The UTEP Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been selected as an Outstanding SPS Chapter for the 2007-2008 school year. The selection is based on the depth and breadth of SPS activities conducted by the chapter in such areas as physics research, public science outreach, physics tutoring programs, hosting and representation at physics meetings and events, and providing social interaction for chapter members. Congratulations to our students and the faculty leaders Bill Durrer (retd) and Eric Hagedorn !!  

The soccer-ball-shaped C60 buckyball can be viewed as the smallest molecule in a family of icosahedral carbon fullerenes that approach the flat graphene sheet when the number of atoms becomes large. In a joint article to be published in Physical Review B, UTEP researchers Rajendra R. Zope and Tunna Baruah in collaboration with researchers from Georgetown University and Naval Research Laboratory, have used computer simulations to show that boron, carbon's neighbor in the periodic table, can form an analogous family of stable fullerenes that ranges from the buckyball-like B80 to a flat boron sheet. Each boron fullerene has a precise structural relationship to its carbon counterpart, and also has the same number of valence electrons. Mathematically, these icosahedral carbon and boron fullerene families can be described as 60n^2 and 80n^2 families where n is an integer. In both the icosahedral fullerenes and their boron analogs, the electronic band gap, which arises from quantum confinement of electrons, decreases with increasing cluster size. However, unlike the carbon clusters, for which the band gap approaches zero only in the limit of infinite size, the boron fullerenes are predicted to transition to a metallic state at a cluster size of about 2000 atoms. The boron sheet is metallic whereas the graphene sheet is semi-metal. Recently, the existence of B80 fullerene and the boron sheet was predicted independently by two groups from Rice and Yale University. While there are a few recent works on boron nanostructures, this research from UTEP now establishes a connection between these two earlier important predictions. It also explains the unusual stability of these boron cages. The pictures of C60 and B80 and their big brothers (C240 and B320) from the above mentioned fullerene families are shown below. This research forms an important step toward the understanding of boron nanostructures. 
 

Dear Physics students,

We would like to invite you to come to our “end-of-the-year” party on Friday, May 15, from 1 pm to 5 pm. The party will give you the opportunity to:
 
1) celebrate the best among your peers in the award ceremony;
 
2) get to know the physics professors better, those you already met in your classes and those you have only seen or heard of;
 
3) get the chance to ask them what is going on in those research labs you pass by in the halls, but never had a chance to see for yourselves;
 
4) get to meet your fellow students, talk to the new freshmen and sophomores, or see who are the juniors and seniors, what the grad students are doing, and so on;  
 
5) enjoy a free meal, have fun and feel part of the physics family.

Program:
1) Award ceremony: awards will be given to the best student at each level (freshman, sophomoe, etc), including best grad, and other surprise awards too.
 
2)  Party:   On the lawn in front of the Engineering Building

Time: 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm

Don’t miss this chance to have fun and connect to other “physics-addicts”!  

Please let Terry or Liz know you are attending the party before Tuesday, May 12, 2009!  Please bring a snack or you can prepare some food from your country to share with us.  Hot dogs, hamburgers and drinks will be provided. 
 

Dr. Vivian Incera joins the physics department as chair from January. The department welcomes Prof. Incera.  

The 2009 SAN DIEGO SCIENCE FESTIVAL (SDSF) is the first and largest celebration of its kind on the West Coast. Celebrating this year's theme, "The Science of You," the Festival will provide 500+ free and entertaining science outreach activities to Greater San Diego County throughout the month of March. Programs include on-site activities at local schools, once-in-a-lifetime field trips, and science workshops at local businesses and research facilities suitable for all ages. The Festival concludes with Expo Day, a day-long celebration in Balboa Park on Saturday April 4, 2009. On Expo Day, science takes over the museums, cultural centers, and the central corridor of Balboa Park with over 300 hands-on activities, demonstrations, experiments, contests, and performances. San Diego Science Festival is a collaboration of over 100 leading science organizations and is facilitated by BioBridge, a program of UC San Diego.  

Angel Esparza, a physics graduate student from UTEP Environmental Science and Engineering PhD program has won an international student competition from the division of Urban Environment of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Angel’s PhD work is mentored by Dr. Rosa Fitzgerald. He won the "Outstanding Poster Presentation” award with a work entitled “Aerosol Characterization in a City Influenced by Both Rural and Urban Regions”, Authors: Angel Esparza, R.M. Fitzgerald and J. Polanco. The presentation was part of a student presentation competition at the Annual American Meteorological Society Meeting, held in Phoenix, from Jan.11-15, 2009. Congratulations to Angel and to Dr. Fitzgerald for this achievement!

UTEP physics undergraduate Judith Rivera was honored during the Closing Awards Ceremony of the 2009 Joint-Annual Conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists on February 11-15 in Nashville, TN. On behalf of NSHP, NSBP, and the AIP, Ms. Rivera received an honorable re-induction into the honor society Sigma Pi Sigma for her academic excellence in physics and her contributions to physics. Judith was the only Hispanic and the only female inducted (out of a total of 5 awardees).
Judith, congratulations from the Physics Department, we are all proud of you!  

The Texas Section of the American Physical Society awarded Best Student Presentation Award to Antonio Ramos (UTEP-MASE) for research performed under the supervision of Dr. Chianelli. Likewise the student-faculty teams of Layra Reza (UTEP-ME) and Dr. Felicia Manciu, and Jorge Muñoz (Caltech) and Dr. Jorge López received a Robert S. Hyer Recognition for Excellence in Research. The ceremony took place at the closing of the TS-APS meeting at UTEP.

Congratulations to Toni, Layra, Felicia, and the Jorges! 

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board awarded Drs. Suskavcevic, Serpa, Kosheleva and Giza $87,000 for the program entitled "Building Physics Teacher Quality Through Synergetic Activities".

Congratulations Mila!  

The untiring Bill decided to quit while he was ahead and retired at the end of the 07-08 AY. According to his own words, his plans are "to enjoy life while I can". A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation puts the number of students he served through his labs at 20,000. Besides being the lab coordinator for over 20 years, Bill was the local expert on surface physics, and on these topics he supervised several MS thesis, coauthored a large number of papers, participated in many collaborations with other science and engineering faculty, and served as the liaison to the Soc. of Physics Students. He is one of those rare cases where the cliché "he is irreplaceable" actually works; he will be missed by the Physics Department.  

UTEP is hosting the 2008 Texas and Four Corners Joint APS - meeting on Oct 17 and 18 at the Union Building East. We welcome all the participants.  

Jose Luis Cruz-Campa (Physics MS 8/2007) wrote about his experience in UTEP's GK-12 program. Read article in the SPS page. read more ...

Dr. Jorge A. López was named Fellow of the American Physical Society for "For contributions to Nuclear Physics, in particular for the understanding of the liquid-gas nuclear phase transition, and for the support of the development of physics in Latin America through research and development of collaborations, organization of symposia, and recruitment of students." Dr. López will receive his fellowship certificate at the April meeting in St. Louis, MO.
Congratulations to the new fellow! 

Congratulations to our Fall 2007 graduates:
• Francisco Carreto, M.S.
• Michael Chen, M.S.
• Eric Sanchez, M.S.
• Hector Campa, B.S. 

Corine Prieto, founder and president of Integrated Geophysics Corporation and a Physics and Math UTEP graduate was selected to receive the 2007 Gold Nugget Award from the College of Science. In addition to the UTEP degrees she earned a Masters degree in applied physics from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
Ms. Prieto will receive the award on Friday, October 12 at 8:00 am at the breakfast ceremony in the Reading Room in the Geology Building.
Congratulations to Ms. Prieto! 

Congratulations to Jitin Arora and Oscar I. Calvo who completed their MS Physics studies in the summer 2007. Arora has accepted employment in the USA and Calvo will pursue a PhD in Medical Physics at UT San Antonio. Congratulations!  

See a summary of our outreach activities. read more ...

Dr. Paul Mason working with physics student Candace Gray used the Very Large Array radio observatory to study nine magnetic cataclysmic variable stars and found the highly magnetic star known as AR Ursae Majoris to be a persistent radio emitter. See history in Las Cruces Sun news.
 

Harold N. Ballard, 88, passed away on May 15, 2007. Mr. Ballard was a 1937 graduate of Benton High School in Benton, Arkansas. He began engineering studies at Arkansas Technological College but his studies were interrupted by WWII. After serving in WWII, he continued with education and received his degree in Physics from UTEP in 1948 and completed his MS Degree in 1950 from Texas A&M University. From 1961 to 1962 he completed his High Altitude Sciences at the University of Michigan. In 1966, he further his education at the Advanced Study Institute for Aurora and Airglow at the University of Keele, in England and in 1972 went to France to the Advanced Study Institute for Physics and Chemistry of the Upper Atmosphere. From 1948 to 1950 he was a Teaching Assistant at the Physics Department at Texas A&M University, 1950-1954 he was an Instructor of Physics at UTEP, 1957-1964 he was Assistant Professor of Physics at UTEP. For 14 years he was involved in several research projects at different universities around the United States. Mr. Ballard is survived by his loving wife, Bula Clay Ballard. Inurnment was performed at Ft. Bliss National Cemetery with military honors. 

Anthony Adair, a physics senior, was one of six finalists in the Materials Research Society Scientific Movie Contest in Boston in fall 2006. He was the only undergraduate to place among Ph.D. students and post doctorate professors.
 read more ...

EE students Abraham Herren and Juan Carlos Tapia, and physics MS student Francisco Carreto under the supervision of Dr. Miguel Castro (Physics) and Benjamin Flores (EE) managed to install a remote controller to our Meade 16” LX200 Schmidt-Cassergrain telescope located on top of the Physical Science. building.
The Physics department is thankful to all the participants 

Congratulations to our physics majors selected to be in the dean's list:
• Antony Adair
• Mario Bencomo
• Miguel Bencomo
• Abdul Dominguez Saenz
• Tatiana Gonzalez
• Corey Keith
• David McPhearson
• Brady McMicken
• Layra Reza
 

Congratulations to our Spring 2007 graduates:
• Oscar Calvo, M.S.
• Jose Luis Cruz Campa, M.S.
• Christian Escudero, M.S.
• Rodrigo Gamboa, M.S., Outstanding Graduate Student
• Luis Pinales, M.S.
• Tomas Hernandez, B.S., Outstanding Senior
• Sarah Marchena, B.S.
• Jorge Muñoz, B.S., Departmental Honors
• Layra Reza, B.S., Outstanding Senior
 

John Franklin "Frank" Casey, 75, died April 24, 2007 in Suffolk, Virginia. Born October 4, 1931 in El Paso, TX, he was the son of Wiley Sanders Casey and Bessie Lena Wilson Casey. After serving four years in the U. S. Air Force, attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant, he attended Texas Western College, earning a Bachelors of Science degree in physics. He was employed with the El Paso Natural Gas Co., Globe Universal Sciences, Inc., and retired in 2004 from MSD Autotronic Ignition Corp. after 30 years of service. He will be greatly missed by his children, David Robert Casey, Lacey, of Grapevine, TX, and Laura Michele Brooks of Wakefield, VA. Funeral services were held in Wakefield, VA. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the University of Texas at El Paso Physics Dept. at: UTEP Physics Dept. Program Fund, 500 West University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968-0515. Condolences may be posted at www.jtmorriss.com.
 

We are happy to welcome Dr. Sergio Flores as our new Supervisor Lab Coordinator. Dr. Flores holds a Ph.D. in physics from NMSU, specializes in physics education. He has been a lecturer in our department for two semesters. Mr. Flores will be in charge of ordering equipment and supplies for all of our teaching labs, as well as of maintaining the department's inventory. Additionally he will be developing a series of in-class demos for many of our lower level courses. Welcome Sergio!
 

UTEP's only Shuttle astronaut, Dr. Danny Olivas, ackowledges Dr. Slusher for motivation: "After taking Dr. Slusher's physics class at UTEP I knew my passion for machines and mechanisms was finally realized." See Danny Olivas' web page for more information. 

Felicia Manciu was elected Councilor of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society. TS-APS members elected Felicia by vote to join distinguished colleagues from UT-Arlington, Texas A&M and Texas State U. on the Executive Committee of TSAPS.
Congratulations Felicia!
 

Dr. Cristian Botez’s project, "Proton Conduction Mechanisms in Superionic Phases of Phosphate-Based Solid Acids" has been funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for the amount of $20,000. Similarly, his project, "Acquisition of an automated X-ray diffractometer for temperature and humidity-resolved studies of fuel cell electrolyte materials" was supported by Eli Lilly And Co. with the donation of a Siemens D5000 X-Ray Diffractometer, with an estimated value of $65,000.
Congratulations to Dr. Botez!
 

UTEP's chapter of the Society of Physics Students was named Outstaning Chapter in 2005-2006. Our Chapter has received this recognition now seven times.
Our congratulations to the hard working crowds of SPS and to its advisor Dr. W. Durrer! 

Dr. Vulcan will be teaching Phys 4370 Health Physics 1 this spring. Contact Dr. M. Manciu (915-747-7531, mmanciu@utep.edu) for information. 

Congratulations to our December 2006 graduates:
• Juan Hermosillo, M.S.
• Carlos Martinez, M.S. 

Everybody is invited to the Christmas luncheon.
Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006, PSCI 220, 12:00 –1:00 

From the University of Colima, UTEP Adjunct Professor Dr. Alfredo Aranda visited us to teach a wintermester course on Field Theory, he also gave a seminar and participated in the Ciencia de Frontera conferences.
 

Dr. Wiemer received a BS and MS in physics from Texas Western College in 1961 and 1963, and a PhD in physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1969. During his 37-year career in the semiconductor industry, he worked for Texas Instruments and the Thomas Group Inc. as well as companies in Taiwan and Singapore. Please join the Department of Physics for breakfast to celebrate this award to Dr. Wiemer on Friday, Nov. 3, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. in the Reading Room of the Geological Sciences Building 310. RSVP to Juan Camacho (jcamacho@utep.edu, 915-747-5536). 

The National Institutes of Health awarded a grant of over $500,000 to Dr. Marian Manciu (PI) and Jorge López (co-PI) to carry out a project entitled "Increasing Minority Representation in Radiation Oncology Physics". The duration of the grant will of of three years and will entail a collaboration with the Health Center of UT San Antonio. 

Luis Pinales was selected as the recipient of the 2006 Thelma Morris award for physics. Congratulations Luis! 

The recipients of the 2006 Cook Scholarships are
Oscar Calvo, Francisco Carreto, Rodrigo Gamboa Goñi, Eric Sanchez, y Christian Escudero. Congratulations!
 

From the University of Colima, UTEP Adjunct Professor Dr. Alfredo Aranda and an undegraduate student visited for a few weeks in june and july. While Dr. Aranda ruined Dr. López's swiming pool, his student participated in research on surface physics. Thanks for the visit!

From the University of Buenos Aires, Dr. Claudio Dorso visited for nine days in late may and early june to continue collaborating with Dr. Jorge López.

From the Universidad Simón Bolívar of Venezuela, Dr. Laszlo Sajo Bohus visited for three weeks in late may to collaborate with Dr. Miguel Castro Colín. 

Dr. Laszlo Sajo Bohus and Dr. Miguel Castro Colín offered an Environmental Radiation Course this last maymester to a record attendance composed of BS, MS and PhD students from many areas.

 

Julian Antolin, BS
Alan Davila, BS (J. López)
Candace Gray, BS (P. Mason)
Karen Castrejón, MS (J. López)
Cecilia del Pardo, MS (V. Smith/K. Cunha)
Israel Martinez, MS (M. Durandurdu)
John Olgin, MS (V. Smith)
Nelly Ortiz, MS (E. Hagedorn)
Jesús Saenz, MS (J. López) 

UTEP's chapter of the Society of Physics Students has been distinguished with the title of Outstanding Chapter for a 5th time on a row.
Congratulations to our hard working SPS Chapter!

 

Dr. Tunna Baruah is the latest addition to the physics faculty.  Dr. Baruah join us as an Assistant Professor after spending three years at the navy Research Lab in Washington DC.  Her area of expertise is computational materials science.

Dr. Rajendra Zope join us as a postdoctoral Fellow - Research Associate working for Howard University.  His area of research is on computational materials science.

Mr. John Olgin join us as a lecturer in charge of the ASTR 1107 courses.