Education

• Ph.D., Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (2001). 
  Dissertation: “Experimental studies of the breakdown of super-fluidity in helium-four near the lambda line.”
• B.S., Department of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (1994).

Background

Since 2001, Dr. Kuehn has served on the faculty of Wisconsin Lutheran College, where he teaches both introductory and advanced courses in the Department of Physics and operates a fluid dynamics research laboratory. He also has an abiding interest in the history and philosophy of science, which he incorporates into an annual summer course on Apologetics: the Defense of the Christian Faith. 

Dr. Kuehn is a member of the American Physical Society, he is on the advisory council of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, and serves as a regular referee for the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.  

He is married to Cindy and has four children: Eva, Annalise, Iona, and Anton, and is a member of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Teaching

Dr. Kuehn teaches introductory courses on astronomy, mechanics, electricity, magnetism, and light. He also teaches advanced undergraduate courses on classical dynamics, thermal physics, electronics, and quantum theory. 

He recently published A Student's Guide through the Great Physics Texts; this four-volume textbook provides students and interested lay-readers with a historical and technical introduction to physics and astronomy based on the reading and analysis of classic works by scientists such as Copernicus, Coulomb, Fourier, Maxwell, and Heisenberg. More information on this book can be found online.

Research Interests

In recent years, Dr. Kuehn has published scientific papers on acoustic imaging of Rayleigh-Benard convection, the dynamics of fluid vortex rings, and a computational analysis of tidal instabilities on multi-moon planets. 

He is currently working on using high-speed photography to study the motion of very thin fluid membranes—such as soap films.  The aim of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of nearly-two-dimensional fluid dynamics, which occurs naturally in geophysical and atmospheric contexts.

More information on Dr. Kuehn’s research can be found on his website.

Scholarly Works

Kerry K. Kuehn, A Student’s Guide through the Great Physics Texts, Volumes I-4 (New York: Springer, 2016).

K. Kuehn, M. Moeller, M. Schulz and D. Sanfelippo, “Vortex ring refraction at high Froude numbers,” Phys. Rev. E 82, 016312 (2010). 

K. Kuehn, J. Polfer, N. Finke and J. Furno, “Apparatus for real-time acoustic imaging of Rayleigh-Bénard convection,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 78, 113704 (2007). 

J. Furno and K. Kuehn, “Tidal pattern instabilities on multi-moon planets”, Icarus, 189, 246 (2007). 

K. Kuehn, S. Mehta, H. Fu, E. Genio, D. Murphy, F. Liu, Y. Liu, G. Ahlers, “Singularity in the Thermal Boundary Resistance between Superfluid 4He and a Solid Surface,” Phys. Rev. Lett., 88, 095702 (2002). 

K. Kuehn and G. Ahlers, “Mutual Friction in Superfluid 4He near the lambda-line”, J. Low Temp. Phys., 126, 1515 (2002).

H. Baddar, G. Ahlers, K. Kuehn, H. Fu, “Thermal Resistance of 4He Below but Very Near the Superfluid Transition,” J. Low Temp. Phys., 119, 1 (2000).

H. Fu, H. Baddar, K. Kuehn, M. Larson, N. Mulders, A. Schegolev, and G. Ahlers, “A High-Resolution Thermometer for the Range 1.6 to 5K,” J. Low Temp. Phys., 111, 49 (1998). 

H. Fu, H. Baddar, K. Kuehn and G. Ahlers, “The Boundary Resistance Between Superfluid He Near Tlambda and a Solid Surface,” Fizika Nizkikh Temperatur, 24, 101 (1998) [Low Temp. Phys. 24, 69 (1998)].