PHYSICSUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY INSIDE Neutrinos: Ghostly Particles with Exciting Implications Mapping the Infant Universe: Revelations from the Cosmic Microwave Background The Compass Project ALUMNI NEWS AND MORE! FALL 2013 Cover: The Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment, a joint venture between China and USA, is a neutrino-oscillation experiment designed to measure the mixing angle θ13 using anti-neutrinos produced by the reactors of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and the Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant in mainland China. Photo Physics at Berkeley 2013 documentation of construction. Published annually by the Photographer: Roy Kaltschmidt Department of Physics Steven Boggs: Chair Anil More: Director of Administration Maria Hjelm: Director of Development and Communications Devi Mathieu: Editor, Principal Writer Tom Colton, Ben Ailes and Peg Skorpinski: Photography Meg Coughlin: Design Department of Physics 366 LeConte Hall #7300 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-7300 Copyright 2013 by The Regents of the University of California FEATURES 4 10 16 Neutrinos: Ghostly Mapping the Infant The Compass Project Particles with Exciting Universe: Revelations BERKELEY STUDENTS WORK Implications from the Cosmic TOGETHER TO FOSTER COMMUNITY AND SERVE EACH OTHER’S BERKELEY’S INFLUENTIAL Microwave Background EDUCATIONAL NEEDS CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEUTRINO BERKELEY ASTROPHYSICISTS Physics graduate students Jesse SCIENCE ARE ADVANCING ARE AT THE VERY CENTER OF Livezey and Hilary Jack describe THE FRONTIERS OF PARTICLE COSMOLOGICAL DISCOVERY PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY. Compass, the award-winning Physics professors Adrian Lee, mentoring and academic support Experimental physicists Gabriel William Holzapfel, Uros Seljak, program that was born in Berkeley’s Orebi Gann, Yury Kolomensky, and Martin White use satellite Department of Physics, designed and Kam-Biu Luk devise cutting- data, telescope observations, and by students for students. edge experiments to wrest secrets theoretical calculations to trace from the elusive neutrino. the origins of the universe. DEPARTMENTS 2 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR 18 DEPARTMENT NEWS 28 IN MEMORY 31 PHYSICS IN THE MEDIA 35 UNDERGRADUATE AFFAIRS 37 GRADUATE AFFAIRS 42 ALUMNI AFFAIRS LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Dear Alumni and Friends, faculty as well as a bridge connecting to the 3rd floor of Old LeConte. Greetings from Berkeley! We look forward to many fantastic opportunities for collaboration among the entire Astrophysics/Astronomy community here at My first few months as Chair have been a whirlwind, but I am Berkeley. thrilled to have taken on the leadership of this great department. New Campbell Hall also includes basement lab space for the Our former Chair, Frances Hellman, left things in incredibly good NIST-funded Center for Integrated Precision and Quantum shape. She was a remarkable steward of the department for six Measurements. This will be our lowest noise, highest quality lab years, a few of which were financially very challenging, and I space in Physics, and will provide opportunities for new research am incredibly grateful for her accomplishments. It is my honor directions and ever more precise measurements. Many of us exper- to continue many of her efforts in making this department one imentalists have enjoyed touring the basement. New Campbell will of the best places for students to pursue a physics education and also be home to the new and exciting Kavli NanoSciences Institute for faculty to pursue research. (learn more on pg. 22). Donald A. Glaser Lab You can watch Campbell Hall being constructed at this Physics kicked off the fall semester with the dedication and celebra- website: http://berkeley.edu/webcams. tion of the Donald A. Glaser Advanced Lab, formerly known as the Promoting Diversity Physics 111 Lab. It was exciting to watch the remodeling of the lab Addressing issues of student diversity and women in physics is a and upgrading of the experimental equipment over the summer and long-term issue for this department (and the field in general), and so to have the revitalized lab ready for the students by fall semester. I am very proud of the fact that in January we are hosting the APS As many of you know from firsthand experience, the Donald Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP ‘14), A. Glaser Advanced Lab is home to the two-semester experimental organized by Assistant Professor Gabriel Orebi Gann. CUWiP is a course required for all undergraduate majors. It is the notoriously 3-day regional conference designed to provide undergraduate women challenging capstone course of our undergraduate major and with information about graduate school and career opportunities in completing it successfully is an enormous achievement. This the physical sciences in the context of a professional conference. dedication will ensure that Don Glaser, whom we sadly lost this Students will have an opportunity to present their research in past year (see p. 28), remains an inspiration to our students and talks and posters, as well as tour Lawrence Livermore National faculty for many years to come. Laboratory. We are looking forward to a huge turnout for this event. New Campbell Hall Similarly, we are increasingly looking at ways for the department New Campbell Hall construction is proceeding ahead of schedule, to address issues of retaining our students in this admittedly and with continued good luck we will move into the building in fall rigorous major. This coming spring, Physics will be joining a 2014. New Campbell sits next to LeConte Hall, on the site of the handful of other departments on campus in implementing original (and seismically-poor) Campbell Hall. The new building Berkeley Connect, a new mentoring program at Cal. Berkeley will house all of our colleagues in the Astronomy Department, and Connect offers undergraduate students a chance to connect with there are offices and shared space for many of our Astrophysics their peers, graduate students, professors, and alums based on a 2 PHYSICS AT BERKELEY | Fall 2013 THIS COMING SPRING, Physics will be joining a handful of other departments on campus in implementing Berkeley Connect, a new mentoring program at Cal. Berkeley Connect offers undergraduate students a chance to connect with their peers, graduate students, professors, and alumns based on a shared love of (in our case) physics. shared love of (in our case) physics. This program pairs a small hottest room in undergraduate group with a graduate student mentor in a semester- the department. long program that includes advising, small-group discussions, Most of the special events, and excursions. The goal of the program is to foster offices for the closer ties among our undergrad students through small group advisors and interactions, ties that will help support them throughout their student groups undergraduate careers here at Berkeley. We are eager to see how that help support this program plays out in Physics. our undergradu- ate community Career Development are scattered Our students are enterprising. This past year, a group of our graduate throughout the students formed the Career Development Initiative for the Physical different buildings in the physics complex. Sciences (CDIPS). This student-led organization aims to expose I am just starting to build a vision of how to improve this envi- graduate and postgraduate students to careers outside academia, and ronment. I would like to remodel the Reading Room and modernize to strengthen ties between academic science and industry. its infrastructure, making this a comfortable and inviting place for CDIPS is running an incredibly successful speaker series students to work and socialize. I’d also like to see the offices for that hosts Berkeley PhD alums in successful non-academic or non-traditional careers to inform PhD students about the wide student groups and undergraduate advisors located nearby, making variety of careers available in the physical sciences. I encourage a visible home for our undergraduate majors in the department. any of our alums who might be interested in sharing their career Your feedback and ideas are welcome. experiences to be in touch with us. Public Events More Improvements Just a reminder that Berkeley Physics hosts a number of public Looking to the future, I anticipate embarking on a campaign to events throughout the year, and you are welcome and encouraged improve the physical environment for our undergraduate students. to attend. Looking forward to the Spring semester, you are invited You probably remember the“Reading Room” in New Le Conte, just to attend the Regents’ Lecture by Nobel Laureate and Cal alumnus down the hall from the Donald A. Glaser Advanced Lab. It has been John Mather on February 24. Just a few weeks later, we will host the hub of undergraduate life in the department, and it has not Jim Gates for the Oppenheimer Lecture on March 17, as well as changed for decades. throw open the doors for the ever-popular Cal Day on April 12. If you stop by the Reading Room on any afternoon you will Please join us if you can! find dozens of students working together on their homework, And now, I invite you to learn more in the following pages discussing the latest physics results, or just enjoying the company about the exciting research and activities going on in Berkeley of friends. You will also find them clustered around the few Physics. I’m sure you will be as proud of the work being done electrical outlets on the walls of the room to power their laptops, here as I am. Here’s looking forward to another incredible year! and sweating profusely since aging ventilation makes this the –Steve Boggs Fall 2013 | PHYSICS AT BERKELEY 3 Neutrinos: Ghostly Particles with Exciting Implications BERKELEY’S INFLUENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEUTRINO SCIENCE ARE ADVANCING THE FRONTIERS OF PARTICLE PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY. A SNO+ collaborator hand-cleans the acrylic vessel that will house the experiment’s liquid scintillator target. Also visible are many of the photomultiplier tubes that surround the vessel.