Research and Teaching Portfolio of Roberto Ramos, Ph.D.
Dr. Ramos's CV || Research Group Website || Dr. Ramos's Research Portfolio || Dr. Ramos's Teaching Portfolio || Dr. Ramos's Classes |Research
***NEW UPDATE (01/10/2012) A research collaboration between Dr. Ramos, Ph.D. students Steven Carabello and Joey Lambert, former undergrad Jerome Mlack and Temple University and Penn State researchers has resulted in a joint paper published in Nature Communications (Nat. Commun. 3 : 619), part of the Nature family of research journals. The paper, Momentum-dependent multiple gaps in magnesium diboride probed by electron tunnelling spectroscopy represents the first experimental confirmation of a 2002 theory by Stephen Louie and Marvin Cohen predicting sub-structure in the energy gap of magnesium diboride, a superconductor discovered in 2001.***Link: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n1/abs/ncomms1626.html
***NEW UPDATE (01/09/2012) Joey Lambert - doctoral student of Dr. Ramos at Drexel was awarded a Sigma Xi Research Society Grant-in-aid for his research proposal "Macroscopic Quantum Effects in Al/Graphene/Al Josephson Junctions". The Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research program has a highly competitive application process and only approximately 20% of applicants worldwide receive any level of funding. Joey is the second of Dr. Ramos's two Ph.D. students to receive the prestigious award in two years. (Steven Carabello also received a Sigma Xi Award in 2010.) ***
*** UPDATE (09/01/2011) Dr. Roberto Ramos has accepted a new position as Associate Professor of Physics and Blanchard Endowed Chair of Physics and Mathematics at Indiana Wesleyan University.***
*** UPDATE (4/09/2011) Steven Carabello - doctoral student of Dr. Ramos won FIRST PRIZE in the 2011 Drexel University Research Day Graduate Student Poster Competition (PHYSICAL SCIENCES & ENGINEERING Division) besting over 100 other posters in this division.***
Dr. Roberto Ramos's research is in the general field of Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, and in the subfields of field of low temperature physics, superconductivity, quantum computing and graphene physics. While at the University of Maryland, he and his collaborators were the first to propose the concept of the Josephson phase qubit. He was senior postdoc in the Maryland group that measured quantum entanglement between two coupled phase qubits. At Drexel University, he built a low temperature condensed matter physics laboratory which includes a 20 mK qubit characterization facility that he and his students have used to probe superconducting artificial atoms. He has expanded his work to include superconductivity in MgB2, graphene junctions and defects in graphene. Within the last two years, his most notable accomplishments include:
- Experimentally demonstrated sub-structure in the energy gap of superconducting MgB2 using differential conductance below 1 Kelvin of thin film junctions. This helped confirm theoretical predictions by Marvin Cohen and Stephen Louie in 2002. This is in collaboration with Profs. Xiaoxing Xi and Ke Chen (Temple U).
- Investigated the classical-quantum crossover behavior of the Josephson phase qubit near the crossover temperature.
- Performed the first measurements of microwave resonant activation in MgB2 Josephson junctions.
- Experimentally demonstrated the creation of laser-induced defects in single-layer graphene at higher powers. We have systematically prepared and characterized single- and bi-layer graphene using Raman spectroscopy and optical microscopy
- Investigated metastable quantum states in graphene-based, nanoscale Josephson junctions.
- Alyssa Wilson (2009). Thesis: Lasing in the Phase Qubit (Dr. Ramos mentored Alyssa to become Drexel's first Barry Goldwater Scholar. Alyssa's research in Dr. Ramos's lab helped her become Drexel's first Cambridge-Gates Fellow) - Alyssa is now a physics Ph.D. student at Harvard University. Alyssa graduated top in physics at Drexel in 2009 and became an NSF GSRF Fellow at Harvard
- Anthony Tyler (2009). Thesis: Berry's phase in the phase Qubit - a physics Ph.D. student at Purdue University.
- Jerome Mlack (2010). Thesis: Microwave-induced thermal activation in MgB2 Junctions - a physics Ph.D student at Johns Hopkins University.
- Pubudu Galwaduge (2010). Thesis: Laser-induced defects in graphene - a physics Ph.D. student at Columbia University His research poster in the 2010 March APS Meeting won a Best Poster Award. Pubudu graduated top in physics at Drexel in 2010.
- Steven Carabello was awarded a 2010 Sigma Xi Research Society Grant-in-Aid after a national competition (less than 20% success rate), for high-resolution studies of the energy gap structures in MgB2, the 2010 Most Outstanding Physics Graduate Research Student (Junior Division), and First Prize in the 2011 Drexel University Research Day Graduate Student Poster Competition.
Dr. Ramos's Research Portfolio
Teaching
Dr. Ramos's major accomplishments in his teaching mission include the following:- He is PI and Program Director of an $460,000 S-STEM grant "Enhancing the 21st Century Scientific Workforce", funded by the National Science Foundation.
- He was awarded Drexel University's 2008 Allan Rothwarf Award for Teaching Excellence (university-wide competition)
- He introduced the classroom use of clickers to Drexel University, where his successes led to clickers being widely adopted by the Physics, Chemistry and Math departments. He introduced the use of the "Physics Diagnostic Test" to the Physics Department to evaluate instructor effectivity.
- He revived the award-winning Drexel Society of Physics Students (SPS) and the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society, as Faculty Advisor. He mentored the SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma towards 4 successive Marsh White outreach Awards from the American Institute of Physics (AIP), two AIP Undergraduate Research Awards, two Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society Project Awards, a 2008 SPS Physics Congress Chapter Reporter Awards and an Outstanding SPS Chapter Award.
- In 2010, Dr. Ramos was nominated as Outstanding SPS Chapter Advisor (among a dozen nationwide).
- In 2006, Dr. Ramos was asked by Drexel's Department of Physics to help revamp a major undergraduate physics curriculum for Drexel's large physics classes for engineering students. He played a key role and helped redesign and rewrite the Phys 101-102-201 course descriptions and syllabi. He designed, wrote up and tested physics experiments for a 3-quarter physics laboratory component which was previously non-existent at Drexel. He was asked to teach many large (300-500 students per quarter) Phys 101 and 201 classes as well as small classes.
- He is author of a 170-page Physics Lab Manual for the new freshman Phys 101/102/201 Series (Ramos & Tyagi, Pearson/Addison-Wesley Publishing).
- Dr. Ramos taught a joint graduate/undergraduate course in Quantum Information, undergraduate Statistical Mechanics, Advanced Laboratory (for which he developed several experiments), Quantum Structure of Materials. For three straight years, he has given the annual seminar required of all university Teaching Assistants on "How To Teach: Creating a Lesson Plan and Accomodating Different Styles of Learning"
- He introduced "How Things Work" course to Drexel, where its successes inspired a Chemistry version called "Why Things Work".