Department of Physics
Iman Marvian, a quantum information theorist, will be joining the Duke faculty in January 2018, with a joint appointment in physics and electrical and computer engineering. He’ll be adding to the efforts of others in physics and engineering who are working to design and build quantum computers. But Marvian has a broader vision. “The field is not just about building quantum computers,” he says. “That’s a big part, but not the only part.” Harold Baranger, professor of physics, says, “Iman… read more about Iman Marvian: The “Magical Power” of Quantum Systems »
UNC professor Art Champagne succeeded Duke professor Calvin Howell to become the director of the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) in July 2016. Champagne is the William C. Friday Professor of Physics at UNC-Chapel Hill. A year and a half after making the transition from TUNL faculty member to TUNL director, Champagne says, “It’s a different perspective. It’s nice to look and see what everyone is doing. It’s all really exciting stuff that we can point to with a great deal of… read more about Art Champagne Ushers TUNL Through its Next Phase »
Congratulations to Prof. Maiken Mikkelsen who will receive an early promotion to Associate Professor! Prof. Mikkelsen joined the Electrical & Computer Engineering and Physics departments in 2012 and has since developed an outstanding research program. She was most recently in the news this past August when she won the 2017 SPIE Early Career Achievement Award. Click here to visit the Mikkelsen Lab's webpage. read more about Prof. Mikkelsen Promoted Early to Associate Professor »
Physicist Anselm Vossen has something in common with Goethe’s Faust: he wants to know what holds the world together. “In Germany, we like the poet Goethe,” Vossen says. “In Faust, there’s a quote: ‘So that I may perceive whatever holds/The world together in its inmost folds.’” Unlike Faust, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, Vossen is using the tools of physics to try to understand the forces that hold the nucleus of an atom together. Vossen will be joining the Duke… read more about Anselm Vossen: What Holds the World Together? »
If you want to know how a physicist thinks about the brain, talking to Nicolas Brunel is a good place to start. Brunel, who joined the Duke faculty in July as a professor of neurobiology and physics, uses the tools of statistical physics to illuminate the workings of the brain’s neural networks. Synapses in our brains change every time we learn something. As pathways and patterns are created in the neural network, some synapses become stronger and others weaker. “What are the rules that govern synaptic… read more about Nicolas Brunel: A Theoretical Physicist Investigates the Brain »
Prof. Patrick Charbonneau's collaborative algorithm developed to study deeply supercooled liquids has been featured on the Duke Research Blog. Click here to read "Cheating Time to Watch Liquids do the Slow Dance." Photo Credit: Misaki Ozawa and Andrea Ninarello, Université de Montpellier read more about Prof. Charbonneau's Collaboration Simulates Deeply Supercooled Liquids »
The American Physical Society today announced that both Prof. Roxanne Springer and Prof. Chris Walter have been elected Fellows! The criterion for election is exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise, and election is restricted to 0.5% of the membership in any given year. Thus, Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by one's professional peers. This brings the number of Duke Physics faculty members elected to APS fellowship to 15 (plus three secondary faculty… read more about Profs. Springer and Walter Named 2017 APS Fellows »
The 2017 graduate student awards and fellowships were distributed before the October 11th Colloquium by Associate Chair for Teaching Prof. Steffen Bass. Congratulations to all recipients on their accomplishments and for each prestigious recognition. The Henry W. Newson Graduate FellowshipRonald Malone is awarded the Henry W. Newson Graduate Fellowship Prize for his work in developing experimental techniques and systems for measuring neutron-neutron scattering in nuclei and for… read more about 2017 Graduate Student Awards »
The Physics Department's Grants & Contracts Administrator, Miriam Vines, holds a bachelors degree in Theatre & Dance. When she's not working for Physics, one of her hobbies is participating in community theatre with The Gallery Players in Burlington, NC. Last November she performed with the chorus in Little Shop of Horrors. This fall she is cast in the musical Sister Act as Sister Mary Patrick, Kathy Najimy's role from the 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg. The show goes on… read more about Staff Member Vines Cast in Community Performance of Sister Act »
Alumnus Nathan Kundtz (PhD '09) will be inducted as a 2017 member of Duke Graduate School's Few-Glasson Alumni Society. The society recognizes graduates who have distinguished themselves through their career accomplishments, the potential of their current endeavors, or their support for the graduate students and graduate education at Duke. Kundtz is the founder, chief executive officer, and president of Kymeta Corporation which develops… read more about Alum Kundtz to be Inducted into Grad School's Few-Glasson Society »
Prof. Maiken Mikkelsen has won the 2017 International Society for Optics + Photonics (SPIE)'s Early Career Achievement Award. Only one is given each year worldwide and is presented in recognition of significant and innovative technical contributions in the engineering or scientific fields of relevance to SPIE. Mikkelsen attended the awards banquet in San Diego, California where she was bestowed a trophy. Learn more about the Early Career… read more about Prof. Mikkelsen Wins 2017 SPIE Early Career Achievement Award »
The Physics Department chartered a bus which took 50 members of the community to the eclipse's path of totality on Monday, August 21, 2017. The group traveled to Bryson City, North Carolina at the Swain County Event Park adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Prof. Ronen Plesser, Lab Administrator Yuriy Bomze, and graduate student Ryan Kozlowski set up viewing gear, shot footage, and entertained the crowd. The video below was captured by… read more about Department Members Share their Total Eclipse Experiences »
Himmel Congratulations are in order: Former Neutrino Group postdoc Alex Himmel, now a Wilson Fellow at Fermilab, and Richard Longland, Assistant Professor of Physics at NC State and member of TUNL, have been honored with Early Career Awards from the Department of Energy. Longland The Early Career Research Program is a financial opportunity for scientists from DOE labs in the early… read more about 2017 DOE Early Career Awards Go to Two of Our Own »
The COHERENT Collaboration's 32-lb neutrino detector has observed coherent elastic scattering, before only theorized and something scientists have been trying to see for forty years. Read the team's paper "Observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering" in Science here. DukeToday interviewed COHERENT's Duke leaders Prof. Phil Barbeau, Prof. Kate Scholberg and TUNL's Grayson Rich. Read more details about their amazing discovery… read more about COHERENT Collaboration First to Observe Coherent Elastic Neutrino Scattering »
On Monday, August 21, 2017 there will be a coast-to-coast total solar eclipse crossing the US, the first one in almost a century. The Physics Department has chartered a bus to go down to Columbia, SC in the region of totality (all spaces have been taken); we expect to go to the South Carolina State Fairgrounds where many events are planned. If you can go to the region of totality, by all means do so, but plan ahead-traffic may be congested. A total eclipse is certainly the most impressive… read more about 2017 Eclipse Information and Viewing Glasses »
This summer, graduate student Anne Draelos, along with members of a Duke team spanning five fields, has been keeping busy by participating in the Amazon Robotics Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to automate warehouse order processing with recognition for a wider variety of objects. In a video by Duke's Office of News & Communications, Draelos described the project, breaking down the human aspects the team is programming the robot to do on its own. Team… read more about Graduate Student Draelos a Part of Amazon Robotics Challenge »
The blog Blackbird provided a detailed summary of the 2017 Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) Annual User's Meeting held June 20-23. Prof. Berndt Mueller, Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear & Particle Physics at Brookhaven National Lab, attended and spoke during Plenary Session II on Thursday. Prof. Mueller delivered a progress update and listed future goals on behalf of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee: "… read more about Prof. Mueller Presented to 2017 RHIC and AGS Users' Meeting »
Prof. Christopher Walter has been promoted to Full Professor, effective July 1, 2017. Prof. and Chair Warren Warren said: "I can tell you that Chris' work is recognized by his colleagues around the country and the world as outstanding, and the research directions he plans over the next decade are extremely promising" and hosted a celebration in honor of Prof. Walter this past April. Congratulations! read more about Prof. Walter Promoted to Full Professor »
Prof. Sara Haravifard's research with crystals and superconductors has been featured on Duke Research Blog. Read the story "Cooking Up 'Frustrated' Magnets in Search of Superconductivity" here. read more about Prof. Haravifard Featured on Duke Research Blog »
Prof. Sara Haravifard was awarded the Oak Ridge Associate University's Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. More information on this prestigious award can be read here along with a list of past winners here. read more about Prof. Haravifard Awarded ORAU's Ralph E. Powe Award »
The Department of Physics and the Department of Math held their annual diploma ceremony and luncheon on Sunday, May 14, 2017. In attendance were 325 graduates, faculty, family, and friends. Photos of the event can be viewed on our Flickr site here. See the event program here and Prof. and Chair Warren S. Warren's speech may be read here. Congratulations to the Class of 2017! read more about Graduation 2017 »
Undergraduate major Tamra Nebabu has been featured in a Senior Profile as part of Duke Today's "Senior Stories, Class of 2017 Series." Nebabu double majors in Physics and Electrical & Computer Engineering, works with Prof. Maiken Mikkelsen, and will graduate this weekend. Of her time at Duke, she said "Duke is the place where I discovered my passion for physics, found inspiration in my professors and mentors, and made lifelong friends." Read the full article "Tamra Nebabu:… read more about Undergraduate Nebabu Featured in a Duke Today Senior Profile »
Prof. Patrick Charbonneau has been named one of the 2016 “Journal of Chemical Physics” top reviewers in recognition of outstanding service and dedication to the journal. The criteria used to evaluate reviewer performance included quality, timeliness, number of reviews, and reliability. Congratulations to Prof. Charbonneau. read more about Prof. Charbonneau Named Top Reviewer for Journal of Chemical Physics »
Prof. David Beratan has received the American Chemical Society's Southeastern Region's 2017 Florida Award. He was recognized for his outstanding contributions to theoretical biophysics and biophysical chemistry, along with major impacts in teaching and service to the larger chemistry community. Beratan is the R. J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry. Read more here. read more about Prof. Beratan Wins Regional ACS Award »
Prof. and Chair Warren S. Warren has been awarded the 2017 Liversidge Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. The Liversidge Award is given biannually in recognition of oustanding contributions to physical chemistry. Warren is acknowledged specifically for pioneering the use of nonlinear optical imaging to extract molecular information. Please find the RSC announcement here and history of the Liversidge Award here. Duke Today also featured this news. Read the article is online here. read more about Prof. Warren Awarded 2017 Liversidge Award »
Last fall Prof. Berndt Mueller was filmed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory for the Science Channel's documentary series Space's Deepest Secrets. The interview is now available and Prof. Mueller can be seen in Season 2, Episode 3 "Black Holes: The Einstein Prophecy." Watch it on Amazon Prime here or with your SciGo login here. read more about Prof. Mueller Interviewed for Science Channel Documentary Series Space's Deepest Secrets »
The 2017 winner of the Daphne Chang Memorial Award for excellent in undergraduate research is Tianji Cai (in photo, on right). A certificate for this award was presented to Cai by Director of Undergraduate Students Prof. Kate Scholberg during the Undergraduate Student Research Poster Session on Tuesday, April 25. Read more about Daphne Chang and this distinguished award begun in her memory here. read more about Tianji Cai: 2017 Daphne Chang Memorial Awardee »
New members of the National Honor Society for Physics Students were inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma during the Undergraduate Poster Session held Tuesday, April 25. The new SPS members are: Jordan Fleming, Craig Madrak, Kaitlin McCreery, Jeong Min Park, Wei Tang, Yuqi Yun, and Tianqing Zhang. Pictured below from left to right are: Tianqing Zhang, Kaitlin McCreery, Craig Madrak, Jeong Min Park, Wei Tang… read more about 2017 Sigma Pi Sigma Inductees »
The 2017 undergraduate poster session was held on April 26th. Prizes were given for the top three posters: Kaitlin McCreery won first place, Ji Won Park won second place, and Matt Tobin won third place. See all of the posters with their presenters on Flickr here. (Photos: On right, Kaitlin McCreery presenting her first place poster; On left/top, Ji Won Park discusses her poster with Prof. Harold Baranger. Park won second place for her poster; On left/bottom, Matt… read more about 2017 Undergraduate Poster Session »
Prof. Kate Scholberg has been referenced in an article about Alison Roeth, a 2017 Goldwater Scholar from the University of Oklahoma. Roeth has worked with Scholberg on supernova neutrino research. View the story online here. read more about Prof. Scholberg Worked with 2017 Goldwater Scholar »