News
New Fellows of The American Physical Society
Physics Professors Bhuvnesh Jain and Mark Trodden have been elected to Fellowship of The American Physical Society.
Jain was nominated by APS’s Division of Astrophysics:
Physics Professor Joshua Klein on "Why I Love Neutrinos"
Why I Love Neutrinos is a series spotlighting those mysterious, abundant, ghostly particles that are all around us. This installment features Professor Josh Klein of the University of Pennsylvania.
To watch "Why I Love Neutrinos" on Youtube click here
For more information on neutrinos, visit the Fermilab website at http://www.fnal.gov
Physics Professors A.T. Charlie Johnson and Marija Drndic Leads Two 4M Projects On New 2D Materials
Two out of ten NSF EFRI grants were awarded to independent teams led by two Penn Physics & Astronomy Professors on new two-dimensional materials. One team led by Professor Charlie Johnson and collaborators at Penn, the other, led by Professor Marija Drndic and collaborators at four other institutions. The projects also have strong outreach components and include Drndić's group work with University of the Arts professor Slavko Milekic on the development of a portable interactive exhibit kiosk, for display at the Franklin Institute.
Abrams Teaching Award Winner Professor Mark Devlin on Teaching Introductory Classes
"When I started my position in the department of physics & astronomy at Penn in 1996, I had never been in front of a class in my life. I was assigned Introductory Astronomy (Astro 001) for my first course, given a book and told where to show up. I figured I knew astronomy pretty well, how hard could it be?"
Penn Research Partnership with University of Puerto Rico Awarded $3M NSF Grant
A Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) between the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Puerto Rico was one of six to receive $3M in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
New Physics Demonstration Videos
Professor Larry Gladney and Bill Berner, in collaboration with the Penn Online Learning Initiative, have developed a series of physics demonstration videos on electrodynamics. The series of demonstrations, supported by Penn's AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative grant, were designed for use in the classroom as well as review materials. A second series of videos are currently being developed.
To watch videos of Physics demos, click here
Physics Professors Charles Kane, Eugene Mele and A.T Charlie Johnson: NSF Awards $250K for Topological Materials SUPERSeed
The NSF recently awarded funding ($250K) for a new SUPERSeed, Topological Quantum Materials between Two and Three Dimensions. LRSM’s SUPERSeed will combine theory, computation and experiment on topics that lie at the intersection between materials science and topological physics: layered 2D materials, topological semimetals, and ferroelectric (FE) topological insulators.
Remembering Emeritus Professor Howard Brody-- "The Science of Swing"
Professor Brody’s love of tennis, perhaps like Newton’s, was never quite matched by his skill. From fumbling tournaments in high school (“The coach gave up”), he progressed to four years of varsity play at MIT, and for one heady month coached the men’s team at the University of Pennsylvania where, for almost all his career, he was a physics professor.
Professors Justin Khoury, Tom Lubensky and Andrea Liu receive Kaufmann New Initiative Research Grants
Upenn researchers will receive five of the 10 grants being awarded this year by the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation, part of The Pittsburgh Foundation, which supports cutting-edge scientific research in chemistry, biology and physics at institutions across Pennsylvania.
Professor Justin Khoury: Experiment Attempts to Snare Penn Astrophysicist’s Dark Energy ‘Chameleons’
If dark energy is hiding in the form of hypothetical particles called “chameleons,” a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley, plans to flush them out.
The results of an experiment published in Science narrows the search for chameleons a thousand times compared to previous tests. The researchers hope that their next experiment will either expose chameleons or similar ultralight particles as the real dark energy, or prove they were nothing more than an illusion.