Undergraduate & Graduate Education

Committed to excellence in undergraduate and graduate education.

Eli Parke, DAMOP undergraduate presenter and 2006-07 Macdonald Scholar.

The KSU Department of Physics and the JRM Lab are committed to excellence in undergraduate and graduate education. Among JRML's initiatives supporting education are the James R. Macdonald Scholarship and the Research Experience for Undergraduates.

The lab typically supports about 15 graduate research assistants, and we are always seeking new graduate students interested in either theoretical or experimental AMO physics.

Undergraduates are actively participating in our research. Work by Mat Leonard was selected for presentation at the Undergraduate Research Symposium of DAMOP 2005 in Lincoln, while research by Eli Parke was featured at DAMOP 2007 in Calgary. Both Eli and Mat are also recipients of the James R. Macdonald Scholarship.

The family of James R. Macdonald has established scholarships in his memory to be awarded to outstanding undergraduate Physics majors. Our current Macdonald Scholar is Eli Parke, pictured above; last year's scholar, Mat Leonard, is pictured at right. Recent Macdonald Scholars include:

Year	Scholar	Year	Scholar
07-08	Daniel Nickel	00-01	Jesus Hernandez
06-07	Eli Parke	99-00	Jeff Pruitt
05-06	Mat Leonard	98-99	Jeff Pruitt Michael Witthoeft
04-05	Aaron Wech	97-98	John Carpenter Michael Witthoeft
03-04	Kyle Wilson	96-97	Adam Beehler Jason Parks
02-03	Aaron Wech	95-96	Michelle Munsun
01-02	Jonathan Kurche	94-95	Flint Pierce

Mat Leonard, DAMOP undergraduate presenter and 2005-06 Macdonald Scholar.

The Department of Physics and the J. R. Macdonald Lab at Kansas State University offers Research Experiences for Undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation. The program runs from the end of May to the beginning of August. The sophomore and junior participants work directly with our various research groups and complete a major project over the course of the summer. Pictured above is our year 2006 REU group with their principal advisors, Larry Weaver and Kristan Corwin. The final reports from recent REU classes are available on the KSU REU web site.