Department of Physics
The GERDA experiment in Italy has reported on their background-free search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Prof. Phil Barbeau, of the Duke Physics Department and the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, explains in Nature News and Views what the implications of a positive search could mean, and describes the prospects of future searches with GERDA and other experiments. Read "Particle physics: The search for no netrinos" online here. read more about Assistant Prof. Barbeau Explains in Nature News and Views Why a Recent Search for No Neutrinos is So Exciting »
Prof. Ayana Arce participated in a March 23rd panel discussion "Hidden Figures No More: Highlighting Phenomenal Women in STEM," inspired by the new film Hidden Figures. Duke Research Blog covered the event. Click here to read "Hidden No More: Women in STEM reflect on their Journeys" with quotes from Prof. Arce and five more African-American women faculty from Duke. Photo: Prof. Arce (right) and Dean Valerie Ashby contributing to the panel | Photo credit: Chris Hildreth, Duke… read more about Prof. Arce Participates in Panel Discussing African-American Women in STEM »
Senior Physics major Akhil Ghanta attended the American Physical Society March Meeting and delivered a talk titled "Quantitative characterization of detailed balance breaking in linear noise-driven dynamical systems" in the session on General Statistical and Nonlinear Physics. Ghanta has worked with Prof. Stephen Teitsworth for the past two years on theoretical and computational study of far-from-equilibrium noise-driven dynamical systems. read more about Undergraduate Ghanta Delivers Talk at APS March Meeting »
Graduate student Margaret Shea’s poster “The atomic AC-Stark shifts in an optical dipole trap” won first place in the student poster competition at the Fitzpatrick Institute of Photonics 2017 Annual Symposium. Shea's poster detailed work she has done with Prof. Daniel Gauthier on developing single neutral atoms as a platform for quantum computing protocols. Her calculations of the light-induced shifts in her trap are critical for implementing optimal control of the trapped atom’s quantum… read more about Graduate Student Shea Wins FIP Annual Symposium Poster Award »
High Energy Physics graduate student David Bjergaard successfully defended his dissertation on Friday, March 24, 2017. Bjergaard's advisor is Prof. Ayana Arce. Congratulations to David! read more about Bjergaard Defends Dissertation »
Undergraduate student Kaitlin McCreery received the Physics Undergraduate Research Award which helped her to travel to the American Physics Society's March Meeting. At the Meeting, she presented a poster "Measurement of resistance switching dynamics in copper sulfide memristor structures" that she worked on with fellow undergrad Matthew Olson and Prof. Stephen Teitsworth. read more about Undergraduate McCreery Attends APS March Meeting »
Prof. Henry Everitt was featured on Duke Today in the article "Light-Driven Reaction Converts Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel". 3/1/17 Update: This news has received coverage from other outlets as well. Click on the links to visit The Engineer, NSF Science 360 News, CleanTechnica, and Impronta Unika. read more about Prof. Everitt Featured on Duke Today »
Work done by the Haravifard Group has been featured in the first issue of National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's new magazine fields. Read the article "From Frustration to Discovery" here. read more about Haravifard Group Featured in fields magazine »
Prof. Henry Greenside received an "Outstanding Referee Award" for 2017 from the American Physical Society for outstanding refereeing of manuscripts submitted to APS journals. The APS recognizes only a small number of people (150) each year out of the 60,000 active physics referees. Other Duke Physics faculty to receive this award were Harold Baranger in 2016, Steffen A. Bass in 2015, Henry Weller in 2013, Daniel Gauthier in 2010, and… read more about Prof. Greenside Received 2017 Outstanding Referee Award from APS »
Alumni Scott Zoldi (Duke Physics, '98) was featured in APS News' Profiles in Versatility. Zoldi's advisor was Prof. Henry Greenside and since graduating has gone on to apply physics to finance. Read "FICO Scores with Chaos Theorist" here. read more about Alum Zoldi Featured on APS News »
Five Duke physics undergrads attended the American Physical Society Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP), held at Virginia Tech this year for the Southeast region. Photo on right: l-r, Kaitlin McCreery, Prof. Kate Scholberg, Megan Conroy, Isabel Avery, Tianji Cai, Yuqi Yun Prof. Kate Scholberg is Chair of the National Organizing Committee for this conference and gave a talk about neutrinos. Yuqi Yun and Tianji Cai presented… read more about Duke Physics at CUWiP 2017 »
The Physics Department held their annual holiday party on December 14th at the Doris Duke Center. Sage & Swift provided catering and more than 125 Physics faculty, staff, researchers, students, and family attended. Thank you for a fun evening! We look forward to next year. read more about Physics Holiday Party 2016 »
Prof. Jian-Guo Liu was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society for his contributions to the analysis of numerical methods for fluid dynamics, kinetic theory, and nonlinear partial differential equations. Congratulations! read more about Prof. Liu Named Fellow of AMS »
The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) has a new director. On July 1, Duke professor Calvin Howell passed the baton to UNC professor Art Champagne, who is the William C. Friday Professor of Physics at UNC-Chapel Hill. Howell says Champagne has all the characteristics of a successful TUNL director: “He’s a leading scientist, an active researcher, and a great steward and investor in the research infrastructure of TUNL.” Champagne is the first non-Duke professor to lead TUNL,… read more about New TUNL Director Art Champagne Looks to the Future »
When Ben Cerio, PhD ’15, came to Duke Physics as a graduate student, he imagined he would eventually become a physics professor. Instead, he’s a data scientist, a job the Harvard Business Review in 2012 called “the sexiest job of the 21st century.” Cerio works at a startup in San Francisco called DoubleDutch, which produces an app that attendees can use during conferences and other events to make a schedule, network with other attendees, comment on sessions, and participate in surveys. Although Cerio’s… read more about Ben Cerio: From Physicist to Data Scientist »
Science online published an article focusing on the work of Prof. Jungsang Kim. Read "Scientists are close to building a quantum computer that can beat a conventional one" online here and in print beginning December 2. read more about Prof. Kim Focus in Science »
Prof. Henry Everitt has been named a 2016 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in the physics section. There were three more fellows from Duke this year, one from Biology (John Franklin Rawls) and two in the Medical School (Jane F. Pendergast and Joe Brice Weinberg). See the full AAAS announcement online here. Congratulations! 12/1/16 Update: The U.S. Army has released an announcement about Prof. Everitt's acheivement with background about his work. Read "Army physicist named… read more about Prof. Everitt Named 2016 AAAS Fellow »
Congratulations to Prof. Maiken Mikkelsen! The APS announced she will be receiving the Maria Goeppert-Mayer award "For the demonstration of outstanding potential in the field of quantum nanophotonics." See the APS announcement on their website here. read more about Prof. Mikkelsen Recipient of Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award »
Kristen Collar and her colleagues from last spring’s Emerging Leaders Institute have recently published a blog post ("Re-envisioning Mental Health at Duke University") about their team project on The Graduate School’s Professional Development Blog. As the post mentions, Kristen and her team shared the report they compiled with key campus leaders. read more about Graduate Student Kristen Collar Contributes to Grad School's Blog »
Hersh Singh and William Steinhardt have been awarded the 2016 Mary Creason Memorial Award for Undergraduate Teaching. This award was established to honor students who excel in teaching physics in the Introductory Physics Laboratories at Duke. Singh and Steinhardt were recognized certificates at the Physics Department annual picnic on Saturday, August 27, 2016. They also shared a monetary sum that comes with the award.… read more about 2016 Graduate Student Awards »
We celebrate the life of Professor Emeritus J. Horst Meyer who died August 14 from cancer. Horst was a member of the Physics Department at Duke University for 57 years, and we remember him for his many contributions to Duke University and beyond. He was a highly recognized expert in low temperature physics. He mentored 50 Ph.D. students during his career, including 12 Fellows of the American Physical Society, two members of the National Academy of Sciences and one Nobel laureate. He was intensely interested… read more about The Passing of Prof. Emeritus Horst Meyer »
Prof. Al Goshaw's team at CERN was featured on Duke Research Blog. Click here to read the article "LHC Reveals No New Physics Yet, but Duke Scientists Stay the Hunt." read more about Prof. Goshaw's Team Featured on Duke Research Blog »
The Behringer Lab has been the science home for high school and undergraduate students over the years. Last year, high school students Meredith Cox, Kevin Liu, and Matthew Zheng, and undergrad Melody Lim actively participated in research in the Behringer lab, where each carried out their own research experiments, with mentoring from Ph.D. students and post-docs in the group. This summer’s group, pictured at right, include Meredith Cox, and in addition, visiting scholar Ding Jingqiu, Noah… read more about Behringer Lab Update »
Prof. Hugh Robinson, a emeritus member of the Physics Department, made the June 29th issue of The Herald-Sun recently for his beautiful paper creations. He uses a variety of techniques, as in the pictures seen here. For Hugh, this is a form of design, engineering, and creativity that reflects a lifetime interest in making things work. Many of these, such as the tractor pictured on left are completely articulated. read more about Prof. Robinson Features Paper Creations »
The American Physical Society March Meeting was held this year in Baltimore MD. This is a regular meeting for the entire Behringer Lab group, and everyone has the opportunity to present a talk. This year, we had an additional distinction: the logo for the meeting, which appeared throughout the meeting site at the Baltimore Convention site and on posters, was an artist’s rendition of our work, with our collaborator, Prof. Bulbul Chakraborty of Brandeis University. The logo, shown below, is based on a novel way to represent… read more about Members of Behringer Lab Provide Logo for APS March Meeting »
With a heavy heart, we relay the sad news received during the weekend regarding the passing of Prof. John Madey in Hawaii. He passed away on July 5, 2016. Professor Madey was a pioneer in the FEL research, and a prominent, world-class physicist. He was the founding director of the Duke FEL laboratory. From 1988, for a decade, he led the development of the Duke storage ring and various light source projects at the lab. John is survived by his son Andrew and his brother Julius M.J. Madey. A card will be… read more about The Passing of Prof. John Madey »
Prof. Sara Haravifard has been elected to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor User Group Executive Committee (SHUG EC) & the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Users Advisory Committee (NHMFL UAC). Additionally, Haravifard's recent work has been published in Nature Communications. Read "Crystallization of spin superlattices with pressure and field in the layered magnet SrCu2(BO3)2" online here. She was also featured as Science Highlight on the… read more about News from Prof. Haravifard »
Effective July 1, 2016, Prof. Stephen Teitsworth has been appointed to a three-year term as Director of Graduate Studies in the Physics Department. read more about Stephen Teitsworth Announced as New Director of Graduate Studies »
On June 24, 2016, Provost Sally Kornbluth announced that Prof. Arthur (Art) Champagne of UNC-Chapel Hill, and now an Adjunct Professor of Physics, will become the new Director of the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratories (TUNL) effective July 1. Provost Kornbluth's announcement is below:I am pleased to announce that Arthur (Art) Champagne will be the next Director of TUNL. Professor Champagne joined the physics department faculty at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel in 1990.… read more about Art Champagne Announced as New Director of TUNL »
Physics undergraduates Ifeanyi Achu, Hannah Glaser, Spencer Griswold, Emily Stump, Wei Tang, and Elisa Zhang were featured on Duke Research Blog. Read the article "Fledgling Physicists Embark for the LHC" here. read more about Undergraduates Featured on Duke Research Blog »