Department of Physics
Prof. Daniel Gauthier has recently started a new program in quantum information science that has received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), entitled "Information on the Photon (InPho): Free-Space Quantum Communication." The goal of the project is to encode more than 10 bits of information on a photon for secret key distribution at a rate exceeding one billion bits per second. It is an interdisciplinary project involving multiple investigators, where Gauthier is… read more about Gauthier Receives New DARPA Grant »
On Sep 22 four student volunteers from the Physics Dept's Outreach Group joined the Chemistry Dept's Outreach Group for "An Evening of Science" in front of the French Science Building. Using demonstrations, the students explained two topics they learned in mechanics, Newton's 3rd Law and Waves. The image here is of a Ruben's Tube. The pipe has a speaker inserted in one end and the other end plugged. There is a line of small holes drilled along the top and a gas valve on the front - basically a long… read more about Students Collaborate in Physics Outreach Group »
The explosive growth of self-archiving tools like cell phones and digital cameras means that physics videos have taken off in the past ten years. YouTube is a great destination for those who want to lose a couple hours one afternoon looking at fantastic physics-related videos from around the world. Duke Physics News is collaborating with Prof. Henry Greenside, the new Director of Undergraduate Studies, and others in the department to build a collection of physics videos. Some involve professors right here… read more about Building a Collection of Physics Videos on The Web »
A team that’s working to develop nuclear fusion as a power source is relying on the HIGS (High Intensity Gamma Ray Source) at Duke to test gamma ray detectors needed for the project. Nuclear fission is already used to generate electricity in power plants around the world, but physicists are still working to develop a way to harness the power of nuclear fusion—the process that provides energy in stars such as our sun. One group of scientists working on the issue is the Gamma Ray Reaction History (GRH) team, made up of 11… read more about HIGS Plays Role in Nuclear Fusion Research »
Roger Byrd, PhD 1978, has spent 25 years at national laboratories in New Mexico designing and refining satellite instruments that detect nuclear weapons testing. “You don’t go to graduate school in nuclear test instrumentation,” Byrd says. But his doctoral research at TUNL in neutron physics opened the door to a career where he uses his knowledge of the characteristics and behavior of neutrons, gamma rays, x-rays, and other signals to figure out ways to detect nuclear weapons tests. After a short stint at… read more about Alum Uses Physics to Detect Nuclear Weapons Testing »
On October 2, 2010, Professor Emeritus Russell Roberson was treated to a surprise 80th birthday party given by his former graduate students at the Millenium Hotel in Durham. Thirteen of the 23 doctoral students Roberson advised over his 35-year-career at Duke came to the party, from such far-flung places as Vermont, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and California. Those who weren’t able to come sent photographs and good wishes. Four of Roberson’s classmates from his days as an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel… read more about Students Organize Surprise Birthday Party for Professor Emeritus Russell Roberson »
If you didn't catch it, read it here! This month The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene." Read the full press release at nobelprize.org. read more about Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 »
Yu-Po “Ken” Wong, a junior physics major from Taiwan, has spent the last two summers working in Prof. Dan Gauthier’s optics lab. He’s studying the spontaneous down conversion, which is when a photon going through a crystal is changed into two lower frequency photons. The research has implications for high-speed quantum communication. “This kind of optics experiment is very fun to me. I’m learning a lot of stuff from a lot of areas of physics,” Wong says. “At the end of my freshman year,… read more about Undergraduate Studies Quantum Optics in the Lab »
Bryon Neufeld, PhD '09, has enjoyed his first year at Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) in New Mexico. Neufeld was recently awarded the Director's Fellowship Award, a competitive award given across all fields of science at LANL. Below Neufeld writes about his research at LANL and the work the award will allow him to pursue. Submitted by Bryon Neufeld, PhD '09: I certainly miss the student life at Duke and all of the fun things that offered. As one might guess, being a… read more about Alum wins Fellowship at Los Alamos National Lab »
Jie Ren's first place photoPhysics graduate student Jie Ren and post doc Joshua Dijksman took first and second prize, respectively, in the Mahato Memorial Scientific Visualization Contest sponsored by Duke's engineering department. The contest honors the memory of engineering graduate student Abhijit Mahato, who was murdered in January 2008. For more information and to see the winning photos, go here. Click these links to view full-sized and… read more about Duke Grad Student, Postdoc win 1st and 2nd Prize in Photo Contest »
In the 1950s, my high school principal told me that I had an obligation to help the United States win the space race. His encouragement fueled my technical interests. I majored in physics, earning a BS degree from Duke University, an MS from the University of Illinois, and the Ph.D. from Georgia Tech. I joined Sigma Pi Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa at Duke. As my physics studies progressed, I began using emerging technology, the computer, as a primary investigative tool. At Illinois, I held a… read more about Duke Alum Enjoys Twists and Turns in Career Path »
Prof. Bob Behringer is lead-PI on a recent award from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) which is focused on understanding the basic physics of high speed impacts of objects on granular materials. The project is entitled, "Microstructure, fluidization, and control of penetrator trajectories in granular media", and involves investigators from three other universities besides Duke. The PIs are R.P. Behringer, Lou Kondic (NJIT), Wolfgang Losert (University of MD) and Corey O'Hern (Yale University).… read more about Behringer Wins DTRA Grant »
Click here to view the Virtual Journal of QCD Matter. This site, moderated by 3 professors including our own Profs. Steffen Bass and Berndt Mueller, focuses on the Physics of the QGP and Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions. In addition to Bass and Mueller, William A. Zajc from Columbia University, the current Chair of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics, moderates the online journal. read more about Website of the Month - Virtual Journal of QCD Matter »
Congratulations to Joel Greenberg and Henok Mebrahtu, this year’s winners of the Fritz London Graduate Fellowship. The award is given each year to graduate students doing work related to the interests of Fritz London, who was a professor of physics and chemistry at Duke from 1939 until his death in 1954. London was an internationally distinguished leader in the fields of quantum mechanics, quantum chemistry, low-temperature physics, and… read more about Fritz London Graduate Fellowship Winners, 2010 »
Joshua Bienfang, BS 1994, made the news this summer when he developed and demonstrated a way to send high speed encrypted messages using quantum physics. Bienfang worked in Prof. Dan Gauthier’s lab as an undergraduate and as a research scientist for one year, then went to the University of New Mexico for graduate school. He is now a physicist at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). Check out the articles about him in the Washington Post here and here. read more about Joshua Bienfang, BS 1994, in the news »
The 2010-2011 academic year is upon us at Duke Physics. This week the Duke Physics department welcomes 16 new graduate students for fall of 2010. In addition to welcoming new students to the program, the Duke Physics department is also ushering in a new graduate curriculum and a new undergraduate degree in biophysics. In fact, this issue of the newsletter features two stories about a Duke alumna and a Duke professor working in the field of biophysics. This summer members of the Duke Physics community stayed busy with… read more about Welcome to the August Duke Physics Newsletter »
Prof. Chris Walter's website serves as a resource for his personal research as well as a source of news updates for neutrino research at High Energy Physics experiments worldwide. read more about Website of the Month »
See the rest of Prof. Dan Gauthier's images from his conference trip to Paris, France, as well as other images from our 2010 Summer Research Photo Collection at our Flickr page. read more about Photo of the Month - The Louvre in Paris by Dan Gauthier »
This year's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at TUNL finished up August 6. Eight students from universities around the country traveled to Duke to pursue research with TUNL professors. Click here to see pictures of this year's group. read more about 2010 TUNL REU program »
John D S Gibson, BS Physics 1951 wrote to Duke Physics News to give us an update on his life since graduation. Here's what he had to say: Half way through my senior year, Dr. Walter Nielsen, the Department Chair, stopped me in the hall and in the kindest way told me that the department could not recommend me for graduate school. I had no problem completing the requirements for a BS degree in Physics on time, but had to wonder what the job market would be for one with only a BS… read more about Alum Update from John Gibson, '51 »
Susan Clark, a former Duke Physics undergrad who graduated in 2004, was recently awarded a post doctoral fellowship at the Joint Quantum Institute between University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Clark, who studied atom-light interactions in Prof. Daniel Gauthier's lab, will begin her fellowship after the completion of her graduate studies at Stanford University where she worked in Yoshi Yamamoto's lab and studied optical… read more about Alum Update from Susan Clark, '04 »
NOTE: SOME LINKS HAVE BECOME BROKEN DUE TO WEBSITE REDESIGN This summer the Duke Physics News team collected both images and stories from members of the Duke Physics Department who have been traveling around the world for research, conferences, and relaxation. We stayed in touch with both faculty members, graduate students, and undergrads. Links to both stories and photos are below in case you missed the updates! Our Summer News Stories: August Updates July Updates June Updates… read more about Summer Research Updates - A Collection of Stories and Photos »
Dr. Hannah Petersen joined the nuclear theory group in January 2010 to work with Professors Mueller and Bass. Her research is focused on the dynamical description of heavy ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies as they are produced at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and soon will be studied at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. In these collisions, nuclear matter is heated and compressed to reach a state of matter similar to the early stage… read more about Post-Doc Hannah Petersen Joins Nuclear Theory Group »
Although the biophysics major is new at Duke for 2011, many physics alums over the years have melded physics and biology in their careers. Leslie Molony, ‘75, for example, has worked as a researcher and as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. “I use my physics background just about every day of my life,” she says. “I use physics to figure out the science of pharmaceuticals and how chemicals interact with cells and with protein molecules,” she says, “particularly the physical aspects of an… read more about Alumni Profile: From Physics to Pharm »
Physics professor Calvin Howell and his students are working with Duke biologists on an interdisciplinary project to discover more about how plants absorb and use carbon dioxide—a question of particular relevance as levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere continue to climb. Howell and his colleagues use positron emission tomography (PET) to track molecules of carbon dioxide—tagged with radioisotopes—as they are absorbed by leaves. Howell, director of the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL)… read more about Faculty Research Update: Physics Sheds Light on How Plants Use Carbon Dioxide »
NOTE: LINKS HAVE BECOME BROKEN DUE TO SITE REDESIGN This week the Duke Physics department welcomes 16 new graduate students to the program for fall of 2010. These 16 students were accepted out of a pool of almost 200 applicants and they will be the first to experience the department's new graduate curriculum. Students in the incoming class have come from five countries and their research interests represent a variety of physics sub-disciplines. This week they are attending both University-wide and Departmental Orientations… read more about Physics Welcomes 16 New Graduate Students »
NOTE: LINKS HAVE BECOME BROKEN DUE TO SITE REDESIGN This week the Duke Physics department welcomes 16 new graduate students to the program for fall of 2010. These 16 students were accepted out of a pool of almost 200 applicants and they will be the first to experience the department's new graduate curriculum. Students in the incoming class have come from five countries and their research interests represent a variety of physics sub-disciplines. This week they are attending both University-wide and Departmental Orientations… read more about Welcome, New Graduate Students! »
NOTE: SOME LINKS HAVE BECOME BROKEN DUE TO SITE REDESIGN In our new photo album at Flickr, newly-minted Duke graduates are seen celebrating their achievements at the Duke Physics commencement ceremony. The ceremonies awarded diplomas to students who earned their Doctorates in Physics in May of 2010. Good luck and congratulations to our recent graduates! They are Huidong Xu, Wei Chen, James Joseph, Mary Kidd, Phillip Wu, and Xing Zong! Follow this link to see more information about graduate student… read more about Duke Physics Commencement Ceremony 2010 »
Physics graduate student Jonathan Mueller, who works with the Capture group under Prof. Henry Weller and Prof. Mohammad Ahmed, received a graduate fellowship award with the new Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship program. He was one of 150 students awarded and each will be provided tuition, living expenses, and research support for three years to work with U.S. academic institutions. The Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship program aids young students in an effort… read more about Physics Grad Student Jonathan Mueller Receives Fellowship »
This summer, Prof. Chris Walter has traveled to Japan, South Dakota, Greece, Japan, Chicago, and is now back in Japan. He is pulling a shift right now at the Super-Kamiokande experiment, which is a Cherenkov neutrino detector that consists of 50,000 tons of water in an underground tank. The experiment has to be observed 24 hours a day, so all the collaborating scientists take turns doing so. In a couple of weeks, Walter will head to Tokai, Japan for a meeting about the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment, in… read more about Chris Walter Racks Up More Frequent Flier Miles »