Kansas High School Women attend the 2017 Women In Science Conference at the University of Nebraska

    Four Kansas high school teachers and eight of their students traveled to Nebraska to participate in the 19th annual Women in Science Conference at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  The Kansas representatives were teachers, sophomores and juniors from Topeka High School in Topeka Kansas and from Free State and Lawrence High School in Lawrence Kansas. This opportunity was sponsored by the current NSF Kansas and Nebraska EPSCoR Track 2 grant titled “Collaborative Research: Imaging and controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules and Nanostructures.” As part of the collaboration's education and outreach initiatives, the Nebraska Women in Science Conference invited Kansas teachers and students to participate.  The conference brings high school girls and their teachers to the University of Nebraska (UNL) campus for a two day science career exploration and networking opportunity. The format of the conference encourages students to “interact with career and academic professional women in science, meet current female science students and other high school girls who are interested in science, and discover countless professions as diverse as biologists, geologists, engineers, food scientists, computer scientists, and those in the medical fields.”

Kansas students touring St. Elizabeth's Medical Center

     The 2017 Women in Science Conference began with a hospital tour at the at the Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center on Friday, March 31, 2017, followed by a banquet featuring Dr. Terri Norton of the Nebraska Engineering Department. Saturday, April 1, 2017, was filled with hands-on activities and lab explorations at the Nebraska Union and the Beadle Center.
     The Kansas students' occupational interests ranged from careers in medicine, forensics, biochemistry and zoology.  Karla Gaines, science teacher from Topeka High School, said her students “loved the hospital tour, the session we attended on breaking bones, and the lab session in the afternoon.” She added “I thought the message of the Key note speaker was fantastic.”  Marci Leuschen, science teacher at Free State High School, said her students’ favorite parts of the conference were “the hands on photosynthesis and respiration lab,” and “The round robin forum where they spoke to scientists.” She also commented “the girls all came away from the conference energized about scientific research.  The car ride home they were talking about the women they met over the weekend and the stories they enjoyed. Shoot – the speakers had me convinced to quit my job and enroll at UNL to pursue a career in research science!” Both teachers indicated that the 2017 Women in Science Conference experience “really solidified their students’ interest in pursuing a career in science.”

Funding for this Collaborative Research Experience was provided by the Kansas and Nebraska NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: "Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures."  The Grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce and prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of atomic/molecular/optical science. 

Kansas State University hosts 2017 Kansas and Nebraska EPSCoR Collaborative Research: Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Moledules and Nanostructures Symposium

  Over 100 physics and chemistry students and faculty attended the March 31, 2017 Kansas and Nebraska EPSCoR Track 2 Collaborative Research: Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Moledules and Nanostructures Symposium at Kansas State University.

Top: Dr. Beth Montelone & Dr. Anthony Starace
Bottom: Dr. Paul Corkum

      The program opened with a welcome from Dr. Beth Montelone, Senior Associate Vice President for Research at Kansas State University (KSU), and was followed by Dr. Anthony Starace, co-principle investigator and the George Holmes Distinguished Professor of Physics, AMOP Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), introducing the Plenary Speaker, from the Dr. Paul Corkum from the University of Ottawa and the National Research Council(NRC) of Canada.  Dr. Corkum engaged the audience and sparked interesting discussions with his talk titled Linking high harmonics from solids and gases.

From left to right: Dr. Chris Elles, Dr. Steve Cundiff,
Dr. Louis DeMarco, Dr. Mette Gaarde

   The morning session featured Kansas EPSCoR researcher, Dr. Chris Elles from the University of Kansas (KU), discussing Nonlinear photochromic switching in the plasmonic field of a nanoparticle array; as well as talks from visiting speakers: Dr. Steve Cundiff , University of Michigan, who discussed Coherent control of the exciton/biexciton system in a quantum dot ensemble; Dr. Lou DiMauro, from Ohio State University, who discussed Intense mid-infrared laser-cluster interactions; and Dr. Mette Gaarde, from Louisiana State University, who discussed High harmonic generation in solids: dynamics of multilevel adiabatic states spanning the band structure.

From left to right: Dr. Ken Knappenberger, Dr. Carlos Trallero-Herrero
Dr. George Gibson, Dr. Matthias Fuchs

   The Afternoon session opened with a presentation titled Mode-specific plasmonics examined using single-nanoparticle ultrafast imaging given by Dr. Ken Knappenberger of Florida State University and was followed by Kansas EPSCoR and KSU researcher Dr. Carlos Trallero-Herrero who discussed Control and measurement of attosecond pulses with two-color fields (1). The afternoon session concluded with talks from visiting professor Dr. George Gibson from the University of Connecticut who discussed Deep inner-orbital ionization of diatomic molecules by strong laser fields and Nebraska EPSCoR and UNL researcher Dr. Matthias Fuchs who discussed State-of-the-art and next-generation sources for ultrafast hyperspectral imaging.
   Dr. Itzik Ben-Itzhak, co-principle investigator and distinguished physics professor at Kansas State University made closing remarks and invited the audience to attend the poster session that featured over 35 posters from students and grant participants.

Funding for this Collaborative Research Experience was provided by the Kansas and Nebraska NSF EPSCoR Track 2 Grant #1430519 titled: "Imaging and Controlling Ultrafast Dynamics of Atoms, Molecules, and Nanostructures."  The Grant's educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce and prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of atomic/molecular/optical science.