The Physics Department has a wide range of research opportunities available for both undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing research. The topics are very diverse spanning the range from nanoparticles, soft condensed matter research, water filtration, laser and phonon physics, new materials for solar energy conversion, optics and holography, remote sensing, colliding black holes, young sun-like stars, and more, just ask or email one of our faculty.
Dr. Huong Nguyen
Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
Research interests: Excitons and Exciton Associated Quasiparticles in Quantum Dots.
Dr. Que Huong Nguyen has recently published 3 research papers:
- “Ferromagnetism due to oxygen vacancies in low dimensional oxides” on September 2021 in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Volume 534, article id. 167944;
- “Strongly confined 2D parabolic quantum dot: Biexciton or Quadron” on February 2021 in Physica B: Condensed Matter;
- “Charged excitons and trions in 2D parabolic quantum dots” on May 2022 in Physica B: Condensed Matter.
Dr. Nguyen has been awarded 2020 John Marshall Scholar Summer Award for the proposal “Electronic Structure and
Optical Response of Semiconductor and Polymer Structures”
Dr. Thomas Wilson
Laser and Phonon Physics
Dr. Tom Wilson is a winner of the 2018-19 MU Distinguished Artists & Scholars Award.
Dr. Wilson obtained the contract with the Institute of Physics for his prospective book “The Acoustic Laser”.
Dr. Maria Babiuc-Hamilton
Gravitational Waves, Computational Astrophysics
Research interests: Current Challenges in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics.
Dr. Maria Babiuc Hamilton published recently 3 research papers:
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- “Developing Tools for Multi-messenger Gravitational Wave Astronomy,” by World Scientific with
Contribution to: MG15 (2019).
- “Eccentric Pairs: Analytic Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes in Elliptic Orbits” on March 2022, in-press
- “Merging Black Holes: Assessing the Performance of Two Analytic Gravitational Waves Models” on May 2022, in-press
Dr. Babiuc Hamilton gave several invited talks and research talks in national and regional conferences.
The talk “Realistic Binary Neutron Stars Collisions Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities” given at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM), University of California, Los Angeles is available on YouTube.
Dr. Hamilton has been awarded “KITP Scholars program,” sponsored by Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics for 2020-2023,
as well as 2019 John Marshall Scholar Summer Award for her proposal “Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Stars”.
Dr. Xiaojuan Fan
Photovoltaic Devices and Thin Film Solar Cells
Research interests: Photoactive Materials and Hybrid Devices.
Dr. Judy Fan’s paper “Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Assisted with Lead-Free
Perovskite Halide”, has been published in February 2022 in Journal of Materials Research.
Dr. Fan has been awarded 2022 Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellowship at AFRL-Materials and Manufacturing for her proposal “Sandwich Devices for Thermal Protection and Infrared Invisibility” as well as 2022 John Marshall Scholar Summer Award 2022 for her proposal “Thermal-Photo-Electronic Hybrid Device for Energy Harvesting”.
Dr. Jon Saken
Optical Astronomy, Young Solar-type Stars
Dr. Sean P. McBride
Soft Condensed Matter Research
Research interests: Azo-Dye-Funcionalized Polycarbonate Membranes.
Dr. Sean McBride’s paper “Azo-Dye-Functionalized Polycarbonate Membranes for Textile Dye and Nitrate Ion Removal” has just
been accepted for on April 2022 in Micromachines.
Dr. Sean McBride gave talks in 2021 Ohio-Region APS Meeting and 2022 APS March Meeting.
Dr. Andre Wehner
Nonlinear Dynamics
Research interests: Modeling Nonlinear Systems: Chaos and Fractals.
Dr. Curtis Foltz
Dr. Curtis Foltz Web Page