|
David J. Griffiths is a U.S. physicist and educator. He has worked at Reed College since 1978, where he is currently the Howard Vollum Professor of Science. Griffiths was trained at Harvard University (B.A., 1964; M.A., 1966; Ph.D., 1970). His doctoral work ("Covariant Approach to Massless Field Theory in the Radiation Gauge") on theoretical particle physics was supervised by Sidney Coleman. He is principally known as the author of three highly regarded textbooks for undergraduate physics students: Introduction to Elementary Particles (published in 1987), Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (published in 1995, second edition published 2004), and Introduction to Electrodynamics (third edition published in 1999). He was also the recipient of the Robert A. Millikan award for notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics in 1997. As a teacher, Griffiths is very approachable and informal, and known among his students for being available to answer questions at any time - even when teaching large introductory classes with over 100 students. He is also a prompt responder to e-mail inquiries. He is known for making non-intuitive and complex fields seem simple and intuitive.
Books Thesis Students (year, name, thesis title) Reed College requires all students to complete an undergraduate thesis as a requirement for the Bachelor's degree. Each year, Griffiths advises several students through their thesis project. Students and projects include: 2006, Andre Bach, "Modifying the Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac equation for a point charge" 2006, Kevin Connolly, "Quantum mechanics of the electric dipole potential" 2005, Darren Platt, "Self-Adjoint Extensions and Quantum Mechanics" 2005, Laurel Coffey, "Brownian motion using video microscopy to measure Boltzmann's constant" 2005, Gordan Krnjaic, "Conformal mapping, separable coordinates, and charge distributions on conductors" 2004, Moira Gresham, "Two-Dimensional Radial Laplacian Growth" 2004, Rowan Hand, "EPR, Bell, and the use of density matrices in analysis of quantum-mechanical paradoxes" 2004, Judy Kim, "Phase transitions of equilibrium and non-equilibrium systems using Monte Carlo simulations" 2004, Cimarron Wortham, "Motion of launched wave packets in the infinite square well" 2003, Andrew Essin, "Quantum Mechanics of the Inverse-Square Potential" 2003, Mathieu Brener, "Neutron detecting diodes" 2001, Sean Holman, "The Acoustic Casimir Effect" 2001, Michael Perry, "The negative hydrogen ion in quantum mechanics" 2000, Jonah Gollub, "Radiation from Superluminal Sources" 2000, Elan Ho, "Radiative forces for two body systems mechanical analogies to the Casimir effect" 2000, Jan Larsen, "The quantum-mechanical adiabatic theorem" 2000, Daniel Uvanovic, "How would charge distribute inside a conductor if Coulomb's law were not inverse-square?" 1998, Stephen Walborn, "Time-independent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics" 1998, Sasha Hinkley, "Charged particle motio n in the fields of magnetic monopoles and dipoles" 1998, Daniel Zuvanovic, "How would charge distribute inside a conductor if Coulomb's law were not inverse-square?" 1998, Carl Steinke, "Scattering from a finite periodic potential and the classical analogs" 1998, Stephen Walborn, "Time-independent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics" 1997, Derek Owen, "Minimum uncertainty spin states" 1997, Emile Snyder, "Oscillon Hunting on a Shoestring" 1997, Matthew Kleban, "Covariant electrodynamics and the Wilson and Wilson experiment" 1995, Darrell Schroeter, "Electron relaxation in a quantum dot by defect-assisted tunneling" 1994, Khalid Khan, "Classical neutral weak interactions between leptons" 1994, Ye Li, "Charge density on a needle" 1994, Scott Caveny, "A study of rotating Lorentzian wormholes" 1993, Jeffrey Gima, "Relating curvature to charge density on conducting surfaces" 1993, Cathy Highet, "Tau-catalyzed cold fusion?" 1991, David Hill, "Phase in cyclic adiabatic systems" 1991, Edward Luschei, "Investigating off-axis lens aberration" 1991, Nicholas Taussing, "Quantum mechanical multiple scattering in one dimension" 1990, Michael Nelson, "Moving striations in a plasma" 1990, Per Kraus, "Renormalization of a toy quantum field theory" 1990, Tonee Smith, "Smaller than small subquark models in elementary particle physics" 1989, Robin Korybski, "Aerogels, xerogels, and jellyfish" 1989, Robert Lerner, "An example of a thermoacoustic engine the Hofler tube" 1989, Brent Shum, "Defect driven turbulence in capillary ripples" 1988, Alice Reinheimer, "The time reversed diffusion equation" 1988, Jensen Garth, "An analysis of the torque on a moving magnetic dipole" 1987, Edith Barr, "Electric charge configurations in hyperbolic motion" 1987, Stefan Gruenwedel, "Periodic & chaotic oscillations of a bouncing contraption" 1987, Barton Massey, "Central forces and repulsive particles the Thomson atom revisited" 1987, Emi Masumoto, "Sloshing" 1986, Cameron Flint, "Stochastic electrodynamics" 1986, Edmund Savage, "Nonlocality" 1986, Sheperd Doeleman, "Geodesics an analytical and computational analysis" 1984, Tyler Abbott, "To radiate or not to radiate? a study in electromagnetic radiation" 1984, Chris Grant, "The Anti-Born-Oppenheimer approximation" 1984, Carolyn Hakansson, "Caveat jaculator let the thrower beware" 1984, Russel Kauffman, "Self-force and electromagnetic mass" 1984, Marsha Weaver, "Advanced field solutions to Maxwell's equations" 1983, David Brauer, "Quarklium a non-relativistic baryon model" 1983, Richard Benson, "A special class of examples in the Feynman calculus of scattering processes" 1983, Robert Whitnell, "A preliminary investigation into the use of hydrogenic continuum functions in atomic and molecular problems" 1983, Lisa Sargent, "Holography pretty pictures and other fringe benefits" 1983, Robert Zimmerman "Hidden-variable theories in quantum mechanics looking for God's dice" 1982, Bennett Barsk, "The three-dimensional harmonic oscillator a spring thesis" 1982, Matthew Benacquista, "Things that precess in the night a study of general relativistic orbits" 1982, Russell Owen, "Mechanistic models for the radiation reaction" 1982, Chris Ruf, "Tachyons" 1982, Nicholas Tufillaro, "Smiles and Teardrops" 1981, Greg Cardell, "Dumbbell electrodynamics" 1981, Frank Selker, "Electrolocation in fish the electric image as a signal" 1981, Michael Steele, "Construction of a disk dynamo a model of geomagnetism" 1981, Leilani Whitman, "Some solutions to classical two-color chromodynamics how colors make the world go round" 1980, Tony Parker, "The Goldilocks principle an application of fractal theory to the Ising model" 1980 Jonathan Shapiro, "Charmonium and the force which binds quarks" 1980, Mark Hybersten, "Application of generalized killing equations to symmetry in Hamiltonian mechanics" 1979, John Lazenby, "Studies in inverse scattering theory" 1979, Jeffrey Parker, "Study of (π,πn), (π,π3n), and (π,π4n) reactions on 76-Se at 100 MeV" 1979, Robert Soppe, "A microwave model of optical activity" | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |