Awards, Promotions & Recognition
Adam’s Off-The-Wall Demos
Students
Faculty David Ailion
International Society of Magnetic Resonance (ISMAR) Fellow 2009 This fellowship identifies the highest achievers in magnetic resonance. It carries with it an associated responsibility and advocacy for this community of science.
College Awards Awards from the College of Science given to Physics & Astronomy students: Thomas J. Parmley Scholarship
Christoph Boehme
NSF Chemistry Career Grant
Pulsed electrically detected magnetic resonance - Advancing underrepresented groups in science through breakthroughs in materials spin spectroscopy.
Kennecott Scholarship Dean’s Scholarship
Janvida Rou Jessica Johnston
Kevin Siegel, Drew Thompson, Jessica Johnston,
Jamie Rankin, Michael Bentley Goldwater Honorable Mention
Mikhail Raikh
2010 Graduate & Postdoctoral Mentor Award This award recognizes faculty who effectively serve as a teacher, advisor,, advocate, sponsor & role model to guide graduate students and postdoctoral scholars throughout their professional training in a continuing, multifaceted partnership sustained by mutual respect and concern.
Andrey Rogachev
National Science Foundation Early Career Award Quantum Tunneling in Superconducting and Ferromagnetic Nanoscale Structures .
Dave Kieda & Stephan LeBohec MRI-R2 Consortium:
Development of Improved Instrumentation for the VERITAS Gamma-Ray Observatory.
John Lupton & Eugene Mishchenko
Scialog Grant: Solar Energy Conversion Nanoplasmonic focusing of light fields to amplify nonlinear optical effects in composite photovoltaics.
Crockett Scholarship
Jamie Rankin Michael Bentley,
Jessica Johnston, Jonathan Ng Crocker Science House Scholars Laurel Hales, Zachary Matheson, Jonathan Ng, Jamie Rankin, Drew Thompson
Department Awards Outstanding Graduate Student Jon Paul Johnson Outstanding Teaching Assistants Doug Baird, Kip VanSchooten, David Waters Outstanding Research Award Tho Nguyen Outstanding Graduating Seniors Tyler Bradshaw, Nelson Diamond Outstanding Undergraduates Daniel Filler, Laurel Hales Hiatt Scholarships Tobin Bennion, Jonathan Ng Department Scholarships Elena Duryusheva, Jessica Johnston, Jamie Rankin, Matthew Stanford
Promotions Clayton Williams & Christoph Boehme
MRI-R2 Consortium:
Development of a Low Temperature Single Spin Tunneling Force Microscope.
Spectrum - Spring 2010
Christoph Boehme - Associate Professor+tenure, Associate Chair Stephan LeBohec - Associate Professor+tenure John Lupton - Full Professor Eugene Mishchenko - Full Professor
In each newsletter, Adam Beehler, Lecture Demonstration Specialist, explains one of his demonstrations. Adam recently authored two articles, published in The Physics Teacher: •“Demonstrating the photoelectric effect using household items” (Vol. 48, 348. 2010) •“Demonstrating spectral band absorption with Adam Beehler a neodymium light bulb” (Vol. 48, 206. 2010) Lecture Demonstration Specialist
beehler@physics.utah.edu
Fun With Magnets
you have ever played with magnets, then you know that they attract iron (or steel, which contains iron). Iron is one Ioff the most common ferromagnetic materials. Most people are aware of this and delight in having various objects
“stick” to magnets. Just think of all the objects we use every day that involve magnets. I would like to feature two objects that are not normally thought about as magnetic – paper currency and Total cereal. he United States Treasury uses “magnetic ink” to print its currency. Magnetic ink is basically just T printer ink toner with iron oxide particles mixed into it. This is just one of the many counterfeiting
defenses in place. Granted, we usually do not notice or think of our paper money as being magnetic; however, with a strong magnet (like a neodymium iron boron magnet) you too can verify this at home. Dangle a bill or flop it on a table and bring your strong magnet right up against an area on the bill with a lot of ink. You should see the bill slightly attract to the magnet. You will not get the same reaction as when you bring a magnet near an iron nail, but you will nonetheless verify that our money does indeed contain iron. If you fold and tape a bill so that the ink sections are all together, then your magnet might even hold it up. otal cereal claims it provides 100% of our recommended daily allowance of iron. Did you ever wonder how much T that is or what this iron looks like in our cereal? Well, now’s your chance! All that iron makes the flakes magnetic.
Here are a few ways to verify this. Sufficiently crush up many flakes and rub your strong magnet around in the crumbs. After removing the magnet, you should see tiny bits “stuck” to it. This is due to the iron in the cereal. But maybe you are thinking, “Ah, this is just attracting due to electrostatic forces.” Well, do it again and convince yourself. Or better yet, float some flakes on the surface of water and bring a strong magnet very near one of those flakes. You should see the flake attract to the magnet. As you slowly move the magnet around, the flake should follow you (until it gets too soggy and sinks). Try attracting different sized flakes.
f course my favorite thing to do with Total cereal is to make a slurry out of it and pull those tiny little pieces of O iron right out of the cereal. One easy way to do this is to use a blender to mix, say, a cup or two of cereal with a cup or two of warm water (warm, so that it will not take as long to mix). Mix for awhile, but then wait many minutes for the water to soak into the cereal, then keep mixing some more. This will result in a much finer slurry. I put the slurry in a re-sealable bag and very slowly slide my strong magnet around the outside of the bag. While the magnet is pressing into the bag, any free iron particles should slowly move to the magnet. If you are careful not to come out of contact with the bag, then you can accumulate more and more iron as you slowly slide around. When you think you have enough, slowly slide the magnet up out of the slurry so that you can see the iron. Pretty cool, huh?! (Before you ask, yes, this is safe to digest.) Try investigating other cereals and foods, and have fun with magnets!
You can also view this demo, and a complete materials list, online at www.physics.utah.edu/~beehler/newsletterdemos/demos.html
Spectrum - Spring 2010