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Summer 2015 Dear Friends of Tufts Physics & Astronomy,

It’s been quite a year. We set a record for most snow days, as well as most snowfall, and the sophomore class set a new record for most physics and astronomy majors. The excellence of our students, faculty and staff was recognized with a shelf full of awards both within and outside Tufts. We’ve hired two new faculty who will join us next year, Assistant Professor Mark Hertzberg in Cosmology, and Associate Professor Peter Love in Quantum Computing and Quantum Information. More about them in next year’s newsletter. And as the weather warms and we prepare for commencement, our offices, labs and hallways are filling with boxes and bins as we prepare for our move to a new building. I hope you enjoy reading some of our news.

Our Ever-Evolving Department Additions We are delighted to welcome Caroline Hagen as our new Department Administrator. She comes to us from the Poincaré Institute for Mathematics Education, where she was Project Manager for four years. Caroline holds a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Math Education at Tufts. She brings a love of the outdoors and an appetite for challenge that will serve her as well in managing the move to our new building. Goodbyes We bid fond farewells to Jackie DiMichele and Shannon Landis as they move on to new positions at Tufts. After more than 20 years in support of the High Energy Group, Jackie has taken a new position as Program Assistant in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Shannon has moved from her role as Department Manager to become a Senior Research Administrator in the A&S Research Affairs office. We wish Jackie and Shannon the best in their new positions.

We also sadly say goodbye to Kathryn McCarthy (1924-2014), who passed away in December. Kathryn loved learning, science (especially physics), academia, and her students. She was associated with Tufts for more than 60 years, as a student, physics professor, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University Provost and Senior Vice President. She was Tufts’ first and so far only female provost. Kathryn was a mentor, friend, and advisor to a generation of students and a strong advocate of women in science. The department honors her legacy through the Kathryn A. McCarthy Lectureship Fund, established by her students and friends on her retirement. The fund sponsors a triennial visit and public lecture by an

outstanding female physicist, and also funds fellowships for female graduate students and other initiatives that serve to recognize and promote the contributions of women in physics. News and Events Department Prepares for Moving to New Space This spring, the department has been busy preparing to move to the new Physics and Astronomy space in Tufts’ newly renovated 574 Boston Avenue building. We are looking forward to most of the department sharing the same space instead of split amongst two buildings. We will be completing our move in early summer 2015 to our new offices, teaching labs, research labs, and plenty of shared space for collaboration.

Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics & Astronomy

 

 

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Donors Generously Support the Department Former Tufts physics professor Allen Everett has very generously established the Professor Allan M. Cormack Fund to honor former Tufts physics professor Allan Cormack, who died in 1998. We have Professor Cormack to thank for his work that contributed to fine-tuning X-ray images that help heal millions of people each year. In 1979 he won the Nobel Prize in medicine with Godfrey Hounsfield for the invention of the CAT scan. Cormack and Everett began their nearly 40-year friendship at Harvard and continued in the physics department at Tufts. Each served as chair of the Department of Physics, Cormack from 1968 to 1976 and Everett from 1977 to 1980. Everett taught a popular class on time travel and was a founding member of the Tufts Institute of Cosmology He retired from teaching in 2004, but remained interested in the physics of time travel and co-authored a book, Time Travel and Warp Drives, based on the courses he taught at Tufts. The fund will continue Cormack’s groundbreaking legacy by supporting graduate work and faculty members.

Dr. Edward E. Altshuler and his wife, Dr. Ruth Liberfarb, have generously created an endowed fund for the support of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Altshuler received his M.S. in Physics from Tufts in 1954, and then went on to Harvard University to earn his Ph.D. He worked for nearly 50 years as a scientist at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories at Hanscom Field, working on microwave and millimeter waves, retiring in 2011. The department is honored to have contributed to his career and is grateful for his generosity.

Tufts Professors and Students Participate in International Physics Experiment Members of the Tufts ATLAS Group—part of an international collaboration comprising thousands of physicists and students—spent the summer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The current group includes professors Hugo Beauchemin, Krzysztof Sliwa and Austin Napier, who specialize in experimental high energy physics; postdoctoral associate Evelin Meoni; graduate students Hyungsuk Son and Jeffrey Wetter; undergraduates Lesya Horyn (‘A15), Raphael Osorio (’15), Noah Kurinsky (’14) (recipients of Tufts International Research Program grants), and George Wojcik (’15), who was accepted into the 2014 US-CERN Summer Student program. It was an incredible research opportunity for the students. Along with participating in the experiment, data taking, and service activities, they attended CERN summer student lecture programs where experts in the field explained particle physics in simple and accessible terms.

NEUTRINO Conference Returns to Boston Over 500 physicists from around the world gathered in Boston last June for the 26th International Conference on Neutrino Physics, co-sponsored by Boston Univeristy, Harvard, M.I.T., and Tufts. Professors Tony Mann and Hugh Gallagher, and Professor Emeritus Jack Schneps served on the Local Organizing Committee, and worked very hard to prepare for this prominent event. The neutrino group at Tufts is currently very active in three major Fermilab neutrino experiments, known as MINERνA, MINOS+ and NOνA.

Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics & Astronomy

 

 

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Students Attend Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Four Tufts students (Erin Fong, Julia Fowler, Julia Rowe, and Isabel Yannatos) attended this year’s Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). This annual conference sponsored by the American Physical Society promotes awareness of the issues that women face while pursuing a career in physics, as well as encouraging undergraduate majors to continue on in the study of physics. This year’s talks ranged from high energy physics to issues facing female physicists, with an emphasis placed on the path from undergraduate studies to a career in research.

Sigma Pi Sigma Returns to Tufts This year is the first year in many decades that Sigma Pi Sigma, the Physics Honor Society, has been active at Tufts. Nomination to Sigma Pi Sigma honors outstanding scholarship in undergraduate physics. Congratulations to all of our 2015 nominees: Mitchell Black, Jackson Burzynski, Matthew Cardarelli, Mukesh Ghimire, Lesya Horyn, Ian Hunter, Matthew Peterson, Joshua Port, Benjamin Preis, Alek Razdan, Michael Schneider, George Wojcik, and Isabel Yannatos. Special thanks to Benjamin Preis for his role in reinstating Sigma Pi Sigma at Tufts.

2014 Summer Research Interns Congratulations to the students who completed the 2014 Internship Program for Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Students! The program, offered by Prof. Peggy Cebe and her team, comprises both classroom learning and laboratory exercises, which offer enriching experiences that strengthen students’ confidence to perform in a scientific and engineering environment. Studying Polymers for Advanced Technologies, students gain hands-on experience in making, characterizing, and analyzing materials and learn to operate numerous scientific instruments and techniques.

A Year of Distinction Faculty and Staff This year, Assistant Professor Tim Atherton received the prestigious Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, one of only 15 physics and chemistry early-career faculty in the nation to be so honored. This award recognizes Professor Atherton’s promising research on “Predicting the Stability of Pickering Emulsions through Computer Simulations” and his innovative undergraduate teaching efforts in computational physics. Prof. Atherton also has been awarded the 2014 NOGLSTP (National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals) GLBT Educator Award to acknowledge his outstanding achievements in growing the GLBT physicist’s organization and applying diversity theory to educating students in science. Professor Larry Ford was named Outstanding Referee for American Physical Society journals and was appointed to the editorial board of Physical Review D, a leading journal for particle physics, gravitation, and cosmology.

The Department is delighted that Paul Wagoner received a Tufts University “Unsung Hero” Distinction Award. Paul, our Laboratory and Demonstration Coordinator, joined Tufts in June of 2012 and has been accomplishing the extraordinary every day since managing the academic labs for the department.” Distinction Awards candidates are nominated by their peers, and winners chosen by a selection committee of staff and faculty from across the university.

Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics & Astronomy

 

 

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Students This year’s senior class proudly sported quite a few awards, including Benjamin Preis (’15) who received the Class of 1898 Prize Scholarship, George Wojcik (’15) who was awarded the Benjamin G. Brown Scholarship, Lesya Horyn (’15) who received the Amos Emerson Dolbear Prize, and Alek Razdan (’15) and Isabel Yannatos (’15) who both received the N. Hobbs Knight Prize. Additionally, Julia Fowler (‘16) received The Multicultural Service Award and Erin Fong (‘17) was awarded the Audrey Butvay Gruss Science Award.

In addition, three seniors completed and defended senior theses this year: • Alek Razdan, Advisors: Danilo Marchesini & Larry Ford

Thesis: “Investigating Predicted Effects of Quantum Gravity on the Spreading of Spectral Emission Lines” • Geroge Wojcik, Advisor: Hugo Beauchemin

Thesis: “Monte Carlo study of sensitivities of data-driven correction factors used to model invisible Z+jets events” • Isabel Yannatos, Advisor: Peggy Cebe

Thesis: “Mechanical Properties of Healthy and Osteoarthritic Rabbit Meniscus” Please also join us in congratulating Erin Fong, (’17), who was named as a Goldwater Scholar—the most prestigious national award for undergraduate STEM research; Lesya Horyn (’15), who received a 2014 Steven J. Eliopoulos and Joyce J. Eliopoulos Summer Scholar award for undergraduates who have shown promise in the field of physics; graduate student Catherine Weigel, who was selected for the 2014 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers, and received the award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education from Tufts Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; and undergraduate Sara Sun, who was chosen as the department’s Outstanding Learning Assistant. Congratulations! The department would like to congratulate all of our 2015 graduates: Bachelor of Science Degrees Evan Bell, B.S., Physics Benjamin Preis, B.S., Physics/Peace and Justice Studies Matthew Cardarelli, B.S., Physics/Computer Science Alek Razdan, B.S., Physics/Mathematics Joe Carroll, B.S.M.E., Mechanical Engineering/Physics Michael Schneider, B.S., Physics/Philosophy Amel Derras-Chouk, B.S.M.E., Mechanical Engineering/Physics

Anjali Shankar, B.S., Physics George Wojcik, B.S., Physics/Mathematics

Lesya Horyn, B.S., Physics Isabel Yannatos, B.S., Physics Raphael Osorio, B.S., Physics/Computer Science Rory Young, B.S., Physics

Doctoral Degrees • Eleni-Alexandra Kontou, Cosmology, Advisor: Ken Olum

Thesis: “Averaged Null Energy Condition and Quantum Inequalities in Curved Spacetime” • Tracy McAskill, High Energy Physics, Advisor: Gary Goldstein

Thesis: “Neutrino Production of Mesons in the Generalized Parton Picture” • Victor Parkinson, Cosmology, Advisor: Larry Ford

Thesis: “Investigations in the Non-Cancellation of Quantum Field Fluctuations” • Elise Spedden, Condensed Matter Physics, Advisor: Cristian Staii

Thesis: “The Growth and Mechanical Properties of Living Neurons Measured via Atomic Force and Fluorescence Microscopy” • Jeffrey Wetter, High Energy Physics, Advisor: Krzysztof Sliwa

Thesis: “Search for the Vector Boson Fusion production of the Higgs Boson in the H →WW* → llνν Channel” • Yuji Zhang, Optical Physics, Advisor: Fiorenzo Omenetto

Thesis: “Supercontinuum Coherence in Highly Nonlinear Photonic Crystal Fibers”

We are proud of your work at Tufts and look forward to the great things in your future. Sincerely, Roger G. Tobin Chair

Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics & Astronomy

 

 

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Tufts Physics Tidbit

Our new home, 574 Boston Ave., was built next to the Boston & Maine railroad tracks in 1910-12 and for most of the 20th century served a variety of industrial uses – paper box manufacturing, wool scouring, metal fabrication. In 1957 a train accident severely damaged the Harvard Street end of the building. Tufts acquired the building in 1988, and for 25 years rented space to local woodworkers and other artisans. In 2013 planning began for the major renovation that is now nearly complete.

The newly renovated building seeks to retain the industrial history while achieving 21st century standards of energy-efficiency and providing a flexible, collaborative environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors.

We welcome your news, stories, and ideas for our future newsletters. To contact us or to be added to our mailing list, please email newsletter editor: Caroline.Hagen@tufts.edu. We would especially like to hear from recent graduates of the program (undergraduate or graduate) about what you’re doing! Department of Physics & Astronomy School of Arts and Sciences Tufts University 574 Boston Ave. ! Medford, MA 02155 ! 617.627.3029 http://ase.tufts.edu/physics