Daniel F. Styer

There are only two kinds of people in this world: Those who appreciate the full variety and complexity and splendor of the human condition, and those who believe that there are only two kinds of people in this world.

-- Dan Styer

John and Marianne Schiffer Professor of Physics
Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1088 USA

office: Wright Laboratory 215
telephone: (440) 775-8183
facsimile: (440) 775-6379
internet: Dan.Styer [at] oberlin.edu
URL: http://www.oberlin.edu/physics/dstyer/
home telephone: (440) 281-1348 (9:00 am - 8:00 pm only)

Schedule:

I am usually in my office on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, unless I am teaching or running. (Check my schedule grid (PDF).) Generally I'm happy to talk with anyone who drops in wanting to learn about physics.

Books:

D.F. Styer, Invitation to Quantum Mechanics.
D.F. Styer, Relativity for the Questioning Mind (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 2011).
R.P. Feynman, A.R. Hibbs, and emending editor D.F. Styer, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals: Emended Edition (Dover Publications, Mineola, NY, 2010).
D.F. Styer, The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2000).
[A serious, rigorous, and honest presentation of quantum mechanics for a general audience, focusing on spin-1/2 systems.]
J.R. Hiller, I.D. Johnston, and D.F. Styer, Quantum Mechanics Simulations (Wiley, New York, 1995).
[Includes software; part of the CUPS project.]

Tips for students and teachers:

Courses taught (selected):

Software published:

CircuitSurveyor, a program demonstrating the electric, magnetic, and Poynting fields associated with electric circuits.
InterferenceSimulator, a program demonstrating quantal two-slit Fresnel interference patterns with one, the other, or both slits open. A magnetic flux situated between the two slits allows demonstration of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Simulations with short de Broglie wavelengths illustrate the classical limit of quantum mechanics. Because of the universality of wave phenomena, this program can also demonstrate the geometrical-optics limit of wave optics for small wavelengths.
Documentation for InterferenceSimulator

Old software published:

Quantum mechanical time development (QMTime), available from Wiley, see "Books" above.
Download a free version that avoids the Borland Pascal bug on faster computers.
QMValue, a descendent of QMTime that treats both time development and the energy eigenproblem.
Download a self-extracting archive that includes the executable program, the Pascal source code, eight profiles, and more.
Identical particles in quantum mechanics (Ident), available from Wiley, see "Books" above.
Download a free version that avoids the Borland Pascal bug on faster computers.
Additional materials related to Ident:
Download a self-extracting archive.
Software related to the article "Insight into Entropy":
Download a self-extracting archive.
This is old software, but I have had good success in running it under DOSBox.

Education:

I grew up on Styer Orchards, which is still an orchard and which retains its old name, even though no one from my family works there any longer.
Neshaminy High School
B.A. 1977, Swarthmore College
Ph.D. 1983, Cornell University

Teaching interests:

Statistical mechanics, Quantum mechanics.
The use and abuse of computers in physics education.

Research interests:

Statistical mechanics, Chaos in quantum mechanics, Quantum mechanical time revivals.

Honors and awards:

Invited speaker at the "Gordon Conference on Physics Research and Education: Quantum Mechanics," June 2002.
Invited author of article on "Quantum Mechanics" for the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics, Supplement: Elementary Particle Physics (John S. Rigden, editor), April 2001.
Associate Editor for American Journal of Physics (January 1997 -- December 1999).
A winner in the 1994 Computers in Physics Educational Software Contest (see Computers in Physics, 8 (1994) 672-678).
Research Status Leaves from Oberlin College: 1991-1992, 2005-2006.
Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement grant, "Using computers to build insight", from the National Science Foundation, 1991-1992.
Research Corporation grant, "Statistical mechanics of low-dimensional disordered materials", 1989-1990.

Other interests:

Backpacking. Botany. Running. The restoration and preservation of natural areas. John Muir studies. Aldo Leopold Locations. Waterfalls of northern Ohio.

Vita (PDF)

Concerning "Entropy and Evolution"