IcelandHill
Rain and fog on the Appalachian Trail, Southern Virginia 
USM Jupyterhub Server
 Current Projects:

Maine Space Grant: “A Computationally Integrated Physics Curriculum” In this grant, Prof. Julie Ziffer and I are working to integrate computing throughout our Physics curriculum by introducing compuational problems into every course’s weekly problem sets.

Courses: Fall 2024 

Modern Physics I
Tu Th 11:00 - 12:15
The first of a two-semester sequence covering the principal topics that show the departure of physics from its classical roots. Topics will include special relativity, Bohr models of the atom, Schrodinger’s equation, the hydrogen atom, and atomic structure.
Physics Capstone
M W 11:00 - 12:15
This is our senior capstone course to help lead students successfully through their capstone research project. 

Summer 2024

Phy 116: Introductory Laboratory II
Tu 09:00 - 13:00  Science 277 (C-Wing)
This is the laboratory course to accompany both Phy 112 and Phy 123.

Phy 123: General Physics II
 M W Th 09:00 - 11:30  Science 165
A continuation of PHY 121, introducing the fundamental concepts of physics, using calculus. Topics to be covered include electricity, magnetism, and light. This course is recommended for students who plan further study in physical sciences, mathematics, or engineering.

Student/Office Hours

By arrangement

Research and Teaching Interests
Computational Physics: I use Python and Julia (almost exclusively Julia now) for all my computing needs, as well as for teaching Physics 261: Computational Physics. I have been working on a text for the course, but my work is morphing into creating a set of Jupyter Notebooks for each project. The course is now a 3 Credit laboratory, and we will be using a new JupyterHub server to provide all students with the same computational environment.  Currently working on a new set of notebooks all written using Julia.

Torsion Pendulum Magnetometer: Together with many students, I have designed a torsion pendulum that will be used to measure fluctuations in the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic field.

Physics Education: My main inspiration for physics education came from reading the works of Carl R. Rogers (Freedom to Learn and it's revisions). I have been incorporating authentic assessment and conceptual questioning into my introductory physics classes. In addition, together with other faculty at USM, and the help of our Provost, we helped create a Learning Assistant program at USM.

Curriculum Vitae: Click CurriculumVitae2019 to download in PDF format. The file includes as an attachment, the original LaTeX source which you can feel free to extract (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro 8.0 or later) or PDF Expert (OSX App) and use as a LaTeX CV template. (updated 05-Nov-2019)

Publications:
• Smoothing.jl: a simple package that contains a binomial smoothing routine for apply to a time series. To install, just say > add Smoothing from withing the Julia package manager.
• labjack-controller: Robust and Easy Data Collection with Labjack T-Series DAQs in Python
Vector plot of Helmholtz Coil in Earth's Magnetic Field, from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project,Cody Goolsby and Paul Nakroshis, Dec. 2011

The Headlight Effect, from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, October 2007
Measuring Boltzmann's constant using video microscopy of Brownian motion, American Journal of Physics, 71 (6) June 2003

Statistics of continuous motion force events in a driven 2D granular array

Jupyter_logo50x50

Contact Info

Office/Lab Phone: 207.780.4158

Email

pauln at maine dot edu

Department of Physics

Portland, Maine 04104