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