Eric Edlund Email and Phone Number

I am Associate Professor of Physics at SUNY Cortland. My research interests span physics education, optical diagnostics, turbulence, wind tunnels, and nonlinear dynamics. I recently constructed a small wind tunnel for use in our upper-division physics labs.

I worked on the Alcator C-Mod project, supporting both the PCI and the CXRS diagnostics, as well as developing a new PCI diagnostic for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator located in Greifswald, Germany.

Research in angular momentum transport in rotating sheared flows as it relates to stellar and accretion disk evolution. Designed, built and operated a new experiment for the study of these systems. Published multiple papers on the topic:E. M. Edlund and H. Ji, "Reynolds number scaling of the influence of boundary layers on the global behavior of laboratory quasi-Keplerian flows" Physical Review E 92, 043005 (2015).E. M. Edlund and H. Ji, "Nonlinear stability of laboratory quasi-Keplerian flows" Physical Review E 89, 021004 (2014).

Preceptor for freshman, calculus-based physics. Presented lectures and assisted the teaching team with preparation and grading of exams.

I worked at the US Department of Energy in the Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences (SC-24) as a visiting scientist through the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. My research here focused on looking at citation metrics from the top three plasma physics institutions in the country: MIT, Princeton and UW Madison. Specifically, I complied data on student publications from these groups and analyzed this data for trends, attempting to explain differences in publication metrics in relation to institution funding and type of research.

I took a six month hiatus from research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to teach at Cal Poly. This is a great school in an amazing location. Wonderful people, excellent resources, good students. I taught the winter and spring quarters of 2013 before returning to Princeton to carry on further research.

Presented lectures and conducted labs for introductory, algebra-based physics.

I worked at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, a DOE-funded project to explore the physics of magnetic plasma confinement in pursuit of controlled thermonuclear fusion.My thesis focused on the study of a type of electromagnetic wave that is excited by energetic ions. By observing the frequency and spatial characteristics of these waves we can do "magnetohydrodynamic spectroscopy" and learn about the nature of the deep core plasma equilibrium state, deriving quantities that are otherwise extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.