Faculty and Staff

Students building

Faculty 

Dan Mazilu

Dan Mazilu

Department Head; Professor of Physics

Mazilu teaches courses in general physics, classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and special topics in contemporary physics. His research interests include experimental and theoretical studies of self-assembled nanoparticle monolayers, as well as interdisciplinary projects in the field of complex systems.

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Paul Aiken

Paul Aiken

Visiting Assistant Professor of Engineering

Paul Aiken teaches courses in electrical circuits, analog and digital electronics, and introduction to engineering. He is a professional engineer and senior academic with over 35 years of industry and academic experience, during which time he led teams of engineers to conceptualize and implement new ideas, and to find innovative solutions to existing technical problems, such as performing signal and power integrity analyses on high-speed digital components, interconnects and systems. He has a very strong foundation in electrical engineering and physics with emphasis on analog and digital circuits and systems, RF and microwave circuits and systems, electromagnetism, signal and power integrity, power electronics and semiconductors devices and circuits. He had developed several engineering courses and programs and facilitated their ABET accreditation. His current research is in the areas of high-speed digital systems and RF technology, energy sources and systems and novel instruments.

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Jonathan Erickson

Jonathan Erickson

Professor of Physics and Engineering

Erickson’s courses include Physics and Perception of Music, Electronics, and Bioengineering and Bioinspired Design. His research interests include biomedical signal processing for gastrointestinal electrical activity patterns. In his Bioelectronics Lab, students develop electronics hardware and software algorithms to measure dynamic patterns of electrical activity in the gastrointestinal tract.

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Joel Kuehner

Joel Kuehner

Professor of Physics and Engineering

Kuehner teaches courses in entry-level engineering, mechanics, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. His recent research focuses on periodic water flows and oscillatory natural convection to uncover the causes of periodic behavior. In his Fluid Diagnostics Lab, research examines turbulent mixing mechanics. Students acquire flow properties such as temperature or velocity using laser-based methods that do not disturb the flow.

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Mengying Liu

Mengying Liu

Assistant Professor of Engineering

Mengying Liu teaches courses in materials and mechanics. Her research background is in hydrogen embrittlement behavior of alloy 725, investigating the localized plasticity on the surface of the hydrogen embrittled materials in situ with scanning electron microscope. She received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Texas A&M University.

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Irina Mazilu

Irina Mazilu

Parmly Professor of Physics

Irina Mazilu teaches courses in general physics, statistical physics, nuclear physics and computational modeling of physical systems. Her current projects include nanoparticle self-assembly and applications of statistical physics to social sciences.

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Tom McClain

Tom McClain

Assistant Professor of Physics

Professor McClain teaches General Physics for first-year students. His research interests include quantum theories of gravity, gravitational wave astronomy, philosophy of physics, and mobile and cloud-based physics simulations for education.

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Son Nguyen

Son Nguyen

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics

Son Nguyen teaches courses in general physics and quantum mechanics. He is interested in applying effective field theories to nuclear few-body systems. His work involves the search for fundamental symmetry violations, direct detection of dark matter, and properties of cluster-structured atomic nuclei. Recently, he has been exploring new computational methods for studying few-body quantum mechanics using lattice formulations of these effective field theories.

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Todd Rutkowski

Todd Rutkowski

Instructor of Physics

Todd Rutkowski teaches courses in general physics. His current focus is on implementing effective physics pedagogies throughout the undergraduate curriculum. His research background is in condensed matter physics, studying magnetic phases of ultracold gases which arise due to strong quantum fluctuations at low temperature. He also studies cultural heritage science, leveraging non-invasive spectroscopic techniques to identify pigments used in historical paintings.

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Poorya Shobeiry

Poorya Shobeiry

Visiting Assistant Professor of Engineering

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David Sukow

David Sukow

Robert Lee Telford Professor of Physics

Sukow’s courses include Stellar Evolution and Cosmology, Modern Physics, Optics, and Quantum Mechanics. His research involves nonlinear dynamics in semiconductor lasers, and is beginning to include astrophysics.

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Emeritus Faculty 

Bruce Boller

Bruce Boller

Emeritus Professor of Physics and Engineering

Ronald Lane Reese

Emeritus Professor of Physics

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Staff 

Tanya Bennett

Tanya Bennett

Academic Administrative Assistant

Chris Compton

Chris Compton

Laboratory Technician and Research Specialist

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Department Info

  • Physics and Engineering Department
    Washington and Lee University
    204 W. Washington Street
    Lexington, Virginia 24450
    Physical Address: Howe Hall / Science Center

Dan Mazilu

Department Head

Tanya Bennett

Administrative Assistant