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College of Science and Technology
PHYSICS
College of Science and Technology 1803 N. Broad Street 400 Carnell Hall Philadelphia, PA 19122
UPDATE FALL 2015
For more news, go to phys.cst.temple.edu
DEAN’S DISTINGUISHED LECTURE Saul Rappaport, CST ’63 Professor of Physics, M.I.T Planetary and Stellar Science from the Kepler Mission November 11, 2015, 4PM Science Education and Research Center (SERC) 1925 N. 12th Street, Temple University, Main Campus Philadelphia, PA 19122 Look for details at cst.temple.edu
Department launches ‘studio physics’ courses for intro classes To enhance student engagement, comprehension and success, this fall all introductory-level classes in both mechanics and in electricity & magnetism will be transitioned form large lecture hall formats involving several hundred students to smaller classes of up to 60 students. Developed under the leadership of Associate Professors Zbiegniew Dziembowski and Bernd Surrow, the “studio physics’ concept has been updated by various universities. It was successfully piloted at MIT, where Surrow previously taught and utilized the teaching program. The format combines elements of lecturing and recitation with interactive response systems, group problems and discussions. “Based on studies conducted at MIT,” said Surrow, “the problemsolving sessions, two- and three-dimensional visualizations, as well as collaborative desktop experiments, web-based assignments and personal response systems-based conceptual questions, significantly enhance students’ understanding of the subject matter.” The courses will be taught in two dedicated, high-tech classrooms in the new Science Education and Research Center (SERC) equipped will small tables that allow for three-student learning teams. Labs will also be conducted in new SERC undergraduate teaching labs. Eventually, the two calculus-based introductory physics classes for pre-med students and two algebra-based introductory physics classes will follow the same format.
Alexander Gray earns prestigious Young Investigator award Alexander Gray, a new assistant professor of physics, has received a prestigious Young Investigator Program award from the U.S. Army Research Office. Gray specializes in the development of new, ultrafast X-ray spectroscopic and imaging techniques. These techniques aim to understand how new phases of matter arise far from equilibrium and how ultrafast electric-field pulses can be used to separate and control fundamental physical interactions on the nanoscale. A 2011 recipient of a PhD in physics from the University of California, Davis and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Gray is an expert in bulk-sensitive and depthresolved X-ray spectroscopic and imaging probes of electronic structure. During his graduate career he pioneered new X-ray techniques, such as hard x-ray angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (HARPES) and standing-wave excited angleresolved photoelectron spectroscopy (SW-ARPES). These techniques have been since successfully applied by Gray, collaborators and other researchers to bulk- and interfacesensitive studies of key materials in the field of spintronics, as well as to the interfaces of relevance to low-dimensional heterostructuring and energy-efficient field-effect devices. Previously Gray spent three years as an experimental research associate at the Institute for Materials and Energy Science at Stanford University, where he conducted research at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Message from the Chair OUR DEPARTMENT’S MOVE LAST FALL INTO THE NEW SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH CENTER (SERC)—and our ongoing recruitment of outstanding faculty members to maximize the building’s exceptional research and teaching resources—have dramatically heightened the department’s stature. Hires to our growing faculty of 22 since 2012 include: Bernd Surrow, a high-energy collider researcher from MIT; Alexander Gray, a former material science Stanford University postdoctoral research associate; Darius Torchinsky, a quantum electronics researchers from Caltech; and John Perdew and Adrienn Ruzsinszky, from Tulane University. Perdew is a leader in density functional theory and author of a top-100 cited paper according to Thomson Reuters Web of Science database. And I joined Temple after 20 years at Rensselaer with a focus in experimental nuclear and particle physics. Recent highlights also include: • Our hosting a nuclear physics town meeting that attracted about 250 physicists from the U.S. and around the world to help determine the direction of our country’s nuclear research. • The designation of our Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials directed by Perdew as one of just 10 new federal Energy Frontier Research Centers. • The successful test and implementation of Rongjia Tao’s technology to enhance the flow of crude oil through pipelines. To witness the exciting research and teaching that is occurring here, please visit us online at phys.cst.temple.edu or in person. Jim Napolitano Interim Chair, Department of Physics
phys.cst.temple.edu
Town meeting at Temple will guide future U.S. nuclear physics research
About 250 prominent physicists attended a three-day town meeting hosted last September by the College of Science and Technology’s Nuclear Physics Group to chart the future direction of nuclear physics research. At stake was which of two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories would best house a new electron-ion collider (EIC) facility that would utilize the world’s brightest and most versatile microscope—either the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island or the Thomas Jefferson National Acceleratory Laboratory in Newport News, Virginia. The new facility would offer an alternative to the high-energy Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, that in 2012 enabled physicists to finally detect the long-sought Higgs bosun particle. Professor James Napolitano, interim chair of the Department of Physics and co-chair of the town meeting, said, “Probing nucleons with the highest resolution microscopes is another way to investigate the structure and dynamics of nucleons—which would be the purpose of a new collider at either BNL or JLab. This collider would ensure U.S. leadership in the field of nuclear science for decades to come.” Meeting attendees voted unanimously in favor of constructing an EIC. As Physics Today reported, when and where that occurs will begin to be determined later this year. “It was a prestigious honor for Temple and the Department of Physics,” says meeting co-chair and Associate Professor Bernd Surrow. “When I told a colleague at the Department of Energy that we would be hosting the meeting, he said, ‘Now Temple is on the map.’”
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Device enhances oil pipeline flow An electrical device designed by professor of physics Rongjia Tao, which enhances the flow of crude oil through pipelines, has been successfully field tested on portions of a major U.S. pipeline. Tao’s oil technology device reduces the viscosity and turbulence of crude oil. Patented by Temple University, the device was created with the financial support of QS Energy, Inc., a Santa Barbara, California-based developer and vendor of commercial flow assurance solutions.
John Perdew, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics and Chemistry and director of the Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials with Michael L. Klein, FRS, Dean, College Science and Technology and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science.
Physics center named a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center The department is the new home of a federally funded Energy Frontier Research Center focusing on the design of new layered materials that will have potential use in energy applications. The Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials is one of 10 new Energy Frontier Research Centers announced last summer by the U.S. Department of Energy, which awarded a four-year, $12 million grant. The purpose: to fund basic research into the design of new layered materials with potential future applications for the ways that energy is produced and stored. The center’s director is John Perdew, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics and Chemistry. The 18 other principal investigators include five more Department of Physics researchers, including Professor Xiaoxing Xi; four Department of Chemistry researchers, including CST Dean Michael L. Klein; and nine others from prestigious U.S. universities, the Brookhaven National Laboratory and a research center in India. “The interesting thing about the single layers of materials is you can very readily change them and control the properties of that material,” said Perdew. “For instance, you could tune it to absorb a particular frequency or frequencies of light for conversion into electricity.” Perdew said the center’s theoretical or computational scientists are using computer simulations to add various atoms or molecules to a particular material’s surface or change the material’s structure and then compute whether those changes affect the material’s properties in a desired way to create a new material. Experimental scientists working at the center will then grow these new materials and test their applications.
Utilizing electrorheology principles, Tao’s devices have been installed just downstream from pipeline pumps. The electrical field polarizes suspended nanoparticles found in crude oil, causing them to aggregate in short chains along the flow direction—which both decreases viscosity in that direction and effectively suppressing turbulence. This green technology may eliminate the need to heat the crude oil, a current costly industry standard, while significantly reducing required pumping pressures. Field tests have indicated viscosity decreases. “It also reduces the power needed to pump crude oil while the flow rate is unchanged,” added Tao. “And by reducing pumping pressures, it’s much safer for both land-based pipelines and pipelines that connect with off-shore drilling sites.”
Garett Miller: Undergraduate research in protein folding Undergraduate Research Program (URP) student Garett Miller, CST ’16, a senior physics major and computer science minor, was uncertain whether he wanted to go to graduate school and, if he did, was not sure if he wanted to go into astrophysics or biophysics—until he began working with Vincent Voelz, assistant professor of chemistry. He focused on protein folding, a process integral to such mental illnesses as Alzheimer’s and mad-cow disease. In nature, such proteins fold in a microsecond, but to simulate that process it was taking Miller 240 hours’ worth of time on the university’s high-performance supercomputer network. “There was always a question about continuing my education, but this summer was pretty successful so I feel secure about going to grad school for biophysics,” he says. “When you’re doing a lab assignment for class, you don’t really have any attachment to it. But in this lab what I am doing has direct implications for people who have those diseases, at least that’s the goal.” Launched in 2009, URP enables under-graduates to obtain valuable hands-on research experience with world-class researchers. Since then, 750 CST students have participated in the highly selective program.
Support undergraduate research CST’s Undergraduate Research Program (URP) offers motivated students the opportunity to work with world-class researchers on real-world research. More than 750 students have participated, gaining a valuable advantage in the job market and competitive graduate programs. To make a gift, contact John Walker at 215-204-8176 or john.walker@temple.edu or go to giving.temple.edu/urp
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS FUNDED RESEARCH Department’s funded research portfolio continues to grow
• MgB2 thin film deposition on RF cavities, Argonne National Laboratory • Magnesium diboride thin films, multi-layers and coatings for SRF cavities, DOE
ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS
NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS
Marjatta Lyyra and Ergin Ahmed • Control of molecular quantum state character by coherence effects, NSF Svetlana Kotochigova • Quantum magnetism of strongly correlated magnetic atoms and molecules, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) • Controlling anisotropy in interactions of ultracold atoms and molecules for quantum information processing, NSF • High-resolution quantum control of chemical reactions, MURI Army Research Office (ARO) • Precision chemical sensing and quantum control of ultracold molecular ion reactions, MURI ARO
CONDENSED MATTER AND MATERIAL SCIENCE Ke Chen (PI) and Xiaoxing Xi • Superconducting circuits using magnesium diboride Josephson junctions, Office of Naval Research (ONR) Alexander Gray • Controlling fundamental physical interactions in strongly-correlated and two-dimensional electronic systems with ultrafast THz electric fields, ARO Young Investigator Program Maria Iavarone • VortexMatter in confined superconductors and MesoscopicHybrid herostructures, DOE • Manipulation of chiral charge DensityWaves, ARO John Perdew (director), Maria Iavarone, Adrienn Ruzsinsky, Xifan Wu and Xiaoxing Xi • Energy Frontier Research Center: Center for the Computational Design of Functional Layered Materials, DOE John Perdew • Density functional theory of electronic structure, NSF
Xifan Wu • Signature of molecular environment in spectroscopy measurement of water and aqueous solutions studied by advanced abinitio methods, ACS Petroleum • Advanced modeling of ions in solutions, on surfaces and in biological environments, DOE Xifan Wu (co-PI) and Xiaoxing Xi • Artificial oxide heterostructures with tunable band gap, Air Force Research Laboratory Xiaoxing Xi • Enhancement of spin-lattice coupling in nanoengineered oxide films and heterostructures by laser MBE, DOE • Study of gap symmetry and gap structures in iron pnictides using Josephson junctions, NSF • Investigation and optimization of thin MgB2 superconducting films for THz HEB mixer development, NASA/JPL
Jeff Martoff • Collaborative Research: Direct search for dark matter with underground argon at LNGS, NSF • Collaborative Research: R&D Towards DarkSide-G2, a second-generation direct search for dark matter, NSF Andreas Metz • Hard scattering processes in QCD, NSF Zein-Eddine Meziani • Research in nuclear physics using electromagnetic probes, DOE Jim Napolitano • Fundamental physics experiments with reactor neutrinos, DOE Nikolaos Sparveris • Studies of hadronic structure, NSF
The Department of Physics welcomes back Professor Xiaoxing Xi, after an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department where all charges against him were dropped.
Bernd Surrow • Measurements on the structure and dynamics of matter, DOE • Design and assembly of fast and lightweight barrel and forward-tracking prototype systems for an EIC, DOE managed by Brookhaven National Laboratory
• MRI Consortium: Collaborative Research: Development of Phase-I DarkLight experiment at Jefferson Laboratory, NSF
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS 2015 AWARDS STUDENTS Distinguished Graduate Student Research Award: Steven Moore Distinguished Graduate Student Teaching Award: Xiangying Deng Peter Havas Humanitarian Scholarship for Outstanding Physics Graduate Students: Adam Blomberg
Adrienn Ruzsinsky • Exploring the random phase approximation for materials and chemical physics, DOE
Alliance for Minority Participation Award for Academic Achievement: Gregory Bell
Peter Riseborough • Strongly correlated electron systems, DOE
Alliance for Minority Participation Award for Research: Brandon Elman
Rongjia Tao • Air ions produced by various isotypes, Naval Research Lab • Research on crude oil viscosity reduction and diesel fuel injection, Save the World Air • Magnetic and electric field application to confectionary materials, Mars Chocolate, UK
Robert and Rita Cook Science Scholars Fund: Jeffrey Timlin Seda Tarzian Endowed Scholarship: Melanie Rehfuss The College of Science and Technology Student Advisor Award: Jake Roemer
Undergraduate Research Program Symposium Awards: Jeffrey Timlin Dr. Paul G. & Beatrice Zackon Physics Scholarship: Dillion Fox Murray Green Memorial Prize in Physics: 2014- Brandon Elman; 2015- Dillion Fox Donald and Annette Baird Family Award in Science and Math Education: Catherine Bergeron
FACULTY Young Investigator Award, U.S. Army Research Office: Alexander Gray Honorary degree, Budapest University of Technology and Economics: John P. Perdew Humboldt Research Award: John P. Perdew John Scott Award: John P. Perdew