Prof. Kyle Forinash, PhD.


Research and Creative Achievements:

Environmental Physics

Foundations of Environmental Physics; Understanding Energy Use and Human Impacts, Kyle Forinash (Island Press, July 2010). Available from Amazon: Foundations of Environmental Physics.

On-line, computer and cell phone teaching resources

Since the early 1990s I have worked with Ray Wisman and Bill Rumsey on the use of computers and 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 have presented our explorations in many publications and presentations, both in the US and in Argentina (in Spanish) while on sabbatical in 2006-2007 and a Fulbright grant in 2010.

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 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.