I am an associate professor in the Physics Department
at Mount Holyoke College. The combination of wonderful students
and
a supportive
liberal arts environment make this a true "dream job" for me. In
particular, Mount Holyoke's commitment to educating women, in conjunction
with the college's historical strength in the sciences, makes the
college a dynamic, exciting place to teach physics.
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Research
My research group
is typically comprised of 3-6 Mount Holyoke students
and a postdoc. The group studies the device physics
of a range
of semiconductor devices, including semiconductor
lasers, amplifiers, and solar cells. We use spatially
resolved
thermal mapping on the nano- scale to probe the
internal physics of working optoelectronic devices,
quantifying
gain and absorption parameters as well as identifying
effects such as gain saturation and facet heating in
lasers, absorbers,
and semiconductor optical amplifiers.
A second project
examines the effect of optical feedback on the stability
and polarization behavior of vertical-cavity surface-emitting
lasers. See the link above for details.
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Me (seated) with 4 MHC student and Mr. Potatohead at the Optical Society of America's Annual Meeting 2000 |
Teaching
I teach a wide variety of classes, including
introductory mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics,
optics, applied mathematics, and an advanced optoelectronics
course. Follow the link above to reach the course pages for
the classes I've taught.
The bouncing ball below is an example of
a physlet,
which I use in combination with preclass
warmup exercises
to help students prepare for class each day.
Describing Motion
(These physlets were
developed by Wolfgang Christian
and Mario Belloni at Davidson
College.) |
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