News
Prof. Bhuvnesh Jain talks about the past, present, and future of "big data" in astronomy and beyond
Bhuvnesh Jain, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences and Co-Director of the Penn Center for Particle Cosmology, talked to Omnia, the magazine of Penn's School of Arts and Sciences, about what drew him to astrophysics as a child and the important role that big data and data analysis has played in cutting edge research in astronomy and cosmology today.
Department faculty, staff, and students contribute to global Dark Energy Survey effort
Department of Physics and Astronomy faculty, research staff, and students have been contributing to the global effort to better understand dark matter and dark energy.
Prof. A. T. Charlie Johnson presents promising results on Penn developed "e-nose" to catch certain cancers
A. T. Charlie Johnson, Rebecca W. Bushnell Professor of Physics and Astronomy, presented early results on his innovative, collaborative research with faculty and researchers from Perelman School of Medicine and School of Veterinary Medicine at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in early June. Together, Penn researchers are working to develop an "electronic nose" that can detect certain types of cancer. Prof.
Congratulations to our 2021 Physics & Astronomy graduates!
Christopher Kehayias
Lia Papadopoulos
Thomas Rochaias
Nandita Chaturvedi
Stephen Hackler
Davis Varghese
Wei-Shao Wei
Ian Dyckes
Zhurun Ji
Matthew DeCross
Pedro Bernardinelle
Congratulations to Justin Bracks on receiving an inaugural Presidential Ph.D. Fellowship!
President Amy Gutmann, Provost Wendell Pritchett, and Deputy Provost Beth Winkelstein today announced the recipients of the inaugural class of Presidential Ph.D. Fellows. Drawing from the most accomplished and diverse Ph.D. trainees, the 2021 Presidential Ph.D. Fellows come from across the nine schools at Penn that offer Ph.D. programs.
Bo Zhen announced as recipient of ONR Young Investigator Award
Bo Zhen, Assistant Professor, was announced as one of the recipients of the 2021 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research. The award "seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers...who show exceptional promise for doing creative research."
Postdoctoral Researchers Sam Dillavou and Menachem Stern featured in APS News
The May 2021 edition of APS News features research on "programmable matter" by postdoctoral researchers Sam Dillavou and Menachem Stern. Dillavou, using a theoretical framework proposed by Stern, "demonstrated that [a] circuit could perform a simple machine learning task using a historical dataset of measurements of 150 iris flowers."
Physics and Astronomy students selected as 2021 Dean's Scholars
Congratulations to CAS senior Adam Konkol and December graduate Abigail Timmel for being selected as 2021 School of Arts and Sciences Dean's Scholars! This honor is presented annually to students who exhibit exceptional academic performance and intellectual promise.
Eleni Katifori, Associate Professor, described Konkol as “a phenomenal student researcher, one that comes by once every several years.”
Department research featured as part of the Physical Review B 50 Year Milestone Collection of work
Research from department faculty and graduates, past and present, has been selected to be featured by Physical Review B in honor of the journal's 50-year anniversary. The journal selected papers "that have made lasting contributions to condensed matter physics." Two of the more than fifty papers selected were published by faculty and students from the department.
The Department is pleased to announce the winners of the Physics and Astronomy Student Awards for 2021. Congratulations to all the winners!
The Elias Burstein Prize – Zhuoliang Ni, Wei-Shao Wei
Provided from an endowment established by friends, colleagues, and students of Elias Burstein, upon his retirement as Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Physics on June 30, 1988. Awarded to the graduate student in Condensed Matter Physics judged by the Physics Department to have a made a significant contribution to our understanding of the subject.