Welcoming Siyu Li and Sujoy Modak

In Fall 2024 the Department of Physics and Astronomy welcomed two new tenure-track faculty in Theoretical Physics, Dr. Siyu Li (left) and Dr. Sujoy Modak (right).

Brief Bio of Siyu Li

Dr. Li’s research focuses on biophysics and soft matter, particularly in understanding the mechanisms behind protein assembly and membrane structures. Her work has involved developing models to elucidate the symmetry and behavior of large viruses, protein nano-cages, and responsive shells, advancing our understanding and control of these systems.

Dr. Li earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Riverside in 2019, where she contributed to the study of protein and virus assembly. Following her doctoral work, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University from 2019 to 2021, where she explored multi-component shell assembly and mechanical responsive shells. From 2021 to 2022, she was a Distinguished Junior Fellow at Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, and since 2022, she has been collaborating with UCR as a postdoc focusing on SARS-CoV-2 assembly. In 2024, Dr. Li joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Cal Poly Pomona. Dr. Li appreciates the university's inclusive and supportive culture and is particularly impressed by its emphasis on learning-by-doing, which resonates with her own approach to teaching. Dr. Li’s teaching interests include biophysics, thermal and statistical physics, computational physics and other related subjects. She is enthusiastic about contributing to this dynamic community, where she hopes to inspire and engage students through hands-on learning and collaborative research.

Brief Bio of Sujoy Modak

Dr. Modak’s research is inspired by the idea of unification of all fundamental forces of Nature. While remarkably, the Electromagnetic, the Strong, and the Weak Forces have been unified into a single theory of Standard Model of Particle Physics, attempts to unify Gravity with the rest is not yet successful. Dr. Modak uses various methods of Semi-classical Gravity to better understand the black hole evaporation and information problem, as well as quantum aspects of the early universe. In addition, he is passionate about building new theoretical proposals to test subtle signatures of quantum gravity in the new generation tabletop experiments.

Dr. Modak earned his Ph.D  in 2012 working at the S. N. Bose National Centre, Kolkata, India.  He had three postdoctoral research stays, respectively, at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), India; Institute of Nuclear Science at UNAM, Mexico; and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Japan. He was holding an equivalent of US Assistant Professor position at the Faculty of Science of the University of Colima, Mexico from the Fall of 2016, before he moved to Cal Poly Pomona in the Fall of 2024. Dr. Modak is passionate about teaching Physics and has a consistent track record of publishing research papers with undergraduate students.