Richard Watkins - US grants

The Chemistry has identified principles which guide the choice of laboratory experimentation. These guidelines include the need to incorporate work using smaller and more complex samples, the need to incorporate real world chemistry, the opportunity to use state-of-the-art instrumentation, the necessity to increase the laboratory efficiency so that more experimental work can be done, and the need to increase understanding of chemical health and safety. The gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer equipment is helping to include real world samples in the laboratory program, to allow laboratory work to concentrate on small and complex samples, and to improve the efficiency of the laboratory program. The three courses - Organic Chemistry, Advanced Instrumentation, and Chemical Health and Safety - were selected to show how the GC/MS can strengthen the chemistry curriculum. The institution has contributed an amount equal to the NSF funds to the project.

The Chemistry Department has identified laboratory improvement guidelines including the needs: to incorporate work using smaller and more complex samples, to emphasize real world chemistry, to use state-of-the-art instrumentation, to increase laboratory efficiency so that more experimental work can be done, and to increase the understanding of chemical health and safety. Acquisition of a 200 MHz FT-NMR Spectrometer with a variable temperature module will enhance all but the last of those principles in five of our upper division courses. Specific improvements include enhanced proton analysis, a new capability for 13C analysis, the computer controlled acquisition and processing of data, application of FT-NMR analysis to small samples, determination of kinetic and thermodynamic parameters, and special pulse sequences for simplification of complex spectra. In addition, the instrument will increase the range of projects available to undergraduates doing research.

Civil Engineering (54)

Most undergraduate engineering curricula provide the core knowledge and technical skills necessary to practice engineering. However, students rarely comprehend the underlying theory and fundamental concepts because the common assessment instruments can be satisfied through memorization and equation application. Students may not question the validity or potential repercussions of their solution or design, an essential step in any engineering design. Faculty from the University of South Carolina and Midlands Technical College are developing an Engineering Environment for Fostering Effective Critical Thinking (EFFECT) through measurements which relies on a conceptual model of how engineering judgment is formulated. In each EFFECT, students are solving real-world problems in Civil Engineering, while gaining hands-on experience with a directly related engineering measurement. Engineering judgment has three major components: 1) authentic experience, 2) core content knowledge, and 3) fundamental data-based technical skills. These components are synthesized when students think critically to solve the realistic engineering problems that are addressed in each EFFECT using an open-ended, inquiry-based approach. Various assessment methods are being used to evaluate the effectiveness, longitudinal impact, and institutional transferability of
each EFFECT.

This award supports Optics and Photonics Training for Inquisitive eXperimentalists (OPTIX), a project to create an innovative, hands-on laboratory environment at Willamette University where undergraduate sophomores and juniors can work with research grade optics equipment in a dedicated space designed to foster deep, inquiry-based learning. Students will complete carefully designed modules that encourage creativity and independence, preparing them better for a more rigorous and meaningful senior year capstone project and giving them vital skills and motivation for a career in the STEM fields after graduation. Modules will also be developed for local community college students at Chemeketa Community College, and an optics related hands-on exhibition for the Gilbert House Children's Museum in Salem, OR.

The optics modules will require different levels of student sophistication, training, and involvement. The most basic optics module will provide an introduction to optics, and serve as a gateway to the more advanced activities. Students at the sophomore level then continue taking three additional basic modules that introduce them to more sophisticated ideas and techniques. The focus at the junior level is on intermediate modules, some of which are extensions of modules encountered during the sophomore year and others which lead into the advanced modules that students can take in their senior year or as independent research projects to prepare them for the transition into research labs. The effectiveness of this initiative will be ascertained by assessing student skills and attitudes before, during, and after exposure to OPTIX modules with the help of an external evaluator.

It has long been observed that light from distant galaxies is received on earth at a different wavelength than that at which it was emitted. This shift in wavelength, often called redshift, is due to two distinct effects, the Doppler shift that arises from the motion of galaxies relative to the Milky Way and the stretching of light that is caused by its traveling through expanding space. These effects can be separated only if independent measurements of galaxy distances can be obtained. However, as the number and accuracy of distance measurements have improved, it appears that the shift due to expansion is significantly larger than expectations based on much larger scale observations. Furthermore, studies of the motions of galaxies have revealed large-scale flows that are also larger than expected. The goal of this project is to develop new ways of analyzing available redshift and distance measurements in order to better understand the sources of the conflict between the data and the model. In particular, the investigators seek to determine if the disagreements are due to undiscovered problems with the measurements or if they are indeed pointing the way toward a previously unknown aspect of our Universe. The data analysis techniques developed here will have broad application and may help advance other fields, particularly those that rely on noisy data. This project will strengthen the US science workforce by providing intensive research experiences and training to undergraduate students in data analysis and statistics, areas of high demand and of strategic importance to the nation. In addition, a programming course related to the proposed research will be developed and taught to secondary school students at Willamette Academy, a college access program for underrepresented students associated with Willamette University.


As the number and accuracy of galaxy distance measurements have improved, they have become increasingly important as a cosmological probe of the local Universe. However, it has become apparent that this data is in conflict with observations of the microwave background radiation and the Standard Cosmological Model. The goal for this proposal is to develop and apply new statistical methods to analyze collections of redshift and distance measurements, also known as peculiar velocity catalogs, with the following goals: (1) to put stronger constraints on cosmological parameters; (2) to better understand the dynamics of the large-scale structure and the expansion rate of the Universe; and (3) to test for systematics in this important type of cosmological data. The proposed research will clarify whether redshift and distance measurements are actually in conflict with the Standard Model, and if so, the severity and source of the disagreement. Searching for the causes of the discrepancies in both the expansion rate determination and the observed motion of the local volume is important for gaining a more complete understanding of the Universe. A resolution of these conflicts may lead to new physics or to a better understanding of some yet-to-be-determined systematics in this important cosmological probe.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.