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  • a blue-laser-hued image of a trapped ball of strontium ions in an optical lattice clock

    NASA funds Fundamental Physics proposal from Shimon Kolkowitz

    This post is adapted from a NASA news release; read the original here NASA’s Fundamental Physics Program has selected seven proposals, including one from UW–Madison physics professor Shimon Kolkowitz, submitted in response to the Research …

  • a hand writing on a chalkboard

    Justin Marquez and Sam Kramer named L&S Teaching Mentors

    Congrats to physics PhD students Justin Marquez and Sam Kramer on being named 2023-24 L&S Teaching Mentors! The L&S TA Training & Support Team is responsible for welcoming and training hundreds of new TAs each year. Teaching …

  • profile photo of Soren Ormseth

    Soren Ormseth earns campus-wide teaching award

    This post is adapted from one originally published by the Graduate School Twenty-one outstanding graduate students — including physics PhD student Soren Ormseth — have been selected as recipients of the 2022-23 UW–Madison Campus-Wide Teaching …

  • a colorized simulation of the detection event indicating where energies took place and were transferred

    Help IceCube decode signals from outer space in new Citizen Science project

    Every second, about 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body unnoticed. At the South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects these elusive particles and works to identify their astronomical origins to help unlock mysteries of …

  • a group of people stand in front of a red, starry-like backdrop

    Royal visit strengthens WIPAC and IceCube’s partnership with Thailand

    A budding collaboration between the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center and Chiang Mai University in Thailand took a grand turn with a visit to the Royal Palace in Bangkok. There, discussions between scientists from WIPAC, a …

  • bucky badger, the mascot, shakes hands with a man in a tuxedo

    The Wonders of Physics celebrates 40 seasons

    The Wonders of Physics shows in Chamberlin Hall, Feb 11-12 and Feb 18-19, kept the audience riveted with scientific experiments that demonstrated physics principles with panache. It also was a landmark show of sorts, as …

  • a small square chip sits on a metallic microscope stand with green laser light bouncing off of it in places

    New quantum sensing technique reveals magnetic connections

    By Leah Hesla, Q-NEXT A research team supported by the Q-NEXT quantum research center demonstrates a new way to use quantum sensors to tease out relationships between microscopic magnetic fields. Say you notice a sudden …

  • two cylinders act like a dam, with blue "water" higher behind the cylinders and less water level below.

    Smooth sailing for electrons in graphene

      This story was originally published by University Communications Physicists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison directly measured, for the first time at nanometer resolution, the fluid-like flow of electrons in graphene. The results, which will …

  • a collage of women, some profile pictures and some with their research equipment

    Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

    February 11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and we’re more than happy to showcase some of our women physicists! We collected photos from women in the department, which you can …

  • Prof. Jim Lawler has passed away

    Professor Jim Lawler, the Arthur and Aurelia Schawlow Professor Emerit of Physics at UW–Madison, passed away January 29, 2023. He was 71. Lawler was an atomic, molecular & optical physicist with a focus developing and …

  • a man stands behind a lectern with physics gadgets behind him. he is wearing a costume that centers around the theme of time.

    Peter Weix remembered for his technical, mentoring, and outreach efforts in physics

    The Department of Physics mourns the loss of Peter Weix, who passed away January 13, 2023. Peter began his career as an electronics technician in the U.S. Navy in 1984, where he serv­­ed until 1990. …

  • a geometric pattern of lines in green, light gold, and black/dark purple, representing the qubit

    Finding some wiggle room in semiconductor quantum computers

    Classical computers rarely make mistakes, thanks largely to the digital behavior of semiconductor transistors. They are either on or they’re off, corresponding to the ones and zeros of classical bits. On the other hand, quantum …

  • a cartoon-rendered image of a microscope objective, with a red cylinder (light) hitting a sample that shows concentric rings of red and blue, as described in the text

    Beating the diffraction limit in diamonds

    by Daniel Heimsoth Resolving very small objects that are close together is a frequent goal of scientists, making the microscope a crucial tool for research in many different fields from biology to materials science. The …

  • profile photo of Ilya Esterlis

    Welcome, assistant professor Ilya Esterlis

    When Lake Mendota freezes over in the winter and thaws in the spring, those water/ice phase transitions might seem mundane. But, says new assistant professor of physics Ilya Esterlis, interesting things happen during phase transitions, …

  • profile photo of Roman Kuzmin

    Welcome, Roman Kuzmin, the Dunson Cheng Assistant Professor of Physics

    In the modern, cutting-edge field of quantum computing, it can be a bit puzzling to hear a researcher relate their work to low-tech slide rules. Yet that is exactly the analogy that Roman Kuzmin uses …

  • a small square chip sits on a metallic microscope stand with green laser light bouncing off of it in places

    New technique reveals changing shapes of magnetic noise in space and time

    This article was originally published by Princeton Engineering Electromagnetic noise poses a major problem for communications, prompting wireless carriers to invest heavily in technologies to overcome it. But for a team of scientists exploring the …

  • Experimental condensed matter physics professor Marshall Onellion has passed away

    UW–Madison physics professor Marshall Onellion passed away November 20, 2022. He was 72. After completing his BS in mathematics and physics at West Virginia University in 1972, Onellion served in the U.S. Air Force until …

  • Profile photo of Don Cox

    Plasma astrophysicist and emeritus professor Don Cox has passed away

    Professor Emeritus Donald P. Cox passed away October 26, 2022. He was 79. A plasma astrophysicist, Cox contributed many years to research in his scientific field, to students with whom he worked, and to the …

  • an abstract 3D mobius-like strip but with 6 curved folds, with some numbers and letters typed in rows along the surfaces

    Gary Shiu awarded DOE funding to apply string theory lessons to AI

    This post is modified from one originally published by the US Department of Energy The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $4.3 million in funding for 16 projects in artificial intelligence (AI) research for high energy physics (HEP), …

  • Clint Sprott makes 2022 list of highly cited researchers

    Sixteen UW–Madison researchers — including emeritus professor of physics Clint Sprott — were recently recognized on the Institute for Scientific Information™ list of Highly Cited Researchers 2022. The list identifies scientists and social scientists who …

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