Physics

Assistant Professor of Physics and Mathematics Alex Lupsasca has won a 2024 New Horizons in Physics Prize for his theoretical work on the interpretation of black hole images and his proposal of a new method for using super-powered telescopes to look closely at black holes and their invisible fingerprints called photon rings. Read More

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding two Vanderbilt early-career nuclear physicists’ exploration of the universe’s properties and composition. Raghav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli and Jean-François Paquet, assistant professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and members of the multidisciplinary Vanderbilt Initiative for Gravity, Waves and Fluids, have been identified as among the nation’s most exceptional researchers. Read More

Scientists from Vanderbilt and UCAS made a breakthrough in single-atom vibrational spectroscopy in graphene, crucial to understanding materials’ thermal properties and nanophotonics. Read More

David Weintraub, professor of astronomy, was named an American Astronomical Society fellow for his groundbreaking research and his work in communicating astronomy to the public. Read More

Piran Kidambi, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been awarded a grant to further his research into capturing high-resolution images of live viruses in tissues. The three-year grant from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Frontiers of Imaging is one of 20 awarded worldwide with the aim of revolutionizing the study of viruses, human health and vaccines. Read More

Five Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty members were elected 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Read More

Vanderbilt and Chalmers University of Technology are teaming up to build a self-driving biological laboratory that uses microfluidics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a third-generation robot scientist that designs and conducts the massive number of experiments needed to fully characterize cellular signals and pathways and optimize biotechnologies. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers from the departments of physics and astronomy, math, electrical engineering, and history have received a $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Award to establish a graduate certificate program in the emerging field of multimessenger astronomy. Read More

Vanderbilt graduate students Luis Bichon and Brandon Tyler Blankenship have been selected for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research program and will pursue their research on high-energy nuclear physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Read More

Theory and experimental data on an electride, a member of a class of exotic materials, unveil new secrets that may impact technology developments. Est. reading time: 2 mins. Read More

Nashville Metro Council has honored Vanderbilt nuclear physicist Joseph Hamilton for his role in the discovery and naming of chemical element 117, known as tennessine on the periodic table of elements. Read More

For graduate students nearing the end of their programs, COVID-19 has created an unexpected challenge: remotely presenting an effective and engaging dissertation defense. That was the new reality for Kyle Godbey, a graduate student of physics at Vanderbilt studying nuclear reactions. Read More

New technique for manipulating graphene opens the door to new breakthroughs in quantum technology. Read More

A groundbreaking study, using data from NASA and a technique pioneered by a Vanderbilt professor, is giving humankind a glimpse at a distant exoplanet with a size similar to Earth and a surface which may resemble Mercury or Earth’s Moon. Located nearly 49 light-years from Earth, the planet known… Read More

Vanderbilt University astrophysicist Keivan Stassun, Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, was named Tuesday to the National Academies’ Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020) Steering Committee. Read More

Read about recent faculty and student awards, appointments and achievements. Read More

Vanderbilt University physicists developed detailed quantum mechanical simulations that accurately predict the outcomes of various additive combinations in water used for enhanced oil recovery. Read More

The newly discovered planets appear to have too much water to sustain life but provide hints at what sorts of planets might do so. Read More

Vanderbilt scientists have teamed up with the Italian Scientific Police to apply nanoscience techniques to improve the accuracy of forensic investigations. Read More

Filling the universe with knots shortly after it popped into existence 13.8 billion years ago provides a neat explanation for why we inhabit a three-dimensional world. That is the basic idea advanced by an out-of-the-box theory developed by an international team of physicists. Read More