Spotlight

Student Profile – Soumitra (Sam) Ganguly

Student Profile – Soumitra (Sam) Ganguly

This UF Physics student profile is part of the “Humans of Physics” series established by the Physics Graduate Community (PGC). Soumitra (Sam) Ganguly, a first year PhD student, is featured. Meet Soumitra (Sam) Ganguly, a first year PhD student at UF Physics.   In this post, Sam shares some of his experiences […]

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Student Profile – Alex Schachtner

Student Profile – Alex Schachtner

This UF Physics student profile is part of the “Humans of Physics” series established by the Physics Graduate Community (PGC). Alex Schachtner, founder of the PGC and recent PhD graduate, is featured.    What’s the biggest challenge you faced during your PhD? How did you overcome it? “Aside from adjusting to the […]

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"Action shot" of Sophia adjusting fiber-coupled laser optics for an interferometer testing apparatus at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico.

Student Profile – Sophia Bergmann

Imagine wanting to become a rocket scientist – a real rocket scientist. Now imagine having wanted to become a rocket scientist from your earliest childhood memories. Needless to say, fulfilling such a dream would require a lot of dedication, smarts, and planning ability. Well, meet Sophia Bergmann, soon to graduate […]

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Faculty Profile – Pierre Sikivie

UF distinguished professor of physics, Dr. Pierre Sikivie, is an expert in cold, dark matter. The kind of cold, dark matter that likely makes up 85% of the mass of the universe, but no one has yet observed. Its theoretical presence helps account for the expansion rate of the universe […]

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Project Profile – The Compact Muon Solenoid

Project Profile – The Compact Muon Solenoid

By: Don Mock  donmock@ufl.edu The term ‘Atom Smasher’ has a certain 1950’s allure, evoking a comic-book-like image of a giant hulking machine focusing a fantastically bright beam of energy onto a tiny target. And that’s pretty much the reality, too, but nowadays we call them particle accelerators, cyclotrons, synchrotrons, and […]

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Staff Profile – Pam Marlin

Staff Profile – Pam Marlin

By: Don Mock  donmock@ufl.edu For Pam Marlin, who serves as the Graduate Program Assistant for the UF Physics Department, an apt motto might come courtesy of William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Because for Ms. Marlin, the history of the people, places, and things around […]

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Faculty Profile – James Hamlin

Faculty Profile – James Hamlin

By: Don Mock  donmock@ufl.edu Dr. James Hamlin, the UF Physics Department’s most recent professor to receive tenure, likes high pressure. Not the stress-inducing, white-knuckle kind. We’re talking the physics kind. In his laboratory, diamonds are used as miniature anvils to put the squeeze on exotic compounds at pressures such as […]

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Don Mock

Alumni Profile – Donald Mock

[Note: In a departure from the usual format of our Physics Profiles, the author, Don Mock (BS’ 76; MS ’78), has been asked to write about his own career path.] It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. When I got married to fellow undergraduate physics major, Anita Colin, at […]

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Faculty Profile – Stephen Hagen

Faculty Profile – Stephen Hagen

By: Don Mock  donmock@ufl.edu Every now and then, UF physics professor and Associate Chair Dr. Stephen Hagen likes to add another skill set to his repertoire. He finds that for each new mastery attained he broadens his ability to understand the world around him, whether from a scientific or a […]

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