What Physicists Do
Alan J. Witten

What do physicists do? Everything! Applying physics to daily life and the world of business is creative and challenging. Just how diverse, interesting, and rewarding a career in physics can be was demonstrated by the two dozen guest speakers who entertained and educated us during the 54th and 55th “What Physicists Do” public lecture series at SSU.

The guest speakers represented various disciplines ranging from business, agricultural consulting, particle physics, plasma physics, and education to astronomy and cosmology. Each topic had its own special charm as speakers gave their spins to their areas of specialization.

We had two lectures on particle physics. Dr. Helen Quinn outlined the priorities and objectives of the new B Factory being built at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Dr. Gregory Kilcup of Ohio State University detailed how his group was using supercomputers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s (LBNL) Visualization Group to simulate quarks interacting in four dimensional space-time.

The industrial sector had a strong representation. Kimberly Wiefling from Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, titling her talk, “An Education In Physics: The Technical Path to Career Agility,” gave us some insight into the diversity of career opportunities available to those with an education in physics.

Dr. Robert Street of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center discussed the commercial applications of amorphous silicon. We focused on flat panel displays with Dr. Michael Toney of IBM Almaden Research Center and received a better understanding of the development of thin ceramic membranes for fuel cells from Dr. Steven Visco of LBNL.

The research effort going into computer chip technology was apparent following presentations by Dr. Richard Freeman of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), discussing the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography in the production of current and future generations of computer chips, and by Dr. Xiao-Dong Xiang of LBNL. Dr. Xiang described his group’s new process for producing Integrated Material Chips and the impact new materials used in computer chips would have on the commercial markets. And Dr. Michael Riordan presented a fascinating lecture on the invention of the transistor.

Commercial markets were of absolute importance in the area of fiber optic communications as presented by Dr. Dennis Derickson of Hewlett Packard, Santa Rosa.

Lending a different perspective to applications of physics was Michael A. Porter, a Forestville vineyard consultant. He showed the importance of applying physics to agriculture and why some vineyards fail to maximize their grape harvest yields. This was a “nut and bolt,” or should I say “leaf and stem”, approach to applied physics at the “grape root” level.

Educators were vital to this year’s successful program. Dr. Patrick Tam of Humboldt State University gave a quick review of Mathematica. Dr. Tam is the author of A Physicist’s Guide to Mathematica which is a recommended text at SSU. Dr. Barry Kluger-Bell, who divides his time between the Lawrence Hall of Science and the Exploratorium’s Institute for Inquiry, explained the advantages of “inquiry-based science teaching.” SSU’s own 1993 physics graduate, Matthew Davis, gave us insight into his teaching experiences at Santa Rosa High School.

A wide variety of applications of plasma physics, covering the spectrum from computer chip manufacturing to coatings for plastic bumpers, turbine blades, and potato chip bags, was presented by Dr. Francis Chen of UCLA’s Electrical Engineering Department.

Dr. Richard Post from LLNL described the uses of electromechanical batteries, and Dr. Ronald Growsky of University of California at Berkeley presented an exciting talk on using modern electron microscopes to better understand the building blocks of matter.

David Lamb (’94), now a graduate student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, demonstrated the use of thick optical waveguides for use in illuminating display panels.

Astronomy and cosmology speakers stimulated our imagination. Our own Dr. Lynn Cominsky presented the design and objectives of the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) she is working on with an international team. From NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Scott Sandford reviewed a collection of cosmic dust from comets, described picking up and analyzing meteorites in Antarctica, and discussed spacecraft on their way to comets and asteroids. Dr. Arthur B.C. Walker II of Stanford University presented high resolution images of the solar chromosphere and corona and described both earth and satellite-based observations of our nearest star. “Dynamic” and “interesting” best describe the presentation of Dr. Mark Adler of the Jet Propulsion Lab, as he discussed past, present, and future robotic missions to the red planet Mars.

From our local frame of reference the universe expands outward in all directions. Dr. Alan Dressler, of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, dazzled us with pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) showing the vastness of our universe. He discussed how the HST, and its proposed successor, the Next Generation Space Telescope, will help us understand the origins of our planet, our Galaxy, and our universe. Continuing with this theme, Dr. Janna Levin of UC Berkeley discussed the geometry of the universe, and how the designs and shapes in the cosmic microwave background radiation are reminiscent of a leopard’s spots or zebra’s stripes. The final speaker, Dr. Michael Bolte of University of California at Santa Cruz described the life cycle of stars and how recent observations can be used to determine the ages of the oldest stars, and thus set a lower limit to the age of the universe.

In retrospect, stellar is a good description of this year’s lecture series, the success of which was due to the dedication and hard work of Dr. Joseph S. Tenn, who directed both the 54th and 55th semesters of “What Physicists Do.” Thank you, Dr. Tenn.

We look forward to next year with great anticipation. Dr. Lynn R. Cominsky will be directing the fall series.