News
Congratulations to Professor Masao Sako, who is the recipient of the Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching for Faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences!
This award is the School of Arts and Sciences' highest teaching honor, and seeks to recognize teaching that is intellectually rigorous and exceptionally coherent and that leads to an informed understanding of a discipline. Recipients of the Ira Abrams Memorial Award are expected to embody high standards of integrity and fairness, to have a strong commitment to learning, and to be open to new ideas.
Congratulations to graduate student Valerie Yoshioka for her award of the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship!
This fellowship is awarded to Valerie in recognition of her academic excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) achievements, from over 2,928 applications that were received this year.
Found: A Quadrillion Ways for String Theory to Make Our Universe
Stemming from the “F-theory” branch of string theory, each solution replicates key features of the standard model of particle physics.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/found-a-quadrillion-ways-for-...
Charlie Kane and Gene Mele awarded BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category
This prestigious award is intended to, “recognize and reward world-class research and artistic creation, prizing contributions of singular impact for their originality and significance. The name of the scheme is intended to denote not only research work that substantially enlarges the scope of our current knowledge – pushing forward the frontiers of the known world – but also the meeting and overlap of different disciplinary areas and the emergence of new fields.”
Penn sophmore Physics Majors present work at Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM
Sophomores Mark D'Souza and Rachael Keneipp (Penn Physics Majors, supervised by Prof. Sako and Prof. Drndic) presented their work on quantum logic and nanopores @ ERN (Emerging Researchers National) Conference in STEM, Washington DC, Feb. 21-23, 2019.
Congratulations to Paul Masih Das!
Paul is the winner of the Natural Sciences award of the Third Annual Penn Arts and Sciences Grad BEN Talks, for his presentation of "Quantum Materials: Making Smart Phones 'Cool' Again."
Three Physics gradulate students selected as finalists in the Natural Sciences division for the 2019 Grad Ben Talks
Grad Ben Talks is an afternoon of TED Talk-style presentations by Penn Arts and Sciences graduate students representing the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Professional Master’s programs. The students are:
Emile Kraus, Physics and Astronomy
"The Physics of SpongeBob"
Paul Masih Das, Physics and Astronomy
"Quantum Materials: Making Smartphones 'Cool' Again"
Asja Radja, Physics and Astronomy
"Pollen Patterns: A Beautiful Consequence of Biophysical Forces at Microscopic Scales"
Bo Zhen awarded the ECASE award
Congratulations to Prof. Bo Zhen, who has been awarded a highly prestigious "ECASE" award through the Army Research Office.
These awards are traditionally referred to as PECASE awards, after an official ceremony with the President. Because it has been unclear if or when such a ceremony will take place for such awards during the last couple of years, the awards are initially being referred to as ECASE. They will become PECASE awards when the official ceremony takes place.