Wednesday, November 27, 2002

by Pei Pei Liu
Co-Managing Editor

Senior Matthew Landreman was awarded with one of four awards for best
undergraduate student poster presentation at the annual meeting of the
American Physical Society’s plasma physics division last week.

Landreman was one of 40 undergraduates with posters at the conference,
including fellow Swat seniors and physics majors Abram Falk and Andrew
Fefferman. Landreman’s winning presentation was entitled, “Fully 3-D
Measurement of Reconnecting Magnetic Field Structure in SSX [Swarthmore
Spheromak Experiment].”

Working closely with Professor Mike Brown, Landreman explained, “Our work
concerns a process known as ‘magnetic reconnection’ that occurs in plasmas
(the super-hot gases that stars are made of). Reconnection converts
magnetic energy into heat and other forms of energy. It has been invoked to
explain why the sun’s atmosphere can get over 1,000 times as hot as the
solar surface, and it contributes to instabilities that are plaguing fusion
reactor development.”

Landreman has worked with Brown in his laboratory for the past two summers,
as well as taking a full-time laboratory position in the spring of 2000,
during a leave of absence from Swarthmore.

“Mike Brown brings the students the students who’ve worked for him to this
conference every year,” Landreman said. “It’s one of the many ways in which
he helps introduce us to the real business of science.”

“This is a great example of how Mike cares about his students,” he added;
“he works hard to give us a competitive edge for graduate school.”

The American Physical Society is the major physics organization in the
U.S., with several divisions in areas such as condensed matter,
high-energy, and plasma physics.

“I was not aware that these awards existed when I went to the conference,”
Landreman said. “Apparently some of the scientists I talked to during the 3
hour undergraduate poster session were judges.”

Landreman is an honors physics major with a minor in mathematics.

*****

Car windshields were broken on two separate occasions between November 18
and 20. One of the incidents occurred on Yale Avenue the other on Forrest Lane.

A parking meter from Myers Avenue was discovered missing on November 24.
The pole and some of the parts of the meter were later found on the
railroad bed, but the coins inside were not found.

On November 25, a man was taken into custody at Swarthmore College by
Officer Bardo and charged with defiant trespass. He also matched the
description of a person present in the area of a number of recent thefts.

*****

* U.N. officials said on Tuesday that they will freeze any sites that they
are checking for possible weapons of mass destruction to prevent any
evidence of such weapons from being smuggled out. In addition, high-tech
equipment will be used during the search. The first such search will be on
Wednesday.

* In a story reminiscent of the Elian Gonzalez case exactly three years
earlier, a thirteen year old Cuban boy was found on a ship off the coast of
Florida on Monday. Though five adults were also in the boat, they all
managed to get to shore before officials were able to capture them. Under
the U.S.’s wet foot/dry foot policy for Cuban refugees, those who make it
to shore are allowed to stay in the U.S. The boy’s fate, however, is still
uncertain.

* With six percent more people expected to fly this Thanksgiving than last
year, airports across the country are preparing for the onslaught. New
security regulations, put in place after 9/11, are expected to cause delays
up to two hours in many cities. Some cities, most prominent among them San
Francisco, are starting to screen all checked baggage. In addition, an
early-winter snowfall of up to six inches, expected to hit the Northeast on
Wednesday, could cause delays on the road and in the air.

*****

French Film Festival
Kohlberg 328, 7:00 p.m.

Tertulia
Trotter 215, 8:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Haywood Hale Broun ’40, former Swat football manager and theatre club
secretary, will be featured in a story on ESPN Classic on November 28 at
7:00 pm. In Broun’s lifetime, he has been a CBS anchor, Kentucky Derby
commentator, jazz album producer, distinguished author, and a Broadway and
TV actor. The show about this fascinating multi-faceted man will air again
over the next few months.

*****

Swarthmore trounced McDaniel 70-60 in the Centennial Conference opener.
Katie Robinson ’04 scored a season-high of 27 points, while Zoey Adams
Deutsch ’06 contributed an impressive 10 points and seven rebounds.

*****

Led by triple-winners David Whitehead ’03 and Mike Dudley ’03, the Garnet
rolled over Division II Kutztown 112-93 for their third win in a row.

Whitehead captured the 200 and 100 freestyles and was part of the 400
medley relay team of John Lillvis ’03, Eric Shang ’04, and Dudley.
Individually, Dudley won the 200 IM and the 200 breaststroke, just ahead of
teammate Shang.

Lillvis took the 200 butterfly, while Mike Auerbach ’05 won the 500 freestyle.

*****

Swarthmore rolled over Bryn Mawr yesterday, 146-95. Individual statistics
were not available at the time of publication.

*****

Today:
Men’s basketball at Lehigh, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday:
Men’s basketball hosts Union, 2:00 p.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being
taught.”
–Sir Winston Churchill

*****
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