Professor at Ursinus College in Physics & Astronomy
Pre-Engineering Coordinator
lriley@ursinus.edu
Mastodon: @lewriley@mas.to
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Spring 2025 Courses

• PHYS-122Q: Electromagnetism
• PHYS-339W: Advanced Physics Laboratory II
• PHYS-112L.A: General Physics II Lab

Spring and Summer 2024

Alyssa Himmelreich (UC Physics ‘26) and Blake McNulty (UC Pre-Engineering ‘26) traveled to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University to complete inverse-kinematics proton scattering measurements of the N=28 isotones ⁴⁴S and ⁴²Si. The combined results of the Coulomb excitation and proton scattering measurements of ⁴²Si will shed light on the relative contributions of neutrons and protons to the collective excitation of this nucleus.

Ewan Chattin (UC Pre-Engineering ‘25) spent 5 weeks at the Fox Lab at Florida State University studying the neutron shell structure of ⁶²Ni via the ⁶¹Ni + d → ⁶²Ni + p neutron transfer reaction using the the Super Enge Split Pole Spectrograph with the CeBrA demonstrator array.

Spring and Summer 2023

Mill Heinze (UC Physics ‘24), Jake Kosa (UC CS ‘25), and Alyssa Himmelreich (UC Physics ‘26) traveled to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University for a first attempt to measure Coulomb excitation of the very exotic nucleus ⁴²Si, a nucleus that has twice as many neutrons as protons. The rate of ⁴²Si nuclei produced was not quite enough to complete the measurement. In July, Ian Conroy (UC Physics ‘24) and Jake Kosa returned to FRIB in July for the successful second attempt!

Meanwhile, Mill Heinze and Ian Conroy spent 5 weeks at the Fox Lab at Florida State University extending the experimental study of ⁵³Cr by combining the Super Enge Split Pole Spectrograph with the CeBrA demonstrator array of CeBr scintillator detectors to collect the gamma rays emitted by excited ⁵³Cr following the ⁵²Cr + d → ⁵³Cr + p transfer reaction. This data will provide additional details of the excited states populated in the reaction.