Upcoming Seminars

Warren Christensen has been honored with an NSF grant to support his research in the Physics Education Sphere.  The grant, "Collaborative Research: Scaffolding the Calculus in Calculus Based Physics" will support this cutting edge work into how students understand both mathematics and physics!  The award, totalling $230,111, will help support graduate students to work on this interesting problem with Warren!  A great sight for the strength of education research at NDSU!

Professor Erik Hobbie has secured an NSF grant worth $427,935 to study Silicon Carbide nanocrystals.  The work is part of the NDSU drive towards more sustainably developed materials.  In this case, the Hobbie group is focusing on silicon and carbon to create fluorescent particles because they are both very abundant source materials.  This provides a much better route to semiconductor devices than traditional materials which typically involve rare-earth metals.  See more in the press release! 

The Croll group, as part of a large collabouration between researchers in NDSU's coatings and polymeric materials department as well as researchers at Iowa State and the University of Michigan, has secured funding for the project "Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for Designing Functional Coatings" from the Office of Naval Research.  The grant, totalling $4,821,764, will pay for many graduate students and the infrastructure they need to be successful in their research.  The work will investigate how to design coatings that can minimize the adhesion of water born foulants as well as other solids like ice.

The NDSU Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) community was just awarded a three-year, $1.2 million grant under the NSF STEM Edu OPRF Solicitation. Collaborations in Discipline-Based Education Research (CiDER) will bring a cohort of four postdoctoral research associates to NDSU to train in DBER with our nationally known faculty. 

Importantly, this grant underscores our DBER community’s continued dedication to developing and implementing reflective and responsive training programs that engage trainees in a community of practice and enable all to succeed. NDSU continues to be a national leader in DBER, serving as a model for collaborative, interdisciplinary research in STEM teaching and learning. Our work spans the educational continuum beginning with our undergraduates REU program, culminating in postdoctoral training to launch trainees into their careers.

NDSU's Physics department hosts 3 faculty members associated with the grant, co-Primary Investigator Mila Kryjevskaia, co-Primary Investigator John B. Buncher and affiliated faculty Warren Christensen.

Associate Professor Yongki Choi has just received a major NSF grant to conduct biophysics research.  The grant, entitled "Protein Manipulation and Engineering with an Electronic Biochemical Approach", brings $357,000 to NDSU which will fund graduate students in Prof. Choi's research group as well as pay for materials needed to acomplish the work.  The project will use the Choi group's single-molecule nanocircuit platform to watch proteins fluctuate between slightly different conformations (shapes).  His goal is to find ways to manipulate the protein's dynamics that might be helpful in fighting disease.

Khang Hoang, and adjunct faculty member of the physics department, has made an advance in the understanding of certain fluorescent (glow in the dark) paints.  Read about it in a piece published by NDSU!

A new grant has recently awarded to Fardad Azarmi (Mechanical Engineering Department) and Andrew Croll (Department of Physics) to develop a new type of adhesive device to aid in Army maintenance.  The project "Demonstration of Dynamic Adhesion Strength for Maintenance and Sustainment Environments" will be developed here at NDSU in the Engineering and Materials research labs in partnership with the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences and the United States Army. The grant provides a little more than $896 000 to pay for the equipment and personel (graduate and undergraduate students) needed to perform the work.  The researchers hope to create feasible devices over the next 2-3 years, but public announcements will be quiet due to the export controlled nature of the work.

Physics graduate student Hadassah Griffin received an "Outstanding Poster Presentation" award at the 2023 Red River Valley American Chemical Society Research Event held at Concordia College this January.  Her poster “Janus-like Quantum Dot Interface Charge Transfer Properties With and Without a Bond Connection Through Space” outlined work she has been doing with her advisor Andrei Kryjevski and their collabourator Dmitri Kilin.  Great work Hadassah!

This fall, two teams of undergraduate students competed in the University Physics Competition.  In this event, teams from across the country work over a weekend to solve an interesting, real-world physics problem.  Teams work very hard, and their solutions are then judged by the organizing committee.  Check out more at the website for more details.

From our Department, six students competed as two teams:

The team of Joseph Granlie, William Tupa, and Sigurd Saude tackled Problem A – Deflecting an Asteroid.

The team of Ibrahim Bukhari, Ahmed Aldrees, and Matthew Hansen tackled Problem B – FIFA Penalty Kicks.

Both teams placed at the Bronze metal level!  This is an amazing result, congratulations to both teams!  To explain how well they did, consider the explaner from the University Physics Competition website: 

“Of the 417 papers submitted [from around the world] in this year’s University Physics Competition, 7 teams (1.7%) were ranked as Gold Medal Winners, 79 teams (19%) were ranked as Silver Medal Winners, 108 teams (26%) were ranked as Bronze Medal Winners, and 223 teams (53%) were ranked as Accomplished Competitors.”
 

Associate Professor Yongki Choi was awarded an ND EPSCoR K-12 Outreach Award, in the amount of $8,000, to develop a STEM event for middle and high-schoolers called “Drone Discovery Day.”  Yongki hopes the work will inspire young people to take an interest in STEM and seek careers in STEM down the road.  More STEM students will lead to a more prepared workforce for the future of North Dakota.

Associate Professor Warren Christensen has been invited to be a plenary speaker at the 2023 Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (RUME). The conference will held in Omaha, NE Feb 23-25th, 2023. Dr. Christensen's research has been focused on the intersection of Mathematics and Physics Education Research for his 13-year career at NDSU, and he's honored by the opportunity to speak at this national meeting. 

The NDSU Foundation interviewed Dr. Mila Kryjevskaia (along with VP Research Colleen Fitzgerald and a graduate student from Psychology) for a story in the Fall 2022 issue of their magazine, Foundation, about research, NDSU’s R1 status, and philanthropic support for research.  Read more here:

  https://ndsufoundation.com/magazine

Dr. Mila Kryjevskaia, together with co-PI Dr. Alexey Leontyev (Chemistry and Biochemistry), was awarded a highly competitive NSF grant for $800K over five years from the Division of Undergraduate Research, Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program. The project, entitled "Developing, Testing, and Disseminating Reasoning Chain Construction Tools for Introductory Physics and Chemistry Courses,” will develop tools to better understand and improve college students' reasoning skills in the context of chemistry and physics courses.  Mila has also been invited to speak on a panel during Homecoming Week at a luncheon with NDSU trustees and other guests.

Dr. Mila Kryjevskaia has recently been elected by her peers to serve as tje elected chair of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Physics Education Research.  Service to the profession is an imporant part of being a professor, and serving at a national level is a great way to bring recognition to NDSU.  Dr. Kryjevskaia has been a dedicated researcher in the field for many years, so her expertise is sure to produce excellent leadership for the Topical Group.

Physics undergraduate student Landon Johnson has published a paper based on his capstone project work in the peer-reviewed journal RSC Advances.  The work, entitled "Effect of ligand groups on photoexcited charge carrier dynamics at the perovskite/TiO2 interface" was guided by Dmitri Kilin, a professor in the Department of Chemistry.  Great work Landon!

Professor Alan Denton and Graduate Student Wyatt Davis have recently published a paper entitled ""Influence of solvent quality on depletion potentials in colloid-polymer mixtures" in the Journal of Chemical Physics.  The work, part of a special collection on Depletion Forces and Asakura-Oosawa Theory, was specifically highlighted by the editor because the editor felt the work "presents significant and definitive research in experimental or theoretical areas of the field".  Quite an honor!  See the paper here, it is open access for a year!  As always, professors are happy to send a paper to you if you do not have access to the journals directly!

Mila Kryjevskaia and here collabourators Paula Heron and Andrew Heckler have published a paper entitled "Intuitive or rational? Students and experts need to be both" in the magazine Physics Today.  Physics Today is the top generalist publication of the american physical society, which publishes articles of interest to physicists at all levels.  The magazine is not opent to general submissions (as are most academic publications), so being invited to publish a work at Physics Today is an amazing honour.  The paper, which is a very interesting discussion of dual-process reasoning theories applied to the world of physics teaching, can be accessed here.  If you have any trouble accessing the work, reach out to any faculty member who would be more than happy to send you a PDF copy to read (or join the American Physical Society and read Physics Today each month).

Andrei Kryjevski is a co-PI on a grant funded by the National Science Foundation, which is entitled ``Modeling of Charge Transfer Processes in Heterostructured Nanocomposites".  The award of $499,998 is for three-years. Developing energy sources that are both sustainable and efficient is one of the greatest challenges facing mankind. One attractive technology is solar-based fuel cells that utilize solar energy to create hydrogen from water, which is then used as a fuel which produces no harmful air pollutants. However, cost, efficiency, and durability are the main factors that hinder large-scale use of the fuel cells. One way to overcome these challenges is to utilize nanoparticles called quantum dots. A quantum dot is a piece of material which is few nanometers in size and contains just hundreds or thousands of atoms.  It turns out properties of a quantum dot are significantly altered by attaching just a single molecule to its surface. This modification is done in a way that enhances properties of quantum dots needed for their uses in solar energy conversion to chemical or electrical energy, such as solar-based fuel cells. However, precise control over the processes governing interactions between molecules and quantum dots is currently lacking. To close this gap in our knowledge, Prof. Kryjevski, in collaboration with Profs. Kilina and Kilin (NDSU Chemistry) are developing and applying computational methods that model processes taking place in quantum dots with complicated surface structure. Computational predictions obtained from this research are expected to guide design of quantum dot-based materials for energy applications. This project serves students, industry, state, and the nation. It provides comprehensive instruction and research experience in the computational chemistry and physics for graduate and undergraduate students. Availability of remote training and research activities for this project is expected to increase participation of increase participation of individuals with family obligations and Native American students. Thus, this project helps train diverse STEM workforce with the skills and knowledge critical for the design of novel materials for energy applications.

The department is excited to announce that Alan Denton's grant entitled "Response of Soft Colloids and Macromolecules to Crowded Environments: Theoretical and Computational Modeling.” was recently funded by the National Science Foundation.  The three-year award of $266,039 will support theoretical and computational research to better understand and facilitate the design of smart materials, which are made of building blocks, such as soft colloidal particles and flexible macromolecules, whose size, shape, and softness respond to changes in external stimuli. Of particular interest are microgels, which are microscopic gel particles, made of porous, elastic networks of polymers (chain-like molecules) that swell by absorbing solvent. The degree of swelling can be controlled by adjusting temperature, acidity, and concentration of the solution, resulting in adaptive properties that equip microgels to serve as biosensors and drug delivery vehicles in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. While past experimental and modeling studies have explored elastic properties of single particles and collective behavior of bulk solutions, an outstanding challenge is to link single-particle and multi-particle properties of these materials. Specific unresolved issues concern the role of electric charge in determining microgel swelling and the influence of particle softness on macromolecular crowding in biological cells. Broader impacts of this project include development of novel theories and computer simulation algorithms that can guide the interpretation of experiments and design of smart materials; science outreach activities with students at K-12 schools and tribal colleges; and mentoring and training of graduate and undergraduate students for careers in computational science.

It is with great excitement that the Faculty of the Department of physics report that Mila Kryjevskaia has been awarded the James A. Meier Junior Professorship!  In her 12 years at NDSU, Dr. Kryjevskaia has worked tirelessly to discover, use, and communicate to peers better teaching methods at NDSU. Her groundbreaking work on revealing and addressing conceptual challenges and cognitive errors encountered by students of physics has profoundly impacted faculty and students at all levels at NDSU and the world at large. We can think of no one who better fits the goals of this award, to recognize contributions to teaching through research, with the primary criterion of demonstrated success interacting with students.

Joining NDSU in 2008 as an Assistant Professor with a shared appointment in the Department of Physics (80%) and the School of Education (20%), Dr. Kryjevskaia has also been a leading member of the interdisciplinary STEM Education Doctoral Program from its inception. In 2015, she earned tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor.  Since her start, Dr. Kryjevskaia has published many significant works, educated many educators and students, and received external funding for her research. 

Congratulations Mila!

The professorship endowment is funded by James A. Meier, BS ’59, mathematics. He earned his chemistry doctorate in 1971 and an honorary doctorate from NDSU in 2007.  The department would also like to thank James for founding and funding this prestigious professorship.

Chair's Statement:

"In view of the extended Pass/Fail Grading Option this semester, the Department of Physics will allow P grades to satisfy normal grade requirements for PHYS courses taken by Physics majors (including double majors) in the Spring 2020 semester. While we encourage students to opt for a letter grade, we also recognize that those who are disadvantaged by their current personal situation should not face additional barriers that delay progress or graduation. Those who make use of the Pass/Fail Grading Option will not be disadvantaged based on that choice."

-Sylvio May

Additional resources:

NDSU COVID-19 Information

Pass/Fail grading option and Adjusted Spring Dates/Deadlines

Erik Hobbie has been awarded the College of Science and Mathematics Research Award.  This is a great and well deserved honor for Erik, who is a faculty member who's appointment is a 60% Physics, 40% polymers and coatings split.  In his 10 years at NDSU, Erik has built a thriving, internationally recognized research group, he has published 41 papers in high ranking journals and he has personally secured over 1 Million in external research funding.  Several of his articles have been honored with journal covers.  Most remarkably, he has done all this while leading NDSU’s Materials and Nanotechnology program, a significant administrative burden.

Erik’s early work in polymer science at the National Institute of Standards and Technology lead him to his current focus on light/nanoparticle interactions in soft materials.  The driving goal of his plan is to make progress towards solutions for one of the world’s greatest challenges, the development of clean sources of energy.  His work has focused on carbon and silicon nanostructures, specifically because these materials are abundant and non-toxic.  While light can easily be harvested by cadmium-selinide particles, their environmental toxicity would kill any real-world application.  It is this pragmatic view – that the research must not only solve big problems, but actually be usable – that makes Erik’s work so unique, and such a good fit to the values held by the people of the state of North Dakota.

Alan Denton and graduate student Mohammed Alziyadi have published a paper entitled "Osmotic pressure of permeable ionic microgels: Poisson-Boltzmann theory and exact statistical mechanical relations in the cell model" in the Journal of Chemical Physics.  The work was honored as the "editor's pick", which means it stood out to the editor as a particularly interesting and important work.  More great research from NDSU Physics!

Recently, Sylvio May was awarded the Ambassadors Excellence Award award by the NDSU College of Science and Mathematics Ambassadors (a student group).  Sylvio was nominated for (among other things) his exceptional efforts in supporting student success in introductory physics courses.  Sylvio holds great esteem for the award specifically because it was entirely driven by the students involved.  Congratulations Sylvio!

The Croll research group has had a recent work published in the high-impact, open-access journal Nature Communications.  The work is focused on understanding the strength of a crumpled ball - a rigid object created from a thin film (such as paper).  Such an object is a complex collection of folds and verticies that somehow collectively give the system a significant resistance to compression.  The system has significant potential for use as an engineering material akin to a foam, but one that is much more easily produced.  Read about it here, where you can also find a link to the freely available article!

Experiments in Physics, performed by Alistair McInery, Lina Alhalhooly, Tim Twohig, Jamie Froberg, Rachel Downing Brian Farlow, Wathsala Jayawardana and Deyan Mihaylov, came in second place in the Avenues of Scientific Discovery Grad Student Competition.  Congratulations all!