First beam time

Today we had our first beam time at the Kansas Light Source (KLS). We couldn’t make any “real” measurements, because we had to align everything and to eliminate some troubles. We have to keep in mind to wear these fancy pink Laser Goggles at all times to minimize possible eye hazards.

Always wear your Laser Goggles 

Gas distribution for the COLTRIMS setups

When we are not “working” in the lab, most of the time we spend at the Recreation Complex. They have everything you need for sports and fitness. There are several squash, basketball, football, soccer and baseball courts and many more. The weightlifting, cardio and freestyle area is pretty large and they have anything you need. Actually there is an indoor running circuit to avoid the heat outside. Outdoors there are lots of playgrounds as well.

Recreation Complex

Recreation Complex - Outdoor courts

Rec - weightlifting area

Rec - freestyle area

Rec - multipurpose curt

Rec - basketball courts

The only thing that’s missing on campus is cheap and healthy food. There are just these crappy fast-food restaurants at their “canteen”.

Taco Bell and other crapp at the "canteen"

First days in Manhattan, Kansas

I'm in Manhattan, Kansas since Sunday June 29th. It's really hot here - everyday between 28°C and 36°C. Even at night it doesn't cool down much. It feels like Egypt or a desert except everything is green.

It seems like everyone in Manhattan is proud of its University. You can buy merchandise like everywhere - even at Walmart.

K-State Store

Merchandise at Walmart

The campus is huge and really beautiful. You could consider it like a Campus Westend of Frankfurts Uni times 30. It takes about 45 minutes to walk from the south-eastern to the north-western part of the campus. Most buildings have a mediaeval-like architecture.

Hale library

K-State Campus

K-State map

Cardwell Hall - Department of Physics

K-State

At the Department of Physics there is the J.R. McDonald Laboratory which specialized in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. Daniel and I are going to take over an experimental setup which was built and used by a former PhD student. It contains a pump-probe setup. A higher harmonic EUV (extreme ultra violet) pulse is generated by a short IR (infra red) pulse. A COLTRIMS setup is used to image time resolved molecular dynamics. We should get our first beamtime by the end of this week.

Beam guidance, processing and interferometer

COLTRIMS setup

New York - Part 2

American Museum of Natural History

Central Park

 Sorry for the delay. I couldn't find any time for updating this blog so far. So here is my 2nd part of my New York trip.
 

Central Park

China Town

After all these bus and walking tours I wanted to do something different. Thus I visited the American Museum of Natural History and afterwards I did a guided bike tour through Central Park. It’s way larger than I thought. Central Park could be a city by itself.
By the way: All the described tours were included in my New York Pass.

"All the Way" with Brian Cranston

On Friday morning I did a Guided Tour at SoHo (South of Houston Street), Little Italy and China Town and later on a Broadway tour. I wanted to see the play “All the way” with Brian Cranston, but unfortunately all student tickets were sold out. There were just some tickets left starting at 200$ in a back row. That seemed way too expensive to me for just a play. So no “Heisenberg” for me -.-

Webster Hall

Instead I did a Pub Crawl. The last stop was Webster Hall – the largest night club in New York.

At my last day in New York I just did a “Food on Foot” tour. It was a kind of eat-and-walk tour to reveal some great and inexpensive places to eat.

On Sunday morning at 6 a.m. I took the flight from New York to Manhattan in Kansas via Dallas. It’s pretty hot here in Manhattan, but I like the weather.

Find out more about Manhattan and Kansas in my next post.