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Florida Physics News University of Florida - Department of Physics Annual Alumni Newsletter 2005

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Florida Physics News University of Florida - Department of Physics Annual Alumni Newsletter 2005 Florida Physics News University of Florida - Department of Physics Annual Alumni Newsletter 2005 University of Florida - Department of Physics 1 Contents Chair’s Corner 2 Chair’s Corner UF Teacher/Scholar Award 3 American Physical Society - Three New Fellows 5 APS Keithley Award 5 November 2005 marks the third anniversary of Professors Earn Positions in National Societies 6 my term as department chair, and I can say that the Columbia Shuttle Accident Investigation 7 Student Government Award 8 past year has been the most exciting one (“exciting” Academy Induction 8 in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse, “May you Faculty Promotions 8 Post-Doc Awarded Fellowship from L’Oreal Corporation 8 live in exciting times”). Two significant events come to Research Scholar Award 8 mind: the record 2004 hurricane season, and the July Travel Awards 9 Undergraduate Physics Newsletter - In Review 10 2004 implementation of the new Enterprise Resource Albert Einstein Institut Rewards Two Students 12 Planning so�ware from PeopleSo�, designed to Physics Teacher of the Year 12 manage UF’s financial, payroll, and human resources 25th Brandt-Ritchie Workshop 12 TannerFest 12 activities. As you know, Florida was hammered 45th Sanibel Symposium 13 by four hurricanes during last year’s season, and Faculty Retirement 13 Faculty Selected Publications 14 Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne directly hit Gainesville Davis Productivity Award 16 in September 2004. Although ultimately the damage to Staff Retirement 16 Employee Excellence Awardees 16 UF was minimal, with downed trees, power outages, Undergraduate Honors 16 and minor flooding, it was nonetheless a stressful time Outreach Program 17 Celebrating New PhD’s 18 for the many faculty, staff, and students who were Awards Made Possible By Alumni Donations 18 affected by the storms. While last year’s storm season is Marie Curie Fellowship Awarded to Former Grad Student 19 Alumnae Receives Kenan Professorhip 19 li�le more than a bad memory, we wish the same could Outstanding Physics Alumnus 19 be said for the PeopleSo� system, which can charitably Support Physics 19 be described as “challenging”; our staff continue the News in Research long ascent up the PeopleSo� learning curve, and we From Black Holes to Atoms 4 hope we reach the summit soon. Bismuth and Graphite 6 Design and Dev. of the Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor 9 Weather and administrivia aside, the past year has been a good one for the department, with successes Florida Physics News 2005 in faculty recruiting, and recognition of many of our The Physics Department Annual Alumni Newsle�er faculty, staff, and students. On the recruiting front, Chair: Dr. Alan Dorsey we continue to build in our new area of experimental Assoc. Chair(s): Drs. John Yelton, Selman Hershfield, and Mark Meisel particle astrophysics with the hiring of Dr. Tarek Saab, Editor/Layout: Leilanie M. Merrill who joins the department as an Assistant Professor in August 2005. Dr. Saab is a research scientist at Special thanks to the following contributors: Drs. Art Hebard, Hendrik Monkhorst, and David Reitze. the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where he is The UP News Staff (listed on page 11) part of a team developing x-ray detectors for NASA’s Dr. Sam Trickey (p 13) continue › Cover Images (le� to right): “From Black Holes to Atoms..” - page 4 “Bismuth and Graphite...” - page 6 “..Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor (CBFR)” - page 9 Lincoln Middle School, Gainesville, Florida, held a Science Fair on January 11, 2005. Among the proj- ects were experiments in physics, mathematics, and chemistry. Accounting for at least one-third of all judges were 10 physics faculty members. Top row, le� to right: Pierre Sikivie, Guenakh Mitselmakher, Alan Dorsey, Jack Sabin, Katia Matcheva, and Pradeep Kumar. Bo�om row, le� to right: Paul Avery, David Reitze, Samuel Trickey, and Konstantin Matchev Florida Physics News - Physics Alumni Newsle�er 2 David Reitze Credit: UF Teacher/Scholar Award Physics Professor Paul Avery has projects, the CLAS News Credit: Avery teaches “Physics 2 with Calcu- been named the 2005 Teacher/Scholar Grid Phys- lus” and was recently named a fellow of the Year, the highest faculty honor ics Network, of the American Physical Society. bestowed by the University of Florida. known as “I am pleased and honored at The award is given annually to a pro- GriPhyN, and being selected for this award,” Avery fessor who demonstrates excellence the Interna- says. “I have benefited throughout my in both teaching and scholarly activ- tional Virtual career from the strong support of my ity and exhibits visibility within and Data Grid colleagues and the administration at beyond the university. Laboratory. the University of Florida. I appreci- Avery has served the university for Avery also ate the collegial environment within 20 years and is a world-recognized collaborates on two major experi- the Department of Physics and the scholar for his fundamental contribu- ments, CLEO, based at Cornell Uni- ease in forming collaborative projects tions to high energy physics. He has versity, and CMS, in Geneva’s CERN with members of other departments published more than 390 refereed laboratory. His research is in elemen- and colleges. These interpersonal rela- publications and supervised 23 PhD tary particle physics, also called high tions, more than anything else, have students, postdoctoral associates and energy physics, which studies the made my working life so enjoyable scientists while maintaining consistent basic particles and the forces between here.” extramural funding. He is the director them that together determine the source: CLAS News and Publications of two National Science Foundation underlying structure of the universe. continue - Chair’s Corner advice (and good company) in the and Senior Vice President, Dr. Janie Constellation-X space mission. At coming years. Our faculty continue Foukes, a biomedical engineer by UF he plans to develop a program in to garner awards: Profs. Avery and training and the current Dean of the dark ma�er searches that will nicely Hirschfeld have been elected Fellows College of Engineering at Michigan complement the ongoing work of Prof. of the American Physical Society and State University. Dr. Foukes arrives in Laura Baudis. We have also made a Prof. Avery was selected the campus- August 2005 and as Provost she will significant step in the development wide UF Teacher/Scholar of the Year. serve as the university’s chief academic of our biological physics program Our undergraduate physics majors officer. We look forward to working with the hiring of Dr. Aneta Petkova, program is doing well with 150 physics with Dr. Foukes as we continue to who also starts in August 2005 as an majors, and our Society of Physics advance the academic reputation of Assistant Professor. Dr. Petkova is a Students has been recognized as one our department and university. postdoctoral associate at the National of the most active chapters in the On the finance front, the university’s Institutes of Health’s Laboratory of country. Finally, I’m pleased to report budgets look healthy for the coming Chemical Physics, where she uses that our graduate program continues year and include respectable raises solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance to thrive, with approximately 130 for the faculty and staff; this is due techniques to study the structure of the students enrolled in the PhD program to a strong state economy as well as proteins that play an important role and 23 PhD degrees awarded over the the lobbying efforts of the university in Alzheimer’s disease. She plans to 2004/2005 academic year. You can find administration. Healthy budgets continue this research at UF, where she out more about faculty, student, and should allow us to continue to has potential collaborators both within staff news by reading further in this aggressively recruit and hire new the department and at UF’s McKnight issue. faculty for our new research initiatives Brain Institute. Professors Jim Du�y UF President J. Bernard (“Bernie”) of experimental particle astrophysics and Sam Trickey retired in June 2005, Machen is se�ling into his second and biological physics, while at the a�er 35 and 37 years of service to year as President, with his official same time strengthening our core the university, respectively. We fully inauguration on September 10, 2004 areas—condensed ma�er physics, expect to see Jim and Sam around the (just days a�er Hurricane Frances high energy physics, theoretical department for many years to come, hit Gainesville). President Machen astrophysics, and chemical physics. has recently selected a new Provost and we plan to continue to seek their continue p 4 University of Florida - Department of Physics 3 continue - Chair’s Corner News in Research Unfortunately, the outlook for federal funding of basic science is bleak, with cuts or flat funding likely for many agencies. From Black Holes to Atoms: For instance, President Bush’s proposed Lasers Study and Control Physical fiscal year 2006 budget requests a 3.8% Systems source: Dr. David Reitze reduction in the budget of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (the agency Lasers offer unique capabilities timing of the interaction through the that provides most of the funding for for both probing and manipulating structure and wavelength of the pulse, high energy physics research in the US). physical systems. On one hand, con- we can ‘steer’ the interaction and thus While this particular issue is far from tinuously emi�ing lasers offer unprec- the evolution of the system. Adaptive se�led, it illustrates the problems that edented wavelength stability for use in (or learning) control takes this even we face as our legislators grapple with interferometric and metrology applica- one step further and directly interfaces the mounting federal budget deficit. If tions. On the other hand, pulsed laser atomic, molecular, and solid state sys- you are as concerned about this as I am, sources allow for the measurement of tems with computer-based learning contact your representatives in Congress dynamical events on time scales of a algorithms through the use of tempo- and let them know.
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