She studied surface science at Physics Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) where she received her B.Sc. (2012) and MSc (2014) degrees. During 2014-2018 she worked on non-contact dissipation on topological insulators at Basel University in Switzerland and received her PhD degree in 2018. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich before moving to Harvard University, where she is currently working in Prof. Jennifer Hoffman’s laboratory. Her work focuses on the design and construction of ultra-low temperature scanning probe microscopy to probe the electronic and dissipative nature of quantum materials.
Lene Hau, Faculty Co-Chair, 20 years in the department
Lene Vestergaard Hau is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics and is also on the faculty of the Harvard Biophysics Program. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1999, she was a senior scientist at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and holds a Ph.D. in Physics from University of Aarhus, Denmark. Hau led a team who succeeded in slowing a pulse of light to 15 miles per hour and also brought light to a stop. They took matters even further as they stopped and extinguished a light pulse in one part of space, and subsequently revived it in a different location. In the process, the light pulse is converted to a perfect matter copy that can be stored - put on the shelf - sculpted, and then turned back to light. These results represent a new paradigm for information processing.
Faculty
John Huth, Faculty Co-Chair, 27 years in the department
Professor Huth is the co-chair of the EQUITY AND Inclusion Committee. He works mainly in the field of experimental particle physics. His main interest is in electroweak symmetry breaking and is a member of the ATLAS Collaboration at the European Center for Nuclear Physics (CERN).Professor Huth is a member of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s Venture Faculty Program. The goal of the Program is to foster multidisciplinary studies that cut across the boundaries of traditional academic fields.
Undergraduates
David Morin, ex-officio, 18 years in the department
Graduate Students
Jacob Barandes, ex officio, 10 years in the department
I'm the Co-Director of Graduate Studies and Lecturer for the Department of Physics. My areas of interest include quantum mechanics, field theory, and general relativity. I help run the graduate physics program, manage the PhD admissions process, and teach courses aimed at both undergraduate and graduate students.
Benita Wolff, ex-officio, 7 months in the department (until October 2020)
Liz Alcock, 3 years in the department
Erica Mantone, 1 year in the department
Erica Mantone has worked at Harvard for the past year supporting Professors Jenny Hoffman and Christopher Stubbs. Prior to that, she was a Program Manager for Education First and as an educator for Boston Public Schools. She received her Masters in Education from Northeastern University in 2008. Erica is passionate and dedicated to diversity, inclusion, and belonging programming both at Harvard in and her personal life. For the past two years, she has produced Bust Out Boston: a celebration of womxn in the Boston music scene. She has used the music side of her life to create shows and atmospheres that are inclusive and bridge gaps of genres and generations. She is also very excited to have become a Big Sister as part of the Big Brother, Big Sister organization this year. She also plans to release an album of original music in early 2021. Erica is honored to be a Harvard representative of the APS-IDEA team and excited to make strides in creating a truly diverse and inclusive community.
