Eugene
Mishchenko
Selected
Courses:
·
4420 Classical
Physics II (Electromagnetism), Spring 2009, Spring 2010
This is a standard upper-level
undergraduate honors class for physics majors aiming to develop understanding
of Maxwell’s equations in terms of vector calculus. It is sometimes referred by
students as the hardest class in the entire curriculum.
·
5010 Classical and
Quantum Mechanics, Fall
2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
This rather peculiar
upper-level undergraduate/lower-level graduate course is required of applied
physics majors in Utah. It is unusual in that it addresses both Newtonian and
Quantum Mechanics within the same
semester. The historical roots of this double-headedness are not completely
clear; some say it was supposed to be a crash course for bright students who
were switching to majoring in physics late in their university education. The
spring semester continuation of this course, 5020, deals in a similar fashion
with both Electrodynamics and Thermodynamics. Whatever its origins, during the
three years that I taught this course its objectives were mainly two-fold: 1)
to serve as advanced clinic in developing problem-solving skills, and 2) to
acquaint students with the format of the GRE Physics exam (by offering daily
multiple choice quizzes) as well as to practice conventional entry-level
graduate Common Exam problems at the level administered in our Department. Were
the outcomes good? I am not sure I can assert this. I believe that some
students clearly enjoyed and possibly benefitted from the format. Some probably
did not. In any case this class earned my first RateMyProfessors
comment, which is too illuminating not to quote here: “His style of lecturing
is doing a bunch of example problems,… Not only do you not learn the theory, it
also doesn't help you solve other problems that he didn't do in class.”
·
7510 Advanced Solid
State Physics I, Spring
2007
This is an upper-level
graduate class for both experimentalists and theorists covering a loose
collection of subjects: mesoscopic transport,
localization, superconductivity, Ginzburg-Landau mean
field theory, vortices, Quantum Hall effect, and some others.