Pappalardo Fellows in Physics: Former Fellows

Overview

Current Pappalardo Fellows in Physics: 2007-08 Academic Year

Incoming Pappalardo Fellows in Physics: 2008-11 Fellowship Term

Former Pappalardo Fellows in Physics:

• Prof. Marija Drndic, University of Pennsylvania
• Prof. Michael (Misha) Fogler, University of California at San Diego
• Prof. Joshua Folk, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• Prof. Margaret Gardel, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago
• Prof. Ilya Gruzberg, University of Chicago
• Dr. Matthew Headrick, Stanford University
• Prof. Dr. Walter Hofstetter, Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, J. W. Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt, Germany
• Dr. David Kielpinski, Griffith University, Australia
• Dr. Benjamin Lane, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
• Dr. J. Michael Niczyporuk, Associate, Mitchell Madison Group, NY, NY
• Dr. Carlos Nunez, University of Wales, Swansea
• Prof. Katherine Rawlins, University of Alaska
• Prof. Gabriella Sciolla, MIT
• Prof. Robert Simcoe, MIT
• Prof. Marin Soljacic, MIT
• Dr. David Tong, Lecturer [Assistant Professor], University of Cambridge
• Prof. Arpita Upadhyaya, University of Maryland
• Prof. Ashvin Vishwanath, University of California, Berkeley

Pappalardo Fellowships Program Founder: A. Neil Pappalardo (EE '64)

OVERVIEW

Currently, the Program holds a membership of six Fellows, each of whom is affiliated with either an MIT physics faculty member's research group or an MIT-affiliated physics research center, while pursuing their independent Pappalardo-funded research. Below are the biographies, research areas and related information of our former Fellows.

[top]

FORMER PAPPALARDO FELLOWS IN PHYSICS

PROF. MARIJA DRNDIC, University of Pennsylvania
Condensed Matter Experiment: 2000-03 Fellow

Research Interests
The common theme of Marija's research interests has been mesoscopics, which is broadly defined as the physics of small scales and low temperatures. Many physical systems are in the mesoscopic regime. For example, cold electrons in semiconductor heterostructures have been extensively studied. Newer examples include laser-cooled atoms and nanocrystals. Interesting quantum effects have been observed when particles are confined inside small low-dimensional structures comparable in size to some characteristic wavelength of the particle.

Marija's work at MIT included the study and development of artificial solids composed of nanocrystals, in collaboration with Prof. Moungi Bawendi of the MIT Department of Chemisty and Prof. Marc Kastner of the Department of Physics. Specifically, she studied electronic transport in arrays of CdSe nanocrystals. Each nanocrystal is a cluster of about a thousand atoms, a millionth of a millimeter in size, having the properties of both atoms and crystals. Their size and composition can be tailored. Nanocrystals pack in arrays like oranges in crates to form artificial solids with new properties. While expanding our understanding of the fundamental physics behind them, these materials also lead to novel electronic and optical applications.

Biosketch
Marija received her undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics (summa cum laude) from Harvard University, followed by a year at Cambridge University as a Herschel Smith Fellow, where she completed a M.Phil. She returned to Harvard to complete her Ph.D. in Physics, in 2000.

[top]

PROF. MICHAEL (MISHA) FOGLER, University of California at San Diego
Condensed MatterTheory: 2000–03 Fellow

Research Interests
Michael's research interests are focused on low-dimensional and mesoscopic electron systems, quantum Hall effect, and pinning of elastic media by disorder.

Biosketch
Michael began his study of physics and related disciplines at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, from which he graduated in 1991 with the Russian equivalent of an M.S. degree. He came to the U.S. in 1992 to continue his education under the supervision of Prof. Boris Shklovskii at the University of Minnesota, where he received his Ph.D. 1997. His thesis was devoted to the quantum Hall effect in low magnetic fields. Before coming to MIT as a Pappalardo Fellow, Michael was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1997–2000.

[top]

PROF. JOSHUA FOLK, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Condensed Matter Experiment: 2003-06 Fellow

Research Interests
The last two decades have seen remarkable technological advances in manipulating matter on micron, and now nanometer, length scales. These technological advances in turn have enabled transport experiments that probe the solid state physics that emerges at small length scales, due to confinement in one (e.g. fractional quantum Hall effect), two (e.g. quantum point contacts), or all three dimensions (e.g. single electron physics in quantum dots and nanocrystals).

Recently, it has become experimentally feasible to take the logical next step in this direction, looking at the electrical properties of a single molecule in a transport measurement. Many technical difficulties remain to make these measurements clean and reliable, but they promise exquisite sensitivity to interactions due to the angstrom size scale of simple molecules, as well as the near-perfect repeatability of chemical synthesis. Among the first directions Joshua Folk will be pursuing in this new field is examining the signatures of a hyperfine interaction in transport, with the eventual goal hopefully to detect the polarization of a single nuclear spin.

Biosketch
Folk received his B.S. in Physics with Honors from Stanford University in 1995. He spent two years in the Peace Corps in Tanzania before returning to graduate school, again at Stanford, in 1998, with Charles Marcus as his advisor. Folk received his Ph.D. in March 2003, and worked for five months as a postdoctoral researcher with Isaac Chuang at MIT before his Pappalardo Fellowship began in September of that year. In January of 2005, he accepted a postdoctoral associate position at the University of Delft, prior to beginning a faculty position at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in 2006.

[top]

PROF. MARGARET GARDEL, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, University of Chicago
Biophysics: 2004–07 Fellow

Research Interests
Margaret Gardel's research interests lie in understanding how living cells sense and generate mechanical forces. The mechanical properties of cells are determined by a dynamic polymer network called the cytoskeleton. Cell division and motility require the generation of mechanical forces in the cytoskeleton at micron length scales. Mechanisms of cytoskeletal force generation at molecular length scales include motor proteins and the polymerization of rigid filaments. While the qualitative features of these two mechanisms of force generation are understood, very little is known about how local forces are transduced to induce contractile or protrusive forces in the cytoskeleton at micron length scales.

Living cells can also sense changes in the external mechanical environment. Gardel is interested in understanding how these external mechanical signals are sensed by the cell and are converted to chemical signals to regulate cell activity.

Biosketch
Gardel earned her Ph.D. in the spring of 2004 at Harvard University in Experimental Soft Condensed Matter with Prof. David Weitz. The primary focus of her thesis was probing the origins of the elasticity of Actin Networks. In 1998, she received her undergraduate degree in Physics and Math from Brown University. From 1998-99, Gardel was an assistant coach with Brown Women's Crew.

[top]

PROF. ILYA GRUZBERG, University of Chicago
Condensed Matter Theory: 2001–04 Fellow

Research Interests
Ilya's research is focused mainly on electronic systems with quenched disorder. They exhibit many complex phenomena, rich variety of phases and transitions between them. Examples include mesoscopic quantum transport, localization, quantum Hall effects, metal-insulator and superconductor-insulator transitions. He is also interested in superconductivity, strongly correlated systems, phase transitions, disordered statistical mechanics models, and field-theoretical and algebraic (symmetry-based) methods in condensed matter physics.

Biosketch
Ilya is a condensed matter theorist. He got his undergraduate degree from Perm University in Russia, and then M.S. and PhD from Yale University. After spending three years as a postdoc at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara Ilya joined MIT's Department of Physics as a Pappalardo Fellow. In the fall of 2002, he joined the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago as an Assistant Professor.

[top]

DR. MATTHEW HEADRICK, Stanford University
String Theory: 2003-06 Fellow

Research Interests
Matthew Headrick has worked on a variety of areas in string theory, including noncommutative solitons, the AdS/CFT correspondence, and closed string tachyon condensation.

He is currently working on a project that aims to bridge numerical relativity and string compactification. String theory requires extra spatial dimensions beyond the three that have so far been observed. It is generally believed that, if string theory is correct, the extra dimensions are curled up into a compact manifold of very small size. This manifold must have a geometry that obeys the Einstein equations, as dictated by the general theory of relativity. The existence of geometries solving these equations is guaranteed by an abstract mathematical theorem that was proved over 25 years ago, but the equations are so complicated that to date no one has succeeded in finding even a single explicit solution. Headrick, along with his collaborator Toby Wiseman of Harvard University, has developed efficient techniques to solve these equations on a computer, and has applied them to some simple examples of string compactifications.

Biosketch
Headrick received his A.B. in Physics from Princeton University in 1994. From 1994 to 1996, he served in the Peace Corps in Gabon. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2003, and was a Visiting Fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay before starting his Pappalardo Fellowship in the fall of 2003. He is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

[top]

PROF. WALTER HOFSTETTER, Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, J. W. Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt, Germany
Condensed Matter Theory: 2003–06 Fellow

Research Interests
During the last decade, a significant overlap has developed between mesoscopic and solid-state physics, leading to an increasing number of research issues that are of great interest in both fields. In particular, effects of electron-electron interactions are clearly visible in electronic nanostructures and in bulk solids. The Kondo effect in quantum dots is a very clear example of a solid-state phenomenon that has been "rediscovered" in nanostructures, with dramatically enhanced control of key parameters. Hofstetter is employing numerical renormalization group techniques to describe low-energy effects of this type that are beyond the reach of perturbation theory.

More recently, he has become interested in ensembles of ultracold atoms. Evaporative cooling and optical lattices have led to correlated many-atom systems with accurately tunable interactions. This opens up the fascinating perspective of realizing and clarifying phenomena like superfluidity or magnetism in a new context. Ultimately, "quantum simulations" of open problems in condensed matter physics (e.g. high-temperature superconductivity) will be possible.

Biosketch
Prior to coming to MIT in the fall of 2003 as a Pappalardo Fellow in Physics, Hofstetter was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University (2001-2003). He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Augsburg University, Germany, in 2000 and his Diploma from Ludwigs-Maximilians-University in Munich, in 1997. Hofstetter joined the faculty of RWTH Aachen, Germany, in the fall of 2004 where is now an Associate Professor of Physics.

[top]

DR. DAVID KIELPINSKI, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University, Australia
Atomic Physics: 2002-05 Fellow

Research Interests
1. Quantum computing, measurement, and control with Yb+ ions.
2. Two photon laser cooling of hydrogen.

Biosketch
Kielpinski received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 2001, and performed his thesis research under Dr. David Wineland at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, working on experiments in quantum computation with trapped ions. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1996 with degrees in physics (honors) and mathematics.

[top]

DR. BENJAMIN LANE, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
Experimental Astrophysics: 2003-06 Fellow

Research Interests
Ben Lane's research interests center around using high angular resolution techniques such as interferometry and adaptive optics to study a range of problems in astronomy and planetary science. Specifically, he has used interferometry to resolve the pulsations of Cepheid variable stars, making it possible to derive geometric distances to these important stars. In addition, Lane has used interferometry and adaptive optics to measure dynamical masses of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.

Lane is also working on developing techniques to find and study extra-solar planets, in particular, various interferometric approaches such as narrow-angle astrometry and differential phase techniques.

Biosketch
During his three years as a Pappalardo Fellow in Physics at MIT, Lane was affiliated with the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, were he's currently a Research Scientist. Previously, he was a graduate student in the Caltech Planetary Science department, working with Shri Kulkarni on high angular resolution techniques in astronomy, including interferometry and adaptive optics. Before graduate school he worked for Mark Colavita at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on interferometry. He obtained an undergraduate degree in Astronomy from Caltech in 1997.

[top]

DR. J. MICHAEL NICZYPORUK, Associate, Mitchell Madison Group, NY, NY
Theoretical Particle Physics: 2002–05 Fellow

Research Interests
Niczyporuk's interests in particle theory were very diverse, ranging from formal aspects of strongly-coupled gauge theories, to electroweak symmetry breaking and fermion mass generation, to the mysteries of Quantum Chromodynamics at large distances. He was broadly interested in novel applications of nonperturbative techniques, particularly based on supersymmetry and string theory, both for understanding the dynamics of gauge theories in general and for realistic model building at the weak scale and beyond.

Biosketch
As a Pappalardo Fellow, Niczyporuk pursued research in particle theory within the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2000, having worked on the physics of fermion mass generation with Scott Willenbrock and his postdoctoral associate, Fabio Maltoni. He did his undergraduate work at MIT (B.S. in Physics, 1997), completing a thesis under Robert Redwine and Richard Milner. In the spring of 2004, Niczyporuk left academia, and theoretical physics research, for the world of international financial consulting.

[top]

DR. CARLOS NUNEZ, University of Wales, Swansea
String Theory: 2002-05 Fellow

Research Interests
Carlos Nunez is primarily interested in studying the connection between string theory and gauge theories. This connection is the reason why, in the early 1970s, string theory was first considered. Only later was it realized that string theory could provide a quantum theory of gravity.

There are many indications of the relation between gravity/string and gauge theories. Within this framework, one of the goals is to be able to describe non-perturbative effects in realistic gauge field theories from a dual viewpoint. This means finding an alternative description of phenomena where the usual methods and computation fail or are not reliable.Many examples of this correspondence are already known, but a complete picture is still lacking. This area, however, gives us a point of contact with models and effects that could be confirmed in (near) future experiments. Furthermore the connection is made via string theory, which is, perhaps, the most interesting development in the last twenty years of theoretical physics.

Biosketch
Nunez was born and educated in Argentina. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Buenos Aires University, and also worked in the theoretical physics group of La Plata University.

From 1999–2001, Nunez was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, and inOctober 2001 joined the Department of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral fellow.

[top]

PROF. KATHERINE RAWLINS, University of Alaska
Gravitational-wave Astronomy: 2003-06 Fellow

Research Interests
Gravitational waves are very weak signals, small ripples in spacetime which propagate through the universe, emitted by cataclysmic events involving massive objects. No one has ever measured one directly, but the LIGO collaboration, which operates two large laser interferometer experiments in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, ishoping to be the first. Potential sources for gravitational waves include the merger of compact objects (such as neutron stars), supernovae explosions, or gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), whose exact nature is unknown.

Rawlins is involved with the working group on "burst sources"; their mission is to develop algorithms which search for any kind of interesting-looking needles in the haystack of data. If found, gravitational waves could carry with them information about distant explosive objects which is not attainable by any other means, and would allow astronomers to explore the universe in a new way.

Biosketch
Before becoming a Pappalardo Fellow in 2003, Katherine Rawlins was a winter–overscientist at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, working with the AMANDA experiment (Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array) located there. She did her graduate work also on AMANDA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating in 2001. Rawlins' undergraduate work was at Yale University, graduating in 1996.

[top]

DR. DAVID TONG, Lecturer [Assistant Professor], University of Cambridge
String Theory: 2001–04 Fellow

Research Interests
String theory is an ambitious project. It purports to be an all-encompassing theory of the universe, unifying the forces of nature, including gravity, in a single quantum mechanical framework. The theory involves many elegant mathematical ideas, woven together to form a rich and beautiful tapestry of unprecedented sophistication. It is also quite hard.

Tong is particularly interested in applying ideas and techniques from string theory toother systems of physical interest, from condensed matter physics to cosmology. His hope is to one day extract an experimental prediction from string theory or, at the very least, from a string theorist.

Recent highlights of Tong's research include a novel mechanism for slow roll inflation in the early universe, a new mathematical description of the way vortices bounce off each other in superconductors and quantum Hall fluids, and a curious investigation into the dynamics of two-dimensional black holes.

Biosketch
David Tong received his Ph.D. from the University of Wales in 1998, spending two years in Swansea, and the final year in Seattle in a misguided attempt to flee the Welsh weather. His first postdoc was at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Mumbai where he developed his enduring love of Bollywood musicals. He held subsequent positions at Kings College, London, and Columbia University, New York City, before moving to MIT in 2001. This is the longest he has ever held down a job. Tong accepted a tenured lectureship from the University of Cambridge, beginning in the fall of 2004.

[top]

PROF. ARPITA UPADHYAYA, University of Maryland
Biophysics: 2002-05 Fellow

Research Interests
The theme of Arpita's current research is to understand the physical basis of biological motion. Motion is one of the most defining attributes of living things and involves a series of mechanical transduction processes between the release of chemical energy and actual movement. One challenge for physicists is to understand how biology exploits physical processes to cause movement. Arpita focuses on two biological machines that move by employing different physical principles: the polymerization motor of actin and the contractile stalk of Vorticella.

The directed growth of polymerizing actin filaments adjacent to the cell membrane drives cell movement. Specifically, how filaments act cooperatively in a bundle to produce enough force to move the cell remains an open question. Arpita studies the force generation due to actin polymerization by using a reduced system of membrane vesicles, actin and other essential proteins that self-organize into cell-like structures which move. She quantifies the spatio-temporal dynamics of actin based forces by using sensitive microscopy and micromanipulation techniques.

At a different length scale, the contractile stalks of the single celled organism, Vorticella, are among the most powerful cellular machines that generate biological movement. The contraction of this biological spring occurs at extremely high speeds and is driven by the imbalance between electrostatic and entropic forces. Using ultra high-speed microscopy and Calcium imaging, Arpita attempts to obtain a detailed understanding of the biophysical mechanism of contraction.

Biosketch
Arpita received her undergraduate degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India, in 1994. She entered the world of biophysics at the University of Notre Dame, where she completed her Ph.D. in Physics. She joined MIT for postdoctoral research in 2000, first in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and then in the Department of Physics.

[top]

PROF. ASHVIN VISHWANATH, University of California, Berkeley
Hard Condensed Matter Theory: 2001–04 Fellow

Research Interests
Vishwanath is interested in studying new phases of matter where interactions between the constituent particles (like the electrons in certain solids) are so strong, that the appropriate description of the system is in terms of entirely new objects. For example, it has long been known that when electrons are confined to a line they form a Luttinger liquid state in which the spin and the charge of the electron are carried by separate entities—the electron has, in a sense, been split apart. Vishwanath has worked on trying to generalize this mechanism to higher dimensions; one attempt has been the Sliding Luttinger liquid phase.

He is also interested in phase transformations driven by quantum fluctuations. Recently, such transitions were studied in the presence of screening and dissipation, which was found to drastically alter the universal properties at the transition.

Vishwanath has also worked on the physics of d-wave superconductor quasiparticles in the vortex state, where a thermal analogue of the quantized Hall effect could be realised. More recently, heat conductivity measurements in the cuprate d-wave superconductors at higher temperatures, were explained by studying the scattering of Dirac quasiparticles off a single vortex.

Biosketch
Vishwanath completed his doctoral work from Princeton University in 2001, where his thesis was on the physics of superconductor quasiparticles in the vortex state. His undergraduate degree was from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. After three years as a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT, Vishwanath became a member of the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in the fall of 2004.

[top]