Prospective undergraduate research assistants should contact faculty in the research area in which they are interested.

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee

klee@unl.edu

Instructional Technology in Astronomy Education, Computer Simulations


Evan Rich

Evan Rich

erich3@unl.edu

Planet Formation, Young Stellar Objects, Multi-wavelength Astronomy


Ilya Kravchenko

Ilya Kravchenko

ikrav@unl.edu

Ultra High Energy cosmic neutrino detection experiments in Antarctica and Greenland


Kam-Ching Leung

Kam-Ching Leung (emeritus)

kleung2@unl.edu

Very close binary systems; contact and near contact systems.

Atomic, Molecular, Optical & Plasma Physics

Herman Batelaan

Herman Batelaan

hbatelaan@unl.edu

Quantum optics; vacuum field interaction with atoms and electrons; decoherence in matter interferometry; field emission of electrons; storage and slowing of light; slow sound and phononic band gaps; relativistic dynamics of a charged sphere.


Paul Burrow

Paul Burrow (emeritus)

pburrow@unl.edu

Low-energy electron scattering processes in gases, in particular, temporary negative ion formation and dissociative attachment.


Martin Centurion

Martin Centurion

martin.centurion@unl.edu

Ultrafast science: diffractive imaging of isolated molecules with atomic resolution, ultrafast photo-induced chemical reactions, controlling molecules with laser pulses, atoms and molecules in intense laser fields; experimental methods: time-resolved electron diffraction, electron deflectometry, femtosecond optical measurements.


Ilya Fabrikant

Ilya Fabrikant

ifabrikant@unl.edu

Theory of electron-atom and electron-molecule collisions; electron attachment to molecules and clusters; Rydberg atom collisions; photodetachment of negative ions in external fields.


Matthias Fuchs

Matthias Fuchs

mfuchs@unl.edu

Ultrafast and high-field X-ray science; next-generation X-ray Source; X-ray free-electron lasers, nonlinear QED.


Timothy Gay

Timothy Gay

tgay@unl.edu

Polarized electron collisions with atoms and molecules; development of polarized electron sources and electron polarimeters; neutrino mass measurements; polarized photoionization of molecules.


Duane H. Jaecks

Duane H. Jaecks (emeritus)

djaecks1@unl.edu

Experimental measurement of electron motion and distributions in atoms formed in ion collisions and photoionization; study of correlated motion of massive particles.


Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap

Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap

marcelngoko@unl.edu

Strong-field and Attosecond Science: controlling ultrafast correlated atomic and molecular processes with ultrashort laser pulses, atoms and molecules in intense laser pulses with arbitrarily polarization, photodetachment of negative ions in external fields, theory of electron-atom collisions; theoretical quantum and classical methods: TDSE and TD-DFT toolboxes, J-matrix method, R-matrix method, perturbation theory analysis, time-frequency analysis.


Bradley Shadwick

Bradley Shadwick

shadwick@unl.edu

Theory of intense laser-plasma interactions with applications to plasma based particle accelerators; plasma kinetic theory; reduced plasma models; Hamiltonian structure; large-scale computation; and advanced numerical algorithms.


Kees Uiterwaal

Cornelis (Kees) Uiterwaal

cuiterwaal2@unl.edu

Femtosecond laser processes; optical vortices; photoionization in ultrashort and intense laser pulses; ion mass spectrometry; electron spectroscopy.


Donald Umstadter

Donald Umstadter

donald.umstadter@unl.edu

Nonlinear optics of high-intensity laser light in relativistic plasmas, with applications to compact particle accelerators and ultra-short duration x-ray sources; high energy density physics and extreme states of matter.

Condensed Matter/Materials Physics & Nanotechnology

Shireen Adenwalla

Shireen Adenwalla

sadenwalla@unl.edu

Novel interactions in Thin film magnetic systems; interactions at ferroelectric/ferromagnetic interfaces; Boron based semiconductors and neutron detection applications; using biological templates for patterned media.


Kirill Belashchenko

Kirill Belashchenko

belashchenko@unl.edu

Computational magnetism, quantum spin transport and spin torques from first principles, electronic properties of magnetic materials, alloy theory.


Christian Binek

Christian Binek

cbinek@unl.edu

Magnetic heterostructures; molecular beam epitaxy; extrinsically controlled exchange bias & spintronic applications; fundamental aspects of thermodynamics studied with magnetic model systems.


Peter Dowben

Peter Dowben

pdowben@unl.edu

Electronic (band) structure across electronic phase transitions in reduced dimensionality.


Stephen Ducharme

Stephen Ducharme

sducharme1@unl.edu

Fundamental and applied studies of organic ferroelectrics; nanoscale ferroelectricity; thin film ellipsometry; pyroelectric and piezoelectric properties of materials; nanoscience education and outreach; introductory physics for life sciences (IPLS); student-centered physics instruction based on sound research.


Alexei Gruverman

Alexei Gruverman

alexei_gruverman@unl.edu

Fundamental studies of nanoscale physical phenomena in electronic and polar materials by means of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques; research involves application of SPM for nanoscale studies of static and dynamic properties of ferroic domains, scaling behavior of ferroelectric-based devices, electronic properties of polar surfaces, SPM-assisted methods for fabrication of nanostructures and SPM studies of electromechanical and mechanical properties of biocompatible materials and biological systems.


Xia Hong

Xia Hong

xia.hong@unl.edu

Epitaxial growth and nanofabrication of complex oxide heterostructures; transport studies of nanoscale and low dimensional electron systems.


Sitaram Jaswal

Sitaram Jaswal (emeritus)

jaswal@unl.edu

Atomic and electrical structure of metallic compounds and glasses; magnetic properties of solids; surfaces; interfaces; nanostructures.


Roger Kirby

Roger Kirby (emeritus)

rkirby@unl.edu

Magnetism in nanostructured materials; magnetization reversal processes; magneto-optical measurements.


Alexey Kovalev

Alexey Kovalev

alexey.kovalev@unl.edu

Theoretical condensed-matter physics; spintronics; spin-dependent transport; quantum information processing.


Sy-Hwang Liou

Sy-Hwang Liou

sliou@unl.edu

Magnetic domain imaging; magnetic nanostructured materials and complex oxides.


David Sellmyer

David Sellmyer

dsellmyer@unl.edu

Nanoscale magnetic materials; self-assembled dots; extremely high density recording media; nanostructured high-energy product magnetic materials.

Sellmyer remembered for impacts in research, on students. 


Evgeny Tsymbal

Evgeny Tsymbal

tsymbal@unl.edu

Computational studies of magnetic, ferroelectric and transport properties of nanoscale materials and structures: magnetoelectric interfaces, magnetic and ferroelectric tunnel junctions, complex oxide materials.


Xiaoshan Xu

Xiaoshan Xu

xiaoshan.xu@unl.edu

Experimental condensed matter physics.

High Energy Physics

Ken Bloom

Ken Bloom

kenbloom@unl.edu

Proton collisions with the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider; computing and software for particle physics experiments.


Dan Claes

Dan Claes

dclaes@unl.edu

Compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN



Peisi Huang

Peisi Huang

peisi.huang@unl.edu

Theoretical particle physics, including new physics beyond the Standard Model, Higgs physics, collider physics and particle cosmology.


Ilya Kravchenko

Ilya Kravchenko

ikrav@unl.edu

Experimental particle physics: compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.
Astrophysics: Ultra high energy neutrino experiments in Antarctica.

Other Research Areas