Recent News

Shoshana Apple looking at laptop in a lab
In this edition of spotlight on graduate student research we showcase four students working at CENPA, our Center for Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. CENPA is a laboratory with a broad range of experiments, with a common thread of precision measurements in search for physics beyond the standard model.  Shoshana Apple is a member of…
Marilena Loverde with child on waterfront
In this edition of the Physics Observer, we celebrate three faculty members who were promoted to Full Professorship in Fall 25. Neutrinos, Geometry, and the Hidden Physics of the Universe Marilena Loverde is a theoretical cosmologist whose recent research focuses on understanding the fundamental physics of the Universe via…
Claire Atkinson on waterfront
Claire Atkinson is a senior at UW double majoring in Comprehensive Physics and Applied and Computational Mathematical Sciences. In her time at UW, she has been able to establish a strong physics foundation, from Taylor expansions to spin-orbit coupling. Her favorite class so far has been the Optics Advanced Laboratory, where table-top experiments enabled her to draw connections between…
Does knockout-depletion work as designed? Exp
As far as research subjects go, it’s not always easy to find common ground with a single-celled bacterium. Yet the more Paul Wiggins studies his model bacteria, Acinetobacter baylyi, the more he sees surprising commonalities between their behavior and our own as humans.Scientists in Wiggins’ lab use experiments and modeling to understand the global principles that govern gene expression…
Muon g-2 doubles down with latest measurement, explores uncharted territory in search of new physics
Congratulations to Profs. David Hertzog, Peter Kammel, Alejandro Garcia, and the entire UW Physics Muon g-2 team for receiving the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, recognizing their experimental work on precisely measuring the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, which tests the standard model of particle physics. The Breakthrough Prizes are sometimes called the Oscars of Science…
Masha Baryakhtar Photo
Congratulations to Masha Baryakhtar for being awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. This is a very prestigious honor awarded to only 126 early-career scholars this year across the US and Canada.2026 Sloan FellowsRead more at UW News
TIQM Winter Workshop 2026
The Thouless Institute Quantum Matter (TIQM) will hold its Winter 2026 Workshop on January 15-17 on the topic of Recent Advances in Open Quantum Systems. See the workshop web page for details and registration information. 
Gustavo Joaquin Turiaci Portrait
Congratulations to Professor Joaquin Turiaci for winning a 2025 Early Career Award from the Department of Energy. The award will support his work on Advancing the Gravitational Path Integral to Probe Quantum Spacetime. The abstract of the project follows.The unification of quantum mechanics with special relativity led to the development of quantum field theory. This had a profound impact on…
David Kaplan wins the Tomassoni Chisesi Prize in Physics
Professor David Kaplan was awarded the Caterina Tomassoni and Felice Pietro Chisesi Prize in Physics. Professor Kaplan is recognized for introducing the domain wall method for simulating chiral fermions on the lattice and for seminal work on other strongly interacting systems.
Martin Savage Photo
Congratulations to Professor Martin Savage for winning the 2026 Herman Feshbach Prize in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from the American Physical Society for “For pioneering contributions to computational quantum chromodynamics for nuclear physics, especially through large-scale lattice quantum chromodynamics simulations, and for exploring applications of quantum computing.”Martin feels…