IWU Students in the Fall 2024 Astronomy Class produced some very nice Astrophotography as part of their Laboratory activities. The telescope they used to take the images is a 5″ Vixen Refractor Telescope equipped with a high-quality CCD camera and finder.
Below are the Heart Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), a galaxy in Triangulum (M33), and the California Nebula:
Indiana Wesleyan University’s Lumen Research Institute hosted an expert panel discussion titled, “J. Robert Oppenheimer: An Evolving Legacy.” The discussion was recorded and aired on C-SPAN’s “America History TV” series, and is currently available on their website.
President of IWU, Dr. Jon Kulaga hosted the event with Dr. Warren Rogers, Professor and Blanchard Chair of the Physics Department, served as moderator. Panel members included Kai Bird, Narayan Subramanian, and Jada Yuan. Kai Bird is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus and Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York. Narayan Subramanian is the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Energy. Jada Yuan is a National Correspondent for The Washington Post and author of Unleashing Oppenheimer.
In Summer 2023 Dr. Rogers was awarded a National Science Foundation “Research at Undergraduate Institutions” (RUI) grant to fund his experimental nuclear physics research program with IWU physics students for an additional three years.
In Fall 2023 Dr. Rogers was awarded a “Major Research Instrumentation” (MRI) grant from the National Science Foundation to further his research program in nuclear physics. The grant was part of a larger collaboration grant with Michigan State University and 7 other participating institutions, to design, construct, and test a new array of neutron detectors to be located at the Facility for Rare Isotopes. This next generation array will enable the MoNA Collaboration to measure properties of neutron-unstable nuclei important for better understanding explosive astrophysical phenomena.
Dr. Warren Rogers, Blanchard Chair and Professor of Physics, was awarded the 2018 American Physical Society’s Prize for a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution. You can see the IWU announcement here. and the announcement on the APS webpage here. The citation on his prize reads “for his essential contribution to the exploration of atomic nuclei beyond the neutron drip line and his conception and continued leadership of the Conference Experience for Undergraduates program.“
Over 100 visitors stopped by the Burns roof patio to view the 2017 solar eclipse through a telescope, thanks to physics professor Steve Smith who organized the viewing event. Many put their cell phone cameras up to the telescope eyepiece to take pictures of the mostly eclipsed sun with some fairly good success.