Ogden News

Five undergraduate students (Dylan Berry, Brennan Edwards, Alli Hunt, Elena Ley, Lincoln Potts) and two graduate students (Berdi Annamuradov, Begench Gurbandurdyyev), accompanied by Dr. Gordon Emslie, attended the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society Annual Meeting (SESAPS) meeting at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. Over the two-and-a-half-day conference they attended and presented at several poster and oral sessions.

These students gave presentations on a wide variety of topics, from particle physics, astronomy, and instrument development to laser physics and best practices in physics education.

Brennan presented a poster on “Time resolution study of a HDSoC Digitizer for PIONEER,” work aimed at testing the accuracy of the Standard Model of particle physics by observing the decay of pions into associated electrons and muons with groundbreaking accuracy; this was based on work performed at the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Kentucky.

Dylan presented a poster on “TOI-6224.01 as a Key Case in Bell Observatory Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Exoplanet Candidate Follow-Ups,” co-authored with Dr.Maxx Haehn, using observations from WKU’s own Bell Observatory to compare with observations from the NASA TESS satellite.

Elena presented a poster on “Improving Introductory Physics Labs for Life Science Students at Brigham Young University,” based on work on helping students develop experimentation skills in physics laboratories; this was based on work she carried out at BYU last summer.

Lincoln received an Honorable Mention for being lead author on the poster “Development of BaF2 Gamma Detectors for Large Angle Gamma Array,” co-authored with Brennan and Dr. Ivan Novikov. This work is aimed at measuring precise angular correlations in nuclear cascade events, for comparison with numerical simulations of gamma-ray detections.

Berdi presented a paper on “Pulsed laser deposition of aluminum and zirconium for extreme UV optical coatings applications,” co-authored with former graduate student Zik Khuzhakulov, WKU faculty members Dr. Ali Er, Jasminka Terzic, and Mikhail Khenner, and Dr. Danielle Gurgew of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. This work is aimed at analyzing the structure and surface morphology of Aluminum/Zirconium multi-layer thin films for application as extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) detectors and protective coatings.

Begench presented a paper on “Gold Nanoparticle-Mediated Delivery of Methylene Blue and INF: A Dual-Action Strategy Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria, co-authored with several WKU students and Dr. Ali Er. This work seeks to use light-activated nanoparticle coatings on the surface of implanted prosthetic joints to significantly reduce the possibility of infection after joint replacement surgery.

It was a long drive to and from Harrisonburg, but definitely worth it! All of the students appreciated the opportunity to participate in this conference, and they managed to get a little sightseeing and restaurant evaluation time in as well.