Assistant Professor Maissam Barkeshli Receives 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship

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Published: Thursday, February 15 2018 13:10

Maissam Barkeshli, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Maryland and fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute, has been awarded a 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship. Granted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this award identifies 126 early-career scientists based on their potential to contribute fundamentally significant research to a wider academic community.  

Barkeshli, a theoretical condensed matter physicist interested in complex quantum many-body phenomena, will use the fellowship to further his research into the collective behavior that emerges in systems of strongly interacting particles governed by the laws of quantum mechanics.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious fellowship,” said Barkeshli. “It represents an affirmation of my work by distinguished members of the physics community, and it encourages me to continue my efforts in understanding the complexities of quantum matter.”

Barkeshli’s research mixes physics with mathematics and draws motivation from the ongoing pursuit to build next-generation computing devices ruled by quantum physics. Beyond the applications, his research explores the many ways that atoms and electrons—prototypical quantum particles—can combine in large numbers to produce a range of novel behaviors.  

For example, interesting things seem to happen at the interface between two different quantum materials. In 2014, Barkeshli and several colleagues showed that, at least theoretically, electrons can lose their electric charge or shed a quantum property called spin when they hop between two quantum materials. With the Sloan Research Fellowship, Barkeshli hopes to continue studying the novel ways that electrons and other, more exotic particles behave at these interfaces. This research could uncover new ways of building quantum computers that are virtually immune to noise, and has led to experimental proposals that could soon be tested in the lab.

Barkeshli has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed journal articles. Before joining the UMD faculty in 2016, Barkeshli worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research’s Station Q (2013-2016) and at Stanford University (2010-2013). He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a second bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2004. He received his doctoral degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010.

Barkeshli joins the list of 39 current UMD College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences faculty members who have received Sloan Research Fellowships.  

The two-year $65,000 Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded to U.S. and Canadian researchers in the fields of chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics.  Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists and winning fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars on the basis of each candidate’s independent research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in his or her field.

“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best science has to offer,” said Adam Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “The brightest minds, tackling the hardest problems, and succeeding brilliantly—Fellows are quite literally the future of twenty-first century science.”

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About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 9,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college’s 10 departments and more than a dozen interdisciplinary researchcenters foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $175 million.

Physics Senior Christopher Bambic Wins 2018 Churchill Scholarship

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Published: Tuesday, February 13 2018 11:46

Christopher Bambic has been awarded 2018 Winston Churchill Scholarship, which offers full funding to pursue one-year master’s degrees at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Bambic—a physics and astronomy dual-degree student, who is a Stamps Banneker/Key Scholar and a member of the University Honors program within the Honors College—will pursue a Master of Philosophy degree in astronomy. He plans to study the connection between microscale plasma physics and macroscale astrophysical phenomena.

The Churchill Scholarship will allow Bambic, a 2017 Goldwater Scholar, to combine his unique experiences in astrophysics, plasma physics and astronomy to conduct both theoretical and experimental research at the University of Cambridge. There, Bambic will work with Christopher Reynolds, a professor of astronomy at UMD who was recently named Plumian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, and Andrew Fabian, director of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

“Chris is an extraordinary young scientist,” Reynolds said. “He has a ‘trap door mind’—you only have to tell him something once and he gets it.”

For two years, Bambic conducted research with Reynolds examining the physics of the plasma that surrounds clusters of galaxies and the role magnetic fields play in active galactic nuclei feedback. Bambic is working to develop a theory of how energy is transferred from supermassive black hole jets to the hot plasma surrounding galaxies.

He spent last summer at the University of Cambridge in Fabian’s lab using X-ray spectral data collected by an instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s XMM Newton space telescope to research the roles of turbulence and sound waves in heating the plasma in galaxy clusters. He received an Undergraduate Summer Research, Travel and Educational Enrichment Award from the CMNS Alumni Network to pursue this work.

“I am interested in using supercomputer simulations, analytical work, and X-ray and gamma ray observations to elucidate the complex physics of systems such as black holes, astrophysical jets, gamma ray bursts and the hot intracluster medium in clusters of galaxies,” Bambic said.

Bambic has also studied the dissipation of sound waves within plasmas with UMD Physics Professor William Dorland and conducted research on the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory with UMD Distinguished University Professor of Physics Jordan Goodman. 

“Chris is one of the most engaged and ambitious undergraduate students I have seen in my entire career,” Goodman said. “In a day when many of the best students are a mile deep and an inch wide, Chris distinguishes himself with both the depth and breadth of his experience and knowledge.”

A graduate of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio, Bambic has submitted two first-author journal articles for publication and presented his research at four conferences. He was named a 2017-18 Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar and was inducted into the Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society. He serves as president of the AstroTerps student astronomy club, is a member of the Society of Physics Students club, and tutors other students in physics and astronomy. He also volunteers his time in the local community through activities with the Catholic Student Center and the Knights of Columbus.

 Original story here.

Matched at Maryland: Meet Alumni Barrett and Marilyn Ripin

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Published: Tuesday, February 06 2018 15:43

The couple, who married in 1966, provide need-based scholarships for undergraduates in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences who are preparing to be K-12 science or math teachers.  

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Meet the College's Longest-Married Alumni Couple

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Published: Tuesday, February 06 2018 13:29

James Baker (B.S. ’49, physics) met his wife Dorothy (B.S. ’51, physics) in his first physics laboratory course at the University of Maryland.

“I remember she was doing the Millikan oil-drop experiment,” James said. “I don’t even remember what mine was. I was so stricken with her.”  

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Amitabh Varshney Named Dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at UMD

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Published: Wednesday, January 24 2018 14:16

Computer scientist Amitabh Varshney has been named dean of the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS), effective March 1, 2018.  Varshney is a professor of computer science at UMD and director of the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). He recently completed a one-year term as the university’s interim vice president for research.  

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