Faculty
Brian Rebel
Position title: Professor, Associate Chair for Alumni Relations & Board of Visitors
Email: brebel@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-3989
Websites: High Energy Physics, Rebel Group
Research Interests: Experimental High Energy Physics. Long-baseline neutrino oscillations.
Daniel Rhodes
Position title: Affiliated Professor
Email: darhodes@wisc.edu
Websites: Home Page, Materials Science Engineering
Research Interests: My research focuses on the processing and synthesis of novel 2D and bulk materials for interesting correlated, superconducting, and multiferroic phenomena. Our materials interests involve handling a variety of elements that span the periodic table. For 2D materials, we focus on those outside of the typical hexagonal crystal symmetry and attempt to understand how these changes in symmetry enable electrical transport phenomena, as well as the coexistence of phenomena that would typically be forbidden in the bulk. Our group also focusing on exploring the gambit of growth parameters in a subclass of 2D materials known as transition metal dichalcogenides via scanning probe microscopy methods. By systematically studying these parameters we can determine processes for nucleation and growth, and defect formation.
Since 2020, Rhodes has been an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Rhodes originally earned his PhD in physics at Florida State University, where he primarily worked at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory synthesizing topological and superconducting bulk single crystals and measuring their Fermiology. From 2016 – 2019, Rhodes was a CNI postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University, primarily working in the field of 2D materials. Rhodes earned the NSF Career Award in 2024.
Mark Saffman
Position title: Johannes Rydberg Professor, Wisconsin Quantum Institute Director
Email: msaffman@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 265-5601
Websites: Saffman Lab, Quantum Information, Atomic Physics
Research Interests: Atomic physics; quantum computing with neutral atoms; quantum optics; entanglement; nonlinear optics; solitons; pattern formation
John Sarff
Position title: Professor
Email: jssarff@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-7742
Website: Plasma Physics
Gary Shiu
Position title: Professor
Email: shiu@physics.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 265-3285
Websites: Home Page, String Theory, Theoretical Cosmology, AI Physics
Research Interests: String Theory, Particle Physics, Cosmology, AI
Josiah Sinclair
Position title: Carl J. and Brynn B. Anderson Assistant Professor of Physics
Email: josiah.sinclair@wisc.edu
Websites: Home Page, Sinclair Lab
Research Interests: I am an experimental physicist researching atomic physics platforms for quantum computing. My research focuses on harnessing the power of nonlocal entanglement to build scalable modular fault-tolerant quantum computers and distributed quantum sensors with atom arrays and optical cavities. I am also interested in quantum error correction in distributed architectures, quantum foundations, and teaching quantum mechanics.
We are a new research group focusing on exploring novel 2D quantum materials and their van der Waals heterostructures. We are particularly interested in studying exotic 2D magnetism, 2D superconductivity, and topology by using various techniques, such as nanodevice fabrication, magneto-optics, quantum transport, thermoelectrics, optoelectronics, optical spectroscopy and microscopy.
Paul Terry
Position title: Professor
Email: pwterry@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 263-0487
Website: Plasma
Research Interests: Plasma and neutral fluid turbulence in fusion and astrophysics using analytical theory and computation to study basic processes including the role of flow shear on turbulence and transport; physics of intermittency, coherent structures, and granular structures in plasma turbulence; spectral transfer; and role of damped modes in turbulence saturation and dissipation ranges.
