Gene Bickers earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics with highest distinction at the University of Virginia in 1981. His master’s and doctoral degrees in theoretical physics are from Cornell University. After completing a two-year postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in 1988. He was promoted to Associate Professor in1992 and Professor in 1998. He is currently serving as Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Gene has concentrated his research efforts on the physics of strongly correlated electrons in solids. His group has developed a set of novel computational schemes for treating models for electron conduction and has used these methods to investigate high-temperature superconductivity and quantum magnetism.
He was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1991-93. He is the recipient of the College’s Raubenheimer Junior and Senior Faculty Awards (1992 and 2002), a Mortar Board Excellence in Teaching Award (1994), the College’s General Education Teaching Award (2000), the University’s Teaching Has No Boundaries Award (2003), and the University Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching (1999). In addition he was a Faculty Fellow in the University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching from 1997-2000. Gene’s wife is Alice, and they have been married twenty-two years. They have one daughter Cara, 15, who hopes to attend USC in three years time.
