"...future studies...are put in perspective
by Fraundorf's analogy that a 5μm grain
to an electron microscopist is the same as a
three ton hand specimen to a field geolgist."
by Colin Pillinger in "Small minded - the characterization
of interplanetary dust by electron microscopy" (Nature).

Interests: nanoscale science, materials astronomy, content modernization, Bayesian inference, diffraction physics, complex systems, nano-crystallography, gigascale integrated circuit silicon, transmission electron microscopy, correlation-based complexity, atomic force microscopy, the natural history of invention, scanning tunneling microscopy, mutual information, icosahedral twins, digital darkfield decomposition, diamond-centered cubic-crystal facets, sinc wavelets, metric equation, roughness spectroscopy, instrument response and contrast transfer functions, natural units in thermal physics, picometer-resolution strain maps, surprisal physics, informatics and molecular recognition, presolar grains, lateral displacement maps, nuclear tracks in solids, nano-catalysis, color math, atmospheric entry heating, proper velocity, geometric algebra, interplanetary dust, physics education research

Bio: Phil Fraundorf, currently a faculty member in physics and astronomy at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis (UM-StL) and adjunct at Washington University, has enjoyed being a regional scientific observer of (i) extraterrestrial and (ii) electronic materials, as well as a wide diversity of other materials for nanoscopic investigation that have "walked in the door". He has also worked at: (iii) offering nanoscale exploration tools for industry and university researchers around the midwest, (iv) developing mathematical techniques for exploration of solids on the atomic scale, and (v) observations of correlation-based complexity on multiple scales of time and space that might bridge, rather than divide, the gap between cultures.

Specific interests include dust from around our star and others, oxygen in and on gigascale integrated-circuit silicon, mathematical detective work on direct and reciprocal-space images, Bayesian approaches to the structure of correlation-based complexity and its role in the natural history of invention, and metric-based approaches to motion at any speed. The first three of these interests have helped in developing regional nano-microscopy resources at Washington University, Monsanto, UM-StL, and most recently across Missouri with help from the governor's research alliance. An atomic-resolution imaging facility that Phil helped design from the ground up at UM-StL has provided collaborators across the state with their only regional access to atomic-resolution (i.e. sub 2-Angstrom point-to-point) imaging for over a decade. Emergent content courses and web resources under development include a popular how things work course, and bring in on the order of a million requests per year for educational links in University webspace.

UM-StL Contact Information:
Work: (314)516-5933 Fax: (314)516-6152
Electronic Mail:
philf(AT)newton.umsl.edu
Address:
Physics and Astronomy B503
University of Missouri - StL
8001 Natural Bridge
Saint Louis MO 63121

Education: Ph.D. in Physics at Washington University, 1981

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