Author: Erik Parker, Torch Staff
This semester, the Physics Department has welcomed numerous guest speakers as part of a search for a new physics professor. The recent guest speakers were four candidates selected by a search committee. Speakers who gave presentations were to be taken into consideration in the selection process. The candidates are Dr. Adam Edward, Dr. Janet Scheel, Dr. Matthew Mewes and Dr. Heun Jin Lee. The physics search committee selected these finalists after receiving almost 100 applications for the position.
The committee is composed of all the Physics faculty-Dennis Eggleston, Dan Snowden-Ifft, George Schmiedeshoff, Adrian Hightower and Alec Schramm-as well as Leila Neti (ECLS) and Gretchen North (Biology).
Physics Department Assistant Janet Morris said the four candidates have met the search committee members as well as Dean of the College Eric Frank, Associate Dean of the College Phoebe Dea and Associate Dean for Curriculum & Academic Affairs Michael McDonald. The candidates have also met with a volunteer student search committee.
Each candidate gave two presentations, “one on their own research interests and the other a mock classroom lecture on an assigned subject,” Morris said. The first speaker was Edwards on Tuesday, January 29.
Edwards has a Ph.D from Stanford University and is currently teaching and conducting research at nearby Pomona College. In his talk, “Particle Physics-Physics at the Petabyte Scale,” he addressed the questions “What are the fundamental constituents of the universe?” and: “What are the fundamental laws that govern their interaction?” Edwards discussed his work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, where Nobel Prize-winning physics discoveries have been made.
Scheel was the next speaker to present her research on Thursday, January 31. She is currently an assistant professor of physics at California Lutheran University and she obtained her Ph.D from the California Institute of Technology. Her talk was entitled “Rayleigh-Benard Convection: A Paradigmatic System for Studying Pattern Formation.”
The third speaker was Mewes. On Monday, February 4, he spoke on “Testing the Limits of Relativity.” Mewes has a Ph.D from Indiana University and is a visiting assistant professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
The final candidate, Lee, spoke on Tuesday, February 5, with his presentation entitled “Using Force to Describe Membrane Structure.” Like Edwards, he has a Ph.D from Stanford University. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology.
Morris said that all four candidates had busy days visiting campus, and that their research presentations were well attended.
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