Prof. Kyle Forinash, PhD.

Research and Creative Achievements:

Environmental Physics

About my book: Foundations of Environmental Physics; Understanding Energy Use and Human Impacts, Kyle Forinash (Island Press, July 2010).

The world energy supply, its heavy dependence on fossil fuels and the resultant carbon dioxide emissions constitute a multifaceted problem currently facing the world. Since 1999 I have been exploring various aspects of this problem and have written a junior level textbook on environmental physics which was published in July, 2010 (available from Amazon: Foundations of Environmental Physics). I have collected a list of Environmental References and my Power Point talk on energy can be found at: Ending the Fossil Fuel Addiction; What will it take? I also have a presentation and Power Point talk on Climate Change: What do we know about climate? and I maintain an Enviro Blog on environmental issues.

On-line laboratories, computer interfacing and distance learning

Since the early 1990s I have also worked with Ray Wisman and Bill Rumsey on the use of web based material in teaching. The three of us set up the very first web servers for the IUS campus in 1994, establishing IUS as the first IU regional campus having a web presence. Ray and I have also spent significant time in finding easy and inexpensive ways to interface physics experiments and equipment to computers and cell phones. This includes providing remote access to and control of real physics experiments via the Internet. Over the past several years I have, using open source tools, created on-line simulations and tutorial materials for use at the introductory physics level. I received a Summer Faculty Fellowship for the summer of 2005 to work on curriculum material about waves: Waves: An Interactive Tutorial (updated during the summer 2011). I spent my sabbatical leave for the academic year 2006-2007 in Argentina where I gave classes and lectures about web based learning at several universities. I went back to Argentina on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2010 to give lectures about using the Internet and simulations for teaching. The following link to various related projects:

Nonlinear dynamics

From 1990 until 2001 I worked with groups at Los Alamos and in Lyon France on simplistic computer models which model the collective behavior of a chain of point masses joined by nonlinear coupling forces or nonlinear on-site potentials. These kinds of simple models provide insight into nonlinear behavior in discrete systems (such as solids) in general and possibly point the way toward understanding the behavior of more complicated systems such as real biological polymers, for example DNA. The possibility that nonlinear vibrations play an important role in the dynamics of large organic molecules has been vigorously debated in the literature over the past several years. Should it turn out that such nonlinear vibrations play an important role in the biological activity of large organic molecules, a better understanding of their behavior will play an integral part in comprehending the dynamically properties of such basic life processes as DNA unzipping during replication. Publications:

  1. K. Forinash, A. R. Bishop and P. Lomdahl; 'Nonlinear dynamics in the DNA Molecule', Physical Review B, vol.43 (1991) p10743.
  2. K. Forinash and J. Keeney; 'A Double Chain System with Varying Interchain Potential', Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, vol. 25 (1992) p6087.
  3. K. Forinash, M. Peyrard and B. Malomed; 'Interaction of Discrete Breathers with Impurity Modes', Physical Review E, vol.49 (1994) p3400.
  4. K. Forinash, T. Cretegny and M. Peyrard; 'Local Modes and Localization in a Multi-component Nonlinear Lattice', Physical Review E, vol. 55 (1997) p4740.
  5. K. Forinash, C. Lang ; 'Frequency Analysis of Discrete Breather Modes Using a Continuous Wavelet Transform', Physica D, vol. 123 (1998) p437. Figures for this paper.
  6. C. Willis, K. Forinash; 'Nonlinear Response of the Sine Gordon Breather to an ac Driver'; Physica D, 2598 (2000) p1-12.
  7. K. Forinash; 'Coupled multi-component systems: A Simple Membrane Model', Journal of Biological Physics, vol 28 (2002) 63-75.

Miscellaneous Projects

Collected notes, links, references, syllabi and other resources for courses I have taught.

Physics at IUS
Contact Dr. K. Forinash, for comments/suggestions/corrections.