Physics and Astronomy
Emeritus and Adjunct Faculty


Helen Brooks

Professor of Astronomy Emerita
M.A., 1955, The University of Toledo


Armand Delsemme

Distinguished University Professor of Astrophysics Emeritus
Ph.D., 1966, Universite de Liege, Belgium


Barry Gilbert

Adjunct Professor of Physics
Ph.D., 1972, University of Minnesota


Ragnar Hellborg

Adjunct Professor of Physics
Ph.D., 1973, University of Lund

Ragnar Hellborg is currently Director of the Lund Tandem Accelerator Laboratory. Through our collaborative program with Lund he is a frequent user of the of the Toledo Heavy Ion Accelerator (THIA), where he performs studies of atomic lifetimes and the properties of thin film under bombardment of heavy ions. Using THIA he is able to study under controlled conditions behavior of ethylene-cracked stripper foils which he produces in for specialized uses in his Tandem accelerator. He makes frequent extended visits to the University, and serves on the graduate research advisory committees.

Indrek Martinson

Adjunct Professor of Physics
Ph.D., 1971, Stockholm University

Indrek Martinson is Professor of Physics and Chair of the Atomic Spectroscopy Institute at the University of Lund in Sweden. He received his PhD from the University of Stocholm in 1971 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served as Chair of the Physics Section of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that supervises the Awarding of the Nobel Prize, and is a member of numerous international committees. For example, he is a member of Lithuanian and Estonian Academies of Science, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Japanese Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. He has been regularly in residence in Toledo since 1983, when he spent a yearlong Sabbatical at the University of Toledo. Dr. Martinson is a world renowned expert in accelerator-based atomic physics, and he and his graduate students from Lund have performed many experiments on the Toledo Heavy Ion Accelerator, and he often serves as a research advisor to University of Toledo students.

Simon, H. John

Professor of Physics Emeritus
Ph.D., 1969, Harvard University

Dr. Simon has pioneered in developing the field of surface nonlinear optics by using surface plasmons to produce optical second harmonic generation (SHG). Surface plasmons are resonant waves of light which travel on a metal surface while SHG is the process of changing the color of a laser beam by frequency doubling. That the use of surface plasmons is an efficient method for producing reflected SHG has been shown.

He Also pursued the potential device applications of surface plasmons. If the medium adjacent to the metal film is a thin liquid crystal layer the surface plasmon resonance can be controlled by applying a voltage to this layer. Used in the reflection mode such a device may serve as the basis of a color TV projector or in the scattering mode as a flat panel display. Surface plasmons are sensitive to even single monolayers of atoms at the metal interface. This property may be utilized to detect the biological interaction of bodies and antibodies on a metal surface and thus give rise to a new method of performing immunoassays.


William Williamson, Jr.

Emeritus Research Professor of Physics
Ph.D., 1963, University of Colorado

Within the next half decade sizable markets ($10B annually) for large area display devices for high definition television (HDTV) and workstations are anticipated. The possible candidates to fabricate large screens are: 1) cathode ray tubes (CRT); 2) liquid crystal displays (LCDs); 3) light emitting diodes (LEDs); and 4) plasma display panels (PDPs). Currently, the most promising technology appears to be PDPs. A computer code which simulates the operation of a monochrome or color plasma display picture element is being developed by the theoretical plasma group at The University of Toledo. The fabrication of a prototype color plasma display panel (CPDP) is a time-consuming and costly job if it is done each time new ideas are to be incorporated into the design. Parametric studies of design changes can become major expenditures of research funding. If a reliable computer simulation of a PDP element is available, then changes in design and their influence on the final display panel can be studied rapidly and relatively inexpensively. The time and cost from drawing board to prototype and final design can, in principle, be greatly reduced. Some of the desirable features to incorporate into such a code are ways to study computationally: increased luminosity output, extended PDP lifetime, and lower power consumption (increased efficiency). In addition, there is valuable knowledge gained about the fundamental way a PDP operates. In order to be useful in research and development environments, the code must be able to provide reasonable turn-around time in studying design modifications. Research collaboration with local industries and national laboratories has been rather successful.