Laura Kinnaman, a native Hoosier, is a visiting assistant professor in Physics. She fell in love with physics in her high school classes and continues to thrill in learning how the world works. As an undergraduate at Wittenberg University in Ohio she was heavily involved in the astronomy club as president for four years and in physics outreach with the SPS. In graduate school at the University of Notre Dame, her research focused on developing and applying computational methods for energy research. She pursued teaching opportunities as a teaching assistant and by volunteering as a math teacher with the South Bend Center for the Homeless. At Wabash, Dr. Kinnaman is interested in exploring ways to help students improve the way they communicate scientific ideas, in discussion and in their writing.

Education: PhD, University of Notre Dame, 2011
B.S., Wittenberg University, 2005

PHY 230 Thermal Physics
PHY 315 Quantum Mechanics

American Physical Society Conference, Dallas, Texas, 2011
“Structural, dynamic, and spectroscopic properties of SCC-DFTB water models”

Midwest Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics Conference, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2010
“Validation of the SCC-DFTB water model against classical and ab initio water models”

Midwest Theory and Computational Chemistry Conference, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2010
Poster: “Validation of the SCC-DFTB water model against classical and ab initio water models”

American Physical Society Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2008
“Nonadiabatic Path Sampling: A Computational Method to Study Rare Events Involving Nonadiabatic Transitions”

Kaneb Outstanding Graduate TA Award, 2011
Wittenberg Presidential Scholar Award (top 11 juniors by GPA), 2004
Weaver Prize (Junior who shows the greatest promise for a career in physics), 2004