Thad G. Walker  Professor of Physics  University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research:

Prof. Walker prepares and studies novel states of matter using lasers. In his laboratory, he and his students use lasers to cool atoms to microKelvin temperatures, and they study the interactions between atoms at these extremely low temperatures. He also researches the use of lasers to produce spin-polarized atoms at temperatures ranging from microKelvins to hundreds of Kelvin. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1988, then spent two years at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics before establishing his laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990. He is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, and an H. I. Romnes Fellowship. He has supervised the research training of more than a dozen students and scientists at levels ranging from high-school to post-doctoral.

Teaching:

Prof. Walker's teaching interests range from sophomores to advanced graduate students, and he is well known for integrating his research interests into his classroom teaching. In addition to his formal classroom teaching, he conducts an weekly seminar on advanced topics in atomic physics and quantum optics.  He has published two articles (1,2) on apparatus for teaching laboratories.

His email address is tgwalker@facstaff.wisc.edu.

madmail

A recent visit to Glen Stephens Elementary School.

Baby announcement:  Kyle Gilbert Walker

Random pictures

A recent news article.

Ray tracing applet

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