Department News

Physics Alum Works on New Mars Lander (May, 2008)

Whittier alum Kalina Gospodinova (class of 2004) has an important role in the Phoenix Mission to Mars, which landed near the Martian North Pole on May 25. Ms. Gospodinova is part of the MECA (Microscopy Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer) team. The MECA instrument is a combination of three instruments, namely the OM/AFM (optical and atomic force microscope), TECP (thermal and electrical conductivity probe), and WCL (wet chemistry lab). Ms. Gospodinova works on the WCL, which consists of four beakers that can analyze dissolved soil samples using ISEs (ion selective electrodes). The instrument determines the pH, conductivity, and redox of the soil, as well as the presence of different minerals, such as magnesium and sodium cations or chloride and sulfate anions. Prior to landing, she worked on the calibration and characterization of the WCL instrument. Since landing, she has been part of the uplink team as an instrument sequence engineer (ISE) for the WCL. Her job involves writing and testing the code to perform the experiment on Mars, as well as delivering the final products for uplink.

Kalina appears briefly in a PBS video about the Phoenix mission that you can view at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0306/01.html.

 

She appears about 9 minutes into the video (which is about 11 minutes long). Here is a screen shot showing Kalina.

 

 

 

Physics Major Class of 2008 Graduates (May, 2008)

Four new Physics majors graduated at the 105th Whittier College Commencement Ceremony that took place at Memorial Stadium on May 23. Keynote speaker Dr. Michael Shermer—noted science historian, columnist, and founder of the Skeptics Society—delivered the commencement address. Seniors Carlos Back, Ryan Mackay, Jun Nishiguchi, and Ravi Pant all received Bachelors of Arts degrees in Physics. Back, Nishiguchi, and Pant all completed the 4-year physics program at Whittier College, while Mackay completed the 3-2 engineering program at Whittier College and USC.

Physics Major Wins Research Award (December, 2007)

Senior physics major Carlos Back won the Outstanding Poster Award - Undergraduate Division at the 2008 Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Systems and Applications Meeting, which was held in Long Beach, CA, November 26-29, 2007. Mr. Back's paper was titled, “Development of a Conventional Laser-Pumped Rb Atomic Clock: Status Report”. The presentation dealt with Carlos's work as a summer intern at The Aerospace Corporation, where he measured the temperature shift of the ground-state hyperfine transition in Rb87. This shift arises from the interaction between rubidium atoms in a vapor and a buffer gas (e.g., N2, Ar, Kr) as the temperature of the vapor changes. Mr. Back's measurements focused on Rb87 interacting with a mixed N2/Ar buffer, and they will be important in the development of next-generation ultra-miniature atomic clocks.

Physics Department Purchases New Atomic Force Microscope (October, 2007)

The department has purchased a research-grade Park Systems XE-70 atomic force microscope (AFM) with a grant made available to the college by the Fletcher Jones Foundation. The AFM will enable our faculty and student researchers to investigate matter at the nanometer scale.

Physics Professor Receives Astrophysics Research Grant (August, 2007)

Associate Professor of Physics Glenn Piner was awarded a $155,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue studies of the physical properties of quasars using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The grant covers a period of three years, through August 2010. Piner, along with undergraduate researchers, will use the VLBA to probe the physical conditions in the innermost regions of quasars ¾ the energetic regions surrounding supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies. This research will provide new data on the temperatures, speeds, and accelerations of material in the fast-moving plasma jets close to the central black hole.