University of Tennessee Physics

Dr. William E. Blass

Professor
Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1963

Office: 603 Science and Engineering Building or
Dunford Hall Telecomm/Network Services
Phone: 865-974-7846 or 865-974-9596
Fax: 974-974-7843
wblass@utk.edu
Web Site: http://aurora.phys.utk.edu/~blass

MOLECULAR SYSTEMS

Professor Blass' research interests and activities include high resolution infrared spectroscopy, molecular vibration-rotation theory, planetary and stellar atmospheres, laboratory astrophysics, laser spectroscopy, computational physics including neural computational systems applied to physical and astrophysical problems, instrument design and enhancement, multispectral imaging as a scientific observational tool, high performance distributed computing and high speed computer networks, control of chaos in scientific instruments, fuzzy set theory applied to physics theory and instrumentation.

Brief Vita

William E. Blass, Professor of Physics, earned a B.A. in physics (summa cum laude) from Saint Mary's College (Minnesota) in 1959 and a Ph.D. in physics from Michigan State University in 1963.

Professional Experience: 1963 - 1967 Assistant Professor, St. Mary's College, Minnesota, Co-principal investigator AEC Contract AT-(11-1)-1417, 1964-67; 1967- present Faculty, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee:1969 - tenured;1971-1981 -Associate Professor;1981 -Professor; Associate Director for Research and Academic Computing, University of Tennessee Computing Center 1990-1993, Faculty Associate for Supercomputing, University of Tennessee Computing Center 1993 -- , Senator, Faculty Senate 1993-96, Senate Executive Committee 1993.--., Chair, University Research Council 1995.--. Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory: 1968- -..,Director 1979-present. Adjunct Associate Professor, Computer Science 1973-1975 , Consultant, Honeywell, Inc. Corporate Research, Mpls., MN, 1981, Tennessee Valley Authority Transportation Services 1988, Martin Marietta Energy Systems, ORNL M&C Division1989-1991, USRA Consultant to LEP, Code 690, NASA/GSFC 1992-1994 (summers).

Awards, Honors, or Fellowships: Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Fellow 1959-1960; National Science Foundation Cooperative Fellow 1960-1963. Honor Societies: Delta Epsilon Sigma (scholastic)1963-67 Chairman, Beta Chapter, Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics), Charter Advisor, St. Mary's Chapter 1964-67, Sigma Xi (scientific), Pi Kappa Delta (forensic), Pi Delta Epsilon (journalistic), NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center 1986, 1987,1990,1991, Guest observer, Kitt Peak National Observatory, McMath Solar Telescope 1986, 4 meter Myall telescope 1987, Chairman, joint committee for the Ellis R. Lippincott award 1989 Optical Society of America, Coblentz Society and Society for Applied Spectroscopy, ORAU, DOE Nuclear Energy Research Associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Metals and Ceramics Division, Materials Analysis User Center 1989, University Space Research Association Visiting Scientist, Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Summer 1992,1993,1994, recipeint of the Sir Harold Thompson Award, 1993 with co-authors as jointly the most siginificant contribution to spectroscopy published in Spectrochimica Acta Part A in 1993.

Selected Publications

  1. Mark Weber, Paul B. Crilly, and William E. Blass, "Adaptive Noise Filtering Using and Error Backpropagation Neural Network," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 40, 820-825 (1991).
  2. Mark Weber, William E. Blass, George W. Halsey, John J, Hillman, and William C. Maguire, " -Resonance Effects in the , , and Bands of C2H2 Near 13.7m ," Spectrochimica Acta , 48A, 1203-1226 (1992).
  3. J. Hillman, D. C. Reuter, D. E. Jennings, G. L. Bjoraker, and W. E. Blass, "Extraterrestrial spectroscopy: foreign-gas broadening of propane as it applies to the atmosphere of Titan," Spectrochimica Acta, 48A, 1249-1255 (1992).
  4. Glenn S. Orton, John H. Lacy, Jeffery M. Achtermann, Parvinder Parmar, and William E. Blass, "Thermal Spectroscopy of Neptune: The Stratospheric Temperature, Hydrocarbon Abundances, and Isotopic Ratios, ICARUS, 100, 541-555 (1992).
  5. Mark Weber, William E. Blass, Dennis C. Reuter, Donald E. Jennings, and John J. Hillman, " The Band of 13C12CH6 (Ethane) at 12.2m," Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy, 159, 388-394 (1993). ( Weber, Reuter, Jennings, and Hillman: - NASA/GSFC)
  6. Mark Weber, William E. Blass, Shacher Nadler, George W. Halsey, John J, Hillman, and William C. Maguire, "-Resonance Effects in C2H2 Near 13.7 m , Part II: The Two Quantum Hotbands" Spectrochimica Acta, 49A, 1659 (1993), (Halsey, Nadler, Hillman, Maguire: - NASA/GSFC
  7. Mark Weber, William E. Blass, George W. Halsey, and John J, Hillman, "-Resonance Perturbations of IR-Intensities in C2H2 Near 13.7m ," J. Molecular Spectroscopy 165, 107-123 (1994) (Halsey, and Hillman: - NASA/GSFC)
  8. Mark Weber,Dennis C. Reuter, Marcos Sirota, William E. Blass, and John J. Hillman, " High Resolution FTS and TDL Spectroscopy of the Fundamental of 13C12CH6 (Ethane) at 12.2m," Journal of Chemical Physics 100, 8681-8688 (1994). ( Weber, Reuter, Jennings, and Hillman: - NASA/GSFC)
  9. Gordon Chin, Stephen L. Mahan, and W.E. Blass, "Numerical Solutions for Convolution Equtions: Applications of a Novel Neural Network," Proceedings of the Workshop: "The Restoration of HST Images and Spectra II, STScI (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD), 1994