Posts Tagged Department of Physics and Astronomy

Rochester physicists are exploring new ways of creating quantum-mechanical interactions between distant electrons. The research marks an important advance in quantum computing.

Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy, is searching for “technosignatures,” or the physical and chemical traces of advanced civilizations, among the 4,000 or so exoplanets scientists have found so far.

Members of a University of Rochester cosmology group who are a key part of a multi-institutional effort to create the most detailed 3-D map ever made of the universe are looking forward to the launch of the instrument later this year in Arizona.

The team—Regina Demina, professor of physics; Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, postdoctoral research associate; Segev BenZvi, assistant professor of physics; and Kelly Douglass, visiting assistant professor of physics and astronomy—are working on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) project, an initiative to provide a more comprehensive look at dark energy and how it’s influencing the expansion of the universe. The instrument—including the 5,000 robotic positioners of the telescope’s focal plane (above)—will capture data from 35 million galaxies, potentially providing insight about the life cycle of galaxies and about the cosmic web that connects matter in the universe.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the lead institution on the project, announced on June 1 that DESI was complete and was moving toward its startup.

Read more about Rochester’s team.

Computational scientists win a National Science Foundation grant to develop a tool to provide accurate, timely information to local-level policymakers monitoring the spread of COVID-19.

The national scholarship, which helps cover tuition, room, board, and fees, was authorized by Congress to ensure a continuing source of highly qualified STEM professionals pursuing careers in research.

The award will allow the physics and astronomy major to pursue a postgraduate degree at the University of Cambridge in the UK beginning this fall.

Two awards from the Department of Energy will help Rochester scientists work to develop timely, commercially viable fusion energy.

Experiments conducted in a mine in Japan may hold clues to explain why the matter than makes up the universe escaped annihilation by anti-matter during the Big Bang.

Like infectious disease researchers, climate change scientists have warned for decades that we are unprepared. Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank says, “It’s time to wake up.”

The National Science Foundation has granted its most prestigious award in support of junior faculty, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, to several University of Rochester researchers this year.