The Department of Physics at Grove City College offers students the academic freedom to conduct meaningful, relevant research alongside experienced and accomplished faculty. An integral component to an excellent undergraduate education, research opportunities help prepare students for top graduate and professional programs and successful careers in professional sectors.
The Department of Physics has active research programs in astronomy, biophysics, computational physics, nanotechnology, optics, and physics education. Many students conduct off-site research during the summer in other university, government, and industrial settings.
The 20" telescope at the Grove City College observatory
The astronomy research program at Grove City College is designed to engage and educate students in the techniques of modern observational astronomy. The program makes extensive use of the College’s observatory — which houses a 20-inch, remote-controlled Cassegrain telescope, equipped with modern, research-grade instrumentation — to conduct a wide variety of investigations that include:
Our department equipped the telescope with a high-resolution spectrograph to greatly expand Grove City College's research capabilities.
The astronomy research program at Grove City College is under the direction of Dr. James Clem and is open to all students regardless of major and year.
Representation of an embedded cluster model for a titanium dioxide surface
The Department of Physics at Grove City College uses scientific computing to investigate problems in physics, particularly in chemical physics and multibody dynamics. Under the direction of Dr. Mark Fair and in collaboration with Dr. Michael Falcetta of the Department of Chemistry at Grove City College, the topics of electron scattering from carbon monoxide, optimization of expensive black-box functions, quantum scattering of electrons, optimization of an embedded cluster model for a titanium dioxide surface, and development of a molecular dynamics model for use as an instructional tool on the thermodynamics and kinetics of simple chemical reactions are being investigated.
Recently, the department built a custom, high-performance computer designed to solve large systems of equations for some research problems. In the area of multibody dynamics, the department has used Kane’s method to model physical systems such as trebuchets.
To learn more about computational physics research at Grove City College, contact Dr. Mark Fair.
Lauren Dallachiesa, ’15 prepares our mask aligner for photolithographic fabrication of microstructures on a silicon wafer.
The nanotechnology research group at Grove City College has worked on the fabrication of micro-devices with the intent of eventually being able to use them to perform fundamental physics measurements. These tiny structures, principally bridges and “diving boards,” are typically as long as a human hair is wide (roughly 75 – 100 millionths of a meter). The ultimate goal is to employ these constructs to observe the Casimir effect, a phenomenon which results from vacuum quantum fluctuations.
Example of a microbridge fabricated by the GCC nanotechnology research group. It is composed of gold, copper, and photoresist.
More recently, our Nanotechnology research group has begun performing computational studies of the Casimir using a software package called scuff-em. It is hoped that this software tool, created by MIT researchers, will enable us to design an experiment to measure this fascinating but elusive phenomenon.
The nanotechnology research group at Grove City College is under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Wolinski.
Jonathan Adams, ’20 conducts research in the Department of Physics' laser lab.
The optics laboratory at Grove City College houses multiple high-power lasers for use in a variety of applications, including materials research and training in laser operation and safety. The laboratory is overseen by Dr. Shane Brower, and his research interests include investigations of short- and long-scale polymer dynamics as well as high-density optical data storage.
Other student projects have included revisions of laboratory and workshop activities, which resulted in an increase in circuit diagnostic scores; the design of multimedia instruction units; and the investigation of the reliability of an attitude assessment. Students in the PER group have frequently presented their research at regional and national meetings, and many have been first author on peer-reviewed papers.
Students from all three physics concentrations have contributed to the Grove City College PER group with many students starting their freshman year. The PER group is led by Dr. DJ Wagner.