Fullerton : Professor Wins Grant to Study Basic Matter

A physicist at Cal State Fullerton, has been awarded a three-year, $114,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to update scientific knowledge of atoms and molecules.

James M. Feagin, an associate professor, is a participant in an international study of discrepancies between recent scientific experiments and longstanding theories about atoms and molecules.

His work in collaboration with physics professor John S. Briggs at Freiburg University in West Germany was recently described in the British journal Nature.

“Our textbook notions about what holds atoms and molecules together are not always accurate,” Feagin said. He said his work under the federal grant will try to produce calculations that more closely mirror what scientists learn directly by experiment.

“Research in the field of atomic and molecular collision physics has important technological implications in developing energy sources,” he said.

Feagin’s work on campus is being assisted by physics major Curt E. Beckmann of Fullerton. Feagin holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina.