Industrial apprenticeships for NIRT: DMR-0210717
Georgetown University runs an innovative graduate program in physics
(Industrial
Leadership in Physics program) which
is designed to train students for work in industry. The program is
a joint program with the school of business, and combines physics coursework
with business coursework. In addition, students engage in four integrative
experiences which are designed to simulate the team-based problem
solving environment of the industrial sector. They also take a course
called Industrial Problems in Physics from a visiting professor from
industry and a course on intellectual property taught by a patent attorney,
After coursework is completed, they spend one year in industry on an
apprenticeship before returning to Georgetown to complete their Ph.D.
dissertation.
As part of the NIRT grant, we are sending two graduate students to
apprenticeships at IBM's Almaden research center under the mentorship
of Dr. Barbara Jones.
Apprenticeship of Ling Chen (January, 2003--December, 2004)
Ling Chen worked on a number of tasks during his apprenticeship. He
began with a project on the anomalous shape of the order parameter of
the charge-density-wave in the Falicov-Kimball model in large
dimensions. Next he worked on theoretical support for experiments
being performed in Stuart Parkin's laboratory on current-induced domain-wall
motion in magnetic nanostructures. He examined a generalization of the
Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations, which predicted both the size of
the domain wall and the domain-wall motion when current is driven through
the device. A written report on the apprenticeship is available:
Ling Chen report.
Apprenticeship of Alexander Joura (June, 2004--May, 2005)
Sasha Joura worked on two projects at IBM. The first was
a study of the nonlinear solutions of Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations
for current-induced domain wall motion and trying to relate those solutions
to the phenomenology of Josephson junctions. The second was a phenomenological
study of the Kondo effect and potential scattering
in different geometries to support the experimental program of Don Eigler.
A written report on the apprenticeship is available:
Sasha Joura report.
Apprenticeship of Simon Hale (July, 2006--August, 2007)
Simon worked on a magnetic memory project involving how to read and
write to small magnetic domains on magnetic tape. Results from this work
may be used in future products at IBM.
Last modified September 12, 2004.
Jim Freericks, Professor of Physics
