UC Irvine

Name: Aaron Barth
Title: Supermassive black holes in active galaxies
Description: Supermassive black holes are found in the centers of essentially all large galaxies, and the growth of these black holes during active accretion phases can have a major influence on the host galaxy environment. My group carries out observational research on diverse problems related to determining the masses of black holes in galaxy nuclei, understanding the physics of gaseous accretion onto black holes, and examining the relationships between the black holes and the host galaxies that they inhabit. Examples of research topics for summer projects include variability and reverberation mapping of active galaxies, modeling the structure of AGN host galaxies, measurement of AGN host galaxy kinematics to study gaseous outflows or determine black hole masses, and carrying out measurements to determine the masses of black holes in quasars from their spectral properties.
Preferred qualifications: Some familiarity with Python, and knowledge of astronomy at least at the level of an introductory college-level course.

Name: Albert Siryaporn
Title: Physics of living systems
Description: Our lab investigates the dynamics of living organisms. Bacteria is one of the best systems in which to pursue this question due to its relative simplicity and the wealth of available tools. We explore how physical properties of a system (i.e., shear stress, advection, diffusion) impact the development of bacteria across multiple length scales, from single cell units into multicellular organisms. Our projects seek to understand the role of physical properties in the development of dense biofilm communities. 
We design and fabricate microfluidic devices, perform cellular manipulation, and measure cellular dynamics using optical microscopy and computational analysis. The lab connects experiment and theory through the development of models and simulations.
Preferred qualifications: Preferred coursework minimums: Intro chemistry, intro chemistry lab, Intro physics

Name: Anyes Taffard
Title: Research on ATLAS at the Large Hadron Collider
Description: Prof Taffard is an experimental Particle Physicist performing research with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Her research focuses on searches for new physics using the Higgs boson as a new tool for discovery. These searches may shed light on dark matter and the mechanism behind electroweak symmetry breaking that could explain why the Standard Model Higgs is so light.
To achieve her long term physics goals, her group contributes to the experiment’s operation efforts and detector improvement projects. These include projects aimed at the ongoing Run-3 data taking (2022-2025) as well as the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC: 2029-2040) running periods. In particular, her group is involved in improving the trigger capabilities of ATLAS for the HL-LHC data taking. The ATLAS trigger permits to select the events of interest for data analysis and thus is a critical component to achieve the ATLAS physics program. These projects make use of the state of the art technologies using FPGA and GPUs to implement highly performant and fast algorithms (including machine learning algorithms) to perform particle identification.
The student will get involved in either data analysis or trigger projects.
Preferred qualifications: Applicants should have experience in programming (python and/or C++) as well as data analysis. Applicants should have interests in particle physics experiments and analysis of data from the LHC. Interests in learning how to use FPGA/GPUs are welcomed. The project will be scaled to the experience level of the student and provide sufficient background to effectively execute the project over the summer program.

Name: Huolin Xin
Title: High-energy cathodes for lithium-ion batteries
Description: The Cal-Bridge scholar will work on an R&D project for a high energy cathode that powers next-generation EVs. The works is relevant to environment justice and making our future sustainable.
Preferred qualifications: Being able to work in the lab.

Name: Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi
Title: Two-dimensional nanoelectronics
Description: Big picture goal: study the quantum electronic properties of new materials. We study quantum materials that are only a few atoms thick made of carbon (graphene), bismuth, and other elements. This requires making devices and measuring their electrical properties at cryogenic temperatures and at high magnetic fields. This research establish the basic understanding of new materials that could be used in future electronic devices in phone or computers.
Specific projects: Help develop new methods to make nanoelectronic devices and study their properties. Projects include working with laser cutters to make microscopic devices, designing and machining components, simulating nanoelectronic systems on the computer, designing and soldering electronic circuits, building a laser microscope from scratch, or programming in Python to automate experiments.
Preferred qualifications: experience with making things (construction/design/electronics/robotics/art) and/or programming.

Name: Jianming Bian
Title: Cold Electronics and Machine Learning for neutrino experiments
Description: We are looking to hire Summer Research Assistants to help the DUNE/NOvA neutrino physics group at UCI with an ongoing research study:
Responsibilities: Task 1. cryogenic electronics tests and performance study for liquid-argon neutrino detectors (amplification and digitization ASIC chips), Task 2. machine learning for particle identification and energy reconstruction in neutrino experiments
Preferred qualifications: Python

Name: Jin Yu
Title: Computational Biophysics Research on Mininature Biomolecular Machinery
Description: Biomolecular machinery play important roles in cellular functions with high efficiency and accuracy, despite of thermal fluctuations and environmental complexity. Based on molecular mechanics, statistical physics, and stochastic methods, we are particularly interested in deciphering operation mechanisms of those microscopic machinery, particularly, in genetic and epigenetic regulations where human diseases such as cancers are highly impacted. Students may work on an essential part of a molecular engine or regulatory domain by modeling and simulating comparatively small pieces of protein and DNA/RNA systems from fundamentals, conducting visualization and data analyses, and connecting physical laws to biomolecular implementations.
Preferred qualifications: The researches are highly interdisciplinary. Understanding general physics and/or chemistry, motivated in studying living systems, good at quantitative skills, and comfortable working with computer softwares are all preferred.

Name: Jing Xia
Title: Optical Investigation of Novel Materials for Quantum Computers
Description: The aim is to use our unique high-precision optical and electrical probes to study novel phases in condensed matter systems. Some of these phases are characterized by spontaneous symmetry breaking while others possess topological order. We are particularly interested in topological insulators, topological superconductors, 2D materials, and quantum Hall systems. Their novel properties may be exploited for robust quantum computers.
Preferred qualifications: none

Name: Michael Ratz
Title: Fermion masses and modular forms
Description: Modular flavor symmetries are a promising approach to flavor. This project aims at relating modular forms to properties of mass matrices of elementary particles.
Preferred qualifications: his project requires a strong mathematical background and analytical skills

Name: Shirley Li
Title: Understanding neutrinos with next-generation neutrino experiments
Description: Neutrinos are among the least understood elementary particles. They have a strange behavior called neutrino oscillation – neutrinos can change their flavors while propagating. The discovery of neutrino oscillation confirmed that neutrinos have masses, which was not predicted by our theoretical framework. Since its discovery, there have been intense efforts to understand how neutrinos oscillate and to shed light on the nature of neutrinos. With the next generation neutrino oscillation experiments projected to reach unprecedented precisions, the need for theoretical modeling of how neutrinos interact with matter, a key step to detect neutrinos in these experiments, has also intensified. In this project, the student will investigate how to incorporate experimental data to improve the modeling of neutrino-matter interactions, therefore allowing better measurements of neutrino properties from future experiments.
Preferred qualifications: none

Name: Steph Sallum
Title: Imaging Planet Formation with the Keck Telescopes
Description:  This project would involve using high angular resolution imaging data from Keck Observatory to understand how planets form and evolve. The Cal-Bridge Scholar would work with observations of protoplanetary disks - the disks of dust and gas that remain after the star formation process, and the sites of planet formation - from the 10-m Keck telescopes. The project would involve using these images to understand the conditions of planet formation on solar-system scales, both by searching for actively-forming planets, and by understanding the conditions in the protoplanetary disk at about the Sun-Jupiter orbital distance. In addition to working with imaging data, the Cal-Bridge Scholar would participate in observing, and would join an active research group addressing many open questions in planet formation. 
Preferred qualifications: python programming skills and basic familiarity with terminal use

Name: Thomas Scaffidi
Title: Hydrodynamics of Quantum Matter
Description: Imagine preparing a set of qubits in a simple product state, and time evolving it under a given Hamiltonian which couples them. The state of the system is going to become more and more complex as entanglement building up. If one wanted to store information about the system on a classical computer, the number of bits required would increase exponentially with time. Yet, after a while one expects the system to reach a thermal equilibrium, that should be describable in terms of a few macroscopic quantities, like temperature. In the field of quantum dynamics, the goal is to understand this extremely rich process, from the microscopic quantum chaos at short times, to the emergent hydrodynamics at long times. Hydrodynamics is a universal description of fluids which emerges at length and time scales much larger than those that govern microscopic, atom-level processes. While it has been useful in almost all fields of physics, its applications in solid state physics have been fairly restricted. Recently, however, important strongly correlated systems have been found which exhibit universal transport properties which cannot be explained by a single particle picture, and for which a non-perturbative approach like hydrodynamics is warranted. The opportunity provided by these systems is twofold: it enables the study of novel regimes of transport with unique properties, and it also generates exotic types of hydrodynamic theories which would not occur otherwise ``in vacuum''.
The project concerns a new regime of electronic transport in which electrons behave like a viscous fluid, and for which the ubiquitous Ohm’s law is replaced by the much richer Navier-Stokes equation. Interest in this regime was recently amplified by a series of experiments in 2D materials like graphene. The goal of the project is to calculate from first-principles the precise form of the scattering operator between electrons in realistic models for novel quantum materials, in order to predict hydrodynamic behavior and discover novel phenomena. In practice, this involves the derivation of scattering properties using perturbation theory and the calculation of high-dimensional integrals using a variety of numerical methods.
Preferred qualifications: Experience with numerical physics (in python, julia or other languages) is a plus.

Name: Vivian U
Title: From Galactic Cores to the Cosmic Web -- A Study of Galactic Winds with HST and JWST
Description: Galaxies, the basic building block of the universe, are considered "cosmic ecosystems" because of the energy transfer processes that regulate the life cycle of their constituents: stars, gas, black holes, and dust. These "feedback" processes, such as winds and shock waves, are thought to be important in how they move things around and subsequently govern the evolution of galaxies throughout cosmic history, but the detailed physics are poorly understood at small scales. Since July 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have opened up a new window for exploring the astrophysical processes previously obscured by dust in the infrared with an advanced instrument suite. Specifically, our group has capitalized on the JWST capabilities to observe a sample of nearby galaxy mergers where the interaction of close galaxy pair enhances the black hole activity and feedback, making them some of the most energetic phenomena in the local universe. We also have complementary optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Keck Telescope that probe the galactic scale winds beyond the field of view of JWST.
In this project, the Cal-Bridge scholar will have the opportunity to learn data processing and analysis of astronomical data such as images, spectra, or integral-field data from HST, JWST, or Keck Telescope. The student will learn to display astronomical data in existing image-viewing softwares, write and execute Python codes to analyze line emission captured in the data, make maps to identify regions of interest within the galaxy mergers, and generate histograms and scatter plots to present the data. The anticipated results will be presented in an upcoming AAS meeting.
Preferred qualifications: The project is most suited for an astronomy, physics, or computer science major. While Python programming experience (including the use of Jupyter notebooks and basic command line environment) may be useful, it is not required. These are skills that the student is expected to learn during the project.