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03 | Reinhard Genzel 11 | Equity & Inclusion 12 | The Physics of 14 | Berkeley Physics Awarded Nobel Prize at Berkeley Physics Quantum Materials Responds to COVID-19 FALL 2020 Diving into the Sun Astrophysicists from Berkeley’s Space Sciences Lab search for the origins of the solar wind CONTENTS CHAIR’SLETTER ON THE COVER: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS The Parker Solar Probe 2 Recent breakthroughs in approaches the sun’s corona, carrying instruments designed faculty-led investigations by Berkeley astrophysicist Stuart Bale’s team at Space Sciences Laboratory (see page 4). Cover The last eight months have transformed the world, and image courtesy Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Berkeley Physics has not been exempt. Each and every one of us played a part in lifting up our community, supporting INSIDE FRONT COVER: Zoom meetings in Berkeley each other as we went into quarantine, reimagining teach- Physics have ranged from teaching ing practices to educate our students, and transforming sessions and research group meetings to a congratulatory research procedures so we could safely continue to push gathering in honor of 2020 Nobel 4 the boundaries of knowledge. And we will continue to rely laureate Reinhard Genzel. DIVING INTO THE SUN on one another as we face the challenges ahead(see p 14). Astrophysicists from Berkeley’s BACK COVER: Berkeley Physics is answering the call for more diversity Professor Robert Birgeneau Space Sciences Lab search for the within our community, by improving our engagement with teaches via Zoom in 1 LeConte Hall. origins of the solar wind underrepresented groups at all academic levels and by cre- ating a welcoming, dynamic environment where everybody is empowered to contribute to the pursuit of knowledge. Science thrives on the diversity of ideas, and together we strive to help every member of our community bring their CHAIR James Analytis EQUITY AND INCLUSION best ideas to life (see p 11). Berkeley Physics addresses Through our collective efforts, Berkeley Physics remains MANAGING EDITOR & DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT key issues in today’s at the global forefront of science. Rankings of physics Rachel Schafer social climate programs around the world place us in the top three in the CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 11 US, ahead of some of the nation’s best private universities. & SCIENCE WRITER This has helped us expand our international partnerships, Devi Mathieu offering our students a world-class education. DESIGN For the 2020-2021 academic year we are serving 274 Sarah Wittmer graduate students and more than 320 physics majors, con- CONTRIBUTORS necting them to a network of the greatest minds in physics. James Analytis, Berkeley Lab, We welcome our new Visiting Miller Professor, Immanuel Roia Ferrazares, Katherine Gong, Wick Haxton, Robert Sanders, Bloch from Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich. Jonathan Wurtele THE PHYSICS OF More than 20 of our faculty were recently honored with Send comments, alumni updates, QUANTUM MATERIALS international awards, including the 2020 Nobel Prize in and change of address or email to: Berkeley theorists explore Physics to Reinhard Genzel, for his pioneering work in the [email protected] the quantum properties of observation of black holes (see p 3). In these footsteps fol- Published annually by the novel materials lows Geoff Penington, the youngest addition to our ranks, Department of Physics with his recent award of the 2021 New Horizons Physics University of California, Berkeley 12 Prize for his calculations of the quantum information 366 LeConte Hall #7300 Berkeley, CA 94720-7300 contained in a black hole and its radiation. Thus continues Phone: 510-642-3355 our long tradition of attracting the most promising young © 2020 Regents of 3 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS physicists from across the globe to mentor our students and the University of California 10 2019-2020 GIVING build cutting-edge research programs. 14 DEPARTMENT NEWS As Chair, I am excited to do my part in bringing us to- gether as a community and optimistic that we will answer 20 ALUMNI UPDATES the challenges and make the most of the opportunities 21 BERKELEY PHYSICS AT A GLANCE that lie ahead. James Analytis, Chair Fall 2020 1 Searching for Silicon’s Research Successor in the Race Reinhard Genzel Wins Against Moore’s Law Nobel Prize Reinhard Genzel, professor emeritus of physics and Highlights astronomy at UC Berkeley and director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, will share half the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics with UCLA High-speed microscope captures professor Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermas- sive compact object at the center of our galaxy.” fleeting brain signals The other half of the prize goes to United Kingdom theoretical physicist Roger Penrose “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.” In 1969, Donald Lynden-Bell and Martin Rees suggest- ed that the Milky Way galaxy might contain a supermas- sive black hole at its center, but evidence was lacking be- CREDIT: RYO MORI/BERKELEY RYO LAB CREDIT: cause the galactic core is obscured by interstellar dust. At the time, Genzel was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley BALK/DPA VIA AP MATTHIAS CREDIT: Left: Rapid imaging – a Berkeley scientists have developed a technique that thousand times per second – working with the late Nobel laureate Charles Townes. could lead to new electronic materials that surpass the Above: UC Berkeley’s Reinhard the concentration of mass in the galactic center. Genzel’s shows spontaneous electrical Genzel credits Townes for initiating the studies that Genzel, an emeritus physics activity in neurons inside the limitations imposed by Moore’s Law, which predicted team cemented their assertions in 2002. led to the Nobel-winning discovery. “Charlie Townes’ professor, won the Nobel Prize brain of an alert mouse. in 1975 that the number of transistors packed into a On October 6, the day of the award announcement, dream was to do this experiment we have done, already in Physics for proving that a tiny silicon-based computer chip would double every black hole lurks at the heart of Berkeley Physics hosted a Zoom gathering to enable col- Above right: Diagram of in the 1970s,” Genzel said. “And he, in fact, did these two years. the Milky Way galaxy. leagues and friends in Berkeley to congratulate Genzel, Van Hove singularity (VHS) fantastic, pioneering experiments. But (when he saw) the shown approximately 1 The technique was developed by a research team who was in Munich. The conversation was facilitated by CREDIT: NA JI CREDIT: results, he knew he would never get to the galactic center, Below, top: Observations by nanometer below the surface led by Alessandra Lanzara, Berkeley’s Charles Kittel Genzel’s team of the stars Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter, professor of physics of an oxide heterostructure which was a real disappointment to him.” Electrical and chemical signals flash through our brains Professor in Physics, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab, orbiting the black hole at at Berkeley, director of the Berkeley Institute for Data made of atomically thin layers It was up to Genzel to create a team to improve detec- the center of the Milky Way constantly as we move through the world, but it would of strontium titanate and and director of the Center for Sustainable Materials and Science, and leader of the Supernova Cosmology Proj- tors one hundred thousandfold to be able to track stars galaxy confirm predictions take a high-speed camera and a window into the brain samarium titanate. Purple Innovation. Her team’s findings suggest the first system ect. Speaking to Genzel of his relationship with Townes, of Einstein’s general theory dots represent samarium; with such precision that they could essentially measure to capture their fleeting paths. Berkeley investigators that could serve as a platform for investigating the con- of relativity: that the stars’ Perlmutter said, “The heritage that you have, of follow- orange represents strontium; have now built such a camera: a microscope that can trol of novel electronic phases at the interfaces between orbits will precess, or follow a light blue represents titanium; ing from one Nobel laureate to another at Berkeley, is rosette pattern instead of an image the brain of an alert mouse 1,000 times a second, and small red dots represent atomically thin, two-dimensional (2D) layers. a great story.” ellipse. This artist’s impression oxygen. Lanzara’s group directly measured the electronic recording for the first time the passage of millisecond exaggerates the precession Both Genzel and Ghez use adaptive optics to sharpen electrical pulses through neurons. structure of electrons confined between layers of two of a star’s orbit for ease of telescope images of the galactic center. The two teams “This is really exciting, because we are now able to insulating materials — a band insulator, strontium illustration. ran neck and neck for decades, each spurring the other do something that people really weren’t able to do be- titanate, in which the insulating state is driven by elec- to greater precision and, eventually, to certainty that the Below, bottom: 2020 Nobel fore,” said lead researcher Na Ji, a UC Berkeley associate tron-ion interactions, and a Mott insulator, samarium laureate Reinhard Genzel, heavy object at the galactic center could be nothing other professor of physics and of molecular and cell biology. titanate, with an insulating state driven by strong elec- right, posing in 2003 with his than a supermassive black hole, some 4 million times The new imaging technique combines two-photon tron-electron interactions. The team used a technique mentor, Charles Townes, who more massive than our sun. fluorescence microscopy and all-optical laser scanning called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy won a Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the laser.