Recently Duke's Society of Physics Students toured the FEL. There were about 35 students on the tour. The trip was written up by Erin Weeks for Duke Research Blog. Read it here. read more about SPS Tour of FEL »
Prof. Daniel Gauthier has been named to the editorial board for a new open-access optical journal focused on high-impact results entitled Optica. The journal is just gearing up and will start to accept paper submissions in the coming months. The journal is sponsored by the Optical Society of America, which made an initial announcement of the new journal in February. The press release can be found here. read more about Gauthier Elected to Editorial Board of New Optical Journal »
Prof. Phil Barbeau is among the recipients of the 2014 Sloan Research Fellowships. A full list of all 2014 recipients is listed in February 18's New York Times; see it here. The Duke Today piece "Five Faculty Science Win Sloan Fellowships" is here. read more about Barbeau Receives 2014 Sloan Fellowship »
It is with sadness to announce the passing of a Duke Physics PhD alumnus, Dr. Geoffrey King Walters. Dr. Walters was a Duke Ph.D. His dissertation work with William Fairbanks concerned the (first?) measurement of the 3He-4He liquid phase separation. Dr. Walters had a tremendously successful career, first in industry at Texas Instruments from 1957-1963, and then in academics and research when he joined the faculty of Rice University in 1963 as a Professor of Physics. From 1980 to 1999… read more about The Passing of Dr. Geoffrey King Walters »
The Physics Department’s Habitat for Humanity Volunteer Team has had a successful start! Our first build took place on December 14, and we didn’t let the rain stop us! We met at Durham Habitat for Humanity’s warehouse and constructed the interior and exterior walls for one of Durham Habitat’s current building projects. Graduate student Sean Finch, Prof. Dan Gauthier, and Machine Shop Specialist Richard Nappi are pictured here with the build site manager and another… read more about Update on Physics Department Habitat for Humanity Team »
“Students graduating now have got to keep learning, be flexible, and be open to new opportunities,” says Randall Ledford. “What they think they are going to do on graduation day is not necessarily what they are going to do for the rest of their lives.” Ledford should know. He left Duke Physics in 1976, new PhD in hand, to work as a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. Today he is the Chief Technical Officer at Emerson Electric in St. Louis, and the President of Emerson Ventures, which is an internal… read more about Alumni Profile: Randall Ledford »
On January 22, 2014 the Department of Physics at Duke University and the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) hosted a visit by a group of students, teachers and parents from the Hawbridge Charter School. Hawbridge Charter School is a rural charter school located in Saxapahaw, NC. The school comprises almost 200 middle and high school students who work in small classes with a dedicated faculty of about twenty teachers. Located adjacent to the Haw River makes the school ideally placed for the environmental theme… read more about Hawbridge Charter School Tours TUNL, FEL and LENA »
Global Young Scientist Summit @ one-north (GYSS@one-north, January 19th-24th, 2014) was a gathering of young scientist, primarily graduate student and postdocs from all over the globe with internationally eminent speakers in Singapore. It was a conference covering fields ranging from biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and physics. The speakers invited at the GYSS @ one-north are globally recognized scientists recipients of Fields Medal, Millennium Technology Prize, Nobel Prize,… read more about Graduate Student Laskaris Participated in the Global Young Scientist Summit @ one-north »
Graduate student Marco Bertolini is spending the spring term at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, CA as a KITP graduate fellow. read more about Bertolini Awarded KITP Fellowship »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal was invited to speak at two venues recently, the Workshop on "The Energy Scale of New Physics" and the "Particles, Strings and Cosmology 2013" Conference. In the post-Higgs Boson discovery era, the focus has increased on ideas to explore the open questions not answered by the Standard Model of particle physics. A big question of theoretical and practical interest is, what is the energy level at which the new symmetries or new dynamics are revealed. How can we get an estimate of this… read more about Prof. Kotwal Speaks at New Physics Workshop and PASCOS2013 »
Taritree Wongjirad, a graduate student in the neutrino group, was awarded a prestigious Pappalardo Fellowship at MIT. Wongjirad is one of three incoming fellows for 2014 and is profiled here. read more about Wongjirad Awarded Pappalardo Fellowship »
It is with sadness to report that Mr. Hurley Mulkey passed away on the afternoon of Sunday, December 22, 2013. Many people in the department knew Mr. Mulkey very well as he was the business manager in the Physics Department for many years and was instrumental in acquiring equipment for TUNL in the early years of the consortium. Mr. Mulkey's son, Patrick Mulkey worked at TUNL for quite a long time as well. Funeral services were held at Clements Funeral Home on Saturday, December… read more about The Passing of Mr. Hurley Mulkey »
Prof. Stefano Curtarolo and others have had their work highlighted in an APS Viewpoint. Read "Computational Materials Discovery Goes Platinum" online here. read more about Curtarolo Highlighted in APS Viewpoint »
Pictures from the 2013 Holiday Party are now online at our Flickr site. You can view them here. Thank you to admin manager Randy Best for taking these photos. read more about Pictures From The 2013 Holiday Party »
Prof. Mark Kruse spent the week of December 9 in Melbourne, Australia, as the recipient of a University of Melbourne Sir Thomas Lyle Fellowship. While there he gave a colloquium "Prospects for a Higgs encore at the Large Hadron Collider," and a public lecture to an overflowing auditorium titled "The Universe and the Large Hadron Collider: Is the Truth Really Out There?" read more about Kruse Travels to Australia on Lyle Fellowship »
Graduate student Zepeng Li passed his preliminary defense on Friday, December 13, 2013. Congratulations! read more about Li Passed Prelim »
Profs. Kate Scholberg and Stefano Curtarolo were elected recently as APS fellows. Prof. Scholberg's citation reads: "For work with atmospheric and accelerator neutrinos that established the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation, and for leadership in the worldwide effort of the supernova neutrino detection.'' Prof. Curtarolo's citation reads: "For pioneering automatic high-throughput computational materials… read more about New American Physical Society (APS) Fellows »
The Department of Physics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina invites applications and nominations for an endowed position in theoretical or experimental condensed matter physics, broadly defined. The Charles H. Townes assistant/associate professorship is a tenure-track or tenured associate professor position, and the holder of this endowed position shall be a young or mid-career scientist with enormous promise and/or highly qualified accomplishments. The appointment will begin on or after July 2015. The successful… read more about Charles H. Townes Asst./Assoc. Professor in Physics »
On November 25, graduate student Mengyang Sun passed his thesis defense. Congratulations! read more about Sun Passed Defense »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been elected as the Foreign Fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences in India for his significant contributions to Physical Sciences. read more about Kotwal Elected Foreign Fellow »
Continuing on with the developing tradition of visiting National Laboratories over Fall Break, last month 8 physics graduate students traveled to Newport News, Virginia, to explore the Thomas Jefferson National Acceleration Facility (Jefferson Lab). Jefferson Lab is a Department of Energy facility primarily focused on conducting fundamental research in nuclear physics, with additional programs in accelerator science, cryogenics, and free-electron lasers, to name a few. The Duke Physics Department already holds important… read more about Grad Students Visit JLab »
Like many physicists, Michael Wittmann (’93) was drawn to the subject because it’s a way of understanding how the world works. But Wittmann is also interested in understanding how teaching and learning work. “I come from a line of teachers and physicists and engineers,” he says. “So I grew up with dinner table conversation about both of those topics.” To satisfy both of his interests, Wittmann specializes in physics education research (PER) at the University of Maine, where he was recently promoted to full… read more about Duke Alum Michael Wittmann Specializes in Physics Education Research »
On October 12-13, an international conference was held at Duke on the occasion of Prof. Bob Behringer's 65th birthday. Talks by world leaders in the fields of granular materials and fluid dynamics made for a fascinating scientific program, and many of Bob's former students and postdocs participated. The picture below shows the participants gathered outside the Physics Building (in front of the FFSC). More information about BobFest can be found here. read more about BobFest Conference Held »
Prof. Daniel Gauthier's group's paper on controlling extreme events is now online: H. L. D. de S. Cavalcante, M. Oriá, D. Sornette, E. Ott, and D. J. Gauthier, 'Predictability and suppression of extreme events in a chaotic system,' Phys. Rev. Lett. 111198701 (2013). DukeToday made a news release "Market Bubbles May Be Predictable, Controllable" which can read here. Physical Review Letters did a Viewpoint article on the paper called "How to Control Your Dragons." by Adilson E. Motter… read more about Gauthier Group Paper Published, Receiving Press »
Nature Physics just published an article by Profs. Harold Baranger and Gleb Finkelstein's groups and other collaborators. You can read the article online here as well as the News And Views about their paper here. read more about Baranger & Finkelstein Groups Published »
Graduate student Bonnie Schmittberger is organizing a Duke Physics team of volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. For those who aren’t familiar with the organization, Habitat for Humanity builds houses and conducts home repairs for low-income families in communities around the world. Durham has its own Habitat for Humanity chapter that helps families all over the city. While you may always sign up for individual volunteer shifts, a team of volunteers is extremely helpful to them for new… read more about Grad Student to Organize Physics-Habitat for Humanity Team »
Last year the staff of the Physics Department started a tradition of decorating the office, dressing in costume and having lunch together for Halloween. This year it continued with members showing spirit. In the picture from left to right are payroll clerk Donna Elliott as a Jack-o-lantern, assistant to the chair Cristin Paul as Han Solo, staff assistant to TUNL Brenda West as a vampiress, fiscal specialist Angela Garner wearing orange and black and DUS… read more about Physics Staff Share Halloween Spirit »
Graduate student Xuefei Yan of Prof. Haiyan Gao's lab successfully defended his preliminary exam on Monday, Oct 21, 2013. Congratulations! read more about Yan Successfully Defends »
HistoryMakers is a national non-profit educational institution with a mission of preserving African American history through creating, maintaining and providing easy access to an extensive archive of video and oral interviews and presentations. The institute was founded in 1999 by Julieanna Richardson who now serves as the Director and on the Board of Directors of The HistoryMakers. Dr. Richardson received a B.A. degree from Brandeis University and a J.D. from the Harvard School of Law. She worked as a corporate lawyer… read more about Howell Speaks to Hillside High Teens »
Dr. Mehdi Meziane, a postdoc in Prof. Haiyan Gao's Medium Energy Physics Group has been selected as a Jefferson Science Associates (JSA) Promising Young Scientist. The JSA Promising Young Scientist program has the goals of supporting junior nuclear physicists and promoting the effective dissemination of exciting new developments in nuclear physics. Dr. Meziane joined Prof. Gao's research group in June 2011. He has been working on a new experiment on a precise measurement of… read more about Meziane is JSA Promising Young Scientist »