Monmouth College senior Jonathan Bruckman of Burnham, Ill., recently returned from the 2008 Annual Fall Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society, where he presented a poster. The event was held Oct. 23-26 at the Marriott City Center Hotel and Conference Center in Oakland, Calif.

Bruckman was awarded full funding for travel and lodging to the conference by the Conference Experience for Undergraduates organization, whose director, Warren F. Rogers, wrote, "The award decision is based on the high quality of your research abstract and contribution to the general group effort."

While participating in the Research Experience for Undergraduates program, Bruckman’s research was conducted last summer at Ohio Wesleyan University under the guidance of physics professor Robert Kaye. He and his group performed a data analysis of an experiment conducted at Florida State University in 2005.

Bruckman’s poster was titled "Evolution of Collective Structure in Odd-Odd 70As1." The "As" in the title refers to the chemical symbol for arsenic.

"It was received very well," said Bruckman. "It’s not a hot topic in nuclear physics right now, but plenty of people stopped by and asked really good questions. People from Yale were especially interested."

Bruckman explained that gamma ray spectroscopy is a special interest of the Ivy League school, and the university looks to recruit individuals who do those types of projects.

While Yale might be an intriguing option for Bruckman’s graduate work, he said he is more interested in staying in the Midwest to complete his "five or six years" of instruction in nuclear physics. When his course work is completed around 2015, Bruckman will have a Ph.D. and will be a prime candidate "to be a physics professor at a small liberal arts college like Monmouth."