School of Humanities and Sciences


Showing 21-40 of 70 Results

  • Leo Hollberg

    Leo Hollberg

    Professor (Research) of Physics and of Geophysics

    BioHow can we make optimal use of quantum systems (atoms, lasers, and electronics) to test fundamental physics principles, enable precision measurements of space-time and when feasible, develop useful devices, sensors, and instruments?

    Professor Hollberg’s research objectives include high precision tests of fundamental physics as well as applications of laser physics and technology. This experimental program in laser/atomic physics focuses on high-resolution spectroscopy of laser-cooled and -trapped atoms, non-linear optical coherence effects in atoms, optical frequency combs, optical/microwave atomic clocks, and high sensitivity trace gas detection. Frequently this involves the study of laser noise and methods to circumvent measurement limitations, up to, and beyond, quantum limited optical detection. Technologies and tools utilized include frequency-stabilized lasers and chip-scale atomic devices. Based in the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory (HEPL), this research program has strong, synergistic, collaborative connections to the Stanford Center on Position Navigation and Time (SCPNT). Research directions are inspired by experience that deeper understanding of fundamental science is critical and vital in addressing real-world problems, for example in the environment, energy, and navigation. Amazing new technologies and devices enable experiments that test fundamental principles with high precision and sometimes lead to the development of better instruments and sensors. Ultrasensitive optical detection of atoms, monitoring of trace gases, isotopes, and chemicals can impact many fields. Results from well-designed experiments teach us about the “realities” of nature, guide and inform, occasionally produce new discoveries, frequently surprise, and almost always generate new questions and perspectives.

  • Shamit Kachru

    Shamit Kachru

    Professor of Physics and Director, Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy current research is focused in three directions:

    — Mathematical aspects of string theory (with a focus on BPS state counts, black holes, and moonshine)

    — Quantum field theory approaches to condensed matter physics (with a focus on physics of non-Fermi liquids)

    — Theoretical biology, with a focus on evolution and ecology

  • Renata Kallosh

    Renata Kallosh

    Stanford W. Ascherman, MD Professor, Emerita

    BioWhat is the mathematical structure of supergravity/string theory and its relation to cosmology?

    Professor Kallosh works on the general structure of supergravity and string theory and their applications to cosmology. Her main interests are related to the models early universe inflation and dark energy in string theory. She develops string theory models explaining the origin of the universe and its current acceleration. With her collaborators, she has recently constructed de Sitter supergravity, which is most suitable for studies of inflation and dark energy and spontaneously broken supersymmetry.

    She is analyzing possible consequences of the expected new data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the results of current and future cosmological observations, including Planck satellite CMB data. These results may affect the relationship between superstring theory and supergravity, and the real world. Professor Kallosh works, in particular, on future tests of string theory by CMB data and effective supergravity models with flexible amplitude of gravitational waves produced during inflation.

  • Aharon Kapitulnik

    Aharon Kapitulnik

    Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics

    BioAharon Kapitulnik is the Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professor in Applied Physics at the Departments of Applied Physics and Physics at Stanford University. His research focuses on experimental condensed matter physics, while opportunistically, also apply his methods to tabletop experimental studies of fundamental phenomena in physics. His recent studies cover a broad spectrum of phenomena associated with the behavior of correlated and disordered electron systems, particularly in reduced dimensions, and the development of effective instrumentation to detect subtle signatures of physical phenomena.

    Among other recognitions, his activities earned him the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1986-90), a Presidential Young Investigator Award (1987-92), a Sackler Scholar at Tel-Aviv University (2006), the Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Prize for Superconductivity Experiment (2009), a RTRA (Le Triangle de la Physique) Senior Chair (2010), and the Oliver Buckley Condensed Matter Prize of the American Physical Society (2015). Aharon Kapitulnik is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Kapitulnik holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Tel-Aviv University (1984).

  • Steven Kivelson

    Steven Kivelson

    Prabhu Goel Family Professor

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPast Graduate Students:

    Assa Auerbach - Professor of Physics, Technion University
    Weikang Wu - deceased.
    Shoucheng Zhang (final year) - deceased.
    Shivaji Sondhi - Wykham Professor of Physics, Oxford University
    Markku Salkola - Facebook, Menlo Park
    Vadim Oganesyan - Professor of Physics CUNY
    Kyrill Shtengle - Professor of Physics, UC Riverside
    Oron Zachar
    Zohar Nussinov - Professor of Physics, Washington University
    Erica W. Carlson - Professor of Physics, Purdue University
    Edward Sleva
    John Robertson - Citadel, Austin
    Wei-Feng Tsai
    Ian Bindloss
    Paul Oreto - Head of Machine Learning at Cantor Fitzgerald, New York
    Erez Berg - Professor of Physics, Weizmann Institute
    Hong Yao - Professor of Physics, Tsinghua University
    Li Liu
    George Karakonstantakis
    Sam Lederer
    Laimei Nie - Assistant Professor of Physics, Purdue University
    Ilya Esterlis - Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
    John Dodaro
    Chao Wang - Citadel LLC, New York
    Yue Yu - Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
    Yuval Gannot - Google,

    Past Post Docs:

    Douglas Stone - Professor of Physics, Yale University
    Gergeley Zimanyi - Professor of Physics, UC Davis
    Dror Orgad - Professor of Physics, Tel Aviv University
    Hae-Young Kee - Professor of Physics, University of Toronto
    Oskar Vafek - Professor of Physics, University of Florida
    Eun-Ah Kim - Professor of Physics, Cornell University
    Srinivas Raghu - Professor of Physics, Stanford University
    Maisam Barkeshli - Professor of Physics, University of Maryland
    Pavan Hosur - Professor of Physics, University of Houston
    Yi Zhang - Professor of Physics, Tsinghua University
    Abulhassan Vaezi - Professor of Physics, Sharifi University
    Jingyuan Chen - Assistant Professor of Physics, Tsinghua University
    Yoni Schattner - Research Scientist, Quantum Computing at the Amazon Center for
    Quantum Computing at Caltech, Pasadena
    John Sous - Assistant Professor of Chemistry, UCSD

    Past Undergraduate Research Assistants:

    Kevin S. Wang - Graduate student, Princeton University
    Jeffrey Chang - Graduate student, Harvard University
    Vijay Nathan Josephs - Undergraduate, Stanford University

    Unofficial Past Students and Post Docs:

    (i.e. where I believe I played the corresponding mentoring role, but the connection
    was unofficial - a shameless attempt to claim partial credit):
    Shoucheng Zhang - (did his final year of PhD work, the part in CMT, under my direction and
    worked with me extensively while a post doc)
    Jainendra Jain - (did the final portion of his PhD work, the part relevant to the quantum
    Hall effect, under my guidance and worked with me extensively while a post doc)
    Daniel Rokhsar - (No official connection at all, but did significant portion of both his
    graduate and post-doctoral research in collaboration with me.)
    Akash Maharaj - (was a student of Srinivas Raghu with whom he worked extensively, but
    he also did a significant portion of his graduate research in collaboration with me.)

  • Chao-Lin Kuo

    Chao-Lin Kuo

    Professor of Physics and of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

    Current Research and Scholarly Interests1. Searching/measuring primordial gravitational waves in the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) through experiments at the South Pole (BICEP and SPT), high plateaus in Tibet (AliCPT) and Atacama (Simons Observatory), as well as in space (LiteBIRD).

    2. Development and applications of superconducting detector and readout systems in astrophysics, cosmology, and other areas.

    3. Novel detector concepts for axion searches (https://youtu.be/UBscQSFzpLE)

  • Robert Laughlin

    Robert Laughlin

    Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences

    BioProfessor Laughlin is a theorist with interests ranging from hard-core engineering to cosmology. He is an expert in semiconductors (Nobel Prize 1998) and has also worked on plasma and nuclear physics issues related to fusion and nuclear-pumped X-ray lasers. His technical work at the moment focuses on “correlated-electron” phenomenology – working backward from experimental properties of materials to infer the presence (or not) of new kinds of quantum self-organization. He recently proposed that all Mott insulators – including the notorious doped ones that exhibit high-temperature superconductivity – are plagued by a new kind of subsidiary order called “orbital antiferromagnetism” that is difficult to detect directly. He is also the author of A Different Universe, a lay-accessible book explaining emergent law.

  • Benjamin Lev

    Benjamin Lev

    Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLevLab is a joint AMO & CM experimental group that explores the question: Can new classes of states and phases of quantum matter be created far away from equilibrium, and if so, what do we learn? We use our new technique, confocal cavity QED, to both engineer out-of-equilibrium quantum gases and 2D materials and to image and control their new properties.

  • Craig Levin

    Craig Levin

    Professor of Radiology (Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford/Nuclear Medicine) and, by courtesy, of Physics, of Electrical Engineering and of Bioengineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular Imaging Instrumentation
    Laboratory

    Our research interests involve the development of novel instrumentation and software algorithms for in vivo imaging of cellular and molecular signatures of disease in humans and small laboratory animal subjects.

  • Andrei Linde

    Andrei Linde

    Humanities and Sciences Professor

    BioWhat is the origin and the global structure of the universe?

    For a long time, scientists believed that our universe was born in the big bang, as an expanding ball of fire. This scenario dramatically changed during the last 35 years. Now we think that initially the universe was rapidly inflating, being in an unstable energetic vacuum-like state. It became hot only later, when this vacuum-like state decayed. Quantum fluctuations produced during inflation are responsible for galaxy formation. In some places, these quantum fluctuations are so large that they can produce new rapidly expanding parts of the universe. This process makes the universe immortal and transforms it into a multiverse, a huge fractal consisting of many exponentially large parts with different laws of low-energy physics operating in each of them.

    Professor Linde is one of the authors of inflationary theory and of the theory of an eternal inflationary multiverse. His work emphasizes the cosmological implications of string theory and supergravity.

    Current areas of focus:

    - Construction of realistic models of inflation based on supergravity and string theory
    - Investigation of conceptual issues related to the theory of inflationary multiverse

  • John Lipa

    John Lipa

    Professor (Research) of Physics, Emeritus

    BioJohn Lipa received his PhD at the University of Western Austrailia. He has acted as an assistant professor, senior research associate, and professor at Stanford University. Research interests include testing of various aspects of the renormalization group theory of cooperative phase transitions.

  • Raghu Mahajan

    Raghu Mahajan

    Senior Research Scientist

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests are wide-ranging:

    1) In the context of gravity, how does spacetime emerge from its dual quantum system? How does the dual quantum system encode the answers to questions that involve local physics in semi-classical gravity? How do you avoid the "firewall" paradox in the context of black-hole evaporation?

    2) How do you calculate electrical and heat currents in strongly-coupled many-body systems? How do you explain the linear-in-temperature resistivity in high-temperature cuprates?

    3) Use tensor network methods to study electrical and heat transport and also the real-time dynamics of systems out of thermal equilibrium.