Physics Newsletter 2019
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Harvard University Department of Physics Newsletter FALL 2019 A Microscopic Look At Quantum Materials it takes many physicists to solve quantum many-body problems CONTENTS Letter from the Chair ............................................................................................................1 Letter from the Chair ON THE COVER: An experiment-theory collaboration PHYSICS DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS at Harvard investigates possible Letters from our Readers.. ..................................................................................................2 Dear friends of Harvard Physics, While Prof. Prentiss has been in our department since 1991 (she was theories for how quantum spins (red the second female physicist to be awarded tenure at Harvard), our and blue spheres) in a periodic The sixth issue of our annual Faculty Promotion ............................................................................................................... 3 next article features a faculty member who joined our department potential landscape interact with one Physics Newsletter is here! In Memoriam ........................................................................................................................ 4 only two years ago, Professor Roxanne Guenette (pp. 22-26). another to give rise to intriguing and Please peruse it to find out about potentially useful emergent Current Progress in Mathematical Physics: the comings and goings in our On page 27, Clare Ploucha offers a brief introduction to the Harvard phenomena. This is an artist’s Arthur Jaffe Celebrated at Three-Day Mathematical Physics Conference ..................... 7 rendering of one such theory, the department during the past Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering, which was launched geometric string theory. Faculty Prizes, Awards, and Acknowledgments ............................................................... 8 academic year. last November. HQI is co-directed by Professors John Doyle, Mikhail Lukin, and Evelyn Hu (SEAS). Pages 28-32 are devoted to Books by Faculty.................................................................................................................. 8 We are grateful to many of you a survey of various initiatives within our department, formed over the who wrote to us last year about years with the goal of building a strong community; this includes the COVER STORY the previous issue of the most recent developments from the Committee on Equity and Newsletter. We value both the accolades and the constructive A Microscopic Look at Quantum Materials: Inclusion. I am very please to announce that we have now hired our criticism you have provided, and will strive to incorporate your It Takes Many Physicists to Solve Quantum Many-Body Problems ................................ 9 first Equity & Inclusion Administrative Fellow, Benita Wolff, who excellent suggestions. You will findthe letters on page 2, continued will be joining our department at the end of October. on the inside back cover. FOCUS Page 33 celebrates the promotions of Dr. David Morin and Dr. Jacob I’m very pleased to announce the promotion of Matthew Reece to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: Lyman Laboratory, December 1945..............................14 Barandes to the positions of Co-Directors of Undergraduate and full professorship with tenure. His profile appears on page 3. Graduate Studies respectively. Pages 34-43 are devoted to our annual FEATURED I am sad to report that we lost two colleagues and friends this year: reports from Undergraduate, Graduate, and Research Scholar Professors Roy Glauber and Jene Golovchenko. You will find their Programs, and p. 48 is dedicated to the Physics Department staff. Mara Prentiss: Solving Problems in Biology Through Physics and Ingenuity ................18 obituaries on pages 4-6. Last spring, we asked all of you to send us updates you might want to Roxanne Guenette: Hunting for New Physics by Tracking Elusive Neutrinos ...............22 For the cover article in this issue, we have chosen the experiment- share with fellow Harvard Physics Alumni. These updates are ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering (HQI)...................................... 27 theory collaboration between the groups of Professors Markus compiled into Alumni Notes on pages 44-47. Please let us know AND CREDITS: Fostering Community in the Pursuit of a Common Goal — Physics ............................. 28 Greiner and Eugene Demler. Their collaboration has been studying what you think about this new feature of the Newsletter and keep the Newsletter Committee: the dynamics of strongly interacting quantum particles with updates coming! Professor Subir Sachdev, Chair Academic Programs: David Morin and Jacob Barandes ................................................33 unprecedented resolution, and their observations are impacting our Professor Cora Dvorkin I would like to end this letter with an important announcement, understanding of quantum materials (pages 9-13). Our historical Professor Markus Greiner PROGRAMS which hopefully will be of interest to many of you: on April 3, 2020, feature concerns nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which is Professor Gerald Holton our department is planning its next Graduate Alumni Reunion. Professor Paul Horowitz Undergraduate Program ...................................................................................................34 intimately connected to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and was Please watch our website for further details: www.physics.harvard.edu. Professor Efthimios Kaxiras Graduate Program .............................................................................................................36 observed for the first time in December 1945, by Professors Robert Mary McCarthy Pound, Edward Purcell, and Henry Torrey right here in the Lyman As always, do stop by when you are in town or drop us a note if you Anne Trubia Goldhaber and Merit Awards Laboratory (pages 14-17). have any questions, would like to make a comment, or just want to Production Manager: GSAS Merit Fellowship say ‘hi’ to old friends. Marina Werbeloff I hope you enjoy the article about Professor Mara Prentiss, one of the Graduate Awards and Fellowships Editor: busiest people in our department. In addition to doing research in Best wishes, Steve Nadis Recent Graduates biophysics and teaching, Prof. Prentiss serves as the Director of Subir Sachdev Design: Graduate Studies and oversees the Harvard Physics machine shop Research Scholars ............................................................................................................. 43 Chair and Herchel Smith Professor of Physics Alphabetica, Inc. and Physics Teaching Labs. Please read her profile on pages 18-21. NEWS Alumni Notes ......................................................................................................................44 Celebrating a Phenomenal Department ..........................................................................48 Department Events .......................................................................................... (back cover) Photo by Pamela Davis Kivelson FALL 2019 1 FACULTY NEWS Letters from Our Readers Faculty Promotion We enjoy hearing from our readers. Here is what several had to say: Matthew Reece, Harvard’s Newest “physics beyond the Standard Model,” including What a nice idea, the Newsletter is a good way for us to remain I appreciate that there was probably a desire for brevity and a desire Full Professor of Physics, Explores a early-universe cosmology, quantum field theory, in touch with fellow students and friends. to highlight the work of people such as Sadler who are known to the Universe of Possibilities and quantum gravity. Reece has delved deeply into ASHOK KHOSLA, Ph.D. 1970 Harvard physics department, so I understand the possible sources of supersymmetry—an idea introduced in the 1970s the omission, and do not suggest there were any but the best of that could resolve several longstanding puzzles As a high school student, Matthew Reece was intentions. tied to the so-called hierarchy problem. Many curious about many things. However, two books Thanks very much for these terrific articles on so many important As I said at the start, congratulations on both a terrific issue and a physicists thought the LHC would verify this he read as a teenager—firstA Brief History of topics, particularly the cover story. I’m primarily writing to terrific track record of supporting women in physics, and please take theory by discovering supersymmetric particles, Time by Stephen Hawking and later The Elegant congratulate you on an excellent issue, as well as the long-standing my critique in that context. but none has been observed so far. Reece is one leadership of the Harvard Physics department in launching Universe by Brian Greene—drew his attention CATHERINE H. CROUCH, Ph.D. 1996 of the originators of a “stealth supersymmetry” outstanding women on careers in physics. I am grateful for the toward physics. That budding interest was Professor of Physics, Swarthmore College model that offers an explanation for why these supportive culture that had been established by the time I arrived reinforced when Reece, as a University of Chicago hypothetical particles have not yet been seen. as a graduate student in 1992. undergraduate, was introduced to the Chair’s response: experimental particle physicist Henry Frisch. I did want to point out an ironic oversight, given the overall effort He’s also given considerable