Our 2015 graduates: Thaddeus Howard, Michael Klem, Michael Kalan, Aaron Mebane, Michael Hoff, Samuel Henderson, Luke Pecha, Anthony Kersting, and Luke Simmons. Not shown is Laura Aumen who won the Mayberry Award at graduation.
Physics majors celebrated Physics Week March 23-29. Activities included: (1) demonstrations of electronics projects, (2) physics research poster presentations, (3) physics fair on the mall, (4) liquid nitrogen sundaes, and (5) last, but not least, bubble soccer behind the tower. What a sight it was!
Anthony Kersting, UD senior physics major with a German concentration, has been awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship for the academic year 2015-16. Anthony has completed research in observational astronomy where he investigated dwarf n ova ASASSN-14cv. He is also a member of Lyric Theater and Collegium Cantorum. Anthony joins physics majors William Spearman (Research Fulbright to CERN in 2008) and Jamie Antonelli (Research Fulbright to France in 2005) as recent physics majors who have won this prestigious award.
Three senior physics majors presented the results of their senior research projects at the Spring 2015 Meeting of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society. The meeting was held at Lee College, March 6-7, 2015.
Anthony Kersting, Richard Olenick, and Arthur Sweeney
(University of Dallas)
On June 21, 2014 a new bright cataclysmic variable star, ASASSN-14cv, was detected in the constellation Draco by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, ASAS-SN. The 13th magnitude CV matches to a blue 19th magnitude SDSS star, but no previous outburst data is to be found in CRTS data. During follow-up observations performed using the University of North Texas' Monroe Robotic Observatory, the CV was observed over the course of ten nights for a total of 495 images from its early plateau stage until quiescence. Ensemble photometry performed on the raw images was used to produce light curves for the CV which were then analyzed in order to determine an early superhump period of 0.0592 d. During quiescence the orbital period was measured to be 0.0609 d. Early outburst data is rare and few observers go on to perform careful analysis of such data, making these results of particular interest in studying CVs.
Laura Aumen, Richard Olenick, and Arthur Sweeney
(University of Dallas)
Wide angle survey measurements;by the University of Dallas Small Telescope Extrasolar
Transit Survey (STExTS) in the summer of 2012 found that the star GSC02087-01126 exhibits
characteristics of a possible transit. According to the UCAC4 catalogue, the star
has a (B-V)o magnitude of 0.265, corresponding to a temperature of 7402 K, which
is a reasonable for a star in possession of a planet. Using the box least squares
(BLS) function, we determined a likely period for the orbit of 0.79380 days.
Calculation of the ephemeris led to taking follow up data targeted toward the specific dates of the transit in the summer of 2014 with additional follow-up;measurements in the spring of 2015 using the University of North Texas' Monroe Robotic Observatory. The observational data and calculated quantities will be presented.
Chair and Associate Professor of English Debra Romanick Baldwin, Ph.D., and Professor of Physics and recent Interim Dean of Constantin College Sally Hicks, Ph.D., have secured a $299,078 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support writing instruction at UD for the fall 2020 semester.
+ Read MoreHis first step was to enroll in physician’s assistant school at Baylor’s College of Medicine, a career trajectory to which he had aspired since his early childhood. Nowadays, Jonathan Cunningham, BA ’17, is dedicated to the vocational pursuit of comfort and healing at MD Anderson in Houston, among the largest cancer treatment centers in the U.S., where he was once a chemotherapy patient himself.
+ Read MoreDuring his Rome semester in 1991, Joseph Meaney, BA '93, with his friends (now Father) Kevin Cook, BA '94, and (now Texas State Representative and UD Trustee) Tan Parker, BA '93, attended a private Mass with Pope St. John Paul II. Several weeks earlier, they had hand-delivered a letter to the Swiss Guards outside St. Peter's requesting the Mass and including their contact information; at last, they'd received the phone call instructing them to be at the Bronze Gates at 5 a.m.
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