Tag archives: physics
Ben Carlson, assistant professor of physics at Westmont, explores the scientific foundations of today’s most pressing energy and climate issues in a Westmont Downtown Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 5:30 pm at the Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden Street, in downtown Santa Barbara. The talk, “Energy and Climate Through the Lens of Basic Science,” […]
Westmont scientists join thousands of researchers worldwide who have been honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, awarded to the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as several related experiments. The Breakthrough Prize specifically highlights the ATLAS Collaboration’s significant contributions […]
Westmont students Josef Bingener (‘25) and Ethan Camp (’27) have participated in a novel nuclear physics experiment with Professor Robert Haring-Kaye. They traveled to Florida State University (FSU) to study the structural properties of an exotic isotope of gallium (72Ga) that survives for only a few hours before decaying to a different isotope. “We’re interested […]
Daniel Jensen will be officially installed as the James R. and Eleanor S. Allder professor of science and technology in a formal, public ceremony Friday, Nov. 8th at 10:30 am in Murchison Gym. Jensen has directed Westmont’s burgeoning engineering program since it began in fall 2021. Jensen will speak at a panel discussion, “Considering Technology, […]
Two Westmont students presented their research at a joint meeting of the Nuclear Physics Divisions of the American and Japanese Physics Societies November 26-December 1 on the Big Island of Hawaii. Natalie Fogg ‘24 and Reese Toepfer ‘26 joined Robert Haring-Kaye, Westmont professor of physics and department chair of physics and engineering, at the event […]
Westmont engineering students returned to Quito, Ecuador, in May to share their love of science, technology, engineering, and math with children in an after-school program. The seven engineering students – Jonny Reitinger, Jonah Swanson, Jacob Bailey, Maria Judy, Elijah Cicileo, Becca Hudson, and Tasha Loh – designed and built STEM educational materials to share with […]
Nearly 40 local high school students enrolled in an AP physics course visited Westmont on May 16 for a hands-on exploration into how the universe behaves. The event, Understanding Physics from Galaxies to Particles, was led by Ben Carlson, Westmont assistant professor of physics. “We are asking the fundamental questions: What is the universe made […]
Westmont senior Lexy Gillette, a double major in physics and chemistry, will attend the University of Oxford in the fall after earning the prestigious John and Daria Barry Foundation Scholarship. The award, given to about 10 students a year from select institutions, covers tuition, fees, and living expenses, and also provides a stipend and research […]
“How many piano tuners are there in Boston?” That was the first question on our first problem set of freshman physics at MIT. The question was not really about pianos or the people who tune them. It was a way to get us to make estimates based on facts that we know. The first step […]
Some years ago I was at a talk where I asked some questions. Afterwards, the speaker came over to me and commented that it seemed I had a great many interests. I said that was not true. I actually only have two interests: 1) What is the nature of reality? 2) What is the nature […]
