UMD_CMNS_Physics_S1_CMYK

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Physics Administration
    • Directions
    • Awards
    • Student Awards
    • Make a Donation
    • News
      • Research News
      • Department News
      • Newsletters
  • People
    • All
    • Faculty
      • Current
      • Emeritus
      • Adjunct
      • Affiliate
      • Research Professors
    • Research Scientists
    • Postdocs
    • Staff
    • Lecturers
    • Visitors
    • Graduate Students
  • Research
    • Research Areas
      • AI and Physical Sciences
      • Astro Metrology
      • Atomic, Molecular & Optical
      • Biophysics
      • Chemical Physics
      • Condensed Matter Experiment
      • Condensed Matter Theory
      • Cosmic Ray Physics
      • Elementary Particles
      • Gravitation Experiment
      • Gravitational Theory
      • High Energy Physics
      • Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos and Complex Systems
      • Nuclear Physics
      • Particle Astrophysics
      • Physics Education Research
      • Plasma Physics
      • Plasma Theory
      • Quantum Science and Technology
      • Quarks, Hadrons and Nuclei
      • Space Physics
    • Centers & Institutes
  • Academics
    • OSES Home (Student Services)
    • OSES News
    • Undergraduate Program
      • Prospective Students
      • Apply Now
      • Degree Requirements and Policies
      • Scholarships
      • Undergraduate Research
      • Advising
      • Undergraduate Forms
      • Undergraduate Events
      • Departmental Honors
      • Society of Physics Students
      • FAQ
      • Undergraduate Student Committee
    • Graduate Program
      • Prospective Students
      • Open House
      • Degree Requirements
      • Graduate Resources
      • Deadlines and Forms
      • PhD Defenses
        • PhD Defenses 2025
        • PhD Defenses 2024
        • PhD Defenses 2023
        • PhD Defenses 2022
        • PhD Defenses 2021
        • PhD Defenses 2020
        • PhD Defenses 2019
        • PhD Defenses 2018
        • PhD Defenses 2017
        • PhD Defenses 2016
      • Events
      • Scholarships & Awards
      • Qualifier
      • Graduate Student Organizations
      • FAQ
    • Student Opportunities
      • GRAD-MAP
      • Graduate Student Organizations
      • Outreach Volunteering
      • Society of Physics Students
      • NSF S-STEM Program
      • Undergraduate Research
      • Women in Physics
      • Undergraduate Quantum Association
    • Courses
    • Academic Support
    • NSF S-STEM Program
    • Teaching Assistants
    • Where's my TA?
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Physics Colloquia
    • Event Submission
    • W.J. Carr Lecture
    • Research Interaction Team (RIT) Math/Physics
    • Mechanick Quantum Biology Lecture
    • Irving and Renee Milchberg Endowed Lectureship
    • Charles W. Misner Endowed Lectureship in Gravitational Physics
    • John S. Toll Endowed Lecture
    • Prange Prize Lecture
    • Maryland Day
    • Outreach
      • Outreach Home
      • Physics is Phun
      • Discovery Days
    • Summer Programs
      • Physics Makers Camp
      • Physics of Quidditch
      • Science Discovery Camp
      • Advanced Physics Summer Program
      • Toolkit for Success
    • CUWiP
    • Vortex Makerspace
  • Services
    • Computing Services
    • Conference Room Reservations
    • Department Operations Directory
    • Electronic and Mechanical Development
    • Hiring Procedures
    • Lecture Demo
    • Mental Health Resources
    • Physics Ombudspersons
    • Printing Services
      • Poster Print Request
    • Proposal Submissions
    • Purchase Order
    • Suggestion Box
    • Textbook Order Form

Buonanno Receives Dirac Medal

Details
Published: Thursday, August 19 2021 12:46

Alessandra Buonanno has been awarded the Dirac Medal, along with Thibault Damour, Frans Pretorius, and Saul Teukolsky. The medal is given by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in Trieste, Italy, to honor significant contributions to theoretical physics. This year's recipients were cited for their work envisaging LIGO's detection of gravitational waves.

Buonanno is the director of the Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity Department at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam and a Research Professor at the University of Maryland.

“It is a great honor for me to receive this prestigious award. It’s a wonderful recognition not only of my own research in gravitational waves, but of the work that the members of my research groups at the AEI and University of Maryland have done over many years,” Buonanno said. 

She joined the UMD Department of Physics in 2005, and received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship and the Richard A. Ferrell Distinguished Faculty Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation. In 2018, she received the Leibniz Prize, Germany's prestigious research award. Earlier in 2021, she was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and was awarded the Galileo Galilei Medal of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). Alessandra Buonanno © A. Klaer Alessandra Buonanno © A. Klaer Buonanno was also recently elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, which originated in 1652 as a classical scholarly society.

Buonanno's research has spanned several topics in gravitational-wave theory, data-analysis and cosmology. She is a Principal Investigator of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and her waveform modeling of cosmological events has been crucial in the experiment’s many successes.

Buonanno, Charlie Misner, Peter Shawhan and others detailed UMD's contributions to gravitational studies in a 2016 forum, A Celebration of Gravitational Waves. 

Sibylle Sampson, 1929-2021

Details
Published: Thursday, August 12 2021 12:46

Sibylle Sampson, a crucial member of the Department of Physics during a period of remarkable growth, died August 8 at the Ginger Cove retirement community in Annapolis.

SampsonJohn Toll praises Sibylle Sampson at her retirement party in 1991.John Toll praises Sibylle Sampson at her retirement party in 1991. joined the department in 1960 as a stenographer, and rose to become Director of Finance and the utterly essential aide to John Toll during his frenzied and fruitful expansion of UMD Physics. She was a renowned administrator and advocate of the department.

Toll’s arrival transformed the department (and by extension, elevated the research stature of the entire university). By all accounts, Sampson was immensely important, dedicated and effective in implementing Toll's plans.

Three decades ago, Sampson established the Sibylle Sampson Award  to highlight particularly innovative efforts of  physics staff members.

A native of Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, Sampson traveled to several countries for various jobs, and first arrived at College Park while visiting her brother, who was a postdoctoral researcher here. She eventually married her brother's roommate, an economics student, in 1959. Bob Sampson died just five months before Sibylle.

In retirement, both Sampsons enjoyed travel and boating. Sibylle was a poet in both English and German, and in 2018 published aSibylle Sampson recalls John Toll at his 2011 memorial.Sibylle Sampson recalls John Toll at his 2011 memorial. volume entitled, "Wanderings".   

Solstice

I woke into black silence,
The earth so still as if it held its
Spinning, had drowned
The breath of wind.

It is the night of darkest winter
Sol sistere – when the sun stands still,
When ancients built fires to
Chase the ghosts of night.

From the East,
Dawn slowly spreads her mantle,
Gray and reluctant first – her cloak will
Soon reveal a golden rim:

The promise of the sun
Of light embracing the earth,
Of snow vibrating in the spectrum of color -
The hope of every window in this world.

Sistere,
Stand still, o moment,
Remain.

 

Paul Cited for Outstanding Thesis

Details
Published: Monday, August 02 2021 05:56

The Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society has selected Elizabeth Paul (Ph.D. '20) for the Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award. This prize is awarded to one person each year for the best Ph.D. thesis in plasma physics. Dr. Paul will receive a $2,000 prize and the opportunity to discuss her dissertation, “Adjoint methods for stellarator shape optimization and sensitivity analysis”, at the division's annual meeting November 8-12, 2021.

At UMD, Paul worked with Matt Landreman and Williiam Dorland studying stellarators, devices in which plasmas are confined using magnetic fields with carefully designed shaping. In her thesis, Elizabeth devised efficient methods to compute how physics properties of the plasma change if there are changes toElizabeth PaulElizabeth Paul the plasma’s shape or to the shape of the confining electromagnets. She was named a UMD Grad School Outstanding Research Assistant and received a $15,000 award from the Metro Washington Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. She twice received the IREAP Graduate Student Seminar Best Speaker Award.

Following her doctorate, Paul accepted a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Princeton University, returning to the campus where she graduated magna cum laude in astrophysical sciences in 2015.

Three other UMD graduates—all advised by Prof. Howard Milchberg—have received the Rosenbluth Award: Yu-Hsin Chen, Ki-Yong Kim and Thomas R. Clark, Jr.

 

 

 

Antonsen Receives IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award

Details
Published: Thursday, July 15 2021 12:54

Tom Antonsen  has been selected for the 2022 IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award for “seminal contributions in theoretical plasma physics and radiation science, and for the development of comprehensive design codes for vacuum electronics devices.” 

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award is given annually by the IEEE Board of Directors for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear and plasma sciences and engineering.  Antonsen will receive a medal,Thomas AntonsenThomas Antonsen certificate, and honorarium.

Antonsen joined the University of Maryland faculty in 1984. He is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics, and served as acting director of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics from 1998-2000. He was named a Distinguished University Professor in 2017. He is an IEEE Fellow and received the IEEE John R. Pierce Award for Excellence in Vacuum Electronics in 2016 and the IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Award in 2003.

For nearly a century, the IEEE Awards Program has paid tribute to technical professionals whose exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on technology, society, and the engineering profession. Each year the IEEE Awards Board recommends a select group of recipients to receive IEEE's most prestigious honors.

 

 

 

Rolston Reappointed Department Chair

Details
Published: Thursday, June 24 2021 05:33

Professor Steve Rolston will begin a second five-year term as chair of the Department of Physics on July 1, 2021.

Rolston, who joined UMD in 2003, will continue to lead the physics department, which ranks No. 14 in the latest U.S. News & World Report Graduate Rankings and has 150 faculty members, nearly 600 students and annual research funding over $30 million.

“I’m grateful to have Steve's continued leadership, guidance and experience as we move forward from this challenging pandemic,” said Amitabh Varshney, dean of UMD’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. “I have seen first-hand how Steve selflessly dedicates his time and energy to our physics faculty, staff and students.”

During Rolston’s first term as chair, the department hired eight new faculty members, hosted the Conference for Undergraduate Underrepresented Minorities in Physics three times, and launched a Climate Committee to ensure the department provides a welcoming and supportive environment for all members. In addition, eight physics majors received Goldwater Scholarships and 21 physics students received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships over that five-year period.

Following the historic detection of gravitational waves in 2015, Rolston spearheaded ways for the department to honor the pioneer of gravitational wave research, Professor Joseph Weber (1919-2000). In 2018, the department created the Weber Memorial Garden on the south side of the Physical Sciences Complex. The garden features an installation of solid aluminum cylinders that were the cores of gravitational wave detectors that were invented, built and operated by Weber. In 2019, Professor Emeritus Charles Misner and his wife, Susanne, established the Weber Endowment for Gravitational Physics to support research related to gravitational waves. Steve RolstonSteve Rolston

While department chair, Rolston also founded the Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance, which aims to build a vibrant and diverse local ecosystem to support quantum innovation, and co-founded the Quantum Technology Center, which aims to translate quantum physics research into innovative technologies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rolston led the department in running in-person lab courses and research labs without a single case of community transmission. 

“It has been a privilege to be chair of physics for the last five years with our powerhouse faculty who have continued to make UMD Physics a leader,” Rolston said. “I am particularly impressed at how well we weathered the pandemic, a testament to the strength of our staff, students and faculty, and expect great things in the future as we exit from this difficult time.”

Rolston served as associate chair of the department from 2006 to 2009 and as co-director of the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI)—a research partnership between UMD, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences—from 2008 to 2017. 

In his personal research, Rolston uses ultracold atoms created through laser cooling to study a variety of quantum phenomena. He develops simulators of disordered solid-state systems, works to understand how dissipation can be useful in quantum systems, creates strong quantum connections between atoms and photons, and generates the building blocks for a network of quantum devices.

He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and The Optical Society. In addition, Rolston received the university’s Kirwan Undergraduate Education Award in 2014 in recognition of his outstanding achievement in engaging undergraduates in science education.

Rolston earned his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After completing postdoctoral fellowships in atomic physics at the University of Washington and Harvard University, he spent 15 years as a staff scientist in the lab of Nobel laureate Wiilliam Phillips at NIST. 

 

More Articles ...

  1. Kollár Receives CAREER Award
  2. Shawhan Named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
  3. Buonanno Elected to National Academy of Sciences
  4. Gorshkov to Receive Flemming Award
  5. Mohapatra Authors Book on Neutrino's Importance

Page 35 of 142

  • Start
  • Prev
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • Next
  • End
  • Physics Administration
  • Directions
  • Awards
  • Student Awards
  • Make a Donation
  • News
    • Research News
    • Department News
    • Newsletters
feed-image Department News RSS Feed

College and University Links

UMD_CMNS_Physics_P1_CMYK_W

 

UMD-Primary-Logo-White

Department of Physics

University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-4111
Phone: 301.405.3401

 

Questions or Comments? Send us an e-mail.

Information

  • Campus Directory
  • Scholarship Opportunities
  • Undergraduate Research Opportunities
  • Prospective Undergraduates
  • Interactive Campus Map
  • Metrorail Map
  • UMShuttle Routes
  • Make a Donation 
  • Web Accessibility
  • Twitter
Department of Physics - University of Maryland - College Park, MD 20742