PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS

THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN • 2008 NUMBER 1 eh Y times in Urbana, and Michael Tinkham, Ivar Giaever, Yoichiro BCS@50 ao-Chuang M Nambu, and Philip Anderson provided their unique insights. Lev t’s been hailed as one of the greatest Gor’kov spoke about the impact of Idiscoveries in theoretical physics BCS in the late 1950s and early in the 20th century—a theory that 1960s in Russia. has provided essential insight into David Pines described the Bardeen scores of physics problems, from bottom-up, experiment-based the structure of atomic nuclei to approach to theoretical physics, of the cores of neutron stars. And to which BCS was a perfect example: commemorate this remarkable • Focus first on the experimental intellectual achievement by its own results via reading and personal John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and contact J. Robert Schrieffer (PhD ’57), the • Develop a phenomenological Department of Physics did what it description that ties different always does—it threw a party and experimental results together everybody came. • Explore alternative physical pictures olfe W

Published in December 1957, Above: Superconductivity pioneers at . and mathematical descriptions the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) BCS@50—Dale Van Harlingen, Lev Gor’kov,

ames P without becoming wedded to any J theory of superconductivity provided Charles Slichter, David Pines, Leon Cooper, particular one the first analytical solution to the Marvin Cohen, Michael Tinkham • Thermodynamic and other 46-year-old mystery of super- macroscopic arguments have conductivity —a problem that Right: J. Robert Schrieffer (PhD ’57) precedence over microscopic stumped all the other greats of calculations 20th-century physics. To celebrate he wanted to hear what Bardeen had Phillips recounted how the idea • Focus on physical understanding, the theory’s golden anniversary, to say. He waited. “It seemed like we for a conference to celebrate BCS not mathematical elegance, and use scientists from around the world stood there looking at one another came about. “One day in the fall of the simplest possible mathematical converged on the University of Illinois for 5 minutes,” Slichter said. Finally, 2004, Tony Leggett came to my office description in October for four days devoted to Bardeen let it out: “Charlie, I think in state of great excitement and • Keep up with new developments in superconductivity—“ancient and we’ve solved superconductivity.” exclaimed, ‘Philip, in three years it theoretical techniques—for one of modern,” to use Tony Leggett’s phrase. “I thought, WOW!” Slichter will be 2007!’ I replied, mystified, these may prove useful The conference featured talks by nine said. “It was one of the most exciting ‘Yes, Tony…and in four years, it will • Decide on a model Hamiltonian or Nobel laureates in physics, including moments in science that I’ve ever be 2008.’ Tony waited expectantly for wave function as the penultimate, Leon Cooper and Bob Schrieffer. experienced.” me to grasp the significance of 2007. not the first, step toward a solution Charlie Slichter, whose “It’s 50 years later, and BCS still I never did, so my punishment was • Choose the right collaborators experiments had laid some of stands as a singular contribution to to organize this conference.” • DON’T GIVE UP: Stay with the the groundwork for the theory, theoretical physics,” said Philip Each day of the conference problem until it is solved remembered Bardeen’s walking up Phillips, professor of physics and the explored different aspects of Current trends in super- to him in the hall of the old Physics chair of the conference organizing superconductivity. The first day conductivity, including high-Tc Building one day. “It was clear that committee. “It’s a one-of-a-kind focused on the history and people superconductors, were featured on John had something he wanted to theory with an impact on essentially behind the BCS theory. Charlie the second day. A high point was say to me,” Slichter said. But Bardeen all areas of physics. Indeed, part of the Slichter, David Pines, Leon Cooper, the wide-ranging theory roundtable wasn’t much of a talker, and Slichter beauty of BCS, apart from its seeming and Bob Schrieffer shared personal had learned not to pre-empt him if simplicity, is its true generality.” reminiscences about those heady continued on page 3 Bardeen stamp unveiled Bio meets nano at Physics Illinois ed.

v n March 6, 2008, the

sing computer simulations, eser Department of Physics hosted tauffer researchers at the University of O U the Urbana Postmaster, Kathleen J. rian S Illinois have demonstrated a strategy ll Rights R Burr, regional U.S. Postal Service L. B for sequencing DNA by driving officials, University administrators, the molecule back and forth through and family and friends of John a nanopore capacitor in a semi- © 2007 USPS. A Bardeen at a special unveiling conductor chip. The technique ceremony for the 2008 U.S. postage could lead to a device that would stamp commemorating his read human genomes quickly achievements. One of four American and affordably. scientists being honored this year, Bardeen was recognized for his co-invention Being able to sequence a human genome for $1,000 or less could of the transistor and his contribution to the first fundamental explanation of open a new era in personal medicine, making it possible to precisely superconductivity. (The other scientists being recognized are biochemist Gerty diagnose the cause of many diseases and tailor drugs and treatment Cori, chemist Linus Pauling, and astronomer Edwin Hubble.) procedures to the genetic make-up of an individual. “We are absolutely delighted to see John Bardeen remembered in this way,” “Despite the tremendous interest in using said Department Head Dale J. Van Harlingen. “It is particularly timely that he nanopores for sequencing DNA, it was unclear is being honored this year; May 23, 2008, will mark the centennial of his birth. how, exactly, nanopores could be used to read the We are very pleased that the Urbana postmaster chose to have the ceremony here DNA sequence,” said Assistant Professor of Physics in Loomis, where Professor Bardeen studied and taught for 30 years.” Aleksei Aksimentiev. “We now describe one such In honor of the event, the Champaign-Urbana Stamp Club has created a method.” (G. Sigalov, J. Comer, G. Timp, and A. first-day cover, incorporating a cachet featuring drawings of Bardeen and of Aksimentiev, “Detection of DNA Sequences Using Loomis Laboratory and bearing the stamp and a special first-day Urbana cancel. an Alternating Electric Field in a Nanopore If you would like to obtain one of the first-day covers, write to Celia Elliott at Capacitor,” Nano Lett. 8, 56–63 [2008]) continued on page 2 [email protected]. I

2 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1

Message from the Head and Chancellor levels that is firmly Condensed Matter Physics (ICMT). When I became head a year ago, committed to engaging the faculty This center, made up of theory faculty one of my goals was to enhance the and department administrators in from Physics and many other depth of the academic experience and his year the following the best path for sustaining departments in the Colleges of the quality of life for students, staff, TDepartment and advancing the stature of our Engineering and Liberal Arts and and faculty. This spring semester, we of Physics and great University. Sciences, will focus on cutting-edge will open two new student lounges, the entire physics Despite the limitations set by the research in condensed matter physics one for the undergraduate Physics community budget, it has been a very good year and its intersections with other majors and one for the graduate celebrated the so far for the Department of Physics disciplines. ICMT will organize research students, on the second floor 50th Anniversary and the University of Illinois. Three rapid-response workshops on key of Loomis Laboratory. We hope that of the BCS faculty were promoted for the issues, sponsor visitors in theory and these lounges will provide a location Theory—the 2007/08 academic year, Naomi experiment, support postdoctoral for students to meet fellow students, remarkable Makins and Taekjip Ha to professor researchers and graduate research relax, exchange ideas, and keep up-to- microscopic theory of super- of physics, and Matthias Grosse students, and serve as center-piece for date on activities in the department. conductivity developed by John Perdekamp to associate professor of interdisciplinary theory research on Our next target is create a faculty staff Bardeen, his postdoc Leon Cooper, physics with indefinite tenure. Nigel campus. We are currently remodeling lounge in space being freed up as the and his graduate student Robert Goldenfeld has been appointed a the 3rd floor of the Engineering library transitions to a more electronic Schrieffer at the University of Illinois Swanlund Endowed Chair, the most Sciences Building to house the ICMT, resource and back volumes of journals, in 1957. This work is arguably the prestigious endowed position on with occupation scheduled for now available online, are archived. single most important scholarly campus, with the formal investiture Summer 2008. We are pleased that All of these projects require achievement to ever come out of ceremony scheduled for March. Joint Paul Goldbart has agreed to serve as resources, and we are warmly the Department and the University Physics and Astronomy Professor the first director of the center, with appreciative of the interest and and earned the authors the 1975 Charles Gammie has been named a Tony Leggett as the chief scientist. financial support that is generously Nobel Prize in Physics. To mark University Scholar, one of the highest Another project underway is to given by our Physics alumni and this occasion, we hosted BCS@50, honors granted by the University of modernize the student-staff machine friends. One of our objectives is an international conference in Urbana Illinois. Two faculty members have shop housed in the adjacent Materials to maintain contact with our in October. It was truly a memorable event, with more than 250 attendees, received recognition from the Research Laboratory. In a joint venture extraordinary alumni and make including 9 Nobel Laureates. We are American Physical Society, Russ with MRL, Physics is investing in new them feel a part of the Physics family most grateful to Philip Phillips for Giannetta elected as a Fellow and equipment for the shop and a new and the legacy they helped to build. organizing this meeting and investing Gordon Baym awarded the prestigious machinist to train students and help As you read this newsletter, I invite his energy, passion, and vision into Lars Onsager Prize for Statistical research groups with design projects. you to remember your Illinois making it an unforgettable success. Physics, along with former Illinois The ability to make custom parts for experience and celebrate with us in Besides being inspirational and fun, Professor Chris Pethick. The campus innovative instrumentation is crucial how the Department of Physics BCS@50 reminded us all of how has also received notable recognition for our experimental efforts all areas, has evolved and remains a leader in fortunate we are to be associated in the form of research support, with particularly condensed matter and fundamental and applied physics with such a great Physics department UI partnering with UC Berkeley on a atomic/molecular/optical physics. research and education. I and how grateful we are to our $500M grant from British Petroleum I consider it a high priority of the predecessors who established our to develop biofuel production and department to maintain the high level legacy of excellence. Many people winning the $200M National Science of technical infrastructure that has said very nice things about the Foundation competition to build Blue helped to make our research program Department of Physics at this event— Waters, the next generation petaflop productive and vibrant. Dale J. Van Harlingen we should all be very proud and supercomputer, on the Urbana- appreciative and inspired to preserve Champaign campus. Physics and enhance the Urbana tradition researchers were instrumental in that BCS represents. attracting both of these projects and Bio meets nano at Physics Illinois As I move through my second will be key players in their execution. (continued from page 1) year as head of the department, I The department also continues continue to be motivated by the to grow our research program and talents and ideas of my colleagues start new initiatives, striving always “Through molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that and the enthusiasm and desire of to be a major force and leader in back-and-forth motion of a DNA molecule in a nanopore capacitor 1 nm our students to learn and grow. I also science research and education. in diameter produces an electrostatic fingerprint that can be used to read must admit that despite a whole year This year we welcome two the genetic sequence,” said Aksimentiev, who also is a researcher at the of experience under my belt, I am remarkable young faculty members Beckman Institute. finding this year to be rather more at the assistant professor level to the In the researchers’ simulations, performed at the university’s National of a challenge. I suppose the first year department. Mark Neubauer joins the Center for Supercomputing Applications, the nanopore capacitor consists I just continued things the way they Experimental High Energy group from of two conducting layers of doped silicon, separated by an insulating layer were done before—now I am Fermilab—he will focus on projects of silicon dioxide. examining more closely how we can designed to search for the elusive As DNA passes through the nanopore, the molecule’s electric field maintain and enhance the quality of Higgs boson and the sources of dark induces sequence-specific electrostatic potentials that can be detected at the department while we deal with the energy and dark matter at the Large the top and bottom layers of the capacitor membrane. serious financial realities that face the Hadron Collider, the world’s highest A semiconductor device capable of reading the electrostatic potentials department and the University. We energy particle accelerator, which will and decoding the genetic sequence is within the grasp of current are in a time of unbounded ideas and be turning on at CERN in Switzerland technology, Aksimentiev said. “Nanometer pores in electronic membranes energy but limited resources. Strategic in the next year. Benjamin Lev is an have been manufactured, and the voltage signals resulting from DNA planning has inspired us to think experimentalist in atomic, molecular, movement through such pores have been recorded.” outside the box to generate innovative and optical (AMO) physics and The next big challenge, Aksimentiev said, is to minimize noise in the plans and creative visions, but the arrived in January from NIST Boulder system and reduce the speed of DNA molecules moving through the pore. box is presently short of the means to to set up a program in ultracold Aksimentiev received his PhD in chemistry cum laude from the implement all of them. The bottom atomic and molecular physics, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Warsaw, Poland, in 1999, after completing line is that we are facing tough choices quantum optics, and quantum a master’s degree in particle physics at the Ivan Franko Lviv State in deciding what to do and what to information science. We have also University in his native Ukraine in 1996. He received postdoctoral training invest in, and even tougher decisions had two departures—Richard Martin, at the Materials Science Laboratory R&D Center of Mitsui Chemicals, on what we can no longer continue to a computational condensed matter Tokyo, Japan, from 1999 to 2001, when he joined the Theoretical and do as we move forward. It is a difficult physicist who is retiring to spend time Computational Biophysics Group at the University of Illinois as a time for our economy at all levels with his grandchildren in California, postdoctoral research associate. He accepted the position of assistant but there is good news ahead, an and Thomas Junk, taking a research professor of physics at Illinois in 2005. I upcoming national election that will position at Fermilab. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the University of Illinois. give us an opportunity to move in This year also marks the launching Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are a new and more productive and of an exciting new venture in the those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders. compassionate direction and a campus department, the Institute for administration at the Dean, Provost,

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PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 3

So, what did you do with your physics degree? Meet alumnus Frank Lederman

BY JOYCE MAST to see if it can be done. It is systems thinking.” Physics also taught him bserve, collect data, make what questions to ask to identify the Odecisions, solve problems— underlying mechanism driving a and make changes. These physics particular problem. principles led Frank Lederman into Lederman’s most satisfying management and guided the former moment as a CTO came when he chief technology officer and vice convinced the CEO and key business president of Alcoa throughout his managers that they needed to play more than 30-year career in research a larger role in deciding which management and technology technologies get pursued and how development. they are managed. The technologies Lederman graduated with a PhD ranged from the design of alloys in both theoretical and experimental for an airplane wing to “enabling solid state physics from the University technologies” such as the physical of Illinois in 1975. He liked academia chemistry behind production but was intrigued by industry. “The processes. environment I saw was fast-paced “We formed a ‘virtual technology and exciting. Many of my interview organization’” Lederman recalled, discussions were interrupted with “I gave up a lot of direct control over colleagues’ bringing new results of people, and I think I was respected theories. They were working on real- change the course of a river by As CTO, Lederman secured for putting the company first, with a world, practical problems, but with structure that is more global for a plenty of hard science.” paddling downstream.” Alcoa’s “technical health.” He was General Electric gave Lederman responsible for research, development, global company.” Lederman began his career at Lederman is retired now but General Electric as a physicist, many opportunities to make changes and engineering at the corporate during his 12-year tenure there. He laboratories and at the business units, is still involved in technology conducting research in different management as a member of the subjects, including ultrasonic held eight different positions, and which oversaw product lines. His job was even occasionally tempted by was to ensure that the technological board of directors of Cray Inc. and imaging; he was one of the designers as an emeritus member of the of GE’s first medical ultrasonic academic physics. While working on strategy and technology of the the ultrasound projects, he was offered company’s products and processes Industrial Research Institute, which system. Within a year, he was given consists of past and present CTOs. the opportunity to coordinate a large the alternative to collaborate with a were all running smoothly. This was medical doctor and write a review an ideal job for a physicist, he said, He also volunteers his time on several study for the group vice president— university advisory boards. Jack Welch. To carry out such a role article on the science of ultrasound because “Physicists deal with a broad technology or be promoted within the range of technologies, including For students and colleagues so fresh out of school was “very interested in a career in technology unusual,” he recalled. company to a higher management biotechnology, nanotechnology, position. He opted for management, metallurgy, etc., so physics is the management, Lederman suggests, “Get During his 12 years at GE, exposure to a lot of different things, Lederman observed a frustrated even though it took him away from perfect platform for designing and ultrasound, which is now a billion- leading a company’s technological and develop a vision for using your colleague’s attempts to lead and unique abilities to follow your decided that management was his dollar business for GE. strategy.” Lederman left GE in 1988 for As a member of Alcoa’s executive passion.” On what academic subject calling. He became an excellent leader should you build a triumphant with a passion for pursuing the best Canada-based Noranda, a metallurgy team, Lederman participated in and mining company, where he was Alcoa’s business decisions, and his technology management? “There’s no solution for a problem. “It means question,” he says, “Physics is the right change, often when others are most senior vice president of technology, physics again came in handy. “A science. I wouldn’t pick another.” I resistant to it,” Lederman says. “But and then for Alcoa, the world’s leading physics background gives you that’s what leaders do; they make producer of aluminum and its experience in taking big complex [Ed. This article is based on an interview changes. I remember one thesis products, where he served as the vice problems and breaking them down appearing in the April 2007 APS News.] adviser telling me that you can’t president and chief technical officer into bite-size pieces. You need to look for six years. at the toughest part of a project first,

BCS@50 (continued from page 1) olfe W . ames P chaired by Philip Phillips; panelists provided a glimpse of the future in J were Philip Anderson, Sudip “From BCS through HTS to RTS.” Chakravarty, Andrey Chubukov, The last day of the conference Matthew P.A. Fisher (PhD ’86), featured the impact of BCS on other Steven Kivelson, David Pines, George areas of physics, including neutron Sawatzky, Douglas Scalapino, stars (Gordon Baym), nuclear Chandra Varma, and Jan Zaanen. superfluids (Ben Mottelson), Unconventional superconductors superfluid 3He (Doug Osheroff and —and the problems they pose for Tony Leggett), the BCS—were highlighted on the third BCS–BEC day. Speakers included Dale Van crossover in cold Harlingen (Josephson interferometry atoms (Debbie Jin), and mapping the pairing state of and BCS quantum unconventional superconductors), Hall states (James Joe Thompson (superconductivity in Eisenstein). More heavy-fermion materials), Andrew than 250 physicists Mackenzie (superconductivity and and students took electron correlations in the part in the

eh Left: Leon Cooper ruthenates), and Paul Chaikin celebration. I Y Above: Myron Salamon and Miles Klein (organic superconductors). Paul Chu ao-Chuang M

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

4 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1

The sports television revolution

BY RICK KUBETZ “If you can track the pitch, you can study the forces on the ball as it tvision por t used to be that you “couldn’t tell travels through the air,” said Nathan, S Ithe players without a scorecard.” who was on hand in August 2006, These days, watching sports on when Sportvision installed its television is often a better experience equipment at U.S. Cellular Field, than being there. Now, high- home of the Chicago White Sox. definition, big screen TVs, “The company isn’t necessarily knowledgeable commentators, and a interested in what I’m interested in, host of special effects bring you into but they have been very open with me the game as viewer, scorekeeper, and about how they do the tracking and sometimes the athlete’s wingman. they have provided data,” Nathan One of the people responsible for remarked. “This is pretty precise stuff this on-screen revolution is alumnus that they do. Now that I have geared Sportvision’s Emmy Award-winning virtual first-down line—a high-tech Marvin White (BS ’69), chief up to do the analysis of what they send entertainment technology that has changed the game for armchair quarterbacks me, we’ll be able to pin down these

tvision aerodynamic forces. por

S virtual flags above the cars during a “What they do is use video Today, Sportvision’s digital race broadcast, so that television cameras to track the ball from the tracking technology creates digital viewers can follow their favorite drivers pitcher to home plate, which they records enabling new content across more easily. enhance with graphics to show you on many sports, better broadcasts, and As part of a highly skilled team of the screen,” Nathan added. “They send new subscription content. According developers, White is often “hands on,” me the actual trajectory data, which I to the company, these products help especially for projects involving applied use to determine the drag and lift the viewer “see the invisible” and mathematics and physics—tracking forces.” understand the game better. For balls or players, calculating trajectories, “Professor Adair’s insights example, Sportvision’s Virtual Caddy and handling voluminous data flows. definitely changed how we were system enables TV golf analysts to Project development involves software tracking pitches,” White explained. “draw” directly on the green or and hardware design and development “In particular, we fairway, illustrating as well as research and feasibility replaced our original different elements of play “The mathematics I assessment, covering topics from technology officer of Sportvision, K-Zone system, which such as landing zones, real-time high-definition broadcast the premier global provider of focused on the near learned at Illinois has putting accuracy, slope enhancement to vehicle, player, and enhancements for sports television. vicinity of home plate, been at least as helpful and contour. The ball tracking. Sportvision is the market An expert in the development of with PITCHf/x that technology provides in my career as physics. leader for sports and entertainment mapping technology, White has been tracks the pitch from powerful visual insights products for fans, media companies with Sportvision since its inception, release to home plate. Indeed, it is hard for me into player performance. and marketers and is widely recognized where he has led the development of This gave us the ability Other products include to think of any course, as the most innovative contributor to numerous broadcast enhancement to compute break and the Emmy-Award- from English to sports broadcasting. Their operations systems, including the two-time other pitch winning TOURCast involve more than 600 sports Emmy-winning virtual yellow 1st characteristics. (Ed. differential equations to viewing application on broadcast and webcast events per year. and Ten Line™, the Emmy-winning note: Nathan recently PGATOUR.com and German, that hasn’t Prior to joining Sportvision, White KZone™ virtual strike zone, and the used the PITCHf/x annotated course was general manager of commercial Virtual Caddy™ golf enhancement data to calculate the been helpful.” flyovers. solutions for Etak, a digital mapping system. trajectory of Barry In 1996, one of company, where he was responsible for “I majored in physics, so Bonds’ record-breaking 756th Sportvision’s founders, Stan Honey, development of Etak’s core mapping naturally, that background was helpful career home run—see then at Fox Sports, led a team (many technology, operation of a large digital in modeling flight of baseballs, http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a- of whom are now at Sportvision) that map production operation, and the footballs, etc., as well as many other nathan/pob/bonds/b756.html.) developed a way to track hockey pucks commercial mapping business. He projects we have undertaken,” White “We had already made that change with a glowing highlight for National developed his expertise in digital said. “The mathematics I learned at by the time I met Alan and have not Hockey League broadcasts as a benefit mapping as principal researcher at the Illinois has been at least as helpful in made significant changes in our to television viewers. It was assumed at U.S. Census Bureau, where he received my career as physics. Indeed, it is hard algorithms since. However, I expect that time that viewers had a hard time international for me to think of any course, from we will make changes as we learn more keeping track of the As part of a highly skilled recognition for his English to differential equations to about atmospheric drag in working puck in lightning-fast work in applied German, that hasn’t been helpful.” with him. He indicated that he sees NHL play. Although team of developers,White mathematics research. Ironically, it wasn’t his alumni more information in the tracking data “FoxTrax” is no longer is often “hands on,” He is regarded as one status that brought him back in touch that will permit us to improve our on air (since Fox no of the world’s leading with his alma mater. It was Alan constant acceleration model with one longer broadcasts NHL especially for projects experts in automated Nathan’s studies on the physics of that more accurately estimates drag games), it was the start involving applied mapping and related baseball that completed the over the course of the trajectory. of what eventually mathematics and areas. While at the connection. We just have to find time to do became “1st & Ten” and Census Bureau, White “I had been carrying on a that work.” the formation of the physics—tracking balls or and his team built the correspondence with Bob Adair Located in Mountain View, Sportvision company, players, calculating foundation for the (professor emeritus of physics at Yale California, Sportvision is an both in 1998. trajectories, and handling TIGER system, used and the author of the book, Physics of independent provider of television “‘1st & Ten’ became for all the decennial Baseball) about our pitch tracking, viewing enhancements to a number of a major hit with voluminous data flows. censuses since 1980. and I believe he mentioned our work different sports broadcasts—from the television viewers when In addition to his to Alan (Nathan),” White explained. NFL and college football, to the NBA, it appeared in that year’s degree from Illinois, White did a year A medium-energy/nuclear NASCAR, NHL, and Major League Super Bowl broadcast,” White said. of graduate study in physics at UCLA. experimentalist, Nathan has Baseball. Just as the virtual yellow 1st It has since become part of all He has published more than 30 combined his scientific expertise and Ten Line™ provides the football standard football broadcasts. professional papers and has been with a lifelong passion for baseball— viewer with a better feel for the game, Another popular Sportvision awarded 13 patents. White leads particularly as practiced by the Boston Sportvision features allow for better product is seen with broadcasts of product development and field Red Sox—to explore the physical storytelling, stronger messaging, and NASCAR races. GPS tracking is used operations for Sportvision. I forces that make America’s favorite new advertising within the program in its RACEf/x technology to create pastime so interesting. content.

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PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 5

Alumni award for distinguished service

To Ralph O. Simmons, for landmark notable as the direct and unambiguous spectrometers. In the 1990s, Materials Research contributions to the understanding of way to determine the net vacancy his group used synchrotron Laboratory (of which he point defects in metals and to definitive content in crystals. X-rays to make the first was a founding member). measurements of thermodynamic, defect, Simmons’ interests then shifted quantitative studies of atomic Altogether, he has and dynamical properties of prototype to a neglected column of the periodic vibration amplitudes in both supervised 33 doctoral solids formed from noble and other table—the noble gases—for which crystal 3He and 4He. These neutron and dissertations at the University of Illinois gases, in particular solid helium, and for thermodynamic properties in the X-ray scattering measurements have and several other universities in Finland, superlative leadership and unstinting crystalline state had been limited to given definitive data for direct the Netherlands, and Germany, and he service to the Department of Physics and calorimetric and crude elastic studies. confrontation with the newest was a pioneer in focusing national the College of Engineering at the After techniques were perfected for sophisticated computer simulations attention on the under-representation University of Illinois. growing and characterizing excellent of quantum crystals. He also worked of women in US physics. crystals, a series of thermodynamic with several students to produce the Simmons also played an measurements on the whole family— first X-ray inelastic scattering studies of instrumental role in the development n April 26, 2007, alumnus (PhD Xe, Kr, Ar, Ne and its isotopes— electronic excitations in solid and liquid of a massive proposal to the National ’57), professor, and former Physics O redefined, by two orders of magnitude, helium and the first X-ray inelastic Science Foundation for a super- department head Ralph O. Simmons the precision with which such scattering measurements of phonon computing center, which stimulated was thus recognized by the College of anharmonic properties as the thermal excitations in solid helium, especially and eventually helped define a national Engineering at the University of Illinois expansion are known. These studies the isotope 3He. Motivation for this policy for supercomputing centers and for his innumerable contributions to provided data for critical tests of the work is elucidation of the dynamics, the establishment of the National physics and to the university. theories of anharmonic lattice dynamics over extreme ranges of density and Center for Supercomputing After earning a BA in mathematics being developed in the 1960s. temperature, of the most extreme bulk Applications at Illinois. from the University of Kansas, His success in experimental physics 3D atomic quantum system known. In addition to numerous leadership Simmons was a Rhodes Scholar at has been grounded in the development As department head, Simmons and committee assignments at the Oxford University, where he earned a of new techniques in cryogenics and in recruited 43 faculty, including the now- University of Illinois, Simmons served second BA in physics in 1953 and a imaginative X-ray instrument design. Nobel laureate A.J. Leggett, and saw a variety of science organizations master’s degree, also in physics, in Going to higher pressures and lower the completion of 514 PhD theses. including the American Association for 1954. His PhD thesis at Illinois, temperatures, Simmons’ group His vision, leadership, and selection and the Advancement of Science, American “X-ray study of deuteron irradiated produced what remains the only direct mentoring of new faculty helped solidify Institute of Physics, American Physical copper near 10 K,” was done under X-ray measurements of the equilibrium the department’s “Top 10” status and #1 Society, and Institute of Physics (UK). the supervision of James S. Koehler. vacancy content of helium solids and ranking in condensed matter physics. He He is a former chair of the Office of Following a postdoctoral unique X-ray structural studies of also began the expansion of faculty in Physical Sciences for the U.S. National appointment at Illinois, Simmons crystalline phase transformations in biomolecular physics, a significant part Research Council. He chaired user and joined the physics faculty in 1959, both solid helium and solid molecular of current physics research at Illinois. program committees at Argonne teaching and establishing a research hydrogen. No other laboratory has Simmons also built strong ties with National Laboratory and the Rutherford group studying properties of condensed succeeded in carrying out similar X-ray the Department of Astronomy, including Appleton Laboratory (UK). gases (with support from the U.S. work, despite considerable effort. joint faculty appointments, more Simmons was elected a Fellow of Atomic Energy Commission). He was Simmons’ work may be pivotal in astrophysical research, and the physical the American Physical Society in 1962, promoted to full professor in 1965, and understanding the recently discovered relocation of that department in just five years past his PhD. He is a became department head in 1970. “supersolid” phase of helium. proximity to Physics. For a decade, he Fellow of the American Association for A formidable researcher, Simmons In the 1980s, Simmons pioneered chaired a university committee to the Advancement of Science (1984), (with R.W. Balluffi) first proved that the direct measurement of atomic establish a Department of Atmospheric and a Senior University Scholar at self-diffusion in the close-packed metals momentum distributions in crystals Sciences and oversaw its programs. Illinois. He received the Alexander von (Al, Cu, Ag, Au) proceeds by atomic of helium, neon, argon, molecular In 1986, Simmons returned to Humboldt Foundation Senior US vacancies. The “Simmons–Balluffi hydrogen, and other molecular solids, teaching and to continuing his research Scientist Award in 1992. I method” became a textbook example, using pulsed neutron time-of-flight as a member of the Frederick Seitz Old Physics Building designated historic site

o commemorate the Nobel Prize in Physics. Tpioneering work of University The old Physics Building is of Illinois researchers in the 12th historic site in the U.S. to understanding the mechanism of be honored by the APS. Other superconductivity, the American sites include the Franklin Institute Physical Society has designated in Philadelphia, in recognition of the old Physics Building, 1304 Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering West Green Street, Urbana, as a work in electricity; The Johns site of historic significance to Hopkins University, where Henry Left: The original Physics Building Right: Dedication of the Laboratory of Physics at the University of Illinois in 1909 physics. Rowland revolutionized Leo Kadanoff, president of the APS and spectroscopy with his ruled gratings; and former Illinois faculty member, presented a “The designation of the greatest discoveries in Washington University in St. Louis, where bronze plaque to Chancellor Richard old Physics Building as a theoretical physics in the 20th Arthur Compton conducted his famous X-ray Herman during a ceremony on October 11 in national historic physics site century, Baym said. Added scattering experiment. conjunction with the BCS@50 conference. by the APS is a singular John D. and Catherine T. Completed in 1909 at a cost of The plaque, mounted at the Green St. honor to the university,” said MacArthur Chair and Center $220,000, the Physics Building was the home entrance to the building, reads, “In this Gordon Baym, the George for Advanced Study Professor of the physics department until 1959, when building, the home of the University of Illinois and Ann Fisher Distinguished of Physics Anthony J. the department moved to the “new” Physics Physics Department from 1909 to 1959, Professor of Engineering and Leggett, “I think it really is one Building (now Loomis Laboratory of Physics). John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and J. Robert Center for Advanced Study of the landmarks in 20th- The original “Laboratory of Physics” was Schrieffer created the ‘BCS’ theory of Professor of Physics. The first century physics. It had a renamed the Metallurgy and Mining Building in superconductivity in 1956–57. For this great analytical solution to the James P. Wolfe tremendous spinoff on 1963 and currently houses the Department of achievement of theoretical physics, they problem of superconductivity, Chancellor Richard Herman various other areas.” One of Materials Science and Engineering. were awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in the Bardeen-Cooper- accepts bronze plaque from APS those areas was Leggett’s Founded in 1899 to advance and diffuse Physics. Historic Physics Site, Register of Schrieffer (BCS) theory has President Leo Kadanoff own work on superfluidity, for the knowledge of physics, the APS has more I Historic Sites, American Physical Society.” been hailed as one of the which he shared the 2003 than 48,000 members worldwide.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

6 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 Faculty News

Donald M. Ginsberg Gammie named 1933–2007 2007 University Scholar onald M. Ginsberg, a important hint for the best recipe Dworld authority on came from a colleague whom he met superconductivity, passed in a chance encounter at an airport. away on May 7, 2007, at his Not only did he make the most careful residence in Urbana, Illinois. transport and equilibrium thermo- He was awarded the 1998 dynamic measurements, but he American Physical Society’s generously shared his best-in-the-world Oliver E. Buckley Prize (the crystals with colleagues at numerous highest award in condensed institutions around the world, despite matter physics) for his work the intense competition in the field. on high temperature Working with the group of Dale Van superconductivity. Among Harlingen, he established the high- harles F. Gammie has been the achievements for which temperature superconductor YBCO to Cnamed one of six 2007 he was honored, Ginsberg have d-wave pairing symmetry and University Scholars at the University created what were universally shared the Oliver E. Buckley Prize of Illinois. The program recognizes acknowledged at the time to be “The Flautist Who Couldn’t Play Forte” with Van Harlingen and J. R. Kirtley excellence and helps to identify and the world’s finest samples of and C. C. Tseui of IBM’s Thomas J. retain the university’s most talented yttrium-barium-copper-oxide, and Buckley Prize of the American Physical Watson Research Center. teachers, scholars, and researchers, freely shared them to the scientific Society. At Illinois, Donald Ginsberg was said Chancellor Richard Herman in community worldwide. Because of the Ginsberg’s research was in widely recognized for his outstanding announcing the appointments. classroom teaching. Thirty-six PhD sensitivity of d-wave superconductivity superconductivity, and he played a Gammie, a professor of physics students did their research under his to impurities, this advance was the major role in almost every fundamental and of astronomy at Illinois, has direction. Donald Ginsberg published key ingredient in establishing the aspect of this field since the late 1950s. made pioneering contributions to more than 240 papers with many properties of the high Tc super- Building on his far-infrared graduate understanding the structure and conductors, allowing the determination hundreds of coauthors at two dozen experience, he helped to develop planar dynamics of accretion disks around of the d-wave state, the fluctuations quasiparticle tunneling spectroscopy as domestic and foreign institutions. black holes and newly formed stars. and other novel features. For many a vital probe of the energy gap of He was greatly appreciated by his He has also made significant years, Ginsberg authored the section metallic superconductors. In the colleagues for his science, but equally contributions to understanding in the Encyclopaedia Britannica on 1970s, he contributed greatly to for his wide range of interests outside turbulence in gas threaded by superconductivity; in addition, he the understanding of the effects of of physics and his direct and often wrote several influential review articles magnetic and non-magnetic impurities humorous way of expressing his magnetic fields in a variety of and book chapters, starting with on the electronic structure of thoughts. To celebrate his retirement, astrophysical settings. His focus has his review (with L. C. Hebel (PhD superconductors through a wide variety on April 19, 1997, a day-long been on problems that require large- ’57)) on “Nonequilibrium properties of measurements, including electronic symposium entitled “Super- scale computations for solution, and of superconductors” in the seminal transport, thermal conductivity, specific conductivity with a Smile” was held he has helped to formulate new two-volume set edited by R. D. Parks heat, and magnetic susceptibility. at Illinois and attended by more than approaches and algorithms to tackle in 1964. During the early 1990s, In the 1980s, Ginsberg extended his 100 colleagues, former students, long-standing, unsolved problems in Ginsberg edited the definitive five- research to incorporate binary and and friends, some of whom traveled astrophysics. According to head of volume book, The Physical Properties of ternary compounds, finally focusing hundreds or thousands of miles to Astronomy, You-Hua Chu, “Charles High Temperature Superconductors, to on the molybdenum chalcogenides be there. Many others from around Gammie is uniquely poised to excel which he also contributed. (sometimes referred to the world who could not attend in these fields because he is Donald M. as Chevrel compounds), sent their best wishes. simultaneously strong in mathe- Ginsberg was born perhaps the most In addition to his matics, physics, and numerical on November 19, complex superconduct- accomplishments in physics, Ginsberg computation.” 1933, to Maurice ing materials known at enjoyed the cultural side of life, Gammie was also cited for his Jesse and Zelda the time. Because of especially music, which he indulged by effective and innovative teaching. As Robbins Ginsberg in their complexity and playing the flute, and poetry. After his part of a National Science Foundation retirement, he wrote several books of Chicago. He joined inherent sensitivity and PECASE Award, he produced an poetry, which featured his whimsical the department of instability, Ginsberg online “Digital Demo Room” observations of physics, physicists, and physics at the realized the necessity of (http://rainman.astro.uiuc.edu/ddr/)— personal life. No event was too small University of Illinois growing his own well- a suite of tools for users ranging immediately after to be lampooned by his fiendishly dry characterized and clean from novice undergrads to advanced finishing his graduate crystals in order to wit and droll turn of phrase. For researchers—to simulate disk galaxy work with Professor measure their funda- example, in considering his own long dynamics, stellar structure and Michael Tinkham at mental properties, and career at Illinois, Donald remarked evolution, one- and two-dimensional the University of thus became a world simply to a colleague a few months hydrodynamics, and even supernovae California, Berkeley, leader in preparing ago, “When they ask about the old in 1959. He took Don Ginsberg in 1959, when samples of these days, just tell them we had a good explosions. As he noted, “What could sabbatical leaves at he applied for a job at the compounds. Ginsberg time.” With the passing of Donald be more fun than blowing up a star?” Cambridge University of Illinois not only determined the Ginsberg, the world has lost a Different versions of the University (UK), UC structure and physical resourceful and clever physicist and a simulations are available (beginner, Berkeley, UC San Diego, The Ohio properties of the Chevrels, but he uniquely multi-faceted personality. intermediate, advanced), depending State University, and IBM T.J. Watson supplied crystals to dozens of We’ll miss him very much. I on the user’s level of knowledge. Research Laboratory. In addition to colleagues for a broad variety of Gammie has also been instrumental being a Fellow of the American measurements. Nigel Goldenfeld (University of Illinois) in involving undergraduates in his Physical Society, his awards include Following the discovery of cuprate Laura Greene (University of Illinois) pioneering research, raising the the Sloan Foundation Fellowship, superconductors, Ginsberg was quick Miles Klein (University of Illinois) competitiveness of the next- the Daniel C. Drucker Tau Beta Pi to redirect his lab in this direction. He Thomas Lemberger (The Ohio State generation of physical scientists. I Eminent Faculty Award (U. Illinois), tried every published recipe for creating University) University Scholar (U. Illinois), good samples but was dissatisfied with Dale Van Harlingen (University of Illinois) associate in the Center for Advanced all of them, finally developing his own Study (U. Illinois), and the Oliver E. approach. He claimed that the most

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PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 7

Beck receives 2007 Nordsieck Teaching Award

ouglas H. Beck was recognized Their purpose was initially to Dwith the 2007 Arnold T. establish a baseline for students’ Nordsieck Award for Excellence in knowledge of and ability to use Teaching for his creation of an honors calculus. Beck and Ghrist built the introductory mechanics course in new course in real time one frantic Physics and for his leadership in fall semester; according to Beck, transforming the way calculus is “the overlap of what Rob and I were taught to engineers. thinking was, in retrospect, quite Beck, a nuclear experimentalist, remarkable.” Like the curriculum is the intellectual leader of the G0 revisions pioneered earlier in the experiment at Thomas Jefferson Physics introductory courses for National Accelerator Facility (JLab), engineers, the new calculus course a collaboration of more than 80 senior combines a formal lecture with physicists from 18 institutions. The discussion sections. The lecture is Illinois group, under Beck’s leadership, intended to raise the students’ general was responsible for the main level of sophistication in logical instrumentation for the experiment, thinking as well as to convey the including a $3M superconducting specific calculus content, while the magnet and associated control discussion sections feature group work electronics, which were designed on specific problems that illustrate and tested here before being installed the material covered in lecture. in the experiment at JLab. Beck thus Doug Beck, center, with students James Porretta and Alex Chesebro, working on a group The problems are drawn from understands the rigors of real-life problem in the new “Calculus for Engineers” class other courses—physics, chemistry, and engineering practice, and this insight engineering—and Beck was surprised translates to superb teaching for to learn that students often complain, engineers. of quantities and generalize a problem style—is as important an addition to especially at the beginning of the One problem that Physics has by removing constraints. Beck created the students’ intellectual toolkit as the course, that the discussion problems always faced in the introductory classes new homework problems to exploit mathematical techniques they learn in “don’t have anything to do with the is the wide disparities in the high particular mathematical techniques, the first part of the course.” lectures.” school preparation of engineering from simple trigonometric identities In addition to his work in the “The students are unable to make undergraduates. Some students, who to taking limits. In all cases, Beck honors mechanics course, for the last the connection that calculus is a tool to come from large suburban schools, related abstract concepts to real world two years Beck has nucleated a College apply to real problems, not an end-all often take two high school physics problems. For example, students of Engineering/Liberal Arts and in itself. In the past, I expected the courses, including advanced placement advance from considering the tension Sciences project to revamp the way students to be able to make this link courses; others, from smaller rural on a rope suspended between trees to calculus is taught to engineers. As Beck with no help at all,” said Beck. schools, may not have had any physics thinking about how a capstan works describes it, the COE/LAS Calculus “Teaching the course has shown us, at all. While it was clear early on that (and using the “plot” function in Project started a bit by accident, when as instructors, that we must work on the underprepared students needed Mathematica® to calculate ex from the he was contacted by the former ‘language skills’—helping the students assistance to be successful in the series solution for the problem). undergraduate program director in to translate math to English and introductory physics classes, it took a Beck also introduced a “project” Math, Randy McCarthy, who was English to math.” while longer to recognize the need to component to the course. Instead of trying to drop a course taken by some Beck received his bachelor’s degree provide meaningful instruction to working instructor-selected homework Physics students. “In talking to Randy, in physics from the University of “overprepared” students, too, those problems all semester, teams of we realized that we both felt passionate Saskatchewan in 1979 and his PhD in who might otherwise just go through students now select a problem of their about teaching a more appropriate physics from Massachusetts Institute of the motions. The department thus own choosing to study for the last four version of calculus to scientists and Technology in 1986. After working as a began several years ago to offer a one- to five weeks of the course. They then engineers. He brought in Rob Ghrist senior research fellow at the California hour “honors” supplement to the collaboratively write a scientific paper (from Mathematics) and co-opted Institute of Technology for two years, calculus-based introductory physics (at the level of The American Journal of Keith Hjelmstad (then associate dean he joined our department as an classes. Students who elect this option Physics) that presents the problem and for academic affairs in the COE), and assistant professor in 1989. He was take, in addition to the standard discusses their results. In one paper, we just started teaching.” promoted to associate professor in introductory physics classes, a “All Chained Up,” students Jon 1994 and to full professor in 1999. I supplemental one-credit-hour Adams, Lauren Aycock, David companion class that allows them to Grayson, and Lauren McNeil showed explore, under the guidance of a senior that the solution to a problem given faculty member, interesting problems in a popular introductory physics Leggett honored with plaque in considerably more depth. textbook is incorrect! They also With only the initial idea of expanded the problem to consider Anthony J. Leggett, the John D. and eeman creating some sort of “physics-plus” the case of a very long chain (one r Catherine T. MacArthur Professor and experience for more advanced students, extending from the loading bay of the Center for Advanced Study Professor of

Beck tackled the job of creating an International Space Station nearly to Katherine F Physics, was recognized this fall with a honors curriculum from scratch for the the surface of the Earth) to introduce University historical marker honoring calculus-based introductory general a non-uniform gravitational field. him for his elucidation of the theory of mechanics course over one memorable In another paper, Jie Chou and Daniel superfluidity, for which he shared the Christmas break. A major innovation Joe analyzed the “linear optical 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. The was incorporating the use of trajectory” of a fly ball to explain why plaque is one of about 40 installed Mathematica®—remember, these are a popular explanation of the curved across the Illinois campus to recognize freshmen and sophomores—to allow path on the ground that an outfielder noteworthy individuals and their discoveries. Colleagues, friends, and the students to characterize a physical takes to catch the ball is incorrect. students gathered at a reception on November 30 to celebrate the unveiling situation by solving differential Says Beck, “The skill set of the historical marker, located at the west entrance to Loomis equations. Students also learned to emphasized in the project portion of Laboratory on Goodwin Avenue. I make more use of graphs to present the course—working collaboratively their results, and in particular to in teams, communicating science, explore dimensionless combinations acquiring a formal scientific writing

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

8 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 Faculty News

Albert Wattenberg his group, studying steps that led to the standard model the fission of of weak and electromagnetic 1917–2007 uranium. As a young interactions. and talented In 1958, the University of Illinois instrumentalist, Al recruited Al by offering him a special rofessor Albert Wattenberg died at summer after learned to use Geiger research professorship; teaching was Pthe age of 90 on June 27, 2007, college, Al took counters, served as a voluntary. Although he did teach— at Clark-Lindsey Village in Urbana. a hands-on draftsman and a much to the benefit of generations He served on the faculty of our spectroscopy machinist, and of Illinois physics students—Al also department from 1958 until his course at MIT that maintained and built appreciated the freedom to pursue retirement in 1986. A superb high- greatly influenced photon and neutron research in particle physics. In the energy experimentalist, he continued his life and career. detectors. Herb 1950s and 1960s, Al worked with his to publish scientific articles until Deeply Anderson, another Illinois colleagues on experiments 2003. concerned about Albert Wattenberg member of the group, studying K-meson decays in A student of Enrico Fermi’s, Al fascism and trained Al to make Brookhaven and Argonne, looking was a member of the team that built economic justice during the neutron sources and, after 1943, Al for symmetry violations—time the first successful nuclear reactor Depression, Al became politically made and maintained all the radium reversal, CP, and CPT. In 1967, Al under the stands of the University of active during his undergraduate and beryllium sources for the entire published a paper with the theorist Chicago stadium, leading to the first years. He organized several student Manhattan Project. He also worked J.J. Sakurai on interference controlled nuclear chain reaction on strikes and, although he was the with Fermi on measuring the neutron experiments to distinguish matter December 2, 1942. Al was also one president of his senior class, he activity in the uranium graphite from antimatter. Al continued to of the signatories of the “Szilard boycotted his 1938 graduation structure. It was here that Al observed design and build instruments. He Petition” asking the President of the ceremonies in protest against the Fermi’s enormous thoroughness and authored more than 115 articles United States not to use the nuclear pro-Italian fascist sentiments of redundancy in experimental work, an between 1953 and 2003. bomb without warning. After the war, the City College president. example that affected Al’s approach to Over his career, Al built large he was among the founders and Jobs were scarce, so Al was experiments for the rest of his life. Cerenkov counters at Fermilab and activists of the Federation of Atomic delighted when, in 1939, he got a In 1942, the group moved from quantum mechanics experiments for Scientists (now the Federation of job with the Schenley Corporation, New York to the University of the graduate teaching laboratories at American Scientists). a maker of distilled spirits, doing Chicago. The construction of the first Illinois. He worked with huge liquid Al grew up in New York City. His spectroscopic analysis of chemical pile started on November 16, 1942. scintillation counters and with tiny first interest in science came from his compounds. In 1940, when Al was On December 2, 1942, the group millimeter-sized fibers. He worked on brother, a chemist, who trained Al “to recruited by US Steel, Schenley obtained the first controlled nuclear J/ψ and charm production, first at keep his glassware very clean.” He countered by giving him a large raise chain reaction. Eugene Wigner Fermilab, with neutron beams (E358, also gave Al his first camera, which and decreasing his work load to 30 presented Fermi with a bottle of dimuon production by neutrons); later led to an early interest in optics. At hours a week, which allowed him to Chianti, which everybody present with the wide photon beams (E87, Dewitt Clinton High School, Al return to graduate school at signed. As a young member of the photoproduction of J/ψ and charmed helped his team win New York math Columbia. group, Al cleaned up after the event— mesons)—an important experiment championships. He received his BSc In 1941, Al was close to and kept the historical bottle until that demonstrated the hadronic from City College (1938), and his finishing his PhD but the war effort 1980, when he donated it to Argonne nature of J/ψ, and finally at SLAC, MA from Columbia (1939). The intervened. Fermi invited Al to join National Laboratory. using e+e– colliding beams, in the first Al completed his PhD at the comprehensive study of the charm University of Chicago in 1947. Rather sector by the Mark III collaboration. than accept any of several academic Al’s largest and last project in job offers, he decided to stay at experimental particle physics was Argonne to work with Fermi, who the construction of more than 700 y

ator had returned from Los Alamos, proportional muon counters for the building reactors to produce intense Mark III detector. neutron beams for neutron After retirement, Al participated ational Labor diffraction studies. in the Forum of the History of

rgonne N In 1949, Al was appointed Physics of the American Physical A acting director of the Physics Division Society, serving as its secretary- at Argonne National Laboratory. treasurer and as a councilor. He was Although the lab focused on the the editor of the Forum’s History of development of reactors, Al wanted Physics newsletter for eight years. to work on elementary particle Al participated in the Program in physics. This interest, together with Arms Control, Disarmament, and the growing intense scrutiny of International Security at the government employees for University of Illinois and continued “Communist” leanings during the to contribute to the Bulletin of the late 1940s, led Al to leave Argonne Atomic Scientists. Over the years, he in 1950. He stayed one year at the gave numerous talks to physicists University of Illinois and then moved and to general audiences about the to MIT, where he did research and beginnings of the nuclear era and taught until 1958. At the MIT about his work with Fermi. In 2001, synchrotron, he studied properties he contributed to the celebration of of nucleons in nuclei and worked the 100th anniversary of Enrico on K-meson decays. Al’s insight Fermi’s birth, which was held at the about the similarities of the weak University of Chicago. Reunion of the Chicago atomic scientists on the steps of Eckhart Hall at the University of and electromagnetic interactions In addition to being a remarkably Chicago, Dec. 2, 1946. Al Wattenberg is in the center of the front row; Fermi is standing of nucleons earned him an gifted scientist, Al Wattenberg was next to Walter Zinn, to Wattenberg’s right, and Leo Szilard is in the trench coat to his left. acknowledgment in Gell-Mann’s an inspiring example of honesty, paper about testing vector interactions integrity, and abiding friendship. in β decay. The conserved vector He will be deeply missed. I current hypothesis was one of the Inga Karliner Jon J. Thaler Gary E. Gladding

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PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 9

Goldenfeld awarded Swanlund Chair

n March 24, 2008, Professor specializing in high-performance Oof Physics Nigel Goldenfeld software for the derivatives was invested as a Swanlund Chair, marketplace. Goldenfeld has been the highest endowed title at the an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation University of Illinois. In making Fellow, a University Scholar of the the announcement on September University of Illinois, a recipient 26 of the four new Chairs— of the Xerox Award for Research, Tamer Ba¸sar, electrical and and a recipient of the Nordsieck computer engineering, Arthur F. Award for his outstanding Kramer, psychology, and Gene E. graduate teaching. He is a member Robinson, entomology, in of the editorial board of the addition to Goldenfeld— International Journal of Theoretical Chancellor Herman said “I and Applied Finance and is a congratulate these accomplished Fellow of the American Physical faculty for their truly exceptional Society. contributions to our university Goldenfeld joins Physics and to the broader society we colleagues Laura H. Greene and serve. Their creativity, innovative Klaus J. Schulten, who also hold approaches and overall excellence Swanlund Chairs; no other are ultimately in service to department in the University nurturing the spark, the source, Charles Slichter congratulates newly invested Swanlund Chair has had three faculty members the wellspring at the heart of Nigel D. Goldenfeld awarded this highest honor. this great institution.” The Swanlund Chairs were Goldenfeld received his PhD this appointment. I am thrilled and collective phenomena range made possible by a gift from from the University of Cambridge and grateful that the department from condensed matter physics, alumna Maybelle Leland (UK) in 1982, and was a recognized my unusual research where he has contributed to the Swanlund, who received a degree postdoctoral fellow at the directions sufficiently highly to modern understanding of high- in library studies from Illinois in Institute for Theoretical Physics, nominate me.” temperature superconductors, to 1932. Her $12 million gift was University of California, Santa His research explores how financial markets, to quantitative made with the aim of attracting Barbara, from 1982 to 1985. patterns evolve in time—the biology, where his current work leaders in the arts and sciences to He joined the Department of growth of snowflakes, the focuses on evolution and the University of Illinois and to Physics at Illinois in 1985. microstructures of materials, biocomplexity. He is the theme recognize current faculty members In commenting on the award, the flow of fluids, geological leader on biocomplexity in the UI who have made exceptional Goldenfeld said, “It is a great formations, and even the Institute for Genomic Biology. contributions to their fields. I honor to join the other truly spatial structure of ecosystems. In 1996, Goldenfeld co- distinguished scholars who hold Goldenfeld’s interests in emergent founded NumeriX, a company

Neubauer joins high-energy group

ark Neubauer joined Physics As a postdoctoral fellow at MIT production to date (in decay to W MIllinois in August 2007 as an and then the University of California, boson pairs). assistant professor. He received his San Diego, Neubauer conducted According to department head bachelor’s degree summa cum laude research at the current energy frontier Dale J. Van Harlingen, Neubauer is a from Kutztown University (Kutztown, provided by proton-antiproton talented and dynamic researcher who Pennsylvania) in 1994, and his PhD collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron. will play a key role in the department’s in physics from the University of As member of the Collider Detector at efforts to become a major player in the Pennsylvania in 2001. Fermilab (CDF) experiment, he made ATLAS project at the Large Hadron As a PhD student at the University important contributions to heavy flavor Collider (LHC), which will begin of Pennsylvania, Neubauer worked on and high-pt physics, including searches taking data early next year. “This will the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory for the Higgs boson and new physics. truly be a remarkable decade in high- (SNO) experiment, which was designed In 2002, Neubauer and colleagues energy physics,” said Van Harlingen, to resolve the long-standing deficit at MIT undertook a complete redesign “and we believe that Mark Neubauer of solar νe observed in previous of the CDF analysis computing model, has the experimental skills and scientific experiments. His thesis, Evidence for νe resulting in the the CDF Analysis insights to become a world-leader in Flavor Change through Measurement Facility (CAF), for which he served as this effort. In particular, he will be the of the 8B Solar νFlux at SNO, project leader from 2002 to 2004. lead person in establishing Illinois as a demonstrated in 2001 that before He played a leading role in the study Tier-3 data center for ATLAS, an detection on Earth, approximately of electroweak dibosons at CDF as essential step in allowing us access to two-thirds of all solar νe ’s change flavor convener of the Diboson Physics Group the wealth of data expected to pour in (νe →νµπ), which can occur only if (2006–2007). In 2006, he led the from LHC as it searches for the Higgs neutrinos have non-zero mass and first-ever observation of WZ diboson boson, supersymmetry, and the origins mixing. This result was published soon production. In 2007, he and colleagues of dark matter and dark energy.” I thereafter in a Phys. Rev. Lett. article that provided the first evidence for ZZ became the most cited paper in physics production at a hadron collider and the in the two years following its most stringent limits on Higgs boson publication.

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10 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 Faculty News Two new faces in experimental biological physics

Two new assistant professors, Yann R. Chemla and Ido Golding, have joined the department. Both are experimental biological physicists.

Mason named “Emerging Scholar”

adya Mason, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois, has been recognized as None of the Emerging Scholars: The Class of 2008 by the publication Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. The award is given to 10 young researchers from various disciplines who have demonstrated outstanding abilities in research and teaching. They were profiled in the January 10, 2008, issue. Yann Chemla received his PhD in Ido Golding received his PhD in physics A condensed matter experimentalist, Mason focuses on how electrons behave in physics from the University of California, from Tel Aviv University (Israel) in 2002. low-dimensional, correlated materials, where enhanced interactions are expected to give Berkeley in 2001. Although trained as a Although trained as a condensed matter novel results. She is particularly interested in the effect of reduced dimensionality and condensed matter experimentalist theorist, he has spent the last five years correlations on electron coherence. The understanding and control of electronic working in applied superconductivity, he learning the experimental arsenal of coherence is relevant to a variety of systems, including quantum communication, developed an interest in biology through modern molecular biology. From 2002 to information storage, and qubit control in quantum computers. his study of magnetotactic bacteria 2006, Golding was a Lewis Thomas Mason’s prior research has focused on the quantum behavior of nanotubes and on using a superconducting magnetometer Research Fellow in the Department of 2D and nanostructured superconductors. In both of these areas, her previous work and the development of a biosensor Molecular Biology at Princeton University. provided insight into coherence and correlations in low-dimensional materials. based on functionalized magnetic Golding’s research interests are in In her work with nanotubes, she developed new fabrication techniques to nanoparticles. Chemla made the “leap” the spatio-temporal dynamics in living to biophysics as a postdoctoral fellow, cells—real-time studies having single- control quantum properties of dots and wires. In her work with two-dimensional moving down the hall to Carlos event resolution. He studies the E. coli superconductors, she discovered unusual correlated phases and developed methods Bustamante’s laboratory at Berkeley. bacterium and its virus, the bacteriophage to control and elucidate these phases. At Illinois, Mason is carrying out tunneling There, he learned the techniques of lambda. He has developed and applied experiments in carbon nanotubes to study unusual correlated states, such as Luttinger single-molecule manipulation and used new quantitative tools for probing cellular liquids, and tuning electronic correlations in nanotubes and nanowires via proximity an optical trap to study viral DNA interactions within these systems by effects caused by metallic, magnetic, or superconducting current leads. She is also packaging. In 2005, he received a combining genetic manipulation and high branching out into studies of graphene. prestigious Career Award at the sensitivity fluorescence imaging. Mason was a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2007 Scientific Interface (CASI) from the According to Head Dale J. Van and was named a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows in 2002. She earned Burroughs-Wellcome Fund. Chemla’s Harlingen, “We were very fortunate to a bachelor’s degree in physics at Harvard University and her doctorate in physics at research focuses on understanding the attract these two extraordinary young Stanford University. She joined the Illinois physics faculty in 2005. mechanism by which molecular motors scientists to Illinois to further expand our Besides her academic commitments, Mason takes a deep interest in increasing operate, and specifically, the process of growing biological physics program.” I the diversity and inclusiveness of the physics community and in attracting young mechano-chemical conversion. people to science. I

Cosmology@Home

ant to help unravel the mysteries computer would otherwise sit idle,” sets, such as those to Wof the universe? A new said Wandelt. “Our goal is to search be collected by the distributed computing project designed for the cosmological model that best Planck spacecraft at the University of Illinois allows people describes our universe and to find the mission. around the world to participate in range of models that agree with the He added, “I cutting-edge cosmology research by available astronomical and particle would have to say, I donating their unused computing cycles physics data.” have been absolutely to contribute to front-line research in To achieve this goal, participating floored by the level precision cosmology. The project is computers calculate the observable of community called Cosmology@Home and is similar predictions of millions of theoretical enthusiasm for the to SETI@Home, a popular program models using different parameter project already, despite its not even that searches radio telescope data for combinations. The predictions are then having been officially launched yet. people who are enthusiastic, or at least evidence of extraterrestrial transmissions. compared with actual data, including Without any official announcement— curious, about cosmology, astrophysics, As described by its creator, project fluctuations in the cosmic microwave just by people stumbling on our alpha and computing in the world at large.” leader Benjamin D. Wandelt, a professor background, large-scale distributions test implementation via search If you’re curious, go to of astronomy and of physics at Illinois, of galaxies, the acceleration of the engines—we already have 264 teams http://cosmologyathome.org to “C@H is a 4-teraflop supercomputer universe, and observations of from 77 countries, comprising 2,372 become part of the project; we’d love running entirely on enthusiasm.” primordial element abundances. participants with 5,755 hosts, who have to have you on the Physics Illinois “When you run Cosmology@Home According to Wandelt, in addition contributed cycles amounting to more team. I on your computer, it uses part of the to picking out possible models, than 1.6 million hours of computation computer’s processing power, disk space Cosmology@Home could help design on a recent CPU. This made us realize [Ed. Seed funding for Cosmology@Home was and network bandwidth whenever your future cosmological observations and the potential of Cosmology@Home as a provided by the National Science Foundation. prepare for the analysis of future data way to connect our research group with It officially went into beta testing on October 25, 2007.] UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 11 Department News Illinois launches Institute for Condensed Matter Theory

new feature of the landscape of the AIllinois Physics Department is the Institute for Condensed Matter Theory, which was launched during the October 2007 BCS@50 Conference. This institute—ICMT—aims to foster a highly interactive, cutting edge research environment that encourages members to take on the most challenging, long-term research questions in condensed matter theory and related areas. ICMT is led by Director Paul Goldbart and Chief Scientist Tony Leggett, who are assisted by staff members Becky McDufee and Visitor Ruslan Prozorov (Iowa State University/Ames Lab) takes a Goldbart in his office, explaining his objectives for the ICMT Sue Lynn Herdle. look at remodeling plans with ICMT Director Paul M. Golbart Currently, ICMT brings together some 30 Illinois faculty as members— drawn not only from Physics but also them the freedom to work on topics of often with a short lead-time to espresso machine. ICMT is located from departments in the College of their choice with a wide range of Illinois capitalize on breaking discoveries. adjacent to the concentration of Illinois Engineering—whose research is in faculty members in the highly interactive Home for ICMT is a purpose-built condensed matter expirementalists, thus condensed matter theory and related setting that ICMT provides. More than environment in the Engineering promoting the close collaboration areas. The membership of ICMT also 100 applications were received for the Sciences Building, just north of the between these two communities that includes visitors to Illinois, along with opening-year fellowships. The visitors Materials Research Laboratory. has long been the hallmark of postdoctoral and graduate researchers. program will enable stimulating visits to Originally conceived by Goldbart, condensed matter physics at Illinois. ICMT’s research activities will ICMT, from days to months in Michael Stone, and Director of Budget ICMT activities are currently initially be promoted through four core duration, by senior and junior theorists and Resource Planning Jan Kane, supported by funds generously made mechanisms: postdoctoral fellowships, a and experimentalists. These visits will the setting is designed to enhance available by Illinois Provost Linda visitors program, workshops and small foster interactions among the ICMT communication and collaboration. It Katehi and Physics Head Dale Van conferences, and support for graduate community and will lead to further features seminar rooms and offices that Harlingen. To learn more about researchers. The postdoctoral fellow- collaborative activities. ICMT will also open on to ample communal discussion ICMT’s activities, visit the ICMT ships, which are expected to run for host workshops and small conferences in areas that are equipped with the website (www.icmt.uiuc.edu) or three years, are designed to attract exciting areas of condensed matter theorists’ vital resources: chalkboards on contact ICMT Director Paul Goldbart outstanding young researchers and give physics, especially newly emerging ones, virtually every wall and a high-caliber (217-244-ICMT). I

Theoretical physics across the globe

visitors is having a growing ripple Physics, played a significant role during the be employed by NITheP. The opportunity effect in southern Africa and negotiations with government. “It should be exists for individuals as well as groups to beyond.” considered nothing short of remarkable that formally become associates of NITheP. “We are trying to develop this the government has agreed to fund such an NITheP will forge strong mode of engagement very strongly institute in a country that continues to collaborations between theoretical physics through NITheP,” said Chetty. grapple with deep and resistant socio- and mathematics that will allow South “Mobility funds are being set aside economic difficulties, and entrenched Africa to consolidate and considerably to increase intra-African contact, racial inequities,” said Chetty. expand existing research programs in the Richard Martin and alumnus Nithaya Chetty and NITheP is particularly keen to The physics community has been at the fields of quantum systems, condensed include graduate students and very forefront in arguing for science as an matter physics, plasma and space “The Institute of Condensed Matter young faculty members from other African instrument for development in the country. physics, string theory and high energy Theory at the University of Illinois will countries in our programmes.” The South African government is on track to physics, as well as cosmology and create wonderful opportunities for The structure of NITheP is novel, with committing 1 percent of its GDP to research astroparticle physics. There will be a international collaborations,” according to its headquarters at Stellenbosch, and with and development by 2008. According to strong emphasis on computational associate professor Nithaya Chetty (PhD regional centres at the University of Chetty, “There is now a huge moral physics and the computational sciences ’90), who is the interim deputy director of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the responsibility on the body of scientists to more generally. Research will support the new National Institute of Theoretical University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, help deliver on the developmental agenda of national priorities in experimental Physics (NITheP) in South Africa. “The where Chetty is currently based. the country. There are growing opportunities programs such as quantum optics, basis is already there, since over the past South Africa has its own challenges for international physicists to participate in nuclear physics, and chemical and ten years, several Illinois physicists have related to historical imbalances, and this de- the goals of helping to strengthen the biological physics, and joint appointments participated in the Chris Engelbrecht localized system ensures maximal impact on culture of science in Africa.” are being considered with a number of Summer School in Theoretical Physics all regions in the country. Officially approved NITheP aims to be a theoretical physics national experimental facilities, including held in annually in South Africa.” by the Department of Science and Technology user facility, not unlike similar other the South African Astronomical Through the South African National on May 31, 2006, the NITheP has been institutes such as the Kavli Institute in Santa Observatory. Research Foundation, the South African involved in intense negotiations with the Barbara, albeit on a smaller scale. The core NITheP will also host graduate-level Department of Science and Technology, government and with the theoretical physics academic activities include theoretical courses to fulfill its developmental the Ford Foundation, the International community in South Africa over the last two physics seminars, mini-workshops, summer obligations. “It is here, especially, that I Centre for Theoretical Physics, and other years on its structure and mission. NITheP schools, winter schools, longer research will be requesting the assistance of Illinois funding sources, “we have been able to will be fully operational next year when a full- programs, and conferences. NITheP faculty to deliver short intensive courses attract an increasing number of time director is appointed. An international supports a graduate student bursary to help strengthen the basic foundations physicists from other African countries— search is underway for a high quality theorist program, and the aim is to attract a of our discipline. This is critical for us. many of whom work in incredible who is committed to the ideals of NITheP. substantial number of postdoctoral NITheP will play a crucial role in isolation—to our workshops and Chetty, who was a graduate student of fellows, including foreign ones. developing a new cohort of theoretical conferences,” said Chetty, “and in this Richard Martin’s and who is currently A small number of full-time researchers physicists for Africa,” said Chetty. I way the involvement of our international president of the South African Institute of (equivalent level of associate professor) will

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

12 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 Department News Wilde receives 2007 Chancellor’s History of excellence Distinguished Staff Award The history of our department and its contributions to physics research and education is now online

campus to get an answer to a tauffer Information presented in the time question.” rian S capsules is drawn from A History of the

L. B In addition to her demanding College of Engineering at the University departmental responsibilities, Wilde of Illinois, 1868–1945 (Ira O. Baker has recently served on a campus-wide and Everett E. King, Urbana, Illinois), committee that is managing the Vignettes from a Century of Service, conversion of paper-and-pencil ICES 1890–1990 (Lisa Warne, Urbana, forms to an electronic format. Illinois, 1991), A Century of Physics at According to Associate Head Gary the University of Illinois (Gerald Almy, Gladding, “Her extensive experience Urbana, Illinois, 1967), Men and Ideas makes her very well qualified to assist in Engineering: Twelve Histories from in this important advancement for Illinois (R.A. Kingery, R.D. Berg, E.H. the campus.” Schillinger, University of Illinois Press, At the dinner honoring this year’s 1967), Dedication of the Loomis CDSA recipients, Associate Provost Laboratory of Physics (Urbana, Illinois, Elyne G. Cole remarked, “Johnetta 1980, with a foreword by Charles P. Wilde is obviously a treasure to the Slichter), The Loomis Legacy (David Department of Physics and to the Lazarus, Urbana, Illinois, 1987), and a University of Illinois. She has Young Physics faculty members John Manley, treasure trove of annual head’s reports certainly earned the honor of being Maurice Goldhaber, and Leland Haworth to the dean of the College of chosen as a recipient of the with their newly completed Cockroft–Walton Engineering, departmental Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff accelerator, ca. 1940 (Rev. Sci. Instrum. 12, correspondence, and historic ohnetta Wilde, the mainstay of the Award.” 591 [1941]). photographs. introductory physics courses at Wilde joined the Department of J This Web site, like Physics at Illinois, received the Chancellor’s Physics in this position in 1997, after n admittedly incomplete Illinois, is a work in progress; it is Distinguished Staff Award for 2007 retiring from a 30-year career teaching chronological history of the always being expanded and improved. for her exceptional performance. high-school Spanish and French. In A Department of Physics at the Check back often. If you have stories As the “Undergraduate Course addition to her contributions to the University of Illinois is now available to contribute or photographs to share, Secretary,” Wilde has the primary University, Wilde frequently takes her on the Web in decade-by-decade “time we would love to hear from you! responsibility for the smooth goodwill “on the road.” She regularly capsules” of critical research A limited number of Professor operation of the Physics 100- and travels to Belize, where she and a small breakthroughs, innovations in teaching Lazarus’s excellent monograph, The 200-level classes and is the “first group of women from her church and learning, and events that shaped Loomis Legacy, and Dedication of the responder” to some 25 faculty, have built (literally digging the culture of physics at Illinois. Loomis Laboratory of Physics, which 100 teaching assistants, and 5000 foundations, pouring concrete, and Rediscover the physicists who defined contains much of Professor Almy’s undergraduate students every painting walls themselves) and the “Urbana spirit” while making Century of Physics, are available; write semester. outfitted an elementary school for seminal discoveries that changed the to Celia Elliott ([email protected]) if A legend in the physics impoverished indigenous children. world. you would like a copy. I department, Wilde approaches her She made a similar humanitarian job with an unflappable sensitivity trip to Kenya last summer. to others. In fact, on page 1 of an Just before her May 2007 trip, extensive job manual that she has Wilde wrote, “My bags are very heavy created for the person who will because they are full of books and someday succeed her, it states, school supplies. I am very excited to Need a transcript? “Students are treated with respect and get to Belize, because this will be the care. Help them in any way you can, first time for me to see the school eed a transcript or verification of your Illinois degree? The Office whether it be giving them sympathy when the students are there. I plan to Nof Admission and Records offers a convenient on-line order form for an illness or death, or helping give lots of hugs and smiles! I am for transcripts at www.oar.uiuc.edu/current/transcripts/request_ them decide whom they should talk truly blessed!” former.html. A transcript includes a student’s courses, grades, GPA, to if they have a problem. It is We’re the ones who are blessed, and degree. University of Illinois official transcripts bear the Registrar’s important that students should Johnetta. Congratulations! I signature and are printed on security paper. Although a raised seal is no not be made to run all over longer used, the University seal is printed on the transcript. Transcript requests are typically processed within five business days, and express delivery is available for an additional fee. (Transcripts are $5.00 each.) If you attended the University prior to Fall 1982, however, you’ll need to allow extra time; those transcripts are archived in a secure location and may require an additional two to three weeks’ retrieval and processing time. If you need verification of enrollment or verification of your degree for an employer or background screening, but not necessarily courses and grades, the University of Illinois has authorized the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to provide enrollment and degree verification. Their contact information is:

National Student Clearinghouse www.studentclearinghouse.org Phone: 703-742-4200 Fax: 703-742-4239 Email: [email protected] Mail: National Student Clearinghouse, 13454 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 300, Herndon, VA 20171 Johnetta and Jen in Kenya

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 13 Student News Shell supports Akselrod named Hertz Fellow undergrad leb M. Akselrod (BS ’07) was one secure by the laws of physics,” research Gof only 15 students nationwide Akselrod says. “Though major hurdles to receive a 2007–08 Hertz remain on the way to practical Foundation Fellowship. The Fannie quantum computing, such as the need and John Hertz Foundation, which for deeper theoretical understanding focuses on identifying and cultivating and miniaturization and scalability of scientific talent in the United States, devices, I believe it has boundless makes the annual awards to support potential for our information-based five years of graduate studies for society.” students in the applied physical, “At Illinois, I was fortunate to biological, and engineering sciences. have both great teachers and world- Akselrod is enrolled in graduate class research advisers,” said Akselrod. if a career in physics is right for you school in physics at MIT, working in “Professor Willenbrock beautifully than by getting your hands dirty in Isaac Chuang’s group at the Center for presented electricity and magnetism the lab. And take PHYS 403, Modern and showed me how many physics Experimental Physics. It’s more work Keith Hjelmstad, College of Engineering, Ultracold Atoms. His project involves problems could be solved by arguing than a typical class, but where else are accepts a presentation check from Phil investigating an ion-trap system for ‘What else could it be?’ and Professor you going to measure cosmic muons Metzler, manager of industrial relations, performing quantum operations on Hertzog embodied what it means to and use an atomic force microscope?” Shell Oil Company. The Shell Foundation single polar molecules, a critical step be passionate about his students’ “We are very proud of this year’s supports a number of educational and on the road to realizing a quantum education and taught me the craft of class of Hertz Fellows,” said Hertz research initiatives at the University of computer. communicating my scientific ideas. Foundation President John F. Illinois. “A mere theoretical concept 25 years ago, the idea of quantum Doing research in Professor Kwiat’s Holzrichter. “They represent the very group is what led to my interest in best young scientific talent in our ince 1996, annual gifts to Physics computing has blossomed into the AMO physics and quantum nation. Not only are they very from the Shell Foundation have promising field of quantum S information.” academically gifted, each Fellow outfitted a “commons room” for information, in which we try to When asked what advice he embodies the drive, creativity, and centralized TA office hours, multi- harness the odd and often paradoxical would give to today’s students, deep curiosity required to solve media discussion classrooms and a behavior of single atoms and particles Akselrod unhesitatingly replied, difficult problems and make prototype student-response system, of light to build computers that are “If you are thinking about going to innovative contributions to our and a dedicated multimedia course exponentially faster than classical graduate school, do research—now. country’s future.” I preparation room for faculty. They computers and to create encryption There is no better way to find out have purchased laptops and portable protocols that are guaranteed to be LCD projectors for classroom use and equipment for the advanced optics lab. In 2007, instead of investing in hardware for Physics teaching, Shell invested in people, initiating a New prize for undergraduate research “Shell Scholars” program to support undergraduate research. Five talented undergraduates received $3000 computing networks. he topics range across stipends to pursue independent, His model was used to every area of forefront hands-on research projects during the T characterize the produced physics research: Developing summer, supervised by Physics faculty. quantum state and to low-loss optical switching The range of projects was wide develop temporal and spatial for single-photon sources. and the scope ambitious. Julien phase compensation Measuring the interplane Ansermet worked with Laura Greene methods for improving the London penetration depth in to fabricate niobium tips for tunneling purity and brightness of organic superconductors. spectroscopy measurements of entangled-photon sources by unconventional superconductors. Unraveling quantum reducing phase decoherence. Brent Chatham studied mechano- interference effects in forked Carls worked under the chemical conversion in molecular superconducting nanowires. direction of Kevin Pitts on motors with Yann Chemla. Ido Investigating the formation a project to improve the Golding trained Hazel Kim to use of tidal features through Dale J. Van Harlingen and Robert E. Hetrick Level 1 trigger for B mesons at the optical tweezers to study the behavior numerical simulations of s Collider Detector Facility (CDF) at of biomolecules in vitro. David galaxy mergers. Determining electron outstanding undergraduate scholars each Fermilab. He evaluated several different Pignotti designed and built four transitions in fluorescent dyes using year for their research accomplishments. trigger strategies to improve B different air-particle-velocity steady-state anisotropy measurements. “We are very proud of these fine young s retention, including two-track and transducers to use in his research on Increasingly, today’s undergraduate students,” said Department Head Dale J. three-track triggers. Carls ran trigger the performance characteristics of wind students, like their predecessors Kyle Van Harlingen, “and we appreciate very cuts over simulated Monte Carlo events instruments, part of Steve Errede’s Arnold (BS ’06), Zane Shi (BS ’06), much the opportunity to call attention to of B decays and applied a minimum- “physics of music” effort, and Dustin Robert Colby (BS ’05), Irina Marinova their achievements at this early stage, s Wooten worked with Munir Nayfeh’s bias background sample to determine (BS ’05), and John Eichorst (BS ’05), who when such recognition is critically group to develop new methods to how many background events each worked on these projects, are taking their important in a young person’s career.” adhere silicon nanoparticles to prospective trigger would discard. places in Loomis Laboratory alongside The two 2007 Hetrick Prize winners substrates for use in optoelectronic The students presented their graduate students and postdocs. are Gleb M. Akselrod (BS, ’07) and devices. results at the Sixth Annual Department A gift from alumnus W. Dale Benjamin P. Carls (BS ’07). Akselrod “We are very grateful to Shell for of Physics Undergraduate Research Compton (PhD ’55) to honor his first worked in Paul Kwiat’s group, where he this investment in our future,” said Symposium on January 26, 2007, student, Robert E. Hetrick (BS ’63, MS developed a numerical model of double- Department Head Dale J. Van which Dr. Hetrick attended. I Harlingen. “As more and more ’64, PhD ’69), now makes it possible for crystal entangled-photon sources, of students expect to do independent the department to recognize two interest for the development of quantum research as undergrads, we have scrambled to find the resources to support them. Thanks to Shell, that just got easier.” I

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

14 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 Alumni News

Park named 2007 Outstanding Young Researcher

uson Park (PhD ’03) of the were predicted but never observed After receiving his PhD in TCondensed Matter and Thermal experimentally in these compounds. 2003, Park went to Los Alamos Physics Group at the Los Alamos Park developed a novel ac calorimeter National Laboratory as a post- National Laboratory is the recipient capable of making angle-resolved doctoral research associate to of the 2007 Outstanding Young magnetic-field-dependent specific- work with Joe Thompson and Researcher Award (OYRA), an annual heat measurements, using it to the members of the Condensed award to honor an outstanding young observe directly modulations in the Matter and Thermal Physics ethnic Korean physicist by the specific-heat of YNi2B2C as a group. Based on his successful Association of Korean Physicists in function of magnetic field angle. The research in 2003 and 2004, America. observed modulation provided direct Park was named a J. Robert A student of Myron Salamon’s, confirmation of the momentum-space Oppenheimer Postdoctoral Park’s thesis research focused on quasiparticle gap structure. Park also Fellow in 2005. superconductivity in the boro-carbides, used his calorimeter to elucidate the Physics faculty member exploring the thermodynamic anisotropic superconducting gap in Taekjip Ha received the 2001 signature of the gap nodes that LuNi2B2C. OYRA. I

Dr. Veysey goes to Washington

ohn Veysey (PhD ’06), who recently finished his and several key Illinois experiences. Midway through Jdissertation with Nigel Goldenfeld, has traded the John’s graduate work, Goldenfeld put him in touch casual dress and flexible schedule of grad school for long with Francis Slakey (PhD ’92), another Illinois hours, a suit, and receptions without end. But he hasn’t alumnus, who currently directs the American Physical gone to Wall Street. He’s wandering around the halls of Society’s Washington DC office and teaches at power in Washington DC, trying not to step on Georgetown University. anybody’s toes in a world of Blackberries, where people Inspired by the notion that a physicist could leave check their email more often than a laid-back graduate academics to work purely on science policy, Veysey student. Veysey will be in Washington for one year, asked Fred Lamb to let him serve as a teaching where he’ll be working on Capitol Hill in the office assistant for his class on nuclear weapons, nuclear war, of Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). and arms control. This experience drove home the Veysey is one of 162 scientists and engineers need to communicate clearly and succinctly about participating in the American Association for the issues that can combine the worst of scientific, Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and military, and political jargon. Veysey added, Technology Policy Fellowship program. This 34-year-old “Working with Professor Lamb also helped me see program places academic experts—young and old alike, how combining expertise in physics with passion and from fields ranging from agriculture to physics—into idealism could result in real improvements to U.S. Congressional offices and federal agencies. The policies.” American Institute of Physics, which participates in Having been in Senator Menendez’s office for the AAAS program, selected and sponsors Veysey. only a few weeks, Veysey has yet to find a “normal” In Menendez’s office, Veysey will be working on a routine. “It’s been a maze of seminars, interviews, portfolio of energy and environmental policy issues, and meetings,” he said, “but I’ve had an incredible helping advise the Senator during discussions on global opportunity to see how things work around here. The warming and with his work on the Energy and Natural AAAS program afforded me a remarkable opportunity Resources Committee. According to John, “The Senator to meet and interview with a dozen different House wants me to avoid scientific gobbledygook and to act as and Senate offices.” a secret weapon, lying in wait to surprise lobbyists In a town where the importance of networking discussing statistical or technological details.” cannot be overstated, the AAAS Fellows have a Veysey aims to make a contribution to what he sees John Veysey on the job unique advantage. “We’re all scientists,” said Veysey. as one of our nation’s most pressing problems. As he put “I immediately knew 34 other Congressional staffers, it, “We need to use our natural resources sustainably, almost 100 people in executive agencies, and I have access to almost 2,000 finding long-term energy supplies that destroy neither our environment nor “alumni,” many of whom are still involved in science policy.” Perhaps the our economy. Solutions to these problems require scientists who can most famous program alumnus is Rush Holt, a plasma physicist who communicate effectively with lay people.” currently serves in Congress as Representative of New Jersey’s 12th John’s thesis focused on work done with Goldenfeld and collaborators, Congressional District, and who spoke to incoming Congressional including Bruce Fouke in the Geology Department, studying the patterns Fellows during their orientation. that form at hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. This interdisciplinary Veysey thinks it unlikely that his fellowship year will lead to a experience helped prepare him for DC, training him to understand, collaborate, Congressional office, but he hopes to transition from academia into a career and communicate with experts in other fields. “Moreover,” says John, where he can use his interdisciplinary experience and communication skills to “interdisciplinary approaches will be essential in solving sustainability bring clear, usable information to policy makers. When asked what advice he problems.” might offer students interested in policy work, Veysey said, “Get involved in Veysey was led to apply to the American Institute of Physics, which the upcoming elections, and the call for next year’s fellowship applications sponsors his Fellowship, by years of reading Bob Park’s “What’s New” column went out last week on the AAAS website. Apply!” I

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1 15 en Cole Edelstein Franz recognized by AAPT K receives DSc he American Association of 1990. Throughout her career, she TPhysics Teachers (www.aapt.org) has been instrumental in forging from Aberdeen announced on November 19 that the closer relations between AAPT and illiam A. Edelstein (BS’ 65) received Melba Newell Phillips Medal has been APS on issues of education. For Wan honorary DSc degree from the awarded to Judy R. Franz (MS ’61, example, she was the first chair of University of Aberdeen on July 4, 2007. PhD ’65), executive officer of the the joint College–High School Currently Distinguished Professor of American Physical Society (APS), in Interaction Committee in 1983 and Judy R. Franz Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University recognition of her creative leadership helped organized the first Physics School of Medicine, Edelstein is a pioneer of and dedicated service that have Department Chairs meeting, which resulted in exceptional contributions medical magnetic resonance imaging. He was is still co-sponsored by AAPT and deep and continuing commitment to the primary inventor of the “spin-warp” within AAPT. APS. She was a professor of physics The Medal was presented to promoting excellence in the teaching imaging method, a major breakthrough in at Indiana University, Bloomington, of our fascinating discipline!” imaging and still the method used in MRI Franz at a ceremonial session of the West Virginia University, and the scanners worldwide. AAPT winter meeting at the Marriott University of Alabama, Huntsville. About the Award Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, After receiving a PhD from Harvard She is currently the executive officer The Melba Newell Phillips Maryland, on Tuesday, January 22, University in 1974, Edelstein was a of APS. In her position as executive Medal honors Melba Phillips for her postdoctoral research fellow at Glasgow 2008. officer, she is actively involved in the leadership and dedicated service to University working on gravitational wave Ken Heller, Chairman, AAPT education, outreach, diversity, public physics education. She was the first detection. He moved to Aberdeen University, Awards Committee, said, “Dr. Franz affairs, and international programs woman president of the AAPT and also in Scotland, as a Research Fellow in has been an unstinting contributor to of the APS. a founder of the Federation of 1977, where he was part of a groundbreaking all of the functions of the AAPT. Her In addition to her work American Scientists. Professor effort to develop MRI. He joined the General leadership in the governance and Electric Corporate Research and Development within AAPT and at APS, Franz Phillips’ research was in nuclear direction of AAPT has had a lasting Center in Schenectady, New York in 1980, is the Secretary General of the physics, and she served on the faculty effect on the organization. She has where he spent the next 21 years making International Union of Pure and of Brooklyn College and the been especially important in forging a seminal contributions to MRI science and Applied Physics (IUPAP), the University of Chicago. She was a productive relationship between the technology and the development of GE’s MRI international organization of champion of physics education AAPT and the APS to further the systems. physicists representing more than throughout her life. This Award is goals of physics education. In her Edelstein is a Fellow of the APS, a Fellow 50 member countries. given only occasionally to AAPT of the Institute of Physics (UK), and a Fellow dedication to physics education and She is currently a member of leaders who have demonstrated of the International Society of Magnetic the AAPT, Judy Franz exemplifies the the governing board and executive similar exceptional contributions. Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). He was deep connection between physics, committee of the American The first recipient of the Award was awarded the Gold Medal Prize from the physicists, and physics education that Institute of Physics (AIP) and is a Melba Phillips herself (Emeritus, ISMRM in 1990, and in 1991 was named a characterized Melba Phillips.” representative to the US National University of Chicago), in January Coolidge Fellow, GE’s highest corporate “Judy has served physics education scientific honor. He received the American Committee to UNESCO. In the 1982. consistently throughout her career, Institute of Physics Prize for Industrial past, she has served on the AAAS as a professor and as a leader both Applications of Physics in 2006. I Council, as well as advisory About AAPT nationally and around the world. committees for the Department The AAPT is the leading She pursues with vigor and tenacity of Energy, Los Alamos National organization for physics educators, tauffer the goals of promoting effective Laboratory, the Office of Naval with more than 12,000 members rian S physics teaching and research, Research, and the National worldwide. Its mission is to enhance L. B increasing the visibility and impact of Science Foundation. the understanding and appreciation physics and physicists within the larger Regarding the award, Franz of physics through teaching. AAPT society, and attracting women and stated, “I was amazed and delighted was founded in 1930, and is minorities to the field. As a colleague, to learn that I would receive the headquartered in the American I have developed the highest respect Melba Phillips Award. I was Center for Physics in College Park, for her dedication and effectiveness,” inspired to major in physics by Maryland. The University of Illinois stated Toufic Hakim, AAPT’s my introductory physics course hosted the 2008 Illinois Section executive officer. at Cornell University, taught by meeting of the AAPT in Urbana Franz is a condensed matter then-AAPT-President-to-be Don on April 4 and 5. I physicist and educator who has Holcomb (MS ’50, PhD ’54). Since C. Duncan Rice, Principal and Vice contributed a lifetime of service to then I have worked to interest and [Ed. note: Judy Franz and Donald Holcomb Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen the AAPT. She has been influential in excite young people about physics. were both students of another extraordinary (Scotland) with William A. Edelstein (BS ’65) guiding the policies and direction of I am grateful to the AAPT for its physics teacher, Charles P. Slichter.] AAPT and served as its president in

Ahrenkiel and Crandall “emeritus” at NREL

ifelong friends, colleagues, and Physics alumni Richard K. Ahrenkiel (BS, , NREL L ’59, MS ’60, PhD ’64) and Richard S. Crandall (MS ’62, PhD ’64) have

retired from distinguished careers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. inenberger

They are shown here with NREL colleague Tom Milne. The NREL awarded the ike L M honorary title of emeritus to the three researchers; they are the first to receive these prestigious appointments, which were initiated July 2006. Crandall and Ahrenkiel, world experts in photovoltaics, will continue to mentor NREL scientists, collaborate on technical issues, review projects and publications, and participate on national panels for the laboratory. I

Tom Milne, Richard Crandall, and Richard Ahrenkiel

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

16 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2008 NUMBER 1

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Backward Glance Physics Illinois News 215 Loomis Laboratory of Physics, MC-704 In The Loomis Legacy, Professor David Lazarus wrote: Department of Physics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Besides the off-hours parties for which the department was justly famous, specific departmental social functions 1110 West Green Street were also taken as an important part of the department’s responsibilities…Each spring heralded the glorious annual Urbana, IL 61801-2982 USA departmental picnic where everyone associated with the department always came with spouses and children of all ages. There would be an annual softball game at which the graduate students would usually force the faculty to an inglorious If you have suggestions for stories or features that you would like to see, comments about this edition, or defeat. There were always balloons for the children, filled, on the spot, with “surplus” helium from the low-temperature requests for an electronic version of the newsletter, please labs, and each weighted, via a careful design of Charlie Slichter’s, with a heavy steel washer so that it could not float up write to us. We’re listening! and away from a small, weeping child. There was a well-equipped playground for small children, complete with a The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hired supervisor, so that parents could indulge in more “adult” activities (like playing softball). is an equal opportunity and affirmative action institution. From left, Donald M. Ginsberg, Lorella M. Jones, graduate student Lynn A. Garren (back to camera) (MS ’76, PhD ’82),

graduate student Richard F. Martin (PhD ’83) at the Physics picnic, ca. 1978–79.

not a place, a habit of mind… of habit a place, a not

Urbana, IL 61801 IL Urbana,

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