Feruz Ganikhanov and James Lewis have joined the physics faculty in West Virginia Universitys Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Ganikhanov plans to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in bio-photonics, nonlinear optics and optical and quantum electronics.

He will also research problems in condensed matter and the macroscopic physical properties of matter. Because this is on nanoscale, he will use laser-based spectroscopes and microscopesnecessary equipment because one nanometer spans eight to 10 atoms.

To analyze matter on this small scale, Ganikhanov will use his knowledge of biology and nonlinear optical techniques.

He earned his bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in physics from Moscow State University, Russia, and was a research scientist at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Wellman Laboratories for Photomedicine at Harvard University.

Lewis plans to build on the strong research program for undergraduates he established at Brigham Young University when he joins WVU s nanoscience and nanotechnology initiative.

Some of the projects that Lewisresearch team is conducting involve biomolecular systems and nanotechnology supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institute of Science and Technology and the National Science Foundation.

He and his team have also developed a code to predict the properties of DNA , semiconductors, carbon nanotubes and many other materials. This electronic package, called FIREBALL , is being used by roughly 36 research groups worldwide.

Currently, he is investigating material properties with innovative electronic-structure methods.

Lewis earned his doctorate from Arizona State University in solid-state theory, a branch of condensed matter physics. Besides Brigham Young, he has worked at Duke University and the University of Utah, where he researched reactions in explosive materials.