Bowling Green , Ky. - Students and faculty from Western Kentucky University’s Applied Physics Institute attended the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society (APS) Oct. 25-28 in Nashville.

The meeting, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, has international scope and covers themes from theory of nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics to applied nuclear physics and stewardship science.

API students received APS awards to attend the meeting that provides a “capstone” experience for undergraduate students who have conducted nuclear physics research. Students are able to present their extensive research to many professionals and other fellow students.

The conference also provides a networking opportunity for students to interact with faculty and senior scientists from graduate institutions. Many attendees inquired about graduate school opportunities and future plans after completion of their undergraduate work from WKU.

API student researchers Jeremy Board of Payneville, Eric Houchins of Bowling Green, Chris McGrath of Logan County, Kyle Moss of Greensburg and Matt Nichols of Bowling Green presented results of their independent research projects to other conference members.

These projects covered different topics from nuclear physics and were outlined in a poster session:

• Jeremy Board: “Integrating Wireless Networking to Radiation Detectors”
• Eric Houchins: “Pulsed Elemental Analysis using Neutrons”
• Chris McGrath: “The Utilization of Free-Running Digital Signal Processors as a Method of Multi-Channel Analyzers”
• Kyle Moss: “A Gamma Ray Spectrometer Based on Mobile Phone Technology”
• Matt Nichols: “The Effect of Nuclear Cross-Section Data on the Measurement of Elemental Densities in Explosives Threat Analysis”

Dr. Phillip Womble and Dr. Alex Barzilov, API directors and physics faculty members, accompanied students and also presented research papers at the meeting sessions.

The American Physical Society was founded on May 20, 1899, when 36 physicists gathered at Columbia University. They proclaimed the mission of the new Society to be “to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics,” and in one way or another the APS has been at that task ever since.

WKU’s Applied Physics Institute is a multidisciplinary center performing research and development projects in areas of nuclear physics, nuclear engineering, wireless data communications, homeland security, material science and electronics.  API researchers’ interests cover virtually all aspects of applied science and technology.
For more on the API, visit http://www.wku.edu/API/

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Applied Physics Institute at (270) 781-3859.

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