Notes from Alumni of our Physics, Cooperative Engineering & Secondary Education Programs Geology & Physics Department Lock Haven University

“I definitely have a leg up on the other interns by visiting this past winter, and by taking all the courses that Lock Haven offered. My advisor was very impressed because there was very little he had to explain to me, and now he can't seem to find enough work for me to.”

"Just wanted to take a moment to thank Dr. Reid, Dr. Wheeler and Dr. Goonewardene for the time and attention that you guys continually give to students like me. I genuinely feel that by the time I left LHU, I was more prepared than not only the peers I have met in the industry, but many of the graduate students/post docs I speak with on a day to day basis." “I spend a tremendous amount of my time speaking with grad students, who I wish would have learned the same skills you taught us. For example, when I was in the UK a few months ago, we received a letter from a customer who complained about our products after obtaining a year worth of poor results. All I could think of is that if you were running that experiment, the first thing we would do would be to calibrate the movement so we knew exactly how much we were moving in each direction.”

I started at Lock Haven University in 1999, transferred to Penn State in 2001 and graduated in 2003 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. I work for General Dynamics in State College where I design satellite communications equipment. It's a great job that I've been well prepared for with a good education from both LHU and PSU.

While my job is rewarding, I find most of my satisfaction comes from a volunteer group I've belonged to for over 14 years, and have recently had the chance to put my degree to work in that field...

I've been a volunteer with Civil Air Patrol (www.cap.gov) since I was 12. Among other things, CAP handles nearly 95% of all search and rescue missions within the United States as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. While I've always been involved as a search team member, within the past 2 years I've been able to add a new tool to our tool box. In short - it deals with locating missing aircraft and missing persons (the majority of CAP's searches) by tracking cell phones on the pilot/passengers or the missing person.

I've become a national resource for Civil Air Patrol and the Air Force assisting with search and rescue missions across the US for a little over a year. It's not as easy or as simple as Hollywood portrays it in movies or TV shows - it's a real science that takes reasoning, an education, and brain power. I was lucky enough to be in the right spot, at the right time, and with the right education (thanks to all of you and many other educators), and had the right ideas to put this technology to use. In it's first application we located an aircraft that had been missing for six days - we had no other leads on finding it until the cell phone technology was put to use. While the pilot was killed on impact, we were at least able to provide closure for the family during a difficult time. Since then, I've used this new tool on at least 6 other searches, of which 4 lives were saved (using this tool in conjunction with others in our tool box).

I wanted to share this with all of you - so you can know you've made a difference in yet another life. And that the difference you've made in my life will reach the lives of others.

Thanks for the great job you do!"

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