Graduate students Hannah Guilbert, Meizhen Shi, and Bonnie Schmittberger in Prof. Dan Gauthier's group, graduate student Huaixiu Zheng in Prof. Harold Baranger's group, and former Duke undergraduate Physics major Crystal Senko attended a Gordon Research Conference at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts from August 12-17. The topic of the conference, Quantum Science, brought together… read more about Students Attend Gordon Research Conference »
Following the discovery of the Higgs-like Boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), discussions have begun to plan a major upgrade of the accelerator and the LHC experiments to increase the collision rate by a factor of ten. Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been asked to join the Upgrade Physics Committee of the ATLAS experiment to study the physics potential of this high-luminosity scenario and develop the physics justification. The increased production rate of the new boson would allow more precise measurements… read more about Prof. Kotwal to Serve on ATLAS Upgrade Physics Committee »
NOTE: LINK HAS BECOME BROKEN DUE TO WEBSITE REDESIGN Graduate student Kevin Finelli, working in the Duke High-Energy Particle Physics (HEP) group with his advisor Prof. Mark Kruse, spent much of the summer in Australia working on his thesis project, an analysis of ATLAS data at the Large Hadron Collider. The trip was supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Particle Physics (CoEPP), in which Kruse is a partner investigator. Finelli spent most of his time in… read more about Graduate Student Kevin Finelli Presents at Major Conference Down Under, Interviewed on Young Scientist Panel »
The Physics department is very happy to announce the creation of London Post-Doctoral Fellowship, which has been endowed by an anonymous donor. The Fellowship is intended to support an outstanding scientist in experimental condensed matter physics, broadly defined, and to honor the lifetime achievements of Professor Fritz London, who was active at Duke University between 1939 and 1954. The endowment will support one post-doctoral researcher, who will have the freedom to associate with any of the existing experimental… read more about New Endowed Postdoctoral Fellowship (London Post-Doctoral Fellowship) in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics »
Like father, like daughter. Both Chip Watson and his daughter Anne Watson love physics and computer science and don’t like having to choose between the two. They both love traveling to China to teach English to high school students. And they both chose Duke for postgraduate work in physics. Chip earned his PhD in 1980 working with Prof. Emeritus Bilpuch and Anne is beginning her graduate studies at Duke this fall. Chip is the manager of the High-Performance Computing Group at Jefferson… read more about Duke Physics is a Family Tradition for Chip and Anne Watson »
The paper "Quantum phase transition in a resonant level coupled to interacting leads" by Prof. Gleb Finkelstein's Electronic Nanostructure Group with Prof. Harold Baranger's group has been just published in Nature. Read it online here and see the Duke Today feature "Electromagnetic 'Swamps" Don't Always Bog Electrons Down" here. Photo: This graphic shows an electron using a resonant level (center well) to pass through an energy barrier (orange wall).… read more about Duke Physicists Published in Nature »
Graduate student, Min Huang has been awarded the Jefferson Sciences Associates (JSA)/JLab Graduate Fellowship for the 2012-2013 academic year. This is the second time that Min has received this award. She previously received it in the 2011/2012 academic year. Recently, Min also attended and gave an invited talk at the Fourth Workshops on Hadron Physics in China and Opportunities in US in Beijing. Prof. Haiyan Gao and Prof. Roxanne Springer also gave invited talks at this… read more about Grad Student Huang Awarded JSA/JLab Fellowship »
Prof. Matthew Hastings has been named one of twenty-one Simons Foundations Investigators. The award recognizes Hastings’ work in mathematical physics and quantum information theory on fundamental problem of interacting quantum systems. Read the Duke Today article here and see the Simons website here. read more about Hastings Named Simons Foundation Investigator »
A review by Prof. Berndt Mueller and Barbara Jacak (Stony Brook University) was published in the the July 20th issue of Science. You can read an article about it in the "Primordial 'Soup' of Big Bang Theory Recreated" on LiveScience's website here. Prof. Jacak will be our first colloquium speaker this fall. read more about Mueller Co-Writes Review on Recreating the Conditions During the Start of the Universe »
Alumna Amanda Peters Randles who got an undergraduate degree in Physics and Computer Science in 2005 was was selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting dedicated to physics on June 25 (link). She was also selected to be on a panel there discussing the role of collaboration in science (link). Photo credit: Cision read more about Alumna Attends Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting and Serves on Panel »
NOTE: SOME LINKS HAVE BECOME BROKEN DUE TO WEBSITE REDESIGN Part of the ATLAS experiment at CERN was built here in the physics building at Duke. You can read more about the inner detector construction here and below you can also see several pictures of Duke personnel installing the detector at CERN, along with a picture of a Higgs candidate event passing through the tracker. You can also read more technical information about the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) and its performance here.… read more about LHC Detector Construction at Duke »
NOTE: SOME LINKS HAVE BECOME BROKE DUE TO WEBSITE REDESIGN Physicists are one step closer to discovering the Higgs boson. The Duke ATLAS group has made substantial contributions toward the discovery at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. Read the following two articles on Duke today to find out more: "Elusive Higgs Particle May No Longer Be Hiding" and "Duke's deep bench scores on the Higgs boson search Physicists and their students''. The Duke ATLAS group has also been in the media: Prof. Al… read more about Duke Physicists and Students Contributed to the New Discovery at LHC »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal has been appointed the Chair of Duke University's Information Technology Advisory Committee for a two-year term starting June 2012. This committee reviews and advises the University on all matters related to information technology on campus, from email to research computing, from licenses to networking and data security. Prof. Kotwal has been serving as a member of this committee for the last two years. read more about Prof. Kotwal Chairs Duke Information Technology Committee »
Please enjoy watching the video "Granular Materials" produced by the National Science Foundation featuring the research of Prof. Bob Behringer's group. You can watch on YouTube by clicking here or on Live Science's website by clicking here. read more about NSF Video Production Featuring Behringer Group's Research »
Two postdocs from the high energy physics group were recognized for their work this week at the Fermilab Users Meeting. Alex Himmel (from the Neutrino Group) was awarded the URA thesis award for his thesis "Antineutrino Oscillations in the Atmospheric Sector" which he completed at Caltech just before coming to Duke. Himmel (center) Bodhitha Jayatilaka, who is a postdoc working with Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal on the CDF experiment, won this year'… read more about Two HEP Group Postdocs Win Awards »
Last January, Duke Physics major Travis Byington ’12 published an article in Physical Review Letters (PRL) with Prof. Josh Socolar. While it’s not unheard of for Duke undergraduates to publish in professional journals, Socolar says, “PRL is a pretty prestigious place to publish your first paper.” The paper, titled “Hierarchical Freezing in a Lattice Model,” describes how Socolar and Byington used computer simulations and analytical methods to model the behavior of atoms in a theoretical… read more about Duke Physics Undergrad Travis Byington Publishes in PRL with Prof. Socolar »
Physics Department graduate Dr. Mary F. Kidd (Ph.D. 2010), presently a postdoc at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has accepted an offer for a tenure track Assistant Professor position at Tennessee Technological University. Mary did her Ph.D. work in Prof. Werner Tornow’s group at TUNL on double-beta decay research. read more about Alum Kidd Has New Position at Tennesee Tech »
On May 23, 2012 the Majorana Collaboration, led by John Wilkerson from UNC, successfully passed the DOE/NSF review of the Majorana Demonstrator project. This project is a zero-neutrino double-beta decay search using a combination of up to 40 kg of natural and enriched (in 76Ge) High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors. It is funded at the $22M plus level by DOE and the NSF. The Majorana project was conceived in 1999 by Profs. Ludwig DeBraeckeleer and Werner Tornow from Duke, Frank Avignone from the University… read more about Majorana Collaboration Passes DOE/NSF Critical Design Review »
Prof. Werner Tornow, within a 2-week time frame, was at three underground research facilities. First, in early May he worked with graduate student Sean Finch at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility (KURF) near Blacksburg, VA. In this limestone mine, the two operate a two-neutrino double-beta decay experiment on 96Zr at the 1700 ft level, and are setting up a new apparatus to search for the zero-neutrino double-electron capture of 156Dy. Second, Prof. Tornow attended the Majorana… read more about Tornow Underground »
First-year graduate student Jonah Bernhard and second-year graduate student Chung-Ting Ke have been named 2012 Outstanding Teaching Assistants of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Prof. Haiyan Gao, Chair of Physics, will present each with a certificate of achievement and a gift membership to the AAPT at the fall 2012 Physics department annual picnic. Both winners are also listed on the AAPT award site. read more about Jonah E. Bernhard and Chung-Ting Ke selected as 2012 AAPT Outstanding Teaching Assistant »
Prof. Stefano Curtarolo and colleagues published a paper on topological insulator in Nature Materials. You can read it online here. read more about Curtarolo and Colleagues in Nature Materials »
Two Duke Physics alums, who are now faculty at Baylor University, were honored at Baylor's graduation May 10. Dr. Jeffrey S. Olafsen (PhD, 1994, adv. Profs. Robert P. Behringer and Horst Meyer) was honored for outstanding teaching Dr. Jay R. Dittmann (PhD, 1998, adv. Prof. Alfred Goshaw) was honored for outstanding scholarship Read about Baylor's commencement exercises here. read more about Two Physics Alums Honored »
Prof. Calvin Howell was recently appointed as a member of the Physical Review C journal editorial board. Please see this link for a complete list of staff. read more about Howell Appointed to Physics Review C Journal Editorial Board »
Prof. Haiyan Gao was named the Henry Newson Professor of Physics in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2012. Please congratulate her on this richly-deserved honor! Read the Duke Today announcement here. read more about Gao Named Henry Newson Professor of Physics »
Prof. Ashutosh Kotwal's group's measurement of the W boson mass, which is the world's most precise and makes a definitive prediction of the Higgs boson mass, has been published in Physical Review Letters. It can be read here. It is an Editor's recommendation and a short synopsis from the PRL editors is here. The result is also featured on the cover of this issue. read more about Kotwal’s Group’s W Boson Mass Measurement featured on the cover of PRL »
Physics graduate students Chenglin Cao and Wangzhi Zheng received the 2011 outstanding graduate student award from the Ministry of Education of China. This award is dedicated to Chinese graduate students studying abroad. There are a total of 495 students that received this award in 2011. They are from 29 countries with research areas in more than 60 different disciplines. This year three Duke Chinese students received this award and two of them are from the Physics department. Chenglin Cao… read more about Cao and Zheng Receive 2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Award »
Prof. Mark Kruse has been named a new Bass Fellow and has been added to the Bass Chairs webpage under the "Meet the Fellows" tab. read more about Kruse a New Bass Fellow »
Prof. Berndt Mueller was elected to the Board of Directors for the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). Read the news release here. read more about Mueller Elected to Board of Directors of ORAU »
Prof. Werner Tornow gave an invited talk at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society in Atlanta with the title “Overview of Measurements Related to Three-Nucleon Force Effects.” read more about Prof. Tornow Gives Invited Talk »
Dr. Rajarshi Raut, former Research Associate in Prof. Werner Tornow’s research group, is the first author of a Physical Review Letter article [PRL 108, 042502 (2012)] about the measurement of the photodisintegration cross section of 4He. This work was carried out at TUNL’s High-Intensity Gamma-ray Source (HIgS ). Related work on 3He was published a few months earlier in Physics Letters by W. Tornow et al. [Phys. Lett. B 702 121 (2011)]. read more about Former Researcher Raut's HIGS Research Published »