REU Session: 2021

    Prof. Bill Holzapfel
    Students will be engaged in the analysis of data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). The SPT is a 10-meter dish located at the South Pole which is currently mapping Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with an unprecedented combination of resolution and sensitivity.  We have recently discovered that emission from some satellites can produce rare detectable signals in the data that we would like to robustly remove [...]
    Prof. Dan McKinsey
    The particle nature of dark matter is not known, but the mass range of MeV/c^2 to GeV/c^2 range is relatively unexplored. Low-background detectors with low energy thresholds may be used to search for nuclear recoils induced by such dark matter particles. Superfluid helium is a promising target for such an experiment, but characterization of its scintillation, phonon, and roton signals is needed at sub-keV energies [...]
    Prof. Saul Perlmutter
    Our research group is working on multiple projects that are measuring the properties of our expanding universe with the goal of understanding the underlying physical laws. Most of the projects design instruments and collect data on supernova explosions in distant galaxies [...]
    Prof. Hernan Garcia
    As cells multiply in embryonic development they adopt different fates such as those of cells in our brain, muscles and blood. We now know that these cellular decisions are not so much based on which gene each cell expresses, but on when, where and how fast these genes are expressed [...]
    Prof. Oskar Hallatschek
    The dynamic of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed severe short-comings in our predictive understanding of how diseases spread. A key unresolved question is "How predictable is epidemic spread?" [...]
    Prof. Jeff Neaton
    Using density functional theory and related methods, and working closely with experimental groups, we will explore the structure, photophysics, transport properties of novel quantum materials [...]
    Prof. Zi Q. Qiu
    In this REU project, students will learn the basic principle of Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE) and apply MOKE to the study of magnetic ultrathin films [...]
    Prof. Mike Zaletel
    When atomically thin layers of graphene are stacked with a relative twist between them, the moire pattern formed by the beating between their crystal structures generates an superlattice for the motion of the electrons in the bilayer [...]
    Dr. Heather Crawford
    Berkeley’s development of the cyclotron under the leadership of Lawrence arguable gave birth to modern subatomic physics. The 88” cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley Lab continues to be used for nuclear physics experiments [...]
    Prof. Wick Haxton
    The discovery of neutrino oscillations requires neutrinos to be massive, and the small scale of neutrino mass is suggestive of new physics residing at energy scales far beyond the Standard Model [...]
    Prof. Hitoshi Murayama
    In the project, we will explore new theories of dark matter, their phenomenological implications, and experimental tests [...]