Workshop on Stellar Intensity Interferometry
In May 2023, Prof. Mike Lisa and the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP) hosted the Workshop on Stellar Intensity Interferometry (SII), a three-day meeting on the Ohio State Columbus campus that drew roughly 50 in-person participants from around the world. SII uses tiny (part-per-million) correlated fluctuations between pairs of telescopes to measure the spatial features of stars. Lisa and his team capture the fluctuations using fast electronics mounted to the large optical telescopes of the VERITAS observatory in Arizona. Then they use the Ohio Supercomputer Center and custom resources to dig out the correlations. Their first paper has been submitted for publication in December. While only a couple of years old, there is already a community of scientists working on SII, and the Ohio State workshop is the first in what is expected to become a series. The next workshop is in 2024 in France.
Over 300 Ohio State students, staff and faculty greet Professor Agostini at the entrance to the Physics Research Building at a clap-in event on March 20, 2024. There was a sea of smiles as the excited group waited for their turn to meet him and listen to him speak.
Prof. Mohit Randeria awarded John Bardeen Prize
The 2022 John Bardeen Prize was awarded to Jörg Schmalian (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Mohit Randeria (The Ohio State University) and Peter Hirschfeld (University of Florida) “for pioneering theoretical work that has provided significant insights on the nature of superconductivity, its realization in strongly correlated systems, and experimental probes of unconventional superconductors.” The Bardeen Prize is awarded once every three years.
Prof. Beatriz E. Burrola Gabilondo named to APS EDI Fellow Program
Beatriz E. Burrola Gabilondo has been named an EDI Fellow and will be trained in how to foster EDI discussions in the classroom. The APS EDI Fellows Program seeks to address the gap between available EDI resources and physicists' lack of expertise in critical conversations by training a cohort of physicists and pairing them with critical conversation specialists to present interactive workshops that address fear and build capacity for physicists to engage in EDI conversations.
Prof. Brian Skinner receives 2024 Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award
Prof. Brian Skinner was surprised at a recent faculty meeting with the news that he had received the 2024 Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award. This award is among the most prestigious of the annual awards given by Ohio State, and winners are nominated by their departments and fellow faculty. Prof. Skinner is an assistant professor of physics and is a PI in Ohio State’s Center for Emergent Materials (CEM).”
Prof. Jay Gupta awarded President’s Research Excellence Accelerator Grant
Fifteen teams have been awarded a total of nearly $750,000 in funding in the second year of the President’s Research Excellence (PRE) Accelerator Grant program. Each grant of up to $50,000 is designated for small teams formed to pursue curiosity-driven, novel, high-risk and high-reward research. Prof. Jay Gupta is the PI on one of the awards titled “Developing the ‘van der Waals’ vacuum as a host for quantum bits.” Co-Investigators are David McComb and Shamsul Arafin of the College of Engineering.
Prof. Brian Winer wins Undergraduate Teaching Award
Professor Brian Winer was surprised on Wednesday in his Physics 1251 classroom by Prof. Tom Humanic, vice-chair for undergraduate studies, with the 2022 Physics Undergraduate Teaching Award. This award is given annually and is voted on by undergraduate physics and engineering physics majors.
Prof. Nandini Trivedi selected College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics
The College of Arts and Sciences has selected Prof. Nandini Trivedi as a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics. According to the award letter, Nandini’s “work at each stage has been critical for the Department of Physics reaching its present high levels of quality. Your accomplishments have brought honor to the college and to Ohio State, and we very much appreciate your continuing contributions."
A replica Nobel Prize medal was gifted to chair Michael Poirier and the Department of Physics by Pierre Agostini during the clap-in on March 20, 2024 as a gesture of gratitude and appreciation for his time at The Ohio State University.
Prof. John Beacom awarded 2022 Outreach and Engagement Impact Grant
Three Arts and Sciences faculty members, including Prof. John Beacom, received 2022 Outreach and Engagement Impact Grants from the Ohio State Office of Outreach and Engagement. Across the university, there were only 11 awardees for this funding cycle. Beacom, Henry L. Cox Professor of Physics and of Astronomy, won the grant for SciAccess, Inc., an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing disability equity and access in STEM.
Prof. Alexandra Landsman awarded NSF Grant
Prof. Alexandra Landsman was awarded a 2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant titled "Strong Field Physics with a Twist" to study the interaction of intense ultrafast laser pulses with atoms and molecules. It is a three-year award for $200,000.
Prof. Daniel Gauthier awarded NSF grant for QISET workshop
Daniel Gauthier, professor in the Department of Physics, received a $49,994 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of the two-day NSF Project Scoping Workshop "Accelerating Progress Towards Practical Quantum Advantage" that occurred in June 2022. At Ohio State, the U.S. quantum information, science, engineering and technology (QISET) community took stock of recent scientific advancements, identified current challenges, and discussed opportunities to overcome those challenges and map a way forward.
Prof. Amy Connolly awarded single-PI NSF Grant
Prof. Amy Connolly was awarded a single-PI NSF grant entitled “Precision Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Astrophysics and New Signatures Enabled by a Complete Treatment of Birefringence in Antarctic Ice” for $385k over 3 years. Connolly identified that birefringent properties of the ice near South Pole could be responsible for unusual behaviors of polarizations of radio-frequency signals observed in in-ice detectors. This award enables Connolly’s group to further characterize birefringence in the South Pole ice using existing cross-disciplinary data at radio frequencies, which will be important for the design of future experiments. The award also provides first federal funding for the student-led, Ohio State-based GENETIS project, which uses genetic algorithms to evolve novel detector designs, as well as further support for the ASPIRE workshop for high school women.
Prof. Mohit Randeria elected 2022 AAAS Fellow
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has elected 505 scientists, engineers and innovators from around the world and across all disciplines to the 2022 class of AAAS Fellows, one of the most distinguished honors within the scientific community. Among the honorees was Mohit Randeria, professor of physics, for contributions to the theory of BCS-BEC crossover, to the understanding of angle-resolved photoemission of cuprate superconductors, and for providing rigorous bounds on the superconducting transition temperature in two-dimensional materials.
Students, staff and faculty from the Department of Physics celebrate reading day together at our biggest event of the year, the Spring Picnic!Photo credit: Lindsey Thaler
Prof. Jeanie Lau named APS Outstanding Referee for 2023
The American Physical Society (APS) has selected 153 Outstanding Referees for 2022 that have demonstrated exceptional work in the assessment of manuscripts published in the Physical Review journals. Among these is Jeanie Lau, who joins an impressive number of professors given this honor from our department in the past.
Prof. Mike Lisa named College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor
Mike Lisa has been selected as a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor. The title of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor serves to honor full professor colleagues who have excelled in teaching, service and research/creative activity, and whose work has demonstrated significant impact on their fields, students, college and university, and/or the public.
Prof. Mohit Randeria receives 2023 Distinguished Scholar Award
Mohit Randeria, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, has earned The Ohio State University 2023 Distinguished Scholar Award. “I’m thrilled to get this news,” said Randeria upon learning of his award. “It’s a great honor but also very humbling.” Randeria is a condensed matter theorist whose research focuses on correlated and topological states of quantum matter, especially superconductivity and magnetism.
Prof. Rolando Valdés Aguilar wins Undergraduate Teaching Award
Rolando Valdés Aguilar was surprised on Friday, April 21, 2023 during the Physics Undergraduate Awards Ceremony when Professor Tom Humanic, Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Studies, announced to the audience that Dr. Valdés Aguilar won the 2023 Physics Undergraduate Teaching Award. This award is given annually and is voted on by undergraduate physics and engineering physics majors.
Prof. Samir Mathur wins Undergraduate Teaching Award
Professor Samir Mathur was surprised on Tuesday, April 23 during the Physics Spring Picnic when Professor Tom Humanic, Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Studies, announced to the audience that Dr. Samir Mathur won the 2024 Physics Undergraduate Teaching Award. This award is given annually and is voted on by undergraduate physics and engineering physics majors.
Prof. Kovchegov awarded Distinguished Visiting Academic Award from IPPP at Durham University
Yuri Kovchegov has been awarded the Distinguished Visiting Academic (DIVA) Award from the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) at Durham University in Durham, U.K. Professor Kovchegov will use this award to travel to the IPPP Durham in 2024 to collaborate with colleagues from Oxford University, IPPP and Birmingham University on constructing a Monte Carlo event generator for the upcoming Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).
Brian Skinner named to Provost’s Early Career Scholars Program for 2022-2023
The Ohio State University has selected its inaugural cohort for the Provost’s Early Career Scholars Program, a new initiative designed to attract and develop the highest caliber early-career faculty. Assistant Professor Brian Skinner is one of the eight named to the cohort. Skinner’s research program focuses on new quantum materials and finding ways that these materials can do things traditional materials cannot. He also applies concepts from solid state and material physics to different settings, ranging from quantum information to the dynamics of human groups.
Brandenburg selected for DOE's Early Career Research Program
Daniel Brandenburg, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, has been selected as one of 93 scientists across the country to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program.
Prof. Jim Beatty named Winstein Distinguished Visiting Fellow by the University of Chicago Department of Physics
Professor Jim Beatty has been named a Winstein Distinguished Visiting Fellow by the University of Chicago Department of Physics. The Winstein Fellowship is sponsored by the family of Prof. Bruce Winstein, who was an eminent high energy physicist and astrophysicist, and supports two-to-three-week faculty-level collaborative visits to the department. Beatty will visit Chicago in April 2024.
Lou DiMauro welcomes the guests of Nobel Laureate Pierre Agostini at a celebratory breakfast hosted by The Ohio State University in Stockholm, Sweden. Long-time colleagues and friends shared cherished memories of friendship andscientific work with Pierre Agostini.Photo Credit: David Foley
Prof. John Beacom awarded for the SciAccess Outreach Program
Physics and Astronomy faculty member John Beacom was named a 2024 Ohio State Community Engaged Scholar from the Office of Outreach and Engagement for his work on the SciAccess Outreach Program. The Community Engaged Scholar Award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated co-created engaged scholarship that has positively impacted communities. Community Engaged Scholars have made significant contributions to Ohio State's culture of engagement, further establishing and strengthening the institution's commitment to communities.
Former Ohio State postdoc named MacArthur Fellow
Steven Prohira, a physicist and a former postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University, has been named a recipient of the 2022 MacArthur Fellowship, a prize often called the “genius grant.”
