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Condensed Matter

	Raymond Chiao Professor Emeritus, Physics Raymond Chiao is a professor jointly in the UC Merced schools of Natural Sciences and Engineering. Previously, he was a professor for 38 years at UC Berkeley, where he earned international acclaim (including the Willis E. Lamb Medal and the Einstein Prize for Laser Science) studying nonlinear and quantum optics. At UC Merced, is pursuing a new line of groundbreaking research on gravitational radiation.	rchiao@ucmerced.edu (209) 228-8662 Full Profile
	Sayantani Ghosh Professor, Physics Professor Ghosh's research interests span traditional topics in condensed matter physics such as correlated magnetic phases and coupled quantum systems, as well as emerging multi-disciplinary themes such as hybrid solar cells and plasmonics-based opto-electronic devices. Her group focuses on the physics of new materials and using ultra-fast time resolved spectroscopy, develops techniques and protocols to manipulate their properties for applications in energy storage and information processing devices. The current research topics in her group include: Cooperative energy transfer dynamics in self-assembled nanostructured materials Directed assembly of metallic, magnetic and semiconducting nanostructures using liquid crystal based electro-optically active matrices Hybrid photovoltaic devices including solar cells and luminescent solar concentrators Exotic magnetic phases originating from geometric frustration in doped and undoped systems In addition, Professor Ghosh is also the founding faculty and advisor of UC Merced Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE@UCM).	sghosh@ucmerced.edu (209) 228-4055 Full Profile
	Michael Scheibner Associate Professor, Physics Light-matter interactions Nanostructured materials Coupled quantum systems Quantum information	mscheibner@ucmerced.edu (209) 230-5509 Full Profile
	Jing Xu Associate Professor, Physics Experimental biophysics Quantitative biology Optical trapping Single-molecule and small-ensemble experiments Molecular motors	jxu8@ucmerced.edu Full Profile
	Linda S. Hirst Professor, Physics Professor Hirst's research interests focus on soft-condensed matter physics, with interests in both biophysics and liquid crystal materials. In general, her research group uses experimental techniques to characterize molecular assemblies and to understand the physics behind why they form. In a wider context, her group tries to uncover the common principles of how self-organization at a molecular level can transfer physical properties across length scales to define complex structures in real biological systems and soft phases. Professor Hirst's group uses a wide variety of experimental techniques, with significant focus on: X-ray diffraction and scattering (both synchrotron and in-house) Confocal microscopy Atomic force microscopy Transmission electron microscopy Current research projects include the: Influence of cholesterol and polyunsaturated lipids on cell membrane structure. Controlling Lipid phase behavior and raft formation for "soft microfluidics" Biopolymer networks Bent-core and novel ferroelectric liquid crystal materials In addition to her research interests Prof. Hirst is also the creator of softmatterworld.org, a new educational networking site for the soft matter community around the world.	lhirst@ucmerced.edu (209) 228-4569 Full Profile
	Lin Tian Professor, Physics Quantum optics and quantum coherent effects in condensed matter systems Quantum information Quantum simulation	ltian@ucmerced.edu (209) 386-3196 Full Profile
	David Strubbe Associate Professor, Physics Theoretical condensed-matter physics and materials science, amorphous materials, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, scientific code development for high-performance computing	dstrubbe@ucmerced.edu (209) 228-4481 Full Profile
	Chih-Chun Chien Associate Professor, Physics Theoretical atomic and molecular physics.	cchien5@ucmerced.edu (209) 228-2224 Full Profile