Resources
Department of Physics
UC Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
Ph: (530) 752-1500
Fax: (530) 752-4717
UC Davis Physics News
05.24.2013
Physics Professor Crutchfield's physics graduate course on complex systems wins 2013 SIAM teaching award.
05.17.2013
Physics student Amandeep Kaur selected Graduate Student Assistant to the Dean and Chancellor and wins Outstanding Graduate & Professional Student Leaders in Our Community Award
05.14.2013
Professor Crutchfield and crew take nonlinear physics to Maker Faire.
05.10.2013
Physics department sponsors May 22 public lecture on "The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time."
04.29.2013
Applied Physics Letters highlights the recent work of Dustin Gilbert and Prof. Kai Liu on high magnetic anisotropy thin films.
04.20.2013
The Lander Lab was dedicated as part of our annual Picnic Day Alumni Reception. View photos here.
04.18.2013
Professor Calderon is awarded the 2013 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching
04.17.2013
Scientists at the CERN research center said on Wednesday that they may be close to tracking down the mysterious "dark matter" that makes up more than a quarter of the universe but has never been seen. John Conway, UC Davis physics professor working at CERN, said a confirmed discovery would push scientists into uncharted realms of research.
04.15.2013
Alumnus Chris Varney (PhD 2009) takes tenure-track faculty position at the University of West Florida.
04.09.2013
Professor Knox will deliver a keynote talk about Planck results at the opening of the April APS meeting.
03.22.2013
Planck’s new map brings universe into focus
03.20.2013
Complexity Sciences Center's Raissa D'Souza is featured in a WIRED article on the statistical physics of network failure.
03.04.2013
Professor Bob Svoboda receives a patent for a new type of neutron detector
Invented while on a joint appointment with LLNL, this detector is a possible replacement for ones using the scarce nuclear isotope 3-He. It holds the promise of a inexpensive, efficient way to monitor cargo entering the United States for smuggling of illicit nuclear materials.
03.01.2013
Join us on April 6, 2013, for an exciting day of public lectures by four physicists including Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek
01.11.2013
At the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society Will Dawson presented evidence that dark matter has non-gravitational interactions.
12.07.2012
UC Davis undergrad researcher Meredith Powell studies the physics at work behind the performance of instrumental music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain.
11.28.2012
Professors Kaloper, Knox, Liu, Savrasov, Svoboda, and Zimanyi have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society.
11.21.2012
Dark matter detection effort reaches a critical milestone.
Professor Kai Liu named Fellow of the Institute of Nanotechnology (UK)
11.19.2012
Professor Kaloper wins a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship
11.16.2012
Team Physics will run in The Running of the Turkeys on Thanksgiving morning to support the work of the Food Bank of Yolo County.
11.15.2012
Professor Kai Liu, and alumna Michelle Johannes (PhD 2003) have been selected as fellows of the American Physical Society
Professor Nick Curro has won the honor of "Chancellor's Fellow."
11.13.2012
UC Davis and the South Pole Telescope
UC Davis postdoc Hou, graduate students Follin and Millea and Professor Knox, together with their South Pole Telescope collaborators, recently sharpened up constraints on models of early Universe inflation.
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9.20.12
UC Davis Prof. Rundle wins prestegious NASA Award
UC Davis Physics Prof. John Rundle and his team have received the NASA "Software of the Year" award.
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9.14.2012
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7.13.2012
UC Davis and the Higgs boson: Past, present and future
Researchers working at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland, announced earlier this month that they had found a new particle with the characteristics predicted for the long-sought Higgs boson. UC Davis physicists have contributed to the Higgs search for more than 20 years and, with the new knowledge, are now exploring the next frontier in physics.(reprinted from http://dateline.ucdavis.edu/)
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7.10.2012
Professor Andreas Albrecht interviewed on Capital Public Radio re: Higgs Boson
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View Prof. Andreas Albrecht’s talk at TEDxUCDavis from May 2012
Astronomers Discover Galaxy They Thought Couldn't Exist
May 2012
Professor Crutchfield was awarded a three-year $450K grant from the Army Research Office to study the role of intelligence in extracting work from thermodynamic systems. The goals are to develop a fundamental understanding of the physical limits on computing and the interdependence between energy flows and information processing. Applications include greatly reducing energy dissipation in digital computers and evaluating novel physical substrates for a new generation of unconventional computers. Link to journal page.
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Korana Burke (Mathematics, Boston University) will become a post-doctoral researcher in Physics this Fall. Dr. Burke received her Physics Ph.D. at UC Merced under Prof. Kevin Mitchell on the nonlinear dynamics of ionization thresholds in excited single-atoms ("Demonstration of Turnstiles as a Chaotic Ionization Mechanism in Rydberg Atoms", Physical Review Letters 107 (2011) 113002). She will join Prof. Crutchfield's research group to study atomic-scale information processing.
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Professor Charles Fadley was awarded the Senior Visiting Professorship award of 185k Eu (ca. $235k) from the French national program to promote world-class laboratories in physics (Laboratoires d'Excellence: Physique: Atomes, Lumiere, Matiere--PALM) that will provide support over two years as a senior visiting professor (chaire seniore) in the Paris-Saclay Triangle de Physique. Link
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Professor Fadley was also selected as one of the first three recipients of the status of Fellow of Elettra, the Italian national synchrotron radiation and free electron laser facility with laudatio as: “Professor Charles S. Fadley is a distinguished solid state physicist and materials scientist who has given fundamental contributions to the development of photoelectron spectroscopy, diffraction and holography worldwide..." Link
Dr. Norman Mannella, who completed his PhD with the UC Davis Physics Fadley Group in 2003, then was a postdoctoral associate with Professor Z.X. Shen at Stanford, and is now an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, has been awarded a prestigious five-year NSF Early Career Award totalling $600,000, with the title "Sub-Picosecond Electron Dynamics in Complex Electron Systems".
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Professor Bob Svoboda and his collaborators on Double-Chooz, have new news from the neutrino sector, with the first strong evidence for "cross-generational mixing." _____
Professor John Conway blogs about the Higgs boson search in advance of a December 13th update from CERN.Link
Professors Markus Luty and John Terning deliver "Dirac Lectures" at Florida State University. Link
Professors Kai Liu and Rajiv Singh have been elected Fellows of the Institute of Physics (UK) in recognition of “high level of achievement in physics and an outstanding contribution to the profession”. (2011)
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Dr. Randy Dumas, who completed his Ph.D. in Professor Kai Liu’s Group in 2009, has been awarded a prestigious Young Researcher Grant of $720,000 from the Swedish Research Council for his work on magnetic materials. (2011)
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Physics faculty response to events of Nov 18
HEFTI to host a workshop on 'Hidden SUSY' Link
Physics Professor Rajiv Singh publishes 'Spinning on Ice' in Viewpoint Link
B. Busemeyer (UC Davis) wins Award at the 2011 Section Meeting at SLAC
Steven Chu Award for Best Research by an Undergraduate First place (Theory): B. Busemeyer (UC Davis) "Exploring Half Metals in Li-based Half Heusler Alloys" Link.
Ilke Arslan, UCD Physics Alum, UCD Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (2011).
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The nation's highest honor for professionals in the early stages of their scientific research careers
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.