Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Info on John Colton
I had to supply some background info for a "new faculty directory," so I figured I could post it here:
Background: By the time I was 6 years old, I had lived in Missouri, Connecticut, Maryland, and Vienna, Austria. My family stayed in Vienna for five years, after which we moved back to Maryland. I completed junior high and high school in Maryland—this is where I consider myself to “be from”. I served in the Munich, Germany, Mission from 1989-1991. I received bachelor’s degrees from BYU in Physics and in Mathematics, in 1994. I received my PhD in Physics from U.C. Berkeley in 2000, after which I began a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. I became an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2003, where I taught for four years before coming back to BYU this semester (Fall 2007).
Research: I am an experimental solid-state physicist. That means I study what goes on inside solids, using many different experimental techniques. Specifically, my research career has focused on semiconductor materials, related to the types of materials people make LEDs and laser pointers out of. I typically use optical methods to study the properties of electrons in these materials—for example, I often shine lasers at bits of semiconductor and see what happens with the reflected or otherwise emitted light. My current experiments are probing the “spin” states of electrons, which will potentially yield useful information for people trying to make “quantum computers” out of such materials.
Other: My hobbies and interests include (in no particular order) table tennis, singing, computer games (when time permits), science-fiction/fantasy books (even when time does not permit), and the Utah Jazz. I have two daughters, who are both in elementary school, and a very supportive wife.
Background: By the time I was 6 years old, I had lived in Missouri, Connecticut, Maryland, and Vienna, Austria. My family stayed in Vienna for five years, after which we moved back to Maryland. I completed junior high and high school in Maryland—this is where I consider myself to “be from”. I served in the Munich, Germany, Mission from 1989-1991. I received bachelor’s degrees from BYU in Physics and in Mathematics, in 1994. I received my PhD in Physics from U.C. Berkeley in 2000, after which I began a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. I became an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2003, where I taught for four years before coming back to BYU this semester (Fall 2007).
Research: I am an experimental solid-state physicist. That means I study what goes on inside solids, using many different experimental techniques. Specifically, my research career has focused on semiconductor materials, related to the types of materials people make LEDs and laser pointers out of. I typically use optical methods to study the properties of electrons in these materials—for example, I often shine lasers at bits of semiconductor and see what happens with the reflected or otherwise emitted light. My current experiments are probing the “spin” states of electrons, which will potentially yield useful information for people trying to make “quantum computers” out of such materials.
Other: My hobbies and interests include (in no particular order) table tennis, singing, computer games (when time permits), science-fiction/fantasy books (even when time does not permit), and the Utah Jazz. I have two daughters, who are both in elementary school, and a very supportive wife.
# posted by John Colton @ 3:15 PM 
