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CU-Physics faculty members and students are highlighted in  about the CU Learning Assistant program posted on the NPR web site. The article explains how we use Learning Assistants to improve student learning in our courses, and to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM teaching, focusing on Steve Pollock and our undergraduate Learning Assistants who help PHYS 1110 students learn physics in our tutorials. 

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University of Colorado Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) experiment was launched by NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX resupply rocket Tuesday afternoon, April 14. The experiment was conceived and built by CU-Physics faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate research students in the CU Soft Materials Research Center. The experiment will be run by NASA astronauts on the ISS.

CU-Physics faculty members Noel Clark, Cheol Park, Matt Glaser, and Joe Maclennan led the project. Four graduate student and seven undergraduates researchers have conducted honors research projects as part of the OASIS project. Undergraduates Markus Atkinson, Aaron Goldfain, Kate Wachs, Kyle Meienberg, Kyle Ferguson, and Kaitlin Parsons helped design, build and test the experiment.

The scientific objectives of the experiment are to study how liquid flows in two dimensional liquid crystals in microgravity in order to explore the interaction and self-assembly of colloidal dispersions of islands and droplets. "OASIS is the first study of smectic liquid crystal materials in microgravity, and may well be the first study of any liquid crystal material in microgravity. Smectic liquid crystal bubbles constitute a unique experimental platform for advancing fundamental understanding of fluid dynamics and colloid physics in two-dimensional systems,” said OASIS Principal Investigator Clark.

Watch Professor Clark explain the OASIS experiment during a .

More information about the OASIS Project can be found on NASA's .

For more details, view our .

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Congratulations to Jasmine Brewer and Ryan Dewey for being awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2014. Brewer is a junior in engineering physics, and Dewey is a junior in astrophysics and physics. They join chemical engineering and applied mathematics major Brennan Coffey as the three �鶹ӰԺ Goldwater scholars this year.

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship for Excellence in Education Program was created, "to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue research careers in these fields." Goldwater scholarships, worth up to $7,500 each, are awarded annually based on high academic achievement.

Ms. Brewer conducts research with Assistant Professor Paul Romatschke in his theoretical Nuclear Physics group, where she develops simulations of strongly interacting ultracold Fermi gases. She also works with Assistant Professor Ivan Smalyukh, researching particle interactions in liquid crystals. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematical physics.

Mr. Dewey is currently conducting research on solar phenomena with Professor Dan Baker and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) studying Mercury's atmosphere and magnetosphere with data from the NASA MESSENGER spacecraft. He plans to continue research in space physics and solar weather, and to pursue a doctorate in heliophysics.

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Overview

We are proud to announce the second year of the O'Sullivan Family Graduate Fellowship Award, funded by William and Dorothy O'Sullivan. Their gifts the last two years, and their commitments for the future, will provide critical fellowship support for the department's best and brightest incoming graduate students.

The O'Sullivan Family Graduate Fellowship Award will maintain a legacy of one of the Department's most distinguished faculty members and provide graduate fellowships for future generations of graduate students.

Award Winners

• 2012 - John Corson and Theresa Christian

�鶹ӰԺ The O'Sullivans

Dr. William J. O'Sullivan is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Colorado Department of Physics. His distinguished career lasted over 35 years, from 1968 to his retirement in 2002. Between 1988 and 1966, Dr. O'Sullivan served as Chair of the Department of Physics, a period of remarkable growth and success, largely due to his leadership.

Dr. O'Sullivan's research area was experimental condensed matter physics. Twelve Ph.D. Students in physics graduated under his mentorship, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in science. He and his students published 75 refereed physics journal articles and book chapters.

Dr. O'Sullivan earned a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1952, his M.S. in Physics from the University of Southern California in 1954, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1958. He was an assistant professor of physics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School 1958-1959, staff scientist at Space Technology Laboratories 1959-1963, and staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories 1963-1968.

Professor O'Sullivan was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was twice awarded University of Colorado Faculty Research Fellowships. Dorothy J. O'Sullivan is the wife of William O'Sullivan and mother of the couple's three children. Professor O'Sullivan's many successes would have been impossible without her steadfast assistance.

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