Sturge, Shearin and Moroch Attend 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

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Published: Thursday, July 25 2024 02:53

Three UMD physics alumni were selected to join the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage in powerful discussions with dozens of Nobel Prize winners.  

In Lindau, Germany, attendees interacted with prominent scientists like Anne L’Huillier and Ferenc Krausz, among other Nobel Laureates, for a week-long discussion on the impact of physics in the future of energy supply, artificial intelligence and quantum research. 

"My takeaway from the Lindau Meeting is that there are so many things you can do with a physics education and unlimited ways to impact the world with your research," said physics graduate student Kate Sturge (B.S. '22, astronomy; B.S. '22, physics). "It was wonderful to meet so many young scientists from all over the world and bond for a week over our shared love of physics. This week also brought about much personal reflection on what I want to do in my career and what my next steps should be."

Original story: https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/news/science-terps-attend-73rd-lindau-meeting

Read more about these Science Terps below.

Scott Moroch (B.S. '20, physics)

Current position: Ph.D. student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor: Tim Koeth (undergraduate research), Ronald Garcia Ruiz (doctoral)

Research focus: Moroch studies precision spectroscopy and ion-trapping of molecules for fundamental physics.

Ariana Shearin (B.S. '22, physics)

Current position: Graduate student, Department of Physics

Advisor: Tim Koeth

Research focus: Shearin is working on developing a penning ion trap to study weak force physics.

Kathryn Sturge (B.S. '22, astronomy; B.S. '22, physics)

Current position: Graduate student, Department of Physics 

Advisor: Tim Koeth

Research focus: Sturge studies dielectric breakdown in space-charged polymers.

Milchberg Named Distinguished University Professor

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Published: Friday, July 12 2024 05:33

Howard Milchberg has been named a UMD Distinguished University Professor. This is the highest academic honor given to UMD faculty members.

Milchberg studies plasma and high energy density physics, advanced laser-driven particle accelerators and light sources, atomic physics, nonlinear optics, and structured light. He received his B.Eng in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University. After completing postdoc research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Milchberg joined the University of Maryland in 1988. He has received the UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award, the A. James Clark School of Engineering Senior Faculty Outstanding Research Award and an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award. Three of his students have won the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics Dissertation Award.

Milchberg is a Fellow of Optica and of the APS. He is the recipient of two major APS honors: the John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science.

Howard Milchberg

Milchberg will discuss his work on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 3 p.m. in room 1410 of the Toll Physics Building when he delivers the John S. Toll Endowed Lecture.  Among recent achievements from his Laboratory for Intense Laser-Matter Interactions:

• Demonstration of a continuously operating optical fiber made of thin air by creating an optical guiding method using auxiliary ultrashort laser pulses to sculpt fiber optic waveguides in the air itself.  This allows high-power laser beams to be guided without using common optical fibers made of strands of glass that can be damaged by high power beams.  This experiment was published in the April 2023 issue of Optica.
• Record-setting all-optical laser-based acceleration of electrons to 5 billion electron volts, published in the September 2022 issue of Physical Review X.
• Setting a record with a nearly 50-meter long air waveguide in an effort to use pulsed air waveguiding to temporarily transfigure thin air into a fiber optic cable, published in the Jan.  2023 issue of Physical Review X.
• Recognition for his Lab for Intense Laser-Matter Interactions by being chosen as one of ten LaserNetUS  nodes, providing funding for collaboration with US and international researchers

 Along with his wife Rena and three children, Milchberg established the Irving and Renee Milchberg Endowed Lecture in honor of his late parents, both Holocaust survivors.  

Eno Chosen as Leader of US Future Higgs Factory Effort

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Published: Tuesday, June 18 2024 02:53

In June, 2024, a “Future Circular Collider” (FCC) workshop was held in San Francisco. Gina Rameika, Associate Director for the Office of High Energy Physics at the Department of Energy's Office of Science,  announced a new joint NSF/DOE organization toSarah Eno lead the U.S. effort on future Higgs factories.  Professor Sarah Eno was named a leader of the “Higgs Factory Steering FCC FlowCommittee” along with Srini Rajagopalan of Brookhaven National Lab.  The committee also includes two members representing the International Linear Collider. 

More information about the FCC can be found at: https://home.cern/science/accelerators/future-circular-collider.    

The planned FCC

Gorshkov Wins IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award

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Published: Monday, June 17 2024 09:24

Melanie Knouse Cline, 1990-2024

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Published: Friday, June 07 2024 09:56

Melanie Knouse Cline, a coordinator in the Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics (MCFP), died unexpectedly on June 3, 2024 at the age of 33.

Melanie joined the department in 2018, but her association with UMD Physics began at birth. Her father, Ernie Knouse, was a UMD employee for 30 years, and worked in electronic development at the time of his death in 1999 at age 60.

Steve Rolston presents Melanie Cline with a Staff Excellence Award in 2021.Her mother, Kari Knouse Aldridge, managed sponsored projects for UMD physics until 2006. As a child, Melanie was a frequent and welcome visitor to the John S. Toll Building.

As a UMD student, she enjoyed working for the golf course for several years while earning a degree in sociology. She accepted her MCFP position in 2018, managing the theory group’s travel and administrative needs.

Melanie was roundly enjoyed and esteemed within the department for her exceptionally helpful nature and friendliness.  During the rotating coffee klatches, she was the perfect hostess, providing a beautiful display of treats and healthy snacks and welcoming one and all with her gracious smile.

In 2021, Melanie received the department’s Staff Excellence Award, cited for “her competent, diligent and reliable work; her above average commitment to the institute's mission; her willingness ‘to walk the extra mile’; and her contribution to MCFP's positive work environment.”

Information about her memorial service can be found here: https://www.beallfuneral.com/obituaries/melanie-cline  
Her family plans a bench in the UMD Listening Garden: https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-memory-of-melanie-a-umd-listening-garden-bench

 Melanie and her mother Kari Aldridge (front) at Maryland Day 2000.Melanie and Kari at Maryland Day 2007.