Math & Science News

Jessica Makori ’19 has collaborated with chemistry professor Joe Chihade to do meaningful research as an undergraduate. 

Arjendu Pattanayak, Professor of Physics, presented recent results on ‘Using quantum back-action to control quantum chaotic systems’ at his former homes in Texas at the University of Texas at Austin, and Rice University on Friday, October 12 and Monday, October 15. This reported on work done with Yueheng Shi ’21, Sacha Greenfield ’19, Jessica Eastman (Australian National University), and Andre Carvalho (Griffiths University). 

Matt Whited, Associate Professor of Chemistry, published a paper in Organometallics with Jim Zhang ’18 entitled, “Synthesis and Reactivity of Pincer-Type Cobalt Silyl and Silylene Complexes.” The paper represents the first fruits of a collaboration with the Ozerov group at Texas A&M University and is an exciting example of the first-ever chemical compound featuring a cobalt-silicon double bond. These fundamental advances have laid the groundwork for ongoing studies into how abundant and sustainable metals like cobalt can be coaxed into transforming carbon dioxide and other pollutants into useful products.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics Barry Costanzi published a paper titled “Noise in Mesoscale Magnetic Dots from Random Telegraph Noise to 1/f Noise” in the journal IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, with collaborators from the University of Minnesota and from Honeywell International Inc. The paper discusses experimental work on the characterization and engineering of thermal fluctuations (or “noise”) in magnetic samples on the mesoscale (~100s of nm in size), with applications toward explaining the origin of noise signals in many other physical systems. Costanzi also presented his work in an invited talk at the International Conference on Magnetism in San Francisco this summer.

Carleton’s FOCUS Program has been awarded a 2018 “Inspiring Programs in STEM” Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. The national recognition honors programs that are making a difference for all under-represented groups in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Jay Tasson, Assistant Professor of Physics, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant (#1806990) for a three-year project “RUI: Tests of Gravity, Data Analysis, and Detector Characterization for LIGO.” The research continues efforts, advanced in part by coPI Nelson Christensen, to identify and characterize noise in data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). Prof. Tasson will help develop tools to perform and interpret multimessenger astrophysics. The project involves undergraduate researchers and outreach to the local community.

Rika Anderson, Assistant Professor of Biology, will contribute to a NASA Exobiology project “Elucidating the role of viruses in shaping microbial adaption and evolutionary trajectories in the subseafloor of deep-sea hydrothermal vents” led by Lisa Zeigler Allen at the J. Craig Ventor Institute. Prof. Anderson, with a student researcher and research associate, will assist with bioinformatics tasks.

Caroline Turnage-Butterbaugh, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded an AMS-Simons Travel grant, administered by the American Mathematical Society with support from the Simons Foundation. The two-year grant provides research-related funds for Professor Turnage-Butterbaugh’s travel and for bringing her research collaborators to Carleton, as well as additional funds for enhancing the research atmosphere in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Carleton.

Meet the Carls who will spend a year abroad on prestigious Fulbright grants.

Ryan Terrien, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, received a contract from NASA in March 2018 to serve as a co-investigator on a project to develop a new exoplanet-finding spectrograph. The spectrograph, called “NEID,” will detect exoplanets by measuring their minute gravitational tugs on their host stars. During summer 2018, Prof. Terrien will work with collaborators from Penn State, the University of Arizona, and other institutions to develop and commission new software and calibration systems for NEID, working towards a goal of commissioning the full spectrograph at the WIYN Telescope (Kitt Peak Observatory, AZ) in 2019.