Category: Outreach

On April 8th, 2024, the Clemson University department of Physics and Astronomy hosted an eclipse event, and it was a huge success! There was so much happening on campus and so many fun stations for both the Clemson Community and the public. There was eclipse science taking place in the planetarium, presentations on general relativity, pinhole cameras, liquid nitrogen ice cream, and telescope viewing. News reporters from Fox 8 and WYFF News were filming live throughout the day. The department provided eclipse glasses for safe viewing and started the event with 4000 eclipse glasses and ran out! Over 4000 people came to see the eclipse on campus!

None of this would have been possible without the help of our faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students. Thank you to everyone who came out and to our lovely volunteers.

German radio journalist Kristian Thees and German actress and entertainer Anke Engelke, talk about the NASA sounding rocket experiment INCAA and the image of tracer releases in Alaska submitted by listener Prof. Gerald Lehmacher, who was co-investigator for the experiment. Prof. Steve Kaeppler and Prof. Miguel Larsen were principal investigator and co-investigator, respectively. The photo taken by Danute Paukstys from Wasilla, Alaska is featured in the podcast’s blog and discussed (in German) in the episode of May 26, 2022 (starting at about 8:50 min). Two sounding rockets were successfully launched on April 7, 2022 from Poker Flat, Alaska to study ion-neutral coupling under active aurora. The payloads carried experiments from the University of California Berkeley, the University of Calgary and Clemson University.

Clemson undergraduates Austin Smith and James Hutchinson presented the student rocket experiments carried out under the supervision of Prof. Steve Kaeppler and graduate student Alvaro Guerra over the last two semesters at the 25th ESA Symposium for European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and Related Research in held on May 1-5, 2022 in Biarritz, France.  Their oral presentation entitled “Clemson University Student Space Program: Educating Students in the Field of Space Physics” was given in the “Rockets & Balloons in Space Education” session and received broad attention and feedback from scientists and students in the audience.

Have you wondered what Biophysics is and what Biophysicists do? This is your week to find out! The Clemson Biophysical Society is hosting Biophysics Week 2019 this week. Thursday at 4:00pm We will have a special colloquium in Kinard G01. Mary Elting will tell us about her research on self-organization of the microtubule cytoskeleton. Friday at 5:30PM we will have a General Public Event at the Watt Center (rm 106). At 5:30 PM Prof. Sanabria will tell us about the single molecule biophysics research occurring at Clemson. Then at 6:00PM there will be a VR show. Then at 6:30PM Delphine Dean will tell us about multi scale bioelectromechanics research occurring at Clemson. Please join us for these stimulating talks and learn more about what Biophysics is all about!

The annual meeting of the Physics Teacher Education Coalition or PhysTEC was held March 2-3, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts and Clemson University had a seat at the table for the first time. Attending the PhysTEC 2019 meeting were Profs. Sean Brittain and Chad Sosolik, who gave a presentation on their 3-year project with the Laurens County school districts entitled “STEM Training for K­-12 Teachers: A Pilot Program in Upstate South Carolina”.

The Dept. of Physics and Astronomy became  a PhysTEC member institution this past Fall as part of its ongoing effort to recognize and enhance the teaching and outreach components of its mission. PhysTEC, which was founded in 2001, is a network of institutions committed to developing and promoting excellence in physics and physical science teacher preparation. The organization operates as a partnership between the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).

At PhysTEC 2019, attendees learned about ongoing efforts to improve physics teacher education at the undergraduate level, many of which may find their way onto the Clemson University campus. These include the UTeach Model and the Get the Facts Out initiative, which is focused on addressing the misperceptions and lack of knowledge that many students and professional physicists have about the teaching profession.

On Friday, March 9 at 4:00 pm in G01 Kinard Laboratory, the Clemson Society of Physics Students will host Kevin Metrocavage as our colloquium speaker. Mr. Metrocavage currently serves as the International Space Station (ISS) Operations Manager. We hope that you will join us for this unique opportunity to hear about Mr. Metrocavage’s experiences working with the ISS and at NASA. There will be a reception afterwards in the PandA Café.

To learn more about Mr. Metrocavage, please see his biography. For more details about the event, please see the Clemson Events Calendar.

A limited number of Eclipse Over Clemson Ornaments are now available for purchase. The etched glass ornament is $15 and features the Eclipse Over Clemson logo.

To purchase an ornament, visit our online store: Physics and Astronomy Marketplace Store.

You can choose Pick-up as your shipping option if you would like to pick-up your ornament in the Physics and Astronomy Main Office, Dec 18 – Dec 22, 8:00 am – noon and 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Just purchase online, then show your email receipt to pick-up your ornament. Otherwise, shipping is $10 (shipping for additional ornaments is only $1 per ornament).

It is said that the excitement of learning separates youth from old age, and that we stay young as long as we are learning. A true testament to this statement was the recent “Nanotechnology Day,” cohosted by the Clemson Nanomaterials Center (CNC) and the Roper Mountain Science Center (RMSC) in Greenville, South Carolina. On March 14, 2015, “Pi Day,” as it is called (for its similarity to the ubiquitous irrational number π), attracted about 800 visitors aged 7 to 70 years, who attended the Nanotechnology Day event despite the pouring rain. While it was raining outside, it was enthusiasm and curiosity that was pouring inside the RMSC. The enthusiasm of kids and senior citizens alike reaffirmed the fact that no matter Clemson Nanomaterials Center Faculty and Research Group how old you are, learning about about things at the nanoscale is definitely fun.

To captivate the enthusiasm and unleash the imagination of its young visitors, CNC brought its nanolab to the doorstep and illustrated intriguing physics phenomena through simple experiments. Some such activities included: the art of levitation, which demonstrated a floating piece of graphene on magnets, (much like the magic carpet of the Arabian nights); the extraction of graphene from graphite in pencil that won the Nobel prize (pencil to Nobel); and, the magic of ferro fluids, the power of nano-sponges, the nano -movers and shakers (nano diving-board like cantilevers), just to name a few. Other nano activities using the RMSC’s Network Nano Days Physical Kit from the Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) grant were also included. The audience was awed by the possibility of delivering nanomedicine and storing energy using nanomaterials. Indeed, many of them truly learned, despite its size, that nanotechnology is no small thing. “It was a really fun and exciting experience to teach kids about nanoscience,” remarked Dr. Sriparna Bhattacharya, Research Assistant Professor at CNC, “I believe learning went both ways. We learned as much as they did.”

Anthony Childress, a Physics and Astronomy graduate student, and a member of CNC, presented “The Magic of Nanomaterials,” a thirty-minute talk where he introduced the interesting physical phenomena at the nano-level. The audience, which included both kids and seniors, was thrilled and asked him many interesting questions. He concluded his talk with a live demonstration of making nanosweets (nanocarbons from sugar and drain cleaner) that undoubtedly piqued the interest of everyone. “Clemson is being recognized as an international center of excellence for nanomanufacturing,” said Dr. Apparao M. Rao, Director of CNC, “One of our goals is to convey the excitement of cutting-edge research developed at CNC to K-12 and undergraduate students through programs such as the Nanotechnology Day.”

“We intend to develop a larger workforce in South Carolina and the nation,” explained Dr. Ramakrishna Podila, Assistant Professor of Physics at Clemson. “We want to train the next generation scientist to solve future challenges in the fields of energy and biomedicine through innovations in nanoscience.”