Physics and Astronomy At The University of Georgia

Paramyxovirus family includes many important human and animal pathogens. Virus is a parasite of host cells: it requires host cellular proteins for survival and efficient replication. Our work focuses on investigating the interface of virus and host cells. We have identified host kinases that are important for virus replication. We have been exploring targeting host kinases as novel anti-viral therapies. Understanding virus and host cell interactions is also important for developing effective vaccines, a proven method for preventing viral infections. We have taken advantages of knowledge generated from our basic research to develop novel therapies for virus infection as well as for cancer.

Using nanoparticles and alternating magnetic fields, University of Georgia scientists, including UGA Physics Professor Qun Zhao, have found that head and neck cancerous tumor cells in mice can be killed in half an hour without harming healthy cells. 

From the news release in UGA Today:

The findings, published recently in the journal Theranostics, mark the first time to the researchers' knowledge this cancer type has been treated using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle-induced hyperthermia, or above-normal body temperatures, in laboratory mice.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Georgia is seeking applicants for a full-time academic-year faculty position at the tenure-track assistant professor level in the field of experimental applied nanoscience, for hiring effective August 2012. This search is part of an initiative to expand the existing nanoscience program in the Department and to complement/enhance existing programs in nanoscience on campus (www.nano.uga.edu). See full details on the faculty search site: https://www.physast.uga.edu/faculty_search/nanoscience-2012/

Physics Professor Michael Geller and a team of co-principal investigators including Physics Professor Phillip Stancil received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to begin work on a quantum computer that could more efficiently and more rapidly solve problems in such fields as cryptography, mathematics and physics. Geller stated, "We will use this grant to develop and demonstrate a general purpose quantum simulator built from supercomputing electrical circuits."

The key to quantum computing is using clusters of data called qubits (for quantum bits) that handle data differently than conventional computers based on transistors. Traditional computers use a 1 or a 0 to represent "on" or "off" states, but a qubit, which can be constructed in different ways, can represent 1 and 0 states simultaneously in something called superposition.

Article:  Geller quantum computer

The week of September 13th, a team including Nick Barker and Prof. Vasilios Stavros from the University of Warwick (UK) and Prof. Susanne Ullrich from UGA performed four "flash and bang" science demonstrations for more than 600 students at middle schools in the Athens area. The lectures covered some fundamental principles of chemistry and physics but also extended into more advanced topics such as biofuels and chemiluminescence and were accompanied by impressive displays of loud bangs and explosions. The school children were also introduced to real-life scientific research on the photostability of DNA as currently in progress in the ultrafast laser spectroscopy laboratories of Profs. Stavros and Ullrich.  These outreach activities to local schools were supported by a NSF and EPSRC grant "International Collaboration in Chemistry between US Investigators and their Counterparts Abroad (ICC)".