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Physics Newsletter 2019
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What is in the Haggerty Science Center basement…?
By RuthAnne Ard - February 16, 2024
Two research students work with radiation and don’t turn into the Hulk
This past summer, a team at the University of Dallas consisting of Dr. David Catlett
and two research students, Thomas Waterman, sophomore physics major, and Jaihan Utailawon,
junior physics major, collaborated with Texas A&M and Cerium Labs for a research project.
Recruited by affiliate research professor Dr. Will Flanagan, Catlett’s experience
working in the semiconductor industry made him perfect for running the UD section.
Catlett’s team created a scenario to bombard a SRAM – a computer memory chip – with neutrons and observe the effects. At the same time, Dr. Jacob Moldenhauer worked with a group of students at CERN to observe the time of flight in neutrons. Moldenhauer’s work contributed to the understanding of nuclear physics, while Catlett’s work focused on the computer industry.
The students worked to simulate the experiment using a program called GEANT-4. This allowed them to calculate overall radiation dosage and exposure and create a chamber to contain both the source, californium 252, and the experiment.
They constructed a box out of cement in the basement of HSC, ensuring no radiation escaped the area of experimentation. The goal was to test semiconductors for boron 10. Computers using this isotope are subject to disruption and self-fission upon encountering neutrons. This affects what materials can be used in computers used in space, for example. To read more click below.
Physics Profess, Students Develop Smallest Neutron Detector
Assistant Professor of Physics Will Flanagan, PhD, was recently awarded a $450,000 contract from the Air Force for his work in developing the world’s smallest neutron detector. Of this grant, $135,000 will go to UD to support Flanagan’s work with undergraduate physics students in the Physics Department at UD; the remainder will go to the small business colleagues in Austin with whom the UD team is collaborating.
For what does one use the world’s smallest neutron detector? One important use is to detect radioactive material — i.e., the plutonium or uranium core of a nuclear weapon — as it sneaks across the border; the device would be used at ports of entry such as seaports and airports. Flanagan himself is a second lieutenant in the Texas Army National Guard; his unit is the one that would respond to a nuclear disaster.
Physics Students Spend Summers at CERN as Part of New Collaboration
IRVING, Texas (Nov. 20, 2023) — Most University of Dallas students trade the mesquite
trees of Dallas, TX, for the vineyards of Marino for a summer experience of licking
gelato and discussing architecture under the warm European sun. Still others trade
the prairie lands in summer months for the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research
in particle physics, thanks to a collaboration between the n_TOF experiment at CERN and the Department of Physics at UD.