Prof. Dan Bardayan, Department of Physics, has been re-elected to the User Organization Executive Committee for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. The goals of the Users’ Organization are to work towards the realization and timely construction of FRIB…
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and their Policy and Global Affairs group, has invited Freimann Professor Ani Aprahamian to serve as a member of the U.S. Liaison Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).
Freimann Professor Ani Aprahamian has been asked to join the Discovery Science Technical Review Committee of the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF…
The first conference on Nuclear Physics for the Next Generation (NPNG 2018) was held at the Notre Dame International Gateway in London, U.K. from September 25-27. Thirty-nine early-career nuclear physicists participated in this invitation-only meeting to envision the future of nuclear physics, form new collaborations, and support each other at the early-career stage. The meeting also facilitated closer connection between the North American and European nuclear physics communities, and the London International Gateway was an ideal location for the meeting.…
Freimann Professor Ani Apahamian has been named as the chair of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. This committee provides external advice to the laboratory’s director on scientific choices, scientific vision, and matters related to optimizing the scientific discovery potential of FRIB…
The Association for Women in Science Notre Dame Chapter hosted the 2018 Women in Science Conference on campus October 5-7. Kaitlin Rasmussen, a fourth year graduate student working in Professor Timothy Beers’ research group, and Rebeka Kelmar, a second year graduate student working in Professor Anna Simon…
Freimann Professor of Physics Ani Aprahamian organized and chaired a day of talks on Low Energy Nuclear Science & Applications with the use of cyclotrons in Armenia. This was a part of a week-long international conference on “Correlations in Partonic and Hadronic Interactions” held September 24-28 in Yerevan, Armenia.
The director of the Nuclear Science Laboratory and Freimann Professor of Physics Michael Wiescher was honored at the September 15 Notre Dame football game as a member of the 2018 All-Faculty Team.
Craig Reingold, fourth-year graduate student in the Nuclear Science Laboratory working with the group of Prof. Anna Simon, spent ten weeks in summer 2018 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He joined the Academic Cooperation Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which hosts up to 800 undergraduate and graduate students each year. The program is designed to encourage external collaborations with LLNL…
Orlando Gomez, a third-year graduate student working in the Nuclear Science Laboratory with Prof. Anna Simon, received the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory “Nuclear Forensics Summer Internship”. The internship provides a stipend and travel cost reimbursement for a graduate student who is then paired with an LLNL…
Professor Ani Aprahamian, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics, was invited to TRIUMF Science Week in Vancouver, Canada in July 2018. TRIUMF, the national laboratory of Canada for particle and nuclear physics and accelerator-based science, is celebrating its 50th…
Professor Umesh Garg has been reappointed as an Honorary Guest Professor in the Physics Department at Peking University through January 2020.
Each year, the department recognizes a PhD student with the Research & Dissertation Award. In 2018, there are two recipients.
Edward Lamere is being recognized for his thesis “Proton induced reactions on molybdenum: Implications for medical 99mTc production”, under the direction of Prof. Manoel Couder…
The Notre Dame Faculty Award for 2018 has been bestowed upon Umesh Garg, professor of physics.
Ani Aprahamian, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics, has been elected as Secretary to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Nuclear Physics. She will serve from January 2018 through December 2020. IUPAP…
Notre Dame Physics was well-represented at the DNP 2017, which is the fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society. Many physics majors, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members attended, as did multiple 2017 ND-REU participants from other universities. Prof. Anna Simon and Dr. Patrick O’Malley, postdoctoral research associate, acted as session chairs. Just a few of the attendees are pictured here.…
Nuclear graduate students Samuel Henderson and Craig Reingold are the receipents of the 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award. This award was created in 1999 to recognize graduate student instructors and TAs who demonstrate commitment to exceptional teaching in lectures, seminars, labs, and across the academic profession.
Physics graduate student Kevin Howard has been awarded a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This summer Mr. Howard will be working with Prof. Shinsuke Ota at the Center for Nuclear Study at the University of Tokyo, and Dr. Tomohiro Uesaka, a Chief Scientist at the Spin Isospin Laboratory at the RIKEN…
John Mihelich, Professor Emeritus of Physics, has passed away in Fort Collins, Colorado, on March 10. John was a long-time member of our faculty and our nuclear physics group, joining Notre Dame in 1954 from Brookhaven. While here, he gained a national reputation in gamma-ray spectroscopy, training in his lab many of the later leaders in the field. He and his wife, Jan, raised three children in South Bend, spending their free time in travel, camping, and classical music. John retired in 1989, and he and Jan eventually moved to Fort Collins. …
Ani Aprahamian, Freimann Professor of Physics, has been named co-chair of a committee with the National Academy of Science on a U.S. Electron Ion Collider Facility.
Professor Rebecca Surman has been elected as a new member of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) Theory Alliance Executive Board.
The FRIB Theory Alliance is a coalition of scientists from universities and national laboratories who seek to foster advancements in theory related to diverse areas of FRIB science; optimize the coupling between theory and experiment; and rejuvenate the field by creating permanent theory positions across the country.…
The Department of Physics was proud to celebrate the achievements of many doctoral degree recipients at the graduate commencement ceremony held Saturday, May 14. Graduates from August, January, and May are all recognized at the May event. We wish them each the best of luck.
Prof. Anna Simon has been selected to receive one of thirty-five Ralph E. Power Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards from ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities). The award is intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities.…
The Ph.D. thesis of James Matta has been selected for publication as a book by the well-known science publisher Springer under the “Springer Theses” series.
Described as the “best of the best”, the series recognizes “Outstanding Ph. D. Research”. Each thesis is chosen for its scientific excellence and impact on research. For greater accessibility to non-specialists, the published versions include an extended introduction, as well as a foreword by the student’s supervisor explaining the special relevance of the work for the field.…
Prof. Jim Kolata has always had an appreciation for the many ways in which the subfields of physics intersect, nowhere more so than in the field of cosmology. Though an experimental nuclear physicist and a long-time leader in Notre Dame’s radioactive beam program, Kolata developed in 1989 a course in elementary cosmology aimed at curious students wanting to understand the current developments in that rapidly advancing field. That course is today a stalwart of the Notre Dame Physics Department’s curriculum, taught to nearly 200 students a year. Kolata has now brought together his notes and insights from teaching that course, combined with the latest news from the field, and published a textbook on the subject. Entitled "Elementary Cosmology: From Aristotle’s Universe to the Big Bang and Beyond” and published by the Institute of Physics, the book begins with an introduction to the concept of the scientific method. It then describes the way in which detailed observations of the Universe, first with the naked eye and later with increasingly complex modern instruments, ultimately led to the development of the “Big Bang” theory. Finally, the book traces the evolution of the Big Bang including the very recent observation that the expansion of the Universe is itself accelerating with time.…
Prof. Dan Bardayan, Department of Physics, has been elected to the User Organization Executive Committee for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University. The goals of the Users’ Organization are to work towards the realization and timely construction of FRIB, to act as an advocate for the needs of the FRIB user community, to articulate and promote the scientific case for rare-isotope science, and to advocate for rare isotope science in the USA.…
Prof. Ani Aprahamian, Freimann Professor of Physics, has been reappointed as a Board Member by Governor Dennis Daugaard to the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority. The reappointment is through December 2018. She has served on the board since 2009.
