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utphysguide - March 21st, 2005
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10:31 am
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Center for Nonlinear Dynamics
Director: Harry Swinney
Professors: Jack Swift, Michael Marder, E.L. Florin, Mark Raizen
This is the nationwide #1 group in the specialty of Nonlinear Dynamics/Chaos, according to the 1996 America's Best Graduate Schools, published by US News & World Report, and they've earned it. Experimental students in this group are often recruited while they are still undergrads, though there is still a reasonable chance of getting into the group if you are undecided when you get here. The group is pretty well funded and looking to establish a future direction. Students on the experimental track typically TA for two years and then become GRAs around the time that they qualify. Funding in theory is, as a general symptom, not so promising, but there are currently some theorists hired as GRAs, so it's not out of the question.
Recently the Center has been towards biophysics, with Prof. E.L. Florin being hired recently and interviews being conducted to find another biophysicist. Getting in to a lab as it is getting started has the advantage that there are lots of positions available, but the disadvantage that you probably have to build everything from scratch which takes longer than joining an experiment already up and running.
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10:40 am
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Center for Particle Physics and High Energy Physics Laboratory
Director: Roy Schwitters
Professors: Josh Klein, Sacha Kopp, Karol Lang, Jack Ritchie, Arno Bohm, Charles Chiu, Duane Dicus, Austin Gleeson, Yuval Ne'eman, George Sudarshan
The Center for Particle Physics has shifted its focus recently, from being a purely theoretical group to one with a significant experimental component, in the form of the High Energy Physics Laboratory. Some of the theorists are willing to take on large numbers of students and the experimentalists need students, so it's quite possible to find work to do. While the experimentalists have money, funding for theorists is not particularly good, being completely non-existent for several of its members. A majority of the theoretical students here remain on the career TA track.
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10:44 am
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Center for Relativity
Director: Richard Matzner
Professors: Cecile DeWitt
This group has contracted recently to computational areas; it's likely that any future faculty hirings will also involve computational physics. The group is small and selective. Students should expect to TA for several years before a chance at a GRA arises.
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10:47 am
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Femtosecond Spectroscopy
Professor Mike Downer
A rapidly growing group with good GRA funding prospects. Browse their web pages for more info. Currently provides a prospect for doing experimental plasma physics in our department, albeit with table-top devices rather than tokamaks. This group is so good, however, that some of it's members seem to have been around a while.
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10:49 am
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Fusion Research Center
Director: Ken Gentle, W. Rowan
Professors: Roger Bengston, William Drummond, Mel Oakes, Gary Hallock
The FRC is still a sizable group even with the Tokamak being replaced by the smaller Helimak. Take a look at the Research Opportunities in the FRC web page.
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11:02 am
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Gas-Surface Dynamics Group
Professor Greg O. Sitz
This small group does some nice surface physics and probably could use some students. Funding is probably also possible and we've heard that "Greg Sitz is just about the best advisor a student could have."
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11:06 am
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Ilya Prigogine Center for Statistical Mechanics
Director: Linda Reichl
Professors: William Schieve
A small group with close to a full complement of students, but there are probably some opportunities here. Funding is available, in many cases only partial appointments are made, so you can probably expect to TA well after you qualify. Despite the name, they don't do just Stat. Mech. There are research scientists one can work for studying theoretical quantum chaos as well as the expected stat mech projects.
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11:09 am
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Institute for Fusion Studies
Director: Richard Hazeltine
Professors: Philip J. Morrison, Herbert Berk, Richard Fitzpatrick, C. Wendell Horton, Gennady Shvets
This group is occupied with the theoretical study of plasma physics and associated fluid dynamics. A strong component of this is in computational physics. They are currently well funded; almost all students are supported once they've qualified. The IFS currently has several openings for students.
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11:13 am
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Laser Cooling and Trapping
Professor Dan Heinzen
The Heinzen group is a hard working, well funded group that is curently doing some fascinating experiments in the field of quantum control and ultracold collisions in atomic gases. They have one of the few working Bose-Einstein condensate machines in the world. The students in the lab say that the research is exciting, but you had better expect to work between forty and sixty hours a week if you are considering joining the group. Plus some people say that Heinzen can be hard to get along with.
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11:15 am
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Neutrino Mass Determination and Spectroscopy
Professor Manfred Fink
There used to be opportunities to work on some interesting projects here, but funding seems to have dried up recently.
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11:18 am
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Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopy
Professor John Keto
Funding has improved with the receipt of a Welch grant and Keto has mentioned buying things rather than building to save time. Students do generally fix broken equipment themselves but this is now more flexible than in the past. Fixing equipment tends to lengthen the amount of time students take to graduate but does give them tremendous hands-on experience, something that recent graduates that went into the semiconductor industry have found helpful.
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11:19 am
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Quantum Optics Group
Professor Mark Raizen
This group is technically part of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, but since they were originally on their own and do such different work, they are worth mentioning separately. They have more than one working BEC experiment. Most of the students in this group work long hours and in general come in every weekend. However, funding seems to be good and the students happy on the rare occasion that you see them.
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11:27 am
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Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics
Professors: Jerry Hoffman, Fred Moore
This group is part of experiments elsewhere, such as RHIC at Brookhaven. It is usually considered nuclear physics, but theses days is closer in format to high energy physics.
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11:29 am
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Scanning Probe Microscopy and Superconductivity
Professor Alex de Lozanne
Well funded and we expect that there is room for new students, here or with another of the electron microscopists in the department.
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11:31 am
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Surface Physics/Thin Film Magnetism Research
Professor James Erskine
All of the students here are qualified and, with few exceptions, supported by GRAs.
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11:32 am
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Theory Group
Director: Steven Weinberg
Professors: Sonai Paban, Willy Fischler, Jacques Distler, Vadim Kaplunovsky
Since there is a certain amount of prestige associated with this bunch, it is probably the toughest nut to crack. The group is also relatively saturated with students and not too interested in taking on more. Support is currently provided to all students who have qualified. There are no guarantees that it will help, but prospective students should register as early as their first year for whatever these guys are teaching, especially since courses in field theory and strings aren't offered every semester. Going to their seminars and brown bag talks is a good way to find out what they're doing and to be seen. These statements apply to all research groups, but we were urged to reiterate these points here.
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12:47 pm
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Spintronics
Professor: Maxim Tsoi
This is one of the newest groups at UT, so funding opportunities and positions should be pretty available. However, you will probably have to build the experiment from scratch, which could add time to your stay at UT. Luckily Prof. Tsoi seems young and full of health.
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12:55 pm
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Condensed Matter Theory
Professor: Allan MacDonald
This is a large group doing mostly computational work. Most students are atleast partially funded.
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11:29 pm
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Choosing a Research Group
First, the general situation: If you haven't realized it by now, you are completely on your own. There is no official process at all which helps you become associated with and supported by a faculty member. You simply have to start knocking on doors to learn what people are doing and if they have room for new students. You might want to bring along a resume/curriculum vitae. If you are interested in someone in particular, find out the names of post-docs and grad students who already work for her or him, then go to them to gather details on the work being done and the atmosphere in which it is done. Frankly there are a few professors who are lousy to work with. Some are too busy to work with you, others have few resources and no means of supporting their students with GRAs, and others may outright fire you without warning. Choosing an advisor is an important decision and you should be careful and get many second opinions.
We suggest that you begin considering your options for an advisor immediately. In our opinion, an optimal situation is one in which you begin approaching professors during your second semester here and begin working (on at least a trial basis) with someone over your first summer. On rare occasions, you might even find summer support this way. Even if you're not certain what it is that you want to do, talk to the graduate students and professors in the fields you are at least interested in. For your benefit, this document includes a brief discussion of the opportunities associated with the major research groups in the department.
Getting into a group can involve some delicate maneuvering. In some cases you should plan to offer some time, as much as a semester or longer, volunteering. As one professor put it, "If you become indispensable, we'll keep you around." For some groups or fields not even this may get you in. As mentioned above, for experimentalists, another good way to get to know a group is to do a project in 380N, Experimental Physics. Theorists have the least funding and theory students are often the ones who become career TA's and AI's.
Below are some descriptions and comments about the various research groups. You might use these as a guideline, but the best way to choose a group is to talk to people already in it. Usually you can find email addresses on websites for the groups. Also, attending the general group meetings open to the public will allow you to acquaint yourself with the people there. Check the list of events in the department to see when these meetings happen.
*************INDEX**************************
Theory Group
Surface Physics/Thin Film Magnetism
Scanning Probe Microscopy
Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics
Quantum Optics Group
Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopy
Neutrino Mass Determination and Spectroscopy
Laser cooling and Trapping
Institute for Fusion Studies
Center for Statistical Mechanics
High Intensity Laser Science
Gas-Surface Dynamics
Fusion Research Center
Femtosecond Spectroscopy
Center for Relativity
Center for Particle Physics and High Energy Physics Laboratory
Center for Nonlinear Dynamcis
Condensed Matter Theory
Spintronics
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