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). Since the
Fall of 2007, Professor Keil
and I have been 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.
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 material 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. 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). She became an
Associate Professor of Physics at WPI in January of 2000. Invited, tutorial, or plenary speaker at
over 40 conferences, author or co-author of over 60
publications with over 4000 citations (h-index 27), 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, was a
2002 Institute of Physics of Ireland Lecturer, and became a Fellow of
the AVS in 2010.
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