2012 News
Physics World has announced its "Top 10 Physics Breakthroughs" of 2012
Rutgers physicists were involved in three of the top 10.
- #1. Our high energy experimental and theoretical groups were major players in this, with 25 Rutgers faculty, staff, post-docs and students on the paper. Faculty are John Paul Chou, Yuri Gershtein, Eva Halkiadakis, Amit Lath, Sevil Salur, Steve Schnetzer, Sunil Somalwar and Scott Thomas.
- #4. Galaxy-cluster motion. This was based on data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), an NSF-funded project including Rutgers. Jack Hughes and Felipe Menanteau are co-authors of the Hand et al study.
- #9. Communication using neutrinos. The MINERvA experiment at Fermilab was used to detect a short message using neutrinos from the FNAL NuMI neutrino beam production line. The MINERvA experiment is the main research activity of Ronald Ransome (Department Chair) and his group.
(12-14-2012)
Rutgers Theorists prediction of exotic insulator has been confirmed by experiment
Two of the Rutgers/U. Maryland condensed matter theory team that predicted this new insulator have Rutgers connections, Dzero, then a postdoc at U. Maryland, is a former Rutgers Postdoc, and Piers Coleman, is the Director of the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory.
(12/12/2012)
- Profile(s): Coleman, Piers
Dave Maiullo and his travelling Physics show is the topic of a Rutgers News article
Dave Maiullo and his travelling Physics show is the topic of a Rutgers News article 
entitled: "A Dazzling Physics Show Provides Enduring Lessons"
(11/26/2012)
- Profile(s): Maiullo, David
Jolie Cizewski was named Woman Physicist of the Month for November, 2012
The APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics began a program in January 2012 to highlight exceptional female physicists. The award recognizes female physicists who have positively impacted other individuals' lives and careers.
The full citation can be found here.
(11/12/2012)
- Profile(s): Cizewski, Jolie A.
Professor Eva Andrei's research is featured on the main Rutgers University website
Professor Eva Andrei's research is featured on the main Rutgers University website at http://www.rutgers.edu/about-rutgers/champion-graphene
For more information about Eva Andrei's work visit Andrei Group website.
(11/2/2012)
- Profile(s): Andrei, Eva Y.
CERN experiments have observed a particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson in the mass region around 125-126 GeV
The preliminary results were presented in Geneva on July 4, 2012. Rutgers Physicists have been very active in the search for the Higgs, the existence of which is predicted by the Standard Model.
For more info..
(7/5/2012)
Professor Weida Wu has won a DOE Early Career Award
The five-year awards are designed to bolster the nation's scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. This is the 2nd DOE early career award won by one of our faculty (David Shih won one earlier). Weida also won an NSF CAREER award.
(5/30/12)
- Profile(s): Wu, Weida
Professor Terry Matilsky has won the Richard H. Emmons Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Professor Terry Matilsky has won the Richard H. Emmons Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which is awarded annually to an individual demonstrating outstanding achievement in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-science majors. Details can be found at http://www.astrosociety.org/membership/awards/awards.html.
(5/21/12)
- Profile(s): Matilsky, Terry
Graduating senior astrophysics major Benjamin Forrest has won one of two 2011-12 American Eagle Outfitters Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Awards given across the entire BIG EAST Conference
The Tranghese Award honors academic excellence and comes with a $5000 scholarship that can be applied to postgraduate study, in Forrest's case at Texas A&M University. More details..
(5/21/12)
Professor Jerry Sellwood has won the Dirk Brouwer Award from the Division of Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society
The Brouwer Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of dynamical astronomy, including excellence in scientific research, impact, and influence in the field, and excellence in teaching and training of students. Details can be found at http://dda.harvard.edu/.
(5/14/2012)
- Profile(s): Sellwood, Jerry A.
Professors Eva Andrei and Sasha Zamolodchikov have been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The AAAS is one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Founded in 1780, the AAAS counts more than 200 Nobel Prize laureates and 100 Pulitzer Prize winners among its fellows.
They join Greg Moore and Tom Banks to make 4 members of our Department in the AAAS.
(4/17/2012)
- Profile(s): Andrei, Eva Y.
Professor Eva Halkiadakis has won the Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence
Professor Eva Halkiadakis has won the Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence which honors faculty members who have recently been promoted with tenure and whose work shows exceptional promise. The fellowship includes a citation and a $2,000 research account.
(4/17/2012)
- Profile(s): Halkiadakis, Eva
Professor Andrew Baker has won the Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
Professor Andrew Baker has won the Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence which honors newly tenured faculty members for outstanding teaching and scholarly work. The fellowship includes a citation and a $2,000 research account.
(4/17/2012)
- Profile(s): Baker, Andrew J.
Junior physics major Kelvin Mei has won the highly prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship
The scholarship is awarded annually to 275 students across the nation, across all of the natural sciences, math, and engineering.
For more information, please visit..
(3/29/2012)
Professor Gregory Moore has been named a 2012-2013 Simons Fellow in Theoretical Physics
Each year the Simons Foundation makes up to 20 of these awards in theoretical physics, enabling leaves which allow physicists to concentrate on their research.
For more information..
(3/23/2012)
- Profile(s): Moore, Greg
Neutrino mixing angle found to be sizable by the Daya Bay experiment in China
The neutrino mixing angle, θ13 , found to be sizable by the Daya Bay experiment in China. Professor Kam-Biu Luk of Berkeley is a Daya Bay co-spokesperson. He obtained his Ph.D. from Rutgers under Professor Tom Devlin.
For more information..
(3/19/2012)
Eva Andrei and David Vanderbilt have been recognized as outstanding referees
In 2008 Physical Review and Physical Review Letters began a program to recognize outstanding referees for their journals. Of the 45,000 active referees, about 150 are recognized each year for their unpaid (and unacknowledged) work in maintaining the high standards of these most prestigious journals.
This year Eva Andrei and David Vanderbilt have been recognized as outstanding referees. They join past winners: Elihu Abrahams, Jolie Cizewski, Piers Coleman, Charlie Glashausser, and Gabi Kotliar, as well as Eugenia Etkina from the Dept. of Education and member of our graduate program.
(3/2/2012)
- Profile(s): Andrei, Eva Y., Vanderbilt, David
Professor David Shih of the Department of Physics & Astronomy and New High Energy Theory Center has won a Sloan Fellowship
The Sloan recognizes the most promising young researchers in America. Over 30 Sloan Fellows have later gone on to win Nobel Prizes. David is the only winner from Rutgers this year, and joins Professors Kristjan Haule, Emil Yuzbashyan, Alex Morozov, and Valery Kiryukhin to make five Sloan winners in our Department since 2001.
(2/15/2012)
- Profile(s): Shih, David
Vitaly Podzorov develops a method to apply thin polymer insulators to organic transistors
Taking inspiration from a kitchen gadget, Vitaly Podzorov develops a method to apply thin polymer insulators to organic transistors.
Read more about this discovery..
(1/27/2012)
- Profile(s): Podzorov, Vitaly
Felipe Menanteau and Jack Hughes and their collaborators have discovered the most massive and hottest galaxy cluster ever seen in the distant universe
The cluster is located some 7 billion light years away from Earth. Observations were made using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the NSF funded Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile. The galaxy cluster known as ACT-CL J0102-4915 has been nicknamed "El Gordo" (meaning "the big one" in Spanish) by the researchers who discovered it.
Read more about this discovery:
- Rutgers Research Highlights
- European Southern Observatory official press release
- NASA/Chandra official press release
- BBC News
- CNN
- Daily Mail (UK)
- MSNBC
- Wired
- CBC News
- Space.com
- AAAS
- Earth & Sky
- Discovery
- Interview on NPR's "All things considered"
(1/11/2012)
- Profile(s): Hughes, John P.
