Distinguished Professor Rainer Grobe of the Department of Physics at
Illinois State University will deliver his distinguished professorship
lecture, “Destruction of vacuum and seeing through milk,” at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 4, in the Old Main Room of Bone Student Center.
Admission is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Grobe, who was named a distinguished professor in 2004, will give an introduction to two entirely different research areas in which computer simulations have had a significant impact on progress.
The first example brings us to the very frontier of our present understanding of how matter can be created from pure energy. We examine laser light with extremely high intensities – so intense that, when focused on empty space (vacuum), it will destroy the vacuum and create matter from, so to say, nothing. Light that is sufficiently powerful cannot be produced yet, but several European research laboratories are developing new laser systems, and one can realistically expect that during the next decade we will be able to convert light directly into matter.
Although Einstein’s famous formula about the equivalency of energy and mass dates back almost a century, the details of how matter can be created in vacuum from pure energy are still not very well understood. The Intense Laser Physics Theory Unit (ILP) at Illinois State has developed a new theoretical approach called “computational quantum theory” that is based on computer simulations to visualize for the first time how matter is being created. These computer simulations allow us to resolve the details of the matter creation process on incredibly small spatial and temporal scales.
The second example is on the opposite side of the laser intensity scale. Here the interest is to understand how relatively weak and completely harmless laser light can move through turbid materials such as milk, murky water, fog, seawater or human flesh. In contrast to the usual light propagation as a single beam, the direction of the laser light is constantly redirected, leading to an almost uniform and blurry illumination. About two years ago, ILP decided to start a small experimental program to examine how laser light moves through an aquarium filled with milk. These experiments were designed to accompany several theoretical ideas about how one could “see through milk.”
Grobe, a native of Germany, first came to the United States in 1984 on a Fulbright scholarship. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Essen in 1989, he worked six years at the University of Rochester in New York before coming to Illinois State in 1995.
His main research interest is the use of computer simulations to investigate a wide variety of areas including nonlinear chaotic dynamics, optical signal propagation, relativistic atomic interactions, bio-optical imaging in turbid media and computational quantum field theory.
During the last 22 years, Professor Grobe has published more than 130 refereed scientific articles and book chapters and has delivered invited or plenary talks in 11 countries. Science writers in several countries have written articles about his research results. He holds a patent in optical pulse propagation and has received numerous prestigious awards.
For his pioneering contributions to laser science, he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2002, a distinction to which only half of one percent of the current members are elected each year. In 2006 he shared the Undergraduate Research Prize with Professor Charles Q. Su, a single award given annually by the American Physical Society to the best physics faculty in the United States for research at an undergraduate institution.
Past Illinois State awards include the Outstanding College (1997) and University (2001) Researcher Awards, the College of Arts and Sciences Lectureship (2003) and Dean’s (2005) Award.
Grobe’s scientific activities have been funded by various agencies including the National Science Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, German Research Foundation, Humboldt Foundation, and Research Corporation. The Intense Laser Physics Theory Unit at Illinois State has received more than a million dollars in external support.
At Illinois State he has supervised the research work of four postdoctoral associates and about 40 undergraduate students, some of whom have won national awards. The best known among his mentees is Robert Wagner, who received in 2002 the equivalent of the Physics Nobel prize for American undergraduate students, the LeRoy Apker Award. In 1997 Professor Grobe received the Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Science award from the U.S. Department of Energy for his contributions to computational physics education.
Professor Grobe has served on several national committees, organized and chaired international conferences, and serves as referee for numerous journals and as reviewer for five funding agencies. Since 1998 he has served as the Chair of the Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Committee of the APS Division of Laser Science, which funds campus visits of prominent scientists including several Nobel Prize winners.
