university of chicago physics phd

Physics Recruitment

Apply for our phd program, the general and physics gre policy for the 2025-2026 application cycle, with expected enrollment in the fall of 2025, is presently being discussed. the final policy will be posted on this page in early september., applications will be open  mid-late  september. .

Create or continue your application here .

Please see here for fee waiver criteria and additional information.

Degrees: Ph.D. (Physics)

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The University of Chicago: Graduate Studies

Application management.

Welcome! Thank you for your interest in applying to a graduate program in the Physical Sciences Division of the University of Chicago. Through this site, you can apply to the following degree programs:

• Astronomy and Astrophysics (PhD)
• Biophysical Sciences (PhD)
• Chemistry (PhD)
• Computational and Applied Mathematics (MS)
• Computational and Applied Mathematics (PhD)
• Computer Science (PhD)
• Data Science (MS)
• Data Science (PhD)
• Financial Mathematics (MS)
• Geophysical Sciences (PhD)
• Masters Program in Computer Science (MS)
• Master of Science in Applied Data Science (Full-Time)
• Master of Science in Applied Data Science (Part-Time)
• Mathematics (PhD)
• Physics (PhD)
• Statistics (MS)
• Statistics (PhD)

You may begin your application using the “Start New Application” link below . Please note that if you plan to apply to more than one program, you should begin a new application for each program. If you have any questions about your application, please contact the program to which you are applying. Contact information can be found under the listings of graduate programs on the Graduate Admissions website .

Non-Degree Visiting Student Status (NDVS) :   NDVS is available to advanced graduate and undergraduate students pursuing a degree at another institution who have been invited by a University of Chicago faculty member to temporarily work on their research project. This status also applies to undergraduate students participating in summer research opportunities such as the PKU-CCME exchange program or other research experiences for undergraduates (REUs).  Questions about NDVS status may be directed to Sierra Sterling at  [email protected]   Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC):  TTIC students participating in research or University of Chicago courses should complete a non-degree application on this site to establish a student record with the University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago

Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics

How to apply.

The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics offers a doctoral program for students pursuing a PhD. Applications for the 2023-2024 academic year should be submitted online between mid-to-late September and December 18, 2023 .  Click here to apply.

Students seeking a master’s degree are encouraged to consult the Physical Sciences Division Master of Science program.

Notice regarding 2023-2024 application cycle

The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago recognizes the significant impact of COVID-19, not just on academic coursework and grading systems, but also on research, travel, internships, employment, and many other activities. The admissions committee will take these circumstances into account when reviewing students’ transcripts and other admissions materials as part of the holistic application review process. In particular, the admissions committee will assume that any decision to take a course with "pass/no pass" grading during academic terms affected by the pandemic was made for reasons unrelated to the student's academic ability (regardless of whether grading decisions were made by institutions or individual students).

GRE scores are not required but may be submitted optionally.

Required Materials

The application to the PhD program consists of the following required materials:

• personal statement
• 3 letters of recommendation
• college transcript(s)
• A curriculum vitae (CV) or resume of past accomplishments.

Additional Materials

• Applicants who do not meet the waiver criteria here must submit proof of English language proficiency. Only the TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic tests are accepted as proof of proficiency. The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics requires a minimum TOEFL score of 90 overall, and a minimum IELTS score of 7.0 overall. TOEFL or IELTS score reports are valid for two years.  For the TOEFL, our institution code is 1832 and the department code is 61. Please visit the UChicagoGRAD website for more about proof of English language proficiency.
• An application fee of $90 is required but may be waived if the applicant meets any of the application fee waiver criteria specified by the Physical Sciences Division. Applicants may also contact the Physical Sciences Division Dean of Students with any questions about fee waivers.

Applicants to our graduate program typically have strong backgrounds in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics. If an applicant does not hold a degree in these areas, it is important for the applicant to demonstrate the necessary background to succeed in the program. Evidence of a solid foundation in Physics and Mathematics can be obtained through coursework or other experiences such as presentations, posters, and published papers. Information about these can be provided in the Astronomy Supplement portion of the application to demonstrate preparedness for graduate-level work in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Please send all inquiries about the admissions process to Laticia Rebeles, Graduate Student Affairs Administrator,  [email protected] , (773) 702-9808. Questions about academic matters may be directed to Professor Fausto Cattaneo, Assistant Chair of Academic Affairs, [email protected] .

More information about UChicago graduate admissions can be found on the UChicago Grad Admissions FAQ .

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Office of the provost, you are here, phd program data.

• Outcomes data is based on students who completed a PhD between academic years 2010-11 to 2014-15
• Student enrollments in and degrees conferred by the joint MD/PHD programs with the Pritzker School of Medicine are not included in these reports.
• Data in these charts follow U.S. reporting requirements, which currently allow only “male” and “female” as gender categories.
• International is defined by IPEDS as nonresident alien. View IPEDS'  Definitions for New Race and Ethnicity Categories .

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Beth Niestat

PhD Program in Medical Physics

The Committee on Medical Physics offers a program to provide aspiring medical physicists with the knowledge they will need in their future professions. Our program leads to the Doctor of Philosophy degree with an emphasis on research that provides preparation for careers in academia, industry, and/or clinical support roles.

Quick Links

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• Diversity and Inclusion
• Congratulations, Linnea Kremer! PhD Spring 2024
• Congratulations, Mena Shenouda! PhD Spring 2024
• Congratulations, Hadley DeBrosse! PhD Spring 2024

After completing my bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in mathematics, I knew medical physics was the path for me. I was thrilled to discover there was a way to marry my love for physics with my newfound appreciation of medicine during an internship at Argonne National Laboratory where I worked on isotope production and heavy-ion therapy projects. Currently, I am beginning my third-year graduate studies under a joint appointment through the Graduate Research Cooperative working with Dr. Chin-Tu Chen (UChicago) and Dr. Jerry Nolen (ANL).   I am focusing my thesis on targeted radionuclide therapy and isotope production. My main focus is on the radiobiological effects of Terbium-155, a promising Auger electron emitter. I am working on novel production and delivery methods of Tb-155 in order to explore the efficacy of Auger emitters in metastatic small-cell cancer treatment. I am in the process of designing targeting ligands which are selective not only to cancer cells but to cancer cell DNA specifically. I also work on nuclear reaction and cellular dosimetry modeling to optimize experimental outcomes.   Outside the lab, I am an avid supporter of the Chicago music scene and can usually be found at a punk or metal show. I also enjoy powerlifting, tattooing, traveling, and anything else that gets the adrenaline pumping and energizes me to keep chasing crazy physics!

PhD student - Chen and Nolen Labs

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Physical Sciences Division

Revived technology used to count individual photons from distant galaxies.

December 31, 2023

Enabled by a U.S. Department of Energy program, a collaboration of scientists from Fermilab, UChicago, NOIRLab, and other institutions demonstrated that skipper-CCD detectors can be utilized to improve cosmology research.

Using an instrument on the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope, researchers obtained the first astronomical spectrum using skipper charge-coupled devices (CCDs).

The results were presented on June 16 at the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation meeting in Japan by Edgar Marrufo Villalpando, a physics PhD candidate at the University of Chicago and a Fermilab DOE Graduate Instrumentation Research Award Fellow.

“This is a major milestone for skipper-CCD technology,” said Alex Drlica-Wagner, a cosmologist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago who led the project. “It helps to retire the perceived risks for using this technology in the future, which is vitally important for future DOE cosmology projects.” This is an important achievement for a project conceived and initiated through a collaboration between Fermilab, University of Chicago, and NSF’s NOIRLab detector group.

CCDs were invented in the United States in 1969, and forty years later scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement. The devices are two-dimensional arrays of light-sensitive pixels that convert incoming photons into electrons. Conventional CCDs are the image sensors first used in digital cameras, and they remain the standard for many scientific imaging applications, such as astronomy, though their precision is limited by electronic noise.

Cosmologists seek to understand the mysterious natures of dark matter and dark energy by studying the distributions of stars and galaxies. To do this, they need advanced technology that can see fainter, more distant astronomical objects with as little noise as possible.

Existing CCD technology can make these measurements but take a long time or are less efficient. So, astrophysicists must either increase the signal — i.e., by investing more time on the world’s largest telescopes — or decrease the electronic noise.

Skipper CCDs were introduced in 1990 to reduce electronic noise to levels that allow the measurement of individual photons. They do this by taking multiple measurements of interesting pixels and skipping the rest. This strategy enables skipper CCDs to increase the precision of measurements in interesting regions of the image while reducing total readout time.

In 2017, scientists pioneered the use of skipper CCDs for dark matter experiments such as SENSEI and OSCURA , but today’s presentation showed the first time the technology was used to observe the night sky and collect astronomical data.

On March 31 and April 9, the researchers used skipper CCDs in the SOAR Integral Field Spectrograph to collect astronomical spectra from a galaxy cluster, two distant quasars, a galaxy with bright emission lines, and a star that is potentially associated with a dark-matter-dominated ultra-faint galaxy. In a first for astrophysical CCD observations, they achieved sub-electron readout noise and counted individual photons at optical wavelengths.

“What’s incredible is that these photons traveled to our detectors from objects billions of light-years away, and we could measure each one individually,” said Marrufo Villalpando.

Researchers are analyzing data from these first observations, and the next scheduled run for the skipper-CCD instrument on the SOAR Telescope is in July 2024.

“Many decades have passed since the skipper was born, so I was surprised to see the technology come to life again,” said Jim Janesick, inventor of the skipper CCD and a distinguished engineer at SRI International, a research institute based in California. “The noise results are amazing! I fell off my seat when I saw the very clean sub-electron noise data.”

With the first successful demonstration of skipper-CCD technology for astrophysics, scientists are already working to improve it. The next generation of skipper CCDs, developed by Fermilab and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is 16 times faster than current devices. These new devices will greatly reduce readout time, and researchers have already begun testing them in the laboratory.

The next generation of skipper CCDs has been identified for use in future DOE cosmology efforts, such as the spectroscopic experiments DESI-II and Spec-S5, recommended by the recent U.S. particle physics planning process . In addition, NASA is considering skipper CCDs for the forthcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory that will attempt to detect earth-like planets around sun-like stars.

“I’m looking forward to seeing where these detectors might end up,” said Marrufo Villalpando, who joined the program in 2019. “People are using them for amazing things all over; their utility ranges from particle physics to cosmology. It’s a very versatile and useful technology.”

The project was a close collaboration between physicists, astronomers, and engineers at Fermilab, UChicago, the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the National Astrophysical Laboratory of Brazil.

* Credit: Edgar Marrufo Villalpando/AstroSkipper Collaboration **Credit: Brandon Roach/AstroSkipper Collaboration

Adapted from an article posted by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory .

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2024-2025 graduate & professional catalog.

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Admission Requirements

Applicants are considered on an individual basis. Complete transcripts of all undergraduate and any graduate work must be submitted. In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements, applicants must meet the following program requirements:

• Baccalaureate Field  No restrictions. Prior academic work must include at least 20 semester hours of physics, including upper-level undergraduate electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, and classical mechanics.
• Grade Point Average  At least 2.75/4.00 for the final 60 semester (90 quarter) hours of undergraduate study.
• Tests Required  GRE General exam is required; GRE Physics subject exam is highly recommended, but not required.
• TOEFL iBT  80, with subscores of Reading 19, Listening 17, Speaking 20, and Writing 21,  OR ,
• IELTS Academic  6.5, with 6.0 in each of the four subscores,  OR ,
• PTE-Academic  54, with subscores of Reading 51, Listening 47, Speaking 53, and Writing 56.
• Letters of Recommendation  Three required.
• Personal Statement  Required.
• Nondegree Applicants  Nondegree applicants must submit transcripts and a personal statement.

Degree Requirements

In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements, students must meet the following program requirements:

• Minimum Semester Hours Required  96 from the baccalaureate.
• Coursework  At least 32 hours. A maximum of 6 hours at the 400 level can be approved to fulfill these requirements. The remaining hours must be at the 500 level and may not include  PHYS 596  and  PHYS 599 , or more than 4 hours of PHYS 595 . Courses taken outside of physics may only fulfill these requirements with prior approval from the department.  Students who enter the program with graduate-level credit from other  institutions can petition the department to reduce the required hours on  coursework. Students found to be deficient in specific  areas of physics on the basis of course work taken prior to entering the  program may have to complete additional hours beyond the  minimum 32 hours.

• Departmental Qualifying Examination : Required.
• Preliminary Examination : Required.
• Dissertation  Required.
• Other Requirements  Each student must serve as a teaching assistant for at least two semesters.

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Industry Networks Day 2024

Industry Networks Day 2024 will focus on what efforts on sustainability look like in Chicagoland and elsewhere, some of the research going on at the University of Chicago and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering in the sustainability space, and the different ways innovation ecosystems can be leveraged for mutual benefit. Panel discussions and talks on different ecosystems and how they might work together - and the opportunities to engage for creative innovation - will lead to new and interesting networking.

Industry Networks Day is meant to provide high-level and inspirational discussion, illuminating pathways to partnerships to better take advantage of collective resources and talent. This meeting will highlight some of these aspects and encourage strategic thinking and tactical planning to maintain a competitive edge.

Industry Networks Day is sponsored by the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). Corporate sponsors are shown below.

• Date:  Sept 11 (poster session and industry/faculty reception) and Sept 12th (full event)
• Time:  9:00 am – 5:00 pm with options for small group dinners after the event to continue discussions
• Location:  UChicago campus, Eckhardt Research Center (5640 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637)
• Parking:  Visitor parking available at Campus North (Ellis) Garage. View rates and more options on the Safety and Security website.

[Tentative]

Sept 11, 2024

Industry–judged poster session

Dinner reception for Industry, Administrative Staff, and Faculty

Sept 12, 2024

Opening statements (Felix Lu)

Faculty keynote, “Are we doomed?” (Professor Daniel Holz)

Panel discussion, “What does sustainability really mean?” (Jag Alexeyev, Junghong Chen, Ajay Vonkarey, Mehrdad Arjmand, Vern Long)

Industry Keynote on The Future of Manufacturing (Jon Quick, CFO, Launchpad.Build)

Student presentation on the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (Ryne Montoya, PhD Student)

Industry Presentation on How Engineering design teams boost the innovation ecosystem (Johan Joseph, Salt Flats)

Industry Keynote on What’s next for the international space station? (Mounir Alafrangy)

Group Picture & LUNCH (Saucy Porka)

The South side Science Festival (Sarah Tinsman, Office of Civic Engagement, UChicago)

Industry Keynote on Sustaining innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry (David Chang-Yen, Abbvie)

Faculty Keynote on energy storage technologies (Chibueze Amanchukwu, PME)

Fireside chat with Dean Nadya Mason and Wayne Delker (Chair, Industry Advisory Council)

Dept of Energy National Lab – keynote – What opportunities and challenges will the hydrogen energy grid present?

Workshop activity – Crowd Sourcing solutions to pressing questions

Closing remarks (Felix Lu)

Facility tours

Small group dinner outings (Locations TBA)

Please inquire about sponsorship opportunities to increase brand awareness of your company and help us defray event costs and offer even better events in the future!

Jag Alexeyev

Jag advises firms on ESG investing, sustainability, and climate strategies. He has been a consultant to asset management executives for more than two decades, enabling business expansion and product innovation. Most recently, he served as Head of ESG Insights for Broadridge Financial Solutions. Previously, he founded Impactvesting LLC, a research consultancy focused on sustainable investments and global fund distribution.

He also collaborated with the Global Footprint Network on their Finance for Change initiative, leading a working group of institutional investors to develop carbon footprint methodologies in sovereign debt. In addition, Jag advised FFI Solutions on developing solutions to reduce carbon and stranded asset risks in investment portfolios.

Earlier in his career, Jag was head of global research and consulting at Strategic Insight, a fund intelligence provider that was acquired by Institutional Shareholder Services (IIS), which is now majority-owned by Deutsche Börse Group. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard and a Master's degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Chibueze Amanchukwu Neubauer Family Assistant Professor

Chibueze Amanchukwu is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, a faculty affiliate in the Data Science Institute, and a joint appointee at Argonne National Laboratory. His research is focused on enabling long duration electrical (batteries) and chemical energy storage for a sustainable energy future. His team is especially interested in modifying electrolyte and ion solvation behavior to control electrochemical processes occurring in batteries and electrocatalytic transformations such as carbon dioxide capture and conversion. They couple data science, computation, synthesis, and characterization to holistically understand ion transport in electrolytes and control interfacial reactions for efficient and cheap long duration storage. He has been named a “Talented Twelve” by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). His work has been recognized with the NSF CAREER Award, DOE Early Career Award, Google Research Scholar Award, Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, ECS-Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship, CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar Award, and the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering as a NDSEG Fellow at MIT and was a TomKat Center Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. 

Junhong Chen Crown Family Professor

Junhong Chen is currently Crown Family Professor of Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Lead Water Strategist & Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. He also serves as the Science Leader for Argonne’s presence in the City of Chicago (Argonne in Chicago). Prior to coming to Chicago, Dr. Chen served as a program director for the Engineering Research Centers program of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the director of NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Water Equipment & Policy (WEP). He founded NanoAffix Science LLC to commercialize real-time water sensors based on 2D nanomaterials.  Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from University of Minnesota in 2002 and was a postdoctoral scholar in chemical engineering at California Institute of Technology from 2002 to 2003. His current research focuses on nanomaterial innovation for sustainable energy and environment. Dr. Chen has published nearly 300 journal papers and has been listed as a highly cited researcher (top 1%) in materials science/cross-field by Clarivate Analytics. He is an elected fellow of National Academy of Inventors, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Daniel Holz Professor

Daniel Holz is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Departments of Physics , Astronomy & Astrophysics , the Enrico Fermi Institute , and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics .

Holz is a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration; his research focuses on black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. He has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and as a member of LIGO received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Gruber Prize. He was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and is an APS Fellow.

Holz is Chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , and in this role helps set the time of the Doomsday Clock. Holz is also founding director of the UChicago Existential Risk Laboratory (XLab) , an interdisciplinary effort focused on understanding and mitigating existential risks, including nuclear war, climate change, and AI-fueled disinformation.

Jennifer “Vern” Long CEO World Coffee Research

Vern Long is the Chief Executive Officer of World Coffee Research (WCR). WCR unites the global coffee industry to drive science-based agricultural solutions to urgently secure a diverse and sustainable supply of quality coffee today and for generations to come. In close collaboration with the WCR Board and member companies, Dr. Long and the WCR executive leadership team are harnessing the collective power of the coffee industry to deepen public and private investment and engagement in coffee R&D in response to the significant innovation gap in coffee agriculture. A plant breeder by training, Long has over 25 years of experience in global collaborative crop improvement and seed systems initiatives aligning public sector and industry goals. She is deeply motivated by the transformative power of agricultural R&D to achieve the coffee industry’s sustainability priorities. A dual citizen of Canada and the U.S., she holds a Ph.D. in plant breeding from Cornell University.

Felix Lu PME Director of Corporate Engagement

Felix Lu is the Director of Corporate Engagement at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and has been in this type of role for about a decade. He spent the previous decade in industry. He trained as a semiconductor materials scientist receiving his PhD from UC San Diego, worked at the Boeing Satellite Development Center in the Technology Qualification Group, co-founded a startup company in North Carolina making high performance MEMS array devices for steering laser beams for an early niche quantum computation experiment, and in a variety of academic staff roles including course instructor for analog circuit courses, cleanroom staff, and outreach coordinator. He has worked and lived in Southern California, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and moved to Chicago in 2018. His current role includes strategic and tactical roles, playing the long game of building robust partnerships with companies seeking talent, community outreach channels, STEM projects, and translation of emerging technologies.

Nadya Mason Dean, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

Nadya Mason is the dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago. She specializes in experimental studies of quantum materials, with a research focus on the electronic properties of nanoscale and correlated systems, such as nano-scale wires, atomically thin membranes, and nanostructured superconductors. Her research is relevant to applications involving nanoscale and quantum computing elements.

Before becoming dean of PME, Mason was the Rosalyn S. Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she directed the Illinois Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and also served as founding director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (I-MRSEC).

Stuart Rowan FRS Barry L. MacLean Professor for Molecular Engineering Innovation and Enterprise

Stuart Rowan earned his B.Sc. (Hons.) and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow. His post-doctoral work began in the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge, where he later became a Research Associate of Girton College, and culminated at the University of California, Los Angeles. Rowan was the Kent Hale Smith Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University before joining the University of Chicago in the Department of Chemistry and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering in 2016. In 2018 he became the Barry L MacLean Professor of Molecular Engineering and in 2021 he became the Director of the University of Chicago’s Materials Science and Engineering Research Center (MRSEC).

Rowan won the American Chemical Society Mark Scholar Award, the Morley Medal, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the CWRU School of Engineering Research Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Chemical Society. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of ACS Macro Letters , published by the American Chemical Society, and a member of the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Polymer Science , Chemical Science , the Journal of Macromolecular Science , and Pure & Applied Chemistry .

• Register here
• Poster prizes: $1,000 (Silver sponsor, 6’ booth), or $3,000 (gold sponsor, get a 6’ table for a booth, and 2-3 minutes to introduce company and even speaker)
• Event sponsorship: $1,000 (Silver Sponsor, 6’ booth)), $5,000 (Platinum Sponsor, 6’ booth, 5 minutes to introduce company and next speaker, and present poster at poster session), $10,000 (iridium sponsor, all of the previous perks, except you get a 30-minute speaking slot to tell us about your company)
• Breakfast (on Sept 12th) - $1,000
• Lunch (on Sept 12th) - $3,000
• Dinner (reception on Sept 11th) - $3,000

Felix P. Lu , Director of Corporate Engagement

[email protected]  

773.834.5063

• The Industry-judged poster session is unlike most other poster sessions in that it was meant to be very accessible to the general public. Whether you are a student in other areas, or in industry in R&D, administration, finance, operations, HR, etc. you’ll start to understand and better appreciate a few things about the STEM research being done at the University of Chicago.
• Google forms link: https://forms.gle/jtHutM4Yt1Ppvzjw6
• We are seeking corporate sponsors for the poster prizes to encourage and reward student participation in explaining science and engineering to the public! Please contact Felix Lu for more information .

For Industry attendees

Talk to students about their research interests and answer their questions about life in industry!

For academic attendees

Inquire about what industry life and culture is like and talk about complementary skill sets that will be important as you transition to an industrial career.

Is this event for me?

Postdocs, graduate students, staff, technicians, managers, undergraduate students from STEM fields including PME, BSD, PSD, MRSEC, etc.

Industrial scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, executives who want to get a high level view of resources here on campus, managers, etc.

What will I come away with?

• You will leave with a better understanding of how the PME operates
• What research challenges are being addressed and who to contact to learn more about how these might align with your company priorities
• Awareness of the spectrum of resources available and who to contact
• An improvement in your awareness of soft skills through an interactive activity
• New/updated social and professional contacts
• A free lunch (see dietary restrictions question in registration link)

Knox Named 1st Endowed Chair of Physics and Astronomy

• by Courtney Tompkins
• June 25, 2024

The nature of dark energy, the origins of the universe and the afterglow of the Big Bang.

These are just a few of the mind-bending phenomena Professor Lloyd Knox will continue exploring as the first Michael and Ester Vaida Endowed Chair in Cosmology and Astrophysics.  

The Vaida Chair — the first endowed faculty position in the Department of Physics and Astronomy — was established with a $1.5 million estate gift from Michael L. Vaida, Ph.D. ’73, and his wife, Ester Vaida. The Vaidas also pledged $200,000 to support a graduate fellowship and undergraduate scholarships. 

“I am incredibly grateful to Michael and Ester for this remarkable gift,” Knox said. “It will support our missions of research, teaching and service for as long as there is a UC Davis.”

Endowed chairs are prestigious academic positions established through a significant philanthropic gift. Funds are invested in perpetuity, with a portion of generated returns used each year to allow the faculty holder to pursue ambitious research projects, mentor students and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their field.

At a ceremony held last month to thank the donors and celebrate Knox’s appointment, the cosmologist called it “the highest honor” he has ever received.

“I feel very deeply the responsibility to honor this gift, and the trust of my colleagues, by putting these resources and this title to good use,” he said. “Like the Starship Enterprise, I am now on a five-year mission. I promise I’ll do my best.”

Although the gift was initially included in the Vaidas’ estate plan in 2014, the pair chose to activate it early so they could see benefits of it within their lifetime. 

“I am very happy we did it that way,” said Michael Vaida. “This field studies fundamental questions about our universe – these are things I’ve been curious about for most of my life.” 

Cultivating curiosity

Knox’s immersion in science began as soon as he could read. From regular trips to the library for the latest astronomy books to attending summer science programs as a young boy, Knox found countless ways to fuel his curiosity. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago.  Knox joined the UC Davis faculty in 2001 , with a research focus on the fundamental laws of nature and origins of the universe.

“The universe is a great, huge mystery,” Knox said. “We’re all a part of this natural system that includes simple rules that seem to apply everywhere, and we have no idea why it’s like that. I feel a great privilege to be part of the conversation.”

His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy. In 2004, Knox was named a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow, and in 2012, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in recognition of his work. He is also a senior member of the Planck and South Pole Telescope collaborations — international teams of scientists working together to unlock secrets about the cosmos. 

Knox's research with these large collaborations has been highly cited, and he and his team of graduate students have made notable discoveries such as their  detection of a signal from the “cosmic neutrino background” in 2015 . These ghost-like particles, called neutrinos, were released after the birth of the universe more than 13 billion years ago.

Estella Atekwana, dean of the College of Letters and Science, said the gift is a testament to the strength of the physics and astronomy program and the donors’ belief in the college’s impacts on the world.

“With this endowment, Michael and Ester have guaranteed our students continued, transformative personal connection to the most influential scientific minds in the world while simultaneously supporting key research that helps us understand our universe,” Atekwana said.

While discovering knowledge about the universe is a priority for Knox as the Vaida Chair, he is also passionate about using resources to strengthen the department’s culture, mentor more students and support diversity efforts across campus.

"I want this to be a place where more people feel the kind of support I have felt over the years, where we all respect and care for each other, and where we all feel free to take the kinds of risks that support learning and discovery," Knox said.

Donors’ legacy lives on in the cosmos

As a graduate student in the early 1970s, the department’s collaborative and inquisitive environment made a lasting impression on Michael Vaida.

“I saw firsthand the fruitful results you get from a multidisciplinary approach,” said Michael Vaida, who earned a doctorate in computer science and computational physics in 1973. “I used the expertise I learned in my computer science classes to solve physics problems, and that became my thesis.”

His journey to UC Davis began in Soviet-era Romania, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. He graduated in 1965 with a degree in physics from one of the country’s top public research universities, but he always dreamt of living in the U.S.  

Michael Vaida migrated to New York by way of Yugoslavia, France and Italy, and ultimately landed in Central California in the fall of 1968.

He earned a master’s degree from California State University, Fresno, where he met his beloved wife. A pioneer in the field of data analytics, he founded Vaida Health Data consultants in 1986 and worked with hospitals and hospital associations across the country.

Ester Vaida also built a career in health care, working as a surgery coordinator for Sutter Women’s Health in Sacramento. A native of Guatemala, she often served as a Spanish translator for many migrant workers and their families who sought services there. 

Although Michael Vaida did not pursue a career in physics, he retained a keen interest in the subject, particularly astrophysics. And since Ester Vaida shares his fascination with the stars, they chose to let their legacy live on through the cosmos.

“When I suggested we bequest our estate to charity, Ester was very supportive of the idea,” Michael Vaida said. “If this gift to UC Davis leads to any new discoveries about the universe, we would be delighted.”

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• Betsy Towner Levine, Development and Alumni Relations, 530-752-9693, [email protected]

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• by Courtney Tompkins
• June 25, 2024

The nature of dark energy, the origins of the universe and the afterglow of the Big Bang.

These are just a few of the mind-bending phenomena Professor Lloyd Knox will continue exploring as the first Michael and Ester Vaida Endowed Chair in Cosmology and Astrophysics.  

The Vaida Chair — the first endowed faculty position in the Department of Physics and Astronomy — was established with a $1.5 million estate gift from Michael L. Vaida, Ph.D. ’73, and his wife, Ester Vaida. The Vaidas also pledged $200,000 to support a graduate fellowship and undergraduate scholarships. 

“I am incredibly grateful to Michael and Ester for this remarkable gift,” Knox said. “It will support our missions of research, teaching and service for as long as there is a UC Davis.”

Endowed chairs are prestigious academic positions established through a significant philanthropic gift. Funds are invested in perpetuity, with a portion of generated returns used each year to allow the faculty holder to pursue ambitious research projects, mentor students and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their field.

At a ceremony held last month to thank the donors and celebrate Knox’s appointment, the cosmologist called it “the highest honor” he has ever received.

“I feel very deeply the responsibility to honor this gift, and the trust of my colleagues, by putting these resources and this title to good use,” he said. “Like the Starship Enterprise, I am now on a five-year mission. I promise I’ll do my best.”

Although the gift was initially included in the Vaidas’ estate plan in 2014, the pair chose to activate it early so they could see benefits of it within their lifetime. 

“I am very happy we did it that way,” said Michael Vaida. “This field studies fundamental questions about our universe – these are things I’ve been curious about for most of my life.” 

Cultivating curiosity

Knox’s immersion in science began as soon as he could read. From regular trips to the library for the latest astronomy books to attending summer science programs as a young boy, Knox found countless ways to fuel his curiosity. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago.  Knox joined the UC Davis faculty in 2001 , with a research focus on the fundamental laws of nature and origins of the universe.

“The universe is a great, huge mystery,” Knox said. “We’re all a part of this natural system that includes simple rules that seem to apply everywhere, and we have no idea why it’s like that. I feel a great privilege to be part of the conversation.”

His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy. In 2004, Knox was named a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow, and in 2012, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in recognition of his work. He is also a senior member of the Planck and South Pole Telescope collaborations — international teams of scientists working together to unlock secrets about the cosmos. 

Knox's research with these large collaborations has been highly cited, and he and his team of graduate students have made notable discoveries such as their  detection of a signal from the “cosmic neutrino background” in 2015 . These ghost-like particles, called neutrinos, were released after the birth of the universe more than 13 billion years ago.

Estella Atekwana, dean of the College of Letters and Science, said the gift is a testament to the strength of the physics and astronomy program and the donors’ belief in the college’s impacts on the world.

“With this endowment, Michael and Ester have guaranteed our students continued, transformative personal connection to the most influential scientific minds in the world while simultaneously supporting key research that helps us understand our universe,” Atekwana said.

While discovering knowledge about the universe is a priority for Knox as the Vaida Chair, he is also passionate about using resources to strengthen the department’s culture, mentor more students and support diversity efforts across campus.

"I want this to be a place where more people feel the kind of support I have felt over the years, where we all respect and care for each other, and where we all feel free to take the kinds of risks that support learning and discovery," Knox said.

Donors’ legacy lives on in the cosmos

As a graduate student in the early 1970s, the department’s collaborative and inquisitive environment made a lasting impression on Michael Vaida.

“I saw firsthand the fruitful results you get from a multidisciplinary approach,” said Michael Vaida, who earned a doctorate in computer science and computational physics in 1973. “I used the expertise I learned in my computer science classes to solve physics problems, and that became my thesis.”

His journey to UC Davis began in Soviet-era Romania, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. He graduated in 1965 with a degree in physics from one of the country’s top public research universities, but he always dreamt of living in the U.S.  

Michael Vaida migrated to New York by way of Yugoslavia, France and Italy, and ultimately landed in Central California in the fall of 1968.

He earned a master’s degree from California State University, Fresno, where he met his beloved wife. A pioneer in the field of data analytics, he founded Vaida Health Data consultants in 1986 and worked with hospitals and hospital associations across the country.

Ester Vaida also built a career in health care, working as a surgery coordinator for Sutter Women’s Health in Sacramento. A native of Guatemala, she often served as a Spanish translator for many migrant workers and their families who sought services there. 

Although Michael Vaida did not pursue a career in physics, he retained a keen interest in the subject, particularly astrophysics. And since Ester Vaida shares his fascination with the stars, they chose to let their legacy live on through the cosmos.

“When I suggested we bequest our estate to charity, Ester was very supportive of the idea,” Michael Vaida said. “If this gift to UC Davis leads to any new discoveries about the universe, we would be delighted.”

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Uchicago scientists pioneer technique to visualize anti-ferroelectric materials.

Scientists with the University of Chicago have made significant strides in imaging antiferroelectric materials, a class of materials with unique electrical properties that could open up potential applications in energy storage, sensors, and memory devices.

It is crucial to understand the electronic properties of materials to advance cutting-edge technologies. However, researchers have faced challenges in imaging certain kinds of materials and in turn, discovering their true properties and potential.

“We demonstrated a new method for emerging antiferroelectric materials on the nanoscale,” said Sarah King, Asst. Prof. of Chemistry and senior author on the study. “I believe that having new imaging techniques with such high spatial resolution is incredibly powerful. It's going to play a critical role in the development of new materials.”

The study was published June 14th in Science Advances.

Taking a better picture

King’s lab uses electron microscopy to study materials to find out how they work and then customize them for various uses. In this case, her team examined materials that have a special ability known as antiferroelectricity.

Antiferroelectric materials are extremely valuable because of their special arrangement of electric dipoles – arrangements of partial positive and negative charges – which perfectly cancel each other out, resulting in no net positive or negative polarization in the material. Usually there are different ways the electric dipoles can order themselves, and they form what are known as “domains” with different alignments depending on how the material’s atoms are arranged.

Crucially, applying an electric field to an antiferroelectric material allows you to switch it to a higher energy state where the electric dipoles don’t cancel each other out. This switching behavior makes them particularly fascinating to scientists and engineers looking to unlock their potential, especially for electronics and energy storage.

However, developing these materials has presented challenges, especially when it comes to imaging and characterizing them for modification. Traditional imaging techniques often lack the necessary resolution and contrast to effectively study these materials and their dynamics.

"One of the major hurdles is that we don't have a great way of determining whether something is antiferroelectric because we lack the means to visualize the domains," explained King.

Determined to see their goals clearly, her lab has now pioneered a fresh approach that enables researchers to finally see their domains.

Finding the map

Building on an advanced microscopy technique called polarization-dependent photoemission electron microscopy, the group was able to image in detail the electronic properties and arrangement of domains in a commonly used antiferroelectric material known as indium selenide.

This new method combines polarized light from lasers with electron imaging and offers a more complete picture of a material's properties—mapping the nanoscale arrangement and orientation of the antiferroelectric domains.

Thanks to this breakthrough in imaging technology, King envisions a future in materials science where scientists can thoroughly explore various aspects like domain switching in antiferroelectric and ferroelectric materials and phase transitions. She's particularly interested in how different properties within materials interact to create ordered states, emphasizing the role order and hierarchy play in domain formation.

The first author on the paper is graduate student Joseph Spellberg; additional authors were undergraduate student Lina Kodaimati, postdoctoral researcher Prakriti Joshi, and graduate student Nasim Mirzajani, as well as Liangbo Liang with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Citation: “ Electronic structure orientation as a map of in-plane antiferroelectricity in β′ - In2Se3 ." Joseph L. Spellberg et al., Science Advances, June 14, 2024.

Funding: the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences Program

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Scholarships and conference travel support help reduce financial barriers, allowing physics and engineering physics undergraduates to pursue their passions and engage in innovative research experiences at CU Boulder.

Scholarships

Department of Physics scholarships are awarded for a variety of considerations including academic achievement, financial need, research interests, and outreach activities. Students must complete the CU Boulder General Scholarship Application in order to apply for and submit supplemental information for department-based scholarships. The application is open November 1 through March 15 for the following academic year. Currently, departmental scholarships in physics are only available for continuing students.

Physics scholarships requiring an application include:

Albert A. Bartlett Award in Physics

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Leon and Mitzi Shands Endowed Scholarship in Physics

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Undergraduate research travel award (for students presenting research).

Physics or engineering physics undergraduates traveling to present a paper or poster on their research at a conference in the United States can apply for an Undergraduate Research Travel Award. Funding is provided through generous donations to the Jesse Kramer Undergraduate Travel Award Fund and the Uriel Nauenberg Undergraduate Research Travel Award Fund.

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The Department of Physics accepts applications from undergraduate physics and engineering physics majors for conference travel support to attend physics related conferences (examples may include:  CU*iP ,  NSBP ,  SACNAS ,  APS 4 Corners ).

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Student Spotlight: Andrew Salij

What made you decide to attend Northwestern University?

I had the pleasure of getting to know Northwestern’s campus while working with the Center for Talent Development over several summers prior to joining the Chemistry department. In part due to this experience, I was already quite familiar with much of the excellent research that was being done in theoretical and physical chemistry, my areas of focus. Culture-wise, I was also very attracted to the inquisitive attitudes and rigorous natures of the students and faculty with whom I interacted while choosing where to attend.  

How did you become interested in your area of chemistry research?

I work in theoretical physical chemistry, which means that I use mathematics to help us gain a greater insight into the physical processes in which matter participates. Here, one acts as an intermediary between many disciplines, such as physics, materials science, chemistry proper, and even computer science. I really appreciate not only always having new subjects and skills to learn and connections to make but also being able to communicate and collaborate with a number of excellent scientists from many backgrounds, both here at Northwestern and beyond.

How would you explain what you study to non-scientists?

Let’s say that you were in a house of mirrors, but somebody suddenly turned off all of the lights. The light would keep bouncing around for a while before ultimately running out, as no mirrors are perfect. What I study is taking that kind of a mirror setup with repeated reflections down to the nanoscale, where quantum mechanics becomes impossible to ignore. On the chemistry side, I’m interested in taking crystals that behave as their mirror opposites when flipped and putting them between mirrors such that the mirror effects cancel out (like how -1*-1 = 1). This kind of situation means that any light coming in will “see” the crystal many times and thus create a much stronger effect than otherwise. One of the central properties that I study is that of light polarization, which is the manner in which light waves wobble as they propagate through space. Just like how putting on polarized sunglasses can produce the desirable effect of reducing glare, controlling polarization at the nanoscale lets us control photonic information and create electromagnetic environments with special properties.  

Tell us more about the research you are conducting with the Tempelaar Team?

Specifically, I test a number of hypotheses in quantum chemistry and photonics by writing software, running calculations, and even doing some pen-and-paper mathematics to ensure that I understand the physics at play at a human-readable level. There are ultimately two broad directions of my work: starting from quantum mechanical foundations and building up and beginning with aggregate desired properties, then working down to find how they can be engineered. From both perspectives, we arrive at the nanoscale, which is small enough to unlock the possibilities of quantum mechanics and large enough to have ample design space. Ultimately, I work to draw a mathematical throughline from quantum mechanics to observed spectroscopic signals, which present a great deal of information despite looking like squiggles to the naked eye.

What has been the highlight of your academic career thus far?

While the stereotype of a scientist may be of an isolated person in their laboratory or office pondering nature’s mysteries, the reality entails a great deal of collaboration and communication. Last year, for example, I had the pleasure of meeting with my colleagues across the Atlantic at the International Symposium on Chirality in Rome. This was a great time to directly teach and learn from a number of excellent scientists, foster collegial relationships, and eat a good deal of pizza that makes for a strong contender to that from Chicago (heresy, I know!).

Where do you hope to be in your career in the next 10 years?

Now is an exhilarating time to be a computational scientist, both with more powerful computers enabling previously impossible-to-solve challenges to be addressed and with advances in domains such as machine learning adding to the suite of tools at our disposal. I’m sure I’ll be surprised by what I’ll be working on a decade from now, but in any case, I hope to be able to pay forward the excellent mentorship I’ve experienced here at Northwestern. At present, I find myself most drawn to the scale and scope of industrial challenges, so that's where I've been directing the majority of my potential career trajectories.

What is a hobby or activity you do outside of your work in chemistry?

For the last decade, I’ve been involved in the team academic sport known as “quiz bowl” and have had the pleasure of representing Northwestern during my time here. It’s a great way to learn new things and interface with many intellectually curious people. This will likely surprise people in the Chemistry Department, but the premier open quiz bowl tournament happens every summer right here in Tech, close to peoples’ labs. In another chemistry coincidence, a recent member of the Hupp group, Mark Taylor, has continued his teaching journey from the Northwestern lecture halls to Walter Payton in mentoring the team there and was recently recognized as an Illinois “Coach of the Year.”

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