The College of Science is pleased to welcome UNT Physics' New Assistant Professor Dr. Guru Khalsa. While Dr. Khalsa will not be teaching classes yet this semester, he is looking forward to beginning his integration into the welcoming community at UNT. In fact, the kindness of the people that Dr. Khalsa met on his first visit to campus greatly influenced his decision to come here.

"To me, the most important thing is to have a good team," said Dr. Khalsa, who worked as a paramedic prior to returning to academia.

Dr. Khalsa attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque for his undergraduate degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude (mathematics with a minor in physics) and went on to attend the University of Texas to earn his PhD. He was awarded a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and completed his postdoctoral studies at Cornell University before returning to Texas.

Dr. Khalsa's research interests lie in condensed matter and materials physics.

"My research is very closely connected with contemporary experimental and industrial efforts spanning the fields of nonlinear optics, materials discovery, semiconductor physics, and superconductivity," he said. "I use a range of theoretical tools to make contributions to these fields, including pen-and-paper theory, custom computer codes, and large supercomputing resources."

Besides numerous publications, Dr. Khalsa's work has been awarded the Ed Nicollian Award by the The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and La Prix La Recherche by La Recherche magazine in France. Some of his research was presented earlier this year at the American Physical Society.

"Most recently I have been interested in using light to control and enhance material properties on subpicosecond time scales (that is, in less than a millionth of a millionth of a second)," he explained. "I am also working on the challenges of integrating superconductors with semiconductors on the nanoscale to further miniaturize, and make more energy efficient, low-temperature electronics for classical, unconventional, and quantum computing, and potentially uncovering new states of matter."

For more information about UNT Physics and our outstanding faculty members, visit: https://physics.unt.edu/