Effie Koehn , Director of Foreign Student and Scholar Services, will take charge of this group. She plans to include members from the International Committee, the Graduate School, the faculty advisors to the student nationality groups, and the international students themselves. It was announced that the current numbers of students participating in official exchange programs will be 45 outgoing and 36 incoming during the 1999-2000 academic year. P hysics Craig Zaspel , professor of physics at Western Montana College of The University of Montana, has received a National Science Foundation grant to study solitons, wave pulses useful for information transfer at a high bit-rate over large distances. Currently, solitons are being used as information carriers over optical fibers, with the solitons consisting of narrow pulses of light.
Magnetic solitons are narrow microwave pulses propagating in magnets.
Unlike optical solitons, the technology has not been sufficiently developed to produce devices that can be used in microwave frequency communications. Dr. Zaspel s project seeks to develop solutions to the two critical problems that will facilitate development of microwave soliton devices. To develop the mathematical formulation of the problems faced in understanding soliton formation and propagation in thin film magnets, Zaspel is employing Dr. Yuriy Rapoport , a mathematical physicist from Kiev University who has a strong background in electromagnetic wave propagation. Dr. Rapoport s past research projects have included areas from magnetostatic wave propagation in thin films to atmospheric electromagnetic waves and their possible relation to earthquake prediction. Also in April, the announcement was made that Koehn had been awarded the 1999 Distinguished Service to International Education Award.