UMD Physics Team Receives Invention of the Year Award at Innovate Maryland 2019

InventoroftheYear2018From quantum computing and augmented reality to biomedical advances and innovative new materials, the 2018 Invention of the Year award winners spanned the range of research and entrepreneurship at Maryland.

Winners in four categories and one overall winner were announced Thursday at the Hotel at the University of Maryland at Innovate Maryland 2019.   

“This event is a celebration of all the Fearless Ideas being activated by UMD students and faculty to create solutions that can transform lives,” said UMD Chief Innovation Officer Julie Lenzer. "We also gather to recognize recent accomplishments across our innovation ecosystem, the connective tissue that makes all this possible."

Since 1987, the university has honored exceptional inventions that have the potential to make a transformative impact on science, society and the free market. Vice President for Research Laurie E. Locascio announced that the Office of Technology Commercialization will retire its name and now be known as UM Ventures–College Park.

“This name change is reflective of the university’s expanded efforts to create a seamless environment for the creative output of our research enterprise,” said Locascio.

A panel of judges selected the following winners:

Overall: “Cryogenic Ion Trapping and Storage System for Quantum Information”

  • Christopher Monroe, Distinguished University Professor and Bice Sechi-Zorn Professor, Department of Physics and Joint Quantum Institute (JQI)
  • Guido Pagano, postdoctoral researcher, Department of Physics and JQI
  • Paul Hess, postdoctoral researcher, JQI
  • Harvey Kaplan, Ph.D. student, Department of Physics and JQI
  • Wen Lin Tan, Ph.D. student, Department of Physics and JQI
  • Philip Richerme, former postdoctoral fellow, Department of Physics

Information Sciences: “Augmented Reality Enabled Catheter”

  • Amitabh Varshney, professor and dean, College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences
  • Sarah Murthi, M.D., associate professor of surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine; trauma surgeon, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
  • Gary Schwartzbauer, M.D., assistant professor of neurosurgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine; neurosurgeon, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
  • Xuetong Sun, doctoral student, Department of Computer Science

Life Sciences: “Novel Method of Internal Organ Generation For Therapy and Research in Humans and Animals”

  • Chi-Hun Park, faculty assistant, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences
  • Bhanu Telugu, associate professor, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences

Physical Sciences: “Strong and Tough Graphite-Paper Composites”

  • Liangbing Hu, assistant professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Maryland Energy Innovation Institute
  • Yubing Zhou, professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Maryland Nanocenter
  • Chaoji Chen, professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Maryland Nanocenter
  • Teng Li, associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Maryland Energy Innovation Institute
  • Robert Foster, executive vice president of development, Trinity Rail Group

Startup of the Year: IonQ, an early-stage quantum computing company co-founded by Monroe and Jungsang Kim, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science at Duke University.

Irving and Renee Milchberg Endowed Lecture Premiered April 16

milchberglecture

On April 16, 2019, the UMD Department of Physics and College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences held the first Irving and Renee Milchberg Endowed Lecture. 

Professor Howard Milchberg, his wife Rena, and their three children established this lecture series in honor of Howard's parents. It aims to highlight the connections among science, truth, the human condition and a civil society.The inaugural Irving and Renee Milchberg Endowed Lecture, April 19, 2019.The inaugural Irving and Renee Milchberg Endowed Lecture, April 19, 2019.

Susan Eisenhower spoke on Lessons from 1945: Ethics, the War in Europe, and its Enduring LegacyEisenhower is the granddaughter of Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States and the Supreme Allied Commander in the European theater during World War II.  She is an author and a policy analyst on issues including arms control, nuclear non-proliferation and international security, and is Chairman Emeritus at the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College.

To learn more about the lecture series, please click here.

Gregory S. Boebinger Named 11th Carr Lecturer

boebingerSqGregory S. Boebinger, Director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and a professor at Florida State University, will give the W.J. Carr Lecture on Tuesday, April 9 at 4 p.m. in room 1412 of the John S. Toll Physics Building.  His talk is entitled Exploring the Heart of Quantum Matter with Extreme Magnetic Fields.

On Monday, April 8, he will also give the CNAM Seminar, Using High Magnetic Fields to Reveal Critical Behavior Near Optimum Doping in High-Temperature Superconductivity at 4 p.m. in room 1201 Toll.

The W. J. Carr Lecture Series on Superconductivity and Advanced Materials was established by Dr. James L. Carr, (Ph.D., ’89), in honor of in honor of his father, Walter J. Carr. It aims to contribute to the advancement of students in the UMD physics program and the Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials.

Vladimir Manucharyan Receives Google Faculty Research Award

GoogleAIGoogle AI recently announced that JQI Fellow Vlad Manucharyan is among the recipients for this year's Google Faculty Research Awards. The program supports technical research in areas such as machine learning and quantum computing, the latter of which is Manucharyan's area of specialty. In the 2018 awards cycle the program funded 158 of the 910 proposed projects. 

Manucharyan, who is also the Alford Ward Professor of Physics at UMD, is a leading condensed matter experimentalist who uses superconducting circuits to make quantum bits, which underlie one type of quantum computer. This type of research is also an active area of development for Google AI. Beyond qubits, Manucharyan’s team is also exploring ways in which superconducting circuits can probe physics phenomena that remain out of reach for other quantum platforms.

APS Outstanding Referees Program Recognizes Three Faculty Members

OutstandingPin squareH. Dennis Drew, Howard M. Milchberg, and Jay Deep Sau have been recognized by the Americal Physical Society as Outstanding Referees for their contributions to the Physics community.

Each year, about 150 of the over 70,000 indivudal referees who help review manuscripts for publication in APS journals are recognized by APS for their efforts in maintaining the high standards of their journals. This is a lifetime award that has been carried out since 2008. 

Drew, Milchberg and Sau join these UMD Physics faculty who were recognized by the Outstanding Referees Program in previous years:

2016       Sarah Eno           

2013       Alessandra Buonanno   

2013       Jayanth Banavar              

2012       Thomas D. Cohen            

2011       James F. Drake 

2010       R. N. Mohapatra              

2009       Andrew Elby      

2009       Christopher Jarzynski    

2009       Edward Ott        

2009       John D. Weeks 

2009       O. W. Greenberg            

2009       S. M. Bhagat      

2009       Steven Rolston 

2009       T. R. Kirkpatrick

2009       Ted Jacobson    

2008       Dieter Brill          

2008       Hans R. Griem  

2008       J. Robert Dorfman          

2008       Michael E. Fisher             

2008       Sankar Das Sarma           

2008       Stephen J. Wallace          

2008       Theodore L. Einstein

 

More about the Outstanding Referees Program and a list of all members at https://journals.aps.org/OutstandingReferees.