Dr. Nancy A. Burnham

Dr. Nancy A. Burnham
Associate Professor
Department of Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280 USA
Phone: (508) 831-5365, Fax: (508) 831-5886
E-mail: nab@wpi.edu, Olin Hall 219
Schedule

Teaching

Over time, I hope to teach all undergraduate and some graduate physics courses. To date, I have helped with the Introductory Mechanics (PH 1110) and Introductory Electricity and Magnetism (PH 1120) recitations and labs, given calculus-based Introductory Mechanics (PH 1111), Intermediate Mechanics I (PH 2201) and II (PH 2202), and Relativity (PH3501). This coming Fall of 2008, Professor Keil and I will be in charge of Introductory Mechanics (PH 1110), a course of 400 students.
My research interests lie in the direction of nanoscience and engineering. Hence I offer an undergraduate course called Atomic Force Microscopy (PH 2510), a very important technique in this burgeoning interdisciplinary field, and for which I am writing a book. I also organized the Minor in Nanoscience program at WPI. New as of Spring 2008 is a graduate version of the Atomic Force Microscopy course (PH 597A).
Communication is an essential part of science. Here are some short lessons on Scientific English.

Research

The study of the interaction of the last few atoms on a sharply pointed tip with a sample surface is my first love. Usually performed via Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), one of the many variants of scanning probe microscopy, this technique has several levels. The first is the three dimensional imaging of surfaces with nanometer-scale resolution. Under special circumstances, even individual atoms can be discerned. The second is using the force-sensing tip as a probe of the materials properties – such as modulus and damping – of modern materials such as tissue-growth substrates, bacterial exopolymers, and microsensor surfaces. The third level is to learn about how small numbers of atoms interact, physically or chemically, by directly measuring their force interactions. Essential to all research aspects are a thorough understanding of how the instrument affects the measurements and proper data interpretation.

Atomic Force Microscopy Laboratory

Biography

Nancy Burnham graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1987 with a Ph.D. in Physics. Her dissertation concerned the surface analysis of photovoltaic materials. As a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory, she became interested in scanning probe microscopy, in particular its application to detecting materials properties at the nanoscale. After three years as a von Humboldt Fellow in Germany at Forschungszentrum Juelich, she spent another six years in Europe, principally at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, all the while pursuing the mechanical properties of nanostructures and instrumentation for nanomechanics. She became an Associate Professor of Physics at WPI in January of 2000. Her international experience also includes sejours at the University of Bordeaux, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (an exchange school with WPI). Invited, tutorial, or plenary speaker at approximately 40 conferences, author or co-author of roughly 60 publications with an h-index of 23, she is as well active in professional societies as, e.g., Secretary of the Nanometer Structures Committee of the IUVSTA and Treasurer of the Nanoscience and Technology Division of the AVS. She was the recipient of the 2001 Nanotechnology Recognition Award from the latter organization and was a 2002 Institute of Physics of Ireland Lecturer.

Detailed resume

Transport to WPI

Return to:

	Top of this page
	WPI Department of Physics Home page
	WPI Home page

June 2008