Bowling Green , Ky. - Western Kentucky University physics students attended the 17th annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Argonne, Ill.

Student researchers Eric Houchins of Bowling Green, Chris McGrath of Auburn, Matt Nichols of Bowling Green, Ian Rice of Atlanta, Jeremy Board of Payneville, Kyle Moss of Greensburg, Sarah McMurray of Bowling Green and Jeremy Maune of Taylorsville shared their latest research projects with other students as well as professionals. Students were accompanied by Dr. Ivan Novikov, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and an Applied Physics Institute faculty member.

The Argonne Symposium invites students to present papers at the Argonne National Laboratory on their research in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Geology, Mathematics and Physics. The Argonne National Laboratory is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers.

Students also were given the opportunity to network with professionals and listen to keynote speakers that presented on research within his or her field. “The Argonne Symposium is a way to network yourself into the environment that you plan on working in the future, and this is a great opportunity to do that,” Jeremy Board said.

Students and faculty members presented their latest research over several topics:
“The Utilization of Free-Running Digital Signal Processors as a Method of Multi-Channel Analysis” by Chris McGrath, Matt Nichols, Phil Womble, Alex Barzilov, Ivan Novikov, Jeremy Board and Jon Paschal.

“The Effect of Nuclear Cross-Section Data on the Measurement of Elemental Densities in Explosives Threat Analysis” by Matt Nichols, Phil Womble, Alex Barzilov, Eric Houchins, Jeremy Board, Jon Paschal and J.R. Moore.
“Design and Construction of the WKU Ion Beam Materials Analysis Laboratory” by Ian Rice, Phil Womble, Alex Barzilov, Lindsay Hopper, Jon Paschal, Ryan Moore, Sara McMurray, Britton Wallace, Time Morgan and Jonathan Craft.

“Integrating Wireless Networking for Radiation Detection” by Jeremy Board, Alex Barzilov, Phil Womble, and Jon Paschal.

“Pulsed Elemental Analysis Using Neutrons” by Eric Houchins, Alex Barzilov, Phil Womble, Tim Morgan, Ian Rice, Jeremy Board and Joe Howard.

“Wireless Gamma Ray Spectrometer with Automatic Isotope Identification” by Kyle Moss, Phil Womble, Alex Barzilov and Jon Paschal.

“Mass Ranges of Neutralinos as Candidates for Dark Matter” by Sarah McMurray, Keith Andrew, David Barnaby and Brett Bolen.

“An Optical Study of Six Intermediate Bl Lacertae Objects” by Jeremy Maune and Michael Carini.

Students visited a major physics research facility, the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS). Physicists from all over the world use ATLAS to probe the structure of the atomic nucleus by studying the gamma rays and particles emitted when ion beams collide with targets. The 500-foot-long accelerator is capable of accelerating ions of any element up to uranium to energies as high as 17 million electron volts per nucleon -- about 15 percent of the speed of light.

Students also visited Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where Dr. Max Sukharev presented his latest research on theory of coherent control and its applications in nanotechnology. Coherent control approaches have been applied in recent years to a broad variety of problems, ranging from atomic physics and gas-phase molecular dynamics through solid-state physics and semiconductor device technology to solution chemistry and biology.

Photo caption:  WKU physics students at the Argonne National Laboratory in front of the Advanced Photon Source. From Left to Right: Alison Rohde of Highland Lakes, N.J.; Ian Rice of Atlanta; Jeremy Maune of Taylorsville; Sarah McMurray, Matt Nichols, Eric Houchins, all of Bowling Green; Jeremy Board of Payneville, Kyle Moss of Greensburg.

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For information, contact Physics and Astronomy at (270) 745-4357.

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