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Newsletter: From Quarks to Quasars

Is published semi-regularly and sent to all alumni and supporters of the Department of Physics. To receive your free copy email the office

Archived News

This page contains the SDSU Physics News archive. For the latest news go to the Home Page. The Archive is also available in XML format.

2009

  1. JAPC - Friday 20th November at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Allen Shafter, SDSU Dept. of Astronomy who will talk on " Nova Rates and Properties Across Differing Stellar Populations". --- Posted 15th November 2009.

  2. JAPC - Friday 13th November at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Laura I. Cerviño, from University of California - San Diego who will talk on "Real-time surface imaging in radiation therapy". --- Posted 8th November 2009.

  3. JAPC - Friday 6th November at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Eric Hudson, from University of California - Los Angeles who will talk on "Investigation of the optical transition in the 229Th nucleus: Solid-state optical frequency standard and fundamental constant variation". --- Posted 2nd November 2009.

  4. JAPC - Friday 30th October at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. Don Neill, from CalTech who will talk on "UV Explorations of Galaxy Evolution". --- Posted 25th October 2009.

  5. Defense - Wednesday 21st October at 2:00pm in the Education and Business Administration Building, Room 110 there will be a Ph.D. Thesis Defense presented by Rodrigo Negreiros who will talk on "Numerical Study of the Properties of Compact Stars". Free Coffee and Cake served from 1.30pm in P-145A. This is the first Ph.D. defense supervised by the Dept. of Physics. There will be a live broadcast of the talk (restricted to Windows® systems only). Download the conferenceXP program, and read the CSRC instructions to set it up. --- Posted 19th October 2009.

  6. JAPC - Friday 2nd October at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. Meir Shimon, Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego. who will talk on "CMB and Fundamental Physics". --- Posted 1st October 2009.

  7. CSRC - Friday 25th September at 3:30pm in GMCS 214 the Computational Science Research Center Colloquia will be jointly presented by Mr. Rodrigo Negreiros, Dept. of Physics, who will talk on " Composition, structure and thermal evolution of strange quark stars". --- Posted 18th September 2009.

  8. JAPC - Friday 25th September at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Aditi S. Risbud, Outreach Coordinator at The Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) who will talk on "Undergraduate research opportunities at the Molecular Foundry". --- Posted 18th September 2009.


  9. Defense - Monday 3rd August at 1:00pm in P-149 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Kyle Rollin who will talk about " Polarizabilities of the Al+ Atomic Clock Ion", --- Posted 1st August 2009.


  10. Defense - Tuesday 7th July at 10:00am in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Martin Kandes who will talk about "Multimode Interferometry of Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Circular Waveguide", --- Posted 21st June 2009.


  11. Defense - Monday 18th May at 1:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Charles (Chuck) Tally who will talk about "On the Interaction Between Ince-Gaussian laser beams and Bose-Einstein condensates", --- Posted 11th May 2009.

  12. Award - Ph.D. in Computational Science student Rodrigo P. Negreiros (advisor: Prof. Weber) won second place at the 23rd Annual CSU Student Research Symposium held May 1st and 2nd, 2009, at CSU, Los Angeles with his talk on "The Puzzling Thermal Behavior of Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars". Permalink. --- Posted 5th May 2009.

  13. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by the Physics Undergraduates: Rita Philavanh and Stephen Swift who will give their 498A/B thesis reports. --- Posted 2nd May 2009

  14. JAPC - Friday 1st May at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Clifford Surko, Dept. of Physics, University of California, San Diego, who will talk on "Physics with Low-energy Antimatter". --- Posted 25th April 2009.

  15. Event - The 2009 Doc Morris Public Lecture is on Friday 1st May at 7pm in NE-60. Prof. Michael Phelps from the University of California, Los Angeles will inject us with "Molecular imaging of the biology of disease with Positron Emission Tomography (PET)". This is a FREE public lecture, aimed at a general audience. Brought to you by the SDSU Dept. of Physics. (FREE Parking, Directions & info). --- Posted 5th April 2009.

  16. JAPC - Friday 24th April at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Bruce Twarog, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas who will talk on "Using Open Clusters to Bridge the Lithium Gap". --- Posted 19th April 2009.

  17. CSRC - Friday 24th April at 3:30pm in GMCS 214 the Computational Science Research Center Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Arlette Baljon, Dept. of Physics, who will talk on "Simulations of Thin Polymeric Films". --- Posted 19th April 2009.

  18. Lecture - Tuesday 28th April from 2:00 to 3:15 Prof. Al Sweedler, Dept. of Physics, will be giving a lecture in room PSFA 300 to an ISCOR class. on "Energy Futures and International Relations in the 21st Century". All interested students are welcome. Read more here. --- Posted 19th April 2009.

  19. JAPC - Friday 17th April at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. William Song, Dept. of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Diego who will talk on "Radiation Oncology Physics: Current State-of-the-Art". --- Posted 12th April 2009.


  20. Defense - Tuesday 7th April at 4:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by David Tibbets who will talk about "Investigating Student Success with Kinematics and Force-Dynamics Solutions Using Increased Visual Reasoning", --- Posted 2nd April.

  21. Defense - Thursday 9th April at 11:00am in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Tyler Otto who will talk about "Data Collection, Analysis and Modeling of Silicon Based Photovoltaic Arrays", --- Posted 2nd April.

  22. JAPC - Friday 10th April at 2:00pm Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. William Welsh, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU who will talk on "The Kepler Mission To Find Earth-like Planets". --- Posted 2nd April 2009.

  23. Event - Our Computational Physics students are presenting their research on Friday March 27th in Montezuma Hall (Aztec Center) in the afternoon poster session as part of the Computational Science Research Center's 6th Curriculum Development Forum and ACSESS for Industry Event. Registration is recommended. You can Read More Here. --- Posted 22nd March 2009.

  24. Event - Physics is involved in Explore SDSU: Open House on this Saturday 21st March 2009. 11am-11.50am in the GMCS building Room 301: Prof. Fridolin Weber presents a lecture on the 'Life and Science of Albert Einstein' at a level accessible to the general public.
    12pm-4pm in the Physics-Astronomy building Room 215: Prof. Torikachvili presents 'The Cool World of Cryogenics'. Including: 1- ice cream making and tasting, 2- superconducting levitation, 3- balloon freezing, 4- electrostatic charge separation, 5- other cool stuff.
    9am-3pm (all day) there will be Faculty members along with our Society of Physics students on hand at the 'Physics: Accelerating your Universe' information stall, as part of the Science and Technology Village. (links/maps). --- Updated 19th March 2009.

  25. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. David Cassidy, Dept. of Physics, University of California, Riverside who will talk on "Experiments with Positronium Atoms and Molecules". --- Posted 14th March 2009.

  26. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Jeffrey Alger, Department of Neurology and Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles who will talk on "Assessing Acute Stroke with Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging". --- Posted 9th March 2009.

  27. Talk - Friday's CSRC Colloquia is presented at 3.30pm in GMCS 214 by Prof. James P. Vary, Department of Physics, Iowa State University, who will talk on " Computing the nucleus of the atom from first principles". --- Posted 9th March 2009.

  28. News - Rodrigo Negreiros (Doctoral student, Computational Science, Mentor: Fridolin Weber, Professor of Physics) won a President's Award for his presentation "Cooling of Superconducting Strange Stars" at the 2009 Student Research Symposium, February 27-28th, 2009. Permalink. --- Posted 10th March 2009.

  29. Movie - Prof. Matt Anderson created and directed a movie with the Oxford crew while on sabbatical. It's called "The DiVincenzo Code" and it is a cross between The DaVinci Code, The Matrix, and Spinal Tap. It's all about quantum physics, but you will likely learn nothing valuable from this movie. You can view the trailer below,

    You can view the film as a series here. --- Posted 22nd February 2009.

  30. Talks&Posters - The annual SDSU Student Research Symposium is on this Friday and Saturday (27/28th Feb). The opening ceremony is at 8.00 AM on Friday. The physics talks and posters are scattered throughout the schedule, so read here for the schedule. --- Posted 21st February 2009.

  31. The Spring 2009 Physics class info is online: Calendar, Physics Schedule, Natural Sciences Schedule, and the Final exam timetable.
    Permalink Here. --- Posted 21st January 2009.

2008

  1. Defense - Friday December 12th at 12:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Miguel Villalobos who will talk about "The Effects of Amplitude Modulation and Higher Harmonic Detection on Obtaining Hyperfine Spectra", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 10th December 2008.

  2. Defense - Monday December 8th at 10:00am in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Barbara Golf who will talk about "Pycnonuclear Reactions in Multi-Component Neutron Star Crust Matter", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 3rd December 2008.

  3. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. Amos Sharoni, Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego who will talk on "Properties of Complex Oxides at the nanoscale: First Order Phase Transitions through Avalanches.". --- Posted 30th November 2008.

  4. Defense - Monday December 1st at 2:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Bret Davis who will talk about "Hydrostatic pressure study of single-crystalline UNi0.5Sb2", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 30th November 2008.

  5. News - Some photo's from the 2008 Open House are now online here. --- Posted 30th November 2008.

  6. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. Michael McNitt-Gray, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles who will talk on "X-Ray CT Imaging as a Biomarker for Lung Cancer: Detection, Characterization and Evaluation of Treatment". --- Posted 19th November 2008.

  7. Event - Thursday November 20th at 3.30-5pm: save the Date. The Department of Physics has it's first Open House! Roll up, roll up: alumnus, current and prospective students and your families. Come along and get a taste of the fine teaching and research our students and faculty are involved in. There is an invitation only reception 5-6:30 PM in the Faculty Staff Club Main Dining Room with remarks given by President Weber, Dean of Science Stanley Maloy and Physics Chair Usha Sinha. More details. --- Posted 1st November 2008.

  8. Event - Saturday November 8th at 4-8pm. The Department of Physics co-presents InnerSpace / OuterSpace, an afternoon of science aimed at inspiring both the young and the old. It's free, and all are welcome! Download the event flyer for Trolley/parking directions. Permalink Here.. --- Posted 1st November 2008.

  9. Defense - Thursday November 6th at 3:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Sidney (Ntseindie) Tazeh who will talk about "Development and Evaluation of a Linear Accelerator Based System for Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) Using Circular Collimators", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 1st November 2008.

  10. Defense - Wednesday October 29th at 11:00am in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Mark Wilson who will talk about "The Network Properties of a Simulated Polymeric Gel", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 25th October 2008.

  11. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. Douglas Leonard, SDSU Department of Astronomy, who will talk on "Seeking the Type Ia Supernova Progenitor". --- Posted 25th September 2008.

  12. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Manbir Singh, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, who will talk on "Novel Methodologies in Functional MRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Map Human Brain Function and Connectivity". --- Posted 18th September 2008.

  13. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Prof. Orhan Nalcioglu, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, who will talk on "Magnetic Resonance Based Multimodality Imaging". --- Posted 12th September 2008.

  14. News - The Graduate Dissertation and Thesis Manual is finally available online. You no longer have to purchase it from Aztec Shops. --- Posted 12th October 2008.

  15. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia will be presented by Dr. Michael Bromley, SDSU Department of Physics, who will talk on "Atom interferometry; like ships in the ultracold night". --- Posted 7th September 2008.

  16. News - Need a little more physics help? The SPS is again offering FREE lower division physics tutoring in Room P247. Tue/Thu at 8am-10.30am, and Tue 2-5pm. --- Posted 28th September 2008.

  17. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Robert Hoy, University of California, Santa Barbara, who will talk on "What can coarse-grained simulations tell us about the mechanics and dynamics of polymers?". --- Posted 28th September 2008.

  18. Award - Masters Student Derek Padilla was awarded a Wilmia Tyler Trott Memorial Scholarship for the 2008-09 academic year. Derek was also accepted to participate in the National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, IL. Derek is studying properties of novel materials under high pressure for his research with Prof. Torikachvili. Permalink Here. --- Posted 12th September 2008.

  19. News - Change of deckhands. Prof. Fridolin Weber has been elected Associate Chair. Dr. Matt Anderson is the SPS Advisor. Dr. Michael Bromley is now the physics Colloquia coordinator. Permalink Here. --- Posted 12th September 2008.

  20. Paper - Prof. Torikachvili recently had a paper published in Physical Review Letters [PRL v101 057006], that was highlighted in Physics, (a new online publication from the APS). Read more here. --- Permalink 6th September 2008.

  21. News - The Department welcomes Dr. Plamen Krastev who in July started a postdoctoral position working with Prof. Calvin Johnson. They are researching large dimension shell-model codes, funded by the US Department of Energy. Prof. Johnson also has a visitor from University of Granada, PhD student Miguel Moreno-Torres Tirado. Read more here. --- Posted 30th August 2008.

  22. News - Professor Saul Oseroff has officially started his FERP (the Cal State faculty early retirement program). Saul will still be teaching at SDSU every spring semester until his official retirement in fall 2013. He will now dedicate the other half of the year towards working in the lab, and with his collaborator's around the world. Read More Here. --- Posted 29th August 2008.

  23. News - Change of Graduate Advisors! As of July 1st, Prof. Fridolin Weber is the new Graduate Advisor. Prof. Calvin Johnson has handed over the reins as he is on sabbatical for the 2008/2009 year. Permalink Here. --- Posted 28th August 2008.

  24. Awards - Congratulations to two of our Physics Graduate Students who have been awarded ARCS scholarships for 2008/2009. Martin Kandes and Charles (Chuck) Tally. Both Martin and Charles are doing their research projects on Atom Optics with Dr. Bromley. Permalink Here. --- Posted 28th August 2008.

  25. News - Congratulations for the promotions to Full Professor that have been awarded to Prof. Calvin Johnson and Prof. Fridolin Weber. Permalink Here. --- Posted 28th August 2008.

  26. Awards - Prof. Usha Sinha was awarded funding from the 2007 round of the The President's Leadership Fund to provide an internship at a hospital for a Masters student in the Medical and Health Physics program. Read More Here. --- Posted 28th August 2008.

  27. Defense - Wednesday May 21st at 8:30am in Alvarado 206 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Joseph Andrews who will talk about "Comparison of Teaching Techniques and Methods in Physics Pedagogy", Read the Abstract and get Directions here. --- Posted 19th May 2008.

  28. Award - Dr. Michael Bromley, Assistant Professor in Physics, received the 2008 Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award for the College of Sciences. Read more here. --- Posted 7th May 2008.

  29. Award - Ph.D. in Computational Science student Rodrigo Negreiros and MS in Physics student Martin Kandes represented SDSU in the 22nd annual CSU-wide Student Research Competition held May 2/3 at CSU, East Bay. Special congratulations to Rodrigo who won 1st place for his talk on "Structure and Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars". Read more here. --- Posted 5th May 2008.

  30. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by the Physics Undergraduates: Joseph Chambers, Jason (Hau-Jian) Liu, Kristen Mecadon, Mark Mitry and Melinda Toth who will give their 498A/B thesis reports. --- Updated 5th May 2008

  31. Event - The end of the year party will be happening on Friday, May 9th 12pm-1.30pm in PA-121. All staff and our students are invited! --- Posted 1st May 2008.

  32. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Joseph Dolan, SDSU Dept. of Astronomy, who will talk on "Searching for Dying Pulse Trains in RXTE Observations of Cyg X-1". --- Posted 28th April 2008.

  33. Event - The 2008 Doc Morris Public Lecture is on Thursday 8th May at 7pm in GMCS 333. Prof. George Fuller from the University of California, San Diego will regale us with "Neutrinos: Stealthy Agents of Destruction and Creation in the Cosmos". This is a public lecture, aimed at a general audience. Brought to you by the SDSU Dept. of Physics (Free Parking, Directions & info). --- Posted 21st April 2008.

  34. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Guillermo Miranda, Universidad Central de Venezuela, who will talk on "Light and Gravity: A theory of vector gravitational waves independent of Einstein's General Theory". --- Posted 20th April 2008.

  35. News - some photos from Physics events are now posted: firstly, the SPS with Dr. Ellen Ochoa at the Explore SDSU: Open House, and secondly, from the SDSU Student Research Symposium. --- Permalink --- Updated 24th March 2008.

  36. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Jeffrey E. McClintock, Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who will talk on "Measuring Black Hole Spin: Progress, Problems and Promise". --- Posted 24th March 2008.

  37. Event - Physics is involved in 3 events at the Explore SDSU: Open House from 10am - 2pm this Saturday 15th March 2008. 11am - 12pm in P-148: Prof. Fridolin Weber presents a lecture 'From atoms to stars: a journey through the wonders of physics'. 11am - 12pm in AH-2108: Astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, will give a special public lecture. 12.30pm - 1pm in P-148: Dr. Ochoa will say hello to the Society of Physics Students. (links/maps). [Some photos from the event are now posted]. --- Updated 15th March 2008.

  38. Alumni - Former SDSU Physics major (and Astronaut) Dr. Ellen Ochoa, will be a special guest of the Alumni Association at the Explore SDSU: Open House, in the Family Village from 10am - 2pm this Saturday 15th March 2008. Go along and say hello! Permalink. --- Posted 11th March 2008.

  39. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. William Welsh, SDSU Dept. of Astronomy
    who will talk on "Using the Rossiter Effect to Detect Earth-size Planets". --- Posted 9th March 2008.

  40. Award - Congratulations to Jason (Hau-Jian) Liu, a Physics Undergraduate Research Student, who won a (College of Science) Dean's Award at the (first!) annual SDSU Student Research Symposium for his talk on 'Magnetic Field Comparison Between Helmholtz Coils and a Simulated Three-coil Array'. Permalink. [Some photos are now posted up]. --- Posted 9th March 2008.

  41. Talk - Friday's CSRC Colloquia is presented at 3.30pm in GMCS 214 by Prof. Usha Sinha, Chair, Department of Physics, San Diego State University, who will talk on "Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging and imaging informatics: from data to knowledge". --- Posted 3rd March 2008.

  42. Award - Congratulations to two Physics Research Students who won President's Awards at the (first!) annual SDSU Student Research Symposium. Rodrigo Negreiros won for his talk on 'Structure and Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars' , while Martin Kandes won for his talk on 'Multimode Interferometry of Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Circular Waveguide' . They can now represent SDSU at the CSU-wide competition in May. Permalink. --- Posted 3rd March 2008.

  43. Award - Congratulations to Rita Philavanh, a Physics Major, who has been selected for a NIW (New Interdisciplinary Workforce) fellowship from the NIH, administered through the CSRC. She will be working with Prof. Baljon and study computationally the mechanical properties of temporary crosslinked networks. These studies will be compared with experimental data on the behavior of the F-actin cytoskeleton networks in cells. Permalink. --- Posted 3rd March 2008.

  44. Posters - Our Computational Physics students are presenting their research on Monday March 3rd in Montezuma Hall (Aztec Center) at 3pm at a poster session as part of the 5th Computational Sciences ACSESS forum. Registration for the event is recommended. You can Read More Here. --- Posted 27th February 2007.

  45. Talks/Posters - The (first!) annual SDSU Student Research Symposium is on this Friday and Saturday (29th Feb/1st March). The opening ceremony is at 8.00 AM. The Physics and Computational Sciences Session begins on Friday at 8.45 AM in the 'Quetzalcoatl B' Room in the Aztec Center. More info and Schedule. --- Updated 27th February 2008.

  46. News - GRE Physics Study Group will meet Mondays, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, PA216. First session is Monday, Feb 25. Hosted by Dr. Anderson and Dr. Dolan. Permalink. --- Posted 24th February 2008.

  47. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Ionel Stetcu, Los Alamos National Lab
    who will talk on "From nuclei to cold atoms and (eventually) back". --- Posted 3rd February 2008.

  48. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Richard J Drachman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, who will talk on "Antimatter in space". --- Posted 27th January 2008.

  49. JAPC - The spring Colloquia series kicks off with two 511 keV bangs via two lectures on antimatter. Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia Dr. Jim Mitroy, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia, who will talk on "Bound state approaches to matter-antimatter scattering". (and next week's lecture will be on "Antimatter in space"). --- Posted 22nd January 2008.

2007

  1. News - The Spring 2008 Physics info is online: Calendar, Physics Schedule, Natural Sciences Schedule, and even the Final exam timetable. Highlights this semester include the Science in Science Fiction elective. Permalink. --- Posted 22nd December 2007.

  2. News - There will be a Celebration of Life Service for John Ferguson, Friday, December 28, 2007 from 2:00-4:00 PM in the Faculty Staff Center. Free Parking has been arranged. If you do not have a faculty/staff permit, you may park in Parking Structure 1 on levels 5 or 6 without fear of a ticket. Permalink. --- Posted 18th December 2007.

  3. Defense - Thursday December 20th at 10:00am in P-149 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Jawad Mohammad Ahmad who will talk about "Monte Carlo Phantom Simulations for Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 18th December 2007.

  4. Sad News - John B. Ferguson passed away on December 11 2007. Health problems forced John to retire in the middle of the Spring 2007 semester. Gordon has written an obituary, to which Doc Morris and Don Cottrell have added some recollections. The Department is establishing the The John B. Ferguson Memorial Fund to provides grants to upper division Physics majors to pay for their textbooks. The John B. Ferguson Fund will provide a lasting memory of John while helping our students. Read more Here. --- Posted 14th December 2007.

  5. Defense - Thursday December 13th at 2:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Lee Harding who will talk about "A Dosimetric Comparison of Non-Linked and Linked LDR Brachytherapy of the Prostate", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 11th December 2007.

  6. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by the Physics Undergraduates: Daniel Flynn, Oliver Hamil, Joseph Hellmers and Omair Zubairi who will give their 498A/B thesis reports. --- Updated 1st December 2007.

  7. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy - Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Al Sweedler, Dept. of Physics, Center for Energy Studies, Environmental Sciences Program, SDSU who will talk on "Energy, security and the environment: from global to local to global", Read the Abstract here. Note that the location has been moved to the North Education 60 building. --- Updated 26th November 2007.

  8. News - For the second year in a row SDSU has been rated the #1 small research university in the nation (offering fewer than 15 PhD programs). Two of our programs have been named in the top 10 in the nation, the PhD in Computational Science was ranked #9, while the Math and Science Education was #2 in the Mathematics Education category. Permalink Here. --- Updated 16th November 2007.

  9. Awards - Congratulations to two of our Physics students in the PhD in Computational Science Program who have been awarded ARCS scholarships for 2007/2008. Ms. Hai Ah Nam is the Martins, Williams, Peabody Scholar. Mr. Martin Kandes is the Cymer Incorporated Scholar. Permalink Here. --- Updated 6th November 2007.

  10. News - The San Diego Fires resulted in mass mandatory evacuations of some of our faculty and students, but we can happily report that no-one lost their property. The Witch and Harris fires posed no threat to SDSU, but classes were cancelled for 4 days. Permalink Here. --- Updated 1st November 2007.

  11. News - all classes at SDSU are now cancelled for the rest of the week. See the main SDSU webpages for the latest updates. Permalink Here. --- Updated 23rd October 2007 (at 2.10pm).

  12. News - all Monday classes at SDSU are now cancelled. See the main SDSU webpages for the latest updates. Permalink Here. --- Updated 22nd October 2007 (at 12.50pm).

  13. News - many of our faculty are affected by the fires. The following Faculty members are not in today, either due to Evacuations or Road Closures. The classes that have been cancelled today (Monday) are....
    Physics 180A 9:00-9:50 Leduc,
    Physics 195 8:00-8:50 Baljon,
    Physics 538 4:00-5:15 Baljon,
    Physics 196 12:00-12:50 Bocker.
    In addition, Sinha and Oseroff are not in today either. Stay tuned for more (and Tuesday's) class information. Permalink Here. --- Updated 22nd October 2007 (at 9.20am).

  14. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Elizabeth Barton, University of California, Irvine who will talk on "Galaxy Evolution in the Lowest-Density Environments", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 19th October 2007.

  15. The lead story in the current issue of Analog Science Fiction magazine is by our very own Professor Calvin W. Johnson of the SDSU Department of Physics. Professor Johnson will be teaching a course on Science and Science Fiction (Natural Science 310) in Spring 2008. For more information (and where to buy Analog!) click here. --- Posted 17th October 2007.

  16. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Mark A.E. Williams, Communication Studies Dept., California State University, Sacramento who will talk on "Looking Through the Æther: Science, Rhetoric, Magic and Clear Thinking in the Mediæval and Modern Mind", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 12th October 2007.

  17. Tenure-Track Position in Radiation/Medical Physics.
    The Physics Department at San Diego State University invites applications for a tenure-track position in experimental studies of the interaction of radiation with matter. Of particular interest are candidates whose research will support our medical physics program. The position begins the fall of 2008. For more information click here. --- Posted 6th October 2007.

  18. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Fridolin Weber, Dept. of Physics, SDSU who will talk on "The Enigmatic Innards of Neutron Stars", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 21st September 2007.

  19. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Calvin Johnson, Dept. of Physics, SDSU who will talk on "How to Read the Universe: Science Fiction and Science", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 7th September 2007.

  20. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Werner Becker, Max-Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik who will talk on "Future optical and X-ray observatories for neutron star and pulsar studies", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 31st August 2007.

  21. News - SDSU Physicist in New Scientist (yet again!). Prof. Fridolin Weber commentates in the 20th August issue of New Scientist on a record-breaking supernova. You can Read More Here. --- Posted 22nd August 2007.

  22. News - Prof. Usha Sinha has accepted our offer to both join the SDSU Physics Faculty and she is the new Department of Physics Chair. Prof. Sinha's first day at SDSU is Monday 20th August, so drop past P-133 and say hi! Read a brief biography about Prof. Usha Sinha. --- Posted 19th August 2007.

  23. Defense - Thursday August 16th at 2:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Mary Ann Polityka who will talk about "Use of Small Field Dosimeters to Develop a Treatment Delivery Unit QA for Stereotactic Radiation Therapy on the Helical TomoTherapy System", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 14th August 2007.

  24. News - The Fall semester is coming. See Physics Schedule and Syllabi/Webpages. See Nat.Sci. Schedule, Syllabi/Webpages. (Profs/Lects: send updates to media@sciences.sdsu.edu). Exam Timetable.
    We are running elective Graduate Classes (Polymer Science and Quantum Mechanics B), get in while they're going. Note Adv. Physical Measurement Lab (PHYS 357) is being offered. Permalink Here. --- Updated 19th August 2007.

  25. News - The Natural Sciences program has a new website. The B.A. Degree in Applied Arts and Sciences has a Physical Science Major is a degree that prepares students for secondary-level physics teaching. View the new website Here. --- Posted 5th August 2007.

  26. News - Prof. Matt Anderson is away for Fall 2007, on sabbatical in Oxford, England. He is working with the group of Prof. Ian Walmsley at the Clarendon Laboratory on ultrafast pulse measurement techniques and quantum information. He is joined by his wife and two daughters who are quickly adopting British accents. They will return for the Spring semester 2008. Permalink Here. --- Posted 3rd August 2007.

  27. Defense - Monday August 6th at 1:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Scott Young who will talk about "CI-Kohn Method of Positron-Atom Scattering", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 30th July 2007.

  28. Defense - Tuesday July 31st 1:00pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Brian Slovick who will talk about "Encoding Amplitude and Phase Information at the Nyquist Frequency Onto a Phase-Only Spatial Light Modulator", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 30th July 2007.

  29. News - SDSU Physicist in New Scientist (again!). Prof. Fridolin Weber commentates in the 23rd June issue of New Scientist on the search for a 5th dimension. You can Read More Here. --- Posted 23rd June 2007.

  30. Paper - Research exploring a new class of matter and antimatter bound states, including the identification of a fragile 'Borromean' state, has been published today by Dr. Michael Bromley in the journal Physical Review A. You can Read More Here --- Posted 13th June 2007.

  31. News - Some photos are posted from the Doc Morris Public Lecture, with thanks to Bill Morris. See the photos here. --- Posted 10th May 2007.

  32. Award - Congratulations to Martin Kandes who was awarded the 2006/2007 Department of Physics Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Teaching Associate. Permalink here. --- Posted 5th May 2007.

  33. News - The end of the semester party will be happening on Wednesday, May 9th at 11:30 AM in PA-121. For the faculty that offered to contribute in order for the party, first thank you and second could you please drop off your contribution to Marcia or Suzanne by Friday, May 4th. Permalink here. --- Posted 1st May 2007.

  34. Defense - Wednesday May 9th 2:00pm in P-149 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Ivan Hromada who will talk about "Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 6th May 2007.

  35. Defense - Monday 7th May at 11.15am in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Nicolas Cusnir who will talk about "Propagation of Femtosecond Optical Vortices in beta Barium Borate", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 6th May 2007.

  36. News - The Spring 2007 exam timetable can be found HERE --- Posted 4th May 2007.

  37. News - Sick of surfing all summer long? We offer summer classes for:
    PHYS 180A and 180B (Fundamentals of Physics)
    PHYS 182A and 182B (Physical Measurements)
    NSCI 412 (Processes and Inquiry in the Physical Sciences)
    Click on the above to links to see the summer schedules. --- Posted 3rd May 2007.

  38. Defense - Friday's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by a raft of our Physics undergraduates:
    Parker Burrola "Hyperons and Neutron Star Matter",
    Daniel Emmons "1-D Ultrafast Phase Only Pulse Shaping",
    Derek Padilla "Secular Behavior of Nuclear Energy Density",
    Kyle Rollin "Investigation of Helium using Configuration Interaction"
    Read the Abstracts here. All of our physics majors must undertake and present a senior research thesis under supervision by our Faculty. --- Posted 3rd May 2007.

  39. Award - Congratulations to Daniel Emmons II, a Physics undergrad, who won first prize for his oral presentation at SDSU's Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. His talk was on "1-D Ultrafast Phase Only Pulse Shaping", and covered his research in the Ultrafast Laser Lab. Read more here. --- Posted 27th April 2007.

  40. Award - Congratulations to Omair Zubairi, a Physics undergrad, who won second prize for his poster at SDSU's Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. His poster was on "The Cosmological Constant and Compact Stars", and covered his research with Prof. Fridolin Weber. Read more here. --- Posted 27th April 2007.

  41. Paper - "A New Puzzle" in nuclear physics has been published this week. The paper, by Professor Calvin Johnson and Computational Science PhD student Hai Ah Nam, appears in Physical Review C. You can Read More Here --- Posted 26th April 2007.

  42. Paper - Three papers spanning a range of atomic physics research have been published this week by Dr. Michael Bromley on a new method of computing Quantum Mechanical scattering in Physical Review Letters, calculations demonstrating new anti-matter and matter bound states in Physical Review A, and the ultracold interactions between excited states of Lithium atoms in Physical Review A. You can Read More Here --- Posted 23rd April 2007.

  43. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Kailash Sahu, Space Telescope Science Institute, who will talk on "Worlds in Transit". Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 20th April 2007.

  44. News - Friday sees a number of presentations of our Physics students at the 2007 SDSU Undergraduate Research Symposium.
    9:00 am - 10:15 am (in the Aztec Center, Quetzalcoatl room)
    Daniel Emmons will talk on "1-D Ultrafast Phase Only Pulse Shaping".
    11:15 am - 1:00 pm has the poster session featuring:
    Parker Burrola "Hyperons and Neutron Star Matter",
    Danny Flynn "Mitochondrial Stereology from the Statistics of Sections"
    and Omair Zubairi "Compact Stars and the Cosmological Constant". Kristen Mecadon (our SPS president) has her poster in the biology section on "Shadow structures to standarize google ranks between disconnected components". Read more here. --- Posted 19th April 2007.

  45. News - Prof. Al Sweedler appeared Tuesday morning on KPBS radio's special series " A Matter of Degrees: Climate Change in San Diego". You can listen online to an archive of the broadcast here or download the mp3. --- Posted 17th April 2007.

  46. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Ronald Walsworth, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who will talk on "Multidisciplinary Applications of State-Selected Atoms", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 13th April 2007.

  47. News - The "The Story of Stopped Light". The 2007 Doc Morris Public Lecture is on Thursday 12th April at 7pm in GMCS 333. Prof. Ronald Walsworth from the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will delight us with "The Story of Stopped Light". Brought to you by the APS Division of Laser Science's Distinguished Lecturer Program, and the SDSU Dept. of Physics. Free on-campus parking available. --- Posted 6th April 2007.

  48. News - The SDSU Department of Physics has named it's annual public lecture the 'Doc Morris Public Lecture Series' in honor of it's most senior Faculty Member Prof. Richard H. Morris who joined the SDSU Physics faculty 50 years ago (in 1957). You can Read More Here.
    --- Posted 6th April 2007.

  49. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Prof. Donald Rehfuss, Dept. of Physics, SDSU who will talk on "The Nature of 107 and of 333", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 6th April 2007.

  50. Paper - Two papers have just been published by Professor Calvin Johnson, including one co-authored by one of the Department's most outstanding recent undergraduates, Van Nguyen, who is now working on a PhD in physics at Columbia University, supported by a full NSF fellowship. You can Read More Here --- Posted 5th April 2007.

  51. News - Open position for Chair of the Department of Physics. Click here for more information. Position closes April 13, 2007. --- Posted 28th March 2007.

  52. Defense - Today at 12.30pm in P-250 there will be a Masters Thesis Defense presented by Charles Tuvey who will talk on "Tailoring the Optical Response of Imaging Systems in the Transverse and Axial Directions using a Fourier Transform Approach", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 21st March 2007.

  53. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. Michael Bromley, Dept. of Physics, SDSU who will talk on "Fun with quantum numbers, matter and antimatter", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 16th March 2007.

  54. JAPC - Friday's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Dr. J. F. Dolan, Dept. of Astronomy, SDSU and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who will talk on "A Far UV Luminosity Component In SS433", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 8th March 2007.

  55. News - Computational Science (and Computational Physics) students are presenting their research today in Montezuma Hall (Aztec Center) at 3pm at a poster session as part of the Computational Sciences ACSESS forum. You can Read More Here. --- Posted 7th March 2007.

  56. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by a candidate for the physics faculty position. Dr. Usha Sinha, Department of Radiology, UCLA will talk on "Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging and Imaging Informatics: From Data to Knowledge", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 1st March 2007.

  57. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by a candidate for the physics faculty position. Dr. Mauro Tambasco, Department of Oncology, University of Calgary will talk on "Quantitative Assessment of Tumor Malignancy Using Fractal Analysis", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 23rd February 2007.

  58. News - SDSU Physicist in New Scientist (and elsewhere). Prof. Fridolin Weber features in the latest issue of New Scientist (and elsewhere!). You can Read More Here. --- Posted 21st February 2007.

  59. Award - Computational Sciences PhD student Rodrigo P. Negreiros received 2nd Prize in the Charles Kittel Award for Best Theoretical Research for his presentation on "Charged Strange Stars" at the Fall 2006 meeting of the Calfifornia Section American Physical Society. You can Read More Here. --- Posted 20th February 2007.

  60. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by a candidate for the physics faculty position. Dr. Steven Goetsch, San Diego Gamma Knife Center will talk on "The Role of the Medical Physicist in Gamma Knife Radiosurgery of the Brain", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 16th February 2007.

  61. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by a candidate for the physics faculty position. Dr. Jacqueline A. Johnson, Argonne National Laboratory will talk on "Glass Ceramics and Imaging", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 14th February 2007.

  62. JAPC - Today's Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia is presented by Professor Mike DeMarco of Buffalo State University. The talk is on "99Ru Mossbauer Spectroscopy: The Physicist Gamma Ray Microscope used to view the Coexistence of Superconductivity and Magnetism in GdSr2RuCu2O8", Read the Abstract here. --- Posted 9th February 2007.

  63. Paper - Research demonstrating a new class of matter and antimatter bound states has just been published today by Dr. Michael Bromley in the journal Physical Review Letters. You can Read More Here --- Posted 6th February 2007.

  64. News - Less of a launch, more of a continental drift. The Launch of the SDSU Physics RSS feed, that collates and announces the following Physics Grants, Papers, JAPC and other seminars, all other news.
    The Aim: Upon an event occurance, send details to the Physics secretary who can then prepare it in both HTML and XML/RSS formatting, ready to be uploaded by the webmaster. For more info on RSS/XML newsfeeding see the NewsPage. --- Posted 4th February 2007.

  65. News - Need a little more physics help? The SPS is again offering FREE physics tutoring in Room P247. Mon/Wed at 9am-11am, Tue/Thu at 1pm-3pm. --- Posted 29th January 2007.

  66. News - Dr. Michael Bromley has joined the Australian Centre for Antimatter-Matter Studies as an international partner. (see Dr. Bromley's recent calculations of matter/antimatter bound and resonant states). --- Posted 29th January 2007.

  67. JAPC - The Spring 2007 Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia kicks off with the Dept. of Astronomy's Prof. Eric Sandquist on Friday January 19th. --- Posted 3rd January 2007.

2006

  • The Spring 2007 Physics info is online: Calendar, Physics Schedule, Natural Sciences Schedule, and even the Final exam timetable.
    Highlights this semester include the Science in Science Fiction elective. --- Posted 19th December 2006.

  • The fall 2006 exam timetable can be found HERE --- Posted 1st December 2006.

  • This Halloween image is from Robert Deeb one of our graduate students: --- Posted 31st October 2006.
    Photo by Robert Deeb, click for larger image

    •
  • Physics major Danny Flynn features in the September 2006 College of Sciences 'FUSION' magazine... available as 3.6MB pdf file. (see page 34: Danny is performing his undergraduate research with Dr. Baljon). Dr. Bromley's kombi also makes an appearance on Pages 22/23. --- Posted 18th October 2006.

  • The Society of Physics Students webpages have undergone a major overhaul...check them out. --- Posted 18th October 2006.

  • Physics GRE review course in again happening. Hosted by the kindness of Dr. Anderson's heart. For students interested in taking the upcoming physics GRE tests, we will be getting together weekly to go over problems and discuss test-taking strategies. We welcome all majors and levels. Wednesdays 3-4pm in Physics room P-146A (starts Oct. 4th). --- Posted 29th September 2006.

  • Tenure-Track Position in Medical / Radiation Physics.
    The Physics Department at San Diego State University invites applications for a tenure-track position in experimental studies of the interaction of radiation with matter, with a specific interest in medical/radiation health physics, for example dosimetry or imaging. The position begins the fall of 2007. For more info click here. --- Posted 29th September 2006.

  • Need a little more physics help? The SPS is again offering FREE* physics tutoring. Tuesdays/Thursdays at 10am-12pm in Room P247. (* = Remember to tip them for their fine work!). --- Posted 22nd September 2006.

  • Dr. Arlette Baljon is on Sabbatical this semester in Holland, from where she writes: "Hi, my sabbatical is in Eindhoven with Prof. Michels of the Dutch Polymer Institute, a foundation funded by industry and universities to perform exploratory research in the area of polymer materials and to resolve the paradox of scientific excellence and lack of industrial innovation. We are constructing an algorithm to model polystyrene thin films. Such films are important for the electronic industry. In particular we plan to study the stability and glass transition of these films. Running this code and evaluating the data will be an excellent project for an interested master student. Exchange opportunities for students to conduct research in the Netherlands are available as well." --- Posted 22nd September 2006.

  • For all new students: stop by the Physics office, and Suzanne will take a happy snappy to add to the undergrad and graduate walls. --- Posted 16th September 2006.

  • Physics now has four main email lists setup: The Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia that anyone can subscribe to, one for Graduate Students, one for Undergraduate Students, and the SPS maintains an SPS email list. --- Posted 16th September 2006.

  • Welcome to all new and returning students! Physics has three email lists setup: Graduate Students, and the SPS maintains an email list for Physics Majors. Finally we have an email list for the Joint Astronomy-Physics Colloquia that anyone can also subscribe to by going here. --- Posted 1st September 2006.

  • The physics webpages have been rejigged. Please let us know of broken bits. In particular, the pages that were still on www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/physics/ have been deactivated and are now (basic) merged here. --- Posted 10th August 2006.

  • IVC campus Assistant Professor Salomon Itza is moving back to the mid-west to the University of the Ozarks. Bon Voyage! --- Posted 10th August 2006.

  • Congratulations to Dr. Matt Anderson for his promotion to Associate Professor. --- Posted 10th August 2006.

  • Research Associate Dr. Edgar Teran is moving onward, having accepted an industry position in Houston, TX. --- Posted 10th August 2006.

  • Director of the Center for Energy Studies Al Sweedler appeared at a UN Commission: See SDSU press release --- Posted 3rd May 2006.
    Al another day at the office (click on image for better resolution)

2005

2004

  • Professor Saul Oseroff received a grant from Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), a state-funded initiative designed to improve math and science education for children with limited resources to succeed academically. Read the Full story here. --- Reported 4th October 2004.

2003

Obligatory disclaimer
Last updated: 15th November 2009