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Daytona Beach Campus - College of Arts & Sciences
Department of Physical Sciences
Research Programs 
Below is a list of faculty and some of their research interests.
Irfan Azeem, Ionospheric Physics
Peter Erdman, Atmospheric Physics
Dr. Erdman has directed the Atmospheric Physics Research Laboratory since 1998. APRL employs several undergraduate students and currently two graduate students in preparation of sounding rocket payloads. These rockets are launched at both White Sands in New Mexico and Wallops Island in Virginia.
Robert Fleck, Theory of Star and Planet Formation, Physics of the Interstellar Matter, History of Science
Michael Hickey, Atmospheric Physics
Dr. Hickey directs the Computation Atmospheric Dynamics Laboratory, known as the CADLab, at Embry-Riddle. The CADLab is funded by grants from both NASA and the National Science Foundation, and primarily researches atmospheric acoustic-gravity waves in the upper atmosphere of Earth and other planets (including Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). State-of-the-art numerical models are developed within the CADLab, including a full-wave model and a time-dependent model describing the interaction between waves and chemistry in the Earths upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere at about 90 km altitude. These models simulate wave propagation, dissipation and effects on the mean state of the atmosphere (energetics and thermal structure) and allow us to compare theory with observations and sometimes to make predictions of wave effects. In addition to the models, the CADLab has also been extremely successful in securing funding to purchase large high-performance parallel computers (or Beowulfs). The smallest CADLab Beowulf has 9 nodes and 18 processors, but the newest CADLab Beowulf has 128 nodes and 256 processors and is large enough to serve all computational research on campus.
The CADLab employs both undergraduate and graduate research assistants (RAs). The undergraduate RAs run the models and plot results. They are included in peer-reviewed publications whenever they successfully complete a project. The training they receive is invaluable in this age of computing, with hands-on experience in running and learning about numerical solution procedures and code, the atmosphere, and the wave dynamics. The graduate RAs make substantive contributions to the models by developing specialized subroutines to solve specific problems. For example, gravity waves influence the absorption of cosmic radio noise in the upper mesosphere and a graduate student was the first ever to successfully simulate this phenomenon using the full-wave model.
John Mathis, Superconductivity
Dr. Mathis, working in conjunction with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is developing techniques for depositing High-Temperature Superconductors (HTSC) thin films onto metals. Superconductors can carry large amounts of current without energy-wasting resistive losses, thus they have the potential of increasing the efficiency of electric power transmission from power stations. This would save enormous amounts of electricity, since as much as 30 percent of electricity produced is lost through the transmission process. The deposition techniques that Dr. Mathis has developed resulted in a critical current density (a measure of superconductor performance) of 3 million amperes per square centimeter, the highest critical current density achieved on a polycrystalline substrate. HTSC were discovered in 1986, but since they are ceramics, they are brittle and difficult to make into wires. In addition, they cannot simply be deposited onto metals, because the HTSC ceramic grains must be closely aligned to function. The researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a technique for modifying the texture of the metal so that the grains will line up. This technique, called Rolling Assisted Biaxially Textured Substrates (RABiTS) works the metal using industrial rolling technology and is therefore suitable for large-scale production. RABiTS technology can be used to make single-crystal-like substrates over a wide range of materials, including nitrides, oxides, and semiconductors, whose characteristics can be adapted for various energy/electronic applications. Dr. Mathis' research at Embry-Riddle involves studying the use of Raman spectroscopy to determine the oxygen content of one of the HTSC materials, YBa2Cu3O7-d . The amount of oxygen in this material is crucial to its superconducting properties, and the present method of determining the amount, X-ray diffraction, is slow and complicated. Raman spectroscopy uses the intense light from a high-power laser to probe materials. Some of the light that is emitted from the sample after it is hit by the laser reveals the material's composition, and this information can be quickly analyzed. If this research is successful, the problem of monitoring oxygen content during the mass production of high-performance HTSC wires would be solved.
Jack McKisson, Satellite Systems
John Olivero, Atmospheric Physics and Aeronomy
Dr. Olivero's interests are in the structure and composition of planetary atmospheres, principally terrestrial. He has worked with many types of measurement systems including balloons and sounding rockets. His major research experiences have been in environmental remote sensing from satellites, the Space Shuttle, and from the ground in the UV, visible, IR, and microwaves. He is currently focusing his attention on noctilucent (or polar mesospheric) clouds, Clouds at the Edge of Space and on the role of water in the terrestrial upper atmosphere. He began his career at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia and was also a faculty member at Penn State for many years before coming to Embry-Riddle.
Mahmut Reyhanoglu, Dynamics and Control
Dr. Reyhanoglu investigates a variety of control problems for underactuated mechanical systems, defined as mechanical systems with fewer control variables than degrees of freedom. The key future of many examples of underactuated mechanical systems is the nonlinear coupling between the directly actuated degrees of freedom and the unactuated degrees of freedom. The main objective is to control all degrees of freedom, including those that are not directly actuated, through this nonlinear coupling. A general and effective control approach involves the use of nonsmooth state and control transformations. We intend to further develop this approach for as wide a class of underactuated mechanical systems as is possible. We also plan to develop new control analysis and design tools that are specific to underactuated mechanical systems. Our research will be motivated by and can be expected to contribute to engineering technology in several areas including maneuvering of surface vessels, underwater vehicles, and aerospace vehicles as well as control of underactuated mechanisms and robotics systems. We believe that the expected results of this research are likely to provide significant advances beyond the existing knowledge base for control and underactuated mechanical systems.
Anthony Reynolds, Space Plasma Physics
Dr. Reynolds works on several aspects of fundamental plasma physics as well as applications of plasma physics to the space environment. One of his interests is wave transport. There are aspects of plasma physics that involve kinetic theory and wave-particle interactions that are still open questions. For example, what are the mechanisms that force regions that are out of equilibrium with their surroundings into equilibrium? Do the many wave modes that exist in plasmas contribute to this process? Areas where this might be important are tokamaks, auroras, and pulsars. Of course, the usual mechanisms of conduction and convection occur, but the mechanism of "radiation" can play an enhanced role due to the large number of normal modes that exist in plasmas. Another of his interests is modeling of the near-Earth magnetosphere, also known as the plasmasphere. The plasmasphere is a torus-shaped region of space between about 3,000 km and 40,000 km altitude, at low latitudes. It is a part of the Earth's magnetosphere. The plasma in this region affects ground-to-satellite communications and also navigation. He is currently modeling the structure and dynamics of the plasma density in the plasmasphere. More information can be found on his home page.
Abas Sivjee, Space Physics
Dr. Sivjee has directed the Space Physics Research Lab, known as SPRL, at Embry-Riddle since 1986. SPRL pursues electro-optical remote sensing of atomic, molecular and plasma processes in the near-earth space environment. The lab operates state-of-the-art scientific instruments all around the planet, focusing on the polar regions, for the study of solar-terrestrial interactions, some of which result in auroral displays. The locations include: Eureka (Northwest Territories of Canada), Resolute Bay (Northwest Territories of Canada), Sondrestomfjord (Greenland), Longyearbyen (Svalvard, Norway), South Pole, San Antonio (Texas), Palmas (Brazil), Adeleide (Australia), as well as Daytona Beach. The instruments include Michelson interferometers, CCD spectrometers, filter-wheel photometeres, Ebert-Fastie spectro-photometers as well a recently obtained Fabry-Perot interferometer.
The Space Physics Research Lab employs over 30 undergraduate research assistants. Their tasks include processing the incoming and backlogged raw data from the remote sites, maintaining the computer network and even calibrating instruments in the field (under the direction of a more experienced member of SPRL). The undergraduate research assistants contribute significantly to the successful operation of the SPRL. In turn, the lab provides opportunities for training in technology and research methods to the undergraduates. Students who work in the lab get hands-on experience in doing actual research, and are encouraged to learn various computer programming languages, mathematical models, statistical analysis techniques, etc.
Chris Vuille, Quantum Gravity
Dr. Vuille has several areas of active research.
1. Static spherically-symmetric solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell-Proca equations. In this study, I'm cranking out shiploads of solutions for charged spherical bodies with a variety of charge densities, and matching them to the Reissner-Nordstrom exterior---vacuum with an electric field. In the process I stumbled on a trick to nearly linearize the equations for the special case for negative pressure, or tension. When the vector field is massive, you have the Proca equation, for which I may have recently found an exact solution, giving the gravity field of elementary spin-1 massive particles, such as are found in nuclear and sub-nuclear matter.
2. Equation of state of Neutron Stars. In this work, I'm trying to finesse the core equation of state by using a general parametrization. Looks like it's hard on the inside, softer as you go outwards.
3. Schrodinger's equation in general relativity. Here I've derived an equation generalizing Schrodinger's. The curvature tensor comes into play, and what we may have here is the equation of quantum gravity. That's in my dreams.
4. Massive Graviton General Relativity. Nobody's seen a graviton, nor a gravity wave, but I decided to develop a theory so we'd all know what we were seeing if we saw it! I also thought that a very small mass could affect red-shift measurements of distant galaxies and quasars, thus making the universe seem younger than it really is. Currently, the oldest stars in our galaxy appear to be older than the universe, which you might agree is a little bit strange.
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