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Academics - Physics Faculty & Staff

Academics - Physics Faculty & Staff

Nathan Tompkins

BKT Assistant Professor of Physics

CONTACT:

Goodrich Hall 312
765-361-6305
tompkinn@wabash.edu

Picture of Tompkins, Nathan

 

Nate Tompkins came to the Wabash College Physics Department in September 2017 after completing his Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Prof. Tompkins is a native of Oregon and completed his undergraduate studies in Physics at Reed College, where he learned to love the small liberal arts college environment. The intense study and close interactions with students at Wabash are exactly the collegiate environment he was looking for in his career as a professor. Prof. Tompkins is an experimental physicist and studies pattern formation, synchronization, and how to make experimental methods more affordable.

In the classroom, Prof. Tompkins shows how the phenomena studied in Physics courses are observable and accessible to everyone. Accessibility includes demonstrations and laboratory exercises that don't require sophisticated equipment to perform, but instead can be performed by almost anyone - almost anywhere. Prof. Tompkins hopes that students will learn that how Physics exists everywhere, including outside of the walls of the classroom.

In the laboratory, Prof. Tompkins is also focused on the accessibility of experimental methods. As a graduate student, Prof. Tompkins was trained in photolithography and was the director of the cleanroom as part of his postdoctoral position, a facility with multimillion dollar equipment. At Wabash, Prof. Tompkins is focused on how to make these experimental methods affordable and feasible to students and researchers, regardless of their academic institution.

Prof. Tompkins is passionate about educating everybody to appreciate the beauty of the physical world around them and in preparing physics students for graduate school or whatever their next career step may be. He serves as a member of the Pre-Engineering committee at Wabash as well as a guest editor for the scientific video-journal, JoVE.

 

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Physics, Brandeis University, 2015
M.S. Physics, Brandeis University, 2010
B.A. Physics, Reed College, 2005

RECENT COURSE OFFERINGS

Physics 109 - Physics Algebra I
Physics 110 - Physics Algebra II
Physics 209 - Thermal Physics & Relativity
Physics 210 - Introduction to Quantum Theory
Physics 220 - Electronics
Physics 277 - Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos
Physics 310 - Classical Mechanics
Physics 314 – Electromagnetic Theory

FRT 101 - Freshman Tutorial
FRC 101 - Enduring Questions

COL 402 - Senior Colloquium

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

  • "Color Vision Deficiency and Educational Diagrams," Ides of August, Wabash College, August 2021

  • "Nature Does It, So Why Can't We? Natural Pattern Formation and Engineered Materials," Wabash College Physics Colloquium, December 2018

  • "How the Leopard Got Its Spots: Testing Turing's Theory of Morphogenesis in Chemical Cells," Monon Bell Physics Lecture, DePauw University, November 2017

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  • K. Gunther, N. Tompkins
    “Color Vision Deficiency and Teaching Electromagnetism” 
    The Physics Teacher, In Press [2022]

  • T. Richmond‡, N. Tompkins
    “3D Microfluidics in PDMS: Manufacturing with 3D Molding” 
    Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 25 (9), 1-7 [2021]

  • T. Lupinski‡, M. Ludwig, S. Fraden, N. Tompkins
    “An Arduino Based Constant Pressure Fluid Pump” 
    The European Physical Journal E, 44 (2), 1-7 [2021]

  • M. M. Norton∗, N. Tompkins∗, B. Blanc, M. C. Cambria†, J. Held†, S. Fraden 
    “Dynamics of Reaction-Diffusion Oscillators in Star and other Networks with Cyclic Symmetries Exhibiting Multiple Clusters” 
    Physical Review Letters, 123 (14), 148301 [2019]

  • N. Tompkins 
    “Miniature Tesla Coil Teaching Lab” 
    The Physics Teacher, 57 (6), 390-392 [2019]

  • N. Tompkins, K. J. Spinelli, D. Choi, and P. G. Barr-Gillespie
    “A Model for Link Pruning to Establish Correctly Polarized and Oriented Tip Links in Hair Bundles” 
    Biophysical Journal, 113 (8), 1868-1881 [2017]

  • N. Tompkins, S. Fraden 
    “An Inexpensive Programmable Illumination Microscope with Active Feedback”
    American Journal of Physics, 84 (2), 150 [2016]

  • N. Tompkins, M. C. Cambria†, A. Wang†, S. Fraden
    “Creation and Perturbation of Planar Networks of Chemical Oscillators” 
    Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science 25, 064611 [2015]

  • N. Tompkins∗, N. Li∗, C. Girabawe, M. Heymann, G. B. Ermentrout, I. R. Epstein, S. Fraden
    “Testing Turing’s Theory of Morphogenesis in Chemical Cells” 
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (12), 4397-4402 [2014]

‡ denotes Wabash undergraduate student
† denotes undergraduate student
∗ authors contributed equally

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

  • Caleb Powell (‘22) and Fardin Hoque (‘24)
    – Project: Brinicle Formation Simulations (Summer 2021)

  • Tyler Richmond (‘21) and Hamza Moudden (‘21)
    – Project: Advection Diffusion Reaction Simulations (Summer 2020)

  • Tyler Richmond (‘21)
    – Project: 3D Printed PDMS Molds (Summer 2019 - Spring 2021)
    – Publication: T. Richmond, N. Tompkins 
    “3D Microfluidics in PDMS: Manufacturing with 3D Molding” 
    Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 25 (9), 1-7 [2021]

  • Teddy Lupinski (‘20)
    – Project: Constant Pressure Pump (Summer 2018 - Spring 2020)
    – Publication: T. Lupinski, M. Ludwig, S. Fraden, N. Tompkins 
    “An Arduino Based Constant Pressure Fluid     Pump”
    The European Physical Journal E, 44 (2), 1-7 [2021]

  • Zach Ostrowski (‘20)
    – Project: Laminar Flow Reaction Chamber (Summer 2018 - Summer 2019)

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