Category: News

Faculty Position

Image of Michigan Tech campus from above
Michigan Technological University
Est. 1885

The Department of Physics at Michigan Technological University (MTU) seeks a candidate to fill a faculty position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor or higher level in Optics, to begin in August 2025. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in quantum optics, optical sensing, polaritonics, or photonic quantum computation. However, researchers displaying excellence in any areas of optics that complement the activities of current physics faculty at MTU are encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will receive support from the Elizabeth and Richard Henes Center for Quantum Phenomena (https://www.mtu.edu/quantum/), housed within the department.

Required qualifications include a Ph.D. in Physics or a closely related field, postdoctoral experience, and a proven publication record. Candidates should demonstrate commitment to teaching and mentoring at undergraduate and graduate levels. 

Please apply online at https://www.employment.mtu.edu/cw/en-us/job/493716/assistantprofessor-optics, including vita, statements of research interests and teaching philosophy, and contact information for three references. Application evaluation will begin January 6, 2025, and continue until the position is filled. Detailed information about the department can be found at https://www.mtu.edu/physics/. 

MTU is Michigan’s flagship technological university and will be a Carnegie-classified R1 institution in 2025. The university provides its graduates with an extremely high return on investment through its academic rigor and focus on experiential learning. Located near the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan’s scenic Upper Peninsula, the university provides a high standard of living. The community offers a small-town environment with outstanding four-season recreational opportunities.

MTU is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer that provides equal opportunity for all, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. 


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

The Reactive INTERFACE Force Field

Professor Ravindra Pandey
Professor Ravindra Pandey

A team including Michigan Tech research groups led by Ravi Pandey and Greg Odegard (MAE) has published a research article in Nature Communications. The title is “Implementing reactivity in molecular dynamics simulations with harmonic force fields.”

The research highlights the development of the Reactive INTERFACE Force Field (IFF-R) for molecular dynamics simulations for various material systems, including molecules, nanotubes, metals and polymer composites. The newly developed IFF-R, which incorporates specific chemical environments and electronic structure effects as needed, is both accurate and efficient. IFF-R calculations use significantly fewer computational resources compared to current reactive force fields to predict the structural and mechanical properties of complex biological and material structures, from atomic to micrometer scales.

Recent physics alum Geeta Sachdeva (PhD ’22) was a key contributor to this project. The research groups of Hendrik Heinz of the University of Colorado Boulder, Adri van Duin of Penn State, and Pieter J. in ‘t Veld of BASF, Germany also collaborated on the study.

The work was partially supported by grant NNX17AJ32G from the NASA Space Technology Research Institute for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design to Michigan Tech.


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

Carly Robinson inducted into College of Sciences and Arts Academy

The College of Sciences and Arts has inducted physics alum Dr. Carly Robinson (BS ’07) into the College of Sciences and Arts Academy.

Dr. Robinson currently serves as Assistant Director for Information Products and Services at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. As an undergraduate at Michigan Tech, Robinson worked with Dr. Will Cantrell to study the effect of biomass burning on cirrus cloud formation.

The College of Sciences and Arts Academy recognizes Michigan Tech graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professions and made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the College of Sciences and Arts, Michigan Technological University, and society.


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

Claudio Mazzoleni and Will Cantrell Receive 2024 Juan Fernandez de la Mora Prize

Claudio Mazzoleni
Claudio Mazzoleni
Will Cantrell
Will Cantrell

Professor Claudio Mazzoleni (Physics) and Dean/Professor Will Cantrell (GS/Physics) are recipients of the 2024 Juan Fernandez de la Mora Prize from the American Association for Aerosol Research.

The prize recognizes Mazzoleni and Cantrell’s contributions to experimental research in aerosol science. Their group will receive a differential mobility analyzer (DMA) as a gift from Professor Juan Fernandez de la Mora, a faculty member at Yale University, to measure size distributions of nanometer particles at high resolution.

About the Juan Fernandez de la Mora Prize 

The study of nanometer particles at high resolution has been held back by the limited number of research groups having high-resolution nano-DMAs. To stimulate research in the field, a prototype of a Half-Mini DMA (1,2), which has been developed by Dr. Juan Fernandez de la Mora, a faculty member at Yale University, will be awarded by the AAAR to an AAAR member. One instrument will be awarded each year as a gift from Juan Fernandez de la Mora, and the license to operate it is a gift from the NanoEngineering Corporation (NEC).


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

Professor Huentemeyer, Other Project Leaders Select Site for Southern Wide-Field Gamma-Ray Observatory

Michigan Tech is a key contributor to the construction planning of the Southern Wide-Field Gamma-Ray Observatory (SWGO), a cutting-edge facility that will enable researchers to observe very-high- to ultra-high-energy gamma rays from cosmic sources.

Petra Huentemeyer - Gamma-Ray Observatory
Distinguished Professor of Physics Petra Huentemeyer, Vice-spokesperson for the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory.

The project’s leaders, including the director of Michigan Tech’s Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Institute, Petra Huentemeyer, have selected Pampa La Bola in Chile as the future site of the Gamma-Ray Observatory, which will be the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

“Selecting the site for an Gamma-Ray Observatory is a major milestone on the path toward building it,” said Huentemeyer. “The fact that we reached a decision in such an effective manner really speaks to the strength of our collaboration of 15 countries.”

Gamma-Ray Observatory - array of detectors
A large array of detectors will allow SWGO to measure cosmic rays up to the PeV scale. Image credit Richard White, MPIK via swgo.org

Read more about the SWGO project at Michigan Tech News.


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

Volcano Research Expert Simon Carn Wins 2024 MTU Award

Simon Carn - Volcano Research
Simon Carn
Distinguished Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Simon Carn is an expert in volcano research. He won the 2024 Michigan Tech Research Award for using satellites to study volcanic activity around the world. Carn has received about $15 million in research grants from top agencies like NASA, the NSF, and the USGS.

He is known globally for studying volcanoes with satellite data. His work is helping to advance volcano research.

Read more on Michigan Tech News

Best Wishes to Prof. Ramy El-Ganainy

We say goodbye this month to Professor Ramy El-Ganainy, and wish him the very best as he takes a new position with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at St. Louis University. Ramy joined our department in 2013. His contributions to teaching, research, and service have been significant. His research work has brought national and international visibility to Michigan Tech, and helped grow the department’s program in photonics and quantum optics.

We will miss Ramy and wish him great success in the next step of his academic career

Department faculty and staff with Professor El-Ganainy
Best Wishes Ramy!

About Ramy El-Ganainy

El-Ganainy is a professor of physics. Recently, he joined the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems as a guest scientist for one year. He was elected by the Board of Directors of Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, to the Society’s 2023 Fellow Class for seminal contributions in the fields of non-Hermitian photonics, parity-time symmetry, and optical supersymmetry. His research interests span a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from classical optics to computational techniques for radiation-matter interactions. He has published 175+ papers and given more than 10 conference presentations.


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

New Funding: El-Ganainy’s Project Funded by University of Southern California

Ramy El-Ganainy is the PI on a project that has received a $53,754 research and development contract from the University of Southern California. The project is titled “Optical Thermodynamics of Nonlinear Multimode Systems Topic 1.A.ii(4) Quantum Optics.”

About Ramy El-Ganainy

Ramy El-Ganainy
Ramy El-Ganainy
Professor, Physics

El-Ganainy is a professor of physics. Recently, he joined the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems as a guest scientist for one year. Elected by the Board of Directors of Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, to the Society’s 2023 Fellow Class for seminal contributions in the fields of non-Hermitian photonics, parity-time symmetry, and optical supersymmetry. His research interests span a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from classical optics to computational techniques for radiation-matter interactions. He has published 175+ papers and given more than 10 conference presentations.


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

New Funding: Shaw’s Project Funded by Brookhaven National Laboratory

Raymond Shaw is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $35,591 research and development contract from the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The project is titled “Brookhaven National Laboratory Joint Appointment.” This is a potential two-year project.

About Raymond Shaw

Raymond Shaw
Raymond A. Shaw
University Professor, Physics

Dr. Shaw’s research involves the physics of the Earth’s atmosphere, with an emphasis on clouds and experimental tools for studying clouds. Research in Shaw’s group has focused on understanding the influence of turbulence on cloud particle growth through condensation and collisions, and on understanding the nucleation process through which ice forms from liquid water. Shaw’s group is actively involved in the development of methods for studying clouds in controlled conditions in the laboratory as well as in the atmosphere itself. For example, digital holography is applied to particle tracking in turbulent laboratory clouds, and to measurement of particle size distributions in clouds sampled by research aircraft. The Cloud Physics Laboratory is the home of several exciting research studies.


About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.

Giusarma Garners Deans’ Teaching Showcase Honors

College of Sciences and Arts Dean Ravindra Pandey has selected Elena Giusarma, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, for the Deans’ Teaching Showcase. Giusarma will be recognized at an end-of-term event with other showcase members. Her inclusion makes her a candidate for the CTL Instructional Award Series.

Giusarma Instruction Innovator

Elena Giusarma
Elena Giusarma

Giusarma has proven herself to be an excellent instructor in the classroom environment. She’s implemented innovative teaching methods and strategies to enhance the learning experience for students. Giusarma incorporates interactive simulations, virtual observatory tools, and multimedia resources to bring the wonders of astronomy directly to the students. This approach aims to cater to diverse learning styles and foster a deeper understanding of complex celestial concepts. Her teaching style goes beyond traditional lecture formats. Active learning techniques such as classroom discussions, group activities, and debates encourage students to articulate their thoughts and challenge their understanding of astronomical concepts.

Giusarma’s course in Statistics, Data Mining, and Machine Learning in Astrophysics for undergraduate and graduate students plays a crucial role in shaping students’ academic and professional trajectories. In an era dominated by data-driven decision-making, proficiency in these areas is highly sought after in both research and industry. The course serves as a pathway to developing practical skills directly applicable to analyzing and interpreting vast astronomical datasets. The course is part of a graduate certificate program developed in 2022, offering participants a structured pathway to acquire expertise in statistical analysis, data mining, and machine learning in astrophysics. The importance of these skills extends beyond academia, opening doors to diverse career opportunities in research institutions, technology companies, and various sectors that rely on data analytics.

Giusarma Receives Praise

Jacek Borysow, interim chair of the physics department, noted that Giusarma’s knowledge and understanding of physics and astronomy allow her to be a role model for female students who aspire to succeed in science and engineering. “Her presence in the classroom enables female students to visualize where they want to go and what is possible to achieve. … Her lectures are full of positive energy and unlimited enthusiasm; she sincerely cares about the students. She is simply an outstanding instructor and mentor.”

Maria Bergstrom, associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Sciences and Arts, praised Giusarma’s commitment to both undergraduate and graduate education: “Faculty like Dr. Giusarma have a tremendous impact on the success of Michigan Tech students. From inspiring young, prospective students to come to our campus to study astronomy and astrophysics to mentoring graduate students, Dr. Giusarma’s commitment to excellence in teaching is an important contribution to our College, and we are pleased to recognize her achievements.”

About the Physics Department

Physicists at Michigan Technological University help students apply academic concepts to real-world issues. Our physicists take on the big questions to discover how the universe works—from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies. The Physics Department offers three undergraduate degrees and three graduate degrees. Supercharge your physics skills to meet the demands of a technology-driven society at a flagship public research university powered by science, technology, engineering, and math. Graduate with the theoretical knowledge and practical experience needed to solve real-world problems and succeed in academia, research, and tomorrow’s high-tech business landscape.

Questions? Contact us at physics@mtu.edu. Follow us on FacebookTwitter, and YouTube for the latest happenings. Or read more at the Physics Newsblog.