Featured SPS Chapter Archive: Francis Marion University
- Homepage:
- http://swampfox.fmarion.edu/
- Officers:
-
President: Blane McCracken
Vice President (Comp Physics): Erin Carter
Vice President (Health Physics): Chris Coggins
Secretary/Treasurer: Debra Gibson
- Faculty Advisor:
- Dr. R. Seth Smith
- Advisor Comment:
- In conjunction with the growth in Francis Marion University's (FMU) programs in computational and health physics, the FMU chapter of SPS is experiencing continued growth. The student leaders have done an outstanding job of organizing the student membership and assuming responsibility for planning SPS functions. Faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy have provided valuable assistance and advice to the students. The over-all health of our SPS chapter is extremely good. The healthy and vibrant SPS chapter that now exists at FMU has helped to cement student friendships, offer informative opportunities in physics, and provide cohesiveness to the rapidly growing group of physics majors at FMU.
- Outreach:
-
The primary outreach effort of the FMU chapter of SPS was the South Carolina Physics Scholars Institute (SCPSI). Twelve SPS students worked in conjunction with this program. SCPSI was a 3-day residential institute for 30 South Carolina high school students. Over the course of the program, the high school students were involved in experiments in physics. Eleven of the SPS students served as the key leaders of SCPSI. Each of these students served as the "professor" and taught a physics experiment to small groups of students (2 or 3 at a time) over the course of five separate laboratory sessions. The twelfth SPS member served as a general assistant. The 11 SPS students and the experiments that they taught are listed below:
- Blane McCracken - Computational Physics
- Stephen Dial - Diode Laser Retraction
- Glenn Hill - Electron Mass
- Ryan Dubose - Half-Life of Nuclear Decay
- Erin Carter - The Speed of Light
- Taka Sakamoto - Open-Cavity Helium-Neon Laser
- Debra Gibson - Holography
- Matt Brown - Integrated Circuits
- Chris Coggins - Nuclear Radiation Shielding
- Nick Williams - Remote Motion Detection
- Paul Moore - X-Ray Flourescence
- Amber Ellis - General Assistant
- Awards:
-
SPS Chapter President Blane McCracken has elected as the 2003-04 Associate Zone Councilor for Zone 5. Blane attended the national SPS Council Meeting in Washington, DC, in September 2003.
Through contacts with alumni of FMU's Department of Physics and Astronomy, the following chapter members were awarded internships for the summer of 2004:
- Ryan Dubose was a summer intern at the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina.
- Paul Moore was a summer intern at the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina.
- Darren Cato was a summer intern at the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina.
- Chris Coggins was a summer intern in the Radiation Safety Office at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Amber Ellis was a summer intern at the H. B. Robinson Nuclear Power Facility in Hartsville, South Carolina.
- Activities:
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Liquid nitrogen ice cream party - SPS Students hosted a liquid nitrogen ice cream party in conjunction with the Liquid Nitrogen Demonstration Program. SPS President Blane McCracken and SPS vice-president for health physics Chris Coggins served as the cooks.
End of Year Physics Cookout - Dr. Derek Jokisch hosted an end-of-year cookout at his home (since he has a pool and no kids of his own!). SPS provided the funds for the food and drinks. SPS members worked as the chefs.
