Earlier this month Profs. Albert Chang and Haiyan Gao attended an extremely successful conference, the 7th Joint Meeting of Chinese Physicists Worldwide - International Conference on Physics Education and Frontier Physics. At the last plenary session on Education where Prof. Chang spoke, more than fifty high school students attended his very interesting and interactive lecture. The education program of this conference series has become more and more successful each year and Prof. Chang is… read more about Chang and Gao attend 7th Joint Meeting of Chinese Physicists Worldwide »
At the LHC, Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal is heading up the ATLAS experiment's research team on searches for Zprime bosons. In August this ATLAS group submitted a new paper on this research to Physical Review Letters. This is the world's most sensitive search for Zprime bosons, which are new kinds of particles predicted in theories of force unification. Prof. Kotwal's team has also searched for Gravitons, which are massive particles hypothesized to mediate the force of gravity and explain why gravity is so much… read more about New ATLAS paper submitted by Kotwal's team »
What’s an alumnus of the Duke Physics department doing as a post-doc in the sociology department at the University of Chicago? Ask Jacob Foster ’03, who is doing just that. “Many of the most interesting and challenging problems for people who want to work on complex systems are in the social sciences,” he says. Foster, who earned his PhD in physics from the University of Calgary, adds, “The training I got at Duke and at Calgary put me in a pretty good position to act as an interpreter between the two… read more about Duke Alum Works at the Intersection of Physics and Sociology »
Seven undergraduates from the Duke Physics department spent time this summer working and learning at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland: Alex Bodel, Alejandro Cortese, Will DiClemente, Laura Dodd, Andrew Ferante, Josh Loyal, and Zongjin Qian. In addition four others did LHC-related research at Duke: Travis Byington, Zach Epstein, … read more about Duke Undergrads Spend Summer at LHC »
Alumna Sally Dawson (B.S. Physics and Mathematics, 1977) of Brookhaven National Laboratory was elected by APS members as the chair-elect of the nominating committee for the new term beginning January 1, 2012. The election results may be found here and Dr. Dawson's biography and statement here. read more about Alum Sally Dawson joins APS leadership team »
Prof. Haiyan Gao at PANIC11 | Photo courtesy of Justin Knight PhotographyThe 19th Particles and Nuclei International Conference (PANIC11) is taking place this week in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from Sunday July 24th through Friday July 29th 2011. PANIC2011 is special because it is also celebrating the centennial of the discovery of the atomic nucleus and the 150th anniversary of MIT. 600 or so physicists are at this conference from 35 countries and Duke has a strong presence… read more about Duke Physics at PANIC 2011 »
Prof. Daniel Gauthier was the General Co-Chair of the recent topical meeting of the Optical Society of America, Nonlinear Optics 2011 (NLO 2011), following his term at conference Program Co-Chair in 2009. The conference is usually held every two years on one of the islands of Hawai'i, where the 2011 meeting was the 10th time that it was held here. The location is ideal for fostering interactions, especially between scientists from the United States and the Pacific Rim countries. One highlight of the meeting… read more about Gauthier attends NLO 2011 »
Prof. Kate Scholberg and former Duke physics undergraduate Alvaro Chavarria (graduated 2007) attended a workshop excursion to Lübeck in Germany. Prof. Scholberg organized a session on phenomenology and detection strategies for supernova neutrinos at the HANSE 2011 (Hamburg Neutrinos from Supernova Explosions) workshop at DESY in Hamburg. Alvaro is now a graduate student at Princeton and is responsible for supernova neutrino monitoring for the Borexino experiment in Italy, and he also… read more about Scholberg and Chavarria attend HANSE 2011 »
In July Prof. Shailesh Chandrasekharan and postdoctoral associate Dr. Anyi Li traveled to Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe to attend the 2011 International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory. It is the biggest annual meeting for all the people who are doing lattice field theory calculations. 350 participants from all over the world have attended this year's conference. Prof. Chandrasekharan and Dr. Li presented their work on the novel developed algorithm which can efficiently simulate the fermionic… read more about Chandrasekharan and Li attend Lattice Field Theory Symposium »
The Dean of Natural Sciences, Robert Calderbank, traveled to CERN on July 12 to meet with members of the Duke ATLAS research group. The visit included tours of the ATLAS control room and an assembly laboratory used for the construction of tracking detectors. Dean Calderbank had an opportunity to learn about the Duke ATLAS research program in meetings with Duke students and senior scientists Andrea Bocci, Prof. Al Goshaw and Guem-Bong Yu. The excitement of… read more about Dean Calderbank visits CERN »
Le Luo earned his PhD in 2008 working with Prof. John Thomas. For the past three years, he has been working with Prof. Chris Monroe in the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) at the University of Maryland and NIST as a JQI post-doc fellow. Le Luo is now heading to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) as an assistant professor. He says, “I will start an AMO lab there and focus on cold atom physics and quantum information science.” read more about Update from Alum Le Luo »
Prof. Haiyan Gao's graduate student, Wangzhi Zheng, has co-published a paper in Physical Review A as a Rapid Communication. Physical Review A is a publication on atomic, molecular, and optical physics. Read the abstract at the Physical Review A website here. Zheng submitted an introduction to the paper, which we've shared below. From Wangzhi Zheng: Optically polarized Helium-3 gas has been widely used in many applications, such as neutron… read more about Graduate Student Zheng publishes paper in Phys. Rev A »
Prof. Daniel Gauthier has been named the Robert C. Richardson Professor of Physics. Read the article in Duke Today here. Prof. Gauthier is recognized for his research in experimental condensed matter physics, photonics, quantum optics, and nonlinear dynamics. The professorship is endowed by an anonymous gift to the university in honor of Dr. Richardson, who obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at Duke in 1966, and is currently the Floyd R. Newman Professor of Physics at Cornell… read more about Prof. Gauthier named Richardson Professor of Physics »
Duke's community of faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and research scientists have long been active in the experiments at CERN in Geneva. This archive is by no means comprehensive, but offers a handful of highlights of recent updates from Duke physicists working on (or working with topics related to) the LHC or ATLAS experiments. Click the link below read the list of news story highlights. Ashutosh Kotwal named co-leader of research group on ATLAS: Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been named… read more about Duke at CERN: Updates from 2010-2011 »
Compiled by Prof. Horst Meyer, May 13, 2011 After preparing the webpages of the Duke Physics Distinguished faculty, starting with that of Fritz London (1900-1954), I recorded and tabulated their weblog counts. In addition of F. London, the webpages include those of Hertha Sponer (1895-1968), Lothar Nordheim (1899-1985), Walter M. Nielsen (1901-1981), Walter Gordy (1909-1985), Henry W. Newson (1909-1978), William M. Fairbank (1917-1989), Harold W. Lewis (1917-2000) and L.awrence C. Biedenharn (1922-… read more about Weblog counts of Distinguished Physics Faculty »
Submitted by Prof. Henry Greenside, Director of Undergraduate Studies I would like to mention some highlights of achievements and events related to Duke's physics majors, to the graduating class of seniors, and to the physics major. Several physics majors won prestigious awards in the 2010-2011 academic time frame. Junior Vivek Bhattacharya, who is majoring in economics and physics, was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering for his… read more about Undergraduate News: 2010 through 2011 »
Submitted by Prof. Richard Palmer, Director of Graduate Studies Degrees and Exams Each student must pass their Preliminary Exam as a candidate for the Ph.D. degree, usually in their 3rd year. From September 2009 to April 2011, Preliminary Exams were passed by: Kristine Callan, Ben Cerio, Abe Clark, Seth Cohen, Chris Coleman-Smith, Ethan Elliott, Somayeh Farhadi… read more about Graduate News: 2010 through 2011 »
Submitted by Prof. Dan Gauthier, July 2011 Department Happenings First, let me apologize for the “missing” print newsletter during summer 2010. Life in general was hectic and I fell behind on my obligations; thus, this “Happenings” summarized information from Summer 2009 - Summer 2011. Over the past two years, there have been numerous changes in department leadership and faculty ranks. In 2011, I stepped down as Chair of the department after six years and I am very… read more about Department Happenings: 2010 through 2011 »
Submitted by Prof. and Chair Haiyan Gao It will be an exciting and challenging way for me to start my 10th year at Duke as the Chair of the Physics department. I am honored and humbled by your trust and support. Duke has been the place where I have spent the longest, continuous time in my life including my birth city and hometown, Shanghai. To me, it is home and the department is my family. It is my good fortune to follow Prof. Dan Gauthier, whose leadership and service to the… read more about Vision For The Future »
In June, Prof. Berndt Mueller and Prof. Chung-I Tan (Brown University) organized the biennial Workshop on Nonperturbative Quantum Chromodynamics in Paris, France. This year, the scientific highlights at the workshop were first results from the LHC, as well as the application of string theoretical techniques to the calculation of processes involving quarks and gluons. The photo shows the two organizers (left: Mueller, right: Tan) relaxing in the hotel lobby before dinner after a long day of theory talks. read more about Prof. Mueller Organizes Workshop in Paris »
In March Prof. Stefano Curtarolo, who holds a secondary appointment in Physics, was named a fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP). You can see his name among the list of other recently elected fellows here. read more about Prof. Curtarolo Named IOP Fellow »
Dr. Hannah Petersen has recently been appointed to a Visiting Assistant Professor position in the QCD theory group. Her field of expertise is the dynamical description of heavy ion collisions using transport theory to study the properties of hot and dense nuclear matter and the quark gluon plasma. The development and application of a hybrid approach that combine microscopic transport and fluid dynamics constitutes one part of her research. The calculation of characteristic matter properties like the shear… read more about Dr. Hannah Petersen Appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor »
Georgios Laskaris, current president of the Duke Physics Graduate Student Organization (GSO), submitted an update on the activities of the graduate students during the 2010-2011 school year. His update includes notes about: * The Graduate Student seminar, a weekly gathering of students in the department * GSO activities in Duke University's Graduate and Professional Student Council * Information about GSO Ombuspersons * GSO Weekly Tea Times * Prospective Students and Open House Week * Department T-… read more about GSO Update »
Physics undergraduate student Jay Krishnan shared a recent story. He writes: [In June], my hometown held the bi-annual "Molino Math Scavenger Hunt", which is held at the prestigious Maple Woods Golf Course. Everybody starts with a single clue, which is a difficult math problem that leads to a certain area on the course that holds the next clue. Well, 18 clues and several tricky integrals later, I ended up winning the whole thing! [Below] is a picture of me clutching the Molino Trophy (this goes to the… read more about Undergrad Jay Krishnan wins Molino Trophy »
Dr. Yi Qiang, a former postdoc at Duke Physics, submitted the following update. Dr. Qiang is now at Thomas Jefferson Lab. Dr. Yi Qiang is a staff scientist of Hall D at Thomas Jefferson Lab, a national nuclear research facility. He is an expert of exotic hadronic states, nucleon spin structure, tests of QCD, polarized ³He target and the detector system for nuclear and particle physics. Dr. Qiang received his B.S. degree in physics from USTC, China, and was awarded the highest honor of… read more about Former Postdoc Now at Thomas Jefferson Lab »
From Professor Steffen Bass: In an article just published in the Physical Review Letters, a group of theorists including Prof. Steffen A. Bass showed that the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in high energy heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN forms the most perfect liquid ever studied in the laboratory. To read more about this article, click here: Using a new theoretical tool… read more about Quark-Gluon Plasma identified as the most perfect liquid of all »
Graduate Student Min Huang has been named winner of the 2011-2012 Jefferson Science Associate (JSA) Graduate Fellowship. Huang, who came to Professor Haiyan Gao’s Medium Energy research group at the age of 19, was notified this spring that the JSA Fellowship Evaluation Committee selected her application for research at the Jefferson Lab in Virginia. As a recipient of the Fellowship, Huang will receive a stipend, stipend support, and travel allowances. Min was a part of the young… read more about Grad Student Huang named winner of the 2011-2012 JSA Graduate Fellowship »
Prof. Haiyan Gao begins serving as the Chair for the Department of Physics today, July 1st, 2011. As well as supporting Duke Physics as chair, Dr. Gao is investigating Neutron EDM, Polarized Compton scattering, neutron transversity, search for phi-N bound state, polarized photodisintegration of 3He. read more about Welcome Haiyan Gao, Our New Department Chair »
Prof. Shailesh Chandrasekharan begins serving as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Physics today, July 1st, 2011. In addition, Dr. Chandrasekharan is exploring Quantum Critical Behavior in Fermion Systems, Using the generalized fermion bag algorithm, Applications to Graphene and Unitary Fermi Gas. read more about Welcome Shailesh Chandrasekharan, Our New Director of Graduate Studies »
The 2011 National Nuclear Physics Summer School (NNPSS) is hosted by the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) and held on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The School will run for two weeks from June 20 - July 1, 2011. The NNPSS provides broad coverage of the research topics at the frontier of nuclear physics. The School program is designed to give graduate students and postdocs an opportunity to gain a broad perspective of the field and to help foster a community of young… read more about TUNL hosting the 2011 National Nuclear Physics Summer School »