General News

Al Nier's family, friends and colleagues unveiled a plaque on October 24, 2012 which designated Tate Laboratory as a historic site for Physics. The plaque, provided by the American Physical Society, cited the pioneering work of the late Regents Professor Alfred O. C. Nier and his colleagues in the development and application of mass spectrometry, including the first-ever separation of the Uranium-235 isotope. Nier's children, Janet Marx and Keith Nier, unveiled the plaque and shared reminiscences about their father. More »

Roger Stuewer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, has been awarded the 2013 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics. The prize was established by the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics to recognize and encourage outstanding contributions to the history of physics and is widely seen as the highest honor one can receive for work in the history of physics. More »

For more than two decades, physicists have been preparing a search for the Higgs boson—the theoretical particle that provides mass to the basic building blocks of matter and the last missing ingredient of the Standard Model of particle physics. Discovery of the Higgs boson could help scientists answer questions surrounding what the Universe is made of, what forces act within it and what gives matter substance. More »

Professor Lucy Fortson, along with Nita Krevans, a professor in the Department of Classical and Near-Eastern Studies are the subject of a feature article in the current CLA Reach Magazine on the Ancient Lives project which uses citizen science to help decipher ancient manuscripts.

Professor Roger Rusack of the School of Physics and Astronomy was featured in an article in the Star Tribune about the Minnesota contributions to the effort to find the Higgs Boson.

Professor Jim Kakalios will be featured on the National Public Radio Program, Talk of the Nation Science Friday, on June 29th. Kakalios will discuss his role as adviser on the upcoming movie, The Amazing Spiderman. The program can be heard at 1:00 p.m., on KNOW, St. Paul. Kakalios stars in a University-produced video that explains the science behind the decay rate algorithm, a formula he invented for the film.

The 2012 Graduate Fellowship recipients are as follows: Tianran Chen, Anatoly Larkin Fellowship; Lee Wienkes and Meng-ru Wu recieved The Aneesur Rahman Award; Michael Schecter, Robert O. Pepin Fellowship; Yeonbae Lee, Hoff Lu Fellowship and Barun Dhar, Alex Ditter, Allison Kennedy, Ryo Namba, JJ Nelson, Ilana Percher and Zvie Razieli received Outstanding TA Awards. More »

The 2012 Undergraduate Scholarship recipients are as follows: Robin Heinonen, Alfred O.C. Nier Scholarsip; Noah Rebesch, Harry and Viola St. Cyr Scholarship; Andrew Emerick, J. Morris Blair Scholarship; Chelsey Dorow, Jeffrey Basford Scholarship; Charles Brown, Erwin Marquit and Doris Grieser Marquit Undergraduate Scholarship; Mitchell Ambrose, Brandon Bergerud, Anthony Kremin, Jonathan Morris, Joseph Redford and Nicholas Smith received the Edmond G. Franklin Scholarship; Jimmy Chen, Grant Remmen, Hagstrum Award.

On April 27, more than 250 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the NOvA far detector facility near the Ash River in northern Minnesota. On hand were Eric Kaler, President of the University of Minnesota, Pier Oddone, Director of Fermilab, Mos Kaveh, Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota and Marvin L. Marshak, Director of the NOvA Ash River Laboratory. The 45 million dollar facility will be home to The NOvA far detector, which when complete, will be the largest plastic structure in the world. More »

Global energy needs are a major concern for our future. World-renowned MIT Professor Mildred Dresselhaus offers hope for the world energy outlook in her lecture “The Promise of Nanomaterials for Thermoelectric Applications” at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 26 at the Tate Laboratory of Physics, Room 150, The lecture is part of the annual Van Vleck Lecture Series. The lecture is free and open to the public. It will also be streamed live. More »