Congratulations to Joel Greenberg and Henok Mebrahtu, this year’s winners of the Fritz London Graduate Fellowship. The award is given each year to graduate students doing work related to the interests of Fritz London, who was a professor of physics and chemistry at Duke from 1939 until his death in 1954. London was an internationally distinguished leader in the fields of quantum mechanics, quantum chemistry, low-temperature physics, and condensed matter. Mebrahtu’s graduate work involves fabricating carbon nanotubes and the probes used to study them, as part of an overall effort to observe a quantum phase transition in a simple quantum impurity system. The selection committee commended his success with the carbon nanotubes and said that Mebrahtu has “demonstrated an impressive mastery of the relevant theoretical issues.” Mebrahtu’s advisor is Prof. Gleb Finkelstein. Greenberg studies non-linear optical and quantum phenomena in gases of trapped atoms. The selection committee said that Greenberg does “impressive work in all aspects of the project,” including experimental design and set-up, observations, computer simulations, and theoretical analysis. Greenberg’s advisor is Prof. Dan Gauthier. The award includes a no-obligation supplement of $3,000 to each student. Horst Meyer, F. London Professor Emeritus, chairs the London Fellowship Committee.
Department of Physics
