Dr. Tom Herrmann

Contact:

• tom.herrmann@eou.edu
• (541) 962-3315 (office)
• (541) 962-3873 (fax)
• Badgley Hall, Eastern Oregon University, 1 University Blvd, La Grande, OR 97850-2899
• Office: Badgley Hall Room 107D.

My current schedule:

2006-2007 Courses:

• General Physics (for non-physical science majors)
• Physics of Music Offered alternate years, not fall 2006.
• Experimental Techniques
• The lab portion of Waves and Quantum Theory, Winter term.
• Waves and Quantum Theory (Spring term 2007)
• Distance Education Students click here for links to the distance education section of General Physics.

CV excerpts:

• B.A.'s in Physics and Mathematics from EOSC, 1971.
• One-year hiatus for travel. . .
• M.A. in Physics from the University of Oregon, 1974.
• Ph.D in Physics from the University of Oregon, 1978.
• Thesis title: "Bacteriorhodopsin in Thin Lipid Films."
• Postdoc'ed at U of Rochester and U of Maryland School of Medicine.
• At EOU since 1982; currently Associate Professor.

Research Interests:

• Biophysics, specifically membrane phenomena.
• Laser spectroscopy of lanthanide probes for protein metal-binding sites.
• Electronic instrumentation, especially embedded controllers.
• Two summer 2006 projects:
  • Methods for extracting lifetimes from samples containing more than one emitting species with different lifetimes, using digital signal processing in the frequency domain.
  • Using two tuneable IR diode lasers to excite fluorescence in Europium and/or Terbium. This is a long shot but may turn out to be more useful than using the visible excitation wavelengths alone.

Educational Interests

• Interactive instructional methods for laboratories and lectures.
• Microcomputer-enhanced laboratory instruction.
• Upper-division laboratories. For example, I attended a the NSF-sponsored workshop on advanced physics labs.
• Distance delivery of physics courses, especially development of suitable laboratory-type activities.

Published papers

Click here to see a boring list of papers published by me.

Progeny

Click here, Mom, to see an image of your grandchildren from last summer's reunion. Or here to see an older photo of the kids in a lava tube near Bend, OR.

Internet sites of interest. . .

• Papers by John Baez. Dr. Baez is a mathematician who writes some interesting conversational-style papers on a number of topics, including physics. Serious students of science will find these rewarding reading. Try, for example, "stars" and "length scales."
• Robotics resources.An internet starting point for those of you interested in robotics. Fun stuff!
• Linux is packaged in many different distributions. I'm using Ubuntu, a popular distro based on the Debian project's distribution.
  For semiconductor physics information, it's hard to beat this site:
  
  
  Here's a reference on a hot topic: quantum dots! Those who have taken PHYS 322 or equivalent should appreciate how they work.
  

Links to some other science areas at EOU:

• Biology/Botany
• Chemistry
• Geology
• Mathematics
• Psychology

Powered by Linux

(Thanks to microsith.com for the above image.) Note added Jan. 2006: it looks like this site is no more or has gotten hijacked by an internet poker site.