Once More, Into the Breach

In 1986 and 1988 Henry (Heinz) Barschall, a respected nuclear physicist at the University of Wisconsin, editor of Physical Review C and what was then the APS Publications Oversight Committee, wrote articles in Physics Today that presented the results of a study of the cost of library subscriptions to physics journals. The consequences of Barschall’s studies provide a cautionary tale on what can go wrong when scientific and commercial interests collide.

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Prof. Duncan Carlsmith wins Kemper K. Knapp Bequest for Garage Physics

Professor Duncan Carlsmith has been awarded a $6000 from the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest for Garage Physics. The Knapp Bequest favors projects that cross departmental lines and have an impact on the educational and cultural life of the university community, particularly projects that benefit undergraduate students.

Prof. Peter Timbie wins Faculty Development Grant

Prof. Peter Timbie will work on new materials for Physics 103-104 in conjunction with the REACH program during Fall 2016.

UW News Story

Cosmic Radio Bursts Yield First Clues About Their Origins

With the help of the world’s largest steerable radio telescope, a team of researchers that includes University of Wisconsin-Madison physicists has produced the first detailed portrait of a Fast Radio Burst – a brief but highly energetic pulse of radio waves from unknown sources in the distant universe.

-Terry Devitt, (608) 262-8282, trdevitt@wisc.edu

CONTACT: Peter Timbie, (608) 890-2002, pttimbie@wisc.edu

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UW Selected to Host 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics

The University of Wisconsin – Madison has been selected to be a host site for the 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). Other 2017 host sites are:

  • Rice University
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Montana State University
  • Virginia Tech
  • Harvard University
  • Princeton University
  • UCLA
  • Wayne State University

APS CUWiP Page

AAAS honors Mark Eriksson and Gary Shiu

UW Physics professors Gary Shiu and Mark Eriksson have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Mark Eriksson was elected “for innovative and important contributions to the understanding and development of nanodevices for spintronics and quantum information processing applications.”

Gary Shiu was elected “for pioneering contributions to string phenomenology and cosmology, for leadership in connecting fundamental theory to experiment, and for promoting basic science in the U.S. and Asia.”

UW News Story

UW Alum Dr. Angela Laird (Ph.D. 2002) named APS Woman Physicist of the Month

UW alum Angela Laird was named Woman Physicist of the Month for November, 2015 by the American Physical Society. Dr. Angela Laird is an Associate Professor of Physics at Florida International University and the director of FIU’s Neuroinformatics and Brain Connectivity Laboratory. She was recently identified on the Thompson Reuters’ list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds of 2014,” and she ranks among the top 1 percent most cited for the field of neuroscience and behavior between 2002 and 2012.  Laird received her Ph.D. in Physics/Medical Physics from the UW in 2002.

Other UW Physics people who have been recognized include

January 2015 – Marjorie Corcoran (Post Doc 1977-79)
June 2013 – Reina Maruyama (former faculty)
February 2013 – Laura Reina (Scientist 97-98)
December 2012 – Jodi Cooley (UW Ph.D. 2003)

UW Alum Dr. Gene Amdahl, Pioneer of Mainframe Computing, Dies at 92

Dr. Gene Amdahl died today at the age of 92.  As a young computer scientist at IBM in the early 1960s, Amdahl played a crucial role in the development of the System/360 series, the most successful line of mainframe computers in IBM’s history.  He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the UW in 1952.

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Winners of 2016 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics announced

Stephen Olson, Ph.D. (UW-Madison 1970, advisor Pondrom) along with Drs. Jonathan Dorfan, Davis Hitlin, and Fumikko Takasaki have been awarded the 2016 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics.

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