Julia Velkovska

As Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Julia Velkovska studies the tiny particles that form our universe. She focuses on how nuclear matter behaves when confronted with extreme density and temperatures (think trillions of degrees)—similar to the conditions existing microseconds after the big bang, right as the universe was starting to take shape. Just this year, Velkovska and her team of physicists were awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, along with 13,508 colleagues across four landmark CERN experiments. The prize honors decades of work expanding our understanding of the physical universe. Read More

For John Jumper, BS’07, the road to winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry began with an interdisciplinary education at Vanderbilt.  Read More

PHENIX publishes new particle-flow measurements to support their case that tiny projectiles create specks of quark-gluon plasma. Read More

In subatomic collisions, physicists have found the signature of primordial cosmic soup, from which all the stuff in the universe formed, at lower energies and in smaller volume than ever before. Read More

Recent experiments at the world's largest atom smashers are producing liquid drops so small that they raise the question of how small a droplet can be and still remain a liquid. Read More

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, may have created the smallest drops of liquid made in the lab. Read More

Four Vanderbilt researchers collaborated with scientists from the University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Kansas and MIT to describe the consistency of an unusual fluid produced when atoms of lead are smashed in the Large Hadron Collider. Read More