Advisor
Prof. Umesh Garg
Education:
B.Sc, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India (1972)
M.Sc., Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India (1974)
M.A., State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York(1975)
Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York (1978)
Current Research:
Prof. Garg’s current research interests include experimental investigation of compressional-mode giant resonances and exotic quantal rotation in nuclei.
Giant resonances are highly collective states of nuclear vibration. The compressional-mode giant resonances provide the only direct experimental measurement of the nuclear incompressibility, a fundamental property of nuclear matter that is crucial to understanding of a number of nuclear and astrophysical phenomena, including strength of collapse in supernovae explosions, collective-flow in high-energy heavy ion collisions, and properties of neutron stars—the “largest nuclei” that exist in nature. Prof. Garg’s group has been investigating the Isoscalar Giant Dipole Resonance, an exotic compressional-oscillation, also referred to as the “squeezing mode”.
The atomic nuclei exhibit a number of interesting and exciting phenomena at large angular momenta viz. shape transitions, quenching of superfluid behavior, order-to-chaos transitions, etc. These effects are studied through the gamma-ray de-excitation of the nucleus following heavy-ion reactions. In recent years, Prof. Garg’s group has investigated the exotic processes of chiral rotation (yes, the nuclei can be left- or right-handed!) and “anti-magnetic” rotation in nuclei.
Honors:
- Fellow of the American Physical Society
- Fulbright Specialist Award, 2015-
- Guest Professor, Peking University, China, 2015-
- Adjunct Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India, 2014-
- JSPS Fellow, RIKEN, Japan, 2012
- PKU Fellow, Peking University, China, 2012
- EMMI Visiting Professor, GSI, Germany, 2011
- Guest scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory (since 1983)
- Recipient of the 2006 Kaneb Award for Excellence in Teaching
- Recipient of the inaugural Terrence Akai Award for Service to International Students
- Director of the Department of Physics Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program (since 2000)