Faculty Research Areas

Physics Faculty

Anthony Aguirre, Cosmology, both of the early and late universe: inflation and the global structure of cosmological models; the intergalactic medium and its enrichment with heavy elements; galaxy formation, evolution, and feedback processes; dark matter and theories of modified gravity. Ph.D. Harvard University, 2000.

Aris Alexandradinata, Condensed Matter Theory, PhD Princeton University, 2015, investigates solid-state materials through the lens of quantum mechanics and topology, with an eye toward applications in sustainable technologies.

Wolfgang Altmannshofer, Elementary particle theory, PhD Technical University of Munich 2010. 
Standard model and beyond, especially flavor physics, Higgs physics, and neutrino physics.


David Belanger, Condensed matter experiment, PhD UC Santa Barbara, 1981. Phase Transitions in random and frustrated systems.

Sue Carter, Condensed matter experiment, PhD Univ. of Chicago, 1993. Novel electronic and polymer materials.

Josh Deutsch, Condensed matter theory, PhD Cambridge Univ., 1983. "The Polymator" - theory of polymers and protein folding.

Michael Dine,  Elementary particle theory, PhD Yale University, 1978. Standard model and beyond, especially supersymmetry, superstrings and cosmology.

Stefania Gori, Elementary particle theory, PhD Technical University of Munich 2010. Beyond the Standard Model physics: Higgs and collider physics, dark matter and dark sectors.

Howard Haber, Elementary particle theory, PhD Univ. of Michigan, 1978. Particle theory: standard model, especially Higgs phenomenology; supersymmetry phenomenology.

Mike HanceElementary particle experiment, PhD University of Pennsylvania, 2011.  Searches for new particles and forces at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), particle detector development for LHC upgrades, and projections for future colliders.

Tesla Jeltema, Cosmology, observational high energy astrophysics, particle astrophysics, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004

Robert Johnson, Department Chair, Experimental high-energy particle astrophysics, instrumentation for particle physics, astrophysics, and medical imaging, the NASA Fermi Mission, PhD Stanford University, 1986.

David LedermanLederman's research group seeks to understand the fundamental properties of materials in reduced dimensions, such as ultra thin films and heterostructures. Because of the reduced dimensionality and/or the strong effect of surface and interface states, electronic and magnetic order and interactions can emerge which yield unexpected and interesting phenomena. The group also studies how these properties can be exploited to develop new electronic devices that are stable at room temperature and use low power to store and manipulate data.

Onuttom Narayan, Condensed matter theory, PhD Princeton University., 1992. Dynamics of granular and disordered systems

Jason Nielsen, Elementary particle experiment, PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001. High-energy collider experiments at Fermilab (CDF) and CERN (ATLAS); particle detector development

Stefano Profumo, Theoretical high energy physics and particle astrophysics, PhD SISSA-ISAS, 2004.

Arthur Ramirez, Experimental materials physics encompassing a broad range of systems including semiconductors, superconductors, magnets, thermoelectrics, and dielectrics. Research that connects materials and devices, with a focus on oxides and organics.

Steve Ritz (SCIPP Director) Particle physics and astrophysics, PhD University of WI-Madison, 1988.

Zack Schlesinger, Physics of Correlated Electron Systems, PhD Cornell University, 1981.

Bruce Schumm, Elementary particle experiment, PhD University of Chicago, 1988.

B. Sriram Shastry, Strongly correlated matter, and integrable systems. Condensed matter theory, PhD. Tata Institute, 1976.

Edgar Shaghoulian, Theoretical high energy physics and cosmology. PhD Stanford University, 2014.

Alexander Sher, Development of experimental techniques for recording and stimulation of activity of hundreds of neurons and use of these techniques to study neural function, structure, and development. PhD University of Pittsburgh, PA 2002.

David M. Smith
, High-energy astrophysics; X-ray and gamma-ray detectors and instrumentation;solar, terrestrial, and planetary sources of gamma radiation, Ph.D University of California, Berkeley, 1993.

Sergey Syzranov  Transport in disordered materials, localization-delocalization transitions, physics of topological and Dirac materials, strongly correlated systems,quantum information and decoherence, physics of trapped of ultracold gases. PhD Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany.

Jairo Velasco Jr., Condensed matter experiment, novel materials. PhD UC Riverside, 2012. Electronic structure and properties of low-dimensional materials. Nanofabrication, low-temperature transport, and scanning tunneling microscopy. Two dimensional materials, such as graphene, boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides, and black phosphorus.

Aiming Yan, Condensed matter experiment, structural design and physical/chemical property tailoring in low-dimensional materials.  Synthesis of two-dimensional materials. Raman spectroscopy, ex-situ and in-situ transmission electron microscopy. PhD Northwestern University, IL, 2013.

Emeriti

Tom Banks, Elementary particle physics, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973. Theoretical elementary particle physics, cosmology and superstring/M Theory.

Frank Bridges (Research Professor), PhD UC San Diego, 1968.

Joel Primack, Cosmology, PhD Stanford University, 1970. Theoretical cosmology, dark matter, galaxy formation, and high energy astrophysics. 

Abraham Seiden,  Elementary particle experiment, PhD UC Santa Cruz, 1974.

Peter Young, Condensed Matter Theory, D.Phil. Oxford, 1973. Numerical simulation, disordered systems, quantum computing.


Adjunct Faculty

William B. Atwood (Adjunct Professor), Particle Astrophysics with particular interest in high-energy phenomena and cosmology, Ph.D. Stanford University, 1975.

Marco Battaglia (Adjunct Professor), Experimental Particle Physics, Ph.D, University of Helsinki (Finland) 1999

Alan Litke (Adjunct Professor), Elementary particle experiment, PhD Harvard University, 1970.

Hartmut Sadrozinsk
i (Adjunct Professor, Emeritus), Elementary particle experiment, PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973. Instrumentation for Space Science, Hadron Collider Physics, and Proton Computed Tomography.

Terry L. Schalk
 (Adjunct Professor, Emeritus), Elementary particle experiment, PhD Iowa State University, 1969. Experiments at SLAC, accelerator design, computing issues in high energy physics

David A. Williams (Adjunct Professor), Experimental particle astrophysics, PhD Harvard University, 1987. Studies of very-high-energy gamma-ray sources with VERITAS and Fermi. Development of the Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS).

Affiliated Faculty

George R. Blumenthal (Astronomy and Astrophysics) Cosmology, galaxy formation, high-energy astrophysics.

Pascale Garaud (Applied Mathematics and Statistics) Astrophysics, geophysics, fluid dynamics, numerical resolutions of differential equations, and mathematical modeling of natural flows.

Joel A. Kubby (Electrical Engineering) Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS); adaptive optics, integrated optics, bio-MEMS.

Weintai Liu (Electrical Engineering) Retinal prosthesis, biomimetic systems, integrated neuro-electronics, molecular electronics, CMOS and SOI transceiver design, current made band limited signaling, microelectronic sensor, timing/clock recovery and optimization, noise characterization and modeling and computer vision/image processing.

William G. Mathews (Astronomy and Astrophysics, Emeritus) Galaxies, high-energy astrophysics, gaseous nebulae.

Richard Montgomery (Mathematics) Celestial mechanics, differential geometry, gauge theory, mechanics (quantum and classical) and control theory.

Ali Shakouri (Electrical Engineering) Quantum electronics, nano- and microscale heat and current transport in semiconductor devices; thermoelectric/thermionic energy conversion; renewable energy sources; thermal imaging; micro-refrigerators on a chip; and optoelectronic integrated circuits.

Holger Schmidt (Electrical Engineering) Integrated optics for biomedicine and quantum optics, nano-magento-optics, semiconductor physics,optoelectronic and photonic devices, ultrafast optics, quantum interference.

Lecturers