Location

Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel

Start Date

28-4-1998 2:00 PM

Description

The plan for our department is to build on the natural attributes available to us. Because
of the location near Kennedy Space Center, our program attempts to capture the excitement
of the space age. We offer degrees at all levels in both Physics and Space Science. Our
Space Science students learn both science and technology, while our Physics classes often use
space as a topic to motivate the physics. As we have built our department we have attempted
to make a seamless fit between subfields, while emphasizing where possible natural connections
to space science. We specialize in integrating interesting applications in the fields of
condensed matter, optics, astronomy, astrophysics, space physics and plasmas, while using
fundamental physics as the glue.

In this paper we make general recommendations for physics departments based on
certain guidelines which we list and discuss. We believe, consistent with current trends, that
physics departments will need to adapt or they will suffer. Our guidelines do not suggest a
unique department, but we have found that pure pragmatism doesn’t work either in planning
for a future in which funding and student enrollments are increasingly hard to preserve. We
think that many physics departments need to start from the beginning and rethink what they are
doing. In particular we need to learn how to involve ourselves in current societal goals, such as
the space program, without giving up the core of our science. In order to test if our ideas are
tenable we use our department for a case study where we describe our successes and major
problems. Finally, we emphasize the usefulness of space science as a unifying theme for a
basic science department such as physics.

In section II we state our basic guidelines concerning what constitutes a good, viable
department. These guidelines are collected from experience and are certainly not handed down
from on high. But they do form the core of any plans that we believe will work in the future.
Following the guidelines, we make a case study of our department in which we describe what is
working and what is not. In section III we describe what we are teaching. Sections IV and V are
devoted to research. Section IV describes some of our scientific research areas, and section V
lists the nuts and bolts of our research such as funding, graduate study, equipment, and space.
Section VI describes our successes and major problems, and our summary will end the article in
section VII.

Comments

Session Chairman: William Evan Lavinghousez, School Board of Brevard County

Session Organizer: Dr. Gale Allen/Jane Masconi

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Apr 28th, 2:00 PM

Paper Session I-D - A Plan for Small Physics Departments for the Twenty-First Century

Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel

The plan for our department is to build on the natural attributes available to us. Because
of the location near Kennedy Space Center, our program attempts to capture the excitement
of the space age. We offer degrees at all levels in both Physics and Space Science. Our
Space Science students learn both science and technology, while our Physics classes often use
space as a topic to motivate the physics. As we have built our department we have attempted
to make a seamless fit between subfields, while emphasizing where possible natural connections
to space science. We specialize in integrating interesting applications in the fields of
condensed matter, optics, astronomy, astrophysics, space physics and plasmas, while using
fundamental physics as the glue.

In this paper we make general recommendations for physics departments based on
certain guidelines which we list and discuss. We believe, consistent with current trends, that
physics departments will need to adapt or they will suffer. Our guidelines do not suggest a
unique department, but we have found that pure pragmatism doesn’t work either in planning
for a future in which funding and student enrollments are increasingly hard to preserve. We
think that many physics departments need to start from the beginning and rethink what they are
doing. In particular we need to learn how to involve ourselves in current societal goals, such as
the space program, without giving up the core of our science. In order to test if our ideas are
tenable we use our department for a case study where we describe our successes and major
problems. Finally, we emphasize the usefulness of space science as a unifying theme for a
basic science department such as physics.

In section II we state our basic guidelines concerning what constitutes a good, viable
department. These guidelines are collected from experience and are certainly not handed down
from on high. But they do form the core of any plans that we believe will work in the future.
Following the guidelines, we make a case study of our department in which we describe what is
working and what is not. In section III we describe what we are teaching. Sections IV and V are
devoted to research. Section IV describes some of our scientific research areas, and section V
lists the nuts and bolts of our research such as funding, graduate study, equipment, and space.
Section VI describes our successes and major problems, and our summary will end the article in
section VII.

 

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