Culture Influencers: Gardo Blado

Dr. Gardo BladoDr. Gardo Blado, professor in Physics of the College of Science and Mathematics, together with a Houston Baptist University undergraduate student, Otto Gadea (2018) were invited to publish their work entitled, “Entropic Uncertainty Relations, Entanglement and Quantum Gravity Effects via the Generalized Uncertainty Principle” in the inaugural volume of the peer-reviewed journal, Asian Journal of Research and Reviews in Physics (AJR2P) volume 1, No.4, pages 1-12 (2018) DOI: 10.9734/AJR2P/2018/44711.

The above mentioned paper is a result of a series of projects completed as part of the research component of the upper level physics courses at Houston Baptist University. The publication is the first paper in the physics literature to study the effects of the generalized uncertainty principle on the entropic uncertainty relation criterion on quantum entanglement. It is notable that the first author of this paper was a Houston Baptist University undergraduate student who minored in physics (and majored in chemistry) namely Otto Gadea (2018). Mr. Gadea is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in geophysics at the University of Houston.

The two-faculty Physics Department at Houston Baptist University comprising of Dr. James Claycomb and Dr. Gardo Blado, has successfully launched an undergraduate research program that has been an integral part of the physics curriculum. All graduated physics majors and physics minors have participated in research. Almost all graduated physics majors and minors since 2013 have coauthored peer-reviewed journal articles. Undergraduate research has been integrated into the physics curriculum by requiring research for all physics majors and encouraging participation in research by physics minors. Students start a new research problem in their junior year and usually complete the research project by their senior year through presentations at the HBU research symposium or at the American Physical Society sponsored research meetings and through the submission of their work to peer-reviewed physics journals. The Houston Baptist University Physics Department takes advantage of the small number of physics majors and minors. Research problems tackled are confined to novel problems on publishable topics. The Physics Department’s requirement of undergraduate research demonstrates the opportunities that small departments can make use of to develop successful undergraduate research programs.