Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
(Samuel Beckett)
Physics Senior Thesis: A Guide for Seniors
2024/2025
- Senior Independent Study
- Nina Hanus: Effects of Laminar Flow on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction
- Eric Johnson: Development of 3D Biometric Gel Dosimetry
- Tali Lansing: A Quantitative Analysis of Motion Management Techniques for lung Radiation Therapy
- Gus Thomas: Accelerating the Cosipy Library for Astrophysical Imaging
- Research Assistants
- Yeongyu (Henry) Lee: Image Acquisition software
- Caitlin O’Neil: Black Hole Event Horizon with a Light Sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky System
- Yuhe Ren: LaTeX support
- Joe Russo: Spiral waves on hemispheres
2023/2024
- 2024 Summer Research
- Al Cawley: LaTeX support for Teaching
- Walker Wood: Translating primary documents from Russian into English
- Senior Independent Study
- Aidan Mason: Fabricating a Flow Chemistry System to Investigate Reaction-Diffusion Waves in Advected Belousov-Zhabotinsky Systems
- Research Assistants
- Tali Lansing: Black Hole Event Horizon with a Light Sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky System
- Gus Thomas: Python programming for RD waves
2022/2023
- NSF-REU 2023 Summer Research (link)
- Aidan Mason: Effects of Laminar Flow on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction
- Veran Stanek : Modeling a Black Hole Event Horizon with a Light Sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky System
- Isaac Steinmeyer: Translating primary documents from Russian into English
- Gus Thomas :One-Dimensional Belousov-Zhabotinsky Chemical Wave System as an Electron Drift Analog
- Senior Independent Study
- Daniel Cohen Cobos : Simulating Reaction-Diffusion Waves to Model Gravitational Lensing (Masters in Physics at California State University, Long Beach)
- Michael Scarberry : Belousov–Zhabotinsky Reaction and its Metal Complex Catalysts (PhD in chemistry at George Washington University in D.C.)
- Research Assistants
- Iyanu Akinyemi (spring): Building a Trevelyan Rocker
- Alex Berggren (spring): LaTeX support for Teaching
- Morgan Hunter (fall): German language support for the BZ-history project
- Natalie Miller (spring): Transcribing an interview with Richard Noyes (1999, audio tape)
- Vincent Mueller (spring): German language support for the BZ-history project
- Gus Thomas: Electron Drift Velocity project
2021/2022
- NSF-REU 2022 Summer Research (link)
- Kiyomi Sanders: Table-top Analogues Using Chemical Waves: Gravitational Lensing Effect
- Mahala Wanner: Table-top Analogues Using Chemical Waves: Electron Drift Velocity
- Senior Independent Study
- William Hilbert: Designing an Apparatus for Creating 1D Standing Waves Using Reaction-Diffusion-Advection Systems (Engineering Associate at Tribco Inc. in Cleveland)
- Melita Wiles : Angular frequency of rotating spiral waves in a chemical reaction-diffusion system (Masters student in Statistics at Wake Forest University)
- Research Assistants
- Iyanu Akinyemi (spring): Building a Trevelyan Rocker
- Aeralyn Flynn (spring): History of the Department of Physics
- Morgan Hunter (spring): German language support for the BZ-history project
- Ryan Gretlein (spring): Creating a repository of BZ visuals
- Daniel Cohen Cobos: Simulating a chemical diffusion diode for reaction-diffusion waves
2020/2021
- Senior Independent Study
- Megan Fisher : Creating an Event Horizon Analogue with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction (Systems Engineer in the Space Architecture Department at the Aerospace Corporation)
- Craig Klumpp: A Case of Heartburn: Replicating the Heart’s Electrical Signals with Fire (PhD student in Biophysics (MS in medical physics) at the University of Rhode Island)
- Handeul Son : Investigation o fire propagation using discrete tree simulations (PhD student at Technical University of Munich, Germany)
2019/2020
- Senior Independent Study
- Margaret McGuire : What a Mouthful! Geographic Tongue as a Reaction Diffusion System
(Pre-dental math major, officially advised by Drew Pasteur). See her 2020 Virtual Senior Research Symposium contribution. (Dental school at UNC Chapel Hill)
- Margaret McGuire : What a Mouthful! Geographic Tongue as a Reaction Diffusion System
- Research Assistants
- Abigail Ambrose: Creating a fire clock
- Tanaka Chingonzo: The ‘History of the BZ-reaction’ website
- Daniel Halbing: German support for the BZ-history project
2018/2019
- NSF-REU 2019 Summer Research (link)
- Samuel Cavender (Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, GA): Belousov-Zhabotinsky Waves as an Analogue for a Black Hole Event Horizon
- Chase Fuller: 3D Graphics, Parallel Processing, and Heterogeneous Media in the Photosensitive Tyson-Fife Model
- Margaret McGuire: Reaction-Diffusion Models of 2D surfaces embedded in 3D Space and a Model of Geographic Tongue
- Fish Yu: Reaction-diusion wavefronts interacting with obstacles
- Senior Independent Study
- Daniel Blaikie : Propagation of light-sensitive RD waves in inhomogeneously illuminated systems (Masters student in Applied Physics at the University of Oregon)
- Sam Nash: Using Belousov-Zhabotinsky waves as an analogue to the event horizon of a black hole
- Joe Theiss : Slope’s Effect On Discrete Tree Fire Simulations (Site Reliability Engineer at Centene Corporation)
- Research Assistants
- Abigail Ambrose (fall): Matchstick fire fronts on a slope
- Tanaka Chingonzo: The ‘History of the BZ-reaction’ website
- Matthew Lowe (spring): Digitizing and organizing student research presentations
- Lubov Sidorova: Russian support for the BZ-history project
2017/2018
- NSF-REU 2018 Summer Research (link)
- Josh Ballard-Myer (Georgia Coll. & SU, Milledgeville, GA): One-dimensional reaction-diffusion-advection system
- Daniel Blaikie: Excitation waves in planar, inhomogeneously illuminated systems
- Tanaka Chingonzo: Populating the zoomable timeline on the ‘History of the BZ-reaction’ website
- Rebecca Glaser (SUNY Geneseo, NY): Excitation waves propagating in a narrow channel around obstacles
- Senior Independent Study
- Jack Mershon : Modified propagation of anomalous Belousov-Zhabotinsky waves in a quasi-1D system (Masters student in Mechanical Engineering at Indiana University)
- Nate Smith : A computational simulation of Belousov-Zhabotinsky wave behavior around obstacles (Electronic Warfare Engineer at DCS Corp)
- Research Assistants
- Abigail Ambrose (fall): Propagating fire fronts on a slope
- Dennis Bolshakov (spring): Russian language support with the BZ-history project
- Daniel Dorman (fall): Russian language support with the BZ-history project
- Chase Fuller: Investigating the possibility of a BZ-SOMS system
- Carlos Owusu-Ansah: Investigating the possibility of a BZ-SOMS system
2016/2017
- NSF-REU 2017 Summer Research (link)
- Abigail Ambrose: Propagating fire fronts
- Chase Fuller: One-dimensional reaction-diffusion-advection system
- Wan Hang (Vincent) Hui: Speed of BZ waves around obstacles
- Mirkamil Mijit: Zoomable timeline of the history of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction
- Senior Independent Study
- Marc Manheim : On the creation of a lab sized hydrodynamic event horizon analogue (Masters student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kentucky)
- Robin Morillo :The Effects of Slope upon Propagation Speed and Pattern Formation in Forest Fires (PhD Student in Applied Mathematics at North Carolina State Univeristy)
- Research Assistants
- Abigail Ambrose: One-dimensional fire fronts
- Jacob Denbeaux: Modern physics lab student scheduling program
- Mirkamil Mijit: Zoomable timeline of the history of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction
2015/2016
- NSF-REU 2016 Summer Research (link)
- Alex Gould: BZ-Reaction-Diffusion Waves: a computational and theoretical analysis
- Jersson Pachar (Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH): Effects of Advection on Reaction-Diffusion Waves
- Senior Independent Study
- Spencer Kirn : Excitation waves in planar, inhomogeneously illuminated systems (PhD student in Physics at College of William and Mary, Nondestructive Evaluation & Robotics Laboratory)
- Mitch Gavin : An Injector to investigate reaction-diffusion-advection systems (Structural EIT at Morrison Maierle, Inc.)
- Diego Miramontes : Creating quasi two-dimensional, curved molds with 3D-printing technology (Analista del Datos)