Professor of Physics
Contact Information:
Office: Science Building 173
Phone: 616-526-6341
Fax: 616-526-6501
email: lmolnar @ calvin.edu
Mail:
1734 Knollcrest Circle SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4403
Education:
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1985
Research Interests:
After earning
his Ph.D. in Astronomy, Dr. Molnar spent three years as a postdoctoral
fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He was an assistant
professor at the University of Iowa before coming to Calvin in 1998. He
has also spent a year in Germany. His research interests relate to radio
interferometry and to the dynamics of disks and of few-body systems. Specific
projects include studying Saturn's rings and radio emissions from Saturn's
atmosphere. He has observing time in October 1998 on the VLBA in New Mexico.
In 1990, Dr. Molnar received the Bart J. Bok Prize, which is awarded in
recognition of distinguished research by a Harvard graduate under age
35. In 1991 he received an award for teaching excellence at the University
of Iowa, and in 1992-94 was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Some of
his work with collaborator Robert Mutel at Iowa regarding passage of stars
near the Oort Comet Cloud and the corresponding implications for triggering
a comet shower earned him mention in the January 31, 1998 Science News.
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