Editor’s Note: The UMBC physics department recently honored the life of Joseph Mulligan, one of the founding faculty members, with their annual Mulligan Lecture and award. This year’s recipient, Kim Berghaus, is the first undergraduate student to receive the award. Her lecture, presented on May 14, 2014, is titled “The Life and Work of Albert Einstein.” Recently, Berghaus shared her thoughts with us on this opportunity:

The Mulligan lecture is a beautiful tradition, held every end of the school year about a topic in the history of physics to honor Joseph F. Mulligan. Holding this meaningful lecture was an amazing opportunity for me to get involved and connect with the physics department beyond just the classroom.

Presenting my work to faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, in and outside of physics, was an important lesson for myself and prepared me for future communication of my scientific work.

The Mulligan award allowed me to do original research on Albert Einstein and visit the Einstein Museum in Berne. That journey was the foundation for my lecture, as it exposed me to deeper insight
into his life.

The lectureship also strengthened my applications to graduate school and helped me get admitted into great physics Ph.D. programs such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas in Austin. I am grateful for the unique opportunity and my special thanks goes to Mrs. Mulligan.

– Kim Berghaus, ’14, physics

Watch Berghaus’ lecture here!

Zhibo Zhang, an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department, and his collaborators received a three-year grant of $710K from NASA’s Sciences of Terra and Aqua program to study the Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) clouds.

The MBL clouds cover about 20% of Earth’s surface. They play a pivotal in Earth’s radiative energy budget. Prof. Zhang’s research will help us understand the horizontal and microphysical structure of MBL clouds and provides guidance for the development of future NASA satellite missions.

As PI, Zhang will lead a group of researchers from UMBC, NASA GISS, and the Univ. of Illinois.

Zhang was also recently selected to receive the NASA New (Early Career) Investigator Program (NIP) awards in Earth Science. The NIP is a highly competitive and prestigious award established by NASA in 1996 to encourage integrated environments for research and education for scientists and engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. This year more than 130 scientists nationwide applied for this program and only 21 were selected.

The NIP will fund Zhang and his graduate student for three years to investigate the climatic effects of above-cloud aerosols (e.g. soot and dust) using data from NASA satellites. When elevated above clouds, aerosols can generate strong warming effect on the climate due to enhanced absorption. Dr. Zhang’s research is aimed to understand the size of this effect and its potential implications to global warming.

What do you need to do to put up offshore wind turbines? You need to know where the wind is. That’s what Ruben Delgado, a faculty research assistant in UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), is working on.

Timothy Wheeler at the Baltimore Sun wrote:

“Also aboard are scientists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who are gathering data on atmospheric conditions and winds high above the water, where the giant turbine blades will be.

Ruben Delgado, a faculty research assistant at UMBC, said the data gathered using remote sensing gear on board as well as old-fashioned weather balloons launched from the deck will help scientists and potential wind developers ground-truth the government’s wind-speed estimates, which are generated by computer models using mostly land-based data. The cruise also may provide information on how winds can vary from day to day and hour to hour.

“You need to know what the variation is,” Delgado said, “because if you have a windmill and all of a sudden have a gust, that means it’s going to produce more power.”

On Friday afternoon, the windspeed aloft where the turbine blades would spin was a steady 10 meters per second, he reported.”

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/bs-gr-offshore-wind-survey-20130819,0,7275793.story#ixzz2cWNbJgFc

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held its 2012 Agency Honor Awards on August 2nd to honor individuals who “have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the Agency’s mission.” Among those honored was Raymond Hoff, physics, who received the Distinguished Public Service Medal (DPSM) at an awards ceremony held at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The DPSM serves as NASA’s “highest form of recognition that is awarded to any non-Government individual or to an individual who was not a Government employee during the period in which the service was performed, whose distinguished service, ability, or vision has personally contributed to NASA’s advancement of United States’ interests,” according to the agency’s website. Hoff received his medal for Hoff is receiving the medal “for distinguished service and leadership in Earth observations and their application for societal benefit.”

Footage of the entire ceremony can be watched on NASA’s YouTube channel here, with Hoff’s award coming at approximately 30:15.

Recent Ph.D. Sanjit Karmakar ’12, physics, was featured in an article published by The Baltimore Sun July 13th.

The focus of the article was on Karmakar’s work in “ghost imaging,” where a picture can be taken without actually “seeing” the object which is being photographed. The camera the physicist designed utilizes the light of the sun as the source for images, which are generated on a computer using mathematics associated with quantum physics. This process can be used to generate images of objects on other continents and planets without the distortion of traditional photography, according to the piece.

Speaking on the still-unknown aspects of the nature of light, Karmakar was quoted as saying that “[m]any people still don’t understand its true properties,” something which the odd-looking camera described as “look[ing] like a cross between an 1890s camera and a bulky steamer trunk” by reporter Jonathan Pitts is hoped by the physicist to address more on for his students, as well as his own work.