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Dan Endean '09 named Rossing Scholar

By Carole Leigh Engblom
September 26, 2007

St. Olaf junior Daniel Endean is one of three students selected nationally as a Rossing Physics scholar by the ELCA Foundation. The scholarships are given to outstanding physics students. Endean will receive a $10,000 scholarship for the 2007-08 academic year. The scholarship program, in its third year, has three goals: to encourage top physics students to attend ELCA colleges and universities, to help ELCA schools recruit top students and to encourage students at ELCA schools to consider majoring in physics.

"I am really excited to have received this award," says Endean, a physics and mathematics double major whose hometown is Holland, Michigan. "I am grateful to the Rossing family for supporting me in pursuing my education in physics and hope that upon finishing graduate school I can inspire others to enjoy physics as much as I do."

Endean spent this past summer as a research assistant for St. Olaf Assistant Professor of Physics Jason Engbrect. His work focused on simulation and construction of a positron beam.

"Positrons are one of the most readily available and simplest particles available to scientists who wish to study anti-matter," Endean explains. "Anti-matter has been proposed as a means of propulsion for spacecraft and a powerful explosive, but more practically it provides a critical check for many of the most fundamental theories in physics."

Endean's research also has a practical side. "Positrons it turns out, are excellent probes for determining how big holes are inside a material," he says. "Polymer engineers, semiconductor manufacturers and many other material scientists are very concerned about the size of microscopic holes in their materials. Using positrons, we are able to tell the if the holes in a piece of material are 10 atoms or 10,000 atoms wide. This may not seem significant for building a Tupperware container but in a computer chip where the wire may only be 1000 atoms across, the size of holes in the wire has a great impact on the circuit's performance."

In addition to his summer research work, Endean is a graduate of the college's prestigious Great Conversation program, and he works as a tutor for the physics department, volunteers his time at an after school study program for Northfield children and plays intramural soccer.

Gifts from Dr. Thomas D. Rossing established the Rossing Fund for Physics Education Endowment in the ELCA Foundation. Rossing, a professor at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, taught at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., for 14 years. St. Olaf is one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities.

"The St. Olaf experience reaffirmed my belief in the value of a liberal arts education for future scientists and other leaders," says Rossing.

St. Olaf senior Brett Anderson of Plymouth, Minn., was one of three students selected as First Alternates and will receive $3,000 for his academic expenses in 2007-08.

The ELCA Foundation assists congregations and individuals through a variety of gift-planning options that support the ministries of the ELCA.

Contact Carole Engblom at 507-786-3271 or leigh@stolaf.edu.