Home | Department of Physics and Astronomy

Astrophysics & Cosmology

Thirteen full-time faculty members are joined by staff, postdocs, and students in research on astrophysics and cosmology.

Learn More

Condensed Matter

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

Learn More

Particle Physics

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

Learn More

Department News

Bo Zhen announced as a winner of a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship

February 16, 2021

Bo Zhen, Assistant Professor, has been selected for a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship as one of "128 early-caree
Read More
Arjun Yodh named 2021 Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award Recipient by The Optical Society

February 11, 2021

Arjun Yodh, James M.
Read More
Charlie Johnson leads effort to develop an "electronic nose" to track COVID-19

February 5, 2021

Charlie Johnson, Rebecca W.
Read More
Liang Wu leads studies using pioneering theories by Charlie Kane and Eugene Mele

February 4, 2021

Liang Wu, Assistant Professor, leads two studies that "demonstrate how two related metal alloys, cobalt monosilicide and
Read More
Liang Wu selected for 2020 OCPA Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize)

February 3, 2021

Liang Wu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was selected for the prestigious Outstanding Young Researcher Award (Macronix Prize) by the International Organization of C
Read More
Dark Energy Survey makes public catalog of nearly 700 million astronomical objects

January 21, 2021

With the goal of understanding dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe, DES released six years of data, representing one of the largest galaxy surveys published to date.
Read More

Visit us on Twitter

Tweets by physatpenn

Diversity

It is incumbent on us all as a global community of scientists to actively participate in the diversification of science, technology, engineering and mathematics by directly and intentionally engaging those groups that are underrepresented in our individual fields.

Learn More

Events

High Energy Theory Seminar: "Modified thermal histories and the small-scale matter power spectrum"

March 1, 2021 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Mathematical Biology seminar: "Temporal network epidemiology: Impacts of concurrency and inter-event times"

March 2, 2021 4:00pm - 5:00pm

Astronomy Seminar: "How do you make a binary black hole?"

March 3, 2021 2:00pm - 3:30pm

Spotlight

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) Program

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Telescope (BLASTPol) and its planned successor, Super BLASTPol, are the first instruments to combine the sensitivity and mapping speed necessary to trace magnetic fields across entire clouds with the resolution to trace fields down into dense substructures, including cores and laments.

Visit the Devlin Lab website

Outreach

The Penn Physics & Astronomy Department offers a variety of research opportunities that bring students of a range of academic levels to Penn.

Learn More

How to Do Things

Need help? Looking for a resource? Find out who to contact for what.

Get More Information

This series of demonstrations, made in collaboration with the Physics & Astronomy department, was designed for use in the classroom as well as review materials. There are silent and narrated options for each demonstration.

Department Fact

The Physics and Astronomy department counts three Nobel prize winners in its family tree.