• Professor David Tamres presented the paper "Resonances in a Closed-Open Tube with Conical Bore" at the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting in Sacramento, California.
• Professor Brad Hinaus presented a paper on guided-inquiry tutorials while Professor David Tamres led a workshop on the use of scroll bars in Excel at the Wisconsin Association of Physics Teachers meeting in Oshkosh.

• Sponsored two model-rocket launches for area school children.  These popular events always attract an overflow crowd!
• Designed and constructed a trebuchet, the clever device used to launch massive projectiles in ancient times.

• Matt Loth - graduating senior.
• Azaree Lintereur - continuing student.

• Ellynne Kutschera co-authored "Temperature Variation of Film Tension Above the Bulk Smectic-A Isotropic Transition in Free Standing Liquid Crystal Films" with Professor Mick Veum.  The paper appeared in Physical Review E.
• Paul Messman co-authored "Thermal Positioning of Point Defects in Smectic Films:  The Thermal Tweezer" with Professor Mick Veum appearing in Liquid Crystals.
• Paul Omernik co-authored the paper "Electron Dynamics in Metallic and Spin-Glass Cuprates" with Professor Greg Taft that appeared in Physical Review B.
• Josh Garbe, Jessica Gillis, Nick Petersen, Brandon Podoll, and Mike Stoneman co-authored the paper "Electrical Conductivities of the Ag₆PS₅X and the Cu₆PSe₅X (X = Br, I) Argyrodites" with Professor Bob Beeken in Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids.
• Joseph Christensen, Kasey Cockroft, Joel Hrebik, Azaree Lintereur, Jay Schulist, and Angela Strobel presented the results of their undergraduate research projects at the College of Letters and Science Symposium in April.

• Students Wayne Zelhofer and Joshua Hastey accompanied UWSP faculty members Randy Olson and Katie Jore to Kitt Peak National Observatory this year.
• Randy Olson presented a paper on his research investigations of star clusters at Kitt Peak to members of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association in Detroit, Michigan.
• A new Meade 16" telescope is being installed in the UWSP Observatory.  This instrument will significantly enhance both the instructional and research capabilities for the growing number of physics majors interested in our astronomy offerings.

• Professor Mick Veum published two articles describing thermal measurements of liquid crystal films in Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals this past year.  The described research was a collaborative effort with investigators at the University of Minnesota.
• The Department's former air track room (C-120 Science) is currently under renovation to create an expanded condensed matter laboratory that will house the experimental research programs of Professors Beeken, Hinaus, and Veum.

• Professor Ken Menningen received $27,000 in start-up funds to launch his research program into photoelectrochemical splitting of water molecules at UWSP.  The aim of this research is to find economically feasible methods of generating hydrogen fuel.
• Professor Greg Taft published a paper on femtosecond laser-driven materials processing with former UWSP chancellor Tom George and former UWSP Fulbright Fellow Laszlo Nanai in Proceedings of the SPIE.
• Research Professor Sasha Popov published articles on optical switching in Journal of Physics B:  Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics as well as in Physical Review A this past year.

• Professor Mick Veum will spend the summer months engaged in research with collaborators at the University of Minnesota.
• Azaree Lintereur has been awarded a summer fellowship from the Society of Physicists in Medicine to collaborate with researchers at Marshfield Clinic.

Photograph showing the green (532 nm wavelength) laser beam used as an energy source for Professor Taft's Ti:sapphire laser.  This beam is produced by a solid-state pump laser that was purchased by Marshall Onellion, UW-Madison physics professor, who Greg also collaborates with on dynamic reflectivity measurements.