Interactions the Newsletter of the UB Department of Physics Volume 6, Fall 2013

Interactions The Newsletter of the UB Department of Physics Volume 6, Fall 2013

Our enrollment has also been growing steadily. UB enrolled 14 intended physics majors in 2011, 24 in 2012 and 33 this year. The most impressive number is the ratio of students enrolled to the number of offers made. It grew from 21% in 2011 to 32% in 2012, and to 38% this year. More and more students receiving our offers joined the Department. This again stands out in CAS, and is a testament to the quality of our undergraduate programs and the efforts from the faculty, especially the Undergraduate Studies Committee under the leadership of Prof. Bernard Weinstein. Based on our record, the Department is one of a few used by CAS to establish model procedures for undergraduate recruitment.

Dear alumni and friends, Once again, there are quite a few well-deserved promotions, important awards and recognitions this year. Con- It has been an exciting year since I last wrote to you. In gratulations to Prof. Francis Gasparini for becoming a January this year, the American Physical Society (APS) SUNY Distinguished Professor, Prof. Igor Zutic for promo- started what they called APS TV, highlighting some tion to Full Professor, Profs. Arnd Pralle and Wenjun Zheng departments to the physics community in the country. to Associate Professor, Prof. Doreen Wackeroth for being APS kicked this off by selecting 15 departments across elected as a Fellow of APS, Prof. Surajit Sen a Fellow of the country and ours was among them. They produced a the American Association for the Advancement of Science 6-minute film featuring our extraordinary growth in recent and Prof. Bruce McCombe for the Presidential Award for years. The film was shown at the biggest physics meeting Faculty Excellence. During my first term as the Chair, I wit- in the country, the APS March Meeting in Baltimore, MD, nessed first-hand 15 promotions to all ranks, among them and posted at the APS homepage and Youtube (a link is many early promotions, in addition to important awards. As posted at the homepage of our Department). It was played a group, their records/accomplishments have become the throughout the week-long meeting. We have been very envy in CAS and the University. proud of this growth seeing it first hand, and it is great to see it recognized by APS. There have been several successful workshops, public lectures and events. In May, Prof. Jong Han successfully As many of you may know, this year’s Nobel Prize in phys- organized the second workshop in the Physics at the Falls ics went to two theorists who predicted the Higgs boson. series on Recent Progress in Nonequilibrium Quantum Ma- It is very exciting and special to us, because three of our ny-Body Theory. The high-energy physics group organized faculty members, Profs. Avto Kharchilava, Ia Iashvili, and a public event celebrating the discovery of the Higgs boson. Salvatore Rappoccio, made contributions to the CMS Col- Prof. Peihong Zhang organized the inaugural lecture for the laboration at CERN, for the discovery of the Higgs boson. Ta-You Wu Memorial Lecture series, featuring Prof. Mar- In addition, 3 postdocs and about a dozen graduate and vin Cohen from UC Berkeley as the speaker. This year’s undergraduate students participated in various parts of the speaker for our Rustgi Lecture was Prof. Anthony Leggett, experiment, and two faculty members, Profs. Ulrich Baur a Nobel laureate from UIUC. (†2010) and Doreen Wackeroth, contributed with theoretical work. Stay in touch!

One of the signs of our growth is dear to our hearts, namely, Best regards, the number and quality of our incoming majors. This year’s class includes fourteen recipients of university scholarships, three of them Presidential Scholarships. This is about 50% of the incoming class, which is by far the highest in the Hong Luo, Chair College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Professor of Physics

Banner: Professor Francis Gasparini with President Sathish Tripathi, Provost Charles Zukoski and CAS Dean Bruce Pitman at the UB Celebration of Faculty & Staff Academic Excellence. Professor Gasparini was named SUNY Distinguished Profes- sor in recognition of his national and international prominence in his research field. Read more in www.buffalo.edu/news/ releases/2013/01/003.html. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi UB Physics and the Higgs Boson Discovery Interactions Volume 6

UB Physics Plays a Role in force (which manifests on the scale of tor such as the Tevatron (Fermilab) the Discovery of the Higgs atomic nuclei). Physicists have long and the Large Hadron Collider with Boson been trying to unify these forces under its record high energy and luminosity. By Drs. Avto Kharchilava, Ia Iashvili a single theory. A major breakthrough Next – general-purpose detectors that and Salvatore Rappoccio came nearly five decades ago when can handle proton-proton collisions at physicists realized that the weak 10-100 MHz rates. One also needs On July 4th, 2012, the CMS and AT- and electromagnetic forces can to design and implement unique and LAS collaborations at the CERN Large be described by a single, “unified” sophisticated event simulation, recon- Hadron Collider (LHC) announced the electroweak theory based on a struction and analysis software that discovery of the Higgs boson, to much fundamental symmetry between them. can process petabytes of data daily. worldwide attention and fanfare. The theory of electroweak interactions Past years – and the Higgs boson dis- and Quantum Chromodynamics (the covery in particular – have shown that theory of the strong force) form the basis all is possible through the concerted of the Standard Model. The Standard efforts of world-wide collaboration of Model successfully describes all of the thousands of physicists and engineers, elementary particles we know and how which is a miracle on its own and prob- they interact with one another. But our ably a thesis topic for a student in so- understanding of Nature is incomplete. ciology. In particular, the Standard Model as originally conceived could not answer “I think we have it!” proclaims Rolf Heuer, one basic question: Why do most director of CERN, announcing the discovery of of these elementary particles have the Higgs boson. Photo: CERN masses? The symmetry responsible This remarkable discovery is the cap- for electroweak unification requires the stone of a model that explains known force-carrying particles be massless. interactions of matter to 12 decimals The carrier of the electromagnetic force, of precision. As such, this model, the the photon, is an example. However, so-called “Standard Model” of particle the W and Z bosons, carriers of the physics, is the best theory there is. As weak force, have non-zero masses, the Higgs boson was predicted in 1964, A candidate Higgs boson event, decaying into and this fact breaks the electroweak two photons, as recorded by the CMS detector. its discovery was long-anticipated, with symmetry. It also leads to nonsensical Photo: CERN a search that took many decades, predictions such as interactions with the combined efforts of thousands of probabilities greater than one. As a UB physicist Avto Kharchilava and Ia scientists and engineers across the way out, Higgs, Brout and Englert Iashvili, joined the race in the early globe, and tireless commitment from have proposed a mechanism that 90’s, when they became members governments worldwide. It is a true explains the broken symmetry. Once of the CMS Collaboration – one of achievement of the human species, incorporated into the equations of the the two CERN experiments that have and a model for the wondrous things Standard Model, this electroweak- announced this discovery. They spent that can be achieved with global co- symmetry breaking mechanism would almost 10 years at CERN, until 2000, operation and a sustained investment not only allow W and Z bosons to be and contributed to the successful hunt in science by all of us. As members of massive, but all elementary matter for the Higgs boson in many ways, the CMS collaboration, UB physicists particles to have mass, as a bonus! ranging from CMS detector design played a role in the discovery of the Peter Higgs et al. pointed out that the optimization studies, tracking detector Higgs boson. mechanism required the existence of a R&D, construction and commissioning new particle with specific properties: it through software validation and Science on an Epic Scale is massive and carries neither electric physics potential of the CMS/LHC. charge nor spin. And the race for this Here we briefly mention two projects; Our Universe seems to be governed elusive particle had begun! tracking R&D and searches for a Higgs by four fundamental forces: gravity, boson in four lepton final states via electromagnetism, the weak force Well, many components are vital for the production of two Z bosons. This (which regulates nuclear phenomena the race of these proportions! First, process is one of the many ways the like fusion within stars) and the strong one needs a high energy accelera- unstable Higgs boson leaves a trace in 2 UB Physics and the Higgs Boson Discovery CONTINUED the ATLAS and CMS detectors. of the Higgs boson signal from the non- the CMS detector in 2013-2015. While Higgs background can be improved by the Higgs boson discovery is a cap- Until the late 90’s, the CMS Collabora- ~20% compared to traditional search stone of the Standard Model of particle tion was considering the MSGC detec- methods, which is a crucial improve- physics, many questions remain unan- tor – a gaseous tracking device – as a ment in view of the difficulty to detect swered, such as why the mass of the baseline detector for particle tracking. this elusive process. Higgs boson is so far below the Planck At that time, in collaboration with a re- energy scale. Prof. Rappoccio leads a search group in Strasburg (France), In the late 90s, it was clear that the team of scientists at CMS looking for Profs. Kharchilava and Iashvili studied construction of the LHC and detectors physics beyond the Standard Model in- a new generation of gaseous detec- would take many years. Fortunately, volving top quarks which could lead to tors, the so-called GEM (Gas Electron in early 2000, the upgraded Tevatron answers to this and other open ques- Multiplier) as a possible replacement at Fermilab was ready to start its Run tions. for the MSGC. In the meantime, how- II, and Profs. Kharchilava and Iashvili ever, the Collaboration had decided came to the US to contribute to the to adopt the competing technology of race for the discovery of the Higgs bo- all-Silicon-tracking, which at that time son at the Tevatron. They joined the was considered to be “revolutionary.” D0 Collaboration, and their expertise From today’s perspective, CMS’s deci- and experience from gained at CMS sion turned out to be a wise one, even was applied to the Tevatron search for though they “lost the friendly com- the Higgs boson. In July 2012, the two petition”.They then joined the Silicon Tevatron Collaborations, D0 and CDF, tracking project during its construction jointly announced an evidence for a phase (in 2005, when they became Higgs-like particle in their data. The faculty here at UB) and are now very significance was at 3 standard devia- happy with the excellent performance tions, so that the Tevatron collabora- of the all-Silicon tracking detector of tions could not claim the observation. CMS. However, Tevatron’s experience in the search for the Higgs particle was invaluable for the LHC community and essential to the Higgs discovery. As is UB Physics graduate student Jia Zhou with Prof. so often the case in science, discover- Peter Higgs at the poster session of the 69th Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics ies are part of a process, building on in St. Andrews. Jia attended the school in 2012 previous insights and achievements. and presented a poster on her work on top quark pair production at the LHC. Prof. Kharchilava is now a member of the Higgs Publication Committee Board that oversees the final steps and scru- What’s Next? tiny that the CMS collaboration must The CMS detector during the construction We are lucky to have in operation a sci- undertake before results on Higgs par- phase. Bright spots/mirrors serve as reference entific, technological and engineering points for a precise laser alignment system. ticle searches go public. Until recently, marvel such as the LHC at CERN. The Photo: CERN Prof. Iashvili was a co-leader of the Jet particle physics community worldwide Energy Calibration group whose work Profs. Kharchilava and Iashvili also can look forward to a sound and cut- is vital to almost every CMS analysis. studied the feasibility of the Higgs bo- ting-edge research program for many son discovery in four-lepton final states Prof. Rappoccio joined the CMS col- years to come. We have clear goals, with the CMS detector. In 1996, they laboration in 2007 and the UB Physics such as the precision measurement of pioneered an advanced analysis tech- Department in 2011. As a member of properties of the newly discovered par- nique based on Artificial Neural Net- CMS he is actively involved in jet re- ticle, and whether it is indeed the Higgs work event classifiers in combination construction and triggering, advanced particle as predicted by Higgs, Brout with the use of spin structure of the techniques for identifying fast-moving and Englert. Higgs boson and its decay products. heavy particles like top quarks, W, Z Despite this astonishing success, They have shown that the separation and Higgs bosons, and upgrades to there are glaring problems with our un- 3 Banner: Prof. Peter W. Higgs with an Amherst soccer enthusiast, Giorgi Kharchilava. The photo was taken at the European Physical Society Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, July 2013. Photo: Avto Kharchilava Education Interactions Volume 6

derstanding of nature. We have, as of purpose of the lab is to introduce stu- periment at CERN, under the advise- now, only accounted for approximately dents to hands-on research, data and ment of Dr. Craig Blocker. He joined 4% of the known universe with matter error analysis, to improve laboratory the physics department at UB as an In- and energy that we know about. That skills and also presentation skills. After structional Assistant Professor in 2013. means we are completely in the dark working on the experiments, students about the remaining 96%! We have are expected to present their results dubbed these “dark matter and ener- to their fellow students and instructors, gy,” since we are unable to see them in a fashion similar to a talk in a con- in any way at the present time. What ference setting. Providing this kind of constitutes this “dark matter” and “dark hands-on experience and opportunity energy?” We don’t know. The LHC is to practice communication skills is an investigating this pressing question invaluable and crucial part of our stu- next, along with the ever-present ques- dent’s education at UB. tion of “what else is out there that we haven’t thought of?” We feel lucky to be part of this endeavor and to have Dr. Gozpinar in the advanced laboratory. the opportunity to possibly witness even more fundamental discoveries. So, stay tuned for exciting develop- First Physics Boot Camp for ments from the LHC and other particle Incoming Freshman physics experiments in the near future, By Dr. John Cerne and Scott Whitmire as the second run begins in 2015! In June 2013, the Department offered The Royal Swedish Academy of Sci- its first three-day workshop geared to- ences awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize Undergraduate student Sean Rosney and ward strengthening the preparation of in physics to two theorists, Peter W. graduate student Ruifeng Dong taking data with the cosmic ray detector. Photo: Serdar Gozpinar incoming freshmen for our introduc- Higgs and François Englert, “for the tory physics courses. The workshop theoretical discovery of a mechanism In the lab, students learn to use instru- helped prepare participants by identify- that contributes to our understand- ments that are commonplace in phys- ing strengths and weaknesses in their ing of the origin of mass of subatomic ics laboratories, such as Lock-in ampli- knowledge of college physics, teach- particles, and which recently was con- fiers, power supplies, electromagnets, ing them how to better utilize lectures, firmed through the discovery of the pre- electronic interfaces, spectrometers, improving their laboratory skills, famil- dicted fundamental particle, by the AT- lasers and various optical equipment. iarizing them with on-line homework, LAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Techniques and safety procedures re- building their problem-solving skills, Large Hadron Collider.” lated to the usage of cryogens, vacuum and developing their preparation strat- equipment, high magnetic fields and la- egies for examinations and quizzes. sers are also taught. The advanced lab The Advanced Laboratory is one of the few courses in the physics Twenty-eight students registered for By Dr. Serdar Gozpinar curriculum that requires the simultane- the workshop and many of them had ous development of advanced theo- also taken the Chemistry workshop im- The advanced lab consists of a se- retical knowledge and experimental mediately before our workshop began. ries of experiments that are aimed at skills, and serves to prepare students The students were first taken on a tour seniors and graduate students. As towards work and research in leading of the Department, including research the name of the lab suggests, the ex- edge areas of physics. labs and the Physics and Arts exhibits. periments are quite involved and usu- The tour ended with a garbage can ally take several weeks to complete. The advanced lab is taught by Dr. Ser- launch/explosion using liquid nitrogen, A wide spectrum of physics topics dar Gozpinar. He received his PhD at which really got their attention! Partici- are addressed, from condensed mat- Brandeis University, where he was a pants experienced lectures very similar ter physics, to optics, quantum phys- member of the experimental high en- to those given in Physics 101 and 107 ics and particle physics. The primary ergy physics group. He completed his (Introductory Mechanics) on topics of PhD thesis working on the ATLAS ex- high importance. They used classroom 4 Education CONTINUED response systems in lecture. They also The Pralle group studies how cells com- the chance to really dive in and learn a attended recitations and completed a municate and what role the nanoscale lot about a particular problem. During physics laboratory. The lectures were structure of the cell membrane plays. the time she realized the value of other taught by John Cerne and the labs were This requires a very interdisciplinary students’ knowledge and support, run by Scott Whitmire. Teaching assis- approach including growing cells, de- and got a good idea what graduate tants Katherine Niessen and YuTsung veloping and building physical instru- school would really be like. She greatly (Rem) Tsai led the recitations and labs. mentation, and writing computer code enjoyed the opportunity to travel to the At the end of the intensive workshop, for data analysis and simulation. In the Biophysical Society conference with the Cerne and Whitmire met with each stu- past 6 years, we had 15 undergradu- group. The research experience made dent to go over his/her performance in ate students join our efforts of which her confident about attending graduate the workshop, answer questions, and about half were physics majors, while school and she feels it was certainly a recommend personalized strategies for the others were biomedical engineers, positive factor in her applications! Doing success in our introductory courses. pre-pharmacy or pre-medical majors. research in biophysics also led her to This is the first time that we offered this These students with diverse back- her current research in cryo-electron workshop and we are looking forward grounds bring diversity and fresh input microscopy of biological samples at to offering it every summer from now to the lab of physics graduate students Cornell. on. For more information, please check and post-docs. The students in-turn out: www.physics.buffalo.edu/Physics_ benefit from the chance to work on their Workshop_description.pdf own independent project, and to develop and present their ideas in group meetings. They hone their laboratory skills of good book-keeping and communication, and realize that the team’s success depends on everyone’s work. When possible, we take the students to the Annual Biophysics conference where they experience the communication between 6,000 biophysicists, from around the world, which is usu- Members of the Pralle group summer 2012 ally a highlight of their time with us. The Back row: Becky Testa, Kelly Wyrough, Katie graduate students gain valuable expe- Spoth, Junhong Choi, Heng Huang; Middle row: Boot Camp students and instructors after three Jin Weixiang, Sara Parker, Maral Alyari, Zach days of intensive physics. rience in training and leading these stu- van Zant; Front row: Yunhsiang Hsu, Muhammed dents. Training undergraduates costs Simsek, Arnd Pralle extra time for the group-leader and The Value of Undergraduate the graduate students, and we have For Choi, the research experience at Research lost some expensive equipment. But Pralle Lab was the beginning of a ca- By Dr. And Pralle overall the benefits to the students and reer as a scientist, as he was just de- the group greatly outweigh these. The ciding to pursue a graduate degree, Recent studies emphasized the impor- vast majority of our students have gone abandoning his former plan to be in tance of hands-on research experience on to graduate or professional school. health-related fields. In general stu- during the undergraduate years for Here, I like to paraphrase some of the dents in the sciences change majors the training of our future scientists. As reflections of the last two students in more than in other subjects, so the consequence, funding and accredita- my group: Katie Spoth, BS 2012, now real lab experience can be a great tion agencies request undergraduate graduate student at Cornell University; guidance. Choi feels that by getting involvement. We at UB Physics have and Junhong Choi, BS 2013, now grad- hands-on experience in a research lab been traditionally very welcoming to uate student at Stanford University. and having opportunities to present his undergraduate research. In this article work, he got a strong conviction that we will feature undergraduate research Katie reflects that working in the lab graduate school is right for him, and experience in the Physics department, allowed her to gain skills and experience more importantly that he wanted to starting with Dr. Pralle and his biophys- that she would never have been pursue science as a life-long career. ics research group. exposed to in a class setting, including Moreover, this became an even greater

5 Banner: Undergraduate student Chris Smith and graduate student Sushree Tripathy working on the optical pumping experiment. Photo: Serdar Gozpinar Alumni News Interactions Volume 6

indicator of his potential for schools utility company to help maintain the Businessweek: www.businessweek. and labs that he wanted to be admit- energy grid using machine learning com/articles/2012-03-09/b-school-re- ted to and join. Without this experience and data mining. Their project used search-briefs). as an undergraduate researcher, Choi historical data from NYC’s power grid doubts that he would now be at Stan- to predict power failures such as man- Michael Skvarch, BS 2010 ford in the Applied Physics program or hole fires, manhole explosions, and By Dr. Frank Gasparini be this strongly convinced to pursue a smoking manholes. This project was scientific career. extremely challenging, and used diverse historical power grid data, some of which were 120 years old, dating from the time of Thomas Edison. Her Cynthia Rudin, BS 1999 team’s work on electrical grid mainte- By Dr. Cynthia Rudin nance recently earned them the 2013 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award, given by the Institute for Opera- tions Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Currently, Cynthia is an associate pro- Michael Skvarch in Mozambique, Sofala Prov- fessor at MIT, studying a range of dif- ince, Mangunde, at the opening of a community ferent topics related to data mining and center he helped build. machine learning. One of her current Michael Skvarch received a BS degree core interests is to design “interpre- in Physics from the University at Buf- table” machine learning models that falo before he joined the Peace Corps. can be automatically generated but The photo shows Michael at the open- are understandable to a human expert. ing of a local community center that he She and her collaborators used these and some local health workers orga- techniques to design interpretable nized and helped build. The school is Dr. Cynthia Rudin graduated Summa models for predicting stroke in medical known as the “School of Peace” and its Cum Laude from UB in 1999, with a patients. B.S. in mathematical physics, a B.A. inauguration was held on October 4th in music theory, and a minor in com- Another one of her projects aims to de- 2013. October 4th is the national day of puter science. Cynthia earned her sign a next-generation Internet search peace in Mozambique and commemo- Ph.D. degree in applied and compu- engine where the user puts in a few ex- rates the day that the General Peace tational mathematics at Princeton Uni- amples of something (e.g., colors), and Accords were signed, and the 20 year versity in 2004, specializing in machine the search engine gathers information civil war was brought to an end in 1992. learning. While at UB, Cynthia was in from the Internet to generate more ex- The school was built for a group of or- the UB Honors Program (now called amples. phaned children who live with local the UB Honors College) and received community members and whose lives outstanding senior awards from the Cynthia is working with the Cambridge have been affected by the HIV/AIDS departments of physics, mathematics, Police Department on a project that pandemic. Michael is now returning and music, and the outstanding senior uses machine learning to detect pat- to the US to get a masters degree in award in the natural sciences. terns of crime committed by the same Teaching Physics. offender(s). This work on predictive po- After receiving her Ph.D., Cynthia licing was recently featured in the Bos- worked at New York University as a ton Globe, Times of London, and on NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Radio Boston. and then at the Center for Computa- tional Learning Systems at Columbia She has also worked on topics related University. At Columbia, Cynthia led a to analysis of meetings (appearing in team of scientists in a joint project with the Wall Street Journal), and reverse- Con Edison, New York City’s power engineering quality rating systems (in 6 Physics Programs

Support the Department of seminars series, and for the tangible Moti Lal Rustgi Memorial Physics Programs recognition of our students. Lectureship Fund: Endowment for this lectureship was The Physics Department is grateful to Frank B. Silvestro Endowment Fund: established in 1993 by the Rustgi fam- all our alumni and friends for their fi- This endowment, established in 2000, ily and friends in remembrance of our nancial contributions. As is the case at and funded by donations of Mr. Frank former colleague Professor Moti Lal many public universities, the state por- Silvestro, BA 1962, MA 1968 is used Rustgi. The lecture is given annually by tion of the operating budget has shrunk to support physics students who show distinguished researchers in a broad substantially over the years. At UB, this academic promise and demonstrate fi- area of physics research. portion is now only about one-quarter nancial need. Currently, the available of the total budget. Thus, private dona- endowment funds are used for the sup- Ta-You Wu Lectureship Fund: tions, either restricted or unrestricted, port of graduate students. An endowment has been established have become the margin which distin- in remembrance of our former col- guishes outstanding departments from Physics International Graduate league Professor Ta-You Wu. He was a good departments. The Physics De- Student Assistance Fund: member of our Department from 1966 partment has grown by 50 percent over Established in January 2010 by Dr. to 1978. He served as chairman from the last few years. We have received a Bruce D. McCombe, Physics, at the 1966 to 1969. The lectureship is be- number of donations and endowments time he was Dean of the College of ing supported by former colleagues, from friends and alumni in support of Arts and Sciences to provide support friends, and students who wish to re- our academic mission. Some of these for critical financial assistance to inter- member the strong influence Professor are listed below. We seek additional national graduate students in the De- Wu had on their careers and lives. contributions to either enhance our ex- partment of Physics, with a preference isting endowments or other targeted given to international students and 1st Physics and Arts Exhibition Fund: contributions as the donor prefers. year Ph.D. candidates, at the Univer- The Physics and Arts Exhibition opened sity at Buffalo. To contribute electronically, please on May 5th, 2006. It was made pos- visit http://www.physics.buffalo.edu/ sible through the contribution of many Dr. Stanley T. Sekula Memorial support_physics/endowments.html or of our alumni. This Exhibition is a per- contact Christine Gleason in the Phys- Scholarship Fund: manent installation in Fronczak Hall. ics Department at 716.645.3629 or via This endowment, established in 1990 It involves a series of displays, many e-mail [email protected]. You may by Mrs. Anne H. Sekula, honors the interactive. The displays have added also contact the Development Office at memory of Dr. Stanley T. Sekula, BA a welcoming atmosphere to the build- 716.645.0839 with any questions. 1951. The endowment income is used ing and have provided the multitude of to recognize outstanding undergradu- students who frequent the building with Physic Department Funds: ates who show academic promise and a quick graphical exposure to physics. demonstrate financial need. This has been, and will continue to be, Physics Excellence Endowment: an excellent source for University and The Physics Excellence Endowment is Moti Lal Rustgi Professorship community outreach. The Exhibition in- of paramount importance in achieving in Physics: volves a unique presentation of physics overall excellence in the broad mission The Professorship was endowed by at interactive, conceptual and artistic, of the Physics Department. These ex- the Rustgi family in 2006 to honor and and historical levels. Donations to this pendable, undesignated funds support remember our former colleague Pro- Exhibit will support the continued evo- recruitment of outstanding graduate fessor Moti Lal Rustgi. The endowment lution, development, and upgrade of and undergraduate students, outreach provides support for the Rustgi Profes- the Exhibition. efforts to the community, upper level sor, a title held by one of the Depart- experimental laboratories, undergradu- ment’s tenured professors, currently Physics Department Resource ate research projects, and activities of Professor Frank Gasparini. Income Fund: The Society for Physics Students. In from the endowment supports research The Resource fund is not an endow- addition, the Physics Excellence En- and other scholarly pursuits. ment fund. Contributions to this fund dowment funds provide partial support are available immediately to the De- for the Department’s colloquium and partment less a minimum of five per-

7 Banner: Chase Ellis (PhD 2013) with his wife Erin at their wedding. From left to right: Dr. Tyler Nordgren, Chase’s undergraduate advisor, Dr. Julie Rathbun (UB Physics BS 1994), Erin, Chase, Dr. Andrea Markelz, and his graduate advisor Dr. John Cerne. Research News Interactions Volume 6

cent deduction by the UB Foundation. an insulating to a metallic state while two recent visitors, Drs. Siu A Chin and These funds from our donors are used the crystal lattice remains monoclinic Eric Serauld. to give partial support to activities such in shape. Our results suggest that it is as graduation receptions for our phys- the strong coupling between the lattice ics majors, welcoming picnic for new and the excited holes is responsible for graduate students, activities of the the observed rapid separation of V-V undergraduate Society of Physics Stu- pairs after photoexcitation. The cou- dents, awards for our outstanding TA’s, pling between excited electrons and and other needs. the 6.0-THz phonon mode is found to be responsible for the observed zigzag motion of V atoms upon photoexcitation Hole-lattice Coupling and and is consistent with coherent phonon Photoinduced Insulator- experiments. This work was carried out in collaboration with Shanghai Ceram- metal Transition in VO2 ics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sci- By Xun Yuan, Wenqing Zhang, and Dr. ences. The work at UB was supported Peihong Zhang by the US Department of Energy, Of- fice of Basic Energy Sciences, Division

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) undergoes a of Materials Sciences and Engineering Dr. Siu A. Chin got his B.S. in Phys- metal-insulator transition (MIT) at 340 under Award No.DESC0002623. ics from M.I.T in 1971 and his Ph.D. K. The electronic phase transition is in Physics from Stanford University accompanied by a seemingly “simul- in 1975. He has been a Professor of taneous” structural change from a Physics at Texas A&M University since low-temperature monoclinic (M1) to a 1993. He is a Fellow of the American high-temperature rutile (R) structure. Physical Society, Division of Computa- Despite decades of intensive research, tional Physics and was named APS’s

the physics behind the MIT in VO2 re- Outstanding Referee in 2011. His remains a subject of unabated debate. search interest began in theoretical Recently, it was found that the phase nuclear physics where his one paper

transition in VO2 can be induced by on relativistic many-body field theo- photo-excitation. Ultrafast spectrosco- ry garnered over 500 citations since py also reveals a multi-timescale struc- publication. His early interest in high- tural evolution ranging from subpico- density nuclear, neutron and quark seconds to nanoseconds in VO2 upon matters resulted in collaborative works photo-excitation. with Dirk Walecka, Gordon Baym and Arthur Kerman. His interest in the Dif- In a recent paper [PHYSICAL REVIEW fusion Monte Carlo methods originated B 88, 035119 (2013)], we propose a with his joint work on Hamiltonian Lat- unified theory that is able to explain Charge density contour plot of the VBM (a) and tice Gauge Theory with John Negele the ultrafast photoinduced insulator- CBM (b) states which helps to explain the lattice and Steve Koonin and continued with

metal transition and the multi-time- dynamics of VO2 upon photo-excitation. Eckhard Krotscheck, UB Professor scale structural dynamics associated of Physics, on solving the statics and with photoexcitations. Our theory is Research Collaborations and dynamical properties of Helium-4 drop- based on results from first-principles Visitors at UB Physics lets. In the past decade he has been a electronic structure calculations. We By Dr. Eckhard Krotscheck proponent of developing forward high- show that holes created by photo- order symplectic integrators for solving excitation weaken the V-V bonds and classical dynamical problems as well as The UB Department of Physics has eventually break V-V dimers in the M1 higher order Diffusion Monte Carlo and a vibrant visitors’ program, which is phase when the laser fluence reaches Path-Integral Monte Carlo methods for beneficial to collaborative research a critical value. The breaking of the solving quantum many-body systems. and international visibility of the V-V bonds in turn leads to an imme- These methods are also heavily used diate electronic phase transition from Department. In the following we feature 8 Research News CONTINUED in the calculations of the properties of It is thus crucial to develop theoreti- metallic clusters by Krotscheck and his cal tools to understand the dynamics group. of electronic emission from irradiated Editor: species and a natural issue here is to Dr. Doreen Wackeroth consider PES and PAD. Dr. Suraud has

developed for more than a decade a Editorial Assistant: robust body of methods and computer codes to deal with these questions. Christine Gleason The theoretical basis is Density Func- tional Theory (DFT) in its time depen- Design and Production: dent version solved in real time. In its Renee Ruffino standard, Local Density Approximation and Jeannie Zhang (LDA), version, this mean-field theory provides a robust and versatile tool. It Website: Eric Seraud, a Distinguished Profes- also requires some developments to www.physics.buffalo.edu/news- sor at the University Paul Sabatier include unaccounted effects such as letter Toulouse 3, brings expertise in the dy- self interaction problems (one electron namics of finite fermion systems to the spuriously interacts with itself) and dis- Contact: metallic cluster research of Krotscheck. sipative features (beyond mean field), Comments about the newslet- His main research area is irradiation dy- in particular. ter, or information about your- namics on small Fermi systems, which self for our Alumni News sec- is a key issue in physics, chemistry and One of our most recent achievements tion, may be sent to Christine biology. It provides a remarkable tool concerns the analysis of the irradiation Gleason via e-mail cg57@buf- of investigation of static and dynami- dynamics of fullerenes in terms of PES falo.edu or mailed to: cal properties of atoms, molecules and and PAD, following recent measure- bulk material. It also plays a central role ments. Such a complete analysis is a Christine Gleason in radiation damage, both in materials “first” at the highly microscopic level of Department of Physics and in living tissues. Laser irradiation is description we have achieved and thus University at Buffalo especially fashionable because of the allows a better and “direct” understand- 239 Fronczak Hall easy access to lasers and their-ever ing of the underlying physical mecha- Buffalo, NY 14260 growing tuning capabilities, in terms of nisms. intensity, frequency and pulse shaping, to mention only a few recent hot spots. Among other recent results, let us The primary response mechanisms to mention the reformulation of the self an irradiation proceeds via electrons, interaction problem in a fully dynami- in particular in terms of electronic emis- cal context and new developments of sion, as soon as the deposited energy DFT beyond LDA in order to include is large enough. Ongoing experimen- dissipative features. Both these ques- tal progress is now allowing access to tions are still under active investigation, properties of electronic emission at a both from the formal and computational remarkably detailed level, in particular viewpoints. in an energy, angle and sometimes time resolved manner. The key mea- sured observables are Photo Electron Spectra (PES, providing an energy resolved analysis of electron emission) and Photo Angular Distributions (PAD, providing the angular distribution of emitted electrons).

9 Banner: Graduate student Tom Scrace and his wife Sarah after their wedding ceremony at Notre Dame’s Basilica. Faculty and Student Awards Volume 6

Faculty Awards By Dr. Doreen Wackeroth Undergraduate Awards

Outstanding Senior: Junhong Choi

Sekula Scholarship Awards:

Sean Bearden, Michael Benson, Geoffrey Fatin, Sarah Professor Surajit Sen has been elected a fellow of the American Association for Freed, Paul Glenn, John the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Jacangelo, John Nord for “pioneering research on solitary waves and their collisions in granular Graduate Awards media and for sustained outstanding service and leadership in international Outstanding TA’s: physics.” Read more in www.buffalo. SUNY Distinguished Professor Bruce edu/news/releases/2012/12/13832.html George Lindberg, Katherine McCombe has been awarded the UB Niessen President’s Medal. The UB President’s Medal, first presented in 1990, recog- Silvestro Scholarship: nizes “outstanding scholarly or artistic achievements, humanitarian acts, con- Ali Alsaqqa, Maral Alyari, tributions of time or treasure, exemplary Jaba Chelidze, Ruifeng leadership or any other major contribu- Dong, Jimin George, Alok tion to the development of the Univer- Mukherjee, Samanthe Perera, sity at Buffalo and the quality of life in James Pientka, Sujay Singh, the UB community.” Professor Bruce Payem Taherirostami, Sushree McCombe has served the university in Tripathy, Xuechen Zhu numerous academic and administra- tive leadership roles. He was director Professor Doreen Wackeroth has been Presidential Fellowship: of the Center for Advanced Photonic elected a fellow of the American Physi- Ruifeng Dong, Rahul Munshi, and Electronic Materials, as well as the cal Society (APS) for “careful contribu- Center for Spin Effects and Quantum Luke Pendo, John Truong, tions to electroweak and Higgs physics, Matthew Westley Information in Nanostructures. He has especially the computation and phe- served as associate chair and chair of nomenology of electroweak and QCD the Physics Department, as associate corrections to W, Z and Higgs boson Cambi Fellowship: dean for research and sponsored pro- production at hadron colliders, and for Rahul Munshi grams in the College of Arts and Sci- service to high-energy physics espe- ences, vice provost for graduate educa- cially co-organizing a decade of annual Fermilab Graduate Student tion and dean of the Graduate School, LoopFest Workshops.” Fellowship: and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. After stepping down as dean Jia Zhou to focus on scholarship, he agreed to serve as interim provost during a critical period of leadership transition for the university. Read more in www.buffalo. edu/ubreporter/archive/2012_04_26/ commencement.html.

10 We Congratulate Our Graduates!

We Congratulate Our Graduates

FALL 2012 Physics Masters Rohit Singh Physics Ph.D. Advisor: Andrea Markelz Qi Qian Thesis Title: Modulated Orientation Heng Huang Advisor: Hong Luo Sensitive Terahertz Spectroscopy Advisor: Arnd Pralle Thesis Title: Band Gap Study of Tita- Thesis Title: Magnetic Stimulation nium Dioxide with Scanning Tunnel- of Neurons and Study of Membrane ing Microscopy and Scanning Tunnel- SUMMER 2013 Structures ing Spectroscopy Physics Ph.D. Gen Long Yizhi Qiu Deepu K. George Advisor: Hao Zeng Advisor: Hao Zeng Advisor: Andrea Markelz Thesis Title: Carrier Spin Polarization Thesis Title: Self-organized Porous Thesis Title: Polarization Sensitive in Quantum Confined System Template for Super Absorber Material THz TDS and Fabrication of Align- ment Cells for Solution Phase THz Andreas Hans Russ Physics Ph.D. Spectroscopy Advisor: Athos Petrou Thesis Title: Magneto-optical Studies Jae Kyu Choi Yun-Hsiang Hsu of Quantum Dots Advisor: Vladimir Mitin Advisor: Arnd Pralle Thesis Title: Design, Growth, Char- Thesis Title: High Resolution Map Of SPRING 2013 acterization of Mid Infrared and Tera- Cell Membrane Stiffness, Proteins hertz Detectors Based on Nanostruc- Diffusion And Concentration Charac- Physics Bachelors tures terized By Thermal Noise Imaging

Jeremy Franklin Baron Chase T. Ellis Jaesuk Kwon Alexander Jacob Carson Advisor: John Cerne Advisor: Hong Luo Junhong Choi Thesis Title: Probing cyclotron reso- Thesis Title: Magnetization of Ferro- Matthew Charles Gorfien nant signatures and the AC quantum magnetic MnAs/GaAs Heterostruc- Connor Gorman Hall effect in monolayer and heteroge- ture and Optical Studies on MnAs/ Melissa Marie Judson neous graphene multilayers through InAs Spin LEDs Colin P. Kilcoyne mid-infrared, magneto-optical, polar- Kristina Krylova ization sensitive spectroscopy. William Robert Louden Lars Schweidenback Advisor: Athos Petrou Jessica Jean Ralabate Azadeh Moradinezhad Dizgah John Truong Thesis Title: Efficient injection of spin- Advisor: William Kinney Cory Joseph Zorsch polarized electrons from MnAs con- Thesis Title: Scale-invariant Pertur- tacts into AlGaAs/GaAs Spin LEDs bations Model-independent Analysis Mathematical Physics of Alternatives to Inflation Zhenzhong Shi Bachelors Advisor: Alexander Moreno Briceno Joshua Andrew Buli Sambandamurthy Ganapathy Advisor: Laura Hanzly Doreen Wackeroth Thesis Title: Noise Spectroscopy Thesis Title: Top Quark Phenomenol- Aaron Francis Kirby Near Phase Transitions In Nanoscale ogy in CP-Violating Supersymmetric Joshua Puzio Lauzier Systems Models

11 Banner: Professor Michio Kaku with Prof. Avto Kharchilava and his son Giorgi at a reception at his recent visit at UB. Read more on page 14. Outreach Activities Volume 6

Physics Majors Get Children excited to get involved they were liter- to engage someone today. All some- Excited About Science ally hanging on the edge of their seats. one needs is a little spark of insight to By Luke Bodmer, undergraduate It was wonderful to see these young set them down a path of discovery. You student minds eager to learn. We worked our never know who you might inspire. way through six or seven demos rang- Thanks to everyone who helped. We Three sophomore physics majors, ing from superconductors to an inter- look forward to continuing with more Dante Iozzo, Nigel Michki, and I orga- active Lenz’s law race. Each demon- outreach programs in the future. nized two physics education outreach stration showed the kids that physics events in spring 2013. Our goals were doesn’t have to be a boring subject. to engage the minds of young children Behind the introductory textbooks lies a Graduate Student Outreach and to get them excited about science. whole world of exotic, fascinating mate- Program Kids want to see physics hands on. rial to be learned. By George Lindberg, PhD student They want to get that glimpse of how Our efforts at the museum ended up at- our universe works. And if we can give Another year has gone by and the tracting a bit of publicity. Soon after, we them that, maybe we can give them that graduate student outreach program were contacted by the UB Child Care one spark that will lead them down a life is still going strong. Our second event Center asking us to do a similar class of discovering, educating and advanc- took place on Halloween 2012 at UB for their five to eight year olds. With a bit ing our world. with another group of 7th and 8th grade of experience on our side we planned students, from Dr. Charles R. Drew Sci- a presentation that started right below It was this idea that drove us to create ence Magnet School. We presented the Foucault pendulum. Demonstra- an outreach program. With the help of the structure and results of our pro- tions such as Levitrons and Van de a couple very supportive professors, gram at the American Physical Society Graaff Generators captivated the kids Dr. Markelz and Dr. Cerne, and the re- (APS) March Meeting in March 2013 for about an hour. Once we had worked sources of the UB physics department and at the New York State Section of our way through the whole lesson it we had more than we needed to get kids the American Physical Society (NYS- was time for the finale. We took the kids excited about science. After meeting SAPS) spring meeting, the organiza- outside where Dr. Kinney used liquid ni- with a representative, Betsy Vazquez, tions responsible for the initial funding trogen and a plastic bottle to launch a from the Buffalo Museum of Science we of our program. decided to get involved in their Physics garbage can twenty feet in the air. Week. This is a weeklong camp for kids The Halloween event was as success- age eight to eleven, aimed at showing ful as our first event, which was in June them the exciting world of science. We 2012. We added some new attractions jumped at the opportunity and planned added to the mix. The physics group did our first class. some demonstrations of BOOOOOO Bubbles, hot water mixed with dry ice, produced a white vapor that filled soap bubbles, making a spooky mist when popped.

Because of the cold weather, the bi- Dante Iozzo, Nigel Michki and Luke Bodmer ology group was unable to bring their talking about magnetism to children from the UB Childcare Center at their UB Children and Phys- snakes again, but entertained the stu- Nigel Michki, Dante Iozzo and Luke Bodmer in ics presentation. Photo: John Cerne dents with some non-Newtonian fluid. blue UB Physics shirts from left to right, show- Did you know that blood is a non-New- ing a levitating high temperature superconductor We can only hope that these children tonian fluid? The chemistry group had to children at the Buffalo Museum of Science’s grow up to be the pioneers and leaders Physics Week. everyone jumping back with their gey- of the future. However, I think we can ser-like Elephant Toothpaste! On the day of the class we set up an safely say that without experiences like array of demos in a class with roughly this many of the contributors to physics Since we re-invited the same school as twenty five kids. The energy from the right now may have never found their the first event, we were able to find out start was incredible. Each kid was so love for science. So we encourage you that word had gotten around about how

12 Outreach Activities CONTINUED awesome the event was, and we had pleted we hope to get in some more The College Ambassadors are under- a parent come as a chaperone for the events. Dante Iozzo, honor college and graduate student volunteers who serve field trip. physics undergraduate is aiding me in as a liaison between the CAS Dean’s setting up this event. I am also looking Office and the community at large. for another graduate student to take Ambassadors are nominated by their over the program as I prepare to step departments based on academic per- away. This is an entirely student-run formance and involvement in campus event. So, I would like to thank all of the activities. Twenty-three Ambassadors past volunteers from biology, chemistry, will represent their respective depart- and physics and welcome any new stu- ments at university events throughout dents to volunteer for the next event. this academic year. Paul Glenn and I Hopefully this program can really get have been selected to represent the ready to take off and we can continue Physics and Mathematics Depart- having the great results we have seen. ments. We hope to attract students to For more information please drop me the Department and answer any ques- an email or stop by, [email protected] tions they or their parents might have. We will participate in numerous events, including student recruitment, alumni and donor events, and community outreach activities. The program is led by CAS Dean Bruce Pitman and co- ordinated by Caitlin Barone. For more information on the Ambassador Pro- gram, please see: www.cas.buffalo. edu/students/current-undergraduate/ Boo Bubbles! Photo: Chase Ellis student-ambassadors/

Reactions about our program at the APS meetings were positive, especially at the NYSSAPS meeting. They were ecstatic that the money they provided went to such a great program.

With that money, we have been able to purchase new equipment for the program. We now have some cool microscopic critters for the biology sta- Elephant tooth paste eruption! We had to wipe the tion to study under the microscope; ceiling shortly after this picture was taken. some of them will even eat each other. Photo: Chase Ellis Physics Ambassadors Sean Bearden (left) and Paul Glenn. Photo: Jessica Smith We bought new colorful paints for the chemistry group so we can keep doing College Ambassador the oil and water art. And for physics Program we have some new emission lamps for By Sean Bearden, undergraduate stu- the spectroscopy experiment, some dent and president of SPS awesome low temperature demonstrations, and a ringing bell inside of a The new College Ambassador Pro- vacuum jar! gram at UB was created by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) as part of We are gearing up for another event its centennial celebration (www.cas. to be held after Thanksgiving this year. buffalo.edu/about/college-centennial/). Now that all of the meetings are com-

13 Banner: Joshua Kaisen, PhD student, with some of the students and a parent at the graduate student outreach event. Events Volume 6

Famous Physicist Talks to suggest that all of the knowledge of Anthony J. Leggett is the Our Students mankind will literally be accessed in the Nineteenth Moti Lal Rustgi By Sean Bearden, undergraduate blink of an eye, as we will have contact Lecturer student lenses which access the Internet. By Dr. Frank Gasparini Thanks to efforts spearheaded by our If I were to test friends who are not phys- This year’s Rustgi Lecture was given Society of Physics Students (SPS) ics majors to see which living physicists by Nobel Prize winner Anthony Leggett Chapter and our own Nicole Mercer, a they could identify by photo, I am sure from the University of Illinois at Urbana special informal meeting between Dr. Dr. Stephen Hawking and Dr. Neil De- Champaign. The title of his talk was, Kaku and UB students was arranged. grasse Tyson would be the top two re- “What can we do with a Quantum Flu- Approximately 50 students, mainly from sults. But, in a close third, would be Dr. id?” Professor Leggett is recognized as the Physics Department, attended an Michio Kaku. I know of him not by his a world leader in the theory of phenom- hour-long Q&A session with Dr. Kaku work in physics, but his appearances ena occurring at low temperature. His before his Distinguished Speaker Se- on various programs aired on the Histo- research spans a wide range of phe- ries lecture. It was at this smaller event ry Channel and the Discovery Channel. nomena: superfluidity of 3He and 4He, that more physics-related matters were He speaks with such enthusiasm on all cuprate superconductivity, superfluidity discussed. Many students wanted to matters of physics that it is difficult for in atomic gases, amorphous solids at know more about Dr. Kaku’s opinions the viewer to forget him (and his hair). low temperature, topological quantum on aspects of string theory, particle I was excited to find out Dr. Kaku had computation and the foundations of physics, and a theory of everything. I been selected as the Graduate Student quantum mechanics. His work in these used the opportunity to ask how string Choice Speaker for the Distinguished areas has been recognized in a number theory can be tested, because its Speaker Series at UB. of international prizes in addition to the greatest criticism is that it lacks a way Nobel, such as the Paul Dirac medal, to be verified. He gave three sugges- the Wolf Prize and the Eugene Feen- tions: look for deviations of the inverse berg Medal for many-body theory. He square law for gravity on very small was appointed Knight Commander of length scales; search for dark matter at the Order of the British Empire in 2004. the Large Hadron Collider and, in the Professor Leggett met with a number of future, the International Linear Collider faculty during his visit to discuss their in Japan; and examine the Big Bang for research, and had an informal meet- a pre-Big-Bang era. Another student ing with undergraduate physics majors. asked when will we get a true theory of The lecture itself, which focused on the everything that will not lead to another unusual properties of superfluids, was theory. Dr. Kaku admitted that this may Professor Michio Kaku interacting with students well attended and was followed by a never happen, but we should continue at his recent visit at UB. Photo: John Cerne lively discussion period. The depart- searching. String theory has its critics, ment is grateful for the continued sup- Dr. Kaku is the co-founder of string field Dr. Kaku said, but we cannot just attack port of the Rustgi family for this lecture. theory. He also has a reputation as a a theory without providing an alterna- futurist, authoring books such as Phys- tive. His challenge to the critics: If you ics of the Future. At the Distinguished don’t like string theory, come up with Speaker event, the subject of his talk something better. was the technology of the near future. He believes computers will become so integrated into our daily lives that we will view them as we currently view electric- ity; it is everywhere around us, in the walls, under our feet, in our pockets, but we think nothing of it, virtually forgetting its existence. The computer will invade every aspect of our lives, that is, if it has Nobel Prize winner Anthony Leggett meets with not already. Dr. Kaku went so far as to our physics students. Photo: John Cerne

14 Events CONTINUED

HiggsFest partment, students and the public. The was on basic formulations of far-from- By Dr. Salvatore Rappoccio focus in CMP is on energies, sizes, and equilibrium systems, fast time-resolved time scales that are not extremely big spectroscopy, dissipation and steady- To celebrate the wondrous discovery of or extremely small, but somewhere we state nonequilibrium, and realistic na- the Higgs boson by the CMS and AT- loosely call the “middle”, it is an area of noscale device modeling. LAS collaborations at the CERN Large science that reminds us of Goldilocks. The next workshop was held Novem- Hadron Collider (LHC), several UB It can be argued that because of its ber 6-9 (2013) on “Common Chal- physicists presented a “plain English” “Goldilocks nature”, CMP has many lenges in Finite Fermion Systems” (see summary of the results to a wide audi- links to other branches of physics and http://www.physics.buffalo.edu/Clus- ence, from small children to high-school more generally other areas of science ter_Workshop). It brought both theo- students, from other scientists to poets and engineering. These collaborations rists and experimentalists from nuclear to interested members of the commu- with fields like electrical engineering, physics and metal cluster physics to- nity. This was dubbed the “HiggsFest!” computer science, material science, medical science, and chemistry have gether. 22 invited speakers from mostly Here, the audience learned about this led to applications that have had an ex- the US and Europe discussed theoreti- exciting discovery from a theoretical tremely large influence on our everyday cal, computational, and experimental standpoint, and looked at the actual life. The transistor, solar battery, MRI, aspects of the subject matter. data collected by the CMS experiment and other solid-state devices such as Future workshops are planned on “Ori- in hands-on demonstrations. There lasers, are a few of the many applica- gins” in Dec. 2013, and “Quantum Co- were also demonstration stations of tions associated with this field. So it herent Nanostructures” and “Physics of how particles are detected by these can be said that physics is the central Adsorption” in 2014. Proposals for other colossal devices, and even crafts for science, and CMP, which is the larg- workshops are invited. the younger (and sometimes even the est branch of physics, is in the center older!) audience members. of physics.

Physics at the Falls By Drs. Jong Han and Eckhard Events Calendar Krotscheck Sept 20 Inaugural Ta-You The Workshop series “Physics at the Wu Lecture Falls”, supported by the College of Arts and Sciences of UB, has been bringing Oct 26 Open House exciting physics to the UB campus and raising our department’s visibility as Nov 6-9 Physics at the one of the leading institutions in physics Falls: “Common HiggsFest draws a big crowd! research. Challenges in Finite Fermion Inaugural Ta-You Wu Lecture In its latest installment, the workshop Systems” “Recent Progress in Nonequilibrium By Dr. Francis Gasparini Dec 7 Holiday Party Quantum Many-Body Theory”, held at On September 30, 2013, Prof. Marvin Davis Hall (May 16-18, 2013), had 20 in- Dec 16 Physics at the Falls: L.Cohen presented the inaugural lec- vited lectures from eminent researchers “Origins” ture of the newly established Ta-You in the upcoming field of nonequilibrium Annual Rustgi Wu Lectureship fund. This lectureship quantum statistics. (see http://www. April 25 Lecture: SLAC was established by Prof. Y. C. Lee, a physics.buffalo.edu/noneq_workshop Prof. Emeritus long-time colleague and close friend of for details) The nonequilibrium quan- Helen Quinn Dr. Wu, and has received contributions tum many-body theory, as one of the leading research areas, investigates from over 70 donors. Prof. Cohen’s May 16 Undergraduate electron transport under strong exter- lecture on Condensed Matter Physics Commencement (CMP): The Goldilocks Science was nal field with largely unexplored novel well attended by members of the de- electron correlation effects. The focus

15 Banner: The Science & Art Cabaret is already celebrating its 5th season. Created by Prof. Will Kinney it offers a unique opportunity for artists and scientists to interact with the audience in an informal setting. Visit Prof. Kinney’s website at www.buffalo.edu/~whkinney/Cabaret for information about upcoming Science & Art Cabarets. Read more in www.tinyurl.com/m2lhcce. The University at Buffalo Department of Physics Newsletter

Professor Michio Kaku with UB students after an informal discussion on physics and the future. Photo: John Cerne

Department of Physics 239 Fronzcak Hall Buffalo, NY 14260 Tel: (716) 645 - 2017 Email: [email protected]