Randolph S. Peterson
          The University of the South: Physics Department







Curriculum Vitae

Present Position:                        

Professor and past Chairman, Physics Department, The University of the South, Sewanee, TN Chairman of the Section Representatives and member of the Executive Governing Board of the American Association of Physics Teachers (2003-2007)

Previous Positions:

Visiting Professor, Physics Department, University of Alabama at Birmingham, (2002-2003, summer 2004)       

Summer Research Faculty, Air  Force Office of Scientific Research, Arnold Air Force Base, Tullahoma, TN (1992, 1994, 1996)

Assistant and Associate Professor, Physics Department, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1980-1989)

Participating Scientist at Lawrence Livermore, National Laboratory  (1982-1985)

Assistant Professor, Physics Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT  (1978-1980)

Welch Foundation Fellow, Department of Physics, North Texas State University, Denton, TX (1977-1978)

Visiting Scientist, Institute for Nuclear Studies, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfort, West Germany (September 1976-January 1977)

Visiting Scientist, GSI, Darmstadt, West Germany (September 1976-January 1977)

Research Assistant with Dr. I.A. Sellin, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (June 1972-September 1976)

Education:                 

Chautauqua course, Haystack Observatory, MIT 2001
Diffractive Optics Seminar, Georgia Institute of Technology 1996
Numerous AAPT workshops on teaching physics with laboratories
Applied Health Physics, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, 1981
NATO Advanced School, Rutherford Backscattering Techniques, 1978               
Ph.D.  Physics, University of Tennessee, 1977
M.S.   Physics, University of Tennessee, 1974
B.S.   Engineering Physics, University of Tennessee, 1972

Professional Memberships and Awards:
Outstanding teacher, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1989
Alpha Society, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1989
American Association of Physics Teachers 1985-present
Student Government Outstanding Professor, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1983
American Physical Society member 1974-present
Tau Beta Pi, University of Tennessee, 1971
Sigma Pi Sigma, University of Tennessee, 1969
Allen Medal for Mathematics, University of Tennessee, 1968 

Current and Future Research:

I am making and working with CVD diamonds of various carbon isotope ratios. LI am interested in making and studying diodes and simple resistive detectors (for neutral and charged particles) from natural and man-made diamonds.  I intend to use these to replace equivalent silicon-based detectors in electron microscopes, x-ray diffractometers, and in accelerator experiments using Rutherford scattering and other phenomena.  I want to heavily involve my junior and senior physics majors in this research as the major part of their modern physics laboratory experiments, replacing some of the more traditional experiments with these more open-ended laboratories.

I am participating in development and testing of high throughput FTIR instruments with a group headed by Dr. Charles Pender, previously at AEDC.  Some of this research is done at the university and some is performed at AEDC.  Our interest is to improve FTIR camera speed, increase sensitivity and contrast (super-throughput) with good spectral discrimination.  I am also working with analysis of FTIR spectra of unstable IR-emitting sources (explosions).

Research Experience:

I have worked with lithium-drifted silicon detectors, intrinsic germanium detectors, surface barrier detectors (alpha and beta), bent and flat crystal Bragg spectrometers, 2 meter grazing-incidence vacuum ultraviolet spectrometer, 1 meter Seya-Namioka VUV spectrometer, and parallel-plate and cylindrical-mirror electron spectrometers, all used in conjunction with heavy-ion experiments conducted at various laboratories and on a variety of accelerators. I have designed and constructed a low-energy ion accelerator (to 5 keV) with an associated 16 ft. long time of flight spectrometer.  This apparatus is used to study doubly differential scattering cross sections in atomic, molecular, and solid targets.

Seminars and Invited Colloquia:

Physics Department, Southern Adventist College, 2004    
Physics Department, Southern Adventist College, 2001
Physics Department, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 1990
Physics Department, University of the South, 1989
East Tennessee Education Association Convention, 1985
Physics Department, University of the South, 1984
Tennessee Academy of Sciences, 1984
Physics Department, Appalachian State University, 1980
Physics Department, Trinity College, 1980
Physics Department, Univ. of Texas at Arlington, 1980
Physics Department, Notre Dame Univ., 1977
Physics Department, Auburn University, 1976
Institute für Kerphysik, J.W. Goethe Univ., 1976
Physics Department, Giessen Univ., 1976
GSI, Darmstadt, West Germany, 1976  

Professional Service:

Chairman of the audit committee for the American Association of Physics Teachers (2005-2007)
Chairman of the Section Representatives and member of the Executive Governing Board of the  American Association of Physics Teachers (2003-2007)
Reviewer for the Physics Teacher (1999- present)
AAPT workshops on Nuclear Science - Denver 8/97, New Orleans 1/98, San Antonio 3/98, Lincoln NE 8/98, Anaheim 1/99, El Paso 2/99, San Antonio, 8/99, Kissimmee 1/2000, Davidson College 3/2000           
American Association of Physics Teachers state representative since 1991, national chairman of Committee on Laboratories 2001-2003
Organizer and promoter of "Physics Day at the Amusement Park", Lake Winnepesaukah, Chattanooga, TN (1986- present)                                                      
Computer-interfacing workshops (6) for high school teachers, 1987-1993
Reviewer for the Physical Review Letters (1979-1989)       

Grants and Contracts:

National Science Foundation, "Chemical Vapor Deposition Production of Isotopically-enhanced Diamonds", ($12,000) 2003-2004
Department of Energy, "Nuclear Stockpile Maintenance" ($15,000) 2003             
Sverdrup Corporation, "FTIR Instrument Development", ($20,000), 1997.Sverdrup Corporation, "FTIR Instrument Development", ($6,000), 1995
National Science Foundation, "Upgrade of Introductory Physics Labs", ($25,000), 1993
Sverdrup, "Donation of FTIR spectrometer", (valued  $250,000), 1992
Sverdrup, "Donation of UV-visible spectrometer", (valued $8,000), 1991.
Tennessee Valley Authority, "Donation of Nuclear Electronic Instrumentation", (valued $30,000),   1991 Tennessee Valley Authority, "Donation of Ge detector", (valued $10,000), 1990.
THEC Security Act Grant , "Microcomputer Interfacing Workshops for Teachers of Physics,  Chemistry, and the Physical Sciences", ($24,000) 1989.
Grants, Gifts, and Contracts prior to 1989 totaling about $790,000.                                 

Presentations, Published and Contributed Papers:

I am a coauthor on more than 50 published papers in such journals as The Physical Review Letters, Journal of Physics B, and The Physics Teacher.  I have personally presented more than 30 papers at national and international physics conferences, and have been a coauthor to more than 60 presentations.

Published Papers and Books while at the University of the South

"High-Resolution HIXSE Studies of the Chemical Environment of Sulfur Implanted in Quartz Glass,"       T.M. Rosseel, C.R. Vane, J.P. Young, R.A. Zuhr, and R. S. Peterson, Nucl. Instr. and Meth.
      B43, p.14 (1989).

"High-Resolution Heavy-Ion-Induced X-Ray Satellite Emission Study of Implanted Sulfur as a Probe
      of Co-implanted Oxygen in an Oxide Substrate," T.M. Rosseel, C.R. Vane, J.P. Young, R.A.
      Zuhr, and R. S. Peterson, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B, in 1991.                  

"Radiative Electron Capture by High-Energy Oxygen Ions in Hydrogen and Helium," C.R. Vane,
      S. Datz, P.F. Dittner, J. Giese, N.L. Jones, H.F. Krause, T.M. Rosseel, and R. S. Peterson,
      Phys. Rev. A49, 1847 (1994).

Experimental Gamma Ray Spectroscopy and Investigations of Environmental Radioactivity by       Randolph S. Peterson (Spectrum Techniques, Oak Ridge, TN) 1996.       

"An Apparatus Review," Randolph S. Peterson and Thomas A. Walkiewicz, TPT 38, 266-8 (2000).

"Upper-division Student Laboratory Experiments with a 2.5 MV Van de Graaff Accelerator," D.
      Bradbury, W. Dukes, E. Gerber, T. Terry, and R. S. Peterson, Application of Accelerators in
      Research and Industry - Sixteenth Int'l Conf (edited by J.L. Duggan and I.L. Morgan, A.I.P.).,
      1125-1127 (2001).       

"Isotopically enriched designer-diamond anvil", P.A. Baker, Y.K. Vohra, R.S. Peterson, and S.T.
      Weir, Applied Physics Letters 83, 1734 (2003).

"Optical defect centers and surface morphology of isototpically enriched diamond layers in designer
      diamond anvils", R.S. Peterson, S. Catledge, Y.K. Vohra, P.A. Baker, and S.T. Weir, J. Appl.
      Phys. 97, 073504 (2005). 

"Measurement of the molar fraction of 13C in diamond films using Raman and Rutherford scattering-
      an undergraduate student laboratory experiment", D.M. Matthews, Jr., W.S. Hooker, Jr.,
      E.W. Shroyer, P.A. Baker, Y.K. Vohra, and R. S. Peterson, accepted for publication in Nucl. Instr.
      & Methods B.

"Optical Spectroscopy with an Inexpensive WebCam", Randolph S. Peterson, submitted to The
      Physics Teacher.