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Upcoming Events

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Seminars, HET and HEE Seminars

High Energy Theory Seminar: Universal Bounds in interface conformal field theories
Andreas Karch (UT Austin)

March 24, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Critical phenomena in the presence of interfaces provide a much richer arena than their more studied cousin of boundary critical phenomena. In this talk, I'll review certain observables that are new and unique in…
Seminars, Astro Seminars

Astrophysics Seminar: "TBA"
Thavisha Dharmawardena (NYU)

March 26, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Condensed and Living Matter Seminars

Condensed, Soft & Living Matter Seminar: Motility regulation as a self-organization principle
Julien Tailleur (MIT)

March 26, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Equilibrium statistical mechanics tells us how to control the self-assembly of passive materials by tuning the competition between energy and entropy to achieve desired states of organization. Out of equilibrium, no…
Seminars, HET and HEE Seminars

High Energy Theory Seminar: "TBA"
Maulik Parikh (Arizona State University)

March 31, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Seminars, Astro Seminars

Astrophysics Seminar: "TBA"
Adrian Bayer (Flatiron)

April 2, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Condensed and Living Matter Seminars

Condensed, Soft & Living Matter Seminar: Physical approaches to understanding and predicting viral evolution
John Barton (University of Pittsburgh)

April 2, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm
How predictable is evolution? This question has inspired biological research for decades, but it remains challenging to address quantitatively. In this talk, I will describe how we adapted methods from statistical…
Seminars, HET and HEE Seminars

High Energy Theory Seminar: "TBA"
Kent Yagi (University of Virginia)

April 7, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Department Colloquia, Rittenhouse Lectures

Rittenhouse Lecture: Measuring Cosmic Sound with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Daniel Eisenstein (Harvard University)

April 9, 2025 3:30pm - 5:00pm
I will describe recent results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on the measurement of the cosmic distance scale with the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) method and its resulting implications for…

Department News

New high-definition pictures of the early universe

March 19, 2025

New research by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) collaboration has produced the clearest images yet of the universe’s infancy—the earliest cosmic
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Phil Nelson receives Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching

March 12, 2025

The Lindback Awards for Distinguished Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania were established in 1961 with the help of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation.
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Robert Johnson selected for the Provost's Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty

March 12, 2025

Congratulations to Bob Johnson, who has been selected for the Provost's Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty.
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What can theoretical physics teach us about knitting?

February 24, 2025

Penn physicist Randall Kamien, visiting scholar Lauren Niu, and collaborator Geneviève Dion of Drexel bring unprecedented levels of predictability to the ancient practice of knitting by developing
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2025 Sloan Research Fellows

February 19, 2025

The University of Pennsylvania’s Jason Altschuler, César de la Fuente,
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Department Scholar in Residence Update: Sculpture Installation on Cover of Arts Based Research Book

January 28, 2025

Portal, a sculpture installation inspired by research of black holes created by Rebecca Kamen, visiting scholar and artist in residence in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been
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Fourteen full-time faculty members are joined by staff, postdocs, and students in research on astrophysics and cosmology.

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Condensed Matter

The Condensed Matter research at Penn is organized around three broadly defined groups: Quantum Matter, Soft Matter and Living Matter.

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Particle Physics

The Particle Physics group at Penn studies the fundamental forces of Nature, early universe cosmology and mathematical physics.

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Upcoming Events

Tomorrow

Andreas Karch (UT Austin)

Thavisha Dharmawardena (NYU)

Julien Tailleur (MIT)

Maulik Parikh (Arizona State University)

Adrian Bayer (Flatiron)

John Barton (University of Pittsburgh)

Kent Yagi (University of Virginia)

Daniel Eisenstein (Harvard University)

Department News