Othon

Christina Othon, assistant professor of physics, assistant professor of integrative sciences, met with students enrolled in the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center's Discovery AfterSchool Program on Dec. 1. Othon and Wesleyan students Danielle Levinson '19, Alexis Braunrot '18 and and graduate student Stefan Kramel taught the AfterSchool attendees about physics through hands-on activities. GSTLC s a community-based studio that develops, applies, and disseminates best practices in experiential teaching and learning which enhance Wesleyan and the greater community. The Discovery AfterSchool Programs offers a range of classes in the arts, sciences and math for children in Grades 1- 5. The objective for the day…

On July 15, the Petit Family Foundation awarded Wesleyan’s Physics Department with a $5,000 grant to support the 2016 Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). The three-day conference, scheduled for January 15-17, 2016, will showcase career opportunities available to physicists through plenary talks, panel discussions and a career fair. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and interact with more than 200 fellow undergraduate women physicists as well as a variety of industrial and academic leaders. Chris Othon, assistant professor of physics, and Meredith Hughes, assistant professor of astronomy, are co-organizing the conference with help from Nisha Grewal ’17 (physics/economics) and Julia…

The Green Street Teaching and Learning Center hosted a Girls in Science Camp Aug. 3-7. Wesleyan faculty members Ruth Johnson, assistant professor of biology (pictured third from left); Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies (pictured at far right); Chris Othon, assistant professor of physics (pictured at left), along with three undergraduate students, worked with the campers on various experiments. Sara MacSorley, director of the GSTLC (second from left), coordinated the activities. Johnson led the campers on a bug hunt through Wesleyan's West College Courtyard garden. There, the girls observed insects while considering insect diets and insect life-cycles. The girls…

During extended space travel, astronauts may experience dramatic health consequences, such as anemia, due to reduced gravity and exposure to space radiation. To help combat the adverse effects of space ailments, two scientists at Wesleyan are developing new molecules that enhance cells' ability to tolerate large swings in pressure, fluid redistribution, temperature and radiation exposure. Christina Othon, assistant professor of physics, and Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies, received a $20,000 seed grant from NASA's Biological and Physical Research Enterprise to work on the project titled "Osmoregulation for Microgravity Environments." The scientists are taking inspiration from…

Christina Othon, assistant professor of physics, is the co-author of "Hydration Dynamics at Fluorinated Protein Surfaces," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 in 2010.

The Department of Physics welcomes Christina Othon as an assistant professor. This semester, Othon is teaching a graduate level course called Advanced Topics in Condensed Matter. It is an introductory soft condensed matter physics course that encompasses the physical, mechanical and thermodynamic properties of liquids, colloids, polymers and biological systems. She’s also teaching an upper-level undergraduate laboratory called Experimental Optics, where students learn about the propagation of light, diffraction and polarization. In her own research, Othon uses ultrafast fluorescence spectroscopy to investigate changes in protein-solvent interactions during protein structural transitions. She has also investigated the modificatio (more…)

Local Children Learn about Physics from Wesleyan Faculty, Students

Petit Family Foundation Supports Women in Physics Conference

Faculty Teach Local Girls about Science

Othon, Taylor Design Molecule to Aid Space Travel Ailments

Othon Co-Authors Article on Hydration Dynamics

Physics’s Christina Othon Expert on Membrane Protein Folding, Dynamics