Current areas of specialization within applied physics span a wide range of topics such as Photonics including multiwavelength fiber telecommunications, integrated microphotonic and nanophotonic devices, holographic data processing and storage, and optical approaches to quantum computation; Solid-state materials and device work including nanostructured materials and devices, wide bandgap semiconductors and heterostructures for optoelectronics, photovoltaics, novel memory devices, and spin-dependent transport; Biophysics including single-molecule-scale studies of the mechanics of DNA, proteins, and their assemblies; Plasma-physics including spheromak plasmas for fusion application, plasma processes occurring in the sun, and the dynamics of pure electron plasmas; Hydrodynamics, nonlinear dynamics and thermal behavior in small scale systems including symmetry breaking in soft condensed matter, micro/nanofluidic, optofluidic, and biofluidic devices, optical trapping in fluids, pattern formation and phase separation in nanoscale films and convection-diffusive phenomena in natural and mimetic systems.