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3rd Annual Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics The Ohio State University January 15­17, 2010 Friday, January 15th, 2010 7:00pm –9:00pm
Registration & Welcome Reception
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Salon A (located on the 2nd Floor)
Saturday, January 16th, 2010 8:00am
Bus Pick-up
Crowne Plaza Hotel
8:30am
Continental Breakfast & Registration
Physics Research Building Atrium
9:00am
Welcome & Introductions
Scott Labs room E0001
9:15am
Featured Presentation I
Gail Brown, Air Force Research Laboratory
Scott Labs room E0001
10:00am
Coffee Break
10:15am
Featured Presentation II
Kirsten Tollefson, Michigan State University
Scott Labs room E0001
11:00am
Student Research Presentations
Scott Labs room E0001 (and E0004 if needed)
12:00pm
Lunch & Poster Set-up
Physics Research Building Atrium
1:00pm
Featured Presentation III
Jennifer Ogilvie, University of Michigan
Scott Labs room E0001
1:45pm
Featured Presentation IV
Sabine Jeschonnek, Ohio State University
Scott Labs room E0001
2:30pm
Coffee Break & Poster Session
Physics Research Building Atrium
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3rd Annual Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics The Ohio State University January 15­17, 2010 Saturday, January 16th, 2010 Continued 3:30pm
Featured Presentation V
Jessica Hanzlik, University of Oxford
Scott Labs room E0001
4:15pm
Graduate Student Panel
Scott Labs room E0001
5-5:30pm
Bus Pick-up for Hotel
6:30pm
Banquet Dinner
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Fusion Room (located on the 2nd floor)
Sunday, January 17th, 2010 8:00am
Bus Pick-up
Crowne Plaza Hotel
8:30am
Continental Breakfast
Physics Research Building Atrium
9:00am
Featured Presentation VI
Julie McEnery, NASA
Scott Labs room E0001
9:45am
Student Research Presentations
Scott Labs room E0001 (and E0004 if needed)
10:45am
Coffee Break
11:00am
Featured Presentation VII
Nandini Trivedi, Ohio State University
Scott Labs room E0001
11:45am
Closing Remarks
Scott Labs room E0001
12:00pm
Lunch
Physics Research Building Atrium
1-1:30pm
Bus Pick-up for Hotel
Ladies rooms are located in rooms 1102T, 2102T, 2051T Physics Research Building and E036T, E115T Scott Labs
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Gail Brown
Air Force Research Laboratory
Biography:
Dr. Brown is a graduate of Wright State University and the University of Dayton. She was named
2005 recipient of the WSU Outstanding Alumni Award in the College of Math and Science. She
has co-authored more than 80 refereed technical journal publications, more than 70 conference
proceedings papers, and two book chapters, and has more than 160 conference and workshop
presentations to her credit. Dr. Brown has addressed many symposiums and other technical
gatherings throughout the United States and in France, Japan, Poland and Portugal, chaired 17
national and international conferences, and given more than 70 technical management briefings on
behalf of the Air Force. She has been an advisor to the National Research Council and an adjunct
professor at Northwestern University. She is a member of the Materials Research Society,
Scientific Research Society (Sigma Xi), Physics Honor Society (Sigma Pi Sigma), and the
Association of Women in Science, as well as the International Society for Optical Engineering
and APS.
Dr. Brown has received numerous prestigious awards for her contributions to science and the
United States Air Force, including the highly coveted Air Force Basic Research Award (2002) for
cutting edge research on superlattice materials for next generation infrared sensing. She earned the
Meritorious Civilian Service Medal in 2007 for outstanding leadership in this field. Dr. Brown is a
recipient of the Charles J. Cleary Scientific Achievement Award; the highest award presented by
the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate for scientific achievement. The research team she
leads earned STAR Team honors from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 2002 for
basic research supporting the Air Force.
As the recipient of the 2008 Women's History Month Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics Role Model Award, Dr. Brown was recognized for demonstrating "exceptional
commitment, expertise, and leadership in the critical area of materials research for the next
generation of space sensing technologies supporting both missile defense and reconnaissance and
surveillance applications." She has successfully led an in-house research team comprised of 28
scientists; one of only a few women at AFRL in that role. She has also been an active member of
the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee on Historically Black Colleges &
Universities-Research Infrastructure for Science & Engineering (HBCU-RISE) for the
Development of Sensors and Sensor Materials, and a guest speaker at HBCU events.
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Jessica Hanzlik
Oxford University
Title of Presentation:
“Feminist Physics”
Biography:
Jessica Hanzlik is a 2008 Rhodes Scholar currently completing her second year of studies at the
University of Oxford in England. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Ohio State
University where she studied physics and French. During her time at OSU, she thoroughly
enjoyed gaining experience in research, both in an experimental high-energy physics lab and in
writing a thesis in French. Her physics research involved looking for the elusive Higgs boson, the
particle that could explain the origins of mass in the universe. Her French research consisted of
comparing the educational and cultural backgrounds of American and French female scientists in
an attempt to pinpoint particular differences which might explain the observed effect whereby
more French than American women become scientists.
At the University of Oxford, Jessica spent her first year earning a masters degree in particle
physics during which she joined R&D efforts for the Super Large Hadron Collider (SLHC). For
this work, she tested the stability under variable temperatures and radiation doses of the optical
fibers which will be used in the read-out systems of the inner detectors at the LHC. Currently,
Jessica is pursuing a masters in comparative social policy, focusing on comparative education
policy. She hopes to use her training and research experiences to improve the quality of science
education in the United States, as she believes that without a diverse and well-educated population
of scientists, innovation, entrepreneurship, and progress are hindered.
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Sabine Jeschonnek
The Ohio State University
Title of Presentation:
"Exploring Light Nuclei with Electronic Scattering"
Abstract:
An interesting question in nuclear physics is why the description of a nucleus in terms of nucleons
works so well, and where the quark-gluon substructure of nucleons will become apparent. With
electron scattering, one can investigate the short-range structure of nuclei. In order to correctly
interpret the data, a good theoretical understanding of the reaction mechanism is necessary. I will
discuss some of the broader issues, the experimental program at Jefferson Lab, and my own
research in nuclear theory.
Biography:
Sabine Jeschonnek studied physics at Bonn University in Germany from 1987 - 1993. She did her
Diplomarbeit at Forschungszentrum Juelich, a german national lab, in nuclear physics. During the
next three years, she continued her research work in Juelich, at the Institute for Nuclear Physics,
and received her Ph.D. in 1996. In 1997, she went to MIT as a Feodor-Lynen fellow of the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and spent two years there. Then, she was a post-doc at
Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA, for three years. In September 2001, she joined Ohio State
as an assistant professor on the Lima campus. She was tenured and promoted in 2006. Her
research interest is nuclear theory, in particular electron scattering from light nuclei. She is also
engaged in various outreach activities on the Lima campus. One of her recent major
accomplishments was organizing the Photonuclear Reactions Gordon Research Conferences in
2006 as Vice Chair and in 2008 as Chair.
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Julie McEnery
NASA
Title of Presentation:
“A New View of the High Energy Gamma-Ray Sky with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space
Telescope”
Biography:
Julie McEnery is the Fermi Project Scientist and an astrophysicist in the Astroparticle Physics
Laboratory, Astrophysics Science Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md. Since 2009, she is also an Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland’s
College Park campus. An Irish citizen, Julie received her BSc in Physics with Astrophysics from
the University of Manchester in June 1993. In August 1997 she received her Ph.D. in Physics
from University College, Dublin.
As Fermi Project Scientist in 2009, a role she took on in 2009, Julie provides scientific guidance
and information to mission staff, working with all elements of the mission -- from instrument
teams to mission operations. These efforts will maximize scientific return from the observatory.
Active galaxies and GRBs remain her main science interests, but she also explores interesting
topics in other areas. She is also involved with team science activities such as low-level
simulations, analysis development ,and publication planning.
Julie has previously worked with ground-based gamma-ray telescopes, which detect Cherenkov
radiation produced when gamma rays from deep space strike Earth's atmosphere. As a graduate
student she used the Whipple Observatory to make very-high-energy observations of the active
galaxy Markarian 421. She later worked with the Milagro collaboration primarily on gamma-ray
burst (GRB) observations.
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Jennifer Ogilvie
University of Michigan
Title of Presentation:
"Ultrafast Snapshots of Biological Function"
Biography:
Bsc. degree in Applied Physics, University of Waterloo, Canada
MSc. in Physics, Simon Fraser University, Canada
PhD. in Physics, University of Toronto, Canada
Postdoctoral fellow, Ecole Polytechnique, France
Assistant Professor of Physics and Biophysics, University of Michigan, 2005 - present
Selected awards and honors:
Alfred P. Sloan Fellow 2005-2007
Recipient of the NSF CAREER award 2007
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Kirsten Tollefson
Michigan State University
Title of Presentation:
"Exploring the Universe using Particle Accelerators"
Biography:
Dr. Kirsten Tollefson is an associate professor of physics at Michigan State University. She
received her B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College and Ph.D. from University of Rochester. She
started out as a mechanical engineering major but after spending a summer in a Research
Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program building a proto-type detector for the
Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) she fell in love with high-energy physics. Just as she
started her graduate work the SSC was canceled but the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab was
going strong and she was part of the team on the CDF experiment that discovered the top quark.
She has spent her career studying the mysteries of the top quark, first at the CDF experiment and
now on the ATLAS experiment which has just started taking data at CERN using the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC). She also has had a life long interest in astrophysics and recently joined a
high-energy cosmic rays experiment, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment,
that brings particle physics and astrophysics together to answer questions concerning what is our
universe made up of.
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Nandini Trivedi
The Ohio State University
Title of Presentation:
"Balancing a Career in Physics and Family"
Abstract:
I will talk about my specific research in theoretical condensed matter physics, the challenges I
faced, what were the strategies I used, and what it took to make it as a professor of physics. The
journey is worth it, extremely rewarding and I would not trade it for anything else!
Biography:
o Education
− 1981 BS and MS, Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
− 1987 Ph.D. Physics, Cornell University
o Employment
− 2004 ‐ Professor, Department of Physics, The Ohio State University
− 2002‐2003 Visiting Professor, Physics and MRL, University of Illinois
at Urbana
− 1995‐2004 Reader, Associate Professor, & Professor, Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research, India
− 1991‐1995 Assistant Scientist and Scientist, Materials Science Division,
− Argonne National Laboratory
− 1989‐1991 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Physics, SUNY at Stony
Brook
− 1987‐1989 Post‐Doctoral Research Associate, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana
o Current Research Interests:
− Computational Condensed Matter Theory
− Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations for Fermions and Bosons
− Strongly Correlated Systems; Transition Metal Oxides
− Disorder and Interaction Driven Quantum Phase Transitions
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Student Presentations
Katayun Kamdin
University of Chicago
Electron Temperature Measurements with Soft X-Ray Spectrometry on the Compact Toroidal
Hybrid
E0001 Scott Labs 11:00-11:15am, Saturday
I will present on the materials, methods, and results of my summer research project -- setting up and taking
initial electron temperature measurements on the Compact Toroidal Hybrid (CTH) stellarator. The free
electrons in a hot plasma emit bremsstrahlung radiation in the soft x-ray region. By collecting the emission
spectrum with a spectrometer over a plasma discharge ("shot"), the average electron temperature
can be determined. To track the time evolution of the electron temperature, the emission spectrum must be
collected several times in a shot; a fast-digitizer is employed in conjunction with the spectrometer to this
end. The spectrum is found to typically show two characteristic temperatures, indicating that the electron
distribution in the plasma is not thermal, i.e., it has a high temperature tail. In both schemes, low count
rates limit the information available in the high temperature range of the spectrum. I will discuss these
results, their implications, and possible improvements to the electron temperature measurement scheme.
Lindsay Owens
Wright State University
Non Destructive Evaluation using Terahertz Time Domain Spectroscopy and Imaging
E0001 Scott Labs 11:15-11:30am, Saturday
Samples with surface defects such as burns or corrosion were resolved through layers of paint using
various time domain terahertz (THz) imaging techniques. Each imaging technique optimizes the detection
of a specific defect, while simultaneously being unable to distinguish others. It has been concluded that to
have a full examination for a given composite sample, multiple imaging techniques must be used and
compared. While these techniques have been done using X-rays, THz methods are preferred due to their
non destructive interactions with the sample.
Lisa Genovese
Grand Valley State University
What Meteor Showers are Out There and Where Do They Come From?
E0001 Scott Labs 11:30-11:45am, Saturday
Last summer I took part in an REU at the SETI Institute. I had never done research outside of a structured
classroom. This program opened my eyes to the research world while I studied meteor showers and their
parent bodies. I have never done astronomy research before so I also learned a great deal about meteor
showers in the process. This REU helped me grow as a person and a scientist.
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Student Presentations
Cont.
Jessica Muir
Michigan State University
E0001 Scott Labs, 11:45-12:00pm, Saturday
For the past year and a half I have been working on experimental high energy physics research with the
ATLAS group at MSU. In my group we've been focusing on the effects of using different jet
reconstruction algorithms for analysis, and are preparing to run a full analysis on a W+Jets data set from
Monte Carlo simulations. In my presentation, I will discuss the ATLAS experiment, jet reconstruction
algorithms, and their importance in the context of our analysis.
M. Kaylee Underwood
West Virginia University
E0001 Scott Labs 9:45-9:57am, Sunday
Due to the rising cost of oil and concerns for environmental health and safety, there is increased need for
cheaper, more environmentally friendly plastics such as poly-L-lactide which is biodegradable and made
from L-lactide (derived from corn). Most known catalysts for ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide
involve heavy metals which are effective, but create plastics that can be toxic because of residual metal.
This research aims to determine if benzamidine is an organocatalyst for this reaction, how effective it is
compared to other known organocatalysts, and if it can be improved by the addition of substituents. Using
density functional theory (B3LYP), we determined the reaction pathways of benzamidine and its
substituted counterparts as well as the basicity and hydrogen-bonding ability of these catalysts.
Benzamidine demonstrated a higher reaction barrier than triazabicyclodecene (TBD), the best known
organocatalyst for this reaction, which we attribute to the lower basicity of benzamidine. The hydrogenbonding ability appeared to play a lesser role in catalytic effectiveness. Electron withdrawing substituents
3,5-CF3 and 4-NO2 decreased basicity and were less effective while the electron donating substituent 4N(CH3)2 proved more effective in increasing basicity. Substituting nitrogen for carbon in the 2 and 6
positions promoted planarity and lowered basicity while maintaining a similar reaction barrier to
unsubstituted benzamidine verifying the importance of conjugation to catalytic strength. Benzamidine has
been shown to be a weaker catalyst than TBD, but adding electron donating substituents and modifications
which contribute to conjugation provides room for improvements. Computational results have shown to be
effective in predicting trends among these catalysts and assisting chemists in their understanding of the
competing mechanisms.
Dina Drozdov
The Ohio State University
E0001 Scott Labs 9:57-10:09am, Sunday
My research topic is spin statistics of spiral galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. My research is in
Astrophysics. We were looking at spiral galaxy pairs and seeing their affect on one another. We were
trying to find a correlation between galaxy spin orientation and distance between spiral galaxies. We used
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to locate our spiral galaxy pairs. This is the first study to combine
information on galaxy orientation and galaxy geometry to find a relationship between the angular
momentums of spiral galaxies.
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Student Presentations
Cont.
Chen Gong
Ohio Wesleyan University
A photometric study of Algol type eclipsing binary LV Her
E0001 Scott Labs 10:09-10:21am, Sunday
Analyzing eclipsing binary stars’ photometric data is the only way that enables astronomers to accurately
calculate fundamental properties of stars such as mass and size. In this project, we use photometric light
curve to determine the absolute dimensions (mass, radius, absolute magnitude, luminosity and surface
gravity) of Algol-type eclipsing binary star LV Her. We test our results against the stellar evolutionary
model Y2 Isocrhones and find no difference within the observational uncertainties. Photometric
observations were made in V filter with a CCD sensor from 2001 to 2009 at the University of Arkansas.
The light curve is solved using EBOP program (NDE model). The results demonstrate that LV Her is a
detached system (Algol-type), with high orbit eccentricity (0.6142±0.0001) and relatively long orbital
period (18.43595 days). Two components are similar in mass and size and also to those of the Sun. To
calculate the temperatures of the two stars, instead of using spectral class determined by Popper, we
calculate directly from color indices obtained from three surveys: TASS, 2MASS, TYCHO, and the
observation made by Hilditch and Hill. The effect due to interstellar reddening is determined using the
comparison between the color indices of the theoretical model and the observed values from the surveys.
This consideration increases the intrinsic temperatures by about 200K. The temperature for the primary
star is 6215K±25 and for the secondary 6195K±25. To test the Y2 Isochrones theory, we plot LV Her’s
positions on H-R diagram along with the isochrones tracks. Within the uncertainties of both luminosity
and temperature, two stars of LV Her overlay a same range of isochrones, proving that the theory
successfully predict the same age for both stars. Therefore we cannot reject this theory. The average age
for the primary is 2.67 billion years and for the secondary 2.42 billion years.
Jennifer Bean
Missouri State University
E0001 Scott Labs 10:21-10:33am, Sunday
I was a Euroscholars at Leiden University, the Netherlands. While a Euroscholars I conducted research
for/with Simon Portegies-Zwart and Anthony Brown. My research was a continuation of Simon's paper
“The Lost Siblings of the Sun." The Sun was created in an embedded cluster with a number of other stars.
I used simulations to try and find possible candidates of these other stars in the Hipparcos catalogue. I did
this by running simulations created by Dr. Anthony Brown and using the simulated data as selection
criteria for the stars in Hipparcos catalog.
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Student Presentations
Cont.
Jessica Orwig
The Ohio State University
Supernova 2003gs spectral fitting
E0001 Scott Labs 10:33-10:45am, Sunday
Utilizing the computer program SYNOW, written by Dr. David Branch at Oklahoma University, it is
possible to produce a fit for visible spectra of Type Ia Supernovae. Visible spectra for Type Ia Supernova
2003gs (SN2003gs) have been fit using SYNOW. These fits illuminate the evolution of chemical
composition within the supernova from two weeks to five weeks post explosion. The strong iron presence
within the spectra is an expected result, which advocates models of chemical structure within a Type Ia
Supernova. According to Dr. Branch’s series of papers involving Type Ia categorization from calculation
of silicon II equivalent width calculations, SN2003gs can be identified as a cool Type Ia Supernova.
Graduate Student Panel
Panelists
Jessica Hanzlik – Graduate Student, Oxford University. Areas of Study: Particle Physics and
Comparative Social Policy
Caitlin Malone – Graduate Student, Stanford University. Area of Study: Particle Physics
Kate Grier – Graduate Student, The Ohio State University. Area of Study: Astronomy
Jennifer Siegal-Gaskins – Post Doctoral Researcher, The Ohio State University. Area of Study:
Astrophysics
Marci Howdyshell – Graduate Student, The Ohio State University. Area of Study, Physics
Panelist Leader
Jennifer Thompson – Graduate Student, The Ohio State University. Area of Study: Physics
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3rd Annual Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics January 15‐17, 2010 Financial support from the following organizations is gratefully acknowledged:
Department of Physics The Ohio State University Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics The Ohio State University National Science Foundation U.S. Department of Energy This Conference is being held in conjunction with Yale University, University of California Santa Cruz, and Duke
University
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