News
Alison Sweeney at Penn Science Cafe
Asst. Prof. Alison Sweeney will give a presentation on "Bio-Optics: The Physics of Squid Camouflage" at the Penn Science Cafe at the World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street, from 6-7pm on Tuesday, Dec. 3rd. See the link here for more information.
DNA Sequencing with Nanopores in Graphene ribbons
Professor Marija Drndić and her team have just published results on realizing a new sequencing technique based on threatind a string of DNA through a tiny hole and using a nearby sensor to read each letter as it passes through an atomically thin layer of carbon called graphene. The team's latest study shows how to drill nanoporers, the tiny holes, without ruining graphene's electrical sensitivity, a risk posed by simply looking at the material through an electron microscope.
Directed Assembly in Liquid Crystals
Prof. Randy Kamien and Penn collaborators Kate Stebe and Shu Yang in SEAS developed a technique for controlling liquid crystals by means of physical templates and elastic energy, rather than the electromagnetic fields that manipulate them in televisions and computer monitors. They envision using this technique to direct the assembly of other materials, such as nanoparticles.
Masters of Medical Physics Accreditation
The Penn Graduate Program in Medical Physics has received an extended period of accreditation through 2015 from the Board of Directors of the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Educational Programs (CAMPEP). CAMPEP promotes consistent quality education of medical physicists by evaluating and accrediting Graduate, Residency and Continuing Education programs that meet high standards established by CAMPEP in collaboration with its sponsoring organizations.
Celebration of the Higgs Discovery
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics was won by Peter Higgs and Francois Englert for development of the theory of the scalar field that gives mass to elementary particles. Penn physicists Brig Williams, Joe Kroll, Evelyn Thomson, and Elliot Lipeles played important roles in the design and construction of the ATLAS detector and analysis of its data to find the Higgs particle. See the Penn News item for more information.
Singh Center for Nanotechnology opens
On Oct. 4, Penn officially opens its Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology. See the Penn News article.
Explorations with Physics Pedagogy
In seeking new ways to have students learn by directly engaging with their peers and professors, Prof. Ken Lande and Lecturer Robert Johnson are implementing "case-study" laboratories for introductory physics. Students learn how to recognize and explore original observations and deal with unexpected obstacles as part of the process of doing research.
Anshuman Pal wins Undergraduate Award
Anshuman Pal is the international award winner in the Mathematical & Physical Sciences category for The Undergraduate Awards. The Undergraduate Awards is the world’s only pan-discipline academic awards program that identifies the leading creative thinkers and problem solvers through their undergraduate coursework. Anshuman will travel to Dublin for the Global Summit in November to receive his medal.
UPStart graphene company awarded NSF grant
Graphene Frontiers, a company developed through Penn's Center for Technology Transfer's UPStart program by Physics Prof. Charlie Johnson and Zhengtang Luo, a former postdoctoral researcher in Johnson’s lab, has been awarded a $744,600 grant from the National Science Foundation. Graphene Frontiers, founded in 2011, is developing roll-to-roll production of graphene, the “miracle material” at the heart of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.