Academic Degrees:

• Ph.D., University of Wyoming (1996)
• M.S., University of Minnesota (1986)
• B.A., Northwestern University (1984)

Research Areas/Interest

Ground based solar spectrophotometry used to determine atmospheric aerosol content.

Mentored Student Research:

Retrieval of Atmospheric Aerosol Size Distributions using Stochastic Particle Swarm Optimization (All College Thesis) with Benjamin Nault-Maurer, Spring 2016

Measuring Biological Cell Damage Due to Ionizing Radiation (Honors Thesis) with Kathryn Jacobsn, Spring 2015

Construction and Performance Testing of an Electricity Producing Wind Turbine (Honors Thesis) with Kelsey Rollag, Spring 2015

Seasonal Variation in Aerosol Optical Depth Near Collegeville, Minnesota with Patrick Foley, Spring 2014

Measuring Ultrashort Laser Pulses using Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating in Conjunction with Genetic and Iterative Algorithms (Honors Thesis) with Alexandra Brancale, Spring 2014

Atmospheric Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Number Density Studies with Runbo Xu, Spring 2013

Differential Modeling and Efficiency Testing of the Saint John's University Cogeneration Power Plant (Honors Thesis) with Richard Kirchner, Spring 2013

Measuring the Amount of Water Vapor in a Vertical Column at STP with a Solar Spectrophotometer with Chi Gao, Spring 2012

The Robotic Xylophone with Kevin Anderson, Spring 2012

Atmospheric Aerosol Optical Depth and Number Density Calculations Using Spectrometer Data with Brian Jennissen, Spring 2011

Spectrometry of the SJU Solar Farm with Hannah Walsh, Spring 2011

Comparison of Spectrophotometer and Satellite Ozone Measurements with Jacob Beckerleg, Spring 2011

Measurement of Aerosol Optical Depth Using a Portable Spectrophotometer with Justin Otis, Spring 2010

Ozone Measurement with Munkhbaatar Baatar, Spring 2010

Measuring the Correlation between Wind Speed and Power Output of a Whisper 600 Windmill with Zafir Kahn, Spring 2009

Dynamic Solar Panel with Antonio Nava Jr., Spring 2009

Optimal Operating Inputs of the EZ Wire System used with the Whisper 600 Windmill with Aric Litchy, Spring 2009

Distilling Water with Alternative Energy with Thomas Coleman, Spring 2009

Measuring Ozone using a Spectrophotometer with Charles Sawyer, Spring 2008