Biography

Nicholas Curro
Principal Investigator

Professor of Physics and Astronomy
University of California at Davis

Physics and Astronomy Building, Room 201
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 754-0837
curro@physics.ucdavis.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7829-0237

  • Ph.D., Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998
  • Masters, Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1994
  • B. A., Physics and Mathematics, summa cum laude, Rice University, 1993

Appointments:

  • Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Davis, 2012-present
  • Associate Professor of Physics, University of California at Davis, 2009-2012
  • Assistant Professor of Physics, University of California at Davis, 2007-2009
  • Technical Staff Member, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics Group, 2000-2007
  • Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics Group, 1998-2000

Honors and Awards:

  • Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Award, UC Davis, 2021
  • UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow, 2012
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2011
  • Math and Physical Science Divisional Research Award, UC Davis, 2011
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory Achievement Award, 2005
  • University of Illinois Excellence in Teaching Award, 1990

Nicholas Curro received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Physics and Mathematics from Rice University in 1993. After spending several months in Brazil as an intern working with underprivileged children at schools maintained by the YMCA he returned and obtained his Master’s degree and Ph. D. in 1998 from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. His thesis work with Charlie Slichter is focused on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies of the high temperature superconductors in both the normal and superconducting states. He then went to the Condensed Matter and Thermal Physics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he was a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow and investigated charge-stripe ordering in cuprates and later became involved in heavy fermion physics. In 2001 became a full technical staff member at Los Alamos, where he led a team of postdocs and students researching novel superconducting materials, including the Cerium- and Plutonium-based 115 superconductors. In 2007, he joined the faculty at the University of California at Davis. In 2011 he became a fellow of the American Physical Society, and in 2012 he became a full professor and Chancellor Fellow at the University.