Department News, Fall 2013
Message from the Chair
Department Spotlight
Department Announcements
Alumni Updates
Donor Recognition
Support the Department
Message from the Chair
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
We often set high goals for what we want to accomplish over the summer – redesign new labs for a course, write up recent research, learn C++, or even sort and clean our office – and just as often, the summer goes by much too quickly to reach all of those goals. Luckily, the excitement of a new school year buoys us up and we are soon establishing new goals with the coming semester. I have been told that this sense of renewal persists even after leaving an academic environment, either as a graduating student or a retiring professor.
This season brings a number of changes to our staff: Rachel Potter is our new operations manager, having replaced Kristin Quam who started an accelerated MA program at the University of Washington this summer; Brittany Noreuil is our new part-time secretary; and Glen MacLachlan now leads the high performance computing efforts for Physics and Chemistry. Corcoran Hall remains strong in spite of nearby construction for the new George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum.
With the Science and Engineering Hall scheduled to open in January 2015, and the biophysics faculty and research moving into it, Corcoran Hall will be renovated to have modern teaching spaces and better office and research spaces. Planning for those renovations has begun and you can count on the Physics Department to provide many creative ideas to the architects.
I invite you to stop by and visit, or email me with stories and anecdotes about your time in our department.
Allena Opper
Department Spotlight
A New GW Physics Graduate Curriculum
by Harald Greisshammer
If you have a PhD in physics, there is a good chance that during your first three semesters you were taught not only the same material as present graduate students, but that you even used the same textbooks, in spite of when you may have graduated. Why is that? Has physics not changed in 60 years? Do graduate students of the digital age need the same analytical tools as those who used slide-rulers? We must ask: Do we teach the skills our students need?
The 2011 APS Statistical Research Center Report and a 2006 NSF survey revealed that only 16% of physics PhDs will be in an academic position in which they produce more PhD students. 60% work in the private sector or government, usually in mid-level management or at the intersection to Research and Development. Survey upon survey reveals that PhD physicists are not hired because they can solve the Langevin equation, but because they know basic physics principles, and they can model complex processes both in their mind and on the computer.
Students and faculty nationwide have been unhappy with the traditional setup for quite some time. The stress of parallel-tasking three core lectures and TA duties leads to a national attrition rate of 40%. Students often see courses as unrelated topics, with little structure. Temporal and logical ordering of courses often does not match, like when a Mathematical Methods course is still concerned with integral theorems while the parallel Electrodynamics class is already using Green’s functions.
After nearly two years of discussions with faculty and students, we implemented a new graduate curriculum effective fall 2007 and have been making further changes ever since. Increasing individual course time from 3 to 4 credits allows for more in-depth coverage and cautious additions (like Chaos Theory in Mechanics). Decreasing the number of parallel core-courses from 3 to 2 leads to less “parallel-processing.” The new order better reflects the logical progression.
Since our PhD students come from small colleges and big universities, we offer a “Start-Quiz” 2 months before they arrive at GW. It allows both them and us to benchmark their proficiencies, in particular in mathematics and numerics. If necessary, we advise on individual remedial studies even before courses start, and we can modify course content when appropriate. Students seem to appreciate the feedback, and it mitigates their concerns about graduate school.
We have also changed the Qualifying Exam format from a test-of-endurance to a more synergistic review of Modern Physics; implemented a timeline from the start of the program to the PhD proposal; and introduced an Annual Candidacy Report to track student progress. Clear, written program rules protect both students and teachers from perceptions of highhandedness.
Results of these changes include a reduction in the time-to-degree, less attrition after the first year, a quicker placement in research groups, and students who are productive sooner. We had very positive feedback from our students, lecturers, PhD advisors, and mentors. Sometimes, just being aware of the issues may already be a good measure of success. The graduate program is the foundation of our department’s research and reputation. It’s these students who stand in the labs, write the code, take the shifts, and do the calculations. Last but not least, we hope that word of these changes brings more excellent students to GW.
GW Alumni Weekend 2013: September 26-29
Join your fellow alumni for GW’s Alumni Weekend 2013, Thursday, September 26–Sunday, September 29. Over 60+ events will be held, including a CCAS reception with Dean Ben Vinson III, an All-Alumni Kickoff Party & Concert with Cyndi Lauper, Future of GW Tours, including a stop at the Science and Engineering Hall construction site, and more. This year we will be celebrating members of the undergraduate classes of 2008, 2003, 1998, 1983, and 1963. But remember, all colonials regardless of class year are welcome to attend!
Kudos to Our Recent Graduates
Congratulations to the 2013 Bachelor’s degree graduates in Physics/Biophysics:
- Michael Carlson
- Johee Chung
- James Kelly
- Andrew Leinbach
- Mathew Mehrian
- Brandon Minor
- Rohit Patil
Congratulations to the 2013 PhD graduates:
- Ying Niu
- Craig Pelissier
Department Announcements
Faculty & Research News
Research of Ganhui Lan, Quantitative Biophysics
Professor Ganhui Lan received his PhD in Computational Biomechanics in 2008 from the Johns Hopkins University. In 2007, because of his excellent work in molecular and cellular biomechanics, Lan received the Chinese Government Award For Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad and was interviewed by Mr. Wenzhong Zhou, the former Chinese Ambassador to the United States. Between 2008–2011, Lan was a postdoctoral physicist at the IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center and participated in several multi-institutional collaborations with Harvard, Peking, and Heidelberg Universities. In 2012, before he joined the faculty of GW’s Department of Physics, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the NCI sponsored Physical Sciences-Oncology Center at the Johns Hopkins University.
Lan is interested in the physics behind various biological processes. In particular, he will focus on investigating the thermodynamics and spatiotemporal coordination of MinCDE-regulated bacterial cell division. By assessing the combined dynamics of the oscillatory MinCDE regulator and its downstream regulation target, Lan wants to verify/falsify the commonly used mean-field assumptions in the symmetric bacterial cell division. He seeks to quantify the relationship between the oscillatory output and the associated energy consumption, and further abstract the key dynamic components that ensure the high fidelity of symmetric bacterial cell division. This plan of multiple approaches will enrich our understanding of the “optimization” principle in evolution from a more comprehensive performance-cost-tradeoff point of view, which has yet to be developed.
Lan also seeks to understand the physics underlying the behavior of eukaryotic cells, especially the physical and mechanical properties that help differentiate healthy cells from cancer cells. In collaboration with the world leading experimental groups in the Physical Sciences-Oncology Center at JHU, he aims to integrate cell mechanics with biochemical regulation as well as intracellular transportation to develop a general modeling framework for studies of non-trivial migrational patterns of cells in different environments. Lan also plans to expand the discoveries at the single cell level to many cell systems to address the fundamental question of how cells break the diffusion limit to coordinate and communicate with each other through physical-signaling “pathways.”
Research of Oleg Kargaltsev, Astrophysics
Professor Oleg Kargaltsev joined the Physics Department in August 2012. He earned his Masterʼs degree in Theoretical Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1998. High-energy astrophysics of compact objects became his long-term career focus. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2004 from Pennsylvania State University, where he also worked as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a research associate in the Neutron Star group led by Prof. George Pavlov. Kargaltsev was also a member of the Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Team. During his stay at Penn State, Kargaltsev used the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope to study X-ray and optical/UV properties of neutron stars of various types. In 2008, he moved to the University of Florida, where he became an Associate Scientist in the Department of Astronomy and led the observational high-energy astrophysics studies of compact objects.
Kargaltsev is a member of the GW Astrophysics Group. His research focuses on multiwavelength observations (from the radio to TeV gamma-rays) with top international observatories. His main interest is studying high-energy phenomena in our Galaxy and in the Universe, including manifestations of compact objects (neutron stars and black holes) and related explosive events (e.g., supernova and gamma-ray bursts). Among the notable recent results are the discovery of the first absorption features in the X-ray spectrum of an ordinary pulsar, discovery of re-heating in the 5 billon-year-old neutron star, and the discovery of a variable extended emission from the gamma-ray binary LS 2883/PSR B1259-63. He is also interested in theoretical studies of radiative processes in the extreme environment near a black hole and during the neutron star merger events, application of machine learning to classification of astronomical data, and statistical description of cosmic microwave background. Kargaltsev enjoys doing research with graduate and undergraduate students as well as mentoring postdocs.
Outside astrophysics, Prof. Kargaltsev’s interests range from statistics, digital image and time series analysis, and machine learning algorithms, to science policy in U.S. and socio-economical studies of human “happiness.” In his free time, Kargaltsev also enjoys playing tennis and traveling.
Department News
On May 9th, Professor Xiangyun Qiu and his wife Min celebrated the birth of their daughter, Anna. She is very cute and quiet.
Matthias Schindler, postdoc in the Nuclear Theory group 2010-11, and now assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, won a Department of Energy Early Career Award for 2013 and the European Few-Body Physics Award for Young Researchers (theory).
Berhan Demissie, Nuclear Theory PhD student, was admitted to the prestigious TALENT program Summer School 2013 at the Institute for Nuclear Theory in Seattle. She also successfully proposed her thesis project on "Inelastic Compton scattering on the deuteron" in September 2012.
Trevor Balint, Nuclear Theory PhD student, was awarded the Knox fellowship for AY 2012/13. He also was awarded the 2013 Outstanding Physics Department Teacher Assistant.
Harald W. Griesshammer, Associate Professor in Nuclear Theory, co-organized Chiral Dynamics 2012 2012 at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va. This is the leading conference in low-energy QCD. He was also appointed to the APS Forum on Education Program Committee, and served as consultant for the White Paper, "Intensity Upgrade for the High Intensity Gamma Ray Source HIγS," produced at Duke University. Griesshammer also presented "Some Ideas to Rejuvenate the Physics Graduate Curriculum" in a colloquium at Penn State University in 2012.
Griesshammer; Gerald Feldman, Prof. in Nuclear Experiment; and 2 colleagues from the U.S. and U.K. presented the to-date most accurate description of how the nucleon gets deformed in external electric and magnetic fields in a review on Compton scattering in low-energy few-nucleon physics for Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics; a subsequent article made it on the cover of Europ. Phys. J. A.
Professor Evangeline Downie was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for "Investigating the nucleon with Electromagnetic Probes." The grant will allow Downie, a PhD student, and an undergraduate research student to do experiments at the Tagged Photon Facility at the MAMI accelerator in Mainz, Germany, the Paul Scherer Institute in Switzerland, and the High Intensity Gamma Source at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory in Durham, N.C. The research will allow a new measurement of the radius of the proton and a study of fundamental properties of the proton, which influences many areas of physics beyond nuclear studies.
This summer, Professors Downie and William Briscoe took PhD candidate Mohammad Saif Ahmad and undergraduate research student Jasmine Vicencio to Mainz, Germany, to gain experience working at an international lab within a collaboration of 100 physicists from around the world . The students are helping to the analyze data and plan future measurements, in addition to experiencing some of the local culture.
Downie, in collaboration with three colleagues from France, Italy, and Germany, was also awarded support for a 50-person conference at the European Centre for Theory in Italy this summer. The conference enabled experimentalists and theorists from around the world to gather and discuss the growing Compton Scattering program to determine the polarizabilities of the proton, neutron and light nuclei. Several other GW professors, Griesshammer, Alexandru, and Feldman, contributed, along with Professor Downie's postdoctoral assistant, Vahe Sokhoyan.
Guanyu Wang, research scientist in biophysics, is starting a new laboratory at the South University of Science and Technology of China (Shenzhen, Guandong, China) in September with biological experiments and high performance computation as integral components.
Dr. Hao Chen and Dr. Yunjie Zhao gave their presentations on “Cascade-likeness is an intrinsic property of biological processes” and “Automated building of three-dimensional RNA structures” respectively in the 2013 APS March Meeting. Professor Zeng’s group also presented three papers at this meeting. In addition, their group attended the GW Research Day activity and presented three posters (Apr. 2nd -3rd, 2013).
Professor Zeng’s group (Zeng, Dr. Yunjie Zhao and Chenghang Du) visited Prof. Yi Xiao’s Lab (Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China) and Prof. Wei Wang’s Lab (Nanjing University, Nanjing, China) in June to expand their collaborations on structure and network in China.
Chenghang Du received the Craig Futterman Prize for Outstanding Biophysics Graduate Student of 2012/2013.
The GW physics department has well established Biophysics seminars. The biophysics group hosted numerous renowned researchers, including Ferid Murad, Nobel Laureate, and Albert Jin, chief of NIBIB from NIH. Senior students and postdocs also took the opportunity to present their research during these seminars. Hao Chen and Yunjie Zhao gave topic presentations about network and RNA. Senior graduate student Deepa Raghu presented her research about near-field ablation on subcellular level.
Rob Coyne passed his thesis proposal on Gamma-ray burst and magnetar studies in the advanced LIGO era: Bridging electromagnetic observations and gravitational wave searches. In addition, his poster entitled "No ‘051103-like’ GRB left behind: toward the implementation of a literature-informed database for LIGO GRB searches" won best poster for Analysis/Theory at 2013 LIGO Virgo Collaboration Meeting in March.
Kevin Sykora received an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholarship for the 2013-14 academic year. He also proposed his thesis project on “Computing Resonance Parameters with Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics” in May.
Derek Brehm received the Professor Emeritus J. Roger Peverley Prize for Undergraduate Research in Physics and the Berman Prize for Excellence in Experimental Physics.
Deepa Raghu published her paper on “Near-field ablation threshold of cellular samples in the mid-infrared wavelength region” at “Appl. Phys. Lett.” in 2012. She also got her second author paper ,“Tip preparation for near-field ablation at midinfrared wavelengths” at “Rev. Sci. Instrum.” in 2012. In May 2013, she received Chair’s Prize for Graduate Research in Physics.
Michael Lujan published his first author paper on “ parameter in the overlap on domain-wall mixed action” at “Phys. Rev. D” in 2012 and also received Parke Prize for excellence in Theoretical Physics in May 2013.
Adam Hughes won the AAPT Outstanding GTA Award of 2012-13.
Johee Chung received the Francis E Walker Prize for Women in Physics.
Department Events
Upcoming events include:
- Francis E. Walker Series: Professor Concettina Sfienti from the Univeristy of Mainz, Thursday, November 7, at 4 pm in GW's Corcoran Hall, Rm. 101.
- Department Picnic: Sunday, October 13, from noon – 4 pm at Grove 1 at Rock Creek Park (Tilden Street, West of Beach Street), Washington, D.C.
Alumni Updates/Class Notes
Johee Chung, BS '13 will pursue her Master’s in Education through the Match Corps Residency Program in Boston this fall.
James Kelly, BS '13 will be enrolled in a physics PhD program at University of Notre Dame this fall.
Mathew Mehrian, BS '13 will be attending Colorado State University as Ph.D student in physics this August.
Brandon Minor, BS '13 will be working towards his PhD in Robotics Department at George Washington University. He’s already working with Professor Gabe Sibley focusing on AI and autonomous robotic systems.
Katherine Myers, PhD '13 was awarded the 2012 Jefferson Science Associates Thesis Prize.
Rohit Patil, BS '13 is going to be at GW’s school of medicine to pursue his MD this August.
Craig Pelissier, PhD '13 is a senior computer scientist at SSAI (NASA Goddard Flight Center).
Wenjing Yang, PhD '13 is a research fellow in DNA Sequencing and Computational Biology core in National Institutes of Health.
Donor Recognition
The Department of Physics gratefully acknowledges the following generous donors who made a gift to the department from July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013.
Dr. Ali Eskandarian, BA '79, Ph.D '87
Mrs. Deborah Eskandarian
Dr. Mary Anne Frey, BA '70, Ph.D '75
Dr. Pie Frey
Craig A. Futterman, M.D. BS '78
Mr. Mark V. Hughes, III BA '69, MS '77
Mrs. Susan D. Hughes
Mr. James Martin Kelly, BS '13
Dr. Peter Friedrich Max Koehler, MS '63
Mr. Irving Michael, BS '50
Dr. William Carleton Parke, BS '63, Ph.D '67
Mrs. Veronica P. Parke
Mrs. Rise G. Schnizlein, BS '71
Cedric X Yu, D.Sc., FAAPM
Dayton Foundation Depository, Inc.
Support the Department
Each gift, no matter how large or small, makes a positive impact on our educational mission and furthers our standing as one of the nation's preeminent liberal arts colleges at one of the world's outstanding universities. You may make a gift to the Department in a number of ways:
- Give online through our secure donation page.
- Mail your check, made out to the George Washington University and with “Department of Physics” in the memo line, to
The George Washington University
P.O. Box 98131
Washington, DC 20077-9756
- Call the GW Division of Development and Alumni Relations at 1-800-789-2611 to make a donation by phone.