Faculty
Professor Phuoc Ha holds an M.S. in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Prof. Ha is a theoretical nuclear/particle physicist with a strong background in computational physics and engineering. His research interests include effective field theories used in studying strong interaction phenomena in low energy regimes, physics beyond the Standard Model and computational physics, particularly stochastic simulations and applications.
Professor Rajeswari Kolagani who will serve as the program director obtained her Ph.D. in physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (1992). Prof. Kolagani joined Towson University in 2001 as an assistant professor and was promoted to an associate professor in 2007. She has more than 20 years of research experience and over 85 peer reviewed publications in the area of perovskite metal oxide thin films including superconductors, magnetic materials, and spintronic materials, all of which are envisioned to play a key role in future technologies. Her research experience and expertise cover a broad spectrum, including fabrication of epitaxial thin films, x-ray diffraction, cryogenics, electrical, magnetic and thermal measurements. Prof. Kolagani has been a principal investigator in research grants totaling over $800,000 at Towson University.
Professor David Schaefer received his Ph.D. in physics (1993) from Purdue University. He joined Towson University as an assistant professor in 1995 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000. From 2001-2002 he served as an NRC Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Warfare Center. In 2005 Prof. Schaefer was promoted to full professor and he assumed the role of acting chair of the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geosciences in 2007. Prof. Schaefer’s research focuses on quantitative applications of scanning probe microscopy and nanotechnology. He has 30 publications in refereed journals, 2 book chapters, and 18 conference proceedings. Prof. Schaefer has been honored as the University System of Maryland’s Elkin Professor two consecutive years by the Board of Regents. Additionally he has received the 2007 Regents Award for Outstanding Research Collaboration.
Professor Jeffrey R. Simpson received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004. He joined Towson University as an Assistant Professor in 2008. Prof. Simpson has extensive expertise in condensed matter/nanoscale materials, spectroscopic instrumentation, the optical properties of materials, and measurement techniques in experimental condensed matter physics. Prof. Simpson’s research has resulted in 15 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous conference proceedings. Ongoing collaborations include researchers at NIST and the University of Maryland.
Professor Vera Smolyaninova received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland; she joined Towson University (TU) in the rank of Assistant Professor in 2002 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2007. Prof. Smolyaninova’s area of expertise is experimental condensed matter physics in the areas of multifunctional oxides, magnetic, electronic and photonic materials. Her research has resulted in 43 publications in refereed journals, with more than 600 citations, and 57 conference proceedings and presentations. While at TU, she was Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on eight external and internal research grants, five from the National Science Foundation (NSF), including the prestigious NSF CAREER award.