After Graduation

Alumni Success Stories

name: Kara Harkins
class: 1990
e-mail address: kharkin@patriot.net
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
Currently I am a computer programmer at the Urban Institute.
Has your degree helped?
Although my current work does not utilize the physics background, having that in addition to the CS master's degree impressed my current employers as to what I could do. I'd say the biggest thing it did was give me a broad base to choose what I would do for graduate work .. and while there I had options with the physics department as well.

name: Thomas V. Gunn
class:
e-mail address:TGUNN@mailgw.sanders.lockheed.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
Recently I started working for Sanders, a Lockheed-Martin Company, in Nashua. Sanders is mostly a military electronics house. I work in the avionics division for its R&D group. My current role is doing optical design. The project I am on has a goal of implementing a diffractive optics color separator for use in liquid crystal displays. I have held two other positions relating to my physics background since my graduation. Most recently I worked as an application engineer for a small manufacturer of custom laboratory cryogenics, CRYO Industries. Previous to CRYO Industries I worked for BIO-RAD in Cambridge, MA. There I worked for the field service department repairing FTIR Spectrometers. This was the first professional position I had after college.
Has your degree helped?
I have found that my degree in physics has allowed me to persue a diverse set of positions. This has suited me as I like to be able work on a variety of technology. On the down side, most companies do not have physics undrgrads pigeon holed as well as they do other engineers (this is also an advantage from my point of view). This makes it a little more difficult to find interesting and challenging work in that companies do not often identify a physics undergrads as a possible fit for some positions.

name: Bob Ross
class: 1995
e-mail address: robert-ross@pafb.af.mil
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I work for Air Force Space Command launching rockets at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. My current job is Range Control Officer. What that basically means is that I get to launch rockets. In addition to getting my BS degree in Physics I was also commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force. They sent me to school again and got me a job at Cape Canaveral AS in Cocoa Beach FL. For the Eastern Range during launch countdowns I am the operational interface with the launch customer. I also manage the launch countdown clock... e.g. I can be heard saying things like T-minus 3 2 1...liftoff etc. I do this for both expendable launch vehicles and the Space Shuttle, namely Trident 1 C4 and Trident II D5 as well as Titan IVB.
Has your degree helped?
My involvement in physics enabled me to get this job and excel in the complex world of Spacelift.

name: Evan Mauceli
Where do you work?
I am a graduate student in Physics at Louisiana State University. I will receive my PhD from LSU in May. I have been analyzing data from the Allegro gravitational wave detector (http://phwave.phys.lsu.edu) and my thesis is on that work. Future plans include potential post-doc positions (note the word potential) wherever gravity wave research is done, including MIT, Caltech (LIGO project), the University of Rome (Explorer, Nautilus) Northwestern and the University of Western Australia (AIGRC). Being down south as I am and finishing up my thesis, I don't think I'll be available to talk to prospective students.

name: Christina M.S. Cohen
class: 89
e-mail address: cohen@srl.caltech.edu
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
Presently I'm a postdoc at Caltech. My research is in space physics and concentrates on the Galileo and ACE spacecraft. Caltech has instruments on these missions that analyze high energy particles and cosmic rays. Galileo is currently orbiting Jupiter. ACE was launched August 25th 1997 and is still working flawlessly.
Has your degree helped?
After getting a B.S. from UNH I got a M.S. and Ph.D. from University of Maryland. Without the Ph.D. I wouldn't have the job I have now. I use a lot of the basic physics that I learned in my undergraduate studies almost every day. I would be willing to talk to prospective students via email or by phone. In person would be a bit difficult considering the distance between NH and CA.

name: Eric H Matthes
class: 1994
e-mail address: ematthes@ix.netcom.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I was accepted into Teach For America (TFA) upon graduation from UNH. TFA is a program which places recent college graduates who have not studied education into areas of the country where there is a shortage of teachers. I am currently teaching 8th and 9th grade science in New York City, and I love it.
Has your degree helped?
My physics background has made my teaching much easier. I have a good understanding of almost everything I have been asked to teach. More importantly, I can look at any physical happening and know which questions to ask in order to understand how the phenomenon occurs. This helps greatly in that I have been able to answer almost every question that students have asked me. I challenge them to find a question that I truly cannot answer. A major frustration is knowing the answer to a question very well, but seeing the vast amount of knowledge that is necessary to begin answering the question.

name: David Drouin
class: 1986
e-mail address: (See below)
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am currently a Senior Firmware Engineer responsible for disk drive servo development at Castlewood Systems in Milpitas, California. Castlewood Systems is a newly formed "start-up" conpany where we are designing and developing the next generation of low cost removable disk drives for the consumer market. I joined Castlewood Systems two months ago along with three other colleages. Today, we have 14 employees involved in product design and development engineering. Prior to Castlewood, I was at SyQuest Technology, another manufacturer of removable disk drives. After receiving my Masters Degree in 1988, I came to Silicon Valley in California to work on magneto-optic disk drives at Verbatim/Kodak Corporation. I have no EMAIL address, yet. Contact me as follows:

David Drouin
1156 Tice Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 946-0465

Has your degree helped?
After graduating from UNH in 1986 with a B.S. Degree in Physics, I earned an M.S. Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1988 (also at UNH). I have found that the combination of these two degrees prepared me well for the engineering oportunities in which I was interested. A Physics degree has given me a solid theoretical background which has proved useful and rewarding. Two courses in Physics that I feel influenced me the most, General Physics 401 (professor Mulhern), and Experimental Physics (Jr. and Sr. lab - professor Calarco), I remember fondly. A good education from beginning to end... Thanks!

name: Mark Porter
class: 83
e-mail address: rp3311@email.sps.mot.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am a process engineer in a wafer fab at Motorola in Phoenix, Arizona.
Has your degree helped?
A degree in physics enabled me to get a job at MIT as a start in this industry. It provided me a firm foundation for building my knowledge, and provided a framework for understanding how to approach experimentation and process development.

name: Ed Durning
class: 85
e-mail address: durning@digital.net
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
Captain, USAF Patrick AFB, FL Electro-Optics Program Manager
Has your degree helped?
Gave me the understanding of todays complex technologies, and gave me the problem solving ablity to cope easily with technological change.

name: Carmen (Hefter) Gagne
class: 95
e-mail address: cgagne@dartmouth.edu
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am a second year graduate student at Dartmouth. I have finished my core classes and passed my Ph.D. qualifying exam. Now I plan to do theoretical reasearch related to phase transitions in the early universe. Right now I am taking more specialized courses to prepare to begin research in earnest. I TA several terms out of the year.
Has your degree helped?
I feel that my time at UNH influenced my current work as much through the friendly, inviting atmosphere as through the education I received. Growing up is as much a part of undergraduate education as the courses we take. I always felt encouraged and cared for in the department. I really feel that the profs (and secretaries!) poured their lives out for me. My extensive research and tutoring experience from UNH has been very useful to me, especially the programming.

name: Kevin Snow
class: 89
e-mail address: snowman@apple.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am a computer programmer for Apple Computer. My last project was working on the PowerBook 3400.
Has your degree helped?
I'm not doing physics work but my degree helps me everyday. Physics has given my a way of thinking, it helps to solve large/complex problems in other fields (like computers).

name: Guang Yang
class: 1992
e-mail address: guang@insight.att.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am currently a senior technical staff member with AT&T's Business Markets Division Information Management. We do alot business data analysis and build sale/marketing and EIS/DSS tools for AT&T ... It's all within your reach :-)
Has your degreehelped?
I have never done any physics related work here after leaving Jim Ryan's wonderful GRO team 3 years ago, with a PhD degree in Physics under Prof. Hollweg. But believe it or not, 2 of my former bosses were all physics PhD. and I have two colleagues in my group with PhDs in physics from MIT and Caltec. I do experince that physics background provide us a great potential for problem solving which are not everybody can do it but it's needed every where.

name: Korac MacArthur
class: 1987
e-mail address: korac.macarthur@iis.varian.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I'm working at Varian Ion Implant Systems in Gloucester, Ma. I'm a Software Engineer for the Ion implanters that are used to implant dopants into silicon wafers to make all kinds of microchips. Strangely enough, the US is a supplier of this kind of capital equipment to most of the world. Even the Japanese do not make the machines that make chips (though they make chips up the yin-yang once they set these machines up!).
Has your degree helped?
Physics has helped me so far by allowing me to have an intuitive understanding of what I'm working on. If I have to program some test procedures for a magnetic field strength meter, it doesn't hurt to know what "Tesla" and "kiloGauss" mean and how to convert the two. When they talk about vacuum chamber pressures and ion beam lenses I can jump right in and do it without needing a few days physics review like the cs majors need. I like it so far, and hope to move from Software Engineering to their Physics development lab in the future.

name: James Thomson
class: 66-67
e-mail address: thomson@rand.org
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
President/CEO, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica Chief Executive of Policy Research institution
Has your degree helped?
Broad based understanding of research methods and technologies is key to leading a multi-disciplinary research group.

name: Walter_R_Buchwald
class: 1987
e-mail address: @Raytheon.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am a senior engineer at the Raytheon Advanced Device Center in Andover MA. I am responsible for all technical decisions concerning the manufacturing of GaAs MMIC's run under what Raytheon calls process 46A. Process 46A is Raytheons 0.25 micron, T-gate, pseudo-morphic HEMT process. I am responsible for implimenting both process and test changes in order to inprove overall MMIC performance and yield. I work closely with both process engineers, product engineers and MMIC designers in order to optimize products run under my process.
Has your degree helped?
After receiving a MS in Physics from UNH I began working for the US Government as a researcher with the Army Research laboratory. While there I obtained a PhD in EE at Rutgers University. My physics background has given me a very broad knowledge base which has always helped me immensely in the field of solid-state electronics and, in one sense, it is what has enabled me to obtain my current position. Because MMIC fabrication is so engineering intensive, only someone with a broad educational background would have the skills needed to not only understand how modern high frequency devices operate, but also be able to impact there performance during the manufacturing process..

name: Lee Townsend
class: 70, 77
e-mail address: ltownsend@uhavax.hartford.edu
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Communications at the Ward College of Technology within the University of Hartford in West Hartford, CT. After my PhD from UNH, I went to work for United Technologies where my job for 17 years was analysis and simulation of high energy laser systems. In 1993 UTC and I parted company at which point a collegue and I started a company to make photolytic iodine lasers under SBIR funding. When the laser went into testing, the theory task disappeared. At this point I started teaching undergraduate math and physics as adjunct faculty in the Math/Physics/CS department at the University of Hartford which subsequently led to my current position.
Has your degree helped?
The degree was of prime importance in all my professional career. The ability to understand advanced math and to apply that understanding to complex physical systems kept me employed and allowed me to thoroughly enjoy my work. UNH's good faculty and their use of industry standard textbooks were extremely important as was their flexibility in dealing with my approach to graduate school. Thanks, UNH physics faculty. I appreciate all you did.

name: Dan Pinard
class: 97
Where do you work?
Sanders Lockheed, working in electronic countermeasures writing source code for passive radar detection systems to be used on fighter aircraft.
Has your degree helped?
because of the strong math background, analytical skiils, and broad range of knowledge from my physics classes allowed me to easily grasp the many concepts behind the systems we use, as well as quickly pick up the various computer languages used.

name: David Drouin
class: 1986
e-mail address: Drouin@aol.com
Would you be willing to talk to students? yes
Where do you work?
I am currently a Staff Firmware Engineer responsible for disk drive servo development at Castlewood Systems in Milpitas, California. I joined Castlewood Systems as a newly formed "start-up" company along with three other colleages in 1996. We have continued to grow and now have a large team of employees involved in product design and development engineering of removeable disk drive products and consumer digital video storage devices. Prior to Castlewood, I was at SyQuest Technology, another manufacturer of removable disk drives. After receiving my Masters Degree in 1988, I came to Silicon Valley in California to work on magneto-optic disk drives at Verbatim/Kodak Corporation. I can also be contacted at the following address. 1156 Tice Drive Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 946-0465
Has your degree helped?
After graduating from UNH in 1986 with a B.S. Degree in Physics, I earned an M.S. Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1988 (also at UNH). I have found that the combination of these two degrees prepared me well for the engineering oportunities in which I was interested. A Physics degree has given me a solid theoretical background which has proved useful and rewarding. Two courses in Physics that I feel influenced me the most, General Physics 401 (professor Mulhern), and Experimental Physics (Jr. and Sr. lab - professor Calarco), I remember fondly. A good education from beginning to end... Thanks!

name: Neil Bostrom
class: 1998
Where do you work?
I am currently working for Schlumberger-Doll Research in Connecticut as a "Reseach Technician". What do I do? Everything, I guess. Currently I am working on automating an experiment with LabVIEW, the same stuff I did in your lab. I have started my other duties in the lab such as building circuits and modifying experiments. I am on one main experiment while I get to learn about others. It is very interesting, yet very demanding, learning about experimental techniques with various instruments and the combination of them. This building of the company is completely research; their business is oil. We are trying to find it. I am in the NMR Department, but there is a Petrophysics Dept., Sonic Dept., etc. It is kind of a think tank where I assist full scientist on anything and everything they need help with. It seems like they are going to keep giving me more and more responiblity.
Has your degree helped?

name: Mark Osgood
class: 1997
e-mail address: mark.osgood@daltonics.bruker.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am working at Bruker Daltonics Inc in Danvers in the time-of-flight mass spectrometer research group. My official job title is "Research and Development Physicist". I gave a presentation last Monday on the STM project and the work I did in your lab. The presentation went well and immediately thereafter they made me an offer. I am very happy to have found this work for it is exactly what I was looking for, instrument research, design and development.
Has your degree helped?
At UNH I was able to supplement my regular coarse work with valuable hands on laboratory experience. I worked closely with several professors playing an active role in their research and through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program completed my own research project. Upon Graduation I not only had a degree but had real world research experience that I was able to present to my employer.

name: Crystle Zanes
class: 1991
e-mail address: cpz@cisunix.unh.edu
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am currently working at the UNH Physics Department in Dr. Tom's old position. You wouldn't believe how old some of this stuff is. Stop by and I'll show you the dust. Fortunately, we have updated most of the equipment we actually use, including computerizing the undergraduate labs, and up-to-date projection/demonstration equipment in 152.
Has your degree helped?
I directly use my degree everyday setting up demonstrations working on labs. However it also allowed me to obtain a job in industry (before returning to UNH) based on the analytical problem solving skills that Physicists learn. From my experience in the "real world", physicists are everywhere and do everything, even though the job title may be engineer or specialist, etc.

name: Keith W. Kennedy
class: BS 1991, MS 1993
e-mail address: kkennedy@colorvision-lasers.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
Presently I work at a small startup company called the Corporation for Laser Optics Research (C.O.L.O.R.) as a Laser System Engineer. My responsibilities include the design and construction of high power lasers and optical systems utilized in large area (up to 9' x 12') video projectors. Currently, C.O.L.O.R. is the only company in the world producing laser based video projection systems and holds several patents on the technology.
Has your degree helped?
As a graduate student at UNH I had the opportunity to operate an Nd:YAG laser as an experimental tool which proved to be a highly desirable skill to my present employer. Even more important to my employer was that I had the educational background to fully understand the theory of its operation. What I find most useful on a day to day basis are the experimental skills I developed at UNH: the ability to formulate an experiment, efficiently collect and analyze data and draw accurate conclusions.

name: Robert J. Menafra
class: 1994
e-mail address: emmyjoe@aol.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
Since graduating from UNH in 1994 with a bachelors degree in Physics I have been employed by the Manchester School District as a Physics and Physical Science teacher. Through the Alternative 3 program available in New Hampshire it was possible to attain the Physical Science certification without returning to college by demonstrating competencies in a variety of areas. I completed my requirements for a Masters in Education and was awarded the same during the summer of 1996.
Has your degree helped?
I consider my education at UNH in both the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and the Education Department as first rate. Teaching is a most rewarding career and UNH prepared me well for the challenge. Currently in my fifth year, I have a primarily senior schedule including two college prep Physics classes. I also advise a thriving Astronomy Club with 21 members this year, most of them seniors. In all, UNH provided what I needed to fulfill my dream of teaching high school science.

name: Andrew Galloway
class: 1963
e-mail address: andyg77@yahoo.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ?
Where do you work?
I am retired and spend most of my time thinking. I came to the UNH physics site to see if John Mulhern was still activie (teaching). Looks like he is going strong. I had Professor Mulhern for my first physics course, and I think that was 2nd semester of the 1959/1960 school year.
Has your degree helped?
I should point out that I graduated in Electrical Engineering and not physics. It was a mistake on my part. I did very well in physics and it was my favorite course at UNH along with math. After I graduated, I returned as an unclassified grad student and changed my major to math. My second mistake. I do not feel it would possible for me to talk with potential students as I am now living in Arizona. But I would certainly be able to share my feelings in the math/engineer/physics/computer area. From this page, it seems to me that, possibly there is a lessening of interest in students wanting to study physics? If this is the case, it is not surprising to me. I am not sure (really) what can be done about it in an overall sense, but I do have some feelings about, perhaps, how potential students for the physics program could be identified and possiblby how it would be to their benefit to avoid the mistakes I made. One other item, please say hello to Professor Mulhern for me and also I would like to purchase his CD lecture series on CD. One of his pages said that the offer expired a few months ago, but if a copy could be had, I would love to get it. Thank you, Andy Galloway HC4 Box 16-101 Payson, Az 85541 520-468-2108 andyandrose@cybertrails.com or andyg77@yahoo.com

name: Loredana POP
class: 1997
e-mail address: lpop@upet.ro
Would you be willing to talk to students ?
Where do you work?
assistent at University of Petrosani, Romania Ph.D student in "magnetic fluids" field
Has your degree helped?
in the right way, I think

name: Alexei Volossov
class: 1997
e-mail address: avolossov@sprint.ca
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I work in company named JDS Uniphase, in Canadian branch located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Headquarters of the company are located in San Jose, CA, but the largest manufacturing site is in Ottawa. I work as a test engineer in Manufacturing Engineering Group for Fiberoptics Modules. We make modules that transfer data and voice traffic over fiberoptics links.
Has your degree helped?
Knowledge of optics and some experience in fiberoptics (that I obtained in UNH) were very helpful in getting the job. It turns out that not too many people in fiberoptics industry have extensive knowledge of basics optics or fiberoptics. Most of them are EE or ME majors and their knowledge of optics is quite limited.

name: Heath Dube
class: 1998
e-mail address: hdube@avidyne.com
Would you be willing to talk to students ? yes
Where do you work?
I am working at a company called Avidyne. The company designs computer navigation equipment and graphical displays for airplanes. I was hired at an entry level Hardware Engineer position. I design and build test equipment and troubleshoot circuits. I'm also involved with EMI and Environmental testing of the devices we design for FAA certification.
Has your degree helped?
Well for one, I wouldn't have been able to get this job if it wasn't for the experience I gained at the Space Science Center. The job I do here is very similar to the one I had there, only the things we design at my new job don't go up as high.