Graduate student Miaoyuan Liu, advisee of Prof. Al Goshaw, successfully defended her dissertation on January 13, 2015. The topic of her dissertation was "Gauge Boson Coupling Measurements in Final States with a W Boson Produced with Additional Photons Using the ATLAS Detector." Congratulations to Dr. Liu. read more about Liu Passes Dissertation »
Prof. Steffen A. Bass has been selected for APS Journals' Outstanding Referee Program. Annually the program recognizes 150 of the roughly 60,000 currently active referees. You can find more information on their website here. read more about Prof. Bass Selected as Outstanding Referee »
Prof. Kate Scholberg is featured on Science360 News' radio show "People Behind the Science." Click here to listen to the interview and learn about new discoveries in neutrino physics. read more about Prof. Scholberg Featured on People Behind the Science »
Prof. Charles Townes passed away yesterday January 27, 2015 at the age of 99. As many of you may know, Prof. Townes received the Nobel prize in the 1960's for his contribution to the invention of the laser. What you may not know is that he received his MS degree from Duke Physics in 1936. Prof. Townes visited Duke many times over his career, including giving a keynote address in the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics during one of its annual meetings a few years back. We also have a graduate fellowship… read more about Prof. Charles Townes Has Passed Away »
Prof. Maiken Mikkelsen is a recipient of the 2015 Air Force Young Investigators Research Program (YIP) award. The Air Force YIP supports scientists and engineers who have received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees in the last five years and show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. Read the official press release and see the full list of recipients here. Congratulations to Prof. Mikkelsen! read more about Prof. Mikkelsen Receives 2015 Air Force YIP Award »
Over the weekend January 16-18, 2015, Duke University hosted the American Physical Society Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) in the North Carolina Research Triangle on East Campus, in collaboration with North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina Central University. It's the tenth year the conference has been held (it was at Duke in 2010 and NCSU in 2011). For the past few years, CUWiP has been organized centrally by the American Physical Society and… read more about 2015 APS Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Held at Duke University »
Prof. Henry Everitt has been featured in a DukeToday story about his laser research with toxic gas detection. Read the article "Laser Sniffs Out Toxic Gases From Afar" online here. read more about Prof. Everitt's Laser Research Featured in DukeToday »
Prof. Steffen Bass was elected as an APS Fellow in 2014 for his pioneering work on the development of transport models for the description of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and their application to the extraction of the properties of the quark gluon plasma. The election to APS fellowship is a great honor for an APS member. Warmest congratulations to Prof. Bass! read more about Prof. Bass Elected APS Fellow »
The Physics Department welcomes back Prof. Daniel Gauthier to the chair's seat. Prof. Gauthier is on board as Interim Chair for the next year and a half as Prof. Haiyan Gao has stepped down a bit early in order to continue her role with Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in a larger capacity as Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. Read more on that story here. Good luck to Prof. Gao and welcome back Prof. Gauthier! read more about Prof. Gauthier Returns to Chair »
Prof. Steffen Bass will take on the leadership position of Associate Chair for Teaching (ACT) in Physics for a three-year term starting July 1, 2015. Thank you to thank Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal for doing a terrific job as ACT in the last three years. In the next several months, Profs. Kotwal, Bass and incoming Interim Chair Daniel Gauthier will work closely to ensure a smooth transition. read more about Prof. Bass Will Be the New Associate Chair for Teaching »
On November 13, 2014 a group of twenty students, instructors and parent chaperones from the Hawbridge Charter School in Saxapahaw, NC traveled to Duke University to tour the physics labs at Triangle Universities Nuclear Lab (TUNL), the Free Electron Laser (DFELL) and the Laboratory for Experimental Astrophysics (LENA). The student body on the tour was comprised of young women and men enrolled in the physics and math program at Hawbridge with interest in pursuing undergraduate careers in the field of physics. The tour lasted… read more about Hawbridge Charter School Returns With New Group to Tour TUNL, FEL and LENA »
Prof. Hubert Bray, Mathematics and Physics, has written a book to get boys and girls interested in math and science. It is also great for adults who enjoy fantasy, science fiction, and high level discussions of some of the greatest ideas ever discovered. Check out "Trevor the Time Traveler and the Murkian Threat" on Facebook here. This project started out as bedtime stories for Prof. Bray's children. Of course, he had to center them around math and science, but the kids wanted adventure and a fun story,… read more about Prof. Bray Has Written a Children's Book »
Incoming William H. Fairbank Assistant Prof. Sara Haravifard has been featured in a number of publications with regard to her recent research. Her work builds on a fundamental problem in quantum mechanics – the description of a system of interacting spin ½ identical particles – by addressing the question of how a collection of such spins forms an ordered state, with relevance to the fields of quantum magnetism, quantum phase transitions, and exotic superconductivity. See below for a full list of articles.… read more about New Insights into Quantum Magnets Have Eluded Thorough Understanding for Nearly 30 Years »
On November 6, 2014, seventeen TUNL personnel including Faculty, Staff and Graduate students received Duke "Save-A-Life program" hands-on "Chest Compression-Only" CPR training. This training was provided by Ms. Leatrice Martin, Director of the Duke Heart Center, Community Outreach and Education Program. In addition to CPR, she also taught attendees in the use of AED's (Automated External Defibrillator) and also the Heimlich maneuver including self treatment. If there is interest in the rest of the department,… read more about TUNL Participates in Save-A-Life Training »
Despite the chilly weather over the fall break, physics graduate students maintained their excellent tradition of national lab expedition this year. On October 14, nine physics graduate students visited Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to experience the world-leading academic and research environment. ORNL, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, is the largest multidisciplinary science and technology laboratory from fundamental physics such as nuclear physics and neutron physics, to… read more about Nine Graduate Students Tour Oak Ridge National Laboratory »
The 21st International Symposium on Spin Physics (Spin2014) took place in the week of Oct 20-24 on the campus of Peking University (PKU), in Beijing, China. The International Spin Physics Symposium series combined together the High Energy Spin Symposia and the Nuclear Polarization Conferences since 2000. The most recent symposia took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA (2008), Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany (2010), and JINR, Dubna, Russia (2012). Spin 2014 was co-chaired by Bo-Qiang Ma (PKU) and Haiyan Gao… read more about Spin Symposium 2014 in Beijing Update »
NOTE: LINK BROKEN Duke Physics's administrative manager Randy Best was featured in the latest edition of Working @ Duke, Duke's employee magazine, in a series called "What's Your Health Worth?" Read the article "Big Accident, Small Financial Burden" online here. read more about Randy Best Featured in Working@Duke »
Prof. Maiken Mikkelsen's group's paper "Probing the mechanisms of large Purcell enhancement in plasmonic nanoantennas" has been published on Nature Photonics' website. Read it here. More information is available from the Pratt School of Engineering with background on the research and quotes from group members. Read "Revving Up Fluorescence for Superfast LEDs" here. read more about Prof. Mikkelsen's Group Published on Nature Photonics' Site »
This past summer, undergraduates from the Duke physics department worked alongside physicists at research hotspots around the world, contributing to work on neutrino detection, the Higgs boson, a next-generation telescope, and more. In the process, they not only learned how to apply classroom concepts to real-world problems, but also gained insight into themselves and their plans for the future. Aaron Webb, a senior from Arizona, worked on the ATLAS project at the Large… read more about Undergraduates Travel for Summer Research »
Henry Newson Prof. and Chair Haiyan Gao has been appointed as Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at Duke Kunshan University and will begin this role on January 1, 2015. Gao will be stepping down as chair of Duke Physics and Robert C. Richardson Prof. Daniel Gauthier will serve as interim chair. You can read the DKU news article online here. read more about Prof. and Chair Gao Appointed Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, DKU »
Students Douglas Davis and Matthew Epland, who began their Graduate Physics careers this September 2014, received the Goshaw Fellowship. This fellowship is offered to new graduate students based on academic merit, and offers an incoming student a named fellowship and the flexibility to start on his or her research immediately. The gift was made by Prof. Al Goshaw, his wife, Jene, and his children, David Goshaw and Christina Goshaw… read more about First-Year Grad Students Receive Goshaw and Newson Graduate Fellowships »
Students Forrest Friesen and Xuefei Yan, who are 4th year graduate physics students, have been awarded the Henry W. Newson Fellowship in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the nuclear physics research program at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL). Prof. Henry Newson, James B. Duke Professor of Physics, was a pioneer in experimental nuclear physics and a member of the Duke University faculty from 1948 until his death in 1978… read more about Grad Students Receive Newson and Gordy Fellowships »
Prof. Jian-Guo Liu with collaborators Prof. Pierre Degond from Imperial College London and Christian Ringhofer from Arizona State University published a paper on "Evolution of wealth in a non-conservative economy driven by local Nash equilibria." Find the online version of the paper here including the free abstract. read more about Prof. Liu and Collaborators Publish Paper »
An analysis looking for very rare processes at the Fermilab Tevatron using data collected by the CDF experiment was recently completed by Duke graduate student Chen Zhou, Duke visitor, from the University of Sydney, Dr. Tony Limosani, and Prof. Mark Kruse. The analysis findings were featured in Fermilab Today. Although the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider shut down in 2011, data is still being analysed from it and producing interesting results. read more about Graduate Student Zhou Part of Duke Team to Set World's Best Limit on Rare Processes at Fermilab Tevatron »
The Duke Physics Habitat for Humanity volunteer team had their first build of the new academic year on Saturday September 27, 2014! Prof. Dan Gauthier and graduate students Meg Shea and Kristen Collar came out to help build a new home in Durham. Together, they helped complete the construction of the porch of the home which required cutting wood, building joists, drilling holes, and working in the home’s crawl space. The Durham Chapter of Habitat for Humanity greatly… read more about Update From Physics Habitat for Humanity Team »
Prof. Emeritus Horst Meyer was honored with the University Medal at this years Founders' Day ceremony held Friday, September 29, 2014. Prof. Meyer received this award in recognition of his generous and energetic support of the Duke Gardens and chamber music and Duke as well as his extraordinary research and mentoring contributions to the Physics Department. Watch video from the event here where Prof. Meyer can be seen from 49:10 to 52:05. read more about Prof. Emeritus Horst Meyer Honored with Duke University Medal »
Prof. Bob Behringer and collaborators Bulbul Chakroborty (Brandeis) and Corey O'Hern (Yale) have been awarded a W. M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering Research Grant for their study "Self-Assembly in the Macro-World". This project will involve studies to understand the jamming transition and the assembly of complex structures for collections of particles. The Keck Foundation has provided $1,000,000 for the support of this project. read more about Prof. Behringer and Others Awarded Research Grant »
Physics Professor Horst Meyer, Fritz London Professor Emeritus, will be receiving the University Medal at Founders' Day this year on Friday, September 19, 2014. Please click here for event details. read more about Prof. Horst Meyer Will Be Honored on Founders' Day, September 19, 2014 »
Prof. Daniel Gauthier gave a lecture at the at the Experimental Chaos and Complexity (ECC) Conference on his research on "Autonomous Boolean networks for experimental network science and chimera states." The conference was attended by approximately 100 people from the diverse and interdisciplinary community of scientists interested in nonlinear dynamics and complexity. The talks ranged from the dynamics of fruit flies in flight, algae blooms in the oceans of the world, turbulence in fluids, as well as… read more about Prof. Gauthier Delivers Lecture in Scotland »
The Physics Department picnic was held on Saturday, August 23 to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of the Fall semester. Graduate student Agheal Abedzadeh shared this terrific photo of fellow graduate students Gleb Sinev and Nick Haynes preparing ice cream with liquid nitrogen. read more about Ice Cream Experiment Photo from the Department Picnic »