Of Interest
United States Marine Gustavo Maravilla-Hernandez Serves in Iraq While Taking Physics 141 and Math 171Q
092909: United States Marine Gustavo Maravilla-Hernandez is serving in Iraq while taking Physics 141 and Math 171Q. You might wonder how he does it: being a Marine and taking some of the most challenging courses offered by the University of Rochester.
It started in Fall 2008, when Gustavo was enrolled in Physics 141, Math 171Q, Biology 112, and Chemistry 131. In December, the Marines called him to action, and he was sent to pre-deployment training and then to Iraq in April 2009. He's been in the military since mid-2007 with his contract expected to end in mid-2013. He'll return to Rochester at the end of October 2009, but Gustavo could be deployed again in mid-semester, you never know.
When asked how he juggles such a busy schedule, Gustavo says, "Sometimes, it's extremely difficult to find time to do homework or study. We make a lot of sacrifices, and besides, we need time to sleep and eat, too." A typical day for Gustavo also includes a lot of physical training, plus military development, operational support, and various presentations. He even finds time to squeeze in lectures about Physics and recently taught fellow Marines about Newton's Law of Motion and how to "prove a derivative."
Professor Adam Frank's Science Writing Makes National Collection
070709: Adam Frank, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester, is a computational scientist whose research group develops state of the art supercomputer codes to study star formation and stellar death. He is also a popular science writer who has written numerous articles for national magazines as well as a recent book on Science and Religion. Now one of Frank's magazine articles has garnered the national honor of being included in "The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009" published by Houghton Mifflin. Each year the "Best of" editors read hundreds of articles on science and nature from sources ranging from the New Yorker to Natural History. Of those articles only a handful are selected for the book.
Frank's winning piece was "The Day Before Genesis," which appeared in the April 2009 issue of Discover magazine. The article explored different theories which look to supplant the Big Bang and its time singularity as a theory of Cosmology. (af)
Cambridge University Press Releases Book Co-Authored by Professor John H. Thomas
120608: In November, Cambridge University Press published Sunspots and Starspots, co-authored by University of Rochester Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Sciences (and of Astronomy) John H. Thomas and University of Cambridge Professor of Astrophysics Nigel O. Weiss.
According to the back cover of the book:
"The past two decades have seen remarkable advances in observations of sunspots and their magnetic fields, in imaging of spots and fields on distant stars, and in associated theoretical models and numerical simulations.
"This volume provides the first comprehensive combined account of the properties of sunspots and starspots. It covers both observations and theory, and describes the intricate fine structure of a sunspot's magnetic field and the prevalence of polar spots on stars. The book includes a substantial historical introduction and treats solar and stellar magnetic activity, dynamo models of magnetic cycles, and the influence of solar variability on the Earth's magnetosphere and climate.
"This book conveys the excitement of its subject to graduate students and specialists in solar and stellar physics, and more broadly to astronomers, geophysicists, space physicists, and experts in fluid dynamics and plasma physics."
The hardcover version (ISBN-13: 9780521860031) costs $130.00 USD.
For more information, please see:
Professor Thomas' webpage
Cambridge University Press Sunspots and Starspots webpage
Department Mourns Loss of Steven Varlese (BS, Physics, 1975)
120608: The Department regrets to report that Steven Varlese (BS, Physics, 1975) unexpectedly passed away on November 29, 2008. As an undergraduate, Steve helped Judy Pipher develop her first instrumental programs in Infrared Astronomy. He also gave tours of the C.E.K. Mees Observatory (photo, right).
Years ago, Steve began sending generous annual donations to support the Observatory and help Astronomy undergraduates at the University. He was closely associated with several other observatories and supported them, as well.
As recently as January of 2008, Steve joined the Gemini Observatory's instrument development team, where he served as Instrument Program Manager throughout the year. The Department of Physics and Astronomy remains very proud of Steven Varlese, and we wish his family well.
World Scientific Publishing Company Releases Book by Professor Ashok Das
100908: In September, World Scientific Publishing Company released Professor Ashok Das' new book, Lectures on Quantum Field Theory. Aimed at graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics, the book consists of the lectures for a two-semester course on quantum field theory. According to the publisher, "The course starts with relativistic one-particle systems, and develops the basics of quantum field theory with an analysis of the representations of the Poincare group. Canonical quantization is carried out for scalar, fermion, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories. Covariant quantization of gauge theories is also carried out with a detailed description of the BRST symmetry. The Higgs phenomenon and the standard model of electroweak interactions are also developed systematically. Regularization and (BPHZ) renormalization of field theories as well as gauge theories are discussed in detail, leading to a derivation of the renormalization group equation. In addition, two chapters -- one on the Dirac quantization of constrained systems and another on discrete symmetries -- are included for completeness, although these are not covered in the two-semester course."
Eric Prebys (PhD, Physics, 1990) Appointed Leader of U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP)
062108: Eric Prebys, head of the Proton-Source Department at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and one of our outstanding former Physics graduate students, has been appointed leader of the U.S. Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Accelerator Research Program (LARP). Eric will lead activities at affiliated universities and at four major U.S. national laboratories: Brookhaven, Fermilab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. LARP's mission is to develop advanced instrumentation and new superconducting magnets for the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland. More than 50% of U.S. experimental particle physicists are working on the LHC project, including University of Rochester faculty who are working on the Compact Muon Spectrometer (CMS) experiment.
At the University of Rochester, Eric was a Sproull Fellow and a PhD student of the late Fred Lobkowicz on Fermilab experiment E706 from 1984 to 1990.
Kevin Short (BS, Physics, 1985) Wins Grammy Award
022708: It's not often that a physicist wins a Grammy award. But Kevin Short, who earned his BS in Physics along with a BA in Geological Sciences from the University of Rochester in 1985, scored a Grammy on February 10, 2008. Kevin is currently a professor of mathematics at the University of New Hampshire and won his Grammy for being the master engineer on a team that restored a 1949 wire recording of a Woody Guthrie concert. He attended the ceremony, and with his wife Michelle, represented science in a lavish concert hall adorned with the singing stars of today.
During his undergraduate days at the University of Rochester, Kevin was elected to the 1984 College Division Academic All-American Baseball Team. In December of the same year, he won a Marshall Scholarship and came close to winning a Rhodes Scholarship. He later earned his PhD at Imperial College in London for research into general relativity and mathematical physics.
Until he won his Grammy Award, Kevin was most famous for discovering Chaotic Compression Technology, which uses mathematical chaos theory along with signal processing to analyze audio, video, and image data. His technology is used whenever someone downloads ring tones and songs to a cell phone.
From the LHC to Molecular and Bio-Electronics, and Onwards!
Daniel Schwaab was a student with Prof. Regina Demina's group for only one term, but he nevertheless made an enormous impression on the group's effort in silicon-detector development for the CMS experiment at the LHC. During his brief stay, he decided that, despite his success in the laboratory and the remarkable lectures of Prof. Ashok Das on quantum field theory, at heart, he was more interested in applying his love of physics to solving problems in his physical surroundings, rather than conquering new multi-dimensional worlds.
He returned to Germany in early 2004, and received his PhD within three years at Juelich in soft lithography (microcontact printing) and transfering of proteins and sub-100 nm patterns to arbitrary surfaces. With his thesis and patents in hand, and a thesis-prize from the Juelich Research Center, he embarked in early 2007 on a career with an audit company, but was immediately enticed to the powerful Commerzbank, where he manages credit risk from offices in London and Cologne.
Many of us recall Daniel's bubbly enthusiasm and immense focus, and wish him well in his chosen direction in life.
--Submitted by Professor Thomas Ferbel
Professor Emil Wolf: Top Optical Physicist Publishes New Book
073107: Wilson Professor of Optical Physics and Theoretical Physics Emil Wolf is one of the top 1,000 scientists of all time. Or so states British archaeologist Philip Barker and former President of the The British Society for the History of Science Ludmilla Jordanova in a 1999 book called Top 1000 Scientists: From the Beginning of Time to 2000 AD. It is a fitting tribute to Professor Wolf, who has long been considered a world authority in Optics. His latest book is Introduction to the Theory of Coherence and Polarization of Light, which will be available in September 2007 from Cambridge University Press. Among all of his many publications, Professor Wolf is perhaps most well known for his classic book Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light, which he wrote with Nobel Laureate Max Born. This book was first published in 1959 and is now in its seventh edition, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 1999.