Physics Majors at Stetson University

 One measure of the quality of our majors and our program is our ability to place them into summer research internships like the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs funded by the National Science Foundation.  These are very competitive programs and they allow undergraduate students to do research with a Ph.D. level mentor.  A full 50% of our graduates from the last ten years did a summer research internship at the following locations:

  • Los AlamosNational Laboratory
  • BostonUniversity
  • FloridaInternationalUniversity
  • UniversityofFlorida
  • IowaStateUniversity
  • UniversityofMaryland
  • High Altitude Observatory, Boulder, CO
  • Laser Interferometer Gravity-wave Observatory/LIGO, California Institute of Technology
  • ClemsonUniversity
  • Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
  • NASA
  • StetsonUniversitySURE Program

 

A second measure of quality is what our majors choose to do after graduating from Stetson.  Students enter the program with a wide range of career interests so we should not judge one choice as being better than another, but having a high percentage of students pursue graduate degrees shows that the Department has fostered an interest in further inquiry.  Thirty students graduated from Stetson in the last ten years with a major in physics.  Two of those students were in dual-degree programs and also received a B.S. in engineering from an engineering school.  Of the 28 that went through the standard physics program: 

  • 22 (79%) are known to have been accepted into graduate programs,
    • 13 (46%) for physics or a related scientific field,
    • 6 (21%) for engineering,
    • 5 (18%) for other fields, mostly business,
    • 2 student pursued degrees in both business and engineering,
  • 2 (7%) went right to work as scientists, and one of them plans to pursue a Ph.D. in physics in the near future,
  • 1 (4%) went right to work as a high school physics teacher,
  • 1 (4%) is working as a financial analyst (using physics as a liberal arts degree), and
  • 2 (7%) we do not have information on.

 

A third measure of the quality of our program is the quality of the graduate schools that our graduates attend.  Physics graduates from the last ten years have attended:

  • AuburnUniversity
  • Embry-RiddleAreonauticalUniversity
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • LouisianaStateUniversity
  • StetsonUniversity
  • UniversityofArizona
  • University of CentralFlorida
  • UniversityofFlorida
  • UniversityofVirginia
  • UniversityofTexas, Houston
  • VanderbiltUniversity
  • WakeForestUniversity
  • WashingtonUniversity
  • YaleUniversity

 

 Stetson Physics Majors – Senior Research Projects

Using Spectrally Resolved White-Light Interferometry for Absolute Distance Measurement with Wide Dynamic Rage
Andrea Belanger, Stetson University; Robert C. Youngquist, Kennedy Space Cente 

Electric Impedance Tomography
Timothy Holifield, Stetson University; Dr. George Glander, Stetson University

Glancing Angle Deposition with Enhanced Substrate Control
Brian Bell, Stetson University; D. Schmidt, E. Schubert, UNL

Photoionization of the excited sodium atom from the 2p subshell
Christian Pecora, Stetson University; Dr. Haripada Saha, University of Central Florida

The Effects of Magnetic Fields on 90° Scattered Polarization at Sodium D1 and D2 Wavelengths
Brandon Marsell, Stetson University; Dr. Steven Tomczyk, High Altitude Observatory, Boulder, CO.
            Brandon won the R. S. Jin Award (best oral presentation) at the Zone 6 SPS meeting on February 17, 2007 at Florida Institute of Technology.  The best of 16 presenters, Brandon even beat out five graduate students! 

Imaging the Magnetic Domains of Magnetotactic Bacteria Using Magnetic Force Microscopy
Justin Black, Stetson University; Dr. Kevin Riggs, Stetson University

LIGO Detection Efficiency Studies in Searches for Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Star Inspirals
Sarah Caudill, Stetson University; Peter Shawhan and Duncan Brown, LIGO, CalTech, Pasadena, CA

Building a Computer Controlled Liquid Nitrogen Cryostat
Danielle Mollman, Stetson University; Dr. George Glander, Stetson University

Design of a Force Sensor using Strain Gages to measure the Elastic Modulus of a Fibroblast seeded Scaffold
Renee Dickinson, Stetson University; Joshi and Webb, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina

Speckle Pattern Averaging in Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry
W. Langston, Stetson University; Dr. Kevin Riggs, Stetson University

Development of a Third Generation Piezoelectric Contact Sensor with Applications to Manatee Protection Systems and Remotely Operated Vehicles.
Dan Carlson, Stetson University; Larry Taylor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution

Studying the Thermodynamics of Vortex Tubes
Nick Frost, Stetson University; Dr. Tom Lick, Stetson University

Analysis of Magnetic Structures via Magnetic Force Microscopy
Jon Gosnell, Stetson University; Dr. Kevin Riggs, Stetson University

Setting Up the Small Radio Telescope (SRT) and the Galactic Rotation Experiment
Ari Litwin, Stetson University; Dr. Kevin Riggs and Dr. Anthony Jusick, Stetson University

An Explication of the Construction of a Laser Doppler Velocimeter, for the Purpose of Examining the Onset of Turbulence in Fluids
R. Adam Pridemore, Stetson University; Dr. George Glander, Stetson University

Thermal Stability of Ti on Al-110 Single Crystal Surface
S. Paul Stuck, Stetson University; work done at Ion Beam Lab, Montana State University.