News

In recognition of his ongoing contributions to the KamLAND and KamLAND-Zen experiments in the Kamioka mine in Japan, Prof. Emeritus Werner Tornow has been named affiliate senior scientist of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU). Profs. Kate Scholberg and Christopher Walter also have appointments with the Kavli IPMU through their work on the Super-Kamiokande experiment. read more about Prof. Tornow Joins Kavli IPMU in Tokyo  »

Guangyou Qin, who was a research associate in the Duke QCD Theory Group from 2009 to the end of 2012, has accepted a faculty position at Central China Normal University (CCNU) in Wuhan, China. He will start his new appointment as a professor in the summer of 2013. He was also named as a recipient of the Thousand Young Talents Plan, a government-funded national program of China aimed at attracting outstanding young scholars and professionals from abroad. CCNU has the largest research group in China in the… read more about Guangyou Qin Wins Award and Joins Faculty at Central China Normal University »

Prof. Thomas Mehen will be hosting the Xth annual Workshop on Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, SCET2013, at Duke University, March 13-16, 2013. The conference webpage can be found here.   Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) is a recently developed theoretical tool for deriving factorization theorems and renormalization group equations that allow one to resum large higher order corrections in theoretical calculations within perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Such theorems and resummed cross… read more about Prof. Mehen to Host Workshop »

The KamLAND-Zen collaboration (with Prof. Werner Tornow) reported in Phys. Rev. Lett. a new neutrino mass limit of  mββ   < (120 - 250) meV from a neutrinoless double-beta decay search of 136Xe. This limit is based on a range of representative nuclear matrix element calculations, and excludes the Majorana neutrino mass range expected from the neutrinoless double-beta decay claim of 76Ge by the Heidelberg-Moscow Collaboration at more than 97.5 % confidence level. Read the paper online here. read more about KamLAND-Zen Reports New Neutrino Mass Limit »

One of the department's most distinguished alumni passed away on Feburary 19th at the age of 75. Prof. Robert Richardson obtained his Ph.D. at Duke in 1966 working with Prof. Horst Meyer. A long time faculty member at Cornell University, in 1996 he was awarded Nobel Prize for his work on superfluidity in helium-3.  You can read more about his life in this article from Duke today. You can also read an obituary from Cornell's site here and an article in the NY Times here. read more about Distinguished Physics Alumnus and Nobel Laureate Robert Richardson Passes Away »

In conjunction with the DPF-sponsored Long Range Planning Exercise, Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal is hosting a workshop on "Electroweak Measurements at the Energy Frontier" at Duke. The workshop dates are February 18-20, and details can be found online here. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together theorists and experimentalists to explore the sensitivity to extended theories of electroweak symmetry breaking at an upgraded LHC, and future lepton and higher-energy proton colliders. read more about Prof. Kotwal Hosts Electroweak Physics Workshop at Duke »

Profs. Calvin Howell, Roxanne Springer, and Ying Wu received funding from Duke's Office of Global and Strategic Programs, Phillips Endowment, in support of the "International Workshop on Fundamental Physics at a Next Generation Compton Gamma-ray Source (HIGS2)" to take place June 3 and 4 at Duke University. About 70 experimentalists and theorists from the international community, including about 20 local students, are expected to attend the workshop to… read more about Funding For June Workshop from Duke OGSP »

Dr. Gencho Rusev, former Research Scientist in Prof. Werner Tornow’s research group at TUNL and now at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the first author of a Physical Review Letter article [PRL 110, 022503 (2013)] about the “Fine Structure of the Giant M1 Resonance in 90Zr”. This work was carried out with other scientists from TUNL and abroad using Duke's High-Intensity Gamma-ray Source (HIgS ). You can read the PRL article online here. read more about Former Postdoc Rusev Published in PRL »

Pictured: John and Patricia Koskinen, Photo Credit: Duke University Photography “As a general matter, I’ve always liked organizing people and institutions.” So says John Koskinen, a Duke alumnus and the recently retired non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac. Over the years, he’s held an array of diverse positions, including being the Year 2000 czar (his favorite position) and the city administrator of Washington, DC (the toughest one). He has also been president of a corporate turn-… read more about Distinguished Alumnus John Koskinen Looks Back Over Varied Career »

Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Kotwal was cited by the AAAS Council for  performing "a series of high precision, world-leading measurements of the mass of the W boson, and for stringent tests of the standard model of fundamental particles." Each year the Council elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.” read more about Kotwal Elected to AAAS Fellowship »

Each year the graduate school gives out various types of fellowships to outstanding graduate students based on merit and need. The fellowship applications are usually due in the month of October and are nominated by the director of graduate studies based on faculty input. Final decisions are known by mid-December. This year two fourth year physics graduate students Shanshan Cao and Miaoyuan Liu won three fellowships. Shanshan Cao, a student working with… read more about Students Win Continuing Student Fellowships From the Graduate School  »

Prof. Berndt Mueller will be the new Associate Lab Director for Nuclear & Particle Physics at the Brookhaven National Laboratory from January 2013 to December 2015. During this period, he will hold a joint appointment between Duke and BNL. Below is the news release from BNL. An official news release from BNL is online here. Associate Lab Director for Nuclear & Particle Physics I am pleased to announce the appointment of physicist Berndt Mueller as the new Associate Laboratory… read more about Mueller a New Associate Lab Director at BNL »

Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been chosen to lead the Electroweak Physics Study Group at the Energy Frontier, as part of the long-term strategic planning exercise sponsored by the Division of Particles and Fields of the APS. This group will develop a 20-year plan for improving electroweak measurements at the LHC and possible future accelerators such as proton-proton colliders of higher luminosity and energy, electron-positron colliders of different designs, and a high-energy muon collider. These studies will be… read more about Prof. Kotwal Convenes Long-Term Planning Group in Electroweak Physics »

Duke postdoc Tarek Akiri from the neutrino group brings us news from the French press. On October 23rd, one of the most popular science journals in France "La Recherche" awarded the T2K experiment a prize for its paper published in June 2011: "Indication of electron neutrino appearance from an accelerator-produced off-axis muon neutrino beam". This paper reported the first indications of appearance of electron neutrinos in a beam of muon neutrinos due to oscillations. This allowed the first measurement of… read more about T2K awarded prize by the French magazine "La Recherche" »

“I’ve always wanted to work on something that had a real-world applicability,” says Nathan Kundtz, PhD ’09. “I was looking for ways to take what was fundamental science research and turn it into something which could be of value.” Only three years after earning his PhD in physics at Duke with Prof. David Smith, Kundtz has already designed a new type of satellite antenna that can supply internet connectivity to people in far-flung locales—such as relief workers, journalists, military… read more about Duke Alum Nathan Kundtz Invents New Satellite Antenna »

Prof. Bob Behringer's group recently has a paper accepted in PR titled "Particle scale dynamics in granular impact." The image at left is a typical image from one of their experiments, where the bright particles are experiencing force. They are exploring the questions of: How does granular material respond to a high-speed impact by a foreign object, such as a meteor striking a planetary surface? How do the grains collectively push back against the intruder, bringing it to a stop? They… read more about Visualizing Meteor Impact »

The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) held their annual New Horizons conference in Raleigh this year, from 26-29 of October. Prof. Mark Kruse was invited to talk about the recent Higgs discovery to a large science media-related audience. His talk was the second in a session called "What is the Universe made of" the first being on Dark Matter by Prof. Katie Freese from the University of Michigan. Prof. Kruse's talk was transcribed visually by an attending artist, Perrin Ireland (@… read more about Prof. Kruse Talks About the Higgs at Science Writers Conference »

Prof. Haiyan Gaowas invited by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to give a plenary talk at the 84th Shuang Qing Forum on Hadronic Physics - Experimental and Theoretical Research in Beijing, November 2-4, 2012. The meeting was attended by many Chinese colleagues in high-energy nuclear and particle physics. While she was in Beijing, she witnessed the first snow of the year, and some area in the mountain accumulated over 90 cm of snow read more about Haiyan Gao Gave a Plenary Talk at NSFC Forum in Beijing »

While many in the Physics department were taking a well-earned respite from studying, teaching, and research during Fall Break, twelve intrepid graduate students traveled to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for a visit to the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Together with 17 students from the Chemistry and ECE departments, they took an extensive tour of the laboratory's facilities and met with its staff, who introduced them to the wide range of research opportunities that ORNL has to offer. The students were… read more about Graduate Students Tour Oak Ridge National Lab »