SFA
Physics, Astronomy and Engineering News
February 18, 2005

Job Opportunity

These newsletters are sent to current students, alumni, faculty, and friends of the department. SFA alum Josh Arceneaux sent us this job opportunity:

"MTS Global is a product oriented company serving NASA, NASA Contractors, and International Partners. We have a strong management team with over 60 years of technical and management experience in space operations as well as the development and operation of multi-million dollar software intensive NASA projects."

Requirements:

BS degree in physics, math, or engineering with 0-2 years experience
Ability to think creatively
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Willingness to work a flexible schedule to accommodate international time differences

Contact Information:
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/social/social124/JobDescription.doc

Josh Arceneaux, BS, lives in Houston, TX, and works at MTS Global Inc. and is now working on a masters in systems engineering at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Spring Meeting at SFA

Wondering why there have been no seminars so far this semester? We're gearing up for the spring meeting of AAPT/APS/SPS at SFA in March. There will be 200+ physicists on campus and 50+ physics talks presented at SFA in the first week in March. The seminar students (PHY 470) will also be part of this event.

Registration and Free Stuff

The Spring Meeting is coming up in early March. The registration deadline is this Sunday, February 20, 2005.

Pre-registration is required for luncheon and banquet tickets. The Texas Section of APS will cover the cost of lunch for students and will pay $10 towards the total cost of student banquet tickets. Thanks TSAPS!

The Society of Physics Students at SFA invites all SPS members and their advisors for a feast and fun on Thursday, March 3rd at 7:00 pm. The "feast and fun" will consist of a free Bar-B-Q dinner, a movie, cards, a LAN party, and door prizes.

Papers - Einstein, Einstein, Einstein

The meeting web site has a preliminary list of papers. The national office of APS has allowed us to extend the paper deadlines to February 20th.

With special consideration given to the World Year of Physics, there will be three plenary talks, as well as the after dinner talk, devoted to Einstein's legacy. In particular, Marlan Scully will present a talk on Einstein's contributions to Quantum Mechanics, Dwight Neuenschwander will present a talk on Einstein's ethics, and Wolfgang Rindler will discuss Einstein's contributions to Cosmology. The after dinner talk will be presented by Curtis Bradley - the intriguing topic is Einstein and Picasso. Mark Lemmon will also give an invited talk covering the recent findings of the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Teacher Workshops

There will be eight workshops on Friday and Saturday of the meeting. Descriptions and registration forms are available online. This is a great opportunity for you to gather more material for your classroom.

Here are a few calendar events from the Spring 2005 Calendar:

MAR 3-5: AAPT/APS/SPS Spring meeting hosted by SFA
APR 2: SPS Physics Olympics for high school students

The World Year of Physics (WYP 2005) is a worldwide celebration of physics and its importance in our everyday lives. The year 2005 marks the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's "miraculous year" in which he published three important papers describing ideas that have since influenced all of modern physics. This year provides the opportunity to celebrate Einstein, his great ideas, and his influence on life in the 21st century.

Question

What do you get when you cross a mosquito with a mountain climber?

Answer: You can't cross an mosquito with a mountain climber. A mountain climber is a scalar and the mosquito is a vector.

Contributors' Links
More news from newsletter recipients

Three-year-old passes Mensa test
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/4264941.stm

Blue Saturn
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050211.html

Heat Shield Impact Crater on Mars
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050209.html

TUGBOAT: Do not try this at home.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm
http://www.snopes.com/photos/towboat.asp

Ghost Research?
http://www.ghostresearch.org/

Scientists Find Missing Matter
http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,66487,00.html

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) /Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Material Science
http://wwwnew.towson.edu/physics/REU/research_experience_for_undergra.htm

Legos and 2001
http://www.spiteyourface.com/one/

Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/

USS San Francisco Runs Aground Near Guam
http://www.ssbn611.org/uss_san_francisco.htm

SFA Physics Alumni Update
John D Revell, who received a degree in physics from SFA now lives in Georgetown, TX. He also received a BS from U.T. in Mechanical Engineering and is employed at Dell Computer in Austin, Texas.

Job Opportunity
"We are a professional recruiting firm in search of a Design Engineer/Scientist for a start-up company in Florida. The company is looking for a scientist with a physics or materials science background with experience in X-Ray diffraction methods. Interested, qualified individuals should e-mail resume as a Word document attachment to info@marketriteinc.com."

Roaches in Nacogdoches - Crossword Puzzle by SFA Alum Robert Barbee
http://texbarbee.tripod.com/crossword/roaches.html

Make you own Crossword Puzzle
http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/

Online Petition For a National Referendum To Save The Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.nationalreferendum.org/Hubblepet.html

What does your phone number spell?
http://www.phonespell.org/

"We've landed on the moon!" - Titan Landscape 2005
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050117.html

Recreating Huygens' descent profile - Animation
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM5YW71Y3E_index_1.html#subhead1
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html

Scientists Create Petrified Wood in Days
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050125/ap_on_sc/petrified_wood_3

Sony's New Web Cam?
http://www.thestatenislandboys.com/All_da_Crap_is_here/Sony%20Pic%20Taking.swf

Tech Job Opportunities
http://yoh.com/

If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule
http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/news/list.cfm?NID=2467

Red Cross Donations
https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

Fogbows, Halos, and other Cool Atmospheric Phenomena
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/droplets/fogbow.htm

Physics Study Guides and Solved Problems
http://www.sparknotes.com/physics/

AIP Career Services
http://www.aip.org/careersvc/

Physics Question of the Week
http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/outreach/QOTW/active/questions.htm

Physical Science Resource Center (PSRC)
http://psrc.aapt.org

AAPT Teaching Resources
http://www.aapt.org/Resources/

What's new at APS?
http://www.aps.org/WN/

Scholarships and Employment Opportunities

We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see and 95% of what we teach. Consider teaching labs for our department or teaching at the high school or college level in your future. For more info see your professors and http://www.aapt.org/

SFA Opportunities

Other Opportunities

Thanks to Ryan Williams, Tommy Gober, Nathan Ryan, Barry Smith, Justin Fenley, Ken Price, Robert Barbee, Walter Trikosko, and others for the links and information above. Feel free to send any interesting links that you find. This email message is sent to students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the department. If you would like to be removed from the emailing list or are getting multiple copies of these newsletters, then feel free to reply to this message with your request.

Clear skies,
Dan Bruton
astro@sfasu.edu