Vibrations

The Newsletter for the EAS Community

Message from the Chair

EAS Community,

As we approach the end of the term, I’d like to share some exciting Division items. First, mark your calendars for next Wednesday's Watson Lecture,"Historic Innovations by Caltech People that Transformed our Everyday Lives," featuring Carver Mead (BS '56, PhD '60), the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus. Professor Mead is a pioneering figure in microelectronics, and if you haven't had the chance to hear him speak in person, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss.

Additionally, I want to highlight Julia Greer, the Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering; Fletcher Jones Foundation Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, for receiving the 2024 Nadai Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). This prestigious award recognizes Professor Greer's visionary leadership in advancing 3D nano- and micro-architected materials.

I'd also like to extend congratulations to Tom Hou, the Charles Lee Powell Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics, on his recent election to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Professor Hou's work on significant unsolved mathematical problems, such as the 3D Euler singularity problem, makes this honor well-deserved.

Congratulations to Professors Greer and Hou, and I look forward to seeing you all at Professor Mead's Watson Lecture next Wednesday.

Harry Atwater
Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science

Selected Upcoming Events

Wednesday, May 15, 2024, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Womxn in EAS (WiEAS) Personal Branding Series: How to Craft a Meaningful Social Media Presence as a Scientist, with Prof. Andrea Armani (PhD '07), USC (RSVP here)
Location: Chen 100

Thursday, May 16, 2024, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
2024 Chen-Huang Sustainability Lecture: "Clean Electricity and the Path to Net Zero: Methods and Insights" - Jesse Jenkins, Princeton University
Location: Baxter Lecture Hall

Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Watson Lecture: "Historic Innovations by Caltech People that Transformed our Everyday Lives" - Carver Mead (BS '56, PhD '60), the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus
Location: Beckman Auditorium

Thursday, May 30, 2024, 4:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Caltech and the Origins of Electric Vehicles
Location: Ramo Auditorium

Friday, May 31, 2024, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
James K. Knowles Lectures & Caltech Solid Mechanics Symposium - Zhigang Suo, Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of Mechanics and Materials, Harvard University
Location: Gates-Thomas 135

EAS Seminars & Events Calendar

Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes - Call for Nominations

Nominations for the Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes are due May 15, 2024.

Graduate students may be nominated for the best thesis, publication, or discovery in the following fields:

Biotechnology or Related Fields;
Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources or Related Fields;
Nanotechnology or Related Fields; and
Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection or Related Fields.

Additionally, a prize in Entrepreneurship or Related Fields is awarded to a graduating (undergrad or grad) student for the best business plan, proposal, start-up, or related effort at Caltech.

Nominations from Caltech faculty members should be submitted by email to Winter Koifman. Send the name and the PhD thesis of the nominee; please indicate which prize you are nominating for. For the Entrepreneurship prize, please provide the name, CV and business plan of the nominee.

Spotlight On Our People

Julian Navarro

Undergraduate Student, Computer Science

Hello! My name is Julian Navarro, and I’m currently a junior majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Information in Data Science. I have worked with Professor Julia Tejada on oxygen isotopic datasets from a broad range of mammal species from the Amazon. Outside of my academic pursuits, I am the cofounder and President of CS Careers @ Caltech. This club is important to me because as an international student from a minority background, I have struggled to find the right internships and career opportunities that will help me thrive in Tech. The mission of CS Careers is to provide career information for Computer Science students and jumpstart their career journeys and network with different companies and industry professionals. We have brought to campus individuals from companies like Google, Nvidia, Roblox, and Microsoft to have hiring events that students find lucrative and useful for the start of their careers. This summer I will be interning at Oracle as a Software Engineer Intern, and I am excited about this experience. During my free time, I love to play soccer for Beaver Ballers in Caltech’s Intramural Soccer League. After Caltech, I look forward to helping students in their career journey!

Lingyuan Kong

Postdoc, Applied Physics and Materials Science

I am a third-year postdoc working with professor Stevan Nadj-Perge in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science and the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter. My research focuses on exploring exotic electronic quantum states on exfoliated thin flakes of strongly correlated materials. Among them, one of the most interesting topics is the non-abelian anyons, which are anticipated to emerge in topological superconductors as well as systems exhibiting intrinsic topological order. I am also interested in a more generic perspective of the symmetry-breaking superconducting orders, very recently, we discovered a remarkable quantum state that breaks intra-unit-cell symmetry, named Pair Density Modulation state. More information can be found in the preprint. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, cooking, and watching movies.

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EAS News Highlights

In Other News

Calls for Nomination & Funding Opportunities

Caltech’s Office of Foundation Relations maintains an online database and email subscription service of primarily non-federal funding opportunities as a resource for the Caltech community. Opportunities include calls for proposals released by private foundations, public charities, associations, corporations, internal Caltech opportunities and federal limited opportunities.

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Division of Engineering and Applied Science