Professor Robert Duncan selected as Moore Scholar at Caltech
February 9, 2004
Robert Duncan has been selected to become the Gordon and Betty Moore Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for a fifteen month term, effective May 1, 2004.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Distinguished Scholar Program, established in 2000, brings to Caltech’s campus technologists, scholars, and artists of great distinction. Gordon Moore, founder of the Intel Corporation, established these positions through a $300 Million grant to Caltech.
Duncan is currently a Professor of Physics, and the Associate Dean for Research in Arts and Sciences at the University of New Mexico. He has applied for sabbatical leave in order to accept this appointment at Caltech, and he plans to return to his current position following the completion of this appointment.
Professor Duncan is a low temperature, condensed matter physicist studying the dynamics of the superfluid transition driven far from equilibrium. He serves as a NASA flight principal investigator on an experiment called “Critical Dynamics in Microgravity”, which was selected to be part of the first microgravity fundamental physics mission to the International Space Station. Duncan has published extensively with other scientists from UNM and Caltech over the last five years, and he recently chaired the International Symposium on Quantum Fluids and Solids that was held at UNM in August, 2003.
As the associate dean for research in the College of Arts and Sciences, Duncan and his co-workers recently established a UNM-wide undergraduate research program at UNM, which encourages UNM students in all disciplines to participate in one of hundreds of sponsored research programs conducted at UNM. UNM boasts one of the nation’s most extensive sponsored research programs, with over $255 Million dollars a year invested in UNM by outside funding agencies.
