During her fellowship year, she will pursue a project called "Enabling Nanoscale Imaging of Complex Oxides through Novel Film Growth Techniques.”

The Simons Investigators program provides a stable base of support for outstanding scientists, enabling them to undertake long-term study of fundamental questions.

60 students who participated in Prof. Eric Heller's "Science of Sound and Music" class SPU13 will present their sound-related projects. Location: Science Center, Lab 302-306 (3rd floor)

Recollections of Los Alamos and the Nuclear Era
Apr 30 @8:00pm, Science Center Hall D. For more information, please read the Gazette article.

This prize, which will be awarded on April 30th at the Lee Historical Lecture in Physics, recognizes outstanding theoretical and experimental graduate students who have passed their qualifying oral examinations in the preceding year.

Merit Fellowships are available to outstanding GSAS students in all fields.

Vivek will develop and apply new optical methods to read out as well as manipulate long-term memories in the C. elegans nervous system.

for a presentation "A Safer and More Efficient Laparoscopic Morcellator" at the Design of Medical Devices Conferences in Minneapolis, MN.

The Prize, awarded annually by Texas A&M University, recognizes "pioneering contributions to the understanding of the role of information, complexity and inference in illuminating the mechanisms and wonder of nature".

From the HUP abstract:
Long before GPS, Google Earth, and global transit, humans traveled vast distances using only environmental clues and simple instruments. John Huth asks what is lost when modern technology substitutes for our innate capacity to find our way. Encyclopedic in breadth, weaving together astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, and ethnography, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way puts us in the shoes, ships, and sleds of early navigators for whom paying close attention to the environment around them was, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

For more information, see the publisher's page and read the Chronicle of Higher Education review.

The award is modeled after the FAS Dean's Distinction Award, and is designed to recognize high performing individual staff members who have consistently delivered superior results.

Prof. Gerald Gabrielse, grad students Jack DiSciacca, Mason Marshall, Kathryn Marable, and Rita Kalra, and postdocs Stephan Ettenauer and Eric Tardiff, with colleagues from the ATRAP Collaboration, were able to measure the magnetism of an antiproton 1,000 times more accurately than any antiproton had been measured before. The measurement is reported in Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 130801 (2013), and the Viewpoint. Also read the Gazette article.

which "seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.  These two-year fellowships are awarded ... in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field."

This award honors the highest-achieving FAS staff members, whose critical contributions and skillful collaboration have delivered outstanding results for the FAS in 2012. Congratulations, Maggie!

Friday, March 8, 2013, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Physics Library, Jefferson 450

Watch the Slideshow

by Quantum Monte Carlo methods. Erez Berg, Max A. Metlitski, Subir Sachdev, "Sign-Problem–Free Quantum Monte Carlo of the Onset of Antiferromagnetism in Metals." Science
338: 6114 (21 Dec 2012) | DOI: 10.1126/science.1227769

Prof. Subir Sachdev explains how the complex mathematics developed by string theorists can be used by condensed matter physicists to describe the web of quantum entanglement among the electrons. Read S. Sachdev, "Strange and Stringy," Scientific American 308: 44-51 | doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0113-44.

"for distinguished contributions to quantum optics, quantum information processing, and atomic physics (Lukin) and to super-resolution optimal imaging and its application to cells (Zhuang)".

at the annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis.

How do you measure the "Ether wind", how do you make color holograms, how does a violin work, how can you visualize sound waves, and how do you precisely measure the speed of light? These are some of the questions that this years 15c students addressed independently in 14 experimental projects as part of the new lab component "PSI principles of scientific inquiry" of the intro courses. The students will present their results and apparatus on:

Thursday, Nov. 29, 5PM - 7PM in
Science Center, Rooms 301-306.

"For seminal contributions to the field of ultracold atoms, including the observation of the superfluid-to-Mott-insulator transition, the study of the BEC-BCS cross over for fermions, and the development of imaging techniques for atoms in optical lattices with single-atom resolution."

read the Gazette article.

For more information and to apply, please see the Harvard ARIeS page.

The Prize was awarded jointly to Serge Haroche and David Wineland "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems". (read the Harvard Magazine article.)

following a theoretical prediction made by Prof. Eugene Demler's group. This is an astonishingly stable disequilibrium state, which results from the splitting of a one-dimensional quasicondensate of interacting bosonic atoms. See Science Report (Vol. 337 no. 6100 pp. 1318-1322; 14 September 2012 | DOI: 10.1126/science.1224953)

For more information, please see Faculty Job Openings page.

"for outstanding contributions to Laser Science and Quantum Optics". Please see the Award web page at  http://www.lambaward.org/

Two LeRoy Apker Awards are given annually "to recognize outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students, and thereby provide encouragement to young physicists who have demonstrated great potential for future scientific accomplishment".

Made possible by a generous gift from alumnus Gardner Hendrie ’54, the Prize recognizes exceptional teaching in introductory science courses.

Lecture I (Sep 21 @3:00pm): Spin and Pseudospin in Graphene
Colloquium (Sep 24 @4:15pm): Bloch, Landau, and Dirac: Hofstadter's Butterfly in Graphene
Lecture II (Sep 25 @3:00pm): Materials in 2-Dimension and Beyond

All lectures will take place in Jefferson 250.

Read the Science Report (337: 320, 20 July 2012) which describes the use of high resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to uncover the role of individual oxygen atoms in the a high temperature cuprate superconductor, Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_8+x, and the Nature Materials Letter (11: 585-589, July 2012) which reports on a novel analysis method to further increase the STM resolution to the picoscale, and uses this method to investigate a subtle structural distortion in the same material. See also the Gazette article.

Read the Letter in Nature: M. Endres, T. Fukuhara, D. Pekker, M. Cheneau, P. Schauss, C. Gross, E. Demler, S. Kuhr & I. Bloch, "The 'Higgs' amplitude mode at the two-dimensional superfluid/Mott insulator transition." Nature 487, 454-458 (26 July 2012) | doi:10.1038/nature11255

Read the Gazette article.

The award goes each year to two physics graduate students based on a comprehensive evaluation of their teaching accomplishments and their future promise in teaching.

which is given annually for "significant contributions to the cultural, artistic, or humanistic dimension of physics". Please read the AIP press release.

Read the Harvard Magazine article.

M.D. Shulman, O.E. Dial, S.P. Harvey, H. Bluhm, V. Umansky, A. Yacoby, "Demonstration of Entanglement of Electrostatically Coupled Singlet-Triplet Qubits," Science 336: no. 6078 (April 2012) | DOI: 10.1126/science.1217692. Read also the Gazette story.

From 10am to 2pm. Come explore the science of how things build themselves!  From Instant Snow, Permanent Bubbles, and Butterfly Blues to DNA Capsules and Building with Sticky Spheres.  All events are free and open to the public! www.harvardscienceweeks.org. For images, click on the slideshow.

by Prof. Vinothan Manoharan in Hall D of the Harvard Science Center at  7pm. Reception to follow. www.harvardscienceweeks.org 

"A Century of Nuclear Physics: From Rutherford to QCD and to String Theory" Science Center, Hall C @ 8pm.

The lecture, titled "The Arab Awakening: An Iraqi Perspective", took place on April 25 at 4:30 in Jefferson Lab, Rm 250. Watch the video.

for Early-Career Particle Physics from the American Physical Society, for his work in the construction and study of 3-dimensional supersymmetric quantum field theories.

Mar 19, 2012: The Ubiquitous SQUID: Then and Now
Mar 20, 2012: Magnetic Flux 1/f Noise: A 30-Year Saga
Mar 22, 2012: Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Microtesla Fields: A New Clinical Modality?

Mar 5, 2012: Laser Spectroscopy of Hydrogen
Mar 6, 2012: The Proton Size Puzzle
Mar 8, 2012: Laser Frequency Combs: Applications from the Atomic to the Cosmic Scale

Marc Gershow, Matthew Berck, Dennis Mathew, Linjiao Luo, Elizabeth Kane, John Carlson & Aravinthan Samuel, "Controlling airborne cues to study small animal navigation," Nature Methods (2012) | doi:10.1038/nmeth.1853. Read also the article in Harvard Gazette.

PI is an innovative evidence-based pedagogy designed to improve student engagement and success. While originally developed for Mazur's introductory physics courses, PI is now used across multiple disciplines, from the sciences to the humanities.

to apply computational science to the basic study of materials. Collaborating with two researchers from Northeastern University, Kaxiras will create multiscale models of tiny metal particles to study their dielectric and magnetic properties. Understanding the behavior of metals at this level will assist the development of precisely engineered materials with customized electromagnetic and physical properties.

Please read the abridged version of the text here.

"For tireless efforts in defense of human rights and freedom of expression and education anywhere in the world, and for inspiring students, colleagues and others to do the same."

For more information, please see Prof. Hau's website.

For more information, please see the Store's website.

For more information, please see Faculty Job Openings page.

Merali, Z., "Collaborative physics: String theory finds a bench mate", Nature 478: 302-304 (2011) | doi:10.1038/478302a.

For more than forty years Charles H. Holbrow has made significant and innovative contributions to physics education and physics research. The Oersted Medal, presented by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), recognizes these contributions by naming him as the 2012 recipient of this prestigious Medal. Please read the press release.

For more information, please see the press release.

For more information, please see Prof. Hau's website.

Please read the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation press release and an article on boston.com.

Gerard Byrne, the Associate Director of Finance and Research Administration, and Jacob Barandes, the Lecturer on Physics.

For details of the event, please see the Museum of Science announcement page.

by electrically regulating its efflux machinery: J.M. Kralj, D.R. Hochbaum, A.D. Douglass, A.E. Cohen1, "Electrical Spiking in Escherichia coli Probed with a Fluorescent Voltage-Indicating Protein" Science 15 (July 2011) Vol. 333 no. 6040 pp. 345-348 | DOI: 10.1126/science.1204763.

Recently, at the request of the Vietnamese government, Prof. Silvera served on a team of the National Academies of the United States to advise on enhancing higher education in science and engineering.  He has visited Vietnam several times to aid in selection of scholars supported by the Vietnam Education Foundation for studies in the US, and has lectured throughout Vietnam on advanced subjects in physics.

Huge congratulations to ChemPhys concentrators Sophie Cai and Darius Imregun and Physics concentrator Zachary Frankel for sharing the Sophia Freund Prize with perfect 4.0 grade point averages! This prize is awarded to the student(s) in the senior class of Harvard College graduating summa cum laude with the highest grade-point average. It is most unusual to have three students with perfect records.

Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and random motion. One might call this kinetic art and the choreography of the dance of the pendulums is stunning! Aliasing and quantum revival can also be shown.

for his "distinguished and continuing achievements in original research".

Prof. Markus Greiner and grad students Jonathan Simon, Waseem Bakr, Ruichao Ma, M. Eric Tai, and Philipp Preiss published an article in Nature (13 Apr. 2011 | doi:10.1038/nature09994), in which they demonstrate a route to quantum magnetism in an optical lattice. (Read also the Harvard Gazette article.)

Profs. Melissa Franklin and Joao Guimaraes da Costa and the post-doc Pierluigi Catastini are part of the CDF collaboration which announced that it has evidence of a peak in a specific sample of its data. This peak might be explained by the production of a new, unknown particle that is not predicted by the Standard Model.

Jacob Barandes, David Benjamin, Jonathan Bittner, Hugh Churchill, Logan Clark, Peter Hedman, Jennifer Hou, Gregory Kestin Douglas Mcclure, Joseph Peidle, Susanne Pielawa, Umang Shukla, Nils Sorensen, Vivek Venkatachalam, Tess Williams, and Zachary Wissner-Gross.

for his work on symmetry breaking in developing neurons.

The prizes will be awarded at the annual David M. Lee Historical Lecture in Physics, which will be delivered by Prof. Dudley Herschbach on Wednesday, Mar. 9, at 8:00 p.m. in the Science Center Hall D.

The Award is an FAS-wide staff recognition program created to honor the achievements of FAS employees.

Prof. Randall has been appointed a member of President's Committee on the National Medal of Science.

Prof. Aravinthan Samuel and the members of his group devised a way "to commandeer the nervous system of swimming or crawling nematodes using pulses of blue and green light - no wires, no electrodes": Harvard Gazette, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. See also: A.M. Leifer, C. Fang-Yen, M. Gershow, M.J. Alkema & A.D.T. Samuel, "Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity in freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans". Nature Methods (Published online 16 January 2011) | doi:10.1038/nmeth.1554

The ten breakthroughs are listed here. The Greiner group paper is W. S. Bakr et al., "Probing the Superfluid-to-Mott Insulator Transition at the Single-Atom Level," Science 329: 547 (2010).

Prof. Amir Yacoby and members of his group published a report in Science: R.T. Weitz, M.T. Allen, B.E. Feldman, J. Martin and A. Yacoby, Science v 330: no. 6005, pp. 812-816 (5 Nov. 2010) | DOI: 10.1126/science.1194988

On September 28, 2010, the National Research Council released the long-awaited results of its study of doctoral programs in the United States. The data examined many characteristics of the faculty and students. Faculty were rated by publications, citations, grants, and awards. Student GRE scores, financial support, and employment outcomes were also used. The Harvard Physics department received the top ranking in both methodologies: in the survey-based and regression-based quality scores.

Read S. Sachdev, "Holographic Metals and the Fractionalized Fermi Liquid", Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 151602 (2010) | doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.151602, and a news story in Nature (Reich, E.S., "String theory tackles strange metals", 19 October 2010 | doi:10.1038/news.2010.547).

The Coulomb interaction is one of the most basic interactions known in physics. Depending on the host system it lies at the heart of ordered phases such as magnetism or superconductivity. In bilayer graphene - two layers of graphene stacked on top of one another - interactions between electrons are known to be strong. The resulting phases are predicted to be of interesting nature but have been difficult to identify and analyze experimentally. Dr. R. Thomas Weitz, Monica. T. Allen, Ben Feldman, Dr. Jens Martin and Prof. Amir Yacoby report in Science their approach to reveal and investigate interacting phases in bilayer graphene.

The Prize, administered by APS, is awarded annually "for outstanding contributions to physics by a single individual who also has exceptional skills in lecturing to diverse audiences".

A new General Education class will introduce Harvard undergraduates to the science of soft matter via the science of cooking: Science of the Physical Universe 27. Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science. Lead by Professors David Weitz and Michael P. Brenner (SEAS), the course will feature some of the world most innovative chefs as guest speakers. Read the NY Times article.

Jene Golovchenko's group has published the cover story of Nature (9 September 2010 | doi:10.1038/nature09379)

The honor is awarded to a Dane who has made a special contribution to placing Denmark on the World map. Read more on Prof. Hau's website.

Prof. Markus Greiner with members of his group reported in Scienceon their investigation of the Bose-Hubbard model on a microscopic level using single atom–single lattice site imaging. Their technique enables space- and time-resolved characterization of the number statistics across the superfluid–Mott insulator quantum phase transition. (W.S. Bakr, A. Peng, M.E. Tai, R. Ma, J. Simon, J.I. Gillen, S. Fölling, L. Pollet, and M. Greiner, Science Published Online June 17, 2010; DOI: 10.1126/science.1192368).

Prof. Vinothan Manoharan with colleagues from SEAS, Rice University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Houston, reported in Science on chemically synthesizing nanoparticle clusters which can be generalized to other two- and three-dimensional structures and can serve as building blocks for new metamaterials. (J.A. Fan, C. Wu, K. Bao, J. Bao, R. Bardhan, N.J. Halas, V.N. Manoharan, P. Nordlander, G. Shvets, F. Capasso, Science 28 May 2010: Vol. 328. no. 5982, pp. 1135 - 1138 DOI: 10.1126/science.1187949?

Please read the obituary in The New York Times. The video of Prof. Pound's 1991 Lee Historical Lecture, "Weighing Photons-The Story of an Experiment", in which he described the Pound-Rebka experiment, is now available for viewing online.

Mixtures of immiscible fluids with colloids can be very complex but they are technologically important for industries such as paints and protective coatings, especially when such materials undergo drying. Emulsions containing colloidal particles are particularly interesting as controllable test cases of such systems, but they are difficult to image because these mixtures typically scatter light strongly. Dr. Lei Xu, Alexis Berges, Dr. Peter J. Lu, Prof. David Weitz and collaborators report in Physical Review Letters their ability to create a full 3D picture of what happens when these emulsions dry out. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 128303 (Published March 24, 2010)

In their experiments, laser-cooled atoms spiral to the surface of a carbon nanotube charged to hundreds of volts. In the high electric field, a captured atom's valence electron tunnels into the tube. The resultant ion is subsequently ejected and detected, and dynamics at the nanoscale are sensitively probed. (Anne Goodsell, Trygve Ristroph, J. A. Golovchenko, and Lene Vestergaard Hau, "Field Ionization of Cold Atoms near the Wall of a Single Carbon Nanotube." Physical Review Letters 104, 133002 (2010).

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning awards this honor to outstanding teaching fellows, teaching assistants, and course assistants:
Nils John Sorensen, Elizabeth Anne Kane, Luiz Henrique Bravo Santos, Courtney Marie Peterson, Pierre-Emile Duhamel, Ryan James McGorty, Brian James Shuve, David Isaiah Benjamin, Yiqiao Tang, Joseph Peidle, Clay Alexander Cordova, and Jeronimo Maze.

EPFL-WISH Foundation (Women in Science and Humanities Foundation) annually acknowledges the accomplishments of a distinguished personality by attributing the Erna Hamburger Prize to a woman in science or engineering who has greatly influenced and shaped her field.

Prof. Vinothan Manoharan, Research Associate Guangnan Meng and colleagues from SEAS published a report in Science on experimental measurements of the structures and free energies of colloidal clusters in which the particles act as hard spheres with short-range attractions: G. Meng, N. Arkus, M.P. Brenner, V.N. Manoharan, "The Free-Energy Landscape of Clusters of Attractive Hard Spheres", Science (29 Jan. 2010): v. 327: no. 5965, pp. 560 - 563).

National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship program provides grants to top-tier researchers from U.S. universities to conduct unclassified, basic research that may transform DoD's capabilities in the long term.

"... for distinguished contributions to the field of interactions between atoms and light, especially for the achievement of 'slow light' in dilute cold atomic gases."