"The MCLA physics program with its small class sizes and dedicated professors gave me an excellent physics education. They helped me develop a skill set that allows me to tackle diverse and complex problems. This has served me well, first as an environmental consultant, then in graduate school, and now in a career I love, as a physicist working in a radiation oncology department." Andy Bergan '02, Medical Physicist at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital
Internships and Projects
Many of our students participate in the National Science Foundation Research (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Recent internships and projects include:
Training on an Asylum MFP 3D Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to study nanografting, which is directed self assembly of molecules with an AFM tip on a given substrate to create a new surface.
Testing the effects of size, surface chemistry, and elastic modulus of friction between nanoscale objects and surfaces. Will they slip, slide, or roll? This research used an AFM to study the motion of polystyrene microspheres across silicon substrates.
Studying wave velocity differentials produced by earthquakes to study the structure of the core-mantle boundary of the Earth.
Studying the physical manipulation of the Na/K pump at the REU in Applied Physics at the University of South Florida.
Learning about the origin and development of planets, stars, solar systems, and galaxies at the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket, MA.
Participating in MINERvA (Main Injector Neutrino ExperRiment v-A) at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois, where hundreds of scientists and researchers from colleges and universities across the county and around the globe are studying the neutrino. Students have explored the following questions:
How do neutral elastic interactions look in the MINERvA detector?
What fiducial volume of the MINERvA detector will maximize pion analysis?
What is the optimal cutoff of neutron energy for the MINERvA Monte Carlo?
See all internships.
Physics majors are in demand in many fields, including:
Graduate School Opportunities
Recent MCLA graduates are attending physics graduate programs at the University of Florida, Tufts University, and Ball State University.