Author: Michael Durst

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.

Students Audrey Anigbo ’24, Sydnie Hom ’21, and Alex Kang ’21 presented their research at the 2021 Spring Student Symposium. Audrey Anigbo’s poster was titled, “Picture a Physicist.” Sydnie Hom’s poster was titled, “Pulse Shaping in Microscopes.” Alex Kang’s presentation was titled, “Multi-Focus Imaging.”

https://www.middlebury.edu/office/sites/www.middlebury.edu.office/files/2021-05/SYM2021%20Schedule%200509.pdf?fv=8QeB1l4j

Sydnie Hom (’21), Kazuto Nishimori (‘20.5), and Ruben Vargas (’22) presented their research at the undergraduate research symposium online on September 14, 2020. The Symposium on Undergraduate Research is held in conjunction with the annual joint meeting of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the Division of Laser Science of the American Physical Society (APS-DLS). The joint presentation for Sydnie Hom and Kazuto Nishimori was titled, “Remote Axial Scanning and Light-Field Refocusing in a Temporal Focusing Microscope.” Ruben Vargas’s presentation was titled, “Toward Two-Photon Excitation with Supercontinuum Generation.”

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

https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10114607