Physics
We aspire to help students forge tools to reveal the stunning quantitative vistas on our universe. Given the various trajectories of Hamilton students, this education prepares students for physics graduate school; supports students in their pursuit of different quantitative interests including engineering, chemical physics, and careers where quantitative analysis is employed; fulfills the one-year introductory physics requirements for students pursuing health professions, chemistry, and graduate work in other sciences; and includes courses accessible to students across the campus with a wide variety of interests and mathematical backgrounds.
The Senior Program
All senior physics students work collaboratively with faculty members on research projects as part of the Senior Program. This intensive one-semester project combines original scientific research with reading and understanding the scientific literature. It culminates in a senior thesis that is defended in a series of oral presentations. The Senior Program reflects Hamilton's commitment to a strong grounding in writing and public speaking.
Recent projects in physics include:
- Modernizing Pulse NMR Code: Transition from IGOR to Python
- Code Improvements and Stress Analysis of Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities in a Simulated Magnetically Arrested Accretion Disk
- Characterizing a Microfluidic Device for Sorting Nanodiamonds
- Artificial Cytoplasm: Observing Anomalous Diffusion & Progress Towards Drift-Reduction
- Measuring B Field Gradients using a Compact Gradiometer
- Quantifying Noise in Measurements of Faraday Rotation in Unpolarized Rubidium
- Exploring Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities in Thin Magnetically Arrested Disks Around Black Holes
- High Precision Current Measurements to Stabilize NMR Power Supply Output
- Heating in Residential Homes with Heat Pumps
Contact
Department Name
Physics Department
Contact Name
Gordon Jones, Acting Chair
Clinton, NY 13323