Like many Wabash professors who engage in research, Madsen incorporates junior and senior Physics majors into his research into many experimental topics, including a chaotic double-pendulum, dynamic holography, and optical tweezers. Madsen’s much lauded “Mythbusters” research into everyday questions allows non-Physics majors or minors to glimpse into the research life of a Physics professor. Madsen also serves as the advisor to Wabash Society of Physics Students, which plans community events as well as allows students to explore questions of physical science. Madsen’s work as an experimental physicist explores the questions of atomic physics, coulomb crystals, and graphene ion traps.