In this Issue:

Multiple current Physics faculty members have received external recognition and awards for their professional achievements.  Professor Hao Zeng has just become our latest Fellow of the American Physical Society; Professor Priya Banerjee was named the Twenties Century Club Professor of the CAS due to his truly exceptional research productivity in terms of both publications and external funding.  Indeed he became the first ever UB scholar who received a grant from the Hypothesis Fund, which focuses on supporting early stage innovative research.  Professor Salvatore Rappoccio received the UB Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Excellence in Research for his works at LHC, and our other particle physics colleagues are taking on important leadership positions within LHC: Professor Ia Iashvili was appointed as one the Chair of the Analysis Review Committee for CMS, Professor Kharchilava was appointed the co-Chair of the CMS Publication Committee Board on Higgs Physics, while Professor Ciaran Williams was the co-Convener of the cross section working group on Higgs physics and acted as a liaison between theorists and experimentalists.

Our students, both undergraduate and graduate, are the lifeblood of the Department. Their performances in classes and in labs are the fuel to keep the professors going in their teaching and their research, and their presence in the building keeps it buzzing. Our undergraduate students have always been able to balance their academic endeavor with interesting extracurricular activities. In December 2023, our SPS Chapter won a Distinguished Chapter Award, and we also inducted Aaron D'Angelo, Charles Freeman, Lea Kyle, Dario Tringali, and Nicholas West into the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society.

We have another large new class of graduate students joining UB Physics in the fall of 2024.  This cohort of students, coming from domestic and international institutions, continue the growth trend in recent years for the Department, and add to the diversity and vibrancy to our graduate program.  On October 12, led by our Director of Graduate Studies Professor Priya Banerjee, the department organized the first Graduate Research Symposium in recent memory, with about 60 attendees consisting of both faculty and students.  The enthusiasm shown by our students and faculty members, as well as the wide range of research topics presented at the Symposium, are unmistakable evidence of the rich research culture we have in the Department.

This year we had two interesting public lectures. On April 8, 2024, our T.Y. Wu Lecture was given by Taekjip Ha of Harvard University, a world renowned single-molecule biophysicist and former President of the Biophysical Society. The title of his lecture is “From Single Molecules to Cellular Decision Making: Connecting the scales using mechanical force.”  On October 18, our Moti Lal Rustgi Lecture was given by Professor Ivan K. Schuller from University of California San Diego, a leading expert on neuromorphic computing. The title of his talk is “Neuromorphic Computing: Developing Quantum Materials for an Energy Efficient Fault-Tolerant Computer, Inspired by the Human Brain.”  With the fascination over Artificial Intelligence ever growing, and the 2024 Nobel Physics Prize just given to two original contributors to the invention of neural networks, these lectures are both eye-opening and inspiring.

As you may recall, Professor Shigeji Fujita, a long time UB Physics member, passed away late last year. In memory of his life and achievement, and to help future generations of theoretical physicists, Shigeji’s wife, Mrs. Sachiko Fujita, together with his daughters Yoshiko and Eriko Fujita, have set up an endowment to give multi-year scholarships to graduate students in the Department.  Their generous contribution will help encourage students to challenge difficult research problems and carry on the torch of theoretical studies in the department.

2024 is certainly not all smooth sailing for us or for UB in general. The international politics and conflicts, such as the war in the Middle East, filter into campus life by creating tension and unrest.  At the department level, we have seen international students unable to get their visas to start their studies at UB on time, and we have seen our classes affected by student demonstrations.  On a longer time scale, the overall decline in enrollment at the College of Arts and Sciences, and the continued decline in the number of high school graduates in the State of New York, has been applying, and will continue to apply pressure on the Department and the University.  However, with hard work, ingenuity, adaptability, and a collaborative spirit, I have no doubt that the Department will fight through whatever difficulties we face, and thrive in the years to come!

The department has seen renewed growth in recent years, in faculty, in students, in teaching and research activities, and most importantly, in excitement for what we can achieve now and in the future.  We will try to keep this momentum going and continue to build a strong and vibrant department!

Please share with us stories of your work and your life.  And have a great 2025!

Best wishes,

Xuedong Hu
Chair and Professor of Physics

In his opening remarks, Prof. Sambandamurthy Ganapathy, Associate Dean of Research in the College of Arts and Sciences, offered students his deep insights and advices. He discussed current nationwide landscape and trends of physics PhDs and emerging opportunities, and diverse career resources available at UB. He emphasized the importance of identifying appropriate research areas and specialized research skills, joining a research group early, and navigating the job market based on evidences.  Prof. Xuedong Hu, Department Chair, followed with highlights of research areas and recent achievements of the department.  He encouraged students to always maintain their curiosity and work hard. Four faculty members, Profs. Wanyi Nie, Andrea Markelz, Herbert Fotso and Peihong Zhang, then introduced a wide range of research topics, from novel semiconductors, renewable energy, protein dynamics, biophysics of cyanobacteria, to nonequilibrium dynamics in quantum many body systems, to computational materials physics. 

22 graduate students presented their work at the symposium, either through poster or oral presentations, including several first- and second-year graduate students. Faculty and students engaged in lively discussions and exchange of ideas, with faculty providing feedback to students on their project and presentation skills. The event was a testament to the vibrant, collaborative research atmosphere within the department and a growing and enthusiastic graduate student community.

Among all the outstanding presentations, Jeffrey Carvalho and Nitin Kumar won the Best Oral Presentation Award. Nawanath Budhathoki, Huai Chang and Naume Shentevski were selected for the Best Poster Award. Congratulations!

Participant students were equally enthusiastic.

The Graduate Studies Committee intends to make the Graduate Research Symposium a tradition for the department.  We will continue to seek feedbacks from students and faculty alike to help us create more exciting events in the future.

A successful event like this Symposium is impossible to pull off without a lot of people working behind the scenes. The symposium was conceived by Prof. Priya Banerjee, our Director of Graduate Studies, helped by the organization committee of Profs. Wanyi Nie, Herbert Fotso, Dusan Sarenac, and Hao Zeng. Administrative Assistant Rachel Bolden, Department Administrator Nicole Pannullo, and the Graduate Studies Coordinator Amy Arends helped take care of the logistics. Many student volunteers assisted by setting up posters, coffee and foods, and helping with cleaning up. Thanks to all their contributions, the Symposium ran smoothly and successfully.

By Hao Zeng, PhD

On July 26, 2024, the University at Buffalo (UB) Department of Physics successfully concluded its week-long High School Summer Science Program, an immersive exploration into the world of magnetism. Led by Dr. Hao Zeng, the Moti Lal Rustgi Professor of Physics at UB, and Professor Xuemei Cheng, Dean of Graduate Studies and Rachel C. Hale Professor at Bryn Mawr College, the program brought together a group of promising young scientists from the local community eager to deepen their understanding of physics through hands-on experiences.

Throughout the program, students engaged in laboratory experiments, investigating topics such as earth’s magnetic fields and magnetic hysteresis, while refining their data analysis skills. As part of their learning process, participants presented their findings and produced college-level lab reports, which were critiqued by the two professors. These activities nurtured a scientific mindset that will help them tackle complex real-world problems and improve their scientific communication skills.

The program also included exciting demonstrations, such as remote power transmission and the levitation of magnets by high-temperature superconductors, providing students with a real-world perspective on the practical applications of magnetic technologies. Additionally, participants had the opportunity to tour UB’s state-of-the-art nanofabrication facilities, offering a glimpse into advanced scientific research and technology development. At the conclusion of the program, participants received a certificate as a record of their achievements.

The assistance of students Priyanka, Liam Jones, and Jennifer Rittenhouse (BMC), along with department staff member Rachel Bolden, was crucial to the program’s success. The National Science Foundation and UB’s Department of Physics provided generous financial support, which is gratefully acknowledged.

They had thoroughly researched this problem and had a very detailed technical plan, which is not surprising since SEDS designs and builds its own rockets, including the fuel, from scratch. What they needed from the Physics Department was helium gas to inflate their weather balloon. Fortunately, the Department has a large reserve of helium gas that was recollected from low-temperature experiments using liquid helium in Fronczak Hall when the Cryogenics Facility was running. In more recent years, demand for liquid helium dramatically fell as most new cryogenic systems now use a self-contained helium gas recovery and liquefaction system, so the Cryogenics Facility was shut down. However, we saved the recovered helium gas, and this was a great opportunity to put a small fraction of it to good use. I first met with Nicholas McNally (aerospace engineering graduate student) and Krish Patel (Physics BS student) in September 2023 to discuss our helium gas supply. A major concern was that that since our helium gas was recovered at ambient pressure in labs through latex hoses and piped throughout Fronczak in PVC tubing, it was not of the highest purity and could have been contaminated by air before it was compressed into high pressure tanks. At the low temperature of high altitudes, any impurities in the gas such as water vapor, can freeze and cause the balloon’s thin latex membrane to crack prematurely. The students filled several small balloons with our helium gas and put them in a freezer to check if there was any water vapor in the gas, which would have frozen. The freezer results were promising, and the first real test of our helium gas and the students’ balloon/payload design occurred on March 13 when a test balloon was launched. The payload included a Go-Pro camera, chemical handwarmer packets to keep the batteries from freezing, a DIY altimeter, and a GPS locator/transmitter to keep track of position of the payload so that its path can be recorded, and it can be found after it lands. Typically, weather balloons expand as they rise due to the surrounding air pressure of the atmosphere decreasing, eventually rupturing at altitudes between 60,000 and 110,000 feet. Then the payload falls back to earth suspended beneath a parachute.

The launch of the test balloon was successful, and the payload travelled around 100 miles to the southeast, landing NEAR (we’ll get back to this later!)  Seneca Lake. The flight path is shown in picture below. This experience provided important lessons, and the students were confident about the eclipse launch on April 8. UB’s President, Provost, and SEAS Dean were at the launch, which went according to plan. Unfortunately for viewers on the ground, there was significant cloud cover that obscured the eclipse. This is exactly why SEDS planned this flight! Unlike the test flight, which landed short of Seneca Lake, the payload on April 8 (with all the precious and irreplaceable video data stored in the camera!) landed IN the lake. Our intrepid students prepared for this possibility by putting floatation devices on the payload and the recovery team brought its own kayak to fish the payload out of the lake. Fortunately, the students were able to dry out the camera and recover the video. The video is spectacular – youtube link provided at end of the article.

In addition to getting a clear view of the eclipse above the clouds, the high perch of the balloon camera allowed us to see the moon’s shadow move across the clouds. A photo of totality is included below. Unfortunately, the camera’s resolution couldn’t separate the solar corona from the dark moon, so the sun appears bright in the photo. However, one can see the darkness of space surrounding the sun as well as the planet Venus. This is the first total eclipse that I have experienced and seeing the sun as a heavenly body, a star, surrounded by dark empty space (not just a bright disk in the blue sky, being partially blocked) was the most amazing part.

I think it is fitting that helium, which was discovered in 1868 during a solar eclipse through its bright spectral emission lines in the solar corona and which is named after the sun, was a key element in SEDS’ dramatic exploration of our solar eclipse on April 8. I must admit that the numerous partial eclipses that I have seen in the past (some that were less than 20% away from totality) cannot be compared to a total eclipse. The total eclipse was a completely different experience for me and I’m glad the SEDS was able to make it even more special!