131 Professor Heinrich JaegerWhat was your first experience with research like? It actually was in theoretical physics, for my MS degree. I thought I liked working on theory and certainly at the beginning that was the case, but in the end I realized it wasn’t for me. So, after my MS degree and one more year of trying to get somewhere with theory I switched to experiment. And never went back :) Is your current research similar to the work you did as an undergrad or graduate student? Not at all. My MS was with a thesis on a theory problem, my PhD was on experiments with superconductivity in extremely thin metal films, just a few atoms thick, at cryogenic temperatures and inside an ultrahigh-vacuum chamber. Now my group works on nanoparticle assembly, far from equilibrium dynamics of (dry and wet) granular matter, and jamming-based soft robotics. And we also collaborate with artists and architects on “aleatory architectures”. What do you think the coolest part of your research is? Moving into new directions for science where nobody has the answers yet and good problems can be discovered Do you have children/pets/plants that make guest appearances on your zoom calls? My dog Blue shows up on occasion…. What part of your teaching philosophy/method are you most proud of? Mentoring my students to come up with worthwhile science problems (as opposed to merely teaching how to find answers) What is your favorite part of the introductory physics sequence and why? Physics 111 or 112, because in that class I can introduce ideas from physics in a way that is much more exciting than in the standard textbooks, which simply regurgitate material that is 100+ years old (even so-called 'modern physics' is that old). So, we can talk about thinks like energy landscapes (and what one for a protein or a glassy system would look like), phase transitions between states of matter including entropically driven transitions, chaos, singularities…. You can learn more about Professor Jaeger’s research on the Department of Physics webpage and the Jaeger Lab webpage. Meet the 130s & 140s Professors is a series of mini interviews with professors teaching the standard and honors introductory physics sequences, 13100-13300 and 14100-14300 respectively.
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