2009-2010 Bulletin – PDF - SEAS Bulletin - Columbia University

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instability is guiding research on NSTX at
the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory,
on the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics,
and for the design of the next generation
burning plasma experiment, ITER. In
theoretical plasma physics, research is
conducted in the fluid theory of plasma
equilibrium and stability, active control of
MHD instabilities, the kinetic theory of
transport, and the development of techniques
based on the theory of general
coordinates and dynamical systems.
The work is applied to magnetic fusion,
non-neutral and space plasmas.
Optical and laser physics. Active areas
of research include inelastic light scattering
in nanomaterials, optical diagnostics
of film processing, new laser systems,
nonlinear optics, ultrafast optoelectronics,
photonic switching, optical physics
of surfaces, laser-induced crystallization,
and photon integrated circuits.
Solid-state physics. Research in solidstate
physics covers nanoscience and
nanoparticles, electronic transport and
inelastic light scattering in low-dimensional
correlated electron systems, fractional
quantum Hall effect, heterostructure
physics and applications, molecular
beam epitaxy, grain boundaries and
interfaces, nucleation in thin films,
molecular electronics, nanostructure
analysis, and electronic structure calculation.
Research opportunities also exist
within the interdisciplinary NSF Materials
Research Science and Engineering
Center, which focuses on complex films
composed of nanocrystals; the NSF
Nanoscale Science and Engineering
Center, which focuses on electron transport
in molecular nanostructures; and
the DOE Energy Frontier Research
Center, which focuses on conversion
of sunlight into electricity in nanometersized
thin films.
Applied mathematics. Current research
encompasses analytical and numerical
analysis of deterministic and stochastic
partial differential equations, large-scale
scientific computation, fluid dynamics,
dynamical systems and chaos, as well
as applications to various fields of physics
and biology. The applications to physics
include condensed-matter physics, plasma
physics, nonlinear optics, medical imaging,
and the earth sciences, notably
atmospheric, oceanic, and climate
science, and solid earth geophysics
(see below). The applications to biology
include cellular biophysics, machine
learning, and functional genomics,
including collaborations with Columbia’s
Center for Computational Biology and
Bioinformatics (C2B2), the Center for
Computational Learning Systems
(CCLS), the NIH-funded Center for
Multiscale Analysis of Genetic and
Cellular Networks (MAGNet), and the
NIH-funded NanoMedicine Center for
Mechanical Biology. Extensive collaborations
exist with national climate research
centers (the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory and the National Center for
Atmospheric Research) and with national
laboratories of the U.S. Department of
Energy, custodians of the nation’s most
powerful supercomputers.
Atmospheric, oceanic, and earth
physics. Current research focuses on
the dynamics of the atmosphere and the
ocean, climate modeling, cloud physics,
radiation transfer, remote sensing, geophysical/geological
fluid dynamics, geochemistry.
The department engages in
ongoing research and instruction with
the NASA Goddard Institute for Space
Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. Five faculty members share
appointments with the Department of
Earth and Environmental Sciences.
In addition to the department faculty
and graduate students, many others
participate in these projects, including
full-time research faculty, faculty and
students from other departments, and
visiting scientists.
Laboratory Facilities in Applied
Physics and Applied Mathematics
The Plasma Physics Laboratory, founded
in 1961, is one of the leading university
laboratories for the study of plasma
physics in the United States. There are
four experimental facilities. The
Columbia High-Beta Tokamak (HBT-EP)
supports the national program to develop
controlled fusion energy. It utilizes
high voltage, pulsed power systems,
and laser and magnetic diagnostics to
study the properties of high-beta plasmas
and the use of feedback stabilization
to increase the achievable beta. A
collaborative program with the Princeton
Plasma Physics Laboratory and the DIII-
D tokamak group at General Atomics is
studying the properties of high-beta
plasmas in order to maximize fusion
power production in these large, neutral
beam-heated tokamaks and spherical
tori. The plasma physics group and MIT
have jointly constructed the Levitated
SEAS 2009–2010