Wabash College Physics

Wabash College Physics The Wabash College Physics Department News and happenings in the Wabash College Physics Department

This coming weekend is Big Bash. If you will be attending, be sure to stop by the Physics/Math/Computer Science recepti...
06/01/2026

This coming weekend is Big Bash. If you will be attending, be sure to stop by the Physics/Math/Computer Science reception, Saturday, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Goodrich Hall, Room 102 (Commons):

https://www.wabash.edu/alumni/reunion/schedule

We received thank-you cards from the Hose Elementary 1st graders who attended the physics demo show a couple of weeks ag...
05/29/2026

We received thank-you cards from the Hose Elementary 1st graders who attended the physics demo show a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, they liked the van de Graaff generator, especially when Mrs. Wheeler got shocked!

It was cloudy and very humid, but the rain held off, so commencement was held outside in Little Giant Stadium this after...
05/16/2026

It was cloudy and very humid, but the rain held off, so commencement was held outside in Little Giant Stadium this afternoon. After the final singing of Old Wabash on the Chapel steps, we managed to gather most of the graduates onto the steps of Goodrich for a final group photo. From left to right, front row, we have Evan Baldwin, Arlie Benson, Min Heo, and Broderick Frey; back row, Profs. Ross, Tompkins, Brown, and Krause. Congratulations to all our graduates and best wishes on their future endeavors!

Hose Elementary 1st graders were back on campus for a science field trip. After visiting the biology and chemistry depa...
05/13/2026

Hose Elementary 1st graders were back on campus for a science field trip. After visiting the biology and chemistry departments, they wrapped up their visit with a physics demo show in Goodrich. As you can see, we all had a great time!

Yesterday evening, the Department took the physics students finishing up their Wabash careers out to dinner at El Charr...
05/05/2026

Yesterday evening, the Department took the physics students finishing up their Wabash careers out to dinner at El Charro. Going clockwise around the table, starting from the left, we have Evan Baldwin, Prof. Brown, Gus Sanchez, Andrew Neidig, Prof. Krause, Prof. Ross, Mr. Roark, Prof. Tompkins, Min Heo, and half of Arlie Benson (sorry, Arlie!).

At Thursday evening's Awards Chapel, Prof. Tompkins presented Prasun Panthi with the Harold Q Fuller Prize, which is giv...
05/04/2026

At Thursday evening's Awards Chapel, Prof. Tompkins presented Prasun Panthi with the Harold Q Fuller Prize, which is given annually to the most outstanding junior physics major. As usual, it takes the form of the 3-volume Feynman Lectures on Physics.

Also, at the Awards Chapel, it was announced that Prasun Panthi was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa along with senior physics major Min Heo. In addition, senior Gus Sanchez was one of six recipients of the George Lewes Mackintosh Fellowship for graduate study. Finally, sophomore major Ryan West received the Pete Vaughan Outstanding Athlete Award.

Congratulations, everyone!

Thank you to everyone who selected the Physics Affinity Challenge at yesterday’s Day of Giving. We greatly exceeded the...
04/30/2026

Thank you to everyone who selected the Physics Affinity Challenge at yesterday’s Day of Giving. We greatly exceeded the 50 gifts required to receive the generous gifts from Michael Lambert and James Szalkie.

Today is the 2026 Day of Giving! Michael Lambert (’80) and James Szalkie (’26) have again teamed up to create a Physics...
04/29/2026

Today is the 2026 Day of Giving! Michael Lambert (’80) and James Szalkie (’26) have again teamed up to create a Physics Department Challenge. We need 50 gifts to unlock their gifts. Please select “Physics” under Affinity Challenge Code at

https://www.wabash.edu/banner/

For the final colloquium of the year, we were thrilled to welcome back to campus Cody Cochran ('18), who recently recei...
04/28/2026

For the final colloquium of the year, we were thrilled to welcome back to campus Cody Cochran ('18), who recently received his Ph.D. in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. (Congratulations!!) He spoke on his groundbreaking work using wavelet techniques to solve partial differential equations.

Title: A Spacetime Wavelet Method for the Solution of Partial Differential Equations

Abstract:
As the field of predictive computational physics advances, the need for numerical methods to solve complex problems grows. Some of the primary bottlenecks with numerical methods are accuracy, computational cost, and memory storage. In order for a numerical method to be viable, it must balance these factors within the available computational framework. To this end, we propose a novel spacetime wavelet method to solve linear and nonlinear systems of partial differential equations (PDEs). This method approximates the spatial and temporal derivatives of a function by applying derivatives directly to wavelet basis functions which provide global a priori error estimates and high-order accuracy, as predicted by wavelet theory. The use of a spacetime method provides an alternative to traditional time-marching methods, avoiding some of the related limitations. The work in this dissertation primarily discretizes PDEs with the wavelet scaling function representation on a dense grid and lays the foundation for a sparse spacetime wavelet solver that utilizes adaptive resolution. We develop techniques to improve the solution process for both the linear and nonlinear spacetime problems, tailored to their unique formulations. We verify the spacetime wavelet method, establishing adherence to the global a priori error estimates with high-order convergence. We demonstrate the validity of the method by solving a coupled system of nonlinear PDEs.

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