Nearly all the material a student encounters in the undergraduate physics curriculum is based on discoveries and insights of a century or more in the past. Newton’s laws were formulated in the 1600’s; Maxwell’s equations, 1800’s; and quantum mechanics, early 1900’s. To give our students a sense of the present frontiers, we encourage them to take part in frontline research of our faculty. Of course, not every student will find it fruitful to be so engaged and not every faculty’s research will be accessible for undergraduate participation. At Virginia Tech, many students are involved, with different professors, to various extents, during regular academic semesters as well as over the summer months. Below is a partial list of the students presently engaged in REU, their advisors, and the topics of their research.

In addition to gaining research experience, a student can earn wages at some hourly rate. Alternatively, academic credits can be earned through “PHYS 2994 Undergraduate Research.” For those in the Honors program, the work may be written up as a Senior thesis.

John Hoffman, Physics '11, is working with Royce Zia (NSF-DMR-0414122+0705152) on phase transitions in a quasi one-dimensional driven diffusive system. His discoveries were reported recently in the 98th Statistical Mechanics Conference.

Sam Abboud, Physics '07, Richard Foster, Physics '06, and Kevin Finelli, Physics '09, have worked with Mark Pitt on hardware and software projects for two high energy electron scattering experiments - G-ZERO and with Qweak.

Geoff Adams, Physics and Biology '06, carried out Monte Carlo simulations to study population dynamics models with Uwe Täuber (NSF DMR-0308548).

Anna Belak, Physics '08, has embarked on a project with Vicki Soghomonian to capture AFM (atomic force microscopy) images of various DNA molecules on different surfaces.

George Daquila, Physics '06, is working with Uwe Täuber on numerical simulations for driven magnetic flux lines in superconductors with tilted columnar defects (NSF DMR-0308548).

Richard Foster, Physics '06, contributed to the development of a holographic scanning microscope with Guy Indebetouw, carrying out studies for the digital reconstruction of micro-holograms. Publication of this research has been accepted by the Journal of Optical Soc. Am.

Christopher "Ryan" Luck, Physics ’06, continues to work with Louis Guido on Gallium Nitride characterization.

Julian McMorrow, Physics '09, is working with Hans Robinson on the fabrication of metallic nanostructures for surface plasmon enhancement of non-linear optical effects in polymer films.

Devon Triplett, Physics '07, is helping Hans Robinson with the assembly and validation of an ultra low temperature adiabatic demagnetization cryostat.

Emily Wade, Physics '08 and Brett Spencer, Physics '07 are setting up an ultrafast laser spectroscopy laboratory with Giti Khodaparast and her graduate students.

Eric Ward, Physics '07, will join Jean Heremans and Vicki Soghomonian, performing charge transport experiments on molecular and organic systems, and developing measurement procedures for these systems and for nanoscale electronic applications.

Mark J. Washenberger, Physics and Computer Science '06, continues to work with Uwe Täuber on Monte Carlo simulations for diffusion-limited chemical reactions and population dynamics models (NSF DMR-0075725/0308548, Jeffress Memorial Trust). This research was published in Journal of Physics and a new e-journal: JSTAT.

Our students are also encouraged to participate in REU programs at other institutions around the country, typically over the summer months. Recent participants include:

Chris Knorowski, Physics '09, worked on self-assembly of triblock copolymers at the Ames Research Laboratory in summer 2007. This research was published in the Journal of Chemical Physics. In summer 2008, Chris will intern at the National Renewable Energy Lab.

…and some recent alumni…

Their undergraduate research at Virginia Tech not only resulted in publications, but also contributed significantly toward their garnering the Goldwater Scholarship and the NSF Graduate Fellowship.

David Adams, Physics and Computer Science '07, worked on three different projects with Beate Schmittmann and Royce Zia (NSF-DMR-0414122): domain growth in biased diffusion of two species , power spectrum in the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process ,and the application of this lattice model to protein synthesis in an environment of limited resources. He is now pursuing a PhD in Physics at University of Michgan.

David Erickson, Physics and Mathematics '06, investigated phase transitions in non-equilibrium statistical mechanical systems with Beate Schmittmann and Royce Zia, carrying out Monte Carlo studies for a model for "traffic across a narrow bridge" (NSF-DMR-0414122). Currently, he is at UCLA, going after a PhD in Physics.

With Beate Schmittmann and Royce Zia, Brian Skinner, Physics and Mechanical Engineering '06, worked on modeling host-parasite population dynamics in the context of non-equilibrium statistical mechanicals (NSF-DMR-0414122). Brian won a coverted NSF Graduate Fellowship in his Senior year, to pursue a PhD in Physics at the University of Minnesota.

Seth Hornstein, Physics '00, installed an H-alpha filter on the 0.4 meter telescope at Martin Observatory with John Simonetti. in order to search for new supernovae explosions in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. He also participated in an REU at the Maria Mitchell Observatory (Nantucket, MA) in the summer of 1999. A graduate student in UCLA, he will be getting his PhD soon.

Andrew J. Landhal, Physics and Mathematics '96, solved “a two-person perfect information game with a quantum computer” with Lay-Nam Chang. After completing his PhD in Physics in 2002 at Caltech, he went to the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT as a postdoctoral fellow. Presently, he is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of New Mexico

Jerome T. “Jay” Mettetal, Physics '03, worked with Beate Schmittmann and Royce Zia on anomalous coarsening in a quasi one dimensional driven lattice gas (NSF DMR-0088451). This study was published in Europhysics Letters. After getting his PhD from van Oudenaarden's System Biology group at MIT in 2007, he joined the Systems Biology Group of Pfizer in Cambridge, MA.

Beth A. Reid, Physics ‘03, worked with Uwe Täuber on Monte Carlo simulations for reaction-controlled diffusion model (NSF DMR-0075725/0308548, Jeffress Memorial Trust). This work was published in Physical Review. Beth received the American Society of Physics Students'  Outstanding Student Award for Undergraduate Research, and was a finalist for the American Physical Society's LeRoy Apker Award for Undergraduate Physics Achievement. She is pursuing a PhD at Princeton.

Leah B. Shaw Chock, Physics and Mathematics ’98, discovered new phases in a simple model, of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics: a driven lattice gas with anisotropic interactions, with Beate Schmittmann and Royce Zia (NSF DMR-9727574). This research was published in the Journal of Statistical Physics Physica, and Computer Physics Communications. After completing her PhD at Cornell in May 2004, Leah remained briefly at Cornell as a postdoctoral fellow before moving to the Naval Research Laboratory, where she worked on theoretical/computational modeling of the spread of dengue fever. In Fall 2007, she joined the Department of Applied Science of William and Mary as an Assistant Professor.

Michael Zwolak, Physics ‘03, worked mainly with Max diVentra (now at UC San Diego) on various topics in computational nanotechnology. Their studies are published in Nano Letters, Physical Review, and Applied Physics Letters. He also published an article on a percolation problem in Solid State Communications with Richard Zallen and Max diVentra. Mike is pursuing a PhD at Cal Tech