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Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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In 1884, a new physics laboratory opened
at Harvard. 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
| A quantum gas microscope for detecting single atoms in a Hubbard-regime optical lattice... |
Prof. Markus
Greiner, grad students Waseem Bakr, Jonathon Gillen
and Amy Peng, and post doc Simon Foelling published a
letter in Nature describing a quantum gas 'microscope'
realizing a system in which atoms of a macroscopic ensemble
are detected individually and a complete set of degrees
of freedom for each of them is determined through preparation
and measurement. By implementing a high-resolution optical
imaging system, single atoms are detected with near-unity
fidelity on individual sites of a Hubbard-regime optical
lattice. Nature 462, 74-77 (5 Nov. 2009) |
doi:10.1038/nature08482. |
| Soft colloids make strong glasses... |
Prof. David
Weitz and colleagues from DEAS, Columbia University,
University of North Texas, and Chalmers University
of Technology (Sweden) described a new way to model
the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid
that includes common window glass. Nature 462,
83-86 (5 November 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08457 |
CUA Seminar in Honor of Norman Ramsey: October 13, 2009 |
2:45-3:30 Reception
in the Physics Library, 4th Floor 3:30-3:45 Tribute to Norman Ramsey: Jefferson 250 3:45-4:30 E. Norval Fortson (U. Washington), "A Permanent Electric Dipole Moment The Quest Continues". 4:30-5:15 David Wineland (NIST), "Microwave Masers to Optical Clocks Perspectives on Five Decades". |
| The Morris Loeb Lecture in Physics: Daniel Eisenstein, A New Decade of Cosmic Structure |
Colloquium: A
New Decade of Cosmic Structure Monday, Oct. 5, 4:15PM Lecture I: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: A Robust and Precise Route to the Cosmological Distance Scale Tuesday, Oct. 6, 3:00PM J Lecture II: Observational Probes of Dark Energy Thursday, Oct. 8, 2:30PM Please note special time! All events will be held in Jefferson 250 |
The Department welcomes new faculty members:
Professors Douglas
Finkbeiner and Erel
Levine |
| Prof. Lisa Randall wrote a libretto for an opera which combines musical and scientific ideas |
The work, titled Hypermusic
Prologue: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes,
was presented at the Pompidou Center in Paris on June
14-15, 2009. Watch a performance video at
dailymotion.com; also read an article in
the Gazette and a review in Nature (460,
177, 9 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/460177a) |
For
more news items, go to News
page
For
recent faculty publications, go to Publications
page
To search for people in the Department, go to People page.
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