Graduate Education in Department of Physics, University of Arkansas

1. Graduate Education inDepartment of Physics, University of Arkansas Permanent Faculty 19 Visiting Faculty, Post Doc ~15 Graduate Students ~ 40 Undergraduate Students ~ 100 Technical & Secretarial Staff 6

2. Degrees Awarded MA, MS, MS (Appl. Phys.), mostly Ph.D • Research Areas • Astronomy • Atomic and Molecular Physics • Biophysics • Condensed Matter (Experiment and Theory) • Nano-Science • Lasers, Optics and Quantum Optics • Physics Education

3. Introduction of the Department • Multimillion External Funding from NSF, ONR, DOE, AFOSR, ARO • $ 4.75M MRSEC:Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures • >50 refereed publications/Yr: Nature, Science, Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev., Opt. Lett., Appl. Phys. Lett. • 3 NSF - REU sites: Modern Optics, Micro-EP, SPAC • 5 APS Fellows; 2 OSA Fellows • 1 NSF Young Investigator, 4 NSF CAREER Awards (96, 98, 00, 07) • 3 Distinguished/Chaired Professors

4. Attractions for recruiting new students • Annual Departmental Research Budget$3,500,000 • Ph.D. scholarships up to $34,000/year per student for DDF • $24,000/year per student for DAF • Small classrooms, individual attention • Low living cost, low crime rate • Job market (Wal-Mart, Tyson, JB Hunt)

5. Condensed Matter/Nanoscience Research Area I: Molecular Beam Epitaxy Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Semiconductor Dots Spintronics Superconductivity Ferroelectric nanostructures II-VI and III-V Materials Optical Properties Faculty: Bellaiche, Chakhalian, Fu, Gea-Banacloche, Gross, Li, Oliver, Salamo, Thibado, Vyas, Xiao

6. Computational/Theoretical Physics Research Area II: Density Functional Calculations Piezo/Ferroelectric Physics Semiconductor Nanostructures Molecular Spectra Many-Body Physics Optical Properties Phase Transitions Faculty: Bellaiche, Fu, Gea-Banacloche, Harter, Lieber, Vyas

7. Quantum Optics and Nonlinear Optics Research Area III: Quantum Optics Quantum Information Quantum Computing Photon Statistics Non-Linear Optics Optical Squeezing Photothermal Spectra Cavity QED Faculty: Gea-Banacloche, Gupta, Salamo, Singh, Vyas, Xiao

8. Research Area IV: Bio-Physics DNA Sequencing Single DNA Detection Solid State Nanopore Neural Computation Biological Labeling Nanofabrication Optical Bio-Manipulation Bio-Contamination Detection Faculty: Gross, Li, Oliver, Salamo, Singh, Xiao

9. Physics Education and Astronomy (MS only) Research Area V: Precision modeling of education process Curriculum development Binary Stars Near-Earth Asteroids Quasars at high redshift Faculty: G. Stewart, J. Stewart, Kennefick, Lacy, Lieber

10. Our approaches to improve graduate educations First year: We form a task force committee for recruiting new graduate students; Besides normal courses, we open a cohort class (where students learn communication, presentation, journal club, and association) Opening a “Research seminar’’ class, in which each professor introduces his/her research to new students. For core courses (quantum mechanics, mathematical methods, electrodynamics), we add an additional section (one hour per week) for problem solving.

11. Our approaches to improve graduate educations Second year: Adopting a new model for candidacy exams (by allowing students to pass individual subject); Offering a “laboratory rotation’’ class, in which students choose to work in different labs of their interest. Each student is required to have one-hour annual evaluation (by presenting the course studies, research progress, and future plan in front of the committee). After the second year, the research advisor takes over the responsibility of supervising.

12. Our approaches to improve graduate educations Offering DDF and DAF to exceptional students; After the second year, we award the good students (who perform well in courses and in research) with the prestigious Ray Hughes Fellowships (established in 2007). Hiring faculties in new research areas (Biophysics, experimental materials science, and quasar astronomy).

13. Preliminary results Since new approaches were used in Jan. 2007, More students passed candidacy exam; Students are better informed about the departmental expectation, the difficulty of candidacy exams, and the availability of research areas and subjects; (3) Students are better prepared in course learning; (4) Students are more involved in research (partly due to annual evaluation); (5) By hiring faculties in new areas (Biophysics, and experimental materials science), students tend to go to these new areas.