Areas of Research
Biophysics & Biological Physics
The biological physics group studies biological systems from the molecular to the cell level. With improved experimental data, biology is becoming much more quantitative. At ASU, we are researching the underlying principles involved in the machinery of living things and searching for unifying themes both within and between organisms in an interdisciplinary environment. Biological physics at ASU is a leader in this area and welcomes enquiries from prospective physics graduate students who would like to join one of our exciting research areas.
Members
Stuart Lindsay, Dmitry Matyushov, Timothy Newman, Banu Ozkan, Peter Rez, Robert Ros, Otto Sankey, John Spence, Michael Thorpe, Sara Vaiana
Centers
Center for Single Molecule Biophysics
Nanoscience and Materials Physics
At the nanometer length scale, materials and structures behave differently, offering exciting new opportunities for scientific discoveries as well as technological advances. Our faculty are working to define the cutting edge in many aspects of nanoscale physics. ASU is well known for its John M. Cowley Center for High Resolution Electron Microscopy, where researchers use and develop new techniques for probing structural, magnetic, electronic and optical properties at the nanoscale. We have also advanced scanning probe techniques and surface electron microscopy for in situ measurements of nanostructure dynamics and properties. Our materials physicists fabricate systems with complex structures and novel types of nanostructures, and our experts in theory and computational simulation techniques pursue quantitative interpretation of experiments while developing ways to predict new phenomena. This interdisciplinary team of faculty and students couples closely to researchers in materials, chemistry, electronics and biological physics, both within the department and across campus.
Members
Gary Adams, Ernst Bauer, Peter Bennett, Ralph Chamberlin, Robert Culbertson, Bruce Doak, John Dow, Jeff Drucker, Nicole Herbots, Robert Marzke, Martha McCartney, José Menéndez, Robert Nemanich, John Page, Fernando Ponce, Peter Rez, Robert Ros, Kevin Schmidt, John Shumway, David Smith, John Spence, Michael Thorpe, Mike Treacy, Kong-Thon Tsen, Ignatius Tsong, John Venables
Centers
LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science (LE-CSSS)
Arizona Institute for Nano Electronics (AINE)
Particle Physics and Astrophysics
Particle physics and astrophysics research at ASU specializes in several areas. Major focus is upon particles whose constituents interact so strongly that their interactions cannot be handled using perturbative techniques, and is upon key experiments designed to test nature’s fundamental symmetries. For example, the structure of hadrons (particles composed of quarks and gluons, which interact by means of the quantum field theory called quantum chromodynamics [QCD]), is one of our areas of theoretical and experimental specialty. Such particles may be produced in accelerator experiments, by astrophysical sources, or within exotic places like the interiors of neutron stars. In addition, we study formal techniques to attack strongly interacting systems, such as the so-called large number of color charges (large N_c) limit or the gauge-string duality between certain quantum field theories and superstring theories. We also study the nature and interactions of neutrinos, ghost-like particles created in nuclear reactions such as those occurring in stellar nucleosynthesis in the sun or in supernovae, as well as questions on the nature of cosmological structure and the particle content of the early universe—the so-called dark energy and dark matter.
Members
Faculty
Ricardo Alarcon, Andrei Belitsky, Joseph Comfort, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Lebed, Cecilia Lunardini, Barry G. Ritchie, Igor Shovkovy
Emeritus Faculty
Raghunath Acharya, Richard Jacob, William Kaufmann
Physics and Society
Physics interacts with society in many important ways. Within the university, the physics department teaches many undergraduate classes needed for future engineers and for many other professions. The general studies program involves most of our faculty and our graduate students who serve as teaching assistants. We offer professional degrees through the Master of Natural Science (M.N.S.) and Professional Science Master (P.S.M.) programs. The M of Natural Science and the modeling programs interact with in-service high school teachers. The Professional Science Master program in nanoscience (a hot-topic interdisciplinary area) is forging strong links with industry. We also run a doctoral program in physics education research (PER) with strong links to ASU's Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (CRESMET).
Members
Carl Covatto, Robert Culbertson, David Hestenes, John Venables