Tag: physics

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NOVA students attend CUWiP at George Washington University

Talking to outreach representative
At the tables
Alexandria students with Prof. Stantcheva

NOVA students with interest in physics, engineering, or other physical sciences attended the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics organized by the George Washington University and sponsored by the American Physical Society. The conference took place  from January 12th to 14th, 2018, at GW’s downtown Washington DC campus. Student had opportunity to visit NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday, and attend plenary talks, workshops, and poster sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

Students from the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia attended. More than 10 NOVA female science students attended most of them having taking their classes at the Alexandria and Loudoun campuses.

The plenary speakers included Kawtar Hafidi from Argonne National Laboratory, Patricia Burchat from Stanford University, Nancy Jo Nicholas from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Luz Martinez-Miranda from University of Maryland. Students could choose among concurrent workshops on transfer from 2-yr to 4-yr institutions, how to succeed in non-academic science-related job, and how to find support for under-represented minorities in physics. The expenses of attendances including meals and accommodation were covered by the organizers for all our NOVA students who were able to enjoy this unique opportunity completely free of charge.

 

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Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics comes to DC

Hello NOVA Women in Physics, Physical Sciences, or Engineering!
The Physics Department at the Alexandria campus has been collaborating with the George Washington University on bringing an APS-sponsored Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) in January 2018. The application is now open and closes on Friday, October 13, 2017.

What, Where, and When

If you are a woman studying physics or related field at NOVA, you have the unique opportunity to attend CUWiP in January hosted by the George Washington University.  You do not really need to be a declared Physics major, only be taking or have taken Physics classes, and be interested in career opportunities in Physics.
The conference is sponsored by the American Physical Society and is hosted by the George Washington University. It runs Friday evening, January 12, till Sunday afternoon, January 14,  2018.

Accommodations

Lodging and meals will be provided for participants who are accepted to the conference. In the past, CUWiP has been able to ensure that nearly all students had travel support either through their department or through the conference. For inquiries, email  cuwip2018@gwu.edu.

How To Apply And More Information

Here is the original letter of invitation to apply.  More information about the conference is available at: https://physics.columbian.gwu.edu/aps-cuwip-gw.

Deadline to apply is Friday, October 13, 2017.

For questions or other inquiries, feel free to email the organizer, Prof. Evangeline Downie at cuwip2018@gwu.edu. The contact person at NOVA is the Assistant Dean for Physics at the Alexandria campus, Prof. Tatiana Stantcheva
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Changes in the Friday PHY 232 Section


We are excited to welcome Dr. Catherine Rastovski to the Physics Department at the Alexandria campus. She will be teaching with us part time and will be taking over the PHY 232 section scheduled to run on Fridays this fall.
Dr. Rastovski has been teaching and doing physics outreach for almost 20 years.  A native of the greater Chicago area, she earned her M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and taught physics for several years in northern Indiana.  She received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Notre Dame in 2014.  Dr. Rastovski’s current favorite science activity is volunteering with the RESET organization bringing fun science experiments to the third graders at Jefferson-Houston Elementary school.
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Physics 231 On Saturdays

We are excited to announce that we will have a new physics instructor at Alexandria for the fall semester.  Dr. Alejandro de la Puente is joining the Alexandria Physics faculty as a part time Assistant Professor and will be teaching the Saturday PHY 231 section.

Dr. de la Puente received Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame du Lac, and is a  High Energy Theoretical Particle Physicist. He is currently a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow serving in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Studies at the National Science Foundation. His research has focused on building and studying new physics models to address the nature of dark matter, the naturalness of the Higgs boson, and the mechanism for neutrino mass generation.

Dr. de la Puente has a  passion for education that has allowed him to organize High Energy Physics outreach activities in Latin America and he is a spokesperson for Instituto Apoyo, a non-profit organization with a mission to design and implement educational solutions to promote inclusive social development in Peru. He is working to design and promote new ways to improve undergraduate STEM education is the United States, identifying and studying best practices to increase retention and diversity in all STEM fields.