Matthew B. Koss (born September 16, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a widely published

solid-state physicist Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how th ...

Biography

Koss received his

AB degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from Vassar College in 1983 and a Ph.D. in experimental

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...

from Tufts University in 1989. From 1990 to 2000, Koss worked at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

as Lead Scientist for the Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE), a basic

microgravity The term micro-g environment (also μg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less synonymous with the terms ''weightlessness'' and ''zero-g'', but emphasising that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small (on the I ...

research project on dendritic solidification that conducted Space Shuttle flight experiments on STS-62, -75 and -87. He also worked as the Principal Investigator of the Transient Dendritic Solidification Experiment (TDSE), a flight experiment intended for use on the International Space Station in 2006. In June 2003, Koss created controversy via an

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

published in '' The New York Times'', in which he wrote that scientists bore partial responsibility for the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster. He argued that most microgravity scientific experiments did not require manned space missions, but were used to promote the space program. The article drew widespread attention, and Koss later appeared at a congressional hearing before the

House Science Committee The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. It has jurisdiction over non-defense federal scientific research and development. More specifically, the committee has complete jurisdic ...

. In 2000, Koss started working at

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he continued his isothermal dendritic growth research. As of April 2008, Koss was an associate professor of physics at Holy Cross. He remains listed as a professor in the Holy Cross physics department . In 2005, Koss began research on the physics of baseball. He collected data on a baseball in flight to create his own

Reynolds number In fluid mechanics, the Reynolds number () is a dimensionless quantity that helps predict fluid flow patterns in different situations by measuring the ratio between inertial and viscous forces. At low Reynolds numbers, flows tend to be domi ...

vs. drag coefficient plot, to compare against other models. He also created a hybrid model of the flight path that a baseball will take, given all of the initial conditions. He also worked to add other factors that would affect the flight, such as the spin decay rate of a baseball in flight.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koss, Matthew 1961 births Living people Scientists from Boston Vassar College alumni Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni 21st-century American physicists Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty College of the Holy Cross faculty