News
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Elected AAAS Fellows
Professors Charlie Johnson and Mark Trodden have been elected to the 2015 class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Penn Physicists Share in 2016 Breakthrough Prize
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) Collaboration, which includes physicists from the University of Pennsylvania, have shared the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Women in Physics holds First Annual Lecture
The Women in Physics group hosted the widely successful event held in University of Pennsylvania's, Houston Hall which featured Professor Mildred Dressselhaus of MIT as its key speaker. Dresselhaus, the first female institute Professor at MIT partnered with the WIP group with the goal of inspiring other women to pursue a career in Physics and to seek out female Physics mentors. By sharing her moving story on her career in physics which spans over 50 years, the Women in Physics group are that much closer to closing the gap in a male dominated f
Penn Physics Professors Lecture for Public at Franklin Institute
From smart lighting, mobile connectivity and underwater communications, to aviation, defense and security, the countless applications of light have revolutionized society. Explore some of the newest ways in which light is becoming an indispensable part of our lives. Professors Ravi Sheth and Arjun Yodh lectured about light at the "Why Light Matters" event at the Franklin Institute Oct. 27. To see their talks and the full program, go to https://vimeo.com/144246522.
Visiting Fulbright Postdoctoral Researcher Tessa Baker Wins UK “Women of the Future” Award
Dr. Tessa Baker, a postdoctoral Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and a Fulbright Scholar spending this year in the Center for Particle Cosmology at Penn, is the 2015 winner in the Science category of the UK “Women of the Future Award”.
National Academy of Medicine Elects Three New Members from Penn
Three professors from the University of Pennsylvania have been elected members to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine. NAM was originally the Institute of Medicine, which was established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to advise the nation on medical and health issues. Members are elected to the NAM by their peers for distinguished contributions to medicine and health.
Professor James Aguirre Builds Radio Telescope with Community H.S. Students
For most people, “radio” is something that is listened to. For physicists and astronomers, however, “radio” is something that is seen.
Penn Medicine Researchers Discover Hidden Brain Pathways Crucial to Communication
Being able to understand speech is essential to our evolution as humans. Hearing lets us perceive the same word even when spoken at different speeds or pitches, and also gives us extra sensitivity to unexpected sounds. Now, new studies from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania clarify how these two crucial features of audition are managed by the brain.
Flexner Award for Graduate Student Xuexin Wei
Xuexin Wei, co-advised by Prof. Vijay Balasubramanian and Prof. Alan Stocker of Psychology, has won the Louis B. Flexner Award for Outstanding Thesis Work in the Neurosciences. Students in any graduate group at Penn who did their Ph.D. on a neuroscience related topic in any lab across the University are eligible for the Flexner Award, sponsored by the Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences.
Physics Scientists' Work on 'Ghost Particles' Contributed to Nobel Prize Win 2015
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics was jointly awarded today to Dr. Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Dr. Arthur B. McDonald of Canada, for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass. Professor Kajita was the leader of the Super-Kamiokande experiment, and Professor McDonald the Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observator (SNO), an experiment in which the University of Pennsylvania group played a critical role.