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ruiz at unca.edu
Last: 5/21/2008
Kathy is our Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, a former Dean of the Natural Sciences, and a former director of the UNCA Undergraduate Research Program. Her research interests include Nuclear Mössbauer Spectroscopy. She received one of the two 1995-1996 UNCA Distinguished Feldman Awards for her service and scholarship. Research Interests - Katherine M. Whatley Kathy has been involved in experiments using the Mössbauer effect to characterize materials. The electrons that surround the nucleus interact with it in several different ways (Coulombic interactions, angular momentum coupling, magnetic interactions, etc.). If the energies of the electron states are altered for any reason, then the interactions between the electron states and the nuclear states are changed, and the energies of the nuclear states can be affected. A very small change in the chemical environment of the atom can result in small changes in the energies of the nuclear states. Mössbauer-effect techniques are well-suited to measuring these small changes in energy, and also to determining the intrinsic properties of nuclei and nuclear states. Kathy has analyzed North Carolina pottery samples using Mössbauer techniques. Pottery is made of clay, and most clays contain iron. Mössbauer spectroscopy with 57Fe can be used to determine various properties of pottery samples including age, provenance, and firing temperature. She and her students have looked at the provenance and firing temperature of sets of North Carolina pottery samples from Moore and Randolph Counties and one set of American Indian pottery samples from Buncombe County, NC. Kathy has also co-authored physics resource manuals for physics teachers. Selected Publications 1. Katherine M. Whatley and Judith A. Beck, Instructor's Resource Manual accompanying Physics, 2nd ed. by James S. Walker (Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004). 2. Judith A. Beck and Katherine M. Whatley, Instructor's Resource Manual accompanying College Physics, 5th ed. by Jerry D. Wilson and Anthony J. Buffa (Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003). 3. K. M. Whatley and K. P. McKenzie (UNCA Student), "Mössbauer Studies of Prehistoric Cherokee Pottery Sherds," Hyperfine Interactions 91, 679 (1994). 4. K. M. Whatley, "Approaches to Undergraduate Research in the Sciences," National Honors Report: A Publication of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. XIII, No. 1, 2 (National Collegiate Honors Council, Eastern Illinois University, 1992). 5. J. G. Stevens, L. H. Bowen, and K. M. Whatley, "Mössbauer Spectroscopy," Analytical Chemistry Fundamental Reviews 62, 125R (1990). 6. J. F. Shriner, Jr., K. M. Whatley, E. G. Bilpuch, C. R. Westerfeldt, and G. E. Mitchell, "Statistical Properties of 3/2-Resonances in 45Sc and 51Mn," Zeitschrift für Physik A 313, 51 (1983). 7. K. M. Whatley, C. R. Westerfeldt, J. F. Shriner, Jr., E. G. Bilpuch, and G. E. Mitchell, "Statistical Properties of 5/2+ Resonances in 51Mn," Journal of Physics G: Nuclear Physics 9, 1527 (1983).
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