8/30/2002

Copy of all course syllabi needed for records. The Department is required to keep on file the syllabi of all PY courses. Please give a copy of your class syllabus to Robert Egler.

Note that there are now required elements to a syllabus, which are available at: www.ncsu.edu/provost/academic_policies/syllabus/reg.htm

"Spotlight on..." Physics Staff. Our continuing series for recognition of the SPA staff in Physics. Every two months we'll feature another staff member on a poster in the glass cases near the Cox elevators and the "Physics News" bulletin board outside the main office toward Dabney.

This month's featured person is

Steve Jenkins

Steve has been with the Physics Department since June 1984. Take a look at his "Spotlight" when you pass by the posters.

There will be a pizza lunch for Steve in the Richard Patty Room, 201 Daniels Hall on a date to be announced. Everyone is invited!

Communicating effectively with e-mail is an important skill. An overriding concern is being respectful of your recipient's time. To make sure your message is read (and not immediately discarded into the trash) follow some tips from NC State Computing Services and from Frank Abrams in the Provost's office:

1) Make sure the "subject" field of your email is meaningful - never leave it blank and avoid multiple unrelated subjects in one message.

2) When replying - include the original message (or enough of it to make your reply comprehensible), put your response at the beginning (so your recipient doesn't have to scroll endlessly to find it) , and don't send a reply which is unrelated to the original subject line.

3) Don't flame and don't use ALL CAPS - if you're not OK with your message being on the front page of the News and Observer, it probably should not be sent.

4) Keep your signature line short and relevant- no quotations or aphorisms on business email.

5) The occasional typo is not a concern but good spelling and grammar are important if you want the recipient to take you and your message seriously.

6) Face-to-face or telephone are still best for many topics - don't use email to avoid facing up to a difficult situation.

Additional tips and further information are available at www.ncsu.edu/provost/people/abrams/emailett/index.html

New Astronomy Head Teaching Assistant. After serving for 2 years, Sean Hendrick has stepped down as Head TA for PY125 (Astronomy Laboratory). We thank Sean for his great work!

Beginning this semester, Lisa Lowe will serve as Astronomy Head TA.

SPA Supervisor Reorganization - In order to have a more uniform structure for supervising state-funded SPA personnel, we are making some changes in supervisor assignments effective for this academic year.

Research-funded SPA supervisor roles are unchanged.

The state-funded SPA personnel and their supervisors are listed below. An updated list of faculty and their staff support personnel will be distributed later. As always, these assignments are subject to readjustment to balance workloads across the whole Department.

Robert Egler:
Kevin Dudley
Phyllis Breedlove Gould
Steve Jenkins
Jennifer Outlaw

Rebecca Savage:
C.J. Hathorne
Ina Lunney

Chris Gould:
Leslie Moon
Rebecca Savage

Michael Paesler:
Jenny Allen

Jerry Bernholc:
Cecilia Upchurch

Papers Published or In Press:

Robert A. Egler, "Astronomical events recorded in the medieval Anglo-Saxon chronicles" Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, (In Press, Fall 2002)

Jackie Krim, Resource Letter FMMLS-1: "Friction at Macroscopic and Microscopic Length Scales", Am. J. Phys 70 (2002) 890

John Hubisz, "The Non-Problem of Nuclear Waste Disposal" Shaftesbury Society Lecture to the John Locke Foundation, Aug 26, 2002

What have YOU been up to? Going to a meeting? Published a paper? Received an award?

Students, faculty, or staff, we want to know! Please send your information to Robert Egler at robert_egler@ncsu.edu , and we'll make sure it gets in the Newsletter.

Answer to the last edition's question. Who Said it: "Basic research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."?

Wernher von Braun

There were a number of people who submitted the correct answer, and the winner, drawn from all the correct answers submitted, is C. J. Hathorne.

Back to Physics Department home page.