James Etheridge Email & Phone Number

I am currently the physics demonstration manager at the University of Minnesota. I plan to begin a new career path during the summer of 2023. My academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in physics from The Ohio State University and a Master’s degree in physics from the University of Minnesota. I successfully defended my Master’s thesis in the summer of 2021. My graduate research projects centered around the study of Fe thin films grown on the semiconductor InAs. These films were investigated through a variety of ferromagnetic resonance and x-ray diffraction experiments. In my current job as the physics demonstration manager my duties include providing professors with lecture support through large scale physics demonstrations. It is my job to set up, maintain, and fix over 800 plus physics demonstrations that can be found at the following website, https://spademos.umn.edu/. In addition to maintaining the current demonstrations, I have developed and built several new ones. Along with my main duties I have helped with physics education outreach through the Physics Force program, https://physicsforce.umn.edu/. This program puts on shows for hundreds of elementary and middle school students. During the shows I help backstage as well as act as the safety officer for the more dangerous demonstrations. I have enjoyed my time in academia and have found teaching physics to others very rewarding, but I look forward to pursing a job in industry with bigger challenges and more exciting projects.