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. “I very much appreciated the competition,” Genzel in a state-of-the-art microscope that can image a two- (ARPES) at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source. Townes, who passed away in said. “It was initially very much of an advantage.” Ghez’s Very little is known about how to control the elec- 2015, and Genzel collaborated dimensional slice through the neocortex of the mouse OF ESO/L. COURTESY CALCADA CREDIT: team also welcomed the competition, said Jessica Lu, brain up to 3,000 times per second. That’s fast enough tronic properties of these 2D structures, because few on some of the first a UC Berkeley associate professor of astronomy who has observations of the galactic to trace electrical signals flowing through brain circuits. techniques can probe below the interface. By probing center, later shown by Genzel been part of Ghez’s team since her days as a UCLA grad- With this technique, neuroscientists like Ji can now at a depth of approximately 1 nanometer inside the and Nobel co-winner Andrea uate student in 2003.“That spirit of competition really clock electrical signals as they propagate through the sample, the Berkeley team discovered two unique Ghez to host a supermassive led us all to be better.” brain and ultimately look for transmission problems properties physicists have long considered important black hole. “Genzel and Ghez have, for years, provided the associated with disease. features for tuning superconductivity and other exotic best – and ever-mounting – evidence for the existence The typical method for recording electrical firing states in electronic materials – emergence of a saddle of a supermassive black hole,” said Chung-Pei Ma, in the brain, via electrodes embedded in the tissue, point in the density of states (known as a Van Hove who studies black holes in distant galaxies. Ma is Judy detects only blips from a few neurons as the millisec- singularity) and an electronic topological transition in Chandler Webb Professor in the Physical Sciences and ond voltage changes pass by. The new technique can momentum space. UC Berkeley professor of astronomy and physics. “This is pinpoint the actual firing neuron and follow the path a beautiful example of what perseverance, curiosity, and

of the signal, millisecond by millisecond. UC BERKELEY CREDIT: technology can come together to achieve.”

2 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 3 Parker Solar Probe is a heroic feat of thermal engineering capable of operating in the turbulent inferno of the solar corona, where plasma temperatures can top a million degrees Fahrenheit. The spacecraft is set to make a series of 24 ever-deeper into forays into the corona by June of 2025. It will also complete Diving seven separate flybys of Venus to periodically tighten its orbit and pull it progressively closer to the solar surface. Named for astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who predicted and explained the existence of the the solar wind in 1958, the probe Sun is the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person. Astrophysicists from Berkeley’s Space Sciences Lab search for the origins of the solar wind

NASA’S PARKER SOLAR PROBE, launched in 2018, is on a historic journey. It’s flying closer to the surface of the Sun than any spacecraft before it, and along the way will become the fastest-moving object ever crafted by humans. Over its seven-year mission the probe will make two dozen separate forays into the Sun’s corona – the roiling maelstrom of superhot ionized gas that makes up our star’s outer atmosphere and streams outward as the solar wind. “The streamers of white light you see during an eclipse or with a coronagraph is a projection into the sky of the density of the gas in the corona,” says Berkeley physics professor Stuart D. Bale, one of four principal investigators for Parker Solar Probe. “We’re dipping into these streamers with the spacecraft, flying through them, measuring their struc- ture as it evolves over time and trying to relate that data to the dynamics of the magnetic fields deeper in the corona.” The overall quest is to identify mechanisms responsible for heating the corona to temperatures hundreds of times hotter than the photo- sphere below it, and to track the energies that generate the solar wind and drive it out beyond the farthest reaches of the solar system. “We know that something carries mechanical energy out of the photo- sphere into the corona and dumps it as heat,” Bale explains. “That corona then escapes as a wind. The details of how that happens are what we’re after. We want to know how the solar wind is created and from what regions of the Sun it emanates. We want to know how it’s heated, how it continues to be heated as it flows out from the Sun, how it evolves as it propagates toward Earth and influences the environment of Earth.” “There’s a lot of fundamental plasma astrophysics to learn here,” he adds, “including how magnetic fields are generated in plasmas, how they control plasmas near stars and in other regions of space, and how me- chanical energy from motion can heat the plasma without collisions.” Findings from the mission will not only broaden understanding of the solar wind and plasma physics. They will also improve the forecasting of ‘space weather’ – electromagnetic disturbances that can damage elec- tronics and disrupt communications on Earth, interfere with GPS, and endanger astronauts.

4 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 5 V1-V4 electric antennas

that structure propagates out and reaches Earth, at 1 hole and diverging outward to eventually fill the he- AU, more than 90 million miles away,” Bale explains, liosphere,” Bale reports. Data from those observations “it’s interacted so much with itself that it’s evolved into point to coronal holes near the Sun’s equator as likely a kind of stable turbulence that flows like a magnetized sources of ‘slow’ solar winds. fluid. You’ve lost the diagnostic details. It’s like trying ‘Fast’ solar winds travel at speeds from several to understand the source of a waterfall by measuring hundred to 1000 km/sec. They tend to be steady, the water halfway down. It’s too turbulent and unstruc- smooth, and unstructured, at least during solar tured to reveal details about its origin.” minimum, when sunspot activity is low. By contrast, “slow winds are patchy, more structured, less steady, MAGi, MAGo SWITCHBACKS AND SPACE DUST and travel half that speed,” Bale explains. “This fast Physics graduate student Sam Badman used mea- wind/slow wind dichotomy is part of the question of SCM surements from the Parker Probe’s first solar encounter the origins of the solar wind. We think the fast wind to map magnetic field lines from the spacecraft back emerges mostly from over the poles, with magnetic towards the Sun, and in this case found the solar wind field lines that are open to the heliosphere. The wind to be emerging from a small coronal hole near the Sun’s flows out along stream lines, pulling the magnetic V1-V4 electric antennas V5 electric antenna equator. Bale and others noticed a surprise superim- field out with it. The slow wind, with all its structure, posed along those field lines: “switchbacks,” magnetic is not yet well understood.” The FIELDS hardware includes fields that make sudden 180-degree reversals in polarity Solar probe observations also show solar winds two pairs of voltage-sensor then flip back again in hours or seconds. Bale notes that being dragged around the Sun as it rotates. “The classi- antennas that lie in the plane they are probably associated with plasma jets or large cal, simple idea is that as the wind forms, it blows out of the Parker Solar Probe’s VENUS FLYBYS AND SOLAR ENCOUNTERS Bale and his team, including nonlinear waves, and likely to be central to the solar radially from the surface of the Sun. But even now at the protective heat shield and sit in FIELDS and As the Parker probe’s mission progresses, the spacecraft physics graduate students wind heating problem. altitudes we’ve reached with the spacecraft, we see the full sunlight during the craft’s will bring its instruments deeper and deeper into the shown here, receive and Badman extended the magnetic field map all the wind being dragged along with the rotation of the Sun. solar encounters. Made from SWEAP analyze new data from Parker C-103 niobium, a reactor grade corona, a feat that requires periodic adjustments to the Solar Probe via NASA’s Deep way out to the region near Earth, matching it up with So we’re seeing angular momentum transport in action, refractory metal, they can probe’s orbital trajectory. It will make a series of seven Space Network. Researchers solar wind measurements made with near-Earth obser- and it may be telling us something about the global withstand temperatures beyond Berkeley’s Space Sciences Lab (SSL) has been Venus flybys to gradually shrink its orbit. and engineers at SSL maintain vations. “The large-scale magnetic field measured at the circulation patterns in the corona,” Bale observes. 1400C. A mere two meters away, involved with the Parker Solar Probe since the fully functioning versions “Think of the Sun as a gravitational well,” Bale says, Parker probe maps pretty well out to 1AU,”Bale observes. the FIELDS magnetometers mission’s inception in 2010 and is responsible “like a funnel. If a ball is rolling around inside a funnel, of the FIELDS and SWEAP “You could imagine taking the data from Parker probe BOUNDARY BETWEEN CORONA AND WIND are positioned on a boom instruments and use them to for much of its instrumentation. Physics if there’s no friction it’ll just keep going around, never and instead of projecting it outward toward Earth, see During each of its first four solar encounters, the that extends behind the heat verify alterations in software, shield, aimed away from the professor Stuart D. Bale, who directed SSL falling toward the center. To fall deeper into the gravi- how it maps back down toward the surface of the Sun. Parker probe’s instruments were switched on and configuration, and operational Sun. Continuously exposed to from 2010-2018, currently leads a research team tational well of the Sun, we need to slow the spacecraft commands before they’re sent That could correspond to a very simple model of how taking data for 11 or 12 days surrounding perihelion the cold darkness of space, that operates FIELDS, one of the four suites of substantially. Each time we fly close to Venus, its gravity to the spacecraft. Clockwise magnetic fields escape from the Sun’s gravity.” (the moment of its closest approach to the Sun). they are heated to maintain an instruments on board the probe. He is also a from top left: Sam Badman, slows us down a little bit more, and we can then drop “We were also surprised by the ferocity of the dust Those observations made it clear that important solar operational temperature of -70C. team member on a second instrument, SWEAP. in closer to the Sun. When the probe nears Venus, the Brent Page, Stuart Bale, Claire environment in the heliosphere,” Bale reports, “and Gasque. FIELDS instrument is turned on and making measure- how much dust science we’re able to do with our in- FIELDS (Fields Experiment) measures electric ments.” The third Venus flyby took place in July, at less struments.” Physics graduate student Brent Page and magnetic fields in the solar wind, radio than 600 miles from the surface of Venus. emissions related to solar flares and shock The fourth is set for February 2021. events, and plasma waves, which reveal details Parker Solar Probe’s first three solar We want to know how the solar wind is created about instabilities and relative velocities of encounters took place in 2018 and 2019 and motion in the plasma. ventured down to 35.7 solar radii, about and from what regions of the Sun it emanates. 15.5 million miles above the Sun’s surface. SWEAP (Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and FIELDS recorded a large-scale magnetic Protons) counts and measures the properties of structure in the corona, as well as impulsive magnetic Opposite: UC Berkeley’s Stuart analyzed millisecond pulses in voltage that occur when the most abundant particles in the solar wind – Bale (left) and Keith Goetz of events originating at much deeper altitudes that are fast-moving dust particles collide with the spacecraft. electrons, protons, and heavy ions. likely contributors to coronal heating. the University of Minnesota Those data are beginning to give a picture of the cloud “With every solar encounter we see exciting new in a clean room conducting of dust that surrounds the Sun and the corona. final checks as they make the Both FIELDS and SWEAP were largely designed, details,” Bale reports. “We can see very small electric FIELDS instruments ready integrated, tested, and calibrated at SSL, and and magnetic structures arising in the solar wind, and for flight aboard the Parker SLOW WIND, FAST WIND are currently being operated from SSL’s Science we’re beginning to understand what kinds of magnetic Solar Probe. The Probe During its very first solar encounter in late 2018, the Operations Center. Bale is principal investigator regions on the solar surface are responsible for the launched in August 2018. spacecraft’s orbital speed matched and overtook the for FIELDS. Justin Kasper of University of origin of the solar wind. We’re also beginning to relate speed of the Sun’s rotation. As a result, most of its Michigan is principal investigator for SWEAP. the physics of sunspots, as measured from Earth, to time at perihelion was spent hovering in a magnetic magnetic fields in the interplanetary medium as mea- field that mapped down to a very small coronal hole sured by the Parker probe.” close to the photosphere. Coronal holes are cooler, less This level of detail simply can’t be observed from dense regions associated with so-called ‘open magnetic the vicinity of Earth, the vantage point for much of the fields’ where the solar wind is able to escape the Sun. previous research on the solar wind. “By the time all “We see the wind emerging from this small coronal CREDIT: CHRIS SCHOLZ, SSL CREDIT:

6 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 7 To The MOON

FIELDS and SWEAP are keeping Bale’s team at SSL extremely busy, yet they are manag- ing to carve out some time for two other projects. “We’re developing an instrument called LuSEE, an acronym for Lunar Sur- face Electromagnetics Experiment,” Bale explains. “It’s a set of experiments based on the Parker Probe FIELDS instrumentation

CREDIT: ARIEL DAVIS (OPPOSITE) CREDIT: NASA (OPPOSITE) CREDIT: ARIEL DAVIS CREDIT: to be installed on a lunar lander. It’s part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services wind phenomena occur farther away from the Sun than This illustration shows an Sun, the orbits get smaller and the encounters happen program. We’ve learned recently that NASA had been expected. So, beginning with the fifth solar extrapolation of the solar more quickly. The first few solar orbits lasted about six plans to manifest LuSEE on a mission to the encounter, the data collection timeframe was extend- magnetic field during Parker months, and now they’re down to around four months. farside South pole of the Moon.” Solar Probe’s first dive into ed from less than two weeks to almost two months, “When we get to the lowest altitude orbits,” Bale says, the corona. The light green enabling mission scientists to follow more of the solar ‘open’ field lines are seen to “they’ll be only 88 days long.” That means the work wind’s evolution as it streams outward. converge on a coronal hole, done by operational teams will get increasingly intense Perihelion for the fourth and fifth encounters took which is the source of the solar as the mission goes on. place in January and June and sent the probe 22% clos- wind making its way out to the er in to the sun than the first three. probe. Switchbacks, or plasma CONCLUSIONS SO FAR The final solar encounter, scheduled for June 2025, jets observed by the probe, Bale summarizes findings from solar encounters made are shown as kinks in the open will bring the probe to its closest approach, about four field lines. thus far by characterizing the solar wind as it emerges million miles from the center of the Sun. It will fly its from the corona as “a smooth radial flow with highly unstable plasma distributions, punctuated by plasma jets dragging along intense, highly kinked magnetic fields.” The solar wind as it Each time we fly close to Venus, its gravity arrives at Earth is “very different,” he notes, slows us down a little bit more, and we can “mixed, homogeneous, and relatively stable.” “Many of the plasma physics process- then drop in closer to the Sun. es we see with the Parker probe are well known,” he adds. “The question is what are their roles in heating of the corona and the fastest then, a record-breaking 200km/sec. “At that Opposite: Artist’s conception evolution of the gas as it travels from Sun to Earth and altitude we’ll be well within the corona,” Bale notes. of the LuSEE instrument now beyond. We’re really just getting started.” “We’ll be in the magnetosphere of the Sun rather being developed as part of The entire mission is slated to come to a close than the solar wind.” He’s referring to the anticipated NASA’s collaboration with in 2027. “However,” Bale says,”if the probe is still commerical partners to transition point between the corona itself and the functioning and we’re still getting good science from launch payloads - and, by 2024, solar wind it generates. “That’s where we expect the humans - to the moon. it, there could be an extension. This is a $1.5 billion properties we’re measuring to transition from a solar project, and if NASA can run it for an extra $10 million wind to a real corona.” a year, they might try to do that. You never know what As the spacecraft dips closer and closer to the will happen. That’s a long time from now.”

8 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 9 2020 DEPARTMENTAL CLIMATE SURVEY In April, faculty, staff, students, postdocs, and lecturers 2019-2020 received a questionnaire asking for their input on a variety of equity and inclusion issues within the depart- ment. A key finding pinpointed the need for stronger Giving inclusion of undergraduate students and postdocs. Equity & Acknowledgement of accomplishments, clarity of expectations for success, and support for professional development rated low for both groups. Work is 640 underway to address these issues. Inclusion Total Number Berkeley Physics addresses key of Donors issues in today’s social climate this year A STRONG COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY is central to 56% the mission of Berkeley’s Department of Physics and critically important to the health of the department. A diverse physics community fulfills UC Berkeley’s pledge to serve all segments of 39% California’s citizenry. Here is a brief summary of activities along Our Alumni 163 these lines that are presently underway in the department. New donors for EQUITY AND INCLUSION SUPPORT FUND Left: Physics graduate Donors 2019-2020 students Wren Suess and Friends RPR PHOTO: This new fund promotes projects and initiatives that broaden support for the recruitment and retention Micah Bush, facilitators for a peer-to-peer workshop on Are: 4% RESPECT IS PART OF RESEARCH (RPR) of underrepresented groups in the field of physics. sexual violence and sexual In 2016, workshops addressing sexual harassment harassment (SVSH) held Staff, Faculty, 1% and sexual violence were developed with the aim of SUPPORTING TRANSFER STUDENTS in August 2019. Targeted & Students constructing a respectful campus community. Initially Berkeley Physics seeks to increase the admission of for incoming graduate designed to educate Berkeley Physics graduate students women and underrepresented groups by encouraging students, the methodology Corporations, about expectations for their behavior, the workshops students who are transferring out of community col- for these groundbreaking have since been adapted for a variety of groups, from leges to come to our department. With the new Physics workshops was developed Organizations by Suess, Bush, and postdocs, faculty, and staff, to other departments on Frontier Center (see p 16), we have joined a network of & Foundations student colleagues and campus and other institutions nationwide. universities that provides mentorship and an academic has become a model for year stipend for transfer students. similar programs across THE COMPASS PROJECT the Berkeley campus and COMPASS is a self-formed group of graduate and RESOURCE SHARING WITH COMMUNITY COLLEGES on college and university of Physics Alumni undergraduate students in the physical sciences seeks The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to move online with campuses nationwide. to improve undergraduate physics education through essentially no notice. That experience made us more The sessions grew out 15% of the in-person training are Donors mentoring. Compass is responding to a resurgence of cognizant of the impact personal circumstances have program known as Respect interest in students wishing to support populations on educational opportunity, such as access at home to is Part of Research, initially typically underrepresented in the physical sciences. fast internet or a quiet place to work. We also began established in 2016. sharing online resources with community college EXPANDING RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES FOR faculty, including videos, simulations and, hopefully UNDERGRADUATES soon, development of individual lab kits. Physics A student-led research fair held in September provided a chance for students to talk directly with research CAMPARE AND CAL-BRIDGE Alumni & faculty and postdocs. Students also had the opportunity Enhanced collaborations with the CAMPARE and to explore work-study arrangements and other means CAL-BRIDGE organizations encourage students from Donors of receiving compensation for research work. Access to the California State University system to apply for paid research opportunities encourages a broader repre- graduate study in physics at Berkeley. Prospective Physics alumni population 6890 sentation of students to choose physics as their major. students are invited to participate in summer mentor- ship and research opportunities that familiarize them SHARED GOVERNANCE with the Berkeley campus. Physics alumni who are donors For the 2020-2021 academic year, renewed attention is 1035 being given to improving transparency and ensuring that all members of our community – students, faculty, and staff – are recognized as valued contributors.

10 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 11 For example, at a temperature of about 1000K iron developed a statistical description of this growing transitions from a state with no magnetism to the ferro- complexity, allowing to us to backtrack how mea- The Physics of magnetic state in which the atomic moments become surable observables, such as the local density of the aligned. Such alignment breaks the rotation symmetry fluid, behave over time.” of the atomic moments. “Our understanding of the “In doing so”, he continues, “we established an transitions between phases with different symmetries interesting connection between the observable dynam- uantum Materials has led to many revolutions in physics,” Lee notes. ic response of a system and a more elusive property Q the motion, energy, and momentum exchanges that take He is exploring a type of quantum phase transition called quantum chaos, measured by the exponential place in quantum systems – and quantum information. that does not involve symmetry breaking. It is known to growth in complexity set off by a small perturbation. Berkeley theorists explore occur between ‘symmetry protected topological states’ This relationship makes possible a tighter bound on the quantum properties HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS (SPTs). SPTs, with topological insulators as an example, how fast quantum chaos can develop.” Superconductivity holds tremendous promise for many are new states of matter discovered in the last 15 years. of novel materials uses, from energy transmission and transportation to Lee has developed a ‘holographic theory’ that medicine and basic research. The main barrier to appli- describes phase transitions between SPT phases. “The cation is the requirement for expensive cryogenics to essential idea,” he says, “is that the critical point of such maintain extremely low temperatures. a transition is protected by an emergent symmetry and A superconductor has a critical temperature (Tc) at can be realized on the boundary of an SPT living one which it transitions to a state of zero electrical resistance. dimension higher.” The Tc of superconductors in common use today is “Unlike symmetry breaking phase transitions, the COURTESY: DUNG-HAI LEE around 30K. Current research is aimed at finding usable theory of this new type of topological phase transitions quantum materials with a Tc significantly higher than is in its infancy,” Lee continues. “I envision this research 77K, the boiling point of nitrogen, and hopefully even going on for many years.” room temperature. “If we can find superconductivity at “Quantum chaos is a mechanism that hides Above: Copper oxide and temperatures where cooling is unnecessary or much QUANTUM DYNAMICS quantum correlations between particles by scrambling iron-based superconductors less expensive, it will change our daily life forever.” AND QUANTUM INFORMATION them into complex, unobservable degrees of freedom,” have similar two-dimensional structural motifs. This Lee notes. Professor Ehud Altman uses quantum information Altman adds, “thus facilitating the transition of a diagram shows an iron- The two families of materials known, at least so theory to try and understand the highly complex dynam- quantum system to behavior that appears classical for selenide structure. Dung-Hai far, to have Tc values that approach or exceed 77K at ics of quantum systems. “Most experiments in quantum practical purposes. We stumbled upon a fundamental Lee and collaborators ambient pressure are based on copper oxides (CuO2) dynamics look at how the effects of a perturbation point, making a connection between the response of are exploring how this and iron selenides (FeSe). Lee’s research group has propagate in a system,” he explains. “The process can be materials, which are easily measured, and showing they commonality could lead to Physics professor Joel Moore developed a theory that helps explain the high Tc of relatively simple if the system consists of quasiparticles, can bound something intricate, not easily measured, new insights in the search (top left) served as founding FeSe-based superconductors. The theory explains because you can calculate how they evolve.” Quasipar- and related to the flow and complexity of quantum for high-temperature principal investigator (PI) superconductors. for the Berkeley Gordon and QUANTUM MATERIALS is a broad term, coined in results from photoemission experiments showing that ticles are among the emergent phenomena that arise information. This has broad implications for develop- Betty Moore Foundation recent years to describe matter in which strong electron a thin atomic layer of FeSe grown on top of a strontium from interactions among electrons, atomic nuclei, or ment of quantum computers.” Theory Center for Condensed interactions and quantum-mechanical effects give rise titanate substrate can achieve a Tc as high as 75K. The other particles in a complex quantum system. Matter Physics for its first five to unexpected properties. New kinds of particles can same experiments also revealed the unusual fact that “But strongly correlated quantum systems don’t STRENGTH IN COLLABORATION years. Professor Dung-Hai Lee form. Particles can join in assemblages that behave in energy bands within the material are replicated at necessarily have obvious quasiparticles,” Altman con- Berkeley Physics is home to one of eight theory centers (bottom left) took over as PI ways that are distinct from the expected properties of regular 100meV intervals. tinues. “A simple excitation can become more and more nationwide established to explore quantum materials. in 2019, when the center was any constituent particle. In high-temperature supercon- “This is the first time replica bands have been ob- renewed for another five years, complicated, creating a particle that becomes two, then The Berkeley Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with Ehud Altman (top right) ductors, for example, electrons that ordinarily would served in a solid state material,” Lee notes. “It requires four, then more entities that are entangled with each Theory Center for Condensed Matter Physics is a as co-PI. Postdoc Zala Lenarčič repel each other form tightly bound pairs that flow strong coupling between electrons in the iron sele- other. To predict any properties that emerge, such as component of the Moore Foundation’s Emergent (bottom right), a member of without electrical resistance. nide and vibrations in strontium titanate. Our theory conductivity or magnetism, we need to understand the Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) initiative. Altman’s research group, studies Other examples of quantum materials include describes how this coupling boosts Tc; the stronger the response that gave rise to them. We want to understand As Dung-Hai Lee explains, “The vision of the nonequilibrium dynamics in graphene, with its many unique physical and electronic coupling, the higher the Tc.” the flow of quantum information through the system.” Berkeley Center is to enable us to synergize expertise many-body systems. properties, and topological insulators, a novel phase CuO2 and FeSe based compounds are similar in that “As the system evolves,” he adds, “the information from very different areas of study and take a concerted of matter that conducts electricity along surfaces but both are made of two-dimensional structural motifs. in these particles becomes nonlocal.” Nonlocality in approach to condensed matter physics. This approach behaves as an insulator in the interior. “The excitement,” Lee continues, “is that, due to this quantum mechanics refers to the phenomenon of two is consistent with recent trends in many areas of The properties and potential uses of quantum ma- commonality, we believe that what we have identified or more particles, no matter how widely separated, physics, which seek to combine many disciplines in terials are so important that they have become a major in iron-based compounds may also have something to behaving as though they are a single entity. attacking challenging problems.” focus of research among many Berkeley Physics faculty do with high temperature superconductivity in copper Last year, Altman and colleagues presented a method Joel Moore, Chern-Simons Professor of Physics members. Physics professors Dung-Hai Lee and oxides.” Lee is working with theorists and experimen- for tracking the flow of quantum information as it at Berkeley, adds, “One of our strengths here at Berke- Ehud Altman are especially active in this area. Both talists to look for analogous lattice vibrations in CuO2 evolves from local, observable properties to nonlocal, ley is that we have such close ties between theorists are theoretical physicists currently serving leadership materials, and exploring substrates with even stronger entangled information. “The growth of a perturbation, and experimentalists. Those ties, along with the roles in Berkeley’s Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation coupling to CuO2 or FeSe films. such as a change in density, starts small and simple,” combination of private and public support for our Theory Center for Condensed Matter Physics. Altman says. “But as the system evolves, it becomes research, make Berkeley a unique place to attack deep, Lee is working to improve our understanding of SYMMETRY-PROTECTED TOPOLOGICAL PHASES increasingly complicated as the particles involved in the long-standing challenges in quantum materials. The high-temperature superconductivity and topological For more than a century, theorists have described phase original perturbation get entangled with other particles Berkeley group has also shown the ability to lead new phase transitions. Altman studies quantum dynamics – transitions between states with different symmetries. and those in turn entangle with more particles. We research directions in this rapidly evolving field.”

12 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 13 DEPARTMENTNEWS at home. “We worked closely with the Left: Postdoc Junsong Lin maintains SILVER LININGS instructors to help them modify labs social distancing in the lab. Below Some of the department’s activities and test experiments to make sure they right: Student Services team mem- bers Kathleen Cooney (top center) have reaped unexpected benefits from wouldn’t become a source of frustration and Joelle Miles (bottom left) meet going online. For example, faculty for students.” with members of the Society of meetings have seen much stronger at- Jazaeri is developing remote lab Physics Students via Zoom. tendance. “It might make sense to keep experimentation, in which students some of our meetings on Zoom if that Resilience control a live experiment from home CalDay became CalWeek and makes it easier for faculty to attend,” Berkeley Physics Responds to COVID-19 through the internet. accommodated a number of events said Haxton. for prospective freshmen and transfer Academic HR analyst IN EARLY MARCH, with very little warning and within an impossibly short Marissa BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH students. “We held advising office hours Dominguez observed advantages in time frame, Berkeley Physics managed to shift almost every department “Research labs had less than a week, at and presented a panel via Zoom that the search for new faculty. “Despite the activity off campus and into the homes of faculty, students, and staff. best, to shut down non-critical experi- welcomed new students to campus and initial chaos and stress of abruptly con- On March 2, Amin Jazaeri, Lecturer and Director of Instructional Support, ments,” recalls Anthony Vitan, Direc- our department,” Trujillo says. “It was a verting in-person faculty interviews and met with past Physics Chair Wick Haxton and Vice Chair Jonathan Wurtele tor of Facilities, Division of Mathematics fine alternative to CalDay, though in-per- job talks to remote visits via Zoom, sev- to go over the department’s contingency plans for remote instruction. “Within and Physical Sciences. The total shut- son is always best.” eral benefits were realized.” Competi- hours of that meeting,” Jazaeri recalls, “campus activated its Emergency down lasted from March 16 through June “With no advance notice at all, and tion for classroom and conference room Operation Center, indicating something big was about to happen.” 26, and during that time only about 10% “The situation has been pretty diffi- thanks to incredible work by Lead Gradu- space disappeared, as did the logistics Over the next seven days, Jazaeri and his staff conducted trainings on how of researchers were allowed on campus cult,” Analytis notes. “There are fewer ate Advisor Joelle Miles, we moved our of coordinating room reservations with to use Zoom. “We also ordered iPads, Microsoft Surface Pros, and tablets to to maintain long-term experiments that boots on the ground and we have to Graduate Open House to a virtual event,” faculty and candidate availability. provide faculty, lecturers, and graduate student instructors with hardware to had to remain in operation. work around the shift schedule. Also, we she continues. “Students were still able to “Attendance at job talks was markedly On June 25, limited numbers of facul- help make remote instruction more effective,” he reports. “On March 10, re-opened for research a bit later than attend poster sessions, and prospective higher,” Dominguez adds, “and several ty, instructors, and graduate student in- other institutions in the US and Europe. in-person instruction was suspended.” structors were allowed to return to cam- REMOTE INSTRUCTION Science moves quickly, and having three pus to perform teaching duties. On June Introductory physics courses ordinarily months out is a big issue. “ 26, buildings re-opened for experimental use live lecture demonstrations to help “Postdocs are in an especially tough research at 25% occupancy. “That meant “I want you to know that students understand basic concepts. position,” Analytis continues. “They’ve most labs were limited to one person at a After the campus closure, Jazaeri says, lost months of work, and need addi- despite the virus problem time,” Vitan says, “though very large labs “we had to switch to pre-recorded video tional time and funding to complete could accommodate three or four, down you all are doing an amazing demonstrations, since it was logistically their research. It isn’t clear what kinds from the typical 10 or more.” impossible to broadcast them live. For of positions will be available when they job at coordinating and As physics professor James some labs, we created videos so stu- leave and need to find a job.” Analytis explains, “Grad students and making arrangements. dents could observe how an experiment Analytis also worries about the new postdocs returned to their projects on was done to better understand how to crop of graduate students on campus. Thank you! Berkeley is very a shift-based program, by signing up for treat the data.” “It’s difficult to find protocols for train- an allocated time slot for getting into lucky to have professors Over the summer, Jazaeri and ing them safely while keeping physical the lab.” Analytis serves as faculty lead and GSIs like you.” his staff produced additional video distance,” he points out. “It’s tricky. And for re-occupying research spaces, and graduate students met with physics fac- demonstrations as well as videos for all everyone is being especially careful to faculty members cited that removing ~Unsolicited accolade from a Berkeley became Chair of Berkeley Physics as the ulty. It was an incredible amount of work the experiments in the Physics 7 and avoid a viral outbreak on campus that the constraints of physical travel made Physics student, Spring 2020 fall semester began. that paid off – we had the same number Physics 8 labs. For Physics 5 and 111A could lead to another shutdown.” it much easier to attend. Ultimately, Analytis names Vitan as the hero in all of graduate student acceptances as we labs, kits were put together so students three-fourths of our newly hired faculty this. “He reviewed the applications, made would expect if we had run the event in could conduct hands-on experiments STUDENT SERVICES AND during the ‘pandemic search cycle’ were sure everyone had in place the needed INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT person. A great success overall.” remotely visiting candidates.” procedures and shift-based protocols.” Serious adjustments to services for Trujillo’s Student Services Office cre- Undergraduates are still not allowed on enrolled undergraduates and graduate ated a Commencement 2020 Acknowl- AN IMPRESSIVE RESPONSE campus at all, unless they are being paid students as well as prospective physics edgement video, with the Dean, the At the end of March, Haxton, who was as research assistants. students have also been required. “It was Chair, and the Student Speaker making Department Chair at the time, penned a significant challenge to switch from their contributions remotely. All gradu- a public statement about the extraor- in-person to remote in all aspects of ates’ names were read, giving families a dinary situation everyone was facing. Berkeley Physics professor Joel Fajans solders components our work and teaching,” recalls Student chance to celebrate. “Stress sometimes brings out the best in for kits with microcontrollers, Services Director Claudia Trujillo, “We’re using our experiences from people,” he wrote, “and that certainly has resistors, and other circuit parts “and figure out the best ways to assist spring and summer” Trujillo notes, “to been the case with our students, staff, for the Physics 111 Advanced Lab. students.” She and her staff moved all ensure continued delivery of workshops, and faculty. I have never been prouder He delivered the kits to students activities to remote operation, from day- poster sessions, student events, and of Berkeley Physics.... Berkeley resilience who had scattered over three to-day operations and regular student support for teaching plans and modes in is everywhere in evidence. Still, it would continents when COVID-19 shut events to CalDay, the Graduate Student an ever-changing environment. We are in be good to get through this. When we down the campus. From home, students measured one of the Open House and Poster Session, and a much better position now, but there is do, come visit us – even at distances less still a lot of work to do.” CREDIT: KAREN ZUKOR CREDIT: fundamental constants of nature. Commencement. than six feet.”

14 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 15 DEPARTMENTNEWS DEPARTMENTNEWS UC Berkeley to Lead UC Berkeley to lead New NSF Physics Frances Hellman Elected $25 million quantum Frontier Center President of APS In December 2019 the American Physical Society announced the elec- computing center A new Physics Frontier Center at UC Berkeley, sup- tion of Frances Hellman to the APS Presidential Line. Hellman is Berke- ported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), ley Professor of Physics, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, expands the reach and depth of existing capabilities Senior Faculty Scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, on campus in modeling cataclysmic events in the and Dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. She be- cosmos, including supernovae and the mergers of gan serving her term as vice president in January this year. She becomes neutron stars and their explosive aftermaths. president-elect in 2021, president in 2022, and past-president in 2023. The new Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astro- physics, and Symmetries (N3AS) Physics Frontier SKORPINSKI ©PEG PHOTO: Center is led by Berkeley Physics professor and Berkeley Lab scientist Wick Haxton, a theoretical French Ambassador Visits nuclear physicist and astrophysicist. It builds upon an NSF-funded research hub in multi-messenger Berkeley Physics nuclear astrophysics that was established in 2017, In January, France’s ambassador to the US, Phillippe Étienne, also led by Haxton. In multi-messenger astronomy, visited campus to celebrate creation of the Centre Pierre researchers gather data from a range of observatories Binetruy. Housed at Berkeley Physics, the Centre focuses on a CREDOT: HARTMUT HÄFFNER HARTMUT CREDOT: to address longstanding questions in the field. The range of topics in cosmology and astrophysics. The Ambassador new N3AS Center, launched September 1, overlaps (second from right) met with the Centre’s co-directors, Berkeley The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the hub, which is entering its fifth and final year. physics professor and Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter (second UC Berkeley $25 million over five years to establish An argon plasma discharge is Additional Berkeley faculty involved in N3AS include from left) and Radek Stompor (left) of the French National a multi-university institute focused on advancing used to clean an ion trap to physicists Daniel Kasen and Uros Seljak and Laboratory CNRS, in the lab of Berkeley physics professor quantum science and engineering and training a fu- allow for better coherence theoretical astronomer . Eliot Quataert Adrian Lee (right). Sylvette Tourmente (center) is from the ture workforce to build and use quantum computers. during quantum information The new center continues the hub’s theme: using transfer. Trapped ions are French Embassy in Washington DC. SARAH WITTMERPHOTO: The Berkeley-led center is one of three Quantum one of the most advanced the most extreme environments found in astrophys- Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCI) announced in candidates for a scalable ics – the Big Bang, supernovae, and neutron star and July. Goals are to improve and determine how best quantum processing device. black hole mergers – as laboratories for testing fun- to use today’s rudimentary quantum computers and Below right: Expanding debris damental physics under conditions beyond the reach ultimately to make quantum computers as common from a supernova explosion of Earth-based labs. The NSF commitment to N3AS is as mobile phones. (shown in red) runs over and $10.9 million over five years. Berkeley Physics, Berke- shreds a nearby star (blue). Update: Physics Innovators Initiative (Pi²) “There is a sense that we are on the precipice ley Lab, and 12 other institutions are taking part. of a really big move toward quantum computing,” “We operate as a single team,” Haxton said, With the Physics Innovators Initiative (Pi²), Berkeley remote learning,” Analytis adds, “by reinventing the said Dan Stamper-Kurn, UC Berkeley professor “combining our expertise to tackle the complex Physics continues to enhance hands-on learning and lab component of Physics 7 so that students can con- of physics and director of the new institute. “The multi-physics problems that arise in astrophysics revamp the curriculum for the Physics 7 undergraduate duct experiments at home. Coupling electronic sensors development of the quantum computer will be a real – problems that are beyond the capacity of a single physics series. Since its launch in 2018, Pi² has hired for temperature, capacitance, pressure, and acceleration scientific revolution, the defining scientific challenge investigator. Jesse Lopez as the Instructor and Principle Lab with tablets or phones enables students to gather data of the moment, especially if you think about the fact Mechanician for the Student Machine Shop as well as and demonstrate basic principles of classical mechan- that the computer plays a central role in just about adding new computers, software, and a state-of-the-art ics, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics. This ap- everything society does. If you revolutionize what a laser cutter to the shop’s equipment. With support from proach is not only appropriate for a world in the middle computer is, then you revolutionize just about every- alumnus Dr. Ernie Malamud (BA 1954), a new CNC of a pandemic, but also has taught us more effective and thing else.” (computer numerical control) milling machine has also direct ways to engage students beyond the more passive “This new NSF center builds on a solid founda- been installed. techniques used in the past.” tion of quantum science research at Berkeley Phys- Associate professor James Analytis serves as Pi² has also secured funding to kick off Summer Academic Coordinator Design Fellowships to sponsor eight undergraduates in ics,” Stamper-Kurn added, “from our world-leading Austin Hedeman has taken a faculty lead for Pi². “Our faculty and staff are find- group in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, to leading role in the transition ing new paths forward to bring hands-on research to research over two summers. “It was supposed to start condensed-matter physicists who are leaders in de- to remote learning by students in these challenging times of remote learning,” this summer,” Analytis reports, “but has been delayed velopment of superconducting quantum information developing online lectures he says. “This effort includes a combination of online until 2021 because of COVID.” processors, to theorists who have developed quan- and discussion forums, interactive labs and lab-in-a-box educational packs. We Rachel Cao Schafer, Director of Development tum information science as a unifying precept.” formulating experiments purchased nearly 100 such kits and we’re trialing them and Communications, adds, “Berkeley Physics ap- students can conduct Situated near the heart of Silicon Valley and at with the Physics 5 Labs. We’ll build on that model to preciates the support from alumni and friends whose outside the lab, and adding major California universities and national labs, “this software programming to apply them to the Physics 7 labs.” contributions are enabling Pi² to make great progress center establishes California as the world center for the problem-solving skills “Our new Academic Coordinator Austin toward the goals of modernizing the curriculum and research in quantum computing,” Stamper-Kurn said. taught to students. Hedeman has helped smooth the transition to strengthening hands-on learning for Physics 7.” CREDIT: DANIEL KASEN/BERKELEY DANIEL CREDIT: LAB, UC BERKELEY

16 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 17 DEPARTMENTNEWS DEPARTMENTNEWS Poster Series Honors Black NewFaculty Eric Yue Ma (upper left) received Liang Dai (lower left) received a BS Physicists his BS in Physics from Peking Univer- in Physics from Peking University and sity, and his PhD in Applied Physics a PhD in Physics from Johns Hopkins Inspired by the nation’s grappling with racism in the from Stanford University. He stayed University, working on theoretical wake of George Floyd’s death, UC Berkeley physics on at Stanford as a postdoc in Applied cosmology. He was awarded an NASA major and Berkeley Lab student assistant Ana Lyons Physics and Electrical Engineering. He Einstein fellowship, was appointed a turned to art as a way to contribute to the conversation. has also held positions at Apple. Dr. postdoctoral Member at the Institute Rhodes Scholar Namrata Aware of the scientific community’s own self-reflec- Ramesh is creator of The Ma joins Berkeley Physics as assistant for Advanced Study, and is a long-term STEMinist Chronicles – tion for its history of racial inequity and discrimination, professor in July 2021. John Bahcall postdoctoral fellow at a student organization Lyons found solace and positivity in a poster project the Institute for Advanced Study. He that aims to make STEM honoring the contributions of Black American physicists. Geoff Penington (upper right) joined Berkeley Physics as assistant department climates more The project will feature a series of 12 posters, and she received his BA in Mathematics from professor in July. inclusive by sharing the has already completed her first set of six. Cambridge University and his PhD stories of women in STEM. Among the physicists featured in her series: Willie in Physics from Stanford. He applies (lower right) received www.steministchronicles. Alp Sipahigil Hobbs Moore, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in com ideas from the theory behind quantum his PhD in Physics at Harvard, followed physics, and Harry Lee Morrison, longtime UC Berkeley computers and quantum information by postdoctoral work at Caltech as an professor of theoretical physics and a founding member to understanding of the quantum IQIM scholar. He joins Berkeley Phys- of the National Society of Black Physicists. Download mechanics of gravity. Recent work ics as assistant professor in January the first six posters at www.shorturl.at/ahjHY focuses on how information that 2021, with joint appointments in the falls into a black hole ends up being Department of Electrical Engineering encoded in the Hawking radiation left and Computer Science and at Law- behind after the black hole evaporates. rence Berkeley National Laboratory. He joined Berkeley Physics as assistant Namrata Ramesh Selected professor in July. as 2020 Rhodes Scholar

Namrata Ramesh, a Berkeley Physics international student from India who graduated with honors this spring, was selected as a Rhodes Scholar for 2020. The scholarship is one of the oldest and most prestigious of its Lab. As Director of Administration for Berkeley Physics kind. Fewer than 100 students are selected each year from eligible regions since 2013, he led the integration and streamlining of around the world to attend Oxford University. StaffNews Administrative Services across the entire department. Ramesh received a BA in Physics from Berkeley. Her senior thesis, supervised by professor Naomi Ginsberg, involved understanding DEPARTURES Graduate Advisor Donna Sakima has retired from the the dynamics of self assembly of gold nanocrystal superlattices using Physics Department after almost 33 years of service. Her Warner Carlisle, Mechanical Shop Manager, retired optical and x-ray scattering techniques. She also studied the trajectories fun spirit and unwavering dedication to students will be in July after working in labs all over campus for 27 years. of electrons in manganese doped halide perovskites using Monte Carlo greatly missed in the department and the Physics staff He led the Berkeley Physics R&D shop for the past nine simulations. At Oxford, Ramesh hopes to continue investigating the origins wished her all the best with a virtual celebration. of intriguing phenomena in promising photovoltaic materials by working years. Under his leadership, the shop modernized fabri- at the interface of experimental and computational physics. cation operations and equipment, developed advanced Brian Underwood, who joined Berkeley Physics as While at Berkeley, she combined her love of multimedia storytelling prototypes to facilitate faculty research, and adopted Academic Human Resources Manager in 2014 and was with her passion for promoting diversity in STEM fields by establishing 3-D technologies. promoted to Deputy Director of Administration in 2017, “The STEMinist Chronicles” – an organization that uses photoessays to transitioned to the role of Department Manager for Kathy Lee, Undergraduate Student Advisor, retired in tell the stories of women studying and working in STEM. Berkeley’s Department of Mathematics on February 1. June after more than 20 years of service in the Depart- Ramesh almost did not apply for the Rhodes Scholarship because she ment of Physics. She joined the physics staff in 2000. did not believe that she fit the mythical archetype of the perfect Rhodes NEW HIRES Kathy has helped students, faculty, and staff in many applicant. She says, “I am so grateful for my supportive family and com- capacities and her professionalism and dedication will Berkeley Physics welcomed Roia Ferrazares as our munity in Berkeley for helping me believe in myself and encouraging me be sorely missed. new Director of Administration in March. She has Roia Ferrazares, to apply anyway.” worked on campus since 2006 in a variety of roles in Director of Administration She hopes to pay it forward by inspiring minorities in STEM to believe Anil Moré retired in December 2019 after a remarkable the Dean’s Office of the College of Letters and Science, in themselves and work towards their highest career aspirations. “I am career spanning 40 years at UC Berkeley and Berkeley the Department of Music, and the School of Journalism. determined to show, throughout my career, that one’s race or gender need not be a barrier to becoming a physicist,” she asserts, “that the only requirement to be a scientist is a deep love for science.”

18 Physics@Berkeley Fall 2020 19 Total # of Total # of Alumni Updates 320 students students 274 Gerald Kimble (BA 1949) is a Professor of Mathematics and Com- Caroline Sofiatti (MA 2016) is currently a Machine Learning Engi- prefer puter Science Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno. Gerald neer at Apple and has an algorithms patent. As a graduate student re- 247 73 212 58 4 not to say was an active professor for 23 years and has been retired for 32 years. searcher, she worked under Saul Perlmutter and was co-author of three Previously, he served as the Head of Numerical Analysis at Space scientific papers, including one on applying Bayesian Statistics frame- Technology Laboratories for four years and has taught at the Califor- works to study supernovae statistical and systematic uncertainties. nia State University Long Beach and the University of Montana. Gabe Dunn (PhD 2017) is a Senior Manager at Bain & Company. Gabe Charles Albert (BA 1984) has been promoted to Chief Operations completed his PhD in Alex Zettl’s condensed matter lab. His thesis was 137 40 3 25 Officer at ACI Alloys, a PVD materials company. Prior to that, Charles titled “Applications of Nanotechnology to the Life Sciences.” 8 BAs Awarded Transfer Students PhDs Awarded Countries Students worked in air pollution modeling in Texas and intellectual property law in San Francisco. He also writes science fiction, and a collection Namrata Ramesh (BA 2020) is currently a Rhodes Scholar in her 2019-20 2019-20 Are From of his more recently published stories, A Thousand Ways to Fail, was first year as an MSc(Res) in Materials student at the University of published in March of 2020. Oxford. Her research involves using first principles computational Undergraduate Graduate modelling to understand the reactions occurring at the electro- Physics Majors Physics Majors David Strubbe (MA 2007, PhD 2012) was recently named a 2020 lyte-electrode interface of Li-ion batteries. She also founded and runs Cottrell Scholar, an award from the Research Corporation for Science the organization “The STEMinist Chronicles,” which uses art to tell Advancement to early-career faculty in physics, chemistry, and as- the stories of women/folx in STEM. tronomy. David is one of 25 awardees and received a $100,000 grant for his proposal “Light-induced Structural Dynamics in Materials: New Theoretical Insight into Ultrafast Phenomena.” He is currently a professor of physics at the University of California, Merced. 2020 Berkeley Physics In Memory AT A GLANCE A look at the students and faculty George Trilling (1930-2020), passed away April 30. He served on the faculty of Berkeley Phys- who make up Berkeley Physics ics and as a Berkeley Lab scientist from 1960-1994, continuing his research well after retirement. Trilling was a particle physicist whose research ranged from the study of K-meson interactions to the discovery of J/psi resonance and measurements of the B meson. He led the Solenoidal Detector Collaboration at the Superconducting Supercollider, and later was instrumental in working to secure US participation at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Physics His research at Berkeley Lab continued until 2017. George served as Chair of the UC Berkeley Faculty Physics department from 1968-1972, directed the Physics Division at Berkeley Lab from 1984 to Berkeley Physics 1987, and served as President of the American Physical Society in 2001. He is a member of the Alumni Nobel National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient Active Faculty 65 of the Berkeley Citation. Prize Winners Emeritus Faculty 1955: Willis Lamb (BS ’34, PhD ’38) 37Members of 1997: Steven Chu (PhD ’76) Robert (Bob) Tripp (1927-2020), Berkeley Physics professor emeritus and retired senior the National 1998: Robert Laughlin (BA ’72) faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division, passed away June 27. He served on the Academy 23 2000 in Chemistry: Alan J. Heeger (PhD ’61) physics faculty from 1960-1991, and continued research at Berkeley Lab after retirement. 2004: David Gross (PhD ’66) As a graduate student at Berkeley, Tripp worked with Emilio Segrè, then as a postdoc 4Active Nobel Laureates 2006: John C. Mather (PhD ’74) with Luis Alvarez. He conducted experiments with the 184-inch synchrocyclotron and the 2011: Saul Perlmutter (PhD ’86) Bevatron. During his career he and colleagues discovered and characterized many of the 1. George Smoot (Physics 2006) 2012: David J. Wineland (BA ’65) resonant states that formed the basis of the quark model of Gell-Mann and Zweig. Later 2. Saul Perlmutter (Physics 2011) interests ranged from neutrinoless double beta decay to luminosity calibrations of distant 2017 Barry C. Barish (BA ’57, PhD ’62) type 1a supernovae. The latter work led to his co-inventing, with Carl Pennypacker, the 3. Eric Betzig (Chemistry 2014) FUEGO satellite system to detect fires from geosynchronous orbit. 4. Reinhard Genzel (Physics 2020)

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