Houghton Physics Students Present at Conference

Three physics seniors, Nathaniel Davie ’22, Joshua Bowman ’22, and Noah Klein ’22 gave talks at the 40^th Rochester Symposium for Physics Students on April 9^th.  They presented their long term, independent research projects they have been working on for five semesters.  Each student does their own research on a variety of topics; Davie has spent the last three years working on an x-ray diffractometer for thin film analysis, while Bowman has been working on a small cyclotron for nuclear reaction. 

The following week, Dr. Mark Yuly brought some physics students to the Omega Laser User Group meeting to further discuss his cyclotron which he has been working on with students.  Dr. Yuly’s cyclotron is only one of two small cyclotrons to work in the world, and undergraduate physics students at Houghton have had the opportunity to do hands-on research with it.

Every physics student at Houghton is required to do a long term research project beginning their sophomore year, and all seniors are required to give talks on their findings before graduation.  Sophomore and junior physics students also presented posters on their current research.  The physics department has several ongoing projects that students can pick up on after previous students graduate.  With so many options, like what Davie and Bowman were just researching, there is always a project to meet the specific interests of each physics student..