Welcome From Our Department Head

Dear Physics Family,

This semester, we welcomed the inaugural class of 45 students to our CS + Physics undergraduate degree program. Combined with our 564 physics bachelor’s students, our undergraduate program is now among the largest in the country—only UC Santa Barbara has comparable numbers. We also admitted 76 graduate students to our doctoral program, now the largest in the nation with 359 students. The program recently broke a barrier: we have 100 women Ph.D. students. For comparison, of the 240 doctoral programs in the country, fewer than 50 have more than 100 graduate students. The department is lively and colorful. And we speak many languages: 50 percent of our graduate students and about 40 percent of the incoming undergraduate class are international students.

Sadly, the hopeful beginning to the semester was overshadowed by the unexpected death of our dear friend and colleague, Emeritus and Research Professor Dale Van Harlingen, who had served 12 years as department head. It was a difficult loss. Dale is remembered fondly for his dedication, vision, and service-style leadership that maintained and contributed to the department’s stature as a world leader in physics research and education. Our thoughts are with Dale’s family and friends.

Faculty and staff news

I am grateful to our faculty and staff for maintaining our high standards through this period of growth and change. This is especially impressive given that our support staff has not grown. Meanwhile, our enrollment numbers are breaking records. Our hardworking staff also sustains a large and dynamic research program and has met the demands of increased faculty hiring, purchasing, travel reimbursement, and remodeling projects.

The face of our faculty has changed considerably: a quarter of our faculty has retired in the last six years, including Jim Eckstein and Russ Gianetta this year. At the same time, we have welcomed Pengjie Wang from Princeton University, Rafael Fernandes from the University of Minnesota, Jong Yeon Lee from the Kavli Institute at UC Santa Barbara, and Hector Okada DaSilva from the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam. We are also hosting two scholars at risk: Elena Koptieva from Ukraine and Sami Muslih from Al-Azhar University.

The caliber of our new faculty is reflected in the near doubling of our department’s research revenue to $40.7 million in FY24. Many of our new hires are active members of our newest research centers, the Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe (ICASU) and the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST). ICASU comprises 44 core and affiliate faculty members, 88 graduate students, and 44 postdocs from five campus units. Since its founding, ICASU faculty have successfully solicited nearly $57 million in new grants. IQUIST numbers 68 faculty members and senior research members and affiliates, more than 200 graduate students, and more than 45 postdocs from 11 academic departments and interdisciplinary research centers on campus. It has brought in over $160 million in active grants.

Many of our faculty members have recently been recognized for their excellence. Most notably, Chen-Yu Liu was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and Charles Gammie and Paul Selvin were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Gammie was also named the university’s Ikenberry Endowed Chair. Vidya Madhavan was named a Donald Biggar Willett Professor in Engineering. Taylor Hughes is now an APS Fellow, and Eduardo Fradkin was awarded the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal. Aleksei Aksimentiev and Brian DeMarco were named Bardeen Faculty Scholars, Christopher Weaver has been appointed a Fortner Scholar, and Fahad Mahmood and Yoni Kahn were named Compton Scholars. Jake Covey recently was awarded the NSF CAREER Award, having earlier obtained career awards from the DOE, the Air Force, and the Navy.

Much help from our friends

I am thankful for several significant financial contributions that have strengthened the department’s ability to invest in the future. When we renamed the ICMT the Anthony J. Leggett Institute, both the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Dean agreed to fund in perpetuity the Anthony J. Leggett Postdoctoral Fellowship. The first fellow, Kyung-Su Kim, joined us this year after finishing his Ph.D. at Stanford. Furthermore, Illinois Grainger Engineering has restructured the department’s budget to resolve its longstanding operational deficit.

We are grateful for the continued generous support of our Illinois Physics alumni and friends. Among the many, I would like to extend special thanks for two generous estate gifts. Alumnus Bob Uyetani’s gift will fund the Anthony J. Leggett Professorship in Physics, and alumnus Dr. Paul Parks has given $4 million to initiate the Dr. Paul Parks Physics Laboratory Support Fund.

These are exciting times in the field of physics, and our department is poised to continue its legacy of seminal contributions to the global scientific endeavor. If your travels take you to the Urbana area, I hope you’ll get in touch and plan a visit. You will always be welcomed home at Illinois Physics!

Warmly,

Matthias Grosse Perdekamp