50th Anniversary of Simon Fraser University - PHYSICS

• Reunion party at Leigh and Evelyn Palmer’s Home, organized by Charles Rhodes

• Non-attendees at the Reunion party –information from various sources

50th Reunion of Simon Fraser University Physics Department

Held at the lakeside home of Leigh and

Evelyn PalmerSeptember 10, 2015Organized by Charles

RhodesAll Photographs by Charles

Rhodes unless indicated otherwise

Photo by R.N. Merchant

Albert Curzon

Leigh and Evelyn Palmer

Klaus and Marianna Rieckhoff

Dave Huntley

KonradColbow

Robert and Jane Frindt

Chuck and Sandy Irwin

Tony Arrot

Daryl Crozier

Michael Purves

• Followed the footsteps of SFU’s first president Duncan McTaggert Cowan to become a meteorologist – for forty years

• Worked in six different locations in Canada from Whitehorse to Halifax, and for three years in Germany

• Have been in every Canadian province and territory, and currently living in Victoria

Michael Purves

Philip Manders

Philip Manders

Photograph by Albert Curzon

Vivian Merchant• BSc 1969 and MSc 1971 from SFU, M.Sc. Thesis

Atmospheric Pressure Pulsed CO2 Laser with Brass Electrodes under supervision of JC Irwin.

• PhD 1976 from University of Waterloo• Worked in laser welding and laser surface

modification – welded material from 9.5 mm pipeline, 125 micrometer thick titanium batteries, 25 micrometer thick components of hard drives

• Contributor to Handbook of Laser Materials Processing and Welding Handbook.

Vivian Merchant

Bernie Rieckhoff

Bernie Rieckhoff

Jim Lacombe

• Raman Studies of Phonon Dispersion in Zinc Blende Semiconductors, Ph.D. Thesis, September 1971, supervisor J.C. Irwin.

• Taught at Cariboo College (later called Thompson Rivers University) and at Royal Roads.

• A Friday night connoisseur of cocktails made with lab alcohol

Jim Lacombe

Jeanne-Keegen Henry• Jeanne Henry• As an undergraduate, personally invited Nobel laurette

Feynman to talk to SFU physics students, and he came ….• Jeanne left SFU before completing her Physics degree, did

nursing at BCIT, then married Brian Wilson and moved to Australia, where she did medicine, became a GP,

• upgraded husbands (marrying Rowan Keegan in 1990), and had two daughters. They all returned to Canada in 1993 and

• Jeanne worked in rural communities across BC as the community/ Hospital doctor, including McBride, MayneIsland, Alert Bay, and many more.

• For the last 14 years, Jeanne has been a Hospitalist at Burnaby Hospital, but she has just retired.

Jeanne Keegan-Henry and

daughter Eilidh

Howard Malm• Ph.D. SFU 1971• “My degree was granted for work on cadmium

sulphide, under the supervision of Rudi Haering”• 17 years in the nuclear industry developing and

applying semi-conductor and gas radiation detectors

• 14 years in project management and development of equipment for large machinery performance analysis

• 15 years in development of large engine control and technology for greenhouse gas emission reduction

• For more info see the following web site:• https://www.sfu.ca/science/alumni/inspiring-alumni/profiles/howard-malm.html

Howard Malm

Heather Rhodes

• Sister of Charles Rhodes

• helped in organizing the reunion.

Chris Baudat A real life adventure spent in the attempted reconciliation of Art and Science.

• After graduation, I travelled the breadth of Canada, settled in Kamloops for a year, and built a tipi and lived in it on a turkey ranch and became First Prince at the first and probably last Mr. Kamloops Pageant.

• Moved to Vancouver Island where I lost 10 years due to ferry-lag. There I studied fine arts (photography) at Camosun College, stage-managed several plays and built a marine physics apparatus at the (then) Royal Roads Military College. I lived on a houseboat at the foot of Head street in Victoria harbour.

• Lived off the grid again on Thetis Island where I built a rather marvellous self-supporting cedar yurt and cabin, both still standing after 30 years.

• Moved back to North America and joined the Directors Guild of Canada. I am currently a Locations Scout, a film industry niche that keeps me from the dangerous boredom of life on-set. Over the years I've earned enough yankee dollars to finish raising three kids and supporting photography/filmmaking habits. Lived in another houseboat off Richmond.

• In 1999 I was the Director of Photography for Danube Blues, a documentary about the geo-political and environmental aspects of the 10 countries in its basin, sponsored by the Patriarch of Istanbul, Bartholomew II, the Orthodox Pope. Also on board was Simeon II, the last Tsar of Bulgaria, who set foot in his native land for the first time after 60 years in exile. He later became Prime Minister. Nice guy - he apologized for settling into my cabin in the lower deck by mistake. The film won a Bronze Medal at the Leonardo International Film Festival in 2001.

• So, here I am, geographically back to the beginning, living in the shadow of Burnaby Mountain, and still learning omnivorously.

Chris Baudat

Mark Dowding• • After several years working with the TRIUMF group in the SFU

Chemistry Nuclear Suite, was recruited by Dr. Mike Apps of Radionics Ltd. into technical sales of research equipment in western Canada.

• • Worked for over a decade with Max Burbank, Jiri Vrba and Al Fife as marketing manager at CTF Systems Inc., marketing and helping direct development of new products in geophysics and biomagnetics utilizing their digital SQUID detectors and cryogenic systems.

• • Reviewed and filed dozens of patents as a consultant for UBC Industry Liaison in the areas of applied physics and engineering, including HT superconductivity.

• • Co-founded Parasun Technologies Inc. in 1996, which grew over the ensuing decade to become the largest supplier of outsourced high-speed internet services in North America.

• • Since 1970 has performed, recorded and created package designs on several dozen music projects for his own jazz and folk music groups and as a sideman and/or art director for a number of other noted Canadian musician; has toured to festivals, concerts and nightclubs across North America, and taught music to aspiring woodwind students for over 20 years.

• • Founded Windgod Media Services in 2000 for music production,

Mark Dowding Photo provided by Mark Dowding

Charles Rhodes• B.Sc. SFU 1968, M.Sc. 1971 and Ph.D. 1974 at

University of Toronto• Black Belt in Karate• extensive hands-on experience with all phases of

design, development, installation, operation and maintenance of electronic and energy systems and with related financial matters.

• has led hardware and software product development teams

Charles Rhodes

Credits etc.

• Many thanks to Leigh and Evelyn Palmer for hosting the event, and to Charles Rhodes for organizing it.

• PowerPoint by Vivian Merchant• This is final version dated 15 January 2016

Others associated with SFU in the 1960’s, who didn’t attend the 50th

Anniversary reunion• Visiting Professors• Post Doctoral Fellows• Graduate Students• Students

Photos from various sources

Visiting Professors

• Paul DeGennes– Gave a course on Liquid Crystals– Later a Nobel Laureate

• Elliot Montroll (U.Rochester)– Editor of the Journal of Mathematical Physics– Gave two courses on “Physics in Society”

Post-Doctoral Fellows

• Ian Robb– Later taught at Laurentian University in Sudbury

• Om Gupta• Franco Consadori (sp?)– Low Temperature physicist– Supplemented the family food supply by shooting

pigeons in the park– Demonstrated that 3 watt Argon Ion laser was

useful as a cigarette lighter.

Graduate Students at SFU - 1965 era

• From a list of early thesis at SFU, on the library website

• The graduate students were likely tutorial leaders and lab instructors

Conradi, Jan.

• Thesis Topic: Luminescence studies in cadmium sulphide.

• 1968 • Supervisor: R.R. Haering• Now retired in Kelowna, giving talks on Global

Warming.• Worked at BNR, TR Labs (Edmonton), Corning • Life Fellow of OSA and of IEEE

Batra, Inder Paul.

• Thesis Topic: Interband optical absorption in semiconductors.

• 1968 • Supervisor: R.R. Haering

Nyberg, Donald Walter.

• Thesis Topic: Recombination kinetics in CdS.• 1967 • Supervisor: K. Colbow

O'Hanlon, John Francis

• Thesis Topic: Field effect investigations in thin cadmium sulfide films.

• 1967 • Supervisor: R.R. Haering

Sharma, Bhim Sain

• Thesis Topic: Laser induced dielectric breakdown and mechanical damage in silicate glasses.

• 1968 • Supervisor: K.E. Rieckhoff

Barb Paine - Farnworth

• spent a few years working for Canadian Journal of Physics then McMaster library before raising 3 children (with a little help from Brian).

• retrained in bio-technology and worked for several development companies with a spell at the U of Delaware in plant science.

• Now fully retired.

Brian Farnworth

• Ph.D. McMaster• career in government

and industry working on problems of personal protection (cold, heat, rain, immersion, flotation, chemical etc.)

• becoming expert in the physics of heat and mass transfer in textiles and clothing as well as trying to improve the effectiveness of commercial products.

• Now mostly retired but doing projects occasionally.

Photograph at Bridge Lake, after tracing a massive CornuSpiral on the snow covered ice of the frozen lake

Ron Ninnis

Blurred available-light photograph by V.E. Merchant

Ron (Ronald Michael) Ninnis

• M.Sc. Thesis Design and Performance Characteristics of a Modelocked Neodymium-Glass Laser, June 1972– Supervisor Klaus Reickhoff– Nobel Laureate Willis E Lamb Jr. on examination

committee

• Ph.D. UBC 1984 in Oceanography• Died of cancer April 18, 2015

David Bailey

• SFU Physics 1976• David received his Ph.D. from McGill• research at Fermilab, DESY, and CERN• Professor at the University of Toronto for 30

years. • One of the 5837 authors of the Higgs Boson

discovery• Worries a lot about measurement uncertainties• Spends much time trying to help undergraduate

students overcome their fear of experiments

Clement Trenholm

Clement Trenholm

• Upon graduation, I married Barbara NansonBSc Biology 69 and we moved to Calgary.

• I enjoyed a career in exploration geophysics with projects across North America, East Coast and North Sea.

• We retired in 2007 to travel• And enjoy time with family, friends and a

growing number of grand children.