Two postdocs from the high energy physics group were recognized for their work this week at the Fermilab Users Meeting. Alex Himmel (from the Neutrino Group) was awarded the URA thesis award for his thesis "Antineutrino Oscillations in the Atmospheric Sector" which he completed at Caltech just before coming to Duke. Himmel (center) Bodhitha Jayatilaka, who is a postdoc working with Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal on the CDF experiment, won this year'… read more about Two HEP Group Postdocs Win Awards »
Last January, Duke Physics major Travis Byington ’12 published an article in Physical Review Letters (PRL) with Prof. Josh Socolar. While it’s not unheard of for Duke undergraduates to publish in professional journals, Socolar says, “PRL is a pretty prestigious place to publish your first paper.” The paper, titled “Hierarchical Freezing in a Lattice Model,” describes how Socolar and Byington used computer simulations and analytical methods to model the behavior of atoms in a theoretical… read more about Duke Physics Undergrad Travis Byington Publishes in PRL with Prof. Socolar »
Physics Department graduate Dr. Mary F. Kidd (Ph.D. 2010), presently a postdoc at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has accepted an offer for a tenure track Assistant Professor position at Tennessee Technological University. Mary did her Ph.D. work in Prof. Werner Tornow’s group at TUNL on double-beta decay research. read more about Alum Kidd Has New Position at Tennesee Tech »
On May 23, 2012 the Majorana Collaboration, led by John Wilkerson from UNC, successfully passed the DOE/NSF review of the Majorana Demonstrator project. This project is a zero-neutrino double-beta decay search using a combination of up to 40 kg of natural and enriched (in 76Ge) High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors. It is funded at the $22M plus level by DOE and the NSF. The Majorana project was conceived in 1999 by Profs. Ludwig DeBraeckeleer and Werner Tornow from Duke, Frank Avignone from the University… read more about Majorana Collaboration Passes DOE/NSF Critical Design Review »
Prof. Werner Tornow, within a 2-week time frame, was at three underground research facilities. First, in early May he worked with graduate student Sean Finch at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility (KURF) near Blacksburg, VA. In this limestone mine, the two operate a two-neutrino double-beta decay experiment on 96Zr at the 1700 ft level, and are setting up a new apparatus to search for the zero-neutrino double-electron capture of 156Dy. Second, Prof. Tornow attended the Majorana… read more about Tornow Underground »
First-year graduate student Jonah Bernhard and second-year graduate student Chung-Ting Ke have been named 2012 Outstanding Teaching Assistants of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Prof. Haiyan Gao, Chair of Physics, will present each with a certificate of achievement and a gift membership to the AAPT at the fall 2012 Physics department annual picnic. Both winners are also listed on the AAPT award site. read more about Jonah E. Bernhard and Chung-Ting Ke selected as 2012 AAPT Outstanding Teaching Assistant »
Prof. Stefano Curtarolo and colleagues published a paper on topological insulator in Nature Materials. You can read it online here. read more about Curtarolo and Colleagues in Nature Materials »
Two Duke Physics alums, who are now faculty at Baylor University, were honored at Baylor's graduation May 10. Dr. Jeffrey S. Olafsen (PhD, 1994, adv. Profs. Robert P. Behringer and Horst Meyer) was honored for outstanding teaching Dr. Jay R. Dittmann (PhD, 1998, adv. Prof. Alfred Goshaw) was honored for outstanding scholarship Read about Baylor's commencement exercises here. read more about Two Physics Alums Honored »
Prof. Calvin Howell was recently appointed as a member of the Physical Review C journal editorial board. Please see this link for a complete list of staff. read more about Howell Appointed to Physics Review C Journal Editorial Board »
Prof. Haiyan Gao was named the Henry Newson Professor of Physics in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2012. Please congratulate her on this richly-deserved honor! Read the Duke Today announcement here. read more about Gao Named Henry Newson Professor of Physics »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal's group's measurement of the W boson mass, which is the world's most precise and makes a definitive prediction of the Higgs boson mass, has been published in Physical Review Letters. It can be read here. It is an Editor's recommendation and a short synopsis from the PRL editors is here. The result is also featured on the cover of this issue. read more about Kotwal’s Group’s W Boson Mass Measurement featured on the cover of PRL »
Physics graduate students Chenglin Cao and Wangzhi Zheng received the 2011 outstanding graduate student award from the Ministry of Education of China. This award is dedicated to Chinese graduate students studying abroad. There are a total of 495 students that received this award in 2011. They are from 29 countries with research areas in more than 60 different disciplines. This year three Duke Chinese students received this award and two of them are from the Physics department. Chenglin Cao… read more about Cao and Zheng Receive 2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Award »
Prof. Mark Kruse has been named a new Bass Fellow and has been added to the Bass Chairs webpage under the "Meet the Fellows" tab. read more about Kruse a New Bass Fellow »
Prof. Berndt Mueller was elected to the Board of Directors for the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). Read the news release here. read more about Mueller Elected to Board of Directors of ORAU »
Prof. Werner Tornow gave an invited talk at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society in Atlanta with the title “Overview of Measurements Related to Three-Nucleon Force Effects.” read more about Prof. Tornow Gives Invited Talk »
Dr. Rajarshi Raut, former Research Associate in Prof. Werner Tornow’s research group, is the first author of a Physical Review Letter article [PRL 108, 042502 (2012)] about the measurement of the photodisintegration cross section of 4He. This work was carried out at TUNL’s High-Intensity Gamma-ray Source (HIgS ). Related work on 3He was published a few months earlier in Physics Letters by W. Tornow et al. [Phys. Lett. B 702 121 (2011)]. read more about Former Researcher Raut's HIGS Research Published »
On April 5, 2012, the Department of Physics celebrated the unveiling of the English version of Prof. Hertha Sponer's biography, which is now available both as an e-book and as paperback and hardback. The well-attended event included introductory remarks by Dean Robert Calderbank, Dean Laurie Patton and Vice Provost Nancy Allen. After these remarks, Dr. Marie-Ann Maushart, the author of the original biography, described the process by which she selected this project for her PhD dissertation, the difficulties she faced in… read more about The Department Celebrates the New Hertha Sponer Biography »
Prof. Bob Behringer and Lab Administrator Derek Leadbetter did some exciting science outreach during the month of March. On March 7th, Bob--with Derek behind the scenes--and Profs. Warren Warren and Ken Lyle from Chemistry presented a program "Science Magic" to 70 Duke Campus Club members. Campus Club is an organization of women involved in one way or another with Duke (faculty, faculty wives, staff, volunteers, etc.). Some of the comments after the show from those who… read more about Behringer and Leadbetter Conduct Science Outreach »
Second-year physics graduate student Chen Zhou, has won an Argonne ATLAS Analysis Support Center competitive fellowship designed to support ATLAS graduate students to work with, and at, the analysis center at Argonne National Laboratory. Fellows are expected to take part in ATLAS analysis and/or detector activities at ANL. Chen will spend six months at Argonne beginning June 1 2012, working with his advisor, Prof. Mark Kruse, on an analysis of ATLAS data at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)… read more about Graduate Student Chen Zhou Wins Argonne National Laboratory Fellowship »
On February 4, 2012, Duke University President Richard Brodhead visited the Physics Department and in particular, explored the mysteries of granular materials. He began his visit by trying a simple granular experiment on his own, with a little help from Prof. Bob Behringer. Jie Ren, a Ph.D. student, showed President Brodhead how her experiment works. She and post-doc Joshua Dijksmanare studying the basic statistical physics of shear granular material. Along… read more about President Brodhead Visits the Behringer Lab »
Tom Savard, who earned his PhD in physics at Duke in 1998, now works at St. Jude Medical in St. Paul, where he is Director of Advanced Process Development-Systems for the Atrial Fibrillation Division. While at Duke, Savard studied resonance imaging of trapped atoms with Prof. John Thomas. He started his career at Honeywell working on space defense, and made the transition to medical work almost seven years ago. “I really like working on problems that are challenging and important,” he says. “I wanted to try… read more about Using a Physics PhD in the Medical Technology Industry »
After earning her undergraduate degree in physics at Duke in 2007, Katie West Hulme earned a master’s degree in medical physics at MD Anderson in Texas. She says she thought about going to physics graduate school, but was looking for something more applied. Then she read an article in Duke Magazine about medical physics. “It looked like a very applied field,” she says. “You have not only the theoretical component, but you interact with a lot of different people. So that sparked my interest.” Today… read more about Alum Works as Diagnostic Physicist at Cleveland Clinic »
“The contribution of physics to medicine has been spectacular,” says Prof. James Dobbins, III. “What if you went to a hospital and there were no X-rays, no CT, no MRI, no radiation therapy, no nuclear medicine, no molecular imaging? What would medicine be like?” Dobbins is the director of the Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program, which offers Master of Science and PhD degrees. Although Duke’s program is only seven years old, the relationship between physics and medicine goes way back—the first… read more about Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program »
On Tuesday, April 10, graduate student Wangzhi Zheng successfully defended his thesis. The photo depicts Dr. Zheng with his advisor Prof. Haiyan Gao. Congratulations! read more about Zheng Defends Thesis »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal recently gave an interview about his latest research at Fermilab for the publication Wired.com in their Wired Science section. You can read the article "Physicists Pinpoint W Boson, Narrow Search for Higgs" here. read more about Kotwal Interviewed by Wired »
Thursday, April 5, 2012 Location: LoveAuditorium, LSRC 2:30 PM– Unveiling the English version of Hertha Sponer’s biography, sponsored by the Physics Department and Arts and Sciences Opening session (15 min) – Opening remarks by Dean Laurie Patton, introduced by Dean Robert Calderbank Presentation of the Biography – Short Remarks by Vice Provost Nancy Allen, and introductions by Professor Daniel Gauthier (5 min) Dr. Marie Ann Maushart, author of the original biography of Hertha Sponer,… read more about Hertha Sponer Event »
Members of the optics lab Rui Zhang, Joel Greenberg and Prof. Daniel Gauthier along with Prof. M.C. Fischer from Chemistry had their recent paper "Controllable ultra-broadband slow light in a warm Rubidium vapor" (2011) selected as a notable Atomic and Molecular Physics paper by the Journal of the Optical Society of America B. You can read it here. read more about Broadband Slow Light Paper Highlighted »
On Friday, March 23, graduate student Joshua Albert successfully defended his thesis. The picture at left depicts him with his adviser Prof. Chris Walter at his post-defense party. Congratulations, Josh! read more about Albert Defends Thesis »
Congratulations to graduate student Chenglin Cao who successfully defended his thesis on March 21. Cao's adviser Prof. John Thomas said "I brought a bottle of Tempranillo to celebrate... and several of Chenglin's friends as well as Bob [Behringer] and Steffen [Bass] stopped by, so we had a nice party." read more about Cao Defends Thesis »
Prof. and Chair Haiyan Gao was featured in a Duke Today article "Physics Chair Sees Entire Universe in a Neutron." Read the article here. read more about Gao Sees Universe in a Neutron »