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 »
A paper by a group led by Prof. Joshua Socolar to Physical Review E has been highlighted as an Editor's Suggestion. Entitled "Emergence of limit-periodic order in tiling models," the paper describes the theory of formation of an ordered solid that is not a periodic crystal. Read it here. The lead author on the paper was graduate student Catherine Marcoux, and in addition to Socolar the team included Prof. Patrick Charbonneau and two Duke physics majors, Travis… read more about Article on Novel Solid Phase Highlighted as PRE Editor's Suggestion »
The department held its annual picnic at Duke Forest this past Saturday, August 23. It was a success as usual and included a new activity: tightrope walking! Here is a photo of Prof. Ronen Plesser showing off his balancing skills. Thank you to Prof. Mark Kruse for sharing this image. read more about Plesser's Balancing Act »
Biophysics major Olivia Zhu has written an essay on her Duke Engage experience for the Duke Research Blog. Read the story "Summer Restoration in a Bolivian Winter" here. read more about BioPhysics Major Zhu Features Her Duke Engage Experience »
Shanshan Cao successfully defended his dissertation "Heavy Flavor Dynamics in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions" and earned his PhD on Monday, August 18, 2014. Cao's advisor is Prof. Steffen Bass. read more about Cao Passes Doctoral Dissertation »
Prof. Phil Barbeau and his wife Sarah welcomed their son, Emmett Thomas Barbeau, on Saturday, August 9, 2014. Emmett weighed 10 lbs, 3 oz. Both Sarah and Emmett are doing great. Congratulations to Phil and Sarah! read more about Prof. Barbeau Welcomes A Son »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been appointed the US Coordinator for a global effort to motivate and design a new proton-proton collider of much higher energy than the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) currently operating at CERN. Prof. Kotwal has recently concluded studies that motivate a major upgrade of the LHC. This upgrade project has been ranked as the highest priority in the medium term by the US and Europe. As a result, the LHC will continue to operate for another 15-20 years and we are optimistic that it… read more about Prof. Kotwal Appointed US Coordinator for VLHC »
Congratulations to the following students who have recently passed their final dissertations: Mauricio Pilo-Pais, "Â Metallic Nanstructures Based on Self-Assembling DNA Templates for Studying Optical Phenomena" on Tuesday, July 22, 2014. Pilo-Pais' advisor is Prof. Gleb Finkelstein. Christopher Pollard, "Resonances in the Lepton Plus Jets Channel from Proton-Proton Collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$~TeV with the ATLAS Detector" on Thursday, July 24, 2014. Pollard's advisor is… read more about Two Graduate Students Pass Final Dissertations »
In July 2015, Thomas Barthel will join the Duke faculty as the Charles H. Townes Assistant Professor of Physics. Barthel studies the quantum mechanics of many-particle systems using computer simulations and analytical techniques. “I like to solve problems which either have high technological interest or are of some fundamental nature,” Barthel said. “I want to contribute to understanding these very complex problems.” As one example, he cited high-temperature superconductivity, which still lacks a thorough… read more about New Faculty Profile: Thomas Barthel »
Sara Haravifard has enjoyed experimenting with magnets and phase changes her whole life. As a little girl, she loved to watch boiling water jiggle the lid of a pot. “I was amazed at how water changes to a different phase and there is energy involved that can move things,” she said. At school, she was captivated by the slow-motion fall of a magnet through a copper pipe. Today, she studies phase changes and magnetic moments of crystals in an environment of low temperature, high pressure, and a high magnetic… read more about New Assistant Professor Sara Haravifard »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal recently lectured at the CTEQ Summer School on Particle Physics, which was hosted by Peking University this year in Beijing. He lectured on QCD and Electroweak Phenomenology. During the same trip, he gave a colloquium at Tsinghua University and a seminar at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing. In his seminar he discussed precision electroweak measurements and what they tell us about the energy scale of new physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. He… read more about Kotwal Lectures at CTEQ Summer School, IHEP and Tsinghua University »
A paper describing Paul Dannenberg's (Physics '13) undergraduate research on noise-induced transitions in nonlinear systems has recently appeared in Physical Review Letters. The paper is titled "Steering Most Probable Escape Paths by Varying Relative Noise Intensities" and can be viewed here. This research was commenced during Paul's senior year at Duke and was supervised by Prof. Stephen Teitsworth and done in collaboration with John Neu, Adjunct Professor of… read more about Dannenberg Publishes Research in Physical Review Letters »