Dr. Gencho Rusev, former Research Scientist in Prof. Werner Tornow’s research group at TUNL and now at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the first author of a Physical Review Letter article [PRL 110, 022503 (2013)] about the “Fine Structure of the Giant M1 Resonance in 90Zr”. This work was carried out with other scientists from TUNL and abroad using Duke's High-Intensity Gamma-ray Source (HIgS ). You can read the PRL article online here. read more about Former Postdoc Rusev Published in PRL »
Pictured: John and Patricia Koskinen, Photo Credit: Duke University Photography “As a general matter, I’ve always liked organizing people and institutions.” So says John Koskinen, a Duke alumnus and the recently retired non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac. Over the years, he’s held an array of diverse positions, including being the Year 2000 czar (his favorite position) and the city administrator of Washington, DC (the toughest one). He has also been president of a corporate turn-… read more about Distinguished Alumnus John Koskinen Looks Back Over Varied Career »
Profs. Robert P. Behringer and Warren S. Warren were featured in DukeToday regarding their engagement in the American Physical Society's topical group on physics of climate. Read the article "Scientists to Talk about Physics, not Politics, of Climate" here. read more about Behringer and Warren Featured in DukeToday »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Kotwal was cited by the AAAS Council for performing "a series of high precision, world-leading measurements of the mass of the W boson, and for stringent tests of the standard model of fundamental particles." Each year the Council elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.” read more about Kotwal Elected to AAAS Fellowship »
The Technology section of the New York Times featured an article highlighting the research of Prof. David Smith. Read the article “Scientists Develop Device for Image Compression” here. read more about Smith's Research Highlighted in NY Times »
Prof. Patrick Charbonneau's work was recently featured in Science News. You can read the article "The Science Life" online here. read more about Charbonneau in Science News »
Graduate student Kristine Callan (advisor: Prof. Dan Gauthier) is a recipient of the 2013 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Please congratulate Kristine on an award she richly deserves. read more about Callan Receives Dean's Award »
Each year the graduate school gives out various types of fellowships to outstanding graduate students based on merit and need. The fellowship applications are usually due in the month of October and are nominated by the director of graduate studies based on faculty input. Final decisions are known by mid-December. This year two fourth year physics graduate students Shanshan Cao and Miaoyuan Liu won three fellowships. Shanshan Cao, a student working with… read more about Students Win Continuing Student Fellowships From the Graduate School »
Graduate student Yingyi Zhang welcomed her baby daughter Lin Luo on November 2, 2012. Zhang's advisor Prof. John Thomas visited when Lin was one week old. Thomas said "After having Yingyi as a student for more than six years, I feel like a grandfather!" Zhang is finishing her PhD thesis and expects to graduate this May. Congratulations, Yingyi! read more about Grad Student Zhang Welcomes Daughter »
Graduate student Jie Ren had a paper published in PRL along with her Duke collaborators postdoc Joshua A. Dijksman and Prof. Robert P. Behringer. You can read it online here. read more about Ren Published in PRL »
Prof. Berndt Mueller will be the new Associate Lab Director for Nuclear & Particle Physics at the Brookhaven National Laboratory from January 2013 to December 2015. During this period, he will hold a joint appointment between Duke and BNL. Below is the news release from BNL. An official news release from BNL is online here. Associate Lab Director for Nuclear & Particle Physics I am pleased to announce the appointment of physicist Berndt Mueller as the new Associate Laboratory… read more about Mueller a New Associate Lab Director at BNL »
Profs. Calvin Howell and Ronen Plesser along with graduate student Kristine Callan and staff member Derek Leadbetter were featured in the Duke Today article "Fun With a Rocket-Propelled Faculty" for their outreach efforts. Read the article online here. read more about Physics Outreach Featured in Duke Today »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been chosen to lead the Electroweak Physics Study Group at the Energy Frontier, as part of the long-term strategic planning exercise sponsored by the Division of Particles and Fields of the APS. This group will develop a 20-year plan for improving electroweak measurements at the LHC and possible future accelerators such as proton-proton colliders of higher luminosity and energy, electron-positron colliders of different designs, and a high-energy muon collider. These studies will be… read more about Prof. Kotwal Convenes Long-Term Planning Group in Electroweak Physics »
Duke postdoc Tarek Akiri from the neutrino group brings us news from the French press. On October 23rd, one of the most popular science journals in France "La Recherche" awarded the T2K experiment a prize for its paper published in June 2011: "Indication of electron neutrino appearance from an accelerator-produced off-axis muon neutrino beam". This paper reported the first indications of appearance of electron neutrinos in a beam of muon neutrinos due to oscillations. This allowed the first measurement of… read more about T2K awarded prize by the French magazine "La Recherche" »
“I’ve always wanted to work on something that had a real-world applicability,” says Nathan Kundtz, PhD ’09. “I was looking for ways to take what was fundamental science research and turn it into something which could be of value.” Only three years after earning his PhD in physics at Duke with Prof. David Smith, Kundtz has already designed a new type of satellite antenna that can supply internet connectivity to people in far-flung locales—such as relief workers, journalists, military… read more about Duke Alum Nathan Kundtz Invents New Satellite Antenna »
Prof. Bob Behringer's group recently has a paper accepted in PR titled "Particle scale dynamics in granular impact." The image at left is a typical image from one of their experiments, where the bright particles are experiencing force. They are exploring the questions of: How does granular material respond to a high-speed impact by a foreign object, such as a meteor striking a planetary surface? How do the grains collectively push back against the intruder, bringing it to a stop? They… read more about Visualizing Meteor Impact »
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) held their annual New Horizons conference in Raleigh this year, from 26-29 of October. Prof. Mark Kruse was invited to talk about the recent Higgs discovery to a large science media-related audience. His talk was the second in a session called "What is the Universe made of" the first being on Dark Matter by Prof. Katie Freese from the University of Michigan. Prof. Kruse's talk was transcribed visually by an attending artist, Perrin Ireland (@… read more about Prof. Kruse Talks About the Higgs at Science Writers Conference »
Prof. Haiyan Gaowas invited by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to give a plenary talk at the 84th Shuang Qing Forum on Hadronic Physics - Experimental and Theoretical Research in Beijing, November 2-4, 2012. The meeting was attended by many Chinese colleagues in high-energy nuclear and particle physics. While she was in Beijing, she witnessed the first snow of the year, and some area in the mountain accumulated over 90 cm of snow read more about Haiyan Gao Gave a Plenary Talk at NSFC Forum in Beijing »
Prof. Haiyan Gao has been on the APS council as a General Councilor since 2011. She was elected recently to serve on the APS Executive Board. As a member on the Executive Board, she will be much more involved in the business of the Society. Prof. Gao's term begins on January 1, 2013 and ends on December 31, 2014. read more about Prof. Haiyan Gao Elected to APS Executive Board »
While many in the Physics department were taking a well-earned respite from studying, teaching, and research during Fall Break, twelve intrepid graduate students traveled to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for a visit to the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Together with 17 students from the Chemistry and ECE departments, they took an extensive tour of the laboratory's facilities and met with its staff, who introduced them to the wide range of research opportunities that ORNL has to offer. The students were… read more about Graduate Students Tour Oak Ridge National Lab »
Prof. Chris Walter recently gave a set of lectures introducing the physics of atmospheric neutrinos at the fourth International Summer School on Neutrino Physics (INSS2012). This school aims to train the next generation of neutrino physicists, and the curriculum covers many topics: introductions to both the Standard Model and oscillation phenomenology, accelerator and reactor neutrinos, neutrino cross sections, and neutrinos in cosmology, just to name a few. The target audience consisted of graduate… read more about Walter Lectures at the 2012 International Neutrino Summer School »
Graduate student Mia Liu was featured in the Duke Today article "Far from Durham, A Physicist Explores the Frontier" about her experience working at CERN. You can read the article online here. read more about Grad Student Liu Featured in Duke Today »
Picture yourself trying to teach high-school science to 80 students in a classroom with no equipment besides a blackboard and some desks. Then imagine that these students don’t understand English very well. That’s the situation Eric Yff (’10) found himself in as a Peace Corps volunteer. Yff recently returned home after a two-year stint in Malawi, a small country in sub-Saharan Africa near Mozambique and Zambia. Faced with designing experiments for his students in a school with no scientific materials, Yff… read more about Duke Alum Yff Teaches Science in Malawi »
A symposium to celebrate Prof. Edward Bilpuch's career as a nuclear physicist and his contributions to TUNL will be held on Friday, November 2, 2012 at the Searle Center Lecture Hall at Duke University. The symposium will open with a review of the discovery and use of isobaric analogue states in nuclear structure studies. The high-resolution experimental techniques developed by Bilpuch's group will be described, examples of their early measurements will be presented and the scientific… read more about A Symposium to Celebrate Prof. Edward Bilpuch »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal recently gave lectures at the Hadron Collider Physics Summer School organized jointly by CERN and Fermilab. The Summer School was attended by about 130 students, mostly from Europe and North America but some also from other continents. Kotwal's lectures focused on the history of discovery through precision measurements in the field of particle physics and the current status of precision measurements. He described how these measurements can either confirm the consistency of the Standard… read more about Kotwal Lectures at CERN-Fermilab Joint Summer School »
On October 15 Prof. Al Goshaw gave a plenary talk at the APS Frontiers in Optics meeting in Rochester (see the announcement and links to the meeting below). It turned out to be quite a hit. Goshaw arrived at the meeting passing through the crowds like a neutrino, and after his talk was stopped continually for follow up questions (a real life Higgs phenomena). Higgs Boson Researcher Al Goshaw to Speak at Frontiers in Optics 2012 Plenary Session WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2012—… read more about Goshaw Gave Talk at APS Frontiers in Optics Meeting »
Alum Nathan Kundtz ('10) who worked with Prof. David Smith was featured in an article in the Technology section of Bloomberg Businessweek. You can read the article "Nathan Kundtz's MTenna May Replace the Satellite Dish" online here. read more about Alum Kundtz Featured in Businessweek »
It was an exciting day on campus today with the announcement of Robert Lefkowitz's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Duke Today's website also has an interesting article about other connections to the prize from the people who have been at Duke, including three from Duke Physics. Please see the article "Lefkowitz: Duke's First Nobel Winner?" here. read more about Lefkowitz: Duke's First Nobel Winner? (Duke Today Article) »
The Nobel Prize in Physics was just announced. It goes to two researchers in quantum optics/quantum information science: Serge Haroche from Ecole Normale Supérieure and David Wineland from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 was awarded jointly to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems."" Professor Wineland was a plenary speaker at the last annual… read more about 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics Announced »
Prof. Haiyan Gao and collaborators from Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University and Mississippi State University have been awarded recently by the National Science Foundation a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant for the construction of a cryogenic, internal hydrogen gas target for a new experiment on a precise measurement of the proton charge radius, a fundamental quantity important for both atomic and nuclear physics. The recent development of the "proton radius crisis’’… read more about Prof. Haiyan Gao and Collaborators Received an NSF MRI Award »