Cross-Disciplinary Physics : Graduate Program : Department of Physics and Astronomy : University of Rochester

Cross-Disciplinary Physics

The cross-disciplinary physics (CDP) program at the University of Rochester is housed in the Department of Physics and Astronomy (PAS) and is operated in collaboration with faculty holding primary appointments in other departments in Arts, Sciences & Engineering including:

The Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The Laboratory for Laser Energetics
The School of Medicine and Dentistry
A selection of distinguished industrial partner laboratories

Under this program, participating faculty and scientists with primary appointments in the affiliated departments, institutes, and laboratories advise and supervise the research and training of PhD students matriculated in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Graduate students in the CDP program are admitted as regular graduate students into the department. Like most PAS graduate students, they typically join a PAS-related research group in the second or third year of their graduate work. Students receive their PhD degree in physics and must satisfy all program requirements.

Joining an Affiliated Research Group

Students can join a research group led by a researcher with a faculty appointment (either primary or secondary) within the PAS department and continue on to a PhD thesis.

Students in this program are assigned both an internal advisor (who holds a faculty position in the department and who normally works in a closely related field) and an external advisor. In most of these cases, it is the external advisor who provides support for the student’s research and provides the day-to-day supervision of the student’s PhD research.

Current Opportunities

At present the research in the CDP program spans the following sub-fields:

Accelerator physics, with Fermilab
Atomic and molecular physics, with optics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, electrical and computer engineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and material science
Biological and medical physics, with chemistry, biology, optics, BCS, and the medical center
Chemical physics, with chemistry, chemical engineering, Kodak, and Xerox
Communication, computational and information, with optics, electrical and computer engineering, and Lucent
Physics plasma and fusion, with Laboratory for Laser Energetics and mechanical engineering
Condensed matter physics, with Laboratory for Laser Energetics, chemistry, optics, material science, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering
Low temperature physics, with electrical and computer engineering and materials science
Micro-electronics, with electrical and computer engineering, and optics
Optical and laser physics, with optics, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and chemistry
Quantum Optics, with optics, and electrical and computer engineering

CDP Internal Advisors

The following primary-appointment faculty from the department typically serve as internal advisors in the various fields encompassed by the CDP program:

Accelerator physics: Arie Bodek, Regina Demina, Aran Garcia-Bellido, and Kevin McFarland
Biological and medical physics: Yongli Gao
Low temperature physics, condensed matter physics, chemical physics and materials science: Nicholas Bigelow, David Douglass, Yongli Gao, John Nichol, Yonathan Shapir, Steve Teitel, and Dan Watson
Plasma physics and fusion: Eric Blackman, Adam Frank, and Pierre Gourdain
Quantum optics and optical and laser physics: Nicholas Bigelow, Joe Eberly, and Andrew Jordan

Industrial Partners

Currently, or in recent years, CDP PhD students have carried out research with CDP cohorts at:

Kodak Research Laboratories
The Xerox Corporation
Lucent Laboratories
KLA-Tencor
MIT Lincoln Labs
National Laboratories such as Fermilab and Brookhaven

Supervising Faculty

All primary faculty can serve as supervisors for the CDP program. Secondary faculty and affiliated researchers can also serve as supervisors. See the two tables below for more information about the faculty and researchers in this group.

Table I - University Faculty with Joint Appointments in PAS

Faculty Member	Status	Area of Research
Agrawal, Govind P.	Professor of Optics (and Physics)	Optical physics and lasers
Bergstralh, Dan T.	Assitant Professor of Biology and Physics	Cell and experimental Biology
Betti, Ricardo	Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering (and Physics), and Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Plasma physics and fusion
Bocko, Mark F.	Professor of Electrical Engineering (and Physics)	Quantum information/signal processing
Boyd, Robert W.	Professor of Optics (and Physics)	Optical physics and lasers
Cardenas, Jaime	Assistant Professor of Optics and Physics	Optics and photonics
Collins, Rip	Dean's Professor Mechanical Engineering and Physics	High Energy Density Physics
Dery, Hanan	Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics	Theoretical Condensed-matter physics
Dias, Ranga	Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics	Experimental condensed matter physics
Foster, Thomas H.	Professor of Radiology (and Physics)	Experimental biological/medical physics
Franco, Ignacio	Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Physics	Theoretical condensed matter physics
Guo, Chunlei	Professor of Optics and Physics	Experimental condensed matter and optical physics
Haefner, Ralf	Assistant Professor of Brain & Cognitive Science, and physics	Computational Neuroscience
Knox, Wayne	Professor of Optics and Physics	Experimental atomic, molecular and optical physics
Murray, Lee	Assistant Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and physics	Climate Science
Nakajima, Miki	Assistant Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and physics	Planetary Sciences
Ren, Chuang	Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics	Theoretical plasma physics
Rothberg, Lewis	Professor of Chemistry and Physics	Chemical and condensed matter physics
Rygg, Ryan	Assistant Professor (Research) of Mechanical Engineering and Physics	High Energy Density Physics
Schroeder, Wolf-Udo	Professor of Chemistry and Physics	Experimental Nuclear Physics
Sefkow, Adam	Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics	Computational Plasma Physics
Sobolewski, Roman	Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics	Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
Tarduno, John	Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Physics	Experimental geodynamics
Thomas, John H.	Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Science (and of Astronomy)	Theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics
Vamivakas, Nick	Associate Professor of Optics and Physics	Experimental quantum and nonlinear optics
Van Horn, Hugh	Director, NSF Astronomy Division (and Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy	Theoretical astrophysics
Wu, Stephen	Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics	Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
Zhang, Xi-Cheng	M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics and Physics	Experimental optical physics
Zhong, Jianhui	Associate Professor of Radiology	Biological and medical physics and imaging

Table II - University Faculty with Past or Future Interest and/or Experience in Supervising CDP Students

Name	Position	Principal Area of Research
Berger, Andrew J.	Associate Professor of Optics (and Biomedical Engineering)	Medical physics
Brown, Thomas G.	Associate Professor of Optics	Optoelectronics
Chen, Shaw-Horn	Professor of Chemical Engineering	Chemical physics
Chimowitz, Eldred H.	Professor of Chemical Engineering	Chemical physics
Craxton, Stephen R.	Senior Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Plasma physics, lasers and fusion
Donaldson, William R.	Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Optical physics and lasers
Farrar, James M.	Professor of Chemistry	Chemical physics
Fauchet, Phillippe	Professor of Electrical Engineering and Optics, Senior Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Material science, biological and optical physics
Feldman, Marc J.	Professor of Electrical Engineering and Senior Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Quantum information, material science, condensed matter physics
Fienup, James R.	Professor of Optics	Imaging processing, wave front sensing
George, Nicholas	Professor of Optics and Electrical Engineering	Optical physics and lasers
Goldfarb, David H.	Professor of Biology	Biological aging physics
Hsiang, Thomas Y.	Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering	Optoelectronics, superconductivity, ultrafast phenomena
Jacobs, Stephen D.	Professor of Chemical Engineering and Laboratory for Laser Energetics Scientist	Liquid crystal optics
Jones, Thomas B.	Professor of Electrical Engineering	High-speed microactuation of liquid for the laboratory on a chip
Jorne, Jacob	Professor of Chemical Engineering	Chemical physics
Kelley, Doug	Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering	Biophysical and technological fluid mixing
Knauer, Jim	Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Plasma physics and fusion
Kraus, Todd	Assistant Professor of Chemistry	Spectroscopy of nanometer-scale materials
Mathews, David	Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics	Calculational RNA
Moore, Duncan T.	Professor of Optics	Optical engineering
Ning, Ruola	Professor of Imaging Sciences	Medical physics
Novotny, Lukas	Assistant Professor of Optics	Optical physics and lasers
Ovchinnikov, Misha	Assistant Professor of Chemistry	Quantum molecular dynamics
Parker, Kevin	Electrical Engineering	Condensed matter, biological physics
Pouget, Alexandre	Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science and Center for Visual Science	Biological physics, cortical mechanisms of motion and form perception, visual memory
Renninger, Will	Assistant Professor of Optics	Nonlinear optics
Seka, Wolf	Associate Professor of Optics and Senior Scientist Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Optical physics and lasers
Schroder, Wolf-Udo	Professor of Chemistry	Nuclear chemistry/heavy ions
Sobolewski, Roman	Professor of Electrical Engineering and Senior Scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics	Ultrafast optoelectronics, superconductivity, quantum communication
Syphers, Mike	Senior Scientist, Fermilab	Accelerator physics
Teegarden, Kenneth J.	Professor of Optics	Optical materials
Waag, Robert	Professor of Electrical Engineering	Bio-ultrasound, tissue characterization, nondestructive testing
Wicks, Gary	Professor of Optics	Material science, condensed matter physics, nano-materials
Williams, David R.	Professor of Psychology and Professor of Optics	Psychological optics
Wu, David J. H.	Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and of Microbiology and Immunology	Biological and medical physics
Yang, Hong Magnetic	Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering	Nanoparticles
Yates, Matthew Z.	Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering	Colloids and Interfaces
Zavislan, Jes	Associate Professor of Optics and Optical Engineering	Biomedical optics