Note to Physics majors

In recent days I have received many inquiries regarding undergraduate research positions in my group for the Spring 2026 semester. As I will be on parental leave as soon as the present semester ends, I will not be taking any students in Spring and Summer 2026. I will make a decision at a later point regarding Fall 2026. In the meantime, if you are interested in research in quantum many-particle systems, you can reach out to other professors who work in that area such as Profs. Engel, Nicholson, Basar, or Khveshchenko, for example.

Sincerely,
Prof. Drut.

New preprint!

A new preprint by Patino et al (collaboration with Duke U.) is available here.

CoSiDeX: A hyperspectral fluorescent protein resource for highly multiplexed imaging

Abstract
Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have revolutionized spatiotemporal observations in biology. Yet, the design of multiplexed assays remains constrained by limited spectral characterization and palette validation. Although over 1,000 FPs have been catalogued, systematic resources for characterizing their use in multiplexed approaches are lacking. Here we present a resource and methodology for selecting and decoding FPs in multiplexed imaging experiments. A library of forty-four FPs was built for rapid assembly into mammalian expression vectors and transposase-mediated integration. Hyperspectral imaging was performed for each FP and spectral space was characterized mathematically. To support experimental design and data interpretation, we developed the Cosine Similarity Decoder of XFP (CoSiDeX) toolbox, to predict spectrally resolvable FP palettes and decode and re-color hyperspectral images. Using this approach, we demonstrate live-cell imaging of 12 uniquely labeled clones. Our work offers a scalable platform for selecting optimal FP palettes for multiplex experiments, with broad utility across diverse biological systems and hyperspectral imaging techniques.

Congratulations to Rob Sternquist and Rachel Emrick!

Congratulations to Rob and Rachel on their outstanding Honors Thesis defenses!

Rob worked on the very first calculation of the virial coefficients of the Hubbard model on a square lattice in arbitrary spatial dimensions.

Rachel investigated the effect of high-order Suzuki-Trotter decomposition on the imaginary-time evolution operator for quantum thermodynamics.

Now moving forward to preparing their publications! Great work!!!

Congratulations Dr. Morrell!

Congratulations to Kaitlyn on passing her Thesis Defense!

The committee was very happy with the presentation as well as the dissertation itself. A large group of students attended and asked lots of good questions too!

Amazing job! Congratulations!

Congratulations to Aleks Czejdo!

Congratulations to Aleks on passing his Thesis Proposal Presentation!

Aleks passed his exam today! He is investigating the hydrodynamic response of strongly coupled matter, specifically how to define and calculate shear and bulk viscosity coefficients.

Congratulations!!!

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