Invited Speakers
(Click on the links for a short bio)
Professor Lance Cooper received a B.S. in Physics summa cum laude from the University of Virginia in 1982
and a Ph.D in Physics from the University of Illinois in 1988. After a two-year postdoctoral appointment at AT&T Bell Labs, he joined the
UIUC faculty in 1990. From 1993 – 1995, he was a member of the Defense Science Study Group (DSSG), a Divisional Associate Editor
for Physical Review Letters from 2006 – 2011, and the Secretary-Treasurer for the Division of Condensed Matter Physics of the
American Physical Society from 2015 – 2019.
His group uses optical spectroscopy to reveal the properties of and excitations in novel states of matter in strongly correlated materials. They have developed particular expertise in light-scattering experiments on materials under extreme conditions of low temperature, high pressure, and high magnetic field. The Cooper group's Raman spectroscopy experiments have shed light on the behavior of matter through various pressure- and magnetic-field-tuned quantum (T~0 K) phase transitions.
Professor Cooper also runs a Physics Grad Student Blog with job, fellowship, academic deadline, and other information of interest to graduate students, and he runs the Physics Careers seminar, in which Physics PhDs – mostly Illinois alumni – describe their jobs and the importance of a physics PhD and their grad school experiences to their careers.
His group uses optical spectroscopy to reveal the properties of and excitations in novel states of matter in strongly correlated materials. They have developed particular expertise in light-scattering experiments on materials under extreme conditions of low temperature, high pressure, and high magnetic field. The Cooper group's Raman spectroscopy experiments have shed light on the behavior of matter through various pressure- and magnetic-field-tuned quantum (T~0 K) phase transitions.
Professor Cooper also runs a Physics Grad Student Blog with job, fellowship, academic deadline, and other information of interest to graduate students, and he runs the Physics Careers seminar, in which Physics PhDs – mostly Illinois alumni – describe their jobs and the importance of a physics PhD and their grad school experiences to their careers.
