Department of Physics
What differentiates a chef from just another cook? It’s the capacity to use common ingredients to create extraordinary results. Sara Haravifard, William M. Fairbank Assistant Professor of Physics and Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, is a chef herself. Using common elements from the periodic table, she creates novel materials with extraordinary properties. In her seven years at Duke, Haravifard has built one of the best laboratories in the nation to design,… read more about Sara Haravifard Creates the Extraordinary »
5th Year GSO Role: 5th Year Rep Research Area: Experimental High Energy Physics Fun Facts: Elise’s favorite movie is The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and she is currently watching Shadow and Bone. Elise works with Mark Kruse on particle physics as part of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN. Her thesis will focus on testing new theories that could extend the Standard Model by analyzing data from run 2 of the LHC (2015-2018). She spent a… read more about Graduate student spotlight: Elise Le Boulicaut »
1st Year GSO Role: 1st Year Rep Research Area: Computational Many Body Physics Fun Facts: Her dream job as a child was to be a graphic designer. She is currently watching Malcolm in the Middle. Ana is from a small town in Brazil called Araraquara where they have a pretty significant orange juice factory, and as a consequence, the whole town smells like oranges. She studied for her BSc. only 40 min away from home, at the University of São Paulo. For her MSc., she moved to Cologne, in Germany, and… read more about Graduate student spotlight: Ana Luiza Ferrari »
Year: 4th Year Role in GSO: 4th Year Rep Research Area: Cosmology Fun Facts: Erik is currently watching The Office and his childhood dream job was to be an Astronaut. Erik’s hometown is Lakewood, WA, and his alma mater is Notre Dame. Some of the highlights of his time at Duke are soaking up the omnipresent Duke Basketball hype and getting delicious tacos from La Vaquita. You should ask him about his time TA-ing for the Physics of Sports class — the students loved it as much as he did! Erik is fluent in English… read more about Graduate student spotlight: Erik Peterson »
Johnny Chiles 3rd Year GSO Secretary-Treasurer Research Area: Condensed Matter Experiment Fun Facts: If he were a plant, Johnny would be a Hydrangea. He is currently watching the Bachelorette and his dream job as a child was a baseball player. Johnny graduated from Georgia Tech and currently does research in low-temperature, low-dimensional electron transport specializing in multi-terminal Josephson junctions, thermal transport, and the interplay of superconductivity and the quantum… read more about Graduate Student Spotlight: Johnny Chiles »
3rd Year GSO Vice President Research Area: Quantum Info / Exp. AMO Fun Facts: Her dream job as a child was to be a famous writer or president. If she wasn't able to do Physics, Isabella would want to work at a doggy daycare. Isabella graduated from UCLA and her current research focuses on trapped ion quantum computing, specifically a networking experiment in which we envision connecting smaller quantum computers through photonic links in order to create a quantum network. In her free time, she likes to hang… read more about Graduate Student Spotlight: Isabella Goetting »
Dr. Jonathon Yuly, a former graduate student in the Beratan Lab, has received the 2022 American Physical Society’s DBIO Dissertation Award! The award, which recognizes doctoral thesis research of outstanding quality and achievement in any area of experimental, computational, engineering, or theoretical biological physics, will be bestowed at an upcoming APS meeting. Dr. Yuly's dissertation work showed that a universal free energy landscape underpins near-reversible electron bifurcation… read more about Former Beratan Lab Student Receives 2022 APS DBIO Dissertation Award »
If you ask Duke physicist Natalie Klco, most computers in use today get nature all wrong. “Nature at its core is not a deterministic set of ones and zeros,” Klco says. To really understand how nature works, particularly at the subatomic level, the assistant professor is trying to figure out if quantum computing -- now expanding at Duke and elsewhere -- might do better. The hope, she says, is to tackle problems that even the world’s fastest supercomputers haven’t been able to address. Klco is a theoretical nuclear… read more about Computing the Quantum World »
Quick Facts: 3rd year GSO President Research Area: Nuclear Physics Fun Facts: If he was a kitchen appliance Greg would be a Freezer. He is currently watching House of the Dragon. Greg was born and raised on Long Island. He became interested in physics due to an AP Chemistry scheduling conflict and went on to graduate from Stony Brook. He has 2 sisters, one married in Kentucky who started her own LLC to sell her garden goods at the farmer's market, and… read more about Graduate Student Spotlight - Gregory Matousek »
There probably aren’t too many people in the world who have earned a Ph.D. in physics and an MFA in dance. It’s a safe bet there’s only one who has earned both of those degrees and then conducted neuroscience research. That person is Svetlana Monroe, who is joining the Department of Physics this fall as a lecturer. Monroe has helped build a polarized proton target for a high-energy collider, published scientific papers in both experimental and computational neuroscience, competed as a rhythmic gymnast, and danced and… read more about Bringing Together Physics, Neuroscience and Dance »
How do you build the perfect cage for something you can’t see? Ask Norbert Linke, assistant professor in the Department of Physics. Linke’s appointment to the faculty, which began this Fall, further strengthens the Duke Quantum Center. His research centers around ion trapping, the technique of confining electrically charged atomic particles – ions – to a small area using electric fields. Trapped ions are a gateway to more complex quantum systems. Unlike almost any object around us, particles at the atomic or subatomic… read more about Norbert Linke Is Improving Quantum Systems One Ion Trap at a Time »
Ying Wu, professor of Physics and associate director for light sources at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), is the co-winner of the prestigious 2022 Free Electron Laser (FEL) prize. The FEL prize recognizes researchers whose outstanding achievements have contributed significantly to the advancement of the field of free-electron lasers. Wu studies the nonlinear dynamics of charged particle beams, such as those used in particle accelerators to understand the behavior of subatomic particles. His… read more about Duke Professor Wins Prize for Creating New Field of Physics Research »
The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) has received an award for $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to upgrade a critical component of one of its particle accelerators, the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. If you’ve ever been to a science museum, you may have seen a miniature Van de Graaff generator. They often look like a sphere on top of a pedestal. If you touch them, your hair stands straight up on your head, showcasing one of the most entertaining effects of a low-voltage electric field… read more about Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory Receives $1.5 Million Department of Energy Award »
Business Manager Darlene McCain was one of four staff members recognized with the Trinity College Dean’s Pillars of Excellence Award, for her efforts in steering the department through extraordinarily challenging times. “Darlene started in her role as business manager just one month into the pandemic. Over the course of the next 15 months, we lost 75 percent of our administrative staff in Physics, and Darlene showed exemplary dedication and leadership by picking up the duties of the missing staff, rebuilding the… read more about Business manager Darlene McCain named one of Trinity's Pillars of Excellence »
At the same time that Mike Krzyzewski was starting his Duke career, a freshman named Henry Everitt stepped foot on campus for the first time. Forty years later, as Coach K was getting ready for his retirement tour, Everitt’s undergrad research project in the Physics department has become a key piece in an apparatus promising to revolutionize the way we collect and transmit information. No bigger than a shoebox, this ground-breaking device is a widely tunable terahertz laser, with applications ranging from medicine to… read more about How an Undergraduate Project from the Early 1980s Is Helping Revolutionize Lasers Today »
The Physics department celebrated its 2021-2022 graduates with a diploma ceremony on Sunday, May 8th 2022, at the Love Auditorium & Hall of Science, following Duke's main commencement event. The program included a celebratory lunch and a welcome address by Professor Steffen Bass, Chair of the Physics department. Following the welcome address, Professors Ayana Arce, Director of Undergraduate Studies, John Mercer, Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Stephen Teitsworth, Director of Graduate… read more about Commencement 2021-2022 »
The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 120 members and 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Duke’s three new members join 28 other members of the National Academy of Sciences on the Duke faculty. They are… read more about Two Trinity Faculty Elected to National Academy of Sciences »
The 2022 Edison Award committee has named Professor Ayana Arce part of the inaugural cohort of Lewis Latimer Fellows. Named after Lewis Howard Latimer, the Latimer Fellowship Program is a new platform designed to Celebrate, Connect and Commune a community of innovative Black thought leaders. Lewis Howard Latimer (1848–1928) was an African-American patent draftsman and inventor who worked with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison in the post-Civil War era. "It has become urgent that we create… read more about Professor Ayana Arce Named a 2022 Lewis Latimer Fellow »