News

March 15, 2005

Bassichis Honored for Teaching Excellence

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University Professor of Physics Dr. William H. Bassichis is one of five University faculty members who have been appointed to University Professorships in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, announced Executive Vice President and Provost David B. Prior. The three-year appointment carries an annual salary supplement of $5,000 provided by the University, as […]

March 11, 2005

New Generation of Minute Lasers Steps Into the Light

Microchip-based diode lasers have had a good run. They’re at the heart of CD and DVD players, computer disc optical drives, and a host of medical devices. Together, these and other applications add up to a sweet $3.5 billion market. But diode lasers can’t do it all. Researchers have struggled to get them to produce […]

March 11, 2005

Nobel Prize Winner to Become a Visiting Faculty Member

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dudley Herschbach wanted to be a cowboy since he was 6 years old. “My dad would call me ‘High Ho Silver’ because I thought I was the Lone Ranger,” he said. “I’ve identified with the romantic notion of Texas for many decades.” In the fall, Herschbach’s dream will come true, in part, […]

March 10, 2005

Nobel Prize Winner to Join Physics Faculty

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Dudley R. Herschbach, 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, will join Texas A&M University’s Department of Physics, effective September 1, 2005, announced Dr. Edward S. Fry, professor and head of Physics. Herschbach has accepted a position as professor of physics […]

March 9, 2005

Unique Fermi Lab Experiment Could Unravel Secrets of Universe

COLLEGE STATION — In the blink of an eye, an experiment was conducted last week almost 700 feet underground that could help reveal some of the secrets of the universe, and a Texas A&M University professor has played a key role in the process. Robert Webb, professor of physics, is part of the Fermi Lab […]

March 4, 2005

World Renowned Physicist to Address Optical Science

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Emil Wolf, Wilson Professor of Optical Physics at the University of Rochester and a world renowned authority on physical optics, will visit the Texas A&M University campus next week to deliver two presentations on optical science as part of the Department of Physics Distinguished Lecture Series. On Wed., Mar. 9, Wolf […]

March 2, 2005

New Look for Classic Experiment

Physicists in Europe and the U.S. have performed a novel version of the double-slit quantum-interference experiment with single electrons. In the classic version of the experiment, which was recently voted the most beautiful experiment of all time by readers of “Physics World,” electrons pass through a mask containing two parallel slits and produce a pattern […]

February 24, 2005

Harvard and Texas A&M Scientists Develop “Plug and Play” Laser

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Engineers and applied physicists have laid the foundations for a new type of “plug and play” laser, the Raman injection laser, and, in the process, several key innovations in laser technology. The device combines the advantages of nonlinear optical devices and semiconductor injection lasers with a compact design, and may one day […]

February 1, 2005

Two Groups Observe the Spin Hall Effect in Semiconductors

In 1971, Mikhail Dyakonov and Vladimir Perel of the Ioffe Institute in Leningrad proposed a new transport phenomenon. (1) If one applies an electric field to the ends of a semiconducting strip, they reasoned, electrons would scatter off impurities in a spin-dependent way. As the electrons make their way along the strip, those with up […]

February 1, 2005

Global Breakthroughs: International Physics Team Measures New Spintronic Effect in Semiconductors

COLLEGE STATION — An international team of physicists has announced discovery of a new spintronic effect in semiconductor chips, the intrinsic spin Hall effect, which puts a new twist on future technology and the possibility for novel circuits with low energy consumption. The team includes physicists Dr. Jörg Wunderlich and Dr. Bernd Kaestner from the […]

January 12, 2005

Thinking Small: Texas A&M Physics Team Creates Lab-on-a-Chip

COLLEGE STATION — Imagine an entire chemistry laboratory reduced to the size of a postage stamp. It could happen. While others may think big, Texas A&M University physicists Don Naugle and Igor Lyuksyutov are thinking small — as in micro small. They have successfully managed to levitate micron-sized fluids using magnets, which could lead to […]

George Mitchell '40 (center) with members of the External Astronomy Advisory Committee

January 1, 2005

Texas A&M Reaches for Stars

As part of a campus-wide explosion in faculty numbers, the physics department at Texas A&M University in College Station aims to launch a top-notch astronomy program. Overall, the campus is increasing its faculty size by 450, or 25%, by 2008. Physics faculty will swell from 45 to 60, with at least four of the new […]

December 14, 2004

First Mirror for Giant Telescope to be Cast

PASADENA, Calif. The Carnegie Observatories of the Carnegie Institution and the University of Arizona, Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, have signed an agreement to produce the first mirror for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) — the first telescope of the next-generation of extremely large ground-based telescopes (ELT) to begin mirror production. Texas A&M University is a […]

September 21, 2004

Only in Quantum Physics: Spinning While Standing Still

Quantum mechanics has done it again. In an experiment with supercooled helium, researchers at Penn State say they have found that as a solid ring spins around, part of it can remain perfectly still. At ultracold temperatures, matter often behaves far differently than it does in everyday experience. For instance, many materials turn into superconductors, […]

August 3, 2004

Mitchell Gift to Texas A&M and Support from the University of Texas at Austin; Enables the Flagship Universities to Join Telescope Consortium

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Austin are joining the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) Consortium to explore the frontiers of our universe as the result of a $1.25 million gift to Texas A&M from George P. Mitchell of Houston and matching funds from The University of Texas at Austin. […]

July 12, 2004

McIntyre appointed to Mitchell high energy physics chair

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Peter M. McIntyre, professor of physics at Texas A&M University, has been appointed to the newly-endowed chair associated with the university’s George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics. McIntyre will hold the Mitchell/Heep Chair in Experimental High Energy Physics, endowed with a recent gift from George P. and […]

July 12, 2004

Schuessler appointed to physics chair which bears his name

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Hans A. Schuessler, professor of physics specializing in optical and biomedical physics, has been appointed to the Schuessler/Mitchell/Heep Chair in Experimental Optical and Biomedical Physics in the Department of Physics at Texas A&M University. This chair was recently endowed with gifts from Schuessler, George P. Mitchell, of The Woodlands, and a […]

June 15, 2004

Teaching the teachers

COLLEGE STATION — Rural and small-town Texas teachers arrived on the Texas A&M University campus last week, ready to start back to school, all for the sake of their students. Twenty-nine high school physics teachers participated in the second annual Rural Physics Teachers Resource Agents (PTRA) workshop June 7-11, facilitated by the Department of Physics. […]

June 9, 2004

George Mitchell/Heep Chair established in physics

COLLEGE STATION — Continuing his support of the study of cosmology and experimental physics at Texas A&M University, George P. Mitchell ’40 has donated $500,000 to the Department of Physics which, with matching funds from the Heep Foundation, establishes the Mitchell/Heep Chair in Experimental High Energy Physics. Mitchell, former chairman and chief executive officer of […]

May 6, 2004

Schuessler/Mitchell/Heep Chair established in physics

COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Hans A. Schuessler was honored at a luncheon yesterday (May 5) for his donation to Texas A&M University which, combined with a donation from George P. Mitchell ’40 and matching funds by the Heep Foundation, establishes the Schuessler/Mitchell/Heep Chair in Experimental Optical and Biomedical Physics. Distributions from this endowed fund will […]