General News

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Rainer Weiss, Kip S. Thorne, and Barry C. Barish, creators of the LIGO experiment which made the first observations of gravitational waves. LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a collaborative project with over one thousand researchers from more than twenty countries, including the University of Minnesota. More »

Professor Jim Kakalios recently received an Honorary Degree from the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom for his "significant contribution to pioneering research and public dissemination in physics." More »

Physics Ph.D. Candidate Zachary Robinson received the DOE’s 2017 Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program Award. Robinson was one of only 52 students nationwide selected for the award. More »

On Friday, July 21 the international neutrino research community will celebrate a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead SD. Scientists and political leaders will mark the beginning of construction of the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF). More »

Professor Claudia Scarlata is lead researcher on a new citizen science project that is asking volunteers to help them with web classifications of galaxy spectra to find "baby" galaxies that are giving birth to new stars.The project, named Galaxy Nurseries, marks the 100th project and 10-year anniversary of Zooniverse, the world’s largest and most popular people-powered research platform. More »

Assistant Professor Rafael Fernandes has been named as a McKnight Presidential Fellow for his scholarly accomplishments. He will receive $15,000 to be used over the next three years for his research. More »

Chun Chen and Caner Unal won the 2017 Aneesur Rahman Award. Hannah Rogers won the 2017 Robert E. Greiling Jr. Fellowship for her research in Cosmic Rays. Mengxing Ye won The 2017 Robert E. Greiling J. Fellowship for her research in condensed matter theory. More »

The 2017 Undergraduate Scholarships were distributed at the last colloquium of the semester. Arora Arpit and Adam Hines received the Laverne and Ted Jones Scholarship for Undergraduate Astrophysics. Irene Moskowitz, Katherine Chworowsky, and Alex Igl received the 2017 Hazel Swanson Scholarship for Undergraduate Astrophysics.
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Professor Vlad Pribiag was named as a recipient of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Young scientist prize in Low Temperature Physics for 2017. He will be presented with the prize at the International Low Temperature Physics Conference in Gothenburg Sweden this August. More »

2015 Nobel Prize winner, Arthur B. McDonald will give the 40th Van Vleck public lecture "A Deeper Understanding of the Universe from 1.4 miles Underground" at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 20 in Ted Mann Concert Hall. He will also give the School of Physics and Astronomy Colloquium "Neutrino and Dark Matter Experiments at SNOLAB" at 3:35 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19 in Moos 2-650. Both events are free and open to the public. More »