Seidler Group: Members and Alumni
Jerry Seidler
UW Physics Department

If you are an alumnus of the Seidler Group, please send Jerry an email with a picture, a homepage link,
and a description of what you're up to these days.  (Especially if he cleverly forgot to include your name below!!)

Graduate Students
Current Members:
Ken Nagle: Ken is performing inelastic x-ray scattering experiments and associated modeling on a project whose purpose is to determine some of the underlying physics of metal oxide electrodes in lithium-ion batteries.  The long-term goal of this project is to find more environmentally-friendly (and cost-effective) materials for battery electrodes.  This work is done in close collaboration with scientists at Argonne National Labs. Joe  Bradley:  Joe is hacking away at two projects at the extreme ends of applications of the LERIX spectrometer.  He is performing experiments which demonstrate the viability and usefulness of gas-phase IXS studies of electronic excitations. At the same time, he is also analyzing q-dependent IXS studies of actinide compounds.  He is presently doing an internship/RA with our collaborators at Los Alamos National Labs.

Ph.D. Alumni:

Lane PictureLane Seeley (graduate student 1997-2001): Lane studied the homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of ice from supercooled water. He completed his Ph.D. in the Spring quarter of 2001, and is now an Associate Professor in the Physics department at Seattle Pacific University.

BrandonBrandon Chapman: Brandon did his dissertation jointly with Jerry Seidler and Ed Stern.  His work focused on the diffuse x-ray scattering from ferroelectric and related materials.  After doing a postdoctoral appointment at Brookhaven National Labs, Brandon returned to the Seattle area and is now a very happy employee of the Boeing Corporation.
YejunYejun Feng:  Yejun was the first student in the group to strictly pursue inelastic x-ray scattering.  His dissertation work focused on the model material h-BN and the difficult problem of substitutional order in B4C.  After a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Chicago, Yejun is now a beamline scientist at the Advanced Photon Source x-ray synchrotron at Argonne National Labs.
Erin PictureErin Behne: Erin studied the 2-d and 3-d structure and micromechanics of disordered materials, such as granular beds and foams. She was also involved in some of our group's first ventures into inelastic x-ray scattering.  She is now Erin Miller, and is a staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Labs, in Richland WA. 
Timothy Fister:  Tim designed, supervised construction, and commissioned the LERIX spectrometer, the first high-throughput inelastic x-ray scattering spectrometer designed specifically for momentum-transfer-dependent x-ray Raman scattering studies.  He then used LERIX to address several problems of basic interest in x-ray spectroscopy of condensed phases in addition to addressing the spectroscopy of chemical bonding in both covalent and ionic systems.  Tim now has a postdoctoral appointment in the Materials Science Division of Argonne National Labs.

M.S. Alumni:
Ruth Fogelberg (1999): Ruth's M.S. project at Boeing involved superconducting levitation, as a possible means for low-friction bearings.   Ruth next entered the Ph.D. program in Oceanography at the Univerity of Washington. Tim Ziemba (1997): Tim's M.S. project involved the design of a 3-He cryostat.  He next extered the graduate program of the Aeronatica and Aerospace Engineering program at the University of Washington.


Undergraduate Students
Current Members:
Brian Dickinson (2008-present): Brian is playing a key role in our continuing developement of miniXS-style x-ray spectrometers.
Max Minzer (2007-present): Max has been doing instrument design for LERIX and also an alternative superstructure for LERIX-2.  His gas-phase sample cell recently enabled LERIX to perform the first IXS measurements of molecular and atomic systems.
Rachel  Vander Giessen (2009-present):  Rachel is performing simulations related to the development of a beam spectral monitor for the x-ray pump-probe endstation of the Linac Coherent Light Source
Alumni:
David Wu (2004-2008): Dave is a Computer Science major who has been performing simulations of thermal transport in model 2-d systems.  These simulations test whether the Minkowski functionals from integral geometry may serve as effective mean-field parameters for transport in 2-phase systems.  
Alicia Skilton (2006-2008): Alicia is a Mechanical Engineeering major who has been leading our efforts to design a newer-better inelastic x-ray scattering spectrometer, LERIX-2. Jenne Driggers (2004-2008): Jenne has been working to develop a high-temperature calorimeter for studies of double-critical points in liquid mixtures.  She has also done research in high-energy physics and astrophysics in several REU programs.  Jenne is now a grad student at CalTech
Yonatan Cohen (2007-2008): Yonatan is learning Bayesian modeling and data analysis with the goal of developing improved algorithms for determination of the angular-momentum projected density of states from IXS measurements. Lukas Svec (2005-present): Lukas has worked on theory projects related to the excited-state electronic structure of the carborane molecules.  More recently, he has been invovled in  several experimental projects related to the LERIX spectrometer.  Lukas is now a physics grad student at UW.
Robert Gay (2004-2007): Robert was a Computer Science major who took over a large part of the data analysis on our foam-materials project.  Chris Hamner (2006-7): Chris was involved in the early development of LERIX.  He was involved in our studies of LiC6, and also designed and built our first cryostat and furnace for LERIX.  He next went to graduate school at Washington  State University.
Karin Schlimmer (2007): Karin initiated the LERIXhelper project, to make happier, friendlier software for processing of LERIX results. Zach Rasmor (2007): Zach is an Electrical Engineering major who wrote software in MatLab for Richardson-Lucy deconvolution of x-ray absorption spectra.
Chris Hanks (2007): Chris was a member of Team Tycho. Amanda Grutko (2007): Amanda was a member of Team Tycho.
Sam Skinner (2007): Sam worked on the laser instrumentation in B031.   He next went to graduate school at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champain. David Wells (2003-2005): David was involved in software development for our analysis of foam materials and tomography results, more generally. After a year studying abroad, David next went to graduate school at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champain.
Brian Stephanik (2006): Brian did an independent study project aimed at finding suitable supplemental reading for the phys12x sequence.  Brian is now  a physics graduate student at UW. Noah Giansaricusa (2003-2005): Noah was a Mathematics major whose work focused on the configurational entropy of disordered networks, such as the 'contact' network in granular beds or the structure of solid foams.  He next went to graduate school in Mathematics at Brown University.
Clay Teeter (2006): Clay was a member of Team Tycho. Brendan Finn (2006): Brendan was a member of Team Tycho.
Jason Inman (2006): Jason was a member of Team Tycho. Ryan Jones (2006): Ryan was a member of Team Tycho.
Frank Petruzelio (2005):  Frank was a visiting REU student from Berry College.  He studied the use of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods as a way of creating simulated disordered materials with targeted statistical properties.  After completing his senior year at Berry College, Frank next went to graduate school at Cornell University. Xinxin Du (2005): Xinxin was a visiting REU student from Wesleyen by way of Oxford.  She assisted with the instrumentation of the high-precision calorimeter.  After completeing her senior year at Wesleyen, Xinxin next went to graduate school at Princeton University.
Lucas Wharton (2004-2005): Lukas worked on software for the project to test the utility of the Minkowski functionals for problems in effective medium theory.  He next went to graduate school at UC-Irvine. Nate Brown (2004-2005): Nate worked on software for watershed segmentation of foam structures.
Simon Mariager (2005-2006): Simon was a visiting undergrad from the University of Copenhagen.  He performed calculations of the excited-state spectra of LiC6.  After completing his undergraduate studies, he continued with graduate studies at the Neils Bohr Institute. Gilbert Martinez (1999-2001): Gilbert wrote software for 3-d object recognition in support of some of the group's efforst in x-ray microtomography.  He next went to the Neurosciences graduate program at Stanford University.
Grace Thompson (2000): Grace was a visiting REU student.  She designed and constructed an apparatus for the compaction of granular materials by controlled shaking.  She next attended the University of Oregon for graduate studies in their Physics department. Matthew Beerman (1997-1999): Matt built numerous small instruments during the start-up phase of the lab.  He next moved to Boise, Idaho, where he is an employee of Advanced Materials, a semiconductor-equipment manufacturer.
Aaron Rendahl (1999):  Aaron was a visitng REU student from Bethel College.  He wrote software for better visualization of x-ray microtomgoraphy of bone and foam materials. Sarah Zaranek (1998): Sarah was a visiting REU student from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  She was involved in our earliest work on the x-ray microtomography of granular beds.
Soren Flexner (1998): Soren designed and constructed capacitance dilatometers for future measurements of thermal expansion. He next went to graduate studies at the Univerity of Illinois, Urbana-Champain. Ulai Noomnarm (2001): Ulai was a visiting REU student from the University of Florida.  She worked on x-ray microtomography of bone.  She later entered the graduate program in Biophysics at the University of Illinois.
Arend van der Zande (2002): Arend was a visitng REU student from UC-Santa Cruz.  He worked on computer modeling of mesoscale materials.  He later went on to graduate studies at Cornell University. Elizabeth Fenstermacher (2003): Elizabeth was a visitng REU student from Mt. Holyole College.  She and Sara Yancey worked together on a project to make inverse emulsions of fluid mixtures near immiscibility transitions.
Sara Yancey (2003): Sara was a visitng REU student from Virginia Tech.  She and Elizabeth Fenstermacher worked together on a project to make inverse emulsions of fluid mixtures near immiscibility transitions.