Remarks and breakout space for Geography, Neuroscience, Physics, and Psychology department seniors and their families.
Location: McCardell-Bicentennial Hall, Great Hall
Middlebury College
The Mittelman Observatory is hosting an open house stargazing event on the MBH roof deck from 8:00 - 10:30pm on Friday October 25th. This event is open to the general public. For safety reasons, attendance is limited and registration is required. Please register for only one 45-minute stargazing time slot. Tickets are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. The event is free for all attendees. Note that this event will only take place if the sky is expected to be mostly clear.
Mittelman Observatory (McCardell Bicentennial Hall)
Open to the Public
The Mittelman Observatory is hosting a stargazing event on the MBH roof deck from 8:00 - 10:30pm on Friday October 18th. This event is open to Middlebury students, faculty/staff, alumni, and their families. For safety reasons, attendance is limited and registration is required. Please register for only one 45-minute stargazing time slot. Tickets are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. The event is free for all attendees. Note that this event will only take place if the sky is expected to be mostly clear.
Mittelman Observatory (McCardell Bicentennial Hall)
Mittelman Observatory (McCardell Bicentennial Hall)
Closed to the Public
McCardell Bicentennial Hall Tormondsen Great Hall
Welcome to our new colleague
Dr. McKinley Brumback will be joining the physics department faculty during the summer of 2023.
Research Interests
Dr. Brumback’s research focuses on the behavior of gas that is falling onto neutron stars: the ultra-dense cores that some stars leave behind after a supernova explosion. Neutron stars sustain magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field and are the perfect laboratory with which to study the behavior of matter in extreme environments. Dr. Brumback uses observations from X-ray satellites to investigate how the magnetic field in these systems traps and funnels hot gas onto the neutron star surface and how these gas flows change with time.
Mar. 15 2021 - Physics students and present at the APS March Meeting
Anne Goodsell receives the 2019 Marjorie Lamberti Faculty Appreciation Award
Prof. Eilat Glikman is featured in the new PBS NOVA program “Black Hole Apocalypse.” “Take a mind-blowing voyage to the most powerful and mysterious objects in the universe. More information can be found .
Welcome to our new colleague: Dr. Chris Herdman will be joining the physics department faculty during the summer of 2017.
Research Interests: My primary research interests lie at the intersection of condensed matter physics and quantum information science: I study quantum phases of matter (e.g. superfluids, superconductors, and Bose-Einstein condensates) from a quantum information perspective—for example, to understand how quantum matter might be used as the basis of a quantum computer. To these ends, I develop and use computational algorithms as theoretical tools to study quantum information properties (e.g. quantum entanglement) of strongly interacting quantum many-body systems.
Welcome to our new colleague: Dr. Paul Hess will be joining the physics department faculty during the summer of 2017.
Research Interests: My research focuses on studying the quantum mechanical properties of tiny crystals made of a few atomic or molecular ions, which are assembled, trapped and levitated in a vacuum chamber using electric forces. By imaging and manipulating these trapped ions with laser light, we can study their usefulness as the building blocks of a future quantum computer.
Welcome to our new colleague: Dr. Michael Durst will be joining the physics department faculty during the summer of 2014.
Research: My biomedical optics research involves looking deep within the body without making an incision. This is similar to ultrasound imaging, except I am interested in using light instead of sound. Light provides superior resolution, allowing you to see details on the cellular level. How can you see through the body? If you have ever looked at a flashlight pressed under your hand, you have witnessed light traveling through thick tissue. Biomedical imaging entails using lasers, nonlinear optics, and other clever tools to extract images from beneath the surface of biological tissue. With applications in cancer research, nanoparticle characterization, fiber optic endoscopes, and in vivo imaging, these efforts together will provide access to a wide array of unlabeled biological structures. By combining concepts in condensed matter physics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, optics, and biology, this area of research is ideal for undergraduate learning and an enrichment of their understanding of physics.
Background: I currently serve as a visiting assistant professor of physics at Bates College. Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. I did my graduate research in nonlinear biomedical optics at the School of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University (Ph.D. in applied physics, 2009). My passion for optics began as an undergraduate at Georgetown University (B.S. in physics, 2003), and I look forward to sharing my enthusiasm with the students at Middlebury College.
Welcome to our new colleague: Dr. Eilat Glikman will be joining the physics department faculty during the summer of 2013.
Research and Background: I study quasars and their role in the formation and evolution of galaxies. To do this I explore Active Galactic Nuclei demographics by data-mining large multi-wavelength sky surveys and conducting follow up observations. My focus is on dust-reddened quasars, an elusive population that represents a transitional phase in the evolution of active galaxies. I also study quasars at high redshifts to understand black hole growth in the early Universe.
I conducted my thesis work at Columbia University followed by postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology. After that, I was an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.
