Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty
Philippe Binder
Ph.D., Yale University, 1989
Dr. Binder is currently a Professor of Physics at UH Hilo. He moved to UH Hilo in 2001 from Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). He has taught Physics for the Liberal Arts, Quantum Mechanics for the Liberal Arts, Introductory Physics (calculus and algebra-based), Introductory Experimental Physics, General Astronomy Lab, Modern Physics, Classical Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics I and II, Chaos, Mathematical Physics, Computational Physics and Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.
Dr. Binder is a referee for Chaos, the Physical Review and the American Journal of Physics. He has biographies in “Who's Who in American Education”, “Who's Who in Science and Engineering”, “Who’s Who in America” and “Who’s Who in the World”. Prof. Binder was selected Scholar at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Santa Barbara, California, for the period 2006-2009.
Dr. Binder's research broadly addresses three loosely related themes. The first is the analysis of realistic
time series in search for chaos and with view to predicting and understanding natural phenomena.
The second is the study of information as one of the possibly most fundamental currencies in nature.
The third is the search for a general origin to the phenomena known as complex systems. This work actively involves undergraduate students.
Dr. Binder took time out from teaching a UH Hilo during the Fall semester of 2008, to be on sabbatical at the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Texas, Austin, performing experiments on electro-convection with Harry Swinney.
Among his other duties, Dr. Binder was appointed Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Spring of 2009, and in addition was honored for his contributions at the University of Hawaii at Hilo with the annual Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activities. A press release of this award can be found at here.
Details of Professor Binder's research, and publications, can be found on his Research Page.
Richard A. Crowe
Ph.D., University of Toronto, Canada, 1984
Dr. Richard Crowe is Professor of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Hawai‘i Hilo (UH Hilo). He has been a member of the UH Hilo faculty since 1987, and was awarded tenure in 1992. His teaching responsibilities have ranged from introductory physics and astronomy to quantum physics, classical mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, astrophysics, and senior level quantum mechanics. He has developed many on-line Web assignments and course presentations, including General Astronomy, General Astronomy Laboratory, Observational Astronomy, Stellar Astrophysics, Galactic Astrophysics, Comparative Planetology, and Climate Change.
Dr. Crowe obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Astronomy from the University of Western Ontario in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1984. Dr. Crowe has an extensive background in observatory support work. Between 1977-79, he was the Resident Observer for the University of Toronto 24-inch Southern Observatory at Las Campanas, Chile. He was also the Canadian Resident Astronomer for the Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope (CFHT) from 1984-87. During his residency at CFHT, he had scientific responsibility for the high-resolution spectrograph, and was the observatory's public relations officer responsible for preparing the publication of the CFHT Information Bulletin. Dr. Crowe's research interests are in the areas of pulsating stars, stellar evolution and spectroscopy, with some 47 scientific publications in those fields. He has also published nine scholarly articles and 18 Hawai‘i newspaper articles in the area of science education and criticism of pseudoscience. Prof. Crowe has been the Astronomer-in-Residence at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i since 2006, and has done many planetarium presentations in that capacity.
Details of Professor Crowe's research can be found on his personal web page
and his Research Page. His publications
are listed in the Astrophysics
Data System listings.
Jesse Goldman
Ph.D., Kansas State University, 2000
Dr. Jesse Goldman is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the UH Hilo. He received his B.A. from Columbia College and his Ph.D. in Physics (specialization in High Energy /Particle Physics) from Kansas State University. He carried out post-doctoral research as a JSPS fellow at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan and as a visiting post-doctoral scientist in the Physics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA.
Following his post-doctoral work, he served as a lecturer in the physics departments at the California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo and, subsequently, at the National University of Singapore before arriving in Hilo. His research interests include cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics.
John C. Hamiltion
M.S., University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1980
UHH Instructor of Physics and Astronomy. His teaching responsibilities at UHH have included General Astronomy and Principles of Astronomy. His research interests are extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, and neutrinos. He is, also, the Deputy Director of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) program.
William D. Heacox
Ph.D., University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977
Professor Heacox holds degrees in Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy; he conducts research in all three areas. He has been the recipient of several research, instrumentation, and training grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and private foundations. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the American Geophysical Union. He has held professional positions at NASA’s Goddard and Johnson Space Flight Centers, and Ames Research Center; the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona; Carter Observatory (New Zealand); the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii; and (since 1986) the University of Hawaii at Hilo, where he is a full professor of physics and astronomy. He currently teaches the full range of undergraduate astronomy courses and also such physics courses as Computational Physics, Thermodynamics, Optics, and General Relativity. Details of Professor Heacox's research, and publications, can be found on his Research Page at this site.
Professor Heacox is a combat veteran of the Vietnam conflict, where he flew more than 200 reconnaissance missions. He served as a smokejumper in Montana and trained briefly as a space shuttle mission specialist candidate. His principle extramural hobbies are photography and the collection and study of geological minerals.
Norman G. Purves
M.S., University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1979
UHH Instructor of Physics and Astronomy. His teaching responsibilities at UHH are General Physics Laboratory, General Astronomy and Laboratory, and Physics for the Liberal Arts.
Marianne Takamiya
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1998
UHH Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Takamiya obtained her B.Sc. in Physics and M.Sc. in Astronomy from the Universidad de Chile in 1990 and 1991, respectively, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics, from the University of Chicago, in 1992 and 1998, respectively. She carried out post-doctoral research as a Gemini Science Fellow at Gemini Observatory and subsequently as a Research Associate, with the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, at UH Hilo.
Her teaching responsibilities at UHH are General Physics, General Astronomy, and Stellar Astronomy.
Joshua Walawender
Ph.D, University of Colorado, 2006
Dr. Walawender is an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy and serves as the Director of the Hoku Ke'a Educational Telescope on Mauna Kea. He earned his BA degrees in Physics and Astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley and his MS and PhD in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied Star Formation and Protostellar Outflows. Prior to joining the UH Hilo faculty, he served as the Project Manager for the Variable Young Stellar Objects Survey (VYSOS) project run by the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Institute for Astronomy. His research interests lie in examining the role of protostellar outflows in star formation feedback and in the time variable phenomena associated with young stars. Details of Professor Walawender's research and publications can be found on his Research Page.