Thomas HuberFaculty

Tom Huber has a broad range of interests in physics, physics teaching, musical acoustics, and issues of science and society.

Tom received his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 1989; his thesis experiment was a search for mixing of muonium to antimuonium. This was an experiment that was performed at the TRIUMF accelerator in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After joining the Gustavus faculty in 1989, he continued to collaborate with a group at TRIUMF studying muon-catalyzed fusion. He received two National Science Foundation grants, two grants from Research Corporation to enable Gustavus students to participate in this project.

Starting in about 2000, he shifted his primary research focus from nuclear physics to acoustics. He worked with Charles Hendrickson, president of the Hendrickson Organ company, in a study of the vibration of reeds in reed organ pipes. Other studies in musical acoustics focused on vibration of guitars. The centerpiece of his acoustics lab and research program is a state-of-the-art $300,000 Polytec PSV-400 scanning laser Doppler vibrometer that can be used to measure vibrations and operating deflection shapes of objects, and propagation of ultrasonic waves. Starting in 2006, he received National Science Foundation funding for a research program directed at non-contact modal vibration excitation of small structures using the acoustic radiation force from a focused ultrasound transducer. Collaborators on this project included researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Purdue University and University of Massachusetts-Lowell. His most recent National Science Foundation grant (2016-2019) is focused on using a scanning vibrometer to measure propagation of ultrasonic waves in water and air. 

• Tom Huber's Homepage
• List of Recent Publications and Presentations
• Acoustics Research Page and YouTube Channel

Courses Taught