2017 News

Ron Gilman has been selected as the University's 2018 Career Mentor of the Year recipient

GilmanRon will receive the award at the 4th Annual Career Knights of Distinction Awards Dinner in May. Ron's nomination, prepared by his students, impressed the selection committee which noted that Ron is "... not only doing some great work as a professor within the Department of Physics and Astronomy but are also providing a world-class mentoring environment for Rutgers' students.

Congratulations Ron!!

(12-12-2017)

Bob Bartynski, has just been elected a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS)

BartynskiROur chair, Bob Bartynski, has just been elected a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS)!

The AVS selects its fellows for "sustained and outstanding scientific and technical contributions in research, engineering, technical advancement, academic education, or managerial leadership." Less than 0.5% of the AVS membership may be elected in any year. Bob's citation is "For technical method development in surface spectroscopy and scientific inquiry into the electronic structure of a wide range of materials."

More information is available at the AVS website: https://www.avs.org/Awards-Recognition/Current-Awardees

Congratulations Bob!

(12-12-2017)

National organization of the Society of Physics Students (SPS), an organization of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), has named the Rutgers SPS Chapter a Distinguished SPS Chapter for 2016-17

Congratulations to the Chapter, and particularly 2016-17 Officers, on the fine work they did to earn that status:

  • Jenny Coulter, President
  • Vedant Sachdeva, Vice President
  • Will Cheng, Treasurer
  • Anu Sridhar, Secretary

And hats off to faculty advisors Alyson Brooks and Matt Buckley.

(12-8-2017)

Post Doctoral fellows Yuhang Jiang and Jinhai Mao in Professor Eva Andrei's group together with collaborators discovered that under the influence of local gates, electrons in graphene undergo a transition from quantum confinement to optical guiding

These findings could open the door to novel graphene-based electronic building blocks.

yj   jm

Their article is published in Nature Nanotechnology (2017) advanced online publication.

News story at Rutgers Today

Links to News stories outside of Rutgers are posted here:
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~eandrei/news.html

(10-25-2017)

Graduate student Sean Kung in the research group of Professor Girsh Blumberg, along with collaborators, have discovered a new collective spin mode on the surface of Topological Insulator

Kung Graduate student Sean Kung in the research group of Professor Girsh Blumberg, along with collaborators, have discovered a new collective spin mode on the surface of Topological Insulator that can be used to transport energy or information with little energy dissipation.

The study is published in the Physical Review Letters at https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.136802 .

Read more in Rutgers Today at http://go.rutgers.edu/x5u7pj83

(10-2-2017)

On Aug. 21, 2017 there was a solar eclipse

parteclipseIn New Jersey we saw a partial eclipse (about 73%). The student-led Rutgers Astronomical Society hosted a viewing at the Robert A. Schommer Astronomical Observatory in Piscataway.

The eclipse viewing event was from 12:30pm - 4:00pm, held in room 401 of the Serin Physics & Astronomy building, on Busch campus. The transit (of the Moon blocking out the Sun) began around 1:20pm, and the Moon's greatest blockage of the Sun was at around 2:40pm.

Please check http://observatory.rutgers.edu for more information.

(8-8-2017)

Professor Emeritus Tom Devlin has received the 2017 Mentoring Award from the American Physical Societys Division of Particles and Field (DPF)

DevlinThe award is intended to recognize DPF members who have had an exceptional impact as mentors of particle physics scientists and students.

The citation reads: "for his tremendous dedication to mentoring a broad community of students and postdocs, and for his early and unwavering support of gender diversity in physics. His leadership by example, in studying new ideas, accepting all questions, and creating an inclusive environment where young scientists could bond with and learn from senior scientists and from each other has shaped the careers of many current leaders in experimental particle physics."

Andrew Baker, Eric Gawiser, Sergei Lukyanov, Alex Morozov, Emil Yuzbashyan, and Scott Thomas promoted

At its June 15, 2017 meeting, the Board of Governors approved the promotions of:

  • Andrew Baker to Full Professor
  • Eric Gawiser to Full Professor.
  • Sergei Lukyanov to Full Professor
  • Alex Morozov to Full Professor
  • Emil Yuzbashyan to Full Professor
  • Scott Thomas to Distinguished Professor

Congratulations Andrew, Eric, Sergei, Alex, Emil, and Scott on your well-deserved promotions!!

Along with the earlier announcements about Saurabh Jha, JP Chou and Sevil Salur, we are a remarkable 9 for 9 on faculty promotions this year. Great job all!

(6-29-2017)

Graduate student Jesse Rivera participated in the 2017 Congressional Visit Day

RiveraGraduate student Jesse Rivera participated in the 2017 Congressional Visit Day, educating policy makers and their staffs on issues affecting science and raising support for science, engineering, and technology from the federal government. Jesse's account of the day was posted by the American Astronomical Society: https://aas.org/posts/blog/2017/05/important-lessons-congressional-visits-day

(5-17-2017)

Distinguished Professor Eva Andrei and her group have discovered that graphene, a 2-dimensional, one atomic layer sheet of carbon atoms, has a power factor which is a factor of two higher than in previously thermoelectric coolers

AndreiEDistinguished Professor Eva Andrei and her group have discovered that graphene, a 2-dimensional, one atomic layer sheet of carbon atoms, has a power factor which is a factor of two higher than in previously thermoelectric coolers, making it a potential new way of cooling the smallest of semiconductor devices on microelectronics chips.

Read more here:

(4-19-2017)

Physics Major Jennifer Coulter, Class of 17, has been offered THREE prestigious graduate fellowships

CoulterPhysics Major Jennifer Coulter, Class of 17, has been offered THREE prestigious graduate fellowships: an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, and a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship.

Jennifer has accepted the latter of the three as she heads to Harvard to conduct her graduate studies in Physics.

Jennifer was featured in a Rutgers Today article on May 1, 2017.

(4-19-2017)

John Paul Chou has been awarded a 2017 Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence

jpc4The award is in recognition of outstanding scholarly accomplishments as documented in his evaluation for promotion. JP received the award at a ceremony on May 4, 2017.

(4-19-2017)

Baki Brahmia, Alyson Brooks, and Aniket Patra receive awards

Its been a banner year for recognition of our faculty and students. We're pleased to announce the following recent awards:

  • Baki Brahmia has received the 2017 SAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education at the Associate Teaching Professor rank.
  • Alyson Brooks has received the 2017 SAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education at the Assistant Professor rank.
  • Graduate Student Aniket Patra has received the 2017 SAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education at the Teaching Assistant rank.

Congratulations to all three of you for receiving this recognition, and thank you for personifying the departments commitment to excellence in education.

Patra Brooks BrahmiaA

(4-19-2017)

John Paul Chou and Sevil Salur promoted

At its April 6, 2017 meeting, the Board of Governors approved the promotions of:

  • John Paul Chou to Associate Professor with tenure
  • Sevil Salur to Associate Professor with tenure.

Congratulations JP and Sevil on your well-deserved promotions.

ChouJP  Salur 

(4-7-2017)

Physics Major Viktor Krapivin, Class of 2018, has received a highly prestigious 2017 Goldwater Scholarship

Physics Major Viktor Krapivin, Class of 2018, has received a highly prestigious 2017 Goldwater Scholarship, which is awarded to only 240 students across the whole nation, majoring in science, math, or engineering. Viktor has been doing research with Girsh Blumberg. For more information please visit: https://goldwater.scholarsapply.org

More information about many of our past Goldwater winners is available at: http://sas.rutgers.edu/news-events/featured-news/1938-how-one-rutgers-science-department-produced-13-goldwater-winners

(4-5-2017)

Jennifer Coulter and Angela Ludvigsen have both just been awarded NSF Graduate Fellowships

Jenny, a senior who is currently a Goldwater Fellow and is doing her honors thesis with Karin Rabe and Premi Chandra.

Angela Ludvigsen is a first-year graduate student who is working with Eva Andrei.

Congratulations on receiving this well-earned distinction.

(4-3-2017)

Humna Awan, working with Prof. Eric Gawiser, has won an inaugural Fellowship of Excellence in Computational and Data Science

Humna Awan, working with Prof. Eric Gawiser, has won an inaugural Fellowship of Excellence in Computational and Data Science for her proposed research on "Big Data in Astrophysics: Clustering Analysis of Partial Galaxies."

(3-31-2017)

Aniket Patra was awarded a 2017 Dean's Award for Excellence in Research

PatraAniket has worked with Emil Yuzbashyan on topics including the multistate Landau-Zener problem and the driven-dissipative dynamics of quantum condensates.

(3-31-2017)

Jasen Scaramazza, (who has Jersey Roots and is a former Goldwater Fellow) was awarded the prestigious Bevier Fellowship for the 2017-18 academic year

ScaramazzaJasen also works with Emil Yuzbashyan to develop the theory of quantum regularity - the opposite of quantum chaos.

(3-31-2017)

Gabi Kotliar has been named a 2017 Simons Fellow Awardee in Theoretical Physics

KotliarOne of only 13 awardees, this highly competitive fellowship will allow Gabi up to a semester long research leave with the objective to increase creativity and provide intellectual stimulation.

Find more information at: The Simons Foundation

Gabi joins Piers Coleman and David Vanderbilt who received this distinction in 2014, and Greg Moore, who received the award in 2012.

(3-27-2017)

Sevil Salur has been named APS Woman Physicist of the Month for March Photo of Prof Salur 2017

salur17This APS program highlights "exceptional female physicists" and highlights those who have "positively impacted other individuals' lives and careers."

(3-23-2017)

Saurabh Jha promoted to Professor 1

At its February 8, 2017 meeting, the Board of Governors has approved the promotions of Saurabh Jha to Professor 1, effective January 1, 2017.

Congratulations Saurabh on your well-deserved promotion.

(2-9-2017)