Professor of Physics

Physics / Academic

Office:

IDEA Center 168

Mailbox:

61556

Email:

Email

Phone:

903.813.2355

Education:

B.S. University of Bucharest
M.A. Western Michigan University
Ph.D. Western Michigan University

Faculty Bio:

Although I was not born in Texas, I got here as fast as I could (sort of). I was born in Romania and obtained my undergraduate education at University of Bucharest. After completing my PhD at Western Michigan University and doing research on High Temperature Superconductors at Argonne National Laboratory, I moved to Texas for the opportunity to work with semiconductors. While here I discovered Austin College and I have been teaching here since 2005.

My students are the reason I come to work every morning. It does not matter if I am solving complex differential equations to teach oscillations in an upper level class, or I talk about Newton’s Laws in an entry level class, I find meaning in my teaching when my students are engaged and “get it.” When my students get excited about finally mastering a difficult concept or learn why the sun turns red at sunset, I know I’ve contributed to their education.

Recent Courses:

Classical Mechanics, Advanced Laboratory, Introduction to Electronics, Advanced Research Experience, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Discoveries and Inventions of Modern Science, Explorations in Physics, Explorations in Physics for Teachers, Great Scientific Discoveries

Research Interests:

High Temperature Superconductivity, Superconductor – Ferromagnet Interactions, Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers, Thin Films at Nanoscale, Semiconductor Processing and Design.

In the News:

President Elect of the Texas Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers

Publications:

* represents Austin College student

1. Renato S. Guimares Sr*, Amy Anderson*, Archit K. Vasan*, James Tenney*, John Chesser* , Ryan Zimmerman * (under Andra Petrean’s supervision) “Study of a classical System Composed of a Bead and a Spinning Hoop” submitted to the Journal of Advanced Physics Laboratory Investigation
2. A. Petrean, L. M. Paulius, V. Tobos, H. Q. Cronk*, and W. K. Kwok, “YBa2Cu3O7-δ with In-plane Columnar Defects Introduced by Irradiation” Physica C 505 65 (2014).
3. Lindsay Bechtel*, Aryn Hays*, Anthony Johnsen*, Chris Tanner*, and Colton Turbeville*, (under Andra Petrean’s supervision) “Electrical and Magnetic Properties of High Temperature Superconductors Using Varying forms of Data Acquisition” Journal of Advanced Physics Laboratory Investigation 1 (1), 3 (2013)
4. G. Karapetrov, A Belkin, V. Novosad, M. Iavarone, J. Fedor, J.E. Pearson, A. Petrean-Troncalli, “Adjustable Superconducting Anisotropy in Superconductor-Ferromagnet Bilayers” IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 19 (3), 3471 (2009)
5. A. Belkin, V. Novosad, M. Iavarone, J. Fedor, J. E. Pearson, A. Petrean-Troncalli, and G. Karapetrov, “Tunable transport in magnetically coupled MoGe/Permalloy hybrids” Applied Physics Letters 93 (7), 72510 (2008)