MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
June 2003......................................................................Newsletter...............................................................................No. 009
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
With this issue we revive a newsletter that has not been produced in several years. We ask
that each of our graduates who reads this issue supply us with a few lines telling us where you are,
what you are doing, your mailing address, your email address, and the interesting things have
happened to you. We will attempt to use a future issue of this newsletter to provide this kind of
information to other alumni of the department. Please also provide us with names and addresses of
other physics alumni with whom you are in contact. You may send information to Joe Ferguson
(jlf1@ra.msstate.edu) or Amy Massey
(amym@ra.msstate.edu), Box 5167, Mississippi State, MS
39762. Phone (662) 325-2806 or fax (662) 325-8898.
NEW DEPARTMENT HEAD, NEW FACULTY, AND NEW RESEARCH AREA
Mark Novotny is completing his
second year as department head. Dr. Novotny
grew up on a farm in western Minnesota. He
attended North Dakota State University from
which he graduated in 1973. He then went to
Stanford University and was awarded the Ph.
D. in 1978. He did a postdoctoral appointment
at the University of Georgia. After spending
some time on the faculty at the University of
Georgia and at Northeastern University, he
was a Senior Scientist at the IBM Bergen
Scientific Centre in Norway from 1986 to
1988. Before coming to MSU he spent ten
years at Florida State University's
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute and the School of Computational Science and
Information Technology where he rose to Program Director. At Mississippi State, besides serving
as Head of Physics and Astronomy, Dr. Novotny is Director of the Center for Computational
Sciences of MSU's Engineering Research Center.
Dr. Novotny's research interests include computational materials science and condensed
matter physics. He is interested in computational statistical mechanics and its application to magnetic
materials and magnetic recording. He is also an expert in algorithm development for problems in
materials science, dynamic systems, and magnetism. He has two major NSF research grants to
support his work and has collaborations with scientists at several institutions including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Florida State University, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Currently, he is working with two postdoctoral fellows, Steve Stinnett and Alice Kolakowska, and several graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Novotny is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Dr. Novotny and his wife Ann have two children, Amanda 15 and Andrew 13.
Dr. Novotny's arrival has made Mississippi State a player in the exciting field of computational physics, an area that is rapidly growing in importance. Soon after arriving at MSU, Dr. Novotny recruited two other new physics faculty members who also work in this area.
Dr. Seong Gon Kim has his B.S. from Seoul National University and M.S. and Ph. D. from Michigan State University. He has worked at Vanderbilt University and at the Naval Research Laboratory and, before coming to MSU, was employed as Director of Technology at Wise Nut, Inc., a Silicon Valley search engine company. A current research interest is in transport of electrons through nanoscale molecular electronic devices. His studies include electronic structure of semiconductors and other technologically important materials. Dr. Kim's wife, Jinwon, and their three children are all accomplished musicians. Danbe, 16, and Michael, 12, are already members of the Starkville Symphony Orchestra and Barunie, 10, can't be far behind.
Also joining our faculty last year was Dr. Torsten Clay, a native of Kentucky, who received a B.S. from Yale University and a Ph. D. from the University of Illinois. Before coming to MSU, Dr. Clay had a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Arizona. He is particularly interested in computational studies of strongly correlated electronic materials including studies of organic superconductors. Besides being an excellent physicist, Dr. Clay is an avid amateur astronomer and exceptional fiddler. In several local performances he has been accompanied, on the keyboard, by his wife Hiroko.
THREE FACULTY MEMBERS ARE CURRENTLY ADMINISTRATORS
Three longtime members of the faculty are currently away from teaching and spending much of their time in administrative positions.
Dr. Robert L. Cook, who spent a number of years as Deputy Director of Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory (DIAL), is now Director of the new Center for Advanced Energy Conversion (CAEC). With funding from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, Dr. Cook and his colleagues are working on hydrogen as a fuel, a hypersonic vehicle electric power system, fuel cell technology, and other possible solutions to our energy problems.
Dr. Leslie Bauman has spent the last year as head of MSU's self study which must be done in connection with our accreditation by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Dr. Bauman will be returning to the teaching faculty this summer.
Dr. Sandra Harpole has for the last few years split her time between teaching in our
department and serving as director of the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Technology (CSMT).
This center has its focus on human resource development issues in preparing people for work, in
curriculum reform, teacher enhancement, advanced technology and faculty development. In addition,
for the past year Dr. Harpole has been Interim Associate Vice President for Research.
TWO GRADUATES PRESENT COLLOQUIA
Two former undergraduate physics majors at MSU returned this school year to make
presentations at departmental colloquia.
This spring, Dr. Greg Hartwell described his work with Auburn University's Compact Toroidal Hybrid, a fusion energy experiment. Greg's main interest is in the magnetic confinement of fusion plasmas in stellerator devices. He is closely involved in all aspects of the Auburn project from the design of magnetic coils to actually winding them and from computer modeling of the plasmas to measuring their properties.
Greg is a native of Moss Point who graduated from MSU in 1983. He worked for two years at MSU's MHD Laboratory (now DIAL) before going on to graduate school at Auburn. He obtained his Ph. D. in 1993. He taught for two years at Middle Georgia College before returning to Auburn. He has been at Auburn since 1998 and is currently Assistant Research Professor.
In March, Greg married Tammy Beck, who is a development officer at Auburn. Tammy has two sons from a previous marriage. Greg and Tammy have recently purchased a new house.
Last November, Sarah Nagel presented a talk entitled Laser-Cooled Strontium Experiments: Trapping Metastables and Ultracold Plasmas. Sarah is currently in graduate school at Rice University. She is president of the physics graduate student association there and received the Uland Award for meritorious services to her fellow graduate students.
Sarah, a Starkville native, is a 2001 graduate of MSU. While at MSU Sarah was the leader
of our Society of Physics Students and is the originator of our "Physics Tea" in which faculty and
students gather for refreshments and talks on topics of interest to all. As an undergraduate, Sarah
won our Jack Denson Award for the Outstanding Teaching Assistant. At MSU Sarah was awarded
both Edward F. Scott and Frank L. Culley Memorial Scholarships.
FEATURED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
Davis Herring is a senior physics major. Although he has more than enough hours to graduate, he will spend another year at MSU. Davis, who is from Starkville, entered MSU at the age of 15 as a Rundel Scholar. Even at that age, he entered MSU with enough AP and other credits to be classified as a sophomore immediately. A sophomore in college and no driver's license! Davis has been selected as an Outstanding Honors Senior and was recently inducted into the MSU Society of Scholars. As a sophomore Davis, who is also majoring in computer science, won the campus computing competition in which many of the contestants were computer science graduate students. He was a member of a programming team which finished first at the Southeast US Regionals for the ACM International Collegiate Programming Competition. His team also did well at the World Finals of the Java Challenge, finishing in fifth place. For the last two years Davis has worked with Dr. John Foley, of our department, on WebTOP, which provides on-screen interactive visualizations of many important optical phenomena. You can try out some of his work at
Among other things, Davis is known around the physics department for his extremely brief, although usually correct and insightful, solutions to problems. In fact, in Optics class he was halfway through the semester before he used a sheet of his own paper on a homework assignment. He just wrote his solutions at the bottom of the assignment sheet. On the average the other students were turning in five or six pages of solutions which were not as neat, clear, or clever as those from Davis.
Davis is spending this summer at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing research.
FEATURED GRADUATE STUDENT
At 6' 6" and over 400 pounds, Jerry Middleton is the gentle giant of the physics department. Jerry is working on his masters degree in nuclear physics under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Winger. His work involves the level structures of Sulfur-41 and Sulfur-39.
Besides being one of the most visible members of our department, Jerry is also one of the most well-traveled. He was born in the Azores and, because his father was in the Air Force, has lived in many places including California, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Florida, Delaware, and Arkansas, where he graduated from high school. He began his higher education at the United States Merchant Marine Academy which afforded him the opportunity for travel to Holland, Germany, England, Honduras, and Panama. Jerry transferred to MSU and earned a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering in 1993.
Jerry began graduate school in physics in 1994. He interrupted his studies in 1995 to go to Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he worked on designing radioactive ion beam targets and sources. In January of 1998 he moved to Houston to join Engineering Cybernetics doing work in finite element analysis. In November of that year he moved to the Technical Analysis Group of Wellstream, Inc. He found time in 1999 for a personal trip to China. In November of 2000 he became a pipeline engineer with J. Ray McDermott in Houston. With that same company, in August of 2001, he transferred to the Marine Division as Project Engineer.
Jerry resumed his studies at MSU in January of this year. This spring he was a teaching
assistant instructing laboratories for non-calculus-based introductory physics. Among his hobbies
Jerry lists chasing women, practicing the guitar, reading, dining out and the movies.
LESTRADE WINS TEACHING AWARD
At the 38th Annual Faculty Recognition Banquet of the MSU Alumni Association Dr. John Patrick Lestrade received this year's award for teaching at the freshman and sophomore level. He was singled out for his teaching of astronomy and astrophysics and for his involvement of lower level students in his research. Lestrade is known for his good humor and for setting very high standards for his students.
Dr. Lestrade's research centers on gamma ray bursts. He was involved with NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory from before its launch until it came out of orbit several years ago. He even took a large group of physics majors to Huntsville to work in the GRO clean room before the observatory went up. His fluency in French has greatly facilitated his work with the French Space Agency in connection with its orbiting gamma ray observatory.
Before joining our department in 1984, Dr. Lestrade spent several years on the faculty at Texas A&M University. He is a native of New Orleans and has an undergraduate degree from the University of New Orleans. He has masters degrees from Purdue and from Rice; his Ph. D. is from Rice. His wife, Patricia, is on the faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages at MSU. Their children, Erin and Sean, are both graduates of MSU.
Dr. Lestrade joins a long list of members of our faculty who have been recognized for their
excellence. Former winners of Alumni Association teaching awards are Clifford Rose, Terry Crow,
Joe Ferguson, and John Foley. Bob Cook and Rodney "Buz" Piercey received the Association's
research awards and Sandra Harpole earned the service award. The Southeastern Section of the
American Physical Society recognized Joe Ferguson with its Pegram Award for teaching. John
Foley has received MSU's Burlington Northern Award for teaching. Sandra Harpole has been
designated a John Grisham Master Teacher. Before joining MSU, as a high school teacher, Dr.
Harpole was honored at the White House with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and
Mathematics Teaching. Last year, Paul Cuicchi, Starkville High School physics teacher and part-time member of our faculty, was Mississippi's Teacher of the Year. He was also honored at the
White House.
HILBUN HALL MAKEOVER
As recent visitors to campus realize, Hilbun Hall has undergone a renovation. We have now
been in the "new" Hilbun for over two
years. During the construction period we
occupied parts of Ethredge, Patterson, and
Allen Halls and our classes were held in
various buildings around campus. The
improvements to Hilbun cost about $6.5M
and took 18 months. Hilbun has a new
sloped aluminum roof instead of the old flat
asphalt one that always leaked. There is a
new heating and cooling system. Wiring and
plumbing were replaced throughout the
building. The dingy old elevator was
replaced by a roomy new hydraulic model.
The dimly lit hallways are no more. Bright
lighting abounds. Every floor now has both
men's and women's restrooms. There is a new cover over the "porch" at the back of the breezeway.
Fortunately, although almost every surface in the building is new, we managed to refinish and retain
our beautiful old maple top laboratory tables. Architects for the project were Pryor and Morrow of
Columbus and the main contractor was West Brothers, also of Columbus.
In spite of the improvements, a few problems remain. We share Hilbun Hall with the
Geosciences Department (Geology, Geography, and Meteorology). Both of our growing departments
are in great need of more space. Physics is particularly short of storage space. The old "dungeon,"
on the west end, that used to hold much of our equipment is no more. Much of that area became
hallway and stairwell; previously there was neither a stairway to the first floor nor an outside
entrance on the west end of the basement. The new awnings out front seem to be irresistible nesting
places for dozens of sparrows. The recently-installed plastic owl and ultrasonic bird repeller seem
to be having no effect. We are thinking of trying plastic snakes next spring. The occupants of Hilbun
are now safer with a sprinkler system and modern smoke detectors. However, after several false
alarms the supersensitivity of these detectors has forced us to abandon a few laboratory experiments
and lecture demonstrations which generate a little too much smoke.
GRILLOT PROVIDES MUCH-NEEDED SCHOLARSHIP
The newest scholarship for physics majors is the Larry and Judy Grillot Endowed Scholarship. Larry Grillot received his B.S. degree in Physics from Mississippi State University in 1968 and his Ph.D. in geophysics from Brown University in 1973. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Grillot joined Phillips Petroleum Company where he had a distinguished career that included research on experimental seismic methods and electromagnetic exploration techniques. He spent time in London where he was Chief Geophysicist for Africa Exploration. Later, in Calgary, he served as General Manager of Phillips Petroleum Canada responsible for Phillips Exploration and Production activities in Canada. After that he served as International Exploration Manager, Worldwide Exploration Division. Dr Grillot served on the boards of several organizations including the Bartlesville, Oklahoma Boys & Girls Club. He is a member of the Society Of Exploration Geophysicists and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Dr. Grillot and his wife, Judy, have recently retired to the Mississippi coast.
The establishment of this scholarship by the Grillots is helping to fill one of the department's
greatest needs. We never have enough scholarship funds to attract and support all of the excellent
students who express an interest in physics at MSU. In addition to the new Grillot scholarship we
have the following: Terry T. Crow Scholarship (which honors the former faculty member and
department head), E. Irl Howell Scholarship in Physics (named for and contributed by the longtime
department head), Hunter Henry Scholarship (contributed by the former Dow Chemical executive,
for whom the new MSU Alumni Center is named, and his family), Clifford A. Rose Scholarship
(named for the late member of the faculty), M. Stanley Rundel Memorial Scholarship (contributed
by Dr. Robert Rundel, a former faculty member, in honor of his late father), Edward Fulton Scott
Memorial Scholarship (contributed by the family of late faculty member), and Frank L. Culley
Memorial Scholarship (awarded in alternate years to a senior in physics or mathematics.) A few of
these scholarships have small endowments which generate funds adequate for a small scholarship
in good stock market years. The others depend entirely on yearly contributions. In some years there
is not enough money in some of these scholarships to give even a one-time thousand dollar
scholarship. If you wish to add to one of these scholarships you can send your contribution to
Mississippi State University Foundation Inc., PO Box 6149, Mississippi State, MS 39762. When you
do so, please specify the scholarship name and emphasize that it is for physics. In some cases there
are scholarships with similar names in other departments.
RAGLAND ADVANCED LABORATORY DEDICATED
Mr. Ragland has for some time had a deep interest in physics. This made it very fitting for
Mr. Henry, former DOW Chemical executive, to select this laboratory dedication as a means of
honoring his friend. Hunter and Lila Henry have established a fund to help support the advanced
laboratory. New equipment already purchased from this fund includes an Electron Spin
Resonance/Nuclear Magnetic Resonance apparatus.
TWO SUCCESSFUL PHYSICS COMPETITIONS
This past school year we held two types of physics competitions for high school students, our
usual written test competition held on the day of the spring Discovery MSU and a new Full Moon
online competition.
Our twenty-second annual MSU Physics Competition was held on February 14. There were
two different written tests: the Einstein test for first year physics students and the Newton test for
more advanced students. Sixty-six students took the Newton test that had thirty multiple-choice
problems and two show-your-work tiebreakers. Faculty members who examined this test considered
it to be more difficult than the typical calculus-based college physics final exam and predicted that
no one would get over 27 questions right. We were surprised and pleased that three students tied
with 29 (of the possible 30) correct answers. Only with the grading of the two tiebreakers did Vernon
Chaplin, of Indian Springs School in Alabama, emerge as first place winner. One of the top three
performers, Barry Youngblood of Mississippi School for Math and Science and Gulfport, is
accepting the scholarship he won at the competition and is enrolled as a physics major at MSU for
the fall semester. Almost 180 students took the Einstein test that also had 30 multiple-choice
questions, many of them conceptual. The top performer was Max Juchheim, of Kirk Academy, with
29 correct answers.
Last fall we began an online Full Moon Competition held on the first school day after the full
moon in October and November. On the specified dates, teams from participating schools logged
on to our website to read their problem. They then had 90 minutes to solve the problem and submit
the solution. There were competitions for both two-student teams and for ten-student teams. In
October the winner among two-person teams was "No Numbers Needed" from Mississippi School
for Math and Science (MSMS). Their supervising teacher was Dr. LeRoy Wenstrom. The winning
ten-person team was "Sapientia Excelsior" from Picayune High School; the team was supervised by
Mrs. April Fowler. In the November competition both events were won by MSMS teams supervised
by Dr. Wenstrom. "No Numbers Needed" again took the two-person event. The ten-person event was
won by a team called "Battle Dome." As part of their reward the teams from MSMS visited MSU
on January 31 for Pizza, presentation of certificates, tours of research facilities, and brief talks by
several of our faculty members. The winning team from Pacayune received a visit from Dr. John
Foley who presented their certificates and a lecture demonstration on Lasers and Applications. He
also gave the lecture in three other Pacayune classes. The Full Moon problems and some of the
winning solutions can be viewed at
On November 30, 2002 our Advanced
Physics Laboratory was renamed in honor of Mr.
Evan Ragland. This honoring of Mr. Ragland was
suggested and made possible by his longtime
friend, Mr. Hunter Henry. Mr. Ragland is a 1949
graduate of Mississippi State. He had a
distinguished career in engineering and made many
contributions to the development of computer-related technology and systems. He has eight U.S.
and a number of foreign patents. Of particular note
are his work on digital-to-voice conversion, the
Regitel point-of-sale system, and the development
of the Daisy Wheel Printer. His original Daisy
Wheel Printer has been in the Smithsonian
Institution since 1991. EFTS Corporation, which he founded in 1976, pioneered the development
of now widely-used online electronic fund transfer systems. Shown in the photograph are left-to-right: Mark Novotny, Hunter Henry, Evan Ragland, and Phil Oldham (Dean of Arts and Sciences.)