Over time, I hope to teach all undergraduate and
some graduate physics courses. To date, I have helped with the
introductory mechanics (PH 1110), electricity and magnetism (PH
1120), modern physics (PH 1130), and oscillations and waves (PH 1140)
recitations and labs, and given calculus-based Introductory Mechanics (PH 1111),
Intermediate Mechanics I (PH 2201) and II (PH 2202),
and Relativity (PH3501). From the
Fall of 2007 to the Fall of 2014, I co-led Introductory Mechanics, a
course of up to 374 students. And
in C-2017 and C-2018,
I led pilot sections of studio physics, which became full sections of
72 students in A-2018.
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 occasionally run a
graduate
version of the Atomic Force Microscopy course (PH
561). Lessons
complementary to the lectures are on YouTube. I also organized the Minor
in Nanoscience program at WPI.
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 "hairs", microsensor
surfaces, asphalt binders, and geologic substrates.
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
Julich, 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, the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm, and ETH Zurich. She
arrived at WPI in January of 2000 and is now a Full Professor.
Furthermore, she became affiliated with the Biomedical Engineering
Department in 2012 and started directing WPI's Switzerland Project
Center in 2015.
Invited, tutorial, or
plenary speaker at
over 50 conferences, author or co-author of over 100
publications with over 14,000 citations (h-index 38), she is
as well active in professional societies as, e.g., 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. Two of her articles were featured among the 25
highlighted publications for the 25th anniversary of the journal
Nanotechnology in 2014, out of nearly 12,000 articles. She
also enjoys teaching physics and nanoscience, from the introductory up
to the graduate level.
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