Wendy W. Zhang 

wzhang_at_uchicago.edu

Physics and the James Franck Institute

The University of Chicago

GCIS E 209 

929 E 57th Street Chicago IL 60637

I am a theoretical physicist interested in the dynamics of wakes, jets and bubbles as observed in everyday life. This interest is punctuated at rare intervals by amateur excursions into transport and critical phenomena. 

I am currently teaching Symplectic Methods in Classical Mechanics (Physics 316). I will be teaching Introductory Graduate Statistical Mechanics this Spring (Physics 325). Here are partial notes for last spring’s course. Keep in mind how I teach varies quite a bit from year to year. 

If you are interested in doing an undergraduate thesis, please get in touch early. 

I occasionally help students run reading groups. Some recent books (“recent” = Autumn 2022) are Nonlinear dispersive equations: local and global analysis by Terry Tao, Lectures on quantum mechanics for mathematics students by Faddeev and Yakubovskii, and Quantum theory, groups and representations by Woit.  I enjoy helping but can only do it conditional on various constraints. On the whole I am more likely to say yes if it is a book, or a collection of papers, I have not read before and also if the request comes from undergraduates rather than graduate students.