UW-Eau Claire Physics and Astronomy Department

https://www.uwec.edu/stories/true-blu-out-world-dream-comes-true-blugold-alumna-soars-nasa
Our alums are amazing!!

True Blu: Out-of-this-world dream comes true — Blugold alumna soars at NASA Math and physics alumna Susan Lederer has had great career success at NASA

Ben Holmen is a 2007 UWEC Physics grad. Check out his Kilopixel:

CONTROL THE KILOPIXEL: E.C. Resident’s Latest ‘Impractical’ Installation “I spent six years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display,” Ben Holmen, a software engineer shared with Volume One as we sat in front of his latest creation: the “Kilopixel.” Currently on display at SHIFT (615 Graham Ave.) in Eau Claire, the Kilopixel was the product of...

Our students are ready to get this semester started, are you?

Our families are tired of pretending our jokes are funny. Now it’s your turn. (And there’s opportunities and info about the first week of classes)

Come for the cookies, stay for the physics! This week, after cookie time, Dr. Anne Norrick will be coming to talk about Neutrinos and the ongoing experiments at Fermilab to understand these elusive little particles.

We are very excited to announce that the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UWEC is hiring again! We are expanding our department to include a new Robotics Engineering program (with a focus on assistive robotics) and are putting out a search for two new tenure-track positions: https://www.uwec.edu/job-postings/21273. We are looking for candidates in Robotics or related fields to apply.

If you are interested in joining a warm and welcoming department and excited about having a large role in building and developing a new major please apply!

Physics & Astronomy: Assistant Professor POSITION: Two probationary tenure-track faculty positions in Robotics Engineering at the rank of assistant professor are available in the Physics and Astronomy Department in the College of Arts and Sciences; higher rank may be considered for candidates with extensive experience. The program seeks dy...

We have a very talented department, and not just in physics. Check out the movie that Dr. Rybicki wrote and then made with a bunch of talented people from the Chippewa Valley. The wonderment and use of flashback help make this a gem.

UFO SCREENER

Coming to a campus mall soon! Mobile night observing complete with red light advertising!

It is always nice to see stellar students get recognized for their work in the classroom. Starting center for the Blugolds, and physics major, Jake Thompson was named to the 2023 Academic All-District® Football teams, by College Sports Communicators (CSC). Congratulations Jake!

https://blugolds.com/news/2023/12/19/football-eight-blugolds-named-to-csc-all-district-team.aspx

https://blugolds.com/sports/football/roster/jake-thompson/15151

Jake Thompson - 2024 - Football Jake Thompson (70) Offensive Line - Awards & Honors2021Played in seven games for the Blugolds...2021 Football Statistics2020*Season cancelled due to COVID-19

We are calling on our physics and engineering majors to come meet our prospective new faculty!
This Friday, Sara Chamberlin will be visiting our campus. Students will have a chance to hear her speak about her research in the morning, and will have a chance to speak with her in the Physics Seminar Room before lunch. (Note the time is 11:15 AM not Pm!)
Please try to fit one of these sessions into your schedules! Student feedback on candidates is a very important part of our decision making process.

Talk Abstract: Performance Enhancing Metal Oxides

Metal oxides are used in the design of many products and devices we use daily, with applications as wide ranging as pigments, photovoltaics, touchscreens, and LED’s. These materials have recently generated interest in the fields of electronics and renewable energy due to their abundance and generally non-toxic nature, making them a good environmental choice for future technologies. For example, gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is a promising material for more efficient high power electronic devices, transparent conducting oxide layers, and ultraviolet detectors; its theoretical performance exceeds even silicon carbide and gallium nitride, some of the most popular semiconductor materials today.
While metal oxides show great potential for electronic devices, the properties of these materials, such as the bandgap or conductivity, must be tailored to specific applications. One way to achieve this is through doping, which replaces a fraction of the atoms in the material with a different element. In this talk I will describe how we create magnesium (Mg)-doped Ga2O3 thin-films using the technique of spray pyrolysis. Characterization of our films with UV-Vis spectroscopy indicates that the optical bandgap can be increased with magnesium concentration. At the same time, X-ray diffraction, used to verify the crystalline structure, reveals there is some phase segregation present in the material. Along with the current results of our Mg-doped Ga2O3 thin-films, I’ll discuss future plans for the fabrication and characterization of this and other technologically important, doped metal oxide films.