Principia College:
Departments
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Background and Publications
Education:
Professor Cornell started his education in physics at Principia College in 1955. Graduating with honors in 1959, he received the James Watt Physical Science Award for his work with optical communication. From there he accepted a teaching assistantship at the University of California, Berkeley, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Professor W. J. Hooper – a longtime teacher at Principia and graduate from Berkeley. He received the Ph.D. degree in physics in 1964, having written his dissertation on the subject of nuclear magnetic resonance studies of liquid metallic elements gallium and mercury. After teaching physics at Principia for 16 years, he pursued his personal passion for piano by attaining the Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1981. On the last of his sabbatical leaves he served as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe in 1989. There he lectured on electronics and astronomy, learning the southern skies in the process. Upon his return, he was awarded the distinguished service citation for outstanding contributions to teaching in Illinois by that state’s section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Research:
Having taught physics at Principia College from 1964-2002, Professor Cornell developed his professional interest in the nuclear magnetic resonance studies through summer employment and sabbatical research. He first joined the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University, studying rare earth metals and intermetallic compounds in the summers of 1965 and 1966. On his first of three sabbatical leaves, he worked with Edwin Seymour on palladium-cerium alloys at the University of Warwick, UK, in 1971; these alloys were candidates for holding hydrogen in alternate fuel systems. The second sabbatical led him in 1977 to affiliate with Richard Norberg at Washington University, St. Louis, where he studies rare earth deuterides; at the same time he began graduate study in piano performance in the Music Department there. Following his third sabbatical as a Fulbright Lecturer in Zimbabwe, he developed a proton pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer for use in the physics laboratory at Principia College; this spectrometer has also been shared in publication. Since 1998, when the Principia Astronomical Observatory was installed, Professor Cornell became Director of the Observatory. He has contributed astrometric positions of minor planets to the Minor Planet Center, and photometric magnitudes of variable stars to the American Association of Variable Star Observers. The precision of the observations led the Minor Planet Center to award the Observatory the special code number 846. Publications:
1. David A. Cornell, “Racing with the Sun: the Solar Car Project at Principia College” self-published 2006, 88 pp., paperback. | |||||
