In the run-up to the March for Science in April, 2017, the American Geophysical Union, a leading organization of over 60,000 Earth and space scientists worldwide, published 29 “commentaries” in a special collection outlining the important of Earth and space sciences to humanity. WVU Physics and Astronomy Associate Professor Paul Cassak was asked to be the lead author on one of these commentaries.The motivation for the commentaries is described in an online article.Dr. Cassak’s commentary was entitled “Space Physics and Policy for Contemporary Society” and was coauthored by a collection of luminaries in the field of space physics. The commentary....
On August 21, 2017 West Virginians were treated to up to 90% coverage of the Sun
by the Moon during the "The Great American Eclipse." Dr. Kathryn Williamson and
Dr. Amy Keesee received grants from WVU for Community Engagement and from the WV
Space Grant Consortium for K-12 Teacher professional development to prepare teachers,
students, and the public for this historic event. Together with Extension Service,
the Green Bank Observatory, and additional support from the West Virginia Space
Grant Consortium, we took a multi-faceted approach to engage a wide range of audiences,
including:
The planetarium has seen record attendance levels this past year, engaging over 5,000 visitors, largely thanks to graduate students Aaron Weaver and Megan Jones. We added two new shows to our collection: “Earth, Moon, and Sun” is great for meeting science standards with school groups, and “From Earth to the Universe” is a beautiful, up-to-date exploration of our universe.In September and October, we are participating in the WVU Campus Read events with a feature introduction “Hidden Figures in the Stars” to celebrate the contributions of West Virginia native Katherine Johnson to NASA and the space race. The Hidden Figures intro....
Matteo Luisi received the Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra Research
Award “in recognition of doctoral student who is advancing research in physics
by publishing research in high-quality peer-reviewed physics journals”.
The West Virginia Science Public Outreach Team (SPOT) hosted the fourth annual Ambassador Fall Training Weekend in Green Bank on September 16-18th. Twenty-nine college ambassadors from WVU, Wesleyan, Fairmont State, Marshall, and WV State learned the SPOT presentation, “The Invisible Universe 2.0,” which features the Pulsar Search Collaboratory and Fast Radio Bursts, engaging hands-on activities for sharing with students, and public speaking and science communication skills. Ambassadors are currently working to pass practice presentations to become certified to visit K-12 schools around the state and fill over 40 teacher requests that continue to come in!
We would like to welcome Professor Lian Li who recently joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University. Prof. Li received his BSc in Physics from Yunnan University, China in 1983, and MSc in the same field from Tongji University, China in 1987, and PhD in Solid State Physics from Arizona State University in 1995. He received a Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to conduct research at the Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan from 1995 to 1996, and held a staff research associate position at the University of California, Los....
After 47 year service as a faculty member at WVU. Prof. Seehra has retired effective August 16, 2016. During this period, he directed the research of 65 students (14 Ph.D. dissertations, 29 MS theses and 22 postdocs) using funds provided by over 50 research grants and published over 300 research papers, many of them jointly with his students. Broadly, his research focus has been in magnetic, dielectric and nanomaterials and their applications. The above photograph was taken at the May 2016 commencement with his last 3 Ph.D. students (L to R: Dr. Zhengjun Wang now postdoc at Georgia Tech, Prof. Seehra,....
