Displaying items by tag: Nonlinear Dynamics

Biography

Christopher Jarzynski received his A.B. (with high honors) in 1987 from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in 1994 from University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on statistical mechanics and thermodynamics at the molecular level, with a particular focus on the foundations of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. His research group has worked on topics that include the application of statistical mechanics to problems of biophysical interest; the analysis of artificial molecular machines; the development of efficient numerical schemes for estimating thermodynamic properties of complex systems; the relationship between thermodynamics and information processing; quantum and classical shortcuts to adiabaticity; and quantum thermodynamics. Jarzynski is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a UMD Distinguished University Professor. He received the 2019 Lars Onsager Prize for theoretical statistical physics, a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2020 Simons Fellowship. In 2020, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Biography

Phillip Sprangle is Professor of Electrical &Computer Engineering and Physics and is a member of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics at the University of Maryland as well as an Emeritus Scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory. Dr. Sprangle has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University. His current research covers a wide range of fields and includes the atmospheric propagation of high-energy lasers, laser driven accelerators, high intensity ultra-short pulse laser matter interaction and propagation physics, nonlinear optics and plasma physics. He is a fellow of the OSA, APS, IEEE and DEPS and winner of the Presidential Rank Award (2015), Advanced Accelerator Concept Prize (2014), James Clerk Maxwell Prize (2013), Fred E. Saalfeld Award (2012), Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award (2011), IEEE Plasma Science Award (2008), Sigma Xi Pure Science Award, (1994), International Free Electron Laser Prize (1991), E.O. Hulburt Science and Engineering Award (1986), two Technology Transfer Awards (1995, 2004), as well as the Top Navy Scientist and Engineer of the Year Award (2008). He has published over 300 refereed scientific articles and holds 18 US patents.

Biography

Raj Roy is a professor of physics and Director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. He earned his Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of Rochester. He is a Fellow of American Physical Society and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. His research interests include the study of nonlinear dynamics and noise in optical devices and systems relevant to very practical technological applications such as compact disk players, fiber optic communications, and the development of optical switching devices and laser arrays.

Biography

Wolfgang Losert obtained his PhD from City College of the City University of New York. His research is centered on dynamical properties of Complex Systems at the convergence of physics and biology. A special focus is on applications to cancer biology. Examples of dynamical processes that are often found in complex systems are pattern formation and dynamical phase transitions. The main thrust of his work on living systems is to assess how cell motion and collective behavior are affected by physical cues, in particular the topography of the surface, surface adhesivity, and cell-cell adhesion. We discovered that cell migration can be guided by nanotopography via control of the dynamics of actin waves and that cell-surface adhesion can significantly alter the intracellular and collective cell dynamics. We also developed new tools to integrate measurements of the physical properties of living systems with biomedical phenotypes, via advanced statistical and machine learning analysis of multiple types of information, most at the single cell level.

Biography

Daniel Lathrop received a B.A. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991. He then served at Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow, research affiliate, and lecturer, and as Assistant Professor at Emory University. He joined the University of Maryland in 1997, the year he received a Presidential Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation. Daniel Lathrop is now Professor of Physics and Professor of Geology and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. His research in the Nonlinear Dynamics group at Maryland focuses on turbulent fluid flows, geomagnetism, and experiments on superfluid helium. Dr. Lathrop served as the Director of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics from 2006 to 2012. He received the Stanley Corrsin Award in 2012 from the American Physical Society for this work in quantum fluids. He is a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.

Biography

Michelle Girvan received her B.S. in 1999 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in 2003 from Cornell University. Her research combines methods from statistical mechanics, dynamical systems, and graph theory to address interdisciplinary, network-related problems. She is interested in both broad theoretical approaches to complex networks as well as specific applications, especially to information cascades, epidemiology, and genetic regulatory networks.

In a 2019 podcast, she discussed her work in chaos and artificial intelligence.

In 2022, she was named a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. 

Biography

Thomas Antonsen graduated from Cornell University where he received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1973 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1976 and 1977, respectively. His research interests include the theory of magnetically confined plasmas, the theory and design of high power sources of coherent radiation, nonlinear dynamics in fluids, and the theory of the interaction of intense laser pulses and plasmas. He is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a fellow of the American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics, and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a UMD Distinguished University Professor.

Biography

Steven Anlage received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Quantum Materials Center at UMD, where he leads experimental research activities in superconducting metamaterials, quantum chaos, and various types of quantitative high-resolution near-field microscopy. His research focus is on the basic physics of superconducting materials (both natural and artificial) and addressing fundamental questions concerning wave propagation in complex scattering systems. He is also active in developing applications that exploit time-reversal invariance and spatial reciprocity for electromagnetic wave propagation, such as directed communication and wireless power transfer. He is a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.