Jamie Day\u2019s interest in physics goes deep but his love for learning goes far beyond a linoleum-floored laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Day can be found outside with a telescope, showing students the transit of Venus across the sun. Or you might find him in Transylvania\u2019s Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum, where he offers tours of the collection of nineteenth-century science and medical artifacts and anatomical models. Or you may find him at a Transylvania Creative Retreat, where Day can indulge his artistic impulses by carving exquisite wooden bowls and spoons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A steadfast supporter of the liberal arts curriculum, Day believes that all disciplines\u2014arts and sciences\u2014are connected, although the interrelationships may not always be \u201cintuitively obvious.\u201d He has team-taught with faculty from art, psychology and religion, in addition to math and science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is currently developing a May term poetry and physics class with Maurice Manning, professor of English and Transylvania writer-in-residence. A casual observer may think the two disciplines are quite dissimilar. But Day would disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything that we express emotionally we express through metaphor. There\u2019s no way we can really convey what neurons and all the chemicals in a body are doing. But you can create a metaphor to share that experience with someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In poetry, metaphors overlap with those of physics. If someone wants to describe an emotional experience, they do it with metaphors drawn from the world that is governed by physics, which we describe using our own metaphors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything we know emotionally and everything we know quantitatively we know through metaphor. When we have a law in physics, it\u2019s really a metaphor for how the universe works, because it works no matter how we describe it. It doesn\u2019t need us to operate.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n From a young age, physics appealed to Day because he could solve problems \u201cwithout having to memorize stuff.\u201d It was more than understanding numbers. \u201cIt\u2019s about how the universe and matter work,\u201d says Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Day knows that physics is no piece of cake. That\u2019s one of the things he loves about teaching it. \u201cEvery physicist I know is frustrated by physics. You have to see the bigger picture to be able to push through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that in mind, Day reminds his students that delayed gratification pays off. It makes him proud to watch students develop confidence in their problem-solving skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the way physics teaches students to persevere through difficulty applies to many areas of life. In the real world, problems can\u2019t be solved in 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Day, nothing can take the place of simply doing the work. \u201cYou can have digital tutoring systems and you can try all kinds of gimmicks, but you still need to sit down with a pen and paper and calculator and do problem after problem after problem until you learn to do them right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through this slog, Day is there for his students, whether it\u2019s for a simple homework problem or senior independent research. He believes Transylvania\u2019s opportunities for independent research offer a unique advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of our students have the upper hand once they get to graduate school because they\u2019ve already been in the lab. At larger schools, most students wouldn\u2019t have had a chance to do that type of research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ph.D., Experimental Atomic Physics, University of Kentucky, 1995 Introduction to Theoretical Physics Quantum optics Conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Physics and Astronomy in Aarhus, Denmark, where he developed experimental methods to detect semi-classical elliptic states in highly excited sodium atoms<\/p>\n\n\n\n Served four years as associate editor of\u00a0Rittenhouse: Journal of the American Scientific Enterprise<\/em>, a publication founded by Smithsonian curators<\/p>\n\n\n\n Served on the American Association of Physics Teachers History and Philosophy of Science Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curator of Transylvania’s Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organized the Symposium on the Medical History of Transylvania, Lexington, and the Ohio River Valley, 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serves on the editorial committee of\u00a0Transylvania Treasures<\/em>, a publication that highlights Transylvania\u2019s unique history<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sponsor for Transylvania’s chapter of the Society of Physics Students<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4493,"template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"academic_division":[7,29],"class_list":["post-266","faculty","type-faculty","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAcademic History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
B.A., Carson-Newman College, 1988<\/p>\n\n\n\nCourses Taught at Transy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
University Physics I
Modern Physics II
Optics<\/p>\n\n\n\nAreas of Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Transylvania\u2019s history as a medical school during the 1830s<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nRecent Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n