Extraordinary Year for Gates Graduate Awards P.3 Staff Awards & Luncheon P.4 in January, President Obama Named Sylvester James Gates, Jr
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the ONLINE PHOTONNEWSLETTER FROM UMD DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS 2012‐2013 Ryan K Morris/Naonal Science & Technology Medals Foundaon this issue AAAS Fellows P.2 Extraordinary Year for Gates Graduate Awards P.3 Staff Awards & Luncheon P.4 In January, President Obama named Sylvester James Gates, Jr. as one of this New Faces P.5 year's recipients of the Naonal Medal of Science. The Naonal Medal of Science and the Naonal Medal of Technology and Innovaon are the highest honors be‐ stowed by the United States Government upon sciensts, engineers and inven‐ Gates on C‐SPAN’s Q & A tors. The honor was one of four in an extraordinary year for Gates. Most recently, Gates was awarded the 2013 Mendel Medal by Villanova Universi‐ Jim Gates discusses science educaon, string theory, working ty. The honor recognizes pioneering sciensts who have demonstrated, by their with the President almost becom‐ lives and their standing before the world as sciensts, that there is no intrinsic ing an astronaut and being mistak‐ conflict between science and religion. Addionally, Gates was one of 84 U.S. re‐ en for Morgan Freeman on C‐ searchers and 21 foreign associates elected to the Naonal Academy of Science. SPAN’s Q & A The interview Elecon to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be ac‐ transcript is available on the Q & A website or watch the video at corded a U.S. scienst or engineer. And in January he was named a University Sys‐ tem of Maryland (USM) Regents Professor, the System's most prominent faculty hp://www.c‐spanvideo.org/ recognion. connued on page 4... program/JimGa 1 NEWS Howard Milchberg was named a 2013 Jon McKinney's arcle, Alignment of Mag‐ fellow of the Opcal Society of America nezed Accreon Disks and Relavisc Jets Four UMD Physicists (OSA). Fellows are selected based on their with Spinning Black Holes (with Alexander overall impact on opcs. Among Tchekhovskoy and Roger D. Blandford) was Named AAAS Fellow Milchberg’s research interests are the published in Science Express. Four UMD physicists have been interacons of maer with ultrashort Ted Jacobson and Raman Sundrum have named Fellows of the American pulses of high‐energy solid‐state lasers. been named Disnguished Vising Re‐ Associaon for the Advancement Dan Lathrop was awarded the APS 2012 search Chairs at the Perimeter Instute for of Science (AAAS). Elecon as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon Stanley Corrsin Award "for his striking ob‐ Theorecal Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. AAAS members by their peers servaons of flow in a quantum fluid, in‐ A symposium was held for Roald Sagdeev cluding detecon of counter‐flow that con‐ Drew Baden ‐ For disnguished to honor the Disnguished University contribuons to the field of experi‐ firmed the two‐fluid picture of quantum Professor on his 80th birthday. Among the mental parcle physics, parcularly fluid, observaon and characterizaon of goings‐on was an interview with NPR’s for ideas contribung to the dis‐ reconnecons of quanzed vorces, and Danny Zwerdling, The Day I Said ‘Nyet’ to covery of the top quark and to the discovery of an inverse‐cube tail in the searches for new parcles. Gorbachev. velocity distribuon of superfluid turbu‐ Michael Fuhrer ‐ For experimental lence." Alessandra Buonanno and Jayanth studies of the fundamental Banavar are among the new Outstanding electronic transport properes of O.W. Greenberg was appointed a member Referees selected by the editors of the APS nanostructured carbon materials. of the Adjunct Faculty at the Rockefeller journals. The highly selecve Outstanding University in Manhaan. Ted Jacobson ‐ For contribuons to Referee program recognizes sciensts who quantum gravity, black hole Victor Galitski was named a Simons have been exceponally helpful in thermodynamics, and the formula‐ Invesgator. The Simons Foundaon assessing manuscripts for publicaon in on and phenomenology of Lorentz‐violang modificaons of provides a stable base of support for the APS journals. parcle and gravitaonal physics. outstanding sciensts, enabling them to Rabi Mohapatra's paper, On relang the undertake long‐term study of fundamental Chris Monroe ‐ For the develop‐ genesis of cosmic baryons and dark maer, ment and demonstraon of novel quesons. On July 29, the Wall Street was selected by New Journal of Physics techniques for quantum infor‐ Journal menoned Galitski in a follow‐up editors to be included in the Highlights of maon processing and quantum arcle on the New York Times Simmons 2012 collecon. simulaon with trapped ions. Invesgator Awards announcement. Other UMD Fellows named were Steven Anlage gave several invited talks at Postdocs Samuel Gralla and Alexandre Millard Alexander, Marco Columbi‐ internaonal conferences last Fall: Le Tiec’s study of the temperature of a ni, William Fagan, Cynthia Moss, Aravind Srinivasan and Raymond black hole was cited in the New Scienst. Understanding Electromagnec Properes St. Leger. New Fellows were of Complex Metallic Enclosures by Means Doojin Kim has received the presgious presented with an official of Wave Chaos, invited talk at the Innova‐ cerficate and a gold and blue LHC‐theory iniave (LHC‐TI) postdoctoral ons in Wave Modeling Conference, Uni‐ (represenng science and fellowship, a year aer receiving the versity of Nongham, United Kingdom, 4 engineering, respecvely) rosee graduate version of the award. Kim is September, 2012. pin on Saturday, 16 February, at working toward his PhD under Kaustubh the AAAS Fellows Forum during the Agashe, and will join the University of Fading Stascs in Communicaons – A 2013 AAAS Annual Meeng in Florida in the fall. Random Matrix Approach, Wave Chaos Boston, Mass. from the Micro‐ to the Macroscale, Inter‐ 2 naonal Conference, Max Planck Instute The European Physical Society (EPS) High American Physical Society to write a review for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dres‐ Energy Physics Division will award the 2013 on the book "The Physics of Wall Street: A den, Germany, 22 October, 2012. High Energy Parcle Physics Prize to the Brief History of Predicng the Unpredicta‐ ATLAS and CMS collaboraons at the Large ble" by James Owen Weatherall. The book Johnpierre Paglione was one of 65 scien‐ Hadron Collider (LHC), "for the discovery of review was published in the August 2013 sts from across the naon selected to a Higgs boson, as predicted by the Brout‐ issue of Physics Today. Addionally, receive a presgious U.S. Department of Englert‐Higgs mechanism," and to Micahel Yakovenko gave an invited talk at the Asia Energy Early Career Award for "Non‐ Della Negra, Peter Jenni and Tejinder Vird‐ Pacific Econophysics Conference on 30 July Centrosymmetric Topological Supercon‐ ee, "for their pioneering and outstanding 2013 at the Asia Pacific Center for ducvity." The award supports the devel‐ leadership roles in the making of the ATLAS Theorecal Physics in Pohang. It was a sat‐ opment of individual research programs of and CMS experiments.” Maryland re‐ ellite meeng to the major conference on outstanding sciensts early in their careers searchers, including Drew Baden, Sarah stascal physics STATPHYS 25 in Seoul. and smulates research careers in the dis‐ Eno, Nick Hadley and Andris Skuja, have ciplines supported by the DOE Office of Ted Jacobson gave several talks this played a strong role in the CMS (Compact Science. summer, tled Plasma without plasma: Muon Solenoid) collaboraon. They have exact force‐free magnetospheres without The American Physical Society (APS) has made significant contribuons to nearly symmetry. He aended two meengs and awarded Phillip Sprangle the 2013 James every aspect of CMS from the construcon also a two‐week workshop, entled Black Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics for and operaon of the detector to physics Holes: Complementarity, Fuzz, or Fire?, at " pioneering contribuons to the physics of analysis. the KITP in August. high intensity laser interacons with plas‐ Victor Yakovenko was invited by the edi‐ mas, and to the development of plasma tors of Physics Today magazine of the accelerators, free‐electron lasers, gyro‐ trons and high current electron accelera‐ tors." In Memoriam Michael Fisher was listed among Aneki Rankings and Record’s Top Living Physi‐ Robert "Bob" Dahms Jr., died June 23 of a heart aack. He cists. According to the arcle, his claim to is survived by his beloved wife fame was his theory of phase transions, of 41 and 1/2 years, Anita; his FKT algorithm. sons, Robert Aaron Dahms and Jon Dahms; daughter, Dan Lathrop was featured in an episode of Rachel Swingler; brother, the Weather Channel series, Secrets of the Richard Dahms; sister, Earth. The magnec shield episode aired Rebecca Dahms‐Lioi and four on June 27th. grandchildren. Associate Professor Min Ouyang has re‐ ceived one of the five Scialog Awards spon‐ On July 11, the department sored by the Research Corporaon for Sci‐ held an ice cream social in ence Advancement The Scialog (short for honor of our colleague and dear friend. Bob's favorite science dialog) awards support innovave UMD treat was ice cream research in the area of solar energy con‐ from the Dairy. version. K. Sickles 3 NEWS Physics graduate student Sergii Per‐ encourages students to pursue advanced shoguba, advised by Victor Yakovenko, study and careers in the sciences, GRADUATE STUDENT has been awarded an Ann G. Wylie Disser‐ engineering and mathemacs. Randall is a AWARDS taon Fellowship. Pershoguba works in double major in physics and mathemacs theorecal condensed maer physics. and plans to pursue a doctorate in At the Graduate Awards on theorecal physics. Mandell plans to pur‐ December 4, 2012, Sarah Eno, The CMNS Board of Visitors selected sue a Ph.D. in physics. Associate Chair for Graduate Rashmish Mishra, a graduate student in Educaon, announced the following the Maryland Center for Theorecal Physics undergraduate student Sebasan fellowships and citaons: Physics, to receive the 2013 Outstanding Serrano received a UMD Phillip Merrill Qiuzi Li: The Ruth Davis Fellowship Teaching Assistant Award.