News
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.
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.