Dr. John A. Tanis

JOHN A. TANIS, HOMEPAGE

“Oh, people look around you the signs are everywhere. You’ve

left it for somebody other than you to be the one to care.”

--from “Rock Me on the Water” by Jackson Browne

COURSES TAUGHT Spring 2008:

PHYS 1000

PHYS 1150

BIOGRAPHY:

Professor Tanis came to WMU in 1980 following postdoctoral appointments at Berkeley and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He received the Ph.D. in 1976 from New York University in the area of experimental atomic collision physics, investigating fundamental interactions between ions and atoms. He has been involved in a diverse range of collision research, conducting studies at WMU using the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator and at numerous other laboratories in the U.S. and in Europe. Three times he spent a sabbatical leave at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute in Berlin, Germany. During his career, Dr. Tanis has published more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and presented more than 330 talks or posters at national and international conferences. To support his research, he received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for more than 20 years, in addition to several grants from the National Science Foundation and the Research Corporation. In 1990 Dr. Tanis was elected to Fellowship in the American Physical Society, and in 1993 he received the University Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, the highest professional recognition for a faculty member at WMU. Two times he served as department chairperson, from 1989-1993 and from 1999-2002. Dr. Tanis enjoys teaching the department's large introductory courses, and in 2001 he developed a new course, PHYS 1000, entitled "How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life", and the associated laboratory. This course, based on a book of the same name by Louis A. Bloomfield, is nonmathematical in nature and is designed specifically for non-science liberal arts majors seeking a course to fulfill their general education science requirement.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Dr. Tanis is active in the field of atomic collision physics, investigating fundamental interactions that occur in collisions between atomic particles. Major emphases of this work at present are: (1) the study of interferences associated with electron ejection from diatomic molecules (H₂, N₂, and O₂) in collisions with fast ions, an effect that is analogous to Young’s famous two-slit experiment for light, (2) the transmission and guiding of fast electrons and ions through insulating nanocapillary foils, a phenomenon that has several potential applications in the field of nanoscience, and (3) studies of collision dynamics and atomic structure under the “extreme” conditions of previously unattainable collision velocities (from relativistic to nearly zero) and unprecedented electromagnetic field strengths, including investigations of electron-nucleus bremsstrahlung, hollow-ion production and decay, and electron correlation. These various studies are carried out with collaborators at WMU and at other laboratories, nationally and internationally. Dr. Tanis' research has been supported extensively by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Research Corporation. Several graduate, undergraduate, and high school students have been involved in Dr. Tanis’ research and, to date, five students have received the Ph.D. degree under his supervision, with five more currently in progress.

John A. Tanis
Professor
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008-5252
Phone (269) 387-4960
Fax (269) 387-4939
john.tanis@wmich.edu

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