) Travel Award of$650 by the American Physical Society (APS). Yinattended the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular andOptical Physics (DAMOP) meeting in Madison,Wisconsin, from June 2-6, 2014.

Undergraduate Peter Sinclair has been named aStudent Ambassador for the College of Arts andSciences. More information on the program can befound here:http://cas.wsu.edu/about/ambassadors/index.html

Senior Molly Wakeling presented a poster at WSU'sShowcase for Undergraduate Research and CreativeActivities (SURCA) this March and received theCrimson Award (the highest-level SURCA award, whichconsists of $300 and a certificate). She also presentedthe poster at the American Physical Society (APS)'sannual meeting in Savannah, Georgia, April 5-8, 2014.The research, titled “Charge States of Th-229m: Path toFinding the Half-Life,” was her internship project at theLawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore,California, where she is working this summer.Additionally, she was given a College of Arts & SciencesOutstanding Senior Award at an award ceremony onMay 9, 2014 (see p. 19).

WSU's Society of Physics Students chapter (Physics &Astronomy Club) was one of only three fromZone/Region 17 to be named a 2013 OutstandingChapter by the National Society of Physics Students!This is the first time in recent memory that the WSUchapter has achieved this award. Region 17 coversAlaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, andnorthern Idaho. The award is given to clubs who meetcriteria of outreach, K-12 educational programs,

promoting college physics education and research,publicizing recent physics news, and increasingawareness of physics. A big thank you for the hard work,leadership, and energy of last year’s president, Shen Wei,and club members including Klaas Monster, EricBeier, and more, as well as to advisor Nicholas Cerruti(regional director of Region 17) and Mary Guenther.Thank you to all who helped the club win this award,and congratulations!http://www.spsnational.org/programs/awards/2013/oca.htm

Kristin Boreen was recently awarded the prestigiousannual WSU President’s Employee Excellence Award,which is given to five employees who demonstrate“productivity…; innovative problem solving; positiveworking relations with students, the public, and co-workers; and community service,” according to the WSUOffice of the President website. As finance/budgetmanager, Boreen has done a great deal to help thedepartment in terms of both finances and rapport withstudents, faculty, and others. The Department of Physics& Astronomy is proud of her and her wonderful work.News story: http://news.wsu.edu/2014/02/20/five-earn-presidents-employee-excellence-awards-4/#.UyddqfmwKQ4

Sabreen Yamini Dodson and Doerte Blume receivedawards from the College of Arts and Sciences: the 2014Administrative Professional Excellence Award and theCollege of Arts and Sciences Mid-Career Achievementin Scholarship and Creative Activities Award,respectively.

Doerte Blume was reappointed to serve a second term(January 2013 - December 2015) on the Editorial Boardof Physical Review A.

The College of Arts and Sciences recently awardedDoerte Blume the Edward R. Meyer DistinguishedProfessorship in the Sciences and J. ThomasDickinson the Boeing Distinguished Professorship inScience Education.

Kelvin Lynn will be promoted to Regents Professor onAugust 16, 2014. Lynn joins three other distinguishedphysics faculty members: J. Thomas Dickinson,Yogendra Gupta, andMark Kuzyk.

Steven Tomsovic was awarded the 2012 College ofSciences (COS) Distinguished Faculty Award and was aSenior Research Fulbright Fellow in 2011.

Awards

20 Physics Matters Vol. 17

DR. WILLIAM R. WILEYEXPOSITION 2014(STUDENT PRESENTATIONS)

Fatemeh Hossein NouriNumerical Simulation ofMagnetized Accretion Diskaround a Spinning Black Hole

Kasey LundNitrogen Desorption fromCVD Diamond

Elham MafiElectronically DrivenAmorphization in Phase-Change In2Se3 Nanowires

Dan PlotnickNear-field to Far-fieldConversion for AcousticReflection Tomography:an Algorithm for SonarExperiments

Samaneh TabatabaeiBranched Polyethyleniminewill Attach and Insert intoZwitterionic and NegativelyCharged Supported LipidBilayers in a pH andTemperature DependentManner

Xin Tao (Materials Science)Two-Dimensional In2Se3Thin Layers for Phase-ChangeMemory Applications

Molly Wakeling*Charge States of Th-229m:Path to Finding the Half-Life

*undergraduate

Noah Austin, a double major in physics and music and a 2013 departmentalscholarship recipient, was involved in a recent large-scale effort to classify insects inthe Elwha Valley that lived there before the elimination of several area dams. Fullarticle: http://news.wsu.edu/2013/12/18/insects-studied-to-understand-changing-elwha-ecosystem/#.UtBwKvRDseg

Check out Brett Deaton's work on Astrobites: astrobites.org/author/bdeaton/.Deaton said, “There are about 30 grad students from various universities writingsummaries of astronomy and astrophysics research at an undergraduate level.”

Gharashi, S. E., & Blume, D. (2013). Correlations of the upper branch of 1dharmonically trapped two-component Fermi gases. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 045302http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6898

Gharashi, S. E., Yin, X. Y., & Blume, D. (2014). Molecular branch of a smallhighly elongated Fermi gas with an impurity: Full three-dimensional versus effectiveone-dimensional description. Phys. Rev. A, 89, 023603.http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.5272

Yan, Y., & Blume, D. (2013). Harmonically trapped Fermi gas: Temperaturedependence of the Tan contact. Phys. Rev. A, 88, 023616http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.88.023616

Yin, X., & Blume, D. (2013). Small two-component Fermi gases in a cubic box withperiodic boundary conditions. Phys. Rev. A,87, 063609. http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.52659

Yin, X. Y., Gopalakrishnan, S., & Blume,D. (2014). Harmonically trapped two-atomsystems: Interplay of short-range s-waveinteraction and spin-orbit coupling. Phys. Rev.A, 89, 033606.http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6734

The WSU chapter of OSA-SPIE (OpticalSociety of America - The InternationalSociety for Photonics and Optics) did an outreach event at Pullman’s SunnysideElementary School. The 30-minute program for 3rd-5th graders talked about sound:resonance, the Doppler effect, and beat frequencies. Graduate students ElizabethBernhardt (Ph.D., Kuzyk), Josef Felver (Ph.D., Dexheimer), and VeronicaRuiz Melara (M.S., Worthey) participated. More information here:http://wsu.osahost.org/outreach/

Left to right: Josef Felver, Veronica RuizMelara, & Elizabeth Bernhardt.

PHOTO WSU OSA.

Students

GOOD NEWS AROUND THE DEPARTMENT

Physics Matters Vol. 17 21

It was the height of World War II when afarmer south of the Snake River spottedsomething unusual.

Even today, the area is quite remote - mostly flat and semi-arid, itsdusty fields stretch to the horizon, punctuated by the occasionalroad. It remains relatively uninhabited even in 2014 - the tiny townof Anatone, along the highway that runs from the Lewis-ClarkValley down to Oregon, boasts a population in the double digits.The farmer, then, had reason to be suspicious of a new-looking,windowless van (in an era of rationing, no less) with what appearedto be an antenna on top. The van stopped and men got out, thenwent about setting up what looked like radio equipment of somekind.

Not long afterward, the farmer showed up with the sheriff anddemanded to know what the men were doing.

The men, likely startled at being caught in such a remote area, didn’tquite answer the sheriff ’s questions. All they said was that they wereworking on something top secret to do with the war effort. Finally,the increasingly suspicious sheriff managed to get a phone numberfrom them; he called the number and, sufficiently satisfied with whathe heard from the person on the other end, finally left.

The men were neither exceptionally clumsy foreign spies nor traitors.They were in fact physicists from the nearby State College ofWashington, also called WSC, and they were indeed working on asecret government project: improving the radar detection process. Inthis case, the men were trying to line up their transmitters with Mt.Spokane and Steptoe Butte and had driven into the fields to get adirect line. Their project was essential to the government: in June1942, 1800 Japanese soldiers had landed in the Aleutian Islands, butthe U.S. radar readings were so affected by atmospheric conditionsthat the resulting U.S. bombing raid was carried out over the ocean,far from the actual location. Clearly, something needed to be done.

The U.S. government’s Office of Scientific Research andDevelopment (OSRD) focused on trying to understand radardistances and what is known as the “radar horizon” - the distancebeyond past which radar cannot “see.” In early 1942, according tolongtime beloved physics instructor Alfred “Al” Butler (M.A. 1944,Anderson), both Paul Anderson (chair 1931-1961) and S. T.Stephenson were recruited by the Radiation Laboratory at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where they worked on

FEATURE STORY

STORY Sabrina Zearott, staff writer

22 Physics Matters Vol. 17

This departmental history iscompiled and based on “Leadershipin the Department of Physics” and”Physics History” by ProfessorEmeritus Edward E. Donaldson(Ph.D. 1953, Anderson) andseveral earlier Physics Matters articlesby the late Alfred “Al” Butler(M.A. 1944, Anderson), including adocument titled “The Contributionsof Washington State University toRadar Research in World War II.”Information is also taken from “ABit of Department History,” PhysicsMatters 1996-7.

Background: Carpenter Hall, theformer department headquarters.

From top: Brenton Steele, thefirst physics chair at WSU (1919-1931); Zella Bisbee (M.S. 1909),one of the first female graduatesin physics & mathematics; and AlButler (M.A. 1944, Anderson),Bisbee's son and a longtimephysics instructor.

95 Years of Physics:The department, its leaders, and the research thathelped make it great.

said in later recollections; he wrote that “[n]one of ushardly saw them and we certainly didn’t know whatthey were working on.” This level of secrecy was notunusual. In one instance, the dean of the WSCGraduate School had noticed an apparentlyinnocuous pattern of address changes published in ajournal: rare-earth element specialists and otherchemists were relocating en masse to the cities ofHanford and Richland, Washington. Upon pointingout to the journal that the American Chemical Societymight want to establish a chapter in one of thoseplaces, he was visited by the FBI, who wanted toknow just what he meant by his idea. (As is nowwidely known, Hanford and Richland were the sitesof top-secret research on atomic weapons. Thejournal stopped publishing address changes

immediately lest similar patterns be discovered byenemy agents.) Another faculty member, ClarenceZener, did classified work for the Watertown Arsenalin Watertown, Massachusetts - likely related to armor-piercing projectiles - and was later director ofresearch at Westinghouse - Butler recalled that henever did find out exactly what Zener was workingon.

In 1943, the radar research paid off and WSC wonthe contract against larger institutions (such as MIT)to build the Navy’s radar-range-detecting equipment,which was tested in the Pacific and adopted by the AirForce, the Navy, and the militaries of Britain,Australia, and New Zealand. Anderson ended upworking in Washington, D.C., as part of GeneralMacArthur’s newly-founded Office of Field Service,to put the research into “operational use in theSouthwest Pacific,” according to Butler. The otherresearchers collaborated with the Australian radar-research group out of the University of Sydney.Eventually the work was extended to assist indetecting low-flying aircraft. Anderson and

the Ground Control Approach system used to helpaircraft land in low-visibility conditions. After theJune invasion, however, atmospheric conditions andtheir effects on radar became an essential topic ofresearch. Anderson and Stephenson suggested thatthe work be carried out at WSC; they were outfittedwith the van mentioned above, which contained an X-band (3 cm) receiver, portable X-band transmitter,and radar dishes that could be attached to the roof.They recruited both Kenneth Fitzsimmons (M.S.1931, Anderson), machinist and physics staffmember, and civil engineer Charles Barker(professor and radio ham) from WSC to help them.

Their project involved setting up transmitter stationson Mt. Spokane, Steptoe Butte, and the hills south of

the Snake River in order to transmit microwave beamsover distances of 50 and 110 miles while being closeenough to the ground to monitor atmosphericconditions. Despite their top-of-the-line equipment,working out in rural Washington was not easy: in the1940s, there were few plowed roads in the winter, sothey often had to do this by snowshoe or hiking.Another set of testing at Flathead Lake, Montana,involved using a bow and arrow to shoot a fishing lineover a tree limb and attach recording instruments tomeasure atmospheric conditions at 40 feet above thelake. (The archery equipment was borrowed from alocal resident, who was likely very confused.)

The group did have a bit of fun despite thedifficulties of the work: they had two radio sets, oneof which ran on a frequency only they could access,so listeners elsewhere could only hear half theconversation, and the group put that knowledge toentertaining use at times.

Anderson and co.’s work was so secret that theycouldn’t even mention the word “radar,” as Butler

Work functions of metals, 1932-1959 (Anderson)Electron microscopy, 1931-1938 (Anderson,Fitzsimmons)Microwave propagation, 1942-1945 (Anderson,Stephenson, Fitzsimmons, Barker)X-ray spectroscopy, 1933-1960 (Stephenson)Theory, 1949-post 1965 (Band)

Biophysics, 1946-1964 (Anderson)

Surface science/vacuum technology, 1955(Bills, Donaldson)

Early research in the Department of Physics

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Physics Matters Vol. 17 23

Stephenson had war adventures of their own:Anderson helped brief Air Force officers as part ofan invasion on an island in the Gulf of Leyte (thePhilippines), while Stephenson had to dive into abunker to avoid enemy aircraft strafing an airport.

WSC’s importance to the war effort, which includedtraining Army & Air Force (AAF) cadets, wasimpressive considering its isolation and the fact thatthe physics department had not officially existedbefore 1919. Before that, physics was taught as partof engineering, beginning with Professor AddisonR. Saunders in 1894 (it remained part of the Collegeof Engineering for over 50 years). The first laboratoryat the college was established in 1893, with a second,complete with darkroom, built in Thompson Hall in1895. In 1910, Brenton L. Steele arrived fromIndiana University as the first full-time physicsinstructor and was appointed assistant professor; asof 1913, Professor Steele was teaching or co-teachingnine different courses: General Physics for Engineers;Non-Mathematical Physics; Methods of TeachingHigh School Physics; Molecular Physics; Heat; Light;Physical Theory of Music; Electricity and Magnetism;and Heat and Illumination. Other classes weredesigned as part of a separate course of study forstudents who had not completed high school:“Mechanic Arts,” taught by Clarence Hix and others,which included such courses as Physics andWoodwork, Household Physics, Modern Physics, andmore. A bachelor’s degree in physics was establishedin 1919 along with the department; Steele was namedchair. Two years later, the department consisted offive faculty members and one teaching fellow, ElsieWorthen.

Anderson arrived in 1931 and was chair of thedepartment for the next 30 years. Anderson’s was astoried background - he earned his Ph.D. at Harvardand then went on to do research at Eastman Kodak,followed by a stint as chair at Yenching University inwhat was then Peking, China. Additionally, he was aNational Research Council Fellow at Harvard and inBerlin.

According to Professor Emeritus Edward E.Donaldson (Ph.D. 1953, Anderson), Andersonbrought an important perspective to the department:the idea that research was a normal activity for anytrained physicist or physics professor, not simply partof the graduate training process. At WSC, Anderson'sresearch was performed in an ultra high vacuumenvironment; the degree of vacuum he achievedcould not be measured or reached by most otherlaboratories for 20 years, and his measurements ofwork functions are still cited today as standard values.Additionally, he and Fitzsimmons decided to developa microscope based on electron wavelengths afterhearing about research being done in Berlin by Ruska

Paul A. Anderson, chair1931-1961

William Band, chair 1961-1967, with his wifeClaire May Band

George Duvall,chair 1974-1976

Left: James Park, chair 1977-1980.Right: Sherman Lowell, chair 1976-1977

G. Richard Fowles,chair 1984-1990

Chairs from 1931-1990

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24 Physics Matters Vol. 17

Edward E. Donaldson,chair 1967-1974;1980-1984

& Knoll. Anderson and Fitzsimmons succeeded indeveloping the first electronic microscope in the U.S.,almost entirely on their own time and support, usingelectromagnetic rather than electrostatic lenses, andwere able to obtain resolution better than possiblewith optical microscopes.

World War II had a lasting positive impact on physicsat WSC/WSU. With the extra funds from the OSRDradar contract, the physics department established amachine/technical shop and purchased war-surplusmachinery. Additionally, the newly-established GI Billmeant a massive influx of new students. Donaldson,chair from 1967-1974 and 1980-1984, was one of thereturning veterans and remembered having to sleepon a gymnasium floor for several weeks while theuniversity built what he called “shanty housing” todeal with the sudden population increase. Butler wasone of the AAF instructors and taught introductoryphysics - as he wrote in an earlier edition of PhysicsMatters, “Each group of men was tested by themilitary before and after this program, and eachschool was rated by departments as to theireffectiveness.” WSC did quite well in comparison tothe rest of the schools.

Faculty members began branching out into differentareas of research as well, notably biophysics(Anderson) and low-energy x-rays (Stephenson).Several importantalumni graduated atthis point - one wasPhil Abelson (M.S.1935, Anderson;WSU DistinguishedAlumnus), who wenton to study with E. O.Lawrence at theUniversity ofCalifornia - Berkeleyuntil 1939 and laterbecame director of theLamont GeophysicalLaboratory, editor ofScience, and director ofthe CarnegieFoundation. Thesecond was Gerald W.Johnson (B.S., M.S. 1939, Stephenson; 1987Alumni Achievement Award), who acted asassociate director of the Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory and finally became the personalrepresentative of the United States secretary ofdefense to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks(S.A.L.T.)

Faculty shone as well: Stephenson’s review article onthe “Continuous X-ray Spectra” published in the 1957edition of Handbuch der Physik, was used as a reference

for decades; Stephenson was named chairman ofphysical sciences in 1947, dean of faculty in 1950, andWSU’s vice president in October 1964, shortly beforehis death in December 1964.

In addition to the flood of veterans and the radarprojects, Wilson Compton became president of WSUin 1944. Compton, brother to well-known physicists K.T. Compton (who studied photo electron energies in1912) and A. H. Compton (who discovered the inelastic“Compton” scattering of x-rays in 1923), understoodthe importance and power of physics and supportedthe department as well as other areas of science andengineering. In 1950, the department moved to thenewly-constructed Technology Building (now DanaHall), which had been designed specifically for physicsresearch by Anderson. The building was extremelysturdy: it was designed to provide vibration isolation toassist with making delicate measurements. Additionally,it had water and electricity routed to every work area;the four-foot-high steam tunnel that housed these was afavorite of students who went exploring late at night.Sometimes, wrote Donaldson in his “Physics History,”researchers working late would notice that “stand pipesconnected near the perimeter tunnel would bob up anddown mysterioussly and whispering voices could beheard.”

The Ph.D. program was established in 1950; by 1952the departmentconsisted ofeight facultymembers, fourstaff members,and 16 graduatestudents. Duringthe early 1960s,William Bandacted as chair - hehad come toPullman after astint in China.Next, from 1967-1974, Edward E.Donaldson hadthis first term aschair, followed byGeorge Duvall

(1974-1976), the founder of the shock physics program.Next came James L. Park (1977-1980), followed againby Donaldson.

Donaldson's second tenure as chair was followed byRichard Fowles (1984-1990), who had been a memberof the faculty since 1966. After Fowles came MichaelMiller, who was chair from 1990-1998 and 1999-2000,with Miles Dresser acting as interim chair from 1998-1999. Most recently, Steven Tomsovic (2002-2010) andMatthew McCluskey (2012-present) have been chairs,

Thompson Hall (above right) housed a physics laboratory in 1895.PHOTO WSU Marketing and Creative Services

FEATURE STORY

Physics Matters Vol. 17 25

with Sukanta Bose as interim chair from 2010-2012. Thedepartment thanks them for the considerable work theyhave done to support the physics and astronomyprograms.

As they saw it…

Edward E. Donaldson, 1967-1974; 1980-1984Edward E. Donaldson, professor emeritus, wasinterviewed for this article and provided much of itsoriginal text (as printed in the 1999-2000 edition ofPhysics Matters). Originally from Wenatchee, Washington,he was one of the many young veterans who arrived inPullman after WWII. Donaldson earned all three of hisdegrees at the Pullman campus. In 1953, the newly-

minted Ph.D. headed to Richland in the Tri-Cities to doresearch. However, he didn’t stay away long. When aprofessor was needed at his alma mater, he returned toPullman, where he continues to reside.

Donaldson spoke of his career at WSU as long andrewarding, especially teaching, which was “fun andexciting.” When he began, he was one of only six facultymembers, and worked on a process discovered bycolleagues D. G. Bills and A. Evett in which surfacesreleased metal atoms/molecules. Donaldson was able tochoose which research interests to pursue, which he sayshe enjoyed. Other faculty members were working onsimilar projects, primarily to do with materials structureand metals.

As chair, one of Donaldson’s main responsibilitieswas to recruit new faculty members - he describedhow the department changed over time andeventually added research groups. At first, facultymembers were chosen based on their overall fit ratherthan work in a particular area - it wasn’t until the late1980s that interdisciplinary collaboration becamemore common on campus and research groups beganto form. The Materials Science and EngineeringProgram at WSU was an example he gave ofinstitutionalized collaboration. Ideas crossingdisciplinary lines, in Donaldson’s opinion, can be anexcellent source of innovation and scientific progressand should be encouraged. He said that science andtechnology are advancing so quickly that educationhas had to change over the years to keep up - what’simportant, he said, is not the specific subjects youlearn but being taught how to learn. As for his time aschair, Donaldson said he enjoyed it enough that hetook on a second term, and was particularly proud oftwo of his recruits: Regents Professor J. ThomasDickinson and Donald Sandstrom (now at Boeing).

Steven Tomsovic (2002-2010)Near the turn of the millennium, the departmentbegan to go through several important transitions.From the perspective of Steven Tomsovic, chair from2002-2010, the department not only made severalimprovements in areas such as graduate recruiting andundergraduate education - specifically, hiring “facultywhose main focus was excellence in instruction” - butit also “absorbed significant budget cuts whileminimizing any negative impact.” The departmentalso began to add research in the area of low-temperature physics.

The graduate program in particular underwent majorchanges around the turn of the millennium. TheGraduate Studies Committee members and graduatestudent body made a concerted effort to increase thenumber of graduate students, working in tandem withremarkable success - by 2010, the program had nearlydoubled from 38 students to 70. The addition of theastronomy program (transferred from theDepartment of Mathematics to the Department ofPhysics in 2004) also had an impact - nearly one in sixgraduate applicants applied to work on astronomy-related topics.

The undergraduate program saw changes as well.Dickinson had recently initiated honors physics; thedepartment looked more closely into hiring facultymembers to focus on teaching undergraduate coursesas a means of expanding and continuing to improveas a program. Michael Allen, Nicholas Cerruti,Fred Gittes, and Sudha Swaminathan became thecohort that took on 18 of the department’s classesand worked on curriculum and department-affiliatedprograms, such as the planetarium (Allen and Guy

The Kate G. Webster Physical Sciences Building, home tothe Department of Physics & Astronomy for 40 years.

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26 Physics Matters Vol. 17

Worthey) and the Physics & Astronomy Club (Cerruti).In terms of research, Doerte Blume, Bose, and Wortheywere hired, with Peter Engels and Chuanwei Zhang(now at the University of Texas at Dallas) joining thedepartment later.

Matthew McCluskey (2012-present)Originally from Helena, Montana, Matthew McCluskeyarrived at WSU in 1998 from California’s Xerox Palo AltoResearch Center, where he worked on blue lasers andphase separation in InGaN quantum wells. Initially, hisresearch focus at WSU was on the response ofsemiconductors to both static and dynamical pressures;currently, his research group also works on complexoxides and microscopy techniques.

During his time at WSU, McCluskey saw several majordevelopments in the department and university, notablywhat he called “the rise of the graduate program”:“When I arrived at WSU in 1998, we had fewer than 40graduate students. Today we have about 70.” Thedepartment is tightly-knit as well: alumni continue to sendin information about accomplishments and updates,which McCluskey says he loves to hear, and when he hadto be away for some time, the staff, faculty, and graduatestudents all worked together to keep the departmentrunning smoothly. “It was gratifying to see thedepartment pull together like that.”

The department gained two new faculty membersrecently: experimentalist Brian Collins (see p. 14) andtheoristMichael Forbes (see p. 11). McCluskey said thatthe next planned hire is in the area of computationalmaterials physics.

McCluskey’s “Greetings from the chair” can be found onpage 2.

See earlier editions of Physics Matters for stories from Al Butlerand others.

Michael Miller, chair1990-1998; 1999-2002

Miles Dresser,interim chair1998-1999

Steven Tomsovic,chair, 2002-2010

Sukanta Bose, interimchair, 2010-2012

Matthew McCluskey,chair, 2012-present

Chairs from 1990-2014

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Friends of Physics & Astronomy

28 Physics Matters Vol. 17

Silver Laureates(Lifetime gifts of $1,000,000 - $4,999,999)*Claire May Band*William BandBattelleM.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

Benefactors(Lifetime gifts of $100,000 to $499,999)*Neva Abelson*Philip AbelsonHewlett Packard CompanyLaurie Johnson and Dawn SmithRobert La PorteDean MillsapRobert Nilan and Betty Clark-Nilan*Winona NilanSGI

President's Associates(Annual gifts of $2,500 - $4,999)Richard and Annette GordonJune BillsKevin Daily and Bobbie RileyDale and Leila Martin

Bryan Society(Annual gifts of $1,000 - $2,499)James Anderson and Shirine Boulos AndersonJohn AndersonTodd BrownBrian CanfieldL. Stephen Price and Cherri Defigh-Price

Tower Club(Annual gifts of $500 - $999)Burton and Karen BerringerDavid Cissell and Julie ZalikowskiMiles and Muriel DresserScott and Judy JonesDaniel MichaelBryan MorganBrett ThovsonJuefei Zhou

Sustaining Donors(Annual gifts of $1 - $499)Bin Bai and Ying ShenFrank and Irene BarmoreClaude and Betty BarnettCharles and Carron CollinsDavid DebruyneDouglas DietzelDonald DittbernerKenneth DodsonDale Doering and Toyoko TsukudaWilbur and Pamella DongDaniel and Sandra FisherJohn and Patricia GouldTimothy and Heather HauganPhillip HimmerLarry and Karen KirkpatrickLawrence and Brigid LarsonRichard and Madelon LindsayMark and Mary LinquistGary and Paula LucasEdward and Corinne MarquesDavid and Patricia McDanielsPalouse Astronomical SocietyAllen and Linda PitnerWarren and Bernice QuinnGladys RiceRiley RichardsonCarl and Wendy RosenkildeHaley SatoRobert SharpMelissa Skala and Matthew PhelpsDavid and Eunice SnyderClaire SouthernPaul and Susan SpencerPaul SwinehartKevin and Jerri WilliamsHongbin Wu

*deceased

A sincere thank you to all our donors: your generosity helpsopen doors to worlds of opportunity.

The Department of Physics andAstronomy is grateful for the generosityof alumni who help support a largegroup of talented and hard-workingfaculty and students. Making a gift toone of our scholarships can help make apositive difference in a student’s life, andit is an excellent way to give back to thediscipline that you love.

Scholarships are coordinated throughthe department; questions about theprocess can be directed to SabreenYamini Dodson at physics@wsu.edu or(509) 335-9532.

SUPPORTSCIENCE

Physics Matters Vol. 17 29

Blast from thePast Where are they now?

Benjamin Anderson (Ph.D. 2013, Kuzyk) isnow working at the Institute for Shock Physicsas a postdoctoral research associate; he is amember of the Applied Sciences Laboratory(ASL).

Regina Barber DeGraaff (Ph.D., Summer2011, John Blakeslee) is now a lecturer inphysics at Western Washington University. Aftergraduating with her Ph.D she taught at a privateschool in the Seattle area, followed by BellevueCollege, where she taught math and physics andworked on diversity-in-science initiatives. Sheeventually contacted WWU and was hired therein September 2013. In addition to her teachingwork, she has acted as the faculty advisor to twostudent clubs on campus.

Christopher Bates (B.S. 2008) is a 4th-yearmedical student at Wake Forest Baptist Health inNorth Carolina; he plans to finish soon and gointo orthopedic surgery.

Daily, K. M., & Blume, D. (2014). Tunable high-temperature thermodynamics of weakly-interacting dipolar gases.Phys. Rev. A., 89, 013606. http://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.89.013606

Shaon Ghosh (Ph.D. 2013, Bose) is now a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Rizal Hariadi (B.S. 2003) is studying “tractable biologically-relevant problems using physics and engineering principlesand methods” at the University of Michigan, where he is a post-doc. In 2011, Hariadi earned his Ph.D. in applied physicsfrom Caltech.

Katherine Hegewisch (Ph.D. 2010, Tomsovic) had her thesis work published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society ofAmerica (JASA) as part of a special issue: http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/134/4/10.1121/1.4818783

Enamul Khan (Ph.D. 2011, Dickinson), three articles:

Khan, E. H. (2014). Optical signatures of photoinduced Zn vacancies in ZnO single crystal. Journal ofApplied Physics, 115(1), 013101.http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/115/1/10.1063/1.4861144

Khan, E. H., Langford, S. C., Dickinson, J. T., & Boatner, L. A. (2013). The interaction of 193-nmexcimer laser radiation with single-crystal zinc oxide: The generation of atomic Zn line emission at laserfluences below breakdown. Journal of Applied Physics, 114(8), 083102.http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/114/8/10.1063/1.4818833

Phil Marston and former students aboard the R/V Sharp in May 2014:Kevin Williams, Steve Kargl, Todd Hefner, Aubrey Espana, & Dan

Plotnick

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Khan, E. H., Langford, S. C., Dickinson, J. T., & Boatner, L. A. (2013).The interaction of 193 nm excimer laser radiation with single-crystalzinc oxide: Neutral atomic zinc and oxygen emission. Journal of AppliedPhysics, 114(5), 053511.http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/114/5/10.1063/1.4816270

Randal Newhouse (Ph.D. 2012, Collins) is now an assistant professor of physics at SterlingCollege, Sterling, Kansas.

Narendra Parmar (Ph.D. 2012; postdoc, Lynn) had a paper accepted in the Journal ofElectronic Materials as an editor’s choice: Parmar, N. S., McCluskey, M. D., & Lynn, K. G.(2013). Vibrational spectroscopy of Na-H complexes in ZnO. Journal of Electronic Materials,42(12), 3426-3428. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11664-013-2723-8

Likun Zhang (Ph.D. 2012, Marston) was published in Physical Review Letters as an Editor’sSuggestion, as well as being featured in Physics: Zhang, L., & Swinney, H. L. (2014). Virtualseafloor reduces internal wave generation by tidal flow. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112, 104502. The articlecan be found here: http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.104502Feature here: http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.104502

ObituariesRichard Adams (3/5/1933 - 12/5/2013), Ph.D. 1964 (Donaldson), was a researcher at NIST,the Dow Chemical Company, and others, and resided in Boulder, Colorado. Obituary here:http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailycamera/obituary.aspx?n=richard-adams&pid=168536178&fhid=6726

Richard Fowles (4/2/1928 - 11/30/2013) was department chair from 1984-1990 and amember of the physics faculty from 1966-1995. His obituary was published in the San JuanIslander.

Frederick “Fred” Herman Carl Schultz (1921-2014), Ph.D. 1968 (Donaldson), was a physicsinstructor here from 1963-1968 while working on his doctorate. Born in Hanks, North Dakota,he later attended the University of North Dakota. Schultz was a Navy veteran as well and taughtor studied at several institutions in the West; he retired from the University of Wisconsin - EauClaire’s Department of Physics & Astronomy, where he was chair for many years. Schultz issurvived by his wife Lila and their sons and daughters; the Department of Physics & Astronomyat WSU very much appreciates Dr. and Mrs. Schultz’s avid support over several decades.Obituary here:http://www.muellersfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/Frederick-Schultz/#!/Obituary

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