Student Research in Physics | University of Puget Sound

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The physics department at Puget Sound is committed to providing a wide array of undergraduate research opportunities for our students. These include senior thesis projects and summer research on campus, working one-on-one with Puget Sound physics faculty. The “Summer Research Grants in Science and Mathematics” program provides students with a stipend and a summer housing option, as well as a forum for poster presentation at the Fall Student Research Symposium.

Many students continue their summer research into the following school year and make additional presentations of their work at both regional and national conferences including those of the Washington Space Grant Consortium, the Murdock College Science Research Conference, The American Physical Society, and the Acoustical Society of America.

Puget Sound research students have co-authored papers with faculty in peer-reviewed journals including Physical Review C (nuclear physics), Journal of Physics G (nuclear and particle physics), and Applied Optics.

Off-campus summer research opportunities are also available through a variety of programs including “Research Experiences for Undergraduates” (REU), sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Recent Puget Sound physics students have done summer research at institutions including the University of Washington, University of Arkansas, University of Virginia, University of Southern California, University of Oklahoma, Baylor University, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Recent Student Research Projects at Puget Sound

Isabel Mejia Natividad Determining the Effect of Raindrops Impact Location on Seed Dispersal Of Splash-Cup Plants Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2018
William Miyahira Polarizing Majorana Fermions Advised by Professor David Latimer Summer 2018
Olivia Perotti Does Flowing Water Change Cell Body Orientation in Vorticella Convallaria? Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2018
Noah Stewart Identifying Gerrymandering in New Mexico; Using the Efficiency Gap and Mathematical Compactness Summer 2018
Patrick Wigger Measuring Fluorescence Lifetimes using Upconversion Spectroscopy Advised by Professor Amy Spivey Summer 2018
Kyle Miller High Throughput Molecular Simulations into the Morphology of P3HT:PCBM Blends Boise State University Advised by Dr. Eric Jankowski
Patrick Zimmerman Modeling geometries to couple fluorescence from luminescent solar concentrators into fiber optic cables Advised by Professor Amy Spivey Summer 2017
William Miyahira Experimental observation and analysis of muted drumheads using electronic speckle-pattern interferometry Advised by Professor Rand Worland Summer 2017
Cory Koehler Measurement of the fluorescence lifetimes of colloidal CdSe quantum dots with thiol capping ligands Advised by Professor Amy Spivey Summer 2017
Alex Kaufman Two-body charged particle interaction considering time symmetric relativistic effects and self-force Advised by Professor David Latimer Summer 2017
Jessy Hosken Measuring the effects of ligands on the fluorescence lifetimes of quantum dots for use in luminescent solar concentrators Advised by Professor Amy Spivey Summer 2017
Matthew Fergoda Applying improved temperature-dependent CRI to a model of radiative flux in the Antarctic Advised by Steven Neshyba Summer 2017
Juliana Echternach '17 The Effect of Splash Cup Pitch Angle on Seed Dispersal in Wet Splash-Cup Plants Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2016
Matty Specht Determining the Benefits of Vorticello Cell Body Motion Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2016
Alex Lutton Is the Stokeslet Model Sufficient for Finding Nutrient Uptake of Microscopic Sessile Suspension Feeders? Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2016
Alex Kaufman Overcoming Challenges in Prey Contact and Capture at Low Reynolds Number Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2016
Sam Boos How does the Micro-Splashing Threshold Change with Drop Size? Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2016
Jordan Fonseca '18 Construction and Testing of Ultrafast Spectroscopy Setup to Probe Luminescence Dynamics for the Development of Luminescent Solar Concentrators Advised by Professor Amy Spivey Summer 2016
Sam Berling '17 Vibrational Patterns in Curved Metal Plates Advised by Professor Rand Worland Summer 2016
Matt Fergoda Removing Mass to Tune the Fundamental and First Overtone Frequencies of Lamellophone Tines Advised by Professor Rand Worland Summer 2016
Zach Armstrong The Acoustics of Harmon Mutes Advised by Professor Rand Worland Summer 2016
Libby Dabrowski '17 Design of Millimeter-Wave Bandpass Filters for use in CMB Detectors University of Wisconsin - Madison Advised by Peter Timbie NSF REU Program Summer 2016
Kyle Miller Replacing Lead in Hbrid Perovskite for more Sustainable Optoelectronic Devices Advised by Russell Holmes University of Minnesota Center for Engineering and Materials Science MRSEC REU Program Summer 2016
Garrett Buffington '16 Splashing on Wetted Granular Beds Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2015
Libby Dabrowski '17 The Characterization of 15 Nearby Stars University of Oklahoma NSF REU program Advised by: Jamie Lomax, PhD. Evan Rich and John Wisniewski. Summer 2015
Joel Eklof '16 Seed Characteristics Matter in the Dispersal of Splash Cup Plants Advised by Professor Rachel Pepper Summer 2015
Juliana Echternach '17 Suspended Carbon Nanotube Growth on pn-junction Devices and Chip-to-Chip Transfers. University of Southern California Advised by: Professor Steven Cronin Summer 2015
Jordan Fonseca '18 Validation Study of the C++ Cloud Lofting Module for DIORAMA Research Los Alamos National Laboratory Advised by: Dr. Andrew Walker Summer 2015
Audrey Kvam '15 Modifying NMR Probe Electronics in the Muon g-2 Experiment at the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics (CENPA) at the University of Washington Advised by: Erik Swanson and Professor Alejandro Garcia Summer 2014
Ben Boe '15 Pitch Angle Survey of GOODS Spiral Galaxies University of Arkansas, Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Science Advised by Professor Daniel Kennefick Summer 2014
Kyle Whitcomb '15 Scattering of a Point-like Anapole Advised by Professor David Latimer Summer 2014
Ben Boe '15 Experimental & Numerical Analysis of Coupling Between Musical Drumheads Advised by Professor Worland Summer 2013
Nick Davenport Observations of Quantized Conductance Over Nanowires Advised by Professor Elliott Summer 2013
Audrey Kvam The Propagation of Light Through Dark Matter Advises by Professor Latimer Summer 2013
Kara Merfeld An Analytical Comparison of Methods of Rotating Anomalous U(1) Charges NSF REU Program Baylor University Advised by Professor Gerald Cleaver Summer 2013
David Clausen '13 Reversed Refraction: Negative Index Metamaterials for Microwaves Advised by Professor Spivey Summer 2012
Matt Baldwin '14 Preparation and Characterization of Ge and Co Doped V3Si Superconductors REU at University of Nevada Las Vegas Advised by Professor Rahvi Kumar Summer 2012
Eric Laukkanen ‘12 Modeling and Tuning of Musical Percussive Beams Advised by Professor Worland Summer 2011
Casey Wall ‘12 The Zeeman Effect in Mercury Advised by Professor Thorndike Summer 2011
Taylor Firman ‘11 Quantum Conundrums: Putting Quantum Mechanics to the Test with Bell’s Inequalities Advised by Professor Thorndike Summer 2010
Ricky Roy ‘11 Design and Characterization of a Micron Scale Metastable Helium Beam Source Advised by Professor Elliott Senior Thesis
Brooke Peaden ‘12 Acoustic Effect of Holes on a Brass Disk Advised by Professor Worland Summer 2010
Nathanael Seid ‘10 Dispersion Measurements of Dyes in Solution using White-Light Interferometry Advised by Professor Spivey Summer 2009
Sara Bucht ‘10 Measuring Resistivity in Thin Films of Silver Advised by Professor Elliott Summer 2008
Sara Beck ‘08 Dispersion Measurements using White-Light Interferometry Advised by Professor Spivey Summer 2007
Ben Ice ‘08 The Physics of Fuel Cells and the Hydrogen Economy Advised by Professor Weber Honors Thesis
Jonathan Tollerud ‘07 Laser Speckle Interferometry Advised by Professor Worland Senior Thesis