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Introduction to University of Rochester
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Professor Arie Bodek
Chair, Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester
August 2006
University
of
Rochester
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The smallest major research university (among the 29 tier-one
research universities) in terms of students and faculty (but not in
terms of research funding and facilities)
About 3500 undergraduates (900 per year)
About 3000 graduate students
About 300 faculty in the College (River Campus)
About 300 faculty in the Medical School
(also Eastman School of Music, and Laboratory for Laser
Energetics).
 Physics and Astronomy Ranked 2nd Nationwide in Overall Graduate
Student Satisfaction
 Aim to provide a supportive environment to our faculty, graduate
students, and undergraduates.
 Promote collaboration between departments and research
laboratories
Recent Graduate Student National
lll Awards to UR Graduate Students in
Particle Physics - as an example
2006 APS Tanaka Award for Best PhD
Thesis in Experiment Particle Physics
Nationwide (Florencia Canelli)
URA Best PhD Thesis in Particle
Physics at Fermilab 2004, 2002, 2001
(out of 50 PhD Theses each year)
(Canelli, Yang, Fitch).
Selected Recent UR Faculty National
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Awards - choose one example per year
 2006 Adoph Lomb Medal of the Optical Society
of America - Prof. John Howell
 2005 Sakurai Prize in Theoretical Particle
Physics of the American Physical Society - Prof.
Susumo Okubo
 2004 Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle
Physics of the American Physical Society - Prof.
Arie Bodek
 2003 New State Professor of the Year Award Carnegie Foundation - Prof. Steve Manly
 2002 Esther Hoffman Beller Award of the
Optical Society of America - Prof. Emil Wolf
 2001 Elected Member of the National Academy
- Prof. Len Mandel
Department of Physics and Astronomy
lll At the University of Rochester
 Chair (final year of term)
 Associate Chair (TA and RA support)
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Arie Bodek
Frank Wolfs (06-07)
Assistant Chair
Sondra Anderson
Faculty Executive Committee - Nick Bigelow, Dan Watson,
Frank Wolfs
Teaching Faculty: 30 primary in Physics and Astronomy
+ 10 (joint appointments) + 35 (Cross Disciplinary Physics)
Research Faculty
- 10
Research Associates
- 40
Graduate Students
-100 (15-20/year)
Undergraduate majors
- 60 (15-20/year)
Technical and Administrative Support
lll Examples of a few Facilities
 Department Barnes Computing Center - 3 system managers
 Barnes Laboratories: Electronics, Design and Machine Shops (Design
Engineer, Electronic Tech, Machinist)
 Research Labs in Particle and Nuclear Physics
 Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE)
 Spitzer Space Telescope (+ local Mees Observatory)
 Institute of Optics + Other Optics Centers
 Center for Photoinduced Charge Transfer Reactions
 B&L Research Laboratories in Astrophysics, Condensed Matter, Quantum
Optics... etc.
 Strong Medical School (Biological/Medical Physics)
 Facilities at Xerox and Kodak, and collaborating UR departments.
 Experiments at Fermilab, Jefferson Lab, CERN, Brookhaven, CLEO
(Cornell), JPARC (Japan)
Research area 1 lll
Physics at small distances: 16 faculty
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Particle Physics (12 faculty)
– Bodek, Demina, Ferbel, Melissinos, McFarland, Slattery,
Thorndike, (+new search)
(Particle Experiment)
– Das, Hagen, Rajeev, Okubo, Orr (Particle Theory)
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Nuclear Physics (4)
- Cline, Manly, Wolfs, Schroeder (Nuclear/Particle Expt)
 Experiments at Fermilab (MINERvA - Neutrinos, CDF, Dzero), CERN
(LHC-CMS), Cornell (CLEO), BNL (RHIC), LBL, and Japan (JHF-JPARC
neutrinos) and other facilities
Research area 2 lll
Physics at intermediate distances
Condensed Matter Physics
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5 faculty + 20 collaborating faculty
Gao, Bocko , Rothberg
-Experiment
Shapir, Teitel , (Jordan)
- Theory
About 20 participating faculty in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering
Electrical Engineering departments and LLE
Quantum Optics and Optical Physics
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8 faculty + 10 collaborating faculty
Bigelow, Howell, Boyd, Novotny
-Experiment
Eberly, Wolf, Stroud, Agrawal, Jordan
- Theory
About 10 faculty in Institute of Optics/LLE:
Biological and Medical Physics
– 4 faculty (+new faculty search) + 5 collaborating facuty
– Foster, Zhong, Knox, Conwell
-Exp /Theory
– 5 Collaborating Faculty from Medical Center
Physics at intermediate distances
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Cross-Disciplinary Physics Program
Accelerator Physics (in collaboration with Fermilab)
 Atomic and Molecular Physics, Quantum Optics and Engineering
(AMO_
 Biological and Medical Physics
(Also MD/PhD Program)
 Chemical Physics
(also Joint PhD in Physics and Chemistry)
 Communication, Computational and Information
 Plasma Physics and Fusion
(Also Joint PhD in Physics and Mech E)
 Imaging Science and Astrophysics
 Condensed Matter Physics
 Low Temperature Physics
 Materials Science
 Micro-Electronics
 Optical and Laser Physics (Also Joint PhD in Physics and Optics)
 Joint PhD in Physics and History of Science (with special permission)
 35 External advisors in other departments:.
 Internal Advisor in Physics and Astronomy
 Approximately 30% of our students do Ph.D. thesis in this 2-advisor mode.
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Research area 3 lll
Physics at large distances
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Astronomy and Astrophysics 8 faculty plus collaborating faculty from
RIT
Forrest, Pipher, Watson, Quillen (+new) - Experiment/ObservationBlackman, Frank, Thomas
- Theory
And - Collaborative Program with 4 faculty at RIT
Plasma Physics and Laser Fusion - 7 faculty plus LLE
Frank, Blackman, Chen, Betti, Simon, Meyerhofer McCrory
Exp/Theory And LLE Senior Scientists
Geophysics and Environmental Physics/Climate
Tarduno, Blackman, Knox, Douglass
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Philosophy of Graduate Education
Graduate Students at Rochester come from a diverse national and international
background.
Student level of preparation varies, therefore, students can progress at their
own pace. Advanced students can take second year courses and pass the
prelim examination after 1 year. Typical students take the prelim exam after
1.5 years. Students who have not taken some undergraduate courses can take
upper level undergraduate courses if needed, and take the prelim exam after 2
years.
All students are expected to pass and continue on towards a Ph.D. Our
retention rate is high, and the few students who leave the Ph.D. program do so
for personal reasons (e.g. changing fields).
The number of available research positions is such that all entering students
are expected to join research groups as Research Assistants after one year as
Teaching Assistants.
The size of the entering class is determined under the assumption that all
students pass the prelim exam and continue on to a Ph.D. i.e. it is not
determined by the need for TA’s
( Note that in some large state schools the number of available research positions can accommodate only half
of the entering class thus half of the entering students are expected to leave.)
Each year, we aim at a class of 15-20
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(TA Slots are 22)
40
35
30
25
Foreign
20
Domestic
25
15
10
5
20
06
20
04
20
02
20
00
19
98
19
96
19
94
19
92
19
90
19
88
19
86
19
84
19
82
19
80
0
Year
06
05
04
03
02
01
00
99
98
97
96
95
94
93
92
91
90
89
88
87
86
85
84
83
82
81
80
Domestic
13
8
6
20
10
11
8
11
6
10
10
9
8
15
14
14
10
17
11
10
13
17
8
10
10
18
20
Foreign
12
7
5
16
5
11
5
22
9
9
5
8
0
11
11
5
16
11
11
13
11
7
11
11
7
12
6
Total
25
15
11
36
15
22
13
33
15
19
15
17
8
26
25
19
26
28
22
23
25
24
19
21
17
30
26
Educational Programs for Graduate
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 Two day TA training session for graduate teaching assistants before classes (one week
long for Lab TA’s), followed by Weekly Graduate Research and Teaching Seminars.
PHY597 - Attendance required of all first year graduate students
 In some courses Teaching Assistants (TA's) conduct recitations and grade homework and
exams. Some are taught using a computerized homework grading system and TA's have
office hours/help room. In some TA's are also Workshop Leaders, Laboratory TA’s coteach laboratory sections with undergraduate Teaching Interns (TI's). In some TA's only
grade homework /office hours.
 Certificate in College Teaching of Physics.
A program to train graduate students to teach a course as a full instructor. (for a teaching
careers) Graduate TA’s are trained during the academic year as TA’s in an introductory
undergraduate physics course. Subsequently, they teach the same course as a full
instructor in the summer session. (ask Prof. Watson).
 Machine shop and Electronics mini-courses. These mini-courses are offered each summer
to the 30undergraduates who participate in our REU Research Experience for
Undergraduate) program. They are open to interested graduate students in summer.
Undergraduate and Graduate courses in computing, electronics and data acquisition
(P322A and P322B) can be taken during the academic year.
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Where do our graduate students go
 Department has graduated about 750 Ph.D.s . At present, about 250 are faculty
members at Universities or Academic Research Institutes
 In 1999-2000: 28 Ph.D. Graduates. (14 per year)
 Universities+Labs:
18
14 Postdocs (Research) , 3 Assist. Professors, (teaching), 1 Astronaut
 Industry:
10
8 Scientists/Engineers, 2 business
Each year, we aim at a class of 15-20
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(TA Slots are 22)
PhD
199 9
199
199
199
199
199
199
199
199
199
199
199
199
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
2 00
200
200
200
200
200
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Em plo yer.
Univ. Was hingto n- St. Lo uis, Elec. Engr.
Dep t.
Broo kh a ve n N a tion al Lab.
TRW
Halcyon Inc., Toro n to
Sierra M on olit hics
Rio Gr ande Me dic al Te ch.
The Ha rt ford
Univ. Cop en hagen
Univ. Was hington
Univ. M aryl and
Co rn ing, Inc.
Univer sity of Michi g an
Univ. Roche st er
Univ. Roche st er
Albrig h t College
Nav al Avia tion Scho ol
Peb bles Te chn ologi es
Adv ant !
Univ. Roche st er, Inst. Op tics
The C ollege of Woo st er, Ohi o
NEC Resea r ch Inst it ut e, Inc.
Augu s tana College
Luc e nt Te chn olo gi es (NJ )
Nav al Research Lab.
Univ. Ariz ona, Op tical Sci. Cen ter
Univ. Flo rida (Br yant Sp ace Sci. Ctr.
Univ. of Ch icago
Luc e nt Te chn olo gi es
Name
Ca rney, Paul Sco t t
Title
Po st d o c
Ad visor
Wolf, E.
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Ch aloup ka, Jan Lu ci en
Go od n o, Greg or y
Gup ta, Vinita
Her r, Andrea
Hull, Edward L.
Khan, Adil A.
Lee, Chi- Wei He rbe rt
Markiel , J. Andrew
M cNau gh t, St ua r t J ames
Rahm an , Ashiqu r
Reis, D a vid A.
Sim on , Micha el Wilh elm
Bege l, Micha el
Buerke, Bri an
Cassada, Josh
Dad usc, Gami
Delamarter, Gu y
Fit ch, Micha el
Go e tz, J en nifer
Kuzm ich, Alex an der
Lar kin , John
Liu, Jinbo
M akinen , An t ti
Pu, Ha hn
Raines, S. Nich olas
Yan g, Un Ki
Ye, H on g
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Scie n tist
Mark e t in g Co ordin a tor
Scie n tist
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Assi s t. Pr o fessor
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Po st d o c
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Po st d o c
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Scie n tis t
Me yerhofer, D.
M iller , R. J.D. / Bigelow, N.
M yers Ke lley, Anne
Bocko, M.
Fost er, T.
Sch nidm an , Y./ Sha pir, Y.
Raje e v, S .
Thomas, J./ Van Ho rn , H.M.
Me yerhofer, D.
Eb e rly, J.H.
M elissin o s, A.C.
Clin e, D.
Slat t e r y, P.
Me yerhofer, D.
Tipton, P.
M iller, Dwa yne / Wolf, E.
Fra nk , Adam
Melissin o s, A.
Pipher, J.
M and el , L.
Fost er, T.
Bo d e k, A.
Gao, Y.
Bige low, N.
Wa t son, D.
Bo d e k, A.
Fau ch e t , Philip pe
QMX
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BPX
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NPX
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PPF
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QOX
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