Wow... I don’t see how this could possibly do any good.

Have a look: AIP article on a recent bit of legislation.

So, assuming I can read this correctly, the institution of any reviewer for each particular grant (or even just the applications?) will be publicly named. Even in a field the size of mine (x-ray scattering from hard condensed matter systems, it’s quite large by physics standards), this would provide absolutely no anonymity. Any grant I review will have RIT attached to it. There are 3-5 professors on campus that could broadly speaking review similar grants. But once you look at the particular sub-fields it will become very apparent who the individual is.

I wasn’t aware this particular aspect of peer-review was something that needed fixing. I’d prefer more double-blind reviews (where not only the referees are anonymous, but also the authors with only the editor knowing the people), but I see no reason we should be going the other way.

If this were to be enacted, I would have to fear both direct reprisal for me personally, as well as reprisal against the institute. That can be compounded into an Orwellian level of group think that must occur within departments, colleges, and ultimately beyond where a review must be “vetted” to make sure it does not conflict with any other interests or risk reprisal.

The RIT Physics Faculty webpage was updated recently to include the information of the recent faculty hires, 2 lecturers and 2 tenure track. And among those is an entry for me. It’s been a long journey for that entry to appear. And by no means is it time to relax and take a long vacation. But wow... there it is.

I’ll be teaching my first class next quarter, a section of University Physics I. Then in the spring quarter I get to teach Experiments in Modern Physics. That has to be the single most fun course I’ve ever gotten to be a part of (as a graduate student, and even as an undergraduate TA). Had I paid enough attention while I was having so much fun in that class as an undergraduate I might have had a more direct route through graduate school than my tour of high energy theory.

In the mean time I’m still setting up my lab, adjusting to my new responsibilities, trying to get some students started, and finishing some of my own work too.

The undergraduate physics program at RIT is quite unique and strong.

Aside from the normal fare of undergraduate physics, 3 things in particular stand out in my mind.

• All the introductory physics courses are taught in a workshop format with limited enrollments and lots of interaction.
• At the end of their 2nd year, physics majors take their “Core” exams. These are oral exams before faculty members that must be passed in order to continue. Most schools do not have such things until graduate school.
• During the 3rd and 4th year the students must complete a “Capstone” thesis. In addition to doing the work and writing it up (often being original research), it requires the students to give 3 independent presentations regarding the work. One is shortly after beginning to frame the thesis project, the next is at a mid point during their 4th year, and the last is upon completion of the capstone thesis. The capstone is also not optional.

In fact, we just had our 2nd round of the capstone talks today. I’ve been serving on the capstone committee (my first faculty committee assignment) and it was quite fun to see the students give their talks. Some were still kind of rough, but some of the talks were extremely impressive, they could easily be giving their general exam in graduate school (often a middle exam during a PhD).

Faculty members (and the audience in general) are allowed to ask questions and they do. As a member of the committee I tried to ask at least one question of each speaker to help frame each talk in my head. I tried to ask what I thought would be good, but fair questions. And if there was a hiccup, my aim was to not crucify anyone while trying to keep them honest. I don’t want the image of a petulant, little man...

Anyways, I was very impressed by the entire thing. It was a grand day to be in the physics department.

We had another good point today in the lab. One of the computers arrived earlier in the week and I installed linux in preparation for use. We got the proprietary software, SPEC by Certif, to control the diffractometer over the weekend. It’s the same software package I saw at Argonne and to a lesser extent in graduate school (though we didn’t need it for the SAXS-speckle experiments).

I am thankful for that experience as having to learn it at this point would require a major undertaking. Granted I’m still “learning” it, but I’m more or less able to function on my own. That goes double for having spent so much time learning linux in graduate school. Anyways, the software compiled and installed with not even a hiccup.

But we did much better. I managed to hook up a couple of motors to the controller/driver electronics, a couple of old MCU-2 racks from Advanced Control Systems. I can control the motors manually direct from the front panels, but the fun thing was to get those communicating with the linux box running SPEC. Now I can control the motors straight from the computer. From here I can control the number of steps/sec, the number of steps/degree, etc... and drive the motors to arbitrary positions.



A very large part of a diffractometer comes down to being able to control the motors with a high degree of precision and reproducibility, and all of it with a computer. So in essence, we’ve demonstrated this as a solved problem and it’s just a matter of repeating that solution in a few forms.

The MCU-2 units are sort of the “backup/extras”. For the primary 4-8 motors I’ve already purchased a nice set of modular step-pak controllers. That should give me a total of 12 controllable axes from the computer. That sure beats standing around inside a hutch turning a dial!

Progress today.

The electrician has begun installing the power cables, outlets, breakers, and conduits in the lab. The lab space itself is generous, but it was obvious from the first day that we’d have to make some significant expenditures to install some basic upgrades to make it a research lab. Electrical wiring was one of the biggies.

We need a primary power source for the x-ray generator. The unit we’re starting with is a 220V-50Amp, but single phase. However, we’re planning to upgrade at some point so we’ve done the wiring for a full 3 phases s the additional cost was marginal and right now it’s easy to install. We also had additional 220 single and 3 phase outlets, plenty of GFICs, and an emergency kill switch right by the front door.