Education

• Oregon State University

  Honors Bachelor of Science

  Physics (Optics Option)
  
  

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

  Physics: Optics and Plasmas
  
  

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Graduate Research Asistant

  
  I have been a graduate student at the University of Texas since the Fall semester of 2006. I do experimental research in optics and plasma physics. More specifically, have designed and built/modified a two-color terawatt (TW) laser system. My second color is based on a scheme developed by my predecessor, but I have designed/built/modified my own version. Basically, I took a commercial Thales TW laser and Raman shifted a fraction of its energy from 800 nm to 873 nm (1 Stokes shift for barium nitrate). I then amplified this shifted light to ~100mJ with a duration of ~100fs, giving my a 1 TW laser in a second color from the original 45 TW laser. Now I am using the laser for laser-plasma interactions research: the second laser is used as a seed for a variety of instabilities (and other laser-plasma interactions). This seed might enhance or might suppress a given instability, so the purpose is to control instabilities. Thus, I might suppress relativistic self-focusing, or enhance forward Raman scattering and beam modulation.
  

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Assistant Instructor

  
  This is not just a TA position, I am actually the instructor of record for these classes, though I do have a faculty supervisor. I typically teach two sections of physical science, a "discovery-based" lab class which meets twice weekly for two hours per meeting. These classes are primarily hands-on lab driven, with some discussions prior to or following a set of related lab activities. I am in charge of designing the curriculum for the semester, or designing the experiments based on available equipment (I am sometimes allowed to purchase new equipment if enough other instructors agree to use it), designing/assigning/grading homework, quizzes, exams. I am also responsible for hiring/training an undergraduate assistant for each of my sections every semester.
  

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Teaching Assistant

  
  I mostly taught in the Physics 117M "Physics with Calculus: Mechanics and Statistics" for pre-med students. I did do one summer semester of the electromagnetism lab (without calculus). The job was fairly straightforward: supervise two sections of lab (each for 3 hours/meeting, one meeting/week) and answer students' questions as they do that week's experiments. I was also in charge of writing any short (~20 minute) quizzes for the week if I so desired, and of grading any quizzes and lab-reports for the week. I held one office hour per section for outside of class help time. I was also head of TAs for PH117M for one semester before becoming an Assistant Instructor. This basically involved doing all the same things that a normal TA does, plus setting up the lab's experiments for the next week, taking down the previous week's experiments, and briefing the TA's on upcoming experiments. I also fielded more than a few logistics problems and was called upon for advice involving everything from what to do about students' cheating to how to design a good grading curve. Additionally, I had to hold what are called "coaching hours," which are effectively open office hours at a set of tables in the physics building. The stated purpose of these coaching hours is effectively free physics homework help for any undergrads. The unstated purpose was presumably that we learn best what we teach, and thus by answering a variety of homework questions, we learned the basic physics by explaining it to undergrads.