On February 15, around 40 Physics faculty, current graduate students, and graduate alumni zoomed in for a celebration of the Physics graduate program. The celebration included fascinating presentations by Bennett Sessa and Bibi Najma, current students in Guillaume Duclos’ lab, about their work on active matter and biomimetics, as well as the benefits of being Brandeis students. There were also happy reunions between faculty and old students, and reminiscences about various periods of the department’s history, from the 1960s all the way to today. The positive impact that Brandeis had on the students’ careers, both inside and outside academia was clear from their many stories.
One interesting theme was how some of the department’s research areas have shifted over the generations, starting with a heavy focus on atomic beams and hard condensed matter (or solid state physics as it was called then) to today’s focus on soft matter and biological physics, while in other areas, such as high-energy experiment and theory, the department has maintained its tradition of strength.
Science at Brandeis 