Department of Physics
Prof. Bob Behringer and Lab Administrator Derek Leadbetter did some exciting science outreach during the month of March. On March 7th, Bob--with Derek behind the scenes--and Profs. Warren Warren and Ken Lyle from Chemistry presented a program "Science Magic" to 70 Duke Campus Club members. Campus Club is an organization of women involved in one way or another with Duke (faculty, faculty wives, staff, volunteers, etc.). Some of the comments after the show from those who… read more about Behringer and Leadbetter Conduct Science Outreach »
Second-year physics graduate student Chen Zhou, has won an Argonne ATLAS Analysis Support Center competitive fellowship designed to support ATLAS graduate students to work with, and at, the analysis center at Argonne National Laboratory. Fellows are expected to take part in ATLAS analysis and/or detector activities at ANL. Chen will spend six months at Argonne beginning June 1 2012, working with his advisor, Prof. Mark Kruse, on an analysis of ATLAS data at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)… read more about Graduate Student Chen Zhou Wins Argonne National Laboratory Fellowship »
On February 4, 2012, Duke University President Richard Brodhead visited the Physics Department and in particular, explored the mysteries of granular materials. He began his visit by trying a simple granular experiment on his own, with a little help from Prof. Bob Behringer. Jie Ren, a Ph.D. student, showed President Brodhead how her experiment works. She and post-doc Joshua Dijksmanare studying the basic statistical physics of shear granular material. Along… read more about President Brodhead Visits the Behringer Lab »
Tom Savard, who earned his PhD in physics at Duke in 1998, now works at St. Jude Medical in St. Paul, where he is Director of Advanced Process Development-Systems for the Atrial Fibrillation Division. While at Duke, Savard studied resonance imaging of trapped atoms with Prof. John Thomas. He started his career at Honeywell working on space defense, and made the transition to medical work almost seven years ago. “I really like working on problems that are challenging and important,” he says. “I wanted to try… read more about Using a Physics PhD in the Medical Technology Industry »
After earning her undergraduate degree in physics at Duke in 2007, Katie West Hulme earned a master’s degree in medical physics at MD Anderson in Texas. She says she thought about going to physics graduate school, but was looking for something more applied. Then she read an article in Duke Magazine about medical physics. “It looked like a very applied field,” she says. “You have not only the theoretical component, but you interact with a lot of different people. So that sparked my interest.” Today… read more about Alum Works as Diagnostic Physicist at Cleveland Clinic »
“The contribution of physics to medicine has been spectacular,” says Prof. James Dobbins, III. “What if you went to a hospital and there were no X-rays, no CT, no MRI, no radiation therapy, no nuclear medicine, no molecular imaging? What would medicine be like?” Dobbins is the director of the Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program, which offers Master of Science and PhD degrees. Although Duke’s program is only seven years old, the relationship between physics and medicine goes way back—the first… read more about Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program »
On Tuesday, April 10, graduate student Wangzhi Zheng successfully defended his thesis. The photo depicts Dr. Zheng with his advisor Prof. Haiyan Gao. Congratulations! read more about Zheng Defends Thesis »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal recently gave an interview about his latest research at Fermilab for the publication Wired.com in their Wired Science section. You can read the article "Physicists Pinpoint W Boson, Narrow Search for Higgs" here. read more about Kotwal Interviewed by Wired »
Thursday, April 5, 2012 Location: LoveAuditorium, LSRC 2:30 PM– Unveiling the English version of Hertha Sponer’s biography, sponsored by the Physics Department and Arts and Sciences Opening session (15 min) – Opening remarks by Dean Laurie Patton, introduced by Dean Robert Calderbank Presentation of the Biography – Short Remarks by Vice Provost Nancy Allen, and introductions by Professor Daniel Gauthier (5 min) Dr. Marie Ann Maushart, author of the original biography of Hertha Sponer,… read more about Hertha Sponer Event »
Members of the optics lab Rui Zhang, Joel Greenberg and Prof. Daniel Gauthier along with Prof. M.C. Fischer from Chemistry had their recent paper "Controllable ultra-broadband slow light in a warm Rubidium vapor" (2011) selected as a notable Atomic and Molecular Physics paper by the Journal of the Optical Society of America B. You can read it here. read more about Broadband Slow Light Paper Highlighted »
On Friday, March 23, graduate student Joshua Albert successfully defended his thesis. The picture at left depicts him with his adviser Prof. Chris Walter at his post-defense party. Congratulations, Josh! read more about Albert Defends Thesis »
Congratulations to graduate student Chenglin Cao who successfully defended his thesis on March 21. Cao's adviser Prof. John Thomas said "I brought a bottle of Tempranillo to celebrate... and several of Chenglin's friends as well as Bob [Behringer] and Steffen [Bass] stopped by, so we had a nice party." read more about Cao Defends Thesis »
Prof. and Chair Haiyan Gao was featured in a Duke Today article "Physics Chair Sees Entire Universe in a Neutron." Read the article here. read more about Gao Sees Universe in a Neutron »
Today at noon, Prof. Haiyan Gao will participate in a live webcast interview, for which viewers are invited to submit questions in advance or during the show. Send in questions by email, Twitter (#dukelive) or Facebook! Watch the webcast live here. Photo Credit: Megan Morr, Duke Photography read more about Today: Gao Will Participate in Live Webcast »
Professor and Chair Haiyan Gao was recently interviewed for an In the Spotlight feature on EurekAlert!'s website. Read the article "Brain drain (and gain) is an outdated notion for China" here. read more about Gao Featured on EurekAlert! Website »
Research conducted by the DARPA grant recently awarded to Prof. Nicolas Buchler is featured on the Duke Today website. Read "Unwinding Nature's Clocks" here. Read more about Buchler receiving the DARPA grant here. read more about Buchler Featured on Duke Today »
Understanding quantum critical behavior in strongly correlated fermion systems is an exciting contemporary topic of research, that arises in condensed matter, nuclear and particle physics. Although Monte Carlo calculations offer a first-principles approach to the problem, accurate computations near a fermionic quantum critical point has been missing so far due to difficulties in fermionic Monte Carlo methods. In a recent article that was accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, Prof. Shailesh… read more about Accurate Computations Near a Fermionic Quantum Critical Point »
The Durham Board of County Commissioners has appointed Duke Physics Administrative Manager Randy Best to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission as the representative for Duke University. He will begin participation in the next meeting, March 20. Congratulations, Randy! read more about Best Appointed to BPAC »
A special scientific seminar on the W Mass measurement from CDF took place February 23 at Fermi Lab. The speaker was Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal. Read the press release here and the article "Higgs Boson Gets New Mass Limit" in Duke Today here. Congratulations to Ashutosh, the team and other CDF colleagues at Duke! read more about New Results from CDF »
Prof. Ayana Arce has been selected as a recipient of the 2012 Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. read more about Arce Receives Career Enhancement Fellowship »
Duke University Physics is represented by 42 papers at the APS March Meeting this year. Using the APS's "affiliation" search function, here is a webpage with a list of all of our papers. You can see that a wide variety of work from several departments at Duke is represented. Thank you to Prof. Harold Baranger for compiling this list. read more about Duke Physics at the APS March Meeting »
Graduate student Hung-Ming Tsai's figure in his PhD publication "Entropy production and equilibration in Yang-Mills quantum mechanics" was chosen by Physical Review E as "Kaleidoscope" figure. View the image here and read the paper here. read more about Tsai's Figure Chosen as Kaleidoscope Figure »
What do first-year graduate students like about Duke Physics? “It’s a strong department—strong in many different areas,” says Meg Shea, who earned her BS at Yale. “Here there are lots of options.” Shea likes the structured way in which the department introduces new graduate students to all the options. In a series of seminars over the course of the year, professors from each research group give talks about their work. The seminars include dinner, and the casual atmosphere allows students to get to know… read more about The First Year in the Graduate Program at Duke Physics »
Prof. Nicolas Buchler has received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), entitled “Biochronicity: Time, Evolution, Networks.” The goal is to automate the discovery of periodic processes in Biology at the cellular level. It is an interdisciplinary project involving multiple investigators with theoretical and experimental expertise in circadian clocks, cell cycle, metabolism, and development. John Harer (Duke) is the lead PI. The other team members are: Steve Haase and… read more about Buchler Receives DARPA Funding »
In a new Physical Review Letters paper (J. Huang et al., PRL108, 052001 (2012), [link], co-authored by members in Prof. Haiyan Gao's Medium Energy Physics Group, new measurements of novel spin phenomena provide the first experimental indication of a partial alignment of quark spin along the direction of motion of a neutron spinning perpendicularly to its direction of motion. Such an alignment, known as transversal helicity, can only be observed if the quarks undergo orbital motion inside… read more about Spinning Quarks Yield Clues to Orbital Motion »
Prof. Daniel Gauthier, postdoc Hugo Calvalcante and graduate student Seth Cohen's paper "Subwavelength Position Sensing Using Nonlinear Feedback and Wave Chaos" was recently published in Physics Review Letters. The article was selected as an editor's suggestion and Cohen was interviewed by Duke Today. The story is featured on the Duke Research Blog. You can read "Chaos puts a path on nanoparticles" here or download it from Physorg.com here. read more about Optics Group Featured in PRL, Cohen Interviewed »
Prof. Patrick Charbonneau and collaborators have taken another crack at the glass problem. Read the paper "Geometrical Frustration and Static Correlations in a Simple Glass Former" on Physical Review Letters website here. read more about Charbonneau Published in PRL »
January 25, 2012 was the first science fair of the spring semester for the physics outreach group. Physics graduate student Kristine Callan, undergraduates Lauren Musso (physics), Hunter Douglas (engineering), and Chad Liu (engineering) accompanied Derek Leadbetter to host Duke's physics demo tables at North Chatham Elementary's Science Night. The evening was a huge success, attended by hundreds of elementary school students. Our volunteer student team received many… read more about First Science Fair of the Year Success for Outreach Group »
Browse through our collection of stories about alumni of both our undergraduate and graduate programs at Duke Physics. Keep in touch! Email us with your news. Sheila Brown Bailey, undergrad 1967, is a photovoltaic researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Joshua Bienfang, undergrad 1994, is a physicist at the National Institute for Standards and Technology. Roger Byrd, PhD 1978, designs satellite instruments and software to detect nuclear testing, Sandia National… read more about Alumni Profile Collection »
Prof. Calvin Howell will chair the committee to search for a new dean of the Graduate School at Duke. Read the article "Howell to Chair Committee Searching for New Graduate School Dean" on Duke Today's website here. This new chair will succeed the late Jo Rae Wright. Read a tribute to Wright in the Chronicle of Higher Education here. read more about Howell to Chair Search Committee for New Grad School Dean »