NBIA News 2013

Ten new members of the NBIA this year (2013/14)

-Jenni Adams is Visiting Professor at the NBIA during the academic year 2013/14. Jenni is on sabbatical leave from the University of Canterbury in new Zealand, and she works on theoretical astroparticle physics and astrophysics.

-Assaf Ben-David is new post-doc in theoretical astroparticle physics. Assaf joins Subir Sarkar's new group and he arrives from Tel Aviv University, where he just finished his PhD.

-Guido Festuccia is new Assistant Professor in theoretical particle physics. Guido obtained his PhD from MIT and joins us from a post-doctoral stay at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

-Jacob Trier Frederiksen is new Associate Professor in theoretical astroparticle physics. He joins Martin Pessah's group at the NBIA. Jacob obtained his PhD at Stockholm University nad has since held post-doctoral appointments at the Niels Bohr Institute.

-Oliver Gressel joins us from Nordita in Stockholm. Oliver is new Assistant Professor in the group of Martin Pessah, and he works on theoretical astrophysics.

-Kjetil Hals is a condensed matter theorist who joins the NBIA as post-doc later this fall. Kjetil comes from the University of Trondheim where he is presently on a post-doctoral position.

-Jason Koskinen is new Assistant Professor in experimental astroparticle physics at the NBIA at Discovery Center. Jason works on the IceCube experiment at the South Pole  and comes to us from Penn State University. He will join Subir Sarkar's new group in astroparticle physics.

-Hiroki Ohta will be NBIA post-doc in theoretical biophysics, jointly with the biophysics group at the Niels Bohr Institute. Hiroki obtained his PhD from the University of Tokyo and has since held post-doctoral positions at the Yukawa Institute ofr Theoretical Physics and at the LPTMS and Universite Paris-Sud.

-Subir Sarkar is Niels Bohr Professor at the NBIA for a five-year period starting this fall. The professorship is supported by the Danish National Research Foundation with a major grant that allows Subir to build up a group in astroparticle physics at the NBIA. Subir Sarkar continues on a half-time appointment at Oxford University.

-Ciaran Williams is new Assistant Professor in theoretical parrticle physics at the NBIA and Discovery Center. Ciaran obtained his PhD from Durham University and has since held a post-doctoral position at Fermilab.

NBIA post-doc Jeroen Danon publishes Quantum Mechanics book

Cambrdige University Press has just published "Advanced Quantum Mechanics: A Practical Guide" by Yuli V. Nazarov and NBIA post-doc Jeroen Danon. Quoting from the publisher's description, this book is "An accessible introduction to advanced quantum theory, [it is] a graduate-level textbook [that] focuses on its practical applications rather than mathematical technicalities. It treats real-life examples, from topics ranging from quantum transport to nanotechnology, to equip students with a toolbox of theoretical techniques. Beginning with second quantization, the authors illustrate its use with different condensed matter physics examples. They then explain how to quantize classical fields, with a focus on the electromagnetic field, taking students from Maxwell's equations to photons, coherent states and absorption and emission of photons. Following this is a unique master-level presentation on dissipative quantum mechanics, before the textbook concludes with a short introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics, covering the Dirac equation and a relativistic second quantization formalism."

Jeroen Danon graduated from the Delft University of Technology, and after doing a postdoc at the Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems (Freie Universität Berlin) he came to the NBIA in October 2012.  He works in the fields of quantum transport and mesoscopic condensed matter physics. His main focus lies on problems closely related to experiment (e.g. spin/exchange qubits in quantum dots, induced superconductivity in nanowires), but he also works on more general theoretical problems such as dephasing and quantum corrections to electron transport in ferromagnetic metals.

Christine Hartmann receives Dirac Diploma and Best Student Award in Erice

At the recent International School of Subnuclear Physics "Reflections on the next step for the LHC" held in Erice, NBIA PhD-student Christine Hartmann received both this year's Paul A.M. Dirac Diploma and Best Student Award. The school ranged in topics from the latest experimental discoveries to hot theoretical developments, in the usual style of this unique and prestigious series of PhD-schools on particle physics. Speakers included Peter W. Higgs and Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft, together with many distinguished lecturers on specialized topics.

Zohar Komargodski appointed Adjunct Professor at the NBIA

Zohar Komargodski of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, has been appointed Adjunct Professor of Theoretical Physics at the NBIA for a period of five years. Zohar Komargodski completed his PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science just five years ago. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, he returned to a senior scientist position in the Weizmann Institute's Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department. His research is at the forefront of particle physics, quantum field theory and its links to more mathematical disciplines. He is particularly known for his work with Adam Schwimmer on the renormalization group flow in four-dimensional field theories, work that was included in the citation when last year he received the pretsigious "New Horizons in Physics" prize.

Chris Pethick elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

NBIA Professor Chris Pethick is one of just two who have been elected Foreign Honorary Members of the Physics section of the  American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year.  In the citation, Chris Pethick is described as a theoretical physicist, whose contributions in areas as diverse as neutron stars, ultracold atomic gases, low-temperature and condensed matter physics have set standards for the fields. Applying concepts across disciplines he has achieved penetrating physical insights. His theories of neutron stars are classic: he co-developed the first consistent descriptions of dense matter from low densities to the liquid interior in neutron stars and in stellar collapse; proposed that compact X-ray sources are accreting neutron stars, and has driven our understanding of neutron star cooling. In condensed matter physics, he provided the basis of understanding of liquid helium-3 at nonzero temperature, and showed how related ideas could be applied to the transport properties of heavy-fermion compounds, and in a very different context, quark matter at high densities. Pioneered applying condensed matter concepts to ultracold atomic gases, successfully bridging the gap between atomic and condensed-matter physics. Awarded the  Onsager Prize and the Bethe Prize of the American Physical Society.

PRACE grant to the NBIA

The  EU Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) provides access  to world-class resources by allocating computing time at the five  largest computers in Europe to research and industry. NBIA researchers  Jacob Trier Frederiksen, Colin McNally, Gareth Murphy and Martin Pessah, as  part of an international team led by NBI’s Troels Haugbølle, have been  awarded 75 million CPU hours. It is the second largest EU computing  grant given to any European research group, and represents 27% of all EU  computing time at the largest super-computer in Europe.

If  a corresponding amount of computing power would be acquired by buying  computers or computing time at commercial data centers it would cost  more than 3.5 million Dkr. The grant will allow the NBIA team and their  collaborators at the Natural History Museum and the Niels Bohr Institute  to make groundbreaking models of how stars are formed from dense  molecular gas, and better understand how accretion discs made of gas and  dust, that eventually become planets, evolve around newborn stars

Eight new members join the NBIA in 2012

-Simon Caron-Huot is new Assistant Professor at the NBIA and the Discovery Center. He comes from the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, and for the first two years of his appointment here, he is sharing his time between the IAS and the NBIA. Simon Caron-Huot received his PhD from McGill University in 2009, working on the theory of strong interactions. He has been a member at the IAS since 2009.

-Matteo Barnabe will join the NBIA in a joint post-doctoral position with the DARK Cosmology Center. Matteo Barnabe received his PhD in 2009 from the University of Groningen, and has since been a post-doctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for  Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.

-Jeroen Danon is new post-doc in theoretical condensed matter physics, in a position shared with the Center for Quantum Devices. Jeroen Danon joins us from the Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems at Freie Universität Berlin. He received his PhD from Delft University of Technology in 2009.

-Tristan Dennen has just started as post-doc at the NBIA and the Discovery Center. Tristan Dennen received his PhD from UCLA this year, and works on new and highly optimized high-order calculations in perturbative gauge theories and supergravity.

-Matti Herranen joins the NBIA and the Discovery Centeras post-doc. Matti Herranen arrives  from the RWTH in Aachen. He received his PhD in 2009 from Jyvaskyla University and works on quantum field theoretical related to baryogenesis in the early Universe.

-Colin McNally is a new NBIA post-doctoral fellow in astrophysics, working in the group of Martin Pessah. Colin McNally received his PhD from the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University in 2012.

-Gareth Murphy also joins the NBIA as postdoctoral fellow working in the group of Martin Pessah. Gareth Murphy was previously a Science Foundation Ireland Postdoctoral researcher at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and worked earlier at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble.

-Søren Vedel is new post-doc in Biocomplexity, in a joint position between the NBIA and the Center for Models of Life.  Søren Vedel has just received his PhD from the Institute of Nanotechnology at the Technical University of Denmark and has during his studies also worked at  Rensselaer Polytechnic   Institute in New York.

Martin Pessah receives ERC Starting Grant

The European Research Council has awarded Martin Pessah a prestigious Starting Grant for 13.3  million Kroner to investigate fundamental problems related to the  formation, evolution, and observational properties of planets, stars,  and black holes.

"Understanding how celestial bodies gain mass during their lives by means of a rotating, gaseous disk surrounding them has been an outstanding problem in astrophysics for well over four decades.  The goal of this project is to build upon state-of-the-art numerical codes and theoretical models in order to investigate how the small-scale physical processes determine the global, observable disk properties. Because of the fundamental role that accretion disks play in many environments, this research program will have profound implications across many branches of astrophysics. The combination of local expertise at the NBI, including the Computational Astrophysics Group, the Center for Star and Planet Formation, and the Dark Cosmology Centre, offer an unparalleled multidisciplinary environment to carry out my research program.", says Martin Pessah.

Martin Pessah received his first degree in Astronomy at the University of La Plata, Argentina.  He obtained his PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics in 2007 at the University of Arizona. He was later a member of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. In 2010, he became an Assistant Professor at the NBIA, with the goal of building a Theoretical Astrophysics group.

Christine Hartmann receives this year's Women in Physics Prize

The Danish Physical Society's network for Women in Physics has awarded thie Prize for 2012 to NBIA PhD-student Christine Hartmann 'for her groundbreaking and independent research in the subject of neutrino oscillations'. The Women in Physics Prize, normally awarded to scientists at much later stages in their careers, was handed over at a ceremony at the Danish Physical Society's annual meeting on the 18th of June 2012. Christine continues her work on neutrino physics at the NBIA, while also working on physics related to the strong interactions and LHC physics. She has been invited to spend 6 months this coming fall at the Theory Group of CERN.

Subir Sarkar becomes Niels Bohr Professor at the NBIA

The Danish National Research Foundation has awarded Professor Subir Sarkar from Oxford University a distinguished Niels Bohr Professorship to start up a new group in astroparticle physics at the NBIA. With the position comes a grant of 29 million Kroner for a five-year period. Professor Sarkar is one of the founding fathers of the field of astroparticle physics, and has produced ground-breaking work in the field. "My research is at the boundary between particle physics and astrophysics/cosmology", says Professor Sarkar. "My project is titled 'Connecting Inner Space & Outer Space', and will start in autum 2013. There is a lot going on in these areas at the NBI, and I look forward in particular to engaging with both the experimentalists and the theorists working in this exciting field, in our joint quest to understand how the universe and all it contains was shaped by the fundamental laws of physics".

Charles Marcus becomes Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor at the NBIA

World-leading scientist in quantum physics, Charles Marcus of Harvard University, joins the faculty of the NBIA as Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor of Physics. The new appointement coincides with the start-up of 'Quantum Devices' a new major center in experimental condensed matter physics at the Niels Bohr Institute which has been funded by  the Danish National Research Foundation. “I am proud to be able to accept the Villum Kann Rasmussen Professorship  and am impressed to see how a private foundation like the Villum  Foundation and the Danish National Research Foundation have joined  forces to provide the Niels Bohr Institute with the economic resources  that make it possible to deliver research at the level I promised them  with my appointment,” says Professor Marcus, who has just taken  up the professorship. At the NBIA a new theory group will be built around  Professor Marcus and the associated experimental facilities at his center. A start-up grant of 5 million Kroner has already been given by the Villum Foundation to boost these activities. New hires will begin this year, and continue in the years to come. 

NBIA scientists Martin Pessah and Anders Tranberg receive Young Investigator Grants

The Villum Foundation has given Young Investigator Grants to NBIA  Assistant Professors Martin Pessah and Anders Tranberg. Martin Pessah's  project is focused on the physics of accretion disks and galaxy  clusters. He will use his grant to hire two three-year post-docs and to  buy powerful computers. Anders Tranberg's project concerns extensions of  the Standard Model of particle physics that are needed in order to  describe the observed antisymmetry between matter and antimatter in the  Universe. He will use his grant to pay for his own salary for three  years, and to hire a three-year post-doc.

Christina Thoene publishes paper in Nature

In what is probably NBIA's first science paper in the prestigeous journal 'Nature', frequent NBIA visiting scientist Christina Thoene is first author on a paper that describes an unusual stellar death on Christmas Day 2010. A gamma-ray burst was observed by the Swift satellite on that day, and the subsequent evolution of thie star that caused this burst was monitored. Such gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe. They  result from a stellar explosion where a portion of the stellar material  collapses into a black hole, while the remainder is shot out into the  universe. In the process, the dying star rotates very quickly and a disc  of incidental material forms around the newly formed black hole. The gamma-ray outburst typically lasts only a few minutes. The gamma-ray  burst that was observed on the 25th of December 2010 lasted more than  half an hour. This is longer than most gamma-ray bursts previously  observed and at the same time it behaved very strangely. What Christina Thoene had found was nothing less than an entirely new kind of stellar death. This became obvious in the following days, when the object was followed closely. The tell-tale signs of this new kind of stellar death is the subesequent thermal -- blackbody -- radiation. Perhaps the reason why it has not been observed for other stars earlier may be the necessity of the star to be so close that the faint thermal radiation can be detected.

Emil Bjerrum-Bohr is elected member of Young Academy at Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters

NBIA scientist Emil Bjerrum-Bohr becomes member of the prestigious Young Academy at the Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters. The Young Academy is a new independent platform for young scientists in  all branches of sciences and a newly formed academic institution in  Denmark under The Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters. The purpose of the the Young Academy is to strengthen basic research and  cross-disciplinarian exchange, to build bridges between sciences and  society and to give some of Denmark's brightest young researchers a  voice in the public debate.

Gordon Baym shares 2011 Eugene Feenburg Memorial Medal

Former NBIA Board member and Adjunct Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute Gordon Baym will share the 2011 Eugene Feenburg Memorial Medal with Leonid Keldysh. Baym was cited "for the self-consistent conserving approach to many-body  perturbation theory that provided a solid platform for perturbative  expansions, and for his novel applications of quantum many-body methods  to nuclear physics, astrophysics, highly condensed matter, and atomic  physics." He will receive the award at a special ceremony during the  16th Recent Progress in Many-Body Physics international conference in Bariloche, Argentina in late November.

NBIA post-doc Andres Reynoso receives an honorable mention as part of the J.J Giambiagi 2011 Award

NBIA post-doc Andres Reynoso's PhD thesis entitled "Quantum transport in bidimensional systems with spin-orbit interaction" was distinguished as one of the top three PhD thesis in Theoretical Physics written in Argentina during 2009-2010. He received an Honorable Mention as part of the prestigious J.J. Giambiagi 2011 Award, which is given every two years to the best physics PhD thesis in the country.

NBIA scientist Emil Bjerrum-Bohr receives prestigious Junior Group Leader grant from the Lundbeck Foundation

Emil Bjerrum-Bohr has been awarded 10 million kroner by the Lundbeck Foundation to  establish his own research group at the NBIA and the Discovery Center.

The Lundbeck Foundation’s award of 10 million kroner will be given over a  period of 5 years, and it will be possible to create three new postdoc  positions and one PhD position. This grant from the Lundbeck Foundation will allow  him to establish and lead his own research group, the Amplitude  Computation Group (CAMP), at the NBIA and  the Discovery Center. 

“My project is pioneering work with the goal of creating stronger  connections between experimental and theoretical physics. With large  experimental facilities like the LHC-accelerator at CERN, we are  entering a new era of research, where particle physics must be  understood on far smaller distances and at higher energy densities. The  aim of the project is to find new methods for making accurate  predictions of which particles will be formed in proton collisions at  CERN. In particle physics these predictions are called scattering  amplitudes. However, these new methods may also lead to an entirely new  understanding of physics. That’s where it gets really exciting!”,  explains Emil Bjerrum-Bohr. 

Emil Bjerrum-Bohr  received his PhD from  the Niels Bohr Institute in 2004. He has had a successful international scientific  career first in Great Britain and later in the U.S. at  the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. In 2009 he returned to  Denmark to assume a newly established research position as Knud Højgaard Assistant Professor in particle  physics at the NBIA.

Five new post-docs arrive at the NBIA this fall

-Yang Zhang joins the NBIA and the Discovery Center on September 1st, having just obtained his PhD from Cornell University. Yang Zhang has worked on both comsology and particle physics during his studies at Cornell, and plan to continue work in these directions while here. He arrives here on a prestigious 2-year post-doctoral fellowship from the Danish Council for Independent Research.

-Valery  Yundin arrives on September 1st from Silesia University in Poland where he is spending a year while completing his PhD at DESY, Zeuthen. Valery Yundin is an expert on very complex amplitude calculations and their efficient numerical implementation for relevant particle physics processes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

-Florian Loebbert comes to us from Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, where he has been a post-doc since completing his PhD from the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam. Florian Loebbert has done work on integrability in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and has also worked on amplitude computations in gauge theories.

-Els Heinsalu joins us at the end of the year from IFISC in Spain. Els Heinsalu received her PhD from the University of Tartu in 2008 and she works in the area of statistical physics and complex systems.

-Guido Macorini, who arrives on September 1st, obtained his PhD in 2008 from the University of Trieste, and has since then been a post-doc at Salento University in Lecce. Guido Macorini has worked on collider phenomenology and has also worked on integrability in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory.

Director of NBIA receives grant for two 2-year post-docs

NBIA Director Poul H. Damgaard has received a grant for two 2-year post-doctoral positions at the NBIA from the Villum Foundation. The selection committee was composed of Deans of Science from the University of Aarhus, the University of Southern Denmark and the Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Copenhagen University. These positions will be filled at the next post-doctoral selection round at the NBIA, with starting dates in the fall of 2012.

NBIA scientist Benny Lautrup publishes textbook

Benny Lautrup's book "Physics of Continuous Matter" has just been published by CRC Press. While covering a very wide spectrum of topics, the book can be used as textbook from 3rd-year undergraduate courses and up. The style is personal and distinct: every concept is explained with original and striking examples. Physical intuition and the understanding of scales and 'orders of magnitude' in physical problems permeates the book throughout, and yet the mathematical rigor is there as well. This book has all the prerequisites for becoming a classic in its field.  

Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek joins the NBIA Board

Frank Wilczek, Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT and Nobel Laureate in 2004, has agreed to serve as new member of the NBIA Board. Prior to his present appointment at MIT, Frank Wilczek has held faculty positions at Princeton University, the University of California in Santa Barbara, and the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton. Frank Wilczek, whose research spans a very wide range of disciplines in theoretical physics, is already well acquainted with the scope of the Niels Bohr International Academy, having, among other things, delivered the inauguration address at the opening of the NBIA in the fall of 2007.

Niels Grønbech Jensen is elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Ib Henriksen American Visiting Professor at the NBIA, Niels Grønbech Jensen, has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society  for his development and application of new computational algorithms and tools in Biological and Condensed Matter Physics, especially those involving massively parallel molecular dynamics, electrostatic interactions, ion implantation, and nonlinear physics.  Niels Grønbech Jensen works on a variety of different topics in theoretical and applied physics, including self-assembly in soft matter, dynamics of superconducting Josephson circuits with an emphasis on understanding how macroscopic quantum behavior can be unambiguously identified, and modeling of atomic-scale materials with an emphasis on radiation effects due to either ion implementation or nuclear fission. Niels Grønbech Jensen stays at the NBIA until September 2011.

NBIA signs agreement of cooperation with the APCTP in South Korea

At a signing ceremony in Pohang, South Korea on December 17, 2010, the President of APCTP, Professor Peter Fulde, signed an agreement with NBIA Director Poul H. Damgaard which ensures a tighter bond between the two institutions.   The agreement aims at stimulating the exchange of researchers, participation in workshops, programs and conferences at the two institutions, and also opens up for the possibility of jointly organized meetings.

Simon Badger and Donal O’Connell of the NBIA and the Discovery Center have been awarded two of this year's Sapere Aude Young Researchers Awards.

The Sapere Aude Young Researchers Award are post-doctoral grants that in addition to paying two years of post-doc salary also include a prestigious award. Both Simon Badger and Donal O’Connell wish to use their awards on attracting to the NBIA and the Discovery Center outstanding particle physics theorists.

NBIA Board member Herbert Spohn receives the Dannie Heinemann Prize

New member of the NBIA Board, Professor Herbert Spohn of the Technical University of Munich receives the 2011 Dannie Heinemann Prize for Mathematical Physics. Herbert Spohn receives the prize “For his seminal contributions to nonequilibrium statistical  mechanics as exemplified by his exact solutions of growth models and  stationary states of open systems. Combining mathematical rigor with  physical insight his work elucidates the transition from microscopic to  macroscopic behavior.”.

The prestigious Heinemann Prize was established in 1959 by the Heineman Foundation for  Research, Educational, Charitable, and Scientific Purposes, Inc., and is  administered jointly by the American Physical Society and the American  Institute of Physics.

Herbert Spohn received his undergraduate education in Physics at the  Technical University of Stuttgart and his Ph.D. degree in 1975 from the  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat at Munchen. He was postdoc at Yeshiva  University and Rutgers University with Joel Lebowitz and at Princeton  University with Elliott Lieb. In 1982 he joined as associate professor  the group of Herbert Wagner at the LMU. Since 1998 he is full professor  at Zentrum Mathematik and Physik Department of the Technical University  at Munchen. He has been visiting member at the IHES, Paris, and at the  Institute for Advanced Studies. Herbert Spohn is most widely known  through his work on interacting stochastic particle systems, in  particular driven lattice gases, and his study of universal probability  distributions for growth processes as connected to line ensembles and  random matrix theory. He strived for a deeper understanding of how  macroscopic laws emerge from the underlying motion of atoms. Spohn was  awarded with the Max Planck Research Award, jointly with Lebowitz. He  chaired the International Association of Mathematical Physics. He joined the NBIA Board in June 2010.

Chris Pethick receives the Hans A. Bethe Prize

The Executive Board of the American Physical Society has announced  that the Hans A. Bethe Prize will be awarded to Chris Pethick  “For fundamental contributions to the understanding of nuclear matter  at very high densities, the structure of neutron stars, their cooling,  and the related neutrino processes and astrophysical phenomena.”
The Hans A. Bethe Prize was established to recognize outstanding work  in theory, experiment or observation in the areas of astrophysics,  nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, or closely related fields.    The Bethe Prize will be presented at the APS April 2011 meeting, at a  special Ceremonial session.
Chris Pethick has had an essentially lifelong interest in neutron  stars.   A famous paper from 1970 that he wrote together with Gordon Baym and Hans Bethe resulted from a chance encounter at Nordita when they were all three in Copenhagen for longer-term visits.   This was at  a time when astrophysicists needed for the first time to understand in  detail matter at nuclear densities.   Their work formed the basis for much subsequent work and continues to be cited today.   Later Chris in collaboration with others developed equations of state for matter in  collapsing stars.   He has also made fundamental contributions to the  understanding of neutrino processes in dense matter and the cooling of  neutron stars.   He continues to play a very active role in the field, as is illustrated by a paper on neutron star structure that will appear in Physical Review Letters in October.

Two Assistant Professors have joined the NBIA and the Discovery Center

-Martin Pessah will be the new Knud Højgaard Assistant Professor at the NBIA.   Martin comes from a 3-year post-doctoral position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.   He received his Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Arizona in 2007 and is known for his work on the physics of accretion disks through the study of magnetohydrodynamic flows, numerically as well as analytically.   At the NBIA Martin will lead a new effort in numerical astrophysics, aiming to build up a small independent group in that area.

-Simon Badger will be new Assistant Professor at the Discovery Center, but will be joining the NBIA as well since the theory group of that center is housed at the NBIA.   He received his Ph.D. from Durham University in 2006 and has since held post-doctoral positions in Saclay and DESY, Hamburg.   Simon joins Emil Bjerrum-Bohr and Poul Henrik Damgaard in an effort to establish a group that will work on newly developed methods for computing amplitudes relevant for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.   Others with similar research interests in this area include incoming NBIA post-doc Donal O’Connell and NBIA Ph.D.-student Thomas Søndergaard.   One more post-doctoral hire will also be made soon in this area.

Five new post-docs have arrived at the NBIA for the fall of 2010

-Donal O’Connell will start on September 1st, arriving from the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton.   Donal received his PhD from Caltech in 2007 and works on a variety of different topics around the Standard Model of particle physics and beyond.   Recently, his interests have turned toward new developments in the spinor-helicity formalism for scattering amplitude calculations.

-Anders Tranberg joins us in early August, coming from a post-doctoral position at Oulu and Helsinki Universities.   Anders received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam and has since also held a post-doctoral position at Cambridge University.   He works on the interplay between cosmology and particle physics, in particular topics such as Electroweak baryogenesis in the Electroweak theory and beyond.

-Ricardo Monteiro will arrive September 1st from Cambridge University, where he is just finishing his PhD under the supervision of Stephen Hawking.   Ricardo works on General Relativity, in particular on the thermodynamics of black holes and related topics.

-Hidehiko Shimada joins the NBIA on September 1st.   Hidehiko works on various aspects of string theory and is presently a post-doc at the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam.   He received his PhD in 2005 from Tokyo University.

-Shantanu Mukherjee begins his post-doctoral appointment on October 1st.   Shatanu has just received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin and works on the physics of unconventional superconductors.   He will be working closely with the condensed matter theory group of the Niels Bohr Institute.

Two ‘Ib Henriksen Visiting Professors’ will be joining the NBIA for extended stays

• Starting on August 1st this year, Niels Grønbech Jensen of the University of California in Davis will be visiting the NBIA until the first of September in 2011.   Niels Grønbech Jensen studies the nonlinear dynamics of soft condensed matter systems using numerical techniques.   Some of his interests include the dynamics and phase locking of nonlinear oscillators and soliton systems.   He is currently examining models for phenomena that occur in atomic-scale materials, such as vortex systems, soft matter, and granular materials.
• John Donoghue who works in the Nuclear, Particle and Gravitational Theory Group at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst will be a guest of the NBIA from April 1st to July 1st in 2011.   John Donoghue’s research has covered a broad range of topics in theoretical particle physics and he is especially noted for his work in particle phenomenology.  He has applied effective theory approaches to gain insights into both particle physics and general relativity.   Some of his most recent work has been to examine the Standard Model as an example of emergent physics, building on ideas developed by Holger Bech Nielsen at the NBI.