Andrew Kortyna

An experimental atomic, molecular, and opticalphysicist, Andrew Kortyna gained admittance to the Sigma Pi Sigma national honor society in physics while working toward his BS at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Andrew Kortyna subsequently matriculated at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he secured his PhD with a dissertation titled "Laser Studies of Photofragmentation Processes in Diatomic Sodium.”

Dr. Kortyna went on to complete an NSF-AIRE fellowship in physics at Colby College and develop and build scientific instrumentation for Cornell University and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From 2001 to 2015, he taught courses and performed lab work as an associate professor with Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

While employed in this position, Andrew Kortyna served six months as a visiting fellow with the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) at the University of Colorado Boulder. After parting ways with Lafayette, he returned to LILA to assume his current role as a research associate. His ongoing work centers on using highly sensitive equipment to measure transient molecules and free radicals.