International space scientists conduct research while at Augsburg
February 2006
Viacheslav Pilipenko smiles a lot. Behind a desk littered with papers and spectrograms of magnetic fields, “Slava,” as his friends call him, works tirelessly and enthusiastically.
A world-class space physicist from the Russian Academy of Sciences, this Moscow-native came to the United States to study the Earth’s space environment with Professor Mark Engebretson on a $120,000 per-year, shared grant from the National Science Foundation.
Pilipenko has been conducting research at Augsburg using magnetometers in Arctic Canada, in conjunction with research satellites, to better understand geomagnetic storms and their relation to the Earth’s space environment since late November, Engebretson said. He will be on campus until Apr. 1.
“What makes the life of science students different is it is a completely intellectual world without boundaries,” Pilipenko said. “Not only do you compete with colleagues in the office, but the whole world. Many Augsburg students do not realize that they will go out into a different world; one without international boundaries.”
Pilipenko realizes the need for international cooperation in the world of physics in an age when a researcher at Augsburg can have access to the same information as a researcher at NASA. There is not a lot of money available for physics or science research, and funding is very competitive. That is why combined efforts are so important, Pilipenko said.
“Slava is mostly a theorist, or theoretical physicist, and I’m mostly an experimentalist, or experimental physicist—so our talents complement each other.” Engebretson said in an e-mail.
“Our main products are scientific research papers. He writes mainly theoretical papers, and I write mainly experimental/observational papers, but our insights and experiences often help inform each other’s work … We often go through many drafts of each paper, critiquing and helping each other.”
Pilipenko had to compete to get into University in Moscow, competition that he feels is very important to maintain high levels of study. Though physics was not an area of wealth, its study has some prestige in Russia and that prestige, as well as the intellectual challenge, attracted him to the field.
Pilipenko is “Head of Laboratory” at the Russian Academy of Sciences’s Institute of the Physics of the Earth. The Academy does not offer courses or degrees, but many students do research there. Pilipenko interacts with graduate students and those working on their P.h.D.s while at the Academy in Moscow.
Pilipenko first came to Augsburg in the fall of 1997 and has been visiting almost every year since, Engebretson said. However, after September 11, 2001 it took him nearly two years to get another visa.
While at Augsburg, he has helped teach a course in plasma physics and a unit of the Comprehensive Laboratory course entitled “The Physicist’s Kitchen.”
The NSF funds cover four months of study for Pilipenko at Augsburg, a month of study for a younger Russian scientist and some salary support for Assistant Scientist Jennifer Posch and Engebretson. They also provide summer and part-time academic-year pay for an Augsburg physics major and student researcher.
This year Olga Khabarova, another physicist from the Russian Space Research Institute came for the month of January. It was her first time to the United States. Her goal was to develop her own prognosis of geomagnetic storms and how disturbances in solar wind can be used as prognostic factors in the Earth’s space climate.
Khabarova enjoyed her time at Augsburg and even sang as a guest in the Augsburg Choir with physics major Emily Beauvais.
“It was a very good period for me,” Khabarova said. “I am very glad that I visited this place.”

Society of Physics Students recognized by national chapter
February 2006
The national Society of Physics Students named Augsburg’s Society of Physics Students its “outstanding chapter” last week. The award recognized the chapter’s involvement within the Augsburg community and the scientific community as a whole.
Thirty-six declared physics majors were a part of Augsburg’s chapter of SPS during the academic year of 2004-2005. The award recognizes the involvement of those students.
“The study and research of physics really is a community effort,” said Emily Beauvais, current president of Augsburg’s chapter of SPS. “SPS offers a great community for physics students to get together and discuss what is going on in the field.”
SPS has over 700 chapters and 4,500 members nationwide. Augsburg’s chapter is one of fewer than ten percent of chapters honored with the award, that is, about one chapter per state.
Augsburg’s SPS chapter has been involved with the American Geophysical Union. The AGU specializes in the fields of space physics, astrophysics, geophysics and general earth sciences, areas that the students researched with the AGU.
The group has also worked with the University of Minnesota in programming and research.
The students have also been involved with the Augsburg community by organizing tours of research labs, offering study sessions and on-campus tutoring for students.
The group not only serves the Augsburg community by offering study and tutoring sessions, it also connects current students to alumni/ae. In the past, the group hosted a speaker from Cingular Wireless, as well as a patent attorney, both of whom were Augsburg alumni/ae.
Augsburg’s chapter was started back in the ‘70s as a community outreach program to provide students with research opportunities and other scientific involvement.
Dr. Mark Engebretson is the faculty adviser for the group, and most of the physics department is active in the group’s activities.
The group hopes to organize a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota sometime this semester. Other items on the agenda this semester include star-gazing and hosting a speaker from Guidant, the multibillion-dollar business that develops cardiac devices.
Ben Sharp of the U of M will speak about a dual degree program on Feb. 2 at 12 p.m. Sharp will cover how to achieve a bachelors and master’s degree in engineering by combining three years of study at Augsburg College with an additional two years at the U of M.
All of the meetings and activities hosted by the group are open to the Augsburg community and the public. Events are listed in SCI 21 on a general announcements board and posted on A-mail.
For more information, contact Beauvais at beauvais@augsburg.edu or Engebretson at engebret@augsburg.edu.

Physics Students Present At International Conference
December 2005
The Augsburg physics department sent five students to the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco this past week. The event, which was held Dec. 5 to Dec. 9, gave students the opportunity to showcase their research in the field of space physics.
Most of the senior Augsburg students have been working on their research since 2003 when most of them were first-year students. Matthew Argall, Emily Beauvais, Erik Lundberg, Steven Quick and Steven Zaffke have all been involved in Augsburg’s Space Physics Research Group that is headed, most notably, by Professor Mark Engebretson. Professor Ken Erickson, also of the physics department, has overseen some of the research as well.
The convention, held twice yearly, is a large meeting consisting of over 11,000 geophysicists from around the United States and the world. The attendees mainly consist of graduate students, researchers and faculty of various universities and research institutions. However, the AGU meetings are seeing an increase in the number of undergraduates showcasing their findings. Augsburg attempts to send students yearly, said Erickson.
“The AGU covers all of ‘Geophysics’—that is, study of the Earth using the ideas and methods of physics (but with heavy involvement of biology and chemistry too). Its areas of study range from deep inside the earth (rocks, volcanoes) to the surface (land and oceans, including special sessions on last winter’s devastating earthquake and tsunami), atmosphere, and high above (atmospheric and space physics),” wrote Engebretson, in an e-mail. Augsburg students focused their research specifically in the area of space physics.
Beauvais, who worked closely with Erickson on her project regarding magnetic substorms, the phenomenon that causes the Aurora Borealis, presented her poster presentation on Dec. 7 to a group of researchers, faculty and students. She was excited to have the opportunity to present her findings in a less intimidating means than speaking in front of a large group of people.
Beauvais stated that she has learned a lot about the process of research and organizational skills while furthering her passion for delving deeper into the field of space physics.
“I know I love the thrill of exploring and discovering new things,” she said. Beauvais hopes to go on to study condensed matter physics in graduate school.
Argall, a student with concentrations in physics and mathematics, presented his research regarding Pc 1-2 waves on Dec. 8.
“In essence Mark Engebretson and I have found that a high density of high energy protons are one of the necessary elements for fluctuations within magnetosphere to occur,” he said. “We look at magnetospheric data received from magnetometers located in the South Pole ground stations and on the Polar satellite.”
He too plans on attending graduate school and was grateful for the opportunity the AGU meeting gave him in regards to networking with other researchers. He also said that if it weren’t for this research that he began his first year at Augsburg, he may not have decided on physics for a major nor interned in Fairfax last summer researching remote sensing with Augsburg alumnus Lars Dyrud.
Quick, who researched the transmission of Pc 3-4 waves, expressed similar sentiments.
“I am doing this for the experience of giving a presentation to a large scientific community. Having such experience is a great addition to a resume and provides experience which can be used later on in a career,” said Quick.
Engebretson as well as Assistant Scientist Jennifer Posch were essential in the support of Quick’s research. He also collaborated with faculty from the University of New Hampshire, University of California-Berkeley and the University of Maryland to further his study.
Quick plans to attend graduate school as well to study mechanical or electrical engineering.
Overall, the students felt the experience of researching their respective areas of space physics has enriched their studies and helped them gain a greater understanding of the field.
“This project has demonstrated how much work is required for each piece of research that is done,” said Quick. “I have learned how much detail in precision is required in a research presentation such as this.”

Augsburg Receives $300,000 to Research Aurora Borealis
September 2005
Augsburg College has recently received $300,000 from the U.S. National Science Foundation for a research project to study the properties of the aurora borealis. The research project will last for three years and place Augsburg faculty and students in close association with faculty and students from the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Oslo, Norway.
According to the proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation, the three universities will work together to construct, place, and operate four search coil magnetometers in Svalbard, Norway.
Augsburg physics professor Mark Engebretson said that the job of a magnetometer is to measure the strength of varying magnetic fields. “These instruments are basically just big electromagnets with electrons and recorders at the front so that they can very sensitively pick up changes in the Earth’s [magnetic] field.”
The project will be set up in Svalbard, along the northern coast of Norway because the location is very close to the north pole. The aurora borealis is more visible near the poles which are magnetic and where there is little sunlight for half of the year.
The project equipment will be built at the University of New Hampshire this winter. It will then be installed during the summer of 2006. After installation, scientists will be able to gather data on different components of space above Earth for many years.
Engebretson and his colleagues Dr. Marc Lessard, University of New Hampshire, and Professor Joran Moen, University of Oslo, hope their efforts in this project will lead to better predictions of severe storms in outer space.
If a storm in outer space becomes large enough, it may knock out of orbit the satellites that humans depend on for both navigation and communication. The contemporary reliance on satellites has become so prevalent that “even farmers driving straight furrows down their corn fields often use satellite navigation,” Engebretson said. “As a result, even local farmers in Minnesota may be affected when there is a bad storm in space.”
Severe weather in space can also endanger the lives of astronauts and pilots who fly airplanes near the poles. During a storm in space, large amounts of radiation are emitted. Engebretson said this quantity of radiation would be fatal to astronauts in outer space and harmful to pilots who take numerous trips over the poles.
The aurora borealis is caused by the collision of high-energy particles with neutral atoms. The result of these collisions is light particles which reflect different colors. The process can be compared to the plasma discharge in a neon light.
Instruments such as telescopes, optical lenses, satellites, and magnetometers also help scientists combat elements of nature, like sunlight and cloudiness, which make the aurora borealis nearly invisible.
The project will also give Augsburg undergraduate science students the opportunity to play a major part on a research team. Steven Quick, a senior physics major at Augsburg, is one such student. Quick will present his findings on the similarities and differences of magnetic data and light data at a conference in San Francisco, Calf.
“This project will give me a lot of experience in research and allow me to meet people within the science community,” Quick said.
Engebretson said he was glad research grants such as this one increased the opportunities available to students. “It’s a wonderful way to support student education in terms of special projects,” Engebretson said, “where [students] really get to be involved in professional activities.”
The Augsburg science department has in previous years received more than 30 grants to fund research projects.
“[Research grants] are a valuable educational part of Augsburg. The project will include experiential education and hands-on involvement,” Engebretson said. “In many ways it’s the kind of thing Augsburg is happy to have.”