Professor of Physics
153 Padnos Hall of Science
Department of Physics
Tel: (616) 331-2095
Fax: (616) 331-3740
Email: [email protected]

Education 

• Ph.D., Physics, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 1999. 
  Advisor: Dr. James A. Miller 
  Dissertation: “Electron Acceleration in Impulsive Solar Flares”
• M.S., Physics, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 1996
• B.S., Physics, Calvin College, 1993

Professional Experience

• Professor of Physics, Grand Valley State University, 2016 – present
• Associate Professor of Physics, Grand Valley State University, 2009 – 2015
• Visiting Research Scientist, Dynetics, Huntsville, AL, 2009
• Assistant Professor of Physics, Grand Valley State University, 2003 – 2008
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, Calvin College, 2002-2003
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, Hope College, 2000-2002

Research & Teaching Interests

My main focus here at GVSU is teaching and I enjoy teaching across the broad spectrum of course that we offer here. Because my focus is teaching, the true goal of any research that I do here is to teach our students. I am happy to work with students on any well-thought project. My Ph.D. dissertation work involved magnetohydrodynamic modeling of charged particles in the context of solar physics. Since then I have worked on data analysis of X-rays from magnetars and Bayesian classification in the context of missile defense. Most recently I have begun to dabble in studying the plasma generated in electrical discharges.

Research with Undergraduate Students

• Johnathan Goupell : “Extraordinary Bursts from a Soft Gamma Repeater”
• Robert Leach:  “Magnetar Timing Analysis”
• Abram Bos: “Catalog of SGR Events from Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer”
• Patrick Minor: “Analysis of Radio Emissions from Multiple Celestial Sources”
• Jessica Stark: “What’s Happening in a Salchow, Anyhow?”
• Joseph Campbell: “Microwave Breakdown of N2 at Sub-Atmosphere Pressures”
• Austen Jousma: “Computational Modeling of Solar System Formation”
• Sean Hamilton: “Second and Third Order Intermodulation Distortion in Superconducting Passive Circuits”
• Rich Huizen: “Relaxation of Microwave Nonlinearity in a Cuprate Superconducting Resonator”
• Ross Kunzii: “Spectroscopic Analysis of DC Glow Discharge”
• Matthew Underhill: “Investigation of Spectral Signatures in Microwave Discharges”

Other Works

• I enjoy writing articles for the GVSU Interchange
• I am currently the lab/lecture coordinator for our introductory sequence laboratory courses.

Selected Publications

• R. Huizen, S. Hamilton, G. Lenters, S. Remillard, “Relaxation of Microwave Nonlinearity in a Cuprate Superconducting Resonator”, IEEE Transaction on Applied Superconductivity, 27, 4, 7500205 (2017)
• J. Campbell, A. Bowman III, G. Lenters, S. Remillard, “Collision and diffusion in microwave breakdown of nitrogen gas in and around micro gaps”, AIP Advances, 4, 017119 (2014)
• P. Woods, D. Chitwood, S. Richards, & G. Lenters, “Sea-Based X-band Radar Hit/Kill Assessment Methodology Development Towards Build D of the Ballistic Missile Defense System”, MD-SEA (2009)

Selected Grants

• “Expanding Research and Teaching in Microwave Physics: A Spectroscopic Study of Microwave Microplasma Discharges in a Quarter-wave Resonator”, Geoffrey T. Lenters & Stephen K. Remillard, $10,000 from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium Research Seed Grant Program for the term 6/2017—6/2018
• “Improving Quantitative Literacy Skills in an Introductory Laboratory Course”, Geoff Lenters and Maja Krcmar, $7,500 for summer 2015. Not funded.