Duke Physics News

The Duke Physics department had a strong presence at both the March and April 2010 meetings of the American Physical Society.

• Among the many contributed talks by Duke scholars at the March meeting were two invited talks.  Prof. Harold Baranger and Yang Yang, a Duke PhD student, were invited to speak.
• At the April meeting four faculty speakers from Duke were invited to give a talk on their research -  Prof. Roxanne Springer, Prof. Ayana Arce, Prof. Chris Walter, and Prof. Mohammed Ahmed. Congratulations to all of Duke’s speakers at both meetings.
• Duke HEP Faculty members Prof. Chris Walter and Prof. Ayana Arce were interviewed at a press conference at the April 2010 APS Meeting.  Their quotes can be seen at the APS website and at Symmetry Magazine. At the Symmetry Magazine website, look for Arce’s quote in a post entitled “Exotic particle of the day: the stringball” and Walter’s quote in a post entitled “Just how often are you hit by a neutrino?”

Duke’s Arts and Sciences Council recently approved a request from the physics department to create a new major in biophysics. The major will be administered by the physics department in close collaboration with the departments of biology, chemistry, and biomedical engineering. As Director of Undergraduate Studies, physics professor Seog Oh led the effort to create the new major. He says he had been hearing from undergrads for some time that they were interested in exploring the interface between physics and biology.

Read more about Duke’s new interdisciplinary major here.