Kurt Fletcher

Distinguished Teaching Professor
ISC 218
585-245-5295
fletcher@geneseo.edu

Kurt Fletcher has been a member of the Geneseo faculty since 1993.  He was awarded the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1997 and was promoted to Professor in 2003.  In 2011, Fletcher was named a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor.  Dr. Fletcher and his wife live in Geneseo.  They have two sons.

Portrait of Kurt Fletcher

Office Hours

Office Hours    Fall 2024 

Tuesday 9:00-10:00

Wednesday 1:30-3:00

Thursday 9:00-10:00 and 2:00-3:30

Also available by appointment

View My Calendar

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D. & M.S., Nuclear Physics; University of North Carolina

  • B.S., Physics; Rochester Institute of Technology

  • A.S., Physics & A.A.S.; Jamestown Community College

Research Interests

Publications

  • “The Projectile Scattering Apparatus - A Modern Update to a Classic Experiment,” K.A. Fletcher, N. Lallier, J. Masman, The Physics Teacher 61 (2023). 6-9.

  • “The Build-it, Leave-it, Teach-it Program: A Model for Recruiting and Retaining Pre-service Physics Teachers,” K.A. Fletcher, J. McLean, R. Sells, K. Rommel-Esham, D. Showers, The Physics Teacher 57 (2019) 409-411.

  • “The Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer for Measurements of the Absolute Neutron Spectrum at OMEGA and the NIF,” D. Casey, J. Frenje, M. Gatu Johnson, F. Seguin, C. Li, R. Petrasso, V. Yu. Glebov, J. Katz, J. Magoon, D. Meyerhofer, T.C. Sangster, M. Shoup, J. Ulreich, R.C. Ashabranner, R.M. Bionta, A.C. Carpenter, B. Felker, H.Y. Khater, S. LePape, A. MacKinnon, M.A. McKernan, M. Moran, J.R. Rygg, M.F. Yeoman, R. Zacharias, R. Leeper, K. Fletcher, M. Farrell, D. Jasion, J. Kilkenny, R. Paguio, Rev. of Sci. Instru. 84, 043506 (2013).

  • "Generating Excitement: Build Your Own Generator to Study the Transfer of Energy," K. Fletcher, K. Rommel Esham, D. Farthing, A. Sheldon, Science Scope 35 (2011) 52-57.

  • “Probing High Areal-density Cryogenic Deuterium-Tritium Implosions using Downscattered Neutron Spectra Measured by the Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer,” J. A. Frenje, D. T. Casey, C. K. Li, F. H. Séguin, R. D. Petrasso, V. Yu. Glebov, P. B. Radha, T. C. Sangster, D. D. Meyerhofer,S. P. Hatchett, S. W. Haan, C. J. Cerjan, O. L. Landen, K. A. Fletcher, and R. J. Leeper, Physics of Plasmas 17 (2010) 056311.

  • “Detection of Charged Particles with Charge Injection Devices,” K.A. Fletcher, B. Apker, S. Hammond, J. Punaro, F.J. Marshall, J. Laine, R. Forties, Reviews of Scientific Instruments 78 (2007) 063301-1.

More About Me

Links

Announcements

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Favorite Quotes

"The Mind is not a vessel to be filled,  but a fire to be lighted." - Plutarch

"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself." -Neils Bohr

 "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort" - F.D.R.

"It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others--and less trouble." - Mark Twain

"Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously." -G. K. Chesterton

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. " -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it." -Carl Sagan

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
― T.H. White

"Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Roald Dahl

"The Lord God has given me
    the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
    the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
    wakens my ear
    to listen as those who are taught." - Isaiah 50:4

Classes

  • PHYS 123: Analytical Physics I

    An analytical, calculus-based treatment of kinematics, Newton's laws, kinetic and potential energy, friction, linear momentum, angular momentum, rotational dynamics, gravitational physics, and simple harmonic motion.

  • PHYS 124: Analytical Physics I Lab

    An experimental course developing laboratory and analytical skills in physics. Includes experiments in kinematics, Newton's laws, uncertainty analysis, momentum and energy conservation, and projectile motion.

  • PHYS 352: Quantum Mechanics I

    An introductory course in the theory of non-relativistic quantum mechanics in its currently accepted form. Experiments resulting in the mathematical formulation of quantum theory are discussed. Hilbert space vectors, operator algebra, and the postulates of quantum mechanics lead to proofs of the compatibility theorem and the uncertainty principle. The states of a particle, as determined by Schroedinger's Equation, are studied in several situations.