Berkeley Physics

SAVE THE DATE: Monday, October 28 is the annual Emilio Segrè Lecture featuring Pablo Jarillo-Herrero of MIT. Don't miss his presentation: Magic Angle Graphene: the Twist and Shout of Quantum Materials.
https://events.berkeley.edu/physics/event/269143-the-2024-segre-lecture-magic-angle-graphene-the

Monday, September 23 the Condensed Matter Seminar will be presented by Vidya Madhavan: The Strange Case of Magnetic Field Sensitive Charge Density Waves in UTe2. Join us at 2:30pm in 251 Physics North.
https://events.berkeley.edu/physics/event/262510-condensed-matter-seminar-the-strange-case-of-magnetic

Monday, September 23 join us for the Physics Department Colloquia with Vladan Vuletic of MIT. Professor Vuletic will present The Quantum Age: From Bell Pairs to Quantum Computers.
https://events.berkeley.edu/physics/event/262505-physics-colloquia-the-quantum-age-from-bell-pairs-to-

Caminos de la Ciencia is back with an expanded program for the spanish-speaking community! Interested? Find out more, and save all the fall dates.
https://scienceatcal.berkeley.edu/caminos-de-la-ciencia/

The Fall 2024 Physics Department Welcome, hosted by Chair Irfan Siddiqi, took place on Monday, September 9. Watch a video of the presentation here: https://youtu.be/itiydVYRvlw

Monday, September 16 join us for the Condensed Matter Seminar featuring Erez Berg of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Join us in 251 Physics North at 2:30 PM.
https://events.berkeley.edu/physics/event/262509-condensed-matter-seminar-theory-of-coulomb-driven-nem

Join us Monday, September 16 at 4:30 PM for the first Physics Department Colloquium of the fall semester! Oxford Associate Professor Marina Filip will present: Understanding Excitons in Heterogeneous Metal-Halide Semiconductors with First Principles Computational Modeling.
https://events.berkeley.edu/physics/event/258858-physics-colloquia-understanding-excitons-in-heterogen

Berkeley Talks: What is Understanding? This discussion features Berkeley scholars including Physics Associate Professor Hernan Garcia.

Berkeley Talks: What is understanding? Berkeley scholars discuss - Berkeley News Professors in psychology, biology and ethnic studies broach this deep question as part of a series for the College of Letters and Science course, Research, Discovery and You.

On the Same Page presents: What is Oppenheimer Good For? This panel discussion and Q&A features distinguished faculty from a range of disciplines. New students are invited to join the conversation.

On the Same Page presents: What is Oppenheimer Good For? Panel Conversation and Q&A Join us for a thought-provoking, interdisciplinary panel and Q&A discussion about the film Oppenheimer. We’ll hear from historians, physicist...

Rising undergraduate senior Benjamin Knepper has received a 2024 SPS Undergraduate Research Award for his project: Characterization and Enhancement of Dark Matter Detection Efficiency in BREAD.

Benjamin Knepper receives 2024 SPS Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award | Physics UC Berkeley Undergraduate Student Benjamin Knepper Berkeley Physics congratulates Benjamin Knepper on receiving a 2024 SPS Award for Undergraduate Research for his project: Characterization and Enhancement of Dark Matter Detection Efficiency in BREAD. Project abstract Dark matter, constituting 85% o...

A small analysis team lead by Postdoctoral Researcher Ibles Olcina Samblas made strong contributions to the recent record achieved at the LZ Experiment.

LZ Experiment Sets New Record in Search for Dark Matter | Physics The LZ Central Detector at the Stanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Photo: Matthew Kapust New results from the world’s most sensitive dark matter detector put the best-ever limits on particles called WIMPs, a leading candidate for what makes up our universe’s invisible mass. F...

Congratulations to recent Ph.D. James Sullivan who has been awarded a Brinson Prize Fellowship. The Brinson Prize Fellowship Program is a collaboration between The Brinson Foundation and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) that supports observational cosmologists at the postdoctoral level.
https://brinsonfoundation.org/brinson-prize-fellowship-program/

Associate Professor and Herst Chair in Physics Shimon Kolkowitz has been named a member of the third annual cohort of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators, to achieve remarkable physics insights and open new frontiers. Congratulations Shimon!
https://www.moore.org/investigator-detail?investigatorId=kolkowitz-ph.d

With four new faculty hires, Berkeley Physics expands excellent leadership in quantum research.

Four new faculty hires are a quantum leap for experimental physics - Berkeley News New assistant professors cement UC Berkeley's leadership in quantum science and technology

UC Berkeley and TU Dortmund University of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have signed a significant Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that marks a pivotal step in expanding the reach of quantum research. During their visit to the UC Berkeley campus last week the NRW delegates toured the Quantum Nanoelectronics Lab in Campbell Hall.

https://physics.berkeley.edu/news/together-future-technology

An instrument developed in the Holger Müller lab captures atoms in free fall to look for gravitational anomalies caused by the universe's missing energy.

With a new, incredibly precise instrument, Berkeley researchers narrow search for dark energy - Berkeley News Experiment captures atoms in free fall to look for gravitational anomalies caused by universe's missing energy

When the pope wants to meet some cosmologists - and Raphael Bousso is one of them.
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1356015/overview

Assistant Professor Eric Ma was selected as a 2024 Google Research Scholar in the category of Applied Science, to explore Parsing Physics Literature with Large Language Models.

Research Scholar Program recipients – Google Research The Research Scholar Program provides unrestricted gifts to support research at institutions around the world, and is focused on funding world-class research conducted by early-career professors.

Eric Ma has been awarded a 2024-2025 Hellman Fellowship in support of his research proposal, Fluorescence of Optical Phonons, which delves into the high-risk, under-explored topic of the mid-infrared radiative decay of optical phonons.

Eric Ma Receives Hellman Fellows Award | Physics June 10, 2024 The Society of Hellman Fellows has announced that Assistant Professor Eric Ma has been awarded a 2024-2025 Fellowship in support of his research proposal, Fluorescence of Optical Phonons, which delves into the high-risk, under-explored topic of the mid-infrared radiative decay of optic...

Hitoshi Murayama has been appointed as a Miller Senior Fellow!
https://miller.berkeley.edu/senior-fellowship/awards

James Analytis is one of eight distinguished mid-career faculty to receive a 2024 National Brown Investigator Award.
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-announces-eight-recipients-of-the-2024-national-brown-investigator-award

Wick Haxton has been elected to the American Philosophical Society for 2024. Election to this prestigious learned society honors extraordinary accomplishments in all fields.
https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/american-philosophical-society-welcomes-new-members-2024

"How to Be a Quantum Mechanic" is an upper-division text written by long-time Berkeley Physics lecturer Charles G. Wohl. It begins with wave-particle duality and ends with a brief introduction to the Dirac equation. Wohl earned his Ph.D. at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in the experimental particle-physics group led by Luis Alvarez.
https://www.routledge.com/How-to-Be-a-Quantum-Mechanic/Wohl/p/book/9781032256023

Newly Admitted Transfer Students! Apply now to the Berkeley Pre-Core Transfer Summer Program, designed specifically to help you transition successfully into physics, astrophysics, and EPS majors. Applications due June 1st!
https://physics.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate-degree/transfer-students/berkeley-pre-core-transfer-summer-program

Study conducted by Professor Alessandra Lanzara together with Ph.D. student Maxi Huber shows how light can transform an insulating material into a semimetal.
https://physics.berkeley.edu/news/study-shows-how-light-can-transform-insulating-material-semimetal

Abby Dernburg and Ramamoorthy Ramesh have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
https://physics.berkeley.edu/news/r-ramesh-elected-national-academy-sciences

A new book written by Professor Andrew N. Jordan and Professor Irfan Siddiqi is aimed at unraveling the enigmatic realm of quantum physics measurement.

Unraveling the Quantum Enigma: Exploring Measurement in Quantum Physics | Physics Professor Irfan Siddiqi and Professor Andrew N. Jordan “Quantum Measurement: A Comprehensive Guide," a new book written by Professor Andrew N. Jordan and Professor Irfan Siddiqi is aimed at unraveling the enigmatic realm of quantum physics measurement. This groundbreaking text delves into the intr...

In case you missed it, a recording of the 2024 Oppenheimer Lecture featuring Professor Andrea Liu is now available:

The 2024 Oppenheimer Lecture featuring Andrea Liu Physical systems that can learn by themselvesBrains learn and perform an enormous variety of tasks on their own, using relatively little energy. Brains are a...

Looking to complete your physics requirements over the Summer? Physics at UC Berkeley has wonderful summer course opportunities! Physics 77 will be offered online to allow for maximum flexibility. Physics 77 can be used as part of the Berkeley Pre-Core Transfer Summer Program. For course information, visit our Class Schedule:
https://classes.berkeley.edu/content/2024-summer-physics-77-001-lec-001?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3XjTHVMRoNrgA8TyqGwB4cxnQGtnkZT-zqEnTUn9Fn9fANFwgcqmwm7oI_aem_AZkRbg68nDvOofPYrCaJQ6hsnLecqp_bZjkrnWa-L_z9-b1QTNmnmJ6uOztWm7o9nWjFY1EQXrQPAyDr6M8LqhzS