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In 1884, a new physics laboratory opened
at Harvard, the first of its kind in the Nation. It was
based on the revolutionary idea that "the department
of physics in a University must embrace both teaching
and investigation" (John Trowbridge, 1877).
From those pioneering days and throughout the Department's long and illustrious history, its faculty and students have been engaged in groundbreaking research and standard-setting instruction, contributing importantly to Harvard's reputation as one of the premier institutions of higher learning in the world. Among Harvard's 43 Nobel laureates, 10 are or were physics faculty members. Today, the latest generation of Harvard physicists continues to bring new insights into the exploration of fundamental problems involving physics at all length scales, and to provide outstanding and innovative educational opportunities to the many talented men and women who enroll in Harvard's flexible undergraduate and graduate programs.
From those pioneering days and throughout the Department's long and illustrious history, its faculty and students have been engaged in groundbreaking research and standard-setting instruction, contributing importantly to Harvard's reputation as one of the premier institutions of higher learning in the world. Among Harvard's 43 Nobel laureates, 10 are or were physics faculty members. Today, the latest generation of Harvard physicists continues to bring new insights into the exploration of fundamental problems involving physics at all length scales, and to provide outstanding and innovative educational opportunities to the many talented men and women who enroll in Harvard's flexible undergraduate and graduate programs.
Department News and Updates
| Recent graduate Alex Wissner-Gross has been named the 2008 Hertz Doctoral Thesis Prize Winner by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. |
The award recognizes
the Ph.D. dissertations completed by Hertz Fellows during
the preceding academic year for their overall excellence
and pertinence to high-impact applications of the physical
sciences. |
| Nanoscale magnetic sensing could enable novel forms of imaging. |
Professors Amir
Yacoby and Mikhail Lukin, senior lecturer Ronald Walsworth,
grad students Jeronimo Maze and Liang Jiang, post doc
Jonathan Hodges, and research associate Alexander Zibrov,
together with colleagues from the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, SEAS, MIT, and University of
Pittsburgh, demonstrated a new approach to nanoscale
magnetic sensing. In a letter to journal Nature,
the researchers described their new magnetic sensor which
is potentially capable of probing extremely weak magnetic
fields, such as those generated by the spin of an electron
or a nucleus. This invention may potentially benefit
a wide ranging of scientific fields, from materials science
to biomedicine: "Nanoscale magnetic sensing with an individual electronic spin in diamond". (Nature 455, 2 Oct 2008 | doi:10.1038/nature07279) |
| Prof. Lene Hau has been awarded the George Ledlie Prize... |
for her "path-breaking"
experiments with stopping and reviving light pulses.
The Ledlie Prize is awarded no more than once every
two years to someone affiliated with Harvard University
who
"since the last awarding of said prize has by research,
discovery or otherwise made the most valuable contribution
to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind".
[Read the Gazette story] |
| Professors Hongkun Park and Aravinthan Samuel are to receive National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Awards... |
Prof. Park, to
develop new nano- and microelectronic tools that enable
the meticulous study of the design principles of the
brain, and Prof. Samuel, to develop new biophysical and
imaging techniques to link behavioral responses with
neuronal activity. [Read the Gazette story] |
| The Harvard Nanopore Group, led by Professors Gene Golovchenko and Daniel Branton (of MCB), received a grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)... |
to further develop
electronic sequencing in nanopores. The grant is part
of more than $20 million in total funding given by NHGRI/NIH
to spur innovative sequencing technologies inexpensive
and efficient enough to sequence a person's DNA as a
routine part of biomedical research and health care. |
| Save the dates (October 24-25, 2008): INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: 40 Years after Andrei Sakharov's "Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom"; Russia Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. |
The Conference,
organized by the Sakharov Program on Human Rights & The
Cold War Studies Project at The
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies in
conjunciton with the Harvard Department of Physics, will
take place at the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences. Please consult the Conference
website for further information. |
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