University of Arizona Department of Physics

Jose D. Garcia (1936 - 2024) It is with great sadness that we have learned about the passing of Professor Jose D. Garcia (popularly known as JD) on Monday, October 14, 2024 due to Parkinson’s. JD was a faculty member in the physics department from 1967 to 2006. He started out as an Assistant Professor and rose through the ranks to be a Full Professor. His research interests included time-dependent quantum models for atomic collisions and quantum electrodynamics. JD was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society based on his extensive and influential research on these topics. He was also a recipient of the Edward A. Bouchet award that is awarded to a distinguished minority physicist who has made significant contributions to physics research and the advancement of underrepresented minority scientists. Throughout his career, JD was an enthusiastic and successful promoter of physics education and science teacher education. He had served as a Program Officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation. As a long time member of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), JD had served in a large number of influential AAPT committees. He received the AAPT Distinguished Service Award in 2012. He actively participated in meetings of the Arizona Section of AAPT and coordinated the meetings of the Tucson Area Physics Teachers (TAPT), a local physics teachers' support group, for 20 years. He was also very active in promoting physics outreach efforts in Tucson. JD was a perfect example of excellence in all areas of faculty activity. He served as interim Department Head twice, and also as a UA faculty senator and Chair of the Faculty. In addition to his high-quality research and teaching, he was always pushing the department to take the lead in diversity and outreach programs, for which he was an effective advocate. He was the Charter President of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) and from 2009-20010 was President of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). The Physics Department joins the UA community in mourning the passing of a respected figure of our University. Please read the obituary for Prof. Garcia in The Arizona Daily Star: https://lnkd.in/gj8gBmU9 Everyone is invited to the Celebration of Life on Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 2:30 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 E. 22nd Street.

Welcome Clare DeBuhr! Join us in welcoming Clare DeBuhr, our newest UA Physics staff member. Clare will serve as the department's graduate coordinator. She was born in Germany but has spent most of her life in Arizona. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and her master's degree from ASU. Her interests include books, gaming, horror movies, puzzles, and travel. Welcome Clare, to the UA Physics Family!

UA Physics Welcomes Dr. Fuguang Cao Join us in welcoming our new Global Professor, Dr. Fu-Guang Cao, to the UA Physics faculty. Dr. Cao is working alongside Dr. Rajapaksha and Dr. Steinmetz at our global campus in Heibut, China. Dr. Cao comes to us from Massey University, New Zealand, bringing with him over 20 years of physics teaching experience and a passion for curriculum design. He also has a broad range of research interests, including developing mathematical methods for solving physics problems and exploring artificial intelligence applications of physics. Welcome to the UA family Dr. Cao!

Physics Discovery Program at Flandreau Science Center On Friday the 27th, the Physics Discovery Program, lead by Dr. Srin Manne, held its first outreach event. UA Physics students Jeremy Philbrick, Adrian Rose, Luke Garman, Hannah Gruber, Ellen Jesina, and Julien Barrosse presented an impressive array of demonstrations and activities to an excided group of 8th graders. The Physics Discovery Program is a joint effort between LPL and Physics to provide physics outreach experience to our graduate and undergraduate students. The program events take place at Flandreau Planetarium. Tucson area schools send classrooms of students to the planetarium where the Departments of Physics has a room set up with four physics demonstrations/activity stations manned by our students. The demonstration stations include mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, and E/M.

New Physics Learning Studio Provides hands-on Collaborative learning Experiences to Undergraduates The University of Arizona's Physics Department finished remodeling our new learning studio this summer. The innovative learning space combines lecture, practical, and laboratory components to facilitate active engagement in the classroom. You can read more about the new classroom space in an article featured on the College of Science news site here: https://lnkd.in/gupWuAAt

TAPT Meeting @ UA Physics On Saturday the 28th the Tucson Area Physics Teachers (TAPT) had their annual breakfast. 16 people were in attendance, including community college instructors high school instructors, as well as our current graduate students and undergraduate students.    Dr. Pranabendu Moitra from geosciences give a presentation titled "Causes and consequences of violently explosive basaltic eruptions".    We learned how crystal formation in rising plumes of magma leads to viscosity increasing by many orders of magnitude. With the reduced ability to flow, increasing pressure leads to explosive eruptions. The talk was well received and there were many questions afterwards. Since this rising magma is a suspension, it connects well with work within our department. Charles Wolgemuth’s recent PhD student Jorge Palos-Chavez worked on improving our understanding of suspensions for his thesis, and he talked with the speaker for quite a while afterwards. Meeting participants also toured the newly renovated Physics Studio Style Teaching room PAS 284.   For more than 25 years, TAPT has been providing support for the teaching of physics at the introductory level in local K12 schools and community colleges. The group meets monthly to discuss some physics-related topic. 

Physics Welcomes New Members Physics department welcomed new members on Sep 13, Friday. After a brief intro by physics department head, Prof. Shufang Su of the department leadership team: Prof. Brian LeRoy (associate department head), Prof. Charles Wolgemuth (Director for Undergraduate Studies), and Prof. Weigang Wang (Director for Graduate Study), academic advisor David Smith, TIMESTEP program manager Rebecca Lipson, Physics Club president Ellen Jesina, PIE president Brianna Billingsley, and Graduate Council president Karl Hauser introduced their program and groups. Lots of fun afterwards with food, games, and catching up with friends. Welcome, everyone, for a productive year ahead!

Physics Professors Weigang Wang, Shufeng Zhang, and Collaborators Awarded NSF Future of Semiconductors Grant Physics professors Weigang Wang and Shufeng Zhang, together with ECE Professor Tosiron Adegbija and collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, have received a highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Future of Semiconductors (FuSe2) Grant. Their proposal, titled “Ultrafast Energy Efficient Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions,” aims to advance the development of superfast and energy-efficient semiconductor devices. The team’s research focuses on exploring novel physics and materials that have the potential to revolutionize semiconductor technology. The energy consumption associated with computing has surged over the past decade due to the rapid growth of technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving, with significant energy loss occurring in the standby states of modern transistors. This project seeks to address these challenges by investigating a new class of devices that leverage the spin degree of freedom of electrons. Unlike traditional methods, information stored in these spins remains intact even when the power is turned off, paving the way for highly efficient memory and logic devices. The research specifically targets antiferromagnetic systems, where the spins in magnetic materials are oriented in opposite directions, resulting in zero net magnetization. These antiferromagnetic devices are predicted to exhibit unique properties, including large on/off ratios and energy-efficient operation. The project combines theoretical research to identify antiferromagnetic systems and discover new physical mechanisms with experimental efforts to fabricate and characterize these materials, ultimately aiming for implementation in next-generation computer memory systems. Professor Wang will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project, with Co-PIs Shufeng Zhang, Tosiron Adegbija, Sara Majetich (Carnegie Mellon University), and Evgeny Tsymbal (University of Nebraska-Lincoln). The three-year, $1.9 million grant will support multiple graduate students and provide research opportunities for undergraduate students. Additionally, the project includes a comprehensive workforce development and outreach plan, featuring the creation of new degree programs in semiconductor technology and engagement initiatives aimed at high school students and teachers.

It is a great pleasure to announce that our Prof. Sam Krishnamurthy was selected as this year’s winner for the CoS Distinguished Early Career Teaching Award! This is an award that recognizes faculty with outstanding classroom teaching, who have demonstrated sustained commitment to quality, inclusive teaching in a variety of settings. Read the rest of the article here on UA News: https://lnkd.in/gcKdd8UR

We are excited to introduce our newest addition to the UA Physics High Energy Group, Dr. Rachel Hyneman! Rachel received her PhD in Physics from Michigan University. Her research interests include understanding the nature of the Higgs Boson. She is especially interested in "di-Higgs" production, creating two Higgs Bosons from high-energy proton collision. Rachel's research may shed light on significant questions, such as the prevalence of matter over anti-matter in our universe, what will happen to our universe in the distant future, and whether our current understanding of how the Higgs boson comes to exist is correct. Read the full article on the UA News page here: https://lnkd.in/gR6uddSb