Marshall
Thomsen
|
Strong
Hall 302B |
(734)
487-8794 |
|
Department
of Physics and Astronomy |
jthomsen@emich.edu |
Advisor for
Undergraduate Major and Minor in Physics
Master of Science in Physics
Course information is available for
PHY 406 Ethical Issues in
Physics
PHY 530/531 Computational
and Advanced Physics
What does
Nicaragua have to do with education and EMU?
Financial
ties to textbook publishers
Research Interests:
Laser-Solid Interactions-- I
am collaborating with Professor Donald Snyder of the Chemistry Department in
studies of optical absorption by bulk polymers and polymer films. The
absorption can be detected in a very sensitive way using photothermal
techniques: absorbed radiation heats the polymer causing a change in the
geometry and the refractive index of the film. These changes are then be
detected by a probe laser. Funding for this project has been provided
through the State of Michigan Research Excellence Fund and the National Science
Foundation.
Ethical
Issues in Physics--I
maintain an interest in ethical issues confronted by professional
physicists. These issues involve both interactions within the physics
community (such as issues associated laboratory procedures) and interactions
between physicists and society at large (such as giving technical
advice). For more details, see my ethics page.
Thermodynamics--I
am evolving an approach to teaching thermodynamics that builds on students'
existing knowledge of classical mechanics to develop an intuitive appreciation
for the laws of thermodynamics. This approach at times takes the
microscopic perspective normally found in statistical mechanics courses, but it
does not require the use of the partition function. Special attention is
given to fluids that do not behave like ideal gases. A complete copy of the text is
available here.
Sample Publications:
Gregory Bee, Katherine
Ballentine, and Marshall Thomsen. “Practical Problems
Involving Thermal Conductivity”. American Journal of Physics 76 970-974
(2008).
Thomsen, Marshall. “A course
treating ethical issues in physics.”
Science and Engineering Ethics 13 117-127 (2007).
Thomsen, Marshall.
"Conflicts of Interest in University
Research", "Research Misconduct", and "Publication
Practices and Responsible Authorship" Research ethics modules developed
2002-2004 and posted at www.rcr.emich.edu .
Thomsen, Marshall.
"Learning lessons about ethics." Invited
editorial for the Forum section of Physics World 12 no. 3 pp. 15-16 (March
1999).
Bonnie Wylo
and M. Thomsen. "Should Physics Students Take a Course in Ethics?--Physicists Respond". Science
and Engineering Ethics 4 473-486 (1998).
Joseph Lowry, M. Thomsen, E.
R. Behringer, and Z. L. Wu. "Layer
Thickness Fluctuations in Optical Coatings With Non-Quarterwave
Design". Applied Optics 38 p. 2083 (1999)
M. Thomsen and Z. L. Wu. "Polarizing and Reflective Coatings Based on Halfwave Layer-Pairs". Applied Optics 36
307 (1997).
Z. L. Wu, M. Thomsen, P. K. Kuo, Y. S. Lu, Christopher Stolz,
and Mark Kozlowski. "Overview of Photothermal Characterization of Optical Thin
Coatings". Proceedings of the 27th Annual Symposium on
Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, October 30 - November 1, 1995, Boulder
Colorado and also published in Optical Engineering 36 252 (1997).
M. Thomsen and Z. L.
Wu. "Multilayer Optical Coatings Based on Halfwave Layer Pairs". Proceedings
of the 27th Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers,
October 30 - November 1, 1995, Boulder Colorado.
M. Thomsen and D. Resnik. "The Effectiveness of
the Erratum in Avoiding Error Propagation in Physics". Science and Engineering Ethics 1 231 (1995).
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