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Nathan Dawson

Associate Professor

Nathan Dawson joined Florida Poly’s Department of Engineering Physics as an associate professor of engineering and physics in 2023. Prior to this, he was an associate professor of physics and engineering at Hawaii Pacific University and an assistant professor of physics at the University of the Bahamas.

Dawson enjoys teaching at all levels of undergraduate education. He has worked on many interdisciplinary research projects, including recent experimental studies involving biolasers, photomechanical materials, and self-healing optical materials.

Awards and Honors

  • Senior member of SPIE
Education
  • Ph.D. in Physics, Washington State University, 2010
  • B.S. in Physics, University of Idaho, 2004

Expertise

  • Nonlinear optics
  • Opto-electronics
  • Microcavity lasers
  • Photomechanics
  • Organic optical materials

Professional Activities

  • Member, SPIE
  • Member, APS

Select Publications

  • Nathan J. Dawson, Yunli Lu, Zoe Lowther, Jacob Abell, Nicholas D. Christianson, Aaron Weiser, and Gioia Aquino (2023), “Low-cost automated spin coater and thermal annealer for additive prototyping of multilayer Bragg reflectors,” Am. J. Phys., 91, 48-55.
  • Frank Sun, Rocco T. Shasho, Michael Crescimanno, and Nathan J. Dawson (2022), “All-optical method of determining laser power from the photomechanical effect,” Appl. Sci., 12, 10708.
  • Nathan J. Dawson and Valerie Lynch-Holm (2022), “Reduced ASE threshold from aperiodic photonic structures in rhodamine B-doped king salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) iridophores,” J. Lumin., 241, 118474.
  • Moussa Kounta and Nathan J. Dawson (2021), “Linear Quadratic Gaussian Homing for Markov Processes with Regime Switching and Applications to Controlled Population Growth/Decay,” Methodol. Comput. Appl. Probab., 23, 1155-1172.
  • Mark G. Kuzyk and Nathan J. Dawson (2020), “Photomechanical materials and applications: a tutorial,” Adv. Opt. Photon., 12, 847-1011.
  • Yunli Lu, Zoe Lowther, Nicholas D. Christianson, Zhenpeng Li, Eric Baer, Mark G. Kuzyk, and Nathan J. Dawson (2020), “Demonstration of a self-healing all-polymer distributed Bragg reflector laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 116, 103301.
  • Nathan J. Dawson and Moussa Kounta (2019), “Homotopy analysis method applied to second-order frequency mixing in nonlinear optical dielectric media,” J. Nonlin. Opt. Phys. Mater., 28, 1950033.
  • Nicholas D. Christianson, Yunli Lu, and Nathan J. Dawson (2019), “Recovery of photodegraded rhodamine 6g in ester-containing polymer matrices,” Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 18, 2865-2874.
  • Nathan J. Dawson, Onassis Nottage, and Moussa Kounta (2018), “The second hyperpolarizability of systems described by the space-fractional Schrodinger equation,” Phys. Lett. A, 382, 55-59.
  • Najee Stubbs, Mauricio Bridgewater, Michaela Stubbs, Amin Kabir, Michael Crescimanno, Mark G. Kuzyk, and Nathan J. Dawson (2018), “Polylactic acid promotes healing of photodegraded disperse orange 11 molecules,” Opt. Mater., 76, 11-15.
Session Details

This session will demonstrate that practical risk management is for everyone, regardless of a formal program. Attendees will learn actionable and simple strategies that are easy to implement, enabling them to start immediately by focusing on their top risks to build greater operational resilience and ensure the sustained success of their auxiliary enterprises.

Presenter Profile

Michelle Powell serves as the pioneering Risk Manager at Florida Polytechnic University, the state’s sole 100% STEM-dedicated institution. Having been with the university for nearly 11 years, Michelle transitioned from a leadership role in Admissions in October 2023 to establish and evolve the risk management function from the ground up. In this solo capacity, Michelle builds robust frameworks for our dynamic, young university, overseeing our insurance portfolio, consulting on third-party and event risks, and developing critical campus-wide training programs. Michelle has obtained the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) Enterprise Risk Management certificate and the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations. Her distinct background in mathematics and engineering, combined with extensive higher education leadership, brings an analytical and strategic approach enhancing the institution’s resilience.