Volume 2, Number 1

Fall 2003

Greetings from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. I am serving as interim head this year, as we search for a new department head. Our former head, Dr. Charles McGruder, stepped out of the headship after 9 years of service to assume the responsibilities of the McCormack Endowed Professorship. Congratulations to Charles on his new position, in which he will be pursuing research in detecting extrasolar planets in the STARBASE program and developing the Kentucky Academy of Mathematics and Science at WKU.

Our newsletter is sent periodically to alumni and friends of the Department to update you on our people and their activities and accomplishments. For more frequent updates, we invite you to visit our website at http://www.physics.wku.edu/.  There you can always learn about the most recent activities of our faculty and the current students in the program.

I want to introduce you to our newest faculty member, Dr. Gordon Smith, who joined us this year after receiving his PhD from the University of Mississippi. Gordon’s area of research is thermoacoustics, which deals with the interplay between heat and sound. He has assembled a laboratory full of equipment for his research, with opportunities for involvement of students. Among his intended studies, he is working on practical applications in his field, beginning with an environmentally friendly thermoacoustic refrigerator with no moving parts. For more details about Gordon and his projects, please read his feature article in this newsletter.

In 2001, Dr. George Vourvopoulos retired from the department after serving 18 years on the faculty. During his years at Western, George and his colleagues and students established the Applied Physics Institute (API) and developed several major physics applications that benefit the nation and the world. These include devices for the on-line analysis of impurities in coal, for detecting drugs and explosives in containers such as suitcases, and for detecting unexploded ordnance such as buried land mines and artillery rounds. In his retirement from Western, George continues to work with a company to produce and market these devices. Dr. Phillip Womble is now directing the API and is working with the staff to develop new applications of physics. We wish all the best for George in his retirement, and for Phil as he leads the API into the future.

Of course, the ultimate success of our Department is reflected in the success of our graduates. We are always happy to hear from former students and to learn where they are, what they are doing now, and how their careers have developed after preparing in our program. We invite you to call, write, or email at any time to let us hear from you. In general, the email address for a faculty member at Western is based on the name as first.last@wku.edu. We would like to add your email address to our list to be able to keep you up-to-date with Department happenings. Please let us hear from you and let us know what you are doing.