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Department Hosts PhysCon 2022 Attendees

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Published: Friday, December 02 2022 00:01

As a 2022 Physics Congress (PhysCon) local host, UMD Physics was a popular destination for undergraduate attendees to visit on the first day of the conference. Over 80 undergraduate students from US colleges and universities visited campus during the 2022 National Physics Congress (PhysCon) event held in Washington, DC. PhysCon Lunch at UMD PhysCon Lunch at UMD Although the students had different ideas about their futures, they shared a passion for physics and an interest in learning more about graduate school at the University of Maryland.

PhysCon SPS Chapter ShowcasePhysCon SPS Chapter ShowcaseVisitors arrived on campus to find a large group of UMD physics majors and graduate students waiting to welcome them to the department. The program for the day was designed to give a snapshot of the department by showcasing exciting research including Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computing, Biophysics, Particle Physics, Geophysics, and Astrophysics. Yanda Geng and 2022 PhysCon attendeesYanda Geng and 2022 PhysCon attendeesTo provide a window into graduate life at UMD, a graduate student panel engaged visitors in a discussion about their personal trajectories and career goals with a PhD in physics.  A highlight of the day was the Undergraduate Quantum Association (UQA)’s interactive quantum-focused discussion during lunch. Following the lively lunch, the day ended the way every event should, with a bang, as Angel Torres, Outreach Coordinator, propelled a pencil through a piece of plywood!

The packed day of activities was organized by Director of Education and SPS Advisor, Donna Hammer.  Pleased with the outcome of the visit, Hammer shared, “Our physics department is home to an extraordinary group of students, faculty, and staff.  Their dedication and commitment to the physics community is the foundation of today’s success.”

Please see UMD PhysCon video highlights:

Sankar Das Sarma Named Highly Cited Researcher

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Published: Wednesday, November 16 2022 09:53

Sankar Das Sarma has again been included on Clarivate Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers, a compilation of influential names in science.

Das Sarma is the Richard E. Prange Chair of Physics, the Director of the Condensed Matter Theory Center and a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute. 

After receiving his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1979—studying under UMD alumnusSankar Das SarmaSankar Das Sarma John Quinn (Ph.D., '58)—Das Sarma joined the UMD faculty in 1982. He was named a Distinguished University Professor in 1995, and in 2008 received the Kirwan Faculty Research Prize for his groundbreaking work in topological quantum computing.

In 2013, Das Sarma received the CMNS Distinguished Faculty Award in recognition of his stellar career. In 2020, a paper he co-wrote was included in Physical Review B's list of the "milestone" papers published in its first 50 years of existence. 

Das Sarma has been included in all previous listings of highly-cited researchers: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001.

College Park Professor Chris Monroe also appeared on the list.

Schedule

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Published: Wednesday, October 26 2022 10:52

CWM

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Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023,  Eastern Standard Time (UTC -05:00)

9:00-9:25      Registration and Coffee
9:25-9:30   Opening Remarks
9:30-10:15    Ted Jacobson: Charlie Misner and “the beauty and intelligibility of the Universe”
10:15-11:00   Saul Teukolsky: Black hole perturbations, ringdowns, and all that
11:00-11:30   Coffee break
11:30-12:30   Remarks and Reminiscences
12:30-2:00   Lunch
2:00-2:45   Steve Carlip: (Mostly) Quantum Cosmology
2:45-3:30                 Kip Thorne: The Huge Impact that Charlie and His Students Have Had on Me: Black holes, wormholes, singularities, gravitational waves, chronological pathologies, and MTW
3:30-4:00   Coffee break
4:00-5:00   Remarks and Reminiscences, plus Closing Remarks 

Dragt Awarded Robert R. Wilson Prize

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Published: Thursday, October 13 2022 08:37

The American Physical Society (APS) has honored Professor Emeritus Alex Dragt with the 2023 Robert R. Wilson Prize for Achievement in the Physics of Particle Accelerators. He was cited "for pioneering contributions to the development and application of Lie methods in accelerator physics and nonlinear dynamics," and will receive a $10,000 award.

Dragt studied chemistry and mathematics at Calvin University before earning his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of California, Berkeley, under Robert Karplus.  After an appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study, Dragt joined the Department of Physics as an assistant professJohn Toll and Alex DragtJohn Toll and Alex Dragtor in 1965, and served as department chair from 1975-78.  He led the Dynamical Systems and Accelerator Theory Group, whose work included the computation of charged particle beam transport and the computation of electromagnetic fields and beam-cavity interactions.  He received the University of Maryland Regents' Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1967 and was named a University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in 1984.

Dragt (rear, white shirt) with colleagues in the Center for Superconductivity Research (now QMC).Dragt (rear, white shirt) with colleagues in the Center for Superconductivity Research (now QMC).In 2002, Dragt served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the APS Division of Physics of Beams.  From 1985-1993 he was as an editor of Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena. He was recognized with the 2013 IEEE Particle Accelerator Science and Technology (PAST) award for substantial contributions to the analysis of nonlinear phenomena in accelerator beam optics.

He has had several visiting appointments, including at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques; the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of California, Santa Barbara; Los Alamos National Laboratory; the SSC Design Center at the Lawrence Berkeley Laborator; and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

Dragt is a Fellow of the APS and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the IEEE, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Mathematical Society.

APS Wilson prize announcement:  https://aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Dragt&first_nm=Alex&year=2023

Maryland Quantum-Thermodynamics Hub Launches With $2M Grant

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Published: Friday, September 30 2022 00:01

The Maryland Quantum-Thermodynamics Hub, supported by a grant from the Templeton Foundation, will bring together researchers from several universities to galvanize a field that is central to understanding the workings of our universe and to developing robust quantum technologies, ranging from a new class of computers to secure communications networks. It will be based in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at UMD.

Leading the project at UMD are Christopher Jarzynski, a Distinguished University Professor with appointments in chemistry and biochemistry and in physics, and Nicole Yunger Halpern, a fellow in the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) and a scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“We’re delighted at the support that UMD institutions, including IPST, have demonstrated for establishing this hub and for quantum thermodynamics in general,” said Yunger Halpern. “We look forward to building a North American lodestone for quantum thermodynamics, inspired by our international peers.”

[Mapping the Quantum Frontier: UMD Expands Its Footprint as the ‘Capital of Quantum’]

In the quantum world, you don’t need to just think about the movement of energy and particles—as in traditional thermodynamics—but also about the movement of information in uniquely quantum ways. The thermodynamic rules of quantum systems require significant additional research before physicists can understand them as well as they do the established laws of thermodynamics that govern heat flow in things like refrigerators, steam engines and rocket thrusters.

The Maryland hub team is not scrapping traditional thermodynamics completely, however. Instead, it is combining physicists’ established understanding with the modern tools of quantum physics and information processing to develop deeper insights.

The scientists involved in the Maryland Quantum-Thermodynamics Hub say they’re not only interested in a richer understanding of quantum physics and its use in technology, but also how it connects to the flow of time and the laws of classical physics we constantly see playing out in everyday life.

In addition to cutting-edge research, the hub team also plans to organize symposia, seminars, an international conference, a visitors program and a science-fiction short-story contest.

In addition to Jarzynski and Yunger Halpern, senior personnel involved include University of Maryland, Baltimore County Associate Professor of Physics Sebastian Deffner; UMD Assistant Research Scientist Luis Pedro García-Pintos, who is also a member of the Joint Quantum Institute and QuICS; University College Dublin Assistant Professor Steve Campbell; University of Southern California Quantum Information Scientist Amir Kalev, who was formerly a Hartree postdoctoral fellow at QuICS; and Arizona State University Assistant Professor Kanu Sinha, Ph.D. ’15.

Story by Bailey Bedford

Read a blog post on the establishment of the hub by Nicole Yunger Halpern, or Maryland Today’s previous story on her recent book on the field of quantum steampunk.

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