Congratulations to Ron and Farhang on the publication of their paper!
Drs. J. Ronald Galli and Farhang Amiri published the paper "The Square Light Clock and Special Relativity" in The Physics Teacher, Vol 50, Issue 4.
(posted: Mar, 2012)
Adam Johnston to give the annual Hinckley Lecture
Congratulations to Dr. Johnston, whose lecture "Our Greatest Invention" will be given next Friday, November 11, 2011 in the Hetzel-Hoellein Room of the Stewart Library at 1 pm. More information is announced here.
(posted: Nov, 2011)
Stacy Palen authors an innovative new astronomy text
Congratuations to Dr. Palen, the lead author of Understanding Our Universe, published by W. W. Norton & Company.
(posted: Nov, 2011)
Physics Department Open House Inspires Kids!
http://www.wsusignpost.com/2011/10/27/physics-open-house-inspires-kids-to-attend-weber/
(posted: Oct, 2011)
Physics Department updates webpage, posts news!
Once again, the Physics Department innovates by posting yet another piece of news on its website, simultaneously "closing the loop" and being prophetic.
(posted: Oct, 2011)
Fifth Annual Open House Date is Set!
October 14th, from 5:30-9 pm, join us for our fifth exciting event, full of hands-on activities, crazy physics demos, games, lectures and physics phun! All over Lind Lecture Hall... just look around. You'll find it!
(posted: Sept, 2011)
Adam Johnston is the 2011 John S. Hinckley Fellow!
This prestigious award goes to a faculty member who has excelled in teaching, scholarship and service. That describes our very own Dr. Johnston to a 'T'!
(posted: Sept, 2011)
Science Education at the Crossroads Conference to be held Sept 25-27
This annual conference is arranged jointly by Adam Johnston (WSU) and John Settlage (U.Conn.). It will be held this year in San Antonio on Sept 25-27.
(posted: Sept, 2011)
Dan Schroeder named Editor of American Journal of Physics
The prestigious journal for physics educators has selected Dr. Dan Schroeder to be the next editor. His term begins in spring semester, and will last for at least three years! Congratulations, Dan!
(posted: Sept, 2011)
John Sohl is the 2011 Engineering Educator of the Year!
(posted Sept, 2011)
Special Lecture! Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
On April 8th, at 7:00 pm, Allan McDonald will discuss his book: Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Shuttle Challenger Disaster. Books will be available and a book signing will follow the talk. The presentation is open to the public and free! Click here for a flier with more information and an abstract. Co-sponsored by the AIAA and IEEE.
(posted: March, 2010)
Fourth Annual Open House Date is Set!
April ninth, from 5-9 pm, join us for our fourth exciting event, full of hands-on activities, crazy physics demos, games, lectures and physics phun! All over Lind Lecture Hall... just look around. You'll find it!
(posted: March, 2010)
Brad Carroll receives Presidential Distinguished Professor Award!
The Presidential Distinguished Professor program is a donor-funded annual award recognizing and rewarding faculty members for excellence in teaching, research, scholarship and service. Hooray Brad!
(February, 2008)
Physics Department to Host a Special Teachers Workshop!
Adam Johnston and Stacy Palen will be running a one week intensive class for K-12 science teachers this summer. The course will range across all time scales, beginning with femto-second science at the LinAcc in Pocatello, and ending with giga-year time scales at an observatory in southern Utah! The class will run from August 4 through August 9, 2008, and is supported by the Larry H. Miller Institute for Teachers at WSU.
(February, 2008)
Ott Planetarium to host 2008 Mediaglobe Users Group Production Conference!
30 members of the national planetarium community will come to WSU to learn how to do production for the small planetarium. Each person will go home with a completed full-dome short! The conference will be held August 20-24, 2008. For more information, see the conference web page.
(February, 2008)
Demonstration videos now distributed by Pasco!
Ron Galli and Farhang Amiri have been working very hard on a collection of videos of a vast number of physics demos. This collection of 200 short videos is available as a 2 DVD set from Pasco Scientific! See Pasco's current catalog, page 103.
(February, 2008)
Now seeking volunteers for 2008 Ottreach: Science in the Parks:
If you are looking for a great opportunity to get involved in a great cause, all to help under-privileged kids learn about science, then you are interested in Ottreach! We will travel to six parks this year, joining with Ogden City School District in providing fun science activities for hundreds of Ogden City kids! For more information, see the website. To sign up, see Dr. Palen, in SL 209.
(February, 2008)
Mark your calendar for Open House 2008:
Due to our astonishing success at last year's open house, we are doing it again! Even bigger, and even better!
This year's open house will take place on the evening of April 18th. Watch this space for information about this year's activities!(February, 2008)
Check out the great new demo area!
Just outside the physics offices. The famous 'solar'-powered Lego house is there, as is 'the mirror that knows how to shake your hand', and posters of the most recent open house and Crock-pot Cook-off.
(February, 2008)
New undergraduate lockers have arrived!
See the physics office for more information.
(February, 2008)
Visiting Faculty Search, for the 2008-2009 school year
Click here for a link to the job description.
(February, 2008)
Congratulations to our Winter graduates:
Phil, Eric, Pete and Mark! Well done! Stop in and see us sometimes, to let us know how you are doing!
(February, 2008)
Open House a Huge Success!
Thanks to all 500 people who participated in our first open house on April 13th, 2007. With so many knocking down the doors, we ran multiple sessions of our 'Circus of Physics' and Dr. Palen's Black Holes talk, and added other concurrent sessions including Dr. Sohl's Laser lecture. We were absolutely thrilled with the enthusiastic turn out, and especially happy with the dedication of faculty and students to put together such an exciting event.
Pictures and descriptions of the event are found on our webpage here, and The Signpost has coverage of the event here.
(April 2007)
Open House Announced
Our first annual open house is Friday, April 13th, 2007. At 6:00 PM the "Circus of Physics" demo show begins, followed by Dr. Stacy Palen's lecture on black holes at 7:00 PM. Additional activities include the mysteries of hot chocolate, lasers, x-ray fluorescence, the "nano-room", kids' activities, planetarium shows, and a star party! Activities continue until 10:00 PM.
You may download a flyer for the event in low resolution or in high resolution (2.4 MB).
(April 2007)
Physics Seminar
Click the link at left to find out the upcoming seminar schedule.
Physics Destruction Day!
Approximately every other week, the majors destroy something using a principle of physics. This has ranged from the excitement of dropping things off of the six-story building to launching pumpkins across the parking lot to burning pennies with a giant fresnel lens. Pop in to the major's room to find out when the next event will be, or contact the Physics Club Advisor, Dr. Michelle Arnold.
See What's New in the Planetarium!
The Ott Planetarium has shows for students and the general public. You can find out about the upcoming show schedule, and upcoming outdoor star parties at weber.edu/planetarium.
New Computing Classroom Approaches Completion!
The new classroom, which is intended to house some of our sweet new computing capabilities (can you say 202 compute nodes?!) is nearly complete! The computers are on their way, and the Phys 2300 students are chomping at the bit to get in there and try to drive the intel quad-four processors to their knees. Good luck kids!
(November 2006)
The Department Welcomes A New Faculty Member!
We are fortunate to have Shane Larson joining us from Penn State.
Shane is our newest Assistant Professor, and will be teaching Physics
2010 and Analytical Mechanics this fall. Shane's research
specialty is gravitational physics---black holes, gravitational waves
and galaxies, oh my! Shane's office is located in the physics
hallway---be sure to drop by and say hello!
(August, 2006)
Nano-Pictures from Dr. Colin Inglefield's Group!
These pictures were taken with the atomic force microscope. They are carbon
nanotubes (tubes of graphite with diameters of a few nanometers) on a
silicon substrate. The first image shows topography and the second is a phase
image that gives better contrast (both are 2X2 micrometers). SWEET!
(June, 2006)