Rod in Research Lab

Rod preparing to mount a crystal sample in the field of the large magnet. Rod did several years of ESR (electron spin resonance) research after he shut down the microwave spectroscopy lab. This is in Joe Hadley's primary research area.

Rod adjusts the microwave frequency electronics for detecting the electron spin resonance signals. The dewar flask hanging over the magnet behind him is to allow data collection as low as liquid nitrogen temperature. The crystal samples are irradiated with high doses of x-rays to do damage to the biologically related crystal materials. Sometimes the free-radicals produced are unstable, so we study them at very low temperatures first to get closer to seeing the nature of the original damage. Then we watch the changes as we take data at higher and higher temperatures.

Rod is adjusting the temperature-control system that lets us control the temperature of the crystal sample in this ESR spectrometer. This is in Bill Nelson's lab and Rod did research on the radiation damage to some biologically related molecules and co-authored a paper with Bill on that research project. This spectrometer has a larger magnet and a more sophisticated temperature-control system. It takes liquid nitrogen from the large dewar in front and uses it in a controlled system which allows choosing the temperature at which data is collected. These two labs occupied adjoining rooms on the 5th floor of Kell Hall.

Rod in his office, 514B Kell Hall, which he occupied from 1968 until about 1990 when he moved to an office in the Science Annex which adjoins the Natural Science Center. In 1991 he opened a teaching laboratory in 222 NSC, developed with a grant based on his Conceptual Physics course for educating science teachers for high school and middle school.