WILLIAM B. LAW

	William B. Law Professor Emeritus Meyer Hall Rm. 433 Phone: 273-3838 email: wlaw@mines.edu
Associate Professor. BS University of Nevada; PhD Ohio State University.

Research Interests

When I headed for graduate work in physics, my last choice of a profession was teaching. However, I had to take a teaching assistantship to survive financially. To my surprise, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed teaching. My graduate research was in the field of gamma-ray spectroscopy, my thesis being a study of the energy levels in some rare-earth isotopes. When I completed my degree in 1960, opportunities abounded for PhD physicists; I received offers from both industry and academia. As always, industrial monetary offers far exceeded those from universities.

Tempted by salary and curious about the life of an applied physicist, I took a position at Sandia Laboratory, Albuquerque. My interest in plasma physics was piqued by my research there in construction of a small air-core betatron and work with strong-focus plasma devices. Although I enjoyed my work at Sandia very much, my desire to return to the classroom continued to increase; I took a position at CSM in 1965. My love of teaching and the rewards of watching students grow intellectually have been all consuming. I have taught most of the required courses on both graduate and undergraduate levels in addition to special courses in plasma physics, direct energy conversion, and astrophysics. For the past 13 years I have been advisor to the Society of Physics Students. Working with the students outside the classroom has given me a special appreciation of their problems and pleasures. Our chapter has been the recipient of several Outstanding Chapter awards.

I started consulting work several years ago when a lawyer called the school to inquire about help with a problem involving physics, and I happened to be the only physicist around. That case involved analysis of bullet trajectories in a shooting and culminated in court testimony. Since then, cases involving primarily vehicular accidents have resulted in my testifying in court as an expert witness. One outcome of this work is the short courses in forensic physics which I have offered. I have also used experience in this field to suggest special enrichment problems in mechanics and open-ended problems for the School's EPICS program.

 Last Modified: August 22, 2005
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