Milchberg Selected as 2013 OSA Fellow

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Category: Department News

Published: Wednesday, February 13 2013 11:03

Professor Howard Milchberg was named a 2013 fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA). The number of OSA Members recommended for election to Fellow each year is limited to less than 0.5 percent of the total OSA Membership.  Fellows are selected based on their overall impact on optics, as gauged through factors such as specific scientific, engineering, and technological contributions, a record of significant publications or patents related to optics, technical leadership in the field, and service to OSA and the global optics community.

These distinguished Fellow Members will be recognized individually at meetings throughout 2013. Specific information on each new Fellow Member’s accomplishments are published in the February issue of Optics and Photonics News.

Finding Unconventional Superconductors by Visual Inspection

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Category: Research News

Published: Wednesday, February 13 2013 00:00

Researchers, including Steve Anlage, have discovered a new and simple experimental test to see if a superconductor is ‘unconventional’ and unusual. Many of the high temperature superconductors discovered over the past 30 years are thought to be unconventional in nature. One strategy for discovering new higher temperature superconductors is to create even more exotic unconventional superconductors. The experiment creates a clear graphical image of the properties of the superconductor in different directions, as shown below. An anisotropic image is a clear sign of the unconventional nature of the superconducting state. This image shows the four nodal directions of the d-wave superconductor YBa2Cu3O7- as enhanced response (tall, white areas). The technique can now be applied to newly discovered superconductors to test them for unconventional properties, and will help guide the search for even higher temperature superconductors. The results appeared in a spring issue of Physical Review Letters.

Buonanno and Banavar are Added to the APS Outstanding Referees List

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Category: Department News

Published: Friday, February 08 2013 14:29

Alessandra Buonanno and Jayanth Banavar are among the new Outstanding Referees selected by the editors of the APS journals. Initiated in 2008, the highly selective Outstanding Referee program recognizes scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in the APS journals. Selections are based on two decades of records on the number, quality and timeliness of referee reports.

The full list of Outstanding Referees is located at, http://publish.aps.org/OutstandingReferees

Roald Sagdeev Interviewed by NPR's Daniel Zwerdling

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Category: Department News

Published: Thursday, January 31 2013 00:00

“The Day I Said ‘Nyet!’ to Gorbachev… and Other Life Tales of a Famous Soviet Scientist”

Distinguished University of Maryland Professor Roald Z. Sagdeev discussed “The Day I Said ‘Nyet!’ to Gorbachev… and Other Life Tales of a Famous Soviet Scientist” with journalist Daniel Zwerdling on February 7, 2013 at the Marriott Conference Center on the UMD campus. Sagdeev ran the Soviet space program and advised Soviet leaders on the nuclear arms race. He spoke about love, communism, physics and the end of the Soviet Union with Daniel Zwerdling, an award-winning correspondent and investigative journalist with National Public Radio.