Department Honors

The department has special opportunities for good students at both the lower-division and upper-division levels.  Special honors laboratory courses (Physics 13AL, 13BL and 13CL) require unusual creativity and are available for a few students each year. Physics 142L, 143L, 144L, 145L, 198 and 199 are available to qualified seniors. All of the honors courses require the consent of the instructor and qualify for the College of Letters and Sciences Honors Program.

Bachelor's Honors Thesis

The opportunity to pursue a Bachelor's Honors Thesis is available for students who maintain a grade point average in Physics of 3.5 or better. Students must submit a signed Honors Thesis proposal form to the undergraduate faculty advisor for approval three quarters before the Thesis is submitted. It is recommended that students discuss plans to pursue an Honors Thesis with their faculty adviser even earlier (e.g. before the beginning of their junior year). Completion of an Honors Thesis involves developing a research project under the supervision of a faculty member, presenting a public seminar describing the work, and submitting a formal written report to the faculty member and the undergraduate advisory committee for grading and approval. Honors Thesis work is credited via one of the following courses: Physics 142L, 143L, 145L, 194, 198, and 199. While it is not required, it is recommended that the Advanced Lab be taken for experimental experience in a Physics lab setting.

It is also recommended that Physics 127AL, 128AL and 128BL be taken in the junior year so that thesis candidates can concentrate on thesis research in the senior year. While we will substitute PHYS 128AL and 128BL requirements for thesis work based on experimental research, those who are conducting theoretical research are encouraged to complete Physics 128AL and 128BL.

• Thesis Cover Sheet [PDF]
• Sample of Thesis Cover Sheet [PDF]
• Bachelor's Honors Thesis Archive

College of Creative Studies

Another program is intended for especially well qualified and highly motivated students. This is a joint program of the College of Creative Studies (CCS) and the Department of Physics. The CCS Physics Program typically enrolls approximately ten freshmen each year. In their freshman and sophomore years the CCS physics majors take a demanding six-quarter introductory course. As part of this course they make frequent trips to the blackboard to explain homework problems to the instructor and to their fellow students. The small class size allows a seminar-like format and close student-faculty interaction. In the sophomore year CCS students start the upper division physics program, taking the same upper-division courses as the L&S students. They also take a laboratory course, taught by a member of the physics faculty, which moves them into various research groups within the Department by the middle of their sophomore year. Both CCS and L&S students who become involved in research as sophomores typically remain involved throughout their undergraduate careers. Many of them go on to write senior theses, and a number of students co-author refereed publications before graduation.

Awards

At the end of the year, the Department holds a ceremony and reception in honor or all graduating students (graduate and undergraduate) in Physics and the College of Creative Studies. During this ceremony, students who have been chosen by the faculty to receive awards are formally recognized and presented with a certificate from the Chair of the Department in the presence of guests. Below is a list of undergraduate awards that the Department honors:

• Arnold Nordsieck Award Given in memory of Arnold Nordsieck, who was a theoretical physicist at General Research Corp. of Santa Barbara. It is presented to a graduating senior in Physics who shows research promise.
• Outstanding Senior Award Awarded for excellent academic performance and evidence of future promise in Physics.
• Research Honors Awarded for outstanding effort in laboratory research.
• The Chancellor's Undergraduate Research Award A separate award from the Chancellor is given at a different time, however, the Department recognizes these accomplished students at the Ceremony. It is awarded to outstanding, graduating seniors with distinction as undergraduate researchers. Candidates for this award must be nominated by an academic department or program, or by an organized research unit.
• Boston Area Undergraduate Physics Competition (BAUPC) Please note: this award is not always given. From the BAUPC website: "BAUPC is a physics and (somewhat) math competition that was designed to extend the idea and spirit of high school olympiads to embrace students currently enrolled in undergraduate program. Generously supported by Harvard Physics Department the competition is held once a year usually in April."
• Physics Academic Honors Awarded to graduating physics students who have maintained between a 3.50 - 3.79 academic GPA in UD Physics courses, and who have completed 50 UD Physics units (Physics Department Award only).
• Physics Highest Academic Honors Awarded to graduating physics students who have maintained between a 3.80 - 4.00 academic GPA in UD Physics courses, and who have completed 50 UD Physics units (Physics Department Award only).

 

Bachelor's Honors Thesis Archive (Partial List)

2023 2022  2021  2020    2019     2018     2017     2016     2015     2014     2013     2012     2011     2010     2009     2008     2006     2004     2003

 

2023

Sabrina Brickner: Methods of Timing Analysis for Dectection of Heavy Neutral Leptons in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers

Gabrielle Carrel: Understanding the Extent of Ordering in Heusler Alloys

Jeffery Cui: Optical Sensing of Electronic Correlations in Graphene Moire Superlattices

Sam Crossley: Calorimetric Energy Reconstruction for Muons in a Liquid Argon TPC

Alex Korn: Eqations of State in Impactor Collisions with Near Earth Objects

Shiheng Li: An Accessible Python Library for Magnetic Tweezer Bead Tracking

Kevin Liu: Quantifying the role of various epitaxial structures in the quantum efficiencies of Gallium Nitride based photocathodes

Floria Ma: Improving Efficiency of Boosted Decision Tree by Recalculating ROC for LDMX

Jacob Nie: Correlated and topological quantum phases in semiconductor moire heterostructures

Zacharias Seitz: Toward Single-Molecule Measurement of Protein-Induced DNA Bending Dynamics Using DNA Nunchucks

Changyuan Wang: Development and Characterization of a Modified Phage for Versatile End Labeling

Yuxuan Wang: Probing LDMX Detector Efficiencies and Possibilies in sub-GeV physics

Haopu Yang: Understanding Nitrogen-Vacancy center formation in diamond with super-resolution microscopy

 

2022

Sivar Azadi: Offline Data Quality Monitoring for Skin Detector of LUX_ZEPLIN WIMP.

Hirish Chandrasekaran: Staggered Derivative Finite Difference Methods for First Order ODEs

Aidan Hogge: Deep Learning Object Detection for Star Tracking

Chang Jin: Enhancing the sensitivity of NV-based quantum sensors

Natalie LeBaron: Transient Detection with YOLO Darknet

Yuzheng Lin: Physical Constraints on Growth & Dynamics of Syncytia

Nadie Yiluo LiTenn: Utilization of Random Tensor Network in Holographic Duality

Hongyin Liu: Exploring Secluded Annihilation in Light Dark Matter

Ryan Lopez: Active Brownian Particles with Aligning Torques

Pierre Thibodeaux: Adaptive Binning of KCWI Data Cubes

Luca Scharrer: Novel Dynamics of Topological Defects in Active Nematics

Patrick Tran: Understanding the Statistical Mechanics of Error Correcting Codes

Duanyang Wang: Exploring the effect of the number of arms and unpaired junction bases on DNA nanostar

Sarah Webster: Tiling a minimal origami seed for DNA nanotubes

 

2021
Sean Benevedes:  Deep Neural Networks in Long-Lived Particle Searches

Heitor Cardoso Megale: Simulation and analysis of in vitro human neural tube morphogenesis

Kellan Colburn: Machine Learning Approach to Pattern Recognition in the Cosmic Microwave Background

Weiheng Fu: Direct Measurement of the Magnetocaloric Effect

Jacob Miller: Multiplexing Control Circuit and Improved Pulse Analysis for Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Meredith Neyer: HI shielding of H2 in UV-irradiated galaxies: suppression of the photodissociation rate

Daniele Offidani: Automatic Neurites Tracing and Neurons Counting

Zixuan Peng: Extreme emission-Line Galaxies: Nebular temperature, density and metallicity

Max Prichard: Localization in Driven Quasicrystals

Luke Sellers: Superradiant Black Holes and the Abelian Higgs Model

Menghang (David) Wang: New approaches for the electroweak hierarchy problem

Cole Williams: Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers and Avenues for Sensitivity Enhancements

Ben Xie: Ferromagnetism in Rhombohedral Trilayer Graphene

 

2020
Alexander Bevier: Engineering a Smart DNA Gel

Jacob Erlikhman: Optical System Designs for Phased Laser Array

Haley Bowden: Determining the Ionizing Source of Green Pea Galaxies

Alex Cicconi-Kasper: 28GHz MM-Wave Outphasing Transmitter for 5G

Jason Corbin: In-situ Oxygen Plasma Clean and High Temperatures Anneal of PtSi Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors

Taozhi Guo: Topological scattering invariant in the presence of Quasi-Majorana modes

Vincent Hou: Spin-dynamics and relaxation in Posner Molecules

Yurim Lee: Deep Learning for Physically Based Modeling of Free Boundary Problems

Jiahong (Jerry) Ling: Constraints on the Higgs boson total decay width from off-shell production with decay into pairs of Z-bosons in simulated data

Yuanqi Lyu: Understanding Surface Quantum Interactions on Diamond Shallow Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) Centers

Link Morgan: Quantifing the Dynamics of Topological Defeats in Active Nematics

Umut Oktem: Exotic Higgs Production at the LHC

Aaron Peng: Rapid Characterization of Voltage-Based FRET Sensors

Crystal Roybal: Photonic Crystal Membranes

Lynn Tung: Studies with the LUX-ZEPLIN detector

Elyes Turki: An Algorithm for Real-Time Morphology-Based Pulse Feature Extraction from Photoplethysmography (PPG) Signals

Zipeng Wang: Control of ecological outcomes in the gut microbiome

Lia Yeh: Microwave Spectroscopy Algorithms for Context-Free Molecular Structure Determination

Yuxuan Zhang: Engineering Narrow Moiré Bands in Twisted Graphene Heterostructures

 

2019
Jared Abramson: DX-DNA Nanotube Tracks for Autonomous DNA Nanowalkers

Pavel Dolin: First Principles Investigation of 36 Binary Refractory Alloys

Jonathan Guiang: Simulation of MTD Performance and Search for Rare Higgs Decays

Joey Incandela: In-Situ Noise Thermometry for Graphene Capacitance Measurements

Migru Li: Three-Dimensional Simulation of Free Surface Flows

Jack Meyes: Models for Radial-Gap Concentrated-Winding Halbach-Array Motors and Electronic Motor Drives

Benton Miller: Microcavity Wavegiude Characterization for Quantum Dot Side Excitation

David Newsom: Maximizing the Linear Optomechanical Coupling Strength n Multi-Membrane Systems

Shulin Li: Fabrication of GreenPol Telscope and Design of Its Control System

Harrison Siegel: Implementation of Radius of Containment in Bossted Decision Tree for Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX)

 

2018
Sam Bartee: Simulations of Quantum Dot Multi-Qubit Devices in a Manufacturable Silicon-CMOS Platform

Teresa Lo: Design and Implementation of DX-DNA Nanotube Tracks for Autonomous DNA Walking Machines

Shuo Ma: New Experimental Approaches in Atomic Physics, Quantum Interfaces, and Energy Harvesting Technology

Avik Mondal: Characterization of Fracture Resistance in Network-Based Models of Bone

Matteo Wilczak: Spatial Effects in Microbial Mats

 

2017
Samuel Aronson: Fabrication and Characterization of THz Frequency Optical Devices

Dylan Beard: Neural Network Analysis of Neuronal Responses to Visual Stimuli

Daniela Koch: Streamline Classification in Human Brain Structural Connectivity

 

2016
Imtiaz Ali: Optimizing Models of Human Decision-Making in a Natural Disaster

Deborah Clayton-Warwick: Nunchuck Nanostructures for Dynamic Measurement of dsDNA Bending

Nathaniel Conrad: Dynamics and elasticity of valence-speci?c DNA nanostar gels

John Devany: Homogeneous nucleation of DNA nanotubes with de?ned circumference

Evan Yerger: Convection-Modi?ed Dynamo Causes Enhanced Turbulence in Accretion Disks

 

2015
Mary Lou Bailey: Improving Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at 240 GHz

Alexander Chiu: Machine Learning for Predicting Spectral Features of Fluorescent Silver Nanoclusters

Michael Fang: Development of Hardware for Scaling Up Superconducting Qubits and Simulation of Quantum Chaos

Jacqueline Geler Kremer: Photostability of Silver Nanoclusters Stabilized by DNA

Alan Long: Tunable Bichromatic Lattices for Ultracold Quantum Simulation

 

2014
Rory Barton-Grimley: Era Of Reionization Experiment: Developments for Detection of the Global Cosmic Redshifted 21cm Line

Elizabeth Davison: Graph Theoretical Analysis of Dynamic Brain Functional Networks

Alan Zhan: Characterization of Optical Microcavities

 

2013
Alexander Kotlerman: Synthesis and Characterization of Stochastically Nanostructured Metallic Films

Erica Mason: Generation of Repumping Light for Ultracold Strontium Experiments