Welcome From Our Department Head

Dear Alumni and Friends,

Unfinished business.

My next life adventure is about to begin as I assume my new role as a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois, a title I have held for nearly 37 years, but which for the past 12 years has been followed in my signature by “… and Head.” In my last few days in this position, a number of emotions and reflections are emerging.

One looming question is what will happen next for me. I know I will be going back to my lab to focus on some projects in collaboration with my colleagues here at Illinois and around the world, starting with taking a sabbatical in the fall semester in Northern California (to no one’s surprise) to focus and energize my research program over a glass of wine, or two (also pretty obvious to those who know me). What I do know is that I hope to work less and enjoy life more by spending more time with family and friends and traveling to places I have always wanted to see. But beyond that, the road is open, the path is uncertain, and I plan to “always take the long way home,” in reference to one of my favorite songs by Norah Jones.

Another reflection is the discrepancy between how long I have been Head and yet how fast it has all gone. It seems only a short time ago that Ade (aka Dean Adesida) phoned me as I sat on a plane at O’Hare Airport about to leave for a conference in Russia and asked me to take on this role, and that Jeremiah Sullivan, the previous Head, sat with me to pass on his knowledge and wisdom of the internal workings of our department, as I am about to do with the next Head. I am aware that it has been a lot of work and a lot of late nights, but what I tend to remember is that it has mostly been a very exciting and rewarding experience and a lot of fun. Happily, life has a way of letting you remember the best days!

It is natural as well to reflect on how much we have accomplished over the past 12 years. I am very proud of that we have achieved, much of which is documented in the article about my tenure as Head that Siv Schwink has written for this newsletter.

But in this last letter from the Head that I will get to write, I want instead to mention some of the things I did not finish and some of the goals I set that remain unreached, in hopes that the new Head will read this. None of these comments will come as a surprise—I have always openly shared my dreams and ambitions, no matter how unattainable they seemed, with the faculty, staff, administration, and anyone who would listen. Wishing is always the first step toward happening.

One of my favorite passions has been to improve the physical infrastructure of the department, in terms of both expanding our capabilities and enhancing the appearance, functionality, and feng shui of our space. Several projects we have started are already well underway, such as the ESCO project that will actually end someday (I am told), the long-overdue 4th-floor particle physics theory suite, and the Loomis patio, whose plantings are just now beginning to bloom. Other endeavors are just getting started, most notably the extensive remodeling of the 4th floor of the Engineering Sciences Building (ESB) for new upper-level instructional labs, the parallel expansion of the Institute for Condensed Matter Theory (ICMT) on the 1st floor, and the newly conceived undergraduate-course Help Room on the 2nd floor of Loomis, an idea born from our experiences during the graduate-student teaching-assistant strike. And there remains a list of ambitious plans that are still in the dreaming stage—particularly the west-side addition to Loomis Laboratory above the lecture halls, which would include an open atrium, new lecture halls, new faculty offices, new elevators, new restrooms, a rooftop patio, and a coffee shop; and the proposed Advanced Experimental Research Facility adjacent to MRL, which would provide high-bay, environmentally controlled space for cutting-edge experimental research. These two projects offer creative designs that await equally creative investments. I would love to see progress continue toward these and other infrastructure projects—our talented faculty, staff, and students deserve an environment that is modern, enabling, and elegant in its appearance and functionality.

In the last couple of years, one of the highest priorities of the department has been to improve the quality of our undergraduate programs and the opportunities we offer undergraduate students. This has been driven in part by the rapid growth in the number of our physics majors and by the intense pressure this has put on our courses, space, and budget, but equally by the change we have recognized in what our students want and need to successfully pursue their chosen careers in the present scientific and technical world. The plan we have crafted to create a new College of Engineering undergraduate degree program in Applied Physics is one of the most innovative and transformative paths we have adopted in recent years. It is exciting to watch how this idea is emerging from the collective input and creative brainstorming of faculty, staff, students, and outside consultants and is evolving into a vibrant coherent plan. I look forward to seeing the ultimate launch and evolution of this program over time, hoping that it will indeed achieve the success, impact, and visibility that we envision. Along the way, we hope also to address what have been two of the most difficult challenges our department has faced in the last decade, still needing attention: how to achieve significant increases in the diversity and inclusivity of our undergraduate major population; and how to increase the number of students that we can engage in useful undergraduate research opportunities and internships. I think we will get there.

On the research side, throughout my own academic career and especially as Head, I have been a strong proponent of teams and centers to enhance productivity, visibility, and the training of scientists. The Institute for Condensed Matter Theory (ICMT) and the Center for the Physics of Living Cells (CPLC) have been highly successful and serve as models for how such organizations can enhance our programs in specific areas and reinforce the “Urbana style” of interactive research that has become a hallmark and guiding principle of our program. Over the past few years, many of us have been advocating for starting collective efforts in Quantum Information Science (which connects our Condensed Matter and AMO Physics programs to interdisciplinary efforts in this field across campus), Fundamental Physics (which connects our programs in High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology to efforts in Astronomy and to computational and “big data” science), and a broadened Biological Physics and Quantitative Biology theme (that couples our Biological Physics program to other life sciences programs on campus and to the new Carle Illinois College of Medicine). These agendas are currently in various stages of conception and implementation, and it would be great to see all of them come to fruition in the future.

Finally, I think the need has never been greater to focus as much on teaching Physics as we do on doing Physics. That includes extending the reach of our stellar Physics Education Research program, disseminating the effective pedagogical techniques and content they have developed to more places, to more age groups, and to more STEM disciplines. It also includes finding creative ways to convey the appreciation of science and its beauty and elegance to the broader population—this is particularly critical now with incompetent and misguided national leaders who do not understand the reality and importance of science and seek to suppress the truth and reality for political gain. In the last few years, my colleague Smitha Vishveshwara and I have been working on an approach with the working title of “Physics, Art, and Wine” or PAW, by which we hope to teach Physics “P,” symbolic of truth and scientific knowledge, and Wine “W,” symbolic of what can be created by scientists, engineers, and talented people of all disciplines (and what we enjoy while pondering all of this), via the Arts “A,” which represents the beauty and elegance of life and learning. We physicists must step up and take the lead in propagating and preserving the reality and elegance of science. 

You might say that I have had 12 years to do all of this so why didn’t I finish it? All I can say is that the beauty and enjoyment of physics and of life is not where you have been or what you have done, it is about where you are going and who you are going with. There are no better travel companions than my colleagues and friends in our Physics Illinois family, and I look forward to the journey ahead.

With warm regards,

Dale J. Van Harlingen