Department of Physics News

Grants and Awards

• Professors Yang Xia and Brad Roth are among recipients of Oakland University - Beaumont Hospital Multidisciplinary Research Awards (Read more)
• Professor David Garfinkle has been recognized as an Outstanding Referee for the American Physical Society. He was chosen as one of the inaugural group of 534 Outstanding Referees out of 42,000.

New Faculty

• Dr. Eugene Surdutovich joined the Department of Physics as a Visiting Assistant Professor in January 2008. His research interests lie in the new field of proton and ion-beam therapies. Proton and ion-beam therapies are becoming more and more accepted treatments for malignant tumors. Protons and ions are more advantageous projectiles than the now common photons because they may cause less damage to the regions surrounding tumors and thus induce fewer side effects. This is especially important if the side effects are crucial for the patient's quality of life. As a physicist, Dr. Surdutovich is interested in developing a method that would allow a thorough calculation of the efficiency of DNA damage in proton/ion-beam cancer therapy. This method should relate the physical information (such as energy spectrum of the secondary electrons and their abundance), obtained in the analysis of the projectile's interaction with the medium, to chemical and biological processes and estimate their effects on the desired DNA damage. This will eventually lead to rigorous calculation of beam energies, dosages, energy deposition rate, and other characteristics of proton/ion-beam therapy.
• Dr. Evgeniy Khain joined the Department of Physics as an Assistant Professor in August 2007. His research interests lie in the area of nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics far from equilibrium, with a focus on biological physics. He investigates the collective behavior of living cells, using both continuum approach and discrete stochastic modeling. Specifically, he is working on modeling tumor growth and wound healing. In another avenue of his research, Dr. Khain studies the dynamics of granular materials, analyzing both dilute granular gases and dense shear flows. Dr. Khain currently announces two GRA positions: one in biological physics, and another one in granular matter.

Books and Interviews

• Prof. Alberto Rojo authored the book "La fisica en la Vida Cotidiana" (The Physics of Everyday Life) that was recently published in Argentina and distributed in all Latin America. The book is already in the third printing ans has sold over 10,000 copies. It was ranked #2 in the popular science best seller list and #75 in the overall list. As a spinoff of the success of the book, Prof. Rojo was asked to deliver a weekly column in Canal 7, the argentinean NPR.
• Prof. Brad Roth is coauthor of a 4th edition of the recently published textbook "Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology". Written with Russell Hobbie, emeritus professor at the University of Minnesota, the wide-ranging text bridges the gap between introductory physics and its application to the life and biomedical sciences. This extensively revised and updated fourth edition reflects new developments at the burgeoning interface between physics and biomedicine.
• Prof. Yang Xia recently published an Editorial paper (titled "Resolution 'scaling law' in MRI of articular cartilage") at one of the most prestigious journals in cartilage research, "Osteoarthritis and Cartilage". His paper has been selected by Osteoarthritis Research Society International as the 'Paper of the Month' for April 2007 (the access is for members only). Prof. Xia gave an interview about his research on cartilage.