News

UW Physics Grad Heads to Berkeley for PhD
May 17, 2013
Jessie Otradovec, 27, graduated this year from UW-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in physics and astrophysics. Her next stop is UC-Berkeley to "play with the Universe".
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/uw-madison-grad-ready-to-play-with-the-universe-as/article_f23a3b84-0e8d-57f6-93b6-7dda6578af12.html

IceCube Detects High-energy Neutrinos with Possible Cosmic Origin
May 15, 2013
A massive telescope in the Antarctic ice reports the detection of 28 extremely high-energy neutrinos that might have their origin in cosmic sources. Two of these reached energies greater than 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV), an energy level thousands of times higher than the highest energy neutrino yet produced in a manmade accelerator.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, run by an international collaboration and headquartered at the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, identified the neutrinos, which were described today (May 15) in a talk at the IceCube Particle Astrophysics Symposium at UW–Madison.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21790
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22540352
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/19/icecube-neutrino-high-energy-particles_n_3298310.html?utm_hp_ref=science>

Unique engineering shop looks to another challenge of 21st century physics
May 3. 2013
Engineers at the UW Physical Sciences Lab plans to take on a new project to determine why the Universe is dominated by matter and not anti-matter.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21747

Vaterite: Crystal within a crystal helps resolve an old puzzle
April 25, 2013
A team of scientists from Wisconsin and Israel have figured out the puzzle of the crystal structure of vaterite, with the help of a needle like spicule from a sea squirt.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21720

Elementary School Students Work on Their Own Rude Goldberg Contraptions
April 25, 2013
Students at Emerson School in Madison participate in a Rude Goldberg Lab as a way to demonstrate a few physics principles. Mike Randall, a UW-Madison Physicist led the lab. Randall is the outreach coordinator for The Wonders of Physics.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21719

High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory Results
April 14, 2013
The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory, currently under construction near Puebla in Mexico, reported first results today at the April meeting of the American Physical Society. HAWC is designed to detect high energy gamma rays and cosmic rays from the most extreme astrophysical sources such as supernova remnants and the hot and dense surroundings of super massive black holes. HAWC is a collaboration of 11 Mexican and 17 US institutions, among them UW-Madison. Construction of HAWC began in 2011 and will be completed in 2014.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22149161
The HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory

Physics Fair at UW-Madison
February 16, 2013
The sixth annual Physics Fair will be held at Chamberlin Hall from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The 30th edition of emeritus Professor Clint Sprott's awarding winning show, The Wonder of Physics, will run Saturday February 16th at 1, 4 and 7 p.m, and Sunday February 17th at 1 and 4 p.m.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21500

UW–Madison Physicist Wins Science Image Challenge
January 31, 2013
Professor Pupa Gilbert, a UW-Madison physics professor, image of a sea urchin tooth imaged with a scanning electron microscope and false-collored earned top honors in the 2012 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. The forming end of a sea urchin tooth is shown. While it is not apparent from their intricate and rounded shape, the single-crystals of calcite, which fill space, resist fracture, and make the tooth so hard and tough that it can grind rocks. Sea urchin teeth are essentially self-sharpening, a trick that human toolmakers may someday incorporate into cutting edges that never need honing. For more information see:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21454

Balantekin Elected Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the European Centre for Theoretical Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*)
October 18, 2012
Baha Balantekin, Eugene P. Wigner Professor of Physics, has been elected as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the European Centre for Theoretical Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) at Trento, Italy. This Centre aims to facilitate in-depth research on topical problems at the forefront of contemporary developments in theoretical nuclear physics and related areas such as particle physics, astrophysics, and condensed-matter physics by arranging workshops and collaboration meetings. It also contributes to the training of next generation of theorists through several programs aimed at the graduate students. It is supported by the member states of the European Union. Chairs of the ECT* Advisory Board are usually elected from a group of prominent theoretical physicists at the European universities and laboratories. Balantekin is the first chair of ECT* employed by a U.S. institution. He starts his duties in November 2012.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21142

Search for the Higgs Boson
July 5th 2012
The ATLAS and CMS experiments observe an excess in their data from a new particle consistent with the production of a Higgs Boson. They will need the additional data planned from the running of the LHC until next year to establish if this is indeed the Higgs Boson and that we stand at the threshold of a new era of understanding the origins of mass. Physics Faculty involved: Wu (ATLAS), Smith (CMS), Pan (ATLAS), Mellado (ATLAS), Herndon (CMS), Dasu (CMS) & Carlsmith (CMS) For more information see:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/20846
Wisconsin State Journal article
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article

2012 Department of Physics Awards Banquet
May 4th 2012
The 2012 Department of Physics Award Banquet was held Friday, May 4 at the Fluno Center. Photographs, award winners, and more are located on the website. For more information see the links below.
2012 Physics Banquet page
2012 Award winners
Banquet photographs

Observation of Electron Antineutrino Disappearance at Daya Bay
March 8th 2012
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, a multinational collaboration operating in the south of China, today reported the first results of its search for the last, most elusive piece of a long-standing puzzle: how is it that neutrinos can appear to vanish as they travel?
http://www.news.wisc.edu/20416
Scientific American article