Physics Department to Unveil an Audiokinetic Sculpture During Centennial Celebration

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“Odyssey of the Spheres,” by sculptor George Rhoads.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In 1907, shortly after Einstein published his theory of relativity, the University of Arkansas created its physics department.

Over the next century, the department has blossomed into a thriving research group, with professors who study the properties of novel materials, many of which they create themselves in the laboratory. The physicists perform cutting-edge research in quantum and non-linear optics, nanoscience, ferroelectric studies and complex oxide interfaces.

The physics department will be celebrating its centennial with a series of events April 3, 4 and 5. The first will be the Centennial Robert Maurer Distinguished Lecture, given by 2001 Nobel laureate Wolfgang Ketterle at 7 p.m. April 3 in Giffels Auditorium, Old Main. The talk will be open to the public. This lecture will be followed by a series of talks on the history and current research in the department at 9 a.m. Friday in Giffels Auditorium.

On the afternoon of April 4, a George Rhoads audiokinetic sculpture will be unveiled by Provost Bob Smith at 1:30 p.m. in the Dickson Street lobby of the physics building.

“This audiokinetic sculpture, representing the principles of physics, will delight the students and public alike and commemorate this centennial celebration for years to come” says Surendra Singh, chair of the physics department.

Rhoads was educated at the University of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago. During the 1960s he began making copper kinetic fountains and rolling ball sculptures. Today his paintings and sculptures are displayed in such leading museums as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the Boston Museum of Science, public places such as Boston’s Logan Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and a host of international locations including Israel, Spain, Japan and Australia.

“These creations, with their moving parts and comic intricacies reflect Alexander Calder’s abstract constructions on the one hand and the cartoons of Rube Goldberg on the other,” wrote Richard Kostlanetz in New York Times Magazine.

The unveiling will be followed by laboratory tours and the chance to see an exhibit of old physics instruments, posters depicting the milestone discoveries in physics since the birth of “modern physics” and an open house tour of its research laboratories. The instruments on display date back to the turn of the 20^th century and include a hand-cranked vacuum pump, surveying instruments, slide rules, mechanical calculators, the first desktop computer and the first laptop computer. 

"It is nice to be able to see what equipment we have been using through the years,” said Raj Gupta, who has been collecting this equipment during his tenure at the university. These events are open to the public. This also will be a rare opportunity for the public to see the department’s cutting-edge research laboratories, including its laser physics and nonoscience laboratories. 

The laboratory tours and old equipment exhibit will give visitors a chance to see how completely the physics department has transformed itself during the last century. From the first full-time physics teacher hired in 1908, physics has grown into a department of 18 tenure-track faculty and about 15 research faculty and post-doctoral associates. Faculty members have published more than 150 papers in the last three years, many in such journals as Science, Nature, Physical Review Letters, Nature Physics and Nature Materials. During that same time period, papers published by physics department faculty members have been cited by other researchers about 3,000 times.

The first undergraduate physics degree was awarded in 1928, the first master’s degree in 1939 and the first doctorate in 1964; today there are about 100 physics majors and 35 graduate students in the department.

Physics research began in the 1920s, although it was not a university mandate at the time, Gupta said. The research program at the university continued to grow, and today the department has specialties in quantum laser physics and nanotechnology. Because of the research results of faculty members, the physics department was able to create the Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures, funded by a $7.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

For information on the centennial events, please visit http://www.uark.edu/depts/physics/centennial/index.html to learn more.