Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College

    • summer research group 2011
    • Hackman 2012
    • Sam adipa

Physics and Astronomy

For Current & Prospective Students

Hackman Scholars

    • Hackman 2012
    • Alison Penfield '13
    • Hannan Li
    • madden crawford
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Hannan Li '14

Han worked with Professor Froney Crawford as a summer student investigating the modulation characteristics of PSR J0529-6652, a very luminous pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud that has shown unusual variability on short time-scales. This is a continuation of work that was first started by Dean Altemose ‘09.  Han modified and extended some of Dean's analysis code to take a different approach toward characterizing the variability of this pulsar. The results are inconsistent with the predictions of a proposed model of pulsar emission and suggest that the model is incorrect or does not apply to emission from this pulsar.


Samuel Adipa  ‘13

Sam worked with Professor Etienne Gagnon on “Terahertz Pulse Shaping” Terahertz radiation is a form of light that is generated by a broad range of physical phenomena, including interaction of intense light pulses with semiconductor materials. While relatively easy to generate, using THz radiation can be difficult, due in part to our limited abilities at manipulating this form of light. Over the summer, Sam worked on a way to gain better control of the THz radiation by modifying the generation process. Specifically, he looked at using an etalon to shape the intense light pulse that would in turn shape the THz it generates. We were able to show that we can indeed control the spectral shape of the THz radiation and the work that Sam did will serve as foundation for further projects.
 

Lucille and William Hackman Scholarships [established in 1984]

 

The Lucille and William Hackman Scholarships were endowed by William Hackman '39, a Chemistry alumnus, and his wife Lucille, to increase the opportunities for students to do summer research in chemistry. These opportunities have since been expanded to the entire campus and there are currently approximately 55 F&M students doing research each summer as Hackman Scholars.

The Hackman Summer Research Scholars program has grown considerably since its inception in the early 1980s. Between the summers of 2000 and 2011, the College supported 781 students with $2,552,275 in stipends. These students worked with 538 faculty mentors on research projects. During the summer of 2011, 89 students received more than $338,979 of institutional support from the Cargill, Decision Theory, Hackman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Mellon funds.