Physics Convocation Day and Award Ceremony at Marshall University 5/6/19
SPS members Rae Stanley, Emily Sutherland, Noah Wigton, and Ryan Vincent have participated in Physics Convocation Day at Marshall University by giving brief talks on their research/capstone projects. This was open to the public. On this day, the department and visitors heard research talks from undergraduate and graduate physics students who have been conducting research in the labs of faculty members. Thank you to the following SPS undergraduate and graduate students Ryan Vincent,Rae Stanley, Maria White, Emily Sutherland, Noah Wigton, Maria White) and non-SPS scholars (Ryan Howell, David Facemyer, Dillon Buskirk, and Dr. Arka Chattopadhyay) for presenting all of which made it an outstanding event. Academic awards that were earned by the students were also conferred on this day. SPS members Emily Sutherland and Maria White earned the Outstanding Undergraduate Award and non-SPS member Michael Moon was recognized for his earning of the Academic Achievement Award. Maria White and Michael Moon also received the Alva and Dixon Callihan/John Marshall scholarship. SPS members Jon Keaton, Jayden Leonard, and Rae Stanley received the Dixon Callihan, Donald C. Martin, & Ralph Hron Memorial Scholarship. Additionally, non-SPS member Dallas Summers was awarded the Dr. Thomas J. and Mary A. Manakkil Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations to all the award winners!
SPS Member Ryan Vincent Helps With Logan High School Motor Workshop 04/03/2019
On 4/3/2019 students from Logan HS students had the opportunity to build DC motors in a workshop hosted by the Physics Department! Students got to learn how magnetic fields and currents interact to produce magnetic forces on current loops. Students got to take their motors home with them and the winners with the fastest motor received official Marshall University Physics Department T-shirts. Dr. McBride thanks the Physics Department for continued support for such workshops and would also like to thank the wonderful SPS assistants that volunteered to help with the workshop today: Tabby Collins (undergraduate, English) and Ryan Vincent (graduate student, Physics).
SPS Members Present At the APS March Meeting and Regional Conference
SPS members Ryan Vincent and Emily Sutherland have both presented talks at the 2019 APS March Meeting, in Boston in 2019. SPS member Ryan Vincent has also recently presented a poster at the All Hands Meeting at Marshall University June 13-14th which focused on topics related to the EPSCoR RII Track-1 award: Gravitational Wave Astronomy and the Appalachian Freshwater Initiative, this poster was also presented at the Physics Convocation Day at Marshall University on April 26th.
SPS Members Receive Creative Discovery and Undergraduate Research Awards in Spring 2019
SPS member Rae Stanley presented her poster at the 233rd annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The title of her poster was “A Spectroscopic Study of Narrow-Line, Radio-Loud Seyfert 1 Galaxies”. This research came from her time observing at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Safford, Arizona in January 2018. This project has been funded by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and by MURC as part of the Creative Discovery and Undergraduate Research Award.
SPS member Emily Sutherland has been selected as a recipient of the NASA Student Fellowship and awarded the University Undergraduate Creative Discovery and Research Award; both in recognition of her research “Hybrid Exciton in Semiconductor Nanorod Coated by an Organic Shell”. This is a theoretical research project studying the electronic structure, wavefunctions, and energies of excitons, which are a type of quasiparticle, formed from dipole-dipole interactions of an electron and a hole at the surface between a semiconductor and a coating of organic material.
SPS Members Help with The College of Science Halloween Bash in 2018 and the 2019 Science Blitz
SPS Members Ryan Vincent and Jon Keaton have assisted me with many physics recruiting events such as the fall 2018 Halloween Science Bash and the 2019 Easter Science Blitz by pushing kids of all ages on a homemade SPS hovercraft (click on links for pictures). In these events we promote physics fun and SPS. Ryan also assisted pushing the hovercraft for a local Girl Scout troop visit.
Fall 2018 Sigma Pi Sigma Inductees
Recent inductees to Sigma Pi Sigma in Fall 2018 were Rae Stanley , Emma Lockyer, Emily Sutherland, Noah Wigton. This was the first induction ceremony since 2006 at Marshall University. On Wednesday, October 17th 2018 the Physics Department held its Second Annual Research Orientation Day. The presentations from 3:00 – 5:30 pm given by alumni, Sarah Barber, and Faculty were specifically designed to get students interested in research early. Each faculty talked about their research interests so that majors could get an idea of what faculty with whom they would want to do research with. The BBQ following the talks started at 6:30pm. This was accompanied by an Awards ceremony and Sigma Pi Sigma inductions (a national physics honor society). Students could have some fun and got to spend some out-of-classroom-time with their professors. The event at the time gained attention of the national SPS Facebook page.
SPS Member Receives Creative Discovery and Undergraduate Research Award in Fall of 2018
SPS member Rae Stanley has been awarded the Fall 2018 Marshall University Undergraduate Creative Discovery and Research Award for her research project “Spectroscopic Analysis of Narrow-Line Radio-Loud Seyfert-1 Galaxies”. Rae will analyze long-slit optical spectra of 5 Seyfert-1 Galaxies that was obtained last January at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). Rae will be presenting her finished work as a poster presentation at the 2019 winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle in January.
SPS Members Help With High School Physics Day October 19th, 2018
SPS members (Ryan Vincent, Jon Keaton, and Emma Lockyer) helped out the Physics Department with Highschool Physics Day on October 19th 2018. This is a huge day for the Physics Department at Marshall and their help was greatly appreciated. SPS students helped set-up demos and guide guests and helped where ever needed. This day was a featured article in the 2019 winter addition of the SPS Observer and was a massive success with 200 students and teachers converging on Marshall’s campus for fun physics demonstrations.
SPS Event – Dodgeball Game! 08/16/2018
The Society of Physics Students had a great time with new students to Marshall with a dodgeball game on August 16, 2018! The event took place on INTO field (labeled East Hall Lawn on campus maps) and was organized by SPS member Emily Sutherland. Both Emily and SPS member Tabby Collins helped with our Week of Welcome in fall 2018 where the University welcomes freshmen to their new majors to each program. They both chatted with the new freshman to address any questions. Students were invited to arrive whenever, play dodgeball, take advantage of the free lemonade and soda, then leave whenever. All were welcomed, regardless of class standing or major, and the winner of each game received a free Marshall physics t-shirt! Thank you for Nichole Jervice, Administrative Secretary, for all her helps during the event!
