Dr Robert Smith BA, PhD, MInstP

School of Physics and Astronomy
Associate Professor

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 4589
Email
r.a.smith@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Rob Smith is an Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics and Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Physics and Astronomy.

Rob has published over 20 research papers in scientific journals in the area of theoretical condensed matter physics. His work is concerned with predicting the measurable properties of interacting disordered many-body systems.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Theoretical Physics, Cornell University, 1993
  • MS in Theoretical Physics, Cornell University, 1989
  • BA in Physics with Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University, 1986

Biography

Rob Smith graduated with a BA (Hons) in Physics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University in 1986. He then went to Cornell University in the USA and obtained his PhD in 1993 on the interplay of localization and interaction in mesoscopic rings and disordered superconductors. After a postdoctoral stint at Ohio State University (1992-1994) he came to the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham, first as a postdoc (1994-1997) and then as a member of permanent academic staff (1997-).

His main research work concerns the transport properties of low-dimensional disordered metals and superconductors at low temperatures. He has also worked on Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity, and most recently on exactly soluble quantum mechanics (also known as supersymmetric quantum mechanics).

Since 2007 he has been Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Physics and Astronomy, with responsibility for organising undergraduate teaching within the School.

Teaching

  • Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Physics and Astronomy
  • Y1 Tutorials (4 students)
  • Y2 Tutorials (8 students)
  • Y2 Mathematics for Physicists 2 (20 credits)
  • Y3 Current Topics in Theoretical Physics (I contribute 2 lectures to this topics module)
  • Y4 Many Particle and Quantum Field Theory (10 credits)
  • Y4 Superconductivity (10 credits)
  • Y4 Project Supervision

Postgraduate supervision

  • Supervision of research PhDs in Theoretical Physics

Research

RESEARCH THEMES

  • Exactly soluble quantum mechanics (SUSYQM)
  • Disordered metals and superconductors
  • Mesoscopic systems
  • Bose-Einstein condensation

Other activities

  • Member, IOP Accreditation Committee (2007-)
  • Midland Physics Alliance Graduate School (MPAGS) Coordinator (2006-2008)
  • Member, IOP Low Temperature Group Committee (2001-2006)
  • Member/Chair EPSRC Theoretical Physics Postdoctoral Fellowship Panel (2002-2003)

Publications

  • Fellows JM and Smith RA (2011), A new two-parameter family of potentials with a tunable ground state, J Phys A 44, 335302.
  • Fellows JM and Smith RA (2009), Factorization solution of a family of quantum nonlinear oscillators, J Phys A 42, 335303.
  • Meidan D, Oreg Y, Refael G and Smith RA (2008), Sharp superconductor-insulator transition in short wires, Physica C 468, 341.
  • Marquardt F, von Delft J, Smith RA and Ambegaokar V (2007), Decoherence in weak localization I Pauli principle in influence functional, Physical Review B 76, 195331.
  • Von Delft J, Marquardt F, Smith RA and Ambegaokar V (2007), Decoherence in weak localization II Bethe-Salpeter calculation of the cooperon, Physical Review B 76, 195332.

View all publications in research portal