Author: Michael Durst

ROBERT K. GOULD PRIZE IN PHYSICS
Established in 1994 by friends and colleagues in honor of Robert K. Gould, professor of physics, 1968–1994. Awarded to the graduating senior whose senior work in physics best exemplifies the high standards for research set by Professor Gould.

The 2022 Robert K. Gould Prize in Physics was awarded to Sam Yurak for his outstanding laboratory work building a temporal focusing microscope, under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Physics Michael E. Durst. This sophisticated project required him to apply a wide range of knowledge in physics, including optics, lasers, and electricity and magnetism. He excelled in all aspects of this independent project, including building the apparatus, aligning laser beams, and acquiring and processing the data. Starting from a blank table, Sam built a microscope that can work in the infrared, which is a new wavelength regime for fluorescence microscopes.

Students Sam Yurak ’22 and Thomas Zodda ’22 presented their research at the 2022 Spring Student Symposium. Sam Yurak’s presentation was titled, “Taking 3D Pictures with a Pulsed Laser.” Thomas Zodda’s poster was titled, “Constructing a Laser-Scanning Confocal Microscope Using Curved Mirrors.”

https://www.middlebury.edu/office/sites/www.middlebury.edu.office/files/2022-04/2022%20Spring%20Student%20Symposium%20Schedule%20042022.pdf?fv=tlY9Uvn6

Izzy Linhares (’22), Ruben Vargas (’22), and Sam Yurak (’22) presented their research at the undergraduate research symposium online on November 1, 2021. The Symposium on Undergraduate Research is held in conjunction with the annual joint meeting of the Optical Society (OSA) and the Division of Laser Science of the American Physical Society (APS-DLS). Izzy Linhares’s presentation was titled, “Toward two-photon absorption spectra of long-wavelength dyes used in fluorescence-guided surgery.” Ruben Vargas’s presentation was titled, “Supercontinuum generation with tunable dispersion.” Sam Yurak’s presentation was titled, “Re-focusing detection in a temporal focusing microscope.”

More information about the symposium can be found here:
http://laser.physics.sunysb.edu/research-symposium/.

Isabel Linhares (’22), Ruben Vargas (’22), and Sam Yurak (’22) presented their research at the physics research symposium on August 5, 2021. Because the annual college-wide poster session is on hiatus, we created this opportunity to share what students have been working on this summer and for us to gather as a department to celebrate. Isabel Linhares’s poster was titled, “Characterizing the Two-Photon Absorption Spectra of Long-Wavelength Dyes Used in Fluorescence-Guided Surgery.” Ruben Vargas’s poster was titled, “Creating Negative GDD through Angular Dispersion: Simple Prism Compressor Model.” Sam Yurak’s poster was titled, “Detecting Two-Photon Fluorescence in a Temporal Focusing Microscope.”

ROBERT K. GOULD PRIZE IN PHYSICS
Established in 1994 by friends and colleagues in honor of Robert K. Gould, professor of physics, 1968–1994. Awarded to the graduating senior whose senior work in physics best exemplifies the high standards for research set by Professor Gould. The 2021 Robert K. Gould Prize in Physics was awarded to Sydnie Hom for her outstanding laboratory work shaping and measuring ultrashort laser pulses for biomedical imaging, under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Physics Michael E. Durst. This sophisticated project required her to apply a wide range of knowledge in physics, including optics, quantum mechanics, and electricity and magnetism. She excelled in all aspects of this independent project, which included aligning laser beams, programming numerical simulations, calibrating new equipment, troubleshooting unexpected errors, and acquiring and processing the data. Sydnie started from a blank optical table, built the apparatus herself, and successfully matched her experimental data to her theoretical calculations.