THE ARCHIVES

 

 INTRODUCTION

 The original Akron Physics Club, founded in 1966, was a somewhat formal (some might say scholarly) organization that met in a lecture-hall setting at the University of Akron. A few members — usually 8 or 10 of us — had dinner with the speaker at Sanginiti’s Restaurant on East Market before repairing to Ayre Hall for the program. In its first life, the club lasted about 15 years. But personnel mobility and other factors eventually led to its demise.

After a decade of hiatus, the club was resuscitated by a group of friends, spearheaded by then-Chair of the University’s Department of Physics, Charlie Wilson. Meeting at Nikki's Restaurant on North Main Street (Sanginiti’s having bit the fiscal dust), and becoming charter members on the spot, they reorganized the club. The learned discussions that ensued on that signal occasion, establishing a venue for the new Akron Physics Club, are documented in the first entry of these Archives (Oct90).

The most significant change voted by the neoframers was the recognition that the most fun (and often most illuminating part) of the old club’s meetings was having dinner and informal discussion with the speaker. Which is why today we are a “supper club” that has doubled in size in recent years, thanks to a string of outstanding speakers enticed by members of the club — especially by successive Program Chairmen, Leon Marker and Vic Burke.

Highlights (and sometimes, we hope, the essence of what our speakers had to impart) are summarized in these Archives, which began as merely “Minutes” of the meetings, and later became Newsletters. As a result, the dates on their labels still refer to the previous meeting — the date of the minutes. Now that the club has entered cyberspace, by clicking on PROGRAMS, the list may be searched by speaker, by subject, or by date — thanks to the University of Akron’s sponsorship of our website, launched in 2001 by Webmaster John Kirszenberg.

We welcome visitors to our meetings, which are held on the fourth Monday of the month, January-May; September-November.

Jack Gieck
Secretary
12-29-2001


  

            
2021  
January  Zhihoa Shang - Novel Electrospun Fuel Cell Proton Exchange Membrane
February  Mel Vye - The Mathematics of Rubik's Cube
March   
April   
June  
September   
October  
November  

   

            
2020  
January  Aliaksei (Alex) Boika - Hot Microelectrodes: Fundamentals and Applications
February  Ray Flasco & Mark Brown - Akron Drinking Water System History, Current Treatment Processes and What the Water Industry Has Yet to Know
March  Meeting cancelled due to Codi-19 virus public gathering restrictions
April  Meeting cancelled due to Codi-19 virus public gathering restrictions
June Jim Grover - Arduino over easy
September  Melvin Vye - Good Antennas, Terrible Measurements 
October Darrell Reneker - Toward Nanoware Devices Created With Nanofibers
November Geoffrey Landis - Oxygen Making on Mars


 

            
2019  
January  Veronika Dexheimer - Neutron Stars: a laboratory of exotic matter
February  Hunter King - Transport problems solved by insects
March  Chris Cole - Introduction to Machine Learning (AI)
April  Bruce C. Taylor - Mathematical and Computer Modeling of the Circulatory System
June Bob Erdman - Ideal Measurements vs Real Measurements
September  Jonah Kirszenberg - The Flat Earth Movement, Why now, Why again?
October Joe Huber - The Akron's 520 sq.mi. of Rubber Plantations
November Michael Fricke - The Cleveland Mousetrap 

                     
2018       
January  Bruce C. Taylor - Techniques for Photographing Solar Eclipses
February Alper Buldum - Lego Bricks at the Nanoscale: van der Waals Heterostructures 
March
Marc Millis - Interstellar Flight and Propulsion Physics
April Rouzbeh Amini - Using Engineering Tools To Study Heart Valves
June Tour The CIty of Akron Underground Tunnel Project
September Ben Schumacher - The Private Lives of Quantum Particles
October
November

            
2017  
January  David Simmons - Insights into the Physics of Glass Formation from Molecular Simulation
February  Harsh Mathur - The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
March 

Carol Gould - Early Computers from a Lady who was There

April 

Various Club members present topics of interest

May 

Jay Reynolds - Our Evolving Universe 

September  Madeline Wade - Listening With Lasers For Ripples In Spacetime
October 

Ernst D. von Meerwall - Canopy Dynamics of SiO2 Nanoscale Ionic Materials Probed by NMR 

November 

Gary Catella - Laser and You

 

            
2016  
January  John D. Lekki - Algae bloom in Lake Erie
February  Oleg D. Lavrentovich - Mixtures of Colloids and Liquid Crystals: Simple Physics of a Complex System  
March 

The March meeting was cancelled due to illness of the speaker

April 

Yu Zhu -  Controlled Synthesis of Nanomaterials for Novel Applications

May 

Don Galehouse - Why Quantum Mechanics is Deterministic

September  Arthi Jayaraman - Theory and Simulations of Macromolecular Soft Materials: Linking Molecular Design to Macroscale Morphology and Function
October 

Rob Owen - Detection and Analysis of Gravitational Waves from Colliding Black holes

November 

Timothy Matney - An Archaeological Application of Shallow Subsurface Spectroscopy in the Discovery of Unmarked Human Graves

     

            
2015  
January  Steven Hauck - Update: MESSENGER Mission to Mercury 
February  Jeffrey Dyck - Thermoelectric materials and nanostructuring approaches to their optimization  
March  Nicole Steinmetz - From Black-Eyed Peas to Biomedical Nanotechnology 
April  Nigel Brush - The Impact of Millennial-Scale Climate Change on Human Cultures
June 

Jay Reynolds - DAWN Spacecraft: Rendezous with Asteroid CERES

September  David Farrell - Music Sweet and Sour 
October 

Traci Buckner - Akron STEM Schools: A Collaborative Community

November  Sergei Lyuksyutov - Graphene fluoride functionalization using high electrostatic fields generated by atomic force microscope tips: Comparison with functionalization of polymers 

       

         
2014  
January  Matthew Shawkey - Optics and evolution of plumage color in birds and other dinosaurs
February  Nathan Ida - Computational Electromagnetics, Models and Applications
March  Stefan Forcey - Seeing in Four dimensions
April  Anthony Colozza - Planetary Exploration with Buoyant Flight Vehicles
June  Mark Taylor - Single-Chain Polymer Phase Transitions, Computer Simulations and Partition Function Zeros
September  Malena Ines Espanol - Deblurring Images with Mathematical Models
October  Mark Manley - Partial-Wave Analyses as a Method for Studying Baryon Spectroscopy
November  Andrew Tolley - Cosmic Acceleration and Gravity

 

           
2013  
January  Matthew Shawkey - Optics and evolution of plumage color in birds and other dinosaurs
February  Mesfin Tsige - Molecular Dynamics Simulation
March  Peter Hoekje - Flutes and Flute Physics from Prehistory to the Future
April 

Peifang Tian - Imaging 3-D Spatiotemporal Hemodynamics

June  Jay Reynolds - DAWN: Mission to Asteroid Vesta
September  Brian Davis - Nonlinearities in Biomechanics
October  Fr. Thomas Acker SJ, PhD - Making Cider out of Wormy Apples
November Susan Shearer - Stark State Fuel Cell and Alternative Energy Programs

   

        
2012  
January Evalyn Gates - Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe
February  Gary Hamed - Tearing of Natural Rubber Vulcanizates
March  John D. Lekki - Airborne Hyperspectral pushbroom imaging sensor that he use to study the growth of cyanobacterial algae in Lake Erie
April  Andrew Resnick - Mechanosensation and the Primary Cilium: When push becomes shove
June  Richard Elliott - Applied Thermodynamics for Nanoengineering in the 21st century
September  Will Jack - Neutrons in the basement: Building IEC Fusion Reactors at Home
October  Robin Selinger - Rubber that Moves: Liquid Crystal Elastomers
November Chris Martin - Feeding the Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way: Observations from Antarctica, long duration balloons, and the Herschel Space Observatory

 

            
2011  
January  Michael Fisch - Electron Beam Processing of Materials
February  Dan Galehouse - The Pauli Exclusion Principle
March  Steven Hauck - Mercury and the Messenger Mission
April  Lakshmikumar (Kumar) Pillai - Physics of Doppler Ultrasonography and Cardiovascular Evaluation
May  Chrys Wesdemiotis - Mass Spectrometry Methods for the Characterization of New Synthentic Polymers and Self-Assembling Supramolecules
September  Owen Lovejoy - An Update on Ardipithecus Ramidus
October 

William King - Development of III-V Compound Semiconductor Quantum Dots

November Joe Payer - The University of Akron Corrosion and Reliability Engineering Program--Fighting the $400 Billion Annual Costs of Corrosion

 

                     
2010       
January  Peter Tandy - Quarks and Gluons: Known Unknowns and Unknown Knowns 
February Mahmoud Assaad - The Lunar Land Rover Tire 
March
James Carroll - Everything You Wanted To Know About Nuclear Isomers - but Were Afraid to ask 
April Charles Rosenblatt - Dancing Fluids In Artificailly Controlled Gravity 
May Rama Gorla - The Development of the Airplane from the Wright Brothers to the Present Time 
September Sheila G. Bailey - The Future of Space Photovoltaics 
October Daniel Fleisch - The Science of the Renaissance 
November Clare Rimnac - Engineering the Natural History of Total Joint Replacements 

 

                       
2009  
January  John Portman - The Dynamics of Flexible Protein Molecules, Folding and Allosteric Transitions 
February  Alan Gent - Non-Linear Elasticity, 100 Years of the Poynting Effect  
March  Scott Graham - NASA's New Rockets, the Constellation Program: the Ares Launch Vehicles (Access to the Future)  
April  Owen Lovejoy - Human Origins, More Than Phylogeny  
May  Sasi Pillay - High Performance Computing and Visualization  
September  Jie Shan - Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy and its Application 
October  George Collins II - Precision Cosmology  
November  Georg Böhm - Nanoparticles  

 

                 
2008  
January Tim Mann - Physics and Construction of Large Pipe Organs
February  Amy Milsted - Hypertension
March 

Bryon Anderson - The Electric Form Factor of the Neutron 

April  Richard Goettler - Solid Oxide Fuel Cells 
May  Daniel Akerib - Dark Matter 
September  Jutta Luettmer-Strathmann - Liquid Mixtures in Temperature Gradients, From the Prebiotic Ocean to Thin Layers of Polymer Blends 
October  Spiros Margetis - A Trillion Degress in the Shade 
November  Robert Brown - Whats behind All Those Headlines About The Brain? 

 

                         
2007  
January  Glenn Starkman - The Shape of the Universe 
February Claire Tessier - The Biomineralization of Silicon 
March  Klaus Fritsch - Single Bubble Sonoluminsescence: Light From Sound 
April  Narender P. Reddy - Controlling Remote Robotic "Hands"
May  Kevin Cavicchi - Understanding the Dynamics of Diffusion in Ordered Block Copolymers 
September   Donna Galehouse - The Human Genome (More Questions Than Answers)  
October  Charles Lavan - Progress Report on High-Altitude Airship 
November  Geoffrey Landis -A Physicist on Mars: Three Years with the Mars Exploration Rovers Mission 

 

                     
2006  
January  Harvey Rosenthal – Science in the Golden Age of Islam 
February  Klaus Fritsch - The Physics of Flying 
March  Ernst von Meerwall - Ultrasound Devulcanization 
April  Howard Ducharme - Teaching The Ethics of Science With A Philosopher 
May  John Erdmann - RFID 
September  Martin Sentmanat - A Novel Miniature Testing Device for Broad-Range Physical Material Characterizations of Polymer Melts And Solids 
October  Thomas Myers - Global Warming 
November  Mark Foster - Teaching the Ethics of Science, With a Philosopher (An Experiment in Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration) 

 

                  
2005  
January  David S. Perry - Molecular Vibrations and their Enhancement of Chemical Reactions  
February  William A. Arnold - Impact Analysis and Experiments  
March  David A Drabold - Computer Modeling of Complex Materials  
April  Alan Gent - Elastic Instabilities in Rubber  
May  Wayne Mattice - Miscibility Of Closely Related Polymeric Hydrocarbons  
September  Crittenden Ohlemacher - Natural Rubber Compounds and Their Counter-Intuitive Behavior  
October  Randall Mitchell - The Facts of Evolution  
November  Charles Lavan - An Update on Advanced Airship Technology  

 

                          
2004  
January  Robert W. Brown - The Noble and Nobel MRI: A Simple View of It and Its Increasingly Rich View of Us and Our Brain 
February  R. Byron Pipes - van der Waals Interaction Forces: Evidence of their Power in Single Wall Carbon Nanotube Arrays 
March  Clyde Simpson – Astronomy at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History 
April  Erol Sancaktar – Polymer Applications for Excimer Lasers 
May  Wiley Youngs - Pharmaceutical Work with Silver and Rhodium N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes of Silver 
September  Darrell Reneker - New Developments in Electrospun Nanofibers, e.g. Wound Dressings 
October  Arnold J. Dahm - Building a Quantum Computer with Electrons Floating on the Surface of Liquid Helium 
November Sadhan Jana - Polymer Nanocomposites, From a Perspective of Infrared Spectroscopy and Rheology

 

                
2003  
January Gustavo Carri - Helix-Coil Transition of Wormlike Polymer Chains Studied by Multicanonical Algorithms 
February  Bryon Anderson - The Physics of Sailing 
March  Lloyd Goetller - Layered Silicate Nanocomposites 
April William Chamberlin - Forces Influencing North American Transportation Technology in 2020 
May  David Allender - Topics in Liquid Crystals 
September  Charles Lavan - The Future of Airships 
October  Peter L. Rinaldi - Multi Dimensional NMR of Synthetic Macro Molecules 
November Chrys Wesdemiotis - Mass Spectrometry of Polymers, The Microstructure and Architecture of Polymers

 

                           
2002  
January Joe Walter - Vehicle Rollover: DoWe Need a Federal Standard?
February  David Speer - Geophysical Research for the Effective Monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Ban Treaty 
March  Alper Buldum - Carbon Nanotubes: New Materials for Future Applications 
April  Spiros Margetis - Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) 
May  Dane Quinn - Chaos Theory 
September  Philip Bos - Basic Physics of Liquid Crystal Displays 
October  Peter McDonald - Tire Footprint Evidence 
November Liming Dai - Optometric Polymers and Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

 

                
2001  
January  Vic Burke - How do Modern Computers really work? 
February  Jutta Lütmer-Strattmann - Investigating Small-Scale Effects on Polymer Dynamics 
March  Robert Mallik - Tunneling Spectroscopy of Silane Monolayers absorbed on SiOx and GeOx Films 
April  James T. Gleeson - From Zebras to Snowflakes in Growing Liquid Crystals 
May  Donna Galehouse - The Human Genome Project 
September  Ralph P. Harvey - Antarctic Search for Meteorites, Sifting the Sands of the Solar System 
October  Gerhard Kunze – Geomagnetism 
November  Yu Kuang Hu - The Physics of Golf

 

            
2000  
January Daniel Akerib - Cryogenic Dark Matter Search for WIMPS
February Michael Patterson - Ion Propulsion and other Exotic Thrusters
March L. Earl Luck - Astronomy:  What’s Hot and What’s Not
April Darell Reneker - Polymer Nanofibers, How Long & How Thin
May Bob Chapman - Are Comets and Asteroids Dangerous?
September Geoffrey Landis - Interstellar Probe Techniques:  Lightsails
October Jay Drattler - Has Intellectual Property Gone Too Far?
November David W. Ball - Skepticism in Science

 

         
1999  
January Cyrus Taylor - The Standard Model  
February Alan Rocke - Origin and History of Chemical Structures  
March  Robert W. Brown - Baseball Dynamics of [Statistically] Complex Media, As Taught by Mark McGuire  
April  Dan Galehouse - The Lense-Thirring Effect: Theory Experiment, and Enigma  
May  Ali Dhinojwala - Light to Probe Polymer Surfaces  
September  Alan Gent - Anomalous Features of the Abrasion Resistance of Elastomers  
October  Steve Cederbloom - Is Cosmology Solved?  
November  Brett Ellman - What’s all the noise about? Resonances, Sound, and Superconductors  

   

         
1998  
January Decklan Keane - When Large Particles Collide  
February  Ron Haybron - Next in Space  
March  Leon Marker - The Mechanical Universe  
April  Gary Roberts - Development & testing of Containment Structures for Gas Turbine Engines 
May  Don Schuele - Nickel-Aluminum Shape-Memory Alloys
September  Kailash Satyamurthy - Application of Finite Element Technologies to Industrial Problems
October  Bryon Anderson - The Solar Neutrino Problem
November  George W. Collins II - SS433: A Bizarre Binary Star System

 

        
1997  
January  Rex Ramsier - Cold Fusion: Past, Present, and Future?  
February  Stanley Christensen - My Favorite Demonstrations  
March  Don McIntyre - The Physical Chemistry of Eye Diseases Affecting Visual Clarity  
April  Donald Palmer - Global Warming  
June  Darrell Reneker - Polymer Nanofibers 
September  Gregory Townsend - On-Line Astronomy: Looking at the Universe Without Leaving your Comfi Chair 
October  Hari Hariharan - Linear and Nonlinear Waves: Old Problems and New Computations 
November Douglas Jayne - Perspective on the XPF, ISS, and SIMMS (Assorted spectroscopies) 

 

            
1996  
January  Steve Cheng - Advances in Optical Uses for Polymer (Aromatic Polyimide) Coatings 
February  Avraam Isayev - Ultrasonic Devulcanization of Waste Rubber  
March  Neil Wells - Evolution: How it Works  
April  Heather Morrison - The Milky Way and its Violent History 
May  Jack Gieck - The Nature of Squeaks: From Brakes to Violins
September  Leon Marker - Feynman’s Lost Lecture
October  Gerhard Kunze - Earthquakes and Their Causes
November  Bill Doane - Electronic Books and Newspapers 

 

            
1995  
January  Frank Kelley - What’s New in Polymer Valley   
February  Daniele Finotello - Science Near Absolute Zero 
March  James Beecher - Study of Surfaces by ESCA (Electron Scattering Chemical Analysis)   
April  Edward Quinn - Neural Networks: Past, Present and Future 
May  David Uhrich - The Physics of Accident Reconstruction  
September  Jerry Potter - Artificial Intelligence  
October  Neil Mani - Vehicle Dynamics  
November  Phil Geil - Morphology of Liquid Crystals 

 

               
1994  
January  Bob Hirst - Detecting Sulfur Crosslinks in Cured Natural Rubber wSolid State NMR Spectroscopy  
February  Donna Galehouse - Recent Advances and Future Prospects in Molecular Biology 
March  Alan Gent - Adhesion 
April  Vernon Neff - Solid State Chemistry 
May  Georg Böhm - Radiation Effects on Polymers and Applications Thereof
September  Ernst von Meerwall - Using NMR for (1) Imaging and (2) Velocity Measurements
October  Donald Palmer - Journey to the Center of the Earth: The Earth’s Interior and Getting Information About it
November  Peter Renaldi - Capabilities of Modern NMR Spectroscopy

 

                
1993  
January  Don Wiff - Molecular Composites  
February  Arkady Leonov - On the Comfort Factor in Human Social Behavior  
March  Leon Marker - Group Discussion: U.S. Energy Policy  
April  Mark Foster - Neutron Scattering  
May  Bill Doane - Liquid Crystals for flat-Panel Displays
September  Tom Dudek - Polymer Composites for Automotive Exterior Body Panels
October  Mark Manley - The Nucleon and its Excited States
November  Darrell Renecker - Golf Balls for Golfers

 

                           
1992  
January  David Allender - High Temperature Superconductors 
February  Jack Strang - Did the Big Bang Ever Happen?  
March  Darrell Reneker - Scanning Tunneling Microscope; Atomic Force Microscope  
April  Richard Stein - The Interactions of Neutrons with Matter 
May  Joe Walter - Automotive Fuel Economy Standards for 2006, An Odyssey of Science and Politics
September  Wayne Mattice - Modeling of Polymer Inclusion Complexes
October  John Watson - Physics in Russia
November  Ron Eby - Structure and Properties of Silks 

 

                       
1991  
January  Charlie Wilson - Nikola Tesla  
February  Bob Harrington - Liars Can Figure  
March  Mark Dannis - Supernova 1987A 
April  Gary H. Kitimacher - Exploring the Planets 
May  Dan Galehouse - Geometrical Concepts in Field Theories
September  Ernst von Meerwall - Planes and Missiles of the Gulf War
October  Harry Pinnick - The Physics of Music
November  Jack Gieck - The Effects of Urethane Flatproofing on the Performance of Pneumatic Tires

 

                         
1990  
September  Charlie Wilson - Organizational Meetings (10 attendees) 
November  Bryon Anderson - A Short Tour of the Planets (KSU Planetarium)