News from the Physics Family
Congratulations to UT Physics Alumna Saskia Mioduszewski (PhD, 1999) on her election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society! Mioduszewski is a professor of physics at Texas A&M University and an expert in experimental nuclear physics with an emphasis on relativistic heavy ion collisions (RHIC). She is also a member of the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute. She was cited “for sustained leadership of high-precision measurement of the quark-gluon plasma using direct photons and their correlations with hadrons and jets at the PHENIX and STAR experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.” This is the latest in her long list of accolades, including a U.S. Department of Energy Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Sambamurti Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award from the American Physical Society. (Photo courtesy of Texas A&M.)
Right: SPS members spent Halloween at Hodges Library explaining the physics and chemistry of glowing drinks and glow sticks—but also managed to find time to study.
The Society of Physics Students and the Graduate Physics Society were busy fall semester, with SPS hosting a booth at Engineer’s Day, sharing physics and chemistry knowledge on Halloween, and attending PhysCon—the 2019 Physics Congress. The GPS hosts social get-togethers, helps new students get acclimated to the department, and offers resources on helping members succeed in their academic, research, and teaching assistant responsibilities. Check out all our student groups and their busy schedules by following them online:
- Society of Physics Students [web] [instagram]
- Astronomy Club [VolLink] [instagram]
- Women in Physics [instagram] [facebook]
- Graduate Physics Society [VolLink]
Left: Maria Fawver with department heads (current and former) Hanno Weitering, Soren Sorensen, Lee Riedinger, and Bill Bugg.
After 25 years with the university, Administrative Specialist Maria Fawver is retiring as we wrap up the Fall 2019 semester. She has shepherded many students, visitors, and faculty through the finer points of UT travel policies, and pitched in wherever needed to help keep the front office running smoothly. On December 4 the department gathered to thank her for years of service. We wish Maria all the best in retirement.
Assistant Professor Jian Liu and Associate Professor Haidong Zhou have won a $400,000 Department of Energy grant to look for new possibilities in response to the need for electronics that can function in ever-smaller and more complex systems. They are creating quantum-scale materials and taking advantage of their inherent physical properties to influence how electrons behave.
Biological membranes are something like sentries, deciding what can enter and leave a cell; how it can send and receive signals; and how it responds to different stimuli. In the spirit of building collaborations and encouraging crossover between scientific disciplines. Assistant Professor Maxim Lavrentovich helped organize a workshop at ORNL to bring together scientists who study these membranes and their properties. Titled "Workshop on Lateral Membrane Heterogeneity," the program was held in October.
Nadia Fomin (Associate Professor) and Sarah Cousineau (Joint Faculty) joined a panel discussion on the intersection of technology, art, and physics as part of the Science in Motion Exhibition hosted by the Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. The exhibition began in September and runs through January 5, 2020.
Professor Robert Grzywacz presented a talk on "Tennessine and the Road to the Island of Stable Superheavies"" for the November gathering of Mic/Nite, a "Pecha-Kucha Powered" social gathering sponsored twice each year by the Office of the Provost. Mic/Nite gives faculty from across university disciplines the chance to share their research with a large and varied audience in a social setting as a means to promote interaction across fields. You can see all the presentations online at: micnite.utk.edu.
Everywhere You Look, UT: International Edition—Here’s Physics Professor Yuri Efremenko representing the university atop Mount Kilimanjaro. Efremenko’s research speciality is experimental elementary particle physics; he’s also a joint faculty member with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
About 1,000 students, faculty, staff, and members of the public hit the roof of the Nielsen Physics Building for the November 11 Mercury Transit (left). Don’t forget to check the astronomy viewing schedule, including public viewings on the roof on the first and third Fridays of the month—those events will resume in February.
Spacebar!
Christened this fall, the department has opened what is formally known as the Physics Collaborative Space but has quickly become Spacebar (thanks to the undergraduates). This renovated area (Room 201 in Nielsen) is now a popular spot for all members of the department—students, faculty, and staff—to spend time together studying, working on homework, taking a lunch break, or just relaxing.