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Physics News
ADM Conference celebrates Richard Arnowitt, Brandeis University's Stanley Deser and Charles Misner
Texas A&M University, supported by the Department of Physics and College of Science, is holding a three-day conference in recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the ADM formulation. The ADM formulation, developed by Richard Arnowitt, Brandeis University's Stanley Deser and Charles Misner, restructured the dynamics of general relativity. The conference will be held November 7 – 8 and will celebrate the contribution to the understanding of gravitation. Additionally, it will focus on current research and developments in the field.
In Dr. Misner's words: Einstein's 1915 gravitation equations had both unfamiliar content (spacetime is curved) but also a mathematical form that intimidated physicists (including Einstein) familiar with Newton's mechanics and Maxwell's electromagnetism. In 1959 Arnowitt, Deser, and Misner (ADM) found a way to recast Einstein's equations in a ("Hamiltonian") form which allowed hard-won mechanical and electromagnetic intuitions to be applied to gravity. One result was to encourage attempts to solve Einstein's equations on computers, which in the last couple decades has grown into a major method for understanding black hole interactions.
For more information on the conference, visit http://adm-50.physics.tamu.edu/
Chakraborty appointed to Ancell Chair in Physics
Professor Bulbul Chakraborty has been appointed to the Enid and Nate Ancell Chair in Physics, previously held by Professor Emeritus Stanley Deser.
Kondev publishes Physical Biology of the Cell
Physical Biology of the Cell, an 800-page biophysics textbook, was published by Garland Science in late 2008 to critical acclaim. Professor of physics and coauthor Jané Kondev said the book explores how the basic tools and insights of physics and mathematics can illuminate the study of molecular and cell biology. The book is intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in different scientific fields curious about how physics can inform biological problems. (from Catalyst magazine)
Catalyst highlights MRSEC research
A significant new MRSEC research project, the "jewel in the crown of biological physics at Brandeis," is highlighted in the latest edition of the Catalyst, the Brandeis research magazine. See the article "From Biological Gadgets to Nanomachines" by Laura Gardner.
Chakraborty elected Fellow of the APS
Professor Bulbul Chakraborty has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, for her "important theoretical contributions to diverse areas of condensed matter physics, including frustrated magnets, diffusion of light particles in metals, the glass transition, and jamming in granular systems."
NSF Awards Brandeis $7.8 million grant to establish MRSEC
The National Science Foundation awarded Brandeis University a highly competitive $7.8 million grant to establish a new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. The Brandeis center will involve physicists, biochemists, chemists, and biologists in a two-pronged approach to research. In a bottom-up approach, the researchers will explore how the addition of typical biological constraints, such as crowding and confinement, affects materials and its properties. In a complementary top-down approach, the researchers will explore functioning cellular components, such as cilia, the organelles that miraculously move in synchronization to perform their jobs, such as keeping the lungs clear of pollutants. The researchers will essentially reverse engineer the function and structure of such "biological gadgets."
Department gains two members
Matthew Headrick and Geoffry Svacha have joined the department; Headrick as an assistant professor, Svacha as an adjunct. Headrick, an expert in string theory, earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2003. Following a postdoc at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Mumbai, Headrick joined MIT as a Pappalardo Fellow in 2003. Since 2006, he has been a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford. He has done pioneering work on tachyon condensation in string theory, on numerical solutions to Calabi-Yau and Kahler-Einstein metrics and on black hole physics. This fall he is teaching Mathematical Physics (Phys 110a).
Svacha received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2008, working in Eric Mazur's group on nonlinear optics using silica nanowires. He will specialize in undergraduate teaching. This fall he is teaching Introductory Physics (Phys 10a) and The Science in Science Teaching and Learning (Phys 22a).
Catalyst highlights department's work
Learn more about the efforts of Prof. Fraden's group in Lab-on-a-Chip development, the work of Prof. Samadani on the behaviors of cells, and the engagement of the experimental high energy group in the biggest experiment in the world, in this series of articles written in the University's research magazine Catalyst.
Fraden wins Innovation Prize
Professor Seth Fraden was awarded the 2008 Innovation Prize by the International Organization for Biological Crystallization for his work on "developing microfluidic technology to optimize protein crystallization."
Meyer receives Buckley Prize
Professor Robert B. Meyer was awarded the 2006 Buckley Condensed Matter Prize of the American Physical Society for "groundbreaking experimental and theoretical contributions to the fundamental science and applications of liquid crystals, particularly their ferroelectric and chiral properties."
APS honors Redfield
Professor Al Redfield was awarded the 2006 Biological Physics prize by the American Physical Society.