RESEARCH ENTERPRISE

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CAPS Research Overview

The major research efforts at the Center for Applied Physics Studies (CAPS) span the areas of nuclear and elementary particle physics, photonics, computational physics, materials by design, nanotechnology, and bio-physics. Our faculty is participating in large scale national and international projects hosted by the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Lab, the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, and the European Center for Particle Physics (CERN). The main research disciplines pursued by CAPS facility are below.

  • Nuclear and High Energy Particle Physics: Sawyer, Dr. Wobisch, Dr. Johnston, Dr. Simicevic, Dr. Wells
  • Qweak Experiment
  • ATLAS Experiment
  • D∅ Experiment 
    • Photonics, Metamaterials, and Sensors: Genov, Dr. Simicevic, Dr. Jaganathan
    • Computational Physics, Chemistry and Biology: Dai, Dr. Wick, Dr. Bishop, Dr. Derosa, Dr. Genov, and Dr. Hou
    • Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI)
    • Cerberus
    • Observational Astronomy and Gravitational Physics: Shaw and Dr. Genov
    • LA Tech Observatory
    • LIGO

The Center for Applied Physics Studies (CAPS) has averaged about $700K in external funding per year from state and federal agencies such as NSF, NASA, DoE, DoD, Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund, Northwest Louisiana Biomedical Research Foundation, etc.  The CAPS faculty members supervise on average 30 undergraduate and graduate students with majors in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, and Nanosystems Engineering.  

CAPS Facilities

The Center for Applied Physics Science (CAPS) is located in Engineering Annex Building and offers ~20,000 ft^2 of laboratory and office spaces. These include Machine shop, Electronic lab, Dark Room, anechoic chamber etc. The Center has been an integral member of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI), a $50M investment in the State’s IT infrastructure. Our researchers have direct access to the 1.5Pflop Queen Bee 2 supercomputer through LONI’s high-speed and high-bandwidth connections. The Queen Bee 2 was commissioned in the summer of 2014, ranked the 46st most powerful supercomputer in the world by Top500. At Louisiana Tech University, CAPS hosts the Cerberus community supercomputer and is managing the Louisiana Tech Astronomical Observatory.