Why should you join the Physics Program at Goucher?

Don’t be fooled by our size: we offer all the benefits of a major research university bundled into a program only available at a small liberal-arts institution.  All the professors are active in exciting and cutting-edge research, in which students can become involved as early as their first summer here.  Yet our class sizes are small and there are no graduate students nor graduate teaching assistants.  This ensures that all classes are taught by faculty, students receive individualized attention and mentoring, and faculty have the time and resources to ensure that high-quality teaching remains our highest priority.  Across our entire range of courses, our program rivals those of the best colleges, preparing students for any academic or professional pursuit.  To learn more, please browse further in this website or click Contact Us.

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Physics News

    Who says you have to be a rocket scientist to do rocket science?

    Dr. Ben Sugerman, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, was just awarded $850 from the Goucher College Crosby Grant to add a long-term module on rocket science in his Introductory Astronomy labs.  

    Starting this fall, students will spend 5 weekly labs learning about rocketry and space travel, designing, building and testing their own model rockets, and ultimately launching them to test their flight predictions.  This is another exciting step in bringing the joy of scientific discovery into the classroom.

      

    Public Observing 2009: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

    Let's start with The Bad.  Ask any astronomer and they will tell you that observing the sky is always a gamble.  You might outcompete 100 other proposals to use one of the largest telescopes on earth, travel half-way around the world to get there, and then spend three nights in a row surfing the web because the sky is clouded over.  Well, it's been a rough semester for public observing at the Lewis Observatory, since it has been raining or cloudy every third-thursday starting in September.  To help increase the chances of seeing clear skies, we have designated the following thursday of each month as a rain date.  However, that didn't work either since on the make-up night in October, Dr. Sugerman was ill, and the November make-up night falls on Thanksgiving.  Chin up!  We'll have better luck in 2010, and there is a lot to look forward to (read on!).

     

    Machine Shop Open

    The Department of Physics and Astronomy has established a workable small size machine shop for the support of research and teaching laboratories, the departmental observatory and student-faculty projects. The machine shop has a medium size milling machine, a small lathe, a vertical band saw and a vertical drill.

     

    Physics senior Adrien Thormann spent his summer working on science policy issues on Capitol Hill

    Adrien Thormann, Goucher College senior with a major in physics, spent this past summer working on science policy issues on Capitol Hill.   In the course of his internship he met 13 astronauts from the Apollo era, including Senator John Glen, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins, as well as Charlie Bolden, the current NASA administrator.

    Adrien Thormann will talk about his experience working on Capitol Hill on Friday, September 25th at 3:30pm in the Kelley Lecture Hall.