Cross-Disciplinary Physics
The cross-disciplinary physics (CDP) program at the 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ is housed in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (PAS) and is operated in collaboration with faculty holding primary appointments in other departments in Arts, Sciences & Engineering including:
- The Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- The Laboratory for Laser Energetics
- The School of Medicine and Dentistry
- A selection of distinguished industrial partner laboratories
Under this program, participating faculty and scientists with primary appointments in the affiliated departments, institutes, and laboratories advise and supervise the research and training of PhD students matriculated in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Graduate students in the CDP program are admitted as regular graduate students into the department. Like most PAS graduate students, they typically join a PAS-related research group in the second or third year of their graduate work. Students receive their PhD degree in physics and must satisfy all program requirements.
Joining an Affiliated Research Group
Students can join a research group led by a researcher with a faculty appointment (either primary or secondary) within the PAS department and continue on to a PhD thesis.
Students in this program are assigned both an internal advisor (who holds a faculty position in the department and who normally works in a closely related field) and an external advisor. In most of these cases, it is the external advisor who provides support for the student’s research and provides the day-to-day supervision of the student’s PhD research.
Current Opportunities
At present the research in the CDP program spans the following sub-fields:
- Accelerator physics, with Fermilab
- Atomic and molecular physics, with optics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, electrical and computer engineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and material science
- Biological and medical physics, with chemistry, biology, optics, BCS, and the medical center
- Chemical physics, with chemistry, chemical engineering, Kodak, and Xerox
- Communication, computational and information, with optics, electrical and computer engineering, and Lucent
- Physics plasma and fusion, with Laboratory for Laser Energetics and mechanical engineering
- Condensed matter physics, with Laboratory for Laser Energetics, chemistry, optics, material science, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering
- Low temperature physics, with electrical and computer engineering and materials science
- Micro-electronics, with electrical and computer engineering, and optics
- Optical and laser physics, with optics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and chemistry
- Quantum Optics, with optics, and electrical and computer engineering
CDP Internal Advisors
The following primary-appointment faculty from the department typically serve as internal advisors in the various fields encompassed by the CDP program:
- Accelerator physics: Arie Bodek, Regina Demina, Aran Garcia-Bellido, and Kevin McFarland
- Biological and medical physics: Yongli Gao
- Low temperature physics, condensed matter physics, chemical physics and materials science: Nicholas Bigelow, David Douglass, Yongli Gao, John Nichol, Yonathan Shapir, Steve Teitel, and Dan Watson
- Plasma physics and fusion: Eric Blackman, Adam Frank, and Pierre Gourdain
- Quantum optics and optical and laser physics: Nicholas Bigelow, Joe Eberly, and Andrew Jordan
Industrial Partners
Currently, or in recent years, CDP PhD students have carried out research with CDP cohorts at:
- Kodak Research Laboratories
- The Xerox Corporation
- Lucent Laboratories
- KLA-Tencor
- MIT Lincoln Labs
- National Laboratories such as Fermilab and Brookhaven
Supervising Faculty
All primary faculty can serve as supervisors for the CDP program. Secondary faculty and affiliated researchers can also serve as supervisors. See the two tables below for more information about the faculty and researchers in this group.
Table I - University Faculty with Joint Appointments in PAS
Faculty Member | Status | Area of Research |
Agrawal, Govind P. | Professor of Optics (and Physics) | Optical physics and lasers |
Bergstralh, Dan T. | Assitant Professor of Biology and Physics | Cell and experimental Biology |
Betti, Ricardo | Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and Physics), and Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Plasma physics and fusion |
Bocko, Mark F. | Professor of Electrical Engineering (and Physics) | Quantum information/signal processing |
Boyd, Robert W. | Professor of Optics (and Physics) | Optical physics and lasers |
Cardenas, Jaime | Assistant Professor of Optics and Physics | Optics and photonics |
Collins, Rip | Dean's Professor Mechanical Engineering and Physics | High Energy Density Physics |
Dery, Hanan | Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics | Theoretical Condensed-matter physics |
Dias, Ranga | Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics | Experimental condensed matter physics |
Foster, Thomas H. | Professor of Radiology (and Physics) | Experimental biological/medical physics |
Franco, Ignacio | Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Physics | Theoretical condensed matter physics |
Guo, Chunlei | Professor of Optics and Physics | Experimental condensed matter and optical physics |
Haefner, Ralf | Assistant Professor of Brain & Cognitive Science, and physics | Computational Neuroscience |
Knox, Wayne | Professor of Optics and Physics | Experimental atomic, molecular and optical physics |
Murray, Lee | Assistant Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and physics | Climate Science |
Nakajima, Miki | Assistant Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and physics | Planetary Sciences |
Ren, Chuang | Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics | Theoretical plasma physics |
Rothberg, Lewis | Professor of Chemistry and Physics | Chemical and condensed matter physics |
Rygg, Ryan | Assistant Professor (Research) of Mechanical Engineering and Physics | High Energy Density Physics |
Schroeder, Wolf-Udo | Professor of Chemistry and Physics | Experimental Nuclear Physics |
Sefkow, Adam | Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics | Computational Plasma Physics |
Sobolewski, Roman | Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics | Experimental Condensed Matter Physics |
Tarduno, John | Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Physics | Experimental geodynamics |
Thomas, John H. | Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Science (and of Astronomy) | Theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics |
Vamivakas, Nick | Associate Professor of Optics and Physics | Experimental quantum and nonlinear optics |
Van Horn, Hugh | Director, NSF Astronomy Division (and Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy | Theoretical astrophysics |
Wu, Stephen | Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics | Experimental Condensed Matter Physics |
Zhang, Xi-Cheng | M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics and Physics | Experimental optical physics |
Zhong, Jianhui | Associate Professor of Radiology | Biological and medical physics and imaging |
Table II - University Faculty with Past or Future Interest and/or Experience in Supervising CDP Students
Name | Position | Principal Area of Research |
Berger, Andrew J. | Associate Professor of Optics (and Biomedical Engineering) | Medical physics |
Brown, Thomas G. | Associate Professor of Optics | Optoelectronics |
Chen, Shaw-Horn | Professor of Chemical Engineering | Chemical physics |
Chimowitz, Eldred H. | Professor of Chemical Engineering | Chemical physics |
Craxton, Stephen R. | Senior Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Plasma physics, lasers and fusion |
Donaldson, William R. | Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Optical physics and lasers |
Farrar, James M. | Professor of Chemistry | Chemical physics |
Fauchet, Phillippe | Professor of Electrical Engineering and Optics, Senior Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Material science, biological and optical physics |
Feldman, Marc J. | Professor of Electrical Engineering and Senior Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Quantum information, material science, condensed matter physics |
Fienup, James R. | Professor of Optics | Imaging processing, wave front sensing |
George, Nicholas | Professor of Optics and Electrical Engineering | Optical physics and lasers |
Goldfarb, David H. | Professor of Biology | Biological aging physics |
Hsiang, Thomas Y. | Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Optoelectronics, superconductivity, ultrafast phenomena |
Jacobs, Stephen D. | Professor of Chemical Engineering and Laboratory for Laser Energetics Scientist | Liquid crystal optics |
Jones, Thomas B. | Professor of Electrical Engineering | High-speed microactuation of liquid for the laboratory on a chip |
Jorne, Jacob | Professor of Chemical Engineering | Chemical physics |
Kelley, Doug | Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering | Biophysical and technological fluid mixing |
Knauer, Jim | Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Plasma physics and fusion |
Kraus, Todd | Assistant Professor of Chemistry | Spectroscopy of nanometer-scale materials |
Mathews, David | Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics | Calculational RNA |
Moore, Duncan T. | Professor of Optics | Optical engineering |
Ning, Ruola | Professor of Imaging Sciences | Medical physics |
Novotny, Lukas | Assistant Professor of Optics | Optical physics and lasers |
Ovchinnikov, Misha | Assistant Professor of Chemistry | Quantum molecular dynamics |
Parker, Kevin | Electrical Engineering | Condensed matter, biological physics |
Pouget, Alexandre | Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science and Center for Visual Science | Biological physics, cortical mechanisms of motion and form perception, visual memory |
Renninger, Will | Assistant Professor of Optics | Nonlinear optics |
Seka, Wolf | Associate Professor of Optics and Senior Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Optical physics and lasers |
Schroder, Wolf-Udo | Professor of Chemistry | Nuclear chemistry/heavy ions |
Sobolewski, Roman | Professor of Electrical Engineering and Senior Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics | Ultrafast optoelectronics, superconductivity, quantum communication |
Syphers, Mike | Senior Scientist, Fermilab | Accelerator physics |
Teegarden, Kenneth J. | Professor of Optics | Optical materials |
Waag, Robert | Professor of Electrical Engineering | Bio-ultrasound, tissue characterization, nondestructive testing |
Wicks, Gary | Professor of Optics | Material science, condensed matter physics, nano-materials |
Williams, David R. | Professor of Psychology and Professor of Optics | Psychological optics |
Wu, David J. H. | Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Microbiology and Immunology | Biological and medical physics |
Yang, Hong Magnetic | Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering | Nanoparticles |
Yates, Matthew Z. | Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering | Colloids and Interfaces |
Zavislan, Jes | Associate Professor of Optics and Optical Engineering | Biomedical optics |