Dr. Michael Pravica

Associate Professor of Physics and

Member of HiPSEC (High Pressure and Engineering Center at UNLV).

University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

4505 Maryland Parkway Box 454002

Las Vegas, NV 89154-4002

Office: Bigelow Physics Building Room 136 (BPB-136).

Work Phone: (702)895-1723

Lab Phone: (702)895-1323

Raman Spectroscopy Lab: BPB 137

E-mail: pravica@physics.unlv.edu
Alternate E-mail: pravica@yahoo.com

Alternate2 E-mail:  pravicam@unlv.nevada.edu

 

Education:

Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics (1998) from Harvard University.
Thesis title: "NMR experiments in a diamond anvil cell at high pressures."

A.M. in Physics (1990) from Harvard University.

B.Sc. in Physics and Applied Mathematics (1988) with honors from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

My Group:

            Sergey Tkachev (UNLV Postdoctoral Fellow)

            Jimmy Hernandez-Bello (UNLV Physics Doctoral Student)

            Edward Romano (UNLV Masters Graduate Student)

            Brian Yulga (UNLV Masters Graduate Student)       

            Scott Wilde (UNLV physics graduate)           

            Michael Haire (UNLV Engineering Sophomore)

            Yu Zhen Feng (UNLV Biology Sophomore)  

            Cayce Roach (UNLV Physics Senior)

          Walter J. Pravica  (Full Professor of Chemistry, Wilbur Wright College, “2009 Teacher of the Year” at Wright)                   

Former staff and students:

Zachary Quine (UNLV Physics – graduated December 2007.  Received one of UNLV’s “Outstanding Graduate” awards.  Now working at the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, MD. Will enter Princeton University Chemistry graduate program in the Fall of 2009.)

Sandra Saldana (UNLV Geophysics – now a geophysics graduate student at New Mexico Tech)

Franciso Sermeno (UNLV Engineering Sophomore)

Jeremy Segafredo (UNLV Physics Senior – graduated May 2008.  Senior thesis: “High pressure studies of TATB.”)

                                                 Emily Hartnett (UNLV Physics Junior)

                                                 Wade McElroy (UNLV Engineering Sophomore)                                

                                                 Sean Bajar (UNLV Engineering Senior)

                                       Brett Walters (UNLV Biology major – will enter Chicago Medical School)

 David Hartnett (UNLV Physics major, now a physics graduate student at the Univ. of Oklahoma.  Senior thesis: “High temperature studies of cyclohexane.”) 

Martin Galley (Summer 2008 NSF REU Student, SUNY Cortland)

Carlos Parada (2004 Summer NSF REU student now a physics graduate student at the Univ. Wisconsin, Madison)

Jonathan Larson (2006 Summer NSF REU student from Longwood Univ.)

Thomas Hirschauer (2006 NSF REU student from Univ. of Dayton)

J.P. Badasci (2007 Summer NSF REU student from Austin Peay State U.)

Jessica Field (UNLV Math Senior.  Now a math teacher.)

Paul Parcon (UNLV Honors Student) 

Alex Carr (UNLV Freshman)

Ognjen Grubor-Urosevic (UNLV Masters Graduate Student)

Wayne Stanbery (Postdoctoral Fellow)

                                       Krystyna Lipinska-Kalita  (Assistant Research Professor)

 

COURSE INFORMATION:

 

This Spring (2009), I taught one section of Condensed Matter Theory I (Phys 707).

HW #10 solutions: http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~pravica/hw.pdf

My schedule:  http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~pravica/officehours.htm

A copy of the Phys 707 syllabus can be found here:  http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~pravica/Ph707syl.htm

I am also the coordinator for our UNLV Physics Friday Forum.  The tentative schedule can be found by clicking on:

http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~pravica/FridayForumSchedule.htm

 

Research Interests:

     My primary research interests are three-pronged: 1. study of molecular/organic crystals (including energetic materials) under extreme conditions of high pressure, high temperature, and/or ionizing radiation using Raman, infrared (IR), and X-ray spectroscopic methods; 2. investigation of actinide and lanthanide metals at high pressure using X-ray spectroscopic methods; and 3. efforts to demonstrate the validity of Ion Beam Nuclear Transmutation Doping (IBNTD) method for the doping of Wide Band Gap Semiconductors using Raman, micro-Raman, electrical (e.g. Hall effect), X-ray, and Photoluminescence methods.  We have developed and constructed cryogenic facilities to enable easy loading of low melting temperature solids and have recently loaded liquid oxygen.  We have 25 % ownership of the HPCAT beamline facility at Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Chicago and perform a variety of experiments (X-ray diffraction, Nuclear Inelastic X-ray Scattering, X-ray Raman Spectroscopy, etc.) there.  I have also performed experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF), and the Pohang Light Source (PAL) in S. Korea.  Among our “in house” equipment, we have a newly completed high-temperature oven that enables in situ studies of samples at high temperature and high temperature (>1000 K) and a high quality glovebox to load reactive samples.  We also have a variety of diamond anvil cells including Mao-Bell, diaphragm, and Merrill-Bassett-type DACs.  I have received a donation of ~ $750,000 of x-ray equipment specialized for in situ single crystal x-ray diffraction at high pressure and high temperature (including three 4-circle diffractometers) from Dr. David Schiferl’s laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

     We have an active collaboration with Drs. David S. Moore, Daniel Hooks, and Nenad Velisavljevic at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with the aim of aiding the Hercules efforts at LANL for shockwave physics.   A picture of a Merril-Bassett-type diamond anvil cell found below:



A sample of pentaerythritoltetranitrate (PETN), a high explosive, at 74 GPa (740,000 atmospheres) in a diamond anvil cell:

 

Elemental erbium at 70 GPa with cyclohexane as quasi-hydrostatic medium:

 

 

Part of my Optical spectroscopy laboratory:

 

Here I am loading liquid oxygen into a diamond anvil cell using our newly developed cryogenic loading facility:

 

Solid oxygen around 10 GPa:

 

Here is are three recent pictures of me 1.(first photo on the left) manning the 16 ID-B X-ray powder diffraction station at HPCAT facilities in the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago in 2004, 2.(middle photo) manning the ID22N x-ray beamline at the ESRF in Grenoble, France, October 2006, and 3. (third photo) manning the 5A HFMS beamstation at the Pohang Light Source (PAL) in Pohang, South Korea last November 2007 :

 

 

 

Some Recent Publications:

·        “High Pressure Raman Spectroscopic Study of Structural Polymorphism in Cyclohexane,” M.G. Pravica, YR. Shen and M.F. Nicol, Applied Physics Letters, Volume 84, Number 26, pp. 5452-5454, June 28, 2004.

·        “Characteristics of Silicone Fluid as a Pressure Transmitting Medium in diamond anvil cells,” YR Shen, R. Khumar, M.G. Pravica and M. Nicol, Review of Scientific Instruments, Volume 75, Number 11, pp. 4450 - 4454, November 2004.

·        "Raman Scattering Studies of the High-Pressure Stability of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, C(CH2ONO2)4," K.Lipinska-Kalita, M.G. Pravica, M.Nicol, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 109(41), 19223-19227 (2005).

·        "X-ray diffraction study of elemental erbium to 70 GPa," M.G. Pravica, E. Romano and Z. Quine, Physical Review B, Volume 72, 214122 (2005).

·        "Studies of phase transitions in PETN at high pressures," M. Pravica et al., Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 67, pp. 2072-2076 (2006).

·        "Radiation-induced decomposition of PETN and TATB under pressure," H. Giefers, M. Pravica, P. Liermann, and W. Yang, Chemical Physics Letters, 429, pp. 304-309 (2006).

·        “X-ray diffraction study of elemental thulium at pressures up to 86 GPa,” M. Pravica, Z. Quine, E. Romano, Physical Review B, 74, 104107 (2006).

·        “X-ray Raman Studies on C60 fullerenes and multi-walled carbon nanotubes under pressure,” R. Kumar, M. Pravica, A. Cornelius, M. Nicol, M. Hu, and P. Chow, Diamond and Related Materials, 16, 1250-1253 (2007).

·        “High Pressure Studies of Cyclohexane to 40 GPa,” M. Pravica, YR Shen+, Z. Quine, E. Romano and D. Hartnett, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 111, 4103-4108 (2007).

·         “Phonon Density of States of Metallic Sn at High Pressure,” H. Giefers et al., Physical Review Letters, 98, 245502 (2007).

·        "An Infrared Study of TATB under High Pressure," M. Pravica, B. Yulga, Z. Liu, O. Tschauner, Physical Review B, 76, 064102 (2007).

·        “Structural transition of PETN-I to a ferroelastic orthorhombic phase PETN-III at elevated pressures,” O.Tschauner, B.Kiefer, Y. Lee, M. Pravica, M. Nicol, E. Kim, Journal of Chemical Physics, 127, 094502 (2007).

·        “X-ray Raman Spectroscopic Study of Benzene at High Pressure,” M. Pravica, O. Grubor-Urosevic, M. Hu, P. Chow, and P. Liermann, Journal of Physical Chemistry B LETTERS, 111(40),  pp. 11635-11637 (2007).  .

·         “Anisotropic decomposition of energetic materials,” M. Pravica et al., APS Shock Compression of Condensed Matter (SCCM) Conference Proceedings CP955 (2007).

·        “Radiation-induced decomposition of explosives under extreme conditions,” H. Giefers, M. Pravica, W. Yang, and P. Liermann,  SMEC 2007 conference proceedings, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 69, pp. 2208-2218 (2008).

·        “Radiation-induced decomposition of PETN and TATB under extreme conditions," H. Giefers and M. Pravica, Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 10.1021, March (2008).

·        “High Pressure Studies of 1,3,5,7 Cyclooctatetraene: Experiment and Theory," S. Tkachev, M. Pravica, E. Kim, E. Romano, P. Weck, Journal of Physical Chemistry A 112, pp. 11501-11507 (2008).

·        “A novel method to dope diamond - Ion Beam Nuclear Transmutation Doping (IBNTD)," M.G. Pravica, N.A. Guardala, J.L. Price, in press, Diamond and Related Materials (2009).

·        “Organic Cyclic Difluoramino-nitramines: Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy of 3,3,7,7 tetrakis(difluoramino)octahydro 1,5-dinitro-1,5-diazocine (HNFX),” P. F. Weck, E. Kim, C. Gobin, and M.G. Pravica,  Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, DOI 10.1002/jrs.2210 (2009).

·        "Raman spectroscopic study of cyclopentane at high pressure," S. Tkachev, M. Pravica, E. Kim and P. Weck, Journal of Chemical Physics, 130, 204505 (2009).

·        "High-pressure far- and mid-infrared study of 1,3,5,7 Triaminotrinitrobenzene,” M. Pravica, B. Yulga, S. Tkachev, Z. Liu, submitted for publication (2009).

 

Recent Presentations:

 

·        Two invited talks to Green Valley High School Students (Mr. Panik’s Physics courses): “Careers in Physics,” Henderson, NV, May 27, 2009.

·        Invited talk for the HiPSEC review: “Studies of hydrocarbons, energetic materials, and wide bandgap materials under extreme conditions,” Las Vegas, NV 05/11/09.

·        Invited talk to the Southern Nevada section of the American Association of Physics Teachers (SNAAPT) entitled: "The Large Hadron Collider at CERN: Determining the origins of our Universe" Las Vegas, NV, 10/3/08.

·        Contributed talk at the DIAMOND 2008 conference in Sitges, Spain entitled: "A novel method to dope diamond: ion beam nuclear transmutation doping (IBNTD)," 9/09/08.

·        Presented poster at the Gordon Research Conference "Research at High Pressure," in Biddeford, Maine entitled "High Pressure Studies of 1,3,5,7 Cyclooctatetraene: Experiment and Theory," 7/1/08.

·        Presented poster at the Gordon Research Conference "Energetic Materials," in Tilton, NH entitled, "Studies of triaminotrinitrobenzene under extreme static conditions," 6/17/08.

·        Two invited talks to Green Valley High School Students (Mr. Panik’s Physics courses): “Careers in Physics,” Henderson, NV, May 23, 2008.

·        Invited talk to the HiPSEC Annual Review entitled, “Bonding under extreme conditions,” May 20, 2008.

·        Invited talk to the MURI 2007 Review symposium entitled: “X-radiation damage in energetic materials under extreme conditions,” Aberdeen Proving Ground, September 27, 2007.

·        Presented talk at the AIRAPT 2007 conference entitled: "X-ray Raman Spectroscopic study of Benzene at High Pressure," Catania, Sicily, Tuesday, September 18, 2007.

·        Invited talk entitled: “Physics of Lighting and Tesla,” Illuminating Engineering Society, Las Vegas Section, September 11, 2007.

·        UNLV Physics Forum Talk: “Bonding under Extreme Conditions,” Friday, August 31, 2007.

·        KNPR interview: “Legacy of Tesla,” Friday, June 28, 2007.

·        Presented talk at the American Physical Society Shock Compression of Condensed Matter meeting in Hawaii entitled, “Radiation-induced damage studies of energetic materials,” Tuesday, June 26, 2007.

·        Invited UNLV University Forum Lecture talk entitled: “Nikola Tesla: Visionary Genius, Man of Mystery and Legend," Friday, May 4, 2007.

·        Invited talk entitled, “Radiation-induced decomposition in energetic materials," SMEC 2007 meeting, Miami FL, 4/17/07.

·        Presented talk at the American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver entitled, "High Pressure and High Temperature Decomposition Studies of PETN and TATB," Denver, CO, 3/7/07.

·        Two presented posters at the Diamond and Related Materials conference in Estoril, Portugal, September 3, 2006.

·        Invited talk to the Las Vegas City Council entitled: "Global Warming," August 2, 2006

·        Presented poster entitled “Radiation- induced Decomposition of Explosives at Ambient and High Pressure” (Poster T-P157), American Crystallography Association Meeting, Honolulu, HI, July 25th, 2006.

·        Invited talk to the Energetic Materials/Insensitive Munitions Joint MURI Review, entitled: "Radiation Damage Studies of TATB and PETN," Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, MD, Wednesday, July 12, 2006.

·        Presented poster entitled: “Synchrotron radiation-induced decomposition of explosives at high pressure” at the Research at High Pressure Gordon Research Conference, June 25, 2006.

·        Presented poster entitled: “Radiation-induced Decomposition of PETN and TATB” at the Energetic Materials Gordon Research Conference, June 21, 2006.

·        Invited talk to the University of California, Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department entitled: "Nuclear transmutation doping of wide band gap semiconductors and x-ray synchrotron studies of metals at high pressures," Monday, May 1, 2006.

·        Invited UNLV University Forum talk entitled: "Global Warming: Fact or Fiction," Thursday, April 27, 2006.

·        Presented talk at the American Physical Society March Meeting in Baltimore entitled, "X-ray diffraction study of elemental thulium to 86 GPa," Baltimore, MD, 3/15/06.  Also presented a poster at the same meeting.

·        Invited talk entitled, “High Pressure Studies of Explosives and Metals,” East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, 3/12/06.

·        Invited talk entitled, “High Pressure Physics at UNLV,” Dine’ College, Tsaile Main Campus, Navajo Nation, Tsaile, Arizona, 11/7/05.

·        Invited talk entitled, “The World of High Pressure Physics,” to SAGE program students, UNLV Honors College, 8/3/05.

·        Invited talk entitled, “High Pressure studies of PETN,” MURI program Kick-off Meeting, Caltech, Pasadena, CA., Tuesday July 26, 2005.

·        Presented poster entitled “X-ray diffraction study of elemental erbium to 65 GPa” (Poster 358), and presented talk entitled, “High-Pressure Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Diffraction Studies of Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate C(CH2ONO2)4,”(Talk T2-O063),  Joint 20th AIRAPT and 43rd EHPRG Conf. Proc., Karlsruhe, Germany, June 27th – July 1st, 2005.

·        Invited talk entitled, “Studies of phase transitions in PETN at high pressures," SMEC 2005 meeting, Miami FL, 4/22/05.

·        Invited talk entitled, "The Exciting World of High Pressure Physics," to the UNLV Honors College, Las Vegas, NV, 3/31/05.

·        Presented talk at the American Physical Society March Meeting in Los Angeles entitled, "High Pressure Studies of PETN up to 74 GPa," Los Angeles, CA, 3/21/05.

·        DOE NNSA/NV-UNLV Stockpile Stewardship Cooperative Program in Materials Science and Engineering 2004 Review - 1/12/05, "High Pressure Physics," Las Vegas, NV.

·        Invited talk to the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) entitled, “Optical Measurements of Thin Film Quantum Dot Sensors at High Pressures and Temperature,” Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, January 5, 2005.

·        Invited UNLV University Forum talk entitled "The Great Contributions of Physics to Humanity," Monday, November 29, 2004.

·        Invited talk entitled "Direct Energy Conversion devices (DEC) using Ion Beam Nuclear Transmutation Doping (IBNTD)" delivered at Siltronics Inc., Portland, Oregon (10/15/04).

·        Presented poster at the International Union of Crystallography High Pressure Commission Workshop (IUCR2004) entitled: “High Pressure X-ray diffraction studies of PETN and Cyclohexane,” Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (8/18 – 8/21/04).

·        Presented poster at the Gordon Conference on High Pressure entitled: “Structural Studies of molecular and organic crystals under high pressure,” Meriden, NH (6/27 – 7/1/04).

·        Presented talk entitled "Direct Energy Conversion Devices utilizing wide band gap semiconductors and IBNTD," at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock, Maryland (6/2/04). 

·        Poster presented at " 2004 Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program Symposium, "Albuquerque,NM, 3/30/04.

·        Presented talk at the American Physical Society March Meeting in Montreal entitled, "Raman and X-ray measurements on cyclohexane up to 40 GPa," Montreal, Quebec, 3/22/04.

·        Poster presented at "Future Directions for Multifunction RF Electronics Technology," joint DARPA/ONR-sponsored conference, Washington DC, 11/19/03.

·        DOE NNSA/NV-UNLV Stockpile Stewardship Cooperative Program in Materials Science and Engineering 2003 Review - 12/5/03, "Experiments at High Pressure," Las Vegas, NV.

 

For further information about the UNLV Physics program, please visit,
http://www.physics.unlv.edu/
 

Another web site of mine:  http://pravica.tripod.com/

My wife, Dr. Maria Jerinic-Pravica is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the UNLV Honors College (http://honors.unlv.edu/).  I am also a proud father.  My kids’ websites:   http://nicholas_pravica.tripod.com , http://nataliapravica.tripod.com , http://lukapravica.tripod.com. 

Activism:

I am also passionately concerned about the state of science in America.  Recently, my students, colleagues and I visited the offices of five of our Nevada state representatives in the Congress and Senate in Washington DC to encourage them to support President Bush’s initiative to increase America’s competitiveness in technology and science via increased funding for basic research.  A picture taken with Representative Shelley Berkley and our group in front of her office can be found at:

http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~pravica/congress.pdf

 

Some of my published op-eds:

“The great contributions of physics to humanity”:              http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-06-Sun-2005/opinion/682710.html

“Energy savings over friction”:                                       http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060603-093026-6604r.htm

“Physicist examines global warming”:                             http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060826-101814-1121r.htm

“Firming up hard science”:                                                         http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070505-101327-9121r.htm

 

“Science and religion”:                                                   http://washingtontimes.com/news/2005/dec/18/20051218-125508-8571r/

“Brassy basics yield a golden education”:                       http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~pravica/BrassyBasics.doc

“We need to resurrect the concept of the “public intellectual”:  http://www.thecommentfactory.com/we-need-to-resurrect-the-concept-of-the-public-intellectual-2167

“Nikola Tesla, godfather of the 20th Century, deserves more credit”:  http://www.thecommentfactory.com/nikola-telsa-godfather-of-the-20th-century-deserves-more-credit-2176

 

On August 2, 2006, I gave a presentation on global warming to the Las Vegas City Council in support of Las Vegas adopting a resolution on climate protection which passed.  A copy of the resolution can be found here:  http://www5.lasvegasnevada.gov/sirepub/cache/2/w3bqub55aobfba45o1seyb55/23516004212009043523703.PDF

 

A copy of my presentation can be found here:  http://www5.lasvegasnevada.gov/sirepub/cache/2/w3bqub55aobfba45o1seyb55/23516204212009044303703.PDF

                                                            

  

I was interviewed by KNPR (our local NPR affiliate) on Nikola Tesla.  
A link to this interview can be found at: http://www.knpr.org/audio2007/mp3/070628_m-provika.mp3 . 

This page was updated on 5/27/09.
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