Babak Kasmaei Professorial Lecturer CAS | Physics
- Bio
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I’m a theoretical physicist interested in high energy nuclear physics, subatomic particles, and quantum phenomena. I have studied the evolution and signatures of Quark-Gluon Plasma, which is an extremely hot, dense, magnetized, whirling soup of elementary particles created in relativistic nuclear collisions. I explore different aspects of quantum field theory, which is a rich framework combining quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity allowing scientists to predict and analyze the outcomes of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC), and the upcoming Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).
Before my PhD studies in Physics, I received my BSc degree in electrical engineering with focus on control systems, and I did research on intelligent signal and time series processing especially to predict solar and geomagnetic activity.
At American University, I enjoy teaching all levels of physics courses from introductory physics to modern physics and quantum mechanics. Undergraduate students of all levels have done research projects with me and most of them have received awards for their research.
Student research projects:
• Memristor and Memrestive Networks, 2025. Student researcher: Thomas Di Marco [physics capstone project].
• Initial State Models for High Energy Nuclear Collisions and the Formation of Quark-Gluon Plasma, 2024. Student researcher: Makaena Hewitt [NASA DCSGC summer fellowship + DCSGC showcase presentation prize].
• Modeling and control of inverted Pendulum, 2023. Student researcher: Jason Mema [Mathias conference poster award] (now Mechanical Engineering student at Columbia University).
• Lithium-ion battery life estimation by machine learning, 2023. Student researcher: Ben Wenig [NASA DCSGC summer fellowship + DCSGC showcase presentation prize] (now PhD student at Michigan State University).
Special courses:
• AI for High Energy Physics, Independent study, Fall 2024
• Modern Physics II (General relativity, Elementary Particles, Condensed matter, etc.), Selected Topics, Fall 2024
• Machine Learning for Engineering Applications, Independent study, Summer 2024
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Teaching
Summer 2025
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PHYS-110 Principles of Physics I
Fall 2025
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-331 Modern Physics
Spring 2026
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-210 Principles of Physics II
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PHYS-470 Intro to Quantum Mechanics
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Selected Publications
K. Boguslavski, B. S. Kasmaei and M. Strickland, The imaginary part of the heavy-quark potential from real-time Yang-Mills dynamics, J. High Energ. Phys. 2021, 83 (2021).
B. S. Kasmaei and M. Strickland, Photon production and elliptic flow from momentum-anisotropic quark-gluon plasma, Phys. Rev. D 102, 014037 (2020).
B. S. Kasmaei and M. Strickland, Dilepton production and elliptic flow from an anisotropic quark-gluon plasma, Phys. Rev. D 99, 034015 (2019).
B. S. Kasmaei and M. Strickland, Parton self-energies for general momentum-space anisotropy, Phys. Rev. D 97, 054022 (2018).
B. S. Kasmaei, M. Nopoush, and M. Strickland, Quark self-energy in an ellipsoidally anisotropic quark-gluon plasma, Phys. Rev. D 94, 125001 (2016).
M. R. Yousefi, B. S. Kasmaei, A. Vahabie, C. Lucas, B. N. Araabi, Input Selection Based on Information Theory for Constructing Predictor Models of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity Indices, Sol. Phys. 258, 2 (2009).