What's New?

New content and hot topics in the JRM Lab.

Hot Topics

Two K-State Physics students have received awards from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Graham Dirks, undergraduate in Physics, has been granted a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Zane Phelps, graduate PhD candidate with the JRM Lab, has been named an outstanding U.S. doctoral student by the Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Research Program.
Former JRM professor and now NIST project leader Brian Washburn presented the James R. Neff Lecture for the Spring 2025 semester. The James R. Neff Lecture Series is an endowed series of popular lectures in Physics.
UNESCO declares 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), recognizing 100 years since the initial development of quantum mechanics. Join us in engaging with quantum science and technology and celebrating throughout the year!
Daniel Rolles, professor in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, has been selected as a 2024 Fellow of the American Physical Society for pioneering experiments on imaging ultrafast molecular reactions with XUV and X-ray free-electron lasers, and for advancing our understanding of the interaction of ultra-intense X-ray pulses with atoms and molecules.
Colleagues and friends were invited to celebrate Kevin Carnes' retirement at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 6, in Room 119 of Cardwell Hall. Kevin retired after more than four decades working in the James R. Macdonald Laboratory of the physics department at K-State. He served as a research professor in physics and as associate director for operations in the Macdonald lab, where he has managed several successful upgrades over the years.

Local Research in the News

A new video celebrates a collaboration between NIST and K-State in which they monitor agricultural gas emissions with a focus on methane and ammonia from cattle towards improving both ranch efficiency and the environment. This utilizes a Nobel prize-winning tool pioneered at NIST, a laser frequency comb, that can provide trace gas concentrations at relevant time and spatial scales to monitor the sustainability of agroecosystems.
JRM research was featured in the Science magazine "In The Pipeline" blog by Derek Lowe this March. The piece is titled "Very Small and Very Fast" and marvels at how the work "illustrates being able to determine molecular species on a very small scale and (even more importantly) on an extremely short time scale, and it's like getting a chance to look at the secret machinery of the chemical world - things that you knew had to be there but assumed would always be hidden". Our original paper was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
The Office of the Vice President for Research announces the recipients of the 2024 GRIPex: AI in the Disciplines awards. GRIPex aims to increase interest and capacity in leveraging artificial intelligence across university disciplines and is a follow-up program to the larger Game-Changing Research Initiation Program launched in 2022. The 2024 GRIPex awardees include our own Daniel Rolles and collaborators doing "AI-based Molecular Image Analysis for Ultrafast Laser Experiments," to the tune of $179,249.
JRM Lab director Artem Rudenko has been awarded an APS Fellowship "for outstanding contributions to the understanding of correlated few-particle dynamics in strong field interactions with atoms and molecules and for leadership in developing and conducting coincident molecular imaging experiments at x-ray free-electron laser facilities". Artem joins five other current and four past JRM researchers in being so honored. See the full list of Kansas State's fellows at the American Physical Society.
The JRM Lab was featured in a recent issue of K-State's research magazine, "Seek". The article, "Laser Focus", highlights our work in ultrafast AMO physics and our many collaborations. Seek combines a variety of written content with creative photography and innovative design to tell the stories of university researchers.

Web Site Updates

Our Publications page now has a running report of the 2025 papers published to date, and the 2024 papers have been archived. Links to all of the publications lists on the sitemap have been updated accordingly.
The departmental newsletter for 2024 is out, including lots about the major changes happening in the JRM Lab. You can also keep up on all the ongoing departmental news and special events via our new and improved website.