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February 17, 2021
Early in life, we start to learn the rules of this world. We memorize simple lessons — like “what goes up, must come down” — that help us begin to make sense of our world. In time, we’re no longer surprised that rain is wet, food can spoil or the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
But more than a century ago, scientists started to learn that all of those rules, patterns and lessons lie on a foundation that, to us, might seem filled with contradictions, confusion and chance. That... Read more
January 25, 2021
Among the vast number of possible nuclear isotopes, very few are stable. Stray above a certain mass number—by adding neutrons to an element in the Periodic Table—and eventually the corresponding nucleus can’t exist because it leaks nucleons. The neutron “dripline” that defines this limit of existence has been discovered experimentally for elements up to neon (see Viewpoint: Reaching the... Read more
January 4, 2021
Six UW Clean Energy Institute (CEI) researchers are among the most influential in the world, according to the annual Highly Cited Researchers list published by the Web of Science Group. UW professors Guozhong Cao, David Cobden, Jun Liu, and Xiaodong Xu; UW professor emeritus... Read more
September 25, 2020
When a new and deadly coronavirus began to sweep across the world earlier this year, researchers from the UW’s Department of Physics, the University of Hong Kong and other institutions quickly assembled a team to learn how B cells — a central player in adaptive immunity — were engaging this enemy.
With about 10 billion B cells circulating in the human body at any given time constantly searching for invaders, that’s no easy task, said the UW’s Zach Montague, one of the team’s principal... Read more
Three UW Physics professors are the recipients of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
September 10, 2020
Three UW Physics professors are the recipients of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics: Emeritus Professor Eric Adelberger, Professor Jens Gundlach, and Professor (and former Chair) Blayne Heckel. They are joined by UW Professor of Biochemistry, David Baker, who was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in life sciences. The Breakthrough Prizes, together with Nobels, are the most prestigious prizes in science. These $3 million prizes have been awarded annually since 2013 by the... Read more
September 1, 2020
UW News has posted a story about a $3 million grant to the UW to establish a NSF Research Traineeship at the University of Washington for graduate students in quantum information science and technology. The new traineeship — known as Accelerating Quantum-Enabled Technologies, or AQET — will make the UW one of just “a handful” of universities with a formal, interdisciplinary curriculum in this field. AQET students can come from doctoral programs in the Department of Chemistry, the Department of... Read more
July 16, 2020
Emeritus Professor Lillian C. McDermott passed away on July 8, 2020.
Lillian was a pioneer in the field of physics education research. A graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University, she joined the University of Washington in 1967 and retired in 2019. She was a fellow of the APS, AAAS, and AAPT, recipient of the AAPT Oersted medal, and the ICPE Medal presented by the International Commission on Education of IUPAP. She was the lead author of Physics by Inquiry and Tutorials in... Read more
July 10, 2020
Matthew Yankowitz, an assistant professor in the departments of MSE and physics, has received the Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award from the Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory. The objective of YIP is to encourage and support young university faculty in research areas relevant to the Army. YIP awards are one of the most prestigious honors bestowed by the Army to outstanding scientists beginning their... Read more
July 9, 2020
In this and a companion paper, Larry McLerran and Raju Venugopalan proposed a classical model for the scattering of large nuclei at high energies. They argued that the color charges of the... Read more
June 17, 2020
When Zakkir Rahman arrived at the UW as a freshman, he discovered that undergraduates must fulfill general education requirements, including courses in the visual, literary & performing arts (VLPA). As a STEM student set on studying astronomy, he was annoyed. What did the arts have to do with him?Everything, as it turns out. This month Rahman graduates with majors in astronomy and physics — and dance.
Read more at... Read more