faculty Archives - Page 11 of 37

Meet the Hornets Helping Bumblebees Through Citizen Science

Posted on March 3, 2020March 21, 2022

What’s black, yellow and fuzzy all over? Bumblebees. And Biology Professor Ann Fraser wants to know what it takes to preserve them in Michigan.

Four students researching bumblebees — Trevor Rigney (from left), Niko Nickson, Amy Cazier and Nicki Bailey comprised Biology Professor Ann Fraser’s summer research group last year.

To that end, Fraser and her Kalamazoo College lab students are launching the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch. The program will track bumblebee diversity, measure local restoration efforts and discover whether any species might be declining or recuperating in the area.

“Bumblebees are important pollinators, particularly of our spring plants,” Fraser said, noting they’re vital to common Michigan crops, and more important to pollination than honeybees. “They’ll go out in cold weather, even when it’s rainy. They’re particularly good pollinators of fruit crops such as blueberries, apples and cherries.”

In the bee watch, citizen scientists in nine counties will volunteer as photographers nearly anywhere outdoors—including natural areas, walking trails, backyards and roadsides—and submit their photos to an online portal. Fraser, students and other scientists then will look at the photos, noting the black-and-yellow patterns on the bumblebees’ backs. Those patterns will identify each species and help determine which might be maintaining their numbers, which might be declining and which might be making a comeback.

“This year, my hope is to build a strong volunteer base so that we can start building a thorough database of bumblebee species in the area,” said Niko Nickson ’21, the student most dedicated to the effort as it will develop into his senior individualized project (SIP). “I’m also planning to analyze our data for relationships between species abundance and landscape differences. In the future, I would love to see the program continue to build, maybe inspiring more community science efforts across the state.”

Fraser said she had been hoping to start a project like the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch for a few years, but never found the right student to lead it. Then, she met Nickson.

“Community science is fascinating because I see it as an opportunity to connect academia and its surrounding community,” Nickson said. “In this way, it makes science approachable to all, regardless of educational level.”

His love of the outdoors also benefits the project.

“I think being outside is a great way to relieve stress and spend time in general,” Nickson said. “I see this program as an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of our regional environment while also encouraging more community members to spend time outdoors. In this sense, community science gives volunteers an excuse to be outside, and who doesn’t love a reason to get some sunlight?”

March 3 is World Wildlife Day. Its theme this year is “Sustaining all life on Earth,” as it recognizes all wild animal and plant species as being key components of the world’s biodiversity. Yet within the biosphere, bumblebees are struggling. In fact, according to NationalGeographic.com, we are nearly 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee in any given area of North America than we were before 1974.

“Insects in general are in decline,” Fraser said. “That’s alarmingly well documented. Bumblebees are following this trend. At least half a dozen species of the 20 in Michigan are in decline. One of which, the rusty-patched bumblebee, was on the federal endangered species list as of 2017.”

A project like the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch could play a role in reversing those trends. Those interested in volunteering can sign up for the project’s mailing list and request more information at swmbees.kzoo.edu/.

Two K Students Among Top Three Finishers in Japanese Speech Contest

Posted on February 20, 2020February 5, 2025

For the second year in a row, two Kalamazoo College students placed among the top three finishers in a prestigious Japanese Speech Contest organized by Detroit’s Consulate General of Japan.

Xiu Cai ’20 and Shane Spink ’20 finished second and third respectively out of dozens who represented the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Lansing Community College at the 24th Michigan Japanese Language Speech Contest. Cai and Spink are third-year Japanese students of Visiting Instructor Masanori Shiomi.

Contest participants drafted their own speeches in Japanese to present in front of three judges and an audience Feb. 9 at Michigan State University. Cai’s speech, “My Life with Accidents and Coincidences,” shared her unlikely foray into studying Japanese and how she came to love it. Spink’s speech, “How to Use Soft Power,” detailed Japan’s use of pop culture in diplomatic relations, contrasting it with the use of hard power in the United States.

Cai’s second-place finish tied Amanda Esler ’19 for the highest-ever finish for a K student in the contest.

The event “offered me a chance to meet new people and make friends with more Japanese students,” Cai said. “These intellectuals helped me learn more about the diverse perspectives of the world. However, I want to say thank you to my amazing Japanese teacher for being one of the most helpful and thoughtful teachers.”

Spink’s third-place finish was the best in the contest’s history for a K student who didn’t study abroad in Japan. Spink, a Kalamazoo native, said he believes he could have done better, but added “many of the other contestants have had far more experience with learning and practicing Japanese.” He plans to work in Japan after he graduates.

“Though it was nerve-wracking to perform a memorized speech in front of a large audience with far greater knowledge of the Japanese language than myself, it was a rewarding experience,” Spink said. “Events like these are important milestones and I will never forget this speech contest.”

K Professor Addresses Forums in South Africa

Posted on January 16, 2020August 15, 2022

Peter Erdi in South Africa — Péter Érdi, the Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies at Kalamazoo College, recently spoke at two conferences in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Péter Érdi, the Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies at Kalamazoo College, recently visited Johannesburg, South Africa, where he served as the keynote speaker at the sixth International Conference on Soft Computing and Machine Intelligence (ISCMI) and spoke at the Biomath Forum at the University of Pretoria.

The annual ISCMI conference Nov. 19 and 20, organized by the India International Congress on Computational Intelligence (IICCI), presented soft computing and machine intelligence research, and allowed delegates to exchange ideas while finding global partners for collaborations. Soft computing, inspired by the human mind, is an area of computer science that targets possible solutions to complex problems. Machine learning, related to yet different from artificial intelligence, enables a computer system to learn from inputs, rather than only by linear programming. Érdi’s keynote was titled The Reality, Illusion and Manipulation of Objectivity.

The Biomath Forum aids mathematical modeling and qualitative analysis to enable scientific understanding of biological processes. Érdi’s lecture, titled Dynamical Systems and Perspective in Neuroscience–Historical and Current Approaches, addressed systems of learning that use the human brain as a prototype. These systems are possibly uncovering some hidden links between epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Érdi has been a prolific researcher with more than 40 publications and three books published in addition to editing two books since joining K. In that time, he has given more than 60 invited lectures across the world and earned the 2018 Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship, honoring his contributions in creative work, research and publication. Visit our website for more information on his career and achievements.

Students Should ‘Feel Empowered’ By Alumna’s Art

Posted on November 19, 2019March 21, 2022

Students Observe Julie Mehretu's Artwork with fari nzinga — Kalamazoo College students taking the first-year seminar titled “In Defense of Ourselves: African American Women Artists” have a chance to see artwork from Julie Mehretu ’92 alongside pieces from artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Elizabeth Catlett, Thornton Dial, Barkley Hendricks, Kori Newkirk, Norman Lewis and Howardena Pindell in the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts exhibit, Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem, on display through Dec. 8.

A first-year seminar this term is giving 14 Kalamazoo College students a chance to see critically acclaimed art created by a professional painter who once attended K herself.

Organized by the Studio Museum in Harlem and the American Federation of Arts, Black Refractions: Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem, is an exhibit on display at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) through Dec. 8; it features two works by Julie Mehretu ’92 among 78 other artists of African descent. The exhibit began traveling in 2018 in celebration of the Studio Museum’s 50th anniversary. It opened in San Francisco at the Museum of the African Diaspora, and Kalamazoo is the exhibition’s only stop in the Midwest.

For the public, the exhibit creates dialogue regarding the artists, many of whom are inspired by current events, while expanding a viewer’s understanding of modern art and addressing themes that affect Kalamazoo and the nation such as poverty, identity, power, status and social justice.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Art fari nzinga takes students in her first-year seminar to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts to see an exhibit that includes work by alumna Julie Mehretu ’92.

For the K students taking the seminar titled “In Defense of Ourselves: African American Women Artists” specifically, it’s a chance to witness original work from an alumna whose art is usually seen in bigger cities, alongside pieces from artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Elizabeth Catlett, Thornton Dial, Barkley Hendricks, Kori Newkirk, Norman Lewis and Howardena Pindell — household names among art historians and curators, as well as Black artists.

The class may be offered again in future terms, although the fall course was designed specifically for Black Refractions, giving students a distinct chance to observe Mehretu’s work firsthand.

“Oh, they love her work,” said fari nzinga, who teaches the course, of how the students have reacted to seeing Mehretu’s creations. nzinga is a visiting assistant professor of art at K and post-doctoral curatorial fellow at the KIA.

“When I first saw one of Mehretu’s paintings, I was intimidated by its size and scale, as well as its complexity,” she said. “It’s abstract and I felt like I didn’t have the tools to engage with it and interpret it for myself. But actually, my students have not responded in the same way I did all those years ago. They see connections and stories and aren’t afraid to trust their own instincts. I love to see it.”

nzinga earned her master’s degree and doctorate in cultural anthropology from Duke University. She was based in New Orleans for nearly a decade and conducted dissertation research on Black-led arts organizations and community building after Hurricane Katrina. She also worked for two years at the New Orleans Museum of Art, where she facilitated institutional transformation around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. In April 2018, she independently produced and curated an exhibition, “The Rent Is Too Damn High,” in celebration of the New Orleans tri-centennial.

nzinga came to Kalamazoo when she got to know KIA Executive Director Belinda Tate and it was clear a joint position between K and KIA would be available. The hope is that students taking this course will see what Mehretu has accomplished and feel that they too can one day change the world.

“I feel like they are teaching me so much,” nzinga said. “Because the students are in their first semester of college, K hasn’t really crystallized for them yet, so I’m excited to see how they make meaning of the institution and make it their own as they grow and develop. I think seeing Mehretu’s work right up front at the beginning of their time here will be something that guides them, just an example of what they can do here if they want to and that’s powerful. I hope they feel empowered.”

Celebrated Poet Visits, Inspires K

Posted on November 7, 2019March 21, 2022

When an award-winning poet speaks on campus, you can bet Kalamazoo College students are eagerly listening and learning.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, a celebrated writer known for his early life experiences as an undocumented immigrant, was warmly welcomed last week to K. He conversed with students in classes taught by Assistant English Professor Shanna Salinas (Reading the World: Identities) and Assistant Sociology Professor Francisco Villegas (Race and Racism). He also provided a poetry reading in front of about 80 students in the Intercultural Center at Hicks Student Center.

“Intersections of language and home are on the hearts and minds of so many of our students,” said Assistant English Professor Oliver Baez Bendorf, who helped facilitate Castillo’s visit. “It’s important for them to know that they can do anything, and to see different models for that. Their stories matter and they can survive the telling of them and even make it beautiful. Reading is always a portal through which they can transport and grow. I know that Marcelo was likewise touched by the energy of our community and our students, their readiness to engage with his writing, their intellectual and creative curiosity, and all that they so impressively juggle.”

Castillo’s poetry collection, titled Cenzontle, addresses the fears he once faced of being deported. Castillo came to the United States with his family from Zacatecas, Mexico, at age 5 and was an early beneficiary of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Sacramento State University and was the first undocumented student to graduate from the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan.

For Cenzontle, the poet received the New Writers Award this year from the Great Lakes Colleges Association — a 13-member consortium of higher-education institutions in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania — which includes K. The award, founded in 1970, honors writers who are in the early stages of their literary career. Along with Cenzontle, Castillo has a 2018 chapbook titled Dulce. His memoir, Children of the Land, is scheduled for release next year.

Beyond poetry, Castillo is an essayist, translator and immigration advocate and a founding member of the Undocupoets campaign, which successfully eliminated citizenship requirements from all major first-poetry-book prizes in the country. His work has been featured in The New York Times, People Magazine, Buzzfeed and New England Review, and he teaches in the Low-Res MFA program at Ashland University.

With focused eyes and open minds, Salinas’ students listened intently to Castillo and asked a range of questions: poem- and content-specific, craft and poetic technique, themes and broader open-ended considerations. “I appreciated how generous Marcelo was in sharing his personal experiences and talking about his writing process,” Salinas said. “He was invested in their questions and insights, and I could tell the students felt that they were being seen, heard and respected.”

Opportunities to hear from renowned, in-the-field experts are celebrated occasions at K regardless of their field of expertise, although hearing from Castillo was a notable treat for students, faculty and staff, especially the aspiring writers among them.

“So many things about reading and writing happen in solitude,” Baez Bendorf said. “When you’ve read words on a page and then the human behind them arrives in your midst, it can be almost magical. I saw that happen with Marcelo’s visit. It’s thrilling to have a visitor, and even better when they’ve come with stories and generosity. Our students extended great hospitality to Marcelo and welcomed him into their spaces.”

Theatre Professor Receives Lighting Design Award

Posted on September 25, 2019February 5, 2025

EncoreMichigan.com, a web-based publication focusing on Michigan’s professional theater industry, highlights the top productions, actors, artists, designers, writers and technicians in the state through its annual Wilde Awards.

This year, the spotlight shone on Kalamazoo College Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts, who was selected from a field of six nominees as the winner of a 2019 Wilde Award in the Best Lighting Design Category.

The honor is a result of Potts’ work in a 2018 Farmers Alley Theatre production of Bridges of Madison County in Kalamazoo. The musical, a 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Score and Orchestrations, tells a story of a love affair between a lonely housewife and a rugged photographer, examining the roads people travel, the doors they open and the bridges they cross.

Potts has won the same award twice previously through Farmers Alley Theatre, once in 2013 for his lighting design work in The Light in the Piazza, and again in 2018 for Gypsy.

To be eligible in their categories, Wilde Award nominees need at least four performances conducted through a professional theater company with paid actors between June 1, 2018, and May 31, 2019.

Potts is a professional designer and consultant whose work has included international lighting and production design; national tour designs for opera and dance; and regional designs for opera, modern dance, ballet, drama and corporate events.

Potts has presented portfolios of his work at regional conferences, worked at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and received many professional awards including a Michigan Governor’s Commendation, a design commendation from the John F. Kennedy Center (Fun Home) and Atlanta Critic’s Choice awards for his design work for the Atlanta premier of A Few Good Men.

K Chooses Lucasse, Ambrose Honorees

Posted on September 23, 2019March 21, 2022

Lucasse Honoree Jeff Bartz with President Jorge Gonzalez — Jeff Bartz, K’s Kurt D. Kaufman professor of chemistry, will receive the 2020 Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching.

Kalamazoo College announced today that one faculty member and one staff member have earned two of the highest awards the College bestows on its employees.

Jeff Bartz, K’s Kurt D. Kaufman professor of chemistry, will receive the 2020 Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching, and Bruce Stack, an electrician in facilities management, will receive the inaugural W. Haydn Ambrose Prize for Extraordinary Service.

Bartz joined the K Chemistry Department as an assistant professor in 1997 and became a full professor in 2011. He teaches courses in physical and general chemistry, chemical composition and structure, and chemical reactivity. He also works with K students in the research laboratory in the area of chemical dynamics.

Ambrose Recipient Bruce Stack with President Jorge Gonzalez — Bruce Stack, an electrician in facilities management, will receive the inaugural W. Haydn Ambrose Prize for Extraordinary Service.

Bartz earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in mathematics from Southwest Minnesota State University in 1985. He earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.

The Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship (for outstanding classroom teaching) and Fellowship (for outstanding achievement in creative work, research or publication) at Kalamazoo College were established in 1979, and Bartz is the 31st recipient of the lectureship. The awards were created to honor Florence J. Lucasse, a 1910 alumna, in recognition of her long and distinguished career and in response to the major unrestricted endowment gift given to the College in her will.

The W. Haydn Ambrose Prize was established to recognize a K staff member for outstanding service to the Kalamazoo College community.

The award is named after W. Haydn Ambrose, who served K for more than 20 years in a variety of roles, including assistant to the president for church relations, dean of admission and financial aid, and vice president for development. Ambrose was thoughtful in the projects that he took on, committed to the jobs that he agreed to do, and he treated people with respect.

In addition to a financial award, Stack has earned:

A crystal award to commemorate the achievement
An engraved brick in a section at the top of the stairs of the athletic fields complex
An invitation to sit on the award’s selection committee for two years

Stack has worked at the College for more than 28 years. His colleagues note that his extensive experience, troubleshooting abilities, and proven analytical skills have made him invaluable in addressing physical plant needs in emergency and day-to-day maintenance.

Faculty Celebrate Poetry Book Release, Film Honor

Posted on September 13, 2019March 21, 2022

Reader holds poetry book with Oliver Baez Bendorf — Two Kalamazoo College faculty members are celebrating accomplishments outside the classroom including Assistant Professor of English Oliver Baez Bendorf who has released a new collection of poetry titled *Advantages of Being Evergreen*.

As the academic year begins, two Kalamazoo College faculty members are celebrating accomplishments outside the classroom: Assistant Professor of English Oliver Baez Bendorf released a new collection of poetry titled Advantages of Being Evergreen, and Documentary Film Instructor Danny Kim was nominated for Best Michigan Short Film for A Day in the Life of Kik Pool at the Royal Starr Film Festival in Royal Oak.

Baez Bendorf’s book, published by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, was launched with a poetry reading at Bookbug in Kalamazoo.

“I started this collection right after the 2016 election and it felt necessary to build a world in poems where all of my self and communities and dreams could be present,” Baez Bendorf said. “It’s such a privilege and pleasure to have the book published through Cleveland State University Poetry Center. I often tell my students to write the poems they need to read, and to trust that in doing so, there will be readers who need them also. I wrote this book because I needed to read it and it feels great to be hearing feedback from others that these poems are resonating with them.”

Advantages of Being Evergreen was the winner of Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s 2018 Open Book Poetry Competition. Baez Bendorf was previously published through a poetry collection titled The Spectral Wilderness. A chapbook, titled The Gospel According to X, is in the works. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, and elsewhere.

Two faculty members celebrate — Two Kalamazoo College faculty members are celebrating accomplishments outside the classroom including Documentary Film Instructor Danny Kim, who was nominated for Best Michigan Short Film at the Royal Oak Film Festival for *A Day in the Life of Kik Pool*.

Kim’s film reflects how a public pool often provides a place for the community to gather, exercise, learn an important skill and simply have fun. As the film progresses, the pool evolves into more, taking on a life of its own as it shifts and changes with the people who use it.

Kim has been involved with Masters swimming, which involves a special class of competition for swimmers at least 18 years of age, offering him a chance to work on something personal through the film.

“From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of the pool,” Kim said. “The challenge was how to best illustrate the character of the pool for each of the groups who use it. Before dawn, when the Kalamazoo Masters practice, the pool is quiet and contemplative. When the age-group swimmers hit the water, the pool reflects their energy and youth. Swimming-lesson time is childlike and simple, while lap swim is ephemeral and other-worldly. So from the outset, each section was shot and edited in a way that would best convey these characteristics.”

Kim credited two of his former students for their assistance in making the film special to him.

“Ximena Davis ’19 filmed and assisted with production. One of my favorite shots in the film is hers,” Kim said. “Savannah Kinchen ’18 gave me some valuable notes in post-production. One of her comments in particular led me to change the opening of the film.”

Kim’s previous work includes the feature-length documentary The Stories They Tell, which was selected for the inaugural Royal Starr Film festival in 2016 and was screened at film festivals across the Midwest.

K Professor Spotlights Fossil-Fuel Dependence

Posted on September 9, 2019March 21, 2022

A Kalamazoo College art professor will receive international attention while combating fossil-fuel dependence and climate change as a recipient of a Fulbright award in the 2019-20 academic year.

Tom Rice, K’s Robert and Jo-Ann Stewart professor of art in the Art and Art History Department, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in visual arts, allowing him to research the realities of fossil-fuel extraction and create mixed-media art at the University of Alberta in Canada.

His art installation, titled “Shifting Uncertainties: The Land We Live On,” is on display through Sept. 20 at the university’s Fine Arts Building. The display depicts Rice’s concern for the environment, fossil-fuel dependence and the growing global crisis related to climate change. On Sept. 12, Rice will discuss his drawings and installations of the past five years, along with what inspires him to explore environmental issues through art, in a forum at the university.

Rice notes the key question with his work is how we retreat from an industry that is enmeshed into our lives and comprises the foundation of our economy.

“The award is important to me because I will have the chance to exchange ideas with leading artists and scholars doing work on climate justice and petroculture,” Rice said. “K’s focus on social-justice leadership includes climate justice and the implications for humans and non-human species alike.”

Rice is one of more than 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research or provide expertise abroad for the 2019-20 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbright recipients are selected based on their academic and professional achievement, as well as their record of service and demonstrated leadership. The awards are funded through the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s international education-exchange program designed to build connections between U.S. citizens and people from other countries. The program is funded through an annual Congressional appropriation made to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also support the program, which operates in more than 160 countries.

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has given more than 390,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals in a variety of backgrounds and fields opportunities to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute solutions to international problems.

Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 59 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 84 who have received Pulitzer Prizes, and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.

K Professor Serves Neural Networks Conference as Honorary Chairman

Posted on July 30, 2019March 21, 2022

Neural Networks Conference Honorary Chairman Peter Erdi — Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez applauded International Joint Conference on Neural Networks Honorary Chairman Peter Erdi when Erdi presented his Lucasse Lecture this spring.

Peter Erdi, the Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies at Kalamazoo College, served as the honorary chairman of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks in July. The conference, with 850 participants in Budapest, Hungary, aimed to build bridges between theories of biological and artificial neural networks, sometimes referred to as natural and computational intelligence respectively.

Artificial neural networks are a set of algorithms, inspired by functions found in the human brain, that recognize patterns. Such systems learn to perform tasks by considering examples, through processes such as image recognition, for example. The networks might learn about those images to identify similar images, then label them and organize them.

The conference featured plenary talks from world-renowned speakers in neural network theory and applications, computational neuroscience, and robotics and distributed intelligence. Along with poster presentations, the conference included special sessions, competitions, tutorials and workshops.

“The conference was a big success in many respects,” Erdi said, noting commendations he received from colleagues applauding the conference, the city of Budapest and the organizers.

Erdi received the 2018 Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship. It is the highest award bestowed by the Kalamazoo College faculty, and it honors the recipient’s contributions in creative work, research and publication. His Lucasse Lecture was titled “Ranking: The Hidden Rules of the Social Game We All Play” after a nonfiction book he has in production. The book examines how and why humans rank certain aspects of our lives and how those rankings are viewed.

Erdi has been a prolific researcher with more than 40 publications and two books published since joining Kalamazoo College. In that time, he has given more than 60 invited lectures across the world. He is also serving as the editor-in-chief of Cognitive Systems Research and as a vice president of the International Neural Network Society.

Support for Erdi’s research program has come from varied sources such as collaborative National Science Foundation awards, NASA, the Hungarian National Research Council, Pharmacia, Pfizer and the European Integrated Project grant program. He has also helped to establish a popular study abroad program in his native homeland of Budapest, Hungary, where he holds a research professor position at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.