Saturday, November 6, 2010
(Invitation Only)
We will host a day-long event in the UC Davis Physics building to
dedicate the Richard L. Lander Data Analysis and Visualization
Laboratory. For more information, please see the following link
http://physics.ucdavis.edu/Lander_Room/index.html

Tuesday May 5, 2009
7:00 pm 123 Sciences Lecture Hall,
Public Lecture
Hosted by the UC Davis Department of Physics
Edward W. Kolb (known to most as Rocky) is the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics and chair of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago
Flier
Parking Information Map
Video presentation:
Windows Media Player
QuickTime Media Player
Flash Video Player

Sunday, April 26, 2009
7:00 pm in Chemistry, Room 194
a special director's cut screening of
The Atom Smashers
The Atom Smashers chronicles the search for the Higgs boson: a yet-undiscovered subatomic particle that could explain how matter and, therefore, life can exist. After the film, the Chicago based directors Clayton Brown and Monica Ross, will answer questions from the audience. Two UC Davis Professors, John Conway and Robin Erbacher, who appear in the film will also be on hand.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
8:00 pm Alpha Gamma Rho Hall
Walter A. Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center
Hosted by the UC Davis Department of Physics
Nobel Prize winner David Gross discusses string theory and the Large Hadron Collider
$4 for general public and free for Students with valid student ID
Flier
Video presentation:
Windows Media Player
QuickTime Media Player
Flash Video Player

Thursday January 15, 2009
7:00 pm Alpha Gamm a Rho Hall,
Walter A. Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center
Free Public Lecture
Hosted by the UC Davis Department of Physics
"Because of Science: Advances in Life"
Presented by Professor Douglas Osheroff - Professor of Physics and Applied Physics Stanford University

Monday June 2, 2008
4:00 pm 194 Chemistry
Hosted by the UC Davis Department of Physics
"Bringing Hearing th the Deaf Cochlear Implants:a Technical and Personal Account"
Presented by Professor Ian Shipsey - Purdue University

Tuesday June 3, 2008
7:30 pm ARC Ballroom
Sponsored by the High Energy Frontier Theory Initiative and the UC Davis Physics Department
Professor and Author Lawrence Krauss - Case Western Reserve University
"Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions"
HEFTI FLYER
KRAUSS ABSTRACT
$4 for general public and free for Students with valid student ID

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
7:30 pm - ARC Ballroom
"Seeing in the Dark" - film by science writer Timothy Ferris
http://www.timothyferris.com/
This event is included in the College of Letters and Science Deans' Speaker Series. The event will include a welcome by Dean Ko, introduction of Timothy Ferris by Andy Albrecht, a brief opening for the film by Tim, viewing the 60-minute film with Q&A to follow. Tim has also agreed to do a book signing after the event concludes.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
7:30 pm - ARC Ballroom
Sponsored by the High Energy Frontier Theory Initiative and the UC Davis Physics Department
HEFTI Public Lecture
To the Top and Beyond: Particle Physics and the New Century
Presented by Professor Robin Erbacher, UC Davis

[Special Events]    [Awards/Fellowships]    [In The News]   

November 2010 - WHITE HOUSE AWARD Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Ilke Arslan, who earned her PhD with the Physics Department at UC Davis in 2004 and who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at UC Davis, was among 85 researchers chosen by President Barack Obama to receive the PECASE award, the nation's highest honor for professionals in the early stages of their scientific research careers. Arslan was nominated for the award by Sandia National Laboratories for her work studying nanomaterials for energy and hydrogen storage; for advancing the technologies necessary to characterize these materials; and for excellence in outreach and mentoring of the next generation of American scientists and engineers. Arslan works on a technique called electron tomography in scanning transmission electron microscopy. This method is capable of routinely producing three-dimensional images of materials with a resolution of around one nanometer, or roughly 10 atoms across. Excerpt from UCD News Service. For the full article, click here.

July 2010 - Jessica Scheimer awarded Future Teacher Scholarship. Hearty congratulations to recent graduate Jessica Scheimer for winning this year's Future Teacher Scholarship from the Society of Physics Students (SPS), awarded annually to SPS members who demonstrate leadership in their SPS chapter and a strong desire to teach science. Jessica was co-president of our chapter in the 09-10 academic year, and was very effective in enlisting participation by her peers in a host of activities. Among her many special accomplishments, she was the primary organizer and participant in a series of outreach trips to disadvantaged schools in the Sacramento area, which profoundly impressed the students and their teachers. She was also intimately involved in our annual Picnic Day show, as well as the CPAPC Physics Day in February, and was a leader in planning and executing the very successful SPS Zone Meeting hosted last spring by our SPS chapter. At January's AAS annual conference in Washington DC, she presented her research, "A High Resolution Search For Radio Stars," conducted under the supervision of Bob Becker. Her interest in teaching has grown as an undergrad, especially through the MAST program, in which she interned in a Spanish immersion elementary science class, a special education science class, a high school AP physics class, and finally in a Physics 7B DL. Currently she is working for the Young Scholars Program, which brings brilliant high school students to the university to conduct laboratory research. Staying in the dorms with the students, she mentors their research and guides them in the transition to college living. Next year she enters the UCD School of Education to earn her Physics Teaching Credential and a Masters in education. Bravo!

June 2010 - Albert de Roeck awarded honorary degree from the University of Helsinki. Since 1640 the University of Helsinki, awards every 4 years, a limited number of international honorary degrees: the Doctores Honoris Causa. This year, on May 28 2010, 12 honorary degrees were awarded to Finish personalities, including the President of Finland, Dr Tarja Halonen, and a  number of international specialists in disciplines such as; Evolutionary Biology, Sociology, Geology, Medicine, Mathematics, Linguistics, and Physics. The Laureate in Physics this year was Professor Albert De Roeck, adjunct professor at the University of California, Davis, recognized for his "Outstanding contributions to experimental particle physics and important collaboration with the scientists in the Finish Universities". Albert De Roeck is presently one of the two deputy spokespersons of the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. He is only the second particle physicist to receive this honor, since Ugo Amaldi 20 years ago. Prof. De Roeck received his doctoral hat and ‘sword of wisdom’ during a five hour ceremony – including a Mass in the Helsinki cathedral-- in the historic main aula of the University. The entire proceeding spanned two days and concluded with a gigantic promotion dinner for over 700 guests  in the renovated Finlandia Hall of the Finish capital. During the dinner the honorary doctors wear a tailcoat and their newly acquired hat and sword!

June 2010 - Dong Yu is one of the UC Davis junior faculty to be awarded the 2010-11 UC Davis Hellman Fellowship Program Award. This fellowship provides funds to facilitate the research program of each recipient. Congratulations, Dong!

June 2009 - Davis Pines awarded The John Bardeen Prize The John Bardeen Prize, awarded by the international superconductivity research community and as of this year funded by the UIUC Department of Physics, is awarded this year to our own David Pines. The Prize will be conferred at this year's Materials and Mechanisms of superconductivity Meeting (M^2S) in Tokyo in September, and includes an award of $6,000 to the recipient.

June 22nd, 2009 UCD's renowned physicist Professor David Pines will give a public lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, prior to the award of an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree by the University. The honor is bestowed "in recognition of his contributions to physics and of his work at the interfaces between science, international relations, and policy."

May 20, 2009 - Professor Charles Fadley has been elected a foreign member of The Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala, Sweden, in its Class for Physics and Mathematics. The Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala is the oldest learned society in Sweden, founded in 1710.

May 2009 - UC Davis Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

Both the faculty and the student award go to Physics folks. Professor Richard Scalettar for faculty mentor award Helen Craig (Physics) and Michael Dean (Economics) both for the first place student award. This is a one-per-campus award (for students, shared this year).

March 2009 - Cassandra Paul Awarded Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award

The award, which is co-sponsored by the Graduate Council, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Teaching Resources Center, recognizes excellence in teaching by graduate students on the UC Davis campus. Chancellor Vanderhoef will preside at a ceremony for the awardees in early April.

December 2008 - Shirley Chiang named Fellow of the AAAS

The UCD News article reads: "Shirley Chiang is a professor of physics, serving as chair of the department from 2003 until June, 2008. In recent years her research has focused on the study of nucleation and growth of thin metal films on single crystal metal and semiconductor surfaces, and on observations of small molecules on metal surfaces with the goal of observing chemical reactions. Chiang's pioneering work with the experimental technique known as scanning tunneling microscopy has produced such discoveries as showing that surface alloying of metals such as copper, gold, and silver occurs in a surprisingly large number of cases. She has also demonstrated that a scanning tunneling microscope can be used to distinguish between isomers of various compounds on the basis of molecular shapes. Chiang's work has important implications for a variety of applications, including the development of new materials and the fabrication of electronic devices. The society cited Chiang for "innovative and incisive use of scanning probe techniques for the study of metal surfaces."

December 2008 - Professor John Conway elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Dr. Conway's outstanding contributions were in the search for the Higgs boson as well as physics beyond the Standard Model

December 2008 - Professor Steven Carlip elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Dr. Carlip's studies focused on black hole physics as well as gravity in 2+1 dimensions

9/7/2008 - Professor Sergey Savrasov selected as a UC Davis 2008-2009 Chancellor's Fellow

The goal of the program is to honor the achievements of outstanding faculty members early in their careers. Faculty members who are selected to be Chancellor's Fellows receive a one-time award of $25,000, and can designate the title "Chancellor's Fellow" for a period of five years from the date of the award.

03.11.2008 - Prof. Lawrence B. Coleman Named Senior Fellow at NASULGC

Professor Lawrence B. Coleman, former vice provost for research at the University of California system, has been named a Senior Fellow at the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) As a senior fellow, Coleman will help launch a new national initiative, Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative (SMTI), designed to increase the number and diversity of high quality middle school and high school science and mathematics teachers prepared by NASULGC member universities and other higher education institutions

03.29.2007 - Dr. Manuel Calderon de la Barca receives NSF Career Grant
Calderon	A prestigious career grant was awarded to Dr. Calderon for his Studies of Heavy Quarkonium Production in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions at UC Davis. As the Principal Investigator, Dr. Calderon will "measure the production of the heaviest available quark-antiquark bound states in heavy ion collisions."

November 2007 - Prof. Kai Liu, 2007-2012 Chancellor's Fellow
Liu	Professor Kai Liu has been selected to be a 2007-12 Chancellor's Fellow at the University of California, Davis. Chancellor's Fellow designates faculty who, early in their careers, already have distinguished themselves in teaching, research, and public service.

January 2008 - Professor John Rundle has been elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union

Each year only one in a thousand members is elected to Fellowship!

Archive

---

[Special Events]    [Awards/Fellowships]    [In The News]   

05/22/11: THE TEHRAN TIMES Atom-smasher retires "There's a difference between doing lots of studies that may look for some hypothetical particles, and actual discoveries," said Bob Svoboda, a physics professor at UC Davis and one of the project's leaders. "In our case, we now neutrinos exist." http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?z4656516905&z=1250248687

(Pictured, left to right, Professor Lloyd Knox, Professor Winston Ko, (Dean, Math & Phy Sci) & Professor Gergely Zimanyi) 4/27/11: TedxDavis Speakers enlightened and engaged Davis guests with a full day of talks and presentations. In particular, Physics professors Lloyd Knox and Gergely Zimanyi fascinated listeners with Physics-related narratives and fantasy-meets-reality tales of Cosmology and Nanophysics, respectively.

4/27/11: UC Davis Physics Professors Manuel Calderon de la Barca Sanchez and Daniel Cebra, were involved in the collaborative finding of the heaviest antimatter ever created. As noted by UC Davis News and Information, " The physicists used Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to smash gold particles into each other at almost the speed of light." A paper describing their results will be published online by the journal Nature. http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9853 http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html

4/16/11 - Picnic Day 2011 Schedule of Events - PUBLIC LECTURES BY PHYSICS FACULTY at Chemistry Bldg, Rm179 1:00 Lloyd Knox - Seeing Sound in the Primordial Plasma 1:30 Bob Svoboda - Do We Live in a Universe of WIMPs? 2:00 Robin Erbacher - The Smallest Things in the Universe: Discoveries of Subatomic Particles 2:30 Markus Luty - The Quest for the Fundamental Laws of Physics: a Tale of Three Universes 3:00 Steven Carlip - Black Holes, Extra Dimensions and All That 3:30 Thomas Cahill - The Physics of 9/11/2001 PHYSICS IS FUN! 10:00 AM -4:00 PM Roessler Hall, Rm168 Physics makes the world go 'round! Come experience cool physics demos, and learn how modern technologies are applications of basic physics. 13TH ANNUAL PHYSICS SHOW Three 50-minute shows starting at 12:10 PM; 1:00 PM;and 1:50 PM Roessler Hall, Rm 66 Wires disappearing with a bang! Solid objects levitated by invisible fields! Science triumphing in the face of danger

4/5/11—Physics Professor John Conway interviewed by Channel 10 News: http://www.news10.net/news/article/132282/2/Japans-nuclear-crisis-sparks-radiation-concerns-in-California

Physics Professor Lloyd Knox chosen as Tedx Davis Speaker Founded in 1984, TED is a nonprofit organization that combines Technology, entertainment and design, and offers fascinating speakers willing to share their ideas via visually broadcast talks, available at http://www.ted.com/. To further innovate and excite, TED offers local talks at varying venues. TEDx Davis is an independently organized event scheduled to occur on the UC Davis campus. The April 23rd Davis event theme is: Think Big. Think Small. Think Forward. Several speakers from alternating fields will be chosen as speakers. As reported in the The California Aggie, Physics professor Lloyd Knox has been chosen as a speaker for the event. The Aggie states, "he enjoys TED talks and is interested in communicating with the general public through this venue." Knox told the Aggie, "I'll be talking about the universality of physical law," "It's an astounding fact that the universe obeys regular laws, laws that are seen everywhere. In particular I want to talk about how we're able to understand propagation of sound waves at the edge of the observable universe, and how we're able to predict observable consequences from these sound waves and detect them and measure their properties to amazing precision. And how, through this extreme example, the laws of physics apply everywhere." Thanks to Aggie Reporter Martha Georgis. Source: http://theaggie.org/article/2011/03/29/inspirational-ted-talks-come-to-davis

John Rundle on Tokyo Earthquake http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9810

Barry Klein, Director of the McClellan Nuclear Research Center (MNRC) http://mnrc.ucdavis.edu/about.html MNRC in the news http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-sacramento-reactor-small-but-is-a-big-help-20110315,0,1118386.story

February 2011. The UC Davis chapter of the Society of Physics Students has been selected as an Outstanding SPS Chapter for the 2009-2010 school year. SPS Director Gary White congratulated UC Davis Dept of Physics Lecturer Randy Harris, (current SPS Advisor), his students and student organization for this notable achievement. Zone 18, UC Davis Chapter: http://www.spsnational.org/programs/awards/2010/oca.htm

Neutrinos Defined: UC Davis Physics Professor John Conway talks to PBS about Neutrinos, otherwise known as Ghost Particles. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/01/what-is-a-neutrino-and-why-should-anyone-but-a-particle-physicist-care.html

Spotlight on Alums! In a recent interview with APS, Luke Donev [B.S. 2001, Physics, UCD] explained, "I study physics because I think we have the best toys". Following studies at UC Davis, Donev went on to earn his doctorate in physics from Cornell University. Donev's current position is as Educator/Applied Science Lead at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. He attributes his veer from traditional academia to Museum-centered employment in part to his enjoyment in volunteerism and a love of engaging the general public. He began his foray into public service as an ambassador of physics while he was an undergrad, creating a Physics demonstration at UC Davis's annual Picnic Day, and later volunteering at the Science Center in Ithaca. Says Donev, "The most fun I had in grad school was doing science outreach." During any given week, Donev can be found designing and performing outreach programs for approximately 1500 children. He expounds on the virtues studying physics, combining practicality and versatility. Donev states, "I feel a PhD in physics has given me a toolbox of training that has allowed me to enjoy a vast array of jobs." For those thinking of pursuing a museum-focused career, Donev suggests volunteerism as a trial venture, used to both enable the scientist to explore a world outside of academia while providing exposure to to a wide range of science related employment opportunities. For Luke Donev, the choice was clear, "I picked this job because that's what I wanted to do." http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/ From "At Play, Day and Night in the Museum," By Alaina G. Levine, APS News, January 2011.

UC Davis Physicist Bob Svboda, featured in Symmetry Magazine, Jan 2011. "I didn't even have to analyze it," said Svoboda. "It was obvious we had a neutrino burst." http://www.symmetrymagazine.org

Charles S. Fadley, University of California, Davis, has been elected as Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, (AAAS). http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2011/0111fellows.shtml

Discovery Magazine has selected the Planck full-sky image as the 7th best science story of 2010: http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/07 UC Davis professor Lloyd Knox is a Planck Scientist and is leading the U.S. effort on the precision determination of cosmological parameters.

The LHC began colliding Lead ions!

Marcos Rigol awarded C10 Young Scientist Prize by IUPAP

Former UC Davis postdoctoral scholar, Professor Marcos Rigol, was awarded the C10 Young Scientist Prize by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physicists (IUPAP) in October 2011. Marcos Rigol was a postdoctoral scholar with Professors Scalettar and Singh from 2004 to 2006. He moved on to postdoctoral scholar positions at USC and UCSC before joining Georgetown University as an assistant profesor of physics in 2008. This prestigious international prize will be presented to Professor Rigol at the APS March Meeting in Dallas, Texas, during the week of March 21-25, 2011. The citation reads: "For his decisive contributions to the understanding of the grand challenge posed by correlated quantum systems far from equilibrium concerning their dynamics and thermalization."

A Short History of Crocker Nuclear Laboratory

Bob Svoboda awarded $4.4 million contract by NSF
Bob Svoboda	Professor Bob Svoboda will lead the effort to design a megaton-scale water cherenkov detector for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab (DUSEL) in Homestake, South Dakota. NSF support for this program amounts to nearly $4.4M over three years, and supports work done at UC Davis and by subcontracts to around 15 other institutions.

Ching-Yao Fong and Warren Pickett Named Outstanding Referees by APS

Fong, Pickett

"The Outstanding Referee program was instituted in 2008. The highly selective award program recognizes scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in the APS journals. The program will annually recognize approximately 130 of the 42,000 currently active referees, but in the inaugural year a larger group of 534 referees has been selected for the Outstanding Referee designation. Like Fellowship in the APS, this is a lifetime award." Read More

Professor John Rundle to Lead New California Hazards Institute

Rundle

"Preventing California's many natural hazards from turning into natural disasters is the aim of the new California Hazards Institute, a multicampus research program of the University of California. The institute will be led by John Rundle, interdisciplinary professor of physics, engineering and geology, and director of the Center for Computational Science and Engineering at UC Davis." Read More - Dateline

Professor Joe Kiskis tests SmartSite (Sakai) - IT Times
Kiskis	"Focus on what will help your students learn. If there's a tool in Sakai that'll help, use it. If not, don't use a tool just to use it."

Picnic Day crowd revels in traditional events - The Davis Enterprise

"While there were no explosions at the Eighth Annual Physics Show, the demonstrations were just as exciting and educational. To start, physics student David Cherney lay down on a bed of nails." Read More

Spotlight: Einstein's Legacy - UC Davis physicists continue where Albert left off
Chiang, Carlip	"Albert Einstein was clearly one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, and he accomplished a record amount of outstanding work in the year 1905," said Shirley Chiang, chair of the Department of Physics. Read More

Prof. John Rundle's research in the news following the tsunami disaster:
Rundle	"We need to think about this. The risk for tsunamis like the one we saw in Sumatra is very real and very present and very possible." Could a tsunami hit the US?- MSNBC/Dateline

Archive

---