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Peter A. Beckmann Professor of PhysicsPeter Beckmann was born and raised in New Westminster, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He did his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in the Physics Department at the University of British Columbia. His principal thesis work involved using gas phase nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation techniques to better understand the rotational structure of the methane molecule and the effects of collisions. He did a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nottingham, England where he studied the quantum mechanical tunneling of intramolecular atomic groups at low temperatures using electron spin and nuclear spin relaxation techniques. He joined the Physics Department at Bryn Mawr College in 1977. Bryn Mawr is in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1996 he also became a Research Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, an hour drive from Bryn Mawr. At Bryn Mawr and Delaware he uses theoretical, computational and experimental techniques to study structure and motion in solids. Theoretical projects involve using statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics and probability theory to model molecular and intramolecular motion in terms of fundamental microscopic processes in the solid state. Computational techniques involve the use of numerical simulation and computer-based algebra packages to aid the theoretical research. The technique used in the experimental program is solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr). Current projects involve lead (Pb-207) nmr, deuterium (H-2) nmr and proton (H-1) nmr in a variety of ionic and covalent solids. He is also very involved in curricular development at Bryn Mawr. On one hand he is integrating modern technology and twentieth-century physics into the physics curriculum and on the other hand he is developing integrated liberal arts composition courses that span many of the traditional disciplines in the natural sciences and the humanities.
E-mail:
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