Physics Department Research Programs

Physics students have multiple opportunities for research and internships:

Physics faculty research projects

Goshen students have worked on research with Goshen faculty members.  There are opportunities during the school year, and more intense opportunities for summer research, through the Maple Scholars program.

Professor Paul Meyer Reimer‘s research

  • Using satellite observations and global datasets to evaluate risk of mycotoxin exposure in Tanzanian infants.
    > “Environmental variables and mycotoxin risk in Kongwa, Tanzania“, Lisa Nalliah and Samuel Stoner-Eby’s   Maple Scholars poster, summer 2021.
  • Mapping and analysis of groundwater using GRACE satellite data and the Community Land Model.
    > Combined GRACE/CLM visualization
  • X-ray crystallography – Reimer analyzed semiconductor heterostructures and calcium carbonate growth–by bivalves and by humans in labs–using x-ray diffraction and reflectivity in GC’s Turner x-ray laboratory.

>> more

Professor John Buschert‘s research

  • Acoustics – Professor Buschert and students built an electronic holography system and acoustical chamber to probe the vibration modes of handbells.
    > Continued research rings a bell…
  • Electronic musical instruments – Designing music instruments and interfaces for amateurs to *jam*.
    > Guthman competition finalists, Buschert and John Miller
  • X-ray diffraction – Professor Buschert did thesis work on laser annealing of silicon with time-resolved x-ray diffraction.

>> more

Maple Scholars

Each summer the Maple Scholars program pairs students with a faculty mentor for 8 weeks of research. Creating a a community of scholars, the students are all housed together and in the Friday colloquium,  scholars take turns presenting the work they are doing and answering questions from other students and faculty.

Reuben, Spencer and John RB work on TRAQR

While physics majors often work with professors from the Physics Department, they can and do with professors from other departments. Some recent Maple Scholars projects involving physics majors:

 

External programs

Students have taken advantage of external REU programs, done research at national labs, and worked in engineering bureaus in and around Goshen.  A few recent examples:

Drew Smoker ’24, researched forest products in her summer 2022 REU internship at the University of Maine.

Ebtihal

Ebtihal Abdelaziz ’22 (at right) analyzed photon polarizations for a cosmology experiment at Fermilab during the summers of 2022 and 2021.

Lucas Sauder ’22 worked part-time for a local water engineer, designing municipal water distribution systems during his college years.

Ryan Haggerty ’20 gathered data on rural bridges for a summer REU in the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.