With new degree programs now being offered in Astronomy and

Astrophysics, the number and variety of degrees and students continues

to grow in the Department of Physics. Pictured above are our May grad-

uates (left to right) Kristen Deline, Kyle Brown, Amir Ali, Janie Hoormann

and Kimberly Orr. With two more students who will graduate this sum-

mer, the degrees awarded by the department this year will include four

physics majors, two astrophysics majors, and one astronomy major.

Among the physics majors, two were in the pre-health care track and

one was in the computational physics track. The number of majors in

the department (including University Scholars) has grown to over 45

undergraduate students pursuing a variety of bachelor’s degrees in

physics, astronomy and astrophysics.

Department graduates & degrees reflect growing diversity

Inside this issue:

A letter from the Chair 2

Important Deadlines 3

Congressional Visit 3

Graduate Program 4

Undergraduate Program 5

Out and About ... 6 - 7

Calendars 8

Special points of interest:

Note the deadlines for final

grades listed on the May

calendar!

Congressional Visits Day

Graduating seniors

Incoming graduate students

Faculty scholarship

May & June 2012

Volume 6, Issue 5

Physics Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Baylor Physics Department! As I write to you, the spring semester is finishing up; the

summer is nearly upon us; and we are in the process of saying goodbye to our graduating students. The

Department is proud to be graduating five seniors this year: Amir Ali, Kyle Brown, Kristen Deline, Janie

Hoormann, Kimberly Orr, and (in a few months) Brandon Doyle. Also, Angela Douglass has successfully

defended her dissertation and will officially receive her Ph.D. degree this summer. Congratulations to all!

Did you ever think 2012 would get here? The University has been engaged in a ten-year mission to ex-

plore strange new research agendas and higher rankings, to seek out world class faculty and new stu-

dents, to boldly go where few universities have gone before. And we made a lot of progress! The campus

has been completely transformed over the past ten years! Research is way, way up! Our sports teams are

having an unbelievable year! In Physics, we didn’t receive the new faculty positions we were promised—

and it’s tough to compete with institutions (like Rice) that have 45 or more tenure-track positions in Physics

when we have just 15—but we have an excellent group of faculty members who do much for Baylor! We

look forward to the next ten-year plan to be unveiled in the next few months.

We had several additions to the Department this past year. Jeff and Linda Olafsen welcomed daughter

Susanna last June. Graduate student Nancy Yu’s daughter Guo Guo was born in August. Her Chinese

nickname means ―fruit of the Holy Spirit.‖ Daniel Bolton (Ed Schaub’s ―replacement‖) and wife Laura were

welcomed into the Department in August. The couple is expecting their first child next September. And,

the reports of Ed Schaub’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated! No sooner had Ed retired last spring

than he offered to come back if we had a need. Unexpectedly, we did! A temporary lecturer we had re-

cruited had second thoughts—so, Ed returned to teach two courses last fall and this spring. We plan to

continue the relationship next fall.

Congratulations are in order for several of our faculty and staff members. Assistant Professor Lorin Mat-

thews was granted tenure this spring, and has been promoted to Associate Professor. Office Manager

Chava Baker received an Outstanding Staff Member Award in recognition of her tireless efforts for the bet-

terment of the Department. We would be lost without her! Jeff Olafsen and Jay Dittmann are receiving

Outstanding Professor Awards at the May commencement exercises in recognition of their excellence in

teaching and research, respectively. Congratulations to all! You make us proud!

For several years now our high-energy physics experimental group has been a part of the CMS collabo-

ration at CERN (in Geneva, Switzerland); however, our funding had been for our research effort at Fermilab

(in Illinois). That all changed this spring when Jay Dittmann and Ken Hatakeyama received a new

$700,000 three-year grant from the Department of Energy. The DOE grant is tremendous validation for the

Department’s research effort in this area. Congratulations!

We again thank you for your interest and support. Please continue to pray with us that we honor God in

all of our work, and that we accomplish goals that are pleasing to Him. If you find yourself in the area over

the summer, please stop by and say hello.

With warmest best wishes,

Greg Benesh

Professor & Chairman

From the Chair …

Physics Newsletter Page 2

Baylor is once again serving as a satellite host for the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, to take place

August 9-10 in Waco Hall. This internationally acclaimed conference will energize you as an individual and

provide an opportunity to fellowship with peers and build your team's relationships. Leadership and teamwork

are often vital to success. For questions, - contact Denise Corley at (254) 710-6274 or email her at her Baylor

address: Denise_Corley@baylor.edu. Additional information about the Leadership Summit is available at

www.baylor.edu/willowcreek

ITS is coming up with a new, more secured faculty identity card (ID). Expect to receive an email before the

end of the semester indicating when your ID card will be ready at Robinson tow. New cards are being pro-

duced in sets.

Save the date! The 2012 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture will be held October 25-27. This year's

theme is "Technology and Human Flourishing." More information is available at www.baylor.edu/ifl

Grades for graduating students are due by 5pm on Tuesday, May 8th. All other grades are due by 5 pm on

Wednesday, May 9th. Please enter your grades in a timely fashion to help the commencement process!

Dr. Linda Olafsen visited Washington, DC on April 25 along with 16 colleagues from the Materials Re-

search Society as part of the 2012 Science Engineering Technology Congressional Visits Day. Along with

Dr. Marcus Shute, Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs and Professor in the Department

of Physics and Dual Degree Engineering Program at Clark Atlanta University, she visited congressional of-

fices from Georgia and Texas, including Representatives John Lewis (GA) and Bill Flores (TX) and Senators

Saxby Chambliss (GA), Johnny Isakson (GA), John Cornyn (TX), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX).

In addition to thanking these members of Con-

gress for their past support for scientific research,

Drs. Olafsen and Shute sought their continued

support in the form of appropriations for the Na-

tional Science Foundation, the Department of En-

ergy Office of Science, the National Institute of

Standards and Technology, and Department of

Defense Basic Research. They had the oppor-

tunity to discuss materials related to energy and

defense as well as support of science, technolo-

gy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educa-

tion with congressional staff members.

Dr. Linda Olafsen joined colleagues from the Materials

Research Society as part of Congressional Visits Day

April 25 in Washington, D.C.

Congressional Visits Day

News & Notes

Volume 6, Issue 5 Page 3

Our new graduate students for fall, 2012 are:

Suman Baral from Tribhuvan University, Kenneth Call from Weber State, Indra Ghimire from Tribhuvan Uni-

versity, Cameron Kopas from Arizona State University, Bao-Fei Li from Peking University, and Kyle Turck

from Siena College.

All of the above students have enhancements from the Graduate School. So far, this looks to be an excep-

tional class. Dr. Walter Wilcox, the department’s Director of Graduate Studies, would like to thank the entire

faculty, as well as Marian Nunn-Graves, for all your recruitment efforts over the past year.

Congratulations to Angela Douglass (advisor: Truell Hyde) on her successful Ph.D. defense.

Xinwen Wang has agreed to be the Physics Department's new Graduate Student Association representative

for next year. Thanks to Jonathan Perry (representative) and Yanbin Deng (alternate) for their service over

the past year.

Bo Zhang and Yaobiao (Eric) Xia presented two posters at the Southwest Catalysis Society 2012 Spring

Symposium, held in Houston, TX. Also attending was Dr. Zhenrong Zhang. Bo Zhang’s poster title is

―Adsorption and Diffusion of Acetone on Rutile TiO2 (110)‖. Yaobiao Xia’s poster title is ―Acetone Assisted

Diffusion of Oxygen Vacancies on TiO2 (110).‖ Yaobiao Xia won a best poster prize at Southwest Catalysis

Society 2012 Spring Symposium.

Jared Greenwald and his fiancé, Abby Sullivan were married on April 6, 2012. Congratulations!

Karen Bland will be defending her Ph.D. dissertation in experimental high energy physics on May 10, 2012 at

1:45 pm. Additional information, including the location, will be available soon. All are welcome to attend!

Graduate Program News

Physics Newsletter Page 4

The Baylor University Undergraduate Scholars Week (March 26 - 30, 2012) saw a large participation once

again from the Department of Physics. Evan Bauer and Forrest Phillips both gave an oral presentation on

Tuesday March 27th. On Wednesday and Thursday in the Baylor Sciences Building, students who present-

ed posters included Kimberly Orr, Kyle Brown, Janie Hoormann, Amir Ali, Nathan Beasley, Kristen Deline

and Brandon Doyle.

Amir Ali who has been doing research in Dr. Zhang’s laboratory presented a poster entitled ―TiO2(110) Sam-

ple Preparation & Installation of Molecular Doser‖ at URSA Scholars week. Janie Hoormann presented a

poster entitled ―Magnetic Fields in a Supernovae-driven, Stratified Disk‖ which was based on her work with

Professor Dinshaw Balsara at the University of Notre Dame through their REU program. These two posters

were chosen as two of the URSA Scholars Week Outstanding Poster Presentations. The posters are on dis-

play in the Moody and Jones libraries from April 17 through graduation.

May is a time when we have to say goodbye to several of our graduating seniors. Kimberly Orr, Kyle Brown,

Janie Hoormann, Amir Ali, and Kristen Deline will be graduating at the May Commencement. The Physics

Department held a luncheon for those students on Thursday, April 26 in the BSB. The luncheon also served

as the Sigma Pi Sigma Induction program. Undergraduates being inducted this year included Will Barnes

(signing the register, bottom right), Nathan Beasley and Forrest Phillips.

Several graduating students have shared with us their plans for the coming year. Janie Hoormann will be

attending graduate school at Washington University, St. Louis to study theoretical Astrophysics. Amir Ali will

be moving on to medical school, Kimberly Orr will continue working with Dr. Anne Verbiscer from the Univer-

sity of Virginia to gain more training with astronomical imaging, and Kyle Brown plans to attend the Universi-

ty of Southern Mississippi to pursue a Master’s Degree in Science Education and eventually to work on his

Ph.D. We wish all of our graduates blessings on the next step in their respective careers.

Undergraduate Program News

Volume 6, Issue 5 Page 5

Dr. Jerry Cleaver's string phenomenology research is discussed in the recently published book "String

Theory and Particle Physics: An Introduction to String Phenomenology" by Luis Ibanez and Angel

Uranga, (Cambridge Press, Cambridge, 2012). He was also honored this April with the Boy Scout's Dis-

trict Award of Merit for coordinating the annual Baylor Merit Badge College for the last 4 years. Dr.

Cleaver wrote a chapter for the book, "Delight In Creation: Scientists Share Their Work with the Church,‖

published by Templeton Press in January. The Biologos Foundation has chosen Jerry’s chapter, entitled

"What I Wish My Pastor Knew About the Universe and the Multiverse," to appear as a series of 5 blogs

on the Biologos website. Dr. Cleaver has also been invited to present a related lecture at Michigan State

University in October.

Dr. Jay Dittmann and Dr. Kenichi Hatakeyama received a Department of Energy grant award totaling

$695,000 for three years starting May 1, 2012 for experimental high energy physics research on the

CMS experiment at CERN and the CDF experiment at Fermilab. In addition, Dr. Dittmann received a

supplemental $14,000 award from Fermilab for research this summer and fall.

CASPER members Dr. Lorin Matthews, Helmut Koch, Christoph Gomringer, Alexander Wolf, Jonathan

Perry, and Jesse Kimery attended the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Wood-

lands, Texas, March 19-23. The group presented a total of four posters, including: ―Setup of an Induc-

tively–Heated Plasma Generator and Diagnostics to Build a Hybrid Plasma Simulation Facility for Com-

plex Space Environment Investigations,‖ authors M. Dropmann, C. Gomringer, H. Koch, S. Peters, G.

Herdrich, M. Cook, J. Schmoke, R. Laufer, L. S. Matthews, T. W. Hyde, ―Effects of Monomer Shape on

the Formation of Fractal Aggregates Under a Power Law Distribution,‖ authors J. D. Perry, J. Kimery. L.

S. Matthews, and T. W. Hyde, ―Piezo Dust Detector (PDD) — A Modular Miniaturized In-Situ Measure-

ment Instrument for Dust Research,‖ authors A. Wolf, R. Laufer, G. Lightsey, G. Herdrich, R. Srama, H.-

P. Röser, T. W. Hyde, and ―Multi Wall Carbon Nano Tubes as Material for a Space Elevator on the

Moon, authors J. A. Carmona Reyes, S. Peters, G. Herdrich, R. Srama, J. Schmoke, M. Cook, L. Mat-

thews, R. Laufer, T. W. Hyde

Dr. Jeffrey Olafsen supervised the UIL Regional Science Contest as part of Baylor University’s hosting of

the regional competition on April 21, 2012.

Dr. Azhong Wang attended the meeting Testing Gravity with Astrophysical and Cosmological Observa-

tions, 23 January - 3 February, 2012, Kashiwa, Japan. Two talks were presented: 1) Overview of quan-

tum gravity at Lifshitz point, & 2) Elimination of Spin-0 Gravitons in Horava's Gravity without Projectabil-

ity Condition. He also gave the presentations: ―Elimination of Spin-0 Gravitons in Horava's Gravity with-

out Projectability Condition,‖ HEP Seminar, Baylor University, on March 26, 2012. and ―Horava's Theory

of Quantum Gravity at Lifshitz Point: A Layman's View,‖ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas

A&M University, Commerce, on February 23, 2012. Finally, Dr. Wang had two papers published so far

in 2012, ―General relativity limit of Horava-Lifshitz gravity with a scalar field in gradient expansion,‖ A.E.

Gumrukcuoglu, S. Mukohyama, and A. Wang, Phys. Rev. D 85, 064042 (2012), and ―General covariant

Horava-Lifshitz gravity without projectability condition and its applications to cosmology,‖ T. Zhua, F.-W.

Shu, Q. Wu, and A. Wang, Phys. Rev. D 85, 044053 (2012)

Out and About …

Physics Newsletter Page 6

Drs. B.F.L. Ward and Jeffrey and Linda Olafsen attended the Lift Up Your Hearts end of term worship

and prayer service sponsored by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Spiritual Life held on Monday

April 30th.

During Jan. 11 - 22 and during Feb. 26 - March 7, Dr. B.F.L. Ward visited the CERN TH Unit, Geneva,

Switzerland to continue his interaction with CERN LHC physicists on precision theory for the LHC phys-

ics program. On February 28, he presented a lecture in the LPCC ―Mini-Workshop on NLO Parton Show-

er MC's" organized by Profs. Michelangelo Mangano and Paolo Nason. The title of his lecture was

"Interplay of IR-Improved DGLAP-CS Theory and NLO Parton Shower MC Precision.‖ The importance of

precision QCDxEW theory is now manifest with the recent tightening of the window of allowed masses

for the Standard Model Higgs boson to 115 GeV/c2 to 128 GeV/c2 and the absence of any evidence for

the simplest supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model up to scales approaching 1 TeV and the

workshop allowed the world's experts in the precision theory of the MC realizations for the attendant

higher order corrections to such processes as Higgs boson production to deal with recent is-

sues pertaining to the precision of these realizations. In addition, in another program of research, B.F.L.

Ward had the chapter entitled "Planck Scale Cosmology and Asymptotic Safety in Resummed Quantum

Gravity: An Estimate of Lambda" published in the book Quantum Gravity, ISBN 978-953-51-0089-8, ed-

ited by Rodrigo Sobreiro (Intech, 2012). This chapter can be reached by clicking on the link

http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/planck-scale-cosmology-and-asymptotic-safety-in-resummed-quantum-gravity-an-estimate-of-lambda

Recently, Dr. Ward’s paper entitled ―Estimates of Radiation by Superluminal Neutrinos‖ appeared in

Phys. Rev.D 85 (2012) 073007. This has been a Hot Topic this past year, where the CERN OPREA Col-

laboration claims(arXiv:1109:4897) to see faster than light neutrinos between CERN and their detector

730 km away in Gran Sasso, Italy. The results expand and clarify the theoretical estimates for the neutri-

no splitting process and show that the Cohen-Glashow results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011) 181803]

have the correct dependence on superluminality in contrast to original estimates by Mattingly et al. [J.

Cos. Astropart. Phys. 1002 (2010) 007], which are off by one power of superluminality defined as

((v/c)2-1) for a neutrino of velocity v. In addition, the paper entitled "Exact Amplitude-Based Resumma-

tion in Quantum Field Theory: Recent Results", by B.F.L. Ward, S.K. Majhi and S.A. Yost, was recently

published in PoS(RADCOR 2011) (2012) 022 and the paper entitled "Herwiri2: CEEX Electroweak Cor-

rections in a Hadronic MC", by S.A. Yost, M. Hejna, V. Halyo and B.F.L. Ward, was published in PoS

(RADCOR 2011) (2012) 017. Dr. Ward will travel to CERN during May 16-27 for participation in the up-

coming LPCC EW Physics Workshop during May 21-22 and for my interaction with the CERN TH Unit

on precision QCD Theory for LHC physics processes.

Dr. Walter Wilcox’s quantum textbook, Quantum Principles and Particles (CRC Press), is printed and

available for shipping. He plans to buy back copies and distribute them to needy physics students world-

wide. Please let him know if you know of any students or student groups this would benefit. Dr. Wilcox’s

wife, Diana, has been accepted into Truett Seminary.

Dr. Zhenrong Zhang participated in Spring Premiere on Saturday, April 14. She spoke with a total of 35

perspective students and was assisted by Janie Hoormann, Kristen Deline and Brandon Doyle.

Out and About … (continued)

Volume 6, Issue 5 Page 7

May 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

4/30

Study Day

1

Study Day

2 Finals

5/2 - 5/8

3 Retiree

Coffee

4 5

6 7 8 Grades for

Graduates due

by 5:00 pm

9 All other

grades due by

5:00 pm today.

10

Marshal Lunch

11

Commencement

12

Commencement

13 14 Start of

Minimester

15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 Practice

Prelim E.206

25 26

27 28 Memorial

Day Holiday

29 30 Summer

Term I Begins

31

June 2012 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Summer

Term I Ends

on July 3rd

Summer

Term II

7/5 - 8/8

Summer

Commencement

August 11th

1 End of

Minimester

2

3 4 5 6 7 Retiree

Coffee

8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30