Harvard University Department of Physics Newsletter FALL/WINTER 2018 women in physics at harvard and beyond Conversations with the Department’s PhDs CONTENTS Letter from the Chair ........................................................................................................... 2 ON THE COVER: Clockwise from top left: Lisa PHYSICS DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS Randall (photo by Eduard Pastor), Retirements.. ........................................................................................................................ 4 Elizabeth West, Alyssa Goodman (photo by Kris Snibbe, Harvard New Faculty .......................................................................................................................... 5 Staff Photographer), Christie Chiu, In Memoriam ........................................................................................................................ 6 Elizabeth Simmons (Creative Commons Attribution license), Books by Faculty.................................................................................................................. 8 Janet Conrad (photo by Kayana Szymczak), and Emily Russell. Faculty Prizes, Awards, and Acknowledgments ............................................................... 9 Middle row: Ann Nelson and COVER STORY Sally Dawson. Women in Physics at Harvard and Beyond Conversations with the Department’s PhDs ....................................................................10 Alumnae, Now Harvard Faculty .........................................................................................14 FOCUS Julian Schwinger: A Centennial Celebration at Harvard ..................................................16 FEATURED Where Materials Synthesis Meets Imaging: Inside the Hoffman Lab ............................20 Jenny Hoffman’s Lifelong Dream ..................................................................................... 22 The Ni Lab: Quantum Control and the Study of Chemical Reactions ........................... 24 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kang-Kuen Ni: Bringing Quantum Control to Chemistry ............................................... 29 AND CREDITS: Bringing “Active Learning” into the Physics Classroom .................................................30 Newsletter Committee: Professor Subir Sachdev Max Planck – Harvard Research Center for Quantum Optics ....................................... 35 Professor Melissa Franklin Professor Gerald Holton PROGRAMS Professor Paul Horowitz Professor Vinothan Manoharan Undergraduate Program ...................................................................................................36 Professor Masahiro Morii Professor Matthew Schwartz Graduate Program .............................................................................................................38 Dr. Susanne Baker-Pittman Goldhaber and Merit Awards Mary McCarthy Anne Trubia GSAS Merit Fellowship Production Manager: Graduate Awards and Fellowships Marina Werbeloff Recent Graduates Editor: Steve Nadis Research Scholars .............................................................................................................44 Harvard Physics Faculty: then (1980, top) and now (September 25, 2018, photo by Paul Horowitz). Design NEWS For names of faculty members on both photographs, please see our website: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/about. Alphabetica, Inc. Celebrating Staff .................................................................................... (inside back cover) Department Events .......................................................................................... (back cover) FALL/WINTER 2018 1 Letter from the Chair Dear friends of Harvard Physics, physicists and as women in the field. We I hope you will enjoy the stories about the of Active Learning. This has been an eye- THE were interested to know more about the experimental labs of Professors Jenny opening experience for me, and I am learning I’m delighted to introduce the fifth issue of paths that led them to the discipline and to Hoffman (by Steve Nadis) and Kang-Kuen Ni a great deal from Louis on how to improve DEPARTMENT the Harvard Physics Newsletter—and my our program. Caitlin is also looking at some (by two graduate students in the Ni Lab, Lee on the conventional blackboard style of first as the Chair of the department. It was a TODAY: of the national statistics concerning women Liu and Yu Liu). The Hoffman Lab is focused lecturing. busy year, with somber and exciting events. in physics, and the unique challenges they on creating novel materials that exhibit We have lost two faculty members and I am looking forward to another exciting face along their career trajectories. unusual properties, such as high temperature friends, Nicolaas Bloembergen and Richard year in the department, with new scientific superconductivity. The Ni Lab has recently 186 Wilson; please read the warm tributes to In the spring, a Harvard Presidential Task discoveries, involving our very talented combined two atoms into a dipolar molecule, Undergraduate them in this newsletter. Force on Inclusion and Belonging issued a graduate and undergraduate students, under conditions that could lead to new concentrators very thoughtful report on “Pursuing postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. Three distinguished members of our platforms for quantum computing. Excellence on a Foundation of Inclusion.” community have retired during this last Please enjoy the Newsletter and let us know We formed a departmental committee to Of particular interest to me is the article on year, Bertrand Halperin, Gary Feldman, what you think. If you happen to be in the 234 implement its recommendations, and I am “Active Learning” by Logan McCarty, the and Sheldon Glashow (the latter from Boston area, please stop by to say hello, join us for our Graduate students most grateful to Profs. Jenny Hoffman GSAS Director of Science Education. Active University; Prof. Glashow retired from Monday Tea, or attend a Colloquium, Loeb and John Huth for leading this effort. Our Learning is a fairly new concept in physics Harvard in 2000). Profs. Halperin and Lecture, or any of the other numerous events meetings have made clear that we have much education, pioneered by Professor Eric Mazur 93 Feldman remain an active presence in the held here. Please consult the back cover for to learn, and I trust this will lead to a more and several other prominent science educators. Postdoctoral fellows department, and we look forward to their more information and instructions on how to inclusive environment in the department. It replaces the traditional formula of classroom continued contributions for many more get on our mailing list. instruction (a lecturer at the blackboard in years. A new faculty member, a condensed We have a tradition of focusing on our history 200 front of a class) with a more participatory We look forward to staying in close contact matter experimentalist, Julia Mundy, is in every issue. For this edition’s historical focus Other research scholars model in which students get more deeply and welcome your comments and questions. putting the finishing touches on her new article, we describe a special panel event held engaged in their own learning, as well as lab in the Laboratory for Integrate Science on February 12 of this year, in which our Best wishes, learning from the professor and each other. 11 and Engineering. Julia is a familiar face in department celebrated the 100th anniversary Subir Sachdev This semester, I am working with Louis our department: she graduated from Harvard of the birth of Julian Schwinger. Schwinger, Chair and Herchel Smith Non-ladder faculty Deslauriers — an early adopter and expert on College in 2006, earned her PhD at Cornell, the 1965 Nobel Laureate in Physics, was a Professor of Physics members this mode of teaching who is profiled in and has now returned to her alma mater member of the Harvard Physics department Logan’s article — to redesign Physics 143a, as an Assistant Professor of Physics. and one of the most accomplished physicists Quantum Mechanics I, to follow the precepts 6 of the last century. The article includes For our cover story, we asked Caitlin excerpts from the speeches of the four Tenure-track faculty McDermott-Murphy, a colleague in the panelists — Walter Gilbert, Sheldon Glashow, members Department of Chemistry and Chemical Roy Glauber, and Daniel Kleitman—in which Biology, to talk with several female Harvard they offer their fun and fond reminiscences of Physics PhDs about their experiences as 45 being Schwinger’s students and colleagues. Tenured faculty members 35 Staff members Photo by Pamela Davis Kivelson 2 PHYSICS AT HARVARD FALL/WINTER 2018 3 PHYSICS DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS Retirements New faculty Announcing the retirement of three distinguished faculty members Julia Mundy: Connecticut, through the Teach for America Crafting New Materials program. “I’ve always been committed not only to Gary Feldman my research but also to helping others access with Exquisite Precision high-quality educational opportunities,” says Gary Feldman earned his BA in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1964 and his PhD Mundy. She found the experience rewarding and in Physics from Harvard in 1971. He then held research and teaching positions at the Stanford by Steve Nadis looks forward to continuing to teach—this time to Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University before returning to Harvard as a Physics Professor in 1990. He was named a Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science in 1992 and