This summer, four students were engaged in research with physics and astronomy faculty. Jon Thoms worked with Profs. Koetke, Manwieler, and Stanislaus in nuclear and particle physics experiments. His work centered on the Crystal Ball experiment for which he did a detailed study of the simulation of neutron interactions in the Crystal Ball detector. Danny Allen, Justin Lowry, and Richard Maupin worked with Prof. Hrivnak in the study of proto-planetary nebulei. These students continued a 6 year program of data collection on these objects using the VU astronomical observatory followed by analysis of the time variations of the light intensity from these objects. The goal is to attempt to characterize the time variation of the light emissions from such objects, searching for regular behavior and measuring the periodicity of the light emissions. The students presented their work at the fall colloquium.

In addition, four other students worked on research at other centers: Jason Karlin worked in computer science at Argonne National Laboratory; Ryan Doering worked in astronomy at Michigan State University; Lindsey Hillesheim worked at the Mayo Clinic in medical physics, Dennis Johnson worked at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa and at the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source on x-ray scattering experiments. They too presented their work at the fall colloquium.