Dean Lee

Professor of Physics

About

Education and training

  • PhD, Physics, Harvard University, 1998

Research

The Lee research group is focused on connecting fundamental physics to forefront experiments. The group studies many aspects of quantum few- and many-body systems. Together with collaborators, the group has developed lattice Monte Carlo methods that probe strongly-interacting systems and study superfluidity, nuclear clustering, phase transitions, and other emergent phenomena from first principles. The group investigates many facets of the strong nuclear force, from the underlying symmetries of quantum chromodynamics to predictions for 
nuclear structure, reactions, and thermodynamics.

The group is also engaged in novel applications of new technologies for scientific research. This includes new algorithms for quantum computing and the development of emulators and machine learning algorithms based on concepts such as eigenvector continuation.

Biography

I received my AB in physics in 1992 and PhD in theoretical particle physics in 1998, both from Harvard University. My PhD advisor was Howard Georgi. From 1998-2001, I joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst for my postdoctoral research under the supervision of John Donoghue, Eugene Golowich, and Barry Holstein. I joined North Carolina State University as an assistant professor in 2001, becoming associate professor in 2007, and full professor in 2012. In 2017, I moved to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University as Professor of Physics, jointly appointed in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

How students can contribute as part of my research team

The research in our group is motivated by the prospect of discovering something new and useful. I am happy to work with students and postdocs who are excited by the discovery process and eager to chase all promising ideas.

Scientific publications