First, the Board would like to publicly thank two past Board Members: David Hartney for his year of service on the Board and Robert Eisenstein for his two years of service on the Board.
Linda Barton received her BS in physics from MIT, where she worked for several years at the Francis Bitter National Magnet Lab on optical properties of semiconductors in high fields. She completed her PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with thesis work on critical phenomena of dilute ferromagnets. Following graduate school, she spent nearly a decade at the research labs of Eastman Kodak, where she worked on development of magnetic materials for magnetic recording. In 1996 she joined the faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology in the School of Physics and Astronomy. At RIT, she has focused her teaching efforts on development of intensive upper level laboratory training for undergraduate physics majors, and implementation of senior capstone research for all physics majors. She maintains an experimental research effort in novel magnetic materials, staffed solely with undergraduates.
Kristan is a Ernest K. & Lillian E. Chapin Professor of Physics at Kansas State University, where she has taught advanced laboratory for many years. A graduate of SUNY Buffalo (B.S. 1993 magna com laude), she was inspired to become a physicist through Jonathan’s Honors Physics class, and recognized at graduation with the Top Quark Award that he and Barbara Wolfe-Reichert created. She has served the scientific community at the national level, and has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications. She has directed an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site in the Kansas State Physics Department for many years. Her research in nonlinear optics and frequency metrology with gas-filled hollow-core fibers for optical frequency references and novel laser development has been funded by the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation.
Kristan is a graduate of the University of Colorado (M.S. ’96 and Ph.D. ’99, physics) where she worked under the direction of Carl Wieman in laser trapping and cooling. After a postdoctoral position at L’Ecole Normale Superieure with Christophe Salomon in ultracold quantum gasses, she joined NIST, Boulder as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow working with optical frequency combs. In 2015-16, she was a JILA Visiting Fellow in the laboratory of Jun Ye.
Lowell learned the value of a good Advanced Lab as a student, and has tried to carry on that tradition now as a Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He joined the greater Advanced Lab community after reading Jonathan’s ‘call to arms’ editorial in the American Journal of Physics. Lowell has been active in ALPhA: helping organize the BFY conferences, chairing the ALPhA Immersions organizing committee since its inception, and serving as a board member.