Physical Sciences | Arts and Sciences

Earth Scientist Appointed to National EPA Panel

April 16, 2013

Scott Bair, professor, earth sciences, has been appointed to a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) panel of independent experts to peer-review the agency's hydraulic fracturing research. Bair is one of 31 experts selected from 170 nominees nationwide.

Panel members, from academia, national laboratories, federal agencies, and industry; are top experts in a variety of areas, including earth sciences, toxicology, rock-mechanics engineering, aqueous geochemistry, and pharmaceutical science.

Physicist's NSF CAREER Award Assists Search for "Ghost" Particles

March 6, 2013

Amy Connolly’s recent five-year, $650,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help support her search for high-energy neutrinos, a type of elementary particle, traveling at the speed of light, which can travel cosmological distances unabated, existing all across the universe. These are sometimes called “ghost particles” because they are very hard to find due to their remote chance of ever interacting with regular matter. Only sophisticated experiments can catch and measure their properties.

Lonnie Thompson Receives Award from People’s Republic of China

January 17, 2013

Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor in Earth Sciences and senior research scientist, Byrd Polar Research Center, has been awarded the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People’s Republic of China.

CEM Accepting Proposals for New Interdisciplinary Research Groups

November 15, 2012

CEM MRSEC Renewal: Generating Interdisciplinary Research Groups

The Center for Emergent Materials (CEM), an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), has completed four years of its six year term, and is looking to identify and build new Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs) for its renewal proposal in 2014.

Chemistry Major Wins National Nanotech Competition

October 22, 2012

photo of Elisabeth Bianco and Josh Goldberger

Elisabeth Bianco, undergraduate chemistry major, received the $3,000 first place award at the second annual Notre Dame Competition in Nanoscience and Nanoengineering on October 5.

Bianco won for her exploration of the properties of a one-atom thick layer of germanium, which she synthesized and characterized for the first time.

This work could have many practical applications. Bianco’s advisor is Joshua Goldberger, assistant professor, chemistry.

Sssh: Astronomers at Work

August 22, 2012

photo of editing class at Spitz Institute, courtesy of Scott Huggins

Working the System

Astronomy graduate students Kate Grier and Calen Henderson are jazzed by what they learned this month at the intensive week-long Spitz Summer Institute, offered by the makers of the uber-cool Spitz SciDome XD.

The XD, the latest in digital projection technology, is being installed in Ohio State’s Planetarium this fall—and Grier and Henderson can’t wait to get their hands on it.

Earth Scientist Receives Top International Award

August 14, 2012

photo of Stig Bergstrom ( right) receiving award

Bergstrom--at right--receiving Digby McLaren Award at official ceremonies in Australia

Earth Sciences Professor Emeritus Stig M. Bergstrom received his field’s top honor this past weekend: the 2012 Digby McLaren Award from the International Commission on Stratigraphy for his long record of significant contributions to his field. Award ceremonies were August 11 in Brisbane, Australia, at the 34th International Conference on Stratigraphy.

ASC Researchers Named PECASE Winners

July 23, 2012

Photo of astronomers: Chris Hirata and Scott Gaudi

Scott Gaudi, astronomy; and Christopher Hirata, astronomy and physics, are two of 96 researchers President Obama named this week as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers--the highest honor given by the U. S. Government to science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.

This is the third year in a row arts and sciences researchers have been selected for this award.

ASC Staff Helps Create "Geo Walk"

July 23, 2012

Dale Gnidovec, curator, Orton Geological Museum; and Joan Leonard, coordinator, Biological Sciences Greenhouse, helped create a large scale geological exhibit that shows Ohioans what’s right under their feet. Ribbon-cutting for “the Geological Walk through Time,” or, Geo Walk, a 286-foot-long walkway in a park-like setting, is July 25, the opening day of the Ohio State Fair.

Chemist Receives $2 Million NIH Instrumentation Grant

July 10, 2012

Christopher Jaroniec, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, led a team of researchers at Ohio State and Case Western Reserve University to receive a $2 Million High-End Instrumentation grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).