Department of Physics
Something hits a gigantic underground tank, flashes dimly for a few seconds and you have 15 minutes to figure out where it came from. The catch? It could have come from anywhere in the universe. We’re talking about neutrinos, the lesser-known cousin of protons and electrons, and how scientists can use them to detect a supernova, the spectacularly explosive (and very rare) death of a star. Thanks to a newly funded National Science Foundation Institute, Kate Scholberg, Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics… read more about Physics Professor Joins $15 million NSF Institute to Develop Accelerated AI-Driven Algorithms »
Congratulations to Dr. Jungsang Kim, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Physics, and to Dr. Patrick Charbonneau, Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics, who were just named fellows of the American Physics Society. Kim was nominated for pioneering contributions to the research, development, invention, and entrepreneurship in trapped ion-based quantum computing, large-scale optical switches, and gigapixel-scale cameras. Charbonneau was nominated for his… read more about Patrick Charbonneau and Jungsang Kim named APS fellows »
The coronavirus pandemic upended many academic traditions, including graduation and hooding ceremonies. Our Ph.D. students, however, remained brilliant, determined, and productive. Twenty-five of our students obtained their Ph.D. degree since March 2020. You'll find their names, their advisors, and their dissertations' titles below: Summer 2020 Doctor of Philosophy in Physics Graduates: Dr. Christian Moritz Binder: [Advisor: Thomas Barthel] – Novel Tensor Network Methods for… read more about Congratulations to our 2020 - 2021 Ph.D.s! »
The New York Stock Exchange welcomes executives and guests of IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) in celebration of becoming the first publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company. To honor the occasion, Peter Chapman, President & CEO, will ring The Opening Bell®. At his sides are Professors Christopher Monroe and Jungsang Kim, IonQ's founders. read more about IonQ Opens for Public Trade »
Imagine taking a snapshot of the Big Bang with a computer chip. Ashutosh Kotwal, Fritz London Professor of Physics at Duke University, thinks we may have a first step in that direction. In a paper published last week in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, Kotwal melds two fascinating ideas from technology and physics - the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for image recognition and the search for dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up 84% of the total amount of matter in the universe.… read more about Capturing secrets of the Universe on a silicon chip »
When a lab is shut down, something big has ended. A cycle of activity has ceased. Some cycles end abruptly while others reach slow and carefully-orchestrated conclusions. In the case of the Behringer Lab, both types of endings were simultaneously true. On July 10, 2018, Duke lowered its flags to mark the passing of Robert Behringer, James B. Duke Professor of Physics. Behringer was an active researcher, with a lab full of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Three years later, the last of his graduate students,… read more about Closing the Door on the Behringer Lab »
Applying to graduate school can be a confusing and intimidating process. Come join current Physics Graduate students for a chat and a Q&A aimed at demystifying the graduate school application process. Open to all undergraduates interested in physics graduate school! When: SEPTEMBER 23 | 5PM-6:30PM Where: LSRC A155 Hosted by the Duke Physics Students Society For questions email Elliott Kauffman (emk50@duke.edu) or Henry Burns (hab22@duke.edu) read more about Understanding the Grad School Application Process »
The recently established Advanced Light Imaging and Spectroscopy (ALIS) facility is now officially a service center and we're here to help with your custom optical microscopy needs. In celebration of the inauguration, ALIS and the Duke Light Microscopy Core Facility LMCF are organizing a seminar series on Advanced Optical Imaging Technology. There will be lectures on the technologies and applications, with a keynote lecture on lattice light sheet from Wes Legant from UNC.… read more about New Core Facility: ALIS! »
read more about Duke Joins $25M NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation »
Every year, at the start of the Fall semester, the Physics department announces its internal awards and fellowships, and gathers to celebrate with faculty and students. This year the Annual Welcome Picnic took place at the Duke Forest, and was attended by over 130 people. Awards These are the Academic Year 2020-2021Physics Awardees: American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)'s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Ryan Bouabid James Wheeler Duke Physics Mary Creason Memorial Award for… read more about Congratulations 2021 Graduate Fellowship Winners! »
The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $20 million grant to Duke University researchers to explore and optimize the chemical structure and physical properties of individual molecules in a polymer network. “The long-term potential of this research includes cost- and time-efficient optimization of the polymers used in products like biomedical implants, building materials and even automobile tires,” said principal investigator Stephen Craig, the William T. Miller distinguished professor of chemistry at Duke… read more about NSF Creates Polymer Chemistry Optimization Center at Duke for Future Materials »
Iman Marvian, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Duke University, has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The award supports outstanding young faculty members in their efforts to build a successful research enterprise For the next five years, the $510,000 award will support Marvian’s efforts in Quantum Information Science to use insights gained from developing models for quantum computing algorithms and quantum… read more about Marvian Wins National Science Foundation CAREER Award »
Ayana Arce studies quarks, which involves colliding atoms at high speeds and watching those constituent particles come into focus. But a recent collaboration between the associate professor of Physics and a visual artist is making vital human bonds visible instead. Arce’s research is the inspiration behind “We Contain Multitudes,” a new mural in northeast Washington, D.C., depicting quarks artistically as creative, resilient and interconnected women. It’s the second piece in a public art series by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya… read more about Duke Physicist’s Work Inspires Washington D.C. Mural »
When he was an undergraduate political science student, Kerry Haynie was never taught about the 1921 Tulsa massacre. Nor was there much discussion about the role of race in the founding political documents of this country or much examination of how race influenced public services such as sewer lines and zoning. In one sense, a lot has changed. In 2021, Duke’s faculty includes a strong lineup of leading scholars who examine how race is embedded in issues that cross all the schools of the university. This fall, many of… read more about University Course Raises Race as a Central Element of Undergraduate Education »
A Duke physicist is among those to receive an Early Career Research Program Award this year from the U.S. Department of Energy, the government agency announced May 27. Assistant Professor of Physics Dan Scolnic studies cosmology and is particularly focused on new image analysis techniques and finding optical counterparts to gravitational waves. The research topic he submitting for the DOE award was titled “Reducing Top Systematic Uncertainties in Cosmological Analyses with Type Ia Supernovae and Contaminated Photometric… read more about Scolnic Earns DOE Early Career Research Program Award »
Congratulations to Prof. Iman Marvian on his CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The title of his project is "Applications of Quantum Information Theory and Symmetry Principles in Quantum Physics". See NSF's announcement here. read more about Prof. Marvian Receives NSF CAREER Award »
Congratulations to Prof. Dan Scolnic on receiving an Early Career Research Program award from the Department of Energy's Office of Science. His research topic was "Reducing Top Systematic Uncertainties in Cosmological Analyses with Type Ia Supernovae and Contaminated Photometric Samples". read more about Prof. Scolnic Receives DOE Early Career Award »
Long ago Feynman had a vision that we could one day study our favorite quantum system using quantum computers (see here). With the advent of quantum computing, this vision is moving closer into the realm of reality. One may even go one step further and imagine that nature, at the fundamental level, can be constructed as a model constructed with qubits. Quantum field theorists have been exploring this possibility for many years. One fundamental bottleneck has been to achieve asymptotic freedom in the language of qubits… read more about Constructing Nature with Qubits »