Dr. Andrew Kortyna is the NSF AIRE Fellow in Physics at Colby for the
period 1999-2001. Andy has a wide range of experience in atomic physics. He
obtained his PhD from Wesleyan, and has been a researcher at Universitat
Kaiserslautern in Germany, and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Andy has also
taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and at Bates College. He will
be supervised by Associate Professor Duncan Tate.Teaching: over the next two years, Andy will teach a course for non-science majors, and an upper level lab-based course on experimental atomic physics. He will also teach modern physics labs, and develop research projects for seniors in experimental atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
Research: Andy will collaborate with Professor Tate and Professor Charlie Conover on a number of planned experiments on trapped atoms. They are particularly interested in making cold, dense samples of Rydberg atoms by using pulsed lasers from Prof. Conover's lab to excite atoms in a magneto-optical trap in Prof. Tate's lab.
Curriculum Development: Andy will develop new lab projects for PH334, Experimental Atomic Physics. These new projects concern different spectroscopic techniques, among which are laser-stimulated emission spectroscopy, and Doppler-free spectroscopy using diode lasers. Andy is also teaching PH113, The Elements, a course developed by Prof. Tate. This is allowing Prof. Tate to develop a lab sequence for this non-science majors course..