cleaned " texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology outreach at the¬†2023 physics and engineering festival set for saturday april¬†1 from 10 am to 4:30 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus as in years past no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event (view promotional poster online) which will feature hands-on demonstrations keynote talks and a legendary texas-sized five-barrel depth charge as well as special events and bonuses activities will begin and end with endowed public lectures by two best-selling authors and feature a host of interactive immersive opportunities in between participants are encouraged to pay close attention to the¬†days tentative schedule given that some events are exclusively in-person while others also will be offered via livestream the 2023 festival kicks off at 10 am with guggenheim fellow popular science writer and best-selling author¬†richard panek who will present the james g potter lecture ¬†the trouble with gravity in the steven w hawking auditorium within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy panek will discuss his latest book ¬†the trouble with gravity: solving the mystery beneath our feet and what he learned about the role gravity plays in how we think about our place in the universe during his writing process from 10:30 am to 3 pm festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists while taking in a bevy of fun¬†experiments and displays¬†illustrating hands-on science and basic technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic performances of the science circus (11 am 12:30 pm 2 pm) by physics showman rhys thomas who teaches newtonian physics through a rare blend of science comedy and circus arts in a performance often compared to a pixar movie all performances will take place in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building at 11:30 am nasa astronaut and texas a&m engineer bonnie dunbar¬†will present thinking outside the sphere: exploring space in hawking auditorium¬†dunbar a professor of aerospace engineering and holder of the john and bea slattery chair at texas a&m is a member of the national academy of engineering and a 27-year veteran of nasa where she served as a flight controller and a mission specialist flying on five space shuttle missions and logging more than 50 days in space prior to joining nasa she worked for the rockwell international space division company building the space shuttle columbia in the 1970s other special events on tap include five performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza (10:45 am 11:30 am 12:15 pm 1 pm 1:45 pm) as well as the traditional grand finale of the days events portion the popular larger-than-life¬†five-barrel depth charge¬†featuring 1 000 plastic balls set for 3 pm on the south side the mitchell physics building at 3:30 pm university of washington astronomer and award-winning astrophysicist emily levesque will present the mitchell lecture the last stargazers: true stories and adventures in astronomy ¬†in the mitchell physics building primary lecture hall in the process of discussing her critically acclaimed book the last stargazers levesque will explore some of todays most exciting astronomical discoveries while offering personal insight into some of the challenges astronomers face including erupting volcanoes marauding squirrels and wild bears loose in the observatory oh my! in their ever-changing quest to study the stars in order to address some of humanitys oldest questions about our universe and our place within it all events are presented by the¬†texas a&m department physics and astronomy¬†in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of¬†aerospace engineering ¬†atmospheric sciences ¬†biology ¬†chemistry¬†and¬†mathematics the 2023 festival is sponsored by¬†halliburton marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 nancy and robert l dunham 63 ¬†innolight technology usa inc col hal schade 67 ¬†the¬†college of arts and sciences the¬†department of physics and astronomy¬†and the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy for the latest details regarding the 2023 physics and engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit¬†https://physicsfestivaltamuedu this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor and regents professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2023 fellow of¬†the¬†american astronomical society (aas) ¬†the major organization of professional astronomers astronomy educators and amateur astronomers in north america the aas fellows program was created in 2019 to recognize original research and publications innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation significant contributions to education and public outreach and noteworthy service to¬†astronomy and the society itself suntzeff an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is one of 22 aas members honored in 2023 for enhancing and sharing humanitys scientific understanding of the universe through personal achievement and extraordinary service to the astronomical sciences and to the aas each will receive a certificate and a lapel pin it is a joy to celebrate the dedication and accomplishments of these extraordinary members of our community said aas president kelsey johnson a professor in the department of astronomy at the university of virginia we are so fortunate to have colleagues and role models who have invested so deeply in moving astrophysics forward suntzeff is cited for his transformational leadership in the foundation of supernova cosmology the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe and precision measurements of the hubble‚Äìlema√Ætre flow; for his service to the national and international astronomical communities; for considerable efforts on behalf of human rights especially the lgbtq community both within astronomy and globally; and for establishing the astronomy program at texas a&m university suntzeff joined the¬†department of physics and astronomy¬†in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields in 2017 he was named a regents professor by the texas a&m university system a perpetual title celebrating employees who¬†have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of texas this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " in june erukhimova was appointed as the inaugural holder of the¬†marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair for physics outreach established in november 2021 by the schillings due in large part to their admiration for erukhimova and her devotion to physics education and outreach with their second chair created within texas a&m physics and astronomy the couple wanted to support erukhimovas efforts to encourage interest in the same type of stem careers that ralph schilling himself forged 34 years creating and constructing space systems from technical contributions to two of nasas great observatories to its most recent crown jewel the james webb space telescope while erukhimova acknowledges that being an ambassador for science and texas a&m created some degree of pressure she describes it as a privilege to work with such a professional jhud team and wonderful host in hudson ultimately she sums up her recent hollywood experience as somewhat overwhelming but highly rewarding i made some nontrivial requests such as finding me liquid nitrogen and creating a big mess on a beautifully arranged show stage she added the team helped in every step and made it all happen in addition to a signature texas a&m experiment featuring a big cloud the one that created the aforementioned big mess erukhimova says she and hudson paired up to showcase potato physics experiments carbon dioxide bubbles and the bike wheel gyroscope the audience was warm and responsive although physics is certainly not something that you encounter in such shows often erukhimova said they really enjoyed the experiments and were very enthusiastic it was effortless to connect with them it showed me what i already knew from our previous outreach projects: people will respond wonderfully and enthusiastically to science if you have the right tools and find the right way to explain even complicated concepts looking back it was a one-of-a-kind unforgettable experience see a related recap meet texas a&m physics professor dr tatiana erukhimova from¬†the jhud show this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " this is literally center of the sun kinds of extremes zika said this is a remarkable facility a global gem zika was adams first phd student starting in january of 1993 originally from ohio he earned his bachelors and masters degrees in nuclear engineering from purdue university adams had just joined the faculty after more than five years at llnl as a computational physicist i went to texas a&m because of marv adams zika said he had been doing just what i wanted to do and what i have done in my career he was and is a fantastic mentor and friend following the dec 5 breakthrough test results were reviewed for several days internally and by an independent outside panel of experts to ensure they were accurate before they were announced to the world humbird and her teammates waited anxiously it was surreal she said by telephone from the lab after it happened our team was thrilled we were exchanging emails and plotting preliminary data onto our expectations the figures we sent around everything just kind of lined up then it started to sink after a couple days this looks like its going to be a really really big result humbird 31 joined llnl in 2017 as a student researcher and completed her phd research at the lab she also has bachelors and masters degrees in nuclear engineering from texas a&m i got a fantastic education she said i was so well-prepared with physics and engineering understanding when i got here it really kind of surprised me my favorite part of that university was the relationships that i got to build with my professors they were never too busy for you humbird took classes from adams who served on her phd committee and now reviews her work at llnl it is kind of a joke we share because he was my professor he graded my exams he graded my phd and hell just be reviewing me for the rest of my career she said it was cool to see him up on the stage this week and to know how many students that hes impacted inspired and set on career paths this story was originally published by¬†texas a&m today share: " " a texas a&m university-led consortium¬†has been awarded¬†a five-year $25 million grant from the¬†us department of energy (doe)¬†to support a new topical theory collaboration tasked with developing a theoretical framework for describing the behavior of some of the heaviest particles within a unique form of matter that characterized our universe in its earliest stages for more than two decades texas a&m physicist ralf rapp has been making essential contributions in multiple areas of quantum chromodynamics (qcd) a theory of the strong force that describes how nuclear matter including a novel form known as quark gluon plasma (qgp) interacts within this extremely hot phase of matter protons and neutrons are dissolved into their elementary building blocks quarks and gluons credited with creating more than 98% of the visible mass in the universe at more than 100 million times the suns surface temperature the qgp is believed not only to have filled the early universe during the first few microseconds after the big bang but also to be present today in the cores of neutron stars rapp now will serve as principal investigator for the heavy-flavor theory (hefty) for qcd matter collaboration one of five topical theory collaboration projects unveiled last week by the doe office of science as part of an $1124 million initiative intended to bring together leading us nuclear theorists to collaboratively focus on solving some of the most challenging problems in nuclear physics in addition to rapp hefty features 11 co-investigators from nine other institutions: brookhaven national laboratory duke university florida state university kent state university lawrence berkeley national laboratory ¬†lawrence livermore national laboratory ¬†los alamos national laboratory massachusetts institute of technology and thomas jefferson national accelerator facility advances in nuclear physics provide important new insights into the nature of our world as well as novel applications in the areas of national security energy health and space exploration said timothy hallman associate director of science for nuclear physics developing rigorous theoretical frameworks to underpin such advances enables new predictions of nuclear phenomena and a foundation for understanding how knowledge gained can be used to benefit society such as exploring more clean energy options and new applications in nuclear medicine and industry rapp a university professor in the¬†texas a&m department of physics and astronomy¬†and a member of the¬†cyclotron institute¬†since 2003 is an internationally recognized leader in high energy nuclear physics¬†he and his research group conduct theoretical studies of matter as it existed in the earliest moments of our universe and how it interacts at high temperatures and densities based on the fundamental forces and properties of the strongly interacting matter that is formed in heavy-ion collisions without a doubt dr rapp is a world-renowned leader in the field of theoretical analysis of quark gluon plasma said grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy this is a major success for our nuclear theory program which highlights again the leading role of our faculty on the national and international stage this story texas a&m to lead $25 million doe topical theory collaboration exploring heavy flavor particles was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " olga kocharovskaya distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive¬†the american physical societys 2023¬†norman f ramsey prize in atomic molecular and optical physics and in precision tests of fundamental laws and symmetries established in 2017 and named for 1989 nobel prize in physics recipient norman foster ramsey the ramsey prize is awarded annually¬†to recognize outstanding work in precision measurements of fundamental constants and tests of fundamental laws and symmetries or in atomic molecular and optical physics kocharovskaya who is recognized as one of the top quantum optics and laser physics researchers worldwide joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 1998 after 12 years as the leading research scientist at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences she was appointed as a distinguished professor in 2007 and is a¬†member of the¬†institute for quantum science and engineering kocharovskaya is cited by the ramsey prize selection committee for pioneering work in quantum coherence and x-ray quantum optics she will be presented with her $10 000 check and accompanying certificate at the¬†54th annual meeting of the aps division of atomic molecular and optical physics (damop) set for june 5-9 in spokane washington kocharovskaya received her phd from the nn lobachevsky nizhny novgorod state university in russia in 1986 as well as a dr of sciences (habilitation) degree from the highest attestation commission of the russian federation in 1996¬†her research is in the areas of quantum and nonlinear optics laser physics x-ray optics attosecond physics and quantum information science throughout her career kocharovskaya has made major contributions to the rapidly developing field of atomic coherence phenomena including pioneering works on lasing without inversion electromagnetically induced transparency stopped light and shaping the waveforms of the single gamma photons via their resonant interaction with the nuclear ensembles she has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific papers her most recent work is focused on coherent control of the optical electronic and gamma-ray nuclear transitions in solids a fellow of both the american physical society and optica (formerly known as the optical society of america) kocharovskayas previous recognitions include the inaugural willis lamb medal for laser physics and quantum electronics the presidential award of the russian academy of sciences as the outstanding young professor of the russian federation the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research and the sigma xi distinguished scientist award¬† jointly administered by the aps topical group on precision measurement and fundamental constants and the aps damop the ramsey prize is funded by contributions from the family and friends of norman ramsey individual donations from aps members corporate sponsorship by toptica and thorlabs and additional support from menlo systems previous recipients include harvard university physicist and 1998 texas a&m physics phd graduate mikhail lukin (2022) this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " for the following nine yearsapart from a brief two-year stint as western unions marketing director for latin america and the caribbeangraham led starcoms global branding initiatives for such corporate giants as ubs merck and coca-cola he also worked two years with omnicom media group setting up an analytics team in chicago working with clients such as walgreens mcdonalds and cisco then in late 2016 amazon advertising came calling with an irresistible prospect: launch its analytics and media management team i saw a special advertising opportunity and knew that amazon had an unmatched amount of data even though i had just returned to the us and was still getting established in chicago it was just too exciting to pass up over the following five years graham built amazons agile consulting team of analysts we enhanced existing advertising products by using artificial intelligence and other advanced approaches such as natural language processingessentially building algorithms that look for anomalies in word patternsto weight text information in reviews and make them more helpful he explained the end result delighted amazon as well as advertisers and consumers this work also sharpened grahams skill set for the next challenge which oracle presented in january 2022 my time at amazon was incredibly rewarding and i absolutely loved it but my rate of learning had slowed down he said so when the oracle opportunity arose graham jumped headlong into his next adventure serving as insight team lead for moat oracles ad measurement and marketing analytics suite the aggie way these days graham is testing his mental flexibility anew seeking new ways to help advertisers work faster and smarter to achieve greater success and then scale this rapidly and he attributes his ability to pivot so effectively in no small part to his educational experiences at texas a&m i really enjoyed the diversity of courses he asserted the coupling of theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience was incredibly helpful in building my mental flexibility something that has served me well throughout my career and helped me apply the knowledge i was gaining in different and creative ways being a student at texas a&m is empowering graham insisted the school instills the idea that you can make a difference that theres a lot that you as an individual can do he also lauds the universitys commitment to quality the bar is set very high he added theres a shared determination to leave things better than you found them theres also a great tradition of teaching excellence at texas a&m graham noted adding that he was fortunate enough to learn from passionate world-class teachers like dr william bassichis and dr tom adair 57 in physics dr robert popp in geology dr terry spencer in geophysics dr william pride in marketing and dr philip yasskin and dr francis narcowich in mathematics among others and then theres the incomparable aggie ethos he noted aggies are genuinely really friendly and welcoming and their values are first-rate you hear repeatedly that aggies should never lie cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do and thats something you integrate into your approach to life for these reasons and many more graham would like aggies to have a greater presence in the tech industry theyre currently underrepresented and i know they could do a lot for the industry he asserted he has spoken with university representatives about the burgeoning aggies in tech program in mays business school and is enthusiastic about its prospects i would love to do anything i can to advance opportunities for texas a&m graduates in the field he observed considering his achievements thus far theres little doubt that grahams passion for improvement and aggie pride will support and inspire other aggies to lead the way in the digital world this story was originally published by the texas a&m foundation this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " texas a&m scientists are using cutting-edge physics to create real-life medical breakthroughs professor of physics and biomedical engineering vladislav yakovlev phd and professor of physics and biological and agricultural engineering girish agarwal phd frs at texas a&m along with tian li phd assistant professor of physics at the university of tennessee at chattanooga recently developed a new type of microscope that takes advantage of quantum physics in order to dramatically increase the resolution of images the microscope takes the microscopy technique the texas a&m team is investigating yakovlev said relies on a process called¬†brillouin scattering where a ray of light such as a laser is beamed into the sample being imaged the lights energy causes particles in the sample to vibrate and the specific frequencies of the vibrations reveal the positions and identities of the particles once this is known scientists can produce an image of the sample they are analyzing brillouin microscopy is a very special technique which can measure the mechanical properties of materials with very good special resolution so we can see inside cells yakovlev said for example in cancer cancer cells migrating from one side of the tissue to another or to a different tissue is driven by mechanical processes so understanding these processes is important the problem yakovlev said comes from an interaction between light and living cells when imaging anything the light waves are subject to random interferences from the environment that cause the pictures to be blurrier when it comes to brillouin microscopy which involves shining an intense light beam on a tiny sample these typically small interferences can render images completely useless to produce clearer images the scientists want to use more powerful light beams to drown out the environmental noise however if the light beams are too powerful scientists can risk damaging or killing cells when imaging them when we image cells we run into the problem where if we want to get more [clarity] we have to increase our lights intensity yakovlev said however if we increase the intensity past a certain point we start causing damage it seems like you cant get both [image clarity and undamaged cells] at the same time just because you want to increase intensity to reduce your noise but on the other hand if you increase intensity you damage your cells in order to solve this yakovlev said his team has built a device that takes advantage of a physical phenomenon known as entanglement in the minuscule world of quantum physics a group of particles in this case light waves can be generated in a manner so they effectively act as a single entity and actions that affect one wave will affect the others entanglement forms the basis for many cutting-edge technologies such as¬†quantum computing and may be the¬†key to birds ability to circumnavigate the globe a phenomenon noted by m suhail zubairy phd distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m in his book quantum mechanics for beginners [a] highly counterintuitive feature of quantum mechanics is that two or more objects can form an ‚Äòentangled state zubairy writes [intuitively] if we have two objects such as two balls that are placed a large distance apart they are strictly independent of each other no matter what we do to one it cannot influence the other quantum mechanically we can form states for the two objects such that even when the two objects are very far from each other what we do to one object can influence the state of the other for yakovlev and his team its application lies in removing noise from microscopy images yakovlev said the new device his team has developed creates two entangled beams of light when interference affects one wave the effects are reflected in the entangled wave as well the device compares the two waves and finds extraneous interference patterns by analyzing the similarities in the waves once this is known the device removes the interference from both waves resulting in an image that is significantly clearer than an image produced by standard brillouin microscopy we are essentially making clever manipulation of light beams so we know that theres noise present in both beams and we know that these noises correlate yakovlev said we know both these laser beams are entangled and so we know that the noise is going to be the same for both of them so we can just find out the similarities and subtract them and thats how we make that clear image at the end li at the time a graduate student at the university of maryland was hired by texas a&m to build the laboratory for the device li said the device has successfully created microscopic images of several biological samples while also measuring their composition the whole lab was built from the ground up li said the lab is relatively new but we have the capability of generating quantum entangled light [for the device] we have already [imaged] cancer cells weve also tried the brain of the fruit fly¬† marlan scully phd distinguished professor of physics and director of the institute for quantum science and engineering at texas a&m sponsored the research and provided the laboratory space scully said learning more about the applications and interactions between quantum physics and biology is a high priority for texas a&m combining what we know now about quantum mechanics and biology we come to a new field called quantum biology scully said thats the essence of what people like agarwal and yakovlev are trying to understand its a big function of my lab at [the institute for quantum science and engineering] in a¬†press release published by texas a&ms college of engineering agarwal said the new device represented a breakthrough for medical imaging technology as well as the growing development of real-world applications for quantum physics its a new milestone in the capabilities of brillouin microscopy and imaging extensively used for biosystems agarwal said in the release it becomes part of an international effort to develop quantum sensors for diverse applications like brain imaging [and] biomolecule structure mapping this story was originally published by¬†the battalion this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " this summer texas a&m university faculty in the departments of english history and physics and astronomy began working with faculty at rice university and the university of texas at austin to develop deploy and scale high-quality introductory college course materials that incorporate innovative instructional design current insights from the science of learning and development open educational resources and a commitment to ongoing research and improvement the collaborative effort is part of the texas higher education coordinating boards (thecb) digital design for student success (d2s2) project together faculty across disciplines in the college of arts and sciences are leading the way in improving student success in classrooms across the state and beyond the center for teaching excellence (cte) is coordinating d2s2 group efforts on behalf of texas a&m debra fowler ctes executive director and samantha shields a cte instructional consultant shared that the thecb launched the d2s2 project in response to the pandemic causing education across the world to shift to digital learning platforms ¬† a monumental change illuminating the need to invest in accelerating the pace of innovation in digital learning especially in terms of improving student success by incorporating advanced curriculum design¬† to help educators bridge this gap college of arts and sciences faculty are working with each other and in collaboration with their rice and ut colleagues to develop and share open-educational resources for a variety of the arts and sciences introductory level higher education courses as a public land-grant institution it is our responsibility to offer instruction to members of the state fowler said this initiative allows us to broaden our contribution to shared courses and materials even more to meet the higher educational needs of the state shields explained the charge as part of the d2s2 collaboration is to create course-specific open-access instructional content and associated training materials texas a&m chose introductory english history and physics courses because they serve significant numbers of students statewide and beyond all resulting materials will be housed within the thecbs oertx an open-education resources library for use by any interested instructor the materials are being developed by disciplinary experts with proven records for pedagogical innovation and focus on student success shields said the oertx repository allows for these quality instructional resources and training materials to be easily accessed and adopted by instructors who may not have the instructional background and/or disciplinary expertise or are just looking for some innovative ways to teach their course terri pantuso instructional assistant professor of english is leading the charge in texas a&ms development of english materials for the d2s2 project¬† this is something that has always been near and dear to my heart pantuso explained as a former dual-credit teacher i know how difficult it can be for instructors to find quality rigorous materials that are free and openly licensed so on a personal level i feel this is how i am giving back to the profession as an aggie [1990 texas a&m political science graduate] and faculty member i believe this is important because it aligns with our mission and core values focused on service to the community jessica ray herzogenrath instructional assistant professor of history who is leading d2s2 project efforts in history with assistance from professor of history and melbern g glasscock center for humanities research interim director troy bickham pointed out that texas a&m is the only institution in the collaboration developing history materials instructors have a lot on their plates and there often is not time for the development of high-quality course resources herzogenrath added i envision my teams contributions to d2s2 as offering a space where they may find high-quality course materials built with active learning in mind to promote greater engagement and ideally interest from students tatiana erukhimova instructional professor of physics is overseeing texas a&ms efforts to develop the d2s2 projects introductory physics course an offering she describes as critical to establishing the foundation for stem majors research shows that student success in this course often is the determining factor in acceptance into their major of choice in addition to their decision to continue with a stem career and on-time graduation the challenges that students face when they take calculus-based introductory physics classes often include their inadequate level of math preparation and study habits lack of sense of belonging to the chosen major and a fixed mindset or belief that their intelligence is fixed and they will fail a challenging course said erukhimova a 2017 texas a&m presidential professor for teaching excellence and 2021-2024 eppright professor in undergraduate teaching excellence moreover the students who face these challenges are often those who must work to support themselves while attending college and may be unable to take advantage of in-person help provided by instructors due to limited time and schedule conflicts erukhimova notes that students are not the only ones who face challenges in the introductory courses included within the d2s2 initiative on the instructors side an obvious challenge is keeping high standards in these foundational courses for all groups of students she explained our work within the d2s2 initiative provides a path to improving outcomes in these courses through creation of open-access resources to enhance student self-learning outside the classroom the d2s2 project is supported by the governors emergency educational relief fund through formula funding allocated to the thecb to improve the quality of digital learning across the state the initiative aims to improve teaching and learning for all by improving instructional materials available to instructors teaching the foundational courses for high demand majors in the job market one of the greatest improvements this project affords us is the ability to make courses more accessible herzogenrath said i now have the funds to have the recorded lectures closed-captioned in accordance with best practices for accessibility for example additionally due to the support from the thecb infrastructure we are able to expand the access of these materials for instructors and students throughout the state¬† the d2s2 projects cross-departmental faculty collaboration in the college of arts and sciences is an early example of the educational influence faculty in the new college are uniquely empowered to make in the world working collaboratively on this project excites me for the future possibilities in our new college pantuso said i think this shows that the college of arts and sciences is a leader in developing open content and teaching materials to create an equitable learning experience for anyone regardless of where they might be enrolled learn more about the d2s2 project or world-class academic programs in the texas a&m college of arts and sciences this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " while observing a newly-dormant galaxy using the atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) and the hubble space telescope (hst) scientists including texas a&m university astronomer justin spilker discovered that the galaxy had stopped forming stars not because it had used up all of its gas but because most of its star-forming fuel had been thrown out of the system as it merged with another galaxy the result published today (aug 30) in the astrophysical journal letters is a first for alma scientists and if proven common could change the way they think about galaxy mergers and deaths as galaxies move through the universe they sometimes encounter other galaxies as they interact each galaxys gravity pulls on the other the ensuing tug-of-war flings gas and stars away from the galaxies leaving behind streams of material known as tidal tails and thats just what scientists believe happened to sdss j1448+1010 but with a plot twist the massive galaxy which was born when the universe was about half its current age has nearly completed merging with another galaxy during observations with the hst and alma an international collaboration in which the us national science foundations¬†national radio astronomy observatory (nrao) is a partner scientists discovered tidal tails containing roughly half of the entire systems cold star-forming gas the discovery of the forcefully discarded material equal to 10 billion times the mass of earths sun was an indication that the merger may be responsible for snuffing out star formation and thats something scientists didnt expect what initially made this massive galaxy interesting was that for some reason it suddenly stopped forming stars about 70 million years ago immediately following a burst of star-forming activity said spilker lead author of the teams paper and an assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as well as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics an astronomy most galaxies are happy to just keep forming stars our observations with alma and hubble proved that the real reason the galaxy stopped forming stars is that the merger process ejected about half the gas fuel for star formation into intergalactic space with no fuel the galaxy couldnt keep forming stars the discovery is shedding light on the processes by which galaxies live or die and helping scientists to better understand their evolution when we look out at the universe we see some galaxies that are actively forming new stars like our own milky way and some that arent but those ‚Äòdead galaxies have many old stars in them so they must have formed all of those stars at some point and then stopped making new ones said wren suess a cosmology fellow at the university of california santa cruz and a co-author of the paper we still dont yet understand all of the processes that make galaxies stop forming stars but this discovery shows just how powerful these major galaxy mergers are and how much they can affect how a galaxy grows and changes over time because the new result is from a single observation it is currently unclear just how common this tug-of-war and its resultant quiescence may be however the discovery challenges long-held theories about exactly how star formation stops and galaxies die and has provided scientists with an exciting new challenge: to find more examples while its pretty clear from this system that cold gas really can end up way outside of a merger system that shuts off a galaxy the sample size of one galaxy tells us very little about how common this process is said david setton a graduate student in the university of pittsburg department of physics and astronomy and a co-author of the paper but there are many galaxies out there like j1448+1010 that were able to catch right in the middle of those crashes and study exactly what happens to them when they go through that stage the ejection of cold gas is an exciting new piece of the quiescence puzzle and were excited to try to find more examples of this spilker notes a mystery that began with alma and was made obvious by hubble makes for one intriguing prospect for future study astronomers used to think that the only way to make galaxies stop forming stars was through really violent fast processes like a bunch of supernovae exploding in the galaxy to blow most of the gas out of the galaxy and heat up the rest spilker said our new observations show that it doesnt take a ‚Äòflashy process to cut off star formation the much slower merging process can also put an end to star formation and galaxies ive looked at a lot of images from alma in my career but i had never seen anything like this before this was a totally unexpected discovery and the combination of alma and hubble was absolutely critical without alma we wouldnt have realized that this galaxy was special in any way and without hubble we wouldnt have realized that we were looking at a recent merger between galaxies the teams paper star formation suppression by tidal removal of cold molecular gas from an intermediate-redshift massive post-starburst galaxy can be¬†viewed online¬†along with related figures and captions to learn more about spilker and his research visit https://justinspilkercom/ # # # # # # # # # # about nrao:¬† the national radio astronomy observatory (nrao) is a facility of the national science foundation operated under cooperative agreement by associated universities inc ¬†about alma:¬† the atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) an international astronomy facility is a partnership of the european organization for astronomical research in the southern hemisphere (eso) the us national science foundation (nsf) and the national institutes of natural sciences (nins) of japan in cooperation with the republic of chile alma is funded by eso on behalf of its member states by nsf in cooperation with the national research council of canada (nrc) and the ministry of science and technology (most) and by nins in cooperation with the academia sinica (as) in taiwan and the korea astronomy and space science institute (kasi) alma construction and operations are led by eso on behalf of its member states; by the national radio astronomy observatory (nrao) managed by associated universities inc (aui) on behalf of north america; and by the national astronomical observatory of japan (naoj) on behalf of east asia the joint alma observatory (jao) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction commissioning and operation of alma about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $113 billion in fiscal year 2020 and ranked 14th in the national science foundations higher education research and development survey texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " belyanin a theoretical physicist and mitchell institute member joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty in 2003 and is world renowned for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields spanning semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics in addition to serving as associate head for undergraduate programs in the department he is faculty advisor for the texas a&m chapter of the society of physics students belyanin received his phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1995 and held research positions at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences and at texas a&m prior to joining the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty he was granted early tenure in spring 2007 belyanins research group specializes in the optics of semiconductors nanostructures and topological materials he has led texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums for more than a decade he is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding a fellow of the american physical society (2012) the international society for optics and photonics (2015) and the optical society (2019) belyanin previously has been recognized with an nsf career award (2006) the joann treat research excellence award (2007) and lectureships at both lund university (2011) and the university of jena abbe school of photonics (2011) beyond his research contributions and honors belyanin has developed a new graduate course at texas a&m and taught several service courses in addition to co-founding and co-organizing the annual mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) each summer since 2012 for physics teachers from texas high schools his extensive outreach activity during the past decade and a half includes hundreds of lectures and physics demonstrations for k-12 students school teachers and the general public burgess an internationally recognized synthetic organic chemist joined the texas a&m chemistry faculty in 1992 and previously held the rachal chair in chemistry since 2004 for more than three decades his research has been helping to make chemistry more efficient for industries at the intersection of medicinal research and pharmacology thanks to his expertise in designing compounds to disrupt protein-protein interactions impacting a host of diseases including cancer diabetes and neurological disorders in addition to new fluorescent dyes to monitor these disruptions burgess has developed a computational approach to aid in the process of finding small molecules capable of causing these disruptions resulting in new possibilities in medicine as well as fundamental research burgess earned his phd in chemistry in 1980 from the university of cambridge where he also was a research fellow and completed postdoctoral research at the university of wisconsin prior to beginning his independent academic career as an assistant professor at rice university in 1984 a fellow of the royal society of chemistry (2013) burgess many career honors include a fulbright scholar award (2021) a humboldt research fellowship (2016) the royal societys pedler award (2013) a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research (2010) a novartis international lectureship (2002-2003) an alfred p sloan research fellowship (1993-1995) and a national institutes of health (nih) research career development award (1992-1997) he also has extensive experience as an expert witness on a variety of topics ranging from patent processes for drug manufacturing to dna sequencing methodologies for fluorescent dyes erukhimova a 2017 texas a&m presidential professor for teaching excellence and 2021-2024 eppright professor in undergraduate teaching excellence joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy in 2006 where she is an instructional professor and also serves as outreach coordinator for the past decade and a half she has excelled in teaching large introductory physics classes combining high expectations with devoted support to transform the relationship her students have with physics she is also known for involving undergraduate and graduate students in physics education research erukhimovas passion for inspiring learning through science has motivated the creation of several innovative programs at texas a&m that integrate education with science outreach and community service including deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) the¬†texas a&m physics show ¬†just add science¬†and¬†real physics live* since 2007 she has coordinated the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival that attracts several thousand visitors to campus each spring in addition she is a co-organizer along with belyanin of the annual mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) erukhimova earned her phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1999 and served four years as an assistant research scientist in the texas a&m department of atmospheric sciences (2002-2006) prior to joining the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty she is a co-author along with texas a&m distinguished professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences gerald r north of the textbook atmospheric thermodynamics published by cambridge university press (2009) erukhimovas career honors include the provost academic professional track faculty teaching excellence award (2021) a fish camp namesake (2019) texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement awards for teaching (2012) as well as extension and outreach (2019) the sigma xi outstanding science communicator award (2014) and the john e trott jr award in student recruiting (2013) a fellow of the american physical society (2019) she also served as chair of the american association of physics teachers committee on science education for the public in 2020 marshall whose expertise spans the gamut of astrophysics astronomical instrumentation and data science joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty in 2010 as a research scientist and manager of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory a member of the mitchell institute she earned promotion to assistant professor in 2015 and associate professor in 2021 she also has served as the project scientist for the maunakea spectroscopic explorer since 2019 marshall received her phd in astronomy from the ohio state university in 2006 and was a carnegie fellow in instrumentation at the carnegie observatories before coming to texas a&m beyond an impressive record of scientific discoveries she is well known for her work on astronomical instrumentation and development of astrophysical surveys that have pioneered new disciplinary frontiers from exoplanets and galaxy formation to stellar kinematics and chemical abundances marshall led texas a&ms involvement in the dark energy survey producing the calibration systems that enabled the unprecedentedly precise photometric measurements produced by the survey and also in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) building the¬†visible integral-field replicable unit spectrograph (virus) in addition she is the instrument scientist and co-principal investigator for gmacs the wide field multi-object spectrograph that will be a first-light instrument for the¬†giant magellan telescope in which texas a&m is a founding partner she also is an external collaborator in the sloan digital sky survey (sdss) and a member of the vera c rubin observatorys upcoming 10-year legacy survey of space and time (lsst) to date marshalls efforts in teaching science outreach and student mentoring have been recognized with the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement college-level award in teaching (2019) college of science research mentoring (2017) and leadership in equity and diversity (lead) awards (2016) the montague-center for teaching excellence scholar award (2015) and the ethel ashworth-tsutsui memorial award for mentoring (2011) she is a member of the american physical society the american astronomical society and the society for photo-optical instrumentation engineers smotherman an accomplished neurobiologist who is one of the countrys leading authorities on bat behavior joined the texas a&m biology faculty in 2004 a member of both the faculty of neuroscience and the faculty of ecology and evolutionary biology he has served as chair of the texas a&m institute for neuroscience since 2017 overseeing the neuroscience phd program seminar series and professional development activities he earned his phd in physiological science from the university of california los angeles in 1998 and spent six years as a postdoctoral fellow there studying auditory physiology prior to coming to texas a&m smothermans independent research program applies numerous approaches to study the neural basis of echolocation in bats including the investigation of auditory cortex activity to understand how bats process sound and navigate this work is critical for many different concepts that are fundamental to understanding brain function such as temporal coding and spatial representation of sensory processes within the brain he studies multiple different species of bats using evolutionary approaches to understand how brain function associates with an animals natural ecology while also applying behavioral analysis to determine how its neural activity relates to its actual behavior smothermans research has been continuously funded by multiple federal agencies including the nsf nih department of energy and department of defense he currently serves as co-principal investigator for a five-year $125 nih million grant to build a comprehensive student training and research program in aimed at promoting diversity efforts across the neuroscience community and broader texas a&m campus in addition he has taught four different neuroscience courses (neurobiology neurobiology laboratory principles in neuroscience ii and neurobiology journal club) while also playing a lead role developing texas a&ms undergraduate neuroscience degree program launched in fall 2020 and currently housed in the college of arts and sciences view a complete list of endowed chairs and professorships in the college of science to learn more about endowed faculty positions and other development-related impact opportunities in the texas a&m college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/giving/ * this link is no longer active and has been removed this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " two new images from nasas james webb space telescope show what may be among the earliest galaxies ever observed both images include objects from more than 13 billion years ago and one offers a much wider field of view than¬†webbs first deep field image which was released amid great fanfare july 12 the images represent some of the first out of a major collaboration of astronomers and other academic researchers teaming with nasa and global partners to uncover new insights about the universe the team has identified one particularly exciting object dubbed maisies galaxy in honor of project head steven finkelsteins daughter that they estimate is being observed as it was just 290 million years after the big bang (astronomers refer to this as a redshift of z=14) members of the ceers collaboration explore the first wide deep field image from the james webb space telescope at the texas advanced computing centers visualization lab on the ut austin campus on july 21 2022 (credit: nolan zunk/university of texas at austin) the finding has been¬†published on the preprint server arxiv¬†and is awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed journal if the finding is confirmed it would be one of the earliest galaxies ever observed and its presence would indicate that galaxies started forming much earlier than many astronomers previously thought the unprecedentedly sharp images reveal a flurry of complex galaxies evolving over time some elegantly mature pinwheels others blobby toddlers still others gauzy swirls of do-si-doing neighbors the images which took about 24 hours to collect are from a patch of sky near the handle of the big dipper a constellation formally named ursa major this same area of sky was observed previously by the hubble space telescope as seen in the extended groth strip its amazing to see a point of light from hubble turn into a whole beautifully shaped galaxy in these new james webb images and other galaxies just pop up out of nowhere said¬†finkelstein associate professor of astronomy at the university of texas at austin and the principal investigator for the¬†cosmic evolution early release science survey¬†(ceers) from which these images were taken the ceers collaboration which includes texas a&m university astronomer casey papovich is composed of 18 co-investigators from 12 institutions and more than 100 collaborators from the us and nine other countries ceers researchers are studying how some of the earliest galaxies formed when the universe was less than 5% of its current age during a period known as reionization before the actual telescope data came in micaela bagley a postdoctoral researcher at ut austin and one of the ceers imaging leads created simulated images to help the team develop methods for processing and analyzing the new imagery bagley led a group processing the real images so the data could be analyzed by the whole team the large image (medium res/high res) is a mosaic of 690 individual frames that took about 24 hours to collect using the telescopes main imager called the near infrared camera (nircam) this new image covers an area of the sky about eight times as large as webbs first deep field image although it is not quite as deep researchers used supercomputers at the¬†texas advanced computing center¬†for the initial image processing: stampede2 was used to remove background noise and artifacts and frontera the worlds most powerful supercomputer at a us university was used to stitch together the images to form a single mosaic high-performance computing power made it possible to combine myriad images and hold the frames in memory at once for processing resulting in a single beautiful image finkelstein said dr casey papovich the other image (medium res) was taken with the mid-infrared instrument (miri) compared with nircam miri has a smaller field of view but operates at much higher spatial resolution than previous mid-infrared telescopes miri detects longer wavelengths than nircam allowing astronomers to see cosmic dust glowing from star-forming galaxies and black holes at modestly large distances and see light from older stars at very large distances the entire ceers program will involve more than 60 hours of telescope time much more imaging data will be collected in december along with spectroscopic measurements of hundreds of distant galaxies the james webb space telescope is an international program led by nasa with its partners the european space agency and the canadian space agency additional co-investigators in ceers beyond finkelstein and papovich are henry ferguson norman grogin anton koekemoer nor pirzkal and swara ravindranath of the space telescope science institute; mark dickinson of the national science foundations noirlab; andrea grazian of inaf ‚Äì osservatorio astronomico di padova; jeyhan kartaltepe of the rochester institute of technology; lisa kewley of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics; dale kocevski of colby college; jennifer lotz of the gemini observatory; laura pentericci inaf ‚Äì osservatorio astronomico di roma; pablo g p√©rez-gonz√°lez of centro de astrobiolog√≠a; rachel somerville of the flatiron institute; jonathan trump of the university of connecticut; and stephen wilkins of the university of sussex find additional information about ceers or jwst and its mission to unfold the infrared universe # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1148 billion in fiscal year 2021 texas a&m ranked 14th in the most recent national science foundations higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or¬†shutchins@sciencetamuedu¬†or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or¬†papovich@physicstamuedu the post wide view of early universe hints at galaxy among the earliest ever detected appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university and its partners in the¬†giant magellan telescope announced today (aug 2) they have secured a $205 million investment from its international consortium to accelerate construction of the most powerful telescope ever engineered featuring the worlds largest mirrors this investment marks one of the largest funding rounds for the telescope since its founding and includes leading commitments from the carnegie institution for science harvard university the s√£o paulo research foundation (fapesp) the university of texas at austin the university of arizona and the university of chicago the investment will be used to manufacture the giant 12-story telescope structure at ingersoll machine tools in illinois continue progress on the telescopes seven primary mirrors at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror lab and build one of the most advanced scientific spectrograph instruments in texas artists interior rendering of the giant magellan telescopes mount and its primary mirrors (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) we are honored to receive this investment in our future said dr robert shelton president of giant magellan telescope the funding is truly a collaborative effort from our founders it will result in the fabrication of the worlds largest mirrors the giant telescope mount that holds and aligns them and a science instrument that will allow us to study the chemical evolution of stars and planets like never before the funding comes after the national academy of sciences astro2020 decadal survey co-chaired by texas a&m astronomer dr robert c kennicutt jr evaluated the giant magellan telescope as a core partner of the united states extremely large telescope program astro2020 ranked the program a top priority and absolutely essential if the united states is to maintain a position as a leader in ground-based astronomy this new investment is a major step forward for the entire project said kennicutt a distinguished professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and executive director of the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy it brings us closer to realizing the recommendation for federal investment in the us-elt project of which the giant magellan telescope is a part as the top ground-based priority of the astro2020 decadal survey of astronomy and astrophysics the giant magellan telescope is under construction at carnegies las campanas observatory in chile and will allow astronomers to see farther into space with more detail than any other optical telescope before it will have 10 times the light-collecting area and four times the spatial resolution of james webb space telescope (jwst) and will be up to 200 times more powerful than existing research telescopes this unprecedented angular resolution combined with revolutionary spectrographs and high-contrast cameras will work in direct synergy with jwst to empower new scientific discoveries the giant magellan telescope will be the next step in studying the physics and chemistry of the faintest light sources in space that jwst will identify this includes searching the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets for life studying the first galaxies that formed in the universe and finding clues that will unravel the mysteries of dark matter dark energy black holes and the formation of the universe itself artists rendering of the giant magellan telescope reflecting the chilean sunset when completed the telescopes enclosure will stand 22 stories tall and encompass an area the size of three football fields because it will be located in one the highest and driest locations on earth the giant magellan telescope will offer spectacular observing conditions for more than 300 nights a year (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) we are working with some of the brightest engineers and scientists at leading research institutions around the globe said dr walter massey board chair of giant magellan telescope and former director of the national science foundation and chairman of bank of america the recent contributions from our investing partners in the giant magellan telescope are collectively pushing the boundaries of astronomy making the future a reality and allowing us to answer some key science goals including ‚Äòare we alone in the universe the giant magellan telescope has already achieved significant construction progress over the last few years six of its seven primary mirror segments have been cast in tucson arizona the third primary mirror segment has completed its two-year polishing phase and is undergoing final testing construction of a 40 000 square-foot facility in rockford illinois to manufacture the telescope structure is complete the production of the telescopes first adaptive secondary mirror is well underway in france and italy and the site in chile is primed for the next stage of construction and pouring of the foundation this latest $205 million investment round positions the giant magellan telescope to be one of the first in a new generation of extremely large telescopes to be constructed first light is anticipated by the end of the decade the giant magellan telescope project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions to learn more visit https://giantmagellanorg/ for additional information about astronomy at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/astronomy/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1148 billion in fiscal year 2021 texas a&m ranked 14th in the most recent national science foundations higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or ryan kallabis (626) 204-0554 or rkallabis@gmtoorg the post $205 million investment accelerates giant magellan telescope construction appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " tyson voelkel 96 president of the texas a&m foundation said ms mobleys legal experience incredible aggie heritage and enthusiasm for serving texas a&m university make her an ideal trustee of this incredible organization as we aspire to be among the most trusted philanthropies in higher education mobley practices in the area of estate planning working with clients on such varied subjects as wills drafting estate tax trust administration charitable planning and pertinently advising nonprofits her peers have selected her as one of the best lawyers in america and as a texas super lawyer in estate planning and probate before being appointed to the foundations board of trustees mobley served on the association of former students board of directors from 2010 to 2016 she believes the foundation has provided a new opportunity to follow in her parents footsteps¬† my father was heavily involved with the foundation during his time at texas a&m so for me to be involved in its evolution 40 years later is terrific mobley said and though my mother [jayne mobley 85] never had an official role at the university she was very engaged when my dad was president and she was similarly committed to higher education especially helping the school of education and human development weve all worked to maintain the university and see it thrive¬† mobley replaces outgoing trustee otway b denny jr 71 who served on the board from 2015 to 2022 her seven-year appointment also coincides with the start of william billy lemmons jrs term as foundation board chair lemmons a class of 1983 graduate and the founder and managing partner of encap flatrock midstream joined the foundations board in 2018 he assumes board leadership from louis lou paletta ii ‚Äã78¬† originally published¬†here¬†by the texas a&m foundation this story source was originally published by texas a&m arts & sciences share: " " ever since nasas james webb space telescope successfully launched on christmas morning texas a&m university astronomer casey papovich has been looking forward to christmas in july a milestone moment marking the official end of the telescopes six-month instrument calibration and testing period and the beginning of its scientific operations set to transform our understanding of the hidden universe throughout cosmic history dr casey papovich for papovich and his fellow astronomers across the globe that wait is officially over teased by nasas presidential preview monday (july 11) of jwsts very first deep field image depicting galaxies once invisible to us and todays (july 12) subsequent release of the full collection of webbs first full-color images and spectroscopic data the historic images represent early release observations of five targets selected by nasa to demonstrate jwsts unparalleled capabilities and provide tangible proof that the $10 billion telescope is now at full power and prepared to use its unprecedented infrared vision to begin peering back more than 135 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe in a word wow because it has been pretty jaw-dropping papovich said there were things i expected but there were a lot more that were surprises part of my mind knew that would be the case but it was pretty awe-inspiring all the same the structure and details you can see in that galaxy image alone is amazing hubble does not have the resolution to recognize individual star clusters in galaxies but here if you look closely you can see and count the number of star clusters i didnt expect to see that webb had promised it could do these things but to actually see it was impressive papovich detailed his immediate thoughts from a street corner in baltimore during a break in between tuesday meetings at the space telescope science institute where he is on standby along with his fellow early release science (ers) program-affiliated researchers for the next exciting development: thursdays pending release of more than 50 terabytes of data from the telescopes first few months observing the cosmos that will figure prominently in the dozen or so proposals he is part of during the coming year everything has proceeded quickly and smoothly because everything was done right papovich said the data well be getting thursday were taken in june because all the instrumentation was working that well that quickly and therefore they could i dont know how nasa did it but it is nothing short of phenomenal papovich a member of the¬†texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 is one of seven texas a&m astronomers who are either principal or co-principal investigators on no fewer than two dozen proposals awarded time on jwst during its initial year in space nasa received approximately 1 200 proposals for first-year research and after a peer-review process selected 266 to move forward one of papovichs proposals is the second-largest within the general observer (go) program and was awarded one of the largest shares of time on jwst during cycle 1 if i had to summarize our program well probably be the deepest jwst imaging that will be done in the first year that was approved by the nasa peer-review panel within the 6 000 hours allotted to the worldwide astronomical community said papovich who holds the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in physics and astronomy at texas a&m jwst will show us details about distant galaxies weve never seen however we may not be the deepest depending on what the jwst instrument teams end up doing they have their own time so the ‚Äòdeepest label could depend on qualifiers the complete list of texas a&m-affiliated investigators is as follows: robert c kennicutt jr: co-investigator on a general observer (go) proposal and a collaborator on one of the guaranteed time observations (gto) projects awarded to scientists who deliver key jwst components lucas macri: co-principal investigator on a proposal to study cepheid variables in nearby galaxies as part of the sh0es project casey papovich: co-principal investigator on the next generation deep extragalactic exploratory public (ngdeep) survey; co-investigator on the cosmic evolution early release science (ceers) survey and primer (large cycle 1 program imaging in cosmos and uds fields); team member on 11 other proposals justin spilker: principal investigator on the early assembly history of the most massive halo in the reionization era and co-investigator on two others including the early release science program templates (ers-01355) nicholas suntzeff: co-investigator on mir spectroscopy of type ia supernovae: the key to unlocking their explosions and element production and dust mass loss and explosions of massive stars in the mir jonelle walsh: principal investigator on probing the m87 supermassive black hole with parsec-scale stellar dynamics and co-investigator on revealing low luminosity active galactic nuclei (reveallagn) lifan wang: co-investigator on four projects one on supernova 1987a one on supernovae type ia at late time one on core collapse supernovae at late time and one on time domain astronomy in the months and years ahead webb will observe light from the first galaxies that formed after the universe began nearly 14 billion years ago study objects in our own solar system observe the life cycle of stars in distant galaxies and investigate the properties of planets orbiting other stars or so-called exoplanets papovich said in all likelihood webbs observations will transform our understanding of astronomical phenomena the carina nebula in all its star-factory glory as imaged by jwst nearly 8 000 light years from earth (credit: nasa esa csa and stsci) the jwst is an international program led by nasa with its partners the european space agency (esa) and canadian space agency (csa) webb will solve mysteries in our solar system look beyond to distant worlds around other stars and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it i hope youll forgive my childlike sense of wonder here papovich said this is why i got into astronomy in the first place this incredible sense of discovery learn more about jwst and its mission to unfold the infrared universe at https://webbtelescopeorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1148 billion in fiscal year 2021 texas a&m ranked 14th in the most recent national science foundations higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or¬†shutchins@sciencetamuedu¬†or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or¬†papovich@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomers celebrate historic first images from james webb space telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " addy j evans 21 a phd candidate in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive a¬†united states department of energy office of science graduate student research (scgsr) program award¬†in support of research addressing scientific challenges central to the agencys mission and workforce development evans who is completing her third year of study as a member of texas a&m astronomer amd 2021 presidential impact fellow dr louis strigaris research group working at the interface of particle physics astrophysics and cosmology within the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is one of 80 awardees representing 27 states and 53 different us universities that grant doctoral degrees in physical sciences for the programs 2021 solicitation 2 cycle in addition she is the third texas a&m student to earn selection in the programs eight-year history joining texas a&m chemistry graduate students gregory s day 19 (2019) and hannah f drake 18 (2020) in receiving the prestigious fellowship addy j evans 21 the goal of the scgsr program is to prepare graduate students for science technology engineering or mathematics (stem) careers critically important to the doe office of sciences mission by providing them with graduate-thesis-enhancing research opportunities at doe national laboratories where they will spend anywhere from 3-to-12 months conducting research in collaboration with a doe laboratory scientist the award includes travel support to and from the laboratory as well as a monthly stipend of up to $3 000 to help cover general living expenses while at the host doe laboratory during the award period awardees are selected from a diverse pool of university-based graduate applicants based on merit peer review by outside scientific experts evans is one of three current scgsr awardees who will be conducting collaborative research at los alamos national laboratory she will be in residence there from june through september working with j patrick harding a staff scientist in los alamos physics division and focus lead for the p-3 gamma ray astrophysics team harding is doing research using the high altitude water cherenkov (hawc) observatory a wide field-of-view detector located in central mexico that uses an array of water cherenkov detectors to observe ultra-high energy photons from some of the most extreme astrophysical objects known such as supernova remnants and blazars due to its unique capabilities including sensitivity to gamma rays of 100 gigaelectronvolts (gev) to a few hundred teraelectronvolts (tev) with one tev being equivalent to the energy of motion of a flying mosquito hawc is opening up a new window on the ultra-high energy universe one that evans is excited to experience firsthand im very grateful to receive this fellowship and to get the opportunity to work with my colleagues at los alamos national laboratory on the high altitude water cherenkov experiment evans said one of the most exciting parts about working within the hawc collaboration is that were studying some of the most energetic photons ever detected and learning about where in the universe they originate from to put into perspective just how energetic these photons are theyre actually 10 to 100 times more energetic than the highest energy particles produced on earth! since 2014 the scgsr program has provided more than 870 us graduate awardees from 155 universities with supplemental funds to conduct part of their thesis research at a host doe laboratory in collaboration with doe laboratory scientists more than 40% of the 2021 cohort are women and roughly 14% of the students attend minority serving institutions (msis) the scgsr research projects are expected to advance each awardees overall doctoral thesis while providing access to the expertise resources and capabilities available at the doe laboratory facilities in addition to strong alignment with one of the doe office of sciences priority mission areas each research project must demonstrate a high need for workforce development given that the scgsr program plays an important role in sustaining a pipeline for highly skilled scientific and technological workforce development evans pictured at the aspen center for physics where she presented her research on the components of omega centauri at a conference this past march (credit: addy evans) for decades doe has cultivated the expertise to meet the nations greatest scientific challenges said under secretary of science and innovation dr geraldine richmond now more than ever we need to invest in a diverse talented pipeline of scientists engineers and entrepreneurs who will be the future science and innovation leaders of this country im thrilled these outstanding students will help us tackle critical research at our labs and i know their futures are bright for her scgsr research project tev emission of globular clusters and its connection to dark matter evans will be working with harding and hawc observatory colleagues to characterize the very high-energy emission of globular clusters dense stellar systems within which gamma-ray emission has just recently been detected evans will be studying these systems to develop a better understanding of the astrophysical properties of dark matter and neutrinos among other mysteries of fundamental physics only a small fraction of these compact stellar systems emit light at gamma-ray energies and the physical processes that create these energetic photons are not entirely understood evans said moreover learning about the gamma-ray emission of these systems is imperative to the search for dark matter which has been theorized to also generate gamma-rays i am very excited to work on this project as it will give me the opportunity to explore both the extreme high-energy environments within globular clusters as well as our prospects for detecting gamma-rays originating from dark matter evans earned her bachelors degree in physics with a minor in mathematics in may 2019 from oklahoma state university prior to beginning her phd in astronomy at texas a&m in fall 2019 with strigari as her thesis advisor she received her masters of science in astronomy in october 2021 and is on track to earn her doctorate in astronomy in 2024 compound graphic showing a view of the sky in ultra-high energy gamma rays the arrows indicate the four sources of gamma rays with energies over 100 tev from within our galaxy (courtesy of the hawc collaboration) imposed over a photograph of the hawc observatorys 300 large water tanks the tanks contain sensitive light detectors that measure showers of particles produced by the gamma rays striking the atmosphere more than 10 miles overhead (source: los alamos national laboratory courtesy of jordan goodman) since 2019 evans has served simultaneously as a teaching assistant laboratory instructor and graduate research associate in texas a&m physics and astronomy while also pursuing her primary research interests in high-energy astrophysics galactic astronomy and the search for dark matter her first first-author peer-reviewed paper recently has been published and she has presented her research in a variety of venues including the annual texas a&m astrosymposium (2019-2021) astronomy on tap-b/cs (2020 and 2021) the 2020 american physical society texas section and a 2022 conference at the aspen center for physics evans also has served as a panelist at the 2020 conference for undergraduate women in physics a project leader for the warrior school project: stem week (2020 and 2021) and an emcee for astronomy on tap-b/cs (fall 2021) in addition she is one of the coordinators for the mentoring and advising graduates in an inclusive community (magic) program within texas a&m physics and astronomy addys doe sgsr fellowship is extremely well deserved and serves as recognition of her scientific accomplishments since she has been in our graduate program strigari said in her three years here addy has already made important contributions to the fields of gamma-ray astrophysics and dark matter detection her interdisciplinary research in the field of astroparticle physics and cosmology embodies the scientific mission of the mitchell institute los alamos national laboratory is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security it is managed by triad a public service oriented national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: battelle memorial institute the texas a&m university system and the regents of the university of california (uc) for the department of energys national nuclear security administration to learn more about the strigari and his research group go to https://physicstamuedu/directory/strigari/ # # # # # # # # # # about the us department of energy office of science: the office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the united states and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1148 billion in fiscal year 2021 texas a&m ranked 14th in the most recent national science foundations higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; addy j evans (979) 845-7778 or addyjevans@tamuedu; or dr louis strigari (979) 845-7778 or strigari@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics and astronomys addy evans selected for department of energy graduate student research award appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " a texas a&m university-led collaboration has yielded new insight into one of the universes most important primordial reactions that made all life on earth possible the multi-institution team of nuclear scientists that also includes researchers from washington university in st louis and ohio university concluded in a recent study that the role neutrons play in the creation of carbon considered the definitive building block of life actually is much smaller than previously thought their data acquired during 2020 and analyzed within the past year is detailed in a paper published wednesday (apr 20) in nature communications dr jack bishop these findings are extremely significant because it demonstrates that the rate at which stars burn helium together to form carbon is less sensitive to any neutrons in the stars which were previously thought to speed up this process said dr jack bishop an assistant research scientist at the texas a&m cyclotron institute and a lead author of the paper understanding the way that stars burn is extremely important in understanding the life and death of stars as well as where the elements that make up our universe originate from and in what quantity the experiment specifically focused on the formation of carbon-12 which is produced inside the cores of dying stars in a rare phenomenon called the triple-alpha process where three alpha particles (helium-4 nuclei) collide and fuse while scientists have long known the highly excited state of carbon produced as a result of this process emits gamma rays to achieve a stable condition (regular carbon-12) they have suspected that other particles also play a role in that de-excitation specifically neutrons which carry no electrical charge and can remove extra energy because the reaction requires four particles a neutron and three alpha particles to occur within an extremely small volume of space comparable to the size of an atomic nucleus and a tiny time interval equal to a 10th of a femtosecond directly measuring this process as it occurs in stars is essentially impossible the team instead measured the probability of its inverse breaking apart the carbon-12 with neutrons in a time-reversed reaction that effectively reverts the carbon-12 back to its three alpha particles dr grigory rogachev until recently the probability for this process was estimated only theoretically says texas a&m physicist dr grigory rogachev an expert in low-energy experimental nuclear physics and a principal investigator for the project we now have the direct measurement which provides accurate data on the probability of this process said rogachev head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and a cyclotron institute member it turned out that the theoretical predictions for the probability of this neutron upscattering on carbon were off by more than one order of magnitude the experimentally measured value is much smaller to prove this the team utilized a testing apparatus called the texas active target or texat a specialized particle detector known as an active-target time-projection chamber that recently was constructed at the cyclotron institute by firing beams of high-energy neutrons into the detector they were able to blast apart carbon nuclei in carbon dioxide gas and observe the breakup pattern for a variety of different energies in three-dimensional renderings the propensity of carbon-12 to break apart into three alpha particles indeed was seen to be lower and therefore much less important than expected based on the previous theoretical models learn how the texat detector works and the science behind the collaborations hypothesis in this 2020 video on the texas a&m science youtube channel: ohio university nuclear astrophysicist dr carl brune oversaw beam testing at his institutions 17 400-square-foot john e edwards accelerator laboratory which boasts a rare 45 million-volt tandem accelerator capable of discharging atomic particles to energies up to 14 percent of the speed of light here at ohio university we are proud that our unique neutron science capabilities an intense and well-characterized neutron beam in this case made a significant contribution to this outstanding new science result brune said it is very satisfying to see a multi-institution collaboration like this be successful approximately 5 000 neutrons per second were fired into texat with only about one in a million of them rendering a reverse triple-alpha process roughly one occurrence every five minutes texas a&m cyclotron institute postdoctoral research associate dr cody parker a key member of the collaboration with expertise in neutron detector development assisted the ohio team with optimizing the neutron beam for precise measurement performing neutron-induced reactions is a complicated effort and not something you can do every day because you cant simply make a neutron beam parker said a lot of people were involved in making this possible were grateful for their contributions and are pleased with the outcome washington university nuclear chemist and principal investigator dr lee sobotka first proposed the idea of utilizing a time-projection chamber to determine the influence of neutrons on the triple-alpha process to his co-collaborators in 2017 time-projection chambers like texat typically are used to construct visual renderings of the trajectories of rare isotope beams and the products of nuclear reactions induced by those beams using one to explore nuclear reactions with neutrons as in this instance however is an undertaking thats never before been done this experiment married a very special tool an active-target time-projection chamber with a low-energy accelerator capable of producing near mono-energetic neutrons sobotka said its a first-of-its-kind union that provided the answer to a question first posed 55 years ago on the making of the seed for heavy-element synthesis the teams paper neutron-upscattering enhancement of the triple-alpha process can be¬†viewed online along with related figures and captions their work¬†was supported by the department of energys national nuclear security administration and office of science the national science foundation the science and technology facilities council and the center for excellence in nuclear training and university-based research (centaur) a multi-institutional effort led by texas a&m that seeks to support collaborative research efforts in the area of low-energy nuclear science to learn more about rogachev and his research group visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/grigory-rogachev/ see additional photographs of texat and the texas a&m teams 2020 trip to ohio courtesy of jack bishop # # # # # # # # # # about the cyclotron institute: dedicated in 1967 the cyclotron institute serves as the core of texas a&m universitys accelerator-based nuclear science and technology program affiliated faculty members from the department of chemistry and the department of physics and astronomy conduct nuclear physics- and chemistry-based research and radiation testing within a broad-based globally recognized interdisciplinary platform supported by the united states department of energy (doe) in conjunction with the state of texas and the welch foundation the facility is one of five doe-designated centers of excellence and is home to one of only five k500 or larger superconducting cyclotrons worldwide to learn more visit https://cyclotrontamuedu/ about centaur: the center for excellence in nuclear training and university-based research (centaur) is a multi-institutional effort supported by a five-year $10 million stewardship science academic alliances (ssaa) grant from the department of energys national nuclear security administration (doe/nnsa) centaur pursues basic research in low-energy nuclear science through experimental theoretical and technical programs using accelerators at texas a&ms cyclotron institute and florida state universitys john d fox superconducting linear accelerator laboratory as well as facilities at the other partner institutions which include¬†texas a&m university florida state university washington university in st louis the university of washington louisiana state university and the university of notre dame to learn more visit https://centaurtamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or¬†cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr grigory rogachev (979) 458-0349 or rogachev@ tamuedu the post texas a&m-led study reveals diminished role for neutrons in creation of carbon in stars appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr robert c kennicutt jr a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been appointed as a university distinguished professor kennicutt who also serves as executive director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is a globally renowned expert in observational extragalactic astronomy based on his work in galaxy evolution over cosmic time and his co-leadership of the scientific team that definitively measured the expansion of the universe he is best known for his namesake kennicutt‚Äìschmidt law defining the relationship between the gas density and star formation rate in a given region as well as for his role in constraining the value of the hubble constant the unit of measurement that astronomers and astrophysicists use to describe the expansion of the universe in addition he recently served as one of two co-chairs of the national academies astro 2020 decadal survey on astronomy and astrophysics a comprehensive study performed by the academies every 10 years to help determine and prioritize the most important scientific and technological activities in astronomy and astrophysics for the next decade dr robert c kennicutt jr kennicutt earns recognition along with five additional texas a&m faculty as the latest recipients of the coveted title: dr israel liberzon professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences within the college of medicine; dr george m pharr professor in the department of materials science and engineering within the college of engineering; dr farida sohrabji professor in the department of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics within the college of medicine; dr raghavan srinivasan professor in the department of ecology and conservation biology within the college of agriculture and life sciences; and dr josh wand professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics within the college of agriculture and life sciences the 2022 university distinguished professor honorees join a select group of roughly 100 current faculty members who hold the prestigious title more than 30 of whom are affiliated with the college of science the title which is bestowed in perpetuity identifies faculty members who are pre-eminent in their fields and have made at least one landmark contribution to their disciplines their work is considered central to any narrative of the field and widely recognized to have changed its direction of scholarship past recipients of the lifetime title participate in the selection process growing the ranks of distinguished professors by just a handful of scholars each year these exceptional faculty members have stretched the boundaries of their fields making transformational contributions in astrophysics psychiatry neuroscience nanotechnology environmental assessment and protein biophysics according to the april 5 official announcement from the texas a&m office of faculty affairs from changing the way post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) can be studied and treated to introducing a law enabling more precise measurement of rates of change across the universe these distinguished professors are leaving a legacy kennicutt and his fellow 2022 honorees will be recognized at a april 28 induction ceremony and reception jointly hosted by the offices of the president and faculty affairs to celebrate all faculty who are distinguished professors kennicutt joined the texas a&m faculty in 2018 after spending the previous year as a texas a&m hagler institute for advanced study¬†faculty fellow an emeritus professor at the university of cambridge he also holds a primary appointment in the¬†department of astronomy and steward observatory at the university of arizona prior to coming to texas a&m kennicutt held the plumian professorship of astronomy & experimental philosophy at the university of cambridge a chair created in 1704 under the direction of sir isaac newton and widely considered as the most prestigious in astronomy worldwide he previously served as dean of the school of physical sciences and director of the institute of astronomy at cambridge he earned his phd from the university of washington in 1978 while the university distinguished professor committee is looking for a transformational discovery rob kennicutt has two said texas a&m astronomer and nominator dr nicholas b suntzeff a 2016-17 regents professor of astronomy and a distinguished professor since 2013 hes well known for the kennicutt-schmidt law used daily by astronomers that is a necessary part of their education but he is also one of the pioneers in the precision measurement of the expansion of the universe for almost half a century astronomers could only measure the hubble constant to no better than a factor of two in astronomy units we were arguing if the number was 50 or 100 rob had been using his studies of the rotation rates of spiral galaxies to measure relative distances to these galaxies with these sorts of measurements we could say that one galaxy was five times farther away than another but we could not give an accurate distance to any galaxy it is like having a map where the scale has been left off with the launch of the hubble space telescope in 1990 rob kennicutt along with wendy freedman the late marc aaronson and jeremy mould began directing their h0 (pronounced h-naught) key project to measure direct distances to nearby galaxies and convert the relative distances into absolute distances the h0 project was one of only three ‚Äòkey projects selected for the hubble space telescope the main project was completed in 2001 with the expansion rate measured to 10% as 72 a fivefold improvement in this fundamental constant of cosmology a member of the national academy of sciences and a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the royal society of london the royal astronomical society and the american astronomical society kennicutt has been recognized with the royal astronomical societys highest honor the 2019 gold medal as well as the 2019 national academy of sciences (nas) award for scientific reviewing for his influential 1998 review paper star formation in galaxies along the hubble sequence that has become one of the most-cited papers in astrophysics his many additional career awards include the 2009 gruber prize in cosmology and the 2007 dannie heineman prize in astrophysics from the american institute of physics and the american physical society to learn more about kennicutt and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/rck/ see a¬†bonus feature from the university of arizona on kennicutt and his life after retirement -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or or dr robert c kennicutt jr (979) 845-7778 or¬†rck@tamuedu the post astronomer robert kennicutt appointed university distinguished professor appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " when¬†texas a&m university physicist david toback was elected eight years ago as co-spokesperson and overall physics coordinator for the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) he had one primary goal: to help the groups 400-person active author list publish the collaborations important legacy papers and final results the cover of the current issue of science features a symbolic illustration of the w boson weighing down on the standard model of particle physics the mass of the w boson a mediator of the weak nuclear force is tightly constrained by the theory a new very-high-precision measurement of the w boson mass is in significant tension with the standard model expectation and suggests that improvements to calculations or extensions to the standard model might be needed (credit: carlo cadenas / science) although the collider detector at fermilab experiment representing 54 institutions across 23 countries stopped collecting new data three years before toback assumed his leadership role on june 1 2014 he says its impact lives on in its analysis none bigger than that which graces the cover of the current issue of science announcing the most precise measurement to date of the mass of the w boson one of natures force-carrying particles responsible for the nuclear processes that make the sun shine and particles decay using high-energy particle collisions produced by the tevatron collider at fermilab the cdf collaboration collected huge amounts of data containing w bosons from 1985 to 2011 following 10 years of careful analysis and scrutiny of that data cdf-affiliated scientists led by duke universitys ashutosh v kotwal and the university of oxfords chris hays have now determined the particles mass with a precision of 001% twice as precise as the previous best measurement the achievement corresponds to measuring the weight of an 800-pound gorilla to within 15 ounces the new precision measurement allows scientists to test the standard model of particle physics the theoretical framework that describes nature at its most fundamental level the result: the new mass value shows significant tension with the value scientists expect to obtain using experimental and theoretical inputs in the context of the standard model the standard model is one of the crowning achievements in human history toback said it predicted the existence of the w and z bosons as well as the higgs boson all of which have been discovered but it goes way beyond that in that it makes remarkably precise predictions for what the mass of the w boson should be however weve always known the standard model isnt complete it doesnt explain gravity or dark matter something has to be missing therefore weve been searching for ‚Äòcracks in the standard model for decades to provide a clue to point the way this measurement which represents more than a decade of concerted effort may be one of the most highly scrutinized in cdf history dr david toback toback a high-energy physics expert and veteran researcher in several related international collaborations has been a faculty member in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2000 where he is the thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he began working with the collider detector at fermilab collaboration in 1991 as a graduate student at the university of chicago and has served as co-convener of cdfs top + beyond the standard model group while also guiding the supersymmetry group in 2015 he was elected as a fellow of the american physical society on the basis of his cdf experiment leadership and pioneering work on related searches for new particles toback describes the cdf collaborations latest result¬†is an important contribution to testing the accuracy of the standard model which may need to be improved or extended in the event the measurement is confirmed its now up to the theoretical physics community and other experiments to follow up on this and shed light on this mystery he added if the difference between the experimental and expected value is due to some kind of new particle or subatomic interaction which is one of the possibilities theres a good chance its something that could be discovered in future experiments the collider detector at fermilab recorded high-energy particle collisions produced by the tevatron collider from 1985 to 2011 about 400 scientists at 54 institutions across 23 countries are still analyzing the wealth of data collected by the experiment (credit: fermilab) fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) are the past and current record holders respectively for the most powerful particle colliders on earth after 26 years of colliding particles the tevatron shut down on september 29 2011 with the completion of the lhc however because it observed collisions between protons and antiprotons via its two detectors the three-story 6 000-ton cdf along with its companion dzero physicists widely agree the tevatron produced groundbreaking fundamental results few more intriguing than this one deviations from the standard model are extremely rare said grigory v rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy there may be just a single credible one for instance a magnetic moment of a muon but even that is highly suspect due to difficulties in theoretical analysis it appears that deviation of w boson mass from the standard model prediction may become a central piece in particle physics for years to come this is certainly a very challenging and rewarding measurement added bhaskar dutta texas a&m theoretical physicist and managing director of the mitchell institute it opens up the floor for many new ideas toback is quick to point out that texas a&ms history with the cdf experiment is far more extensive than his involvement given that it was co-founded in 1980 in part by texas a&m physicists peter mcintyre and robert webb texas a&m has had a continuous presence in the collaboration since its inception including four additional physicists toback ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov who either were students or postdoctoral researchers within it and are now among its principal investigators kamon produced the collaborations fourth phd thesis followed by toback (159th 1997) safonov (242nd 2001) and eusebi (345th 2005) all four played lead roles in tevatron run ii with toback leading the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter beyond faculty contributions toback notes that dozens of texas a&m students have earned phds based on cdf-related work while many more have achieved masters degrees and/or did honors undergraduate thesis-related work with cdf in addition many within this collective cdf-inspired whole have gone on to faculty positions including at texas a&m and other prestigious research universities worldwide cdf collaboration 2011 (credit: fermilab) the collaborations prior crowning achievements include discovery of the top quark in 1995 insights into the production rate of charm quarks in 2017 and detection of the first substantive evidence of the higgs boson prior to the large hadron colliders 2012 full discovery that collectively resulted in peter higgs and francois englerts subsequent 2013 nobel prize in physics for theoretically predicting the elusive particles existence 50 years ago in addition to cdf toback serves as a co-principal investigator for the international super cryogenic dark matter search (supercdms) experiment and¬†works in the areas of neutrino physics (dune r&d) quantum computing and big computing his past work includes the dzero experiment at fermilab and the cms experiment at the lhc cdf is in the business of reporting the facts as we know them toback said we take that role very seriously we take this small but clear difference from the standard model very seriously it might just might be the clue we need to crack open the case this has been an exciting adventure an honor and a privilege of the highest degree i am grateful to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy the mitchell institute and my cdf community colleagues for the continued opportunity to serve the cdf collaboration see todays complete announcement from fermilab to learn more about cdf visit https://cdffnalgov for more information on tobacks broader research visit http://tobackgroupphysicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $113 billion in fiscal year 2020 and ranked 14th in the national science foundations higher education research and development survey texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu the post cdf collaboration at fermilab achieves most precise measurement of w boson mass appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology outreach at the¬†2022 physics and engineering festival set for saturday april 2 from 9:30 am to 4 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building after canceling the 2020 festival and taking the 2021 event virtual for the first time ever in its nearly two-decade history due to the covid pandemic texas a&m is gearing up to host a hybrid event that will feature a combination of in-person and livestreamed activities guaranteed to entertain inform and inspire kids of all ages as in past years no fees or tickets are required for the free first-of-its-kind event which will feature both virtual and hands-on demonstrations keynote talks live q&a sessions with scientists and a legendary texas-sized five-barrel depth charge activities will begin at 9:30 am with virtual science demonstrations exclusively via livestream and conclude with a 3 pm public lecture by university of california berkeley astronomer and national academy of sciences member alex filippenko an award-winning author and recipient of the 2004 carl sagan prize for science popularization participants are encouraged to pay close attention to the¬†days tentative schedule given that some events may be exclusively in-person exclusively livestreamed or offered via both formats at 11 am nasa astronaut and texas a&m engineer nancy j currie-gregg¬†will present¬†out of this world repairs‚Äìservicing the hubble space telescope the first of the days two keynote talks that will be delivered both in-person in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building as well as via livestream currie-gregg a professor of engineering practice at texas a&m since 2017 accrued 1 000 hours in space as a mission specialist on four space shuttle missions including sts-109 the fourth hst servicing mission in 2002 in addition she helped to assemble the international space station while also logging more than 4 000 flying hours in a variety of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm in-person participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists while taking in a bevy of fun¬†experiments and displays illustrating hands-on science and basic technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are put on by texas a&m faculty staff and students simultaneously from noon to 2 pm online festival participants are invited to move from room to room while exploring and interacting via zoom with scientists who also will be responding to pre-submitted audience questions¬†throughout the festival other special events on tap include four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza (11:30 am 12:15 pm 1 pm 1:45 pm) as well an appearance by the texas a&m yell leaders beginning at 2:15 pm their informal yell practice will lead into the traditional grand finale of the days events portion the popular larger-than-life¬†five-barrel depth charge¬†featuring 1 000 plastic balls set for 2:40 pm on the south side the mitchell physics building and also viewable via livestream at 3 pm filippenko will present the mitchell lecture ¬†dark energy and the runaway universe both in-person in the mitchell physics building primary lecture hall and via livestream in addition to discussing the mysteries of dark energy filippenko will detail his experiences as the sole member of the two teams honored with the 2011 nobel prize in physics for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe all events are presented by the¬†texas a&m department physics and astronomy¬†in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of¬†aerospace engineering ¬†atmospheric sciences ¬†biology ¬†chemistry¬†and¬†mathematics the 2022 hybrid event is sponsored by¬†halliburton marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 nancy and robert l dunham 63 ¬†innolight technology usa inc col hal schade 67 ¬†ramiro galindo 60 the¬†college of science the¬†department of physics and astronomy¬†and the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy previous supporters that have made the annual festival possible include the¬†texas a&m university system dr charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn ¬†exxonmobil the¬†willard and anne levin foundation ahmed mahmoud 87 michele mobley 87 susan sheskey purna c murthy 88 ¬†cc creations ¬†schlotzskys college station ¬†pepsi¬†and additional¬†spirit of giving¬†donors for the latest details regarding the 2022 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit¬†https://physicsfestivaltamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for april 2 as in-person livestream event appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university and its partners in the giant magellan telescope¬†announced today (mar 8) they have awarded idom a renowned engineering and architecture firm based in spain a contract to complete the telescope enclosure design by 2024 the award follows an extensive enclosure designer evaluation and selection process based on a detailed set of criteria involving design team experience proposed approaches to specific design challenges incorporation of safety management in the design process and more designing the 4 800 metric ton upper enclosure will be a particularly challenging engineering feat as it will need to protect the telescopes giant mirrors from extreme earthquakes and weather modulate wind speeds and temperatures and reveal seven of the worlds largest mirrors for unobstructed science observations of the night sky the enclosure design will also utilize the latest technologies and construction practices to be as sustainable as possible once operational in the late 2020s the giant magellan telescope will produce the sharpest and most detailed images ever taken of our universe ten times greater than the famed hubble space telescope and four times the james webb space telescope following an extensive designer evaluation idom proved to have the necessary knowledge experience and expertise to solve the design challenges associated with the environmental conditions at the telescope site especially the local seismic and weather conditions said dr bruce bigelow the giant magellan telescopes site enclosure and facilities manager adding the size functionality and environmental conditions to the design challenge efficient manufacturing especially off-site and modular construction are key aspects to making the construction of the enclosure safe reliable and affordable were delighted to work with idom to make the enclosure design a reality cross section of the giant magellan telescope enclosure pier and mount (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) headquartered in bilbao spain idom has 45 offices around the world providing global design solutions for a broad portion of the built environment leading the enclosure design is idoms advanced design and analysis group their engineers develop special and moveable structures test systems instruments and facilities for astronomers nuclear and particle physicists and other advanced research fields idom is proud to be working on this world-class project our multi-discipline team of engineers is well positioned to solve both the technical and practical challenges of this complicated machine said tom lorentz idoms president of us operations the idom team combines world-class design and construction management experience in large and complex movable structures with first-hand knowledge of civil and site-specific construction practices and capabilities of the local chilean contractors idom has made remarkable contributions to the design and construction of astronomical facilities including the development of components for the gran telescopio canarias the enclosure and thermal systems for the daniel k inouye solar telescope consulting for the thirty meter telescope design for the maunakea spectroscopic explorer in which texas a&m also is a partner and the conceptual design for the european extremely large telescope designed for resilience the giant magellan telescopes 65-meter-tall enclosure must overcome two key challenges in protecting its giant mirrors extreme earthquakes and weather the giant magellan telescope is being constructed at las campanas observatory in the chilean atacama desert one of the driest deserts and most seismically active regions in the world averaging six earthquakes every month the site will expose the telescope and enclosure to regular seismic events the enclosure design provides the telescope pier with a seismic isolation system that can survive the strongest earthquakes expected over the 50-year lifetime of the observatory and will allow the telescope to quickly return to operations after the more frequent but less intense seismic events that are experienced several times per month the deserts extreme weather also requires a robust climate control system to keep high winds and temperature changes from impacting the telescopes giant mirrors and advanced optical technologies these automated systems are capable of protecting the telescope from daily temperature swings to provide an optimal observing environment all night long artists rendering of the giant magellan telescope reflecting the chilean sunset for more images visit http://wwwgmtoorg/gallery (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) the building design is critical to the scientific use of the telescope said texas a&m astronomer dr darren l depoy who is working to build various instruments and components for the gmt along with fellow astronomers and researchers within the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory it must meet stringent requirements to maintain the integrity of the telescope structure in all weather conditions allow night time viewing of any part of the sky and allow environmental control of the entire optomechanical system the best analogy is to imagine a football stadium with a movable roof but that can also rotate and survive 100 mph winds and serious snow and ice ¬†a focus on efficiency and sustainability ¬†even before the global pandemic created unprecedented supply chain challenges and materials shortages efficient manufacturing and logistics have remained the priority in the enclosure design process as such the enclosure design will use a variety of constructability approaches utilizing both local materials and a local workforce to control costs and minimize construction and operational carbon footprints idom will design the giant magellan telescopes enclosure to be as sustainable as possible using the latest technologies and environmental design practices the construction site currently relies on the chilean national electric system which is predominately supplied by renewable energy the gmto corporation plans to build its own powerline to connect to the chilean grid to take advantage of existing renewable energy sources the completed observatory facilities will employ energy and water efficient technologies including a greywater treatment and recovery systems to significantly reduce water usage idom is a privately held global engineering architecture and consulting firm with more than 4 000 employees and 45 offices around the world including us locations in minneapolis and atlanta and headquarters in bilbao spain to learn more about idom visit idomcom/en the giant magellan telescope project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions to learn more visit gmtoorg for additional information about astronomy at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/astronomy/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $113 billion in fiscal year 2020 and ranked 14th in the national science foundations higher education research and development survey texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or ryan kallabis (626) 204-0554 or rkallabis@gmtoorg the post giant magellan telescope awards idom final design of telescope enclosure appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " three new studies predict the measurement-induced phase-transition behavior for quantum systems that have long-range coupling between their qubits quantum computers derive their power from the complex entanglement structure that builds between their qubits over time but reading out information from such a computer requires measuring the state of individual qubits a process that can impact the systems entanglement as it forces each qubit into a particular state disentangling it from the others disentangling one qubit from a quantum computer does not significantly affect that computers overall entanglement structure but measuring more and more qubits will eventually erase the entanglement turning the system classical that said interesting quantum things can happen when repetitive measurements of randomly selected qubits occur in an evolving entangled system [1 ‚Äì3] three teams of researchers now theoretically investigate the outcome of the competition between entanglement erasing and entanglement building in quantum many-body systems that have long-range coupling between their qubits (fig1) [4‚Äì6] their findings reveal rich dynamical behaviors and complex phase transitions that depend on two parameters: the rate at which qubits are measured and the spatial extent of the coupling the results indicate that it should be possible to control the entanglement structure between qubits by tuning these two parameters which could lead to new dynamical phases in quantum many-body systems schematic diagram showing the competition between entanglement building and entanglement erasing in quantum systems with long-range coupling between their qubits the rivalry between the processes can be likened to an artist trying to draw a picture (entanglement building) while a child simultaneously rubs it out (entanglement erasing the entanglement structure of a quantum many-body system can be quantified through the systems bipartite entanglement entropya parameter that quantifies the entanglement between two sides of a system for example the left and right when no measurements are made this entropy typically grows linearly over time before saturating at a value that is proportional to the systems volume however theory has shown that the saturation value is lowered by repetitive measurements of random qubits in a quantum many-body system for example in a system consisting of a hybrid quantum circuit of qubits with short-range coupling researchers predict that increasing the rate of measurement causes the entropy to saturate at a lower value that is independent of the system size [1‚Äì3] a measurement-induced phase transition (mip) occurs between these two behaviors in the form of a vanishing entanglement-entropy density in the thermodynamic limit besides systems with short-range coupling mips also occur in quantum many-body systems with long-range couplings between qubits such as arrays of rydberg atoms or trapped ions long-range couplings fall off slowly with distance as 1‚àïrŒ± where r is the separation between the qubits and Œ± is an exponent controlling the couplings decay this coupling is known to enhance the entanglement-building power of a quantum many-body system as it enables direct entanglement between distant qubits it was unknown however how measurements (and entanglement erasing) would compete with this enhanced entanglement building in other words how does long-range coupling affect a systems mip three teams have now independently explored this question [4‚Äì6] the teams study this problem in different quantum many-body systems and use different approaches but they all find that mips survive for large Œ± they also predict that the systems that they study will exhibit rich dynamical behaviors as Œ± decreases two of the teams considered the same platform: a quantum hamiltonian system of fermions with long-range hopping these fermions do not directly interact with each other but they can hop between two spatially distant lattice sites this hopping acts as the coupling-like behavior explored in other quantum many-body systems [4‚Äì6] previous research looked at free fermions with short-ranged hopping finding that the mip occurs when the saturation value goes from being proportional to the logarithm of the systems size to being independent of the systems size [7] in the new studies performed by thomas m√ºller and colleagues from the university of cologne germany and takaaki minato from keio university japan and colleagues the same short-ranged mip behavior is found for long-range hopping but only when the decay exponent is large: Œ±>15 m√ºller and colleagues developed a model to understand the origins of this critical value of Œ± [6] when 1<Œ±<15 they find that long-range interactions induce no mip but instead cause the system to sit in a phase where the entanglement entropy grows and saturates at a value that goes as l3‚àï2‚à팱 where l is the systems volume minato and colleagues also explored different values of Œ± deriving for it a lower bound for a mip to occur that relates to a systems entanglement entropy generation rate [4] for a 1d system of free fermions with long-range hopping the team finds a lower bound of Œ±=15 which agrees with the results of m√ºller and colleagues by accounting for long-range density-density interactions minato and colleagues further generalized their approach to the case where the fermions also interact they find that the interactions increase the lower bound on an mips appearance to Œ±=2 a third team which was made up of maxwell block and colleagues from the university of california berkeley looked instead at a quantum-circuit-model platform mapping the circuit model to a long-range ising model and then carrying out numerical simulations of so-called clifford circuits they find that mip behavior occurred for their model for values of Œ±>3 block and his colleagues studied mips for values of Œ± from above 3 down to 0 where the coupling becomes all-to-allmeaning the coupling is the same between all qubits regardless of distance they find a sequence of dynamical phases and transitions for different values of Œ± that are distinct from the mip found in the same system with short-range coupling in particular when Œ±<1 the team observes that the saturating entanglement entropy is always proportional to the system size but that measurement induces a phase transition in the dynamics of the systems entanglement structure [8 9] controlling the entanglement structure of a quantum many-body system has fundamental theoretical interest as well as practical importance these three new results suggest that it is possible to alter the entanglement structure of a quantum many-body systems steady state by tuning the rate at which measurements are made and the coupling range of the systems qubits the next step for researchers will be characterizing in more depth the unique entanglement structures that the three teams find and then harnessing those structures for quantum many-body applications such as encoding teleporting and decoding quantum information and engineering nonequilibrium phase of matter recently mips have been predicted and experimentally observed for a quantum computer made of trapped ions [10] it would be interesting to design protocols to experimentally observe the predicted transitions and phases as a function of the coupling range another interesting direction is to study how this tunable mip behavior can be affected by quenched disorder which tends to slow down a quantum systems dynamics the article long-range coupling affects entanglement dynamics was written by dr shenglong xu and appeared first on aps physics share: " " an international effort to quantify wave-particle duality in photons that originated with a texas a&m university scientist in 2020 has been honored as a physics world top 10 breakthrough of 2021 the institute for basic science in south koreas tai hyun yoon and minhaeng cho and the stevens institute of technologys xiaofeng qian were cited by the internationally renowned iop publishing journal along with texas a&m physicist girish s agarwal for an intriguing combination of experimental and theoretical work that quantified the wave-ness and particle-ness of a photon and also demonstrated that both properties are related to the purity of the photon source according to a physics world¬†press release yoon and cho were able to tightly control the quantum state of pairs of photons a signal and an idler emitted by two crystals of lithium niobate by independently altering the chances that each crystal would emit photons they showed that this so-called source purity is related to the visibility of interference fringes (a wave-like property) and path distinguishability (a particle-like property) by a simple mathematical expression that was first articulated by qian and agarwal in 2020 the result has applications in quantum information and puts a new twist on interpretations of complementarity an idea first articulated by 20th century quantum pioneer niels bohr positing that quantum objects sometimes behave like waves and at other times like particles this was a great achievement that they could produce a single photon state where all the parameters were at their control agarwal said about yoon and chos experiments which were first published in science advances last august the teams pioneering work earned selection as one of the top 10 finalists for the physics world 2021 breakthrough of the year unveiled in a december 14 announcement issued by the journal as quantum entanglement of two macroscopic objects the 10 research projects were chosen by five physics world editors from a list of nearly 600 research updates published on the website this year girish agarwal and his associates apply quantum science to improve microscopy and spectroscopy ushering in a life-science resolution revolution said texas a&m distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully a longtime colleague of agarwals who helped to recruit him to texas a&m five years ago agarwal joined the texas a&m faculty in september 2016 as a professor in the department of biological and agricultural engineering and the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the institute for quantum science and engineering he was one of the 10 initial faculty including five at texas a&m recruited to the state of texas through the governors university research initiative prior to coming to texas a&m agarwal served as the noble foundation chair and a regents professor at oklahoma state university where he was recognized with the eminent faculty award in 2012 his research spans both the theoretical and experimental realms of quantum optics in particular the interaction of laser light with atoms and development of bio-photonics technologies and applications to identify and detect chemical compounds and pathogens at a distance in addition to being a globally recognized leader in quantum optics agarwal also has made major contributions to the fields of nonlinear optics nanophotonics and plasmonics his 2013 textbook quantum optics covers a wide range of recent developments in the field and has been well received by the community agarwal is a fellow of the royal society (2008) world academy of sciences (1997) optical society of america (1986) and american physical society (1981) as well as the national academy of sciences india allahabad (1988) indian national science academy new delhi (1985) and indian academy of sciences bangalore (1981) in addition he is an honorary fellow of the indian association for cultivation of science kolkata (2008) his many career awards include the humboldt research award (1997) the optical and quantum electronics societys einstein medal (1994) the third world academy of sciences prize in physics (1994) the osas max-born award (1988) and the government of indias shanti swaroop bhatnagar award in physical sciences (1982) learn more about the physics world 2021 breakthrough of the year as well as the 10 finalists all of which are discussed in the december 9 edition of the physics world weekly podcast # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr girish s agarwal (979) 458-7939 or girishagarwal@tamuedu the post texas a&m physicist among finalists for physics world 2021 breakthrough of the year appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m " " the texas a&m university chapter of the society of physics students (sps) has been recognized by the associations national office as a 2020-2021 sps distinguished chapter texas a&ms sps chapter housed within the department of physics and astronomy and advised by associate department head for undergraduate programs dr alexey belyanin was recognized for the second consecutive year and second time in its history for its excellence as a top-tier student-led physical sciences organization among the hundreds of chapters located at colleges and universities across the united states and internationally dr alexey belyanin we at the sps national office want to take this opportunity to commend and applaud you for your tireless efforts to enrich the sps community said dr brad r conrad director of sps and sigma pi sigma it is because of your dedication and commitment to the sps mission and vision that we are able to foster such a strong sps community we are consistently amazed each year at how much time energy and effort everyone devotes to their departments and local communities as a professional association designed for students sps membership is open to anyone interested in physics and related fields sps operates within the american institute of physics an umbrella organization for professional physical science societies each year sps chapters are evaluated on their level of interaction with the campus community the professional physics community the public and with sps national programs the outstanding chapter awards recognize high levels of outreach as well as unique approaches to fulfilling the mission of sps to help students transform themselves into contributing members of the professional community texas a&ms sps chapter is an officially recognized student organization that seeks to provide opportunities for physics majors and enthusiasts to gather and share ideas have fun and organize local outreach and volunteer events that demonstrate science members are highly active within the department participating in the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival just add science game day physics and the real physics live educational video series along with other community-oriented activities and experiential learning programs we have a very active chapter with weekly meetings guest lecturers career panels a social program and of course numerous outreach activities belyanin said perhaps even more importantly the sps plays a crucial role in creating a warm welcoming atmosphere for undergraduate students in the department and helps them connect with their peers graduate students and faculty senior sps members even teach a freshman seminar the game day physics crew at the october 2 2021 #sciencenow tailgate in academic plaza the chapter is run entirely by students the sps leadership team managed to run a very active program in school year 2020-2021 despite covid restrictions this fall we are back with a full spectrum of events and activities overseen by the current 2021-2022 president nathan valadez 22 in addition to receiving a certificate the group is listed on the sps website and will be recognized in the winter issue of the sps observer the texas a&m sps chapter did it again said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy this winning streak of getting the sps award for the second consecutive year is a great testament to the dedication and hard work that our majors put into the activities of our chapter and broader community the welcoming and supportive environment created by the chapter provides a tremendous help to our majors in navigating an exciting but always challenging world of academic studies in physics and astronomy congratulations again to all members of texas a&m sps chapter i thank the chapters leadership team and its faculty advisor dr belyanin learn more about the texas a&m sps chapter or the society of physics students at the national level -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@tamuedu the post texas a&m society of physics students chapter earns second consecutive national honor appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " three years ago this month texas a&m university physicist ralf rapp¬†was first author on a paper that currently ranks as the top-cited article among all those appearing in the peer-reviewed elsevier journal nuclear physics a during the past five years the paper extraction of heavy-flavor transport coefficients in qcd matter summarizes the results of a rapid reaction task force working groups that are funded by the extreme matter institute (emmi) at gsi research center in darmstadt germany to make significant progress on hot current topics in a variety of fields rapp served as the leader of the group which featured four additional co-conveners corresponding to the first five authors on the paper that sought to explore the transport properties of the early universe dr ralf rapp rapp a university professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and a member of the cyclotron institute since 2003 is an internationally recognized leader in high energy nuclear physics he and his research group conduct theoretical studies of matter as it existed in the earliest moments of our universe and how it interacts at high temperatures and densities based on the fundamental forces and properties of the strongly interacting matter that is formed in heavy-ion collisions during the past two decades rapp has made essential contributions in multiple areas of quantum chromodynamics (qcd) a theory of the strong force which predicts that when heated to 2 trillion degrees or compressed to several times nuclear density qcd matter no longer consists of the protons and neutrons that we are made of instead it forms a plasma of free quarks and gluons known as quark gluon plasma (qgp) that filled the universe during the first few microseconds after the big bang and may be present today in the cores of neutron stars rapp is among the worlds elite researchers investigating qgp through theoretical calculations that try to understand the results from major collaborative experiments that collide heavy nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies achievable with brookhaven national laboratorys relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) and the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern without a doubt dr rapp is a world-renowned leader in the field of theoretical analysis of quark gluon plasma the subject matter of this celebrated paper said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy his efforts are central to our understanding of this exotic state of matter that defined the first milliseconds of the universes existence his genius and extremely hard work propelled him to the very top of his field and the distinction of being the first author of the most-cited paper in nuclear physics a is a testament to that in addition to his remarkable achievement in studies of the properties of heavy quarks and their bound states or quarkonia in qgp dr rapp has made several other seminal contributions and theoretical predictions which were then spectacularly verified experimentally i am excited about his latest achievement and i believe that there are many more to come five years ago rapp says his emmi groups goal was to achieve a better understanding of heavy-quark diffusion within the extremely hot nuclear-matter qgp phase measuring more than 100 million times the suns surface temperature in which protons and neutrons dissolved into their elementary building blocks consisting of quarks and gluons that created more than 98 percent of the visible mass in the universe by colliding heavy atomic nuclei at high energies modern-day experiments seek to recreate the qgp within laboratory settings including heavy quarks or particles containing the heavy charm and bottom quarks that are believed to be excellent brownian markers of the qgp as it was formed in these heavy-ion collisions in particular the heavy-quark diffusion coefficient that describes their brownian¬†motion through the qgp is one of the key transport parameters that can be inferred by analyzing the corresponding experimental data rapp said the results thus far confirm that the qgp is a very strongly coupled liquid despite its record temperatures of more than two trillion degrees¬†kelvin the largest ever produced in the laboratory after successfully applying for and being approved for emmi funding in 2015 rapp says most of the fields leading researchers gathered in july 2016 for an initial meeting complete with preparatory homework assignments designed to give the various participating research groups the opportunity to apply their models and simulations to well-defined test cases that allowed them to better understand the common features and differences of the research approaches after a follow-up meeting in december 2016 rapp notes it took almost another year to write up and finalize the publication it was a rather challenging process having to assemble the researchers contributions and keeping up the momentum rapp said i daresay that i pushed a lot in this phase and thats why in the end it was decided that i would be the first author it is really gratifying to see it frequently cited now it will probably remain the top-cited paper until the end of the year at which point it will fall beyond the five-year timeframe criteria to date rapp has more than 140 publications in referred journals results that have been cited in excess of 13 000 times with an h-index of 58 he has delivered hundreds of invited talks throughout the world including plenary and summary talks at top-tier conferences and symposia and written approximately 90 conference proceedings most of which were also refereed as a 2004 national science foundation career award recipient his research has been continuously funded by nsf single-principal investigator grants ever since attracting additional funding from the humboldt foundation the spanish ministry of education and science the national natural science foundation of china and the us department of energy national nuclear security administration a 2014 fellow of the american physical society (aps) he was recognized along with his former graduate student x zhao with the 2009 robert s hyer graduate research award from the texas section of the aps learn more about rapp and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr ralf rapp (979) 845-1411 or rapp@cyclotrontamuedu the post texas a&m physicist ralf rapp authors most-cited paper in nuclear physics journals recent history appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " two faculty in the college of science are among 20 texas a&m university faculty named to the 2021 class of presidential impact fellows announced october 28¬†by the office of the provost and dean of faculties emily pentzer an associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering and department of chemistry and louis strigari an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy both received the coveted honor created by texas a&m president michael k young in 2017 to recognize the continued development of and excellence in one of the universitys greatest strengths its faculty dr emily b pentzer the fifth official class of presidential impact fellows joins more than 75 colleagues recognized in prior years with one of the most prestigious scholarly impact awards presented to texas a&m faculty the award was initiated by president young as a significant investment in faculty excellence and a recognition of the scholarship personal commitment and global impact awardees are making as they rise to meet the challenges of their field and demonstrate impact each member of the 2021 class selected from among faculty within texas a&ms 16 colleges and schools two branch campuses and comprehensive university libraries will receive an annual stipend of $25 000 for the next three fiscal years to accelerate their teaching research and service efforts in addition to retaining the title of presidential impact fellow for life each will receive a glass art memento reflecting the synergy of transformational learning discovery and impact achieved through texas a&ms commitment to creating a better world recipients are identified by their deans and confirmed by academic leadership they are considered candidates for continued or new national and international acclaim and will utilize this honor to participate in national dialogue advance their scholarship and create new partnerships pentzer and strigari join biologist christine merlin (2020); chemists lei fang (2020) wenshe ray liu (2018) and karen l wooley (2017); mathematicians simon foucart (2019) and eric c rowell (2018); and physicists rupak mahapatra (2019) saskia mioduszewski (2018) and alexei v sokolov (2017) as current presidential impact fellows within the college of science pentzer joined the texas a&m faculty in 2019 and in addition to materials science and engineering and chemistry is an affiliated faculty member in the department of chemical engineering she received her doctorate in organic chemistry from northwestern university in 2010 and completed postdoctoral study at the university of massachusetts amherst where she worked with professor todd emrick on the synthesis and assembly of electronically active materials for organic photovoltaics as part of a department of energy (doe) energy frontier research center on polymer-based materials for harvesting solar energy prior to coming to texas a&m she spent six years as the frank hovorka assistant professor of chemistry at case western reserve university (cwru) with a secondary appointment in macromolecular science and engineering pentzer is a nationally recognized rising star in polymer chemistry whose dynamic and interdisciplinary research program at the intersection of science and engineering centers around designing synthesizing and evaluating composite organic materials with diverse application in energy healthcare the environment and industry for example she currently is a co-principal investigator for a three-year $36 million doe project exploring novel direct-air capture (dac) techniques to remove carbon dioxide from ambient air in order to help fight climate change other major projects include polymer-based optical data storage in a quaternary code development of new polymer chemistries and 3d printing of multifunctional materials for sensing or thermal energy management pentzer is an associate editor for the royal society of chemistry journal polymer chemistry and was elected alternate councilor for the american chemical society (acs) polymer division in 2020 her career honors to date include being named as a 2021 azz inc faculty fellow and a 2017 acs polymer materials science and engineering division young investigator as well as receiving the 2021 acs women chemist committee rising star award the 2019 cwru faculty diversity excellence award the 2017 outstanding professor award for cwru engineering groups and a 2016 national science foundation faculty early career development (career) award in addition she was selected in 2020 for the wall of fame at her high school alma mater bedford north lawrence high school in bedford indiana i am delighted that emily pentzer has been chosen as a presidential impact fellow said dr simon w north professor and head of texas a&m chemistry not only is she a nationally recognized rising star in the area of polymer chemistry but she is also a wonderful dynamic colleague who has already made many valuable contributions to the department of chemistry and texas a&m university the influence and impact of her groups diverse research portfolio and abundant potential is clear having invaluable support from this program at such a critical point in her career will help to ensure her bright future louis strigari strigari joined the texas a&m faculty in 2014 where he is a member of the texas a&m astronomy group and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he received his doctorate in physics from the ohio state university in 2005 and completed a postdoctoral stint at the university of california irvine (2005-2008) prior to spending five years at stanford universitys kavli institute for particle astrophysics and cosmology initially as a hubble fellow and postdoctoral researcher (2008-2011) and then as a research associate (2011-2013) he began his independent career as an assistant professor at indiana university (2013-2014) before coming to texas a&m strigaris research at the interface of particle physics astrophysics and cosmology uses astronomical observations to study fundamental physics that is difficult to access through terrestrial experimental methods with a particular focus on dark matter and neutrinos he is an international expert in understanding the astrophysical properties of dark matter and widely known in the high energy physics and astronomy communities as the first theorist in the world to recognize that astrophysical neutrinos would be a fundamental limitation to direct searches for dark matter in addition he has played a crucial role in understanding dark matter distributions in dwarf galaxies and connecting these measurements to high energy physics experiments such as the fermi-lat (large area telescope) collaboration that is using high energy gamma-ray astrophysics to search for dark matter signatures strigari also was a key contributor to vetting and interpreting the data from the local group and milky way satellite galaxies for the dark energy survey moreover he was the first to suggest that astrometric measurements of stars in dwarf galaxies could place strong bounds on particle dark matter observations that now are being performed by the gaia satellite his work with local collaborators motivated the development of the mitchell institute neutrino experiment at reactor (miner) which is housed at the texas a&m nuclear science center strigaris research is funded by the doe nasa the gordon and betty moore foundation and previously the nsf he has been active in creating and organizing events that attract leading researchers from around the world ranging from workshops at the mitchell institute to large conferences such as the 27th international conference on supersymmetry and unification of fundamental interactions (susy 2019) in corpus christi he was named a kavli frontiers of science fellow by the national academy of sciences in 2015 and recently selected to serve as a coordinator of the neutrino theory working group for snowmass 2021 which sets the priorities for high energy physics research in the upcoming decade professor strigaris research is at the interface of modern cosmology and high energy physics an exciting new direction that is poised to deliver new results on the cosmological evolution of the universe said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy his vision and scientific intuition already have led him to achieve amazing results by discovering a so-called neutrino floor an irreducible background from coherent neutrino scattering that has to be taken into account in all direct searches for dark matter professor strigari is a key link between the theoretical high energy physics and astronomy groups in the mitchell institute he has been recognized as a young leader in these fields and been enormously successful his research is tremendously impactful and highly cited this award will further help him develop his research program and put him in an excellent position to receive prestigious nationally competitive awards in the future to learn more about faculty in the college of science visit http://sciencetamuedu/faculty/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post two texas a&m science faculty named 2021 presidential impact fellows appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " although they sometimes get short shrift in terms of prioritizing funding and staffing physics educational outreach programs are a solid investment with benefits far beyond the institutional bottom line according to a new study for the study physicists and learning scientists spent roughly two years surveying and interviewing more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students involved in presenting multiple physics outreach programs at texas a&m university in the teams final analysis published in the journal physical review physics education research they determined that students gain as much from their experiences as their audiences do namely positive effects on their identities as science professionals that can offer invaluable insight into their persistence and retention in stem not to mention their preparation for 21st century careers in science and other areas though often considered a low priority public service university-based physics outreach programs increasingly are being recognized for the direct positive impact they have not only on audiences and attendees but also on the students facilitating them says corresponding author tatiana erukhimova a physicist and professor for teaching excellence the idea that outreach programs are beneficial only for school children or members of the public is misguided because it misses a potential transformational educational experience of the university students directly involved in presenting these programs she says the study the largest of its kind to date determined through a combination of completed surveys and follow-up interviews that students experienced an overwhelmingly positive effect on their physics identity became more confident in their scientific abilities increased their sense of belonging to the physics community and developed communication teamwork networking and design skills as a result of helping to facilitate one or more outreach programs the transition from novice to physicist is a lengthy and complex process guided by both formal and informal experiences erukhimova says for many this is a journey that begins with a movement toward becoming a physicist but subsequently turns in other directions in this work we observed how participation in informal physics programs can support an individual in becoming a physicist and boost their development through less-structured but critically-important experiential learning involvement in educational outreach can provide rich teaching opportunities for students bringing physics beyond the pages of a textbook and challenging them to break down concepts which potentially promotes a deeper understanding the study authors note in addition physics outreach programs can provide pathways to enhanced confidence through experiential contexts beyond classrooms and laboratories by facilitating outreach students foster skills that promote career readiness from communication teamwork networking and design skills to an increased conceptual understanding of physics our results add to the growing understanding of how informal physics or outreach programs provide a platform for broader interactions between individual students and the stem community and equip university students with the skills needed for the 21st-century careers erukhimova says the data may help physics departments across the country design the out-of-classroom experiences of their students in a way that would improve their persistence and retention within stem disciplines and better prepare them for 21st-century careers in science and beyond the college of science diversity and equity small grants program funded the work -atm- the post physics outreach programs are a win-win for students community appeared first on futurity share: " " two texas a&m university faculty members mathematician dr peter kuchment and astronomer dr casey papovich¬† have been elected as 2021 fellows of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists each year no more than one-half of 1 percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize members who have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service kuchment and papovich are among 154 fellows unveiled october 13 by the aps and two of the five selected from texas-based institutions dr peter kuchment kuchment a distinguished professor in the texas a&m department of mathematics whose international expertise spans the fields of partial differential equations medical imaging and mathematical physics was nominated by the division of condensed matter physics he is cited for fundamental contributions to mathematical physics and inverse problems of medical imaging and homeland security papovich a professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and an expert in the field of observational astronomy as well as galaxy formation and evolution was nominated by the division of astrophysics he is cited for innovation and leadership in the physics of galaxy formation and evolution and for critical contributions in methods to understand the stellar content and formation histories of distant galaxies using ultraviolet optical and infrared measurements kuchment joined the texas a&m mathematics faculty in 2001 after 11 years on the faculty at wichita state university he was appointed in 2011 as a distinguished professor texas a&ms highest academic rank for faculty and is an affiliated member of the texas a&m institute of data science and the center for excellence in nuclear training and university-based research (centaur) as well as a member of the institute for applied mathematics and computational science and the nuclear solutions institute kuchment earned his phd in mathematics and physics from kharkov state university kharkov ukraine in 1973 and his doctorate in mathematics and physics from the academy of sciences in kiev ukraine in 1983 he then joined the faculty at the forestry institute and state university in voronezh russia achieving the rank of professor in 1985 prior to immigrating to the united states in 1989 during his time at texas a&m kuchment has made seminal contributions in the areas of computed tomography quantum graphs differential equations and photonic crystals his research program has attracted continuous funding support from the national science foundation the us departments of energy and homeland security and other federal agencies as but one example among many his expertise has been key for more than a decade to a large collaborative project headed by texas a&m nuclear engineers to detect illicit weapons-grade nuclear materials at border crossings and other us points of entry in addition to the aps kuchment is a fellow of the society for industrial and applied mathematics (2018) the american mathematical society (2012) the institute of physics (2009) and the american association for the advancement of science (2015) as well as a senior member of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (2015) he has authored more than 200 research publications in peer-reviewed professional journals along with four books on partial differential equations quantum graphs and medical imaging while editing more than a dozen in these and similar areas as well in addition he has given numerous plenary talks and organized prestigious conferences in mathematical physics tomography and partial differential equations equally respected in the classroom kuchment received an association of former students distinguished achievement college-level award in teaching in 2008 he is also the founding director of the summer mathematics research training (smart) camp a two-week nsf-funded program he started in 2009 at texas a&m to broaden and encourage advanced high school students interest in mathematics dr kuchment is an extraordinary faculty member who is central to the research group in mathematical physics as well as mentoring students and younger colleagues said dr sarah j witherspoon professor and head of texas a&m mathematics this is an extremely well-deserved honor for his many contributions to multiple fields including applications of the mathematical theory of partial differential equations such as medical imaging through ct scans wave propagation and topological insulator materials papovich joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty in 2008 as an assistant professor and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in may 2015 as an inaugural holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in physics and astronomy and promoted to full professor in september 2016 dr casey papovich papovich earned his doctorate in physics from the johns hopkins university in 2002 where he worked at the space telescope science institute in baltimore md prior to coming to texas a&m he completed postdoctoral research as a nasa spitzer prize postdoctoral fellow at the university of arizonas steward observatory (2002-2008) conducting research using the spitzer space telescope papovichs research focuses on the formation and evolution of the most distant galaxies observational cosmology and the growth of large-scale structures and its impact on galaxy evolution his research utilizes data from nasas space-based great observatories as well as the largest terrestrial telescopes he has authored more than 250 technical publications in astronomy and cosmology and is a three-time thomson reuters highly cited researcher (2014-2016) recognized as among the top 1 percent of the worlds leading researchers in his field a renowned speaker and science communicator papovich also is a popular lecturer and has received multiple awards for his innovative and engaging teaching methods since 2018 he has served as a faculty lead for the warrior-scholar project¬†at texas a&m a two-week academic boot camp for veterans transitioning to college in addition to being a science team member for the maunakea spectroscopic explorer project in hawaii papovich serves on the advisory committee for the giant magellan telescope currently under construction in chile he also is a co-principal investigator for the proposal recently awarded one of the largest shares of time during cycle 1 for the james webb space telescope set to launch in december his teams collaborative survey will entail some of the deepest imaging to be done during the telescopes first year in space in order to study the universes oldest galaxies to better understand their composition and evolution over time dr papovich is an outstanding scholar an embodiment of the very best in the academic profession said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy he is a renowned astronomer with several important contributions to the field of galaxy formation and evolution and other areas of astronomy he is an extremely popular instructor and he is also a great colleague i am delighted that dr papovich received this recognition which i am sure will be followed by many other awards in years to come! founded in 1899 the american physical society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and circulate the knowledge of physics through aps research journals scientific meetings education outreach advocacy and international collaboration the aps is composed of more than 55 000 members including physicists in academia national laboratories and industry in the united states and throughout the world for more information on the american physical society or the aps fellowship program visit https://wwwapsorg # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr peter kuchment (979) 862-3257 or kuchment@mathtamuedu; or dr casey j papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu the post kuchment papovich elected as 2021 american physical society fellows appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " although educational outreach programs sometimes get short shrift in academic circles in terms of prioritizing funding and staffing a new texas a&m university study indicates they are a solid investment with benefits far beyond the institutional bottom line when it comes to physics physicists and learning scientists at texas a&m and the university of texas at austin spent roughly two years surveying and interviewing more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students involved in presenting multiple physics outreach programs at texas a&m in the teams final analysis published last month in the american physical society (aps) journal physical review physics education research they determined that students gain as much from their experiences as their audiences do namely positive effects on their identities as science professionals that can offer invaluable insight into their persistence and retention in stem not to mention their preparation for 21st century careers in science and other areas students have multiple opportunities to get involved in physics outreach including as members of the award-winning texas a&m chapter of the society of physics students shown here participating in game day physics (above) and just add science festivities at downtown bryan first fridays (below) though often considered a low priority public service university-based physics outreach programs increasingly are being recognized for the direct positive impact they have not only on audiences and attendees but also on the students facilitating them said texas a&m physicist and presidential professor for teaching excellence tatiana erukhimova corresponding author of the study which was based on self-reported data previously presented in preliminary form at the aps march meeting 2021 the idea that outreach programs are beneficial only for school children or members of the public is misguided because it misses a potential transformational educational experience of the university students directly involved in presenting these programs the study the largest of its kind to date determined through a combination of completed surveys and follow-up interviews that students experienced an overwhelmingly positive effect on their physics identity became more confident in their scientific abilities increased their sense of belonging to the physics community and developed communication teamwork networking and design skills as a result of helping to facilitate one or more outreach programs during their time at texas a&m the transition from novice to physicist is a lengthy and complex process guided by both formal and informal experiences erukhimova said for many this is a journey that begins with a movement toward becoming a physicist but subsequently turns in other directions in this work we observed how participation in informal physics programs can support an individual in becoming a physicist and boost their development through less-structured but critically-important experiential learning each year students who are affiliated with the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program debut dozens of new hands-on demonstrations as part of their annual deep showcase that are used at the physics and engineering festival and countless other outreach events (credit: tim st martin) the study authors note that involvement in educational outreach can provide rich teaching opportunities for students bringing physics beyond the pages of a textbook and challenging them to break down concepts which potentially promotes a deeper understanding in addition physics outreach programs can provide pathways to enhanced confidence through experiential contexts beyond classrooms and laboratories by facilitating outreach students foster skills that promote career readiness from communication teamwork networking and design skills to an increased conceptual understanding of physics our results add to the growing understanding of how informal physics or outreach programs provide a platform for broader interactions between individual students and the stem community and equip university students with the skills needed for the 21st century careers erukhimova added the data may help physics departments across the country design the out-of-classroom experiences of their students in a way that would improve their persistence and retention within stem disciplines and better prepare them for 21st century careers in science and beyond in addition to erukhimova the team featured 2020 texas a&m physics graduate and first author callie a rethman 20 who is now teaching physics in the cypress-fairbanks independent school district; university of texas physicist jonathan perry a 2018 texas a&m physics phd graduate and former texas a&m physicist; texas a&m center for teaching excellence postdoctoral research associate jonan donaldson; and 2020 texas a&m masters in educational psychology graduate daniel y choi 20 who is currently pursuing his doctorate in the same area and also is affiliated with the cte supporting outreach programs not only fulfills the service mission of our public university but also a critical part of our educational mission by helping participating students build their professional identity and develop important career skills erukhimova said the teams research was funded in part by the college of science diversity and equity small grants program their paper impact of informal physics programs on university student development: creating a physicist can be viewed online along with related figures and citations we would like to thank all students who participated in the survey and interviews erukhimova said we would also like to thank the many wonderful students faculty staff and donors who make our outreach programs possible learn more about educational outreach programs in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m study finds physics outreach participation benefits scientific identity student career prospects appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " three academic programs in the texas a&m university college of science are among the worlds top 50 in the shanghai ranking 2021 global ranking of academic subjects (gras) statistics paced the college of science coming in at 18th worldwide and 15th among us universities within the 200 total global institutions ranked in the discipline chemistry followed closely at 22nd globally and 11th in the us among a total of 500 institutions listed in the subject mathematics rounded out texas a&m sciences top-50 trio clocking in at 42nd among its globally ranked field of 500 and 21st in the us the 2021 shanghai global ranking of academic subjects (gras) assessed more than 4 000 universities in a total of 54 subjects across the natural sciences engineering life sciences medical sciences and social sciences two additional texas a&m science programs physics and biological sciences came in globally between 100-151 and 151-200 respectively (beyond 100 universities are listed in batch increments according to alphabetical order) collectively texas a&m is ranked among the top 50 institutions worldwide in 17 subjects these rankings reflect highly on the college of sciences impact on scientific research and education around the world said texas a&m dean of science and distinguished professor of statistics dr valen e johnson the shanghai ranking officially known as the academic ranking of world universities (arwu) has been published on an annual basis by the shanghai jiao tong university since 2003 it is recognized as the precursor of global university rankings as well as one of the most trustworthy given its transparent methodology and objective use of third-party data the arwu uses six objective indicators to rank world universities including the number of alumni and staff winning nobel prizes and fields medals as well as a variety of research-focused indicators such as number of research publications and citations more than 1 800 universities are ranked by arwu every year with the best 1 000 being published in this years arwu ranking texas a&m finished between 151-200 globally and 57-62 in the us respectively three subjects housed within the texas a&m college of science finished among the top 50 in the world: statistics (18th) chemistry (22nd) and mathematics (42nd) the shanghai ranking began to rank universities by academic subjects in 2009 continually refining its methodology before releasing its initial published global ranking of academic subjects (gras) in 2017 the 2021 gras contains rankings of universities in a total of 54 subjects across the natural sciences engineering life sciences medical sciences and social sciences more than 4 000 universities from 93 countries were evaluated for the current ranking which lists more than 1 800 institutions across the five categories combined learn more about the shanghai ranking including methodology at http://wwwshanghairankingcom/ for additional information about research in the texas a&m college of science visit https://sciencetamuedu/research/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas¬†a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr valen e johnson (979) 845-8817 or vejohnson@tamuedu the post three texas a&m science academic programs ranked among worlds top 50 appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " every summer incoming aggie freshmen report to reed arena for fish camp with stuffed luggage bags and vague expectations of the week ahead by the time they find a parking spot in lot 100 most of those expectations have already vanished up and down the sidewalk and throughout the lot camp counselors clad head-to-toe in brightly colored t-shirts with dyed hair tutus piercings (some fake some authentic) and mardi gras beads greet the gawking campers the scene is surreal by design during the week the message becomes clear: being cool is so high school college is a place to be yourself since its move to the lakeview methodist conference center in palestine texas in 1957 fish camp has become a quintessential part of the texas a&m university experience but for some freshmen from low-income families the $250 registration fee renders the camp an unjustifiable luxury katherine 88 00 and dr david toback are determined to help make fish camp available to all who wish to participate regardless of socioeconomic status seeing the need the tobacks are a unique aggie couple katherine is the assistant director of the undergraduate programs office in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering she earned bachelors and masters degrees from texas a&m in agricultural economics and ultimately found her passion mentoring students as an academic advisor for university athletics and the recreation park and tourism sciences department her experience with underprivileged students inspired her to give back grants and student aid only go so far she explained it broke my heart that some students couldnt enjoy everything college had to offer just because of their backgrounds group hug between #camptobackneverdies tobackians david had no ties to texas a&m before joining its faculty in 2000 a native chicagoan with degrees from the massachusetts institute of technology and the university of chicago he met katherine while serving in his current role as a professor in the department of physics and astronomy students across campus know him for his popular undergraduate course big bang and black holes which attempts to unravel the universes origins and other cosmic mysteries without advanced math the courses perspective-shifting curriculum combined with davids comedic teaching style attracts hundreds of students across disciplines every semester before katherine arrived at texas a&m as a freshman in fall 1984 she worried as many freshmen do about making friends with her fellow students i went to a large high school but there were only four people i knew who also chose to attend texas a&m and we werent close she said fish camp provided a powerful opportunity to meet and bond with her peers i knew when i got to campus i would already have a group of friends the impact fish camp had stayed with her long after she left lakeview a week in the woods fish camp is divided into weeklong sessions with each session hosting different color-coordinated camps named after former students prominent campus leaders and aggie role models when katherine and david were honorably announced as fish camp namesakes in 2013 the couple gave back through time and effort to ensure camp toback was a wild success the tobacks befriended counselors interacted with campers and made a lasting impression on both online these so-called tobackians identified each other with the hashtag #camptobackneverdies by the time the last buses back to aggieland rode into the distance katherine and david knew they had found a program where they could make a difference with katherines low-income students in mind the tobacks established a $25 000 endowed scholarship to annually cover fish camp fees for two incoming students with preference for first-generation students with financial need the couple also established an aggie ring scholarship through the association of former students specifically for previous recipients of their fish camp scholarship who earn their required 90 credit hours the unique offer was a logistical challenge to set up but the reasoning behind it is simple: its unacceptable for students to earn their aggie ring and not be able to get it david said if you earn it well buy it david toback toback a texas a&m physicist since 2000 and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has teamed with his wife katherine 88 to establish multiple gifts to texas a&m including the dr phyllis toback mechanics scholar award that annually recognizes the three highest scorers on the phys 206 mechanics scholars challenge exam given each fall and spring katherine still regularly volunteers to help operate fish camp during the summer even though the fish camp scholarship bears the couples name she clarified its true namesake the ‚Äòtoback in the toback fish camp scholarship is not for us; its for camp toback she insisted many of the counselors and fish in their camp went on to hold leadership positions in the organization and some remain in touch with katherine and david nearly a decade later the scholarship carries on their legacy by helping recipients like dora sanchez 25 and vanessa palacios 25 attend camp free of charge years after their namesake camp session the tobacks visited a community theater and david was called up from the audience to participate in an improvised skit while on stage a performer asked him questions about growing up school and what he did for a living at some point an anonymous voice shouted from somewhere in the room camp toback never dies! though they never did find out who said it the tobacks knew it was another life they had touched and that was more than enough * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * see the¬†original feature¬†as published by the¬†texas a&m foundation in their august 2021 e-newsletter # # # # # # # # # # where passion finds purpose:¬†the texas a&m foundation builds a brighter future for texas a&m university one relationship at a time by uniting generosity and vision to raise and manage major endowed gifts learn more at¬†https://wwwtxamfoundationcom/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or¬†shutchins@sciencetamuedu¬†or randy lunsford (979) 845-6474 or¬†rlunsford@txamfoundationcom written by bailey payne 19 the post texas a&m couple creates toback fish camp scholarship appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " researchers in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy have been awarded a three-year $127 million grant from the us department of energy (doe) in support of their world-leading detector research and development work that continues to play a key role in the supercdms dark matter search experiment and other major projects at the forefront of new physics dr rupak mahapatra texas a&m physicist and 2019 presidential impact fellow rupak mahapatra serves as principal investigator for the project which also involves fellow texas a&m physicists david toback and nader mirabolfathi theirs is one of 71 projects from 50 institutions selected last month for funding as part of a $93 million doe investment aimed at kick-starting new discoveries at the frontiers of particle physics through exploration in basic energy science particle physics plays a role in many major innovations of the 21st century and to keep our competitive edge america must invest in the scientists and engineers that are advancing basic physical science today to create the breakthroughs of tomorrow said secretary of energy jennifer m granholm the department of energy is proud to be the nations leading funder of physical sciences leading to life-changing medicines technologies and solutions that create a better future for the better part of the past two decades mahapatra and the supercdms program at texas a&m have been instrumental in positioning supercdms as a world leader in in the search for the elusive weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) believed to make up dark matter and therefore nearly a quarter of the universe since 2003 he has been a principal investigator with supercdms and the affiliated supercdms snolab experiment which uses highly sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees fahrenheit) germanium and silicon targets to detect rare nuclear recoil events the possible energy-based footprints of dark matter the supercdms snowlab experiment is one of the three dark matter experiments earmarked for funding support in 2014 by the us department of energy and the national science foundation in addition it is one of the two that are searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles (wimps) (credit: nasa)a dark matter particle passes through us every second yet we do not feel it due to their extremely rare interaction with ordinary matter said mahapatra a professor at texas a&m and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 in collaboration with stanford our group is leading the detector development for next-generation dark matter detectors utilizing cryogenically cooled semiconductor detectors with transition edge sensors what starts in mahapatras laboratory as bare germanium and silicon crystals is painstakingly transformed through a series of high-performance semiconductor technology-driven steps first the crystals are characterized based on purity and then polished to detector-grade specifications next they are enhanced with a thin layer of film onto which their texas a&m-developed transition edge sensors are photolithographically patterned finally the film is cryogenically tested using liquid helium and then carefully packaged for transport for additional scientific testing and payload preparation powered by five concurrent doe awards in the past few years mahapatra and his group continue to lead the design and development of cutting-edge detector technologies capable of dramatically improving the scientific potential of dark matter searches as well as those for beyond standard model (bsm) physics using coherent scattering of neutrinos one such example the mitchell institute neutrino experiment at reactor (miner) is housed at the texas a&m nuclear science center another example is the new spice/herald collaboration led by lawrence berkeley national laboratory that received $2 million in funding last year through the doe new initiatives in dark matter (nidm) half a million of which was allocated to mahapatras group the supercdms snolab experiment layout showing texas a&m detectors positioned at the heart of discovery (credit: supercdms snolab) most of these new detector development efforts focus on low-threshold detection that holds the key to discoveries in low-mass dark matter searches and reactor-based coherent neutrino scattering searches mahapatra said our supercdms group is in good position to contribute to many exciting aspects of those efforts while also providing excellent training for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers we also are playing leadership roles in the snolab data acquisition thanks to excellent computing infrastructure that has demonstrated its capabilities in monte carlo simulations and data processing all projects approved for funding are managed by the office of high energy physics within the doe office of science the supercdms collaborations work is funded by the doe along with the national science foundation and the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicists receive doe grant for detector research and development appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university astronomer dr lucas macri has been selected as one of the universitys four southeastern conference (sec) academic leadership development program (aldp) fellows for 2021-2022 announced texas a&m dean of faculties and associate provost dr blanca lupiani each year the sec offers its 14 member schools a unique opportunity to foster potential academic administration talent through fellowships that help prepare up-and-coming faculty leaders for further positions and careers in executive service the sec aldp launched in 2007 and texas a&m has appointed four fellows each year since joining the sec in 2012 program alumni have advanced to serve the university as deans a vice provost and in other executive roles this years fellowship class includes three associate deans and an associate department head macri a professor in the department of physics and astronomy and associate dean for undergraduate and international programs in the college of science joins dr karen kirkland professor and associate head of the department of nuclear engineering in the college of engineering; dr fredrick nafukho a professor in the department of educational administration and human resource development and associate dean for faculty affairs in the college of education and human development; and dr tiffany radcliff a professor of health policy and management and associate dean for research in the school of public health as texas a&ms representatives in the secs 13th overall aldp cohort the sec academic leadership development program offers participants a unique environment to continue developing leadership skills in partnership with other emerging and talented leaders from across the sec said lupiani one of texas a&ms inaugural sec aldp fellows in 2012 we are excited about the future for our aldp fellows and congratulate them for earning this opportunity macri who has served as an associate dean in texas a&m science since 2017 joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in 2008 he earned his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 and spent six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) before coming to texas a&m where his research focuses on measuring the expansion rate of the universe to better determine its composition and evolution as well as searching for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave events prior to focusing on undergraduate education and administration at the college level macri led the development of texas a&ms graduate program in astronomy which launched in fall 2016 a respected educator researcher and mentor he was recognized with a 2014 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at the college level and regularly participates in education and public outreach activities on campus and across the state of texas macri has served since 2020 as chair of the large synoptic survey telescope corporation a non-profit alliance of nearly 40 us and international institutions including texas a&m that is helping the astronomical community prepare for the vera c rubin observatorys upcoming 10-year legacy survey of space and time (lsst) an unprecedented time-resolved optical survey of the southern sky set to begin in early 2024 from chile he is also a member of the space telescope science institute council since 2019 and a co-principal investigator for the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) collaboration in northwestern argentina texas a&m fellows are nominated by deans vice presidents and associate provosts and represent tenured faculty and leaders in governance professional societies or national and regional roles critical to the academy early career administrators such as department heads and associate/assistant deans in their first terms are often tapped for their potential to contribute significantly in leadership roles throughout their careers fellows participate in a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own fellows along with two sec-wide three-day workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants the two workshops for 2021-2022 will be hosted by the university of georgia and the university of south carolina the comprehensive list of texas a&m aldp fellows is available on the texas a&m dean of faculties website for more information about macri visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/lucas-macri/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 845-7362 or lmacri@tamuedu the post lucas macri named sec academic leadership development program fellow appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " sophomore physics major connor bowerman 24 has been selected as one of two 2021-22 beckman scholars at texas a&m university as announced april 28 by the texas a&m launch: honors program the¬†beckman scholars program is a 15-month mentored research experience for exceptional undergraduate students in chemistry biological sciences or interdisciplinary combinations thereof at selected universities across the united states the program was established in 1997 by the california-based arnold and mabel beckman foundation to recognize and support outstanding undergraduate researchers whose studies of the chemistry of life will lead to the invention of new methods instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science the award honors the memory of arnold o beckman founder-chairman emeritus of beckman instruments inc and inventor of several scientific instruments including the beckman du spectrophotometer that revolutionized chemical analysis bowerman an austin native westlake high school graduate and 2020 eagle scout is the first beckman scholar from the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy he and his fellow 2021-22 honoree sophomore biochemistry major katelyn plank 24 from albuquerque are among 60 undergraduate scholars from 12 universities nationwide chosen to receive more than $15 million in 2021-22 beckman foundation scholarships the applicant pool for the beckman scholars program was an extremely competitive one and the review process meticulous said beckman foundation executive director dr anne hultgren in a january press release announcing the 12 institutions selected to receive 2021-22 program funding we are excited to announce our 2021 beckman scholars program award winners a range of universities that includes both past awardees and new institutions we are confident will host excellent research programs for their undergraduates we look forward to meeting the next cohort of beckman scholars learning more about the research projects theyll begin this summer and welcoming them to our upcoming annual beckman symposium each year on select campuses across the country beckham scholars are chosen on the basis of an intensive written application and interview process that probes each candidates goals values and commitment to a career in scientific research and community service texas a&ms process begins by identifying the top students majoring in specific scientific fields during the spring semester of their freshman year as beckman scholars each will start their undergraduate research career with the top beckman faculty mentors in their departments the summer prior to their sophomore year embarking on research projects that they will continue through graduation bowerman plans to continue fundamental physics-related exploration with texas a&m physicist alexey akimov whose expertise lies in quantum photonics light spin interfaces optical resonances and other topics at the intersection of condensed matter and quantum science bowerman recently began his research experience by studying the detection of covid-19 using fluorescent nanoparticles and enhancing the sensitivity of lateral flow assays with application to coronaviruses he will work with akimov to determine a specific direction for his beckman scholar research with the goal of publishing his work prior to his graduation from texas a&m in general bowerman says he enjoys the rigid definitions of physics and is interested in exploring basic physics research in areas such as particle physics nuclear energy and semiconductors when not focused on physics he also enjoys discussing philosophy describing himself as strategic and inquisitive his career goal is to maximize the amount of good i do while minimizing the amount of bad i do in addition to monthly meetings with beckman scholars from other universities to discuss their research bowerman will attend the annual beckman scholars symposium with his peers from around the us as well as professional conferences related to his specific areas of study beckman scholars also are expected to participate in a series of leadership and research programming designed to give them a unique depth and breadth of understanding of the overall research enterprise these experiences and opportunities include access to student-peer mentors and faculty research advisors leadership training such as communication skills and conflict management insight into and participation in the scientific review and publication process and preparation for national fellowship and graduate or professional school applications to date the beckman foundation has awarded $27 million to more than 1 300 students since making its first award 20 years ago texas a&m has been an invited member of the prestigious program since 2014 a total of 14 texas a&m students have been selected during the past seven years as beckman scholars including six from the college of science: biology students allison k baker 23 emily d chapa 23 and ryan j rahman 22; 2020 texas a&m biology graduate and fulbright scholar rachel l porter 20; and 2018 texas a&m chemistry graduate and brown-rudder award recipient brooke versaw 18 in addition to bowerman beckman scholars receive significant scholarship support from both the beckman foundation and the texas a&m division of research during summers and academic years as well as additional funds to help defray the cost of research supplies or travel to professional conferences their efforts also are supported in part by generous donations from the texas a&m association of former students learn more about the beckman scholars program or texas a&m honors and undergraduate research at http://launchtamuedu/honors find additional information about undergraduate research in the texas a&m college of science # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m physics major connor bowerman named beckman scholar appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m physicist dr tatiana erukhimova is one of three university faculty members who have been appointed to 2021 university professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence (upute) at texas a&m university erukhimova an instructional professor in the department of physics and astronomy will hold one of two eppright professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence a three-year appointment that carries an annual salary supplement of $5 000 provided by the university and an annual $5 000 discretionary income to support her teaching program and related professional development tatiana erukhimova erukhimova and her fellow 2021-2024 upute honorees texas a&m economics professor and 2021-2024 eppright professor dr jonathan meer and texas a&m educational psychology professor and 2021-2024 thaman professor dr robert jay woodward ¬†were formally recognized today (apr 30) during the opening session of the 2021 transformational teaching and learning conference presented virtually by the office of the dean of faculties in partnership with the center for teaching excellence and the office for academic innovation the prestigious upute awards are reserved for the universitys most distinguished teachers of undergraduates faculty who have exhibited uncommon excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students at texas a&m the professorships are made possible through generous endowments by george and irma eppright and arthur j and wilhelmina dor√© thaman texas a&m is known for its excellence in undergraduate education and appointment of these professorship holders is intended to both recognize and support that dedication to undergraduate education said texas a&m interim provost and executive vice president mark h weichold 78 erukhimova a faculty member and outreach coordinator in the¬†texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2006 earned her phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1999 for the past decade and a half she has excelled in teaching large introductory physics classes combining high expectations with devoted support to transform the relationship her students have with physics she is passionate about reaching every student in keeping with her classroom motto: no student is left behind she is also known for involving undergraduate and graduate students in physics education research in the process of instilling confidence while also blending fundamental physics concepts with an atmosphere of excitement and fun erukhimova has helped countless students see physics in their every day and understand not only its relevance but also its appeal she is revered by her students and colleagues alike for her skilled use of innovative teaching techniques that reinforce active learning although erukhimova does not enforce attendance which she views as a referendum on her performance it is never below 80 percent and often includes students from other instructors courses who opt to sit in for her lectures dr erukhimova is an embodiment of an ideal undergraduate instructor dedicated and caring to a fault passionate to the extreme and effective at the miraculous level said dr grigory v rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy she is a legend among students many of whom say that her class was their best experience at texas a&m and the best class they have taken in all their years of study to ensure that students of all backgrounds and learning styles have enough resources to succeed erukhimova has created several free supplemental resources available to all students enrolled in introductory calculus-based physics courses to date she has recorded more than 50 problem-solving videos for phys 207 that have been viewed by students in excess of 56 000 times after only two in-sequence semesters as an additional resource she posted online all mid-term and final exams for the past 15 years erukhimova explaining the scientific properties of superconductors to a group of texas a&m physics show attendees in the stephen w hawking auditorium erukhimova was honored in 2017 as a presidential professor for teaching excellence a perpetual title representing texas a&ms highest honor for classroom performance in 2018 she also served as a plenary presenter for texas a&ms inaugural two-day transformational teaching and learning conference earlier this spring she earned selection as one of 10 recipients of the 2021 provost academic professional track (apt) faculty teaching excellence award honoring exceptional classroom teaching that fosters meaningful learning experiences a four-time texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award recipient three for teaching and one for extension and outreach erukhimova has received the john e trott jr award in student recruiting and the sigma xi outstanding science communicator award and also served as chair of the american association of physics teachers committee on science education for the public in 2020 she was elected as a fellow of the american physical society in 2019 erukhimovas passion for inspiring learning through science has motivated the creation of several innovative programs at texas a&m that integrate education with science outreach and community service including¬†deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) the¬†texas a&m physics show ¬†just add science¬†and¬†real physics live she is a co-organizer of the annual¬†mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) a two-week summer professional development enrichment for physics teachers from texas high schools in addition erukhimova coordinates the annual¬†texas a&m physics and engineering festival¬†that attracts several thousand visitors to campus each spring erukhimova completed postdoctoral studies and served four years as an assistant research scientist in the texas a&m department of atmospheric sciences from 2002 to 2006 prior to joining the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty she is a co-author along with texas a&m distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences dr gerald r north of the textbook atmospheric thermodynamics published by cambridge university press (2009) erukhimova plans to use her upute professorship funding to develop videos and online materials to help students enrolled in and graduate students helping to teach large introductory physics classes as well as to create instructional materials aimed at professional development for both teaching assistants and early career faculty in addition she hopes to provide additional physics education research opportunities for undergraduate students while also studying the impact of science classes on non-science majors and their attitudes about science overcoming related stereotypes and building stem identity within underrepresented groups to learn more about erukhimova and her teaching research and service efforts visit¬†https://physicstamuedu/people/etanya/ for additional information on university professorships for undergraduate teaching go to the¬†dean of faculties website -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@tamuedu the post texas a&m physicist tatiana erukhimova honored for undergraduate teaching excellence appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " astronomers from texas to argentina recently celebrated a critical milestone in their nearly decade-long project to search for and measure the electromagnetic evidence of gravitational waves throughout the cosmos first light for the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) telescope in northwestern argentina on april 10 a team of engineers and astronomers from the toros collaboration that includes the university of texas rio grande valley texas a&m university and the university of c√≥rdoba recorded the first optical images using toros which is located on cord√≥n mac√≥n and designed to be operated remotely via the internet the trio of initial images included omega centauri a globular cluster about 17 000 light years away from earth; ngc 6752 a globular cluster about 14 000 light years away; and a region within the disk of the milky way close to the open cluster ngc 3766 the majority of its stars being about 8 000 light years away toros first-light images: (top) omega centauri a globular cluster about 17 000 light years away from earth; (middle) ngc 6752 a globular cluster about 14 000 light years away; and (bottom) a region within the disk of the milky way close to the open cluster ngc 3766 the majority of its stars being about 8 000 light years away (credit: toros collaboration) despite sub-par conditions on the night the images were taken texas a&m astronomer and toros co-principal investigator lucas macri says their resolution and sensitivity are the equivalent of being able to see two individual christmas tree light bulbs placed 6 feet apart somewhere in college station all the way from brownsville the recent observational run that yielded the first-light images marked the first activity at the telescope since the worldwide covid-19 pandemic effectively halted all on-site progress just as the construction of the observatorys dome and telescope installation were completed roughly a year ago the main scientific goal of the project is to follow up on electromagnetic emissions associated with gravitational wave events by sweeping large swaths of the southern sky searching for light flashes associated with the merger of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole this telescope seeks to elucidate some of the research on nuclear physics that we will never be able to recreate on earth said utrgv astronomer mario d√≠az who serves as principal investigator for the toros project the nuclear density in neutron stars and the ‚Äòfireworks of incredible energies that ignite in the clash of two of these stellar corpses who danced together for millions of years progressively approaching the catastrophic final embrace will allow us to better understand how the stars live and die cryostat for the toros survey camera currently being assembled by texas a&m astronomers within the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory (credit: luke schmidt texas a&m university) the observatorys design sensitivity is expected to be reached by years end with the installation of specialized optics and a high-end charge-coupled device (ccd) digital camera currently being developed and integrated by texas a&m astronomers darren depoy and jennifer marshall and their team within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory the new camera has a very wide field-of-view and can efficiently search the broad swaths of sky from which the gravitational waves emanate an important capability since the existing gravitational wave detectors cannot pinpoint the location of the sources to better than about 100 times the area of the full moon depoy said the custom optics and opto-mechanical parts of the camera have been delivered and we expect to complete construction by the end of the year with deployment to the remote site in early-2022 toros is part of the macon astronomical center a set of facilities erected on the cord√≥n mac√≥n mountain range in the province of salta argentina at an elevation of 4 560 meters toros is the highest optical telescope operated by an american institution anywhere in the world¬† macri depoy and marshall along with 2016 texas a&m department of physics and astronomy phd graduate ryan oelkers 14 were involved nearly a decade ago in scouting and selecting the location which marshall notes was a finalist for the billion-dollar european extremely large telescope (e-elt) this site may be one of the best undeveloped sites in the world for astronomy marshall said it was tested extensively by the e-elt project which ultimately decided to go to a better-known site in chile and is now being developed by the argentinian astronomical community toros will continuously sweep the sky to produce reference images while keeping channels open and listening for any alert of a gravitational wave event or similar occurrence at which point telescope operations will immediately shift to searching for and ideally imaging the events optical counterpart macri says team members will likely travel to salta again in the next few weeks to improve the tuning of the telescope and dome perform additional optical tests and take sequences of images of open clusters the image sequences will give us more information about the photometric accuracy that the telescope will be able to achieve macri said once the state-of-the-art camera and optics are installed and fine-tuned the project will be close to complete our c√≥rdoba partners are also developing software that allows for optimal use of the telescope and the automatic processing of the large amount of images that will be obtained toros is funded by the national science foundation under a grant to utrgv and a sub-award to texas a&m as part of the windows on the universe: the era of multi-messenger astrophysics¬†program the toros project team represents the largest group of gravitational wave researchers in texas and one of the largest in the united states involved in the ligo scientific collaboration its incredibly exciting to see so many years of efforts coming to fruition with these first images from toros macri said we are looking forward to the installation and operation of the wide-field camera which will make our project quite competitive in this area of astrophysics since toros is a telescope thats fully dedicated to surveying the southern sky from a site with such a high percentage of clear nights it has the potential to yield a fairly unique dataset that could enable many interesting astro-statistics projects learn more about toros or astronomy at texas a&m # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 845-7362 or lmacri@tamuedu the post cross-texas astronomical collaboration toros telescope records first images appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " if the success of the¬†lead by example¬†campaign¬†has sent one message it is this: texas a&m university is ready to take its next big step forward with its resources leadership and famously loyal network of former students there is little reason for texas a&m to aim for any standard less than that of the greatest public institution of higher learning in the country dr robert c kennicutt jr(credit: jules julien / texas a&m foundation) investment magnate and philanthropist jon hagler 58 felt similarly when he described his alma mater as a sleeping giant in 2017 his $20 million gift to name the¬†hagler institute for advanced study¬†that year wasnt just a monumental landmark for the campaign but also his way of awaking the giant established by the texas a&m university system board of regents as the texas a&m institute for advanced study in 2010 the hagler institute annually invites a select group of about 10 of the worlds most acclaimed scholars to spend up to a year conducting research in college station alongside aggie faculty and students during their time with the institute these hagler fellows bring invaluable experience and prestige to the university as they come to understand the value of the resources and community that aggieland has to offer astronomer robert kennicutt jr is one of 11 fellows who took on permanent positions at texas a&m following their initial visits as leaders in their fields they are now actively enriching the universitys academic environment from the top down reaching for the stars according to dr robert kennicutt jr theres a reason a telescope is one of the best gifts you can give a child even if they only use it a few times: a new dollhouse or video game can distract them for hours but the stars can expand their world beyond their wildest imaginations like many growing up kennicutt took up a rabid interest in space at first astronomy was a hobby he said but when i was 15 years old i read a book that showed i could make money doing what i loved kennicutt earned his bachelors degree from rensselaer polytechnic institute in troy new york in 1973 before earning his masters and phd from the university of washington since then he has acted as a faculty member at the university of minnesota the university of arizona and the university of cambridge kennicutt flashes a gig em to open his 2018 eminent scholar lecture sponsored by the hagler institute for advanced study (credit: hagler institute for advanced study) his most famous contribution to his field is the kennicutt-schmidt law which empirically relates how many stars will form in a region of space over time given the regions local surface gas density this relation was first speculated upon by the dutch astronomer maarten schmidt he wrote an early formula in 1959 based on data gathered from the milky way but was unable to define the exact value of all variables his formula was dubbed the schmidt law using a treasure trove of images and data from deep space that schmidt lacked access to in his time kennicutt readdressed the topic and in 1989 found the solution schmidt sought his contribution earned widespread acclaim from the scientific community prompting some astronomers to refer to the combined formula as the kennicutt-schmidt law kennicutt is quick to note that the new name was not his idea i still call it the schmidt law he said i dont do these things to become famous; i was simply curious about the answer in addition to researching star and galaxy formation kennicutts other work includes helping determine the hubble constant or the rate at which the universe is expanding and managing projects related to deep-space infrared telescopic imaging throughout his career he has authored four books and more than 440 articles in peer-reviewed publications his work has earned him the editor-in-chief position for the astrophysical journal numerous high-profile awards and recognitions and an offer to join the hagler institute as a fellow in 2016 that year kennicutt left cambridge to take on an appointment at texas a&m a position made permanent in 2018 within the department of physics and astronomy that he holds concurrently with a similar role at the university of arizona kennicutt also serves as executive director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy campus has been welcoming the physics department is exceptional and the astronomers here are terrific kennicutt said though he now does more administrative work than ground-level science he is proud to do his part helping graduate students and professors keep their eyes on the skies * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * see the complete original feature as published by the texas a&m foundation in spirit magazine winter2021 # # # # # # # # # # where passion finds purpose:¬†the texas a&m foundation builds a brighter future for texas a&m university one relationship at a time by uniting generosity and vision to raise and manage major endowed gifts learn more at https://wwwtxamfoundationcom/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or randy lunsford (979) 845-6474 or rlunsford@txamfoundationcom written by bailey payne 19 the post a venue for visionaries appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university and its partners in the giant magellan telescope corporation announced today (mar 5) that fabrication has begun for the sixth of seven mirrors which will form the heart of the giant magellan telescope (gmt) mirrors that in combination will allow astronomers to see farther into the universe with more detail than any other optical telescope before the mirror which measures 84 meters (275 feet) and is about two stories high when standing on edge is being cast at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror laboratory and will take nearly four years to complete through an intricate process of casting cooling and polishing to achieve its final precise shape using state-of-the-art technology developed by the university of arizona previous gmt mirror castings revered as a marvel of modern engineering were celebrated with large in-person event featuring attendees from all over the world due to the coronavirus pandemic however work on the sixth mirror began behind closed doors to protect the health of the 10-person mirror casting team at the lab join steward observatory live on youtube this saturday (mar 6) from 1:30 to 2:30 mst to learn about the fabrication of the worlds largest telescope mirrors and the science that the giant magellan telescope will enable! the most important part of a telescope is its light-collecting mirror said gmt project manager james fanson the larger the mirror the deeper we can see into the universe and the more detail we can observe the giant magellan telescopes unique primary mirror design consists of seven of the worlds largest mirrors casting the sixth mirror is a major step toward completion once operational the giant magellan telescope will produce images ten times sharper than the hubble space telescope the discoveries these mirrors will make will transform our understanding of the universe the process of casting each giant mirror involves melting nearly 20 tons (38 490 pounds) of high-purity low-expansion borosilicate glass (called e6 glass) which is placed by hand into a pre-loaded hexagonal mold within the worlds only spinning furnace designed to cast giant mirrors for telescopes at the peak of the melting process the furnace spins at five revolutions per minute heating the glass to 1 165 degrees celsius (2 129 fahrenheit) for approximately five hours until it liquefies into the mold the peak temperature event is called high fire and will occur on march 6 2021 the mirror then enters a one-month annealing process where the glass is cooled while the furnace spins at a slower rate in order to remove internal stresses and toughen the glass it takes another 15 months to cool to room temperature this spin cast process gives the mirror surface its special parabolic shape once cooled the mirror will be polished for two years before reaching an optical surface precision of less than one thousandth of the width of a human hair or five times smaller than a single coronavirus particle i am tremendously proud of how the operations of the mirror lab have adapted to the pandemic allowing our talented and dedicated members of the richard f caris mirror lab to safely continue to produce the mirrors for the giant magellan telescope said buell jannuzi director of steward observatory and head of the department of astronomy at the university of arizona with the first two giant mirrors completed and in storage in tucson the sixth mirror joins three others in various stages of production at the mirror lab the third mirrors front surface polishing has achieved 70 nanometer accuracy and is less than one year from completion the fourth mirror has completed rear surface polishing and load spreaders are being attached to allow the mirror to be manipulated during operation the fifth mirror was cast in november 2017 and the seventh mirror is expected to be cast in 2023 in addition an eighth spare mirror is planned to be made that can be swapped in when another mirror requires maintenance did you know the gmts first two mirrors are named in honor of 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchell and his wife cynthia woods mitchell mitchell who passed away in 2013 and once built his own telescope as a high school student committed $3325 million to the giant magellan telescope his generous support for the next-generation ground-based wonder was bookended by his lead gift of $125 million in 2004 to establish texas a&m university as a founding partner and in 2011 a $25 million gift involving another of his visionary legacies the cynthia and george mitchell foundation credited equally to texas a&m and the carnegie institution for science in¬†the late 2020s the giant mirrors will be transported more than 8 100 kilometers (5 000 miles) to the giant magellan telescopes future home in the chilean atacama desert at las campanas observatory more than 2 500 meters (8 200 feet) above sea level the site is known for being one of the best astronomical sites on the planet with its clear skies low light pollution and stable airflow producing exceptionally sharp images additionally the sites southern hemisphere location gives the extremely large telescope access to the center of the milky way which is of interest for many reasons including the fact that it is the home to the nearest supermassive black hole as well as many of the most interesting nearby galaxies the southern hemisphere is also home to some of the most powerful observatories working at other wavelengths making it the ideal location for synergistic scientific observations once the giant magellan telescope becomes fully operational its seven mirror-array will have a total light collecting area of 368 square meters (3 961 square feet) enough to see the torch engraved on a dime from nearly 160 kilometers (100 miles) away such viewing power is 10 times greater than the famed hubble space telescope and four times greater than the highly anticipated james webb space telescope expected to launch in late 2021 the mirrors are also a crucial part of the optical design that allows the giant magellan telescope to have the widest field of view of any extremely large telescope (elt) in the 30-meter class the unique optical design will make the giant magellan telescope the most optically efficient elt when it comes to making use of every photon of light that the mirrors collect only two reflections are required to direct light to the wide field instruments and only three reflections to provide light to the instruments that use small fields of view and the highest possible spatial resolutions this unprecedented combination of light gathering power efficiency and image resolution will enable us to make new discoveries across all fields of astronomy particularly fields that require the highest spatial and spectral resolutions like the search for other earths said gmt chief scientist rebecca bernstein we will have unique capabilities for studying planets at high resolution which is the key to understanding if a planet has a rocky composition like our earth if it contains liquid water and if its atmosphere contains the right combination of molecules to signal the presence of life the giant magellan telescope project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions for more information visit gmtoorg to learn more about astronomy at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/astronomy/ # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope organization: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: arizona state university astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or ryan kallabis (626) 204-0554 or rkallabis@gmtoorg the post giant magellan telescope organization casts sixth mirror appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " a new data-driven study from texas a&m university casts serious doubt on the long-held belief that male students perform better than female students in science specifically physics a team of researchers in the department of physics and astronomy analyzed both the midterm exam scores and final grades of more than 10 000 texas a&m students enrolled in four introductory physics courses across more than a decade finding no evidence that male students consistently outperform female students in these courses their findings were published this month¬†in the american physical society journal physical review physics education research and highlighted in a related physics magazine news and commentary feature the work which was led by texas a&m physicist and presidential professor for teaching excellence tatiana erukhimova featured a texas a&m physics undergraduate first author matthew a dew 20 of spring texas who spent two years on the project prior to earning his degree in december and has since been accepted to top phd programs in physics education research the team also included texas a&m physicist and presidential professor for teaching excellence william bassichis texas a&m physicist and associate head of texas a&m physics and astronomy lewis ford and 2018 texas a&m physics phd graduate and former texas a&m physicist jonathan perry currently an assistant professor of physics at the university of texas at austin our findings provide new information that performance on exams and final letter grades are not systematically dependent on student gender erukhimova said there is no consistent trend on male students outperforming female students our study also provides new knowledge regarding whether statistically significant differences based on gender occurred on each exam for four introductory physics courses as the semesters were progressing an area that has not previously been studied at least not for such a large data set and over a long period of time with help of nearly two dozen of their departmental colleagues the texas a&m team built a sizeable database reflecting the complete introductory physics educational spectrum: the calculus-based course sequence primarily taken by engineering and physics majors as well as the algebra-based course sequence typically taken by life sciences and premed majors their final analysis shows that exam performance and final letter grades are largely independent of student gender results which erukhimova says show promise in abolishing gender stereotypes that negatively impact so many female students in stem when we found differences in final letter grades for a course we observed no persistent differences across that courses exams she said conversely when we found differences on exams within a course we observed no differences for final letter grades in that course in algebra-based mechanics we found that female students actually outperformed male students by a small but statistically significant margin a team of texas a&m students works on a physics project in the shell engineering foundations laboratory which features 60 custom-designed patent-pending laboratory stations that help illustrate the basic principles of physics for approximately 3 000 texas a&m students per week the team applied multiple statistical analyses including t-test and analysis of variance to the course-level data they collected in order to study whether there were performance differences based on student gender to see how their findings aligned with student perceptions they also took a snapshot of the students feelings about course performance inclusion and contributions using a short anonymous questionnaire distributed to 1 600 students in fall 2019 responses indicated that female students had lower perception of their performance than their male classmates erukhimova said the only class where female students perceived their performance as equal to their male classmates was algebra-based mechanics in which females typically outperform males additionally we found that although male and female students may feel differently regarding their performance and in-class contributions they feel equally included in class prior to the teams study and others similar to it erukhimova says it has been an open question as to whether significant differences between male and female students could show up on particular exams but remain slight enough so as not to affect final course grades for the past 25 years the profession has relied on inventory tests optional surveys intended to assess conceptual understanding and retention of key physics concepts to answer that question effectively substantiating the argument for gender differences in student performance by default because men tend to score higher on them in the field of physics education research the majority of existing studies report a persistent gender gap with males performing significantly better than females on introductory mechanics concept inventory assessments such as the force concept inventory erukhimova said the results of prior studies on the gendered differences in student performance based on course grades and examinations are less consistent while a number of studies indicate that male students outperform female students on the exams and course grades other groups found no significant gendered difference in student performance although the teams study represents clear progress to erukhimova she acknowledges it comes with its own limitations the most significant being that it relies solely on course-level data collected from faculty and does not analyze the possible impact of non-academic factors on student performance in the future she says the team would like to connect as much of their data set as possible to university-level records to see how prior preparation such as sat scores affects these results tatiana erukhimova we believe that all students should have equal opportunities and chances for success in physics erukhimova said the results of this work may help with fighting gender stereotype threat that negatively impacts so many female students by contributing to the body of knowledge about how gender relates to student performance we hope that our work which would not have been possible without our colleagues data can be another step in dismantling the preconceived notion of a societal bias based on gender in physics the teams research was funded in part by the college of science diversity and equity small grants program their paper gendered performance differences in introductory physics: a study from a large land-grant university can be viewed online along with related figures and captions the results obtained by our physics education research team are very important as they have clearly and conclusively demonstrated that there is no scientific merit whatsoever in the commonly held view that women are somehow not as good as men in stem fields said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy they are every bit as good! this is beautiful and extensive work and i wholeheartedly congratulate the entire team learn more about undergraduate degree options in physics at texas a&m # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $1131 billion in fiscal year 2020 texas a&m ranked in the top 25 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m study finds no systemic link between gender and introductory physics course performance appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology outreach at the 2021 physics and engineering festival set for saturday april 10 from 10 am to 4 pm as an interactive livestreamed event with the same covid-19 restrictions that canceled the 2020 festival still in place texas a&m is taking the free annual event virtual livestreaming the festival via a combination of youtube and zoom for the first time in its nearly two-decade history dedicated students faculty and staff have been hard at work since fall to convert one of aggielands most popular spring attractions into a quality virtual experience complete with interactive demonstrations keynote talks and live q&a sessions with scientists dont want to wait until april 10 to start your 2021 physics and engineering festival fun enter our online drawing by april 1 for a chance to win a mystery science box giveaway featuring a surprise bundle of science goodies to be delivered directly your door! activities will kick off live at 10 am with a brief welcome punctuated by what typically is the events traditional finale a texas-sixed five-barrel depth charge featuring 1 000 plastic balls the tentative schedule also includes a three-part demo show (10:20 am 12 pm 1:30 pm) highlighting the best of the festivals trademark 200-plus science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations which as in previous events will debut dozens of exciting new demonstrations built during the past year by student teams affiliated with the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program at 11 am nasa astronaut and texas a&m engineer¬†dr nancy currie-gregg will present a glimpse into human spaceflight the first of the days two keynote talks currie-gregg a professor of engineering practice at texas a&m since 2017 accrued 1 000 hours in space as a mission specialist on four space shuttle missions and helped to assemble the iss while also logging¬†more than 4 000 flying hours in a variety of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft at 12:30 pm ucla physics and astronomy chair dr david saltzberg¬†will deliver a keynote presentation how did amy and sheldon win their nobel prize in which he will discuss his experiences putting his university of chicago physics phd to work in an industry seemingly far from his own as a science consultant helping the writers and other crew tell the story of the big bang theory as well as that of the spin-off series young sheldon from 2 pm to 4 pm participants are invited to take in additional demos moving from room to room (view tentative room list at bottom of schedule) to explore and interact with scientists who also will be responding to pre-submitted audience questions throughout the festival bazinga! ucla astrophysicist and the big bang theory science consultant dr david saltzberg will deliver his keynote presentation on all things amy and sheldon at 12:30 pm on saturday april 10 (credit: david saltzberg) all events are presented by the texas a&m department physics and astronomy in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of aerospace engineering atmospheric sciences ¬†chemistry electrical and computer engineering and mathematics the 2021 livestreamed event is sponsored by halliburton col hal schade 67 the college of science the department of physics and astronomy the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and additional spirit of giving donors previous supporters that have made the annual festival possible include the texas a&m university system dr charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn exxonmobil the willard and anne levin foundation ahmed mahmoud 87 michele mobley 87 susan sheskey purna c murthy 88 cc creations schlotzskys college station and pepsi for the latest details regarding the 2021 physics and engineering festival please visit https://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for april 10 via interactive livestream appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " fourteen research projects including two led by faculty from the texas a&m university college of science have been chosen for 2020-2021 funding under the texas a&m university system national laboratories office collaborative research program aimed at increasing engagement between texas a&m system and los alamos national laboratory (lanl) researchers bhaskar dutta (credit: ryan carmichael texas a&m physics and astronomy) each fall researchers are invited to apply for funding in two different categories: developmental fellowships and research projects developmental fellowships are designed for a&m system researchers who have the skills knowledge and interest to develop long-term collaborative ties with lanl researchers and have already identified one or more lanl collaborators who are willing and able to engage in collaborative research research projects are designed for a&m system researchers who have mature ties with lanl collaborators and have identified research topics suitable for a joint effort and joint funding from the nlo and lanl bhaskar dutta a professor in the department of physics and astronomy and director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is principal investigator for one of the six research projects funded in support of his proposal dark matter neutrino interactions and axion-like particles at coherent captain-mills (lanl) jointly submitted with lanl researcher richard van de water louis strigari an associate professor in texas a&m physics and astronomy and a mitchell institute member ¬†is principal investigator for one of the eight developmental fellowships awarded in support of his proposal determining the nature of dark matter submitted in collaboration with lanl researchers andrea albert and patrick harding approximately 40% of the proposals submitted in each category for 2020-2021 were selected for funding through an annual review process that involved numerous technical experts from the a&m system and lanl louis strigari learn more about the texas a&m system national laboratories office and related opportunities including the los alamos national lab collaborative research program # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m university system: the texas a&m university system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $63 billion the system is a statewide network of 11 universities; a comprehensive health science center; eight state agencies including the texas division of emergency management; and the rellis campus the texas a&m system educates in excess of 151 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year system-wide research and development expenditures exceeded $1 billion in fy 2019 and helped drive the states economy to learn more visit https://wwwtamusedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu this article originally appeared on the texas a&m system national laboratories office website the post texas a&m system los alamos national laboratory fund new round of collaborative research appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr vladislav yakovlev professor in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university received the 2021 harold e edgerton award in high-speed optics from the international society for optics and photonics (spie) it is a major award by a large photonics society and i am extremely fortunate to be recognized by this award yakovlev said in a sense it is almost a lifetime award since it is awarded for the work i was doing for the past 25 years yakovlevs career reflects an enormous amount of pioneering work across high-speed optics some of those achievements include his work in optical parametric amplifiers of white-light continuum widely adapted as broadly tunable sources of ultrashort laser pulses used for high-speed imaging and spectroscopy; using shaped optical pulses for spectroscopy and imaging including the first experimental demonstration of coherent quantum control of molecular dynamics; and applications of ultrashort laser pulses such as cornea reshaping broadband coherent anti-stokes raman scattering random raman lasing and imaging and nonlinear brillouin imaging yakovlev received his phd in physics and quantum electronics from moscow state university in 1990 when he arrived in the us in 1991 he initially worked at a startup novatec laser systems where he built a femtosecond ti:sapphire oscillator amplifier system and used it for cornea ablation discovering what is now known as bladeless lasik a spie member since 1995 and a fellow since 2014 yakovlevs commitment to spie has included serving as an editorial board member of the¬†journal of biomedical optics a program committee member for multiple spie conferences his outreach participation with spie student chapters and more than 160 contributions to spie journals and conference proceedings dr rick trebino chair of ultrafast optical physics at the georgia institute of technology said he has known yakovlev for the last quarter-century during his career vlad has made several seminal contributions to the field of ultrafast nonlinear optical spectroscopy resulting in high-profile publications and more than 4 500 citations trebino said he has taught a number of courses with emphasis on optics optical spectroscopy and applications of optics and has trained numerous graduate students who are now working in the optics industry and academia around the world the post yakovlev receives harold e edgerton award in high-speed optics appeared first on texas a&m college of engineering share: " " the texas a&m university chapter of the society of physics students (sps) has been recognized by the associations national office as a 2019-2020 sps outstanding chapter texas a&ms sps chapter housed within the department of physics and astronomy and advised by associate department head for undergraduate programs alexey belyanin was recognized for the first time in its history for its excellence as a top-tier student-led physical sciences organization among the hundreds of chapters located at colleges and universities across the united states and internationally this is the highest level of distinction given to our chapters and is received by less than 15 percent of our top chapters annually with just 96 of 844 chapters so honored this year said brad r conrad director of sps and sigma pi sigma texas a&m society of physics students members participate in multiple outreach programs including the popular physics and engineering festival held each spring on the texas a&m campus as a professional association designed for students sps membership is open to anyone interested in physics and related fields sps operates within the american institute of physics an umbrella organization for professional physical science societies each year sps chapters are evaluated on their level of interaction with the campus community the professional physics community the public and with sps national programs the outstanding chapter award recognizes high levels of outreach as well as unique approaches to fulfilling the mission of sps to help students transform themselves into contributing members of the professional community texas a&ms sps chapter is an officially recognized student organization that seeks to provide opportunities for physics majors and enthusiasts to gather and share ideas have fun and organize local outreach and volunteer events that demonstrate science members are highly active within the department participating in the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival just add science game day physics and the real physics live educational video series along with other community-oriented activities and experiential learning programs we have a very active chapter with weekly meetings guest lecturers career panels a social program and of course numerous outreach activities belyanin said perhaps even more importantly the sps plays a crucial role in creating a warm welcoming atmosphere for undergraduate students in the department and helps them connect with their peers graduate students and faculty senior sps members even teach a freshman seminar the chapter is run entirely by students the sps president during the award-winning 2019-2020 year was jessica myron 20 who is now a graduate student in astronomy at montana state the current 2020-2021 president julia tiller 21 manages to run a very active program despite covid restrictions nasa astronaut serena au√±√≥n-chancellor (left) wearing a game day physics t-shirt onboard the international space station (credit: serena au√±√≥n-chancellor) in addition to receiving a certificate the group is listed on the sps website and will be recognized in the winter issue of the sps observer i am very proud of the work our students have done to elevate the texas a&m sps chapter to the outstanding level said grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy indeed the chapter has become a centerpiece for creating a supportive and welcoming environment for physics and astronomy majors i would also like to use this opportunity to thank the texas a&m sps leadership team and faculty advisor professor alexey belyanin for all the work they have put in and the tremendous success demonstrated by the chapter under their leadership congratulations to all members of the texas a&m sps chapter! learn more about the texas a&m sps chapter or the society of physics students at the national level -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@tamuedu the post texas a&m society of physics students chapter earns national honor appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university physics professor m suhail zubairy once proposed a scenario to his freshman class: if he were to throw a ball against a wall common sense tells us that there is no probability it can go through the wall to reach the other side but by the principles of quantum mechanics under certain conditions it is possible do you believe this to be true he asked the class one student who knew better raised his hand dr zubairy ill believe anything you tell me about quantum mechanics dr m suhail zubairy its the murky scientific conjectures of quantum mechanics that indeed require an open mind and even one of the greatest renowned theoretical physicist albert einstein was bewildered by them zubairys hypothetical situation with the ball is but one example of the many phenomena possible under the perplexing yet fascinating rules of quantum mechanics a fundamental theory in physics describing the behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic scale typically considered so advanced that its often not taught to college students until their junior or senior years zubairy a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and inaugural holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics ¬†is leading a charge at texas a&m to revise that perception since 2017 zubairy has been bringing freshmen to the frontier of quantum mechanics through his phys 148: introduction to quantum mechanics course at the quantum level atoms and photons behave in a seemingly erratic manner sometimes as particles sometimes spread out as waves researchers have been probing these bizarre microscopic occurrences to make unprecedented and revolutionary developments in industrial science as zubairy sees it with no sign of the race to harness the full potential of quantum technology slowing down the sooner students are exposed to the field the better quantum mechanics is a highly successful theory a very strange but remarkable theory zubairy said almost 100 years have passed and there has not been a single experiment that contradicts its predictions; thats a big success this hasnt happened with any other physics theory in human history except for einsteins theory of relativity traditional quantum mechanics courses are highly abstract and require an advanced knowledge of mathematics particularly calculus zubairy opted to design an alternative curriculum that taught the basic principles of quantum mechanics in a way that was almost entirely algebra-based and comprehensible to anyone with a high-school-level understanding of math book cover for quantum mechanics for beginners by m suhail zubairy describing his new course as one of the most challenging yet fulfilling of his 40-plus-year career zubairy says students will gain a fundamental understanding of the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics as well as the rapidly emerging fields of quantum computing and quantum communication considering he wrote the course textbook on it quantum mechanics for beginners: with applications to quantum communication and quantum computing he should know its not a history course zubairy said we go into each topic in great mathematical detail except that these mathematical details are very simple we do not go into conventional quantum mechanics where youre trying to solve real problems using highly sophisticated mathematical tools but rather we talk about how some of those conceptual foundations are leading to new developments in the emerging field of quantum technology while the book is assigned reading for zubairys freshman course its broad appeal extends to texas a&m physicist and department of physics and astronomy head grigory rogachev who marvels at zubairys ability as both a writer and an educator professor zubairy is simultaneously teaching two quantum mechanics courses at two completely different levels introductory for freshmen and a highly specialized senior graduate course using textbooks he wrote himself in both cases we do not normally consider quantum mechanics as a subject suitable for freshman surprisingly he created a course that is quite popular with freshman students and describes complicated issues of quantum mechanics at an appropriate and rather accurate level students love it and the book is very well written i have it on my desk the origins of quantum mechanics dates back to the turn of the 20th century when german physicist max planck first proposed the idea that energy does not flow in a continuum as classic newtonian physics suggests; rather it exists in discrete units although controversial at the time the idea of quantum mechanics continued to gain momentum and its basic principles have been leveraged by researchers to make revolutionary advances in a wide range of systems including faster more secure electronics with this idea of quantum technology some of the very simple concepts of quantum mechanics are being used to accomplish big things zubairy said this is something that were only realizing now in the 21st century people are expecting that this is really going to influence how technology develops in the future zubairy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2002 is a member of the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) and is considered a leading expert in the fields of quantum optics quantum communication and quantum computing a fellow of the pakistan academy of sciences american physical society and optical society of america he has received many honors including the willis e lamb award for laser science and quantum optics the alexander von humboldt research prize for distinguished scientists and the george hw bush award for excellence in international research along with iqse director marlan o scully a fellow distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and a pioneer in quantum optics and laser physics zubairy also coauthored the 1997 textbook quantum optics close friends and colleagues since the 1970s scully commended zubairys efforts to broaden the accessibility of quantum mechanics and his ability to connect a younger audience with such an abstract subject suhail has been instrumental in everything that weve done scully said hes always had the physics sharply in focus and done beautiful scientific work and he has an excellent mind for what the student needs to hear and learn it takes a master teacher to do that they dont call him ‚Äòdistinguished professor for nothing the iqse which has become a global leader in groundbreaking research initiatives that impact everything from medicine to national security boasts a multidisciplinary contingent of world-class researchers including two nobel prize winners edward s fry himself a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m who is renowned for his work in quantum mechanics and quantum optics notes that zubairys vision for this course demonstrates the iqses commitment not only to conducting high-caliber research but also to preparing the next generation of quantum theorists the general consensus is that quantum mechanics is something you cant handle until youve taken at least three years of physics fry said i was really amazed when i heard suhail was teaching quantum mechanics to freshmen its a testament to the amazing group of people we have here at the iqse a native of pakistan zubairy earned his masters in physics from quaid-i-azam university in 1974 and his doctorate in physics from the university of rochester in 1978 zubairy had already made up his mind to pursue a career in physics while still in high school but it was as an undergrad at quaid-i-azam that his vision for a beginner level quantum mechanics course began taking shape zubairy recalls that his disappointment when the subject was never mentioned in his early college courses only fueled his determination to one day create a quantum mechanics course for freshmen nearly 50 years later zubairy has been able to realize his dream to my knowledge such a course has never been offered anywhere else in the world zubairy said my students might be the only 18-year-olds in the world who can explain what quantum mechanics is as well as what quantum computing is im very happy to have such wonderful students and such wonderful opportunities -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or¬†cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or¬†dr suhail zubairy (979) 862-4047 or zubairy@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist leads charge to help freshmen master quantum mechanics appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " three years into its quest to reveal the nature of dark energy the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex)¬†led by the university of texas at austin and involving texas a&m university is on track to complete the largest map of the cosmos ever a three-dimensional map of 25 million galaxies that will help astronomers understand how and why the expansion of the universe is speeding up over time hetdex represents the coming together of many astronomers and institutions to conduct the first major study of how dark energy changes over time said taft armandroff director of the university of texas at austins mcdonald observatory the two black structures nicknamed saddlebags to the left and right of the hobby-eberly telescopes main mirror hold the dozens of spectrographs that make up the virus instrument designed to undertake hetdex the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (credit: ethan tweedie photography) the survey began in january 2017 on the 10-meter hobby-eberly telescope (het) at mcdonald observatory today the survey is 38% complete data reduction and analysis are continuing hetdex has arrived said university of texas astronomer karl gebhardt were over a third of the way through our program now and we have this fantastic dataset that were going to use to measure the dark energy evolution the survey works by aiming the telescope at two regions of the sky near the big dipper and orion for each pointing the telescope records around 32 000 spectra capturing the cosmic fingerprint of the light from every object within the telescopes field of view its actually a little mind-blowing how much information is captured in this said university of texas astronomer and team member gary hill these spectra are recorded via 32 000 optical fibers that feed into more than 100 instruments working together as one this assembly is called virus the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrograph its a massive machine made up of dozens of copies of an instrument working together for efficiency designed by hill and built especially for hetdex the first-of-its-kind virus instrument was assembled and aligned in texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of texas a&m astronomer darren depoy holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy¬†and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy depoy spearheaded the challenging construction of no fewer than 192 individual virus units each an identical copy of a single spectrograph and each containing a bundle of about 230 optical fibers individually designed to focus on a tiny piece of the sky as well as the assembly and testing of the overall instrument along with fellow texas a&m astronomer dr jennifer marshall watch a 2014 video featuring texas a&m astronomers discussing virus as installation was underway on the hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald observatory: depoy notes the virus concept is a first in astronomy not only in terms of its function in the revolutionary hetdex project but also its utilization of industrial replication which he estimates saved about 75 percent of the cost that would have been required to build a single spectrograph big enough to do the job to date virus is but one of several complex instrumentation-related projects either completed or underway within the munnerlyn lab for use in a host of international experiments from the first-light gmacs instrument and actuators for the giant magellan telescope to spectrophotometric calibration systems that enabled the unprecedentedly precise photometric measurements produced by the dark energy survey to science case strategy and technical specifications for the maunakea spectroscopic explorer this image shows the focal surface of the hobby-eberly telescope where the optical fibers of virus are arrayed the circles each contain a square grid of 448 fibers when the telescope is pointed and virus takes an observation each of the 32 000 fibers takes a spectrum simultaneously recording a vast array of information on the speed direction and chemical makeup of every point inside the field of view which is about the size of the full moon (credit: j pautzke / e mrozinski / g hill / hetdex collaboration) we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the excellent students and staff as well as the high-quality lab space required to build such precision instrumentation said depoy who also serves as associate dean for research in the texas a&m college of science all of us are excited to be part of such a groundbreaking project as virus and hetdex building one of the most advanced astronomical instruments in the world was quite a task to orchestrate hill said noting that the project has taken a decade to reach fruition its the largest on many measures he said noting that it has the most optical fibers as well as having as much detector area as the largest astronomical cameras its also an extremely large instrument taking up much of the room inside the telescope dome hetdex is a blind survey meaning that rather than pointing at specific targets it records everything over a specific patch of sky then scientists go back through to the data later to sift out specific objects they want to study to make the map needed for the dark energy project hetdex team members are combing through a billion spectra looking for examples of a specific type of galaxy these galaxies range in distances from 10 billion to 117 billion light-years away so they represent an epoch when the universe was only a few billion years old their spectra carry information about how fast the galaxies are moving away from us as a result of the expansion of the universe that will allow astronomers to determine how the rate at which the universe expands has changed over the eons which is key to determining the nature of dark energy the hetdex team expects to complete their observations by december 2023 in total the completed survey will include one billion spectra the largest ever spectral survey by far gebhardt said these data are processed and stored at ut austins texas advanced computing center (tacc) one of the top supercomputing centers in the world hetdex is a large international collaboration the project is led by the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory and department of astronomy with participation from penn state university; ludwig maximilians university munich; the max planck institute for extraterrestrial physics; the institute for astrophysics gottingen; the leibniz institute for astrophysics potsdam; texas a&m university; the university of oxford; the max planck institute for astrophysics; the university of tokyo; and the missouri university of science and technology in addition to institutional support hetdex is funded by the national science foundation (grant ast-0926815) the state of texas the us air force (afrl fa9451-04-2-0355) and generous support from private individuals and foundations find¬†additional images and animations courtesy of the university of texas at austins mcdonald observatory see photographs of virus being assembled and aligned at texas a&m university then later transported to and installed at mcdonald observatory # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren l depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post hetdex project on track to probe dark energy appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " one of the biggest challenges organizations face among the many potential hazards they encounter when sending humans and aerospace systems traveling through the endless reaches of the cosmos is the harsh radiation environment all it takes is a single rogue particle to wreak havoc on the electronic components of a spacecraft with potentially catastrophic results to help ensure the success of future space missions and the safety of spacecraft and both the astronauts and scientists who rely on them texas a&m university is teaming up with nasa and the jet propulsion laboratory in a first-of-its-kind partnership aimed at training the next-generation workforce in the rapidly growing field of space radiation effects testing graphic illustrating how charged particles released from the sun interact with the earths magnetic poles in the harsh environment of space (credit: henry clark / texas a&m cyclotron institute) with input from nasa and working through the department of physics and astronomy ¬†the cyclotron institute is offering a new graduate degree a master of science in applied physics with an emphasis in space radiation effects students in the two-year program launched earlier this fall will learn to design and interpret tests on the ability of spacecraft hardware and electronics to withstand high-energy radiation before ever leaving the earths atmosphere the cyclotron has for 20 years served as a facility to carry out space radiation effects testing but weve never had an educational program to fulfill the workforce said texas a&m regents professor of chemistry and cyclotron institute director dr sherry j yennello we decided that was something we needed to do for the nation design a program with nasa to help fulfill that workforce need students admitted into the new masters program will take physics engineering and computer science courses to build a solid foundation in the methodologies of particle physics that underpin the key concepts of radiation testing the hallmark of the curriculum will be hands-on research experience and the opportunity to work alongside practitioners in the field of space radiation effects since 1967 the cyclotron institute has served as the core of texas a&m universitys nuclear science program and as a major technical and educational resource for the state nation and world its research programs are funded primarily by the us department of energy the national science foundation and the welch foundation at the end of their first year in the program students will have the opportunity to participate in a semester-long internship with nasa or other program-affiliated partners for their capstone research coursework students will get to collaborate on actual experimentation with nasa or another designated agency at the cyclotron institutes radiation effects facility¬† the students will be assigned a project in which theyll get to design and conduct testing on a live accelerator beam under the supervision of a designated mentor there are programs at other institutions where people can learn about space radiation effects but texas a&m has a radiation effects testing facility to provide a hands-on component to that degree yennello said what we have to offer is both the academics and the actual real-world experience working side by side with current practitioners in the field students will have additional opportunities to connect with professionals during biannual boot camps in space radiation effects these boot camps will invite select researchers from industry to the cyclotron institute for three-day training courses in space radiation effects to be hosted initially by nasa representatives students in the masters program however will also attend the boot camps as part of their course credit because beam time at the radiation effects facility is such a highly sought-after commodity among research-based organizations the space industrial base and government agencies one goal of the boot camps is to make sure clients come prepared to make the most of their time says dr henry l clark an accelerator physicist and facility supervisor for the cyclotron institute the other primary objective he notes is to instill that same preparedness in the masters program students as they network with professionals from a host of different companies the field of space radiation effects is growing fast and hundreds of people are expected to be needed in the workforce clark said our collaboration with nasa is the first in the country to develop highly trained and educated people through a tight coupling or partnership between an academic department and primary radiation effects testing facility for this specific discipline the increasing demand for researchers in radiation testing comes on the heels of a renewed interest in space exploration last may spacex made history by sending veteran astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley to the international space station the first crewed spacecraft launched from american soil since 2011 and the first time a private company has put humans into orbit prior to the crew dragon capsule embarking on its historic 90-day voyage however spacex brought nearly 100 of its electrical components to texas a&m for testing at the cyclotron institutes radiation effects facility during a three-year period in advance preparation for its trip to space unlike its predecessors the retired space shuttle and apollo spacecrafts that utilized mostly analog control systems spacexs crew dragon capsule is operated almost entirely via touch screen panels similar to an ipad although its a far more convenient operating system for the astronauts clark notes that its also more susceptible to radiation exposure in particular single-event effects (see) which can occur when a single high-energy particle strikes an integrated circuit possibly resulting in system corruption or even permanent damage we perform a lot of applications here with our beams that are really quite interesting but seeing the launch and knowing our cyclotron had a hand in it was really quite satisfying clark said although the cyclotron institute has been delivering beams for nuclear experimentation since 1967 its affiliation with nasa dates back to the mid-1990s when the facility first began regularly outsourcing access to its k150 and k500 cyclotrons since then commercial governmental and educational organizations from across the country have flocked to texas a&m to study the effects of ionizing radiation on electronic systems as one of the nations premiere radiation effects testing facilities the cyclotron institute continues to attract major clients including aerospace mainstays blue origin boeing and lockheed martin corp yennello says students wishing to begin texas a&ms masters program in space radiation effects either in spring 2021 or fall 2021 may apply through texas a&m physics and astronomy or contact a graduate advisor for additional information this is a unique opportunity to begin a career that will always have questions needing to be answered yennello said if you want to do something that matters this is science that matters # # # # # # # # # # about the cyclotron institute: dedicated in 1967 the cyclotron institute serves as the core of texas a&m universitys accelerator-based nuclear science and technology program affiliated faculty members from the department of chemistry and the department of physics and astronomy conduct nuclear physics- and chemistry-based research and radiation testing within a broad-based globally recognized interdisciplinary platform supported by the united states department of energy (doe) in conjunction with the state of texas and the welch foundation the facility is one of five doe-designated centers of excellence and is home to one of only five k500 or larger superconducting cyclotrons worldwide to learn more visit https://cyclotrontamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu; dr sherry j yennello (979) 845-1411 or yennello@comptamuedu; or dr carl gagliardi (979) 845-1411 or c-gagliardi@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics cyclotron institute team with nasa to offer new masters degree appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " bryan-college station two faculty in the college of science are among 19 texas a&m university faculty named to the 2020 class of chancellor enhancing development and generating excellence in scholarship (edges) fellows announced october 7 by provost and executive vice president carol a fierke physicist alexei safonov and biologist joseph sorg both received the coveted honor created in 2019 with the help of resources from texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp to honor incentivize and elevate mid-career faculty who are making significant marks in their disciplines the recognition highlights texas a&ms intentional commitment to intensively support retain and recognize faculty with significant and sustained accomplishments and the promise of continued high-impact scholarship dr alexei safonov edges fellowships are awarded to faculty members identified by their deans as being worthy of national and international acclaim with careers on a trajectory consistent with potential membership in national academies or national and international awards in fields without national academies in addition to receiving crucial funding support edges fellows retain their titles throughout their tenure as texas a&m faculty members in good standing the awards in combination with endeavors such as the presidents excellence fund and similar faculty reinvestment programs are intended to empower and advance the careers of faculty at all levels particularly the critical mid-career stage these awards recognize the priority of texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp to develop and support faculty members with national and international acclaim fierke said the honorees are scholars with careers on track to make high-impact contributions to enhance the state and nation leading to national and international recognition safonov and sorg join texas a&m chemist sarbajit banerjee and texas a&m biologist gil rosenthal who were recognized among the inaugural class of edges fellows in 2019 safonov joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 after earning his phd from the university of florida in 2001 since being recognized with a 2007 us department of energy (doe) outstanding junior investigator award he has taken leadership in establishing texas a&m as a strong research team in the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment at cerns large hadron collider the cms experiment involves 5 000 scientists from 200 institutions in 50 countries and a detector with an overall mass of 14 000 tons that records one megabyte of data from each of the 40 million collisions that happen every second under safonovs leadership the texas a&m cms team has grown to 30 people including faculty researchers engineers and graduate and undergraduate students here and at cern in 2012 the cms and atlas collaborations jointly announced the discovery of the higgs boson the carrier of the scalar field that generates masses for all fundamental particles a breakthrough that earned the european physical societys 2013 high energy and particle physics prize and led to the 2013 nobel prize in physics being awarded to the theoretical physicists who predicted the existence of the higgs particle in the 1960s safonovs team continues playing a leading role in the cms experimental program which currently is searching for evidence of new higgs particles suggested by several theories to explain the striking matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe along with signals of new gauge interactions that may yield clues to the nature and origin of the astrophysical dark matter that search will span the coming decade and require 1 000 times more data than was required for the original higgs discovery as well as significant cms experiment upgrades safonov is a leading figure in the latter effort which is supported by an international coalition of scientists and funding agencies including the doe and national science foundation as evidence of the high international esteem in which he is held safonov has served since 2017 as the manager of all us projects related to the high luminosity-lhc upgrades of the cms muon systems closer to home he also is the primary principal investigator for texas a&ms doe umbrella grant for high energy physics research that supports the work of more than 40 experimental and theoretical particle physicists in addition he has been identified as one of texas a&ms top five faculty in terms of aggregate research funding in a recent study of federal research support from all national laboratories and the doe equally respected as an instructor safonov was honored with a 2007-08 montague-center for teaching excellence (cte) scholar award dr joseph sorg sorg joined the¬†texas a&m department of biology in 2010 and also holds a courtesy joint appointment in the texas a&m health science center department of microbial pathogenesis and immunology since his postdoctoral days at tufts university sorg has been working to unlock the basic science behind the deadly gut bacterium clostridium difficile a highly contagious hospital-acquired pathogen designated by the centers for disease control as one of its five most urgent threats to the us nationwide c difficile causes more than 500 000 infections and 29 000 deaths each year at a total societal cost exceeding $5 billion sorg earned his doctorate in microbiology at the university of chicago in 2006 and since has emerged as one of the pioneers of c difficile study his research which has been funded since 2013 by continuous grants from the national institutes of health (nih) focuses on the mechanisms by which c difficile¬†spores germinate in order to develop new strategies to combat infection as well as how¬†c difficile¬†interacts with host-derived bile acids to determine how that interaction affects the pathogens underlying physiology sorg and his group achieved perhaps their biggest breakthrough to date in 2017 using crispr/cas9 technology to develop a new genetic system capable of rapidly and easily introducing mutations into the¬†c difficile¬†genome and thereby delivering a decisive advantage to the entire¬†c difficile research community he and his postdoctoral mentor at tufts linc sonenshein also have co-founded the company exarca pharmaceuticals that is working to create a drug which can prevent dormant c difficile¬†spores from germinating and causing disease beyond his research sorg has been recognized for his teaching earning a 2013-14 montague-cte scholar award that he used to develop an open online course to assess the preparedness of students registering for biology 351 ¬†fundamentals of microbiology a member of american association for the advancement of science the american society for microbiology and the anaerobe society of the americas he is an associate editor for frontiers in microbiology-microbial pathogenesis ¬†an ad hoc reviewer for more than two dozen additional journals spanning microbiology bacteriology medicinal chemistry and pediatrics and a standing member of the nih bacterial pathogenesis (bacp) study section to learn more about faculty in the college of science visit https://sciencetamuedu/faculty/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr michael benedik (979) 845-4016 or benedik@tamuedu the post safonov sorg named to 2020 class of chancellor edges fellows appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " two faculty in the college of science are among 19 texas a&m university faculty named to the 2020 class of chancellor enhancing development and generating excellence in scholarship (edges) fellows announced october 7 by provost and executive vice president carol a fierke physicist alexei safonov and biologist joseph sorg both received the coveted honor created in 2019 with the help of resources from texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp to honor incentivize and elevate mid-career faculty who are making significant marks in their disciplines the recognition highlights texas a&ms intentional commitment to intensively support retain and recognize faculty with significant and sustained accomplishments and the promise of continued high-impact scholarship dr alexei safonov edges fellowships are awarded to faculty members identified by their deans as being worthy of national and international acclaim with careers on a trajectory consistent with potential membership in national academies or national and international awards in fields without national academies in addition to receiving crucial funding support edges fellows retain their titles throughout their tenure as texas a&m faculty members in good standing the awards in combination with endeavors such as the presidents excellence fund and similar faculty reinvestment programs are intended to empower and advance the careers of faculty at all levels particularly the critical mid-career stage these awards recognize the priority of texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp to develop and support faculty members with national and international acclaim fierke said the honorees are scholars with careers on track to make high-impact contributions to enhance the state and nation leading to national and international recognition safonov and sorg join texas a&m chemist sarbajit banerjee and texas a&m biologist gil rosenthal who were recognized among the inaugural class of edges fellows in 2019 safonov joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 after earning his phd from the university of florida in 2001 since being recognized with a 2007 us department of energy (doe) outstanding junior investigator award he has taken leadership in establishing texas a&m as a strong research team in the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment at cerns large hadron collider the cms experiment involves 5 000 scientists from 200 institutions in 50 countries and a detector with an overall mass of 14 000 tons that records one megabyte of data from each of the 40 million collisions that happen every second under safonovs leadership the texas a&m cms team has grown to 30 people including faculty researchers engineers and graduate and undergraduate students here and at cern in 2012 the cms and atlas collaborations jointly announced the discovery of the higgs boson the carrier of the scalar field that generates masses for all fundamental particles a breakthrough that earned the european physical societys 2013 high energy and particle physics prize and led to the 2013 nobel prize in physics being awarded to the theoretical physicists who predicted the existence of the higgs particle in the 1960s safonovs team continues playing a leading role in the cms experimental program which currently is searching for evidence of new higgs particles suggested by several theories to explain the striking matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe along with signals of new gauge interactions that may yield clues to the nature and origin of the astrophysical dark matter that search will span the coming decade and require 1 000 times more data than was required for the original higgs discovery as well as significant cms experiment upgrades safonov is a leading figure in the latter effort which is supported by an international coalition of scientists and funding agencies including the doe and national science foundation as evidence of the high international esteem in which he is held safonov has served since 2017 as the manager of all us projects related to the high luminosity-lhc upgrades of the cms muon systems closer to home he also is the primary principal investigator for texas a&ms doe umbrella grant for high energy physics research that supports the work of more than 40 experimental and theoretical particle physicists in addition he has been identified as one of texas a&ms top five faculty in terms of aggregate research funding in a recent study of federal research support from all national laboratories and the doe equally respected as an instructor safonov was honored with a 2007-08 montague-center for teaching excellence (cte) scholar award dr joseph sorg sorg joined the¬†texas a&m department of biology in 2010 and also holds a courtesy joint appointment in the texas a&m health science center department of microbial pathogenesis and immunology since his postdoctoral days at tufts university sorg has been working to unlock the basic science behind the deadly gut bacterium clostridium difficile a highly contagious hospital-acquired pathogen designated by the centers for disease control as one of its five most urgent threats to the us nationwide c difficile causes more than 500 000 infections and 29 000 deaths each year at a total societal cost exceeding $5 billion sorg earned his doctorate in microbiology at the university of chicago in 2006 and since has emerged as one of the pioneers of c difficile study his research which has been funded since 2013 by continuous grants from the national institutes of health (nih) focuses on the mechanisms by which c difficile¬†spores germinate in order to develop new strategies to combat infection as well as how¬†c difficile¬†interacts with host-derived bile acids to determine how that interaction affects the pathogens underlying physiology sorg and his group achieved perhaps their biggest breakthrough to date in 2017 using crispr/cas9 technology to develop a new genetic system capable of rapidly and easily introducing mutations into the¬†c difficile¬†genome and thereby delivering a decisive advantage to the entire¬†c difficile research community he and his postdoctoral mentor at tufts linc sonenshein also have co-founded the company exarca pharmaceuticals that is working to create a drug which can prevent dormant c difficile¬†spores from germinating and causing disease beyond his research sorg has been recognized for his teaching earning a 2013-14 montague-cte scholar award that he used to develop an open online course to assess the preparedness of students registering for biology 351 ¬†fundamentals of microbiology a member of american association for the advancement of science the american society for microbiology and the anaerobe society of the americas he is an associate editor for frontiers in microbiology-microbial pathogenesis ¬†an ad hoc reviewer for more than two dozen additional journals spanning microbiology bacteriology medicinal chemistry and pediatrics and a standing member of the nih bacterial pathogenesis (bacp) study section to learn more about faculty in the college of science visit https://sciencetamuedu/faculty/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr michael benedik (979) 845-4016 or benedik@tamuedu the post safonov sorg named to 2020 class of chancellor edges fellows appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr edward s fry distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive the oceanography societys 2020 nils gunnar jerlov award the jerlov award ¬†named for ocean optics research pioneer nils gunnar jerlov and funded by nasa and the us office of naval research is bestowed every two years to recognize ocean scientists for significant advancements in ocean optics outstanding achievements in interdisciplinary ocean science research and related collaborative areas and contributions toward education and mentoring dr edward s fry fry who is renowned for his work in quantum mechanics quantum optics and related research areas joined the texas a&m faculty in 1969 and is the inaugural holder of the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics a former head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy (2002-2011) he was appointed in 2010 as a distinguished professor texas a&ms highest honorific rank for faculty in addition he is a member of¬†the institute for quantum science and engineering fry was selected for the jerlov award on the basis of work described by the selection committee as innovative and foundational to the field of optical oceanography specifically he was cited for his contributions to understanding light scattering and in addressing the technical challenges needed to make the fundamental observations that provide a strong foundation for the entire field this is the top prize in the field of ocean optics and is awarded in part for eds seminal measurement of optical absorption of water said dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and iqse director his 1997 paper in this regard is among the top 10 most cited papers in the journal applied optics fry will be presented with a bronze medallion lapel pin and cash award along with a one-year complimentary membership in the oceanography society he was set to be recognized next month in norfolk va during the ocean optics xxv¬†conference; however that event has been postponed until fall 2022 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic fry earned his bachelors masters and doctoral degrees in physics from the university of michigan where he spent a year and a half as a visiting associate professor from 1977 to 1979 in addition to academia he has served his profession as director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands from 1994 to 1997 his research interests lie in the areas of atomic physics and light scattering foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum optics laser excitation and ionization of atoms surface scattering of hydrogen atoms multichannel scattered light polarization analysis and ocean optics a fellow of both the american physical society and the optical society of america fry also is a member of the scientific research society¬†sigma xi which honored him with its texas a&m distinguished scientist award for 2001 he has twice received texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement awards in both teaching (1993) and administration (2012) in addition to the society for optical and quantum electronics eg&g medal in 1995 fry has served since 2011 as associate head for development in texas a&m physics and astronomy earning the texas a&m foundations 2019 partner in philanthropy faculty award for his strong commitment to philanthropy and science outreach as evidenced by his dedication of the related $10 000 monetary award toward the annual physics and engineering festival he founded in 2002 he also serves as deputy director of the hagler institute for advanced study¬†and as a member of its advocate council we are very proud of professor ed fry and this remarkable achievement said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy receiving this prestigious oceanography award is unusual for a physicist and it is very exciting it highlights the wide range of interests and talents of prof fry who is not only an outstanding researcher working at the forefront of quantum physics but also an exceptional leader who contributed a great deal to the development of the department of physics and astronomy as head in the past and continues to do so as an associate head at present learn more about fry and his teaching research and service # # # # # # # # # # about the oceanography society: the oceanography society (tos) was founded in 1988 to advance oceanographic research technology and education and to disseminate knowledge of oceanography and its application through research and education tos promotes the broad understanding of oceanography facilitates consensus building across all the disciplines of the field and informs the public about ocean research innovative technology and educational opportunities throughout the spectrum of oceanographic inquiry tos welcomes members from all nations any individual business or organization interested in ocean sciences is encouraged to join and to participate in the activities and benefits of the society to learn more visit https://tosorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the most recent national science foundation higher education research and development survey based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or dr edward s fry (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist ed fry earns oceanography societys 2020 jerlov award appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr bhaskar dutta professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has been elected as a 2020 fellow of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists no more than one-half of 1 percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the¬†aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service dutta is one of 163 fellows announced september 28 by aps and one of four selected from texas-based institutions bhaskar dutta (credit: ryan carmichael texas a&m physics and astronomy) dutta an expert in the field of theoretical high energy and neutrino physics who was nominated by the division of particles and fields is cited for outstanding and original contributions to the understanding of particle physics phenomenology in particular dark matter neutrinos models and collider physics dutta joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2005 as an associate professor earning promotion to full professor in 2009 and subsequent appointment as interim director of the mitchell institute in 2012 he was appointed in may 2019 as holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high energy physics as a world leader in the search for new fundamental particles and dark matter dutta is considered one of the most prolific theorists of his generation given his distinguished record of research in high energy physics highly cited publications in top journals and many invited plenary talks in major international conferences his broad research program attracts continual funding through the us department of energys theoretical physics program as well as the national science foundation and covers topics such as model building cosmology inflation origin of dark matter matter-antimatter asymmetry neutrino physics grand unification theory (gut) models and collider physics within his department dutta has developed particularly strong collaborations with experimentalists as well as astrophysicists regularly co-authoring papers published in peer-reviewed journals and multidisciplinary publications this is a well-deserved and probably long-overdue award honoring a distinguished member of our community professor and mitchell-heep chair in high energy physics bhaskar dutta said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy he is working at the cutting edge of our knowledge of constituencies of sub-atomic matter and his theoretical ideas provide fertile ground for experimental searches of new symmetries particles and fields in addition to research dutta is widely regarded as an excellent classroom teacher graduate student mentor and science outreach proponent participating each year in the spring texas a&m physics and engineering festival and co-organizing the mitchell institute physics enhancement program for high school physics teachers every summer for the past decade he was recognized with a texas a&m association of former students college-level distinguished achievement award in teaching in 2012 dutta received his phd from oklahoma state university in 1995 and completed postdoctoral study at the university of oregon (1995-1998) and texas a&m (1998-2002) prior to beginning his independent academic career as an assistant professor at the university of regina in canada (2002-2005) founded in 1899 the american physical society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and circulate the knowledge of physics through aps research journals scientific meetings education outreach advocacy and international collaboration the aps is composed of more than 55 000 members including physicists in academia national laboratories and industry in the united states and throughout the world to learn more about the american physical society or the aps fellowship program go to http://wwwapsorg for more information on dutta and his teaching research and service-related activities and accomplishments visit https://physicstamuedu/people/dutta/ # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist bhaskar dutta elected as 2020 american physical society fellow appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " earlier this month crews at stanford universitys slac national accelerator laboratory celebrated a major milestone in astronomy the first 3 200-megapixel digital photographs taken with the worlds largest digital camera for the vera c rubin observatory legacy survey of space and time (lsst) the collection of images which are the largest ever captured in a single shot represent a successful test of the lsst cameras intricate focal plane completed at slac in january 2020 they are made possible by a dazzling array of imaging sensors technology that 2009 texas a&m university physics graduate and kavli institute for particle astrophysics and cosmology (kipac) postdoctoral fellow andrew bradshaw has been focused on for more than a decade another selfie taken by bradshaw in the reflection of the lsst cameras focal plane while under construction late last year i have been studying the camera sensors for the rubin observatorys lsst camera ever since i left my physics undergrad at texas a&m for my phd at uc davis also the aggies bradshaw said my thesis focused on using survey images for mapping mass in the universe as well as how imperfect pixels and other hardware physics may result in incorrect cosmological measurements during 10 years of operations starting late 2022 the national science foundations rubin observatory together with the 3 200 megapixel us department of energy-funded lsst camera and accompanying data facility will carry out an unprecedented optical survey of the visible sky known as the legacy survey of space and time (lsst) the surveys design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter taking an inventory of the solar system exploring the transient optical sky and mapping the milky way texas a&m astronomers nicholas b suntzeff lifan wang and lucas macri in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy have been part of the lsst project since its inception and are interested in using the telescope for their supernovae-related research suntzeff did the site survey that selected cerro pach√≥n as the location for the rubin observatory in the 1990s while macri is a contributor to the lsst science book as well as a member of two lsst science working groups in addition the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory via texas a&m astronomer darren depoy is a longtime collaborator in and contributor to the telescopes instrumentation and related devices bradshaw credits suntzeff as one of the reasons hes ended up where he is today and says his texas a&m education prepared him well for his current and future journeys among his most memorable moments he cites a freshman summer research experience in physicist hans schuesslers laser laboratory and a job in the physics machine shop that gave him unique hands-on skills as well as a senior thesis on variable stars with macri that helped him further hone his talents in research and data analysis the physics and astronomy department at texas a&m really has great people bradshaw said im grateful to the many wonderful professors and staff for educating and inspiring me among the lsst cameras first set of images is a photo featuring the full lsst camera team i am hidden in the back waldo style the person in the white bunny suit in the middle with their left hand raised bradshaw says (credit: lsst camera team/slac national accelerator laboratory/rubin observatory) after graduating from texas a&m bradshaw pursued a phd at the university of california davis where he first became involved in the lsst while working with astronomer j anthony tyson on both lsst charged coupled devices (ccds) and deep lens survey data since fall 2019 bradshaw has been working as a research associate with the slac lsst group on camera construction and commissioning he has spent the past year helping to construct and adjust its full focal plane which measures more than 2 feet wide and contains 32 billion pixels each about 10 microns wide the focal plane itself is extremely flat varying by no more than a tenth of the width of a human hair a design that allows the camera to produce sharp images in very high resolution i am very proud of what andy has done both in his phd and now working at slac on the lsst camera suntzeff said he is part of one of the most exciting projects i have seen in my lifetime and will be for quite a while if he wants to be he is a really great guy and a great example of a successful aggie and astronomer once fully operational in late 2022 the lsst camera will be used to capture a portion of the sky about the size of 40 full moons and sufficient to allow the rubin observatory to image the entire southern hemisphere sky every few nights through five different color filters from its perch atop the simonyi survey telescope the lsst cameras imaging sensors will be capable of spotting objects 100 million times dimmer than those visible to the naked eye a sensitivity that would let you see a candle from tens of thousands of miles away in the next few months the lsst camera team will insert the focal plane detectors and cryostat into the camera body and add the cameras lenses shutter and filter exchange system by mid-2021 the suv-sized camera will be ready for final testing before it begins its journey to chile for now however bradshaw is content to revel in the full-circle effect noting that his current project is being studied and optimized using some of the same methods he learned as a texas a&m undergraduate in 2008 i never thought i would be so lucky as to end up working on something so incredible as the lsst camera bradshaw said i am very much looking forward to seeing what it sees! texas a&m is a longtime partner in the lsst collaboration which will be very useful once the fire hose of data starts up in a few years learn more about bradshaw and his research or the rubin observatorys legacy survey of space and time (lsst) find more information on undergraduate degree programs in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr andrew bradshaw (650) 926-3300 or bradshaw@slacstanfordedu; or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 773-7000 or suntzeff@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics graduate andrew bradshaw offers insight into lsst camera experience appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " the gmto corporation the organization managing the development of the giant magellan telescope (gmt) on behalf of its us and international founders including texas a&m university has received a $175 million grant from the national science foundation (nsf) to accelerate prototyping and testing of some of the most powerful optical and infrared technologies ever engineered as the gmts underpinning these crucial advancements for the gmt currently under construction at las campanas observatory in chile will allow astronomers to see father into space with more detail than with any previous optical telescope the nsf grant also positions the gmt to be one of the first in a new generation of large telescopes that are approximately three times the size of any ground-based optical telescope built to date the gmt along with the thirty meter telescope (tmt) is part of the us extremely large telescope program a joint initiative with nsfs national optical-infrared astronomy research laboratory to provide unprecedentedly superior observing access to the entire sky upon completion of each telescope us scientists and international partners will be able to take advantage of the programs two pioneering telescopes to carry out transformational research that answers some of humanitys most pressing questions such as are we alone in the universe and where did we come from we are honored to receive our first nsf grant said gmto president dr robert n shelton it is a giant step toward realizing the gmts scientific goals and the profound impact the gmt will have on the future of human knowledge latest design of the giant magellan telescope enclosure telescope and site at las campanas observatory in chile with a night sky background (credit: m3 engineering and gmto corporation) one of the great challenges of engineering revolutionary technologies is constructing them to operate at optimal performance the gmt is designed to have a resolving power 10 times greater than the hubble space telescope one of the most productive scientific achievements in the history of astronomy this advancement in image quality is a prerequisite for the gmt to fully realize its scientific potential and expand our knowledge of the universe image quality on any telescope starts with the primary mirror said gmto project manager dr james fanson the giant magellan telescopes primary mirror comprises seven 84-meter mirror segments to achieve diffraction-limited imaging we have to be able to phase these primary mirror segments so that they behave as a monolithic mirror once phased we must then correct for earths turbulent atmospheric distortion phasing involves precisely aligning a telescopes segmented mirrors and other optical components so that they work in unison to produce crisp images of deep space achieving this with seven of the worlds largest mirrors ever built is no easy task the immense size of the gmts primary mirror requires a powerful adaptive optics system to correct for the blurring effects of the earths atmospheric turbulence at kilohertz speeds in other words astronomers need to take the subtle twinkle out of the stars in order to capture high-resolution data from celestial objects thousands of light-years from our planet a gray steel structure that simulates one of the massive 165-ton giant magellan telescope primary mirror segments is installed onto a test cell in the richard f caris mirror lab at the university of arizona the gmt test cell and mirror simulator will be used to test the support structure and actuators being built tested and assembled at texas a&m university to hold the massive telescope in place including the software that controls the precise movements of the mirrors (credit: steve west / richard f caris mirror lab university of arizona) the nsf grant enables the gmt to build two phasing testbeds that will allow engineers to demonstrate within a controlled laboratory setting that the telescopes core designs will work to align and phase its seven mirror segments with the required precision to achieve diffraction-limited imaging at first light in 2029 these testbeds will be developed at the university of arizona center for astronomical adaptive optics and the smithsonian astrophysical observatory while actuator testing and integration of the primary mirror support will be developed at texas a&m university we are working on a key element of that system in the munnerlyn lab hundreds of pneumatic pistons that hold up the primary mirror and help keep it in the correct figure said texas a&m astronomer dr darren l depoy the curvature has to be precise to roughly a one-quarter wavelength of light we have dozens of students working on building and testing these pistons also known as actuators munnerlyn lab researchers have been working in collaboration with the gmt engineering group to develop assembly and test procedures for each air cylinder as well as for integrating them into either single- or triple-actuator castings depoy says his team has completed more than 60 air cylinders to date and currently is manufacturing parts for hundreds more once completed all the actuators are shipped to the university of arizona to be installed in the primary mirror test cell the nsf grant also enables the partial build and testing of a next-generation adaptive secondary mirror (asm) which is used to perform the primary mirror phasing and atmospheric distortion correction this work will be developed in contract with¬†adoptica our seven adaptive secondary mirrors take this technology to the next step fanson said no one has attempted to use seven asms before the giant magellan telescope they are probably the most advanced tech we have on the telescope and their success is a top priority we need to test and validate their performance early on in the project astronomers will use the gmts high-fidelity adaptive mirrors and other revolutionary adaptive optics technologies to detect faint biosignatures from distant exoplanets one of the gmts primary scientific goals this work is part of a larger $23 million joint-award to the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) and the gmt over the next three years the gmt project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions for more information on the giant magellan telescope visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory and related projects go to https://instrumentationtamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope is a next-generation ground-based telescope that promises to revolutionize our understanding and view of the universe the gmt is poised to enable breakthrough discoveries in cosmology the study of black holes dark matter dark energy and the search for life beyond our solar system the telescopes primary mirror combines seven 84-meter (27 feet) diameter circular segments to form an effective aperture 245 meters in diameter the gmt will be located at las campanas observatory in chiles atacama desert and the project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions funding for the project comes from the partner institutions governments and private donors about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren l depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@tamuedu the post major nsf grant accelerates development of giant magellan telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " three texas a&m university projects are among 64 university research awards announced earlier this summer by the us department of energy (doe) as part of a $132 million high energy physics-focused funding package aimed at advancing knowledge of how the universe works at its most fundamental levels texas a&m physicist rupak mahapatra received funding for two proposals while the texas a&m collider physics group a collaboration of six principal investigators led by texas a&m physicist alexei safonov also earned an award for their collaborative proposal dr rupak mahapatra texas a&m is one of 53 us institutions of higher learning across the nation featuring scientist who received funding support for projects that include both experimental and theoretical research spanning such topics as the higgs boson neutrinos dark matter dark energy and the search for new physics doe officials note that in addition to serving as a cornerstone of americas science efforts high energy physics plays a major role in nurturing top scientific talent and building and sustaining the nations scientific workforce it also provides a deeper understanding of how our universe works at its most fundamental levels high energy physics research improves our understanding of the universe and is an essential element for maintaining americas leadership in science said under secretary for science paul dabbar these projects at 53 different institutions across our nation will advance efforts both in theory and through experiments that explore the subatomic world and study the cosmos they will also support american scientists serving key roles in important international collaborations at institutions across our nation dr alexei safonov in the ongoing search for tangible evidence of the dark matter that makes up nearly three-quarters of our universe mahapatra and his texas a&m research group have developed a low-threshold hybrid detector technology capable of detecting nuclear recoil events possible signals of the tiny particles comprise dark matter via their cryogenic silicon detectors at the heart of the supercdms dark matter search experiment with the additional funding provided for his proposal hybrid phonon-mediated highvoltage detectors for wimp search and coherent neutrino scattering experiments mahapatra and his team which includes fellow texas a&m physicist nader mirabolfathi and his expertise in cryogenic detector characterization and design will work to improve upon these detectors from their shaping and sensing capabilities to related data analysis this technology has the potential to significantly enhance the sensitivity of dark matter and coherent neutrino scattering experiments in comparison to current technologies which give up discrimination at low recoil energies mahapatra said in a second funded project magnetic avalanche detector using single-molecule magnets for dark matter and neutrino detection mahapatra and co-principal investigator michael nippe from the texas a&m department of chemistry will explore and evaluate currently available single-molecule magnets (smms) in an effort to experimentally determine their operational stability and energy thresholds at the extremely cold temperatures required to detect dark matter a collision of clusters of galaxies showing separation of dark matter (shaded blue) from normal matter (shaded pink) (credit: supercdms experiment) the detection of a single quantum of energy with high efficiency and low false positive rate is of considerable scientific interest from serving as single quantum sensors of optical and infra-red photons to enabling the direct detection of low-mass dark matter mahapatra said while it is scientifically challenging to develop such sensors we look forward to having the opportunity thanks to additional department of energy support the doe award builds on previous research made possible by funding mahaptra and nippe received through the college of sciences strategic transformative research program (strp) that provided support for mahapatras graduate student hao chen who earned his phd last december securing this funding showcases how close scientific interactions between departments can create new research directions and we thank the college of science for early seed funding through the strp mechanism nippe said this is an exceedingly ambitious and exciting project that combines concepts and techniques from physics chemistry and materials science with the ultimate goal of establishing a future detector technology we already have convincing proof-of-principle results and we look forward to developing this research in the future texas a&ms third funded project high energy physics research at texas a&m university is a two-part effort featuring safonov and co-principal investigators bhaskar dutta ricardo eusebi teruki kamon christopher pope and louis strigari and their ongoing collaborative work on a wide range of theoretical and experimental topics in particle physics the combined group includes more than 30 people including faculty researchers engineers and both graduate and undergraduate students in the theoretical particle physics realm dutta and strigari are working to understand the new physics that may be extracted from neutrino and dark matter experiments not only at cerns large hadron collider (lhc) but also in the ongoing coherent experiment the upcoming dune experiment and both direct and indirect detection dark matter searches dutta who holds the mitchell-heep chair in high energy physics and serves as director of the mitchell institute is working on models that describe the universe when it was less than few micro-second old and also constructing models for dark matter neutrino interactions and flavor anomalies strigari is using simulations to model how dark matter is distributed in galaxies and throughout the universe while gaining new insight about the particle nature of dark matter in the process for his part pope who holds the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics is focusing on symmetry properties of black holes in supergravity and string theory in addition to new conserved quantities in general relativity in the region near infinity to which light rays travel a unique strength of our group of theorists is the breadth and diversity of the expertise and research directions each of them lead safonov said such breadth not only fosters collaborative work and leads to new non-trivial ideas at the very forefront of¬† modern theoretical physics but also fosters collaboration with their experimental colleagues the doe award funds will help to support postdoctoral researchers and graduate students working with the group meanwhile experimental physicists eusebi kamon and safonov spearhead the texas a&m collider physics program which carries out its primary research through the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment at the lhc that smashes proton beams at near the speed of light to recreate conditions in the early universe their portion of the doe funding will support this long-range endeavor incorporating data analysis development of new analysis techniques and detector operations and upgrades in their ongoing search for new physics in the higgs domain including extended higgs sectors hidden sectors and supersymmetry-inspired scenarios with ties to cosmology since the groundbreaking 2012 discovery of the higgs boson that our group contributed to by analyzing the cms data the focus is on searching for evidence of new higgs particles suggested to explain the striking matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe and signals of new gauge interactions that may yield clues to the nature and origin of dark matter safonov said this next adventure will span the coming decade and require major upgrades to the cms detector with the cms experiment expected to log 1 000 times more data than what was used for higgs boson observation in the pursuit for discovery of those rarer signals members of the texas a&m cms team are playing major roles in these upgrades with the funding support of the doe the national science foundation and fermilab contributions that will be further strengthened by the new doe award funds in explaining the motivation for new higgs bosons searches as one of the directions his team is pursuing safonov notes that while the higgs discovery has been a resounding confirmation of the higgs mechanism of generating masses for fundamental particles predicted by the standard model the value of the higgs boson mass measured by the lhc experiments suggests that the universe we are living in is not truly stable although its lifetime is very substantial safonov says it remains unsettling that at any time the whole world may spontaneously come to an end discovery of new higgs bosons that his team is pursuing could provide new clues on the stability of the vacuum while helping to narrow down the timeline on the universes ultimate fate all projects approved for funding this year were selected by competitive peer review under the doe funding opportunity announcement for research opportunities in high energy physics sponsored by the office of high energy physics (hep) within the doe office of science # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu; or dr alexei safonov (979) 845-1479 or safonov@tamuedu the post texas a&m collider physics theory dark matter research projects earn department of energy funding appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr darren l depoy professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been named associate dean for research in the texas a&m college of science effective september 1 2020 announced dean valen e johnson a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2008 depoy is the inaugural holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics and deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he also serves as director of the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory a multidisciplinary proving ground for texas a&m graduate and undergraduate students in stem who are helping to develop components for some of the worlds largest ground-based telescopes in addition he is current chair of the texas a&m council of principal investigators dr darren depoy as associate dean for research depoy will work closely with individual researchers and collectively with each of the colleges five departments to enhance research throughout texas a&m science and across the university he assumes the position previously held since january 2017 by texas a&m chemist dr james d batteas now principal investigator for the national science foundation center for the mechanical control of chemistry a world leader in the development of astronomical instrumentation for ground-based telescopes depoy spent 18 years building the astronomy program at the ohio state university where he served as vice chair for astronomy prior to coming to texas a&m during the past three decades he has designed and built state-of-the-art optical and infrared astronomical instruments for telescopes all over the world including some of the first digital imaging systems in astronomy near-infrared spectrometers and cameras multi-wavelength cameras innovative optical spectrographs and a wide-field ccd (charged coupling device) imager these instruments have been used for a wide variety of science projects from detecting exoplanets to measuring the fundamental parameters of the universe his efforts and those of the broader munnerlyn laboratory have helped to position texas a&m as a leader in astronomical instrumentation and a major player in some of the worlds biggest projects including the giant magellan telescope (gmt) and large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) in chile and the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex)¬†in west texas unlike most experts in instrument design and building however depoy makes active use of his insights and creations his primary research focuses on the study of active galactic nuclei fueled by enormous black holes and the discovery of exoplanets using microlensing the rapid brightening and fading of a distant star by a foreground object currently he is leading efforts to build critical components of the gmt and designing new instruments for measuring atmospheres around exoplanets and monitoring the brightness of gravitational-wave sources he was recognized with a 2015 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a native of south bend ind depoy received his bachelor of science in physics in 1982 from massachusetts institute of technology where he also worked as a laboratory assistant for the center for space research (now known as the kavli institute for astrophysics and space research) he earned his doctorate in astronomy from the university of hawaii in 1987 then completed postdoctoral study at cerro-tololo inter-american observatory in chile and kitt peak national observatory in arizona before joining the ohio state faculty in 1990 to learn more about depoy and his teaching research and service visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/darren-depoy/ for more information about research in the texas a&m college of science go to http://sciencetamuedu/research/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren l depoy (979) 845-7361 or depoy@tamuedu the post darren depoy named texas a&m science associate dean for research appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr r bowen loftin 71 dr r bowen loftin 71 of bryan texas is one of 12 aggies selected by texas a&m university and the association of former students to receive the 2020 distinguished alumnus award loftin who served as the 24th president of texas a&m university (2010-14) as well as vice president and chief executive officer of texas a&m university at galveston (2005-10) where he also was a professor of maritime systems engineering received his bachelor of science in physics in 1970 from texas a&m he previously was inducted into the college of science academy of distinguished former students in 2010 loftin is being honored along with dr cm cocanougher 53 of decatur; weldon jaynes 54 of arlington; ltg randolph w house 67 of college station; r sam torn 70 of houston; john d white 70 of college station; carol e jordan 80 of lexington ky; willie t langston ii 81 of houston; tim leach 82 of midland; thomas j saylak 82 of scarsdale ny; mike hernandez iii 83 of fort worth; and charean williams 86 of arlington established in 1962 the distinguished alumnus award is the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of texas a&m university since its inception only 303 of texas a&ms 527 000 former students have been recognized for achieving excellence in their chosen professions and making meaningful contributions to texas a&m university and their local communities we are proud of these wonderful former students and all of their accomplishments and contributions said texas a&m university president michael k young they are all deserving of the highest honor bestowed upon our alumni we look forward to joining the association in recognizing their achievements loftin (pictured above on the computer screen) was the guest of honor at a special april 24 zoom meeting hosted by the association of former students in which he initially learned he is among the 2020 class of texas a&m distinguished alumni (credit: the association of former students) a native of navasota loftin graduated a year early from texas a&m in 1970 with his bachelors in physics and then earned his masters and phd degrees in physics from rice university in 1973 and 1975 respectively he began his distinguished career in higher education in 1976 as a lecturer in physics at the university of houston eventually rising to professor and chair of the department of computer science and director of the nasa virtual environments research institute by the time he left in 2000 for norfolk va and a position as professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of computer science at old dominion university where he also served as director of simulation programs and executive director of the virginia modeling analysis and simulation center loftin returned to texas in 2005 accepting the position of vice president and chief executive officer at texas a&m-galveston before assuming the role of interim president of the college station campus from june 2009 to february 12 2010 the date he was formally confirmed as texas a&ms 24th president most recently he served as the 22nd chancellor of the university of missouri from 2014 to 2015 loftin has been recognized with multiple awards for his work in education including the university of houston-downtown award for excellence in teaching and in service (twice) the american association of artificial intelligence award for the innovative application of artificial intelligence nasas public service medal and the 1995 nasa invention of the year award he has served on numerous governmental and professional panels advisory committees and boards during the past decades including chief executive officers of the southeastern conference the fbis national security higher education advisory board and currently the mriglobal research institute board of trustees loftin and his fellow 2020 recipients learned of their honors via surprise announcements from university and association representatives including young the association of former students 2020 chair of the board cathy mann 92 association president and ceo porter s garner iii 79 texas a&m foundation president tyson voelkel 96 12th man foundation president travis dabney 96 and a ross volunteer since its 1962 inception only 303 of texas a&ms 527 000 former students less than one-tenth of one percent have been recognized with the coveted distinguished alumnus award for achieving excellence in their chosen professions and making meaningful contributions to texas a&m university and their local communities our 2020 distinguished alumni lead and excel in a wide array of career fields mann said while their experiences span diverse career fields they each consistently embody our core values of excellence integrity leadership loyalty respect and selfless service and represent the aggie network with distinction garner echoed youngs and manns sentiments and offered his congratulations on behalf of the association of former students the distinguished alumnus award is the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of texas a&m garner said those we honor in 2020 are in elite company with fewer than one-tenth of one percent of our 527 000 former students recognized with this prestigious award all 2020 distinguished alumni award recipients will be honored by the association of former students in the july-august 2020 issue of texas aggie magazine read more about the members of this years class at http://txag/da2020 nominations for the 2021 distinguished alumnus award will be accepted through oct 2 at http://txag/danominations the association of former students established in 1879 is the official alumni organization of texas a&m university the association connects hundreds of thousands of members of the worldwide aggie network with each other and the university and is providing $139 million in impact to university scholarships awards activities and enrichment for students faculty staff and former students in 2020 for more information about the distinguished alumnus award or the association visit wwwaggienetworkcom -atm- contact: kathryn greenwade 88 (979) 845-7514 or kgreenwade88@aggienetworkcom the post loftin named texas a&m distinguished alumnus appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " since the early 1980s texas a&m university physicist and quantum cowboy marlan o scully has hosted an annual summer school on quantum physics at his ranch in casper wyoming like so many other traditional events however this years session set to begin next week has been moved online due to the novel coronavirus pandemic a scheduling snafu with a silver lining of sorts because it has opened up the typically invitation-only summit to the general public for the first time in its history thanks to zoom online registration is encouraged for the two-week virtual event new trends in quantum physics: from quantum optics to covid-19 and biophotonics set for july 27 through august 7 within texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy all talks are open to the public free of charge both on-site and via zoom prof marlan scully the star-studded ss2020 lineup features multiple nobel prize recipients and national academy members as well as opening remarks from texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp in addition to presenters from myriad disciplines across the three institutional sponsors texas a&m university princeton university and baylor university the event will showcase both national and international representatives from academia research laboratories and industry who will cover topics spanning the application of quantum physics to covid-19 and related diseases scully a distinguished professor of physics and a national academy of sciences member serves as director of the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering which has quietly become a global leader in covid-19 research during the past five months by tweaking the same raman spectroscopy-based technology they developed at the turn of the 21st century using a sequence of lasers and resulting scattered light patterns to create a molecular fingerprint capable of distinguishing a single molecule from every other molecule they are helping to close the gap on the novel coronavirus in much the same way they did with anthrax in 2001 we were the first to detect anthrax in real time 20 years ago scully said by adjusting the parameters of that technology known as fast cars we found we could trace and map out the surface of a single virus we were also invited to join an international group on covid-19 research that is studying the covid-19 problem using cutting-edge science and technology viruses are hundreds of times smaller than a single red blood cell to be able to trace and map them requires specialized technology which we have because of chancellor sharp and a 2013 chancellors research initiative award that helped us establish a biophotonics center to bring together interdisciplinary researchers from across the campus and around the world to solve major scientific challenges (credit: bao_5 / pixabay) scully has pioneered many previous scientific breakthroughs through the decades including slowing the speed of light to the snail-like pace of 10 miles per hour making revolutionary lasers without population inversion and showing how quantum mechanics can yield a class of novel quantum heat engines but nothing excites the veteran scientist and inventor quite like the prospect of seeing his students and fellow researchers recognized for their efforts which is why he says its all the more fitting that ss2020 will be taking place right here in aggieland this is where world-class research is going on scully said all of our students and faculty have been going 24/7 since january and im pleased that they will get a chance to share their progress on such a critical front with both a local and global audience scullys group developed a new approach to detect biochemical molecules using an adapted form of coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy (cars) based on enhancing the ground-state molecular coherence which increases the signal by many orders of magnitude to allow real-time detection of trace amounts of complex molecules the breakthrough work allowed researchers to look at the backward-scattered cars signal to detect anthrax-type endospores in real-time (credit: michael kellett) all ss2020 talks will be delivered by zoom within the mitchell institutes stephen w hawking auditorium from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm each week monday through friday each 30-minute presentation will be accessible via remote login the details of which will be emailed to registered participants prior to the event talks also may be attended in person where social distancing requirements including masks and face coverings will be in effect ss2020 also will include a virtual poster presentation complete with online voting for registered attendees to help determine the winning entries # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or kimberly chapin (979) 845-1534 or k-chapin@tamuedu the post texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering to host virtual summer school on covid-19 appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " guang yang who recently completed his doctoral degree in the department of astronomy and astrophysics has been recognized for outstanding scientific achievements by the international astronomical union¬†guang yang¬†was selected to receive the 2019 iau phd prize in the high energy phenomena and fundamental physics division yang will be presented with a certificate at the 2021 iau general assembly meeting in busan south korea yangs research completed under the supervision of¬†w niel brandt verne m willaman professor of astronomy and astrophysics and professor of physics focused on using cosmic surveys to understand what drives the growth of central black holes in galaxies over most of cosmic time as part of my research i used data from massive x-ray surveys like chandra deep field-south & north and cosmos-legacy to study the evolution of black holes and their host galaxies starting 12 billion years ago said yang black holes are commonly found at the centers of massive galaxies it was thought that black-hole growth was related to the overall rate of star formation in its host galaxy but yang found that it is more closely related to the stellar mass of some galaxies his research also directly shows that black holes coevolve with the host galaxys galactic bulgethe tightly packed group of stars usually near the center of the galaxyrather than entire galaxy guangs phd thesis accomplishments were superb and he delivered some of the best results in the world on how distant massive black-hole growth depends upon galaxy properties and cosmic large-scale structures said brandt this was possible due to a combination of scientific creativity strong skills in data analysis and interpretation and an incredible work ethic and drive for excellence guang led or co-authored an astonishing 15 cutting-edge papers during his phd studies yang is currently a postdoctoral research associate at texas a&m university working to prepare for exciting new science with the soon-to-launch james webb space telescope the post two graduate students recognized for their research by the international astronomical union first appeared on penn state eberly college of science share: " " dr ralf rapp dr ralf rapp professor of physics and astronomy and a member of the cyclotron institute at texas a&m university is one of four campus faculty named to the 2020 class of university professorship holders announced wednesday (june 10) by texas a&m provost and executive vice president dr carol a fierke established in 2019 the designation recognizes faculty who have demonstrated significant and sustained accomplishments in their discipline earning them national and international recognition the award also highlights the recipients commitment to inclusivity accountability climate and equity in their department college and throughout their service at texas a&m rapp an internationally recognized leader in high energy nuclear physics who joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2003 earns recognition along with dr susan saab fortney professor in the school of law; dr william murphy professor in the department of veterinary integrative biosciences within the college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences; and dr lin shao professor in the department of nuclear engineering within the college of engineering he is the second college of science faculty member to earn the distinction joining texas a&m biologist dr deborah bell-pederson who was named to the inaugural class of university professors in 2019 recipients will receive an annual stipend for three years and retain the title throughout their careers at the university as faculty members in good standing nominations for the distinction were submitted by department heads or deans and the finalists were selected by a university committee and approved by the provost the professorships are funded centrally from research indirect cost return and philanthropic support in this 2017 episode of i am texas a&m science rapp discusses the professional and personal fulfillment he finds in creating new knowledge at the most fundamental levels: fierke noted that these awards in combination with endeavors such as the¬†presidents excellence fund¬†and similar faculty reinvestment programs serve to empower and advance the careers of faculty at every level rapp (right) visits with fellow cyclotron institute members at a november 16 2017 banquet celebrating the institutes 50th anniversary (credit: michael kellett)the professorship is intended to help each honoree elevate their impact which we believe to be imperative to the mission of texas a&m university fierke said these four faculty members are outstanding and clearly serve as role models for both our faculty and our students it is an honor to recognize them as im deeply grateful for all they do for our university the perpetual title also comes with an unprecedented feature: the option for the holder to personally name the professorship for a significant emeritus or deceased texas a&m faculty member who has served as an inspiration or motivating factor in the recipients career and scholarship i feel extremely honored being awarded a university professorship rapp said i much appreciate the opportunities that have been afforded to me at texas a&m to build my research program over the years my students and postdocs have worked hard and made some good progress using electromagnetic radiation and heavy-quark transport to understand the properties of the quark-gluon plasma and its transition back into hadrons but we are certainly not done yet rapp discussing research with members of his group as part of the cyclotron institutes national science foundation-funded summer research experiences for undergraduates (reu) program in 2016 rapp received his phd from the university of bonn in germany in 1996 and completed postdoctoral studies at stony brook university in new york (1996-1999) prior to coming to texas a&m in 2003 he held research assistant professor positions at stony brook (2001-2002) and nordita in copenhagen (2002-2003) in addition to the cyclotron institute rapp is a member of the nuclear solutions institute and the center for excellence in nuclear training and university-based research (centaur) at texas a&m rapp and his research group conduct theoretical studies of matter as it existed in the earliest moments of our universe and how it interacts at high temperatures and densities based on the fundamental forces photons emitted in heavy-ion collisions are particularly valuable probes with which to study the properties of the strongly interacting matter that is formed in heavy-ion collisions during the past two decades rapp has made essential contributions in multiple areas of quantum chromodynamics (qcd) a theory of the strong force which predicts that when heated to 2 trillion degrees or compressed to several times nuclear density qcd matter no longer consists of the protons and neutrons that we are made of instead it forms a plasma of free quarks and gluons known as quark gluon plasma (qgp) which filled the universe during the first few microseconds after the big bang and may be present today in the cores of neutron stars rapp is among the worlds elite researchers investigating qgp through theoretical calculations that try to understand the results from major collaborative experiments that collide heavy nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies achievable with brookhaven national laboratorys relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) and the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern rapps most significant qcd-related achievements to date include a landmark series of theoretical papers correctly predicting the experimental signatures of chiral symmetry restoration meriting him the alexander von humboldt foundations 2007 friedrich wilhelm bessel research award; investigations of high-density cold qcd matter that predicted the existence of large color-superconducting gaps and paved the way for contemporary investigations of neutron stars and neutron star mergers; and development of todays leading theoretical model for spectral and transport properties of hadrons in hadronic matter and quarks in qgp which his breakthrough discoveries have helped to establish as the most perfect liquid in nature to date rapp has more than 125 publications in referred journals results that have been cited nearly 12 000 times with an h-index of 55 he has delivered hundreds of invited talks throughout the world including plenary and summary talks at top-tier conferences and symposia and written approximately 90 conference proceedings most of which were also refereed as a 2004 national science foundation career award recipient his research has been continuously funded by nsf single-principal investigator grants ever since attracting additional funding from the humboldt foundation the spanish ministry of education and science the national natural science foundation of china and the us department of energy national nuclear security administration a 2014 fellow of the american physical society (aps) he was recognized along with his former graduate student x zhao with the 2009 robert s hyer graduate research award from the texas section of the aps as an educator rapps course portfolio ranges from introductory freshman classes for non-physics majors to advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in particular he revitalized the graduate nuclear physics course resulting in a major increase of attendance and even attracting nuclear engineering students in addition to dozens of graduate students he has mentored 18 undergraduate students on research projects to date including 16 through the cyclotron institutes annual nsf-funded summer research experiences for undergraduates (reu) program rapp likewise is revered for balancing a heavy service load not only in his department but also within the international nuclear physics community his exceptional refereeing record for nuclear physics journals was recognized with an aps referee award in 2018 he also has made significant contributions to texas a&m physics and astronomys outreach program including serving since 2006 as the founding director of saturday morning physics a free nsf-supported program offered each spring for area high school students interested in learning more current research topics in physical science through a variety of speakers quizzes and live demonstrations professor ralf rapp is a world-leading scientist of the highest caliber in the field of theoretical high energy nuclear physics an excellent instructor and an exemplary colleague said dr grigory v rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy he has made foundational contributions to the understanding of quark gluon plasma a state of matter that only existed during the first few seconds of the universes existence and now produced at just two of the highest energy particle accelerators in the world he teaches courses at all levels from introductory to graduate and is very popular with his students because he always gives his everything to transfer his knowledge to them my office was located next to his for many years and i had a chance to witness firsthand his phenomenal work with students who come to his office hours professor rapp is an exceptional faculty member in all aspects of academic life and i am so delighted that he was chosen as a university professor this year it is hard to imagine a candidate who would fit the description of qualifications for this award any better than he does learn more about rapp and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr ralf rapp (979) 845-1411 or rapp@cyclotrontamuedu the post texas a&m physicist ralf rapp named to 2020 class of university professorship holders appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " three college of science staff members have been honored by texas a&m university and the association of former students with the 2020 presidents meritorious service award texas a&ms highest recognition for staff sherree kessler 99 sherree d kessler 99 academic advisor iv in the department of physics and astronomy; mckensie le fevre 14 software applications developer i in the department of biology; and stephen molitor cad designer in the cyclotron institute are among the 27 individual staff members and two teams announced tuesday (may 5)¬†by texas a&m president michael k young as this years honorees kessler le fevre and molitor will be officially recognized along with their fellow 2020 pmsa recipients at an august 10 awards ceremony and reception hosted by young in the memorial student center bethancourt ballroom each honoree receives a $1 000 cash award a commemorative plaque and a lapel pin the presidents meritorious service awards recognize and reward staff for their commendable service to our great university young said recipients of this highly prestigious award have demonstrated their commitment to the aggie core values of excellence integrity leadership loyalty respect and selfless service to each of them i extend my most sincere congratulations and deep appreciation for their tremendous efforts that make texas a&m such a great place to live and work established in 1986 the presidents meritorious service awards are presented annually to recognize 25 outstanding staff employees two outstanding teams and two outstanding supervisors for their meritorious service to the university the program which is sponsored by the office of the president and the association of former students is coordinated by the division of human resources and organizational effectiveness the presidents meritorious service awards program is sponsored by the office of the president and the association of former students and coordinated by the division of human resources and organizational effectiveness to see a complete list of winners or find additional information about the program visit¬†employee recognition page -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the article three texas a&m science staff members merit presidential honors was posted first on texas a&m college of science share: " " what did the 2010 early career award allow you to do dark matter makes up most of the mass of the universe it is believed to be made up of a yet-to-be-discovered stable heavy particle that interacts very weakly with ordinary matter there is an intense search worldwide to directly detect this particle using a variety of detector technologies due to the very weak nature of the interaction of dark matter with ordinary matter large and sensitive detectors are required for discovery the doe early career award funded my proposal to develop ton-scale highly-sensitive cryogenic semiconductor detectors leveraging infrastructure already in hand the award essentially changed the course and impact of my research work enabling my group to establish a high-performance cryogenic semiconductor detector fabrication and characterization facility this facility and the detector development efforts have allowed researchers working on the supercdms experiment to substantially improve the quality and cost of the next-generation detectors for the experiment in snolab¬† these advances have allowed utilization of the detector technology to detect neutrinos from a reactor or the sun using a coherent interaction process similar to how dark matter interacts with ordinary matter this technology holds potential for many other applications such as nuclear non-proliferation through neutrino detection and medical imaging the award also allowed me to attract strong graduate students which has been instrumental in the success of the program scientists running these detectors hope to unravel the mysteries of the universe ranging from identifying the nature of the particles that make up dark matter to new physics in neutrino interactions about: rupak mahapatra is a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university supporting the doe sc mission: the early career award program provides financial support that is foundational to young scientists freeing them to focus on executing their research goals the development of outstanding scientists early in their careers is of paramount importance to the department of energy office of science by investing in the next generation of researchers the office of science champions lifelong careers in discovery science for more information please go to the early career research program the 2010 project abstract: ton scale germanium: beyond zeptobarn wimp cross‚Äêsection the currently favored explanation for the invisible dark matter that holds galaxies together is a new kind of fundamental particle: a weakly interacting massive particle (wimp) these particles may be produced and detected in high‚Äêenergy particle collisions at the fermilab tevatron or the cern large hadron collider but there are also many active searches underway to directly detect cosmic wimps interacting with normal matter the extremely weak nature of the wimp interaction dictates detectors that have extremely low naturally occurring radioactive background a large active volume (mass) of sensitive detector material to maximize statistics and a highly efficient rejection of any residual background to fully explore the possible wimp parameters we need to scale up from the current few-kilogram experiment to few-ton experiments this proposal is a three‚Äêpronged phased approach to address all these issues through the research work of the principal investigator as a member of the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) collaboration and the next generation proposals for 100kg‚Äêscale supercdms and ton‚Äêscale germanium observatory for dark matter (geodm) experiments resources: r agnese et al (supercdms collaboration) search for low-mass weakly interacting massive particles using voltage-assisted calorimetric ionization detection in the supercdms experiment physrevlett 112 041302 (2014) [doi: 101103/physrevlett112041302] ajastram hr harris r mahapatra j phillips m platt k prasad j sander jw suh and s upadhyayula cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) detector fabrication process and recent improvements nuclear instruments and methods in physics research a772 14 (2015) [doi: 101016/jnima201410043] n mirabolfathi hr harris r mahapatra k sundqvist a jastram b serfass d faiez and b sadoulet toward single electron resolution phonon mediated ionization detectors nuclear instruments and methods in physics research a855 88 (2017) [doi: 101016/jnima201702032] additional profiles of the 2010 early career award winners can be found at: https://wwwenergygov/science/listings/early-career-program the office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the united states and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time for more information please visit wwwenergygov/science sandra allen mclean is a communications specialist in the office of science sandramclean@sciencedoegov this post rupak mahapatra: then and now / 2010 early career award winner appeared first on office of science share: " " texas a&m university and the association of former students have selected 24 outstanding members of the universitys faculty and staff to be honored with 2020 distinguished achievement awards the university-level distinguished achievement awards were first presented in 1955 and have since been awarded to more than 1 000 professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at texas a&m in recognition of their achievements each recipient will receive a cash gift an engraved watch and a commemorative plaque in lieu of an in-person ceremony honoring distinguished achievement award recipients at this time the university is formally celebrating their accomplishments through other channels department of physics and astronomy dr george r welch professor physics and astronomy science dr alexei v sokolov professor physics and astronomy science the 2020 recipients along with their departments/affiliations were as follows: for teaching dr chavela carr senior lecturer biochemistry and biophysics agricultural and life sciences dr sharon d matthews clinical assistant professor teaching learning and culture education and human development dr marian eide associate professor english liberal arts dr dwight a roblyer lecturer political science liberal arts dr sean t mcguire associate professor accounting mays business school dr charles cody folden iii associate professor chemistry science dr george r welch professor physics and astronomy science dr kristin p chaney clinical assistant professor veterinary integrative biosciences veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences dr brian f porter clinical professor veterinary pathobiology veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences dr diane e chico instructional professor neuroscience and experimental therapeutics medicine for research dr raghavan srinivasan professor ecology and conservation biology agricultural and life sciences dr yu ding professor industrial and systems engineering engineering dr helen l reed regents professor aerospace engineering engineering dr d samba reddy professor neuroscience and experimental therapeutics medicine dr alexei v sokolov professor physics and astronomy science dr gregory a johnson professor veterinary integrative biosciences veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences for individual student engagement ms deryle richmond associate director memorial student center student programs division of student affairs dr krystal t simmons clinical associate professor educational psychology education and human development for administration dr timothy rhea director of bands and music activities music activities division of student affairs for extension outreach continuing education and professional development dr joerg m steiner university distinguished professor veterinary small animal clinical sciences veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences for staff mr james d titus supervisor architecture shop woodshop architecture ms kelly cox assistant director student life studies division of student affairs for graduate mentoring dr michael beyerlein professor educational administration and human resource development education and human development dr stephen h safe distinguished professor veterinary physiology and pharmacology veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences ‚Ä쬆 by texas a&m university office of provost communications this post texas a&m announces 2020 distinguished achievement award recipients appeared first on office of the provost share: " " dr grigory rogachev carbon known universally as the basic building block of life is generally thought by scientists to have formed inside the cores of stars now an experimental apparatus designed by scientists at texas a&m university is playing a major first-of-its-kind role in a collaboration to test whether or not the element could have been produced under additional alternate circumstances the device is called the texas active target or texat a type of particle detector known as an active-target time-projection chamber that was constructed at the texas a&m cyclotron institute a research collaboration involving physicists from texas a&m washington university in st louis and ohio university are using texat in combination with powerful neutron beam lines at ohios john e edwards accelerator laboratory to see if carbon can be more efficiently produced if a sufficient flux of neutrons is also present in the carbon-producing regions in stars its described as a novel experiment by cyclotron institute member grigory rogachev professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and an expert in low energy experimental nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics time projection chambers like texat are typically used to produce three-dimensional renderings of the trajectories of rare isotope beams and the products of nuclear reactions induced by those beams rogachev a principal investigator in the project whose research group spent six years designing and constructing texat notes that using such a device to explore nuclear reactions with neutrons has never been done before centaur postdoctoral research associate cody parker chilling beside texat as she waits to help unpack the detector at the john e edwards accelerator laboratory at ohio university where she earned her phd in 2016 the realization that texat can be used so efficiently with neutron beams was absolutely a revelation rogachev said it turned out that it was much easier to work with neutron beams with our detector even though it really wasnt originally designed for that the collaborations recent experiment is detailed in a march 19 scientific american article the joint effort was funded in part by the center for excellence in nuclear training and university-based research (centaur) a multi-institutional effort led by texas a&m that seeks to support collaborative research efforts in the area of low-energy nuclear science carbon-12 the most common form of the element can only exist when three helium-4 nuclei called alpha particles come together to form an excited state and release energy in a very specific way this so-called triple-alpha process believed to occur in stellar cores also has a low success rate when it comes to creating carbon atoms carbon-12 is formed in its ground state only an estimated four out of every 10 000 times three helium-4 isotopes unite texas a&m cyclotron institute assistant research scientists (from left) sunghoon tony ahn and evgeniy koshchiy make adjustments as jack bishop a postdoctoral research associate in the rogachev group surveys the teams progress a few years ago researchers at the university of notre dame and michigan state university (mary beard sam m austin and richard cyburt) proposed an idea that neutrons may play a role in carbon formation they theorized that when the three alpha particles come together in certain stellar environments a stray neutron is capable of displacing extra energy resulting in an enhanced triple-alpha process by a factor of as much as 100 experimental verification of this idea is challenging given that it requires measuring a scattering process involving four particles one of which is a neutron washington university nuclear chemist and centaur member lee sobotka came up with an idea of how this can be done using time-projection chambers rogachev sobotka and their colleagues in ohio decided to partner up to test this theory and began experimentation in march (from left:) jack bishop and sunghoon tony ahn steady texat as evgeniy koshchiy prepares to help them lower the detector safely onto the dolly jack bishop a postdoctoral research associate in the rogachev group who oversees the implementation of experimental techniques in texat explains that because carbon-12 exists in its excited state for only a fraction of a second its essentially impossible to measure the same process that occurs in stars instead the team measured the probability of its reverse reaction or the inverse of the original triple-alpha process rather than study the astrophysical reaction itself which would be very difficult we can look at this time-reverse reaction bishop said we can then correlate this to the astrophysical event in order to do this the researchers shoot a beam of high-energy neutrons into the carbon-dioxide-filled texat when a neutron collides with a carbon-12 atom the charged particles created during the nuclear interaction fly away and ionize the gas this in turn creates electrons which are guided by an electric field to an upper panel of the detector where their spatial positions are recorded giving the researchers a 3-d tracks of the alpha particles we didnt know what the probability was for this nuclear reaction to happen in a stellar environment and now we do rogachev said our experiment is providing data and actual measurements for this theoretical process this panel within the texat detector records the spatial positions of the electrons as they scatter giving the researchers a 3-d tracking of any resulting alpha particles created when the highly charged neutrons collide with a carbon-12 atom approximately 5 000 neutrons per second were emitted into texat with only about one in a million of them rendering a reverse triple-alpha process roughly one occurrence every five minutes a weeks worth of data was collected before the lab was forced to close due to the covid-19 pandemic but rogachev says the experiment will resume once the restrictions are lifted the ohio trip marked a homecoming of sorts for centaur postdoctoral research associate cody parker who completed her phd at ohio university in 2016 parker whose expertise is in neutron detector development coordinated with scientists at her alma maters accelerator facility to make sure that the neutron beam was well-optimized for the desired reaction in texat i always find it interesting to see what you can do with neutron-induced reactions specifically because its just not something you can do every day parker said its very important to realize that you cant simply make a neutron beam; its very difficult to do there are a lot of steps involved that maybe go unappreciated and hopefully what weve been able to do with texat and ohio university will change that texas a&ms texat team is all smiles as they prepare to return to college station with a weeks worth of data following a successful trip to ohio and the first run of the collaborations groundbreaking experiment key personnel involved in the project in addition to bishop and parker include cyclotron institute assistant research scientists evgeniy koshchiy and sunghoon tony ahn rogachev credits the four with handling the majority of the experimental setup measurements hardware and software development and results analysis an undertaking he says likely wouldnt have happened without centaur this experiment is a perfect example of the positive effect of close collaboration between institutions which was made possible by centaur rogachev said centaur provided both the platform and funds and also put together people from different institutions in a way that facilitated this work tremendously plans are already in place for texat to be the focal point of many more experiments to come both at texas a&m and at other institutions once its work in ohio is finished rogachev also notes that the device will undergo a substantial upgrade in the near future hopefully within a year or two well have an even better detector with better resolution and better tracking capabilities he said nearly two months removed from that fateful trek to the edwards accelerator lab rogachev says he remains in awe of the groundbreaking turn of events set in motion by curiosity common interests and collegiality combining an alternate theory an idea of how it could be tested experimentally and a unique experimental apparatus originally conceived for a different kind of measurement with an excellent neutron beam that the ohio u facility can provide gave us a perfect mix that resulted in a very interesting and in many ways trailblazing experiment rogachev said never before has an active target setup been used with neutron beams it is a milestone that demonstrates the advantages of the technique and i am sure it will be copied by many labs in the future to learn more about rogachev and his research group visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/grigory-rogachev/ see additional photographs of texat and the texas a&m teams trip to ohio courtesy of jack bishop # # # # # # # # # # about the cyclotron institute: dedicated in 1967 the cyclotron institute serves as the core of texas a&m universitys accelerator-based nuclear science and technology program affiliated faculty members from the department of chemistry and the department of physics and astronomy conduct nuclear physics- and chemistry-based research and radiation testing within a broad-based globally recognized interdisciplinary platform supported by the united states department of energy (doe) in conjunction with the state of texas and the welch foundation the facility is one of five doe-designated centers of excellence and is home to one of only five k500 or larger superconducting cyclotrons worldwide to learn more visit https://cyclotrontamuedu/ about centaur: the center for excellence in nuclear training and university-based research (centaur) is a multi-institutional effort supported by a five-year $10 million stewardship science academic alliances (ssaa) grant from the department of energys national nuclear security administration (doe/nnsa) centaur pursues basic research in low-energy nuclear science through experimental theoretical and technical programs using accelerators at texas a&ms cyclotron institute and florida state universitys john d fox superconducting linear accelerator laboratory as well as facilities at the other partner institutions which include¬†texas a&m university florida state university washington university in st louis the university of washington louisiana state university and the university of notre dame to learn more visit https://centaurtamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $952 million in fiscal year 2019 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey (2018) based on expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or¬†cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr grigory rogachev (979) 458-0349 or rogachev@ tamuedu the post texas a&m-led experiment uses novel particle detector to track alternate theory behind carbon creation in stars appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr melanie becker dr melanie becker a professor of physics at texas a&m university since 2005 and an expert in string theory passed away on friday march 13 in college station at the age of 53 after undergoing cancer treatment for nearly a year funeral services are set for 10 am thursday march 26 at hillier funeral home of college station (4080 state highway 6 south college station texas 77845) a native of ahaus germany prof m becker grew up in m√°laga in the south of spain graduating from the instituto nacional de ense√±anza mixto de torremolinos in 1987 she earned her doctorate in physics in 1994 from the university of bonn germany while simultaneously completing graduate work at the international particle accelerator laboratory cern in switzerland following a three-year postdoctoral fellowship with the institute for theoretical physics at the university of california santa barbara she accepted a senior research fellow position at the california institute of technology in 2000 she began her independent academic career as an assistant professor of physics at the university of maryland prof m becker pictured in 2005 at harvard university prior to coming to texas a&m university (credit: tony rinaldo / harvard university) in september 2005 prof m becker joined the texas a&m department of physics as a professor of physics with tenure on arrival and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy she was recruited to texas a&m along with her sister dr katrin becker as part of a five-year university-wide faculty reinvestment program together they worked to better understand gravity and related theories at the most fundamental levels in order to develop string theory models capable of comparing results from both the standard model of elementary particle physics and cosmology i am proud to be able to call melanie my sister prof k becker said she was unique enthusiastic about life and work and an eternal optimist we will miss her dearly prof m becker at the simons workshop in mathematics and physics in 2006 (credit: martin roƒçek / stony brook) described as one of the outstanding physicists of her generation prof m becker was an international leader in theoretical particle physics her national science foundation-funded research spanned string theory m-theory and quantum gravity she made many important contributions including developing models for superstring compactification by applying highly sophisticated mathematics to notoriously difficult problems in physics which was her forte most recently she and her sister successfully computed the action of 11-dimensional supergravity resulting from a 7-dimensional kaluza-klein compactification including all massive fields along with the 2012 discovery of the higgs boson she savored this accomplishment as clear evidence that fascinating discoveries await in supersymmetry which is an essential component of m-theory melanie becker was a highly regarded string theorist and a dedicated scholar who made valuable contributions in the areas of m-theory supersymmetry breaking and inflation said texas a&m physicist and mitchell institute director dr bhaskar dutta she was driven by the intellectual challenge of very deep theoretical questions she was a candid and sincere colleague to fellow physicists as well as a caring mentor to her doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows her courage in the face of health adversity was inspirational and her untimely death is a tremendous loss for the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m prof melanie becker in 2006 (credit: martin roƒçek / stony brook) whether working in tandem with her sister or independently prof m becker was renowned for being serious hardworking and dedicated to learning and mastering any amount of material necessary to make original contributions and reach her research goals in addition to several significant and highly cited papers she co-authored a book string theory and m-theory: a modern introduction published by cambridge university press in 2007 the book which has since become a standard among graduate-level textbooks was written in collaboration with prof k becker and their caltech mentor prof john h schwarz a member of the national academy of sciences and one of the founders of string theory prof m becker pictured within the texas a&m engineering physics building in an undated file photo circa 2005 prof m beckers major awards included a 2001 alfred p sloan foundation research fellowship a 2004 research internships in science and engineering (rise) fellowship for the development of string theory among young undergraduate female students and a 2005 edward frances and shirley b daniels fellowship from the harvard university radcliffe institute for advanced study in addition to being an accomplished researcher prof m becker was widely respected as an excellent teacher with an exceptionally clear and precise lecture style who was committed to the welfare of her students department colleagues and broader profession members of the department of physics and astronomy and i personally are deeply saddened by the loss of eminent physicist and renowned scholar dr melanie becker a trailblazer in the field of string theory said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy she left behind a rich legacy of research work that will be used by future generations of scientists prof m becker is survived by her sister katrin becker; her mother ingrid becker; and an uncle wolfgang schwarz she was preceded in death by her father karl-hans becker memories and tributes may be shared online via hillier funeral homes website -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m mourns loss of physicist and string theorist melanie becker appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and even the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology this spring at the 2020 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event (view promotional poster online) scheduled for saturday april 4 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by ucla physics and astronomy chair dr david saltzberg who served as science consultant on the television situation comedy the big bang theory as well as the spin-off series young sheldon public lecture by ucla astrophysicist and the big bang theory science consultant dr david saltzberg; saturday (april 4) 4 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building (credit: david saltzberg) all events are hosted by the texas a&m department physics and astronomy in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of aerospace engineering chemistry mathematics biology and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history throughout the day festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 200 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students for the eighth consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program hundreds of deep students undergraduate and graduate have been involved in creating the new demos during the years and many will be on hand to present their work adding to the traditional hands-on fun nasas driven to explore mobile exhibit featuring one of 10 touchable moon rocks in the world and other immersive multimedia experiences will be docked in parking lot 5 adjacent to the mitchell physics building bubble guy tom noddy will be featured in three action-packed performances (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) in the mitchell physics building primary lecture hall (credit: tom noddy) in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble magic show performances (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman tom noddy also known as the bubble guy whose exquisite bubbles lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronauts and texas a&m professors col michael fossum 80 and dr nancy currie-gregg fossum a veteran of three space flights with more than than 194 days in space and more than 48 hours in seven spacewalks to his credit during his 19 years as an astronaut officer aboard the international space station who now serves as a vice president of texas a&m and as chief operating officer of the texas a&m-galveston campus will present living & working in space: dream of a lifetime at 11 am in the stephen w hawking auditorium currie-gregg a professor of engineering practice at texas a&m since 2017 who accrued 1 000 hours in space as a mission specialist on four space shuttle missions and logged more than 4 000 flying hours in a variety of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft will present biomedical challenges for human spaceflight at 2 pm in hawking auditorium nasa astronaut nancy j currie-gregg nasa astronaut col michael e fossum other special events on tap include pictures with reveille from 11 am to noon ¬† cyclotron institute tours large hadron collider virtual tours at 12:15 pm and 1:05 pm in hawking auditorium tours of 1996 nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicist dr david m lees laboratory and four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza at 10:30 am 12 pm 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm finally a texas-sixed five-barrel depth charge featuring 1 000 plastic balls and the texas a&m yell leaders will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3:30 pm on the south side the mitchell physics building at 4 pm saltzberg will deliver a keynote presentation how did amy and sheldon win their nobel prize in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building he will discuss his experiences putting his university of chicago physics phd to work in an industry seemingly far from his own as a science consultant helping the writers and other crew tell the story of the big bang theory guggenheim fellow and author richard panek will kick-start the weekends festivities with a public lecture my trouble with gravity (friday april 3 7 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building) prior to saturdays events guggenheim fellow and author richard panek will deliver a free public lecture my trouble with gravity on friday (april 3) at 7 pm also in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building tickets are not required for the kickoff event in which panek will discuss his latest book the trouble with gravity: solving the mystery beneath our feet and what he learned about the role gravity plays in how we think about our place in the universe during his writing process all events are sponsored by the texas a&m university system the department of physics and astronomy the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy dr charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn exxonmobil the willard and anne levin foundation col hal schade 67 ahmed mahmoud 87 michele mobley 87 susan sheskey purna c murthy 88 cc creations schlotzskys college station and pepsi the event is a member of the science festival alliance for the latest details regarding the 2020 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for april 4 appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " we are pleased to announce two new recipients and co-holders of the mitchell/heep/munnerlyn career enhancement chair dr jonelle walsh assistant professor dr jeremy holt assistant professor this chair has a long history of excellent holders starting with dr lifan wang once a faculty member is tenured he or she must give up the chair or pass the torch so to speak to another untenured faculty member other outstanding faculty who held this chair included dr lucas macri dr ricardo eusebi and dr louis strigari we look forward to the longstanding purpose of this chair to support the research of programs showing great promise and remarkable achievements in science mitchell/heep/munnerlyn career enhancement chair please join us in congratulating jonelle and jeremy with this recognition! share: " " dr alexei v sokolov professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as a co-recipient of the 2020 willis e lamb award for laser science and quantum optics in honor of outstanding contributions to the field established in 1998 the award pays tribute to the famous laser scientist willis e lamb jr whose many seminal insights in multiple areas of physics and technology were recognized with the 1955 nobel prize in physics among other prestigious accolades it is presented annually at the winter colloquium on the physics of quantum electronics (pqe) held in snowbird utah in early january and featuring the worlds top experts in laser physics and quantum electronics sokolov joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2002 and is a key player in texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) he is widely recognized for his experimental expertise in fields ranging from laser physics and nonlinear optics to ultrafast science and spectroscopy dr alexei v sokolov sokolov is the third texas a&m physicist to earn the lamb award joining texas a&m distinguished professors dr m suhail zubairy a 2014 co-recipient and dr olga kocharovskaya one of three inaugural awardees in 1998 he was presented with his award¬†during a january 5 reception in snowbird as part of pqe-2020 marking the events golden jubilee where he was cited for opening the field of molecular modulation with applications to molecular spectroscopy lamb was a towering figure in 20th century science said texas a&m distinguished professor of physics and iqse director dr marlan o scully who founded the pqe and also worked with lamb to develop the first quantum theory of the laser he was a consummate experimentalist and theoretician he carried out fundamental experiments that opened the door to modern quantum field theory and indeed much of modern science furthermore he deeply understood his experiments and carried out theoretical calculations in detail that explained subtle points associated with his experiments alexei sokolov is a man after willis lambs own heart alexei invented a technique for using molecular oscillations to produce new intense combs of light frequencies furthermore he has used these coherent molecular oscillations to advantage in experiments ranging from detecting anthrax-type endospores at range and improving the precision of spectroscopy to what has been referred to in the literature as ‚Äòincredible precision clearly alexei is the sort of person that young people aspire to emulate and senior scientists admire in a rare full-circle professional-meets-personal moment sokolov was celebrated in tandem with his graduate adviser stanford universitys dr stephen e harris and the university of marylands dr christopher r monroe fittingly described in the conference program as the three gurus of time in modern physics sokolov earned his doctorate in physics from stanford in 2001 and served as a research assistant in the edward l ginzton laboratory under harris supervision as a graduate student at stanford sokolov investigated quantum coherence effects in molecular systems which led to efficient generation of short pulses of light expertise he brought with him to texas a&m upon completion of his doctoral studies this award is a great honor and a confirmation that i am doing important research that may be of interest to my colleagues physicists chemists and biologists said sokolov the inaugural holder of the stephen e harris professorship in quantum optics he helped establish at texas a&m in 2003 in his mentors honor this award is particularly special to me because i am sharing it with my phd adviser steve harris this man a great scientist with no exaggeration played a huge role in my scientific track joining his group at stanford for me was a serendipitous life-altering event with an overall impact comparable only to getting admitted to mipt [the moscow institute of physics and technology] sokolovs current research interests center around applications of molecular coherence to quantum optics ultrafast laser science and technology including generation of sub-cycle optical pulses with prescribed temporal shape and studies of ultrafast atomic molecular and nuclear processes as well as applications of quantum coherence in biological and defense-oriented areas a fellow of the american physical society (2015) and optical society of america (2009) he has served as an adviser to the texas a&m student chapter of osa since its inception in 2008 and much like harris he is renowned as an adviser and mentor to dozens of his own award-winning postdoctoral and graduate students alexeis contribution to our graduate program in the department of physics and astronomy is enormous said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy i lost count but the last time i checked he had eight graduate students in his group on top of the countless others who have already graduated dr alexei v sokolov 2013 in addition to earning selection in 2017 as one of texas a&ms inaugural presidential impact fellows sokolovs many career honors include the texas a&m research foundation board of trustees joann treat research excellence award (2011) the texas section of the american physical societys inaugural robert s hyer award (2007) the osas adolph lomb medal (2003) and a research corporation for science advancement research innovation award (2003) he also holds a patent related to his groundbreaking work with the iqse to develop a new approach to detect biochemical molecules using an adapted form of coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy known as fast cars learn more about the willis e lamb award or the history of the pqe find additional information on sokolov and his research see a related feature story from the moscow institute of physics and technology where sokolov earned his master of science in physics with summa cum laude honors # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 ranking the university among the top 20 in the national science foundations most recent higher education research and development survey texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit research@texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexei v sokolov (979) 845-7733 or sokol@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist alexei sokolov recognized with 2020 lamb award appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " 1923 ‚Äì 2020 nelson mark duller jr 96 long-time resident of bryan texas a&m professor emeritus of physics with a combined total of 55 years of teaching passed away january 23 2020 at chi st joseph health regional hospital bryan after a brief illness nelson was a believer of christ and an eternal optimist he was born in the houston heights on march 6 1923 to nelson mark duller sr and sue hardcastle duller as a member of the class of 1941 john h reagan high school (now heights high school) he served as class president ran for the track team and earned valedictorian honors nelson and his beloved younger brother jean enlisted for world war ii both survived the war nelson served in the u s army 413th infantry regiment normandy invasion battle of the bulge nelson was able to capitalize on his love for electronics building radios from scratch and amateur ham radio he was introduced to texas a&m by an uncle from the class of 1932 as a physics major nelson received his bachelors of science from texas a&m university in 1948 (spring semester valedictoriana kyle field speech was required); followed by a masters of arts and doctorate from rice university his doctorate was a study of cosmic ray measurements in colorados high altitudes teaching summary: texas a&m 1953-54; university of missouri-columbia 1954-1962; texas a&m 1962-2008 volunteer assistance with teaching until a few weeks ago at tamu nelson in addition to teaching required physics courses longed for the challenge of presenting physics and astronomy to non-science majors he said this might be their last chance to get the basics he never rushed the material and was always available for student consultation and advice nelson became known for his creative ways to present physics experiments he demonstrated the concepts with his near perfect pitch of singing to the students he showcased his teaching skills to public school teachers in houston and galveston he mentored and advised many graduate students dissertation projects with attention to detail laboratory materials and examinations were written with precision he published papers with colleagues and made presentations at international conferences a long-time interest in nuclear magnetic resonance was the final work three-time recipient of the tamu association of former students distinguished achievement award for teaching a 2007 inductee to the tamu college of science academy of distinguished former students the classroom was his environment a born teacher he wanted to instill his love for science astronomy math music of all kindsclassics to the beatles and great writers (graham greene herman wouk james thurber) to as many people as he could he took joy in knowing his beloved classrooms at helms elementary school in houston are still in use today he had his stories early in his career he presented a paper to a large audience with albert einstein in attendance nelson had to really concentrate during the war he met bette davis and ernest hemingway during war training he was intrigued by discussions with future writer paddy chayefsky nelsons son witnessed his complimenting theater legend robert morse nelson was fortunate to see and hear the late great singers paul robeson and judy holliday perform in new york dr nelson m duller nelson loved biking to work an avid jogger and tennis player until his 70s aggie football season ticket holder prostate cancer survivor at age 73 nature lover fisherman and language specialist in spanish french and german reader of time magazine community service: junior warden on the vestry at st thomas episcopal church in the early 1980s serving under the leadership of the late reverend william r oxley was very rewarding among the people who impacted nelson were many of his teachers (some born in the 1880s) who shaped his future as a teacher what he poured into the thousands of his students with knowledge and inspiration could fill a book including the devotion and love for his aggie son david born on his 35th birthday we rejoice that nelson had his memory and sense of humor intact mentored by all four of his grandparents he wanted people to enjoy school life and to use their talents to the maximum predeceased: his parents brother jean l duller sister-in-law mae belle chappell and his phenomenal wife the love of his life joe ann chappell duller (1927-2010) originally of houston nelson was blessed with 55 years of marriage the family salutes the expertise of dr stephen a braden and assistant monica reyes; chi st joseph rehab (the manor); the isle at watercrest-bryan (former resident); visiting angels; and encompass health home health there will be no funeral service in keeping with nelsons wishes a private burial at a future date will take place at the college station city cemetery near his parents gravesites in lieu of flowers donations may be made to the charity of your choice please visit nelsons tribute page at wwwhillierfuneralhomecom to share memories and stories to plant a tree in memory of nelson duller jr as a living tribute please visit¬†tribute store this obituary for duller jr nelson mark was originally posted on the eagle share: " " women studying physics across texas and adjacent states will gather at texas a&m university this weekend for the conference for undergraduate women in physics (cuwip) as part of a broader national push to encourage and support women pursuing scientific and technical careers the three-day conference which starts friday (jan 17) and runs through sunday (jan 19) within texas a&ms george p mitchell 40 physics building and george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is endorsed by the american physical society (aps) and targets undergraduate physics majors from texas arizona and new mexico the goal is to help undergraduate women across the nation continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference information about graduate school and professions in physics and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences advice and ideas the conference which is sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is being coordinated by a 10-member local organizing committee co-chaired by texas a&m physicist dr robert c webb and texas a&m physics graduate student cyclotron institute research assistant and university of notre dame visiting scholar stefania dede all related activities (excluding laboratory tours and friday check-in/opening events and dinners which all occur at the george hotel) will take place in the mitchell institute and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus funded in part through grants from the national science foundation and the united states department of energy the event is one of a larger series of simultaneous parallel conferences across the united states and canada for undergraduate women in physics spanning 12 additional regional sites the nearest in proximity to texas a&m being the university of oklahoma texas a&m previously served as a host site in 2012 the first year the aps began serving as the national organizing committee for cuwip which began at the university of southern california in 2006 texas a&ms program will feature a keynote presentation by dr andrea liu hepburn professor of physics at the university of pennsylvania set for 1 pm saturday (jan 18) in the mitchell institutes stephen w hawking auditorium¬†the conference highlights several additional invited speakers including texas a&m department of psychological & brain sciences associate professor dr adrienne carter-sowell space telescope science institute senior scientist dr kathryn flanagan department of energy office on nuclear physics director of facilities and project management dr jehanne gillo a 1991 texas a&m physics phd graduate and 2006 inductee into the college of science academy of distinguished former students and texas a&m distinguished professor of physics dr olga kocharovskaya in addition to roughly two dozen parallel session speakers and panelists brazos valley african american museum curator oliver sadberry also will deliver a special martin luther king day talk at fridays dinner scheduled for 7 pm at the george beyond a power-packed slate of presenters the agenda¬†features breakout sessions panel discussions a student poster session and workshops laboratory tours a networking mixer and career fair and other social activities designed to mirror the real-world experience of a pursuing and achieving a successful career in physics learn more about cuwip 2020 at texas a&m¬†or find¬†additional information on aps cuwip -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu; or stefania dede stefani-ad@emailtamuedu the post texas a&m hosts conference to inspire undergraduate women in physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " fifteen texas a&m university students enrolled in physics 206 (classical mechanics) this past fall have been honored by the¬†department of physics and astronomy as its latest¬†pearson mechanics scholars the students selected for their top-scoring marks on a special end-of-semester challenge exam open to all physics 206 students and covering material from all related sections taught during the fall 2019 semester were honored friday (nov 22) (from left) dr alexey akimov hao zhu (third) rishi m phatak (first) john mckelvey (second) and dr vitaly kocharovsky each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishments this semesters top three performers ‚Äì rishi phatak (first) john mckelvey (second) and hao zhu (third) the event is part of the¬†mechanics scholar program founded by the department in 2002 to celebrate the best students in physics 206 and encourage career exploration in physics as a large introductory course with challenging subject matter it is open to all majors but the majority of the enrollment consists of first-year engineering students along with physics and other science-related majors at the end of both the fall and spring semesters any student enrolled in physics 206 is eligible to take the pearson mechanics challenge exam the exam covers the same material as the semester-long course newtons laws of motion gravity and the concepts of energy work and momentum the difficulty level is higher than the course by design in order to identify the top performers out of the roughly 2 300 students enrolled this past year see¬†additional photographs¬†from this years spring event or¬†find more information on the program including requirements and lists of past winners -atm- contact: dr david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu share: " " texas a&m university physicist rupak mahapatra has been appointed as director of research engagement for the texas a&m university system national laboratories office (nlo) shortly after the texas a&m system became part of the team tasked with managing and operating los alamos national laboratory (lanl) in 2018 texas a&m system chancellor john sharp established the nlo to execute its various responsibilities but also to increase engagement between researchers throughout the texas a&m system and all us department of energy-affiliated laboratories los alamos in particular dr rupak mahapatra mahapatra who has been a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 says he was a logical choice for the latter assignment based on his existing relationships with four such national laboratories: slac national accelerator laboratory fermi national accelerator laboratory lawrence berkeley national laboratory and pacific northwest national laboratory three years ago he also was one of six national experts chosen by doe to carry out its most recent review of all national labs that have research programs in the does cosmic frontier research program including the aforementioned five labs along with argonne national laboratory brookhaven national laboratory and lawrence livermore national laboratory in his efforts to coordinate and facilitate research engagement across the texas a&m system mahapatra works most closely with associate vice chancellor for national laboratories management l diane hurtado he also interacts with vice chancellor of engineering and national laboratories m katherine banks who heads the nlo and director of laboratory mission support marvin adams already it has been a very fulfilling experience since i am able to learn a lot about our faculties from engineering and science while trying to help their research map to various missions of national labs especially los alamos mahapatra said mahapatra who received a 2010 doe early career research award and earned selection earlier this fall as a 2019 texas a&m presidential impact fellow is an international expert in high-energy particle physics and dark matter a mysterious substance thought to comprise about one-fifth of the energy and 85 percent of all matter in the universe he has served since 2003 as a principal investigator with the international super cryogenic dark matter search (supercdms) experiment and the affiliated supercdms snolab experiment a world leader in the search for elusive weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) under his leadership texas a&ms supercdms group has sustained an average of approximately $1 million per year in external funding from various funding agencies to date the mahapatra group has demonstrated the worlds best results for large-mass low-threshold detector technology opening new frontiers beyond the specific goal of direct detection of dark matter in 2017 mahapatra founded a new world-class experiment the mitchell institute neutrino experiment at reactor (miner) housed at the texas a&m nuclear science center that utilizes cutting-edge low threshold detectors developed at texas a&m to precisely measure background signals while also searching for new interactions beyond what is known to exist in the standard model of particle physics the miner collaboration now has more than 60 scientists from 11 universities in four countries his diverse background in particle physics experimentation recently has led him into a new area of applied research: medical imaging mahapatra has built early prototypes of new-generation positron emission tomography (pet) scan detectors and submitted proposals to fund such work that promises to provide more accurate imaging technology his research has the potential to deliver earlier diagnostics of diseases such as alzheimers by looking for tau-proteins (bio markers) that are smaller in size than current-generation pet scanners can detect but within the reach of more accurate next-generation pet scanners that utilize more sophisticated particle physics experimental techniques find additional information on mahapatra and his research at http://peoplephysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m university system: the texas a&m university system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $63 billion through a statewide network of 11 universities a comprehensive health science center eight state agencies and the rellis campus the texas a&m system educates more than 153 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year system-wide research and development expenditures exceeded $996 million in fy 2017 and helped drive the states economy to learn more visit https://wwwtamusedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@tamuedu the post physicist rupak mahapatra named director of research engagement for texas a&m system national laboratories office appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dr clifford h spiegelman distinguished professor of statistics at texas a&m university has been designated a regents professor for 2018-19 by the texas a&m university system board of regents spiegelman a leader in the field of statistical and environmental forensics is one of 13 a&m system faculty members who were nominated for the prestigious appointment approved as part of the a&m system board of regents october meeting held on the texas a&m campus eight agency service extension or research professionals within the a&m system also were recognized with the regents fellows service award the board established the regents professor award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of texas to date 252 faculty members have been named regents professors spiegelman ranks as only the seventh within the college of science (dr robert clark physics 1998; dr sherry j yennello chemistry 2007; dr michael j benedik biology 2012; dr harold boas mathematics 2014; dr david bergbreiter chemistry 2016; dr nicholas b suntzeff 2017) to merit the honor an eighth dr ryland young biochemistry and biophysics 2016 is a joint professor of biology nominees must be full-time professors or senior-level professionals who have held that rank in the a&m system for at least five years and have produced a distinguished record of teaching research and/or service the selection process begins with a call for nominations from the chancellor after which an internal selection committee is formed within each institution or agency final nominations are put forth to the chief executive officer of each respective entity and then subjected to a system-level review consisting of academic vice chancellors and past recipients of the awards finally nominations are forwarded to the chancellor and the board for final approval clifford h spiegelman distinguished professor of statistics along with the perpetual regents professor title for the duration of their a&m system service recipients are recognized with a $9 000 stipend and a commemorative medallion that is presented along with an inscribed nameplate and certificate encased in a hand-crafted wooden shadow box these awards recognize and honor the exemplary accomplishments and contributions of our faculty extension or research professionals said elaine mendoza a&m system board of regents chairman though they vary in focus and location these individuals exemplify the commitment to excellence in research and service that sets a&m system employees apart spiegelman joined the texas a&m department of statistics in 1987 and was appointed as a distinguished professor of statistics in 2009 in addition he is a senior research scientist with the texas a&m transportation institute since 2017 he has served as the inaugural official statistician of the texas holocaust and genocide commission as well as the statistical advisor to the texas forensic science commission spiegelman is a founder of the field of chemometrics the science of using data to extract information from chemical systems by data-driven means to investigate and address problems in chemistry biochemistry and chemical engineering he was one of the four founders of the international journal chemometrics and intelligent laboratory systems which in 2017 celebrated his 30-plus years of service to both the publication and the discipline he helped create with a virtual special issue in his honor spiegelman also was instrumental in the federal bureau of investigation (fbi) decision to stop using compositional bullet lead analysis after he demonstrated it to be flawed he routinely testifies in criminal matters related to various aspects of statistics flawed forensic science probability and the law and serves as the key statistical advisor to the city of houstons crime lab beyond traditional research achievements spiegelman is driven by societal service as evidenced by his body of work focused on problems of local state national and international importance along with his desire to communicate the results to help audiences at all levels better understand its broader significance he has been quoted in many contexts by national media most notably with regard to his research showing that some of the forensic techniques commonly presented as evidence in the justice system including bullet fragment analysis are flawed from a statistical point of view he consults with the innocence project the national non-profit legal clinic dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through dna test and other post-verdict methods and also works with judges and attorneys to broaden their understanding of statistics and the critical effect it often has on case outcomes and broader issues at hand spiegelman is a fellow of the american statistical association (asa) the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) and the institute of mathematical statistics (ims) as well as an elected member of the international statistical institute (isi) a two-time recipient of the asa statistics in chemistry award for best paper spiegelman also has received the 2007 jerome sacks award for outstanding cross-disciplinary research recognizing innovation in statistical science and the san antonio chapter of the asas 2016 don owen award for excellence in research contributions to editorial activities and service to the statistical community most recently he was honored with the texas a&m chapter of sigma xis 2019 outstanding science communicator award find additional information on the regents professor award and a list of past recipients # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m university system: the texas a&m university system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $63 billion through a statewide network of 11 universities a comprehensive health science center eight state agencies and the rellis campus the texas a&m system educates more than 153 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year system-wide research and development expenditures exceeded $996 million in fy 2017 and helped drive the states economy to learn more visit https://wwwtamusedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post cliff spiegelman named regents professor of statistics appeared first on college of science share: " " award-winning author and aggie loren c steffy 86 former houston chronicle business columnist and writer-at-large for texas monthly magazine will visit texas a&m university this week to deliver a free public lecture and sign copies of his latest book a biography on 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell in addition to his experiences in writing his book george p mitchell: fracking sustainability and an unorthodox quest to save the planet steffy a 1986 texas a&m journalism graduate will discuss the origins of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy¬†as part of a 4 pm thursday (nov 7) presentation in the mitchell institutes stephen w hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the free event which is sponsored by the mitchell institute and department of physics and astronomy steffy is hosted by texas a&m physicist dr edward s fry who served as head of texas a&m physics and astronomy from 2002 to 2011 and holds the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics loren c steffy 86 (credit: loren c steffy) steffys lecture will be preceded by a 3:15 pm reception in the first-floor atrium area of the mitchell institute copies of his book which is published by texas a&m university press will be available for purchase on site in 2002 mitchell made his first million-dollar gift intended to help transform texas a&m into a world leader in fundamental physics anhttps://wwwtamupresscom/d astronomy founding his namesake institute a decade later he came full circle in that commitment teaming with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation to add a $20 million legacy gift to bolster the permanent endowment for the mitchell institute george p mitchell: fracking sustainability and an unorthodox quest to save the planet by loren c steffy (credit: loren c steffy) this institute will provide a major boost to their international recognition and promote the collaboration of some of the major scientists in the world fry said back in 2002 in the institutes founding announcement the results can be expected to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature steffys book is billed as the first definitive biography of mitchell a galveston native who texas monthly describes as best known for two things: developing the woodlands the master-planned community north of houston and helping create hydraulic fracturing aka fracking the method of gas well stimulation that has transformed the global energy industry chapter by chapter steffy weaves together a compelling story that places both mitchells life and legacy in a global context while highlighting the significance of his accomplishments and the lingering controversies they inspired as the son of immigrants georges story was quintessentially american states a mitchell foundation promotional brief whether it was graduating first in his class at texas a&m developing the woodlands as a master-planned new town pioneering the technology that unleashed the shale gas boom working to create a more sustainable planet restoring the historic area of galveston or just fishing with his family he had the right mix of vision optimism tenacity and a love for his fellow man in addition to writing for texas monthly steffy is a managing director for the communications firm 30 point strategies where heads the 30 point press publishing imprint for nine years steffy was the business columnist for the houston chronicle and his writing has been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide a four-time finalist for the gerald loeb award for distinguished business and financial journalism he has appeared on cnbc fox business msnbc the bbc and the pbs newshour and is regular guest on local television and radio news programs in houston prior to joining the chronicle steffy was the dallas bureau chief and a senior writer for bloomberg news for 12 years he covered a variety of business topics in texas and across the country including the collapse of enron his reporting on the demise of arthur andersen was selected for the 2003 edition of the best business stories of the year before joining bloomberg steffy worked at the dallas times herald the dallas business journal and the arlington daily news during his college days at texas a&m steffy served as editor of the battalion his father j richard steffy was a pioneer in nautical archaeology and longtime texas a&m professor who helped found the universitys nautical archaeology program in 1976 retiring in 1990 as a texas a&m professor emeritus to learn more about steffy visit https://wwwlorensteffycom read more about mitchell from his visionary life and legacy to his texas a&m ties and related philanthropic support including the history behind his early involvement with texas a&m physics and astronomy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu share: " " on any given day particularly during the peak hours of another busy fall semester the 35 000-square-foot shell engineering foundations laboratory is a blur of activity with machines humming and whirring over the din of student chatter as their mechanical arms chart patterns if not the career courses for thousands of future aggie engineers and scientists the laboratory located on the third floor of texas a&m universitys zachry engineering education complex is a tangible example of the transformational difference a little teamwork and aggie ingenuity can make in improving fundamental education delivery by focusing on an old-fashioned time-honored concept experience the more realistic and hands-on the better a team of texas a&m students discusses their current project you say you want a revolution three years ago zachry wasnt the only bold renovation project underway on the texas a&m campus at the time a simultaneous one began as a collaboration between faculty in the colleges of science and the engineering to revamp required engineering courses including classical mechanics engineering calculus and chemistry for engineers last fall that joint effort resulted in the campus-wide debut of an entirely new engineering physics sequence featuring not only a new set of laboratories for introductory physics service courses but also a novel method of delivery: state-of-the-art laboratory stations custom-made to revolutionize the learning experience a student contemplates his next step while working at one of the laboratorys 60 stations designed by a team of physicists from the department of physics and astronomy under the direction of professor ricardo eusebi each specialized work unit is equipped with tools and high-tech interactive features enabling students to put complex physics concepts to practice and generate detailed electronic reports the idea eusebi says is to foster a learning-by-doing experience to date 60 of the lab stations have been installed within the shell laboratory where they are used by students taking two new cross-listed courses: phys/engr 216 mechanics or phys/engr 217 electricity and magnetism we want them to have an experimental understanding as opposed to just a theoretical understanding eusebi said were no longer asking students to believe and trust what were telling them now were asking them to prove it experimentally tables for 3 000 the stations consist of a high-lift four-by-four-foot air table that provide a low-friction surface at first glance they resemble air hockey tables and with students huddled around gliding brightly colored pucks back and forth it would be easy to mistake whats going on for a rousing bout of the popular game in actuality the students are analyzing detailed information on the position velocity and acceleration of the pucks another student adjusts a track point as part of an experiment designed to measure voltage each puck is covered in strategically placed stickers and cameras mounted over the tables use a special tracking software to record their frame-by-frame coordinates which students then can track on monitors in real time students can also alter the slope of the table or strategically arrange collisions and use the information to make assessments about the dynamics of projectile motion under various conditions in addition a computer numerical control (cnc) feature modulates an armature that can be fitted with various instruments such as voltage probes which can then scan sensors on the table and take voltage readings as a function of position the thing that really tells you how well these labs are going are the reports that the students make eusebi said those reports are beautiful they show you the amount of information these devices produce not only do the students get to take the data by themselves they get to analyze it in a way that couldnt be done in the old labs committee for change eusebi was a member of the joint science-engineering committee charged in fall 2016 with merging the engr 111/112 classes and the phys 208/218 laboratories to create joint physics and engineering courses faculty from both disciplines as well as chemistry and mathematics met regularly for nearly a year to determine what improvements could be made to the curriculum beyond restructuring the course material eusebi says they wanted to completely change the way it was taught thus the idea for a one-of-a-kind experimental learning facility was set in motion it was an opportunity for us to do some research to figure out how the new labs should be designed without any restraint on what the technology was or what devices were available eusebi said we wanted to start completely from scratch and think of the best most ideal lab we could have we did that with a completely open mind professor john mason john mason an instructional assistant professor of physics who earned his phd in physics from texas a&m in 2016 was one of the researchers recruited by eusebi early on to help with the development of the tables and oversee their implementation into the new courses we sat down and took a hard introspective look at our labs that we had and we said ‚Äòwe can do this better mason said we wanted to come up with a curriculum that wasnt cookie-cutter to what other colleges are doing we wanted our students to really think and we wanted to improve on the educational experience here at texas a&m that was our goal and i think that weve met that goal mason says the entire process from conceptualization to installation took nearly two years but efforts to improve upon the functional and technological capabilities of the tables will remain on-going a lot of the equipment is custom-made he said it took a long time to get this project off the ground and were still growing we consider it a work in progress well never be done making them better conducive to collaboration laboratory manager alexander yeagle makes adjustments to one of the stations which are custom-designed and branded for texas a&m via each information panel (below)texas a&m custom-built visualization studio eusebi estimates the tables are used by approximately 3 000 physics and engineering majors per week making the shell engineering foundations laboratory one of the largest student-serving experimental facilities on campus as one of the most recent improvements 2011 cornell university physics graduate alexander yeagle was hired in june as a laboratory manager to oversee the research space i think the big advantage of these new labs that we have here is it gets people exposure with tools they might actually use yeagle said youre getting a lot of exposure with data acquisition visual tracking and odometry using the cameras and cnc which are all things used in industry because the lab tables are specifically designed to be conducive to collaboration allowing students to electronically share data between machines with their peers yeagle says students get to experience a more accurate representation of how research is actually conducted science research as its done today changes quite a bit yeagle said the days where its somebody by themselves sitting in a lab has kind of passed a lot of what happens now is collaborative work and it also includes software and computer work getting used to that would help people understand how research is done nowadays more than the way it used to be done which is still whats taught in a lot of places expanding the experience hands-on experiential learning is a hallmark of the shell engineering foundations laboratory one of the largest student-serving experimental facilities on the entire texas a&m campus engineering programs at other campuses in the texas a&m university system including texas a&ms branch campuses at galveston qatar and mcallen already are embracing the technology and have implemented the new tables into their curriculum the tables also are in use in all engineering academies throughout the state and in community colleges in houston dallas san antonio austin brownsville and brenham thus far 114 total units have been deployed last fall eusebi filed a patent on behalf of his team of graduate students and physicists who helped design and construct the tables in addition there is a company that has entered into an exclusive license with the texas a&m system to eventually sell them commercially building these tables turned into a much bigger job than we originally thought but a large number of colleges in texas are using these machines and following texas a&ms lead eusebi said professor ricardo eusebi eusebi is no stranger to such enterprising group projects having previously mentored a six-member student team led by physics graduate student andrea delgado 12 that designed and built texas a&ms tesla coil housed in the basement of the george p mitchell 40 physics building that since has become one of the most popular attractions for aspiring scientists and engineers of all ages at the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival set for april 4 2020 to learn more about physics teaching labs visit https://physicstamuedu/academics/labs/ for more information about eusebi and his teaching research and service go to https://physicstamuedu/directory/ricardo-eusebi/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or prof ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics turns tables on traditional engineering education with custom-designed patent-pending laboratory stations appeared first on college of science share: " " gmto corporation the organization managing the development of the giant magellan telescope (gmt) on behalf of its us and international founders including texas a&m university has signed a contract with mt mechatronics and ingersoll machine tools to design build and install the telescopes precision steel structure latest design of the giant magellan telescope enclosure telescope and site at las campanas observatory in chile (credit: gmto corporation) the gmt is a 245-meter (80-ft) diameter next-generation giant optical-infrared observatory that will explore the frontiers of astronomy including seeking to answer one of humanitys most pressing questions: are we alone the gmt will study the atmospheres of planets orbiting stars far from our solar system to search for signs of biochemistry mt mechatronics of mainz germany and rockford illinois-based ingersoll machine tools part of the italian camozzi group will design and manufacture the 1 800-ton precision mechanism known as the telescope structure that will hold the gmts optics and smoothly track celestial targets as they move across the sky the telescope structure will be designed by mt mechatronics and manufactured assembled and tested by ingersoll before being shipped to and installed at the gmt observatory site high in the remote chilean andes the total value of the telescope structure contract is $135 million and will require nine years of effort by a large workforce of engineers designers metal workers and machinists the contract was signed by mt mechatronics senior vice president thomas zimmerer ingersoll machine tools ceo chip storie and by gmto president dr robert n shelton and project manager dr james fanson the gmt telescope structure showing the six 84-meter off-axis segments arrayed around a central on-axis 84-meter segment that comprises gmts unique primary mirror configuration the grey cylinder at the bottom is the telescope pier ‚Äì the concrete foundations the widest orange ring designates the observing floor of the enclosure the grey semi-circular structure above this is known as the c-ring the c-ring structure is supported by 16 radial hydrostatic bearings that counteract the force of gravity and allow the telescope to move smoothly the light blue hexagonal structures are the mirror cells that hold the primary mirrors and their support mechanisms finally at the top of the main truss the top end supports the secondary mirror assembly (credit: gmto corporation) manufacturing the telescope structure is one of the biggest steps we will take on our journey to building the giant magellan telescope shelton said we selected mt mechatronics and ingersoll machine tools for their commitment to quality extensive experience with astronomical telescopes and abilities to manufacture complex precision structures following a two-year global competition fanson added the telescope structure will hold the gmts seven giant mirrors in place as they bring light from distant stars and galaxies to a focus so it can be analyzed by scientific instruments mounted deep inside the telescope the mirrors the largest in the world are made at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror laboratory when in operation the telescope structure complete with mirrors and instruments will weigh 2 100 tons but will float on a film of oil just 50 microns (2 one-thousandths of an inch) thick ‚Äì allowing it to move essentially without friction as it compensates for earths rotation tracking celestial bodies in their arc across the sky with its unique design the gmt will produce images that are 10 times sharper than those from the hubble space telescope in the infrared region of the spectrum being a part of an endeavor with objectives as distinguished as the giant magellan telescopes is compelling for mt mechatronics and were eager to support the gmt on its quest to answer the deepest questions in astronomy zimmerer said we look forward to collaborating with gmto over the next decade to bring the telescopes massive structure to fruition we are happy to work with gmto and mtm to create this unique tool for the study of new worlds said camozzi group ceo lodovico camozzi the project honors and motivates all of us at ingersoll it will be a special day when the gmts telescope structure is completed and placed in service in chile storie added mt mechatronics has more than 50 years experience with telescopes beginning with the parkes radio telescope in australia it was part of a european consortium constructing the european atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) telescope antennas as well as the mount designer for the daniel k inouye solar telescope (dkist) in hawaii latest design of the giant magellan telescope enclosure telescope and site at las campanas observatory in chile with a night sky background (credit: m3 engineering and gmto corporation) since its inception in 1891 ingersoll machine tools inc has been an iconic name in the milling machines sector successfully serving the defense sector and then the newborn aeronautics and aerospace industry ingersoll has many decades of experience with manufacturing precision steel structures including recently partnering with mt mechatronics on the construction of the dkist telescope mount the contract between gmto mt mechatronics and ingersoll machine tools will involve nine years of work and 1 300 tons of structural steel the structure is expected to be delivered to chile at the end of 2025 and be ready to accept mirrors in 2028 the mount contract completes another significant milestone for gmto in 2019 in march the excavations for the foundations of the telescopes pier and enclosure were finished and in july the second of gmts seven primary mirror segments was completed and shipped to temporary storage casting of the sixth primary mirror segment at the university of arizona is expected to begin in mid-2020 # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope is a next-generation ground-based telescope that promises to revolutionize our understanding and view of the universe the gmt is poised to enable breakthrough discoveries in cosmology the study of black holes dark matter dark energy and the search for life beyond our solar system the telescopes primary mirror combines seven 84-meter (27 feet) diameter circular segments to form an effective aperture 245 meters in diameter the gmt will be located at las campanas observatory in chiles atacama desert and the project is the work of a distinguished international consortium of leading universities and science institutions funding for the project comes from the partner institutions governments and private donors about the giant magellan telescope organization: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: arizona state university astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: amanda kocz akocz@gmtoorg; dr robert n shelton rshelton@gmtoorg; or dr james fanson jfanson@gmtoorg the post giant magellan telescope signs contract for telescope structure appeared first on college of science share: " " texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp and texas a&m university president michael k young will join the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) this week for a two-day symposium to celebrate texas a&m distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and 1996 nobel prize winner david m lee recently featured as the top 100 registrys 2019 physicist of the year dr david m lee the quantum materials science symposium also known more affectionately as lee fest is set for thursday and friday (october 24 and 25) in room 578 of the george p mitchell 40 physics building the all-day format will feature short talks presented by lees colleagues within the texas a&m departments of physics and astronomy and materials science and engineering all presentations are open to the public and free of charge following breakfast in the iqses fifth-floor mitchell physics building headquarters the symposium will begin thursday with 8:55 am remarks from chancellor sharp then a 9 am presentation from lee recapping the nobel prize-worthy history of the discovery of superfluid helium-3 (he-3) president young similarly will open fridays slate with 9 am remarks followed by a 9:10 am presentation from texas a&m distinguished professor of physics and iqse director marlan o scully both days will conclude with 4 pm presentations by external faculty rice universitys junichiro kono on thursday and appalachian state universitys francois amet on friday thursdays festivities also will feature an rsvp-required 5:30 pm dinner at the hilton college station & conference center lee and fellow texas a&m physicist marlan o scully (right) at a 2017 hagler institute for advanced study symposium (credit: hagler institute for advanced study) a member of the national academy of sciences (1991) and the american academy of arts and sciences (1990) lee earned his phd from yale university in 1959 and took a faculty position at cornell university where he had enjoyed a prolific 50-year career prior to accepting a half-time professorial appointment at texas a&m in november 2009 at texas a&m he is a member of the iqse and was appointed as a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy in 2012 lee shared the 1996 nobel prize in physics with fellow cornell physicist robert c richardson and stanford universitys douglas d osheroff their doctoral student at cornell at the time for their 1972 discovery of superfluidity in he-3 during their days in the low-temperature laboratory at cornell in the early 1970s the three discovered using a hand-built apparatus that the helium isotope helium-3 can be made superfluid unaffected by friction at a temperature only about two thousandths of a degree above absolute zero this superfluid quantum liquid differed greatly from the one previously discovered in the 1930s and possessed highly specialized characteristics illustrating that the quantum laws of microphyiscs also sometimes directly govern the behavior of macroscopic bodies as a result of their breakthrough discovery superfluid he-3 is now one of the richest systems in condensed matter physics with exotic order parameters that exemplify a whole new set of physical concepts that impact many other areas including even cosmology lee presenting at the 2017 texas a&m physics and engineering festival during the course of the trios nobel experimentation they also performed one of the first physics magnetic resonance imaging (mri) experiments involving magnetic field gradients on the he-3 sample imaging work applied to subsequent biological sampling techniques and later to the human body in disease detection and diagnosis lee has made many additional noteworthy discoveries during his 60-year career studying liquid and solid helium including nuclear spin waves in spin-polarized atomic hydrogen gas more recently he has observed collective sound modes in superfluid he-3 that obey the nambu identity and are analogous to the higgs phenomenon in elementary particle physics currently lee is actively engaged in studies of atomic free radicals trapped in low temperature matrices including spin polarized hydrogen atoms embedded in the films of molecular hydrogen while lee understandably considers his nobel as a career highlight he is equally proud of his 33 phd students he has mentored who currently hold key positions in academia and industry throughout the world in addition to the nobel lees many international accolades include multiple guggenheim foundation fellowships (1966-67 1974-75) the british institute of physics sir francis simon memorial prize (1976) the american physical societys oliver buckley prize (1981) and yales wilbur cross medal (1998) in addition he has been highlighted in multiple editions of marquis whos who recently earning the albert nelson marquis lifetime achievement award for 2019-2020 lee fest is sponsored by iqse in partnership with the hagler institute for advanced study all events are organized by texas a&m professors alexander finkelstein vitaly kocharovsky and alan needleman the latter of whom was an inaugural hagler institute faculty fellow in 2012-13 for additional information please visit the symposium website or email iqse@tamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or kimberly chapin (979) 845-1534 or k-chapin@tamuedu the post texas a&m to host two-day symposium to honor nobel laureate and 2019 physicist of the year david lee appeared first on college of science share: " " its¬†known as the thinnest material on earth and one you can find in something as everyday as a pencil: graphene in 2010 manchester researchers andre geim and kostya novoselov won a nobel prize in physics with it just six years after they discovered how to isolate a single atomic layer of it quite unceremoniously ‚Äì by repeatedly applying scotch tape to increasingly thinner flakes of graphite that started as a pencil-drawn line until they ended up with just one monolayer of the multipurpose carbon atoms scotch tape and a piece of graphite donated by 2010 nobel prize in physics recipient kostya novoselov at the nobel museum in stockholm (credit: alexey belyanin) you could have done this nobel-worthy research too if you only knew what to look for and most importantly believed that isolating a single atomic layer of any substance is possible which almost nobody believed at that time said texas a&m university theoretical physicist alexey belyanin a member of the department of physics and astronomy and george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the nobel museum in stockholm collects artifacts of nobel discoveries donated by nobel laureates there among pieces of complicated apparatuses you can find scotch tape and a chunk of graphite donated by kostya novoselov as a joke playfulness has always been one of the hallmarks of geim-novoselov team although graphene has been isolated 15 years ago many of its properties still remain unknown or unexplained especially on ultrafast scale for the past several years belyanin has been working to change that in collaboration with university of colorado experimental physicist markus raschke using an optical imaging technique developed by raschke the two research groups recently obtained an unprecedentedly up-close look at graphene exploring its properties at a resolution of only a few nanometers about 100 times better than a standard optical microscope that is limited by wavelength of light enabling them to follow the motion of atoms and electrons in the material on a scale of just a few femtoseconds alexey belyanin (credit: alexey belyanin) their work detailed in a paper published this summer in nature nanotechnology and highlighted in a related news & views article provides new insight into how graphene interacts with light ‚Äì specifically how its electrons respond to intense optical excitation at the nanoscale and with femtosecond time resolution this invaluable information stands to play an important role in the design of future nanophotonic devices based on graphene and other two-dimensional materials used in computers and telecommunications graphene is an amazing material for our information age belyanin said it conducts electricity like a metal but it is almost completely transparent so it can be used as a transparent contact in smart displays lasers and other optoelectronic devices you can make atomically flat transistors waveguides modulators or detectors of light out of graphene for future integrated photonic circuits the team achieved their unprecedented detail by bringing a 10-nanometer gold tip a few nanometers from the graphenes surface then illuminating the tip with an ultrashort 10-femtosecond laser pulse the resulting optical excitation propagated to apex of the tip as a so-called plasmon a mix of an electric field wave and a wave of electron charge they focused the plasmon on the graphene in a nanometer-sized spot just under the apex focusing greatly amplified the electron field strength violently shaking the electrons within the graphene a gold tip illuminated with a femtosecond laser pulse creates excitation of electrons within graphene in a nanometer spot under the tip apex (credit: alexey belyanin) the electrons respond by emitting a burst of electromagnetic radiation only a few femtoseconds in duration and with a very broad spectrum resulting from mixing many wavelengths of light: so-called four-wave mixing (fwm) signal the shape amplitude time dependence and electric field orientation in the signal contain precious information about the structure and dynamics of electrons in graphene which is extracted by developing a microscopic model of electron motion in a strong electric field belyanin says the teams future research will be expanded in several directions including applying the same technique to study other promising novel materials such as two-dimensional semiconductors and topological materials they also plan to study ways to excite long-lived electron plasma excitations in graphene for future ultracompact plasmonic circuits the teams paper ultrafast coherent nonlinear nanooptics and nanoimaging of graphene can be viewed online along with related figures and captions to learn more about belyanins research funded in part by the united states air force office for scientific research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/belyanin/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist alexey belyanin sheds new light on graphenes properties and future of nanophotonic device design appeared first on college of science share: " " texas a&m university physicists tatiana erukhimova and saskia mioduszewski have been elected as 2019 fellows of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists dr tatiana erukhimova no more than one-half of 1 percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service erukhimova and mioduszewski are among 168 fellows announced today (sept 19) by aps and two of five selected from texas-based institutions erukhimova an instructional associate professor of physics and astronomy ¬† is cited for developing and disseminating innovative physics education programs for college students and the public and for organizing major science festivals in university settings she was nominated by the aps forum outreach & engaging public mioduszewski a professor of physics and astronomy is cited for sustained leadership of high-precision measurement of the quark-gluon plasma using direct photons and their correlations with hadrons and jets at the phenix and star experiments at the relativistic heavy ion collider and¬†was nominated by the aps division of nuclear physics professors tatiana erukhimova and saskia mioduszewski truly are among the shining stars in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy said dr grigory rogachev professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy the long list of awards that they have received over the years is nothing short of remarkable it is exciting to see these two exceptionally talented faculty elected as fellows of the american physical society erukhimova joined the department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as both a faculty member and outreach coordinator in addition to excelling in teaching large introductory physics classes her passion for inspiring learning through science has motivated the creation of several innovative programs at texas a&m that integrate education with science outreach and community service including deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) the texas a&m physics show just add science and real physics live she is a co-organizer of the annual mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) a two-week summer professional development enrichment for physics teachers from texas high schools in addition erukhimova coordinates the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival an event that attracts several thousand visitors to campus each spring in 2017 erukhimova was recognized with the presidential professor for teaching excellence award the most prestigious faculty honor bestowed by texas a&m in recognition of classroom performance she was a plenary presenter for texas a&ms inaugural two-day transformational teaching & learning conference in 2018 a three-time recipient of the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award for teaching one university level and two college level erukhimova has received the john e trott jr award in student recruiting and the sigma xi outstanding science communicator award she currently is serving a three-year term (2019-2021) as vice chair of the american association of physics teachers committee on science education for the public erukhimova earned her phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1999 prior to joining the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty she completed postdoctoral studies and served four years as an assistant research scientist in the texas a&m department of atmospheric sciences (2002-2006) she is a co-author along with texas a&m distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences dr gerald r north of the textbook atmospheric thermodynamics published by cambridge university press (2009) tatiana is a legendary instructor in introductory physics courses rogachev said her level of dedication to student success is unmatched in addition she is the leader the heart and the soul of our world-class outreach program that attracts thousands of participants every year to the physics and engineering festival alone on top of so many other fantastic events that illustrate the importance and excitement of science dr saskia mioduszewski mioduszewski joined the department of physics and astronomy in 2005 as an expert in experimental nuclear physics with an emphasis on relativistic heavy ion collisions (rhic) she is also a member of the texas a&m cyclotron institute since earning her doctorate in nuclear physics at the university of tennessee in 1999 mioduszewski has carried out her research using the rhic at brookhaven national laboratory where ions as heavy as gold are accelerated and smashed together at high energies to enable scientists to study nuclear matter and its atomic-level properties under extreme conditions simulating the big bang what physicists learn from these collisions may help us understand more about why the physical world works the way it does from the smallest subatomic particles to the largest stars specifically mioduszewski is a member of the star experiment at brookhaven an international collaboration of more than 500 physicists and engineers from 60 universities and national laboratories in the us and 11 other countries as an established world leader in the rhic physics community she has been recognized to date with the us department of energy presidential early career award for scientists and engineers (2004) brookhavens sambamurti award (2005) an alfred p sloan foundation fellowship (2006) and the american physical societys maria goeppert mayer award (2009) most recently at texas a&m she was recognized in 2018 as a presidential impact fellow a perpetual title created in 2017 by texas a&m president michael k young to honor the universitys top rising stars in scholarship knowledge generation and related global service saskia is well known for her contribution to experimental studies of quark-gluon plasma an exotic state of matter that existed briefly during first few microseconds in other words a few one-thousandths of a one-thousandth of a second after the universe was created rogachev said her work gives us invaluable insight into the interactions that hold matter together and make up the world as we know it in the process shes also helping to educate the next generation of aspiring nuclear scientists as a mentor to both graduate and undergraduate students involved in her projects which are among the biggest in high energy nuclear physics for more information on the american physical society or the aps fellowship program visit at http://wwwapsorg # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post erukhimova mioduszewski elected as american physical society fellows appeared first on college of science share: " " the top 100 registry david lee is an american physicist and professor at texas a&m university located in college station texas utilizing six decades of experience dr lee is a prominent physics educator who has been a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university in college station since 2009 having previously been a james gilbert white distinguished professor of the physical sciences at cornell university in ithaca new york from 1999 to 2009 prior to these illustrious roles he served cornell university in multiple capacities including instructor of physics associate professor of physics and professor of physics between january 1959 and 1999 alongside his primary endeavors he was a visiting professor at several universities including peking university in beijing china the university of california san diego in la jolla and the university of florida in gainesville likewise dr lee was a visiting scientist at the brookhaven national laboratory in the late 1960s and chair municipale of joseph fourier university in grenoble france in the early 1990s dr lee is most renowned for his co-discovery of superfluid helium-3 along with douglas osheroff and the late robert richardson in 1972 this work also involved one of the first applications of magnetic resonance imaging to a physics experiment before it became an important medical tool in another series of experiments he discovered spin waves in spin polarized hydrogen gas he also discovered a density maximum in liquid helium-3 and made extensive measurements of the phase diagram of liquid and solid helium-3 helium-4 mixtures his work on superconducting tunneling in cadmium-aluminum junctions was one of the first studies of this phenomenon below the temperature of one kelvin degree above absolute zero more recently he observed collective sound modes in superfluid helium-3 which obeyed the nambu identity and is analogous to the higgs phenomenon in elementary particle physics he is now actively engaged in studies of atomic free radicals trapped in low temperature matrices including spin polarized hydrogen atoms embedded in the films of molecular hydrogen he is grateful to all of his co-workers including the 33 phd graduate students he mentored for their essential roles in all of this work david lee (photo courtesy of david lee)to prepare for his career dr lee pursued formal education at harvard university in cambridge ma where he earned a bachelor of arts in 1952 upon returning from military service in the us army he earned a master of science from the university of connecticut in storrs in 1955 and a doctor of philosophy from yale university in new haven connecticut in 1959 articles contributed to professional journals appeared in the physical review physical review letters nature physics scripta proceedings of the national academy of science journal of low temperature physics journal of physical chemistry and the review of scientific instruments¬† as a testament to his success dr lee has been recognized with myriad accolades he was a co-recipient of the nobel prize for physics in 1996 for the discovery of superfluid helium-3 jointly with his co-workers he considers this to be a highlight of his career he received the wilbur cross medal from yale university in 1998 he also was awarded along with his superfluid helium-3 co-workers the sir francis simon memorial prize from the (british) institute of physics in 1976 and the oliver buckley prize of american physical society for the promotion of sciences he additionally received fellowships from the guggenheim foundation for 1966-1967 and again for 1974-1975 dr lee has been highlighted in multiple editions of whos who in 20th century in his spare time david enjoys jogging hiking and fishing contact details: david lee dmlee@physicstamuedu this article first appeared on the top 100 registry publication (2019) share: " " (from left:) texas a&m university astronomer lucas macri university of texas rio grande valley astronomer mario d√≠az and university of c√≥rdoba astronomer diego garc√≠a lambas collaborators in the toros project to study gravitational wave events in deep space (credit: oac unc) six years ago two texas astronomers texas a&m universitys lucas macri and the university of texas rio grande valleys mario d√≠az teamed with universidad nacional de c√≥rdoba astronomer diego garcia lambas in an effort to get ahead of what they saw as the next big cosmic thing: gravitational-wave astronomy in the years since their collaboration called the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) has searched for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave sources using a variety of telescopes across the globe while also pursuing funding opportunities to establish their own state-of-the-art telescope and camera in one of the best astronomical sites on earth cord√≥n mac√≥n in northwestern argentina dr lucas macri their persistence recently paid off in the form of a $516 000 award from the national science foundation $175 000 of which will be earmarked to texas a&m astronomers darren depoy and jennifer marshall and their team within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory they will use the funds to build a prime-focus corrector a precisely crafted set of lenses that will maximize the field of view of a top-of-the-line 100-megapixel charge-coupled device (ccd) camera which will serve as the dedicated instrument of the toros telescope construction on cord√≥n mac√≥n started earlier in 2019 thanks to funding provided by the argentine national science foundation and previous nsf funding to diaz as the overall principal investigator of the toros project the telescope is expected to be operational in early 2020 initially relying on more modest instrumentation while depoy and marshall build integrate and test the prime-focus camera dr jennifer marshall toros will make important contributions to the follow-up of gravitational wave sources and will help develop the next generation of big data astronomers across diverse communities in aggieland argentina and the rio grande valley macri said there are many challenges associated with searching large areas of the sky for fast-evolving astronomical sources making this a great interdisciplinary astrostatistics project for the texas a&m college of science we are grateful for the bi-national support that this project has received when a pair of neutron stars collided in the galaxy ngc 4993 in 2017 in perhaps the best-known gravitational wave event to date macri and his toros collaborators used the t80-south telescope located at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in chile and the bosque alegre telescope located in argentina to study the fast-fading kilonova at various wavelengths which is useful to rule out various models for the explosion he presented their results published in the astrophysical journal letters as part of a gravitational wave astrophysics conference sponsored by the international astronomical union and hosted by louisiana state university armed with the recent nsf funding and the collaborations collective expertise texas a&m astronomers are confident toros own telescope will soon be in the universal hunt we look forward to developing this premier instrument for toros and deploying it on cord√≥n mac√≥n said marshall who along with depoy macri and then-phd student ryan oelkers traveled to argentina in mid-2013 to carry out test astronomical observations from the area dr darren depoy the mac√≥n site has a lot of promise as evidenced by its finalist status as a possible site for the billion-dollar european extremely large telescope added depoy who previously served as project scientist for the 570-megapixel camera behind the us department of energy- and nsf-funded dark energy survey to learn more about toros which involves about 50 astronomers from all over the world and the recent nsf award see the official press release from utrgv # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including in science and technology research conducted at texas a&m generated annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 845-7362 or lmacri@tamuedu the post cross-texas astronomical collaboration receives nsf support to study gravitational wave sources appeared first on college of science share: " " effective energy landscape for circular skyrmion breathing modes eq (27) with b=045 highlighting the distinct basin bowl and horn energy partitioned by the constant saddle energy curve (shown in white) inset: a cut through Œ∑=0 and Œ∑=œÄ (photo credit: journalsapsorg) in a constant push for the smaller and faster computer memory devices dr artem g abanov and fellow researchers turned to the topologically nontrivial configurations of magnetization in magnetic films read the full article here:¬† https://doiorg/101103/physrevb99054430 share: " " dr ralf rapp dr ralf rapp discusses the origin of 98% of the visible mass in the universe in a recent article in nature physics this mass was generated when a hot plasma of quarks and gluons condensed into hadrons in the early universe calculations by dr rapp and collaborators found that the mass of the rho-meson (a bound state of a quark and anti-quark) melts when this plasma is recreated in the lab in high-energy collisions of nuclei this effect has now also been observed at lower collision energies under conditions similar to those in mergers of neutron stars read the full article here:¬† https://wwwnaturecom/articles/s41567-019-0614-5 share: " " these incoming freshmen had the opportunity to stand amongst a local legend professor tatiana erukhimova of texas a&m physics & astronomy at fish camp 2019 #hakunatatiana check out all of the photos and video of the fun they had on august 9 2019 share: " " the stella hotel and the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy are teaming up once again to close out summer in signature style with one final free monthly star party at the stella set for thursday august 8 from 9 to 11 pm weather permitting members of the local community and visitors are invited to gather on the stellas expansive outdoor lawn the back yard to discover the wonders of our solar system using telescopes provided by the texas a&m astronomy group within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy during the grand finale in a three-event summer series at the stella each telescope will be pointed at different celestial bodies including planets constellations and the moon texas a&m astronomy students will be stationed at each telescope to help guide visitors through the viewing process allowing guests to experience and learn about different features of the night sky throughout the summer sweet treats snacks and drinks will be available for purchase during all star parties at the stella which are free and open to the public for more information visit wwwthestellahotelcom http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartyhtml or call (979) 421-4000 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m astronomy stella hotel to host final summer star party august 8 appeared first on college of science share: " " an international team of astronomers that includes texas a&m universitys benjamin boizelle and jonelle walsh has obtained the clearest view to date of cold gas rotation around a supermassive black hole using the national radio astronomy observatorys atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) a huge highly sophisticated radio telescope array situated at an altitude of 16 500 feet in the high desert of chile the team zeroed in on a cosmic behemoth at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy ngc 3258 located about 100 million light-years from earth they then calculated the mass of this supermassive black hole the largest ever measured with alma to be a whopping 225 billion times the mass of our sun observing the orbital motion of material as close as possible to a black hole is vitally important when accurately determining the black holes mass said boizelle a postdoctoral researcher in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and lead author on the teams study published wednesday (aug 7) in the astrophysical journal¬†and also available via arxiv these new observations of ngc 3258 demonstrate almas amazing power to map the rotation of cold gaseous disks around supermassive black holes in stunning detail according to the official press release alma has pioneered a new method to study black holes in giant elliptical galaxies during the past few years about 10 percent of elliptical galaxies contain regularly rotating disks of cold dense gas at their centers by measuring the doppler shift of emission from molecules like carbon monoxide (co) with millimeter-wavelength radio telescopes astronomers can trace the motion of orbiting gas clouds given the nature of its configuration and capabilities alma is uniquely suited to resolve rapidly rotating gas at the centers of galaxies alma has made the most precise measurements of cold gas swirling around a supermassive black hole the cosmic behemoth at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy ngc 3258 the multi-color ellipse reflects the motion of the gas orbiting the black hole with blue indicating motion toward us and red motion away from us the inset box represents how the orbital velocity changes with distance from the black hole (credit: alma (eso/naoj/nrao) b boizelle; nrao/aui/nsf s dagnello; hubble space telescope (nasa/esa); carnegie-irvine galaxy survey) images taken by nasas hubble space telescope reveal a dusty disk at the center of ngc 3258 that is nearly 1 000 light-years across making this galaxy a promising target for alma observations as a part of his phd dissertation at the university of california irvine boizelle obtained alma co observations of ngc 3258 in august 2017 that showed the gas is in nearly perfect rotation from the outer edge of the disk down to just 65 light-years from the supermassive black hole by carefully modeling the gas rotation speed he was able to measure the black holes mass with unprecedented precision previous studies have demonstrated almas ability to detect rotating gas disks near a black hole and even to measure black hole masses in a few cases boizelle said for the first time however these observations highly resolve cold gas rotation within what is called the sphere of influence the innermost region of the galaxy where a black holes gravity is the dominant force dr benjamin boizelle dr jonelle walsh while alma observations have traced out cold gas rotation in dusty disks at the centers of other massive galaxies boizelle notes they do not frequently reveal rapid gas rotation within the sphere of influence he describes ngc 3258 as an extraordinarily uncommon case and says that finding more examples like this one will help astronomers better understand the growth of black holes and galaxies over cosmic time the teams paper a precision measurement of the mass of the black hole in ngc 3258 from high-resolution alma observations of its circumnuclear disk can be viewed online along with related figures and captions and also via arxiv for additional information about boizelle walsh and astronomy at texas a&m visit http://mitchelltamuedu/research/astronomy/ this story contains excerpts from a national radio astronomy observatory brief authored by public information officers charles blue and suzy gurton # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr benjamin boizelle (979) 845-7778 or bboizelle@emailtamuedu the post astronomers capture orbital motion around a black hole with unprecedented clarity appeared first on college of science share: " " share: " " share: " " the texas a&m astronomy department is paving the way in space imaging professor darren depoy says the aggies play a huge role in the worlds largest telescope the giant magellan telescope building instruments that will go on that telescope that will allow us to make the science observations to what the universe is like better the program started without even a building theres only been a really strong presence for about 10 years depoy said depoy says thanks to the generosity of donors and alumni the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory exists undergraduate astronomer samantha hudson says shes gained a pioneering attitude at a&m hudson says the success of apollo 11 remains vital for the future through visiting our closest neighbor we perfect all of our different techniques and all of the technology hudson said we will use to eventually get to mars depoy said the first man on mars will only happen if the aggies continue the hopeful pursuit an expectation of what the world will be like in the future kind of hopefulness depoy said well continue to do bigger and better things one way the department involves the community is hosting free educational events where you can use the same equipment astronomers do the next backyard star party is august 8th scroll down to the related links section for more information the post texas a&m paves the way in one of worlds largest space projects appeared first on kbtx-tv3 share: " " (credit: nasa / apollo flight journal apollo 11 collection) the older i get the more acutely aware i become of the fact that ones greatest strength in life can often double as ones greatest weakness i feel much the same way about email on any given day its like a box of chocolates doubly if not triply so for the opening work days after a long holiday weekend yesterday the cyber gods not only were smiling they also were downright giddy as was i when i opened my first email of the day ‚Äì an exchange between two texas a&m university distinguished professors forwarded my way by one of them at the rather ungodly hour of 12:30 am mom always said nothing good happens after midnight but in this case she was wrong two lines in and even through sleepy eyes i knew id hit upon one of those insta-classics that continue to validate my rationale in starting this blog six years ago this past month in dedication to an altruistic and oftentimes artistic cause: to properly document such milestone occasions for the broader benefit of science history education and heck mankind one small step indeed happy anniversary texas a&m science blog! and while were at it you too apollo 11 #apollo50 ill let those two aforementioned distinguished professors ‚Äì astronomer nick suntzeff who helped discover the evidence for dark energy and three-quarters of the universe in the process and aerospace engineer john junkins who was honored this past may with the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics 2019 robert h goddard astronautics award ‚Äì take it from here * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * nicholas b suntzeff (credit: sam craft / bryan-college station eagle) from:¬†nicholas suntzeff sent:¬†monday july 8 2019 5:58 pm to:¬†junkins john l subject:¬†video hey john thanks for the video about your well-deserved award! that is an impressive number of students you have had ‚Ķ here is a video back to you it is a very well-produced video of the complete apollo 11 touchdown on the moon including the four main communications channels they include subtitles and explanations for the acronyms they will also cut away to gene kranz at times and sync the audio to the video they have of the control room it is the first time i felt what went on during the descent and how armstrong took control of the lander to find a place where there were no boulders it is worth watching all the computer error codes ignored less than one minute of fuel problems with the satellite link damn those guys were good riveting cheers nick + + + + + john l junkins (credit: hagler institute for advanced study) from: junkins john l subject: re: video date: july 8 2019 at 6:20:57 pm cdt to: nicholas suntzeff nick: i lived that landing in real time and it was an amazing culmination of less than a decade of a swash-buckling nasa that only the decaying remnants of which now exist (to use a super nova analogy)¬† the risk tolerance of that era of space exploration and the intensity of all of the engineers astronauts and management was so amazing¬† i was in a group working intensely for 70 hours many weeks for peanuts and with technically competent and passionate leadership like [wernher] von braun who literally lived in an apartment adjacent to his office for about six weeks prior to each apollo launch¬† i started work at nasa marshall at age 19 and i still get emotional when i think about the apollo program and the accomplishments during the eight years and change following kennedys apollo quest speech¬† i was acquainted with von braun worked in the same building ‚Ķ you could feel the intensity at all levels of management incredibly goal-focused and coin of the realm was problem-solving¬† folks who did not share the passion enjoyed a social status somewhat below furniture¬† the result was an organization that could move technical mountains in a hurry¬†¬†it was breathtaking then and in hindsight it still is¬† i was blessed to be born early enough to have a bit part and gain an appreciation of how blessed i was to have a front-row seat but not quite early enough to be a major player john * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * learn more about junkins the inspiration behind his award-winning career and his nasa ties that include supporting roles in the final three apollo missions in this may 2019 bryan-college station eagle profile the post moonshots milestones and memories appeared first on college of science share: " " share: " " the stella hotel and the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy are teaming up once again to celebrate summer signature style with another free monthly star party at the stella set for thursday july 18 from 9 to 11 pm weather permitting members of the local community and visitors are invited to gather on the stellas expansive outdoor lawn the back yard to discover the wonders of our solar system using telescopes provided by the texas a&m astronomy group within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as the second of three events in a summer series at the stella each telescope will be pointed at different celestial bodies including planets constellations and the moon texas a&m astronomy students will be stationed at each telescope to help guide visitors through the viewing process allowing guests to experience and learn about different features of the night sky throughout the summer sweet treats snacks and drinks will be available for purchase during all star parties at the stella which are free and open to the public the final event in the summer series is scheduled for august 8 weather permitting for more information visit wwwthestellahotelcom http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartyhtml or call (979) 421-4000 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m astronomy stella hotel to host july 18 summer star party appeared first on college of science share: " " nasa peer-reviewed a total of 966 proposals that were submitted to the inaugural future investigators in nasa earth and space science and technology (finesst19) four funding divisions in the science mission directorate (smd) at nasa headquarters: earth science heliophysics planetary science and astrophysics conducted/provided oversight for the peer review process nasa astrophysics finesst-19 had a total of 188 proposals that were submitted and only 21 were selected congratulations to vince estrada-carpenter graduate student in texas a&m university physics & astronomy for being selected and awarded future investigator (fi) in this program! carpenter works with professor casey papovich on physics research their work is titled examining the assembly history of the universe using large grism datasets direct pdf link: future investigators in nasa earth and space science and technology (finesst-19) get more info on the program here: https://nspiresnasaprscom/external/solicitations/summarydosolid=%7b913a7dee-2747-6539-130c-0ab1e2322f42%7d&path=future&method=init share: " " sometimes when shes alone in an observatory surrounded by computer screens and terabytes of data in some remote control room peering deep into the mysterious black cosmos taylor hutchison 22 likes to take a moment to remind herself just how fortunate she is its hard to blame hutchison a graduate student in the texas a&m university astronomy program for being a little sentimental about it after all its not everyone who can say theyre making a career out of probing some of the earliest known galactic formations i love my job; its a dream come true hutchison said i get to travel the world and go to these amazing telescopes to take data i get to do this as a job and get paid for it i feel like i should be paying them instead because its such a fantastic experience and what ive always dreamed of doing in the beginning an avid proponent of science communication and citizen science hutchison regularly posts pictures of her travels including this breathtaking view from her recent trip to cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in chile on her instagram account i feel most like an astronomer when i travel around the world using some of the worlds best telescopes (credit: taylor hutchison) as a member of texas a&m astronomer casey papovichs research group within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy focusing on areas of galaxy formation and observational cosmology hutchison is specifically analyzing the distinguishing features of ancient galaxies and how they developed in order to better understand how the universe appeared in its early existence because galaxy evolution is still such a relatively new field hutchison says there are still many questions to be answered anything you find out about these galaxies makes a high impact because we just know next to nothing about them she said its a really exciting field and its difficult but rewarding work to put it into perspective the galaxies hutchison investigates were formed only about a billion years after the big bang explosively expanded the universe into existence nearly 14 billion years ago and are so distant or old that their light travels billions of years before ever reaching earth this means that when hutchison observes these galaxies she is seeing them not as they are now but as they were long ago this is accomplished using near-infrared spectroscopy a technique in which the light emitted from a distant object is divided into a spectrum to better analyze its corresponding wavelengths hutchison then can determine important details about remote galaxies such as the temperature mass chemical composition and distribution of its stars as these galaxies move away from us and we move away from them their light is actually being stretched hutchison said its ultraviolet light thats been stretched so much that its only visible in the near-infrared spectroscopy is a way to characterize that have questions will travel hutchison posing with the 65-meter multiple mirror telescope (mmt) at the smithsonians fred lawrence whipple observatory in arizona (credit: taylor hutchison) hutchison posing with the 65-meter multiple mirror telescope (mmt) at the smithsonians fred lawrence whipple observatory in arizona (credit: taylor hutchison) hutchison originally came to texas a&m in 2016 as the recipient of a four-year texas a&m graduate diversity fellowship and her work since has earned her a 2018 national science foundation graduate research fellowship the first awarded to a texas a&m astronomy student in program history during the past two years she has been making regular visits to the wm keck observatory in hawaii to acquire data for one of her current projects to learn about the physical conditions of stars in early galaxies unlike newer stars that contain many heavy elements stars formed soon after the big bang were made up of only hydrogen and helium understanding the nature of these pristine stars could lead to important clues about the formation of subsequent generations of stars what taylor has been doing is fantastic papovich said shes looking at these galaxies with one of the largest telescopes but theyre still very faint its hard to imagine but the things taylor is looking at are fainter than the night sky its extremely hard to do what she does the control room for keck i contrary to most experiences observing at telescopes astronomers using one of the two keck telescopes dont go up to the mountaintop to do so they observe at the keck headquarters in waimea hawaii its a little surreal that i observe in a telescope control room where theres a starbucks down the road (credit: taylor hutchison) despite the long hours consumed by her research hutchison still manages to find time for another passion that she considers equally important ‚Äì outreach she is a co-founder of the society for the underrepresented in physics and astronomy (supa) at texas a&m established in 2016 supa invites all students faculty and staff in the department of physics and astronomy to participate in regular discussions aimed at addressing unique challenges faced by women and underrepresented groups in general hutchison was honored for her efforts to conceptualize and bring the group to fruition with a 2018 college of science leadership in equity and diversity (lead) award which recognizes faculty staff and postdoctoral research associates who have displayed commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity the main goal of supa is to provide a place of community for everyone in the physics and astronomy department who is underrepresented and also allies to be able to come together and talk about the issues that they face and any kind of strategies that we can use to combat these problems hutchison said not only are we succeeding in our research were also succeeding as healthy individuals in promoting each other texas a&m is fantastic for that earlier this month hutchison and a handful of colleagues across the globe debuted a new project #uniquescientists that seeks to share and celebrate diversity in science while also encouraging and inspiring the next generation of scientists the group amassed more than 4 000 followers on twitter in less than two weeks and is partnering with genius lab gear to offer stickers t-shirts and tank tops as a fundraiser to support its not-for-profit scientific diversity inspired cause star-struck for hutchison passion and science simply go hand in hand and have ever since her childhood she originally had aspirations of becoming a marine biologist but turned her focus to the stars as an undergraduate student at southwestern university where she discovered her calling as an astronomer by befriending the schools only astrophysicist and accepting an invitation to assist him with research on supermassive black holes i got to use a telescope at that campus and for four years i got to do exactly what you always hear astronomers do she said i think thats when i figured out what i wanted to do ‚Äì when i was able to be at a telescope taking data even now as a third-year graduate student with her masters of science in astronomy under her belt as of this may hutchison has never lost that itch to explore the sky through the lens of a telescope whenever i go observing is when i feel most like an astronomer she said # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu; taylor hutchison (979) 845-7778 or aibhleog@tamuedu or or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m nsf graduate research fellow taylor hutchison finds focus in studying universes earliest stars and sharing passion for science appeared first on college of science share: " " dr bhaskar dutta professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has been appointed as holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high energy physics effective may 1 2019 the $1 million chair was established within the mitchell institute in 2002 with matching $500 000 gifts from cynthia and george p mitchell 40 and the herman f heep and minnie bell heep foundation it previously has been held since its inception by texas a&m physicist dimitri nanopoulos who retired in december 2018 dutta an expert in the field of theoretical high energy and neutrino physics joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2005 as an associate professor earning promotion to full professor in 2009 and subsequent appointment as interim director of the mitchell institute in 2012 a world leader in the search for new fundamental particles and dark matter he is considered one of the most prolific theorists of his generation given his distinguished record of research in high energy physics highly cited publications in top journals and many invited plenary talks in major international conferences in addition dutta is an excellent classroom teacher graduate student mentor and science outreach proponent participating each year in the spring texas a&m physics and engineering festival and co-organizing the mitchell institute physics enhancement program for high school physics teachers each summer since 2012 (credit: ryan carmichael texas a&m physics and astronomy) appointment to an endowed chair is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a faculty member at texas a&m university said dr valen e johnson dean of the texas a&m college of science and holder of the richard h harrison iii/external advisory and development council endowed deans chair in science dr dutta is an ideal candidate for this chair which he will utilize to continue his world-class research and to benefit students postdoctoral researchers and faculty in the department of physics and astronomy and across the texas a&m campus and world duttas broad research program attracts continual funding through the us department of energys theoretical physics program as well as the national science foundation and covers topics such as model building cosmology inflation origin of dark matter matter-antimatter asymmetry neutrino physics grand unification theory (gut) models and collider physics within his department dutta has developed particularly strong collaborations with experimentalists as well as astrophysicists regularly co-authoring papers published in peer-reviewed journals and multidisciplinary publications dutta received his phd from oklahoma state university in 1995 and completed postdoctoral study at the university of oregon (1995-1998) and texas a&m (1998-2002) prior to beginning his independent academic career as an assistant professor at the university of regina in canada (2002-2005) he was recognized with a texas a&m association of former students college-level distinguished achievement award in teaching in 2012 for more information about dutta and his teaching research and service-related activities and accomplishments visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/bhaskar-dutta/ to learn more about high energy physics research at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist bhaskar dutta named to mitchell-heep chair in high energy physics appeared first on college of science share: " " the stella hotel and the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy are teaming up once again to celebrate the season in signature style with a free monthly summer star parties at the stella series set to kick off thursday (june 13) from 9 to 11 pm members of the local community and visitors are invited to gather tomorrow night on the stellas expansive outdoor lawn the back yard to discover the wonders of our solar system using telescopes provided by the texas a&m astronomy group within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as part of a summer series set to take place on the second thursday of each summer month at the stella weather permitting each telescope will be pointed at different celestial bodies including planets constellations and the moon texas a&m astronomy students will be stationed at each telescope to help guide visitors through the viewing process allowing guests to experience and learn about different features of the night sky throughout the summer sweet treats snacks and drinks will be available for purchase during all star parties at the stella which are free and open to the public additional events will occur on july 18 and august 8 weather permitting for more information visit the stella hotel & astronomy star party or call (979) 421-4000 the post texas a&m astronomy stella hotel to kick off summer star parties series june 13 appeared first on college of science share: " " congratulations to anton shutov and mariia shutova graduate students in texas a&m physics & astronomy! the articles are detailed below sourced from spie optics and photonics education scholarships ########## bellingham washington usa ‚Äì june 3 2019 ‚Äì anton shutov has been awarded a 2019 optics and photonics education scholarship by spie the international society for optics and photonics for his potential contributions to the field of optics photonics or related field anton shutov graduate student at texas a&m physics and astronomy shutov is a phd student at texas a&m university (usa) in a group led by dr marlan o scully before beginning work on his phd he completed both bachelors and masters programs at moscow institute of physics and technology in russia with specialization in aircrafts strength as a part of his doctoral work he investigates new methods for improving coherent anti-stokes raman scattering by nanoparticles and designs ultrafast lasers systems he is currently an intern at the russian quantum center working in dr alexey m zheltikovs group on a novel approach to production of thz radiation by using a sub-tw mid-infrared laser system the society awarded $298 000 in education scholarships to 84 outstanding spie student members based on their potential contribution to optics and photonics or a related discipline award-winning applicants were evaluated selected and approved by the spie scholarship committee chaired by spie volunteer jeremy bos through 2018 spie has distributed $6 million dollars in individual scholarships this ambitious effort reflects the societys commitment to education and to the next generation of optical scientists and engineers around the world to view other 2019 press releases as they become available go to the 2019 scholarship winners page spie scholarships or learn more about on spieorg spie is the international society for optics and photonics an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science engineering and technology the society serves 257 000 constituents from 173 countries offering conferences and their published proceedings continuing education books journals and the spie digital library in 2018 spie provided more than $4 million in community support including scholarships and awards outreach and advocacy programs travel grants public policy and educational resources wwwspieorg media contact: stacey crockett media relations coordinator spie +1 360-676-3290 staceyc@spieor ############ bellingham washington usa ‚Äì may 31 2019 ‚Äì mariia shutova has been awarded a 2019 optics and photonics education scholarship by spie the international society for optics and photonics for her potential contributions to the field of optics photonics or related field mariia shutova graduate student at texas a&m physics and astronomy shutova is a phd student in physics and astronomy at texas a&m (usa) where her doctoral work applies plasmonic nanostructures to biomolecular spectroscopy with nanometer-scale spatial resolution implements laser beam shaping techniques and studies interaction of precisely shaped laser beams with various systems and structures shutova completed her bachelors and masters programs in applied physics and mathematics at moscow institute of physics and technology where she specialized in aeronautics the society awarded $298 000 in education scholarships to 84 outstanding spie student members based on their potential contribution to optics and photonics or a related discipline award-winning applicants were evaluated selected and approved by the spie scholarship committee chaired by spie volunteer jeremy bos through 2018 spie has distributed $6 million dollars in individual scholarships this ambitious effort reflects the societys commitment to education and to the next generation of optical scientists and engineers around the world to view other 2019 press releases as they become available go to the 2019 scholarship winners page spie scholarships or learn more about on spieorg spie is the international society for optics and photonics an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science engineering and technology the society serves 257 000 constituents from 173 countries offering conferences and their published proceedings continuing education books journals and the spie digital library in 2018 spie provided more than $4 million in community support including scholarships and awards outreach and advocacy programs travel grants public policy and educational resources wwwspieorg media contact: stacey crockett media relations coordinator spie +1 360-676-3290 staceyc@spieorg share: " " the¬†texas a&m foundation¬†has selected¬†dr edward s fry distinguished professor and associate head for development in the texas a&m university¬†department of physics and astronomy as recipient of the 2019 partner in philanthropy faculty award fry was recognized may 7 at the texas a&m college of sciences spring faculty forum for his continued efforts to support and fundraise on behalf of the college texas a&m physics and astronomy and broader university the foundations board of trustees established the partner in philanthropy faculty award in 2016 to celebrate faculty members who demonstrate dedicated and lasting participation commitment and creative leadership to philanthropy and texas a&m university this accolade acknowledges faculty efforts to build long-term productive relationships between the university former students and other private partners in philanthropy to be selected faculty must be nominated by a member of the texas a&m foundation development staff randy lunsford texas a&m foundation director of development for texas a&m science nominated fry for the award dr fry has been at the center of the resurgence of the texas a&m physics and astronomy department said tyson voelkel president of the texas a&m foundation with the help of several donors he almost singlehandedly created a world-class astronomy program he has been absolutely instrumental in making texas a&m physics and astronomy a huge force for scientific outreach on campus fry who holds the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics served as department head for physics and astronomy from 2002 to 2011 during which he is credited with helping raise more than $100 million for the department he was instrumental in securing renowned physicist stephen hawkings visits to texas a&m which brought great prominence to the university and set the stage for 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and philanthropist george p mitchells interest in growing the texas a&m physics and astronomy programs fry was such an advocate for texas a&m that the mitchell familys gifts grew from an initial plan for a gift of just a few million dollars to a total in excess of $89 million to support physics and astronomy alone through his work the idea of a small new building as a central home for physics and astronomy education research and outreach grew into two facilities totaling nearly 200 000 square feet the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy these facilities along with nine faculty chairs he helped secure led to the recruitment of some of the best and brightest astronomers and physicists in the world to teach and research at texas a&m said foundation trustee bill toler who presented fry with the award his dedication to texas a&m science is unmatched and the department of physics and astronomy enjoys its high-profile today in large part thanks to the private gifts he helped secure we are very honored to present dr fry with this award fry also helped secure mitchells lead gift in 2004 establishing both texas a&m and the university of texas at austin as founding members in the¬†giant magellan telescope project a $1 billion effort to build the largest ground-based telescope in the world at the las campanas observatory in chile texas two flagship universities are joined by several other influential us research institutions including harvard university the university of arizona and the university of chicago in the international project currently under construction and set to begin science operations within the next decade we heartily congratulate edward fry on receiving the 2019 partner in philanthropy faculty award said texas a&m provost and executive vice president carol a fierke he has been a valued faculty member at texas a&m since 1969 has won numerous awards and honors in the last 50 years and is held in the highest esteem both nationally and internationally for his work in quantum mechanics quantum optics and other research areas in addition he has demonstrated a strong commitment to philanthropy that has translated into increased support of faculty staff and students in the department of physics and astronomy as head of the department of physics and astronomy fry spearheaded many fundraising campaigns in support of a variety of philanthropic causes including the william h bassichis chair for teaching excellence in physics and astronomy the nelson m duller endowed fund in physics and the cynthia woods mitchell undergraduate scholarship for women in physics he himself has made numerous gifts to scholarship endowments and other endowed funds in both texas a&m physics and astronomy and texas a&m science while actively encouraging faculty in his department as well as those across the college to provide charitable gifts for texas a&m in addition he has regularly supported and championed the colleges annual¬†physics and engineering festival to which he has decided to direct the $10 000 partner in philanthropy monetary award i think texas a&m is a very special university and has a student body culture that is unique among most institutions in my experience fry said i am pleased to help as are so many of my fellow physicists and college of science colleagues their incredible generosity through the years has played a big part in our success fry earned his bachelors masters and doctoral degrees in physics from the university of michigan where he spent a year and a half as a visiting associate professor from 1977 to 1979 he was appointed as a distinguished professor texas a&ms highest honorific rank for faculty in 2010 in addition to academia fry served his profession as director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands from 1994 to 1997 his research interests lie in the areas of atomic physics and light scattering foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum optics laser excitation and ionization of atoms surface scattering of hydrogen atoms multichannel scattered light polarization analysis and ocean optics a fellow of both the american physical society and the optical society of america fry also is a member of the scientific research society¬†sigma xi which honored him with its texas a&m distinguished scientist award for 2001 he has twice received texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement awards in both teaching (1993) and administration (2012) in addition to the society for optical and quantum electronics eg&g medal in 1995 he also serves as deputy director of the¬†hagler institute for advanced study¬†and as a member of its advocate council see¬†additional photographs¬†from the event or¬†learn more about fry¬†and his teaching research and service for additional information about the partner in philanthropy faculty award please contact dunae reader at dreader@txamfoundationcom or (979) 845-7461 # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m foundation:¬†the texas a&m foundation is a nonprofit organization that builds a brighter future for texas a&m university one relationship at a time by uniting generosity and vision to raise and manage major endowed gifts to learn more about the texas a&m foundation go to¬†txamfoundationcom -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or dr edward s fry (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu dunae reader the post texas a&m physicist ed fry honored with 2019 partner in philanthropy faculty award appeared first on college of science share: " " fifteen texas a&m university students enrolled in physics 206 (classical mechanics) this past spring have been honored by the¬†department of physics and astronomy¬†as its latest¬†pearson mechanics scholars the students selected for their top-scoring marks on a special end-of-semester challenge exam open to all physics 206 students and covering material from all related sections taught during the spring 2019 semester were honored wednesday (may 1) during an awards luncheon in the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the top spring 2019 mechanics scholars: (front row from left) thomas g goodwin (first) cole a greene (second) and zihan ouyang (third) with their respective professors (back row from left) dr david toback dr ricardo eusebi and dr wayne saslow the event featured a presentation by¬†dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence on career possibilities in physics and related fields each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishments this semesters top three performers ‚Äì thomas g goodwin (first) cole a greene (second) and zihan ouyang (third) ‚Äì also received gift cards ($300 for first place $300 for second and $100 for third) the event is part of the¬†mechanics scholar program founded by the department in 2002 to celebrate the best students in physics 206 and encourage career exploration in physics as a large introductory course with challenging subject matter it is open to all majors but the majority of the enrollment consists of first-year engineering students along with physics and other science-related majors at the end of both the fall and spring semesters any student enrolled in physics 206 is eligible to take the pearson mechanics challenge exam the exam covers the same material as the semester-long course newtons laws of motion gravity and the concepts of energy work and momentum the difficulty level is higher than the course by design in order to identify the top performers out of the roughly 2 300 students enrolled this past year see¬†additional photographs¬†from this years event or¬†find more information on the program including requirements and lists of past winners -atm- contact: dr david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu jarvis chris the post texas a&m physics and astronomy honors spring 2013 mechanics scholars appeared first on college of science share: " " texas a&m university and the association of former students have selected 24 outstanding members of the schools faculty and staff to be honored with 2017-2018 distinguished achievement awards the university-level distinguished achievement awards were first presented in 1955 and have since been awarded to more than 1 000 professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at texas a&m 2019 distinguished achievement award recipients announced: texas a&m university and the association of former students have selected 24 outstanding members of the schools faculty and staff to be honored with 2019 distinguished achievement awards the university-level distinguished achievement awards were first presented in 1955 and have since been awarded to more than 1 000 professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at texas a&m the 2019 distinguished achievement awards were formally presented at 1:30 pm on monday april 29 during ceremonies in rudder theatre on the texas a&m university campus in recognition of their achievements each recipient received a cash gift an engraved watch and a commemorative plaque the 2019 recipients along with their departments/affiliations were as follows for teaching erick moreno-centeno department of industrial & systems engineering college of engineering wei-jung chen department of neuroscience & experimental therapeutics college of medicine cheryl herman department of veterinary integrative biosciences college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences claire katz department of philosophy college of liberal arts wei li department of landscape architecture & urban planning college of architecture duncan s mackenzie department of biology college of science john f murphy school of law scott schaefer department of computer science & engineering college of engineering nancy street department of communication college of liberal arts radhika viruru department of teaching learning & culture education and human development for research nicolaas e deutz department of health & kinesiology college of education and human development francois gabbai department of chemistry college of science yassin a hassan department of nuclear engineering college of engineering katrin hinrichs department of veterinary physiology & pharmacology college of veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences pr kumar department of electrical & computer engineering college of engineering m suhail zubairy department of physics & astronomy college of science photo credit: texas a&m office of the provost for individual student engagement rafael almanzar department of biochemistry & biophysics college of agriculture and life sciences rebecca burns college of nursing for administration sherry j yennello department of chemistry college of science for extension outreach continuing education and professional development tatiana erukhimova department of physics college of science photo credit: texas a&m office of the provost for staff jennifer boyle department of student activities division of student affairs krista may department of english college of liberal arts for graduate mentoring bani k mallick department of statistics college of science guy whitten department of political science college of liberal arts the recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony april 29 at 1:30 pm in rudder theatre during the 2019 distinguished day programming open to all those interested in attending the full schedule for distinguished day will be made in a forthcoming announcement this post the association of former students university level distinguished achievement awards appeared first on dean of faculties share: " " a team of astronomers that includes texas a&m university professor¬†lucas macri¬†and recent texas a&m astronomy phd graduate wenlong yuan has used new data from the hubble space telescope to make the best-ever measurement of the expansion rate of the universe with a total uncertainty of only 19 percent the teams measurement detailed in a recent paper¬†posted to arxiv¬†and accepted for publication in¬†the astrophysical journal is 98 percent larger than the value predicted from observations of the big bang even after taking into account the contributions of dark matter and dark energy such a large discrepancy between measurement and prediction should only happen by chance less than once in 100 000 experiments further strengthening the case for yet another unseen component of our universe macri said prof lucas macri in order to extract the most precise and accurate measurements out of the hubble observations the team relied on the results of an¬†independent national science foundation-funded study¬†carried out by macri and colleagues and published in¬†the astronomical journal in 2015 they used an nsf-supported 15-meter telescope at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile to measure the periodic changes in the near-infrared brightness of cepheid variables located within the large magellanic cloud texas a&m physics major salma mahzooni 10 contributed to the early analysis of the images as part of her honors thesis the surprising result represents the most recent advance in a thus-far 14-year study by the¬†sh0es (supernova ho¬†for the equation of state) team founded in 2005 by nobel laureate¬†adam riess¬†of the space telescope science institute and the johns hopkins university and macri a professor in the¬†texas a&m department of physics and astronomy¬†and member of the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy¬†since 2008 the project aims to improve the measurement of the current expansion rate of the universe known as the hubble constant or ho¬†after edwin hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago to a level of accuracy and precision that allows a better understanding of its composition and ultimate fate dr wenlong yuan macri notes that the sh0es team has a strong texas a&m heritage beyond his role as a founding member both yuan 16 and dr samantha hoffmann 13 contributed to the project as part of their phd theses and later as postdoctoral fellows at johns hopkins under the joint supervision of riess and macri when we started the sh0es project i had just published a paper measuring the local expansion of the universe with a total uncertainty of 8 percent which was the best measurement to date macri said thanks to our efforts and the hard work of many colleagues over the past dozen years we have improved that measurement by more than a factor of four before hubble was launched in 1990 the estimates of the hubble constant varied by a factor of two in the late 1990s the hubble space telescope key project on the extragalactic distance scale (of which macri was a junior member) refined the value of the hubble constant to within an error of only 10 percent accomplishing one of the telescopes key goals we set out on this path to better understand dark energy but to everyones surprise including our own we seem to have stumbled upon a new dark component of the universe macri said we are about two years away from reaching the critical 5-sigma significance that is the hallmark of a discovery in physics 1 in 35 million of this result being due to chance dr samantha hoffmann read more on todays announcement via the¬†official stsci press release to learn more about macris research or texas a&m astronomy go to¬†astronomy research group # # # # # # # # # # about hubble:¬†the hubble space telescope is a project of international cooperation between nasa and esa (european space agency) nasas goddard space flight center in greenbelt maryland manages the telescope the space telescope science institute (stsci) in baltimore maryland conducts hubble science operations stsci is operated for nasa by the association of universities for research in astronomy in washington dc for more information visit¬†http://wwwnasagov/hubble about research at texas a&m university:¬†as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) based on expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit¬†http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 314-1592 or lmacri@tamuedu hutchins shana the post new physics needed to explain discrepancy in universes expansion rate measurement appeared first on college of science share: " " dr jonelle walsh the first-ever image of a black hole was released this month of a supermassive black hole in the messier 87 galaxy we needed the right combination of telescope and a close- and big-enough black hole said texas a&m university astronomer and international black hole expert jonelle walsh this was the one walsh says that the images significance goes beyond viral internet content: this image and how close astronomers were able to get to the black hole help confirm theories about relativity specifically albert einsteins were finding out that he was right walsh said watch the full interview and video below kbtx news original source: https://wwwkbtxcom/content/news/am-astronomer-black-hole-image-helps-prove-some-of-einsteins-theories-of-relativity-508614591html share: " " ¬† college station pictured is dr michael brown public lecture by california institute of technology astronomer and author michael brown: saturday (april 6) 4 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building the¬†department of physics and astronomy¬†at texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and even the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology at the¬†2019 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free 17th annual event (view promotional poster¬†online) scheduled for saturday april 6 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus (get¬†directions and parking information) ride a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch or shoot balloons with lasers three of the more than 200 exciting interactive exhibits and demonstrations that will be on display from 10 am to 3:30 pm the event also will feature three¬†bubble shows¬†at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm as well as respective lectures at 11 am and 2 pm by nasa astronaut and texas a&m professor¬†dr nancy currie-gregg other special events on tap include¬†cyclotron institute tours large hadron collider virtual tours at noon and 1 pm tours of 1996 nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicist¬†dr david m lees laboratory and four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza at 10:30 am 12 pm 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm finally a texas-sized¬†five-barrel depth charge¬†with 1 000 plastic balls and featuring the texas a&m yell leaders in a nice blend of aggie tradition and the wonders of physics will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3:30 pm on the south side the mitchell physics building at 4 pm california institute of technology astronomer and author¬†dr michael brown¬†will deliver a keynote presentation ¬†planet nine from outer space in which he will explore his study of our solar systems outer edges where an undiscovered object estimated to be 5 000 times more massive than pluto lurks as the true ninth planet waiting to be directly spotted in the very near future on friday evening university of california san diego physicist dr j√©r√©mie palacci will deliver a 7 pm free public lecture ¬†science in the brewery in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building all events are hosted by texas a&m physics and astronomy in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of¬†aerospace engineering ¬†chemistry ¬†mathematics ¬†biology¬†and¬†atmospheric sciences¬†as well as the¬†brazos valley museum of natural history all events are sponsored by the¬†texas a&m university system texas a&m physics and astronomy the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy dr charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn ¬†exxonmobil the¬†willard and anne levin foundation col hal schade 67 ahmed mahmoud 87 michele mobley 87 susan sheskey purna c murthy 88 ¬†cc creations ¬†schlotzskys college station¬†and¬†pepsi the event is a member of the¬†science festival alliance -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physics & engineering festival set for april 6 appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " pictured is dr michael brown public lecture by california institute of technology astronomer and author michael brown: saturday (april 6) 4 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building the¬†department of physics and astronomy¬†at texas a&m university invites audiences across texas the nation and even the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology at the¬†2019 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free 17th annual event (view promotional poster¬†online) scheduled for saturday april 6 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus (get¬†directions and parking information) ride a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch or shoot balloons with lasers three of the more than 200 exciting interactive exhibits and demonstrations that will be on display from 10 am to 3:30 pm the event also will feature three¬†bubble shows¬†at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm as well as respective lectures at 11 am and 2 pm by nasa astronaut and texas a&m professor¬†dr nancy currie-gregg other special events on tap include¬†cyclotron institute tours large hadron collider virtual tours at noon and 1 pm tours of 1996 nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicist¬†dr david m lees laboratory and four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza at 10:30 am 12 pm 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm finally a texas-sized¬†five-barrel depth charge¬†with 1 000 plastic balls and featuring the texas a&m yell leaders in a nice blend of aggie tradition and the wonders of physics will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3:30 pm on the south side the mitchell physics building at 4 pm california institute of technology astronomer and author¬†dr michael brown¬†will deliver a keynote presentation ¬†planet nine from outer space in which he will explore his study of our solar systems outer edges where an undiscovered object estimated to be 5 000 times more massive than pluto lurks as the true ninth planet waiting to be directly spotted in the very near future on friday evening university of california san diego physicist dr j√©r√©mie palacci will deliver a 7 pm free public lecture ¬†science in the brewery in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building all events are hosted by texas a&m physics and astronomy in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of¬†aerospace engineering ¬†chemistry ¬†mathematics ¬†biology¬†and¬†atmospheric sciences¬†as well as the¬†brazos valley museum of natural history all events are sponsored by the¬†texas a&m university system texas a&m physics and astronomy the¬†george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy dr charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn ¬†exxonmobil the¬†willard and anne levin foundation col hal schade 67 ahmed mahmoud 87 michele mobley 87 susan sheskey purna c murthy 88 ¬†cc creations ¬†schlotzskys college station¬†and¬†pepsi the event is a member of the¬†science festival alliance -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university astronomer jennifer marshall has been selected as project scientist for the maunakea spectroscopic explorer (mse) project an 1125-meter telescope being planned in hawaii thats capable of studying up to 4 000 astronomical objects at once and positioned to lead the world in multi-object spectroscopy mse is a proposed upgrade to the iconic 36-meter canada-france-hawaii telescope (cfht) on the summit of maunakea a 4 200-meter dormant volcano on the island of hawaii it is expected to build on the knowledge and experience gained from cfhts four decades of successful operation atop maunakea and will feature a state-of-the-art observatory inspired by the latest technical advancements made by other top astronomical facilities around the world texas a&m is an observer in mse and the first united states academic institution within its international collaboration the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) which also is an observer is the only other us partner marshall joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2010 as a research scientist and manager of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and texas a&m astronomy group she earned promotion to assistant professor in 2015 cutaway view of the planned mse summit facility showing the telescope within the new telescope enclosure (credit: canada-france-hawaii telescope / maunakea observatories) as the project scientist marshall will be responsible for leading mses scientific direction from coordinating the international science team in developing the science case to working with the projects engineering team to ensure mses design is capable of achieving its target science goals beyond that she also hopes to promote increased us astronomy involvement in the project and to encourage continued positive community relations on hawaii island an area she sees as an established cfht strength in addition to marshall texas a&m astronomers darren depoy casey papovich louis strigari and kim-vy tran and mitchell postdoctoral fellow in astronomy andrew pace are among the 348-member mse science team that supports all aspects of mse science development tran also leads the extragalactic science working group while depoy along with marshall is part of the management group representing all mse participants and charged with responsibility for planning and directing the projects overall strategic direction jennifers appointment testifies to the high regard in which she is held within the mse project and on the international stage said robert c kennicutt jr a fellow texas a&m astronomer and executive director of the mitchell institute this is a tremendously exciting project and having one of its leaders at texas a&m university strengthens our role in mse and our influence on its development marshalls scientific interests include exoplanets and the study of near-field cosmology specifically using metal-poor stars found in the halo of the milky way galaxy to better understand the formation mechanisms of the galaxy and broader universe most recently she has focused on studying the detailed kinematics and chemistry of satellite galaxies of the milky way particularly those that have been discovered through the dark energy survey (des) beyond an impressive record of scientific discoveries marshall is well known for her work on astronomical instrumentation she led texas a&ms involvement in des producing the calibration systems that enable the unprecedentedly precise photometric measurements produced by the survey and also in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) building the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrograph (virus) in addition to holding des builder status acknowledging a significant contribution to the projects construction marshall is the instrument scientist and co-principal investigator for gmacs the wide field multi-object spectrograph that will be a first-light instrument for the giant magellan telescope in which texas a&m is a founding partner she is an external collaborator in the sloan digital sky survey (sdss) and a member of the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) project maunakea spectroscopic explorer (credit: canada-france-hawaii telescope / maunakea observatories) since 2012 marshall has served as principal investigator and director of texas a&ms annual national science foundation-sponsored research experiences for undergraduates (reu) program in astronomical research and instrumentation that brings talented undergraduates from other universities to conduct scientific research with texas a&m astronomers each summer she also has planned and organized bi-weekly mitchell institute star parties and the annual texas astronomy undergraduate research symposium at texas a&m since 2011 marshall received her phd in astronomy from the ohio state university in 2006 and was a carnegie fellow in instrumentation at the carnegie observatories before coming to texas a&m she is a member of the american physical society the american astronomical society and the society for photo-optical instrumentation engineers to learn more about the maunakea spectroscopic explorer (mse) visit https://msecfhthawaiiedu/ for additional information about marshall and her teaching research and service efforts go to https://physicstamuedu/people/jlm076/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall named maunakea spectroscopic explorer project scientist appeared first on college of science share: " " texas a&m university astronomer jennifer marshall has been selected as project scientist for the maunakea spectroscopic explorer (mse) project an 1125-meter telescope being planned in hawaii thats capable of studying up to 4 000 astronomical objects at once and positioned to lead the world in multi-object spectroscopy mse is a proposed upgrade to the iconic 36-meter canada-france-hawaii telescope (cfht) on the summit of maunakea a 4 200-meter dormant volcano on the island of hawaii it is expected to build on the knowledge and experience gained from cfhts four decades of successful operation atop maunakea and will feature a state-of-the-art observatory inspired by the latest technical advancements made by other top astronomical facilities around the world texas a&m is an observer in mse and the first united states academic institution within its international collaboration the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) which also is an observer is the only other us partner marshall joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2010 as a research scientist and manager of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and texas a&m astronomy group she earned promotion to assistant professor in 2015 cutaway view of the planned mse summit facility showing the telescope within the new telescope enclosure (credit: canada-france-hawaii telescope / maunakea observatories) as the project scientist marshall will be responsible for leading mses scientific direction from coordinating the international science team in developing the science case to working with the projects engineering team to ensure mses design is capable of achieving its target science goals beyond that she also hopes to promote increased us astronomy involvement in the project and to encourage continued positive community relations on hawaii island an area she sees as an established cfht strength in addition to marshall texas a&m astronomers darren depoy casey papovich louis strigari and kim-vy tran and mitchell postdoctoral fellow in astronomy andrew pace are among the 348-member mse science team that supports all aspects of mse science development tran also leads the extragalactic science working group while depoy along with marshall is part of the management group representing all mse participants and charged with responsibility for planning and directing the projects overall strategic direction jennifers appointment testifies to the high regard in which she is held within the mse project and on the international stage said robert c kennicutt jr a fellow texas a&m astronomer and executive director of the mitchell institute this is a tremendously exciting project and having one of its leaders at texas a&m university strengthens our role in mse and our influence on its development marshalls scientific interests include exoplanets and the study of near-field cosmology specifically using metal-poor stars found in the halo of the milky way galaxy to better understand the formation mechanisms of the galaxy and broader universe most recently she has focused on studying the detailed kinematics and chemistry of satellite galaxies of the milky way particularly those that have been discovered through the dark energy survey (des) beyond an impressive record of scientific discoveries marshall is well known for her work on astronomical instrumentation she led texas a&ms involvement in des producing the calibration systems that enable the unprecedentedly precise photometric measurements produced by the survey and also in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) building the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrograph (virus) in addition to holding des builder status acknowledging a significant contribution to the projects construction marshall is the instrument scientist and co-principal investigator for gmacs the wide field multi-object spectrograph that will be a first-light instrument for the giant magellan telescope in which texas a&m is a founding partner she is an external collaborator in the sloan digital sky survey (sdss) and a member of the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) project maunakea spectroscopic explorer (credit: canada-france-hawaii telescope / maunakea observatories) since 2012 marshall has served as principal investigator and director of texas a&ms annual national science foundation-sponsored research experiences for undergraduates (reu) program in astronomical research and instrumentation that brings talented undergraduates from other universities to conduct scientific research with texas a&m astronomers each summer she also has planned and organized bi-weekly mitchell institute star parties and the annual texas astronomy undergraduate research symposium at texas a&m since 2011 marshall received her phd in astronomy from the ohio state university in 2006 and was a carnegie fellow in instrumentation at the carnegie observatories before coming to texas a&m she is a member of the american physical society the american astronomical society and the society for photo-optical instrumentation engineers to learn more about the maunakea spectroscopic explorer (mse) visit https://msecfhthawaiiedu/ for additional information about marshall and her teaching research and service efforts go to https://physicstamuedu/people/jlm076/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station texas a&m university astronomer robert c kennicutt jr has been selected to receive the 2019 national academy of sciences (nas) award for scientific reviewing presented this year in astronomy kennicutt executive director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and a globally renowned expert in observational extragalactic astronomy is cited for his field-defining work in the field of astrophysics he is one of 18 individuals honored by the nas for extraordinary scientific achievement in a wide range of fields spanning the physical biological and medical sciences the nas award for scientific reviewing has been presented annually since 1979 to recognize authors whose reviews have synthesized extensive and difficult material rendering a significant service to science and influencing the course of scientific thought the field rotates among the physical biological and social sciences and in 2019 honors reviews in astronomy the award carries with it a $20 000 prize and is sponsored entirely by annual reviews dr robert c kennicutt jr kennicutts influential 1998 review paper star formation in galaxies along the hubble sequence has become one of the most-cited papers in astrophysics the paper synthesized a broad review of stellar formation proving a critical intellectual foundation for the field and also gave birth to two new fields of investigation: the characterization of tracers of star formation rates and the study of the connection between gas and star formation in galaxies kennicutt also is known for the kennicutt‚Äìschmidt law which defines a relation between the gas density and star formation rate in a given region and for his role in constraining the value of the hubble constant the unit of measurement that astronomers and astrophysicists use to describe the expansion of the universe he served as co-leader of the scientific team that definitively measured the expansion of the universe and continues to research new methods to characterize the evolution of nearby and distant galaxies a member of the national academy of sciences and a fellow of both the american academy of arts and sciences and the royal society of london kennicutt joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in fall 2018 after spending the previous year as a texas a&m hagler institute for advanced study faculty fellow an emeritus professor at the university of cambridge he also holds a primary appointment in the department of astronomy and steward observatory at the university of arizona and is a co-chair of the national academies astro 2020 decadal survey on astronomy and astrophysics earlier this month he was recognized with the royal astronomical societys highest honor the 2019 gold medal dr robert c kennicutt jr pictured in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy it was an utter surprise and a great honor to receive this award kennicutt said when i wrote the review paper 20 years ago i had no idea that it would have such an impact on the subject and still be widely read even today it has been a thrill beyond description something that really makes you believe that you have made a difference in your profession that is the biggest reward to me to see the impact of the paper and hear the thanks of so many colleagues who have benefited from it receiving an award for it is just the icing on the cake! the award will be presented to kennicutt during a live webcast ceremony set for 2 pm april 28 in washington dc as part of the 156th nas annual meeting to learn more about the nas awards and see a complete list of winners for 2019 visit http://wwwnasonlineorg/programs/awards/2019awardshtml for additional information on texas a&m astronomy go to mitchell institute # # # # # # # # # # about the national academy of sciences: the national academy of sciences is a private nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by president abraham lincoln in 1863 it recognizes achievement in science by election to membership and with the national academy of engineering and the national academy of medicine provides science engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations for more information visit http://wwwnasonlineorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert c kennicutt jr (979) 845-7778 or rck@tamuedu ¬† the post texas a&m robert kennicutt honored with 2019 nas award for scientific reviewing appeared first on college of science share: " " texas a&m university astronomer robert c kennicutt jr has been selected to receive the 2019 national academy of sciences (nas) award for scientific reviewing presented this year in astronomy kennicutt executive director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and a globally renowned expert in observational extragalactic astronomy is cited for his field-defining work in the field of astrophysics he is one of 18 individuals honored by the nas for extraordinary scientific achievement in a wide range of fields spanning the physical biological and medical sciences the nas award for scientific reviewing has been presented annually since 1979 to recognize authors whose reviews have synthesized extensive and difficult material rendering a significant service to science and influencing the course of scientific thought the field rotates among the physical biological and social sciences and in 2019 honors reviews in astronomy the award carries with it a $20 000 prize and is sponsored entirely by annual reviews dr robert c kennicutt jr kennicutts influential 1998 review paper star formation in galaxies along the hubble sequence has become one of the most-cited papers in astrophysics the paper synthesized a broad review of stellar formation proving a critical intellectual foundation for the field and also gave birth to two new fields of investigation: the characterization of tracers of star formation rates and the study of the connection between gas and star formation in galaxies kennicutt also is known for the kennicutt‚Äìschmidt law which defines a relation between the gas density and star formation rate in a given region and for his role in constraining the value of the hubble constant the unit of measurement that astronomers and astrophysicists use to describe the expansion of the universe he served as co-leader of the scientific team that definitively measured the expansion of the universe and continues to research new methods to characterize the evolution of nearby and distant galaxies a member of the national academy of sciences and a fellow of both the american academy of arts and sciences and the royal society of london kennicutt joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in fall 2018 after spending the previous year as a texas a&m hagler institute for advanced study faculty fellow an emeritus professor at the university of cambridge he also holds a primary appointment in the department of astronomy and steward observatory at the university of arizona and is a co-chair of the national academies astro 2020 decadal survey on astronomy and astrophysics earlier this month he was recognized with the royal astronomical societys highest honor the 2019 gold medal dr robert c kennicutt jr pictured in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy it was an utter surprise and a great honor to receive this award kennicutt said when i wrote the review paper 20 years ago i had no idea that it would have such an impact on the subject and still be widely read even today it has been a thrill beyond description something that really makes you believe that you have made a difference in your profession that is the biggest reward to me to see the impact of the paper and hear the thanks of so many colleagues who have benefited from it receiving an award for it is just the icing on the cake! the award will be presented to kennicutt during a live webcast ceremony set for 2 pm april 28 in washington dc as part of the 156th nas annual meeting to learn more about the nas awards and see a complete list of winners for 2019 visit http://wwwnasonlineorg/programs/awards/2019awardshtml for additional information on texas a&m astronomy go to mitchell institute # # # # # # # # # # about the national academy of sciences: the national academy of sciences is a private nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by president abraham lincoln in 1863 it recognizes achievement in science by election to membership and with the national academy of engineering and the national academy of medicine provides science engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations for more information visit http://wwwnasonlineorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2017) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert c kennicutt jr (979) 845-7778 or rck@tamuedu " " college station dr kevin krisciunas instructional assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as vice chair of the historical astronomy division of the american astronomical society effective january 2019 established in 1899 with a mission to enhance and share humanitys scientific understanding of the universe the american astronomical society (aas) is the major organization of professional astronomers in north america its membership also includes physicists mathematicians geologists engineers and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy and astrophysics krisciunas notes that the aas historical astronomy division one of six within the organization ‚Äì involves itself in a number of areas including aas member obituaries preservation of archives and scientific artifacts and bringing recognition to lifetime achievements and notable books in the area of astronomy history we are trying to come up with a plan for the material at lick observatory yerkes observatory and mount wilson observatory krisciunas said our members also can be called on as experts in the debate on science versus pseudoscience for example astrology and ‚Äògood science versus ‚Äòbad science such as the advocates for a flat earth krisciunas will serve two years as vice chair/chair-elect followed by two years as chair then another two years as past chair for a total of six consecutive years among the divisions six-member officer group krisciunas joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2006 as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and texas a&m astronomy group an internationally recognized researcher and pioneer in the study of exploding stars he has authored nearly 300 scientific publications including the 2013 book a guide to wider horizons and along with margaret harshbarger a comic opera called total eclipse he was a member of the essence project a supernova search carried out using the 4-meter blanco telescope at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile he also is working on the reduction of light curves of more nearby supernovae observed at both ctio and the nearby las campanas observatory in addition krisciunas has taught approximately 4 500 undergraduates at texas a&m earning recognition with a 2010 distinguished new faculty award from the international academy for the scholarship of learning technology for more information about krisciunas and his teaching research and service efforts visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/krisciunas/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m kevin krisciunas elected vice chair of american astronomical societys historical astronomy division appeared first on college of science share: " " dr kevin krisciunas instructional assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as vice chair of the historical astronomy division of the american astronomical society effective january 2019 established in 1899 with a mission to enhance and share humanitys scientific understanding of the universe the american astronomical society (aas) is the major organization of professional astronomers in north america its membership also includes physicists mathematicians geologists engineers and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy and astrophysics krisciunas notes that the aas historical astronomy division one of six within the organization ‚Äì involves itself in a number of areas including aas member obituaries preservation of archives and scientific artifacts and bringing recognition to lifetime achievements and notable books in the area of astronomy history we are trying to come up with a plan for the material at lick observatory yerkes observatory and mount wilson observatory krisciunas said our members also can be called on as experts in the debate on science versus pseudoscience for example astrology and ‚Äògood science versus ‚Äòbad science such as the advocates for a flat earth krisciunas will serve two years as vice chair/chair-elect followed by two years as chair then another two years as past chair for a total of six consecutive years among the divisions six-member officer group krisciunas joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2006 as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and texas a&m astronomy group an internationally recognized researcher and pioneer in the study of exploding stars he has authored nearly 300 scientific publications including the 2013 book a guide to wider horizons and along with margaret harshbarger a comic opera called total eclipse he was a member of the essence project a supernova search carried out using the 4-meter blanco telescope at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile he also is working on the reduction of light curves of more nearby supernovae observed at both ctio and the nearby las campanas observatory in addition krisciunas has taught approximately 4 500 undergraduates at texas a&m earning recognition with a 2010 distinguished new faculty award from the international academy for the scholarship of learning technology for more information about krisciunas and his teaching research and service efforts visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/krisciunas/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station dr alexey belyanin professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a fellow of the optical society (osa) in recognition of his achievements in business leadership education research engineering and service dr alexey belyanin(credit: dr alexey belyanin) belyanin an internationally respected leader in the multidisciplinary research field of optics of nanostructured materials is cited for outstanding contributions to the optics of semiconductors nanostructures and emerging optoelectronic materials and for development of novel lasers and other optoelectronic devices in the mid-infrared and terahertz spectral range he is among 98 honorees unveiled monday (oct 22) as the societys 2019 fellows class being named an osa fellow is an honor accorded to those of rare distinction in their field and carries the responsibility of service to and leadership of the optics and photonics communities said osa president ian walmsley i congratulate the 2019 class on their achievements osa fellows are members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics nominations are submitted by current osa fellows and reviewed by the osa fellow members committee which then recommends candidates to the awards council and osa board of directors no more than 10 percent of the total osa membership may be fellows at any given time making each years honorees a highly selective group the osa fellow members committee has been successful at expanding the level and type of achievements that factor into qualifying for this distinction said ceo elizabeth rogan the 2019 fellows class reflects a diverse and inclusive representation of osas growing membership belyanin is at his educational best whether explaining the physics-based concepts behind generating electricity to students visiting the mitchell physics building (above) or governing the operation of an infrared camera to texas teachers participating in the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (below) (credit: texas a&m physics and astronomy) belyanin a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 is world-renowned for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields that span semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics in addition to serving as associate head for undergraduate programs in the department of physics and astronomy he serves as a faculty advisor for the texas a&m chapter of the society of physics students belyanins research group specializes in the optics of semiconductors nanostructures and topological materials he has led texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums for more than a decade he is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding as evidenced by his three nsf grants awarded since 2016 and current six-year air force office of scientific research (afosr) materials program grant through 2020 belyanin has published in excess of 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals 12 in the past two years alone and is a frequent reviewer of papers submitted to science nature and other prominent journals he is a reviewer for the mcarthur foundation and a review panelist for several nsf programs and other federal agencies including afosr the defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) the us department of energy (doe) advanced research projects agency-energy (arpa-e) and the army research office (aro) an in-demand presenter at invited conferences and symposia across the world he has also chaired a number of major international conferences equally respected in the classroom and broader educational community belyanin has developed a new graduate course while at texas a&m and taught several service courses in addition to co-founding and co-organizing the annual mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) each summer since 2012 for physics teachers from texas high schools his extensive outreach activity during the past decade and a half includes hundreds of lectures and physics demonstrations for k-12 students school teachers and the general public belyanin (center background) observes as a texas a&m society of physics students member interacts with a texas a&m physics/football fan during pregame festivities outside kyle field belyanin has served as faculty advisor to the texas a&m chapter of sps since 2006 belyanin received his phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1995 and held research positions at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences and at texas a&m prior to joining the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty he was granted early tenure in spring 2007 a fellow of the american physical society (2012) and international society for optics and photonics (2015) belyanin previously has been recognized with an nsf career award (2006) the joann treat research excellence award (2007) and lectureships at both lund university (2011) and the university of jena abbe school of photonics (2011) founded in 1916 and headquartered in washington dc the optical society is the leading professional association in optics and photonics home to accomplished science engineering and business leaders from all over the world through world-renowned publications meetings and membership programs osa provides quality information and inspiring interactions that power achievements in the science of light for more information visit wwwosaorg see a complete list of 2019 fellows and learn more about osas awards and grants program to learn more about belyanin and his research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/belyanin/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) based on expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist alexey belyanin recognized as optical society fellow appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " dr alexey belyanin professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a fellow of the optical society (osa) in recognition of his achievements in business leadership education research engineering and service dr alexey belyanin(credit: dr alexey belyanin) belyanin an internationally respected leader in the multidisciplinary research field of optics of nanostructured materials is cited for outstanding contributions to the optics of semiconductors nanostructures and emerging optoelectronic materials and for development of novel lasers and other optoelectronic devices in the mid-infrared and terahertz spectral range he is among 98 honorees unveiled monday (oct 22) as the societys 2019 fellows class being named an osa fellow is an honor accorded to those of rare distinction in their field and carries the responsibility of service to and leadership of the optics and photonics communities said osa president ian walmsley i congratulate the 2019 class on their achievements osa fellows are members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics nominations are submitted by current osa fellows and reviewed by the osa fellow members committee which then recommends candidates to the awards council and osa board of directors no more than 10 percent of the total osa membership may be fellows at any given time making each years honorees a highly selective group the osa fellow members committee has been successful at expanding the level and type of achievements that factor into qualifying for this distinction said ceo elizabeth rogan the 2019 fellows class reflects a diverse and inclusive representation of osas growing membership belyanin is at his educational best whether explaining the physics-based concepts behind generating electricity to students visiting the mitchell physics building (above) or governing the operation of an infrared camera to texas teachers participating in the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (below) (credit: texas a&m physics and astronomy) belyanin a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 is world-renowned for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields that span semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics in addition to serving as associate head for undergraduate programs in the department of physics and astronomy he serves as a faculty advisor for the texas a&m chapter of the society of physics students belyanins research group specializes in the optics of semiconductors nanostructures and topological materials he has led texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums for more than a decade he is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding as evidenced by his three nsf grants awarded since 2016 and current six-year air force office of scientific research (afosr) materials program grant through 2020 belyanin has published in excess of 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals 12 in the past two years alone and is a frequent reviewer of papers submitted to science nature and other prominent journals he is a reviewer for the mcarthur foundation and a review panelist for several nsf programs and other federal agencies including afosr the defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) the us department of energy (doe) advanced research projects agency-energy (arpa-e) and the army research office (aro) an in-demand presenter at invited conferences and symposia across the world he has also chaired a number of major international conferences equally respected in the classroom and broader educational community belyanin has developed a new graduate course while at texas a&m and taught several service courses in addition to co-founding and co-organizing the annual mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) each summer since 2012 for physics teachers from texas high schools his extensive outreach activity during the past decade and a half includes hundreds of lectures and physics demonstrations for k-12 students school teachers and the general public belyanin (center background) observes as a texas a&m society of physics students member interacts with a texas a&m physics/football fan during pregame festivities outside kyle field belyanin has served as faculty advisor to the texas a&m chapter of sps since 2006 belyanin received his phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1995 and held research positions at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences and at texas a&m prior to joining the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty he was granted early tenure in spring 2007 a fellow of the american physical society (2012) and international society for optics and photonics (2015) belyanin previously has been recognized with an nsf career award (2006) the joann treat research excellence award (2007) and lectureships at both lund university (2011) and the university of jena abbe school of photonics (2011) founded in 1916 and headquartered in washington dc the optical society is the leading professional association in optics and photonics home to accomplished science engineering and business leaders from all over the world through world-renowned publications meetings and membership programs osa provides quality information and inspiring interactions that power achievements in the science of light for more information visit wwwosaorg see a complete list of 2019 fellows and learn more about osas awards and grants program to learn more about belyanin and his research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/belyanin/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) based on expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu " " ¬† pasadena calif the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) along with its international partners including texas a&m university today announced the start of hard rock excavation for the giant magellan telescopes massive concrete pier and the foundations for the telescopes enclosure on its site at las campanas observatory in chile artists rendering of an aerial view showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) the excavation work which uses a combination of hydraulic drilling and hammering and is expected to take about five months to complete will be performed by minería y montajes conpax (known as conpax) a construction services company that has previously performed site work for other observatories in chile excavation is a key step toward the construction of the gmt which is expected to see first light as early as 2024 the 25-meter diameter gmt expected to have a final weight of about 1 600 metric tons will comprise seven 84-meter mirrors supported by a steel telescope structure that will be seated on the concrete pier it will be housed inside a rotating enclosure that will measure 65 meters (~22 stories) tall and 56 meters wide as well as working on the enclosure and telescope pier foundations conpax will excavate a recess in the summit rock for the lower portion of the mirror coating chamber and foundations for a utility building and tunnel on the summit with the start of construction of the permanent buildings on the site the gmt is showing tangible progress toward completion said gmto project manager james fanson we are delighted that conpax is carrying out this important work the most challenging part of their work on the summit will be to excavate the solid rock of the mountain top to a depth of 7 meters (23 feet) to hold the concrete for the telescope pier much of this work will be done with a hydraulic rock hammer and jack hammer to ensure that the integrity of the solid bedrock below the pier is undamaged artists rendering of the giant magellan telescope reflecting the chilean sunset for more images visit giant magellan telescope gallery in total we expect to remove 5 000 cubic meters or 13 300 tons of rock from the mountain and will need 330 dump-truck loads to remove it from the summit fanson said las campanas observatory located in the southern atacama desert of chile and owned by the carnegie institution for science is one of the worlds premier astronomical sites known for its clear dark skies and stable airflow that produces exceptionally sharp images with its unique design the gmt will produce images that are 10 times sharper than those from the hubble space telescope in the infrared region of the spectrum and will be used by astronomers to study planets around other stars and to look back to the time when the first galaxies formed in the past year the gmt project has cast the fifth primary mirror segment at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror laboratory announced a new partner for the project in arizona state university and awarded design-build contracts for the telescope mount # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope organization: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: arizona state university astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg connect with the giant magellan telescope organization on social media: gplusto/gmtelescope twittercom/gmtelescope facebookcom/gmtelescope instagramcom/gmtelescope/ and visit http://wwwgmtoorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) based on expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- media contacts sarah erman saraherman@zenogroupcom amanda kocz akocz@gmtoorg gmto contacts robert n shelton rshelton@gmtoorg james fanson jfanson@gmtoorg bruce c bigelow bbigelow@gmtoorg the post excavation begins on giant magellan telescope site in chile appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) along with its international partners including texas a&m university today announced the start of hard rock excavation for the giant magellan telescopes massive concrete pier and the foundations for the telescopes enclosure on its site at las campanas observatory in chile artists rendering of an aerial view showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) the excavation work which uses a combination of hydraulic drilling and hammering and is expected to take about five months to complete will be performed by minería y montajes conpax (known as conpax) a construction services company that has previously performed site work for other observatories in chile excavation is a key step toward the construction of the gmt which is expected to see first light as early as 2024 the 25-meter diameter gmt expected to have a final weight of about 1 600 metric tons will comprise seven 84-meter mirrors supported by a steel telescope structure that will be seated on the concrete pier it will be housed inside a rotating enclosure that will measure 65 meters (~22 stories) tall and 56 meters wide as well as working on the enclosure and telescope pier foundations conpax will excavate a recess in the summit rock for the lower portion of the mirror coating chamber and foundations for a utility building and tunnel on the summit with the start of construction of the permanent buildings on the site the gmt is showing tangible progress toward completion said gmto project manager james fanson we are delighted that conpax is carrying out this important work the most challenging part of their work on the summit will be to excavate the solid rock of the mountain top to a depth of 7 meters (23 feet) to hold the concrete for the telescope pier much of this work will be done with a hydraulic rock hammer and jack hammer to ensure that the integrity of the solid bedrock below the pier is undamaged artists rendering of the giant magellan telescope reflecting the chilean sunset for more images visit giant magellan telescope gallery in total we expect to remove 5 000 cubic meters or 13 300 tons of rock from the mountain and will need 330 dump-truck loads to remove it from the summit fanson said las campanas observatory located in the southern atacama desert of chile and owned by the carnegie institution for science is one of the worlds premier astronomical sites known for its clear dark skies and stable airflow that produces exceptionally sharp images with its unique design the gmt will produce images that are 10 times sharper than those from the hubble space telescope in the infrared region of the spectrum and will be used by astronomers to study planets around other stars and to look back to the time when the first galaxies formed in the past year the gmt project has cast the fifth primary mirror segment at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror laboratory announced a new partner for the project in arizona state university and awarded design-build contracts for the telescope mount # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope organization: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: arizona state university astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg connect with the giant magellan telescope organization on social media: gplusto/gmtelescope twittercom/gmtelescope facebookcom/gmtelescope instagramcom/gmtelescope/ and visit http://wwwgmtoorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) based on expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- media contacts sarah erman saraherman@zenogroupcom amanda kocz akocz@gmtoorg gmto contacts robert n shelton rshelton@gmtoorg james fanson jfanson@gmtoorg bruce c bigelow bbigelow@gmtoorg " " share: " " batavia il texas a&m university physicist dr david toback has been elected to his third consecutive two-year term as co-spokesperson for the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) effective june 1 2018 dr david toback toback a high-energy physics expert and veteran researcher in several related international collaborations joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2000 and is a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since june 1 2014 he has served as co-spokesperson and overall physics coordinator for the collider detector at fermilab collaboration which he began working with in 1991 as a graduate student at the university of chicago in january he also was elected to the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment executive committee in the past toback has served as co-convener of cdfs top + beyond the standard model group and also guided the supersymmetry group a leading candidate to explain dark matter and one focus of tobacks study in 2015 he was elected as a fellow of the american physical society on the basis of his cdf experiment leadership and pioneering work on related searches for new particles we congratulate david for this excellent result and thank him for accepting to serve said former cdf co-spokesperson luciano ristori on behalf of the election committee we also want to thank all the people who took the time to vote and note that this excellent turnout shows that cdf is still a large community of people who still care about the completion of our physics program although the cdf experiment representing 63 institutions in 15 countries is no longer taking data toback says its impact lives on in its analysis including the collaborations landmark 700th paper published last year in physical review d and shedding new light on the production rate of charm quarks the collaboration maintains a 400-person active author list i am grateful to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and the mitchell institute for the continued opportunity to serve the cdf collaboration toback said its time to finish the job we started and publish our last papers my hope is that this is the last election for cdf we have joked that since we soon wont need leadership anymore but still will need people who can speak for the collaboration results they may just make me benevolent dictator for life fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) are the past and current record holders respectively for the most powerful particle collider on earth after 26 years of colliding particles the tevatron shut down on september 29 2011 with the completion of the lhc however because it observed collisons between protons and antiprotons via its two detectors the three-story 6 000-ton cdf along with its companion dzero toback notes that the tevatron produced fundamental results that can neither be achieved nor replicated at the lhc toback offering career guidance and inspiration to a past group of pearson mechanics scholars a decorated educator and science communicator he is a two-time thaman professor in undergraduate teaching excellence (2008-11 2012-15) and author of the textbook big bang black holes no math the basis for his popular undergraduate course offered by the department of physics and astronomy texas a&ms history is more extensive than tobacks with the cdf experiment given that it was co-founded in 1980 in part by texas a&m physicists peter mcintyre and robert webb texas a&m has had a continuous presence in the collaboration since its inception including four additional physicists toback ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov who either were students or postdoctoral researchers within it and are now among its principal investigators kamon produced the collaborations fourth phd thesis (there are 638 to date) followed by toback (159th 1997) safonov (242nd 2001) and eusebi (345th 2005) all four played lead roles in tevatron run ii with toback leading the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter in addition to faculty contributions toback notes that 11 texas a&m students have earned phds based on cdf-related work: ziqing hong (toback 2015); jonathan asaadi (toback 2012) adam aurisano (toback 2012); andrey elagin (safonov 2011); eunsin lee (toback 2010); vadim khotilovich (safonov and kamon 2008); peter wagner (toback 2007); vyachelav krutelyov (kamon 2005); james done (kamon 1999); louis keeble (mcintyre 1992) and timothy hessing (webb 1990) wagners was recognized as the 2007 universities research associations graduate thesis of the year many more texas a&m students achieved masters degrees and/or did honors undergraduate thesis-related work with cdf in addition many within this collective cdf-inspired whole have gone on to faculty positions including at texas a&m and other prestigious research universities worldwide the collaborations crowning achievements include discovery of the top quark in 1995 and detection of the first substantive evidence of the higgs boson prior to the large hadron colliders 2012 full discovery that collectively resulted in peter higgs and francois englerts subsequent 2013 nobel prize in physics for theoretically predicting the elusive particles existence 50 years ago to learn more about cdf visit http://www-cdffnalgov/collaboration/ for more information on texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu/ for more on tobacks broader research visit http://tobackgroupphysicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) based on expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu the post texas a&m physicist david toback elected to third term as cdf co-spokesperson appeared first on college of science share: " " texas a&m university physicist dr david toback has been elected to his third consecutive two-year term as co-spokesperson for the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) effective june 1 2018 dr david toback toback a high-energy physics expert and veteran researcher in several related international collaborations joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2000 and is a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since june 1 2014 he has served as co-spokesperson and overall physics coordinator for the collider detector at fermilab collaboration which he began working with in 1991 as a graduate student at the university of chicago in january he also was elected to the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment executive committee in the past toback has served as co-convener of cdfs top + beyond the standard model group and also guided the supersymmetry group a leading candidate to explain dark matter and one focus of tobacks study in 2015 he was elected as a fellow of the american physical society on the basis of his cdf experiment leadership and pioneering work on related searches for new particles we congratulate david for this excellent result and thank him for accepting to serve said former cdf co-spokesperson luciano ristori on behalf of the election committee we also want to thank all the people who took the time to vote and note that this excellent turnout shows that cdf is still a large community of people who still care about the completion of our physics program although the cdf experiment representing 63 institutions in 15 countries is no longer taking data toback says its impact lives on in its analysis including the collaborations landmark 700th paper published last year in physical review d and shedding new light on the production rate of charm quarks the collaboration maintains a 400-person active author list i am grateful to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and the mitchell institute for the continued opportunity to serve the cdf collaboration toback said its time to finish the job we started and publish our last papers my hope is that this is the last election for cdf we have joked that since we soon wont need leadership anymore but still will need people who can speak for the collaboration results they may just make me benevolent dictator for life fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) are the past and current record holders respectively for the most powerful particle collider on earth after 26 years of colliding particles the tevatron shut down on september 29 2011 with the completion of the lhc however because it observed collisons between protons and antiprotons via its two detectors the three-story 6 000-ton cdf along with its companion dzero toback notes that the tevatron produced fundamental results that can neither be achieved nor replicated at the lhc toback offering career guidance and inspiration to a past group of pearson mechanics scholars a decorated educator and science communicator he is a two-time thaman professor in undergraduate teaching excellence (2008-11 2012-15) and author of the textbook big bang black holes no math the basis for his popular undergraduate course offered by the department of physics and astronomy texas a&ms history is more extensive than tobacks with the cdf experiment given that it was co-founded in 1980 in part by texas a&m physicists peter mcintyre and robert webb texas a&m has had a continuous presence in the collaboration since its inception including four additional physicists toback ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov who either were students or postdoctoral researchers within it and are now among its principal investigators kamon produced the collaborations fourth phd thesis (there are 638 to date) followed by toback (159th 1997) safonov (242nd 2001) and eusebi (345th 2005) all four played lead roles in tevatron run ii with toback leading the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter in addition to faculty contributions toback notes that 11 texas a&m students have earned phds based on cdf-related work: ziqing hong (toback 2015); jonathan asaadi (toback 2012) adam aurisano (toback 2012); andrey elagin (safonov 2011); eunsin lee (toback 2010); vadim khotilovich (safonov and kamon 2008); peter wagner (toback 2007); vyachelav krutelyov (kamon 2005); james done (kamon 1999); louis keeble (mcintyre 1992) and timothy hessing (webb 1990) wagners was recognized as the 2007 universities research associations graduate thesis of the year many more texas a&m students achieved masters degrees and/or did honors undergraduate thesis-related work with cdf in addition many within this collective cdf-inspired whole have gone on to faculty positions including at texas a&m and other prestigious research universities worldwide the collaborations crowning achievements include discovery of the top quark in 1995 and detection of the first substantive evidence of the higgs boson prior to the large hadron colliders 2012 full discovery that collectively resulted in peter higgs and francois englerts subsequent 2013 nobel prize in physics for theoretically predicting the elusive particles existence 50 years ago to learn more about cdf visit http://www-cdffnalgov/collaboration/ for more information on texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu/ for more on tobacks broader research visit http://tobackgroupphysicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $9054 million in fiscal year 2017 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) based on expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu " " the 2018 physics and engineering festival is back and better than ever! this free family-friendly event kicks o friday april 6th with the physics of cooking and will continue on saturday april 7th all day there will be numerous hands-on exhibits and demonstrations as well as lectures from astronauts and even an exhilarating science circus for more information please visit physicsfestivaltamuedu we look forward to seeing you there! share: " " on friday april 6 harvard university physicist dr david a weitz will team up with local celebrity chefs tai lee 02 (chef tais restaurant group) and mitch siegert (truman chocolates) for a free public lecture physics of cooking set for 7 pm in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building tickets are not required for the unprecedented event in which the trio will demonstrate some of their favorite cooking techniques and explain the underlying science behind their delectable work the presentation also will be livestreamed by kamu-tv share: " " nearly two dozen texas a&m university students enrolled in physics 218 (classical mechanics) this past spring have been honored by the department of physics and astronomy as its latest pearson mechanics scholars the students selected for their top-scoring marks on a special end-of-semester challenge exam open to all physics 218 students and covering material from all related sections taught during the spring 2018 semester were honored wednesday (may 3) during an awards luncheon in the george p mitchell 40 physics building the top spring 2018 mechanics scholars: (from left) john d killough (2nd) faith a leskowitz (1st) jinwoo jeong (3rd) and professor/organizer dr david toback the event featured a presentation by dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence on career possibilities in physics and related fields each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishments this semesters top three performers faith a leskowitz (first) john d killough (second) and jinwoo jeong (third) also received copies of the physics 208 textbook and tobacks big bang black holes no math book as well as monetary awards ($200 for first place $100 for second and third) to be used toward academics the event is part of the mechanics scholar program founded by the department in 2002 to celebrate the best students in physics 218 and encourage career exploration in physics as a large introductory course with challenging subject matter it is open to all majors but the majority of the enrollment consists of first-year engineering students along with physics and other science-related majors at the end of both the fall and spring semesters any student enrolled in physics 218 is eligible to take the pearson mechanics challenge exam the exam covers the same material as the semester-long course newtons laws of motion gravity and the concepts of energy work and momentum the difficulty level is higher than the course by design in order to identify the top performers out of the roughly 1 500 students enrolled this past spring see additional photographs from this years event or find more information on the program including requirements and lists of past winners -atm- contact: dr david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics and astronomy honors spring 2018 mechanics scholars appeared first on college of science share: " " at the february cms collaboration meeting in geneva two texas a&m researchers graduate student sven dildick and postdoctoral fellow luca pernie have received cms achievement awards the awards are conferred annually to the members of the cms experiment for their outstanding contributions to the collaboration and the experiment sven dildick has been recognized for his work on the design of a new trigger system for the phase-2 upgrade of the cms experiment luca pernies award cites his leadership and critical contributions to the precision alignment of the cms muon detector current and past members of the texas a&m group at cms have received these awards three times in the past: jim pivarski in 2009 indara suarez in 2013 and evaldas juska in 2016 in the picture (left to right): sven dildick alexei safonov luca pernie view here: cms achievement list share: " " ¬† college station texas a&m university astronomers are among hundreds of dark energy survey (des) scientists globally celebrating todays public release of the surveys first three years of data this image shows the full area of sky mapped by the dark energy survey and the eleven newly discovered stellar streams four of the streams in this diagram atlas molonglo phoenix and tucana iii were previously known the others were discovered using the dark energy camera one of the most powerful astronomical cameras on earth (credit: dark energy survey) the first major release of des data announced wednesday (jan 10) at a special session held during the american astronomical society 231st meeting in washington dc features information on about 400 million astronomical objects including distant galaxies billions of light years away as well as stars in our own milky way galaxy the public release of the first three years of des data fulfills a commitment made by survey scientists to share their findings with the astronomy community and the public the data which are accessible online cover the full des footprint about 5 000 square degrees or one eighth of the entire sky and include roughly 40 000 exposures taken with the dark energy camera (decam) the 570-megapixel imaging device and primary instrument for des for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist the images which correspond to hundreds of terabytes of data processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign and are being released along with catalogs of hundreds of millions of galaxies and stars decam was built and tested at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory the lead laboratory on the dark energy survey depoy led the team that commissioned the enormous device which is mounted on the national science foundations 4 meter blanco telescope part of the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile a division of the national optical astronomy observatory in addition a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that enables the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of depoy and fellow texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall each color in the image corresponds to the distance of stars blue is closer green is farther away red is even farther several stellar streams are visible in this image as yellow blue and red streaks across the sky (credit: dark energy survey) andrew pace a mitchell postdoctoral fellow in astronomy within texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy was part of the des team that vetted the data included in todays release in addition texas a&m astronomy graduate student peter ferguson conducted a significant part of the analysis in the des paper announcing one of the new discoveries enabled by the data set the detection of 11 new streams of stars around our milky way the des vetting team examined the entire des footprint to ensure that the data would be useful for the entire astronomical community pace said useful in this case is making sure there is nothing obviously wrong with the data in converting decams raw data into astronomical catalogs indicating positions and brightness of objects in the sky we wanted to be sure that everything went as smoothly as possible rather than individual objects we look for any unexpected trends and do cross-checks on subsets where we know what we should get back and also using external catalogs from other surveys for his part ferguson describes stellar streams as objects such as globular clusters or dwarf galaxies that have been ripped apart by the milky way and smeared across the sky they can offer important information about the milky ways formation history sometimes coined as galactic archaeology however because they are composed of relatively few stars spread out over a large area of sky these stellar streams are extremely difficult to find even for an instrument as powerful as decam pictured is andrew pace texas a&m mitchell postdoctoral fellow in astronomy andrew pace was part of the des team that vetted the data included in todays release examining the vast collection to ensure that the data would be useful for the entire astronomical community (credit: andrew pace) they contain information about the current state of the milky way and can be used to characterize its gravitational field and estimate its mass ferguson said additionally small disturbances in streams can be used to explore milky way substructure which includes constraining different dark matter models beyond helping with analysis of the locations and orientations of the streams ferguson used orbit models to look for any previously known streams that could be associated with the newly discovered des streams he also searched for any nearby globular clusters or dwarf galaxies that could have acted as progenitors for the streams i think this paper contains some really exciting results and opens the door for a lot more work on this topic helping us to understand our place in the milky way galaxy and how it evolved to the state we see it in today ferguson added texas a&m astronomy graduate student peter ferguson conducted a significant part of the analysis in the des paper announcing one of the new discoveries enabled by the data set the detection of 11 new streams of stars around our milky way (credit: peter ferguson) prior to the new discoveries by des only about two dozen stellar streams had been discovered many of them were found by the sloan digital sky survey a precursor to the dark energy survey since there is no universally accepted naming convention for stellar streams the dark energy survey has reached out to schools in chile and australia where students and their teachers have worked together to name the streams after aquatic words in native languages from northern chile and aboriginal australia read more about the names in this story from symmetry magazine pace says he got involved in des data-vetting as a representative of the milky way (mw) working group in which he works with marshall and texas a&m astronomer louis strigari to discover and follow up on new mw satellites he admits that makes him a little biased toward mw science when it comes to identifying des high points thus far beyond the field-of-streams paper involving ferguson pace says his top three in no particular order consist of the first year of cosmology results (the science here is the primary mission of the des and came out better than expected and will only get better with more data) the discovery of the optical counterpart to the neutron star merger (first discovered via gravitational waves) and the search for mw satellites papers (so far there have been around 23 objects found within the survey which is higher than i expected) papers drawn from the first years of des data can be found online along with an animation of several of the newly discovered streams des plans one more major public data release after the completion of the surveys five-year mission which runs through 2018 this future release will include nearly twice as many exposures as featured in the current release texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist for the dark energy camera one of the most powerful survey instruments of its kind that is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot (credit: reidar hahn/fermilab) in addition to depoy marshall and strigari fellow texas a&m astronomers and mitchell institute members lucas macri casey papovich and nicholas suntzeff are full members of the 400-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 26 institutions and seven countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion texas a&m statistician james long and mitchell institute postdoctoral fellow peter brown also are external collaborators read more on todays announcement including quotes from affiliated scientists administrators and funding entities via the official fermilab press release learn more about texas a&m astronomy at mitchell institute # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu andrew pace (979) 845-7778 or apace@tamuedu or peter ferguson (979) 845-7778 or petersferguson@physicstamuedu the post dark energy survey publicly releases first three years of data appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " texas a&m university astronomers are among hundreds of dark energy survey (des) scientists globally celebrating todays public release of the surveys first three years of data this image shows the full area of sky mapped by the dark energy survey and the eleven newly discovered stellar streams four of the streams in this diagram atlas molonglo phoenix and tucana iii were previously known the others were discovered using the dark energy camera one of the most powerful astronomical cameras on earth (credit: dark energy survey) the first major release of des data announced wednesday (jan 10) at a special session held during the american astronomical society 231st meeting in washington dc features information on about 400 million astronomical objects including distant galaxies billions of light years away as well as stars in our own milky way galaxy the public release of the first three years of des data fulfills a commitment made by survey scientists to share their findings with the astronomy community and the public the data which are accessible online cover the full des footprint about 5 000 square degrees or one eighth of the entire sky and include roughly 40 000 exposures taken with the dark energy camera (decam) the 570-megapixel imaging device and primary instrument for des for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist the images which correspond to hundreds of terabytes of data processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign and are being released along with catalogs of hundreds of millions of galaxies and stars decam was built and tested at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory the lead laboratory on the dark energy survey depoy led the team that commissioned the enormous device which is mounted on the national science foundations 4 meter blanco telescope part of the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile a division of the national optical astronomy observatory in addition a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that enables the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of depoy and fellow texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall each color in the image corresponds to the distance of stars blue is closer green is farther away red is even farther several stellar streams are visible in this image as yellow blue and red streaks across the sky (credit: dark energy survey) andrew pace a mitchell postdoctoral fellow in astronomy within texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy was part of the des team that vetted the data included in todays release in addition texas a&m astronomy graduate student peter ferguson conducted a significant part of the analysis in the des paper announcing one of the new discoveries enabled by the data set the detection of 11 new streams of stars around our milky way the des vetting team examined the entire des footprint to ensure that the data would be useful for the entire astronomical community pace said useful in this case is making sure there is nothing obviously wrong with the data in converting decams raw data into astronomical catalogs indicating positions and brightness of objects in the sky we wanted to be sure that everything went as smoothly as possible rather than individual objects we look for any unexpected trends and do cross-checks on subsets where we know what we should get back and also using external catalogs from other surveys for his part ferguson describes stellar streams as objects such as globular clusters or dwarf galaxies that have been ripped apart by the milky way and smeared across the sky they can offer important information about the milky ways formation history sometimes coined as galactic archaeology however because they are composed of relatively few stars spread out over a large area of sky these stellar streams are extremely difficult to find even for an instrument as powerful as decam pictured is andrew pace texas a&m mitchell postdoctoral fellow in astronomy andrew pace was part of the des team that vetted the data included in todays release examining the vast collection to ensure that the data would be useful for the entire astronomical community (credit: andrew pace) they contain information about the current state of the milky way and can be used to characterize its gravitational field and estimate its mass ferguson said additionally small disturbances in streams can be used to explore milky way substructure which includes constraining different dark matter models beyond helping with analysis of the locations and orientations of the streams ferguson used orbit models to look for any previously known streams that could be associated with the newly discovered des streams he also searched for any nearby globular clusters or dwarf galaxies that could have acted as progenitors for the streams i think this paper contains some really exciting results and opens the door for a lot more work on this topic helping us to understand our place in the milky way galaxy and how it evolved to the state we see it in today ferguson added texas a&m astronomy graduate student peter ferguson conducted a significant part of the analysis in the des paper announcing one of the new discoveries enabled by the data set the detection of 11 new streams of stars around our milky way (credit: peter ferguson) prior to the new discoveries by des only about two dozen stellar streams had been discovered many of them were found by the sloan digital sky survey a precursor to the dark energy survey since there is no universally accepted naming convention for stellar streams the dark energy survey has reached out to schools in chile and australia where students and their teachers have worked together to name the streams after aquatic words in native languages from northern chile and aboriginal australia read more about the names in this story from symmetry magazine pace says he got involved in des data-vetting as a representative of the milky way (mw) working group in which he works with marshall and texas a&m astronomer louis strigari to discover and follow up on new mw satellites he admits that makes him a little biased toward mw science when it comes to identifying des high points thus far beyond the field-of-streams paper involving ferguson pace says his top three in no particular order consist of the first year of cosmology results (the science here is the primary mission of the des and came out better than expected and will only get better with more data) the discovery of the optical counterpart to the neutron star merger (first discovered via gravitational waves) and the search for mw satellites papers (so far there have been around 23 objects found within the survey which is higher than i expected) papers drawn from the first years of des data can be found online along with an animation of several of the newly discovered streams des plans one more major public data release after the completion of the surveys five-year mission which runs through 2018 this future release will include nearly twice as many exposures as featured in the current release texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist for the dark energy camera one of the most powerful survey instruments of its kind that is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot (credit: reidar hahn/fermilab) in addition to depoy marshall and strigari fellow texas a&m astronomers and mitchell institute members lucas macri casey papovich and nicholas suntzeff are full members of the 400-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 26 institutions and seven countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion texas a&m statistician james long and mitchell institute postdoctoral fellow peter brown also are external collaborators read more on todays announcement including quotes from affiliated scientists administrators and funding entities via the official fermilab press release learn more about texas a&m astronomy at mitchell institute # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2016) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu andrew pace (979) 845-7778 or apace@tamuedu or peter ferguson (979) 845-7778 or petersferguson@physicstamuedu " " recently the cdf and dzero collaborations completed an intense effort to combine their asymmetry measurements carefully taking into account the statistical relationships among them in addition to producing more precise results they were able to reconcile the differences among the measurements as well as with updated theoretical predictions the final set of asymmetry results was released and accepted for publication in physical review letters the summary is shown in the figure the consistency and precision of the reported measurements represent a true legacy of the tevatron program these scientists are the primary analysts for this result top row from cdf collaboration from left: ziqing hong (northwestern) dave toback (texas a&m) and jon wilson (texas a&m) bottom row from dzero collaboration: andreas jung (purdue) share: " " ¬† college station texas a&m university physics graduate ralph schilling 68 has seen and done a lot of cool and cosmic things during his 34-year career spent creating and constructing space systems for starters his technical handiwork included contributions to two of nasas great observatories as a science co-investigator for nasas high energy astronomy observatories program in the early 1970s he helped develop gamma-ray telescope technology that was utilized for the compton gamma ray observatory beginning in 1980 his contributions to the chandra x-ray observatory spanned the entire development cycle of that system from conceptual design and technology development through its insertion into high elliptical earth-orbit to initiate the observing program texas a&m former students ralph and marsha schilling (center) were honored by then-dean of science h joseph newton (right) and director of development michael morelius 98 (left) with a plaque recognizing their 2013 gift to establish the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics jointly held by texas a&m astronomer casey papovich and texas a&m nuclear physicist john hardy all that aside its in retirement that schilling is poised to experience his most profound first: seeing one of his inaugural chair holders test-drive the scientific capabilities of the newest nasa program to which he contributed the james webb space telescope texas a&m astronomer casey papovich co-holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics is a co-investigator for one of the 13 proposals recently selected from the 106 submitted to nasa to go forward as the first official round of jwst science when the $8 billion successor to the hubble space telescope launches in 2019 we have a team of 105 people from 10 countries and we were selected by nasa to get 60 hours of jwst time in the first three months of the mission to demonstrate the science capabilities to study the most distant galaxies papovich said i will be leading the analysis of one of the webbs three instruments were testing i am also one of four scientists within our group of co-investigators who has a lead role on several of the science cases that will showcase its full observational prowess dr casey papovich university of texas at austin astronomer steven finkelstein who completed his postdoctoral studies at texas a&m under papovich is the principal investigator for the project known as the cosmic evolution early release science (ceers) survey that will study the oldest galaxies in the universe to better understand their composition and evolution over time it would take seven hubble mirrors to equal the collecting area of the james webb which completed final cryogenic testing at nasas johnson space center in houston earlier this month the bigger the mirror the fainter the light that can be collected making the webb the ideal candidate to find the very faintest originating from the universes birth this will be the first time anyone has had access to this brand-new telescope that is in some ways 100 times better than hubble finkelstein said this telescope will reveal enormous truths the moment we turn it on papovich a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2008 he and finkelstein a 2011 hubble fellow were part of a prior team that discovered the universes most distant galaxy a breakthrough deemed one of texas monthlys top five texas-based scientific discoveries for 2013 once launched into space the webb telescopes 18-segmented gold mirror is specially designed to capture infrared light from the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and will help the telescope peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today (credit: nasa / desiree stover) in addition to papovich the ceers team includes texas a&m astronomy graduate students vincent estrada-carpenter 19 and taylor hutchison 18 the jwst will give them a number of technical advantages including visibility of a broad range of infrared light that is blocked from ground-based telescopes by the earths atmosphere with no bright earth atmosphere to drown out the faint objects the astronomers will be able to see the same regions of the sky they did with hubble but to both greater detail and distances given the webbs higher resolution and vastly superior light-collecting capabilities we have really pushed hubble and other telescopes to their very limits yet only scratched the surface of what galaxies in the very early universe were like papovich said we have some expectations for what we should find with the jwst but honestly were looking into the unknown the most amazing discoveries will be things that no one can predict for schilling the former student and physics graduate who cut his technological teeth as a graduate student in the texas a&m cyclotron institute and helped make it all possible through his professional innovation and in papovichs case personal philanthropy the full-circle effect is both powerful and palpable during my career in aerospace i participated in development of the system architecture and enabling technology for the jwst so it is especially exciting and rewarding for my wife and me that professor papovich who holds the faculty chair we sponsored was selected for the initial observing program schilling said to learn more about papovich and his research visit http://physicstamuedu/people/papovich/ for more information on the james webb space telescope a joint project of nasa the european space agency and the canadian space agency go to https://wwwjwstnasagov/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomer to help test capabilities of telescope his faculty chairs namesake helped build appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " texas a&m university physics graduate ralph schilling 68 has seen and done a lot of cool and cosmic things during his 34-year career spent creating and constructing space systems for starters his technical handiwork included contributions to two of nasas great observatories as a science co-investigator for nasas high energy astronomy observatories program in the early 1970s he helped develop gamma-ray telescope technology that was utilized for the compton gamma ray observatory beginning in 1980 his contributions to the chandra x-ray observatory spanned the entire development cycle of that system from conceptual design and technology development through its insertion into high elliptical earth-orbit to initiate the observing program texas a&m former students ralph and marsha schilling (center) were honored by then-dean of science h joseph newton (right) and director of development michael morelius 98 (left) with a plaque recognizing their 2013 gift to establish the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics jointly held by texas a&m astronomer casey papovich and texas a&m nuclear physicist john hardy all that aside its in retirement that schilling is poised to experience his most profound first: seeing one of his inaugural chair holders test-drive the scientific capabilities of the newest nasa program to which he contributed the james webb space telescope texas a&m astronomer casey papovich co-holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics is a co-investigator for one of the 13 proposals recently selected from the 106 submitted to nasa to go forward as the first official round of jwst science when the $8 billion successor to the hubble space telescope launches in 2019 we have a team of 105 people from 10 countries and we were selected by nasa to get 60 hours of jwst time in the first three months of the mission to demonstrate the science capabilities to study the most distant galaxies papovich said i will be leading the analysis of one of the webbs three instruments were testing i am also one of four scientists within our group of co-investigators who has a lead role on several of the science cases that will showcase its full observational prowess dr casey papovich university of texas at austin astronomer steven finkelstein who completed his postdoctoral studies at texas a&m under papovich is the principal investigator for the project known as the cosmic evolution early release science (ceers) survey that will study the oldest galaxies in the universe to better understand their composition and evolution over time it would take seven hubble mirrors to equal the collecting area of the james webb which completed final cryogenic testing at nasas johnson space center in houston earlier this month the bigger the mirror the fainter the light that can be collected making the webb the ideal candidate to find the very faintest originating from the universes birth this will be the first time anyone has had access to this brand-new telescope that is in some ways 100 times better than hubble finkelstein said this telescope will reveal enormous truths the moment we turn it on papovich a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2008 he and finkelstein a 2011 hubble fellow were part of a prior team that discovered the universes most distant galaxy a breakthrough deemed one of texas monthlys top five texas-based scientific discoveries for 2013 once launched into space the webb telescopes 18-segmented gold mirror is specially designed to capture infrared light from the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and will help the telescope peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today (credit: nasa / desiree stover) in addition to papovich the ceers team includes texas a&m astronomy graduate students vincent estrada-carpenter 19 and taylor hutchison 18 the jwst will give them a number of technical advantages including visibility of a broad range of infrared light that is blocked from ground-based telescopes by the earths atmosphere with no bright earth atmosphere to drown out the faint objects the astronomers will be able to see the same regions of the sky they did with hubble but to both greater detail and distances given the webbs higher resolution and vastly superior light-collecting capabilities we have really pushed hubble and other telescopes to their very limits yet only scratched the surface of what galaxies in the very early universe were like papovich said we have some expectations for what we should find with the jwst but honestly were looking into the unknown the most amazing discoveries will be things that no one can predict for schilling the former student and physics graduate who cut his technological teeth as a graduate student in the texas a&m cyclotron institute and helped make it all possible through his professional innovation and in papovichs case personal philanthropy the full-circle effect is both powerful and palpable during my career in aerospace i participated in development of the system architecture and enabling technology for the jwst so it is especially exciting and rewarding for my wife and me that professor papovich who holds the faculty chair we sponsored was selected for the initial observing program schilling said to learn more about papovich and his research visit http://physicstamuedu/people/papovich/ for more information on the james webb space telescope a joint project of nasa the european space agency and the canadian space agency go to https://wwwjwstnasagov/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been designated a regents professor for 2016-17 by the texas a&m university system board of regents dr nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff an observational astronomer and a 2017 american physical society fellow is one of 12 a&m system faculty members who were nominated for the prestigious appointment approved as part of the a&m system board of regents october meeting held at tarleton state university ten agency service extension or research professionals within the a&m system also were recognized with the regents fellows service award the board established the regents professor award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of texas to date 224 faculty members have been named regents professors suntzeff ranks as only the sixth within the college of science (dr robert clark physics 1998; dr sherry j yennello chemistry 2007; dr michael j benedik biology 2012; dr harold boas mathematics 2014; dr david bergbreiter chemistry 2016) to merit the honor a seventh dr ryland young biochemistry and biophysics 2016 is a joint professor of biology nominees must be full-time professors or senior-level professionals who have held that rank in the a&m system for at least five years and have produced a distinguished record of teaching research and/or service the selection process begins with a call for nominations from the chancellor after which an internal selection committee is formed within each institution or agency final nominations are put forth to the chief executive officer of each respective entity and then subjected to a system-level review consisting of academic vice chancellors and past recipients of the awards finally nominations are forwarded to the chancellor and the board for final approval suntzeff at the may 2011 international meeting in geneva of the un international strategy for disaster risk reduction one of the many events he attended during his yearlong stint as the united states representative to the united nations office for disaster risk reduction and as texas a&ms first faculty member selected to the prestigious jefferson science fellowship program (credit: nicholas b suntzeff) along with the perpetual regents professor title for the duration of their a&m system service recipients are recognized with a $9 000 stipend and a commemorative medallion that is presented along with an inscribed nameplate and certificate encased in a hand-crafted wooden shadow box texas a&m system chancellor john sharp said the new regents professors and regents fellows have proven their commitment to the systems success these exceptional individuals represent the best of our great system and higher education in texas chancellor sharp said they are true assets suntzeff joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields prior to coming to texas a&m suntzeff spent 20 years as a staff astronomer at the national optical astronomy observatory cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile rising to the rank of associate director for science at noao in 1994 with dr brian schmidt he co-founded the high-z supernova search team that in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of dark energy in the universe the finding was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and earned a host of prestigious international awards including the 2006 shaw prize the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the 2015 breakthrough prize in fundamental physics he was also a co-founder of the calan/tololo supernova survey that established type ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances suntzeff front and just-right-of-center (third from right) at the december 2011 nobel prize ceremony in stockholm he is pictured with the high-z supernova search team which featured nobel prize co-recipients brian schmidt (left of suntzeff) and adam riess (left of schmidt) (credit: image courtesy of and copyrighted to nicholas b suntzeff) suntzeff previously was honored by the university with the 2013 bush excellence award for international research and a 2012 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 to learn more about suntzeff and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit dr nicholas suntzeff/ click here for additional information on the regents professor award and a list of past recipients # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m university system: the texas a&m university system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $42 billion through a statewide network of 11 universities and seven state agencies the texas a&m system educates more than 140 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year system-wide research and development expenditures exceeded $946 million in fy 2015 and helped drive the states economy to learn more visit https://wwwtamusedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post suntzeff named regents professor of observational astronomy appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been designated a regents professor for 2016-17 by the texas a&m university system board of regents dr nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff an observational astronomer and a 2017 american physical society fellow is one of 12 a&m system faculty members who were nominated for the prestigious appointment approved as part of the a&m system board of regents october meeting held at tarleton state university ten agency service extension or research professionals within the a&m system also were recognized with the regents fellows service award the board established the regents professor award program in 1996 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of texas to date 224 faculty members have been named regents professors suntzeff ranks as only the sixth within the college of science (dr robert clark physics 1998; dr sherry j yennello chemistry 2007; dr michael j benedik biology 2012; dr harold boas mathematics 2014; dr david bergbreiter chemistry 2016) to merit the honor a seventh dr ryland young biochemistry and biophysics 2016 is a joint professor of biology nominees must be full-time professors or senior-level professionals who have held that rank in the a&m system for at least five years and have produced a distinguished record of teaching research and/or service the selection process begins with a call for nominations from the chancellor after which an internal selection committee is formed within each institution or agency final nominations are put forth to the chief executive officer of each respective entity and then subjected to a system-level review consisting of academic vice chancellors and past recipients of the awards finally nominations are forwarded to the chancellor and the board for final approval suntzeff at the may 2011 international meeting in geneva of the un international strategy for disaster risk reduction one of the many events he attended during his yearlong stint as the united states representative to the united nations office for disaster risk reduction and as texas a&ms first faculty member selected to the prestigious jefferson science fellowship program (credit: nicholas b suntzeff) along with the perpetual regents professor title for the duration of their a&m system service recipients are recognized with a $9 000 stipend and a commemorative medallion that is presented along with an inscribed nameplate and certificate encased in a hand-crafted wooden shadow box texas a&m system chancellor john sharp said the new regents professors and regents fellows have proven their commitment to the systems success these exceptional individuals represent the best of our great system and higher education in texas chancellor sharp said they are true assets suntzeff joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields prior to coming to texas a&m suntzeff spent 20 years as a staff astronomer at the national optical astronomy observatory cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile rising to the rank of associate director for science at noao in 1994 with dr brian schmidt he co-founded the high-z supernova search team that in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of dark energy in the universe the finding was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and earned a host of prestigious international awards including the 2006 shaw prize the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the 2015 breakthrough prize in fundamental physics he was also a co-founder of the calan/tololo supernova survey that established type ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances suntzeff front and just-right-of-center (third from right) at the december 2011 nobel prize ceremony in stockholm he is pictured with the high-z supernova search team which featured nobel prize co-recipients brian schmidt (left of suntzeff) and adam riess (left of schmidt) (credit: image courtesy of and copyrighted to nicholas b suntzeff) suntzeff previously was honored by the university with the 2013 bush excellence award for international research and a 2012 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 to learn more about suntzeff and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit dr nicholas suntzeff/ click here for additional information on the regents professor award and a list of past recipients # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m university system: the texas a&m university system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $42 billion through a statewide network of 11 universities and seven state agencies the texas a&m system educates more than 140 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year system-wide research and development expenditures exceeded $946 million in fy 2015 and helped drive the states economy to learn more visit https://wwwtamusedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " ¬† college station dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2017 fellow of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists dr nicholas b suntzeff no more than one-half of 1 percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service suntzeff an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is cited for essential contributions and leadership in observational cosmology and astrophysics; investigations into the phenomenology of type ia supernovae which laid the groundwork for the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe; and for co-founding one of the two teams that made this discovery he was nominated by the aps division of astrophysics and is one of five 2017 honorees from the state of texas suntzeff joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields prior to coming to texas a&m suntzeff spent 20 years as a staff astronomer at the national optical astronomy observatory cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile rising to the rank of associate director for science at noao in 1994 with dr brian schmidt he co-founded the high-z supernova search team that in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of dark energy in the universe the finding was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and earned a host of prestigious international awards including the 2006 shaw prize the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the 2015 breakthrough prize in fundamental physics he was also a co-founder of the calan/tololo supernova survey that established type ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances suntzeff previously was honored by the university with the 2013 bush excellence award for international research and a 2012 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 to learn more about suntzeff and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit dr nicholas suntzeff/ for more information on the american physical society or the aps fellowship program visit at http://wwwapsorg # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post suntzeff elected as american physical society fellow appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2017 fellow of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists dr nicholas b suntzeff no more than one-half of 1 percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service suntzeff an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is cited for essential contributions and leadership in observational cosmology and astrophysics; investigations into the phenomenology of type ia supernovae which laid the groundwork for the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe; and for co-founding one of the two teams that made this discovery he was nominated by the aps division of astrophysics and is one of five 2017 honorees from the state of texas suntzeff joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields prior to coming to texas a&m suntzeff spent 20 years as a staff astronomer at the national optical astronomy observatory cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile rising to the rank of associate director for science at noao in 1994 with dr brian schmidt he co-founded the high-z supernova search team that in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of dark energy in the universe the finding was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and earned a host of prestigious international awards including the 2006 shaw prize the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the 2015 breakthrough prize in fundamental physics he was also a co-founder of the calan/tololo supernova survey that established type ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances suntzeff previously was honored by the university with the 2013 bush excellence award for international research and a 2012 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 to learn more about suntzeff and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit dr nicholas suntzeff/ for more information on the american physical society or the aps fellowship program visit at http://wwwapsorg # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station editors note: texas a&m universitys dr jennifer marshall assistant professor of physics and astronomy will be presenting a colloquium tuesday (oct 17) on this result from the perspective of both the dark energy survey in which texas a&m is an institutional partner and general astronomy marshalls talk which will be live streamed at https://ttvntamusedu/ is scheduled for 4 pm cst in the stephen w hawking auditorium located in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on the texas a&m campus august 17 dawned as the first day in an otherwise ordinary observing run for texas a&m university astronomer jennifer marshall she had arrived in chile a few days earlier as part of another routine visit to the national optical astronomy observatorys cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) distinguished solely by the fact that it happened to kick off the fifth and final year of the dark energy survey (des) a five-year international project led by the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory to map one-eighth of the sky in unprecedented detail however just as swiftly as day turned to night and darkness descended over the andes mountains marshall found herself at the fateful crossroads of proximity and cosmic history courtesy of one universally significant target of opportunity observation by virtue of being in the right place at the right time marshall got to witness firsthand the fiery aftermath of a recently detected burst of gravitational waves personally recording some of the initial images of the first confirmed explosion from two colliding neutron stars ever seen by astronomers the discovery historic because it marks the first cosmic event observed in both gravitational waves and light was made using the us-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (ligo); the europe-based virgo detector in italy; and more than 60 ground- and space-based telescopes during the course of seven days in chile marshall watched the extraordinary event play out in real time through two telescopes the 4-meter victor m blanco telescope at ctio then moving on to the 65-meter magellan telescope at nearby las campanas observatory she was the only astronomer present and observing for des at blanco during the unprecedented occurrence it is my observation that every telescope in chile including the two i was using was pointed at this thing for the entire week marshall said it was definitely the most important science i have ever had the opportunity to be involved in images taken by marshall using the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) captured the flaring up and fading over time of a kilonova an explosion similar to a supernova but on a smaller scale that occurs when collapsed stars called neutron stars crash into each other theoretically creating heavy radioactive elements this particular violent merger which occurred 130 million years ago in a galaxy (ngc 4993) relatively near our own milky way galaxy is the source of the gravitational waves detected by the ligo and the virgo collaborations on aug 17 although this is the fifth source of gravitational waves to be detected it is unique because it is the first one with a visible electromagnetic counterpart observable by optical telescopes the glowing aftermath of the collision of two neutron stars as opposed to binary black holes which are not expected to produce a remnant that can be seen through telescopes capitalizing on a target of opportunity when des officials at fermilab learned along with dozens of ligo-affiliated collaborations and observatories around the world that a strong gravitational signal named gw170817 had been detected at 7:41 am cdt by two of ligos three detectors a find further corroborated by a gamma-ray burst detected by nasas fermi gamma-ray space telescope at roughly the same time they sent out a target of opportunity observation notice that marshall quickly seized upon as she was observing at blanco marshall was simultaneously collaborating via skype with fellow des scientists marcelle soares-santos (fermilab/brandeis university) the des principal investigator in charge of gravitational wave observations and daniel holtz (university of chicago) who is a member of both ligo and des coincidentally marshall also was sharing some of those nights via remote with ting li 16 who earned her doctorate in astronomy at texas a&m in 2016 working with marshall and currently is a lederman fellow in experimental physics at fermilab ligo tells you the equivalent of ‚Äòif you look in this area of the sky there might be something marshall explained virgo helped narrow that area down to the extent that instead of 100 square degrees it was only 30 decam has a large field of view of three square degrees so we only had to look at 30 telescope pointings i was there with erika cook our munnerlyn astronomical laboratory control systems engineer and marcus sauseda an undergraduate aerospace engineering major here at texas a&m and we took some quick short exposures a total of roughly one hour i sent the data off then went to bed i woke up to an ecstatic email from edo berger at harvard who happens to be a longtime colleague from our postdoc days at the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington armed with the crystal-clear images from decam for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as project scientist bergers team went to work analyzing the phenomenon using several different resources including nasas hubble space telescope and chandra x-ray observatory for her part marshall continued imaging the galaxy for five more nights at ctio watching the event fade rapidly and change in color from blue to red as the explosion quickly cooled down she then spent a seventh night at las campanas doing follow-up observation with the magellan telescope using a different spectrometer to enable more detailed study of the event in collaboration with carnegie observatories scientists maria drout and ben shappee jennifer marshall may have been one of many astronomers observing gw170817 from both ground- and space-based telescopes on aug 17 but she likely was the only one who happened to have a film crew in tow check out this video produced by nova pbs present at ctio at the time shooting footage for an upcoming segment on the dark energy survey catch marshall at the 0:45 1:10 and 1:42 marks! byproducts of a binary star merger understandable excitement aside marshall says this event is particularly interesting to her because it is directly related her research on r-process elements the heavy elements that exist on earth and are produced in theory as the byproducts of neutron star collisions and mergers these observations show that the theory is accurate providing the final piece of the puzzle regarding the origin of r-process elements this was the first time anyone has ever watched such an event play out from beginning to end all thanks to ligo marshall said it was truly amazing watching science happen in real time is not something most astronomers get to experience with the exception of supernovae and exoplanet studies most things we work on take billions of years to play out i felt so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to help make perhaps one of the most significant observations of my career marshall said one indication of just how well ligo/virgo is working is the amount of event follow-up requests which are so numerous as a result of its second and most recent observing run since being upgraded via a program called advanced ligo that astronomers have been forced to prioritize there were actually several binary black hole mergers that same week that we didnt bother to look at because the neutron star source was so much more important marshall said we had absolutely no idea this was going to happen everyone was shocked and understandably so because it was truly unbelievable in addition to marshall and depoy fellow texas a&m astronomers and mitchell institute members lucas macri casey papovich nicholas suntzeff and louis strigari are full members of the 400-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 26 institutions and seven countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion texas a&m statistician james long and mitchell institute postdoctoral fellow peter brown also are external collaborators publications aplenty the ligo-virgo results are published today in the journal physical review letters while additional papers from the ligo and virgo collaborations and the astronomical community either have been submitted or accepted for publication in various journals six papers relating to the decam discovery of the optical counterpart are planned for publication in the astrophysical journal preprints of all papers are available online marshalls observations made during that fateful august week in chile appear in a total of nine publications making their debut today including the mega paper from ligo that includes citations for 75 associated papers in addition to two des-related papers appearing in the astrophysical journal as well as two papers in the journal science featuring the las campanas spectra and images beyond those she is an author on three additional des papers including one that uses the binary neutron star merger event to derive the hubble constant depoy and li join her as co-authors on several of those papers by virtue of their status as fellow des builders finally she is an author on the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) collaboration paper in the astrophysical journal letters for marshall the next publication wave will tie this new discovery to her previous work on ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in the nearby universe which are highly dark matter-dominated and thought to be the building blocks of our milky way galaxy recently some of these galaxies have been shown to be highly and unexpectedly enhanced in r-process elements because these galaxies were likely the first formed in the early universe marshall says detailed study of the site of r-process element production within them will lead to a better understanding of the first stars and galaxies formed in the universe and ultimately of the formation of structure in the universe as a whole the august 17 binary neutron star merger event occurred in nearby galaxy ngc 4993 located at a distance of 395 megaparsecs from the milky way marshall said this event will surely usher in a new field of science the direct observational study of the formation of r-process elements starting now and being fueled by future discovery of similar events by ligo and follow-up study by astronomers read more on todays announcement and its broader significance in the official press releases from ligo/virgo and des/fermilab which include additional images along with animations and videos learn more about the texas a&m astronomy groups broader role in the imaging and analyses for more information about texas a&m astronomy visit texas astronomy research see a related feature in the bryan-college station eagle # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall witnesses cosmic history in chile appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " editors note: texas a&m universitys dr jennifer marshall assistant professor of physics and astronomy will be presenting a colloquium tuesday (oct 17) on this result from the perspective of both the dark energy survey in which texas a&m is an institutional partner and general astronomy marshalls talk which will be live streamed at https://ttvntamusedu/ is scheduled for 4 pm cst in the stephen w hawking auditorium located in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on the texas a&m campus august 17 dawned as the first day in an otherwise ordinary observing run for texas a&m university astronomer jennifer marshall she had arrived in chile a few days earlier as part of another routine visit to the national optical astronomy observatorys cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) distinguished solely by the fact that it happened to kick off the fifth and final year of the dark energy survey (des) a five-year international project led by the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory to map one-eighth of the sky in unprecedented detail however just as swiftly as day turned to night and darkness descended over the andes mountains marshall found herself at the fateful crossroads of proximity and cosmic history courtesy of one universally significant target of opportunity observation by virtue of being in the right place at the right time marshall got to witness firsthand the fiery aftermath of a recently detected burst of gravitational waves personally recording some of the initial images of the first confirmed explosion from two colliding neutron stars ever seen by astronomers the discovery historic because it marks the first cosmic event observed in both gravitational waves and light was made using the us-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (ligo); the europe-based virgo detector in italy; and more than 60 ground- and space-based telescopes during the course of seven days in chile marshall watched the extraordinary event play out in real time through two telescopes the 4-meter victor m blanco telescope at ctio then moving on to the 65-meter magellan telescope at nearby las campanas observatory she was the only astronomer present and observing for des at blanco during the unprecedented occurrence it is my observation that every telescope in chile including the two i was using was pointed at this thing for the entire week marshall said it was definitely the most important science i have ever had the opportunity to be involved in images taken by marshall using the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) captured the flaring up and fading over time of a kilonova an explosion similar to a supernova but on a smaller scale that occurs when collapsed stars called neutron stars crash into each other theoretically creating heavy radioactive elements this particular violent merger which occurred 130 million years ago in a galaxy (ngc 4993) relatively near our own milky way galaxy is the source of the gravitational waves detected by the ligo and the virgo collaborations on aug 17 although this is the fifth source of gravitational waves to be detected it is unique because it is the first one with a visible electromagnetic counterpart observable by optical telescopes the glowing aftermath of the collision of two neutron stars as opposed to binary black holes which are not expected to produce a remnant that can be seen through telescopes capitalizing on a target of opportunity when des officials at fermilab learned along with dozens of ligo-affiliated collaborations and observatories around the world that a strong gravitational signal named gw170817 had been detected at 7:41 am cdt by two of ligos three detectors a find further corroborated by a gamma-ray burst detected by nasas fermi gamma-ray space telescope at roughly the same time they sent out a target of opportunity observation notice that marshall quickly seized upon as she was observing at blanco marshall was simultaneously collaborating via skype with fellow des scientists marcelle soares-santos (fermilab/brandeis university) the des principal investigator in charge of gravitational wave observations and daniel holtz (university of chicago) who is a member of both ligo and des coincidentally marshall also was sharing some of those nights via remote with ting li 16 who earned her doctorate in astronomy at texas a&m in 2016 working with marshall and currently is a lederman fellow in experimental physics at fermilab ligo tells you the equivalent of ‚Äòif you look in this area of the sky there might be something marshall explained virgo helped narrow that area down to the extent that instead of 100 square degrees it was only 30 decam has a large field of view of three square degrees so we only had to look at 30 telescope pointings i was there with erika cook our munnerlyn astronomical laboratory control systems engineer and marcus sauseda an undergraduate aerospace engineering major here at texas a&m and we took some quick short exposures a total of roughly one hour i sent the data off then went to bed i woke up to an ecstatic email from edo berger at harvard who happens to be a longtime colleague from our postdoc days at the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington armed with the crystal-clear images from decam for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as project scientist bergers team went to work analyzing the phenomenon using several different resources including nasas hubble space telescope and chandra x-ray observatory for her part marshall continued imaging the galaxy for five more nights at ctio watching the event fade rapidly and change in color from blue to red as the explosion quickly cooled down she then spent a seventh night at las campanas doing follow-up observation with the magellan telescope using a different spectrometer to enable more detailed study of the event in collaboration with carnegie observatories scientists maria drout and ben shappee jennifer marshall may have been one of many astronomers observing gw170817 from both ground- and space-based telescopes on aug 17 but she likely was the only one who happened to have a film crew in tow check out this video produced by nova pbs present at ctio at the time shooting footage for an upcoming segment on the dark energy survey catch marshall at the 0:45 1:10 and 1:42 marks! byproducts of a binary star merger understandable excitement aside marshall says this event is particularly interesting to her because it is directly related her research on r-process elements the heavy elements that exist on earth and are produced in theory as the byproducts of neutron star collisions and mergers these observations show that the theory is accurate providing the final piece of the puzzle regarding the origin of r-process elements this was the first time anyone has ever watched such an event play out from beginning to end all thanks to ligo marshall said it was truly amazing watching science happen in real time is not something most astronomers get to experience with the exception of supernovae and exoplanet studies most things we work on take billions of years to play out i felt so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to help make perhaps one of the most significant observations of my career marshall said one indication of just how well ligo/virgo is working is the amount of event follow-up requests which are so numerous as a result of its second and most recent observing run since being upgraded via a program called advanced ligo that astronomers have been forced to prioritize there were actually several binary black hole mergers that same week that we didnt bother to look at because the neutron star source was so much more important marshall said we had absolutely no idea this was going to happen everyone was shocked and understandably so because it was truly unbelievable in addition to marshall and depoy fellow texas a&m astronomers and mitchell institute members lucas macri casey papovich nicholas suntzeff and louis strigari are full members of the 400-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 26 institutions and seven countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion texas a&m statistician james long and mitchell institute postdoctoral fellow peter brown also are external collaborators publications aplenty the ligo-virgo results are published today in the journal physical review letters while additional papers from the ligo and virgo collaborations and the astronomical community either have been submitted or accepted for publication in various journals six papers relating to the decam discovery of the optical counterpart are planned for publication in the astrophysical journal preprints of all papers are available online marshalls observations made during that fateful august week in chile appear in a total of nine publications making their debut today including the mega paper from ligo that includes citations for 75 associated papers in addition to two des-related papers appearing in the astrophysical journal as well as two papers in the journal science featuring the las campanas spectra and images beyond those she is an author on three additional des papers including one that uses the binary neutron star merger event to derive the hubble constant depoy and li join her as co-authors on several of those papers by virtue of their status as fellow des builders finally she is an author on the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) collaboration paper in the astrophysical journal letters for marshall the next publication wave will tie this new discovery to her previous work on ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in the nearby universe which are highly dark matter-dominated and thought to be the building blocks of our milky way galaxy recently some of these galaxies have been shown to be highly and unexpectedly enhanced in r-process elements because these galaxies were likely the first formed in the early universe marshall says detailed study of the site of r-process element production within them will lead to a better understanding of the first stars and galaxies formed in the universe and ultimately of the formation of structure in the universe as a whole the august 17 binary neutron star merger event occurred in nearby galaxy ngc 4993 located at a distance of 395 megaparsecs from the milky way marshall said this event will surely usher in a new field of science the direct observational study of the formation of r-process elements starting now and being fueled by future discovery of similar events by ligo and follow-up study by astronomers read more on todays announcement and its broader significance in the official press releases from ligo/virgo and des/fermilab which include additional images along with animations and videos learn more about the texas a&m astronomy groups broader role in the imaging and analyses for more information about texas a&m astronomy visit texas astronomy research see a related feature in the bryan-college station eagle # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall witnesses cosmic history in chile appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " ¬† college station about 130 million years ago in the galaxy ngc 4993 a pair of neutron stars collided as a result of the slow but inexorable decay of their orbits as predicted by albert einsteins general theory of relativity the cosmic collision of these objects similar to the sun in mass but with densities of a billion tons per teaspoon set up ripples in space-time that raced outward at the speed of light the glowing aftermath of the event rich in heavy radioactive elements is similar to a supernova but on a smaller scale and is called a kilonova (left:) color image of the galaxy ngc 4993 large yellowish object in the center of the frame and the kilonova star-like object marked with crosshairs obtained by the toros collaboration using the t80-south telescope (right:) color image of the same field after digitally subtracting ngc 4993 and enhancing the contrast (minimal credit for reuse: l macri/texas a&m and the toros collaboration) todays mirror effect in international media circles and scientific journals across the world is reflective of that energy an excitement and enthusiasm that reverberates throughout the texas a&m astronomy research group and many astronomers involved in the subsequent imaging and analyses the ripples in space-time generated by this event passed through earth about 7:41 am cdt on august 17 2017 and were detected by a network of three gravitational-wave observatories: two belonging to the us-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (ligo) and the european virgo given the date of the event it was named gw170817 the ligo detectors which have been operational for about two years already had sensed similar waves emanating from four mergers of black holes the first of which in 2015 led to the 2017 nobel prize in physics the virgo detector only started operating this summer in time to participate in the detection of the most recent black hole merger prior to this historic first detection of the merger of two neutron stars said texas a&m astronomer lucas macri having three detectors widely spaced around the earth is critical to pinpoint the location of these events and enable further studies with conventional telescopes although this is the fifth source of gravitational waves to be detected it is historical because it is the first one with a counterpart visible by traditional telescopes the glowing aftermath of the collision of two neutron stars as opposed to binary black holes which are not expected to produce a detectable remnant macri is one of several texas a&m astronomers who had been anticipating and preparing for this day for many years he and his colleagues within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy observed and analyzed this historic event using a variety of telescopes around the world in addition to macri that list includes darren depoy jennifer marshall nicholas suntzeff and lifan wang dr lucas macri the ligo-virgo results are published today in the journal physical review letters while many additional papers from ligo-virgo and the astronomical community either have been accepted for publication or are being published today in various journals several papers involving the aforementioned texas a&m astronomers appear today in science and the astrophysical journal letters toros collaboration since 2012 lucas macri university of texas rio grande valley astronomer mario d√≠az and universidad nacional de c√≥rdoba astronomer diego garcia lambas have been working to establish a robotic telescope in the argentine andes to follow up kilonova explosions their collaboration called the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) involves about 50 astronomers from all over the world the toros telescope and its dome currently are on their way to argentina and should be operational at some point during 2018 the collaboration plans to upgrade the camera for this telescope during the next few years with a state-of-the-art 100-megapixel device and corrector lenses that will be designed tested and built by darren depoy jennifer marshall and their team within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory using the t80-south telescope located at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in chile and the bosque alegre telescope located in argentina macri and collaborators studied the fast-fading kilonova at various wavelengths which is useful to rule out various models for the explosion contrary to expectations this kilonova was quite bluish during the first couple of days macri said this may mean that not as much radioactive material was produced or we were looking at the event from above the plane in which the two neutron stars orbited each other dark energy survey during the course of seven days in chile jennifer marshall watched the extraordinary event play out in real time through two telescopes the 4-meter victor m blanco telescope at ctio and the 65-meter magellan telescope at nearby las campanas observatory she was the only astronomer present and observing on behalf of the us department of energy-funded dark energy survey (des) at blanco during the unprecedented occurrence dr jennifer marshall while in chile marshall got to witness firsthand the fiery aftermath of the explosion while personally recording some of the initial images using the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) for which darren depoy served as the project scientist down at dome a due to relative position of the sun earth and ngc 4993 the kilonova could only be observed for only about 90 minutes after sunset from ctio and other observatories located at mid-latitudes in the southern hemisphere this limitation was not an issue for the team that included texas a&m astronomers lifan wang and nicholas suntzeff who are part of a collaboration with australian astronomers that conducted immediate follow-up on gw170817 all the way from dome a in antarctica using a fully-robotic telescope called ast3 that is part of the at plateau observatory (plato-a) established in 2008 the uninterrupted polar night enabled wang and suntzeffs team to obtain near-continuous observations of the kilonova filling in critical gaps at points when no other observatories could image the source i think its pretty cool that we can tell a telescope at the coldest place on earth to look at something of this magnitude suntzeff said publications darren depoy lucas macri jennifer marshall nicholas suntzeff and lifan wang are co-authors in a mega-paper that summarizes all the worldwide space-based observations made during that history-making week in august dr nicholas b suntzeff dr darren depoy lucas macri is the corresponding author in a publication that appears today in the astrophysical journal letters detailing the results of the toros observations he also is presenting those results today in baton rouge as part of a gravitational wave astrophysics conference sponsored by the international astronomical union and hosted by louisiana state university in addition macri is featured in several newspapers in his native argentina where he participated in an embargoed press conference last week jennifer marshall is a co-author in nine publications making their debut today in addition to the two papers mentioned above her observations appear in two des-related papers in the astrophysical journal letters as well as two papers in the journal science featuring the las campanas spectra and images beyond those she is an author on three additional des papers including one that uses the binary neutron star merger event to estimate the value of the hubble constant darren depoy is a co-author in four of the des papers as a des builder along with marshall who also is a member of the surveys management and science committees dr lifan wang lifan wang is the corresponding author of a paper published today in science bulletin on ast3 observations of gw 170817 wang and the ast3 team under his leadership is also a part of the deep wide and fast (dwf) survey collaboration that aims to discover optical counterparts of rapid transients arising from gravitational wave and fast radio burst events the team has access to a broad range of survey telescopes around the globe from which they acquired spectroscopy that show a rapidly evolving object with color turning from blue to red extremely fast wang also is on a proposal to use the european space observatorys very large telescope to acquire data of the target in the mid infrared these data and results are published today in publications of australia society of astronomy lifan wang and nicholas suntzeff are co-authors in a publication that presents the results of the antarctic observations as well as another paper written in collaboration with the australian ozgrav team read more on todays announcement and its broader significance in the official press releases from ligo/virgo and des/fermilab which include additional images along with animations and videos for more information about texas a&m astronomy visit astronomy research group # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr lucas macri (979) 845-7362 or lmacri@tamuedu dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu or dr lifan wang (979) 845-4881 or lifan@exchangetamuedu the post texas a&m astronomers play key collaborative roles in neutron star collision imaging and analyses appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " about 130 million years ago in the galaxy ngc 4993 a pair of neutron stars collided as a result of the slow but inexorable decay of their orbits as predicted by albert einsteins general theory of relativity the cosmic collision of these objects similar to the sun in mass but with densities of a billion tons per teaspoon set up ripples in space-time that raced outward at the speed of light the glowing aftermath of the event rich in heavy radioactive elements is similar to a supernova but on a smaller scale and is called a kilonova (left:) color image of the galaxy ngc 4993 large yellowish object in the center of the frame and the kilonova star-like object marked with crosshairs obtained by the toros collaboration using the t80-south telescope (right:) color image of the same field after digitally subtracting ngc 4993 and enhancing the contrast (minimal credit for reuse: l macri/texas a&m and the toros collaboration) todays mirror effect in international media circles and scientific journals across the world is reflective of that energy an excitement and enthusiasm that reverberates throughout the texas a&m astronomy research group and many astronomers involved in the subsequent imaging and analyses the ripples in space-time generated by this event passed through earth about 7:41 am cdt on august 17 2017 and were detected by a network of three gravitational-wave observatories: two belonging to the us-based laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (ligo) and the european virgo given the date of the event it was named gw170817 the ligo detectors which have been operational for about two years already had sensed similar waves emanating from four mergers of black holes the first of which in 2015 led to the 2017 nobel prize in physics the virgo detector only started operating this summer in time to participate in the detection of the most recent black hole merger prior to this historic first detection of the merger of two neutron stars said texas a&m astronomer lucas macri having three detectors widely spaced around the earth is critical to pinpoint the location of these events and enable further studies with conventional telescopes although this is the fifth source of gravitational waves to be detected it is historical because it is the first one with a counterpart visible by traditional telescopes the glowing aftermath of the collision of two neutron stars as opposed to binary black holes which are not expected to produce a detectable remnant macri is one of several texas a&m astronomers who had been anticipating and preparing for this day for many years he and his colleagues within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy observed and analyzed this historic event using a variety of telescopes around the world in addition to macri that list includes darren depoy jennifer marshall nicholas suntzeff and lifan wang dr lucas macri the ligo-virgo results are published today in the journal physical review letters while many additional papers from ligo-virgo and the astronomical community either have been accepted for publication or are being published today in various journals several papers involving the aforementioned texas a&m astronomers appear today in science and the astrophysical journal letters toros collaboration since 2012 lucas macri university of texas rio grande valley astronomer mario d√≠az and universidad nacional de c√≥rdoba astronomer diego garcia lambas have been working to establish a robotic telescope in the argentine andes to follow up kilonova explosions their collaboration called the transient optical robotic observatory of the south (toros) involves about 50 astronomers from all over the world the toros telescope and its dome currently are on their way to argentina and should be operational at some point during 2018 the collaboration plans to upgrade the camera for this telescope during the next few years with a state-of-the-art 100-megapixel device and corrector lenses that will be designed tested and built by darren depoy jennifer marshall and their team within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory using the t80-south telescope located at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in chile and the bosque alegre telescope located in argentina macri and collaborators studied the fast-fading kilonova at various wavelengths which is useful to rule out various models for the explosion contrary to expectations this kilonova was quite bluish during the first couple of days macri said this may mean that not as much radioactive material was produced or we were looking at the event from above the plane in which the two neutron stars orbited each other dark energy survey during the course of seven days in chile jennifer marshall watched the extraordinary event play out in real time through two telescopes the 4-meter victor m blanco telescope at ctio and the 65-meter magellan telescope at nearby las campanas observatory she was the only astronomer present and observing on behalf of the us department of energy-funded dark energy survey (des) at blanco during the unprecedented occurrence dr jennifer marshall while in chile marshall got to witness firsthand the fiery aftermath of the explosion while personally recording some of the initial images using the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) for which darren depoy served as the project scientist down at dome a due to relative position of the sun earth and ngc 4993 the kilonova could only be observed for only about 90 minutes after sunset from ctio and other observatories located at mid-latitudes in the southern hemisphere this limitation was not an issue for the team that included texas a&m astronomers lifan wang and nicholas suntzeff who are part of a collaboration with australian astronomers that conducted immediate follow-up on gw170817 all the way from dome a in antarctica using a fully-robotic telescope called ast3 that is part of the at plateau observatory (plato-a) established in 2008 the uninterrupted polar night enabled wang and suntzeffs team to obtain near-continuous observations of the kilonova filling in critical gaps at points when no other observatories could image the source i think its pretty cool that we can tell a telescope at the coldest place on earth to look at something of this magnitude suntzeff said publications darren depoy lucas macri jennifer marshall nicholas suntzeff and lifan wang are co-authors in a mega-paper that summarizes all the worldwide space-based observations made during that history-making week in august dr nicholas b suntzeff dr darren depoy lucas macri is the corresponding author in a publication that appears today in the astrophysical journal letters detailing the results of the toros observations he also is presenting those results today in baton rouge as part of a gravitational wave astrophysics conference sponsored by the international astronomical union and hosted by louisiana state university in addition macri is featured in several newspapers in his native argentina where he participated in an embargoed press conference last week jennifer marshall is a co-author in nine publications making their debut today in addition to the two papers mentioned above her observations appear in two des-related papers in the astrophysical journal letters as well as two papers in the journal science featuring the las campanas spectra and images beyond those she is an author on three additional des papers including one that uses the binary neutron star merger event to estimate the value of the hubble constant darren depoy is a co-author in four of the des papers as a des builder along with marshall who also is a member of the surveys management and science committees dr lifan wang lifan wang is the corresponding author of a paper published today in science bulletin on ast3 observations of gw 170817 wang and the ast3 team under his leadership is also a part of the deep wide and fast (dwf) survey collaboration that aims to discover optical counterparts of rapid transients arising from gravitational wave and fast radio burst events the team has access to a broad range of survey telescopes around the globe from which they acquired spectroscopy that show a rapidly evolving object with color turning from blue to red extremely fast wang also is on a proposal to use the european space observatorys very large telescope to acquire data of the target in the mid infrared these data and results are published today in publications of australia society of astronomy lifan wang and nicholas suntzeff are co-authors in a publication that presents the results of the antarctic observations as well as another paper written in collaboration with the australian ozgrav team read more on todays announcement and its broader significance in the official press releases from ligo/virgo and des/fermilab which include additional images along with animations and videos for more information about texas a&m astronomy visit astronomy research group # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr lucas macri (979) 845-7362 or lmacri@tamuedu dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu or dr lifan wang (979) 845-4881 or lifan@exchangetamuedu " " ¬† college station thirteen faculty staff and students within the texas a&m university college of science were recognized for recent outstanding accomplishments by dean meigan aronson at the colleges annual faculty-staff meeting and awards presentation wednesday (sept 20) the ceremony which honors college award recipients and serves as a forum for new faculty and staff introductions was held in the stephen w hawking auditorium inside the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy assistant professor of physics and astronomy jennifer marshall (center) pictured with dean aronson (right) and assistant dean for student affairs yvette hester (left) earned the colleges 2017 undergraduate research mentoring award established in 2014 to recognize the important investment both faculty and graduate students make in the future of scientific research ricardo eusebi (physics and astronomy) david kerr (mathematics) soon-mi lim (chemistry) and thomas wehrly (statistics) were honored as recipients of the association of former students distinguished achievement college-level awards in teaching for 2017 for their commitment to education and contributions to their respective disciplines each honoree was awarded a framed certificate commemorating the occasion and a $2 000 check from the association of former students jennifer marshall and peter brown (physics and astronomy) were honored with the colleges undergraduate research mentoring awards established in 2014 the award recognizes faculty members and graduate students respectively for their dedication enthusiasm accomplishments and contributions in mentoring undergraduate researchers each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation sherry j yennello (chemistry/cyclotron institute) sherry melton (chemistry) amir nikooienejad (statistics) and fatma terzioglu (mathematics) were honored with the colleges leadership in equity and diversity (lead) awards established in 2016 the award recognizes faculty members staff members and postdoctoral research associates/students who have displayed commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation hester (left) and dean aronson (right) congratulate physics and astronomy research scientist peter brown on his 2017 undergraduate research mentoring award staff members terry junek and curtis lee (chemistry) and kim ritchie (statistics) were presented with 2017 outstanding staff achievement awards established in 1995 the award commends the dedication enthusiasm and accomplishments of staff throughout the college each received a plaque and a $500 check also funded by the association junek a technician ii in the department of chemistry with more than six years of service within the college is in charge of the chemical stockroom for the first year chemistry program and all chemical operations in support of the general chemistry lecture and laboratory courses for 2016-17 this organizational feat encompassed 12 rooms and 349 sections of three simultaneously offered courses featuring a combined enrollment in excess of 8 100 students to put that in clearer terms at any given time of the day (and with growing enrollment now including three of five evenings a week) there are up to 288 students in 12 laboratories on the 4th floor of heldenfels hall terry prepares chemicals and solutions for all of them making sure that each lab for four different courses is properly supplied secured and supervised to ensure a seamlessly smooth and efficient operation and each week means a new experiment in each laboratory on top of that terry also has chemical demonstrations at the ready for up to 10 lecture instructors at their convenience throughout each semester a job previously handled by another individual that terry simply assumed with no complaints from her nor any of the instructors in fact terry did it so well that she was asked to set up a parallel demonstration operation in the chemistry complex meaning that instructors not teaching in heldenfels can also benefit from her efforts its a big job and few of us even notice it is happening because of course it is done so well says one of her supporting nominators beyond basic logistics and coordination terrys nominator says she has improved chemical inventory organization and storage procedures to ensure that the stockroom not only runs like clockwork but also is a much safer working environment prior to her arrival first year chemistry program safety inspections were occasionally very good but never perfect under terrys supervision they are routinely perfect as a researcher herself she has proven beneficial across the board helping to develop new experiments and practical lab exams and to validate procedures terry also supervises all stockroom student workers and serves as mentor to the other technician her planning and organizational prowess motivates all of us to try and keep up with her terrys nominator says in a program of this size staying ahead is really just keeping up curtis lee facilities coordinator iii in chemistry with more than 35 years of service to the college arguably is as recognizable and revered as the historic building and campus landmark he has spent the better part of his career maintaining to be more precise curtis is responsible for a sprawling labyrinth of buildings the oldest of which was constructed in 1928 his nominator notes that curtis learning curve was steep when he took the job but he attacked it from day one quickly becoming the go-to person for building requests and oversight of countless major building renovation projects in the past four decades curtis expertly knows every nook and cranny of each wing of the massive chemistry complex to the extent he likely sees them all in his nightmares er sleep! each square foot is accounted and cared for in a department featuring 60 faculty 60 staff 60 postdoctoral associates and 300 graduate students each of whom relies heavily on curtis for the upkeep of their personal work space when pipes burst mechanical belts break the heat goes out or chemical spills happen its curtis who is tasked with initiating and overseeing the repairs says one of his nomination supporters who credits curtis speed and proactive approach in responding to problems as the factor that sets him apart from other facility managers chemistry employees are often unaware that the hallway outside of their office flooded over a weekend until a smiling mr lee checks in with them on monday morning on any given day furniture and scientific instruments are moved personal effects are mounted on walls and locks are fixed knowing that curtis is just a call away greatly enhances the morale in the department another longtime colleague writes it is always my great joy to see ron carter and curtis lee patrolling the halls of the chemistry department there is great security and confidence in knowing they are on-call and troubleshooting everything in this massive and complex facility from plumbing to moving sophisticated research equipment and instrumentation to figuring out electrical failures to planning renovations and faculty-staff needs etc curtis has a pride and dedication to his job that is evident in everything he does excellence is his goal and it is my great honor to call him a friend and coworker in this department that we love so well ritchie a program director in the department of statistics has nearly 12 years of service to the college the past 10 of which have been as the behind-the-scenes architect of one of the nations largest and most prestigious online distance programs in statistics kims technical expertise has helped texas a&m statistics launch two new masters degrees during the last decade the ms in statistics in 2007 and the ms in analytics in 2013 her nominators describe the success of both of these programs as nothing short of astonishing due in large part to kims key role in operating and managing the technical side of things on a day-to-day basis from backend servers and related infrastructure to frontline interfaces and navigation kim oversees all critical operations related to the departments online distance and certificate programs you name it she does it (pun intended) including procuring classroom and online technology providing technical support for faculty and students and handling marketing efforts and applicant screening the quality of our online programs which ms ritchie has been instrumental in building is recognized by our rankings and enrollment her nominators say in 2014 based on the quality of its graduate program our department ranked in the top 5 statistics departments among public universities we have over 500 students enrolled in at least one online statistics course kim enhances the educational environment for both online and on-campus students by keeping texas a&m on the forefront of learning technologies from the latest software applications to her input on departmental and university committees she also trains manages and leads the graduate assistants in daily lecture recordings publishing and uploading for online classes and monitoring the consulting class for distance students her nominators write to give an example of scope kims team records between 20-to-30 lectures per week we hear time and again from currently enrolled and former distance students about what a positive experience theyve had with the programs this quality of service and dedication is not only a positive reflection on our program and department but also the university as a whole another co-worker says shes like a security blanket she looks out for us and makes sure it doesnt blow up in our faces she is always prepared for the worst because she expects the best in herself in addition to dean aronson and texas a&m science associate deans recognizing all award winners heads of each of the colleges five departments (biology chemistry mathematics physics and astronomy and statistics) introduced their respective new faculty aronson then delivered a state of the college address before introducing texas a&m president michael k young who recognized distinguished professors marcetta y darensbourg (chemistry) and ronald a devore (mathematics) as texas a&ms newest national academy of sciences members young took questions from the audience before turning the podium back over to aronson to conclude the ceremony a reception honoring all award winners and new faculty and staff was held following the presentation in foyer of the mitchell institute click here to see additional photographs from the event -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post college of science honors 2017 award winners appeared first on college of science share: " " thirteen faculty staff and students within the texas a&m university college of science were recognized for recent outstanding accomplishments by dean meigan aronson at the colleges annual faculty-staff meeting and awards presentation wednesday (sept 20) the ceremony which honors college award recipients and serves as a forum for new faculty and staff introductions was held in the stephen w hawking auditorium inside the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy assistant professor of physics and astronomy jennifer marshall (center) pictured with dean aronson (right) and assistant dean for student affairs yvette hester (left) earned the colleges 2017 undergraduate research mentoring award established in 2014 to recognize the important investment both faculty and graduate students make in the future of scientific research ricardo eusebi (physics and astronomy) david kerr (mathematics) soon-mi lim (chemistry) and thomas wehrly (statistics) were honored as recipients of the association of former students distinguished achievement college-level awards in teaching for 2017 for their commitment to education and contributions to their respective disciplines each honoree was awarded a framed certificate commemorating the occasion and a $2 000 check from the association of former students jennifer marshall and peter brown (physics and astronomy) were honored with the colleges undergraduate research mentoring awards established in 2014 the award recognizes faculty members and graduate students respectively for their dedication enthusiasm accomplishments and contributions in mentoring undergraduate researchers each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation sherry j yennello (chemistry/cyclotron institute) sherry melton (chemistry) amir nikooienejad (statistics) and fatma terzioglu (mathematics) were honored with the colleges leadership in equity and diversity (lead) awards established in 2016 the award recognizes faculty members staff members and postdoctoral research associates/students who have displayed commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation hester (left) and dean aronson (right) congratulate physics and astronomy research scientist peter brown on his 2017 undergraduate research mentoring award staff members terry junek and curtis lee (chemistry) and kim ritchie (statistics) were presented with 2017 outstanding staff achievement awards established in 1995 the award commends the dedication enthusiasm and accomplishments of staff throughout the college each received a plaque and a $500 check also funded by the association junek a technician ii in the department of chemistry with more than six years of service within the college is in charge of the chemical stockroom for the first year chemistry program and all chemical operations in support of the general chemistry lecture and laboratory courses for 2016-17 this organizational feat encompassed 12 rooms and 349 sections of three simultaneously offered courses featuring a combined enrollment in excess of 8 100 students to put that in clearer terms at any given time of the day (and with growing enrollment now including three of five evenings a week) there are up to 288 students in 12 laboratories on the 4th floor of heldenfels hall terry prepares chemicals and solutions for all of them making sure that each lab for four different courses is properly supplied secured and supervised to ensure a seamlessly smooth and efficient operation and each week means a new experiment in each laboratory on top of that terry also has chemical demonstrations at the ready for up to 10 lecture instructors at their convenience throughout each semester a job previously handled by another individual that terry simply assumed with no complaints from her nor any of the instructors in fact terry did it so well that she was asked to set up a parallel demonstration operation in the chemistry complex meaning that instructors not teaching in heldenfels can also benefit from her efforts its a big job and few of us even notice it is happening because of course it is done so well says one of her supporting nominators beyond basic logistics and coordination terrys nominator says she has improved chemical inventory organization and storage procedures to ensure that the stockroom not only runs like clockwork but also is a much safer working environment prior to her arrival first year chemistry program safety inspections were occasionally very good but never perfect under terrys supervision they are routinely perfect as a researcher herself she has proven beneficial across the board helping to develop new experiments and practical lab exams and to validate procedures terry also supervises all stockroom student workers and serves as mentor to the other technician her planning and organizational prowess motivates all of us to try and keep up with her terrys nominator says in a program of this size staying ahead is really just keeping up curtis lee facilities coordinator iii in chemistry with more than 35 years of service to the college arguably is as recognizable and revered as the historic building and campus landmark he has spent the better part of his career maintaining to be more precise curtis is responsible for a sprawling labyrinth of buildings the oldest of which was constructed in 1928 his nominator notes that curtis learning curve was steep when he took the job but he attacked it from day one quickly becoming the go-to person for building requests and oversight of countless major building renovation projects in the past four decades curtis expertly knows every nook and cranny of each wing of the massive chemistry complex to the extent he likely sees them all in his nightmares er sleep! each square foot is accounted and cared for in a department featuring 60 faculty 60 staff 60 postdoctoral associates and 300 graduate students each of whom relies heavily on curtis for the upkeep of their personal work space when pipes burst mechanical belts break the heat goes out or chemical spills happen its curtis who is tasked with initiating and overseeing the repairs says one of his nomination supporters who credits curtis speed and proactive approach in responding to problems as the factor that sets him apart from other facility managers chemistry employees are often unaware that the hallway outside of their office flooded over a weekend until a smiling mr lee checks in with them on monday morning on any given day furniture and scientific instruments are moved personal effects are mounted on walls and locks are fixed knowing that curtis is just a call away greatly enhances the morale in the department another longtime colleague writes it is always my great joy to see ron carter and curtis lee patrolling the halls of the chemistry department there is great security and confidence in knowing they are on-call and troubleshooting everything in this massive and complex facility from plumbing to moving sophisticated research equipment and instrumentation to figuring out electrical failures to planning renovations and faculty-staff needs etc curtis has a pride and dedication to his job that is evident in everything he does excellence is his goal and it is my great honor to call him a friend and coworker in this department that we love so well ritchie a program director in the department of statistics has nearly 12 years of service to the college the past 10 of which have been as the behind-the-scenes architect of one of the nations largest and most prestigious online distance programs in statistics kims technical expertise has helped texas a&m statistics launch two new masters degrees during the last decade the ms in statistics in 2007 and the ms in analytics in 2013 her nominators describe the success of both of these programs as nothing short of astonishing due in large part to kims key role in operating and managing the technical side of things on a day-to-day basis from backend servers and related infrastructure to frontline interfaces and navigation kim oversees all critical operations related to the departments online distance and certificate programs you name it she does it (pun intended) including procuring classroom and online technology providing technical support for faculty and students and handling marketing efforts and applicant screening the quality of our online programs which ms ritchie has been instrumental in building is recognized by our rankings and enrollment her nominators say in 2014 based on the quality of its graduate program our department ranked in the top 5 statistics departments among public universities we have over 500 students enrolled in at least one online statistics course kim enhances the educational environment for both online and on-campus students by keeping texas a&m on the forefront of learning technologies from the latest software applications to her input on departmental and university committees she also trains manages and leads the graduate assistants in daily lecture recordings publishing and uploading for online classes and monitoring the consulting class for distance students her nominators write to give an example of scope kims team records between 20-to-30 lectures per week we hear time and again from currently enrolled and former distance students about what a positive experience theyve had with the programs this quality of service and dedication is not only a positive reflection on our program and department but also the university as a whole another co-worker says shes like a security blanket she looks out for us and makes sure it doesnt blow up in our faces she is always prepared for the worst because she expects the best in herself in addition to dean aronson and texas a&m science associate deans recognizing all award winners heads of each of the colleges five departments (biology chemistry mathematics physics and astronomy and statistics) introduced their respective new faculty aronson then delivered a state of the college address before introducing texas a&m president michael k young who recognized distinguished professors marcetta y darensbourg (chemistry) and ronald a devore (mathematics) as texas a&ms newest national academy of sciences members young took questions from the audience before turning the podium back over to aronson to conclude the ceremony a reception honoring all award winners and new faculty and staff was held following the presentation in foyer of the mitchell institute click here to see additional photographs from the event -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " ¬† college station for more than a decade texas a&m university high energy physicist rupak mahapatra has been making the devices that make detection of the particles believed to be behind dark matter and therefore nearly a quarter of the universe possible dr rupak mahapatra mahapatra has been instrumental in positioning the international super cryogenic dark matter search experiment at soudan minn as a world leader in the search for elusive weakly interacting massive particles (wimp) which to date remain undetected earlier this month his latest proposal outlining the next big thing in ultra-sensitive cryogenics was selected for funding by the united states department of energy (doe) as part of a broader effort to advance detector research and development for high energy physics mahapatra a 2010 doe early career research award recipient and a principal investigator since 2003 with supercdms and the affiliated supercdms snolab experiment will receive $460 000 through the office of high energy physics in support of his proposal ultra-low threshold cryogenic high voltage detectors for wimp search and coherent neutrino scattering experiments this augments the $1675 million he previously secured for 2015-2018 as the principal investigator for the supercdms program at texas a&m which also includes co-pis david toback nader mirabolfathi and h rusty harris because scientists dont actually know what dark matter particles look like mahapatra explains that the search has focused on a wide range of possible traits including different masses and different probabilities of interacting with regular matter the supercdms snolab experiment uses highly sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles as evidenced by the extremely small energies deposited after colliding with the materials present in the detectors the supercdms snowlab experiment is one of the three dark matter experiments earmarked for funding support in 2014 by the us department of energy and the national science foundation in addition it is one of the two that are searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles (wimp) (credit: nasa) while its more typical in goal-setting to aim high mahapatra prefers going low as low as the ultra-sensitive cryogenic detectors fabricated within his texas a&m-based laboratory can go to help enable wimp searches at the solar neutrino floor at unprecedently low energy and recoil levels a dark matter particle passes through us every second yet we do not feel it due to their extremely rare interaction with ordinary matter said mahapatra a professor since 2008 in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in collaboration with stanford our group is leading the detector development for next-generation dark matter detectors utilizing cryogenically cooled semiconductor detectors with transition edge sensors what starts in mahapatras laboratory as bare germanium and silicon crystals is painstakingly transformed through a series of high-performance semiconductor technology-driven steps first the crystals are characterized based on purity and then polished to detector-grade specifications next they are enhanced with a thin layer of film onto which their texas a&m-developed transition edge sensors are photolithographically patterned finally the film is cryogenically tested using liquid helium and then carefully packaged for transport for additional scientific testing and payload preparation mahapatra says the same detector technology that is driving the field of low-mass wimp searches is also at the forefront of the searches for beyond standard model (bsm) physics using reactor neutrinos due to the low energy recoils expected from wimp and coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (cenns) he says the primary challenge is the availability of large mass detectors (ideally at least a kilogram) with low energy thresholds at sub-kev [kiloelectronvolts] a challenge his research hopes to overcome by developing a prototype two-stage detector that may allow discrimination-based wimp searching down to 100 ev [electronvolt] recoils closeup of a next-generation detector in its mount fabricated at texas a&m university by high-energy physicist rupak mahapatra and his team for use in the supercdms snolab experiment seeking evidence for dark matter the lack of such a technology has prevented measurement of the cenns process predicted by the standard model mahapatra said understanding this process using reactor neutrinos will allow the next-generation dark matter experiments to subtract the cenns background from observed rates for a possible wimp detection mahapatra and mirabolfathi currently are designing and developing a few cutting-edge new detector ideas that may dramatically improve the scientific potential of dark matter searches as well as those at the forefront of new physics using coherent scattering of neutrinos he says the mitchell institute neutrino experiment at reactor (miner) which is housed at the texas a&m nuclear science center will be used as a probe for such progressive horizons the supercdms snolab experiment layout showing mahapatras detectors positioned at the heart of discovery (credit: supercdms snolab) miner will leverage an excellent combination of existing and future detector technologies with the opportune use of the local reactor facility to provide sensitivity to discoveries within a short span of two or three years with definitive cenns detection with a few months of data mahapatra said the experiment has sensitivity to exciting new physics from sterile neutrinos and z bosons to non-standard interactions and neutrino magnetic momentthe supercdms collaborations work is funded by the doe and the national science foundation as well as the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) for more information go to http://cdmsberkeleyedu/ to learn more about mahapatras involvement with the collaboration and related research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist rupak mahapatra earns doe grant for detector research appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " for more than a decade texas a&m university high energy physicist rupak mahapatra has been making the devices that make detection of the particles believed to be behind dark matter and therefore nearly a quarter of the universe possible dr rupak mahapatra mahapatra has been instrumental in positioning the international super cryogenic dark matter search experiment at soudan minn as a world leader in the search for elusive weakly interacting massive particles (wimp) which to date remain undetected earlier this month his latest proposal outlining the next big thing in ultra-sensitive cryogenics was selected for funding by the united states department of energy (doe) as part of a broader effort to advance detector research and development for high energy physics mahapatra a 2010 doe early career research award recipient and a principal investigator since 2003 with supercdms and the affiliated supercdms snolab experiment will receive $460 000 through the office of high energy physics in support of his proposal ultra-low threshold cryogenic high voltage detectors for wimp search and coherent neutrino scattering experiments this augments the $1675 million he previously secured for 2015-2018 as the principal investigator for the supercdms program at texas a&m which also includes co-pis david toback nader mirabolfathi and h rusty harris because scientists dont actually know what dark matter particles look like mahapatra explains that the search has focused on a wide range of possible traits including different masses and different probabilities of interacting with regular matter the supercdms snolab experiment uses highly sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles as evidenced by the extremely small energies deposited after colliding with the materials present in the detectors the supercdms snowlab experiment is one of the three dark matter experiments earmarked for funding support in 2014 by the us department of energy and the national science foundation in addition it is one of the two that are searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles (wimp) (credit: nasa) while its more typical in goal-setting to aim high mahapatra prefers going low as low as the ultra-sensitive cryogenic detectors fabricated within his texas a&m-based laboratory can go to help enable wimp searches at the solar neutrino floor at unprecedently low energy and recoil levels a dark matter particle passes through us every second yet we do not feel it due to their extremely rare interaction with ordinary matter said mahapatra a professor since 2008 in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in collaboration with stanford our group is leading the detector development for next-generation dark matter detectors utilizing cryogenically cooled semiconductor detectors with transition edge sensors what starts in mahapatras laboratory as bare germanium and silicon crystals is painstakingly transformed through a series of high-performance semiconductor technology-driven steps first the crystals are characterized based on purity and then polished to detector-grade specifications next they are enhanced with a thin layer of film onto which their texas a&m-developed transition edge sensors are photolithographically patterned finally the film is cryogenically tested using liquid helium and then carefully packaged for transport for additional scientific testing and payload preparation mahapatra says the same detector technology that is driving the field of low-mass wimp searches is also at the forefront of the searches for beyond standard model (bsm) physics using reactor neutrinos due to the low energy recoils expected from wimp and coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (cenns) he says the primary challenge is the availability of large mass detectors (ideally at least a kilogram) with low energy thresholds at sub-kev [kiloelectronvolts] a challenge his research hopes to overcome by developing a prototype two-stage detector that may allow discrimination-based wimp searching down to 100 ev [electronvolt] recoils closeup of a next-generation detector in its mount fabricated at texas a&m university by high-energy physicist rupak mahapatra and his team for use in the supercdms snolab experiment seeking evidence for dark matter the lack of such a technology has prevented measurement of the cenns process predicted by the standard model mahapatra said understanding this process using reactor neutrinos will allow the next-generation dark matter experiments to subtract the cenns background from observed rates for a possible wimp detection mahapatra and mirabolfathi currently are designing and developing a few cutting-edge new detector ideas that may dramatically improve the scientific potential of dark matter searches as well as those at the forefront of new physics using coherent scattering of neutrinos he says the mitchell institute neutrino experiment at reactor (miner) which is housed at the texas a&m nuclear science center will be used as a probe for such progressive horizons the supercdms snolab experiment layout showing mahapatras detectors positioned at the heart of discovery (credit: supercdms snolab) miner will leverage an excellent combination of existing and future detector technologies with the opportune use of the local reactor facility to provide sensitivity to discoveries within a short span of two or three years with definitive cenns detection with a few months of data mahapatra said the experiment has sensitivity to exciting new physics from sterile neutrinos and z bosons to non-standard interactions and neutrino magnetic momentthe supercdms collaborations work is funded by the doe and the national science foundation as well as the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) for more information go to http://cdmsberkeleyedu/ to learn more about mahapatras involvement with the collaboration and related research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " batavia illinois dark energy survey (des) scientists including astronomers at texas a&m university are celebrating the release of the most accurate measurement to date of the present large-scale structure of the universe map of dark matter made from gravitational lensing measurements of 26 million galaxies in the dark energy survey the map covers about 1/30th of the entire sky and spans several billion light years in extent red regions have more dark matter than average blue regions less dark matter (credit: chihway chang kavli institute for cosmological physics university of chicago / des collaboration) des scientists unveiled their most recent findings in a presentation today (august 3) at the american physical society division of particles and fields meeting at the us department of energys (doe) fermi national accelerator laboratory their measurements of the amount and clumpiness or distribution of dark matter in the present-day cosmos were made with a precision that for the first time rivals that of inferences from the early universe by the european space agencys orbiting planck observatory enabling scientists to understand more about the ways the universe has evolved over 14 billion years this result is beyond exciting said scott dodelson of fermilab one of the lead scientists on this result for the first time were able to see the current structure of the universe with the same clarity that we can see its infancy and we can follow the threads from one to the other confirming many predictions along the way most notably this result supports the theory that 26 percent of the universe is in the form of mysterious dark matter and that space is filled with an also-unseen dark energy which is causing the accelerating expansion of the universe and makes up 70 percent dr jennifer marshall i thought the discovery of dozens of dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxies orbiting the milky way was exciting but this is really big news said texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall a des builder and member of the surveys management and science committees ground-based measurements of the universe rarely can rival the precision of space-based projects and that des does just that is a testament to the hard work of the scientists and instrument builders across the world who have invested a huge amount of effort in this project the new results released today draw only from data collected during the surveys first year which covers one-thirtieth of the sky the data was captured by the dess primary instrument and imaging device the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) one of the most powerful in existence for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist scientists on des are using the camera to map an eighth of the sky in unprecedented detail during the five-year study which runs through 2018 revered as the most powerful survey instrument of its kind decam is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that allows the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of depoy and marshall we initially got involved with the dark energy survey as the first project our instrumentation lab took on when it was founded in 2008 marshall said i have been fortunate to become more involved in the scientific productivity and the management of the project during the past few years and it is incredibly satisfying to see such an impressive result come out of the work that was begun so many years ago dr nicholas b suntzeff dr darren depoy decam was built and tested at fermilab the lead laboratory on the dark energy survey depoy led the team that commissioned the enormous device which is mounted on the national science foundations 4 meter blanco telescope part of the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile a division of the national optical astronomy observatory the des data are processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign it is amazing that the team has managed to achieve such precision from only the first year of their survey said national science foundation program director nigel sharp now that their analysis techniques are developed and tested we look forward with eager anticipation to breakthrough results as the survey continues des scientists used two methods to measure dark matter first they created maps of galaxy positions as tracers and second they precisely measured the shapes of 26 million galaxies to directly map the patterns of dark matter over billions of light years using a technique called gravitational lensing to make these ultra-precise measurements the des team developed new ways to detect the tiny lensing distortions of galaxy images an effect not even visible to the eye enabling revolutionary advances in understanding these cosmic signals in the process they created the largest guide to spotting dark matter in the cosmos ever drawn (see image) the new dark matter map is 10 times the size of the one des released in 2015 and will eventually be three times larger than it is now when you look at the red and blue map remember that the spots are over 100 million light years across with red spots being areas of the local universe where there are just slightly more galaxies than in the blue parts said nicholas suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program and a co-discoverer of dark energy but we now know that these spots came from tiny energy fluctuations at a time before the big bang a time we call inflation and that these fluctuations have now expanded to fill the universe we see today thus when we look at the whole sky we are also looking at the inside of some primal subatomic particle that existed a fraction of a second after the birth of the universe texas a&m university astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist for the dark energy camera one of the most powerful survey instruments of its kind that is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot (credit: reidar hahn/fermilab) depoy notes that des is also turning up other amazing results in its ongoing mission to map one-eighth of the universe for cosmological measurements one example is a large number of companion galaxies to the milky way that can be used to measure the way in which our galaxy formed and changed over time along with the history of star formation and creation of elements over time by stars marshall is among the leaders of the group of des scientists working on these exciting results in addition to marshall depoy and suntzeff texas a&m astronomers and fellow george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy members lucas macri casey papovich and louis strigari are full members of the 400-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 26 institutions and seven countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion texas a&m statistician james long also is an external collaborator read more on todays announcement and its broader significance in the official press release from fermilab view these results and others from the first year of the dark energy survey online and learn more about texas a&m astronomy at http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the dark energy survey: the dark energy survey is a collaboration of more than 400 scientists from 26 institutions in seven countries its primary instrument the 570-megapixel dark energy camera is mounted on the 4-meter blanco telescope at the national optical astronomy observatorys cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile and its data is processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign learn more at http://wwwdarkenergysurveyorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post dark energy survey reveals most accurate measurement of dark matter structure in the universe appeared first on college of science share: " " dark energy survey (des) scientists including astronomers at texas a&m university are celebrating the release of the most accurate measurement to date of the present large-scale structure of the universe map of dark matter made from gravitational lensing measurements of 26 million galaxies in the dark energy survey the map covers about 1/30th of the entire sky and spans several billion light years in extent red regions have more dark matter than average blue regions less dark matter (credit: chihway chang kavli institute for cosmological physics university of chicago / des collaboration) des scientists unveiled their most recent findings in a presentation today (august 3) at the american physical society division of particles and fields meeting at the us department of energys (doe) fermi national accelerator laboratory their measurements of the amount and clumpiness or distribution of dark matter in the present-day cosmos were made with a precision that for the first time rivals that of inferences from the early universe by the european space agencys orbiting planck observatory enabling scientists to understand more about the ways the universe has evolved over 14 billion years this result is beyond exciting said scott dodelson of fermilab one of the lead scientists on this result for the first time were able to see the current structure of the universe with the same clarity that we can see its infancy and we can follow the threads from one to the other confirming many predictions along the way most notably this result supports the theory that 26 percent of the universe is in the form of mysterious dark matter and that space is filled with an also-unseen dark energy which is causing the accelerating expansion of the universe and makes up 70 percent dr jennifer marshall i thought the discovery of dozens of dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxies orbiting the milky way was exciting but this is really big news said texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall a des builder and member of the surveys management and science committees ground-based measurements of the universe rarely can rival the precision of space-based projects and that des does just that is a testament to the hard work of the scientists and instrument builders across the world who have invested a huge amount of effort in this project the new results released today draw only from data collected during the surveys first year which covers one-thirtieth of the sky the data was captured by the dess primary instrument and imaging device the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) one of the most powerful in existence for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist scientists on des are using the camera to map an eighth of the sky in unprecedented detail during the five-year study which runs through 2018 revered as the most powerful survey instrument of its kind decam is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that allows the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of depoy and marshall we initially got involved with the dark energy survey as the first project our instrumentation lab took on when it was founded in 2008 marshall said i have been fortunate to become more involved in the scientific productivity and the management of the project during the past few years and it is incredibly satisfying to see such an impressive result come out of the work that was begun so many years ago dr nicholas b suntzeff dr darren depoy decam was built and tested at fermilab the lead laboratory on the dark energy survey depoy led the team that commissioned the enormous device which is mounted on the national science foundations 4 meter blanco telescope part of the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile a division of the national optical astronomy observatory the des data are processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign it is amazing that the team has managed to achieve such precision from only the first year of their survey said national science foundation program director nigel sharp now that their analysis techniques are developed and tested we look forward with eager anticipation to breakthrough results as the survey continues des scientists used two methods to measure dark matter first they created maps of galaxy positions as tracers and second they precisely measured the shapes of 26 million galaxies to directly map the patterns of dark matter over billions of light years using a technique called gravitational lensing to make these ultra-precise measurements the des team developed new ways to detect the tiny lensing distortions of galaxy images an effect not even visible to the eye enabling revolutionary advances in understanding these cosmic signals in the process they created the largest guide to spotting dark matter in the cosmos ever drawn (see image) the new dark matter map is 10 times the size of the one des released in 2015 and will eventually be three times larger than it is now when you look at the red and blue map remember that the spots are over 100 million light years across with red spots being areas of the local universe where there are just slightly more galaxies than in the blue parts said nicholas suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program and a co-discoverer of dark energy but we now know that these spots came from tiny energy fluctuations at a time before the big bang a time we call inflation and that these fluctuations have now expanded to fill the universe we see today thus when we look at the whole sky we are also looking at the inside of some primal subatomic particle that existed a fraction of a second after the birth of the universe texas a&m university astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist for the dark energy camera one of the most powerful survey instruments of its kind that is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot (credit: reidar hahn/fermilab) depoy notes that des is also turning up other amazing results in its ongoing mission to map one-eighth of the universe for cosmological measurements one example is a large number of companion galaxies to the milky way that can be used to measure the way in which our galaxy formed and changed over time along with the history of star formation and creation of elements over time by stars marshall is among the leaders of the group of des scientists working on these exciting results in addition to marshall depoy and suntzeff texas a&m astronomers and fellow george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy members lucas macri casey papovich and louis strigari are full members of the 400-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 26 institutions and seven countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion texas a&m statistician james long also is an external collaborator read more on todays announcement and its broader significance in the official press release from fermilab view these results and others from the first year of the dark energy survey online and learn more about texas a&m astronomy at http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the dark energy survey: the dark energy survey is a collaboration of more than 400 scientists from 26 institutions in seven countries its primary instrument the 570-megapixel dark energy camera is mounted on the 4-meter blanco telescope at the national optical astronomy observatorys cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile and its data is processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign learn more at http://wwwdarkenergysurveyorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " share: " " share: " " ¬† college station when texas a&m university physicist david toback was elected three years ago as co-spokesperson for the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) he had one primary goal: to help the groups 400-person active author list publish the collaborations important legacy papers and final results dr david toback although the collider detector at fermilab experiment representing 63 institutions in 15 countries was no longer collecting new data when toback assumed his leadership role on june 1 2014 its impact lives on in its analysis which recently resulted in the collaborations landmark 700th paper published in physical review d and shedding new light on the production rate of charm quarks fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) are the past and current record holders respectively for the most powerful particle collider on earth after 26 years of colliding particles the tevatron shut down on september 29 2011 with the completion of the lhc however because it observed collisons between protons and antiprotons via its two detectors the three-story 6 000-ton cdf along with its companion dzero toback notes that the tevatron produced fundamental results that can neither be achieved nor replicated at the lhc we are excited about this milestone publication toback said we are equally excited about the measurements of the mass of the w-boson and the mass of the top quark coming out soon both will be comparable to if not better than those of the lhc a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2000 toback currently serves as the arthur j and wilhelmina d thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence and is a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy elected as a fellow of the american physical society in 2015 he is the author of the popular textbook big bang black holes no math and originator of the related undergraduate course offered by the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy toback who is now in his second two-year term as cdf co-spokesperson and overall physics coordinator began working with the collaboration in 1991 as a graduate student at the university of chicago in the past he has served as co-convener of the top + beyond the standard model group and also guided the supersymmetry group a leading candidate to explain dark matter and one focus of tobacks study texas a&ms history is more extensive than tobacks with the cdf experiment given that it was co-founded in 1980 by texas a&m physicists peter mcintyre current head of texas a&m physics and astronomy and robert webb texas a&m has had a continuous presence in the collaboration since its inception including four additional physicists toback ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov who either were students or postdoctoral researchers within it and are now among its principal investigators kamon produced the collaborations fourth phd thesis (there are 638 to date) followed by toback (159th 1997) safonov (242nd 2001) and eusebi (345th 2005) all four played lead roles in tevatron run ii with toback leading the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter toback offering career guidance and inspiration to a past group of pearson mechanics scholars in addition to faculty contributions toback notes that 11 texas a&m students have earned phds based on cdf-related work: ziqing hong (toback 2015); jonathan asaadi (toback 2012) adam aurisano (toback 2012); andrey elagin (safonov 2011); eunsin lee (toback 2010); vadim khotilovich (safonov and kamon 2008); peter wagner (toback 2007); vyachelav krutelyov (kamon 2005); james done (kamon 1999); louis keeble (mcintyre 1992) and timothy hessing (webb 1990) wagners was recognized as the 2007 universities research associations graduate thesis of the year many more texas a&m students achieved masters degrees and/or did honors undergraduate thesis-related work with cdf in addition many within this collective cdf-inspired whole have gone on to faculty positions including at texas a&m and other prestigious research universities worldwide the collaborations crowning achievements include discovery of the top quark in 1995 and detection of the first substantive evidence of the higgs boson prior to the large hadron colliders 2012 full discovery that collectively resulted in peter higgs and francois englerts subsequent 2013 nobel prize in physics for theoretically predicting the elusive particles existence 50 years ago to learn more about cdf visit http://www-cdffnalgov/collaboration/ for more information on texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu/ read more on the story in tobacks own words via the fermilab at work blog # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu the post fermilab cdf collaboration publishes 700th paper appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " when texas a&m university physicist david toback was elected three years ago as co-spokesperson for the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) he had one primary goal: to help the groups 400-person active author list publish the collaborations important legacy papers and final results dr david toback although the collider detector at fermilab experiment representing 63 institutions in 15 countries was no longer collecting new data when toback assumed his leadership role on june 1 2014 its impact lives on in its analysis which recently resulted in the collaborations landmark 700th paper published in physical review d and shedding new light on the production rate of charm quarks fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) are the past and current record holders respectively for the most powerful particle collider on earth after 26 years of colliding particles the tevatron shut down on september 29 2011 with the completion of the lhc however because it observed collisons between protons and antiprotons via its two detectors the three-story 6 000-ton cdf along with its companion dzero toback notes that the tevatron produced fundamental results that can neither be achieved nor replicated at the lhc we are excited about this milestone publication toback said we are equally excited about the measurements of the mass of the w-boson and the mass of the top quark coming out soon both will be comparable to if not better than those of the lhc a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2000 toback currently serves as the arthur j and wilhelmina d thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence and is a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy elected as a fellow of the american physical society in 2015 he is the author of the popular textbook big bang black holes no math and originator of the related undergraduate course offered by the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy toback who is now in his second two-year term as cdf co-spokesperson and overall physics coordinator began working with the collaboration in 1991 as a graduate student at the university of chicago in the past he has served as co-convener of the top + beyond the standard model group and also guided the supersymmetry group a leading candidate to explain dark matter and one focus of tobacks study texas a&ms history is more extensive than tobacks with the cdf experiment given that it was co-founded in 1980 by texas a&m physicists peter mcintyre current head of texas a&m physics and astronomy and robert webb texas a&m has had a continuous presence in the collaboration since its inception including four additional physicists toback ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov who either were students or postdoctoral researchers within it and are now among its principal investigators kamon produced the collaborations fourth phd thesis (there are 638 to date) followed by toback (159th 1997) safonov (242nd 2001) and eusebi (345th 2005) all four played lead roles in tevatron run ii with toback leading the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter toback offering career guidance and inspiration to a past group of pearson mechanics scholars in addition to faculty contributions toback notes that 11 texas a&m students have earned phds based on cdf-related work: ziqing hong (toback 2015); jonathan asaadi (toback 2012) adam aurisano (toback 2012); andrey elagin (safonov 2011); eunsin lee (toback 2010); vadim khotilovich (safonov and kamon 2008); peter wagner (toback 2007); vyachelav krutelyov (kamon 2005); james done (kamon 1999); louis keeble (mcintyre 1992) and timothy hessing (webb 1990) wagners was recognized as the 2007 universities research associations graduate thesis of the year many more texas a&m students achieved masters degrees and/or did honors undergraduate thesis-related work with cdf in addition many within this collective cdf-inspired whole have gone on to faculty positions including at texas a&m and other prestigious research universities worldwide the collaborations crowning achievements include discovery of the top quark in 1995 and detection of the first substantive evidence of the higgs boson prior to the large hadron colliders 2012 full discovery that collectively resulted in peter higgs and francois englerts subsequent 2013 nobel prize in physics for theoretically predicting the elusive particles existence 50 years ago to learn more about cdf visit http://www-cdffnalgov/collaboration/ for more information on texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu/ read more on the story in tobacks own words via the fermilab at work blog # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@tamuedu " " ¬† austin editors note: prior to coming to texas a&m university in 2008 darren depoy spent 18 years at the ohio state university building both the astronomy program along with an international reputation for excellence in astronomical instrumentation together with fellow texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall he built the first kelt system used in the set of measurements involved in new research out of ohio state detailed below a system that was later duplicated and installed in the southern hemisphere to complement the original one observing the northern hemisphere skies depoy and marshall both members of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and astronomical instrument builders in the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory are cited in the teams paper as among those essential for the initiation and successful operation of the kelt-north and kelt-south surveys their brief comments on the discovery are below: ¬† depoy: its a pretty weird planet this discovery hints that the process of planet formation is even more diverse than we thought and that it happens around stars more massive than the sun ¬† marshall: weve found several planets but nothing as interesting as this one kelt-9b (red) is tidally locked to its star kelt-9 (white) just as the moon is to earth (credit: robert hurt nasa/jpl-caltech) a newly discovered jupiter-like world is so hot that its stretching the definition of the word planetwith a day-side temperature of 4 600 kelvin (more than 7 800 degrees fahrenheit) planet kelt-9b is hotter than most stars and only 1 200 kelvin (about 2 000 degrees fahrenheit) cooler than our own sun in this weeks issue of the journal nature and at a presentation at the the 230th meeting of the american astronomical society an international research team led by astronomers at the ohio state university and vanderbilt university describes a planet with some very unusual features for instance its a gas giant 28 times more massive than jupiter but only half as dense because the extreme radiation from its host star has caused its atmosphere to puff up like a balloon and because it is tidally locked to its star as the moon is to earth the day side of the planet is perpetually bombarded by stellar radiation making it so hot that molecules such as water carbon dioxide and methane cant form there the properties of the night side are still mysterious molecules may be able to form there but probably only temporarily its a planet by any of the typical definitions based on mass but its atmosphere is almost certainly unlike any other planet weve ever seen just because of the temperature of its day side said scott gaudi professor of astronomy at ohio state and a leader of the study kelt-9b orbits a star dubbed kelt-9 which is more than twice as large and nearly twice as hot as our sun keivan stassun a professor of physics and astronomy at vanderbilt who directed the study with gaudi said kelt-9 radiates so much ultraviolet radiation that it may completely evaporate the planet or if gas giant planets like kelt-9b possess solid rocky cores as some theories suggest the planet may be boiled down to a barren rock like mercury animation of kelt-9bs orbit around kelt-9 (credit: robert hurt nasa/jpl-caltech) that is if the star doesnt grow to engulf it first kelt-9 will swell to become a red giant star in about a billion years stassun said the long-term prospects for life or real estate for that matter on kelt-9b are not looking good given that its atmosphere is constantly blasted with high levels of ultraviolet radiation the planet may even be shedding a tail of evaporated planetary material like a comet gaudi added while gaudi and stassun spend a lot of time developing missions designed to find habitable planets in other solar systems the scientists said theres a good reason to study worlds that are unlivable in the extreme as has been highlighted by the recent discoveries from the mearth collaboration the planet around proxima centauri and the astonishing system discovered around trappist-1 the astronomical community is clearly focused on finding earth-like planets around small cooler stars like our sun gaudi said they are easy targets and theres a lot that can be learned about potentially habitable planets orbiting very low-mass stars in general on the other hand because kelt-9bs host star is bigger and hotter than the sun it complements those efforts and provides a kind of touchstone for understanding how planetary systems form around hot massive stars stassun added as we seek to develop a complete picture of the variety of other worlds out there its important to know not only how planets form and evolve but also when and under what conditions they are destroyed how was this new planet found in 2014 astronomers using the kelt-north telescope at winer observatory in arizona noticed a tiny drop in the stars brightness only about half of one percent that indicated a planet may have passed in front of the star the brightness dipped once every 15 days the amount of time it takes for the planet to complete a yearly circuit around its star subsequent observations confirmed the signal to be due to a planet and revealed it to be what astronomers call a hot jupiter the ideal kind of planet for the kelt telescopes to spot kelt is short for kilodegree extremely little telescope astronomers at ohio state vanderbilt and lehigh university jointly operate two kelts (one each in the northern and southern hemispheres) in order to fill a large gap in the available technologies for finding extrasolar planets the research is featured on the cover of the june 19 2017 issue of nature (credit: nature) other telescopes are designed to look at very faint stars in much small sections of the sky and at very high resolution the kelts in contrast look at millions of very bright stars at once over broad sections of sky and at low resolution its a low-cost means of planet hunting using mostly off-the-shelf technology whereas a traditional astronomical telescope costs millions of dollars to build the hardware for a kelt telescope runs less than $75 000 this discovery is a testament to the discovery power of small telescopes and the ability of citizen scientists to directly contribute to cutting-edge scientific research said joshua pepper lehigh astronomer and assistant professor of physics who built the two kelt telescopes the astronomers hope to take a closer look at kelt-9b with other telescopes including nasas spitzer and hubble space telescopes (hst) and eventually the james webb space telescope observations with hst would enable them to see if the planet really does have a cometary tail and allow them to determine how much longer that planet will survive its current hellish condition study co-authors from ohio state include daniel j stevens marshall c johnson matthew penney andrew gould and richard pogge all of the department of astronomy american partner institutions include vanderbilt university fisk university pennsylvania state university the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics las cumbres observatory global telescope network university of notre dame lehigh university nasa ames research center bay area environmental research institute swarthmore college ipac brigham young university university of california-santa cruz university of wyoming louisiana state university university of louisville spot observatory in nashville westminster college kutztown university university of hawaii university of washington texas a&m university wellesley college and winer observatory in sonoita az international team members are from denmark italy japan portugal switzerland australia germany and south africa the study was largely funded by the national science foundation (nsf) through an nsf career grant nsf paare grant and an nsf graduate research fellowship additional support came from nasa via the jet propulsion laboratory and the exoplanet exploration program; the harvard future faculty leaders postdoctoral fellowship; theodore dunham jr grant from the fund for astronomical research; and the japan society for the promotion of science the teams nature paper a giant planet undergoing extreme-ultraviolet irradiation by its hot massive-star host can be viewed online along with related figures and captions -atm- contact: pam frost gorder (614) 292-9475 or gorder1@osuedu or scott gaudi (614) 292-1914 or gaudi1@osuedu the post astronomers discover planet hotter than most stars where a year lasts 15 days/a> appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " editors note: prior to coming to texas a&m university in 2008 darren depoy spent 18 years at the ohio state university building both the astronomy program along with an international reputation for excellence in astronomical instrumentation together with fellow texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall he built the first kelt system used in the set of measurements involved in new research out of ohio state detailed below a system that was later duplicated and installed in the southern hemisphere to complement the original one observing the northern hemisphere skies depoy and marshall both members of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and astronomical instrument builders in the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory are cited in the teams paper as among those essential for the initiation and successful operation of the kelt-north and kelt-south surveys their brief comments on the discovery are below: ¬† depoy: its a pretty weird planet this discovery hints that the process of planet formation is even more diverse than we thought and that it happens around stars more massive than the sun ¬† marshall: weve found several planets but nothing as interesting as this one kelt-9b (red) is tidally locked to its star kelt-9 (white) just as the moon is to earth (credit: robert hurt nasa/jpl-caltech) a newly discovered jupiter-like world is so hot that its stretching the definition of the word planetwith a day-side temperature of 4 600 kelvin (more than 7 800 degrees fahrenheit) planet kelt-9b is hotter than most stars and only 1 200 kelvin (about 2 000 degrees fahrenheit) cooler than our own sun in this weeks issue of the journal nature and at a presentation at the the 230th meeting of the american astronomical society an international research team led by astronomers at the ohio state university and vanderbilt university describes a planet with some very unusual features for instance its a gas giant 28 times more massive than jupiter but only half as dense because the extreme radiation from its host star has caused its atmosphere to puff up like a balloon and because it is tidally locked to its star as the moon is to earth the day side of the planet is perpetually bombarded by stellar radiation making it so hot that molecules such as water carbon dioxide and methane cant form there the properties of the night side are still mysterious molecules may be able to form there but probably only temporarily its a planet by any of the typical definitions based on mass but its atmosphere is almost certainly unlike any other planet weve ever seen just because of the temperature of its day side said scott gaudi professor of astronomy at ohio state and a leader of the study kelt-9b orbits a star dubbed kelt-9 which is more than twice as large and nearly twice as hot as our sun keivan stassun a professor of physics and astronomy at vanderbilt who directed the study with gaudi said kelt-9 radiates so much ultraviolet radiation that it may completely evaporate the planet or if gas giant planets like kelt-9b possess solid rocky cores as some theories suggest the planet may be boiled down to a barren rock like mercury animation of kelt-9bs orbit around kelt-9 (credit: robert hurt nasa/jpl-caltech) that is if the star doesnt grow to engulf it first kelt-9 will swell to become a red giant star in about a billion years stassun said the long-term prospects for life or real estate for that matter on kelt-9b are not looking good given that its atmosphere is constantly blasted with high levels of ultraviolet radiation the planet may even be shedding a tail of evaporated planetary material like a comet gaudi added while gaudi and stassun spend a lot of time developing missions designed to find habitable planets in other solar systems the scientists said theres a good reason to study worlds that are unlivable in the extreme as has been highlighted by the recent discoveries from the mearth collaboration the planet around proxima centauri and the astonishing system discovered around trappist-1 the astronomical community is clearly focused on finding earth-like planets around small cooler stars like our sun gaudi said they are easy targets and theres a lot that can be learned about potentially habitable planets orbiting very low-mass stars in general on the other hand because kelt-9bs host star is bigger and hotter than the sun it complements those efforts and provides a kind of touchstone for understanding how planetary systems form around hot massive stars stassun added as we seek to develop a complete picture of the variety of other worlds out there its important to know not only how planets form and evolve but also when and under what conditions they are destroyed how was this new planet found in 2014 astronomers using the kelt-north telescope at winer observatory in arizona noticed a tiny drop in the stars brightness only about half of one percent that indicated a planet may have passed in front of the star the brightness dipped once every 15 days the amount of time it takes for the planet to complete a yearly circuit around its star subsequent observations confirmed the signal to be due to a planet and revealed it to be what astronomers call a hot jupiter the ideal kind of planet for the kelt telescopes to spot kelt is short for kilodegree extremely little telescope astronomers at ohio state vanderbilt and lehigh university jointly operate two kelts (one each in the northern and southern hemispheres) in order to fill a large gap in the available technologies for finding extrasolar planets the research is featured on the cover of the june 19 2017 issue of nature (credit: nature) other telescopes are designed to look at very faint stars in much small sections of the sky and at very high resolution the kelts in contrast look at millions of very bright stars at once over broad sections of sky and at low resolution its a low-cost means of planet hunting using mostly off-the-shelf technology whereas a traditional astronomical telescope costs millions of dollars to build the hardware for a kelt telescope runs less than $75 000 this discovery is a testament to the discovery power of small telescopes and the ability of citizen scientists to directly contribute to cutting-edge scientific research said joshua pepper lehigh astronomer and assistant professor of physics who built the two kelt telescopes the astronomers hope to take a closer look at kelt-9b with other telescopes including nasas spitzer and hubble space telescopes (hst) and eventually the james webb space telescope observations with hst would enable them to see if the planet really does have a cometary tail and allow them to determine how much longer that planet will survive its current hellish condition study co-authors from ohio state include daniel j stevens marshall c johnson matthew penney andrew gould and richard pogge all of the department of astronomy american partner institutions include vanderbilt university fisk university pennsylvania state university the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics las cumbres observatory global telescope network university of notre dame lehigh university nasa ames research center bay area environmental research institute swarthmore college ipac brigham young university university of california-santa cruz university of wyoming louisiana state university university of louisville spot observatory in nashville westminster college kutztown university university of hawaii university of washington texas a&m university wellesley college and winer observatory in sonoita az international team members are from denmark italy japan portugal switzerland australia germany and south africa the study was largely funded by the national science foundation (nsf) through an nsf career grant nsf paare grant and an nsf graduate research fellowship additional support came from nasa via the jet propulsion laboratory and the exoplanet exploration program; the harvard future faculty leaders postdoctoral fellowship; theodore dunham jr grant from the fund for astronomical research; and the japan society for the promotion of science the teams nature paper a giant planet undergoing extreme-ultraviolet irradiation by its hot massive-star host can be viewed online along with related figures and captions -atm- contact: pam frost gorder (614) 292-9475 or gorder1@osuedu or scott gaudi (614) 292-1914 or gaudi1@osuedu " " share: " " ¬† college station dr tatiana erukhimova instructional associate professor of physics and astronomy has been recognized with the 2017 presidential professor for teaching excellence award the most prestigious faculty honor bestowed by texas a&m university in recognition of classroom performance dr tatiana erukhimova erukhimova joins dr reuben a buford may professor of sociology and glasscock university professor in undergraduate teaching excellence in the college of liberal arts in being honored with the award announced wednesday (may 10) by texas a&m president michael k young transformational learning is imperative to the success of texas a&m and the capabilities of our students to change the world young said i am proud to recognize the excellent teaching of dr may and dr erukhimova with this honor the prestigious award established in 2003 by former texas a&m president robert m gates to underscore the importance of teaching at a major research university provides for presentation each spring of two presidential professor for teaching excellence awards each comes with a one-time after-tax $25 000 stipend that includes the title of presidential professor for teaching excellence a designation retained by the recipient for the remainder of his or her career the two professors selected each year are formally introduced at the universitys spring commencement ceremonies at which their respective colleges will award degrees a lecture series also is being planned for the upcoming academic year in which both professors will share their expertise with colleagues and continuing enhancement for transformational learning at texas a&m erukhimova a faculty member in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2006 earned her phd from the russian academy of sciences her passion for inspiring learning through science has motivated the creation of several innovative programs that integrate education with science outreach and community service including deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) the texas a&m physics show just add science and real physics live in addition erukhimova coordinates the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival an event that attracts several thousand visitors to campus each spring by combining high expectations with devoted support erukhimova transforms the relationship her students have with physics building confidence and instilling success by helping them as one student put it to see physics everywhere as another student said her lectures skillfully blend the intensity of physics with an atmosphere of excitement and fun watch tatiana erukhimova present physics as a street art as part of tedxtamu in april 2016: erukhimova is a co-author along with texas a&m distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences dr gerald r north of the textbook atmospheric thermodynamics published by cambridge university press (2009) a three-time recipient of the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award for teaching one university level and two college level she also was recognized three times as part of the texas a&m university system student led awards for teaching excellence (slate) program in addition erukhimova has received the john e trott jr award in student recruiting and the sigma xi outstanding science communicator award erukhimova perfecting one of her famous balloon animals as part of just add science featured each month in conjunction with the downtown bryan associations first friday festivities nominations for the presidential professor awards are made by students faculty members and deans in each of the universitys colleges and schools to be eligible for the award nominees must be full-time faculty and hold the rank of lecturer senior lecturer assistant professor associate professor professor or distinguished professor erukhimova is the seventh college of science faculty member to merit the coveted honor since its inception in 2003 the same year in which fellow physics professor dr william h bassichis earned selection as one of the awards two inaugural recipients chemistry professors dr david e bergbreiter (2006) the late dr john l hogg (2007) dr wendy l keeney-kennicutt (2009) and dr larry brown (2013) also received the honor in 2012 mathematics professor dr harold p boas became the first recipient in the department of mathematics history # # # # # # # # # # about texas a&m university: texas a&m university established in 1876 as the first public university in texas is one of the nations largest universities with more than 66 000 students and more than 427 000 living alumni residing in over 150 countries around the world a tier-one university texas a&m holds the rare triple land- sea- and space-grant designation research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world the schools lead by example campaign is a comprehensive effort to raise $4 billion by the year 2020 making it the largest higher education campaign in texas history and the second largest conducted nationally by a public university aggies are known for their deep commitment to the success of each other and a strong desire to serve to learn more about texas a&m visit http://wwwtamuedu/about/at-a-glancehtml -atm- contact: chad wootton associate vice president for external affairs (979) 845-4016 or c-wootton@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics and astronomys tatiana erukhimova earns presidential professor award appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " dr tatiana erukhimova instructional associate professor of physics and astronomy has been recognized with the 2017 presidential professor for teaching excellence award the most prestigious faculty honor bestowed by texas a&m university in recognition of classroom performance dr tatiana erukhimova erukhimova joins dr reuben a buford may professor of sociology and glasscock university professor in undergraduate teaching excellence in the college of liberal arts in being honored with the award announced wednesday (may 10) by texas a&m president michael k young transformational learning is imperative to the success of texas a&m and the capabilities of our students to change the world young said i am proud to recognize the excellent teaching of dr may and dr erukhimova with this honor the prestigious award established in 2003 by former texas a&m president robert m gates to underscore the importance of teaching at a major research university provides for presentation each spring of two presidential professor for teaching excellence awards each comes with a one-time after-tax $25 000 stipend that includes the title of presidential professor for teaching excellence a designation retained by the recipient for the remainder of his or her career the two professors selected each year are formally introduced at the universitys spring commencement ceremonies at which their respective colleges will award degrees a lecture series also is being planned for the upcoming academic year in which both professors will share their expertise with colleagues and continuing enhancement for transformational learning at texas a&m erukhimova a faculty member in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2006 earned her phd from the russian academy of sciences her passion for inspiring learning through science has motivated the creation of several innovative programs that integrate education with science outreach and community service including deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) the texas a&m physics show just add science and real physics live in addition erukhimova coordinates the annual texas a&m physics and engineering festival an event that attracts several thousand visitors to campus each spring by combining high expectations with devoted support erukhimova transforms the relationship her students have with physics building confidence and instilling success by helping them as one student put it to see physics everywhere as another student said her lectures skillfully blend the intensity of physics with an atmosphere of excitement and fun watch tatiana erukhimova present physics as a street art as part of tedxtamu in april 2016: erukhimova is a co-author along with texas a&m distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences dr gerald r north of the textbook atmospheric thermodynamics published by cambridge university press (2009) a three-time recipient of the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award for teaching one university level and two college level she also was recognized three times as part of the texas a&m university system student led awards for teaching excellence (slate) program in addition erukhimova has received the john e trott jr award in student recruiting and the sigma xi outstanding science communicator award erukhimova perfecting one of her famous balloon animals as part of just add science featured each month in conjunction with the downtown bryan associations first friday festivities nominations for the presidential professor awards are made by students faculty members and deans in each of the universitys colleges and schools to be eligible for the award nominees must be full-time faculty and hold the rank of lecturer senior lecturer assistant professor associate professor professor or distinguished professor erukhimova is the seventh college of science faculty member to merit the coveted honor since its inception in 2003 the same year in which fellow physics professor dr william h bassichis earned selection as one of the awards two inaugural recipients chemistry professors dr david e bergbreiter (2006) the late dr john l hogg (2007) dr wendy l keeney-kennicutt (2009) and dr larry brown (2013) also received the honor in 2012 mathematics professor dr harold p boas became the first recipient in the department of mathematics history # # # # # # # # # # about texas a&m university: texas a&m university established in 1876 as the first public university in texas is one of the nations largest universities with more than 66 000 students and more than 427 000 living alumni residing in over 150 countries around the world a tier-one university texas a&m holds the rare triple land- sea- and space-grant designation research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world the schools lead by example campaign is a comprehensive effort to raise $4 billion by the year 2020 making it the largest higher education campaign in texas history and the second largest conducted nationally by a public university aggies are known for their deep commitment to the success of each other and a strong desire to serve to learn more about texas a&m visit http://wwwtamuedu/about/at-a-glancehtml -atm- contact: chad wootton associate vice president for external affairs (979) 845-4016 or c-wootton@tamuedu " " ¬† college station one of the most heated debates in science surrounds the existence of supersymmetry a theoretical model of physics predicting that each known particle in the universe has an undiscovered partner particle its a theory with legs in no small part because of its alluring potential to explain dark matter and dark energy which jointly account for roughly 95 percent of the universe and to tie together cosmology and particle physics at the earliest moments after the big bang discovery of the higgs boson plays a crucial role in providing proof of supersymmetry an essential component of m-theory which texas a&ms melanie becker describes as the unique quantum theory of gravity that unifies all superstring theories into a single theory (credit: cern) whether supersymmetry is proven or disproven one thing is certain: either result is expected to spawn a particle physics revolution whats not debatable however is that both breakthrough scenarios involve a substantial amount of sophisticated mathematics to that end a texas a&m university team led by physics professors katrin becker and melanie becker recently succeeded in computing the action of 11-dimensional supergravity resulting from a 7-dimensional kaluza-klein compactification including all massive fields the team also featured postdoctoral researchers daniel butter daniel robbins (now an assistant professor at the university of albany) and william linch as well as graduate student sunny guha for many years string theorists thought that it is only possible to calculate the massless fields of a realistic kaluza-klein compactification melanie becker says new fields continue to emerge in the supersymmetry multiplets that have not emerged in any previous description what does all this mean we do not know yet but it is clear that fascinating discoveries are waiting for their explanation dr katrin becker as for the explanation behind kaluza-klein katrin becker notes that it was the year 1921 when theodor kaluza discovered the beautiful idea that gravitation and electromagnetism might be unified in a theory of five-dimensional riemannian geometry a few years later the idea was further developed by oscar klein using quantum physics and many others thereafter and has since then been termed kaluza-klein or kk theory the basic idea is very simple katrin becker explains consider general relativity the geometric theory of gravitation published by albert einstein in 1915 and our current description of gravitation in modern physics in a five-dimensional view of space-time that is the product of an extremely small circle times our four-dimensional extended world an observer cannot see the small circle yet its properties are felt clearly the observer notices the four-dimensional gravitational force as well as an electromagnetic force he also becomes aware of the presence of a massless bosonic field along with an infinite tower of massive fields string theory has been described as one of the most ambitious and exciting theories ever proposed the long-sought theory of everything that eluded even einstein it postulates that 11 dimensions exist in nature seven of which remain curled up and invisible as opposed to einsteins three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time which are rolled out or flat allowing them to be seen many theoretical physicists including stephen hawking propose that the self-contained mathematical model is indeed the framework for all fundamental forces and forms of matter not to mention the only viable candidate to unify gravity with quantum theory as a real-world example melanie becker notes that we can observe boson particles which essentially are the force-carriers along with fermions that constitute the matter we see in our universe the quarks and leptons she describes supersymmetry as an elegant symmetry that rotates these bosons and fermions dr melanie becker such a symmetry is not manifest in our everyday lives melanie becker adds it is broken but it is believed it can be seen at very high energies in a particle accelerator the experimental high-energy physics group at texas a&m is carefully searching to find evidence for supersymmetry from the mathematical point of view the maximal dimension of space-time in which supersymmetry can live is 11 and indeed in 1978 cremmer julia and scherk constructed the unique theory describing supergravity in 11 dimensions incidentally this is the low-energy limit of m-theory the unique quantum theory of gravity that unifies all superstring theories into a single theory to come down from or compactify 11 space-time dimensions to the four we see katrin becker says the simple circle she describes above needs to be replaced by a small and compact seven-dimensional riemannian manifold but theres a catch: not every seven-dimensional manifold is allowed mathematicians tell us that the phenomenologically most interesting case of n=1 supersymmetry emerges if the small internal manifold has g2 holonomy katrin becker explains the holonomy of a manifold is a property of its shape that describes how much you rotate as you move around the manifold melanie (left) and katrin becker pictured in 2005 at harvard university prior to coming to texas a&m university (credit: tony rinaldo / harvard university) the becker sisters experts in string theory who were recruited to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as part of former texas a&m president robert m gates faculty reinvestment program both came to texas a&m in fall 2006 after completing yearlong fellowships at harvard universitys radcliffe institute for advanced study along with fellow george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy researchers christopher pope and ergin sezgin they focus on understanding gravity and gauge theories at the most fundamental level to learn more about supersymmetry and other high-energy theory related research underway in the mitchell institute visit http://mitchelltamuedu/research/high-energy-theory/ watch world-famous string theorist and bestselling author brian greene explain possible evidence for supersymmetrys existence in this youtube video from world science u: # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr katrin becker (979) 458-7913 or kbecker@physicstamuedu or dr melanie becker (979) 458-7912 or mbecker@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m sister physicists propose kaluza-klein theory without truncation appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " one of the most heated debates in science surrounds the existence of supersymmetry a theoretical model of physics predicting that each known particle in the universe has an undiscovered partner particle its a theory with legs in no small part because of its alluring potential to explain dark matter and dark energy which jointly account for roughly 95 percent of the universe and to tie together cosmology and particle physics at the earliest moments after the big bang discovery of the higgs boson plays a crucial role in providing proof of supersymmetry an essential component of m-theory which texas a&ms melanie becker describes as the unique quantum theory of gravity that unifies all superstring theories into a single theory (credit: cern) whether supersymmetry is proven or disproven one thing is certain: either result is expected to spawn a particle physics revolution whats not debatable however is that both breakthrough scenarios involve a substantial amount of sophisticated mathematics to that end a texas a&m university team led by physics professors katrin becker and melanie becker recently succeeded in computing the action of 11-dimensional supergravity resulting from a 7-dimensional kaluza-klein compactification including all massive fields the team also featured postdoctoral researchers daniel butter daniel robbins (now an assistant professor at the university of albany) and william linch as well as graduate student sunny guha for many years string theorists thought that it is only possible to calculate the massless fields of a realistic kaluza-klein compactification melanie becker says new fields continue to emerge in the supersymmetry multiplets that have not emerged in any previous description what does all this mean we do not know yet but it is clear that fascinating discoveries are waiting for their explanation dr katrin becker as for the explanation behind kaluza-klein katrin becker notes that it was the year 1921 when theodor kaluza discovered the beautiful idea that gravitation and electromagnetism might be unified in a theory of five-dimensional riemannian geometry a few years later the idea was further developed by oscar klein using quantum physics and many others thereafter and has since then been termed kaluza-klein or kk theory the basic idea is very simple katrin becker explains consider general relativity the geometric theory of gravitation published by albert einstein in 1915 and our current description of gravitation in modern physics in a five-dimensional view of space-time that is the product of an extremely small circle times our four-dimensional extended world an observer cannot see the small circle yet its properties are felt clearly the observer notices the four-dimensional gravitational force as well as an electromagnetic force he also becomes aware of the presence of a massless bosonic field along with an infinite tower of massive fields string theory has been described as one of the most ambitious and exciting theories ever proposed the long-sought theory of everything that eluded even einstein it postulates that 11 dimensions exist in nature seven of which remain curled up and invisible as opposed to einsteins three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time which are rolled out or flat allowing them to be seen many theoretical physicists including stephen hawking propose that the self-contained mathematical model is indeed the framework for all fundamental forces and forms of matter not to mention the only viable candidate to unify gravity with quantum theory as a real-world example melanie becker notes that we can observe boson particles which essentially are the force-carriers along with fermions that constitute the matter we see in our universe the quarks and leptons she describes supersymmetry as an elegant symmetry that rotates these bosons and fermions dr melanie becker such a symmetry is not manifest in our everyday lives melanie becker adds it is broken but it is believed it can be seen at very high energies in a particle accelerator the experimental high-energy physics group at texas a&m is carefully searching to find evidence for supersymmetry from the mathematical point of view the maximal dimension of space-time in which supersymmetry can live is 11 and indeed in 1978 cremmer julia and scherk constructed the unique theory describing supergravity in 11 dimensions incidentally this is the low-energy limit of m-theory the unique quantum theory of gravity that unifies all superstring theories into a single theory to come down from or compactify 11 space-time dimensions to the four we see katrin becker says the simple circle she describes above needs to be replaced by a small and compact seven-dimensional riemannian manifold but theres a catch: not every seven-dimensional manifold is allowed mathematicians tell us that the phenomenologically most interesting case of n=1 supersymmetry emerges if the small internal manifold has g2 holonomy katrin becker explains the holonomy of a manifold is a property of its shape that describes how much you rotate as you move around the manifold melanie (left) and katrin becker pictured in 2005 at harvard university prior to coming to texas a&m university (credit: tony rinaldo / harvard university) the becker sisters experts in string theory who were recruited to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as part of former texas a&m president robert m gates faculty reinvestment program both came to texas a&m in fall 2006 after completing yearlong fellowships at harvard universitys radcliffe institute for advanced study along with fellow george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy researchers christopher pope and ergin sezgin they focus on understanding gravity and gauge theories at the most fundamental level to learn more about supersymmetry and other high-energy theory related research underway in the mitchell institute visit http://mitchelltamuedu/research/high-energy-theory/ watch world-famous string theorist and bestselling author brian greene explain possible evidence for supersymmetrys existence in this youtube video from world science u: # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr katrin becker (979) 458-7913 or kbecker@physicstamuedu or dr melanie becker (979) 458-7912 or mbecker@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station an international team of astronomers including two from texas a&m university has for the first time spotted a massive inactive galaxy from a time when the universe was only 165 billion years old astronomers expect most galaxies from this epoch to be low-mass minnows busily forming stars however this galaxy is a monster and inactive according to professor karl glazebrook director of the center for astrophysics and supercomputing at swinburne university of technology glazebrook led the research team that found the massive galaxy known as zf-cosmos-20115 critical to this discovery were the observations taken by texas a&m astronomer dr kim-vy tran a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and a co-author of the teams paper and glazebrook using telescopes at the wm keck observatory in hawaii dr kim-vy tran by measuring the galaxys incredibly faint light the team determined that this behemoth formed all its stars (three times more than our milky way today) within a comparatively short time period through an extreme star-burst event curiously it stopped forming stars only a billion years after the big bang becoming a quiescent or red and dead galaxy which are common in our universe today but not expected to exist at this ancient epoch in addition the galaxy is small and extremely dense with 300 billion stars crammed into a region of space about the same size as the distance from the sun to the nearby orion nebula the teams findings are published online today (april 5) and included in this weeks edition of the journal nature the international group representing five countries (australia germany the netherlands switzerland and the united states) and eight institutions is primarily composed of the same researchers included in the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (z-fourge) collaboration first formed in 2009 and whose final data released in august 2016 is hosted by texas a&m the galaxy appears red because it is dominated by the light from lower-mass stars like our sun which are redder than the massive stars that only exist for a short period after stars form said texas a&m astronomer dr casey papovich also a mitchell institute member and a co-author essentially red means that all the galaxys stars formed in the more distant past and that all its high-mass blue stars have died off already watch a video describing the massive dead galaxy and illustrating the remarkable contrast in properties between this early galaxy and our own milky way galaxy today: astrophysicists are still debating just how galaxies stop forming stars until recently models suggested dead galaxies or red nuggets such as this one should only exist from around 3 billion years after the big bang through this new spectroscopic detection we have now shown that dead galaxies with large masses comparable to the age of the universe at that time formed way earlier than that glazebrook said this discovery sets a new record for the earliest massive red galaxy it is an incredibly rare find that poses a new challenge to galaxy evolution models to accommodate the existence of such galaxies much earlier in the universe the teams research builds on an earlier swinburne-led study that suggested such dead galaxies could exist based on finding dim red objects in extremely deep near-infrared images for their most recent study the astronomers used a powerful new spectrometer called mosfire (multi-object spectrometer for infra-red exploration) that was installed at keck in 2012 and is 25 times more light-sensitive than others of its kind the ultra-sensitive mosfire enabled the team to probe deeper into space and closer to the big bang by taking deep spectra at near-infrared wavelengths in order to seek out definitive features that would signify the presence of old stars and a lack of active star formation thereby confirming the distinctive signatures of these galaxies even when using large telescopes such as keck and its 10-meter mirror tran explains that long viewing times are required to detect absorption lines which are very weak compared to the more prominent emission lines generated by active star-forming galaxies dr casey papovich we used the most powerful telescope in the world but we still needed to stare at this galaxy for more than two nights to reveal its remarkable nature tran said by collecting enough light to measure this galaxys spectrum we can decipher the cosmic narrative of what stars and elements are present in these galaxies and construct a timeline of when they formed their stars the current observed star-formation rate of this galaxy results in less than one-fifth the mass of the sun in new stars each year at its peak 700 million years ago however this galaxy formed stars at an incredibly prolific rate roughly 5 000 times faster this huge galaxy formed like a firecracker in less than 100 million years right at the start of cosmic history glazebrook said it quickly made itself into a monstrous object then just as suddenly it quenched and turned itself off as to how it did this we can only speculate this fast life and death so early in the universe is not predicted by our modern galaxy formation theories co-author dr corentin schreiber of leiden university in holland who first measured the spectrum speculates that these early firecrackers are obscured behind a veil of dust future observations using sub-millimeter wave telescopes will be capable of spotting these trace waves emitted by the hot dust that blocks other light schreiber said in addition to telling us when these firecrackers exploded this information will reveal how big a role these massive galaxies played in developing the primordial universe with the launch of the james webb space telescope in 2018 astronomers will be able to build up large samples of these dead galaxies due to its high sensitivity large mirror and lack of atmospheric interference in space the telescope will be able to detect spectra up to mid-infrared wavelengths that cannot be observed with current ground-based telescopes because of the effects of the earths atmosphere enabling astronomers to determine the constraints on galaxy properties with vastly improved precision glazebrook says the team is actively working to secure observation time with this new telescope in addition to glazebrook tran papovich and schreiber the international research team includes astronomers from the university of geneva; australian astronomical observatory the australian national university and macquarie university in australia; and the max planck institute for astronomy in germany the teams paper a massive quiescent galaxy at redshift of z-3717 can be viewed online along with related images and captions to learn more about tran papovich or texas a&m astronomy go to http://mitchelltamuedu/research/astronomy/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979( 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 862-2704 or vy@physicstamuedu the post astronomers discover earliest ancient dead galaxy giving pause to modern galaxy evolution theories appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " an international team of astronomers including two from texas a&m university has for the first time spotted a massive inactive galaxy from a time when the universe was only 165 billion years old astronomers expect most galaxies from this epoch to be low-mass minnows busily forming stars however this galaxy is a monster and inactive according to professor karl glazebrook director of the center for astrophysics and supercomputing at swinburne university of technology glazebrook led the research team that found the massive galaxy known as zf-cosmos-20115 critical to this discovery were the observations taken by texas a&m astronomer dr kim-vy tran a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and a co-author of the teams paper and glazebrook using telescopes at the wm keck observatory in hawaii dr kim-vy tran by measuring the galaxys incredibly faint light the team determined that this behemoth formed all its stars (three times more than our milky way today) within a comparatively short time period through an extreme star-burst event curiously it stopped forming stars only a billion years after the big bang becoming a quiescent or red and dead galaxy which are common in our universe today but not expected to exist at this ancient epoch in addition the galaxy is small and extremely dense with 300 billion stars crammed into a region of space about the same size as the distance from the sun to the nearby orion nebula the teams findings are published online today (april 5) and included in this weeks edition of the journal nature the international group representing five countries (australia germany the netherlands switzerland and the united states) and eight institutions is primarily composed of the same researchers included in the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (z-fourge) collaboration first formed in 2009 and whose final data released in august 2016 is hosted by texas a&m the galaxy appears red because it is dominated by the light from lower-mass stars like our sun which are redder than the massive stars that only exist for a short period after stars form said texas a&m astronomer dr casey papovich also a mitchell institute member and a co-author essentially red means that all the galaxys stars formed in the more distant past and that all its high-mass blue stars have died off already watch a video describing the massive dead galaxy and illustrating the remarkable contrast in properties between this early galaxy and our own milky way galaxy today: astrophysicists are still debating just how galaxies stop forming stars until recently models suggested dead galaxies or red nuggets such as this one should only exist from around 3 billion years after the big bang through this new spectroscopic detection we have now shown that dead galaxies with large masses comparable to the age of the universe at that time formed way earlier than that glazebrook said this discovery sets a new record for the earliest massive red galaxy it is an incredibly rare find that poses a new challenge to galaxy evolution models to accommodate the existence of such galaxies much earlier in the universe the teams research builds on an earlier swinburne-led study that suggested such dead galaxies could exist based on finding dim red objects in extremely deep near-infrared images for their most recent study the astronomers used a powerful new spectrometer called mosfire (multi-object spectrometer for infra-red exploration) that was installed at keck in 2012 and is 25 times more light-sensitive than others of its kind the ultra-sensitive mosfire enabled the team to probe deeper into space and closer to the big bang by taking deep spectra at near-infrared wavelengths in order to seek out definitive features that would signify the presence of old stars and a lack of active star formation thereby confirming the distinctive signatures of these galaxies even when using large telescopes such as keck and its 10-meter mirror tran explains that long viewing times are required to detect absorption lines which are very weak compared to the more prominent emission lines generated by active star-forming galaxies dr casey papovich we used the most powerful telescope in the world but we still needed to stare at this galaxy for more than two nights to reveal its remarkable nature tran said by collecting enough light to measure this galaxys spectrum we can decipher the cosmic narrative of what stars and elements are present in these galaxies and construct a timeline of when they formed their stars the current observed star-formation rate of this galaxy results in less than one-fifth the mass of the sun in new stars each year at its peak 700 million years ago however this galaxy formed stars at an incredibly prolific rate roughly 5 000 times faster this huge galaxy formed like a firecracker in less than 100 million years right at the start of cosmic history glazebrook said it quickly made itself into a monstrous object then just as suddenly it quenched and turned itself off as to how it did this we can only speculate this fast life and death so early in the universe is not predicted by our modern galaxy formation theories co-author dr corentin schreiber of leiden university in holland who first measured the spectrum speculates that these early firecrackers are obscured behind a veil of dust future observations using sub-millimeter wave telescopes will be capable of spotting these trace waves emitted by the hot dust that blocks other light schreiber said in addition to telling us when these firecrackers exploded this information will reveal how big a role these massive galaxies played in developing the primordial universe with the launch of the james webb space telescope in 2018 astronomers will be able to build up large samples of these dead galaxies due to its high sensitivity large mirror and lack of atmospheric interference in space the telescope will be able to detect spectra up to mid-infrared wavelengths that cannot be observed with current ground-based telescopes because of the effects of the earths atmosphere enabling astronomers to determine the constraints on galaxy properties with vastly improved precision glazebrook says the team is actively working to secure observation time with this new telescope in addition to glazebrook tran papovich and schreiber the international research team includes astronomers from the university of geneva; australian astronomical observatory the australian national university and macquarie university in australia; and the max planck institute for astronomy in germany the teams paper a massive quiescent galaxy at redshift of z-3717 can be viewed online along with related images and captions to learn more about tran papovich or texas a&m astronomy go to http://mitchelltamuedu/research/astronomy/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979( 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 862-2704 or vy@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station texas a&m university astronomer jonelle walsh doesnt sugar-coat things regarding sciences understanding of the mysterious cosmic phenomenon known as supermassive black holes dr jonelle walsh theres simply a lot we dont know walsh said with emphasis on the a lot part walsh however is not one to shy away from a challenge as a texas a&m mitchell institute postdoctoral fellow in astronomy whos only six years removed from receiving her phd at the university of california irvine in 2011 she is the principal investigator of a 30-member international collaboration not to mention the only representative from texas a&m that is examining the correlation between supermassive black holes and the galaxies in which they exist walshs study is part of the gemini observatorys large and long program which grants extra observation hours to high-impact projects according to the gemini observatorys official website the extended observation period is intended to provide a greater flexibility for research and promote collaborations across the partnerships communities walsh and her team are conducting their research at the 81-meter gemini north telescope situated near the summit of mauna kea in hilo hawaii where they have been allocated 253 observing hours over the next three years our gemini large and long program is aimed at trying to understand the connection between black holes and galaxies by studying a wide variety of galaxies walsh said currently the easiest galaxies to observe and model have been studied but they are not representative of the nearby galaxy population therefore our understanding of the interplay between black holes and their host galaxies and our interpretation of how they grow and evolve together could be biased i think theres a real niche here for gemini to be able to make an impact on the field of supermassive black holes im just really excited about it i think we can do some really interesting science and there is a lot to learn before joining the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in fall 2014 walsh spent three years as a national science foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow at the university of texas at austin her research focuses on measuring the masses of black holes via stellar and gas-dynamical methods using high-performance computing resources and observations from high angular resolution facilities including the gemini and keck telescopes the hubble space telescope and the atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array jonelle walsh working to solve the mysteries of the universe while observing at the gemini north hilo base facilitys control room (credit: gemini observatory) supermassive black holes are the largest type of black hole like the more common stellar-mass black holes supermassive black holes have existed since the infancy of the universe some 800 million years after the big bang their gravitational pull is so powerful not even light can escape stellar-mass black holes are believed to form when the center of an immense star collapses upon itself at the end of its life and compresses into an incredibly dense matter supermassive black holes on the other hand contain between a million and a billion times more mass and are found at the center of almost every known galaxy how these galactic behemoths were able to get so huge so relatively soon after the formation of the universe is a question that has stumped scientists for decades walsh says that based on previous studies the size of supermassive black holes seems to be interdependent on the galaxy in which it resides suggesting that they somehow grow together there is a chicken and egg problem walsh said did the black hole come first and the galaxy grew around it or did the galaxy come first and a black hole formed at the center or maybe somehow both objects formed together and have been growing in lock-step with one another over time thats one of the questions im interested in eventually answering walshs group plans to observe the black holes of 30 different galaxies during the next three years by measuring the speed and motion of nearby orbiting stars the team can construct dynamical models in order to infer the mass of each black hole its a two-step process that fittingly begins in texas specifically with the telescopes at the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory which walsh uses to analyze the outer galaxy parts once that phase is complete she looks to the gemini north telescope and similar 8-to-10-meter-class telescopes to measure the inner parts where the so-called sphere of influence of the black hole is european southern observatory image of a nearby galaxy centaurus a (ngc 5128) that hosts a supermassive black hole while walshs team isnt targeting this particular galaxy which has already been studied they are observing similar galaxies (credit: eso) an integral feature of the gemini north telescope that walshs team will be taking advantage of is its altitude conjugate adaptive optics for infrared (altair) system which is capable of correcting image distortions caused by the earths atmosphere to produce high-resolution data the gemini observations are really important for probing the innermost regions of galaxies walsh said we can obtain very sharp images; its almost like observing from space because gemini is also a very large telescope it allows us to collect a lot of light at the same time so that we can target objects that are pretty faint despite the fact that her large and long project is in the early stages walsh predicts the quality and sheer volume of data they obtain at the end of three years will require several more years of analysis were really pushing the boundaries of what we can do observationally and with the modeling walsh said at the end of three years hopefully we can have a more complete census of the local black holes we just want to gain a more fundamental understanding of how black hole masses and galaxies are connected for more information about walshs study addressing a bias in the relation between galaxies and their central black holes visit http://wwwgeminiedu/node/12610 learn more about walsh and her research as well as texas a&m astronomy research group # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jonelle walsh (979) 845-7778 or walsh@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomer explores connection between supermassive black holes and their home galaxies appeared first on college of science ¬† share: " " texas a&m university astronomer jonelle walsh doesnt sugar-coat things regarding sciences understanding of the mysterious cosmic phenomenon known as supermassive black holes dr jonelle walsh theres simply a lot we dont know walsh said with emphasis on the a lot part walsh however is not one to shy away from a challenge as a texas a&m mitchell institute postdoctoral fellow in astronomy whos only six years removed from receiving her phd at the university of california irvine in 2011 she is the principal investigator of a 30-member international collaboration not to mention the only representative from texas a&m that is examining the correlation between supermassive black holes and the galaxies in which they exist walshs study is part of the gemini observatorys large and long program which grants extra observation hours to high-impact projects according to the gemini observatorys official website the extended observation period is intended to provide a greater flexibility for research and promote collaborations across the partnerships communities walsh and her team are conducting their research at the 81-meter gemini north telescope situated near the summit of mauna kea in hilo hawaii where they have been allocated 253 observing hours over the next three years our gemini large and long program is aimed at trying to understand the connection between black holes and galaxies by studying a wide variety of galaxies walsh said currently the easiest galaxies to observe and model have been studied but they are not representative of the nearby galaxy population therefore our understanding of the interplay between black holes and their host galaxies and our interpretation of how they grow and evolve together could be biased i think theres a real niche here for gemini to be able to make an impact on the field of supermassive black holes im just really excited about it i think we can do some really interesting science and there is a lot to learn before joining the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in fall 2014 walsh spent three years as a national science foundation astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow at the university of texas at austin her research focuses on measuring the masses of black holes via stellar and gas-dynamical methods using high-performance computing resources and observations from high angular resolution facilities including the gemini and keck telescopes the hubble space telescope and the atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array jonelle walsh working to solve the mysteries of the universe while observing at the gemini north hilo base facilitys control room (credit: gemini observatory) supermassive black holes are the largest type of black hole like the more common stellar-mass black holes supermassive black holes have existed since the infancy of the universe some 800 million years after the big bang their gravitational pull is so powerful not even light can escape stellar-mass black holes are believed to form when the center of an immense star collapses upon itself at the end of its life and compresses into an incredibly dense matter supermassive black holes on the other hand contain between a million and a billion times more mass and are found at the center of almost every known galaxy how these galactic behemoths were able to get so huge so relatively soon after the formation of the universe is a question that has stumped scientists for decades walsh says that based on previous studies the size of supermassive black holes seems to be interdependent on the galaxy in which it resides suggesting that they somehow grow together there is a chicken and egg problem walsh said did the black hole come first and the galaxy grew around it or did the galaxy come first and a black hole formed at the center or maybe somehow both objects formed together and have been growing in lock-step with one another over time thats one of the questions im interested in eventually answering walshs group plans to observe the black holes of 30 different galaxies during the next three years by measuring the speed and motion of nearby orbiting stars the team can construct dynamical models in order to infer the mass of each black hole its a two-step process that fittingly begins in texas specifically with the telescopes at the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory which walsh uses to analyze the outer galaxy parts once that phase is complete she looks to the gemini north telescope and similar 8-to-10-meter-class telescopes to measure the inner parts where the so-called sphere of influence of the black hole is european southern observatory image of a nearby galaxy centaurus a (ngc 5128) that hosts a supermassive black hole while walshs team isnt targeting this particular galaxy which has already been studied they are observing similar galaxies (credit: eso) an integral feature of the gemini north telescope that walshs team will be taking advantage of is its altitude conjugate adaptive optics for infrared (altair) system which is capable of correcting image distortions caused by the earths atmosphere to produce high-resolution data the gemini observations are really important for probing the innermost regions of galaxies walsh said we can obtain very sharp images; its almost like observing from space because gemini is also a very large telescope it allows us to collect a lot of light at the same time so that we can target objects that are pretty faint despite the fact that her large and long project is in the early stages walsh predicts the quality and sheer volume of data they obtain at the end of three years will require several more years of analysis were really pushing the boundaries of what we can do observationally and with the modeling walsh said at the end of three years hopefully we can have a more complete census of the local black holes we just want to gain a more fundamental understanding of how black hole masses and galaxies are connected for more information about walshs study addressing a bias in the relation between galaxies and their central black holes visit http://wwwgeminiedu/node/12610 learn more about walsh and her research as well as texas a&m astronomy research group # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jonelle walsh (979) 845-7778 or walsh@physicstamuedu " " college station six members of the college of science are among the 24 texas a&m university faculty and staff set to be honored by the university and the association of former students with 2017 distinguished achievement awards the awards and their respective recipients from texas a&m science (which ties the previous record of six honorees set in both 2012 and 2005) are as follows: teaching (10 given university-wide) dr james d batteas chemistry dr alan dabney statistics research (6 given university-wide) dr paul e hardin biology dr casey j papovich physics and astronomy dr hongcai joe zhou 00 chemistry graduate mentoring (2 given university-wide) dr yalchin efendiev mathematics the university-level distinguished achievement awards were first presented in 1955 and have since been awarded to more than 1 000 professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at texas a&m the 2017 distinguished achievement awards will be formally presented at 1:30 pm on monday april 24 during a ceremony in rudder theater in recognition of their achievements each recipient will receive a cash gift an engraved watch and a commemorative plaque for more information about the awards contact kelli hutka 97 at the association of former students at (979) 845-7514 the association of former students was established in 1879 and is the official alumni organization of texas a&m university the association connects hundreds of thousands of members of the worldwide aggie network with one another and the university and provides more than $117 million a year in impact toward university scholarships awards activities and enrichment for students faculty staff and former students # # # # # # # # # # brief biographies on each recipient as included in the official event program appear below: james d batteas james d batteas james batteas professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 he earned his phd in chemistry from the university of california at berkeley an author of nearly 100 publications batteas is an expert in materials chemistry of surfaces and interfaces with research covering a broad range of fundamental surface and interfacial problems including designing materials to harness energy and to control energy losses by reducing friction in machined interfaces through studies of friction at the atomic scale he teaches courses in physical and analytical chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has been involved in a number of educational innovations including the complete revision of the physical chemistry lab curriculum toward this effort he developed a new laboratory module on scanning tunneling microscopy designed to engage students in cutting-edge research techniques while introducing and reinforcing topics in physical chemistry quantum mechanics solid state chemistry and the electronic structure of molecules and materials in his 11 years at texas a&m he has trained and graduated 11 phd students and three masters students while sponsoring 22 undergraduates on research projects in his lab most recently he developed a week-long course on nanotechnology offered as part of the texas a&m youth adventure program to engage 7th-10th grade students in stem a former student wrote that his demonstrated teaching excellence and love for chemistry has been the catalyst for many students to explore the exciting world of nanoscience a current student commented this being an 8 am class i thought itd be harder to stay awake and absorb information thanks to dr batteas and his enthusiasm i never found myself falling asleep and i was easily able to stay focused in class alan dabney alan dabney alan dabney associate professor of statistics earned a phd in biostatistics from the university of washington since joining the college of science faculty in 2006 dabney has dedicated himself to undergraduate teaching his particular strengths are in transforming complicated material into easily accessible lessons and in developing inventive curriculum that can be used by other faculty his innovative approach to teaching is exemplified by his creation of an educational video that features him on green screen with special effects as he presents statistics lectures to undergraduates the video was so successful that freeman publishing secured his services for the production of a series of 35 similar video lectures on introductory statistics dabney has co-authored the cartoon introduction to statistics which presents introductory statistics material in a graphic novel format effectively using unique visual techniques creatively to teach key concepts of statistics in addition he has published a computer simulation in the journal teaching statistics that can be used in the classroom to teach introductory statistics he also was instrumental in the development of the new bachelor of science degree in statistics and along with a faculty colleague serves as co-advisor for all students in the new major dabney is the recipient of the association of former students college-level award for teaching the texas a&m montague-center for teaching excellence scholar award and the eppright professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence a former undergraduate student wrote this about working on statistics research with dabney: this was a formative experience for me which revealed to me the excitement and creativity that exists in current statistics research a perspective that is all too difficult to see when taking a typical introductory statistics class paul e hardin paul e hardin paul hardin university distinguished professor and holder of the john w lyons jr 59 chair in biology earned his phd in genetics from indiana university following postdoctoral training at brandeis university he was a faculty member of the biology faculty at texas a&m university as an assistant professor from 1991 to 1995 he then moved to the university of houston as an associate professor with tenure and was later promoted to professor he returned the faculty of the texas a&m college of science in 2006 hardins research helped to establish the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster as a premier model organism for studying the circadian clock he discovered the first circadian feedback loop in gene expression in the brain of the fruit fly which established the mechanistic framework for circadian timekeeping in circadian transcription interlocking feedback loops within the timekeeping mechanism and the presence of circadian clocks in peripheral tissues each discovery has profoundly affected sciences understanding of the role of the human clock in health and disease in recognition of his contributions to the field of rhythms research hardin received the aschoff-honma prize from the honma life science foundation in japan he served as president of the worlds premier society for the research of circadian biology the society for research on biological rhythms he also belongs to the american association for the advancement of science the genetics society of american and the society for neuroscience he has authored more than 96 publications and been cited more than 6 500 times in many ways the history of pauls work is the history of where the field has gone a colleague from dartmouth university wrote the successful prosecution of this effort has propelled hardin into the top ranks of chronobiologists in the world today dr casey papovich casey j papovich casey papovich professor and co-holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics received his bachelors in physics from the college of william and mary and his doctorate from johns hopkins university before joining the faculty of the college of science in 2008 he was a postdoctoral research associate at the university of arizonas steward observatory led scientific results from nasas spitzer space telescope and was awarded nasas spitzer prize postdoctoral fellowship he is a recognized expert in extragalactic astrophysics with a focus on galaxy formation and cosmology papovich was one of the pioneers using deep imaging from the hubble space telescope to measure the growth of stars in galaxies over the history of the universe he is a frequent user of the worlds largest ground-based telescopes and he has led large programs with nasas space-based observatories papovichs recent work has important implications for many aspects of subsequent galaxy evolution one of the major science objectives of the next generation of space telescopes his work is helping to define the observing plans for these $5 billion-level projects an indicator of his global impact as of january 2016 he has authored or co-authored more than 190 highly cited peer-reviewed publications for three consecutive years he has been listed among thomson reuters highly cited researchers a distinction reserved for the top one percent of cited researchers hongcai joe zhou hongcai joe zhou 00 hongcai joe zhou professor of chemistry materials science and engineering and holder of the robert a welch chair in chemistry earned his doctorate from texas a&m university under the direction of fa cotton after completing a postdoctoral position at harvard university he served on the faculty of miami university in 2008 zhou returned to texas a&m and in the short time since has developed a truly exceptional internationally recognized research program he ranks among the top three us and top five worldwide researchers in the field of metal-organic frameworks (mofs) known as a pioneer in ligand design and synthesis he also is an expert in kinetic control of mof preparation zhou has received a research innovation award from research corporation an nsf career award a cottrell scholar award from research corporation the miami university distinguished scholar-young investigator award the faculty excellence award from air products and the us department of energy hydrogen program special recognition award he is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science the american chemical society and the royal society of chemistry zhou has published 216 peer-reviewed papers and was recognized as a highly cited researcher by thomson reuters in 2014 2015 and 2016 the only chemist in the texas a&m university system who has achieved this distinction as one supporter states professor zhou has demonstrated an outstanding ability to execute world-class research and attract major research funding there is no question but that his contributions have had a major impact on the field of materials chemistry yalchin efendiev yalchin efendiev yalchin efendiev professor of mathematics and co-holder of the richard e ewing exxonmobil chair in computational science joined the faculty of the college of science in 2001 he earned his phd in applied mathematics from california institute of technology and previously served as a research associate for chevron petroleum technology company and as a postdoctoral research fellow at the university of minnesota he is the director of the institute for scientific computation at texas a&m and the numerical porous media sri center at king abdullah university of science and technology efendiev played a leading role in the development and analysis of the multiscale finite-element method to help solve multiscale problems which involve physical processes acting on different time and length scales as such they encompass many important applications but pose extremely difficult computational challenges along with the development of the multiscale finite-element method he has made pioneering contributions to the application of this technique to porous-media fluid flow including groundwater remediation and oil-recovery modeling efendievs work has been recognized nationally and internationally through awards and honors including being named a fellow of the american mathematical society and receiving the fraunhofer bessel award from the alexander von humboldt foundation as a graduate advisor efendiev has had 22 phd students who have graduated under his supervision since 2004 and he currently is a chair for six more his nominators wrote he is a great mentor to many junior people phd students postdoctoral associates and young researchers within his sphere of influence he has always encouraged them to strive for more accomplishments and never hesitated to give assistance suggestions and encouragement -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post six science faculty earn distinguished achievement awards appeared first on college of science share: " " six members of the college of science are among the 24 texas a&m university faculty and staff set to be honored by the university and the association of former students with 2017 distinguished achievement awards the awards and their respective recipients from texas a&m science (which ties the previous record of six honorees set in both 2012 and 2005) are as follows: teaching (10 given university-wide) dr james d batteas chemistry dr alan dabney statistics research (6 given university-wide) dr paul e hardin biology dr casey j papovich physics and astronomy dr hongcai joe zhou 00 chemistry graduate mentoring (2 given university-wide) dr yalchin efendiev mathematics the university-level distinguished achievement awards were first presented in 1955 and have since been awarded to more than 1 000 professionals who have exhibited the highest standards of excellence at texas a&m the 2017 distinguished achievement awards will be formally presented at 1:30 pm on monday april 24 during a ceremony in rudder theater in recognition of their achievements each recipient will receive a cash gift an engraved watch and a commemorative plaque for more information about the awards contact kelli hutka 97 at the association of former students at (979) 845-7514 the association of former students was established in 1879 and is the official alumni organization of texas a&m university the association connects hundreds of thousands of members of the worldwide aggie network with one another and the university and provides more than $117 million a year in impact toward university scholarships awards activities and enrichment for students faculty staff and former students # # # # # # # # # # brief biographies on each recipient as included in the official event program appear below: james d batteas james d batteas james batteas professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 he earned his phd in chemistry from the university of california at berkeley an author of nearly 100 publications batteas is an expert in materials chemistry of surfaces and interfaces with research covering a broad range of fundamental surface and interfacial problems including designing materials to harness energy and to control energy losses by reducing friction in machined interfaces through studies of friction at the atomic scale he teaches courses in physical and analytical chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has been involved in a number of educational innovations including the complete revision of the physical chemistry lab curriculum toward this effort he developed a new laboratory module on scanning tunneling microscopy designed to engage students in cutting-edge research techniques while introducing and reinforcing topics in physical chemistry quantum mechanics solid state chemistry and the electronic structure of molecules and materials in his 11 years at texas a&m he has trained and graduated 11 phd students and three masters students while sponsoring 22 undergraduates on research projects in his lab most recently he developed a week-long course on nanotechnology offered as part of the texas a&m youth adventure program to engage 7th-10th grade students in stem a former student wrote that his demonstrated teaching excellence and love for chemistry has been the catalyst for many students to explore the exciting world of nanoscience a current student commented this being an 8 am class i thought itd be harder to stay awake and absorb information thanks to dr batteas and his enthusiasm i never found myself falling asleep and i was easily able to stay focused in class alan dabney alan dabney alan dabney associate professor of statistics earned a phd in biostatistics from the university of washington since joining the college of science faculty in 2006 dabney has dedicated himself to undergraduate teaching his particular strengths are in transforming complicated material into easily accessible lessons and in developing inventive curriculum that can be used by other faculty his innovative approach to teaching is exemplified by his creation of an educational video that features him on green screen with special effects as he presents statistics lectures to undergraduates the video was so successful that freeman publishing secured his services for the production of a series of 35 similar video lectures on introductory statistics dabney has co-authored the cartoon introduction to statistics which presents introductory statistics material in a graphic novel format effectively using unique visual techniques creatively to teach key concepts of statistics in addition he has published a computer simulation in the journal teaching statistics that can be used in the classroom to teach introductory statistics he also was instrumental in the development of the new bachelor of science degree in statistics and along with a faculty colleague serves as co-advisor for all students in the new major dabney is the recipient of the association of former students college-level award for teaching the texas a&m montague-center for teaching excellence scholar award and the eppright professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence a former undergraduate student wrote this about working on statistics research with dabney: this was a formative experience for me which revealed to me the excitement and creativity that exists in current statistics research a perspective that is all too difficult to see when taking a typical introductory statistics class paul e hardin paul e hardin paul hardin university distinguished professor and holder of the john w lyons jr 59 chair in biology earned his phd in genetics from indiana university following postdoctoral training at brandeis university he was a faculty member of the biology faculty at texas a&m university as an assistant professor from 1991 to 1995 he then moved to the university of houston as an associate professor with tenure and was later promoted to professor he returned the faculty of the texas a&m college of science in 2006 hardins research helped to establish the fruit fly drosophila melanogaster as a premier model organism for studying the circadian clock he discovered the first circadian feedback loop in gene expression in the brain of the fruit fly which established the mechanistic framework for circadian timekeeping in circadian transcription interlocking feedback loops within the timekeeping mechanism and the presence of circadian clocks in peripheral tissues each discovery has profoundly affected sciences understanding of the role of the human clock in health and disease in recognition of his contributions to the field of rhythms research hardin received the aschoff-honma prize from the honma life science foundation in japan he served as president of the worlds premier society for the research of circadian biology the society for research on biological rhythms he also belongs to the american association for the advancement of science the genetics society of american and the society for neuroscience he has authored more than 96 publications and been cited more than 6 500 times in many ways the history of pauls work is the history of where the field has gone a colleague from dartmouth university wrote the successful prosecution of this effort has propelled hardin into the top ranks of chronobiologists in the world today dr casey papovich casey j papovich casey papovich professor and co-holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics received his bachelors in physics from the college of william and mary and his doctorate from johns hopkins university before joining the faculty of the college of science in 2008 he was a postdoctoral research associate at the university of arizonas steward observatory led scientific results from nasas spitzer space telescope and was awarded nasas spitzer prize postdoctoral fellowship he is a recognized expert in extragalactic astrophysics with a focus on galaxy formation and cosmology papovich was one of the pioneers using deep imaging from the hubble space telescope to measure the growth of stars in galaxies over the history of the universe he is a frequent user of the worlds largest ground-based telescopes and he has led large programs with nasas space-based observatories papovichs recent work has important implications for many aspects of subsequent galaxy evolution one of the major science objectives of the next generation of space telescopes his work is helping to define the observing plans for these $5 billion-level projects an indicator of his global impact as of january 2016 he has authored or co-authored more than 190 highly cited peer-reviewed publications for three consecutive years he has been listed among thomson reuters highly cited researchers a distinction reserved for the top one percent of cited researchers hongcai joe zhou hongcai joe zhou 00 hongcai joe zhou professor of chemistry materials science and engineering and holder of the robert a welch chair in chemistry earned his doctorate from texas a&m university under the direction of fa cotton after completing a postdoctoral position at harvard university he served on the faculty of miami university in 2008 zhou returned to texas a&m and in the short time since has developed a truly exceptional internationally recognized research program he ranks among the top three us and top five worldwide researchers in the field of metal-organic frameworks (mofs) known as a pioneer in ligand design and synthesis he also is an expert in kinetic control of mof preparation zhou has received a research innovation award from research corporation an nsf career award a cottrell scholar award from research corporation the miami university distinguished scholar-young investigator award the faculty excellence award from air products and the us department of energy hydrogen program special recognition award he is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science the american chemical society and the royal society of chemistry zhou has published 216 peer-reviewed papers and was recognized as a highly cited researcher by thomson reuters in 2014 2015 and 2016 the only chemist in the texas a&m university system who has achieved this distinction as one supporter states professor zhou has demonstrated an outstanding ability to execute world-class research and attract major research funding there is no question but that his contributions have had a major impact on the field of materials chemistry yalchin efendiev yalchin efendiev yalchin efendiev professor of mathematics and co-holder of the richard e ewing exxonmobil chair in computational science joined the faculty of the college of science in 2001 he earned his phd in applied mathematics from california institute of technology and previously served as a research associate for chevron petroleum technology company and as a postdoctoral research fellow at the university of minnesota he is the director of the institute for scientific computation at texas a&m and the numerical porous media sri center at king abdullah university of science and technology efendiev played a leading role in the development and analysis of the multiscale finite-element method to help solve multiscale problems which involve physical processes acting on different time and length scales as such they encompass many important applications but pose extremely difficult computational challenges along with the development of the multiscale finite-element method he has made pioneering contributions to the application of this technique to porous-media fluid flow including groundwater remediation and oil-recovery modeling efendievs work has been recognized nationally and internationally through awards and honors including being named a fellow of the american mathematical society and receiving the fraunhofer bessel award from the alexander von humboldt foundation as a graduate advisor efendiev has had 22 phd students who have graduated under his supervision since 2004 and he currently is a chair for six more his nominators wrote he is a great mentor to many junior people phd students postdoctoral associates and young researchers within his sphere of influence he has always encouraged them to strive for more accomplishments and never hesitated to give assistance suggestions and encouragement -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " share: " " college station mathematician dr yvette hester and astronomer dr lucas macri are teaming up to lead undergraduate efforts for the texas a&m university college of science in respective new administrative roles as assistant and associate deans announced dean of science meigan aronson dr yvette hester hester an instructional associate professor and assistant department head for academic professional track faculty affairs in the department of mathematics has been named assistant dean for student affairs macri an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy has been named associate dean for undergraduate programs both appointments are effective january 1 2017 hester will serve as the point person for all student counseling issues progress-to-degree assessment transfer learning community coordination transfer admissions new student conferences and college of science course scheduling macri will provide oversight for all undergraduate curricula across the colleges five departments in addition to the college-level university studies degrees and the science leadership scholars program he also will represent the college on the undergraduate curriculum committee and manage the honors programs the two replace dr timothy p scott one of the longest-serving associate deans in the college of science who originally was appointed in 2000 by the late dr richard e ewing after more than a decade and a half of directing undergraduate programs and assisting with college development and former student relations scott has been named to a university-level post assistant provost for undergraduate studies also effective january 1 2017 i am excited that drs hester and macri have joined our team aronson said separately they are distinguished scientists with wealths of experience in education and student mentorship together they will help the college of science to strengthen and extend the quality and range of the educational opportunities that we offer our students both in the classroom and elsewhere i am very much looking forward to working with drs hester and macri to advance the college dr lucas macri hester joined texas a&m mathematics in 2008 after a previous stint on faculty from 1990 to 2001 and earning both her masters and phd from texas a&m in applied mathematics (1989) and educational statistics and psychometrics (2000) respectively in addition to being a member along with macri of the joint college of science/college of engineering curriculum committee hester has worked on several initiatives related to student success within the department of mathematics during her past five years as an assistant head she also has developed technology-integrated and web-based curricula as well as various honors courses since 2013 hester has chaired the colleges faculty advisory committee to the dean she also brings previous experience as both mathematics chair (2003-07) and dean of instruction (2003-05) at germanna community college macri has been a member of the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 he spent six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) after earning his bachelors of science in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1995 and his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 at texas a&m macris research focuses on measuring the expansion rate of the universe to better determine its composition and evolution he was instrumental in the design of texas a&ms phd in astronomy which was approved by the texas higher education coordinating board in spring 2016 and launched in fall 2016 macri received a 2014 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at the college level and regularly participates in education and public outreach activities on campus and across the state of texas to learn more about undergraduate programs in the texas a&m college of science visit here -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr meigan aronson (979) 845-7361 or maronson@sciencetamuedu the post new assistant associate deans named to lead texas a&m science undergraduate efforts appeared first on college of science " " mathematician dr yvette hester and astronomer dr lucas macri are teaming up to lead undergraduate efforts for the texas a&m university college of science in respective new administrative roles as assistant and associate deans announced dean of science meigan aronson dr yvette hester hester an instructional associate professor and assistant department head for academic professional track faculty affairs in the department of mathematics has been named assistant dean for student affairs macri an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy has been named associate dean for undergraduate programs both appointments are effective january 1 2017 hester will serve as the point person for all student counseling issues progress-to-degree assessment transfer learning community coordination transfer admissions new student conferences and college of science course scheduling macri will provide oversight for all undergraduate curricula across the colleges five departments in addition to the college-level university studies degrees and the science leadership scholars program he also will represent the college on the undergraduate curriculum committee and manage the honors programs the two replace dr timothy p scott one of the longest-serving associate deans in the college of science who originally was appointed in 2000 by the late dr richard e ewing after more than a decade and a half of directing undergraduate programs and assisting with college development and former student relations scott has been named to a university-level post assistant provost for undergraduate studies also effective january 1 2017 i am excited that drs hester and macri have joined our team aronson said separately they are distinguished scientists with wealths of experience in education and student mentorship together they will help the college of science to strengthen and extend the quality and range of the educational opportunities that we offer our students both in the classroom and elsewhere i am very much looking forward to working with drs hester and macri to advance the college dr lucas macri hester joined texas a&m mathematics in 2008 after a previous stint on faculty from 1990 to 2001 and earning both her masters and phd from texas a&m in applied mathematics (1989) and educational statistics and psychometrics (2000) respectively in addition to being a member along with macri of the joint college of science/college of engineering curriculum committee hester has worked on several initiatives related to student success within the department of mathematics during her past five years as an assistant head she also has developed technology-integrated and web-based curricula as well as various honors courses since 2013 hester has chaired the colleges faculty advisory committee to the dean she also brings previous experience as both mathematics chair (2003-07) and dean of instruction (2003-05) at germanna community college macri has been a member of the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 he spent six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) after earning his bachelors of science in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1995 and his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 at texas a&m macris research focuses on measuring the expansion rate of the universe to better determine its composition and evolution he was instrumental in the design of texas a&ms phd in astronomy which was approved by the texas higher education coordinating board in spring 2016 and launched in fall 2016 macri received a 2014 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at the college level and regularly participates in education and public outreach activities on campus and across the state of texas to learn more about undergraduate programs in the texas a&m college of science visit here -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr meigan aronson (979) 845-7361 or maronson@sciencetamuedu " " college station everyone has a backstory even our own milky way galaxy and much like social media the picture is not always as pretty as it appears on the current surface says texas a&m university astronomer casey papovich papovich notes that large disk galaxies like our own milky way were not always the well-ordered pinwheel-like spiral structures we see in the universe today on the contrary he and other international experts who specialize in galaxy formation and evolution believe that about 8-to-10 billion years ago progenitors of the milky way and similar disk/spiral galaxies were smaller and less organized yet highly active in their youth composite image of the molecular gas (indicated in red) superimposed on hubble space telescope images of the four young milky way-like galaxies studied by texas a&m astronomer casey papovich and his collaborators using alma these hubble images are much sharper than the images of the gas from alma therefore while the gas appears as a halo here papovich says it is more likely to be co-spatial with the starlight in the galaxies (credit: national radio astronomy observatory) in previous nasa and national science foundation-funded research papovich and his collaborators showed that these younger versions of such galaxies were churning out new stars faster than at any other point in their lifespans suggesting that they must be amazingly rich in star-forming material and now they have compelling evidence the galactic equivalent of a smoking gun using the national radio astronomy observatorys atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) a huge highly sophisticated radio telescope array situated at 16 500 feet altitude in the high desert of chile a papovich-led team of astronomers studied four very young versions of galaxies like the milky way that are 9 billion light-years distant meaning the team could see them as they looked approximately 9 billion years ago they discovered that each galaxy was incredibly rich in carbon monoxide a well-known tracer of molecular gas which is the fuel for star formation the teams findings are reported in a paper posted to arxiv and set to be published in the inaugural issue of nature astronomy in january we used alma to detect adolescent versions of the milky way and found that such galaxies do indeed have much higher amounts of molecular gas which would fuel rapid star formation said papovich lead author on the paper and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy i liken these galaxies to an adolescent human who consumes prodigious amounts of food to fuel their own growth during their teenage years dr casey papovich in addition to papovich the research team also includes fellow texas a&m astronomers ryan quadri and kim-vy tran as well as astronomers from leiden observatory in holland swinburne university and macquarie university in australia the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) the university of texas at austin lyon observatory in france and the max plank institute for astronomy in germany though the relative abundance of star-forming gas is extreme in these galaxies papovich says they are not yet fully formed and rather small compared to the milky way as we see it today the new alma data indicate that the vast majority of the mass in these galaxies is in cold molecular gas rather than in stars a situation that papovich says is reversed at present in our milky way where the mass in stars outweighs that in gas by a factor of 10 to 1 these observations he notes are helping build a complete picture of how matter in milky-way-size galaxies evolved and how our own galaxy formed most stars today exist in galaxies like the milky way so by studying how galaxies like our own formed weve come to understand the most typical locations of stars in the universe said papovich a member since 2008 of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy where he is a co-holder of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics our current research shows that milky way-mass galaxies appear to accumulate most of their gas during their first few billion years of history at that stage they have most of the fuel they need to produce the stars they currently encompass in the present the presence of extensive gas reservoirs backs up the teams previous observations that provided the first tangible pictures showcasing the unprecedented life story of milky way galaxy evolution among other details their prior study revealed a stellar birth rate 30 times higher than it is in the milky way today roughly one per year compared to about 30 each year 95 billion years ago thanks to alma and other innovative instruments that allow us to peer 9 billion years into the past to analyze galaxies that are likely similar to the progenitor of our own milky way galaxy we can actually prove what our observations show papovich said papovich and his team recently have been awarded more highly competitive time with alma to study the temperature and density of the star-forming gas allowing them to measure and map its transitions and phases and ideally the related impacts within the galaxies dr kim-vy tran dr ryan quadri this will begin to tell us how these galaxies formed stars at such a rapid pace compared to conditions at present he said papovich quadri and tran are among roughly two dozen astronomers around the world who have spent years studying carefully selected distant galaxies similar in mass to the progenitor of our own milky way that were found in two deep-sky program surveys of the universe the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) and the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (zfourge) beyond alma the teams research has used observations from nasas hubble and spitzer space telescopes and the european space agencys herschel space observatory the hubble images from the candels survey also provided structural information about galaxy sizes and how they evolved far-infrared light observations from spitzer and herschel helped the astronomers trace the star-formation rate the teams paper large molecular gas reservoirs in ancestors of milky way-mass galaxies 9 billion years ago can be viewed online along with related images and captions to learn more about papovichs research visit https://physicstamuedu/directory/casey-papovich/ for more information about texas a&m astronomy go to http://mitchelltamuedu/research/astronomy/ this story contains excerpts from a national radio astronomy observatory brief authored by public information officer charles blue # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m-led study helps prove galaxy evolution theory appeared first on college of science share: " " share: " " college station thirteen faculty staff and students within the texas a&m university college of science were recognized for recent outstanding accomplishments by dean meigan aronson at the colleges annual faculty-staff meeting and awards presentation tuesday (nov 1) the ceremony which honors college award recipients and serves as a forum for new faculty and staff introductions was held in the stephen w hawking auditorium inside the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy christian hilty (chemistry) dan melconian (physics and astronomy) kim-vy tran (physics and astronomy) and karen wooley (chemistry) were honored as recipients of the association of former students distinguished achievement college-level awards in teaching for 2016 for their commitment to education and contributions to their respective disciplines each honoree was awarded a framed certificate commemorating the occasion and a $2 000 check from the association of former students dean aronson congratulates the cyclotron institutes paula barton as the inaugural lead award staff and postdoctoral recipients respectively distinguished professors donald and marcetta darensbourg (chemistry) and allen lunsford (chemistry) were honored with the colleges undergraduate research mentoring awards established in 2014 the award recognizes faculty members and graduate students for their dedication enthusiasm accomplishments and contributions in mentoring undergraduate researchers each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation jennifer marshall (physics and astronomy) paula barton (cyclotron institute) and lauren heilborn (cyclotron) were honored with the colleges inaugural leadership in equity and diversity (lead) awards established in 2016 the award recognizes one faculty member one staff member and one postdoctoral research associate/student who have displayed commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation astronomer jennifer marshall (left) receives congratulations from dean aronson as the inaugural faculty recipient of the colleges leadership in equity and diversity (lead) award recognizing faculty staff and postdoctoral commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity staff members jennifer bradford (biology) elaine james (statistics) and urania wells (biology) were presented with 2016 outstanding staff achievement awards established in 1995 the award commends the dedication enthusiasm and accomplishments of staff throughout the college each received a plaque and a $500 check also funded by the association bradford graduate programs coordinator in the department of biology with nearly three years of service to the college is responsible for all aspects of the departments graduate program support this arduous but invaluable task includes organizing graduate student recruiting fielding information inquiries from current and prospective students assisting students with administrative tasks and paperwork and interfacing with a variety of related campus offices in addition to serving as the face of the biology graduate program bradford has quickly earned a reputation as an energetic self-starter who goes above and beyond to get the job done hers and others for example shortly after arriving in biology bradford established a new and simplified database system to collect and manage student data she then worked with the graduate student organizations to create departmental outreach activities that were virtually nonexistent in past years most recently she stepped in when the department lost its webmaster in mid-redesign/platform conversion learning new computer skills so that she could help complete the transition as the departments de facto social ringleader bradford has organized barbecues kickball tournaments ice-cream socials and even a departmental book club during her free time she is revered by faculty staff and students alike as the first person we go to when we need a question answered a shoulder to cry on or a person to celebrate our success with another student writes i am so very happy to have jennifer as our graduate coordinator she cares so much about each individual students success both in and out of their research needs she is encouraging kind thoughtful professional and caring one of her nomination supporters concludes such proactive engagement and concern for our graduate students goes well beyond jennifers job-description yet it is typical of her personal touch in my opinion jennifer is one of the most talented and creative staff members to work in biology in the last 20 years james an administrative assistant in the department of statistics for the past 10 years has served nearly 25 years in the college and as a leader in myriad aspects within texas a&m statistics her primary roles are many from technical typist departmental webmaster and statlinks magazine editor to seminar coordinator special events manager and all things organizer extraordinaire in between james also serves as backup support to the department head assistant assisting with all facets of administrative and faculty support including faculty hiring annual reviews promotion and tenure cases and departmental committee setup and coordination to a person faculty and staff members within the department and across the college and campus laud james for her dedication initiative creativity and drive she is described by her nominator as the one real administrative constant within the department and by another supporting nominator as the type of person whom the university should use as a role model for staff personnel to achieve success in their careers bar none james finds a way to make things work and in the process displays an uncanny ability for and ease with making those around feel part of the solution she continually performs many tasks that are essential to the smooth operation of the department says her nominator thanks to her unwavering perseverance events in the department have been consistently successful and we routinely receive glowing reviews of her work often even weeks after an event has concluded because of her longevity in the department james acts as an informal mentor to new employees and student workers assisting in their training and ongoing career development her mentorship also extends to the university level and into the wider bryan-college station community james is very active in her local church and community service events she is also a very talented singer and regularly sings gospel songs at local and regional church services wells an administrative assistant in biology has 16 years of service to the college the past 10 of those have been with the biology lower division program where she manages daily operations for an administrative office that services almost 6 000 undergraduates each year wells is the key link among students faculty the public laboratory technical staff lab instructors graduate teaching assistants and program administrators among other things she is in charge of posting course syllabi making sure exams are ready on the correct day and time coordinating tas to proctor exams grading exams and entering grades onto ecampus and howdy this is a massive undertaking given the many courses supported by this office and wells does it with great enthusiasm competence and understanding in addition to supervising staff and ordering all office supplies wells manages the copy load for seven different introductory-level biology courses lab and lecture exams that amount to more than 30 000 documents per year each averaging eight pages as her nominator explains when you consider that the lower division biology office shares a copier with the first year chemistry program with an even greater enrollment coordinating this workload only succeeds if the individual managing this task is organized diplomatic and diligent one nomination supporter writes when i ask the teaching assistants what is right about the program during their end-of-year reviews my tas always say they appreciate and admire the efforts of urania and the rest of the administrative staff whenever someone needs something they call urania whenever something will not work they call urania to fix it whenever i need someone to fill in and teach a class i call urania and whenever i need something important done on this floor and have it done correctly and in a timely fashion i call urania! she truly is one of the hardest working people i have ever met in addition to dean aronson and texas a&m science associate deans recognizing all award winners heads of each of the colleges five departments (biology chemistry mathematics physics and astronomy and statistics) introduced their respective new faculty aronson then delivered a state of the college address to conclude the ceremony a reception honoring all award winners and new faculty and staff was held following the presentation in foyer of the mitchell institute click here to see additional photographs from the event -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post college of science honors 2016 award winners appeared first on college of science share: " " thirteen faculty staff and students within the texas a&m university college of science were recognized for recent outstanding accomplishments by dean meigan aronson at the colleges annual faculty-staff meeting and awards presentation tuesday (nov 1) the ceremony which honors college award recipients and serves as a forum for new faculty and staff introductions was held in the stephen w hawking auditorium inside the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy christian hilty (chemistry) dan melconian (physics and astronomy) kim-vy tran (physics and astronomy) and karen wooley (chemistry) were honored as recipients of the association of former students distinguished achievement college-level awards in teaching for 2016 for their commitment to education and contributions to their respective disciplines each honoree was awarded a framed certificate commemorating the occasion and a $2 000 check from the association of former students dean aronson congratulates the cyclotron institutes paula barton as the inaugural lead award staff and postdoctoral recipients respectively distinguished professors donald and marcetta darensbourg (chemistry) and allen lunsford (chemistry) were honored with the colleges undergraduate research mentoring awards established in 2014 the award recognizes faculty members and graduate students for their dedication enthusiasm accomplishments and contributions in mentoring undergraduate researchers each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation jennifer marshall (physics and astronomy) paula barton (cyclotron institute) and lauren heilborn (cyclotron) were honored with the colleges inaugural leadership in equity and diversity (lead) awards established in 2016 the award recognizes one faculty member one staff member and one postdoctoral research associate/student who have displayed commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity each received a $500 check and a plaque of appreciation astronomer jennifer marshall (left) receives congratulations from dean aronson as the inaugural faculty recipient of the colleges leadership in equity and diversity (lead) award recognizing faculty staff and postdoctoral commitment to enhancing the colleges environment of mutual respect and diversity staff members jennifer bradford (biology) elaine james (statistics) and urania wells (biology) were presented with 2016 outstanding staff achievement awards established in 1995 the award commends the dedication enthusiasm and accomplishments of staff throughout the college each received a plaque and a $500 check also funded by the association bradford graduate programs coordinator in the department of biology with nearly three years of service to the college is responsible for all aspects of the departments graduate program support this arduous but invaluable task includes organizing graduate student recruiting fielding information inquiries from current and prospective students assisting students with administrative tasks and paperwork and interfacing with a variety of related campus offices in addition to serving as the face of the biology graduate program bradford has quickly earned a reputation as an energetic self-starter who goes above and beyond to get the job done hers and others for example shortly after arriving in biology bradford established a new and simplified database system to collect and manage student data she then worked with the graduate student organizations to create departmental outreach activities that were virtually nonexistent in past years most recently she stepped in when the department lost its webmaster in mid-redesign/platform conversion learning new computer skills so that she could help complete the transition as the departments de facto social ringleader bradford has organized barbecues kickball tournaments ice-cream socials and even a departmental book club during her free time she is revered by faculty staff and students alike as the first person we go to when we need a question answered a shoulder to cry on or a person to celebrate our success with another student writes i am so very happy to have jennifer as our graduate coordinator she cares so much about each individual students success both in and out of their research needs she is encouraging kind thoughtful professional and caring one of her nomination supporters concludes such proactive engagement and concern for our graduate students goes well beyond jennifers job-description yet it is typical of her personal touch in my opinion jennifer is one of the most talented and creative staff members to work in biology in the last 20 years james an administrative assistant in the department of statistics for the past 10 years has served nearly 25 years in the college and as a leader in myriad aspects within texas a&m statistics her primary roles are many from technical typist departmental webmaster and statlinks magazine editor to seminar coordinator special events manager and all things organizer extraordinaire in between james also serves as backup support to the department head assistant assisting with all facets of administrative and faculty support including faculty hiring annual reviews promotion and tenure cases and departmental committee setup and coordination to a person faculty and staff members within the department and across the college and campus laud james for her dedication initiative creativity and drive she is described by her nominator as the one real administrative constant within the department and by another supporting nominator as the type of person whom the university should use as a role model for staff personnel to achieve success in their careers bar none james finds a way to make things work and in the process displays an uncanny ability for and ease with making those around feel part of the solution she continually performs many tasks that are essential to the smooth operation of the department says her nominator thanks to her unwavering perseverance events in the department have been consistently successful and we routinely receive glowing reviews of her work often even weeks after an event has concluded because of her longevity in the department james acts as an informal mentor to new employees and student workers assisting in their training and ongoing career development her mentorship also extends to the university level and into the wider bryan-college station community james is very active in her local church and community service events she is also a very talented singer and regularly sings gospel songs at local and regional church services wells an administrative assistant in biology has 16 years of service to the college the past 10 of those have been with the biology lower division program where she manages daily operations for an administrative office that services almost 6 000 undergraduates each year wells is the key link among students faculty the public laboratory technical staff lab instructors graduate teaching assistants and program administrators among other things she is in charge of posting course syllabi making sure exams are ready on the correct day and time coordinating tas to proctor exams grading exams and entering grades onto ecampus and howdy this is a massive undertaking given the many courses supported by this office and wells does it with great enthusiasm competence and understanding in addition to supervising staff and ordering all office supplies wells manages the copy load for seven different introductory-level biology courses lab and lecture exams that amount to more than 30 000 documents per year each averaging eight pages as her nominator explains when you consider that the lower division biology office shares a copier with the first year chemistry program with an even greater enrollment coordinating this workload only succeeds if the individual managing this task is organized diplomatic and diligent one nomination supporter writes when i ask the teaching assistants what is right about the program during their end-of-year reviews my tas always say they appreciate and admire the efforts of urania and the rest of the administrative staff whenever someone needs something they call urania whenever something will not work they call urania to fix it whenever i need someone to fill in and teach a class i call urania and whenever i need something important done on this floor and have it done correctly and in a timely fashion i call urania! she truly is one of the hardest working people i have ever met in addition to dean aronson and texas a&m science associate deans recognizing all award winners heads of each of the colleges five departments (biology chemistry mathematics physics and astronomy and statistics) introduced their respective new faculty aronson then delivered a state of the college address to conclude the ceremony a reception honoring all award winners and new faculty and staff was held following the presentation in foyer of the mitchell institute click here to see additional photographs from the event -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " share: " " college station dr peter m mcintyre has been appointed as head of the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university effective june 1 announced dr meigan aronson dean of the college of science dr peter m mcintyre working in his lab with former graduate student kyle damborsky and former postdoctoral researcher feng lu (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) mcintyre a 36-year veteran of the department and widely respected experimental high-energy physicist replaces dr george r welch who previously served since 2011 as department head and has returned to teaching and research-related duties mcintyre a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has held the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics since 2004 he received his phd from the university of chicago in 1973 and joined the texas a&m faculty in 1980 a prolific researcher across disciplines mcintyre is known for his pioneering work that made it possible to cool beams of antiprotons and then accelerate them to make proton-antiproton colliding beams at very high energy that process was used to discover the weak bosons that mediate radioactive decay and validate the standard model of elementary particles recently he has developed new technology for superconductors and for superconducting coils that makes possible a new generation of super-magnets to extend the reach of hadron colliders a factor of 50 beyond that of cerns large hadron collider (lhc) where the higgs boson was discovered mcintyre also applies accelerator physics and technology to address some of the greatest challenges in green energy and biomedicine in his four-decade career he has collaborated with faculty in nuclear engineering to develop a way to produce electric power from nuclear fission that is intrinsically safe cannot melt down eats its own waste does not produce bomb-capable isotopes and uses all of its nuclear fuel efficiently he is collaborating with texas a&m faculty in mechanical engineering and chemical engineering to develop new molten salt technology that can be used to collect the energy of sunlight at the focus of km2 arrays of mirrors store that heat in a reservoir of molten salt and use it to make electric power night and day when it is needed most in addition mcintyre is working with texas a&m faculty in geochemical and environmental research groups to develop a submersible wind turbine that could make possible robust wind farms offshore in the sea such a marine wind farm could supply much of the electric power needs of the entire gulf coast likewise he has developed a high-power industrial electron accelerator that can destroy toxic organic chemicals in industrial wastewater at a price and flow rate that matches many industrial plant processes he is exploring applications of that technology for petrochemical plants along the gulf coast i include a photo that is perhaps a bit eclectic but captures the spirit of my group mcintyre says (credit: peter mcintyre) finally mcintyre is collaborating with texas a&m faculty in electrical engineering and scientists at ut southwest medical center to develop a walk-through mri breast imager that is dedicated to early detection of breast cancer the instrument would image a womans breasts in a 10-minute walk-through scan and improve the sensitivity for early detection from the present ~50 percent for mammography to >90 percent for dye-contrast mri we are fortunate to have such an esteemed faculty member as peter mcintyre with his deep scholarship and considerable accomplishments in his discipline and at texas a&m to lead the department of physics and astronomy at this critical juncture aronson said he is already leading the department in important new initiatives in research and undergraduate instruction and i am impressed by his vision and by his ability to work broadly across the university i am very much looking forward to working together and i feel we will accomplish much for the department college and university in between receiving his phd in 1973 and coming to texas a&m in 1980 mcintyre performed experiments with colliding beams at cern in geneva switzerland in 1975 he joined the faculty at harvard university and participated in neutrino scattering experiments at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in 1976 he was the first to propose making colliding beams of protons and antiprotons using the large synchrotrons at fermilab and at cern he developed several techniques for cooling intense beams of antiprotons for that purpose in previous work at texas a&m mcintyre provided design expertise technical support and testing of performance for the superconducting spectrometer magnet for the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) a $15 billion particle physics experiment currently operating on the international space station ams measures signals from high-energy cosmic rays space and has recently provided the first evidence of a puzzling abundance of very energetic antimatter particles streaming in our galaxy ams was taken to the space station on the last mission of the the space shuttle endeavour in what would be the final mission for the overall space shuttle program a 2001 fellow of the american physical society mcintyre was named a sloan fellow in 1980-82 and was recognized by the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society with its outstanding science communicator award in 1999 for more information about mcintyre go to dr peter mcintyre or see this recent feature article to learn more about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy go to http://physicstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr peter m mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu the post peter mcintyre named head of texas a&m physics and astronomy appeared first on college of science share: " " dr peter m mcintyre has been appointed as head of the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university effective june 1 announced dr meigan aronson dean of the college of science dr peter m mcintyre working in his lab with former graduate student kyle damborsky and former postdoctoral researcher feng lu (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) mcintyre a 36-year veteran of the department and widely respected experimental high-energy physicist replaces dr george r welch who previously served since 2011 as department head and has returned to teaching and research-related duties mcintyre a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has held the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics since 2004 he received his phd from the university of chicago in 1973 and joined the texas a&m faculty in 1980 a prolific researcher across disciplines mcintyre is known for his pioneering work that made it possible to cool beams of antiprotons and then accelerate them to make proton-antiproton colliding beams at very high energy that process was used to discover the weak bosons that mediate radioactive decay and validate the standard model of elementary particles recently he has developed new technology for superconductors and for superconducting coils that makes possible a new generation of super-magnets to extend the reach of hadron colliders a factor of 50 beyond that of cerns large hadron collider (lhc) where the higgs boson was discovered mcintyre also applies accelerator physics and technology to address some of the greatest challenges in green energy and biomedicine in his four-decade career he has collaborated with faculty in nuclear engineering to develop a way to produce electric power from nuclear fission that is intrinsically safe cannot melt down eats its own waste does not produce bomb-capable isotopes and uses all of its nuclear fuel efficiently he is collaborating with texas a&m faculty in mechanical engineering and chemical engineering to develop new molten salt technology that can be used to collect the energy of sunlight at the focus of km2 arrays of mirrors store that heat in a reservoir of molten salt and use it to make electric power night and day when it is needed most in addition mcintyre is working with texas a&m faculty in geochemical and environmental research groups to develop a submersible wind turbine that could make possible robust wind farms offshore in the sea such a marine wind farm could supply much of the electric power needs of the entire gulf coast likewise he has developed a high-power industrial electron accelerator that can destroy toxic organic chemicals in industrial wastewater at a price and flow rate that matches many industrial plant processes he is exploring applications of that technology for petrochemical plants along the gulf coast i include a photo that is perhaps a bit eclectic but captures the spirit of my group mcintyre says (credit: peter mcintyre) finally mcintyre is collaborating with texas a&m faculty in electrical engineering and scientists at ut southwest medical center to develop a walk-through mri breast imager that is dedicated to early detection of breast cancer the instrument would image a womans breasts in a 10-minute walk-through scan and improve the sensitivity for early detection from the present ~50 percent for mammography to >90 percent for dye-contrast mri we are fortunate to have such an esteemed faculty member as peter mcintyre with his deep scholarship and considerable accomplishments in his discipline and at texas a&m to lead the department of physics and astronomy at this critical juncture aronson said he is already leading the department in important new initiatives in research and undergraduate instruction and i am impressed by his vision and by his ability to work broadly across the university i am very much looking forward to working together and i feel we will accomplish much for the department college and university in between receiving his phd in 1973 and coming to texas a&m in 1980 mcintyre performed experiments with colliding beams at cern in geneva switzerland in 1975 he joined the faculty at harvard university and participated in neutrino scattering experiments at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in 1976 he was the first to propose making colliding beams of protons and antiprotons using the large synchrotrons at fermilab and at cern he developed several techniques for cooling intense beams of antiprotons for that purpose in previous work at texas a&m mcintyre provided design expertise technical support and testing of performance for the superconducting spectrometer magnet for the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) a $15 billion particle physics experiment currently operating on the international space station ams measures signals from high-energy cosmic rays space and has recently provided the first evidence of a puzzling abundance of very energetic antimatter particles streaming in our galaxy ams was taken to the space station on the last mission of the the space shuttle endeavour in what would be the final mission for the overall space shuttle program a 2001 fellow of the american physical society mcintyre was named a sloan fellow in 1980-82 and was recognized by the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society with its outstanding science communicator award in 1999 for more information about mcintyre go to dr peter mcintyre or see this recent feature article to learn more about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy go to http://physicstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr peter m mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu " " college station dr casey papovich in one of the most sensitive measurements to date an international team of astronomers has charted the rise and fall of galaxies across 90 percent of cosmic history in the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (zfourge) the complete results of which were publically unveiled today (august 30) for the first time texas a&m university astronomers dr casey papovich dr ryan quadri and dr kim-vy tran are leaders of the multi-institution national science foundation-funded global effort to examine galactic clusters and the secrets behind galaxy formation and evolution using the fourstar infrared imager mounted on the 65-meter magellan telescope in chile based on images taken during a 45-night sequence from 2010 to 2012 zfourge has measured distances and brightnesses to more than 60 000 galaxies spanning more than 12 billion years of cosmic time by building a multi-colored photo album of galaxies as they grow from their faint beginnings into mature and majestic giants zfourge reveals how diverse galaxies can be see an animation that shows how zfourge builds a colorful photo album of galaxies by combining imaging taken at optical and near-infrared wavelengths by staring at these patches of the sky for 45 nights zfourge measures distances to more than 60 000 galaxies spanning more than 12 billion years of cosmic time perhaps the most surprising result is that galaxies in the young universe appear as diverse as they are today said dr caroline straatman a recent graduate of leiden university and lead author of the surveys main paper posted to arxiv and set to be published in the astrophysical journal marking the surveys completion and the official public release of the related dataset the fact that we see young galaxies in the distant universe that have already shut down star formation is remarkable dr ryan quadri using a new set of filters sensitive to infrared light and the unprecedented precision of the fourstar camera built by zfourge collaborators at carnegie observatories the team was able to peer deeply into the distant universe and make a 3-d map by collecting light from more than 60 000 galaxies and measuring how far they are from our own milky way galaxy zfourge has given us the best view yet of what our own milky way was like in the past papovich said ten billion years ago galaxies like our milky way were much much smaller but they were forming stars 30 times faster than they are today the deep 3-d map also revealed young galaxies that existed 125 billion years ago where current technologies have only found a handful of such galaxies the zfourge measurements are really very useful because future challenges will be to learn more about these earliest days of the universe said leiden astronomer and co-author dr ivo labbe zfourge is paving the way for future studies with the james webb space telescope zfourge is also full of surprises in the first images taken in the study the team found one of the earliest examples of a galaxy cluster a ‚Äògalaxy city made up of a dense concentration of galaxies at a time when the universe was only three billion years old dr kim-vy tran this finding is much like discovering an ancient city that existed earlier than any other known city said co-author dr lee spitler from macquarie university in sydney zfourge is providing us with a highly complete and reliable census of the evolving galaxy population added quadri mitchell astronomy fellow within the texas a&m george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy it is already helping us to address questions like how did galaxies grow with time when did they form their stars and develop into the spectacular structures that we see in the present-day universe in addition to the magellan telescope at las campanas observatories zfourge involved data collected by many of the worlds most powerful observatories including the hubble space telescope the very large telescope the spitzer space telescope and the herschel space observatory zfourge is a unique and powerful study that we are now releasing to the community tran said there is so much more amazing science to be done with zfourge that we know it will be of lasting legacy value the international zfourge collaboration is composed of several universities including leiden university in holland swinburne and macquarie in australia carnegie observatories in pasadena calif and texas a&m which currently hosts the surveys website and data to learn more about zfourge and see a list of collaborators along with the complete data set visit http://zfourgetamuedu for additional information about texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-5853 or vy@physicstamuedu; dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu; or dr ryan quadri (979)862-2759 or quadri@physicstamuedu the post zfourge survey charts rise and fall of galaxy formation across cosmic history appeared first on college of science share: " " college station roughly a decade after launching a new astronomy program and hiring one of the co-discoverers of dark energy to lead it texas a&m university is set to come full-academic circle this fall offering its first masters and doctoral degrees in astronomy texas a&m astronomers are pushing the universal envelope in a variety of topical theoretical and experimental areas exposing both graduate and undergraduate students to cutting-edge research projects and invaluable training opportunities in a wide range of observational techniques and technologies as well as instrumentation (credit: nasa esa and the hubble heritage team (stsci/aura)-esa/hubble collaboration) texas a&ms new astronomy graduate program within the department of physics and astronomy received approval this spring from the texas higher education coordinating board (thecb) university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy nicholas b suntzeff describes the move as the last big piece in the creation of a world-class astronomy program that already plays a key role in many of the globes biggest research collaborations and experiments we are now the second public university in texas to have a phd program in astronomy suntzeff said the thecb did not debate the program; they adopted it without discussion and gave it a unanimous vote two of the thecb members looked at me and smiled obviously pleased with the outcome see suntzeffs email announcement to the astrophysics faculty in its entirety texas a&m astronomer lucas macri authored texas a&ms phd program application and spent copious time and energy promoting it both to university administration and ultimately to the thecb which described it in a single quote-worthy word: stunning he says the new degrees ensure the complete package needed to successfully recruit potential graduate students previously impressed by texas a&ms strong international research reputation but leery of banking on what amounted to a cautiously optimistic and logical progression that no one could guarantee would happen because we now are able to offer a phd in astronomy we will attract a wider range of high quality students to our university including students with undergraduate degrees in engineering and astronomy macri said the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings home to texas a&m physics and astronomy since their official dedication in december 2009 (credit: richard payne) for texas a&m the thecb vote is merely the latest milestone in a veritable scientific renaissance that began in 2002 with 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchells $1 million gift to establish the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy fourteen years more than $88 million and two new buildings later texas a&m boasts a well-respected astronomy program built on strong research innovative teaching and state-of-the-art instrumentation construction that was recognized last year with association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) membership selection texas a&m officially arrived on the international astrophysics scene in 2004 becoming a founding partner in the giant magellan telescope with a $125 million lead gift from george and cynthia mitchell through the texas a&m foundation and matching from the university of texas at austin that brought both of the states flagship universities into the groundbreaking project in the 12 years since the program has made steady progress toward its goal of establishing texas a&m as a top institution in national and international astronomy circles as well as in the classroom in the latter regard suntzeff recalls that when he arrived at texas a&m as director of astronomy in 2006 the university was the only one among the nations top 64 institutions that did not offer an introductory astronomy course moreover the limited astronomy that was taught was mixed in with the physics curriculum and taught by physicists not astronomers that changed in fall 2008 along with the departments formerly singular name (department of physics) in fall 2009 with thecb approval to add the disciplinary distinction and astronomy in december 2009 the mitchell institute and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings came online to complement the recently renovated charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building dedicated in september 2008 after adding additional undergraduate astronomy courses during the 2009-10 academic year the department most recently began offering an undergraduate minor in astronomy in fall 2014 if the programs past is any indication fall certainly represents a time of new beginnings for texas a&m astronomy in this ones case suntzeff says there are many who share in the due credit including university college and departmental administrators; donors industry friends and collaborators; and faculty from both the department and across the campus however he reserves his most effusive praise for his departmental colleagues from the astronomy committee members that fueled the visionary ambition long before the program achieved official recognition to his fellow professors willing to dedicate new faculty lines to astronomer hires and to embrace growth in spite of the chaos that often accompanies such change particularly during trying budget times dr nicholas b suntzeff i wont name names at the risk of leaving someone out but the list is long and appreciated to a person suntzeff said astronomy had many early advocates on this campus and across the globe who worked to accomplish what for so long seemed destined to remain an external review recommendation i thank them for their help in realizing this dream for the benefit of our university state and global professions the astronomy program almost certainly would not be here without the strong and continuing support of the university of texas at austin and mcdonald observatory george mitchell kick-started the collaboration with his gmt gift and i consider it our shared honor to continue to work together to achieve his vision in addition to their coursework suntzeff says potential graduate students can expect to work side-by-side with nine current texas a&m astronomers and various research staff involved in some of the worlds most prominent research collaborations including the gmt the aura-managed large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) the dark energy survey (des) and the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) as well as astronomy at the antarctic plateau beyond building and designing astronomical instrumentation for these projects students will have opportunities to work on a variety of international surveys delving into topics such as galaxy formation and evolution cosmic distance scales near-field cosmology and dark matter theory graduate and undergraduate students alike also have the benefit of the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory ranked no 3 in a 2014 survey of the nations 25 best college astronomy observatories according to michigan-based collegeranknet the facility is managed by don carona who designed the observatory and pitched the idea to the departments astronomy committee in 2002 and later oversaw its construction in 2003 dr lucas macri not only is the facility used as a student observatory for undergraduate classes but graduate students also use the telescope as an optical platform to debug instrumentation with dons help suntzeff said macri sees the thecbs vote as an endorsement of not only texas a&ms progress but also that of astronomy as a whole throughout texas beyond the collaborative relationship enjoyed by its two flagships last fall astronomers from across the state came to texas a&m for the three-day building astronomy in texas workshop focused on the growth of astronomy and related scientific collaborations throughout the lone star state representatives from 18 texas institutions were in attendance prompting a declaration of the halcyon days of astronomy from houston chronicle science writer eric berger in his recap article its great to see astronomy growing at so many campuses across the state from texas christian university to the university of texas rio grande valley and texas a&m university-commerce to texas tech university macri said the benefits of all these institutions working together to expand the frontiers of astronomy are far greater than any one program for more information about graduate degrees in astronomy at texas a&m visit http://physicstamuedu/students/prospective/grad/indexshtml to learn more about texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research page # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post texas a&m to offer graduate astronomy degrees in fall 2016 appeared first on college of science share: " " roughly a decade after launching a new astronomy program and hiring one of the co-discoverers of dark energy to lead it texas a&m university is set to come full-academic circle this fall offering its first masters and doctoral degrees in astronomy texas a&m astronomers are pushing the universal envelope in a variety of topical theoretical and experimental areas exposing both graduate and undergraduate students to cutting-edge research projects and invaluable training opportunities in a wide range of observational techniques and technologies as well as instrumentation (credit: nasa esa and the hubble heritage team (stsci/aura)-esa/hubble collaboration) texas a&ms new astronomy graduate program within the department of physics and astronomy received approval this spring from the texas higher education coordinating board (thecb) university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy nicholas b suntzeff describes the move as the last big piece in the creation of a world-class astronomy program that already plays a key role in many of the globes biggest research collaborations and experiments we are now the second public university in texas to have a phd program in astronomy suntzeff said the thecb did not debate the program; they adopted it without discussion and gave it a unanimous vote two of the thecb members looked at me and smiled obviously pleased with the outcome see suntzeffs email announcement to the astrophysics faculty in its entirety texas a&m astronomer lucas macri authored texas a&ms phd program application and spent copious time and energy promoting it both to university administration and ultimately to the thecb which described it in a single quote-worthy word: stunning he says the new degrees ensure the complete package needed to successfully recruit potential graduate students previously impressed by texas a&ms strong international research reputation but leery of banking on what amounted to a cautiously optimistic and logical progression that no one could guarantee would happen because we now are able to offer a phd in astronomy we will attract a wider range of high quality students to our university including students with undergraduate degrees in engineering and astronomy macri said the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings home to texas a&m physics and astronomy since their official dedication in december 2009 (credit: richard payne) for texas a&m the thecb vote is merely the latest milestone in a veritable scientific renaissance that began in 2002 with 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchells $1 million gift to establish the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy fourteen years more than $88 million and two new buildings later texas a&m boasts a well-respected astronomy program built on strong research innovative teaching and state-of-the-art instrumentation construction that was recognized last year with association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) membership selection texas a&m officially arrived on the international astrophysics scene in 2004 becoming a founding partner in the giant magellan telescope with a $125 million lead gift from george and cynthia mitchell through the texas a&m foundation and matching from the university of texas at austin that brought both of the states flagship universities into the groundbreaking project in the 12 years since the program has made steady progress toward its goal of establishing texas a&m as a top institution in national and international astronomy circles as well as in the classroom in the latter regard suntzeff recalls that when he arrived at texas a&m as director of astronomy in 2006 the university was the only one among the nations top 64 institutions that did not offer an introductory astronomy course moreover the limited astronomy that was taught was mixed in with the physics curriculum and taught by physicists not astronomers that changed in fall 2008 along with the departments formerly singular name (department of physics) in fall 2009 with thecb approval to add the disciplinary distinction and astronomy in december 2009 the mitchell institute and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings came online to complement the recently renovated charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building dedicated in september 2008 after adding additional undergraduate astronomy courses during the 2009-10 academic year the department most recently began offering an undergraduate minor in astronomy in fall 2014 if the programs past is any indication fall certainly represents a time of new beginnings for texas a&m astronomy in this ones case suntzeff says there are many who share in the due credit including university college and departmental administrators; donors industry friends and collaborators; and faculty from both the department and across the campus however he reserves his most effusive praise for his departmental colleagues from the astronomy committee members that fueled the visionary ambition long before the program achieved official recognition to his fellow professors willing to dedicate new faculty lines to astronomer hires and to embrace growth in spite of the chaos that often accompanies such change particularly during trying budget times dr nicholas b suntzeff i wont name names at the risk of leaving someone out but the list is long and appreciated to a person suntzeff said astronomy had many early advocates on this campus and across the globe who worked to accomplish what for so long seemed destined to remain an external review recommendation i thank them for their help in realizing this dream for the benefit of our university state and global professions the astronomy program almost certainly would not be here without the strong and continuing support of the university of texas at austin and mcdonald observatory george mitchell kick-started the collaboration with his gmt gift and i consider it our shared honor to continue to work together to achieve his vision in addition to their coursework suntzeff says potential graduate students can expect to work side-by-side with nine current texas a&m astronomers and various research staff involved in some of the worlds most prominent research collaborations including the gmt the aura-managed large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) the dark energy survey (des) and the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) as well as astronomy at the antarctic plateau beyond building and designing astronomical instrumentation for these projects students will have opportunities to work on a variety of international surveys delving into topics such as galaxy formation and evolution cosmic distance scales near-field cosmology and dark matter theory graduate and undergraduate students alike also have the benefit of the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory ranked no 3 in a 2014 survey of the nations 25 best college astronomy observatories according to michigan-based collegeranknet the facility is managed by don carona who designed the observatory and pitched the idea to the departments astronomy committee in 2002 and later oversaw its construction in 2003 dr lucas macri not only is the facility used as a student observatory for undergraduate classes but graduate students also use the telescope as an optical platform to debug instrumentation with dons help suntzeff said macri sees the thecbs vote as an endorsement of not only texas a&ms progress but also that of astronomy as a whole throughout texas beyond the collaborative relationship enjoyed by its two flagships last fall astronomers from across the state came to texas a&m for the three-day building astronomy in texas workshop focused on the growth of astronomy and related scientific collaborations throughout the lone star state representatives from 18 texas institutions were in attendance prompting a declaration of the halcyon days of astronomy from houston chronicle science writer eric berger in his recap article its great to see astronomy growing at so many campuses across the state from texas christian university to the university of texas rio grande valley and texas a&m university-commerce to texas tech university macri said the benefits of all these institutions working together to expand the frontiers of astronomy are far greater than any one program for more information about graduate degrees in astronomy at texas a&m visit http://physicstamuedu/students/prospective/grad/indexshtml to learn more about texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research page # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station as the saying goes in aggieland if you do something once at texas a&m university its a tradition consider another one added to the list now that a trio of texas a&m physicists has taken first place in the incomplete unweighted max-sat random track solvers category of the 2016 satisfiability (sat) competition notching the victory with their first-ever entry into the vaunted annual international contest dr helmut g katzgraber the 2016 sat competition is a competitive event for solvers of the boolean satisfiability (sat) problem in computer science where one attempts to determine whether or not a boolean formula a set of binary variables linked together with boolean operators such as and not and or can be satisfied texas a&ms team composed of physics postdoctoral researcher zheng zhu physics graduate student chao fang and physics professor helmut g katzgraber with input and advice from texas a&m high performance research computings marinus pennings came up with the optimal solution with the best central processing unit (cpu) run time among all max-sat entries their work which is funded in part by the us office of the director of national intelligences intelligence advanced research projects activity (iarpa) is detailed in a recent paper posted to arxiv every year the sat association hosts a competition for the fastest sat solver katzgraber said these are hard computations problems known as constraint satisfaction problems that are relevant all across science and industry basically if you can solve such a problem efficiently you can solve a whole class of problems that can be found all over the place this years sat competition was organized as a satellite event to the 19th international conference on theory and applications of satisfiability testing held july 5-8 in bordeaux france and featuring a variety of tracks including the max-sat solver one won by the texas a&m physics team with its inaugural submission in the history of the overall competition the objective is to gauge current state-of-the-art in the field of sat solvers a method of complex problem-solving that combines high-performance computing with high-end algorithmic developments and to make such benchmark solutions publically available we entered our solver in one track of the competition for the first time and won katzgraber said this is huge because industry in particular is very interested in these algorithms katzgraber said he and his teammates discovered this past spring that the algorithms they commonly use to study complex physics problems might be efficient in solving sat problems after testing and fine tuning they arrived at their eventual top-ranked solution katzgrabers work routinely involves simulations and calculations that require high-end computing capabilities including in this case those encompassed in texas a&m high performance research computings ada cluster (credit: texas a&m high performance research computing) instead of using traditional local search algorithms that work in little corners of solution space we used an algorithm designed to wander around the solution space efficiently katzgraber said this in turn allowed us to find the solutions within record times organized since 2002 the sat competition is widely regarded as the driving force behind the development of sat solvers which are key in many industrial applications including hardware and software verification the sat 2016 website notes that many hard combinatorial problems can be tackled using sat-based techniques including problems that arise in formal verification artificial intelligence operations research computational biology cryptology data mining machine learning and mathematics the theoretical and practical advances in sat research during the past 20 years have contributed to making sat solving technology an indispensable tool in a variety of domains katzgraber says his team plans to submit to more categories for future annual events which he notes are as much about continuing to push the technological envelope as motivating grassroots innovation through friendly competition and the opportunity to compare and contrast ideas and approaches basically if we can solve these hard combinatorial problems efficiently we could for example create efficient probabilistic membership filters that are of keen interest to the us government katzgraber said for additional information on the 2016 sat competition and complete results visit http://balduritikitedu/sat-competition-2016/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu the post texas a&m physics team logs first-place finish in 2016 sat competition appeared first on college of science share: " " as the saying goes in aggieland if you do something once at texas a&m university its a tradition consider another one added to the list now that a trio of texas a&m physicists has taken first place in the incomplete unweighted max-sat random track solvers category of the 2016 satisfiability (sat) competition notching the victory with their first-ever entry into the vaunted annual international contest dr helmut g katzgraber the 2016 sat competition is a competitive event for solvers of the boolean satisfiability (sat) problem in computer science where one attempts to determine whether or not a boolean formula a set of binary variables linked together with boolean operators such as and not and or can be satisfied texas a&ms team composed of physics postdoctoral researcher zheng zhu physics graduate student chao fang and physics professor helmut g katzgraber with input and advice from texas a&m high performance research computings marinus pennings came up with the optimal solution with the best central processing unit (cpu) run time among all max-sat entries their work which is funded in part by the us office of the director of national intelligences intelligence advanced research projects activity (iarpa) is detailed in a recent paper posted to arxiv every year the sat association hosts a competition for the fastest sat solver katzgraber said these are hard computations problems known as constraint satisfaction problems that are relevant all across science and industry basically if you can solve such a problem efficiently you can solve a whole class of problems that can be found all over the place this years sat competition was organized as a satellite event to the 19th international conference on theory and applications of satisfiability testing held july 5-8 in bordeaux france and featuring a variety of tracks including the max-sat solver one won by the texas a&m physics team with its inaugural submission in the history of the overall competition the objective is to gauge current state-of-the-art in the field of sat solvers a method of complex problem-solving that combines high-performance computing with high-end algorithmic developments and to make such benchmark solutions publically available we entered our solver in one track of the competition for the first time and won katzgraber said this is huge because industry in particular is very interested in these algorithms katzgraber said he and his teammates discovered this past spring that the algorithms they commonly use to study complex physics problems might be efficient in solving sat problems after testing and fine tuning they arrived at their eventual top-ranked solution katzgrabers work routinely involves simulations and calculations that require high-end computing capabilities including in this case those encompassed in texas a&m high performance research computings ada cluster (credit: texas a&m high performance research computing) instead of using traditional local search algorithms that work in little corners of solution space we used an algorithm designed to wander around the solution space efficiently katzgraber said this in turn allowed us to find the solutions within record times organized since 2002 the sat competition is widely regarded as the driving force behind the development of sat solvers which are key in many industrial applications including hardware and software verification the sat 2016 website notes that many hard combinatorial problems can be tackled using sat-based techniques including problems that arise in formal verification artificial intelligence operations research computational biology cryptology data mining machine learning and mathematics the theoretical and practical advances in sat research during the past 20 years have contributed to making sat solving technology an indispensable tool in a variety of domains katzgraber says his team plans to submit to more categories for future annual events which he notes are as much about continuing to push the technological envelope as motivating grassroots innovation through friendly competition and the opportunity to compare and contrast ideas and approaches basically if we can solve these hard combinatorial problems efficiently we could for example create efficient probabilistic membership filters that are of keen interest to the us government katzgraber said for additional information on the 2016 sat competition and complete results visit http://balduritikitedu/sat-competition-2016/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu " " baltimore a team of astronomers including four from texas a&m university has discovered that the universe is expanding 5 to 9 percent faster than expected based on observations with the hubble space telescope the surprising result to be detailed in an upcoming issue of the astrophysical journal represents the most recent advance in a thus-far 11-year study by the sh0es (supernova ho for the equation of state) team founded in 2005 by nobel laureate adam riess of the space telescope science institute and the johns hopkins university and texas a&ms lucas macri an associate professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 this hubble space telescope image shows one of the galaxies in the survey to refine the measurement for how fast the universe expands with time called the hubble constant the galaxy ugc 9391 contains two types of stars astronomers use to calculate accurate distances to galaxies a key measurement in determining the hubble constant the red circles mark the locations of cepheid variable stars while the blue x at bottom right denotes the location of supernova 2003du a special class of exploding star called a type ia supernova (credit: nasa esa and a riess stsci / jhu) the project aims to improve the measurement of the current expansion rate of the universe known as the hubble constant or ho after edwin hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago to a level of accuracy and precision that allows a better understanding of its composition and ultimate fate in this latest round of results the team reduced the uncertainty to an unprecedented level of only 24 percent by developing innovative techniques that improved the precision of distance measurements to faraway galaxies this surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and dont emit light such as dark energy dark matter and dark radiation riess said the team looked for galaxies containing both cepheid stars and white-dwarf supernovae cepheid stars pulsate at rates that correspond to their true brightness which can be compared with their apparent brightness as seen from earth to accurately determine their distance white-dwarf supernovae another commonly used cosmic yardstick are exploding stars that flare with the same brightness and are brilliant enough to be seen from relatively longer distances by measuring about 2 400 cepheid stars in 19 galaxies and comparing the observed brightness of both types of stars the team accurately measured their true brightness and calculated distances to roughly 300 supernovae in far-flung galaxies the team compared those distances with the expansion of space as measured by the stretching of light from receding galaxies to calculate an improved hubble constant value of 732 kilometers per second per megaparsec (a megaparsec equals 326 million light-years) the new value means the distance between cosmic objects will double in another 98 billion years see an animation of the cosmic distance ladder courtesy of nasa esa a field (stsci) and a riess (stsci/jhu) and find additional information about how the team uses this to reduce hubble constant uncertainty three texas a&m astronomy group members in addition to macri played a part in the teams refining progress postdoctoral fellow samantha hoffmann led the analysis of visible-light observations that resulted in the discovery and homogeneous characterization of the cepheids graduate student wenlong yuan contributed to those efforts studying the images of one of those galaxies and also analyzing ground-based infrared images of cepheids in the milky way postdoctoral fellow peter brown also provided observations of some of the supernovae from nasas swift satellite dr peter brown riess notes that this refined calibration presents a puzzle given that it does not quite match the expansion rate predicted for the universe from its trajectory seen shortly after the big bang measurements of the afterglow from the big bang by nasas wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (wmap) and the european space agencys planck satellite mission yield predictions which are 5 and 9 percent smaller respectively if we know the initial amounts of stuff in the universe and we have the physics correct then you can go from a measurement at the time shortly after the big bang and use that understanding to predict how fast the universe should be expanding today riess said however if this discrepancy holds up it appears we may not have the right understanding and it changes how big the hubble constant should be today comparing the universes expansion rate with wmap planck and hubble is like building a bridge riess explained on the distant shore are the cosmic microwave background observations of the early universe on the nearby shore are the measurements made by the sh0es team using hubble you start at two ends and you expect to meet in the middle if all of your drawings are right and your measurements are right riess said but now the ends are not quite meeting in the middle and we want to know why there are a few possible explanations for the universes excessive speed one possibility is that dark energy already known to be accelerating the universe may be shoving galaxies away from each other with even greater or growing strength another idea is that the cosmos contained a new subatomic particle in its early history that traveled close to the speed of light such speedy particles are collectively referred to as dark radiation and include previously known particles like neutrinos more energy from additional dark radiation could be throwing off the best efforts to predict todays expansion rate from its post-big bang trajectory the boost in acceleration could also mean that dark matter the backbone of the universe upon which galaxies built themselves up into the large-scale structures seen today possesses some weird unexpected characteristics and finally the speedier universe may be telling astronomers that einsteins theory of gravity is incomplete we know so little about the dark parts of the universe its important to measure how they push and pull on space over cosmic history macri said dr samantha hoffmann the sh0es team is still using hubble to reduce the uncertainty in the hubble constant even more with a goal to reach an accuracy of 1 percent current telescopes such as the european space agencys gaia satellite and future telescopes such as the james webb space telescope (jwst) an infrared observatory and the wide field infrared space telescope (wfirst) also could help astronomers make better measurements of the expansion rate before hubble was launched in 1990 the estimates of the hubble constant varied by a factor of two in the late 1990s the hubble space telescope key project on the extragalactic distance scale (of which macri was a junior member) refined the value of the hubble constant to within an error of only 10 percent accomplishing one of the telescopes key goals the sh0es team has reduced the uncertainty in the hubble constant value by 76 percent since beginning its quest in 2005 when macri was a hubble postdoctoral fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory in tucson to learn more about macris research or texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research group read related coverage in the bryan-college station eagle # # # # # # # # # # about hubble: the hubble space telescope is a project of international cooperation between nasa and the european space agency nasas goddard space flight center in greenbelt maryland manages the telescope the space telescope science institute (stsci) in baltimore maryland conducts hubble science operations stsci is operated for nasa by the association of universities for research in astronomy in washington dc for more information visit http://wwwnasagov/hubble about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 314-1592 or lmacri@tamuedu the post nasas hubble finds universe expanding faster than expected appeared first on college of science share: " " a team of astronomers including four from texas a&m university has discovered that the universe is expanding 5 to 9 percent faster than expected based on observations with the hubble space telescope the surprising result to be detailed in an upcoming issue of the astrophysical journal represents the most recent advance in a thus-far 11-year study by the sh0es (supernova ho for the equation of state) team founded in 2005 by nobel laureate adam riess of the space telescope science institute and the johns hopkins university and texas a&ms lucas macri an associate professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 this hubble space telescope image shows one of the galaxies in the survey to refine the measurement for how fast the universe expands with time called the hubble constant the galaxy ugc 9391 contains two types of stars astronomers use to calculate accurate distances to galaxies a key measurement in determining the hubble constant the red circles mark the locations of cepheid variable stars while the blue x at bottom right denotes the location of supernova 2003du a special class of exploding star called a type ia supernova (credit: nasa esa and a riess stsci / jhu) the project aims to improve the measurement of the current expansion rate of the universe known as the hubble constant or ho after edwin hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago to a level of accuracy and precision that allows a better understanding of its composition and ultimate fate in this latest round of results the team reduced the uncertainty to an unprecedented level of only 24 percent by developing innovative techniques that improved the precision of distance measurements to faraway galaxies this surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and dont emit light such as dark energy dark matter and dark radiation riess said the team looked for galaxies containing both cepheid stars and white-dwarf supernovae cepheid stars pulsate at rates that correspond to their true brightness which can be compared with their apparent brightness as seen from earth to accurately determine their distance white-dwarf supernovae another commonly used cosmic yardstick are exploding stars that flare with the same brightness and are brilliant enough to be seen from relatively longer distances by measuring about 2 400 cepheid stars in 19 galaxies and comparing the observed brightness of both types of stars the team accurately measured their true brightness and calculated distances to roughly 300 supernovae in far-flung galaxies the team compared those distances with the expansion of space as measured by the stretching of light from receding galaxies to calculate an improved hubble constant value of 732 kilometers per second per megaparsec (a megaparsec equals 326 million light-years) the new value means the distance between cosmic objects will double in another 98 billion years see an animation of the cosmic distance ladder courtesy of nasa esa a field (stsci) and a riess (stsci/jhu) and find additional information about how the team uses this to reduce hubble constant uncertainty three texas a&m astronomy group members in addition to macri played a part in the teams refining progress postdoctoral fellow samantha hoffmann led the analysis of visible-light observations that resulted in the discovery and homogeneous characterization of the cepheids graduate student wenlong yuan contributed to those efforts studying the images of one of those galaxies and also analyzing ground-based infrared images of cepheids in the milky way postdoctoral fellow peter brown also provided observations of some of the supernovae from nasas swift satellite dr peter brown riess notes that this refined calibration presents a puzzle given that it does not quite match the expansion rate predicted for the universe from its trajectory seen shortly after the big bang measurements of the afterglow from the big bang by nasas wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (wmap) and the european space agencys planck satellite mission yield predictions which are 5 and 9 percent smaller respectively if we know the initial amounts of stuff in the universe and we have the physics correct then you can go from a measurement at the time shortly after the big bang and use that understanding to predict how fast the universe should be expanding today riess said however if this discrepancy holds up it appears we may not have the right understanding and it changes how big the hubble constant should be today comparing the universes expansion rate with wmap planck and hubble is like building a bridge riess explained on the distant shore are the cosmic microwave background observations of the early universe on the nearby shore are the measurements made by the sh0es team using hubble you start at two ends and you expect to meet in the middle if all of your drawings are right and your measurements are right riess said but now the ends are not quite meeting in the middle and we want to know why there are a few possible explanations for the universes excessive speed one possibility is that dark energy already known to be accelerating the universe may be shoving galaxies away from each other with even greater or growing strength another idea is that the cosmos contained a new subatomic particle in its early history that traveled close to the speed of light such speedy particles are collectively referred to as dark radiation and include previously known particles like neutrinos more energy from additional dark radiation could be throwing off the best efforts to predict todays expansion rate from its post-big bang trajectory the boost in acceleration could also mean that dark matter the backbone of the universe upon which galaxies built themselves up into the large-scale structures seen today possesses some weird unexpected characteristics and finally the speedier universe may be telling astronomers that einsteins theory of gravity is incomplete we know so little about the dark parts of the universe its important to measure how they push and pull on space over cosmic history macri said dr samantha hoffmann the sh0es team is still using hubble to reduce the uncertainty in the hubble constant even more with a goal to reach an accuracy of 1 percent current telescopes such as the european space agencys gaia satellite and future telescopes such as the james webb space telescope (jwst) an infrared observatory and the wide field infrared space telescope (wfirst) also could help astronomers make better measurements of the expansion rate before hubble was launched in 1990 the estimates of the hubble constant varied by a factor of two in the late 1990s the hubble space telescope key project on the extragalactic distance scale (of which macri was a junior member) refined the value of the hubble constant to within an error of only 10 percent accomplishing one of the telescopes key goals the sh0es team has reduced the uncertainty in the hubble constant value by 76 percent since beginning its quest in 2005 when macri was a hubble postdoctoral fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory in tucson to learn more about macris research or texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research group read related coverage in the bryan-college station eagle # # # # # # # # # # about hubble: the hubble space telescope is a project of international cooperation between nasa and the european space agency nasas goddard space flight center in greenbelt maryland manages the telescope the space telescope science institute (stsci) in baltimore maryland conducts hubble science operations stsci is operated for nasa by the association of universities for research in astronomy in washington dc for more information visit http://wwwnasagov/hubble about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 314-1592 or lmacri@tamuedu " " college station editors note: last november texas a&m university president michael k young announced a new $4 billion comprehensive campaign lead by example that will cement texas a&m as a world leader in solving great global challenges the following story largely is excerpted from the version that originally appeared in the texas a&m foundations 2005 annual report re invest its a piece that illustrates not only the ties between fundraising campaigns (in this case one spirit one vision which raised more than $1 billion) but also the fact that much of texas a&ms success is rooted in a past that figures prominently in its present and future success #tamuleads # # # # # # # # # # solar power transuranics breast cancer molten salt magnets the common denominator among this eclectic list of topics is a rather uncommon renaissance man dr peter m mcintyre who holds the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high energy physics within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m university mcintyre working in his lab with former graduate student kyle damborsky and former postdoctoral researcher feng lu (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) known for his pioneering work with proton-antiproton colliding beams mcintyre uses his research agenda to develop new technologies for the worlds strongest magnetic fields for future accelerators among other breakthroughs thus far in his nearly four-decade career he has invented a way to produce electric power from nuclear fission in a reactor that is intrinsically stable cannot melt down eats its own waste does not produce bomb-capable isotopes and uses a fuel that is 10 times more plentiful than uranium the university of chicago graduate continues to use his knowledge to ponder solutions to some of todays most pressing issues i enjoy the parallelism in developing technology to extend my research and to find solutions to important practical problems mcintyre said from childs play to dream job mcintyres exploration of diverse research areas stems from his childhood interest in understanding how things work as a young kid i tinkered and experimented with chemistry and physics in a little lab that i built he recalled beginning with my chemistry and erector sets i begged electrical components from our neighbor the electrician and became friends with the local druggist after an episode where i nearly burned up my bedroom i moved my lab to a small shack that my father built in our backyard in that scientific sanctuary of his youth the budding scientist followed my nose to explore many ideas such as learning about space travel he recreated nasas early space missions by building rockets compounding rocket fuel and using anoles as astronauts one day he took apart his familys tube tv set to learn how the picture was projected so he could fix the rolling picture his father walked in the door from a long day at work to find his son on the floor surrounded by the sets innards fortunately mcintyre succeeded in reassembling the set and made it work within the hour from these experiments and adventures the young mcintyre developed a mental image of his dream job directing a lab with a group of scientists who would discover new concepts and inventions that dream job came true: since 1980 mcintyre has directed texas a&ms accelerator research laboratory featuring a staff of more than a dozen technologists and a veritable toy shop of high-tech equipment bruce strauss who works with the us department of energys (doe) office of high energy physics has known mcintyre for more than 30 years and values the texas a&m physicists ability to find new ways to address current-day issues peter comes up with more ideas per unit of time than most researchers strauss explained he has a good sense of whether theres another way of doing things magnets that triple energy target tumors mcintyres accelerator research laboratory group pictured in 2013 with the magnet for the superconducting super collider (ssc) despite the fact that the texas-based project fell victim to congressional budget cuts mcintyre says it gave him invaluable experience at figuring out how to connect science with the political leaders who could bring it to fruition thats how things can happen and thats how they do happen in this world he said it takes persistence and ingenuity in trying to find a way (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) roughly 10 years ago mcintyre invented a new way to utilize the technology he had developed for high-field superconducting magnets for use in energy applications if we can put the new ideas into practice it might make it possible to triple the energy reach of the large hadron collider at cern the european center for high energy research in geneva switzerland mcintyre said funds from the endowed chair have supported several of mcintyres trips to cern including one in spring 2005 during which he identified a solution to a design flaw with the colliders then-1 000 magnets that would have limited the colliders ability to reach its design performance mcintyres group built the prototype to correct that flaw and later equipped all of the lhcs magnets with the devicemore recently mcintyre has been modifying his magnet-based technology during the past year to help researchers at the university of texas southwestern medical center devise a better way to detect breast cancer very early greatly improving the odds that it can be cured using funding from the cancer prevention research institute of texas (cprit) he is developing a superconducting magnet capable of projecting an ultra-uniform magnetic field outside a magnet patients will be able to walk up to the unit stand in the right place and within a matter of just three minutes receive a set of high-resolution images that pinpoint early-stage breast cancer with greater-than 90 percent sensitivity twice the sensitivity of mammography it does the job with no radiation no compression and in a short enough time that the cost can be comparable to mammography he said salt = safe nuclear power 24/7 solar power mcintyre also led another team that developed a design for safe nuclear power using a particle accelerator to drive fission without requiring that the core be operated with criticality the fission fuel would be dissolved in molten salt and the molten salt would provide the fuel the moderator and the heat transport for the power station it destroys the bad stuff the transuranics which are the chemical elements beyond uranium in the periodic table and recovers the good stuff which is the fuel he said he currently advises a boston-based company that is developing molten-salt technology for nuclear power in competition with four other efforts around the world in addition he says a major oil company is poised to donate a state-of-art molten salt experimental system to texas a&m to push this work along work that has important applications for other ways to make energy a ‚Äòtower of power reflector array can concentrate sunlight onto a heat exchanger that stores the heat all day in a huge underground tank of molten salt mcintyre says the molten salt heats steam to make electricity just the same as if one were to burn coal for the purpose except there is no co2 no smoke no pollution at all and it makes it possible to deliver the solar power day and night rain or shine collateral impacts in the classroom tintype portrait of mcintyre commissioned by the texas a&m foundation for its 2005 annual report learn more about the process via national geographic (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) mcintyre who has been a texas a&m faculty member for 36 years also finds rich rewards in teaching the next generation of physicists and engineers his commitment to providing a quality education for aggies in both the classroom and the laboratory has been enhanced by another major gift beyond his endowed chair the new physics buildings dedicated in 2009 and funded through a unique public-private partnership spearheaded by a $35 million commitment from cynthia and george p mitchell 40 the state-of-the-art buildings have provided new opportunities for research that is probing the beginning of the universe and the unification of the fundamental fields of nature mcintyre said along with a collateral impact through the innovation and improvements in physics courses for our undergraduates these physics courses are a critical component in the education of thousands of students who plan to major in a variety of disciplines from engineering and the sciences to geosciences and other fields in any given year take 2014-15 for instance in which roughly 5 000 registered for the calculus-based 218/208 freshman physics course sequence required of most engineering students between the new buildings and his accelerator research laboratory mcintyre has the perfect stage to stretch his students minds by sharing his talent: linking physics formulas with actual design and applications peter mcintyre is a physicist with an engineering sense strauss said his purpose in life is to make people think # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr peter m mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m professor realizes life purpose global potential through physics appeared first on college of science share: " " editors note: last november texas a&m university president michael k young announced a new $4 billion comprehensive campaign lead by example that will cement texas a&m as a world leader in solving great global challenges the following story largely is excerpted from the version that originally appeared in the texas a&m foundations 2005 annual report re invest its a piece that illustrates not only the ties between fundraising campaigns (in this case one spirit one vision which raised more than $1 billion) but also the fact that much of texas a&ms success is rooted in a past that figures prominently in its present and future success #tamuleads # # # # # # # # # # solar power transuranics breast cancer molten salt magnets the common denominator among this eclectic list of topics is a rather uncommon renaissance man dr peter m mcintyre who holds the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high energy physics within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m university mcintyre working in his lab with former graduate student kyle damborsky and former postdoctoral researcher feng lu (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) known for his pioneering work with proton-antiproton colliding beams mcintyre uses his research agenda to develop new technologies for the worlds strongest magnetic fields for future accelerators among other breakthroughs thus far in his nearly four-decade career he has invented a way to produce electric power from nuclear fission in a reactor that is intrinsically stable cannot melt down eats its own waste does not produce bomb-capable isotopes and uses a fuel that is 10 times more plentiful than uranium the university of chicago graduate continues to use his knowledge to ponder solutions to some of todays most pressing issues i enjoy the parallelism in developing technology to extend my research and to find solutions to important practical problems mcintyre said from childs play to dream job mcintyres exploration of diverse research areas stems from his childhood interest in understanding how things work as a young kid i tinkered and experimented with chemistry and physics in a little lab that i built he recalled beginning with my chemistry and erector sets i begged electrical components from our neighbor the electrician and became friends with the local druggist after an episode where i nearly burned up my bedroom i moved my lab to a small shack that my father built in our backyard in that scientific sanctuary of his youth the budding scientist followed my nose to explore many ideas such as learning about space travel he recreated nasas early space missions by building rockets compounding rocket fuel and using anoles as astronauts one day he took apart his familys tube tv set to learn how the picture was projected so he could fix the rolling picture his father walked in the door from a long day at work to find his son on the floor surrounded by the sets innards fortunately mcintyre succeeded in reassembling the set and made it work within the hour from these experiments and adventures the young mcintyre developed a mental image of his dream job directing a lab with a group of scientists who would discover new concepts and inventions that dream job came true: since 1980 mcintyre has directed texas a&ms accelerator research laboratory featuring a staff of more than a dozen technologists and a veritable toy shop of high-tech equipment bruce strauss who works with the us department of energys (doe) office of high energy physics has known mcintyre for more than 30 years and values the texas a&m physicists ability to find new ways to address current-day issues peter comes up with more ideas per unit of time than most researchers strauss explained he has a good sense of whether theres another way of doing things magnets that triple energy target tumors mcintyres accelerator research laboratory group pictured in 2013 with the magnet for the superconducting super collider (ssc) despite the fact that the texas-based project fell victim to congressional budget cuts mcintyre says it gave him invaluable experience at figuring out how to connect science with the political leaders who could bring it to fruition thats how things can happen and thats how they do happen in this world he said it takes persistence and ingenuity in trying to find a way (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) roughly 10 years ago mcintyre invented a new way to utilize the technology he had developed for high-field superconducting magnets for use in energy applications if we can put the new ideas into practice it might make it possible to triple the energy reach of the large hadron collider at cern the european center for high energy research in geneva switzerland mcintyre said funds from the endowed chair have supported several of mcintyres trips to cern including one in spring 2005 during which he identified a solution to a design flaw with the colliders then-1 000 magnets that would have limited the colliders ability to reach its design performance mcintyres group built the prototype to correct that flaw and later equipped all of the lhcs magnets with the devicemore recently mcintyre has been modifying his magnet-based technology during the past year to help researchers at the university of texas southwestern medical center devise a better way to detect breast cancer very early greatly improving the odds that it can be cured using funding from the cancer prevention research institute of texas (cprit) he is developing a superconducting magnet capable of projecting an ultra-uniform magnetic field outside a magnet patients will be able to walk up to the unit stand in the right place and within a matter of just three minutes receive a set of high-resolution images that pinpoint early-stage breast cancer with greater-than 90 percent sensitivity twice the sensitivity of mammography it does the job with no radiation no compression and in a short enough time that the cost can be comparable to mammography he said salt = safe nuclear power 24/7 solar power mcintyre also led another team that developed a design for safe nuclear power using a particle accelerator to drive fission without requiring that the core be operated with criticality the fission fuel would be dissolved in molten salt and the molten salt would provide the fuel the moderator and the heat transport for the power station it destroys the bad stuff the transuranics which are the chemical elements beyond uranium in the periodic table and recovers the good stuff which is the fuel he said he currently advises a boston-based company that is developing molten-salt technology for nuclear power in competition with four other efforts around the world in addition he says a major oil company is poised to donate a state-of-art molten salt experimental system to texas a&m to push this work along work that has important applications for other ways to make energy a ‚Äòtower of power reflector array can concentrate sunlight onto a heat exchanger that stores the heat all day in a huge underground tank of molten salt mcintyre says the molten salt heats steam to make electricity just the same as if one were to burn coal for the purpose except there is no co2 no smoke no pollution at all and it makes it possible to deliver the solar power day and night rain or shine collateral impacts in the classroom tintype portrait of mcintyre commissioned by the texas a&m foundation for its 2005 annual report learn more about the process via national geographic (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) mcintyre who has been a texas a&m faculty member for 36 years also finds rich rewards in teaching the next generation of physicists and engineers his commitment to providing a quality education for aggies in both the classroom and the laboratory has been enhanced by another major gift beyond his endowed chair the new physics buildings dedicated in 2009 and funded through a unique public-private partnership spearheaded by a $35 million commitment from cynthia and george p mitchell 40 the state-of-the-art buildings have provided new opportunities for research that is probing the beginning of the universe and the unification of the fundamental fields of nature mcintyre said along with a collateral impact through the innovation and improvements in physics courses for our undergraduates these physics courses are a critical component in the education of thousands of students who plan to major in a variety of disciplines from engineering and the sciences to geosciences and other fields in any given year take 2014-15 for instance in which roughly 5 000 registered for the calculus-based 218/208 freshman physics course sequence required of most engineering students between the new buildings and his accelerator research laboratory mcintyre has the perfect stage to stretch his students minds by sharing his talent: linking physics formulas with actual design and applications peter mcintyre is a physicist with an engineering sense strauss said his purpose in life is to make people think # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr peter m mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu " " college station california institute of technology physicist barry c barish former director of the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (ligo) and creator of the ligo scientific collaboration (lsc) that includes more than 1 000 collaborators worldwide will visit texas a&m university next week to deliver a free public lecture detailing his role in the groundbreaking experiment recognized earlier this month with the prestigious $3 million special breakthrough prize in fundamental physics dr barry c barish barish will present einstein black holes and ligo on wednesday (may 18) at 6 pm in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the george p mitchell 40 physics building tickets are not required for the free event which is sponsored by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the department of physics and astronomy in conjunction with the may 17-20 us cms (compact muon solenoid) collaboration meeting both the meeting and the lecture are hosted by the texas a&m cms group which includes texas a&m high-energy physicists ricardo eusebi teruki kamon alexei safonov and keith ulmer two black holes collided one billion years ago recently resulting in the universes first observable gravitational waves 100 years after albert einstein first predicted their existence based on his theory of general relativity of space-time as one of the initial principal investigators for ligo barish led the collaborations efforts through the experiments final design stages funding approval and construction he continues to play a leadership role in ligo from the ongoing implementation of advanced ligo the experiments current phase that features 10 times the sensitivity and more than 1 000 times the detection potential to his service on the lsc executive committee kamon mitchell institute deputy director and event organizer says its fitting that barish will share his scientific journey with fellow ligo dream chasers within the very facility that another visionary george p mitchell 40 helped make a reality at texas a&m university barry barishs lecture offers the opportunity thanks in large part to mr mitchell and the mitchell family to learn from one of the worlds top authorities on ligo and many other pioneering international experiments that have revolutionized particle physics kamon said barish a national academy of sciences member since 2002 earned both his bachelor of arts in physics (1957) and phd in experimental particle physics (1962) at the university of california berkeley he came to caltech as a postdoc in 1963 where he has pursued his academic and research careers barish was named the maxine and ronald linde professor of physics at caltech in 1991 and since 2005 is the maxine and ronald linde professor of physics emeritus beyond ligo barish has performed other noteworthy experiments including high-energy neutrino collisions at fermilab that revealed the quark substructure of the nucleon these experiments were among the first to observe the weak neutral current a linchpin of the electroweak unification theories of glashow salam and weinberg following the neutrino experiment barish developed an ambitious international effort to open up a new field of particle astrophysics the experiment macro located in the gran sasso tunnel in italy produced the most sensitive search for the heavy magnetic monopoles that are predicted in grand unified theories macro also studied penetrating cosmic rays including neutrino measurements that provided important confirmatory evidence that neutrinos have mass and oscillate barish also is the former director of the global design effort for the international linear collider (ilc) barish is an elected member of the american academy of arts and sciences and is a fellow of both the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) and the american physical society (aps) he served as aps president in 2011 and on many important science committees including co-chairing the high energy physics advisory panel subpanel that developed a long-range plan for us high energy physics in 2001 he has also has chaired the commission of particles and fields and the us liaison committee to the international union of pure and applied physics (iupap) in addition to being very active in international collaboration for physics barish was given a presidential appointment and served on the national science board the 24-member board that oversees the national science foundation (nsf) and advises the president and the congress on policy issues related to science engineering and education # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr teruki kamon (979) 845-7740 or kamon@physicstamuedu the post caltech physicist to present public lecture on ligo experiment appeared first on college of science share: " " college station sherree d kessler 99 senior academic advisor in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as one of five campus-wide recipients of the 2016 presidents award for academic advising sherree kessler 99 established in 2004 the awards recognize outstanding individuals who exemplify the qualities and practices of exceptional academic advising and service to students kessler and her fellow recipients each will be recognized with a $2 000 award and a plaque to be presented at the university advisors and counselors awards breakfast set for tuesday may 3 kessler who earned both a bachelors in english (1999) as well as a masters in educational administration (2001) from texas a&m joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy advising team in 2012 after seven years in academic advising at the university of texas at san antonio (2005-2012) and another two years as assistant director of leadership activities at university of the incarnate word (2003-2005) she spent two years as a student development specialist at southwestern university after completing her masters degree sherree is a fantastic advisor and this is a great honor for her and for our department said dr george r welch professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy she helps all our students from the very minute they arrive on campus for new student orientation i couldnt possibly count the number of students sherree has helped manage paperwork and deadlines for over the years as well she knows everything dr timothy p scott associate dean for undergraduate programs in the college of science also received the honor in 2005 as has the department of biologys christine farris (2009) and vanessa nordell (2014) the department of physics and astronomys sandi smith (2009) and the department of chemistrys holly c gaede (2013) -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post a+ advising: physics and astronomys sherree kessler earns presidential award appeared first on college of science share: " " sherree d kessler 99 senior academic advisor in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as one of five campus-wide recipients of the 2016 presidents award for academic advising sherree kessler 99 established in 2004 the awards recognize outstanding individuals who exemplify the qualities and practices of exceptional academic advising and service to students kessler and her fellow recipients each will be recognized with a $2 000 award and a plaque to be presented at the university advisors and counselors awards breakfast set for tuesday may 3 kessler who earned both a bachelors in english (1999) as well as a masters in educational administration (2001) from texas a&m joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy advising team in 2012 after seven years in academic advising at the university of texas at san antonio (2005-2012) and another two years as assistant director of leadership activities at university of the incarnate word (2003-2005) she spent two years as a student development specialist at southwestern university after completing her masters degree sherree is a fantastic advisor and this is a great honor for her and for our department said dr george r welch professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy she helps all our students from the very minute they arrive on campus for new student orientation i couldnt possibly count the number of students sherree has helped manage paperwork and deadlines for over the years as well she knows everything dr timothy p scott associate dean for undergraduate programs in the college of science also received the honor in 2005 as has the department of biologys christine farris (2009) and vanessa nordell (2014) the department of physics and astronomys sandi smith (2009) and the department of chemistrys holly c gaede (2013) -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " share: " " ¬† buenos aires texas ties forged seven years ago during the international year of astronomy have taken two lone star state astronomers global in a quest for a new argentina-based telescope to aid in the hunt for ligo-based evidence beyond gravitational waves specifically that of neutron star mergers lucas macri (right) poses with university of texas rio grande valley astronomer mario d√≠az outside la casa rosada in buenos aires (credit: lucas macri) while in buenos aires this week for an international conference texas a&m universitys lucas macri and the university of texas rio grande valleys mario d√≠az took in the ultimate in local scenes la casa rosada or the pink house otherwise known as the argentine equivalent of the white house during their by-invitation audience with the president of argentina mauricio macri macri met macri (no relation) on monday (march 28) at 9:40 am texas time along with d√≠az a member of the ligo (laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory) collaboration that recently announced the first-ever detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes one billion years ago d√≠az is director of the national science foundation-funded center for gravitational wave astronomy home to the largest group of gravitational-wave researchers in texas and one of the largest across the united states involved in the ligo scientific collaboration global research effort macri a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy notes that ligo also is sensitive to the merger of two neutron stars among other intriguing celestial possibilities of interest to the collaboration and fields beyond astrophysics for several years now prof d√≠az and i along with several others have been trying to set up a telescope in northwestern argentina to image the ‚Äòflash of light that would be associated with the merger of two neutron stars macri said the idea is that ligo detects the ripples in space-time and immediately sends an alert to astronomers around the world so they can start looking for the flash of light president macri heard that prof d√≠az and i were headed to a conference in argentina next week and invited us to visit him at the pink house to discuss the project along with the minister of science because ligo can only give a very rough idea of which way the ripples came from macri says that astronomers have to cover a lot of the sky to try to see the flash at least 1 000 times the size of the full moon if the information from ligo is very good and 10 times more if its not so good in addition to depth and breadth macri says it would require speed telescopes capable of covering a large fraction of the sky quickly given that the flash is only expected to last a few days and nights lucas macri (right) with chief of staff marcos pe√±a (credit: lucas macri) macri and d√≠az who first met in 2009 when d√≠az was at ut-brownsville started discussions in 2012 regarding a collaboration between their two universities and the universidad nacional de c√≥rdoba to build such a robotic telescope known as toros (transient optical robotic observatory of the south) texas a&m astronomer darren depoy along with members of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory provided a design for a telescope and camera that could do the job macri then calculated how deep the images should be and how much of the sky the astronomers could cover each night beyond astronomers he since has been working with texas a&m statistician james long to develop statistical methods and models for subsequent data analysis in 2013 darren texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall my grad student ryan oelkers and i traveled to the site in northwestern argentina for a week-long scientific campaign macri said while we havent received funding yet the recent detection of gravitational waves by ligo has increased the interest in our project by both the united states and argentine national science foundations macri says the team currently has a $1 million proposal under consideration by the argentine nsf to further develop the observatory at cordon mac√≥n where the telescope would be located in addition they recently submitted a white paper to the us nsf to lay the groundwork for a $1 million request to fund the telescope and camera these would be commercially available products but the munnerlyn lab would modify the telescope and build a lens to increase its field of view macri said macri depoy and marshall are involved in a broader international collaboration of many collaborations as macri describes it that recently submitted a paper detailing the search for the flash from the first ligo event at the time we didnt know if it was two black holes (from which no flash would be expected) or two neutron stars (from which a flash would be expected) macri said it turned out to be a merger of two black holes so we searched in vain but we still learned a lot macri joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 after spending six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) born and raised in buenos aires he obtained his bachelors of science degree in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1995 and his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 nicholas b suntzeff texas a&m distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program says that while ligo gives us new eyes into the universe follow-up research is necessary to see where in the universe these objects are located study that requires telescopes which can move immediately to the position detected by ligo the argentinian-texan collaboration will place a telescope in the mac√≥n mountain range in the andes at a site which is very clear dry and away from the light pollution of nearby cities suntzeff said one of the most exciting developments for next decade in astronomical research will be the search for these powerful but rapid flashes of energy in the sky which will require access to robotic telescopes and rapid analysis of the data before the event fades from view it will also require collaboration between the astronomers statisticians and computer scientists to invent novel techniques in data science and statistics to sift the data for these rare occurrences in what some call the ‚Äòviolent universe i am very proud of dr macris leadership in bringing this important collaboration to texas and to our university through his work on the measurement of the expansion rate of the universe dr macri has also become a leader in the study of variable and transient objects his work with ligo and the construction of a robotic telescope is an exciting extension of his research on the hubble constant the statistical study of the cosmos is one of the most important new areas of research in the upcoming decade and our collaboration will put us at the forefront of this emerging field for additional information on macris research or texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or lmacri@physicstamuedu share: " " texas ties forged seven years ago during the international year of astronomy have taken two lone star state astronomers global in a quest for a new argentina-based telescope to aid in the hunt for ligo-based evidence beyond gravitational waves specifically that of neutron star mergers lucas macri (right) poses with university of texas rio grande valley astronomer mario d√≠az outside la casa rosada in buenos aires (credit: lucas macri) while in buenos aires this week for an international conference texas a&m universitys lucas macri and the university of texas rio grande valleys mario d√≠az took in the ultimate in local scenes la casa rosada or the pink house otherwise known as the argentine equivalent of the white house during their by-invitation audience with the president of argentina mauricio macri macri met macri (no relation) on monday (march 28) at 9:40 am texas time along with d√≠az a member of the ligo (laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory) collaboration that recently announced the first-ever detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes one billion years ago d√≠az is director of the national science foundation-funded center for gravitational wave astronomy home to the largest group of gravitational-wave researchers in texas and one of the largest across the united states involved in the ligo scientific collaboration global research effort macri a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy notes that ligo also is sensitive to the merger of two neutron stars among other intriguing celestial possibilities of interest to the collaboration and fields beyond astrophysics for several years now prof d√≠az and i along with several others have been trying to set up a telescope in northwestern argentina to image the ‚Äòflash of light that would be associated with the merger of two neutron stars macri said the idea is that ligo detects the ripples in space-time and immediately sends an alert to astronomers around the world so they can start looking for the flash of light president macri heard that prof d√≠az and i were headed to a conference in argentina next week and invited us to visit him at the pink house to discuss the project along with the minister of science because ligo can only give a very rough idea of which way the ripples came from macri says that astronomers have to cover a lot of the sky to try to see the flash at least 1 000 times the size of the full moon if the information from ligo is very good and 10 times more if its not so good in addition to depth and breadth macri says it would require speed telescopes capable of covering a large fraction of the sky quickly given that the flash is only expected to last a few days and nights lucas macri (right) with chief of staff marcos pe√±a (credit: lucas macri) macri and d√≠az who first met in 2009 when d√≠az was at ut-brownsville started discussions in 2012 regarding a collaboration between their two universities and the universidad nacional de c√≥rdoba to build such a robotic telescope known as toros (transient optical robotic observatory of the south) texas a&m astronomer darren depoy along with members of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory provided a design for a telescope and camera that could do the job macri then calculated how deep the images should be and how much of the sky the astronomers could cover each night beyond astronomers he since has been working with texas a&m statistician james long to develop statistical methods and models for subsequent data analysis in 2013 darren texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall my grad student ryan oelkers and i traveled to the site in northwestern argentina for a week-long scientific campaign macri said while we havent received funding yet the recent detection of gravitational waves by ligo has increased the interest in our project by both the united states and argentine national science foundations macri says the team currently has a $1 million proposal under consideration by the argentine nsf to further develop the observatory at cordon mac√≥n where the telescope would be located in addition they recently submitted a white paper to the us nsf to lay the groundwork for a $1 million request to fund the telescope and camera these would be commercially available products but the munnerlyn lab would modify the telescope and build a lens to increase its field of view macri said macri depoy and marshall are involved in a broader international collaboration of many collaborations as macri describes it that recently submitted a paper detailing the search for the flash from the first ligo event at the time we didnt know if it was two black holes (from which no flash would be expected) or two neutron stars (from which a flash would be expected) macri said it turned out to be a merger of two black holes so we searched in vain but we still learned a lot macri joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 after spending six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) born and raised in buenos aires he obtained his bachelors of science degree in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1995 and his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 nicholas b suntzeff texas a&m distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program says that while ligo gives us new eyes into the universe follow-up research is necessary to see where in the universe these objects are located study that requires telescopes which can move immediately to the position detected by ligo the argentinian-texan collaboration will place a telescope in the mac√≥n mountain range in the andes at a site which is very clear dry and away from the light pollution of nearby cities suntzeff said one of the most exciting developments for next decade in astronomical research will be the search for these powerful but rapid flashes of energy in the sky which will require access to robotic telescopes and rapid analysis of the data before the event fades from view it will also require collaboration between the astronomers statisticians and computer scientists to invent novel techniques in data science and statistics to sift the data for these rare occurrences in what some call the ‚Äòviolent universe i am very proud of dr macris leadership in bringing this important collaboration to texas and to our university through his work on the measurement of the expansion rate of the universe dr macri has also become a leader in the study of variable and transient objects his work with ligo and the construction of a robotic telescope is an exciting extension of his research on the hubble constant the statistical study of the cosmos is one of the most important new areas of research in the upcoming decade and our collaboration will put us at the forefront of this emerging field for additional information on macris research or texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or lmacri@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station ting li 16 a graduate student in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as the 2016 recipient of the lederman fellowship in experimental physics one of the most distinguished postdoctoral fellowships in experimental particle physics the three-year fellowship was created in 1989 by the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory in tribute to world-renowned physicist and nobel laureate leon m lederman when he stepped down after 11 years as director of fermilab lederman shared in the 1988 nobel prize in physics for work done in the 1960s with neutrinos veritable ghost-like building blocks of matter that led to major breakthroughs in the study of weak forces as well as the overall structure and dynamics of matter his namesake award at fermilab is intended to attract exceptional postdoctoral candidates with demonstrated outstanding ability in research and a strong interest in education and outreach graduate student : ting li 16 li is only the second astronomer ever selected for the prestigious fellowship whose previous 16 recipients include texas a&m high-energy physicist ricardo eusebi an accomplished instrument builder as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy li has built her own telescope the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera (atmcam) which has been taking data in chile since fall 2014 that is being used for the five-year doe-funded dark energy survey she also worked on decal one of the key sub-components of the 570-megapixel dark energy camera that powers the des based on these accomplishments she is one of a handful of graduate students worldwide to earn the coveted des builder status which entitles her to be listed as an author on every des collaboration-related paper released and allows her to keep working on the des data after she graduates from texas a&m in addition li built the exposure time calculator for gmacs a custom-designed spectrograph and one of the first-light instruments for the $1 billion giant magellan telescope this is one of only a few prize fellowships in particle physics said texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall munnerlyn lab manager and mentor to li along with fellow texas a&m astronomer and munnerlyn lab director darren depoy the fact that it was awarded to an astronomer this year is notable and speaks to how extraordinary and cross-disciplinary tings work has been the lederman also has an educational/public outreach component so ting will be able to continue her work in public outreach as well were very proud of her! lederman fellows have a choice in the broad program of experimental work at fermilab which includes research at the large hadron collider neutrino physics astroparticle physics and research at the intensity frontier in recognition of ledermans commitment to the teaching of physics at all levels fellows are also expected to spend a certain fraction of their time in education and outreach including through the saturday morning physics program lederman founded in 1980 while at fermilab ting li and fellow munnerlyn lab member nicholas mondrik 15 fine-tuning the atmcam during installation at chiles cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in august 2014 the lederman fellowship seeks the best possible researchers with a passion for education and outreach said vaia papdimitriou associate head of fermilabs accelerator division and the inaugural lederman fellow in 1990 it takes a very special person to give more than 100 percent to their research and also make time for teaching li who is set to receive her doctorate in august says she likely will continue her research in astrophysics and specifically des-related work when she begins her fellowship at fermilab in fall 2016 she also hopes to work on other instrumentation and spectroscopy-related projects and looks forward to getting involved in fermilabs educational outreach program click here for additional information on the lederman fellowship at fermilab to learn more about li and her work at texas a&m see this past feature article and recent q&a segment as part of texas a&ms 2015 student research week # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m grad student ting li awarded fermilabs lederman fellowship appeared first on college of science share: " " ting li 16 a graduate student in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as the 2016 recipient of the lederman fellowship in experimental physics one of the most distinguished postdoctoral fellowships in experimental particle physics the three-year fellowship was created in 1989 by the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory in tribute to world-renowned physicist and nobel laureate leon m lederman when he stepped down after 11 years as director of fermilab lederman shared in the 1988 nobel prize in physics for work done in the 1960s with neutrinos veritable ghost-like building blocks of matter that led to major breakthroughs in the study of weak forces as well as the overall structure and dynamics of matter his namesake award at fermilab is intended to attract exceptional postdoctoral candidates with demonstrated outstanding ability in research and a strong interest in education and outreach graduate student : ting li 16 li is only the second astronomer ever selected for the prestigious fellowship whose previous 16 recipients include texas a&m high-energy physicist ricardo eusebi an accomplished instrument builder as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy li has built her own telescope the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera (atmcam) which has been taking data in chile since fall 2014 that is being used for the five-year doe-funded dark energy survey she also worked on decal one of the key sub-components of the 570-megapixel dark energy camera that powers the des based on these accomplishments she is one of a handful of graduate students worldwide to earn the coveted des builder status which entitles her to be listed as an author on every des collaboration-related paper released and allows her to keep working on the des data after she graduates from texas a&m in addition li built the exposure time calculator for gmacs a custom-designed spectrograph and one of the first-light instruments for the $1 billion giant magellan telescope this is one of only a few prize fellowships in particle physics said texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall munnerlyn lab manager and mentor to li along with fellow texas a&m astronomer and munnerlyn lab director darren depoy the fact that it was awarded to an astronomer this year is notable and speaks to how extraordinary and cross-disciplinary tings work has been the lederman also has an educational/public outreach component so ting will be able to continue her work in public outreach as well were very proud of her! lederman fellows have a choice in the broad program of experimental work at fermilab which includes research at the large hadron collider neutrino physics astroparticle physics and research at the intensity frontier in recognition of ledermans commitment to the teaching of physics at all levels fellows are also expected to spend a certain fraction of their time in education and outreach including through the saturday morning physics program lederman founded in 1980 while at fermilab ting li and fellow munnerlyn lab member nicholas mondrik 15 fine-tuning the atmcam during installation at chiles cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in august 2014 the lederman fellowship seeks the best possible researchers with a passion for education and outreach said vaia papdimitriou associate head of fermilabs accelerator division and the inaugural lederman fellow in 1990 it takes a very special person to give more than 100 percent to their research and also make time for teaching li who is set to receive her doctorate in august says she likely will continue her research in astrophysics and specifically des-related work when she begins her fellowship at fermilab in fall 2016 she also hopes to work on other instrumentation and spectroscopy-related projects and looks forward to getting involved in fermilabs educational outreach program click here for additional information on the lederman fellowship at fermilab to learn more about li and her work at texas a&m see this past feature article and recent q&a segment as part of texas a&ms 2015 student research week # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) based on expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " share: " " colllege station the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas the nation and even the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology this spring at the 2016 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event (view promotional poster online) scheduled for saturday april 9 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by internationally recognized theoretical physicist and author of popular books and the preposterous universe blog dr sean m carroll research professor of physics at the california institute of technology and a past ted speaker all events are hosted by texas a&m physics and astronomy and texas a&m aerospace engineering in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of chemistry mathematics and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history throughout the day festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 150 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students for the fourth consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program hundreds of deep students undergraduate and graduate have been involved in creating the new demos during the years and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic performances of the science circus (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by physics showman rhys thomas who teaches newtonian physics through a rare blend of science comedy and circus arts in a performance often compared to a pixar movie attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr dudley r herschbach and dr david m lee as well as nasa astronaut and professor dr bonnie dunbar a veteran mission specialist and payload commander with the space shuttle program who flew on five missions in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium other special events on tap include large hadron collider virtual tours at noon and 1:30 pm as well as four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza at 10:30 am noon 1:30 pm and 3 pm finally a texas-sixed five-barrel depth charge featuring 1 000 plastic balls will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3:30 pm outside the mitchell physics building at 4 pm carroll will deliver a keynote presentation the origin of the universe and the arrow of time that will discuss the differences between the universes past and future as well as the one constant throughout time carroll will examine the nature of time the origin of entropy and how what happened before the big bang may be responsible for the arrow of time we observe today prior to saturdays events texas a&m climate scientist dr andrew dessler professor of atmospheric sciences will deliver a free public lecture the historical development of climate science and why you should believe it on friday (april 8) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which dessler will review the history and science of climate change and explain why scientists remain convinced despite the ongoing and often heated debate in the public sector dessler also will touch on aspects of his research on climate feedbacks in particular how water vapor and clouds act to amplify warming from the carbon dioxide that humans emit and his experience which includes a stint as a senior policy analyst in the white house office of science and technology policy all events are sponsored by the texas a&m university system the department of physics and astronomy the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the texas a&m college of science external advisory and development council exxonmobil the willard and anne levin foundation and the department of aerospace engineering the event is an affiliate festival of the 5th annual usa science and engineering festival as well as a member of the science festival alliance for the latest details regarding the 2016 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a recap video from the 2015 physics & engineering festival on youtube and see additional photographs on flickr: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for april 9 appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas the nation and even the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology this spring at the 2016 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event (view promotional poster online) scheduled for saturday april 9 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by internationally recognized theoretical physicist and author of popular books and the preposterous universe blog dr sean m carroll research professor of physics at the california institute of technology and a past ted speaker all events are hosted by texas a&m physics and astronomy and texas a&m aerospace engineering in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of chemistry mathematics and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history throughout the day festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 150 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students for the fourth consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program hundreds of deep students undergraduate and graduate have been involved in creating the new demos during the years and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic performances of the science circus (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by physics showman rhys thomas who teaches newtonian physics through a rare blend of science comedy and circus arts in a performance often compared to a pixar movie attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr dudley r herschbach and dr david m lee as well as nasa astronaut and professor dr bonnie dunbar a veteran mission specialist and payload commander with the space shuttle program who flew on five missions in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium other special events on tap include large hadron collider virtual tours at noon and 1:30 pm as well as four performances of the low-temperature physics extravaganza at 10:30 am noon 1:30 pm and 3 pm finally a texas-sixed five-barrel depth charge featuring 1 000 plastic balls will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3:30 pm outside the mitchell physics building at 4 pm carroll will deliver a keynote presentation the origin of the universe and the arrow of time that will discuss the differences between the universes past and future as well as the one constant throughout time carroll will examine the nature of time the origin of entropy and how what happened before the big bang may be responsible for the arrow of time we observe today prior to saturdays events texas a&m climate scientist dr andrew dessler professor of atmospheric sciences will deliver a free public lecture the historical development of climate science and why you should believe it on friday (april 8) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which dessler will review the history and science of climate change and explain why scientists remain convinced despite the ongoing and often heated debate in the public sector dessler also will touch on aspects of his research on climate feedbacks in particular how water vapor and clouds act to amplify warming from the carbon dioxide that humans emit and his experience which includes a stint as a senior policy analyst in the white house office of science and technology policy all events are sponsored by the texas a&m university system the department of physics and astronomy the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the texas a&m college of science external advisory and development council exxonmobil the willard and anne levin foundation and the department of aerospace engineering the event is an affiliate festival of the 5th annual usa science and engineering festival as well as a member of the science festival alliance for the latest details regarding the 2016 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a recap video from the 2015 physics & engineering festival on youtube and see additional photographs on flickr: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu " " ¬† college station when the brazos valley museum of natural history kicks off its most recent exhibition capturing time: the story of early photography on thursday (jan 28) a portion of the spotlight will be shining on astronomy connections past and present texas a&m university astronomer nicholas b suntzeff says the exhibit represents a fascinating collection of cameras and old photographs including two historic photographic plates he was able to secure on loan from carnegie observatories a partner along with texas a&m in building the giant magellan telescope both were taken by world-renowned astronomer edwin hubble in 1923 at mount wilson observatory the exhibit will showcase rare and beautiful vintage cameras photographic equipment printed materials from darrin hills collection and photographs including two original hubble glass plates (below) on loan from the carnegie institution for science (credit: brazos valley museum of natural history) suntzeff a university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as the director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he explains that the plates are labeled to identify the telescope used specific plate number taken on that particular telescope and the observer of record in this case the two plates in the exhibit h335h and h348h are the 335th and 348th taken on the hooker 100-inch telescope (indicated by the first h) by hubble (indicated by the last h) suntzeff says that the h348h plate is especially interesting because it is part of the series that hubble took late that same year through which he discovered a cepheid variable in the andromeda nebula now known as the andromeda galaxy he adds that the actual discovery apparently was done using plate h335h by hubble that was taken two months earlier with this discovery the scale of the universe was finally understood suntzeff said our milky way galaxy was no longer the large isolated stellar system that astronomers had thought but one of now hundreds of billions of galaxies many have seen reproductions of the h335h plate because in red ink hubble has crossed out ‚Äòn (for possible nova) and instead wrote ‚Äòvar! as if he was living an ah-ha moment suntzeff said but the whole series of plates was used in the discovery and as such the plates in the exhibition were part of the discovery of the scale of the universe hubbles famous cepheid variable star can be clearly seen on the h335h plate nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff notes that the distance to andromeda also was key in hubbles 1929 discovery of a linear expansion of the universe and the first approximate value of the hubble constant of 550 kilometers per second per megaparsec that measurement has since been redefined as 742 km s-1 mpc-1 by the shoes (supernova ho for the equation of state) team that includes texas a&m astronomer lucas macri it was as a postdoctoral research associate at carnegie observatories in the 1980s that suntzeff says he was encouraged by famed 20th century observational astronomer allan sandage to focus on type ia supernovas more specifically their brightness to measure precise distances allan sandage always told us there were only two numbers any astronomer should ever be interested in the hubble constant and the deceleration of the universe suntzeff said he said a lot of interesting astronomy lies along the path toward those numbers but the goal is that if you have both you can understand the evolution of the universe and its probable fate this path led suntzeff in 1998 to co-discover an unexplained acceleration in the universes expansion later honored with the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the first evidence for a mysterious substance known as dark energy that makes up nearly three-quarters of the universe coincidentally hubble was sandages mentor adding an extra degree of full-circle intrigue to one particular facet of the trios intertwined fate in 1917 the eminent theoretical physicist albert einstein added a small correction to his general theory of relativity of gravity to make the universe unchanging between 1929 and 1931 hubble using the same hooker telescope showed that the universe actually is expanding causing einstein to throw out this correction which he later claimed was the biggest blunder of his life in 2008 as part of the international essence project suntzeff helped show that einsteins correction term called the cosmological constant while small actually does exist capturing time: the story of early photography will open tonight at 6 pm with a free public lecture by master photographer darrin hill followed by an opening reception featuring wine appetizers and gallery viewing the museum is located at 3232 briarcrest drive in bryan just east of the intersection of texas state highway 6 and briarcrest to learn more about the exhibit which will run through may 30 or the brazos valley museum of natural history visit http://wwwbrazosvalleymuseumorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post local photography exhibit to feature two original hubble glass plates appeared first on college of science share: " " when the brazos valley museum of natural history kicks off its most recent exhibition capturing time: the story of early photography on thursday (jan 28) a portion of the spotlight will be shining on astronomy connections past and present texas a&m university astronomer nicholas b suntzeff says the exhibit represents a fascinating collection of cameras and old photographs including two historic photographic plates he was able to secure on loan from carnegie observatories a partner along with texas a&m in building the giant magellan telescope both were taken by world-renowned astronomer edwin hubble in 1923 at mount wilson observatory the exhibit will showcase rare and beautiful vintage cameras photographic equipment printed materials from darrin hills collection and photographs including two original hubble glass plates (below) on loan from the carnegie institution for science (credit: brazos valley museum of natural history) suntzeff a university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as the director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he explains that the plates are labeled to identify the telescope used specific plate number taken on that particular telescope and the observer of record in this case the two plates in the exhibit h335h and h348h are the 335th and 348th taken on the hooker 100-inch telescope (indicated by the first h) by hubble (indicated by the last h) suntzeff says that the h348h plate is especially interesting because it is part of the series that hubble took late that same year through which he discovered a cepheid variable in the andromeda nebula now known as the andromeda galaxy he adds that the actual discovery apparently was done using plate h335h by hubble that was taken two months earlier with this discovery the scale of the universe was finally understood suntzeff said our milky way galaxy was no longer the large isolated stellar system that astronomers had thought but one of now hundreds of billions of galaxies many have seen reproductions of the h335h plate because in red ink hubble has crossed out ‚Äòn (for possible nova) and instead wrote ‚Äòvar! as if he was living an ah-ha moment suntzeff said but the whole series of plates was used in the discovery and as such the plates in the exhibition were part of the discovery of the scale of the universe hubbles famous cepheid variable star can be clearly seen on the h335h plate nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff notes that the distance to andromeda also was key in hubbles 1929 discovery of a linear expansion of the universe and the first approximate value of the hubble constant of 550 kilometers per second per megaparsec that measurement has since been redefined as 742 km s-1 mpc-1 by the shoes (supernova ho for the equation of state) team that includes texas a&m astronomer lucas macri it was as a postdoctoral research associate at carnegie observatories in the 1980s that suntzeff says he was encouraged by famed 20th century observational astronomer allan sandage to focus on type ia supernovas more specifically their brightness to measure precise distances allan sandage always told us there were only two numbers any astronomer should ever be interested in the hubble constant and the deceleration of the universe suntzeff said he said a lot of interesting astronomy lies along the path toward those numbers but the goal is that if you have both you can understand the evolution of the universe and its probable fate this path led suntzeff in 1998 to co-discover an unexplained acceleration in the universes expansion later honored with the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the first evidence for a mysterious substance known as dark energy that makes up nearly three-quarters of the universe coincidentally hubble was sandages mentor adding an extra degree of full-circle intrigue to one particular facet of the trios intertwined fate in 1917 the eminent theoretical physicist albert einstein added a small correction to his general theory of relativity of gravity to make the universe unchanging between 1929 and 1931 hubble using the same hooker telescope showed that the universe actually is expanding causing einstein to throw out this correction which he later claimed was the biggest blunder of his life in 2008 as part of the international essence project suntzeff helped show that einsteins correction term called the cosmological constant while small actually does exist capturing time: the story of early photography will open tonight at 6 pm with a free public lecture by master photographer darrin hill followed by an opening reception featuring wine appetizers and gallery viewing the museum is located at 3232 briarcrest drive in bryan just east of the intersection of texas state highway 6 and briarcrest to learn more about the exhibit which will run through may 30 or the brazos valley museum of natural history visit http://wwwbrazosvalleymuseumorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " ¬† college station four texas a&m university professors artem g abanov alexei v sokolov david toback and vladislav v yakovlev have been elected as 2015 fellows of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists no more than one-half of one percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers each year for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service artem g abanov abanov an associate professor physics and astronomy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 is cited for contributions to the theory of quantum phase transitions in particular for the interaction of electrons with spin fluctuations sokolov a professor of physics and astronomy and the inaugural holder of the stephen e harris professorship in quantum optics has been on faculty at texas a&m since 2002 and is cited for insightful work on quantum molecular coherence ultrafast optics and laser spectroscopy toback a professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2000 is cited for pioneering work on searches for new particles and leadership of the cdf experiment yakovlev a professor of biomedical engineering who holds a joint appointment in physics and astronomy has been on faculty at texas a&m since 2012 and is cited for outstanding contributions to the development of ultrafast lasers optical instrumentation and the resulting spectroscopic advances that have important applications sokolov and yakovlev each were nominated upon the recommendation of the aps division of atomic molecular and optical physics while abanov and toback were similarly endorsed by the aps divisions of condensed matter physics and particles and fields respectively in addition to being recognized in an upcoming issue of aps news all four will be presented with their fellowship certificates at the aps march meeting 2016 set for march 14-18 in baltimore dr alexei v sokolov being elected as a fellow of the american physical society is a very high distinction said george r welch professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy the aps is the primary professional society for physicists but each year less than one-half of one percent of the current membership is recognized in this way we are incredibly honored to have four members of our faculty elected this year in each case these individuals have have made exceptional contributions through outstanding research abanov is a respected authority on condensed matter physics a vast field that provides endless opportunities in his case the intense study of physical phenomena where more is different his group focuses on many body systems which often exhibit behavior that is quite different from that of their individual components his primary research interests include correlated electrons current-driven magnetic textures and domain walls unstable growth of interfaces and current-drive magnetization dynamics in strongly spin-orbit coupled systems sokolov who is widely recognized for his experimental expertise in fields ranging from laser physics and nonlinear optics to ultrafast science and spectroscopy is a key player in texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) his research interests center around applications of molecular coherence to quantum optics ultrafast laser science and technology including generation of sub-cycle optical pulses with prescribed temporal shape and studies of ultrafast atomic molecular and nuclear processes as well as applications of quantum coherence in biological and defense-oriented areas david toback toback a high-energy physics expert and veteran researcher in several related international collaborations is a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy his research focuses on the search for new fundamental particles at the worlds highest-energy particle accelerators the fermilab tevatron in chicago and the large hadron collider at cern since june 2014 he has served as co-spokesperson for the cdf collaboration at fermilab on cdf he serves as co-convener of the top + beyond the standard model group and led the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter an important upgrade for tevatron run ii a decorated educator and science communicator he is the author of the textbook big bang black holes no math yakolev an international expert in biomedical engineering quantum electronics and quantum bioscience also is a member of iqse his research focuses on the development of new instrumentation for biomedical diagnostics and imaging while his primary research interests include biomechanics on the microscale level; nanoscopic optical imaging of molecular and cellular structures; protein spectroscopy and structural dynamics; bioanalytical applications of optical technology and spectroscopy; and deep-tissue imaging and sensing vladislav v yakovlev to learn more about the american physical society or the aps fellowship program go to http://apsorg for additional information about the texas a&m physics and astronomy and related research programs go to http://physicstamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george r welch (979) 845-7717 or grw@tamuedu the post four texas a&m faculty elected as american physical society fellows appeared first on college of science share: " " four texas a&m university professors artem g abanov alexei v sokolov david toback and vladislav v yakovlev have been elected as 2015 fellows of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists no more than one-half of one percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers each year for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service artem g abanov abanov an associate professor physics and astronomy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 is cited for contributions to the theory of quantum phase transitions in particular for the interaction of electrons with spin fluctuations sokolov a professor of physics and astronomy and the inaugural holder of the stephen e harris professorship in quantum optics has been on faculty at texas a&m since 2002 and is cited for insightful work on quantum molecular coherence ultrafast optics and laser spectroscopy toback a professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2000 is cited for pioneering work on searches for new particles and leadership of the cdf experiment yakovlev a professor of biomedical engineering who holds a joint appointment in physics and astronomy has been on faculty at texas a&m since 2012 and is cited for outstanding contributions to the development of ultrafast lasers optical instrumentation and the resulting spectroscopic advances that have important applications sokolov and yakovlev each were nominated upon the recommendation of the aps division of atomic molecular and optical physics while abanov and toback were similarly endorsed by the aps divisions of condensed matter physics and particles and fields respectively in addition to being recognized in an upcoming issue of aps news all four will be presented with their fellowship certificates at the aps march meeting 2016 set for march 14-18 in baltimore dr alexei v sokolov being elected as a fellow of the american physical society is a very high distinction said george r welch professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy the aps is the primary professional society for physicists but each year less than one-half of one percent of the current membership is recognized in this way we are incredibly honored to have four members of our faculty elected this year in each case these individuals have have made exceptional contributions through outstanding research abanov is a respected authority on condensed matter physics a vast field that provides endless opportunities in his case the intense study of physical phenomena where more is different his group focuses on many body systems which often exhibit behavior that is quite different from that of their individual components his primary research interests include correlated electrons current-driven magnetic textures and domain walls unstable growth of interfaces and current-drive magnetization dynamics in strongly spin-orbit coupled systems sokolov who is widely recognized for his experimental expertise in fields ranging from laser physics and nonlinear optics to ultrafast science and spectroscopy is a key player in texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) his research interests center around applications of molecular coherence to quantum optics ultrafast laser science and technology including generation of sub-cycle optical pulses with prescribed temporal shape and studies of ultrafast atomic molecular and nuclear processes as well as applications of quantum coherence in biological and defense-oriented areas david toback toback a high-energy physics expert and veteran researcher in several related international collaborations is a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy his research focuses on the search for new fundamental particles at the worlds highest-energy particle accelerators the fermilab tevatron in chicago and the large hadron collider at cern since june 2014 he has served as co-spokesperson for the cdf collaboration at fermilab on cdf he serves as co-convener of the top + beyond the standard model group and led the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter an important upgrade for tevatron run ii a decorated educator and science communicator he is the author of the textbook big bang black holes no math yakolev an international expert in biomedical engineering quantum electronics and quantum bioscience also is a member of iqse his research focuses on the development of new instrumentation for biomedical diagnostics and imaging while his primary research interests include biomechanics on the microscale level; nanoscopic optical imaging of molecular and cellular structures; protein spectroscopy and structural dynamics; bioanalytical applications of optical technology and spectroscopy; and deep-tissue imaging and sensing vladislav v yakovlev to learn more about the american physical society or the aps fellowship program go to http://apsorg for additional information about the texas a&m physics and astronomy and related research programs go to http://physicstamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george r welch (979) 845-7717 or grw@tamuedu " " ¬† college station marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as a 2015 fellow of the national academy of inventors (nai) scully is one of two texas a&m faculty-researchers recognized among the nais 168 fellow honorees for 2015 announced today (tuesday dec 15) he joins christopher a floudas professor of chemical engineering and holder of the erle nye 59 chair for engineering excellence in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering within the dwight look college of engineering and director of the texas a&m energy institute as the universitys most recently recognized academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life economic development and the welfare of society dr marlan o scully a world-renowned pioneer in quantum optics and laser physics dr scully has brought distinction to texas a&m and his disciplines by leading the way to many scientific breakthroughs such as slowing the speed of light to the snail-like pace of 10 miles per hour making revolutionary lasers without population inversion and showing how quantum mechanics can yield a class of novel quantum heat engines scully and floudas will be inducted on april 15 2016 during the academys fifth annual conference at the united states patent and trademark office in alexandria va where each will be presented with a special trophy medal and rosette pin all 2015 nai fellows also will be recognized with a full page announcement in the chronicle of higher educations jan 22 2016 issue and in upcoming issues of inventors digest and the nai journal technology and innovation scully a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics is director of the institute for quantum science and engineering and the center for theoretical physics he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics in the department of physics and astronomy as well as a texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) distinguished research chair he also serves as associate dean for external relations in the college of science and holds a joint professorial appointment in the department of chemistry as well as at princeton university scullys primary career contributions to both science and engineering include the first quantum theory of the laser the first demonstrations of lasing without inversion the first demonstration of ultraslow light in hot gases and the use of quantum coherence to detect anthrax in real time furthermore his work on quantum coherence and correlation effects has shed new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics he is a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max planck society as well as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the optical society and the american physical society marlan scully has that rare ability to apply a deep understanding of fundamentals of physics to important applied problems translating his insights not just to experiments but to inventions and patents said george r welch professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy were deeply honored that he has been selected as an nai fellow todays announcement brings the total of nai fellows to 582 representing more than 190 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions the 2015 fellows account for more than 5 300 issued us patents bringing the patents held by all nai fellows to more than 20 000 national academy of inventions 2015 texas a&m has two previous nai fellows each named in 2014 b don russell jr distinguished professor and holder of the harry e bovay jr chair in the texas a&m engineering department of electrical and computer engineering and darwin j prockop professor and holder of the stearman chair in genomic medicine in the texas a&m health science center department of medicine and director of its institute for regenerative medicine to learn more about the national academy of inventors and the 2015 fellows class visit http://academyofinventorsorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about the national academy of inventors: the national academy of inventors is a 501(c)(3) non profit member organization comprised of us and international universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions with over 3 000 individual inventor members and fellows spanning more than 200 institutions and growing rapidly it was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the us patent and trademark office enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation encourage the disclosure of intellectual property educate and mentor innovative students and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society the nai edits the multidisciplinary journal technology and innovation published by cognizant communication corporation (ny) to learn more go to wwwacademyofinventorsorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr marlan o scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamuedu the post scully named fellow of national academy of inventors appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as a 2015 fellow of the national academy of inventors (nai) scully is one of two texas a&m faculty-researchers recognized among the nais 168 fellow honorees for 2015 announced today (tuesday dec 15) he joins christopher a floudas professor of chemical engineering and holder of the erle nye 59 chair for engineering excellence in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering within the dwight look college of engineering and director of the texas a&m energy institute as the universitys most recently recognized academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life economic development and the welfare of society dr marlan o scully a world-renowned pioneer in quantum optics and laser physics dr scully has brought distinction to texas a&m and his disciplines by leading the way to many scientific breakthroughs such as slowing the speed of light to the snail-like pace of 10 miles per hour making revolutionary lasers without population inversion and showing how quantum mechanics can yield a class of novel quantum heat engines scully and floudas will be inducted on april 15 2016 during the academys fifth annual conference at the united states patent and trademark office in alexandria va where each will be presented with a special trophy medal and rosette pin all 2015 nai fellows also will be recognized with a full page announcement in the chronicle of higher educations jan 22 2016 issue and in upcoming issues of inventors digest and the nai journal technology and innovation scully a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics is director of the institute for quantum science and engineering and the center for theoretical physics he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics in the department of physics and astronomy as well as a texas a&m engineering experiment station (tees) distinguished research chair he also serves as associate dean for external relations in the college of science and holds a joint professorial appointment in the department of chemistry as well as at princeton university scullys primary career contributions to both science and engineering include the first quantum theory of the laser the first demonstrations of lasing without inversion the first demonstration of ultraslow light in hot gases and the use of quantum coherence to detect anthrax in real time furthermore his work on quantum coherence and correlation effects has shed new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics he is a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max planck society as well as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the optical society and the american physical society marlan scully has that rare ability to apply a deep understanding of fundamentals of physics to important applied problems translating his insights not just to experiments but to inventions and patents said george r welch professor and head of texas a&m physics and astronomy were deeply honored that he has been selected as an nai fellow todays announcement brings the total of nai fellows to 582 representing more than 190 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions the 2015 fellows account for more than 5 300 issued us patents bringing the patents held by all nai fellows to more than 20 000 " " texas a&m has two previous nai fellows each named in 2014 b don russell jr distinguished professor and holder of the harry e bovay jr chair in the texas a&m engineering department of electrical and computer engineering and darwin j prockop professor and holder of the stearman chair in genomic medicine in the texas a&m health science center department of medicine and director of its institute for regenerative medicine to learn more about the national academy of inventors and the 2015 fellows class visit http://academyofinventorsorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about the national academy of inventors: the national academy of inventors is a 501(c)(3) non profit member organization comprised of us and international universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions with over 3 000 individual inventor members and fellows spanning more than 200 institutions and growing rapidly it was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the us patent and trademark office enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation encourage the disclosure of intellectual property educate and mentor innovative students and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society the nai edits the multidisciplinary journal technology and innovation published by cognizant communication corporation (ny) to learn more go to wwwacademyofinventorsorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr marlan o scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamuedu " " lead sd the large underground xenon (lux) dark matter experiment operating nearly a mile underground at the sanford underground research facility (surf) in the black hills of south dakota and involving roughly 100 international scientists including texas a&m university physicist robert c webb has already proven itself to be the most sensitive detector in the hunt for dark matter the mysterious and unseen force believed to account for nearly three-fourths of the matter in the universe now a new set of calibration techniques employed by lux scientists has again dramatically improved the experiments sensitivity more than 20 times says webb findings that are described in a paper submitted to physical review letters and posted to arxiv researchers with lux are looking for wimps weakly interacting massive particles which are among the leading candidates for dark matter their latest published work re-examines data collected during luxs first three-month run in 2013 and helps to rule out the possibility of dark matter detections at low-mass ranges where other experiments had previously reported potential detections the lux dark matter detector suspended in its protective water tank the detector is a titanium cryostat that is a vacuum thermos that will keep xenon cool enough to remain a liquid at about minus 150 degrees fahrenheit luxs 61 photomultiplier tube arrays that are capable of detecting as little as a single photon of light by recording the position and intensity of collisions between dark matter particles and xenon nuclei it is vital that we continue to push the capabilities of our detector in the search for the elusive dark matter particles said rick gaitskell professor of physics at brown university and co-spokesperson for the lux experiment we have improved the sensitivity of lux by more than a factor of 20 for low-mass dark matter particles significantly enhancing our ability to look for wimps webb holder of the ed rachal chair in high-energy physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy is a co-principal investigator on the lux project which is managed by us department of energys lawrence berkeley national laboratory and supported by both the doe and national science foundation the worldwide scientific collaboration includes 19 research universities and national laboratories in the united states the united kingdom and portugal webb and the late texas a&m physicist james white were two of its founding members dark matter is thought to be the dominant form of matter in the universe scientists are confident in its existence because the effects of its gravity can be seen in the rotation of galaxies and in the way light bends as it travels through the universe because wimps are thought to interact with other matter only on very rare occasions they have yet to be detected directly lux consists of a third-of-a-ton of liquid xenon surrounded with sensitive light detectors it is designed to identify the very rare occasions when a dark matter particle collides with a xenon atom inside the detector when a collision happens the xenon atom will recoil and emit a tiny flash of light which is detected by luxs light sensors the detectors location at sanford lab beneath a mile of rock helps to shield it from cosmic rays and other radiation that would interfere with a dark matter signal although lux hasnt yet detected a dark matter signal its exquisite sensitivity has allowed scientists to all but rule out vast mass ranges where dark matter particles might exist these new calibrations increase that sensitivity even further this latest result comes from a refined analysis of our previous data in association with a number of new detector calibrations that have allowed us to probe for low-mass dark matter particles with a sensitivity more than 20 times that of our earlier result webb said our team one of the founding members of the lux experiment is currently involved in a longer data-taking run with this detector which we expect will further improve our sensitivity to higher-mass dark matter particles when that measurement concludes in mid-2016 webb notes that planning for a next-generation dark matter experiment at sanford lab is already under way in late 2016 lux will be decommissioned to make way for a new much larger xenon detector known as the lux-zeplin (lz) dark matter experiment compared to luxs third-of-a-ton of liquid xenon lz will feature a 10-ton liquid xenon target that will fit inside the same 72 000-gallon tank of pure water used by lux this new experiment will have a total mass of 10 tons of liquid xenon and a sensitivity of around 100 times that of the current lux experiment webb said this new detector will push the frontier for direct dark matter detection into a region of sensitivity unexplored by current experiments to read more about the lux experiment from current results and next steps to background and a complete list of collaborators please see the official press release or go to lux research facility for more on webb and his research visit drrobert webb to learn more about dark matter and the lux experiment check out science fridays related spotlight featuring the following short documentary 4850 feet below: the hunt for dark matter which recently won a 2015 raw science tv film festival award for professional documentary works: # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu the post new results from lux: worlds most sensitive dark matter detector gets better appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the large underground xenon (lux) dark matter experiment operating nearly a mile underground at the sanford underground research facility (surf) in the black hills of south dakota and involving roughly 100 international scientists including texas a&m university physicist robert c webb has already proven itself to be the most sensitive detector in the hunt for dark matter the mysterious and unseen force believed to account for nearly three-fourths of the matter in the universe now a new set of calibration techniques employed by lux scientists has again dramatically improved the experiments sensitivity more than 20 times says webb findings that are described in a paper submitted to physical review letters and posted to arxiv researchers with lux are looking for wimps weakly interacting massive particles which are among the leading candidates for dark matter their latest published work re-examines data collected during luxs first three-month run in 2013 and helps to rule out the possibility of dark matter detections at low-mass ranges where other experiments had previously reported potential detections the lux dark matter detector suspended in its protective water tank the detector is a titanium cryostat that is a vacuum thermos that will keep xenon cool enough to remain a liquid at about minus 150 degrees fahrenheit luxs 61 photomultiplier tube arrays that are capable of detecting as little as a single photon of light by recording the position and intensity of collisions between dark matter particles and xenon nuclei it is vital that we continue to push the capabilities of our detector in the search for the elusive dark matter particles said rick gaitskell professor of physics at brown university and co-spokesperson for the lux experiment we have improved the sensitivity of lux by more than a factor of 20 for low-mass dark matter particles significantly enhancing our ability to look for wimps webb holder of the ed rachal chair in high-energy physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy is a co-principal investigator on the lux project which is managed by us department of energys lawrence berkeley national laboratory and supported by both the doe and national science foundation the worldwide scientific collaboration includes 19 research universities and national laboratories in the united states the united kingdom and portugal webb and the late texas a&m physicist james white were two of its founding members dark matter is thought to be the dominant form of matter in the universe scientists are confident in its existence because the effects of its gravity can be seen in the rotation of galaxies and in the way light bends as it travels through the universe because wimps are thought to interact with other matter only on very rare occasions they have yet to be detected directly lux consists of a third-of-a-ton of liquid xenon surrounded with sensitive light detectors it is designed to identify the very rare occasions when a dark matter particle collides with a xenon atom inside the detector when a collision happens the xenon atom will recoil and emit a tiny flash of light which is detected by luxs light sensors the detectors location at sanford lab beneath a mile of rock helps to shield it from cosmic rays and other radiation that would interfere with a dark matter signal although lux hasnt yet detected a dark matter signal its exquisite sensitivity has allowed scientists to all but rule out vast mass ranges where dark matter particles might exist these new calibrations increase that sensitivity even further this latest result comes from a refined analysis of our previous data in association with a number of new detector calibrations that have allowed us to probe for low-mass dark matter particles with a sensitivity more than 20 times that of our earlier result webb said our team one of the founding members of the lux experiment is currently involved in a longer data-taking run with this detector which we expect will further improve our sensitivity to higher-mass dark matter particles when that measurement concludes in mid-2016 webb notes that planning for a next-generation dark matter experiment at sanford lab is already under way in late 2016 lux will be decommissioned to make way for a new much larger xenon detector known as the lux-zeplin (lz) dark matter experiment compared to luxs third-of-a-ton of liquid xenon lz will feature a 10-ton liquid xenon target that will fit inside the same 72 000-gallon tank of pure water used by lux this new experiment will have a total mass of 10 tons of liquid xenon and a sensitivity of around 100 times that of the current lux experiment webb said this new detector will push the frontier for direct dark matter detection into a region of sensitivity unexplored by current experiments to read more about the lux experiment from current results and next steps to background and a complete list of collaborators please see the official press release or go to lux research facility for more on webb and his research visit drrobert webb to learn more about dark matter and the lux experiment check out science fridays related spotlight featuring the following short documentary 4850 feet below: the hunt for dark matter which recently won a 2015 raw science tv film festival award for professional documentary works: # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $854 million in fiscal year 2014 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2014) texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu " " college station the perkins brothers try to keep the conversation casual at family get-togethers usually sticking to the weather sports or life in general but invariably the small talk will turn into a lively debate on the race to mars or any number of topical issues in the field of physics the subject is a family affair for the three arlington texas natives the two older brothers james cory 12 and casey 14 graduated from texas a&m university with degrees in physics and the youngest scott 17 is following in their footsteps as a junior majoring in physics at texas a&m scott confesses to being the primary instigator of the good-natured sibling banter but when it comes to academics and maintaining his 40 gpa its all joking aside texas a&m senior physics major scott perkins 17 says he chose texas a&m because of family ties but also for its endless research opportunities including the one he seized last spring studying distant galaxies alongside texas a&m astronomer casey papovich using hubble deep field images the perkins family (from left): brad 83 judi 85 casey 14 karen 10 (married to cory 12 and a 2010 bachelors of business administration in marketing graduate) cory 12 and scott 17 (credit: perkins family) physics is something were all passionate about and it makes some of the dinner conversations pretty interesting but i take my studies very seriously said scott whos also minoring in astrophysics being a physics major is a big part of my life last spring scott got involved in undergraduate research working alongside texas a&m astronomer and george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy member casey papovich to analyze hubble deep field images in their study of distant galaxies they used a process called gravitational lensing a phenomenon that occurs when a distribution of cosmic matter between the source and the observer actually bends light rays as it travels toward the observer in a manner similar to that of a telescope lens the result is an ability to see farther into space and a closer look at how galaxies evolved through different epochs of the universe after scotts interest in physics blossomed during a high school ap course he decided texas a&m and its seemingly endless research opportunities would be the best avenue for him to pursue those interests personally i find it really fulfilling to explore the universe around us and to try to understand as much as we can about the world that we live in scott said theres never a shortage of complex questions in this field it seems like every day we find a new way to describe the universe and i just find it all very interesting watch a brief q&a with scott perkins 17 in which he explains what he sees as the universal appeal of physics particularly at texas a&m: scott pushes himself for good reason pursuit of the unknown as well as the example set by his brothers who each put their degrees to good use in forging successful careers in industry as the oldest cory was heavily involved in significant materials science experimentation during his texas a&m days as an undergraduate research assistant under research scientist alexandre kolomenski he also excelled in the classroom in high school and in college earning a presidents endowed scholarship and nominations for both marshall and rhodes scholarships en route to graduating magna cum laude with a minor in electrical engineering and then graduate school at ohio state university he currently is a product engineer for texas instruments in dallas texas a&m physics prepared me very well for graduate school and i was able to test out of graduate-level math classes in my first semester of my graduate work at ohio state cory said casey also took advantage of undergraduate research opportunities while at texas a&m assisting physicist glenn agnolet in the development of a control program for a piezoelectric motor on a scanning tunneling microscope (stm) like cory casey immersed himself in his schoolwork and made it a point to have regular one-on-one conversations with many of the departments esteemed faculty decisions that not only proved critical in his graduating summa cum laude but also in effectively preparing him for success after college as a radiation effects engineer with space exploration technologies corporation (spacex) in los angeles i think the most valuable thing i picked up from physics is the confidence that i can figure out any problem casey said i know from experience that i can learn very difficult and muddied concepts if i sit down and put in the work physics gave me a pretty far-reaching education that laid a pretty good base for a pretty far-reaching career as with many aggie traditions this one that produced a trilogy of texas a&m physicists started at home the boys father brad 83 earned his bachelors in applied mathematical sciences and is now a software engineer for l-3 communications their mother judi 85 received her bachelors in psychology and now works in the childrens ministry of their church lamar baptist following her retirement in may after a lengthy career as an elementary teacher within the arlington independent school district scott says he can recall from an early age his parents reminiscing about their time in aggieland he also admits his brothers decision to also enroll at texas a&m and major in physics made an indelible impression on him yet he maintains there was never any pressure from his parents nor his brothers to finish out the familial aggie quintet my family let me make the decision to come here but there wasnt much choice in my mind scott said hearing about texas a&m from my parents and brothers they just had such great things to say about it i was very excited to start my career here and it definitely hasnt disappointed scott hasnt yet decided if he will follow his brothers into industry given that hes also considering continuing along the path of academia and earning a phd whatever professional path he chooses scott says he just wants his work to matter in the grand scheme being an aggie means leaving the world better than you found it scott said im personally very motivated by physics and i just want to spread that excitement for it by showing others how cool the universe can be while the dinner-table debates are sure to continue the brothers do achieve consensus on one indisputable perkins-proven point fittingly summed up by scott as the baby of the family texas a&m has a number of opportunities for undergraduate research which can be hugely helpful scott said not only does it offer those opportunities its required in our degree but i think that just gives you a really good look at what research in physics actually looks like on a day-to-day basis to learn more about the department of physics and astronomy as well as related degree programs and undergraduate research opportunities visit http://physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu the post scott perkins 17 carries on physics family tradition at texas a&m appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the perkins brothers try to keep the conversation casual at family get-togethers usually sticking to the weather sports or life in general but invariably the small talk will turn into a lively debate on the race to mars or any number of topical issues in the field of physics the subject is a family affair for the three arlington texas natives the two older brothers james cory 12 and casey 14 graduated from texas a&m university with degrees in physics and the youngest scott 17 is following in their footsteps as a junior majoring in physics at texas a&m scott confesses to being the primary instigator of the good-natured sibling banter but when it comes to academics and maintaining his 40 gpa its all joking aside texas a&m senior physics major scott perkins 17 says he chose texas a&m because of family ties but also for its endless research opportunities including the one he seized last spring studying distant galaxies alongside texas a&m astronomer casey papovich using hubble deep field images the perkins family (from left): brad 83 judi 85 casey 14 karen 10 (married to cory 12 and a 2010 bachelors of business administration in marketing graduate) cory 12 and scott 17 (credit: perkins family) physics is something were all passionate about and it makes some of the dinner conversations pretty interesting but i take my studies very seriously said scott whos also minoring in astrophysics being a physics major is a big part of my life last spring scott got involved in undergraduate research working alongside texas a&m astronomer and george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy member casey papovich to analyze hubble deep field images in their study of distant galaxies they used a process called gravitational lensing a phenomenon that occurs when a distribution of cosmic matter between the source and the observer actually bends light rays as it travels toward the observer in a manner similar to that of a telescope lens the result is an ability to see farther into space and a closer look at how galaxies evolved through different epochs of the universe after scotts interest in physics blossomed during a high school ap course he decided texas a&m and its seemingly endless research opportunities would be the best avenue for him to pursue those interests personally i find it really fulfilling to explore the universe around us and to try to understand as much as we can about the world that we live in scott said theres never a shortage of complex questions in this field it seems like every day we find a new way to describe the universe and i just find it all very interesting watch a brief q&a with scott perkins 17 in which he explains what he sees as the universal appeal of physics particularly at texas a&m: scott pushes himself for good reason pursuit of the unknown as well as the example set by his brothers who each put their degrees to good use in forging successful careers in industry as the oldest cory was heavily involved in significant materials science experimentation during his texas a&m days as an undergraduate research assistant under research scientist alexandre kolomenski he also excelled in the classroom in high school and in college earning a presidents endowed scholarship and nominations for both marshall and rhodes scholarships en route to graduating magna cum laude with a minor in electrical engineering and then graduate school at ohio state university he currently is a product engineer for texas instruments in dallas texas a&m physics prepared me very well for graduate school and i was able to test out of graduate-level math classes in my first semester of my graduate work at ohio state cory said casey also took advantage of undergraduate research opportunities while at texas a&m assisting physicist glenn agnolet in the development of a control program for a piezoelectric motor on a scanning tunneling microscope (stm) like cory casey immersed himself in his schoolwork and made it a point to have regular one-on-one conversations with many of the departments esteemed faculty decisions that not only proved critical in his graduating summa cum laude but also in effectively preparing him for success after college as a radiation effects engineer with space exploration technologies corporation (spacex) in los angeles i think the most valuable thing i picked up from physics is the confidence that i can figure out any problem casey said i know from experience that i can learn very difficult and muddied concepts if i sit down and put in the work physics gave me a pretty far-reaching education that laid a pretty good base for a pretty far-reaching career as with many aggie traditions this one that produced a trilogy of texas a&m physicists started at home the boys father brad 83 earned his bachelors in applied mathematical sciences and is now a software engineer for l-3 communications their mother judi 85 received her bachelors in psychology and now works in the childrens ministry of their church lamar baptist following her retirement in may after a lengthy career as an elementary teacher within the arlington independent school district scott says he can recall from an early age his parents reminiscing about their time in aggieland he also admits his brothers decision to also enroll at texas a&m and major in physics made an indelible impression on him yet he maintains there was never any pressure from his parents nor his brothers to finish out the familial aggie quintet my family let me make the decision to come here but there wasnt much choice in my mind scott said hearing about texas a&m from my parents and brothers they just had such great things to say about it i was very excited to start my career here and it definitely hasnt disappointed scott hasnt yet decided if he will follow his brothers into industry given that hes also considering continuing along the path of academia and earning a phd whatever professional path he chooses scott says he just wants his work to matter in the grand scheme being an aggie means leaving the world better than you found it scott said im personally very motivated by physics and i just want to spread that excitement for it by showing others how cool the universe can be while the dinner-table debates are sure to continue the brothers do achieve consensus on one indisputable perkins-proven point fittingly summed up by scott as the baby of the family texas a&m has a number of opportunities for undergraduate research which can be hugely helpful scott said not only does it offer those opportunities its required in our degree but i think that just gives you a really good look at what research in physics actually looks like on a day-to-day basis to learn more about the department of physics and astronomy as well as related degree programs and undergraduate research opportunities visit http://physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu " " atacama desert chile leading scientists senior officials and supporters from an international consortium of universities and research institutions including texas a&m university are gathering on a remote mountaintop high in the chilean andes today (wednesday nov 11) to celebrate groundbreaking for the giant magellan telescope the ceremony marks the commencement of onsite construction of the telescope and its support base according to giant magellan telescope organization officials who also note that the gmt is poised to become the worlds largest telescope when it begins early operations in 2021 it will produce images 10 times sharper than those delivered by the hubble space telescope and will address key questions in cosmology astrophysics and the study of planets outside our solar system dr darren depoy drnicholas suntzeff we are thrilled to be breaking ground on the giant magellan telescope site at such an exciting time for astronomy said gmto board chair taft armandroff director of the mcdonald observatory at the university of texas at austin with its unprecedented size and resolving power the giant magellan telescope will allow current and future generations of astronomers to continue the journey of cosmic discovery the gmt will be located at the las campanas observatory in chiles atacama desert known for its clear dark skies and outstanding astronomical image clarity las campanas is one of the worlds premier locations for astronomy construction crews will soon be busy on the site building the roads power data and other infrastructure needed to support the observatory artists rendering of an aerial view showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) cutaway of the giant magellan telescope and its support base (above) along with instruments (below) (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) a project like the gmt takes a long time from the initial concepts to final use as a scientific instrument said texas a&m astronomer darren l depoy deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory where first-light devices and measurement systems for the telescope are being built and assembled milestones like this one are terrific opportunities to pause and reflect on the great progress of the telescope the many problems that have been solved and the exciting science ahead although there is still a lot to do the gmt is moving ahead and is in an excellent position to be the first of the next generation of enormous telescopes we look forward to the completion of the telescope and to the wonderful science we will tell the world about in the next decade watch a brief animation of the gmt below and visualize its colossal size state-of-the-art instrumentation and groundbreaking potential courtesy of todd mason and mason media inc view the extended version on the texas a&m science youtube channel check out bonus coverage in texas a&ms campus newspaper the battalion featuring quotes and commentary from texas a&m physics graduate students daniel nagasawa and ting li the unique design of the telescope combines seven of the largest mirrors that can be manufactured each 84 meters (27 feet) across to create a single telescope effectively 25 meters (85 feet) in diameter the giant mirrors are being developed at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror laboratory each mirror must be polished to an accuracy of 25 nanometers or one-millionth of an inch one giant mirror has been polished to meet its exacting specifications and three others are being processed with production of the remaining four mirrors set to progress at the rate of one per year the telescope which will begin early operations with the initial four mirrors in 2021 is expected to reach full operational capacity within the next decade an enormous amount of work has gone into the design phase of the project and development of the giant mirrors that are the heart of the telescope said patrick mccarthy gmto interim president the highest technical risks have been retired and we are looking forward to bringing the components of the telescope together on the mountaintop the gmt will enable astronomers to characterize planets orbiting other stars witness early formation of galaxies and stars and gain insight into dark matter and dark energy its findings will also likely give rise to new questions and lead to new and unforeseen discoveries the giant magellan telescope will be the first of the new generation of very large optical telescopes said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program since 2006 with construction beginning this week we are on schedule to be on the sky well before the other two telescopes the sudden leap from the keck telescopes which are 10-meter mirrors to the new generation of telescopes of more than 25 meters increases the reach of the telescope into the universe by more than a factor of six if there are rocky planets like the earth with atmospheres that contain signs of life we have a good chance of discovering life on other planets with this telescope the birth of the universe as we know it the stars galaxies and the beginning of the formation of the elements on the periodic table is just beyond the reach of present telescopes on the ground and space the gmt as the first giant telescope to get onto the sky will map out the birth of these new galaxies and stars along with the data from james webb space telescope set to be launched in 2018 the gmto board of directors which includes former texas a&m dean of science h joseph newton as vice chair officially approved the projects entry into the construction phase in early 2015 after the 11 international founders committed more than $500 million toward the project founders come from the us australia brazil and korea with chile where suntzeff spent 20 years as the associate director for science at the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena prior to coming to texas a&m as the host country with todays groundbreaking we take a crucial step forward in our mission to build the first in a new generation of extremely large telescopes said gmto board member charles alcock director of the harvard/smithsonian center for astrophysics the gmt will usher in a new era of discovery and help us to answer some of our most profound questions about the universe we are pleased to celebrate this momentous milestone with our chilean colleagues our international partners and the astronomical community access the gmtos video news package which includes interviews with gmto partners and b-roll as well as images and video graphics of the giant magellan telescope about the giant magellan telescope the giant magellan telescope (gmt) is slated to be the first in a new class of extremely large telescopes capable of producing images with 10 times the clarity of those captured by the hubble space telescope the gmt aims to discover earth-like planets around nearby stars and the tiny distortions that black holes cause in the light from distant stars and galaxies it will reveal the faintest objects ever seen in space including extremely distant and ancient galaxies the light from which has been traveling to earth since shortly after the big bang 138 billion years ago the telescope will be built at the carnegie institution for sciences las campanas observatory in the dry clear air of chiles atacama desert in a dome 22 stories high gmt is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the telescopes primary mirror combines seven 84-meter (27 feet) diameter circular segments to form an effective aperture 245 meters in diameter each mirror segment weighs 17 tons and takes one year to cast and cool followed by more than three years of surface generation and meticulous polishing at the richard f caris mirror lab within the steward observatory at the university of arizona in tucson ariz funding for the project comes from the partner institutions governments and private donors about the giant magellan telescope organization the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin connect with the giant magellan telescope organization on social media: gplusto/gmtelescope twittercom/gmtelescope facebookcom/gmtelescope instagramcom/gmtelescope/ and visit http://wwwgmtoorg -atm- media contacts jacqueline efron 650-801-0942 or jacquelineefron@zenogroupcom davin malasarn 626-204-0529 or dmalasarn@gmtoorg shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu business contacts patrick mccarthy 626-204-0501 taft armandroff 512-471-3300 nicholas suntzeff 979-229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post giant magellan telescope breaks ground in chile appeared first on college of science " " leading scientists senior officials and supporters from an international consortium of universities and research institutions including texas a&m university are gathering on a remote mountaintop high in the chilean andes today (wednesday nov 11) to celebrate groundbreaking for the giant magellan telescope the ceremony marks the commencement of onsite construction of the telescope and its support base according to giant magellan telescope organization officials who also note that the gmt is poised to become the worlds largest telescope when it begins early operations in 2021 it will produce images 10 times sharper than those delivered by the hubble space telescope and will address key questions in cosmology astrophysics and the study of planets outside our solar system dr darren depoy drnicholas suntzeff we are thrilled to be breaking ground on the giant magellan telescope site at such an exciting time for astronomy said gmto board chair taft armandroff director of the mcdonald observatory at the university of texas at austin with its unprecedented size and resolving power the giant magellan telescope will allow current and future generations of astronomers to continue the journey of cosmic discovery the gmt will be located at the las campanas observatory in chiles atacama desert known for its clear dark skies and outstanding astronomical image clarity las campanas is one of the worlds premier locations for astronomy construction crews will soon be busy on the site building the roads power data and other infrastructure needed to support the observatory artists rendering of an aerial view showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) cutaway of the giant magellan telescope and its support base (above) along with instruments (below) (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) a project like the gmt takes a long time from the initial concepts to final use as a scientific instrument said texas a&m astronomer darren l depoy deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory where first-light devices and measurement systems for the telescope are being built and assembled milestones like this one are terrific opportunities to pause and reflect on the great progress of the telescope the many problems that have been solved and the exciting science ahead although there is still a lot to do the gmt is moving ahead and is in an excellent position to be the first of the next generation of enormous telescopes we look forward to the completion of the telescope and to the wonderful science we will tell the world about in the next decade watch a brief animation of the gmt below and visualize its colossal size state-of-the-art instrumentation and groundbreaking potential courtesy of todd mason and mason media inc view the extended version on the texas a&m science youtube channel check out bonus coverage in texas a&ms campus newspaper the battalion featuring quotes and commentary from texas a&m physics graduate students daniel nagasawa and ting li the unique design of the telescope combines seven of the largest mirrors that can be manufactured each 84 meters (27 feet) across to create a single telescope effectively 25 meters (85 feet) in diameter the giant mirrors are being developed at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror laboratory each mirror must be polished to an accuracy of 25 nanometers or one-millionth of an inch one giant mirror has been polished to meet its exacting specifications and three others are being processed with production of the remaining four mirrors set to progress at the rate of one per year the telescope which will begin early operations with the initial four mirrors in 2021 is expected to reach full operational capacity within the next decade an enormous amount of work has gone into the design phase of the project and development of the giant mirrors that are the heart of the telescope said patrick mccarthy gmto interim president the highest technical risks have been retired and we are looking forward to bringing the components of the telescope together on the mountaintop the gmt will enable astronomers to characterize planets orbiting other stars witness early formation of galaxies and stars and gain insight into dark matter and dark energy its findings will also likely give rise to new questions and lead to new and unforeseen discoveries the giant magellan telescope will be the first of the new generation of very large optical telescopes said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program since 2006 with construction beginning this week we are on schedule to be on the sky well before the other two telescopes the sudden leap from the keck telescopes which are 10-meter mirrors to the new generation of telescopes of more than 25 meters increases the reach of the telescope into the universe by more than a factor of six if there are rocky planets like the earth with atmospheres that contain signs of life we have a good chance of discovering life on other planets with this telescope the birth of the universe as we know it the stars galaxies and the beginning of the formation of the elements on the periodic table is just beyond the reach of present telescopes on the ground and space the gmt as the first giant telescope to get onto the sky will map out the birth of these new galaxies and stars along with the data from james webb space telescope set to be launched in 2018 the gmto board of directors which includes former texas a&m dean of science h joseph newton as vice chair officially approved the projects entry into the construction phase in early 2015 after the 11 international founders committed more than $500 million toward the project founders come from the us australia brazil and korea with chile where suntzeff spent 20 years as the associate director for science at the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena prior to coming to texas a&m as the host country with todays groundbreaking we take a crucial step forward in our mission to build the first in a new generation of extremely large telescopes said gmto board member charles alcock director of the harvard/smithsonian center for astrophysics the gmt will usher in a new era of discovery and help us to answer some of our most profound questions about the universe we are pleased to celebrate this momentous milestone with our chilean colleagues our international partners and the astronomical community access the gmtos video news package which includes interviews with gmto partners and b-roll as well as images and video graphics of the giant magellan telescope about the giant magellan telescope the giant magellan telescope (gmt) is slated to be the first in a new class of extremely large telescopes capable of producing images with 10 times the clarity of those captured by the hubble space telescope the gmt aims to discover earth-like planets around nearby stars and the tiny distortions that black holes cause in the light from distant stars and galaxies it will reveal the faintest objects ever seen in space including extremely distant and ancient galaxies the light from which has been traveling to earth since shortly after the big bang 138 billion years ago the telescope will be built at the carnegie institution for sciences las campanas observatory in the dry clear air of chiles atacama desert in a dome 22 stories high gmt is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the telescopes primary mirror combines seven 84-meter (27 feet) diameter circular segments to form an effective aperture 245 meters in diameter each mirror segment weighs 17 tons and takes one year to cast and cool followed by more than three years of surface generation and meticulous polishing at the richard f caris mirror lab within the steward observatory at the university of arizona in tucson ariz funding for the project comes from the partner institutions governments and private donors about the giant magellan telescope organization the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin connect with the giant magellan telescope organization on social media: gplusto/gmtelescope twittercom/gmtelescope facebookcom/gmtelescope instagramcom/gmtelescope/ and visit http://wwwgmtoorg -atm- media contacts jacqueline efron 650-801-0942 or jacquelineefron@zenogroupcom davin malasarn 626-204-0529 or dmalasarn@gmtoorg shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu business contacts patrick mccarthy 626-204-0501 taft armandroff 512-471-3300 nicholas suntzeff 979-229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station while traveling with texas a&m university students in italy nearly 20 years ago carolyn adair 69 discovered an overgrown olive tree grove badly in need of nurturing through a bit of coaxing and a labor of love she and her husband tom 57 bought and transformed the grove into amici italian imports a company she owns that sells homemade olive oil she chose the name amici because it means friends in italian for decades the couple has likewise changed the lives of aggies for the better carolyn acted as an adviser and friend to students for more than 25 years as the director of student activities while tom still teaches physics a discipline for which he has great passion despite the circumstances under which he chose it carolyn adair pressing olives with italian son daniele raspini (credit: daniele raspini) carolyn and tom adair at home in italy (credit: daniele raspini) during my freshman year as an engineering major i had a drawing class on the opposite side of campus from my dorm he said the walk was so long and i couldnt draw a straight line so i changed my major to physics chance also played a part in uniting tom and carolyn a 1962 graduate of texas tech university the two met while volunteering at a celebration in liberty texas he came clear across the room to ask me to dance said carolyn and the rest was history after completing degrees at texas a&m university and rice university tom worked in research for humble oil (later exxonmobil) and served one year with the infantry in the us army in 1965 he completed a doctorate in physics from texas a&m which jump-started his 50-year teaching career meanwhile carolyn completed her doctorate in 1975 and was asked by john j koldus texas a&ms legendary vice president of student services to create and lead the universitys student activities department which she continued to expand and improve over the years working with texas a&m students was the joy of my life carolyn said i was inspired daily by their vision and commitment though tom continues to teach and also serve as the universitys faculty athletics representative carolyn now exclusively manages amici italian imports in 2015 the adairs established a significant planned gift of retirement assets and designated the texas a&m foundation as beneficiary of their wills to ensure that 100 percent of their estate would benefit texas a&m tom directed his portion of the gift to the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m coaching academy while carolyn chose to support the department of student activities we dont have children of our own so giving all of our assets to benefit our adopted aggie family made sense carolyn said as the university grows we hope these gifts enhance programs and provide students an opportunity to receive a world-renowned education the texas a&m foundation recently honored the adairs with a bugle call at the october 31 texas a&m vs south carolina football game recognizing the couple for their immeasurable service to texas a&m and their support of aggie sports and student organizations through the years: this article was originally published by the texas a&m foundation see this past houston chronicle feature article to learn more about the adairs italian-based venture and where to purchase amici oil and related products for more information on giving opportunities to benefit academic programs in the texas a&m college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/giving/ or directly to the texas a&m foundation # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m foundation: the texas a&m foundation is a nonprofit organization that solicits and manages investments in academics and leadership programs to enhance texas a&ms capability to be among the best universities to learn more visit http://txamfoundationcom -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post rooted in texas a&m: adairs create planned gift to benefit texas a&m university appeared first on college of science " " while traveling with texas a&m university students in italy nearly 20 years ago carolyn adair 69 discovered an overgrown olive tree grove badly in need of nurturing through a bit of coaxing and a labor of love she and her husband tom 57 bought and transformed the grove into amici italian imports a company she owns that sells homemade olive oil she chose the name amici because it means friends in italian for decades the couple has likewise changed the lives of aggies for the better carolyn acted as an adviser and friend to students for more than 25 years as the director of student activities while tom still teaches physics a discipline for which he has great passion despite the circumstances under which he chose it carolyn adair pressing olives with italian son daniele raspini (credit: daniele raspini) carolyn and tom adair at home in italy (credit: daniele raspini) during my freshman year as an engineering major i had a drawing class on the opposite side of campus from my dorm he said the walk was so long and i couldnt draw a straight line so i changed my major to physics chance also played a part in uniting tom and carolyn a 1962 graduate of texas tech university the two met while volunteering at a celebration in liberty texas he came clear across the room to ask me to dance said carolyn and the rest was history after completing degrees at texas a&m university and rice university tom worked in research for humble oil (later exxonmobil) and served one year with the infantry in the us army in 1965 he completed a doctorate in physics from texas a&m which jump-started his 50-year teaching career meanwhile carolyn completed her doctorate in 1975 and was asked by john j koldus texas a&ms legendary vice president of student services to create and lead the universitys student activities department which she continued to expand and improve over the years working with texas a&m students was the joy of my life carolyn said i was inspired daily by their vision and commitment though tom continues to teach and also serve as the universitys faculty athletics representative carolyn now exclusively manages amici italian imports in 2015 the adairs established a significant planned gift of retirement assets and designated the texas a&m foundation as beneficiary of their wills to ensure that 100 percent of their estate would benefit texas a&m tom directed his portion of the gift to the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m coaching academy while carolyn chose to support the department of student activities we dont have children of our own so giving all of our assets to benefit our adopted aggie family made sense carolyn said as the university grows we hope these gifts enhance programs and provide students an opportunity to receive a world-renowned education the texas a&m foundation recently honored the adairs with a bugle call at the october 31 texas a&m vs south carolina football game recognizing the couple for their immeasurable service to texas a&m and their support of aggie sports and student organizations through the years: this article was originally published by the texas a&m foundation see this past houston chronicle feature article to learn more about the adairs italian-based venture and where to purchase amici oil and related products for more information on giving opportunities to benefit academic programs in the texas a&m college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/giving/ or directly to the texas a&m foundation # # # # # # # # # # about the texas a&m foundation: the texas a&m foundation is a nonprofit organization that solicits and manages investments in academics and leadership programs to enhance texas a&ms capability to be among the best universities to learn more visit http://txamfoundationcom -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station six texas a&m university professors recently have been appointed to endowed chairs and professorships within the college of science announced dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science wenshe liu has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the emile and marta schweikert professorship in chemistry established in may 2014 in honor of longtime texas a&m chemist dr emile a schweikert to support the teaching research service and professional development activities of faculty in the department of chemistry wenshe liu edriss titi edriss titi has been appointed as the initial holder of the arthur owen endowed professorship in mathematics established in 2005 by arthur george and mary emolene owen chair in mathematics co-holders william johnson and gilles pisier using proceeds from the owens original gift to help attract mathematical scholars of the highest caliber to texas a&m john hardy and casey papovich have been appointed as co-holders of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics established in august 2013 by the schillings to support the teaching research service and professional development activities of faculty in the department of physics and astronomy john hardy casey papovich valery pokrovsky has been appointed to the william r thurman 58 chair in physics established in june 2008 through a planned gift from thurman intended to support the teaching research service and professional development activities of future texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty hongcai joe zhou has been appointed to a robert a welch chair in chemistry prestigious positions endowed by the robert a welch foundation that are awarded on the basis of chemical research achievement and impact we continue to attract and retain wonderful faculty thanks to the generosity of a wide variety of donors said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science liu a visible early career leader in the worldwide chemical biological community joined the texas a&m chemistry faculty in 2007 after earning his doctorate in chemistry at the university of california davis in 2005 in addition to being an associate professor of chemistry he is a member of the professional program in biotechnology and the interdisciplinary faculty of toxicology lius primary research focus is to develop chemical and biotechnological methods for producing proteins with unique functionalities his research group has invented several novel approaches for the synthesis of proteins with specific posttranslational modifications and significantly expanded the genetically encoded amino acid inventory in living systems to include more than 50 unique noncanonical amino acids another grand invention from lius group is to genetically install two different noncanonical amino acids into one protein in living cells such techniques have opened up new avenues of research including cancer epigenetics and drug discovery and a host of publications in major research journals including the journal of the american chemical society angewandte chemie acs chemical biology and chemical communications liu was recognized with a national science foundation career award in 2012 and his current research is funded by nsf the national institutes of health and the welch foundation in addition he currently serves as an editor for frontiers in chemical research and science reports titi who is one of the worlds foremost experts in applied partial differential equations joined the texas a&m mathematics faculty in 2014 after 16 years at the weizmann institute of science as a professor in the department of computer science and applied mathematics his general area of research is in nonlinear partial differential equations and he is considered one of the worlds top experts in mathematical fluid dynamics and issues arising from geological flows his research has applications to such areas as large-scale ocean and atmospheric dynamics turbulence combustion nonlinear fiber optics control theory lasers and elasticity titi received his phd from indiana university in 1986 and following postdoctoral appointments at the university of chicago and cornell university spent the majority of his career at the university of california irvine where he is a professor emeritus since 2014 he is a fellow of the institute of physics the society for industrial and applied mathematics and the american mathematical society in addition to delivering many international conference talks and colloquia he has been awarded two distinguished visiting scholarships to los alamos national laboratory the siam prize for best paper in partial differential equations a humboldt research award and a special distinguished visiting researcher award from the science without borders program in brazil titis research is supported by funding from a variety of sources including nsf the us department of energy los alamos national laboratory the israel science foundation and the us civilian research and development foundation hardy who is world renowned for his expertise in experimental nuclear physics and related studies of nuclear beta decay joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty and the cyclotron institute in 1997 after 27 years at the chalk river nuclear laboratories of atomic energy of canada limited where he rose to division director responsible for the tandem accelerator superconducting cyclotron facility he was appointed as distinguished professor at texas a&m in 2007 largely on the basis of his career work dedicated to pioneering the measurement of ft value or comparative half-life of certain beta decays that helps to explain the standard model theory of particle physics involving the fundamental building blocks of matter and the universe hardy has performed a long series of very high precision measurements to obtain unprecedented precision for the ft values making his name synonymous with these measurements for more than 30 years a fellow of both the american physical society (aps) and the royal society of canada (rsc) hardy has been recognized with the aps tom w bonner prize in nuclear physics the rscs rutherford medal in physics the canadian association of physicists herzberg medal mcgill universitys dw ambridge prize and a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research hardy has published hundreds of papers and has served on many program advisory committees for national laboratories as well as advisory committees to funding agencies across the united states and canada papovich a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy who is widely respected as both an observational astronomer and prolific researcher joined texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty in 2008 his research focuses on the nature of the universe and the formation of its first cosmic structures from the formation and evolution of the most distant galaxies to the growth of large-scale structures of galaxies his work involves taking and analyzing data from nasas space-based great observatories (hubble spitzer and chandra) the nasa/esa herschel space observatory and the largest terrestrial telescopes papovich recently earned mention to thomson reuters highly cited researchers 2015 list for the second consecutive year in 2013 he was part of a team that discovered the universes most distant galaxy ever a breakthrough deemed one of texas monthlys top five texas-based scientific discoveries for 2013 currently armed with a $200 000 nsf grant papovich is working on the largest survey of distant-universe galaxies ever conducted the decam/irac galaxy environment survey (dirges) a study that will analyze an area about 100 times as large as that of the full moon and cover a cosmological volume of 1 billion cubic light-years in addition to serving as chair of the science team for the giant magellan telescopes primary spectrograph his work has been highlighted as part of the science case for the overall telescope pokrovsky an expert in condensed matter theory and an outstanding scientist of true international caliber joined texas a&m physics and astronomy in 1992 earning appointment as a distinguished professor in 1998 his areas of research include scattering theory statistical mechanics two-dimensional systems magnetism superconductivity and the quantum hall effect his original scaling theory of the second-order phase transition one of the major results in statistical physics as well as his famous theory of a new topological phase transition known in literature as the pokrovsky-talapov transition were honored with the aps lars onsager prize and the academy of science ussr landau prize after receiving his masters of science degree and doctorate in the former soviet union pokrovsky served as head of the laboratory for theoretical physics at the institute of radiophysics and the institute of semiconductor physics in the siberian branch of the soviet academy of sciences he also received a doctoral degree in physics and mathematics from novosibirsk university and was a section head at the landau institute of theoretical physics pokrovskys many fundamental research contributions have been recognized with awards ranging from the alexander von humboldt research award to a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research in 2001 his recent results on landau-zener tunneling in condensed matter systems bose-einstein condensation of magnons and effects of disorder in physics of cold atoms are in the center of interest in contemporary physics and are lauded by the international condensed matter community valery pokrovsky hongcai joe zhou zhou an inorganic chemist who joined the texas a&m chemistry faculty in 2008 is an expert in the design of framework materials very small precisely arranged and highly porous polymer-based structures with the highest internal surface area known to man and a rapidly developing field of materials chemistry with just a tweak of their crystalline structure and properties these frameworks become ideal for adsorbing any type of different molecule resulting in porous grid-like materials with broad applications in fuel storage emissions controls and drug delivery zhou earned his doctorate in chemistry from texas a&m in 2000 under the guidance of legendary texas a&m inorganic chemist f albert cotton then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at harvard university and was an associate professor at miami university prior to returning to texas a&m zhous research focuses on sustainable energy and the use of metal-organic frameworks (mofs) and porous polymer networks (ppns) as carbon dioxide sorbents to develop state-of-the-art concepts and materials to facilitate hydrogen production and storage efficient conversion of biofuels economic production of solar energy and other renewable energy resources in addition to nine individual us department of energy grants each exceeding $1 million zhou has received many awards recognizing his pioneering research including the research innovation award and the cottrell scholar award from the research corporation for science advancement an nsf career award the miami university distinguished scholar-young investigator award and the 2007 faculty excellence award from air products and chemicals inc in 2014 he was awarded a prestigious japanese society for the promotion of science fellowship and was listed as a thomson reuters highly cited researcher for both 2014 and 2015 a member of the texas a&m energy institute and the department of materials science and engineering he has served since 2011 as chief scientific advisor for framergy¬Æ inc a texas-based startup company that oversees the commercialization of groundbreaking mof innovations for industrial uses view a complete list of endowed chairs and professorships in the college of science to learn more about endowed faculty positions and other development-related impact opportunities in the texas a&m college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/giving/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr h joseph newton (979) 845-7361 or jnewton@stattamuedu the post six texas a&m science faculty named to endowed chairs and professorships appeared first on college of science " " six texas a&m university professors recently have been appointed to endowed chairs and professorships within the college of science announced dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science wenshe liu has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the emile and marta schweikert professorship in chemistry established in may 2014 in honor of longtime texas a&m chemist dr emile a schweikert to support the teaching research service and professional development activities of faculty in the department of chemistry wenshe liu edriss titi edriss titi has been appointed as the initial holder of the arthur owen endowed professorship in mathematics established in 2005 by arthur george and mary emolene owen chair in mathematics co-holders william johnson and gilles pisier using proceeds from the owens original gift to help attract mathematical scholars of the highest caliber to texas a&m john hardy and casey papovich have been appointed as co-holders of the marsha l 69 and ralph f schilling 68 chair in experimental physics established in august 2013 by the schillings to support the teaching research service and professional development activities of faculty in the department of physics and astronomy john hardy casey papovich valery pokrovsky has been appointed to the william r thurman 58 chair in physics established in june 2008 through a planned gift from thurman intended to support the teaching research service and professional development activities of future texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty hongcai joe zhou has been appointed to a robert a welch chair in chemistry prestigious positions endowed by the robert a welch foundation that are awarded on the basis of chemical research achievement and impact we continue to attract and retain wonderful faculty thanks to the generosity of a wide variety of donors said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science liu a visible early career leader in the worldwide chemical biological community joined the texas a&m chemistry faculty in 2007 after earning his doctorate in chemistry at the university of california davis in 2005 in addition to being an associate professor of chemistry he is a member of the professional program in biotechnology and the interdisciplinary faculty of toxicology lius primary research focus is to develop chemical and biotechnological methods for producing proteins with unique functionalities his research group has invented several novel approaches for the synthesis of proteins with specific posttranslational modifications and significantly expanded the genetically encoded amino acid inventory in living systems to include more than 50 unique noncanonical amino acids another grand invention from lius group is to genetically install two different noncanonical amino acids into one protein in living cells such techniques have opened up new avenues of research including cancer epigenetics and drug discovery and a host of publications in major research journals including the journal of the american chemical society angewandte chemie acs chemical biology and chemical communications liu was recognized with a national science foundation career award in 2012 and his current research is funded by nsf the national institutes of health and the welch foundation in addition he currently serves as an editor for frontiers in chemical research and science reports titi who is one of the worlds foremost experts in applied partial differential equations joined the texas a&m mathematics faculty in 2014 after 16 years at the weizmann institute of science as a professor in the department of computer science and applied mathematics his general area of research is in nonlinear partial differential equations and he is considered one of the worlds top experts in mathematical fluid dynamics and issues arising from geological flows his research has applications to such areas as large-scale ocean and atmospheric dynamics turbulence combustion nonlinear fiber optics control theory lasers and elasticity titi received his phd from indiana university in 1986 and following postdoctoral appointments at the university of chicago and cornell university spent the majority of his career at the university of california irvine where he is a professor emeritus since 2014 he is a fellow of the institute of physics the society for industrial and applied mathematics and the american mathematical society in addition to delivering many international conference talks and colloquia he has been awarded two distinguished visiting scholarships to los alamos national laboratory the siam prize for best paper in partial differential equations a humboldt research award and a special distinguished visiting researcher award from the science without borders program in brazil titis research is supported by funding from a variety of sources including nsf the us department of energy los alamos national laboratory the israel science foundation and the us civilian research and development foundation hardy who is world renowned for his expertise in experimental nuclear physics and related studies of nuclear beta decay joined the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty and the cyclotron institute in 1997 after 27 years at the chalk river nuclear laboratories of atomic energy of canada limited where he rose to division director responsible for the tandem accelerator superconducting cyclotron facility he was appointed as distinguished professor at texas a&m in 2007 largely on the basis of his career work dedicated to pioneering the measurement of ft value or comparative half-life of certain beta decays that helps to explain the standard model theory of particle physics involving the fundamental building blocks of matter and the universe hardy has performed a long series of very high precision measurements to obtain unprecedented precision for the ft values making his name synonymous with these measurements for more than 30 years a fellow of both the american physical society (aps) and the royal society of canada (rsc) hardy has been recognized with the aps tom w bonner prize in nuclear physics the rscs rutherford medal in physics the canadian association of physicists herzberg medal mcgill universitys dw ambridge prize and a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research hardy has published hundreds of papers and has served on many program advisory committees for national laboratories as well as advisory committees to funding agencies across the united states and canada papovich a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy who is widely respected as both an observational astronomer and prolific researcher joined texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty in 2008 his research focuses on the nature of the universe and the formation of its first cosmic structures from the formation and evolution of the most distant galaxies to the growth of large-scale structures of galaxies his work involves taking and analyzing data from nasas space-based great observatories (hubble spitzer and chandra) the nasa/esa herschel space observatory and the largest terrestrial telescopes papovich recently earned mention to thomson reuters highly cited researchers 2015 list for the second consecutive year in 2013 he was part of a team that discovered the universes most distant galaxy ever a breakthrough deemed one of texas monthlys top five texas-based scientific discoveries for 2013 currently armed with a $200 000 nsf grant papovich is working on the largest survey of distant-universe galaxies ever conducted the decam/irac galaxy environment survey (dirges) a study that will analyze an area about 100 times as large as that of the full moon and cover a cosmological volume of 1 billion cubic light-years in addition to serving as chair of the science team for the giant magellan telescopes primary spectrograph his work has been highlighted as part of the science case for the overall telescope pokrovsky an expert in condensed matter theory and an outstanding scientist of true international caliber joined texas a&m physics and astronomy in 1992 earning appointment as a distinguished professor in 1998 his areas of research include scattering theory statistical mechanics two-dimensional systems magnetism superconductivity and the quantum hall effect his original scaling theory of the second-order phase transition one of the major results in statistical physics as well as his famous theory of a new topological phase transition known in literature as the pokrovsky-talapov transition were honored with the aps lars onsager prize and the academy of science ussr landau prize after receiving his masters of science degree and doctorate in the former soviet union pokrovsky served as head of the laboratory for theoretical physics at the institute of radiophysics and the institute of semiconductor physics in the siberian branch of the soviet academy of sciences he also received a doctoral degree in physics and mathematics from novosibirsk university and was a section head at the landau institute of theoretical physics pokrovskys many fundamental research contributions have been recognized with awards ranging from the alexander von humboldt research award to a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research in 2001 his recent results on landau-zener tunneling in condensed matter systems bose-einstein condensation of magnons and effects of disorder in physics of cold atoms are in the center of interest in contemporary physics and are lauded by the international condensed matter community valery pokrovsky hongcai joe zhou zhou an inorganic chemist who joined the texas a&m chemistry faculty in 2008 is an expert in the design of framework materials very small precisely arranged and highly porous polymer-based structures with the highest internal surface area known to man and a rapidly developing field of materials chemistry with just a tweak of their crystalline structure and properties these frameworks become ideal for adsorbing any type of different molecule resulting in porous grid-like materials with broad applications in fuel storage emissions controls and drug delivery zhou earned his doctorate in chemistry from texas a&m in 2000 under the guidance of legendary texas a&m inorganic chemist f albert cotton then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at harvard university and was an associate professor at miami university prior to returning to texas a&m zhous research focuses on sustainable energy and the use of metal-organic frameworks (mofs) and porous polymer networks (ppns) as carbon dioxide sorbents to develop state-of-the-art concepts and materials to facilitate hydrogen production and storage efficient conversion of biofuels economic production of solar energy and other renewable energy resources in addition to nine individual us department of energy grants each exceeding $1 million zhou has received many awards recognizing his pioneering research including the research innovation award and the cottrell scholar award from the research corporation for science advancement an nsf career award the miami university distinguished scholar-young investigator award and the 2007 faculty excellence award from air products and chemicals inc in 2014 he was awarded a prestigious japanese society for the promotion of science fellowship and was listed as a thomson reuters highly cited researcher for both 2014 and 2015 a member of the texas a&m energy institute and the department of materials science and engineering he has served since 2011 as chief scientific advisor for framergy¬Æ inc a texas-based startup company that oversees the commercialization of groundbreaking mof innovations for industrial uses view a complete list of endowed chairs and professorships in the college of science to learn more about endowed faculty positions and other development-related impact opportunities in the texas a&m college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/giving/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr h joseph newton (979) 845-7361 or jnewton@stattamuedu " " college station as one of 11 international partners in the giant magellan telescope texas a&m university is part of important astrophysical history set to go down today (friday sept 18) beneath a football stadium in tucson the casting of the telescopes fourth primary mirror at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror lab at steward observatory earlier this week lab personnel loaded roughly 21 tons of borosilicate glass into a massive steel mold for the history-making 84-meter diameter mirror set to be cast in conjunction with todays lab renaming and rededication ceremony honoring its new namesake richard f caris the scottsdale businessman recently donated $20 million to the university of arizona to support its partnership in the construction of the gmt texas a&m astronomer and longtime giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) board member darren depoy says that in addition to being the only mirror segment with a central hole the fourth mirror carries the added distinction of rendering the telescope operational if necessary thanks to flexibility in its design that will allow for it to function even as the rest of the mirrors still are being fabricated earlier this week glass loading was completed within the mold for the fourth 84-meter primary mirror shown here awaiting final placement of the oven lid (credit: ray bertram university of arizona steward observatory) the giant magellan telescopes seven mirrors span 25 meters and will focus more than six times the amount of light of the current largest optical telescopes into images up to 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) there is special significance to the fourth mirror said depoy deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory it will be the central unit without it the other mirrors would be much more difficult to bring together to function as a single telescope also our baseline plan starts the operations of the gmt with just these four mirrors which will all have been cast once this one is complete while the first primary mirror is packaged within the lab and ready for eventual transport to chile the second and third mirrors currently are at various stages of polishing the first two mirrors known as gmt1 and gmt2 are named for 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchell 40 and cynthia woods mitchell respectively the mitchells in combination with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation have committed a total of $3325 million thus far to the $1 billion project including nearly $21 million on behalf of texas a&m the gmt set for construction at the las campanas observatory site in the atacama desert in northern chile will be a member of the next class of super giant earth-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe by enabling astronomers to look deeper into space and farther back in time than ever before when completed the seven-mirror 25-meter colossus will feature 10 times the resolving power of nasas hubble space telescope and more than six times the light-gathering area of the largest optical telescopes in existence today described as being predicated on modern technology the gmt will merge lasers with an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light devices and measurement systems being built and assembled within texas a&ms munnerlyn lab the telescope is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the steward observatory mirror lab is the only facility in the world where mirrors of this size are being made the gmt mirrors are considered to be the greatest astronomical optics challenge ever undertaken given that each weighs roughly 20 tons yet requires a precision-smoothed surface to within a twentieth of a wavelength of light like other mirrors produced by the lab those for the gmt are designed to be spun cast thereby achieving the basic front surface in the shape of a paraboloid the shape taken on by water in a bucket when the bucket is spun around its axis; the water rises up the walls of the bucket while a depression forms in the center the pre-assembled mold creates a lightweight honeycomb glass structure that is very stiff and quickly adjusts to changes in nighttime air temperature each resulting in sharper images watch a short video discussing the mirror-making process: for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit here read a past blog entry detailing some of the projects history relevant to texas a&m and the state of texas read a nice recap feature on a previous mirror casting from the university of arizonas office of university communications read about the remarkable success of the first mirror polishing courtesy of the steward observatory mirror lab # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope organization: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post giant magellan telescope to cast milestone fourth mirror appeared first on college of science " " as one of 11 international partners in the giant magellan telescope texas a&m university is part of important astrophysical history set to go down today (friday sept 18) beneath a football stadium in tucson the casting of the telescopes fourth primary mirror at the university of arizonas richard f caris mirror lab at steward observatory earlier this week lab personnel loaded roughly 21 tons of borosilicate glass into a massive steel mold for the history-making 84-meter diameter mirror set to be cast in conjunction with todays lab renaming and rededication ceremony honoring its new namesake richard f caris the scottsdale businessman recently donated $20 million to the university of arizona to support its partnership in the construction of the gmt texas a&m astronomer and longtime giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) board member darren depoy says that in addition to being the only mirror segment with a central hole the fourth mirror carries the added distinction of rendering the telescope operational if necessary thanks to flexibility in its design that will allow for it to function even as the rest of the mirrors still are being fabricated earlier this week glass loading was completed within the mold for the fourth 84-meter primary mirror shown here awaiting final placement of the oven lid (credit: ray bertram university of arizona steward observatory) the giant magellan telescopes seven mirrors span 25 meters and will focus more than six times the amount of light of the current largest optical telescopes into images up to 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) there is special significance to the fourth mirror said depoy deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory it will be the central unit without it the other mirrors would be much more difficult to bring together to function as a single telescope also our baseline plan starts the operations of the gmt with just these four mirrors which will all have been cast once this one is complete while the first primary mirror is packaged within the lab and ready for eventual transport to chile the second and third mirrors currently are at various stages of polishing the first two mirrors known as gmt1 and gmt2 are named for 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchell 40 and cynthia woods mitchell respectively the mitchells in combination with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation have committed a total of $3325 million thus far to the $1 billion project including nearly $21 million on behalf of texas a&m the gmt set for construction at the las campanas observatory site in the atacama desert in northern chile will be a member of the next class of super giant earth-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe by enabling astronomers to look deeper into space and farther back in time than ever before when completed the seven-mirror 25-meter colossus will feature 10 times the resolving power of nasas hubble space telescope and more than six times the light-gathering area of the largest optical telescopes in existence today described as being predicated on modern technology the gmt will merge lasers with an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light devices and measurement systems being built and assembled within texas a&ms munnerlyn lab the telescope is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the steward observatory mirror lab is the only facility in the world where mirrors of this size are being made the gmt mirrors are considered to be the greatest astronomical optics challenge ever undertaken given that each weighs roughly 20 tons yet requires a precision-smoothed surface to within a twentieth of a wavelength of light like other mirrors produced by the lab those for the gmt are designed to be spun cast thereby achieving the basic front surface in the shape of a paraboloid the shape taken on by water in a bucket when the bucket is spun around its axis; the water rises up the walls of the bucket while a depression forms in the center the pre-assembled mold creates a lightweight honeycomb glass structure that is very stiff and quickly adjusts to changes in nighttime air temperature each resulting in sharper images watch a short video discussing the mirror-making process: for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit here read a past blog entry detailing some of the projects history relevant to texas a&m and the state of texas read a nice recap feature on a previous mirror casting from the university of arizonas office of university communications read about the remarkable success of the first mirror polishing courtesy of the steward observatory mirror lab # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope organization: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " college station astronomers from across texas will be visiting the texas a&m university campus next month for a weekend workshop focused on the growth of astronomy and related scientific collaborations throughout the lone star state building astronomy in texas is set for september 26-27 at the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the event sponsored by the mitchell institute and the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy will be held in conjunction with the 5th annual texas astronomy undergraduate research symposium scheduled for friday sept 25 jennifer marshall lucas macri the organizing committee led by texas a&m astronomers jennifer marshall and lucas macri also includes astronomers from the university of texas at austin ut-arlington ut-rio grande valley ut-san antonio baylor university rice university and texas christian university although agenda details are still being finalized marshall says one of the highlights will be talks from astronomers recruited to texas universities within the past three years a list of about a dozen including marshall and texas a&m astrophysicist louis strigari as well as the preceding undergraduate research symposium an annual event that rotates between the participating institutions which is free and open to the public according to marshall the impetus behind the workshop stems from dinner discussions during the past year with various visiting speakers from across the state as well as the texas a&m astronomy groups past experience at a previous building astronomy in texas (bat) event hosted by the university of texas at austin they hosted bat in austin five years ago mainly to acknowledge texas a&ms presence as a new astronomy group marshall said we thought it time to do the same for other groups across the state there have been a lot of astronomers hired across texas in the last few years and this progress is something we astronomers along with the state of texas should be proud of and celebrate the late george p mitchell 40 mitchell institute founder and namesake likely would agree considering he established the institute based on his lifelong interest in physics and astronomy and his desire to help position both his alma mater and his home state as a world leader in fundamental physics and astronomy fittingly mitchell institute-affiliated astronomers are taking a page from his playbook while paying homage to one of his similarly enterprising visions houston advanced research center (harc) which mitchell founded and headquartered in the heart of the woodlands the master-planned new town he also established as a gateway to scientific discovery dedicated to his longstanding belief that if texas great universities would work together they could compete on any level thanks to george mitchells visionary support of astronomy at texas a&m and elsewhere astronomers in our state are playing major roles in globally recognized projects from chile to west texas macri said this is a great opportunity for us to get together and talk about carrying his vision into the next decade and beyond to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit here bonus: read a post-event feature story from houston chronicle science writer eric berger # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu; or dr lucas macri (979) 314-1592 or lmacri@tamuedu the post texas a&m to host statewide astronomy workshop in september appeared first on college of science " " astronomers from across texas will be visiting the texas a&m university campus next month for a weekend workshop focused on the growth of astronomy and related scientific collaborations throughout the lone star state building astronomy in texas is set for september 26-27 at the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the event sponsored by the mitchell institute and the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy will be held in conjunction with the 5th annual texas astronomy undergraduate research symposium scheduled for friday sept 25 jennifer marshall lucas macri the organizing committee led by texas a&m astronomers jennifer marshall and lucas macri also includes astronomers from the university of texas at austin ut-arlington ut-rio grande valley ut-san antonio baylor university rice university and texas christian university although agenda details are still being finalized marshall says one of the highlights will be talks from astronomers recruited to texas universities within the past three years a list of about a dozen including marshall and texas a&m astrophysicist louis strigari as well as the preceding undergraduate research symposium an annual event that rotates between the participating institutions which is free and open to the public according to marshall the impetus behind the workshop stems from dinner discussions during the past year with various visiting speakers from across the state as well as the texas a&m astronomy groups past experience at a previous building astronomy in texas (bat) event hosted by the university of texas at austin they hosted bat in austin five years ago mainly to acknowledge texas a&ms presence as a new astronomy group marshall said we thought it time to do the same for other groups across the state there have been a lot of astronomers hired across texas in the last few years and this progress is something we astronomers along with the state of texas should be proud of and celebrate the late george p mitchell 40 mitchell institute founder and namesake likely would agree considering he established the institute based on his lifelong interest in physics and astronomy and his desire to help position both his alma mater and his home state as a world leader in fundamental physics and astronomy fittingly mitchell institute-affiliated astronomers are taking a page from his playbook while paying homage to one of his similarly enterprising visions houston advanced research center (harc) which mitchell founded and headquartered in the heart of the woodlands the master-planned new town he also established as a gateway to scientific discovery dedicated to his longstanding belief that if texas great universities would work together they could compete on any level thanks to george mitchells visionary support of astronomy at texas a&m and elsewhere astronomers in our state are playing major roles in globally recognized projects from chile to west texas macri said this is a great opportunity for us to get together and talk about carrying his vision into the next decade and beyond to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit here bonus: read a post-event feature story from houston chronicle science writer eric berger # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu; or dr lucas macri (979) 314-1592 or lmacri@tamuedu " " college station using one of the worlds most powerful digital cameras scientists with the dark energy survey have discovered eight more faint celestial objects hovering near our milky way galaxy along with signs indicating that they like the objects found by the same team earlier this year likely are dwarf satellite galaxies the smallest and closest known form of galaxies three texas a&m university astronomers assistant professor and munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory manager jennifer marshall and graduate students ting li and katelyn stringer are authors on the paper reporting the collaborations findings submitted august 14 to arxiv a fourth texas a&m astronomer darren depoy deputy director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and munnerlyn lab director served as project scientist for the dark energy camera (decam) jennifer marshall graduate student : ting li 16 satellite galaxies are small celestial objects that orbit larger galaxies such as our own milky way dwarf galaxies can be found with fewer than 1 000 stars in contrast to the milky way an average-size galaxy containing billions of stars scientists have predicted that larger galaxies are built from smaller galaxies which are thought to be especially rich in dark matter the substance that makes up about 25 percent of the total matter and energy in the universe dwarf satellite galaxies therefore are considered key to understanding dark matter and the process by which larger galaxies form the main goal of the dark energy survey (des) as its name suggests is to better understand the nature of dark energy the mysterious stuff that makes up about 70 percent of the matter and energy in the universe scientists believe that dark energy is the key to understanding why the expansion of the universe is speeding up to carry out its dark energy mission des takes snapshots of hundreds of millions of distant galaxies however some of the des images also contain stars in dwarf galaxies much closer to the milky way the same data can therefore be used to probe both dark energy which scientists think is driving galaxies apart and dark matter which is thought to hold galaxies together scientists can only see the faintest dwarf galaxies when they are nearby and had previously only found a few of them if these new discoveries are representative of the entire sky there could be many more galaxies hiding in our cosmic neighborhood just this year more than 20 of these dwarf satellite galaxy candidates have been spotted with 17 of those found in dark energy survey data said alex drlica-wagner of the us department of energys (doe) fermi national accelerator laboratory one of the leaders of the des analysis weve nearly doubled the number of these objects we know about in just one year which is remarkable marshall notes that texas a&ms trio is among the top tier of authors which means that each did some of the data analysis that went into the paper i think its particularly noteworthy that the only texas a&m authors on the paper are women that doesnt happen often in astronomy marshall added were not there just because were des builders although ting and i also are builders along with professor depoy we helped build the instrument and now were using it to do real science although stringer hasnt yet achieved coveted builder status marshall says she found her impressive enough last summer to invite her to arrive early during this one enabling her to get a jump-start on her official texas a&m graduate school career katelyn stringer katelyn was in our reu [research experiences for undergraduates] program last year working with lucas macri and she was admitted into our graduate program to start this fall marshall said i invited her to arrive this summer before classes start to do some science with me and also help out with this summers reu students we knew she would be great and she did enough significant work in her first week on the job this summer to earn authorship since joining the texas a&m astronomy program in 2008 depoy has praised the strength of the universitys undergraduate and graduate programs in science and engineering as well as the collaborative interdisciplinary research environment campus-wide that helps talented students and faculty capitalize on such elite opportunities for invaluable international experience and exposure ting and jennifer were heavily involved in helping to build components of the dark energy camera and have now become very active in analyzing and interpreting the data and results depoy said katelyn joined recently and has jumped right in to the effort they all had strong roles in the latest discovery of these additional dwarf galaxies and are showing the general scientific power of the dark energy survey not coincidentally these objects contain faint stars that will be fascinating to study further with the giant magellan telescope and jennifer is helping to lead the effort to build a special instrument to do those studies once the telescope is built read more on todays announcement and its broader significance via the official press release from fermilab view the dark energy survey analysis online and learn more about texas a&m astronomyhere # # # # # # # # # # about the dark energy survey: the dark energy survey is a collaboration of more than 300 scientists from 25 institutions in six countries its primary instrument the 570-megapixel dark energy camera is mounted on the 4-meter blanco telescope at the national optical astronomy observatorys cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile and its data is processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign learn more at http://wwwdarkenergysurveyorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post dark energy survey finds eight new dwarf galaxy candidates appeared first on college of science " " using one of the worlds most powerful digital cameras scientists with the dark energy survey have discovered eight more faint celestial objects hovering near our milky way galaxy along with signs indicating that they like the objects found by the same team earlier this year likely are dwarf satellite galaxies the smallest and closest known form of galaxies three texas a&m university astronomers assistant professor and munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory manager jennifer marshall and graduate students ting li and katelyn stringer are authors on the paper reporting the collaborations findings submitted august 14 to arxiv a fourth texas a&m astronomer darren depoy deputy director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and munnerlyn lab director served as project scientist for the dark energy camera (decam) jennifer marshall graduate student : ting li 16 satellite galaxies are small celestial objects that orbit larger galaxies such as our own milky way dwarf galaxies can be found with fewer than 1 000 stars in contrast to the milky way an average-size galaxy containing billions of stars scientists have predicted that larger galaxies are built from smaller galaxies which are thought to be especially rich in dark matter the substance that makes up about 25 percent of the total matter and energy in the universe dwarf satellite galaxies therefore are considered key to understanding dark matter and the process by which larger galaxies form the main goal of the dark energy survey (des) as its name suggests is to better understand the nature of dark energy the mysterious stuff that makes up about 70 percent of the matter and energy in the universe scientists believe that dark energy is the key to understanding why the expansion of the universe is speeding up to carry out its dark energy mission des takes snapshots of hundreds of millions of distant galaxies however some of the des images also contain stars in dwarf galaxies much closer to the milky way the same data can therefore be used to probe both dark energy which scientists think is driving galaxies apart and dark matter which is thought to hold galaxies together scientists can only see the faintest dwarf galaxies when they are nearby and had previously only found a few of them if these new discoveries are representative of the entire sky there could be many more galaxies hiding in our cosmic neighborhood just this year more than 20 of these dwarf satellite galaxy candidates have been spotted with 17 of those found in dark energy survey data said alex drlica-wagner of the us department of energys (doe) fermi national accelerator laboratory one of the leaders of the des analysis weve nearly doubled the number of these objects we know about in just one year which is remarkable marshall notes that texas a&ms trio is among the top tier of authors which means that each did some of the data analysis that went into the paper i think its particularly noteworthy that the only texas a&m authors on the paper are women that doesnt happen often in astronomy marshall added were not there just because were des builders although ting and i also are builders along with professor depoy we helped build the instrument and now were using it to do real science although stringer hasnt yet achieved coveted builder status marshall says she found her impressive enough last summer to invite her to arrive early during this one enabling her to get a jump-start on her official texas a&m graduate school career katelyn stringer katelyn was in our reu [research experiences for undergraduates] program last year working with lucas macri and she was admitted into our graduate program to start this fall marshall said i invited her to arrive this summer before classes start to do some science with me and also help out with this summers reu students we knew she would be great and she did enough significant work in her first week on the job this summer to earn authorship since joining the texas a&m astronomy program in 2008 depoy has praised the strength of the universitys undergraduate and graduate programs in science and engineering as well as the collaborative interdisciplinary research environment campus-wide that helps talented students and faculty capitalize on such elite opportunities for invaluable international experience and exposure ting and jennifer were heavily involved in helping to build components of the dark energy camera and have now become very active in analyzing and interpreting the data and results depoy said katelyn joined recently and has jumped right in to the effort they all had strong roles in the latest discovery of these additional dwarf galaxies and are showing the general scientific power of the dark energy survey not coincidentally these objects contain faint stars that will be fascinating to study further with the giant magellan telescope and jennifer is helping to lead the effort to build a special instrument to do those studies once the telescope is built read more on todays announcement and its broader significance via the official press release from fermilab view the dark energy survey analysis online and learn more about texas a&m astronomyhere # # # # # # # # # # about the dark energy survey: the dark energy survey is a collaboration of more than 300 scientists from 25 institutions in six countries its primary instrument the 570-megapixel dark energy camera is mounted on the 4-meter blanco telescope at the national optical astronomy observatorys cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile and its data is processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign learn more at http://wwwdarkenergysurveyorg/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university physics graduate student daniel nagasawa 16 has some advice for budding astronomers: never cease being amazed by things perceived as basic from light to the elements as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory nagasawas passion for astronomy is steered by an unwavering curiosity to uncover the next big clue in the cosmic unknown the biggest challenge is coming to work every day and realizing you are at the frontier of what you know and what you dont know nagasawa said its being comfortable at that boundary between knowing and not knowing and trying to push it a little bit further by doing science properly nagasawa is working on techniques for stellar spectroscopy the splitting of light into each of its component colors known as a spectrum and analyzing its corresponding wavelengths by studying a stars spectrum astronomers can find out crucial details such as its chemical composition and temperature these details can open the gateway to other information about the make-up and velocity of the stars galaxy he currently is leading the development of aggiespec a low-resolution spectrograph for one of the telescopes at the astronomical observatory of c√≥rdoba in argentina nagasawa and his team will use the device made entirely from commercial components and therefore relatively inexpensive easily replicable and adaptable to any telescope to identify quasi-stellar objects and variable stars because of the telescopes location in the southern hemisphere aggiespec will also enable spectroscopic follow-up research on objects found in several large-scale imaging surveys such as the dark energy survey (des) and large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) both of which involve texas a&m nagasawa working on aggiespec a low-resolution spectrograph intended for eventual use on one of the telescopes at the astronomical observatory of c√≥rdoba in argentina for spectroscopic follow-up research on objects found in several large-scale imaging surveys including the dark energy survey and large synoptic survey telescope nagasawa working on aggiespec a low-resolution spectrograph intended for eventual use on one of the telescopes at the astronomical observatory of c√≥rdoba in argentina for spectroscopic follow-up research on objects found in several large-scale imaging surveys including the dark energy survey and large synoptic survey telescope in order to understand our place in the universe and how things like the milky way the planets and the galaxies came to be we need to understand how their elements came to be as well nagasawa said you can tell a lot from the chemical evolution of a galaxy just from studying starlight now in his fourth year in the munnerlyn lab nagasawa has experienced his share of successes and breakthroughs but its bonding with a group of scientists united by a love of astronomy that he says is most rewarding in particular he cites lab director darren depoy and lab manager jennifer marshall who each have played pivotal roles in his academic career its a feeling thats mutual dan is a superstar because he has taken it upon himself to learn and study in great details the techniques to do the science that we are trying to accomplish marshall said i really enjoy working with dan hes a great student; he has a great personality; hes very funny and he tells a lot of jokes just a fun guy to work with a native of jersey city nj nagasawa says he first discovered his love of outer space as a small child when his father took him to a local planetarium not long after a visit through the planetary science exhibits of american museum of natural history had nagasawa hooked by age 9 he acquired his first telescope the rest as they say was written in the stars you dont become an astronomer for the money or anything along those lines; you become an astronomer because you want to understand our place in the universe nagasawa said if nothing else astronomy grants you a magnificent perspective and thats what i want to achieve learn more about texas a&m astronomy or graduate degrees in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- watch an interview with daniel nagasawa 16 detailing his research and its importance in the grand scheme of universal things: contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physics grad student pushes universal boundaries with stellar spectroscopy appeared first on college of science " " texas a&m university physics graduate student daniel nagasawa 16 has some advice for budding astronomers: never cease being amazed by things perceived as basic from light to the elements as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory nagasawas passion for astronomy is steered by an unwavering curiosity to uncover the next big clue in the cosmic unknown the biggest challenge is coming to work every day and realizing you are at the frontier of what you know and what you dont know nagasawa said its being comfortable at that boundary between knowing and not knowing and trying to push it a little bit further by doing science properly nagasawa is working on techniques for stellar spectroscopy the splitting of light into each of its component colors known as a spectrum and analyzing its corresponding wavelengths by studying a stars spectrum astronomers can find out crucial details such as its chemical composition and temperature these details can open the gateway to other information about the make-up and velocity of the stars galaxy he currently is leading the development of aggiespec a low-resolution spectrograph for one of the telescopes at the astronomical observatory of c√≥rdoba in argentina nagasawa and his team will use the device made entirely from commercial components and therefore relatively inexpensive easily replicable and adaptable to any telescope to identify quasi-stellar objects and variable stars because of the telescopes location in the southern hemisphere aggiespec will also enable spectroscopic follow-up research on objects found in several large-scale imaging surveys such as the dark energy survey (des) and large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) both of which involve texas a&m nagasawa working on aggiespec a low-resolution spectrograph intended for eventual use on one of the telescopes at the astronomical observatory of c√≥rdoba in argentina for spectroscopic follow-up research on objects found in several large-scale imaging surveys including the dark energy survey and large synoptic survey telescope nagasawa working on aggiespec a low-resolution spectrograph intended for eventual use on one of the telescopes at the astronomical observatory of c√≥rdoba in argentina for spectroscopic follow-up research on objects found in several large-scale imaging surveys including the dark energy survey and large synoptic survey telescope in order to understand our place in the universe and how things like the milky way the planets and the galaxies came to be we need to understand how their elements came to be as well nagasawa said you can tell a lot from the chemical evolution of a galaxy just from studying starlight now in his fourth year in the munnerlyn lab nagasawa has experienced his share of successes and breakthroughs but its bonding with a group of scientists united by a love of astronomy that he says is most rewarding in particular he cites lab director darren depoy and lab manager jennifer marshall who each have played pivotal roles in his academic career its a feeling thats mutual dan is a superstar because he has taken it upon himself to learn and study in great details the techniques to do the science that we are trying to accomplish marshall said i really enjoy working with dan hes a great student; he has a great personality; hes very funny and he tells a lot of jokes just a fun guy to work with a native of jersey city nj nagasawa says he first discovered his love of outer space as a small child when his father took him to a local planetarium not long after a visit through the planetary science exhibits of american museum of natural history had nagasawa hooked by age 9 he acquired his first telescope the rest as they say was written in the stars you dont become an astronomer for the money or anything along those lines; you become an astronomer because you want to understand our place in the universe nagasawa said if nothing else astronomy grants you a magnificent perspective and thats what i want to achieve learn more about texas a&m astronomy or graduate degrees in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- watch an interview with daniel nagasawa 16 detailing his research and its importance in the grand scheme of universal things: contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physics grad student pushes universal boundaries with stellar spectroscopy appeared first on college of science " " geneva physicist alexx perloff a graduate student at texas a&m university working on the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment is using data from the first run of the large hadron collider for his thesis which he plans to complete this year when all is said and done it will have taken perloff a year and a half to collect the computing time necessary to analyze all the information he needs not unusual for a thesis alexx perloff but had he had the computing tools lhc scientists are using now he estimates he could have finished his particular kind of analysis in about three weeks the equivalent of having 26 times the computing resources although perloff represents only one scientist working on the lhc his experience shows the great leaps scientists have made in lhc computing by democratizing their data becoming more responsive to popular demand and improving their analysis software read more about the deluge of data and how lhc scientists like perloff are dealing with the rush in the complete article originally appearing in the july 2015 issue of symmetry magazine learn more about perloff and his research with texas a&m physicist richardo eusebi and the texas a&m collider physics group read a battalion feature highlighting perloffs work and texas a&ms role in cms # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; alexx perloff aperloff@tamuedu; or dr ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@physicstamuedu the post scientists ready to handle increased data of large hadron colliders current run appeared first on college of science " " physicist alexx perloff a graduate student at texas a&m university working on the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment is using data from the first run of the large hadron collider for his thesis which he plans to complete this year when all is said and done it will have taken perloff a year and a half to collect the computing time necessary to analyze all the information he needs not unusual for a thesis alexx perloff but had he had the computing tools lhc scientists are using now he estimates he could have finished his particular kind of analysis in about three weeks the equivalent of having 26 times the computing resources although perloff represents only one scientist working on the lhc his experience shows the great leaps scientists have made in lhc computing by democratizing their data becoming more responsive to popular demand and improving their analysis software read more about the deluge of data and how lhc scientists like perloff are dealing with the rush in the complete article originally appearing in the july 2015 issue of symmetry magazine learn more about perloff and his research with texas a&m physicist richardo eusebi and the texas a&m collider physics group read a battalion feature highlighting perloffs work and texas a&ms role in cms # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; alexx perloff aperloff@tamuedu; or dr ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@physicstamuedu " " pasadena calif the giant magellan telescope organization has announced today (wednesday june 3) that its 11 international partners including texas a&m university have committed more than us$500 million to begin construction of the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes once it is built the giant magellan telescope (gmt) is poised to be the largest optical telescope in the world the giant magellan telescopes seven mirrors span 25 meters and will focus more than six times the amount of light of the current largest optical telescopes into images up to 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope the gmt will enable astronomers to look deeper into space and further back in time than ever before the telescope is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the gmt will herald the beginning of a new era in astronomy said wendy freedman chair of the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) board of directors and university professor of astronomy & astrophysics at the university of chicago it will reveal the first objects to emit light in the universe explore the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter and identify potentially habitable planets in the earths galactic neighborhood the decision by the gmto partner institutions to start construction is a crucial milestone on our journey to making these amazing discoveries using state-of-the-art science technology and engineering described as being predicated on modern technology the gmt will merge lasers with an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light devices and measurement systems being built and assembled within texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory the start of construction of the gmt is a major milestone for our program and we are excited by the opportunity to build instruments for the first of the next generation of telescopes said texas a&m astronomer and gmto board member darren depoy munnerlyn lab director and deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the spectrograph will enable key capabilities like the study of the most distant galaxies and stars in the universe determination of the atmospheric composition of exoplanets and investigations into the nature of dark matter and dark energy at this point we are focused on creating the best instrument possible artists rendering of an aerial view showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) the giant magellan telescopes seven mirrors span 25 meters and will focus more than six times the amount of light of the current largest optical telescopes into images up to 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) gmto president edward moses a current texas a&m institute for advanced study (tias) faculty fellow said the gmt is a global scientific collaboration with institutional partners in australia brazil korea the united states and in host nation chile the construction approval means work will begin on the telescopes core structure and the scientific instruments that lie at the heart of this us$1 billion project early preparation for construction has included groundwork at the mountaintop site at las campanas in northern chile and initial fabrication of the telescopes seven enormous primary mirror segments professor matthew colless vice chair of the board of directors and director of the research school of astronomy and astrophysics at the australian national university said the construction approval was an exciting moment for astronomy plans that have existed only in two dimensions or as computer models are about to become a three-dimensional reality in glass steel and high-tech semiconductor and composite materials colless said the giant magellan telescope will provide astronomers and astrophysicists with the opportunity to truly transform our view of the universe and our place within it access the gmtos video news package which includes interviews with gmto partners and b-roll as well as images and video graphics of the giant magellan telescope about the giant magellan telescope the giant magellan telescope (gmt) is slated to be the first in a new class of extremely large telescopes capable of producing images with 10 times the clarity of those captured by the hubble space telescope the gmt aims to discover earth-like planets around nearby stars and the tiny distortions that black holes cause in the light from distant stars and galaxies it will reveal the faintest objects ever seen in space including extremely distant and ancient galaxies the light from which has been traveling to earth since shortly after the big bang 138 billion years ago the telescope will be built at the carnegie institution for sciences las campanas observatory in the dry clear air of chiles atacama desert in a dome 22 stories high gmt is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the telescopes 254-meter (82 feet) primary mirror will comprise seven separate 84-meter (27 feet) diameter segments each mirror segment weighs 17 tons and takes one year to cast and cool followed by more than three years of surface generation and meticulous polishing at the richard f caris mirror lab of the steward observatory of the university of arizona in tucson ariz funding for the project comes from the partner institutions governments and private donors about the giant magellan telescope organization the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin connect with the giant magellan telescope organization on social media: gplusto/gmtelescope twittercom/gmtelescope facebookcom/gmtelescope and visit http://wwwgmtoorg watch brief interviews with various gmto administrators here via you tube: -atm- media contacts jacqueline efron 650-801-0942 or jacquelineefron@zenogroupcom steve koppes 773-702-8366 or skoppes@uchicagoedu davin malasarn 626-204-0529 or dmalasarn@gmtoorg business contacts edward moses (+1) 626-204-0555 wendy freedman (+1) 773-834-5651 matthew colless (+61) 2-6125-0266 the post giant magellan telescopes international partners approve start of construction phase appeared first on college of science " " the giant magellan telescope organization has announced today (wednesday june 3) that its 11 international partners including texas a&m university have committed more than us$500 million to begin construction of the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes once it is built the giant magellan telescope (gmt) is poised to be the largest optical telescope in the world the giant magellan telescopes seven mirrors span 25 meters and will focus more than six times the amount of light of the current largest optical telescopes into images up to 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope the gmt will enable astronomers to look deeper into space and further back in time than ever before the telescope is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the gmt will herald the beginning of a new era in astronomy said wendy freedman chair of the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) board of directors and university professor of astronomy & astrophysics at the university of chicago it will reveal the first objects to emit light in the universe explore the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter and identify potentially habitable planets in the earths galactic neighborhood the decision by the gmto partner institutions to start construction is a crucial milestone on our journey to making these amazing discoveries using state-of-the-art science technology and engineering described as being predicated on modern technology the gmt will merge lasers with an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light devices and measurement systems being built and assembled within texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory the start of construction of the gmt is a major milestone for our program and we are excited by the opportunity to build instruments for the first of the next generation of telescopes said texas a&m astronomer and gmto board member darren depoy munnerlyn lab director and deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the spectrograph will enable key capabilities like the study of the most distant galaxies and stars in the universe determination of the atmospheric composition of exoplanets and investigations into the nature of dark matter and dark energy at this point we are focused on creating the best instrument possible artists rendering of an aerial view showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) the giant magellan telescopes seven mirrors span 25 meters and will focus more than six times the amount of light of the current largest optical telescopes into images up to 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) gmto president edward moses a current texas a&m institute for advanced study (tias) faculty fellow said the gmt is a global scientific collaboration with institutional partners in australia brazil korea the united states and in host nation chile the construction approval means work will begin on the telescopes core structure and the scientific instruments that lie at the heart of this us$1 billion project early preparation for construction has included groundwork at the mountaintop site at las campanas in northern chile and initial fabrication of the telescopes seven enormous primary mirror segments professor matthew colless vice chair of the board of directors and director of the research school of astronomy and astrophysics at the australian national university said the construction approval was an exciting moment for astronomy plans that have existed only in two dimensions or as computer models are about to become a three-dimensional reality in glass steel and high-tech semiconductor and composite materials colless said the giant magellan telescope will provide astronomers and astrophysicists with the opportunity to truly transform our view of the universe and our place within it access the gmtos video news package which includes interviews with gmto partners and b-roll as well as images and video graphics of the giant magellan telescope about the giant magellan telescope the giant magellan telescope (gmt) is slated to be the first in a new class of extremely large telescopes capable of producing images with 10 times the clarity of those captured by the hubble space telescope the gmt aims to discover earth-like planets around nearby stars and the tiny distortions that black holes cause in the light from distant stars and galaxies it will reveal the faintest objects ever seen in space including extremely distant and ancient galaxies the light from which has been traveling to earth since shortly after the big bang 138 billion years ago the telescope will be built at the carnegie institution for sciences las campanas observatory in the dry clear air of chiles atacama desert in a dome 22 stories high gmt is expected to see first light in 2021 and be fully operational by 2024 the telescopes 254-meter (82 feet) primary mirror will comprise seven separate 84-meter (27 feet) diameter segments each mirror segment weighs 17 tons and takes one year to cast and cool followed by more than three years of surface generation and meticulous polishing at the richard f caris mirror lab of the steward observatory of the university of arizona in tucson ariz funding for the project comes from the partner institutions governments and private donors about the giant magellan telescope organization the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science funda√ß√£o de amparo √† pesquisa do estado de s√£o paulo harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin connect with the giant magellan telescope organization on social media: gplusto/gmtelescope twittercom/gmtelescope facebookcom/gmtelescope and visit http://wwwgmtoorg watch brief interviews with various gmto administrators here via you tube: -atm- media contacts jacqueline efron 650-801-0942 or jacquelineefron@zenogroupcom steve koppes 773-702-8366 or skoppes@uchicagoedu davin malasarn 626-204-0529 or dmalasarn@gmtoorg business contacts edward moses (+1) 626-204-0555 wendy freedman (+1) 773-834-5651 matthew colless (+61) 2-6125-0266 " " college station fuxiang li a former graduate student in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university is one of 14 graduate students across the campus who have been named texas a&m distinguished graduate students for 2015 in recognition of exemplary achievement in teaching and research each year students are nominated by their faculty advisors or departments and up to 15 award recipients then are chosen by a panel of reviewers that includes faculty and administrators li earned a distinguished graduate student award for excellence in research dr fuxiang li in his collaborative work with texas a&ms valery pokrovsky and the university of colognes thomas nattermann li predicted a new kind of topological defect vortex domain walls in chiral magnets these combined figures are from their 2012 paper published in physical review letters showing different types of helical ordering (top) domain walls in centrosymmetric helical magnets (middle) and domain walls in noncentrosymmetric helical magnets (credit: li pokrovsky nattermann) masters and doctoral students contribute to the research and teaching mission of the university while also advancing scholarship through their academic excellence and completion of their advanced degrees said dr karen butler-purry associate provost for graduate and professional studies thanks to the support we receive from the association of former students for these awards we are able to recognize these students who are among the best and brightest in their fields they play a vital role in strengthening quality in academics at texas a&m and carrying that experience with them throughout their careers li and his fellow honorees were celebrated monday (apr 27) in a ceremony at the memorial student centers stark gallery sponsored by the association of former students and the texas a&m office of graduate and professional studies as part of texas a&ms distinguished day activities lis graduate advisor texas a&m distinguished professor of physics valery l pokrovsky attended the ceremony in lis absence and accepted his framed certificate and custom gold watch from the association on lis behalf the association of former students takes great pride in supporting the distinguished graduate student awards which recognize students who have achieved excellence in research and teaching said porter s garner iii 79 president and ceo the students we honor today embody texas a&ms core values of excellence integrity leadership loyalty respect and selfless service and will represent the aggie network well in their professional careers in academia and industry li earned his doctorate in physics from texas a&m in december 2014 and currently is a postdoctoral research associate in the theoretical division and center for nonlinear studies at the los alamos national laboratory where he specializes in spin noise spectroscopy and non-equilibrium thermodynamics while at texas a&m he served as both a research assistant and teaching assistant from 2009-2014 at los alamos lis research continues to focus on condensed matter theory a branch of physics that covers fundamental quantum problems and directly leads to promising applications in human life to date in his young career li already has published 13 papers on different fundamental problems relating to myriad areas of condensed matter physics in the worlds top journals in physics including physics review letters natures scientific reports physical review b and new journal of physics lis research has led him to collaborate with several different groups and experts from around the world while working with pokrovsky and dr thomas nattermann a professor from the university of cologne in germany li predicted a new kind of topological defect vortex domain walls in chiral magnets more recently with dr nikolai sinitsyn at los alamos li developed a systematic and unified theory to explain and interpret the spin noise spectroscopy a newly developed experimental technique that optically probes the physical system without disturbing it he has also collaborated with experimentalists from eth zurich and proposed a universal scaling relation that beautifully explains the current-voltage curve obtained in the near-field scanning tunneling spectroscopy to learn more about the distinguished graduate student achievement and related recognition programs visit http://ogapstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post li honored with distinguished graduate student award in research appeared first on college of science " " fuxiang li a former graduate student in the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university is one of 14 graduate students across the campus who have been named texas a&m distinguished graduate students for 2015 in recognition of exemplary achievement in teaching and research each year students are nominated by their faculty advisors or departments and up to 15 award recipients then are chosen by a panel of reviewers that includes faculty and administrators li earned a distinguished graduate student award for excellence in research dr fuxiang li in his collaborative work with texas a&ms valery pokrovsky and the university of colognes thomas nattermann li predicted a new kind of topological defect vortex domain walls in chiral magnets these combined figures are from their 2012 paper published in physical review letters showing different types of helical ordering (top) domain walls in centrosymmetric helical magnets (middle) and domain walls in noncentrosymmetric helical magnets (credit: li pokrovsky nattermann) masters and doctoral students contribute to the research and teaching mission of the university while also advancing scholarship through their academic excellence and completion of their advanced degrees said dr karen butler-purry associate provost for graduate and professional studies thanks to the support we receive from the association of former students for these awards we are able to recognize these students who are among the best and brightest in their fields they play a vital role in strengthening quality in academics at texas a&m and carrying that experience with them throughout their careers li and his fellow honorees were celebrated monday (apr 27) in a ceremony at the memorial student centers stark gallery sponsored by the association of former students and the texas a&m office of graduate and professional studies as part of texas a&ms distinguished day activities lis graduate advisor texas a&m distinguished professor of physics valery l pokrovsky attended the ceremony in lis absence and accepted his framed certificate and custom gold watch from the association on lis behalf the association of former students takes great pride in supporting the distinguished graduate student awards which recognize students who have achieved excellence in research and teaching said porter s garner iii 79 president and ceo the students we honor today embody texas a&ms core values of excellence integrity leadership loyalty respect and selfless service and will represent the aggie network well in their professional careers in academia and industry li earned his doctorate in physics from texas a&m in december 2014 and currently is a postdoctoral research associate in the theoretical division and center for nonlinear studies at the los alamos national laboratory where he specializes in spin noise spectroscopy and non-equilibrium thermodynamics while at texas a&m he served as both a research assistant and teaching assistant from 2009-2014 at los alamos lis research continues to focus on condensed matter theory a branch of physics that covers fundamental quantum problems and directly leads to promising applications in human life to date in his young career li already has published 13 papers on different fundamental problems relating to myriad areas of condensed matter physics in the worlds top journals in physics including physics review letters natures scientific reports physical review b and new journal of physics lis research has led him to collaborate with several different groups and experts from around the world while working with pokrovsky and dr thomas nattermann a professor from the university of cologne in germany li predicted a new kind of topological defect vortex domain walls in chiral magnets more recently with dr nikolai sinitsyn at los alamos li developed a systematic and unified theory to explain and interpret the spin noise spectroscopy a newly developed experimental technique that optically probes the physical system without disturbing it he has also collaborated with experimentalists from eth zurich and proposed a universal scaling relation that beautifully explains the current-voltage curve obtained in the near-field scanning tunneling spectroscopy to learn more about the distinguished graduate student achievement and related recognition programs visit http://ogapstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station hans a schuessler professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized as one of three faculty recipients of 2015 bush excellence awards for international teaching international research and public service schuessler who was honored for his excellence in international research received the prestigious award along with co-recipients paul j batista (international teaching) associate professor in the division of sports management within the department of health and kinesiology in the college of education and human development and barbara j gastel (public service) professor of science and technology journalism in the department of veterinary integrative biosciences in the college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences the trio was celebrated thursday (apr 23) at a dinner hosted by texas a&m interim president mark a hussey and the texas a&m international advisory board george bush presidential library foundation chief executive officer frederick d mcclure presented each recipient with a plaque and a check for $2 000 during the awards program dinner hans a schuessler it is an honor to recognize these outstanding faculty at texas a&m with bush excellence awards mcclure said through their work they are equipping students with global competencies exploring the international dimensions of their disciplines and improving our public well-being we congratulate drs batista schuessler and gastel on receiving this prestigious honor schuessler a 47-year veteran of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty is the inaugural holder of the schuessler-mitchell-heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics a distinguished researcher in atomic physics and quantum optics he boasts a 50-year record of accomplishments in fundamental research focused on trapped atoms/ions and on ultra-short pulsed laser techniques resulting in multiple applications to problems of international importance throughout his long outstanding career schuessler has been involved in research in a multitude of countries including germany switzerland canada qatar and japan where he was named eminent scientist at the riken laboratory in 2001 he has been recognized nationally and internationally for his exceptional record of scientific collaborations and scientific achievements embracing a plethora of fields of modern laser physics the bush excellence awards were established through the vision and support of president and mrs george hw bush in 2002 with financial assistance from the george bush presidential library foundation since that time 39 awards have been presented to texas a&m faculty including texas a&m astronomer nicholas b suntzeff in 2013 and texas a&m physicist m suhail zubairy in 2011 to learn more about the program or view recipients from previous years visit public partnership & outreach -atm- contact: linda edwards (979) 862-6700 or l-edwards@tamuedu the post schuessler earns bush excellence award for international research appeared first on college of science " " hans a schuessler professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized as one of three faculty recipients of 2015 bush excellence awards for international teaching international research and public service schuessler who was honored for his excellence in international research received the prestigious award along with co-recipients paul j batista (international teaching) associate professor in the division of sports management within the department of health and kinesiology in the college of education and human development and barbara j gastel (public service) professor of science and technology journalism in the department of veterinary integrative biosciences in the college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences the trio was celebrated thursday (apr 23) at a dinner hosted by texas a&m interim president mark a hussey and the texas a&m international advisory board george bush presidential library foundation chief executive officer frederick d mcclure presented each recipient with a plaque and a check for $2 000 during the awards program dinner hans a schuessler it is an honor to recognize these outstanding faculty at texas a&m with bush excellence awards mcclure said through their work they are equipping students with global competencies exploring the international dimensions of their disciplines and improving our public well-being we congratulate drs batista schuessler and gastel on receiving this prestigious honor schuessler a 47-year veteran of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty is the inaugural holder of the schuessler-mitchell-heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics a distinguished researcher in atomic physics and quantum optics he boasts a 50-year record of accomplishments in fundamental research focused on trapped atoms/ions and on ultra-short pulsed laser techniques resulting in multiple applications to problems of international importance throughout his long outstanding career schuessler has been involved in research in a multitude of countries including germany switzerland canada qatar and japan where he was named eminent scientist at the riken laboratory in 2001 he has been recognized nationally and internationally for his exceptional record of scientific collaborations and scientific achievements embracing a plethora of fields of modern laser physics the bush excellence awards were established through the vision and support of president and mrs george hw bush in 2002 with financial assistance from the george bush presidential library foundation since that time 39 awards have been presented to texas a&m faculty including texas a&m astronomer nicholas b suntzeff in 2013 and texas a&m physicist m suhail zubairy in 2011 to learn more about the program or view recipients from previous years visit public partnership & outreach -atm- contact: linda edwards (979) 862-6700 or l-edwards@tamuedu " " baltimore dark energy survey (des) scientists including astronomers at texas a&m university are celebrating the release of the first in a series of dark matter maps of the cosmos the new map released today (april 13) at the american physical society april 2015 meeting in baltimore md was created using data captured by the dark energy camera (decam) the 570-megapixel imaging device and primary instrument for des for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist the map reflects early des observations and covers only about 3 percent of the total area of sky des will image during its five-year mission which runs through 2018 as the largest contiguous maps created at this level of detail each subsequent map in the overall des series is expected to improve scientists understanding of dark matters role in the formation of galaxies analysis of the clumpiness of the dark matter in the maps also will allow them to probe the nature of dark energy which is believed to be causing the expansion of the universe to speed up as fulfilling as the first tangible map-related results are depoy says the fundamental victory behind such unprecedented scenes also is well worth noting and celebrating mass map with locations of galaxy clusters more images available via the des weak lensing working group website (credit: dark energy survey) dr darren depoy the big news thats difficult to explain in a news announcement is that decam/des is able to make these kinds of measurements at all said depoy deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory which among other instrumentation built the decal system being used to precisely calibrate des data these sorts of measurements otherwise known as weak lensing have been almost impossible previously because the required combination of wide-area scope deep sensitivity in order to detect very faint galaxies and exquisite image quality which in this case is a combination of excellent ‚Äòseeing from the cerro tololo inter-american observatory site in chile and careful control of the focus and other optical aberrations in the camera has been almost impossible to achieve by any other project depoy and fellow texas a&m astronomers louis strigari and jennifer marshall along with texas a&m physics and astronomy graduate student ting li are part of the 300-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 25 institutions and six countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion all des data is processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign read more on todays announcement via the official press release from fermilab # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post dark energy survey creates detailed guide to spotting dark matter first appeared on college of science " " dark energy survey (des) scientists including astronomers at texas a&m university are celebrating the release of the first in a series of dark matter maps of the cosmos the new map released today (april 13) at the american physical society april 2015 meeting in baltimore md was created using data captured by the dark energy camera (decam) the 570-megapixel imaging device and primary instrument for des for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist the map reflects early des observations and covers only about 3 percent of the total area of sky des will image during its five-year mission which runs through 2018 as the largest contiguous maps created at this level of detail each subsequent map in the overall des series is expected to improve scientists understanding of dark matters role in the formation of galaxies analysis of the clumpiness of the dark matter in the maps also will allow them to probe the nature of dark energy which is believed to be causing the expansion of the universe to speed up as fulfilling as the first tangible map-related results are depoy says the fundamental victory behind such unprecedented scenes also is well worth noting and celebrating mass map with locations of galaxy clusters more images available via the des weak lensing working group website (credit: dark energy survey) dr darren depoy the big news thats difficult to explain in a news announcement is that decam/des is able to make these kinds of measurements at all said depoy deputy director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory which among other instrumentation built the decal system being used to precisely calibrate des data these sorts of measurements otherwise known as weak lensing have been almost impossible previously because the required combination of wide-area scope deep sensitivity in order to detect very faint galaxies and exquisite image quality which in this case is a combination of excellent ‚Äòseeing from the cerro tololo inter-american observatory site in chile and careful control of the focus and other optical aberrations in the camera has been almost impossible to achieve by any other project depoy and fellow texas a&m astronomers louis strigari and jennifer marshall along with texas a&m physics and astronomy graduate student ting li are part of the 300-plus-member international des collaboration that spans 25 institutions and six countries as well as the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers regarding the universes accelerated expansion all des data is processed at the national center for supercomputing applications at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign read more on todays announcement via the official press release from fermilab # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " college station picture if you will the ultimate universal home movie if not parental keepsake and life story: our milky way galaxy starting out as but a wee collection of young stars some 12 billion years ago continuously feeding on the gas of smaller nearby galaxies and undergoing a huge burst of star births to grow increasingly more massive only to later fade out into the rather tame large spiral galaxy weve come to inhabit today despite many 21st century advances from technology to social media apps such a movie cannot be made however thanks to one of the most comprehensive multi-observatory galaxy surveys to date led by texas a&m universitys casey papovich astronomers have come up with the next best thing the evolution of the milky way in pictures pieced together using data from nasa and european space agency space telescopes and ground-based telescopes as well as thousands of snapshots of galaxies similar in mass to the milky way as we look at distant galaxies we see how they looked when their light left for earth said papovich lead author on the international teams science paper which is published today in the april 10 issue of the astrophysical journal because the galaxies are billions of light-years distant we can see how they looked billions of years in the past papovich along with texas a&m postdoctoral researchers vithal tilvi and ryan quadri and roughly two dozen astronomers around the world spent a year studying carefully selected distant galaxies similar in mass to the progenitor of our own milky way that were found in two deep-sky program surveys of the universe the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) and the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (zfourge) first the group looked at the more than 24 000 galaxies included in the combined catalog to identify representative galaxies that evolved as our milky way did then they made a sequence of how those galaxies grew over time to represent how our own galaxy would have evolved in effect creating a movie of the milky ways life from youth to middle age an animated version of the milky way galaxys life story this composite of hubble space telescope images illustrates the evolution of milky way-like galaxies as detailed in the most comprehensive multi-observatory galaxy survey to date led by texas a&m university astronomer casey papovich the six chronological images (beginning at far right) reveal that these galaxies each similar in mass to our milky way grow larger and rounder over time as their stellar population ages their colors change from blue to yellow to red as their collection of stars burns out in order of brightness the images were taken between 2010 and 2012 with hubbles wide field camera 3 and advanced camera for surveys as part of the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) (credit: nasa esa c papovich / texas a&m university h ferguson / stsci s faber / university of california santa cruz and i labbe / leiden university) most stars today exist in galaxies like the milky way so by studying how galaxies like our own formed weve come to understand the most typical locations of stars in the universe said papovich an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 we now have the best picture of how galaxies like our own formed their stars papovich says the teams data clearly illustrates that the milky way experienced its most rapid phase of growth between 92 and 10 billion years ago churning out new stars at a spectacular rate that was about 30 times what it is today one per year compared to about 30 each year 95 billion years ago not surprisingly it also reveals a strong correlation between star formation and growth in galaxy size suggesting that the milky way itself is responsible for its own star-generating and therefore staying power when we calculate the star-formation rate of a milky way-like galaxy in the past and add up all the stars it would have produced we find the mass growth we expected papovich said we also know that most of these stars formed inside the milky way rather than in other smaller galaxies that later merged with our own the whole picture hangs together papovich notes that the sun is among those more recently formed stars born roughly 5 billion years ago at a point when star formation within the milky way had slowed to a comparatively cosmic crawl that continues today the suns somewhat fashionably late appearance actually may have been fortuitous fostering the growth of the planets within our solar system the teams multi-wavelength study supported by funding from both nasa and the national science foundation spans ultraviolet to far-infrared light combining observations from nasas hubble and spitzer space telescopes the european space agencys herschel space observatory and ground-based telescopes including the magellan baade telescope at the las campanas observatory in chile the hubble images from the candels survey also provided structural information about galaxy sizes and how they evolved far-infrared light observations from spitzer and herschel helped the astronomers trace the star-formation rate the international zfourge collaboration is composed of several universities including leiden university in holland swinburne and macquarie in australia carnegie observatories in pasadena calif and texas a&m which currently hosts the surveys website and data for additional information on papovich and his research visit drcasey papovich to learn more about texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research group click here to see the official release and additional information from hubbles news center # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m-led astronomy research details unprecedented life story of milky way galaxy evolution appeared first on college of science " " picture if you will the ultimate universal home movie if not parental keepsake and life story: our milky way galaxy starting out as but a wee collection of young stars some 12 billion years ago continuously feeding on the gas of smaller nearby galaxies and undergoing a huge burst of star births to grow increasingly more massive only to later fade out into the rather tame large spiral galaxy weve come to inhabit today despite many 21st century advances from technology to social media apps such a movie cannot be made however thanks to one of the most comprehensive multi-observatory galaxy surveys to date led by texas a&m universitys casey papovich astronomers have come up with the next best thing the evolution of the milky way in pictures pieced together using data from nasa and european space agency space telescopes and ground-based telescopes as well as thousands of snapshots of galaxies similar in mass to the milky way as we look at distant galaxies we see how they looked when their light left for earth said papovich lead author on the international teams science paper which is published today in the april 10 issue of the astrophysical journal because the galaxies are billions of light-years distant we can see how they looked billions of years in the past papovich along with texas a&m postdoctoral researchers vithal tilvi and ryan quadri and roughly two dozen astronomers around the world spent a year studying carefully selected distant galaxies similar in mass to the progenitor of our own milky way that were found in two deep-sky program surveys of the universe the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) and the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (zfourge) first the group looked at the more than 24 000 galaxies included in the combined catalog to identify representative galaxies that evolved as our milky way did then they made a sequence of how those galaxies grew over time to represent how our own galaxy would have evolved in effect creating a movie of the milky ways life from youth to middle age an animated version of the milky way galaxys life story this composite of hubble space telescope images illustrates the evolution of milky way-like galaxies as detailed in the most comprehensive multi-observatory galaxy survey to date led by texas a&m university astronomer casey papovich the six chronological images (beginning at far right) reveal that these galaxies each similar in mass to our milky way grow larger and rounder over time as their stellar population ages their colors change from blue to yellow to red as their collection of stars burns out in order of brightness the images were taken between 2010 and 2012 with hubbles wide field camera 3 and advanced camera for surveys as part of the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) (credit: nasa esa c papovich / texas a&m university h ferguson / stsci s faber / university of california santa cruz and i labbe / leiden university) most stars today exist in galaxies like the milky way so by studying how galaxies like our own formed weve come to understand the most typical locations of stars in the universe said papovich an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 we now have the best picture of how galaxies like our own formed their stars papovich says the teams data clearly illustrates that the milky way experienced its most rapid phase of growth between 92 and 10 billion years ago churning out new stars at a spectacular rate that was about 30 times what it is today one per year compared to about 30 each year 95 billion years ago not surprisingly it also reveals a strong correlation between star formation and growth in galaxy size suggesting that the milky way itself is responsible for its own star-generating and therefore staying power when we calculate the star-formation rate of a milky way-like galaxy in the past and add up all the stars it would have produced we find the mass growth we expected papovich said we also know that most of these stars formed inside the milky way rather than in other smaller galaxies that later merged with our own the whole picture hangs together papovich notes that the sun is among those more recently formed stars born roughly 5 billion years ago at a point when star formation within the milky way had slowed to a comparatively cosmic crawl that continues today the suns somewhat fashionably late appearance actually may have been fortuitous fostering the growth of the planets within our solar system the teams multi-wavelength study supported by funding from both nasa and the national science foundation spans ultraviolet to far-infrared light combining observations from nasas hubble and spitzer space telescopes the european space agencys herschel space observatory and ground-based telescopes including the magellan baade telescope at the las campanas observatory in chile the hubble images from the candels survey also provided structural information about galaxy sizes and how they evolved far-infrared light observations from spitzer and herschel helped the astronomers trace the star-formation rate the international zfourge collaboration is composed of several universities including leiden university in holland swinburne and macquarie in australia carnegie observatories in pasadena calif and texas a&m which currently hosts the surveys website and data for additional information on papovich and his research visit drcasey papovich to learn more about texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research group click here to see the official release and additional information from hubbles news center # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu " " college station in celebration of student research week (march 23-27) at texas a&m university the college of science will be taking five with five different people involved in various aspects and stages of research at texas a&m and beyond todays kickoff segment features ting li a phd candidate in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory among other accomplishments li recently built her own telescope the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera (atmcam) which currently is taking data in chile that is being used for the five-year department of energy-funded dark energy survey in addition she is one of six graduate students worldwide to earn the coveted des builder status which entitles her to be listed as an author on every des collaboration-related paper released how did you end up at texas a&m university and in the munnerlyn laboratory i like the beautiful night sky and want to know how the stars and galaxies are formed and why they exist when i was an undergraduate student i knew i wanted to pursue a career in astronomy major advances in our understanding of the universe have often arisen from dramatic improvements of the observing techniques therefore i wanted to be an astronomer as well as an instrument builder ting li and fellow munnerlyn lab member nicholas mondrik 15 fine-tuning the atmcam during installation at chiles cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in august 2014 ting li (right) working with david baker 14 and texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall in the munnerlyn lab (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) when i applied for graduate school i knew texas a&m university had a fast-growing astronomy program in the department of physics and astronomy the number of astronomy faculty increased from three to seven from 2006 to 2008 and was still going up a&m is also involved in many future large astronomical projects such as the dark energy survey the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment the giant magellan telescope etc most importantly dr darren depoy is leading the astronomical instrumentation lab (ie munnerlyn lab) and building the state-of-the-art instruments for these projects so i applied to the graduate program at texas a&m and once i was accepted i decided i only wanted to work with dr depoy im happy that my willingness found me a spot in this lab and that i am contributing to many world-class astronomical projects describe a typical day/week in the lab its hard to say whats a typical day in the lab as you never know where the research will take you for example sometimes i spend time in the main lab area to help with assembly of the spectrographs we build; sometimes i stay in the dark room all day and work with the optics on the optical bench but most of the time i stay in my office and work with computers i spend most of that time analyzing data that i get from different observatories including some from the instruments we built or are building in our lab i also go to the texas a&m observatory very often during the night to test our newly developed instrumentation last but not least i discuss my work with scientists engineers and students inside the lab as well as with other worldwide collaborators via telephone conferences whats it like working as a member of such a diverse group that features every level from undergraduate to postdoc and individually and as a team on such high-stakes multi-million-dollar projects that span the gamut of and are outright game-changers for fundamental astrophysics i like to work in such a diverse group and thats why i choose to work on building instruments for astronomy as an instrument builder you need to know about the science in different astronomical fields and you also need to be able to communicate with engineers this makes me feel like there are lots of things that are unknown to me but also at the same time im learning new things every day and im happy with that our lab has lots of undergrads graduate students engineers and scientists dr depoy and dr jennifer marshall manage the lab in such a way that everyone is highly independent but also available to help each other when needed every week during our group meeting we each present our work from the past week and our plans for next week and get feedback from our advisors in any given week all group members know what everyone is working on and get opportunities to learn things from each others projects furthermore because a lot of these projects require effort from many people i get the chance to work with undergrads as well as the engineers in our lab as a member of the munnerlyn lab i feel im learning things every day and also im contributing what ive learned to this lab and to new instruments and new techniques that will improve our understanding of the universe proudest moment thus far in your research career how about biggest surprise i think the proudest moment in my graduate career is building atmcam the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera for the dark energy survey it has a robotic telescope with four scientific cameras it was less than two months between the time des decided to build the atmcam and the time it started taking its first exposures we did lots of preparation before we actually got funded but still it was amazing to make a system fully autonomously operational in such a short time period i remember that when i went to the aas (american astronomical society) meeting for the first time i heard a talk about a robotic telescope the speaker controlled his telescope remotely while he was giving the talk and i felt it was so cool that he could do that now im proud of myself because i can do the same thing for atmcam which is located at one of the best astronomical sites in the world i also show how i can control the system remotely from my office to visitors sometimes while this instrument was built for the dark energy survey project it also can benefit many other astronomical fields after we built this instrument some research groups showed interest in atmcam which is a big surprise to me what would you tell others who are might be considering going to graduate school and pursuing a career in scientific research i would say that graduate school is tough so make sure thats what you want before you decide to go that route if you decide to take it then enjoy it graduate school is much more independent compared to the undergraduate program instead of professors telling you what to do in your undergraduate study you are the one who needs to make the decisions about yourself most of the time you also have to learn a lot of new things by yourself and solve the problems by yourself so make sure you pick a field that you like and you are interested in the difficulties can sometimes be incredibly frustrating however part of getting closer to becoming a qualified phd is dealing with setbacks and experiencing failure maybe you dont feel that you are gaining new knowledge every day or maybe you feel that you are standing still after many days of hard work but after several months or even years you will know that you have already made a huge improvement in your research ability you wont see the changes every day but be patient and persistent and you will succeed click here to read a related blog post offering insight into group dynamics within the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation lab # # # # # # # # # # now in its 18th year student research week is a friendly competition that highlights both undergraduate and graduate research at texas a&m one of the countrys top research universities the weeklong celebration fosters an environment for students faculty and administrators to learn about student research at texas a&m and also gives students an opportunity to win numerous awards and cash prizes to learn more about the weeks schedule and specific events go to http://srwtamuedu/ for more information on graduate programs and related research opportunities in the college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/admissions/graduate/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post q&a with graduate student ting li 16 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in celebration of student research week (march 23-27) at texas a&m university the college of science will be taking five with five different people involved in various aspects and stages of research at texas a&m and beyond todays kickoff segment features ting li a phd candidate in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory among other accomplishments li recently built her own telescope the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera (atmcam) which currently is taking data in chile that is being used for the five-year department of energy-funded dark energy survey in addition she is one of six graduate students worldwide to earn the coveted des builder status which entitles her to be listed as an author on every des collaboration-related paper released how did you end up at texas a&m university and in the munnerlyn laboratory i like the beautiful night sky and want to know how the stars and galaxies are formed and why they exist when i was an undergraduate student i knew i wanted to pursue a career in astronomy major advances in our understanding of the universe have often arisen from dramatic improvements of the observing techniques therefore i wanted to be an astronomer as well as an instrument builder ting li and fellow munnerlyn lab member nicholas mondrik 15 fine-tuning the atmcam during installation at chiles cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in august 2014 ting li (right) working with david baker 14 and texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall in the munnerlyn lab (credit: robb kendrick / texas a&m foundation) when i applied for graduate school i knew texas a&m university had a fast-growing astronomy program in the department of physics and astronomy the number of astronomy faculty increased from three to seven from 2006 to 2008 and was still going up a&m is also involved in many future large astronomical projects such as the dark energy survey the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment the giant magellan telescope etc most importantly dr darren depoy is leading the astronomical instrumentation lab (ie munnerlyn lab) and building the state-of-the-art instruments for these projects so i applied to the graduate program at texas a&m and once i was accepted i decided i only wanted to work with dr depoy im happy that my willingness found me a spot in this lab and that i am contributing to many world-class astronomical projects describe a typical day/week in the lab its hard to say whats a typical day in the lab as you never know where the research will take you for example sometimes i spend time in the main lab area to help with assembly of the spectrographs we build; sometimes i stay in the dark room all day and work with the optics on the optical bench but most of the time i stay in my office and work with computers i spend most of that time analyzing data that i get from different observatories including some from the instruments we built or are building in our lab i also go to the texas a&m observatory very often during the night to test our newly developed instrumentation last but not least i discuss my work with scientists engineers and students inside the lab as well as with other worldwide collaborators via telephone conferences whats it like working as a member of such a diverse group that features every level from undergraduate to postdoc and individually and as a team on such high-stakes multi-million-dollar projects that span the gamut of and are outright game-changers for fundamental astrophysics i like to work in such a diverse group and thats why i choose to work on building instruments for astronomy as an instrument builder you need to know about the science in different astronomical fields and you also need to be able to communicate with engineers this makes me feel like there are lots of things that are unknown to me but also at the same time im learning new things every day and im happy with that our lab has lots of undergrads graduate students engineers and scientists dr depoy and dr jennifer marshall manage the lab in such a way that everyone is highly independent but also available to help each other when needed every week during our group meeting we each present our work from the past week and our plans for next week and get feedback from our advisors in any given week all group members know what everyone is working on and get opportunities to learn things from each others projects furthermore because a lot of these projects require effort from many people i get the chance to work with undergrads as well as the engineers in our lab as a member of the munnerlyn lab i feel im learning things every day and also im contributing what ive learned to this lab and to new instruments and new techniques that will improve our understanding of the universe proudest moment thus far in your research career how about biggest surprise i think the proudest moment in my graduate career is building atmcam the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera for the dark energy survey it has a robotic telescope with four scientific cameras it was less than two months between the time des decided to build the atmcam and the time it started taking its first exposures we did lots of preparation before we actually got funded but still it was amazing to make a system fully autonomously operational in such a short time period i remember that when i went to the aas (american astronomical society) meeting for the first time i heard a talk about a robotic telescope the speaker controlled his telescope remotely while he was giving the talk and i felt it was so cool that he could do that now im proud of myself because i can do the same thing for atmcam which is located at one of the best astronomical sites in the world i also show how i can control the system remotely from my office to visitors sometimes while this instrument was built for the dark energy survey project it also can benefit many other astronomical fields after we built this instrument some research groups showed interest in atmcam which is a big surprise to me what would you tell others who are might be considering going to graduate school and pursuing a career in scientific research i would say that graduate school is tough so make sure thats what you want before you decide to go that route if you decide to take it then enjoy it graduate school is much more independent compared to the undergraduate program instead of professors telling you what to do in your undergraduate study you are the one who needs to make the decisions about yourself most of the time you also have to learn a lot of new things by yourself and solve the problems by yourself so make sure you pick a field that you like and you are interested in the difficulties can sometimes be incredibly frustrating however part of getting closer to becoming a qualified phd is dealing with setbacks and experiencing failure maybe you dont feel that you are gaining new knowledge every day or maybe you feel that you are standing still after many days of hard work but after several months or even years you will know that you have already made a huge improvement in your research ability you wont see the changes every day but be patient and persistent and you will succeed click here to read a related blog post offering insight into group dynamics within the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation lab # # # # # # # # # # now in its 18th year student research week is a friendly competition that highlights both undergraduate and graduate research at texas a&m one of the countrys top research universities the weeklong celebration fosters an environment for students faculty and administrators to learn about student research at texas a&m and also gives students an opportunity to win numerous awards and cash prizes to learn more about the weeks schedule and specific events go to http://srwtamuedu/ for more information on graduate programs and related research opportunities in the college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/admissions/graduate/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station it aint easy being green but youll have two chances at seeing green next week at texas a&m universitys 2015 physics and engineering festival to be headlined by world-renowned physicist bestselling author and science communicator dr brian greene experience the many wonders of science and technology as the featured attraction in the free family-oriented annual extravaganza set for saturday (march 28) from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus (click here for directions and parking information) ride a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch or shoot balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 4 pm the event also will feature three bubble shows at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm as well as respective lectures at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm by nobel prize winners david lee and dudley herschback and nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff watch a promotional video for the 2015 festival courtesy of suddenlink communications: the festival portion of the day will conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by greene whose national bestseller the elegant universe sold more than a million copies and became an emmy and peabody award-winning nova special that paved the way for his revolutionary career in science communications as a bonus feature to this years festival directly tied to greene the department of physics and astronomy is teaming up with the brazos valley symphony orchestra to present greenes illustrated novella icarus at the edge of time the mesmerizing tale narrated by greene will mark the grand finale in a broader once-in-a-lifetime production in a galaxy far far away set for 7:30 pm at rudder auditorium tickets which range from $39 for general admission or $13 for students are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 a number of free tickets will be made available to festival participants with details soon to come via the festival website world-famous string theorist and author brian greene will headline the 2015 physics & engineering festival on saturday march 28 and also narrate icarus at the edge of time as part of the brazos valley symphony orchestras 7:30 pm special performance of in a galaxy far far away 2015 physics poster all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant and hosted by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of chemistry mathematics and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history in addition bb&t (branch banking and trust) corporation has provided generous support to help underwrite greenes visit texas a&ms event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival as well as a member of the science festival alliance for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please all ages and interest levels see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu click here to read a related q&a with brian greene by houston chronicle science writer eric berger -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for march 28 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " it aint easy being green but youll have two chances at seeing green next week at texas a&m universitys 2015 physics and engineering festival to be headlined by world-renowned physicist bestselling author and science communicator dr brian greene experience the many wonders of science and technology as the featured attraction in the free family-oriented annual extravaganza set for saturday (march 28) from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus (click here for directions and parking information) ride a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch or shoot balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 4 pm the event also will feature three bubble shows at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm as well as respective lectures at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm by nobel prize winners david lee and dudley herschback and nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff watch a promotional video for the 2015 festival courtesy of suddenlink communications: the festival portion of the day will conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by greene whose national bestseller the elegant universe sold more than a million copies and became an emmy and peabody award-winning nova special that paved the way for his revolutionary career in science communications as a bonus feature to this years festival directly tied to greene the department of physics and astronomy is teaming up with the brazos valley symphony orchestra to present greenes illustrated novella icarus at the edge of time the mesmerizing tale narrated by greene will mark the grand finale in a broader once-in-a-lifetime production in a galaxy far far away set for 7:30 pm at rudder auditorium tickets which range from $39 for general admission or $13 for students are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 a number of free tickets will be made available to festival participants with details soon to come via the festival website world-famous string theorist and author brian greene will headline the 2015 physics & engineering festival on saturday march 28 and also narrate icarus at the edge of time as part of the brazos valley symphony orchestras 7:30 pm special performance of in a galaxy far far away 2015 physics poster all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant and hosted by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of chemistry mathematics and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history in addition bb&t (branch banking and trust) corporation has provided generous support to help underwrite greenes visit texas a&ms event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival as well as a member of the science festival alliance for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please all ages and interest levels see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu click here to read a related q&a with brian greene by houston chronicle science writer eric berger -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university astronomers are among the hundreds of scientists worldwide celebrating the first fruits from the dark energy survey (des) a five-year global effort to map the southern sky in unprecedented detail with the ultimate goal of explaining the universes accelerating expansion earlier today (march 10) the us department of energy-funded des collaboration unveiled three papers announcing two different discoveries two of these papers originate from different continents and detail rare dwarf satellite galaxy candidates while a third reports no detectable signal of dark matter the common thread each hinges on the researchers use of publically available data taken during the surveys first year as the crux of its analysis dr darren depoy louis strigari the galaxies discovery is fairly exciting especially since it comes after only about 20 percent of dark energy survey data has been obtained meaning that more of these are likely to be detected in the next few years said texas a&m astronomer darren depoy deputy director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory as well as project scientist for the surveys primary instrument the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) these are also the places in the universe with the highest dark-matter density which makes them good places for further investigation texas a&m astronomer louis strigari a member of the mitchell institute and the department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2014 is among the lead authors of a joint des/fermi large area telescope (lat) mission-driven study indicating no significant excess of gamma-ray emission associated with the new survey objects thereby implying no hints for new physics in the form of particle dark matter even though no signal was reported strigari notes this joint study demonstrates that new astronomical discoveries from optical telescopes can be quickly translated into tests of fundamental physics understanding how these dwarf galaxies came to be is a mystery that theorists are trying to solve strigari said independently these galaxies have proven to be invaluable targets in the search for new physics in the form of particle dark matter the fermilab paper submitted to arxiv on march 9 also includes depoy and fellow munnerlyn lab members jennifer marshall and ting li one of six graduate students to be awarded des builder status across the nearly 500-member international collaboration depoy and marshall hold the distinction as well which entitles each to be listed as authors on every des collaboration-related paper released its a coveted status bestowed in recognition of tings tremendous contributions to enabling the dark energy survey to be executed depoy said depoy and strigari note that one of the main science drivers for another of the major international collaborations in which they are involved the giant magellan telescope is to look at these sorts of objects and to study the distribution of dark matter in them using future instruments they plan to build within the munnerlyn lab with future gmt observations of the faint stars that comprise these dwarf galaxies texas a&m is poised to make important contributions to these exciting areas of astronomy and high-energy physics strigari said the dark energy survey collaboration involves 25 institutions in six countries and spans the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers as to why and how the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate for background information about the survey and its latest results visit the official des website click here to read more on all three discoveries and get links to each paper for additional information about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu; or dr louis strigari (979) 845-7746 or strigari@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomers celebrate first papers from dark energy survey data appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university astronomers are among the hundreds of scientists worldwide celebrating the first fruits from the dark energy survey (des) a five-year global effort to map the southern sky in unprecedented detail with the ultimate goal of explaining the universes accelerating expansion earlier today (march 10) the us department of energy-funded des collaboration unveiled three papers announcing two different discoveries two of these papers originate from different continents and detail rare dwarf satellite galaxy candidates while a third reports no detectable signal of dark matter the common thread each hinges on the researchers use of publically available data taken during the surveys first year as the crux of its analysis dr darren depoy louis strigari the galaxies discovery is fairly exciting especially since it comes after only about 20 percent of dark energy survey data has been obtained meaning that more of these are likely to be detected in the next few years said texas a&m astronomer darren depoy deputy director of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and director of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory as well as project scientist for the surveys primary instrument the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) these are also the places in the universe with the highest dark-matter density which makes them good places for further investigation texas a&m astronomer louis strigari a member of the mitchell institute and the department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2014 is among the lead authors of a joint des/fermi large area telescope (lat) mission-driven study indicating no significant excess of gamma-ray emission associated with the new survey objects thereby implying no hints for new physics in the form of particle dark matter even though no signal was reported strigari notes this joint study demonstrates that new astronomical discoveries from optical telescopes can be quickly translated into tests of fundamental physics understanding how these dwarf galaxies came to be is a mystery that theorists are trying to solve strigari said independently these galaxies have proven to be invaluable targets in the search for new physics in the form of particle dark matter the fermilab paper submitted to arxiv on march 9 also includes depoy and fellow munnerlyn lab members jennifer marshall and ting li one of six graduate students to be awarded des builder status across the nearly 500-member international collaboration depoy and marshall hold the distinction as well which entitles each to be listed as authors on every des collaboration-related paper released its a coveted status bestowed in recognition of tings tremendous contributions to enabling the dark energy survey to be executed depoy said depoy and strigari note that one of the main science drivers for another of the major international collaborations in which they are involved the giant magellan telescope is to look at these sorts of objects and to study the distribution of dark matter in them using future instruments they plan to build within the munnerlyn lab with future gmt observations of the faint stars that comprise these dwarf galaxies texas a&m is poised to make important contributions to these exciting areas of astronomy and high-energy physics strigari said the dark energy survey collaboration involves 25 institutions in six countries and spans the gamut of science and engineering in the search for answers as to why and how the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate for background information about the survey and its latest results visit the official des website click here to read more on all three discoveries and get links to each paper for additional information about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu; or dr louis strigari (979) 845-7746 or strigari@physicstamuedu " " college station the texas a&m university system board of regents has authorized the execution of an amended and restated founders agreement and commitment agreement with the gmto corporation reaffirming texas a&m universitys support to assist in building the giant magellan telescope (gmt) and helping to pave the way for construction to begin in chile later this spring this investment ensures that texas a&m astronomers play key roles in breakthrough discoveries that will redefine the fields of astronomy and astrophysics said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m system support for this important endeavor gives us a major boost toward establishing texas a&m as a top institution in national and international astronomical research and instrumentation the gmt set for construction at the las campanas observatory site in the atacama desert in northern chile will be a member of the next class of super giant earth-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe when completed the 25-meter colossus will feature 10 times the resolving power of nasas hubble space telescope and more than six times the light-gathering area of the largest telescopes in existence today this a major scientific step forward for us and eventually for mankind as we seek to learn more about the vast universe in which we live said texas a&m interim president mark a hussey in taking this big next step we are ever mindful of the support that the late george p mitchell and his family gave texas a&m in this ambitious endeavor and we continue to marvel at his visionary efforts on all fronts also we are especially pleased to move forward with this commitment at a time when we have as one of our texas a&m university institute for advanced study faculty fellows dr ed moses who serves as president of the giant magellan telescope organization the giant magellan telescope against the southern milky way as it will appear when completed early next decade (credit: todd mason/mason productions and gmto corporation) artists renderings showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities by day (above) and by night (below) at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) australian national university astronomer brian schmidt co-recipient of the 2011 nobel prize in physics describes the gmt as predicated on modern technology merging lasers with an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light instruments being built at texas a&m whereas hubbles primary mirror is eight feet in diameter the gmts will measure more than 80 feet at 10 times the diameter of the hubble it also will make images of things such as distant planets transiting in front of stars 10 times as sharp when completed the gmts enclosure will stand 22 stories tall and encompass an area the size of three football fields thanks in part to our contributions the gmt will be the first of the next generation of extremely large telescopes enabling texas a&m to help lead the future development of astrophysics said dr darren depoy a texas a&m astronomer since 2008 and one of texas a&ms representatives on the gmt board of directors along with dean of science h joseph newton the vote affirms our commitment to the gmt which will secure the future of astronomy at texas a&m armed with the gmts unparalleled insights into optical and infrared astronomy not possible using current technology scientists hope to unravel new details about the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy by using the gmt as a time machine to peer back into the cosmos to detect the origins of the very first stars and galaxies with the commitment by the board of regents we are fulfilling the legacy of george mitchell whose generous support in the earliest stages of the telescope project allowed the gmt to move forward said dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program since 2006 it was the vision of mr mitchell and his family that astronomy would come to texas a&m university and our partnership in this project one of the largest telescopes in the world assures the future of texas a&m as one of the premiere institutions in astronomical research this is a big day for astronomy at texas a&m! the gmt is expected to unlock the secrets of the very early universe the first stars galaxies and black holes that formed and to give perhaps the first definitive answer as to whether or not there is life beyond earth because it will be located in one the highest and driest locations on earth the gmt will offer spectacular observing conditions for more than 300 nights a year the a&m systems board of regents vote will enable texas a&m scientists to lead exciting projects like the characterization of the first galaxies to form and measurements of atmospheres of planets around other stars depoy said because we have also been selected to lead the construction of key initial instruments for the telescope we will have the opportunity to be among the first to use the massive telescope for science ensuring that the texas a&m astronomy program will be among the worlds finest the bulk of texas a&ms gmt-related funds to date $161 million has been provided by 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchell 40 arguably one of the earliest and most enthusiastic driving forces behind the gmt during its first decade mitchell has committed a total of $3325 million thus far to the transformational project in combination with his wife cynthia woods mitchell and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation beyond the couples $125 lead gift in 2004 that established texas a&m as a founding partner that total includes $500 000 toward first-mirror polishing an additional $15 million in 2006 another $5 million in 2010 and most recently in 2011 a $25 million gift credited equally to texas a&m and to the carnegie institution for science in recognition of the mitchells visionary support the gmts first two mirrors known as gmt1 and gmt2 and currently packaged at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab in preparation for eventual transport to chile are named for george p and cynthia woods mitchell respectively i know that mr mitchell would be thrilled with texas a&ms commitment said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science and inaugural holder the george p mitchell 40 chair in statistics i am so pleased that the partnership of such a man of vision with his beloved texas a&m will lead in a few years to the greatest viewing instrument ever dreamed of by mankind in addition to texas a&m founding partners in the international consortium managed by the non-profit gmto organization (gmto) include astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution the university of arizona the university of chicago the university of texas at austin and the universidad de s√£o paulo to date more than $500 million has been raised in support of the gmt including most recently in december a $20 million gift from interface inc founder and chairman richard caris to support arizonas participation preparations currently are underway for the gmts fourth primary mirror casting set for later this spring at arizonas steward mirror lab an important milestone that will render the telescope operational if needed thanks to flexibility in its design that will allow for it to function even as the rest of the mirrors still are being fabricated for more information on the gmt or the upcoming mirror casting event go to http://gmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy or the groups participation in the gmt or other international projects visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m reaffirms support to help build giant magellan telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the texas a&m university system board of regents has authorized the execution of an amended and restated founders agreement and commitment agreement with the gmto corporation reaffirming texas a&m universitys support to assist in building the giant magellan telescope (gmt) and helping to pave the way for construction to begin in chile later this spring this investment ensures that texas a&m astronomers play key roles in breakthrough discoveries that will redefine the fields of astronomy and astrophysics said john sharp chancellor of the texas a&m system support for this important endeavor gives us a major boost toward establishing texas a&m as a top institution in national and international astronomical research and instrumentation the gmt set for construction at the las campanas observatory site in the atacama desert in northern chile will be a member of the next class of super giant earth-based telescopes that promises to revolutionize our view and understanding of the universe when completed the 25-meter colossus will feature 10 times the resolving power of nasas hubble space telescope and more than six times the light-gathering area of the largest telescopes in existence today this a major scientific step forward for us and eventually for mankind as we seek to learn more about the vast universe in which we live said texas a&m interim president mark a hussey in taking this big next step we are ever mindful of the support that the late george p mitchell and his family gave texas a&m in this ambitious endeavor and we continue to marvel at his visionary efforts on all fronts also we are especially pleased to move forward with this commitment at a time when we have as one of our texas a&m university institute for advanced study faculty fellows dr ed moses who serves as president of the giant magellan telescope organization the giant magellan telescope against the southern milky way as it will appear when completed early next decade (credit: todd mason/mason productions and gmto corporation) artists renderings showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities by day (above) and by night (below) at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) australian national university astronomer brian schmidt co-recipient of the 2011 nobel prize in physics describes the gmt as predicated on modern technology merging lasers with an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light instruments being built at texas a&m whereas hubbles primary mirror is eight feet in diameter the gmts will measure more than 80 feet at 10 times the diameter of the hubble it also will make images of things such as distant planets transiting in front of stars 10 times as sharp when completed the gmts enclosure will stand 22 stories tall and encompass an area the size of three football fields thanks in part to our contributions the gmt will be the first of the next generation of extremely large telescopes enabling texas a&m to help lead the future development of astrophysics said dr darren depoy a texas a&m astronomer since 2008 and one of texas a&ms representatives on the gmt board of directors along with dean of science h joseph newton the vote affirms our commitment to the gmt which will secure the future of astronomy at texas a&m armed with the gmts unparalleled insights into optical and infrared astronomy not possible using current technology scientists hope to unravel new details about the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy by using the gmt as a time machine to peer back into the cosmos to detect the origins of the very first stars and galaxies with the commitment by the board of regents we are fulfilling the legacy of george mitchell whose generous support in the earliest stages of the telescope project allowed the gmt to move forward said dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program since 2006 it was the vision of mr mitchell and his family that astronomy would come to texas a&m university and our partnership in this project one of the largest telescopes in the world assures the future of texas a&m as one of the premiere institutions in astronomical research this is a big day for astronomy at texas a&m! the gmt is expected to unlock the secrets of the very early universe the first stars galaxies and black holes that formed and to give perhaps the first definitive answer as to whether or not there is life beyond earth because it will be located in one the highest and driest locations on earth the gmt will offer spectacular observing conditions for more than 300 nights a year the a&m systems board of regents vote will enable texas a&m scientists to lead exciting projects like the characterization of the first galaxies to form and measurements of atmospheres of planets around other stars depoy said because we have also been selected to lead the construction of key initial instruments for the telescope we will have the opportunity to be among the first to use the massive telescope for science ensuring that the texas a&m astronomy program will be among the worlds finest the bulk of texas a&ms gmt-related funds to date $161 million has been provided by 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchell 40 arguably one of the earliest and most enthusiastic driving forces behind the gmt during its first decade mitchell has committed a total of $3325 million thus far to the transformational project in combination with his wife cynthia woods mitchell and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation beyond the couples $125 lead gift in 2004 that established texas a&m as a founding partner that total includes $500 000 toward first-mirror polishing an additional $15 million in 2006 another $5 million in 2010 and most recently in 2011 a $25 million gift credited equally to texas a&m and to the carnegie institution for science in recognition of the mitchells visionary support the gmts first two mirrors known as gmt1 and gmt2 and currently packaged at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab in preparation for eventual transport to chile are named for george p and cynthia woods mitchell respectively i know that mr mitchell would be thrilled with texas a&ms commitment said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science and inaugural holder the george p mitchell 40 chair in statistics i am so pleased that the partnership of such a man of vision with his beloved texas a&m will lead in a few years to the greatest viewing instrument ever dreamed of by mankind in addition to texas a&m founding partners in the international consortium managed by the non-profit gmto organization (gmto) include astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution the university of arizona the university of chicago the university of texas at austin and the universidad de s√£o paulo to date more than $500 million has been raised in support of the gmt including most recently in december a $20 million gift from interface inc founder and chairman richard caris to support arizonas participation preparations currently are underway for the gmts fourth primary mirror casting set for later this spring at arizonas steward mirror lab an important milestone that will render the telescope operational if needed thanks to flexibility in its design that will allow for it to function even as the rest of the mirrors still are being fabricated for more information on the gmt or the upcoming mirror casting event go to http://gmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy or the groups participation in the gmt or other international projects visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $820 million in fy 2013 ranking texas a&m in the top 20 of the national science foundations most recent survey of research and development expenditures among us colleges and universities recently reported fy 2014 research expenditures exceed $854 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " college station when it comes to sure signs that spring has arrived in aggieland there are budding bradford pears bluebonnets monarch butterflies and texas a&m universitys annual physics and engineering festival although the 2015 version of the free annual event (view promotional poster online) is still more than a month away officials encourage the public to plan early for increasingly popular daylong educational extravaganza set for saturday march 28 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by world-renowned string theorist and author dr brian greene whose national bestseller the elegant universe sold more than a million copies and became an emmy and peabody award-winning nova special that paved the way for his revolutionary career in science communications world-famous string theorist and author brian greene will deliver the festivals 4 pm keynote public lecture and also narrate icarus at the edge of time as part of the brazos valley symphony orchestras 7:30 pm special performance of in a galaxy far far away make a date for free family fun and experience the many wonders of science and technology at the 2015 physics and engineering festival set for saturday march 28 from 10 am to 5 pm at texas a&m university! as a bonus feature to this years festival directly tied to greene the department of physics and astronomy is teaming up with the brazos valley symphony orchestra to present greenes illustrated novella icarus at the edge of time the mesmerizing tale narrated by greene will mark the grand finale in a broader once-in-a-lifetime production in a galaxy far far away set for 7:30 pm at rudder auditorium tickets which range from $39 for general admission or $13 for students are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 a number of free tickets will be made available to festival participants with details soon to come via the festival website all events are hosted by the department of physics and astronomy and the department of aerospace engineering in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of chemistry mathematics and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history throughout the day festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students for the third consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program hundreds of deep students undergraduate and graduate have been involved in creating the new demos during the years and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman keith johnson whose work has been featured on the discovery channel and in usa today and real simple family attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr david m lee and dr dudley r herschbach as well as nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station who in 2011 performed the final spacewalk of the overall space shuttle program in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 4 pm greene will deliver a keynote presentation dreams of a unified theory: einstein and beyond that examines the work on legendary physicist albert einstein specifically his dreams of a single theory perhaps encapsulated by a single mathematical equation capable of explaining all of natures forces greene will take the audience on a whirlwind journey across 300 years of thinking from state-of-the-art to the frontiers of physics in a thought-provoking probe of the deepest laws that govern our universe prior to saturdays events eric berger science writer for the houston chronicle will deliver a free public lecture adrift: does america have a future in space on friday (march 27) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which berger will discuss his insight gained during the past year in which he worked on a special seven-part series adrift addressing the state of americas space program berger author of the popular sciguy blog since 2005 and a pulitzer prize finalist in 2009 will touch on myriad related subjects from the collapse of the constellation program and shifting white house priorities to the promise of private space companies and ultimately houstons fate as space city all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science in addition bb&t (branch banking and trust) corporation has provided generous support to help underwrite greenes visit the event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival as well as a member of the science festival alliance for the latest details regarding the 2015 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a recap video from the 2014 physics & engineering festival on youtube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for march 28 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " when it comes to sure signs that spring has arrived in aggieland there are budding bradford pears bluebonnets monarch butterflies and texas a&m universitys annual physics and engineering festival although the 2015 version of the free annual event (view promotional poster online) is still more than a month away officials encourage the public to plan early for increasingly popular daylong educational extravaganza set for saturday march 28 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by world-renowned string theorist and author dr brian greene whose national bestseller the elegant universe sold more than a million copies and became an emmy and peabody award-winning nova special that paved the way for his revolutionary career in science communications world-famous string theorist and author brian greene will deliver the festivals 4 pm keynote public lecture and also narrate icarus at the edge of time as part of the brazos valley symphony orchestras 7:30 pm special performance of in a galaxy far far away make a date for free family fun and experience the many wonders of science and technology at the 2015 physics and engineering festival set for saturday march 28 from 10 am to 5 pm at texas a&m university! as a bonus feature to this years festival directly tied to greene the department of physics and astronomy is teaming up with the brazos valley symphony orchestra to present greenes illustrated novella icarus at the edge of time the mesmerizing tale narrated by greene will mark the grand finale in a broader once-in-a-lifetime production in a galaxy far far away set for 7:30 pm at rudder auditorium tickets which range from $39 for general admission or $13 for students are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 a number of free tickets will be made available to festival participants with details soon to come via the festival website all events are hosted by the department of physics and astronomy and the department of aerospace engineering in partnership with several other campus units including the departments of chemistry mathematics and atmospheric sciences as well as the brazos valley museum of natural history throughout the day festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students for the third consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program hundreds of deep students undergraduate and graduate have been involved in creating the new demos during the years and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman keith johnson whose work has been featured on the discovery channel and in usa today and real simple family attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr david m lee and dr dudley r herschbach as well as nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station who in 2011 performed the final spacewalk of the overall space shuttle program in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 4 pm greene will deliver a keynote presentation dreams of a unified theory: einstein and beyond that examines the work on legendary physicist albert einstein specifically his dreams of a single theory perhaps encapsulated by a single mathematical equation capable of explaining all of natures forces greene will take the audience on a whirlwind journey across 300 years of thinking from state-of-the-art to the frontiers of physics in a thought-provoking probe of the deepest laws that govern our universe prior to saturdays events eric berger science writer for the houston chronicle will deliver a free public lecture adrift: does america have a future in space on friday (march 27) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which berger will discuss his insight gained during the past year in which he worked on a special seven-part series adrift addressing the state of americas space program berger author of the popular sciguy blog since 2005 and a pulitzer prize finalist in 2009 will touch on myriad related subjects from the collapse of the constellation program and shifting white house priorities to the promise of private space companies and ultimately houstons fate as space city all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science in addition bb&t (branch banking and trust) corporation has provided generous support to help underwrite greenes visit the event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival as well as a member of the science festival alliance for the latest details regarding the 2015 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a recap video from the 2014 physics & engineering festival on youtube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova (979) 845-5644 or etanya@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university has been selected for membership in the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) the prestigious international organization dedicated to the advancement of astronomy and related sciences texas a&m has been admitted for a three-year term through june 30 2017 as the 40th united states member of the global consortium founded in 1957 with the encouragement of the national science foundation to create astronomical observing facilities and to make them available to all qualified researchers from us institutions and universities on the basis of scientific merit university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy nicholas b suntzeff spent 20 years at one such facility the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile prior to coming to texas a&m in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program suntzeff who will serve as texas a&ms designated aura representative says he has watched the consortium progress with time to include the most important astronomy research institutions in the country and also play a significant role in its related policy decisions aura has evolved from an organization that runs the national optical astronomy observatory gemini observatory national solar observatory and the space telescope science institute to an organization that has become the de facto voice for united states astronomy outside of the american astronomical society suntzeff said having a seat at their table is a step toward texas a&m having a stronger voice in us astronomical policy issues texas a&m astronomers nicholas suntzeff lucas macri and lifan wang have been part of auras large synoptic survey telescope since the projects inception the lsst will carry out a deep 10-year imaging survey in six broad optical bands encompassing a main survey area of 18 000 square degrees (credit: todd mason mason productions inc / lsst corporation) in addition to the gmt and lsst texas a&m is part of the department of energy-funded dark energy survey pictured above is one of the first official images a zoomed-in look at the barred spiral galaxy ngc 1365 in the fornax cluster of galaxies about 60 million light-years from earth captured in september 2013 using the worlds most powerful digital camera the 570-megapixel dark energy camera for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as project scientist (credit: dark energy survey collaboration) for texas a&m the move marks another important milestone in a veritable scientific renaissance that began in 2002 with 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchells $1 million gift to establish the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy thirteen years more than $88 million and two new buildings later texas a&m boasts a well-respected astronomy program built on strong research innovative teaching and state-of-the-art instrumentation construction aura officials specifically cited the texas a&m programs strength and commitment to the future as primary factors in reaching their decision it is our mission to advance astronomy and related sciences to articulate policy and respond to the priorities of the astronomical community and to enhance the public understanding of science said aura president william s smith jr 69 who earned both a bachelors degree and a phd in chemistry from texas a&m we do this by developing and operating national and international centers that enable merit-based research by members of the astronomical community i believe and trust that texas a&m university and aura have many goals and objectives in common in addition to nine research faculty and staff the texas a&m astronomy program features a growing graduate program as well as first-rate instrumentation capabilities within its the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory texas a&m astronomers are involved in several international research collaborations including the aura-managed large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) the dark energy survey (des) the giant magellan telescope (gmt) and the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) as well as astronomy at the antarctic plateau global projects and prospects aside texas a&ms admission into aura represents an interesting twist of fate for an institution more familiar with being on the decision-making end of the narrative particularly at a time when social media threads are filled with similarly celebratory announcements from newly minted #tamu19 members posing with their official texas a&m acceptance letters suntzeff says the timing couldnt be better given that undergraduates have the opportunity as of last fall to minor in astrophysics a track featuring some classes being taught for the first time in aggieland current offerings include upper-level courses on astronomical data-taking and analysis (astr 320) the physics of galaxies and the universe/cosmology (astr 403) and the physics of stars and extrasolar system planets (astr 401) we are so delighted to have our astronomy program selected to join this distinguished organization said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science it is a testament to the vision and hard work of all the people who have created and grown the program and in particular to a remarkable group of astronomers who took a chance and decided to call texas a&m their home for additional information about aura visit http://wwwaura-astronomyorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post texas a&m selected to association of universities for research in astronomy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university has been selected for membership in the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) the prestigious international organization dedicated to the advancement of astronomy and related sciences texas a&m has been admitted for a three-year term through june 30 2017 as the 40th united states member of the global consortium founded in 1957 with the encouragement of the national science foundation to create astronomical observing facilities and to make them available to all qualified researchers from us institutions and universities on the basis of scientific merit university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy nicholas b suntzeff spent 20 years at one such facility the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile prior to coming to texas a&m in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program suntzeff who will serve as texas a&ms designated aura representative says he has watched the consortium progress with time to include the most important astronomy research institutions in the country and also play a significant role in its related policy decisions aura has evolved from an organization that runs the national optical astronomy observatory gemini observatory national solar observatory and the space telescope science institute to an organization that has become the de facto voice for united states astronomy outside of the american astronomical society suntzeff said having a seat at their table is a step toward texas a&m having a stronger voice in us astronomical policy issues texas a&m astronomers nicholas suntzeff lucas macri and lifan wang have been part of auras large synoptic survey telescope since the projects inception the lsst will carry out a deep 10-year imaging survey in six broad optical bands encompassing a main survey area of 18 000 square degrees (credit: todd mason mason productions inc / lsst corporation) in addition to the gmt and lsst texas a&m is part of the department of energy-funded dark energy survey pictured above is one of the first official images a zoomed-in look at the barred spiral galaxy ngc 1365 in the fornax cluster of galaxies about 60 million light-years from earth captured in september 2013 using the worlds most powerful digital camera the 570-megapixel dark energy camera for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as project scientist (credit: dark energy survey collaboration) for texas a&m the move marks another important milestone in a veritable scientific renaissance that began in 2002 with 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate george p mitchells $1 million gift to establish the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy thirteen years more than $88 million and two new buildings later texas a&m boasts a well-respected astronomy program built on strong research innovative teaching and state-of-the-art instrumentation construction aura officials specifically cited the texas a&m programs strength and commitment to the future as primary factors in reaching their decision it is our mission to advance astronomy and related sciences to articulate policy and respond to the priorities of the astronomical community and to enhance the public understanding of science said aura president william s smith jr 69 who earned both a bachelors degree and a phd in chemistry from texas a&m we do this by developing and operating national and international centers that enable merit-based research by members of the astronomical community i believe and trust that texas a&m university and aura have many goals and objectives in common in addition to nine research faculty and staff the texas a&m astronomy program features a growing graduate program as well as first-rate instrumentation capabilities within its the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory texas a&m astronomers are involved in several international research collaborations including the aura-managed large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) the dark energy survey (des) the giant magellan telescope (gmt) and the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) as well as astronomy at the antarctic plateau global projects and prospects aside texas a&ms admission into aura represents an interesting twist of fate for an institution more familiar with being on the decision-making end of the narrative particularly at a time when social media threads are filled with similarly celebratory announcements from newly minted #tamu19 members posing with their official texas a&m acceptance letters suntzeff says the timing couldnt be better given that undergraduates have the opportunity as of last fall to minor in astrophysics a track featuring some classes being taught for the first time in aggieland current offerings include upper-level courses on astronomical data-taking and analysis (astr 320) the physics of galaxies and the universe/cosmology (astr 403) and the physics of stars and extrasolar system planets (astr 401) we are so delighted to have our astronomy program selected to join this distinguished organization said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science it is a testament to the vision and hard work of all the people who have created and grown the program and in particular to a remarkable group of astronomers who took a chance and decided to call texas a&m their home for additional information about aura visit http://wwwaura-astronomyorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " the stars have never been closer to texas as 2014s final months brought the worlds largest telescope to the threshold of construction the giant magellan telescope will be 10 times stronger than the hubble space telescope when it sees first light in 2021 surpassing any previous observatory texas a&m and the university of texas are two of 11 international partners who hope to start construction in the chilean desert before summer a goal nearly realized over the past six months with millions in donations a hiring spree and infrastructure development the gmts latest contribution came from the university of arizona which received a $20 million gift from entrepreneur richard caris on dec 15 toward the project caris is founder and chairman of interface inc a tech company that designs load cells commonly used in the oil industry buell jannuzi director of the university of arizonas steward observatory said caris gift brought arizonas total contribution close to $35 million he said arizona is committed to raise $60 million toward the gmt but hopes to eventually double that figure texas a&m and ut austin have raised $281 and $50 million respectively as of september a gmt partners financial contribution ensures viewing rights on the telescope when it comes online in 2021 a distinction both texas universities said will ensure their astronomy departments remain competitive on the global stage darren depoy physics professor and member of gmts board of directors said texas a&m is closing in on the second half of its planned $50 million contribution an a&m board of regents meeting scheduled for feb 12 will hear a breakdown of how a&m plans to finance the telescope commitment i approve of the commitment funding schedule dean newton does our understanding is both the provost and the president provost watson and president hussey approve of the documents and would like to sign them depoy said caris winter donation capped a six-month funding windfall that has pushed the gmt close to a formal construction announcement said patrick mccarthy gmt director several of the gmts other partners were also able to raise their contributions bringing the telescopes total commitment to approximately $500 million our first [funding] target the one thats critical towards building the telescope and building the whole facility the partners and the board are essentially on the threshold of that target mccarthy said while a formal construction announcement is not expected for a few months preparation has already begun to transform part of the chilean mountainside into an observatory the sites remote location requires the gmt organization to build everything necessary to sustain a billion-dollar construction site housing and support structures for the 200 to 250 workers expected to build the telescope are under construction as well as power lines and roads were establishing our beachhead on the mountain to begin the construction process sometime in this calendar year mccarthy said the gmt organization itself is expanding mccarthy said the staff will grow from about 50 people to around 150 engineers scientists and administrators who will take the telescope through construction and beyond and the gmts fourth monolithic mirror will begin its glass melt phase in late march the gmts optical surface will eventually consist of seven 8-meter diameter mirrors but its design can work with just four a trait that might hasten its title as worlds largest the fourth mirror is important because that really gets us to a place where we will have undisputedly the largest telescope on the planet mccarthy said we can make the telescope work with only four mirrors if we needed to while we continue to make the rest of the mirrors so we see it as an important milestone share: " " college station in addition to a world-class astronomy program texas a&m university is home to one of the top three college astronomy observatories in the nation according to the website college rank the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory is ranked no 3 in a recent survey of the 25 best college astronomy observatories by collegeranknet a michigan-based web entity seeking to cut through the noise of online college-related information by highlighting and wherever possible ranking every aspect of what different colleges have to offer in hopes of giving prospective students a more holistic understanding of their many higher-education options we beat out many established names in astronomy programs at other universities said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and head of the texas a&m astronomy program of course it is don carona who should be named no 3 considering the observatory only exists in its present form because of his dedicated work don w carona observatory looking through telescopes since 2005 carona has served as the first and only manager of the texas a&m observatory a key part of the universitys internationally known astronomy program under his leadership the observatory has become a premier teaching resource the facility features a 60-seat classroom a 16-inch telescope housed under an 18-foot hydraulically operated dome a robotic observatory with a 20-inch telescope that can be controlled remotely via the internet and a student observing deck that supports 16 telescope piers for 8-inch student telescopes used in various astronomy classes as well as public outreach events as i understand the premise the observatories were selected based first on their devotion to astronomy teaching outreach and/or research and second on their architectural uniqueness compared to other facilities carona said a number of the college observatories have fashioned their programs after ours likewise several observatories in the public and private sectors have used modifications of our plans to build their facilities therefore i assume that someone involved in this process may have had some existing and historical knowledge of our program in addition to teaching and service observatory resources figure big in several international research collaborations including the dark energy survey and decam the giant magellan telescope the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) and the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) carona also currently is working with texas a&m astronomer lifan wang and his graduate student fedja kadribasic on a polarimeter project using small optics not only is the facility used as a student observatory for undergraduate classes but graduate students also use the telescope as an optical platform to debug instrumentation with dons help suntzeff said star parties are held there which attract significant public interest don also has reached out to the amateur astronomy clubs who hold meetings there vital networking and support given that the amateur astronomy community is quite large across the brazos valley and well connected with area schools and the general public carona was instrumental in getting the facility upgraded in 2002 from the one he initially voluntarily ran on a contract-employee basis in his spare time after hours and on weekends while moonlighting from his then-full-time job as a programmer with cis he designed and monitored the construction which was completed in 2003 then signed on full time shortly thereafter the excellence of the observatory is due to one man don carona who by his dedication and skill has built what is now a nationally recognized student observatory suntzeff said and he has done this on a very tight budget getting contractors to build at-cost engineers to donate time to fix astronomical equipment architects to donate plans and much more as a veteran it person here at texas a&m in his previous job he has also set up a mac-based astronomical computer lab at the observatory he is one of the many aggie staff we have who goes way beyond an 8-to-5 job and adds passion to his work that is contagious among fellow staff professors and students beyond his day-to-day management responsibilities carona says he is attempting to secure funding for an expansion to the observatorys current facilities that will include a new student observing deck and a home for an historic boller & chivens mount gifted by kitt peak national observatory the national optical astronomy observatory and the national science foundation to see the complete survey go to http://wwwcollegeranknet/amazing-college-observatories/ for additional information about the observatory visit http://observatorytamuedu/ or http://astronomytamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu; or don w carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu the post texas a&m observatory ranked third-best in nation appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " in addition to a world-class astronomy program texas a&m university is home to one of the top three college astronomy observatories in the nation according to the website college rank the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory is ranked no 3 in a recent survey of the 25 best college astronomy observatories by collegeranknet a michigan-based web entity seeking to cut through the noise of online college-related information by highlighting and wherever possible ranking every aspect of what different colleges have to offer in hopes of giving prospective students a more holistic understanding of their many higher-education options we beat out many established names in astronomy programs at other universities said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and head of the texas a&m astronomy program of course it is don carona who should be named no 3 considering the observatory only exists in its present form because of his dedicated work don w carona observatory looking through telescopes since 2005 carona has served as the first and only manager of the texas a&m observatory a key part of the universitys internationally known astronomy program under his leadership the observatory has become a premier teaching resource the facility features a 60-seat classroom a 16-inch telescope housed under an 18-foot hydraulically operated dome a robotic observatory with a 20-inch telescope that can be controlled remotely via the internet and a student observing deck that supports 16 telescope piers for 8-inch student telescopes used in various astronomy classes as well as public outreach events as i understand the premise the observatories were selected based first on their devotion to astronomy teaching outreach and/or research and second on their architectural uniqueness compared to other facilities carona said a number of the college observatories have fashioned their programs after ours likewise several observatories in the public and private sectors have used modifications of our plans to build their facilities therefore i assume that someone involved in this process may have had some existing and historical knowledge of our program in addition to teaching and service observatory resources figure big in several international research collaborations including the dark energy survey and decam the giant magellan telescope the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) and the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) carona also currently is working with texas a&m astronomer lifan wang and his graduate student fedja kadribasic on a polarimeter project using small optics not only is the facility used as a student observatory for undergraduate classes but graduate students also use the telescope as an optical platform to debug instrumentation with dons help suntzeff said star parties are held there which attract significant public interest don also has reached out to the amateur astronomy clubs who hold meetings there vital networking and support given that the amateur astronomy community is quite large across the brazos valley and well connected with area schools and the general public carona was instrumental in getting the facility upgraded in 2002 from the one he initially voluntarily ran on a contract-employee basis in his spare time after hours and on weekends while moonlighting from his then-full-time job as a programmer with cis he designed and monitored the construction which was completed in 2003 then signed on full time shortly thereafter the excellence of the observatory is due to one man don carona who by his dedication and skill has built what is now a nationally recognized student observatory suntzeff said and he has done this on a very tight budget getting contractors to build at-cost engineers to donate time to fix astronomical equipment architects to donate plans and much more as a veteran it person here at texas a&m in his previous job he has also set up a mac-based astronomical computer lab at the observatory he is one of the many aggie staff we have who goes way beyond an 8-to-5 job and adds passion to his work that is contagious among fellow staff professors and students beyond his day-to-day management responsibilities carona says he is attempting to secure funding for an expansion to the observatorys current facilities that will include a new student observing deck and a home for an historic boller & chivens mount gifted by kitt peak national observatory the national optical astronomy observatory and the national science foundation to see the complete survey go to http://wwwcollegeranknet/amazing-college-observatories/ for additional information about the observatory visit http://observatorytamuedu/ or http://astronomytamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu; or don w carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu " " college station three texas a&m university astronomers have their sights set on new astrophysical insights involving the milky way galaxy and beyond thanks to the help of recent grants from the national science foundation jennifer marshall casey papovich and kim-vy tran each led proposals selected for funding as part of the latest round of awards announced earlier this fall by the nsf division of astronomical sciences (ast) each is serving as a principal investigator for three of the 97 total projects funded from the more than 600 that were received according to ast officials in a year in which the nsf itself acknowledged an exceptionally tight funding situation particularly for astronomy ast officials note the funding rate was only 16 percent per submitted project and 17 percent per submitted proposal both rates are roughly two percentage points higher than those of fy 2013 a year in which a fourth texas a&m astronomer lucas macri was selected to receive funding the over-subscription the past few years has and continues to be truly mind-boggling tran said its no secret that nsf funding for astronomy is particularly competitive and the fact that three separate research proposals by three principal investigators in our relatively small astronomy group were awarded in the same year is absolutely amazing! in addition to being fellow members of george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy all four astronomers came to texas a&m during the 2008-09 academic year as part of the universitys previous faculty reinvestment program initiated by former texas a&m president dr robert m gates in only eight years here at texas a&m we have been able to recruit among the best young astronomers in the world as shown by their success in competing for research grants from the national science foundation said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program there are many reasons why such good astronomers want to come to texas a&m a great university great undergraduate and graduate students generous support from the college of science and especially the support of george mitchell and his family who have donated money toward two buildings numerous endowed chairs and professorships and to create the mitchell institute where the daily interaction of physicists and astronomers in fundamental physics has produced an exciting environment to study the universe thanks to national science foundation funding texas a&m astronomers are pushing the universal envelope in a variety of topical areas from star composition and stellar birthrates to galaxy formation and merger history while exposing graduate and undergraduate students to cutting-edge research projects and invaluable training opportunities in a wide range of observational techniques (credit: nasa esa and the hubble heritage team (stsci/aura)-esa/hubble collaboration) jennifer marshall marshalls $250 000 project seeks to measure the composition of m dwarf stars the most numerous type of star in our milky way galaxy and yet the least understood because they are so faint and complex her work focuses on perfecting low-resolution optical spectroscopic techniques that will be used in tandem with standard high-resolution methods to analyze binary star pairs involving an m dwarf and a brighter star to obtain both empirical relations and more accurate distance estimations given the current era of wide-field photometric and spectroscopic surveys marshall says that m dwarf and subdwarf stars will become important targets for a wide range of science from extrasolar planet searches to better constraints of galactic halo and disk dynamics to the study of the milky ways own merger history in addition the work will involve a wide range of observational techniques providing invaluable training for the graduate and undergraduate students supported by both the grant and the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory that marshall also manages the resulting relational insight will be increasingly important as astrophysics enters the age of large-scale optical spectroscopic surveys marshall said the kind of preliminary groundwork we are doing with this project is vital to ensuring that astronomers can take full advantage of the large datasets that will be produced by these surveys casey papovich kim-vy tran on the large-scale survey front papovich plans to use his $200 000 grant to fund a comparative study on the formation of galaxies in urban environments characterized by great cities of clusters of galaxies versus rural areas or more isolated galaxies within the universe to do so papovich proposes to undertake the largest survey of distant-universe galaxies ever conducted the decam/irac galaxy environment survey (dirges) in his study he will analyze an area about 100 times as large as that of the full moon and cover a cosmological volume of 1 billion cubic light-years an area more than 15 times that of the cosmos survey using deep data taken from the new wide-field dark energy camera decam at cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in chile and the infrared capabilities of nasas spitzer space telescope papovich will study these galaxies as they formed at times 7 to 10 billion years ago by measuring how these galaxies grow their stars and dark-matter halos contemporaneously during the epochs in which they formed papovich hopes to find answers as to why galaxies in rural areas like the milky way grow differently from their cousins in urban environments our own milky way galaxy is in a distant suburb of a large city of galaxies called the virgo cluster about 60 million light-years distant and the properties of the milky way differ greatly from those of galaxies in the virgo cluster papovich said there has been a great push to measure the differences in how galaxies grow in the rural areas compared to galaxies in urban areas but these past studies have used only small surveys trans $317 000 proposal focuses on determining how the stellar birthrate in cities of galaxies otherwise known as galaxy clusters is regulated in the distant universe by tracking the gas that provides the fuel to make new stars tran hopes to provide a better understanding as to why some galaxies stopped forming stars a very long time ago while galaxies such as our own milky way continue to form new stars every year her study combines observations taken with some of todays most powerful telescopes including the hubble space telescope and wm keck observatory trans award also includes seed funding for a new outreach program i am science that will help address the lack of diversity in all sciences tran plans to create a series of short videos featuring scientists from all backgrounds sharing their stories to increase general awareness about science careers and hopefully inspire the next generation of potential scientists in addition tran will work with the college of sciences educational outreach and womens programs office to encourage use of the series in middle-school classrooms our nsf awards ensure that texas a&m students continue to have abundant and exciting opportunities to work on cutting-edge research tran said we get to explore these deep questions about our fascinating universe and in the process also prepare science programs for our future with the giant magellan telescope how awesome is that to learn more about each individual project or texas a&m astronomy in general visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m astronomers making cosmic inroads with nsf grants appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " three texas a&m university astronomers have their sights set on new astrophysical insights involving the milky way galaxy and beyond thanks to the help of recent grants from the national science foundation jennifer marshall casey papovich and kim-vy tran each led proposals selected for funding as part of the latest round of awards announced earlier this fall by the nsf division of astronomical sciences (ast) each is serving as a principal investigator for three of the 97 total projects funded from the more than 600 that were received according to ast officials in a year in which the nsf itself acknowledged an exceptionally tight funding situation particularly for astronomy ast officials note the funding rate was only 16 percent per submitted project and 17 percent per submitted proposal both rates are roughly two percentage points higher than those of fy 2013 a year in which a fourth texas a&m astronomer lucas macri was selected to receive funding the over-subscription the past few years has and continues to be truly mind-boggling tran said its no secret that nsf funding for astronomy is particularly competitive and the fact that three separate research proposals by three principal investigators in our relatively small astronomy group were awarded in the same year is absolutely amazing! in addition to being fellow members of george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy all four astronomers came to texas a&m during the 2008-09 academic year as part of the universitys previous faculty reinvestment program initiated by former texas a&m president dr robert m gates in only eight years here at texas a&m we have been able to recruit among the best young astronomers in the world as shown by their success in competing for research grants from the national science foundation said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program there are many reasons why such good astronomers want to come to texas a&m a great university great undergraduate and graduate students generous support from the college of science and especially the support of george mitchell and his family who have donated money toward two buildings numerous endowed chairs and professorships and to create the mitchell institute where the daily interaction of physicists and astronomers in fundamental physics has produced an exciting environment to study the universe thanks to national science foundation funding texas a&m astronomers are pushing the universal envelope in a variety of topical areas from star composition and stellar birthrates to galaxy formation and merger history while exposing graduate and undergraduate students to cutting-edge research projects and invaluable training opportunities in a wide range of observational techniques (credit: nasa esa and the hubble heritage team (stsci/aura)-esa/hubble collaboration) jennifer marshall marshalls $250 000 project seeks to measure the composition of m dwarf stars the most numerous type of star in our milky way galaxy and yet the least understood because they are so faint and complex her work focuses on perfecting low-resolution optical spectroscopic techniques that will be used in tandem with standard high-resolution methods to analyze binary star pairs involving an m dwarf and a brighter star to obtain both empirical relations and more accurate distance estimations given the current era of wide-field photometric and spectroscopic surveys marshall says that m dwarf and subdwarf stars will become important targets for a wide range of science from extrasolar planet searches to better constraints of galactic halo and disk dynamics to the study of the milky ways own merger history in addition the work will involve a wide range of observational techniques providing invaluable training for the graduate and undergraduate students supported by both the grant and the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory that marshall also manages the resulting relational insight will be increasingly important as astrophysics enters the age of large-scale optical spectroscopic surveys marshall said the kind of preliminary groundwork we are doing with this project is vital to ensuring that astronomers can take full advantage of the large datasets that will be produced by these surveys casey papovich kim-vy tran on the large-scale survey front papovich plans to use his $200 000 grant to fund a comparative study on the formation of galaxies in urban environments characterized by great cities of clusters of galaxies versus rural areas or more isolated galaxies within the universe to do so papovich proposes to undertake the largest survey of distant-universe galaxies ever conducted the decam/irac galaxy environment survey (dirges) in his study he will analyze an area about 100 times as large as that of the full moon and cover a cosmological volume of 1 billion cubic light-years an area more than 15 times that of the cosmos survey using deep data taken from the new wide-field dark energy camera decam at cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in chile and the infrared capabilities of nasas spitzer space telescope papovich will study these galaxies as they formed at times 7 to 10 billion years ago by measuring how these galaxies grow their stars and dark-matter halos contemporaneously during the epochs in which they formed papovich hopes to find answers as to why galaxies in rural areas like the milky way grow differently from their cousins in urban environments our own milky way galaxy is in a distant suburb of a large city of galaxies called the virgo cluster about 60 million light-years distant and the properties of the milky way differ greatly from those of galaxies in the virgo cluster papovich said there has been a great push to measure the differences in how galaxies grow in the rural areas compared to galaxies in urban areas but these past studies have used only small surveys trans $317 000 proposal focuses on determining how the stellar birthrate in cities of galaxies otherwise known as galaxy clusters is regulated in the distant universe by tracking the gas that provides the fuel to make new stars tran hopes to provide a better understanding as to why some galaxies stopped forming stars a very long time ago while galaxies such as our own milky way continue to form new stars every year her study combines observations taken with some of todays most powerful telescopes including the hubble space telescope and wm keck observatory trans award also includes seed funding for a new outreach program i am science that will help address the lack of diversity in all sciences tran plans to create a series of short videos featuring scientists from all backgrounds sharing their stories to increase general awareness about science careers and hopefully inspire the next generation of potential scientists in addition tran will work with the college of sciences educational outreach and womens programs office to encourage use of the series in middle-school classrooms our nsf awards ensure that texas a&m students continue to have abundant and exciting opportunities to work on cutting-edge research tran said we get to explore these deep questions about our fascinating universe and in the process also prepare science programs for our future with the giant magellan telescope how awesome is that to learn more about each individual project or texas a&m astronomy in general visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " moffett field calif nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been named a co-recipient of the breakthrough prize in fundamental physics for his role in the 1998 discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe the prestigious award considered the worlds most lucrative academic prize at $3 million recognizes major insights into the deepest questions of the universe suntzeff shared in the international honor along with 50 other scientists who are members of the two teams that simultaneously discovered the mysterious substance known as dark energy and consequently unexpected proof of the universes accelerating expansion suntzeff co-founded one of those teams the high-z supernova search team along with brian p schmidt an astronomer at australian national university schmidt was recognized at last nights star-studded awards ceremony in california along with high-z teammate and johns hopkins university astronomer adam g riess and university of california berkeley astrophysicist saul perlmutter riess who served as lead author on the high-z teams 1998 astronomical journal paper announcing the groups ultimate discovery was a miller fellow postdoctoral researcher at berkeley at that time after earning his phd from harvard in 1996 while perlmutter headed up the competing team the supernova cosmology project nicholas b suntzeff breakthrough prize the two teams were cited for the most unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than slowing as had been long assumed this is very happy news for the hzt suntzeff told his teammates in a congratulatory email last night with this award everyone by name has been recognized as individuals in our discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe for me this is so important because our discovery was possible because we were a team of equals that worked so well together i am very proud of this award but i am even more proud of our collaboration which will always be the scientific achievement of a lifetime for me watch a youtube clip of the presentation and remarks by schmidt riess and perlmutter: the breakthrough prizes are sponsored by yuri milner a russian entrepreneur and philanthropist; sergey brin co-founder of google; anne wojcicki the founder of the genetics company 23andme; and mark zuckerberg the founder of facebook the prizes which also are awarded in life sciences and mathematics are intended to celebrate scientists and to generate excitement about the pursuit of science as a career recipients of the awards each receive $3 million to support their future work scientists are not celebrities in the way i think they should be milner told usa today we recognize athletes and entertainers but not scientists i think thats out of balance in terms of the contributions that people make versus the recognition they get the second annual breakthrough prize ceremony held sunday (nov 9) in silicon valley will be simulcast by the discovery channel and the science channel saturday (nov 15) in the united states in addition uc berkeley will offer live streaming of the breakthrough prize symposia monday nov 10 from 9 am to 5 pm pdt prior to co-founding the high-z team suntzeff had co-founded a previous group the calan/tololo supernova project that pioneered the use of exploding stars to measure precise distances deep into the universe ushering in the field of supernova cosmology specifically they used the brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams subsequent discovery honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and with the 2011 nobel prize in physics in addition to the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology and the 2006 shaw prize suntzeff joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields to learn more about suntzeff and his research go to dr nicholas suntzeff/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post suntzeff shares in $3m breakthrough prize in fundamental physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been named a co-recipient of the breakthrough prize in fundamental physics for his role in the 1998 discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe the prestigious award considered the worlds most lucrative academic prize at $3 million recognizes major insights into the deepest questions of the universe suntzeff shared in the international honor along with 50 other scientists who are members of the two teams that simultaneously discovered the mysterious substance known as dark energy and consequently unexpected proof of the universes accelerating expansion suntzeff co-founded one of those teams the high-z supernova search team along with brian p schmidt an astronomer at australian national university schmidt was recognized at last nights star-studded awards ceremony in california along with high-z teammate and johns hopkins university astronomer adam g riess and university of california berkeley astrophysicist saul perlmutter riess who served as lead author on the high-z teams 1998 astronomical journal paper announcing the groups ultimate discovery was a miller fellow postdoctoral researcher at berkeley at that time after earning his phd from harvard in 1996 while perlmutter headed up the competing team the supernova cosmology project nicholas b suntzeff breakthrough prize " " college station as a child peering through her toy telescope texas a&m university graduate student ting li was fascinated by the moon and constellations not so much by their cosmic beauty but about why they exist in the first place the sky always seemed so beautiful to me li said but outer space that has always been a mystery now working toward her doctorate in astronomy as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory li has developed her own instrument designed to help scientists understand more about the cosmos lis breakthrough device dubbed the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera or atmcam provides an innovative and efficient way of measuring subtle changes in the light that is constantly moving throughout the atmosphere the resulting data will used by scientists as part of the dark energy survey a five-year investigation to understand the mysterious expansion of the universe lis atmcam located at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile is housed in a mini-observatory that she and a munnerlyn lab team of undergraduate researchers hand-built completely computer-automated and operating on a script programmed by li the device is composed of a row of four high-power telescopes mounted with four charge-coupled device (ccd) cameras each with a different filter atmcam the creation of texas a&m astronomy graduate student ting li (above) measures subtle light changes in the atmosphere the resulting data will figure big into the five-year dark energy survey which is seeking answers to one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics why the universes expansion is accelerating atmcam is housed in a mini-observatory hand-built on-site by li (second from right) and a munnerlyn astronomical laboratory team supervised by lab manager jennifer marshall (far left) and including (from left) ctio staff astronomer david james nicholas mondrik and dan nagasawa on clear evenings the mini-observatorys seven-foot diameter dome opens and atmcam aims at a target star in the night sky each of its four cameras will capture a unique image of the wavelengths of light transmitted by the star by observing specific features of the four images li can track changes in the atmosphere providing preliminary data that des scientists then will use to calibrate the photometry of type ia supernova considered the best cosmological standard candles for measuring cosmic distances taken as part of the survey the scientific objectives of the dark energy survey require measurements of the brightness of stars and galaxies with unprecedented precision said texas a&m astronomer darren depoy director of the munnerlyn lab and himself the project scientist for the worlds largest digital camera the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) the earths atmosphere absorbs scatters and otherwise compromises such measurements fortunately tings approach removes one of the worst offending effects the variability of the transmission of light through the atmosphere with time in a robust manner the added precision allows for significantly better distance determinations which in turn substantially improves our ability to measure the effects of dark energy on the universe as it stands lis atmcam will be in operation at least for the duration of the survey but she believes it could have a much longer shelf-life not to mention broader appeal for starters any researchers interested in observing variable stars and exoplanets may find atmcam useful in determining if any irregularities are due to the star itself or to the atmosphere in general anyone interested in precision photometry can find use for atmcam li said earths atmosphere is constantly changing and this will ensure the most precise measurements are taken thanks in part to the precision science and astronomical instrumentation expertise represented within the munnerlyn lab and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy texas a&m has a key role in several major astronomical ventures across the world perhaps the most colossal is the giant magellan telescope project an 11-partner international collaboration working to construct the worlds largest telescope in chile by 2019 the next-generation wonder features seven massive honeycomb mirrors and an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light instruments being built at texas a&m in 2010 texas a&m astronomers were tasked with building the worlds premier survey spectrograph the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs (virus) a key component in the national science foundation-funded hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international efforts to probe and understand dark energy beyond high-profile global partnerships the munnerlyn labs broader astronomical contribution is in training future astronomers undergraduate and graduate students like li who have had direct involvement in the construction of the instrumentation and the resulting accumulation of data weve done other small projects for the dark energy survey in the past but this is yet another example of the excellent work our undergrad and grad students are doing in our lab said jennifer marshall associate research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy and manager of the munnerlyn lab i think this is texas a&ms greatest contribution to this project and what makes me the most proud for li its the culmination of a three-year process of constructing prototypes and test runs that involved multiple trips to chile often in extreme conditions on more than one occasion li endured the high altitudes freezing temperatures for hours at a time while making sure atmcam ran properly its amazing to have a working observatory at one of the best sites in chile if not the world li said after all that weve been through in that short timeframe everything is finished and working click here to see additional images of atmcam and lis adventures in chile to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related projects visit http://instrumentationtamuedu for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about texas a&m impacts: texas a&m impacts is an ongoing series highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students to their community state nation and world about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m grad students atmcam offers cosmic insight for dark energy survey appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as a child peering through her toy telescope texas a&m university graduate student ting li was fascinated by the moon and constellations not so much by their cosmic beauty but about why they exist in the first place the sky always seemed so beautiful to me li said but outer space that has always been a mystery now working toward her doctorate in astronomy as a member of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory li has developed her own instrument designed to help scientists understand more about the cosmos lis breakthrough device dubbed the atmospheric transmission monitoring camera or atmcam provides an innovative and efficient way of measuring subtle changes in the light that is constantly moving throughout the atmosphere the resulting data will used by scientists as part of the dark energy survey a five-year investigation to understand the mysterious expansion of the universe lis atmcam located at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile is housed in a mini-observatory that she and a munnerlyn lab team of undergraduate researchers hand-built completely computer-automated and operating on a script programmed by li the device is composed of a row of four high-power telescopes mounted with four charge-coupled device (ccd) cameras each with a different filter atmcam the creation of texas a&m astronomy graduate student ting li (above) measures subtle light changes in the atmosphere the resulting data will figure big into the five-year dark energy survey which is seeking answers to one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics why the universes expansion is accelerating atmcam is housed in a mini-observatory hand-built on-site by li (second from right) and a munnerlyn astronomical laboratory team supervised by lab manager jennifer marshall (far left) and including (from left) ctio staff astronomer david james nicholas mondrik and dan nagasawa on clear evenings the mini-observatorys seven-foot diameter dome opens and atmcam aims at a target star in the night sky each of its four cameras will capture a unique image of the wavelengths of light transmitted by the star by observing specific features of the four images li can track changes in the atmosphere providing preliminary data that des scientists then will use to calibrate the photometry of type ia supernova considered the best cosmological standard candles for measuring cosmic distances taken as part of the survey the scientific objectives of the dark energy survey require measurements of the brightness of stars and galaxies with unprecedented precision said texas a&m astronomer darren depoy director of the munnerlyn lab and himself the project scientist for the worlds largest digital camera the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) the earths atmosphere absorbs scatters and otherwise compromises such measurements fortunately tings approach removes one of the worst offending effects the variability of the transmission of light through the atmosphere with time in a robust manner the added precision allows for significantly better distance determinations which in turn substantially improves our ability to measure the effects of dark energy on the universe as it stands lis atmcam will be in operation at least for the duration of the survey but she believes it could have a much longer shelf-life not to mention broader appeal for starters any researchers interested in observing variable stars and exoplanets may find atmcam useful in determining if any irregularities are due to the star itself or to the atmosphere in general anyone interested in precision photometry can find use for atmcam li said earths atmosphere is constantly changing and this will ensure the most precise measurements are taken thanks in part to the precision science and astronomical instrumentation expertise represented within the munnerlyn lab and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy texas a&m has a key role in several major astronomical ventures across the world perhaps the most colossal is the giant magellan telescope project an 11-partner international collaboration working to construct the worlds largest telescope in chile by 2019 the next-generation wonder features seven massive honeycomb mirrors and an adaptable optics system that hinges on state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation including first-light instruments being built at texas a&m in 2010 texas a&m astronomers were tasked with building the worlds premier survey spectrograph the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs (virus) a key component in the national science foundation-funded hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international efforts to probe and understand dark energy beyond high-profile global partnerships the munnerlyn labs broader astronomical contribution is in training future astronomers undergraduate and graduate students like li who have had direct involvement in the construction of the instrumentation and the resulting accumulation of data weve done other small projects for the dark energy survey in the past but this is yet another example of the excellent work our undergrad and grad students are doing in our lab said jennifer marshall associate research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy and manager of the munnerlyn lab i think this is texas a&ms greatest contribution to this project and what makes me the most proud for li its the culmination of a three-year process of constructing prototypes and test runs that involved multiple trips to chile often in extreme conditions on more than one occasion li endured the high altitudes freezing temperatures for hours at a time while making sure atmcam ran properly its amazing to have a working observatory at one of the best sites in chile if not the world li said after all that weve been through in that short timeframe everything is finished and working click here to see additional images of atmcam and lis adventures in chile to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related projects visit http://instrumentationtamuedu for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about texas a&m impacts: texas a&m impacts is an ongoing series highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students to their community state nation and world about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " college station local science enthusiasts and physics professionals throughout the lone star state are in for a texas-sized treat this weekend as texas a&m university plays host to the texas sections of three major professional groups and a three-day showcase of international excellence in physics the 2014 joint fall meeting of the texas sections of the american physical society american association of physics teachers (aapt) and zone 13 of the society of physics students is set for friday-sunday oct 17-19 in the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on texas a&ms main campus tickets are not required for any of the weekends events which will cover a broad spectrum of interests and topics related to the various sub-fields of physics including workshops demonstrations and seven plenary sessions featuring public lectures and technical talks by eminent physicists from texas a&m and across the world among the many highlights is aapt plenary speaker 2007 us professor of the year dr chris sorensen the cortelyou-rus distinguished professor at kansas state university and a university distinguished teaching scholar who is widely renowned for his efforts in physics education and outreach sorensens talk set for 2:15 pm saturday (oct 18) in the main lecture hall of the mitchell building (rooms 203-205) will discuss the incorporation of studio exercises in physics instruction at all levels -atm- contact: dr rupak mahapatra organizer mahapatra@physicstamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova aapt organizer etanya@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m to host aps texas 2014 fall meeting appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " local science enthusiasts and physics professionals throughout the lone star state are in for a texas-sized treat this weekend as texas a&m university plays host to the texas sections of three major professional groups and a three-day showcase of international excellence in physics the 2014 joint fall meeting of the texas sections of the american physical society american association of physics teachers (aapt) and zone 13 of the society of physics students is set for friday-sunday oct 17-19 in the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on texas a&ms main campus tickets are not required for any of the weekends events which will cover a broad spectrum of interests and topics related to the various sub-fields of physics including workshops demonstrations and seven plenary sessions featuring public lectures and technical talks by eminent physicists from texas a&m and across the world among the many highlights is aapt plenary speaker 2007 us professor of the year dr chris sorensen the cortelyou-rus distinguished professor at kansas state university and a university distinguished teaching scholar who is widely renowned for his efforts in physics education and outreach sorensens talk set for 2:15 pm saturday (oct 18) in the main lecture hall of the mitchell building (rooms 203-205) will discuss the incorporation of studio exercises in physics instruction at all levels -atm- contact: dr rupak mahapatra organizer mahapatra@physicstamuedu or dr tatiana erukhimova aapt organizer etanya@physicstamuedu " " editors note: we preface the following general university news release with comments from nicholas b suntzeff distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and director of the astronomy program: most people have no idea what 87 000 miles really means it is one-third the distance between the earth and the moon and would be really really close if we were talking about the earth and not mars no historical comet of this size has passed close to the earth and it is very unlikely that any comet of this size comes near a planet but if it does and it hits the planet the results would be devastating with an impact of the roughly half-mile diameter comet on the order of a hundred-thousand megatons such an impact would produce mega-tsunamis rapid global cooling societal disruption and could threaten life this comet however will only come close to mars and will not come close to earth but the fact that any comet can come close to a nearby planet should make us heed its warning: we must watch the skies for near earth objects (neo) congress has mandated that nasa take this threat seriously and there are multiple nasa telescopes and satellites that are searching for all such armageddon neos # # # # # # # # # # college station on sunday a comet will hurl past mars at extremely close range only 87 000 miles away and two rovers that have been on the planet for years will capture once-in-a-lifetime images of the event while under the supervision of a texas a&m university professor mark lemmon associate professor of atmospheric sciences and camera team member will play a key role operating the cameras on the rovers opportunity and curiosity as they snap photos of comet siding spring which will be traveling at 126 000 miles per hour and is about one mile in width lemmon has been part of nasa camera crews for years especially those involving the mars rovers spirit and opportunity which landed in 2004 and curiosity which landed in 2012 he works closely with fellow scientists at the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena calif some of the images taken by lemmon have been displayed in the smithsonian air and space museum exhibit spirit & opportunity: 10 years roving across mars comet siding spring named for the siding spring observatory in new south wales australia where it was discovered has been on its current journey for billions of years as it travels to mars its believed it will likely never return astronomers at first realized the comet could crash into mars but further observations showed that it would miss mars within 87 000 miles to put that into perspective our moon is about 239 000 miles from earth it will come by very close so close that several satellites orbiting around mars have been re-positioned and moved behind the planet for protection as siding spring flies by lemmon explained opportunity and curiosity are on opposite sides of the planet opportunity will take images from the surface in the dawn twilight hours before the comet buzzes mars after the sun sets on the other side of the planet curiosity will take pictures as the comet departs mars all of this should happen around 3:30 pm sunday our time comets are difficult to predict but images will be returned to earth over the weekend and into next week the rover images will be released by nasa to public websites allowing arm-chair explorers to hunt for the comet along with nasa the comet came from what we call the ‚Äòoort cloud which is material left over from when the solar system was first created lemmon added this is its first and last time coming close to the sun before it leaves the solar system we cannot plan missions to comets like this this one was discovered less than two years ago it is incredible luck that it is saving us the trouble of going to it as it flies by mars which is being explored by 7 active robots its believed siding spring is about 45 billion years old so we will be looking at something that is one of the oldest objects in the solar system so this very much is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us and our rovers for more about the comet go to http://marsnasagov/comets/sidingspring/ -atm- contact: keith randall (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu or mark lemmon at (979) 458-8098 or lemmon@tamuedu the post historic comet fly-by over mars to occur sunday appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " editors note: we preface the following general university news release with comments from nicholas b suntzeff distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and director of the astronomy program: most people have no idea what 87 000 miles really means it is one-third the distance between the earth and the moon and would be really really close if we were talking about the earth and not mars no historical comet of this size has passed close to the earth and it is very unlikely that any comet of this size comes near a planet but if it does and it hits the planet the results would be devastating with an impact of the roughly half-mile diameter comet on the order of a hundred-thousand megatons such an impact would produce mega-tsunamis rapid global cooling societal disruption and could threaten life this comet however will only come close to mars and will not come close to earth but the fact that any comet can come close to a nearby planet should make us heed its warning: we must watch the skies for near earth objects (neo) congress has mandated that nasa take this threat seriously and there are multiple nasa telescopes and satellites that are searching for all such armageddon neos # # # # # # # # # # college station on sunday a comet will hurl past mars at extremely close range only 87 000 miles away and two rovers that have been on the planet for years will capture once-in-a-lifetime images of the event while under the supervision of a texas a&m university professor mark lemmon associate professor of atmospheric sciences and camera team member will play a key role operating the cameras on the rovers opportunity and curiosity as they snap photos of comet siding spring which will be traveling at 126 000 miles per hour and is about one mile in width lemmon has been part of nasa camera crews for years especially those involving the mars rovers spirit and opportunity which landed in 2004 and curiosity which landed in 2012 he works closely with fellow scientists at the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena calif some of the images taken by lemmon have been displayed in the smithsonian air and space museum exhibit spirit & opportunity: 10 years roving across mars comet siding spring named for the siding spring observatory in new south wales australia where it was discovered has been on its current journey for billions of years as it travels to mars its believed it will likely never return astronomers at first realized the comet could crash into mars but further observations showed that it would miss mars within 87 000 miles to put that into perspective our moon is about 239 000 miles from earth it will come by very close so close that several satellites orbiting around mars have been re-positioned and moved behind the planet for protection as siding spring flies by lemmon explained opportunity and curiosity are on opposite sides of the planet opportunity will take images from the surface in the dawn twilight hours before the comet buzzes mars after the sun sets on the other side of the planet curiosity will take pictures as the comet departs mars all of this should happen around 3:30 pm sunday our time comets are difficult to predict but images will be returned to earth over the weekend and into next week the rover images will be released by nasa to public websites allowing arm-chair explorers to hunt for the comet along with nasa the comet came from what we call the ‚Äòoort cloud which is material left over from when the solar system was first created lemmon added this is its first and last time coming close to the sun before it leaves the solar system we cannot plan missions to comets like this this one was discovered less than two years ago it is incredible luck that it is saving us the trouble of going to it as it flies by mars which is being explored by 7 active robots its believed siding spring is about 45 billion years old so we will be looking at something that is one of the oldest objects in the solar system so this very much is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us and our rovers for more about the comet go to http://marsnasagov/comets/sidingspring/ -atm- contact: keith randall (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu or mark lemmon at (979) 458-8098 or lemmon@tamuedu " " college station as a successful chief executive officer for a major ophthalmology practice in the boston area texas a&m university former student randall c shepard 71 has made the most of his aggie education forging an extensive business career as well as a progressive reputation in community and workforce development circles extending from the lone star state to the east coast after many years of effectively assisting both doctors and patients at eye health services inc shepard hopes to help future aggies expand the boundaries of their own influence as they close in on the limits of the cosmos thanks to a new endowed scholarship he recently created in the texas a&m college of science shepard who earned his bachelors degree in zoology at texas a&m in 1971 has established the randall c shepard 71 endowed scholarship in astrophysics through the texas a&m foundation the scholarship his second to benefit undergraduate students in the college of science is intended to support students pursuing undergraduate degrees in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy with preference given to junior or senior students who are seeking minors in astronomy it is our obligation as former students to insure that future generations have the backing to achieve their dreams shepard said motivated by our students in physics and astronomy i feel compelled to help further the education of the next generation that will go farther than others have gone before them during his own undergraduate days shepard says he originally intended to pursue a career in medicine until one of his texas a&m professors dr howard gravett steered him toward research after graduating from texas a&m shepard spent 10 years in oncology research in the houston area before heading to baylor college of medicine where he specialized in medical administration and related educational activities since 2000 shepard has overseen the 22-ophthalmologist eye health services inc practice which features multiple offices on bostons south shore area extending from quincy to cape cod prior to 2000 he had served in a similar capacity in texas at austin retina associates a cash gift to establish an endowed scholarship in astrophysics is one of many ways to give and a simple one for me said shepard who in 2008 established a prior endowed scholarship for biology majors i trust this gift will serve as a catalyst to motivate others to do the same a past chair of the college of science external advisory & development council (eadc) and a member since 2007 shepard remains actively involved in a variety of community affairs in the greater boston area as well as the state of massachusetts he serves as vice chair for economic and community development for the south shore chamber of commerce in addition he has been industry sector chair for the massachusetts governors workforce advisory board and has been appointed by the governor to chair links to education a statewide committee that works with universities throughout massachusetts to develop curricula more applicable to existing industry needs and better suited to addressing current job skill gaps in addition to the prior scholarship in the department of biology shepard also provided matching funds to double the endowment for the emily and robert walker endowed scholarship in science in tribute to the late robert v walker 45 a past chair and vice-chair of eadc and distinguished alumnus of both the college of science (2004) and texas a&m university (2012) the college of science is indeed fortunate to have the generous support of a man of randy shepards stature energy and enthusiasm said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science on many occasions during the past several years randy has looked at situations in the college and has said ‚Äòi can help solve that either through my experience and advice or with some funding his advice and counsel have been invaluable and i thank him for his latest contribution to texas a&m science to learn more about endowed scholarships or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post aggie graduate establishes second scholarship to benefit texas a&m science undergraduates appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as a successful chief executive officer for a major ophthalmology practice in the boston area texas a&m university former student randall c shepard 71 has made the most of his aggie education forging an extensive business career as well as a progressive reputation in community and workforce development circles extending from the lone star state to the east coast after many years of effectively assisting both doctors and patients at eye health services inc shepard hopes to help future aggies expand the boundaries of their own influence as they close in on the limits of the cosmos thanks to a new endowed scholarship he recently created in the texas a&m college of science shepard who earned his bachelors degree in zoology at texas a&m in 1971 has established the randall c shepard 71 endowed scholarship in astrophysics through the texas a&m foundation the scholarship his second to benefit undergraduate students in the college of science is intended to support students pursuing undergraduate degrees in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy with preference given to junior or senior students who are seeking minors in astronomy it is our obligation as former students to insure that future generations have the backing to achieve their dreams shepard said motivated by our students in physics and astronomy i feel compelled to help further the education of the next generation that will go farther than others have gone before them during his own undergraduate days shepard says he originally intended to pursue a career in medicine until one of his texas a&m professors dr howard gravett steered him toward research after graduating from texas a&m shepard spent 10 years in oncology research in the houston area before heading to baylor college of medicine where he specialized in medical administration and related educational activities since 2000 shepard has overseen the 22-ophthalmologist eye health services inc practice which features multiple offices on bostons south shore area extending from quincy to cape cod prior to 2000 he had served in a similar capacity in texas at austin retina associates a cash gift to establish an endowed scholarship in astrophysics is one of many ways to give and a simple one for me said shepard who in 2008 established a prior endowed scholarship for biology majors i trust this gift will serve as a catalyst to motivate others to do the same a past chair of the college of science external advisory & development council (eadc) and a member since 2007 shepard remains actively involved in a variety of community affairs in the greater boston area as well as the state of massachusetts he serves as vice chair for economic and community development for the south shore chamber of commerce in addition he has been industry sector chair for the massachusetts governors workforce advisory board and has been appointed by the governor to chair links to education a statewide committee that works with universities throughout massachusetts to develop curricula more applicable to existing industry needs and better suited to addressing current job skill gaps in addition to the prior scholarship in the department of biology shepard also provided matching funds to double the endowment for the emily and robert walker endowed scholarship in science in tribute to the late robert v walker 45 a past chair and vice-chair of eadc and distinguished alumnus of both the college of science (2004) and texas a&m university (2012) the college of science is indeed fortunate to have the generous support of a man of randy shepards stature energy and enthusiasm said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science on many occasions during the past several years randy has looked at situations in the college and has said ‚Äòi can help solve that either through my experience and advice or with some funding his advice and counsel have been invaluable and i thank him for his latest contribution to texas a&m science to learn more about endowed scholarships or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " there is a common misconception that the large hadron collider (lhc) was built only to search for the higgs boson it is intended to answer many different questions about subatomic particles and the nature of our universe so the collision data are reused by thousands of scientists each studying their own favorite questions usually a single analysis only answers one question but recently one cms analysis addressed three different new physics: dark matter extra dimensions and unparticles the study focused on proton collisions that resulted in a single jet of particles and nothing else this can only happen if some of the collision products are invisible for instance one proton may emit a jet before collision and the collision itself produces only invisible particles the jet is needed to be sure that a collision took place but the real interest is in the invisible part sometimes the reason that nothing else was seen in the detector is mundane particles may be lost because their trajectories missed the active area of the detector or a component of the detector was malfunctioning during the event more often the reason is due to known physics: 20 percent of z bosons decay into invisible neutrinos if there were an excess of invisible events more than predicted by the standard model these extra events would be evidence of new phenomena texas a&m universitys teruki kamon is one of the us scientists who contributed to this analysis these are some of the us physicists who are developing the stage 1 upgrade algorithms for the cms level 1 calorimeter trigger the algorithms will significantly improve the performance of the level 1 trigger system for the upcoming lhc run the classic scenario involving invisible particles is dark matter dark matter has been observed through its gravitational effects on galaxies and the expansion of the universe but it has never been detected in the laboratory speculations about the nature of dark matter abound but it will remain mysterious until its properties can be studied experimentally another way to get invisible particles is through extra dimensions if our universe has more than three spatial dimensions (with only femtometers of breathing room in the other dimensions) then the lhc could produce gravitons that spin around the extra dimensions gravitons interact very weakly with ordinary matter so they would appear to be invisible a third possibility is that there is a new form of matter that isnt made of indivisible particles these so-called unparticles can be produced in batches of 1-1/2 2-3/4 or any other amount unparticles if they exist would also interact weakly with matter all three scenarios produce something invisible so if the cms data had revealed an excess of invisible events any one of the scenarios could have been responsible follow-up studies would have been needed to determine which one it was as it turned out however there was no excess of invisible events so the measurement constrains all three models at once three down in one blow! lhc scientists are eager to see what the higher collision energy of run 2 will deliver -atm- contact: teruki kamon kamon@physicstamuedu the post three ways to be invisible appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " there is a common misconception that the large hadron collider (lhc) was built only to search for the higgs boson it is intended to answer many different questions about subatomic particles and the nature of our universe so the collision data are reused by thousands of scientists each studying their own favorite questions usually a single analysis only answers one question but recently one cms analysis addressed three different new physics: dark matter extra dimensions and unparticles the study focused on proton collisions that resulted in a single jet of particles and nothing else this can only happen if some of the collision products are invisible for instance one proton may emit a jet before collision and the collision itself produces only invisible particles the jet is needed to be sure that a collision took place but the real interest is in the invisible part sometimes the reason that nothing else was seen in the detector is mundane particles may be lost because their trajectories missed the active area of the detector or a component of the detector was malfunctioning during the event more often the reason is due to known physics: 20 percent of z bosons decay into invisible neutrinos if there were an excess of invisible events more than predicted by the standard model these extra events would be evidence of new phenomena texas a&m universitys teruki kamon is one of the us scientists who contributed to this analysis these are some of the us physicists who are developing the stage 1 upgrade algorithms for the cms level 1 calorimeter trigger the algorithms will significantly improve the performance of the level 1 trigger system for the upcoming lhc run the classic scenario involving invisible particles is dark matter dark matter has been observed through its gravitational effects on galaxies and the expansion of the universe but it has never been detected in the laboratory speculations about the nature of dark matter abound but it will remain mysterious until its properties can be studied experimentally another way to get invisible particles is through extra dimensions if our universe has more than three spatial dimensions (with only femtometers of breathing room in the other dimensions) then the lhc could produce gravitons that spin around the extra dimensions gravitons interact very weakly with ordinary matter so they would appear to be invisible a third possibility is that there is a new form of matter that isnt made of indivisible particles these so-called unparticles can be produced in batches of 1-1/2 2-3/4 or any other amount unparticles if they exist would also interact weakly with matter all three scenarios produce something invisible so if the cms data had revealed an excess of invisible events any one of the scenarios could have been responsible follow-up studies would have been needed to determine which one it was as it turned out however there was no excess of invisible events so the measurement constrains all three models at once three down in one blow! lhc scientists are eager to see what the higher collision energy of run 2 will deliver -atm- contact: teruki kamon kamon@physicstamuedu " " college station dr george w kattawar professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive the oceanography societys 2014 nils gunnar jerlov award the jerlov award named for ocean optics research pioneer nils gunnar jerlov and funded by nasa and the us office of naval research is bestowed every two years to recognize outstanding achievements in ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing research kattawar a renowned expert in optics and member of the world-class texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) was selected on the basis of contributions to the advancement of our knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean kattawar joined the texas a&m faculty in 1968 and previously was honored by the texas academy of science (tas) as the distinguished texas scientist of the year for 2011 he is internationally respected for his contributions to radiative transfer theory in planetary atmospheres and oceans as well as applications to light propagation his work has centered on the use of polarization to study a wide variety of theoretical and applied topics in oceanic optics and related fields including three-dimensional geometries with time dependence kattawar will be presented with his award during an october 30 ceremony as part of toss annual conference ocean optics xxii set for october 26-31 in portland maine the award consists of a bronze medallion and a cash award in addition kattawar will be honored locally with a symposium to be hosted by the iqse the following week we in the institute for quantum science and engineering are simply delighted that george has been recognized in this most appropriate fashion said marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and iqse director george has made contributions to optics far beyond that field of ocean optics for example he did his thesis on the casimir effect and vacuum fluctuations as they appear in quantum electrodynamics he is also a very knowledgeable computational physicist and applied mathematician using his vast knowledge of monte-carlo calculations to help his colleagues solve related problems his ability to put his finger on the heart of the matter has helped many of us on many occasions kattawar class of 1961 received both his masters of science (1961) and phd (1964) degrees from texas a&m university on a national defense and education act fellowship after earning his bachelors of science degree from lamar university with highest honors his five-decade career in academia spans the gamut of optics and applied physics a prolific body of work that has resulted in significant contributions in such diverse areas as biomedical optics radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres cloud property studies related to global warming invisibility cloaking ultrashort laser propagation in water anthrax detection and camouflage in cephalopods in addition to being the author or co-author of nearly 200 publications in scholarly journals he is co-inventor on three patents with two more pending and has mentored more than 40 graduate and postdoctoral students george kattawar has been associated with our department since he was in graduate school and were all delighted he is receiving this award said george r welch professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy his enormous body of research on ocean optics polarization and scattering including optics of maritime biophysical systems makes him incredibly deserving of such an honor he is also the third most prolific author in the history of the journal applied optics a fellow of the optical society of america since 1976 kattawar has been elected to two three-year terms on the national research councils committee on recommendations for us army basic scientific research and served as a major consultant to the us navy for several secret projects related to national defense in 2009 he was selected to serve on the external advisory board of the stevens institute of technology charged with assessing their engineering and science programs in 1981 he received the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching and in 1990 he won a teacher/scholar award he is a former associate editor of the journal of geophysical research: oceans and the journal of transport theory and statistical physics in addition to chairing the texas a&m department of physics and astronomys graduate admissions committee for more than 30 years he served as the college of science representative on a committee chosen in 1982 by then-newly appointed president dr frank vandiver to create a faculty senate at texas a&m before coming to texas a&m kattawar held positions at los alamos scientific laboratory esso production research and the university of north texas click here to learn more about kattawar and his teaching and research for more information on the oceanography society visit http://wwwtosorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george w kattawar (979) 845-1180 or kattawar@tamuedu the post kattawar earns oceanography societys 2014 jerlov award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr george w kattawar professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive the oceanography societys 2014 nils gunnar jerlov award the jerlov award named for ocean optics research pioneer nils gunnar jerlov and funded by nasa and the us office of naval research is bestowed every two years to recognize outstanding achievements in ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing research kattawar a renowned expert in optics and member of the world-class texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) was selected on the basis of contributions to the advancement of our knowledge of the nature and consequences of light in the ocean kattawar joined the texas a&m faculty in 1968 and previously was honored by the texas academy of science (tas) as the distinguished texas scientist of the year for 2011 he is internationally respected for his contributions to radiative transfer theory in planetary atmospheres and oceans as well as applications to light propagation his work has centered on the use of polarization to study a wide variety of theoretical and applied topics in oceanic optics and related fields including three-dimensional geometries with time dependence kattawar will be presented with his award during an october 30 ceremony as part of toss annual conference ocean optics xxii set for october 26-31 in portland maine the award consists of a bronze medallion and a cash award in addition kattawar will be honored locally with a symposium to be hosted by the iqse the following week we in the institute for quantum science and engineering are simply delighted that george has been recognized in this most appropriate fashion said marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and iqse director george has made contributions to optics far beyond that field of ocean optics for example he did his thesis on the casimir effect and vacuum fluctuations as they appear in quantum electrodynamics he is also a very knowledgeable computational physicist and applied mathematician using his vast knowledge of monte-carlo calculations to help his colleagues solve related problems his ability to put his finger on the heart of the matter has helped many of us on many occasions kattawar class of 1961 received both his masters of science (1961) and phd (1964) degrees from texas a&m university on a national defense and education act fellowship after earning his bachelors of science degree from lamar university with highest honors his five-decade career in academia spans the gamut of optics and applied physics a prolific body of work that has resulted in significant contributions in such diverse areas as biomedical optics radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres cloud property studies related to global warming invisibility cloaking ultrashort laser propagation in water anthrax detection and camouflage in cephalopods in addition to being the author or co-author of nearly 200 publications in scholarly journals he is co-inventor on three patents with two more pending and has mentored more than 40 graduate and postdoctoral students george kattawar has been associated with our department since he was in graduate school and were all delighted he is receiving this award said george r welch professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy his enormous body of research on ocean optics polarization and scattering including optics of maritime biophysical systems makes him incredibly deserving of such an honor he is also the third most prolific author in the history of the journal applied optics a fellow of the optical society of america since 1976 kattawar has been elected to two three-year terms on the national research councils committee on recommendations for us army basic scientific research and served as a major consultant to the us navy for several secret projects related to national defense in 2009 he was selected to serve on the external advisory board of the stevens institute of technology charged with assessing their engineering and science programs in 1981 he received the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching and in 1990 he won a teacher/scholar award he is a former associate editor of the journal of geophysical research: oceans and the journal of transport theory and statistical physics in addition to chairing the texas a&m department of physics and astronomys graduate admissions committee for more than 30 years he served as the college of science representative on a committee chosen in 1982 by then-newly appointed president dr frank vandiver to create a faculty senate at texas a&m before coming to texas a&m kattawar held positions at los alamos scientific laboratory esso production research and the university of north texas click here to learn more about kattawar and his teaching and research for more information on the oceanography society visit http://wwwtosorg/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george w kattawar (979) 845-1180 or kattawar@tamuedu " " washington dc the national science foundation (nsf) has officially agreed to support the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) in managing the construction of the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) in chile texas a&m university astronomers nicholas b suntzeff lifan wang and lucas macri in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy have been part of the lsst project since its inception and are interested in using the telescope for their supernovae-related research in particular macri is a contributor to the lsst science book and a member of two lsst science working groups in addition the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory via texas a&m astronomer darren depoy is a longtime collaborator and contributor to the telescopes instrumentation and related devices the decision made by nsf on friday (aug 1) marks the official federal start of the lsst project the top-ranked major ground-based facility recommended by the national research councils astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey committee in its 2010 report new worlds new horizons it is being carried out as an nsf and department of energy (doe) partnership with nsf responsible for the telescope and site education and outreach and the data management system and doe providing the camera and related instrumentation both agencies expect to support post-construction operation of the observatory a photograph and a rendering mix showing a view of the exterior building from the road leading up to the lsst site at night (credit: lsst) a simulated night sky provides a background for the lsst facilities building on cerro pach√≥n (credit: todd mason mason productions inc / lsst corporation) the nsf construction budget for lsst is not to exceed $473m the doe camera fabrication budget which will be baselined later this year is estimated to be $165m operations costs will be around $40m per year for the 10-year survey with the approved start occurring now lsst will see first light in 2019 and begin full science operations in 2022 fridays action culminates more than 10 years of developing planning and reviewing of the lsst concept largely the work of the lsst corporation (lsstc) a non-profit consortium of universities including texas a&m and other research institutions fabrication of the major mirror components is already underway thanks to private funding received from the charles and lisa simonyi foundation for arts and sciences bill gates and other individuals receipt of federal construction funds allows major contracts to move forward including those to build the telescope mount assembly the figuring of the secondary mirror the summit facility construction the focal plane sensors and the camera lenses this agreement is a tribute to the hard work of an exceptional team of highly skilled individuals many of whom have dedicated more than a decade to bringing lsst to this point said lsst project manager victor krabbendam after a rigorous design and development phase the project team is ready to get down and dirty and actually build this amazing facility by digitally imaging the sky for a decade the lsst will produce a petabyte-scale database enabling new paradigms of knowledge discovery for transformative stem education project officials note lsst will address the most pressing questions in astronomy and physics which are driving advances in big data science and computing lsst is not just another telescope; rather a truly unique discovery engine the broad range of science enabled by the lsst survey will change our understanding of the dynamic universe on timescales ranging from its earliest moments after the big bang to the motions of asteroids in the solar system today said lsst director steven kahn of stanford university the open nature of our data products means that the public will have the opportunity to share in this exciting adventure along with the scientific community the most exciting discoveries will probably be those we havent yet even envisioned! aura president william smith echoed krabbendams and kahns sentiments and also expressed his enthusiasm for auras role in the project aura is proud to provide management for the construction of lsst an activity clearly aligned with our mission to promote excellence in astronomical research by providing access to state-of-the-art facilities smith said joining the space telescope science institute the national solar observatory the national optical astronomy observatory and the gemini telescope as aura centers lsst is a new paradigm in ground-based astronomy that will revolutionize both our cosmic knowledge and the open and collaborative methods of acquiring that knowledge lssts construction funding will be provided through nsfs major research equipment and facilities (mrefc) account lsst passed its nsf final design review in december 2013; the national science board gave the nsf conditional approval to move the project to construction status in may 2014 on the doe side lsst received critical decision-1 approval (cd-1) in 2011 and also just received cd-3a approval which allows the project to move forward with long-lead procurements the cd-2 review will take place the first week in november with approval expected shortly afterward formally fixing the baseline budget for completion of the camera project in addition the particle physics project prioritization panel (p5) an advisory subpanel of the high energy physics advisory panel (hepap) recommended last month that doe move forward with lsst under all budget scenarios even the most pessimistic read more about the lsst and other large telescopes on the universal horizon including the giant magellan telescope in which texas a&m is a founding partner in this recent mother nature network feature article # # # # # # # # # # about the association of universities for research in astronomy: aura is a consortium of 39 us institutions and 6 international affiliates that operates world-class astronomical observatories its role is to establish nurture and promote public observatories and facilities that advance innovative astronomical research in addition aura is deeply committed to public and educational outreach and to diversity throughout the astronomical and scientific workforce aura carries out its role through its astronomical facilities for additional information visit http://wwwaura-astronomyorg about the large synoptic survey telescope: lsst project activities are supported through a partnership between the national science foundation (nsf) and the department of energy (doe) nsf supports lsst through a cooperative agreement managed by the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) the doe-funded effort is managed by the slac national accelerator laboratory (slac) additional lsst funding comes from private donations grants to universities and in-kind support from institutional members of lsstc learn more at lsstorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contacts: suzanne jacoby lsst communications manager (520) 626-1195 or sjacoby@lsstorg; shana k hutchins texas a&m science communications (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; or nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post auras large synoptic survey telescope to begin construction thanks to national science foundation funding support appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the national science foundation (nsf) has officially agreed to support the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) in managing the construction of the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) in chile texas a&m university astronomers nicholas b suntzeff lifan wang and lucas macri in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy have been part of the lsst project since its inception and are interested in using the telescope for their supernovae-related research in particular macri is a contributor to the lsst science book and a member of two lsst science working groups in addition the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory via texas a&m astronomer darren depoy is a longtime collaborator and contributor to the telescopes instrumentation and related devices the decision made by nsf on friday (aug 1) marks the official federal start of the lsst project the top-ranked major ground-based facility recommended by the national research councils astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey committee in its 2010 report new worlds new horizons it is being carried out as an nsf and department of energy (doe) partnership with nsf responsible for the telescope and site education and outreach and the data management system and doe providing the camera and related instrumentation both agencies expect to support post-construction operation of the observatory a photograph and a rendering mix showing a view of the exterior building from the road leading up to the lsst site at night (credit: lsst) a simulated night sky provides a background for the lsst facilities building on cerro pach√≥n (credit: todd mason mason productions inc / lsst corporation) the nsf construction budget for lsst is not to exceed $473m the doe camera fabrication budget which will be baselined later this year is estimated to be $165m operations costs will be around $40m per year for the 10-year survey with the approved start occurring now lsst will see first light in 2019 and begin full science operations in 2022 fridays action culminates more than 10 years of developing planning and reviewing of the lsst concept largely the work of the lsst corporation (lsstc) a non-profit consortium of universities including texas a&m and other research institutions fabrication of the major mirror components is already underway thanks to private funding received from the charles and lisa simonyi foundation for arts and sciences bill gates and other individuals receipt of federal construction funds allows major contracts to move forward including those to build the telescope mount assembly the figuring of the secondary mirror the summit facility construction the focal plane sensors and the camera lenses this agreement is a tribute to the hard work of an exceptional team of highly skilled individuals many of whom have dedicated more than a decade to bringing lsst to this point said lsst project manager victor krabbendam after a rigorous design and development phase the project team is ready to get down and dirty and actually build this amazing facility by digitally imaging the sky for a decade the lsst will produce a petabyte-scale database enabling new paradigms of knowledge discovery for transformative stem education project officials note lsst will address the most pressing questions in astronomy and physics which are driving advances in big data science and computing lsst is not just another telescope; rather a truly unique discovery engine the broad range of science enabled by the lsst survey will change our understanding of the dynamic universe on timescales ranging from its earliest moments after the big bang to the motions of asteroids in the solar system today said lsst director steven kahn of stanford university the open nature of our data products means that the public will have the opportunity to share in this exciting adventure along with the scientific community the most exciting discoveries will probably be those we havent yet even envisioned! aura president william smith echoed krabbendams and kahns sentiments and also expressed his enthusiasm for auras role in the project aura is proud to provide management for the construction of lsst an activity clearly aligned with our mission to promote excellence in astronomical research by providing access to state-of-the-art facilities smith said joining the space telescope science institute the national solar observatory the national optical astronomy observatory and the gemini telescope as aura centers lsst is a new paradigm in ground-based astronomy that will revolutionize both our cosmic knowledge and the open and collaborative methods of acquiring that knowledge lssts construction funding will be provided through nsfs major research equipment and facilities (mrefc) account lsst passed its nsf final design review in december 2013; the national science board gave the nsf conditional approval to move the project to construction status in may 2014 on the doe side lsst received critical decision-1 approval (cd-1) in 2011 and also just received cd-3a approval which allows the project to move forward with long-lead procurements the cd-2 review will take place the first week in november with approval expected shortly afterward formally fixing the baseline budget for completion of the camera project in addition the particle physics project prioritization panel (p5) an advisory subpanel of the high energy physics advisory panel (hepap) recommended last month that doe move forward with lsst under all budget scenarios even the most pessimistic read more about the lsst and other large telescopes on the universal horizon including the giant magellan telescope in which texas a&m is a founding partner in this recent mother nature network feature article # # # # # # # # # # about the association of universities for research in astronomy: aura is a consortium of 39 us institutions and 6 international affiliates that operates world-class astronomical observatories its role is to establish nurture and promote public observatories and facilities that advance innovative astronomical research in addition aura is deeply committed to public and educational outreach and to diversity throughout the astronomical and scientific workforce aura carries out its role through its astronomical facilities for additional information visit http://wwwaura-astronomyorg about the large synoptic survey telescope: lsst project activities are supported through a partnership between the national science foundation (nsf) and the department of energy (doe) nsf supports lsst through a cooperative agreement managed by the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) the doe-funded effort is managed by the slac national accelerator laboratory (slac) additional lsst funding comes from private donations grants to universities and in-kind support from institutional members of lsstc learn more at lsstorg about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contacts: suzanne jacoby lsst communications manager (520) 626-1195 or sjacoby@lsstorg; shana k hutchins texas a&m science communications (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; or nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station an international team of astronomers led by texas a&m universitys kim-vy tran and using nasas hubble space telescope has unexpectedly discovered the most distant cosmic magnifying glass yet produced by a monster elliptical galaxy the galaxy existed 96 billion years ago beating the previous record by 200 million years it is known as a lensing galaxy because it is so massive that its gravity bends magnifies and distorts light from objects behind it a phenomenon called gravitational lensing the object behind the cosmic lens is a tiny spiral galaxy undergoing a rapid burst of star formation whose light has taken 107 billion years to arrive here seeing this chance alignment at such a great distance from earth is a rare find and tran says locating more of these distant lensing galaxies will offer insight into how young galaxies in the early universe built themselves up into the massive dark-matter-dominated galaxies of today although dark matter cannot be seen it accounts for the bulk of the universes matter when you look more than 9 billion years ago in the early universe you dont expect to find this type of galaxy-galaxy lensing at all said tran lead researcher in the study and a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2009 its very difficult to see an alignment between two galaxies in the early universe imagine holding a magnifying glass close to you and then moving it much farther away when you look through a magnifying glass held at arms length the chances that you will see an enlarged object are high but if you move the magnifying glass across the room your chances of seeing the magnifying glass nearly perfectly aligned with another object beyond it diminishes hand-off: hawaii to taipei after tran first spotted potential evidence of the rare phenomenon while analyzing spectrographic data from the wm keck observatory in hawaii team members kenneth wong and sherry suyu of academia sinica institute of astronomy & astrophysics (asiaa) in taipei taiwan used the gravitational lensing from the chance alignment to measure the giant galaxys total mass including the amount of dark matter by gauging the intensity of its lensing effects on the background galaxys light the giant foreground galaxy weighs 180 billion times more than our sun and is a massive galaxy for its epoch it is also one of the brightest members of a distant cluster of galaxies called irc 0218 there are hundreds of lens galaxies that we know about but almost all of them are relatively nearby in cosmic terms said wong first author on the teams science paper which was published in the july 10 issue of the astrophysical journal letters to find a lens as far away as this one is a very special discovery because we can learn about the dark-matter content of galaxies in the distant past by comparing our analysis of this lens galaxy to the more nearby lenses we can start to understand how that dark-matter content has evolved over time although the elliptical galaxy is hefty it is not yet as massive as many of todays galaxies our milky way galaxy for example is three to four times more massive than the elliptical galaxy but while most of the milky ways mass is locked up in dark matter this lensing galaxy is notably underweight in terms of its dark-matter content the unusually small amount of dark matter in this massive elliptical lensing galaxy is very surprising suyu said other elliptical galaxies that are closer to us have much more dark matter and have inventories of stars that appear to be different from this super-distant lensing galaxy the team suspects that the lensing galaxy will continue to grow over the next 9 billion years gaining stars and dark matter by cannibalizing neighboring galaxies recent studies suggest that these massive galaxies gain more dark matter than stars as they continue to grow tran said astronomers had assumed that dark matter and normal matter build up equally in a galaxy over time but now we know that the ratio of dark matter to normal matter changes with time our lensing galaxy will eventually become much more massive than the milky way and definitely will have more dark matter too signature surprise tran and her team were studying star formation in two distant galaxy clusters including irc 0218 when they stumbled upon the gravitational lens in poring over the spectrographic data from keck tran spotted a strong detection of hot hydrogen gas a clear signature of star birth that appeared to arise from a massive bright elliptical galaxy previous observations had showed that the giant elliptical was an old sedate galaxy that had stopped making stars a long time ago another puzzling discovery was that the young stars were at a much farther distance than the massive elliptical i was very surprised and very worried tran recalled i thought we had made a major mistake with our observations the astronomer soon realized she hadnt made a mistake when she looked at the hubble images taken in blue wavelengths which revealed the glow of fledgling stars the images taken by the advanced camera for surveys and the wide field camera 3 revealed a blue eyebrow-shaped object next to a smeared blue dot around the big elliptical tran recognized the unusual features as the distorted magnified images of a more distant galaxy behind the elliptical the signature of a gravitational lens but some team members were not convinced speculating that the two objects could be a nearby galaxy pair being shredded during a galaxy collision with only the cosmic equivalent of a partial fingerprint tran needed conclusive evidence to confirm the gravitational-lens hypothesis collaborator ivelina momcheva of yale university analyzed hubble spectroscopic data from the 3d-hst survey a near-infrared spectroscopic survey taken with the wide field camera 3 she compared that data with images from the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) a large hubble deep-sky program to paint an even more detailed picture of the system momcheva also added archival hubble observations of the galaxy cluster the data turned up another fingerprint of hot gas connected to the more distant galaxy we discovered that light from the lensing galaxy and from the background galaxy were blended in the ground-based data which was confusing us momcheva said the keck spectroscopic data hinted that something interesting was going on here but only with hubbles high-resolution spectroscopy were we able to separate the lensing galaxy from the more distant background galaxy and determine that the two were at different distances the hubble data also revealed the telltale look of the system with the foreground lens in the middle flanked by a bright arc on one side and a faint smudge on the other both distorted images of the background galaxy we needed the combination of imaging and spectroscopy to solve the puzzle mass and other matters the distant galaxy is too small and far away for hubble to resolve its structure team members therefore reconstructed and analyzed the distribution of light in the object to infer its spiral shape in addition spiral galaxies are more plentiful during those early times the hubble images also reveal at least one bright compact region near the center the team suspects that the bright region is due to a flurry of star formation and is most likely composed of hot hydrogen gas heated by massive young stars team members calculated the lensing galaxys mass including its dark-matter content by first measuring the amount of light emitted by its stars from that measurement the astronomers obtained the mass of all the stars which equals the amount of normal matter next the team estimated the total mass by measuring how much the galaxys gravity bends and distorts light from the distant background galaxy the astronomers then subtracted the stellar mass from the total mass to determine the amount of dark matter in the galaxy as tran continues her star-formation study in galaxy clusters she says she will be hunting for more signatures of gravitational lensing im definitely going to keep an eye out for more lensing galaxies but theyre so rare that you would normally have to survey hundreds of clusters for them tran added thats why finding this one in such a small area of space was a complete shock to learn more about this research which is supported by nasa through the hubble space telescope science institute (stsci) and texas a&m astronomy for more information about the texas a&m mitchell institute go to http://mitchelltamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-5853 or vy@physicstamuedu the post hubble reveals farthest lensing galaxy yielding clues to early universe appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " an international team of astronomers led by texas a&m universitys kim-vy tran and using nasas hubble space telescope has unexpectedly discovered the most distant cosmic magnifying glass yet produced by a monster elliptical galaxy the galaxy existed 96 billion years ago beating the previous record by 200 million years it is known as a lensing galaxy because it is so massive that its gravity bends magnifies and distorts light from objects behind it a phenomenon called gravitational lensing the object behind the cosmic lens is a tiny spiral galaxy undergoing a rapid burst of star formation whose light has taken 107 billion years to arrive here seeing this chance alignment at such a great distance from earth is a rare find and tran says locating more of these distant lensing galaxies will offer insight into how young galaxies in the early universe built themselves up into the massive dark-matter-dominated galaxies of today although dark matter cannot be seen it accounts for the bulk of the universes matter when you look more than 9 billion years ago in the early universe you dont expect to find this type of galaxy-galaxy lensing at all said tran lead researcher in the study and a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2009 its very difficult to see an alignment between two galaxies in the early universe imagine holding a magnifying glass close to you and then moving it much farther away when you look through a magnifying glass held at arms length the chances that you will see an enlarged object are high but if you move the magnifying glass across the room your chances of seeing the magnifying glass nearly perfectly aligned with another object beyond it diminishes hand-off: hawaii to taipei after tran first spotted potential evidence of the rare phenomenon while analyzing spectrographic data from the wm keck observatory in hawaii team members kenneth wong and sherry suyu of academia sinica institute of astronomy & astrophysics (asiaa) in taipei taiwan used the gravitational lensing from the chance alignment to measure the giant galaxys total mass including the amount of dark matter by gauging the intensity of its lensing effects on the background galaxys light the giant foreground galaxy weighs 180 billion times more than our sun and is a massive galaxy for its epoch it is also one of the brightest members of a distant cluster of galaxies called irc 0218 there are hundreds of lens galaxies that we know about but almost all of them are relatively nearby in cosmic terms said wong first author on the teams science paper which was published in the july 10 issue of the astrophysical journal letters to find a lens as far away as this one is a very special discovery because we can learn about the dark-matter content of galaxies in the distant past by comparing our analysis of this lens galaxy to the more nearby lenses we can start to understand how that dark-matter content has evolved over time although the elliptical galaxy is hefty it is not yet as massive as many of todays galaxies our milky way galaxy for example is three to four times more massive than the elliptical galaxy but while most of the milky ways mass is locked up in dark matter this lensing galaxy is notably underweight in terms of its dark-matter content the unusually small amount of dark matter in this massive elliptical lensing galaxy is very surprising suyu said other elliptical galaxies that are closer to us have much more dark matter and have inventories of stars that appear to be different from this super-distant lensing galaxy the team suspects that the lensing galaxy will continue to grow over the next 9 billion years gaining stars and dark matter by cannibalizing neighboring galaxies recent studies suggest that these massive galaxies gain more dark matter than stars as they continue to grow tran said astronomers had assumed that dark matter and normal matter build up equally in a galaxy over time but now we know that the ratio of dark matter to normal matter changes with time our lensing galaxy will eventually become much more massive than the milky way and definitely will have more dark matter too signature surprise tran and her team were studying star formation in two distant galaxy clusters including irc 0218 when they stumbled upon the gravitational lens in poring over the spectrographic data from keck tran spotted a strong detection of hot hydrogen gas a clear signature of star birth that appeared to arise from a massive bright elliptical galaxy previous observations had showed that the giant elliptical was an old sedate galaxy that had stopped making stars a long time ago another puzzling discovery was that the young stars were at a much farther distance than the massive elliptical i was very surprised and very worried tran recalled i thought we had made a major mistake with our observations the astronomer soon realized she hadnt made a mistake when she looked at the hubble images taken in blue wavelengths which revealed the glow of fledgling stars the images taken by the advanced camera for surveys and the wide field camera 3 revealed a blue eyebrow-shaped object next to a smeared blue dot around the big elliptical tran recognized the unusual features as the distorted magnified images of a more distant galaxy behind the elliptical the signature of a gravitational lens but some team members were not convinced speculating that the two objects could be a nearby galaxy pair being shredded during a galaxy collision with only the cosmic equivalent of a partial fingerprint tran needed conclusive evidence to confirm the gravitational-lens hypothesis collaborator ivelina momcheva of yale university analyzed hubble spectroscopic data from the 3d-hst survey a near-infrared spectroscopic survey taken with the wide field camera 3 she compared that data with images from the cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey (candels) a large hubble deep-sky program to paint an even more detailed picture of the system momcheva also added archival hubble observations of the galaxy cluster the data turned up another fingerprint of hot gas connected to the more distant galaxy we discovered that light from the lensing galaxy and from the background galaxy were blended in the ground-based data which was confusing us momcheva said the keck spectroscopic data hinted that something interesting was going on here but only with hubbles high-resolution spectroscopy were we able to separate the lensing galaxy from the more distant background galaxy and determine that the two were at different distances the hubble data also revealed the telltale look of the system with the foreground lens in the middle flanked by a bright arc on one side and a faint smudge on the other both distorted images of the background galaxy we needed the combination of imaging and spectroscopy to solve the puzzle mass and other matters the distant galaxy is too small and far away for hubble to resolve its structure team members therefore reconstructed and analyzed the distribution of light in the object to infer its spiral shape in addition spiral galaxies are more plentiful during those early times the hubble images also reveal at least one bright compact region near the center the team suspects that the bright region is due to a flurry of star formation and is most likely composed of hot hydrogen gas heated by massive young stars team members calculated the lensing galaxys mass including its dark-matter content by first measuring the amount of light emitted by its stars from that measurement the astronomers obtained the mass of all the stars which equals the amount of normal matter next the team estimated the total mass by measuring how much the galaxys gravity bends and distorts light from the distant background galaxy the astronomers then subtracted the stellar mass from the total mass to determine the amount of dark matter in the galaxy as tran continues her star-formation study in galaxy clusters she says she will be hunting for more signatures of gravitational lensing im definitely going to keep an eye out for more lensing galaxies but theyre so rare that you would normally have to survey hundreds of clusters for them tran added thats why finding this one in such a small area of space was a complete shock to learn more about this research which is supported by nasa through the hubble space telescope science institute (stsci) and texas a&m astronomy for more information about the texas a&m mitchell institute go to http://mitchelltamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-5853 or vy@physicstamuedu " " college station a new documentary celebrating the life of visionary texas businessman and global energy pioneer george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m university and all-time most generous donor in texas a&m history is set to make its public television debut next month roughly a week after the one-year anniversary of his death george p mitchell: a difference maker will air at 1 pm sunday august 3 on houston public media channel 8 / kuht tv 8 the broadcast of the 30-minute biography written and produced by rick christie president of studio w inc in houston is sponsored by texas a&m enervest ltd and joe b foster 56 former founder and chief executive officer of newfield exploration co mitchells is a true rags-to-riches success story: a billionaire entrepreneur who overcame poverty to graduate first in his class at texas a&m serve his country during world war ii as an officer in the army corps of engineers build a fortune 500 oil and gas company create a master-planned new town in the woodlands and transform both his hometown of galveston and his alma maters physics and astronomy program with his philanthropic efforts somewhere in the overall plot development he also near-singlehandedly ushered in a worldwide energy revolution in 2010 texas a&m university press published the book george mitchell and the idea of sustainability written by his close friend and colleague jurgen schmandt the quasi-biographical work looks at mitchells life and career primarily through the lens of his engagement with the idea of sustainability dvd cover for the documentary george p mitchell: a difference maker set to air at 1 pm sunday august 3 on houston public media channel 8 / kuht tv 8 (credit: studio w inc) george mitchell by almost anyones account is an important man said christie a six-time emmy award winner his name is well known in many circles for many reasons his is a story that deserves to be shared and shared broadly as an added bonus christies version of the story about the man known as the father of fracking and honored in 2013 as both a history-making texan and houstonian of the century is one told primarily in mitchells own words as preserved in more than 100 video interviews recently unearthed by christie who worked for mitchell during the time that most of them were filmed christie brings a unique viewpoint to an already compelling story of a self-made man he describes the documentary as a labor of love a creative melding of mitchells narratives with select segments featuring state and national vips experts and opinion leaders including daniel yergin noted energy economist and pulitzer prize-winning author george mitchell more than anyone else is responsible for the most important energy innovation of the 21st century yergin asserts in one notable clip its because of george that we can talk seriously about ‚Äòenergy independence texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp texas a&m dean of science h joseph newton and texas a&m professor of physics and astronomy peter m mcintyre are among those paying tribute to mitchell in the documentary along with foster texas governor rick perry and former mitchell energy & development corp geologist dan steward mitchells granddaughter katherine lorenz president of the cynthia and george mitchell foundation and linda bomke who retired in december as vice president after serving 42 years at mitchell energy & development corp and the mitchell family corporation also appear in the production in 2013 forbes magazine estimated mitchells net worth as $2 billion placing him among the 500 richest people in the world at the time of his death on july 26 2013 mitchell had pledged the majority of that wealth toward philanthropic initiatives including more than $95 million in donations to texas a&m from his namesake george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy to the 135 acres for texas a&m university at galvestons main campus in addition he committed $3325 million to the giant magellan telescope including a lead gift of $125 million in 2004 that established texas a&m as a founding partner in the next-generation ground-based wonder likewise his mitchell foundation continues to champion a grant program that supports a variety of scientific and sustainability issues including environmental protection social equity and economic vibrancy history will remember george mitchell for his technological achievement in oil and gas extraction that put the united states and much of the world on a direct path to energy independence christie said however students of history will revere george and his resilient spirit dogged perseverance and uncanny ability to connect dots so often invisible to others in an effort to anticipate where the world would could or should be whether present or future thats a powerful takeaway for us all learn more about mitchell and his visionary life watch a trailer for the documentary on youtube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or carrie woliver (713) 961-2797 or carwol@aolcom the post must-see tv: george p mitchell documentary set to debut august 3 on houston pbs appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a new documentary celebrating the life of visionary texas businessman and global energy pioneer george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m university and all-time most generous donor in texas a&m history is set to make its public television debut next month roughly a week after the one-year anniversary of his death george p mitchell: a difference maker will air at 1 pm sunday august 3 on houston public media channel 8 / kuht tv 8 the broadcast of the 30-minute biography written and produced by rick christie president of studio w inc in houston is sponsored by texas a&m enervest ltd and joe b foster 56 former founder and chief executive officer of newfield exploration co mitchells is a true rags-to-riches success story: a billionaire entrepreneur who overcame poverty to graduate first in his class at texas a&m serve his country during world war ii as an officer in the army corps of engineers build a fortune 500 oil and gas company create a master-planned new town in the woodlands and transform both his hometown of galveston and his alma maters physics and astronomy program with his philanthropic efforts somewhere in the overall plot development he also near-singlehandedly ushered in a worldwide energy revolution in 2010 texas a&m university press published the book george mitchell and the idea of sustainability written by his close friend and colleague jurgen schmandt the quasi-biographical work looks at mitchells life and career primarily through the lens of his engagement with the idea of sustainability dvd cover for the documentary george p mitchell: a difference maker set to air at 1 pm sunday august 3 on houston public media channel 8 / kuht tv 8 (credit: studio w inc) george mitchell by almost anyones account is an important man said christie a six-time emmy award winner his name is well known in many circles for many reasons his is a story that deserves to be shared and shared broadly as an added bonus christies version of the story about the man known as the father of fracking and honored in 2013 as both a history-making texan and houstonian of the century is one told primarily in mitchells own words as preserved in more than 100 video interviews recently unearthed by christie who worked for mitchell during the time that most of them were filmed christie brings a unique viewpoint to an already compelling story of a self-made man he describes the documentary as a labor of love a creative melding of mitchells narratives with select segments featuring state and national vips experts and opinion leaders including daniel yergin noted energy economist and pulitzer prize-winning author george mitchell more than anyone else is responsible for the most important energy innovation of the 21st century yergin asserts in one notable clip its because of george that we can talk seriously about ‚Äòenergy independence texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp texas a&m dean of science h joseph newton and texas a&m professor of physics and astronomy peter m mcintyre are among those paying tribute to mitchell in the documentary along with foster texas governor rick perry and former mitchell energy & development corp geologist dan steward mitchells granddaughter katherine lorenz president of the cynthia and george mitchell foundation and linda bomke who retired in december as vice president after serving 42 years at mitchell energy & development corp and the mitchell family corporation also appear in the production in 2013 forbes magazine estimated mitchells net worth as $2 billion placing him among the 500 richest people in the world at the time of his death on july 26 2013 mitchell had pledged the majority of that wealth toward philanthropic initiatives including more than $95 million in donations to texas a&m from his namesake george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy to the 135 acres for texas a&m university at galvestons main campus in addition he committed $3325 million to the giant magellan telescope including a lead gift of $125 million in 2004 that established texas a&m as a founding partner in the next-generation ground-based wonder likewise his mitchell foundation continues to champion a grant program that supports a variety of scientific and sustainability issues including environmental protection social equity and economic vibrancy history will remember george mitchell for his technological achievement in oil and gas extraction that put the united states and much of the world on a direct path to energy independence christie said however students of history will revere george and his resilient spirit dogged perseverance and uncanny ability to connect dots so often invisible to others in an effort to anticipate where the world would could or should be whether present or future thats a powerful takeaway for us all learn more about mitchell and his visionary life watch a trailer for the documentary on youtube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or carrie woliver (713) 961-2797 or carwol@aolcom " " college station texas a&m university is involved in two of the three dark matter experiments including both of the ones searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles selected for future funding by the us department of energy and the national science foundation on friday (july 11) the does office of science and nsfs physics division jointly announced they will back the super cryogenic dark matter search or supercdms-snolab experiment; the lux-zeplin experiment or lz; and the next iteration of the axion dark matter experiment admx-gen2 all three are classified as second-generation dark matter experiments because each will be at least 10 times as sensitive as the current standard in dark matter detection texas a&m scientists are longtime collaborators in the lz and supercdms experiments both of which are located underground and searching for wimps or weakly interacting massive particles admx-gen2 will search for a different kind of dark matter particles called axions two of the three dark matter experiments earmarked for funding support last week by the us department of energy and the national science foundation (including both of the ones searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles) are represented at texas a&m university (credit: nasa) closeup of a next-generation 4-inch detector in its mount fabricated at texas a&m university by high-energy physicist rupak mahapatra and his team for use in the generation 2 (g2) experiment at snolab texas a&ms robert c webb holder of the ed rachal chair in high-energy physics is a principal investigator in lz which is based in south dakota and managed by does lawrence berkeley national laboratory in addition texas a&m high-energy physicists rupak mahapatra and david toback and condensed matter physicist h rusty harris are principal investigators in supercdms now situated in ontario canada and managed by another doe power player fermi national accelerator laboratory the doe and nsf have selected the programs best suited to take the hunt for these elusive particles to the next level of sensitivity and texas a&m is involved with two of them webb said this is a very exciting time for dark matter research and both teams are hopeful that going to this next level of sensitivity will enhance our chances of discovering these objects webb and the late texas a&m physicist james white were two of the founding members of the large underground xenon (lux) experiment which joined forces with the united kingdom-based zeplin (zoned proportional scintillation in liquid noble gases) project shortly after revealing luxs first results in october 2013 that established it as the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world selection excitement notwithstanding the synergistic multidisciplinary research of two texas a&m departments physics and astronomy and electrical & computer engineering is underscored by the collaboration between mahapatra and harris (who holds joint appointments in both departments) that is helping to establish texas a&m and its george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as a driving force as the hunt for dark matter intensifies dark matter if discovered could be the lynchpin between particle physics astronomy and cosmology and thus is at the very center of mitchell institute activities noted toback who joined mahapatra and harris as a pi in the experiment last year and brings decades of collider-based research experience at the fermilab tevatron indeed without the institutes crucial support the proposals would not been nearly as strong which is vital in competition not every dark matter experiment was selected to move forward but all the ones in the mitchell institute were program directors from the two federal funding agencies decided which experiments to pursue based on the advice of a panel of outside experts both agencies have committed to working to develop the new projects as expeditiously as possible according to jim whitmore program director for particle astrophysics in the division of physics at nsf the funding agencies opted for a varied particle-hunting approach because although physicists have seen plenty of evidence of the existence of dark matter through its strong gravitational influence they do not yet know what it looks like as individual particles we wanted to pool limited resources to put together the most optimal unified national dark matter program we could create said michael salamon who manages does dark matter program lz is capable of identifying wimps with a wide range of masses including those much heavier than any particle the large hadron collider at cern could produce supercdms which reported observation of the first concrete hint of wimps in 2013 will specialize in looking for light wimps with masses lower than 10 gev [gigaelectronvolts] (and of course both lz and supercdms are willing to stretch their boundaries a bit if called upon to double-check one anothers results) if a wimp hits the lz detector a high-tech barrel of liquid xenon it will produce quanta of light called photons if a wimp hits the supercdms detector a collection of hockey-puck-sized integrated circuits made with silicon or germanium and currently being fabricated at texas a&m it will produce quanta of sound called phonons texas a&ms supercdms group which currently features three pis and is set to add a fourth this fall is the largest among all collaboration members their activities in the experiment span a wide range of technical and scientific aspects from detector fabrication to cryogenic detector testing electronics data acquisition and data analysis we are very excited about the detector technology we are developing and how crucial it is to the success of the low-threshold detectors ideally suited for the low-mass wimp search mahapatra said the large investments from doe nsf and the texas a&m college of science in our group are finally leading us to play a major role in this world-leading dark matter search experiment despite the fact that both supercdms and lz will be located underground insuring that their detectors will be shielded from cosmic rays and the resulting potential of false positives they will still need to deal with natural radiation from the decay of uranium and thorium in the rock around them to combat this both experiments collect a second signal in addition to light or sound charge the ratio of the two signals lets them know whether the light or sound came from a dark matter particle or something else supercdms will be especially skilled at this kind of differentiation which is why the experiment should excel at searching for hard-to-hear low-mass particles we have been able to apply techniques used in the chip technology sector to vastly improve the quality cost and throughput of detectors for the cdms collaboration said harris who has extensive experience in the semiconductor industry in addition the creative interplay of high-energy particle physics and condensed matter physics has resulted in new innovative ideas to make detectors that can potentially detect dark matter particles lzs strength on the other hand stems from its size dark matter particles are constantly flowing through the earth so their interaction points in a dark matter detector should be distributed evenly throughout quanta of radiation however can be stopped by much less significant barriers alpha particles by a piece of paper beta particles by a sandwich even gamma ray particles which are harder to stop cannot reach the center of lzs 7-ton detector when a particle with the right characteristics interacts in the center of lz scientists will know to get excited for more information on the lux-zeplin experiment and webbs related research visit dr robert webb to learn more about the supercdms experiment and texas a&ms involvement go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- (story contains excerpts from original that appears in symmetry magazine) contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu; or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post next-generation dark matter experiments involving texas a&m get go-ahead from doe nsf appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university is involved in two of the three dark matter experiments including both of the ones searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles selected for future funding by the us department of energy and the national science foundation on friday (july 11) the does office of science and nsfs physics division jointly announced they will back the super cryogenic dark matter search or supercdms-snolab experiment; the lux-zeplin experiment or lz; and the next iteration of the axion dark matter experiment admx-gen2 all three are classified as second-generation dark matter experiments because each will be at least 10 times as sensitive as the current standard in dark matter detection texas a&m scientists are longtime collaborators in the lz and supercdms experiments both of which are located underground and searching for wimps or weakly interacting massive particles admx-gen2 will search for a different kind of dark matter particles called axions two of the three dark matter experiments earmarked for funding support last week by the us department of energy and the national science foundation (including both of the ones searching for weakly interacting dark matter particles) are represented at texas a&m university (credit: nasa) closeup of a next-generation 4-inch detector in its mount fabricated at texas a&m university by high-energy physicist rupak mahapatra and his team for use in the generation 2 (g2) experiment at snolab texas a&ms robert c webb holder of the ed rachal chair in high-energy physics is a principal investigator in lz which is based in south dakota and managed by does lawrence berkeley national laboratory in addition texas a&m high-energy physicists rupak mahapatra and david toback and condensed matter physicist h rusty harris are principal investigators in supercdms now situated in ontario canada and managed by another doe power player fermi national accelerator laboratory the doe and nsf have selected the programs best suited to take the hunt for these elusive particles to the next level of sensitivity and texas a&m is involved with two of them webb said this is a very exciting time for dark matter research and both teams are hopeful that going to this next level of sensitivity will enhance our chances of discovering these objects webb and the late texas a&m physicist james white were two of the founding members of the large underground xenon (lux) experiment which joined forces with the united kingdom-based zeplin (zoned proportional scintillation in liquid noble gases) project shortly after revealing luxs first results in october 2013 that established it as the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world selection excitement notwithstanding the synergistic multidisciplinary research of two texas a&m departments physics and astronomy and electrical & computer engineering is underscored by the collaboration between mahapatra and harris (who holds joint appointments in both departments) that is helping to establish texas a&m and its george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as a driving force as the hunt for dark matter intensifies dark matter if discovered could be the lynchpin between particle physics astronomy and cosmology and thus is at the very center of mitchell institute activities noted toback who joined mahapatra and harris as a pi in the experiment last year and brings decades of collider-based research experience at the fermilab tevatron indeed without the institutes crucial support the proposals would not been nearly as strong which is vital in competition not every dark matter experiment was selected to move forward but all the ones in the mitchell institute were program directors from the two federal funding agencies decided which experiments to pursue based on the advice of a panel of outside experts both agencies have committed to working to develop the new projects as expeditiously as possible according to jim whitmore program director for particle astrophysics in the division of physics at nsf the funding agencies opted for a varied particle-hunting approach because although physicists have seen plenty of evidence of the existence of dark matter through its strong gravitational influence they do not yet know what it looks like as individual particles we wanted to pool limited resources to put together the most optimal unified national dark matter program we could create said michael salamon who manages does dark matter program lz is capable of identifying wimps with a wide range of masses including those much heavier than any particle the large hadron collider at cern could produce supercdms which reported observation of the first concrete hint of wimps in 2013 will specialize in looking for light wimps with masses lower than 10 gev [gigaelectronvolts] (and of course both lz and supercdms are willing to stretch their boundaries a bit if called upon to double-check one anothers results) if a wimp hits the lz detector a high-tech barrel of liquid xenon it will produce quanta of light called photons if a wimp hits the supercdms detector a collection of hockey-puck-sized integrated circuits made with silicon or germanium and currently being fabricated at texas a&m it will produce quanta of sound called phonons texas a&ms supercdms group which currently features three pis and is set to add a fourth this fall is the largest among all collaboration members their activities in the experiment span a wide range of technical and scientific aspects from detector fabrication to cryogenic detector testing electronics data acquisition and data analysis we are very excited about the detector technology we are developing and how crucial it is to the success of the low-threshold detectors ideally suited for the low-mass wimp search mahapatra said the large investments from doe nsf and the texas a&m college of science in our group are finally leading us to play a major role in this world-leading dark matter search experiment despite the fact that both supercdms and lz will be located underground insuring that their detectors will be shielded from cosmic rays and the resulting potential of false positives they will still need to deal with natural radiation from the decay of uranium and thorium in the rock around them to combat this both experiments collect a second signal in addition to light or sound charge the ratio of the two signals lets them know whether the light or sound came from a dark matter particle or something else supercdms will be especially skilled at this kind of differentiation which is why the experiment should excel at searching for hard-to-hear low-mass particles we have been able to apply techniques used in the chip technology sector to vastly improve the quality cost and throughput of detectors for the cdms collaboration said harris who has extensive experience in the semiconductor industry in addition the creative interplay of high-energy particle physics and condensed matter physics has resulted in new innovative ideas to make detectors that can potentially detect dark matter particles lzs strength on the other hand stems from its size dark matter particles are constantly flowing through the earth so their interaction points in a dark matter detector should be distributed evenly throughout quanta of radiation however can be stopped by much less significant barriers alpha particles by a piece of paper beta particles by a sandwich even gamma ray particles which are harder to stop cannot reach the center of lzs 7-ton detector when a particle with the right characteristics interacts in the center of lz scientists will know to get excited for more information on the lux-zeplin experiment and webbs related research visit dr robert webb to learn more about the supercdms experiment and texas a&ms involvement go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- (story contains excerpts from original that appears in symmetry magazine) contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu; or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " college station an international team of astronomers has discovered a new exoplanet orbiting just one star in a two-star system a dynamic duo not only strikingly similar to our earth and sun but also key to the continuing evolution of planetary formation science the teams research published today in the july 4 edition of science details a planet twice the mass of earth and similar in its orbit as the primary component of a relatively close binary system which typically involves two stars orbiting each other as a pair according to texas a&m university astronomer and exoplanet expert darren depoy the planet is interesting because of the similarity with its mass and orbit relative to its star being about the same as ours depoy said because the star is much less luminous than the sun however the planet is cold the geometry of a gravitational microlensing event as illustrated by auckland observatory and microfun member grant christie in his 2009 paper the gravitational field of the lens magnifies the image of the source star and so brightens it while the presence of an exoplanet causes caustics closed contours that correspond to lines of nearly infinite magnification in the lens as christie explains a source star passing over or close to a caustic implies detection of a planet (credit: grant christie) darren depoy depoy says the planet called ogle-2013-blg-0341lbb is in the milky way galaxy in the disk about halfway to the center and quite a long way off about 3 000 light-years from earth we are observing the target with the spitzer space telescope which should allow us to determine a more precise distance given that the satellite is relatively far from the earth and has a different perspective on the event he added depoy director of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy helped set up the teams observational network and build the instrumentation used for their measurements he joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 as holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in the department of physics and astronomy after an 18-year career at ohio state university home of the papers lead author andrew gould while depoy admits there are other similar to earth systems in the universe (although not many he is quick to add) he says this finding is unusual and unprecedented due to the new light it sheds on previous planetary formation models theory used to predict planets wouldnt form in binaries because the two stars would disrupt the material from which planets could form by not allowing that material to condense and to gravitate together depoy said this more or less demonstrates that is incorrect and gives the theorists something to think about when searching for planets and other such large bodies in deep space astronomers rely on a technique called microlensing which depoy explains is an observable phenomenon that occurs when light from a star that is very far away is bent toward us courtesy of other stars closer to us for this particular study the team used gravitational microlensing which allows low-mass exoplanets to be detected at large distances regardless of the amount of light they emit they obtained their data from a series of worldwide gravitational microlensing events as observed by astronomers at facilities across australia chile japan korea and new zealand depoy describes the discovery as nothing short of a world wonder the direct result of joint scholarly effort funded in part by the national science foundation and nasa among others and the pooled resources of four global microlensing survey groups: goulds ohio state-based microlensing follow up network (microfun); the warsaw-based optical gravitational lens experiment (ogle) team at las companas in chile; the microlensing observations in astrophysics (moa) team in new zealand; and the wise observatory team in israel three dozen scientists affiliated with nine international observatories and more than 20 international universities (including only two us-based institutions other than texas a&m and ohio state harvard university and the university of notre dame) were involved in the collaborative worldwide feat one of the best things about astronomy is its worldwide nature depoy said my contribution to all of this was to help get the instruments in place on telescopes of many different sizes around the world from little digital cameras on small amateur telescopes in new zealand to large sophisticated multi-color imagers at professional telescopes in chile we have since expanded this sort of activity to other arenas and we now have texas a&m students looking for planets using transits not microlensing in very young regions of our milky way galaxy for example as for the broader collaborative context for texas a&m astronomy depoy says the future is universally bright from the potential projects to eventual groundbreaking discoveries just last week six of us from texas a&m were at an international astronomical instrumentation conference in montreal where roughly 3 000 people from all over the world met to discuss ongoing and future projects depoy said one of [munnerlyn lab manager and senior research scientist] jennifer marshalls presentations involving several undergraduates who helped with the project was among the most popular pieces of work at the conference the giant magellan telescope [for which texas a&m is one of 10 partners] went over very well too to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related research projects visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu watch a related video simulation by io9 contributing editor george dvorsky on youtube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post dynamic duo: astronomers detect cold earth-like planet orbiting dim sun-like star appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " an international team of astronomers has discovered a new exoplanet orbiting just one star in a two-star system a dynamic duo not only strikingly similar to our earth and sun but also key to the continuing evolution of planetary formation science the teams research published today in the july 4 edition of science details a planet twice the mass of earth and similar in its orbit as the primary component of a relatively close binary system which typically involves two stars orbiting each other as a pair according to texas a&m university astronomer and exoplanet expert darren depoy the planet is interesting because of the similarity with its mass and orbit relative to its star being about the same as ours depoy said because the star is much less luminous than the sun however the planet is cold the geometry of a gravitational microlensing event as illustrated by auckland observatory and microfun member grant christie in his 2009 paper the gravitational field of the lens magnifies the image of the source star and so brightens it while the presence of an exoplanet causes caustics closed contours that correspond to lines of nearly infinite magnification in the lens as christie explains a source star passing over or close to a caustic implies detection of a planet (credit: grant christie) darren depoy depoy says the planet called ogle-2013-blg-0341lbb is in the milky way galaxy in the disk about halfway to the center and quite a long way off about 3 000 light-years from earth we are observing the target with the spitzer space telescope which should allow us to determine a more precise distance given that the satellite is relatively far from the earth and has a different perspective on the event he added depoy director of texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy helped set up the teams observational network and build the instrumentation used for their measurements he joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 as holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in the department of physics and astronomy after an 18-year career at ohio state university home of the papers lead author andrew gould while depoy admits there are other similar to earth systems in the universe (although not many he is quick to add) he says this finding is unusual and unprecedented due to the new light it sheds on previous planetary formation models theory used to predict planets wouldnt form in binaries because the two stars would disrupt the material from which planets could form by not allowing that material to condense and to gravitate together depoy said this more or less demonstrates that is incorrect and gives the theorists something to think about when searching for planets and other such large bodies in deep space astronomers rely on a technique called microlensing which depoy explains is an observable phenomenon that occurs when light from a star that is very far away is bent toward us courtesy of other stars closer to us for this particular study the team used gravitational microlensing which allows low-mass exoplanets to be detected at large distances regardless of the amount of light they emit they obtained their data from a series of worldwide gravitational microlensing events as observed by astronomers at facilities across australia chile japan korea and new zealand depoy describes the discovery as nothing short of a world wonder the direct result of joint scholarly effort funded in part by the national science foundation and nasa among others and the pooled resources of four global microlensing survey groups: goulds ohio state-based microlensing follow up network (microfun); the warsaw-based optical gravitational lens experiment (ogle) team at las companas in chile; the microlensing observations in astrophysics (moa) team in new zealand; and the wise observatory team in israel three dozen scientists affiliated with nine international observatories and more than 20 international universities (including only two us-based institutions other than texas a&m and ohio state harvard university and the university of notre dame) were involved in the collaborative worldwide feat one of the best things about astronomy is its worldwide nature depoy said my contribution to all of this was to help get the instruments in place on telescopes of many different sizes around the world from little digital cameras on small amateur telescopes in new zealand to large sophisticated multi-color imagers at professional telescopes in chile we have since expanded this sort of activity to other arenas and we now have texas a&m students looking for planets using transits not microlensing in very young regions of our milky way galaxy for example as for the broader collaborative context for texas a&m astronomy depoy says the future is universally bright from the potential projects to eventual groundbreaking discoveries just last week six of us from texas a&m were at an international astronomical instrumentation conference in montreal where roughly 3 000 people from all over the world met to discuss ongoing and future projects depoy said one of [munnerlyn lab manager and senior research scientist] jennifer marshalls presentations involving several undergraduates who helped with the project was among the most popular pieces of work at the conference the giant magellan telescope [for which texas a&m is one of 10 partners] went over very well too to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related research projects visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $820 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu watch a related video simulation by io9 contributing editor george dvorsky on youtube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university physicist tatiana erukhimova has been honored by the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society as the 2014 recipient of the chapters outstanding science communicator award in recognition of superior skill and dedication to improving science education erukhimova received a commemorative plaque and a $750 cash prize at the 2014 sigma xi induction and awards banquet held may 1 at the college station hilton james womack a distinguished professor in the department of veterinary pathobiology also was honored with the 2014 sigma xi outstanding distinguished scientist award recognizing faculty members who have demonstrated research and teaching excellence as well as significant contributions to their profession and general science erukhimova a senior lecturer in the department of physics and astronomy received her phd in physics from the russian academy of sciences in 1999 in addition to teaching and research she serves as the physics outreach coordinator spearheading eight annual physics and engineering festivals each of which has been attended by thousands of visitors from all over texas and other states she developed the physics show an interactive presentation involving entertaining physics demonstrations and hands-on exhibits since 2007 erukhimova has conducted more than 170 shows attended by more than 11 000 people of all ages in 2012 erukhimova received a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant designed to engage students in physics and engineering outreach in addition she is a co-organizer of the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) which includes annual summer boarding schools for physics teachers from texas high schools moreover she continues to share her experience and passion for physics outreach through presentations at local national and international conferences as part of the may 1 event the chapter also presented outstanding math or science teachers awards to sally hughes outstanding math and science teacher greens prairie elementary school in college station; rebekah schaub outstanding science teacher stephen f austin middle school in bryan; and jamie bassett outstanding math teacher a&m consolidated high school in college station prizes also were presented to six winners in the societys annual drawing and essay contest former astronaut gregory e chamitoff a professor of engineering practice in the department of aerospace engineering delivered the ceremonys keynote address the international space station: a laboratory for the science and engineering to enable our future sigma xi is an international multidisciplinary research society honoring scientists whose work promotes scientific enterprise and rewarding excellence in scientific research founded in 1886 at cornell university sigma xi has grown to include more than 500 chapters across north america and around the world at colleges and universities to date there are more than 60 000 active members in more than 100 countries around the world the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi was chartered july 1 1951 with a mission to recognize encourage and promote scientific research at texas a&m university and to honor the community of science scholars -atm- contact: michelle sullens (979) 458-4066 or sigmaxi@tamuedu the post erukhimova earns sigma xi outstanding science communicator award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university physicist tatiana erukhimova has been honored by the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society as the 2014 recipient of the chapters outstanding science communicator award in recognition of superior skill and dedication to improving science education erukhimova received a commemorative plaque and a $750 cash prize at the 2014 sigma xi induction and awards banquet held may 1 at the college station hilton james womack a distinguished professor in the department of veterinary pathobiology also was honored with the 2014 sigma xi outstanding distinguished scientist award recognizing faculty members who have demonstrated research and teaching excellence as well as significant contributions to their profession and general science erukhimova a senior lecturer in the department of physics and astronomy received her phd in physics from the russian academy of sciences in 1999 in addition to teaching and research she serves as the physics outreach coordinator spearheading eight annual physics and engineering festivals each of which has been attended by thousands of visitors from all over texas and other states she developed the physics show an interactive presentation involving entertaining physics demonstrations and hands-on exhibits since 2007 erukhimova has conducted more than 170 shows attended by more than 11 000 people of all ages in 2012 erukhimova received a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant designed to engage students in physics and engineering outreach in addition she is a co-organizer of the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) which includes annual summer boarding schools for physics teachers from texas high schools moreover she continues to share her experience and passion for physics outreach through presentations at local national and international conferences as part of the may 1 event the chapter also presented outstanding math or science teachers awards to sally hughes outstanding math and science teacher greens prairie elementary school in college station; rebekah schaub outstanding science teacher stephen f austin middle school in bryan; and jamie bassett outstanding math teacher a&m consolidated high school in college station prizes also were presented to six winners in the societys annual drawing and essay contest former astronaut gregory e chamitoff a professor of engineering practice in the department of aerospace engineering delivered the ceremonys keynote address the international space station: a laboratory for the science and engineering to enable our future sigma xi is an international multidisciplinary research society honoring scientists whose work promotes scientific enterprise and rewarding excellence in scientific research founded in 1886 at cornell university sigma xi has grown to include more than 500 chapters across north america and around the world at colleges and universities to date there are more than 60 000 active members in more than 100 countries around the world the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi was chartered july 1 1951 with a mission to recognize encourage and promote scientific research at texas a&m university and to honor the community of science scholars -atm- contact: michelle sullens (979) 458-4066 or sigmaxi@tamuedu " " college station texas a&m university junior physics major nicholas p mondrik 15 has been named a 2014 goldwater scholar by the goldwater scholarship foundation in recognition of outstanding academic achievement mondrik is the 40th texas a&m student who has been recognized by the barry m goldwater scholarship and excellence in education program the nations most prestigious award for undergraduates in the sciences since the program was founded in 1986 in addition to mondrik sophomore environmental geosciences major amelie berger earned goldwater honorable mention honors mondrik a native of belton texas has worked in dr lin shaos ions and materials facility in the department of nuclear engineering and for dr darren depoy in the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation lab currently he is working on heat transfer simulation for the virus project (visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs) and on preliminary data from the dark energy survey underway in cerro tololo chile mondrik came across the goldwater scholarship when he was looking at websites with information on graduate school profiles and decided to check it out he wrote his research proposal on looking for outliers and variable stars in the dark energy survey data the ideal candidate is one who devotes significant time and effort not only in the classroom but also in the lab where acquired research tools are put into practice mondrik said a national merit scholar coming out of high school mondrik is also a society of physics students tutor for underclassmen his future pursuits include attending graduate school at princeton caltech cambridge or harvard to study astronomy or astrophysics the goldwater scholarship recognizes college students nationwide in the science mathematics and engineering fields selecting approximately 300 junior and senior students each year it is considered the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields scholarship recipients are selected based on a criteria composed of reference letters personal essays and research experience for additional information about the goldwater scholarship or other award programs visit texas a&m honors programs and undergraduate research -atm- contact: hayley cox hayleycox@exchangetamuedu the post texas a&m junior nicholas mondrik 15 named 2014 goldwater scholar appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university junior physics major nicholas p mondrik 15 has been named a 2014 goldwater scholar by the goldwater scholarship foundation in recognition of outstanding academic achievement mondrik is the 40th texas a&m student who has been recognized by the barry m goldwater scholarship and excellence in education program the nations most prestigious award for undergraduates in the sciences since the program was founded in 1986 in addition to mondrik sophomore environmental geosciences major amelie berger earned goldwater honorable mention honors mondrik a native of belton texas has worked in dr lin shaos ions and materials facility in the department of nuclear engineering and for dr darren depoy in the munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation lab currently he is working on heat transfer simulation for the virus project (visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs) and on preliminary data from the dark energy survey underway in cerro tololo chile mondrik came across the goldwater scholarship when he was looking at websites with information on graduate school profiles and decided to check it out he wrote his research proposal on looking for outliers and variable stars in the dark energy survey data the ideal candidate is one who devotes significant time and effort not only in the classroom but also in the lab where acquired research tools are put into practice mondrik said a national merit scholar coming out of high school mondrik is also a society of physics students tutor for underclassmen his future pursuits include attending graduate school at princeton caltech cambridge or harvard to study astronomy or astrophysics the goldwater scholarship recognizes college students nationwide in the science mathematics and engineering fields selecting approximately 300 junior and senior students each year it is considered the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields scholarship recipients are selected based on a criteria composed of reference letters personal essays and research experience for additional information about the goldwater scholarship or other award programs visit texas a&m honors programs and undergraduate research -atm- contact: hayley cox hayleycox@exchangetamuedu " " batavia il the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) elected david toback as co-spokesperson on march 17 the texas a&m university physics professor will join fellow cdf spokesperson costas vellidis in leading the experiment toback began working with the cdf collaboration in 1991 while he was a graduate student at the university of chicago but his cdf connection goes back even before his graduate work toback has known cdf physicists and mentors henry frisch and mel shochet since high school and graduated with shochets oldest son from the university of chicago laboratory high school cdf has been good to me throughout my life and career toback said the cdf experiment is no longer collecting new data so the role of the spokesperson has changed over time toback said he wants to ensure that the group maintains a paper review process as strong as it has always been in the past so cdf can continue to produce high-quality publications the collaboration has a 400-person active author list my primary goal is to help support authors so they can publish the important legacy papers he said this includes measurements of the top mass the w mass the single top cross sections and the final word on the top forward-backward asymmetry toback will replace outgoing co-spokesperson luciano ristori beginning june 1 i have huge shoes to fill cdf owes him an enormous amount of gratitude toback said daves enthusiasm and persistence is exactly what we need to make sure we finish publishing all our final legacy results in a timely fashion ristori said toback is currently the thaman professor as well as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m on cdf he serves as co-convener of the top + beyond the standard model group toback led the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter an important upgrade for tevatron run ii he is the author of the textbook big bang black holes no math texas a&m has been involved in cdf since its inception courtesy of co-founders peter mcintyre and robert webb three additional texas a&m professors ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov played lead roles in run ii for more information on texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or david toback toback@tamuedu the post david toback elected as new cdf co-spokesperson appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the cdf collaboration at the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) elected david toback as co-spokesperson on march 17 the texas a&m university physics professor will join fellow cdf spokesperson costas vellidis in leading the experiment toback began working with the cdf collaboration in 1991 while he was a graduate student at the university of chicago but his cdf connection goes back even before his graduate work toback has known cdf physicists and mentors henry frisch and mel shochet since high school and graduated with shochets oldest son from the university of chicago laboratory high school cdf has been good to me throughout my life and career toback said the cdf experiment is no longer collecting new data so the role of the spokesperson has changed over time toback said he wants to ensure that the group maintains a paper review process as strong as it has always been in the past so cdf can continue to produce high-quality publications the collaboration has a 400-person active author list my primary goal is to help support authors so they can publish the important legacy papers he said this includes measurements of the top mass the w mass the single top cross sections and the final word on the top forward-backward asymmetry toback will replace outgoing co-spokesperson luciano ristori beginning june 1 i have huge shoes to fill cdf owes him an enormous amount of gratitude toback said daves enthusiasm and persistence is exactly what we need to make sure we finish publishing all our final legacy results in a timely fashion ristori said toback is currently the thaman professor as well as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m on cdf he serves as co-convener of the top + beyond the standard model group toback led the team that built the timing system for the cdf electromagnetic calorimeter an important upgrade for tevatron run ii he is the author of the textbook big bang black holes no math texas a&m has been involved in cdf since its inception courtesy of co-founders peter mcintyre and robert webb three additional texas a&m professors ricardo eusebi teruki kamon and alexei safonov played lead roles in run ii for more information on texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or david toback toback@tamuedu " " college station texas a&m university astronomer kim-vy tran is one of four researchers featured in the giant magellan telescopes google+ month-long march series highlighting some of the women working on the giant magellan telescope from what sparked their interest in science to what inspires them today a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2009 tran holds bachelors of science degrees in both physics and astronomy (with honors) from the university of arizona as well as both a masters and a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz the following is an excerpt of trans stem story viewable along with the complete series at https://plusgooglecom/s/meetgmto: how old were you when you first looked through a telescope and what was your impression of what you saw i remember visiting my aunt and uncle in toronto and my uncle has a telescope that he loved to use i was still in elementary school but was already amazed at the fuzzy images of planets that i could see through the telescope i think i could even see some of jupiters moons how old were you when you decided that you wanted to pursue a career in a stem field about 18 i planned on being an english/writing major when i went to university! my first astronomy class changed that within your field what area fascinates you most least i am most interested in understanding how galaxies assemble their stars and this means going to the very distant universe when most galaxies were still forming since i was a graduate student ive always pushed the frontier of studying galaxies with the thrill of knowing that i am the first person to see these systems i love getting new observations because i always discover something new! i am least interested in studying something that we already know what has been your most rewarding success or accomplishment as well as your biggest hurdle thus far in your career balancing my professional and personal life such that i can work on exciting science projects and still have time to enjoy my non-science interests i also hope that i am a positive role model for both women and men in terms of being professionally successful while maintaining a positive work/life balance as for biggest hurdle making sure that my husband [texas a&m physicist helmut katzgraber] and i are both professionally and personally happy we are both academics and we got married in grad school so we always faced the issue of two positions in the same city we worked very hard (and still do) and had some lucky opportunities we are proud of our successful careers and are now both tenured faculty at texas a&m university we are also very aware that not every couple is so fortunate and i personally am working to change this for example i advocate dual hiring and work/life balance programs what was your initial impression of gmto and why did you get involved i study distant galaxies that are very faint and small; thus i rely on the most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space the giant magellan telescope will change how we see the universe and any astronomer worth their salt would be eager to join such an exciting project the gmt is one of the main reasons why i decided to move from the university of zurich to join texas a&m university # # # # # # # # # # now in its 17th year student research week is a friendly competition that highlights both undergraduate and graduate research at texas a&m one of the countrys top research universities the weeklong celebration fosters an environment for students faculty and administrators to learn about student research at texas a&m but also gives students an opportunity to win numerous awards and cash prizes for more information about research in the college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/research/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-5853 or vy@physicstamuedu the post q&a with texas a&m astronomer kim-vy tran appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university astronomer kim-vy tran is one of four researchers featured in the giant magellan telescopes google+ month-long march series highlighting some of the women working on the giant magellan telescope from what sparked their interest in science to what inspires them today a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2009 tran holds bachelors of science degrees in both physics and astronomy (with honors) from the university of arizona as well as both a masters and a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz the following is an excerpt of trans stem story viewable along with the complete series at https://plusgooglecom/s/meetgmto: how old were you when you first looked through a telescope and what was your impression of what you saw i remember visiting my aunt and uncle in toronto and my uncle has a telescope that he loved to use i was still in elementary school but was already amazed at the fuzzy images of planets that i could see through the telescope i think i could even see some of jupiters moons how old were you when you decided that you wanted to pursue a career in a stem field about 18 i planned on being an english/writing major when i went to university! my first astronomy class changed that within your field what area fascinates you most least i am most interested in understanding how galaxies assemble their stars and this means going to the very distant universe when most galaxies were still forming since i was a graduate student ive always pushed the frontier of studying galaxies with the thrill of knowing that i am the first person to see these systems i love getting new observations because i always discover something new! i am least interested in studying something that we already know what has been your most rewarding success or accomplishment as well as your biggest hurdle thus far in your career balancing my professional and personal life such that i can work on exciting science projects and still have time to enjoy my non-science interests i also hope that i am a positive role model for both women and men in terms of being professionally successful while maintaining a positive work/life balance as for biggest hurdle making sure that my husband [texas a&m physicist helmut katzgraber] and i are both professionally and personally happy we are both academics and we got married in grad school so we always faced the issue of two positions in the same city we worked very hard (and still do) and had some lucky opportunities we are proud of our successful careers and are now both tenured faculty at texas a&m university we are also very aware that not every couple is so fortunate and i personally am working to change this for example i advocate dual hiring and work/life balance programs what was your initial impression of gmto and why did you get involved i study distant galaxies that are very faint and small; thus i rely on the most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space the giant magellan telescope will change how we see the universe and any astronomer worth their salt would be eager to join such an exciting project the gmt is one of the main reasons why i decided to move from the university of zurich to join texas a&m university # # # # # # # # # # now in its 17th year student research week is a friendly competition that highlights both undergraduate and graduate research at texas a&m one of the countrys top research universities the weeklong celebration fosters an environment for students faculty and administrators to learn about student research at texas a&m but also gives students an opportunity to win numerous awards and cash prizes for more information about research in the college of science go to https://sciencetamuedu/research/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-5853 or vy@physicstamuedu " " chicago and geneva scientists working on the worlds leading particle collider experiments have joined forces combined their data and produced the first joint result from fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) past and current holders of the record for most powerful particle collider on earth scientists from the four experiments involved atlas cdf cms and dzero announced their joint findings on the mass of the top quark today at the rencontres de moriond international physics conference in italy together the four experiments three of which have involved texas a&m university researchers pooled their data analysis power to arrive at a new worlds best value for the mass of the top quark of 17334 plus/minus 076 gev/c2 experiments at the lhc at the cern laboratory in geneva switzerland and the tevatron collider at fermilab near chicago are the only ones that have ever seen top quarks the heaviest elementary particles ever observed the top quarks huge mass (more than 100 times that of the proton) makes it one of the most important tools in the physicists quest to understand the nature of the universe this graphic shows the four individual top quark mass measurements published by the atlas cdf cms and dzero collaborations together with the joint and most precise measurement obtained in a joint analysis the atlas and cms experiment recorded top quark events using the large hadron collider at cern and the cdf and dzero experiments recorded top quark events using the tevatron collider at fermilab image courtesy atlas cdf cms and dzero collaborations (credit: cern/fermilab) dr darren depoy the new precise value of the top-quark mass will allow scientists to test further the mathematical framework that describes the quantum connections between the top quark the higgs particle and the carrier of the electroweak force the w boson theorists will explore how the new more precise value will change predictions regarding the stability of the higgs field and its effects on the evolution of the universe it will also allow scientists to look for inconsistencies in the standard model of particle physics searching for hints of new physics that will lead to a better understanding of the nature of the universe the combining together of data from cern and fermilab to make a precision top quark mass result is a strong indication of its importance to understanding nature said fermilab director nigel lockyer its a great example of the international collaboration in our field a total of more than 6 000 scientists from more than 50 countries participate in the four experimental collaborations the cdf and dzero experiments discovered the top quark in 1995 and the tevatron produced about 300 000 top quark events during its 25-year lifetime completed in 2011 since it started collider physics operations in 2009 the lhc has produced close to 18 million events with top quarks making it the worlds leading top-quark factory collaborative competition is the name of the game said cerns director general rolf heuer competition between experimental collaborations and labs spurs us on but collaboration such as this underpins the global particle physics endeavor and is essential in advancing our knowledge of the universe we live in each of the four collaborations previously released their individual top-quark mass measurements combining them together required close collaboration between the four experiments understanding in detail each others techniques and uncertainties each experiment measured the top-quark mass using several different methods by analyzing different top-quark decay channels using sophisticated analysis techniques developed and improved over more than 20 years of top-quark research beginning at the tevatron and continuing at the lhc texas a&m physicist david toback is the co-convener of the top-quark group at cdf along with jonathan wilson who recently was hired as a research associate within the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy toback said that cdfs result is the single most sensitive and important in the combination noting that despite having less data it nonetheless is data that is better understood (see related graphic at right) this is an exciting day for all of us toback said we are proud of the central role the cdf collaboration has played in this result on the worldwide stage and glad that texas a&m was a big player having been there on cdf since the beginning the joint measurement has been submitted to the electronic arxiv and is available at: http://arxivorg/abs/14034427 to learn more about high-energy physics related-research at texas a&m go to http://physicstamuedu/research/heshtml or visit texas a&m collider physics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or david toback toback@tamuedu the post international team of lhc tevatron scientists announces first joint result appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " scientists working on the worlds leading particle collider experiments have joined forces combined their data and produced the first joint result from fermilabs tevatron and cerns large hadron collider (lhc) past and current holders of the record for most powerful particle collider on earth scientists from the four experiments involved atlas cdf cms and dzero announced their joint findings on the mass of the top quark today at the rencontres de moriond international physics conference in italy together the four experiments three of which have involved texas a&m university researchers pooled their data analysis power to arrive at a new worlds best value for the mass of the top quark of 17334 plus/minus 076 gev/c2 experiments at the lhc at the cern laboratory in geneva switzerland and the tevatron collider at fermilab near chicago are the only ones that have ever seen top quarks the heaviest elementary particles ever observed the top quarks huge mass (more than 100 times that of the proton) makes it one of the most important tools in the physicists quest to understand the nature of the universe this graphic shows the four individual top quark mass measurements published by the atlas cdf cms and dzero collaborations together with the joint and most precise measurement obtained in a joint analysis the atlas and cms experiment recorded top quark events using the large hadron collider at cern and the cdf and dzero experiments recorded top quark events using the tevatron collider at fermilab image courtesy atlas cdf cms and dzero collaborations (credit: cern/fermilab) dr darren depoy " " college station make a date for free family fun and experience the many wonders of science and technology this weekend at the 2014 physics and engineering festival scheduled for saturday (march 22) on the texas a&m university campus no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event which will run from 10 am to 6 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building ride a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch or shoot balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 5 pm the event also will feature three fantastic science circus performances at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm by physics showman rhys thomas as well as lectures at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm with nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff and nobel prize winners dudley herschback and david lee the day will conclude with a 5 pm public lecture about possible ways the human race could be rendered extinct by astronomical phenomena by internationally recognized astronomer and blogger dr phil plait author of the popular book death from the skies! and the slate magazine blog bad astronomy all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please all ages and interest levels see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a promotional video courtesy of suddenlink communications: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for saturday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " make a date for free family fun and experience the many wonders of science and technology this weekend at the 2014 physics and engineering festival scheduled for saturday (march 22) on the texas a&m university campus no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event which will run from 10 am to 6 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building ride a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch or shoot balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 5 pm the event also will feature three fantastic science circus performances at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm by physics showman rhys thomas as well as lectures at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm with nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff and nobel prize winners dudley herschback and david lee the day will conclude with a 5 pm public lecture about possible ways the human race could be rendered extinct by astronomical phenomena by internationally recognized astronomer and blogger dr phil plait author of the popular book death from the skies! and the slate magazine blog bad astronomy all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please all ages and interest levels see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a promotional video courtesy of suddenlink communications: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr m suhail zubairy professor of physics and astronomy and inaugural holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics at texas a&m university has been appointed as a university distinguished professor effective sept 1 2014 zubairy a member of texas a&ms world-class institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) who is widely considered to be among the top of his field in quantum optics quantum communication and quantum computing earns recognition along with six fellow texas a&m faculty as the latest recipients of the coveted title: dr gianfranco d alpini professor of medicine texas a&m health science center college of medicine; dr robert s chapkin regents professor of nutrition and food science college of agriculture and life sciences; dr joe r feagin professor of sociology college of liberal arts; dr p r kumar professor department electrical and computer engineering dwight look college of engineering; dr jeffrey w savell regents professor of animal science college of agriculture and life sciences; and dr renyi zhang professor of atmospheric sciences college of geosciences and a joint professor of chemistry college of science the 2014 university distinguished professor honorees join a select group of more than 70 current faculty members that hold the prestigious title nearly half of whom (34) are affiliated with the college of science the title which is bestowed in perpetuity denotes a faculty member who is pre-eminent in his or her field has made at least one seminal contribution to the discipline and whose work is central in any narrative of the field and is widely recognized to have changed the direction of scholarship in the field university distinguished professors represent the highest level of achievement for our faculty said dr karan l watson provost and executive vice president for academic affairs they are recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields and their accomplishments are exemplified by outstanding teaching mentoring discovery and service they demonstrate to the world the high quality of scholarship under way at texas a&m university the group will be honored at an april 30 reception hosted by texas a&m interim president mark hussey and the texas a&m foundation to celebrate all faculty who are distinguished professors zubairy who joined texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2002 received his phd from the university of rochester in 1978 his research focuses on quantum optics and laser physics with seminal contributions in quantum coherence quantum informatics and optical microscopy and lithography that are considered transformational zubairy is well known for his pioneering work ranging from noise-free amplification to super rayleigh resolution he has published more than 300 research papers and two books his work has been cited more than 10 000 times with more than 3 200 citations alone for the textbook quantum optics co-authored with fellow texas a&m quantum physicist marlan scully zubairys impact on the field of quantum optics has been recognized with many international awards including the willis e lamb award for laser science and quantum optics the humboldt research prize for distinguished scientists in germany the george h w bush excellence award for faculty in international research two medals from the president of pakistan the khwarizmi prize from the president of iran the outstanding physicist award from the organization of islamic countries and the abdus salam prize for physics he is also an elected member of the pakistan academy of sciences and a fellow of the american physical society and the optical society of america read a recent feature about his research into photonless communication -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr m suhail zubairy (979) 324-1780 or zubairy@physicstamuedu the post quantum physicist suhail zubairy appointed university distinguished professor appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr m suhail zubairy professor of physics and astronomy and inaugural holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics at texas a&m university has been appointed as a university distinguished professor effective sept 1 2014 zubairy a member of texas a&ms world-class institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) who is widely considered to be among the top of his field in quantum optics quantum communication and quantum computing earns recognition along with six fellow texas a&m faculty as the latest recipients of the coveted title: dr gianfranco d alpini professor of medicine texas a&m health science center college of medicine; dr robert s chapkin regents professor of nutrition and food science college of agriculture and life sciences; dr joe r feagin professor of sociology college of liberal arts; dr p r kumar professor department electrical and computer engineering dwight look college of engineering; dr jeffrey w savell regents professor of animal science college of agriculture and life sciences; and dr renyi zhang professor of atmospheric sciences college of geosciences and a joint professor of chemistry college of science the 2014 university distinguished professor honorees join a select group of more than 70 current faculty members that hold the prestigious title nearly half of whom (34) are affiliated with the college of science the title which is bestowed in perpetuity denotes a faculty member who is pre-eminent in his or her field has made at least one seminal contribution to the discipline and whose work is central in any narrative of the field and is widely recognized to have changed the direction of scholarship in the field university distinguished professors represent the highest level of achievement for our faculty said dr karan l watson provost and executive vice president for academic affairs they are recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields and their accomplishments are exemplified by outstanding teaching mentoring discovery and service they demonstrate to the world the high quality of scholarship under way at texas a&m university the group will be honored at an april 30 reception hosted by texas a&m interim president mark hussey and the texas a&m foundation to celebrate all faculty who are distinguished professors zubairy who joined texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2002 received his phd from the university of rochester in 1978 his research focuses on quantum optics and laser physics with seminal contributions in quantum coherence quantum informatics and optical microscopy and lithography that are considered transformational zubairy is well known for his pioneering work ranging from noise-free amplification to super rayleigh resolution he has published more than 300 research papers and two books his work has been cited more than 10 000 times with more than 3 200 citations alone for the textbook quantum optics co-authored with fellow texas a&m quantum physicist marlan scully zubairys impact on the field of quantum optics has been recognized with many international awards including the willis e lamb award for laser science and quantum optics the humboldt research prize for distinguished scientists in germany the george h w bush excellence award for faculty in international research two medals from the president of pakistan the khwarizmi prize from the president of iran the outstanding physicist award from the organization of islamic countries and the abdus salam prize for physics he is also an elected member of the pakistan academy of sciences and a fellow of the american physical society and the optical society of america read a recent feature about his research into photonless communication -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr m suhail zubairy (979) 324-1780 or zubairy@physicstamuedu " " scientists looking for dark matter face a serious challenge: no one knows what dark matter particles look like so their search covers a wide range of possible traits including different masses and different probabilities of interacting with regular matter today scientists with the cryogenic dark matter search experiment or cdms which includes texas a&m university high-energy physicists rupak mahapatra and david toback and electrical engineer h rusty harris as principal investigators announced they have shifted the border of this search down to a dark-matter particle mass and rate of interaction that has never been probed the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment is one of several major international collaborations that has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles (credit: rachel cunningham division of research texas a&m university) were pushing cdms to as low mass as we can says fermilab physicist dan bauer the project manager for cdms were proving the particle detector technology here their result which does not claim any hints of dark matter particles contradicts a result announced in january by another dark matter experiment cogent which uses particle detectors made of germanium the same material as used by cdms to search for dark matter cdms scientists cool their detectors to very low temperatures in order to detect the very small energies deposited by the collisions of dark matter particles with the germanium they operate their detectors half a mile underground in a former iron ore mine in minnesota the mine provides shielding from cosmic rays that could clutter the detector as it waits for passing dark matter particles todays result carves out interesting new dark matter territory for masses below 6 gev the dark matter experiment large underground xenon or lux recently ruled out a wide range of masses and interaction rates above that with the announcement of its first result in october 2013 scientists have expressed an increasing amount of interest of late in the search for low-mass dark matter particles with cdms and three other experiments dama cogent and cresst all finding their data compatible with the existence of dark matter particles between 5 and 20 gev but such lightweight dark-matter particles are hard to pin down the lower the mass of the dark-matter particles the less energy they leave in detectors and the more likely it is that background noise will drown out any signals even more confounding is the fact that scientists dont know whether dark matter particles interact in the same way in detectors built with different materials in addition to germanium scientists use argon xenon silicon and other materials to search for dark matter in more than a dozen experiments around the world its important to look in as many materials as possible to try to understand whether dark matter interacts in this more complicated way says adam anderson a graduate student at mit who worked on the latest cdms analysis as part of his thesis some materials might have very weak interactions if you picked one you might miss it scientists around the world seem to be taking that advice building different types of detectors and constantly improving their methods progress is extremely fast anderson says the sensitivity of these experiments is increasing by an order of magnitude every few years texas a&ms cdms group features mahapatra toback a recent addition to the group who brings solid experience in analysis and data acquisition techniques from his previous decades of collider-based research at the fermilab tevatron and harris a professor in the department of electrical & computer engineering who holds a joint appointment in the department of physics and astronomy the texas a&m trio has long been active in the collaboration playing lead roles in detector technology data collection data quality monitoring and analysis the future is very bright for cdms and the texas a&m group as we look to the next-generation experiment with bigger and better detectors and hopefully a discovery of dark matter mahapatra says currently the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy-based texas a&m group is designing and fabricating new detectors for the experiments next phase proposed to be located in the canadian snolab mine within in their dedicated semiconductor detector fabrication laboratory on the texas a&m campus mahapatra says this facility has demonstrated dramatic improvement in both quality and cost of these cryogenic detectors providing a path toward more plausible large-scale expansion of the experiment the collaboration has detailed its latest results in a paper published in arxiv their work beginning with cdms and cdms-ii and continuing with supercdms and geodm is funded by the doe and the national science foundation as well as the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) to learn more about texas a&ms involvement with the collaboration and related research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post cdms result covers new ground in search for dark matter appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " scientists looking for dark matter face a serious challenge: no one knows what dark matter particles look like so their search covers a wide range of possible traits including different masses and different probabilities of interacting with regular matter today scientists with the cryogenic dark matter search experiment or cdms which includes texas a&m university high-energy physicists rupak mahapatra and david toback and electrical engineer h rusty harris as principal investigators announced they have shifted the border of this search down to a dark-matter particle mass and rate of interaction that has never been probed the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment is one of several major international collaborations that has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles (credit: rachel cunningham division of research texas a&m university) were pushing cdms to as low mass as we can says fermilab physicist dan bauer the project manager for cdms were proving the particle detector technology here their result which does not claim any hints of dark matter particles contradicts a result announced in january by another dark matter experiment cogent which uses particle detectors made of germanium the same material as used by cdms to search for dark matter cdms scientists cool their detectors to very low temperatures in order to detect the very small energies deposited by the collisions of dark matter particles with the germanium they operate their detectors half a mile underground in a former iron ore mine in minnesota the mine provides shielding from cosmic rays that could clutter the detector as it waits for passing dark matter particles todays result carves out interesting new dark matter territory for masses below 6 gev the dark matter experiment large underground xenon or lux recently ruled out a wide range of masses and interaction rates above that with the announcement of its first result in october 2013 scientists have expressed an increasing amount of interest of late in the search for low-mass dark matter particles with cdms and three other experiments dama cogent and cresst all finding their data compatible with the existence of dark matter particles between 5 and 20 gev but such lightweight dark-matter particles are hard to pin down the lower the mass of the dark-matter particles the less energy they leave in detectors and the more likely it is that background noise will drown out any signals even more confounding is the fact that scientists dont know whether dark matter particles interact in the same way in detectors built with different materials in addition to germanium scientists use argon xenon silicon and other materials to search for dark matter in more than a dozen experiments around the world its important to look in as many materials as possible to try to understand whether dark matter interacts in this more complicated way says adam anderson a graduate student at mit who worked on the latest cdms analysis as part of his thesis some materials might have very weak interactions if you picked one you might miss it scientists around the world seem to be taking that advice building different types of detectors and constantly improving their methods progress is extremely fast anderson says the sensitivity of these experiments is increasing by an order of magnitude every few years texas a&ms cdms group features mahapatra toback a recent addition to the group who brings solid experience in analysis and data acquisition techniques from his previous decades of collider-based research at the fermilab tevatron and harris a professor in the department of electrical & computer engineering who holds a joint appointment in the department of physics and astronomy the texas a&m trio has long been active in the collaboration playing lead roles in detector technology data collection data quality monitoring and analysis the future is very bright for cdms and the texas a&m group as we look to the next-generation experiment with bigger and better detectors and hopefully a discovery of dark matter mahapatra says currently the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy-based texas a&m group is designing and fabricating new detectors for the experiments next phase proposed to be located in the canadian snolab mine within in their dedicated semiconductor detector fabrication laboratory on the texas a&m campus mahapatra says this facility has demonstrated dramatic improvement in both quality and cost of these cryogenic detectors providing a path toward more plausible large-scale expansion of the experiment the collaboration has detailed its latest results in a paper published in arxiv their work beginning with cdms and cdms-ii and continuing with supercdms and geodm is funded by the doe and the national science foundation as well as the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) to learn more about texas a&ms involvement with the collaboration and related research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " college station the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas to get up-close and personal with science and technology next month at the 2014 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 22 from 10 am to 6 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 5 pm public lecture by internationally recognized astronomer and author of slate magazines bad astronomy blog dr phil plait about his most recent book death from the skies! throughout the day participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering will be joined by representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics atmospheric sciences and biochemistry and biophysics physics festival poster 2014 public lecture by bad astronomys phil plait: saturday (march 22) 5 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building for the second consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program more than 60 deep students were involved in creating the new demos and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic performances of the science circus (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by physics showman rhys thomas who teaches newtonian physics through a rare blend of science comedy and circus arts in a performance often compared to a pixar movie attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station who in 2011 performed the final spacewalk of the overall space shuttle program as well as nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr dudley r herschbach and dr david m lee in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 5 pm plait will close out the festivities with a keynote presentation based on his 2008 book death from the skies! in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building plait a well-known astronomer writer and science advocate who worked on the hubble space telescope will discuss the various ways in which the human race could be rendered extinct by astronomical phenomena asteroid impacts supernovae explosions solar flares and gamma ray bursts and also explain the science behind each possibility prior to saturdays events dr carter emmart director of astrovisualization at the american museum of natural history will deliver a free public lecture we are the 4%! on friday (march 21) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which emmart will demonstrate the digital universe 3d atlas the same software he developed for use in the museums world-famous hayden planetarium emmart also will show clips from their recent production dark universe detailing how we now know so much more than meets both eye and instrument about the known universe which amounts only to roughly four percent of it all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival for the latest details regarding the 2014 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a video glimpse of what to expect at the 2014 physics & engineering festival on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for march 22 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas to get up-close and personal with science and technology next month at the 2014 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 22 from 10 am to 6 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 5 pm public lecture by internationally recognized astronomer and author of slate magazines bad astronomy blog dr phil plait about his most recent book death from the skies! throughout the day participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of the more than 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering will be joined by representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics atmospheric sciences and biochemistry and biophysics physics festival poster 2014 public lecture by bad astronomys phil plait: saturday (march 22) 5 pm primary lecture hall mitchell physics building for the second consecutive year the festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program more than 60 deep students were involved in creating the new demos and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic performances of the science circus (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by physics showman rhys thomas who teaches newtonian physics through a rare blend of science comedy and circus arts in a performance often compared to a pixar movie attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut and professor dr gregory chamitoff a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station who in 2011 performed the final spacewalk of the overall space shuttle program as well as nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr dudley r herschbach and dr david m lee in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 5 pm plait will close out the festivities with a keynote presentation based on his 2008 book death from the skies! in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building plait a well-known astronomer writer and science advocate who worked on the hubble space telescope will discuss the various ways in which the human race could be rendered extinct by astronomical phenomena asteroid impacts supernovae explosions solar flares and gamma ray bursts and also explain the science behind each possibility prior to saturdays events dr carter emmart director of astrovisualization at the american museum of natural history will deliver a free public lecture we are the 4%! on friday (march 21) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which emmart will demonstrate the digital universe 3d atlas the same software he developed for use in the museums world-famous hayden planetarium emmart also will show clips from their recent production dark universe detailing how we now know so much more than meets both eye and instrument about the known universe which amounts only to roughly four percent of it all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 4th annual usa science and engineering festival for the latest details regarding the 2014 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a video glimpse of what to expect at the 2014 physics & engineering festival on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " pasadena calif the giant magellan telescope (gmt) project in which texas a&m university is a founding partner has successfully passed two major reviews completing its detailed design phase and positioning the project to enter the construction phase when completed the 25-meter gmt will have more than six times the collecting area of the largest telescopes today and 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope scientists will use the gmt to explore distant and potentially habitable planets around other stars to explore the universe in the first billion years after the big bang and to probe the mysteries of dark matter dark energy and massive black holes during a week-long review in mid january an international panel of experts examined the design of the giant telescope its complex optical systems and precision scientific instruments which include devices built and assembled within texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory this panel was made up of experts involved in building telescopes around the world their conclusion was that the project meets the technical readiness required to proceed to construction immediately following the design review a team of construction experts scrutinized the projects cost estimate and management plan both review panels endorsed the teams cost estimate and their approach to managing construction of the telescope atop a remote mountain peak in the chilean andes richard kurz former project manager for the atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) and chair of the external panel that reviewed the gmt project noted that the panel enthusiastically recommended that the gmt project proceed as rapidly as possible to construction these reviews are critical milestones required by the gmto board to proceed with the construction phase says dr wendy freedman chair of the gmto board of directors and director of the carnegie observatories i am delighted with the very positive results of the design and the cost reviews along with the successful casting of the first three 84-meter primary mirrors and the leveling of the mountaintop in chile each step brings us closer to construction the giant magellan telescope against the southern milky way as it will appear when completed (credit: todd mason/mason productions and gmto corporation) artists rendering showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) board members representing the partner research institutions that make up the gmt consortium will meet mid-year to review the construction plan nicholas b suntzeff distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the astronomy program at texas a&m noted that this is more than just passing a critical design review more like the marking of a major validating and potentially history-making milestone we have chosen a design that allows for the building of the telescope such that we can add mirrors as we raise the money suntzeff said we were criticized in the early stages by some who said our design was risky or even impossible well the mirrors work and we can start using the telescope early because of our design our telescope concept has paid off university of chicago president robert zimmer commented that we are pleased to see this milestone in the development of the giant magellan telescope which promises many opportunities for university of chicago scholars when complete the telescopes capabilities will complement current research and offer new avenues to scientists in our department of astronomy and astrophysics and our kavli institute for cosmological physics among others harvard astronomer robert kirshner said the gmt has nimbly cleared this hurdle were on a good trajectory to build this telescope the gmt will show us how the universe works from testing whether planets around nearby stars harbor life to moving out the edge of knowledge to examine the first stars and galaxies though the project has not formally entered the construction phase the long timelines required to fabricate some elements of the telescope have required early activity production of three of the telescopes seven primary mirror segments is underway; work on the fourth mirror will begin in january 2015 science operations on gmt will begin in 2020 it will be located at the las campanas observatory in chile where the mountaintop construction site has already been leveled for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg -atm- contacts: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or davin malasarn (626) 204-0529 or dmalasarn@gmtoorg " " the giant magellan telescope (gmt) project in which texas a&m university is a founding partner has successfully passed two major reviews completing its detailed design phase and positioning the project to enter the construction phase when completed the 25-meter gmt will have more than six times the collecting area of the largest telescopes today and 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope scientists will use the gmt to explore distant and potentially habitable planets around other stars to explore the universe in the first billion years after the big bang and to probe the mysteries of dark matter dark energy and massive black holes during a week-long review in mid january an international panel of experts examined the design of the giant telescope its complex optical systems and precision scientific instruments which include devices built and assembled within texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical instrumentation laboratory this panel was made up of experts involved in building telescopes around the world their conclusion was that the project meets the technical readiness required to proceed to construction immediately following the design review a team of construction experts scrutinized the projects cost estimate and management plan both review panels endorsed the teams cost estimate and their approach to managing construction of the telescope atop a remote mountain peak in the chilean andes richard kurz former project manager for the atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (alma) and chair of the external panel that reviewed the gmt project noted that the panel enthusiastically recommended that the gmt project proceed as rapidly as possible to construction these reviews are critical milestones required by the gmto board to proceed with the construction phase says dr wendy freedman chair of the gmto board of directors and director of the carnegie observatories i am delighted with the very positive results of the design and the cost reviews along with the successful casting of the first three 84-meter primary mirrors and the leveling of the mountaintop in chile each step brings us closer to construction the giant magellan telescope against the southern milky way as it will appear when completed (credit: todd mason/mason productions and gmto corporation) artists rendering showing the giant magellan telescope and support facilities at las campanas observatory chile high in the andes mountains (credit: giant magellan telescope ‚Äì gmto corporation) board members representing the partner research institutions that make up the gmt consortium will meet mid-year to review the construction plan nicholas b suntzeff distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the astronomy program at texas a&m noted that this is more than just passing a critical design review more like the marking of a major validating and potentially history-making milestone we have chosen a design that allows for the building of the telescope such that we can add mirrors as we raise the money suntzeff said we were criticized in the early stages by some who said our design was risky or even impossible well the mirrors work and we can start using the telescope early because of our design our telescope concept has paid off university of chicago president robert zimmer commented that we are pleased to see this milestone in the development of the giant magellan telescope which promises many opportunities for university of chicago scholars when complete the telescopes capabilities will complement current research and offer new avenues to scientists in our department of astronomy and astrophysics and our kavli institute for cosmological physics among others harvard astronomer robert kirshner said the gmt has nimbly cleared this hurdle were on a good trajectory to build this telescope the gmt will show us how the universe works from testing whether planets around nearby stars harbor life to moving out the edge of knowledge to examine the first stars and galaxies though the project has not formally entered the construction phase the long timelines required to fabricate some elements of the telescope have required early activity production of three of the telescopes seven primary mirror segments is underway; work on the fourth mirror will begin in january 2015 science operations on gmt will begin in 2020 it will be located at the las campanas observatory in chile where the mountaintop construction site has already been leveled for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg -atm- contacts: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or davin malasarn (626) 204-0529 or dmalasarn@gmtoorg " " upton ny robert tribble a widely respected physicist who has played a key role in charting the future direction of nuclear science in the us has been named deputy director for science & technology at the us department of energys brookhaven national laboratory effective february 24 2014 tribble is currently a distinguished professor of physics & astronomy at texas a&m university and director of the cyclotron institute and the nuclear solutions institute there an experimental physicist whose work spans a broad range of topics tribble has conducted groundbreaking research exploring fundamental symmetries the standard model nuclear structure and reactions nuclear astrophysics and proton spin he is widely credited with developing new tools and techniques that have advanced the field and has also served as a member or chair of numerous long-range planning committees for the american physical society (aps) and the nuclear science advisory committee (nsac) an advisory committee for the department of energy and national science foundation were very excited to have bob tribble join brookhaven lab in a key leadership role said laboratory director doon gibbs his unique experience and insight into science in this country and around the world will be a great asset as we chart our plans for future research programs brookhaven lab employs about 3 000 scientists engineers technicians and support staff hosts 5 000 visiting scientists each year and has an annual budget of around $700 million in his new position tribble will work closely with the laboratory director associate and assistant lab directors and the science & technology steering committee of the brookhaven science associates (bsa) board in charting the laboratorys future research directions the college would like to congratulate dr tribble for being offered this distinguished position while still maintaining a strong connection with our nuclear science group here at texas a&m university said dr h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science if anyone deserves such a position it is him and we look forward to seeing the impact he is able to make on this national lab home to seven nobel prizes brookhaven lab advances fundamental research in nuclear and particle physics to gain a deeper understanding of matter energy space and time; applies photon sciences and nanomaterials research to energy challenges of critical importance to the nation; and performs cross-disciplinary research on climate change sustainable energy and earths ecosystems brookhaven lab is a fantastic resource for new york state the region and the nation tribble said with two major accelerator facilities the powerful new national synchrotron light source ii and the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) it carries on the tradition of investigating fundamentals of science that have been the hallmark of the lab since its beginnings im deeply honored to join the team that will move the lab forward in taking on new challenges from expanding rhic to the electron-ion collider erhic to synthesizing new nanomaterials for materials and biosciences to improving energy efficiency and developing new sustainable energy sources for the nation tribble earned his bs with honors in physics from the university of missouri columbia (1969) and his phd from princeton university (1973) he joined the texas a&m university faculty in 1975 served as head of the department of physics from 1979-87 and has served as director of the cyclotron institute since 2003 his numerous honors and awards include being named an alfred p sloan fellow (1976-80) a fellow of the american physical society (1982) an honorary doctorate from saint petersburg state university russia (2009) and various awards recognizing his excellence in teaching and research tribble has served as a member or chair of numerous committees for the aps and nsac he led the development of the most recent nsac long range plan for nuclear science served on a recent global science forum panel that evaluated the state of nuclear physics facilities around the world was a member and is now chair of the international union of pure and applied physics working group 9 and was a member of the national research council decadal survey for nuclear physics np2010 most recently he chaired an nsac subcommittee charged with making recommendations for achieving the vision of the long range plan under constrained budget scenarios in that capacity he played a key role in communicating the importance of the us nuclear science program including research that takes place at brookhaven labs relativistic heavy ion collider and building support for an achievable path to maintain us leadership in this field # # # # # # # # # # about brookhaven national laboratory: one of 10 national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the office of science of the us department of energy (doe) brookhaven national laboratory conducts research in the physical biomedical and environmental sciences as well as in energy technologies and national security brookhaven lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university industry and government researchers brookhaven is operated and managed for does office of science by brookhaven science associates a limited-liability company founded by the research foundation for the state university of new york on behalf of stony brook university the largest academic user of laboratory facilities and battelle a nonprofit applied science and technology organization about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $780 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: dr robert tribble (979) 845-1411 or r-tribble@tamuedu; peter genzer (631) 344-3174 or genzer@bnlgov; or shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " robert tribble a widely respected physicist who has played a key role in charting the future direction of nuclear science in the us has been named deputy director for science & technology at the us department of energys brookhaven national laboratory effective february 24 2014 tribble is currently a distinguished professor of physics & astronomy at texas a&m university and director of the cyclotron institute and the nuclear solutions institute there an experimental physicist whose work spans a broad range of topics tribble has conducted groundbreaking research exploring fundamental symmetries the standard model nuclear structure and reactions nuclear astrophysics and proton spin he is widely credited with developing new tools and techniques that have advanced the field and has also served as a member or chair of numerous long-range planning committees for the american physical society (aps) and the nuclear science advisory committee (nsac) an advisory committee for the department of energy and national science foundation were very excited to have bob tribble join brookhaven lab in a key leadership role said laboratory director doon gibbs his unique experience and insight into science in this country and around the world will be a great asset as we chart our plans for future research programs brookhaven lab employs about 3 000 scientists engineers technicians and support staff hosts 5 000 visiting scientists each year and has an annual budget of around $700 million in his new position tribble will work closely with the laboratory director associate and assistant lab directors and the science & technology steering committee of the brookhaven science associates (bsa) board in charting the laboratorys future research directions the college would like to congratulate dr tribble for being offered this distinguished position while still maintaining a strong connection with our nuclear science group here at texas a&m university said dr h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science if anyone deserves such a position it is him and we look forward to seeing the impact he is able to make on this national lab home to seven nobel prizes brookhaven lab advances fundamental research in nuclear and particle physics to gain a deeper understanding of matter energy space and time; applies photon sciences and nanomaterials research to energy challenges of critical importance to the nation; and performs cross-disciplinary research on climate change sustainable energy and earths ecosystems brookhaven lab is a fantastic resource for new york state the region and the nation tribble said with two major accelerator facilities the powerful new national synchrotron light source ii and the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) it carries on the tradition of investigating fundamentals of science that have been the hallmark of the lab since its beginnings im deeply honored to join the team that will move the lab forward in taking on new challenges from expanding rhic to the electron-ion collider erhic to synthesizing new nanomaterials for materials and biosciences to improving energy efficiency and developing new sustainable energy sources for the nation tribble earned his bs with honors in physics from the university of missouri columbia (1969) and his phd from princeton university (1973) he joined the texas a&m university faculty in 1975 served as head of the department of physics from 1979-87 and has served as director of the cyclotron institute since 2003 his numerous honors and awards include being named an alfred p sloan fellow (1976-80) a fellow of the american physical society (1982) an honorary doctorate from saint petersburg state university russia (2009) and various awards recognizing his excellence in teaching and research tribble has served as a member or chair of numerous committees for the aps and nsac he led the development of the most recent nsac long range plan for nuclear science served on a recent global science forum panel that evaluated the state of nuclear physics facilities around the world was a member and is now chair of the international union of pure and applied physics working group 9 and was a member of the national research council decadal survey for nuclear physics np2010 most recently he chaired an nsac subcommittee charged with making recommendations for achieving the vision of the long range plan under constrained budget scenarios in that capacity he played a key role in communicating the importance of the us nuclear science program including research that takes place at brookhaven labs relativistic heavy ion collider and building support for an achievable path to maintain us leadership in this field # # # # # # # # # # about brookhaven national laboratory: one of 10 national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the office of science of the us department of energy (doe) brookhaven national laboratory conducts research in the physical biomedical and environmental sciences as well as in energy technologies and national security brookhaven lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university industry and government researchers brookhaven is operated and managed for does office of science by brookhaven science associates a limited-liability company founded by the research foundation for the state university of new york on behalf of stony brook university the largest academic user of laboratory facilities and battelle a nonprofit applied science and technology organization about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $780 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: dr robert tribble (979) 845-1411 or r-tribble@tamuedu; peter genzer (631) 344-3174 or genzer@bnlgov; or shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station texas a&m university physicist helmut g katzgrabers research takes him to the crossroads of physics computer science quantum information theory and statistical mechanics for more than a decade he has been pushing the frontiers of computational physics to study hard optimization problems and disordered materials applying his expertise to problems in the fascinating and fast-evolving field of quantum computing this past week his work caught the attention of the global research community because of a study related to a particular commercial quantum computing device the usd 10m d-wave two‚Ñ¢ more specifically its documented failure to outperform traditional computers in head-to-head speed tests by ronnow et al d-wave quantum chip on a wafer a quantum computer makes use of quantum mechanics to perform operations instead of using traditional bits to encode the data information is stored in quantum bits that would allow this type of machine to exploit quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement and therefore be much faster than traditional silicon-based computer technologies quantum computers will be able to solve certain difficult problems much more efficiently than any classical computer such as integer factorization a key ingredient in data encryption and the simulation of complex physical systems as studied by texas a&m computational physicist helmut g katzgraber and his research team (credit: d-wave systems inc) helmut g katzgraber not so fast says katzgraber whose own national science foundation-funded research points to an intriguing possible explanation: benchmarks used by d-wave and research teams alike to detect the elusive quantum speedup might not be the best to do so and therefore not up to the test in a paper submitted earlier this month katzgraber details his teams innovative results on quantum speedup among other findings he proposes potentially hard benchmark problems to detect and quantity such a mysterious target as quantum speedup which katzgraber says is highly dependent on the combination of the chosen benchmark and optimization algorithm in particular his results suggest that the current benchmarks might not be best suited to truly showcase the potential of the quantum annealing algorithm a quantum version of thermal simulated annealing and the technology upon which the d-wave machine is based simulated annealing borrows its name from a type of heat treatment that involves altering a materials properties by heating it to above its critical temperature maintaining the temperature and then cooling it slowly with the hope of improving its ductility katzgraber explains in using simulated annealing as an optimization method the system is heated to a high temperature and then gradually cooled in the hope of finding the optimal solution to a particular problem similarly in quantum annealing quantum fluctuations are applied to a problem and then slowly quenched again in the hope of finding the optimum of the problem katzgrabers work primarily done by simulating spin-glass-like systems (disordered magnetic systems) on d-waves chip topology using the facilities at the texas a&m supercomputing facility and the stampede cluster at the texas advanced computing center (tacc) shows that the energy landscape of these particular benchmark instances might often be simple with one dominant basin of attraction optimization algorithms such as simulated annealing excel in studying these type of problems not surprisingly he advocates for additional testing and better benchmark design prior to proclaiming either defeat or victory for the d-wave two machine simulated annealing works well when the system has one large basin in the energy landscape katzgraber said think of a beach ball on a golf course with only one sand pit you let it go and it will just roll downhill to the lowest part of the pit without really getting stuck on the way but if you have something with one dominant pit embedded in a landscape with many other hills and valleys then the ball might get stuck on its way to the deepest pit and therefore miss the true minimum of the problem my results seem to indicate that the current benchmarks might not have the complex landscape needed for quantum annealing to clearly excel over simulated annealing; ie a landscape with deep valleys and large barriers where the quantum effects can help the system tunnel through these barriers to find the optimum (ie the deepest pit) efficiently this of course does not mean that quantum annealing does not perform well in the current benchmarks but the signal over simulated annealing could be stronger by using better benchmarks i am merely proposing benchmark problems that have an energy landscape more reminiscent of the texas hill country versus the comparatively flat terrain in the college station area benchmarks where we know that simulated annealing will fail quickly the d-wave machine currently in use by google and nasa was benchmarked by a team of scientists from the university of southern california eth zurich google the university of california at santa barbara and microsoft research in work that was independent of katzgrabers but submitted near-simultaneously the two teams do agree on one important point: the jurys still out because better benchmarks need to be developed while on the one hand d-wave wants to dismiss the tests and on the other scientists have shown the machine is only faster for certain instances i am proposing potentially harder tests before any concrete conclusions are drawn katzgraber said other collaborators on katzgrabers paper viewable at http://arxivorg/pdf/14011546pdf include d-wave systems incs firas hamze and the santa fe institutes ruben s andrist an omidyar fellow to learn more about the department of physics and astronomy go to http://physicstamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $770 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu the post texas a&m physicist says stronger benchmarks needed to fully quantify quantum speedup appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university physicist helmut g katzgrabers research takes him to the crossroads of physics computer science quantum information theory and statistical mechanics for more than a decade he has been pushing the frontiers of computational physics to study hard optimization problems and disordered materials applying his expertise to problems in the fascinating and fast-evolving field of quantum computing this past week his work caught the attention of the global research community because of a study related to a particular commercial quantum computing device the usd 10m d-wave two‚Ñ¢ more specifically its documented failure to outperform traditional computers in head-to-head speed tests by ronnow et al d-wave quantum chip on a wafer a quantum computer makes use of quantum mechanics to perform operations instead of using traditional bits to encode the data information is stored in quantum bits that would allow this type of machine to exploit quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement and therefore be much faster than traditional silicon-based computer technologies quantum computers will be able to solve certain difficult problems much more efficiently than any classical computer such as integer factorization a key ingredient in data encryption and the simulation of complex physical systems as studied by texas a&m computational physicist helmut g katzgraber and his research team (credit: d-wave systems inc) helmut g katzgraber not so fast says katzgraber whose own national science foundation-funded research points to an intriguing possible explanation: benchmarks used by d-wave and research teams alike to detect the elusive quantum speedup might not be the best to do so and therefore not up to the test in a paper submitted earlier this month katzgraber details his teams innovative results on quantum speedup among other findings he proposes potentially hard benchmark problems to detect and quantity such a mysterious target as quantum speedup which katzgraber says is highly dependent on the combination of the chosen benchmark and optimization algorithm in particular his results suggest that the current benchmarks might not be best suited to truly showcase the potential of the quantum annealing algorithm a quantum version of thermal simulated annealing and the technology upon which the d-wave machine is based simulated annealing borrows its name from a type of heat treatment that involves altering a materials properties by heating it to above its critical temperature maintaining the temperature and then cooling it slowly with the hope of improving its ductility katzgraber explains in using simulated annealing as an optimization method the system is heated to a high temperature and then gradually cooled in the hope of finding the optimal solution to a particular problem similarly in quantum annealing quantum fluctuations are applied to a problem and then slowly quenched again in the hope of finding the optimum of the problem katzgrabers work primarily done by simulating spin-glass-like systems (disordered magnetic systems) on d-waves chip topology using the facilities at the texas a&m supercomputing facility and the stampede cluster at the texas advanced computing center (tacc) shows that the energy landscape of these particular benchmark instances might often be simple with one dominant basin of attraction optimization algorithms such as simulated annealing excel in studying these type of problems not surprisingly he advocates for additional testing and better benchmark design prior to proclaiming either defeat or victory for the d-wave two machine simulated annealing works well when the system has one large basin in the energy landscape katzgraber said think of a beach ball on a golf course with only one sand pit you let it go and it will just roll downhill to the lowest part of the pit without really getting stuck on the way but if you have something with one dominant pit embedded in a landscape with many other hills and valleys then the ball might get stuck on its way to the deepest pit and therefore miss the true minimum of the problem my results seem to indicate that the current benchmarks might not have the complex landscape needed for quantum annealing to clearly excel over simulated annealing; ie a landscape with deep valleys and large barriers where the quantum effects can help the system tunnel through these barriers to find the optimum (ie the deepest pit) efficiently this of course does not mean that quantum annealing does not perform well in the current benchmarks but the signal over simulated annealing could be stronger by using better benchmarks i am merely proposing benchmark problems that have an energy landscape more reminiscent of the texas hill country versus the comparatively flat terrain in the college station area benchmarks where we know that simulated annealing will fail quickly the d-wave machine currently in use by google and nasa was benchmarked by a team of scientists from the university of southern california eth zurich google the university of california at santa barbara and microsoft research in work that was independent of katzgrabers but submitted near-simultaneously the two teams do agree on one important point: the jurys still out because better benchmarks need to be developed while on the one hand d-wave wants to dismiss the tests and on the other scientists have shown the machine is only faster for certain instances i am proposing potentially harder tests before any concrete conclusions are drawn katzgraber said other collaborators on katzgrabers paper viewable at http://arxivorg/pdf/14011546pdf include d-wave systems incs firas hamze and the santa fe institutes ruben s andrist an omidyar fellow to learn more about the department of physics and astronomy go to http://physicstamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $770 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu " " college station indara suarez didnt speak a word of english when she arrived to the us from mexico at age 12 the grades she made in high school werent good enough to get her into a four-year university now as a doctoral student at texas a&m university working toward a phd in high-energy physics suarez has received a coveted award recognizing outstanding contributions on one of the worlds biggest stages for elite particle physics cern or the european organization for nuclear research in mexico i was used to being known as ‚Äòthe smart kid suarez said from switzerland in her office at cern so the language barrier was very draining for me and i struggled but a lot of people helped me believed in me and supported me i wouldnt be here without them on monday (dec 9) suarez was honored with a 2013 cms achievement award given to 23 of the roughly 3 000 scientists from around the world working on the cms or compact muon solenoid experiment which is powered by one of two large particle physics detectors at cerns large hadron collider the award was given for her work integrating panels developed at texas a&m and other universities as part of an upgrade to the system indara suarez a texas a&m university physics doctoral student is a deputy leader in a worldwide effort to integrate panels developed at texas a&m and other universities as part of an upgrade to the cms or compact muon solenoid experiment she has been in switzerland at cern or the european organization for nuclear research since february (all images courtesy of indara suarez) suarez (second from right) was honored december 9 in switzerland with a cms achievement award for her work related to the cms experiment upgrade the honor was given to 23 or the roughly 3 000 scientists from around the world working on the cms experiment including more than 30 researchers within texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy designing a better data filter the optical trigger mother boards (otmbs) built in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy-located laboratory of texas a&m physicist and cms collaborator alexei safonov serve as part of the detectors data filtration system scientists collide protons into each other at nearly the speed of light with the hope of observing interesting physics events such as a new particle like the higgs boson the collisions occur about a billion times per second and the boards help decide which data to discard and which to store imagine cms as like a camera said suarez who is deputy leader for system integration and commissioning for the muon endcap electronics upgrade theres a limitation to how many pictures can be stored because you have limited memory in the camera you cant store all your pictures so you have to choose which to store its kind of the same thing all of the data we collect has to pass the first filter and our board is the one that makes that first decision the physics that we can do depends a lot on this system the upgrade is only part of suarezs job at cern as texas a&ms only current resident representative suarez a national science foundation fellow plays a key role on the cms fundamental physics scholars committee in addition she has become a tour guide for the cms experiment and even taught a group of grade-school girls how to make a salad bowl accelerator a few weeks ago as part of the expanding your horizons event in geneva one of her favorite parts of the job is mentoring undergraduates from texas a&m and universities around the world during their stays at cern in addition to accepting her cms achievement award last monday suarez got to announce joosep pata as the 2014 recipient of a prestigious scholarship that provides 20 000 francs (about $22 500) for a young researcher to come to cern for a year the scholarship is funded through the $3 million fundamental physics prize the most lucrative award in physics shared in part by cms experiment spokesperson joseph incandela for work that led to the discovery of the higgs boson pata a masters student from the estonian national institute of chemical physics and biophysics was one of 51 applicants from 19 countries as a doctoral student i find working with other students incredibly rewarding suarez said to see them evolve is very important to me i myself went through some of the programs theyre going through so anytime i get the chance to work with students i say ‚Äòabsolutely making the grade following graduation from john marshall high school in los angeles suarez attended a community college pasadena city college because her grades werent good enough to get into a four-year university since her arrival in the us she had struggled in most of her classes with the exception of mathematics a subject area in which she could still see herself as the smart kid because there was no language barrier with numbers after enrolling at pasadena city college with the goal of becoming a math teacher suarez had a transformative experience through a research experience for undergraduates (reu) program at nearby university of california at santa barbara where she conducted condensed matter research and realized her career passion suarez began applying for all the internships and summer research opportunities she could find eventually boosting her grades and gaining enough experience to be accepted to the university of california at los angeles physics program she then did a post-bachelors fellowship working frequently from germany on a nuclear physics project and eventually decided on texas a&ms graduate program because of combined allure of the universitys faculty and its cyclotron institute future analysis suarez is somewhat of a rarity as a hispanic female physics doctoral student one of only 69 in the entire us at the time she was applying for graduate school and i probably know like 10 of them she says women in general remain underrepresented in physics a recent american institute of physics report found in surveying the nations 190 doctorate-granting physics departments in 2009 only 1 in 5 first-year graduate students were women according to an american institute of physics report in a separate study the institute also reported that women account for 8 percent of full astronomy and physics professors in 2010 an improvement from 3 percent in 1998 consider it the latest challenge for suarez who hopes to join that small but growing rank by becoming a physics professor after she graduates from texas a&m to learn more about texas a&ms role in the cms experiment as well as texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu for more information about graduate study in the department of physics and astronomy visit https://physicstamuedu/academics/prospective-graduates/admissions/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $780 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr alexei safonov (979) 845-1479 or safonov@physicstamuedu " " indara suarez didnt speak a word of english when she arrived to the us from mexico at age 12 the grades she made in high school werent good enough to get her into a four-year university now as a doctoral student at texas a&m university working toward a phd in high-energy physics suarez has received a coveted award recognizing outstanding contributions on one of the worlds biggest stages for elite particle physics cern or the european organization for nuclear research in mexico i was used to being known as ‚Äòthe smart kid suarez said from switzerland in her office at cern so the language barrier was very draining for me and i struggled but a lot of people helped me believed in me and supported me i wouldnt be here without them on monday (dec 9) suarez was honored with a 2013 cms achievement award given to 23 of the roughly 3 000 scientists from around the world working on the cms or compact muon solenoid experiment which is powered by one of two large particle physics detectors at cerns large hadron collider the award was given for her work integrating panels developed at texas a&m and other universities as part of an upgrade to the system indara suarez a texas a&m university physics doctoral student is a deputy leader in a worldwide effort to integrate panels developed at texas a&m and other universities as part of an upgrade to the cms or compact muon solenoid experiment she has been in switzerland at cern or the european organization for nuclear research since february (all images courtesy of indara suarez) suarez (second from right) was honored december 9 in switzerland with a cms achievement award for her work related to the cms experiment upgrade the honor was given to 23 or the roughly 3 000 scientists from around the world working on the cms experiment including more than 30 researchers within texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy designing a better data filter the optical trigger mother boards (otmbs) built in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy-located laboratory of texas a&m physicist and cms collaborator alexei safonov serve as part of the detectors data filtration system scientists collide protons into each other at nearly the speed of light with the hope of observing interesting physics events such as a new particle like the higgs boson the collisions occur about a billion times per second and the boards help decide which data to discard and which to store imagine cms as like a camera said suarez who is deputy leader for system integration and commissioning for the muon endcap electronics upgrade theres a limitation to how many pictures can be stored because you have limited memory in the camera you cant store all your pictures so you have to choose which to store its kind of the same thing all of the data we collect has to pass the first filter and our board is the one that makes that first decision the physics that we can do depends a lot on this system the upgrade is only part of suarezs job at cern as texas a&ms only current resident representative suarez a national science foundation fellow plays a key role on the cms fundamental physics scholars committee in addition she has become a tour guide for the cms experiment and even taught a group of grade-school girls how to make a salad bowl accelerator a few weeks ago as part of the expanding your horizons event in geneva one of her favorite parts of the job is mentoring undergraduates from texas a&m and universities around the world during their stays at cern in addition to accepting her cms achievement award last monday suarez got to announce joosep pata as the 2014 recipient of a prestigious scholarship that provides 20 000 francs (about $22 500) for a young researcher to come to cern for a year the scholarship is funded through the $3 million fundamental physics prize the most lucrative award in physics shared in part by cms experiment spokesperson joseph incandela for work that led to the discovery of the higgs boson pata a masters student from the estonian national institute of chemical physics and biophysics was one of 51 applicants from 19 countries as a doctoral student i find working with other students incredibly rewarding suarez said to see them evolve is very important to me i myself went through some of the programs theyre going through so anytime i get the chance to work with students i say ‚Äòabsolutely making the grade following graduation from john marshall high school in los angeles suarez attended a community college pasadena city college because her grades werent good enough to get into a four-year university since her arrival in the us she had struggled in most of her classes with the exception of mathematics a subject area in which she could still see herself as the smart kid because there was no language barrier with numbers after enrolling at pasadena city college with the goal of becoming a math teacher suarez had a transformative experience through a research experience for undergraduates (reu) program at nearby university of california at santa barbara where she conducted condensed matter research and realized her career passion suarez began applying for all the internships and summer research opportunities she could find eventually boosting her grades and gaining enough experience to be accepted to the university of california at los angeles physics program she then did a post-bachelors fellowship working frequently from germany on a nuclear physics project and eventually decided on texas a&ms graduate program because of combined allure of the universitys faculty and its cyclotron institute future analysis suarez is somewhat of a rarity as a hispanic female physics doctoral student one of only 69 in the entire us at the time she was applying for graduate school and i probably know like 10 of them she says women in general remain underrepresented in physics a recent american institute of physics report found in surveying the nations 190 doctorate-granting physics departments in 2009 only 1 in 5 first-year graduate students were women according to an american institute of physics report in a separate study the institute also reported that women account for 8 percent of full astronomy and physics professors in 2010 an improvement from 3 percent in 1998 consider it the latest challenge for suarez who hopes to join that small but growing rank by becoming a physics professor after she graduates from texas a&m to learn more about texas a&ms role in the cms experiment as well as texas a&m collider physics go to http://colliderphysicstamuedu for more information about graduate study in the department of physics and astronomy visit https://physicstamuedu/academics/prospective-graduates/admissions/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $780 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr alexei safonov (979) 845-1479 or safonov@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university physicist roland e allen has written a comprehensive review of the higgs boson that explains the significance of this elusive particle its recent experimental discovery and the nobel prize-winning proposal for its existence nearly half a century ago allens paper the higgs bridge was published monday (dec 9) by the international journal physica scripta in tandem with a special topical issue entitled nobel symposium 154: physics of the large hadron collider the celebratory edition stimulated by the higgs discovery announced july 4 2012 is timed to commemorate nobel prize week events underway since last friday in stockholm and culminating in the nobel prize award ceremony and nobel banquet celebrating this years nobel laureates on tuesday (dec 10) physica scripta which is published by the institute of physics (iop) on behalf of the royal swedish academy of sciences occasionally publishes tutorial papers that are meant to bridge gaps in readers knowledge and to provide insight into problems methods and results in different areas of physics allens is intended as an accessible overview and comprehensive teaching tool for undergraduate students and lecturers across a broad spectrum beyond physics who are interested in the physics behind the higgs boson from how it affects the standard model to how it could impact our future understanding of the universe ‚Äòthe higgs bridge connects the higgs boson to both future discoveries and essentially the rest of physics and astronomy nuclear condensed matter atomic and quantum optics cosmology and astrophysics allen said in addition to overlapping all five areas in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy it also touches on several international experiments in which texas a&m researchers are major participants and includes figures from cms at the large hadron collider and the ams [alpha magnetic spectrometer] cdms [condensed dark matter search] and lux [large underground xenon] experiments allen a theoretical physicist at texas a&m since 1970 is well-respected for his teaching having received the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at both the college (2003) and university levels (2004) he also is the author of more than 200 scholarly publications on a wide variety of subjects and has organized numerous related conferences and symposia allens paper is available online at http://iopscienceioporg/1402-4896/89/1 and also is featured in the introduction to the lhc nobel symposium proceedings (top of page 2) at http://iopscienceioporg/1402-4896/2013/t158 to learn more about allen and his teaching research and professional service visit dr roland e allen read additional information on the higgs boson discovery and texas a&ms role in advancing both the theory and the experiments that proved its existence # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr roland e allen (979) 845-4341 or allen@tamuedu " " texas a&m university physicist roland e allen has written a comprehensive review of the higgs boson that explains the significance of this elusive particle its recent experimental discovery and the nobel prize-winning proposal for its existence nearly half a century ago allens paper the higgs bridge was published monday (dec 9) by the international journal physica scripta in tandem with a special topical issue entitled nobel symposium 154: physics of the large hadron collider the celebratory edition stimulated by the higgs discovery announced july 4 2012 is timed to commemorate nobel prize week events underway since last friday in stockholm and culminating in the nobel prize award ceremony and nobel banquet celebrating this years nobel laureates on tuesday (dec 10) physica scripta which is published by the institute of physics (iop) on behalf of the royal swedish academy of sciences occasionally publishes tutorial papers that are meant to bridge gaps in readers knowledge and to provide insight into problems methods and results in different areas of physics allens is intended as an accessible overview and comprehensive teaching tool for undergraduate students and lecturers across a broad spectrum beyond physics who are interested in the physics behind the higgs boson from how it affects the standard model to how it could impact our future understanding of the universe ‚Äòthe higgs bridge connects the higgs boson to both future discoveries and essentially the rest of physics and astronomy nuclear condensed matter atomic and quantum optics cosmology and astrophysics allen said in addition to overlapping all five areas in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy it also touches on several international experiments in which texas a&m researchers are major participants and includes figures from cms at the large hadron collider and the ams [alpha magnetic spectrometer] cdms [condensed dark matter search] and lux [large underground xenon] experiments allen a theoretical physicist at texas a&m since 1970 is well-respected for his teaching having received the texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at both the college (2003) and university levels (2004) he also is the author of more than 200 scholarly publications on a wide variety of subjects and has organized numerous related conferences and symposia allens paper is available online at http://iopscienceioporg/1402-4896/89/1 and also is featured in the introduction to the lhc nobel symposium proceedings (top of page 2) at http://iopscienceioporg/1402-4896/2013/t158 to learn more about allen and his teaching research and professional service visit dr roland e allen read additional information on the higgs boson discovery and texas a&ms role in advancing both the theory and the experiments that proved its existence # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr roland e allen (979) 845-4341 or allen@tamuedu " " pasadena calif the giant magellan telescopes third primary mirror will be unveiled at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab (soml) on december 6 2013 the combined surface area of the three mirrors created to date surpasses that of any existing telescope and will help enable astronomers to peer more deeply into space than ever before once the telescope is completed texas a&m university is a partner in the project to build the gmt along with several other universities and institutions in the us and around the world primary mirrors are the heart of the modern day reflecting telescope they capture and focus photons coming from space to help construct images of the universe and collect complex spectra generally the larger the surface area of the primary mirrors the more photons they can capture leading to better images and improved data the giant magellan telescope will offer the best image resolution ever seen to explore deep space the giant magellan telescope will be one of the most powerful tools for approaching some of societys most profound questions: where did we come from where are we going and are we alone in the universe said patrick mccarthy giant magellan telescope project director the technology used to design and construct the telescope is breathtaking but the answers it may provide as to the beginnings of time itself will be staggering the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes or elts the giant magellan telescope will have a mirror array consisting of seven 27-foot- (84-meter-) diameter mirror segments the telescope is anticipated to begin operation in 2020 with four mirror segments completed making it the largest telescope in the world when its final stages of construction are complete it will have 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope each of the giant magellan telescopes mirrors is the product of cutting edge technology and processing cast in a custom-built rotating furnace that reaches approximately 2 100 degrees fahrenheit they each weigh about 20 tons yet their internal architecture features an intricate honeycomb pattern that allows them to regulate temperature quickly while remaining extremely rigid additionally each mirror is meticulously polished and evaluated to create a surface that is so smooth that no imperfection is taller or deeper than a 20th of a wavelength of light one millionth of an inch (details of the mirror-making process can be seen here) the mirror surface is so smooth that if we took one 27 foot mirror and spread it out from coast to coast across the us the height of the tallest mountain on that mirror would be only half an inch an engineering masterpiece said wendy freedman director of the observatories of the carnegie institution for science and chair of the board of directors for the giant magellan telescope organization the third mirror dubbed gmt3 was cast in august at the steward observatory mirror lab the only facility in the world capable of creating mirrors of this size the university of arizona is one of 10 international partners who are collaborating to build the giant magellan telescope collectively the partners represent more than 1 000 years of astronomy experience their accomplishments include the construction of past record-breaking telescopes and the cultivation of some of astronomys most brilliant minds once fully operational this telescope will provide discoveries for the next 50 years added freedman these huge mirrors are critical steps along the path to deployment and then we can open the floodgates of research the giant magellan telescope will be constructed at the las campanas observatory in the atacama desert in northern chile where it will be able to work synergistically with other astronomical instruments and surveys the program to fund and build the giant magellan telescope is a global first targeting a total of $1 billion from mostly private philanthropic donors with some contributions coming from government agencies around the world the giant magellan telescope will be the first of its kind and the largest privately led telescope initiative in history igniting a new era of discovery and unlocking answers to some of the most fundamental questions of humanity including whether or not life exists on other planets and how the universe began astronomers will also use it to better understand how planets and galaxies form and to help find answers to the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg watch an related segment from the december 7 cbs evening news featuring gmt project director dr patrick mccarthy on you tube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 962-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or jacqueline efron zeno group for gmto (650) 801-0942 or jacquelineefron@zenogroupcom the post giant magellan telescopes third mirror unveiled appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the giant magellan telescopes third primary mirror will be unveiled at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab (soml) on december 6 2013 the combined surface area of the three mirrors created to date surpasses that of any existing telescope and will help enable astronomers to peer more deeply into space than ever before once the telescope is completed texas a&m university is a partner in the project to build the gmt along with several other universities and institutions in the us and around the world primary mirrors are the heart of the modern day reflecting telescope they capture and focus photons coming from space to help construct images of the universe and collect complex spectra generally the larger the surface area of the primary mirrors the more photons they can capture leading to better images and improved data the giant magellan telescope will offer the best image resolution ever seen to explore deep space the giant magellan telescope will be one of the most powerful tools for approaching some of societys most profound questions: where did we come from where are we going and are we alone in the universe said patrick mccarthy giant magellan telescope project director the technology used to design and construct the telescope is breathtaking but the answers it may provide as to the beginnings of time itself will be staggering the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes or elts the giant magellan telescope will have a mirror array consisting of seven 27-foot- (84-meter-) diameter mirror segments the telescope is anticipated to begin operation in 2020 with four mirror segments completed making it the largest telescope in the world when its final stages of construction are complete it will have 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope each of the giant magellan telescopes mirrors is the product of cutting edge technology and processing cast in a custom-built rotating furnace that reaches approximately 2 100 degrees fahrenheit they each weigh about 20 tons yet their internal architecture features an intricate honeycomb pattern that allows them to regulate temperature quickly while remaining extremely rigid additionally each mirror is meticulously polished and evaluated to create a surface that is so smooth that no imperfection is taller or deeper than a 20th of a wavelength of light one millionth of an inch (details of the mirror-making process can be seen here) the mirror surface is so smooth that if we took one 27 foot mirror and spread it out from coast to coast across the us the height of the tallest mountain on that mirror would be only half an inch an engineering masterpiece said wendy freedman director of the observatories of the carnegie institution for science and chair of the board of directors for the giant magellan telescope organization the third mirror dubbed gmt3 was cast in august at the steward observatory mirror lab the only facility in the world capable of creating mirrors of this size the university of arizona is one of 10 international partners who are collaborating to build the giant magellan telescope collectively the partners represent more than 1 000 years of astronomy experience their accomplishments include the construction of past record-breaking telescopes and the cultivation of some of astronomys most brilliant minds once fully operational this telescope will provide discoveries for the next 50 years added freedman these huge mirrors are critical steps along the path to deployment and then we can open the floodgates of research the giant magellan telescope will be constructed at the las campanas observatory in the atacama desert in northern chile where it will be able to work synergistically with other astronomical instruments and surveys the program to fund and build the giant magellan telescope is a global first targeting a total of $1 billion from mostly private philanthropic donors with some contributions coming from government agencies around the world the giant magellan telescope will be the first of its kind and the largest privately led telescope initiative in history igniting a new era of discovery and unlocking answers to some of the most fundamental questions of humanity including whether or not life exists on other planets and how the universe began astronomers will also use it to better understand how planets and galaxies form and to help find answers to the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg watch an related segment from the december 7 cbs evening news featuring gmt project director dr patrick mccarthy on you tube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 962-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or jacqueline efron zeno group for gmto (650) 801-0942 or jacquelineefron@zenogroupcom " " calvert on 1 000 acres of verdant grass and dirt trails 35 miles north of bryan and strewn with some 200 cows and calves world-renowned texas a&m university quantum physicist marlan scully is cultivating a vision befitting his nickname the quantum cowboy a farm where he combines cutting-edge laser research with student teaching from the latest in science to more efficient farming people are often curious that a member of the prestigious national academy of sciences who literally wrote the book on quantum optics the application of quantum mechanics to how light interacts with matter is also a lifelong student of farming dons a cowboy hat and drives around town in a pickup truck the mystery is not that im interested in farming but that im interested in quantum physics scully said i grew up in rural wyoming my people are homesteaders my wifes people are ranchers i have always appreciated the rural life making ones stake around three years ago scully bought a piece of the historic salter farm named after a local civil war captain who traded cotton for guns in their spare time scully and his son robert are fixing up the farm yanking poison ivy and renovating several structures that dot the farm while painstakingly preserving as much history as possible the salter farm located in robertson county on the banks of the brazos river is envisioned by texas a&m university quantum physicist marlan scully as a showcase of all things scientific research outdoor education and historic preservation he and his son robert are restoring the farms civil war-era structures while creating a 1 000-acre test-plot combining novel biophotonics research with diverse lessons in sustainable farming native grasses and heirloom plants recreation and leisure and revitalization of regional history (photos courtesy of robert scully) visitors to the salter farm wind their way through dirt roads blue skies and an expansive treeline featuring about a dozen native species many covered with invasive poison ivy identified here with bright orange bands for future eradication by robert scully (pictured below) who devotes a lot of free time to being unofficial caretaker of the farm scully wants to use the project as an example of cost-efficient sustainable farming the toilet seat in cpt salters renovated cabin scully picked it up along the side of the road (much to his wifes displeasure) it works the matte golden-tan chevy pickup truck that greets visitors scully bought it used for a grand it needs some work and then theres the rusted windmill that robert so proudly fixed up the point is to show youngsters that they could move outside of city limits set up a farm and live off the land cost-efficiently said scully a distinguished professor of physics who also serves as director of the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) groundbreaking feats scully a pioneering force in quantum laser technology envisions salter to be just as much quantum as cowboy the photonic research developed in his texas a&m laboratory and being tested in certain instances at the farm has an eclectic range of uses from increasing the speed and reliability of cancer diagnosis techniques to detecting anthrax in the air brucellosis in milk and pollution in the water scullys research uses a groundbreaking technique that builds off raman spectroscopy in which scattered quantum units of light called photons are measured as they scatter off molecules the researchers found that a sequence of lasers targeting a particular molecule results in a light pattern unique to a particular substance this essentially creates a molecular fingerprint by which every molecule can be distinguished from every other molecule scullys farming background made him gravitate toward exploring the potential uses of his technology for agriculture in such a setting raman spectroscopy and methods honed by scullys lab allow for the detection of areas within crops such as alfalfa that are stressed by drought or other factors or the detection of particles of animal fecal matter on strawberries down on the farm on a recent visit to the farm one of scullys postdoctoral researchers dmitri voronine snapped off a piece of a dilapidated cabin that until recently was enveloped in poison ivy voronine took the wood to his office where he plans to use a raman spectrometer to test for traces of poison ivy (the device is handheld and often is brought to the farm) scullys lab is engaged in a variety of interdisciplinary collaborations across campus and the globe to see where his quantum laser technology could be useful for instance iqse researchers are working with scientists in the department of toxicology to apply raman spectroscopy to the detection of aflatoxins which are harmful byproducts of mold growth invisible to the naked eye this and other collaborations are under the banner of a burgeoning field that some call biophotonics a combination of biology and photonics which is the study of photons the iqse recently received a three-year $108 million award from the texas a&m system to bolster a university-wide biophotonics effort that is bringing together interdisciplinary researchers from across the campus to solve major scientific challenges now well be able to have the best equipment scully said we can now put thousands of man hours maybe more into engineering devices like a raman microscope living the dream scully said the idea for a farm in texas had been in the works for years for the last 30 years or so he has hosted students from texas a&m and around the world at his familys farm in wyoming there after spending the mornings learning physics and quantum mechanics students branch out in the afternoons to ride horses kayak and enjoy nature before ending the day by studying quantum mechanics scully wanted to bring that experience to the lone star state he searched for a place close enough to the college station campus that had recreational potential and agricultural promise he found it along nearly five miles of the brazos river that once served as a labor-intensive cotton planation salter has many facets to it: its interesting historically and there are plenty of recreational opportunities with the brazos river lakes and hiking trails scully said it will allow us to teach science thats relevant to human animal and crop health and show kids how to raise their own crops and cattle in an economic way thats the dream at least read a previous story about scullys research into the detection of anthrax to learn more about the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering visit http://iqsetamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or marlan scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamuedu the post cows meet quantum lifelong learning on the banks of the brazos appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " on 1 000 acres of verdant grass and dirt trails 35 miles north of bryan and strewn with some 200 cows and calves world-renowned texas a&m university quantum physicist marlan scully is cultivating a vision befitting his nickname the quantum cowboy a farm where he combines cutting-edge laser research with student teaching from the latest in science to more efficient farming people are often curious that a member of the prestigious national academy of sciences who literally wrote the book on quantum optics the application of quantum mechanics to how light interacts with matter is also a lifelong student of farming dons a cowboy hat and drives around town in a pickup truck the mystery is not that im interested in farming but that im interested in quantum physics scully said i grew up in rural wyoming my people are homesteaders my wifes people are ranchers i have always appreciated the rural life making ones stake around three years ago scully bought a piece of the historic salter farm named after a local civil war captain who traded cotton for guns in their spare time scully and his son robert are fixing up the farm yanking poison ivy and renovating several structures that dot the farm while painstakingly preserving as much history as possible the salter farm located in robertson county on the banks of the brazos river is envisioned by texas a&m university quantum physicist marlan scully as a showcase of all things scientific research outdoor education and historic preservation he and his son robert are restoring the farms civil war-era structures while creating a 1 000-acre test-plot combining novel biophotonics research with diverse lessons in sustainable farming native grasses and heirloom plants recreation and leisure and revitalization of regional history (photos courtesy of robert scully) visitors to the salter farm wind their way through dirt roads blue skies and an expansive treeline featuring about a dozen native species many covered with invasive poison ivy identified here with bright orange bands for future eradication by robert scully (pictured below) who devotes a lot of free time to being unofficial caretaker of the farm scully wants to use the project as an example of cost-efficient sustainable farming the toilet seat in cpt salters renovated cabin scully picked it up along the side of the road (much to his wifes displeasure) it works the matte golden-tan chevy pickup truck that greets visitors scully bought it used for a grand it needs some work and then theres the rusted windmill that robert so proudly fixed up the point is to show youngsters that they could move outside of city limits set up a farm and live off the land cost-efficiently said scully a distinguished professor of physics who also serves as director of the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) groundbreaking feats scully a pioneering force in quantum laser technology envisions salter to be just as much quantum as cowboy the photonic research developed in his texas a&m laboratory and being tested in certain instances at the farm has an eclectic range of uses from increasing the speed and reliability of cancer diagnosis techniques to detecting anthrax in the air brucellosis in milk and pollution in the water scullys research uses a groundbreaking technique that builds off raman spectroscopy in which scattered quantum units of light called photons are measured as they scatter off molecules the researchers found that a sequence of lasers targeting a particular molecule results in a light pattern unique to a particular substance this essentially creates a molecular fingerprint by which every molecule can be distinguished from every other molecule scullys farming background made him gravitate toward exploring the potential uses of his technology for agriculture in such a setting raman spectroscopy and methods honed by scullys lab allow for the detection of areas within crops such as alfalfa that are stressed by drought or other factors or the detection of particles of animal fecal matter on strawberries down on the farm on a recent visit to the farm one of scullys postdoctoral researchers dmitri voronine snapped off a piece of a dilapidated cabin that until recently was enveloped in poison ivy voronine took the wood to his office where he plans to use a raman spectrometer to test for traces of poison ivy (the device is handheld and often is brought to the farm) scullys lab is engaged in a variety of interdisciplinary collaborations across campus and the globe to see where his quantum laser technology could be useful for instance iqse researchers are working with scientists in the department of toxicology to apply raman spectroscopy to the detection of aflatoxins which are harmful byproducts of mold growth invisible to the naked eye this and other collaborations are under the banner of a burgeoning field that some call biophotonics a combination of biology and photonics which is the study of photons the iqse recently received a three-year $108 million award from the texas a&m system to bolster a university-wide biophotonics effort that is bringing together interdisciplinary researchers from across the campus to solve major scientific challenges now well be able to have the best equipment scully said we can now put thousands of man hours maybe more into engineering devices like a raman microscope living the dream scully said the idea for a farm in texas had been in the works for years for the last 30 years or so he has hosted students from texas a&m and around the world at his familys farm in wyoming there after spending the mornings learning physics and quantum mechanics students branch out in the afternoons to ride horses kayak and enjoy nature before ending the day by studying quantum mechanics scully wanted to bring that experience to the lone star state he searched for a place close enough to the college station campus that had recreational potential and agricultural promise he found it along nearly five miles of the brazos river that once served as a labor-intensive cotton planation salter has many facets to it: its interesting historically and there are plenty of recreational opportunities with the brazos river lakes and hiking trails scully said it will allow us to teach science thats relevant to human animal and crop health and show kids how to raise their own crops and cattle in an economic way thats the dream at least read a previous story about scullys research into the detection of anthrax to learn more about the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering visit http://iqsetamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or marlan scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamuedu " " college station jairo sinova professor of physics at texas a&m university has been awarded an alexander von humboldt professorship one of the most eminent and highly endowed research posts in germany in recognition of outstanding achievements in science since 2008 the alexander von humboldt foundation has awarded up to 10 professorships per year to internationally renowned foreign academics interested in continuing their groundbreaking work in germany to further promote the countrys overall global scientific competitiveness and collaboration sinovas was among 14 nominations considered by the selection committee which recognized six researchers with germanys most valuable international research award i am delighted the alexander von humboldt professorships spark interest in germany amongst excellent international researchers said federal minister of education and research johanna wanka this clearly demonstrates how attractive our research location has become it is especially pleasing that this year for the first time three women have been selected to become humboldt professors sinova who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 and is considered one of the worlds leading specialists in theoretical solid-state physics for his generation was nominated by the johannes gutenberg university mainz where he has accepted an appointment as of january 1 2014 as a professor of theoretical physics focusing on electronic and magnetic properties of condensed matter i am extremely honored by this award and by the opportunities that it offers to create something that goes beyond an individual research group sinova said i am also very thankful for the opportunity that texas a&m offered me to excel in my career and all the strong support that i have received over the years part of this recognition is honoring the department many of its outstanding scientists that i have had the pleasure to interact with and the environment that fostered this science sinova will be presented with the prestigious award which includes funding of 35 million eur over the next five years may 7 2014 in berlin this is the highest award for international faculty that the humboldt foundation has and one of the largest monetary awards for physicists in the world said george r welch professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy it speaks very highly of jairo and it further speaks well of our department since this is where jairo did the work that this award recognizes while it is sad for texas a&m to lose jairo this is a wonderful career opportunity for him a condensed matter theoretician specializing in nano-spintronics sinova is a recognized authority in the field of magnetism and the use of magnetic properties to develop micro-electronic components a 2010 fellow of the american physical society he is described as an extremely creative and effective researcher and a trailblazer in initiating new developments that inspire both experimental and theoretical collaborations as a postdoctoral researcher in 2003 sinova first proposed the notion of intrinsic spin-hall effect subsequently forming part of one of the teams that co-discovered the spin-hall effect his research which is funded by the office of naval research the national science foundation (nsf) the research corporation the state of texas norman hackermann advanced research program and the nanoelectronics research initiative has been published extensively in top peer-reviewed journals such as science nature physics and physical review letters and highlighted in physics today in addition to serving as a reviewer for the nsf as well as several top physics journals he organized the first international conference on spin-hall effect in south korea (2005) his many awards include an nsf career award (2006) a research corporation for science advancement cottrell scholar award (2006) and a texas a&m association of former students college-level distinguished achievement award for teaching (2008) at mainz university and as a member of the institute of physics sinova will establish the new humboldt center for emergent spin phenomena (h-cesp) and also develop a theoretical group focused on spin-related phenomena his vast expertise at the interface of theory and experimentation is expected to enhance the institutes existing experimental excellence and to help propel the area of field spintronics and spin-related phenomena at mainz to the international forefront a native of spain sinova received his phd from indiana university in 1999 and held postdoctoral positions at the university of texas and the university of tennessee prior to coming to texas a&m about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about the alexander von humboldt foundation: every year the alexander von humboldt foundation enables more than 2 000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in germany the foundation maintains a network of well over 26 000 humboldtians including 50 nobel laureates from all disciplines in more than 130 countries worldwide for more information go to alexander von humboldt -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu the post sinova awarded eminent humboldt professorship in germany appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " jairo sinova professor of physics at texas a&m university has been awarded an alexander von humboldt professorship one of the most eminent and highly endowed research posts in germany in recognition of outstanding achievements in science since 2008 the alexander von humboldt foundation has awarded up to 10 professorships per year to internationally renowned foreign academics interested in continuing their groundbreaking work in germany to further promote the countrys overall global scientific competitiveness and collaboration sinovas was among 14 nominations considered by the selection committee which recognized six researchers with germanys most valuable international research award i am delighted the alexander von humboldt professorships spark interest in germany amongst excellent international researchers said federal minister of education and research johanna wanka this clearly demonstrates how attractive our research location has become it is especially pleasing that this year for the first time three women have been selected to become humboldt professors sinova who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 and is considered one of the worlds leading specialists in theoretical solid-state physics for his generation was nominated by the johannes gutenberg university mainz where he has accepted an appointment as of january 1 2014 as a professor of theoretical physics focusing on electronic and magnetic properties of condensed matter i am extremely honored by this award and by the opportunities that it offers to create something that goes beyond an individual research group sinova said i am also very thankful for the opportunity that texas a&m offered me to excel in my career and all the strong support that i have received over the years part of this recognition is honoring the department many of its outstanding scientists that i have had the pleasure to interact with and the environment that fostered this science sinova will be presented with the prestigious award which includes funding of 35 million eur over the next five years may 7 2014 in berlin this is the highest award for international faculty that the humboldt foundation has and one of the largest monetary awards for physicists in the world said george r welch professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy it speaks very highly of jairo and it further speaks well of our department since this is where jairo did the work that this award recognizes while it is sad for texas a&m to lose jairo this is a wonderful career opportunity for him a condensed matter theoretician specializing in nano-spintronics sinova is a recognized authority in the field of magnetism and the use of magnetic properties to develop micro-electronic components a 2010 fellow of the american physical society he is described as an extremely creative and effective researcher and a trailblazer in initiating new developments that inspire both experimental and theoretical collaborations as a postdoctoral researcher in 2003 sinova first proposed the notion of intrinsic spin-hall effect subsequently forming part of one of the teams that co-discovered the spin-hall effect his research which is funded by the office of naval research the national science foundation (nsf) the research corporation the state of texas norman hackermann advanced research program and the nanoelectronics research initiative has been published extensively in top peer-reviewed journals such as science nature physics and physical review letters and highlighted in physics today in addition to serving as a reviewer for the nsf as well as several top physics journals he organized the first international conference on spin-hall effect in south korea (2005) his many awards include an nsf career award (2006) a research corporation for science advancement cottrell scholar award (2006) and a texas a&m association of former students college-level distinguished achievement award for teaching (2008) at mainz university and as a member of the institute of physics sinova will establish the new humboldt center for emergent spin phenomena (h-cesp) and also develop a theoretical group focused on spin-related phenomena his vast expertise at the interface of theory and experimentation is expected to enhance the institutes existing experimental excellence and to help propel the area of field spintronics and spin-related phenomena at mainz to the international forefront a native of spain sinova received his phd from indiana university in 1999 and held postdoctoral positions at the university of texas and the university of tennessee prior to coming to texas a&m about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about the alexander von humboldt foundation: every year the alexander von humboldt foundation enables more than 2 000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in germany the foundation maintains a network of well over 26 000 humboldtians including 50 nobel laureates from all disciplines in more than 130 countries worldwide for more information go to alexander von humboldt -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu " " lead sd a massive experiment quietly operating since spring roughly a mile underground in the black hills of south dakota and involving liquid xenon the worlds biggest detector and about a hundred international scientists including texas a&m university physicists has proven itself the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world among other distinguishing factors the federally funded large underground xenon (lux) experiment features greatly enhanced sensitivity to low-mass wimps or weakly interacting massive particles that are believed to be the leading theoretical candidates for dark matter which accounts for nearly a quarter of the universe but so far has been observed only by its gravitational effects on galaxies and clusters of galaxies photomultiplier tubes capable of detecting as little as a single photon of light line the top and bottom of the lux dark matter detector they will record the position and intensity of collisions between dark matter particles and xenon nuclei (all photographs courtesy of matt kapust/sanford underground research facility) the lux dark matter detector suspended in its protective water tank the detector is a titanium cryostat that is a vacuum thermos that will keep xenon cool enough to remain a liquid at about minus 150 degrees fahrenheit lux scientists claim a sensitivity limit three times better than any previous dark matter experiment as well as a sensitivity more than 20 times better than previous experiments for low-mass wimps whose possible detection has been suggested by other experiments three such candidate low-mass wimp events recently reported in ultra-cold silicon detectors would have produced more than 1 600 events in luxs much larger detector or one every 80 minutes during the experiments recent run no such signals were seen brown university physicist rick gaitskell and yale university physicist dan mckinsey co-spokespersons for lux announced the collaborations first-run results at a seminar today (wednesday oct 30) at the sanford underground research facility (sanford lab) in lead sd texas a&ms robert c webb professor of physics and texas a&m spokesperson for lux as well as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy will present a related talk at 11 am friday (nov 1) in room m102 within the mitchell institute on the texas a&m campus the lux experiment which officially began collecting data this spring relies on purified liquid xenon a third of a ton of it encased in a 6-foot-tall titanium tank immersed in a second tank of ultra-pure water and cooled to minus 150 degrees fahrenheit the xenon is intended to highlight any particles that may be present as they pass through state-of-the-art detector equipment assembled during the previous three years 4 850 feet below the earths surface in the sanford laboratory ensconced within the repurposed homestake gold mine and shielded from gamma rays neutrons background radiation and other possible data-altering environmental factors webb holder of the ed rachal chair in high-energy physics and a principal investigator for lux along with the late texas a&m physicist james white acknowledges the result is highly preliminary given that it comes a mere 80 days into a 365-day run for the current phase of the experiment set to continue through the next two years however he says it tentatively confirms the collaborations expectations of seeing little activity or evidence of signals of dark matter collisions based on the deep undisturbed conditions of the experiment and high performance level of what the group views as the most sensitive detector available given the depth of the experiment the size of the detector and the amount of running we plan to do we expected either to get confirmation of previous results or to be setting new limits on the abundance of dark matter webb said our focus was to detect background levels and to calibrate the detector and overall parameters of the experiment in this 80-day run weve seen background levels that are lower than anyone has ever seen anywhere at any time the result is the most sensitive one to date but this is part of a much longer search and our work is still very much in a state of flux lux is pushing the cross-section to its lowest levels of course there are still lots of questions are we looking for dark matter in the right places are there different varieties that could hide in places that we dont see only time will tell but were in the cat birds seat to discover dark matter if its there as we think it is and interacts with xenon as we think it does this is a celebration of the long-term investment thats maturing and were hoping to cash in on it in the near future the lux scientific collaboration which is supported by the national science foundation (nsf) and the us department of energy (doe) includes 17 research universities and national laboratories in the united states the united kingdom and portugal the sanford underground research facilitys mission is to enable safe and compelling underground research and to foster transformational science education for more information please visit the sanford lab website at http://sanfordlaborg does office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the united states and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time to read more about the lux experiment from current result and next steps to background and a complete list of collaborators please see the official press release for more on webb and his research visit dr robert webb # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu the post this just in: lux worlds most sensitive dark matter detector reports first results appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " a massive experiment quietly operating since spring roughly a mile underground in the black hills of south dakota and involving liquid xenon the worlds biggest detector and about a hundred international scientists including texas a&m university physicists has proven itself the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world among other distinguishing factors the federally funded large underground xenon (lux) experiment features greatly enhanced sensitivity to low-mass wimps or weakly interacting massive particles that are believed to be the leading theoretical candidates for dark matter which accounts for nearly a quarter of the universe but so far has been observed only by its gravitational effects on galaxies and clusters of galaxies photomultiplier tubes capable of detecting as little as a single photon of light line the top and bottom of the lux dark matter detector they will record the position and intensity of collisions between dark matter particles and xenon nuclei (all photographs courtesy of matt kapust/sanford underground research facility) the lux dark matter detector suspended in its protective water tank the detector is a titanium cryostat that is a vacuum thermos that will keep xenon cool enough to remain a liquid at about minus 150 degrees fahrenheit lux scientists claim a sensitivity limit three times better than any previous dark matter experiment as well as a sensitivity more than 20 times better than previous experiments for low-mass wimps whose possible detection has been suggested by other experiments three such candidate low-mass wimp events recently reported in ultra-cold silicon detectors would have produced more than 1 600 events in luxs much larger detector or one every 80 minutes during the experiments recent run no such signals were seen brown university physicist rick gaitskell and yale university physicist dan mckinsey co-spokespersons for lux announced the collaborations first-run results at a seminar today (wednesday oct 30) at the sanford underground research facility (sanford lab) in lead sd texas a&ms robert c webb professor of physics and texas a&m spokesperson for lux as well as a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy will present a related talk at 11 am friday (nov 1) in room m102 within the mitchell institute on the texas a&m campus the lux experiment which officially began collecting data this spring relies on purified liquid xenon a third of a ton of it encased in a 6-foot-tall titanium tank immersed in a second tank of ultra-pure water and cooled to minus 150 degrees fahrenheit the xenon is intended to highlight any particles that may be present as they pass through state-of-the-art detector equipment assembled during the previous three years 4 850 feet below the earths surface in the sanford laboratory ensconced within the repurposed homestake gold mine and shielded from gamma rays neutrons background radiation and other possible data-altering environmental factors webb holder of the ed rachal chair in high-energy physics and a principal investigator for lux along with the late texas a&m physicist james white acknowledges the result is highly preliminary given that it comes a mere 80 days into a 365-day run for the current phase of the experiment set to continue through the next two years however he says it tentatively confirms the collaborations expectations of seeing little activity or evidence of signals of dark matter collisions based on the deep undisturbed conditions of the experiment and high performance level of what the group views as the most sensitive detector available given the depth of the experiment the size of the detector and the amount of running we plan to do we expected either to get confirmation of previous results or to be setting new limits on the abundance of dark matter webb said our focus was to detect background levels and to calibrate the detector and overall parameters of the experiment in this 80-day run weve seen background levels that are lower than anyone has ever seen anywhere at any time the result is the most sensitive one to date but this is part of a much longer search and our work is still very much in a state of flux lux is pushing the cross-section to its lowest levels of course there are still lots of questions are we looking for dark matter in the right places are there different varieties that could hide in places that we dont see only time will tell but were in the cat birds seat to discover dark matter if its there as we think it is and interacts with xenon as we think it does this is a celebration of the long-term investment thats maturing and were hoping to cash in on it in the near future the lux scientific collaboration which is supported by the national science foundation (nsf) and the us department of energy (doe) includes 17 research universities and national laboratories in the united states the united kingdom and portugal the sanford underground research facilitys mission is to enable safe and compelling underground research and to foster transformational science education for more information please visit the sanford lab website at http://sanfordlaborg does office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the united states and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time to read more about the lux experiment from current result and next steps to background and a complete list of collaborators please see the official press release for more on webb and his research visit dr robert webb # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert c webb (979) 845-4012 or webb@physicstamuedu " " college station a three-year $108 million investment by the texas a&m university system is set to provide a major boost to multidisciplinary quantum biophotonics research across the texas a&m university campus biophotonics combines biology and photonics which is the study of quantum units of light called photons researchers will draw on sophisticated laser technology developed by the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) and apply it to an eclectic range of research from human and crop health to anthrax and cancer detection our group is world-renowned said iqse director and texas a&m quantum physicist marlan scully but we dont yet have world-class facilities were coming along nicely but we really needed a shot in the arm and chancellor john sharp has given us that were going to be bringing in world-renowned scientists and connecting them with these global problems in the above image green and red combine together to make purple light in the presence of a trace molecule; no purple indicates that the specific molecule to be detected is not present (photo by michael kellett) figure 1 (a) anthrax infections in animals and humans via bacillus anthracis spores (b) configuration of laser beams in coherent anti-stokes raman scattering (cars) spectroscopy inset shows a vibrating molecule emitting signals the money will allow the college station campus to invest in cutting-edge laser-based technology and equipment such as building a raman spectrometer for cancer detection in addition the funding is helping to recruit internationally renowned and interdisciplinary faculty members scientists who already have signed on include roy glauber a harvard university professor who received the 2005 nobel prize in physics and wolfgang schleich a university of ulm theoretical physicist whose accolades include membership in the austrian academy of sciences both researchers are 2013-14 fellows with the texas a&m institute for advanced study (tias) which hosts research superstars for short stays in aggieland scully a distinguished professor since 1996 and a member of the national academy of sciences said the research conducted at the iqse is a prime example of texas a&ms growing one health movement which strives for an interdisciplinary approach across departments and colleges to uniting the health of humans animals plants and the environment the institute fuses faculty members from several texas a&m units and colleges including science engineering liberal arts agriculture and veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences the funding for this effort came from the chancellors research initiative (cri) which provides one-time funds to texas a&m university and prairie view a&m university to recruit and hire faculty members with a track record of developing large federally funded research programs the $33 million in annual funds for the cri which comes from the available university fund is distributed in a process that includes input from texas a&ms deans provost karan watson president r bowen loftin and a&m system chancellor john sharp as we continue to be challenged with doing more with less it is important for us to find ways to attract world-class researchers without overtaxing our already lean budgets sharp said in 2012 when announcing his plan to ask the board of regents to create the fund to attract star scientists the cri seeks to find outstanding researchers who can not only produce amazing work but also bring in some much-needed funding to support that work some but far from all of the biophotonics research goals for the iqse award include: increase the speed and reliability of cancer diagnosis techniques raman spectroscopy uses lasers to excite the tumor and create scattered light that carries molecular information a technique that has shown promise in cancer detection and determining tumor boundaries this technology will be extended to a new technique created at texas a&m to increase the sensitivity of raman signals develop a new technology that will revolutionize biological and chemical sensing a process long dominated by dogs as the best sensors of explosives and drugs texas a&m is creating a prototype device capable of unprecedented one-part-per-trillion sensitivity for many chemicals under normal atmospheric conditions that could have major implications for homeland security agriculture healthcare and environmental sensing use laser technology developed at texas a&m to detect crop infection cotton for instance is affected by several diseases characterized by airborne spores that could be identified spectroscopically by scanning the air directly above crops to pinpoint the infected areas this technology had previously been used at the iqse to monitor the atmosphere for traces of gases and pathogens with broad application in environmental science and national security build on technology developed at texas a&m to detect anthrax in the air and in the mail a team at texas a&m was the first and only group to detect anthrax in real time now iqse researchers are proposing to use a technique called coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy (cars) to make the process of detecting endospores easier and more efficient in addition to anthrax detection the researchers expect the work to find many applications in chemical sensing and biomedical imaging to learn more about the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering and related research visit http://iqsetamuedu/ for more information about the texas a&m institute for advanced study visit http://tiastamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about the a&m system: the a&m system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $38 billion through a statewide network of 11 universities nine agencies two service units and a comprehensive health science center the a&m system educates more than 125 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year externally funded research expenditures exceed $780 million and help drive the states economy -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or marlan scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamuedu the post major award to bolster texas a&m quantum laser technology appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a three-year $108 million investment by the texas a&m university system is set to provide a major boost to multidisciplinary quantum biophotonics research across the texas a&m university campus biophotonics combines biology and photonics which is the study of quantum units of light called photons researchers will draw on sophisticated laser technology developed by the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) and apply it to an eclectic range of research from human and crop health to anthrax and cancer detection our group is world-renowned said iqse director and texas a&m quantum physicist marlan scully but we dont yet have world-class facilities were coming along nicely but we really needed a shot in the arm and chancellor john sharp has given us that were going to be bringing in world-renowned scientists and connecting them with these global problems in the above image green and red combine together to make purple light in the presence of a trace molecule; no purple indicates that the specific molecule to be detected is not present (photo by michael kellett) figure 1 (a) anthrax infections in animals and humans via bacillus anthracis spores (b) configuration of laser beams in coherent anti-stokes raman scattering (cars) spectroscopy inset shows a vibrating molecule emitting signals the money will allow the college station campus to invest in cutting-edge laser-based technology and equipment such as building a raman spectrometer for cancer detection in addition the funding is helping to recruit internationally renowned and interdisciplinary faculty members scientists who already have signed on include roy glauber a harvard university professor who received the 2005 nobel prize in physics and wolfgang schleich a university of ulm theoretical physicist whose accolades include membership in the austrian academy of sciences both researchers are 2013-14 fellows with the texas a&m institute for advanced study (tias) which hosts research superstars for short stays in aggieland scully a distinguished professor since 1996 and a member of the national academy of sciences said the research conducted at the iqse is a prime example of texas a&ms growing one health movement which strives for an interdisciplinary approach across departments and colleges to uniting the health of humans animals plants and the environment the institute fuses faculty members from several texas a&m units and colleges including science engineering liberal arts agriculture and veterinary medicine & biomedical sciences the funding for this effort came from the chancellors research initiative (cri) which provides one-time funds to texas a&m university and prairie view a&m university to recruit and hire faculty members with a track record of developing large federally funded research programs the $33 million in annual funds for the cri which comes from the available university fund is distributed in a process that includes input from texas a&ms deans provost karan watson president r bowen loftin and a&m system chancellor john sharp as we continue to be challenged with doing more with less it is important for us to find ways to attract world-class researchers without overtaxing our already lean budgets sharp said in 2012 when announcing his plan to ask the board of regents to create the fund to attract star scientists the cri seeks to find outstanding researchers who can not only produce amazing work but also bring in some much-needed funding to support that work some but far from all of the biophotonics research goals for the iqse award include: increase the speed and reliability of cancer diagnosis techniques raman spectroscopy uses lasers to excite the tumor and create scattered light that carries molecular information a technique that has shown promise in cancer detection and determining tumor boundaries this technology will be extended to a new technique created at texas a&m to increase the sensitivity of raman signals develop a new technology that will revolutionize biological and chemical sensing a process long dominated by dogs as the best sensors of explosives and drugs texas a&m is creating a prototype device capable of unprecedented one-part-per-trillion sensitivity for many chemicals under normal atmospheric conditions that could have major implications for homeland security agriculture healthcare and environmental sensing use laser technology developed at texas a&m to detect crop infection cotton for instance is affected by several diseases characterized by airborne spores that could be identified spectroscopically by scanning the air directly above crops to pinpoint the infected areas this technology had previously been used at the iqse to monitor the atmosphere for traces of gases and pathogens with broad application in environmental science and national security build on technology developed at texas a&m to detect anthrax in the air and in the mail a team at texas a&m was the first and only group to detect anthrax in real time now iqse researchers are proposing to use a technique called coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy (cars) to make the process of detecting endospores easier and more efficient in addition to anthrax detection the researchers expect the work to find many applications in chemical sensing and biomedical imaging to learn more about the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering and related research visit http://iqsetamuedu/ for more information about the texas a&m institute for advanced study visit http://tiastamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about the a&m system: the a&m system is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation with a budget of $38 billion through a statewide network of 11 universities nine agencies two service units and a comprehensive health science center the a&m system educates more than 125 000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year externally funded research expenditures exceed $780 million and help drive the states economy -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or marlan scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@tamuedu " " college station texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin may be former football rivals but the lone star states two research giants have teamed up to detect the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy ever found one created within 700 million years after the big bang the research is published in the most recent edition of the journal nature its exciting to know were the first people in the world to see this said vithal tilvi a texas a&m postdoctoral research associate and co-author of the paper which also is available via arxiv it raises interesting questions about the origins and the evolution of the universe (from left:) university of texas assistant professor steven finkelstein texas a&m postdoctoral researcher vithal tilvi and university of texas graduate student mimi song pictured in the observing room at wm keck observatory where they spent two nights last april the small monitors show what the group used to control mosfire while the large monitor on the left shows their view of the telescope operator finally the one behind finkelstein shows where the telescope is pointing as well as the current conditions (image courtesy of steven finkelstein) an artists rendition of the newly discovered most distant galaxy z8_gnd_5296 the galaxy looks red in the above hubble space telescope image (zoomed box) because the collective blue light from stars get shifted toward redder colors due to the expansion of the universe and its large distance from earth (image credit: v tilvi sl finkelstein c papovich and the hubble heritage team) the papers lead author is steven finkelstein an assistant professor at the university of texas at austin and 2011 hubble fellow who previously was a postdoctoral research associate at texas a&m under the mentorship of texas a&m astrophysicist casey papovich who is second author as well as current mentor to tilvi ten other international institutions collaborated on the effort from california to massachusetts and italy to israel the galaxy known by its catalog name z8_gnd_5296 fascinated the researchers whereas our home the milky way creates about one or two sun-like stars every year or so this newly discovered galaxy forms around 300 a year and was observed by the researchers as it was 13 billion years ago thats the time it took for the galaxys light to travel to earth just how mind-boggling is that a single light year which is the distance light travels in a year is nearly six trillion miles because the universe has been expanding the whole time the researchers estimate the galaxys present distance to be roughly 30 billion light years away because of its distance we get a glimpse of conditions when the universe was only about 700 million years old only 5 percent of its current age of 138 billion years said papovich an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 papovich notes that researchers are able to accurately gauge the distances of galaxies by measuring a feature from the ubiquitous element hydrogen called the lyman alpha transition which emits brightly in distant galaxies its detected in nearly all galaxies that are seen from a time more than one billion years from the big bang but getting closer than that the hydrogen emission line for some reason becomes increasingly difficult to see we were thrilled to see this galaxy finkelstein said and then our next thought was ‚Äòwhy did we not see anything else were using the best instrument on the best telescope with the best galaxy sample we had the best weather it was gorgeous and still we only saw this emission line from one of our sample of 43 observed galaxies when we expected to see around six whats going on the researchers suspect they may have zeroed in on the era when the universe made its transition from an opaque state in which most of the hydrogen is neutral to a translucent state in which most of the hydrogen is ionized so its not necessarily that the distant galaxies arent there it could be that theyre hidden from detection behind a wall of neutral hydrogen fog which blocks the hydrogen emission signal tilvi notes this is one of two major changes in the fundamental essence of the universe since its beginning the other being a transition from a plasma state to a neutral state he is leading the effort on a follow-up paper that will use a sophisticated statistical analysis to explore that transition further everything seems to have changed since then tilvi said if it was neutral everywhere today the night sky that we see wouldnt be as beautiful what im working on is studying exactly why and exactly where this happened was this transition sudden or was it gradual the nature paper is the result of raw data gleaned from a powerful hubble space telescope imaging survey of the distant universe called candels or cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey using that data the team was armed with 43 potential distant galaxies and set out to confirm their distances on a crisp clear april night tilvi finkelstein and his graduate student mimi song sat behind a panel of computers in the control room of the wm keck observatory which is perched atop the summit of hawaiis dormant mauna kea volcano and houses the two largest optical and infrared telescopes in the world each standing eight stories tall weighing 300 tons and equipped with 10-meter-wide mirrors they detected only one galaxy during their two nights of observation at keck but it turned out to be the most distant ever confirmed it was at a redshift 751 or created about 13 billion years ago because the universe is expanding the space between galaxies also is increasing and as objects move away they become redder in essence the higher the redshift the farther away the object only five other galaxies have ever been confirmed to have a redshift greater than 7 with the previous high being 7215 finkelstein credits technological advancements in recent years for allowing astronomers to probe deeper into space and closer to the big bang for instance a powerful new spectrometer called mosfire (multi-object spectrometer for infra-red exploration) that is 25 times more light-sensitive than others of its kind was installed at keck in 2012 and the hubble space telescope is powered by a new near-infrared camera installed by astronauts aboard the space shuttle in 2009 that sees farther into the universe finkelstein and papovichs collaboration to study distant galaxies and our cosmic evolution is one of several between texas two public research giants in the realm of astronomy texas a&m the university of texas at austin and other institutions are building the largest spectrograph in the world to be installed at the hobby-eberly telescope in west texas to shed light on the mysterious force dark energy that likely is driving the expansion of the universe perhaps the largest and most important collaboration between the two universities astronomy programs is on the giant magellan telescope which when complete in 2020 will create images 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope and enable astronomers to see earlier into the universe than ever before texas a&m and the university of texas at austin are two of 10 international institutions that are founding partners on the project the giant magellan telescope will revolutionize this research papovich said we are pushing the current telescopes to their limits and only seeing the brightest galaxies at these redshifts it is slow-going with current telescopes the gmt will have about five times the light gathering power of the biggest telescopes were using now and it will make the measurements were doing that much easier it will probably take the gmt to really understand the conditions in the very early universe nicholas suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program said the university of texas at austin has been instrumental in helping to boost the college station programs international profile and providing access to telescopes and facilities suntzeff who this year was appointed texas a&ms highest faculty rank distinguished professor himself serves as an adjunct professor at the university of texas at austin if we want to maintain texas as one of the most important centers in the world for astronomy we can no longer do it as individual universities suntzeff said ut texas a&m and other universities must work together just as a strength of the university of california program is that its system is united if we are going to be part of the biggest projects in the world we must unite our forces this is the only way we can rejoin the group of elite astronomical institutions that are doing the best science on the biggest telescopes in texas we are on that path to learn more about this research which is supported by nasa through the hubble space telescope science institute (stsci) and texas a&m astronomy visit astronomy research page for more information about the texas a&m mitchell institute go to http://mitchelltamuedu/ to learn more about astronomy at the university of texas at austin visit http://wwwasutexasedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu; casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@tamuedu; steven finkelstein (512) 471-1483 or stevenf@astroasutexasedu; vithal tilvi (979) 862-2105 or tilvi@physicstamuedu the post ut texas a&m astronomers discover universes most distant galaxy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin may be former football rivals but the lone star states two research giants have teamed up to detect the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy ever found one created within 700 million years after the big bang the research is published in the most recent edition of the journal nature its exciting to know were the first people in the world to see this said vithal tilvi a texas a&m postdoctoral research associate and co-author of the paper which also is available via arxiv it raises interesting questions about the origins and the evolution of the universe (from left:) university of texas assistant professor steven finkelstein texas a&m postdoctoral researcher vithal tilvi and university of texas graduate student mimi song pictured in the observing room at wm keck observatory where they spent two nights last april the small monitors show what the group used to control mosfire while the large monitor on the left shows their view of the telescope operator finally the one behind finkelstein shows where the telescope is pointing as well as the current conditions (image courtesy of steven finkelstein) an artists rendition of the newly discovered most distant galaxy z8_gnd_5296 the galaxy looks red in the above hubble space telescope image (zoomed box) because the collective blue light from stars get shifted toward redder colors due to the expansion of the universe and its large distance from earth (image credit: v tilvi sl finkelstein c papovich and the hubble heritage team) the papers lead author is steven finkelstein an assistant professor at the university of texas at austin and 2011 hubble fellow who previously was a postdoctoral research associate at texas a&m under the mentorship of texas a&m astrophysicist casey papovich who is second author as well as current mentor to tilvi ten other international institutions collaborated on the effort from california to massachusetts and italy to israel the galaxy known by its catalog name z8_gnd_5296 fascinated the researchers whereas our home the milky way creates about one or two sun-like stars every year or so this newly discovered galaxy forms around 300 a year and was observed by the researchers as it was 13 billion years ago thats the time it took for the galaxys light to travel to earth just how mind-boggling is that a single light year which is the distance light travels in a year is nearly six trillion miles because the universe has been expanding the whole time the researchers estimate the galaxys present distance to be roughly 30 billion light years away because of its distance we get a glimpse of conditions when the universe was only about 700 million years old only 5 percent of its current age of 138 billion years said papovich an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 papovich notes that researchers are able to accurately gauge the distances of galaxies by measuring a feature from the ubiquitous element hydrogen called the lyman alpha transition which emits brightly in distant galaxies its detected in nearly all galaxies that are seen from a time more than one billion years from the big bang but getting closer than that the hydrogen emission line for some reason becomes increasingly difficult to see we were thrilled to see this galaxy finkelstein said and then our next thought was ‚Äòwhy did we not see anything else were using the best instrument on the best telescope with the best galaxy sample we had the best weather it was gorgeous and still we only saw this emission line from one of our sample of 43 observed galaxies when we expected to see around six whats going on the researchers suspect they may have zeroed in on the era when the universe made its transition from an opaque state in which most of the hydrogen is neutral to a translucent state in which most of the hydrogen is ionized so its not necessarily that the distant galaxies arent there it could be that theyre hidden from detection behind a wall of neutral hydrogen fog which blocks the hydrogen emission signal tilvi notes this is one of two major changes in the fundamental essence of the universe since its beginning the other being a transition from a plasma state to a neutral state he is leading the effort on a follow-up paper that will use a sophisticated statistical analysis to explore that transition further everything seems to have changed since then tilvi said if it was neutral everywhere today the night sky that we see wouldnt be as beautiful what im working on is studying exactly why and exactly where this happened was this transition sudden or was it gradual the nature paper is the result of raw data gleaned from a powerful hubble space telescope imaging survey of the distant universe called candels or cosmic assembly near-infrared deep extragalactic legacy survey using that data the team was armed with 43 potential distant galaxies and set out to confirm their distances on a crisp clear april night tilvi finkelstein and his graduate student mimi song sat behind a panel of computers in the control room of the wm keck observatory which is perched atop the summit of hawaiis dormant mauna kea volcano and houses the two largest optical and infrared telescopes in the world each standing eight stories tall weighing 300 tons and equipped with 10-meter-wide mirrors they detected only one galaxy during their two nights of observation at keck but it turned out to be the most distant ever confirmed it was at a redshift 751 or created about 13 billion years ago because the universe is expanding the space between galaxies also is increasing and as objects move away they become redder in essence the higher the redshift the farther away the object only five other galaxies have ever been confirmed to have a redshift greater than 7 with the previous high being 7215 finkelstein credits technological advancements in recent years for allowing astronomers to probe deeper into space and closer to the big bang for instance a powerful new spectrometer called mosfire (multi-object spectrometer for infra-red exploration) that is 25 times more light-sensitive than others of its kind was installed at keck in 2012 and the hubble space telescope is powered by a new near-infrared camera installed by astronauts aboard the space shuttle in 2009 that sees farther into the universe finkelstein and papovichs collaboration to study distant galaxies and our cosmic evolution is one of several between texas two public research giants in the realm of astronomy texas a&m the university of texas at austin and other institutions are building the largest spectrograph in the world to be installed at the hobby-eberly telescope in west texas to shed light on the mysterious force dark energy that likely is driving the expansion of the universe perhaps the largest and most important collaboration between the two universities astronomy programs is on the giant magellan telescope which when complete in 2020 will create images 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope and enable astronomers to see earlier into the universe than ever before texas a&m and the university of texas at austin are two of 10 international institutions that are founding partners on the project the giant magellan telescope will revolutionize this research papovich said we are pushing the current telescopes to their limits and only seeing the brightest galaxies at these redshifts it is slow-going with current telescopes the gmt will have about five times the light gathering power of the biggest telescopes were using now and it will make the measurements were doing that much easier it will probably take the gmt to really understand the conditions in the very early universe nicholas suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program said the university of texas at austin has been instrumental in helping to boost the college station programs international profile and providing access to telescopes and facilities suntzeff who this year was appointed texas a&ms highest faculty rank distinguished professor himself serves as an adjunct professor at the university of texas at austin if we want to maintain texas as one of the most important centers in the world for astronomy we can no longer do it as individual universities suntzeff said ut texas a&m and other universities must work together just as a strength of the university of california program is that its system is united if we are going to be part of the biggest projects in the world we must unite our forces this is the only way we can rejoin the group of elite astronomical institutions that are doing the best science on the biggest telescopes in texas we are on that path to learn more about this research which is supported by nasa through the hubble space telescope science institute (stsci) and texas a&m astronomy visit astronomy research page for more information about the texas a&m mitchell institute go to http://mitchelltamuedu/ to learn more about astronomy at the university of texas at austin visit http://wwwasutexasedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu; casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@tamuedu; steven finkelstein (512) 471-1483 or stevenf@astroasutexasedu; vithal tilvi (979) 862-2105 or tilvi@physicstamuedu " " college station nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized as one of three faculty recipients of 2013 bush excellence awards for international teaching international research and public service suntzeff who was honored for his excellence in international research received the prestigious award along with co-recipients cynthia k boettcher (international teaching) assistant department head and clinical professor of teaching learning and culture in the college of education and human development and mark t holtzapple (public service) professor of chemical engineering in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering in the dwight look college of engineering the trio was celebrated wednesday (oct 16) at a dinner hosted by texas a&m president r bowen loftin and the texas a&m international advisory board texas a&m executive vice president and provost karan watson and george bush presidential library foundation chief executive officer frederick mcclure presented each recipient with a plaque and a check for $2 000 during the awards program dinner it is an honor to recognize these outstanding faculty at texas a&m with bush excellence awards mcclure said through their work they are equipping students with global competencies exploring the international dimensions of their disciplines and preserving our environment for future generations we congratulate drs boettcher suntzeff and holtzapple on receiving this prestigious honor suntzeff a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and holder of the mitchell-munnerlyn-heep chair in observational astronomy has served since 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program he was appointed as a university distinguished professor in 2013 suntzeff is well-known for his research on dwarf galaxies and exploding stars and their use as indicators of the distance scale of the universe these distance derivations showed results which uncovered the acceleration of the universe which was honored as science magazines 1998 breakthrough of the year his work on exploding stars with an international team of three other scientists resulted in papers written in a three-year span from 1994 to 1996 that are still highly cited and actually began the field of supernova cosmology in addition suntzeff was the founder of one of the international teams that made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astrophysics: the detection of dark energy his work directly contributed to the awarding of the nobel prize for physics in 2011 his nominator said that the full appreciation and understanding of the impact of dark energy and associate cosmology will be the topic of physics research for much of the next century the bush excellence awards were established through the vision and support of president and mrs george hw bush in 2002 with financial assistance from the george bush presidential library foundation since that time 36 awards have been presented to texas a&m faculty including texas a&m physicist m suhail zubairy in 2011 to learn more about the program or view recipients from previous years visit https://ppotamuedu/menu/engagement-awards/bush-excellence-awards-for-faculty -atm- contact: linda edwards (979) 862-6700 the post suntzeff earns bush excellence award for international research appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized as one of three faculty recipients of 2013 bush excellence awards for international teaching international research and public service suntzeff who was honored for his excellence in international research received the prestigious award along with co-recipients cynthia k boettcher (international teaching) assistant department head and clinical professor of teaching learning and culture in the college of education and human development and mark t holtzapple (public service) professor of chemical engineering in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering in the dwight look college of engineering the trio was celebrated wednesday (oct 16) at a dinner hosted by texas a&m president r bowen loftin and the texas a&m international advisory board texas a&m executive vice president and provost karan watson and george bush presidential library foundation chief executive officer frederick mcclure presented each recipient with a plaque and a check for $2 000 during the awards program dinner it is an honor to recognize these outstanding faculty at texas a&m with bush excellence awards mcclure said through their work they are equipping students with global competencies exploring the international dimensions of their disciplines and preserving our environment for future generations we congratulate drs boettcher suntzeff and holtzapple on receiving this prestigious honor suntzeff a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and holder of the mitchell-munnerlyn-heep chair in observational astronomy has served since 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program he was appointed as a university distinguished professor in 2013 suntzeff is well-known for his research on dwarf galaxies and exploding stars and their use as indicators of the distance scale of the universe these distance derivations showed results which uncovered the acceleration of the universe which was honored as science magazines 1998 breakthrough of the year his work on exploding stars with an international team of three other scientists resulted in papers written in a three-year span from 1994 to 1996 that are still highly cited and actually began the field of supernova cosmology in addition suntzeff was the founder of one of the international teams that made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astrophysics: the detection of dark energy his work directly contributed to the awarding of the nobel prize for physics in 2011 his nominator said that the full appreciation and understanding of the impact of dark energy and associate cosmology will be the topic of physics research for much of the next century the bush excellence awards were established through the vision and support of president and mrs george hw bush in 2002 with financial assistance from the george bush presidential library foundation since that time 36 awards have been presented to texas a&m faculty including texas a&m physicist m suhail zubairy in 2011 to learn more about the program or view recipients from previous years visit https://ppotamuedu/menu/engagement-awards/bush-excellence-awards-for-faculty -atm- contact: linda edwards (979) 862-6700 " " college station a group of physicists from texas a&m university are basking in the worldwide glow of big science based on their critical supporting role along with thousands of scientists across the globe in the 2013 nobel prize in physics awarded today (oct 8) by the royal swedish academy of sciences to theorists peter higgs and francois englert to recognize their work developing the theory of what is now known as the higgs field credited for giving elementary particles mass higgs and englert specifically were cited for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle by the atlas and cms experiments at cerns large hadron collider the cms detector at the large hadron collider at cern (credit: fermilab) participants in a recent meeting co-hosted by the texas a&m mitchell institute of researchers from the us institutions in cms dedicated to developing a strategy for the forward muon detector upgrades necessary to withstand the high-beam intensity regime as the lhc converts to a veritable higgs factory during the coming decade us scientists including more than 30 from texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy involved in the cms experiment played a significant role in advancing the theory and in discovering the particle that proves the existence of the higgs field the higgs boson in the 1960s higgs and englert along with other theorists (including robert brout tom kibble and americans carl hagen and gerald guralnik) published papers introducing key concepts in the theory of the higgs field in 2012 scientists on the international atlas and cms experiments performed at the large hadron collider at cern laboratory in europe confirmed this theory when they announced the discovery of the higgs boson texas a&m joins the rest of the world in congratulating our theory colleagues peter higgs and francois englert said alexei safonov an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy and a cms collaboration member we are very happy that their achievement has been recognized with the highest prize in physics and we likewise congratulate all our colleagues in theory and in the two experiments who have been part of the discovery including our own researchers and students nearly 2 000 physicists from us institutions including 88 universities besides texas a&m and seven us department of energy laboratories participate in the atlas and cms experiments making up about 23 percent of the atlas collaboration and 33 percent of cms at the time of the higgs discovery brookhaven national laboratory serves as the us hub for the atlas experiment and fermi national accelerator laboratory serves as the us hub for the cms experiment us scientists provided a significant portion of the intellectual leadership on higgs analysis teams for both experiments safonov is joined by experimental physicists teruki kamon ricardo eusebi and david toback in representing texas a&m in the cms collaboration along with fellow texas a&m experimental physicist peter mcintyre who helped conceive the original idea for fermilabs tevatron along with theoretical physicists dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt for more information on the nobel prize please see fermilabs official press release or visit their background page find additional background on the higgs discovery and texas a&ms involvement click here to see images of the higgs event detected at the cms detector created using a new software developed by texas a&m postdoctoral student tai sakuma to learn more about the cms collaboration visit the texas a&m collider physics website at http://colliderphysicstamuedu watch a video that explains americas vital contributions to the higgs discovery on youtube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr alexei n safonov at (630) 650-2078 or safonov@tamuedu the post texas a&m scientists celebrate nobel prize for higgs discovery appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a group of physicists from texas a&m university are basking in the worldwide glow of big science based on their critical supporting role along with thousands of scientists across the globe in the 2013 nobel prize in physics awarded today (oct 8) by the royal swedish academy of sciences to theorists peter higgs and francois englert to recognize their work developing the theory of what is now known as the higgs field credited for giving elementary particles mass higgs and englert specifically were cited for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle by the atlas and cms experiments at cerns large hadron collider the cms detector at the large hadron collider at cern (credit: fermilab) participants in a recent meeting co-hosted by the texas a&m mitchell institute of researchers from the us institutions in cms dedicated to developing a strategy for the forward muon detector upgrades necessary to withstand the high-beam intensity regime as the lhc converts to a veritable higgs factory during the coming decade us scientists including more than 30 from texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy involved in the cms experiment played a significant role in advancing the theory and in discovering the particle that proves the existence of the higgs field the higgs boson in the 1960s higgs and englert along with other theorists (including robert brout tom kibble and americans carl hagen and gerald guralnik) published papers introducing key concepts in the theory of the higgs field in 2012 scientists on the international atlas and cms experiments performed at the large hadron collider at cern laboratory in europe confirmed this theory when they announced the discovery of the higgs boson texas a&m joins the rest of the world in congratulating our theory colleagues peter higgs and francois englert said alexei safonov an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy and a cms collaboration member we are very happy that their achievement has been recognized with the highest prize in physics and we likewise congratulate all our colleagues in theory and in the two experiments who have been part of the discovery including our own researchers and students nearly 2 000 physicists from us institutions including 88 universities besides texas a&m and seven us department of energy laboratories participate in the atlas and cms experiments making up about 23 percent of the atlas collaboration and 33 percent of cms at the time of the higgs discovery brookhaven national laboratory serves as the us hub for the atlas experiment and fermi national accelerator laboratory serves as the us hub for the cms experiment us scientists provided a significant portion of the intellectual leadership on higgs analysis teams for both experiments safonov is joined by experimental physicists teruki kamon ricardo eusebi and david toback in representing texas a&m in the cms collaboration along with fellow texas a&m experimental physicist peter mcintyre who helped conceive the original idea for fermilabs tevatron along with theoretical physicists dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt for more information on the nobel prize please see fermilabs official press release or visit their background page find additional background on the higgs discovery and texas a&ms involvement click here to see images of the higgs event detected at the cms detector created using a new software developed by texas a&m postdoctoral student tai sakuma to learn more about the cms collaboration visit the texas a&m collider physics website at http://colliderphysicstamuedu watch a video that explains americas vital contributions to the higgs discovery on youtube: -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr alexei n safonov at (630) 650-2078 or safonov@tamuedu " " college station on an otherwise unremarkable evening last saturday (aug 31) in chile the first official image in the dark energy survey (des) was recorded by the worlds most powerful digital camera marking the beginning of a new era of discoveries about dark energy and other mysteries of the universe for hundreds of nights saturdays and otherwise during the next five years an international team of physicists and astronomers featuring scientists from texas a&m university will use this remarkable machine for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist to try to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the cosmos one of the first official images in the us department of energy-funded dark energy survey a zoomed-in look at the barred spiral galaxy ngc 1365 in the fornax cluster of galaxies about 60 million light-years from earth(credit: dark energy survey collaboration) another dark energy camera image this time of the ngc 1398 galaxy which lives in the fornax cluster roughly 65 million light years from earth it is 135 000 light years in diameter just slightly larger than our own milky way galaxy and contains more than a hundred million stars (credit: dark energy survey) harnessing the extraordinary power of the dark energy camera a 570-megapixel digital device built at fermilab and mounted on the 4-meter victor m blanco telescope at the national science foundations cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chiles andes mountains scientists will systematically map one-eighth of the sky (5 000 square degrees) in unprecedented detail as the main tool of the survey the camera features 5 precisely shaped lenses the largest nearly a yard across that together provide sharp images over its entire field of view [to see the dark energy cameras resolution capabilities check out decam interactive] with the start of the survey the work of more than 200 collaborators is coming to fruition said des director josh frieman of the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory its an exciting time in cosmology when we can use observations of the distant universe to tell us about the fundamental nature of matter energy space and time saturdays start marked the culmination of 10 years of planning building and testing by scientists from 25 institutions in six countries the surveys goal is to find out why the expansion of the universe is speeding up instead of slowing down due to gravity and to probe the mystery of dark energy the force believed to be causing that acceleration the start of the survey is a great thing to see after almost a decade of work on the instrument telescope software and plans said depoy a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in the department of physics and astronomy texas a&m is an institutional member of des and will have full access to the data as it rolls in a fact that already is having a positive impact on phd dissertation research and our reputation as an excellent program of course the parts of the instrumentation that texas a&m designed and built are working flawlessly a tribute to our lab and the students and staff who do the work the dark energy camera known as decam and revered as the most powerful survey instrument of its kind is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of depoy and senior research scientist jennifer l marshall we expect decam will have a long and productive life on the telescope depoy said the combination represents a new capability available to the entire astronomical community one that can produce unprecedented science were excited that texas a&m astronomy is part of such a groundbreaking project ctio director nicole van der bliek described saturdays start-up as an important milestone the dark energy camera in conjunction with the blanco telescope here at ctio will greatly increase our understanding of the forces that control the expansion of our universe she added during the next five years the survey will obtain color images of 300 million galaxies and 100 000 galaxy clusters and will discover 4 000 new supernovae many of which were formed when the universe was half its current size the data collected will be processed at the national center for supercomputing applications (ncsa) at the university of illinois in urbana and then delivered to collaboration scientists and the public the dark energy survey will be one of the most important surveys in the next 10 years not just because of the targeted science but because so many astronomers will be able to take their own data and do their research said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m and director of the universitys astronomy program this is the most carefully designed project i have ever been involved in and the science from the dark energy survey will be spectacular suntzeff who holds the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy within texas a&ms mitchell institute and helped to discover dark energy using the blanco telescope sees positive progress in chile for the overall astronomy profession well beyond the des project which he says offers tangible testimony to the power of public observatories and related worldwide collaboration in science so many people from so many places collaborated to bring this instrument to the blanco telescope suntzeff said at a time when ground-based optical and infrared astronomy is retreating from publicly available telescopes to facilities available to only a few institutions the design and funding of this telescope continues to goes in the other direction it is an instrument available to all users and more time will be granted to general users than has been given to the project itself the survey will use four methods to probe dark energy counting galaxy clusters measuring supernovae studying the bending of light and using sound waves to create a large-scale map of expansion over time combining these for the first time ever in a single experiment while the surveys observations will not be able to see dark energy directly project officials believe that by studying the expansion of the universe and the growth of large-scale structure over time the survey will give scientists the most precise measurements to date of the properties of dark energy the dark energy survey is supported by funding from the us department of energy office of science; the national science foundation; funding agencies in the united kingdom spain brazil germany and switzerland; and the participating institutions more information about the dark energy survey including the list of participating institutions is available at the project website at wwwdarkenergysurveyorg additional information and quotes about the project can be found in the official press release which features additional photographs and illustrations for more information about the instrument and telescope go to cerro tololo inter-american observatory to learn more about texas a&m astronomy the dark energy camera the large synoptic survey telescope and other major international projects involving texas a&m astronomers visit astronomy research page # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about fermilab: fermilab americas premier national laboratory for particle physics research is a department of energy national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in united states news release courtesy of fermilab the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) and the national center for supercomputing applications on behalf of the dark energy survey collaboration noao is operated by the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) inc under cooperative agreement with the national science foundation watch an overview of the dark energy survey project featuring the scientists who are involved courtesy of fermilab on you tube: -atm- texas a&m contacts: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu des media contact: andre salles fermilab office of communication (630) 840-3351 or media@fnalgov the post dark energy survey begins five-year mission to map southern sky appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " on an otherwise unremarkable evening last saturday (aug 31) in chile the first official image in the dark energy survey (des) was recorded by the worlds most powerful digital camera marking the beginning of a new era of discoveries about dark energy and other mysteries of the universe for hundreds of nights saturdays and otherwise during the next five years an international team of physicists and astronomers featuring scientists from texas a&m university will use this remarkable machine for which texas a&m astronomer darren depoy served as the project scientist to try to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the cosmos one of the first official images in the us department of energy-funded dark energy survey a zoomed-in look at the barred spiral galaxy ngc 1365 in the fornax cluster of galaxies about 60 million light-years from earth(credit: dark energy survey collaboration) another dark energy camera image this time of the ngc 1398 galaxy which lives in the fornax cluster roughly 65 million light years from earth it is 135 000 light years in diameter just slightly larger than our own milky way galaxy and contains more than a hundred million stars (credit: dark energy survey) harnessing the extraordinary power of the dark energy camera a 570-megapixel digital device built at fermilab and mounted on the 4-meter victor m blanco telescope at the national science foundations cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chiles andes mountains scientists will systematically map one-eighth of the sky (5 000 square degrees) in unprecedented detail as the main tool of the survey the camera features 5 precisely shaped lenses the largest nearly a yard across that together provide sharp images over its entire field of view [to see the dark energy cameras resolution capabilities check out decam interactive] with the start of the survey the work of more than 200 collaborators is coming to fruition said des director josh frieman of the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory its an exciting time in cosmology when we can use observations of the distant universe to tell us about the fundamental nature of matter energy space and time saturdays start marked the culmination of 10 years of planning building and testing by scientists from 25 institutions in six countries the surveys goal is to find out why the expansion of the universe is speeding up instead of slowing down due to gravity and to probe the mystery of dark energy the force believed to be causing that acceleration the start of the survey is a great thing to see after almost a decade of work on the instrument telescope software and plans said depoy a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in the department of physics and astronomy texas a&m is an institutional member of des and will have full access to the data as it rolls in a fact that already is having a positive impact on phd dissertation research and our reputation as an excellent program of course the parts of the instrumentation that texas a&m designed and built are working flawlessly a tribute to our lab and the students and staff who do the work the dark energy camera known as decam and revered as the most powerful survey instrument of its kind is able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of depoy and senior research scientist jennifer l marshall we expect decam will have a long and productive life on the telescope depoy said the combination represents a new capability available to the entire astronomical community one that can produce unprecedented science were excited that texas a&m astronomy is part of such a groundbreaking project ctio director nicole van der bliek described saturdays start-up as an important milestone the dark energy camera in conjunction with the blanco telescope here at ctio will greatly increase our understanding of the forces that control the expansion of our universe she added during the next five years the survey will obtain color images of 300 million galaxies and 100 000 galaxy clusters and will discover 4 000 new supernovae many of which were formed when the universe was half its current size the data collected will be processed at the national center for supercomputing applications (ncsa) at the university of illinois in urbana and then delivered to collaboration scientists and the public the dark energy survey will be one of the most important surveys in the next 10 years not just because of the targeted science but because so many astronomers will be able to take their own data and do their research said nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m and director of the universitys astronomy program this is the most carefully designed project i have ever been involved in and the science from the dark energy survey will be spectacular suntzeff who holds the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy within texas a&ms mitchell institute and helped to discover dark energy using the blanco telescope sees positive progress in chile for the overall astronomy profession well beyond the des project which he says offers tangible testimony to the power of public observatories and related worldwide collaboration in science so many people from so many places collaborated to bring this instrument to the blanco telescope suntzeff said at a time when ground-based optical and infrared astronomy is retreating from publicly available telescopes to facilities available to only a few institutions the design and funding of this telescope continues to goes in the other direction it is an instrument available to all users and more time will be granted to general users than has been given to the project itself the survey will use four methods to probe dark energy counting galaxy clusters measuring supernovae studying the bending of light and using sound waves to create a large-scale map of expansion over time combining these for the first time ever in a single experiment while the surveys observations will not be able to see dark energy directly project officials believe that by studying the expansion of the universe and the growth of large-scale structure over time the survey will give scientists the most precise measurements to date of the properties of dark energy the dark energy survey is supported by funding from the us department of energy office of science; the national science foundation; funding agencies in the united kingdom spain brazil germany and switzerland; and the participating institutions more information about the dark energy survey including the list of participating institutions is available at the project website at wwwdarkenergysurveyorg additional information and quotes about the project can be found in the official press release which features additional photographs and illustrations for more information about the instrument and telescope go to cerro tololo inter-american observatory to learn more about texas a&m astronomy the dark energy camera the large synoptic survey telescope and other major international projects involving texas a&m astronomers visit astronomy research page # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents annual expenditures of more than $776 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about fermilab: fermilab americas premier national laboratory for particle physics research is a department of energy national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in united states news release courtesy of fermilab the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) and the national center for supercomputing applications on behalf of the dark energy survey collaboration noao is operated by the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) inc under cooperative agreement with the national science foundation watch an overview of the dark energy survey project featuring the scientists who are involved courtesy of fermilab on you tube: -atm- texas a&m contacts: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu des media contact: andre salles fermilab office of communication (630) 840-3351 or media@fnalgov " " editors note: one of the highlights of yesterdays (thursday aug 8) memorial tribute celebrating the life of george p mitchell 40 at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands texas was a videotaped eulogy delivered by one of his lifelong heroes and friends world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen w hawking the following is the transcript of that eulogy: george p mitchell was a remarkable individual who combined vision with wisdom and persistence through sheer hard work and dedication he leaves behind an extraordinary legacy it can be said of very few people that they changed the world but george mitchell is among those few i first met george in 2002 when chris pope flew him to see me in pasadena to persuade him to support physics at texas a&m university not that he needed much persuading george had been a strong backer of the superconducting super collider which would have been more powerful and earlier than the lhc but was cancelled half-built after our meeting george got things moving and when i visited texas a&m the following year there was already the george and cynthia mitchell center for fundamental physics which has since moved to splendid new premises through georges support texas a&m has become a leading university for research into physics and cosmology i am proud to remember him as a friend i had several happy visits to his beautiful nature reserve in texas where george did me and my colleagues the honor of allowing us to hold a physics conference while none of us can match georges ingenuity in geophysical discovery i am happy to say that i still managed to beat him in wheelchair racing even if it was only by a narrow margin loved admired and respected through his work in energy production his humanitarian generosity his academic curiosity and passion for inspiration and his wonderful warm family george p mitchell will live on in the hearts and minds of all who knew him stephen # # # # # # # # # # to learn more about george p mitchells keen interest in science his ties to prof hawking and the related history behind his rich legacy of visionary support for texas a&m physics and astronomy read a recent feature by houston chronicle science writer eric berger for additional personal insight on mitchell and interest not only in the frontiers of science but people like texas a&m physicist peter m mcintyre who are working to explore those see bergers follow-up feature in mcintyres own words to learn more about the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy visit http://mitchelltamuedu for more on mitchell and another of his visionary legacies the cynthia and george mitchell foundation go to http://cgmforg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post stephen hawking eulogizes george mitchell as science visionary world-changer friend appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " editors note: one of the highlights of yesterdays (thursday aug 8) memorial tribute celebrating the life of george p mitchell 40 at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands texas was a videotaped eulogy delivered by one of his lifelong heroes and friends world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen w hawking the following is the transcript of that eulogy: george p mitchell was a remarkable individual who combined vision with wisdom and persistence through sheer hard work and dedication he leaves behind an extraordinary legacy it can be said of very few people that they changed the world but george mitchell is among those few i first met george in 2002 when chris pope flew him to see me in pasadena to persuade him to support physics at texas a&m university not that he needed much persuading george had been a strong backer of the superconducting super collider which would have been more powerful and earlier than the lhc but was cancelled half-built after our meeting george got things moving and when i visited texas a&m the following year there was already the george and cynthia mitchell center for fundamental physics which has since moved to splendid new premises through georges support texas a&m has become a leading university for research into physics and cosmology i am proud to remember him as a friend i had several happy visits to his beautiful nature reserve in texas where george did me and my colleagues the honor of allowing us to hold a physics conference while none of us can match georges ingenuity in geophysical discovery i am happy to say that i still managed to beat him in wheelchair racing even if it was only by a narrow margin loved admired and respected through his work in energy production his humanitarian generosity his academic curiosity and passion for inspiration and his wonderful warm family george p mitchell will live on in the hearts and minds of all who knew him stephen # # # # # # # # # # to learn more about george p mitchells keen interest in science his ties to prof hawking and the related history behind his rich legacy of visionary support for texas a&m physics and astronomy read a recent feature by houston chronicle science writer eric berger for additional personal insight on mitchell and interest not only in the frontiers of science but people like texas a&m physicist peter m mcintyre who are working to explore those see bergers follow-up feature in mcintyres own words to learn more about the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy visit http://mitchelltamuedu for more on mitchell and another of his visionary legacies the cynthia and george mitchell foundation go to http://cgmforg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " tucson ariz on saturday august 24 2013 the third mirror for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) of which texas a&m university is a founding member will be cast inside a rotating furnace at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab (soml) the only facility in the world where mirrors of this size are being made each of the gmts seven mirrors weighs roughly 20 tons yet the surface has to be smooth to within a twentieth of a wavelength of light the gmt mirrors are considered to be the greatest astronomical optics challenge ever undertaken (click here to watch a short video discussing the mirror-making process) members of the press and media are invited to tour the mirror lab with senior staff and to see the liquid glass as it is spun cast in the furnace at a temperature of 1 170 degrees c (2140 f) and also observe the mirror-glass-polishing procedure in addition there will be overview and science talks by project scientists as well as opportunities to interview leading project scientists (including texas a&m astronomer darren l depoy a world-renowned expert in astronomical instrumentation and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy) and engineers involved in the next-generation project the days festivities will conclude with a vip cocktail reception and dinner in the resorts grand ballroom followed by a special memorial program honoring gmt benefactor george p mitchell who passed away july 26 and has committed more than $33 million to the project in collaboration with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation all events are supported by the university of arizonas steward observatory and college of science and by the gmto corporation (gmtc) a nonprofit entity with project offices based in pasadena calif the gmto manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin the gmt features an innovative design utilizing seven mirrors each 84 meters in diameter arranged as segments of a single mirror 245 meters (80 feet) in diameter to bring starlight to a common focus via a set of adaptive secondary mirrors configured in a similar seven-fold pattern the gmt will allow astronomers to answer some of the most pressing questions about the cosmos including the detection imaging and characterization of planets orbiting other stars the nature of dark matter and dark energy the physics of black holes and how stars and galaxies evolved during the earliest phases of the universe astronomical discovery has always been paced by the power of available telescopes and imaging technology the gmt allows another major step forward in both sensitivity and image sharpness said peter strittmatter head of department of astronomy steward observatory in fact the gmt will be able to acquire images 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope and will provide a powerful complement not only to nasas 65-meter james webb space telescope (jwst) but also to the atacama large millimeter array (alma) and the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) both located in the southern hemisphere patrick mccarthy gmt project director added this third gmt mirror casting is going forward now because the primary optics are on the critical path for the project the second mirror has now been successfully cast and the first mirror is completed and polished to an optical surface accuracy within about 25 nanometers or about one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair like other mirrors produced by the soml the gmt mirrors are designed to be spun cast thereby achieving the basic front surface in the shape of a paraboloid a paraboloid is the shape taken on by water in a bucket when the bucket is spun around its axis; the water rises up the walls of the bucket while a depression forms in the center some 21 tons of borosilicate glass made by the ohara corporation flow into a pre-assembled mold to create a lightweight honeycomb glass structure that is very stiff and quickly adjusts to changes in nighttime air temperature each resulting in sharper images the mirror lab has already produced the worlds five largest astronomical mirrors each 84 meters in diameter two are in operation in the large binocular telescope (lbt) currently the largest telescope in the world while another is for the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) and the fourth and fifth are the first two off-axis mirrors for gmt the mirror lab also has produced five 65-meter mirrors two of which are in the twin magellan telescopes at las campanas observatory in chile the novel technology developed at the mirror lab is creating a whole new generation of large telescopes with unsurpassed image sharpness and light collecting power said wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories and chair of the gmto board the soml mirrors in the twin magellan telescopes at our las campanas observatory site are performing superbly and led to our adoption of this technology for the gmt the gmt is set to begin science operations in 2020 at the las campanas observatory exploiting the clear dark skies of the atacama desert in northern chile with funding commitments in hand for close to half of the $700 million required to complete the project with one mirror finished the second mirror being readied for polishing and with construction scheduled to begin in 2014 the project is on track to meet this schedule goal said matthew colless director of the australian astronomical observatory the giant mirrors being spun cast for the gmt at the steward observatory mirror lab are like the sails of the great ships of exploration circa 1500 except here the discoveries are not lands across the ocean but rather the nature of whole new worlds and island universes spanning all of space and time said joaquin ruiz dean of the college of science university of arizona we at arizona are proud to participate in such an exciting international scientific project as the gmt for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit tamu physics & astronomy # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg click here to read a nice recap feature on the most recent mirror casting from the university of arizonas office of university communications click here to read about the remarkable success of the first mirror polishing courtesy of the steward observatory mirror lab -atm- watch an overview of the gmt project featuring interviews with wendy freedman and patrick mccarthy about how the telescopes mirrors are made and the gmts exciting potential as a result of its unique light-gathering design on you tube: contact: robin mason external affairs ‚Äì gmto (626) 204-0529 or rmason@gmtoorg or shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post third mirror casting event for giant magellan telescope set for august 24 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " on saturday august 24 2013 the third mirror for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) of which texas a&m university is a founding member will be cast inside a rotating furnace at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab (soml) the only facility in the world where mirrors of this size are being made each of the gmts seven mirrors weighs roughly 20 tons yet the surface has to be smooth to within a twentieth of a wavelength of light the gmt mirrors are considered to be the greatest astronomical optics challenge ever undertaken (click here to watch a short video discussing the mirror-making process) members of the press and media are invited to tour the mirror lab with senior staff and to see the liquid glass as it is spun cast in the furnace at a temperature of 1 170 degrees c (2140 f) and also observe the mirror-glass-polishing procedure in addition there will be overview and science talks by project scientists as well as opportunities to interview leading project scientists (including texas a&m astronomer darren l depoy a world-renowned expert in astronomical instrumentation and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy) and engineers involved in the next-generation project the days festivities will conclude with a vip cocktail reception and dinner in the resorts grand ballroom followed by a special memorial program honoring gmt benefactor george p mitchell who passed away july 26 and has committed more than $33 million to the project in collaboration with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation all events are supported by the university of arizonas steward observatory and college of science and by the gmto corporation (gmtc) a nonprofit entity with project offices based in pasadena calif the gmto manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin the gmt features an innovative design utilizing seven mirrors each 84 meters in diameter arranged as segments of a single mirror 245 meters (80 feet) in diameter to bring starlight to a common focus via a set of adaptive secondary mirrors configured in a similar seven-fold pattern the gmt will allow astronomers to answer some of the most pressing questions about the cosmos including the detection imaging and characterization of planets orbiting other stars the nature of dark matter and dark energy the physics of black holes and how stars and galaxies evolved during the earliest phases of the universe astronomical discovery has always been paced by the power of available telescopes and imaging technology the gmt allows another major step forward in both sensitivity and image sharpness said peter strittmatter head of department of astronomy steward observatory in fact the gmt will be able to acquire images 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope and will provide a powerful complement not only to nasas 65-meter james webb space telescope (jwst) but also to the atacama large millimeter array (alma) and the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) both located in the southern hemisphere patrick mccarthy gmt project director added this third gmt mirror casting is going forward now because the primary optics are on the critical path for the project the second mirror has now been successfully cast and the first mirror is completed and polished to an optical surface accuracy within about 25 nanometers or about one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair like other mirrors produced by the soml the gmt mirrors are designed to be spun cast thereby achieving the basic front surface in the shape of a paraboloid a paraboloid is the shape taken on by water in a bucket when the bucket is spun around its axis; the water rises up the walls of the bucket while a depression forms in the center some 21 tons of borosilicate glass made by the ohara corporation flow into a pre-assembled mold to create a lightweight honeycomb glass structure that is very stiff and quickly adjusts to changes in nighttime air temperature each resulting in sharper images the mirror lab has already produced the worlds five largest astronomical mirrors each 84 meters in diameter two are in operation in the large binocular telescope (lbt) currently the largest telescope in the world while another is for the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) and the fourth and fifth are the first two off-axis mirrors for gmt the mirror lab also has produced five 65-meter mirrors two of which are in the twin magellan telescopes at las campanas observatory in chile the novel technology developed at the mirror lab is creating a whole new generation of large telescopes with unsurpassed image sharpness and light collecting power said wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories and chair of the gmto board the soml mirrors in the twin magellan telescopes at our las campanas observatory site are performing superbly and led to our adoption of this technology for the gmt the gmt is set to begin science operations in 2020 at the las campanas observatory exploiting the clear dark skies of the atacama desert in northern chile with funding commitments in hand for close to half of the $700 million required to complete the project with one mirror finished the second mirror being readied for polishing and with construction scheduled to begin in 2014 the project is on track to meet this schedule goal said matthew colless director of the australian astronomical observatory the giant mirrors being spun cast for the gmt at the steward observatory mirror lab are like the sails of the great ships of exploration circa 1500 except here the discoveries are not lands across the ocean but rather the nature of whole new worlds and island universes spanning all of space and time said joaquin ruiz dean of the college of science university of arizona we at arizona are proud to participate in such an exciting international scientific project as the gmt for more information about the gmt including design scope and projected science visit wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit tamu physics & astronomy # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg click here to read a nice recap feature on the most recent mirror casting from the university of arizonas office of university communications click here to read about the remarkable success of the first mirror polishing courtesy of the steward observatory mirror lab -atm- watch an overview of the gmt project featuring interviews with wendy freedman and patrick mccarthy about how the telescopes mirrors are made and the gmts exciting potential as a result of its unique light-gathering design on you tube: contact: robin mason external affairs ‚Äì gmto (626) 204-0529 or rmason@gmtoorg or shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station houston businessman george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m university legendary oil and gas pioneer and real estate developer and all-time most generous donor in texas a&m history has passed away at the age of 94 memorial service arrangements are pending for mitchell who died friday (july 26) at his home in galveston according to family a world war ii veteran who served with the army corps of engineers he was preceded in death by his wife cynthia woods mitchell in 2009 and is survived by 10 children 23 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren a statement from the mitchell family is viewable online at http://cgmforg/p/family-statementhtml george mitchell was a great example of what makes this university so special said texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp he truly loved the school and believed in paying forward to benefit the next generation of great aggies with his time talent and treasure the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy will be a visible legacy but his impact and influence runs deep throughout aggieland as texas a&ms largest benefactor ever and the world the fracking technology he made available to the world will pay huge dividends not just to texas but the world we will never forget him and his family george p mitchell mitchell earned his five-year degree in petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology from texas a&m in only four years graduating as the valedictorian of his class and captaining the mens tennis team (credit: mitchell family) mitchell the son of a poor greek immigrant who made his fortune finding oil and gas where others couldnt earned his five-year degree in petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology from texas a&m in only four years graduating as the valedictorian of his class and captaining the mens tennis team his visionary support for his alma mater includes the 135 acres for texas a&m university at galvestons main campus and more than $88 million to texas a&m physics and astronomy most recently a $20 million legacy gift in 2012 to benefit his namesake george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy that brought his total commitments to texas a&m university to more than $95 million solidifying his position as the universitys all-time most generous donor all of us in the texas a&m family are deeply saddened by the death of george mitchell a great man and a great aggie said texas a&m university president r bowen loftin without question he was a true visionary in every sense of the word he didnt see limits only possibilities possibilities that he converted into realities to fulfill his vision his achievements have benefited all mankind and certainly those of us in texas and at texas a&m on a personal note george was a close friend and mentor for almost a decade while i will miss his wisdom candor friendship and great sense of humor his memory will forever be etched in the hearts of those of us who knew him well and had great admiration for him his legacy will live on through the countless texas a&m students past present and future as well as the many faculty and staff whose lives have been impacted in a positive way by his extraordinary generosity and selfless service to the university he loved he will most definitely be missed bhaskar dutta texas a&m physics professor and interim director of the mitchell institute echoed those sentiments in the following statement posted on the institutes website: the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy remembers and honors its sole visionary patron and pioneering benefactor mr george mitchell who has passed away the morning of july 26 2013 with his death the world has lost a true champion of philanthropy and a great advocate for the cause of physics and astronomy our deepest condolences go to all the members of the mitchell family in this time of shared grief mitchell is former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation before merging with devon energy corporation in 2002 as the undisputed father of the barnett shale natural gas field mitchell pioneered the technique of horizontal drilling with a light sand frac it took him 17 years of experimentation to demonstrate that this approach to extracting gas from shale formations was economically viable his unconventional thinking and unwavering determination coupled with the exploitation of this technology opened up huge natural gas reserves that have revolutionized the united states energy future george mitchell was always a visionary said ed davis president of the texas a&m foundation and texas a&m class of 1967 fascinated with astronomy as a young man his vision allowed him to pursue a career that favorably looked into the ground: petroleum engineering his resolute pursuit of hydraulic fracturing helped him achieve his dream and to potentially return the us to energy independence he reinvested his success in helping texas a&m build the finest astronomy and physics program in the world his generosity will allow many others to be visionary as well and literally see the stars george mitchell was one of texas a&ms greatest icons and he will be missed but his legacy will continue to inspire aggies throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry mitchell retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy an interest he and cynthia shared in 2002 they committed their first million-dollar gift to texas a&m to establish the mitchell institute which was named in mitchells honor at the suggestion of world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking one of his lifelong heroes and eventual friends in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of texas a&ms $825 million physics buildings designed at their behest by noted architect michael graves and named in their honor as respective homes to the mitchell institute and the department of physics and astronomy the couple also has provided funding toward 10 academic chairs and professorships a post-doctoral fellowship in astronomy and a related lecture series the college of science and indeed texas a&m has benefited greatly from the fact that mr mitchell had a passion for physics and astronomy and science in general said h joseph newton dean of the college of science and inaugural holder the george p mitchell 40 chair in statistics i know i will miss him personally and i will miss hearing about how much he loved texas a&m mitchell who once built his own telescope as a high school student also has committed $3325 million thus far to the giant magellan telescope his generous support for the next-generation ground-based wonder is bookended by his lead gift of $125 million in 2004 to establish texas a&m as a founding partner and most recently in 2011 a $25 million gift involving another of his visionary legacies the cynthia and george mitchell foundation credited equally to texas a&m and the carnegie institution for science for decades the mitchells have been major benefactors of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston donating among other gifts the land for its main campus that carries mitchells fathers name they also provided major funding for texas a&ms statistics and petroleum engineering departments and the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center it is hard to express in words what george mitchell meant to texas a&m university at galveston its students faculty and staff and to me personally said rear admiral robert smith iii 61 president/chief executive officer at texas a&m at galveston to say he was a great man with foresight and generosity isnt enough his contributions to this university literally made this institution possible the very land it sits on was donated by mr mitchell in honor of his father and his support never waned but more than that it was his friendship that we shall always cherish he will be deeply missed but his spirit shall go on forever within this university in addition to his oil and gas successes mitchell became one of the most successful real estate developers in the houston-galveston region founding the woodlands a master-planned new town north of downtown houston he and cynthia also played a key role in the rejuvenation of galvestons historic strand district and the rebirth of its mardi gras celebration mitchell also founded the houston advanced research center (harc) a contract and grant research institute headquartered in the woodlands research forest and dedicated to his longstanding belief that if texas great universities would work together they could compete on any level one of harcs first deliverables was the design of a shielded magnet to accelerate sub-atomic particles for the superconducting super collider (ssc) which eventually fell victim to federal funding cuts in 1993 and went down in history as one of mitchells biggest disappointments common ground that he shared with hawking cards letters and other written forms of condolences also may be addressed to the george p mitchell family in care of the mitchell family corporation 24 waterway avenue suite 300 the woodlands texas 77380 for additional information please visit the cynthia and george mitchell foundation website at wwwcgmforg see a 2006 discovery magazine feature on mitchell¬†and his early involvement with texas a&m physics and astronomy read a february 2012 feature story on mitchell and his contributions to the energy industry as the first installment in texas a&ms past 12 impacts of the 12th man series see a list of quotes tributes and news clips memorializing mitchell -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m mourns legendary houston philanthropist and distinguished former student george p mitchell appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " houston businessman george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m university legendary oil and gas pioneer and real estate developer and all-time most generous donor in texas a&m history has passed away at the age of 94 memorial service arrangements are pending for mitchell who died friday (july 26) at his home in galveston according to family a world war ii veteran who served with the army corps of engineers he was preceded in death by his wife cynthia woods mitchell in 2009 and is survived by 10 children 23 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren a statement from the mitchell family is viewable online at http://cgmforg/p/family-statementhtml george mitchell was a great example of what makes this university so special said texas a&m university system chancellor john sharp he truly loved the school and believed in paying forward to benefit the next generation of great aggies with his time talent and treasure the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy will be a visible legacy but his impact and influence runs deep throughout aggieland as texas a&ms largest benefactor ever and the world the fracking technology he made available to the world will pay huge dividends not just to texas but the world we will never forget him and his family george p mitchell mitchell earned his five-year degree in petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology from texas a&m in only four years graduating as the valedictorian of his class and captaining the mens tennis team (credit: mitchell family) mitchell the son of a poor greek immigrant who made his fortune finding oil and gas where others couldnt earned his five-year degree in petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology from texas a&m in only four years graduating as the valedictorian of his class and captaining the mens tennis team his visionary support for his alma mater includes the 135 acres for texas a&m university at galvestons main campus and more than $88 million to texas a&m physics and astronomy most recently a $20 million legacy gift in 2012 to benefit his namesake george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy that brought his total commitments to texas a&m university to more than $95 million solidifying his position as the universitys all-time most generous donor all of us in the texas a&m family are deeply saddened by the death of george mitchell a great man and a great aggie said texas a&m university president r bowen loftin without question he was a true visionary in every sense of the word he didnt see limits only possibilities possibilities that he converted into realities to fulfill his vision his achievements have benefited all mankind and certainly those of us in texas and at texas a&m on a personal note george was a close friend and mentor for almost a decade while i will miss his wisdom candor friendship and great sense of humor his memory will forever be etched in the hearts of those of us who knew him well and had great admiration for him his legacy will live on through the countless texas a&m students past present and future as well as the many faculty and staff whose lives have been impacted in a positive way by his extraordinary generosity and selfless service to the university he loved he will most definitely be missed bhaskar dutta texas a&m physics professor and interim director of the mitchell institute echoed those sentiments in the following statement posted on the institutes website: the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy remembers and honors its sole visionary patron and pioneering benefactor mr george mitchell who has passed away the morning of july 26 2013 with his death the world has lost a true champion of philanthropy and a great advocate for the cause of physics and astronomy our deepest condolences go to all the members of the mitchell family in this time of shared grief mitchell is former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation before merging with devon energy corporation in 2002 as the undisputed father of the barnett shale natural gas field mitchell pioneered the technique of horizontal drilling with a light sand frac it took him 17 years of experimentation to demonstrate that this approach to extracting gas from shale formations was economically viable his unconventional thinking and unwavering determination coupled with the exploitation of this technology opened up huge natural gas reserves that have revolutionized the united states energy future george mitchell was always a visionary said ed davis president of the texas a&m foundation and texas a&m class of 1967 fascinated with astronomy as a young man his vision allowed him to pursue a career that favorably looked into the ground: petroleum engineering his resolute pursuit of hydraulic fracturing helped him achieve his dream and to potentially return the us to energy independence he reinvested his success in helping texas a&m build the finest astronomy and physics program in the world his generosity will allow many others to be visionary as well and literally see the stars george mitchell was one of texas a&ms greatest icons and he will be missed but his legacy will continue to inspire aggies throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry mitchell retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy an interest he and cynthia shared in 2002 they committed their first million-dollar gift to texas a&m to establish the mitchell institute which was named in mitchells honor at the suggestion of world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking one of his lifelong heroes and eventual friends in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of texas a&ms $825 million physics buildings designed at their behest by noted architect michael graves and named in their honor as respective homes to the mitchell institute and the department of physics and astronomy the couple also has provided funding toward 10 academic chairs and professorships a post-doctoral fellowship in astronomy and a related lecture series the college of science and indeed texas a&m has benefited greatly from the fact that mr mitchell had a passion for physics and astronomy and science in general said h joseph newton dean of the college of science and inaugural holder the george p mitchell 40 chair in statistics i know i will miss him personally and i will miss hearing about how much he loved texas a&m mitchell who once built his own telescope as a high school student also has committed $3325 million thus far to the giant magellan telescope his generous support for the next-generation ground-based wonder is bookended by his lead gift of $125 million in 2004 to establish texas a&m as a founding partner and most recently in 2011 a $25 million gift involving another of his visionary legacies the cynthia and george mitchell foundation credited equally to texas a&m and the carnegie institution for science for decades the mitchells have been major benefactors of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston donating among other gifts the land for its main campus that carries mitchells fathers name they also provided major funding for texas a&ms statistics and petroleum engineering departments and the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center it is hard to express in words what george mitchell meant to texas a&m university at galveston its students faculty and staff and to me personally said rear admiral robert smith iii 61 president/chief executive officer at texas a&m at galveston to say he was a great man with foresight and generosity isnt enough his contributions to this university literally made this institution possible the very land it sits on was donated by mr mitchell in honor of his father and his support never waned but more than that it was his friendship that we shall always cherish he will be deeply missed but his spirit shall go on forever within this university in addition to his oil and gas successes mitchell became one of the most successful real estate developers in the houston-galveston region founding the woodlands a master-planned new town north of downtown houston he and cynthia also played a key role in the rejuvenation of galvestons historic strand district and the rebirth of its mardi gras celebration mitchell also founded the houston advanced research center (harc) a contract and grant research institute headquartered in the woodlands research forest and dedicated to his longstanding belief that if texas great universities would work together they could compete on any level one of harcs first deliverables was the design of a shielded magnet to accelerate sub-atomic particles for the superconducting super collider (ssc) which eventually fell victim to federal funding cuts in 1993 and went down in history as one of mitchells biggest disappointments common ground that he shared with hawking cards letters and other written forms of condolences also may be addressed to the george p mitchell family in care of the mitchell family corporation 24 waterway avenue suite 300 the woodlands texas 77380 for additional information please visit the cynthia and george mitchell foundation website at wwwcgmforg see a 2006 discovery magazine feature on mitchell¬†and his early involvement with texas a&m physics and astronomy read a february 2012 feature story on mitchell and his contributions to the energy industry as the first installment in texas a&ms past 12 impacts of the 12th man series see a list of quotes tributes and news clips memorializing mitchell -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " geneva after a quarter of a century of searching physicists have discovered a rare particle decay that gives them an indirect way to test models of new physics researchers with the cms and lhcb collaborations at the large hadron collider at cern announced today (friday july 19) at the eps-hep conference in stockholm sweden that their findings agreed closely with the standard model of particle physics ruling out several models that predict new particles in this result physicists showed for the first time enough evidence to declare the discovery of a decay of a particle made up of two kinds of quarks anti-bottom quarks and strange quarks into a pair of particles called muons the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory serves as the us hub for more than 1 000 scientists and engineers including about a dozen texas a&m university physicists who participate in the cms experiment doe and the national science foundation support involvement by about 2 000 scientists and students from us institutions in the lhc experiments cms atlas lhcb and alice the vast majority participating at their home institutions via a powerful broadband network that ships data from cern this is a victory for the standard model said cms physicist joel butler of fermi national accelerator laboratory but we know the standard model is incomplete so we keep trying to find things that disagree with it the standard model predicts that the particle called b-sub-s will decay into two muons very rarely only three times in every billion decays however the standard model assumes that the only particles involved in the decay are the ones physicists already know if other unknown particles exist they might interfere either making the decay happen more frequently than predicted or effectively canceling the decay out this is the place to look for new physics said lhcb physicist sheldon stone of syracuse university small deviations from the predicted rate would firmly establish the presence of new forces or particles what scientists found was a decay that followed the standard models predictions almost to the letter this spells trouble for several models including a number of models within the theory of supersymmetry which predicts that each known particle has an undiscovered partner particle but the hunters of new particles have not lost hope; the result leaves room for other models of physics beyond the standard model to be correct the analysis is a tour-de-force for the two lhc experiments which needed to eliminate an enormous amount of background information generated by other particle decays that mimic the decay they were looking for the latest results from searches at the atlas experiment at cern and the cdf and dzero experiments at fermilab are consistent with the results from the lhcb and cms experiments as much as scientists can learn from measuring this decay they can learn even more if they compare it to the decay of another particle made of quarks: b-sub-d which is made of an anti-bottom quark and a down quark a b-sub-d particle should decay even more rarely into a pair of muons than a b-sub-s particle physicists did not have enough data to make a definitive statement about this decay in this analysis but their work shows that they will be able to gather evidence of it after the lhc restarts in 2015 at higher energy exploring the texas a&m ties texas a&m university physicist teruki kamon describes todays finding as a moment hes been waiting for since 2002 when he co-authored a paper with fellow texas a&m physicists bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt proposing a powerful way to test a cosmologically consistent model of supersymmetry the texas a&m trio pioneers in combining theory and experiment at a single university published those early findings in the international journal physics letters b zeroing in on rare particle decays which had never been observed to date as their preferred technique and suggesting that the first evidence for supersymmetry might be observed through the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) experiment in which kamon has been involved since 2002 in 2011 kamon and the cdf team published another paper detailing their recently completed analysis of 10 years of tevatron-gleaned data that revealed a slight but tantalizing excess in the painstaking search for rare particle decay while the result was not conclusive kamon says it was a definite conclusion we searched for this at the tevatron hoping supersymmetry-related particles are light enough kamon said now they look heavier in switching to the cms experiment kamon says he chose to pursue so-called direct searches instead of indirect because of the lhcs powerful capability and the conventional wisdom that new physics discoveries such as supersymmetry would come before actual particle observation the lhc is truly the machine to probe new physics at tera-electron volts kamon said but nature is tricky; the lhc discovered the higgs boson instead but this is actually encouraging because supersymmetry needs the higgs boson so i just keep moving this is not the end of the story nor of supersymmetry kamon says the 2002 paper fits the theme of texas a&ms present-day george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy which is uniquely suited to explore the interconnection between particle physics and cosmology given its makeup of high-energy physicists and astronomers who are involved in many prominent international collaborations and experiments lhc fermilab and otherwise and well positioned to capitalize on the latest astrophysical observations regarding the precise determination of the content of the universe in addition to kamon fellow mitchell institute high-energy experimentalists ricardo eusebi alexei safonov and david toback are intensely involved with the cms experiment at the lhc to discover the presence of new physics at the same time mitchell institute high-energy theorists arnowitt and dutta along with dimitri nanopoulos are utilizing lhc experiment results to understand the past present and the future of the universe for more information on texas a&ms mitchell institute visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu learn more about high-energy physics research at texas a&m or visit texas a&m collider physics # # # # # # # # # # additional background and resources information about the us participation in the lhc is available at http://wwwuslhcus follow us lhc on twitter at http://twittercom/uslhc fermilab is americas premier national laboratory for particle physics research a us department of energy office of science laboratory fermilab is located near chicago illinois and operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the united states and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time the national science foundation supports the research activities of us university scientists and students on the atlas cms lhcb and alice experiments as well as promoting the development of advanced computing innovations essential to address the data challenges posed by the lhc cern the european organization for nuclear research is the worlds leading laboratory for particle physics it has its headquarters in geneva switzerland at present its member states are austria belgium bulgaria the czech republic denmark finland france germany greece hungary italy the netherlands norway poland portugal slovakia spain sweden switzerland and the united kingdom romania is a candidate for accession israel and serbia are associate members in the pre-stage to membership india japan the russian federation the united states of america turkey the european commission and unesco have observer status -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu teruki kamon (979) 845-7740 or kamon@physicstamuedu or bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu the post discovery of rare decay narrows space for new physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " after a quarter of a century of searching physicists have discovered a rare particle decay that gives them an indirect way to test models of new physics researchers with the cms and lhcb collaborations at the large hadron collider at cern announced today (friday july 19) at the eps-hep conference in stockholm sweden that their findings agreed closely with the standard model of particle physics ruling out several models that predict new particles in this result physicists showed for the first time enough evidence to declare the discovery of a decay of a particle made up of two kinds of quarks anti-bottom quarks and strange quarks into a pair of particles called muons the us department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory serves as the us hub for more than 1 000 scientists and engineers including about a dozen texas a&m university physicists who participate in the cms experiment doe and the national science foundation support involvement by about 2 000 scientists and students from us institutions in the lhc experiments cms atlas lhcb and alice the vast majority participating at their home institutions via a powerful broadband network that ships data from cern this is a victory for the standard model said cms physicist joel butler of fermi national accelerator laboratory but we know the standard model is incomplete so we keep trying to find things that disagree with it the standard model predicts that the particle called b-sub-s will decay into two muons very rarely only three times in every billion decays however the standard model assumes that the only particles involved in the decay are the ones physicists already know if other unknown particles exist they might interfere either making the decay happen more frequently than predicted or effectively canceling the decay out this is the place to look for new physics said lhcb physicist sheldon stone of syracuse university small deviations from the predicted rate would firmly establish the presence of new forces or particles what scientists found was a decay that followed the standard models predictions almost to the letter this spells trouble for several models including a number of models within the theory of supersymmetry which predicts that each known particle has an undiscovered partner particle but the hunters of new particles have not lost hope; the result leaves room for other models of physics beyond the standard model to be correct the analysis is a tour-de-force for the two lhc experiments which needed to eliminate an enormous amount of background information generated by other particle decays that mimic the decay they were looking for the latest results from searches at the atlas experiment at cern and the cdf and dzero experiments at fermilab are consistent with the results from the lhcb and cms experiments as much as scientists can learn from measuring this decay they can learn even more if they compare it to the decay of another particle made of quarks: b-sub-d which is made of an anti-bottom quark and a down quark a b-sub-d particle should decay even more rarely into a pair of muons than a b-sub-s particle physicists did not have enough data to make a definitive statement about this decay in this analysis but their work shows that they will be able to gather evidence of it after the lhc restarts in 2015 at higher energy exploring the texas a&m ties texas a&m university physicist teruki kamon describes todays finding as a moment hes been waiting for since 2002 when he co-authored a paper with fellow texas a&m physicists bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt proposing a powerful way to test a cosmologically consistent model of supersymmetry the texas a&m trio pioneers in combining theory and experiment at a single university published those early findings in the international journal physics letters b zeroing in on rare particle decays which had never been observed to date as their preferred technique and suggesting that the first evidence for supersymmetry might be observed through the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) experiment in which kamon has been involved since 2002 in 2011 kamon and the cdf team published another paper detailing their recently completed analysis of 10 years of tevatron-gleaned data that revealed a slight but tantalizing excess in the painstaking search for rare particle decay while the result was not conclusive kamon says it was a definite conclusion we searched for this at the tevatron hoping supersymmetry-related particles are light enough kamon said now they look heavier in switching to the cms experiment kamon says he chose to pursue so-called direct searches instead of indirect because of the lhcs powerful capability and the conventional wisdom that new physics discoveries such as supersymmetry would come before actual particle observation the lhc is truly the machine to probe new physics at tera-electron volts kamon said but nature is tricky; the lhc discovered the higgs boson instead but this is actually encouraging because supersymmetry needs the higgs boson so i just keep moving this is not the end of the story nor of supersymmetry kamon says the 2002 paper fits the theme of texas a&ms present-day george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy which is uniquely suited to explore the interconnection between particle physics and cosmology given its makeup of high-energy physicists and astronomers who are involved in many prominent international collaborations and experiments lhc fermilab and otherwise and well positioned to capitalize on the latest astrophysical observations regarding the precise determination of the content of the universe in addition to kamon fellow mitchell institute high-energy experimentalists ricardo eusebi alexei safonov and david toback are intensely involved with the cms experiment at the lhc to discover the presence of new physics at the same time mitchell institute high-energy theorists arnowitt and dutta along with dimitri nanopoulos are utilizing lhc experiment results to understand the past present and the future of the universe for more information on texas a&ms mitchell institute visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu learn more about high-energy physics research at texas a&m or visit texas a&m collider physics # # # # # # # # # # additional background and resources information about the us participation in the lhc is available at http://wwwuslhcus follow us lhc on twitter at http://twittercom/uslhc fermilab is americas premier national laboratory for particle physics research a us department of energy office of science laboratory fermilab is located near chicago illinois and operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the united states and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time the national science foundation supports the research activities of us university scientists and students on the atlas cms lhcb and alice experiments as well as promoting the development of advanced computing innovations essential to address the data challenges posed by the lhc cern the european organization for nuclear research is the worlds leading laboratory for particle physics it has its headquarters in geneva switzerland at present its member states are austria belgium bulgaria the czech republic denmark finland france germany greece hungary italy the netherlands norway poland portugal slovakia spain sweden switzerland and the united kingdom romania is a candidate for accession israel and serbia are associate members in the pre-stage to membership india japan the russian federation the united states of america turkey the european commission and unesco have observer status -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu teruki kamon (979) 845-7740 or kamon@physicstamuedu or bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu " " college station paula hiltibidal muddled through teaching high school physics in the 1990s at richland high school near fort worth then one day a colleague told her about a program at texas a&m university run by then-texas a&m physics professor robert clark that aimed to teach high school teachers basic physics concepts so they would be better prepared in the classroom it was life-changing hiltibidal said of the physics enhancement program which was funded in part by the national science foundation the program took me from being an overwhelmed teacher to a confident lifelong learner i wasnt afraid of teaching physics anymore mipep participants working on one of many group exercises characteristic of the intensive two-week program texas a&m physics professor tatiana erukhimova inspires the group with her signature educational outreach specialty the physics road show although that program no longer exists hiltibidal is helping to coordinate a similar texas a&m effort now in its second year of working to improve the state of physics education across texas more than a dozen faculty from the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy are volunteering their time to teach key physics concepts to 18 high school teachers from around the state the intensive two-week training known as the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) started june 16 and continues through june 29 the program is underwritten by the cynthia and george mitchell foundation using funds provided through the texas a&m foundation most high schools have poor physics education because its being taught by people with little or no training in physics said texas a&m physics professor bhaskar dutta a program coordinator who also serves as interim director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy participating teachers are learning key concepts and subjects such as mechanics electricity and magnetism all while surrounded by nature at the sprawling cooks branch conservancy some 5 600 acres in montgomery county owned by mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and longtime benefactor of the university and its physics and astronomy programs dutta said the natural environment is both conducive to learning and helpful in minimizing lodging expenses that otherwise would be incurred in college station hiltibidal who spent 23 years teaching in texas public schools also earned a masters degree from texas a&m in educational curriculum and instruction in 2001 now serves as a high school science specialist at the region 15 education service center (esc) which is based in san angelo and is one of 20 service centers that assist the texas education agency in implementing its goals she and dutta worked with texas a&m physics faculty alexey belyanin and tatiana erukhimova to organize the program in time for a successful debut in june 2012 hiltibidal and janie head a physics teacher at foster high school in lamar consolidated independent school district who will complete her phd in curriculum and instruction from texas a&m this december use their years of classroom experience along with their association with the texas regional collaboratives and the american association of physics teachers to serve as master teachers for mipep while the texas a&m professors volunteer as the physics content experts texas a&ms commitment to the teachers goes beyond these two weeks dutta said just as important or perhaps more so is an email listserv that keeps the teachers connected with the texas a&m faculty members throughout the school year so when theyre stuck on a problem the teachers dont have to come to the university he said the university comes to them the program addresses an important national challenge dutta said american students and texans especially lag far behind their international peers in science education dutta attributes that to poorly trained teachers: many science teachers have taken between zero and two physics courses in college dutta said that leading educators concluded that two full weeks of rigorous physics education training at the level of physics 201 and 202 could be a tremendous benefit in preparing the teachers to teach in high school classrooms across texas this was the motivation behind mipep dutta said we realize that training 18 teachers for two weeks isnt enough dutta said but if we can show that this is effective i think the state and universities like texas a&m and the university of texas should step in with support for programs like this to help improve high school science education in texas find more information about the mitchell institute physics enhancement program click here to view additional photographs of related events at both cooks branch and on the texas a&m campus to learn more about the mitchell institute visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu/ for more information about the department of physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu the post down to a science: texas a&m physics faculty teaching teachers for texas appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " paula hiltibidal muddled through teaching high school physics in the 1990s at richland high school near fort worth then one day a colleague told her about a program at texas a&m university run by then-texas a&m physics professor robert clark that aimed to teach high school teachers basic physics concepts so they would be better prepared in the classroom it was life-changing hiltibidal said of the physics enhancement program which was funded in part by the national science foundation the program took me from being an overwhelmed teacher to a confident lifelong learner i wasnt afraid of teaching physics anymore mipep participants working on one of many group exercises characteristic of the intensive two-week program texas a&m physics professor tatiana erukhimova inspires the group with her signature educational outreach specialty the physics road show although that program no longer exists hiltibidal is helping to coordinate a similar texas a&m effort now in its second year of working to improve the state of physics education across texas more than a dozen faculty from the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy are volunteering their time to teach key physics concepts to 18 high school teachers from around the state the intensive two-week training known as the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) started june 16 and continues through june 29 the program is underwritten by the cynthia and george mitchell foundation using funds provided through the texas a&m foundation most high schools have poor physics education because its being taught by people with little or no training in physics said texas a&m physics professor bhaskar dutta a program coordinator who also serves as interim director of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy participating teachers are learning key concepts and subjects such as mechanics electricity and magnetism all while surrounded by nature at the sprawling cooks branch conservancy some 5 600 acres in montgomery county owned by mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and longtime benefactor of the university and its physics and astronomy programs dutta said the natural environment is both conducive to learning and helpful in minimizing lodging expenses that otherwise would be incurred in college station hiltibidal who spent 23 years teaching in texas public schools also earned a masters degree from texas a&m in educational curriculum and instruction in 2001 now serves as a high school science specialist at the region 15 education service center (esc) which is based in san angelo and is one of 20 service centers that assist the texas education agency in implementing its goals she and dutta worked with texas a&m physics faculty alexey belyanin and tatiana erukhimova to organize the program in time for a successful debut in june 2012 hiltibidal and janie head a physics teacher at foster high school in lamar consolidated independent school district who will complete her phd in curriculum and instruction from texas a&m this december use their years of classroom experience along with their association with the texas regional collaboratives and the american association of physics teachers to serve as master teachers for mipep while the texas a&m professors volunteer as the physics content experts texas a&ms commitment to the teachers goes beyond these two weeks dutta said just as important or perhaps more so is an email listserv that keeps the teachers connected with the texas a&m faculty members throughout the school year so when theyre stuck on a problem the teachers dont have to come to the university he said the university comes to them the program addresses an important national challenge dutta said american students and texans especially lag far behind their international peers in science education dutta attributes that to poorly trained teachers: many science teachers have taken between zero and two physics courses in college dutta said that leading educators concluded that two full weeks of rigorous physics education training at the level of physics 201 and 202 could be a tremendous benefit in preparing the teachers to teach in high school classrooms across texas this was the motivation behind mipep dutta said we realize that training 18 teachers for two weeks isnt enough dutta said but if we can show that this is effective i think the state and universities like texas a&m and the university of texas should step in with support for programs like this to help improve high school science education in texas find more information about the mitchell institute physics enhancement program click here to view additional photographs of related events at both cooks branch and on the texas a&m campus to learn more about the mitchell institute visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu/ for more information about the department of physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu " " the department of physics and astronomy in conjunction with pearson higher education has honored 14 texas a&m university students by naming them pearson mechanics scholars for the 2013 spring semester the scholar program which was started in 2002 by dr david toback is meant to provide an extra challenge for those students who are excelling in our introductory mechanics course physics 218 said dr dan melconian assistant professor of physics and astronomy and current organizer of the mechanics scholar program it gives the really gifted students a chance to ‚Äòstrut their stuff and see how they compare against the very best at a&m top three winners of the spring 2013 pearson mechanics challenge exam from left: dr dan melconian yinwei charlie zhang (2nd place) xing zhao (1st place) gabriel apfel (3rd place) department head dr george welch and dr david toback at the end of both the fall and spring semesters any student enrolled in physics 218 is eligible to take the pearson mechanics challenge exam the exam covers the same material as the semester-long course newtons laws of motion the concepts of energy work and momentum rotational motion and gravity the difficulty level is higher than the course in order to identify the top performers more than a dozen of whom were honored earlier this month as pearson mechanics scholars at a may 1 lunch and awards banquet within the scenic cynthia woods mitchell garden after learning about career possibilities in physics and related fields from toback each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishment by department head dr george r welch this semesters top three performers were physics major xing zhao (first) computer engineering major yinwei charlie zhang (second) and biochemistry major gabriel apfel (third) to recognize their exceptional performance pearson higher education awarded each of them copies of the physics 208 textbook young and freedmans university physics volume ii (valued at around $90) as well as monetary awards ($200 for first place $100 for second and third) to be used toward academics ive been told by my students that 218 is considered to be one of the toughest introductory courses melconian said it is a required course for many programs at a&m and specifically most of the students are from the college of engineering with their 25 by 25‚Ä≤ initiative we are already beginning to see significantly more students in 218 than we have in the past (which was typically about 800 students in the spring and 1 500 in the fall) the pearson mechanics scholar program is becoming even more competitive and therefore more prestigious -atm- contact: dr dan melconian (979) 845-1411 or dmelconian@physicstamuedu the post head of the class: physics honors 2013 mechanics scholars appeared first on college of science share: " " college station in the mind of texas a&m university physicist peter mcintyre two of americas most pressing energy challenges what to do with radiotoxic spent nuclear fuel and dwindling energy resources can be solved in one scientific swipe he is developing the technology that is capable of destroying the dangerous waste and at the same time potentially providing safe nuclear power for thousands of years into the future in his high-energy physics laboratory east of the texas a&m campus mcintyre and his research team are developing a new form of green nuclear power that would extract 10 times more energy out of spent nuclear fuel rods than currently obtained in the first use as well as destroy the transuranics the chemical elements beyond uranium in the periodic table lurking within the hazardous toxic soup of used nuclear fuel texas a&m physicist peter mcintyre is seeing green from energy savings to solutions in his nuclear power technology capable of burning spent nuclear fuel and producing 10 times more energy than is currently extracted by exploiting the chemical properties of salt within a high-efficiency accelerator (credit: robb kendrick courtesy of the texas a&m foundation) adsms core assembly the hydrogen fluorid (hf) absorber shell (teal cylinders located at top center of figure) is show in up and down positions (credit: peter mcintyre) buoyed by seed funding from texas a&m university ($750 000) and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation ($500 000) mcintyre is preparing a proposal to the us department of energy seeking the large-scale funding that would enable him to take the next steps although viewed as a major national issue mcintyre says the nuclear waste problem is a multifaceted one for which no viable solution yet has emerged despite decades of discussion most recently in 2010 federal authorities scrapped a plan to create a nuclear waste dump at yucca mountain in nevada to store the nationwide spent nuclear fuel capacity that now stands at 65 000 tons in my opinion the only way to properly deal with transuranics is to destroy them mcintyre said they are an unthinkable hazard if they ever get into the biosphere there has long been discussion that we could find a site like yucca mountain thats so isolated from groundwater and so stable geologically that we could say with confidence it will be the same 100 000 years from now as it is today and that burying fuel there closing the door and forgetting it is something we can responsibly do i dont buy those arguments how it works each of the nations 104 reactors is fueled with about 90 tons of enriched uranium fuel packaged in sealed metal tubes called fuel pins as the uranium fissions the byproducts are trapped inside these pins where they accumulate and begin to take on neutrons that would otherwise be driving the continuing fission process the ongoing build-up which includes the heavier transuranic elements renders the reactor non-operational after about five years once the fission process stops at this point the pins are replaced with a new set and the spent fuel typically is stored in a pool of water at the reactor site mcintyre a professor since 1980 in the department of physics and astronomy and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy describes his teams technology as a win-win it destroys the bad stuff the transuranics and recovers the good stuff the fuel he said to destroy the transuranics mcintyres team has developed a conceptual design for accelerator-driven subcritical fission in a molten salt core (adsms) with this technology the transuranics are extracted into molten salt using a process called pyroprocessing in which the spent fuel pins are chopped up and loaded into a basket which is placed in a pot of molten salt the oxide fuel inside the pins dissolves in the molten salt so that all of the remaining fuel along with all of the transuranics is extracted into the molten salt the transuranics could then be destroyed through subcritical nuclear fission which is driven by a beam of energetic protons within the custom-built high-efficiency accelerator he envisions mcintyres design builds on work at argonne national laboratory and idaho national laboratory as well as the pride facility in south korea which demonstrated the process for extracting the fuel and separating the transuranic elements and fission products in molten salt scientists from those teams are collaborating with mcintyre in the new development in the same process by which we extract the transuranics from the spent fuel we also extract the uranium so it can be re-used as an ongoing energy resource to provide nuclear energy for the next several thousand years mcintyre said the idea isnt new but earlier proposals for accelerator-driven subcritical fission faced the problem that there was no known way to deliver the necessary proton beam power to a core the adsms design uses a novel invention of mcintyres called the strong-focusing cyclotron in the strong-focusing cyclotron bunches of protons are accelerated through superconducting radio-frequency (rf) cavities and focused using superconducting beam transport channels these proton bunches are continually re-focused to contain high-beam current within the accelerator aperture an approach that mcintyre says makes it possible to deliver 10 times more fission-driving beam power than previously achievable and to do it with high-energy efficiency we are preparing a proposal to the doe to build and put into operation a first model of this strong-focusing cyclotron mcintyre said it would be quite an advance in the field of accelerator physics unto itself but most particularly for the first time it will make it feasible to drive a subcritical fission core capable of destroying transuranics at the same rate they are made in a power reactor no stranger to big science mcintyre knows the hurdles ahead for his project including convincing federal officials to make a major scientific investment during an age of cutbacks and proposing a new and better way for nuclear power at a time when fukushima is fresh in the public mind (mcintyre notes that the fukushima explosions in 2011 involved spent fuel storage pools a problem his technology would eliminate) but the road the 65-year-old scientist treks has a familiarity to it he zigzagged the state and nation in the 1980s also a time of fiscal restraint to make the scientific and political cases for another major project the superconducting super collider (ssc) which would have accelerated particles to nearly the speed of light and maintained american supremacy in high-energy physics congress killed the ssc 20 years ago and the prospect of big discoveries at the frontier of high-energy physics gravitated to cern in switzerland which celebrated the discovery of the elusive higgs boson on july 4 last year physicists including stephen hawking have lamented the loss to american science represented by the failure of the ssc but mcintyre sees a silver lining to that effort: it gave him invaluable experience at figuring out how to connect science with the political leaders who could bring it to fruition skills the grayer and wiser mcintyre is using now back in the 1980s he ended up making a presentation about the ssc in the west wing of the white house to then-vice president george hw bush who subsequently asked for a two-pager to carry to president ronald reagan that moment was the birth of the ssc mcintyre said thats how things can happen and thats how they do happen in this world it takes persistence and ingenuity in trying to find a way to learn more about mcintyre and his research go to here for more information about texas a&m physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr peter mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist sees energy solutions in green nuclear power technology appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in the mind of texas a&m university physicist peter mcintyre two of americas most pressing energy challenges what to do with radiotoxic spent nuclear fuel and dwindling energy resources can be solved in one scientific swipe he is developing the technology that is capable of destroying the dangerous waste and at the same time potentially providing safe nuclear power for thousands of years into the future in his high-energy physics laboratory east of the texas a&m campus mcintyre and his research team are developing a new form of green nuclear power that would extract 10 times more energy out of spent nuclear fuel rods than currently obtained in the first use as well as destroy the transuranics the chemical elements beyond uranium in the periodic table lurking within the hazardous toxic soup of used nuclear fuel texas a&m physicist peter mcintyre is seeing green from energy savings to solutions in his nuclear power technology capable of burning spent nuclear fuel and producing 10 times more energy than is currently extracted by exploiting the chemical properties of salt within a high-efficiency accelerator (credit: robb kendrick courtesy of the texas a&m foundation) adsms core assembly the hydrogen fluorid (hf) absorber shell (teal cylinders located at top center of figure) is show in up and down positions (credit: peter mcintyre) buoyed by seed funding from texas a&m university ($750 000) and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation ($500 000) mcintyre is preparing a proposal to the us department of energy seeking the large-scale funding that would enable him to take the next steps although viewed as a major national issue mcintyre says the nuclear waste problem is a multifaceted one for which no viable solution yet has emerged despite decades of discussion most recently in 2010 federal authorities scrapped a plan to create a nuclear waste dump at yucca mountain in nevada to store the nationwide spent nuclear fuel capacity that now stands at 65 000 tons in my opinion the only way to properly deal with transuranics is to destroy them mcintyre said they are an unthinkable hazard if they ever get into the biosphere there has long been discussion that we could find a site like yucca mountain thats so isolated from groundwater and so stable geologically that we could say with confidence it will be the same 100 000 years from now as it is today and that burying fuel there closing the door and forgetting it is something we can responsibly do i dont buy those arguments how it works each of the nations 104 reactors is fueled with about 90 tons of enriched uranium fuel packaged in sealed metal tubes called fuel pins as the uranium fissions the byproducts are trapped inside these pins where they accumulate and begin to take on neutrons that would otherwise be driving the continuing fission process the ongoing build-up which includes the heavier transuranic elements renders the reactor non-operational after about five years once the fission process stops at this point the pins are replaced with a new set and the spent fuel typically is stored in a pool of water at the reactor site mcintyre a professor since 1980 in the department of physics and astronomy and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy describes his teams technology as a win-win it destroys the bad stuff the transuranics and recovers the good stuff the fuel he said to destroy the transuranics mcintyres team has developed a conceptual design for accelerator-driven subcritical fission in a molten salt core (adsms) with this technology the transuranics are extracted into molten salt using a process called pyroprocessing in which the spent fuel pins are chopped up and loaded into a basket which is placed in a pot of molten salt the oxide fuel inside the pins dissolves in the molten salt so that all of the remaining fuel along with all of the transuranics is extracted into the molten salt the transuranics could then be destroyed through subcritical nuclear fission which is driven by a beam of energetic protons within the custom-built high-efficiency accelerator he envisions mcintyres design builds on work at argonne national laboratory and idaho national laboratory as well as the pride facility in south korea which demonstrated the process for extracting the fuel and separating the transuranic elements and fission products in molten salt scientists from those teams are collaborating with mcintyre in the new development in the same process by which we extract the transuranics from the spent fuel we also extract the uranium so it can be re-used as an ongoing energy resource to provide nuclear energy for the next several thousand years mcintyre said the idea isnt new but earlier proposals for accelerator-driven subcritical fission faced the problem that there was no known way to deliver the necessary proton beam power to a core the adsms design uses a novel invention of mcintyres called the strong-focusing cyclotron in the strong-focusing cyclotron bunches of protons are accelerated through superconducting radio-frequency (rf) cavities and focused using superconducting beam transport channels these proton bunches are continually re-focused to contain high-beam current within the accelerator aperture an approach that mcintyre says makes it possible to deliver 10 times more fission-driving beam power than previously achievable and to do it with high-energy efficiency we are preparing a proposal to the doe to build and put into operation a first model of this strong-focusing cyclotron mcintyre said it would be quite an advance in the field of accelerator physics unto itself but most particularly for the first time it will make it feasible to drive a subcritical fission core capable of destroying transuranics at the same rate they are made in a power reactor no stranger to big science mcintyre knows the hurdles ahead for his project including convincing federal officials to make a major scientific investment during an age of cutbacks and proposing a new and better way for nuclear power at a time when fukushima is fresh in the public mind (mcintyre notes that the fukushima explosions in 2011 involved spent fuel storage pools a problem his technology would eliminate) but the road the 65-year-old scientist treks has a familiarity to it he zigzagged the state and nation in the 1980s also a time of fiscal restraint to make the scientific and political cases for another major project the superconducting super collider (ssc) which would have accelerated particles to nearly the speed of light and maintained american supremacy in high-energy physics congress killed the ssc 20 years ago and the prospect of big discoveries at the frontier of high-energy physics gravitated to cern in switzerland which celebrated the discovery of the elusive higgs boson on july 4 last year physicists including stephen hawking have lamented the loss to american science represented by the failure of the ssc but mcintyre sees a silver lining to that effort: it gave him invaluable experience at figuring out how to connect science with the political leaders who could bring it to fruition skills the grayer and wiser mcintyre is using now back in the 1980s he ended up making a presentation about the ssc in the west wing of the white house to then-vice president george hw bush who subsequently asked for a two-pager to carry to president ronald reagan that moment was the birth of the ssc mcintyre said thats how things can happen and thats how they do happen in this world it takes persistence and ingenuity in trying to find a way to learn more about mcintyre and his research go to here for more information about texas a&m physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr peter mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu " " college station in the bizarre world of quantum physics objects can be in more than one place at a time and future events can change the past new research involving a texas a&m university professor makes that microscopic realm even a bit stranger quantum physicist m suhail zubairy along with a post-doctoral fellow and saudi researchers have discovered a form of almost psychic communication in which information can be exchanged between two parties without any physical particles traveling between them suhail zubairy in this figure from their physical review letters paper the research team diagrams the transmission channel in which bs and sw respectively stand for beam splitter and ideal switches note that in this case the photon is accessible to eve the groups token name for the possible third party in the alice and bob scenario an eavesdropper (credit: salih et al phys rev lett) the research to be published in the april 26 edition of the prestigious journal physical review letters and reviewed earlier this week in physics world could one day have major applications in the field of optical communication particularly for communications security in recent years this field has made major improvements in allowing for the secure transfer of credit-card information between consumer and vendor with this new research it could go a tantalizing step further: there simply wouldnt be any data to steal in the first place within the communication channel zubairy however is careful not to make any claims about applicability of the discovery just yet right now this is a new beautiful idea said zubairy a professor in the department of physics and astronomy and holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics im looking at it like a painter or poet looks at art or poetry could there be use yes but our main goal right now was simply to understand the basic science first who knows what kinds of applications could be envisioned in the future zubairy and the researchers use the example of alice and bob to illustrate their findings which are detailed in a paper titled protocol for direct counterfactual quantum communication its long been assumed in physics that for information to travel in empty space between two parties alice and bob physical particles have to travel between them but by using a series of beam splitters the researchers created a setup in which information can be exchanged between alice and bob without any photons tiny units of electromagnetic light actually passing through the communication channel introducing what zubairy calls a new paradigm in quantum communication the basic set-up works like this: a photon leaving alices station can on bobs end have its polarization state switched or kept the same in other words bob has the choice of either absorbing the bit of information or not absorbing it depending on what bob chooses different detectors are set off on alices end so alice can figure out bobs choice by checking her own detectors the counterintuitive result: a communication occurred between alice and bob but the photon never left alices station in technical terms we call this ‚Äòcounterfactual zubairy said its been believed that if two parties want to communicate something needs to be sent and something is allowing for its passage thats been an underlying assumption in every communications system this is the first possible setup where that doesnt exist thats what i mean by ‚Äòalmost psychic zubairy who is a member of texas a&ms world-renowned institute for quantum science and engineering says he was inspired by the development in recent years of a branch of quantum cryptography called quantum key distribution a system that allows secure communication between two parties by the exchange of keys that allow for decoding of messages sent through a public channel what we are proposing goes a couple steps beyond that zubairy said we are talking about direct communication not through a key now we have a protocol for eliminating the middle man from a fundamental point of view this is amazing it sort of brings up these old questions such as what is a photon zubairy co-authored the paper along with a texas a&m post-doctoral fellow zheng-hong li and two researchers from the national center for mathematics and physics at the king abdulaziz city for science and technology in saudi arabia hatim salih and mohammad al-amri the concept of two parties communicating without exchanging particles is mind-boggling and highly counterintuitive al-amri said it raises interesting questions: how could alice sense bobs moves when her photon never left her station a member of the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty since 2004 zubairy earned his masters in physics from quaid-i-azam university in pakistan in 1974 and his doctorate in physics from the university of rochester in 1978 his honors include fellowships from the pakistan academy of sciences optical society of america and american physical society he also is a co-author along with fellow texas a&m quantum physicist marlan scully of a 1997 textbook titled quantum optics learn more about zubairys research for more information about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr m suhail zubairy (979) 324-1780 or zubairy@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m researcher helps discover an almost psychic photonless communication appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in the bizarre world of quantum physics objects can be in more than one place at a time and future events can change the past new research involving a texas a&m university professor makes that microscopic realm even a bit stranger quantum physicist m suhail zubairy along with a post-doctoral fellow and saudi researchers have discovered a form of almost psychic communication in which information can be exchanged between two parties without any physical particles traveling between them suhail zubairy in this figure from their physical review letters paper the research team diagrams the transmission channel in which bs and sw respectively stand for beam splitter and ideal switches note that in this case the photon is accessible to eve the groups token name for the possible third party in the alice and bob scenario an eavesdropper (credit: salih et al phys rev lett) the research to be published in the april 26 edition of the prestigious journal physical review letters and reviewed earlier this week in physics world could one day have major applications in the field of optical communication particularly for communications security in recent years this field has made major improvements in allowing for the secure transfer of credit-card information between consumer and vendor with this new research it could go a tantalizing step further: there simply wouldnt be any data to steal in the first place within the communication channel zubairy however is careful not to make any claims about applicability of the discovery just yet right now this is a new beautiful idea said zubairy a professor in the department of physics and astronomy and holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics im looking at it like a painter or poet looks at art or poetry could there be use yes but our main goal right now was simply to understand the basic science first who knows what kinds of applications could be envisioned in the future zubairy and the researchers use the example of alice and bob to illustrate their findings which are detailed in a paper titled protocol for direct counterfactual quantum communication its long been assumed in physics that for information to travel in empty space between two parties alice and bob physical particles have to travel between them but by using a series of beam splitters the researchers created a setup in which information can be exchanged between alice and bob without any photons tiny units of electromagnetic light actually passing through the communication channel introducing what zubairy calls a new paradigm in quantum communication the basic set-up works like this: a photon leaving alices station can on bobs end have its polarization state switched or kept the same in other words bob has the choice of either absorbing the bit of information or not absorbing it depending on what bob chooses different detectors are set off on alices end so alice can figure out bobs choice by checking her own detectors the counterintuitive result: a communication occurred between alice and bob but the photon never left alices station in technical terms we call this ‚Äòcounterfactual zubairy said its been believed that if two parties want to communicate something needs to be sent and something is allowing for its passage thats been an underlying assumption in every communications system this is the first possible setup where that doesnt exist thats what i mean by ‚Äòalmost psychic zubairy who is a member of texas a&ms world-renowned institute for quantum science and engineering says he was inspired by the development in recent years of a branch of quantum cryptography called quantum key distribution a system that allows secure communication between two parties by the exchange of keys that allow for decoding of messages sent through a public channel what we are proposing goes a couple steps beyond that zubairy said we are talking about direct communication not through a key now we have a protocol for eliminating the middle man from a fundamental point of view this is amazing it sort of brings up these old questions such as what is a photon zubairy co-authored the paper along with a texas a&m post-doctoral fellow zheng-hong li and two researchers from the national center for mathematics and physics at the king abdulaziz city for science and technology in saudi arabia hatim salih and mohammad al-amri the concept of two parties communicating without exchanging particles is mind-boggling and highly counterintuitive al-amri said it raises interesting questions: how could alice sense bobs moves when her photon never left her station a member of the texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty since 2004 zubairy earned his masters in physics from quaid-i-azam university in pakistan in 1974 and his doctorate in physics from the university of rochester in 1978 his honors include fellowships from the pakistan academy of sciences optical society of america and american physical society he also is a co-author along with fellow texas a&m quantum physicist marlan scully of a 1997 textbook titled quantum optics learn more about zubairys research for more information about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr m suhail zubairy (979) 324-1780 or zubairy@physicstamuedu " " college station an international collaboration whose search for dark matter is powered by detectors being fabricated at texas a&m university has for the first time observed a concrete hint of what physicists believe to be the particle behind dark matter and therefore nearly a quarter of the universe a wimp or weakly interacting massive particle scientists with the international super cryogenic dark matter search (supercdms) experiment involving texas a&m high-energy physicist rupak mahapatra are reporting a wimp-like signal at the 3-sigma level indicating a 998 percent chance or in high-energy parlance a hint of the mysterious substance dark matter that is believed to hold the cosmos together but to date has never been directly observed in high-energy physics a discovery is only claimed at 5-sigma or better mahapatra said so this is certainly very exciting but not fully convincing by the standards we just need more data to be sure for now we have to live with this tantalizing hint of one of the biggest puzzles of our time supercdms researchers are announcing their breakthrough result in talks around the nation including one at noon today (monday april 15) by mahapatra a principal investigator in the collaboration and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy mahapatras public presentation will be held in the stephen w hawking auditorium within the mitchell institute and streamed live via ttvn the collaboration has detailed its full results in a paper published in arxiv that eventually will appear in physical review letters notoriously elusive wimps rarely interact with normal matter and therefore are difficult to detect scientists believe they occasionally bounce off or scatter like billiard balls from atomic nuclei leaving behind a small amount of energy capable of being tracked by detectors deep underground particle colliders such as the large hadron collider at cern and even instruments in space like the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) mounted on the international space station (iss) the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota and managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles mahapatra says the latest analysis represents comprehensive data gleaned from the largest exposure with silicon detectors during the cdms-ii operation an earlier phase of the overall experiment involving more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions this result is from data taken a few years ago using silicon detectors manufactured at stanford that are now defunct mahapatra said increased interest in the low mass wimp region motivated us to complete the analysis of the silicon-detector exposure which is less sensitive than germanium for wimp masses above 15 giga-electronvolts [one geva is equal to a billion electron volts] but more sensitive for lower masses the analysis resulted in three events and the estimated background is 07 events in addition to being heavily involved in the data analysis mahapatra says the texas a&m group performed the crucial calibration of the silicon detectors guaranteeing that the signal would look the same regardless in which of the eight detectors located within the mine it might appear while mahapatra says monte carlo simulations werent able to rule out statistical fluctuations as the cause of the backgrounds the team believes said fluctuations would rarely produce a similar energy distribution which they interpret instead as spin-independent scattering of wimps and although he says the result is certainly encouraging and worthy of further investigation he cautions it should not be considered a discovery we are only 998 percent sure and we want to be 999999 percent sure mahapatra said at 3-sigma you have a hint of something at 4-sigma you have evidence at 5-sigma you have a discovery in medicine you can say you are curing 998 percent of the cases and thats ok when you say youve made a fundamental discovery in high-energy physics you cant be wrong given the money involved $30 million in this case it has to be extremely precise with a 998 percent chance that means if you repeated the same experiment a few hundred times there is one chance it can go wrong we want one out of a million instead using germanium detectors the collaboration previously in 2010 reported detection of two events in the signal region and an estimated background of 09 events they eventually concluded these events more likely were attributable to leakage of surface electrons rather than actual nuclear recoils for the past four years mahapatra and his texas a&m team which includes his department of physics and astronomy-based research group as well as collaborator rusty harris in the department of electrical engineering have been developing the larger more advanced detectors needed for the projects current phases from supercdms to the even more sophisticated geodm (germanium observatory for dark matter) experiments they are developing both germanium and silicon detectors to create dual-threat devices that are much bigger better and cheaper he notes his laboratorys new 6-inch diameter silicon detectors represent a world-first in cryogenic detection and are approximately 30 times more sensitive than the individual silicon detectors behind this latest result the industrial manufacturing and fabrication facility we have set up here at texas a&m has enabled us to bring down the cost from $350 000 per kilogram to about $40 000 per kilogram mahapatra said we also have a 90 percent success rate versus the previous 20 percent rate for the original silicon and germanium devices mahapatra says the collaboration will continue to probe this wimp sector using the supercdms soudan experiments operating germanium detectors and is considering using silicon detectors in future experiments the collaborations work beginning with cdms and cdms-ii and continuing with supercdms and geodm is funded by the doe and the national science foundation as well as the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) in addition to nsf funding and an early career research award from the doe this work would not have been possible without start-up support from texas a&m university and the college of science and roughly $2 million in equipment from maximum integrated products inc (nasdaq: mxim) in dallas mahapatra said additionally the mitchell institute funds the postdoctoral fellow joel sander who is spearheading the effort to develop alternate next-generation detectors that are not only another order of magnitude cheaper and but can also run at easier cryogenic temperature which is ideal for a ton-scale experiment on budget the goal of this funding was to take up high-risk high-return research that normally does not get supported by traditional funding from federal funding agencies like doe and nsf click on the following links to read respective advance articles in nature news symmetry magazine fermilab today and slac today click here for a 2009 podcast on wimps by the 365 days of astronomy project finally here is a brief overview on dark matter from phd comics # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " an international collaboration whose search for dark matter is powered by detectors being fabricated at texas a&m university has for the first time observed a concrete hint of what physicists believe to be the particle behind dark matter and therefore nearly a quarter of the universe a wimp or weakly interacting massive particle scientists with the international super cryogenic dark matter search (supercdms) experiment involving texas a&m high-energy physicist rupak mahapatra are reporting a wimp-like signal at the 3-sigma level indicating a 998 percent chance or in high-energy parlance a hint of the mysterious substance dark matter that is believed to hold the cosmos together but to date has never been directly observed in high-energy physics a discovery is only claimed at 5-sigma or better mahapatra said so this is certainly very exciting but not fully convincing by the standards we just need more data to be sure for now we have to live with this tantalizing hint of one of the biggest puzzles of our time supercdms researchers are announcing their breakthrough result in talks around the nation including one at noon today (monday april 15) by mahapatra a principal investigator in the collaboration and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy mahapatras public presentation will be held in the stephen w hawking auditorium within the mitchell institute and streamed live via ttvn the collaboration has detailed its full results in a paper published in arxiv that eventually will appear in physical review letters notoriously elusive wimps rarely interact with normal matter and therefore are difficult to detect scientists believe they occasionally bounce off or scatter like billiard balls from atomic nuclei leaving behind a small amount of energy capable of being tracked by detectors deep underground particle colliders such as the large hadron collider at cern and even instruments in space like the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) mounted on the international space station (iss) the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota and managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles mahapatra says the latest analysis represents comprehensive data gleaned from the largest exposure with silicon detectors during the cdms-ii operation an earlier phase of the overall experiment involving more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions this result is from data taken a few years ago using silicon detectors manufactured at stanford that are now defunct mahapatra said increased interest in the low mass wimp region motivated us to complete the analysis of the silicon-detector exposure which is less sensitive than germanium for wimp masses above 15 giga-electronvolts [one geva is equal to a billion electron volts] but more sensitive for lower masses the analysis resulted in three events and the estimated background is 07 events in addition to being heavily involved in the data analysis mahapatra says the texas a&m group performed the crucial calibration of the silicon detectors guaranteeing that the signal would look the same regardless in which of the eight detectors located within the mine it might appear while mahapatra says monte carlo simulations werent able to rule out statistical fluctuations as the cause of the backgrounds the team believes said fluctuations would rarely produce a similar energy distribution which they interpret instead as spin-independent scattering of wimps and although he says the result is certainly encouraging and worthy of further investigation he cautions it should not be considered a discovery we are only 998 percent sure and we want to be 999999 percent sure mahapatra said at 3-sigma you have a hint of something at 4-sigma you have evidence at 5-sigma you have a discovery in medicine you can say you are curing 998 percent of the cases and thats ok when you say youve made a fundamental discovery in high-energy physics you cant be wrong given the money involved $30 million in this case it has to be extremely precise with a 998 percent chance that means if you repeated the same experiment a few hundred times there is one chance it can go wrong we want one out of a million instead using germanium detectors the collaboration previously in 2010 reported detection of two events in the signal region and an estimated background of 09 events they eventually concluded these events more likely were attributable to leakage of surface electrons rather than actual nuclear recoils for the past four years mahapatra and his texas a&m team which includes his department of physics and astronomy-based research group as well as collaborator rusty harris in the department of electrical engineering have been developing the larger more advanced detectors needed for the projects current phases from supercdms to the even more sophisticated geodm (germanium observatory for dark matter) experiments they are developing both germanium and silicon detectors to create dual-threat devices that are much bigger better and cheaper he notes his laboratorys new 6-inch diameter silicon detectors represent a world-first in cryogenic detection and are approximately 30 times more sensitive than the individual silicon detectors behind this latest result the industrial manufacturing and fabrication facility we have set up here at texas a&m has enabled us to bring down the cost from $350 000 per kilogram to about $40 000 per kilogram mahapatra said we also have a 90 percent success rate versus the previous 20 percent rate for the original silicon and germanium devices mahapatra says the collaboration will continue to probe this wimp sector using the supercdms soudan experiments operating germanium detectors and is considering using silicon detectors in future experiments the collaborations work beginning with cdms and cdms-ii and continuing with supercdms and geodm is funded by the doe and the national science foundation as well as the natural sciences and engineering research council of canada (nserc) in addition to nsf funding and an early career research award from the doe this work would not have been possible without start-up support from texas a&m university and the college of science and roughly $2 million in equipment from maximum integrated products inc (nasdaq: mxim) in dallas mahapatra said additionally the mitchell institute funds the postdoctoral fellow joel sander who is spearheading the effort to develop alternate next-generation detectors that are not only another order of magnitude cheaper and but can also run at easier cryogenic temperature which is ideal for a ton-scale experiment on budget the goal of this funding was to take up high-risk high-return research that normally does not get supported by traditional funding from federal funding agencies like doe and nsf click on the following links to read respective advance articles in nature news symmetry magazine fermilab today and slac today click here for a 2009 podcast on wimps by the 365 days of astronomy project finally here is a brief overview on dark matter from phd comics # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 229-4196 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " college station collecting dust at a warehouse in switzerland is a piece of space junk that texas a&m university physicist peter mcintyre and his team worked on for three years though the magnet never left earth the casualty of a nasa policy change mcintyres effort helped make him one of many co-authors on a key paper released this week by nobel laureate samuel ting about the search for dark matter the research presented today (wednesday apr 3) by ting at cern and to be published in the journal physical review letters indicates scientists may be a step closer to understanding dark matter the mysterious substance that makes up nearly a quarter of the universe the instrument responsible for the science is the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) a $15 billion particle physics experiment that hitched a ride aboard the space shuttle endeavour in 2011 en route to the international space station where for the past two years it has been scanning the cosmos for charged particles with more sensitivity than ever before and is now opening up a new window to the universe early results shared today at cern from the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) shown here on the outside of the international space station indicate an excess of positrons in the cosmic ray flux and possible progress on the horizon in the search for dark matter (credit: ams/nasa) footprint of something that could be dark matter the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed however the results are almost as enigmatic as dark matter itself and ting cautions further data and analysis is needed (credit: associated press) ting who is the lead researcher on the ams experiment called mcintyre about five years ago for help on the superconducting magnet that would form the core of the experiment mcintyre provided key technical support including sending a member of his team to england packaging the magnet into its cryostat and executing a key safety test at texas a&m after a safety device designed to relieve liquid helium pressure to keep the magnet cool failed although the magnet was a technical success it ultimately was grounded because nasa decided that the space station which was originally intended to remain active only until 2015 would instead operate through at least 2020 the problem for the ams experiment was that its superconducting magnet could only remain cold and operating in orbit for the foreseen three-year lifespan the researchers had to revert to a permanent magnet that had a third of the magnetic field strength but an unlimited lifespan the collaboration reached the reluctant decision but i think the correct one that the right thing to do would be to revert to the permanent magnet which had already flown on a maiden voyage 10 years before on the space shuttle said mcintyre a professor since 1980 in the department of physics and astronomy and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy while it was frustrating to see three years work put on the shelf mcintyre said such changes are more the rule than the exception when doing science in space once an experiment is designed scientists have to pull together funding seek concurrence from all stakeholders and build the experiment in a way that is space rugged to ensure its capability to withstand the shocks of the ride up the wide temperature swings and both radiation and vacuum environments the whole process can take a decade or more mcintyre said meanwhile changes in nasa priorities funding and policy ground often shifts if you look at the history of recent space missions just about as many get canceled as go up and are successful mcintyre said what would be most painful would have been spending 10 or 20 years of your life developing an experiment that never flies that has happened to a fair number of space research missions the entire ams experiment was facing the same fate but a long and harsh battle to restore it back onto the shuttle launch agenda was won because of the persistence of sam ting though he has not been involved in the science of ams since its launch mcintyre said hes grateful to have been a part of making the experiment a success and proud to be a co-author in the results announced today if i had to do it again mcintyre said i would jump at it in a new york minute for more information about mcintyre and his research visit his personal page click here to learn more about todays ams announcement # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr peter mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m has ties to nobel laureates latest dark matter results appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " collecting dust at a warehouse in switzerland is a piece of space junk that texas a&m university physicist peter mcintyre and his team worked on for three years though the magnet never left earth the casualty of a nasa policy change mcintyres effort helped make him one of many co-authors on a key paper released this week by nobel laureate samuel ting about the search for dark matter the research presented today (wednesday apr 3) by ting at cern and to be published in the journal physical review letters indicates scientists may be a step closer to understanding dark matter the mysterious substance that makes up nearly a quarter of the universe the instrument responsible for the science is the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) a $15 billion particle physics experiment that hitched a ride aboard the space shuttle endeavour in 2011 en route to the international space station where for the past two years it has been scanning the cosmos for charged particles with more sensitivity than ever before and is now opening up a new window to the universe early results shared today at cern from the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) shown here on the outside of the international space station indicate an excess of positrons in the cosmic ray flux and possible progress on the horizon in the search for dark matter (credit: ams/nasa) footprint of something that could be dark matter the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed however the results are almost as enigmatic as dark matter itself and ting cautions further data and analysis is needed (credit: associated press) ting who is the lead researcher on the ams experiment called mcintyre about five years ago for help on the superconducting magnet that would form the core of the experiment mcintyre provided key technical support including sending a member of his team to england packaging the magnet into its cryostat and executing a key safety test at texas a&m after a safety device designed to relieve liquid helium pressure to keep the magnet cool failed although the magnet was a technical success it ultimately was grounded because nasa decided that the space station which was originally intended to remain active only until 2015 would instead operate through at least 2020 the problem for the ams experiment was that its superconducting magnet could only remain cold and operating in orbit for the foreseen three-year lifespan the researchers had to revert to a permanent magnet that had a third of the magnetic field strength but an unlimited lifespan the collaboration reached the reluctant decision but i think the correct one that the right thing to do would be to revert to the permanent magnet which had already flown on a maiden voyage 10 years before on the space shuttle said mcintyre a professor since 1980 in the department of physics and astronomy and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy while it was frustrating to see three years work put on the shelf mcintyre said such changes are more the rule than the exception when doing science in space once an experiment is designed scientists have to pull together funding seek concurrence from all stakeholders and build the experiment in a way that is space rugged to ensure its capability to withstand the shocks of the ride up the wide temperature swings and both radiation and vacuum environments the whole process can take a decade or more mcintyre said meanwhile changes in nasa priorities funding and policy ground often shifts if you look at the history of recent space missions just about as many get canceled as go up and are successful mcintyre said what would be most painful would have been spending 10 or 20 years of your life developing an experiment that never flies that has happened to a fair number of space research missions the entire ams experiment was facing the same fate but a long and harsh battle to restore it back onto the shuttle launch agenda was won because of the persistence of sam ting though he has not been involved in the science of ams since its launch mcintyre said hes grateful to have been a part of making the experiment a success and proud to be a co-author in the results announced today if i had to do it again mcintyre said i would jump at it in a new york minute for more information about mcintyre and his research visit his personal page click here to learn more about todays ams announcement # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr peter mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu " " college station make a date for free family fun and get up-close and personal with the many wonders of science and technology this weekend at the 2013 physics and engineering festival scheduled for saturday (april 6) on the texas a&m university campus no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event which will run from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building attendees are invited to unleash their inner scientist aboard a square-wheeled bicycle or try their hand at generating electricity and shooting balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 4 pm the event also will feature three fantastic bubble shows at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm by internationally acclaimed bubble artist tom noddy as well as lectures at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm with nasa aerospace engineer george james and nobel prize winners david lee and dudley herschbach the day will conclude with a 4 pm public lecture about the accelerating universe by harvard university astronomer robert kirshner author of the popular book the extravagant universe all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 3rd annual usa science and engineering festival for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please all ages and interest levels see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a promotional video courtesy of suddenlink communications: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics & engineering festival set for saturday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " make a date for free family fun and get up-close and personal with the many wonders of science and technology this weekend at the 2013 physics and engineering festival scheduled for saturday (april 6) on the texas a&m university campus no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event which will run from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building attendees are invited to unleash their inner scientist aboard a square-wheeled bicycle or try their hand at generating electricity and shooting balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 4 pm the event also will feature three fantastic bubble shows at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm by internationally acclaimed bubble artist tom noddy as well as lectures at 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm with nasa aerospace engineer george james and nobel prize winners david lee and dudley herschbach the day will conclude with a 4 pm public lecture about the accelerating universe by harvard university astronomer robert kirshner author of the popular book the extravagant universe all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 3rd annual usa science and engineering festival for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please all ages and interest levels see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a promotional video courtesy of suddenlink communications: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas to get up-close and personal with science and technology next month at the 2013 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday april 6 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by internationally recognized harvard university astronomer and author dr robert p kirshner about the accelerating universe throughout the day participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of more than 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering will be joined by representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics atmospheric sciences and biochemistry and biophysics this years festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program more than 60 deep students were involved in creating the new demos and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman tom noddy also known as the bubble guy whose exquisite bubbles lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa aerospace engineer and texas a&m graduate dr george james 86 as well as nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr dudley r herschbach and dr david m lee in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 4 pm kirshner will present the accelerating universe: einsteins blunder undone in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building in addition to detailing what subsequently became a nobel prize-winning discovery kirshner will share insight from his lifelong career in astrophysics which features many texas a&m ties prior to saturdays events dr john l junkins distinguished professor of aerospace engineering and holder of the royce e wisenbaker chair at texas a&m will deliver a free public lecture impending close encounters with asteroid apophis on friday (april 5) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which junkins will discuss earths approaching dates with astronomical destiny close encounters with the 1 000-foot asteroid apophis in 2029 and 2036 and the interesting learning opportunities each presents for astronomers and aerospace engineers all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 3rd annual usa science and engineering festival for the latest details regarding the 2013 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a video glimpse of what to expect at the 2013 physics & engineering festival on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics & engineering festival features hands-on universal fun appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas to get up-close and personal with science and technology next month at the 2013 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday april 6 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics building on the texas a&m campus activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a 4 pm public lecture by internationally recognized harvard university astronomer and author dr robert p kirshner about the accelerating universe throughout the day participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle run through a pool of cornstarch and try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers four of more than 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering will be joined by representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics atmospheric sciences and biochemistry and biophysics this years festival will showcase dozens of exciting new demonstrations built by student teams affiliated with the university-funded deep (discover explore and enjoy physics and engineering) program more than 60 deep students were involved in creating the new demos and many will be on hand to present their work in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman tom noddy also known as the bubble guy whose exquisite bubbles lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa aerospace engineer and texas a&m graduate dr george james 86 as well as nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr dudley r herschbach and dr david m lee in three successive lecture sessions scheduled for 11 am 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 4 pm kirshner will present the accelerating universe: einsteins blunder undone in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building in addition to detailing what subsequently became a nobel prize-winning discovery kirshner will share insight from his lifelong career in astrophysics which features many texas a&m ties prior to saturdays events dr john l junkins distinguished professor of aerospace engineering and holder of the royce e wisenbaker chair at texas a&m will deliver a free public lecture impending close encounters with asteroid apophis on friday (april 5) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which junkins will discuss earths approaching dates with astronomical destiny close encounters with the 1 000-foot asteroid apophis in 2029 and 2036 and the interesting learning opportunities each presents for astronomers and aerospace engineers all events are sponsored by a texas a&m tier one program (top) grant the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the event is an affiliate festival of the 3rd annual usa science and engineering festival for the latest details regarding the 2013 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a video glimpse of what to expect at the 2013 physics & engineering festival on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station heads up from texas a&m university astronomers regarding comet panstarrs which will be visible to the naked eye as it zips through the skies over bryan-college station and the northern hemisphere starting this week don carona manager of the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory advises scanning the western horizon for the hurtling celestial body of ice and rock roughly 30 minutes after sunset noting it should blaze brightest during the next few days its been a long time since weve had a good comet that could be observed in the sky without a telescope or good binoculars carona said especially one with a tail that is as prominent as this comets the most recent similarly prominent example carona recalls was hale-bopp in 1997 the most distant comet ever discovered by amateurs as well as the brightest since comet west in 1976 carona recommends a pair of binoculars or a wide-field telescope and viewing the comet from anywhere west of the bryan-college station city lights and looking west with an unobstructed view i would imagine that around lake bryan from a higher elevation would be nice he said unfortunately we dont have a lot of public land going west from bryan and college station so be careful of private property the comet (featured tuesday as nasas astronomy picture of the day) is named after the entity that discovered it the pan-starrs (panoramic survey telescope and rapid response system) project using a 18-meter telescope at the university of hawaiis institute for astronomy though the comet became visible in the northern hemisphere this week it has been observed throughout the southern hemisphere for several months for more information about the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory visit http://observatorytamuedu/ ‚Äì atm ‚Äì contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or don carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu the post need spring break plans consider comet watching appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " heads up from texas a&m university astronomers regarding comet panstarrs which will be visible to the naked eye as it zips through the skies over bryan-college station and the northern hemisphere starting this week don carona manager of the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory advises scanning the western horizon for the hurtling celestial body of ice and rock roughly 30 minutes after sunset noting it should blaze brightest during the next few days its been a long time since weve had a good comet that could be observed in the sky without a telescope or good binoculars carona said especially one with a tail that is as prominent as this comets the most recent similarly prominent example carona recalls was hale-bopp in 1997 the most distant comet ever discovered by amateurs as well as the brightest since comet west in 1976 carona recommends a pair of binoculars or a wide-field telescope and viewing the comet from anywhere west of the bryan-college station city lights and looking west with an unobstructed view i would imagine that around lake bryan from a higher elevation would be nice he said unfortunately we dont have a lot of public land going west from bryan and college station so be careful of private property the comet (featured tuesday as nasas astronomy picture of the day) is named after the entity that discovered it the pan-starrs (panoramic survey telescope and rapid response system) project using a 18-meter telescope at the university of hawaiis institute for astronomy though the comet became visible in the northern hemisphere this week it has been observed throughout the southern hemisphere for several months for more information about the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory visit http://observatorytamuedu/ ‚Äì atm ‚Äì contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or don carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu " " college station scientists from around the world will join texas a&m universitys top experts in high-energy physics and astrophysics for a three-day workshop beginning friday (march 8) that will delve into dark matter the unknown substance that makes up nearly a quarter of the universe roughly three dozen dark-matter researchers from the us and around the world including england germany and japan will fly into college station for the march 8-10 dark matter workshop hosted and funded by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy unlocking the mystery of dark matter means unlocking the mystery of the universe an 80-year-old odyssey currently surrounded by buzz as nobel laureate samuel ting has said he will make an important announcement soon about his research into dark matter its an epic space race that texas a&m is uniquely positioned to be a key player in says high-energy theorist bhaskar dutta thanks to department of physics and astronomy researchers who are involved in every known method and international experiment (see list below) currently encompassing the high-stakes global hunt we only understand 4 percent of the universe right now said dutta interim director of mitchell institute once we know this 23 percent that is dark matter were hoping it may give us a lead into understanding the remaining 73 percent which is dark energy once we understand it all then well know the past present and future of the universe such a discovery could be impactful beyond a basic understanding of the universe dutta notes when quantum mechanics was discovered no one knew that one day youd use the microwave at home to heat up your food dutta said no one can predict during those moments of discovery where this will eventually lead once we start knowing this stuff there will be spinoffs dark matter named such because it is an unknown that does not interact with light cant be seen directly by telescopes and doesnt emit or absorb light at any significant level its not like any normal matter such as stars planets or any living or nonliving material on earth its not even a black hole the search for understanding dark matter dutta said focuses on two questions: what is it and how was it created scientists around the world are trying to answer these questions using three methods: direct detection indirect detection and a collider method in direct detection researchers wait for dark matter particles to hit a detector through indirect detection experiments search for the products of the annihilation of dark matter particles in the collider method dark matter particles are produced when protons are collided and observed as missing energy most other places are strong in a particular method dutta said texas a&m is strong in all of them theres a beautiful collaboration going on here among the theorists and the experimentalists dutta said he hopes the gathering becomes an annual event to study dark matter and trade theories within a small focused group to learn more about the mitchell institute go to http://mitchellphysicstamuedu/ for more information about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # following are brief descriptions for some of the major international dark matter collaborations featuring texas a&m physicists that will be represented at the mitchell institutes march 8-10 dark matter workshop: alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams-02) experiment this galactic $15 billion endeavor involving 500 physicists from 16 countries and nearly 60 institutions worldwide centers on a state-of-the-art particle physics detector mounted on the international space station (iss) in 2009 when it began a decade-long mission in the unique environment of space to record and measure data from high-energy cosmic rays described as the hubble telescope for charged particles in the universe ams is equipped with a spectrometer similar in capability to the ones operating at cerns large hadron collider but different because it is in orbit well beyond the shielding effects of earths atmosphere collider detector at fermilab (cdf) experiment the texas a&m collider group was a founding member institution of the cdf experiment at fermilab in the early 1980s cdf is one of the two fermilab tevatron experiments that sat at the high-energy frontier for the last 20 years colliding high-energy protons and anti-protons it discovered the heaviest quark the top quark in the mid-1990s and in july 2012 played an important role in the one of the worlds most tangible particle physics discoveries to date: evidence of a higgs boson-like particle it continues to play an active role in the search for dark matter and other new particles compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment in 2005 texas a&ms experimental collider high energy group brought its decades of combined collider expertise to the collider muon solenoid (cms) collaboration one of the two flagship large hadron collider (lhc) experiments seeking to validate long-held theories of particle physics and to identify the tiniest particles in the universe along with their critical properties beyond groundbreaking work that went into last summers higgs-like particle discovery as well as the initial design and construction of cms the texas a&m team continues to provide research and development vital to the lhcs and overall disciplines future today the cms collaboration is roughly 25 members strong based in college station as well as at cern and at fermilab the us headquarters for cms cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota and managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory features more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions and has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles texas a&m is developing the larger more advanced detectors needed for the projects current phase dubbed the supercdms experiment large underground xenon (lux) experiment this experiment seeks to find the elusive dark matter particle using the element xenon in liquid form to highlight the particles if they pass through state-of-the-art detector equipment assembled during the past three years within the sanford laboratory located 4 850 feet below the earths surface within the repurposed homestake gold mine in south dakotas black hills the large-scale experiment which features 7 000 kilograms (7 tons) of xenon versus the typical 350 found in most labs is set to begin collecting data for roughly a year once the xenon is purified and is expected to conclude after subsequent analysis and verification by late 2015 -atm- watch this you tube video by minutephysics which does a nice job explaining the basics of dark matter: contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu the post mysterious substance dark matter in focus at texas a&m workshop appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " scientists from around the world will join texas a&m universitys top experts in high-energy physics and astrophysics for a three-day workshop beginning friday (march 8) that will delve into dark matter the unknown substance that makes up nearly a quarter of the universe roughly three dozen dark-matter researchers from the us and around the world including england germany and japan will fly into college station for the march 8-10 dark matter workshop hosted and funded by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy unlocking the mystery of dark matter means unlocking the mystery of the universe an 80-year-old odyssey currently surrounded by buzz as nobel laureate samuel ting has said he will make an important announcement soon about his research into dark matter its an epic space race that texas a&m is uniquely positioned to be a key player in says high-energy theorist bhaskar dutta thanks to department of physics and astronomy researchers who are involved in every known method and international experiment (see list below) currently encompassing the high-stakes global hunt we only understand 4 percent of the universe right now said dutta interim director of mitchell institute once we know this 23 percent that is dark matter were hoping it may give us a lead into understanding the remaining 73 percent which is dark energy once we understand it all then well know the past present and future of the universe such a discovery could be impactful beyond a basic understanding of the universe dutta notes when quantum mechanics was discovered no one knew that one day youd use the microwave at home to heat up your food dutta said no one can predict during those moments of discovery where this will eventually lead once we start knowing this stuff there will be spinoffs dark matter named such because it is an unknown that does not interact with light cant be seen directly by telescopes and doesnt emit or absorb light at any significant level its not like any normal matter such as stars planets or any living or nonliving material on earth its not even a black hole the search for understanding dark matter dutta said focuses on two questions: what is it and how was it created scientists around the world are trying to answer these questions using three methods: direct detection indirect detection and a collider method in direct detection researchers wait for dark matter particles to hit a detector through indirect detection experiments search for the products of the annihilation of dark matter particles in the collider method dark matter particles are produced when protons are collided and observed as missing energy most other places are strong in a particular method dutta said texas a&m is strong in all of them theres a beautiful collaboration going on here among the theorists and the experimentalists dutta said he hopes the gathering becomes an annual event to study dark matter and trade theories within a small focused group to learn more about the mitchell institute go to http://mitchellphysicstamuedu/ for more information about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy visit http://physicstamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # following are brief descriptions for some of the major international dark matter collaborations featuring texas a&m physicists that will be represented at the mitchell institutes march 8-10 dark matter workshop: alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams-02) experiment this galactic $15 billion endeavor involving 500 physicists from 16 countries and nearly 60 institutions worldwide centers on a state-of-the-art particle physics detector mounted on the international space station (iss) in 2009 when it began a decade-long mission in the unique environment of space to record and measure data from high-energy cosmic rays described as the hubble telescope for charged particles in the universe ams is equipped with a spectrometer similar in capability to the ones operating at cerns large hadron collider but different because it is in orbit well beyond the shielding effects of earths atmosphere collider detector at fermilab (cdf) experiment the texas a&m collider group was a founding member institution of the cdf experiment at fermilab in the early 1980s cdf is one of the two fermilab tevatron experiments that sat at the high-energy frontier for the last 20 years colliding high-energy protons and anti-protons it discovered the heaviest quark the top quark in the mid-1990s and in july 2012 played an important role in the one of the worlds most tangible particle physics discoveries to date: evidence of a higgs boson-like particle it continues to play an active role in the search for dark matter and other new particles compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment in 2005 texas a&ms experimental collider high energy group brought its decades of combined collider expertise to the collider muon solenoid (cms) collaboration one of the two flagship large hadron collider (lhc) experiments seeking to validate long-held theories of particle physics and to identify the tiniest particles in the universe along with their critical properties beyond groundbreaking work that went into last summers higgs-like particle discovery as well as the initial design and construction of cms the texas a&m team continues to provide research and development vital to the lhcs and overall disciplines future today the cms collaboration is roughly 25 members strong based in college station as well as at cern and at fermilab the us headquarters for cms cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota and managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory features more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions and has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles texas a&m is developing the larger more advanced detectors needed for the projects current phase dubbed the supercdms experiment large underground xenon (lux) experiment this experiment seeks to find the elusive dark matter particle using the element xenon in liquid form to highlight the particles if they pass through state-of-the-art detector equipment assembled during the past three years within the sanford laboratory located 4 850 feet below the earths surface within the repurposed homestake gold mine in south dakotas black hills the large-scale experiment which features 7 000 kilograms (7 tons) of xenon versus the typical 350 found in most labs is set to begin collecting data for roughly a year once the xenon is purified and is expected to conclude after subsequent analysis and verification by late 2015 -atm- watch this you tube video by minutephysics which does a nice job explaining the basics of dark matter: contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 845-5359 or dutta@physicstamuedu " " college station dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy at texas a&m university has been appointed as a university distinguished professor effective sept 1 2013 suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy earns recognition along with five fellow texas a&m faculty as the latest recipients of the coveted title: dr edward r dougherty professor department of electrical and computer engineering dwight look college of engineering; dr dimitris c lagoudas professor department of aerospace engineering dwight look college of engineering; dr vijay p singh professor department of biological and agricultural engineering college of agriculture and life sciences and dwight look college of engineering; dr ian tizard professor of veterinary pathobiology college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences; and dr bernd g würsig professor of marine biology texas a&m university at galveston university distinguished professors represent the highest level of achievement for our faculty said dr karan l watson provost and executive vice president for academic affairs they are recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields and their accomplishments are exemplified by outstanding teaching mentoring discovery and service they demonstrate to the world the high quality of scholarship under way at texas a&m university the title which is bestowed in perpetuity indicates a recipient has made at least one seminal contribution to his or her discipline encompassing work that is central in any narrative of the field and widely recognized to have changed the direction of scholarship in the field watson added suntzeff and his cross-campus colleagues join a select group of 69 currently active distinguished professors at texas a&m nearly half of whom (33) are affiliated with the college of science of the slightly fewer than 1 000 full professors at texas a&m university only 69 are currently distinguished professors and only up to five new ones are selected each year said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the data clearly speaks to how big a deal this is as such we are duly proud of nick suntzeff and this recognition he so richly deserves the group will be honored at an april 29 reception hosted by texas a&m president r bowen loftin and the texas a&m foundation to celebrate all faculty who are distinguished professors suntzeff who joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2006 is an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation he co-founded the high-z supernova search team along with brian schmidt that co-discovered dark energy in 1998 a finding honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines with the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology and most recently with the 2011 nobel prize in physics the underpinning of this multi-prize-winning discovery dates back to 1986 and to suntzeffs time in chile where he spent 20 years as the associate director for science at the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile that year he and colleague mark phillips produced the first modern measurements of the brightness of exploding stars between 1989 and 1996 their calan/tololo supernova project team also featuring ctios mario hamuy and the university of chiles jose maza pioneered the use of exploding stars to measure precise distances deep into the universe ushering in the field of supernova cosmology based on this work suntzeffs high-z group discovered in 1998 that that the expansion of the universe is accelerating implying the existence of a dark energy consistent with the cosmological constant of einsteins theory of general relativity therefore in a very real sense suntzeffs work led to the discovery of nearly 75 percent of the universe suntzeff previously was honored by the university in 2012 with a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 view a complete list of distinguished professors at texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post astrophysicist nicholas suntzeff appointed university distinguished professor appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy at texas a&m university has been appointed as a university distinguished professor effective sept 1 2013 suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy earns recognition along with five fellow texas a&m faculty as the latest recipients of the coveted title: dr edward r dougherty professor department of electrical and computer engineering dwight look college of engineering; dr dimitris c lagoudas professor department of aerospace engineering dwight look college of engineering; dr vijay p singh professor department of biological and agricultural engineering college of agriculture and life sciences and dwight look college of engineering; dr ian tizard professor of veterinary pathobiology college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences; and dr bernd g würsig professor of marine biology texas a&m university at galveston university distinguished professors represent the highest level of achievement for our faculty said dr karan l watson provost and executive vice president for academic affairs they are recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields and their accomplishments are exemplified by outstanding teaching mentoring discovery and service they demonstrate to the world the high quality of scholarship under way at texas a&m university the title which is bestowed in perpetuity indicates a recipient has made at least one seminal contribution to his or her discipline encompassing work that is central in any narrative of the field and widely recognized to have changed the direction of scholarship in the field watson added suntzeff and his cross-campus colleagues join a select group of 69 currently active distinguished professors at texas a&m nearly half of whom (33) are affiliated with the college of science of the slightly fewer than 1 000 full professors at texas a&m university only 69 are currently distinguished professors and only up to five new ones are selected each year said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the data clearly speaks to how big a deal this is as such we are duly proud of nick suntzeff and this recognition he so richly deserves the group will be honored at an april 29 reception hosted by texas a&m president r bowen loftin and the texas a&m foundation to celebrate all faculty who are distinguished professors suntzeff who joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2006 is an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation he co-founded the high-z supernova search team along with brian schmidt that co-discovered dark energy in 1998 a finding honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines with the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology and most recently with the 2011 nobel prize in physics the underpinning of this multi-prize-winning discovery dates back to 1986 and to suntzeffs time in chile where he spent 20 years as the associate director for science at the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile that year he and colleague mark phillips produced the first modern measurements of the brightness of exploding stars between 1989 and 1996 their calan/tololo supernova project team also featuring ctios mario hamuy and the university of chiles jose maza pioneered the use of exploding stars to measure precise distances deep into the universe ushering in the field of supernova cosmology based on this work suntzeffs high-z group discovered in 1998 that that the expansion of the universe is accelerating implying the existence of a dark energy consistent with the cosmological constant of einsteins theory of general relativity therefore in a very real sense suntzeffs work led to the discovery of nearly 75 percent of the universe suntzeff previously was honored by the university in 2012 with a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 view a complete list of distinguished professors at texas a&m -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " austin houston businessman george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m university and founder of mitchell energy & development corp has been honored by the texas state history museum foundation board of trustees with the 2013 history-making texan award dignitaries from around the state gathered wednesday (feb 27) at the bob bullock texas state history museum to pay tribute to mitchell and fellow 2013 honoree gene f kranz the iconic nasa mission operations director whose failure is not an option motto guided the success of americas flight program for more than 30 years as part of the ninth annual texas independence day dinner the history-making texan award recognizes living texas legends whose contributions to the state and the nation have been historic and exceptional in scope and nature mitchell a galveston native and historic preservation enthusiast has forged a path as a visionary leader in urban development education and oil and gas most notably transforming americas energy future with the pioneering technologies that launched a shale gas revolution kranz is widely recognized for his leadership of the tiger team of flight directors who brought the apollo 13 spaceship safely back to earth on april 17 1970 he retired from nasa in 1994 and is a consultant motivational speaker and author of the new york times bestseller failure is not an option: mission control from mercury to apollo 13 and beyond texans are known for their innovative spirit gene kranz and george mitchell are pioneers in their respective fields said foundation board president michelle brock it is a privilege to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of these gentlemen foundation trustees louise griffeth and debbie raynor both of dallas served as co-chairs for the 2013 texas independence day dinner while jan bullock of austin was the evenings honorary chair visit the foundations website for additional information on both the event and the award including a list of previous history-making texan award winners click here to learn more about mitchell and his visionary support of texas a&m university a legacy that includes a $35 million commitment toward the $825 million mitchell physics buildings and a recent $20 million gift made last fall in tandem with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation in support of his namesake george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy -atm- watch the tribute video courtesy of the bullock museum on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post george p mitchell honored as 2013 history-making texan appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " houston businessman george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m university and founder of mitchell energy & development corp has been honored by the texas state history museum foundation board of trustees with the 2013 history-making texan award dignitaries from around the state gathered wednesday (feb 27) at the bob bullock texas state history museum to pay tribute to mitchell and fellow 2013 honoree gene f kranz the iconic nasa mission operations director whose failure is not an option motto guided the success of americas flight program for more than 30 years as part of the ninth annual texas independence day dinner the history-making texan award recognizes living texas legends whose contributions to the state and the nation have been historic and exceptional in scope and nature mitchell a galveston native and historic preservation enthusiast has forged a path as a visionary leader in urban development education and oil and gas most notably transforming americas energy future with the pioneering technologies that launched a shale gas revolution kranz is widely recognized for his leadership of the tiger team of flight directors who brought the apollo 13 spaceship safely back to earth on april 17 1970 he retired from nasa in 1994 and is a consultant motivational speaker and author of the new york times bestseller failure is not an option: mission control from mercury to apollo 13 and beyond texans are known for their innovative spirit gene kranz and george mitchell are pioneers in their respective fields said foundation board president michelle brock it is a privilege to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of these gentlemen foundation trustees louise griffeth and debbie raynor both of dallas served as co-chairs for the 2013 texas independence day dinner while jan bullock of austin was the evenings honorary chair visit the foundations website for additional information on both the event and the award including a list of previous history-making texan award winners click here to learn more about mitchell and his visionary support of texas a&m university a legacy that includes a $35 million commitment toward the $825 million mitchell physics buildings and a recent $20 million gift made last fall in tandem with the cynthia and george mitchell foundation in support of his namesake george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy -atm- watch the tribute video courtesy of the bullock museum on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station there is research that is off the wall some off the charts and some off the planet such as what a texas a&m university aerospace and physics professor is exploring its a plan to deflect a killer asteroid by using paint and the science behind it is absolutely rock solid so to speak so much so that nasa is getting involved and wants to know much more dave hyland professor of physics and astronomy and also a faculty member in the aerospace engineering department at texas a&m and a researcher with more than 30 years of awards and notable grants says one possible way to avert an asteroid collision with earth is by using a process called tribocharging powder dispensing as in high pressured and spreading a thin layer of paint on an approaching asteroid such as the one named da14 that came within 17 000 miles on feb 15 what happens is that the paint changes the amount by which the asteroid reflects sunlight hyland theorizes producing a change in what is called the yarkovski effect (which was discovered by a russian engineer in 1902) the force arises because on a spinning asteroid the dusk side is warmer than the dawn side and emits more thermal photons each photon carrying a small momentum the unequal heating of the asteroid results in a net force strong enough to cause the asteroid to shift from its current orbit hyland further theorizes the kind of paint used is not the kind found at your local hardware store hyland explains it could not be a water-based or oil-based paint because it would probably explode within seconds of it entering space he notes but a powdered form of paint could be used to dust on the asteroid and the sun would then do the rest it cures the paint to give a smooth coating and would change the unequal heating of the asteroid so that it would be forced off its current path and placed on either a higher or lower orbit thus missing earth i have to admit the concept does sound strange but the odds are very high that such a plan would be successful and would be relatively inexpensive the science behind the theory is sound we need to test it in space as for getting the paint on the asteroid a practical way to do this was discovered by a former student of hylands shen ge who has since started a new space company the tribocharging powder dispenser would spray a mixture of inert gas and charged dry-paint powder at the asteroid that would attract the powder to its surface through electrostatics then solar wind and uv radiation would cure the powder giving a smooth thin coat on the surface getting the paint in the asteroids path in a timely manner will certainly be a challenge hyland observes the tribocharged powder process is a widely used method of painting many products he says it remains only to adapt the technology to space conditions nasa has approached hyland for developing such a project to test the theory and the earth may need it quickly an asteroid called apophis is due in 2029 and will come closer than many communications satellites in orbit right now it will fly by on april 13 (friday the 13 to be exact) of 2029 and make a return trip in 2036 and its estimated to be more than 1 000 feet in length and is appropriately named for an evil egyptian god of chaos and destruction there is no chance of its hitting earth in 2029 but a small chance in the next close approach in 2036 hyland notes asteroids have hit earth before one hit off the yucatan coast of mexico about 65 million years ago and is believed to have caused the eventual extinction of the dinosaurs and in 1908 the fabled tunguska event occurred in siberia in which an asteroid or meteor exploded several miles above the earth flattening trees and killing livestock over 800 square miles the explosion is now estimated to have been 1 000 times more powerful than the a-bomb dropped on hiroshima there are thousands of asteroids out there and only a small percentage of them are known and can be tracked as they approach earth hyland adds the smaller ones like da14 are not discovered as soon as others and they could still cause a lot of damage should they hit earth it is really important for our long-term survival that we concentrate much more effort discovering and tracking them and developing as many useful technologies as possible for deflecting them # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds premier research institutions texas a&m is a leader in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge in many fields including rigorous scientific and technological disciplines research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million; the university ranks 20th among all us universities and third nationally for universities without a medical school according to the national science foundation research at texas a&m creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- watch an interview with dr hyland about his research on you tube: contact: david hyland at (979) 255-7769 or keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 the post asteroids no match for paint gun says prof appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " there is research that is off the wall some off the charts and some off the planet such as what a texas a&m university aerospace and physics professor is exploring its a plan to deflect a killer asteroid by using paint and the science behind it is absolutely rock solid so to speak so much so that nasa is getting involved and wants to know much more dave hyland professor of physics and astronomy and also a faculty member in the aerospace engineering department at texas a&m and a researcher with more than 30 years of awards and notable grants says one possible way to avert an asteroid collision with earth is by using a process called tribocharging powder dispensing as in high pressured and spreading a thin layer of paint on an approaching asteroid such as the one named da14 that came within 17 000 miles on feb 15 what happens is that the paint changes the amount by which the asteroid reflects sunlight hyland theorizes producing a change in what is called the yarkovski effect (which was discovered by a russian engineer in 1902) the force arises because on a spinning asteroid the dusk side is warmer than the dawn side and emits more thermal photons each photon carrying a small momentum the unequal heating of the asteroid results in a net force strong enough to cause the asteroid to shift from its current orbit hyland further theorizes the kind of paint used is not the kind found at your local hardware store hyland explains it could not be a water-based or oil-based paint because it would probably explode within seconds of it entering space he notes but a powdered form of paint could be used to dust on the asteroid and the sun would then do the rest it cures the paint to give a smooth coating and would change the unequal heating of the asteroid so that it would be forced off its current path and placed on either a higher or lower orbit thus missing earth i have to admit the concept does sound strange but the odds are very high that such a plan would be successful and would be relatively inexpensive the science behind the theory is sound we need to test it in space as for getting the paint on the asteroid a practical way to do this was discovered by a former student of hylands shen ge who has since started a new space company the tribocharging powder dispenser would spray a mixture of inert gas and charged dry-paint powder at the asteroid that would attract the powder to its surface through electrostatics then solar wind and uv radiation would cure the powder giving a smooth thin coat on the surface getting the paint in the asteroids path in a timely manner will certainly be a challenge hyland observes the tribocharged powder process is a widely used method of painting many products he says it remains only to adapt the technology to space conditions nasa has approached hyland for developing such a project to test the theory and the earth may need it quickly an asteroid called apophis is due in 2029 and will come closer than many communications satellites in orbit right now it will fly by on april 13 (friday the 13 to be exact) of 2029 and make a return trip in 2036 and its estimated to be more than 1 000 feet in length and is appropriately named for an evil egyptian god of chaos and destruction there is no chance of its hitting earth in 2029 but a small chance in the next close approach in 2036 hyland notes asteroids have hit earth before one hit off the yucatan coast of mexico about 65 million years ago and is believed to have caused the eventual extinction of the dinosaurs and in 1908 the fabled tunguska event occurred in siberia in which an asteroid or meteor exploded several miles above the earth flattening trees and killing livestock over 800 square miles the explosion is now estimated to have been 1 000 times more powerful than the a-bomb dropped on hiroshima there are thousands of asteroids out there and only a small percentage of them are known and can be tracked as they approach earth hyland adds the smaller ones like da14 are not discovered as soon as others and they could still cause a lot of damage should they hit earth it is really important for our long-term survival that we concentrate much more effort discovering and tracking them and developing as many useful technologies as possible for deflecting them # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds premier research institutions texas a&m is a leader in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge in many fields including rigorous scientific and technological disciplines research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million; the university ranks 20th among all us universities and third nationally for universities without a medical school according to the national science foundation research at texas a&m creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- watch an interview with dr hyland about his research on you tube: contact: david hyland at (979) 255-7769 or keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 " " washington dc a new report from a government committee chaired by texas a&m university physicist robert tribble has major implications for the future of us nuclear science tribble director of the texas a&m cyclotron institute oversaw the creation of the report accepted today (jan 29) by the us department of energy (doe)/national science foundation (nsf) nuclear science advisory committee (nsac) and now available online after being transmitted to the two agencies tribble served a 3-year term as nsac chair from 2006-09 and was asked in may 2012 by the current chair argonne national laboratorys donald geesaman to lead a subcommittee charged with examining the impact of different budgetary scenarios on the nations nuclear science program and how to maintain us leadership in nuclear science despite budgetary constraints condition critical tribbles subcommittee is advocating for a 16 percent increase per year in the does current nuclear physics budget of roughly $530 million annually an amount he says is necessary to prevent the us from losing its competitive edge in the field budgets short of that level of funding would result in a major reduction of capabilities in the us program if we dont invest in the fundamental-discovery sciences we might not be able to take advantage of the next major technological breakthrough said tribble after discussing the final report earlier this week with his 21-person committee if you look at history all of our technology now came from discovery science it was not science funded by anyone to make a product it was just ‚Äòwhy is this happening tribbles advisory panel zeroed in on examining the future of three key national laboratories that are the backbone of the us nuclear physics program: brookhaven national laboratorys relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic); the thomas jefferson national accelerator facility (jlab) in newport news va; and a planned $615 million lab at michigan state university called the facility for rare isotope beams (frib) scientists in these labs are conducting research that could potentially be world-changing at brookhaven tribble notes researchers are studying a new form of matter that has similar properties to the kind that would have been around roughly 14 billion years ago just an instant after the big bang whats thought to be the earliest moment in the history of the universe nuclear to the core tribble a distinguished professor of physics and an international leader in experimental nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics joined the texas a&m faculty in 1975 he has served since 2003 as director of the cyclotron institute which represents the core of the universitys nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry program the institute which operates one of only four university-based doe-funded laboratories equipped with one of only five k500 superconducting cyclotrons worldwide serves as a major technical and educational resource for both texas and the us in addition to educating thousands of students in accelerator-based science and technology it brings in more than $3 million annually in external use and testing by companies such as boeing and lockheed-martin that rent time on the cyclotron for their own research projects beyond traditional research and teaching the institute also plays a vital role in the general universitys k-12 outreach undergraduate research and teacher-training programs helping to pave educational pathways and prepare young people for careers in the nuclear industry while building an informed knowledge base with the potential to shape future nuclear policy committed to serve at most american universities professors are tasked with a trio of primary duties: teaching research and service although the rigors of the first two often get the most attention faculty members quietly and routinely execute the third duty without any extra pay nor fanfare at texas a&m tribble is a perfect example his teaching and research credentials are exemplary he has been recognized with distinguished achievement awards in both respective areas and was appointed a distinguished professor the universitys highest academic rank in 2009 but he also has embraced service in addition to his recent work on the nsac subcommittee he has served on various other boards and committees including a similar nsac subcommittee in 2005 he currently is chair of the international union of pure and applied physics working group 9 an international committee of laboratory directors and he was the principal author of the 2007 long range plan which examined the future of us nuclear science i wouldnt be doing this if i didnt think it would make an impact on the field that im researching tribble said we have some problems and we need to try to find some solutions without spending time to do that its not going to happen donald geesaman current nsac chair and a former director of the physics division at argonne national laboratory said tribbles expertise made him a natural fit to lead both the group and the overall task bob tribbles name is the one that leapt to everyones mind to chair this subcommittee to deal with the implementation of the 2007 nsac long range under adverse budget conditions geesaman said first he had led an nsac subcommittee in 2005 responding to a similar charge and his work then was widely applauded second he was the nsac chair during the 2007 long range plan and was in a unique position to understand exactly what was in the plan finally his peers had elected him chair of the division of nuclear physics of the american physical society visible recognition of his high standing and leadership in the community we were fortunate that once again he was willing to serve resources and reference click here to read a recent usa today article featuring helpful background and links click here to read a jefferson lab summary of tribbles experiences as nsac chair learn more about the texas a&m cyclotron institute # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr robert tribble (979) 845-1411 or r-tribble@tamuedu the post texas a&m physicists committee weighs in on future of us nuclear science appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a new report from a government committee chaired by texas a&m university physicist robert tribble has major implications for the future of us nuclear science tribble director of the texas a&m cyclotron institute oversaw the creation of the report accepted today (jan 29) by the us department of energy (doe)/national science foundation (nsf) nuclear science advisory committee (nsac) and now available online after being transmitted to the two agencies tribble served a 3-year term as nsac chair from 2006-09 and was asked in may 2012 by the current chair argonne national laboratorys donald geesaman to lead a subcommittee charged with examining the impact of different budgetary scenarios on the nations nuclear science program and how to maintain us leadership in nuclear science despite budgetary constraints condition critical tribbles subcommittee is advocating for a 16 percent increase per year in the does current nuclear physics budget of roughly $530 million annually an amount he says is necessary to prevent the us from losing its competitive edge in the field budgets short of that level of funding would result in a major reduction of capabilities in the us program if we dont invest in the fundamental-discovery sciences we might not be able to take advantage of the next major technological breakthrough said tribble after discussing the final report earlier this week with his 21-person committee if you look at history all of our technology now came from discovery science it was not science funded by anyone to make a product it was just ‚Äòwhy is this happening tribbles advisory panel zeroed in on examining the future of three key national laboratories that are the backbone of the us nuclear physics program: brookhaven national laboratorys relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic); the thomas jefferson national accelerator facility (jlab) in newport news va; and a planned $615 million lab at michigan state university called the facility for rare isotope beams (frib) scientists in these labs are conducting research that could potentially be world-changing at brookhaven tribble notes researchers are studying a new form of matter that has similar properties to the kind that would have been around roughly 14 billion years ago just an instant after the big bang whats thought to be the earliest moment in the history of the universe nuclear to the core tribble a distinguished professor of physics and an international leader in experimental nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics joined the texas a&m faculty in 1975 he has served since 2003 as director of the cyclotron institute which represents the core of the universitys nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry program the institute which operates one of only four university-based doe-funded laboratories equipped with one of only five k500 superconducting cyclotrons worldwide serves as a major technical and educational resource for both texas and the us in addition to educating thousands of students in accelerator-based science and technology it brings in more than $3 million annually in external use and testing by companies such as boeing and lockheed-martin that rent time on the cyclotron for their own research projects beyond traditional research and teaching the institute also plays a vital role in the general universitys k-12 outreach undergraduate research and teacher-training programs helping to pave educational pathways and prepare young people for careers in the nuclear industry while building an informed knowledge base with the potential to shape future nuclear policy committed to serve at most american universities professors are tasked with a trio of primary duties: teaching research and service although the rigors of the first two often get the most attention faculty members quietly and routinely execute the third duty without any extra pay nor fanfare at texas a&m tribble is a perfect example his teaching and research credentials are exemplary he has been recognized with distinguished achievement awards in both respective areas and was appointed a distinguished professor the universitys highest academic rank in 2009 but he also has embraced service in addition to his recent work on the nsac subcommittee he has served on various other boards and committees including a similar nsac subcommittee in 2005 he currently is chair of the international union of pure and applied physics working group 9 an international committee of laboratory directors and he was the principal author of the 2007 long range plan which examined the future of us nuclear science i wouldnt be doing this if i didnt think it would make an impact on the field that im researching tribble said we have some problems and we need to try to find some solutions without spending time to do that its not going to happen donald geesaman current nsac chair and a former director of the physics division at argonne national laboratory said tribbles expertise made him a natural fit to lead both the group and the overall task bob tribbles name is the one that leapt to everyones mind to chair this subcommittee to deal with the implementation of the 2007 nsac long range under adverse budget conditions geesaman said first he had led an nsac subcommittee in 2005 responding to a similar charge and his work then was widely applauded second he was the nsac chair during the 2007 long range plan and was in a unique position to understand exactly what was in the plan finally his peers had elected him chair of the division of nuclear physics of the american physical society visible recognition of his high standing and leadership in the community we were fortunate that once again he was willing to serve resources and reference click here to read a recent usa today article featuring helpful background and links click here to read a jefferson lab summary of tribbles experiences as nsac chair learn more about the texas a&m cyclotron institute # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts of the 12th man: 12 impacts of the 12th man is an ongoing series throughout the year highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional impacts visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr robert tribble (979) 845-1411 or r-tribble@tamuedu " " nearly two dozen texas a&m university students enrolled in physics 218 (classical mechanics) this past fall have been honored by the department of physics and astronomy as its latest addison wesley/benjamin cummings mechanics scholars the students selected for their top-scoring marks on a special end-of-semester challenge exam open to all physics 218 students and covering material from all related sections taught during the fall 2012 semester were honored wednesday (dec 5) during an awards banquet in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the top fall 2012 mechanics scholars: (from left) jose roberto dimas valle and andrew baxter (tie for third) andrew kostrzewa (1st) department head george welch jacob shaw (2nd) and professor/organizer david toback the event featured a presentation by dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence on career possibilities in physics and related fields each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishments by dr george r welch professor and head of the department this semesters top four performers andrew kostrzewa (first) jacob shaw (second) and andrew baxter and jose roberto dimas valle (tie for third) also received copies of the physics 208 textbook young and freedman volume ii (valued at around $90) as well as monetary awards ($200 for first place $100 for second and third) to be used toward academics although considered one of the departments toughest physics courses physics 218 routinely attracts about 1 500 students across its eight sections each fall semester and about 800 in the spring according to toback the event is part of the mechanics scholar program founded by the department in 2002 to celebrate the best students in physics 218 and encourage career exploration in physics -atm- contact: dr david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@tamuedu the post physics honors fall 2012 mechanics scholars appeared first on college of science share: " " college station a decade after making his first million-dollar gift intended to help transform texas a&m university into a world leader in fundamental physics and astronomy houston businessman george p mitchell has come full circle in that commitment with a $20 million legacy gift to benefit the namesake institute where it all began mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and founder of mitchell energy & development corp and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation announced their landmark gift to texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy wednesday (nov 14) during a celebratory reception at the institute the gift established through the texas a&m foundation and payable over a five-year period will significantly bolster the permanent endowment for the mitchell institute created in 2002 by mitchell and his late wife cynthia woods mitchell with an initial $1 million gift to the university in addition it solidifies mitchells position as the universitys all-time most generous donor with a combined giving total exceeding $95 million my grandfather has a long history of supporting his keen interest in physics and astronomy said mitchell foundation president katherine lorenz this gift to the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy provides an authentic legacy consistent with his values and vision we are thrilled to support the work of some of the top scientists in the world as they explore the universes most complex questions the $20 million commitment ranks as the second-largest individual gift in mitchell family giving history behind the couples $35 million pledge in 2005 toward construction of the $825 million mitchell institute and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings the first campus buildings to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds mr mitchell transformed the energy industry in the 20th century said texas a&m president r bowen loftin texas a&m class of 1971 and a 1970 physics graduate through his support of buildings and programs across campus he helped transform texas a&m into a major research university now with his latest landmark gift toward the institute that bears his name mr mitchell helps secure the place of our astronomy and physics program among the very best in the world into the foreseeable future we are profoundly grateful since 2002 the mitchell institute has attracted eminent experts (including world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking on four separate occasions each involving sold-out public lecture appearances) to texas a&m for major conferences and events exploring big-picture issues in many vital areas that encompass its dual chief objectives of fundamental physics and astronomy in addition to serving as home to theoretical and experimental physicists searching for answers to some of the universes biggest puzzles from dark energy and dark matter to supersymmetry and string theory it also houses the universitys globally respected astronomy program whose researchers are involved in some of the worlds most significant projects texas a&m owes its participation in one such project the $700 million giant magellan telescope to mitchell who has committed $3325 million overall to the next-generation ground-based wonder scheduled to be completed in chile by the end of the decade those contributions include his lead gift of $125 million in 2004 to establish texas a&m as a founding partner $500 000 toward first-mirror polishing an additional $15 million in 2006 another $5 million in 2010 and most recently a $25 million gift involving the mitchell foundation half of which was credited to texas a&m bolstered by the mitchell familys latest generous contribution texas a&m officials eagerly anticipate a new era for the mitchell institute which entering its second decade is properly poised to parlay unprecedented financial support with its growing international research reputation to attract the caliber of faculty and students required for the world-changing projects and discoveries envisioned in the institutes near future the mitchell institute is very well poised to play a unique role in understanding the important interconnection between particle physics and cosmology by bringing together high-energy physicists and astronomers said bhaskar dutta professor of physics and astronomy and interim director of the mitchell institute at texas a&m we have been trying for the past five years to develop the vision needed to capitalize on the latest astrophysical observations regarding the precise determination of the content of the universe this gift will go a long way to contributing to human understanding of the past present and future of the universe h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science notes that establishing the mitchell institutes expanded vision is the result of a broad and sustained effort by many people particularly mitchells daughter sheridan mitchell lorenz sheridan has been instrumental in this effort as well as several past projects to better position the mitchell institute and the overall department of physics and astronomy newton said in this instance she worked tirelessly with members of the mitchell institute and the texas a&m science deans office to make sure this gift came to fruition mitchell lorenz says her fathers lifelong interest in physics and astronomy definitely has been a family affair while mitchell long has been intrigued by hawkings work and theories she says her mothers hero was carl sagan mitchell lorenz own daughter katherine lorenz has served since january 2011 as president of the mitchell foundation both women play prominent roles in the familys philanthropic efforts which in texas a&m physics and astronomys case has resulted in no less than two buildings 10 academic chairs and professorships a post-doctoral fellowship in astronomy and a related lecture series overall the mitchell familys generous support of texas a&ms programs in fundamental physics and astronomy totals more than $88 million since 2002 george mitchell has always been a visionary said ed davis president of the texas a&m foundation and texas a&m class of 1967 fascinated with astronomy as a young man his vision allowed him to pursue a career that favorably looked into the ground: petroleum engineering his resolute pursuit of hydraulic fracturing helped him achieve his dream and to potentially return the us to energy independence he has been reinvesting his success in helping texas a&m build the finest astronomy and physics program in the world his generosity will allow many others to be visionary as well and literally see the stars george mitchell is one of texas a&ms greatest icons for decades the mitchells have been major benefactors of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name they also provided major funding for texas a&ms statistics and petroleum engineering departments and the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center for additional information on the mitchell institute and related teaching research and outreach programs visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu to learn more about the cynthia and george mitchell foundation go to http://cgmforg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post george mitchell mitchell foundation commit additional $20 million to texas a&m mitchell institute appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a decade after making his first million-dollar gift intended to help transform texas a&m university into a world leader in fundamental physics and astronomy houston businessman george p mitchell has come full circle in that commitment with a $20 million legacy gift to benefit the namesake institute where it all began mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and founder of mitchell energy & development corp and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation announced their landmark gift to texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy wednesday (nov 14) during a celebratory reception at the institute the gift established through the texas a&m foundation and payable over a five-year period will significantly bolster the permanent endowment for the mitchell institute created in 2002 by mitchell and his late wife cynthia woods mitchell with an initial $1 million gift to the university in addition it solidifies mitchells position as the universitys all-time most generous donor with a combined giving total exceeding $95 million my grandfather has a long history of supporting his keen interest in physics and astronomy said mitchell foundation president katherine lorenz this gift to the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy provides an authentic legacy consistent with his values and vision we are thrilled to support the work of some of the top scientists in the world as they explore the universes most complex questions the $20 million commitment ranks as the second-largest individual gift in mitchell family giving history behind the couples $35 million pledge in 2005 toward construction of the $825 million mitchell institute and george p mitchell 40 physics buildings the first campus buildings to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds mr mitchell transformed the energy industry in the 20th century said texas a&m president r bowen loftin texas a&m class of 1971 and a 1970 physics graduate through his support of buildings and programs across campus he helped transform texas a&m into a major research university now with his latest landmark gift toward the institute that bears his name mr mitchell helps secure the place of our astronomy and physics program among the very best in the world into the foreseeable future we are profoundly grateful since 2002 the mitchell institute has attracted eminent experts (including world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking on four separate occasions each involving sold-out public lecture appearances) to texas a&m for major conferences and events exploring big-picture issues in many vital areas that encompass its dual chief objectives of fundamental physics and astronomy in addition to serving as home to theoretical and experimental physicists searching for answers to some of the universes biggest puzzles from dark energy and dark matter to supersymmetry and string theory it also houses the universitys globally respected astronomy program whose researchers are involved in some of the worlds most significant projects texas a&m owes its participation in one such project the $700 million giant magellan telescope to mitchell who has committed $3325 million overall to the next-generation ground-based wonder scheduled to be completed in chile by the end of the decade those contributions include his lead gift of $125 million in 2004 to establish texas a&m as a founding partner $500 000 toward first-mirror polishing an additional $15 million in 2006 another $5 million in 2010 and most recently a $25 million gift involving the mitchell foundation half of which was credited to texas a&m bolstered by the mitchell familys latest generous contribution texas a&m officials eagerly anticipate a new era for the mitchell institute which entering its second decade is properly poised to parlay unprecedented financial support with its growing international research reputation to attract the caliber of faculty and students required for the world-changing projects and discoveries envisioned in the institutes near future the mitchell institute is very well poised to play a unique role in understanding the important interconnection between particle physics and cosmology by bringing together high-energy physicists and astronomers said bhaskar dutta professor of physics and astronomy and interim director of the mitchell institute at texas a&m we have been trying for the past five years to develop the vision needed to capitalize on the latest astrophysical observations regarding the precise determination of the content of the universe this gift will go a long way to contributing to human understanding of the past present and future of the universe h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science notes that establishing the mitchell institutes expanded vision is the result of a broad and sustained effort by many people particularly mitchells daughter sheridan mitchell lorenz sheridan has been instrumental in this effort as well as several past projects to better position the mitchell institute and the overall department of physics and astronomy newton said in this instance she worked tirelessly with members of the mitchell institute and the texas a&m science deans office to make sure this gift came to fruition mitchell lorenz says her fathers lifelong interest in physics and astronomy definitely has been a family affair while mitchell long has been intrigued by hawkings work and theories she says her mothers hero was carl sagan mitchell lorenz own daughter katherine lorenz has served since january 2011 as president of the mitchell foundation both women play prominent roles in the familys philanthropic efforts which in texas a&m physics and astronomys case has resulted in no less than two buildings 10 academic chairs and professorships a post-doctoral fellowship in astronomy and a related lecture series overall the mitchell familys generous support of texas a&ms programs in fundamental physics and astronomy totals more than $88 million since 2002 george mitchell has always been a visionary said ed davis president of the texas a&m foundation and texas a&m class of 1967 fascinated with astronomy as a young man his vision allowed him to pursue a career that favorably looked into the ground: petroleum engineering his resolute pursuit of hydraulic fracturing helped him achieve his dream and to potentially return the us to energy independence he has been reinvesting his success in helping texas a&m build the finest astronomy and physics program in the world his generosity will allow many others to be visionary as well and literally see the stars george mitchell is one of texas a&ms greatest icons for decades the mitchells have been major benefactors of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name they also provided major funding for texas a&ms statistics and petroleum engineering departments and the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center for additional information on the mitchell institute and related teaching research and outreach programs visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu to learn more about the cynthia and george mitchell foundation go to http://cgmforg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " college station as their football squads prepare to meet for the first time in southeastern conference history saturday (oct 20) at kyle field texas a&m university and louisiana state university are teaming up to study collisions of another variety the nuclear kind on one of the worlds biggest stages for nuclear astrophysics japans riken nishina center for accelerator-based science while johnny football manziel undoubtedly will have many saturday moments in the sun texas a&m and lsu physicists are looking to that same sun and its fellow stars as both the architects and inhabitants of our universe in an effort to better understand nuclear reactions and the resulting energy that makes life on earth possible when you have a nuclear reaction you have a tremendous amount of energy released said robert e tribble distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m and director of the cyclotron institute solar energy is a product of a nuclear reaction were trying to find out exactly how the elements were formed and in the process how the energy that makes life on earth possible was created tribble and lsu physics professor jeffrey c blackmon are co-principal investigators in a united states department of energy-funded international collaboration that is exploring the outer limits of nuclear reactions along with colleagues at two additional us universities (texas a&m university-commerce and washington university in st louis) and in five other countries (ifin-hh bucharest romania; universite de caen france; infn sezione di pisa italy; oxford university united kingdom; kyushu university japan) tribble notes that a critical early part of the study is a series of experiments using rare isotope beams (ribs) at the newly commissioned radioactive isotope beam factory (ribf) at riken widely recognized as the most powerful radioactive beam facility in the world tribble says researchers there are doing cutting-edge experiments with nuclei that only live fractions of a second rare infinitesimal windows in which to gain valuable insight into energys essence and answers these experiments will provide important information about rates of nuclear reactions that occur in stellar explosions tribble added some of the reactions that happen in stars happen in nuclei at the edge of stability within the shortest possible time span during which we can access them stars are just big balls of particles that are undergoing nuclear reactions the reactions in our sun which is a relatively small star provide heat and light to us on earth its important to understand these reactions in order to understand the very basis of life as we know it the collaboration will focus on both proton- and neutron-breakup reactions at intermediate energies with the goal of using the resulting data to better understand single-particle properties and to determine reaction rates in larger stellar explosions such as supernovaes and x-ray bursts by understanding how nuclear reactions work at a base level from both single-nucleon removal and recapture standpoints tribble says they can extend that knowledge to predict likely patterns of atomic behavior in more complex situations and at stellar energies for nuclei far from stability whether in the cosmos or here on earth we dont know what the chain of reactions is within stars but we can figure out what the probability of certain reactions is tribble said for this study we are focusing on p-gamma and n-gamma reaction rates which are important in calculating how stars are born tribbles individual research group within the cyclotron institute is helping to develop the necessary equipment for the collaborations experimental program specifically a large silicon detector array that will incorporate both existing state-of-the-art technology and generate cost-effective extensions of that technology to enable silicon detector readout meanwhile blackmons lsu group is working with the texas a&m and washington university groups to incorporate front-end electronics into a working portable data acquisition (daq) system that will allow user-friendly inspection and analysis and ultimately easy integration between laboratories blackmons team will be in charge of maintaining this software and providing the integration and linkages between the current software and the proposed systems at both texas a&m and riken we also plan to implement the hardware so that it can be inspected via an internet interface from anywhere in the world tribble said this requires a merger of two technologies already in use by washington university such a system can have all eyes on a problem in short order and should probably be considered a requirement of the new century with japanese funding now secured for a very large new spectrometer samurai to be built at riken tribble says the time is right to begin developing a detector system that can be used in conjunction with samurai to carry out a broad range of reaction and breakup studies at riken energies a program that eclipses the initial suite of experiments proposed by the collaboration in its original letter of intent to riken in january 2008 the technology that we will develop will have broad application at many existing nuclear physics laboratories using stable or rare isotope beams in addition to future rib facilities tribble said and the training of students and postdoctoral research associates will be important contributions to the future workforce in this field to learn more about the project overall scope of work or partners involved in the $800 000 department of energy award which runs through 2014 visit http://cyclotrontamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds premier research institutions texas a&m is a leader in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge in many fields including rigorous scientific and technological disciplines research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million; the university ranks 20th among all us universities and third nationally for universities without a medical school according to the national science foundation research at texas a&m creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- watch how a beam is accelerated within the radioactive isotope beam facility (ribf) at riken on youtube below or click here to take a virtual tour: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert e tribble (979) 845-1411 or tribble@comptamuedu the post texas a&m lsu nuclear physicists looking to stars to understand energy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as their football squads prepare to meet for the first time in southeastern conference history saturday (oct 20) at kyle field texas a&m university and louisiana state university are teaming up to study collisions of another variety the nuclear kind on one of the worlds biggest stages for nuclear astrophysics japans riken nishina center for accelerator-based science while johnny football manziel undoubtedly will have many saturday moments in the sun texas a&m and lsu physicists are looking to that same sun and its fellow stars as both the architects and inhabitants of our universe in an effort to better understand nuclear reactions and the resulting energy that makes life on earth possible when you have a nuclear reaction you have a tremendous amount of energy released said robert e tribble distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m and director of the cyclotron institute solar energy is a product of a nuclear reaction were trying to find out exactly how the elements were formed and in the process how the energy that makes life on earth possible was created tribble and lsu physics professor jeffrey c blackmon are co-principal investigators in a united states department of energy-funded international collaboration that is exploring the outer limits of nuclear reactions along with colleagues at two additional us universities (texas a&m university-commerce and washington university in st louis) and in five other countries (ifin-hh bucharest romania; universite de caen france; infn sezione di pisa italy; oxford university united kingdom; kyushu university japan) tribble notes that a critical early part of the study is a series of experiments using rare isotope beams (ribs) at the newly commissioned radioactive isotope beam factory (ribf) at riken widely recognized as the most powerful radioactive beam facility in the world tribble says researchers there are doing cutting-edge experiments with nuclei that only live fractions of a second rare infinitesimal windows in which to gain valuable insight into energys essence and answers these experiments will provide important information about rates of nuclear reactions that occur in stellar explosions tribble added some of the reactions that happen in stars happen in nuclei at the edge of stability within the shortest possible time span during which we can access them stars are just big balls of particles that are undergoing nuclear reactions the reactions in our sun which is a relatively small star provide heat and light to us on earth its important to understand these reactions in order to understand the very basis of life as we know it the collaboration will focus on both proton- and neutron-breakup reactions at intermediate energies with the goal of using the resulting data to better understand single-particle properties and to determine reaction rates in larger stellar explosions such as supernovaes and x-ray bursts by understanding how nuclear reactions work at a base level from both single-nucleon removal and recapture standpoints tribble says they can extend that knowledge to predict likely patterns of atomic behavior in more complex situations and at stellar energies for nuclei far from stability whether in the cosmos or here on earth we dont know what the chain of reactions is within stars but we can figure out what the probability of certain reactions is tribble said for this study we are focusing on p-gamma and n-gamma reaction rates which are important in calculating how stars are born tribbles individual research group within the cyclotron institute is helping to develop the necessary equipment for the collaborations experimental program specifically a large silicon detector array that will incorporate both existing state-of-the-art technology and generate cost-effective extensions of that technology to enable silicon detector readout meanwhile blackmons lsu group is working with the texas a&m and washington university groups to incorporate front-end electronics into a working portable data acquisition (daq) system that will allow user-friendly inspection and analysis and ultimately easy integration between laboratories blackmons team will be in charge of maintaining this software and providing the integration and linkages between the current software and the proposed systems at both texas a&m and riken we also plan to implement the hardware so that it can be inspected via an internet interface from anywhere in the world tribble said this requires a merger of two technologies already in use by washington university such a system can have all eyes on a problem in short order and should probably be considered a requirement of the new century with japanese funding now secured for a very large new spectrometer samurai to be built at riken tribble says the time is right to begin developing a detector system that can be used in conjunction with samurai to carry out a broad range of reaction and breakup studies at riken energies a program that eclipses the initial suite of experiments proposed by the collaboration in its original letter of intent to riken in january 2008 the technology that we will develop will have broad application at many existing nuclear physics laboratories using stable or rare isotope beams in addition to future rib facilities tribble said and the training of students and postdoctoral research associates will be important contributions to the future workforce in this field to learn more about the project overall scope of work or partners involved in the $800 000 department of energy award which runs through 2014 visit http://cyclotrontamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds premier research institutions texas a&m is a leader in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge in many fields including rigorous scientific and technological disciplines research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million; the university ranks 20th among all us universities and third nationally for universities without a medical school according to the national science foundation research at texas a&m creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu -atm- watch how a beam is accelerated within the radioactive isotope beam facility (ribf) at riken on youtube below or click here to take a virtual tour: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr robert e tribble (979) 845-1411 or tribble@comptamuedu " " tuscon scientists at the university of arizona and in california have completed the most challenging large astronomical mirror ever made for the past several years a group of optical scientists and engineers working at the ua steward observatory mirror laboratory underneath the uas football stadium have been polishing an 84-meter (275 feet) diameter mirror with an unusual highly asymmetric shape by the standards used by optical scientists the degree of difficulty for this mirror is 10 times that of any previous large telescope mirror the mirror surface matches the desired prescription to a precision of 19 nanometers so smooth that if it were the size of the continental united states the highest mountains would be little more than a half-inch high this mirror and 6 more like it will form the heart of the 25-meter giant magellan telescope (gmt) providing more than 380 square meters or 4 000 square feet of light-collecting area the giant magellan telescope will lead a next generation of giant telescopes that will explore planets around other stars and the formation of stars galaxies and black holes in the early universe buell jannuzi director of the ua steward observatory and professor of astronomy said making this first gmt mirror required all the expertise and experience that the university has built up over 25 years of making telescope mirrors and a great deal of innovation to push beyond previous limits in optical fabrication and testing in achieving this remarkable milestone the team built and demonstrated all the equipment and techniques that will lead to efficient production of the remaining mirrors for the gmt the mirror was cast at the mirror lab from 20 tons of glass melted in a rotating furnace until it flowed into a honeycomb mold once the glass had cooled and the mold material was removed scientists at the lab used a series of fine abrasives to polish the mirror checking its figure regularly using a number of precision optical tests the mirror has an unconventional shape because it is part of what ultimately will be a single 25-meter (82 feet) optical surface composed of seven circular segments each 84 meters (275 feet) in diameter we need to be certain the off-axis shape of this mirror as well as the other six that will be made for gmt is precisely right to an accuracy of 1/20 of a wavelength of light said buddy martin polishing scientist at the mirror lab only then will the seven large mirrors form a single exquisitely sharp image when they all come together in the telescope in chile we have now demonstrated that we can fabricate the mirrors to the required accuracy for the telescope to work as designed the testing techniques developed by jim burge professor at the ua college of optical sciences and his team are a key part of the innovation enabling these giant off-axis mirrors the second of seven mirrors for the gmt was cast at the mirror lab in january of this year; the third will be cast in august 2013 the giant magellan telescope will be located on a remote mountaintop in the chilean andes where the skies are clear and dark far from any sources of light pollution at the carnegie institution for sciences las campanas observatory in northern chile earthmovers are completing the removal of 4 million cubic feet of rock to produce a flat platform for the telescope and its supporting buildings wendy freedman chair of the gmt board said the technical achievements at the uas mirror lab and the dedication and commitment of our national and international partners will allow us to open a new window on the universe an exciting future of discovery awaits us the telescope slated to begin operations late in the decade will allow astronomers and students across the us and from around the world to address critical questions in cosmology astrophysics and planetary science matthew colless director of the australian astronomical observatory said the giant magellan telescope has the potential to transform how we see the cosmos and our place in it the gmt partner institutions are the australian national university astronomy australia limited the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin -atm- contacts: wendy freedman: 626-3040204 chair board of directors giant magellan telescope organization buell t jannuzi: 520-621-6524 director steward observatory the university of arizona patrick mccarthy: 626-298580 director giant magellan telescope organization the post worlds most advanced mirror for giant magellan telescope completed appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " scientists at the university of arizona and in california have completed the most challenging large astronomical mirror ever made for the past several years a group of optical scientists and engineers working at the ua steward observatory mirror laboratory underneath the uas football stadium have been polishing an 84-meter (275 feet) diameter mirror with an unusual highly asymmetric shape by the standards used by optical scientists the degree of difficulty for this mirror is 10 times that of any previous large telescope mirror the mirror surface matches the desired prescription to a precision of 19 nanometers so smooth that if it were the size of the continental united states the highest mountains would be little more than a half-inch high this mirror and 6 more like it will form the heart of the 25-meter giant magellan telescope (gmt) providing more than 380 square meters or 4 000 square feet of light-collecting area the giant magellan telescope will lead a next generation of giant telescopes that will explore planets around other stars and the formation of stars galaxies and black holes in the early universe buell jannuzi director of the ua steward observatory and professor of astronomy said making this first gmt mirror required all the expertise and experience that the university has built up over 25 years of making telescope mirrors and a great deal of innovation to push beyond previous limits in optical fabrication and testing in achieving this remarkable milestone the team built and demonstrated all the equipment and techniques that will lead to efficient production of the remaining mirrors for the gmt the mirror was cast at the mirror lab from 20 tons of glass melted in a rotating furnace until it flowed into a honeycomb mold once the glass had cooled and the mold material was removed scientists at the lab used a series of fine abrasives to polish the mirror checking its figure regularly using a number of precision optical tests the mirror has an unconventional shape because it is part of what ultimately will be a single 25-meter (82 feet) optical surface composed of seven circular segments each 84 meters (275 feet) in diameter we need to be certain the off-axis shape of this mirror as well as the other six that will be made for gmt is precisely right to an accuracy of 1/20 of a wavelength of light said buddy martin polishing scientist at the mirror lab only then will the seven large mirrors form a single exquisitely sharp image when they all come together in the telescope in chile we have now demonstrated that we can fabricate the mirrors to the required accuracy for the telescope to work as designed the testing techniques developed by jim burge professor at the ua college of optical sciences and his team are a key part of the innovation enabling these giant off-axis mirrors the second of seven mirrors for the gmt was cast at the mirror lab in january of this year; the third will be cast in august 2013 the giant magellan telescope will be located on a remote mountaintop in the chilean andes where the skies are clear and dark far from any sources of light pollution at the carnegie institution for sciences las campanas observatory in northern chile earthmovers are completing the removal of 4 million cubic feet of rock to produce a flat platform for the telescope and its supporting buildings wendy freedman chair of the gmt board said the technical achievements at the uas mirror lab and the dedication and commitment of our national and international partners will allow us to open a new window on the universe an exciting future of discovery awaits us the telescope slated to begin operations late in the decade will allow astronomers and students across the us and from around the world to address critical questions in cosmology astrophysics and planetary science matthew colless director of the australian astronomical observatory said the giant magellan telescope has the potential to transform how we see the cosmos and our place in it the gmt partner institutions are the australian national university astronomy australia limited the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin -atm- contacts: wendy freedman: 626-3040204 chair board of directors giant magellan telescope organization buell t jannuzi: 520-621-6524 director steward observatory the university of arizona patrick mccarthy: 626-298580 director giant magellan telescope organization " " college station texas a&m university astronomer nicholas b suntzeff has had his fair share of star moments professional and otherwise for starters he played a key role in discovering three-quarters of the universe a mysterious substance known as dark energy that appears to be causing the universes accelerated expansion a breakthrough recognized with the 2011 nobel prize in physics and he once helped save alan aldas life by connecting the former m*a*s*h television series star with emergency medical treatment when the actor was in chile filming a program on the discovery of dark energy in 2010 suntzeff took his service to the public to a global level taking a brief break from academics to perform a yearlong stint as the united states representative to the united nations office for disaster risk reduction and texas a&ms first faculty member selected to the prestigious jefferson science fellowship program suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program since 2006 was one of 12 individuals nationwide chosen to serve in the coveted us state department program which was created in 2003 by the us national academies as a way for the government to tap into the latest expertise in the rapidly evolving fields of science technology and engineering as they related to international diplomacy when i was in high school i had this idealistic dream of working for the united nations said suntzeff pointing to the world bodys blue flag draped from the corner of his high-ceilinged office although the un can be dysfunctional and bureaucratic its just thrilling to be in the general assembly and seeing one person per country having an equal voice it really gives you hope for the future of humanity fellows spend a year at either the us state department or the us agency for international development and then return to their academic careers but remain available as consultants and for short-term projects to the government for the next five years its a way for the government to better integrate science into the decision-making process on foreign policy i saw how foreign service officers approached solving problems in the world and its very different than the way scientists do it suntzeff said i think theres a good friction between the way a scientist thinks and the way a diplomat thinks and i think that friction will lead to a better foreign policy suntzeff served as the humanitarian affairs officer in the state department office of human rights a part of his work included reviewing the scientific statements contained in un resolutions though the science in the resolutions was generally not controversial suntzeff said it sometimes was inaccurate in one case a resolution was introduced following a devastating hurricane in the caribbean to request increased international support for disaster response buried in the resolution was a statement about an increasing number of hurricanes in the caribbean during the last 150 years but suntzeff who has done climate work in addition to astronomy found that the data was the result not of more hurricane activity but better counting methods so the us ended up supporting the resolution but with the caveat that it disagreed with the conclusion that hurricanes were more frequent so i got to change the intent of the us support of a un resolution said suntzeff who was based in washington dc from october 2010 to august 2011 as part of the fellowship that was kind of cool suntzeff is hailed by colleagues as a gifted science communicator and a large part of his duty during his fellowship year was better integrating science with foreign policy he says scientists generally do a poor job of communicating their professions value to the public and given that childlike curiosity fades as humans age scientists have a vested interest in helping their potential audiences recapture that sense of wonder scientists have to go back and realize that innately were all curious animals he explained we shouldnt just use jargon and all these fancy words that we use in astronomy its just these cool ideas we should focus on like how we can see to the edge of the universe or what happens when you fall into a black hole and cant get out theyre childlike cool things that you just want to figure out suntzeffs respect for community service began long before he became a scientist he grew up in the san francisco bay area where his parents were social workers and helped severely abused children suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and studied astrophysics and astronomy at lick observatory at the university of california at santa cruz receiving his doctorate in 1980 he spent 20 years at the us national optical astronomy observatory/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile before coming to texas a&m in 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology at texas a&m he is the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy learn more about suntzeff and his experience as texas a&ms first jefferson science fellow for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts for 2012: 12 impacts for 2012 is an ongoing series throughout 2012 highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional examples visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post suntzeff lives united nations dream as jefferson science fellow appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university astronomer nicholas b suntzeff has had his fair share of star moments professional and otherwise for starters he played a key role in discovering three-quarters of the universe a mysterious substance known as dark energy that appears to be causing the universes accelerated expansion a breakthrough recognized with the 2011 nobel prize in physics and he once helped save alan aldas life by connecting the former m*a*s*h television series star with emergency medical treatment when the actor was in chile filming a program on the discovery of dark energy in 2010 suntzeff took his service to the public to a global level taking a brief break from academics to perform a yearlong stint as the united states representative to the united nations office for disaster risk reduction and texas a&ms first faculty member selected to the prestigious jefferson science fellowship program suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program since 2006 was one of 12 individuals nationwide chosen to serve in the coveted us state department program which was created in 2003 by the us national academies as a way for the government to tap into the latest expertise in the rapidly evolving fields of science technology and engineering as they related to international diplomacy when i was in high school i had this idealistic dream of working for the united nations said suntzeff pointing to the world bodys blue flag draped from the corner of his high-ceilinged office although the un can be dysfunctional and bureaucratic its just thrilling to be in the general assembly and seeing one person per country having an equal voice it really gives you hope for the future of humanity fellows spend a year at either the us state department or the us agency for international development and then return to their academic careers but remain available as consultants and for short-term projects to the government for the next five years its a way for the government to better integrate science into the decision-making process on foreign policy i saw how foreign service officers approached solving problems in the world and its very different than the way scientists do it suntzeff said i think theres a good friction between the way a scientist thinks and the way a diplomat thinks and i think that friction will lead to a better foreign policy suntzeff served as the humanitarian affairs officer in the state department office of human rights a part of his work included reviewing the scientific statements contained in un resolutions though the science in the resolutions was generally not controversial suntzeff said it sometimes was inaccurate in one case a resolution was introduced following a devastating hurricane in the caribbean to request increased international support for disaster response buried in the resolution was a statement about an increasing number of hurricanes in the caribbean during the last 150 years but suntzeff who has done climate work in addition to astronomy found that the data was the result not of more hurricane activity but better counting methods so the us ended up supporting the resolution but with the caveat that it disagreed with the conclusion that hurricanes were more frequent so i got to change the intent of the us support of a un resolution said suntzeff who was based in washington dc from october 2010 to august 2011 as part of the fellowship that was kind of cool suntzeff is hailed by colleagues as a gifted science communicator and a large part of his duty during his fellowship year was better integrating science with foreign policy he says scientists generally do a poor job of communicating their professions value to the public and given that childlike curiosity fades as humans age scientists have a vested interest in helping their potential audiences recapture that sense of wonder scientists have to go back and realize that innately were all curious animals he explained we shouldnt just use jargon and all these fancy words that we use in astronomy its just these cool ideas we should focus on like how we can see to the edge of the universe or what happens when you fall into a black hole and cant get out theyre childlike cool things that you just want to figure out suntzeffs respect for community service began long before he became a scientist he grew up in the san francisco bay area where his parents were social workers and helped severely abused children suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and studied astrophysics and astronomy at lick observatory at the university of california at santa cruz receiving his doctorate in 1980 he spent 20 years at the us national optical astronomy observatory/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile before coming to texas a&m in 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology at texas a&m he is the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy learn more about suntzeff and his experience as texas a&ms first jefferson science fellow for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts for 2012: 12 impacts for 2012 is an ongoing series throughout 2012 highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional examples visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: vimal patel (979) 845-7246 or vpatel@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station as hundreds of students take in another days lecture inside the main lecture hall of the george p mitchell 40 physics building at texas a&m university the beauty of nature is quietly and unceremoniously unfolding above their heads within the vast foliage of the near-10 000-square-foot cynthia woods mitchell garden the campus first and only rooftop garden a veritable kaleidoscope of butterflies including gulf fritillaries is emerging from pupa stage the resulting army of caterpillars can be seen voraciously feasting on the leaves of native texas passion vines and other suitable host plants among the unique gardens many lone star state varieties hand-picked for their fragrance and color the impressive show is expected to be temporary a week at best but nonetheless breathtaking and as worthy of witnessing as any other perceived world wonder according to craig wilson a researcher in the center for mathematics and science education (cmse) and a longtime butterfly enthusiast it strikes me that we have come to the end of an era wilson said crowds watched in awe as the space shuttle was piggybacked atop a modified 747 to its final resting place in california they had cheered when it was in flying into space by tearing a tunnel through the sky to enter orbit perhaps those same cheering crowds could now switch their attention to something equally miraculous; the emergence of a butterfly from its chrysalis the butterfly has to dry out and pump fluid into its colorful wings before making its maiden flight with no clapping no round of applause no fanfare but is it not equally miraculous the garden accessible from the buildings third floor and supported by a permanent endowment established by george p mitchell 40 is one of the many novel elements to be found in the form-meets-function facility that epitomizes forward-thinking design and sustainability dedicated to the inherent inspiration and education cynthia woods mitchell found in nature the garden features native texas plants and environment-conscious design highlighted by the fact that is irrigated along with the buildings other exterior landscapes by a cistern which collects and stores both condensate and rainfall wilson who maintains a registered monarch waystation within the united states department of agriculture (usda)-sponsored peoples garden located across the street from college stations wolf pen creek park encourages those on campus as well as the broader community to embrace the opportunity that both nature and the mitchell familys generosity has made possible to paraphrase the scottish-born american naturalist john muir: ‚Äòmost people live on the earth very few people live in it! wilson said a visit to the cynthia woods mitchell garden or to the monarch waystation outside the usda/ars building at 1001 holleman drive east might be good places to start appreciating the magic and beauty that is nature it is too often overlooked in this fast-paced life slow down take time to smell the roses or observe the erratic flight of a butterfly as it searches for nectar seemingly not cognizant of the awe and wonder it can inspire then you may applaud yourself for doing so! to learn more about the cynthia woods mitchell garden or other features of the mitchell physics building visit http://physicstamuedu for more information about cynthia woods mitchell check out this previous feature story detailing her inspirational legacy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as hundreds of students take in another days lecture inside the main lecture hall of the george p mitchell 40 physics building at texas a&m university the beauty of nature is quietly and unceremoniously unfolding above their heads within the vast foliage of the near-10 000-square-foot cynthia woods mitchell garden the campus first and only rooftop garden a veritable kaleidoscope of butterflies including gulf fritillaries is emerging from pupa stage the resulting army of caterpillars can be seen voraciously feasting on the leaves of native texas passion vines and other suitable host plants among the unique gardens many lone star state varieties hand-picked for their fragrance and color the impressive show is expected to be temporary a week at best but nonetheless breathtaking and as worthy of witnessing as any other perceived world wonder according to craig wilson a researcher in the center for mathematics and science education (cmse) and a longtime butterfly enthusiast it strikes me that we have come to the end of an era wilson said crowds watched in awe as the space shuttle was piggybacked atop a modified 747 to its final resting place in california they had cheered when it was in flying into space by tearing a tunnel through the sky to enter orbit perhaps those same cheering crowds could now switch their attention to something equally miraculous; the emergence of a butterfly from its chrysalis the butterfly has to dry out and pump fluid into its colorful wings before making its maiden flight with no clapping no round of applause no fanfare but is it not equally miraculous the garden accessible from the buildings third floor and supported by a permanent endowment established by george p mitchell 40 is one of the many novel elements to be found in the form-meets-function facility that epitomizes forward-thinking design and sustainability dedicated to the inherent inspiration and education cynthia woods mitchell found in nature the garden features native texas plants and environment-conscious design highlighted by the fact that is irrigated along with the buildings other exterior landscapes by a cistern which collects and stores both condensate and rainfall wilson who maintains a registered monarch waystation within the united states department of agriculture (usda)-sponsored peoples garden located across the street from college stations wolf pen creek park encourages those on campus as well as the broader community to embrace the opportunity that both nature and the mitchell familys generosity has made possible to paraphrase the scottish-born american naturalist john muir: ‚Äòmost people live on the earth very few people live in it! wilson said a visit to the cynthia woods mitchell garden or to the monarch waystation outside the usda/ars building at 1001 holleman drive east might be good places to start appreciating the magic and beauty that is nature it is too often overlooked in this fast-paced life slow down take time to smell the roses or observe the erratic flight of a butterfly as it searches for nectar seemingly not cognizant of the awe and wonder it can inspire then you may applaud yourself for doing so! to learn more about the cynthia woods mitchell garden or other features of the mitchell physics building visit http://physicstamuedu for more information about cynthia woods mitchell check out this previous feature story detailing her inspirational legacy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station when astronomer darren depoy came to texas a&m university in 2008 he did so with an important global goal: to help establish texas a&m as a worldwide leader in astronomical instrumentation four years later depoy is living his dream reveling in the results of a big-time gamble that involved leaving an established program he spent 18 years building at ohio state university for the opportunity to do the same thing at texas a&m a former unknown commodity in astronomy circles now positioned as a major player in some of the worlds biggest projects from the giant magellan telescope (gmt) in chile to the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) in west texas multiple decades and myriad budget reductions removed from neil armstrongs historic small step on the moon both the science community and the world at large increasingly rely on precision astronomical instrumentation to boldly go where no man has gone before in exploring the cosmos many of those in-demand devices are being developed and built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory thanks to depoys proven excellence and a potent combination of ingenuity expertise and can-do attitude that depoy describes as uniquely aggie depoy would know a thing or two about aggielands allure an attraction thats most definitely mutual his 2008 hire marked nothing short of a coup for the universitys fledgling astronomy program which just two years after scoring veteran astrophysicist nicholas suntzeff as its director took another giant leap by securing one of the nations most sought-after instrumentation experts despite the obvious positives depoy admits even he initially worried about not having the necessary funding to hire outside research consultants with the technical knowledge and capabilities to help design as well as mass-produce the amount of lenses and other components required for the level of projects he planned to pursue he has since filled that need with graduate and undergraduate students not only from his home department of physics and astronomy but also from those of aerospace and mechanical engineering further showcasing the collaborative interdisciplinary nature of research at texas a&m and spotlighting a distinctive competency exclusive to the university courtesy of its combined strengths in traditional and emerging areas we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the excellent students and staff as well as the high-quality lab space required to build such precision instrumentation said depoy who holds the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy our team includes undergraduate and graduate students from several science and engineering departments and research scientists and engineers in the instrumentation group all of us are excited to be part of what the future holds for texas a&m astronomy those bright prospects hinge on some of the largest and most technically challenging instrumentation ever built including one prominent example right here in texas as part of an $8 million national science foundation grant depoy and his team are constructing key components of the worlds premier spectrograph the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrograph (virus) when complete it will form the backbone of the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international experiments to probe and understand dark energy the dominant and unexplained force that is causing the universe to expand at an increasing rate as it ages texas a&m is a partner in the $36 million project initiated in 2002 by the university of texas at austin that also involves penn state university as well as several international members the first-of-its-kind $16 million virus instrument is being assembled and aligned within the munnerlyn lab where depoy is spearheading the challenging construction of no fewer than 150 individual virus units each an identical copy of a single spectrograph as well as the assembly and testing of the overall instrument along with dr jennifer marshall research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy the instrument will be mounted to the sides of the hobby-eberly telescope located at the university of texass mcdonald observatory in the davis mountains of west texas and used to help produce the largest three-dimensional map of the universe to learn more about dark energy and the universes precise geometry in astronomy typically what we do is build one instrument and put it on the back of a telescope to use sometimes for many years depoy said this project is different because we are not building one; it is what is in effect hundreds of the same thing depoy also is one of hundreds of researchers involved in the united states department of energy-funded dark energy survey (des) collaboration a group that spans three continents and the gamut of science engineering and technology in the search for answers as to why the expansion of the universe is accelerating earlier this month he was in chile to witness the first pictures of the southern sky taken by the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) for which he serves as the project scientist one of its key sub-components a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built in the munnerlyn lab the project to design build test and deploy the decam has taken many years and it was exciting to see the instrument take pictures of the sky depoy said i was present in the telescope control room while the first images were obtained the instrument had been installed on the telescope only a short time before and it produced science-quality images very quickly this is a testament to the hard work expertise and enthusiasm of the large group of scientists engineers and technicians who worked on the telescope and instrument over the past many years including many munnerlyn lab members in late summer depoy received word that the lab was selected to proceed with building one of the first-light instruments for the $700 million giant magellan telescope to be constructed in chile by 2019 their proposed custom-designed spectrograph known as gmacs will take advantage of the gmts unprecedented light-gathering capability to observe the faintest possible targets those substantially fainter than the sky while bringing in roughly $20 million in research revenue for the lab during the next decade we are all very excited about building this crucial instrument for the gmt depoy said the combination of the enormous telescope which has mirrors roughly one-third the length of a football field across and the sensitive spectrograph built here at texas a&m will allow unprecedented measurement of the most distant objects in the known universe the science potential is awesome and the opportunities for our students will be extraordinary global contributions to cosmologically groundbreaking construction aside depoy and marshall are equally proud of another of their labs most instrumental products future astronomers with unparalleled instrumentation expertise in addition to a strong undergraduate poster-presentation showing at the 2012 american astronomical society meeting last january the munnerlyn lab celebrated its first graduates in may including two students who currently are pursuing graduate studies in instrumentation several additional students have gone onto jobs using the skills they learned in the lab such as oil pipeline work (vacuum and cryogenic systems) aerospace-related expertise (image processing software) and technical writing finally during a friday (sept 28) afternoon ceremony in rudder auditorium current lab member and senior aerospace engineering major emily boster will be recognized as a 2012 astronaut foundation scholar by a living nasa legend captain james lovell (see the recap story in the bryan-college station eagle) future telescopes like the gmt will require even larger and more complicated instrumentation than the telescopes we use today marshall said it is very important that we start to train young astronomers physicists and engineers in the techniques of astronomical instrumentation now so that the next generation of observational astronomers will be able to use the state-of-the-art instrumentation which is being designed for telescopes like the gmt in places like the munnerlyn lab click here to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related research projects for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts for 2012: 12 impacts for 2012 is an ongoing series throughout 2012 highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional examples visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu; or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post star power: texas a&m playing instrumental role in observational astronomy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " when astronomer darren depoy came to texas a&m university in 2008 he did so with an important global goal: to help establish texas a&m as a worldwide leader in astronomical instrumentation four years later depoy is living his dream reveling in the results of a big-time gamble that involved leaving an established program he spent 18 years building at ohio state university for the opportunity to do the same thing at texas a&m a former unknown commodity in astronomy circles now positioned as a major player in some of the worlds biggest projects from the giant magellan telescope (gmt) in chile to the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) in west texas multiple decades and myriad budget reductions removed from neil armstrongs historic small step on the moon both the science community and the world at large increasingly rely on precision astronomical instrumentation to boldly go where no man has gone before in exploring the cosmos many of those in-demand devices are being developed and built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory thanks to depoys proven excellence and a potent combination of ingenuity expertise and can-do attitude that depoy describes as uniquely aggie depoy would know a thing or two about aggielands allure an attraction thats most definitely mutual his 2008 hire marked nothing short of a coup for the universitys fledgling astronomy program which just two years after scoring veteran astrophysicist nicholas suntzeff as its director took another giant leap by securing one of the nations most sought-after instrumentation experts despite the obvious positives depoy admits even he initially worried about not having the necessary funding to hire outside research consultants with the technical knowledge and capabilities to help design as well as mass-produce the amount of lenses and other components required for the level of projects he planned to pursue he has since filled that need with graduate and undergraduate students not only from his home department of physics and astronomy but also from those of aerospace and mechanical engineering further showcasing the collaborative interdisciplinary nature of research at texas a&m and spotlighting a distinctive competency exclusive to the university courtesy of its combined strengths in traditional and emerging areas we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the excellent students and staff as well as the high-quality lab space required to build such precision instrumentation said depoy who holds the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy our team includes undergraduate and graduate students from several science and engineering departments and research scientists and engineers in the instrumentation group all of us are excited to be part of what the future holds for texas a&m astronomy those bright prospects hinge on some of the largest and most technically challenging instrumentation ever built including one prominent example right here in texas as part of an $8 million national science foundation grant depoy and his team are constructing key components of the worlds premier spectrograph the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrograph (virus) when complete it will form the backbone of the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international experiments to probe and understand dark energy the dominant and unexplained force that is causing the universe to expand at an increasing rate as it ages texas a&m is a partner in the $36 million project initiated in 2002 by the university of texas at austin that also involves penn state university as well as several international members the first-of-its-kind $16 million virus instrument is being assembled and aligned within the munnerlyn lab where depoy is spearheading the challenging construction of no fewer than 150 individual virus units each an identical copy of a single spectrograph as well as the assembly and testing of the overall instrument along with dr jennifer marshall research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy the instrument will be mounted to the sides of the hobby-eberly telescope located at the university of texass mcdonald observatory in the davis mountains of west texas and used to help produce the largest three-dimensional map of the universe to learn more about dark energy and the universes precise geometry in astronomy typically what we do is build one instrument and put it on the back of a telescope to use sometimes for many years depoy said this project is different because we are not building one; it is what is in effect hundreds of the same thing depoy also is one of hundreds of researchers involved in the united states department of energy-funded dark energy survey (des) collaboration a group that spans three continents and the gamut of science engineering and technology in the search for answers as to why the expansion of the universe is accelerating earlier this month he was in chile to witness the first pictures of the southern sky taken by the 570-megapixel dark energy camera (decam) for which he serves as the project scientist one of its key sub-components a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built in the munnerlyn lab the project to design build test and deploy the decam has taken many years and it was exciting to see the instrument take pictures of the sky depoy said i was present in the telescope control room while the first images were obtained the instrument had been installed on the telescope only a short time before and it produced science-quality images very quickly this is a testament to the hard work expertise and enthusiasm of the large group of scientists engineers and technicians who worked on the telescope and instrument over the past many years including many munnerlyn lab members in late summer depoy received word that the lab was selected to proceed with building one of the first-light instruments for the $700 million giant magellan telescope to be constructed in chile by 2019 their proposed custom-designed spectrograph known as gmacs will take advantage of the gmts unprecedented light-gathering capability to observe the faintest possible targets those substantially fainter than the sky while bringing in roughly $20 million in research revenue for the lab during the next decade we are all very excited about building this crucial instrument for the gmt depoy said the combination of the enormous telescope which has mirrors roughly one-third the length of a football field across and the sensitive spectrograph built here at texas a&m will allow unprecedented measurement of the most distant objects in the known universe the science potential is awesome and the opportunities for our students will be extraordinary global contributions to cosmologically groundbreaking construction aside depoy and marshall are equally proud of another of their labs most instrumental products future astronomers with unparalleled instrumentation expertise in addition to a strong undergraduate poster-presentation showing at the 2012 american astronomical society meeting last january the munnerlyn lab celebrated its first graduates in may including two students who currently are pursuing graduate studies in instrumentation several additional students have gone onto jobs using the skills they learned in the lab such as oil pipeline work (vacuum and cryogenic systems) aerospace-related expertise (image processing software) and technical writing finally during a friday (sept 28) afternoon ceremony in rudder auditorium current lab member and senior aerospace engineering major emily boster will be recognized as a 2012 astronaut foundation scholar by a living nasa legend captain james lovell (see the recap story in the bryan-college station eagle) future telescopes like the gmt will require even larger and more complicated instrumentation than the telescopes we use today marshall said it is very important that we start to train young astronomers physicists and engineers in the techniques of astronomical instrumentation now so that the next generation of observational astronomers will be able to use the state-of-the-art instrumentation which is being designed for telescopes like the gmt in places like the munnerlyn lab click here to learn more about the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and related research projects for more information on texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu/ # # # # # # # # # # about 12 impacts for 2012: 12 impacts for 2012 is an ongoing series throughout 2012 highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world to learn more about the series and see additional examples visit http://12thmantamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu; or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " college station eight billion years ago rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to earth that ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in chile where the newly constructed dark energy camera the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created has captured and recorded it for the first time that light may hold within it the answer to one of the biggest mysteries in physics why the expansion of the universe is speeding up scientists in the international dark energy survey (des) collaboration which includes astronomers from texas a&m university announced this week that the dark energy camera the product of eight years of planning and construction by scientists engineers and technicians on three continents has achieved first light the first pictures of the southern sky were taken by the 570-megapixel camera on sept 12 the achievement of first light through the dark energy camera begins a significant new era in our exploration of the cosmic frontier said james siegrist united states department of energy (doe) associate director of science for high-energy physics the results of this survey will bring us closer to understanding the mystery of dark energy and what it means for the universe the dark energy camera was constructed at the does fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in batavia ill and mounted on the victor m blanco telescope at the national science foundations cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile which is the southern branch of the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao) texas a&m astronomer darren depoy serves as the project scientist for the device roughly the size of a phone booth that will enable astronomers and physicists to probe the mystery of dark energy the force they believe is causing the universe to expand faster and faster the project to design build test and deploy the decam has taken many years and it was exciting to see the instrument take pictures of the sky said depoy who traveled to chile for the groundbreaking first snap i was present in the telescope control room while the first images were obtained the instrument had been installed on the telescope only a short time before and it produced science-quality images very quickly this is a testament to the hard work expertise and enthusiasm of the large group of scientists engineers and technicians who worked on the telescope and instrument over the past many years a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory directed by depoy the dark energy survey will help us understand why the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than slowing due to gravity said brenna flaugher project manager and scientist at fermilab it is extremely satisfying to see the efforts of all the people involved in this project finally come together the dark energy camera is the most powerful survey instrument of its kind able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot the cameras array of 62 charged-coupled devices has an unprecedented sensitivity to very red light and along with the blanco telescopes large light-gathering mirror (which spans 13 feet across) will allow scientists from around the world to pursue investigations ranging from studies of asteroids in our own solar system to the understanding of the origins and the fate of the universe were very excited to bring the dark energy camera online and make it available for the astronomical community through noaos open-access telescope allocation said chris smith director of the cerro-tololo inter-american observatory with it we provide astronomers from all over the world a powerful new tool to explore the outstanding questions of our time perhaps the most pressing of which is the nature of dark energy scientists in the dark energy survey collaboration will use the new camera to carry out the largest galaxy survey ever undertaken and will use that data to carry out four probes of dark energy studying galaxy clusters supernovae the large-scale clumping of galaxies and weak gravitational lensing this will be the first time all four of these methods will be possible in a single experiment we expect decam will have a long and productive life on the telescope depoy said the combination represents a new capability available to the entire astronomical community one that can produce unprecedented science were excited that texas a&m astronomy is part of such a groundbreaking project the dark energy survey is expected to begin in december after the camera is fully tested and will take advantage of the excellent atmospheric conditions in the chilean andes to deliver pictures with the sharpest resolution seen in such a wide-field astronomy survey in just its first few nights of testing the camera has already delivered images with excellent and nearly uniform spatial resolution over five years the survey will create detailed color images of one-eighth of the sky or 5 000 square degrees to discover and measure 300 million galaxies 100 000 galaxy clusters and 4 000 supernovae the dark energy survey is supported by funding from the us department of energy; the national science foundation; funding agencies in the united kingdom spain brazil germany and switzerland; and the participating des institutions including texas a&m university click here to see the first images captured by the dark energy camera for more information about the instrument and telescope go to http://wwwctionoaoedu for more information about the dark energy survey including the list of participating institutions visit the project website at wwwdarkenergysurveyorg for a summary of the major components contributed to the dark energy camera by the participating institutions read this symmetry article to learn more about texas a&m astronomy the dark energy camera the large synoptic survey telescope and other major international projects involving texas a&m astronomers visit astronomy research page ########## about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds premier research institutions texas a&m is a leader in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge in many fields including rigorous scientific and technological disciplines research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million; the university ranks 20th among all us universities and third nationally for universities without a medical school according to the national science foundation research at texas a&m creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about fermilab: fermilab americas premier national laboratory for particle physics research is a department of energy national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in united states news release courtesy of fermilab all information contained is distributed by fermilab and the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) on behalf of the dark energy survey collaboration noaos facilities in the southern hemisphere are operated under the cerro tololo inter-american observatory headquartered in la serena chile noao is operated by the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) inc under cooperative agreement with the national science foundation additional information about the project can be found in this previous release which features additional photographs and illustrations -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post focal points: dark energy camera records first light appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " eight billion years ago rays of light from distant galaxies began their long journey to earth that ancient starlight has now found its way to a mountaintop in chile where the newly constructed dark energy camera the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created has captured and recorded it for the first time that light may hold within it the answer to one of the biggest mysteries in physics why the expansion of the universe is speeding up scientists in the international dark energy survey (des) collaboration which includes astronomers from texas a&m university announced this week that the dark energy camera the product of eight years of planning and construction by scientists engineers and technicians on three continents has achieved first light the first pictures of the southern sky were taken by the 570-megapixel camera on sept 12 the achievement of first light through the dark energy camera begins a significant new era in our exploration of the cosmic frontier said james siegrist united states department of energy (doe) associate director of science for high-energy physics the results of this survey will bring us closer to understanding the mystery of dark energy and what it means for the universe the dark energy camera was constructed at the does fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in batavia ill and mounted on the victor m blanco telescope at the national science foundations cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile which is the southern branch of the us national optical astronomy observatory (noao) texas a&m astronomer darren depoy serves as the project scientist for the device roughly the size of a phone booth that will enable astronomers and physicists to probe the mystery of dark energy the force they believe is causing the universe to expand faster and faster the project to design build test and deploy the decam has taken many years and it was exciting to see the instrument take pictures of the sky said depoy who traveled to chile for the groundbreaking first snap i was present in the telescope control room while the first images were obtained the instrument had been installed on the telescope only a short time before and it produced science-quality images very quickly this is a testament to the hard work expertise and enthusiasm of the large group of scientists engineers and technicians who worked on the telescope and instrument over the past many years a key sub-component of the camera a spectrophotometric calibration system known as decal that will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of the objects it sees in the sky was built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory directed by depoy the dark energy survey will help us understand why the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than slowing due to gravity said brenna flaugher project manager and scientist at fermilab it is extremely satisfying to see the efforts of all the people involved in this project finally come together the dark energy camera is the most powerful survey instrument of its kind able to see light from more than 100 000 galaxies up to 8 billion light years away in each snapshot the cameras array of 62 charged-coupled devices has an unprecedented sensitivity to very red light and along with the blanco telescopes large light-gathering mirror (which spans 13 feet across) will allow scientists from around the world to pursue investigations ranging from studies of asteroids in our own solar system to the understanding of the origins and the fate of the universe were very excited to bring the dark energy camera online and make it available for the astronomical community through noaos open-access telescope allocation said chris smith director of the cerro-tololo inter-american observatory with it we provide astronomers from all over the world a powerful new tool to explore the outstanding questions of our time perhaps the most pressing of which is the nature of dark energy scientists in the dark energy survey collaboration will use the new camera to carry out the largest galaxy survey ever undertaken and will use that data to carry out four probes of dark energy studying galaxy clusters supernovae the large-scale clumping of galaxies and weak gravitational lensing this will be the first time all four of these methods will be possible in a single experiment we expect decam will have a long and productive life on the telescope depoy said the combination represents a new capability available to the entire astronomical community one that can produce unprecedented science were excited that texas a&m astronomy is part of such a groundbreaking project the dark energy survey is expected to begin in december after the camera is fully tested and will take advantage of the excellent atmospheric conditions in the chilean andes to deliver pictures with the sharpest resolution seen in such a wide-field astronomy survey in just its first few nights of testing the camera has already delivered images with excellent and nearly uniform spatial resolution over five years the survey will create detailed color images of one-eighth of the sky or 5 000 square degrees to discover and measure 300 million galaxies 100 000 galaxy clusters and 4 000 supernovae the dark energy survey is supported by funding from the us department of energy; the national science foundation; funding agencies in the united kingdom spain brazil germany and switzerland; and the participating des institutions including texas a&m university click here to see the first images captured by the dark energy camera for more information about the instrument and telescope go to http://wwwctionoaoedu for more information about the dark energy survey including the list of participating institutions visit the project website at wwwdarkenergysurveyorg for a summary of the major components contributed to the dark energy camera by the participating institutions read this symmetry article to learn more about texas a&m astronomy the dark energy camera the large synoptic survey telescope and other major international projects involving texas a&m astronomers visit astronomy research page ########## about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds premier research institutions texas a&m is a leader in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge in many fields including rigorous scientific and technological disciplines research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $700 million; the university ranks 20th among all us universities and third nationally for universities without a medical school according to the national science foundation research at texas a&m creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://vprtamuedu about fermilab: fermilab americas premier national laboratory for particle physics research is a department of energy national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in united states news release courtesy of fermilab all information contained is distributed by fermilab and the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) on behalf of the dark energy survey collaboration noaos facilities in the southern hemisphere are operated under the cerro tololo inter-american observatory headquartered in la serena chile noao is operated by the association of universities for research in astronomy (aura) inc under cooperative agreement with the national science foundation additional information about the project can be found in this previous release which features additional photographs and illustrations -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " college station necessity may be the mother of all invention but curiosity may well be its double first cousin just ask don carona manager of the department of physics and astronomy teaching observatory at texas a&m university what started for carona shortly after the turn of the 21st century as yet another personal learning opportunity has since become one for the world a free downloadable computer application he developed to show the sunlit portion of the earth in real time courtesy of stock nasa images and a little carona initiative caronas creation known as the sunlit earth dashboard widget debuted on apples website in early may 2005 and became the sites top download within a few weeks one year later it was featured in airports from norway to the caribbean as a tourism tool packaged as a cd-rom companion to macworld italia magazine and in use in college astronomy courses throughout the nation including at texas a&m if you build it need whether simply to know or to help others across the texas a&m campus and the globe has been caronas driving force for the majority of his 20 years with the university a career that spans several units including the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m computing and information services (cis) most of the apps that i develop are for me to accomplish something or at the observatory for somebody in the department or theyre for companions to laboratory assignments carona says this one started out as a learning tool i was programming in java and c but i hadnt worked with graphics a lot so i thought this would be a good way for me to learn java graphics how they work and that sort of thing carona notes his original goal in early 2003 was to improve upon what was offered at the time by the united states naval observatory essentially a web-viewable option with dated graphics and limited functionality i thought ‚Äòok im bound to be able to do that a little better and so i went to nasas website and i found they have all these beautiful images of the earth for each month of the calendar year that show you the ice flows and snow and that sort of thing from january through december carona recalls i thought ‚Äòwell thats perfect because you can pick the image for the month all i did from there was make it so that you could see the sunlit and shadowed regions of the earth i made it into a widget and put it on apples website for download and it just took off it became the no 1 downloaded widget for a long time and it was free i dont charge for anything i develop true to his usual form carona took the idea one step further creating time-lapse videos to display events as they transpire during the course of an entire year he thought such teaching tools would be useful in helping students to visually grasp the relevance for the tropics of cancer and capricorn and other related phenomena professors at other universities including the ohio state university and the university of chicago agreed ive had special requests to make it into different videos and things like that carona says if somebodys teaching a class and they want a longer range or maybe they want to show how the distance from the moon is affected over time because it ebbs and flows in perigee and apogee and so ive done that thats why there are several variants on the website i have gotten requests from no less than six different countries to use it in some sort of governmental capacity usually on a travel or tourism website it is kind of a neat thing theres no genius behind it at all its just purely a very simple idea that for one reason or another everybody seems to like or at least a large percentage of the people who see it carona shrugs off the sensational success as one huge accident a phrase that could do double duty in describing how he arrived at his current role within the department of physics and astronomy a star is born since 2005 carona has served as the first and only manager of the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory a key part of the universitys internationally known astronomy program his many responsibilities include all operation and maintenance from technical and logistical support for the departments astronomy laboratory courses (an average enrollment pushing 400 students each year) to development of all related observatory outreach programs for his myriad efforts he has been recognized with both the university and colleges top staff awards: the presidents meritorious service award (2005) and the college of science outstanding staff achievement award (2011) don is one of those rare special people who work at observatories as hands-on astronomers says dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program he is a person who can wire up a computer system program a server fix a balky worm gear tear apart a gear box to fix it lift a dome onto runners using a crane attach digital detectors to the focal plane take data reduce data and the list goes on don is the heart and soul of the student observatory and without him as the astronomer there we would not have such an excellent lab to offer the students the proof is in the popularity of the classes there if you dont sign up for the lab within a few days of the opening of registration you will not get in because it fills so fast! carona has never claimed to be a man defined by basic requirements rather his specialty involves routinely excelling in pushing the other-duties-as-assigned envelope a trait that eventually earned him a second full-time job (albeit non-paying) managing a hypothetical observatory that only existed on paper his paper that is 30 pages of it more or less that detailed his biggest dream to date for texas a&m and the broader community: a full-fledged facility that would demonstrate a real commitment to astronomy in aggieland within those three-dozen pages back in 2002 carona made his case for a dream observatory a substantial upgrade from the one he ran as a contract employee in his spare time after hours and on weekends moonlighting from his full-time job as a programmer with cis once his proposal won preliminary approved from the departments astronomy committee (whose key members included current faculty dr roland allen dr alexey belyanin dr george kattawar and dr james white in addition to emeritus professor dr nelson duller) carona met with dr lewis ford longtime professor of physics and assistant department head and finally then-department head dr thomas adair who authorized carona to proceed with the extensive renovations that would make his dream a reality shortly after they were complete ford asked carona to manage the observatory full-time and carona agreed to don it was a labor of love kattawar says he designed and monitored the construction of the observatory which was completed in 2003 and is now the finest student observatory in the entire south realizing what a valuable asset he was we hired him as our observatory manager and this was one of the smartest things our department has ever done this undying devotion continues even today unique observations the rest as they say is history one that helped to pave the way for a much brighter astronomical future for texas a&m and the entire state of texas under caronas leadership the observatory has become a premier teaching resource the facility features a 60-seat classroom a 16-inch telescope housed under an 18-foot hydraulically operated dome a robotic observatory with a 20-inch telescope that can be controlled remotely via the internet and a student observing deck that supports 16 telescope piers for 8-inch student telescopes used in various astronomy classes i dont know of another program quite like ours carona says there are other schools with similar programs but i think ours is unique by comparison our students dont come out [to observe] just once or twice a semester; theyre out every week they get all the hands-on they want and they love it! there just arent very many laboratory classes where you can just submerge yourself into something thats fun for carona fun boils down to the simple love of learning and sticking to the task at hand whether programming which he says was just a way for me to have something to do on cloudy nights or changing a programs future it was one of those things carona says if it didnt have a champion there is absolutely no way that we would be where we are now i cant think of any other instance at this university and ive been here for 20 years where you can create an entire entity from really next-to-nothing and a small idea that just sort of transformed itself when you get the ball rolling on a good idea even if you dont know its a good idea at the time it will take on a life of its own and all you have to do is hang on for the ride the reality is texas a&m would not be as big as it is had it not been a similarly good idea in the way that it started find more information on texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or don w carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu the post texas a&m astronomy app proves popular across the globe appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " necessity may be the mother of all invention but curiosity may well be its double first cousin just ask don carona manager of the department of physics and astronomy teaching observatory at texas a&m university what started for carona shortly after the turn of the 21st century as yet another personal learning opportunity has since become one for the world a free downloadable computer application he developed to show the sunlit portion of the earth in real time courtesy of stock nasa images and a little carona initiative caronas creation known as the sunlit earth dashboard widget debuted on apples website in early may 2005 and became the sites top download within a few weeks one year later it was featured in airports from norway to the caribbean as a tourism tool packaged as a cd-rom companion to macworld italia magazine and in use in college astronomy courses throughout the nation including at texas a&m if you build it need whether simply to know or to help others across the texas a&m campus and the globe has been caronas driving force for the majority of his 20 years with the university a career that spans several units including the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m computing and information services (cis) most of the apps that i develop are for me to accomplish something or at the observatory for somebody in the department or theyre for companions to laboratory assignments carona says this one started out as a learning tool i was programming in java and c but i hadnt worked with graphics a lot so i thought this would be a good way for me to learn java graphics how they work and that sort of thing carona notes his original goal in early 2003 was to improve upon what was offered at the time by the united states naval observatory essentially a web-viewable option with dated graphics and limited functionality i thought ‚Äòok im bound to be able to do that a little better and so i went to nasas website and i found they have all these beautiful images of the earth for each month of the calendar year that show you the ice flows and snow and that sort of thing from january through december carona recalls i thought ‚Äòwell thats perfect because you can pick the image for the month all i did from there was make it so that you could see the sunlit and shadowed regions of the earth i made it into a widget and put it on apples website for download and it just took off it became the no 1 downloaded widget for a long time and it was free i dont charge for anything i develop true to his usual form carona took the idea one step further creating time-lapse videos to display events as they transpire during the course of an entire year he thought such teaching tools would be useful in helping students to visually grasp the relevance for the tropics of cancer and capricorn and other related phenomena professors at other universities including the ohio state university and the university of chicago agreed ive had special requests to make it into different videos and things like that carona says if somebodys teaching a class and they want a longer range or maybe they want to show how the distance from the moon is affected over time because it ebbs and flows in perigee and apogee and so ive done that thats why there are several variants on the website i have gotten requests from no less than six different countries to use it in some sort of governmental capacity usually on a travel or tourism website it is kind of a neat thing theres no genius behind it at all its just purely a very simple idea that for one reason or another everybody seems to like or at least a large percentage of the people who see it carona shrugs off the sensational success as one huge accident a phrase that could do double duty in describing how he arrived at his current role within the department of physics and astronomy a star is born since 2005 carona has served as the first and only manager of the texas a&m physics and astronomy teaching observatory a key part of the universitys internationally known astronomy program his many responsibilities include all operation and maintenance from technical and logistical support for the departments astronomy laboratory courses (an average enrollment pushing 400 students each year) to development of all related observatory outreach programs for his myriad efforts he has been recognized with both the university and colleges top staff awards: the presidents meritorious service award (2005) and the college of science outstanding staff achievement award (2011) don is one of those rare special people who work at observatories as hands-on astronomers says dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program he is a person who can wire up a computer system program a server fix a balky worm gear tear apart a gear box to fix it lift a dome onto runners using a crane attach digital detectors to the focal plane take data reduce data and the list goes on don is the heart and soul of the student observatory and without him as the astronomer there we would not have such an excellent lab to offer the students the proof is in the popularity of the classes there if you dont sign up for the lab within a few days of the opening of registration you will not get in because it fills so fast! carona has never claimed to be a man defined by basic requirements rather his specialty involves routinely excelling in pushing the other-duties-as-assigned envelope a trait that eventually earned him a second full-time job (albeit non-paying) managing a hypothetical observatory that only existed on paper his paper that is 30 pages of it more or less that detailed his biggest dream to date for texas a&m and the broader community: a full-fledged facility that would demonstrate a real commitment to astronomy in aggieland within those three-dozen pages back in 2002 carona made his case for a dream observatory a substantial upgrade from the one he ran as a contract employee in his spare time after hours and on weekends moonlighting from his full-time job as a programmer with cis once his proposal won preliminary approved from the departments astronomy committee (whose key members included current faculty dr roland allen dr alexey belyanin dr george kattawar and dr james white in addition to emeritus professor dr nelson duller) carona met with dr lewis ford longtime professor of physics and assistant department head and finally then-department head dr thomas adair who authorized carona to proceed with the extensive renovations that would make his dream a reality shortly after they were complete ford asked carona to manage the observatory full-time and carona agreed to don it was a labor of love kattawar says he designed and monitored the construction of the observatory which was completed in 2003 and is now the finest student observatory in the entire south realizing what a valuable asset he was we hired him as our observatory manager and this was one of the smartest things our department has ever done this undying devotion continues even today unique observations the rest as they say is history one that helped to pave the way for a much brighter astronomical future for texas a&m and the entire state of texas under caronas leadership the observatory has become a premier teaching resource the facility features a 60-seat classroom a 16-inch telescope housed under an 18-foot hydraulically operated dome a robotic observatory with a 20-inch telescope that can be controlled remotely via the internet and a student observing deck that supports 16 telescope piers for 8-inch student telescopes used in various astronomy classes i dont know of another program quite like ours carona says there are other schools with similar programs but i think ours is unique by comparison our students dont come out [to observe] just once or twice a semester; theyre out every week they get all the hands-on they want and they love it! there just arent very many laboratory classes where you can just submerge yourself into something thats fun for carona fun boils down to the simple love of learning and sticking to the task at hand whether programming which he says was just a way for me to have something to do on cloudy nights or changing a programs future it was one of those things carona says if it didnt have a champion there is absolutely no way that we would be where we are now i cant think of any other instance at this university and ive been here for 20 years where you can create an entire entity from really next-to-nothing and a small idea that just sort of transformed itself when you get the ball rolling on a good idea even if you dont know its a good idea at the time it will take on a life of its own and all you have to do is hang on for the ride the reality is texas a&m would not be as big as it is had it not been a similarly good idea in the way that it started find more information on texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or don w carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu " " college station physicists at texas a&m university are celebrating the biggest news out of cern since the 2008 start-up of the $10 billion large hadron collider (lhc) observation of a new particle with boson-like appearances after nearly a half-century of searching for the higgs boson known as the god particle because it is thought to be responsible for generating the mass of all visible particles in the universe data released today from the lhcs compact muon solenoid (cms) and atlas experiments confirms the presence of a particle consistent with the properties of the higgs boson as predicted by the standard model the two experiments presented their preliminary results based on data recorded up to june 2012 as part of a joint seminar streamed live today from cern and at the 2012 international conference on high energy physics held in melbourne the cms collaboration features more than 20 texas a&m physicists postdoctoral researchers and graduate students based in college station as well as at cern and at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) which serves as the united states headquarters for cms the lhc results indicate what we call a 5-sigma observation of a new particle with a mass of 125 gev [gigaelectronvolts] and properties consistent with that of a higgs boson says texas a&m physicist alexei safonov this is a tremendously important finding made possible by a collaborative effort of several thousand people from many dozens of institutions working together for more than 15 years to come to this exciting day it takes that many people to build the detector commission all systems get the data out analyze it and produce physics-quality results being part of this amazing effort has been and continues to be both a privilege and a large responsibility the lhc announcement comes on the heels of fermilabs monday release of tevatron results demonstrating an excess of data consistent with the elusive higgs particle using a decade of data (roughly 500 trillion proton-proton collisions) while texas a&m physicist david toback notes the level of¬†affirmation in the tevatron data is insufficient for the physicists to rule out that the excess is due to chance he says it is both exciting and encouraging that the excess seen by the tevatron perfectly agrees with being due to a 125 gev higgs-like particle observed at the lhc it provides an independent check and powerful additional confirmation reinforcing the likelihood that it is really a higgs-like particle that the cern lhc is seeing toback adds texas a&m physicist ricardo eusebi underscores the solidness of the cms results which indicate the presence of a new particle along with roughly 1-in-3-million odds of this observation being due to chance well need much more data to truly understand what kind of particle this is if its a standard model higgs or a higgs particle predicted by one of alternative theories such as supersymmetry or if it is a higgs at all eusebi says this will give us room for excitement for the next 10 to 15 years trying to measure and understand the properties of the model we seem to be seeing well need to have beams with a much higher intensity so we can collect much more data in a shorter period of time texas a&m physicist teruki kamon notes that the lhc data is the result of 350 trillion proton-proton collisions in 2010-11 and another 1 000-to-2 000 trillion in 2012 involving the worlds largest detectors and analyzed by more than 1 700 people from us institutions including 89 american universities and seven us department of energy (doe) national laboratories who helped design build and operate the lhc accelerator and its four particle detectors this result is a triumph of a coherent united effort in this large-size collaboration kamon says indeed with more high-quality data we could chase dark matter at the lhc it will relate phenomena at a gigantic scale in the universe to the proton-proton collisions at a very small scale much smaller than a hydrogen atom this will be the beginning of a long journey to understand the interconnection between particle physics and cosmology safonov toback eusebi and kamon are joined in the cms collaboration by fellow texas a&m experimental physicist peter mcintyre who helped conceive the original idea for the tevatron along with theoretical physicists¬†dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta¬†and¬†richard arnowitt a unique collaboration of experimentalists with theorists within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has been crucial in making the texas a&m group a key player in the worldwide lhc effort that safonov says transcends international borders and traditional physics overall i think this is something that is very fundamental safonov says it has many implications on our understanding of the world and where things started it has a huge connection to cosmology you tend to think that what we do is study the smallest particles in the world which should be something irrelevant to cosmologists who work with the largest structures in the universe but they are very closely connected because it is particle physics that explains things like the origins of the universe and its further evolution you might say that this is the most fundamental knowledge you can think of it may not be particle physics that made this world but it is particle physics that explains why things are the way they are although understandably not prepared to declare the search for the higgs over kamon says the cms collaboration is confident the odds are in their favor that the end is now in sight in light of current lhc data and the tevatron findings he notes that while the first significant indications of a new particle already were evident in the 2011 data it is the 2012 dataset that has really made the lhc physicists confident that this is a new particle to explain this point safonov describes an analogy of the higgs as a magic treasure chest that may be hidden somewhere on earth or not exist at all although cms researchers may not know where it is or if it even exists he says they do know that the place where it is hidden would see rain starting exactly at 12:05 pm on the first day of every month if you ask what the odds are that rain would start in a particular town on august 1 at exactly 12:05 pm we would say they are tiny safonov says however the chances of that happening in at least one town anywhere on earth are very high what the lhc experiments did last year is the equivalent of sending its experimenters to all towns on earth who were checking for rain at that time the previous years data from the lhc is as if these experimentalists found that during the 12-month period for 2010-2011 only college station saw rain starting at 12:05 pm every first of the month so if the chest exists it has to be somewhere in college station however because there are so many towns on earth it could still be just a coincidence even though a very unlikely one to check their suspicions the lhc experiments went on and continued monitoring for another 12 months this time specifically focusing on college station the results released today by the lhc are as if the new findings were to show that college station saw the rain on the first day of every month at 12:05 pm in the new data odds of that happening by chance are miniscule as for safonovs prediction the best is yet to come thanks in large part to another important by-product of big-picture worldwide collaborative research the student scientists who will make the future discoveries what i see as truly inspiring in experimental high energy physics is the people who work in these large collaborations safonov says it takes people who are highly dedicated to science to work together leaving behind and below country borders national politics and differences and all the silliness in the world for a common cause we are also lucky to see new generations of people who are joining this cause bringing their enthusiasm energy and idealism alexx perloff a graduate student in eusebis research group whose role in the cms project is to calibrate jets as part of his phd dissertation detailing a search for the higgs in a given channel says he sought out a known cms-affiliated adviser while he was an undergraduate based on his desire to go into particle physics he describes the internationally collaborative experience as nothing short of spectacular and immensely rewarding the amount of guidance and growth that weve absorbed in three or four years of doing this is incredible perloff says the other week i needed to create a special analysis tool and emailed a collaborator in switzerland and even though it was midnight there within an hour we were already working together we are all working toward the same goal and for the most part we dont let other things get in the way when we work on this project its not just school work its work it matters when i sit down to do calibrations for these jets everyone at cms uses them its hugely important for us to learn that our work matters in science one of the biggest rules is that you need to make sure what youre doing is right when youre put in that position you understand the thought process and what needs to be done i think every student needs to get involved in something like this it doesnt have to be physics or science just get involved in a project with academic scope to learn more about the cms collaboration visit the texas a&m collider physics web site at http://colliderphysicstamuedu for more information on high-energy physics at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr alexei safonov (630) 650-2078 or safonov@tamuedu; dr david toback (979) 218-7130 or toback@physicstamuedu; dr teruki kamon (979) 571-5950 or kamon@physicstamuedu; dr ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@physicstamuedu the post higgs boson search involving texas a&m physicists reveals new particle appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " physicists at texas a&m university are celebrating the biggest news out of cern since the 2008 start-up of the $10 billion large hadron collider (lhc) observation of a new particle with boson-like appearances after nearly a half-century of searching for the higgs boson known as the god particle because it is thought to be responsible for generating the mass of all visible particles in the universe data released today from the lhcs compact muon solenoid (cms) and atlas experiments confirms the presence of a particle consistent with the properties of the higgs boson as predicted by the standard model the two experiments presented their preliminary results based on data recorded up to june 2012 as part of a joint seminar streamed live today from cern and at the 2012 international conference on high energy physics held in melbourne the cms collaboration features more than 20 texas a&m physicists postdoctoral researchers and graduate students based in college station as well as at cern and at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) which serves as the united states headquarters for cms the lhc results indicate what we call a 5-sigma observation of a new particle with a mass of 125 gev [gigaelectronvolts] and properties consistent with that of a higgs boson says texas a&m physicist alexei safonov this is a tremendously important finding made possible by a collaborative effort of several thousand people from many dozens of institutions working together for more than 15 years to come to this exciting day it takes that many people to build the detector commission all systems get the data out analyze it and produce physics-quality results being part of this amazing effort has been and continues to be both a privilege and a large responsibility the lhc announcement comes on the heels of fermilabs monday release of tevatron results demonstrating an excess of data consistent with the elusive higgs particle using a decade of data (roughly 500 trillion proton-proton collisions) while texas a&m physicist david toback notes the level of¬†affirmation in the tevatron data is insufficient for the physicists to rule out that the excess is due to chance he says it is both exciting and encouraging that the excess seen by the tevatron perfectly agrees with being due to a 125 gev higgs-like particle observed at the lhc it provides an independent check and powerful additional confirmation reinforcing the likelihood that it is really a higgs-like particle that the cern lhc is seeing toback adds texas a&m physicist ricardo eusebi underscores the solidness of the cms results which indicate the presence of a new particle along with roughly 1-in-3-million odds of this observation being due to chance well need much more data to truly understand what kind of particle this is if its a standard model higgs or a higgs particle predicted by one of alternative theories such as supersymmetry or if it is a higgs at all eusebi says this will give us room for excitement for the next 10 to 15 years trying to measure and understand the properties of the model we seem to be seeing well need to have beams with a much higher intensity so we can collect much more data in a shorter period of time texas a&m physicist teruki kamon notes that the lhc data is the result of 350 trillion proton-proton collisions in 2010-11 and another 1 000-to-2 000 trillion in 2012 involving the worlds largest detectors and analyzed by more than 1 700 people from us institutions including 89 american universities and seven us department of energy (doe) national laboratories who helped design build and operate the lhc accelerator and its four particle detectors this result is a triumph of a coherent united effort in this large-size collaboration kamon says indeed with more high-quality data we could chase dark matter at the lhc it will relate phenomena at a gigantic scale in the universe to the proton-proton collisions at a very small scale much smaller than a hydrogen atom this will be the beginning of a long journey to understand the interconnection between particle physics and cosmology safonov toback eusebi and kamon are joined in the cms collaboration by fellow texas a&m experimental physicist peter mcintyre who helped conceive the original idea for the tevatron along with theoretical physicists¬†dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta¬†and¬†richard arnowitt a unique collaboration of experimentalists with theorists within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has been crucial in making the texas a&m group a key player in the worldwide lhc effort that safonov says transcends international borders and traditional physics overall i think this is something that is very fundamental safonov says it has many implications on our understanding of the world and where things started it has a huge connection to cosmology you tend to think that what we do is study the smallest particles in the world which should be something irrelevant to cosmologists who work with the largest structures in the universe but they are very closely connected because it is particle physics that explains things like the origins of the universe and its further evolution you might say that this is the most fundamental knowledge you can think of it may not be particle physics that made this world but it is particle physics that explains why things are the way they are although understandably not prepared to declare the search for the higgs over kamon says the cms collaboration is confident the odds are in their favor that the end is now in sight in light of current lhc data and the tevatron findings he notes that while the first significant indications of a new particle already were evident in the 2011 data it is the 2012 dataset that has really made the lhc physicists confident that this is a new particle to explain this point safonov describes an analogy of the higgs as a magic treasure chest that may be hidden somewhere on earth or not exist at all although cms researchers may not know where it is or if it even exists he says they do know that the place where it is hidden would see rain starting exactly at 12:05 pm on the first day of every month if you ask what the odds are that rain would start in a particular town on august 1 at exactly 12:05 pm we would say they are tiny safonov says however the chances of that happening in at least one town anywhere on earth are very high what the lhc experiments did last year is the equivalent of sending its experimenters to all towns on earth who were checking for rain at that time the previous years data from the lhc is as if these experimentalists found that during the 12-month period for 2010-2011 only college station saw rain starting at 12:05 pm every first of the month so if the chest exists it has to be somewhere in college station however because there are so many towns on earth it could still be just a coincidence even though a very unlikely one to check their suspicions the lhc experiments went on and continued monitoring for another 12 months this time specifically focusing on college station the results released today by the lhc are as if the new findings were to show that college station saw the rain on the first day of every month at 12:05 pm in the new data odds of that happening by chance are miniscule as for safonovs prediction the best is yet to come thanks in large part to another important by-product of big-picture worldwide collaborative research the student scientists who will make the future discoveries what i see as truly inspiring in experimental high energy physics is the people who work in these large collaborations safonov says it takes people who are highly dedicated to science to work together leaving behind and below country borders national politics and differences and all the silliness in the world for a common cause we are also lucky to see new generations of people who are joining this cause bringing their enthusiasm energy and idealism alexx perloff a graduate student in eusebis research group whose role in the cms project is to calibrate jets as part of his phd dissertation detailing a search for the higgs in a given channel says he sought out a known cms-affiliated adviser while he was an undergraduate based on his desire to go into particle physics he describes the internationally collaborative experience as nothing short of spectacular and immensely rewarding the amount of guidance and growth that weve absorbed in three or four years of doing this is incredible perloff says the other week i needed to create a special analysis tool and emailed a collaborator in switzerland and even though it was midnight there within an hour we were already working together we are all working toward the same goal and for the most part we dont let other things get in the way when we work on this project its not just school work its work it matters when i sit down to do calibrations for these jets everyone at cms uses them its hugely important for us to learn that our work matters in science one of the biggest rules is that you need to make sure what youre doing is right when youre put in that position you understand the thought process and what needs to be done i think every student needs to get involved in something like this it doesnt have to be physics or science just get involved in a project with academic scope to learn more about the cms collaboration visit the texas a&m collider physics web site at http://colliderphysicstamuedu for more information on high-energy physics at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr alexei safonov (630) 650-2078 or safonov@tamuedu; dr david toback (979) 218-7130 or toback@physicstamuedu; dr teruki kamon (979) 571-5950 or kamon@physicstamuedu; dr ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@physicstamuedu " " college station a select group of texas teachers is taking the future of physics education into their own hands returning to the classroom as students for a two-week summer stint as the first participants in a texas a&m university program aimed at improving high school mathematics and science performance across the lone star state the inaugural mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) hosted june 10-23 by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and underwritten by the cynthia and george mitchell foundation with funds provided through the texas a&m foundation is a grassroots effort by educators seeking self-help in solving the problem where they admit it partially starts the head of the class the ranking of texas schools in math and science is below average and a main unfortunate reason for this is underprepared math and science teachers in texas classrooms says dr bhaskar dutta texas a&m professor of physics and astronomy and a co-organizer of the program many science teachers who are teaching physics in texas schools have had zero to two physics courses total in their education dutta credits paula hiltibidal an education service center (esc) region 15 master teacher and high school science specialist in the early independent school district as the key force behind mipep and the idea that two weeks of rigorous physics education at a college sophomore level (eg phys 201-202) could be of tremendous benefit in preparing science teachers to teach in high school classrooms the two worked in haste along with duttas departmental colleagues dr alexey belyanin and dr tatiana erukhimova to quickly organize such a program with the help of generous funding from the mitchell foundation in time to benefit teachers before another summer and by association another school year could elapse their proactive result is a 2012 mipep roster that features 15 teacher-students from 13 different school districts who share two common required factors: each currently teaches high school physics and took no more than two physics courses while in college program coursework is based on a train-the-trainer concept and presented by 16 texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty the curriculum is focused on clarifying fundamental physics concepts through easy introduction of necessary material problem-solving and hands-on demonstrations all material is based on problems that appear in the physics portion of the texas assessment of knowledge and skills (taks) state-required examination for texas high school students we are very excited by this new strategy to improve high school science education in texas an important outreach effort and goal for the department of physics and astronomy the college of science and texas a&m university says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science this investment by the mitchell foundation is a most welcome addition to our broad and lengthy history of continuous commitment toward improving k12 science education and achievement especially in the area of providing outstanding training for teachers in sharp contrast to most participants traditional school-year classrooms mipep sessions are held at the picturesque cooks branch conservatory northwest of houston attendees also are exposed to two days of laboratory-based work on the texas a&m campus within active research labs prior to the conclusion of the program for which they receive a certificate as well as continuing professional education credits in addition to training each earns a $500 stipend and travel reimbursement along with complimentary meals and lodging at cooks branch the school is very intense and focused with adequate pre- and post-assessments to track its effectiveness and help determine whether the school has really helped participants with their knowledge of physics dutta explains dutta says because effective measurement and analysis is paramount to both program organizers and participants theyve left nothing to chance in that department entrusting the critical task of evaluation to dr lynn burlbaw a professor in the texas a&m department of teaching learning and culture who specializes in curriculum and instruction and related program evaluation in addition to daily feedback opportunities regarding specific concepts presented during the program teachers will be asked to take part in post-event follow-ups using web-based surveys intended to track several factors over time including whether they are better prepared to handle their science classrooms thanks to the coursework as well as what worked and what would have worked better were hopeful that including such a thorough evaluation component will help enhance future program objectives and curriculum by integrating the best practices and also allow us to sustain this program in future dutta says participants even have the opportunity to get help once they go back to their schools they can ask science questions by sending us emails or calling us and their students can ask us questions as well in this sense there is a real long-term benefit of this program we think it will impact high school science education tremendously across the state click here to learn more about the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) and other institute activities -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 204-7531 or dutta@physicstamuedu the post first class: texas a&m mitchell institute teaching teachers to improve state of physics education appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a select group of texas teachers is taking the future of physics education into their own hands returning to the classroom as students for a two-week summer stint as the first participants in a texas a&m university program aimed at improving high school mathematics and science performance across the lone star state the inaugural mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) hosted june 10-23 by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and underwritten by the cynthia and george mitchell foundation with funds provided through the texas a&m foundation is a grassroots effort by educators seeking self-help in solving the problem where they admit it partially starts the head of the class the ranking of texas schools in math and science is below average and a main unfortunate reason for this is underprepared math and science teachers in texas classrooms says dr bhaskar dutta texas a&m professor of physics and astronomy and a co-organizer of the program many science teachers who are teaching physics in texas schools have had zero to two physics courses total in their education dutta credits paula hiltibidal an education service center (esc) region 15 master teacher and high school science specialist in the early independent school district as the key force behind mipep and the idea that two weeks of rigorous physics education at a college sophomore level (eg phys 201-202) could be of tremendous benefit in preparing science teachers to teach in high school classrooms the two worked in haste along with duttas departmental colleagues dr alexey belyanin and dr tatiana erukhimova to quickly organize such a program with the help of generous funding from the mitchell foundation in time to benefit teachers before another summer and by association another school year could elapse their proactive result is a 2012 mipep roster that features 15 teacher-students from 13 different school districts who share two common required factors: each currently teaches high school physics and took no more than two physics courses while in college program coursework is based on a train-the-trainer concept and presented by 16 texas a&m physics and astronomy faculty the curriculum is focused on clarifying fundamental physics concepts through easy introduction of necessary material problem-solving and hands-on demonstrations all material is based on problems that appear in the physics portion of the texas assessment of knowledge and skills (taks) state-required examination for texas high school students we are very excited by this new strategy to improve high school science education in texas an important outreach effort and goal for the department of physics and astronomy the college of science and texas a&m university says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science this investment by the mitchell foundation is a most welcome addition to our broad and lengthy history of continuous commitment toward improving k12 science education and achievement especially in the area of providing outstanding training for teachers in sharp contrast to most participants traditional school-year classrooms mipep sessions are held at the picturesque cooks branch conservatory northwest of houston attendees also are exposed to two days of laboratory-based work on the texas a&m campus within active research labs prior to the conclusion of the program for which they receive a certificate as well as continuing professional education credits in addition to training each earns a $500 stipend and travel reimbursement along with complimentary meals and lodging at cooks branch the school is very intense and focused with adequate pre- and post-assessments to track its effectiveness and help determine whether the school has really helped participants with their knowledge of physics dutta explains dutta says because effective measurement and analysis is paramount to both program organizers and participants theyve left nothing to chance in that department entrusting the critical task of evaluation to dr lynn burlbaw a professor in the texas a&m department of teaching learning and culture who specializes in curriculum and instruction and related program evaluation in addition to daily feedback opportunities regarding specific concepts presented during the program teachers will be asked to take part in post-event follow-ups using web-based surveys intended to track several factors over time including whether they are better prepared to handle their science classrooms thanks to the coursework as well as what worked and what would have worked better were hopeful that including such a thorough evaluation component will help enhance future program objectives and curriculum by integrating the best practices and also allow us to sustain this program in future dutta says participants even have the opportunity to get help once they go back to their schools they can ask science questions by sending us emails or calling us and their students can ask us questions as well in this sense there is a real long-term benefit of this program we think it will impact high school science education tremendously across the state click here to learn more about the mitchell institute physics enhancement program (mipep) and other institute activities -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr bhaskar dutta (979) 204-7531 or dutta@physicstamuedu " " college station local star-gazers and skywatching enthusiasts are encouraged to join texas a&m university astronomers and physicists next week for a rare celestial event the transit of venus this phenomenon occurs when earths nearest planetary neighbor passes in front of the sun traveling across its face like a speck and is so rare that astronomers say it will not happen again in the lifetime of anyone whos currently say college-age and beyond all the more reason to make your way to the texas a&m campus tuesday (june 5) for this exclusive viewing opportunity scheduled for 5 to 8:30 pm outside the memorial student center in the rudder plaza/fountain area in the us the transit will begin shortly after 5 pm (cdt) and last roughly six hours approximately 18 minutes after venuss silhouette first touches the outer edge of the sun the planet will be entirely in front of the sun marking the most dramatic point of transitory viewing particularly with a telescope according to seasoned experts this relatively rare astronomical occurrence is quite interesting to watch through a telescope and also historically important a measurement made during the transit of venus in 1761 led to the first measurement of the size of our solar system notes texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall tuesday will mark only the eighth transit of venus since the invention of the telescope such transits occur in pairs that are eight years apart (the last transit occurred in 2004) and then dont happen again for more than a hundred years therefore if you miss tuesdays marshall says you or more likely your descendents will be out of luck until 2117 or 2125 to learn more about a venus transit and what it involves visit http://transitofvenusorg/ for more information on texas a&m astronomy and related events click here # # # # # # # # # # click here to see photos from the event courtesy of texas a&m physics and astronomy -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu or dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physics & astronomy to host transit of venus event june 5 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " local star-gazers and skywatching enthusiasts are encouraged to join texas a&m university astronomers and physicists next week for a rare celestial event the transit of venus this phenomenon occurs when earths nearest planetary neighbor passes in front of the sun traveling across its face like a speck and is so rare that astronomers say it will not happen again in the lifetime of anyone whos currently say college-age and beyond all the more reason to make your way to the texas a&m campus tuesday (june 5) for this exclusive viewing opportunity scheduled for 5 to 8:30 pm outside the memorial student center in the rudder plaza/fountain area in the us the transit will begin shortly after 5 pm (cdt) and last roughly six hours approximately 18 minutes after venuss silhouette first touches the outer edge of the sun the planet will be entirely in front of the sun marking the most dramatic point of transitory viewing particularly with a telescope according to seasoned experts this relatively rare astronomical occurrence is quite interesting to watch through a telescope and also historically important a measurement made during the transit of venus in 1761 led to the first measurement of the size of our solar system notes texas a&m astronomer jennifer marshall tuesday will mark only the eighth transit of venus since the invention of the telescope such transits occur in pairs that are eight years apart (the last transit occurred in 2004) and then dont happen again for more than a hundred years therefore if you miss tuesdays marshall says you or more likely your descendents will be out of luck until 2117 or 2125 to learn more about a venus transit and what it involves visit http://transitofvenusorg/ for more information on texas a&m astronomy and related events click here # # # # # # # # # # click here to see photos from the event courtesy of texas a&m physics and astronomy -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu or dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu " " college station daniel freemans curiosity about the world of physics started in high school where two of his physics teachers sparked his interest in pursuing a degree in physics freeman now a senior at texas a&m university decided to expand upon that interest with a double major in physics and mathematics to capture a better understanding of the field of theoretical physics thanks to his thesis advisor texas a&m physics professor dr bhaskar dutta freeman became interested in the subject of inflation the period of rapid growth in the size of universe following the big bang for his hard work and outstanding quality of his research freeman has been awarded the 2012 outstanding thesis award for undergraduate research scholars sponsored by texas a&m honors and undergraduate research (hur) the research scholars program allows students who are interested in undergraduate research to create their own research project with the guidance of a faculty mentor these students write an undergraduate thesis during the course of two semesters theses are submitted to the texas a&m university thesis office where they are made electronically available via the texas a&m university libraries digital repository freemans research focused on what happened immediately following the universes creation a phenomenon called inflation freeman took a mathematical approach to answering this question by applying models of quintessential inflation not only did freeman test these models against known astronomical data but he also examined the predictive power of the models whats interesting is that today in modern times billions of years after inflation we observe something very similar to inflation happening basically the universe is starting to expand again freeman said of his research an important aspect of research such as this is to identify which models are helpful in revealing what happened following the big bang and which models are no longer useful through freemans tests of different quintessential inflation models he found that the components he tested did not have much predictive value while these models might not have been any better at predicting how the universe will change in the future than others freeman sees the value in researching such ideas perhaps in a hundred years we will have a good reason to think one field governs these problems and the next generation of physicists will see that yet another century-old curiosity turned out to be on the right track if a bit off the mark wrote freeman in his scholars thesis freeman who also is a member of dr simon norths research group in the department of chemistry credits his undergraduate research experiences as being the most fulfilling thing he has done as an undergraduate getting exposure to research early is hugely beneficial and i really appreciate having had the opportunity he said following his graduation later this week freeman will be attending the university of california at berkeley where he will pursue a phd in physical chemistry -atm- contact: chrystina rago chrysrago@honorstamuedu the post to infinity and beyond: daniel freeman wins outstanding thesis award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " daniel freemans curiosity about the world of physics started in high school where two of his physics teachers sparked his interest in pursuing a degree in physics freeman now a senior at texas a&m university decided to expand upon that interest with a double major in physics and mathematics to capture a better understanding of the field of theoretical physics thanks to his thesis advisor texas a&m physics professor dr bhaskar dutta freeman became interested in the subject of inflation the period of rapid growth in the size of universe following the big bang for his hard work and outstanding quality of his research freeman has been awarded the 2012 outstanding thesis award for undergraduate research scholars sponsored by texas a&m honors and undergraduate research (hur) the research scholars program allows students who are interested in undergraduate research to create their own research project with the guidance of a faculty mentor these students write an undergraduate thesis during the course of two semesters theses are submitted to the texas a&m university thesis office where they are made electronically available via the texas a&m university libraries digital repository freemans research focused on what happened immediately following the universes creation a phenomenon called inflation freeman took a mathematical approach to answering this question by applying models of quintessential inflation not only did freeman test these models against known astronomical data but he also examined the predictive power of the models whats interesting is that today in modern times billions of years after inflation we observe something very similar to inflation happening basically the universe is starting to expand again freeman said of his research an important aspect of research such as this is to identify which models are helpful in revealing what happened following the big bang and which models are no longer useful through freemans tests of different quintessential inflation models he found that the components he tested did not have much predictive value while these models might not have been any better at predicting how the universe will change in the future than others freeman sees the value in researching such ideas perhaps in a hundred years we will have a good reason to think one field governs these problems and the next generation of physicists will see that yet another century-old curiosity turned out to be on the right track if a bit off the mark wrote freeman in his scholars thesis freeman who also is a member of dr simon norths research group in the department of chemistry credits his undergraduate research experiences as being the most fulfilling thing he has done as an undergraduate getting exposure to research early is hugely beneficial and i really appreciate having had the opportunity he said following his graduation later this week freeman will be attending the university of california at berkeley where he will pursue a phd in physical chemistry -atm- contact: chrystina rago chrysrago@honorstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university physicists dr olga kocharovskaya and dr david toback have been recognized by the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society as the 2012 recipients of the chapters primary annual awards celebrating scientific excellence and advancement kocharovskaya a distinguished professor of physics has earned the sigma xi distinguished scientist award while toback thaman professor of physics and astronomy has received the chapters outstanding science communicator award both awards are bestowed annually in recognition of respective faculty members who have demonstrated research and teaching excellence and significant contributions to their profession and general science (distinguished scientist award) as well as superior skill and dedication to improving science education (outstanding science communicator award) kocharovskaya and toback each will be presented with a commemorative plaque and a $750 cash prize at the 2012 sigma xi induction and awards banquet scheduled for may 18 at the college station hilton kocharovskaya also will be invited to present the distinguished scientist lecture on the texas a&m campus later this fall sigma xi has a long history of supporting the local texas a&m research community in part by recognizing the best efforts of our researchers and research communicators said dr mark j zoran professor of biology and 2011-12 sigma xi president the executive committee and membership of sigma xi are excited to have drs kocharovskaya and toback as our award recipients for 2012 and we congratulate them and the department of physics and astronomy the academic home of both our award winners this year kocharovskaya is the latest in a lengthy list of notable past recipients of sigma xis top scientist award from the texas a&m college of science including fellow physicists dr marlan o scully (2010) and dr edward s fry (2001) as well as chemists dr marcetta y darensbourg (2011) the late dr d wayne goodman (2009) dr abraham clearfield (1999) and the late dr f albert cotton (1997) the college also boasts no fewer than three previous recipients of the top communicator prize: mathematician dr joseph pasciak (2010); scully (2000); and physicist dr peter m mcintyre (1999) kocharovskaya who is recognized as one of the top quantum optics and laser physics researchers worldwide joined the texas a&m faculty in 1998 after 12 years at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences a member of the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) she was appointed as a distinguished professor in 2007 and has made major contributions to the rapidly developing field of atomic coherence phenomena including pioneering works on lasing without inversion and electromagnetically induced transparency her current research is focused on coherent control of the optical electronic and gamma-ray nuclear transitions in solids a fellow of both the american physical society and optical society of america kocharovskaya has earned the willis lamb medal for laser physics and quantum electronics the presidential award of the russian academy of sciences as the outstanding young professor of the russian federation and a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research toback a high-energy physics expert and member of the texas a&m faculty since 2000 has received many prior awards both for his teaching and research which focuses on the search for new fundamental particles at the worlds highest-energy particle accelerators the fermilab tevatron in chicago and the large hadron collider (lhc) in switzerland in between working with these high-level international collaborations and developing web-based tools and novel instructional innovations to improve his classroom environment toback routinely cultivates opportunities to share his palpable excitement about his science assisting in both college of science and university-level marketing projects and serving as a go-to media source for a variety of topics routine and otherwise for instance his work is among the now-infamous backdrops featured in last weeks episode of the popular science-based television comedy the big bang theory when it comes to more traditional mentoring and public outreach toback has served as keynote speaker for various outreach-related events including the texas junior science and humanities symposium davidson scholars and saturday morning physics a guest presenter for science caf√© and other community science education programs he also has published an undergraduate textbook and recently produced a pilot episode for an educational dvd series sigma xi is an international multidisciplinary research society honoring scientists whose work promotes scientific enterprise and rewarding excellence in scientific research founded in 1886 at cornell university sigma xi has grown to include 500 chapters across north america and around the world at colleges and universities to date there are about 70 000 active members more than 200 of which are nobel prize winners the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi was chartered july 1 1951 with a mission to recognize encourage and promote scientific research at texas a&m university and to honor the community of science scholars -atm- contact: michelle sullens (979) 458-4066 or sigmaxi@tamuedu the post two physics faculty honored by texas a&m sigma xi chapter appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university physicists dr olga kocharovskaya and dr david toback have been recognized by the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society as the 2012 recipients of the chapters primary annual awards celebrating scientific excellence and advancement kocharovskaya a distinguished professor of physics has earned the sigma xi distinguished scientist award while toback thaman professor of physics and astronomy has received the chapters outstanding science communicator award both awards are bestowed annually in recognition of respective faculty members who have demonstrated research and teaching excellence and significant contributions to their profession and general science (distinguished scientist award) as well as superior skill and dedication to improving science education (outstanding science communicator award) kocharovskaya and toback each will be presented with a commemorative plaque and a $750 cash prize at the 2012 sigma xi induction and awards banquet scheduled for may 18 at the college station hilton kocharovskaya also will be invited to present the distinguished scientist lecture on the texas a&m campus later this fall sigma xi has a long history of supporting the local texas a&m research community in part by recognizing the best efforts of our researchers and research communicators said dr mark j zoran professor of biology and 2011-12 sigma xi president the executive committee and membership of sigma xi are excited to have drs kocharovskaya and toback as our award recipients for 2012 and we congratulate them and the department of physics and astronomy the academic home of both our award winners this year kocharovskaya is the latest in a lengthy list of notable past recipients of sigma xis top scientist award from the texas a&m college of science including fellow physicists dr marlan o scully (2010) and dr edward s fry (2001) as well as chemists dr marcetta y darensbourg (2011) the late dr d wayne goodman (2009) dr abraham clearfield (1999) and the late dr f albert cotton (1997) the college also boasts no fewer than three previous recipients of the top communicator prize: mathematician dr joseph pasciak (2010); scully (2000); and physicist dr peter m mcintyre (1999) kocharovskaya who is recognized as one of the top quantum optics and laser physics researchers worldwide joined the texas a&m faculty in 1998 after 12 years at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences a member of the texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) she was appointed as a distinguished professor in 2007 and has made major contributions to the rapidly developing field of atomic coherence phenomena including pioneering works on lasing without inversion and electromagnetically induced transparency her current research is focused on coherent control of the optical electronic and gamma-ray nuclear transitions in solids a fellow of both the american physical society and optical society of america kocharovskaya has earned the willis lamb medal for laser physics and quantum electronics the presidential award of the russian academy of sciences as the outstanding young professor of the russian federation and a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research toback a high-energy physics expert and member of the texas a&m faculty since 2000 has received many prior awards both for his teaching and research which focuses on the search for new fundamental particles at the worlds highest-energy particle accelerators the fermilab tevatron in chicago and the large hadron collider (lhc) in switzerland in between working with these high-level international collaborations and developing web-based tools and novel instructional innovations to improve his classroom environment toback routinely cultivates opportunities to share his palpable excitement about his science assisting in both college of science and university-level marketing projects and serving as a go-to media source for a variety of topics routine and otherwise for instance his work is among the now-infamous backdrops featured in last weeks episode of the popular science-based television comedy the big bang theory when it comes to more traditional mentoring and public outreach toback has served as keynote speaker for various outreach-related events including the texas junior science and humanities symposium davidson scholars and saturday morning physics a guest presenter for science caf√© and other community science education programs he also has published an undergraduate textbook and recently produced a pilot episode for an educational dvd series sigma xi is an international multidisciplinary research society honoring scientists whose work promotes scientific enterprise and rewarding excellence in scientific research founded in 1886 at cornell university sigma xi has grown to include 500 chapters across north america and around the world at colleges and universities to date there are about 70 000 active members more than 200 of which are nobel prize winners the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi was chartered july 1 1951 with a mission to recognize encourage and promote scientific research at texas a&m university and to honor the community of science scholars -atm- contact: michelle sullens (979) 458-4066 or sigmaxi@tamuedu " " twenty-one texas a&m university students enrolled in physics 218 (classical mechanics) this spring have been honored by the department of physics and astronomy as its latest addison wesley/benjamin cummings mechanics scholars the students selected for their top-scoring marks on a special end-of-semester challenge exam open to all physics 218 students and covering material from all related sections taught during the spring 2012 semester were honored thursday (may 3) during an awards banquet in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy (left to right) dr george welch freshman general studies major matthew krusleski (first) freshman petroleum engineering major shangjie yue (second-place tie) freshman general studies major steven skobel (second-place tie) and dr david toback the event featured a presentation by dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence on career possibilities in physics and related fields each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishments by dr george r welch professor and head of the department this semesters top three performers freshman general studies major matthew krusleski (first) freshman petroleum engineering major shangjie yue (tied for second) and freshman general studies major steven skobel (tied for second) also received copies of the physics 208 textbook young and freedman volume ii (valued at around $90) as well as monetary awards ($200 for first place $100 for second and third) to be used toward academics before handing out awards toback informed those in attendance that their performance on the exam indicated that they possess a natural talent for physics and encouraged them to consider pursuing an education in the subject the idea that we are all dorky and weird like on the big bang theory is not true he explained there are lots of companies in texas who are looking for physics majors and these arent little mom-and-pop businesses either these are the real deal although considered one of the departments toughest physics courses physics 218 routinely attracts about 800 students across its eight sections each spring semester and about 1 500 in the fall according to toback the event is part of the mechanics scholar program founded by the department in 2002 to celebrate the best students in physics 218 and encourage career exploration in physics you clearly have the right stuff to get further in physics toback told the students -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@tamuedu the post peak performers: physics honors 2012 mechanics scholars appeared first on college of science share: " " college station aggies and brazos valley area residents with an interest in the mysteries of the night sky are invited to wind down their reading day and enjoy one last break before final exams at the may aggie star party set for next wednesday (may 2) on the texas a&m university campus the monthly event hosted by the texas a&m astronomy group in the department of physics and astronomy will be held from 7 to 9 pm in front of sbisa dining hall (weather permitting) organizers say participants will have the opportunity to look through a telescope find constellations and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartypdf -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post aggie star party set for wednesday at sbisa appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " aggies and brazos valley area residents with an interest in the mysteries of the night sky are invited to wind down their reading day and enjoy one last break before final exams at the may aggie star party set for next wednesday (may 2) on the texas a&m university campus the monthly event hosted by the texas a&m astronomy group in the department of physics and astronomy will be held from 7 to 9 pm in front of sbisa dining hall (weather permitting) organizers say participants will have the opportunity to look through a telescope find constellations and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartypdf -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " dome argus antartica a team of scientists representing several international institutions including texas a&m university has succeeded in installing the first of three antarctic survey telescopes (ast3-1) at the chinese kunlun station at dome argus the highest point of the antarctic plateau the telescope is the first of three half-meter devices to be installed at plateau observatory (plato-a) a fully robotic observatory established at dome a in 2008 and intended to reveal new insights into the universe once possible only from space in combination the three telescopes are expected to find planets around other stars about the size of earth hundreds of supernovaes useful for cosmological studies and many other variable objects relevant to future discoveries in astrophysics texas a&m is joined in the international project by the chinese center for antarctic astronomy (ccaa) and the university of new south wales (unsw) which built plato-a and the control computers responsible for its autonomous operation dr lifan wang associate professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m also serves as director of the ccaa this is an astounding achievement says prof michael ashley head of the unsw team responsible for plato-a a stand-alone telescope in the pristine environment of antarctica can conduct scientific research that would otherwise only be possible from space but at a few percent of the cost four years after a making only the second arduous trek to dome a in history in order to found plato-a the same team returned to finish the latest leg of the adventurous international undertaking led by the polar research institute of china (pric) the telescope installation project was carried out over a three-month period by four astronomers as part of chinas 28th antarctica expedition the 26-member team left tianjin china aboard the xuelong icebreaker on november 3 reaching the chinese zhongshan station at the antarctic coast 26 days later on december 16 they started their inland traverse arriving at dome a on january 4 and completing their installation of the telescope during the subsequent three weeks before returning to zhongshan station on february 9 among its many unprecedented features the ast3-1 is equipped with a charge-coupled device (ccd) camera that is 110 megapixels in size the largest single-piece detector in use in astronomy today the telescope will be used to search for planets around stars other than the sun enabling the continuous monitoring of hundreds of millions of stars in the milky way galaxy wang explains the ability to monitor stars during the dark austral winter makes ast3-1 a unique facility for astronomical studies wang adds ashley says the autonomous observatory is accompanied by an onsite computing system that analyzes the massive amount of data from the ccd camera in real-time to catch transient events such as supernova explosions and gamma-ray-burst afterglows supernova explosions which are caused by the death of massive stars are visible to distances far beyond the milky way galaxy wang notes that it was precise measurements of these explosions in type ia supernovae which led to the discovery of accelerated expansion of the universe a breakthrough recognized with last years nobel prize in physics ast3-1 aims to discover these type ia supernovae within one day after they become visible wang says such early discovery is important in resolving the mysterious physics that leads to supernova explosions in addition the telescope can be used for observations of the optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts which are important in early detection of supernovae as well as timely data collection and measurement we are able to process the data from each exposure within two minutes after they are taken to promptly alert the science team when a new supernova occurs says prof zhaohui shang of the national astronomical observatory of china and tianjin normal university wang says the ast3-1 telescope is fully steerable meaning it is capable of pointing to any sky area visible from dome a a huge technological leap in comparison to cstar an array of four 145-centimeter telescopes installed in 2008 which had no moving parts ast3-1s ccd camera also employs a frame-transfer-readout scheme that avoids the use of a mechanical shutter making the overall system much more robust team members say data collected thus far from plato-a confirms that dome a with its cold temperature dry air and stable atmosphere is likely the best site for establishing ground-based astronomical observatories however the site is not without its challenges the least of which is navigation according to prof xiangqun cui of the nanjing institute of astronomical optics technology (niaot) the observatory has to withstand the most extreme conditions on earth cui says the winter temperature can be as low as minus 80 degrees celsius and the air pressure is barely half that of sea level it has to be able to prevent ice from building up on mirror surfaces and the telescope support structure to learn more about the ast3-1 telescope and the overall dome a project visit http://mcba11physunsweduau/~plato/ for more on wang and his research go to https://physicstamuedu/directory/lifan-wang/ -atm- contacts: prof lifan wang department of physics and astronomy texas a&m university (979) 845-4881 wang@physicstamuedu prof michael ashley university of new south wales +61 29385 5465 mashley@unsweduau prof zhaohui shang national astronomical observatory of china +86 134 3916 1838 zshang@gmailcom prof xiangyan yuan nanjing institute of astronomical optics and technology +86 135 0515 9459 xyyuan@niaotaccn shana hutchins (media relations) texas a&m university (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post new domain: international team installs first of three telescopes in antarctica appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a team of scientists representing several international institutions including texas a&m university has succeeded in installing the first of three antarctic survey telescopes (ast3-1) at the chinese kunlun station at dome argus the highest point of the antarctic plateau the telescope is the first of three half-meter devices to be installed at plateau observatory (plato-a) a fully robotic observatory established at dome a in 2008 and intended to reveal new insights into the universe once possible only from space in combination the three telescopes are expected to find planets around other stars about the size of earth hundreds of supernovaes useful for cosmological studies and many other variable objects relevant to future discoveries in astrophysics texas a&m is joined in the international project by the chinese center for antarctic astronomy (ccaa) and the university of new south wales (unsw) which built plato-a and the control computers responsible for its autonomous operation dr lifan wang associate professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m also serves as director of the ccaa this is an astounding achievement says prof michael ashley head of the unsw team responsible for plato-a a stand-alone telescope in the pristine environment of antarctica can conduct scientific research that would otherwise only be possible from space but at a few percent of the cost four years after a making only the second arduous trek to dome a in history in order to found plato-a the same team returned to finish the latest leg of the adventurous international undertaking led by the polar research institute of china (pric) the telescope installation project was carried out over a three-month period by four astronomers as part of chinas 28th antarctica expedition the 26-member team left tianjin china aboard the xuelong icebreaker on november 3 reaching the chinese zhongshan station at the antarctic coast 26 days later on december 16 they started their inland traverse arriving at dome a on january 4 and completing their installation of the telescope during the subsequent three weeks before returning to zhongshan station on february 9 among its many unprecedented features the ast3-1 is equipped with a charge-coupled device (ccd) camera that is 110 megapixels in size the largest single-piece detector in use in astronomy today the telescope will be used to search for planets around stars other than the sun enabling the continuous monitoring of hundreds of millions of stars in the milky way galaxy wang explains the ability to monitor stars during the dark austral winter makes ast3-1 a unique facility for astronomical studies wang adds ashley says the autonomous observatory is accompanied by an onsite computing system that analyzes the massive amount of data from the ccd camera in real-time to catch transient events such as supernova explosions and gamma-ray-burst afterglows supernova explosions which are caused by the death of massive stars are visible to distances far beyond the milky way galaxy wang notes that it was precise measurements of these explosions in type ia supernovae which led to the discovery of accelerated expansion of the universe a breakthrough recognized with last years nobel prize in physics ast3-1 aims to discover these type ia supernovae within one day after they become visible wang says such early discovery is important in resolving the mysterious physics that leads to supernova explosions in addition the telescope can be used for observations of the optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts which are important in early detection of supernovae as well as timely data collection and measurement we are able to process the data from each exposure within two minutes after they are taken to promptly alert the science team when a new supernova occurs says prof zhaohui shang of the national astronomical observatory of china and tianjin normal university wang says the ast3-1 telescope is fully steerable meaning it is capable of pointing to any sky area visible from dome a a huge technological leap in comparison to cstar an array of four 145-centimeter telescopes installed in 2008 which had no moving parts ast3-1s ccd camera also employs a frame-transfer-readout scheme that avoids the use of a mechanical shutter making the overall system much more robust team members say data collected thus far from plato-a confirms that dome a with its cold temperature dry air and stable atmosphere is likely the best site for establishing ground-based astronomical observatories however the site is not without its challenges the least of which is navigation according to prof xiangqun cui of the nanjing institute of astronomical optics technology (niaot) the observatory has to withstand the most extreme conditions on earth cui says the winter temperature can be as low as minus 80 degrees celsius and the air pressure is barely half that of sea level it has to be able to prevent ice from building up on mirror surfaces and the telescope support structure to learn more about the ast3-1 telescope and the overall dome a project visit http://mcba11physunsweduau/~plato/ for more on wang and his research go to https://physicstamuedu/directory/lifan-wang/ -atm- contacts: prof lifan wang department of physics and astronomy texas a&m university (979) 845-4881 wang@physicstamuedu prof michael ashley university of new south wales +61 29385 5465 mashley@unsweduau prof zhaohui shang national astronomical observatory of china +86 134 3916 1838 zshang@gmailcom prof xiangyan yuan nanjing institute of astronomical optics and technology +86 135 0515 9459 xyyuan@niaotaccn shana hutchins (media relations) texas a&m university (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station in 1998 two international research teams traced back the expansion of the universe over billions of years only to discover it was accelerating a revolutionary discovery that suggests 75 percent of the cosmos is filled with a mysterious dark energy which now controls the universes future one of the key figures in that 2011 nobel prize-winning discovery brian p schmidt will visit the texas a&m university campus this week to present a free public lecture about this unexpected breakthrough and the ramifications for both the universe and astrophysics schmidt a professor at australian national university will present the accelerating universe on thursday apr 12 at 7 pm in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the george p mitchell 40 physics building tickets are not required for the lecture which will detail the discovery and explain how astronomers have used such observations to trace the universes history back more than 13 billion years leading them to ponder the ultimate fate of the cosmos schmidt shared the 2011 nobel prize for physics with adam g riess (johns hopkins university/space telescope science institute) and saul perlmutter (university of california berkeley) in 1994 schmidt co-founded the high-z supernova search team one of two teams honored for the breakthrough discovery along with texas a&m astronomer nicholas b suntzeff who joined the faculty in 2006 as director of the mitchell institute and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy riess who served as lead author on the high-z teams 1998 astronomical journal paper announcing the groups ultimate discovery was a miller fellow postdoctoral researcher at berkeley at that time after earning his phd from harvard in 1996 while perlmutter headed up the competing team the supernova cosmology project schmidt currently is in texas along with several additional members of the high-z team and other internationally eminent scholars for a broader series of astrophysics meetings being hosted by texas a&m astronomy and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at cooks branch conservancy near houston schmidts lecture is co-sponsored by the mitchell institute and the department of physics and astronomy in conjunction with the college of science for more information on the event contact the department of physics and astronomy at (979) 845-7717 learn more about the 2011 nobel prize discovery and the multi-faceted roles each team and individual researcher played -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post nobel laureate to present lecture on accelerating universe appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in 1998 two international research teams traced back the expansion of the universe over billions of years only to discover it was accelerating a revolutionary discovery that suggests 75 percent of the cosmos is filled with a mysterious dark energy which now controls the universes future one of the key figures in that 2011 nobel prize-winning discovery brian p schmidt will visit the texas a&m university campus this week to present a free public lecture about this unexpected breakthrough and the ramifications for both the universe and astrophysics schmidt a professor at australian national university will present the accelerating universe on thursday apr 12 at 7 pm in the second-floor primary lecture hall of the george p mitchell 40 physics building tickets are not required for the lecture which will detail the discovery and explain how astronomers have used such observations to trace the universes history back more than 13 billion years leading them to ponder the ultimate fate of the cosmos schmidt shared the 2011 nobel prize for physics with adam g riess (johns hopkins university/space telescope science institute) and saul perlmutter (university of california berkeley) in 1994 schmidt co-founded the high-z supernova search team one of two teams honored for the breakthrough discovery along with texas a&m astronomer nicholas b suntzeff who joined the faculty in 2006 as director of the mitchell institute and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy riess who served as lead author on the high-z teams 1998 astronomical journal paper announcing the groups ultimate discovery was a miller fellow postdoctoral researcher at berkeley at that time after earning his phd from harvard in 1996 while perlmutter headed up the competing team the supernova cosmology project schmidt currently is in texas along with several additional members of the high-z team and other internationally eminent scholars for a broader series of astrophysics meetings being hosted by texas a&m astronomy and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at cooks branch conservancy near houston schmidts lecture is co-sponsored by the mitchell institute and the department of physics and astronomy in conjunction with the college of science for more information on the event contact the department of physics and astronomy at (979) 845-7717 learn more about the 2011 nobel prize discovery and the multi-faceted roles each team and individual researcher played -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at princeton university has been selected to receive the 2012 frederic ives medal/jarus quinn prize the highest award of the optical society (osa) recognizing overall distinction in optics scully a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics is cited for lifetime leadership in groundbreaking research on all aspects of quantum optics including the quantum theory of the laser quantum coherence effects quantum thermodynamics and the foundation of quantum mechanics his award was one of 18 announced monday (apr 2) by osa to honor achievement in and commitment to the optics field osa is proud to honor marlan for his leadership in the field of optics and photonics said osa president tony heinz marlan has made major contributions to advancing the science and technology of light his accomplishments and commitment serve to inspire the next generation of optics researchers and educators the ives medal/quinn prize first presented in 1929 was endowed in 1928 by herbert e ives a distinguished charter member and former osa president (1924 and 1925) to honor his father who was noted as the inventor of modern photoengraving and for his pioneering contributions to color photography three-color process printing and other branches of applied optics the prize portion of the prestigious honor celebrates jarus w quinn who served 25 years as osas first executive director and is funded by the jarus w quinn ives medal endowment raised by members at the time of quinns retirement to commemorate his extensive service to the organization as the 2012 ives medal winner scully will present a plenary address at osas 96th annual meeting frontiers in optics 2012 scheduled for october 14-18 in rochester new york this is a very well-deserved honor for marlan said dr george r welch professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy he is truly one of the pioneers of quantum optics his career has been dedicated to understanding the most fundamental aspects of the quantum interactions of light and matter and he is responsible for much of what is now taken for granted in the field receiving the highest honor of the optical society speaks volumes about how his work is valued by his colleagues our department is very proud for him scully is a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max planck society as well as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences osa and the american physical society (aps) his career features a vast set of contributions to the field of quantum optics and physics from developing the quantum theory of the laser and micro-maser theory to discovering the concept of the quantum eraser and inventing the concepts of correlated emission in addition to contributing to the formulation of the theory of laser gyroscopes and free-electron lasers scully co-led the first experiment demonstrating lasing without inversion and carried out the first demonstration of room-temperature slow light he also is responsible for the development of a comprehensive theory of the dynamics of bose-condensation among many other career accomplishments he has published more than 500 papers that have been cited more than 20 000 times and written two textbooks in laser physics and quantum electronics in addition to joint professorial appointments at both texas a&m and princeton scully holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple texas a&m appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor of chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science we are so pleased that marlan scully can add this extraordinary recognition to his very long list of awards and honors said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science in addition to his remarkable scholarly activities he serves and honors texas a&m and its college of science in many ways a highly decorated researcher and scholar scullys many awards and professional honors include osas herbert walther award adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award; the institute of electrical and electronics engineers incs quantum electronics award; the franklin institutes elliott cresson medal; a guggenheim fellowship; the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize; the aps arthur l schawlow prize and harvard universitys morris loeb lectureship in february 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university of ulm the birthplace of albert einstein in germany for his pioneering work in laser physics and quantum optics scully who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 received both his masters of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university he is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics founded in 1916 and headquartered in washington dc the optical society unites more than 130 000 professionals from 175 countries in an effort to bring together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives the society works to advance the common interests of the field providing educational resources to scientists engineers and business leaders by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics osa publications events technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics for more information visit wwwosaorg click here to read a more extensive feature story on scully and his career contributions to teaching research and service -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post scully recognized with optical societys highest award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at princeton university has been selected to receive the 2012 frederic ives medal/jarus quinn prize the highest award of the optical society (osa) recognizing overall distinction in optics scully a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics is cited for lifetime leadership in groundbreaking research on all aspects of quantum optics including the quantum theory of the laser quantum coherence effects quantum thermodynamics and the foundation of quantum mechanics his award was one of 18 announced monday (apr 2) by osa to honor achievement in and commitment to the optics field osa is proud to honor marlan for his leadership in the field of optics and photonics said osa president tony heinz marlan has made major contributions to advancing the science and technology of light his accomplishments and commitment serve to inspire the next generation of optics researchers and educators the ives medal/quinn prize first presented in 1929 was endowed in 1928 by herbert e ives a distinguished charter member and former osa president (1924 and 1925) to honor his father who was noted as the inventor of modern photoengraving and for his pioneering contributions to color photography three-color process printing and other branches of applied optics the prize portion of the prestigious honor celebrates jarus w quinn who served 25 years as osas first executive director and is funded by the jarus w quinn ives medal endowment raised by members at the time of quinns retirement to commemorate his extensive service to the organization as the 2012 ives medal winner scully will present a plenary address at osas 96th annual meeting frontiers in optics 2012 scheduled for october 14-18 in rochester new york this is a very well-deserved honor for marlan said dr george r welch professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy he is truly one of the pioneers of quantum optics his career has been dedicated to understanding the most fundamental aspects of the quantum interactions of light and matter and he is responsible for much of what is now taken for granted in the field receiving the highest honor of the optical society speaks volumes about how his work is valued by his colleagues our department is very proud for him scully is a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max planck society as well as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences osa and the american physical society (aps) his career features a vast set of contributions to the field of quantum optics and physics from developing the quantum theory of the laser and micro-maser theory to discovering the concept of the quantum eraser and inventing the concepts of correlated emission in addition to contributing to the formulation of the theory of laser gyroscopes and free-electron lasers scully co-led the first experiment demonstrating lasing without inversion and carried out the first demonstration of room-temperature slow light he also is responsible for the development of a comprehensive theory of the dynamics of bose-condensation among many other career accomplishments he has published more than 500 papers that have been cited more than 20 000 times and written two textbooks in laser physics and quantum electronics in addition to joint professorial appointments at both texas a&m and princeton scully holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple texas a&m appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor of chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science we are so pleased that marlan scully can add this extraordinary recognition to his very long list of awards and honors said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science in addition to his remarkable scholarly activities he serves and honors texas a&m and its college of science in many ways a highly decorated researcher and scholar scullys many awards and professional honors include osas herbert walther award adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award; the institute of electrical and electronics engineers incs quantum electronics award; the franklin institutes elliott cresson medal; a guggenheim fellowship; the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize; the aps arthur l schawlow prize and harvard universitys morris loeb lectureship in february 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university of ulm the birthplace of albert einstein in germany for his pioneering work in laser physics and quantum optics scully who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 received both his masters of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university he is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics founded in 1916 and headquartered in washington dc the optical society unites more than 130 000 professionals from 175 countries in an effort to bring together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives the society works to advance the common interests of the field providing educational resources to scientists engineers and business leaders by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics osa publications events technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics for more information visit wwwosaorg click here to read a more extensive feature story on scully and his career contributions to teaching research and service -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " college station make a date for free family fun and get up-close and personal with the many wonders of science and technology this weekend at the 2012 physics and engineering festival scheduled for saturday (march 31) on the texas a&m university campus no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event which will run from 10 am to 8 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings attendees are invited to unleash their inner scientist aboard a square-wheeled bicycle or try their hand at generating electricity and shooting balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 4 pm the event also will feature three fantastic bubble shows at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm by internationally acclaimed bubble artist keith johnson as well as q&a sessions at noon 1 pm and 2 pm with nasa astronaut richard linnehan and nobel prize winners david lee and dudley herschbach the day will conclude with two public lectures about the universe the first at 4 pm by texas a&m astronomer nicholas suntzeff and the second at 7 pm by carter emmart with the american museum of natural historys rose center for earth and space all events are sponsored by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the association of former students the event is an affiliate festival of the 2nd usa science and engineering festival for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please kids of all ages see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a video highlighting images from past festivals on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics and engineering festival set for saturday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " make a date for free family fun and get up-close and personal with the many wonders of science and technology this weekend at the 2012 physics and engineering festival scheduled for saturday (march 31) on the texas a&m university campus no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event which will run from 10 am to 8 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings attendees are invited to unleash their inner scientist aboard a square-wheeled bicycle or try their hand at generating electricity and shooting balloons with lasers three of the roughly 100 exciting interactive experiments that will be on display from 10 am to 4 pm the event also will feature three fantastic bubble shows at 11 am 1 pm and 2:30 pm by internationally acclaimed bubble artist keith johnson as well as q&a sessions at noon 1 pm and 2 pm with nasa astronaut richard linnehan and nobel prize winners david lee and dudley herschbach the day will conclude with two public lectures about the universe the first at 4 pm by texas a&m astronomer nicholas suntzeff and the second at 7 pm by carter emmart with the american museum of natural historys rose center for earth and space all events are sponsored by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the association of former students the event is an affiliate festival of the 2nd usa science and engineering festival for more information on an exciting afternoon guaranteed to please kids of all ages see the detailed press release or visit physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- watch a video highlighting images from past festivals on you tube: contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " (editors note: there were than 3 000 views of the live feed for first blast currently trending as the no 3 story on msnbc a recap version of the release complete with high-resolution images and quotes from gmto officials pasadena calif on friday march 23 the first blast (big bang event) is scheduled to occur at las campanas peak in chile at high noon us eastern daylight time this marks the beginning of leveling and site preparation prior to construction of the giant magellan telescope click here to see before and after rendering: live streaming is provided thanks to the courtesy and close collaboration of the us embassy in chile the blasting is scheduled to take place at the following times: united states: 9 am pdt 10 am mdt 11 am cdt and 12 edt; australia: 3 am edt; and korea: 1 am kst in addition to texas a&m university the gmt partners are: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution the university of texas at austin the university of arizona and the university of chicago to learn more about the gmt project visit http://gmtoorg for more on texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research page # # # # # # # # # # quotes: darren l depoy (professor of astronomy rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy texas a&m university) due to their extensive mining industry chileans are experts at blowing up large amounts of rock which is a great thing for science! in this particular case the chilean company charged with the task at hand removing the top of a mountain near las campanas observatory usually creates access to huge copper mines so this is somewhat of an interesting departure for them to be working on preparing the site for the gmt the goal is to chop the top off the mountain to reach stable and solid bedrock on which the enormous telescope can rest the foundation must be secure since the entire 1 000-ton telescope has to be able to point at any place in the sky to the precision equivalent of the width of a human hair the amount of rock to be removed would nearly fill kyle field texas a&ms football stadium it is exciting to see such progress on getting the gmt under way although there is another decade of hard work ahead for us all -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; darren l depoy (979) 224-0071 or depoy@physicstamuedu; nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post big bang on earth: first blasting of las campanas peak a success appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " (editors note: there were than 3 000 views of the live feed for first blast currently trending as the no 3 story on msnbc a recap version of the release complete with high-resolution images and quotes from gmto officials pasadena calif on friday march 23 the first blast (big bang event) is scheduled to occur at las campanas peak in chile at high noon us eastern daylight time this marks the beginning of leveling and site preparation prior to construction of the giant magellan telescope click here to see before and after rendering: live streaming is provided thanks to the courtesy and close collaboration of the us embassy in chile the blasting is scheduled to take place at the following times: united states: 9 am pdt 10 am mdt 11 am cdt and 12 edt; australia: 3 am edt; and korea: 1 am kst in addition to texas a&m university the gmt partners are: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university carnegie institution for science harvard university korea astronomy and space science institute smithsonian institution the university of texas at austin the university of arizona and the university of chicago to learn more about the gmt project visit http://gmtoorg for more on texas a&m astronomy go to astronomy research page # # # # # # # # # # quotes: darren l depoy (professor of astronomy rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy texas a&m university) due to their extensive mining industry chileans are experts at blowing up large amounts of rock which is a great thing for science! in this particular case the chilean company charged with the task at hand removing the top of a mountain near las campanas observatory usually creates access to huge copper mines so this is somewhat of an interesting departure for them to be working on preparing the site for the gmt the goal is to chop the top off the mountain to reach stable and solid bedrock on which the enormous telescope can rest the foundation must be secure since the entire 1 000-ton telescope has to be able to point at any place in the sky to the precision equivalent of the width of a human hair the amount of rock to be removed would nearly fill kyle field texas a&ms football stadium it is exciting to see such progress on getting the gmt under way although there is another decade of hard work ahead for us all -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; darren l depoy (979) 224-0071 or depoy@physicstamuedu; nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station a decade ago houston businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell was so certain there were big discoveries to be made in physics and astronomy and that they should come out of texas a&m university he put money on it endowing the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy to bring the worlds most eminent minds in physics and astronomy to aggieland last june that investment paid off when an international collaboration featuring texas a&m astronomers dr kim-vy tran and dr casey papovich gathered at mitchells cooks branch conservancy (a picturesque 6 000-acre preserve in the east texas pineywoods northwest of houston) for a team brainstorm that recently resulted in the breakthrough discovery of the most distant galaxy cluster found to date this discovery was actually made at cooks branch this past june tran says we were just starting to analyze the data and lee [spitler] had just found this object so we started talking about it that day galaxy clusters known as the urban centers of the universe today may contain thousands of galaxies and are viewed as important building blocks with the power to unlock the mysteries of galaxy evolution and conditions in the universes earliest moments tran notes this cluster is located 105 billion light-years away from our own milky way galaxy and is made up of a dense concentration of 30 galaxies that is the seed for a much bigger city our galaxy cluster is observed when the universe was only three billion years old says spitler an astrophysicist at swinburne university of technology in australia and lead author of the teams study known as the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (z-fourge) this means it is still young and should continue to grow into an extremely dense structure containing many more galaxies the teams findings funded in part through the national science foundation will be published in the astrophysical journal letters much like mitchells vision of texas a&m as a diamond in the rough the z-fourge team likewise discovered their recent find hidden in plain sight essentially the middle of one of the most well-studied regions in the sky located near the star constellation leo spitler notes this region has been carefully examined for thousands of hours using all major observing facilities on the ground and in space including nearly one month of observing time from the hubble space telescope papovich credits the teams discovery to solid science and analysis armed with modern technology in this case a new camera built by z-fourge collaborators at carnegie observatories the camera dubbed fourstar and installed in december 2010 on the magellan 65-meter telescope in chile features five specially designed infrared filters that deliver an unprecedentedly precise combination of wavelength resolution and low-light sensitivity thereby enabling the team to accurately measure the distances to thousands of different galaxies at a time including those too faint to be detected through previous methods most other surveys were just looking at the tip of the iceberg tran explains the modern technology contained in this camera enabled us to detect the faintest light possible allowing us to see much more of the iceberg than previously revealed its like were using a comb to sift through the very distant universe the combination of filters and depth provided by this camera give us the equivalent of more teeth resulting in better measurements and more accurate results from the first six months of the survey the team obtained accurate distances for faint galaxies across a region about one-fifth the size of the moon as seen from earth though the area is relatively small they found roughly a thousand galaxies more than 105 billion light-years away these new filters are a novel approach; its a bit like being able to do a cat scan of the sky to rapidly make a 3-d picture of the early universe says swinburnes karl glazebrook who is leading the australian component of the international collaboration formed in 2009 the z-fourge survey is led by dr ivo labbe at leiden observatories in the netherlands these are the first steps of accurately measuring the rate at which these large urban cities formed in a dark-matter dominated universe papovich says the rate at which they come together tests our understanding of how structures in the universe formed the broader the timeline the better our chances of being accurate instrumentation is key and as it evolves well keep pushing the boundaries find more information on the z-fourge collaboration and their results learn more about texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-7922 or vy@physicstamuedu; or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu the post hidden in plain sight: a&m astronomers help find distant galaxy cluster to shed light on early universe appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a decade ago houston businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell was so certain there were big discoveries to be made in physics and astronomy and that they should come out of texas a&m university he put money on it endowing the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy to bring the worlds most eminent minds in physics and astronomy to aggieland last june that investment paid off when an international collaboration featuring texas a&m astronomers dr kim-vy tran and dr casey papovich gathered at mitchells cooks branch conservancy (a picturesque 6 000-acre preserve in the east texas pineywoods northwest of houston) for a team brainstorm that recently resulted in the breakthrough discovery of the most distant galaxy cluster found to date this discovery was actually made at cooks branch this past june tran says we were just starting to analyze the data and lee [spitler] had just found this object so we started talking about it that day galaxy clusters known as the urban centers of the universe today may contain thousands of galaxies and are viewed as important building blocks with the power to unlock the mysteries of galaxy evolution and conditions in the universes earliest moments tran notes this cluster is located 105 billion light-years away from our own milky way galaxy and is made up of a dense concentration of 30 galaxies that is the seed for a much bigger city our galaxy cluster is observed when the universe was only three billion years old says spitler an astrophysicist at swinburne university of technology in australia and lead author of the teams study known as the fourstar galaxy evolution survey (z-fourge) this means it is still young and should continue to grow into an extremely dense structure containing many more galaxies the teams findings funded in part through the national science foundation will be published in the astrophysical journal letters much like mitchells vision of texas a&m as a diamond in the rough the z-fourge team likewise discovered their recent find hidden in plain sight essentially the middle of one of the most well-studied regions in the sky located near the star constellation leo spitler notes this region has been carefully examined for thousands of hours using all major observing facilities on the ground and in space including nearly one month of observing time from the hubble space telescope papovich credits the teams discovery to solid science and analysis armed with modern technology in this case a new camera built by z-fourge collaborators at carnegie observatories the camera dubbed fourstar and installed in december 2010 on the magellan 65-meter telescope in chile features five specially designed infrared filters that deliver an unprecedentedly precise combination of wavelength resolution and low-light sensitivity thereby enabling the team to accurately measure the distances to thousands of different galaxies at a time including those too faint to be detected through previous methods most other surveys were just looking at the tip of the iceberg tran explains the modern technology contained in this camera enabled us to detect the faintest light possible allowing us to see much more of the iceberg than previously revealed its like were using a comb to sift through the very distant universe the combination of filters and depth provided by this camera give us the equivalent of more teeth resulting in better measurements and more accurate results from the first six months of the survey the team obtained accurate distances for faint galaxies across a region about one-fifth the size of the moon as seen from earth though the area is relatively small they found roughly a thousand galaxies more than 105 billion light-years away these new filters are a novel approach; its a bit like being able to do a cat scan of the sky to rapidly make a 3-d picture of the early universe says swinburnes karl glazebrook who is leading the australian component of the international collaboration formed in 2009 the z-fourge survey is led by dr ivo labbe at leiden observatories in the netherlands these are the first steps of accurately measuring the rate at which these large urban cities formed in a dark-matter dominated universe papovich says the rate at which they come together tests our understanding of how structures in the universe formed the broader the timeline the better our chances of being accurate instrumentation is key and as it evolves well keep pushing the boundaries find more information on the z-fourge collaboration and their results learn more about texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu; dr kim-vy tran (979) 458-7922 or vy@physicstamuedu; or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu " " college station dr helmut g katzgraber assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive a 2012 national science foundation (nsf) faculty early career development (career) award in support of his research on quantum computing and the study of disordered systems katzgrabers project designing quantum computers and understanding glassy systems using numerical simulations and statistical mechanics has been funded through the division of materials research in the projected total amount of $475 000 through may 2017 his work capitalizes on the fact that computational physics has become a powerful new tool in addition to experiment and theory to tackle problems in physics thanks to the advent of fast cost-effective computers and the development of efficient algorithms katzgrabers is one of 11 career awards announced thus far in 2012 across the overall texas a&m campus which currently boasts six in the dwight look college of engineering three in the college of science (katzgrabers as well as one each to dr grigoris paouris in the department of mathematics and to dr wenshe liu in the department of chemistry) one in the college of agriculture and life sciences and one in the texas a&m university health science center the career program offers the national science foundations most prestigious awards for faculty members beginning their independent careers said dr george r welch professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy faculty being considered are expected to exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research excellent education and the integration of education and research career grants are reviewed very thoroughly at nsf usually with at least five reviewers before a recommendation of an award is made they are incredibly competitive and only the best proposals get funded this award really underscores the significance of helmuts work and brings prestige to him and our department katzgrabers work focuses on numerical studies of disordered and complex systems due to their disorder these systems generally are extremely difficult to solve and therefore classified as np hard problems meaning that the time it takes to solve these systems on the computer increases exponentially with the size of the problem overall katzgraber hopes his research which bridges interdisciplinary areas spanning computer science quantum information theory and statistical mechanics will result in the development of stable quantum computing implementations that massively surpass current computer technologies he says a better understanding of their error tolerance and a deeper grasp of their limitations would represent an important step toward stable desktop devices a native of lima peru and a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2009 katzgraber received a diploma in physics from the swiss federal institute of technology (eth) in zurich (1997) before earning both his masters of science (1998) and doctorate in physics (2001) from the university of california at santa cruz after a one-year postdoctoral stint at the university of california at davis he returned to eth zurich for postdoctoral studies at the institute for theoretical physics he then served as an assistant professor at eth zurich prior to coming to texas a&m nsf established the career program to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense through this program the nsf emphasizes the importance on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning for more on the nsf and the career program visit http://wwwnsfgov -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu the post physicist helmut katzgraber earns nsf career award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr helmut g katzgraber assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected to receive a 2012 national science foundation (nsf) faculty early career development (career) award in support of his research on quantum computing and the study of disordered systems katzgrabers project designing quantum computers and understanding glassy systems using numerical simulations and statistical mechanics has been funded through the division of materials research in the projected total amount of $475 000 through may 2017 his work capitalizes on the fact that computational physics has become a powerful new tool in addition to experiment and theory to tackle problems in physics thanks to the advent of fast cost-effective computers and the development of efficient algorithms katzgrabers is one of 11 career awards announced thus far in 2012 across the overall texas a&m campus which currently boasts six in the dwight look college of engineering three in the college of science (katzgrabers as well as one each to dr grigoris paouris in the department of mathematics and to dr wenshe liu in the department of chemistry) one in the college of agriculture and life sciences and one in the texas a&m university health science center the career program offers the national science foundations most prestigious awards for faculty members beginning their independent careers said dr george r welch professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy faculty being considered are expected to exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research excellent education and the integration of education and research career grants are reviewed very thoroughly at nsf usually with at least five reviewers before a recommendation of an award is made they are incredibly competitive and only the best proposals get funded this award really underscores the significance of helmuts work and brings prestige to him and our department katzgrabers work focuses on numerical studies of disordered and complex systems due to their disorder these systems generally are extremely difficult to solve and therefore classified as np hard problems meaning that the time it takes to solve these systems on the computer increases exponentially with the size of the problem overall katzgraber hopes his research which bridges interdisciplinary areas spanning computer science quantum information theory and statistical mechanics will result in the development of stable quantum computing implementations that massively surpass current computer technologies he says a better understanding of their error tolerance and a deeper grasp of their limitations would represent an important step toward stable desktop devices a native of lima peru and a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2009 katzgraber received a diploma in physics from the swiss federal institute of technology (eth) in zurich (1997) before earning both his masters of science (1998) and doctorate in physics (2001) from the university of california at santa cruz after a one-year postdoctoral stint at the university of california at davis he returned to eth zurich for postdoctoral studies at the institute for theoretical physics he then served as an assistant professor at eth zurich prior to coming to texas a&m nsf established the career program to support junior faculty within the context of their overall career development combining in a single program the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense through this program the nsf emphasizes the importance on the early development of academic careers dedicated to stimulating the discovery process in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and enthusiastic learning for more on the nsf and the career program visit http://wwwnsfgov -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu " " college station the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas to get up-close and personal with science and technology next month at the 2012 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 31 from 10 am to 8 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the association of former students the event is an affiliate festival of the 2nd usa science and engineering festival activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with two public lectures about the universe scheduled for 4 pm and 7 pm respectively from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle and to try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers three of roughly 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering will be joined by representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics and biochemistry and biophysics in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman keith johnson whose work has been featured on the discovery channel and in usa today and real simple family attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut dr richard m linnehan who flew on four space shuttle missions and also spent time on the international space station as well as nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr david m lee and dr dudley r herschbach in three successive afternoon question-and-answer sessions scheduled for 12 pm 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 4 pm texas a&m astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff will present the end of the universe in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building in addition to detailing his 30-year career studying supernovae suntzeff will share the latest ideas in the science of cosmology which for the first time is poised to predict the future evolution of the universe as a whole at 7 pm dr carter emmart director of astrovisualization at the american museum of natural historys rose center for earth and space will present fly through the universe in the hawking auditorium to round out the days events emmarts talk will detail astronomical data assembled by the museum during the past decade and digitized to enable the audience to virtually tour the universe using the same software emmart developed for use in the museums world-famous hayden planetarium suntzeff an international expert in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy he came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 suntzeff co-founded the high-z supernova search team one of two groups whose leaders were awarded the 2011 nobel prize in physics for their near-simultaneous discovery of the accelerating universe a finding honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 he spent the past year in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy emmart who is equally revered for his modeling and visualization talent as well as his artistic style directs the american museum of natural historys groundbreaking space shows and heads up development of an interactive 3d atlas called the digital universe he coordinates scientists programmers and artists to produce scientifically accurate yet visually stunning and immersive space experiences in the amnhs hayden planetarium during the past decade he has directed four shows: passport to the universe; the search for life: are we alone cosmic collisions and journey to the stars emmarts interest in space began early and by age 10 he was taking astronomy courses in the old hayden as a child born into a family of artists he naturally combined his love of science with his tendency for visualization his first work was in architectural modeling soon moving on to do scientific visualization for nasa and the national center for atmospheric research before joining the amnh prior to saturdays events dr dudley r herschbach distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m will deliver a free public lecture silly serious science: homage to ignobel and ben franklin on friday (march 30) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which herschbach a longtime participant in the igs a festive harvard-hosted annual event dating back to 1991 to honor achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think will present for the first time a medley of his own favorite silly-yet-serious episodes including several playful pranks by ben franklin herschbach an international leader in both theoretical and experimental chemical physics who shared in the 1986 nobel prize in chemistry joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 he is a 48-year veteran of the chemistry faculty at harvard university where he earned his phd in chemical physics in 1958 and has served as the frank b baird jr professor of science since 1976 his research at the interface of physics and chemistry focuses on structure and reactions of molecules resulting in more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and publications he is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences and a member of the national academy of sciences the american philosophical society and the royal chemical society of great britain his many awards in addition to the nobel prize include the american chemical societys pure chemistry prize (1965) the linus pauling medal (1978) the michael polanyi medal (1981) the american physical societys irving langmuir prize (1983) the national medal of science (1991) the jaroslav heyrovsky medal (1992) the sierra nevada distinguished chemist award (1993) the acss kosolapoff award (1994) the william walker prize (1994) and the council of scientific society presidents award for support of science (1999) in 1998 he was named by chemical & engineering news as one of the 75 leading contributors to the chemical enterprise in the past 75 years last april herschbach was awarded the 2011 american institute of chemists gold medal the aics highest award which recognizes service to the science of chemistry and to the profession of chemistry or chemical engineering in the united states beyond his research and scholarship he is equally revered for his dedicated efforts to improve k-12 science education and public understanding of science for the latest details regarding the 2012 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics & engineering festival features hands-on fun nobel ties appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite audiences across texas to get up-close and personal with science and technology next month at the 2012 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 31 from 10 am to 8 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the association of former students the event is an affiliate festival of the 2nd usa science and engineering festival activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with two public lectures about the universe scheduled for 4 pm and 7 pm respectively from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle and to try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers three of roughly 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering will be joined by representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics and biochemistry and biophysics in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman keith johnson whose work has been featured on the discovery channel and in usa today and real simple family attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut dr richard m linnehan who flew on four space shuttle missions and also spent time on the international space station as well as nobel prize-winning texas a&m physicists dr david m lee and dr dudley r herschbach in three successive afternoon question-and-answer sessions scheduled for 12 pm 1 pm and 2 pm respectively in the stephen w hawking auditorium at 4 pm texas a&m astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff will present the end of the universe in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building in addition to detailing his 30-year career studying supernovae suntzeff will share the latest ideas in the science of cosmology which for the first time is poised to predict the future evolution of the universe as a whole at 7 pm dr carter emmart director of astrovisualization at the american museum of natural historys rose center for earth and space will present fly through the universe in the hawking auditorium to round out the days events emmarts talk will detail astronomical data assembled by the museum during the past decade and digitized to enable the audience to virtually tour the universe using the same software emmart developed for use in the museums world-famous hayden planetarium suntzeff an international expert in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy he came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 suntzeff co-founded the high-z supernova search team one of two groups whose leaders were awarded the 2011 nobel prize in physics for their near-simultaneous discovery of the accelerating universe a finding honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 he spent the past year in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy emmart who is equally revered for his modeling and visualization talent as well as his artistic style directs the american museum of natural historys groundbreaking space shows and heads up development of an interactive 3d atlas called the digital universe he coordinates scientists programmers and artists to produce scientifically accurate yet visually stunning and immersive space experiences in the amnhs hayden planetarium during the past decade he has directed four shows: passport to the universe; the search for life: are we alone cosmic collisions and journey to the stars emmarts interest in space began early and by age 10 he was taking astronomy courses in the old hayden as a child born into a family of artists he naturally combined his love of science with his tendency for visualization his first work was in architectural modeling soon moving on to do scientific visualization for nasa and the national center for atmospheric research before joining the amnh prior to saturdays events dr dudley r herschbach distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m will deliver a free public lecture silly serious science: homage to ignobel and ben franklin on friday (march 30) at 7 pm in the hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which herschbach a longtime participant in the igs a festive harvard-hosted annual event dating back to 1991 to honor achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think will present for the first time a medley of his own favorite silly-yet-serious episodes including several playful pranks by ben franklin herschbach an international leader in both theoretical and experimental chemical physics who shared in the 1986 nobel prize in chemistry joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 he is a 48-year veteran of the chemistry faculty at harvard university where he earned his phd in chemical physics in 1958 and has served as the frank b baird jr professor of science since 1976 his research at the interface of physics and chemistry focuses on structure and reactions of molecules resulting in more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and publications he is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences and a member of the national academy of sciences the american philosophical society and the royal chemical society of great britain his many awards in addition to the nobel prize include the american chemical societys pure chemistry prize (1965) the linus pauling medal (1978) the michael polanyi medal (1981) the american physical societys irving langmuir prize (1983) the national medal of science (1991) the jaroslav heyrovsky medal (1992) the sierra nevada distinguished chemist award (1993) the acss kosolapoff award (1994) the william walker prize (1994) and the council of scientific society presidents award for support of science (1999) in 1998 he was named by chemical & engineering news as one of the 75 leading contributors to the chemical enterprise in the past 75 years last april herschbach was awarded the 2011 american institute of chemists gold medal the aics highest award which recognizes service to the science of chemistry and to the profession of chemistry or chemical engineering in the united states beyond his research and scholarship he is equally revered for his dedicated efforts to improve k-12 science education and public understanding of science for the latest details regarding the 2012 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr alexander m finkelstein professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2012 recipient of the prestigious humboldt research award by germanys alexander von humboldt foundation in honor of his lifetime achievements in research each year the humboldt foundation invites a select number of internationally renowned academics to spend up to one year cooperating on long-term research projects with specialist colleagues in germany in an effort to further promote international scientific collaboration researchers whose fundamental discoveries new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and beyond and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge academic achievements in the future are eligible for nomination finkelstein was nominated for the award by the karlsruhe institute of technology (kit) finkelstein described as one of the worlds most distinguished condensed matter theorists and a giant in his field is the inventor of the finkelstein model which has played a significant role in understanding metal-insulator transitions and superconductivity his internationally renowned research focuses on the microscopic analysis of various systems in which electronic interactions play a crucial role including disordered and low-dimensional systems superconductors and quantum magnets as well as nanostructures with a spin-orbit interaction such nanostructures can be used in spintronics one of the most rapidly developing sub-fields of nanoscience in addition he recently proposed a new mechanism for creating a spin-polarized current for which he and his co-authors now hold a patent attracting someone of dr finkelsteins caliber to texas a&m university has helped the university and our department increase its stature within the scientific community said dr george r welch professor of physics and head of the department of physics and astronomy dr finkelsteins achievements in condensed matter physics are famous he is well known for tackling some of the most challenging problems in science and solving them i expect many more accolades recognizing these achievements in the future a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2008 finkelstein received his doctorate in physics and mathematics from the prestigious landau institute for theoretical physics in 1973 prior to coming to texas a&m he was a longtime professor of physics at israels renowned weizmann institute of science where he held the charles and david wolfson chair of theoretical physics at weizmann and at texas a&m he is widely respected both for his first-rate instruction in condensed matter physics graduate courses and for the insight and clarity he brings to his colloquia and research presentations find more information on finkelstein and his research learn more about the humboldt research award and other humboldt foundation honors -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexander m finkelstein (979) 458-0751 or finkelstein@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist earns prestigious humboldt research award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr alexander m finkelstein professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2012 recipient of the prestigious humboldt research award by germanys alexander von humboldt foundation in honor of his lifetime achievements in research each year the humboldt foundation invites a select number of internationally renowned academics to spend up to one year cooperating on long-term research projects with specialist colleagues in germany in an effort to further promote international scientific collaboration researchers whose fundamental discoveries new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and beyond and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge academic achievements in the future are eligible for nomination finkelstein was nominated for the award by the karlsruhe institute of technology (kit) finkelstein described as one of the worlds most distinguished condensed matter theorists and a giant in his field is the inventor of the finkelstein model which has played a significant role in understanding metal-insulator transitions and superconductivity his internationally renowned research focuses on the microscopic analysis of various systems in which electronic interactions play a crucial role including disordered and low-dimensional systems superconductors and quantum magnets as well as nanostructures with a spin-orbit interaction such nanostructures can be used in spintronics one of the most rapidly developing sub-fields of nanoscience in addition he recently proposed a new mechanism for creating a spin-polarized current for which he and his co-authors now hold a patent attracting someone of dr finkelsteins caliber to texas a&m university has helped the university and our department increase its stature within the scientific community said dr george r welch professor of physics and head of the department of physics and astronomy dr finkelsteins achievements in condensed matter physics are famous he is well known for tackling some of the most challenging problems in science and solving them i expect many more accolades recognizing these achievements in the future a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2008 finkelstein received his doctorate in physics and mathematics from the prestigious landau institute for theoretical physics in 1973 prior to coming to texas a&m he was a longtime professor of physics at israels renowned weizmann institute of science where he held the charles and david wolfson chair of theoretical physics at weizmann and at texas a&m he is widely respected both for his first-rate instruction in condensed matter physics graduate courses and for the insight and clarity he brings to his colloquia and research presentations find more information on finkelstein and his research learn more about the humboldt research award and other humboldt foundation honors -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexander m finkelstein (979) 458-0751 or finkelstein@physicstamuedu " " college station from his contributions to the oil and gas industry to his visionary real estate ventures to his untiring support of scientific endeavors george p mitchell 40 personifies energy and illustrates the impact of texas a&m universitys 12th man raised in an immigrant neighborhood in galveston mitchell joined his brother johnny in the louisiana oilfields a summer job that led him to study petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology at texas a&m after graduation mitchell worked as an engineering and geology consultant and later bought out the interests of some of his partners that company evolved into mitchell energy & development corp and was listed on the new york stock exchange with revenues of $1 billion it was one of the nations largest independent oil and gas companies and in 2002 it merged with devon energy corporation success as an oil executive would be enough for most people but not for mitchell while managing his own company he was also busy revolutionizing the energy industry two decades of work by mitchells research team paid off in a huge way with the development of hydraulic fracturing creating escape routes for oil and gas in shale beds as a result shale gas has increased from 1 percent to 30 percent of american natural gas supplies since 2000 providing the united states with an estimated 100-year supply of natural gas the cleanest of the fossil fuels george mitchells vision and dedication achieved what was once thought impossible and produced the single most important energy innovation so far this century said energy historian dr daniel yergin chairman of energy adviser and analyst ihs cera as recently as 2007 it was thought that natural gas was in tight supply in the united states and that it would soon become a major importer of natural gas owing to the pioneering work of mr mitchell and his team that outlook has been turned upside down the same kind of energy that drove mitchells success in the oil and gas industry has been harnessed to achieve great things in other fields as well in 1974 mitchell unveiled a new 25 000-acre master-planned city north of downtown houston called the woodlands which was praised as a hub of intellectual pursuits scientific research and environmentally conscious design he later founded the houston advanced research center a collaboration of eight universities and related research groups dedicated to the principles of sustainable development mitchells passion for physics and astronomy has played out in his tremendous support of those fields at texas a&m several multi-million dollar gifts from mitchell and his late wife cynthia woods mitchell as well as from their foundation ensured texas a&ms place as a founding member of the giant magellan telescope project the mitchells financed a fundamental physics and astronomy institute at the university then gave $35 million toward the construction of two state-of-the-art physics buildings in all the mitchells and their foundation have given more than $75 million in support of texas a&m making them the largest donors in texas a&m history the impact of mr mitchells generosity on science in general at texas a&m is huge said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the buildings he helped fund greatly enhance our ability to do world-class teaching research and service the mitchell institute and the cambridge collaboration bring top-notch scientists from all over the world to our campus the endowed chairs and professorships have allowed us to attract internationally renowned faculty continued newton his unmatched support of the joint a&m-university of texas partnership in the giant magellan telescope project benefits both universities and is a model for the sort of collaboration we seek in the scientific enterprise texas a&m foundation president ed davis 67 said mitchells reputation as a man of vision has played out time and time again not only with his gifts but with his leadership my first exposure to mr mitchell was in 1983 when he chaired the target 2000 study said dr davis among its recommendations was a major philanthropic campaign since then we have completed two campaigns that have brought the total value of the long-term investment pool we manage to more than $1 billion looking back mr mitchells advice that we should embark on a campaign is further proof of his legendary vision # # # # # about 12 impacts for 2012: 12 impacts for 2012 is an ongoing series throughout 2012 highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world the post 12 impacts: the energetic george mitchell appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " from his contributions to the oil and gas industry to his visionary real estate ventures to his untiring support of scientific endeavors george p mitchell 40 personifies energy and illustrates the impact of texas a&m universitys 12th man raised in an immigrant neighborhood in galveston mitchell joined his brother johnny in the louisiana oilfields a summer job that led him to study petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology at texas a&m after graduation mitchell worked as an engineering and geology consultant and later bought out the interests of some of his partners that company evolved into mitchell energy & development corp and was listed on the new york stock exchange with revenues of $1 billion it was one of the nations largest independent oil and gas companies and in 2002 it merged with devon energy corporation success as an oil executive would be enough for most people but not for mitchell while managing his own company he was also busy revolutionizing the energy industry two decades of work by mitchells research team paid off in a huge way with the development of hydraulic fracturing creating escape routes for oil and gas in shale beds as a result shale gas has increased from 1 percent to 30 percent of american natural gas supplies since 2000 providing the united states with an estimated 100-year supply of natural gas the cleanest of the fossil fuels george mitchells vision and dedication achieved what was once thought impossible and produced the single most important energy innovation so far this century said energy historian dr daniel yergin chairman of energy adviser and analyst ihs cera as recently as 2007 it was thought that natural gas was in tight supply in the united states and that it would soon become a major importer of natural gas owing to the pioneering work of mr mitchell and his team that outlook has been turned upside down the same kind of energy that drove mitchells success in the oil and gas industry has been harnessed to achieve great things in other fields as well in 1974 mitchell unveiled a new 25 000-acre master-planned city north of downtown houston called the woodlands which was praised as a hub of intellectual pursuits scientific research and environmentally conscious design he later founded the houston advanced research center a collaboration of eight universities and related research groups dedicated to the principles of sustainable development mitchells passion for physics and astronomy has played out in his tremendous support of those fields at texas a&m several multi-million dollar gifts from mitchell and his late wife cynthia woods mitchell as well as from their foundation ensured texas a&ms place as a founding member of the giant magellan telescope project the mitchells financed a fundamental physics and astronomy institute at the university then gave $35 million toward the construction of two state-of-the-art physics buildings in all the mitchells and their foundation have given more than $75 million in support of texas a&m making them the largest donors in texas a&m history the impact of mr mitchells generosity on science in general at texas a&m is huge said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the buildings he helped fund greatly enhance our ability to do world-class teaching research and service the mitchell institute and the cambridge collaboration bring top-notch scientists from all over the world to our campus the endowed chairs and professorships have allowed us to attract internationally renowned faculty continued newton his unmatched support of the joint a&m-university of texas partnership in the giant magellan telescope project benefits both universities and is a model for the sort of collaboration we seek in the scientific enterprise texas a&m foundation president ed davis 67 said mitchells reputation as a man of vision has played out time and time again not only with his gifts but with his leadership my first exposure to mr mitchell was in 1983 when he chaired the target 2000 study said dr davis among its recommendations was a major philanthropic campaign since then we have completed two campaigns that have brought the total value of the long-term investment pool we manage to more than $1 billion looking back mr mitchells advice that we should embark on a campaign is further proof of his legendary vision # # # # # about 12 impacts for 2012: 12 impacts for 2012 is an ongoing series throughout 2012 highlighting the significant contributions of texas a&m university students faculty staff and former students on their community state nation and world " " college station researchers have found evidence of cooperation in the unlikeliest of places among atoms within solids dr alexey belyanin professor of physics at texas a&m university and belyanin research group members yongrui wang and dr aleksander wojcik are part of a team of scientists that first predicted and recently observed this effect known as superfluorescence in solid-state materials in this case electron-hole pairs created in a semiconductor using lasers their results are featured in a recent issue of the journal nature physics we predicted the possibility of this self-organization and collective recombination in semiconductors a long time ago but nobody was able to observe it belyanin says we also pointed out at that time that you might get a better chance of observing superfluorescence if you have a layered semiconductor (so-called quantum wells) and impose a strong magnetic field to prevent electrons from bumping into each other too often and to increase their coupling to light we are happy that our collaborators dr junichiro kono and his group from rice university were able to test these ideas and observe the effect belyanin says superfluorescence is a rare phenomenon one almost counterintuitive in semiconductors that can only happen when many bodies decide to work together he credits his rice colleagues for conducting a meticulous and difficult experiment that required a strong magnetic field and low temperatures obtained at florida state universitys national high magnetic field laboratory in collaboration with physicists at the university of florida to prove it it took several years to plan everything and get the data belyanin adds the rice group did it beautifully and i think that the results are absolutely convincing belyanin says the true beauty of the experiment lies in the after-effects of that powerful femtosecond laser pulse which near-instantaneously creates a huge number of free electrons that bump into each other and into the atoms of a crystal but instead of gradually losing their energies and eventually disappearing in the course of a few nanoseconds thereby returning the crystal back to equilibrium he says they rally together to emit a giant and extremely short burst of light that consumes all particles within a few picoseconds we think that during this waiting time a kind of ‚Äòself-organization occurs: electrons ‚Äòtalk to each other by exchanging photons and establish cooperation belyanin explains billions of tiny antennas align together to form a giant single antenna which then emits a powerful coherent pulse of radiation each antenna is formed by a pair of particles with opposite charge like a tiny nano-dipole you would expect that these antennas should never align because they constantly bump into each other but we found that they do align and cooperate although similar cooperation of tiny atomic dipoles previously has been observed in gases and rarefied impurities in crystals belyanin says people did not believe superfluorescence was possible in such a messy semiconductor plasma in which charged particles collide with each other thousands of times before they emit even one photon i think this is a beautiful example of self-organization in many-body physics when a collective organized behavior emerges from seemingly chaotic motion of myriads of particles he says in this case the cooperation emerges through interaction with electromagnetic radiation which brings an extra bonus: it is accompanied by a spectacular outburst of light! beyond its literal brilliance belyanin says the observed effect should be fairly universal given that it relies on fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and electromagnetism the radiation was in the near-infrared range which is dictated by the material we used but with different semiconductor materials you can have pulses of visible light or shift them toward longer mid-infrared wavelengths he adds belyanin notes that by playing with different materials and their layout it could be possible to observe superfluorescence at higher temperatures and with a weaker or no magnetic field at all meaning that superfluorescence may become a practical source of ultrashort pulses of light in addition he says the prefix super has particular relevance considering the combined burst of radiation may be up to many million times brighter than the emission from the same number of independent particles picture a self-alignment of myriads of tiny antennas into one giant radiating antenna and you would have a pretty accurate analogy he says another picture is a collective ‚Äòsuicide of billions of particles when charges of opposite sign recombine in a fiery outburst of radiation they would live much longer if they did not cooperate for them individualism would be much better than collectivism but we physicists do enjoy a beautiful firework belyanin an internationally recognized leader in the rapidly developing interdisciplinary research field of optics of nanostructured materials joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 world-renowned for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields that span semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics he currently leads texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums he is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding for more information on belyanin and his research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/belyanin/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu the post let there be light: scientists observe superfluorescence in semiconductors appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " researchers have found evidence of cooperation in the unlikeliest of places among atoms within solids dr alexey belyanin professor of physics at texas a&m university and belyanin research group members yongrui wang and dr aleksander wojcik are part of a team of scientists that first predicted and recently observed this effect known as superfluorescence in solid-state materials in this case electron-hole pairs created in a semiconductor using lasers their results are featured in a recent issue of the journal nature physics we predicted the possibility of this self-organization and collective recombination in semiconductors a long time ago but nobody was able to observe it belyanin says we also pointed out at that time that you might get a better chance of observing superfluorescence if you have a layered semiconductor (so-called quantum wells) and impose a strong magnetic field to prevent electrons from bumping into each other too often and to increase their coupling to light we are happy that our collaborators dr junichiro kono and his group from rice university were able to test these ideas and observe the effect belyanin says superfluorescence is a rare phenomenon one almost counterintuitive in semiconductors that can only happen when many bodies decide to work together he credits his rice colleagues for conducting a meticulous and difficult experiment that required a strong magnetic field and low temperatures obtained at florida state universitys national high magnetic field laboratory in collaboration with physicists at the university of florida to prove it it took several years to plan everything and get the data belyanin adds the rice group did it beautifully and i think that the results are absolutely convincing belyanin says the true beauty of the experiment lies in the after-effects of that powerful femtosecond laser pulse which near-instantaneously creates a huge number of free electrons that bump into each other and into the atoms of a crystal but instead of gradually losing their energies and eventually disappearing in the course of a few nanoseconds thereby returning the crystal back to equilibrium he says they rally together to emit a giant and extremely short burst of light that consumes all particles within a few picoseconds we think that during this waiting time a kind of ‚Äòself-organization occurs: electrons ‚Äòtalk to each other by exchanging photons and establish cooperation belyanin explains billions of tiny antennas align together to form a giant single antenna which then emits a powerful coherent pulse of radiation each antenna is formed by a pair of particles with opposite charge like a tiny nano-dipole you would expect that these antennas should never align because they constantly bump into each other but we found that they do align and cooperate although similar cooperation of tiny atomic dipoles previously has been observed in gases and rarefied impurities in crystals belyanin says people did not believe superfluorescence was possible in such a messy semiconductor plasma in which charged particles collide with each other thousands of times before they emit even one photon i think this is a beautiful example of self-organization in many-body physics when a collective organized behavior emerges from seemingly chaotic motion of myriads of particles he says in this case the cooperation emerges through interaction with electromagnetic radiation which brings an extra bonus: it is accompanied by a spectacular outburst of light! beyond its literal brilliance belyanin says the observed effect should be fairly universal given that it relies on fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and electromagnetism the radiation was in the near-infrared range which is dictated by the material we used but with different semiconductor materials you can have pulses of visible light or shift them toward longer mid-infrared wavelengths he adds belyanin notes that by playing with different materials and their layout it could be possible to observe superfluorescence at higher temperatures and with a weaker or no magnetic field at all meaning that superfluorescence may become a practical source of ultrashort pulses of light in addition he says the prefix super has particular relevance considering the combined burst of radiation may be up to many million times brighter than the emission from the same number of independent particles picture a self-alignment of myriads of tiny antennas into one giant radiating antenna and you would have a pretty accurate analogy he says another picture is a collective ‚Äòsuicide of billions of particles when charges of opposite sign recombine in a fiery outburst of radiation they would live much longer if they did not cooperate for them individualism would be much better than collectivism but we physicists do enjoy a beautiful firework belyanin an internationally recognized leader in the rapidly developing interdisciplinary research field of optics of nanostructured materials joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 world-renowned for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields that span semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics he currently leads texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums he is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding for more information on belyanin and his research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/belyanin/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu " " college station aggies with an interest in the mysteries inherent in the sky beyond its potential for shadow-casting are invited to celebrate groundhog day in style at the first aggie star party of 2012 set for tonight (thursday feb 2) on the texas a&m university campus the event hosted by the texas a&m university astronomy group in the department of physics and astronomy will be held from 7 to 9 pm in front of sbisa dining hall organizers say participants will have the opportunity to look through a telescope find constellations possibly even rare meteors as seen across texas and the southwest last night and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details about this and future celestial events open to the public visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/ -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post first aggie star party of spring set for tonight at sbisa appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " aggies with an interest in the mysteries inherent in the sky beyond its potential for shadow-casting are invited to celebrate groundhog day in style at the first aggie star party of 2012 set for tonight (thursday feb 2) on the texas a&m university campus the event hosted by the texas a&m university astronomy group in the department of physics and astronomy will be held from 7 to 9 pm in front of sbisa dining hall organizers say participants will have the opportunity to look through a telescope find constellations possibly even rare meteors as seen across texas and the southwest last night and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details about this and future celestial events open to the public visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/ -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " college station in mid-december at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) in geneva switzerland the compact muon solenoid (cms) and atlas (a toroidal lhc apparatus) experiments delivered a joint status update regarding their ongoing search for the higgs boson a hypothetical particle that is believed to give mass to all matter in the early universe the gist although neither experiment has produced enough conclusive statistical evidence of the particles existence they may have observed hints of its presence more than a dozen texas a&m university physicists including distinguished professor of physics dimitri nanopoulos are involved in the two experiments which are powered by two of the worlds largest particle detectors at the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern collectively cms and atlas produce trillions of collisions resulting from smashing together protons accelerated to near the speed of light from these high-energy impacts new particles can be created including that of the higgs boson the leading mechanism by a factor of 10 for production of the hypothetical higgs boson is whats called gluon-pair fusion or producing higgs bosons from the annihilation of two gluons in a collision of two protons gluons are massless particles binding together quarks which comprise particles such as protons and neutrons nanopoulos a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty since 1989 and holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics since 2002 who also serves as head of the houston advanced research center (harc) astroparticle physics group is known as one of the founders of grand unification theory (gut) which seeks to combine gravitation electroweak and strong forces in an explanation for everything in the universe his years of research in string unified theories have led to advances in similar fields of study such as cosmology fundamental quantum theory and quantum-inspired models of brain function in 1978 nanopoulos teamed with howard georgi of harvard university 1979 nobel laureate sheldon glashow of boston university and marie e machacek of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics to predict a leading mechanism for the production of higgs bosons also referred to as the ggmn mechanism in homage to the four-person collaboration two years earlier nanopoulos in collaboration with john ellis of kings college in london and mary k gaillard of the university of california-berkeley calculated that the cleanest mode in the gluon-pair fusion diagram will be the process involving two gamma-rays also known as the egn triangle the current strategy employed in the lhcs hunt for the higgs boson prominently features both breakthrough discoveries if these hints of higgs boson detection are validated then these predictions formulated in 1976 and 1978 and therefore nanopoulos will figure extensively in this historic discovery the cms and atlas experiments project that enough data to conclusively substantiate or exclude the presence of the higgs boson should be delivered in 2012 at present the data thus far collected suggests the higgs boson mass is in the vicinity of 125 gev where 1 gev is the mass of a proton while allowing for the possibility that the signals observed near 125 gev could be a statistical fluctuation the experiments are confident that if the higgs boson exists around 125 gev is the mass where it will be discovered nanopoulos is currently collaborating with researchers tianjun li and james a maxin in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and joel w walker of sam houston state university to study a specific model of the universe that can generate a 125 gev higgs boson mass this model called flipped su(5) features additional hypothetical particles dubbed flippons that contribute to the mass of the higgs boson and can give it the precise mass of 125 gev although this models ability to engender a 125 gev higgs boson mass is not unique it does so in a very natural manner unlike most of the other models being researched within the high-energy physics community where the computation of a 125 gev higgs boson is accomplished by severely fine-tuning other parameters the flipped su(5) model under study also predicts precise masses of additional hypothetical particles called sparticles derived from a theory called supersymmetry these are symmetric partners of the currently known fundamental particles but of a different spin (intrinsic angular momentum) and mass this entails the other great search ongoing at the lhc the hunt for the existence of these superpartner particles which is accomplished by searching for unique signatures of their existence in the very same trillions of proton collisions used to search for the higgs boson the cms and atlas experiments have also observed tantalizing hints of the unique signature predicted by the flipped su(5) model because the data is thus far statistically insignificant it is too early to know yet whether the experiments are observing supersymmetry and whether flipped su(5) is the high-energy framework for our universe this question though like the existence of the higgs boson may receive a definitive answer in 2012 a conclusive discovery of the higgs boson at 125 gev and also of supersymmetry in 2012 conforming to the predictions of the flipped su(5) model published by li maxin nanopoulos and walker (lmnw) will carry with it some exciting implications and possibilities since the flipped su(5) model is not consistent without these features among these are i) the existence of dark matter which is the primary form of matter in the universe that experiences no electromagnetic interaction and hence doesnt shine with light like ordinary matter; ii) higher dimensions beyond the visible 3d+time world we experience in our daily lives with possibly up to 12 dimensions though most of these extra dimensions are tiny and curled up thus unobservable; iii) indirect evidence of string theory which is the theory that all matter in the universe is composed of tiny one-dimensional vibrating loops and strands of energy; iv) d-branes which are higher dimensional spaces where these strings can vibrate into and where our 3d+time universe can exist at the intersection of where two of these d-branes have collided; and v) the multiverse or the conjecture extensively studied by lmnw that there exists a vast landscape of universes of which our universe is but only a single one -atm- contact: james a maxin (979) 845-7717 or jmaxin@physicstamuedu the post nanopoulos at the leading edge of higgs boson search appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in mid-december at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) in geneva switzerland the compact muon solenoid (cms) and atlas (a toroidal lhc apparatus) experiments delivered a joint status update regarding their ongoing search for the higgs boson a hypothetical particle that is believed to give mass to all matter in the early universe the gist although neither experiment has produced enough conclusive statistical evidence of the particles existence they may have observed hints of its presence more than a dozen texas a&m university physicists including distinguished professor of physics dimitri nanopoulos are involved in the two experiments which are powered by two of the worlds largest particle detectors at the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern collectively cms and atlas produce trillions of collisions resulting from smashing together protons accelerated to near the speed of light from these high-energy impacts new particles can be created including that of the higgs boson the leading mechanism by a factor of 10 for production of the hypothetical higgs boson is whats called gluon-pair fusion or producing higgs bosons from the annihilation of two gluons in a collision of two protons gluons are massless particles binding together quarks which comprise particles such as protons and neutrons nanopoulos a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty since 1989 and holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics since 2002 who also serves as head of the houston advanced research center (harc) astroparticle physics group is known as one of the founders of grand unification theory (gut) which seeks to combine gravitation electroweak and strong forces in an explanation for everything in the universe his years of research in string unified theories have led to advances in similar fields of study such as cosmology fundamental quantum theory and quantum-inspired models of brain function in 1978 nanopoulos teamed with howard georgi of harvard university 1979 nobel laureate sheldon glashow of boston university and marie e machacek of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics to predict a leading mechanism for the production of higgs bosons also referred to as the ggmn mechanism in homage to the four-person collaboration two years earlier nanopoulos in collaboration with john ellis of kings college in london and mary k gaillard of the university of california-berkeley calculated that the cleanest mode in the gluon-pair fusion diagram will be the process involving two gamma-rays also known as the egn triangle the current strategy employed in the lhcs hunt for the higgs boson prominently features both breakthrough discoveries if these hints of higgs boson detection are validated then these predictions formulated in 1976 and 1978 and therefore nanopoulos will figure extensively in this historic discovery the cms and atlas experiments project that enough data to conclusively substantiate or exclude the presence of the higgs boson should be delivered in 2012 at present the data thus far collected suggests the higgs boson mass is in the vicinity of 125 gev where 1 gev is the mass of a proton while allowing for the possibility that the signals observed near 125 gev could be a statistical fluctuation the experiments are confident that if the higgs boson exists around 125 gev is the mass where it will be discovered nanopoulos is currently collaborating with researchers tianjun li and james a maxin in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and joel w walker of sam houston state university to study a specific model of the universe that can generate a 125 gev higgs boson mass this model called flipped su(5) features additional hypothetical particles dubbed flippons that contribute to the mass of the higgs boson and can give it the precise mass of 125 gev although this models ability to engender a 125 gev higgs boson mass is not unique it does so in a very natural manner unlike most of the other models being researched within the high-energy physics community where the computation of a 125 gev higgs boson is accomplished by severely fine-tuning other parameters the flipped su(5) model under study also predicts precise masses of additional hypothetical particles called sparticles derived from a theory called supersymmetry these are symmetric partners of the currently known fundamental particles but of a different spin (intrinsic angular momentum) and mass this entails the other great search ongoing at the lhc the hunt for the existence of these superpartner particles which is accomplished by searching for unique signatures of their existence in the very same trillions of proton collisions used to search for the higgs boson the cms and atlas experiments have also observed tantalizing hints of the unique signature predicted by the flipped su(5) model because the data is thus far statistically insignificant it is too early to know yet whether the experiments are observing supersymmetry and whether flipped su(5) is the high-energy framework for our universe this question though like the existence of the higgs boson may receive a definitive answer in 2012 a conclusive discovery of the higgs boson at 125 gev and also of supersymmetry in 2012 conforming to the predictions of the flipped su(5) model published by li maxin nanopoulos and walker (lmnw) will carry with it some exciting implications and possibilities since the flipped su(5) model is not consistent without these features among these are i) the existence of dark matter which is the primary form of matter in the universe that experiences no electromagnetic interaction and hence doesnt shine with light like ordinary matter; ii) higher dimensions beyond the visible 3d+time world we experience in our daily lives with possibly up to 12 dimensions though most of these extra dimensions are tiny and curled up thus unobservable; iii) indirect evidence of string theory which is the theory that all matter in the universe is composed of tiny one-dimensional vibrating loops and strands of energy; iv) d-branes which are higher dimensional spaces where these strings can vibrate into and where our 3d+time universe can exist at the intersection of where two of these d-branes have collided; and v) the multiverse or the conjecture extensively studied by lmnw that there exists a vast landscape of universes of which our universe is but only a single one -atm- contact: james a maxin (979) 845-7717 or jmaxin@physicstamuedu " " tuscon ariz on january 14 2012 the second 84-meter (276 ft) diameter mirror for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) of which texas a&m university is a founding member will be cast inside a rotating furnace at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab (soml) underneath the campus football stadium the mirror lab will host a special event to highlight the milestone of creating the optics for the giant magellan telescope and to celebrate another major step in the construction of the next-generation project as part of the festivities lab officials invite members of the media to visit their facilities on saturday (jan 14) between 9 and 11 am (mst) to see the liquid glass as it is spun cast in a rotating oven at a temperature of 1170 degrees c (2140 degrees f) there will be opportunities to interview leading scientists (including texas a&m astronomer dr darren l depoy a world-renowned expert in astronomical instrumentation and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy) and engineers involved in the project this event is supported by the university of arizonas steward observatory and college of science and by the gmto corporation (gmtc) a nonprofit entity with project offices based in pasadena calif project officials note the gmt features an innovative design using seven mirrors each 84 meters in diameter arranged in a floral pattern to form a single mirror 245 meters (80 feet) in diameter it will bring starlight to a common focus via a set of adaptive secondary mirrors configured in a similar seven-fold pattern in this design the outer six mirrors are off-axis paraboloids and represent the greatest optics challenge ever undertaken in astronomical optics by a large factor said roger angel director of the steward observatory mirror lab the gmt will allow astronomers to answer some of the most pressing questions about the cosmos including the detection imaging and characterization of planets orbiting other stars; the nature of dark matter and dark energy; the physics of black holes; and how stars and galaxies evolved during the earliest phases of the universe patrick mccarthy gmt project director and staff astronomer with the carnegie observatories remarked this second gmt casting is going forward now because the primary optics are on the critical path for the project and because the polishing of the first off-axis 84-meter gmt mirror is very close to completion with an optical surface accuracy within about 25 nanometers or about one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair like other mirrors produced by the mirror lab the gmt mirrors are designed to be spun cast thereby achieving the basic front surface in the shape of a paraboloid a paraboloid is the shape taken on by water in a bucket when the bucket is spun around its axis; the water rises up the walls of the bucket while a depression forms in the center precision grinding and polishing of the surface is then undertaken to create the figure of an off-axis paraboloid the novel technology developed at the mirror lab is creating a whole new generation of large telescopes with unsurpassed image sharpness and light collecting power said wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories and chair of the gmto board the mirrors in the twin magellan telescopes at our las campanas observatory site are performing superbly and led to our adoption of this technology for the gmt some 21 tons of borosilicate glass made by the ohara corporation flow into a pre-assembled mold to create a lightweight honeycomb glass structure that is very stiff and quickly adjusts to changes in nighttime air temperature each resulting in sharper images the mirror lab has already produced the worlds four largest astronomical mirrors each 84 meters in diameter two are in operation in the large binocular telescope (lbt) currently the largest telescope in the world one is for the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) and the fourth is the first off-axis mirror for gmt the mirror lab has also produced five 65-meter mirrors two of which are in the twin magellan telescopes at las campanas observatory in chile astronomical discovery has always been paced by the power of available telescopes and imaging technology the gmt allows another major step forward in both sensitivity and image sharpness said peter strittmatter director of steward observatory in fact the gmt will be able to acquire images 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope and will provide a powerful complement not only to nasas 65-meter james webb space telescope (jwst) but also to the atacama large millimeter array (alma) and the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) both located in the southern hemisphere the gmt is set to begin science operations in 2020 at carnegies las campanas observatory exploiting the clear dark skies of the atacama desert in northern chile to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg click here to read a nice recap feature from the university of arizonas office of university communications -atm- contact: tina mcdowell (202) 939-1120 or tmcdowell@ciwedu or shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post second giant magellan telescope mirror casting set for saturday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " on january 14 2012 the second 84-meter (276 ft) diameter mirror for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) of which texas a&m university is a founding member will be cast inside a rotating furnace at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab (soml) underneath the campus football stadium the mirror lab will host a special event to highlight the milestone of creating the optics for the giant magellan telescope and to celebrate another major step in the construction of the next-generation project as part of the festivities lab officials invite members of the media to visit their facilities on saturday (jan 14) between 9 and 11 am (mst) to see the liquid glass as it is spun cast in a rotating oven at a temperature of 1170 degrees c (2140 degrees f) there will be opportunities to interview leading scientists (including texas a&m astronomer dr darren l depoy a world-renowned expert in astronomical instrumentation and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy) and engineers involved in the project this event is supported by the university of arizonas steward observatory and college of science and by the gmto corporation (gmtc) a nonprofit entity with project offices based in pasadena calif project officials note the gmt features an innovative design using seven mirrors each 84 meters in diameter arranged in a floral pattern to form a single mirror 245 meters (80 feet) in diameter it will bring starlight to a common focus via a set of adaptive secondary mirrors configured in a similar seven-fold pattern in this design the outer six mirrors are off-axis paraboloids and represent the greatest optics challenge ever undertaken in astronomical optics by a large factor said roger angel director of the steward observatory mirror lab the gmt will allow astronomers to answer some of the most pressing questions about the cosmos including the detection imaging and characterization of planets orbiting other stars; the nature of dark matter and dark energy; the physics of black holes; and how stars and galaxies evolved during the earliest phases of the universe patrick mccarthy gmt project director and staff astronomer with the carnegie observatories remarked this second gmt casting is going forward now because the primary optics are on the critical path for the project and because the polishing of the first off-axis 84-meter gmt mirror is very close to completion with an optical surface accuracy within about 25 nanometers or about one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair like other mirrors produced by the mirror lab the gmt mirrors are designed to be spun cast thereby achieving the basic front surface in the shape of a paraboloid a paraboloid is the shape taken on by water in a bucket when the bucket is spun around its axis; the water rises up the walls of the bucket while a depression forms in the center precision grinding and polishing of the surface is then undertaken to create the figure of an off-axis paraboloid the novel technology developed at the mirror lab is creating a whole new generation of large telescopes with unsurpassed image sharpness and light collecting power said wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories and chair of the gmto board the mirrors in the twin magellan telescopes at our las campanas observatory site are performing superbly and led to our adoption of this technology for the gmt some 21 tons of borosilicate glass made by the ohara corporation flow into a pre-assembled mold to create a lightweight honeycomb glass structure that is very stiff and quickly adjusts to changes in nighttime air temperature each resulting in sharper images the mirror lab has already produced the worlds four largest astronomical mirrors each 84 meters in diameter two are in operation in the large binocular telescope (lbt) currently the largest telescope in the world one is for the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) and the fourth is the first off-axis mirror for gmt the mirror lab has also produced five 65-meter mirrors two of which are in the twin magellan telescopes at las campanas observatory in chile astronomical discovery has always been paced by the power of available telescopes and imaging technology the gmt allows another major step forward in both sensitivity and image sharpness said peter strittmatter director of steward observatory in fact the gmt will be able to acquire images 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope and will provide a powerful complement not only to nasas 65-meter james webb space telescope (jwst) but also to the atacama large millimeter array (alma) and the large synoptic survey telescope (lsst) both located in the southern hemisphere the gmt is set to begin science operations in 2020 at carnegies las campanas observatory exploiting the clear dark skies of the atacama desert in northern chile to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about the giant magellan telescope: the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) manages the gmt project on behalf of its international partners namely: astronomy australia ltd the australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona the university of chicago and the university of texas at austin for more information visit wwwgmtoorg click here to read a nice recap feature from the university of arizonas office of university communications -atm- contact: tina mcdowell (202) 939-1120 or tmcdowell@ciwedu or shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr george r welch has been appointed as head of the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university effective november 1 announced h joseph newton dean of the college of science welch a widely respected experimental expert in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics and a 19-year veteran of the department replaces dr edward s fry who has served since 2002 as department head and will assume a new role as associate head for development while returning to teaching and research-related duties dr welch and i have had extensive discussions about his goals and plans to lead the department in its teaching research and engagement efforts and in particular to continue its fast rise in national rankings of physics and astronomy departments newton said welch a 1979 texas a&m physics graduate (bachelor of science summa cum laude) received his phd in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1989 in between earning those degrees he served as a research assistant at mit then held a postdoctoral research appointment at duke university from 1989 to 1992 prior to being appointed as an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m in a vision statement prepared as part of the search process welch outlined several priorities for the department including budget research curricular sensibility and development goals that begin and end with the faculty as both the departments and universitys greatest asset as head of the department i will advertise your work promote it as much as possible and leverage all your great ideas to attract new donors institutes and large-scale projects welch advised the faculty a fellow of the optical society of america since 2003 welch is a member of texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) his research interests lie in quantum optics and atomic and molecular physics involving coherently prepared systems electro-magnetically induced transparency (eit) and slow and fast light and femtosecond molecular spectroscopy including coherent anti-stokes raman scattering an equally accomplished instructor he was honored with a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement college-level award in teaching in 1998 click here for more information about welch to learn more about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy go to http://physicstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george r welch (979) 845-1571 or welch@physicstamuedu the post welch named head of texas a&m physics and astronomy texas a&m college of science " " dr george r welch has been appointed as head of the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university effective november 1 announced h joseph newton dean of the college of science welch a widely respected experimental expert in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics and a 19-year veteran of the department replaces dr edward s fry who has served since 2002 as department head and will assume a new role as associate head for development while returning to teaching and research-related duties dr welch and i have had extensive discussions about his goals and plans to lead the department in its teaching research and engagement efforts and in particular to continue its fast rise in national rankings of physics and astronomy departments newton said welch a 1979 texas a&m physics graduate (bachelor of science summa cum laude) received his phd in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1989 in between earning those degrees he served as a research assistant at mit then held a postdoctoral research appointment at duke university from 1989 to 1992 prior to being appointed as an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m in a vision statement prepared as part of the search process welch outlined several priorities for the department including budget research curricular sensibility and development goals that begin and end with the faculty as both the departments and universitys greatest asset as head of the department i will advertise your work promote it as much as possible and leverage all your great ideas to attract new donors institutes and large-scale projects welch advised the faculty a fellow of the optical society of america since 2003 welch is a member of texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) his research interests lie in quantum optics and atomic and molecular physics involving coherently prepared systems electro-magnetically induced transparency (eit) and slow and fast light and femtosecond molecular spectroscopy including coherent anti-stokes raman scattering an equally accomplished instructor he was honored with a texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement college-level award in teaching in 1998 click here for more information about welch to learn more about the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy go to http://physicstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george r welch (979) 845-1571 or welch@physicstamuedu " " college station dr alexei v sokolov professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 joann treat research excellence award by the texas a&m research foundation board of trustees named in honor of joann treat who served 19 years as president of the research foundation before retiring in august 2003 the award is presented annually to a faculty member whose research is administered through the foundation in recognition of research excellence and accomplishments during the past five years each year the award alternates between two age-based categories of eligible faculty researchers 41 and older or younger than 41 by december 31 of the year of the award at all texas a&m university system-affiliated institutions the 2011 award recognizes the latter category sokolov widely recognized for his experimental expertise in fields ranging from laser physics and nonlinear optics to ultrafast science and spectroscopy was presented with the award friday (dec 9) as part of a ceremony held in conjunction with the foundations annual councilor/trustee fall meeting along with the award he received $10 000 and a commemorative plaque and will have his name inscribed on the joann treat commemorative glass vase on display in the research foundation office lobby a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty since 2002 sokolov is the inaugural holder of the stephen e harris professorship in quantum optics and a key player in texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) his research interests center around applications of molecular coherence to quantum optics ultrafast laser science and technology including generation of sub-cycle optical pulses with prescribed temporal shape and studies of ultrafast atomic molecular and nuclear processes as well as applications of quantum coherence in biological and defense-oriented areas sokolov holds a master of science in physics (summa cum laude) from the moscow institute of physics and technology (1994) and a doctorate in physics from stanford university (2001) while at stanford he served as a research assistant in the edward l ginzton laboratory under the supervision of steve harris and investigated quantum coherence effects in molecular systems which led to efficient generation of short pulses of light expertise he brought with him to texas a&m upon completion of his doctoral studies in addition to maintaining a robust and well-funded research group sokolov has supervised a number of postdoctoral and graduate students who have won numerous student awards a fellow of the optical society of america (osa) since 2009 he has served as an adviser to the texas a&m student chapter of osa since its inception in 2008 sokolovs many honors include the inaugural robert s hyer award from the texas section of the american physical society (2007) the osas adolph lomb medal (2003) and a research corporation for science advancement research innovation award (2003) he holds one patent related to his groundbreaking work with the iqse to develop a new approach to detect biochemical molecules using an adapted form of coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy known as fast cars sokolov is the fifth faculty member in the college of science to receive the prestigious award since its inception in 2004 dr deborah bell-pedersen professor of biology merited selection in 2005 followed by dr alexey belyanin professor of physics in 2007; dr d wayne goodman distinguished professor of chemistry in 2008; and dr timothy c hall distinguished professor of biology in 2010 find more information on sokolov and his research -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexei v sokolov (979) 845-7733 or sokol@physicstamuedu the post physicist alexei sokolov honored for research excellence appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr alexei v sokolov professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 joann treat research excellence award by the texas a&m research foundation board of trustees named in honor of joann treat who served 19 years as president of the research foundation before retiring in august 2003 the award is presented annually to a faculty member whose research is administered through the foundation in recognition of research excellence and accomplishments during the past five years each year the award alternates between two age-based categories of eligible faculty researchers 41 and older or younger than 41 by december 31 of the year of the award at all texas a&m university system-affiliated institutions the 2011 award recognizes the latter category sokolov widely recognized for his experimental expertise in fields ranging from laser physics and nonlinear optics to ultrafast science and spectroscopy was presented with the award friday (dec 9) as part of a ceremony held in conjunction with the foundations annual councilor/trustee fall meeting along with the award he received $10 000 and a commemorative plaque and will have his name inscribed on the joann treat commemorative glass vase on display in the research foundation office lobby a member of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty since 2002 sokolov is the inaugural holder of the stephen e harris professorship in quantum optics and a key player in texas a&ms world-class quantum optics group within the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) his research interests center around applications of molecular coherence to quantum optics ultrafast laser science and technology including generation of sub-cycle optical pulses with prescribed temporal shape and studies of ultrafast atomic molecular and nuclear processes as well as applications of quantum coherence in biological and defense-oriented areas sokolov holds a master of science in physics (summa cum laude) from the moscow institute of physics and technology (1994) and a doctorate in physics from stanford university (2001) while at stanford he served as a research assistant in the edward l ginzton laboratory under the supervision of steve harris and investigated quantum coherence effects in molecular systems which led to efficient generation of short pulses of light expertise he brought with him to texas a&m upon completion of his doctoral studies in addition to maintaining a robust and well-funded research group sokolov has supervised a number of postdoctoral and graduate students who have won numerous student awards a fellow of the optical society of america (osa) since 2009 he has served as an adviser to the texas a&m student chapter of osa since its inception in 2008 sokolovs many honors include the inaugural robert s hyer award from the texas section of the american physical society (2007) the osas adolph lomb medal (2003) and a research corporation for science advancement research innovation award (2003) he holds one patent related to his groundbreaking work with the iqse to develop a new approach to detect biochemical molecules using an adapted form of coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy known as fast cars sokolov is the fifth faculty member in the college of science to receive the prestigious award since its inception in 2004 dr deborah bell-pedersen professor of biology merited selection in 2005 followed by dr alexey belyanin professor of physics in 2007; dr d wayne goodman distinguished professor of chemistry in 2008; and dr timothy c hall distinguished professor of biology in 2010 find more information on sokolov and his research -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexei v sokolov (979) 845-7733 or sokol@physicstamuedu " " college station aggies with an interest in the mysteries of the night sky and in possible need of a finals study break are invited to attend the final aggie star party of 2011 set for wednesday (dec 7) on the texas a&m university campus the event hosted by the texas a&m university astronomy group in the department of physics and astronomy will be held from 7 to 9 pm in front of sbisa dining hall organizers say participants will have the opportunity to look through a telescope find constellations and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartypdf -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post final aggie star party of fall semester set for wednesday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " aggies with an interest in the mysteries of the night sky and in possible need of a finals study break are invited to attend the final aggie star party of 2011 set for wednesday (dec 7) on the texas a&m university campus the event hosted by the texas a&m university astronomy group in the department of physics and astronomy will be held from 7 to 9 pm in front of sbisa dining hall organizers say participants will have the opportunity to look through a telescope find constellations and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartypdf -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university figures prominently in foreign policy magazines just-announced list of the top 100 global thinkers for 2011 with george p mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and terry engelder who earned a phd in geology at texas a&m in 1973 included for upending the geopolitics of energy the two were specifically cited for their key roles that led to the process of fracking breaking up shale containing natural gas deposits a development that led to releasing vast reserves of natural gas and reordered the global balance of energy and the political power that comes with it according to the editors of the magazine mitchell is a legendary independent oil-and-gas operator based in houston and engelder has served since 1985 as a professor of geosciences at penn state they were joined in sharing the 36th place among the top 100 global thinkers by gary lash professor of geosciences at state university of new york fredonia mitchell the undisputed father of the barnett shale was the pioneer of horizontal drilling with a light sand frack it took him 17 years of experimentation to demonstrate that this approach to extracting gas from shale formations was economically viable the exploitation of this technology has opened up huge global-energy-map-changing natural gas reserves including the marcellus shale formation in the united states northeast estimated by engelder in 2009 to be the worlds largest at nearly 500 trillion cubic feet in 1983 fueled by mitchells breakthrough technique and a national science foundation grant engelder began investigating natural fracking to generate fractures in gas shale subsequently mapping the process along with lash in the marcellus shale and other gas shale formations of the appalachian basin the development coupled with their suggestion of horizontal drilling enabled companies like mitchell energy one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation which merged with devon energy in 2002 to recover the gas more economically and efficiently to the tune of 48 trillion cubic feet between 2006 and 2010 nearly quintupling previous us shale gas production numbers and accounting for almost a quarter of us natural gas production for that period mitchell has for decades been widely viewed as an idealist and visionary in circles eclipsing energy and industry in addition to parlaying his texas a&m studies in petroleum engineering and geology into highly successful oil and gas operations he developed the woodlands the highly acclaimed planned town north of houston his business and financial successes also paved the way for him and his late wife cynthia mitchell to become major philanthropists whose gifts have benefited numerous endeavors and organizations including texas a&m in recognition of their multi-million dollar gifts made over several decades in support of a variety of academic and other programs two state-of-the-art physics and astronomy buildings and the tennis complex bear the mitchell name mitchells most recent financial support has been in the form of multi-million dollar funding on texas a&ms behalf in the quest to build the giant magellan telescope for which the worlds physics and astronomy communities hold great hope for more fully understanding the outer reaches of the universe underscoring mitchells long-standing reputation as a big-picture thinker and doer mitchell and engelder will be honored along with the rest of the global thinkers at a gala hosted by washington post company ceo don graham foreign policy magazine is an award-winning magazine of global politics economics and ideas published by the slate group a division of washingtonpostnewsweek interactive llc -atm- contact: lane stephenson news & information services at (979) 845-4662 the post george mitchell terry engelder cited among top 100 global thinkers appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university figures prominently in foreign policy magazines just-announced list of the top 100 global thinkers for 2011 with george p mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and terry engelder who earned a phd in geology at texas a&m in 1973 included for upending the geopolitics of energy the two were specifically cited for their key roles that led to the process of fracking breaking up shale containing natural gas deposits a development that led to releasing vast reserves of natural gas and reordered the global balance of energy and the political power that comes with it according to the editors of the magazine mitchell is a legendary independent oil-and-gas operator based in houston and engelder has served since 1985 as a professor of geosciences at penn state they were joined in sharing the 36th place among the top 100 global thinkers by gary lash professor of geosciences at state university of new york fredonia mitchell the undisputed father of the barnett shale was the pioneer of horizontal drilling with a light sand frack it took him 17 years of experimentation to demonstrate that this approach to extracting gas from shale formations was economically viable the exploitation of this technology has opened up huge global-energy-map-changing natural gas reserves including the marcellus shale formation in the united states northeast estimated by engelder in 2009 to be the worlds largest at nearly 500 trillion cubic feet in 1983 fueled by mitchells breakthrough technique and a national science foundation grant engelder began investigating natural fracking to generate fractures in gas shale subsequently mapping the process along with lash in the marcellus shale and other gas shale formations of the appalachian basin the development coupled with their suggestion of horizontal drilling enabled companies like mitchell energy one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation which merged with devon energy in 2002 to recover the gas more economically and efficiently to the tune of 48 trillion cubic feet between 2006 and 2010 nearly quintupling previous us shale gas production numbers and accounting for almost a quarter of us natural gas production for that period mitchell has for decades been widely viewed as an idealist and visionary in circles eclipsing energy and industry in addition to parlaying his texas a&m studies in petroleum engineering and geology into highly successful oil and gas operations he developed the woodlands the highly acclaimed planned town north of houston his business and financial successes also paved the way for him and his late wife cynthia mitchell to become major philanthropists whose gifts have benefited numerous endeavors and organizations including texas a&m in recognition of their multi-million dollar gifts made over several decades in support of a variety of academic and other programs two state-of-the-art physics and astronomy buildings and the tennis complex bear the mitchell name mitchells most recent financial support has been in the form of multi-million dollar funding on texas a&ms behalf in the quest to build the giant magellan telescope for which the worlds physics and astronomy communities hold great hope for more fully understanding the outer reaches of the universe underscoring mitchells long-standing reputation as a big-picture thinker and doer mitchell and engelder will be honored along with the rest of the global thinkers at a gala hosted by washington post company ceo don graham foreign policy magazine is an award-winning magazine of global politics economics and ideas published by the slate group a division of washingtonpostnewsweek interactive llc -atm- contact: lane stephenson news & information services at (979) 845-4662 " " college station virus its a word that evokes fear and loathing not to mention immediate and intense connotations overwhelmingly negative as the root cause of a variety of vile maladies ranging from debilitating illness to devastating data loss viruses are nothing if not notorious for being something to avoid at all costs and if unleashed either accidentally or deliberately quickly contained and quarantined and yet astronomers at texas a&m university can hardly contain their joy at the virus they are eagerly anticipating and helping to build the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs (virus) and the light it is expected to shed on one of the universes most puzzling mysteries: dark energy this particular virus otherwise known as the worlds premier spectrograph will be a key component in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international experiments to probe and understand dark energy the dominant and unexplained force that is causing the universe to expand at an increasing rate as it ages texas a&m is a partner in the $36 million project initiated in 2002 by the university of texas at austin that also involves penn state university as well as several international members the first-of-its-kind $16 million virus instrument designed by university of texas astronomer and hetdex principal investigator dr gary hill is being assembled and aligned in texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of dr darren l depoy a world-renowned expert in astronomical instrumentation and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy depoy is spearheading the challenging construction of no fewer than 192 individual virus units each an identical copy of a single spectrograph as well as the assembly and testing of the overall instrument along with dr jennifer l marshall research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy in astronomy mostly what we do is build one instrument and put it on the back of a telescope to use sometimes for many years says depoy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 as a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy this project is different because we are not building one; it is what is in effect hundreds of the same thing once mounted to the sides of the worlds third-largest telescope the hobby-eberly telescope located at the university of texass mcdonald observatory in west texass davis mountains the novel array will help produce the largest three-dimensional map of the universe to date by pinpointing the positions of more than one million far-off galaxies to measure how the universe expands over time and reveal unprecedented information about dark energy considered by many to be the most vexing question in science today the experiment also will measure the geometry of the universe to very high precision giving astronomers direct information about the state of the universe at a time less than one second after the big bang we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the excellent students and staff as well as the high-quality lab space required to build such precision instrumentation depoy says our team includes undergraduate and graduate students from several science and engineering departments and research scientists and engineers in the instrumentation group all of us are excited to be part of such a groundbreaking project depoy notes the virus concept is a first in astronomy both for its function in the revolutionary hetdex project and its utilization of industrial replication he estimates that it will save about 75 percent of the cost it would require to build a single spectrograph big enough to do the job however while building one spectrograph is a relatively simple task marshall adds that to build nearly 200 is a whole new objective this will be a unique instrument in astronomy that no one has ever done before marshall says hopes are high for virus each unit contains a bundle of about 230 optical fibers nearly 46 000 in all similar to those that transport telephone calls each fiber will be focused on a tiny piece of the sky and assuming a distant galaxy lines up with that fibers field of view virus will capture the spectrum of the galaxy the odds that less than one percent of the fibers will actually be pointed at a galaxy during any given single observation are daunting but not dissuading according to depoy with the telescope being moved slightly for each of the 140 nights of observing during the course of a three-year span and with each session lasting 20 minutes hetdex will provide images for at least one million galaxies specifically hetdex is intended to find lyman-alpha galaxies ancient galaxies that were forming numerous stars roughly 10 billion years ago that glow brightly because of the longer wavelengths brought on by their redshift a measurable phenomenon that occurs when a galaxys light is stretched by the expansion of the universe the farther the galaxies are the greater their redshift and brightness along with their odds for detection with virus by comparing the different galactic images from the past and present scientists will be better able to visualize the universes configuration which will allow them to measure how dark energy changes as the universe ages we will be able to look at the pattern of those galaxies on the sky and that will tell us how the universe is shaped and formed and how it evolved at that time depoy explains we know how it is shaped now but comparing it [to the shape back then] gives us an idea about the parameters at which the universe changed shape it will help characterize what dark energy has done over cosmic time hetdex will measure the waves in the universe that appeared in the hot gas in the early universe about 400 000 years after the big bang these waves of dark matter pull on the universes big inhabitants astronomers can see for example galaxies and clusters of galaxies and have left a faint wave that can still be seen in the spacing between galaxies this wave is about 400 million light years across at present but over the next billions of years it will finally disappear along with any astronomical clues it potentially could reveal while scientists know dark energy exists and that it constitutes roughly 70 percent of all matter and energy in the universe the phenomenon has baffled them ever since it was discovered in 1998 by two groups of researchers one co-founded by texas a&m astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff and further cemented in astrophysics history with the 2011 nobel prize in physics exactly where dark energy comes from and what it is made of is considered to be one of the most pressing issues in astronomy suntzeff says hetdex is an extremely important project for our profession and for texas a&m suntzeff adds it funds our instrumentation lab it challenges the builders it employs lots of undergraduates and the science is well-suited for our faculty add in the collaboration with the university of texas and well i cannot think of a better project last fall the hetdex project received an $8 million grant from the national science foundation (nsf) nearly half of which is being used to help build virus researchers hope to have the instrument built and secured to the telescope by fall 2012 at which time they will begin mapping and obtaining data with the help of a completely upgraded secondary mirror and top end for the hobby-eberly telescope the fruits of years of collaborative labor by project researchers at mcdonald observatory and the university of texass center for electromechanics given that texass two flagship universities are playing major roles in such a revolutionary experiment to understand dark energy depoy and marshall say they have nothing but high hopes for the lone star states worldwide reputation in astronomical instrumentation and research not to mention future groundbreaking collaborations to benefit the state and nation to have two of the leading institutions in texas execute this project and solve one of todays biggest science problems is a good thing depoy says it shows the degree of cooperation we have between these institutions for more information on hetdex visit http://hetdexorg/ to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about hetdex: the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) is a collaboration of the university of texas at austin texas a&m university pennsylvania state university leibnitz-institut f√ºer astrophysik potsdam (aip) max-planck-institut f√ºer extraterrestrische physik (mpe) ludwig maximilians university munich and georg-august university goettingen financial support is provided by the state of texas the united states air force the national science foundation and the generous contributions of many private foundations and individuals about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomers prove instrumental in shedding light on dark energy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " virus its a word that evokes fear and loathing not to mention immediate and intense connotations overwhelmingly negative as the root cause of a variety of vile maladies ranging from debilitating illness to devastating data loss viruses are nothing if not notorious for being something to avoid at all costs and if unleashed either accidentally or deliberately quickly contained and quarantined and yet astronomers at texas a&m university can hardly contain their joy at the virus they are eagerly anticipating and helping to build the visible integral-field replicable unit spectrographs (virus) and the light it is expected to shed on one of the universes most puzzling mysteries: dark energy this particular virus otherwise known as the worlds premier spectrograph will be a key component in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) one of the first international experiments to probe and understand dark energy the dominant and unexplained force that is causing the universe to expand at an increasing rate as it ages texas a&m is a partner in the $36 million project initiated in 2002 by the university of texas at austin that also involves penn state university as well as several international members the first-of-its-kind $16 million virus instrument designed by university of texas astronomer and hetdex principal investigator dr gary hill is being assembled and aligned in texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory under the direction of dr darren l depoy a world-renowned expert in astronomical instrumentation and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy depoy is spearheading the challenging construction of no fewer than 192 individual virus units each an identical copy of a single spectrograph as well as the assembly and testing of the overall instrument along with dr jennifer l marshall research scientist in the department of physics and astronomy in astronomy mostly what we do is build one instrument and put it on the back of a telescope to use sometimes for many years says depoy who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 as a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy this project is different because we are not building one; it is what is in effect hundreds of the same thing once mounted to the sides of the worlds third-largest telescope the hobby-eberly telescope located at the university of texass mcdonald observatory in west texass davis mountains the novel array will help produce the largest three-dimensional map of the universe to date by pinpointing the positions of more than one million far-off galaxies to measure how the universe expands over time and reveal unprecedented information about dark energy considered by many to be the most vexing question in science today the experiment also will measure the geometry of the universe to very high precision giving astronomers direct information about the state of the universe at a time less than one second after the big bang we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the excellent students and staff as well as the high-quality lab space required to build such precision instrumentation depoy says our team includes undergraduate and graduate students from several science and engineering departments and research scientists and engineers in the instrumentation group all of us are excited to be part of such a groundbreaking project depoy notes the virus concept is a first in astronomy both for its function in the revolutionary hetdex project and its utilization of industrial replication he estimates that it will save about 75 percent of the cost it would require to build a single spectrograph big enough to do the job however while building one spectrograph is a relatively simple task marshall adds that to build nearly 200 is a whole new objective this will be a unique instrument in astronomy that no one has ever done before marshall says hopes are high for virus each unit contains a bundle of about 230 optical fibers nearly 46 000 in all similar to those that transport telephone calls each fiber will be focused on a tiny piece of the sky and assuming a distant galaxy lines up with that fibers field of view virus will capture the spectrum of the galaxy the odds that less than one percent of the fibers will actually be pointed at a galaxy during any given single observation are daunting but not dissuading according to depoy with the telescope being moved slightly for each of the 140 nights of observing during the course of a three-year span and with each session lasting 20 minutes hetdex will provide images for at least one million galaxies specifically hetdex is intended to find lyman-alpha galaxies ancient galaxies that were forming numerous stars roughly 10 billion years ago that glow brightly because of the longer wavelengths brought on by their redshift a measurable phenomenon that occurs when a galaxys light is stretched by the expansion of the universe the farther the galaxies are the greater their redshift and brightness along with their odds for detection with virus by comparing the different galactic images from the past and present scientists will be better able to visualize the universes configuration which will allow them to measure how dark energy changes as the universe ages we will be able to look at the pattern of those galaxies on the sky and that will tell us how the universe is shaped and formed and how it evolved at that time depoy explains we know how it is shaped now but comparing it [to the shape back then] gives us an idea about the parameters at which the universe changed shape it will help characterize what dark energy has done over cosmic time hetdex will measure the waves in the universe that appeared in the hot gas in the early universe about 400 000 years after the big bang these waves of dark matter pull on the universes big inhabitants astronomers can see for example galaxies and clusters of galaxies and have left a faint wave that can still be seen in the spacing between galaxies this wave is about 400 million light years across at present but over the next billions of years it will finally disappear along with any astronomical clues it potentially could reveal while scientists know dark energy exists and that it constitutes roughly 70 percent of all matter and energy in the universe the phenomenon has baffled them ever since it was discovered in 1998 by two groups of researchers one co-founded by texas a&m astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff and further cemented in astrophysics history with the 2011 nobel prize in physics exactly where dark energy comes from and what it is made of is considered to be one of the most pressing issues in astronomy suntzeff says hetdex is an extremely important project for our profession and for texas a&m suntzeff adds it funds our instrumentation lab it challenges the builders it employs lots of undergraduates and the science is well-suited for our faculty add in the collaboration with the university of texas and well i cannot think of a better project last fall the hetdex project received an $8 million grant from the national science foundation (nsf) nearly half of which is being used to help build virus researchers hope to have the instrument built and secured to the telescope by fall 2012 at which time they will begin mapping and obtaining data with the help of a completely upgraded secondary mirror and top end for the hobby-eberly telescope the fruits of years of collaborative labor by project researchers at mcdonald observatory and the university of texass center for electromechanics given that texass two flagship universities are playing major roles in such a revolutionary experiment to understand dark energy depoy and marshall say they have nothing but high hopes for the lone star states worldwide reputation in astronomical instrumentation and research not to mention future groundbreaking collaborations to benefit the state and nation to have two of the leading institutions in texas execute this project and solve one of todays biggest science problems is a good thing depoy says it shows the degree of cooperation we have between these institutions for more information on hetdex visit http://hetdexorg/ to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu # # # # # # # # # # about hetdex: the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) is a collaboration of the university of texas at austin texas a&m university pennsylvania state university leibnitz-institut f√ºer astrophysik potsdam (aip) max-planck-institut f√ºer extraterrestrische physik (mpe) ludwig maximilians university munich and georg-august university goettingen financial support is provided by the state of texas the united states air force the national science foundation and the generous contributions of many private foundations and individuals about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu or dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " college station based on the overwhelming success of their previous two events earlier this month the texas a&m university astronomy group will play host to another star party thursday (nov 17) from 7 to 9 pm at the corner of lubbock and coke streets across from heldenfels hall on the main texas a&m campus aggies and brazos valley community members with an interest in the night sky are encouraged to join the party where they can look through telescopes find constellations and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartypdf -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu the post aggie star party set for thursday nov 17 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " based on the overwhelming success of their previous two events earlier this month the texas a&m university astronomy group will play host to another star party thursday (nov 17) from 7 to 9 pm at the corner of lubbock and coke streets across from heldenfels hall on the main texas a&m campus aggies and brazos valley community members with an interest in the night sky are encouraged to join the party where they can look through telescopes find constellations and learn more about texas a&m astronomy for additional details visit http://instrumentationtamuedu/starpartypdf -atm- contact: dr jennifer marshall (979) 862-2782 or marshall@physicstamuedu " " (pushing the envelope: ten years ago this week anthrax-laced letters addressed to two united states senators and believed to have been mailed from a box on the princeton university campus resulted in five deaths and dozens of cases of inhalation infection not to mention a second wave of nationwide hysteria in the wake of 9/11 texas a&m university quantum physicist marlan scully led the joint texas a&m-princeton team that developed a technique to instantly detect anthrax spores in the mail using lasers he is now applying those lessons to his current research dubbed ghost lasers in the sky a laser system capable of detecting threats from poisonous gas to pollutants in the upper atmosphere without ever opening an envelope or even leaving the ground) college station dr marlan o scully knows that his son jim an american airlines pilot has to expect the unexpected on any of his flights a frequent flier in his own right as a distinguished professor of physics and internationally renowned researcher at texas a&m university scully is well aware of the myriad possible scenarios his son and fellow pilots face whether in the air or on the ground however as a father and a scientist he knew that back in 2001 things were drastically different that entire fall had been a tumultuous time for the united states which was still reeling from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 exacerbating matters were several inexplicable anthrax attacks that unleashed a whole new wave of national paranoia and uncertainty seven mysterious letters containing the hazardous substance sent to various media headquarters and two us senators that caused many americans to wonder if their nation was under yet another terroristic siege against this backdrop while piloting an otherwise routine november flight to chicago jim received a gut-wrenching phone call from the flight crew a passenger had been checking her mail when she discovered a suspicious powder in one of the envelopes they said sending the passengers into a panic after several days of testing officials determined it was a hoax but for jim whose passengers safety was first priority that was several days too long the pilot did the only thing he knew to do: he challenged his pioneering-physicist father to find a faster way to detect potential bioterrorism agents never one to back down from a challenge scully set out to do just that answering the scientific call scully says he approached the situation the same way he always did using the same method that solves most problems applying existing knowledge based on his extensive experience with lasers scully felt that finding a faster method of bacillus anthracites (anthrax) identification indeed was possible after putting together a team of top physicists from both texas a&m and princeton university where scully had begun teaching as a visiting professor he established labs at both universities so the teams could simultaneously test several aspects of their idea and hopefully reach a conclusion more swiftly anthrax was a big problem then and we found we couldnt get an immediate response when testing [the substance] for identification scully recalls texas a&m is the place where we finally broke the problem and we nicely developed it at princeton now we could get an immediate answer key to this immediacy was a light-scattering technique known as raman scattering named for pioneering indian physicist chandrasekhara venkata raman in which packets of light called photons bounce back after exiting the material with another laser pulse the molecular bonds are probed thereby creating a unique signature dependent on and specific to that material in this particular case because the signal it produced for anthrax proved to be very weak scully and his team went one pioneering step further developing coherent anti-stokes raman scattering or cars as a way to measure the scattering of photons that occurs when a molecule is hit with light their investigations proved that an appropriate sequence of three lasers targeting that molecule could result in a light pattern unique to a particular substance unfortunately scully says his team also found that other molecules present in the medium containing the anthrax spores could sometimes interfere in the anthrax molecules cars signatures but by using the same concept they came up with a revolutionary new technique that emitted a more powerful signal known as femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic techniques via coherent anti-stokes raman scattering or fast cars first two lasers are aimed at the object causing a molecular vibration a third laser pulse is sent in on a time-delay just long enough for false-alarm molecules with a smaller oscillation to cease their movement allowing molecules that are still vibrating to become the true target which amplifies the signature scully likens the laser beam to music: the steady rhythm of the beam disrupts molecules by creating a molecular melody specific to that material i got into this business in the 60s when the laser was brand new and not very well understood scully notes in trying to understand the purity of light you could say that light from the sun is like a radio with a lot of static but a laser a laser is one beat; its like perfect music the entire process takes only a fraction of a second putting to bed the older slower methods of anthrax detection and opening new doors for laser technology lasers scully explains have evolved into useful tools with far more implications than just anthrax detection for instance they can be used to identify numerous other materials such as glucose in blood which could one day be beneficial to diabetics or to determine moisture levels in crops taking the guesswork out of when and how much to water for farmers a lifetime of lasers improving anthrax detection methods is but one accomplishment in a long list of scullys breakthrough findings involving lasers and light made while at the various universities and laboratories where he has spent time during his decorated science career he says problem solving is something that comes naturally a skill honed early on in his childhood in casper wyo when his parents gave him a toy microscope set little did they know they were instilling a keen interest that eventually would culminate in an illustrious career in quantum physics which ultimately would count him among the most distinguished players in laser research one of his earliest achievements occurred while he was an instructor at yale university in 1967 scully along with 1955 nobel prize in physics winner dr willis e lamb jr came up with what is perhaps his most noteworthy achievement the first quantum theory of the laser which is still influential in todays laser science technology then in 1982 after accepting a joint position at the max planck institute f√ºr quantenoptik in west germany and the university of new mexico as a distinguished professor scully played a key role in another innovative experiment the quantum eraser in which he was able to show how erasing information in a photon at one location can have a drastic effect on a photon at another location scullys years of work are summed up in the more than 700 articles and two standard textbooks in laser physics and quantum electronics he has written however he says one of his favorite publications is a book he co-authored in 2007 with another of his sons robert entitled the demon and the quantum: from the pythagorean mystics to maxwells demon and quantum mystery which details the correlation between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics its an impressive career by any standards yet at age 72 scully has no interest in slowing down his research or curbing his appetite for new knowledge he has since turned his attention toward solar cells devices that convert sunlight into electricity citing plants and photosynthesis as an example of natural conversion efficiency scully says he hopes to better understand the chemical and electrochemical power of solar-cell operation to enable new methods of harnessing the solar spectrum in order to exceed the schockley-queisser single-band-gap limit to solar-cell efficiency in solar cells we are interested in the basic physics scully says we need to study the fundamentals so we can ask questions that arent normally asked true to form scully plans to approach the obstacle like he does any other one step at a time if the past is any indication perhaps another revolutionary finding will emerge much of what we do is drawn out by curiosity he explains i start working on a problem and it leads to another problem that only increases the likelihood of its practicality texas a&m iqse and beyond curiosity about the open dean position in the college of science was what initially brought scully to texas a&m in the early 1990s at that point he already was highly regarded in quantum physics and although the late dr richard e ewing ultimately was hired as the colleges eighth dean scully joined him in aggieland as another tremendous acquisition for the expanding college of science nearly 20 years later he continues to hold the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) elected as a member of the national academy of sciences in 2001 and as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences in 2008 he has received a plethora of prestigious awards including the charles townes award and herbert walther award of the optical society of america (osa) and the quantum electronics award of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) after several years as a visiting professor at princeton scully accepted a joint professorial appointment in 2005 and he continues to teach classes and conduct experiments at both texas a&m and princeton in february 2011 he earned his most recent honorary doctorate from the university of ulm in germany the gesture is a sentimental one for scully who spent several years working in germany moreover ulm is the birthplace of one of the most famous physicists in the world albert einstein the father of many of the concepts scully is working to advance today its a nice thing that my friends put together he says one of my favorite students wolfgang schleich is now the dean of quantum physics at ulm its a great university although hes received an ample amount of praise during his entire career scully says he is most excited to be working with a group of colleagues in texas a&ms institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) who personify the fact that its the sum of each part which makes for such a greater whole as director of the iqse scully leads a research-based effort that spans the gamut of quantum physics and engineering and focuses on the study of new lasers quantum computing nonlinear optics and more technologies that will impact any number of fields from national security and bioscience to navigation and refinery safety its no great surprise that scully sees a bright future both for texas a&m and for iqse research and development considering the team he has helped put together currently the iqse boasts a whos who of top scientists including nobel prize winners dr dudley herschbach and dr david lee and a variety of excellent early and mid-career researchers in addition to working diligently with laser technology iqse faculty are equally driven to develop the next generation of scholars a job scully views as both an innate responsibility and a unique point of aggie pride together with his colleagues he is helping to groom young post-doctorate students for lead professorships at top universities across the nation as but one example he cites dr mikhail lukin who was promoted to full professor of physics at harvard in 2004 at the age of 32 after earning his doctorate from texas a&m in 1998 under scully these guys are the measure of whats going on in the iqse scully adds now we are taking advantage of leadership weve traditionally had great optics at texas a&m with people like distinguished professor dr edward fry and 2011 texas distinguished scientist of the year dr george kattawar but when you add this caliber of a supporting cast you really get things done in anticipation of additional people and progress the iqse hopes to enhance its current workspace which is located on the fifth floor of the george p mitchell 40 physics building as well as its campus collaborations and connectivity via an eventual bridge linking the institute and their laboratories in the adjacent jack e brown building to scully its a necessary step to accommodate the level of research the iqse is conducting a move that will epitomize to other universities the rapid advances texas a&m is making in a very important science including a recent breakthrough involving the creation of lasers out of thin air that can break down air and make it lase the interdisciplinary work dubbed ghost lasers in the sky by attendees at the 2011 american physical society (aps) annual meeting in dallas was championed by iqse-affiliated rising research stars dr simon north a chemist and dr alexei sokolov a physicist one kilogram of anthrax in an airplane applied upwind could do a lot of damage scully notes one hundred kilograms could kill more people than an atomic bomb our sky laser technique can detect poison gas in the atmosphere at very low levels tens of kilometers away right now we have techniques for measuring pollution gases and other formerly untraceable substances while lidar [light detection and ranging] looks at backscattered light were getting much bigger results with the sky laser because of quantum physics we have the potential for computers that are exponentially faster microscopes that are more precise and lasers that produce results almost without limits scully says that texas a&m is doing world-class research in quantum physics is already understood everywhere for sure -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr marlan o scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@physicstamuedu the post lasers of love: born problem-solver leads world-class research in quantum physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " (pushing the envelope: ten years ago this week anthrax-laced letters addressed to two united states senators and believed to have been mailed from a box on the princeton university campus resulted in five deaths and dozens of cases of inhalation infection not to mention a second wave of nationwide hysteria in the wake of 9/11 texas a&m university quantum physicist marlan scully led the joint texas a&m-princeton team that developed a technique to instantly detect anthrax spores in the mail using lasers he is now applying those lessons to his current research dubbed ghost lasers in the sky a laser system capable of detecting threats from poisonous gas to pollutants in the upper atmosphere without ever opening an envelope or even leaving the ground) college station dr marlan o scully knows that his son jim an american airlines pilot has to expect the unexpected on any of his flights a frequent flier in his own right as a distinguished professor of physics and internationally renowned researcher at texas a&m university scully is well aware of the myriad possible scenarios his son and fellow pilots face whether in the air or on the ground however as a father and a scientist he knew that back in 2001 things were drastically different that entire fall had been a tumultuous time for the united states which was still reeling from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 exacerbating matters were several inexplicable anthrax attacks that unleashed a whole new wave of national paranoia and uncertainty seven mysterious letters containing the hazardous substance sent to various media headquarters and two us senators that caused many americans to wonder if their nation was under yet another terroristic siege against this backdrop while piloting an otherwise routine november flight to chicago jim received a gut-wrenching phone call from the flight crew a passenger had been checking her mail when she discovered a suspicious powder in one of the envelopes they said sending the passengers into a panic after several days of testing officials determined it was a hoax but for jim whose passengers safety was first priority that was several days too long the pilot did the only thing he knew to do: he challenged his pioneering-physicist father to find a faster way to detect potential bioterrorism agents never one to back down from a challenge scully set out to do just that answering the scientific call scully says he approached the situation the same way he always did using the same method that solves most problems applying existing knowledge based on his extensive experience with lasers scully felt that finding a faster method of bacillus anthracites (anthrax) identification indeed was possible after putting together a team of top physicists from both texas a&m and princeton university where scully had begun teaching as a visiting professor he established labs at both universities so the teams could simultaneously test several aspects of their idea and hopefully reach a conclusion more swiftly anthrax was a big problem then and we found we couldnt get an immediate response when testing [the substance] for identification scully recalls texas a&m is the place where we finally broke the problem and we nicely developed it at princeton now we could get an immediate answer key to this immediacy was a light-scattering technique known as raman scattering named for pioneering indian physicist chandrasekhara venkata raman in which packets of light called photons bounce back after exiting the material with another laser pulse the molecular bonds are probed thereby creating a unique signature dependent on and specific to that material in this particular case because the signal it produced for anthrax proved to be very weak scully and his team went one pioneering step further developing coherent anti-stokes raman scattering or cars as a way to measure the scattering of photons that occurs when a molecule is hit with light their investigations proved that an appropriate sequence of three lasers targeting that molecule could result in a light pattern unique to a particular substance unfortunately scully says his team also found that other molecules present in the medium containing the anthrax spores could sometimes interfere in the anthrax molecules cars signatures but by using the same concept they came up with a revolutionary new technique that emitted a more powerful signal known as femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic techniques via coherent anti-stokes raman scattering or fast cars first two lasers are aimed at the object causing a molecular vibration a third laser pulse is sent in on a time-delay just long enough for false-alarm molecules with a smaller oscillation to cease their movement allowing molecules that are still vibrating to become the true target which amplifies the signature scully likens the laser beam to music: the steady rhythm of the beam disrupts molecules by creating a molecular melody specific to that material i got into this business in the 60s when the laser was brand new and not very well understood scully notes in trying to understand the purity of light you could say that light from the sun is like a radio with a lot of static but a laser a laser is one beat; its like perfect music the entire process takes only a fraction of a second putting to bed the older slower methods of anthrax detection and opening new doors for laser technology lasers scully explains have evolved into useful tools with far more implications than just anthrax detection for instance they can be used to identify numerous other materials such as glucose in blood which could one day be beneficial to diabetics or to determine moisture levels in crops taking the guesswork out of when and how much to water for farmers a lifetime of lasers improving anthrax detection methods is but one accomplishment in a long list of scullys breakthrough findings involving lasers and light made while at the various universities and laboratories where he has spent time during his decorated science career he says problem solving is something that comes naturally a skill honed early on in his childhood in casper wyo when his parents gave him a toy microscope set little did they know they were instilling a keen interest that eventually would culminate in an illustrious career in quantum physics which ultimately would count him among the most distinguished players in laser research one of his earliest achievements occurred while he was an instructor at yale university in 1967 scully along with 1955 nobel prize in physics winner dr willis e lamb jr came up with what is perhaps his most noteworthy achievement the first quantum theory of the laser which is still influential in todays laser science technology then in 1982 after accepting a joint position at the max planck institute f√ºr quantenoptik in west germany and the university of new mexico as a distinguished professor scully played a key role in another innovative experiment the quantum eraser in which he was able to show how erasing information in a photon at one location can have a drastic effect on a photon at another location scullys years of work are summed up in the more than 700 articles and two standard textbooks in laser physics and quantum electronics he has written however he says one of his favorite publications is a book he co-authored in 2007 with another of his sons robert entitled the demon and the quantum: from the pythagorean mystics to maxwells demon and quantum mystery which details the correlation between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics its an impressive career by any standards yet at age 72 scully has no interest in slowing down his research or curbing his appetite for new knowledge he has since turned his attention toward solar cells devices that convert sunlight into electricity citing plants and photosynthesis as an example of natural conversion efficiency scully says he hopes to better understand the chemical and electrochemical power of solar-cell operation to enable new methods of harnessing the solar spectrum in order to exceed the schockley-queisser single-band-gap limit to solar-cell efficiency in solar cells we are interested in the basic physics scully says we need to study the fundamentals so we can ask questions that arent normally asked true to form scully plans to approach the obstacle like he does any other one step at a time if the past is any indication perhaps another revolutionary finding will emerge much of what we do is drawn out by curiosity he explains i start working on a problem and it leads to another problem that only increases the likelihood of its practicality texas a&m iqse and beyond curiosity about the open dean position in the college of science was what initially brought scully to texas a&m in the early 1990s at that point he already was highly regarded in quantum physics and although the late dr richard e ewing ultimately was hired as the colleges eighth dean scully joined him in aggieland as another tremendous acquisition for the expanding college of science nearly 20 years later he continues to hold the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station (tees) elected as a member of the national academy of sciences in 2001 and as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences in 2008 he has received a plethora of prestigious awards including the charles townes award and herbert walther award of the optical society of america (osa) and the quantum electronics award of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) after several years as a visiting professor at princeton scully accepted a joint professorial appointment in 2005 and he continues to teach classes and conduct experiments at both texas a&m and princeton in february 2011 he earned his most recent honorary doctorate from the university of ulm in germany the gesture is a sentimental one for scully who spent several years working in germany moreover ulm is the birthplace of one of the most famous physicists in the world albert einstein the father of many of the concepts scully is working to advance today its a nice thing that my friends put together he says one of my favorite students wolfgang schleich is now the dean of quantum physics at ulm its a great university although hes received an ample amount of praise during his entire career scully says he is most excited to be working with a group of colleagues in texas a&ms institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) who personify the fact that its the sum of each part which makes for such a greater whole as director of the iqse scully leads a research-based effort that spans the gamut of quantum physics and engineering and focuses on the study of new lasers quantum computing nonlinear optics and more technologies that will impact any number of fields from national security and bioscience to navigation and refinery safety its no great surprise that scully sees a bright future both for texas a&m and for iqse research and development considering the team he has helped put together currently the iqse boasts a whos who of top scientists including nobel prize winners dr dudley herschbach and dr david lee and a variety of excellent early and mid-career researchers in addition to working diligently with laser technology iqse faculty are equally driven to develop the next generation of scholars a job scully views as both an innate responsibility and a unique point of aggie pride together with his colleagues he is helping to groom young post-doctorate students for lead professorships at top universities across the nation as but one example he cites dr mikhail lukin who was promoted to full professor of physics at harvard in 2004 at the age of 32 after earning his doctorate from texas a&m in 1998 under scully these guys are the measure of whats going on in the iqse scully adds now we are taking advantage of leadership weve traditionally had great optics at texas a&m with people like distinguished professor dr edward fry and 2011 texas distinguished scientist of the year dr george kattawar but when you add this caliber of a supporting cast you really get things done in anticipation of additional people and progress the iqse hopes to enhance its current workspace which is located on the fifth floor of the george p mitchell 40 physics building as well as its campus collaborations and connectivity via an eventual bridge linking the institute and their laboratories in the adjacent jack e brown building to scully its a necessary step to accommodate the level of research the iqse is conducting a move that will epitomize to other universities the rapid advances texas a&m is making in a very important science including a recent breakthrough involving the creation of lasers out of thin air that can break down air and make it lase the interdisciplinary work dubbed ghost lasers in the sky by attendees at the 2011 american physical society (aps) annual meeting in dallas was championed by iqse-affiliated rising research stars dr simon north a chemist and dr alexei sokolov a physicist one kilogram of anthrax in an airplane applied upwind could do a lot of damage scully notes one hundred kilograms could kill more people than an atomic bomb our sky laser technique can detect poison gas in the atmosphere at very low levels tens of kilometers away right now we have techniques for measuring pollution gases and other formerly untraceable substances while lidar [light detection and ranging] looks at backscattered light were getting much bigger results with the sky laser because of quantum physics we have the potential for computers that are exponentially faster microscopes that are more precise and lasers that produce results almost without limits scully says that texas a&m is doing world-class research in quantum physics is already understood everywhere for sure -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr marlan o scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@physicstamuedu " " college station earlier this week three us-born scientists took center stage in the worlds most prestigious scientific production winning the 2011 nobel prize in physics while saul perlmutter (university of california berkeley) brian schmidt (australian national university) and adam riess (johns hopkins university/space telescope science institute) will go down in history as co-recipients of the eminent prize for their studies of exploding stars that revealed the expansion of the universe is accelerating one world-famous astronomer asserts there are others who also deserve to bask in the international limelight including texas a&m universitys nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff co-founded the high-z team along with schmidt in 1994 at which time riess was a graduate student finishing his thesis suntzeff served as the principal investigator on the discovery of the supernova (some 50 of them) whose light was inexplicably weaker than expected the first indication that the expansion of the universe was accelerating prior to that he co-founded a previous group the calan/tololo supernova project that used the brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams subsequent discovery that merited both the 2007 gruber prize (a $500 000 award) and the current nobel the university of californias lick observatory was well-represented in sweden by such star-studded alumni as (from left) suntzeff alex filippenko ron gilliland and phillips suntzeff and longtime colleague mark phillips (left) flank the bust of alfred nobel in homage to how it all began for them as teammates in chile where in 1986 they published their first data with ccd detectors showing that supernova are not all the same brightness geoffrey w marcy world-famous planet discoverer and a fellow astronomy professor at berkeley along with perlmutter says suntzeff and two or three other astronomers in the world deserves major credit for this nobel prize he notes that without suntzeffs early initiation of the study of supernova explosions his identification and analyses of the explosions and his many painstaking observations and precise calibrations the discovery of dark energy would not have happened i am sure that this nobel prize for your team would not have happened without you marcy says in a congratulatory email message to suntzeff this nobel prize goes to you as much as anyone as you were the initiator brains and muscle behind the crucial supernova work marcy an elected member of the national academy of sciences and suntzeff first met as graduate students at the university of california santa cruz where marcy says suntzeff was known for his careful and meticulous approach and ever mindful of both systematic biases and over-arching science goals he says those inherent qualities in suntzeff are exactly what was needed to make the supernova project succeed leading to the discovery of dark energy approach proved to be key in several respects for the high-z team which suntzeff describes as group anarchy all postdocs and little external funding but we worked together extremely well in spite of this as team leaders he and schmidt employed a novel system that eschewed ego and seniority in favor of maximum effort and efficiency each year the team gave its data to different groups at different institutions including the penultimate hand-off to riess at berkeley in 1998 ensuring that the highest priority would be given to each part of the problem i am proud to have co-founded along with brian schmidt the high-z supernova team suntzeff says i am especially proud that in organizing the team i got everyone to agree that the people who did the most work would get the credit this may seem like an obvious thing to do but it is not in science more often than not it is the senior scientist that gets the credit and the people who did the real work are left out the nobel prize in physics has a sad case of this the discovery of pulsars where the senior scientist was awarded the prize and the graduate student who made the discovery was ignored in the high-z team we all agreed upon who deserved the most credit for the work done and we made this person first author in this sense brian schmidt and adam riess are the clear heroes of the group i am especially proud to say that our effort must be unique in nobel science in that it was the junior workers brian and adam were postdocs and adam started in our group as a grad student that have received the credit every paper save one was led by a postdoc or graduate student and they justly have deserved the credit and now fame as the driving force behind the discovery beyond schmidts more obvious role suntzeff says riess was vital to the high-z team both because he had an independent method for measuring distances based on the data he had from suntzeffs calan/tololo supernova project and because he had time armed with his newly minted harvard phd he moved to berkeley to start his miller fellowship taking the high-z teams data as well as new data from the hubble space telescope along for the trip once at berkeley suntzeff says riess cleared his desk and worked completely on the new data probably putting in 12-to-14-hour days and even working on the project during his honeymoon adam appeared just at the right time and without his effort and brilliance we would have never caught up with saul suntzeff adds and without brian checking everything adam did certainly mistakes would have been missed which also would have slowed everything down as opposed to the universes expansion and the resulting race to unravel the mystery of dark energy a delicious irony unto itself suntzeff muses this must be perhaps the only nobel prize ever awarded for a discovery for which we have no explanation not even an inkling of one he notes the results are solid: the universe apparently is being driven into an acceleration by a process perhaps an energy but that is not even clear for which there is no theoretical underpinning it remains the biggest puzzle in physical science and maybe all of science it has dominated the astronomical research since its discovery in 1998 and we are still as puzzled now as back then by what is causing this strange acceleration it is as strange as if one would wake up some day and be puzzled by the fact that a rock thrown into the air does not fall back to earth but continues to rise faster and faster finally speeding out into space free of the earths gravity through einsteins famous formula e=mc2 if one compares the mass of the universe to this strange dark energy the dark energy is three times more powerful than all the mass put together it is now driving the future of the universe and all of us made of matter are now merely along for the ride click here to see the official nobel prize announcement and supporting background to learn more about suntzeffs research and texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu/ click here to read a related feature story from texas a&ms campus newspaper the battalion -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu or dr geoffrey w marcy gmarcy@berkeleyedu # # # # # # # # # # timeline to a discovery an analysis¬†of nick suntzeff-led breakthroughs that led to the breakthrough 1986: mark phillips and nicholas suntzeff in chile begin studying supernova with modern detectors and publish the first data with ccd detectors their study of supernova sn1986g shows that supernova are not all the same brightness 1989: suntzeff phillips and mario hamuy of the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile show that the supernova sn1989b is fainter than other similar events and discover there is a correlation between supernova brightness and the speed at which the explosion brightens and dims 1990: suntzeff co-founds the calan/tololo supernova project with phillips hamuy and jose maza (university of chile) which uses brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams eventual nobel-prize winning discovery 1994: suntzeff co-founds high-z supernova search teach along with brian schmidt 1996: the calan/tololo project publishes the pioneering work on using type ia supernova to measure distances to better than 6 percent deep into the universe this calibration forms the basis for the distance measurements made by both groups 1998: both teams publish near-simultaneous papers leading to the first of many shared honors as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 2006: after 20 years at ctio suntzeff accepts a faculty appointment at texas a&m university as professor of physics director of astronomy and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy 2007: suntzeff and 51 international researchers (including perlmutter schmidt and riess) shares in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology the post texas a&m astronomer plays star role in nobel prize-winning discovery appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " earlier this week three us-born scientists took center stage in the worlds most prestigious scientific production winning the 2011 nobel prize in physics while saul perlmutter (university of california berkeley) brian schmidt (australian national university) and adam riess (johns hopkins university/space telescope science institute) will go down in history as co-recipients of the eminent prize for their studies of exploding stars that revealed the expansion of the universe is accelerating one world-famous astronomer asserts there are others who also deserve to bask in the international limelight including texas a&m universitys nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff co-founded the high-z team along with schmidt in 1994 at which time riess was a graduate student finishing his thesis suntzeff served as the principal investigator on the discovery of the supernova (some 50 of them) whose light was inexplicably weaker than expected the first indication that the expansion of the universe was accelerating prior to that he co-founded a previous group the calan/tololo supernova project that used the brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams subsequent discovery that merited both the 2007 gruber prize (a $500 000 award) and the current nobel the university of californias lick observatory was well-represented in sweden by such star-studded alumni as (from left) suntzeff alex filippenko ron gilliland and phillips suntzeff and longtime colleague mark phillips (left) flank the bust of alfred nobel in homage to how it all began for them as teammates in chile where in 1986 they published their first data with ccd detectors showing that supernova are not all the same brightness geoffrey w marcy world-famous planet discoverer and a fellow astronomy professor at berkeley along with perlmutter says suntzeff and two or three other astronomers in the world deserves major credit for this nobel prize he notes that without suntzeffs early initiation of the study of supernova explosions his identification and analyses of the explosions and his many painstaking observations and precise calibrations the discovery of dark energy would not have happened i am sure that this nobel prize for your team would not have happened without you marcy says in a congratulatory email message to suntzeff this nobel prize goes to you as much as anyone as you were the initiator brains and muscle behind the crucial supernova work marcy an elected member of the national academy of sciences and suntzeff first met as graduate students at the university of california santa cruz where marcy says suntzeff was known for his careful and meticulous approach and ever mindful of both systematic biases and over-arching science goals he says those inherent qualities in suntzeff are exactly what was needed to make the supernova project succeed leading to the discovery of dark energy approach proved to be key in several respects for the high-z team which suntzeff describes as group anarchy all postdocs and little external funding but we worked together extremely well in spite of this as team leaders he and schmidt employed a novel system that eschewed ego and seniority in favor of maximum effort and efficiency each year the team gave its data to different groups at different institutions including the penultimate hand-off to riess at berkeley in 1998 ensuring that the highest priority would be given to each part of the problem i am proud to have co-founded along with brian schmidt the high-z supernova team suntzeff says i am especially proud that in organizing the team i got everyone to agree that the people who did the most work would get the credit this may seem like an obvious thing to do but it is not in science more often than not it is the senior scientist that gets the credit and the people who did the real work are left out the nobel prize in physics has a sad case of this the discovery of pulsars where the senior scientist was awarded the prize and the graduate student who made the discovery was ignored in the high-z team we all agreed upon who deserved the most credit for the work done and we made this person first author in this sense brian schmidt and adam riess are the clear heroes of the group i am especially proud to say that our effort must be unique in nobel science in that it was the junior workers brian and adam were postdocs and adam started in our group as a grad student that have received the credit every paper save one was led by a postdoc or graduate student and they justly have deserved the credit and now fame as the driving force behind the discovery beyond schmidts more obvious role suntzeff says riess was vital to the high-z team both because he had an independent method for measuring distances based on the data he had from suntzeffs calan/tololo supernova project and because he had time armed with his newly minted harvard phd he moved to berkeley to start his miller fellowship taking the high-z teams data as well as new data from the hubble space telescope along for the trip once at berkeley suntzeff says riess cleared his desk and worked completely on the new data probably putting in 12-to-14-hour days and even working on the project during his honeymoon adam appeared just at the right time and without his effort and brilliance we would have never caught up with saul suntzeff adds and without brian checking everything adam did certainly mistakes would have been missed which also would have slowed everything down as opposed to the universes expansion and the resulting race to unravel the mystery of dark energy a delicious irony unto itself suntzeff muses this must be perhaps the only nobel prize ever awarded for a discovery for which we have no explanation not even an inkling of one he notes the results are solid: the universe apparently is being driven into an acceleration by a process perhaps an energy but that is not even clear for which there is no theoretical underpinning it remains the biggest puzzle in physical science and maybe all of science it has dominated the astronomical research since its discovery in 1998 and we are still as puzzled now as back then by what is causing this strange acceleration it is as strange as if one would wake up some day and be puzzled by the fact that a rock thrown into the air does not fall back to earth but continues to rise faster and faster finally speeding out into space free of the earths gravity through einsteins famous formula e=mc2 if one compares the mass of the universe to this strange dark energy the dark energy is three times more powerful than all the mass put together it is now driving the future of the universe and all of us made of matter are now merely along for the ride click here to see the official nobel prize announcement and supporting background to learn more about suntzeffs research and texas a&m astronomy go to http://astronomytamuedu/ click here to read a related feature story from texas a&ms campus newspaper the battalion -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu or dr geoffrey w marcy gmarcy@berkeleyedu # # # # # # # # # # timeline to a discovery an analysis¬†of nick suntzeff-led breakthroughs that led to the breakthrough 1986: mark phillips and nicholas suntzeff in chile begin studying supernova with modern detectors and publish the first data with ccd detectors their study of supernova sn1986g shows that supernova are not all the same brightness 1989: suntzeff phillips and mario hamuy of the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile show that the supernova sn1989b is fainter than other similar events and discover there is a correlation between supernova brightness and the speed at which the explosion brightens and dims 1990: suntzeff co-founds the calan/tololo supernova project with phillips hamuy and jose maza (university of chile) which uses brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams eventual nobel-prize winning discovery 1994: suntzeff co-founds high-z supernova search teach along with brian schmidt 1996: the calan/tololo project publishes the pioneering work on using type ia supernova to measure distances to better than 6 percent deep into the universe this calibration forms the basis for the distance measurements made by both groups 1998: both teams publish near-simultaneous papers leading to the first of many shared honors as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 2006: after 20 years at ctio suntzeff accepts a faculty appointment at texas a&m university as professor of physics director of astronomy and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy 2007: suntzeff and 51 international researchers (including perlmutter schmidt and riess) shares in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology " " college station while youre out this weekend basking in the regions coolest temperatures since spring texas a&m university astronomers encourage you to gaze up at the night sky specifically the big dippers handle where one of the universes latest and most radiant stellar explosions has produced a star bright enough to outshine its entire galaxy the star a type ia supernova used to calibrate cosmic distances is known as sn 2011fe and is scheduled to peak this weekend as the brightest of its kind to be seen in the northern hemisphere in the past 40 years according to texas a&ms don w carona manager of the texas a&m astronomical observatory in the department of physics and astronomy carona has been following its progress and documenting the experience with the help of time-lapse photography it was this type of supernova also called a thermonuclear supernova because of the similarity with hydrogen bomb explosions that was key in discovering dark energy the mysterious substance now known to make up more than 70 percent of the whole universe a scaled version of the image which makes the beautiful spiral arms of the galaxy much more prominent image taken by carona on friday with sn2011fe indicated by box the supernova the 126th to be seen thus far in 2011 is located in the pinwheel galaxy m101 and can be seen beginning just after sunset with a good pair of binoculars or a telescope just north of the last two stars in the big dippers handle where it forms a roughly equilateral triangle with them for the next few weeks carona says its brilliance will exceed that of all of its fellow m101 inhabitants hundreds of millions of stars combined this is absolutely amazing carona says a supernovae event brighter than 25 billion suns and i am very fortunate to be both a witness and an observational astronomer since the observatory at texas a&m university is both a teaching and research facility i take this as an opportunity to educate others on how powerful and surprising the universe around us can be when we least expect it stellar evolution is fascinating and what better way to turn our attention than an awesome display such as this i think no matter who you are this is reason to pause and allow yourself to wonder whats in the universe around us who knows where that sense of wonder may lead you next! the greatest thing you learn about astronomy is that anyone can contribute the supernova was discovered two weeks ago mere hours after its onset by the palomar transient factory an automated supernova search being conducted with the 48-inch oschin schmidt telescope at palomar observatory in southern california the research team says its been 25 years since a supernova has occurred so close to earth and that the last bright supernova sn 1987a which was involved in that aforementioned 1998 discovery of dark energy was visible only in the southern hemisphere find more information on sn 2011fe including a helpful finder chart to learn more about texas a&m astronomy and the texas a&m observatory visit http://astronomytamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or don w carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu the post star light star bright: brilliant supernova erupts in m101 galaxy texas a&m college of science " " while youre out this weekend basking in the regions coolest temperatures since spring texas a&m university astronomers encourage you to gaze up at the night sky specifically the big dippers handle where one of the universes latest and most radiant stellar explosions has produced a star bright enough to outshine its entire galaxy the star a type ia supernova used to calibrate cosmic distances is known as sn 2011fe and is scheduled to peak this weekend as the brightest of its kind to be seen in the northern hemisphere in the past 40 years according to texas a&ms don w carona manager of the texas a&m astronomical observatory in the department of physics and astronomy carona has been following its progress and documenting the experience with the help of time-lapse photography it was this type of supernova also called a thermonuclear supernova because of the similarity with hydrogen bomb explosions that was key in discovering dark energy the mysterious substance now known to make up more than 70 percent of the whole universe a scaled version of the image which makes the beautiful spiral arms of the galaxy much more prominent image taken by carona on friday with sn2011fe indicated by box the supernova the 126th to be seen thus far in 2011 is located in the pinwheel galaxy m101 and can be seen beginning just after sunset with a good pair of binoculars or a telescope just north of the last two stars in the big dippers handle where it forms a roughly equilateral triangle with them for the next few weeks carona says its brilliance will exceed that of all of its fellow m101 inhabitants hundreds of millions of stars combined this is absolutely amazing carona says a supernovae event brighter than 25 billion suns and i am very fortunate to be both a witness and an observational astronomer since the observatory at texas a&m university is both a teaching and research facility i take this as an opportunity to educate others on how powerful and surprising the universe around us can be when we least expect it stellar evolution is fascinating and what better way to turn our attention than an awesome display such as this i think no matter who you are this is reason to pause and allow yourself to wonder whats in the universe around us who knows where that sense of wonder may lead you next! the greatest thing you learn about astronomy is that anyone can contribute the supernova was discovered two weeks ago mere hours after its onset by the palomar transient factory an automated supernova search being conducted with the 48-inch oschin schmidt telescope at palomar observatory in southern california the research team says its been 25 years since a supernova has occurred so close to earth and that the last bright supernova sn 1987a which was involved in that aforementioned 1998 discovery of dark energy was visible only in the southern hemisphere find more information on sn 2011fe including a helpful finder chart to learn more about texas a&m astronomy and the texas a&m observatory visit http://astronomytamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or don w carona (979) 845-0536 or don@tamuedu " " college station physicists at texas a&m university are celebrating a flagship result out of the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) that could have big implications in explaining dark matter after sifting through 10 years of data gleaned from roughly 350 trillion proton-antiproton collisions by fermilabs powerful atom-smashing tevatron the cdf collaboration which features about a dozen texas a&m physicists has detected a slight excess in the data analyzed as part of their painstaking search for rare particle decays this anomaly detailed in a paper submitted wednesday (july 13) on http://arxivorg and feted today (july 15) in a 2 pm seminar presentation at fermilab as its result of the week may represent the first hints of such rare decays important because they can shed light on subatomic processes impossible to be directly observed as well as potential vindication of a novel idea conceived nearly a decade ago at texas a&m in 2002 texas a&m high-energy physics experts teruki kamon (an experimentalist) richard arnowitt and bhaskar dutta (both theorists) first proposed a new and powerful method to test for special connections between particle physics (the smallest things in the universe) and cosmology (the entire universe itself) noting the huge potential of the tevatron to discover a new theory supersymmetry that could be consistent with cosmology teruki kamon richard arnowitt the texas a&m trio pioneers in combining theory and experiment at a single university published their findings in the international journal physics letters b zeroing in on rare particle decays which have never been observed to date as their preferred technique and suggesting that the first evidence for supersymmetry might be observed through the cdf experiment after initially finding nothing of significance in three previous analyses reported in 2004 2005 and 2008 kamon says persistence not to mention 20 times the data has paid off in what appears to be a slight deviation in the decay rate as predicted by standard model while the jurys definitely still out he says its a strong indication of the possible existence of something new potentially a new elementary particle or at the very least novel interactions between those known to exist in the universe this is a remarkable and unusual synergy of experiment and theory done at very few places around the country kamon says if our ideas are correct then the dark matter that fills the universe could be a type of supersymmetric particle which can be detected directly if the type of supersymmetry we are looking for is correct our novel method could be the best way to discover it at a collider the only way in which it could be discovered kamon notes the standard model predicts that the rate of one specific particle found in the universe known as a bottom-strange quark meson (bs) decaying into two muons (the rough equivalent of heavy electrons) is extremely small comparable to the odds of a specific person being selected at random from the entire population of the united states and would require quadrillions of collisions to be seen he says the new result provides tantalizing hope given that it is based on more collisions and data obtained with increased sensitivity thanks to a sophisticated neural net technique that separates signal noise from background noise but also cautions that its not conclusive because the number of observed decays indicated is not yet significant or consistent enough to warrant anything beyond further study however he says it does begin to constrain the predictions from supersymmetry and other theories thus narrowing the region of searches for new physics this is a very nice example of the synergy between texas a&m theorists and experimentalists that helped lead to one of the most significant results in modern searches for supersymmetry kamon adds although supersymmetry may not have been definitively discovered these results allow for a much better understanding of what kind of supersymmetry can still be realized in nature to learn more about the cdf collaboration and texas a&ms role in it as well as view past papers and related research visit the texas a&m collider physics website at http://colliderphysicstamuedu for more information on high-energy physics at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or teruki kamon (979) 845-7717 or kamon@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m high-energy physicists celebrate novel result from fermilab appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " physicists at texas a&m university are celebrating a flagship result out of the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) that could have big implications in explaining dark matter after sifting through 10 years of data gleaned from roughly 350 trillion proton-antiproton collisions by fermilabs powerful atom-smashing tevatron the cdf collaboration which features about a dozen texas a&m physicists has detected a slight excess in the data analyzed as part of their painstaking search for rare particle decays this anomaly detailed in a paper submitted wednesday (july 13) on http://arxivorg and feted today (july 15) in a 2 pm seminar presentation at fermilab as its result of the week may represent the first hints of such rare decays important because they can shed light on subatomic processes impossible to be directly observed as well as potential vindication of a novel idea conceived nearly a decade ago at texas a&m in 2002 texas a&m high-energy physics experts teruki kamon (an experimentalist) richard arnowitt and bhaskar dutta (both theorists) first proposed a new and powerful method to test for special connections between particle physics (the smallest things in the universe) and cosmology (the entire universe itself) noting the huge potential of the tevatron to discover a new theory supersymmetry that could be consistent with cosmology teruki kamon richard arnowitt the texas a&m trio pioneers in combining theory and experiment at a single university published their findings in the international journal physics letters b zeroing in on rare particle decays which have never been observed to date as their preferred technique and suggesting that the first evidence for supersymmetry might be observed through the cdf experiment after initially finding nothing of significance in three previous analyses reported in 2004 2005 and 2008 kamon says persistence not to mention 20 times the data has paid off in what appears to be a slight deviation in the decay rate as predicted by standard model while the jurys definitely still out he says its a strong indication of the possible existence of something new potentially a new elementary particle or at the very least novel interactions between those known to exist in the universe this is a remarkable and unusual synergy of experiment and theory done at very few places around the country kamon says if our ideas are correct then the dark matter that fills the universe could be a type of supersymmetric particle which can be detected directly if the type of supersymmetry we are looking for is correct our novel method could be the best way to discover it at a collider the only way in which it could be discovered kamon notes the standard model predicts that the rate of one specific particle found in the universe known as a bottom-strange quark meson (bs) decaying into two muons (the rough equivalent of heavy electrons) is extremely small comparable to the odds of a specific person being selected at random from the entire population of the united states and would require quadrillions of collisions to be seen he says the new result provides tantalizing hope given that it is based on more collisions and data obtained with increased sensitivity thanks to a sophisticated neural net technique that separates signal noise from background noise but also cautions that its not conclusive because the number of observed decays indicated is not yet significant or consistent enough to warrant anything beyond further study however he says it does begin to constrain the predictions from supersymmetry and other theories thus narrowing the region of searches for new physics this is a very nice example of the synergy between texas a&m theorists and experimentalists that helped lead to one of the most significant results in modern searches for supersymmetry kamon adds although supersymmetry may not have been definitively discovered these results allow for a much better understanding of what kind of supersymmetry can still be realized in nature to learn more about the cdf collaboration and texas a&ms role in it as well as view past papers and related research visit the texas a&m collider physics website at http://colliderphysicstamuedu for more information on high-energy physics at texas a&m go to https://physicstamuedu/research/high-energy-physics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or teruki kamon (979) 845-7717 or kamon@physicstamuedu " " boston last week an international group of astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-d map of the local universe to great worldwide fanfare not to mention the immense pride of one of the maps creators texas a&m astronomer lucas macri macri assistant professor of physics and astronomy and a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is one of the leading members of the team that created the map which contains galaxies as far as a billion light-years from earth known as the 2mass redshift survey (2mrs) it is the result of a decade-long effort initiated by an astronomical legend the late dr john huchra a longtime astronomer at the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics karen masters (university of portsmouth united kingdom) presented the new map in a wednesday (may 26) press conference at the 218th meeting of the american astronomical society crediting huchra for his masterpiece the 2mass redshift survey is a wonderfully complete new look at the local universe particularly near the galactic plane [a region generally obscured by dust] masters said were also honoring the legacy of the late john huchra who was the leader and guiding force behind this and earlier galaxy redshift surveys a galaxys light is redshifted or stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the universe the farther the galaxy the greater its redshift so redshift measurements yield galaxy distances the vital third dimension in a 3-d map the 2mrs team chose 45 000 galaxies based on images made by the 2 micron all-sky survey (2mass) this survey scanned the entire sky in three near-infrared wavelength bands near-infrared light which macri notes we feel as heat penetrates intervening dust better than visible light allowing astronomers to see more of the sky the dust can be thought of as cosmic smoke and observing in the near-infrared allows us to clear away the smoke to see the universe clearly however without adding redshifts 2mass makes only a 2-d image many of the galaxies mapped had previously-measured redshifts but 11 000 new ones were measured by huchra macri and collaborators starting in the late 1990s using mainly two telescopes: one at the fred lawrence whipple observatory on mount hopkins ariz and one at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile the last observations were completed shortly after huchras death in october 2010 macri who is the corresponding author in the resulting paper that will soon be published completed his doctorate in astronomy at harvard in 2001 under huchra who put the cfa on the international astronomical map 25 years ago with one of the first redshift surveys the focus of 2mrs is to answer how much dark matter is there in the local universe out to about 400 million light years in radius and to understand why the milky way is moving through the universe at its present speed and direction macri said the 2mrs mapped in detail areas previously hidden behind our milky way the motion of the milky way with respect to the rest of the universe has been a puzzle ever since astronomers were first able to measure it and found it couldnt be explained by the gravitational attraction from any visible matter massive local structures like the hydra-centaurus region (the great attractor) were previously hidden almost behind the milky way but are now shown in great detail by 2mrs macri noted that texas a&m astronomers are involved in another historical mapping project the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) an international collaboration led by the university of texas at austin to investigate dark energy in the early universe the $34 million project will harness the extensive light-gathering power of the worlds third-largest telescope the hobby-eberly telescope and the worlds premier survey spectrograph being assembled and aligned at texas a&m to produce the largest map of the universe to date by pinpointing the positions of more than one million far-off galaxies in three dimensions the goal is to measure how the universe expands over time revealing unprecedented information about dark energy and to measure the geometry of our universe to very high precision to give astronomers direct information about the state of the universe at a time less than one second after the big bang hetdex will give us a 3-d map of a large volume of the universe but it will ‚Äòonly cover 1 percent of the surface of the entire sky macri said for comparison 2mrs covers 95 percent of the entire sky out to a very shallow depth astronomically speaking of course of 400 million light-years yielding a volume that is about 1 000 times smaller than the one to be surveyed by hetdex if you compare a survey of the universe to a study of the earth hetdex would be the equivalent of getting very deep geological information for two regions covering an area about 7 times the size of texas whereas 2mrs would be akin to mapping the near-surface features of our planet mountains coastlines ocean rifts etc for 95 percent of its surface just as both types of geological surveys are useful for answering different questions about the earth 2mrs and hetdex complement each other in our study of the universe macri a joint holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn career enhancement professorship in physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 after spending six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) in arizona his research focuses on the extragalactic distance scale resolved stellar populations and near-field cosmology he is an expert in cepheid variables which he studies using the hubble space telescope the gemini north telescope and other observatories in addition to authoring more than 50 referred publications he is a member of the sh0es team an international collaboration that is using cepheid variables specifically measurements of their luminosity to help refine the hubble constant and thereby narrow alternative explanations for dark energy in the universe to learn more about the 2mass redshift survey visit https://wwwcfaharvardedu/~dfabricant/huchra/2mass/ for more information about macris research and astronomy at texas a&m visit astronomy research page news release includes significant contributions from the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or macri@physicstamuedu the post texas a&ms macri part of 3-d mapping masterpiece appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " last week an international group of astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-d map of the local universe to great worldwide fanfare not to mention the immense pride of one of the maps creators texas a&m astronomer lucas macri macri assistant professor of physics and astronomy and a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is one of the leading members of the team that created the map which contains galaxies as far as a billion light-years from earth known as the 2mass redshift survey (2mrs) it is the result of a decade-long effort initiated by an astronomical legend the late dr john huchra a longtime astronomer at the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics karen masters (university of portsmouth united kingdom) presented the new map in a wednesday (may 26) press conference at the 218th meeting of the american astronomical society crediting huchra for his masterpiece the 2mass redshift survey is a wonderfully complete new look at the local universe particularly near the galactic plane [a region generally obscured by dust] masters said were also honoring the legacy of the late john huchra who was the leader and guiding force behind this and earlier galaxy redshift surveys a galaxys light is redshifted or stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the universe the farther the galaxy the greater its redshift so redshift measurements yield galaxy distances the vital third dimension in a 3-d map the 2mrs team chose 45 000 galaxies based on images made by the 2 micron all-sky survey (2mass) this survey scanned the entire sky in three near-infrared wavelength bands near-infrared light which macri notes we feel as heat penetrates intervening dust better than visible light allowing astronomers to see more of the sky the dust can be thought of as cosmic smoke and observing in the near-infrared allows us to clear away the smoke to see the universe clearly however without adding redshifts 2mass makes only a 2-d image many of the galaxies mapped had previously-measured redshifts but 11 000 new ones were measured by huchra macri and collaborators starting in the late 1990s using mainly two telescopes: one at the fred lawrence whipple observatory on mount hopkins ariz and one at the cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile the last observations were completed shortly after huchras death in october 2010 macri who is the corresponding author in the resulting paper that will soon be published completed his doctorate in astronomy at harvard in 2001 under huchra who put the cfa on the international astronomical map 25 years ago with one of the first redshift surveys the focus of 2mrs is to answer how much dark matter is there in the local universe out to about 400 million light years in radius and to understand why the milky way is moving through the universe at its present speed and direction macri said the 2mrs mapped in detail areas previously hidden behind our milky way the motion of the milky way with respect to the rest of the universe has been a puzzle ever since astronomers were first able to measure it and found it couldnt be explained by the gravitational attraction from any visible matter massive local structures like the hydra-centaurus region (the great attractor) were previously hidden almost behind the milky way but are now shown in great detail by 2mrs macri noted that texas a&m astronomers are involved in another historical mapping project the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) an international collaboration led by the university of texas at austin to investigate dark energy in the early universe the $34 million project will harness the extensive light-gathering power of the worlds third-largest telescope the hobby-eberly telescope and the worlds premier survey spectrograph being assembled and aligned at texas a&m to produce the largest map of the universe to date by pinpointing the positions of more than one million far-off galaxies in three dimensions the goal is to measure how the universe expands over time revealing unprecedented information about dark energy and to measure the geometry of our universe to very high precision to give astronomers direct information about the state of the universe at a time less than one second after the big bang hetdex will give us a 3-d map of a large volume of the universe but it will ‚Äòonly cover 1 percent of the surface of the entire sky macri said for comparison 2mrs covers 95 percent of the entire sky out to a very shallow depth astronomically speaking of course of 400 million light-years yielding a volume that is about 1 000 times smaller than the one to be surveyed by hetdex if you compare a survey of the universe to a study of the earth hetdex would be the equivalent of getting very deep geological information for two regions covering an area about 7 times the size of texas whereas 2mrs would be akin to mapping the near-surface features of our planet mountains coastlines ocean rifts etc for 95 percent of its surface just as both types of geological surveys are useful for answering different questions about the earth 2mrs and hetdex complement each other in our study of the universe macri a joint holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn career enhancement professorship in physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 after spending six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) in arizona his research focuses on the extragalactic distance scale resolved stellar populations and near-field cosmology he is an expert in cepheid variables which he studies using the hubble space telescope the gemini north telescope and other observatories in addition to authoring more than 50 referred publications he is a member of the sh0es team an international collaboration that is using cepheid variables specifically measurements of their luminosity to help refine the hubble constant and thereby narrow alternative explanations for dark energy in the universe to learn more about the 2mass redshift survey visit https://wwwcfaharvardedu/~dfabricant/huchra/2mass/ for more information about macris research and astronomy at texas a&m visit astronomy research page news release includes significant contributions from the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or macri@physicstamuedu " " austin have you noticed that no one seems to talk about clock rate anymore instead of boosting speed at the microprocessor level companies are packing more cores on a chip and more blades in a server adding density to make up for the fact that in the current paradigm transistors cannot operate much faster this leveling of the speed curve has led many to pursue alternative models of computation foremost among them quantum computing practically speaking the field is in its infancy with a wide range of possible implementations theoretically however the solutions share the same goal: using the quantum nature of matter its ability to be in more than one state at once called superposition to speed up computations a million-fold or more in topological quantum error correction information is stored in a nonlocal property of the system this can for example be visualized as a string that lives on the surface of a torus: it either wraps around the torus (blue) or it can be contracted to a point (red) thus denoting two distinct topological sectors the close up shows that loops are formed by connecting different stabilizers z with a closed line helmut g katzgraber where typical computers represent information as 0s and 1s quantum computers use 0 1 and all possible superpositions to perform computations instead of basing your calculation on classical bits now you can use all kinds of quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computations said helmut katzgraber professor of physics at texas a&m university by exploiting these quantum effects you can in principle massively outperform standard computers problems that are currently out of reach such as simulating blood flow through the entire body designing patient-specific drugs decrypting data or simulating complex materials and advanced quantum systems would suddenly be graspable this tantalizing possibility drives researchers to explore quantum computers the behavior of quantum particles is difficult to see or test in the traditional sense so the primary ways scientists probe quantum systems is through computer simulations studying the theoretical stability of a quantum computer via computer simulations is exceptionally difficult however an international team of researchers coming from diverse fields of physics found common ground on a new way of determining the error tolerance of so-called topological quantum computers using high-performance computing the approach involves modeling the interactions of a class of exotic but well-known materials known as spin glasses these materials have been shown to correlate to the stability of a topologically-protected quantum computer by simulating these spin-glass-like systems on the ranger and lonestar4 supercomputers at the texas advanced computing center (tacc) the team has been able to explore the error threshold for topological quantum computers a practically important aspect of these systems its an inherent property of quantum mechanics that if you prepare a state it is not going to stay put katzgraber said building a device that is precise enough to do the computations with little error and then stays put long enough to do enough computations before losing the information is very difficult katzgrabers work focuses on understanding how many physical bits can ‚Äòbreak before the system stops working we calculate the error threshold an important figure of merit to tell you how good and how stable your quantum computer could be he explained katzgraber and his colleagues have shown that the topological design can sustain a 10 percent error rate and even higher a value considerably larger than for traditional implementations so what is a topological quantum computer katzgraber likens the topological design to a donut with a string through it the string can shift around but it requires a good deal of energy to break through the donut or to cut the string a 0 state can then be encoded into the system when the string passes through the donut; a 1 when it is outside the donut as long as the donut or string do not break the encoded information is protected against any external influences ie wiggling of the string in the topological model one uses many physical bits to build a logical bit in exchange the logical bit is protected against outside influences like decoherence in this way the system acts much like a dvd reader encoding information at multiple points within the topology to prevent errors its a quantum mechanical version of a 0 and 1 that is protected to external influences katzgraber said the amount of error a topological quantum computing system can sustain corresponds to how many interactions in the underlying spin glass can be frustrated before the material stops being ferromagnetic this insight informs the scientists about the stability potential of topological quantum computing systems topological codes are of great interest because they only require local operations for error correction and still provide a threshold states hector bombin a research collaborator at the perimeter institute in canada in addition they have demonstrated an extraordinary flexibility in particular their topological content allows one to introduce naturally several ways of computing and correcting errors that are specific to these class of codes according to katzgraber the non-intuitive approach to quantum simulations was driven by the unique nature of the collaboration between his group at texas a&m university and eth zurich (switzerland) as well as collaborators at the perimeter institute and the universidad complutense de madrid in spain you have so many disparate fields of physics coming together on this one problem katzgraber said you have the statistical mechanics of disordered systems; quantum computation; and lattice gauge theories from high-energy physics all three are completely perpendicular to each other but the glue that brings them together is high performance computing on taccs high-performance computing systems katzgraber simulated systems of more than a 1 000 particles and then repeated the calculations tens of thousands of times to statistically validate the virtual experiment each set of simulations required hundreds of thousands of processor hours and all together katzgraber used more than two million processor hours for his intensive calculations results of the simulations were published in physical review letters physical review a and physical review e and are inspiring further study even as trailblazing companies fabricate the first quantum computing systems many basic questions remain most notably how to read in and read out information without error the majority of people in the field believe a prototype that significantly outperforms silicon at room temperature is decades away nonetheless the insights drawn from computational simulations like katzgrabers are playing a key role in the conceptual development of what may be the next leap forward were going to make sure that one day well build computers that do not have the limits of moores law said katzgraber with that well be able to do things that right now were dreaming about for additional information visit the research page of the texas a&m computational physics group ######### the ranger supercomputer is funded through the national science foundation (nsf) office of cyberinfrastructure path to petascale program the system is a collaboration among the texas advanced computing center (tacc) the university of texas at austins institute for computational engineering and science (ices) sun microsystems advanced micro devices arizona state university and cornell university the ranger and lonestar supercomputers and the spur hpc visualization resource are key systems of the nsf teragrid a nationwide network of academic hpc centers sponsored by the nsf office of cyberinfrastructure which provides scientists and researchers access to large-scale computing networking data-analysis and visualization resources and expertise -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu the post overcoming quantum error: international research team pushes frontiers of quantum computing simulation appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " have you noticed that no one seems to talk about clock rate anymore instead of boosting speed at the microprocessor level companies are packing more cores on a chip and more blades in a server adding density to make up for the fact that in the current paradigm transistors cannot operate much faster this leveling of the speed curve has led many to pursue alternative models of computation foremost among them quantum computing practically speaking the field is in its infancy with a wide range of possible implementations theoretically however the solutions share the same goal: using the quantum nature of matter its ability to be in more than one state at once called superposition to speed up computations a million-fold or more in topological quantum error correction information is stored in a nonlocal property of the system this can for example be visualized as a string that lives on the surface of a torus: it either wraps around the torus (blue) or it can be contracted to a point (red) thus denoting two distinct topological sectors the close up shows that loops are formed by connecting different stabilizers z with a closed line helmut g katzgraber where typical computers represent information as 0s and 1s quantum computers use 0 1 and all possible superpositions to perform computations instead of basing your calculation on classical bits now you can use all kinds of quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computations said helmut katzgraber professor of physics at texas a&m university by exploiting these quantum effects you can in principle massively outperform standard computers problems that are currently out of reach such as simulating blood flow through the entire body designing patient-specific drugs decrypting data or simulating complex materials and advanced quantum systems would suddenly be graspable this tantalizing possibility drives researchers to explore quantum computers the behavior of quantum particles is difficult to see or test in the traditional sense so the primary ways scientists probe quantum systems is through computer simulations studying the theoretical stability of a quantum computer via computer simulations is exceptionally difficult however an international team of researchers coming from diverse fields of physics found common ground on a new way of determining the error tolerance of so-called topological quantum computers using high-performance computing the approach involves modeling the interactions of a class of exotic but well-known materials known as spin glasses these materials have been shown to correlate to the stability of a topologically-protected quantum computer by simulating these spin-glass-like systems on the ranger and lonestar4 supercomputers at the texas advanced computing center (tacc) the team has been able to explore the error threshold for topological quantum computers a practically important aspect of these systems its an inherent property of quantum mechanics that if you prepare a state it is not going to stay put katzgraber said building a device that is precise enough to do the computations with little error and then stays put long enough to do enough computations before losing the information is very difficult katzgrabers work focuses on understanding how many physical bits can ‚Äòbreak before the system stops working we calculate the error threshold an important figure of merit to tell you how good and how stable your quantum computer could be he explained katzgraber and his colleagues have shown that the topological design can sustain a 10 percent error rate and even higher a value considerably larger than for traditional implementations so what is a topological quantum computer katzgraber likens the topological design to a donut with a string through it the string can shift around but it requires a good deal of energy to break through the donut or to cut the string a 0 state can then be encoded into the system when the string passes through the donut; a 1 when it is outside the donut as long as the donut or string do not break the encoded information is protected against any external influences ie wiggling of the string in the topological model one uses many physical bits to build a logical bit in exchange the logical bit is protected against outside influences like decoherence in this way the system acts much like a dvd reader encoding information at multiple points within the topology to prevent errors its a quantum mechanical version of a 0 and 1 that is protected to external influences katzgraber said the amount of error a topological quantum computing system can sustain corresponds to how many interactions in the underlying spin glass can be frustrated before the material stops being ferromagnetic this insight informs the scientists about the stability potential of topological quantum computing systems topological codes are of great interest because they only require local operations for error correction and still provide a threshold states hector bombin a research collaborator at the perimeter institute in canada in addition they have demonstrated an extraordinary flexibility in particular their topological content allows one to introduce naturally several ways of computing and correcting errors that are specific to these class of codes according to katzgraber the non-intuitive approach to quantum simulations was driven by the unique nature of the collaboration between his group at texas a&m university and eth zurich (switzerland) as well as collaborators at the perimeter institute and the universidad complutense de madrid in spain you have so many disparate fields of physics coming together on this one problem katzgraber said you have the statistical mechanics of disordered systems; quantum computation; and lattice gauge theories from high-energy physics all three are completely perpendicular to each other but the glue that brings them together is high performance computing on taccs high-performance computing systems katzgraber simulated systems of more than a 1 000 particles and then repeated the calculations tens of thousands of times to statistically validate the virtual experiment each set of simulations required hundreds of thousands of processor hours and all together katzgraber used more than two million processor hours for his intensive calculations results of the simulations were published in physical review letters physical review a and physical review e and are inspiring further study even as trailblazing companies fabricate the first quantum computing systems many basic questions remain most notably how to read in and read out information without error the majority of people in the field believe a prototype that significantly outperforms silicon at room temperature is decades away nonetheless the insights drawn from computational simulations like katzgrabers are playing a key role in the conceptual development of what may be the next leap forward were going to make sure that one day well build computers that do not have the limits of moores law said katzgraber with that well be able to do things that right now were dreaming about for additional information visit the research page of the texas a&m computational physics group ######### the ranger supercomputer is funded through the national science foundation (nsf) office of cyberinfrastructure path to petascale program the system is a collaboration among the texas advanced computing center (tacc) the university of texas at austins institute for computational engineering and science (ices) sun microsystems advanced micro devices arizona state university and cornell university the ranger and lonestar supercomputers and the spur hpc visualization resource are key systems of the nsf teragrid a nationwide network of academic hpc centers sponsored by the nsf office of cyberinfrastructure which provides scientists and researchers access to large-scale computing networking data-analysis and visualization resources and expertise -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or helmut g katzgraber (979) 845-2590 or hgk@tamuedu " " washington dc dr dan melconian assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized with a 2011 united states department of energy early career research award for his achievements and future potential in nuclear physics research melconian a member of texas a&ms world-renowned cyclotron institute whose research focuses on the fundamental symmetries of nature and weak interactions among nuclei is one of 67 early career scientists nationwide and the only one from texas selected to receive funding under the does early career research program funded under the american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) the program is designed to strengthen the nations scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early years of their careers a critical stage with great impact on a scientists later more formative work eligible researchers must be untenured tenure-track assistant professors at us academic institutions or full-time employees at doe national laboratories with a phd earned within the past 10 years their research topics also must fall within the scope of the departments office of sciences six major program offices: advanced scientific computing research; basic energy sciences; biological and environmental research; fusion energy sciences; high-energy physics or nuclear physics melconian was awarded a total of $750 000 over five years by the does office of nuclear physics for his proposal fundamental electroweak interaction studies using trapped atoms and ions his proposal was selected from a pool of about 1 150 university- and national laboratory-based applicants through peer review by outside scientific experts it is a huge honor to have the importance of my work recognized through this generous and prestigious award melconian said i am very excited knowing what a positive impact this early career award will have on my research program as a graduate student at simon fraser university melconian conducted research at triumf canadas national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located in vancouver en route to earning his phd in nuclear physics in 2005 he then spent nearly three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the university of washingtons center for experimental nuclear physics and astrophysics prior to joining the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2008 melconians doe proposal outlines a two-pronged research program one based on atom-trapping and the other on ion-trapping techniques that will probe properties of the weak interaction the atom-trap experiments will be based at triumf where he has proven the ability to perform very precise beta-decay experiments on highly polarized atoms that are only a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero he will use his grant funding to develop novel and elegant techniques most notably construction of a unique penning trap capable of confining short-lived ions to perform complementary beta-decay experiments that also will test our understanding of the basic particles and forces that make up our universe the ion-trap work will take advantage of soon-to-be-completed upgrades at the texas a&m cyclotron institute that will enhance its existing capacity for rare beams accepting the position at texas a&m and the cyclotron institute is one of the wisest decisions of my academic career melconian said i am surrounded by giants in nuclear physics who are happy to share their vast experience and knowledge with me i am part of a strong department that is only getting stronger as well as an institute that is completing an upgrade which will make it possible to do world-class experiments right here on campus surely the doe recognized these additional resources available to me when considering my proposal my colleagues and the infrastructure at texas a&m made it easy to convince them my research program will succeed as a doe university facility jointly supported by the state of texas the cyclotron institute is a major technical and educational resource for texas a&m as well as the state and nation the institute provides the primary infrastructure for graduate programs in nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics programs focus on conducting basic research educating students in accelerator-based science and technology and providing technical capabilities for application in space science materials science analytical procedures and nuclear medicine and a variety of related research areas and industries find more information on the us department of energy early career research program and view a complete list of current award winners and their abstracts learn more about melconians research and the texas a&m cyclotron institute -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr dan melconian (979) 845-1411 or dmelconian@comptamuedu the post melconian honored with department of energy research award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr dan melconian assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized with a 2011 united states department of energy early career research award for his achievements and future potential in nuclear physics research melconian a member of texas a&ms world-renowned cyclotron institute whose research focuses on the fundamental symmetries of nature and weak interactions among nuclei is one of 67 early career scientists nationwide and the only one from texas selected to receive funding under the does early career research program funded under the american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) the program is designed to strengthen the nations scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early years of their careers a critical stage with great impact on a scientists later more formative work eligible researchers must be untenured tenure-track assistant professors at us academic institutions or full-time employees at doe national laboratories with a phd earned within the past 10 years their research topics also must fall within the scope of the departments office of sciences six major program offices: advanced scientific computing research; basic energy sciences; biological and environmental research; fusion energy sciences; high-energy physics or nuclear physics melconian was awarded a total of $750 000 over five years by the does office of nuclear physics for his proposal fundamental electroweak interaction studies using trapped atoms and ions his proposal was selected from a pool of about 1 150 university- and national laboratory-based applicants through peer review by outside scientific experts it is a huge honor to have the importance of my work recognized through this generous and prestigious award melconian said i am very excited knowing what a positive impact this early career award will have on my research program as a graduate student at simon fraser university melconian conducted research at triumf canadas national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located in vancouver en route to earning his phd in nuclear physics in 2005 he then spent nearly three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the university of washingtons center for experimental nuclear physics and astrophysics prior to joining the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy faculty in 2008 melconians doe proposal outlines a two-pronged research program one based on atom-trapping and the other on ion-trapping techniques that will probe properties of the weak interaction the atom-trap experiments will be based at triumf where he has proven the ability to perform very precise beta-decay experiments on highly polarized atoms that are only a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero he will use his grant funding to develop novel and elegant techniques most notably construction of a unique penning trap capable of confining short-lived ions to perform complementary beta-decay experiments that also will test our understanding of the basic particles and forces that make up our universe the ion-trap work will take advantage of soon-to-be-completed upgrades at the texas a&m cyclotron institute that will enhance its existing capacity for rare beams accepting the position at texas a&m and the cyclotron institute is one of the wisest decisions of my academic career melconian said i am surrounded by giants in nuclear physics who are happy to share their vast experience and knowledge with me i am part of a strong department that is only getting stronger as well as an institute that is completing an upgrade which will make it possible to do world-class experiments right here on campus surely the doe recognized these additional resources available to me when considering my proposal my colleagues and the infrastructure at texas a&m made it easy to convince them my research program will succeed as a doe university facility jointly supported by the state of texas the cyclotron institute is a major technical and educational resource for texas a&m as well as the state and nation the institute provides the primary infrastructure for graduate programs in nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics programs focus on conducting basic research educating students in accelerator-based science and technology and providing technical capabilities for application in space science materials science analytical procedures and nuclear medicine and a variety of related research areas and industries find more information on the us department of energy early career research program and view a complete list of current award winners and their abstracts learn more about melconians research and the texas a&m cyclotron institute -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr dan melconian (979) 845-1411 or dmelconian@comptamuedu " " college station cynthia woods mitchell spent a lifetime proving that actions speak louder than words the iconic houston philanthropist and mother of 10 passed away in december 2009 but not before amassing a hard-earned and well-deserved reputation as a champion of artistic and humanitarian causes far bigger than herself from education and environment to community and cultural in tribute to her memory and lifelong example of devotion to both personal and charitable interests her daughter sheridan mitchell lorenz has established the cynthia woods mitchell undergraduate scholarship for women in physics at texas a&m university the scholarship created through the texas a&m foundation will benefit full-time female students in good academic standing pursuing undergraduate degrees in the department of physics and astronomy lorenz gift will be matched equally by contributions from the cynthia and george mitchell foundation and from faculty within the department i am proud to sponsor a scholarship in memory of my mother who believed that all people deserve the opportunities made possible by a good education lorenz says because this scholarship combines her love of astronomy and support for women in science i think it would be deeply pleasing to her i look forward to meeting the young women who will have the benefit of this scholarship in the future and i am both grateful and touched by the generosity of the faculty members who have offered matching funding the matching concept follows another deep-rooted mitchell family tradition that has proved to be as inspirational as it is beneficial cynthia and her husband george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&m and former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp are longtime benefactors of texas a&m and its programs in fundamental physics and astronomy since 2002 they have contributed more than $68 million to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy the vast amount through self-initiated matching challenges that have resulted in even bigger gains for the department and its programs its a concept not lost on the departments faculty which has pledged more than $800 000 during the past decade to benefit a variety of student academic and research causes i am especially pleased to thank sheridan and the mitchell family for this latest in a long line of generous gifts to the department of physics and astronomy says dr edward s fry distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and head of the department sheridans gift is a perfect reflection of her parents vision and spirit overall the mitchell familys generosity and guidance have been game-changers for our department and our facultys appreciation of that support is broad and deep as demonstrated by their rapid response when i provided them with the opportunity to match her gift fueled by the mitchells visionary support and personal philosophy of helping those who help themselves the department has gained nine academic chairs and professorships since 2002 eight courtesy of the mitchells and five of those as a direct result of their matching challenges in 2004 the couple also provided the initial $175 million gift to establish texas a&m as a partner in the $700 million giant magellan telescope an agreement that led to matching by the university of texas at austin thereby bringing both of texas flagship institutions into the 10-member international collaboration earlier this month mitchell agreed to a $25 million gift to the telescope bringing his total support for the gmt to $335 million a figure that includes more than $21 million on behalf of texas a&m in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy designed by noted architect michael graves and officially dedicated just weeks before cynthias death the $825 million buildings are the first on campus to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds the fact that 11 physics and astronomy faculty members accepted the departments matching challenge to this scholarship is great testimony to the commitment our faculty has to undergraduate stem [science technology engineering and mathematics] education says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science and inaugural holder of the george p mitchell 40 endowed chair in statistics for more information about memorial scholarships or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu to learn more about the mitchell physics buildings or physics and astronomy at texas a&m go to http://physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post opportunity in action: cynthia woods mitchell honored with memorial scholarship in physicstexas a&m college of science " " cynthia woods mitchell spent a lifetime proving that actions speak louder than words the iconic houston philanthropist and mother of 10 passed away in december 2009 but not before amassing a hard-earned and well-deserved reputation as a champion of artistic and humanitarian causes far bigger than herself from education and environment to community and cultural in tribute to her memory and lifelong example of devotion to both personal and charitable interests her daughter sheridan mitchell lorenz has established the cynthia woods mitchell undergraduate scholarship for women in physics at texas a&m university the scholarship created through the texas a&m foundation will benefit full-time female students in good academic standing pursuing undergraduate degrees in the department of physics and astronomy lorenz gift will be matched equally by contributions from the cynthia and george mitchell foundation and from faculty within the department i am proud to sponsor a scholarship in memory of my mother who believed that all people deserve the opportunities made possible by a good education lorenz says because this scholarship combines her love of astronomy and support for women in science i think it would be deeply pleasing to her i look forward to meeting the young women who will have the benefit of this scholarship in the future and i am both grateful and touched by the generosity of the faculty members who have offered matching funding the matching concept follows another deep-rooted mitchell family tradition that has proved to be as inspirational as it is beneficial cynthia and her husband george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&m and former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp are longtime benefactors of texas a&m and its programs in fundamental physics and astronomy since 2002 they have contributed more than $68 million to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy the vast amount through self-initiated matching challenges that have resulted in even bigger gains for the department and its programs its a concept not lost on the departments faculty which has pledged more than $800 000 during the past decade to benefit a variety of student academic and research causes i am especially pleased to thank sheridan and the mitchell family for this latest in a long line of generous gifts to the department of physics and astronomy says dr edward s fry distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and head of the department sheridans gift is a perfect reflection of her parents vision and spirit overall the mitchell familys generosity and guidance have been game-changers for our department and our facultys appreciation of that support is broad and deep as demonstrated by their rapid response when i provided them with the opportunity to match her gift fueled by the mitchells visionary support and personal philosophy of helping those who help themselves the department has gained nine academic chairs and professorships since 2002 eight courtesy of the mitchells and five of those as a direct result of their matching challenges in 2004 the couple also provided the initial $175 million gift to establish texas a&m as a partner in the $700 million giant magellan telescope an agreement that led to matching by the university of texas at austin thereby bringing both of texas flagship institutions into the 10-member international collaboration earlier this month mitchell agreed to a $25 million gift to the telescope bringing his total support for the gmt to $335 million a figure that includes more than $21 million on behalf of texas a&m in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy designed by noted architect michael graves and officially dedicated just weeks before cynthias death the $825 million buildings are the first on campus to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds the fact that 11 physics and astronomy faculty members accepted the departments matching challenge to this scholarship is great testimony to the commitment our faculty has to undergraduate stem [science technology engineering and mathematics] education says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science and inaugural holder of the george p mitchell 40 endowed chair in statistics for more information about memorial scholarships or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu to learn more about the mitchell physics buildings or physics and astronomy at texas a&m go to http://physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at princeton university has been selected to receive the 2011 herbert walther award honoring his pioneering research and leadership the award jointly bestowed by the optical society (osa) and the deutsche physikalische gesellschaft (dpg) and presented by each society in alternate years recognizes distinguished contributions in quantum optics and atomic physics as well as leadership in the international scientific community scully is cited for his fundamental and applied contributions: from the quantum theory of optical and micro-masers to the quantum eraser and from inversionless and correlated emission lasers to anthrax detection scully will be presented tuesday (may 24) with the award which is named for professor herbert walther founding member and longtime director of the max planck institute of quantum optics in acknowledgement of the seminal influence of walthers path-breaking innovations in quantum optics and atomic physics and for his wide-ranging contributions to the international scientific community marlan scully is one of the worlds most distinguished scientists in the field of quantum optics said luiz davidovich selection committee chair we are delighted to present the 2011 walther award to a true pioneer of this field whose work has constantly stimulated new research directions while also inspiring young scientists to follow in his footsteps scully is a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max planck society as well as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences osa and the american physical society (aps) his career features a vast set of contributions to the field of quantum optics and physics from developing the quantum theory of the laser and micro-maser theory to discovering the concept of the quantum eraser and inventing the concepts of correlated emission in addition to contributing to the formulation of the theory of laser gyroscopes and free-electron lasers scully co-led the first experiment demonstrating lasing without inversion and carried out the first demonstration of room-temperature slow light he also is responsible for the development of a comprehensive theory of the dynamics of bose-condensation among many other career accomplishments he has published more than 500 papers that have been cited more than 20 000 times and written two textbooks in laser physics and quantum electronics in addition to joint professorial appointments at both texas a&m and princeton scully holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple texas a&m appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor of chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science marlan scully plays many roles at texas a&m and around the world and we are extraordinarily fortunate to have him on our faculty said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science a highly decorated researcher and scholar scullys many awards and professional honors include osas adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award the institute of electrical and electronics engineers incs quantum electronics award the franklin institutes elliott cresson medal a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize the aps arthur l schawlow prize and harvard universitys morris loeb lectureship in february 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university of ulm the birthplace of albert einstein in germany for his pioneering work in laser physics and quantum optics scully who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 received both his masters of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university he is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics founded in 1916 and headquartered in washington dc the optical society unites more than 106 000 professionals from 134 countries in an effort to bring together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives the society works to advance the common interests of the field providing educational resources to scientists engineers and business leaders by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics osa publications events technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics for more information visit wwwosaorg ############ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world for more on research at texas a&m visit research page -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post scully honored with optical societys herbert walther award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at princeton university has been selected to receive the 2011 herbert walther award honoring his pioneering research and leadership the award jointly bestowed by the optical society (osa) and the deutsche physikalische gesellschaft (dpg) and presented by each society in alternate years recognizes distinguished contributions in quantum optics and atomic physics as well as leadership in the international scientific community scully is cited for his fundamental and applied contributions: from the quantum theory of optical and micro-masers to the quantum eraser and from inversionless and correlated emission lasers to anthrax detection scully will be presented tuesday (may 24) with the award which is named for professor herbert walther founding member and longtime director of the max planck institute of quantum optics in acknowledgement of the seminal influence of walthers path-breaking innovations in quantum optics and atomic physics and for his wide-ranging contributions to the international scientific community marlan scully is one of the worlds most distinguished scientists in the field of quantum optics said luiz davidovich selection committee chair we are delighted to present the 2011 walther award to a true pioneer of this field whose work has constantly stimulated new research directions while also inspiring young scientists to follow in his footsteps scully is a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max planck society as well as a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences osa and the american physical society (aps) his career features a vast set of contributions to the field of quantum optics and physics from developing the quantum theory of the laser and micro-maser theory to discovering the concept of the quantum eraser and inventing the concepts of correlated emission in addition to contributing to the formulation of the theory of laser gyroscopes and free-electron lasers scully co-led the first experiment demonstrating lasing without inversion and carried out the first demonstration of room-temperature slow light he also is responsible for the development of a comprehensive theory of the dynamics of bose-condensation among many other career accomplishments he has published more than 500 papers that have been cited more than 20 000 times and written two textbooks in laser physics and quantum electronics in addition to joint professorial appointments at both texas a&m and princeton scully holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple texas a&m appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor of chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science marlan scully plays many roles at texas a&m and around the world and we are extraordinarily fortunate to have him on our faculty said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science a highly decorated researcher and scholar scullys many awards and professional honors include osas adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award the institute of electrical and electronics engineers incs quantum electronics award the franklin institutes elliott cresson medal a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize the aps arthur l schawlow prize and harvard universitys morris loeb lectureship in february 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university of ulm the birthplace of albert einstein in germany for his pioneering work in laser physics and quantum optics scully who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 received both his masters of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university he is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics founded in 1916 and headquartered in washington dc the optical society unites more than 106 000 professionals from 134 countries in an effort to bring together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives the society works to advance the common interests of the field providing educational resources to scientists engineers and business leaders by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics osa publications events technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics for more information visit wwwosaorg ############ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world for more on research at texas a&m visit research page -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " college station houston businessman george p mitchell has taken another pioneering step in his personal quest to position texas a&m university as an international leader in fundamental physics and astronomy mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and founder of mitchell energy & development corp and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation have agreed to a landmark $25 million gift to the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) corporation toward construction of the $700 million giant magellan telescope a next-generation ground-based wonder poised to open a new window on the universe for the 21st century mitchells gift is being made through the carnegie institution for science home of carnegie observatories and headquarters of the gmto which manages the telescope project half of the gift or $125 million will be credited to texas a&m bringing mitchells total commitments to the gmt on behalf of texas a&m to nearly $21 million mitchells previous pledges to the gmt are bookended by a five-year $5 million gift to texas a&m last fall and the original $125 million contribution he and his wife cynthia woods mitchell made in 2004 to establish his alma mater as a founding partner in the worlds largest telescope and heir apparent to nasas hubble space telescope and james webb space telescope one with the power to solve many of the universes most intriguing scientific puzzles this gift not only brings the dream of the giant magellan telescope much closer to becoming reality but also helps propel texas a&m and the entire state of texas to the forefront in the important fields of physics and astronomy said texas a&m president r bowen loftin we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his profound vision and his significant investment in our shared future dr nicholas b suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the department of physics and astronomy lauded mitchells continued financial support for texas a&ms burgeoning astronomy program singling out his gmt gifts as being particularly vital to its overall success we are approximately one-third of the way funded and as such im very optimistic this will get built suntzeff said we greatly appreciate mr mitchells visionary support of the gmt and of texas a&m astronomy to date $2555 million has been raised in support of the gmt viewed as one of the most viable successors to the hubble telescope that has served as scientists premier source for the most important astronomical discoveries for decades towering above a chilean mountaintop at a colossal perch of 200 feet and equipped with seven 84-meter primary mirror segments weighing in at 20 tons apiece that together will provide the power of a single 25-meter mirror the gmt will rank as the worlds largest and most powerful telescope capable of collecting 70 times more light thereby enabling images up to 10 times sharper than the hubble the gmt is set to begin science operations at the las campanas observatory site in the atacama desert in northern chile in 2018 about the same time the orbiting hubble is expected to deteriorate beyond the point of functionality thanks to texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and the expertise of its director dr darren l depoy holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics texas a&m will be leading the development of its state-of-the-art instruments that will enable major breakthroughs such as direct visual images of planets around other stars and the first galaxies in the universe the gmt is expected to unlock the secrets of the very early universe the first stars galaxies and black holes that formed and to give perhaps the first definitive answer as to whether or not there is life beyond earth the gift from mr mitchell and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation comes at an extremely important time to help fund the final design of the telescope which will put the gmt well ahead of the other giant telescope project funded out of california suntzeff said our design is significantly less expensive and technologically less challenging than the california project we will be on the sky first and i hope we will therefore be first to make the major discoveries in the next decade here in texas it is our intent to partner with the outstanding high-tech industry we have in texas to design and construct major parts of the telescope armed with the gmts unparalleled insights into optical and infrared astronomy not possible using current technology scientists hope to unravel new details about the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy they also hope to use the gmt as a time machine to peer back into the cosmos to detect the origins of the very first stars and galaxies we will be able to point this telescope anywhere in the southern skies and see farther than anyone else on earth even very close to the edge of the universe with a telescope of this size and quality suntzeff said back in 2004 it was mitchells initial gift to the gmt on behalf of texas a&m that not only launched the universitys astronomy program but also spurred the university of texas at austin to provide matching that established the two flagship universities as original partners in the gmt project they along with eight other major international research organizations the carnegie institution for science harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona the university of chicago the australian national university astronomy australia limited and the korea astronomy and space science institute are collaborating to construct and operate the mammoth 25-meter telescope mitchell said he felt compelled to make yet another generous gift to help ensure that texas a&ms team of world-class astronomers had adequate time to use the gmt upon its completion all but guaranteeing that texas a&m will be at the helm of the highly anticipated new discoveries the gigantic telescope is expected to uncover the gmt is one of the reasons these researchers came to texas a&m in the first place mitchell said hubble will be out of commission in the next 5 or 6 years more money means more observation time and its important our researchers get that time with the gmt thanks to mitchells contributions to the gmt the possibilities for texas a&ms future as a premier astronomy research institution are seemingly endless according to suntzeff this will cement texas a&m as one of the top schools in astronomy and astronomical instrumentation he said with the gmt texas a&m will be the leader in many tremendous new discoveries with our outstanding faculty the hardest thing to do is to get a project like this off the ground and mr mitchells gifts have made that possible throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry mitchell retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy an interest he shared with his late wife cynthia their visionary support of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy has played a leading role in its skyrocketing rise to national prominence in addition to a $35 million gift in 2005 toward the construction of the $825 million george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings the couple has provided funding toward 10 academic chairs and professorships a post-doctoral fellowship in astronomy and a related lecture series the mitchell familys generous support of texas a&ms programs in fundamental physics and astronomy totals more than $68 million since 2002 for decades the mitchells have been major benefactors of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name they also provided major funding for texas a&ms statistics and petroleum engineering departments and the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center for additional information on the gmt as well as the science it will perform visit http://wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit tamu astronomy overview click here to read a related story in the houston chronicle -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post george mitchell mitchell foundation commit $25 million to giant magellan telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " houston businessman george p mitchell has taken another pioneering step in his personal quest to position texas a&m university as an international leader in fundamental physics and astronomy mitchell a 1940 texas a&m distinguished petroleum engineering graduate and founder of mitchell energy & development corp and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation have agreed to a landmark $25 million gift to the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) corporation toward construction of the $700 million giant magellan telescope a next-generation ground-based wonder poised to open a new window on the universe for the 21st century mitchells gift is being made through the carnegie institution for science home of carnegie observatories and headquarters of the gmto which manages the telescope project half of the gift or $125 million will be credited to texas a&m bringing mitchells total commitments to the gmt on behalf of texas a&m to nearly $21 million mitchells previous pledges to the gmt are bookended by a five-year $5 million gift to texas a&m last fall and the original $125 million contribution he and his wife cynthia woods mitchell made in 2004 to establish his alma mater as a founding partner in the worlds largest telescope and heir apparent to nasas hubble space telescope and james webb space telescope one with the power to solve many of the universes most intriguing scientific puzzles this gift not only brings the dream of the giant magellan telescope much closer to becoming reality but also helps propel texas a&m and the entire state of texas to the forefront in the important fields of physics and astronomy said texas a&m president r bowen loftin we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his profound vision and his significant investment in our shared future dr nicholas b suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the department of physics and astronomy lauded mitchells continued financial support for texas a&ms burgeoning astronomy program singling out his gmt gifts as being particularly vital to its overall success we are approximately one-third of the way funded and as such im very optimistic this will get built suntzeff said we greatly appreciate mr mitchells visionary support of the gmt and of texas a&m astronomy to date $2555 million has been raised in support of the gmt viewed as one of the most viable successors to the hubble telescope that has served as scientists premier source for the most important astronomical discoveries for decades towering above a chilean mountaintop at a colossal perch of 200 feet and equipped with seven 84-meter primary mirror segments weighing in at 20 tons apiece that together will provide the power of a single 25-meter mirror the gmt will rank as the worlds largest and most powerful telescope capable of collecting 70 times more light thereby enabling images up to 10 times sharper than the hubble the gmt is set to begin science operations at the las campanas observatory site in the atacama desert in northern chile in 2018 about the same time the orbiting hubble is expected to deteriorate beyond the point of functionality thanks to texas a&ms munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and the expertise of its director dr darren l depoy holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics texas a&m will be leading the development of its state-of-the-art instruments that will enable major breakthroughs such as direct visual images of planets around other stars and the first galaxies in the universe the gmt is expected to unlock the secrets of the very early universe the first stars galaxies and black holes that formed and to give perhaps the first definitive answer as to whether or not there is life beyond earth the gift from mr mitchell and the cynthia and george mitchell foundation comes at an extremely important time to help fund the final design of the telescope which will put the gmt well ahead of the other giant telescope project funded out of california suntzeff said our design is significantly less expensive and technologically less challenging than the california project we will be on the sky first and i hope we will therefore be first to make the major discoveries in the next decade here in texas it is our intent to partner with the outstanding high-tech industry we have in texas to design and construct major parts of the telescope armed with the gmts unparalleled insights into optical and infrared astronomy not possible using current technology scientists hope to unravel new details about the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy they also hope to use the gmt as a time machine to peer back into the cosmos to detect the origins of the very first stars and galaxies we will be able to point this telescope anywhere in the southern skies and see farther than anyone else on earth even very close to the edge of the universe with a telescope of this size and quality suntzeff said back in 2004 it was mitchells initial gift to the gmt on behalf of texas a&m that not only launched the universitys astronomy program but also spurred the university of texas at austin to provide matching that established the two flagship universities as original partners in the gmt project they along with eight other major international research organizations the carnegie institution for science harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona the university of chicago the australian national university astronomy australia limited and the korea astronomy and space science institute are collaborating to construct and operate the mammoth 25-meter telescope mitchell said he felt compelled to make yet another generous gift to help ensure that texas a&ms team of world-class astronomers had adequate time to use the gmt upon its completion all but guaranteeing that texas a&m will be at the helm of the highly anticipated new discoveries the gigantic telescope is expected to uncover the gmt is one of the reasons these researchers came to texas a&m in the first place mitchell said hubble will be out of commission in the next 5 or 6 years more money means more observation time and its important our researchers get that time with the gmt thanks to mitchells contributions to the gmt the possibilities for texas a&ms future as a premier astronomy research institution are seemingly endless according to suntzeff this will cement texas a&m as one of the top schools in astronomy and astronomical instrumentation he said with the gmt texas a&m will be the leader in many tremendous new discoveries with our outstanding faculty the hardest thing to do is to get a project like this off the ground and mr mitchells gifts have made that possible throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry mitchell retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy an interest he shared with his late wife cynthia their visionary support of the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy has played a leading role in its skyrocketing rise to national prominence in addition to a $35 million gift in 2005 toward the construction of the $825 million george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings the couple has provided funding toward 10 academic chairs and professorships a post-doctoral fellowship in astronomy and a related lecture series the mitchell familys generous support of texas a&ms programs in fundamental physics and astronomy totals more than $68 million since 2002 for decades the mitchells have been major benefactors of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name they also provided major funding for texas a&ms statistics and petroleum engineering departments and the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center for additional information on the gmt as well as the science it will perform visit http://wwwgmtoorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit tamu astronomy overview click here to read a related story in the houston chronicle -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " a dozen texas a&m university students enrolled in physics 218 (classical mechanics) this spring have been honored by the department of physics and astronomy as its latest addison wesley/benjamin cummings mechanics scholars the students selected for their top-scoring marks on a special end-of-semester challenge exam open to all physics 218 students and covering material from all related sections taught during the spring 2011 semester were honored thursday (may 5) during an awards banquet in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the event featured a presentation by dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy and thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence on career possibilities in physics and related fields each student was presented with a certificate commemorating their accomplishments by associate department head dr a lewis ford (left to right) dr david toback sophomore computer science major matthew barry (first) freshman mathematics major zhentao tong (third) and dr ricardo eusebi this semesters top three performers sophomore computer science major matthew barry (first) junior mathematics major joshua keneda (second) and freshman mathematics major zhentao tong (third) also received copies of the physics 208 textbook young and freedman volume ii (valued at around $90) as well as monetary awards ($200 for first place $100 for second and third) to be used toward academics before handing out awards toback encouraged the students to continue taking physics courses and to strongly consider the numerous career options a degree in physics can offer physics majors are highly sought in numerous industries toback explained the world needs the best and brightest the top performers to be doing great things he said although considered one of the departments toughest physics courses physics 218 routinely attracts about 800 students across its eight sections each spring semester and about 1 500 in the fall according to toback this year all three of the top performers came from the same section 521-525 taught by assistant professor of physics and astronomy dr ricardo eusebi we often have excellent students in the 218 courses and this semester was no exception eusebi said these students come in all shapes and sizes some are very vocal and some very quiet but they are all very driven and most of them are just starting to discover their own potential the event is part of the mechanics scholar program founded by the department in 2002 to celebrate the best students in physics 218 and encourage career exploration in physics for more information on the program including lists of past winners visit the page on mechanics scholar program -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu the post head of the class: physics honors 2011 mechanics scholars appeared first on college of science share: " " college station dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university is one of two campus-wide recipients of the 2011 honors teacher/scholar award presented by texas a&m honors and undergraduate research toback who previously was honored for teaching excellence in 2008 by being named to a three-year appointment as the thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence will be recognized next week along with fellow recipient dr karen-beth scholthof at texas a&ms annual honors recognition ceremony scheduled for thursday (may 12) from 1 ‚Äì 3 pm at the college station hilton hotel and conference center honors teacher/scholar awards recognize honors faculty members who demonstrate excellence in both teaching in honors education and academic scholarship recipients of the award receive a grant of $4 000 to be used for any purpose that enhances their research or teaching toback who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2000 received his bachelor of science in physics from mit in 1991 and his phd from the university of chicago in 1997 his research is focused on the search for new fundamental particles at the worlds highest energy particle accelerators the fermilab tevatron (located outside chicago) and europes large hadron collider (in geneva switzerland) the search for new particles is in part motivated by the tantalizing possibilities offered by the theory of supersymmetry (susy) which helps explain many of the mysteries of particle physics including the earliest moments in the universe after the big bang and the existence of the dark matter that pervades the universe today toback has received numerous awards for his teaching and research including the texas a&m university systems student-led award for teaching excellence (fall 2008 spring 2010) the arthur j and wilhelmina d thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence (2008) the association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at both the university (2007) and college levels (2004) and the center for teaching excellences montague scholarship award (2002) a division of texas a&m undergraduate studies honors and undergraduate research provides high-impact educational experiences and challenges motivated students in all academic disciplines to graduate from an enriched demanding curriculum opportunities for honors study at texas a&m were initiated in the mid-1960s in what was then known as the school of arts and sciences subsequently the colleges of liberal arts science and geosciences co-sponsored an honors program and by 1968 all of the academic units by then known as colleges versus schools had joined in the endeavor in recent years the growth of honors study opportunities has been dramatic for the 2010-11 academic year more than 300 sections of honors courses were offered and in the fall 2010 semester alone approximately 3 000 students engaged in honors study at texas a&m students participating in the university honors program may also take advantage of optional structured honors courses and study sequences offered in several academic colleges: the mays business school honors program the engineering scholars program (esp) in the dwight look college of engineering and the honors plan in the college of liberal arts additionally there are departmental honors study sequences available for majors in aerospace engineering agricultural economics bioenvironmental sciences communication english history mathematics political science and psychology for further information on the honors faculty awards and the honors recognition ceremony contact honors and undergraduate research at (979) 845-1957 or honors@tamuedu -atm- contact: kyle mox (979) 845-1957 or kemox@tamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@physicstamuedu the post toback receives 2011 honors teacher-scholar award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr david toback professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university is one of two campus-wide recipients of the 2011 honors teacher/scholar award presented by texas a&m honors and undergraduate research toback who previously was honored for teaching excellence in 2008 by being named to a three-year appointment as the thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence will be recognized next week along with fellow recipient dr karen-beth scholthof at texas a&ms annual honors recognition ceremony scheduled for thursday (may 12) from 1 ‚Äì 3 pm at the college station hilton hotel and conference center honors teacher/scholar awards recognize honors faculty members who demonstrate excellence in both teaching in honors education and academic scholarship recipients of the award receive a grant of $4 000 to be used for any purpose that enhances their research or teaching toback who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2000 received his bachelor of science in physics from mit in 1991 and his phd from the university of chicago in 1997 his research is focused on the search for new fundamental particles at the worlds highest energy particle accelerators the fermilab tevatron (located outside chicago) and europes large hadron collider (in geneva switzerland) the search for new particles is in part motivated by the tantalizing possibilities offered by the theory of supersymmetry (susy) which helps explain many of the mysteries of particle physics including the earliest moments in the universe after the big bang and the existence of the dark matter that pervades the universe today toback has received numerous awards for his teaching and research including the texas a&m university systems student-led award for teaching excellence (fall 2008 spring 2010) the arthur j and wilhelmina d thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence (2008) the association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at both the university (2007) and college levels (2004) and the center for teaching excellences montague scholarship award (2002) a division of texas a&m undergraduate studies honors and undergraduate research provides high-impact educational experiences and challenges motivated students in all academic disciplines to graduate from an enriched demanding curriculum opportunities for honors study at texas a&m were initiated in the mid-1960s in what was then known as the school of arts and sciences subsequently the colleges of liberal arts science and geosciences co-sponsored an honors program and by 1968 all of the academic units by then known as colleges versus schools had joined in the endeavor in recent years the growth of honors study opportunities has been dramatic for the 2010-11 academic year more than 300 sections of honors courses were offered and in the fall 2010 semester alone approximately 3 000 students engaged in honors study at texas a&m students participating in the university honors program may also take advantage of optional structured honors courses and study sequences offered in several academic colleges: the mays business school honors program the engineering scholars program (esp) in the dwight look college of engineering and the honors plan in the college of liberal arts additionally there are departmental honors study sequences available for majors in aerospace engineering agricultural economics bioenvironmental sciences communication english history mathematics political science and psychology for further information on the honors faculty awards and the honors recognition ceremony contact honors and undergraduate research at (979) 845-1957 or honors@tamuedu -atm- contact: kyle mox (979) 845-1957 or kemox@tamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-7717 or toback@physicstamuedu " " college station m suhail zubairy professor of physics at texas a&m university has been recognized as one of three faculty recipients of 2011 bush excellence awards for international teaching international research and public service zubairy who was honored for his excellence in international research received the award along with co-recipients julian e gaspar (international teaching) director of the center for international business studies (cibs) at mays business school and clinical professor of finance and s kerry cooper (public service) the cullen trust professor of finance and executive director of the center for international business programs of mays business school the trio was celebrated wednesday (april 27) at the spring meeting of the texas a&m international board texas a&m president r bowen loftin and executive director of the bush foundation roman popadiuk presented each recipient with a plaque and a check for $2 500 during an awards dinner zubairy holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics in the college of science is widely considered to be among the top of his field in quantum optics quantum communication and quantum computing his nominator cited his exceptional publication record and his many prestigious awards including the humbolt khwarizmi prize outstanding physicist award by the organization of islamic countries and two medals of honor from the president of his home country of pakistan as proof of his research excellence zubairy is known worldwide for the textbook he co-authored with texas a&m distinguished professor of physics marlan o scully quantum optics which has been translated into chinese and russian and is now in its fourth printing his nominator added that zubairys most outstanding contribution is that he continues to have a great impact on the development of quantum optics programs in many countries around the world the bush excellence awards were established through the vision and support of president and mrs george hw bush in 2002 with financial assistance from the george bush presidential library foundation since that time 30 awards have been presented to texas a&m faculty -atm- contact: linda edwards (979) 862-6700 the post zubairy earns bush excellence award for international research appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " m suhail zubairy professor of physics at texas a&m university has been recognized as one of three faculty recipients of 2011 bush excellence awards for international teaching international research and public service zubairy who was honored for his excellence in international research received the award along with co-recipients julian e gaspar (international teaching) director of the center for international business studies (cibs) at mays business school and clinical professor of finance and s kerry cooper (public service) the cullen trust professor of finance and executive director of the center for international business programs of mays business school the trio was celebrated wednesday (april 27) at the spring meeting of the texas a&m international board texas a&m president r bowen loftin and executive director of the bush foundation roman popadiuk presented each recipient with a plaque and a check for $2 500 during an awards dinner zubairy holder of the munnerlyn-heep chair in quantum optics in the college of science is widely considered to be among the top of his field in quantum optics quantum communication and quantum computing his nominator cited his exceptional publication record and his many prestigious awards including the humbolt khwarizmi prize outstanding physicist award by the organization of islamic countries and two medals of honor from the president of his home country of pakistan as proof of his research excellence zubairy is known worldwide for the textbook he co-authored with texas a&m distinguished professor of physics marlan o scully quantum optics which has been translated into chinese and russian and is now in its fourth printing his nominator added that zubairys most outstanding contribution is that he continues to have a great impact on the development of quantum optics programs in many countries around the world the bush excellence awards were established through the vision and support of president and mrs george hw bush in 2002 with financial assistance from the george bush presidential library foundation since that time 30 awards have been presented to texas a&m faculty -atm- contact: linda edwards (979) 862-6700 " " college station when the space shuttle endeavour takes flight friday (april 29) for its final mission a $15 billion particle physics experiment with texas a&m university ties will be along for the ride as part of endeavours swan song the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) a galactic endeavor in its own right involving roughly 500 physicists from 16 countries and nearly 60 institutions worldwide will be delivered to the international space station to begin a decade-long mission to record and measure data from high-energy cosmic rays in an international effort to understand the formation of the universe and explain the mysterious forces known as dark matter and antimatter texas a&m physicist dr peter m mcintyre is one of the hundreds of scientists who collaborated on ams along with massachusetts institute of technology (mit) nobel prize-winning particle physicist and close friend dr samuel ting who first proposed the experiment in 1995 shortly after the cancellation of texas superconducting super collider and serves as its principal investigator both mcintyre and ting will be on hand to witness the historic launch from cape canaveral fla along with united states president barack obama and arizona rep gabrielle giffords wife of sts-134 commander mark kelly this will be the 134th shuttle mission overall and the 25th for nasas youngest shuttle which was commissioned in 1992 by president george hw bush whose presidential library and museum is located on the texas a&m campus as the replacement for the lost challenger ams will be the hubble telescope for charged particles in the universe mcintyre says it is thought that these cosmic rays were produced in the explosions of the cores of distant galaxies they are the most energetic particles in our universe the ams experiment has been developed during the past 15 years to measure the properties of these cosmic rays far better than previously possible mcintyre credits this precision to the fact that ams is equipped with a spectrometer similar in capability to the ones operating at cerns large hadron collider in geneva switzerland as well as the eventual placement of that spectrometer courtesy of endeavour in orbit well beyond the shielding effects of earths atmosphere mcintyre notes that texas a&m joined the ams collaboration late in the construction of the experiment in order to help commission the superconducting magnet for the ams spectrometer the magnet and its cryogenics were successfully integrated with the experiment before a decision was made last year to re-configure the experiment with a permanent magnet to maximize its shelf-life and scientific benefit nasa decided to prolong the life of the international space station by another decade and the superconducting magnet would have only been capable of maintaining its operation for the originally planned three years he explains with the permanent magnet in its spectrometer ams will be able to operate through the entire lifetime of the space station ensuring valuable data for the role of charged particles in the evolution and fate of our universe for the same span mcintyre notes that ams has three main objectives first it will measure the energy spectrum and identify each kind of particle present in the highest energy of the cosmic rays information that will help in understanding the mechanism by which a galaxy can act as an immense particle accelerator second it will provide a sensitive measurement of the particles of antimatter among the cosmic rays and thereby put to the test one of the most puzzling aspects of cosmology: how is it that our universe is made of matter but little or no antimatter we have compelling evidence that the universe began with a big bang 13 billion years ago mcintyre says the universe has been expanding ever since and cooling from its immensely hot beginnings the matter of our world emerged from that hot beginning through pair production of matter and antimatter from pure energy then where is the antimatter today ams will be able to detect it finally mcintyre points to recent evidence from present-day orbiting experiments suggesting that there may be a component of such antimatter that was produced in or near our milky way galaxy if that result were validated by more sensitive measurements using ams he says it would open the possibility that the mysterious particles of dark matter might be annihilating today in dark matter haloes of our galaxy mcintyre who has held the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics since 2004 joined the texas a&m faculty in 1980 and leads programs of research in high-energy physics accelerator physics and superconductor technology he received his phd from the university of chicago in 1973 he performed experiments with colliding beams at cern in geneva switzerland until 1975 then joined harvard university and participated in neutrino scattering experiments at fermilab in 1976 he was the first to propose making colliding beams of protons and antiprotons using the large synchrotrons at fermilab and at cern he developed several techniques for cooling intense beams of antiprotons for that purpose mcintyre is a key collaborator in cerns lhc as well as the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) which are searching for the top quark and seeking evidence of the higgs field and supersymmetry he was named a sloan fellow in 1980-82 and a fellow of the american physical society in 2001 for more information on ams visit here find more information about mcintyre and his research ############ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world for more on research at texas a&m visit http://rgstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr peter m mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu the post $15 billion particle physics experiment aboard endeavour has texas a&m ties appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " when the space shuttle endeavour takes flight friday (april 29) for its final mission a $15 billion particle physics experiment with texas a&m university ties will be along for the ride as part of endeavours swan song the alpha magnetic spectrometer (ams) a galactic endeavor in its own right involving roughly 500 physicists from 16 countries and nearly 60 institutions worldwide will be delivered to the international space station to begin a decade-long mission to record and measure data from high-energy cosmic rays in an international effort to understand the formation of the universe and explain the mysterious forces known as dark matter and antimatter texas a&m physicist dr peter m mcintyre is one of the hundreds of scientists who collaborated on ams along with massachusetts institute of technology (mit) nobel prize-winning particle physicist and close friend dr samuel ting who first proposed the experiment in 1995 shortly after the cancellation of texas superconducting super collider and serves as its principal investigator both mcintyre and ting will be on hand to witness the historic launch from cape canaveral fla along with united states president barack obama and arizona rep gabrielle giffords wife of sts-134 commander mark kelly this will be the 134th shuttle mission overall and the 25th for nasas youngest shuttle which was commissioned in 1992 by president george hw bush whose presidential library and museum is located on the texas a&m campus as the replacement for the lost challenger ams will be the hubble telescope for charged particles in the universe mcintyre says it is thought that these cosmic rays were produced in the explosions of the cores of distant galaxies they are the most energetic particles in our universe the ams experiment has been developed during the past 15 years to measure the properties of these cosmic rays far better than previously possible mcintyre credits this precision to the fact that ams is equipped with a spectrometer similar in capability to the ones operating at cerns large hadron collider in geneva switzerland as well as the eventual placement of that spectrometer courtesy of endeavour in orbit well beyond the shielding effects of earths atmosphere mcintyre notes that texas a&m joined the ams collaboration late in the construction of the experiment in order to help commission the superconducting magnet for the ams spectrometer the magnet and its cryogenics were successfully integrated with the experiment before a decision was made last year to re-configure the experiment with a permanent magnet to maximize its shelf-life and scientific benefit nasa decided to prolong the life of the international space station by another decade and the superconducting magnet would have only been capable of maintaining its operation for the originally planned three years he explains with the permanent magnet in its spectrometer ams will be able to operate through the entire lifetime of the space station ensuring valuable data for the role of charged particles in the evolution and fate of our universe for the same span mcintyre notes that ams has three main objectives first it will measure the energy spectrum and identify each kind of particle present in the highest energy of the cosmic rays information that will help in understanding the mechanism by which a galaxy can act as an immense particle accelerator second it will provide a sensitive measurement of the particles of antimatter among the cosmic rays and thereby put to the test one of the most puzzling aspects of cosmology: how is it that our universe is made of matter but little or no antimatter we have compelling evidence that the universe began with a big bang 13 billion years ago mcintyre says the universe has been expanding ever since and cooling from its immensely hot beginnings the matter of our world emerged from that hot beginning through pair production of matter and antimatter from pure energy then where is the antimatter today ams will be able to detect it finally mcintyre points to recent evidence from present-day orbiting experiments suggesting that there may be a component of such antimatter that was produced in or near our milky way galaxy if that result were validated by more sensitive measurements using ams he says it would open the possibility that the mysterious particles of dark matter might be annihilating today in dark matter haloes of our galaxy mcintyre who has held the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics since 2004 joined the texas a&m faculty in 1980 and leads programs of research in high-energy physics accelerator physics and superconductor technology he received his phd from the university of chicago in 1973 he performed experiments with colliding beams at cern in geneva switzerland until 1975 then joined harvard university and participated in neutrino scattering experiments at fermilab in 1976 he was the first to propose making colliding beams of protons and antiprotons using the large synchrotrons at fermilab and at cern he developed several techniques for cooling intense beams of antiprotons for that purpose mcintyre is a key collaborator in cerns lhc as well as the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) which are searching for the top quark and seeking evidence of the higgs field and supersymmetry he was named a sloan fellow in 1980-82 and a fellow of the american physical society in 2001 for more information on ams visit here find more information about mcintyre and his research ############ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world for more on research at texas a&m visit http://rgstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr peter m mcintyre (979) 255-5531 or mcintyre@physicstamuedu " " college station limited seating in rudder auditorium for world-famous cambridge university physicist stephen hawkings 6 pm sunday april 3 public lecture at texas a&m university is once again available a small block of about 130 tickets in rudder auditorium are now available on a first-come first-served basis in addition to the roughly 230 overflow tickets still remaining in the george p mitchell 40 physics building lecture hall which will feature a live video feed simulcast from rudder auditorium the stephen w hawking auditorium overflow area is sold out officials advise interested parties to act quickly by contacting the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free (888) 890-5667 or ordering online through the box office website because the msc box office is closed on the weekends officials recommend purchasing tickets prior to 5 pm friday (apr 1) however it will open on the day of lecture at 5 pm (sunday apr 3) at which time any remaining tickets will be sold officials stress that all tickets overflow included must be purchased at the box office as opposed to the mitchell physics building for additional information contact the mitchell institute at (979) 845-7778 or click here -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post limited rudder auditorium overflow tickets now available for hawking lecture appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " limited seating in rudder auditorium for world-famous cambridge university physicist stephen hawkings 6 pm sunday april 3 public lecture at texas a&m university is once again available a small block of about 130 tickets in rudder auditorium are now available on a first-come first-served basis in addition to the roughly 230 overflow tickets still remaining in the george p mitchell 40 physics building lecture hall which will feature a live video feed simulcast from rudder auditorium the stephen w hawking auditorium overflow area is sold out officials advise interested parties to act quickly by contacting the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free (888) 890-5667 or ordering online through the box office website because the msc box office is closed on the weekends officials recommend purchasing tickets prior to 5 pm friday (apr 1) however it will open on the day of lecture at 5 pm (sunday apr 3) at which time any remaining tickets will be sold officials stress that all tickets overflow included must be purchased at the box office as opposed to the mitchell physics building for additional information contact the mitchell institute at (979) 845-7778 or click here -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station stephen hawking world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist famous for his theories on black holes and his best-selling books about the universe will present a public lecture titled the origin of the universe sunday april 3 at 6 pm in rudder auditorium at texas a&m university tickets which range from $15 to $35 and feature discounts for students are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 the event is presented by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established in 2002 as the result of a generous gift from the mitchell family intended to advance physics and expand mans understanding of the universe and the fundamental laws of nature during the years since professor hawkings collaboration with texas a&m has been made possible through the philanthropy and generosity of the mitchell institute stephen hawkings lecture offers the opportunity to learn from one of the worlds best-known living scientists widely considered to be the greatest theorist since einstein said george p mitchell hawking retired in 2009 after 30 years as the lucasian chair of mathematics at cambridge a position once held by sir isaac newton for nearly a half-century he has been a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his fourth in the past eight years after visiting the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the mitchell institute he returned in 2007 to headline the department of physics and astronomy‚Äòs annual physics festival last april he returned to the mitchell institute for the formal dedication of the stephen w hawking auditorium he delivered public lectures to sell-out crowds in the 2 500 seat rudder auditorium during both of his most recent visits in the event rudder auditorium is once again a sell-out officials say his april 3 lecture will be simulcast via live video feed in two overflow rooms the hawking auditorium and george p mitchell 40 physics building lecture hall tickets will be priced at $5 for additional information contact the mitchell institute at (979) 845-7778 ########## about stephen hawking: stephen hawking is renowned as a scientist with the uncommon ability to communicate complex science in a way that touches people his best-selling books a brief history of time the universe in a nutshell and his most recent work the grand design co-authored with leonid mlodinow have sold millions of copies around the world widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein hawking is a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity professor hawking has 12 honorary degrees was awarded the cbe (commander of the order of the british empire) in 1982 the presidential medal of freedom in 2009 and was made a companion of honour in 1989 he is the recipient of many additional awards medals and prizes is a fellow of the royal society and a member of the united states national academy of sciences he continues to combine family life (he has three children and three grandchildren) and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive program of travel and public lectures for more information on stephen hawking visit http://wwwhawkingorguk/ about the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy: the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy was established in 2002 within the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy as the result of a generous gift from george and cynthia mitchell the goals of the institute are to explore and advance the understanding of theoretical high-energy physics astroparticle physics astronomy and cosmology; to conduct research in string theory m-theory and particle phenomenology; and to explore the interface with observation in particle physics astronomy and cosmology institute activities include research workshops and conferences public outreach as well as a unique visitors program between the institute and the cambridge centre for theoretical cosmology the cambridge-mitchell institute collaboration funded by an annual gift from george mitchell and matched by texas a&m university hosts conferences and workshops in cambridge and at texas a&m as well as exchange visits of faculty postdoctoral researchers and graduate students for more information on the mitchell institute visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post world-famous physicist stephen hawking to deliver public lecture appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " stephen hawking world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist famous for his theories on black holes and his best-selling books about the universe will present a public lecture titled the origin of the universe sunday april 3 at 6 pm in rudder auditorium at texas a&m university tickets which range from $15 to $35 and feature discounts for students are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 the event is presented by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established in 2002 as the result of a generous gift from the mitchell family intended to advance physics and expand mans understanding of the universe and the fundamental laws of nature during the years since professor hawkings collaboration with texas a&m has been made possible through the philanthropy and generosity of the mitchell institute stephen hawkings lecture offers the opportunity to learn from one of the worlds best-known living scientists widely considered to be the greatest theorist since einstein said george p mitchell hawking retired in 2009 after 30 years as the lucasian chair of mathematics at cambridge a position once held by sir isaac newton for nearly a half-century he has been a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his fourth in the past eight years after visiting the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the mitchell institute he returned in 2007 to headline the department of physics and astronomy‚Äòs annual physics festival last april he returned to the mitchell institute for the formal dedication of the stephen w hawking auditorium he delivered public lectures to sell-out crowds in the 2 500 seat rudder auditorium during both of his most recent visits in the event rudder auditorium is once again a sell-out officials say his april 3 lecture will be simulcast via live video feed in two overflow rooms the hawking auditorium and george p mitchell 40 physics building lecture hall tickets will be priced at $5 for additional information contact the mitchell institute at (979) 845-7778 ########## about stephen hawking: stephen hawking is renowned as a scientist with the uncommon ability to communicate complex science in a way that touches people his best-selling books a brief history of time the universe in a nutshell and his most recent work the grand design co-authored with leonid mlodinow have sold millions of copies around the world widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein hawking is a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity professor hawking has 12 honorary degrees was awarded the cbe (commander of the order of the british empire) in 1982 the presidential medal of freedom in 2009 and was made a companion of honour in 1989 he is the recipient of many additional awards medals and prizes is a fellow of the royal society and a member of the united states national academy of sciences he continues to combine family life (he has three children and three grandchildren) and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive program of travel and public lectures for more information on stephen hawking visit http://wwwhawkingorguk/ about the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy: the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy was established in 2002 within the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy as the result of a generous gift from george and cynthia mitchell the goals of the institute are to explore and advance the understanding of theoretical high-energy physics astroparticle physics astronomy and cosmology; to conduct research in string theory m-theory and particle phenomenology; and to explore the interface with observation in particle physics astronomy and cosmology institute activities include research workshops and conferences public outreach as well as a unique visitors program between the institute and the cambridge centre for theoretical cosmology the cambridge-mitchell institute collaboration funded by an annual gift from george mitchell and matched by texas a&m university hosts conferences and workshops in cambridge and at texas a&m as well as exchange visits of faculty postdoctoral researchers and graduate students for more information on the mitchell institute visit http://mitchellphysicstamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station overflow seating is all that remains for world-famous university of cambridge physicist stephen hawkings public lecture the origin of the universe scheduled for sunday april 3 at 6 pm at texas a&m university less than a week after tickets went on sale all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium have been claimed as was the case for his previous two appearances in aggieland in 2007 and 2010 as a result memorial student center box office officials now have opened up sales for two overflow rooms the stephen w hawking auditorium within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building lecture hall each of which will feature a live video feed simulcast from rudder auditorium box office officials report that less than 80 seats currently remain in the hawking auditorium in the event it sells out they plan to make the 468 seats in the lecture hall available they advise anyone interested in these remaining seats priced at $5 each to act quickly by calling (979) 845-1234 or toll-free (888) 890-5667 or ordering online through the box office officials note that friday is the final day for all ticket sales regardless of whether or not any overflow seats remain at that time for additional information contact the mitchell institute at (979) 845-7778 or click here -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post stephen hawking lecture sold out; overflow seating limited appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " overflow seating is all that remains for world-famous university of cambridge physicist stephen hawkings public lecture the origin of the universe scheduled for sunday april 3 at 6 pm at texas a&m university less than a week after tickets went on sale all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium have been claimed as was the case for his previous two appearances in aggieland in 2007 and 2010 as a result memorial student center box office officials now have opened up sales for two overflow rooms the stephen w hawking auditorium within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building lecture hall each of which will feature a live video feed simulcast from rudder auditorium box office officials report that less than 80 seats currently remain in the hawking auditorium in the event it sells out they plan to make the 468 seats in the lecture hall available they advise anyone interested in these remaining seats priced at $5 each to act quickly by calling (979) 845-1234 or toll-free (888) 890-5667 or ordering online through the box office officials note that friday is the final day for all ticket sales regardless of whether or not any overflow seats remain at that time for additional information contact the mitchell institute at (979) 845-7778 or click here -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite the brazos valley community to get up-close and personal with science and technology later this month at the 2011 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 26 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the association of former students activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with an interactive public lecture at 4 pm by nasa astronaut dr richard m linnehan dvm mpa who flew on four space shuttle missions and also spent time on the international space station from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle and to try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers three of roughly 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students including representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics and biochemistry and biophysics in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman keith michael johnson whose work has been featured on the discovery channel and in usa today and real simple family attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut dr charles j camarda a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station in two afternoon question-and-answer sessions scheduled for 12 pm and 2 pm at 3 pm dr peter m mcintyre texas a&m professor of physics and astronomy will present green nuclear power technology for the new millennium in the stephen w hawking auditorium against the real-world backdrop of the current nuclear crisis in japan mcintyre will explain how texas a&m scientists are developing a new green nuclear power technology that can burn the spent nuclear fuel from todays power plants to produce 10 times more energy than was yet extracted from them the accelerator-driven subcritical molten-salt (adsms) technology meets all of the criteria that define a truly green energy technology finally at 4 pm linnehan will present my experiences flying on the space shuttle and space station in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building in addition to detailing his adventures in orbit linnehan will share many images both from his personal collection and the hubble space telescope archive linnehan a veterinarian trained in comparative pathophysiology who has logged more than 58 days in space is currently on temporary assignment with the texas a&m university system as director for space science policy and education through a unique partnership intended to help reinvigorate space-related research critical to nasas current and future mission selected by nasa in 1992 he flew his first space shuttle mission in 1996 aboard sts-78 the life sciences and microgravity spacelab mission his four space flights aboard space shuttles columbia and endeavour included visits to the hubble space telescope and international space station as well as six evas (spacewalks) totaling 42 hours and 11 minutes prior to joining nasa linnehan earned his doctorate of veterinary medicine from the ohio state university in 1985 and was later accepted to a two-year joint internship in zoo animal medicine and comparative pathology at the baltimore zoo and the johns hopkins university following his internship he was commissioned as a captain in the us army veterinary corps where he became chief clinical veterinarian for the us navys marine mammal program camarda an associate fellow of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics who has logged more than 333 hours in space was selected by nasa in 1996 his past assignments include: technical duties in the astronaut office spacecraft systems/operations branch; the expedition-8 back-up crew; director engineering johnson space center; and nasa engineering and safety center where he was responsible for evaluating problems and supplementing safety and engineering activities for agency programs camarda flew as a mission specialist-5 on the return-to-flight mission sts-114 discovery in 2005 during which the shuttle docked with the international space station and tested and evaluated new procedures for flight safety as well as shuttle inspection and repair techniques camarda who earned his doctorate in aerospace engineering from virginia polytechnic institute and state university in 1990 currently serves as senior advisor for innovation to the office of chief engineer at johnson space center mcintyre who has held the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics since 2004 joined the texas a&m faculty in 1980 and leads programs of research in high energy physics accelerator physics and superconductor technology he received his phd from the university of chicago in 1973 he performed experiments with colliding beams at cern in geneva switzerland until 1975 then joined harvard university and participated in neutrino scattering experiments at fermilab in 1976 he was the first to propose making colliding beams of protons and antiprotons using the large synchrotrons at fermilab and at cern he developed several techniques for cooling intense beams of antiprotons for that purpose mcintyre is a key collaborator in the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern as well as the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) which are searching for the top quark and seeking evidence of the higgs field and supersymmetry he was named a sloan fellow in 1980-82 and a fellow of the american physical society in 2001 prior to saturdays events dr john l junkins distinguished professor of aerospace engineering at texas a&m will deliver a free public lecture close encounters with asteroid apophis: challenges and opportunities on friday (mar 25) at 7 pm in the stephen w hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which junkins will discuss earths impending dates with astronomical destiny close encounters with the 1 000-foot asteroid apophis in 2029 and 2036 and the interesting learning opportunities each presents for astronomers and aerospace engineers junkins a regents professor and holder of the royce e wisenbaker chair joined the texas a&m faculty in 1985 and is a member of the national academy of engineering and the international academy of astronautics as well as a fellow of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics (aiaa) and the american astronautical society (aas) his prolific and fundamental research advances in engineering mechanics and spacecraft dynamics navigation guidance and control have supported more than a dozen spaceflight missions and are documented in more than 300 publications including five textbooks junkins many awards and honors include the aiaa g edward pendray aerospace literature award (1990) the auburn university college of engineering outstanding aerospace engineering alumnus award (1991) the sigma xi distinguished scientist award (1992) the aiaa theodore von karman medal and lectureship (1997) the international astronautical federation frank j malina medal (1999) the institute of navigation tycho brahe award (2004) the aiaa aerospace guidance navigation and control award (2006) and the international conference on computational and experimental engineering and sciences (icces) lifetime achievement medal (2010) junkins holds a bachelors degree from auburn university and masters and phd degrees from the university of california los angeles all in aerospace engineering for the latest details regarding the 2011 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics & engineering festival features hands-on fun astronauts appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite the brazos valley community to get up-close and personal with science and technology later this month at the 2011 physics & engineering festival an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 26 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the department of physics and astronomy the department of aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the association of former students activities will begin at 10 am with hands-on science exhibitions and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with an interactive public lecture at 4 pm by nasa astronaut dr richard m linnehan dvm mpa who flew on four space shuttle missions and also spent time on the international space station from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a square-wheeled bicycle and to try their hands at generating electricity or shooting balloons with lasers three of roughly 100 fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students including representatives from the departments of chemistry mathematics and biochemistry and biophysics in addition to exhibits the daylong festival will feature three fantastic bubble shows (11 am 1 pm 2:30 pm) by internationally acclaimed bubble artist and physics showman keith michael johnson whose work has been featured on the discovery channel and in usa today and real simple family attendees also will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut dr charles j camarda a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station in two afternoon question-and-answer sessions scheduled for 12 pm and 2 pm at 3 pm dr peter m mcintyre texas a&m professor of physics and astronomy will present green nuclear power technology for the new millennium in the stephen w hawking auditorium against the real-world backdrop of the current nuclear crisis in japan mcintyre will explain how texas a&m scientists are developing a new green nuclear power technology that can burn the spent nuclear fuel from todays power plants to produce 10 times more energy than was yet extracted from them the accelerator-driven subcritical molten-salt (adsms) technology meets all of the criteria that define a truly green energy technology finally at 4 pm linnehan will present my experiences flying on the space shuttle and space station in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building in addition to detailing his adventures in orbit linnehan will share many images both from his personal collection and the hubble space telescope archive linnehan a veterinarian trained in comparative pathophysiology who has logged more than 58 days in space is currently on temporary assignment with the texas a&m university system as director for space science policy and education through a unique partnership intended to help reinvigorate space-related research critical to nasas current and future mission selected by nasa in 1992 he flew his first space shuttle mission in 1996 aboard sts-78 the life sciences and microgravity spacelab mission his four space flights aboard space shuttles columbia and endeavour included visits to the hubble space telescope and international space station as well as six evas (spacewalks) totaling 42 hours and 11 minutes prior to joining nasa linnehan earned his doctorate of veterinary medicine from the ohio state university in 1985 and was later accepted to a two-year joint internship in zoo animal medicine and comparative pathology at the baltimore zoo and the johns hopkins university following his internship he was commissioned as a captain in the us army veterinary corps where he became chief clinical veterinarian for the us navys marine mammal program camarda an associate fellow of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics who has logged more than 333 hours in space was selected by nasa in 1996 his past assignments include: technical duties in the astronaut office spacecraft systems/operations branch; the expedition-8 back-up crew; director engineering johnson space center; and nasa engineering and safety center where he was responsible for evaluating problems and supplementing safety and engineering activities for agency programs camarda flew as a mission specialist-5 on the return-to-flight mission sts-114 discovery in 2005 during which the shuttle docked with the international space station and tested and evaluated new procedures for flight safety as well as shuttle inspection and repair techniques camarda who earned his doctorate in aerospace engineering from virginia polytechnic institute and state university in 1990 currently serves as senior advisor for innovation to the office of chief engineer at johnson space center mcintyre who has held the mitchell-heep chair in experimental high-energy physics since 2004 joined the texas a&m faculty in 1980 and leads programs of research in high energy physics accelerator physics and superconductor technology he received his phd from the university of chicago in 1973 he performed experiments with colliding beams at cern in geneva switzerland until 1975 then joined harvard university and participated in neutrino scattering experiments at fermilab in 1976 he was the first to propose making colliding beams of protons and antiprotons using the large synchrotrons at fermilab and at cern he developed several techniques for cooling intense beams of antiprotons for that purpose mcintyre is a key collaborator in the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern as well as the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) which are searching for the top quark and seeking evidence of the higgs field and supersymmetry he was named a sloan fellow in 1980-82 and a fellow of the american physical society in 2001 prior to saturdays events dr john l junkins distinguished professor of aerospace engineering at texas a&m will deliver a free public lecture close encounters with asteroid apophis: challenges and opportunities on friday (mar 25) at 7 pm in the stephen w hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which junkins will discuss earths impending dates with astronomical destiny close encounters with the 1 000-foot asteroid apophis in 2029 and 2036 and the interesting learning opportunities each presents for astronomers and aerospace engineers junkins a regents professor and holder of the royce e wisenbaker chair joined the texas a&m faculty in 1985 and is a member of the national academy of engineering and the international academy of astronautics as well as a fellow of the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics (aiaa) and the american astronautical society (aas) his prolific and fundamental research advances in engineering mechanics and spacecraft dynamics navigation guidance and control have supported more than a dozen spaceflight missions and are documented in more than 300 publications including five textbooks junkins many awards and honors include the aiaa g edward pendray aerospace literature award (1990) the auburn university college of engineering outstanding aerospace engineering alumnus award (1991) the sigma xi distinguished scientist award (1992) the aiaa theodore von karman medal and lectureship (1997) the international astronautical federation frank j malina medal (1999) the institute of navigation tycho brahe award (2004) the aiaa aerospace guidance navigation and control award (2006) and the international conference on computational and experimental engineering and sciences (icces) lifetime achievement medal (2010) junkins holds a bachelors degree from auburn university and masters and phd degrees from the university of california los angeles all in aerospace engineering for the latest details regarding the 2011 physics & engineering festival including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr george w kattawar professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected by the texas academy of science (tas) as the distinguished texas scientist of the year for 2011 announced cathy early tas vice president and awards committee chairperson each year the tas honors a texas scientist for contributions to both science and the state based on nominations solicited in the fall from the academys membership which includes professors leaders in state government and other people connected with science kattawar an internationally renowned expert in optics and member of the world-renowned texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) was selected on the basis of outstanding contributions to the physical sciences and education in the state of texas an awards committee later confirmed by the board of directors chose your application from among several other outstanding scientists early informed kattawar in a congratulatory e-mail message even among these great professionals your accomplishments dedication and service stood out kattawar who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1968 received both his masters of science and phd degrees from texas a&m university on a national defense and education act fellowship after earning his bachelors of science degree from lamar university with highest honors his research interests span the gamut of optics and applied physics and have resulted in significant contributions in such diverse areas as biomedical optics radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres cloud property studies related to global warming invisibility cloaking ultrashort laser propagation in water anthrax detection and camouflage in cephalopods in addition to being the author or co-author of nearly 200 publications in scholarly journals he is co-inventor on three patents with two more pending it is our understanding that this award is given to an outstanding scientist who has done the majority of their research in the state of texas said dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the iqse which co-nominated kattawar along with the department of physics and astronomy what makes professor kattawar almost uniquely qualified for this award is that not only has he done all of his distinguished research in the state of texas but he also received all of his education in the state as well he is a prime example of the quality of education that our great state has to offer a fellow of the optical society of america since 1976 kattawar has been elected to two three-year terms on the national research councils committee on recommendations for us army basic scientific research and served as a major consultant to the us navy for several secret projects related to national defense in 2009 he was selected to serve on the external advisory board of the stevens institute of technology charged with assessing their engineering and science programs in 1981 he received the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching and in 1990 he won a teacher/scholar award he is a former associate editor of the journal of geophysical research: oceans and the journal of transport theory and statistical physics in addition to chairing the texas a&m department of physics and astronomys graduate admissions committee for more than 30 years he served as the college of science representative on a committee chosen in 1982 by newly appointed president dr frank vandiver to create a faculty senate at texas a&m before coming to texas a&m kattawar held positions at los alamos scientific laboratory esso production research and the university of north texas it is a great thrill to see one of our own receive such an important award said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science georges research teaching and service to the state and nation are well known at texas a&m and it is wonderful to see him recognized kattawar ranks as the second consecutive and fifth texas a&m professor overall since 1979 to earn the tass highest honor his award will be presented at the academys 114th annual meeting scheduled for march 3-5 in austin this award is a great credit to the college of science as well as to texas a&m university given that i received both my masters of science and phd degrees here kattawar said it just shows how good the education we deliver to both undergraduates and graduate students is in our college and broader university incorporated in 1929 the texas academy of science is affiliated with the american association for the advancement of science learn more about kattawar and his teaching and research for more information on the texas academy of science visit http://wwwtexasacademyofscienceorg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george w kattawar (979) 845-2590 or kattawar@tamuedu the post kattawar named distinguished texas scientist of 2011 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr george w kattawar professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been selected by the texas academy of science (tas) as the distinguished texas scientist of the year for 2011 announced cathy early tas vice president and awards committee chairperson each year the tas honors a texas scientist for contributions to both science and the state based on nominations solicited in the fall from the academys membership which includes professors leaders in state government and other people connected with science kattawar an internationally renowned expert in optics and member of the world-renowned texas a&m institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) was selected on the basis of outstanding contributions to the physical sciences and education in the state of texas an awards committee later confirmed by the board of directors chose your application from among several other outstanding scientists early informed kattawar in a congratulatory e-mail message even among these great professionals your accomplishments dedication and service stood out kattawar who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1968 received both his masters of science and phd degrees from texas a&m university on a national defense and education act fellowship after earning his bachelors of science degree from lamar university with highest honors his research interests span the gamut of optics and applied physics and have resulted in significant contributions in such diverse areas as biomedical optics radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres cloud property studies related to global warming invisibility cloaking ultrashort laser propagation in water anthrax detection and camouflage in cephalopods in addition to being the author or co-author of nearly 200 publications in scholarly journals he is co-inventor on three patents with two more pending it is our understanding that this award is given to an outstanding scientist who has done the majority of their research in the state of texas said dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics and astronomy and director of the iqse which co-nominated kattawar along with the department of physics and astronomy what makes professor kattawar almost uniquely qualified for this award is that not only has he done all of his distinguished research in the state of texas but he also received all of his education in the state as well he is a prime example of the quality of education that our great state has to offer a fellow of the optical society of america since 1976 kattawar has been elected to two three-year terms on the national research councils committee on recommendations for us army basic scientific research and served as a major consultant to the us navy for several secret projects related to national defense in 2009 he was selected to serve on the external advisory board of the stevens institute of technology charged with assessing their engineering and science programs in 1981 he received the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching and in 1990 he won a teacher/scholar award he is a former associate editor of the journal of geophysical research: oceans and the journal of transport theory and statistical physics in addition to chairing the texas a&m department of physics and astronomys graduate admissions committee for more than 30 years he served as the college of science representative on a committee chosen in 1982 by newly appointed president dr frank vandiver to create a faculty senate at texas a&m before coming to texas a&m kattawar held positions at los alamos scientific laboratory esso production research and the university of north texas it is a great thrill to see one of our own receive such an important award said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science georges research teaching and service to the state and nation are well known at texas a&m and it is wonderful to see him recognized kattawar ranks as the second consecutive and fifth texas a&m professor overall since 1979 to earn the tass highest honor his award will be presented at the academys 114th annual meeting scheduled for march 3-5 in austin this award is a great credit to the college of science as well as to texas a&m university given that i received both my masters of science and phd degrees here kattawar said it just shows how good the education we deliver to both undergraduates and graduate students is in our college and broader university incorporated in 1929 the texas academy of science is affiliated with the american association for the advancement of science learn more about kattawar and his teaching and research for more information on the texas academy of science visit http://wwwtexasacademyofscienceorg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george w kattawar (979) 845-2590 or kattawar@tamuedu " " seattle scientists announced this week that the dark energy survey (des) soon expects to make a substantial leap forward in our understanding of why the universe is accelerating and the nature of dark energy des director josh frieman highlighted the project which involves astronomers at texas a&m university and how it will advance our understanding of dark energy at a thursday (jan 13) press conference at the 2011 american astronomical society annual meeting in seattle an international des collaboration of physicists and astronomers has built the 570-megapixel dark energy camera ‚Äìfor which texas a&ms darren depoy serves as the project scientist that will be mounted later this year on the 4-meter (158-inch) blanco telescope at the national science foundations cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile operated by the national optical astronomy observatory the camera is now undergoing final tests on a specially built telescope simulator at fermilab said brenna flaugher dark energy camera project manager and a fermilab scientist a key sub-component of the camera is being built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory directed by depoy this element a spectrophotometric calibration unit will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of objects in the sky depoy said it is the precision of these measurements that will translate to a much-improved determination of various dark energy parameters during the course of the dark energy survey the dark energy camera is one of the largest digital cameras ever built depoy added it includes a more than 500 mpixel format detector some of the largest and heaviest lenses ever built and sophisticated data-reduction and analysis software it is exciting for texas a&m astronomy to be part of such a cutting-edge project improved photo-sensors based on charged-coupled devices (ccds) designed at lawrence berkeley national laboratory will provide the camera with enhanced sensitivity to carry out the largest galaxy survey of its kind the dark energy survey data will be an unprecedented legacy for astronomers and will have unique scientific reach until the large synoptic survey telescope [another international project featuring texas a&m astronomers] comes along at the end of the decade said des deputy director rich kron of the university of chicago the 4-meter telescope at cerro tololo has been improved in preparation for installing the camera this year the dark energy camera will be a remarkable facility for the astronomical community in addition to its use by the des collaboration said ctio astronomer alistair walker during five years of operation des will create deep color images of one-eighth of the sky or 5 000-square degrees to measure 300 million galaxies 100 000 galaxy clusters and 4 000 new supernovae it will construct the largest map of the cosmic web of large-scale structure traced by galaxies and by dark matter the des combination of survey area and depth will far surpass what has come before frieman said des will take advantage of the excellent atmospheric conditions in the chilean andes to deliver images with the sharpest resolution yet for such a wide-field survey this will enable the team to probe dark energy using a technique called weak gravitational lensing said bhuvnesh jain a des collaborator at the university of pennsylvania des will combine weak lensing with three other probes of dark energy galaxy clusters supernovae and large-scale structure the first time this will be possible in a single experiment over the course of the survey each part of the sky will be viewed multiple times through five different filters creating a very large amount of data the camera will capture more than 300 images a night resulting in about 200 gigabytes of compressed raw data or roughly a million gigabytes of processed data by the end of the survey said joe mohr of ludwig maximilians university in munich the data will be processed at the national center for supercomputer applications in urbana illinois and delivered to collaboration scientists and to the public dess survey area is selected to overlap with other sky surveys that can provide additional data about the galaxies and clusters it views these surveys include the south pole telescope which sees galaxy clusters as cold spots in the cosmic microwave background radiation and the european southern observatorys vista hemisphere survey which will observe the same sky region in infrared light des is supported by funding from the us department of energy the national science foundation funding agencies in the united kingdom spain brazil and germany and the participating des institutions which include texas a&m university about the dark energy survey and dark energy camera astrophysicists assembled and are testing the dark energy camera at fermilab using a new state-of-the-art facility specially built for this purpose the first parts have been shipped to chile and the rest will be shipped this year as testing is completed first light for the camera positioned on the telescope is scheduled for late 2011 the dark energy survey will use the camera to understand why the expansion of the universe is accelerating and to probe the dark energy thought to be causing this cosmic speed-up dark energy a mysterious source of anti-gravity that has been found to dominate the energy density of the universe will determine the fate of the universe if the expansion continues to speed up in 100 billion years the observable universe could be nearly empty of galaxies the dark energy camera will peer into space to trace the history of the universe roughly three-quarters of the way back to the time of the big bang capturing images of 300 million distant galaxies about 10 million times fainter than the dimmest star you can see from earth with the naked eye the dark energy camera will have the largest optical survey power in the world its 22 degree field of view is so large that a single image will record data from an area of the sky 20 times the size of the moon as seen from earth this wide field of view requires that decam use a system of five lenses each one uniquely shaped to correct a variety of optical aberrations with the biggest of these lenses being almost 1 meter in diameter more information about the dark energy survey including the list of participating institutions is available at the project website: http://wwwdarkenergysurveyorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy the dark energy camera the large synoptic survey telescope and other groundbreaking international projects involving texas a&m astronomers visit astronomy research group ########## about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world about fermilab: fermilab is a department of energy national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in united states news release courtesy of fermilab -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu the post dark energy survey poised to probe cosmic speed-up appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " scientists announced this week that the dark energy survey (des) soon expects to make a substantial leap forward in our understanding of why the universe is accelerating and the nature of dark energy des director josh frieman highlighted the project which involves astronomers at texas a&m university and how it will advance our understanding of dark energy at a thursday (jan 13) press conference at the 2011 american astronomical society annual meeting in seattle an international des collaboration of physicists and astronomers has built the 570-megapixel dark energy camera ‚Äìfor which texas a&ms darren depoy serves as the project scientist that will be mounted later this year on the 4-meter (158-inch) blanco telescope at the national science foundations cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile operated by the national optical astronomy observatory the camera is now undergoing final tests on a specially built telescope simulator at fermilab said brenna flaugher dark energy camera project manager and a fermilab scientist a key sub-component of the camera is being built within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory directed by depoy this element a spectrophotometric calibration unit will allow the camera to obtain very high precision brightness measurements of objects in the sky depoy said it is the precision of these measurements that will translate to a much-improved determination of various dark energy parameters during the course of the dark energy survey the dark energy camera is one of the largest digital cameras ever built depoy added it includes a more than 500 mpixel format detector some of the largest and heaviest lenses ever built and sophisticated data-reduction and analysis software it is exciting for texas a&m astronomy to be part of such a cutting-edge project improved photo-sensors based on charged-coupled devices (ccds) designed at lawrence berkeley national laboratory will provide the camera with enhanced sensitivity to carry out the largest galaxy survey of its kind the dark energy survey data will be an unprecedented legacy for astronomers and will have unique scientific reach until the large synoptic survey telescope [another international project featuring texas a&m astronomers] comes along at the end of the decade said des deputy director rich kron of the university of chicago the 4-meter telescope at cerro tololo has been improved in preparation for installing the camera this year the dark energy camera will be a remarkable facility for the astronomical community in addition to its use by the des collaboration said ctio astronomer alistair walker during five years of operation des will create deep color images of one-eighth of the sky or 5 000-square degrees to measure 300 million galaxies 100 000 galaxy clusters and 4 000 new supernovae it will construct the largest map of the cosmic web of large-scale structure traced by galaxies and by dark matter the des combination of survey area and depth will far surpass what has come before frieman said des will take advantage of the excellent atmospheric conditions in the chilean andes to deliver images with the sharpest resolution yet for such a wide-field survey this will enable the team to probe dark energy using a technique called weak gravitational lensing said bhuvnesh jain a des collaborator at the university of pennsylvania des will combine weak lensing with three other probes of dark energy galaxy clusters supernovae and large-scale structure the first time this will be possible in a single experiment over the course of the survey each part of the sky will be viewed multiple times through five different filters creating a very large amount of data the camera will capture more than 300 images a night resulting in about 200 gigabytes of compressed raw data or roughly a million gigabytes of processed data by the end of the survey said joe mohr of ludwig maximilians university in munich the data will be processed at the national center for supercomputer applications in urbana illinois and delivered to collaboration scientists and to the public dess survey area is selected to overlap with other sky surveys that can provide additional data about the galaxies and clusters it views these surveys include the south pole telescope which sees galaxy clusters as cold spots in the cosmic microwave background radiation and the european southern observatorys vista hemisphere survey which will observe the same sky region in infrared light des is supported by funding from the us department of energy the national science foundation funding agencies in the united kingdom spain brazil and germany and the participating des institutions which include texas a&m university about the dark energy survey and dark energy camera astrophysicists assembled and are testing the dark energy camera at fermilab using a new state-of-the-art facility specially built for this purpose the first parts have been shipped to chile and the rest will be shipped this year as testing is completed first light for the camera positioned on the telescope is scheduled for late 2011 the dark energy survey will use the camera to understand why the expansion of the universe is accelerating and to probe the dark energy thought to be causing this cosmic speed-up dark energy a mysterious source of anti-gravity that has been found to dominate the energy density of the universe will determine the fate of the universe if the expansion continues to speed up in 100 billion years the observable universe could be nearly empty of galaxies the dark energy camera will peer into space to trace the history of the universe roughly three-quarters of the way back to the time of the big bang capturing images of 300 million distant galaxies about 10 million times fainter than the dimmest star you can see from earth with the naked eye the dark energy camera will have the largest optical survey power in the world its 22 degree field of view is so large that a single image will record data from an area of the sky 20 times the size of the moon as seen from earth this wide field of view requires that decam use a system of five lenses each one uniquely shaped to correct a variety of optical aberrations with the biggest of these lenses being almost 1 meter in diameter more information about the dark energy survey including the list of participating institutions is available at the project website: http://wwwdarkenergysurveyorg to learn more about texas a&m astronomy the dark energy camera the large synoptic survey telescope and other groundbreaking international projects involving texas a&m astronomers visit astronomy research group ########## about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world about fermilab: fermilab is a department of energy national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in united states news release courtesy of fermilab -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr darren depoy (979) 862-2082 or depoy@physicstamuedu " " college station an international team of researchers featuring texas a&m university physicist dr jairo sinova has announced a breakthrough that gives a new spin to semiconductor nanoelectronics and the world of information technology the team has developed an electrically controllable device whose functionality is based on an electrons spin their results the culmination of a 20-year scientific quest involving many international researchers and groups are published in the current issue of science the team which also includes researchers from the hitachi cambridge laboratory and the universities of cambridge and nottingham in the united kingdom as well as the academy of sciences and charles university in the czech republic is the first to combine the spin-helix state and anomalous hall effect to create a realistic spin-field-effect transistor (fet) operable at high temperatures complete with an and-gate logic device the first such realization in the type of transistors originally proposed by purdue universitys supriyo datta and biswajit das in 1989 one of the major stumbling blocks was that to manipulate spin one may also destroy it sinova explains it has only recently been realized that one could manipulate it without destroying it by choosing a particular set-up for the device and manipulating the material one also has to detect it without destroying it which we were able to do by exploiting our findings from our study of the spin hall effect six years ago it is the combination of these basic physics research projects that has given rise to the first spin-fet sixty years after the transistors discovery its operation is still based on the same physical principles of electrical manipulation and detection of electronic charges in a semiconductor says hitachis dr jorg wunderlich senior researcher in the team he says subsequent technology has focused on down-scaling the device size succeeding to the point where we are approaching the ultimate limit shifting the focus to establishing new physical principles of operation to overcome these limits specifically using its elementary magnetic movement or so-called spin as the logic variable instead of the charge this new approach constitutes the field of spintronics which promises potential advances in low-power electronics hybrid electronic-magnetic systems and completely new functionalities wunderlich says the 20-year-old theory of electrical manipulation and detection of electrons spin in semiconductors the cornerstone of which is the holy grail known as the spin transistor has proven to be unexpectedly difficult to experimentally realize we used recently discovered quantum-relativistic phenomena for both spin manipulation and detection to realize and confirm all the principal phenomena of the spin transistor concept wunderlich explains to observe the electrical manipulation and detection of spins the team made a specially designed planar photo-diode (as opposed to the typically used circularly polarized light source) placed next to the transistor channel by shining light on the diode they injected photo-excited electrons rather than the customary spin-polarized electrons into the transistor channel voltages were applied to input-gate electrodes to control the procession of spins via quantum-relativistic effects these effects attributable to quantum relativity are also responsible for the onset of transverse electrical voltages in the device which represent the output signal dependent on the local orientation of processing electron spins in the transistor channel the new device can have a broad range of applications in spintronics research as an efficient tool for manipulating and detecting spins in semiconductors without disturbing the spin-polarized current or using magnetic elements wunderlich notes the observed output electrical signals remain large at high temperatures and are linearly dependent on the degree of circular polarization of the incident light the device therefore represents a realization of an electrically controllable solid-state polarimeter which directly converts polarization of light into electric voltage signals he says future applications may exploit the device to detect the content of chiral molecules in solutions for example to measure the blood-sugar levels of patients or the sugar content of wine this work forms part of wider spintronics activity within hitachi worldwide which expects to develop new functionalities for use in fields as diverse as energy transfer high-speed secure communications and various forms of sensor while wunderlich acknowledges it is yet to be determined whether or not spin-based devices will become a viable alternative to or complement of their standard electron-charge-based counterparts in current information-processing devices he says his teams discovery has shifted the focus from the theoretical academic speculation to prototype microelectronic device development for spintronics to revolutionize information technology one needs a further step of creating a spin amplifier sinova says for now the device aspect the ability to inject manipulate and create a logic step with spin alone has been achieved and i am happy that texas a&m university is a part of that accomplishment -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu the post international team develops first high-temperature spin-field-effect transistor appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " an international team of researchers featuring texas a&m university physicist dr jairo sinova has announced a breakthrough that gives a new spin to semiconductor nanoelectronics and the world of information technology the team has developed an electrically controllable device whose functionality is based on an electrons spin their results the culmination of a 20-year scientific quest involving many international researchers and groups are published in the current issue of science the team which also includes researchers from the hitachi cambridge laboratory and the universities of cambridge and nottingham in the united kingdom as well as the academy of sciences and charles university in the czech republic is the first to combine the spin-helix state and anomalous hall effect to create a realistic spin-field-effect transistor (fet) operable at high temperatures complete with an and-gate logic device the first such realization in the type of transistors originally proposed by purdue universitys supriyo datta and biswajit das in 1989 one of the major stumbling blocks was that to manipulate spin one may also destroy it sinova explains it has only recently been realized that one could manipulate it without destroying it by choosing a particular set-up for the device and manipulating the material one also has to detect it without destroying it which we were able to do by exploiting our findings from our study of the spin hall effect six years ago it is the combination of these basic physics research projects that has given rise to the first spin-fet sixty years after the transistors discovery its operation is still based on the same physical principles of electrical manipulation and detection of electronic charges in a semiconductor says hitachis dr jorg wunderlich senior researcher in the team he says subsequent technology has focused on down-scaling the device size succeeding to the point where we are approaching the ultimate limit shifting the focus to establishing new physical principles of operation to overcome these limits specifically using its elementary magnetic movement or so-called spin as the logic variable instead of the charge this new approach constitutes the field of spintronics which promises potential advances in low-power electronics hybrid electronic-magnetic systems and completely new functionalities wunderlich says the 20-year-old theory of electrical manipulation and detection of electrons spin in semiconductors the cornerstone of which is the holy grail known as the spin transistor has proven to be unexpectedly difficult to experimentally realize we used recently discovered quantum-relativistic phenomena for both spin manipulation and detection to realize and confirm all the principal phenomena of the spin transistor concept wunderlich explains to observe the electrical manipulation and detection of spins the team made a specially designed planar photo-diode (as opposed to the typically used circularly polarized light source) placed next to the transistor channel by shining light on the diode they injected photo-excited electrons rather than the customary spin-polarized electrons into the transistor channel voltages were applied to input-gate electrodes to control the procession of spins via quantum-relativistic effects these effects attributable to quantum relativity are also responsible for the onset of transverse electrical voltages in the device which represent the output signal dependent on the local orientation of processing electron spins in the transistor channel the new device can have a broad range of applications in spintronics research as an efficient tool for manipulating and detecting spins in semiconductors without disturbing the spin-polarized current or using magnetic elements wunderlich notes the observed output electrical signals remain large at high temperatures and are linearly dependent on the degree of circular polarization of the incident light the device therefore represents a realization of an electrically controllable solid-state polarimeter which directly converts polarization of light into electric voltage signals he says future applications may exploit the device to detect the content of chiral molecules in solutions for example to measure the blood-sugar levels of patients or the sugar content of wine this work forms part of wider spintronics activity within hitachi worldwide which expects to develop new functionalities for use in fields as diverse as energy transfer high-speed secure communications and various forms of sensor while wunderlich acknowledges it is yet to be determined whether or not spin-based devices will become a viable alternative to or complement of their standard electron-charge-based counterparts in current information-processing devices he says his teams discovery has shifted the focus from the theoretical academic speculation to prototype microelectronic device development for spintronics to revolutionize information technology one needs a further step of creating a spin amplifier sinova says for now the device aspect the ability to inject manipulate and create a logic step with spin alone has been achieved and i am happy that texas a&m university is a part of that accomplishment -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu " " college station dr jairo sinova professor of physics at texas a&m university has been elected a 2010 fellow of the american physical society (aps) no more than one-half of one percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service sinova who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 is cited for contributions to the understanding of spin-transport in magnetic systems particularly the spin-hall effects he was nominated upon the recommendation of the aps division of condensed matter physics and will be presented with his fellowship certificate at the divisions 2011 annual meeting scheduled for march 21-25 in dallas a condensed matter theoretician specializing in nano-spintronics sinova first proposed the notion of intrinsic spin-hall effect and formed part of one of the teams that co-discovered the spin-hall effect his research which is funded by the office of naval research the national science foundation (nsf) the research corporation the state of texas norman hackermann advanced research program and the nanoelectronics research initiative has been published extensively in top peer-reviewed journals such as science nature physics and physical review letters and highlighted in physics today in addition to serving as a reviewer for the nsf as well as several top physics journals he organized the first international conference on spin-hall effect in south korea (2005) sinova is a member of aps as well as the american association of physics teachers his many awards include an nsf career award (2006) a research corporation for science advancement cottrell scholar award (2006) and a texas a&m association of former students college-level distinguished achievement award for teaching (2008) a native of spain sinova received his phd from indiana university in 1999 and held postdoctoral positions at the university of texas and the university of tennessee prior to coming to texas a&m for more information on the american physical society go to http://apsorg -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu the post sinova named american physical society fellow appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr jairo sinova professor of physics at texas a&m university has been elected a 2010 fellow of the american physical society (aps) no more than one-half of one percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service sinova who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 is cited for contributions to the understanding of spin-transport in magnetic systems particularly the spin-hall effects he was nominated upon the recommendation of the aps division of condensed matter physics and will be presented with his fellowship certificate at the divisions 2011 annual meeting scheduled for march 21-25 in dallas a condensed matter theoretician specializing in nano-spintronics sinova first proposed the notion of intrinsic spin-hall effect and formed part of one of the teams that co-discovered the spin-hall effect his research which is funded by the office of naval research the national science foundation (nsf) the research corporation the state of texas norman hackermann advanced research program and the nanoelectronics research initiative has been published extensively in top peer-reviewed journals such as science nature physics and physical review letters and highlighted in physics today in addition to serving as a reviewer for the nsf as well as several top physics journals he organized the first international conference on spin-hall effect in south korea (2005) sinova is a member of aps as well as the american association of physics teachers his many awards include an nsf career award (2006) a research corporation for science advancement cottrell scholar award (2006) and a texas a&m association of former students college-level distinguished achievement award for teaching (2008) a native of spain sinova received his phd from indiana university in 1999 and held postdoctoral positions at the university of texas and the university of tennessee prior to coming to texas a&m for more information on the american physical society go to http://apsorg -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu " " college station ricardo eusebi teruki kamon alexei safonov david toback and other physicists at texas a&m university are part of a worldwide effort using some of the most powerful high-energy physics equipment ever built to help understand the fundamental construction of the physical world they are on the trail of almost unimaginably small fundamental particles of matter and energy the existence of which has as of yet only been theorized determining whether those particles are real may depend on two massive machines half a world apart both being utilized in a search for the ultimate definition of the fabric of reality breaking news: large hadron collider pauses protons looks ahead to lead the particles under investigation bear exotic names: higgs boson supersymmetry and heavy z-prime boson proof or disproof of their existence will determine the future of the entire discipline of high-energy physics confirming or denying a whole way of thinking about the nature of nature itself the startup of the large hadron collider (lhc) particle accelerator at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) near geneva switzerland already dubbed the largest scientific tool ever built by humankind in late 2009 caught the imagination of millions of people around the world and the lhc has been at the center of media attention ever since in 2005 the experimental collider high energy group at texas a&m brought its decades of combined collider expertise to the collider muon solenoid (cms) collaboration one of the two flagship lhc experiments that uses a large detector this large detector is the size of a five-story building and surrounds the point where protons are collided since then the group now 25 members strong has became a key component of the science exploration team at cms bringing new ideas expertise and leadership the first lhc results were presented at the 2010 international conference for high energy physics the worlds largest particle physics conference based on a small set of data the lhc physicists were able to re-discover the w and z bosons particles transmitting interactions between other particles showing excellent performance of the lhc experiments another example of such bosons is the photon which carries electromagnetism (when two magnets are placed near each other and they attract photons fly back and forth between the particles inside each of the magnets and create the visible attractive force pieces of matter do not fall apart because particles are constantly interacting with each other) w and z bosons are similar to photons but they are carriers of the weak force which is responsible for many radioactive decays most discoveries of the second half of the 20th century were directly related to the weak force w and z bosons etc w and z bosons were first predicted and then observed at cern in two collider experiments that were similar to what physicists are doing now but on a much smaller scale physicists are now focusing on particles at the next level of smallness and thus the lhc now collides protons at much higher energies suitable for finding new phenomena both preceding and complementing current efforts at the lhc texas a&m physicists have acquired considerable expertise in physics analysis from the groups work on the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) experiment at the tevatron the worlds second-largest circular particle accelerator after the lhc at the fermi national accelerator laboratory in batavia illinois the tevatron has been the setting for exploring the frontier of high-energy research for years prior to the lhcs ramp-up to full operation and it continues to be an important tool for physicists investigating fundamental questions texas a&m professors robert webb and peter mcintyre in fact were founding members of the cdf experiment at the tevatron in 1980 part of the texas a&m group is still actively involved in searches for the higgs boson and supersymmetry at the tevatron using data from the cdf experiment toback says that the team there hopes to continue providing important contributions from the tevatron over the next few years while the lhc is brought up to even greater levels of power for further long-term investigations what is the significance of the higgs boson its a missing piece of the puzzle as safonov puts it in the standard model that encompasses current knowledge of particle physics according to the standard model it has to be there but it has yet to be physically discovered sometimes dubbed the god particle the higgs boson is responsible for giving masses to all other particles that physicists know via interaction with these other particles supersymmetry is a theoretical model that precisely relates all elementary particles of one kind bosons with another kind fermions it would explain dark matter observed astronomically (there is a lot of it as much as six times more than ordinary matter that consists of atoms and molecules) but for which there is so far no explanation whatsoever supersymmetry has other promising theoretical features as well and has the exciting potential to tie together cosmology and particle physics at the earliest moments after the big bang says kamon; but so far it is just a theory the lhc and cdf experiments are expected to either find evidence of it or largely disprove the theory behind it either result will mean a revolution in particle physics by the end of 2010 the lhc will log 60 times more data than it did before the 2010 conference as it starts breaking new ground in particle physics exploration within the next year the dataset will increase again by a factor of about 50 which could already be sufficient to bring some of the anticipated new discoveries physicists plan to use proton-proton collisions in the lhc and tevatron in hopes of explaining the origin of mass and dark matter the texas a&m group is working not only on physics data analysis but also on the design and development of new detectors and techniques for current and future experiments the groups contributions are well recognized by the cms collaboration just recently for example jim pivarski a texas a&m postdoctoral researcher was selected for the 2009 achievement award for his important contributions to commissioning the cms detector as more data becomes available members of the texas a&m group analyze collision events looking for evidence of the higgs boson supersymmetry and some other new particles predicted in well-motivated theoretical models such as the heavy z-prime boson this year with the support of american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) funding awarded by the us department of energy the group will complete the setup of a high-speed digital electronics shop to design and build state-of-the-art electronics for future detectors with the support of arra and the norman hackerman advanced research program the group is preparing to install and commission a new tier-3 computing center on the texas a&m campus this project is a joint venture with texas a&ms academy for advanced telecommunications and learning technologies the texas a&m tier-3 center will join the grid network of computing centers around the world later this year it will be used to process and analyze petabytes (a unit of information equal to one quadrillion bytes or 1000 terabytes) of data per month from the lhc by texas a&m researchers with the new expertise brought by eusebi who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2009 the a&m team is now expanding its capabilities to join the work on building a new high-performance silicon pixel detector that allows precision tracking of charged particles produced in the lhc collisions physicists already know that even if they find the higgs boson the standard model is already incorrect some aspects of the mass of particles called neutrinos do not quite fit the model in addition to being incomplete given that it provides no clues as to what dark matter or dark energy are in addition to giving answers on how to correct the standard model discoveries at the lhc and the tevatron will mean big changes in physicists understanding of how particles interact with each other where they came from and where they get their mass even confirmation of the absence non-existence of the higgs boson will be extremely significant because it will mean that physicists will need to rethink a lot of theories and assumptions in the meantime the texas a&m physics group at the lhc and the tevatron remain enthusiastic and committed participants in the quest to understand the fundamental nature of nature itself to learn more about collider physics research at texas a&m visit http://colliderphysicstamuedu -atm- contact: ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@physicstamuedu; teruki kamon (979) 845-7740 or kamon@physicstamuedu; alexei safonov (979) 845-1479 or safonov@physicstamuedu; david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@physicstamuedu the post seeking the nature of natureappeared first on texas a&m college of science " " ricardo eusebi teruki kamon alexei safonov david toback and other physicists at texas a&m university are part of a worldwide effort using some of the most powerful high-energy physics equipment ever built to help understand the fundamental construction of the physical world they are on the trail of almost unimaginably small fundamental particles of matter and energy the existence of which has as of yet only been theorized determining whether those particles are real may depend on two massive machines half a world apart both being utilized in a search for the ultimate definition of the fabric of reality breaking news: large hadron collider pauses protons looks ahead to lead the particles under investigation bear exotic names: higgs boson supersymmetry and heavy z-prime boson proof or disproof of their existence will determine the future of the entire discipline of high-energy physics confirming or denying a whole way of thinking about the nature of nature itself the startup of the large hadron collider (lhc) particle accelerator at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) near geneva switzerland already dubbed the largest scientific tool ever built by humankind in late 2009 caught the imagination of millions of people around the world and the lhc has been at the center of media attention ever since in 2005 the experimental collider high energy group at texas a&m brought its decades of combined collider expertise to the collider muon solenoid (cms) collaboration one of the two flagship lhc experiments that uses a large detector this large detector is the size of a five-story building and surrounds the point where protons are collided since then the group now 25 members strong has became a key component of the science exploration team at cms bringing new ideas expertise and leadership the first lhc results were presented at the 2010 international conference for high energy physics the worlds largest particle physics conference based on a small set of data the lhc physicists were able to re-discover the w and z bosons particles transmitting interactions between other particles showing excellent performance of the lhc experiments another example of such bosons is the photon which carries electromagnetism (when two magnets are placed near each other and they attract photons fly back and forth between the particles inside each of the magnets and create the visible attractive force pieces of matter do not fall apart because particles are constantly interacting with each other) w and z bosons are similar to photons but they are carriers of the weak force which is responsible for many radioactive decays most discoveries of the second half of the 20th century were directly related to the weak force w and z bosons etc w and z bosons were first predicted and then observed at cern in two collider experiments that were similar to what physicists are doing now but on a much smaller scale physicists are now focusing on particles at the next level of smallness and thus the lhc now collides protons at much higher energies suitable for finding new phenomena both preceding and complementing current efforts at the lhc texas a&m physicists have acquired considerable expertise in physics analysis from the groups work on the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) experiment at the tevatron the worlds second-largest circular particle accelerator after the lhc at the fermi national accelerator laboratory in batavia illinois the tevatron has been the setting for exploring the frontier of high-energy research for years prior to the lhcs ramp-up to full operation and it continues to be an important tool for physicists investigating fundamental questions texas a&m professors robert webb and peter mcintyre in fact were founding members of the cdf experiment at the tevatron in 1980 part of the texas a&m group is still actively involved in searches for the higgs boson and supersymmetry at the tevatron using data from the cdf experiment toback says that the team there hopes to continue providing important contributions from the tevatron over the next few years while the lhc is brought up to even greater levels of power for further long-term investigations what is the significance of the higgs boson its a missing piece of the puzzle as safonov puts it in the standard model that encompasses current knowledge of particle physics according to the standard model it has to be there but it has yet to be physically discovered sometimes dubbed the god particle the higgs boson is responsible for giving masses to all other particles that physicists know via interaction with these other particles supersymmetry is a theoretical model that precisely relates all elementary particles of one kind bosons with another kind fermions it would explain dark matter observed astronomically (there is a lot of it as much as six times more than ordinary matter that consists of atoms and molecules) but for which there is so far no explanation whatsoever supersymmetry has other promising theoretical features as well and has the exciting potential to tie together cosmology and particle physics at the earliest moments after the big bang says kamon; but so far it is just a theory the lhc and cdf experiments are expected to either find evidence of it or largely disprove the theory behind it either result will mean a revolution in particle physics by the end of 2010 the lhc will log 60 times more data than it did before the 2010 conference as it starts breaking new ground in particle physics exploration within the next year the dataset will increase again by a factor of about 50 which could already be sufficient to bring some of the anticipated new discoveries physicists plan to use proton-proton collisions in the lhc and tevatron in hopes of explaining the origin of mass and dark matter the texas a&m group is working not only on physics data analysis but also on the design and development of new detectors and techniques for current and future experiments the groups contributions are well recognized by the cms collaboration just recently for example jim pivarski a texas a&m postdoctoral researcher was selected for the 2009 achievement award for his important contributions to commissioning the cms detector as more data becomes available members of the texas a&m group analyze collision events looking for evidence of the higgs boson supersymmetry and some other new particles predicted in well-motivated theoretical models such as the heavy z-prime boson this year with the support of american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) funding awarded by the us department of energy the group will complete the setup of a high-speed digital electronics shop to design and build state-of-the-art electronics for future detectors with the support of arra and the norman hackerman advanced research program the group is preparing to install and commission a new tier-3 computing center on the texas a&m campus this project is a joint venture with texas a&ms academy for advanced telecommunications and learning technologies the texas a&m tier-3 center will join the grid network of computing centers around the world later this year it will be used to process and analyze petabytes (a unit of information equal to one quadrillion bytes or 1000 terabytes) of data per month from the lhc by texas a&m researchers with the new expertise brought by eusebi who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2009 the a&m team is now expanding its capabilities to join the work on building a new high-performance silicon pixel detector that allows precision tracking of charged particles produced in the lhc collisions physicists already know that even if they find the higgs boson the standard model is already incorrect some aspects of the mass of particles called neutrinos do not quite fit the model in addition to being incomplete given that it provides no clues as to what dark matter or dark energy are in addition to giving answers on how to correct the standard model discoveries at the lhc and the tevatron will mean big changes in physicists understanding of how particles interact with each other where they came from and where they get their mass even confirmation of the absence non-existence of the higgs boson will be extremely significant because it will mean that physicists will need to rethink a lot of theories and assumptions in the meantime the texas a&m physics group at the lhc and the tevatron remain enthusiastic and committed participants in the quest to understand the fundamental nature of nature itself to learn more about collider physics research at texas a&m visit http://colliderphysicstamuedu -atm- contact: ricardo eusebi (979) 458-7907 or eusebi@physicstamuedu; teruki kamon (979) 845-7740 or kamon@physicstamuedu; alexei safonov (979) 845-1479 or safonov@physicstamuedu; david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university and the entire research valley stand to benefit from agreements the texas a&m university systems office of technology commercialization struck this week with belgium-based businesses several officials involved in the partnerships announced friday trade delegation representatives from the wallonia foreign trade and investment agency (awex) an agency of the walloon government in the southern region of belgium met this week with representatives from the texas a&m system texas a&m and the research valley partnership representatives from 17 belgian companies visited the texas a&m campus this week as part of the delegation and several events friday culminated their week of tours and trade talks some even visited with students in a mays business school course taught by brett cornwell associate vice chancellor for technology commercialization for the a&m system one of fridays events was the announcement of a multi-million-dollar regional contract with belgian high-tech optical company amos to locate its first us office in college station the company is known for its creative research and development solutions for satellites the international space station and some of the leading ground-based telescopes and has been working closely with astronomers from texas a&m nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m director of the astronomy research page and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute of fundamental physics and astronomy called the decision by amos to expand into this area of texas a testament to the high quality of the engineering students and faculty at texas a&m and to the strength of the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory darren l depoy a texas a&m physics and astronomy professor who directs the astronomical instrumentation lab called the partnership a natural collaboration he said such collaborations will propel the research valley to become known as the innovation capital of texas amos is a cutting-edge company that builds precision instruments and tools used in the astronomy industry and we build things to put on those instruments he said our lab has been in existence for two years and i think it reflects well on our program to have this partnership another of fridays events was a ribbon-cutting for the research valley partnerships international gateway an office suite that will serve as a launching pad for international businesses the suite has office space a conference room and a web-based voice mail system that can be accessed worldwide organizers said they hope to open a satellite office within a year this is not an office solution not a real estate solution its a corporate solution said todd mcdaniel research valley partnership president/ceo its a landing zone a gateway to future endeavors also a letter of intent was signed to form a joint partnership between data mining company pepite and the a&m system with a target date of january for the company to open locally philippe lachapelle director of business development and partnerships for awex lauded the a&m systems invaluable support and commitment to transform innovation into real large-scale business in the various endeavors he also said the business climate in this area is very attractive to businesses in his country friendship is an element you didnt mention but its very important to us in wallonia he said ############ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world -atm- contact: kelli levey news & information services at (979) 845-4645 or klevey@tamuedu the post texas a&m system celebrate international business ties appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university and the entire research valley stand to benefit from agreements the texas a&m university systems office of technology commercialization struck this week with belgium-based businesses several officials involved in the partnerships announced friday trade delegation representatives from the wallonia foreign trade and investment agency (awex) an agency of the walloon government in the southern region of belgium met this week with representatives from the texas a&m system texas a&m and the research valley partnership representatives from 17 belgian companies visited the texas a&m campus this week as part of the delegation and several events friday culminated their week of tours and trade talks some even visited with students in a mays business school course taught by brett cornwell associate vice chancellor for technology commercialization for the a&m system one of fridays events was the announcement of a multi-million-dollar regional contract with belgian high-tech optical company amos to locate its first us office in college station the company is known for its creative research and development solutions for satellites the international space station and some of the leading ground-based telescopes and has been working closely with astronomers from texas a&m nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m director of the astronomy research page and a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute of fundamental physics and astronomy called the decision by amos to expand into this area of texas a testament to the high quality of the engineering students and faculty at texas a&m and to the strength of the munnerlyn astronomical laboratory darren l depoy a texas a&m physics and astronomy professor who directs the astronomical instrumentation lab called the partnership a natural collaboration he said such collaborations will propel the research valley to become known as the innovation capital of texas amos is a cutting-edge company that builds precision instruments and tools used in the astronomy industry and we build things to put on those instruments he said our lab has been in existence for two years and i think it reflects well on our program to have this partnership another of fridays events was a ribbon-cutting for the research valley partnerships international gateway an office suite that will serve as a launching pad for international businesses the suite has office space a conference room and a web-based voice mail system that can be accessed worldwide organizers said they hope to open a satellite office within a year this is not an office solution not a real estate solution its a corporate solution said todd mcdaniel research valley partnership president/ceo its a landing zone a gateway to future endeavors also a letter of intent was signed to form a joint partnership between data mining company pepite and the a&m system with a target date of january for the company to open locally philippe lachapelle director of business development and partnerships for awex lauded the a&m systems invaluable support and commitment to transform innovation into real large-scale business in the various endeavors he also said the business climate in this area is very attractive to businesses in his country friendship is an element you didnt mention but its very important to us in wallonia he said ############ about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $630 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world -atm- contact: kelli levey news & information services at (979) 845-4645 or klevey@tamuedu " " a project to discover the nature of dark energy a mysterious force causing the expansion of the universe to speed up has received an $8 million grant from the national science foundation (nsf) the funds will be split among the university of texas at austin ($36 million) texas a&m university ($39 million) and penn state university ($5 million) to support their respective roles in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment or hetdex the project will be carried out at the university of texas at austins mcdonald observatory in west texas hetdex is one of our gems within the university said william powers jr president of the university of texas at austin its one of the projects being done here today that will still be talked about in a hundred years the way we now read about discoveries by newton and einstein this nsf grant is strong confirmation of the projects importance and our commitment to it both of texas flagship universities will play a major role in the project collaborating on such an important project with our colleagues at the university of texas at austin and penn state university speaks directly to the important role that flagship tier-one research institutions have in unlocking the mysteries of the universe and developing new knowledge said r bowen loftin president of texas a&m with this grant we are able to pull together many of the top minds in astronomy and physics for a project that will have a significant historical impact one form of dark energy was described by albert einstein in 1917 in his theory of general relativity but no one took the idea seriously until 1998 that year two groups one of which was co-founded by texas a&m astronomer nicholas suntzeff made precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe showing that it was expanding faster than in the past a total surprise akin to throwing a ball into the air and realizing it is speeding up as it flies into the sky rather than slowing down and returning scientists have dubbed the unknown cause dark energy because dark energy makes up 70 percent of the mass and energy of the universe understanding its nature has been called the number one problem in physics today removing our ignorance about 70 percent of the universes make-up is a challenge that mcdonald observatory is delighted to assume said mcdonald observatory director david lambert hetdex will upgrade the hobby-eberly telescope (het) one of the worlds largest to use a specially designed instrument which over three years will make one of the largest maps of the universe to date the hetdex survey will pinpoint the positions of one million star-forming galaxies between 10 billion and 11 billion light-years away this enormous map will measure accurately how the universe expands over time because acceleration in this expansion is because of dark energy hetdex will determine whether or not dark energy is a constant through time a key element in understanding precisely what it is i am delighted that the het and in particular the hetdex team has been recognized by the national science foundation as one of the leaders in addressing one of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time said daniel larson chair of the het board of directors and dean of penn states eberly college of science the nsf funds will be administered over the next five years the hetdex project is a critical part of the coordinated multi-agency response to the 2006 report from the astronomy and astrophysics advisory committees dark energy task force which recommended a multi-pronged approach to the enigma known as dark energy said dr nigel sharp astronomy program officer at the national science foundation nsfs division of astronomical sciences is pleased to support the project which will have broad impact and value well beyond the focus of dark energy there are two areas the nsf money is going for said project scientist karl gebhardt of the university of texas at austin to build the virus spectrograph which is the heart of the project and also for the science analyzing the data theoretical work post-docs and graduate students the virus instrument will be assembled and aligned at texas a&m university this novel instrument comprises 150 copies of a single spectrograph an instrument that gathers light from distant galaxies and splits it into its individual wavelengths known as a spectrum a spectrum reveals an objects chemical composition its temperature and the speed it is moving toward or away from us the replication of this single unit makes it possible to build virus faster and cheaper than a single giant spectrograph with the same capabilities the power of virus is that it simultaneously captures spectra from 33 000 points on the sky simultaneously using fiber optics developed for the telecommunications industry to transfer the light from the telescope to the huge replicated array of spectrographs virus is unique said hetdex principal investigator gary hill of the university of texas at austin it captures spectra from everything that falls on its fibers so we can survey a large area of sky very quickly the powerful combination of the het and virus creates a unique survey facility that will allow us a new window on dark energy and will also open up the study of dark matter and the formation of the milky way darren depoy professor of physics and astronomy and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics at texas a&m said because virus allows spectroscopic observations of a large number of objects simultaneously it is well suited to measuring the subtle effects that dark energy has on the structure of the universe the power of the new instrument also will enable a broad range of other astronomy projects we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the high-quality lab space and excellent students and staff capable of building such instrumentation said depoy a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy our team includes undergraduate and graduate students from several science and engineering departments and research scientists and engineers in the instrumentation group all of us are excited to be part of such a groundbreaking project the assembly and testing of the virus instrument will be completed by depoy jennifer marshall and fellow researchers within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory which is directed by depoy the production-line style of constructing 150 spectrographs will be a challenge said marshall lecturer and research scientist in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy because astronomers generally only build a single instrument for a particular scientific project we look forward to the challenge and to the scientific results that the instrument will enable in addition to their contribution to the science goals penn states role in the preparation for the hetdex project is contributing to the planning of the observations and the commissioning of virus the hetdex observations in addition to revealing key information about the expansion history of the universe will also provide important insights into the formation of galaxies said robin ciardullo professor of astronomy and astrophysics at penn state and a member of the hetdex science team we will be obtaining information from a time before our sun was born we believe that many of the objects hetdex detects will someday evolve into galaxies similar to the milky way so the experiment will also be providing a glimpse into our galaxys infancy german partners in the hetdex project include universitats-sternwarte munchen astrophysikaliches institut potsdam and max-planck-institut fur extraterrestriche physik each is contributing to hardware software or science preparation for the project timeline now six years in the project is on track gebhardt said work includes building a new top end for the hobby-eberly telescope called the harold c simmons dark energy optical system it includes four mirrors and other optics this work is being carried out in austin at the university of texass center for electromechanics and is to be completed by the end of the year the top end of the telescope will be taken apart to be upgraded beginning next may the new top end will be delivered to mcdonald observatory late next summer after installation and commissioning the hetdex survey will begin in january 2012 and reach routine operations by that spring the survey will take three years ending in june 2014 once completed the survey data will be released to the public the world stage the quest to understand the nature of dark energy has caught the imagination of astronomers around the world and many projects have been undertaken to probe its mysteries hetdex is a front-runner in this effort being nearly fully funded and set to probe an epoch of cosmic history no other project will tackle members of the hetdex team are involved with two other major dark energy projects texas a&m is part of the dark energy survey led by fermilab and penn state is involved with the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey that will be carried out as part of the ongoing sloan digital sky survey through both hetdex and these other connections the state of texas will play a major role in forthcoming breakthroughs expected about dark energy gebhardt said outreach the nsf funding will support the projects education and outreach plans include upgrading the projects extensive website) a new bilingual family-focused exhibit called the dark energy experiment: illuminating the universe for mcdonald observatorys frank n bash visitors center (a popular tourist destination that receives about 55 000 visitors annually) and the creation of science and math activities for use in elementary and secondary schools funding hetdex is nearly completely funded most of its funding has been provided by the donations of individuals and foundations that money has funded the necessary upgrades to the telescope enlarging its field of view less than 10 percent of the funds remain to be raised established in 1932 the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory near fort davis texas hosts multiple telescopes undertaking a wide range of astronomical research under the darkest night skies of any professional observatory in the continental united states the hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald is a joint project of the university of texas at austin penn state university stanford university ludwig-maximilians-universitat munchen and georg-august-universitat gottingen -atm- notes to editors: in-depth project information is available at http://hetdexorg videos and photos to accompany this release are available online the videos are also available on mcdonald observatorys youtube channel media contacts rebecca johnson mcdonald observatory ‚Äì the university of texas at austin512-475-6763; rjohnson@astroasutexasedu shana hutchins college of science texas a&m university979-862-1237; shutchins@sciencetamuedu barbara kennedy eberly college of science penn state university814-863-4682; science@psuedu science contacts dr gary hill principal investigator for hetdex and viruschief astronomer mcdonald observatorythe university of texas at austin512-471-1477; dhill@astroasutexasedu dr karl gebhardt hetdex project scientist herman and joan suit professor of astrophysics the university of texas at austin512-471-1473; gebhardt@astroasutexasedu dr darren depoyrachal-mitchell-heep endowed professor in physics texas a&m university979-862-2082; depoy@physicstamuedu dr jennifer marshallmunnerlyn astronomical laboratorytexas a&m university979-862-2782; marshall@physicstamuedu dr robin ciardulloprofessor of astronomy & astrophysics penn state university512-471-7336; rbc@astropsuedu the post project to study dark energy receives $8 million from national science foundation appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a project to discover the nature of dark energy a mysterious force causing the expansion of the universe to speed up has received an $8 million grant from the national science foundation (nsf) the funds will be split among the university of texas at austin ($36 million) texas a&m university ($39 million) and penn state university ($5 million) to support their respective roles in the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment or hetdex the project will be carried out at the university of texas at austins mcdonald observatory in west texas hetdex is one of our gems within the university said william powers jr president of the university of texas at austin its one of the projects being done here today that will still be talked about in a hundred years the way we now read about discoveries by newton and einstein this nsf grant is strong confirmation of the projects importance and our commitment to it both of texas flagship universities will play a major role in the project collaborating on such an important project with our colleagues at the university of texas at austin and penn state university speaks directly to the important role that flagship tier-one research institutions have in unlocking the mysteries of the universe and developing new knowledge said r bowen loftin president of texas a&m with this grant we are able to pull together many of the top minds in astronomy and physics for a project that will have a significant historical impact one form of dark energy was described by albert einstein in 1917 in his theory of general relativity but no one took the idea seriously until 1998 that year two groups one of which was co-founded by texas a&m astronomer nicholas suntzeff made precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe showing that it was expanding faster than in the past a total surprise akin to throwing a ball into the air and realizing it is speeding up as it flies into the sky rather than slowing down and returning scientists have dubbed the unknown cause dark energy because dark energy makes up 70 percent of the mass and energy of the universe understanding its nature has been called the number one problem in physics today removing our ignorance about 70 percent of the universes make-up is a challenge that mcdonald observatory is delighted to assume said mcdonald observatory director david lambert hetdex will upgrade the hobby-eberly telescope (het) one of the worlds largest to use a specially designed instrument which over three years will make one of the largest maps of the universe to date the hetdex survey will pinpoint the positions of one million star-forming galaxies between 10 billion and 11 billion light-years away this enormous map will measure accurately how the universe expands over time because acceleration in this expansion is because of dark energy hetdex will determine whether or not dark energy is a constant through time a key element in understanding precisely what it is i am delighted that the het and in particular the hetdex team has been recognized by the national science foundation as one of the leaders in addressing one of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time said daniel larson chair of the het board of directors and dean of penn states eberly college of science the nsf funds will be administered over the next five years the hetdex project is a critical part of the coordinated multi-agency response to the 2006 report from the astronomy and astrophysics advisory committees dark energy task force which recommended a multi-pronged approach to the enigma known as dark energy said dr nigel sharp astronomy program officer at the national science foundation nsfs division of astronomical sciences is pleased to support the project which will have broad impact and value well beyond the focus of dark energy there are two areas the nsf money is going for said project scientist karl gebhardt of the university of texas at austin to build the virus spectrograph which is the heart of the project and also for the science analyzing the data theoretical work post-docs and graduate students the virus instrument will be assembled and aligned at texas a&m university this novel instrument comprises 150 copies of a single spectrograph an instrument that gathers light from distant galaxies and splits it into its individual wavelengths known as a spectrum a spectrum reveals an objects chemical composition its temperature and the speed it is moving toward or away from us the replication of this single unit makes it possible to build virus faster and cheaper than a single giant spectrograph with the same capabilities the power of virus is that it simultaneously captures spectra from 33 000 points on the sky simultaneously using fiber optics developed for the telecommunications industry to transfer the light from the telescope to the huge replicated array of spectrographs virus is unique said hetdex principal investigator gary hill of the university of texas at austin it captures spectra from everything that falls on its fibers so we can survey a large area of sky very quickly the powerful combination of the het and virus creates a unique survey facility that will allow us a new window on dark energy and will also open up the study of dark matter and the formation of the milky way darren depoy professor of physics and astronomy and holder of the rachal-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics at texas a&m said because virus allows spectroscopic observations of a large number of objects simultaneously it is well suited to measuring the subtle effects that dark energy has on the structure of the universe the power of the new instrument also will enable a broad range of other astronomy projects we are fortunate at texas a&m to have both the high-quality lab space and excellent students and staff capable of building such instrumentation said depoy a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy our team includes undergraduate and graduate students from several science and engineering departments and research scientists and engineers in the instrumentation group all of us are excited to be part of such a groundbreaking project the assembly and testing of the virus instrument will be completed by depoy jennifer marshall and fellow researchers within texas a&ms charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory which is directed by depoy the production-line style of constructing 150 spectrographs will be a challenge said marshall lecturer and research scientist in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy because astronomers generally only build a single instrument for a particular scientific project we look forward to the challenge and to the scientific results that the instrument will enable in addition to their contribution to the science goals penn states role in the preparation for the hetdex project is contributing to the planning of the observations and the commissioning of virus the hetdex observations in addition to revealing key information about the expansion history of the universe will also provide important insights into the formation of galaxies said robin ciardullo professor of astronomy and astrophysics at penn state and a member of the hetdex science team we will be obtaining information from a time before our sun was born we believe that many of the objects hetdex detects will someday evolve into galaxies similar to the milky way so the experiment will also be providing a glimpse into our galaxys infancy german partners in the hetdex project include universitats-sternwarte munchen astrophysikaliches institut potsdam and max-planck-institut fur extraterrestriche physik each is contributing to hardware software or science preparation for the project timeline now six years in the project is on track gebhardt said work includes building a new top end for the hobby-eberly telescope called the harold c simmons dark energy optical system it includes four mirrors and other optics this work is being carried out in austin at the university of texass center for electromechanics and is to be completed by the end of the year the top end of the telescope will be taken apart to be upgraded beginning next may the new top end will be delivered to mcdonald observatory late next summer after installation and commissioning the hetdex survey will begin in january 2012 and reach routine operations by that spring the survey will take three years ending in june 2014 once completed the survey data will be released to the public the world stage the quest to understand the nature of dark energy has caught the imagination of astronomers around the world and many projects have been undertaken to probe its mysteries hetdex is a front-runner in this effort being nearly fully funded and set to probe an epoch of cosmic history no other project will tackle members of the hetdex team are involved with two other major dark energy projects texas a&m is part of the dark energy survey led by fermilab and penn state is involved with the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey that will be carried out as part of the ongoing sloan digital sky survey through both hetdex and these other connections the state of texas will play a major role in forthcoming breakthroughs expected about dark energy gebhardt said outreach the nsf funding will support the projects education and outreach plans include upgrading the projects extensive website) a new bilingual family-focused exhibit called the dark energy experiment: illuminating the universe for mcdonald observatorys frank n bash visitors center (a popular tourist destination that receives about 55 000 visitors annually) and the creation of science and math activities for use in elementary and secondary schools funding hetdex is nearly completely funded most of its funding has been provided by the donations of individuals and foundations that money has funded the necessary upgrades to the telescope enlarging its field of view less than 10 percent of the funds remain to be raised established in 1932 the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory near fort davis texas hosts multiple telescopes undertaking a wide range of astronomical research under the darkest night skies of any professional observatory in the continental united states the hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald is a joint project of the university of texas at austin penn state university stanford university ludwig-maximilians-universitat munchen and georg-august-universitat gottingen -atm- notes to editors: in-depth project information is available at http://hetdexorg videos and photos to accompany this release are available online the videos are also available on mcdonald observatorys youtube channel media contacts rebecca johnson mcdonald observatory ‚Äì the university of texas at austin512-475-6763; rjohnson@astroasutexasedu shana hutchins college of science texas a&m university979-862-1237; shutchins@sciencetamuedu barbara kennedy eberly college of science penn state university814-863-4682; science@psuedu science contacts dr gary hill principal investigator for hetdex and viruschief astronomer mcdonald observatorythe university of texas at austin512-471-1477; dhill@astroasutexasedu dr karl gebhardt hetdex project scientist herman and joan suit professor of astrophysics the university of texas at austin512-471-1473; gebhardt@astroasutexasedu dr darren depoyrachal-mitchell-heep endowed professor in physics texas a&m university979-862-2082; depoy@physicstamuedu dr jennifer marshallmunnerlyn astronomical laboratorytexas a&m university979-862-2782; marshall@physicstamuedu dr robin ciardulloprofessor of astronomy & astrophysics penn state university512-471-7336; rbc@astropsuedu " " boulder colo observations made with nasas newly refurbished hubble space telescope of a nearby supernova are allowing astronomers to measure the velocity and composition of star guts being ejected into space following the explosion according to a new study led by the university of colorado at boulder led by cu-boulder research associate kevin france of the center for astrophysics and space astronomy the research team also included texas a&m university astrophysicist dr lifan wang of the department of physics and astronomy and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the team detected significant brightening of the emissions from supernova 1987a which were consistent with some theoretical predictions about how supernovae interact with their immediate galactic environment discovered in 1987 supernova 1987a is the closest exploding star to earth to be detected since 1604 and resides in the nearby large magellanic cloud a dwarf galaxy adjacent to our own milky way galaxy the team observed the supernova in optical ultraviolet and near-infrared light charting the interplay between the stellar explosion and the famous string of pearls a glowing ring 6 trillion miles in diameter encircling the supernova remnant that has been energized by x-rays the gas ring likely was shed some 20 000 years before the supernova exploded and shock waves rushing out from the remnant have been brightening some 30 to 40 pearl-like hot spots in the ring objects that likely will grow and merge together in the coming years to form a continuous glowing circle the new observations allow us to accurately measure the velocity and composition of the ejected ‚Äòstar guts which tell us about the deposition of energy and heavy elements into the host galaxy said france lead author of the study the new observations not only tell us what elements are being recycled into the large magellanic cloud but how it changes its environment on human time scales a paper on the subject was published in the sept 2 issue of science the international study involved study co-authors from 15 other universities and institutes and included cu-boulder astrophysicist richard mccray the science papers second author in addition to ejecting massive amounts of hydrogen 1987a has spewed helium oxygen nitrogen and rarer heavy elements like sulfur silicon and iron supernovae are responsible for a large fraction of biologically important elements including oxygen carbon and iron found in plants and animals on earth today france said the iron in a persons blood for example is believed to have been made by supernovae explosions hubble is the only observatory in the world that can observe the brightening of the string of pearls in ultraviolet light said france most of the data for the study was gathered by the space telescope imaging spectrograph or stis which was installed on hubble in 1997 and was one of the workhorse instruments before its power supply failed in 2004 a faulty circuit board on stis was replaced by astronauts on the final hubble repair mission in may 2009 the team compared stis observations in january 2010 with hubble observations made over the past 15 years on 1987as evolution stis has provided the team with detailed images of the exploding star as well as spectrographic data essentially wavelengths of light broken down into colors like a prism that produce unique fingerprints of gaseous matter the results revealed temperatures chemical composition density and motion of 1987a and its surrounding environment said france since the supernova is roughly 163 000 light-years away the explosion occurred in roughly 161 000 bc said france one light-year is about 6 trillion miles to see a supernova go off in our backyard and to watch its evolution and interactions with the environment in human time scales is unprecedented he said the massive stars that produce explosions like supernova 1987a are like rock stars they live fast flashy lives and die young france said the energy input from supernovae regulates the physical state and the long-term evolution of galaxies like the milky way many astronomers believe a supernova explosion near our forming sun some 4 to 5 billion years ago is responsible for a significant fraction of radioactive elements in our solar system today he said in the big picture we are seeing the effect a supernova can have in the surrounding galaxy including how the energy deposited by these stellar explosions changes the dynamics and chemistry of the environment said france we can use this new data to understand how supernova processes regulate the evolution of galaxies some of the upcoming hubble observations of supernova 1987a will be made with the cosmic origins spectrograph a $70 million instrument designed by a team at cu-boulders center for astrophysics and space astronomy that was installed on hubble during the 2009 servicing mission the instrument is designed to help scientists better understand the cosmic web of material permeating the cosmos by gathering information from uv light from distant objects allowing scientists to look back in time and space and reconstruct the condition and evolution of the early universe france became a member of the cosmic origins spectrograph science team in 2007 and has been using data gathered by instrument to study topics ranging from the chemistry of the early universe about 25 billion years after the big bang occurred roughly 137 billion years ago to the evaporation of the atmosphere around a planet that is orbiting another star cos has been extremely productive in the early phases of its mission and has great scientific breadth said france to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or jim scott cu-boulder (303) 492-3114 or jimscott@coloradoedu the post new hubble observations of supernova 1987a reveal composition of star guts pouring out appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " observations made with nasas newly refurbished hubble space telescope of a nearby supernova are allowing astronomers to measure the velocity and composition of star guts being ejected into space following the explosion according to a new study led by the university of colorado at boulder led by cu-boulder research associate kevin france of the center for astrophysics and space astronomy the research team also included texas a&m university astrophysicist dr lifan wang of the department of physics and astronomy and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the team detected significant brightening of the emissions from supernova 1987a which were consistent with some theoretical predictions about how supernovae interact with their immediate galactic environment discovered in 1987 supernova 1987a is the closest exploding star to earth to be detected since 1604 and resides in the nearby large magellanic cloud a dwarf galaxy adjacent to our own milky way galaxy the team observed the supernova in optical ultraviolet and near-infrared light charting the interplay between the stellar explosion and the famous string of pearls a glowing ring 6 trillion miles in diameter encircling the supernova remnant that has been energized by x-rays the gas ring likely was shed some 20 000 years before the supernova exploded and shock waves rushing out from the remnant have been brightening some 30 to 40 pearl-like hot spots in the ring objects that likely will grow and merge together in the coming years to form a continuous glowing circle the new observations allow us to accurately measure the velocity and composition of the ejected ‚Äòstar guts which tell us about the deposition of energy and heavy elements into the host galaxy said france lead author of the study the new observations not only tell us what elements are being recycled into the large magellanic cloud but how it changes its environment on human time scales a paper on the subject was published in the sept 2 issue of science the international study involved study co-authors from 15 other universities and institutes and included cu-boulder astrophysicist richard mccray the science papers second author in addition to ejecting massive amounts of hydrogen 1987a has spewed helium oxygen nitrogen and rarer heavy elements like sulfur silicon and iron supernovae are responsible for a large fraction of biologically important elements including oxygen carbon and iron found in plants and animals on earth today france said the iron in a persons blood for example is believed to have been made by supernovae explosions hubble is the only observatory in the world that can observe the brightening of the string of pearls in ultraviolet light said france most of the data for the study was gathered by the space telescope imaging spectrograph or stis which was installed on hubble in 1997 and was one of the workhorse instruments before its power supply failed in 2004 a faulty circuit board on stis was replaced by astronauts on the final hubble repair mission in may 2009 the team compared stis observations in january 2010 with hubble observations made over the past 15 years on 1987as evolution stis has provided the team with detailed images of the exploding star as well as spectrographic data essentially wavelengths of light broken down into colors like a prism that produce unique fingerprints of gaseous matter the results revealed temperatures chemical composition density and motion of 1987a and its surrounding environment said france since the supernova is roughly 163 000 light-years away the explosion occurred in roughly 161 000 bc said france one light-year is about 6 trillion miles to see a supernova go off in our backyard and to watch its evolution and interactions with the environment in human time scales is unprecedented he said the massive stars that produce explosions like supernova 1987a are like rock stars they live fast flashy lives and die young france said the energy input from supernovae regulates the physical state and the long-term evolution of galaxies like the milky way many astronomers believe a supernova explosion near our forming sun some 4 to 5 billion years ago is responsible for a significant fraction of radioactive elements in our solar system today he said in the big picture we are seeing the effect a supernova can have in the surrounding galaxy including how the energy deposited by these stellar explosions changes the dynamics and chemistry of the environment said france we can use this new data to understand how supernova processes regulate the evolution of galaxies some of the upcoming hubble observations of supernova 1987a will be made with the cosmic origins spectrograph a $70 million instrument designed by a team at cu-boulders center for astrophysics and space astronomy that was installed on hubble during the 2009 servicing mission the instrument is designed to help scientists better understand the cosmic web of material permeating the cosmos by gathering information from uv light from distant objects allowing scientists to look back in time and space and reconstruct the condition and evolution of the early universe france became a member of the cosmic origins spectrograph science team in 2007 and has been using data gathered by instrument to study topics ranging from the chemistry of the early universe about 25 billion years after the big bang occurred roughly 137 billion years ago to the evaporation of the atmosphere around a planet that is orbiting another star cos has been extremely productive in the early phases of its mission and has great scientific breadth said france to learn more about texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or jim scott cu-boulder (303) 492-3114 or jimscott@coloradoedu " " college station much like quiet middle-aged baby boomers peacefully residing in some of the worlds largest cities families of some galaxies also have a hidden wild youth that they only now are revealing for the first time according to research by astronomers at texas a&m university in ongoing observations of one of the universes earliest most distant cluster of galaxies using nasas spitzer space telescope an international team of researchers led by texas a&ms dr kim-vy tran has discovered that a significant fraction of those ancient galaxies are still actively forming stars kim tran casey papovich tran an assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and her team have spent the past 4 months analyzing images taken from the multiband imaging photometer for spitzer (mips) essentially looking back in time nearly 10 billion years at a high red-shift cluster known as clg j02182-05102 mere months after first discovering the cluster and the fact that it is shockingly modern in its appearance and size despite being observed just 4 billion years after the big bang the texas a&m-led team was able to determine that the galaxy cluster produces hundreds to thousands of new stars every year a far higher birthrate than what is present in nearby galaxies what is particularly striking according to tran is the fact that the stellar birthrate is higher in the clusters center than at the clusters edges the exact opposite of what happens in our local portion of the universe where the cores of galaxy clusters are known to be galactic graveyards full of massive elliptical galaxies composed of old stars a well-established hallmark of galaxy evolution in action is how the fraction of star-forming galaxies decreases with increasing galaxy density explains tran lead author of the teams study which appears in the astrophysical journal letters in other words there are more star-forming galaxies in the field than in the crowded cores of galaxy clusters however in our cluster we find many galaxies with star-formation rates comparable to their cousins in the lower-density field environment exactly why this star power increases as galaxies become more crowded remains a mystery tran thinks the densely-populated surroundings could lead to galaxies triggering activity in one another or that all galaxies were extremely active when the universe was young the groups discovery holds potentially compelling implications that could ultimately reveal more about how such massive galaxies form observations of nearby galaxy clusters confirm that they are made of stars that are at least 8 to 10 billion years old which means that clg j02182-05102 is nearing the end of its hyperactive star-building period now that they have pinpointed the epoch when galaxy clusters are making the last of their stars astronomers can focus on understanding why massive assemblies of galaxies transition from very active to passive identifying how long it takes for galaxies in clusters to build up their stellar mass as well as the time at which they stop provides strong constraints for how these massive galaxies form our study shows that by looking farther into the distant universe we have revealed the missing link between the active galaxies and the quiescent behemoths that live in the local universe tran adds our discovery indicates that future studies of galaxy clusters in this red-shift range should be particularly fruitful for understanding how these massive galaxies form as a function of their environment trans team includes fellow texas a&m astronomer dr casey papovich who first identified the galaxy cluster clg j02182-05102 in may the collection of roughly 60 galaxies is observed just 4 billion years after the big bang making it the earliest cluster of galaxies ever detected however the team was struck not by its age but by its astoundingly modern appearance a huge red collection of galaxies typical in only local clusters the fact that trans team was able to see these active galaxies so far back in time (tran likens their find to discovering that her mild-mannered grandparent had lived a fast and furious youth) is only the preface to what they expect eventually to learn about these clusters tran will continue to lead an international collaboration with papovich and their postdoctoral researchers to examine these clusters more thoroughly and hopefully to understand why they are still so energetic we will analyze new observations scheduled to be taken with the hubble space telescope and herschel space telescope to study these galaxies more carefully to understand why they are so active tran adds we will also start looking at several more distant galaxy clusters to see if we find similar behavior the teams findings are detailed in their paper reversal of fortune: confirmation of an increasing star formation-density relation in a cluster at z=162 available online at http://iopscienceioporg/2041-8205/719/2/l126/ for or additional information on texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu atm contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 862-2747 or vy@physicstamuedu the post hidden star power revealed appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " much like quiet middle-aged baby boomers peacefully residing in some of the worlds largest cities families of some galaxies also have a hidden wild youth that they only now are revealing for the first time according to research by astronomers at texas a&m university in ongoing observations of one of the universes earliest most distant cluster of galaxies using nasas spitzer space telescope an international team of researchers led by texas a&ms dr kim-vy tran has discovered that a significant fraction of those ancient galaxies are still actively forming stars kim tran casey papovich tran an assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and her team have spent the past 4 months analyzing images taken from the multiband imaging photometer for spitzer (mips) essentially looking back in time nearly 10 billion years at a high red-shift cluster known as clg j02182-05102 mere months after first discovering the cluster and the fact that it is shockingly modern in its appearance and size despite being observed just 4 billion years after the big bang the texas a&m-led team was able to determine that the galaxy cluster produces hundreds to thousands of new stars every year a far higher birthrate than what is present in nearby galaxies what is particularly striking according to tran is the fact that the stellar birthrate is higher in the clusters center than at the clusters edges the exact opposite of what happens in our local portion of the universe where the cores of galaxy clusters are known to be galactic graveyards full of massive elliptical galaxies composed of old stars a well-established hallmark of galaxy evolution in action is how the fraction of star-forming galaxies decreases with increasing galaxy density explains tran lead author of the teams study which appears in the astrophysical journal letters in other words there are more star-forming galaxies in the field than in the crowded cores of galaxy clusters however in our cluster we find many galaxies with star-formation rates comparable to their cousins in the lower-density field environment exactly why this star power increases as galaxies become more crowded remains a mystery tran thinks the densely-populated surroundings could lead to galaxies triggering activity in one another or that all galaxies were extremely active when the universe was young the groups discovery holds potentially compelling implications that could ultimately reveal more about how such massive galaxies form observations of nearby galaxy clusters confirm that they are made of stars that are at least 8 to 10 billion years old which means that clg j02182-05102 is nearing the end of its hyperactive star-building period now that they have pinpointed the epoch when galaxy clusters are making the last of their stars astronomers can focus on understanding why massive assemblies of galaxies transition from very active to passive identifying how long it takes for galaxies in clusters to build up their stellar mass as well as the time at which they stop provides strong constraints for how these massive galaxies form our study shows that by looking farther into the distant universe we have revealed the missing link between the active galaxies and the quiescent behemoths that live in the local universe tran adds our discovery indicates that future studies of galaxy clusters in this red-shift range should be particularly fruitful for understanding how these massive galaxies form as a function of their environment trans team includes fellow texas a&m astronomer dr casey papovich who first identified the galaxy cluster clg j02182-05102 in may the collection of roughly 60 galaxies is observed just 4 billion years after the big bang making it the earliest cluster of galaxies ever detected however the team was struck not by its age but by its astoundingly modern appearance a huge red collection of galaxies typical in only local clusters the fact that trans team was able to see these active galaxies so far back in time (tran likens their find to discovering that her mild-mannered grandparent had lived a fast and furious youth) is only the preface to what they expect eventually to learn about these clusters tran will continue to lead an international collaboration with papovich and their postdoctoral researchers to examine these clusters more thoroughly and hopefully to understand why they are still so energetic we will analyze new observations scheduled to be taken with the hubble space telescope and herschel space telescope to study these galaxies more carefully to understand why they are so active tran adds we will also start looking at several more distant galaxy clusters to see if we find similar behavior the teams findings are detailed in their paper reversal of fortune: confirmation of an increasing star formation-density relation in a cluster at z=162 available online at http://iopscienceioporg/2041-8205/719/2/l126/ for or additional information on texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu atm contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 862-2747 or vy@physicstamuedu " " baltimore md although the latest image released by the hubble space telescope science institute as part of the hubble heritage project may have originated in deep space it has local texas a&m university ties the image unveiled tuesday (august 10) is a deep-exposure shot depicting ncg 4911 a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the coma cluster of galaxies which lies 320 million light years away in the northern constellation coma berenices as home to nearly 1 000 galaxies the coma cluster is one of the closest very rich collections of galaxies in the nearby universe texas a&m astronomer dr lucas macri was one of several international astronomers whose data gathered during 28 hours of exposure time using hubbles advanced camera for surveys (acs) and wide field planetary camera 2 (wfpc2) instruments in 2006 2007 and 2009 was combined to create the natural-color image macri and his research teammates were using hubble to search for cepheid variable stars in ngc 4911 and ncg 4921 two spiral galaxies among the clusters 1 000 galaxies that could be used to measure the distance to the coma cluster and hence the expansion rate of the universe which is also known as the hubble constant this parameter yields a direct measurement of the age of the universe our intention was to measure the hubble constant directly using the ratio of velocity to distance for the coma cluster said macri a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy discovering cepheids in those two galaxies within the coma cluster would give us the distance to the cluster according to macri because the coma cluster is very far from the milky way (around 320 million light years) and very massive its redshift is almost entirely due to the expansion of the universe and therefore essentially unaffected by the gravitational pull of nearby objects given that it is at the very limit of what the hubble space telescope can deliver in terms of resolving individual stars in other galaxies he and his fellow astronomers had to expose hubbles camera for a total of 3 hours to get a single image deep enough to reveal cepheid variables to actually discover cepheid variables however would have required about 12 different images during a period of 100 days an unfortunate fact given that the acs suffered a short circuit at the end of january 2007 when only one-third of the teams data had been obtained we have detected some interesting variables but we need additional hubble time before we can complete the project macri said we hope we can complete it during a future hubble space telescope observing campaign and eventually study these variables at near-infrared wavelengths with the next-generation james webb space telescope regardless the images we obtained go very deep enabling some spectacular views of the stars and dust lanes in ngc 4911 and 4921 our project required two colors green and red and the hubble heritage project obtained the third one blue to make these beautiful images the hubble heritage project was founded in 1998 as a monthly showcase of new and archival hubble images considered to be some of the most beautiful and spectacular ever taken by the hubble space telescope the project has been recognized for its contribution to public inspiration in producing some of the most aesthetically-pleasing images ever produced in astronomy to learn more about the hubble heritage project go to http://heritagestsciedu/ for more information about macris research or texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or lmacri@physicstamuedu the post historic hubble image involves texas a&m astronomer appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " although the latest image released by the hubble space telescope science institute as part of the hubble heritage project may have originated in deep space it has local texas a&m university ties the image unveiled tuesday (august 10) is a deep-exposure shot depicting ncg 4911 a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the coma cluster of galaxies which lies 320 million light years away in the northern constellation coma berenices as home to nearly 1 000 galaxies the coma cluster is one of the closest very rich collections of galaxies in the nearby universe texas a&m astronomer dr lucas macri was one of several international astronomers whose data gathered during 28 hours of exposure time using hubbles advanced camera for surveys (acs) and wide field planetary camera 2 (wfpc2) instruments in 2006 2007 and 2009 was combined to create the natural-color image macri and his research teammates were using hubble to search for cepheid variable stars in ngc 4911 and ncg 4921 two spiral galaxies among the clusters 1 000 galaxies that could be used to measure the distance to the coma cluster and hence the expansion rate of the universe which is also known as the hubble constant this parameter yields a direct measurement of the age of the universe our intention was to measure the hubble constant directly using the ratio of velocity to distance for the coma cluster said macri a member of texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy discovering cepheids in those two galaxies within the coma cluster would give us the distance to the cluster according to macri because the coma cluster is very far from the milky way (around 320 million light years) and very massive its redshift is almost entirely due to the expansion of the universe and therefore essentially unaffected by the gravitational pull of nearby objects given that it is at the very limit of what the hubble space telescope can deliver in terms of resolving individual stars in other galaxies he and his fellow astronomers had to expose hubbles camera for a total of 3 hours to get a single image deep enough to reveal cepheid variables to actually discover cepheid variables however would have required about 12 different images during a period of 100 days an unfortunate fact given that the acs suffered a short circuit at the end of january 2007 when only one-third of the teams data had been obtained we have detected some interesting variables but we need additional hubble time before we can complete the project macri said we hope we can complete it during a future hubble space telescope observing campaign and eventually study these variables at near-infrared wavelengths with the next-generation james webb space telescope regardless the images we obtained go very deep enabling some spectacular views of the stars and dust lanes in ngc 4911 and 4921 our project required two colors green and red and the hubble heritage project obtained the third one blue to make these beautiful images the hubble heritage project was founded in 1998 as a monthly showcase of new and archival hubble images considered to be some of the most beautiful and spectacular ever taken by the hubble space telescope the project has been recognized for its contribution to public inspiration in producing some of the most aesthetically-pleasing images ever produced in astronomy to learn more about the hubble heritage project go to http://heritagestsciedu/ for more information about macris research or texas a&m astronomy visit http://astronomytamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or lmacri@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university graduate dr william a robba 51 spent the bulk of his life traveling the country as part of a pioneering career in nuclear physics yet he never forgot his educational roots his family didnt either recently paying tribute to robba his lifetime of achievement and the university he said made it all possible by creating an endowed fund to support graduate study in physics robbas son harte of san pedro calif said aggieland held a special place in his fathers heart ever since he earned his masters degree in physics from texas a&m in 1951 and that the idea of one day giving back to the university to help students was an appealing notion when robba passed away march 4 at the age of 86 harte honored his fathers memory and his final wish with the william a robba endowment for graduate study in physics funded through robbas estate the endowment will benefit texas a&m students pursuing masters degrees and similarly rewarding futures in the department of physics and astronomy our department has been undergoing a renaissance in recent years and it has occurred in large part due to generous donations such as this gift by william a robba said dr edward s fry professor of physics and astronomy and head of the department these endowment gifts have extraordinary long-term impact providing valuable support to students year after year we truly appreciate the foresight of dr robba and his family a native new yorker robba served in the us army in norway during world war ii afterward he had planned to return stateside and get a civilian job but his first wife nancy convinced him to capitalize on his opportunity to get a college education instead through the gi bill robba graduated summa cum laude from fordham college in new york in 1950 and then continued his education at texas a&m one year later he left with a masters degree in physics and a lasting bond with one particularly inspirational professor my dad always talked about his physics professor professor mel eisner harte said evidently physics at texas a&m was in its infancy when my dad was there and my understanding is that my dad was professor eisners only student at one point they became fast friends and my mom and dad would even go on camping jaunts with professor eisner they remained good friends and he really left an impression with my dad eisners guidance and robbas passion for nuclear physics led him to an eventual specialty in high-temperature pyrolytic graphite an important component in rocket construction at a time when the international space race was just heating up in addition to jobs at various laboratories across the nation robba also held prominent positions at such high-profile companies as the space age materials corporation (samco) and the pfizer inc space age division harte said his father recognized his successful career would have been unlikely without higher education and that he always encouraged but never forced all of his children to go as far as they could in academics and although initially surprised by the size of his fathers intended gift to texas a&m harte said he understands his fathers perspective that of a child who grew up in relatively meager living conditions in the great depression era harte said his father knew from all-too-personal experience what simply giving youngsters a mere chance at an education could do for them just as the gi bill had financially supported his own education robba wanted to one day offer the same assistance to deserving college students so that they too might be able obtain their dreams as well he valued the higher education route enough to want to give back to it and i can see why it meant a lot to him harte said my dad would be honored and i along with the rest of his family am honored by the recognition from the university harte said that if his father were able to meet the first recipient of the endowment he would have some advice for him or her: to use the award to the very best of their potential i hope that the graduate student who receives this endowment might spend a moment to think about where it came from and appreciate it harte added my dad would want them to validate it through hard work and not to waste it to learn more about memorial endowments or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu/ 30 contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu the post pioneering nuclear physicist remembered with graduate study fund appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university graduate dr william a robba 51 spent the bulk of his life traveling the country as part of a pioneering career in nuclear physics yet he never forgot his educational roots his family didnt either recently paying tribute to robba his lifetime of achievement and the university he said made it all possible by creating an endowed fund to support graduate study in physics robbas son harte of san pedro calif said aggieland held a special place in his fathers heart ever since he earned his masters degree in physics from texas a&m in 1951 and that the idea of one day giving back to the university to help students was an appealing notion when robba passed away march 4 at the age of 86 harte honored his fathers memory and his final wish with the william a robba endowment for graduate study in physics funded through robbas estate the endowment will benefit texas a&m students pursuing masters degrees and similarly rewarding futures in the department of physics and astronomy our department has been undergoing a renaissance in recent years and it has occurred in large part due to generous donations such as this gift by william a robba said dr edward s fry professor of physics and astronomy and head of the department these endowment gifts have extraordinary long-term impact providing valuable support to students year after year we truly appreciate the foresight of dr robba and his family a native new yorker robba served in the us army in norway during world war ii afterward he had planned to return stateside and get a civilian job but his first wife nancy convinced him to capitalize on his opportunity to get a college education instead through the gi bill robba graduated summa cum laude from fordham college in new york in 1950 and then continued his education at texas a&m one year later he left with a masters degree in physics and a lasting bond with one particularly inspirational professor my dad always talked about his physics professor professor mel eisner harte said evidently physics at texas a&m was in its infancy when my dad was there and my understanding is that my dad was professor eisners only student at one point they became fast friends and my mom and dad would even go on camping jaunts with professor eisner they remained good friends and he really left an impression with my dad eisners guidance and robbas passion for nuclear physics led him to an eventual specialty in high-temperature pyrolytic graphite an important component in rocket construction at a time when the international space race was just heating up in addition to jobs at various laboratories across the nation robba also held prominent positions at such high-profile companies as the space age materials corporation (samco) and the pfizer inc space age division harte said his father recognized his successful career would have been unlikely without higher education and that he always encouraged but never forced all of his children to go as far as they could in academics and although initially surprised by the size of his fathers intended gift to texas a&m harte said he understands his fathers perspective that of a child who grew up in relatively meager living conditions in the great depression era harte said his father knew from all-too-personal experience what simply giving youngsters a mere chance at an education could do for them just as the gi bill had financially supported his own education robba wanted to one day offer the same assistance to deserving college students so that they too might be able obtain their dreams as well he valued the higher education route enough to want to give back to it and i can see why it meant a lot to him harte said my dad would be honored and i along with the rest of his family am honored by the recognition from the university harte said that if his father were able to meet the first recipient of the endowment he would have some advice for him or her: to use the award to the very best of their potential i hope that the graduate student who receives this endowment might spend a moment to think about where it came from and appreciate it harte added my dad would want them to validate it through hard work and not to waste it to learn more about memorial endowments or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu/ 30 contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu " " college station dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and director of the astronomy program at texas a&m university has been named one of 12 jefferson science fellows for 2010-2011 by the united states department of state as a jefferson science fellow suntzeff will advise the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy he will serve in the state department for one year beginning in august then return to texas a&m where he will remain available to the state department on a consultancy basis in the future the jefferson science fellowship program was established in 2003 to create opportunities for substantial engagement of tenured scientists and engineers from us academic institutions in state department activities named after thomas jefferson the first secretary of state it is based on the premise that science and technology make fundamental contributions to the security economic health and cultural foundations of modern societies and are integral to the development and implementation of foreign policy suntzeff an international expert in supernovae cosmology and astronomical instrumentation is the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 a decorated researcher and scholar suntzeff says he is both honored and humbled to receive his latest award i am in great debt to the taxpayers of the united states for funding much of my research and i feel it is important to repay their support by working in public service suntzeff adds i am particularly proud to carry on the strong tradition of texas a&m as the nations no 1 university in public service to the us suntzeff is the first texas a&m faculty member to be selected for the prestigious fellowship he joins an elite group of 41 scholars nationwide who previously have been chosen to help further the state departments capacity for science technology and engineering expertise we knew nick suntzeff would be a highly competitive candidate for this award because of his leadership roles in multiple national committees and organizations and his many international honors earned in astronomy and cosmology says texas a&m president dr r bowen loftin back in 2006 he instantly put texas a&m astronomy on the international map when he agreed to take on the challenge of building our program this award reaffirms the strength of his reputation throughout the global scientific community and of texas a&ms for its selfless service to improve our world no stranger to policy advising and governmental service suntzeff is a current member of the nasa advisory council (nac) astrophysics subcommittee one of nine such nac bodies that advises the national aeronautics and space administration on their complete manifest of astrophysics projects essentially all science conducted outside the solar system including the hubble space telescope fermi and approximately 10 other satellites they also review all related research and technology development a current vice president of the american astronomical association (2010-2013) he also serves on numerous boards of museums and observatories suntzeffs many previous awards include a share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology for his role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the discovery since dubbed dark energy which comprises 75 percent of the mass and energy of the universe was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 he is a two-time winner of the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) science award for his research on supernova sn1987a (1992) and cosmology (1999) as well as a co-recipient of the 1983 robert j trumpler award given annually by the astronomical society of the pacific in recognition of the most outstanding astronomy thesis of the year granted at north american universities in addition suntzeff is one of the most highly cited researchers in space sciences according to the thomson/isi web of knowledge index we are very fortunate to have a faculty member of such high international reputation and it is indeed an honor that professor suntzeff has been chosen to play this very important role says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the jefferson science fellows program is funded by the us state department with additional support from participating universities the program is endorsed by numerous professional scientific societies and organizations including the national academy of sciences which administers the program each fellow receives a $50 000 stipend from the state department for living expenses for a full year an additional $10 000 is available to each fellow through the national academies for travel associated with his/her assignment fellows also continue to receive salaries and benefits from their home institutions all jefferson fellowships are contingent upon awardees obtaining an official us government security clearance to learn more about the jefferson science fellows program visit http://sitesnationalacademiesorg/pga/jefferson/indexhtm find more information on suntzeff -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post suntzeff named jefferson science fellow by state department appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and director of the astronomy program at texas a&m university has been named one of 12 jefferson science fellows for 2010-2011 by the united states department of state as a jefferson science fellow suntzeff will advise the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy he will serve in the state department for one year beginning in august then return to texas a&m where he will remain available to the state department on a consultancy basis in the future the jefferson science fellowship program was established in 2003 to create opportunities for substantial engagement of tenured scientists and engineers from us academic institutions in state department activities named after thomas jefferson the first secretary of state it is based on the premise that science and technology make fundamental contributions to the security economic health and cultural foundations of modern societies and are integral to the development and implementation of foreign policy suntzeff an international expert in supernovae cosmology and astronomical instrumentation is the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 a decorated researcher and scholar suntzeff says he is both honored and humbled to receive his latest award i am in great debt to the taxpayers of the united states for funding much of my research and i feel it is important to repay their support by working in public service suntzeff adds i am particularly proud to carry on the strong tradition of texas a&m as the nations no 1 university in public service to the us suntzeff is the first texas a&m faculty member to be selected for the prestigious fellowship he joins an elite group of 41 scholars nationwide who previously have been chosen to help further the state departments capacity for science technology and engineering expertise we knew nick suntzeff would be a highly competitive candidate for this award because of his leadership roles in multiple national committees and organizations and his many international honors earned in astronomy and cosmology says texas a&m president dr r bowen loftin back in 2006 he instantly put texas a&m astronomy on the international map when he agreed to take on the challenge of building our program this award reaffirms the strength of his reputation throughout the global scientific community and of texas a&ms for its selfless service to improve our world no stranger to policy advising and governmental service suntzeff is a current member of the nasa advisory council (nac) astrophysics subcommittee one of nine such nac bodies that advises the national aeronautics and space administration on their complete manifest of astrophysics projects essentially all science conducted outside the solar system including the hubble space telescope fermi and approximately 10 other satellites they also review all related research and technology development a current vice president of the american astronomical association (2010-2013) he also serves on numerous boards of museums and observatories suntzeffs many previous awards include a share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology for his role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the discovery since dubbed dark energy which comprises 75 percent of the mass and energy of the universe was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 he is a two-time winner of the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) science award for his research on supernova sn1987a (1992) and cosmology (1999) as well as a co-recipient of the 1983 robert j trumpler award given annually by the astronomical society of the pacific in recognition of the most outstanding astronomy thesis of the year granted at north american universities in addition suntzeff is one of the most highly cited researchers in space sciences according to the thomson/isi web of knowledge index we are very fortunate to have a faculty member of such high international reputation and it is indeed an honor that professor suntzeff has been chosen to play this very important role says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the jefferson science fellows program is funded by the us state department with additional support from participating universities the program is endorsed by numerous professional scientific societies and organizations including the national academy of sciences which administers the program each fellow receives a $50 000 stipend from the state department for living expenses for a full year an additional $10 000 is available to each fellow through the national academies for travel associated with his/her assignment fellows also continue to receive salaries and benefits from their home institutions all jefferson fellowships are contingent upon awardees obtaining an official us government security clearance to learn more about the jefferson science fellows program visit http://sitesnationalacademiesorg/pga/jefferson/indexhtm find more information on suntzeff -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station one of the first lessons students enrolled in dr kevin krisciunas‚Äòs introductory astronomy course at texas a&m university learn is to expect the unexpected on any given day for instance its nothing out of the ordinary for the unconventional and extroverted instructor to show up to class dressed as a renaissance-era minstrel and singing an eloquent opera dedicated to the stars as proof that the rest of the country is taking note of his innovative instructional efforts and unique perspectives on effective education delivery krisciunas has been honored with a 2010 distinguished new faculty award at the 21st international conference on college teaching and learning held april 19-23 in jacksonville fla krisciunas a lecturer in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is one of five college professors nationwide recently recognized with the award celebrating todays most promising new educators it was established in 2009 by the international academy for the scholarship of learning technology an annual conference to encourage incorporation of new pedagogical techniques and creative ways of thinking in the classroom in order to better engage students academy officials say the award is intended to honor new professors who have met these standards and to celebrate their current contributions to advancements in learning candidates must be nominated by their home institution and engaged in full-time teaching for no more than three years in addition to receiving a trophy at the conference krisciunas was invited to deliver a presentation educating and keeping the attention of the youtube generation i teach basic astronomy krisciunas explains on one level its a science class but on another level its a psychology class students might show up with a negative perspective because they may have had bad or boring high school teachers my job is to dispel those preconceptions and show them that science is a creative process an internationally recognized researcher and pioneer in the study of exploding stars krisciunas is the second texas a&m faculty member to receive the international teaching award dr bryan p rasmussen an assistant professor of mechanical engineering was one of four inaugural recipients in 2009 one of the first things we did when we set out to establish the astronomy program was to try to attract kevin krisciunas to the program and this award is further evidence of how lucky we were to bring him here says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science though he has specialized in teaching astronomy 101 since his arrival at texas a&m in january 2007 krisciunas has been teaching introductory astronomy courses for many years prior long enough to have established his own unique style of teaching my idea is that there are a few things in life that are inherently interesting dinosaurs ancient egypt things in the sky he notes these are all fascinating to a wide swath of people even if they dont want to get into the gory details of it a great teacher krisciunas adds can think outside the books by finding exciting ways to capture students attention and making the subject more appealing while being rigorous putting words into practice krisciunas employs a wide range of tactics to keep his astronomy course original whether its singing a galactic opera lecturing in elaborate costume or assigning intriguing projects for students to work on both inside and outside of class his goal is to eliminate the pressures often associated with college classes and to make learning in his astronomy course an experience unlike any other he is an outstanding lecturer with a unique teaching style says dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program he has background in theater and he is able to bring that with him to the classroom its a special perspective that few other lecturers have and we are very lucky to have him krisciunas is one of several prestigious faculty hires who have impacted the burgeoning astronomy program since its creation four years ago when suntzeff arrived in 2006 to spearhead the new program he says he made it his priority to give texas a&m astronomy an identity of its own in international research and educational circles four years and seven acclaimed astronomers later the program plays a prominent role in myriad research projects around the globe and features several relatively new or revamped courses including introductory astronomy as a core science class that offers hands-on experience with telescopes and digital imaging of celestial objects currently about 1 800 undergraduates annually are enrolled in texas a&m astronomy courses a far cry from the few hundred just eight regular semesters ago and light years improved from past decades when the few astronomy courses offered by the university were taught by physicists and even mathematicians who had limited background in astronomy its an increase that suntzeff says is directly correlated with having excellent faculty with the ability to cultivate students genuine innate interest in astronomy we are trying to grow and expand astronomy he adds we feel that astronomy attracts students into the field of science some are there for course credit and some are there because they just want to learn about astronomy in either case hiring great teachers is very important ever the industrious educator krisciunas encourages students whatever their motivation or ultimate career goal to consider taking an astronomy course for the most basic and inherently human of all reasons: sheer curiosity about the great unknown im not out to try to make everyone astronomers he adds i just want them to learn that science is both challenging and fun find more on krisciunas teaching and research learn more about texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post krisciunas earns distinguished new faculty award for teaching appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " one of the first lessons students enrolled in dr kevin krisciunas‚Äòs introductory astronomy course at texas a&m university learn is to expect the unexpected on any given day for instance its nothing out of the ordinary for the unconventional and extroverted instructor to show up to class dressed as a renaissance-era minstrel and singing an eloquent opera dedicated to the stars as proof that the rest of the country is taking note of his innovative instructional efforts and unique perspectives on effective education delivery krisciunas has been honored with a 2010 distinguished new faculty award at the 21st international conference on college teaching and learning held april 19-23 in jacksonville fla krisciunas a lecturer in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy is one of five college professors nationwide recently recognized with the award celebrating todays most promising new educators it was established in 2009 by the international academy for the scholarship of learning technology an annual conference to encourage incorporation of new pedagogical techniques and creative ways of thinking in the classroom in order to better engage students academy officials say the award is intended to honor new professors who have met these standards and to celebrate their current contributions to advancements in learning candidates must be nominated by their home institution and engaged in full-time teaching for no more than three years in addition to receiving a trophy at the conference krisciunas was invited to deliver a presentation educating and keeping the attention of the youtube generation i teach basic astronomy krisciunas explains on one level its a science class but on another level its a psychology class students might show up with a negative perspective because they may have had bad or boring high school teachers my job is to dispel those preconceptions and show them that science is a creative process an internationally recognized researcher and pioneer in the study of exploding stars krisciunas is the second texas a&m faculty member to receive the international teaching award dr bryan p rasmussen an assistant professor of mechanical engineering was one of four inaugural recipients in 2009 one of the first things we did when we set out to establish the astronomy program was to try to attract kevin krisciunas to the program and this award is further evidence of how lucky we were to bring him here says dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science though he has specialized in teaching astronomy 101 since his arrival at texas a&m in january 2007 krisciunas has been teaching introductory astronomy courses for many years prior long enough to have established his own unique style of teaching my idea is that there are a few things in life that are inherently interesting dinosaurs ancient egypt things in the sky he notes these are all fascinating to a wide swath of people even if they dont want to get into the gory details of it a great teacher krisciunas adds can think outside the books by finding exciting ways to capture students attention and making the subject more appealing while being rigorous putting words into practice krisciunas employs a wide range of tactics to keep his astronomy course original whether its singing a galactic opera lecturing in elaborate costume or assigning intriguing projects for students to work on both inside and outside of class his goal is to eliminate the pressures often associated with college classes and to make learning in his astronomy course an experience unlike any other he is an outstanding lecturer with a unique teaching style says dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and astronomy and director of the texas a&m astronomy program he has background in theater and he is able to bring that with him to the classroom its a special perspective that few other lecturers have and we are very lucky to have him krisciunas is one of several prestigious faculty hires who have impacted the burgeoning astronomy program since its creation four years ago when suntzeff arrived in 2006 to spearhead the new program he says he made it his priority to give texas a&m astronomy an identity of its own in international research and educational circles four years and seven acclaimed astronomers later the program plays a prominent role in myriad research projects around the globe and features several relatively new or revamped courses including introductory astronomy as a core science class that offers hands-on experience with telescopes and digital imaging of celestial objects currently about 1 800 undergraduates annually are enrolled in texas a&m astronomy courses a far cry from the few hundred just eight regular semesters ago and light years improved from past decades when the few astronomy courses offered by the university were taught by physicists and even mathematicians who had limited background in astronomy its an increase that suntzeff says is directly correlated with having excellent faculty with the ability to cultivate students genuine innate interest in astronomy we are trying to grow and expand astronomy he adds we feel that astronomy attracts students into the field of science some are there for course credit and some are there because they just want to learn about astronomy in either case hiring great teachers is very important ever the industrious educator krisciunas encourages students whatever their motivation or ultimate career goal to consider taking an astronomy course for the most basic and inherently human of all reasons: sheer curiosity about the great unknown im not out to try to make everyone astronomers he adds i just want them to learn that science is both challenging and fun find more on krisciunas teaching and research learn more about texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station using nasas spitzer space telescope a texas a&m university-led team of astronomers has uncovered what may very well be the earliest most distant cluster of galaxies ever detected the group of roughly 60 galaxies called clg j02182-05102 is nearly 10 billion years old born just 4 billion years after the big bang however its not the size nor the age of the cluster that amazes the team of researchers led by dr casey papovich an assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy rather its the surprisingly modern appearance of clg j02182-05102 that has them baffled a huge red collection of galaxies typical of only present-day galaxies its like we dug an archeological site in rome and found pieces of modern rome amongst the ruins explains papovich lead author of the teams study to appear in the astrophysical journal while its neighboring galaxies appear vastly smaller and far fainter papovich says clg j02182-05102 stands out as a densely-populated bundle of ancient galaxies enormous red galaxies at the center contain almost 10 times as many stars as our milky way he notes combining for a total size which rivals that of the most monstrous galaxies of our nearby universe before now papovich says such a finding would be considered by many astronomers to be highly unlikely considering the time frame in which they were found the predictions are that these things should be very rare when the universe was 4 billion years old and yet we found them papovich explains not only did we find them it looks for all intents and purposes like they had already formed completely and evolved into the large concentrations of galaxies that we see in clusters today exactly why these particular galaxies are fully formed that early is what papovich and his collaborators which include astronomers from nasas jet propulsion laboratory at the california institute of technology (caltech) as well as carnegie observatories hope to one day uncover but for now studying clg j02182-05102 could help them and other researchers better understand how galaxies form and cluster in general the find resulted from a project initiated two years ago when papovich and his team observed an area of the sky that could encompass 250 full moons the largest extragalactic survey of space ever made the spitzer wide-area infrared extragalactic (swire) survey the team focused on a cosmic region of the survey that previously had been observed by other instruments including japans subaru telescope in mauna kea hawaii and the european space agencys orbiting xmn-newton telescope this combined with infrared data from the united kingdom infrared telescope also in hawaii and spitzers public ultra deep sky survey instantly revealed a number of distant galaxies it wasnt until papovichs group studied faint light from clg j02182-05102s least-dim galaxies that they were able to determine they had found a cluster that contained about 60 galaxies full of old red stars at a time when the universe was only 4 billion years old about 30 percent of the universes current age of 137 billion years at this point in time most other galaxies would still be forming their very first stars and certainly would not have congregated with other galaxies yet in essence papovich said the galaxies in clg j02182-05102 must have subscribed to a rock ‚Äòn roll lifestyle: they lived fast and died young its another mystery papovich hopes to solve through deeper observations including spectroscopy with the hubble telescope later this year thats one of the reasons this is so interesting he adds it seems that they somehow had a premonition they would end up in these big clusters so thats another thing we want to find out for more information on nasas spitzer space telescope visit http://wwwspitzercaltechedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu story includes contributions from adam hadhazy and nasa/jpl-caltech the post texas a&m-led research finds ancient city of modern galaxies appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " using nasas spitzer space telescope a texas a&m university-led team of astronomers has uncovered what may very well be the earliest most distant cluster of galaxies ever detected the group of roughly 60 galaxies called clg j02182-05102 is nearly 10 billion years old born just 4 billion years after the big bang however its not the size nor the age of the cluster that amazes the team of researchers led by dr casey papovich an assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy rather its the surprisingly modern appearance of clg j02182-05102 that has them baffled a huge red collection of galaxies typical of only present-day galaxies its like we dug an archeological site in rome and found pieces of modern rome amongst the ruins explains papovich lead author of the teams study to appear in the astrophysical journal while its neighboring galaxies appear vastly smaller and far fainter papovich says clg j02182-05102 stands out as a densely-populated bundle of ancient galaxies enormous red galaxies at the center contain almost 10 times as many stars as our milky way he notes combining for a total size which rivals that of the most monstrous galaxies of our nearby universe before now papovich says such a finding would be considered by many astronomers to be highly unlikely considering the time frame in which they were found the predictions are that these things should be very rare when the universe was 4 billion years old and yet we found them papovich explains not only did we find them it looks for all intents and purposes like they had already formed completely and evolved into the large concentrations of galaxies that we see in clusters today exactly why these particular galaxies are fully formed that early is what papovich and his collaborators which include astronomers from nasas jet propulsion laboratory at the california institute of technology (caltech) as well as carnegie observatories hope to one day uncover but for now studying clg j02182-05102 could help them and other researchers better understand how galaxies form and cluster in general the find resulted from a project initiated two years ago when papovich and his team observed an area of the sky that could encompass 250 full moons the largest extragalactic survey of space ever made the spitzer wide-area infrared extragalactic (swire) survey the team focused on a cosmic region of the survey that previously had been observed by other instruments including japans subaru telescope in mauna kea hawaii and the european space agencys orbiting xmn-newton telescope this combined with infrared data from the united kingdom infrared telescope also in hawaii and spitzers public ultra deep sky survey instantly revealed a number of distant galaxies it wasnt until papovichs group studied faint light from clg j02182-05102s least-dim galaxies that they were able to determine they had found a cluster that contained about 60 galaxies full of old red stars at a time when the universe was only 4 billion years old about 30 percent of the universes current age of 137 billion years at this point in time most other galaxies would still be forming their very first stars and certainly would not have congregated with other galaxies yet in essence papovich said the galaxies in clg j02182-05102 must have subscribed to a rock ‚Äòn roll lifestyle: they lived fast and died young its another mystery papovich hopes to solve through deeper observations including spectroscopy with the hubble telescope later this year thats one of the reasons this is so interesting he adds it seems that they somehow had a premonition they would end up in these big clusters so thats another thing we want to find out for more information on nasas spitzer space telescope visit http://wwwspitzercaltechedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr casey papovich (979) 862-2704 or papovich@physicstamuedu story includes contributions from adam hadhazy and nasa/jpl-caltech " " college station dr marlan o scully a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university has received the distinguished scientist award for 2010 from the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society scully a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics was honored for his contributions to both fields as well as to general physics and science at the annual sigma xi induction and awards banquet held april 30 at the college station hilton he was presented with a commemorative plaque and a $750 cash prize and also invited to present the distinguished scientist lecture on the texas a&m campus later this fall it is a special thrill to receive the sigma xi award from the texas a&m (texas ‚Äòatomic and molecular) university chapter scully said my colleagues here are super they are extra bright and extra friendly we get more groundbreaking research done because we help and care for each other i am honored to be here the award is merely the latest among the many honors and recognitions scully has received during his 45-year career including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the elliott cresson medal from the franklin institute a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize and the arthur l schawlow prize from the american physical society in 2008 he was elected as a fellow of the prestigious american academy of arts and sciences i am so pleased that professor scully has received yet another accolade for all he has done said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science his value to the college of science and texas a&m as a whole is immense and it is always a pleasure to see him recognized scully joins a lengthy list of notable past recipients of sigma xis top scientist award from the texas a&m college of science including chemists dr d wayne goodman (2009) dr abraham clearfield (1999) and dr f albert cotton (1997) and fellow physicist dr edward s fry (2001) head of the department of physics and astronomy we are truly fortunate to have dr scully at texas a&m fry said i heard great things about him while i was still a student at the university of michigan but i never had the opportunity to interact with him until years after i had come to texas a&m what an awakening that was! marlan is not only an extraordinary scientist; he is also an extraordinary human being highly regarded in the scientific community for his wide range of interests scully divides his time between texas a&m and princeton university where he holds a joint appointment he is active in the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max-planck society at texas a&m scully is holder of the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station in addition he serves as associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor of chemistry and engineering and director of the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) a research-based effort that spans the gamut of quantum physics and engineering and focuses on the study of new lasers quantum computing and nonlinear optics sigma xi is an international multidisciplinary research society honoring scientists whose work promotes scientific enterprise and rewarding excellence in scientific research founded in 1886 at cornell university sigma xi has grown to include 500 chapters across north america and around the world at colleges and universities to date there are nearly 60 000 active members more than 200 of which are nobel prize winners the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi was chartered july 1 1951 with a mission recognize encourage and promote scientific research at texas a&m university and to honor the community of science scholars to learn more about sigma xi visit http://wwwsigmaxiorg/ for more information on the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi visit http://sigmaxitamuedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr marlan o scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@physicstamuedu the post scully earns sigma xi distinguished scientist award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr marlan o scully a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university has received the distinguished scientist award for 2010 from the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi the scientific research society scully a world-renowned pioneer of quantum optics and laser physics was honored for his contributions to both fields as well as to general physics and science at the annual sigma xi induction and awards banquet held april 30 at the college station hilton he was presented with a commemorative plaque and a $750 cash prize and also invited to present the distinguished scientist lecture on the texas a&m campus later this fall it is a special thrill to receive the sigma xi award from the texas a&m (texas ‚Äòatomic and molecular) university chapter scully said my colleagues here are super they are extra bright and extra friendly we get more groundbreaking research done because we help and care for each other i am honored to be here the award is merely the latest among the many honors and recognitions scully has received during his 45-year career including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the elliott cresson medal from the franklin institute a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize and the arthur l schawlow prize from the american physical society in 2008 he was elected as a fellow of the prestigious american academy of arts and sciences i am so pleased that professor scully has received yet another accolade for all he has done said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science his value to the college of science and texas a&m as a whole is immense and it is always a pleasure to see him recognized scully joins a lengthy list of notable past recipients of sigma xis top scientist award from the texas a&m college of science including chemists dr d wayne goodman (2009) dr abraham clearfield (1999) and dr f albert cotton (1997) and fellow physicist dr edward s fry (2001) head of the department of physics and astronomy we are truly fortunate to have dr scully at texas a&m fry said i heard great things about him while i was still a student at the university of michigan but i never had the opportunity to interact with him until years after i had come to texas a&m what an awakening that was! marlan is not only an extraordinary scientist; he is also an extraordinary human being highly regarded in the scientific community for his wide range of interests scully divides his time between texas a&m and princeton university where he holds a joint appointment he is active in the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max-planck society at texas a&m scully is holder of the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station in addition he serves as associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor of chemistry and engineering and director of the institute for quantum science and engineering (iqse) a research-based effort that spans the gamut of quantum physics and engineering and focuses on the study of new lasers quantum computing and nonlinear optics sigma xi is an international multidisciplinary research society honoring scientists whose work promotes scientific enterprise and rewarding excellence in scientific research founded in 1886 at cornell university sigma xi has grown to include 500 chapters across north america and around the world at colleges and universities to date there are nearly 60 000 active members more than 200 of which are nobel prize winners the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi was chartered july 1 1951 with a mission recognize encourage and promote scientific research at texas a&m university and to honor the community of science scholars to learn more about sigma xi visit http://wwwsigmaxiorg/ for more information on the texas a&m chapter of sigma xi visit http://sigmaxitamuedu/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr marlan o scully (979) 862-2333 or scully@physicstamuedu " " college station a capacity audience sat spellbound monday (april 5) evening in texas a&m universitys rudder auditorium as world-famous physicist stephen hawking presented his lecture out of a black hole yet laughed eagerly when he punctuated the standing-room-only event with trademark bits of humor clearly indicating that his famed wisdom and wit remain as intact as his legendary crowd appeal nearly 2 500 people were on hand in the auditorium to hear the 68 year-old astrophysicists presentation on black holes while another 750 filled the designated overflow area in rudder theater tickets for the rare public lecture by the internationally renowned cambridge university scientist were sold out within the first day of being made available to the public last thursday according to rudder theater complex officials hawking is the only person to sell out rudder auditorium twice for a public lecture or similar speaking event he first came to texas a&m in 1995 and has visited the campus regularly since 2003 it was during hawkings most recent visit in 2007 that he first sold out rudder auditorium for his previous public lecture the origin of the universe highly regarded as a leading expert on the subject of black holes a phrase coined by american physicist john wheeler hawking has studied them for the last 35 years his talk monday focused on their history his own research and ideas on black holes and how they arent as black as previously thought black holes hawking said form when stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravitational pull for many years it was assumed that nothing could ever escape from a black hole but in 1975 hawking showed that they actually emit particles this can be understood using the uncertainty principle developed by physicist werner heisenberg in 1923 which states that the more precisely the position of a particle is known the less precisely its speed is known and vice versa this means that if a particle is in a small black hole you know its position quite accurately hawking explained its speed therefore will be rather uncertain and can be more than the speed of light which would allow the particle to escape from the black hole rendered nearly completely paralyzed by a degenerative neuron disorder and speaking through a computerized voice synthesizer hawking captivated the crowd for his entire 35-minute lecture senior physics major kenric davies who also attended hawkings 2007 texas a&m lecture said he was still in just as much awe of hawking monday as he was the first time he saw him three years ago it is always a little mind-blowing to be in the same room as someone as famous as stephen hawking davies added but being there and listening to him speak about his own thoughts on the universe was something else entirely hawkings lecture about black holes was something for everyone because he knows how to make something so complex accessible to a wide range of people in the audience freshman biology major lucero lopez who attended with several friends expressed similar sentiments i learned so much about black holes and physics in general in such an interesting way lopez said and he has such a great sense of humor hawking who is considered by many to be one of the greatest scientific minds of this generation rose to international prominence in 1988 with his best-selling book a brief history of time and has since become a pop-culture icon going so far as to portray himself on various tv shows such as futurama and the simpsons despite being wheelchair-bound he maintains a positive outlook and remains a pioneer in the scientific community as well as the lecture circuit accepting occasional speaking engagements at college campuses across the nation explaining that black holes are not the inescapable prisons that scientists once thought they were hawking closed his talk with a good-natured pun so if you feel you are in a black hole dont give up he said generating laughs from the audience there is a way out -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu the post hawking inspires second straight sellout crowd in aggieland appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a capacity audience sat spellbound monday (april 5) evening in texas a&m universitys rudder auditorium as world-famous physicist stephen hawking presented his lecture out of a black hole yet laughed eagerly when he punctuated the standing-room-only event with trademark bits of humor clearly indicating that his famed wisdom and wit remain as intact as his legendary crowd appeal nearly 2 500 people were on hand in the auditorium to hear the 68 year-old astrophysicists presentation on black holes while another 750 filled the designated overflow area in rudder theater tickets for the rare public lecture by the internationally renowned cambridge university scientist were sold out within the first day of being made available to the public last thursday according to rudder theater complex officials hawking is the only person to sell out rudder auditorium twice for a public lecture or similar speaking event he first came to texas a&m in 1995 and has visited the campus regularly since 2003 it was during hawkings most recent visit in 2007 that he first sold out rudder auditorium for his previous public lecture the origin of the universe highly regarded as a leading expert on the subject of black holes a phrase coined by american physicist john wheeler hawking has studied them for the last 35 years his talk monday focused on their history his own research and ideas on black holes and how they arent as black as previously thought black holes hawking said form when stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravitational pull for many years it was assumed that nothing could ever escape from a black hole but in 1975 hawking showed that they actually emit particles this can be understood using the uncertainty principle developed by physicist werner heisenberg in 1923 which states that the more precisely the position of a particle is known the less precisely its speed is known and vice versa this means that if a particle is in a small black hole you know its position quite accurately hawking explained its speed therefore will be rather uncertain and can be more than the speed of light which would allow the particle to escape from the black hole rendered nearly completely paralyzed by a degenerative neuron disorder and speaking through a computerized voice synthesizer hawking captivated the crowd for his entire 35-minute lecture senior physics major kenric davies who also attended hawkings 2007 texas a&m lecture said he was still in just as much awe of hawking monday as he was the first time he saw him three years ago it is always a little mind-blowing to be in the same room as someone as famous as stephen hawking davies added but being there and listening to him speak about his own thoughts on the universe was something else entirely hawkings lecture about black holes was something for everyone because he knows how to make something so complex accessible to a wide range of people in the audience freshman biology major lucero lopez who attended with several friends expressed similar sentiments i learned so much about black holes and physics in general in such an interesting way lopez said and he has such a great sense of humor hawking who is considered by many to be one of the greatest scientific minds of this generation rose to international prominence in 1988 with his best-selling book a brief history of time and has since become a pop-culture icon going so far as to portray himself on various tv shows such as futurama and the simpsons despite being wheelchair-bound he maintains a positive outlook and remains a pioneer in the scientific community as well as the lecture circuit accepting occasional speaking engagements at college campuses across the nation explaining that black holes are not the inescapable prisons that scientists once thought they were hawking closed his talk with a good-natured pun so if you feel you are in a black hole dont give up he said generating laughs from the audience there is a way out -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu " " college station the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university encourages the brazos valley and campus communities to take advantage of a major opportunity to see one of the most brilliant scientific minds of all-time when stephen hawking returns to aggieland next month to present a rare public lecture hawking the world renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe will detail more than 35 years of breakthrough research on black holes which arent as black as previously thought in his lecture out of a black hole scheduled for 7 pm monday (april 5) in rudder auditorium on the texas a&m campus tickets to attend the event and tickets to view hawkings lecture live on video from the overflow area in rudder theater are both sold out for further details call the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 hawking widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein holds the lucasian professorship at cambridge (the very professorship once held by newton) and is the sherman fairchild distinguished scholar at the california institute of technology (caltech) for the past 45 years he has been a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his third in the past seven years he initially visited the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established in 2002 with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands he returned to aggieland in 2007 to headline the departments annual physics festival selling out all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium for his previous public lecture the origin of the universe dr christopher n pope director of the mitchell institute and distinguished professor of physics who also holds the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics completed his doctorate while studying under hawking at cambridge in the late 1970s and is considered one of his most successful students and closest collaborators it has been a pleasure and an honor to have known stephen for the last 35 years and as always i am looking forward to a lively and stimulating visit pope says as part of hawkings visit the department also plans to formally dedicate the stephen w hawking auditorium located within the mitchell institute and named in his honor in a by-invitation only ceremony scheduled for earlier that afternoon dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy and holder of the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics says he is especially pleased and excited to be welcoming hawking back to texas a&m professor hawking has played an important role in some of the extraordinary successes of our department fry explains as such it is our great privilege to have him visit and to see our new facilities all events are sponsored by the mitchell institute in conjunction with the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science for additional information contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post world-famous physicist stephen hawking to deliver public lecture appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university encourages the brazos valley and campus communities to take advantage of a major opportunity to see one of the most brilliant scientific minds of all-time when stephen hawking returns to aggieland next month to present a rare public lecture hawking the world renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe will detail more than 35 years of breakthrough research on black holes which arent as black as previously thought in his lecture out of a black hole scheduled for 7 pm monday (april 5) in rudder auditorium on the texas a&m campus tickets to attend the event and tickets to view hawkings lecture live on video from the overflow area in rudder theater are both sold out for further details call the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 hawking widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein holds the lucasian professorship at cambridge (the very professorship once held by newton) and is the sherman fairchild distinguished scholar at the california institute of technology (caltech) for the past 45 years he has been a world leader in research on black holes the birth of the universe and the nature of space time and gravity hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his third in the past seven years he initially visited the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established in 2002 with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands he returned to aggieland in 2007 to headline the departments annual physics festival selling out all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium for his previous public lecture the origin of the universe dr christopher n pope director of the mitchell institute and distinguished professor of physics who also holds the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics completed his doctorate while studying under hawking at cambridge in the late 1970s and is considered one of his most successful students and closest collaborators it has been a pleasure and an honor to have known stephen for the last 35 years and as always i am looking forward to a lively and stimulating visit pope says as part of hawkings visit the department also plans to formally dedicate the stephen w hawking auditorium located within the mitchell institute and named in his honor in a by-invitation only ceremony scheduled for earlier that afternoon dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy and holder of the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics says he is especially pleased and excited to be welcoming hawking back to texas a&m professor hawking has played an important role in some of the extraordinary successes of our department fry explains as such it is our great privilege to have him visit and to see our new facilities all events are sponsored by the mitchell institute in conjunction with the department of physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science for additional information contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university are teaming up to showcase science and technology later this month as part of physics & engineering festival 2010 an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 27 from 10 am to 5 pm at the new george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy activities will begin with a hands-on science exhibition and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a public lecture by internationally recognized cosmologist dr chris impey a university distinguished professor in the steward observatory and deputy head of the department of astronomy at the university of arizona in between attendees will have the opportunity to take in the amazing talents of internationally acclaimed physics showman tom noddy also known as the bubble guy whose exquisite bubbles lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a homemade hovercraft or square-wheeled bicycle and to try their hands at generating electricity or testing gravitys limits in other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles two additional feature attractions located within the mitchell institute are the 83-foot foucault pendulum a silent yet stunning demonstration of earths rotation and the intricate penrose tile that graces the first-floor atrium area which cannot be shifted and still match the original pattern all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students including representatives from the departments of chemistry and mathematics at 4 pm impey will present how strange might life be in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building the lecture will describe some of the most surprising and extreme places life is found on earth from high and arid deserts and on the sea floor to deep within rocks and how that correlates to similar possibilities on moons and planets around many of the few billion sun-like stars in our own milky way galaxy impey whose research interests include observational cosmology quasars and distant galaxies has written 160 research papers and two astronomy textbooks the recipient of 11 teaching awards he has served as a national science foundation distinguished teaching scholar a phi beta kappa visiting scholar and the carnegie councils arizona professor of the year in addition he is a former vice president of the american astronomical society (aas) and a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) his first popular book the living cosmos was published in 2007 and his second how it ends will appear in 2010 before first bringing his performance to television in the early 1980s noddy spent more than a decade developing a new kind of performance piece armed only with dime-store bubble solution a childlike sense of wonder and an adult sense of humor in his 30-plus-year career as americas bubble guy noddy has appeared numerous times on prime-time daytime and late-night television shows including the tonight show as well as at nightclubs and universities he has presented at the international congress of mathematics and been the featured performer for science centers bubble festivals attracting up to 17 000 people in a single weekend regardless of venue noddy has taken his uniquely warm charm and intellectual interest in soap bubbles to audiences around the world performing in more than 50 countries to date prior to saturdays events dr george w kattawar professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m and an expert in optics will deliver a free public lecture polarized light in nature on friday (mar 26) at 7 pm in the stephen w hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which kattawar will discuss examples of exciting ways both terrestrial and marine animals from humans and honeybees to shrimp and octopus use polarized light for such purposes as navigation foraging mating identification and survival a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1968 kattawar received a bachelors of science degree from lamar university with highest honors and both his masters of science and phd degrees from texas a&m university on a national defense and education act fellowship before coming to texas a&m he was at los alamos scientific laboratory esso production research and the university of north texas his research interests include atmosphere and ocean optics quantum optics and applied physics kattawar is a fellow of the optical society of america formerly associate editor of the journal of geophysical research: oceans and the journal of transport theory and statistical physics in 1981 he received the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching and in 1990 won a teacher/scholar award for the latest details regarding physics & engineering festival 2010 including event directions and parking information please visit the event website -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics festival to feature bubble magic displays universal fun appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics and astronomy and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m university are teaming up to showcase science and technology later this month as part of physics & engineering festival 2010 an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 27 from 10 am to 5 pm at the new george p mitchell 40 physics buildings on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the departments of physics and astronomy and aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy activities will begin with a hands-on science exhibition and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with a public lecture by internationally recognized cosmologist dr chris impey a university distinguished professor in the steward observatory and deputy head of the department of astronomy at the university of arizona in between attendees will have the opportunity to take in the amazing talents of internationally acclaimed physics showman tom noddy also known as the bubble guy whose exquisite bubbles lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a homemade hovercraft or square-wheeled bicycle and to try their hands at generating electricity or testing gravitys limits in other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles two additional feature attractions located within the mitchell institute are the 83-foot foucault pendulum a silent yet stunning demonstration of earths rotation and the intricate penrose tile that graces the first-floor atrium area which cannot be shifted and still match the original pattern all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students including representatives from the departments of chemistry and mathematics at 4 pm impey will present how strange might life be in the primary lecture hall of the mitchell physics building the lecture will describe some of the most surprising and extreme places life is found on earth from high and arid deserts and on the sea floor to deep within rocks and how that correlates to similar possibilities on moons and planets around many of the few billion sun-like stars in our own milky way galaxy impey whose research interests include observational cosmology quasars and distant galaxies has written 160 research papers and two astronomy textbooks the recipient of 11 teaching awards he has served as a national science foundation distinguished teaching scholar a phi beta kappa visiting scholar and the carnegie councils arizona professor of the year in addition he is a former vice president of the american astronomical society (aas) and a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) his first popular book the living cosmos was published in 2007 and his second how it ends will appear in 2010 before first bringing his performance to television in the early 1980s noddy spent more than a decade developing a new kind of performance piece armed only with dime-store bubble solution a childlike sense of wonder and an adult sense of humor in his 30-plus-year career as americas bubble guy noddy has appeared numerous times on prime-time daytime and late-night television shows including the tonight show as well as at nightclubs and universities he has presented at the international congress of mathematics and been the featured performer for science centers bubble festivals attracting up to 17 000 people in a single weekend regardless of venue noddy has taken his uniquely warm charm and intellectual interest in soap bubbles to audiences around the world performing in more than 50 countries to date prior to saturdays events dr george w kattawar professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m and an expert in optics will deliver a free public lecture polarized light in nature on friday (mar 26) at 7 pm in the stephen w hawking auditorium tickets are not required for the event in which kattawar will discuss examples of exciting ways both terrestrial and marine animals from humans and honeybees to shrimp and octopus use polarized light for such purposes as navigation foraging mating identification and survival a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1968 kattawar received a bachelors of science degree from lamar university with highest honors and both his masters of science and phd degrees from texas a&m university on a national defense and education act fellowship before coming to texas a&m he was at los alamos scientific laboratory esso production research and the university of north texas his research interests include atmosphere and ocean optics quantum optics and applied physics kattawar is a fellow of the optical society of america formerly associate editor of the journal of geophysical research: oceans and the journal of transport theory and statistical physics in 1981 he received the amoco foundation award for distinguished teaching and in 1990 won a teacher/scholar award for the latest details regarding physics & engineering festival 2010 including event directions and parking information please visit the event website -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station at the same time most texas a&m university students faculty and staff will be leaving aggieland next week for spring break many of the worlds foremost experts in string theory and m-theory will be gathering on the texas a&m campus to participate in the 2010 strings conference hosted march 15-19 by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the week-long international event will feature scientific discussions and presentations on recent breakthroughs in string theory an idea that seeks to unify quantum mechanics with gravity involving tiny higher-dimensional strings closed into loops that vibrate to produce various components of matter many physicists believe that understanding these strings may one day provide the relationship of gravity to the other fundamental forces dr steven weinberg co-recipient of the 1979 nobel prize in physics and a professor of physics and astronomy at the university of texas in austin and dr edward witten the charles simonyi professor of mathematical physics at the institute for advanced study in princeton and winner of the 1990 fields medal and 2002 national medal of science headline a list of approximately 40 internationally eminent string theorists scheduled to present talks at the landmark event one in a series of strings conferences that have taken place annually since the late 1980s dr steven weinberg dr christopher pope dr christopher n pope distinguished professor of physics and director of texas a&ms mitchell institute is one of nine physicists on the local organizing committee for the conference the first to be held at texas a&m since 1990 he considers the strings conferences to be the most important of the year for physicists to meet and swap ideas about a concept that is still expanding each year its a really big conference and this years will be here pope adds its the main conference of the year where string theorists can gather and listen to each others research and ideas weinberg who holds the josey regental chair in science and is a member of both the physics and astronomy departments at texas is considered one of the worlds preeminent theoretical physicists his research on quantum field theory elementary particles and cosmology has been honored with many prestigious prizes and awards none bigger than his nobel prize for contributions to the discovery of the neutral currents and the inferred existence of the z boson weinberg is the founder of the ut department of physics theory group which seeks to pursue a deeper understanding of string theory and the author of numerous books including his prize-winning the first three minutes which has been translated into 22 different languages although not a creator of string theory witten is largely regarded by his peers as a definitive pioneer in the field thanks to his extensive research and numerous publications which have led to dramatic advances in the field and helped generate widespread interest in string theory he has been honored with many awards for his work including the 1990 fields medal widely accepted as the highest honor a mathematician can receive and the 2002 national medal of science in addition witten was listed among time magazines 100 most influential people of 2004 pope recognized internationally for his work on the development of strings and m-theory is one of the worlds most active current researchers in high-energy theory his nearly 30-year career at the forefront of theoretical physics includes more than 270 publications with over 11 000 citations along the way he has been heavily involved in many steps in the search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity which has as its goal the unification of all the fundamental forces of nature -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher pope (979) 845-7793 or pope@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m mitchell institute to host strings 2010 conference appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " at the same time most texas a&m university students faculty and staff will be leaving aggieland next week for spring break many of the worlds foremost experts in string theory and m-theory will be gathering on the texas a&m campus to participate in the 2010 strings conference hosted march 15-19 by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the week-long international event will feature scientific discussions and presentations on recent breakthroughs in string theory an idea that seeks to unify quantum mechanics with gravity involving tiny higher-dimensional strings closed into loops that vibrate to produce various components of matter many physicists believe that understanding these strings may one day provide the relationship of gravity to the other fundamental forces dr steven weinberg co-recipient of the 1979 nobel prize in physics and a professor of physics and astronomy at the university of texas in austin and dr edward witten the charles simonyi professor of mathematical physics at the institute for advanced study in princeton and winner of the 1990 fields medal and 2002 national medal of science headline a list of approximately 40 internationally eminent string theorists scheduled to present talks at the landmark event one in a series of strings conferences that have taken place annually since the late 1980s dr steven weinberg dr christopher pope dr christopher n pope distinguished professor of physics and director of texas a&ms mitchell institute is one of nine physicists on the local organizing committee for the conference the first to be held at texas a&m since 1990 he considers the strings conferences to be the most important of the year for physicists to meet and swap ideas about a concept that is still expanding each year its a really big conference and this years will be here pope adds its the main conference of the year where string theorists can gather and listen to each others research and ideas weinberg who holds the josey regental chair in science and is a member of both the physics and astronomy departments at texas is considered one of the worlds preeminent theoretical physicists his research on quantum field theory elementary particles and cosmology has been honored with many prestigious prizes and awards none bigger than his nobel prize for contributions to the discovery of the neutral currents and the inferred existence of the z boson weinberg is the founder of the ut department of physics theory group which seeks to pursue a deeper understanding of string theory and the author of numerous books including his prize-winning the first three minutes which has been translated into 22 different languages although not a creator of string theory witten is largely regarded by his peers as a definitive pioneer in the field thanks to his extensive research and numerous publications which have led to dramatic advances in the field and helped generate widespread interest in string theory he has been honored with many awards for his work including the 1990 fields medal widely accepted as the highest honor a mathematician can receive and the 2002 national medal of science in addition witten was listed among time magazines 100 most influential people of 2004 pope recognized internationally for his work on the development of strings and m-theory is one of the worlds most active current researchers in high-energy theory his nearly 30-year career at the forefront of theoretical physics includes more than 270 publications with over 11 000 citations along the way he has been heavily involved in many steps in the search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity which has as its goal the unification of all the fundamental forces of nature -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher pope (979) 845-7793 or pope@physicstamuedu " " college station a worldwide team of researchers including 10 physicists from texas a&m university have for the first time created a particle that is believed to have been in existence immediately after the creation of the universe the so-called big bang a development which could lead to new questions and answers about some of the basic laws of physics because in essence it creates a new form of matter researchers carl gagliardi saskia mioduszewski robert tribble matthew cervantes rory clarke martin codrington pibero djawotho james drachenberg ahmed hamed and liaoyuan huo all affiliated with the texas a&m cyclotron institute along with numerous researchers from universities and laboratories all over the world have created the anti-hypertriton a never-before-seen particle by colliding gold nuclei at extremely high speeds their work is published today in science express using the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) at brookhaven national laboratory on long island ny the team used particles of gold and collided them just short of the speed of light (186 000 miles per second) more than 100 million collisions were made to collect the data we know that some new particles of matter were formed immediately after the big bang but they were gone within a millionth of a second or so explains gagliardi by accelerating the gold (gold was selected because it is very heavy) at extremely high speeds we were able to replicate the conditions right after the big bang its very much like when two cars collide at high speeds you would have a lot of hot metal at a temperature of about two trillion degrees which is about 100 000 times hotter than the surface of the sun we were able to produce a new form of matter as this new form of matter evolves it expands and cools and eventually decays when it does so the majority of it converts back into ordinary matter but a large amount converts into antimatter instead gagliardi points out this enables us to see things we have never seen before gagliardi adds we found evidence of particles called anti-lambdas bound within the antinuclei the anti-lambda has a lifetime of less than one-billionth of a second which on a nuclear time scale is actually a long amount of time it gives us a framework to make sort of a 3d periodic table of the elements from matter to antimatter this now gives us a new class of matter to study one we think should be a mirror image of our world but a big question is how accurate is that mirror gagliardi says its been known that the big bang made equal amounts of matter and antimatter but over time something has tripped the balance for life to exist there is more matter today than antimatter so why is this he asks we may be able to answer these questions in the future mioduszewski adds these new findings give us a large new source of hypernuclei they provide us with a new way to study the forces that act inside atomic nuclei and might teach us about the forces that act in the center of the neutron stars this has opened up a very big door for us -atm- click here to see a related story from the houston chronicle contact: keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu or carl gagliardi at (979) 845-1411 or c-gagliardi@tamuedu the post from 2-trillion-degree heat researchers create new matter and new questions appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a worldwide team of researchers including 10 physicists from texas a&m university have for the first time created a particle that is believed to have been in existence immediately after the creation of the universe the so-called big bang a development which could lead to new questions and answers about some of the basic laws of physics because in essence it creates a new form of matter researchers carl gagliardi saskia mioduszewski robert tribble matthew cervantes rory clarke martin codrington pibero djawotho james drachenberg ahmed hamed and liaoyuan huo all affiliated with the texas a&m cyclotron institute along with numerous researchers from universities and laboratories all over the world have created the anti-hypertriton a never-before-seen particle by colliding gold nuclei at extremely high speeds their work is published today in science express using the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) at brookhaven national laboratory on long island ny the team used particles of gold and collided them just short of the speed of light (186 000 miles per second) more than 100 million collisions were made to collect the data we know that some new particles of matter were formed immediately after the big bang but they were gone within a millionth of a second or so explains gagliardi by accelerating the gold (gold was selected because it is very heavy) at extremely high speeds we were able to replicate the conditions right after the big bang its very much like when two cars collide at high speeds you would have a lot of hot metal at a temperature of about two trillion degrees which is about 100 000 times hotter than the surface of the sun we were able to produce a new form of matter as this new form of matter evolves it expands and cools and eventually decays when it does so the majority of it converts back into ordinary matter but a large amount converts into antimatter instead gagliardi points out this enables us to see things we have never seen before gagliardi adds we found evidence of particles called anti-lambdas bound within the antinuclei the anti-lambda has a lifetime of less than one-billionth of a second which on a nuclear time scale is actually a long amount of time it gives us a framework to make sort of a 3d periodic table of the elements from matter to antimatter this now gives us a new class of matter to study one we think should be a mirror image of our world but a big question is how accurate is that mirror gagliardi says its been known that the big bang made equal amounts of matter and antimatter but over time something has tripped the balance for life to exist there is more matter today than antimatter so why is this he asks we may be able to answer these questions in the future mioduszewski adds these new findings give us a large new source of hypernuclei they provide us with a new way to study the forces that act inside atomic nuclei and might teach us about the forces that act in the center of the neutron stars this has opened up a very big door for us -atm- click here to see a related story from the houston chronicle contact: keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu or carl gagliardi at (979) 845-1411 or c-gagliardi@tamuedu " " college station nearly two months after unveiling their detection of two events with characteristics matching those of the particles physicists believe make up dark matter scientists from the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment including physicists from texas a&m university celebrated another milestone thursday (feb 11): publication in the prestigious journal science the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota and managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory is one of several major international collaborations that has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles the cdms collaboration features more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions including texas a&ms dr rupak mahapatra an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m since 2008 and a recent recipient of a doe early career research award mahapatra serves as principal investigator for the texas a&m team that currently is developing the larger more advanced detectors needed for the projects next phase dubbed the supercdms experiment the groups findings detailed in the paper dark matter search results from the cdms ii experiment spearheaded by southern methodist universitys jodi cooley appear in the feb 11 edition of science express to learn more about the project and texas a&ms role in it please see http://facultyphysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post dark matter search results published in science appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " nearly two months after unveiling their detection of two events with characteristics matching those of the particles physicists believe make up dark matter scientists from the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment including physicists from texas a&m university celebrated another milestone thursday (feb 11): publication in the prestigious journal science the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota and managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory is one of several major international collaborations that has been searching for dark matter since 2003 the experiment uses very sophisticated detector technology and advanced analysis techniques to enable cryogenically cooled (almost absolute zero temperature at -460 degrees f) germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles the cdms collaboration features more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions including texas a&ms dr rupak mahapatra an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m since 2008 and a recent recipient of a doe early career research award mahapatra serves as principal investigator for the texas a&m team that currently is developing the larger more advanced detectors needed for the projects next phase dubbed the supercdms experiment the groups findings detailed in the paper dark matter search results from the cdms ii experiment spearheaded by southern methodist universitys jodi cooley appear in the feb 11 edition of science express to learn more about the project and texas a&ms role in it please see http://facultyphysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " college station dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and director of the astronomy program at texas a&m university has been elected to a three-year term as a vice president of the american astronomical society effective june 2010 established in 1899 with a mission to enhance and share humanitys scientific understanding of the universe the american astronomical society (aas) is the major organization of professional astronomers in north america its membership also includes physicists mathematicians geologists engineers and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy and astrophysics suntzeff an international expert in supernovae cosmology and astronomical instrumentation is presently one of the nine officers who comprise the aas council which governs the organization and is responsible for its management direction and general control each councilor is selected by an international vote of the aass approximately 7 700 members bringing this position to texas a&m university is an important step in raising the recognition of our astronomy program suntzeff said suntzeff inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 a decorated researcher and scholar suntzeffs many awards include a share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology for his role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the discovery since dubbed dark energy which comprises 75 percent of the mass and energy of the universe was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 he is a two-time winner of the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) science award for his research on supernova sn1987a (1992) and cosmology (1999) as well as a co-recipient of the 1983 robert j trumpler award given annually by the astronomical society of the pacific in recognition of the most outstanding astronomy thesis of the year granted at north american universities in addition suntzeff is one of the most highly cited researchers in space sciences according to the thomson/isi web of knowledge index beyond his aas service suntzeff is a current member of the nasa advisory council (nac) astrophysics subcommittee one of nine such nac bodies that advises the national aeronautics and space administration on their complete manifest of astrophysics projects essentially all science conducted outside the solar system including the hubble space telescope fermi and approximately 10 other satellites they also review all related research and technology development in addition he serves on numerous boards of museums and observatories find more information about suntzeff from his teaching and research to his professional service -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post suntzeff named vice president of american astronomical society appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and director of the astronomy program at texas a&m university has been elected to a three-year term as a vice president of the american astronomical society effective june 2010 established in 1899 with a mission to enhance and share humanitys scientific understanding of the universe the american astronomical society (aas) is the major organization of professional astronomers in north america its membership also includes physicists mathematicians geologists engineers and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy and astrophysics suntzeff an international expert in supernovae cosmology and astronomical instrumentation is presently one of the nine officers who comprise the aas council which governs the organization and is responsible for its management direction and general control each councilor is selected by an international vote of the aass approximately 7 700 members bringing this position to texas a&m university is an important step in raising the recognition of our astronomy program suntzeff said suntzeff inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 a decorated researcher and scholar suntzeffs many awards include a share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology for his role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the discovery since dubbed dark energy which comprises 75 percent of the mass and energy of the universe was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 he is a two-time winner of the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) science award for his research on supernova sn1987a (1992) and cosmology (1999) as well as a co-recipient of the 1983 robert j trumpler award given annually by the astronomical society of the pacific in recognition of the most outstanding astronomy thesis of the year granted at north american universities in addition suntzeff is one of the most highly cited researchers in space sciences according to the thomson/isi web of knowledge index beyond his aas service suntzeff is a current member of the nasa advisory council (nac) astrophysics subcommittee one of nine such nac bodies that advises the national aeronautics and space administration on their complete manifest of astrophysics projects essentially all science conducted outside the solar system including the hubble space telescope fermi and approximately 10 other satellites they also review all related research and technology development in addition he serves on numerous boards of museums and observatories find more information about suntzeff from his teaching and research to his professional service -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy will host its monthly astronomy open house friday (jan 29) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory the free family-oriented event will feature telescope observing (weather permitting) hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by texas a&m astronomers steven finkelstein and casey papovich regarding their current research on some of the universes most distant galaxies newly detected by nasas wide field camera 3 (wfc3) aboard the hubble space telescope free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 9:30 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house set for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy will host its monthly astronomy open house friday (jan 29) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory the free family-oriented event will feature telescope observing (weather permitting) hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by texas a&m astronomers steven finkelstein and casey papovich regarding their current research on some of the universes most distant galaxies newly detected by nasas wide field camera 3 (wfc3) aboard the hubble space telescope free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 9:30 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " washington dc dr rupak mahapatra assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized with a 2010 united states department of energy early career research award for his achievements and future potential in high-energy particle physics research mahapatra who studies dark matter and specifically detection of the weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) it is believed to consist of is among 69 early career scientists nationwide and one of four from texas selected to receive a total of $85 million in funding under the american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) the five-year research grants announced last week by doe secretary of energy steven chu are part of the does new early career research program designed to strengthen the nations scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early years of their careers a critical stage with great impact on a scientists later more formative work this investment reflects the administrations strong commitment to creating jobs and new industries through scientific innovation chu said strong support of scientists in the early career years is crucial to renewing americas scientific workforce and ensuring us leadership in discovery and innovation for many years to come eligible researchers must be untenured tenure-track assistant professors at us academic institutions or full-time employees at doe national laboratories with a phd earned within the past 10 years their research topics also must fall within the scope of the departments office of sciences six major program offices: advanced scientific computing research; basic energy sciences; biological and environmental research; fusion energy sciences; high-energy physics or nuclear physics special consideration was given to projects that directly promote the objectives of the arra job creation preservation and economic recovery mahapatra was awarded a total of $750 000 over five years by the does office of high-energy physics for his proposal ton scale germanium: beyond zeptobarn wimp cross-section his proposal was selected from a pool of about 1 750 university- and national laboratory-based applicants through peer review by outside scientific experts its the biggest news that can come for an early-career scientist mahapatra says its unbelievably good news and im really excited to have received this award the award is a momentous step forward for mahapatra already widely regarded as an expert in high-energy particle physics and dark matter a mysterious substance thought to comprise about one-fifth of the energy and 85 percent of all matter in the universe he came to texas a&m in december 2008 after receiving his phd from the university of minnesota (2000) and completing postdoctoral work at the university of california santa barbara during the past decade he has made several notable contributions to dark-matter investigation including designing and building particle detectors for the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment for which he serves as a principal investigator at texas a&m conducted a half-mile underground in a mine in soudan minn and managed by the does fermi national accelerator laboratory the cdms experiment uses advanced detector technology and analysis to enable cryogenically cooled germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles thanks to the additional financial support of his doe grant mahapatra expects texas a&m to take on a lead role in dark matter research as well as the cdms experiments next phase dubbed the supercdms experiment and involving larger more advanced detectors currently being developed by his team my proposal was to significantly improve the current detector technology as established by stanford university and to fabricate the next-generation detectors he explains my plan in the next five years is to eventually move the dark matter effort from its main base at stanford university to texas a&m and to have a&m become the centerpiece for building particle detectors this award really provides the boost we need to do that optimistic about the future of uncovering dark matter what he describes as one of physics most important quests mahapatra says he is grateful for the opportunity to conduct his research at texas a&m i want to thank the college of science for all of the support as well george mitchell for his contributions to the department of physics and astronomy which will really move us ahead in the next few years mahapatra adds this is what made it possible for [me to win] this award find more information on the us department of energy early career research program and a complete list of award winners learn more about mahapatras research and texas a&ms involvement in the cdms experiment -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post mahapatra honored with department of energy research award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr rupak mahapatra assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been recognized with a 2010 united states department of energy early career research award for his achievements and future potential in high-energy particle physics research mahapatra who studies dark matter and specifically detection of the weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) it is believed to consist of is among 69 early career scientists nationwide and one of four from texas selected to receive a total of $85 million in funding under the american recovery and reinvestment act (arra) the five-year research grants announced last week by doe secretary of energy steven chu are part of the does new early career research program designed to strengthen the nations scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early years of their careers a critical stage with great impact on a scientists later more formative work this investment reflects the administrations strong commitment to creating jobs and new industries through scientific innovation chu said strong support of scientists in the early career years is crucial to renewing americas scientific workforce and ensuring us leadership in discovery and innovation for many years to come eligible researchers must be untenured tenure-track assistant professors at us academic institutions or full-time employees at doe national laboratories with a phd earned within the past 10 years their research topics also must fall within the scope of the departments office of sciences six major program offices: advanced scientific computing research; basic energy sciences; biological and environmental research; fusion energy sciences; high-energy physics or nuclear physics special consideration was given to projects that directly promote the objectives of the arra job creation preservation and economic recovery mahapatra was awarded a total of $750 000 over five years by the does office of high-energy physics for his proposal ton scale germanium: beyond zeptobarn wimp cross-section his proposal was selected from a pool of about 1 750 university- and national laboratory-based applicants through peer review by outside scientific experts its the biggest news that can come for an early-career scientist mahapatra says its unbelievably good news and im really excited to have received this award the award is a momentous step forward for mahapatra already widely regarded as an expert in high-energy particle physics and dark matter a mysterious substance thought to comprise about one-fifth of the energy and 85 percent of all matter in the universe he came to texas a&m in december 2008 after receiving his phd from the university of minnesota (2000) and completing postdoctoral work at the university of california santa barbara during the past decade he has made several notable contributions to dark-matter investigation including designing and building particle detectors for the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment for which he serves as a principal investigator at texas a&m conducted a half-mile underground in a mine in soudan minn and managed by the does fermi national accelerator laboratory the cdms experiment uses advanced detector technology and analysis to enable cryogenically cooled germanium and silicon targets to search for the rare recoil of dark matter particles thanks to the additional financial support of his doe grant mahapatra expects texas a&m to take on a lead role in dark matter research as well as the cdms experiments next phase dubbed the supercdms experiment and involving larger more advanced detectors currently being developed by his team my proposal was to significantly improve the current detector technology as established by stanford university and to fabricate the next-generation detectors he explains my plan in the next five years is to eventually move the dark matter effort from its main base at stanford university to texas a&m and to have a&m become the centerpiece for building particle detectors this award really provides the boost we need to do that optimistic about the future of uncovering dark matter what he describes as one of physics most important quests mahapatra says he is grateful for the opportunity to conduct his research at texas a&m i want to thank the college of science for all of the support as well george mitchell for his contributions to the department of physics and astronomy which will really move us ahead in the next few years mahapatra adds this is what made it possible for [me to win] this award find more information on the us department of energy early career research program and a complete list of award winners learn more about mahapatras research and texas a&ms involvement in the cdms experiment -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " college station armed with a sample of the deepest near-infrared images yet captured by nasas new wide field camera 3 (wfc3) on board the hubble space telescope texas a&m university astronomers dr casey papovich and dr steven finkelstein along with their collaborators have completed their initial analysis of the light from 35 galaxies formed between 500 and 800 million years after the big bang likely some of the most distant galaxies ever identified the new hubble images which are being intensely studied by several groups around the world have opened unprecedented doors for papovich finkelstein and their team mauro giavalisco from the university of massachusetts naveen a reddy and mark dickinson from the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) and henry c ferguson and anton m koekemoer from the space telescope science institute (stsci) to delve into just some of the mysteries surrounding the evolution of galaxies that in turn can be used to probe conditions at the beginning of the universe finkelstein recently presented the groups results detailed in the paper on the stellar populations and evolution of star-forming galaxies at 63 < z < 86 available online at http://arxivorg/abs/09121338 jan 6 at the 215th meeting of the american astronomical society (aas) in washington dc by comparing the dust and metal content of the newly-discovered galaxies to that of typical local star-forming galaxies the team found that their galaxies were significantly bluer in appearance indicating lower metallicity and implying smaller amounts of heavier elements such as carbon nitrogen oxygen or iron (which are fused over time in the cores of stars) relative to hydrogen and helium (products of the big bang) after comparing them with the bluest nearby galaxies the team concluded that while their galaxies were fairly primitive in composition they did not have zero metallicity meaning that these galaxies contain stars not unlike those we see today even though the universe was only five percent of its current age of 137 billion years this implies that they are not the first-ever galaxies formed after the big bang as other international teams of astronomers analyzing the same data have implied papovich explains that these newly-identified galaxies are so far away that they can only viewed with the wfc3 which collects the light from near-infrared wavelengths and enables a deeper look into the universe although the wfc3 can take visible-light images its capability to detect light just bluer than the eye can see or the near ultra-violet and light just redder than the eye can see or the near-infrared makes its viewing power unparalleled to anything else these galaxies are completely invisible in optical light says papovich an observational astronomer and assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2008 they are moving away at 97 percent the speed of light or 180 000 miles per second these are the most distant things anyone has found the wfc3 is the only camera that can see them the wfc3 captured the images last august when the hubble space telescope spent nearly three days focusing on a tiny area in the sky less than one percent the angular area of a full moon known as the hubble ultra deep field (hudf) the wfc3 is so powerful it was able to capture objects one billion times fainter than what the human eye can see when they found objects apparent in the wfc3 infrared data that were either very red or nonexistent in the optical image of hubbles main camera the advanced camera for surveys (acs) papovich and finkelstein realized that they had come across some of the most distant galaxies ever our goal was to do a detailed analysis to understand the physical make-up of these galaxies says finkelstein an astrophysics postdoctoral research associate in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 we have been studying in detail over the last few decades or so what galaxies at lower redshifts look like by comparing them to a higher redshift galaxy we can really gain a sense of how galaxies are evolving by comparing images of the galaxies redshift the distance the light of a galaxy stretches as the universe expands that astronomers rank numerically finkelstein concluded that these galaxies appear to have a redshift of 7 to 8 until only a few months ago the most distant galaxies had a redshift of about 65 to 7 to put it in perspective the light in the images of the objects papovich and finkelstein studied left 13 billion years ago around the time when the universe was only 700 million years old while not the first galaxies ever formed papovichs and finkelsteins discoveries do a hold another important key to understanding the formation of the universe by measuring these galaxies stellar mass they found them to be anywhere from one to 10 percent as massive as the milky way because typical galaxies at only a redshift of 3 are about as massive as the milky way the findings are a substantial indicator of strong evolution in typical galaxies over only one billion years of cosmic time essentially these newly-discovered galaxies are the building blocks of present-day galaxies putting all of the pieces above together it really does look like at redshifts of 7 to 8 we are really probing the era of baby galaxies finkelstein explains the larger milky-way-size galaxies that are common at lower redshifts are nowhere to be seen and everything we see appears to be fairly young and primitive we have not yet found the infant galaxies containing the metal-free stars but with the launch of the james webb space telescope in 2014/2015 we should come awfully close named after former nasa administrator james e webb renowned for heading the fledgling nasa program from 1961 to 1968 the james webb space telescope (jwst) contains a mirror 65 meters in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court it is specially designed to find the very first galaxies created in the early universe and to link the big bang to our own milky way galaxy though papovichs and finkelsteins analysis of 35 of the most distant galaxies ever found has premier implications regarding the universes origins the first several hundred million years after the big bang still harbor many unanswered questions until the first images from the jwst are made available papovich and finkelstein say they will continue to push forward with the resources they do have between the first 700 million years theres stuff that went on that we still want to find out about papovich adds we have to go to the limits of the current technology in order to go to the next level finkelstein will present a public talk on these results next week at the monthly astronomy open house scheduled for friday (jan 29) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the texas a&m campus observatory learn more about the teams research as well as additional information regarding texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu; dr casey papovich (979) 845-7017 or papovich@physicstamuedu; or dr steven finkelstein (979) 862-1763 or stevenf@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomers find baby galaxies in early universe appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " armed with a sample of the deepest near-infrared images yet captured by nasas new wide field camera 3 (wfc3) on board the hubble space telescope texas a&m university astronomers dr casey papovich and dr steven finkelstein along with their collaborators have completed their initial analysis of the light from 35 galaxies formed between 500 and 800 million years after the big bang likely some of the most distant galaxies ever identified the new hubble images which are being intensely studied by several groups around the world have opened unprecedented doors for papovich finkelstein and their team mauro giavalisco from the university of massachusetts naveen a reddy and mark dickinson from the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) and henry c ferguson and anton m koekemoer from the space telescope science institute (stsci) to delve into just some of the mysteries surrounding the evolution of galaxies that in turn can be used to probe conditions at the beginning of the universe finkelstein recently presented the groups results detailed in the paper on the stellar populations and evolution of star-forming galaxies at 63 < z < 86 available online at http://arxivorg/abs/09121338 jan 6 at the 215th meeting of the american astronomical society (aas) in washington dc by comparing the dust and metal content of the newly-discovered galaxies to that of typical local star-forming galaxies the team found that their galaxies were significantly bluer in appearance indicating lower metallicity and implying smaller amounts of heavier elements such as carbon nitrogen oxygen or iron (which are fused over time in the cores of stars) relative to hydrogen and helium (products of the big bang) after comparing them with the bluest nearby galaxies the team concluded that while their galaxies were fairly primitive in composition they did not have zero metallicity meaning that these galaxies contain stars not unlike those we see today even though the universe was only five percent of its current age of 137 billion years this implies that they are not the first-ever galaxies formed after the big bang as other international teams of astronomers analyzing the same data have implied papovich explains that these newly-identified galaxies are so far away that they can only viewed with the wfc3 which collects the light from near-infrared wavelengths and enables a deeper look into the universe although the wfc3 can take visible-light images its capability to detect light just bluer than the eye can see or the near ultra-violet and light just redder than the eye can see or the near-infrared makes its viewing power unparalleled to anything else these galaxies are completely invisible in optical light says papovich an observational astronomer and assistant professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy since 2008 they are moving away at 97 percent the speed of light or 180 000 miles per second these are the most distant things anyone has found the wfc3 is the only camera that can see them the wfc3 captured the images last august when the hubble space telescope spent nearly three days focusing on a tiny area in the sky less than one percent the angular area of a full moon known as the hubble ultra deep field (hudf) the wfc3 is so powerful it was able to capture objects one billion times fainter than what the human eye can see when they found objects apparent in the wfc3 infrared data that were either very red or nonexistent in the optical image of hubbles main camera the advanced camera for surveys (acs) papovich and finkelstein realized that they had come across some of the most distant galaxies ever our goal was to do a detailed analysis to understand the physical make-up of these galaxies says finkelstein an astrophysics postdoctoral research associate in texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy since 2008 we have been studying in detail over the last few decades or so what galaxies at lower redshifts look like by comparing them to a higher redshift galaxy we can really gain a sense of how galaxies are evolving by comparing images of the galaxies redshift the distance the light of a galaxy stretches as the universe expands that astronomers rank numerically finkelstein concluded that these galaxies appear to have a redshift of 7 to 8 until only a few months ago the most distant galaxies had a redshift of about 65 to 7 to put it in perspective the light in the images of the objects papovich and finkelstein studied left 13 billion years ago around the time when the universe was only 700 million years old while not the first galaxies ever formed papovichs and finkelsteins discoveries do a hold another important key to understanding the formation of the universe by measuring these galaxies stellar mass they found them to be anywhere from one to 10 percent as massive as the milky way because typical galaxies at only a redshift of 3 are about as massive as the milky way the findings are a substantial indicator of strong evolution in typical galaxies over only one billion years of cosmic time essentially these newly-discovered galaxies are the building blocks of present-day galaxies putting all of the pieces above together it really does look like at redshifts of 7 to 8 we are really probing the era of baby galaxies finkelstein explains the larger milky-way-size galaxies that are common at lower redshifts are nowhere to be seen and everything we see appears to be fairly young and primitive we have not yet found the infant galaxies containing the metal-free stars but with the launch of the james webb space telescope in 2014/2015 we should come awfully close named after former nasa administrator james e webb renowned for heading the fledgling nasa program from 1961 to 1968 the james webb space telescope (jwst) contains a mirror 65 meters in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court it is specially designed to find the very first galaxies created in the early universe and to link the big bang to our own milky way galaxy though papovichs and finkelsteins analysis of 35 of the most distant galaxies ever found has premier implications regarding the universes origins the first several hundred million years after the big bang still harbor many unanswered questions until the first images from the jwst are made available papovich and finkelstein say they will continue to push forward with the resources they do have between the first 700 million years theres stuff that went on that we still want to find out about papovich adds we have to go to the limits of the current technology in order to go to the next level finkelstein will present a public talk on these results next week at the monthly astronomy open house scheduled for friday (jan 29) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the texas a&m campus observatory learn more about the teams research as well as additional information regarding texas a&m astronomy -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu; dr casey papovich (979) 845-7017 or papovich@physicstamuedu; or dr steven finkelstein (979) 862-1763 or stevenf@physicstamuedu " " college station t-rays may make x-rays obsolete as a means of detecting bombs on terrorists or illegal drugs on traffickers among other uses contends a texas a&m university physicist who is helping lay the theoretic groundwork to make the concept a reality in addition to being more revealing than x-rays in some situations t-rays do not have the cumulative possible harmful effects alexey belyanin focuses his research on terahertz otherwise known as thz or t-rays which he says is the most under-developed and under-used part of the electromagnetic spectrum it lies between microwave radiation and infrared (heat) radiation belyanin associate professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy has collaborated with colleagues at rice university and the national high magnetic field laboratory to publish findings about their t-ray research in the renowned journal nature physics thz radiation can penetrate through opaque dry materials it is harmless and can be used to scan humans belyanin says unfortunately until recently the progress in thz technology has been hampered by a lack of suitable sources and detectors belyanin and his team have offered hope: the researchers are able to control the t-rays by varying external parameters like temperature or magnetic field making it possible to build thz sensors cameras and other devices traditionally powerful photons from visible or near-infrared laser pulses are used to probe semiconductors knocking electrons out of the atoms belyanin and collaborators use the less powerful t-rays instead which only excite the waves in the electron gas because t-rays do not have enough energy to knock out electrons this is as if instead of throwing a stone into a tank of water which would create a lot of splashes we gently vibrate one wall of the tank sending a sound wave through the body of water and ripples over its surface he explains by varying temperature and the magnetic field scientists can tune the pulses and observe the behavior of the waves this provides extremely valuable and unique information about the properties of the material just like seismic waves tell you what is in the earths interior the texas a&m physicist points out the highlight of our results is observations of interference of magnetoplasmons by tiny changes in the applied magnetic field or temperature we can make plasma waves amplify or cancel each other this makes the whole sample either completely opaque or transparent to the incident thz radiation belyanin believes the technology has important practical implications such as in security work using thz cameras we could detect weapons or drugs concealed on a human body or look inside envelopes and boxes he says there are many other applications for thz radiation including material studies chemistry biology medicine -atm- watch a brief interview with alexey belyanin on you tube: contact: keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu; alexey belyanin department of physics and astronomy at (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@tamuedu; or miao jingang news & information services at miaojingang@tamuedu the post physicist sees with t-rays appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " t-rays may make x-rays obsolete as a means of detecting bombs on terrorists or illegal drugs on traffickers among other uses contends a texas a&m university physicist who is helping lay the theoretic groundwork to make the concept a reality in addition to being more revealing than x-rays in some situations t-rays do not have the cumulative possible harmful effects alexey belyanin focuses his research on terahertz otherwise known as thz or t-rays which he says is the most under-developed and under-used part of the electromagnetic spectrum it lies between microwave radiation and infrared (heat) radiation belyanin associate professor in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy has collaborated with colleagues at rice university and the national high magnetic field laboratory to publish findings about their t-ray research in the renowned journal nature physics thz radiation can penetrate through opaque dry materials it is harmless and can be used to scan humans belyanin says unfortunately until recently the progress in thz technology has been hampered by a lack of suitable sources and detectors belyanin and his team have offered hope: the researchers are able to control the t-rays by varying external parameters like temperature or magnetic field making it possible to build thz sensors cameras and other devices traditionally powerful photons from visible or near-infrared laser pulses are used to probe semiconductors knocking electrons out of the atoms belyanin and collaborators use the less powerful t-rays instead which only excite the waves in the electron gas because t-rays do not have enough energy to knock out electrons this is as if instead of throwing a stone into a tank of water which would create a lot of splashes we gently vibrate one wall of the tank sending a sound wave through the body of water and ripples over its surface he explains by varying temperature and the magnetic field scientists can tune the pulses and observe the behavior of the waves this provides extremely valuable and unique information about the properties of the material just like seismic waves tell you what is in the earths interior the texas a&m physicist points out the highlight of our results is observations of interference of magnetoplasmons by tiny changes in the applied magnetic field or temperature we can make plasma waves amplify or cancel each other this makes the whole sample either completely opaque or transparent to the incident thz radiation belyanin believes the technology has important practical implications such as in security work using thz cameras we could detect weapons or drugs concealed on a human body or look inside envelopes and boxes he says there are many other applications for thz radiation including material studies chemistry biology medicine -atm- watch a brief interview with alexey belyanin on you tube: contact: keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu; alexey belyanin department of physics and astronomy at (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@tamuedu; or miao jingang news & information services at miaojingang@tamuedu " " editors note: texas a&m universitys dr rupak mahapatra assistant professor of physics and principal investigator for the texas a&m cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment group will be presenting a colloquium friday (dec 18) on results from the experiments latest search using data collected during the past two years mahapatras talk which will broadcast via live windows media webcast at (channel 8) is scheduled for 2 pm (cst) in the stephen w hawking auditorium located in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on the texas a&m campus a paper detailing these results also can be found online mahapatra will be available for interviews concerning both his talk and the paper via telephone (979) 845-8624 or email mahapatra@physicstamuedu college station in an analysis of new data scientists from the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory and involving physicists from texas a&m university have detected two events whose characteristics match those of the particles that physicists believe make up dark matter however there is a chance that both events could be the signatures of background particles other particles with interactions that mimic the signals of dark matter candidates scientists have a strict criterion when determining whether they have made a discovery there must be fewer than one chance in 1 000 that the observed events could be due to background this result does not yet pass that test so cdms experimenters do not claim to have detected dark matter cdms researchers announced their result in talks around the nation thursday and friday including one by texas a&m assistant professor of physics dr rupak mahapatra scheduled for 2 pm (cst) friday in the stephen w hawking auditorium located in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on the texas a&m campus the collaboration details the results in a paper results from the final exposure of the cdms ii experiment that they have submitted to the physics preprint archive and for publication astronomical observations from telescopes satellites and measurements of the cosmic microwave background have led scientists to believe that most of the matter in the universe neither emits nor absorbs light if it exists this dark matter would have provided the gravitational scaffolding that allowed normal matter to coalesce into the galaxies we see today in particular scientists think our own galaxy is embedded within an enormous cloud of dark matter as our solar system rotates around the galaxy it moves through this cloud particle physics theories suggest that dark matter is composed of weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) scientists expect these particles to have masses comparable to or perhaps heavier than the masses of atomic nuclei although such wimps would rarely interact with normal matter they may occasionally bounce off or scatter like billiard balls from an atomic nucleus leaving behind a small amount of energy that is detectable under the right conditions the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota has been searching for wimps since 2003 the experiment uses 30 detectors made of crystals of germanium and silicon in an attempt to detect wimp scatters the detectors are cooled to temperatures very near absolute zero particle interactions in the crystalline detectors deposit energy as heat and as charges that move in an applied electric field special sensors detect these signals which are then amplified and recorded for later study by comparing the size and relative timing of these two signals from heat and charge experimenters can tell whether the particle that interacted in the crystal was a wimp or a background particle layers of shielding materials as well as the half-mile of rock above the experiment prevent most of the background particles from reaching the detector previous cdms data did not yield evidence for wimps but did assure physicists that they had filtered out backgrounds to the level where as few as one wimp interaction per year could have been detected cdms collaborators are now reporting on their new data set taken in 2007-2008 which approximately doubles the sum of all past data sets with each new data set collaborators must carefully evaluate each detectors performance excluding periods when the detectors were not operating properly physicists assess detector operation by frequently exposing the detector to sources of two types of radiation: gamma rays and neutrons gamma rays are the principal source of normal matter background in the experiment neutrons are the only known type of particle that interacts with germanium nuclei in the same billiard-ball style that wimps would neutrons frequently hit more than one of the cdms detectors while wimps would only hit one experimenters use data from these studies as a baseline for determining how well a wimp-like signal (produced by neutrons) is visible over a background (produced by gamma rays) based on this information physicists predict that no more than one background event will be visible in the data region where wimp signals would appear since background and signal regions overlap somewhat achievement of this background level required experimenters to throw out roughly two-thirds of the data that might contain wimps because these data would contain too many background events cdms experimenters do all of their data analysis without looking at the data region that might contain wimp events they use this standard scientific technique sometimes referred to as blinding to avoid the unintentional bias that might lead them to count background events that have some of the characteristics of wimp interactions after collaborators have made detailed estimates of background leakage into the wimp signal region they open the box or look in that region to see if they find any wimp events a signal of about five events would meet criteria to claim a dark matter discovery with only two events detected in this data set there is about a one in four chance that they could be due to backgrounds therefore cdms experimenters do not claim to have discovered wimps previous results have established a rate of interaction between wimps and nuclei that varies depending on wimp mass the new result improves upon these limits for wimps with a large mass such upper limits are quite valuable in eliminating a number of theories that might explain dark matter for example the results rule out some values that the theory of supersymmetry could have what comes next while physicists could operate the same set of detectors at soudan for many more years to look for more wimp events this would not take advantage of new detector developments and would try the patience of even the most stalwart experimenters (not to mention theorists) a better way to increase sensitivity to wimps is to boost the size of detectors that might see the particles while still maintaining the ability to keep backgrounds under control this is precisely what cdms experimenters are now in the process of doing by summer 2010 collaborators hope to have about three times more germanium nuclei sitting near absolute zero at soudan patiently waiting for wimps to provide the perfect billiard ball shots that will offer compelling evidence for dark matter to that end the texas a&m university group headed by assistant professor of physics and principal investigator rupak mahapatra is currently setting up detector fabrication facilities that will dramatically improve the cost and time it takes to fabricate a detector through new technology discovering the dark matter particle will require significantly larger mass of detectors and texas a&m will be playing the central role in the development of the more massive next-generation supercdms and geodm experiments it is certainly exciting to have two candidates consistent with nuclear recoil signature we expect for wimps mahapatra said however we need more statistics to be sure hence we need to continue to take data with our new supercdms experiments that are planned to be implemented in 15-kilogram 100-kilogram and 1 000-kilogram phases the texas a&m group is playing a central role in the next-generation supercdms detector fabrication utilizing more advanced fabrication equipment and newer automated technologies at texas a&m we also have experimental high-energy physicist james white who is working on the competing liquid xenon technology that has great potential for discovery of the wimps additionally texas a&m theoretical physicists richard arnowitt bhaskar dutta and dimitri nanopoulos are well known leaders working in the theoretical aspects of dark matter physics thus it is a very exciting time in wimp search in general and to be at texas a&m university in particular for more information on texas a&ms involvement in the cdms experiment and related developments please see http://facultyphysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ -atm- about cdms the cdms collaboration includes more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions and receives funding from the us department of energy (doe) the national science foundation (nsf) foreign funding agencies in canada and switzerland and from member institutions cdms participating institutions university of california berkeley california institute of technology university of california santa barbara case western reserve university university of colorado-denver/nist fermi national accelerator laboratory university of florida lawrence berkeley national laboratory massachusetts institute of technology university of minnesota queens university st olaf college santa clara university southern methodist university stanford university syracuse university texas a&m university university of zurich about fermilab fermilab is a doe office of science national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation about nsf the national science foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering nsf funds reach all 50 states through grants to more than 1 700 universities and institutions about research at texas a&m university as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m university is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $582 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu the post cdms opens the box reveals results in search for dark matter appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " editors note: texas a&m universitys dr rupak mahapatra assistant professor of physics and principal investigator for the texas a&m cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment group will be presenting a colloquium friday (dec 18) on results from the experiments latest search using data collected during the past two years mahapatras talk which will broadcast via live windows media webcast at (channel 8) is scheduled for 2 pm (cst) in the stephen w hawking auditorium located in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on the texas a&m campus a paper detailing these results also can be found online mahapatra will be available for interviews concerning both his talk and the paper via telephone (979) 845-8624 or email mahapatra@physicstamuedu college station in an analysis of new data scientists from the cryogenic dark matter search (cdms) experiment managed by the united states department of energys fermi national accelerator laboratory and involving physicists from texas a&m university have detected two events whose characteristics match those of the particles that physicists believe make up dark matter however there is a chance that both events could be the signatures of background particles other particles with interactions that mimic the signals of dark matter candidates scientists have a strict criterion when determining whether they have made a discovery there must be fewer than one chance in 1 000 that the observed events could be due to background this result does not yet pass that test so cdms experimenters do not claim to have detected dark matter cdms researchers announced their result in talks around the nation thursday and friday including one by texas a&m assistant professor of physics dr rupak mahapatra scheduled for 2 pm (cst) friday in the stephen w hawking auditorium located in the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy on the texas a&m campus the collaboration details the results in a paper results from the final exposure of the cdms ii experiment that they have submitted to the physics preprint archive and for publication astronomical observations from telescopes satellites and measurements of the cosmic microwave background have led scientists to believe that most of the matter in the universe neither emits nor absorbs light if it exists this dark matter would have provided the gravitational scaffolding that allowed normal matter to coalesce into the galaxies we see today in particular scientists think our own galaxy is embedded within an enormous cloud of dark matter as our solar system rotates around the galaxy it moves through this cloud particle physics theories suggest that dark matter is composed of weakly interacting massive particles (wimps) scientists expect these particles to have masses comparable to or perhaps heavier than the masses of atomic nuclei although such wimps would rarely interact with normal matter they may occasionally bounce off or scatter like billiard balls from an atomic nucleus leaving behind a small amount of energy that is detectable under the right conditions the cdms experiment located a half-mile underground at the soudan mine in northern minnesota has been searching for wimps since 2003 the experiment uses 30 detectors made of crystals of germanium and silicon in an attempt to detect wimp scatters the detectors are cooled to temperatures very near absolute zero particle interactions in the crystalline detectors deposit energy as heat and as charges that move in an applied electric field special sensors detect these signals which are then amplified and recorded for later study by comparing the size and relative timing of these two signals from heat and charge experimenters can tell whether the particle that interacted in the crystal was a wimp or a background particle layers of shielding materials as well as the half-mile of rock above the experiment prevent most of the background particles from reaching the detector previous cdms data did not yield evidence for wimps but did assure physicists that they had filtered out backgrounds to the level where as few as one wimp interaction per year could have been detected cdms collaborators are now reporting on their new data set taken in 2007-2008 which approximately doubles the sum of all past data sets with each new data set collaborators must carefully evaluate each detectors performance excluding periods when the detectors were not operating properly physicists assess detector operation by frequently exposing the detector to sources of two types of radiation: gamma rays and neutrons gamma rays are the principal source of normal matter background in the experiment neutrons are the only known type of particle that interacts with germanium nuclei in the same billiard-ball style that wimps would neutrons frequently hit more than one of the cdms detectors while wimps would only hit one experimenters use data from these studies as a baseline for determining how well a wimp-like signal (produced by neutrons) is visible over a background (produced by gamma rays) based on this information physicists predict that no more than one background event will be visible in the data region where wimp signals would appear since background and signal regions overlap somewhat achievement of this background level required experimenters to throw out roughly two-thirds of the data that might contain wimps because these data would contain too many background events cdms experimenters do all of their data analysis without looking at the data region that might contain wimp events they use this standard scientific technique sometimes referred to as blinding to avoid the unintentional bias that might lead them to count background events that have some of the characteristics of wimp interactions after collaborators have made detailed estimates of background leakage into the wimp signal region they open the box or look in that region to see if they find any wimp events a signal of about five events would meet criteria to claim a dark matter discovery with only two events detected in this data set there is about a one in four chance that they could be due to backgrounds therefore cdms experimenters do not claim to have discovered wimps previous results have established a rate of interaction between wimps and nuclei that varies depending on wimp mass the new result improves upon these limits for wimps with a large mass such upper limits are quite valuable in eliminating a number of theories that might explain dark matter for example the results rule out some values that the theory of supersymmetry could have what comes next while physicists could operate the same set of detectors at soudan for many more years to look for more wimp events this would not take advantage of new detector developments and would try the patience of even the most stalwart experimenters (not to mention theorists) a better way to increase sensitivity to wimps is to boost the size of detectors that might see the particles while still maintaining the ability to keep backgrounds under control this is precisely what cdms experimenters are now in the process of doing by summer 2010 collaborators hope to have about three times more germanium nuclei sitting near absolute zero at soudan patiently waiting for wimps to provide the perfect billiard ball shots that will offer compelling evidence for dark matter to that end the texas a&m university group headed by assistant professor of physics and principal investigator rupak mahapatra is currently setting up detector fabrication facilities that will dramatically improve the cost and time it takes to fabricate a detector through new technology discovering the dark matter particle will require significantly larger mass of detectors and texas a&m will be playing the central role in the development of the more massive next-generation supercdms and geodm experiments it is certainly exciting to have two candidates consistent with nuclear recoil signature we expect for wimps mahapatra said however we need more statistics to be sure hence we need to continue to take data with our new supercdms experiments that are planned to be implemented in 15-kilogram 100-kilogram and 1 000-kilogram phases the texas a&m group is playing a central role in the next-generation supercdms detector fabrication utilizing more advanced fabrication equipment and newer automated technologies at texas a&m we also have experimental high-energy physicist james white who is working on the competing liquid xenon technology that has great potential for discovery of the wimps additionally texas a&m theoretical physicists richard arnowitt bhaskar dutta and dimitri nanopoulos are well known leaders working in the theoretical aspects of dark matter physics thus it is a very exciting time in wimp search in general and to be at texas a&m university in particular for more information on texas a&ms involvement in the cdms experiment and related developments please see http://facultyphysicstamuedu/mahapatra/ -atm- about cdms the cdms collaboration includes more than 50 scientists from 18 international institutions and receives funding from the us department of energy (doe) the national science foundation (nsf) foreign funding agencies in canada and switzerland and from member institutions cdms participating institutions university of california berkeley california institute of technology university of california santa barbara case western reserve university university of colorado-denver/nist fermi national accelerator laboratory university of florida lawrence berkeley national laboratory massachusetts institute of technology university of minnesota queens university st olaf college santa clara university southern methodist university stanford university syracuse university texas a&m university university of zurich about fermilab fermilab is a doe office of science national laboratory operated under contract by the fermi research alliance llc the doe office of science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation about nsf the national science foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering nsf funds reach all 50 states through grants to more than 1 700 universities and institutions about research at texas a&m university as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m university is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represents an annual investment of more than $582 million which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school and underwrites approximately 3 500 sponsored projects that research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr rupak mahapatra (979) 845-8624 or mahapatra@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university experimental physicists teruki kamon alexei safonov david toback and peter mcintyre and theoretical physicists dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt are among the many researchers worldwide who are awaiting the first full-scale physics experiments to begin soon at the new large hadron collider (lhc) the worlds most powerful particle accelerator near geneva the latest podcast episode in research quick briefs an audio podcast program produced by the texas a&m division of research and graduate studies discusses the significance of the enormous new machine and the texas a&m teams participation in the experiments planned there -atm- contact: john holder 979-845-8369 or jholder@tamuedu or dr teruki kamon 979-845-7740 or t-kamon@tamuedu or dr david toback 979-845-1179 or toback@tamuedu the post research quick briefs podcast features texas a&m physicists appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " texas a&m university experimental physicists teruki kamon alexei safonov david toback and peter mcintyre and theoretical physicists dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt are among the many researchers worldwide who are awaiting the first full-scale physics experiments to begin soon at the new large hadron collider (lhc) the worlds most powerful particle accelerator near geneva the latest podcast episode in research quick briefs an audio podcast program produced by the texas a&m division of research and graduate studies discusses the significance of the enormous new machine and the texas a&m teams participation in the experiments planned there -atm- contact: john holder 979-845-8369 or jholder@tamuedu or dr teruki kamon 979-845-7740 or t-kamon@tamuedu or dr david toback 979-845-1179 or toback@tamuedu " " college station establishing itself as one of the countrys leading academic institutions in physics texas a&m university today dedicated two new physics buildings named after one of the schools most distinguished and charitable graduates the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy numerous state and local officials say the two new buildings will put texas a&m among the worlds leaders in physics research and instruction and will also extend mans knowledge about our universe in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward construction of the $825 million physics buildings the first on the texas a&m campus to be financed through a unique public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds mitchell is a legend in the states energy sector and is often called the father of the expansive barnett shale field he founded mitchell energy one of the nations largest independent oil and gas producers merging the company with devon energy in 2002 also heavily involved in real estate he is credited with developing the woodlands where he has lived for the past 25 years and also was instrumental in founding the houston advanced research center these two buildings are truly a testament to the significant growth and collective strength of texas a&ms programs in physics and astronomy interim president r bowen loftin said we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his generosity and the significant investment he has made in the future of texas a&m the mitchell physics buildings joined by a crosswalk provide almost 200 000 square feet of space for the physics department and include a 468-seat lecture hall as well as a 180-seat auditorium named in honor of stephen hawking the world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist the buildings were designed with the highest green standards found anywhere they have a heating and ventilation system that uses natural convection currents and also feature a cistern that collects rainfall and condensate which will be used to irrigate the buildings exterior landscapes it will also provide water for texas a&ms first roof-top garden the 10 000-square-foot cynthia woods mitchell garden located over the lecture hall in the mitchell physics building the buildings are designed to leadership in energy and environmental design (leed) silver standards a national rating scale developed by the united states green building council to encourage more sustainable buildings despite his background in energy mitchell said he has always been fascinated by astronomy and physics the study of physics is an essential part of a good science education he noted i have always had a special interest in physics i believe that the physics program at texas a&m will continue to foster important research and attract outstanding students and faculty from all over the world i hope these buildings will provide an innovative and inspiring atmosphere for students and faculty to study teach research and enjoy the many exciting challenges of physics many things will come out of these buildings in the next 50 years that will surprise us all added mitchell who is widely admired for his vision mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m and his wife cynthia are among the most financially supportive benefactors in the schools history including a total of more than $52 million to physics alone since 2002 their gifts include funding for nine academic chairs and professorships in physics; the george p mitchell 40 tennis center; and substantial funds for texas a&ms partnership in the giant magellan telescope now being built in chile when the telescope is finished it will be among the worlds most powerful astronomical instruments in addition the mitchells have been major contributors to texas a&m at galveston the universitys marine-oriented branch campus donating the 135 acres of the schools main campus that carries his fathers name michael d mckinney chancellor of the texas a&m university system said the mitchells gifts will place texas a&m on the leading edge of great work in a host of fields from collaborative efforts in the field of astronomy that are putting texas a&m in the middle of building advanced telescopes to extraordinary work with lasers and imaging technology to research at the atomic and nuclear level the most recent evidence of a program on the rise is the successful engagement of 1996 nobel prize-winning physicist dr david lee for his work in the field of low-temperature physics he joins another nobel prize-winning scientist among the texas a&m faculty dr dudley herschbach james wilson vice chairman of the texas a&m university system board of regents noted it is fair to say texas a&m has one of the 10 best physics departments among public universities in the country and the best is yet to come these buildings and the state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms they contain will be a catalyst for developing the next generation of scientists who will be inspired by the expertise they find within these walls the buildings were designed by michael graves & associates a firm that has won more than 175 awards graves has been architect since 1964 and also taught at princeton university for 40 years and noted that the projects here went very smoothly which is unusual because they are so large and complex i am delighted at the final result he said making particular reference to a 102-foot long foucault pendulum in the lobby of the mitchell institute that vividly demonstrates the earths rotation with every swing of the pendulums arc dean of science h joseph newton recalled about three and half years ago many of us stood on this exact spot for the groundbreaking of this great facility i am told by those involved that an unprecedented team effort took place to get to this moment today and while construction was going on texas a&m began to establish an outstanding astronomy program one that we believe will become one of the nations best edward s fry head of the department of physics and astronomy said the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has developed a unique partnership with the university of texas at austin george mitchell helped us build that relationship with the university of texas because of their academic reputation but also because they could help with a matching gift which did happen fry noted because of georges vision our relationship with the university of texas is now a great partnership three professors who will teach and conduct research in the new buildings praised mitchell marlan scully director of the institute for quantum science and engineering told the audience that because of mitchells gift texas a&m now stands for atomic and molecular christopher pope director of the mitchell institute said george mitchell has given us the tools now its up to us to finish the job nicholas suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program added that because of george mitchells gift we are now literally able to reach for the stars -atm- contact: edward fry at (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu or shana hutchins at (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or keith randall at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu the post mitchell physics buildings formally opened appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " establishing itself as one of the countrys leading academic institutions in physics texas a&m university today dedicated two new physics buildings named after one of the schools most distinguished and charitable graduates the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy numerous state and local officials say the two new buildings will put texas a&m among the worlds leaders in physics research and instruction and will also extend mans knowledge about our universe in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward construction of the $825 million physics buildings the first on the texas a&m campus to be financed through a unique public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds mitchell is a legend in the states energy sector and is often called the father of the expansive barnett shale field he founded mitchell energy one of the nations largest independent oil and gas producers merging the company with devon energy in 2002 also heavily involved in real estate he is credited with developing the woodlands where he has lived for the past 25 years and also was instrumental in founding the houston advanced research center these two buildings are truly a testament to the significant growth and collective strength of texas a&ms programs in physics and astronomy interim president r bowen loftin said we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his generosity and the significant investment he has made in the future of texas a&m the mitchell physics buildings joined by a crosswalk provide almost 200 000 square feet of space for the physics department and include a 468-seat lecture hall as well as a 180-seat auditorium named in honor of stephen hawking the world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist the buildings were designed with the highest green standards found anywhere they have a heating and ventilation system that uses natural convection currents and also feature a cistern that collects rainfall and condensate which will be used to irrigate the buildings exterior landscapes it will also provide water for texas a&ms first roof-top garden the 10 000-square-foot cynthia woods mitchell garden located over the lecture hall in the mitchell physics building the buildings are designed to leadership in energy and environmental design (leed) silver standards a national rating scale developed by the united states green building council to encourage more sustainable buildings despite his background in energy mitchell said he has always been fascinated by astronomy and physics the study of physics is an essential part of a good science education he noted i have always had a special interest in physics i believe that the physics program at texas a&m will continue to foster important research and attract outstanding students and faculty from all over the world i hope these buildings will provide an innovative and inspiring atmosphere for students and faculty to study teach research and enjoy the many exciting challenges of physics many things will come out of these buildings in the next 50 years that will surprise us all added mitchell who is widely admired for his vision mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m and his wife cynthia are among the most financially supportive benefactors in the schools history including a total of more than $52 million to physics alone since 2002 their gifts include funding for nine academic chairs and professorships in physics; the george p mitchell 40 tennis center; and substantial funds for texas a&ms partnership in the giant magellan telescope now being built in chile when the telescope is finished it will be among the worlds most powerful astronomical instruments in addition the mitchells have been major contributors to texas a&m at galveston the universitys marine-oriented branch campus donating the 135 acres of the schools main campus that carries his fathers name michael d mckinney chancellor of the texas a&m university system said the mitchells gifts will place texas a&m on the leading edge of great work in a host of fields from collaborative efforts in the field of astronomy that are putting texas a&m in the middle of building advanced telescopes to extraordinary work with lasers and imaging technology to research at the atomic and nuclear level the most recent evidence of a program on the rise is the successful engagement of 1996 nobel prize-winning physicist dr david lee for his work in the field of low-temperature physics he joins another nobel prize-winning scientist among the texas a&m faculty dr dudley herschbach james wilson vice chairman of the texas a&m university system board of regents noted it is fair to say texas a&m has one of the 10 best physics departments among public universities in the country and the best is yet to come these buildings and the state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms they contain will be a catalyst for developing the next generation of scientists who will be inspired by the expertise they find within these walls the buildings were designed by michael graves & associates a firm that has won more than 175 awards graves has been architect since 1964 and also taught at princeton university for 40 years and noted that the projects here went very smoothly which is unusual because they are so large and complex i am delighted at the final result he said making particular reference to a 102-foot long foucault pendulum in the lobby of the mitchell institute that vividly demonstrates the earths rotation with every swing of the pendulums arc dean of science h joseph newton recalled about three and half years ago many of us stood on this exact spot for the groundbreaking of this great facility i am told by those involved that an unprecedented team effort took place to get to this moment today and while construction was going on texas a&m began to establish an outstanding astronomy program one that we believe will become one of the nations best edward s fry head of the department of physics and astronomy said the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy has developed a unique partnership with the university of texas at austin george mitchell helped us build that relationship with the university of texas because of their academic reputation but also because they could help with a matching gift which did happen fry noted because of georges vision our relationship with the university of texas is now a great partnership three professors who will teach and conduct research in the new buildings praised mitchell marlan scully director of the institute for quantum science and engineering told the audience that because of mitchells gift texas a&m now stands for atomic and molecular christopher pope director of the mitchell institute said george mitchell has given us the tools now its up to us to finish the job nicholas suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program added that because of george mitchells gift we are now literally able to reach for the stars -atm- contact: edward fry at (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu or shana hutchins at (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or keith randall at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu " " college station to the inquisitive mind the mere word astronomy has the power to evoke endless thoughts of spinning planets blazing meteors vibrant constellations distant galaxies and the inevitable series of what ifs now aggies with a passion for the great unknown are better able to explore such thoughts thanks to seven acclaimed astronomers teaching various courses and two new state-of-the-art physics buildings in their own backyard appropriate in a year designated as a world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope 2009 also has marked significant advances in the development of texas a&m universitys astronomy program unofficially launched in 2004 when texas a&m became a founding partner in the giant magellan telescope corporation the program since has experienced steady progress toward its goal of making texas a&m a top institution in national and international astronomy circles what began as a somewhat nebulous but lofty vision under former texas a&m president robert m gates as part of vision 2020 and the faculty reinvestment program became a primary focus in 2006 when the university recruited international supernova and cosmology expert dr nicholas b suntzeff to direct the fledgling program astronomy motivates enthusiasm and interest in science suntzeff says all human societies have looked to the sky and wondered what was out there asking questions such as ‚Äòare we alone or ‚Äòhow did the universe happen suntzeff believes that an exciting astronomy program and curriculum are important not only in the quest for texas a&m to be viewed as a major public university but also for students with a deep-rooted interest in the galaxy as well as those who are unaware of astronomys latest advances part of astronomys appeal suntzeff notes is that it intrigues students with many different interests not necessarily only those with science backgrounds as a science astronomy has the ability to attract all types of students from those who loved the challenge of physics and chemistry in high school to those who are afraid of anything scientific or mathematical he explains for students who are not going to be scientists and are maybe more interested in humanistic studies we can attract them with the ‚Äòwhy are we here aspect of astronomy these questions are essential to understanding astronomy and they appeal to them maybe we can even attract them back to engineering and science suntzeff says that among the top 64 universities in the nation both public and private only texas a&m did not offer an introductory astronomy course moreover the limited astronomy that was taught was mixed in with the physics curriculum and taught by physicists not astronomers today astronomy classes at texas a&m exist in a category of their own they are taught by actual astronomers and the focus of the classes is more conceptual rather than dominated by the mathematical elegance of physics students have three relatively new courses from which to choose each is briefly described below: astronomy 101 at one time known as physics 306 is a three-hour basic astronomy course intended for freshmen and sophomores it is a comprehensive survey of the entire universe and the very human history of the scientists who led us to our present understanding of astronomy astronomy 102 is a night-time observational class that meets at the campus observatory to give students a first-hand look at our milky way galaxy and the local universe because the class continues to grow in popularity only limited spots are available astronomy 314 focuses on cosmology and extragalactic astronomy in this more advanced course using mathematics at the level of calculus taught in high school students will gain an understanding of the latest findings in astronomy such as supermassive black holes galaxy formation the big bang and the strange darkness of the universe seen in dark energy and dark matter since these classes were implemented last year registration has increased from a few hundred students to nearly 1 500 annually in addition a proposal for a core curriculum astronomy class featuring three hours of lecture and two hours of labs has been submitted for consideration by the texas a&m faculty senate should the proposal be approved the course could become available as early as fall 2010 given the prospect of new courses coupled with the fact that astronomy has established such a strong identity that it is now part of the departments official name (department of physics and astronomy approved by the texas higher education coordinating board in september) suntzeff expects a possible increase to 2 000 to 3 000 students per year thankfully the influx of new students coincides with the debut of two new physics buildings the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building together the $825 million buildings provide more than 197 000 square feet of classrooms teaching laboratories offices and auditoriums much-needed space for a department that formerly held court in as many as 11 buildings throughout the texas a&m campus the buildings centralized location will allow for easy access for students and enable closer collaboration between physicists and astronomers on adjustments in fundamental physics the fact that they are situated a mere block from the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building home to astronomical laboratories and other astronomy research-related endeavors is an added plus it gives us a nice home to be together in the same place says dr kevin krisciunas lecturer in physics and astronomy who also joined the department in 2006 right now we are spread out in three buildings and the mitchell buildings give us a place to have our classes and seminars as well as to get together to discuss the latest research in addition to the giant magellan telescope texas a&m astronomers are involved in a host of other major international projects from texas to the middle east to antarctica one such collaboration the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) is a project involving texas a&m and the university of texas at austin as well as other universities across the nation to study dark energy the mysterious force that suntzeff helped discover in 1998 which comprises 75 percent of the material in the universe yet remains unexplained texas two flagship universities are partnering to build the instrumentation that will be mounted on the hobby-eberly telescope located at the mcdonald observatory in the fort davis mountains of west texas to date the hetdex collaboration is on track to provide results before any of the competing dark energy projects across the nation including some with major federal funding texas a&m also is part of a team of international institutions working with the chinese center for antarctic astronomy (ccaa) to construct the first institute for astronomy on the highest point of the antarctic plateau known as dome argus dome a is believed to be the best site for ground-based astronomy because of its unique combination of altitude extremely cold and dry climate and low wind speeds critical conditions that add up to the most ideal place next to space for astronomers to establish an observatory to view the sky in infrared and generate movies of those views to the texas a&m astronomy team these elaborate projects are stepping stones albeit big ones to their bigger-picture purpose ensuring that the program continues to expand and strengthen primarily for the students there has always been a calling for astronomy always will be and the time is right to keep moving forward to the next undertaking krisciunas says i would assert that of all the things you could learn like with ancient egypt or the dinosaurs the planets and stars are just inherently interesting most universities offer astronomy and its a popular option among students looking through a telescope gives you first-hand feeling for the majesty of the universe -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 862-2747 or vy@physicstamuedu the post seeing stars: texas a&m astronomy program reaches new heights appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " to the inquisitive mind the mere word astronomy has the power to evoke endless thoughts of spinning planets blazing meteors vibrant constellations distant galaxies and the inevitable series of what ifs now aggies with a passion for the great unknown are better able to explore such thoughts thanks to seven acclaimed astronomers teaching various courses and two new state-of-the-art physics buildings in their own backyard appropriate in a year designated as a world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope 2009 also has marked significant advances in the development of texas a&m universitys astronomy program unofficially launched in 2004 when texas a&m became a founding partner in the giant magellan telescope corporation the program since has experienced steady progress toward its goal of making texas a&m a top institution in national and international astronomy circles what began as a somewhat nebulous but lofty vision under former texas a&m president robert m gates as part of vision 2020 and the faculty reinvestment program became a primary focus in 2006 when the university recruited international supernova and cosmology expert dr nicholas b suntzeff to direct the fledgling program astronomy motivates enthusiasm and interest in science suntzeff says all human societies have looked to the sky and wondered what was out there asking questions such as ‚Äòare we alone or ‚Äòhow did the universe happen suntzeff believes that an exciting astronomy program and curriculum are important not only in the quest for texas a&m to be viewed as a major public university but also for students with a deep-rooted interest in the galaxy as well as those who are unaware of astronomys latest advances part of astronomys appeal suntzeff notes is that it intrigues students with many different interests not necessarily only those with science backgrounds as a science astronomy has the ability to attract all types of students from those who loved the challenge of physics and chemistry in high school to those who are afraid of anything scientific or mathematical he explains for students who are not going to be scientists and are maybe more interested in humanistic studies we can attract them with the ‚Äòwhy are we here aspect of astronomy these questions are essential to understanding astronomy and they appeal to them maybe we can even attract them back to engineering and science suntzeff says that among the top 64 universities in the nation both public and private only texas a&m did not offer an introductory astronomy course moreover the limited astronomy that was taught was mixed in with the physics curriculum and taught by physicists not astronomers today astronomy classes at texas a&m exist in a category of their own they are taught by actual astronomers and the focus of the classes is more conceptual rather than dominated by the mathematical elegance of physics students have three relatively new courses from which to choose each is briefly described below: astronomy 101 at one time known as physics 306 is a three-hour basic astronomy course intended for freshmen and sophomores it is a comprehensive survey of the entire universe and the very human history of the scientists who led us to our present understanding of astronomy astronomy 102 is a night-time observational class that meets at the campus observatory to give students a first-hand look at our milky way galaxy and the local universe because the class continues to grow in popularity only limited spots are available astronomy 314 focuses on cosmology and extragalactic astronomy in this more advanced course using mathematics at the level of calculus taught in high school students will gain an understanding of the latest findings in astronomy such as supermassive black holes galaxy formation the big bang and the strange darkness of the universe seen in dark energy and dark matter since these classes were implemented last year registration has increased from a few hundred students to nearly 1 500 annually in addition a proposal for a core curriculum astronomy class featuring three hours of lecture and two hours of labs has been submitted for consideration by the texas a&m faculty senate should the proposal be approved the course could become available as early as fall 2010 given the prospect of new courses coupled with the fact that astronomy has established such a strong identity that it is now part of the departments official name (department of physics and astronomy approved by the texas higher education coordinating board in september) suntzeff expects a possible increase to 2 000 to 3 000 students per year thankfully the influx of new students coincides with the debut of two new physics buildings the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building together the $825 million buildings provide more than 197 000 square feet of classrooms teaching laboratories offices and auditoriums much-needed space for a department that formerly held court in as many as 11 buildings throughout the texas a&m campus the buildings centralized location will allow for easy access for students and enable closer collaboration between physicists and astronomers on adjustments in fundamental physics the fact that they are situated a mere block from the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building home to astronomical laboratories and other astronomy research-related endeavors is an added plus it gives us a nice home to be together in the same place says dr kevin krisciunas lecturer in physics and astronomy who also joined the department in 2006 right now we are spread out in three buildings and the mitchell buildings give us a place to have our classes and seminars as well as to get together to discuss the latest research in addition to the giant magellan telescope texas a&m astronomers are involved in a host of other major international projects from texas to the middle east to antarctica one such collaboration the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) is a project involving texas a&m and the university of texas at austin as well as other universities across the nation to study dark energy the mysterious force that suntzeff helped discover in 1998 which comprises 75 percent of the material in the universe yet remains unexplained texas two flagship universities are partnering to build the instrumentation that will be mounted on the hobby-eberly telescope located at the mcdonald observatory in the fort davis mountains of west texas to date the hetdex collaboration is on track to provide results before any of the competing dark energy projects across the nation including some with major federal funding texas a&m also is part of a team of international institutions working with the chinese center for antarctic astronomy (ccaa) to construct the first institute for astronomy on the highest point of the antarctic plateau known as dome argus dome a is believed to be the best site for ground-based astronomy because of its unique combination of altitude extremely cold and dry climate and low wind speeds critical conditions that add up to the most ideal place next to space for astronomers to establish an observatory to view the sky in infrared and generate movies of those views to the texas a&m astronomy team these elaborate projects are stepping stones albeit big ones to their bigger-picture purpose ensuring that the program continues to expand and strengthen primarily for the students there has always been a calling for astronomy always will be and the time is right to keep moving forward to the next undertaking krisciunas says i would assert that of all the things you could learn like with ancient egypt or the dinosaurs the planets and stars are just inherently interesting most universities offer astronomy and its a popular option among students looking through a telescope gives you first-hand feeling for the majesty of the universe -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu or dr kim-vy tran (979) 862-2747 or vy@physicstamuedu " " editors note: due to expected inclement weather featuring the strong possibility of precipitation featuring a snow/ice mix the astronomy open house scheduled for tonight (friday dec 4) has been cancelled college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy will host its monthly astronomy open house friday (dec 4) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory the free holiday-themed event will feature telescope observing (weather permitting hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by a texas a&m astronomer complete with complimentary hot chocolate and cider free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 9:30 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house set for friday now cancelled appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " editors note: due to expected inclement weather featuring the strong possibility of precipitation featuring a snow/ice mix the astronomy open house scheduled for tonight (friday dec 4) has been cancelled college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy will host its monthly astronomy open house friday (dec 4) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory the free holiday-themed event will feature telescope observing (weather permitting hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by a texas a&m astronomer complete with complimentary hot chocolate and cider free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 9:30 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station dr dimitri nanopoulos a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and one of the worlds leading researchers in high-energy physics has been selected by the italian physical society (sif) as one of two recipients of its 2009 enrico fermi prize in recognition of his pioneering international work in the field of string theory nanopoulos who ranks as the fourth-most-frequently-cited high-energy physicist of all-time with more than 34 500 citations and 580 referred articles to his credit is feted by the sif for the discovery of fundamental phenomenological properties of grand unification and superstring theories he was presented with the fermi prize on september 28 along with the university of romes dr miguel angel virasoro during the opening ceremony of the xcv national congress of the sif in bari italy fermi a pioneer of nuclear physics best known for his work in the development of the first nuclear reactor died in 1954 the fermi prize was established by the sif in 2001 on the centenary of the renowned italian physicists birth and is awarded yearly to members of the sif who have particularly honored italian physics with their discoveries recipients are presented with a € 30 000 (roughly $45 250) cash prize and a commemorative medal bearing fermis likeness i feel it was quite a surprise because this is a prize for all of physics not just my specific field of work nanopoulos said to be recognized by the sif i felt very honored and proud something like this helps boost your work and gives you more to look forward to nanopoulos a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1989 and holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics since 2002 also serves as head of the houston advanced research center (harc) astroparticle physics group he is known as one of the founders of grand unification theory (gut) which seeks to combine gravitation electroweak and strong forces in an explanation for everything in the universe his years of research in string unified theories have led to advances in similar fields of study such as cosmology fundamental quantum theory and quantum-inspired models of brain function the fermi award marks the latest honor in a lengthy list of accolades for nanopoulos who was recognized in 2006 by the alexander s onassis public benefit foundation with the onassis international prize for his achievements in the natural sciences in 2005 he was appointed as president of the greek national council for research and technology and as greeces national representative to both the european laboratory for particle physics (cern) and the european space agency (esa) in 1997 he became the youngest member elected to the academy of athens natural and applied sciences we are extremely pleased that professor nanopoulos and his research have been recognized with the 2009 enrico fermi prize said dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy it is a well deserved award professor nanopoulos has a history of striking research achievements and we anticipate these contributions will continue this most recent award is particularly gratifying for nanopoulos who cites fermi as a long-time inspiration for his work he describes the physicist as hero of his who was both experimental and theoretical unlike most modern-day scientists who typically are one or the other this is one of the reasons i have always tried to model my work after his he explained i have tried to go beyond theoretical precepts and test things experimentally on one hand we do theorize but ive always tried to bridge the gap in between a fellow of the american physical society (aps) since 1988 nanopoulos joined the sif in 1992 and has led more than 400 presentations at various international conferences a native of athens greece he is a graduate of the university of athens and earned his doctorate from the university of sussex in england founded in 1897 the sif is a non-profit association with the aim to promote favor and protect the progress of physics in italy and worldwide -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr dimitri nanopoulos (979) 845-7790 or dimitri@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist earns fermi prize for research excellence appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr dimitri nanopoulos a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and one of the worlds leading researchers in high-energy physics has been selected by the italian physical society (sif) as one of two recipients of its 2009 enrico fermi prize in recognition of his pioneering international work in the field of string theory nanopoulos who ranks as the fourth-most-frequently-cited high-energy physicist of all-time with more than 34 500 citations and 580 referred articles to his credit is feted by the sif for the discovery of fundamental phenomenological properties of grand unification and superstring theories he was presented with the fermi prize on september 28 along with the university of romes dr miguel angel virasoro during the opening ceremony of the xcv national congress of the sif in bari italy fermi a pioneer of nuclear physics best known for his work in the development of the first nuclear reactor died in 1954 the fermi prize was established by the sif in 2001 on the centenary of the renowned italian physicists birth and is awarded yearly to members of the sif who have particularly honored italian physics with their discoveries recipients are presented with a € 30 000 (roughly $45 250) cash prize and a commemorative medal bearing fermis likeness i feel it was quite a surprise because this is a prize for all of physics not just my specific field of work nanopoulos said to be recognized by the sif i felt very honored and proud something like this helps boost your work and gives you more to look forward to nanopoulos a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1989 and holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics since 2002 also serves as head of the houston advanced research center (harc) astroparticle physics group he is known as one of the founders of grand unification theory (gut) which seeks to combine gravitation electroweak and strong forces in an explanation for everything in the universe his years of research in string unified theories have led to advances in similar fields of study such as cosmology fundamental quantum theory and quantum-inspired models of brain function the fermi award marks the latest honor in a lengthy list of accolades for nanopoulos who was recognized in 2006 by the alexander s onassis public benefit foundation with the onassis international prize for his achievements in the natural sciences in 2005 he was appointed as president of the greek national council for research and technology and as greeces national representative to both the european laboratory for particle physics (cern) and the european space agency (esa) in 1997 he became the youngest member elected to the academy of athens natural and applied sciences we are extremely pleased that professor nanopoulos and his research have been recognized with the 2009 enrico fermi prize said dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy it is a well deserved award professor nanopoulos has a history of striking research achievements and we anticipate these contributions will continue this most recent award is particularly gratifying for nanopoulos who cites fermi as a long-time inspiration for his work he describes the physicist as hero of his who was both experimental and theoretical unlike most modern-day scientists who typically are one or the other this is one of the reasons i have always tried to model my work after his he explained i have tried to go beyond theoretical precepts and test things experimentally on one hand we do theorize but ive always tried to bridge the gap in between a fellow of the american physical society (aps) since 1988 nanopoulos joined the sif in 1992 and has led more than 400 presentations at various international conferences a native of athens greece he is a graduate of the university of athens and earned his doctorate from the university of sussex in england founded in 1897 the sif is a non-profit association with the aim to promote favor and protect the progress of physics in italy and worldwide -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr dimitri nanopoulos (979) 845-7790 or dimitri@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university will celebrate the future of physics and astronomy and the power of public-private partnerships later this week in the official dedication of two new physics buildings located in the northeast quadrant of the main texas a&m campus on friday (dec 4) at 2 pm texas a&m and texas a&m system administrators will join george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m and founder of mitchell energy & development corp for a ceremony to officially dedicate the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the invitation-only event will be held in the first-floor atrium area of the mitchell institute located at the corner of university drive and ireland street directly across from the northside parking garage parking will be available in the garage invited speakers in addition to george p mitchell and architect michael graves include texas a&m university system board of regents vice chairman james p wilson chancellor michael d mckinney interim university president r bowen loftin united states senator kay bailey hutchison (r-tx) texas a&m dean of science h joseph newton and head of physics and astronomy edward s fry additional remarks will be presented by physics professors christopher n pope director of the mitchell institute; marlan o scully director of the institute for quantum science and engineering; and nicholas b suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program mitchell the undisputed father of the barnett shale was the pioneer of horizontal drilling with a light sand frac it took him 17 years of experimentation to demonstrate that this approach to extracting gas from shale formations was economically viable the exploitation of this technology has opened up huge natural gas reserves that have changed the national energy map in addition to mitchell energy which was one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation before merging with devon energy in 2002 mitchell also founded the woodlands where he has resided for nearly 25 years and the houston advanced research center throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry he retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy an interest he shared with his wife cynthia in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of the $825 million physics buildings and commissioned noted architect michael graves and his firms michael graves & associates and michael graves design group for their design the buildings the first on campus to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds are named in the mitchells honor and in recognition of their generous support of texas a&ms programs in fundamental physics and astronomy we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his generosity and the significant investment that he has made in the future of texas a&m said interim president r bowen loftin 71 these two buildings are truly a testament to the significant growth and collective strength of texas a&ms programs in physics and astronomy and will add momentum to the universitys progress to be among the very best public universities in america by 2020 construction of the two buildings which are joined by a crosswalk began in 2006 under the leadership of then-texas a&m president and current us secretary of defense robert m gates together they provide more than 197 000 square feet of floor space for a department that has grown from 45 to 68 faculty members in the past decade in addition to research and teaching laboratories; faculty graduate student and staff offices; and faculty graduate and undergraduate lounges; they feature a primary lecture hall that can be used as one large 468-seat room or converted into three separate 156-seat rooms as well as a 180-seat auditorium named in honor of world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking hailed as permanent showpieces for quality architecture and focal points of the texas a&m campus the mitchell physics buildings provide a permanent home for consolidated physics teaching and research activities from the foucault pendulum and penrose tile that dazzle visitors as they enter the mitchell institute to the high-tech classrooms and teaching laboratories that dominate the mitchell physics building the two facilities collectively deliver on the mitchells original vision of them as the cornerstone of the universitys expanded physics and astronomy programs the study of physics is an essential part of a good science education mitchell said i believe that the physics program at texas a&m will continue to foster important research and attract outstanding students and faculty from all over the world i hope these buildings will provide an innovative and inspiring atmosphere for students and faculty to study teach research and enjoy the many exciting challenges of physics as with other new buildings on the texas a&m campus the mitchell physics buildings are designed to leadership in energy and environmental design (leed) silver standards a national rating scale developed by the united states green building council to encourage more sustainable buildings their many green features include a revolutionary heating ventilation and cooling (hvac) system that uses natural convection currents in the mitchell institutes six-story atrium as both a return air and smoke exhaustion path as well as a cistern that collects and stores both condensate and rainfall that will be used to irrigate exterior landscapes and texas a&ms first rooftop garden the 10 000 square-foot cynthia woods mitchell garden which is located over the three-section lecture hall in the mitchell physics building the mitchells are among the most financially supportive benefactors in texas a&ms 133-year history their contributions to texas a&m physics alone which include funding for nine academic chairs and professorships and texas a&ms partnership in the giant magellan telescope total nearly $52 million since 2002 in addition they have provided funding for the first-ever chair in the department of statistics and endowments in the department of petroleum engineering as well as for the george p mitchell 40 tennis center for decades mitchell has been a major benefactor of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name visitors will have the opportunity to tour the buildings and meet a variety of physics professors and researchers after the dedication ceremony for more information on the event including driving directions and parking please contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 to learn more about the mitchell physics buildings or physics and astronomy at texas a&m visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post new horizons: texas a&m to dedicate mitchell physics buildings appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university will celebrate the future of physics and astronomy and the power of public-private partnerships later this week in the official dedication of two new physics buildings located in the northeast quadrant of the main texas a&m campus on friday (dec 4) at 2 pm texas a&m and texas a&m system administrators will join george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m and founder of mitchell energy & development corp for a ceremony to officially dedicate the george p mitchell 40 physics building and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy the invitation-only event will be held in the first-floor atrium area of the mitchell institute located at the corner of university drive and ireland street directly across from the northside parking garage parking will be available in the garage invited speakers in addition to george p mitchell and architect michael graves include texas a&m university system board of regents vice chairman james p wilson chancellor michael d mckinney interim university president r bowen loftin united states senator kay bailey hutchison (r-tx) texas a&m dean of science h joseph newton and head of physics and astronomy edward s fry additional remarks will be presented by physics professors christopher n pope director of the mitchell institute; marlan o scully director of the institute for quantum science and engineering; and nicholas b suntzeff director of the texas a&m astronomy program mitchell the undisputed father of the barnett shale was the pioneer of horizontal drilling with a light sand frac it took him 17 years of experimentation to demonstrate that this approach to extracting gas from shale formations was economically viable the exploitation of this technology has opened up huge natural gas reserves that have changed the national energy map in addition to mitchell energy which was one of the largest independent gas and oil producers in the nation before merging with devon energy in 2002 mitchell also founded the woodlands where he has resided for nearly 25 years and the houston advanced research center throughout a successful career in the petroleum industry he retained a lifelong interest in physics and astronomy an interest he shared with his wife cynthia in 2005 the mitchells pledged $35 million toward the construction of the $825 million physics buildings and commissioned noted architect michael graves and his firms michael graves & associates and michael graves design group for their design the buildings the first on campus to be financed through a public-private partnership involving substantial donor funds are named in the mitchells honor and in recognition of their generous support of texas a&ms programs in fundamental physics and astronomy we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his generosity and the significant investment that he has made in the future of texas a&m said interim president r bowen loftin 71 these two buildings are truly a testament to the significant growth and collective strength of texas a&ms programs in physics and astronomy and will add momentum to the universitys progress to be among the very best public universities in america by 2020 construction of the two buildings which are joined by a crosswalk began in 2006 under the leadership of then-texas a&m president and current us secretary of defense robert m gates together they provide more than 197 000 square feet of floor space for a department that has grown from 45 to 68 faculty members in the past decade in addition to research and teaching laboratories; faculty graduate student and staff offices; and faculty graduate and undergraduate lounges; they feature a primary lecture hall that can be used as one large 468-seat room or converted into three separate 156-seat rooms as well as a 180-seat auditorium named in honor of world-renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking hailed as permanent showpieces for quality architecture and focal points of the texas a&m campus the mitchell physics buildings provide a permanent home for consolidated physics teaching and research activities from the foucault pendulum and penrose tile that dazzle visitors as they enter the mitchell institute to the high-tech classrooms and teaching laboratories that dominate the mitchell physics building the two facilities collectively deliver on the mitchells original vision of them as the cornerstone of the universitys expanded physics and astronomy programs the study of physics is an essential part of a good science education mitchell said i believe that the physics program at texas a&m will continue to foster important research and attract outstanding students and faculty from all over the world i hope these buildings will provide an innovative and inspiring atmosphere for students and faculty to study teach research and enjoy the many exciting challenges of physics as with other new buildings on the texas a&m campus the mitchell physics buildings are designed to leadership in energy and environmental design (leed) silver standards a national rating scale developed by the united states green building council to encourage more sustainable buildings their many green features include a revolutionary heating ventilation and cooling (hvac) system that uses natural convection currents in the mitchell institutes six-story atrium as both a return air and smoke exhaustion path as well as a cistern that collects and stores both condensate and rainfall that will be used to irrigate exterior landscapes and texas a&ms first rooftop garden the 10 000 square-foot cynthia woods mitchell garden which is located over the three-section lecture hall in the mitchell physics building the mitchells are among the most financially supportive benefactors in texas a&ms 133-year history their contributions to texas a&m physics alone which include funding for nine academic chairs and professorships and texas a&ms partnership in the giant magellan telescope total nearly $52 million since 2002 in addition they have provided funding for the first-ever chair in the department of statistics and endowments in the department of petroleum engineering as well as for the george p mitchell 40 tennis center for decades mitchell has been a major benefactor of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name visitors will have the opportunity to tour the buildings and meet a variety of physics professors and researchers after the dedication ceremony for more information on the event including driving directions and parking please contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 to learn more about the mitchell physics buildings or physics and astronomy at texas a&m visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station two physicists from texas a&m university xingbo zhao and dr ralf rapp were awarded the 2009 robert s hyer research award of the texas section of the american physical society (tsaps) the annual award recognizes a physics student and his or her adviser for physics research that demonstrates excellence and relevance to the scientific community zhao was presented with the award during an october 23 banquet dinner ceremony as part of the texas physics 2009 conference held october 22-24 at texas state university in san marcos zhao and rapp each received a plaque while zhao also received a $500 prize rapp a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2003 and zhao a student research assistant under rapps mentorship in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and cyclotron institute were cited for their contributions to the theory of the quark-gluon plasma (qgp) a dense hot state of matter that existed in the first microseconds after the big bang with their studies of charmonium production in heavy-ion collisions involving qgp and the suppressive and regenerative effect of the j/ψ particle the duos prize-winning research was featured as one of the discussions in the annual joint fall meeting of tsaps as well as the texas sections of the american association of physics teachers and the society of physics students-zone 13 held in conjunction with texas physics 2009 it was one of several hundred presentations that were given over the course of the weekend by world renowned physicists from texas and the world in a showcase of international excellence in physics we did deep levels of research involving the origins of our matter and it answers many questions about our matter zhao said this is the type of research that attracted me to this field rapp explained that their work involved theoretical studies of collisions of heavy atomic nuclei where the collision energy is converted into thermal energy possibly producing a qgp essentially creating little bangs and important clues to the origins of matter in their large-scale experiments at brookhaven national laboratory the j/ψ particle consists of two heavy quarks and the idea is that if qgp is formed then j/ψ should dissolve in qgp rapp said then you would observe less j/ψ which is the j/ψ suppression signature we later realized that in qgp you can create or restore j/ψ meaning you have a suppressive or regenerative effect we were doing systematic investigation in terms of how you can understand both mechanisms we tried to set up a thermal framework to interpret the data while the research is limited in its practical applications rapp noted it is significant in its revelations of the universe and the structure of matter the awards namesake robert s hyer was a pioneer of physics teaching and research hyer was a founder of southern methodist university where he was a professor of physics until his death in 1929 he conducted experiments that were independent yet nearly simultaneous to those of guglielmo marconi who was considered by many to be the grandfather of wireless communication beating marconi to his nobel prize-winning discovery by a year hyer also was instrumental in early x-ray experiments that were demonstrated to several scientific and medical groups throughout texas i was very surprised to receive this honor zhao said its a highly competitive award dr rapp has been a very good adviser to me zhao and rapp are the second texas a&m pair to win the hyer award since its inception in 2007 the same year texas a&m physicists dmitry s pestov and dr alexei v sokolov were honored as the inaugural recipients for their groundbreaking work as members of a joint texas a&m-princeton university team that developed a new approach to detect biochemical molecules in real time using lasers for more information on zhao and rapps research visit http://cyclotrontamuedu/rapp/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or xingbo zhao xbzhao@tamuedu or dr ralf rapp (979) 845-1411 or rapp@comptamuedu the post texas a&m physicists earn prestigious hyer research award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " two physicists from texas a&m university xingbo zhao and dr ralf rapp were awarded the 2009 robert s hyer research award of the texas section of the american physical society (tsaps) the annual award recognizes a physics student and his or her adviser for physics research that demonstrates excellence and relevance to the scientific community zhao was presented with the award during an october 23 banquet dinner ceremony as part of the texas physics 2009 conference held october 22-24 at texas state university in san marcos zhao and rapp each received a plaque while zhao also received a $500 prize rapp a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2003 and zhao a student research assistant under rapps mentorship in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy and cyclotron institute were cited for their contributions to the theory of the quark-gluon plasma (qgp) a dense hot state of matter that existed in the first microseconds after the big bang with their studies of charmonium production in heavy-ion collisions involving qgp and the suppressive and regenerative effect of the j/ψ particle the duos prize-winning research was featured as one of the discussions in the annual joint fall meeting of tsaps as well as the texas sections of the american association of physics teachers and the society of physics students-zone 13 held in conjunction with texas physics 2009 it was one of several hundred presentations that were given over the course of the weekend by world renowned physicists from texas and the world in a showcase of international excellence in physics we did deep levels of research involving the origins of our matter and it answers many questions about our matter zhao said this is the type of research that attracted me to this field rapp explained that their work involved theoretical studies of collisions of heavy atomic nuclei where the collision energy is converted into thermal energy possibly producing a qgp essentially creating little bangs and important clues to the origins of matter in their large-scale experiments at brookhaven national laboratory the j/ψ particle consists of two heavy quarks and the idea is that if qgp is formed then j/ψ should dissolve in qgp rapp said then you would observe less j/ψ which is the j/ψ suppression signature we later realized that in qgp you can create or restore j/ψ meaning you have a suppressive or regenerative effect we were doing systematic investigation in terms of how you can understand both mechanisms we tried to set up a thermal framework to interpret the data while the research is limited in its practical applications rapp noted it is significant in its revelations of the universe and the structure of matter the awards namesake robert s hyer was a pioneer of physics teaching and research hyer was a founder of southern methodist university where he was a professor of physics until his death in 1929 he conducted experiments that were independent yet nearly simultaneous to those of guglielmo marconi who was considered by many to be the grandfather of wireless communication beating marconi to his nobel prize-winning discovery by a year hyer also was instrumental in early x-ray experiments that were demonstrated to several scientific and medical groups throughout texas i was very surprised to receive this honor zhao said its a highly competitive award dr rapp has been a very good adviser to me zhao and rapp are the second texas a&m pair to win the hyer award since its inception in 2007 the same year texas a&m physicists dmitry s pestov and dr alexei v sokolov were honored as the inaugural recipients for their groundbreaking work as members of a joint texas a&m-princeton university team that developed a new approach to detect biochemical molecules in real time using lasers for more information on zhao and rapps research visit http://cyclotrontamuedu/rapp/ -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or xingbo zhao xbzhao@tamuedu or dr ralf rapp (979) 845-1411 or rapp@comptamuedu " " brownsville as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the department of physics and astronomy at the university of texas at brownsville will host an evening under the stars sunday (nov 15) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr lucas macri macri an assistant professor and astronomer in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy whose research focuses on extragalactic distance scale resolved stellar populations and near-field cosmology will present how to measure the age of the universe in the utb/tsc lecture hall on the ut-brownsville campus he will offer two versions of the lecture one in spanish at 2 pm and one in english at 7 pm tickets are not required for either lecture which will delve into the age of the universe the rate at which it is expanding and how astronomers are able to measure this expansion using a tool called the cosmic distance ladder the measurement of the age of the universe was one of the primary motivations for building the hubble space telescope macri says i will show several hubble images related to the investigations that were carried out to achieve this goal macri also will talk about the recent discovery of dark energy the major component of the universe that was unknown a decade ago and its implications for the ultimate fate of the cosmos macris lecture marks the 13th and final event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas at austin to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series has featured astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences macri a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 after spending six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) born and raised in buenos aires argentina he obtained his bachelors of science degree in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1995 and his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 for more information on texas a&m astronomy and outreach visit astronomy research page -atm- contacts: robert stone director of education and outreach center for gravitational wave astronomy the university of texas at brownsville (956) 882-6684 rstone@physutbedu shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 keelyf@physicstamuedu the post macri to present public astronomy talk at ut-brownsville appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the department of physics and astronomy at the university of texas at brownsville will host an evening under the stars sunday (nov 15) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr lucas macri macri an assistant professor and astronomer in the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy whose research focuses on extragalactic distance scale resolved stellar populations and near-field cosmology will present how to measure the age of the universe in the utb/tsc lecture hall on the ut-brownsville campus he will offer two versions of the lecture one in spanish at 2 pm and one in english at 7 pm tickets are not required for either lecture which will delve into the age of the universe the rate at which it is expanding and how astronomers are able to measure this expansion using a tool called the cosmic distance ladder the measurement of the age of the universe was one of the primary motivations for building the hubble space telescope macri says i will show several hubble images related to the investigations that were carried out to achieve this goal macri also will talk about the recent discovery of dark energy the major component of the universe that was unknown a decade ago and its implications for the ultimate fate of the cosmos macris lecture marks the 13th and final event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas at austin to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series has featured astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences macri a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy joined the texas a&m faculty in 2008 after spending six years as a postdoctoral hubble fellow and goldberg fellow at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao) born and raised in buenos aires argentina he obtained his bachelors of science degree in physics from the massachusetts institute of technology in 1995 and his phd in astronomy from harvard university in 2001 for more information on texas a&m astronomy and outreach visit astronomy research page -atm- contacts: robert stone director of education and outreach center for gravitational wave astronomy the university of texas at brownsville (956) 882-6684 rstone@physutbedu shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m university recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of a major theoretical discovery in physics the adm formalism with a conference in honor of the three scientists who invented the theory in 1959 adm-50: a celebration of current gr innovation held nov 7-8 on the texas a&m campus feted dr richard arnowitt distinguished professor emeritus of physics texas a&m university; dr stanley deser ancell professor of physics brandeis university; and dr charles misner professor emeritus of physics university of maryland; and the key roles each played 50 years ago in developing formalism all three were in attendance at the conference whose participants included more than 60 eminent physicists and astronomers from all over the world dr christopher n pope distinguished professor of physics and mitchell institute director described the adm formalism as a breakthrough discovery that laid the foundations for investigating einsteins theory of gravitation at the quantum level it allows researchers to describe the four-dimensional spacetime dynamics of einsteins general relativity in terms of a time evolution of three-dimensional spatial geometries pope explained as well as providing insights into the quantum theory of gravity arnowitt deser and misner were able to give a well-defined meaning to the concepts of mass and energy in general relativity pope noted that the adm formalism also provides the essential framework physicists need in order to use computers to solve complicated problems in einsteins theory that are beyond the reach of analytical calculation these problems include the study of black-hole formation and evolution and the collisions and interactions between ultra-dense objects such as neutron stars he said the conference was sponsored by the mitchell institute and supported by the department of physics and astronomy and the college of science -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher n pope (979) 845-7793 or pope@physicstamuedu the post mitchell institute hosts world celebration of adm general relativity innovation appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m university recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of a major theoretical discovery in physics the adm formalism with a conference in honor of the three scientists who invented the theory in 1959 adm-50: a celebration of current gr innovation held nov 7-8 on the texas a&m campus feted dr richard arnowitt distinguished professor emeritus of physics texas a&m university; dr stanley deser ancell professor of physics brandeis university; and dr charles misner professor emeritus of physics university of maryland; and the key roles each played 50 years ago in developing formalism all three were in attendance at the conference whose participants included more than 60 eminent physicists and astronomers from all over the world dr christopher n pope distinguished professor of physics and mitchell institute director described the adm formalism as a breakthrough discovery that laid the foundations for investigating einsteins theory of gravitation at the quantum level it allows researchers to describe the four-dimensional spacetime dynamics of einsteins general relativity in terms of a time evolution of three-dimensional spatial geometries pope explained as well as providing insights into the quantum theory of gravity arnowitt deser and misner were able to give a well-defined meaning to the concepts of mass and energy in general relativity pope noted that the adm formalism also provides the essential framework physicists need in order to use computers to solve complicated problems in einsteins theory that are beyond the reach of analytical calculation these problems include the study of black-hole formation and evolution and the collisions and interactions between ultra-dense objects such as neutron stars he said the conference was sponsored by the mitchell institute and supported by the department of physics and astronomy and the college of science -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher n pope (979) 845-7793 or pope@physicstamuedu " " college station does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs new technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist says dr jairo sinova a texas a&m university physics professor sinova and colleagues from hitachi cambridge laboratory institute of physics ascr university of cambridge and university of nottingham have had their research published in the renowned journal nature physics laptops are getting increasingly powerful but as their sizes are getting smaller they are heating up so how to deal with excessive heat becomes a headache sinova explains the crux of the problem is the way information is processed sinova notes laptops and some other devices use flows of electric charge to process information but they also produce heat theoretically excessive heat may melt the laptop this also wastes a considerable amount of energy is there a solution one approach may be found in sinovas research an alternative way to process information our research looks at the spin of electrons tiny particles that naked eyes cannot detect the texas a&m professor explains the directions they spin can be used to record and process information to process information sinova says it is necessary to create information transmit the information and read the information how these tasks are done is the big question the device we designed injects the electrons with spin pointing in a particular direction according to the information we want to process and then we transmit the electrons to another place in the device but with the spin still surviving and finally we are able to measure the spin direction via a voltage that they produce sinova explains the biggest challenge to creating a spin-based device is the distance that the spins will survive in a particular direction transmission is no problem he says you can think for comparison that if the old devices could only transmit the information to several hundred feet away with our device information can be easily transmitted to hundreds of miles away it is very efficient talking about its practical application sinova is very optimistic this new device as the only all-semiconductor spin-based device for possible information processing has a lot of real practical potential he says one huge thing is that it is operational at room temperature which nobody has been able to achieve until now it may bring in a new and much more efficient way to process information -atm- watch an interview with jairo sinova on youtube: contact: jairo sinova at (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu or miao jingang at miaojingang@tamuedu the post texas a&m-developed technology may cool the laptop appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs new technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist says dr jairo sinova a texas a&m university physics professor sinova and colleagues from hitachi cambridge laboratory institute of physics ascr university of cambridge and university of nottingham have had their research published in the renowned journal nature physics laptops are getting increasingly powerful but as their sizes are getting smaller they are heating up so how to deal with excessive heat becomes a headache sinova explains the crux of the problem is the way information is processed sinova notes laptops and some other devices use flows of electric charge to process information but they also produce heat theoretically excessive heat may melt the laptop this also wastes a considerable amount of energy is there a solution one approach may be found in sinovas research an alternative way to process information our research looks at the spin of electrons tiny particles that naked eyes cannot detect the texas a&m professor explains the directions they spin can be used to record and process information to process information sinova says it is necessary to create information transmit the information and read the information how these tasks are done is the big question the device we designed injects the electrons with spin pointing in a particular direction according to the information we want to process and then we transmit the electrons to another place in the device but with the spin still surviving and finally we are able to measure the spin direction via a voltage that they produce sinova explains the biggest challenge to creating a spin-based device is the distance that the spins will survive in a particular direction transmission is no problem he says you can think for comparison that if the old devices could only transmit the information to several hundred feet away with our device information can be easily transmitted to hundreds of miles away it is very efficient talking about its practical application sinova is very optimistic this new device as the only all-semiconductor spin-based device for possible information processing has a lot of real practical potential he says one huge thing is that it is operational at room temperature which nobody has been able to achieve until now it may bring in a new and much more efficient way to process information -atm- watch an interview with jairo sinova on youtube: contact: jairo sinova at (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu or miao jingang at miaojingang@tamuedu " " college station nobel laureate dr dudley r herschbach professor of both physics and chemistry at texas a&m university has been selected as the universitys commencement convocation speaker dec 17 as a prelude to three graduation ceremonies conducted over the following two days announced interim president r bowen loftin commencement convocation is a new texas a&m tradition in which all members of a graduating class have the opportunity to assemble together along with family members and friends in an informal setting it launches events in which the degree candidates formally receive their degrees in subsequent ceremonies aligned by the academic colleges representing their major fields of study commencement convocation and the graduation ceremonies are open to the public the commencement convocation will be held at 5:30 pm thursday dec 17 in rudder theatre graduation exercises will be held the following day at 2 pm and 7 pm in reed arena and conclude with a 9 am ceremony there saturday (dec 19) the closing graduation exercise will include commissioning ceremonies for graduating corps of cadets members who will be entering one of the four branches of the armed forces as officers herschbach co-recipient of the 1986 nobel prize for chemistry joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 he had previously served on the faculty at harvard university where he continues to hold a joint appointment as the frank b baird jr professor of science for more than four decades we are doubly fortunate to have dr herschbach on our faculty loftin observed not only is he a world-renowned scientist but he is also a gifted speaker dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science applauded the decision to invite herschbach to be the convocation speaker i have heard dr herschbach speak on several occasions and i know the students will be in for a treat im confident this is one commencement address students will remember dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy said he readily agrees not only is dudley herschbach a superb speaker he is also an extraordinary scientist and a wonderful human being in his mind one of his proudest accomplishments was as a voice on the simpsons this from a nobel laureate! texas a&ms graduates should feel very special to have him as their commencement speaker nearly two decades after receiving his nobel prize herschbach continues to advance the field of chemical physics to date he has published more than 400 papers on related research topics ranging from collision stereodynamics and molecular slowing to catalytic supersonic expansions and strongly correlated many-particle interactions in addition to his university teaching and research he is engaged in several efforts to improve k-12 science education and public understanding of science herschbach is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the national academy of sciences the american philosophical society and the royal chemical society of great britain in addition to the nobel prize his many international awards include the american chemical societys pure chemistry prize and kosolapoff award the linus pauling medal the michael polanyi medal the american physical societys irving langmuir prize the national medal of science the jaroslav heyrovsky medal the sierra nevada distinguished chemist award the william walker prize and the council of scientific societys presidents award for support of science a native of san jose calif he earned an am degree in physics and phd in chemical physics at harvard after receiving a bachelors of science in mathematics and a masters of science in chemistry from stanford university -atm- contact: lane stephenson at 979-845-4662 or l-stephenson@tamuedu the post nobel laureate to speak at commencement appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " nobel laureate dr dudley r herschbach professor of both physics and chemistry at texas a&m university has been selected as the universitys commencement convocation speaker dec 17 as a prelude to three graduation ceremonies conducted over the following two days announced interim president r bowen loftin commencement convocation is a new texas a&m tradition in which all members of a graduating class have the opportunity to assemble together along with family members and friends in an informal setting it launches events in which the degree candidates formally receive their degrees in subsequent ceremonies aligned by the academic colleges representing their major fields of study commencement convocation and the graduation ceremonies are open to the public the commencement convocation will be held at 5:30 pm thursday dec 17 in rudder theatre graduation exercises will be held the following day at 2 pm and 7 pm in reed arena and conclude with a 9 am ceremony there saturday (dec 19) the closing graduation exercise will include commissioning ceremonies for graduating corps of cadets members who will be entering one of the four branches of the armed forces as officers herschbach co-recipient of the 1986 nobel prize for chemistry joined the texas a&m faculty in 2005 he had previously served on the faculty at harvard university where he continues to hold a joint appointment as the frank b baird jr professor of science for more than four decades we are doubly fortunate to have dr herschbach on our faculty loftin observed not only is he a world-renowned scientist but he is also a gifted speaker dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science applauded the decision to invite herschbach to be the convocation speaker i have heard dr herschbach speak on several occasions and i know the students will be in for a treat im confident this is one commencement address students will remember dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics and astronomy said he readily agrees not only is dudley herschbach a superb speaker he is also an extraordinary scientist and a wonderful human being in his mind one of his proudest accomplishments was as a voice on the simpsons this from a nobel laureate! texas a&ms graduates should feel very special to have him as their commencement speaker nearly two decades after receiving his nobel prize herschbach continues to advance the field of chemical physics to date he has published more than 400 papers on related research topics ranging from collision stereodynamics and molecular slowing to catalytic supersonic expansions and strongly correlated many-particle interactions in addition to his university teaching and research he is engaged in several efforts to improve k-12 science education and public understanding of science herschbach is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the national academy of sciences the american philosophical society and the royal chemical society of great britain in addition to the nobel prize his many international awards include the american chemical societys pure chemistry prize and kosolapoff award the linus pauling medal the michael polanyi medal the american physical societys irving langmuir prize the national medal of science the jaroslav heyrovsky medal the sierra nevada distinguished chemist award the william walker prize and the council of scientific societys presidents award for support of science a native of san jose calif he earned an am degree in physics and phd in chemical physics at harvard after receiving a bachelors of science in mathematics and a masters of science in chemistry from stanford university -atm- contact: lane stephenson at 979-845-4662 or l-stephenson@tamuedu " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy will host its monthly astronomy open house friday (oct 30) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing (weather permitting hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by a texas a&m astronomer free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 9:30 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house planned for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics and astronomy will host its monthly astronomy open house friday (oct 30) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing (weather permitting hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by a texas a&m astronomer free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 9:30 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " amarillo as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the don harrington discovery center will host an evening of astronomy friday (oct 2) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr darren depoy depoy professor of physics and holder of the rachel-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics will present planets around stars other than the sun at 7:30 pm the talk will be preceded by a 6:30 pm reception tickets are not required for the reception or the lecture in which depoy will describe the planets and planetary systems that are known to exist around other stars various techniques used to find and measure them and what their differences and similarities tell us about the formation of planets in general depoys lecture marks the ninth event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series features astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences depoy an international leader in observational astronomy and astronomy instrumentation joined the texas a&m faculty in september 2008 after 18 years as a professor and vice chairman for instrumentation in the astronomy department at ohio state university prior to that he held postdoctoral positions at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile (1988-90) and kitt peak national observatory in arizona (1987-88) internationally recognized for his independent research in astronomy infrared spectroscopy and extra-solar planets depoy has worked on a wide variety of astronomy research topics including studying stars in the center of the milky way galaxy and microlensing events of planets publishing a number of science projects using his own instrumentation something considered quite uncommon in his field along the way one of depoys initial projects as head of texas a&ms astronomical instrumentation research group involves construction of a significant part of the hetdex project hetdex or the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment is the first major experiment to search for and explain dark energy a mysterious force that comprises nearly 75 percent of the total energy and mass of the universe and is believed to be responsible for its accelerated expansion as it ages hetdex involves utilizing the extensive light-gathering power of the hobby-eberly telescope the third-largest telescope in the world and combining it with a variety of new equipment to study light from far-off galaxies texas a&m currently is collaborating with the university of texas at austin on the revolutionary $34 million project in addition depoy is the project scientist for the fermilab instrument the dark energy camera scheduled to be installed at cerro tololo in chile in two years -atm- contacts: rl chip lindsey don harrington discovery center associate director (806) 355-9547 ext 102 chip@dhdcorg shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 keelyf@physicstamuedu the post depoy to discuss planets in public lecture at discovery center appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the don harrington discovery center will host an evening of astronomy friday (oct 2) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr darren depoy depoy professor of physics and holder of the rachel-mitchell-heep endowed professorship in physics in the texas a&m department of physics will present planets around stars other than the sun at 7:30 pm the talk will be preceded by a 6:30 pm reception tickets are not required for the reception or the lecture in which depoy will describe the planets and planetary systems that are known to exist around other stars various techniques used to find and measure them and what their differences and similarities tell us about the formation of planets in general depoys lecture marks the ninth event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series features astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences depoy an international leader in observational astronomy and astronomy instrumentation joined the texas a&m faculty in september 2008 after 18 years as a professor and vice chairman for instrumentation in the astronomy department at ohio state university prior to that he held postdoctoral positions at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in chile (1988-90) and kitt peak national observatory in arizona (1987-88) internationally recognized for his independent research in astronomy infrared spectroscopy and extra-solar planets depoy has worked on a wide variety of astronomy research topics including studying stars in the center of the milky way galaxy and microlensing events of planets publishing a number of science projects using his own instrumentation something considered quite uncommon in his field along the way one of depoys initial projects as head of texas a&ms astronomical instrumentation research group involves construction of a significant part of the hetdex project hetdex or the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment is the first major experiment to search for and explain dark energy a mysterious force that comprises nearly 75 percent of the total energy and mass of the universe and is believed to be responsible for its accelerated expansion as it ages hetdex involves utilizing the extensive light-gathering power of the hobby-eberly telescope the third-largest telescope in the world and combining it with a variety of new equipment to study light from far-off galaxies texas a&m currently is collaborating with the university of texas at austin on the revolutionary $34 million project in addition depoy is the project scientist for the fermilab instrument the dark energy camera scheduled to be installed at cerro tololo in chile in two years -atm- contacts: rl chip lindsey don harrington discovery center associate director (806) 355-9547 ext 102 chip@dhdcorg shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station dr david m lee 1996 nobel prize winner in physics and james gilbert white distinguished professor of the physical sciences emeritus at cornell university will join texas a&m universitys department of physics effective november 16 2009 announced dr edward s fry professor and head of physics lee has accepted a position as professor of physics for six months each year in the departments condensed matter program in addition to teaching he will move both his research program and laboratory whose interests overlap with those of faculty in the universitys world-class quantum optics institute and condensed matter programs from cornell to texas a&m with the addition of lee texas a&m physics now boasts two of the three nobel laureates currently on faculty at texas a&m a list that also includes dr dudley r herschbach (department of physics 1986 nobel prize in chemistry) and dr bruce a mccarl (department of agricultural economics 2007 nobel peace prize) the late dr norman e borlaug (department of soil and crop sciences 1970 nobel peace prize) and the late sir derek hr barton (department of chemistry 1969 nobel prize in chemistry) round out the complete list of nobel hires during the universitys 133-year history we are indeed fortunate to have dr lee join us said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science he is an amazing man with wide interests and his collaboration will add much to programs throughout physics and the university one of 183 laureates honored for achievements in physics since the inception of the prestigious nobel prize program in 1901 lee shared the 1996 nobel prize in physics with fellow cornell physicist robert c richardson and stanford universitys douglas d osheroff their doctoral student at cornell at the time for their 1972 discovery of superfluidity in helium-3 (he-3) during their days in the low-temperature laboratory at cornell in the early 1970s the three discovered using a hand-built apparatus that the helium isotope helium-3 can be made superfluid unaffected by friction at a temperature only about two thousandths of a degree above absolute zero this superfluid quantum liquid differed greatly from the one previously discovered in the 1930s and possessed highly specialized characteristics illustrating that the quantum laws of microphysics also sometimes directly govern the behavior of macroscopic bodies as a result of their breakthrough discovery superfluid he-3 is now one of the richest systems in condensed matter physics with exotic order parameters that exemplify a whole new set of physical concepts that impact many other areas including even cosmology we are extremely pleased that david lee is joining our department said fry who also holds the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics at texas a&m he will be a great addition to our condensed matter and optics groups and we are excited about the important contributions he will make to our department and to the greater university we appreciate all the help everyone has given to us in convincing him to come to texas a&m a member of the cornell faculty since 1959 lee has made many noteworthy discoveries during his 50-year career studying liquid and solid helium including nuclear spin waves in spin-polarized atomic hydrogen gas his current research focuses on atomic hydrogen and nitrogen stabilized by matrix isolation in helium-impurity clusters lee is one of texas a&ms initial faculty hires under its recently finalized academic master plan the follow-up to the universitys unprecedented five-year faculty reinvestment campaign that attracted nearly 500 new faculty to the texas a&m campus between 2003 and 2008 the plan calls in part for texas a&m to reinforce its importance as a comprehensive research university by recruiting and retaining a diverse community of world-class scholars in areas of existing and emerging strength lee will be the first member of what university officials describe as an advanced study institute composed of world-class senior scholars who are either visiting or permanent hires at texas a&m dr lee is known worldwide for his contributions in the field of physics and we are honored that he has elected to continue his legendary research at texas a&m said interim president r bowen loftin who is also a 1970 texas a&m physics graduate his hiring is a testament to our academic master plan and our commitment to the ‚Äòculture of excellence as outlined in vision 2020 texas a&ms goal of becoming on the nations top 10 public universities over the next decade a second bold initiative the $10 million texas a&m university system academic scholars enhancement (ase) program will provide $500 000 in critical start-up funding for equipment and facilities renovation to enable lee to hit the ground running when he arrives at texas a&m the program launched in 2008 is intended to help the a&m system attract and retain faculty members who are or who demonstrated the potential of becoming members of the national academy of engineering the national academy of sciences the american academy of arts and sciences or the institute of medicine dr lee represents both a major addition to the already stellar science faculty at texas a&m and an inspiring example of the vision of excellence and achievement that defines the entire a&m system said michael mckinney md chancellor of the texas a&m system we are immensely proud of having him here to accelerate us in the pursuit of our land-grant mission to make useful research available to the people of texas a member of the national academy of sciences as well as a foreign member of the russian academy of sciences lee is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the american physical society the american chemical society and the british institute of physics his many international awards include the john simon guggenheim fellowship (1966-67 and 1974-75) the british institute of physics sir francis simon memorial prize (1976) the japan society for the promotion of science fellowship (1977) the american physical societys oliver e buckley solid state physics prize (1981) and yale university graduate schools wilbur cross medal (1999) lee has held visiting appointments at brookhaven national laboratory (1966-67) the university of florida (1974-75) the university of california at san diego (1988) and joseph fourier university in grenoble france (1994) he holds honorary doctorates from the university of connecticut polytechnic institute of new york the university of florida the university of buenos aires joseph fourier university and the united kingdoms lancaster university a native of rye ny lee received an ab degree in physics from harvard university in 1952 then served two years in the united states army prior to earning his master of science from the university of connecticut in 1955 and his phd from yale university in 1959 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-7717 or fry@physicstamuedu the post nobel prize winner to join texas a&m physics faculty appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr david m lee 1996 nobel prize winner in physics and james gilbert white distinguished professor of the physical sciences emeritus at cornell university will join texas a&m universitys department of physics effective november 16 2009 announced dr edward s fry professor and head of physics lee has accepted a position as professor of physics for six months each year in the departments condensed matter program in addition to teaching he will move both his research program and laboratory whose interests overlap with those of faculty in the universitys world-class quantum optics institute and condensed matter programs from cornell to texas a&m with the addition of lee texas a&m physics now boasts two of the three nobel laureates currently on faculty at texas a&m a list that also includes dr dudley r herschbach (department of physics 1986 nobel prize in chemistry) and dr bruce a mccarl (department of agricultural economics 2007 nobel peace prize) the late dr norman e borlaug (department of soil and crop sciences 1970 nobel peace prize) and the late sir derek hr barton (department of chemistry 1969 nobel prize in chemistry) round out the complete list of nobel hires during the universitys 133-year history we are indeed fortunate to have dr lee join us said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science he is an amazing man with wide interests and his collaboration will add much to programs throughout physics and the university one of 183 laureates honored for achievements in physics since the inception of the prestigious nobel prize program in 1901 lee shared the 1996 nobel prize in physics with fellow cornell physicist robert c richardson and stanford universitys douglas d osheroff their doctoral student at cornell at the time for their 1972 discovery of superfluidity in helium-3 (he-3) during their days in the low-temperature laboratory at cornell in the early 1970s the three discovered using a hand-built apparatus that the helium isotope helium-3 can be made superfluid unaffected by friction at a temperature only about two thousandths of a degree above absolute zero this superfluid quantum liquid differed greatly from the one previously discovered in the 1930s and possessed highly specialized characteristics illustrating that the quantum laws of microphysics also sometimes directly govern the behavior of macroscopic bodies as a result of their breakthrough discovery superfluid he-3 is now one of the richest systems in condensed matter physics with exotic order parameters that exemplify a whole new set of physical concepts that impact many other areas including even cosmology we are extremely pleased that david lee is joining our department said fry who also holds the george p mitchell 40 chair in experimental physics at texas a&m he will be a great addition to our condensed matter and optics groups and we are excited about the important contributions he will make to our department and to the greater university we appreciate all the help everyone has given to us in convincing him to come to texas a&m a member of the cornell faculty since 1959 lee has made many noteworthy discoveries during his 50-year career studying liquid and solid helium including nuclear spin waves in spin-polarized atomic hydrogen gas his current research focuses on atomic hydrogen and nitrogen stabilized by matrix isolation in helium-impurity clusters lee is one of texas a&ms initial faculty hires under its recently finalized academic master plan the follow-up to the universitys unprecedented five-year faculty reinvestment campaign that attracted nearly 500 new faculty to the texas a&m campus between 2003 and 2008 the plan calls in part for texas a&m to reinforce its importance as a comprehensive research university by recruiting and retaining a diverse community of world-class scholars in areas of existing and emerging strength lee will be the first member of what university officials describe as an advanced study institute composed of world-class senior scholars who are either visiting or permanent hires at texas a&m dr lee is known worldwide for his contributions in the field of physics and we are honored that he has elected to continue his legendary research at texas a&m said interim president r bowen loftin who is also a 1970 texas a&m physics graduate his hiring is a testament to our academic master plan and our commitment to the ‚Äòculture of excellence as outlined in vision 2020 texas a&ms goal of becoming on the nations top 10 public universities over the next decade a second bold initiative the $10 million texas a&m university system academic scholars enhancement (ase) program will provide $500 000 in critical start-up funding for equipment and facilities renovation to enable lee to hit the ground running when he arrives at texas a&m the program launched in 2008 is intended to help the a&m system attract and retain faculty members who are or who demonstrated the potential of becoming members of the national academy of engineering the national academy of sciences the american academy of arts and sciences or the institute of medicine dr lee represents both a major addition to the already stellar science faculty at texas a&m and an inspiring example of the vision of excellence and achievement that defines the entire a&m system said michael mckinney md chancellor of the texas a&m system we are immensely proud of having him here to accelerate us in the pursuit of our land-grant mission to make useful research available to the people of texas a member of the national academy of sciences as well as a foreign member of the russian academy of sciences lee is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the american physical society the american chemical society and the british institute of physics his many international awards include the john simon guggenheim fellowship (1966-67 and 1974-75) the british institute of physics sir francis simon memorial prize (1976) the japan society for the promotion of science fellowship (1977) the american physical societys oliver e buckley solid state physics prize (1981) and yale university graduate schools wilbur cross medal (1999) lee has held visiting appointments at brookhaven national laboratory (1966-67) the university of florida (1974-75) the university of california at san diego (1988) and joseph fourier university in grenoble france (1994) he holds honorary doctorates from the university of connecticut polytechnic institute of new york the university of florida the university of buenos aires joseph fourier university and the united kingdoms lancaster university a native of rye ny lee received an ab degree in physics from harvard university in 1952 then served two years in the united states army prior to earning his master of science from the university of connecticut in 1955 and his phd from yale university in 1959 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-7717 or fry@physicstamuedu " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics will host its first astronomy open house of the 2009-10 academic year friday (sept 25) from 8 to 10 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by a texas a&m astronomer free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:55 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 10 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house set for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics will host its first astronomy open house of the 2009-10 academic year friday (sept 25) from 8 to 10 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing hands-on demonstrations and a brief public talk by a texas a&m astronomer free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:55 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes the final shuttle will leave from the observatory en route to brayton at 10 pm -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " lubbock as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the department of physics at texas tech university will host an evening of astronomy thursday (sept 24) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff director of the astronomy program at texas a&m and an international expert in supernovae and cosmology will present dark matter dark energy and the evolution of the universe at 7 pm in the science building room 007 on the texas tech campus tickets are not required for the lecture which will explore the latest findings in cosmology and offer a tour of what suntzeff describes as our extravagant universe from its beginnings to its possible endings quietly in the last 10 years a profound shift in our understanding of the universe has taken place suntzeff explains our universe is finite and bounded we now have the technology to map out all the billions of galaxies in the universe out to the very edge and will do so in the next few decades suntzeffs lecture marks the seventh event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series features astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences suntzeff inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 suntzeffs many awards include a share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology for his role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the discovery since dubbed dark energy was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 -atm- contacts: igor volobouev assistant professor of physics texas tech university (806) 742-4752 ivolobouev@ttuedu shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 keelyf@physicstamuedu the post suntzeff to present public astronomy talk at texas tech university appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the department of physics at texas tech university will host an evening of astronomy thursday (sept 24) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff suntzeff director of the astronomy program at texas a&m and an international expert in supernovae and cosmology will present dark matter dark energy and the evolution of the universe at 7 pm in the science building room 007 on the texas tech campus tickets are not required for the lecture which will explore the latest findings in cosmology and offer a tour of what suntzeff describes as our extravagant universe from its beginnings to its possible endings quietly in the last 10 years a profound shift in our understanding of the universe has taken place suntzeff explains our universe is finite and bounded we now have the technology to map out all the billions of galaxies in the universe out to the very edge and will do so in the next few decades suntzeffs lecture marks the seventh event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series features astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences suntzeff inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 suntzeffs many awards include a share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology for his role in the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the discovery since dubbed dark energy was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 -atm- contacts: igor volobouev assistant professor of physics texas tech university (806) 742-4752 ivolobouev@ttuedu shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-2105 keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station dr aaron bergman a postdoctoral theoretical high-energy physicist from texas a&m university has received a prestigious science and technology policy fellowship from the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) bergman is among 190 doctoral-level scientists and masters- and doctoral-level engineers across the nation who will spend a year working in federal agencies or congressional offices to learn about science policy while providing science and technology expertise to the government the fellowship began september 1 with a two-week orientation in washington dc the year-long fellowship is funded by science societies and government agencies bergman will work for the department of energy office of science office of advanced scientific computing research (ascr) in washington dc its a great privilege to have been selected bergman said i have always been interested in the interplay of science and government but the transition from academia to government work can be difficult this fellowship is an extraordinary opportunity to work directly in government and learn how things get done this is the 36th year for the program whose nearly 2 200 alumni include a member of congress as well as numerous public officials and academic senior executives coming from a wide variety of science and engineering fields the 2009-10 class is the largest in the programs history with 190 fellows a jump of almost 20 percent program officials note that the record number of fellows comes at a time of renewed national interest in science engineering and technology with the new presidential administration emphasizing evidence-based policymaking and a call to service we received a record number of applications for the 2009-10 fellowship year said cynthia robinson director of the aaas science and technology policy fellowships bergman who considers his work in theoretical high-energy physics and string theory with texas a&m professor of physics dr melanie becke to be somewhat abstract said he is excited for the opportunity to make a tangible difference in the world i think this is an exciting time to be in government he said there is a new administration and the new secretary of energy is a physicist im looking forward to being a part of it bergman graduated magna cum laude from yale university with a bachelors of science degree in both physics and mathematics in 1998 he earned a phd in physics from princeton university in 2003 followed by a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the university of texas in austin he is currently completing a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at texas a&m under beckers mentorship founded in 1848 the aaas is the worlds largest general scientific society with some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals an international non-profit organization the aaas mission is to advance science and serve society through science policy international programs and science education -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr aaron bergman (979) 845-7717 or abergman@physicstamuedu the post a&m physicist receives science & technology policy fellowship appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr aaron bergman a postdoctoral theoretical high-energy physicist from texas a&m university has received a prestigious science and technology policy fellowship from the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) bergman is among 190 doctoral-level scientists and masters- and doctoral-level engineers across the nation who will spend a year working in federal agencies or congressional offices to learn about science policy while providing science and technology expertise to the government the fellowship began september 1 with a two-week orientation in washington dc the year-long fellowship is funded by science societies and government agencies bergman will work for the department of energy office of science office of advanced scientific computing research (ascr) in washington dc its a great privilege to have been selected bergman said i have always been interested in the interplay of science and government but the transition from academia to government work can be difficult this fellowship is an extraordinary opportunity to work directly in government and learn how things get done this is the 36th year for the program whose nearly 2 200 alumni include a member of congress as well as numerous public officials and academic senior executives coming from a wide variety of science and engineering fields the 2009-10 class is the largest in the programs history with 190 fellows a jump of almost 20 percent program officials note that the record number of fellows comes at a time of renewed national interest in science engineering and technology with the new presidential administration emphasizing evidence-based policymaking and a call to service we received a record number of applications for the 2009-10 fellowship year said cynthia robinson director of the aaas science and technology policy fellowships bergman who considers his work in theoretical high-energy physics and string theory with texas a&m professor of physics dr melanie becke to be somewhat abstract said he is excited for the opportunity to make a tangible difference in the world i think this is an exciting time to be in government he said there is a new administration and the new secretary of energy is a physicist im looking forward to being a part of it bergman graduated magna cum laude from yale university with a bachelors of science degree in both physics and mathematics in 1998 he earned a phd in physics from princeton university in 2003 followed by a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the university of texas in austin he is currently completing a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at texas a&m under beckers mentorship founded in 1848 the aaas is the worlds largest general scientific society with some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals an international non-profit organization the aaas mission is to advance science and serve society through science policy international programs and science education -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr aaron bergman (979) 845-7717 or abergman@physicstamuedu " " pasadenia calif the australian government has announced that it will provide $884 million aud ($724 million usd) to help fund the revolutionary 25-meter giant magellan telescope (gmt) to be sited at las campanas observatory in chiles high-altitude atacama desert officials with the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) corporation which includes texas a&m university say this brings the amount of funding raised to date to $200 million out of approximately $700 million total needed to complete construction scheduled for 2019 the gmt will be built and operated by a consortium of institutions from the united states south korea and australia larger and more powerful than any previous optical telescope it will be up to 100 times more sensitive than current ground-based telescopes and will produce images 10 times sharper than those from the hubble space telescope we are delighted at the success of our australian colleagues said wendy freedman gmto corporation board chairperson and carnegie observatories director this funding will give australian astronomers access to about 10 percent of the time on the gmt and assure that they remain at the forefront of astronomical research it provides another strong boost of forward momentum for the project one of many it has received of late harvey butcher director of the australian national university research school of astronomy and astrophysics and mount stromlo observatory said involvement in the gmt will strongly advance australias contributions to science and innovation and provide a focus for attracting the next generation of scientists and engineers australias action strengthens the gmto and will help us build the telescope we dream of in chile said patrick mccarthy director of the gmto to achieve this dream takes money talent and grit the australians are bringing all three the gmt will combine seven 84-meter primary mirror segments resulting in an equivalent 245-meter telescope it will be used to explore currently unanswered questions about the nature of dark matter and dark energy the origin of the first stars and first galaxies and the mysteries of star formation galaxy evolution and black hole growth the gmt will also play a key role in the detection and imaging of planets around nearby stars in the united states the participating institutions are the carnegie institution for science harvard university the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona and the university of texas at austin the two australian members of the founders group are the australian national university and astronomy australia limited earlier this year the south korean government approved participation in the gmt project with the korea astronomy and space science institute as the representative of the korean astronomical community the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) is a nonprofit organization founded to design build and operate the giant magellan telescope on behalf of an international partnership that includes astronomy australia ltd australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona and the university of texas at austin the gmto is headquartered in pasadena california usa and the giant magellan telescope will be located at las campanas chile -atm- contact: wendy freedman (626) 304-0204 or wendy@ociwedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post australia gets $72 million for the gmt appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the australian government has announced that it will provide $884 million aud ($724 million usd) to help fund the revolutionary 25-meter giant magellan telescope (gmt) to be sited at las campanas observatory in chiles high-altitude atacama desert officials with the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) corporation which includes texas a&m university say this brings the amount of funding raised to date to $200 million out of approximately $700 million total needed to complete construction scheduled for 2019 the gmt will be built and operated by a consortium of institutions from the united states south korea and australia larger and more powerful than any previous optical telescope it will be up to 100 times more sensitive than current ground-based telescopes and will produce images 10 times sharper than those from the hubble space telescope we are delighted at the success of our australian colleagues said wendy freedman gmto corporation board chairperson and carnegie observatories director this funding will give australian astronomers access to about 10 percent of the time on the gmt and assure that they remain at the forefront of astronomical research it provides another strong boost of forward momentum for the project one of many it has received of late harvey butcher director of the australian national university research school of astronomy and astrophysics and mount stromlo observatory said involvement in the gmt will strongly advance australias contributions to science and innovation and provide a focus for attracting the next generation of scientists and engineers australias action strengthens the gmto and will help us build the telescope we dream of in chile said patrick mccarthy director of the gmto to achieve this dream takes money talent and grit the australians are bringing all three the gmt will combine seven 84-meter primary mirror segments resulting in an equivalent 245-meter telescope it will be used to explore currently unanswered questions about the nature of dark matter and dark energy the origin of the first stars and first galaxies and the mysteries of star formation galaxy evolution and black hole growth the gmt will also play a key role in the detection and imaging of planets around nearby stars in the united states the participating institutions are the carnegie institution for science harvard university the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona and the university of texas at austin the two australian members of the founders group are the australian national university and astronomy australia limited earlier this year the south korean government approved participation in the gmt project with the korea astronomy and space science institute as the representative of the korean astronomical community the giant magellan telescope organization (gmto) is a nonprofit organization founded to design build and operate the giant magellan telescope on behalf of an international partnership that includes astronomy australia ltd australian national university the carnegie institution for science harvard university the korea astronomy and space science institute the smithsonian institution texas a&m university the university of arizona and the university of texas at austin the gmto is headquartered in pasadena california usa and the giant magellan telescope will be located at las campanas chile -atm- contact: wendy freedman (626) 304-0204 or wendy@ociwedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station materials researchers and engineers from the center for research and advanced studies of the national polytechnic institute of mexico (cinvestav) queretaro will meet with texas a&m university materials researchers july 13-15 to further academic exchanges between the two research universities the goal of the workshop is to open mutually beneficial opportunities for collaborations between texas a&m and cinvestav researchers said organizer dr raymundo arroyave an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m and a member of the materials science and engineering faculty materials-related topics to be presented by researchers on both side of the border are materials processing (experimental and modeling) ceramics multifunctional thin films and characterization of materials improvement in materials characteristics can drive advances in personal and large-scale electronics more efficient energy generation from batteries and fuel cells more compatible prosthetic devices and medical instruments and higher-performance aircraft said dr igor roshchin assistant professor in the department of physics and also a materials science and engineering faculty member the cinvestav researchers will also tour materials laboratories at texas a&m this workshop is a collaboration between the materials science and engineering program and the department of physics the department of mechanical engineering and the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering click here for more information on the workshop -atm- contact: jan gerston (979) 845-0750 or jgerston@tamuedu the post texas a&m to host binational workshop on materials research appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " materials researchers and engineers from the center for research and advanced studies of the national polytechnic institute of mexico (cinvestav) queretaro will meet with texas a&m university materials researchers july 13-15 to further academic exchanges between the two research universities the goal of the workshop is to open mutually beneficial opportunities for collaborations between texas a&m and cinvestav researchers said organizer dr raymundo arroyave an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m and a member of the materials science and engineering faculty materials-related topics to be presented by researchers on both side of the border are materials processing (experimental and modeling) ceramics multifunctional thin films and characterization of materials improvement in materials characteristics can drive advances in personal and large-scale electronics more efficient energy generation from batteries and fuel cells more compatible prosthetic devices and medical instruments and higher-performance aircraft said dr igor roshchin assistant professor in the department of physics and also a materials science and engineering faculty member the cinvestav researchers will also tour materials laboratories at texas a&m this workshop is a collaboration between the materials science and engineering program and the department of physics the department of mechanical engineering and the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering click here for more information on the workshop -atm- contact: jan gerston (979) 845-0750 or jgerston@tamuedu " " college station dr robert e tribble distinguished professor of physics and director of texas a&m universitys cyclotron institute has been awarded an honorary doctorate from st petersburg state university in st petersburg russia in recognition of his research achievement tribble an international leader in experimental nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics recently was presented with the degree during a june 22 ceremony on the st petersburg state university campus he was recommended for the honor by st petersburg state nuclear physicist konstatin gridnev at the suggestion of a cyclotron institute colleague a member of texas a&m physics faculty since 1975 tribble has served since 2003 as director of the cyclotron institute recognized as the core of the universitys nuclear physics program he was head of the texas a&m department of physics from 1979 to 1987 and has been honored with distinguished achievement awards presented by the university and the association of former students in both research (2002) and teaching (1992) tribble is a former chair of the us national nuclear science advisory committee the nations most influential position in nuclear physics as well as a fellow of the american physical society (1982) and a former alfred p sloan foundation fellow he is the author or co-author of more than 250 refereed publications founded in 1819 st petersburg state university is considered one of the most prominent universities in russia it has received international recognition thanks to the chemist dmitry i mendeleev (creator of the periodic table of elements) the physicist alexander s popov (who invented the radio simultaneously with marconi) and many other major scholars among the alumni of the school were many important figures of russian culture and politics: the writers nikolai chernyshevsky and ivan turgenev the poet alexander blok prime minister and reformer pyotr stolypin and the head of the 1917 provisional government alexander kerensky even the great revolutionary vladimir lenin attended the university and passed his finals exams in the law faculty in 1891 today the university boasts more than 20 000 students 2 000 professors 210 departments and a library with 4 million volumes eight nobel prize winners are graduates of st petersburg state university (including the biologist ivan pavlov the economist vasily leontiev and the poet joseph brodsky) -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr robert e tribble (979) 845-1411 or tribble@comptamuedu the post tribble earns honorary doctorate for research achievement appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr robert e tribble distinguished professor of physics and director of texas a&m universitys cyclotron institute has been awarded an honorary doctorate from st petersburg state university in st petersburg russia in recognition of his research achievement tribble an international leader in experimental nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics recently was presented with the degree during a june 22 ceremony on the st petersburg state university campus he was recommended for the honor by st petersburg state nuclear physicist konstatin gridnev at the suggestion of a cyclotron institute colleague a member of texas a&m physics faculty since 1975 tribble has served since 2003 as director of the cyclotron institute recognized as the core of the universitys nuclear physics program he was head of the texas a&m department of physics from 1979 to 1987 and has been honored with distinguished achievement awards presented by the university and the association of former students in both research (2002) and teaching (1992) tribble is a former chair of the us national nuclear science advisory committee the nations most influential position in nuclear physics as well as a fellow of the american physical society (1982) and a former alfred p sloan foundation fellow he is the author or co-author of more than 250 refereed publications founded in 1819 st petersburg state university is considered one of the most prominent universities in russia it has received international recognition thanks to the chemist dmitry i mendeleev (creator of the periodic table of elements) the physicist alexander s popov (who invented the radio simultaneously with marconi) and many other major scholars among the alumni of the school were many important figures of russian culture and politics: the writers nikolai chernyshevsky and ivan turgenev the poet alexander blok prime minister and reformer pyotr stolypin and the head of the 1917 provisional government alexander kerensky even the great revolutionary vladimir lenin attended the university and passed his finals exams in the law faculty in 1891 today the university boasts more than 20 000 students 2 000 professors 210 departments and a library with 4 million volumes eight nobel prize winners are graduates of st petersburg state university (including the biologist ivan pavlov the economist vasily leontiev and the poet joseph brodsky) -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr robert e tribble (979) 845-1411 or tribble@comptamuedu " " my name is alfredo gurrola i am a 25-year-old doctoral candidate from texas a&m university i have been stationed at cern (the european organization for nuclear research) for nearly a year and have had the great pleasure of working with some of the greatest physics minds in the world for the past 35 years i have been working in conjunction with the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment on the analysis of physics channels with final states containing tau particles and the development of algorithms and methods to improve the performance of the hadronic calorimeter; identify hadronically decaying tau leptons which might be a key for higgs searches searches for physics beyond the standard model and searches for the dark matter particle; and improve the measurement of missing transverse energy a main discriminator for physics searches beyond the standard model during my spare time i like to travel as much as possible and experience the different cultures that europe has to offer working at cern has given me the opportunity to explore some of the most beautiful cities in the world with my wife leslie in addition to traveling i also love to play football basketball and baseball our team from texas a&m university is working hard to make a meaningful contribution on the increasingly complex field of physics i truly value the opportunity to make an impact on our understanding of the world in which we live and i am very excited about the future of physics the texas a&m university group has been involved in the cms experiment since 2005 the group is rapidly expanding to include eight phd scientists four phd students and two engineers who are actively working on projects in the the endcap muon (emu) and hcal systems for first beam as well as the emu hcal and tracking trigger systems for the slhc upgrades their physics interests are focused on searches in particular for susy and the higgs using final states with muons taus jets and missing transverse energy -atm- watch an interview with alfredo on you tube: the post 1st person interview: physics phd student shares cern experience appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " my name is alfredo gurrola i am a 25-year-old doctoral candidate from texas a&m university i have been stationed at cern (the european organization for nuclear research) for nearly a year and have had the great pleasure of working with some of the greatest physics minds in the world for the past 35 years i have been working in conjunction with the compact muon solenoid (cms) experiment on the analysis of physics channels with final states containing tau particles and the development of algorithms and methods to improve the performance of the hadronic calorimeter; identify hadronically decaying tau leptons which might be a key for higgs searches searches for physics beyond the standard model and searches for the dark matter particle; and improve the measurement of missing transverse energy a main discriminator for physics searches beyond the standard model during my spare time i like to travel as much as possible and experience the different cultures that europe has to offer working at cern has given me the opportunity to explore some of the most beautiful cities in the world with my wife leslie in addition to traveling i also love to play football basketball and baseball our team from texas a&m university is working hard to make a meaningful contribution on the increasingly complex field of physics i truly value the opportunity to make an impact on our understanding of the world in which we live and i am very excited about the future of physics the texas a&m university group has been involved in the cms experiment since 2005 the group is rapidly expanding to include eight phd scientists four phd students and two engineers who are actively working on projects in the the endcap muon (emu) and hcal systems for first beam as well as the emu hcal and tracking trigger systems for the slhc upgrades their physics interests are focused on searches in particular for susy and the higgs using final states with muons taus jets and missing transverse energy -atm- watch an interview with alfredo on you tube: " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting its final astronomy open house of the 2008-09 academic year friday (may 29) from 8:30 to 10:30 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing and a public talk by a texas a&m astronomer free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 8:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house set for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting its final astronomy open house of the 2008-09 academic year friday (may 29) from 8:30 to 10:30 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing and a public talk by a texas a&m astronomer free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 8:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " baltimore whatever dark energy is explanations for it have less wiggle room following a landmark hubble space telescope observation that has refined the measurement of the universes present expansion rate to a precision where the error is smaller than five percent the new value for the expansion rate known as the hubble constant or ho (after edwin hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago) is 742 kilometers per second per megaparsec (error margin of +/-36) the results accepted for publication in the astrophysical journal agree closely with an earlier measurement gleaned from hubble of 72 +/- 8 km/sec/megaparsec but are now more than twice as precise this latest measurement of the hubble constant was conducted by the shoes (supernova ho for the equation of state) team which is led by adam riess of space telescope science institute and the johns hopkins university and includes lucas macri an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and a significant contributor to the results the team used a number of refinements to streamline the construction of a cosmic distance ladder a billion light-years in length that astronomers use to determine the universes expansion rate hubble space telescope observations of pulsating stars called cepheid variables around a nearby cosmic mile marker the galaxy ngc 4258 and in the host galaxies of recent supernovae directly link these distance indicators the use of hubble to bridge these rungs in the ladder eliminated systematic errors introduced by comparing measurements from different telescopes its like measuring a building with a long tape measure instead of moving a yard stick end over end riess explains you avoid compounding the little errors you make every time you move the yardstick the higher the building the greater the error macri adds cepheids are the backbone of the distance ladder because their pulsation period correlates with their luminosity another refinement of our ladder is the fact that we have observed the cepheids in the infrared where these variables are better distance indicators than at optical wavelengths this new more precise value of the hubble constant was used to test and constrain the properties of dark energy the form of energy that produces a repulsive force in space which is causing the expansion rate of the universe to accelerate by bracketing the expansion history of the universe between today and when the universe was only approximately 380 000 years old the astronomers were able to put limits on the nature of the dark energy which is causing the expansion to speed up (the measurement for the far early universe is derived from fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background as resolved by nasas wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe wmap in 2003) their result is consistent with the simplest interpretation of dark energy: that it is mathematically equivalent to albert einsteins hypothesized cosmological constant introduced a century ago to push on the fabric of space and prevent the universe from collapsing under the pull of gravity (einstein however removed the constant once the expansion of the universe was discovered by hubble) if you put in a box all the ways that dark energy might differ from the cosmological constant that box would now be three times smaller riess says thats progress but we still have a long way to go to pin down the nature of dark energy though the cosmological constant was conceived of long ago observational evidence for dark energy didnt come along until 11 years ago when studies from two teams independently announced the discovery of dark energy in part with hubble observations one paper was led by riess and included nicholas suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the texas a&m department of physics as a significant contributor to the results the other paper was led by saul perlmutter of lawrence berkeley national laboratory since then astronomers have been pursuing observations to better characterize dark energy the approach of the shoes team to narrowing alternative explanations for dark energy whether it is a static cosmological constant or a dynamical field (like the repulsive force that drove inflation after the big bang) is to further refine measurements of the universes expansion history before hubble was launched in 1990 the estimates of the hubble constant varied by a factor of two in the late 1990s the hubble space telescope key project on the extragalactic distance scale refined the value of the hubble constant to an error of only about 10 percent this was accomplished by a team that included macri which observed cepheid variables at optical wavelengths out to greater distances than previously obtained and compared those to similar measurements from ground-based telescopes the shoes team used hubbles near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer (nicmos) and the advanced camera for surveys (acs) to observe 240 cepheid variable stars across seven galaxies one of these galaxies was ngc 4258 whose distance was very accurately determined through observations with radio telescopes and whose cepheids were discovered by macri in 2006 the other six galaxies recently hosted type ia supernovae that are reliable distance indicators for even farther measurements in the universe type ia supernovae all explode with nearly the same amount of energy and therefore have almost the same intrinsic brightness by observing cepheids with very similar properties at near-infrared wavelengths in all 7 galaxies and using the same telescope and instrument the team was able to more precisely calibrate the luminosity of supernovae with hubbles powerful capabilities the team was able to sidestep some of the shakiest rungs along the previous distance ladder involving uncertainties in the behavior of cepheids the shoes team is scheduled to make additional observations of cepheids in ngc 4258 and other hosts of type ia supernovae once the upcoming shuttle servicing mission to the hubble space telescope is carried out successfully these additional observations will continue to narrow the uncertainty in the hubble constant and could eventually lead to a refined value with an error of no more than 1 percent to put even tighter constraints on solutions to dark energy -atm- contacts: lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or lmacri@physicstamuedu the post refined hubble constant narrows possible explanations for dark energy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " whatever dark energy is explanations for it have less wiggle room following a landmark hubble space telescope observation that has refined the measurement of the universes present expansion rate to a precision where the error is smaller than five percent the new value for the expansion rate known as the hubble constant or ho (after edwin hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago) is 742 kilometers per second per megaparsec (error margin of +/-36) the results accepted for publication in the astrophysical journal agree closely with an earlier measurement gleaned from hubble of 72 +/- 8 km/sec/megaparsec but are now more than twice as precise this latest measurement of the hubble constant was conducted by the shoes (supernova ho for the equation of state) team which is led by adam riess of space telescope science institute and the johns hopkins university and includes lucas macri an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university and a significant contributor to the results the team used a number of refinements to streamline the construction of a cosmic distance ladder a billion light-years in length that astronomers use to determine the universes expansion rate hubble space telescope observations of pulsating stars called cepheid variables around a nearby cosmic mile marker the galaxy ngc 4258 and in the host galaxies of recent supernovae directly link these distance indicators the use of hubble to bridge these rungs in the ladder eliminated systematic errors introduced by comparing measurements from different telescopes its like measuring a building with a long tape measure instead of moving a yard stick end over end riess explains you avoid compounding the little errors you make every time you move the yardstick the higher the building the greater the error macri adds cepheids are the backbone of the distance ladder because their pulsation period correlates with their luminosity another refinement of our ladder is the fact that we have observed the cepheids in the infrared where these variables are better distance indicators than at optical wavelengths this new more precise value of the hubble constant was used to test and constrain the properties of dark energy the form of energy that produces a repulsive force in space which is causing the expansion rate of the universe to accelerate by bracketing the expansion history of the universe between today and when the universe was only approximately 380 000 years old the astronomers were able to put limits on the nature of the dark energy which is causing the expansion to speed up (the measurement for the far early universe is derived from fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background as resolved by nasas wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe wmap in 2003) their result is consistent with the simplest interpretation of dark energy: that it is mathematically equivalent to albert einsteins hypothesized cosmological constant introduced a century ago to push on the fabric of space and prevent the universe from collapsing under the pull of gravity (einstein however removed the constant once the expansion of the universe was discovered by hubble) if you put in a box all the ways that dark energy might differ from the cosmological constant that box would now be three times smaller riess says thats progress but we still have a long way to go to pin down the nature of dark energy though the cosmological constant was conceived of long ago observational evidence for dark energy didnt come along until 11 years ago when studies from two teams independently announced the discovery of dark energy in part with hubble observations one paper was led by riess and included nicholas suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the texas a&m department of physics as a significant contributor to the results the other paper was led by saul perlmutter of lawrence berkeley national laboratory since then astronomers have been pursuing observations to better characterize dark energy the approach of the shoes team to narrowing alternative explanations for dark energy whether it is a static cosmological constant or a dynamical field (like the repulsive force that drove inflation after the big bang) is to further refine measurements of the universes expansion history before hubble was launched in 1990 the estimates of the hubble constant varied by a factor of two in the late 1990s the hubble space telescope key project on the extragalactic distance scale refined the value of the hubble constant to an error of only about 10 percent this was accomplished by a team that included macri which observed cepheid variables at optical wavelengths out to greater distances than previously obtained and compared those to similar measurements from ground-based telescopes the shoes team used hubbles near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer (nicmos) and the advanced camera for surveys (acs) to observe 240 cepheid variable stars across seven galaxies one of these galaxies was ngc 4258 whose distance was very accurately determined through observations with radio telescopes and whose cepheids were discovered by macri in 2006 the other six galaxies recently hosted type ia supernovae that are reliable distance indicators for even farther measurements in the universe type ia supernovae all explode with nearly the same amount of energy and therefore have almost the same intrinsic brightness by observing cepheids with very similar properties at near-infrared wavelengths in all 7 galaxies and using the same telescope and instrument the team was able to more precisely calibrate the luminosity of supernovae with hubbles powerful capabilities the team was able to sidestep some of the shakiest rungs along the previous distance ladder involving uncertainties in the behavior of cepheids the shoes team is scheduled to make additional observations of cepheids in ngc 4258 and other hosts of type ia supernovae once the upcoming shuttle servicing mission to the hubble space telescope is carried out successfully these additional observations will continue to narrow the uncertainty in the hubble constant and could eventually lead to a refined value with an error of no more than 1 percent to put even tighter constraints on solutions to dark energy -atm- contacts: lucas macri (979) 862-2763 or lmacri@physicstamuedu " " college station when it comes to explaining cosmology and other dynamics of the universe dr david toback can hold his own as an associate professor of physics and thaman professor of undergraduate teaching excellence at texas a&m university who specializes in high energy physics he rarely finds himself at a loss for words when answering questions from students during one of his lectures especially when that student is only nine years old adam atanas is his name and physics is his passion while most kids adams age would be more enthralled by toys or video games this unique houston youngster can be found most wednesday afternoons in a texas a&m classroom attending tobacks physics 289: intro to cosmology course by his own request adams mother katya makes the weekly trip to campus just so her son can sit in on tobacks class something which has proven to be a real treat for both student and instructor adam atanas is a special kid and its easy to forget that hes only nine years old toback explains he just opens his mouth and its just stunning what comes out toback first encountered adam in january while delivering a guest lecture on the universe and the large hadron collider (lhc) as part of texas a&ms saturday morning physics (smp) program led by fellow physics professor dr ralph rapp after his presentation toback was taking questions from the audience when the boy stunned him with a question about how stars were affected by the deuterium process after meeting with adam at the end of the lecture toback realized this was no ordinary kid and invited him to sit in during his regular semester course lectures to have a child his age asking questions such as these is incredible toback notes this kid has all of the tools to be a world-class scientist one day and he needs a mentor he just has to be nurtured and his mother has been doing a wonderful job of encouraging him with something he enjoys learning about katya says adams fascination with physics began with a love of mathematics one of his favorite subjects in school from there his interest escalated to particle physics a lot of which had to do with tobacks lectures she notes the attendees have attended the saturday morning physics lectures for the past three years and adam has also participated in texas a&ms annual chemistry open house since he was four most kids spend their allowance on games or toys but adam spends his on lectures and documentaries katya says he cant wait to officially become a student here dr toback has been so nice about adam coming to class adam just loves it adam has had no trouble adjusting to the college environment at such an early age although he does not participate in examinations because he is not officially enrolled in the course about a decade younger than his physics 289 classmates adam sits side-by-side with them during lecture and continues to surprise toback with thought-provoking questions about any number of subjects from einstein to timed-dilation effect hes nine with the intellectual property of a 22-year-old; the other students get a kick out of him toback says but theyve been wonderful to him they let him ask questions so im proud with how theyve let him be a part of the class -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@tamuedu the post class act: 9-year-old gets jump-start on lifelong learning at texas a&m appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " when it comes to explaining cosmology and other dynamics of the universe dr david toback can hold his own as an associate professor of physics and thaman professor of undergraduate teaching excellence at texas a&m university who specializes in high energy physics he rarely finds himself at a loss for words when answering questions from students during one of his lectures especially when that student is only nine years old adam atanas is his name and physics is his passion while most kids adams age would be more enthralled by toys or video games this unique houston youngster can be found most wednesday afternoons in a texas a&m classroom attending tobacks physics 289: intro to cosmology course by his own request adams mother katya makes the weekly trip to campus just so her son can sit in on tobacks class something which has proven to be a real treat for both student and instructor adam atanas is a special kid and its easy to forget that hes only nine years old toback explains he just opens his mouth and its just stunning what comes out toback first encountered adam in january while delivering a guest lecture on the universe and the large hadron collider (lhc) as part of texas a&ms saturday morning physics (smp) program led by fellow physics professor dr ralph rapp after his presentation toback was taking questions from the audience when the boy stunned him with a question about how stars were affected by the deuterium process after meeting with adam at the end of the lecture toback realized this was no ordinary kid and invited him to sit in during his regular semester course lectures to have a child his age asking questions such as these is incredible toback notes this kid has all of the tools to be a world-class scientist one day and he needs a mentor he just has to be nurtured and his mother has been doing a wonderful job of encouraging him with something he enjoys learning about katya says adams fascination with physics began with a love of mathematics one of his favorite subjects in school from there his interest escalated to particle physics a lot of which had to do with tobacks lectures she notes the attendees have attended the saturday morning physics lectures for the past three years and adam has also participated in texas a&ms annual chemistry open house since he was four most kids spend their allowance on games or toys but adam spends his on lectures and documentaries katya says he cant wait to officially become a student here dr toback has been so nice about adam coming to class adam just loves it adam has had no trouble adjusting to the college environment at such an early age although he does not participate in examinations because he is not officially enrolled in the course about a decade younger than his physics 289 classmates adam sits side-by-side with them during lecture and continues to surprise toback with thought-provoking questions about any number of subjects from einstein to timed-dilation effect hes nine with the intellectual property of a 22-year-old; the other students get a kick out of him toback says but theyve been wonderful to him they let him ask questions so im proud with how theyve let him be a part of the class -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@tamuedu " " dallas as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the dallas museum of nature & science and members of the texas astronomical society in dallas will host an evening of astronomy saturday (may 2) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr kim-vy tran tran an assistant professor of astronomy in the texas a&m department of physics will present the great observatories: new windows into the universe at 7 pm at the museum tickets are not required for the lecture which will detail some of the most distant galaxies in the universe and how astronomers such as tran use nasas great observatories four large powerful space-based telescopes including the hubble the compton the spitzer and the chandra to study them the talk will be immediately followed by a star party where attendees are encouraged to explore the heavens themselves in personal telescopic tours offered by museum staff trans lecture marks the fourth event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series features astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences tran who received her doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california at santa cruz and lick observatory in 2002 joined the texas a&m faculty in january 2009 as the most recent addition to the universitys burgeoning astronomy program her research focuses on understanding how galaxies form and evolve as a function of environment by combining imaging from space-based facilities such as the spitzer and hubble space telescopes with observations from ground-based facilities such as the magellan and very large telescopes in chile tran studies galaxies over a wide range in redshift observations that are essential in separating the nature versus nurture aspect of galaxy evolution -atm- contacts: carly sheppard dallas museum of nature & science special events manager (972) 201-0529 csheppard@natureandscienceorg shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 keelyf@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m astronomer to headline evening of astronomy in dallas appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as part of a statewide celebration of astronomy in commemoration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the dallas museum of nature & science and members of the texas astronomical society in dallas will host an evening of astronomy saturday (may 2) featuring a free public lecture by texas a&m university astronomer dr kim-vy tran tran an assistant professor of astronomy in the texas a&m department of physics will present the great observatories: new windows into the universe at 7 pm at the museum tickets are not required for the lecture which will detail some of the most distant galaxies in the universe and how astronomers such as tran use nasas great observatories four large powerful space-based telescopes including the hubble the compton the spitzer and the chandra to study them the talk will be immediately followed by a star party where attendees are encouraged to explore the heavens themselves in personal telescopic tours offered by museum staff trans lecture marks the fourth event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 the series features astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research and related topics of interest to area audiences tran who received her doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california at santa cruz and lick observatory in 2002 joined the texas a&m faculty in january 2009 as the most recent addition to the universitys burgeoning astronomy program her research focuses on understanding how galaxies form and evolve as a function of environment by combining imaging from space-based facilities such as the spitzer and hubble space telescopes with observations from ground-based facilities such as the magellan and very large telescopes in chile tran studies galaxies over a wide range in redshift observations that are essential in separating the nature versus nurture aspect of galaxy evolution -atm- contacts: carly sheppard dallas museum of nature & science special events manager (972) 201-0529 csheppard@natureandscienceorg shana k hutchins texas a&m university college of science communications (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting its monthly astronomy open house friday (april 24) from 8:30 to 10:30 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing and a public talk free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 8:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post monthly astronomy open house planned for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting its monthly astronomy open house friday (april 24) from 8:30 to 10:30 pm at the campus observatory the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing and a public talk free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 8:25 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting its second open house friday (mar 27) from 8 to 10 pm at the campus observatory in conjunction with physics & engineering festival 2009 the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing and a public talk free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:55 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house planned for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting its second open house friday (mar 27) from 8 to 10 pm at the campus observatory in conjunction with physics & engineering festival 2009 the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing and a public talk free parking is available in lot no 1 of the brayton fire training center from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory the first shuttle will depart for the observatory at 7:55 pm with additional shuttles running every 15 minutes -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " college station in just its fourth year the saturday morning physics program at texas a&m university has already surpassed expectations both for student and teacher attendance thanks to the organization and leadership of dr ralf rapp associate professor of physics and his team of volunteers what began in 2006 as a five-year research outreach program drawing about 15 students per lecture is now attracting an unprecedented average of 100 on any given saturday during its current seven-weekend cycle which is scheduled to conclude march 28 2009 saturday morning physics or smp is a free weekly lecture program targeted toward high school students and designed to introduce them to current research topics in physical science through a variety of speakers quizzes and live demonstrations completion certificates are awarded to students who attend five of the programs seven events held on saturdays throughout the months of january february and march and prizes are given to students with the highest quiz scores the program as a whole is intended to expose these students to new research efforts and stimulate their interest in physics the idea is to encourage interaction between students and faculty rapp explains it is so they can have a unique insight into physics here [at texas a&m] where else can they adequately learn about research going on at a level just for high school kids rapp who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 initiated the internationally popular program in aggieland with the help of funding from a five-year national science foundation (nsf) career award grant which he received in 2004 it is modeled after the initial smp program established in 1980 by renowned physicist dr leon lederman at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in chicago during the past three decades rapp says ledermans original outreach concept has spread rapidly throughout the united states and europe and now to texas a&m to the benefit of science enthusiasts throughout the brazos valley and beyond this years lecture series which focuses on nuclear particle and astro-particle physics has drawn students from as far away as houston dallas and san antonio a surprising fact rapp notes considering he only advertises the event to schools within a 30-to-50 mile circumference each december rapp sends about 500 fliers to various schools in the surrounding region in an effort to attract students to the program even going so far as to visit some schools personally to promote the benefits of smp rapp says he also relies heavily on teachers spreading the information by word-of-mouth and encouraging their students to attend one such student is kyle chapkin a junior at a&m consolidated high school who has been attending smp regularly for four years chapkin says he appreciates the fact that intricate and complex subjects are presented by guest lecturers in a simplified and engaging manner that is both suitable for and appealing to high school students such as him chapkin who is considering studying a physical science field after high school says that smp has been a great influence on his perception of physics smp has been a help to me if only because it has opened my eyes to what excitement the field holds and the possibilities that are open to me he says but even if youre not going on to study physics or a related field smp is quite simply an opportunity to learn and help further your knowledge and education which is always beneficial chapkin adds that smp while entertaining and enlightening is not to be taken lightly this is not a program for someone who does not take the subjects seriously he says if you wish to learn about physics i would recommend the program because you will gain so much from it even if you have no background knowledge but if you have no interest in learning or do not treat the subjects with respect or face it with an open-mind then this program is not for you rapp who has overseen smp at texas a&m since its beginning says the growth and development of his program would not be possible without the many volunteers who help put everything into motion in absence of this critical assistance he says even the most miniscule tasks would add up and become a possibly insurmountable challenge for one person i have a lot of volunteers who make this work including the lecturers and i couldnt possibly do it all without them he explains despite all of the work it is really a rewarding experience and all of my co-workers share that belief i think for more information on saturday morning physics including the 2009 programs grand finale on march 28 visit http://cyclotrontamuedu/smp/ or contact dr ralf rapp at rapp@comptamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu the post physics outreach effort earns high marks from participants to professors appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in just its fourth year the saturday morning physics program at texas a&m university has already surpassed expectations both for student and teacher attendance thanks to the organization and leadership of dr ralf rapp associate professor of physics and his team of volunteers what began in 2006 as a five-year research outreach program drawing about 15 students per lecture is now attracting an unprecedented average of 100 on any given saturday during its current seven-weekend cycle which is scheduled to conclude march 28 2009 saturday morning physics or smp is a free weekly lecture program targeted toward high school students and designed to introduce them to current research topics in physical science through a variety of speakers quizzes and live demonstrations completion certificates are awarded to students who attend five of the programs seven events held on saturdays throughout the months of january february and march and prizes are given to students with the highest quiz scores the program as a whole is intended to expose these students to new research efforts and stimulate their interest in physics the idea is to encourage interaction between students and faculty rapp explains it is so they can have a unique insight into physics here [at texas a&m] where else can they adequately learn about research going on at a level just for high school kids rapp who joined the texas a&m faculty in 2003 initiated the internationally popular program in aggieland with the help of funding from a five-year national science foundation (nsf) career award grant which he received in 2004 it is modeled after the initial smp program established in 1980 by renowned physicist dr leon lederman at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in chicago during the past three decades rapp says ledermans original outreach concept has spread rapidly throughout the united states and europe and now to texas a&m to the benefit of science enthusiasts throughout the brazos valley and beyond this years lecture series which focuses on nuclear particle and astro-particle physics has drawn students from as far away as houston dallas and san antonio a surprising fact rapp notes considering he only advertises the event to schools within a 30-to-50 mile circumference each december rapp sends about 500 fliers to various schools in the surrounding region in an effort to attract students to the program even going so far as to visit some schools personally to promote the benefits of smp rapp says he also relies heavily on teachers spreading the information by word-of-mouth and encouraging their students to attend one such student is kyle chapkin a junior at a&m consolidated high school who has been attending smp regularly for four years chapkin says he appreciates the fact that intricate and complex subjects are presented by guest lecturers in a simplified and engaging manner that is both suitable for and appealing to high school students such as him chapkin who is considering studying a physical science field after high school says that smp has been a great influence on his perception of physics smp has been a help to me if only because it has opened my eyes to what excitement the field holds and the possibilities that are open to me he says but even if youre not going on to study physics or a related field smp is quite simply an opportunity to learn and help further your knowledge and education which is always beneficial chapkin adds that smp while entertaining and enlightening is not to be taken lightly this is not a program for someone who does not take the subjects seriously he says if you wish to learn about physics i would recommend the program because you will gain so much from it even if you have no background knowledge but if you have no interest in learning or do not treat the subjects with respect or face it with an open-mind then this program is not for you rapp who has overseen smp at texas a&m since its beginning says the growth and development of his program would not be possible without the many volunteers who help put everything into motion in absence of this critical assistance he says even the most miniscule tasks would add up and become a possibly insurmountable challenge for one person i have a lot of volunteers who make this work including the lecturers and i couldnt possibly do it all without them he explains despite all of the work it is really a rewarding experience and all of my co-workers share that belief i think for more information on saturday morning physics including the 2009 programs grand finale on march 28 visit http://cyclotrontamuedu/smp/ or contact dr ralf rapp at rapp@comptamuedu -atm- contact: chris jarvis (979) 845-7246 or cjarvis@sciencetamuedu " " college station the departments of physics and aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite the brazos valley community to get up-close and personal with science and technology later this month as part of physics & engineering festival 2009 an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 28 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george bush presidential library & museum center on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the departments of physics and aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy activities will begin with a hands-on science exhibition and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with an interactive public lecture by world-famous planet discoverer dr geoffrey w marcy an adjunct professor at san francisco state university and a professor of astronomy at university of california-berkeley in addition attendees will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut dr gregory chamitoff a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station and to participate in a discussion on climate change conducted by renowned expert dr gerald r north distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography at texas a&m from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a homemade hovercraft or square-wheeled bicycle and to try out working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students at 4 pm marcy will present searching for other earths and life in the universe in the annenberg presidential conference center the lecture which will detail humankinds fascination with the heavens during the past four centuries and the current race to discover inhabited words and extraterrestrial life is the second event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 prior to saturdays events world-renowned theoretical physicist dr gordon kane of the university of michigan will deliver a free public lecture particle acceleration cosmology and string theory: understanding the universe on friday (mar 27) at 6:30 pm at the annenberg presidential conference center tickets are not required for the event in which kane will explain the intimate connection between the worlds tiniest particles and our universe he also will discuss the science behind the upcoming movie angels and demons which involves a plot to destroy the vatican using antimatter produced by the large hadron collider marcy graduated summa cum laude with bachelors degrees in physics and astronomy from the university of california-los angeles in 1976 after earning his doctorate in astrophysics from the university of california-santa cruz in 1982 he spent two years as a carnegie fellow at the carnegie institution of washington (1982-84) followed by 15 years as an associate professor of physics and astronomy (1984-96) and a distinguished university professor (1997-99) at san francisco state university in 2005 he was honored as a co-recipient of the $1 million shaw prize in astronomy kane is the victor weisskopf collegiate professor of physics director of the center for theoretical physics and an adjunct professor in the school of art and design at the university of michigan he has written nearly 200 research papers in particle physics and cosmology and delivered as many talks at national and international meetings in addition he has authored or edited eight books including two for a general audience as well as three articles for scientific american chamitoff who joined mission operations at johnson space center (jsc) in 1995 was selected by nasa for the astronaut class of 1998 he started training in august 1998 and qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist in 2000 while at jsc he developed software applications for spacecraft attitude control monitoring prediction analysis and maneuver optimization one of these applications is the 3d big screen display of the station and shuttle used by mission control in 2008 chamitoff served 179 days tour of duty aboard the international space station as expedition 17-18 iss flight engineer and science officer he launched to the station with the crew of sts-124 on may 31 2008 docking with the station on june 2 2008 he returned to earth on shuttle mission sts-126 having logged a total of 183 days in space north holder of the harold j haynes endowed chair in geosciences joined the texas a&m faculty in 1986 for the past 20 years he has taken his message of climate change to groups ranging from garden clubs to physics teachers to petroleum engineers using satellite imagery and technologically advanced tools specific to atmospheric scientists north has collected data and run climate models that show climate patterns with and without unnatural occurrences models that he says illustrate a clear case for the existence of global warming in 2006 he headed a committee of 12 scientists in a report that led to testimony before congress regarding past climate changes related to a global warming theory he also gave a deposition in a suit against allowing coal-fired power plants in texas stating that such plants would contribute to additional carbon dioxides flowing into the atmosphere for the latest details regarding physics & engineering festival 2009 including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics festival features universal fun experiments astronaut appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the departments of physics and aerospace engineering at texas a&m university invite the brazos valley community to get up-close and personal with science and technology later this month as part of physics & engineering festival 2009 an entertaining and informative weekend scientific extravaganza for all ages no fees or tickets are required for the free annual event scheduled for saturday march 28 from 10 am to 5 pm at the george bush presidential library & museum center on the texas a&m campus all events are sponsored by the departments of physics and aerospace engineering the texas a&m college of science and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy activities will begin with a hands-on science exhibition and engineering technology demonstrations and conclude with an interactive public lecture by world-famous planet discoverer dr geoffrey w marcy an adjunct professor at san francisco state university and a professor of astronomy at university of california-berkeley in addition attendees will have the opportunity to meet nasa astronaut dr gregory chamitoff a former flight engineer and science officer aboard the international space station and to participate in a discussion on climate change conducted by renowned expert dr gerald r north distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography at texas a&m from 10 am to 4 pm participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a homemade hovercraft or square-wheeled bicycle and to try out working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific and engineering technology-related concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m faculty staff and students at 4 pm marcy will present searching for other earths and life in the universe in the annenberg presidential conference center the lecture which will detail humankinds fascination with the heavens during the past four centuries and the current race to discover inhabited words and extraterrestrial life is the second event in the year-long international year of astronomy (iya) texas speakers series jointly sponsored by the astronomy programs at texas a&m and the university of texas to commemorate iya the world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 prior to saturdays events world-renowned theoretical physicist dr gordon kane of the university of michigan will deliver a free public lecture particle acceleration cosmology and string theory: understanding the universe on friday (mar 27) at 6:30 pm at the annenberg presidential conference center tickets are not required for the event in which kane will explain the intimate connection between the worlds tiniest particles and our universe he also will discuss the science behind the upcoming movie angels and demons which involves a plot to destroy the vatican using antimatter produced by the large hadron collider marcy graduated summa cum laude with bachelors degrees in physics and astronomy from the university of california-los angeles in 1976 after earning his doctorate in astrophysics from the university of california-santa cruz in 1982 he spent two years as a carnegie fellow at the carnegie institution of washington (1982-84) followed by 15 years as an associate professor of physics and astronomy (1984-96) and a distinguished university professor (1997-99) at san francisco state university in 2005 he was honored as a co-recipient of the $1 million shaw prize in astronomy kane is the victor weisskopf collegiate professor of physics director of the center for theoretical physics and an adjunct professor in the school of art and design at the university of michigan he has written nearly 200 research papers in particle physics and cosmology and delivered as many talks at national and international meetings in addition he has authored or edited eight books including two for a general audience as well as three articles for scientific american chamitoff who joined mission operations at johnson space center (jsc) in 1995 was selected by nasa for the astronaut class of 1998 he started training in august 1998 and qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist in 2000 while at jsc he developed software applications for spacecraft attitude control monitoring prediction analysis and maneuver optimization one of these applications is the 3d big screen display of the station and shuttle used by mission control in 2008 chamitoff served 179 days tour of duty aboard the international space station as expedition 17-18 iss flight engineer and science officer he launched to the station with the crew of sts-124 on may 31 2008 docking with the station on june 2 2008 he returned to earth on shuttle mission sts-126 having logged a total of 183 days in space north holder of the harold j haynes endowed chair in geosciences joined the texas a&m faculty in 1986 for the past 20 years he has taken his message of climate change to groups ranging from garden clubs to physics teachers to petroleum engineers using satellite imagery and technologically advanced tools specific to atmospheric scientists north has collected data and run climate models that show climate patterns with and without unnatural occurrences models that he says illustrate a clear case for the existence of global warming in 2006 he headed a committee of 12 scientists in a report that led to testimony before congress regarding past climate changes related to a global warming theory he also gave a deposition in a suit against allowing coal-fired power plants in texas stating that such plants would contribute to additional carbon dioxides flowing into the atmosphere for the latest details regarding physics & engineering festival 2009 including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting a free open house friday (feb 27) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory to celebrate the international year of astronomy the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing astronomy demonstrations and a public talk free parking is available at the george bush presidential library from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory from the library (approximately a five-minute ride each way) -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu the post astronomy open house planned for friday appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the astrophysics group in the texas a&m university department of physics is hosting a free open house friday (feb 27) from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at the campus observatory to celebrate the international year of astronomy the free event will feature telescope observing star gazing astronomy demonstrations and a public talk free parking is available at the george bush presidential library from which individuals can board a free shuttle bus that will transport them to and from the observatory from the library (approximately a five-minute ride each way) -atm- contact: keely finkelstein texas a&m university astrophysics outreach coordinator (979) 862-1763 or keelyf@physicstamuedu " " austin the 81st legislature of the state of texas today (feb 24) will honor the states two flagship universities with a joint resolution recognizing their cutting-edge research and outreach efforts in astronomy in celebration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the university of texas at austin and texas a&m university will be recognized at 10 am in the house of representatives chamber in the state capitol and at about 11 am in the senate chamber in house concurrent resolution 55 they will be cited for their commitment to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos through joint research projects such as the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) and their participation in the forthcoming giant magellan telescope (gmt) the universities will be acknowledged for their combined efforts to educate and excite the citizens of texas about the wonders of the universe through diverse outreach programs to teachers students and the public this years outreach efforts include a year-long speakers series in cities across texas commemorating the international year of astronomy a world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 leaders of the two universities astronomy programs along with houston businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell a significant financial contributor to both programs will be present on the floor of the house and senate chambers when the resolutions are read were very glad to be working with texas a&m on these research projects said dr david l lambert director of the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory these are expensive endeavors that push the frontiers of astronomy thus its to the benefit of all that the major public universities in the state ut and texas a&m pool their talents dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics at texas a&m said the astronomy program at texas a&m was initiated just a couple years ago and since that time it has been making extraordinary progress this collaboration in astronomy between texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin is a striking example of the benefits that will accrue to the state of texas as a result of such partnerships and there are many between these great state institutions texas a&m has recently joined hetdex the university of texas at austin-led project to study dark energy the mysterious force causing the universes expansion to speed up over time dark energy has been called the most important question in science today the experiment will be carried out at the university of texas at austins mcdonald observatory with the hobby-eberly telescope one of the worlds largest the university of texas at austin and texas a&m are collaborating in building the instrumentation that will be mounted on the telescope for this project which is on track to provide results before any of the major federally funded dark energy projects the universities are also both founding partners in a collaboration to build one of the largest new telescopes of the future the giant magellan telescope (gmt) george mitchells $175 million gift to texas a&m through the texas a&m foundation in 2004 that was matched by the university of texas at austin paved the way for both universities partnership in the gmt the telescope will be able to probe the cosmos more deeply than any telescope in use today thanks to its seven mirrors that together provide the power of a single 25-meter mirror gmt will be built in the andes mountains of chile at las campanas observatory a site owned by the carnegie institution for science other founding partners in gmt include carnegie harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona australian national university astronomy australia limited and the korea astronomy and space science institute next month will mark the debut event in a joint endeavor between the university of texas at austin and texas a&m: the international year of astronomy texas speakers series the series will feature astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research to area audiences destinations include amarillo arlington austin brownsville college station dallas el paso fort davis houston laredo lubbock midland and san antonio click here for more information on astronomy at texas a&m -atm- contacts: rebecca johnson astronomy program the university of texas at austin (512) 475-6763 rjohnson@astroasutexasedu shana hutchins college of science texas a&m university (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas legislature honors texas a&m ut for joint efforts in astronomy appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the 81st legislature of the state of texas today (feb 24) will honor the states two flagship universities with a joint resolution recognizing their cutting-edge research and outreach efforts in astronomy in celebration of 2009 as the official international year of astronomy the university of texas at austin and texas a&m university will be recognized at 10 am in the house of representatives chamber in the state capitol and at about 11 am in the senate chamber in house concurrent resolution 55 they will be cited for their commitment to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos through joint research projects such as the hobby-eberly telescope dark energy experiment (hetdex) and their participation in the forthcoming giant magellan telescope (gmt) the universities will be acknowledged for their combined efforts to educate and excite the citizens of texas about the wonders of the universe through diverse outreach programs to teachers students and the public this years outreach efforts include a year-long speakers series in cities across texas commemorating the international year of astronomy a world-wide celebration of the 400th anniversary of galileos first astronomical use of the telescope in 1609 leaders of the two universities astronomy programs along with houston businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell a significant financial contributor to both programs will be present on the floor of the house and senate chambers when the resolutions are read were very glad to be working with texas a&m on these research projects said dr david l lambert director of the university of texas at austin mcdonald observatory these are expensive endeavors that push the frontiers of astronomy thus its to the benefit of all that the major public universities in the state ut and texas a&m pool their talents dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics at texas a&m said the astronomy program at texas a&m was initiated just a couple years ago and since that time it has been making extraordinary progress this collaboration in astronomy between texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin is a striking example of the benefits that will accrue to the state of texas as a result of such partnerships and there are many between these great state institutions texas a&m has recently joined hetdex the university of texas at austin-led project to study dark energy the mysterious force causing the universes expansion to speed up over time dark energy has been called the most important question in science today the experiment will be carried out at the university of texas at austins mcdonald observatory with the hobby-eberly telescope one of the worlds largest the university of texas at austin and texas a&m are collaborating in building the instrumentation that will be mounted on the telescope for this project which is on track to provide results before any of the major federally funded dark energy projects the universities are also both founding partners in a collaboration to build one of the largest new telescopes of the future the giant magellan telescope (gmt) george mitchells $175 million gift to texas a&m through the texas a&m foundation in 2004 that was matched by the university of texas at austin paved the way for both universities partnership in the gmt the telescope will be able to probe the cosmos more deeply than any telescope in use today thanks to its seven mirrors that together provide the power of a single 25-meter mirror gmt will be built in the andes mountains of chile at las campanas observatory a site owned by the carnegie institution for science other founding partners in gmt include carnegie harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona australian national university astronomy australia limited and the korea astronomy and space science institute next month will mark the debut event in a joint endeavor between the university of texas at austin and texas a&m: the international year of astronomy texas speakers series the series will feature astronomers from both universities traveling to cities across the state to present their astronomical research to area audiences destinations include amarillo arlington austin brownsville college station dallas el paso fort davis houston laredo lubbock midland and san antonio click here for more information on astronomy at texas a&m -atm- contacts: rebecca johnson astronomy program the university of texas at austin (512) 475-6763 rjohnson@astroasutexasedu shana hutchins college of science texas a&m university (979) 862-1237 shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station texas a&m university along with eight other astronomical research organizations from three continents has signed the founders agreement to construct and operate the 25-meter giant magellan telescope (gmt) at las campanas observatory in the andes mountains of chile we are poised to enter the age of the greatest advances in astronomy the discovery of earth-like planets capable of life as well as the understanding of the origin and evolution of our universe said nicholas b suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the texas a&m department of physics when we map the universe to its beginning or find that earth-like planet i want texas a&m astronomers and physicists to be there making these discoveries in addition to texas a&m participating united states institutions include the carnegie institution for science harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona and the university of texas at austin the two australian members are the australian national university and astronomy australia limited the newest addition to the founders group is the korean astronomy and space science institute which recently received approval from the south korean government to represent the korean astronomical community in what is now officially known as the gmt corporation the founders agreement establishes the framework for the construction and operation of the telescope said wendy freeman chair of the gmt corporation board and director of the carnegie observatories the founders group represents an extraordinary team of institutions each one of which has made important contributions to the development of the most advanced telescopes and instrumentation during the last 100 years the gmt continues this remarkable legacy with its seven co-mounted 84-meter primary segments and adaptive secondary system the gmt will provide unique capabilities in optical and infrared astronomy opening new windows into the universe and helping to answer questions that cannot be answered with existing facilities the gmt will teach us about the nature of dark matter and dark energy the origin of the first stars and first galaxies the mysteries of star and planet formation galaxy evolution and black hole growth the gmt also will play a key role in the detection and imaging of planets around nearby stars we have joined the gmt as a founder because this giant telescope offers texas a&m and texas the best telescope design and partnership available suntzeff said as one of the great engineering universities in the world texas a&m astronomers can team with engineering to help build and instrument this giant telescope i have been able to hire some of the best young astronomers in the world to come to texas a&m because of the excitement of being at a university committed to this partnership in building the gmt it is hard to describe the anticipation among astronomers who will finally have a telescope that can see to the very edge of our universe scheduled for completion around 2019 the gmt will have the resolving power of a single 245-meter (80-foot) primary mirror each of the primary mirror segments weighs 20 tons and the telescope enclosure has a height of about 200 feet construction is set to begin in 2012 at an overall project cost of approximately $700 million $130 million of which already has been raised to date suntzeff notes that as a research tool the gmt will answer many of the questions at the forefront of astrophysics today at a cost that while significant amounts to less than a single launch of the space shuttle the gmt will give us a better understanding of how the universe originated and how it is evolving to this day suntzeff explained imagine the excitement if it proves there is life on other planets there is no doubt it will make new discoveries of planets and give us vital information about black holes dark matter dark energy and other things that are a complete mystery to us right now the signing of the founders agreement accompanies two other project milestones the first of gmts six off-axis honeycomb mirrors cast in 2005 has just been generated to its almost-final surface at the university of arizona mirror lab with polishing and testing scheduled to be completed in early 2010 completion of this off-axis mirror retires one of the largest technical challenges of the project said mirror lab director roger angel the projects second milestone concerns final site selection las campanas observatory which overlooks the atacama desert in the chilean andes and is owned and operated by the carnegie institution in both the mirror technology and the site the gmt project is building on the superb heritage demonstrated by the two very successful 65-meter magellan telescopes that have been in operation at las campanas since 2000 said gmt program manager matt johns the science opportunities for this telescope are extraordinary said gmt acting director patrick mccarthy it will shed light not only upon the nature of the universe but also on the fundamental laws of physics that govern its evolution as such it seems especially fitting that this international founders agreement should have been signed in the international year of astronomy and the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical use of a telescope by galileo texas a&ms membership in the gmt was made possible by an initial $175 million gift through the texas a&m foundation from george and cynthia mitchell of the woodlands texas intended to bolster the universitys scientific development and leadership in physics astronomy and related focus areas the mitchells contributions to physics which include funding for two buildings 10 academic chairs and two professorships under the auspices of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as well as a 10-year collaboration between texas a&m and the university of cambridge total more than $52 million since 2002 according to edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics the mitchells have since given an additional $15 million for the gmt and have committed to give another $15 million per year for five years provided matching gifts are found this telescope will enable us to see to the edges of the universe to pick out planets orbiting stars other than our own fry said we owe george mitchell a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he has done for texas a&m and for astronomy additional gifts through the foundation from judith g and charles r munnerlyn 62 of san jose calif have helped to fund three endowed faculty positions in the texas a&m department of physics including a chair in observational astronomy and an endowed fund to support departmental programs and activities in september texas a&m honored the munnerlyns with the official naming of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building which will house and support research and outreach endeavors for both the department of physics and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m texas a&m has been one of the principal supporters of the development of the gmt through the generous support of former students george mitchell and charles munnerlyn suntzeff said with the new mitchell building housing the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the new munnerlyn building housing our astronomical instrumentation lab texas a&m is already internationally seen as a new exciting place to study astronomy detailed information about the gmts design as well as the science it will perform can be found at wwwgmtoorg or by contacting gmt board chair wendy freedman at (626) 304-0204 or wendy@ociwedu for more on texas a&m astronomy visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/research/list-astronomyhtml -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m signs giant magellan telescope agreement appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university along with eight other astronomical research organizations from three continents has signed the founders agreement to construct and operate the 25-meter giant magellan telescope (gmt) at las campanas observatory in the andes mountains of chile we are poised to enter the age of the greatest advances in astronomy the discovery of earth-like planets capable of life as well as the understanding of the origin and evolution of our universe said nicholas b suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the texas a&m department of physics when we map the universe to its beginning or find that earth-like planet i want texas a&m astronomers and physicists to be there making these discoveries in addition to texas a&m participating united states institutions include the carnegie institution for science harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona and the university of texas at austin the two australian members are the australian national university and astronomy australia limited the newest addition to the founders group is the korean astronomy and space science institute which recently received approval from the south korean government to represent the korean astronomical community in what is now officially known as the gmt corporation the founders agreement establishes the framework for the construction and operation of the telescope said wendy freeman chair of the gmt corporation board and director of the carnegie observatories the founders group represents an extraordinary team of institutions each one of which has made important contributions to the development of the most advanced telescopes and instrumentation during the last 100 years the gmt continues this remarkable legacy with its seven co-mounted 84-meter primary segments and adaptive secondary system the gmt will provide unique capabilities in optical and infrared astronomy opening new windows into the universe and helping to answer questions that cannot be answered with existing facilities the gmt will teach us about the nature of dark matter and dark energy the origin of the first stars and first galaxies the mysteries of star and planet formation galaxy evolution and black hole growth the gmt also will play a key role in the detection and imaging of planets around nearby stars we have joined the gmt as a founder because this giant telescope offers texas a&m and texas the best telescope design and partnership available suntzeff said as one of the great engineering universities in the world texas a&m astronomers can team with engineering to help build and instrument this giant telescope i have been able to hire some of the best young astronomers in the world to come to texas a&m because of the excitement of being at a university committed to this partnership in building the gmt it is hard to describe the anticipation among astronomers who will finally have a telescope that can see to the very edge of our universe scheduled for completion around 2019 the gmt will have the resolving power of a single 245-meter (80-foot) primary mirror each of the primary mirror segments weighs 20 tons and the telescope enclosure has a height of about 200 feet construction is set to begin in 2012 at an overall project cost of approximately $700 million $130 million of which already has been raised to date suntzeff notes that as a research tool the gmt will answer many of the questions at the forefront of astrophysics today at a cost that while significant amounts to less than a single launch of the space shuttle the gmt will give us a better understanding of how the universe originated and how it is evolving to this day suntzeff explained imagine the excitement if it proves there is life on other planets there is no doubt it will make new discoveries of planets and give us vital information about black holes dark matter dark energy and other things that are a complete mystery to us right now the signing of the founders agreement accompanies two other project milestones the first of gmts six off-axis honeycomb mirrors cast in 2005 has just been generated to its almost-final surface at the university of arizona mirror lab with polishing and testing scheduled to be completed in early 2010 completion of this off-axis mirror retires one of the largest technical challenges of the project said mirror lab director roger angel the projects second milestone concerns final site selection las campanas observatory which overlooks the atacama desert in the chilean andes and is owned and operated by the carnegie institution in both the mirror technology and the site the gmt project is building on the superb heritage demonstrated by the two very successful 65-meter magellan telescopes that have been in operation at las campanas since 2000 said gmt program manager matt johns the science opportunities for this telescope are extraordinary said gmt acting director patrick mccarthy it will shed light not only upon the nature of the universe but also on the fundamental laws of physics that govern its evolution as such it seems especially fitting that this international founders agreement should have been signed in the international year of astronomy and the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical use of a telescope by galileo texas a&ms membership in the gmt was made possible by an initial $175 million gift through the texas a&m foundation from george and cynthia mitchell of the woodlands texas intended to bolster the universitys scientific development and leadership in physics astronomy and related focus areas the mitchells contributions to physics which include funding for two buildings 10 academic chairs and two professorships under the auspices of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as well as a 10-year collaboration between texas a&m and the university of cambridge total more than $52 million since 2002 according to edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics the mitchells have since given an additional $15 million for the gmt and have committed to give another $15 million per year for five years provided matching gifts are found this telescope will enable us to see to the edges of the universe to pick out planets orbiting stars other than our own fry said we owe george mitchell a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he has done for texas a&m and for astronomy additional gifts through the foundation from judith g and charles r munnerlyn 62 of san jose calif have helped to fund three endowed faculty positions in the texas a&m department of physics including a chair in observational astronomy and an endowed fund to support departmental programs and activities in september texas a&m honored the munnerlyns with the official naming of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building which will house and support research and outreach endeavors for both the department of physics and department of aerospace engineering at texas a&m texas a&m has been one of the principal supporters of the development of the gmt through the generous support of former students george mitchell and charles munnerlyn suntzeff said with the new mitchell building housing the mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the new munnerlyn building housing our astronomical instrumentation lab texas a&m is already internationally seen as a new exciting place to study astronomy detailed information about the gmts design as well as the science it will perform can be found at wwwgmtoorg or by contacting gmt board chair wendy freedman at (626) 304-0204 or wendy@ociwedu for more on texas a&m astronomy visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/research/list-astronomyhtml -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station peter wagner a former physics graduate student at texas a&m university has been selected as a co-recipient of the 2008 universities research association (ura) thesis award honoring the top doctoral thesis in particle physics the prestigious prize which includes a $3 500 monetary award and a certificate is given annually in recognition of the most outstanding doctoral thesis written on research conducted at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) or in collaboration with fermilab scientists wagner who earned his doctorate in physics from texas a&m in may 2007 currently is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of physics and astronomy at the university of pennsylvania his thesis titled search for heavy long-lived particles that decay to photons was supervised by dr david toback thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence and associate professor of physics at texas a&m wagners analysis focused on searching for a particle physics solution to the mysterious problem of dark matter which accounts for about 22 percent of the universe his research included use of the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) one of the two giant multipurpose experiments involving 750 scientists from around the world that currently is taking data at the high-energy frontier toback says wagners work has enormous potential for theorists interested in explaining how the universe began nearly 137 billion years ago with the big bang if existing particle physics theories are correct toback explains then enormous numbers of these particles would have been created in the big bang and lived for about a billionth of a second afterward they then would have decayed into the dark matter that we observe today in the universe which makes up more than 5 times the amount of normal matter that comprises stars the earth and people this was a powerful new search the first of its kind at the high-energy frontier toback notes peter did an amazing job working on the theory building the new equipment needed to do this search and then performing the worlds most sensitive search in record time toback adds that the project was largely done by wagner toback and a single texas a&m postdoctoral student dr max goncharov now research faculty at massachusetts institute of technology (mit) further distinguishing it as an unusually large project for such a small team for the first time since the thesis award was established in 1997 the ura thesis committee chose two winners wagner and ryan patterson a former graduate student at princeton university who is now at the california institute of technology (caltech) citing especially strong competition as their reason the two accepted their awards this past summer in conjunction with the annual fermilab users meeting this years selection was difficult said rick tesarek ura thesis committee chair we had the most submissions in the 11-year history of the award and they were all of an exceptional quality these two stood out for both their interesting topics and strong contributions to furthering fermilab science at pennsylvania wagner continues to work on atlas one of the two largest particle detectors at the heart of the new large hadron collider (lhc) the product of nearly 15 years of work by thousands of international scientists including wagner and more than a dozen texas a&m physicists the lhc is expected to supersede fermilab as the future playground of high-energy physics the universities research association (ura) is a consortium of 88 leading research-oriented universities primarily in the united states with members also in canada japan and italy the not-for-profit group was established in 1965 at the request of then-president lyndon b johnsons science advisory committee and the national academy of sciences for management and operation of research facilities in the national interest -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@tamuedu the post former physics grad student wins prestigious thesis award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " peter wagner a former physics graduate student at texas a&m university has been selected as a co-recipient of the 2008 universities research association (ura) thesis award honoring the top doctoral thesis in particle physics the prestigious prize which includes a $3 500 monetary award and a certificate is given annually in recognition of the most outstanding doctoral thesis written on research conducted at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) or in collaboration with fermilab scientists wagner who earned his doctorate in physics from texas a&m in may 2007 currently is a postdoctoral researcher in the department of physics and astronomy at the university of pennsylvania his thesis titled search for heavy long-lived particles that decay to photons was supervised by dr david toback thaman professor for undergraduate teaching excellence and associate professor of physics at texas a&m wagners analysis focused on searching for a particle physics solution to the mysterious problem of dark matter which accounts for about 22 percent of the universe his research included use of the collider detector at fermilab (cdf) one of the two giant multipurpose experiments involving 750 scientists from around the world that currently is taking data at the high-energy frontier toback says wagners work has enormous potential for theorists interested in explaining how the universe began nearly 137 billion years ago with the big bang if existing particle physics theories are correct toback explains then enormous numbers of these particles would have been created in the big bang and lived for about a billionth of a second afterward they then would have decayed into the dark matter that we observe today in the universe which makes up more than 5 times the amount of normal matter that comprises stars the earth and people this was a powerful new search the first of its kind at the high-energy frontier toback notes peter did an amazing job working on the theory building the new equipment needed to do this search and then performing the worlds most sensitive search in record time toback adds that the project was largely done by wagner toback and a single texas a&m postdoctoral student dr max goncharov now research faculty at massachusetts institute of technology (mit) further distinguishing it as an unusually large project for such a small team for the first time since the thesis award was established in 1997 the ura thesis committee chose two winners wagner and ryan patterson a former graduate student at princeton university who is now at the california institute of technology (caltech) citing especially strong competition as their reason the two accepted their awards this past summer in conjunction with the annual fermilab users meeting this years selection was difficult said rick tesarek ura thesis committee chair we had the most submissions in the 11-year history of the award and they were all of an exceptional quality these two stood out for both their interesting topics and strong contributions to furthering fermilab science at pennsylvania wagner continues to work on atlas one of the two largest particle detectors at the heart of the new large hadron collider (lhc) the product of nearly 15 years of work by thousands of international scientists including wagner and more than a dozen texas a&m physicists the lhc is expected to supersede fermilab as the future playground of high-energy physics the universities research association (ura) is a consortium of 88 leading research-oriented universities primarily in the united states with members also in canada japan and italy the not-for-profit group was established in 1965 at the request of then-president lyndon b johnsons science advisory committee and the national academy of sciences for management and operation of research facilities in the national interest -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr david toback (979) 845-1179 or toback@tamuedu " " college station texas a&m university and the colleges of science and engineering will celebrate the official naming of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building friday (sept 19) in a 4:30 pm ceremony on the texas a&m campus the event will be held on the second floor of the munnerlyn building located at the corner of university drive and asbury street on the northwest side of the northside parking garage parking will be available in the garage dr munnerlyn who received his bachelors degree in physics from texas a&m in 1962 and a doctorate in optical engineering from the university of rochester in 1969 is considered one of the founding fathers of laser vision correction a revolutionary procedure that has enabled millions of people to have 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts he designed and built the first excimer laser system for vision correction and founded visx inc the leading manufacturer of laser vision correction systems in the united states invited speakers include dr ed j davis 67 president of the texas a&m foundation; dr jeffrey s vitter provost and executive vice president for academics at texas a&m; dr h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science; dr edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics; dr david c hyland professor of aerospace engineering at texas a&m; and dr charles r munnerlyn who is a member of the college of sciences academy of distinguished former students the texas a&m university system board of regents approved the naming of the building in recognition of the munnerlyns and their multiple gifts to texas a&m which include a charitable remainder unitrust their gifts have helped to fund three endowed faculty positions in the department of physics chairs in both observational astronomy and quantum optics and a professorship in physics as well as an endowed fund to support departmental programs and activities the department of physics is truly pleased to have a man of dr munnerlyns stature as a former graduate fry said when we were desperate for space in 2004 dr munnerlyn provided critical assistance to acquire this building the astronomical laboratory facilities it houses will provide a perfect match to our new george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy that is under construction in addition to an official name fridays ceremony commemorates the completion of a total renovation of the building formerly home to the texas a&m system facilities planning and construction division under texas a&ms five-year faculty reinvestment program the building will provide astronomical laboratories and other research-related endeavors for the texas a&m astronomy program in addition it will house equipment and facilities pertaining to outreach efforts in the department of aerospace engineering for texas a&m to become a more recognized university it needs programs in research that will attract major interest munnerlyn said by combining my contributions with those of george mitchell and others texas a&m is in a position to become a leader in a field in which i have had an interest all my life over the next 20 years there will be a steady stream of interesting discoveries about the universe texas a&m and the new tools our researchers develop will be a leading factor in those discoveries regarded as one of the nations outstanding scientists and entrepreneurs munnerlyn has been described as a physicist-engineer with a vision-researching vision a reference to his extraordinary contributions to optical research and development he holds more than 30 us patents in the field of optics an enduring fascination that he says began in the seventh grade from about the 7th grade on i had an interest in optical instruments while others might have built model airplanes or ham radio stations munnerlyn said this interest carried through high school and i was lucky enough to have a science teacher who encouraged participation in science fairs and other projects eventually this interest led to a lifelong career as an undergraduate at texas a&m munnerlyn majored in physics and took astronomy courses from professor jack kent a faculty member in the department of mathematics who taught the only optics course offered by the university at the time munnerlyn also worked as an assistant in kents summer astronomy program for high school students and credits his relationship with kent as key to his subsequent graduate work in optics following a stint in the us air force munnerlyn continued his studies at the prestigious institute of optics at rochester receiving his phd in optical engineering in 1969 he remained in the rochester area as head of research and development for tropel a company that designed prototype custom lenses for applications that included xerox copiers polaroid cameras satellites and semiconductor photolithography in the early 1970s he designed the first automatic digital device to measure refractive errors in the eye he also developed a pressure test to detect glaucoma before pioneering his revolutionary laser systems for vision correction in a lesser known but equally groundbreaking achievement munnerlyn also calculated the basic formulas now known as the munnerlyn formula that told ophthalmologists how much corneal tissue to remove in the actual laser vision correction procedure munnerlyn who lives in san jose calif is a 2002 distinguished alumnus of the school of engineering and applied sciences at rochester he was honored this past spring with the rochester distinguished scholar award for his rigorous and innovative scholarly work in 2001 munnerlyn was named engineer of the year by design news magazine that same year he received the stevens honor award in recognition of his pioneering technology and achievements in vision correction in 2007 he was honored with the optical society of americas edwin h land medal for pioneering entrepreneurial creativity that has had a major public impact although retired since 2005 munnerlyn continues to contribute to new technology at visx and advise engineering staff on key projects for more information on the naming ceremony including driving directions and parking please contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 for further information on charitable remainder unitrusts or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m honors munnerlyns in building naming ceremony appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university and the colleges of science and engineering will celebrate the official naming of the charles r 62 and judith g munnerlyn astronomical laboratory and space engineering building friday (sept 19) in a 4:30 pm ceremony on the texas a&m campus the event will be held on the second floor of the munnerlyn building located at the corner of university drive and asbury street on the northwest side of the northside parking garage parking will be available in the garage dr munnerlyn who received his bachelors degree in physics from texas a&m in 1962 and a doctorate in optical engineering from the university of rochester in 1969 is considered one of the founding fathers of laser vision correction a revolutionary procedure that has enabled millions of people to have 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts he designed and built the first excimer laser system for vision correction and founded visx inc the leading manufacturer of laser vision correction systems in the united states invited speakers include dr ed j davis 67 president of the texas a&m foundation; dr jeffrey s vitter provost and executive vice president for academics at texas a&m; dr h joseph newton dean of the texas a&m college of science; dr edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics; dr david c hyland professor of aerospace engineering at texas a&m; and dr charles r munnerlyn who is a member of the college of sciences academy of distinguished former students the texas a&m university system board of regents approved the naming of the building in recognition of the munnerlyns and their multiple gifts to texas a&m which include a charitable remainder unitrust their gifts have helped to fund three endowed faculty positions in the department of physics chairs in both observational astronomy and quantum optics and a professorship in physics as well as an endowed fund to support departmental programs and activities the department of physics is truly pleased to have a man of dr munnerlyns stature as a former graduate fry said when we were desperate for space in 2004 dr munnerlyn provided critical assistance to acquire this building the astronomical laboratory facilities it houses will provide a perfect match to our new george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy that is under construction in addition to an official name fridays ceremony commemorates the completion of a total renovation of the building formerly home to the texas a&m system facilities planning and construction division under texas a&ms five-year faculty reinvestment program the building will provide astronomical laboratories and other research-related endeavors for the texas a&m astronomy program in addition it will house equipment and facilities pertaining to outreach efforts in the department of aerospace engineering for texas a&m to become a more recognized university it needs programs in research that will attract major interest munnerlyn said by combining my contributions with those of george mitchell and others texas a&m is in a position to become a leader in a field in which i have had an interest all my life over the next 20 years there will be a steady stream of interesting discoveries about the universe texas a&m and the new tools our researchers develop will be a leading factor in those discoveries regarded as one of the nations outstanding scientists and entrepreneurs munnerlyn has been described as a physicist-engineer with a vision-researching vision a reference to his extraordinary contributions to optical research and development he holds more than 30 us patents in the field of optics an enduring fascination that he says began in the seventh grade from about the 7th grade on i had an interest in optical instruments while others might have built model airplanes or ham radio stations munnerlyn said this interest carried through high school and i was lucky enough to have a science teacher who encouraged participation in science fairs and other projects eventually this interest led to a lifelong career as an undergraduate at texas a&m munnerlyn majored in physics and took astronomy courses from professor jack kent a faculty member in the department of mathematics who taught the only optics course offered by the university at the time munnerlyn also worked as an assistant in kents summer astronomy program for high school students and credits his relationship with kent as key to his subsequent graduate work in optics following a stint in the us air force munnerlyn continued his studies at the prestigious institute of optics at rochester receiving his phd in optical engineering in 1969 he remained in the rochester area as head of research and development for tropel a company that designed prototype custom lenses for applications that included xerox copiers polaroid cameras satellites and semiconductor photolithography in the early 1970s he designed the first automatic digital device to measure refractive errors in the eye he also developed a pressure test to detect glaucoma before pioneering his revolutionary laser systems for vision correction in a lesser known but equally groundbreaking achievement munnerlyn also calculated the basic formulas now known as the munnerlyn formula that told ophthalmologists how much corneal tissue to remove in the actual laser vision correction procedure munnerlyn who lives in san jose calif is a 2002 distinguished alumnus of the school of engineering and applied sciences at rochester he was honored this past spring with the rochester distinguished scholar award for his rigorous and innovative scholarly work in 2001 munnerlyn was named engineer of the year by design news magazine that same year he received the stevens honor award in recognition of his pioneering technology and achievements in vision correction in 2007 he was honored with the optical society of americas edwin h land medal for pioneering entrepreneurial creativity that has had a major public impact although retired since 2005 munnerlyn continues to contribute to new technology at visx and advise engineering staff on key projects for more information on the naming ceremony including driving directions and parking please contact the texas a&m college of science at (979) 845-7361 for further information on charitable remainder unitrusts or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station as the first beam of protons careened at near-light speed around europes $9 billion 17-mile large hadron collider (lhc) near geneva switzerland in the early-morning hours of september 10 so did the hard work and dreams of seven texas a&m university physicists texas a&m experimental physicists teruki kamon david toback alexei safonov and peter mcintyre along with theoretical physicists dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt are among the thousands of international scientists whose groundbreaking work went into the worlds most powerful accelerator which scientists believe could help unlock extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe an estimated 10 000 people from 60 countries helped design and build the accelerator and its massive particle detectors including more than 1 700 scientists engineers students and technicians from 94 us universities and laboratories supported by the united states department of energy (doe) office of science and the national science foundation (nsf) the bulk of the texas a&m groups doe-funded research supports a 12-member team spearheaded by kamon toback and safonov that contributed to the design and construction of one of the lhcs two largest particle detectors the compact muon solenoid (cms) the result of a major collaboration whose us component is headquartered at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in illinois in the days and years to come the texas a&m team will play a key role in collecting and analyzing the data collected at the energy frontier this new machine is a huge next step for the entire field of particle physics safonov said its truly a dream machine that may completely change what we think about the world around us and fundamental forces particles and interactions many of our faculty are working on high-energy physics phenomenology string theory and cosmology performing research that either directly relates to lhc physics or will be strongly influenced by what the lhc sees in the years to come mcintyres expertise also went into critical components for the accelerator along with colleagues from stanfords linear accelerator center he continues to provide ongoing accelerator research and development vital to the lhcs future the lhc has the potential to take us full circle to gaze upon nature in microscale as it looked when the matter of the first stars was just emerging from the cosmic furnace of the big bang mcintyre said each step in energy takes us further on that journey; we really dont know what lies ahead or what it might mean for our understanding of nature that is the romance of basic science it also spawns the development of technology that may have benefit for us here on earth as a switch flipped deep in cerns (the european organization for nuclear research) massive underground laboratory and fired off the chain reaction that breathed life into a scientific marvel more than 15 years in the making the texas a&m contingent reveled from afar with the exception of kamon unlike his less fortunate colleagues back in college station kamon along with texas a&m post-doctoral researcher chi nhan nguyen and electronics engineer alexander golyash who are permanently stationed at cern was on the scene near geneva eagerly witnessing global history first-hand at about 10:25 am at cern (roughly 3:35 am in texas) kamon watched as the 21st centurys version of the shot heard round the world zoomed through the tunnel he then dutifully captured the moment as any good scientist would by making an entry in his online logbook hours later kamons exuberance not to mention his purpose at hand was a bit more evident in an electronic missive he sent to the troops waiting back home just exciting kamon noted i have observed two historic moments of high-energy frontier once at the tevatron in 1985 and now at the lhc today i am very happy now we look for dark matter the first circulating beam kamon bore early-morning witness to represents a major accomplishment on the way to the projects ultimate goal: high-energy beams colliding in the centers of the lhcs particle detectors beyond revealing a new world of unknown particles including heavy ones that otherwise could only be seen in the split seconds following the big bang lhc experiments could explain why those particles exist and behave as they do providing valuable clues regarding the origins of mass dark matter and other age-old mysteries of the universe in the process this is a great day for science a great day for physics and a great day for texas a&m toback summarized photos and videos from the lhc first beam day at cern are available at http://wwwcernch/lhc-first-beam information about the us participation in the lhc is available at http://wwwuslhcus -atm- texas a&m physics contacts: teruki kamon: 979-571-5950 or kamon@physicstamuedu (currently on-site in switzerland) david toback: 979-218-7130 or toback@physicstamuedu alexei safonov: 630-650-2078 or safonov@physicstamuedu peter mcintyre: 979-255-5531 or p-mcintyre@physicstamuedu texas a&m media contacts: shana hutchins: 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu keith randall: 979-845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu the post texas a&m physicists celebrate birth of large hadron collider appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as the first beam of protons careened at near-light speed around europes $9 billion 17-mile large hadron collider (lhc) near geneva switzerland in the early-morning hours of september 10 so did the hard work and dreams of seven texas a&m university physicists texas a&m experimental physicists teruki kamon david toback alexei safonov and peter mcintyre along with theoretical physicists dimitri nanopoulos bhaskar dutta and richard arnowitt are among the thousands of international scientists whose groundbreaking work went into the worlds most powerful accelerator which scientists believe could help unlock extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe an estimated 10 000 people from 60 countries helped design and build the accelerator and its massive particle detectors including more than 1 700 scientists engineers students and technicians from 94 us universities and laboratories supported by the united states department of energy (doe) office of science and the national science foundation (nsf) the bulk of the texas a&m groups doe-funded research supports a 12-member team spearheaded by kamon toback and safonov that contributed to the design and construction of one of the lhcs two largest particle detectors the compact muon solenoid (cms) the result of a major collaboration whose us component is headquartered at fermi national accelerator laboratory (fermilab) in illinois in the days and years to come the texas a&m team will play a key role in collecting and analyzing the data collected at the energy frontier this new machine is a huge next step for the entire field of particle physics safonov said its truly a dream machine that may completely change what we think about the world around us and fundamental forces particles and interactions many of our faculty are working on high-energy physics phenomenology string theory and cosmology performing research that either directly relates to lhc physics or will be strongly influenced by what the lhc sees in the years to come mcintyres expertise also went into critical components for the accelerator along with colleagues from stanfords linear accelerator center he continues to provide ongoing accelerator research and development vital to the lhcs future the lhc has the potential to take us full circle to gaze upon nature in microscale as it looked when the matter of the first stars was just emerging from the cosmic furnace of the big bang mcintyre said each step in energy takes us further on that journey; we really dont know what lies ahead or what it might mean for our understanding of nature that is the romance of basic science it also spawns the development of technology that may have benefit for us here on earth as a switch flipped deep in cerns (the european organization for nuclear research) massive underground laboratory and fired off the chain reaction that breathed life into a scientific marvel more than 15 years in the making the texas a&m contingent reveled from afar with the exception of kamon unlike his less fortunate colleagues back in college station kamon along with texas a&m post-doctoral researcher chi nhan nguyen and electronics engineer alexander golyash who are permanently stationed at cern was on the scene near geneva eagerly witnessing global history first-hand at about 10:25 am at cern (roughly 3:35 am in texas) kamon watched as the 21st centurys version of the shot heard round the world zoomed through the tunnel he then dutifully captured the moment as any good scientist would by making an entry in his online logbook hours later kamons exuberance not to mention his purpose at hand was a bit more evident in an electronic missive he sent to the troops waiting back home just exciting kamon noted i have observed two historic moments of high-energy frontier once at the tevatron in 1985 and now at the lhc today i am very happy now we look for dark matter the first circulating beam kamon bore early-morning witness to represents a major accomplishment on the way to the projects ultimate goal: high-energy beams colliding in the centers of the lhcs particle detectors beyond revealing a new world of unknown particles including heavy ones that otherwise could only be seen in the split seconds following the big bang lhc experiments could explain why those particles exist and behave as they do providing valuable clues regarding the origins of mass dark matter and other age-old mysteries of the universe in the process this is a great day for science a great day for physics and a great day for texas a&m toback summarized photos and videos from the lhc first beam day at cern are available at http://wwwcernch/lhc-first-beam information about the us participation in the lhc is available at http://wwwuslhcus -atm- texas a&m physics contacts: teruki kamon: 979-571-5950 or kamon@physicstamuedu (currently on-site in switzerland) david toback: 979-218-7130 or toback@physicstamuedu alexei safonov: 630-650-2078 or safonov@physicstamuedu peter mcintyre: 979-255-5531 or p-mcintyre@physicstamuedu texas a&m media contacts: shana hutchins: 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu keith randall: 979-845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu " " cambridge mass while walking home on november 11 1572 astronomer tycho brahe idly glanced at the sky he was surprised to see a bright star in the constellation cassiopeia that hadnt been there before the new star which we now know to be the result of a stellar explosion or supernova grew brighter than venus and was visible in daylight for about two weeks it then slowly faded until vanishing in march 1574 16 months after its discovery the supernova and the ensuing academic controversy regarding a supposedly unchangeable universe displaying a spectacular change prompted tycho to forfeit his future as a danish nobleman and become a serious astronomer decades later tychos lifelong work became a cornerstone of the scientific revolution what type of star exploded previously the only way for modern astronomers to answer that question was to sift through the ashes that were scattered into space as a supernova remnant but now they have spotted light echoing from the original explosion of the tycho supernova as well as a second supernova called cassiopeia a (cas a) a paper describing the teams results has been accepted for publication in the astrophysical journal letters a peer-reviewed express scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics by studying these echoes explains lead author armin rest currently on sabbatical at harvard university astronomers can directly observe light from a supernova that exploded hundreds of years ago and more poetically they can see the same light that was observed by famous astronomers of centuries past its like finding a color photo of napoleon we suddenly get a chance to take a snapshot of an event very influential in the history of astronomy rest said the echo most people are familiar with occurs when noise reflects off a hard surface and back to the listener in a light echo a bright pulse of light expanding outward through space reflects from intervening cosmic dust and into our line of sight the extra travel time for the light to reach the dust bounce off and travel to us causes the light echo to arrive hundreds of years after the light that traveled directly to us (the light seen by tycho) as a result light echoes offer astronomers a unique opportunity to study both the supernova itself and the aftermath we can see the ‘before and after simultaneously by studying the light echo and supernova remnant respectively explained rest normally in astronomy the time scale for events is so long that you cant watch a single object evolve you can see a light pulse from a distant supernova or you can study a nearby supernova remnant but you cant study both the supernova explosion and the remnant for the same event with light echoes though you can do both for the same event to find the echoes rest and his colleagues first narrowed the search area to regions with the most dust using infrared sky maps then they repeatedly photographed large areas of sky in their target regions using the national science foundations 4-meter-diameter telescopes at kitt peak national observatory and the cerro tololo inter-american observatory they focused their search on the seven brightest supernovas recorded in the past 2000 years two proved to have observable light echoes: the tycho supernova of 1572 and cas a which is estimated to have exploded around 1671 although no contemporary observers noted it these are the first supernova light echoes discovered in the milky way other researchers found moving infrared features emanating from cas a which are not direct reflections but instead are the result of cosmic dust absorbing the supernovas light warming and re-radiating at longer wavelengths texas a&m university astronomer nicholas suntzeff who collaborated with rest on the international project along with mcmaster universitys douglas welch has been observing supernovas for more than 25 years including 20 at cerro tololo decades and countless discoveries none bigger than the first evidence for dark energy in 1998 later suntzeff remains in awe of their timeless significance scientific and otherwise i think it is cool that i can look in the sky and still see the same light that tycho did at the time of his truly revolutionary discovery suntzeff said beyond that i love the connection of astronomy to history both in the arcane nomenclature we use in our science and the effect of astronomy on the course of human thought tycho was the astronomer who proved aristotle wrong aristotle believed and it was taught in all catholic and protestant schools for 1 500 years that the earth was at the center of the universe and all things variable were between the earth and moon this supernova proved that theory wrong and quickly led to a freedom of thought in science that we can question any theory with observations which is central to the way science operates today in the future the team hopes to take spectra of the light echoes in order to properly classify the supernovas and identify which type of exploding star fueled each one particularly bright echoes are required for this work a light echos brightness depends on the thickness of the reflecting dust the team will monitor the known echoes for brightening while also continuing their search for light echoes from other know supernovas in the galaxy their ultimate goal is to improve the understanding of supernovas in general since past generations of supernovas provided many of the heavy elements on earth from the calcium in our bones to the iron in our blood the 4-meter telescopes at kitt peak and cerro tololo are part of the national optical astronomy observatory which is operated by the association of universities for research in astronomy under a cooperative agreement with the national science foundation this study was co-authored by a rest (ctio/harvard); d l welch and l oaster (mcmaster univ); n b suntzeff (texas a&m); h lanning k olsen and t matheson (noao); r c smith and g damke (ctio); a c becker (univ of washington); m bergmann (gemini observ); p challis and wm wood-vasey (harvard-smithsonian cfa); a clocchiatti and d minnit (pontificia universidad catolica de chile) k h cook (lawrence livermore) a garg (harvard); m e huber (lawrence livermore/ohio state); and j l prieto (ohio state) headquartered in cambridge mass the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics (cfa) is a joint collaboration between the smithsonian astrophysical observatory and the harvard college observatory cfa scientists organized into six research divisions study the origin evolution and ultimate fate of the universe (note to editors: animations to accompany this release are available online) -atm- contact: shana k hutchins at (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff at (979) 845-7717 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu the post famous supernovas still echo across the milky way appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " while walking home on november 11 1572 astronomer tycho brahe idly glanced at the sky he was surprised to see a bright star in the constellation cassiopeia that hadnt been there before the new star which we now know to be the result of a stellar explosion or supernova grew brighter than venus and was visible in daylight for about two weeks it then slowly faded until vanishing in march 1574 16 months after its discovery the supernova and the ensuing academic controversy regarding a supposedly unchangeable universe displaying a spectacular change prompted tycho to forfeit his future as a danish nobleman and become a serious astronomer decades later tychos lifelong work became a cornerstone of the scientific revolution what type of star exploded previously the only way for modern astronomers to answer that question was to sift through the ashes that were scattered into space as a supernova remnant but now they have spotted light echoing from the original explosion of the tycho supernova as well as a second supernova called cassiopeia a (cas a) a paper describing the teams results has been accepted for publication in the astrophysical journal letters a peer-reviewed express scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics by studying these echoes explains lead author armin rest currently on sabbatical at harvard university astronomers can directly observe light from a supernova that exploded hundreds of years ago and more poetically they can see the same light that was observed by famous astronomers of centuries past its like finding a color photo of napoleon we suddenly get a chance to take a snapshot of an event very influential in the history of astronomy rest said the echo most people are familiar with occurs when noise reflects off a hard surface and back to the listener in a light echo a bright pulse of light expanding outward through space reflects from intervening cosmic dust and into our line of sight the extra travel time for the light to reach the dust bounce off and travel to us causes the light echo to arrive hundreds of years after the light that traveled directly to us (the light seen by tycho) as a result light echoes offer astronomers a unique opportunity to study both the supernova itself and the aftermath we can see the ‘before and after simultaneously by studying the light echo and supernova remnant respectively explained rest normally in astronomy the time scale for events is so long that you cant watch a single object evolve you can see a light pulse from a distant supernova or you can study a nearby supernova remnant but you cant study both the supernova explosion and the remnant for the same event with light echoes though you can do both for the same event to find the echoes rest and his colleagues first narrowed the search area to regions with the most dust using infrared sky maps then they repeatedly photographed large areas of sky in their target regions using the national science foundations 4-meter-diameter telescopes at kitt peak national observatory and the cerro tololo inter-american observatory they focused their search on the seven brightest supernovas recorded in the past 2000 years two proved to have observable light echoes: the tycho supernova of 1572 and cas a which is estimated to have exploded around 1671 although no contemporary observers noted it these are the first supernova light echoes discovered in the milky way other researchers found moving infrared features emanating from cas a which are not direct reflections but instead are the result of cosmic dust absorbing the supernovas light warming and re-radiating at longer wavelengths texas a&m university astronomer nicholas suntzeff who collaborated with rest on the international project along with mcmaster universitys douglas welch has been observing supernovas for more than 25 years including 20 at cerro tololo decades and countless discoveries none bigger than the first evidence for dark energy in 1998 later suntzeff remains in awe of their timeless significance scientific and otherwise i think it is cool that i can look in the sky and still see the same light that tycho did at the time of his truly revolutionary discovery suntzeff said beyond that i love the connection of astronomy to history both in the arcane nomenclature we use in our science and the effect of astronomy on the course of human thought tycho was the astronomer who proved aristotle wrong aristotle believed and it was taught in all catholic and protestant schools for 1 500 years that the earth was at the center of the universe and all things variable were between the earth and moon this supernova proved that theory wrong and quickly led to a freedom of thought in science that we can question any theory with observations which is central to the way science operates today in the future the team hopes to take spectra of the light echoes in order to properly classify the supernovas and identify which type of exploding star fueled each one particularly bright echoes are required for this work a light echos brightness depends on the thickness of the reflecting dust the team will monitor the known echoes for brightening while also continuing their search for light echoes from other know supernovas in the galaxy their ultimate goal is to improve the understanding of supernovas in general since past generations of supernovas provided many of the heavy elements on earth from the calcium in our bones to the iron in our blood the 4-meter telescopes at kitt peak and cerro tololo are part of the national optical astronomy observatory which is operated by the association of universities for research in astronomy under a cooperative agreement with the national science foundation this study was co-authored by a rest (ctio/harvard); d l welch and l oaster (mcmaster univ); n b suntzeff (texas a&m); h lanning k olsen and t matheson (noao); r c smith and g damke (ctio); a c becker (univ of washington); m bergmann (gemini observ); p challis and wm wood-vasey (harvard-smithsonian cfa); a clocchiatti and d minnit (pontificia universidad catolica de chile) k h cook (lawrence livermore) a garg (harvard); m e huber (lawrence livermore/ohio state); and j l prieto (ohio state) headquartered in cambridge mass the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics (cfa) is a joint collaboration between the smithsonian astrophysical observatory and the harvard college observatory cfa scientists organized into six research divisions study the origin evolution and ultimate fate of the universe (note to editors: animations to accompany this release are available online) -atm- contact: shana k hutchins at (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff at (979) 845-7717 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu " " college station texas a&m university distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully has been elected as a 2008 fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences one the countrys oldest honorary learned societies scully a world-renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics is one of eight physicists listed among the 190 new fellows and 22 new foreign honorary members announced by the academy last week drawn from the sciences the arts and humanities business public affairs and the non-profit sector the 212 scholars scientists artists civic corporate and philanthropic leaders include nobel laureates and recipients of pulitzer and pritzker prizes academy and grammy awards and kennedy center honors they represent 20 states 15 countries and more than 50 universities the academy honors excellence by electing to membership remarkable men and women who have made preeminent contributions to their fields and to the world said academy president emilio bizzi we are pleased to welcome into the academy these new members to help advance our founders goal of ‘cherishing knowledge and shaping the future scully is the only current texas a&m faculty member featured in the prestigious society which previously included the late texas a&m inorganic chemist dr f albert cotton who was elected in 1962 on behalf of texas a&m university i congratulate dr scully on this outstanding honor that adds yet another chapter to his distinguished career said texas a&m president elsa a murano dr scullys contributions in the field of physics and theoretical quantum optics in particular are known worldwide and we are honored to have a professor and researcher of his caliber as a member of our renowned faculty here at texas a&m scully will be officially inducted as an academy fellow at an october 11 ceremony at the academys headquarters in cambridge mass this extraordinary honor shows once again how fortunate we are at texas a&m and the college of science to have marlan scully in our midst said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the academy has recognized the kind of excitement that defines what makes a great university and we thank dr scully for all that he does a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max-planck society scully holds joint appointments as a professor at both texas a&m university and princeton university at texas a&m he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor in chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science a highly decorated researcher and scholar scully has received a number of awards and professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the elliott cresson medal from the franklin institute a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize and the arthur l schawlow prize from the american physical society most recently he was selected as a 2008 morris loeb lecturer in physics at harvard university founded in 1780 by john adams james bowdoin john hancock and other scholar-patriots the american academy of arts and sciences features many the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation including some 200 nobel laureates and more than 60 pulitzer prize winners as an independent policy research center it undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems including science technology and global security; social policy and american institutions; the humanities and culture; and education -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post scully elected fellow of american academy of arts and sciences appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully has been elected as a 2008 fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences one the countrys oldest honorary learned societies scully a world-renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics is one of eight physicists listed among the 190 new fellows and 22 new foreign honorary members announced by the academy last week drawn from the sciences the arts and humanities business public affairs and the non-profit sector the 212 scholars scientists artists civic corporate and philanthropic leaders include nobel laureates and recipients of pulitzer and pritzker prizes academy and grammy awards and kennedy center honors they represent 20 states 15 countries and more than 50 universities the academy honors excellence by electing to membership remarkable men and women who have made preeminent contributions to their fields and to the world said academy president emilio bizzi we are pleased to welcome into the academy these new members to help advance our founders goal of ‘cherishing knowledge and shaping the future scully is the only current texas a&m faculty member featured in the prestigious society which previously included the late texas a&m inorganic chemist dr f albert cotton who was elected in 1962 on behalf of texas a&m university i congratulate dr scully on this outstanding honor that adds yet another chapter to his distinguished career said texas a&m president elsa a murano dr scullys contributions in the field of physics and theoretical quantum optics in particular are known worldwide and we are honored to have a professor and researcher of his caliber as a member of our renowned faculty here at texas a&m scully will be officially inducted as an academy fellow at an october 11 ceremony at the academys headquarters in cambridge mass this extraordinary honor shows once again how fortunate we are at texas a&m and the college of science to have marlan scully in our midst said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science the academy has recognized the kind of excitement that defines what makes a great university and we thank dr scully for all that he does a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max-planck society scully holds joint appointments as a professor at both texas a&m university and princeton university at texas a&m he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor in chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science a highly decorated researcher and scholar scully has received a number of awards and professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the elliott cresson medal from the franklin institute a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize and the arthur l schawlow prize from the american physical society most recently he was selected as a 2008 morris loeb lecturer in physics at harvard university founded in 1780 by john adams james bowdoin john hancock and other scholar-patriots the american academy of arts and sciences features many the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation including some 200 nobel laureates and more than 60 pulitzer prize winners as an independent policy research center it undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems including science technology and global security; social policy and american institutions; the humanities and culture; and education -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " college station texas a&m university associate professor of physics dr david toback is one of six university faculty members who have been appointed to university professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence (upute) announced interim executive vice president and provost jerry strawser toback will hold the thaman professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence a three-year appointment that carries an annual salary supplement of $5 000 provided by the university and an annual discretionary income to support his teaching program and related professional development the prestigious upute awards are reserved for the universitys most distinguished teachers of undergraduates faculty who have exhibited uncommon excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students at texas a&m texas a&m has long been known for its excellence in undergraduate education and appointment of these professorship holders is intended to be indicative of the administrations continuing support for and dedication to undergraduate education strawser said a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2000 toback is a past recipient of the association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at both the university (2007) and college levels (2004) he has worked tirelessly to improve the introductory physics courses for engineers and to develop a course on the big bang and black holes for non-scientists in addition to a reputation as a dynamic and motivating teacher with a knack for using comic relief to teach physics concepts at 8 am toback has developed multiple web-based systems to aid student learning these systems were so successful that they have been adopted in all the introductory physics courses published in a top physics education research journal and presented in invited talks on web-based learning other 2008 upute recipients besides toback include: dr jeffrey conant (marketing) and dr jay porter (engineering technology & industrial distribution) eppright professorships; dr john crompton (recreation parks and tourism sciences) and dr john gold (wildlife and fisheries sciences) cintron professorships; and dr david vaught (history) glasscock professorship the endowment for the cintron professorship is provided by the hoblitzelle foundation of dallas in honor of dr r h cintron 46 the remaining professorships are made possible through generous endowments from melburn g glasscock george and irma eppright and arthur j and wilhelmina doré thaman -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university associate professor of physics dr david toback is one of six university faculty members who have been appointed to university professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence (upute) announced interim executive vice president and provost jerry strawser toback will hold the thaman professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence a three-year appointment that carries an annual salary supplement of $5 000 provided by the university and an annual discretionary income to support his teaching program and related professional development the prestigious upute awards are reserved for the universitys most distinguished teachers of undergraduates faculty who have exhibited uncommon excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students at texas a&m texas a&m has long been known for its excellence in undergraduate education and appointment of these professorship holders is intended to be indicative of the administrations continuing support for and dedication to undergraduate education strawser said a member of the texas a&m faculty since 2000 toback is a past recipient of the association of former students distinguished achievement award in teaching at both the university (2007) and college levels (2004) he has worked tirelessly to improve the introductory physics courses for engineers and to develop a course on the big bang and black holes for non-scientists in addition to a reputation as a dynamic and motivating teacher with a knack for using comic relief to teach physics concepts at 8 am toback has developed multiple web-based systems to aid student learning these systems were so successful that they have been adopted in all the introductory physics courses published in a top physics education research journal and presented in invited talks on web-based learning other 2008 upute recipients besides toback include: dr jeffrey conant (marketing) and dr jay porter (engineering technology & industrial distribution) eppright professorships; dr john crompton (recreation parks and tourism sciences) and dr john gold (wildlife and fisheries sciences) cintron professorships; and dr david vaught (history) glasscock professorship the endowment for the cintron professorship is provided by the hoblitzelle foundation of dallas in honor of dr r h cintron 46 the remaining professorships are made possible through generous endowments from melburn g glasscock george and irma eppright and arthur j and wilhelmina doré thaman -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " houston though known as fierce rivals in the sporting arena texas flagship universities are uniting in a goal as big as the universe thanks to a cosmic initiative by houston businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell founder of mitchell energy & development corp spurred by mitchells $325 million gift to his alma mater of texas a&m university the university of texas at austin has provided matching thereby making aggies and longhorns partners in the $550 million giant magellan telescope the gmt will be the worlds largest telescope one so powerful that it is expected to give perhaps the first definitive answer as to whether or not there is life beyond earth set to begin science operation in northern chile in 2017 the gmt will enable such breakthroughs as gaining visual images of distant planets detecting the basis of extra-solar life and peering into the very formation of the universe to help generate statewide support for this effort presidents from each university joined george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m for a presentation marking the two universities involvement in the eight-member gmt consortium and the unprecedented opportunity it represents both for texas and the world this is an extraordinarily exciting project thats going to put texas on the map in terms of astronomy said dr wendy freedman director of carnegie observatories for the carnegie institution and director of the gmt consortium its unusual that these two universities are working together to make this happen but this is an unusual project besides carnegie texas a&m and the university of texas at austin the consortium includes harvard university smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona australian national university and australia astronomy limited more partners are sought and south korea has indicated it will join nasa does not involve itself in ground-based space projects although the gmt will produce images up to 10 times sharper than those of the orbiting hubble space telescope todays largest telescopes including the university of texas at austins hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald observatory in west texas have mirrors with effective diameters of up to 10 meters dr david l lambert director of the mcdonald observatory and holder of the isabel mccutcheon harte centennial chair says the gmt will collect five times more light than the hobby-eberly telescope and about 70 times as much light as the hubble space telescope the hubble has been a very important experiment for nasa but our ground-based instruments will be even more important mitchell said if we could show nasa that the gmt could detect asteroids headed toward earth early enough to do something about it maybe nasa might put some money into it too freedman also spoke at fridays luncheon along with texas a&m president dr elsa a murano the university of texas at austins president william powers jr and directors of their respective astronomy programs we are entering a new era in the history of humanity where we find ourselves living in a large but finite universe said dr nicholas b suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program this telescope will allow us to see to the other side of the universe right up to its edge its power will be almost beyond comprehension but before that power is unleashed gmt consortium leaders say its time for the projects next phase we would not be where we are without mr mitchells early help freedman said but after working on designs for several years we now reach the projects next phase of detailed design and raising funds for construction and we hope to galvanize texas to become a full participant the gmt consortiums sense of urgency comes from two rival big-telescope projects one planned by cal tech and the university of california system the other by the same 13-nation european consortium which wound up with the first superconducting super collider after such a project was derailed in texas all three telescopes are expected to near completion in about 10 years or about the same time the orbiting hubble telescope is expected to deteriorate to the point of being out of service even with one possible shuttle repair mission envisioned i challenge our top two universities and all texans to meet the tough competition california offers in order to be at the center of high-energy physics mitchell said texas had better wake up california is always ahead of us in this with the gmt we hope to inspire texans to come together in this challenge although the two rival telescopes will be bigger freedman says ours will be more efficient and thus more cost-effective also no other big telescope will have the imaging capability to allow visually identifying other planets the gmt also will be able to make spectrum analyses of such planets to detect atmospheric conditions imagine the excitement if the gmt proves there is life on other planets said texas a&ms suntzeff it will also give us a better understanding of how the universe originated and how its evolving to this day indeed freedman says the telescope will unlock secrets of the very early universe the first stars galaxies and black holes that formed we will see directly via light that dates back to just a billion years after the ‘big bang created the universe 137 billion years ago the gmt will have that kind of sensitivity and resolution it will be like a time machine mitchell said the telescope also should help us understand dark energy and dark matter thats 96 percent of the universe and we dont understand what its all about he believes it also will keep american scientists from going elsewhere such as europe weve got to step up to this challenge mitchell said its a national initiative in which texas can become a leader and if anyone can get it done in texas then texas a&m and the university of texas at austin are our best chance they can help america to stay in the race and keep our scientists from going elsewhere mitchell said some scientists already are coming to texas a&m on the strength of the prospect of getting time on the gmt when it starts operations if we can raise $55 million between the two universities theyd share 10 percent of the time on the telescope he said but i think we need 15 percent and i know the university of texas at austin and texas a&m donors could get it done mitchell credits former texas a&m president robert gates now secretary of defense for sharing his vision of greatly expanding the universitys facilities and scientific talent gates objectives are happening he said to further support the project mitchell plans to give texas a&m another $15 million per year for five years providing the university matches it yet even with its advantages the gmt consortium needs to get moving freedman said we want to skim the cream of the science thats to be done by next-generation telescopes only one group will get to do the first science with them we have the opportunity to be first and we are ready to go gmt spin-offs into industry she said could include universities contracting with industry to build instruments and detectors to take advantage of the telescopes increased resolution mitchell has been aiming for the stars since his teens when he even tried building his own telescope channeling his scientific mind into finding oil where others couldnt in 1940 he became a distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m then began earning a fortune in oil and real estate yet mitchell never abandoned his passion for knowledge of the universe which is why he and his wife cynthia have been among the biggest private financial backers in texas a&ms history and by far the biggest for texas a&m physics united by their shared disappointment over failure of the proposed texas superconducting super collider mitchell gates and renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking spearheaded a campaign to launch texas a&ms department of physics into high orbit mitchell has provided more than $51 million in support of texas a&m physics that includes committing $35 million to help fund buildings for both the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy named in mitchells honor at hawkings suggestion and the george p mitchell 40 physics building and still more funds to create 10 academic chairs including the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics and two professorships the mitchells also have made many gifts to the university of texas at austin including support for its elementary charter school and unrestricted funds and faculty support for the school of architecture and the college of engineering now the gmt is his focus with both universities in mind if were losing this countrys intellectual knowledge then this telescope could help turn that tide he said texans wake up if you think the hubble has been very important to cosmology as i do then you know we need this new telescope and if you want to be competitive with california and europe then lets get going now is the time the future is here -atm- mitchell contact: dancie perugini ware dancie perugini ware public relations dancie@dpwprcom (713) 224-9115 texas a&m contact: shana k hutchins college of science texas a&m university shutchins@sciencetamuedu (979) 862-1237 the university of texas contact: rebecca johnson mcdonald observatory the university of texas at austin rjohnson@astroasutexasedu (512) 475-6763 the post shared vision: george mitchell texas a&m ut join in statewide celebration of giant magellan telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " though known as fierce rivals in the sporting arena texas flagship universities are uniting in a goal as big as the universe thanks to a cosmic initiative by houston businessman and philanthropist george p mitchell founder of mitchell energy & development corp spurred by mitchells $325 million gift to his alma mater of texas a&m university the university of texas at austin has provided matching thereby making aggies and longhorns partners in the $550 million giant magellan telescope the gmt will be the worlds largest telescope one so powerful that it is expected to give perhaps the first definitive answer as to whether or not there is life beyond earth set to begin science operation in northern chile in 2017 the gmt will enable such breakthroughs as gaining visual images of distant planets detecting the basis of extra-solar life and peering into the very formation of the universe to help generate statewide support for this effort presidents from each university joined george p mitchell a 1940 distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m for a presentation marking the two universities involvement in the eight-member gmt consortium and the unprecedented opportunity it represents both for texas and the world this is an extraordinarily exciting project thats going to put texas on the map in terms of astronomy said dr wendy freedman director of carnegie observatories for the carnegie institution and director of the gmt consortium its unusual that these two universities are working together to make this happen but this is an unusual project besides carnegie texas a&m and the university of texas at austin the consortium includes harvard university smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona australian national university and australia astronomy limited more partners are sought and south korea has indicated it will join nasa does not involve itself in ground-based space projects although the gmt will produce images up to 10 times sharper than those of the orbiting hubble space telescope todays largest telescopes including the university of texas at austins hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald observatory in west texas have mirrors with effective diameters of up to 10 meters dr david l lambert director of the mcdonald observatory and holder of the isabel mccutcheon harte centennial chair says the gmt will collect five times more light than the hobby-eberly telescope and about 70 times as much light as the hubble space telescope the hubble has been a very important experiment for nasa but our ground-based instruments will be even more important mitchell said if we could show nasa that the gmt could detect asteroids headed toward earth early enough to do something about it maybe nasa might put some money into it too freedman also spoke at fridays luncheon along with texas a&m president dr elsa a murano the university of texas at austins president william powers jr and directors of their respective astronomy programs we are entering a new era in the history of humanity where we find ourselves living in a large but finite universe said dr nicholas b suntzeff director of texas a&ms astronomy program this telescope will allow us to see to the other side of the universe right up to its edge its power will be almost beyond comprehension but before that power is unleashed gmt consortium leaders say its time for the projects next phase we would not be where we are without mr mitchells early help freedman said but after working on designs for several years we now reach the projects next phase of detailed design and raising funds for construction and we hope to galvanize texas to become a full participant the gmt consortiums sense of urgency comes from two rival big-telescope projects one planned by cal tech and the university of california system the other by the same 13-nation european consortium which wound up with the first superconducting super collider after such a project was derailed in texas all three telescopes are expected to near completion in about 10 years or about the same time the orbiting hubble telescope is expected to deteriorate to the point of being out of service even with one possible shuttle repair mission envisioned i challenge our top two universities and all texans to meet the tough competition california offers in order to be at the center of high-energy physics mitchell said texas had better wake up california is always ahead of us in this with the gmt we hope to inspire texans to come together in this challenge although the two rival telescopes will be bigger freedman says ours will be more efficient and thus more cost-effective also no other big telescope will have the imaging capability to allow visually identifying other planets the gmt also will be able to make spectrum analyses of such planets to detect atmospheric conditions imagine the excitement if the gmt proves there is life on other planets said texas a&ms suntzeff it will also give us a better understanding of how the universe originated and how its evolving to this day indeed freedman says the telescope will unlock secrets of the very early universe the first stars galaxies and black holes that formed we will see directly via light that dates back to just a billion years after the ‘big bang created the universe 137 billion years ago the gmt will have that kind of sensitivity and resolution it will be like a time machine mitchell said the telescope also should help us understand dark energy and dark matter thats 96 percent of the universe and we dont understand what its all about he believes it also will keep american scientists from going elsewhere such as europe weve got to step up to this challenge mitchell said its a national initiative in which texas can become a leader and if anyone can get it done in texas then texas a&m and the university of texas at austin are our best chance they can help america to stay in the race and keep our scientists from going elsewhere mitchell said some scientists already are coming to texas a&m on the strength of the prospect of getting time on the gmt when it starts operations if we can raise $55 million between the two universities theyd share 10 percent of the time on the telescope he said but i think we need 15 percent and i know the university of texas at austin and texas a&m donors could get it done mitchell credits former texas a&m president robert gates now secretary of defense for sharing his vision of greatly expanding the universitys facilities and scientific talent gates objectives are happening he said to further support the project mitchell plans to give texas a&m another $15 million per year for five years providing the university matches it yet even with its advantages the gmt consortium needs to get moving freedman said we want to skim the cream of the science thats to be done by next-generation telescopes only one group will get to do the first science with them we have the opportunity to be first and we are ready to go gmt spin-offs into industry she said could include universities contracting with industry to build instruments and detectors to take advantage of the telescopes increased resolution mitchell has been aiming for the stars since his teens when he even tried building his own telescope channeling his scientific mind into finding oil where others couldnt in 1940 he became a distinguished petroleum engineering graduate of texas a&m then began earning a fortune in oil and real estate yet mitchell never abandoned his passion for knowledge of the universe which is why he and his wife cynthia have been among the biggest private financial backers in texas a&ms history and by far the biggest for texas a&m physics united by their shared disappointment over failure of the proposed texas superconducting super collider mitchell gates and renowned cambridge university theoretical physicist stephen hawking spearheaded a campaign to launch texas a&ms department of physics into high orbit mitchell has provided more than $51 million in support of texas a&m physics that includes committing $35 million to help fund buildings for both the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy named in mitchells honor at hawkings suggestion and the george p mitchell 40 physics building and still more funds to create 10 academic chairs including the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics and two professorships the mitchells also have made many gifts to the university of texas at austin including support for its elementary charter school and unrestricted funds and faculty support for the school of architecture and the college of engineering now the gmt is his focus with both universities in mind if were losing this countrys intellectual knowledge then this telescope could help turn that tide he said texans wake up if you think the hubble has been very important to cosmology as i do then you know we need this new telescope and if you want to be competitive with california and europe then lets get going now is the time the future is here -atm- mitchell contact: dancie perugini ware dancie perugini ware public relations dancie@dpwprcom (713) 224-9115 texas a&m contact: shana k hutchins college of science texas a&m university shutchins@sciencetamuedu (979) 862-1237 the university of texas contact: rebecca johnson mcdonald observatory the university of texas at austin rjohnson@astroasutexasedu (512) 475-6763 " " college station the department of physics at texas a&m university invites the brazos valley community to get up-close and personal with science later this month as part of physics festival 2008 an entertaining and informative scientific extravaganza for all ages the free annual event scheduled for sunday april 20 from noon to 5 pm at rudder tower on the texas a&m campus will begin with a hands-on science exhibition and conclude with a public lecture by nasa astronaut and astronomer dr steven hawley no fee or tickets are required for either activity attendees are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a homemade hovercraft or square-wheeled bicycle and to try out working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m physics faculty staff and students middle and high school students also are invited to compete for cash prizes in a related science contest to be held in room 601 rudder tower online registration for the contest is preferred at http://physicsfestivaltamuedu at 4 pm dr hawley will present my life with the great observatories in rudder theater to conclude the days festivities selected by nasa in 1978 hawley has logged more than 770 hours in five space flights serving as a mission specialist on sts-41d in 1984 sts-61c in 1986 sts-31 in 1990 sts-82 in 1997 and sts-93 in 1999 prior to his nasa career hawley was a post-doctoral research associate at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where his research focused on physics of gaseous nebulae and emission-line galaxies hawley received his phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california at santa cruz and lick observatory steve was one of the first mission specialists at nasa said dr nicholas suntzeff texas a&m astronomer and a longtime colleague both as graduate students at uc-santa cruz and as researchers in chile he was the astronaut/astronomer most heavily involved in the space telescope launches he is a tremendously funny and modest guy his humor was legend at lick observatory all events are sponsored by the department of physics in conjunction with texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the mitchell institute was established in 2002 by the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature visit physics festival 2008 for the latest details regarding the event including maps and parking information -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post nasa astronaut to headline physics festival 2008 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics at texas a&m university invites the brazos valley community to get up-close and personal with science later this month as part of physics festival 2008 an entertaining and informative scientific extravaganza for all ages the free annual event scheduled for sunday april 20 from noon to 5 pm at rudder tower on the texas a&m campus will begin with a hands-on science exhibition and conclude with a public lecture by nasa astronaut and astronomer dr steven hawley no fee or tickets are required for either activity attendees are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists aboard a homemade hovercraft or square-wheeled bicycle and to try out working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific concepts and principles all exhibits are manned by texas a&m physics faculty staff and students middle and high school students also are invited to compete for cash prizes in a related science contest to be held in room 601 rudder tower online registration for the contest is preferred at http://physicsfestivaltamuedu at 4 pm dr hawley will present my life with the great observatories in rudder theater to conclude the days festivities selected by nasa in 1978 hawley has logged more than 770 hours in five space flights serving as a mission specialist on sts-41d in 1984 sts-61c in 1986 sts-31 in 1990 sts-82 in 1997 and sts-93 in 1999 prior to his nasa career hawley was a post-doctoral research associate at cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where his research focused on physics of gaseous nebulae and emission-line galaxies hawley received his phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california at santa cruz and lick observatory steve was one of the first mission specialists at nasa said dr nicholas suntzeff texas a&m astronomer and a longtime colleague both as graduate students at uc-santa cruz and as researchers in chile he was the astronaut/astronomer most heavily involved in the space telescope launches he is a tremendously funny and modest guy his humor was legend at lick observatory all events are sponsored by the department of physics in conjunction with texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m college of science the mitchell institute was established in 2002 by the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature visit physics festival 2008 for the latest details regarding the event including maps and parking information -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station high-tech devices seem to be constantly shrinking from the tiny ipod nano to the latest laptop computers that are no larger than a notebook manufacturers however can only make devices as small as scientists can build computer chips so texas a&m university physics researcher m suhail zubairy and two colleagues at the max-planck institute in germany have proposed a way to write circuits on chips smaller and more precise than ever before over the past decade scientists have been trying to get around a problem called the diffraction limit that prevents them from writing smaller circuits onto chips said zubairy who is currently teaching at texas a&m university at qatar he and his colleagues m kiffner and j evers of the max-planck institute have found an efficient way to get around this limit however and potentially double or even quadruple the number of transistors scientists can put onto a chip the teams work has been published in the journal physical review letters and was reviewed in physical review focus and highlighted in nature the highly respected british science journal one of the ways scientists write circuits onto chips is called optical lithography in this method scientists use beams of light to etch the image of the circuit onto a chip that is coated with light-sensitive material when scientists shine light on the chip the light-sensitive material is activated and they can etch the circuit pattern onto the chip but the size in which scientists can write the circuits is limited by the diffraction limit the diffraction limit occurs because of the wave nature of light zubairy said how close for example you can draw two lines is limited by the wavelength of the light you are using he explained you can think of it in the sense that you can only write as small as the size of the point of your pen in the same way scientists can only write as small as the wavelength of the light they are using in the last 10 years there has been a great interest in finding a way to get around this diffraction limit in order to shrink the size of chips zubairy said many researchers have submitted proposals to get around the limit but the problem with all the proposals so far is that they involve the simultaneous absorption of multiple rays of light to take atoms on the chip from the ground state to an excited state zubairy said instead of using one beam of light to etch the circuit pattern these methods use multiple beams to increase the atoms excitation energy which reduces the lights effective wavelength and allows scientists to write smaller the problem is that this process requires the photons particles of light to be in the exact same place at the same time this is a very unlikely event so you need a very large number of photons to achieve it zubairy said and this requires very intense light beams that could damage the chips or equipment zubairy and his colleagues however have proposed a way to get around the diffraction limit without using high-intensity light beams to do this they prepare the chips for etching by putting them in something called a dark state using a method called coherent population trapping in this method zubairy and his colleagues shine two or more light beams onto the chip in a particular pattern to trap atoms in the chip in a specific dark state by doing this they can create patterns where some of the atoms in the chip are put into a state where light can no longer excite them while other atoms are left susceptible to light regions of the chip where the atoms cannot be excited cannot be etched in other words instead of trying to decrease the size of the point of their pen (the etching lights effective wavelength) zubairy and his colleagues use complex patterns of light beams to block out the parts of the chip that they do not want etched its like using a stencil and spray paint the researchers create a stencil of the circuit pattern that blocks out areas on the chip that they do not want etched by doing this they only leave certain very small regions on the chip susceptible to the light used to etch the pattern so when they shine light onto the chip only the open parts in the stencil are etched zubairy explained this is how they are able to write patterns that are smaller than the lights wavelength zubairy and his colleagues proposed method surpasses the perceived fundamental limit for etching circuits on chips and their research could lead to chips that are smaller than ever in principle our method can go beyond the best precision that scientists have been able to achieve up until now and we can in principle double or quadruple the number of transistors that can be put on a chip zubairy said the research that we presented in our paper is the basic idea of how the process would work so now we just have to find the right kind of materials and the right combination of laser fields to do that -atm- contact: amelia williamson at (979) 845-4641 or aaw11@tamuedu or m suhail zubairy at zubairy@physicstamuedu the post research could lead to smaller computer chips appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " high-tech devices seem to be constantly shrinking from the tiny ipod nano to the latest laptop computers that are no larger than a notebook manufacturers however can only make devices as small as scientists can build computer chips so texas a&m university physics researcher m suhail zubairy and two colleagues at the max-planck institute in germany have proposed a way to write circuits on chips smaller and more precise than ever before over the past decade scientists have been trying to get around a problem called the diffraction limit that prevents them from writing smaller circuits onto chips said zubairy who is currently teaching at texas a&m university at qatar he and his colleagues m kiffner and j evers of the max-planck institute have found an efficient way to get around this limit however and potentially double or even quadruple the number of transistors scientists can put onto a chip the teams work has been published in the journal physical review letters and was reviewed in physical review focus and highlighted in nature the highly respected british science journal one of the ways scientists write circuits onto chips is called optical lithography in this method scientists use beams of light to etch the image of the circuit onto a chip that is coated with light-sensitive material when scientists shine light on the chip the light-sensitive material is activated and they can etch the circuit pattern onto the chip but the size in which scientists can write the circuits is limited by the diffraction limit the diffraction limit occurs because of the wave nature of light zubairy said how close for example you can draw two lines is limited by the wavelength of the light you are using he explained you can think of it in the sense that you can only write as small as the size of the point of your pen in the same way scientists can only write as small as the wavelength of the light they are using in the last 10 years there has been a great interest in finding a way to get around this diffraction limit in order to shrink the size of chips zubairy said many researchers have submitted proposals to get around the limit but the problem with all the proposals so far is that they involve the simultaneous absorption of multiple rays of light to take atoms on the chip from the ground state to an excited state zubairy said instead of using one beam of light to etch the circuit pattern these methods use multiple beams to increase the atoms excitation energy which reduces the lights effective wavelength and allows scientists to write smaller the problem is that this process requires the photons particles of light to be in the exact same place at the same time this is a very unlikely event so you need a very large number of photons to achieve it zubairy said and this requires very intense light beams that could damage the chips or equipment zubairy and his colleagues however have proposed a way to get around the diffraction limit without using high-intensity light beams to do this they prepare the chips for etching by putting them in something called a dark state using a method called coherent population trapping in this method zubairy and his colleagues shine two or more light beams onto the chip in a particular pattern to trap atoms in the chip in a specific dark state by doing this they can create patterns where some of the atoms in the chip are put into a state where light can no longer excite them while other atoms are left susceptible to light regions of the chip where the atoms cannot be excited cannot be etched in other words instead of trying to decrease the size of the point of their pen (the etching lights effective wavelength) zubairy and his colleagues use complex patterns of light beams to block out the parts of the chip that they do not want etched its like using a stencil and spray paint the researchers create a stencil of the circuit pattern that blocks out areas on the chip that they do not want etched by doing this they only leave certain very small regions on the chip susceptible to the light used to etch the pattern so when they shine light onto the chip only the open parts in the stencil are etched zubairy explained this is how they are able to write patterns that are smaller than the lights wavelength zubairy and his colleagues proposed method surpasses the perceived fundamental limit for etching circuits on chips and their research could lead to chips that are smaller than ever in principle our method can go beyond the best precision that scientists have been able to achieve up until now and we can in principle double or quadruple the number of transistors that can be put on a chip zubairy said the research that we presented in our paper is the basic idea of how the process would work so now we just have to find the right kind of materials and the right combination of laser fields to do that -atm- contact: amelia williamson at (979) 845-4641 or aaw11@tamuedu or m suhail zubairy at zubairy@physicstamuedu " " education city doha qatar research being conducted by dr m suhail zubairy a professor of physics at texas a&m university who currently is teaching at the universitys branch campus in qatar has been featured by the american physical society zubairy and colleagues at the max planck institute for nuclear physics in heidelberg germany are exploring ways to make computer chip components smaller than the wavelength of the lasers used in the manufacturing process their work is reported in the february 19 issue of physical review letters as well as the february 13 online publication focus zubairys team showed that one can use the lasers to create sub-wavelength-sized regions on the surface where the molecules are all in a special state reported science writer michael schirber click here for more on schirbers story -atm- the post zubairy colleagues make advances in dark physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " research being conducted by dr m suhail zubairy a professor of physics at texas a&m university who currently is teaching at the universitys branch campus in qatar has been featured by the american physical society zubairy and colleagues at the max planck institute for nuclear physics in heidelberg germany are exploring ways to make computer chip components smaller than the wavelength of the lasers used in the manufacturing process their work is reported in the february 19 issue of physical review letters as well as the february 13 online publication focus zubairys team showed that one can use the lasers to create sub-wavelength-sized regions on the surface where the molecules are all in a special state reported science writer michael schirber click here for more on schirbers story -atm- " " college station phuongmai mai truong a senior double-major in mathematics and physics from kingwood is one of four texas a&m university institutional nominees for the 2008 barry m goldwater scholarship to be awarded in april truong who maintains a 3752 cumulative grade point average and is on track to graduate in may 2009 also was nominated for the prestigious scholarship in 2007 as a junior earning honorable mention honors an accomplished student truong has received several academic scholarships during her texas a&m career including the lechner regent and dow aggie in 2006-07 she served as a member of the college of science deans student advisory panel a current member of the honors undergraduate research fellows program truong was first and second author respectively on two research projects presented at the 209th meeting of the american astronomical society (aas) annual meeting in 2007 in summer 2006 she worked at the maria mitchell observatory in nantucket mass on a national science foundation-funded project that used computers to reduce data in an effort to measure the period of starspot in three young stars created in 1986 the barry m goldwater scholarship and excellence in education program recognizes approximately 300 students each year for their achievement and potential for significant contributions to their respective fields of research in the sciences and mathematics each scholarship covers eligible expenses for tuition fees books and room and board up to $7 500 annually since 1991 texas a&m has produced 36 goldwater scholars including andrew matteson 08 a senior mathematics major and rhodes scholarship finalist in 2007 for more information contact texas a&ms office of honors programs and academic scholarships at (979) 845-1957 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post truong nominated for goldwater scholarship appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " phuongmai mai truong a senior double-major in mathematics and physics from kingwood is one of four texas a&m university institutional nominees for the 2008 barry m goldwater scholarship to be awarded in april truong who maintains a 3752 cumulative grade point average and is on track to graduate in may 2009 also was nominated for the prestigious scholarship in 2007 as a junior earning honorable mention honors an accomplished student truong has received several academic scholarships during her texas a&m career including the lechner regent and dow aggie in 2006-07 she served as a member of the college of science deans student advisory panel a current member of the honors undergraduate research fellows program truong was first and second author respectively on two research projects presented at the 209th meeting of the american astronomical society (aas) annual meeting in 2007 in summer 2006 she worked at the maria mitchell observatory in nantucket mass on a national science foundation-funded project that used computers to reduce data in an effort to measure the period of starspot in three young stars created in 1986 the barry m goldwater scholarship and excellence in education program recognizes approximately 300 students each year for their achievement and potential for significant contributions to their respective fields of research in the sciences and mathematics each scholarship covers eligible expenses for tuition fees books and room and board up to $7 500 annually since 1991 texas a&m has produced 36 goldwater scholars including andrew matteson 08 a senior mathematics major and rhodes scholarship finalist in 2007 for more information contact texas a&ms office of honors programs and academic scholarships at (979) 845-1957 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station family and friends of matthew p hodges a 2000 graduate of texas a&m university who died unexpectedly last may are honoring his memory with an endowed scholarship in physics in the texas a&m college of science the matthew p hodges 00 memorial scholarship established through the texas a&m foundation by hodges widow kourtnee cooper hodges 02 with contributions from more than 100 additional family members and friends recently was completed with a gift from matts parents warren and kathy hodges of palm coast fla the scholarship which will be awarded for the first time later this spring will benefit texas a&m undergraduate students pursuing degrees in physics the department of physics is pleased and honored to have this scholarship said dr edward s fry professor and head of physics it will be a significant help to physics majors far into the future hundreds of years from now there will be young aggie physics majors receiving financial assistance thanks to matthew hodges family and friends and their generosity matt a patent examiner with the united states patent and trademark office in alexandria va had just completed his first year of law school at george mason university when his life tragically was cut short at the age of 29 in the mind-numbing aftermath of his sudden death kourtnee his wife of nearly two years decided to pay tribute to him in the most fitting way she knew how establishing a scholarship in his name at the place where they met and fell in love matt and i met at texas a&m so it is a very special place for us kourtnee added matt received his physics degree there and he loved physics i thought it would be a good way to honor his memory and help future aggies at the same time the scholarships initial recipient will be announced at the college of sciences 2008 spring reception and recognition dinner scheduled for march 27 at pebble creek country club in college station to learn more about memorial scholarships or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post texas a&m physics graduate remembered with scholarship appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " family and friends of matthew p hodges a 2000 graduate of texas a&m university who died unexpectedly last may are honoring his memory with an endowed scholarship in physics in the texas a&m college of science the matthew p hodges 00 memorial scholarship established through the texas a&m foundation by hodges widow kourtnee cooper hodges 02 with contributions from more than 100 additional family members and friends recently was completed with a gift from matts parents warren and kathy hodges of palm coast fla the scholarship which will be awarded for the first time later this spring will benefit texas a&m undergraduate students pursuing degrees in physics the department of physics is pleased and honored to have this scholarship said dr edward s fry professor and head of physics it will be a significant help to physics majors far into the future hundreds of years from now there will be young aggie physics majors receiving financial assistance thanks to matthew hodges family and friends and their generosity matt a patent examiner with the united states patent and trademark office in alexandria va had just completed his first year of law school at george mason university when his life tragically was cut short at the age of 29 in the mind-numbing aftermath of his sudden death kourtnee his wife of nearly two years decided to pay tribute to him in the most fitting way she knew how establishing a scholarship in his name at the place where they met and fell in love matt and i met at texas a&m so it is a very special place for us kourtnee added matt received his physics degree there and he loved physics i thought it would be a good way to honor his memory and help future aggies at the same time the scholarships initial recipient will be announced at the college of sciences 2008 spring reception and recognition dinner scheduled for march 27 at pebble creek country club in college station to learn more about memorial scholarships or other giving opportunities through the texas a&m foundation visit http://givingtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " dome argus antartica dome argus antarctica a team of scientists representing six international institutions including texas a&m university has succeeded in reaching the summit of antarctica not to mention that of ground-based astronomy to establish a new astronomical observatory at dome argus on the highest point of the antarctic plateau two weeks after arriving january 11 at dome a for only the second time in history an expedition team led by the polar research institute of china (pric) has completed installation work on a revolutionary fully robotic observatory dubbed plateau observatory or plato that texas a&m astrophysicist dr lifan wang predicts will result in new insights into the universe once possible only from space dome a is believed to be the best site for ground-based astronomy explains wang one of the leaders of the scientific planning phase of the expedition who holds the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed career enhancement professorship in physics at texas a&m and is head of the chinese center for antarctic astronomy unlike the stormy antarctic coast the plateau is a very quiet place with very low wind speed it is the coldest and driest place on earth these are critical conditions of a good site at which to build an observatory last saturday the pric team featuring scientists from the national astronomical observatories of china carefully buttoned up their instruments and plato within the snug confines of the newly installed ground station they then boarded their snow tractors for the 18-day nearly non-stop return trip to the coast of antarctica leaving both plato and their telescopes behind for an 11-month period poised to make astronomical history this permanent facility marks the culmination of centuries of effort to find the best location on the planet from which to observe the universe wang notes with a telescope at dome a it is possible to achieve near-space quality images at a much lower cost than launching a telescope into space built by the university of new south wales (unsw) in sydney australia plato is designed to operate autonomously for up to 12 months at a time while sending back data via the iridium satellite network powered by an array of solar panels during summer and small high-efficiency diesel engines through the darkest winter months it will be efficient as well as environmentally friendly according to its developers by minimizing the need for human support robotic facilities such as plato will play an important role in the future of antarctic research says the unsws dr jon lawrence who led platos development a global team of scientists will be contributing platos instruments as part of the 2007-2008 international polar year that will see thousands of scientists including wang and fellow texas a&m astronomer dr nicholas suntzeff both of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy from more than 60 nations conducting 200 projects examining a range of physical biological and social research topics platos site-testing instruments include cameras that will measure the darkness of the sky an acoustic radar to measure atmospheric turbulence and a monitor for very short microwave astronomy seven telescopes four from china two from caltech and one from the university of arizona and the university of exeter that is partially funded by the national science foundation will take unique images of the heavens toward the south pole one of the most important experiments is a set of four telescopes built at purple mountain observatory nanjing and the nanjing institute of astronomical optics and technology each of the 145-centimeter diameter telescopes is equipped with a different filter so that each can observe the sky in a different color or wavelength the telescopes can view a large field of the sky toward the south pole area the system will generate continuous movies of the sky lasting for four months this is a scientific study that can only be done in antarctica wang explains we will be able to study the variability of the stars and search for planets around those far-away stars the 17-person pric team began its trek to dome a in november leaving shanghai aboard the xue long icebreaker and sailing to fremantle where they were met by the 7-ton plato observatory which had made the 4 000-kilometer journey across the nullabor plain from sydney by road after a further 18 days crossing the southern ocean the xue long arrived at zhongshan station adjacent to australias davis station on the antarctic coast where plato was loaded onto a sled and filled with the 4 000 liters of jet fuel that will power it throughout the winter the six-tractor caravan then covered the 1 300-kilometer overland traverse from zhongshan to dome a in just three weeks arriving at the historic site on january 11 for the first time since a pric team made the initial journey three years earlier to install an automatic weather station and evaluate the sites suitability for a permanent station built to withstand some of the most extreme conditions on earth plato must endure temperatures that drop to -90 c in winter as well as air pressure barely half of that at sea level the facility must operate completely unattended until the chinese expeditioners return in january 2009 as there will be no human being within 600 kilometers of dome a now that the traverse team has departed during the next few years china will spend more than $25 million constructing a permanent station at dome a already there are plans to build an array of large wide-field telescopes there to generate additional movies of the sky astronomers now are working on the construction of ast3 the antarctic schmidt telescopes a system of three half-meter telescopes expected to find planets around other stars about the size of earth hundreds of supernovas useful for cosmological studies and many other variable objects for more information on upcoming international polar year activities visit http://wwwipyorg to view a complete log of the traverse as well as high-resolution photographs and related information visit http://mcba11physunsweduau/~mcba/plato/ to learn more about wang and his research visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/people/showpeoplephpname=lifan%20wang&userid=wang -atm- contacts: dr lifan wang texas a&m university (979) 845-4881 or wang@physicstamuedu dr carl pennypacker university of california-berkeley (510) 708 9700 or crpennypacker@lblgov dr anna moore california institute of technology (626) 395-8918 or amoore@astrocaltechedu prof john storey university of new south wales +02 9385 4578 or mob 0411 277 911 prof christopher walker university of arizona (520) 621-8783 or cwalker@asarizonaedu shana hutchins (media relations) texas a&m university (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post historical horizons: international team establishes observatory in antarctica astronomys new playground appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dome argus antarctica a team of scientists representing six international institutions including texas a&m university has succeeded in reaching the summit of antarctica not to mention that of ground-based astronomy to establish a new astronomical observatory at dome argus on the highest point of the antarctic plateau two weeks after arriving january 11 at dome a for only the second time in history an expedition team led by the polar research institute of china (pric) has completed installation work on a revolutionary fully robotic observatory dubbed plateau observatory or plato that texas a&m astrophysicist dr lifan wang predicts will result in new insights into the universe once possible only from space dome a is believed to be the best site for ground-based astronomy explains wang one of the leaders of the scientific planning phase of the expedition who holds the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed career enhancement professorship in physics at texas a&m and is head of the chinese center for antarctic astronomy unlike the stormy antarctic coast the plateau is a very quiet place with very low wind speed it is the coldest and driest place on earth these are critical conditions of a good site at which to build an observatory last saturday the pric team featuring scientists from the national astronomical observatories of china carefully buttoned up their instruments and plato within the snug confines of the newly installed ground station they then boarded their snow tractors for the 18-day nearly non-stop return trip to the coast of antarctica leaving both plato and their telescopes behind for an 11-month period poised to make astronomical history this permanent facility marks the culmination of centuries of effort to find the best location on the planet from which to observe the universe wang notes with a telescope at dome a it is possible to achieve near-space quality images at a much lower cost than launching a telescope into space built by the university of new south wales (unsw) in sydney australia plato is designed to operate autonomously for up to 12 months at a time while sending back data via the iridium satellite network powered by an array of solar panels during summer and small high-efficiency diesel engines through the darkest winter months it will be efficient as well as environmentally friendly according to its developers by minimizing the need for human support robotic facilities such as plato will play an important role in the future of antarctic research says the unsws dr jon lawrence who led platos development a global team of scientists will be contributing platos instruments as part of the 2007-2008 international polar year that will see thousands of scientists including wang and fellow texas a&m astronomer dr nicholas suntzeff both of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy from more than 60 nations conducting 200 projects examining a range of physical biological and social research topics platos site-testing instruments include cameras that will measure the darkness of the sky an acoustic radar to measure atmospheric turbulence and a monitor for very short microwave astronomy seven telescopes four from china two from caltech and one from the university of arizona and the university of exeter that is partially funded by the national science foundation will take unique images of the heavens toward the south pole one of the most important experiments is a set of four telescopes built at purple mountain observatory nanjing and the nanjing institute of astronomical optics and technology each of the 145-centimeter diameter telescopes is equipped with a different filter so that each can observe the sky in a different color or wavelength the telescopes can view a large field of the sky toward the south pole area the system will generate continuous movies of the sky lasting for four months this is a scientific study that can only be done in antarctica wang explains we will be able to study the variability of the stars and search for planets around those far-away stars the 17-person pric team began its trek to dome a in november leaving shanghai aboard the xue long icebreaker and sailing to fremantle where they were met by the 7-ton plato observatory which had made the 4 000-kilometer journey across the nullabor plain from sydney by road after a further 18 days crossing the southern ocean the xue long arrived at zhongshan station adjacent to australias davis station on the antarctic coast where plato was loaded onto a sled and filled with the 4 000 liters of jet fuel that will power it throughout the winter the six-tractor caravan then covered the 1 300-kilometer overland traverse from zhongshan to dome a in just three weeks arriving at the historic site on january 11 for the first time since a pric team made the initial journey three years earlier to install an automatic weather station and evaluate the sites suitability for a permanent station built to withstand some of the most extreme conditions on earth plato must endure temperatures that drop to -90 c in winter as well as air pressure barely half of that at sea level the facility must operate completely unattended until the chinese expeditioners return in january 2009 as there will be no human being within 600 kilometers of dome a now that the traverse team has departed during the next few years china will spend more than $25 million constructing a permanent station at dome a already there are plans to build an array of large wide-field telescopes there to generate additional movies of the sky astronomers now are working on the construction of ast3 the antarctic schmidt telescopes a system of three half-meter telescopes expected to find planets around other stars about the size of earth hundreds of supernovas useful for cosmological studies and many other variable objects for more information on upcoming international polar year activities visit http://wwwipyorg to view a complete log of the traverse as well as high-resolution photographs and related information visit http://mcba11physunsweduau/~mcba/plato/ to learn more about wang and his research visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/people/showpeoplephpname=lifan%20wang&userid=wang -atm- contacts: dr lifan wang texas a&m university (979) 845-4881 or wang@physicstamuedu dr carl pennypacker university of california-berkeley (510) 708 9700 or crpennypacker@lblgov dr anna moore california institute of technology (626) 395-8918 or amoore@astrocaltechedu prof john storey university of new south wales +02 9385 4578 or mob 0411 277 911 prof christopher walker university of arizona (520) 621-8783 or cwalker@asarizonaedu shana hutchins (media relations) texas a&m university (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " college station dr alexey belyanin associate professor of physics at texas a&m university has been selected to receive the 2007 joann treat research excellence award by the texas a&m research foundation board of trustees named in honor of joann treat who served 19 years as president of the research foundation before retiring in august 2003 the award is presented annually to a faculty member whose research is administered through the foundation in recognition of research excellence and accomplishments during the past five years each year the award alternates between two categories of eligible faculty tenured or tenure-track and those who have not yet achieved the rank of professor at all texas a&m university system-affiliated institutions the 2007 award recognizes the latter category belyanin an internationally respected leader in the rapidly developing interdisciplinary research field of optics of nanostructured materials was presented with the award by its namesake joann treat and board chairman h jarrell gibbs at a november 30 ceremony held in conjunction with the foundations annual councilor/trustee fall meeting along with the award he received $10 000 and a commemorative plaque and will have his name inscribed on the joann treat commemorative glass vase on display in the foundation office lobby i am extremely pleased with such a great honor and thankful to the department of physics and college of science for nominating me belyanin said in the process of receiving my award i got an opportunity to learn more about the research foundation its history (in which joann treat played such a prominent role) and how they function i was really impressed they do a great job of minimizing red tape and bureaucracy while maintaining an extremely user-friendly service for us as principal investigators they are very interesting and outstanding people and i just hope they will continue doing what they are doing after receiving his phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1995 belyanin held research positions at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences and at texas a&m before joining the texas a&m physics faculty in 2003 as an assistant professor he was granted early tenure in spring 2007 well known for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields that span semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics belyanin currently leads texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums he is credited as one of the two intellectual fathers of the raman quantum cascade laser and is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding in addition to being published in nature and major physics journals belyanin has served on several nsf review panels an in-demand presenter at invited conferences and symposia across the world he has also chaired a number of major international conferences while at texas a&m belyanin has developed a new graduate course and taught several service courses in addition he serves as a faculty advisor for the texas a&m chapter of the society of physics students belyanin is the second faculty member in the college of science to receive the prestigious award since its inception in 2004 dr deborah bell-pedersen associate professor of biology merited selection in 2005 for more information on belyanin and his research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/belyanin/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu the post belyanin honored for research excellence appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr alexey belyanin associate professor of physics at texas a&m university has been selected to receive the 2007 joann treat research excellence award by the texas a&m research foundation board of trustees named in honor of joann treat who served 19 years as president of the research foundation before retiring in august 2003 the award is presented annually to a faculty member whose research is administered through the foundation in recognition of research excellence and accomplishments during the past five years each year the award alternates between two categories of eligible faculty tenured or tenure-track and those who have not yet achieved the rank of professor at all texas a&m university system-affiliated institutions the 2007 award recognizes the latter category belyanin an internationally respected leader in the rapidly developing interdisciplinary research field of optics of nanostructured materials was presented with the award by its namesake joann treat and board chairman h jarrell gibbs at a november 30 ceremony held in conjunction with the foundations annual councilor/trustee fall meeting along with the award he received $10 000 and a commemorative plaque and will have his name inscribed on the joann treat commemorative glass vase on display in the foundation office lobby i am extremely pleased with such a great honor and thankful to the department of physics and college of science for nominating me belyanin said in the process of receiving my award i got an opportunity to learn more about the research foundation its history (in which joann treat played such a prominent role) and how they function i was really impressed they do a great job of minimizing red tape and bureaucracy while maintaining an extremely user-friendly service for us as principal investigators they are very interesting and outstanding people and i just hope they will continue doing what they are doing after receiving his phd from the russian academy of sciences in 1995 belyanin held research positions at the institute of applied physics of the russian academy of sciences and at texas a&m before joining the texas a&m physics faculty in 2003 as an assistant professor he was granted early tenure in spring 2007 well known for his breakthrough ideas and developments in research fields that span semiconductor physics quantum optics photonic devices and high-energy astrophysics belyanin currently leads texas a&m efforts in two national science foundation-funded multi-university consortiums he is credited as one of the two intellectual fathers of the raman quantum cascade laser and is widely respected by his peers for his breadth of knowledge his uncanny ability to bridge the gap between theory and experimentalists and his ability to attract research funding in addition to being published in nature and major physics journals belyanin has served on several nsf review panels an in-demand presenter at invited conferences and symposia across the world he has also chaired a number of major international conferences while at texas a&m belyanin has developed a new graduate course and taught several service courses in addition he serves as a faculty advisor for the texas a&m chapter of the society of physics students belyanin is the second faculty member in the college of science to receive the prestigious award since its inception in 2004 dr deborah bell-pedersen associate professor of biology merited selection in 2005 for more information on belyanin and his research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/belyanin/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu " " college station nestled high in the andes mountains of northern chile a rocky plot of ground will be the site for the worlds largest telescope one so powerful that it is expected to give perhaps the first definitive answer of whether or not there is life beyond earth everything about the telescope is big including its name: the giant magellan telescope (gmt) it will be 10 times more powerful than the hubble telescope that has been taking images from space for years and will give us information that we could only dream about a decade ago say two texas a&m university physics researchers who are involved in the project nicholas suntzeff astronomer and professor of physics and edward fry professor and head of the department of physics believe the gmt will open new windows to the deepest parts of the universe when it is finished it will be the most powerful telescope ever built fry says it will show us pictures of the earliest stages of the creation of our universe images from 500 000 years after the big bang occurred about 13 billion years ago we will literally see the creation of the first galaxies and stars and with its huge mirrors we should be able to hunt in nearby stars for planets and determine if life is there he adds we are designing the gmt to look for water and oxygen if we can detect oxygen gas in the atmosphere of a planet it is almost certain there is life on that planet in a very real sense it will serve as a guide to our universe as with its name the gmt carries with it a giant price tag about $550 million but that cost is less than a single launch of the space shuttle suntzeff points out the project is a partnership of some star-studded institutions: nine in all among them carnegie institution of washington harvard university the university of arizona the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of michigan mit the australian national university the university of texas at austin and texas a&m the first phase of the project is well under way the casting of the gmts huge mirrors it will have seven mirrors placed in a hexagonal shape totaling about 80 feet in diameter the first of the mirrors was cast in april at the university of arizona and final polishing will be completed by 2009 when finished the final reflective surface will be smooth to an accuracy of 1 millionth of an inch to produce the best astronomical images possible how powerful will it be put it this way suntzeff saysif you were standing in dallas holding up a coin and the gmt was placed at texas a&m [about 175 miles away] it could tell you if it was a penny or a dime the site selected for the gmt is known as cerro las campanas about 7 800 feet above sea level notes suntzeff who worked at the nearby las campanas observatory for several years he says the site is ideal because of its dry climate clear skies high altitude and its access to southern skies construction will begin in 2010 and first light of the telescope is scheduled for 2016 we are entering a new era in the history of humanity where we find ourselves living in a large but finite universe suntzeff explains we are developing the tools to map everything out there this telescope will allow us to see to the other side of the universe right up to its edge the gmt will give us a better understanding of how the universe originated and how it is evolving to this day imagine the excitement if it proves there is life on other planets there is no doubt it will make new discoveries of planets and give us vital information about black holes dark matter dark energy and other things that are a complete mystery to us right now the power of this telescope will be almost beyond comprehension he adds its the most exciting astronomical project i have ever been in because we will be able to see things no one has ever seen before long-time texas a&m benefactor and alumnus george mitchell provided much of the support that has enabled texas a&m to become a founding partner of the gmt fry notes adding that mitchells initial gift to texas a&m carried a matching challenge for the university of texas that played a major role in bringing it into the consortium for more about the project go to wwwgmtoorg -atm- contact: dr nicholas b suntzeff at (979) 845-7717 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu or dr edward s fry at (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu or keith randall at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu the post heavens above: giant telescope will unravel universes secrets profs say appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " nestled high in the andes mountains of northern chile a rocky plot of ground will be the site for the worlds largest telescope one so powerful that it is expected to give perhaps the first definitive answer of whether or not there is life beyond earth everything about the telescope is big including its name: the giant magellan telescope (gmt) it will be 10 times more powerful than the hubble telescope that has been taking images from space for years and will give us information that we could only dream about a decade ago say two texas a&m university physics researchers who are involved in the project nicholas suntzeff astronomer and professor of physics and edward fry professor and head of the department of physics believe the gmt will open new windows to the deepest parts of the universe when it is finished it will be the most powerful telescope ever built fry says it will show us pictures of the earliest stages of the creation of our universe images from 500 000 years after the big bang occurred about 13 billion years ago we will literally see the creation of the first galaxies and stars and with its huge mirrors we should be able to hunt in nearby stars for planets and determine if life is there he adds we are designing the gmt to look for water and oxygen if we can detect oxygen gas in the atmosphere of a planet it is almost certain there is life on that planet in a very real sense it will serve as a guide to our universe as with its name the gmt carries with it a giant price tag about $550 million but that cost is less than a single launch of the space shuttle suntzeff points out the project is a partnership of some star-studded institutions: nine in all among them carnegie institution of washington harvard university the university of arizona the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of michigan mit the australian national university the university of texas at austin and texas a&m the first phase of the project is well under way the casting of the gmts huge mirrors it will have seven mirrors placed in a hexagonal shape totaling about 80 feet in diameter the first of the mirrors was cast in april at the university of arizona and final polishing will be completed by 2009 when finished the final reflective surface will be smooth to an accuracy of 1 millionth of an inch to produce the best astronomical images possible how powerful will it be put it this way suntzeff saysif you were standing in dallas holding up a coin and the gmt was placed at texas a&m [about 175 miles away] it could tell you if it was a penny or a dime the site selected for the gmt is known as cerro las campanas about 7 800 feet above sea level notes suntzeff who worked at the nearby las campanas observatory for several years he says the site is ideal because of its dry climate clear skies high altitude and its access to southern skies construction will begin in 2010 and first light of the telescope is scheduled for 2016 we are entering a new era in the history of humanity where we find ourselves living in a large but finite universe suntzeff explains we are developing the tools to map everything out there this telescope will allow us to see to the other side of the universe right up to its edge the gmt will give us a better understanding of how the universe originated and how it is evolving to this day imagine the excitement if it proves there is life on other planets there is no doubt it will make new discoveries of planets and give us vital information about black holes dark matter dark energy and other things that are a complete mystery to us right now the power of this telescope will be almost beyond comprehension he adds its the most exciting astronomical project i have ever been in because we will be able to see things no one has ever seen before long-time texas a&m benefactor and alumnus george mitchell provided much of the support that has enabled texas a&m to become a founding partner of the gmt fry notes adding that mitchells initial gift to texas a&m carried a matching challenge for the university of texas that played a major role in bringing it into the consortium for more about the project go to wwwgmtoorg -atm- contact: dr nicholas b suntzeff at (979) 845-7717 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu or dr edward s fry at (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu or keith randall at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu " " college station einsteins self-proclaimed biggest blunder his postulation of a cosmological constant (a force that opposes gravity and keeps the universe from collapsing) may not be such a blunder after all according to the research of an international team of scientists that includes two texas a&m university researchers the team is working on a project called essence that studies supernovae (exploding stars) to figure out if dark energy the accelerating force of the universe is consistent with einsteins cosmological constant texas a&m astronomers nicholas suntzeff and kevin krisciunas are part of the project which began in october 2002 and is scheduled to end next month after achieving its goal of discovering and studying 200 supernovae the team uses a 4-meter diameter telescope in chile during the observing season of october to december to find the supernovae in 1917 einstein was working on his theory of general relativity and was trying to come up with an equation that describes a static universe one that stands still and does not collapse under the force of gravity in a big crunch in order to keep the universe static in his theory einstein introduced a cosmological constant a force that opposes the force of gravity then 12 years later edwin hubble discovered that the universe is not static it is actually expanding so einstein scrapped his idea of a cosmological constant and dismissed it as his biggest blunder in 1998 however two teams of scientists one of which texas a&m researcher suntzeff co-founded discovered that the universe is not only expanding but its expansion is actually accelerating going faster and faster so there had to be some other force that had overcome the force of gravity and is driving the universe into an exponential acceleration suntzeff said this opposing force is what scientists now call dark energy and it is believed to constitute roughly 74 percent of the universe the other constituents of the universe are dark matter which composes about 22 percent of the universe and ordinary matter which is about 4 percent eighty years later it turns out that einstein may have been right [about a cosmological constant] krisciunas said so he was smarter than he gave himself credit for the type of supernovae that the essence team studies all give off the same amount of energy and have essentially the same peak brightness researchers can compare the observed brightness of a supernova that they see in the sky to its known actual brightness to figure out how far away the supernova is researchers also look at what is called the redshift of the supernova which tells them how fast the universe is expanding when scientists compare the distance of the supernova to its redshift they can measure the acceleration of the expansion of the universe this acceleration is caused by the force scientists call dark energy the essence team can then use the value of the acceleration to figure out the density of dark energy which they then use to calculate what is called the w-parameter for einsteins cosmological constant to be correct the w-parameter must equal -1 and so far the results of the essence project seem to confirm that it is indeed very close to -1 the magic value is -1 exactly krisciunas said if the number turns out to be precisely -1 then this dark energy is a relatively simple thing it is einsteins cosmological constant the team wont have the final results until later next year but right now the measurement is coming in at -1 plus or minus 10 percent error suntzeff said so the initial data seems to point to einstein being correct we can never test [dark energy] in the laboratory so astronomers have to measure it [through observational data] and one of the ways were measuring it is with supernovae in the essence project suntzeff said dark energy is completely unexplained by conventional physics perhaps this is a manifestation of the 5th dimension from string theory or maybe it is a new vacuum energy density that is changing slowly in time we have no idea and that is what excites both physicists and astronomers -atm- contact: dr nick suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu or dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu or amelia williamson (979) 862-2694 or aaw11@tamuedu the post researchers examine einsteins theories appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " einsteins self-proclaimed biggest blunder his postulation of a cosmological constant (a force that opposes gravity and keeps the universe from collapsing) may not be such a blunder after all according to the research of an international team of scientists that includes two texas a&m university researchers the team is working on a project called essence that studies supernovae (exploding stars) to figure out if dark energy the accelerating force of the universe is consistent with einsteins cosmological constant texas a&m astronomers nicholas suntzeff and kevin krisciunas are part of the project which began in october 2002 and is scheduled to end next month after achieving its goal of discovering and studying 200 supernovae the team uses a 4-meter diameter telescope in chile during the observing season of october to december to find the supernovae in 1917 einstein was working on his theory of general relativity and was trying to come up with an equation that describes a static universe one that stands still and does not collapse under the force of gravity in a big crunch in order to keep the universe static in his theory einstein introduced a cosmological constant a force that opposes the force of gravity then 12 years later edwin hubble discovered that the universe is not static it is actually expanding so einstein scrapped his idea of a cosmological constant and dismissed it as his biggest blunder in 1998 however two teams of scientists one of which texas a&m researcher suntzeff co-founded discovered that the universe is not only expanding but its expansion is actually accelerating going faster and faster so there had to be some other force that had overcome the force of gravity and is driving the universe into an exponential acceleration suntzeff said this opposing force is what scientists now call dark energy and it is believed to constitute roughly 74 percent of the universe the other constituents of the universe are dark matter which composes about 22 percent of the universe and ordinary matter which is about 4 percent eighty years later it turns out that einstein may have been right [about a cosmological constant] krisciunas said so he was smarter than he gave himself credit for the type of supernovae that the essence team studies all give off the same amount of energy and have essentially the same peak brightness researchers can compare the observed brightness of a supernova that they see in the sky to its known actual brightness to figure out how far away the supernova is researchers also look at what is called the redshift of the supernova which tells them how fast the universe is expanding when scientists compare the distance of the supernova to its redshift they can measure the acceleration of the expansion of the universe this acceleration is caused by the force scientists call dark energy the essence team can then use the value of the acceleration to figure out the density of dark energy which they then use to calculate what is called the w-parameter for einsteins cosmological constant to be correct the w-parameter must equal -1 and so far the results of the essence project seem to confirm that it is indeed very close to -1 the magic value is -1 exactly krisciunas said if the number turns out to be precisely -1 then this dark energy is a relatively simple thing it is einsteins cosmological constant the team wont have the final results until later next year but right now the measurement is coming in at -1 plus or minus 10 percent error suntzeff said so the initial data seems to point to einstein being correct we can never test [dark energy] in the laboratory so astronomers have to measure it [through observational data] and one of the ways were measuring it is with supernovae in the essence project suntzeff said dark energy is completely unexplained by conventional physics perhaps this is a manifestation of the 5th dimension from string theory or maybe it is a new vacuum energy density that is changing slowly in time we have no idea and that is what excites both physicists and astronomers -atm- contact: dr nick suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu or dr kevin krisciunas (979) 845-7018 or krisciunas@physicstamuedu or amelia williamson (979) 862-2694 or aaw11@tamuedu " " college station just as he has for most of the last 30 years texas a&m university astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff spent the past week watching the night sky his obsession in this particular case was a comet particular more precisely because he didnt need a telescope in likely the biggest surprise in astronomy since pluto was declared a minor planet a comet that is normally dim and visible only with the help of powerful telescopes has erupted rendering it visible to the unaided eye from the northern hemisphere the only equipment required curiosity on oct 24 comet 17p/holmes shocked the astronomy world with a spectacular eruption brightening in less than 24 hours beyond its typical 17th magnitude to 3rd magnitude a factor of nearly one million in astronomical terms i can see the comet in the evening sky with my naked eye and with the moon down it is even easier suntzeff said you can even tell it is not a ‘star that is it is a fuzzy disk now comets usually have tails but strangely this comet has not developed one yet don carona manager of the texas a&m astronomical observatory in the department of physics is one of the thousands of international enthusiasts in addition to suntzeff who are following the intriguing progress of the comet affectionately known as holmes documenting the experience with the help of time-lapse photography this is one of the most interesting comets that ive studied carona said to brighten so quickly and expand so rapidly is nothing short of amazing i am surprised with each new image how much the comet has changed at present images suggest that it may be starting to distort itself images from tonight [halloween] should yield more information to view the comet (click for skymap) experts recommend heading outside after sunset and looking to the northeast for a yellow star with a brightness equivalent to the stars in the big dipper holmes will be visible in the constellation perseus located below the more familiar cassiopeia to get the best view carona suggests using binoculars to see caronas images or learn more about the texas a&m observatory visit http://observatorytamuedu/research/17p-holmes/ to view other photographs submitted from across the world go to http://spaceweathercom/comets/gallery_holmes_page6htm -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post elementary! holmes comet erupts to shock of curious world appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " just as he has for most of the last 30 years texas a&m university astronomer dr nicholas b suntzeff spent the past week watching the night sky his obsession in this particular case was a comet particular more precisely because he didnt need a telescope in likely the biggest surprise in astronomy since pluto was declared a minor planet a comet that is normally dim and visible only with the help of powerful telescopes has erupted rendering it visible to the unaided eye from the northern hemisphere the only equipment required curiosity on oct 24 comet 17p/holmes shocked the astronomy world with a spectacular eruption brightening in less than 24 hours beyond its typical 17th magnitude to 3rd magnitude a factor of nearly one million in astronomical terms i can see the comet in the evening sky with my naked eye and with the moon down it is even easier suntzeff said you can even tell it is not a ‘star that is it is a fuzzy disk now comets usually have tails but strangely this comet has not developed one yet don carona manager of the texas a&m astronomical observatory in the department of physics is one of the thousands of international enthusiasts in addition to suntzeff who are following the intriguing progress of the comet affectionately known as holmes documenting the experience with the help of time-lapse photography this is one of the most interesting comets that ive studied carona said to brighten so quickly and expand so rapidly is nothing short of amazing i am surprised with each new image how much the comet has changed at present images suggest that it may be starting to distort itself images from tonight [halloween] should yield more information to view the comet (click for skymap) experts recommend heading outside after sunset and looking to the northeast for a yellow star with a brightness equivalent to the stars in the big dipper holmes will be visible in the constellation perseus located below the more familiar cassiopeia to get the best view carona suggests using binoculars to see caronas images or learn more about the texas a&m observatory visit http://observatorytamuedu/research/17p-holmes/ to view other photographs submitted from across the world go to http://spaceweathercom/comets/gallery_holmes_page6htm -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station texas a&m university physicists dmitry s pestov and dr alexei v sokolov have been selected as the inaugural recipients of the robert s hyer research award of the texas section of the american physical society (tsaps) the award presented friday (oct 19) during a lunch ceremony as part of the two-day texas physics 2007 conference held on the texas a&m campus annually recognizes a student and his or her advisor for physics research that demonstrates both excellence and potential impact in the relevant scientific community each receives a plaque while the student recipient also merits a $500 prize sokolov an associate professor of physics at texas a&m since 2002 and pestov a research assistant under sokolovs mentorship in the texas a&m institute of quantum studies (iqs) headed by distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully were cited for their groundbreaking work as members of a joint texas a&m iqs-princeton university team that developed a new approach to detect biochemical molecules in real time using lasers their technique relies on an adapted form of coherent raman spectroscopy and has broad implications for a wide range of industries ranging from homeland security to health care your work among a very competitive group of nominations has set a wonderful standard of excellence for this award said dr dwight p russell tsaps chair and associate professor of physics at baylor university in an e-mail informing the pair of their honor the groups award-winning research was featured as a technical talk in fridays joint fall meeting of the tsaps as well as the texas sections of the american association of physics teachers and the society of physics students-zone 13 held in conjunction with texas physics 2007 the talk was but one of several hundred presentations by researchers and educators across texas and the world including two nobel laureates and scientists from top international institutions and research laboratories in the weekend showcase of global excellence in physics while working on the problem of real-time detection of warfare bioagents such as bacillus anthracies [anthrax] we came up with an effective scheme or rather a combination of laser pulses that manages to suppress meaningless optical background and pull out the so-called coherent anti-stokes raman scattering (cars) signal from spores which can be used as their finger-print pestov explained suppression of the background is the major challenge for practical applications of cars our approach turned out to work well even for such ‘unfriendly samples as powders and spores the teams research has appeared in a variety of prestigious publications since first being reported in science last april earning rave reviews from editorial boards as well as fellow scientists their experimental demonstration of spore detection is a huge accomplishment said dr szymon suckewer professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at princeton university and the winner of this years aps schawlow prize here at princeton we are very well familiar with this problem and for a number of years people kept repeating that spore detection by cars simply ‘cant be done well now it has been done! pestov pointed out that the technique which the team refers to as hybrid cars can be readily used for many other applications chemically-selective imaging (microscopy) non-invasive monitoring of glucose in blood and natural gas spectroscopy are just a few the group currently is investigating this is an important contribution to our fast cars project where the ideas of maximal molecular coherence have found an unexpected payoff in biological warfare detection as well as medical diagnostics and industrial application scully noted fridays award presentation was followed by a brief biographical lecture on the awards namesake robert s hyer delivered by his grandson beyond being the leading founder of southern methodist university hyer was described as fully dedicated to physics teaching and research to the extent that he beat guglielmo marconi long considered the grandfather of wireless communication to his nobel prize-winning discovery by a year according to evidence detailed in a contemporary newspaper account hyer also interacted with scott & white hospital in the early days of x-ray technology receiving an award named after such a distinguished person and scientist has been a truly humbling experience sokolov said an award given at this level is a huge honor for us i like to think of it as recognition for dr scullys institute for quantum studies as a whole texas physics 2007 was sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in conjunction with the national society for black physicists the national society for hispanic physicists and the forum on industrial & applied physics for more information on pestov and sokolovs research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/dpestov/ or http://facultyphysicstamuedu/sokol/sokolovhtm -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dmitry s pestov (979) 862-1328 or dspestov@gmailcom or dr alexei v sokolov (979) 845-7733 or sokol@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicists receive inaugural hyer research award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university physicists dmitry s pestov and dr alexei v sokolov have been selected as the inaugural recipients of the robert s hyer research award of the texas section of the american physical society (tsaps) the award presented friday (oct 19) during a lunch ceremony as part of the two-day texas physics 2007 conference held on the texas a&m campus annually recognizes a student and his or her advisor for physics research that demonstrates both excellence and potential impact in the relevant scientific community each receives a plaque while the student recipient also merits a $500 prize sokolov an associate professor of physics at texas a&m since 2002 and pestov a research assistant under sokolovs mentorship in the texas a&m institute of quantum studies (iqs) headed by distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully were cited for their groundbreaking work as members of a joint texas a&m iqs-princeton university team that developed a new approach to detect biochemical molecules in real time using lasers their technique relies on an adapted form of coherent raman spectroscopy and has broad implications for a wide range of industries ranging from homeland security to health care your work among a very competitive group of nominations has set a wonderful standard of excellence for this award said dr dwight p russell tsaps chair and associate professor of physics at baylor university in an e-mail informing the pair of their honor the groups award-winning research was featured as a technical talk in fridays joint fall meeting of the tsaps as well as the texas sections of the american association of physics teachers and the society of physics students-zone 13 held in conjunction with texas physics 2007 the talk was but one of several hundred presentations by researchers and educators across texas and the world including two nobel laureates and scientists from top international institutions and research laboratories in the weekend showcase of global excellence in physics while working on the problem of real-time detection of warfare bioagents such as bacillus anthracies [anthrax] we came up with an effective scheme or rather a combination of laser pulses that manages to suppress meaningless optical background and pull out the so-called coherent anti-stokes raman scattering (cars) signal from spores which can be used as their finger-print pestov explained suppression of the background is the major challenge for practical applications of cars our approach turned out to work well even for such ‘unfriendly samples as powders and spores the teams research has appeared in a variety of prestigious publications since first being reported in science last april earning rave reviews from editorial boards as well as fellow scientists their experimental demonstration of spore detection is a huge accomplishment said dr szymon suckewer professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at princeton university and the winner of this years aps schawlow prize here at princeton we are very well familiar with this problem and for a number of years people kept repeating that spore detection by cars simply ‘cant be done well now it has been done! pestov pointed out that the technique which the team refers to as hybrid cars can be readily used for many other applications chemically-selective imaging (microscopy) non-invasive monitoring of glucose in blood and natural gas spectroscopy are just a few the group currently is investigating this is an important contribution to our fast cars project where the ideas of maximal molecular coherence have found an unexpected payoff in biological warfare detection as well as medical diagnostics and industrial application scully noted fridays award presentation was followed by a brief biographical lecture on the awards namesake robert s hyer delivered by his grandson beyond being the leading founder of southern methodist university hyer was described as fully dedicated to physics teaching and research to the extent that he beat guglielmo marconi long considered the grandfather of wireless communication to his nobel prize-winning discovery by a year according to evidence detailed in a contemporary newspaper account hyer also interacted with scott & white hospital in the early days of x-ray technology receiving an award named after such a distinguished person and scientist has been a truly humbling experience sokolov said an award given at this level is a huge honor for us i like to think of it as recognition for dr scullys institute for quantum studies as a whole texas physics 2007 was sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in conjunction with the national society for black physicists the national society for hispanic physicists and the forum on industrial & applied physics for more information on pestov and sokolovs research visit http://peoplephysicstamuedu/dpestov/ or http://facultyphysicstamuedu/sokol/sokolovhtm -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dmitry s pestov (979) 862-1328 or dspestov@gmailcom or dr alexei v sokolov (979) 845-7733 or sokol@physicstamuedu " " college station local science enthusiasts and physics professionals throughout the lone star state are in for a texas-sized treat this weekend as texas a&m university plays host to the texas sections of three major professional groups and a two-day showcase of international excellence in physics texas physics 2007 is scheduled for friday-saturday oct 19-20 at rudder tower room 601 on the texas a&m campus in addition to public lectures and technical talks by internationally eminent physicists including nobel prize winners and scientists from some of the worlds premier institutions and research laboratories it will serve as the joint fall meeting for the texas sections of the american physical society the american association of physics teachers and the society of physics students–zone 13 tickets are not required for any of the free public lectures which cover a broad spectrum of interests as well as two languages (english and spanish) in two cases among the many highlights is the inaugural george p mitchell annual lecture in astronomy stardust: a nasa comet exploration mission to be delivered by the university of washingtons don brownlee at 4 pm saturday oct 20 as the conclusion to the public portion of the conference in addition to the public lectures the public is encouraged to explore a variety of physics-related experiments and displays as part of the 2007 hands-on physics gallery scheduled for saturday oct 20 from 10 am to 3 pm in the texas a&m chemistry building in conjunction with the annual chemistry open house and science exploration gallery beyond experiments and fun the event also will feature quizzes and door prizes texas physics 2007 is sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in conjunction with the national society for black physicists the national society for hispanic physicists and the forum on industrial & applied physics the mitchell institute was established in 2002 by george p and cynthia woods mitchell both of the woodlands to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature for complete details regarding texas physics 2007 including parking information and maps please visit the conference web site at http://txaps07physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr roland allen texas physics 2007 organizer (979) 845-4341 or allen@tamuedu the post physics to host texas professional groups and two-day conference appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " local science enthusiasts and physics professionals throughout the lone star state are in for a texas-sized treat this weekend as texas a&m university plays host to the texas sections of three major professional groups and a two-day showcase of international excellence in physics texas physics 2007 is scheduled for friday-saturday oct 19-20 at rudder tower room 601 on the texas a&m campus in addition to public lectures and technical talks by internationally eminent physicists including nobel prize winners and scientists from some of the worlds premier institutions and research laboratories it will serve as the joint fall meeting for the texas sections of the american physical society the american association of physics teachers and the society of physics students–zone 13 tickets are not required for any of the free public lectures which cover a broad spectrum of interests as well as two languages (english and spanish) in two cases among the many highlights is the inaugural george p mitchell annual lecture in astronomy stardust: a nasa comet exploration mission to be delivered by the university of washingtons don brownlee at 4 pm saturday oct 20 as the conclusion to the public portion of the conference in addition to the public lectures the public is encouraged to explore a variety of physics-related experiments and displays as part of the 2007 hands-on physics gallery scheduled for saturday oct 20 from 10 am to 3 pm in the texas a&m chemistry building in conjunction with the annual chemistry open house and science exploration gallery beyond experiments and fun the event also will feature quizzes and door prizes texas physics 2007 is sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics and the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in conjunction with the national society for black physicists the national society for hispanic physicists and the forum on industrial & applied physics the mitchell institute was established in 2002 by george p and cynthia woods mitchell both of the woodlands to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature for complete details regarding texas physics 2007 including parking information and maps please visit the conference web site at http://txaps07physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr roland allen texas physics 2007 organizer (979) 845-4341 or allen@tamuedu " " washington dc a site in northern chile has been selected as the new home for the future of astronomy the $500 million giant magellan telescope officials with the giant magellan telescope (gmt) consortium which includes texas a&m university and eight other partner institutions announced earlier this week that the gmt will be constructed at cerro las campanas chile the location was selected for its high altitude dry climate dark skies and unsurpassed seeing quality as well as its access to the southern skies this decision represents a critical step toward realizing our goal of building the premier next-generation astronomical observatory said dr wendy freedman leader of the gmt board and director of the observatories of the carnegie institution which operates las campanas excellent science has come from las campanas for several decades and the superb astronomical quality of the site is a significant contributor to this success scheduled for completion in 2016 the gmt will be the first of a new generation of ground-based telescopes because of its large size it will offer exceptional resolving power producing images up to 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope the gmt will be composed of seven 84-meter (275-foot) primary mirrors six of which will be off-axis encircling the seventh to produce a telescope with an effective aperture of 245 meters (80 feet) dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy at texas a&m spent 20 years at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile before coming to texas a&m in 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a first-rate astronomy program he applauded the group for a sound decision at a highly important phase in the overall gmt project the gmt builds on the partners collective experience in constructing and operating world-class telescopes suntzeff explained locating the telescope at a proven world-class mountain-top site in chile will maximize its productivity and cost effectiveness the las campanas observatory is home to the twin magellan telescopes the predecessors of the new instrument expected to help answer many of the questions at the forefront of astrophysics today as it poses new and unanticipated riddles for future generations of astronomers the giant magellan telescope represents the dawn of a new age of astronomical exploration stated dr charles alcock director of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics as telescopes get larger we are able to see fainter farther and with more clarity than ever before we can only predict a fraction of the scientific discoveries that will be made using this enormous telescope and the new insights into the universe that we will gain the first gmt mirror was cast from molten glass in july 2005 and is currently being polished at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror laboratory when completed in early 2009 the final surface will be smooth to an accuracy of 1 millionth of an inch and will follow the precise optical prescription needed to produce the best images theoretically possible the gmt is expected to open new avenues of scientific exploration including understanding the origin and evolution of planetary systems beyond our own; witnessing the formation of stars galaxies and black holes; and exploring the properties of dark matter and dark energy in the cosmos texas a&ms membership in the gmt was made possible by an initial $175 million gift from george and cynthia mitchell of the woodlands texas intended to bolster the universitys scientific development and leadership in physics astronomy and related focus areas the mitchells contributions to physics which include funding for two buildings 10 academic chairs and two professorships under the auspices of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as well as a 10-year collaboration between texas a&m and the university of cambridge total nearly $50 million since 2002 detailed information about the gmts design as well as the science it will perform is located at wwwgmtoorg for more on suntzeffs research and texas a&m astronomy visit his web site -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post site selected for construction of giant magellan telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a site in northern chile has been selected as the new home for the future of astronomy the $500 million giant magellan telescope officials with the giant magellan telescope (gmt) consortium which includes texas a&m university and eight other partner institutions announced earlier this week that the gmt will be constructed at cerro las campanas chile the location was selected for its high altitude dry climate dark skies and unsurpassed seeing quality as well as its access to the southern skies this decision represents a critical step toward realizing our goal of building the premier next-generation astronomical observatory said dr wendy freedman leader of the gmt board and director of the observatories of the carnegie institution which operates las campanas excellent science has come from las campanas for several decades and the superb astronomical quality of the site is a significant contributor to this success scheduled for completion in 2016 the gmt will be the first of a new generation of ground-based telescopes because of its large size it will offer exceptional resolving power producing images up to 10 times sharper than the hubble space telescope the gmt will be composed of seven 84-meter (275-foot) primary mirrors six of which will be off-axis encircling the seventh to produce a telescope with an effective aperture of 245 meters (80 feet) dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics and holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy at texas a&m spent 20 years at the national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile before coming to texas a&m in 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a first-rate astronomy program he applauded the group for a sound decision at a highly important phase in the overall gmt project the gmt builds on the partners collective experience in constructing and operating world-class telescopes suntzeff explained locating the telescope at a proven world-class mountain-top site in chile will maximize its productivity and cost effectiveness the las campanas observatory is home to the twin magellan telescopes the predecessors of the new instrument expected to help answer many of the questions at the forefront of astrophysics today as it poses new and unanticipated riddles for future generations of astronomers the giant magellan telescope represents the dawn of a new age of astronomical exploration stated dr charles alcock director of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics as telescopes get larger we are able to see fainter farther and with more clarity than ever before we can only predict a fraction of the scientific discoveries that will be made using this enormous telescope and the new insights into the universe that we will gain the first gmt mirror was cast from molten glass in july 2005 and is currently being polished at the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror laboratory when completed in early 2009 the final surface will be smooth to an accuracy of 1 millionth of an inch and will follow the precise optical prescription needed to produce the best images theoretically possible the gmt is expected to open new avenues of scientific exploration including understanding the origin and evolution of planetary systems beyond our own; witnessing the formation of stars galaxies and black holes; and exploring the properties of dark matter and dark energy in the cosmos texas a&ms membership in the gmt was made possible by an initial $175 million gift from george and cynthia mitchell of the woodlands texas intended to bolster the universitys scientific development and leadership in physics astronomy and related focus areas the mitchells contributions to physics which include funding for two buildings 10 academic chairs and two professorships under the auspices of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy as well as a 10-year collaboration between texas a&m and the university of cambridge total nearly $50 million since 2002 detailed information about the gmts design as well as the science it will perform is located at wwwgmtoorg for more on suntzeffs research and texas a&m astronomy visit his web site -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully has been selected as a 2007 morris loeb lecturer in physics at harvard university scully a world-renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics is the latest in a staggering line of internationally eminent scientists and mathematicians to receive the highly coveted command-performance opportunity the list of past loeb lecturers includes 40 nobel prize winners such as paul dirac enrico fermi werner heisenberg norman ramsey cn yang and many others with whom scully has conducted collaborative research including willis lamb julian schwinger charles townes and eugene p wigner additional names of note include freeman dyson (templeton prize) victor weiskopf (wolf prize) and edward witten (pitagora prize in mathematics) once again marlan scully brings great honor to his college and his colleagues with this most esteemed recognition of his research and general eminence in both quantum physics and outreach said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science his participation in this activity not only brings greater visibility to the quantum science initiative currently under way in texas but also to the department of physics college of science texas a&m university and the entire texas a&m university system as a loeb lecturer scully will travel to cambridge mass next spring to deliver a series of five lectures concerning the latest developments in his research into the foundations and applications of quantum physics from quantum erasure and quantum searching to using quantum coherence to make lasing without inversion and to detect anthrax marlan is as the saying goes a legend in his own time said dr dudley r herschbach 1986 nobel prize winner in chemistry and frank b baird jr professor of science at harvard who also holds a half-time faculty appointment in physics at texas a&m its hard to believe that hes one person because hes done so many things in science in so many different areas that one can only assume hes a tribe he has so many ideas and is so deeply focused on the fundamental basic questions in science that what he does invariably makes contact with a lot of other people and has great impact on their work hes the ideal loeb lecturer because im sure he will be prodding and challenging his audience with the kinds of questions and ideas that will prompt a very stimulating discussion a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max-planck society scully holds joint appointments as a professor at both texas a&m university and princeton university at texas a&m he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor in chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science a highly decorated researcher and scholar scully has received a number of awards and professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the elliott cresson medal from the franklin institute a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize and the arthur l schawlow prize from the american physical society the loeb lectureship is a fine and appropriate recognition for marlan and it also reflects nicely on texas a&m university herschbach added when people see that hes from texas a&m university they automatically think ‘gee that must be a special place if a guy like him chooses to make it his home base consider herschbach an expert in the so-called scully effect in 2005 he was drawn to texas a&m and scully whose research group at the institute for quantum studies had found a solution to dimensional scaling a problem that had long intrigued herschbach while at harvard herschbach cited his subsequent collaborative work with scully in chemical physics as a key factor in his decision to accept his current appointment at texas a&m to help explain not only scullys allure but also the relevance behind his loeb lecturer selection herschbach said one need look no further than to the passionate support of local sports teams its a curious thing that ordinary citizens identify themselves so strongly with the success of their local sports teams and athletes he explained if the home team does well it reflects on you and you feel good about that the same is true of the olympics we may not have heard of the swimmer or shot putter from college station who got the gold medal but i guarantee we will feel good about it we should feel the same way about our scientists when they deliver outstanding performances established by the harvard department of physics in 1953 under the terms of a bequest by morris loeb the loeb lectureship boasts a long and distinguished tradition both in advancing scholarly knowledge in physics and in recognizing those individuals most responsible for that advancement for more information on the series and past honorees visit http://wwwphysicsharvardedu/about/loebhtml -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post scully selected for eminent harvard lectureship appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully has been selected as a 2007 morris loeb lecturer in physics at harvard university scully a world-renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics is the latest in a staggering line of internationally eminent scientists and mathematicians to receive the highly coveted command-performance opportunity the list of past loeb lecturers includes 40 nobel prize winners such as paul dirac enrico fermi werner heisenberg norman ramsey cn yang and many others with whom scully has conducted collaborative research including willis lamb julian schwinger charles townes and eugene p wigner additional names of note include freeman dyson (templeton prize) victor weiskopf (wolf prize) and edward witten (pitagora prize in mathematics) once again marlan scully brings great honor to his college and his colleagues with this most esteemed recognition of his research and general eminence in both quantum physics and outreach said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science his participation in this activity not only brings greater visibility to the quantum science initiative currently under way in texas but also to the department of physics college of science texas a&m university and the entire texas a&m university system as a loeb lecturer scully will travel to cambridge mass next spring to deliver a series of five lectures concerning the latest developments in his research into the foundations and applications of quantum physics from quantum erasure and quantum searching to using quantum coherence to make lasing without inversion and to detect anthrax marlan is as the saying goes a legend in his own time said dr dudley r herschbach 1986 nobel prize winner in chemistry and frank b baird jr professor of science at harvard who also holds a half-time faculty appointment in physics at texas a&m its hard to believe that hes one person because hes done so many things in science in so many different areas that one can only assume hes a tribe he has so many ideas and is so deeply focused on the fundamental basic questions in science that what he does invariably makes contact with a lot of other people and has great impact on their work hes the ideal loeb lecturer because im sure he will be prodding and challenging his audience with the kinds of questions and ideas that will prompt a very stimulating discussion a member of the national academy of sciences academia europaea and the max-planck society scully holds joint appointments as a professor at both texas a&m university and princeton university at texas a&m he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics as well as a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station his multiple appointments also include associate dean for external relations in the college of science professor in chemistry and engineering and director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science a highly decorated researcher and scholar scully has received a number of awards and professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the elliott cresson medal from the franklin institute a guggenheim fellowship the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize and the arthur l schawlow prize from the american physical society the loeb lectureship is a fine and appropriate recognition for marlan and it also reflects nicely on texas a&m university herschbach added when people see that hes from texas a&m university they automatically think ‘gee that must be a special place if a guy like him chooses to make it his home base consider herschbach an expert in the so-called scully effect in 2005 he was drawn to texas a&m and scully whose research group at the institute for quantum studies had found a solution to dimensional scaling a problem that had long intrigued herschbach while at harvard herschbach cited his subsequent collaborative work with scully in chemical physics as a key factor in his decision to accept his current appointment at texas a&m to help explain not only scullys allure but also the relevance behind his loeb lecturer selection herschbach said one need look no further than to the passionate support of local sports teams its a curious thing that ordinary citizens identify themselves so strongly with the success of their local sports teams and athletes he explained if the home team does well it reflects on you and you feel good about that the same is true of the olympics we may not have heard of the swimmer or shot putter from college station who got the gold medal but i guarantee we will feel good about it we should feel the same way about our scientists when they deliver outstanding performances established by the harvard department of physics in 1953 under the terms of a bequest by morris loeb the loeb lectureship boasts a long and distinguished tradition both in advancing scholarly knowledge in physics and in recognizing those individuals most responsible for that advancement for more information on the series and past honorees visit http://wwwphysicsharvardedu/about/loebhtml -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " new york dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics at texas a&m university and a world-renowned expert in supernovae and cosmology is one of 52 international researchers who will share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize for their work toward the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the prestigious prize valued at $500 000 and widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology will be awarded to saul perlmutter and brian schmidt and their respective teams the supernova cosmology project and the high-z supernova search team for their simultaneous discovery that has radically changed our perception of cosmic evolution according to the citation suntzeff co-founded the high-z team along with schmidt in 1994 serving as the principal investigator on the discovery of the supernovae prior to that he co-founded a previous group the calan/tololo supernova project that used the brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams subsequent gruber prize-winning discovery the results from the calan/tololo survey and pioneering work on the search for distant supernovae by the perlmutter group set the stage for the measurement of deceleration or much to their surprise acceleration brian and i felt that we could also find these distant supernovae and using the calan/tololo calibrations measure the deceleration suntzeff explains we formed the high-z team from our mutual collaborators each year the high-z team gave its data to different groups at different institutions ensuring that the highest priority would be given to each part of the problem i am particularly proud that our work in the high-z team gave credit to the scientists who did much of the work the post-docs suntzeff adds our team has been unique in that almost all the papers we published had first authors who are post-docs including the 1998 discovery paper led by adam riess the two teams raced neck and neck toward a simultaneous conclusion that the universe was larger than it should be and therefore not in deceleration but rather acceleration the discovery since dubbed dark energy was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 this is precisely what a cosmological constant of einstein would do suntzeff notes the dark energy also makes the universe much older than one without it there was tremendous theoretical prejudice against a non-zero cosmological constant and our results were severely put to the test but our data and results have held up and are widely accepted since then we have refined the value of this dark energy no one understands what it is it may be a cosmological constant it may be some more complicated evolving energy field it may point to higher dimensions needed by string theory or it may mean that einsteins general theory of relativity is wrong but it is the dominant constituent of space and its properties determine the ultimate fate of our universe suntzeff inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 the gruber cosmology prize is awarded annually in honor of a leading cosmologist astronomer astrophysicist or scientific philosopher for theoretical analytical or conceptual discoveries leading to fundamental advances in the field the 2007 prize will be shared in four parts: by schmidt at the australian national university; perlmutter at the university of california berkeley; and the fifty-one co-authors of the key papers produced by each respective team suntzeff will be on hand to accept his share of the prize along with other members of the high-z team at a sept 7 ceremony at the university of cambridge the gruber prize is huge suntzeff says last years winners won the nobel prize this year beyond that obvious significance it recognizes the teamwork involved in research and not just its leaders our high-z team was group anarchy all post-docs and little external funding but we worked together extremely well in spite of this the gruber prize program honors contemporary individuals in the fields of cosmology genetics neuroscience justice and womens rights whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture the selection advisory boards choose individuals whose contributions in their respective fields advance our knowledge potentially have a profound impact on our lives and in the case of the justice and womens rights prizes demonstrate courage and commitment in the face of significant obstacles the peter and patricia gruber foundation honors and encourages educational excellence social justice and scientific achievements that better the human condition for more information about foundation guidelines and priorities please visit wwwgruberprizesorg to see the official press release from the gruber foundation as well as additional background on both the discovery and the recipients go to http://wwwgruberprizesorg/pressphp for more on suntzeffs research and texas a&m astronomy visit his web site – atm – contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physicist shares in $500 000 gruber cosmology prize appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr nicholas b suntzeff professor of physics at texas a&m university and a world-renowned expert in supernovae and cosmology is one of 52 international researchers who will share in the 2007 gruber cosmology prize for their work toward the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating the prestigious prize valued at $500 000 and widely acknowledged as second only to the nobel prize in terms of importance in the field of cosmology will be awarded to saul perlmutter and brian schmidt and their respective teams the supernova cosmology project and the high-z supernova search team for their simultaneous discovery that has radically changed our perception of cosmic evolution according to the citation suntzeff co-founded the high-z team along with schmidt in 1994 serving as the principal investigator on the discovery of the supernovae prior to that he co-founded a previous group the calan/tololo supernova project that used the brightness from a specific type of supernova type ia to produce not only a precise calibration but also a precise measurement of the hubble constant a key finding that paved the way for both teams subsequent gruber prize-winning discovery the results from the calan/tololo survey and pioneering work on the search for distant supernovae by the perlmutter group set the stage for the measurement of deceleration or much to their surprise acceleration brian and i felt that we could also find these distant supernovae and using the calan/tololo calibrations measure the deceleration suntzeff explains we formed the high-z team from our mutual collaborators each year the high-z team gave its data to different groups at different institutions ensuring that the highest priority would be given to each part of the problem i am particularly proud that our work in the high-z team gave credit to the scientists who did much of the work the post-docs suntzeff adds our team has been unique in that almost all the papers we published had first authors who are post-docs including the 1998 discovery paper led by adam riess the two teams raced neck and neck toward a simultaneous conclusion that the universe was larger than it should be and therefore not in deceleration but rather acceleration the discovery since dubbed dark energy was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 this is precisely what a cosmological constant of einstein would do suntzeff notes the dark energy also makes the universe much older than one without it there was tremendous theoretical prejudice against a non-zero cosmological constant and our results were severely put to the test but our data and results have held up and are widely accepted since then we have refined the value of this dark energy no one understands what it is it may be a cosmological constant it may be some more complicated evolving energy field it may point to higher dimensions needed by string theory or it may mean that einsteins general theory of relativity is wrong but it is the dominant constituent of space and its properties determine the ultimate fate of our universe suntzeff inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy within the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy came to texas a&m in spring 2006 to lead the universitys efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology prior to that he spent 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 the gruber cosmology prize is awarded annually in honor of a leading cosmologist astronomer astrophysicist or scientific philosopher for theoretical analytical or conceptual discoveries leading to fundamental advances in the field the 2007 prize will be shared in four parts: by schmidt at the australian national university; perlmutter at the university of california berkeley; and the fifty-one co-authors of the key papers produced by each respective team suntzeff will be on hand to accept his share of the prize along with other members of the high-z team at a sept 7 ceremony at the university of cambridge the gruber prize is huge suntzeff says last years winners won the nobel prize this year beyond that obvious significance it recognizes the teamwork involved in research and not just its leaders our high-z team was group anarchy all post-docs and little external funding but we worked together extremely well in spite of this the gruber prize program honors contemporary individuals in the fields of cosmology genetics neuroscience justice and womens rights whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture the selection advisory boards choose individuals whose contributions in their respective fields advance our knowledge potentially have a profound impact on our lives and in the case of the justice and womens rights prizes demonstrate courage and commitment in the face of significant obstacles the peter and patricia gruber foundation honors and encourages educational excellence social justice and scientific achievements that better the human condition for more information about foundation guidelines and priorities please visit wwwgruberprizesorg to see the official press release from the gruber foundation as well as additional background on both the discovery and the recipients go to http://wwwgruberprizesorg/pressphp for more on suntzeffs research and texas a&m astronomy visit his web site – atm – contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station tracey wellington a doctoral student in the department of physics at texas a&m university has been named director of the 2008 student research week (srw) committee by virtue of this appointment wellington is responsible for the coordination of all logistics for the 2008 srw competition including judges volunteers recruiting awards and advertisement the 2008 student research week competition is scheduled for march 24-28 2008 as a doctoral student wellingtons research focuses on the study of molecular magnets under the supervision of winfried teizer in the department of physics she is a recipient of the 2007 graduate student council guseman award for outstanding service to the organization as well as a national science foundation (nsf) integrative graduate education and research traineeship (igert) for 2006-2008 wellington received her undergraduate degree in mathematical physics from randolph college in lynchburg va in 2005 for more on wellington and her research visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/people/showpeoplephpname=tracey%20wellington&userid=twellington to learn more about student research week at texas a&m university go to http://srwtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post wellington to head 2008 student research week committee appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " tracey wellington a doctoral student in the department of physics at texas a&m university has been named director of the 2008 student research week (srw) committee by virtue of this appointment wellington is responsible for the coordination of all logistics for the 2008 srw competition including judges volunteers recruiting awards and advertisement the 2008 student research week competition is scheduled for march 24-28 2008 as a doctoral student wellingtons research focuses on the study of molecular magnets under the supervision of winfried teizer in the department of physics she is a recipient of the 2007 graduate student council guseman award for outstanding service to the organization as well as a national science foundation (nsf) integrative graduate education and research traineeship (igert) for 2006-2008 wellington received her undergraduate degree in mathematical physics from randolph college in lynchburg va in 2005 for more on wellington and her research visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/people/showpeoplephpname=tracey%20wellington&userid=twellington to learn more about student research week at texas a&m university go to http://srwtamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station two nobel prize-winning physicists will visit texas a&m university next week to deliver public lectures on two of the hottest topics in science particle physics and cosmology dr george f smoot an astrophysicist at lawrence berkeley national laboratory and professor of physics at the university of california-berkeley shared in the 2006 nobel prize in physics for his co-discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (cmb) in essence the cooling afterglow of the big bang on monday may 14 at 7:30 pm in rudder theater smoot will present the echoes of creation in which he will discuss recent discoveries related to this afterglow and how these insights are helping to define the origins of the universe dr leon m lederman director emeritus of fermi national accelerator laboratory and pritzker professor of science at the illinois institute of technology shared in the 1988 nobel prize in physics for work done in the 1960s with neutrinos veritable ghost-like building blocks of matter that led to major breakthroughs in the study of weak forces as well as the overall structure and dynamics of matter in sputnik frogs and science education scheduled for wednesday may 16 at 7:30 pm in rudder theater lederman will address some of the biggest advances in science and their relevance to our current knowledge base and educational efforts tickets are not required for either of the free lectures which are sponsored by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m department of physics as part of particle physics & cosmology (ppc) 2007 a weeklong international investigation into potential connections between new fundamental particles and their impact on the early universe and its evolution smoot and lederman are but two of the nearly 50 internationally eminent physicists participating in the landmark event the first under the umbrella of the recently endowed cambridge-texas a&m collaboration in cosmology established in 2006 with a gift from george p mitchell a 1940 petroleum engineering graduate and longtime benefactor of texas a&m along with matching funds from texas a&m the 10-year partnership will support a biannual conference as well as a physicist/scholar exchange between the two universities the collaboration is the latest in a series of gifts by mitchell and his wife cynthia intended to bolster texas a&ms scientific development and help position the university as a national leader in physics astronomy and related focus areas the mitchells contributions to physics which include funding for two buildings 10 academic chairs and two professorships as well as initial support for texas a&ms membership in the $500 million giant magellan telescope project total nearly $50 million since 2002 this has been a great spring for fundamental physics with the recent visits of world famous cosmologist stephen hawking and renowned astronomer rocky kolb and now this remarkable gathering on our campus said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science for more information on ppc 2007 either public lecture or other mitchell institute activities please visit http://ppc07physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post physics to host ppc 2007 two lectures by nobel prize winners appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " two nobel prize-winning physicists will visit texas a&m university next week to deliver public lectures on two of the hottest topics in science particle physics and cosmology dr george f smoot an astrophysicist at lawrence berkeley national laboratory and professor of physics at the university of california-berkeley shared in the 2006 nobel prize in physics for his co-discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (cmb) in essence the cooling afterglow of the big bang on monday may 14 at 7:30 pm in rudder theater smoot will present the echoes of creation in which he will discuss recent discoveries related to this afterglow and how these insights are helping to define the origins of the universe dr leon m lederman director emeritus of fermi national accelerator laboratory and pritzker professor of science at the illinois institute of technology shared in the 1988 nobel prize in physics for work done in the 1960s with neutrinos veritable ghost-like building blocks of matter that led to major breakthroughs in the study of weak forces as well as the overall structure and dynamics of matter in sputnik frogs and science education scheduled for wednesday may 16 at 7:30 pm in rudder theater lederman will address some of the biggest advances in science and their relevance to our current knowledge base and educational efforts tickets are not required for either of the free lectures which are sponsored by the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the texas a&m department of physics as part of particle physics & cosmology (ppc) 2007 a weeklong international investigation into potential connections between new fundamental particles and their impact on the early universe and its evolution smoot and lederman are but two of the nearly 50 internationally eminent physicists participating in the landmark event the first under the umbrella of the recently endowed cambridge-texas a&m collaboration in cosmology established in 2006 with a gift from george p mitchell a 1940 petroleum engineering graduate and longtime benefactor of texas a&m along with matching funds from texas a&m the 10-year partnership will support a biannual conference as well as a physicist/scholar exchange between the two universities the collaboration is the latest in a series of gifts by mitchell and his wife cynthia intended to bolster texas a&ms scientific development and help position the university as a national leader in physics astronomy and related focus areas the mitchells contributions to physics which include funding for two buildings 10 academic chairs and two professorships as well as initial support for texas a&ms membership in the $500 million giant magellan telescope project total nearly $50 million since 2002 this has been a great spring for fundamental physics with the recent visits of world famous cosmologist stephen hawking and renowned astronomer rocky kolb and now this remarkable gathering on our campus said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science for more information on ppc 2007 either public lecture or other mitchell institute activities please visit http://ppc07physicstamuedu/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station as texas a&m university finalizes preparations for parents weekend one of its biggest and busiest annual events science is proving to be one hot ticket across the campus and beyond days after announcement of university of cambridge physicist stephen hawkings april 15 public lecture at texas a&m his second appearance in aggieland in four years all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium were claimed as nearly 3 000 people jumped at their opportunity to hear the world-famous cosmologist widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein memorial student center box office officials report that less than 200 seats remain in one of two overflow rooms that will feature a live video feed of the 2:30 pm lecture the origin of the universe simulcast on overhead screens they advise anyone interested in these remaining seats priced at $3 for children and texas a&m students with ids or $5 for all others to act quickly by calling (979) 845-1234 or toll-free (888) 890-5667 once again we have a fantastic opportunity that brings texas a&m university to the forefront of international science said dr edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and holder of the george p mitchell chair in experimental physics we are exceptionally pleased that stephen hawking is coming and also with the long-term relationship we have built with cambridge following hawkings talk the public is invited to get up-close and personal with science at physics festival 2007 a hands-on exhibition featuring a homemade hovercraft a square-wheeled bicycle working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific concepts and principles admission is free for the show which will run from 3 to 7 pm in the rudder tower plaza middle and high school students are encouraged to participate in a related science contest to win cash prizes (online registration preferred at http://physicsfestivaltamuedu) prior to sundays events leading astrophysicist rocky kolb of the university of chicago will deliver a free public lecture the dark side of the universe saturday (april 14) at 6 pm in room 102 zachry building on the texas a&m campus tickets are not required but fry encouraged interested parties to arrive early as attendance will be limited to the rooms 340-seat capacity when rocky kolb was first here two years ago for a previous mitchell institute-sponsored conference he gave a public lecture that was universally praised fry added i anticipate a repeat performance in front of an equally packed house all events are sponsored by texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in conjunction with the department of physics and the texas a&m college of science the mitchell institute was established in 2002 by the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature for the latest details regarding physics festival 2007 including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post stephen hawking draws crowds spotlight to texas a&m physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as texas a&m university finalizes preparations for parents weekend one of its biggest and busiest annual events science is proving to be one hot ticket across the campus and beyond days after announcement of university of cambridge physicist stephen hawkings april 15 public lecture at texas a&m his second appearance in aggieland in four years all 2 500 seats in rudder auditorium were claimed as nearly 3 000 people jumped at their opportunity to hear the world-famous cosmologist widely considered to be the greatest scientific mind since sir isaac newton and albert einstein memorial student center box office officials report that less than 200 seats remain in one of two overflow rooms that will feature a live video feed of the 2:30 pm lecture the origin of the universe simulcast on overhead screens they advise anyone interested in these remaining seats priced at $3 for children and texas a&m students with ids or $5 for all others to act quickly by calling (979) 845-1234 or toll-free (888) 890-5667 once again we have a fantastic opportunity that brings texas a&m university to the forefront of international science said dr edward s fry professor and head of the texas a&m department of physics and holder of the george p mitchell chair in experimental physics we are exceptionally pleased that stephen hawking is coming and also with the long-term relationship we have built with cambridge following hawkings talk the public is invited to get up-close and personal with science at physics festival 2007 a hands-on exhibition featuring a homemade hovercraft a square-wheeled bicycle working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific concepts and principles admission is free for the show which will run from 3 to 7 pm in the rudder tower plaza middle and high school students are encouraged to participate in a related science contest to win cash prizes (online registration preferred at http://physicsfestivaltamuedu) prior to sundays events leading astrophysicist rocky kolb of the university of chicago will deliver a free public lecture the dark side of the universe saturday (april 14) at 6 pm in room 102 zachry building on the texas a&m campus tickets are not required but fry encouraged interested parties to arrive early as attendance will be limited to the rooms 340-seat capacity when rocky kolb was first here two years ago for a previous mitchell institute-sponsored conference he gave a public lecture that was universally praised fry added i anticipate a repeat performance in front of an equally packed house all events are sponsored by texas a&ms george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy in conjunction with the department of physics and the texas a&m college of science the mitchell institute was established in 2002 by the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature for the latest details regarding physics festival 2007 including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station the department of physics at texas a&m university invites science enthusiasts across the brazos valley and beyond to participate later this month in physics festival 2007 an entertaining and informative scientific extravaganza for all ages featuring a hands-on science exhibition and two public lectures by renowned physicists public events will kick off saturday april 14 with a 6 pm lecture the dark side of the universe by leading astrophysicist rocky kolb of the university of chicago tickets are not required for the free event which will be held in room 102 zachry building on the texas a&m campus stephen hawking the world renowned university of cambridge physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe will headline two other public events on sunday april 15 at 2:30 pm hawking will present the origin of the universe in rudder auditorium on the texas a&m campus tickets $3 for children and texas a&m students with ids or $5 for all others are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 following hawkings talk the public is invited to get up-close and personal with science at a hands-on exhibition featuring a homemade hovercraft a square-wheeled bicycle working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific concepts and principles there is no fee for the show which will run from 3 to 7 pm in the rudder tower plaza middle and high school students are encouraged to participate in a related science contest to win cash prizes (online registration preferred at http://physicsfestivaltamuedu) all events are being held in conjunction with the 2007 mitchell symposium on astronomy cosmology and fundamental physics an annual gathering of some of the worlds foremost experts intended to advance research and exploration in related subject areas hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his second in the past four years he initially visited the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands for the latest details regarding physics festival 2007 including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post stephen hawking to headline physics festival 2007 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics at texas a&m university invites science enthusiasts across the brazos valley and beyond to participate later this month in physics festival 2007 an entertaining and informative scientific extravaganza for all ages featuring a hands-on science exhibition and two public lectures by renowned physicists public events will kick off saturday april 14 with a 6 pm lecture the dark side of the universe by leading astrophysicist rocky kolb of the university of chicago tickets are not required for the free event which will be held in room 102 zachry building on the texas a&m campus stephen hawking the world renowned university of cambridge physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe will headline two other public events on sunday april 15 at 2:30 pm hawking will present the origin of the universe in rudder auditorium on the texas a&m campus tickets $3 for children and texas a&m students with ids or $5 for all others are available online through the memorial student center box office or via telephone at (979) 845-1234 or toll-free at (888) 890-5667 following hawkings talk the public is invited to get up-close and personal with science at a hands-on exhibition featuring a homemade hovercraft a square-wheeled bicycle working models of historic artillery and other fun experiments and displays illustrating basic scientific concepts and principles there is no fee for the show which will run from 3 to 7 pm in the rudder tower plaza middle and high school students are encouraged to participate in a related science contest to win cash prizes (online registration preferred at http://physicsfestivaltamuedu) all events are being held in conjunction with the 2007 mitchell symposium on astronomy cosmology and fundamental physics an annual gathering of some of the worlds foremost experts intended to advance research and exploration in related subject areas hawkings appearance at texas a&m will mark his second in the past four years he initially visited the campus in march 2003 to help to inaugurate the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy established with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands for the latest details regarding physics festival 2007 including event directions and parking information please visit http://physicsfestivaltamuedu -atm- contact: shana hutchins 979-862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station texas a&m university astrophysicist dr lifan wang and colleagues drs dietrich baade and ferdinando patat from the renowned european southern observatory (eso) in munich germany are reporting remarkable new findings that help shed light on a decade-long debate about one kind of supernova the explosion that marks a stars final demise: does the star die in a slow burn or with a fast bang after more than a decade spent observing type ia supernovae extraordinarily bright explosions used as standard candles in measuring cosmological distances wang and his eso collaborators have determined that the matter ejected by these explosions shows significant peripheral asymmetry but a nearly spherical interior most likely implying that the powerful explosions of the star finally propagate at supersonic speed their findings are reported today in science express the online version of the research journal science our results strongly suggest a two-stage explosion process in this type of supernova wang explains this is an important finding with important implications in cosmology using observations of 17 supernovae made with the esos very large telescope and the mcdonald observatorys otto struve telescope the astronomers inferred the shape and structure of the debris cloud thrown out from type ia supernovae which are thought to be the result of the explosion of a small and dense star a white dwarf within a binary system as its companion star continuously spills matter onto the white dwarf the white dwarf reaches a critical mass leading to a fatal instability and the supernova according to wang holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed career enhancement professorship in physics at texas a&m what sparks the initial explosion and how the blast travels through the star have long been thorny issues ones with major repercussions in the ongoing investigation of dark energy and the mysterious role it plays in the universe the supernovae wang and his colleagues observed occurred in distant galaxies and because of the vast cosmic distances could not be studied in detail using conventional imaging techniques including interferometry instead the team determined the shape of the exploding cocoons by recording the polarization of the light from the dying stars wang explains that polarimetry relies on the fact that light is composed of electromagnetic waves that oscillate in certain directions reflection or scattering of light favors certain orientations of the electric and magnetic fields over others this is why polarizing sunglasses can filter out the glint of sunlight reflected off a pond when light scatters through the expanding debris of a supernova it retains information about the orientation of the scattering layers if the supernova is spherically symmetric all orientations will be present equally and will average out resulting in no net polarization if however the gas shell is not round a slight net polarization will be imprinted on the light if additional spectral information is available (spectro-polarimetry) wang notes that one can determine whether the asymmetry is in the continuum light or in some spectral lines in the case of the type ia supernovae the team found that the continuum polarization is very small resulting in the explosions crudely spherical overall shape however the much larger polarization in strongly blue-shifted spectral lines indicates the presence in the outer regions of fast-moving clumps with peculiar chemical composition our study reveals that explosions of type ia supernovae are really three-dimensional phenomena baade notes the outer regions of the blast cloud are asymmetric with different materials found in ‘clumps while the inner regions are smooth the researchers credit the discovery in large part to vast resources of the eso one of the worlds biggest and most prestigious observatories this study was possible because polarimetry could unfold its full strength thanks to the light-collecting power of the very large telescope and the very precise calibration of the fors [focal reducer/low dispersion spectrograph] instrument baade adds although the team first spotted this asymmetry in 2003 their new more extensive results show that the degree of polarization and hence the asphericity correlates with the intrinsic brightness of the explosion the brighter the supernova the smoother or less clumpy it is this has some impact on the use of type ia supernovae as standard candles patat says this kind of supernova is used to measure the rate of acceleration of the expansion of the universe assuming these objects behave in a uniform way but asymmetries can introduce dispersions in the quantities observed our discovery puts strong constraints on any successful models of thermonuclear supernova explosions wang adds popular models of type ia supernovae have suggested that the clumpiness may be caused by a slow-burn process called deflagration which leaves an irregular trail of ashes the smoothness of the inner regions of the exploding star implies that at a given stage the deflagration gives way to a more violent process a detonation that travels at supersonic speeds so fast that it erases all the asymmetries in the central region of the ashes left behind by the slower burning of the first stage resulting in a smoother more homogeneous residue to learn more about wang and his research visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/people/showpeoplephpname=lifan%20wang&userid=wang for more information on baade and patat or the eso visit http://wwwesoorg/ -atm- the results presented here are reported in spectropolarimetric diagnostics of thermonuclear explosions by lifan wang dietrich baade and ferdinando patat science express 30 november 2006 contacts: dr lifan wang (979) 845-7717 or wang@physicstamuedu; dr dietrich baade +49 89 3200 6388 or dbaade@esoorg; dr ferdinando patat +49 89 3200 6388 6744 or fpatat@esoorg the post asymmetric ashes: astronomers study shape of stellar candles appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university astrophysicist dr lifan wang and colleagues drs dietrich baade and ferdinando patat from the renowned european southern observatory (eso) in munich germany are reporting remarkable new findings that help shed light on a decade-long debate about one kind of supernova the explosion that marks a stars final demise: does the star die in a slow burn or with a fast bang after more than a decade spent observing type ia supernovae extraordinarily bright explosions used as standard candles in measuring cosmological distances wang and his eso collaborators have determined that the matter ejected by these explosions shows significant peripheral asymmetry but a nearly spherical interior most likely implying that the powerful explosions of the star finally propagate at supersonic speed their findings are reported today in science express the online version of the research journal science our results strongly suggest a two-stage explosion process in this type of supernova wang explains this is an important finding with important implications in cosmology using observations of 17 supernovae made with the esos very large telescope and the mcdonald observatorys otto struve telescope the astronomers inferred the shape and structure of the debris cloud thrown out from type ia supernovae which are thought to be the result of the explosion of a small and dense star a white dwarf within a binary system as its companion star continuously spills matter onto the white dwarf the white dwarf reaches a critical mass leading to a fatal instability and the supernova according to wang holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed career enhancement professorship in physics at texas a&m what sparks the initial explosion and how the blast travels through the star have long been thorny issues ones with major repercussions in the ongoing investigation of dark energy and the mysterious role it plays in the universe the supernovae wang and his colleagues observed occurred in distant galaxies and because of the vast cosmic distances could not be studied in detail using conventional imaging techniques including interferometry instead the team determined the shape of the exploding cocoons by recording the polarization of the light from the dying stars wang explains that polarimetry relies on the fact that light is composed of electromagnetic waves that oscillate in certain directions reflection or scattering of light favors certain orientations of the electric and magnetic fields over others this is why polarizing sunglasses can filter out the glint of sunlight reflected off a pond when light scatters through the expanding debris of a supernova it retains information about the orientation of the scattering layers if the supernova is spherically symmetric all orientations will be present equally and will average out resulting in no net polarization if however the gas shell is not round a slight net polarization will be imprinted on the light if additional spectral information is available (spectro-polarimetry) wang notes that one can determine whether the asymmetry is in the continuum light or in some spectral lines in the case of the type ia supernovae the team found that the continuum polarization is very small resulting in the explosions crudely spherical overall shape however the much larger polarization in strongly blue-shifted spectral lines indicates the presence in the outer regions of fast-moving clumps with peculiar chemical composition our study reveals that explosions of type ia supernovae are really three-dimensional phenomena baade notes the outer regions of the blast cloud are asymmetric with different materials found in ‘clumps while the inner regions are smooth the researchers credit the discovery in large part to vast resources of the eso one of the worlds biggest and most prestigious observatories this study was possible because polarimetry could unfold its full strength thanks to the light-collecting power of the very large telescope and the very precise calibration of the fors [focal reducer/low dispersion spectrograph] instrument baade adds although the team first spotted this asymmetry in 2003 their new more extensive results show that the degree of polarization and hence the asphericity correlates with the intrinsic brightness of the explosion the brighter the supernova the smoother or less clumpy it is this has some impact on the use of type ia supernovae as standard candles patat says this kind of supernova is used to measure the rate of acceleration of the expansion of the universe assuming these objects behave in a uniform way but asymmetries can introduce dispersions in the quantities observed our discovery puts strong constraints on any successful models of thermonuclear supernova explosions wang adds popular models of type ia supernovae have suggested that the clumpiness may be caused by a slow-burn process called deflagration which leaves an irregular trail of ashes the smoothness of the inner regions of the exploding star implies that at a given stage the deflagration gives way to a more violent process a detonation that travels at supersonic speeds so fast that it erases all the asymmetries in the central region of the ashes left behind by the slower burning of the first stage resulting in a smoother more homogeneous residue to learn more about wang and his research visit http://wwwphysicstamuedu/people/showpeoplephpname=lifan%20wang&userid=wang for more information on baade and patat or the eso visit http://wwwesoorg/ -atm- the results presented here are reported in spectropolarimetric diagnostics of thermonuclear explosions by lifan wang dietrich baade and ferdinando patat science express 30 november 2006 contacts: dr lifan wang (979) 845-7717 or wang@physicstamuedu; dr dietrich baade +49 89 3200 6388 or dbaade@esoorg; dr ferdinando patat +49 89 3200 6388 6744 or fpatat@esoorg " " college station dr dimitri nanopoulos a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and one of the worlds most noted researchers in high-energy physics has been selected by the alexander s onassis public benefit foundation to receive the 2006 onassis international prize in honor of his achievements in the natural sciences nanopoulos onassis prize is one of four that will be presented wednesday (october 18) by the president of the hellenic republic his excellency mr carolos papoulias in an official ceremony in athens greece established by the onassis foundation in 1978 the international prizes program honors individuals and organizations that provide services in specific areas including culture social contribution and the environment each award consists of a silver and gold medal a scroll and a $200 000 cash prize nanopoulos a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1989 and holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics since 2002 has pioneered some of the most important links between the present understanding of high-energy physics and the ultimate unification of the universe with superstrings his many contributions to research and scholarly knowledge have impacted related fields ranging from particle physics and cosmology to fundamental quantum theory and quantum-inspired models of brain function i am humbled and honored both for myself and for scientists worldwide because i believe this is the first time the onassis foundation has given an international prize recognizing basic science nanopoulos explains i think it is quite impressive for them to take such a turn because it shows we have an impact on society when i started in cosmology people were saying it was for cuckoos now in part because of the recent nobel prize that helps to legitimize it as a field im pleased to say it is recognized as a precise science dr samuel cc ting an american physicist who shared in the 1976 nobel prize for physics for his discovery of the j/psi particle credits nanopoulos as one of the founders of grand unified theory (gut) which ting describes as an effective way to combine gravitation electroweak and strong forces a dream of every physicist since einstein he and texas a&m physics professor peter mcintyre currently are testing nanopoulos theory with an experiment on the international space station that they hope will provide answers to some of the biggest questions of cosmology you are truly a giant in modern physics ting told nanopoulos in a congratulatory electronic mail message your award is richly deserved and i sincerely hope in the near future you will receive other recognition mcintyre who has known nanopoulos for 30 years since they first met in the late 1970s as research fellows working with respective nobel prize winners carlo rubbia and steven weinberg at harvard university will accompany nanopoulos to athens and deliver introductory remarks on his behalf one measure of a scientist is his choice of problems mcintyre says many scientists have keen intellects and mastery of the science of the day but a challenging problem typically takes years of effort to master and it is therefore imperative to choose those golden problems that have the potential to make a major breakthrough in how we view nature by this highest of standards dimitri has shown his mettle not once but now several times over texas is proud of dimitri greece is proud of dimitri and i expect that his greatest work is yet to come wednesdays ceremony will commemorate the onassis foundations 30th anniversary as well as the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder legendary greek shipping magnate and self-made billionaire aristotle onassis as part of a month-long celebration of onassis life it is expected to be attended by more than 2 500 guests including government dignitaries academicians foreign diplomats and representatives of greek cultural and social circles nanopoulos notes that the 2006 prizes are particularly unique because they are the first to be awarded since 2000 the year the foundation opted to bestow future prizes only upon special resolution on the basis of indisputable merit rather than time or custom prior to 2000 prizes were awarded either annually (1978 to 1992) or biannually (1993 to 2000) nanopoulos who also serves as head of the houston advanced research center (harc) astroparticle physics group and of a research department of the world laboratory based in switzerland has authored 13 books and more than 550 refereed articles his work has been cited by other authors more than 30 500 times ranking him as the fourth-most-cited high-energy physicist of all time in 2005 nanopoulos was appointed as president of the greek national council for research and technology and as greeces national representative to both the european laboratory for particle physics (cern) and the european space agency (esa) in 1997 he became the youngest member elected to the academy of athens natural and applied sciences a fellow of the american physical society (aps) nanopoulos is a two-time winner of the gravity research foundations annual essay prize most recently in 2005 the celebration year of the 100th anniversary of einsteins theory of relativity he is a graduate of the university of athens and received his doctorate from the university of sussex in england to learn more about nanopoulos and his research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/dimitri/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr dimitri nanopoulos (979) 845-7790 or dimitri@physicstamuedu the post nanopoulos honored with onassis international prize appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr dimitri nanopoulos a distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and one of the worlds most noted researchers in high-energy physics has been selected by the alexander s onassis public benefit foundation to receive the 2006 onassis international prize in honor of his achievements in the natural sciences nanopoulos onassis prize is one of four that will be presented wednesday (october 18) by the president of the hellenic republic his excellency mr carolos papoulias in an official ceremony in athens greece established by the onassis foundation in 1978 the international prizes program honors individuals and organizations that provide services in specific areas including culture social contribution and the environment each award consists of a silver and gold medal a scroll and a $200 000 cash prize nanopoulos a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1989 and holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics since 2002 has pioneered some of the most important links between the present understanding of high-energy physics and the ultimate unification of the universe with superstrings his many contributions to research and scholarly knowledge have impacted related fields ranging from particle physics and cosmology to fundamental quantum theory and quantum-inspired models of brain function i am humbled and honored both for myself and for scientists worldwide because i believe this is the first time the onassis foundation has given an international prize recognizing basic science nanopoulos explains i think it is quite impressive for them to take such a turn because it shows we have an impact on society when i started in cosmology people were saying it was for cuckoos now in part because of the recent nobel prize that helps to legitimize it as a field im pleased to say it is recognized as a precise science dr samuel cc ting an american physicist who shared in the 1976 nobel prize for physics for his discovery of the j/psi particle credits nanopoulos as one of the founders of grand unified theory (gut) which ting describes as an effective way to combine gravitation electroweak and strong forces a dream of every physicist since einstein he and texas a&m physics professor peter mcintyre currently are testing nanopoulos theory with an experiment on the international space station that they hope will provide answers to some of the biggest questions of cosmology you are truly a giant in modern physics ting told nanopoulos in a congratulatory electronic mail message your award is richly deserved and i sincerely hope in the near future you will receive other recognition mcintyre who has known nanopoulos for 30 years since they first met in the late 1970s as research fellows working with respective nobel prize winners carlo rubbia and steven weinberg at harvard university will accompany nanopoulos to athens and deliver introductory remarks on his behalf one measure of a scientist is his choice of problems mcintyre says many scientists have keen intellects and mastery of the science of the day but a challenging problem typically takes years of effort to master and it is therefore imperative to choose those golden problems that have the potential to make a major breakthrough in how we view nature by this highest of standards dimitri has shown his mettle not once but now several times over texas is proud of dimitri greece is proud of dimitri and i expect that his greatest work is yet to come wednesdays ceremony will commemorate the onassis foundations 30th anniversary as well as the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder legendary greek shipping magnate and self-made billionaire aristotle onassis as part of a month-long celebration of onassis life it is expected to be attended by more than 2 500 guests including government dignitaries academicians foreign diplomats and representatives of greek cultural and social circles nanopoulos notes that the 2006 prizes are particularly unique because they are the first to be awarded since 2000 the year the foundation opted to bestow future prizes only upon special resolution on the basis of indisputable merit rather than time or custom prior to 2000 prizes were awarded either annually (1978 to 1992) or biannually (1993 to 2000) nanopoulos who also serves as head of the houston advanced research center (harc) astroparticle physics group and of a research department of the world laboratory based in switzerland has authored 13 books and more than 550 refereed articles his work has been cited by other authors more than 30 500 times ranking him as the fourth-most-cited high-energy physicist of all time in 2005 nanopoulos was appointed as president of the greek national council for research and technology and as greeces national representative to both the european laboratory for particle physics (cern) and the european space agency (esa) in 1997 he became the youngest member elected to the academy of athens natural and applied sciences a fellow of the american physical society (aps) nanopoulos is a two-time winner of the gravity research foundations annual essay prize most recently in 2005 the celebration year of the 100th anniversary of einsteins theory of relativity he is a graduate of the university of athens and received his doctorate from the university of sussex in england to learn more about nanopoulos and his research visit http://facultyphysicstamuedu/dimitri/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr dimitri nanopoulos (979) 845-7790 or dimitri@physicstamuedu " " college station dr christopher n pope professor of physics and director of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been appointed to the rank of distinguished professor effective september 1 2006 widely respected as an international leader in the development of strings and m-theory pope is considered one of the worlds most active current researchers in high-energy theory his 25-year career at the forefront of theoretical physics includes more than 250 publications and 8 000 citations along the way he has been heavily involved in every step of the search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity which successfully unifies all the fundamental forces in nature we are very fortunate to have such a world-renowned physicist here at texas a&m said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science dr pope brings great honor to physics to science and to texas a&m by virtue of the appointment pope joins an elite group of approximately 65 currently appointed distinguished professors at texas a&m the coveted title which represents the highest academic rank a faculty member can attain at texas a&m is reserved for faculty members who are recognized by their peers as being among the top five percent in their fields worldwide for making major contributions that have redirected the flow of related research or scholarship pope who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1988 completed his doctorate while studying under world-renowned theoretical physicist stephen hawking and is considered one of hawkings most successful students and closest collaborators fittingly pope was honored in 2002 as the inaugural recipient of texas a&ms stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics in the short years since pope has done justice to his chair namesake and former advisor by helping to elevate the mitchell institute and in turn texas a&m physics to international prominence at near light speed each spring the institute attracts a whos-who listing of the globes most eminent physicists to the texas a&m campus for a week of lectures and face-to-face interactions with university faculty and students this past spring pope proved instrumental in brokering a 10-year partnership between texas a&m and cambridge university that will result in an exchange of faculty and students as well as a biannual conference series between the two universities i am deeply honored by this promotion to distinguished professor pope said i believe my work in theoretical physics has been aided greatly by the mitchells continuing support in setting up the institute and the associated endowed chairs i look forward to helping to develop the activities of the institute further especially the collaboration with the centre for theoretical cosmology in cambridge during the last few years the texas a&m department of physics has been making great strides in international recognition and reputation advances in which pope has played a crucial role according to dr edward s fry professor and head of the department we are extremely pleased to have chris pope as a member of our faculty and to see this well-deserved recognition fry added pope received his bachelors and masters degrees from clare college cambridge as well as a phd from st johns college cambridge after completing a research fellowship at imperial college in london he spent a year at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) before taking a position as associate professor at the university of southern california and later moving to texas a&m university in 1988 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher n pope (979) 845-7793 or pope@physicstamuedu the post pope named distinguished professor of physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr christopher n pope professor of physics and director of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been appointed to the rank of distinguished professor effective september 1 2006 widely respected as an international leader in the development of strings and m-theory pope is considered one of the worlds most active current researchers in high-energy theory his 25-year career at the forefront of theoretical physics includes more than 250 publications and 8 000 citations along the way he has been heavily involved in every step of the search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity which successfully unifies all the fundamental forces in nature we are very fortunate to have such a world-renowned physicist here at texas a&m said dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science dr pope brings great honor to physics to science and to texas a&m by virtue of the appointment pope joins an elite group of approximately 65 currently appointed distinguished professors at texas a&m the coveted title which represents the highest academic rank a faculty member can attain at texas a&m is reserved for faculty members who are recognized by their peers as being among the top five percent in their fields worldwide for making major contributions that have redirected the flow of related research or scholarship pope who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1988 completed his doctorate while studying under world-renowned theoretical physicist stephen hawking and is considered one of hawkings most successful students and closest collaborators fittingly pope was honored in 2002 as the inaugural recipient of texas a&ms stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics in the short years since pope has done justice to his chair namesake and former advisor by helping to elevate the mitchell institute and in turn texas a&m physics to international prominence at near light speed each spring the institute attracts a whos-who listing of the globes most eminent physicists to the texas a&m campus for a week of lectures and face-to-face interactions with university faculty and students this past spring pope proved instrumental in brokering a 10-year partnership between texas a&m and cambridge university that will result in an exchange of faculty and students as well as a biannual conference series between the two universities i am deeply honored by this promotion to distinguished professor pope said i believe my work in theoretical physics has been aided greatly by the mitchells continuing support in setting up the institute and the associated endowed chairs i look forward to helping to develop the activities of the institute further especially the collaboration with the centre for theoretical cosmology in cambridge during the last few years the texas a&m department of physics has been making great strides in international recognition and reputation advances in which pope has played a crucial role according to dr edward s fry professor and head of the department we are extremely pleased to have chris pope as a member of our faculty and to see this well-deserved recognition fry added pope received his bachelors and masters degrees from clare college cambridge as well as a phd from st johns college cambridge after completing a research fellowship at imperial college in london he spent a year at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) before taking a position as associate professor at the university of southern california and later moving to texas a&m university in 1988 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher n pope (979) 845-7793 or pope@physicstamuedu " " college station internationally recognized astronomer and cosmologist dr nicholas b suntzeff has been appointed as professor of physics and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the department of physics at texas a&m university announced dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science suntzeff comes to texas a&m after 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 as holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair he will be expected to apply his considerable scientific and administrative talents to lead texas a&ms efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology we are indeed fortunate to have attracted an astronomer as eminent as dr suntzeff to lay the foundation of our astronomy program newton said a leading expert in cosmology and stellar populations suntzeff has authored more than 180 research publications and is a frequent lecturer at international scientific conferences he is perhaps best known for his work on observations of large redshift supernovas that identified an unexpected acceleration in the expansion of the universe a discovery which was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 this groundbreaking finding provided the first evidence of a mysterious energy that comprises 75 percent of the material of the universe and when added to the other components of the universe makes it geometrically flat suntzeff describes the measurement and understanding of this energy which acts as an anti-gravity as perhaps the most exciting question in the physical sciences today he said albert einstein himself predicted this very energy as a cosmological constant to explain his concept for a static universe although einstein later called this prediction his worst blunder when edwin hubble discovered the expansion of the universe suntzeff said the discovery of dark energy has now revived this concept a decorated researcher and scholar suntzeff is a two-time winner of the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) science award for his research on supernova sn1987a (1992) and cosmology (1999) he also is a co-recipient of the 1983 robert j trumpler award given annually by the astronomical society of the pacific in recognition of the most outstanding astronomy thesis of the year granted at north american universities we are ecstatic that dr suntzeff is joining our faculty said dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics we consider him a keystone in the development of a top 10 program in astronomy at texas a&m a native of corte madera california suntzeff received his bachelor of science in mathematics with distinction from stanford university in 1974 after earning his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics at lick observatory university of california at santa cruz in 1980 he served two years as a post-doctoral research associate in the department of astronomy at the university of washington prior to joining the noao team in chile in 1986 suntzeff spent four years as a carnegie fellow at the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington one of eight current partners along with texas a&m in the giant magellan telescope consortium (gmtc) which seeks to build a telescope that will not only rank as the worlds largest but also be capable of producing images 10 times sharper than those of the hubble i believe that texas a&m university offers a unique opportunity to build a first-rate astronomy program suntzeff said many factors have come together to allow this to happen strong support from the university deep interest in astrophysics in the department of physics a world-class engineering program student interest at texas a&m and donors who see texas a&m becoming an important center of excellence in astronomical sciences i look forward to helping texas a&m university grow into a premier astronomical university the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair was established in 2005 to attract or retain a senior faculty member in the department of physics with the financial support of two stellar texas a&m former students george p mitchell 40 whose nearly $49 million in contributions to texas a&m physics includes $325 million in gifts to support texas a&ms participation in the giant magellan telescope project and dr charles r munnerlyn 62 a laser-vision correction systems pioneer amateur astronomer and member of the college of sciences academy of distinguished former students who earned his a&m degree in physics and whose own instrumental support of his alma maters astronomy efforts now totals more than $3 million their contributions were matched by the herman f heep and minnie belle heep texas a&m university foundation to create a chair valued at $2 million which is among the universitys largest -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu the post preeminent astronomy expert tapped to head new a&m program appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " internationally recognized astronomer and cosmologist dr nicholas b suntzeff has been appointed as professor of physics and inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn endowed chair in observational astronomy in the department of physics at texas a&m university announced dr h joseph newton dean of the college of science suntzeff comes to texas a&m after 20 years at the united states national optical astronomy observatory (noao)/cerro tololo inter-american observatory in la serena chile where he was the associate director for science for noao and a tenured astronomer since 1996 as holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair he will be expected to apply his considerable scientific and administrative talents to lead texas a&ms efforts to build a world-renowned program in astronomy and cosmology we are indeed fortunate to have attracted an astronomer as eminent as dr suntzeff to lay the foundation of our astronomy program newton said a leading expert in cosmology and stellar populations suntzeff has authored more than 180 research publications and is a frequent lecturer at international scientific conferences he is perhaps best known for his work on observations of large redshift supernovas that identified an unexpected acceleration in the expansion of the universe a discovery which was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year in 1998 this groundbreaking finding provided the first evidence of a mysterious energy that comprises 75 percent of the material of the universe and when added to the other components of the universe makes it geometrically flat suntzeff describes the measurement and understanding of this energy which acts as an anti-gravity as perhaps the most exciting question in the physical sciences today he said albert einstein himself predicted this very energy as a cosmological constant to explain his concept for a static universe although einstein later called this prediction his worst blunder when edwin hubble discovered the expansion of the universe suntzeff said the discovery of dark energy has now revived this concept a decorated researcher and scholar suntzeff is a two-time winner of the association of universities for research in astronomy inc (aura) science award for his research on supernova sn1987a (1992) and cosmology (1999) he also is a co-recipient of the 1983 robert j trumpler award given annually by the astronomical society of the pacific in recognition of the most outstanding astronomy thesis of the year granted at north american universities we are ecstatic that dr suntzeff is joining our faculty said dr edward s fry professor and head of the department of physics we consider him a keystone in the development of a top 10 program in astronomy at texas a&m a native of corte madera california suntzeff received his bachelor of science in mathematics with distinction from stanford university in 1974 after earning his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics at lick observatory university of california at santa cruz in 1980 he served two years as a post-doctoral research associate in the department of astronomy at the university of washington prior to joining the noao team in chile in 1986 suntzeff spent four years as a carnegie fellow at the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington one of eight current partners along with texas a&m in the giant magellan telescope consortium (gmtc) which seeks to build a telescope that will not only rank as the worlds largest but also be capable of producing images 10 times sharper than those of the hubble i believe that texas a&m university offers a unique opportunity to build a first-rate astronomy program suntzeff said many factors have come together to allow this to happen strong support from the university deep interest in astrophysics in the department of physics a world-class engineering program student interest at texas a&m and donors who see texas a&m becoming an important center of excellence in astronomical sciences i look forward to helping texas a&m university grow into a premier astronomical university the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair was established in 2005 to attract or retain a senior faculty member in the department of physics with the financial support of two stellar texas a&m former students george p mitchell 40 whose nearly $49 million in contributions to texas a&m physics includes $325 million in gifts to support texas a&ms participation in the giant magellan telescope project and dr charles r munnerlyn 62 a laser-vision correction systems pioneer amateur astronomer and member of the college of sciences academy of distinguished former students who earned his a&m degree in physics and whose own instrumental support of his alma maters astronomy efforts now totals more than $3 million their contributions were matched by the herman f heep and minnie belle heep texas a&m university foundation to create a chair valued at $2 million which is among the universitys largest -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 458-1786 or suntzeff@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university president robert m gates and longtime donor george p mitchell 40 along with other university and texas a&m system officials broke ground yesterday on two new physics buildings on campus made possible by a $35 million gift from mitchell and his wife cynthia the groundbreaking ceremonies for the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and for the george p mitchell 40 physics building mark the first step in a $57 million construction program designed to help move texas a&m into the front ranks of fundamental physics and astronomy the joined buildings will have floor space totaling more than 150 000 square feet and include an array of laboratories classrooms offices and an auditorium university officials noted mitchell said he and his wife wanted to give back to his alma mater and he said he is particularly pleased to see the progress being made at texas a&m he said they wanted to have a hand in texas a&m president robert gates initiatives to enhance teaching excellence at texas a&m through a program of new building construction and his faculty reinvestment program and gates underscored the significance of the mitchells gifts in enhancing teaching and research at the university calling their gift a new paradigm for private construction on the texas a&m campus dr gates theories about how to develop a great university have been very important to texas a&m mitchell said and i wanted to be part of that development when you have success as i have had because of the education i received here you want to find ways to give back to the university because of what we are doing here today in just a few years texas a&m will play a major role in the advancement of physics enhancing the prestige of the entire institution mitchell a 1940 graduate of texas a&m in petroleum engineering resides in houston with his wife cynthia they have been one of the texas a&ms largest private supporters and their latest gift in support of the universitys physics initiatives includes a multi-million-dollar allocation for construction support the construction of these buildings is another example of our commitment to excellence in all that we do here at texas a&m gates said when they are completed they will be a testament not only to the enormous generosity of the mitchells they will be a testament to the caliber and vision of our faculty here at texas a&m physics department head edward s fry praised the dramatic effect the new buildings will have on the caliber of physics teaching at texas a&m citing mitchells enabling the departments involvement with the giant magellan telescope consortium and his help in bringing a new astronomy program to the campus this telescope will enable us to see to the edges of the universe to pick out planets orbiting stars other than our own – we owe george mitchell a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he has done for texas a&m fry said h joseph newton dean of the college of science called it a great day for physics the college of science and all the faculty and students at texas a&m mr mitchells efforts have brought great things to our university and he and dr fry have helped to ignite a renaissance in physics and all the sciences here the mitchell buildings and an interdisciplinary life sciences complex are the centerpieces for an unprecedented $300 million campus construction program groundbreaking for the life sciences building is set for friday (may 26) other campus projects in various stages of planning are: an emerging technologies and economic development building an expansion of the laboratory animal resources and research building an addition to the veterinary medicine research tower and a new indoor athletic practice facility john d white chairman of the texas a&m university system board of regents told the audience that today is another great day to be an aggie but with people like george mitchell and the rest of those sitting on this platform every day is a great day to be an aggie thanks to his efforts these buildings will help to put texas a&ms department of physics along with its college of science on a much larger map noting that with his involvement in bringing texas a&m into the giant magellan telescope consortium mitchells vision now extends beyond the stars texas a&m university system chancellor robert d mcteer said adding that everywhere you turn in the state of texas you can see the works of this good aggie his generosity means that i will see these buildings rise in my lifetime this donation by the oil gas and land-development entrepreneur and his wife cynthia is the latest in a series supporting the universitys scientific development with previous gifts supporting important additions such as academic chairs professorships and the giant magellan telescope project the mitchells are texas a&ms most financially supportive benefactors of the modern day with donations now totaling nearly $49 million for the sciences alone the mitchells have previously been associated with the creation of 10 academic chairs a career enhancement award and two professorships in physics for texas a&m they have also provided major support for post-doctoral fellowships and astronomy lectures stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe and the namesake of texas a&ms mitchell-funded stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics presented public lectures in 2003 at texas a&m and at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands texas to inaugurate the mitchell institute at texas a&m in their private lives mitchell a galveston native founded his own highly successful exploration company mitchell energy & development corp and envisioned and developed the woodlands a 25 000-acre community located north of houston while cynthia mitchell has been a lifelong champion of artistic and humanitarian causes the couple also has taken leading roles in rejuvenating galvestons historic strand district and helped revise the citys mid-winter mardi gras celebration which now draws 500 000 visitors annually the mitchells generosity will not only significantly enhance scientific research and teaching at texas a&m it will firmly establish us as a leader in an area ripe with opportunity and prospects for discovery and advancements gates said in life great things happen when opportunity and knowledge meet when knowledge has the opportunity to be cultivated to be refined to be applied then it has the chance of having a truly significant impact on people and their lives he added the construction of these two world-class physics buildings will enable that meeting of knowledge with opportunity both for our faculty and our students and im confident that great things will happen -atm- the post physics breaks ground on mitchell buildings appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university president robert m gates and longtime donor george p mitchell 40 along with other university and texas a&m system officials broke ground yesterday on two new physics buildings on campus made possible by a $35 million gift from mitchell and his wife cynthia the groundbreaking ceremonies for the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and for the george p mitchell 40 physics building mark the first step in a $57 million construction program designed to help move texas a&m into the front ranks of fundamental physics and astronomy the joined buildings will have floor space totaling more than 150 000 square feet and include an array of laboratories classrooms offices and an auditorium university officials noted mitchell said he and his wife wanted to give back to his alma mater and he said he is particularly pleased to see the progress being made at texas a&m he said they wanted to have a hand in texas a&m president robert gates initiatives to enhance teaching excellence at texas a&m through a program of new building construction and his faculty reinvestment program and gates underscored the significance of the mitchells gifts in enhancing teaching and research at the university calling their gift a new paradigm for private construction on the texas a&m campus dr gates theories about how to develop a great university have been very important to texas a&m mitchell said and i wanted to be part of that development when you have success as i have had because of the education i received here you want to find ways to give back to the university because of what we are doing here today in just a few years texas a&m will play a major role in the advancement of physics enhancing the prestige of the entire institution mitchell a 1940 graduate of texas a&m in petroleum engineering resides in houston with his wife cynthia they have been one of the texas a&ms largest private supporters and their latest gift in support of the universitys physics initiatives includes a multi-million-dollar allocation for construction support the construction of these buildings is another example of our commitment to excellence in all that we do here at texas a&m gates said when they are completed they will be a testament not only to the enormous generosity of the mitchells they will be a testament to the caliber and vision of our faculty here at texas a&m physics department head edward s fry praised the dramatic effect the new buildings will have on the caliber of physics teaching at texas a&m citing mitchells enabling the departments involvement with the giant magellan telescope consortium and his help in bringing a new astronomy program to the campus this telescope will enable us to see to the edges of the universe to pick out planets orbiting stars other than our own – we owe george mitchell a tremendous debt of gratitude for what he has done for texas a&m fry said h joseph newton dean of the college of science called it a great day for physics the college of science and all the faculty and students at texas a&m mr mitchells efforts have brought great things to our university and he and dr fry have helped to ignite a renaissance in physics and all the sciences here the mitchell buildings and an interdisciplinary life sciences complex are the centerpieces for an unprecedented $300 million campus construction program groundbreaking for the life sciences building is set for friday (may 26) other campus projects in various stages of planning are: an emerging technologies and economic development building an expansion of the laboratory animal resources and research building an addition to the veterinary medicine research tower and a new indoor athletic practice facility john d white chairman of the texas a&m university system board of regents told the audience that today is another great day to be an aggie but with people like george mitchell and the rest of those sitting on this platform every day is a great day to be an aggie thanks to his efforts these buildings will help to put texas a&ms department of physics along with its college of science on a much larger map noting that with his involvement in bringing texas a&m into the giant magellan telescope consortium mitchells vision now extends beyond the stars texas a&m university system chancellor robert d mcteer said adding that everywhere you turn in the state of texas you can see the works of this good aggie his generosity means that i will see these buildings rise in my lifetime this donation by the oil gas and land-development entrepreneur and his wife cynthia is the latest in a series supporting the universitys scientific development with previous gifts supporting important additions such as academic chairs professorships and the giant magellan telescope project the mitchells are texas a&ms most financially supportive benefactors of the modern day with donations now totaling nearly $49 million for the sciences alone the mitchells have previously been associated with the creation of 10 academic chairs a career enhancement award and two professorships in physics for texas a&m they have also provided major support for post-doctoral fellowships and astronomy lectures stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe and the namesake of texas a&ms mitchell-funded stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics presented public lectures in 2003 at texas a&m and at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands texas to inaugurate the mitchell institute at texas a&m in their private lives mitchell a galveston native founded his own highly successful exploration company mitchell energy & development corp and envisioned and developed the woodlands a 25 000-acre community located north of houston while cynthia mitchell has been a lifelong champion of artistic and humanitarian causes the couple also has taken leading roles in rejuvenating galvestons historic strand district and helped revise the citys mid-winter mardi gras celebration which now draws 500 000 visitors annually the mitchells generosity will not only significantly enhance scientific research and teaching at texas a&m it will firmly establish us as a leader in an area ripe with opportunity and prospects for discovery and advancements gates said in life great things happen when opportunity and knowledge meet when knowledge has the opportunity to be cultivated to be refined to be applied then it has the chance of having a truly significant impact on people and their lives he added the construction of these two world-class physics buildings will enable that meeting of knowledge with opportunity both for our faculty and our students and im confident that great things will happen -atm- " " by josh baugh college station texas a&m broke ground wednesday for two signature buildings that will be the first structures built in the universitys $300 million campus construction plan the $57 million george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building will help a&m recruit some of the top scientists in the world officials said at the on-site celebration attended by several dozen people the construction of these buildings is another example of the commitment to excellence in all that we do here at texas a&m university president robert gates said the main benefactors for the complex off ireland street just west of the jack e brown building are its namesakes george mitchell a 1940 graduate of a&m is known as one of the universitys most fervent supporters before the $35 million gift from the mitchells to build the physics and astronomy complex the couple provided major funding for the a&m outdoor tennis center also named after mitchell and they donated 135 acres on pelican island to the universitys galveston campus the mitchells donations also have made it possible for a&m to join the giant magellan telescope consortium which will allow scientists to see deeper into space than ever before mitchell said at the celebration that he wanted to give back to the university that educated him the 150 000-square-foot complex will house laboratories classrooms offices and an auditorium dr gates your theories of what youre trying to do for a&m is very important mitchell said were proud to be a part of it gates said the ceremony marked a momentous occasion for texas a&m university when [the buildings] are completed they will be a testament not only to the enormous generosity of the mitchells they will be a testament to the caliber and vision of our faculty here at texas a&m he said gates and chancellor bob mcteer both said they were committed to seeing through to completion many of the universitys construction projects now on the drawing board joe newton dean of the college of science said that a&m and the systems board of regents have drastically changed the process by which buildings at a&m are built now hopefully not too much more than a year from now the institute building will be right here where we are sitting newton said on friday a&m will break ground on a $95 million life sciences building -atm- the post a&m breaks ground on physics buildings appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " by josh baugh college station texas a&m broke ground wednesday for two signature buildings that will be the first structures built in the universitys $300 million campus construction plan the $57 million george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building will help a&m recruit some of the top scientists in the world officials said at the on-site celebration attended by several dozen people the construction of these buildings is another example of the commitment to excellence in all that we do here at texas a&m university president robert gates said the main benefactors for the complex off ireland street just west of the jack e brown building are its namesakes george mitchell a 1940 graduate of a&m is known as one of the universitys most fervent supporters before the $35 million gift from the mitchells to build the physics and astronomy complex the couple provided major funding for the a&m outdoor tennis center also named after mitchell and they donated 135 acres on pelican island to the universitys galveston campus the mitchells donations also have made it possible for a&m to join the giant magellan telescope consortium which will allow scientists to see deeper into space than ever before mitchell said at the celebration that he wanted to give back to the university that educated him the 150 000-square-foot complex will house laboratories classrooms offices and an auditorium dr gates your theories of what youre trying to do for a&m is very important mitchell said were proud to be a part of it gates said the ceremony marked a momentous occasion for texas a&m university when [the buildings] are completed they will be a testament not only to the enormous generosity of the mitchells they will be a testament to the caliber and vision of our faculty here at texas a&m he said gates and chancellor bob mcteer both said they were committed to seeing through to completion many of the universitys construction projects now on the drawing board joe newton dean of the college of science said that a&m and the systems board of regents have drastically changed the process by which buildings at a&m are built now hopefully not too much more than a year from now the institute building will be right here where we are sitting newton said on friday a&m will break ground on a $95 million life sciences building -atm- " " college station texas a&m university is one of six core partners in a new multi-million-dollar national science foundation (nsf) center expected to revolutionize sensor technology and yield devices capable of transforming aspects of various industries ranging from health care to environmental quality the center dubbed mirthe for mid-infrared technologies for health and the environment is part of the nsfs recently unveiled 2006 class of engineering research centers (ercs) which are among the foundations largest and most prestigious grants launched may 1 with $15 million in nsf funding over five years mirthe is expected to attract additional financial support from corporate partners and other sources to conduct more than $40 million in research and educational activities during the next 10 years mirthe will be housed at princeton university and led by claire gmachl associate professor of electrical engineering at princeton the center will combine the work of about 40 faculty members 30 graduate students and 30 undergraduates from the six core partner institutions which also include the university of maryland-baltimore county rice university johns hopkins university and the city college of new york as multiple-institution partnerships the centers foster collaboration among researchers from many disciplines and provide rich educational and research environments for preparing new generations of engineering leaders says lynn preston nsf deputy division director for centers in addition to collaborating with dozens of industrial partners to turn their resulting technology into commercial products mirthe will work with several educational outreach partners which will use the centers research as a vehicle for improving science and engineering education at the k-12 and college levels to help ensure a more knowledgeable and competitive us workforce this center allows the texas a&m college of science to enhance several of our most important initiatives including collaborative research and educational outreach adds h joseph newton dean of the college of science mirthes work will span fundamental science to applied technology for example one avenue of research is to develop devices that allow doctors to diagnose and monitor diseases including lung kidney and liver disorders by measuring chemicals in a patients breath other mirthe participants will explore highly sensitive low-cost sensors that monitor air quality follow the evolution of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or detect chemical weapons the sensors we are creating will be portable and easy to use gmachl explains todays state-of-the-art sensors are very sensitive but they require an expert to operate and are bulky and expensive mirthes vision is to make sensors with the same or better level of sensitivity at a fraction of the size and cost a key technology enabling the centers work is the quantum cascade laser named for the way the electrons cascade through thin layers of material stacked within the device the major advantage of these lasers is that they emit light in the part of the spectrum known as the mid-infrared the area where most molecules have strong spectral fingerprints gmachl says having the ability to produce and detect these wavelengths allows scientists to see certain chemicals in the same way that sunlight and the human eye reveal everyday objects texas a&ms mirthe team includes groups led by physics professors alexey belyanin marlan scully and michael weimer as well as electrical engineering professor christi madsen belyanin and scully will attack several problems that hinder the development of mid-infrared sensor technologies including ways to improve sensitivity of the detectors using the same kind of physics that previously enabled texas a&m physicists to slow light to tens of meters per second imagine that you are standing near a roaring airplane engine and trying to listen to a soft whisper while wearing headphones that play loud music belyanin explains our goal is to detect a weak mid-infrared signal from a tiny amount of chemicals amid a huge background of thermal radiation produced by all surrounding objects including the body of the detector itself one additional problem is how to scan the laser through signals produced by different molecules which belyanin equates to searching for a particular radio stations frequency by turning a knob during the past decade weimers laboratory has pioneered new techniques for visualizing the detailed atomic arrangements at the heart of such lasers and detectors that in turn control the precise frequencies or wavelengths emitted or absorbed by these structures we are especially excited by this unparalleled opportunity to pursue the challenging and significant scientific questions naturally brought up by visionary applications of such societal importance weimer adds madsen will focus on designing and fabricating integrated optical components to make a spectrometer-on-a-chip when combined with the laser and detector work of other groups it will enable compact and affordable analysis of the mid-infrared signature of materials for environmental health and process monitoring to learn more about mirthe its collaborators and activities involving texas a&m visit http://wwwmirthecenterorg -atm- contacts: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu additional media contacts josh chamot national science foundation: (703) 292-7730 or jchamot@nsfgov jay mwamba city college new york: (212) 650-750 or jmwamba@ccnycunyedu kenna lowe johns hopkins school of public health: (410) 614-6029 or klowe@jhsphedu steve schultz princeton university: (609-258-3617 or sschultz@princetonedu bj almond rice university: 713-348-6770 or balmond@riceedu mike lurie university of maryland-baltimore county: (410) 455-6380 or mlurie@umbcedu based on excerpts from original release by teresa riordan princeton university the post new nsf research center to transform sensor technology appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university is one of six core partners in a new multi-million-dollar national science foundation (nsf) center expected to revolutionize sensor technology and yield devices capable of transforming aspects of various industries ranging from health care to environmental quality the center dubbed mirthe for mid-infrared technologies for health and the environment is part of the nsfs recently unveiled 2006 class of engineering research centers (ercs) which are among the foundations largest and most prestigious grants launched may 1 with $15 million in nsf funding over five years mirthe is expected to attract additional financial support from corporate partners and other sources to conduct more than $40 million in research and educational activities during the next 10 years mirthe will be housed at princeton university and led by claire gmachl associate professor of electrical engineering at princeton the center will combine the work of about 40 faculty members 30 graduate students and 30 undergraduates from the six core partner institutions which also include the university of maryland-baltimore county rice university johns hopkins university and the city college of new york as multiple-institution partnerships the centers foster collaboration among researchers from many disciplines and provide rich educational and research environments for preparing new generations of engineering leaders says lynn preston nsf deputy division director for centers in addition to collaborating with dozens of industrial partners to turn their resulting technology into commercial products mirthe will work with several educational outreach partners which will use the centers research as a vehicle for improving science and engineering education at the k-12 and college levels to help ensure a more knowledgeable and competitive us workforce this center allows the texas a&m college of science to enhance several of our most important initiatives including collaborative research and educational outreach adds h joseph newton dean of the college of science mirthes work will span fundamental science to applied technology for example one avenue of research is to develop devices that allow doctors to diagnose and monitor diseases including lung kidney and liver disorders by measuring chemicals in a patients breath other mirthe participants will explore highly sensitive low-cost sensors that monitor air quality follow the evolution of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or detect chemical weapons the sensors we are creating will be portable and easy to use gmachl explains todays state-of-the-art sensors are very sensitive but they require an expert to operate and are bulky and expensive mirthes vision is to make sensors with the same or better level of sensitivity at a fraction of the size and cost a key technology enabling the centers work is the quantum cascade laser named for the way the electrons cascade through thin layers of material stacked within the device the major advantage of these lasers is that they emit light in the part of the spectrum known as the mid-infrared the area where most molecules have strong spectral fingerprints gmachl says having the ability to produce and detect these wavelengths allows scientists to see certain chemicals in the same way that sunlight and the human eye reveal everyday objects texas a&ms mirthe team includes groups led by physics professors alexey belyanin marlan scully and michael weimer as well as electrical engineering professor christi madsen belyanin and scully will attack several problems that hinder the development of mid-infrared sensor technologies including ways to improve sensitivity of the detectors using the same kind of physics that previously enabled texas a&m physicists to slow light to tens of meters per second imagine that you are standing near a roaring airplane engine and trying to listen to a soft whisper while wearing headphones that play loud music belyanin explains our goal is to detect a weak mid-infrared signal from a tiny amount of chemicals amid a huge background of thermal radiation produced by all surrounding objects including the body of the detector itself one additional problem is how to scan the laser through signals produced by different molecules which belyanin equates to searching for a particular radio stations frequency by turning a knob during the past decade weimers laboratory has pioneered new techniques for visualizing the detailed atomic arrangements at the heart of such lasers and detectors that in turn control the precise frequencies or wavelengths emitted or absorbed by these structures we are especially excited by this unparalleled opportunity to pursue the challenging and significant scientific questions naturally brought up by visionary applications of such societal importance weimer adds madsen will focus on designing and fabricating integrated optical components to make a spectrometer-on-a-chip when combined with the laser and detector work of other groups it will enable compact and affordable analysis of the mid-infrared signature of materials for environmental health and process monitoring to learn more about mirthe its collaborators and activities involving texas a&m visit http://wwwmirthecenterorg -atm- contacts: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu additional media contacts josh chamot national science foundation: (703) 292-7730 or jchamot@nsfgov jay mwamba city college new york: (212) 650-750 or jmwamba@ccnycunyedu kenna lowe johns hopkins school of public health: (410) 614-6029 or klowe@jhsphedu steve schultz princeton university: (609-258-3617 or sschultz@princetonedu bj almond rice university: 713-348-6770 or balmond@riceedu mike lurie university of maryland-baltimore county: (410) 455-6380 or mlurie@umbcedu based on excerpts from original release by teresa riordan princeton university " " college station texas a&m university professor of physics dr john c hardy has been recognized by the american physical society (aps) with its 2006 tom w bonner prize in nuclear physics hardy who is the first texas a&m faculty member to receive what is the aps only award for nuclear physics shares this years bonner prize with longtime collaborator dr ian towner of queens university in kingston ontario canada the two are cited for their high-precision studies in which they used nuclei to probe one of the four fundamental forces of nature the so-called weak force physicists use what they call the standard model to describe this force and hardy and towner have been subjecting that model to some of its most demanding tests hardy and towner who co-authored their first published paper together 40 years ago as post-doctoral fellows at oxford university will be presented with the award next week during a special ceremonial session as part of the aps april 2006 meeting scheduled for april 22-25 in dallas endowed in 1964 as a memorial to tom w bonner by his friends students and associates the prize is awarded annually to recognize and encourage outstanding experimental research in nuclear physics including the development of a method technique or device that significantly contributes in a general way to nuclear physics research the prize consists of $7 500 and a certificate of citation this is a great honor for dr hardy and a real plus for our department said dr edward s fry professor of physics and head of the department of physics i congratulate john on being recognized as one of north americas best a fellow of the american physical society as well as the royal society of canada hardy has been a member of the texas a&m faculty and a group leader at the universitys prestigious cyclotron institute since 1997 his current research involves nuclear tests of the weak interaction via super-allowed beta decay as well as internal conversion with specific concentration on high-precision measurements past interests include exotic nuclei atomic masses delayed-particle decay and transfer reactions he has published more than 250 papers in physics prior to coming to texas a&m hardy spent 27 years at the chalk river nuclear laboratories of atomic energy of canada limited (aecl) where he rose to division director responsible for the tandem accelerator superconducting cyclotron (tascc) faculty during his career there hardy also spent a years sabbatical (1976-77) with the on-line isotope mass separator (isolde) group at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) in geneva world renowned for his expertise in nuclear physics hardy has served on many program advisory committees (pac) for national laboratories as well as advisory committees to many funding agencies across the united states and canada he currently chairs the pac for the holifield radioactive ion beam facility at oak ridge national laboratory and is a past member of the executive committee of aps nuclear physics division (2002-04) as well as a former vice president of the royal society of canadas academy of science (1992-95) john hardy was an established researcher with an excellent reputation when we recruited him to texas a&m university said dr robert e tribble professor of physics and director of texas a&ms cyclotron institute since his arrival he has developed a very strong research program at the cyclotron institute one that is recognized worldwide in the area of fundamental interactions in nuclei we are extremely fortunate to have him on our faculty hardys previous professional honors include the royal society of canadas rutherford medal in physics (1981) the canadian association of physicists herzberg medal (1976) and mcgill universitys dw ambridge prize (1965) earlier this month he also was recognized by texas a&m and the association of former students with a 2006 distinguished achievement award for research one of only six bestowed annually university-wide across all disciplines hardy earned his bachelor of science (honors mathematics and physics) master of science (nuclear physics) and phd (nuclear physics) from mcgill university in montreal canada where he also was born he was a post-doctoral overseas fellow at the oxford university nuclear physics laboratory (1965-67) as well as a miller fellow (1967-69) and staff member (1969-70) at the university of california berkeley lawrence radiation laboratory -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr john c hardy (979) 845-1411 or hardy@comptamuedu the post texas a&m researcher earns prestigious nuclear physics prize appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university professor of physics dr john c hardy has been recognized by the american physical society (aps) with its 2006 tom w bonner prize in nuclear physics hardy who is the first texas a&m faculty member to receive what is the aps only award for nuclear physics shares this years bonner prize with longtime collaborator dr ian towner of queens university in kingston ontario canada the two are cited for their high-precision studies in which they used nuclei to probe one of the four fundamental forces of nature the so-called weak force physicists use what they call the standard model to describe this force and hardy and towner have been subjecting that model to some of its most demanding tests hardy and towner who co-authored their first published paper together 40 years ago as post-doctoral fellows at oxford university will be presented with the award next week during a special ceremonial session as part of the aps april 2006 meeting scheduled for april 22-25 in dallas endowed in 1964 as a memorial to tom w bonner by his friends students and associates the prize is awarded annually to recognize and encourage outstanding experimental research in nuclear physics including the development of a method technique or device that significantly contributes in a general way to nuclear physics research the prize consists of $7 500 and a certificate of citation this is a great honor for dr hardy and a real plus for our department said dr edward s fry professor of physics and head of the department of physics i congratulate john on being recognized as one of north americas best a fellow of the american physical society as well as the royal society of canada hardy has been a member of the texas a&m faculty and a group leader at the universitys prestigious cyclotron institute since 1997 his current research involves nuclear tests of the weak interaction via super-allowed beta decay as well as internal conversion with specific concentration on high-precision measurements past interests include exotic nuclei atomic masses delayed-particle decay and transfer reactions he has published more than 250 papers in physics prior to coming to texas a&m hardy spent 27 years at the chalk river nuclear laboratories of atomic energy of canada limited (aecl) where he rose to division director responsible for the tandem accelerator superconducting cyclotron (tascc) faculty during his career there hardy also spent a years sabbatical (1976-77) with the on-line isotope mass separator (isolde) group at the european organization for nuclear research (cern) in geneva world renowned for his expertise in nuclear physics hardy has served on many program advisory committees (pac) for national laboratories as well as advisory committees to many funding agencies across the united states and canada he currently chairs the pac for the holifield radioactive ion beam facility at oak ridge national laboratory and is a past member of the executive committee of aps nuclear physics division (2002-04) as well as a former vice president of the royal society of canadas academy of science (1992-95) john hardy was an established researcher with an excellent reputation when we recruited him to texas a&m university said dr robert e tribble professor of physics and director of texas a&ms cyclotron institute since his arrival he has developed a very strong research program at the cyclotron institute one that is recognized worldwide in the area of fundamental interactions in nuclei we are extremely fortunate to have him on our faculty hardys previous professional honors include the royal society of canadas rutherford medal in physics (1981) the canadian association of physicists herzberg medal (1976) and mcgill universitys dw ambridge prize (1965) earlier this month he also was recognized by texas a&m and the association of former students with a 2006 distinguished achievement award for research one of only six bestowed annually university-wide across all disciplines hardy earned his bachelor of science (honors mathematics and physics) master of science (nuclear physics) and phd (nuclear physics) from mcgill university in montreal canada where he also was born he was a post-doctoral overseas fellow at the oxford university nuclear physics laboratory (1965-67) as well as a miller fellow (1967-69) and staff member (1969-70) at the university of california berkeley lawrence radiation laboratory -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr john c hardy (979) 845-1411 or hardy@comptamuedu " " by josh baugh college station the 2006 mitchell symposium on astronomy cosmology and fundamental physics kicks off monday at texas a&m university bringing together some of the subjects foremost experts from across the world this is a quality event said roland allen a theoretical physicist at a&m well have people here that are at the top of the scientific community the symposium which begins monday and runs through saturday also includes discussions geared toward the general public each day also on saturday the symposium will hold a physics festival in the rudder exhibit hall while the majority of the symposium is geared toward technical discussions for the scientists the public events each day are appropriate for children and adults alike said allen the chairman of the conference committee but the symposium which will bring together members of the national academy of sciences and nobel prize winners is more than a time to discuss astronomy cosmology and physics its also a time to showcase a&ms growing science departments allen said scientists from some of the most prominent universities in the world will be exposed this week to a&m it is bringing people from around the world here giving national and international visibility to texas a&m allen said the idea is they come here they see whats going on here and we see whats going on in the rest of the world its a line of communication between us and the rest of the world the event will be a bit of a showcase for a&m which has unveiled plans to build two high-profile physics buildings on university drive more than 60 percent of the $57 million project is being funded by a donation from george and cynthia mitchell who also underwrite the symposium the mitchells have also funded fellowships and scholarships for the sciences at a&m and have contributed to the giant magellan telescope project which will be discussed at the conference everything that george mitchell has done here has been done to strengthen science and astronomy here allen said mitchell a member of a&ms class of 1940 whose background is in geology and petroleum engineering said he wanted to help gain exposure for the universitys physics department we want to get the message out about whats going on at a&m he said the plan appears to be working a&m recently hired nick suntzeff a world-renowned astronomer to lead its astronomy program suntzeff led one of the two teams that discovered dark energy that permeates the universe allen said dark energy is now thought to make up about 74 percent of the universes gravitational mass allen said this may be one of the most exciting eras ever in the history of science he said referring to the quantity and quality of discoveries being made a&m is also partnering with other universities to help build the giant magellan telescope which should produce images 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope were showcasing that we have a lot of presence here allen said of the symposium were establishing a&m in the rest of the world in astronomy and cosmology schedule of talks open to the public: – monday: 7:30 pm rudder theater; university of chicagos michael turner presents before and after the big bang: what we know and are trying to find out about how the universe began – tuesday: 7:30 pm rudder theater; harvard universitys lisa randall presents warped passages: unraveling the mysteries of the universes hidden dimensions – wednesday: 5:30 pm rudder tower room 301; cambridge universitys george efstathiou presents the fate of the universe – thursday: 7:30 pm rudder tower room 301; university of california at santa cruzs gregory laughlin presents extrasolar planets – friday: 7:30 pm rudder tower room 301; university of hawaiis karen meech presents deep impact: secrets of the comet – saturday: 9:30 am to 3 pm rudder exhibit hall; physics festival with exhibits and demonstrations; 3 pm rudder theater; case western reserve universitys lawrence krauss presents the physics of star trek the post a&m symposium hopes to unveil a cosmic world appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " by josh baugh college station the 2006 mitchell symposium on astronomy cosmology and fundamental physics kicks off monday at texas a&m university bringing together some of the subjects foremost experts from across the world this is a quality event said roland allen a theoretical physicist at a&m well have people here that are at the top of the scientific community the symposium which begins monday and runs through saturday also includes discussions geared toward the general public each day also on saturday the symposium will hold a physics festival in the rudder exhibit hall while the majority of the symposium is geared toward technical discussions for the scientists the public events each day are appropriate for children and adults alike said allen the chairman of the conference committee but the symposium which will bring together members of the national academy of sciences and nobel prize winners is more than a time to discuss astronomy cosmology and physics its also a time to showcase a&ms growing science departments allen said scientists from some of the most prominent universities in the world will be exposed this week to a&m it is bringing people from around the world here giving national and international visibility to texas a&m allen said the idea is they come here they see whats going on here and we see whats going on in the rest of the world its a line of communication between us and the rest of the world the event will be a bit of a showcase for a&m which has unveiled plans to build two high-profile physics buildings on university drive more than 60 percent of the $57 million project is being funded by a donation from george and cynthia mitchell who also underwrite the symposium the mitchells have also funded fellowships and scholarships for the sciences at a&m and have contributed to the giant magellan telescope project which will be discussed at the conference everything that george mitchell has done here has been done to strengthen science and astronomy here allen said mitchell a member of a&ms class of 1940 whose background is in geology and petroleum engineering said he wanted to help gain exposure for the universitys physics department we want to get the message out about whats going on at a&m he said the plan appears to be working a&m recently hired nick suntzeff a world-renowned astronomer to lead its astronomy program suntzeff led one of the two teams that discovered dark energy that permeates the universe allen said dark energy is now thought to make up about 74 percent of the universes gravitational mass allen said this may be one of the most exciting eras ever in the history of science he said referring to the quantity and quality of discoveries being made a&m is also partnering with other universities to help build the giant magellan telescope which should produce images 10 times sharper than those of the hubble space telescope were showcasing that we have a lot of presence here allen said of the symposium were establishing a&m in the rest of the world in astronomy and cosmology schedule of talks open to the public: – monday: 7:30 pm rudder theater; university of chicagos michael turner presents before and after the big bang: what we know and are trying to find out about how the universe began – tuesday: 7:30 pm rudder theater; harvard universitys lisa randall presents warped passages: unraveling the mysteries of the universes hidden dimensions – wednesday: 5:30 pm rudder tower room 301; cambridge universitys george efstathiou presents the fate of the universe – thursday: 7:30 pm rudder tower room 301; university of california at santa cruzs gregory laughlin presents extrasolar planets – friday: 7:30 pm rudder tower room 301; university of hawaiis karen meech presents deep impact: secrets of the comet – saturday: 9:30 am to 3 pm rudder exhibit hall; physics festival with exhibits and demonstrations; 3 pm rudder theater; case western reserve universitys lawrence krauss presents the physics of star trek " " college station super magnets may reveal some of the universes super secrets a researcher said monday during the first session of the 2006 mitchell symposium on astronomy cosmology and fundamental physics at texas a&m university the annual conference brings together many of the worlds top scientists in the fields of physics astronomy cosmology and other areas it is sponsored by the george and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and the department of physics at texas a&m samuel ting physics professor at the massachusetts institute of technology says superconducting magnets are being used in several space experiments we believe these super magnets can be used for both energy and propulsion ting said we are just now learning the benefits of superconducting magnets such magnets could help us learn more about the origin of the universe and where it goes from here ting added just how these super magnets work in space is what we are trying to learn energy storage and uses might be two big benefits of them we might even learn more about the big bang theory and how the universe originated we know that russia had a strong program to study magnets in space during the 1960s and 1970s but how these super magnets work in space is the focus of some key nasa work right now the symposium continues through saturday with all lectures held in rudder tower the event is free and open to the public texas a&m president robert m gates welcoming the dozens of researchers from around the world said that there was a time when this university was largely thought of only for its engineering and agriculture programs but in the last few years texas a&m has been visited by some of the worlds leading authorities on astronomy astrophysics and cosmology aimed at unlocking the universes greatest mysteries as well as helping texas a&m better define its role in these fields speakers are scheduled to address numerous topics over the next five days such as the string theories new thoughts on the big bang theory and several lectures on dark matter and dark energy two aspects of the universe that have dominated astronomy conferences in recent years the george and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics was established in 2002 from a generous gift by george and cynthia mitchell the goals of the institute are to explore and advance the understanding of theoretical high-energy physics astroparticle physics and cosmology and to explore the interface and observation of particle physics and cosmology for a complete list of speakers go to http://cosmologytamuedu/ -atm- the post top researchers gather for 2006 mitchell symposium in fundamental physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " super magnets may reveal some of the universes super secrets a researcher said monday during the first session of the 2006 mitchell symposium on astronomy cosmology and fundamental physics at texas a&m university the annual conference brings together many of the worlds top scientists in the fields of physics astronomy cosmology and other areas it is sponsored by the george and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and the department of physics at texas a&m samuel ting physics professor at the massachusetts institute of technology says superconducting magnets are being used in several space experiments we believe these super magnets can be used for both energy and propulsion ting said we are just now learning the benefits of superconducting magnets such magnets could help us learn more about the origin of the universe and where it goes from here ting added just how these super magnets work in space is what we are trying to learn energy storage and uses might be two big benefits of them we might even learn more about the big bang theory and how the universe originated we know that russia had a strong program to study magnets in space during the 1960s and 1970s but how these super magnets work in space is the focus of some key nasa work right now the symposium continues through saturday with all lectures held in rudder tower the event is free and open to the public texas a&m president robert m gates welcoming the dozens of researchers from around the world said that there was a time when this university was largely thought of only for its engineering and agriculture programs but in the last few years texas a&m has been visited by some of the worlds leading authorities on astronomy astrophysics and cosmology aimed at unlocking the universes greatest mysteries as well as helping texas a&m better define its role in these fields speakers are scheduled to address numerous topics over the next five days such as the string theories new thoughts on the big bang theory and several lectures on dark matter and dark energy two aspects of the universe that have dominated astronomy conferences in recent years the george and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics was established in 2002 from a generous gift by george and cynthia mitchell the goals of the institute are to explore and advance the understanding of theoretical high-energy physics astroparticle physics and cosmology and to explore the interface and observation of particle physics and cosmology for a complete list of speakers go to http://cosmologytamuedu/ -atm- " " college station while most people are taught at a young age to be careful not to break things saskia mioduszewskis fundamental research in nuclear physics depends on it in her case things are atomic nuclei which hold the secrets to understanding what matter is made of mioduszewski an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m carries out research with the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) where ions (atomic nuclei) as heavy as gold are smashed together at high energies her research recently earned her a two-year $45 000 grant from the alfred p sloan foundation to continue related work rhic located in brookhaven national laboratory in new york currently is the largest heavy ion accelerator in the world mioduszewski flies there periodically to work on the experiment within rhic ions are smashed at very high energies creating what she said is thought to be a new state of matter known as the quark gluon plasma in which the most elementary building blocks of matter quarks and gluons interact freely that was thought to have been the state of the early universe after the big bang mioduszewski said our goal is to understand the interaction that holds matter together and makes up the world as we know it this is very basic science in the sense that we are not trying to discover anything that has immediate applications rather it is for the sake of understanding the most basic interactions of matter mioduszewski explained that while it would represent a very important discovery the applications for this type of basic achievement typically come many years later she paralleled the research to the discovery of electrons a finding that eventually resulted in a plethora of new technologies which simply were unfathomable at the time theres no way we can recreate the universe but we would like to learn more about how it was created and thats what were trying to do here she added because the matter created in these collisions only exists for literal mere fractions of a second 10-23 seconds to be exact mioduszewski said characterizing the matter on the basis of the particles that come out of it is a challenging process based on the data she and her colleagues have analyzed so far they are indeed creating a very dense form of matter originally they believed the quark gluon plasma to be like a gas of weakly interacting quarks and gluons but instead they discovered they had made a very dense strongly interacting form of matter that behaves more like a fluid now that we have learned more we have new questions about what we have discovered so far mioduszewski said fellowship administrator for the sloan foundation erica stella said the winners are people who have demonstrated an outstanding promise of making contributions to their own fields and individual work this is an early recognition of a distinguished performance and we feel that the people who have won have demonstrated that they are highly qualified stella said not only does the monetary value help them but its really the prestige of the fellowship that will carry them on in their career development -atm- for more information about other people and programs that help make texas a&m university unique visit thebattcom the post a&m atom-smasher honored with sloan fellowship appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " while most people are taught at a young age to be careful not to break things saskia mioduszewskis fundamental research in nuclear physics depends on it in her case things are atomic nuclei which hold the secrets to understanding what matter is made of mioduszewski an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m carries out research with the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) where ions (atomic nuclei) as heavy as gold are smashed together at high energies her research recently earned her a two-year $45 000 grant from the alfred p sloan foundation to continue related work rhic located in brookhaven national laboratory in new york currently is the largest heavy ion accelerator in the world mioduszewski flies there periodically to work on the experiment within rhic ions are smashed at very high energies creating what she said is thought to be a new state of matter known as the quark gluon plasma in which the most elementary building blocks of matter quarks and gluons interact freely that was thought to have been the state of the early universe after the big bang mioduszewski said our goal is to understand the interaction that holds matter together and makes up the world as we know it this is very basic science in the sense that we are not trying to discover anything that has immediate applications rather it is for the sake of understanding the most basic interactions of matter mioduszewski explained that while it would represent a very important discovery the applications for this type of basic achievement typically come many years later she paralleled the research to the discovery of electrons a finding that eventually resulted in a plethora of new technologies which simply were unfathomable at the time theres no way we can recreate the universe but we would like to learn more about how it was created and thats what were trying to do here she added because the matter created in these collisions only exists for literal mere fractions of a second 10-23 seconds to be exact mioduszewski said characterizing the matter on the basis of the particles that come out of it is a challenging process based on the data she and her colleagues have analyzed so far they are indeed creating a very dense form of matter originally they believed the quark gluon plasma to be like a gas of weakly interacting quarks and gluons but instead they discovered they had made a very dense strongly interacting form of matter that behaves more like a fluid now that we have learned more we have new questions about what we have discovered so far mioduszewski said fellowship administrator for the sloan foundation erica stella said the winners are people who have demonstrated an outstanding promise of making contributions to their own fields and individual work this is an early recognition of a distinguished performance and we feel that the people who have won have demonstrated that they are highly qualified stella said not only does the monetary value help them but its really the prestige of the fellowship that will carry them on in their career development -atm- for more information about other people and programs that help make texas a&m university unique visit thebattcom " " college station design plans for two new physics buildings have been approved by the board of regents and construction will begin on the buildings as early as may their construction is part of a $35 million donation to texas a&m by george p mitchell class of 1940 with the intention of helping the university become a top school in physics and astronomy we didnt want to have a second-rate program said edward fry head of the physics department we wanted to have (a) top ten program if we were going to do it at all student interest in astronomy is increasing dramatically at a&m and at other universities in the country he said at uc berkley 25 percent of the undergraduates take astronomy as an elective fry said he added that at a&m enrollment in undergraduate astronomy classes has grown by approximately 20 percent each year for the past several years the physics departments goal is to rank in the nations top 10 schools for physics fry said mitchell commissioned architect michael graves to design the two new physics buildings the buildings which will both be named after mitchell will allow the physics department to consolidate its labs and classrooms which fry says will improve classroom instruction a key part of physics is good lecture demonstrations and its difficult to move demonstrations so theyve been cut way down fry said that will all be rectified mitchells gift will allow the university to be more closely involved with the giant magellan telescope an instrument expected to make significant strides in the field of astronomy we have now been able to infer the presence of planets that are in orbit around other stars but with the magellan telescope we will be able to block out the light from the star to see the planet fry said in addition the department of physics has begun hiring new faculty members including nobel laureate dudley herschbach and us national academy of sciences member leonid keldysh freshman physics major andrew bradshaw said he believes the progress in the physics and astronomy programs will greatly enhance his education im actually looking into astronomy as an extension so it would be a great benefit to have those resources available bradshaw said everyone will benefit from the grant said don curtis assistant dean of liberal arts any time any of the colleges receives a gift especially on the level of mr mitchells it benefits the university as a whole curtis said -atm- for more information about other people and programs that help make texas a&m university unique visit thebattcom the post new physics buildings to help involvement in telescope project appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " design plans for two new physics buildings have been approved by the board of regents and construction will begin on the buildings as early as may their construction is part of a $35 million donation to texas a&m by george p mitchell class of 1940 with the intention of helping the university become a top school in physics and astronomy we didnt want to have a second-rate program said edward fry head of the physics department we wanted to have (a) top ten program if we were going to do it at all student interest in astronomy is increasing dramatically at a&m and at other universities in the country he said at uc berkley 25 percent of the undergraduates take astronomy as an elective fry said he added that at a&m enrollment in undergraduate astronomy classes has grown by approximately 20 percent each year for the past several years the physics departments goal is to rank in the nations top 10 schools for physics fry said mitchell commissioned architect michael graves to design the two new physics buildings the buildings which will both be named after mitchell will allow the physics department to consolidate its labs and classrooms which fry says will improve classroom instruction a key part of physics is good lecture demonstrations and its difficult to move demonstrations so theyve been cut way down fry said that will all be rectified mitchells gift will allow the university to be more closely involved with the giant magellan telescope an instrument expected to make significant strides in the field of astronomy we have now been able to infer the presence of planets that are in orbit around other stars but with the magellan telescope we will be able to block out the light from the star to see the planet fry said in addition the department of physics has begun hiring new faculty members including nobel laureate dudley herschbach and us national academy of sciences member leonid keldysh freshman physics major andrew bradshaw said he believes the progress in the physics and astronomy programs will greatly enhance his education im actually looking into astronomy as an extension so it would be a great benefit to have those resources available bradshaw said everyone will benefit from the grant said don curtis assistant dean of liberal arts any time any of the colleges receives a gift especially on the level of mr mitchells it benefits the university as a whole curtis said -atm- for more information about other people and programs that help make texas a&m university unique visit thebattcom " " college station texas a&m university professors olga kocharovskaya wayne m saslow sherry j yennello and m suhail zubairy have been elected as 2005 fellows of the american physical society each year no more than one-half of one percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service kocharovskaya a professor of physics who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1998 and was recently honored with a university-level distinguished achievement award for research is cited for her pioneering works on lasing without inversion electromagnetically induced transparency and laser control of gamma-ray nuclear transitions saslow a professor of physics who has been on faculty at texas a&m since 1971 as both a decorated researcher and teacher is cited for insightful contributions to the theory of superfluidity in 3he-a and in solids and for seminal work on spin glasses and random magnetism yennello associate dean for diversity in the college of science a professor of chemistry and a member of the cyclotron institute who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1993 is cited for her forefront experimental investigations of isospin equilibration in intermediate-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and the dynamics and thermodynamics of highly excited nuclear matter zubairy a professor of physics and associate director of texas a&ms institute for quantum studies since 2000 is cited for his pioneering and wide ranging contributions in quantum optics with special emphasis on quantum computing and quantum noise quenching in lasers and optical amplifiers -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu the post four faculty earn aps fellow distinction appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university professors olga kocharovskaya wayne m saslow sherry j yennello and m suhail zubairy have been elected as 2005 fellows of the american physical society each year no more than one-half of one percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service kocharovskaya a professor of physics who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1998 and was recently honored with a university-level distinguished achievement award for research is cited for her pioneering works on lasing without inversion electromagnetically induced transparency and laser control of gamma-ray nuclear transitions saslow a professor of physics who has been on faculty at texas a&m since 1971 as both a decorated researcher and teacher is cited for insightful contributions to the theory of superfluidity in 3he-a and in solids and for seminal work on spin glasses and random magnetism yennello associate dean for diversity in the college of science a professor of chemistry and a member of the cyclotron institute who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1993 is cited for her forefront experimental investigations of isospin equilibration in intermediate-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and the dynamics and thermodynamics of highly excited nuclear matter zubairy a professor of physics and associate director of texas a&ms institute for quantum studies since 2000 is cited for his pioneering and wide ranging contributions in quantum optics with special emphasis on quantum computing and quantum noise quenching in lasers and optical amplifiers -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu " " college station according to a nobel laureate in chemistry too many college science teachers have got it all wrong using classroom methods that turn students off from careers in those fields instead he recommends that they borrow techniques from their colleagues in the humanities to stimulate inquiry into and excitement about problems taken from nature surprisingly the humanistic approach to knowledge is more consonant with the spirit of scientific research said dudley herschbach who is in his first year as professor of physics at texas a&m university and continues to serve as the frank b baird jr professor of science at harvard but most college science and math courses especially at the introductory level teach that there is just one right answer instructors in such courses do not foster the habit of self-generated thinking and questioning which is the aim of a liberal education and crucial to conducting scientific research thus students especially those who do not major in math or one of the sciences fail to grasp the rich culture of science instead regarding it as difficult and abstruse presided over by a high priesthood of nerds he added they dont gain confidence in their abilities to solve scientific problems nor do they achieve a sense of ownership of the subject herschbach who received the nobel prize in chemistry in 1986 studies complicated problems in physical chemistry but at harvard he often teaches the freshman-level chemistry course his methods there deviate so greatly from those the students are used to from their high school days that they have dubbed his course chem zen he likens learning a science to learning to speak a foreign language so his lectures emphasize acquiring a command of the vocabulary of chemistry then mastering the scientific concepts that he terms its grammar in the classroom herschbach uses common-place metaphors or parables to explain complex ideas for example one of his favorite test questions involves relating the problem of putting humpty-dumpty back together to the second law of thermodynamics to illustrate the gas laws he uses a simple cardboard box and asks his students to calculate the amount of air that fills it or demonstrates how to crush a soda can without touching it or he may ask the class to calculate the probability that right at this moment they are breathing one of the same molecules of air that galileo breathed (actually such a probability is quite high since molecules of the inert gas nitrogen the main component of air conceivably may have remained on earth for hundreds of years herschbach notes) herschbachs chemistry labs are structured to promote students development as researchers with each of them required to complete an individual personally chosen experiment and to write it up in the form of a journal article his exams offer resurrection points that is questions missed on earlier exams can receive credit if students correctly answer questions about similar subject matter on later exams herschbach worries that human resources cannot be created instantaneously but must be nurtured over time he recommends the incorporation of science and math knowledge into all courses including those in the humanities and social and behavioral sciences other nobel laureates and college science teachers agree with this approach says herschbach and he refers those wanting more information about such teaching methods or seeking supporting data to this months physics today (transforming physics education by carl wieman 2001 nobel laureate in physics and katherine perkins a university physics professor) herschbach discussed his ideas for improving science education at texas a&ms graduate teaching academy a program that aims to expose graduate-student teaching assistants to recognized expert teachers in his remarks there he urged budding professors to conduct their courses to minimize the didactic encourage inductive learning and discovery and to include some illuminating science in all courses he practices what he preaches not only in his college-level lectures but also in his involvement with development of k-12 science curricula and to promote public understanding of science nature speaks to us in many tongues he says but all of them are alien to human languages scientific research is about understanding these messages -atm- contact: judith white (979) 845-4645 or jwhite@univreltamuedu the post nobel laureate urges fundamental changes in science education appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " according to a nobel laureate in chemistry too many college science teachers have got it all wrong using classroom methods that turn students off from careers in those fields instead he recommends that they borrow techniques from their colleagues in the humanities to stimulate inquiry into and excitement about problems taken from nature surprisingly the humanistic approach to knowledge is more consonant with the spirit of scientific research said dudley herschbach who is in his first year as professor of physics at texas a&m university and continues to serve as the frank b baird jr professor of science at harvard but most college science and math courses especially at the introductory level teach that there is just one right answer instructors in such courses do not foster the habit of self-generated thinking and questioning which is the aim of a liberal education and crucial to conducting scientific research thus students especially those who do not major in math or one of the sciences fail to grasp the rich culture of science instead regarding it as difficult and abstruse presided over by a high priesthood of nerds he added they dont gain confidence in their abilities to solve scientific problems nor do they achieve a sense of ownership of the subject herschbach who received the nobel prize in chemistry in 1986 studies complicated problems in physical chemistry but at harvard he often teaches the freshman-level chemistry course his methods there deviate so greatly from those the students are used to from their high school days that they have dubbed his course chem zen he likens learning a science to learning to speak a foreign language so his lectures emphasize acquiring a command of the vocabulary of chemistry then mastering the scientific concepts that he terms its grammar in the classroom herschbach uses common-place metaphors or parables to explain complex ideas for example one of his favorite test questions involves relating the problem of putting humpty-dumpty back together to the second law of thermodynamics to illustrate the gas laws he uses a simple cardboard box and asks his students to calculate the amount of air that fills it or demonstrates how to crush a soda can without touching it or he may ask the class to calculate the probability that right at this moment they are breathing one of the same molecules of air that galileo breathed (actually such a probability is quite high since molecules of the inert gas nitrogen the main component of air conceivably may have remained on earth for hundreds of years herschbach notes) herschbachs chemistry labs are structured to promote students development as researchers with each of them required to complete an individual personally chosen experiment and to write it up in the form of a journal article his exams offer resurrection points that is questions missed on earlier exams can receive credit if students correctly answer questions about similar subject matter on later exams herschbach worries that human resources cannot be created instantaneously but must be nurtured over time he recommends the incorporation of science and math knowledge into all courses including those in the humanities and social and behavioral sciences other nobel laureates and college science teachers agree with this approach says herschbach and he refers those wanting more information about such teaching methods or seeking supporting data to this months physics today (transforming physics education by carl wieman 2001 nobel laureate in physics and katherine perkins a university physics professor) herschbach discussed his ideas for improving science education at texas a&ms graduate teaching academy a program that aims to expose graduate-student teaching assistants to recognized expert teachers in his remarks there he urged budding professors to conduct their courses to minimize the didactic encourage inductive learning and discovery and to include some illuminating science in all courses he practices what he preaches not only in his college-level lectures but also in his involvement with development of k-12 science curricula and to promote public understanding of science nature speaks to us in many tongues he says but all of them are alien to human languages scientific research is about understanding these messages -atm- contact: judith white (979) 845-4645 or jwhite@univreltamuedu " " college station the casting of the first mirror of the giant magellan telescope (gmt) in arizona has been completed and is a big step in the process of creating the largest telescope ever built says ed fry head of the department of physics at texas a&m university texas a&m is one of eight institutions involved in the 10-year project to build the gmt which will be constructed in chile and is expected to be fully operational by 2016 much of the gmt is being assembled at the university at arizona which along with texas a&m the university of texas harvard university the university of michigan the massachusetts institute of technology the smithsonian astrophysical observatory and the carnegie observatories is managing the project the casting of the first mirror is a key fry says because its important that it is polished in just the right way the gmt will have seven mirrors six of them off axis so everything has to be cast and polished perfectly fry attended the casting of the mirror at arizonas steward observatory mirror lab along with joseph newton dean of the college of science; george kattawar professor of physics; and george mitchell a prominent texas a&m graduate who has funded numerous science and physics projects at the university and who recently announced a $35 million gift the first mirror cast is enormous about 25 feet in diameter fry says once all of the seven mirrors are in place the gmt will be the most powerful telescope ever constructed having 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope were all on a new learning curve here because something of this magnitude has never been built before fry adds the mirror will be tested later theres still a lot of work to do but this project is truly one of a kind nothing like this has been constructed before for more information about the gmt go to http://wwwgmtoorg -atm- contact: ed fry (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu or keith randall (979) 845-4644 or kr@univreltamuedu the post first mirror cast for giant magellan telescope appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the casting of the first mirror of the giant magellan telescope (gmt) in arizona has been completed and is a big step in the process of creating the largest telescope ever built says ed fry head of the department of physics at texas a&m university texas a&m is one of eight institutions involved in the 10-year project to build the gmt which will be constructed in chile and is expected to be fully operational by 2016 much of the gmt is being assembled at the university at arizona which along with texas a&m the university of texas harvard university the university of michigan the massachusetts institute of technology the smithsonian astrophysical observatory and the carnegie observatories is managing the project the casting of the first mirror is a key fry says because its important that it is polished in just the right way the gmt will have seven mirrors six of them off axis so everything has to be cast and polished perfectly fry attended the casting of the mirror at arizonas steward observatory mirror lab along with joseph newton dean of the college of science; george kattawar professor of physics; and george mitchell a prominent texas a&m graduate who has funded numerous science and physics projects at the university and who recently announced a $35 million gift the first mirror cast is enormous about 25 feet in diameter fry says once all of the seven mirrors are in place the gmt will be the most powerful telescope ever constructed having 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope were all on a new learning curve here because something of this magnitude has never been built before fry adds the mirror will be tested later theres still a lot of work to do but this project is truly one of a kind nothing like this has been constructed before for more information about the gmt go to http://wwwgmtoorg -atm- contact: ed fry (979) 845-1910 or fry@physicstamuedu or keith randall (979) 845-4644 or kr@univreltamuedu " " houston george p mitchell of houston is spearheading the development of a new science initiative at texas a&m university with a $35 million gift to support an effort to propel the institution into the front ranks of fundamental physics and astronomy this donation by the oil gas and land development entrepreneur and his wife cynthia is the latest in a series supporting the universitys scientific development with previous gifts supporting important additions such as academic chairs professorships and the giant magellan telescope project the mitchells are texas a&ms most financially supportive benefactors of the modern day with donations now totaling $445 million for the sciences alone im interested in helping texas a&m become one of the worlds leading institutions in scientific research in areas ranging from the far reaches of deep space to the very near halls of higher learning said george mitchell an alumnus of the university having talented physicists and astronomers come to texas a&m will attract students across the sciences mitchell has commissioned noted architect michael graves & associates to design two buildings that will form the cornerstone of the universitys expanded physics and astronomy programs the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building the buildings which will be joined are to be located on the north side of the campus adjacent to the new brown engineering building together they will provide approximately 155 000 square feet of floor space for teaching and research related to various aspects of physics it was important to commission an architect who would be able to incorporate the innovative nature of these research efforts into the design of their physical plant mitchell said michael graves is a perfect match for the job graves and his firms michael graves & associates (the architecture and interior design practice) and michael graves design group (the product design practice) have won over 175 awards for design excellence graves who taught at princeton university for about 40 years was the recipient of the 1999 national medal of arts and the 2001 american institute of architects gold medal michael graves & associates based in princeton new jersey created master plans for portions of rice university and designed the new building housing the houston branch of the federal reserve bank of dallas among many other notable projects the mitchells generosity will not only significantly enhance scientific research and teaching at texas a&m but will also firmly establish us as a national leader in an area ripe with opportunity and prospects for discoveries and advancements that can only be dreamed of at this point said texas a&m president robert m gates at a time when many are concerned about the future of science and engineering programs in our country texas a&m is making an extraordinary statement with the construction of the mitchell buildings as well as more than $175 million in other construction projects related to science and engineering gates said we will be adding 200 new faculty positions in these areas half are expected to be added in the near term with our ambitious faculty reinvestment program aimed at hiring 447 new faculty members by 2008 the mitchells have previously been associated with the creation of seven academic chairs including a career enhancement award and two professorships in physics for texas a&m they have also provided major support for post-doctoral fellowships and astronomy lectures stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe and the namesake of texas a&ms mitchell-funded stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics presented public lectures in 2003 at texas a&m and at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands texas to inaugurate the mitchell institute at texas a&m in addition they have provided funding that has allowed texas a&m to be a partner in the giant magellan telescope project a state-of-the-art next-generation telescope that is expected to produce images 10 times sharper than those of the hubble more than a year ago texas a&m announced that it and the university of texas at austin would join the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the massachusetts institute of technology the university of arizona and the university of michigan as partners in the giant magellan telescope consortium the giant magellan telescope will provide us with unparalleled insights into and information about the nature of the universe said dr edward fry head of the physics department the mitchells gift has launched texas a&m into astronomy in a significant way for decades mitchell has been a major benefactor of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name the mitchells also provided major funding for texas a&ms petroleum engineering department and the new tennis center which now bears the mitchell name -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-7717 or fry@physicstamuedu the post george mitchell lays groundwork for new texas a&m science initiative with $35 million gift appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " george p mitchell of houston is spearheading the development of a new science initiative at texas a&m university with a $35 million gift to support an effort to propel the institution into the front ranks of fundamental physics and astronomy this donation by the oil gas and land development entrepreneur and his wife cynthia is the latest in a series supporting the universitys scientific development with previous gifts supporting important additions such as academic chairs professorships and the giant magellan telescope project the mitchells are texas a&ms most financially supportive benefactors of the modern day with donations now totaling $445 million for the sciences alone im interested in helping texas a&m become one of the worlds leading institutions in scientific research in areas ranging from the far reaches of deep space to the very near halls of higher learning said george mitchell an alumnus of the university having talented physicists and astronomers come to texas a&m will attract students across the sciences mitchell has commissioned noted architect michael graves & associates to design two buildings that will form the cornerstone of the universitys expanded physics and astronomy programs the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy and the george p mitchell 40 physics building the buildings which will be joined are to be located on the north side of the campus adjacent to the new brown engineering building together they will provide approximately 155 000 square feet of floor space for teaching and research related to various aspects of physics it was important to commission an architect who would be able to incorporate the innovative nature of these research efforts into the design of their physical plant mitchell said michael graves is a perfect match for the job graves and his firms michael graves & associates (the architecture and interior design practice) and michael graves design group (the product design practice) have won over 175 awards for design excellence graves who taught at princeton university for about 40 years was the recipient of the 1999 national medal of arts and the 2001 american institute of architects gold medal michael graves & associates based in princeton new jersey created master plans for portions of rice university and designed the new building housing the houston branch of the federal reserve bank of dallas among many other notable projects the mitchells generosity will not only significantly enhance scientific research and teaching at texas a&m but will also firmly establish us as a national leader in an area ripe with opportunity and prospects for discoveries and advancements that can only be dreamed of at this point said texas a&m president robert m gates at a time when many are concerned about the future of science and engineering programs in our country texas a&m is making an extraordinary statement with the construction of the mitchell buildings as well as more than $175 million in other construction projects related to science and engineering gates said we will be adding 200 new faculty positions in these areas half are expected to be added in the near term with our ambitious faculty reinvestment program aimed at hiring 447 new faculty members by 2008 the mitchells have previously been associated with the creation of seven academic chairs including a career enhancement award and two professorships in physics for texas a&m they have also provided major support for post-doctoral fellowships and astronomy lectures stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist famous for his theories on black holes and best-selling books about the universe and the namesake of texas a&ms mitchell-funded stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics presented public lectures in 2003 at texas a&m and at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands texas to inaugurate the mitchell institute at texas a&m in addition they have provided funding that has allowed texas a&m to be a partner in the giant magellan telescope project a state-of-the-art next-generation telescope that is expected to produce images 10 times sharper than those of the hubble more than a year ago texas a&m announced that it and the university of texas at austin would join the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the massachusetts institute of technology the university of arizona and the university of michigan as partners in the giant magellan telescope consortium the giant magellan telescope will provide us with unparalleled insights into and information about the nature of the universe said dr edward fry head of the physics department the mitchells gift has launched texas a&m into astronomy in a significant way for decades mitchell has been a major benefactor of texas a&ms marine-oriented branch campus in galveston among other gifts for texas a&m university at galveston he donated the 135 acres where its main campus is located and which carries his fathers name the mitchells also provided major funding for texas a&ms petroleum engineering department and the new tennis center which now bears the mitchell name -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-7717 or fry@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m university distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully has been recognized by the american physical society (aps) with its 2005 arthur l schawlow prize in laser science scully is cited for his many far-reaching contributions to quantum optics and quantum electronics and in particular for the quantum theory of lasers for the theory of free-electron lasers and laser gyros and for theoretical and experimental contributions to optical coherence effects scully was presented with the award earlier this month in conjunction with the optical society of americas (osa) 89th annual meeting frontiers in optics 2005 held october 16-20 in tucson ariz established by the aps with an endowment from the nec corporation in 1991 the prize is named in honor of 1981 nobel prize-winning physicist arthur l schawlow for his pioneering work in lasers it is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to basic research that uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light the prize consists of $10 000 and a certificate plus an allowance for travel to the meeting at which it is awarded each october a member of the national academy of sciences academe europa and the max-planck society scully is associate dean for external relations in the college of science he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics and a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station and has multiple appointments at texas a&m as a distinguished professor of physics as well as a professor in the departments of electrical engineering and chemical engineering he also serves as director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science scully who also is a professor at princeton has held faculty positions at yale university the massachusetts institute of technology the university of arizona the university of new mexico and the max-planck-institut für quantenopik a world renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics he has brought distinction to texas a&m by leading the way to many scientific breakthroughs such as slowing the speed of light to the snail-like pace of 10 miles per hour making revolutionary lasers without population inversion and showing how quantum mechanics can yield a class of novel quantum heat engines a highly decorated researcher and scholar scully has received a number of professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the cresson medal from the franklin institute and the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize he has been an alfred p sloan fellow a guggenheim fellow and is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science as well as the aps and osa scully who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 received both his masters of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university he is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr marlan scully (979) 845-1534 or scully@physicstamuedu the post scully earns prestigious laser science prize appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully has been recognized by the american physical society (aps) with its 2005 arthur l schawlow prize in laser science scully is cited for his many far-reaching contributions to quantum optics and quantum electronics and in particular for the quantum theory of lasers for the theory of free-electron lasers and laser gyros and for theoretical and experimental contributions to optical coherence effects scully was presented with the award earlier this month in conjunction with the optical society of americas (osa) 89th annual meeting frontiers in optics 2005 held october 16-20 in tucson ariz established by the aps with an endowment from the nec corporation in 1991 the prize is named in honor of 1981 nobel prize-winning physicist arthur l schawlow for his pioneering work in lasers it is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to basic research that uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light the prize consists of $10 000 and a certificate plus an allowance for travel to the meeting at which it is awarded each october a member of the national academy of sciences academe europa and the max-planck society scully is associate dean for external relations in the college of science he holds the hershel e burgess 29 chair in physics and a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station and has multiple appointments at texas a&m as a distinguished professor of physics as well as a professor in the departments of electrical engineering and chemical engineering he also serves as director of both the institute for quantum studies and the center for theoretical physics within the college of science scully who also is a professor at princeton has held faculty positions at yale university the massachusetts institute of technology the university of arizona the university of new mexico and the max-planck-institut für quantenopik a world renowned pioneer in quantum and laser physics he has brought distinction to texas a&m by leading the way to many scientific breakthroughs such as slowing the speed of light to the snail-like pace of 10 miles per hour making revolutionary lasers without population inversion and showing how quantum mechanics can yield a class of novel quantum heat engines a highly decorated researcher and scholar scully has received a number of professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and charles h townes award from the optical society of america the quantum electronics award from the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc the cresson medal from the franklin institute and the alexander von humboldt distinguished faculty prize he has been an alfred p sloan fellow a guggenheim fellow and is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science as well as the aps and osa scully who joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 received both his masters of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university he is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr marlan scully (979) 845-1534 or scully@physicstamuedu " " college station quantum optics research at texas a&m university achieved worldwide fame once again last week earning a prestigious reference in the advanced information regarding the 2005 nobel prize for physics shared by american physicists roy j glauber and john l hall and german physicist theodor w hansch after paying homage to max planck albert einstein and other historical quantum greats the nobel document recognized present luminaries including texas a&ms dr marlan o scully and dr m suhail zubairy and their 1997 book quantum optics widely considered a modern-day standard in quantum optics theory the advanced information which is written by committee cited scully as one in a generation of theoreticians who have played a part in the award-winning work by establishing a solid foundation for the experimental activities in quantum optics the elegant tribute wasnt lost on international media who besieged scully and texas a&ms institute for quantum studies for input regarding both the prize and the opportunities this field of research creates for harnessing the power of increasingly precise light-based instruments including computers and navigational devices texas a&ms quantum optics prowess also is renowned in worldwide faculty hiring circles this past spring the group was a key factor in attracting texas a&m physics first nobel laureate dr dudley r herschbach who shared the 1986 nobel prize for chemistry the group also features three national academy of sciences members in scully herschbach and dr leonid keldysh who is also a member of the russian national academy of sciences other members have merited prestigious recognition from professional societies including the american physical society and the optical society of america in addition to top-notch faculty the group also boasts its fair share of successful student protégés many of its graduates have gone on to secure positions at elite us research institutions such as harvard the california institute of technology and the massachusetts institute of technology or within national laboratories including los alamos and livermore many others are leaders in industry one particular texas aggie mikhail lukin who earned his phd in 1998 is now a full professor at the age of 33 at harvard scully noted while the groups current work focuses on many aspects of quantum optics scully said one of their biggest projects at the moment relates to the detection of trace amounts of pathogens including anthrax at a distance to read the complete nobel citation or find biographies and lectures for the 2005 laureates visit http://nobelprizeorg/physics/laureates/2005/phyadv05pdf -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr marlan scully (979) 845-1534 or scully@physicstamuedu the post nobel citation credits texas a&m physicists appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " quantum optics research at texas a&m university achieved worldwide fame once again last week earning a prestigious reference in the advanced information regarding the 2005 nobel prize for physics shared by american physicists roy j glauber and john l hall and german physicist theodor w hansch after paying homage to max planck albert einstein and other historical quantum greats the nobel document recognized present luminaries including texas a&ms dr marlan o scully and dr m suhail zubairy and their 1997 book quantum optics widely considered a modern-day standard in quantum optics theory the advanced information which is written by committee cited scully as one in a generation of theoreticians who have played a part in the award-winning work by establishing a solid foundation for the experimental activities in quantum optics the elegant tribute wasnt lost on international media who besieged scully and texas a&ms institute for quantum studies for input regarding both the prize and the opportunities this field of research creates for harnessing the power of increasingly precise light-based instruments including computers and navigational devices texas a&ms quantum optics prowess also is renowned in worldwide faculty hiring circles this past spring the group was a key factor in attracting texas a&m physics first nobel laureate dr dudley r herschbach who shared the 1986 nobel prize for chemistry the group also features three national academy of sciences members in scully herschbach and dr leonid keldysh who is also a member of the russian national academy of sciences other members have merited prestigious recognition from professional societies including the american physical society and the optical society of america in addition to top-notch faculty the group also boasts its fair share of successful student protégés many of its graduates have gone on to secure positions at elite us research institutions such as harvard the california institute of technology and the massachusetts institute of technology or within national laboratories including los alamos and livermore many others are leaders in industry one particular texas aggie mikhail lukin who earned his phd in 1998 is now a full professor at the age of 33 at harvard scully noted while the groups current work focuses on many aspects of quantum optics scully said one of their biggest projects at the moment relates to the detection of trace amounts of pathogens including anthrax at a distance to read the complete nobel citation or find biographies and lectures for the 2005 laureates visit http://nobelprizeorg/physics/laureates/2005/phyadv05pdf -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@tamuedu or dr marlan scully (979) 845-1534 or scully@physicstamuedu " " college station international physics scholars dr raymond bishop and dr hermann kümmel are joint recipients of the 2005 eugene feenberg memorial medal in many-body physics awarded by the international advisory committee for the series of international conferences on recent progress in many-body theories texas a&m university professor of physics siu a chin who serves as chair of the committee noted that bishop and kümmel earned selection for their development and application of the coupled-cluster method (ccm) to many important problems in physics kümmel professor emeritus at the institute of theoretical physics of the ruhr university of bochum germany is being honored for his role in the creation and early development of the coupled-cluster method and pioneering high-accuracy applications of it to problems in nuclear and sub-nuclear physics bishop professor of physics at the university of manchester uk is cited for his development of the coupled-cluster method toward a comprehensive ab initio [from the first principles or beginning] approach and innovative applications across the full spectrum of subfields of quantum many-body physics during the past half century the application of this quantum many-body physics approach has contributed substantially to our understanding of challenging problems in condensed matter physics including electrons in solids quantum liquids and gasses and quantum magnetism atomic and molecular physics nuclear physics and sub-nuclear physics/quantum field theory chin explained the coupled-cluster method is one of very few ab initio methods which has an enduring impact in quantum chemistry according to chin many-body physics is concerned with understanding the properties of matter in terms of the interactions between the microscopic (atomic and subatomic) constituents of matter as such it applies to many broad sub-disciplines of physics chemistry and materials science the medal established in 1983 by the worldwide many-body physics community in memory of the unique and enduring contributions of eugene feenberg to many-body physics is designated for firmly established work that can be demonstrated to have significantly advanced the field of many-body physics two previous winners (walter kohn 1991; anthony j leggett 1999) have gone on to win respective nobel prizes in chemistry (1998) and physics (2003) the 2005 medal only the 10th to be awarded will be presented to bishop and kümmel at the 13th international conference on recent progress in many-body theories scheduled for december 5-9 in buenos aires argentina for complete biographies on the 2005 honorees and further information about the medal or upcoming conference visit http://qmbt13dfubaar/ -atm- contact: dr siu a chin (979) 845-4190 or chin@physicstamuedu the post international many-body physics honorees announced appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " international physics scholars dr raymond bishop and dr hermann kümmel are joint recipients of the 2005 eugene feenberg memorial medal in many-body physics awarded by the international advisory committee for the series of international conferences on recent progress in many-body theories texas a&m university professor of physics siu a chin who serves as chair of the committee noted that bishop and kümmel earned selection for their development and application of the coupled-cluster method (ccm) to many important problems in physics kümmel professor emeritus at the institute of theoretical physics of the ruhr university of bochum germany is being honored for his role in the creation and early development of the coupled-cluster method and pioneering high-accuracy applications of it to problems in nuclear and sub-nuclear physics bishop professor of physics at the university of manchester uk is cited for his development of the coupled-cluster method toward a comprehensive ab initio [from the first principles or beginning] approach and innovative applications across the full spectrum of subfields of quantum many-body physics during the past half century the application of this quantum many-body physics approach has contributed substantially to our understanding of challenging problems in condensed matter physics including electrons in solids quantum liquids and gasses and quantum magnetism atomic and molecular physics nuclear physics and sub-nuclear physics/quantum field theory chin explained the coupled-cluster method is one of very few ab initio methods which has an enduring impact in quantum chemistry according to chin many-body physics is concerned with understanding the properties of matter in terms of the interactions between the microscopic (atomic and subatomic) constituents of matter as such it applies to many broad sub-disciplines of physics chemistry and materials science the medal established in 1983 by the worldwide many-body physics community in memory of the unique and enduring contributions of eugene feenberg to many-body physics is designated for firmly established work that can be demonstrated to have significantly advanced the field of many-body physics two previous winners (walter kohn 1991; anthony j leggett 1999) have gone on to win respective nobel prizes in chemistry (1998) and physics (2003) the 2005 medal only the 10th to be awarded will be presented to bishop and kümmel at the 13th international conference on recent progress in many-body theories scheduled for december 5-9 in buenos aires argentina for complete biographies on the 2005 honorees and further information about the medal or upcoming conference visit http://qmbt13dfubaar/ -atm- contact: dr siu a chin (979) 845-4190 or chin@physicstamuedu " " editors note: mikhail lukin received his doctorate in physics from texas a&m university in 1998 under the supervision of distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully cambridge mass mikhail lukin thinks that devices based on quantum science are at the same stage as radios were about 100 years ago to catch up the recently tenured professor of physics is stopping and storing light making artificial atoms behave in new ways and doing engineering with superconductivity when quantum does overtake kilowatts you can expect novel products like quantum transmitters and quantum computers that will change the world the way that radios and electronic computers have for the past five years lukin and his harvard colleagues have stunned the world by stopping pulses of light storing them and manipulating them these are the first steps toward making quantum computers whose information is contained in the physical or quantum state of light pulses rather than electrical pulses he sees such quantum computing and communication as being at about the same stage as experiments in electricity when guglielmo marconi broadcast the first dots and dashes of morse code through the air we are still at the level of basic research but practical applications may not be too far in the future says the 33-year-old moscow native by manipulating single photons of light we should be able to transmit information via codes that cannot be cracked by terrorists commercial spies or hackers ‘q-mail instead of e-mail experimental quantum networks already send such messages but only over distances of a few miles one such network operates between harvard and boston university a distance of a few miles lukin however envisions much more sophisticated systems that will transmit signals around the world marconis first broadcast in 1895 went about a mile by 1901 radio messages spanned the atlantic almost 100 years passed before the internet spanned the globe lukins quantum future also includes computers that may help explain high-temperature superconductivity the capability of some materials to carry electricity without any resistance at temperatures relativity easy to attain these temperatures reach hundreds of degrees below freezing but can be handled with available technology for more than 10 years researchers have been developing high-temperature superconductive wires and devices lukin points out but how this phenomena actually happens is still not well understood comprehending such supers requires theoretical analyses too complicated for the best computers now in operation which lukin refers to as classical computers as though he were speaking about old pianos we are just at the beginning of using quantum systems that we can understand and manipulate to model or simulate systems that we cannot lukin says his style of following up ideas with experiments then using the results to generate newer ideas and experiments is rare in the physics business where theoreticians and experimenters usually walk separate paths misha proposes beautiful ideas and connects them to realistic experiments notes colleague eugene demler a harvard physicist who has worked with lukin he works on the most challenging problems in several different areas of physics and his track record is astounding i know of at least two occasions when his experiments have been in the list of the worlds 10 most important physics experiments of the year in addition notes professor of physics john doyle he has a sunny personality peppered by a dry russian wit hes a great guy to enjoy a meal with from films to physics although his mother father and brother trained as physicists or mathematicians lukin never intended to follow their lead he was more interested in making documentary films and spent many hours working on them in a moscow studio while in high school i was fascinated by it he recalls but during his last year of high school lukins parents persuaded him to attend a series of special lessons in physics our teacher was extraordinarily talented he says after the first class i was so captivated i decided to keep studying physics lukin did this at the moscow institute of physics and technology where he earned a masters degree in applied physics and mathematics in 1993 during a conference in russia he met another person that changed the direction of his life a physics professor from texas a&m university asked him if he would be interested in coming to texas to work on his phd i didnt know texas from massachusetts at the time but the iron curtain was opening so i said ‘yes lukin remembers after completing his phd in 1998 he won a postdoctoral fellowship at the institute for theoretical atomic and molecular physics at the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics since then he has learned lots of new physics as well as the difference between texas and massachusetts by 2001 lukin was an assistant professor in the physics department at harvard and by 2004 he had earned tenure thats less time than it took him to receive a phd on the way he won the national science foundation career award a david and lucile packard fellowship for science and engineering and an alfred p sloan fellowship cold atoms and hot ideas lukin and his colleagues are now working on schemes that seem straight out of science fiction for example they want to build synthetic crystals in which artificial atoms are held together by the energy of light waves by manipulating the light interactions between the atoms might be precisely directed we could control how each of the atoms talk to each other is how lukin puts it its another way of trying to understand and control things that we cant understand and control now to advance the pace of such work requires a boiling pot of research and education whose ingredients should include experts in everything from fundamental science to practical engineering lukin says harvard is such a place he cites examples of ingredients like the coolly named center for ultracold atoms where temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero slow down fast-moving atoms so their behavior can be measured there is also the institute for theoretical atomic and molecular physics where lukin was a postdoctoral fellow and the new institute for quantum science and engineering where researchers from many different fields focus on bridging the gap between theory basic research and practical engineering marconi didnt have anything like that going for him -30- the post lukin illuminates quantum science: understanding the supers and ultras of matter appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " editors note: mikhail lukin received his doctorate in physics from texas a&m university in 1998 under the supervision of distinguished professor of physics dr marlan o scully cambridge mass mikhail lukin thinks that devices based on quantum science are at the same stage as radios were about 100 years ago to catch up the recently tenured professor of physics is stopping and storing light making artificial atoms behave in new ways and doing engineering with superconductivity when quantum does overtake kilowatts you can expect novel products like quantum transmitters and quantum computers that will change the world the way that radios and electronic computers have for the past five years lukin and his harvard colleagues have stunned the world by stopping pulses of light storing them and manipulating them these are the first steps toward making quantum computers whose information is contained in the physical or quantum state of light pulses rather than electrical pulses he sees such quantum computing and communication as being at about the same stage as experiments in electricity when guglielmo marconi broadcast the first dots and dashes of morse code through the air we are still at the level of basic research but practical applications may not be too far in the future says the 33-year-old moscow native by manipulating single photons of light we should be able to transmit information via codes that cannot be cracked by terrorists commercial spies or hackers ‘q-mail instead of e-mail experimental quantum networks already send such messages but only over distances of a few miles one such network operates between harvard and boston university a distance of a few miles lukin however envisions much more sophisticated systems that will transmit signals around the world marconis first broadcast in 1895 went about a mile by 1901 radio messages spanned the atlantic almost 100 years passed before the internet spanned the globe lukins quantum future also includes computers that may help explain high-temperature superconductivity the capability of some materials to carry electricity without any resistance at temperatures relativity easy to attain these temperatures reach hundreds of degrees below freezing but can be handled with available technology for more than 10 years researchers have been developing high-temperature superconductive wires and devices lukin points out but how this phenomena actually happens is still not well understood comprehending such supers requires theoretical analyses too complicated for the best computers now in operation which lukin refers to as classical computers as though he were speaking about old pianos we are just at the beginning of using quantum systems that we can understand and manipulate to model or simulate systems that we cannot lukin says his style of following up ideas with experiments then using the results to generate newer ideas and experiments is rare in the physics business where theoreticians and experimenters usually walk separate paths misha proposes beautiful ideas and connects them to realistic experiments notes colleague eugene demler a harvard physicist who has worked with lukin he works on the most challenging problems in several different areas of physics and his track record is astounding i know of at least two occasions when his experiments have been in the list of the worlds 10 most important physics experiments of the year in addition notes professor of physics john doyle he has a sunny personality peppered by a dry russian wit hes a great guy to enjoy a meal with from films to physics although his mother father and brother trained as physicists or mathematicians lukin never intended to follow their lead he was more interested in making documentary films and spent many hours working on them in a moscow studio while in high school i was fascinated by it he recalls but during his last year of high school lukins parents persuaded him to attend a series of special lessons in physics our teacher was extraordinarily talented he says after the first class i was so captivated i decided to keep studying physics lukin did this at the moscow institute of physics and technology where he earned a masters degree in applied physics and mathematics in 1993 during a conference in russia he met another person that changed the direction of his life a physics professor from texas a&m university asked him if he would be interested in coming to texas to work on his phd i didnt know texas from massachusetts at the time but the iron curtain was opening so i said ‘yes lukin remembers after completing his phd in 1998 he won a postdoctoral fellowship at the institute for theoretical atomic and molecular physics at the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics since then he has learned lots of new physics as well as the difference between texas and massachusetts by 2001 lukin was an assistant professor in the physics department at harvard and by 2004 he had earned tenure thats less time than it took him to receive a phd on the way he won the national science foundation career award a david and lucile packard fellowship for science and engineering and an alfred p sloan fellowship cold atoms and hot ideas lukin and his colleagues are now working on schemes that seem straight out of science fiction for example they want to build synthetic crystals in which artificial atoms are held together by the energy of light waves by manipulating the light interactions between the atoms might be precisely directed we could control how each of the atoms talk to each other is how lukin puts it its another way of trying to understand and control things that we cant understand and control now to advance the pace of such work requires a boiling pot of research and education whose ingredients should include experts in everything from fundamental science to practical engineering lukin says harvard is such a place he cites examples of ingredients like the coolly named center for ultracold atoms where temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero slow down fast-moving atoms so their behavior can be measured there is also the institute for theoretical atomic and molecular physics where lukin was a postdoctoral fellow and the new institute for quantum science and engineering where researchers from many different fields focus on bridging the gap between theory basic research and practical engineering marconi didnt have anything like that going for him -30- " " the new york times published an article on august 30 about the giant magellan telescope consortium and its ambitions to construct the largest telescope ever thanks to a $175 million gift to texas a&m from george p mitchell 40 texas a&m is one of eight institutions funding the telescope which will be the largest and most powerful on earth and in space the post giant magellan telescope consortium texas a&m receive times recognition appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the new york times published an article on august 30 about the giant magellan telescope consortium and its ambitions to construct the largest telescope ever thanks to a $175 million gift to texas a&m from george p mitchell 40 texas a&m is one of eight institutions funding the telescope which will be the largest and most powerful on earth and in space " " tuscon ariz a swirling vat of molten glass is bringing officials and scientists from the university of texas at austin and texas a&m university to tucson this week along with their other five partners the two flagship universities are celebrating the casting of the first of seven mirrors for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) on saturday july 23 slated for completion in 2016 at a site in northern chile the gmt will use its powerful resolution and enormous collecting area to probe the most important questions in astronomy including the birth of stars and planetary systems in our milky way the mysteries of black holes and the genesis of galaxies were excited to be attending this kick-off event with our partner institutions said mary ann rankin dean of the university of texas at austins college of natural sciences this is the beginning of a long journey to construction added david lambert director of the universitys mcdonald observatory its the first very large telescope thats started construction the casting of the first mirror is critical because everything else depends on getting this one just right said joe newton dean of the college of science at texas a&m university its such an exciting project once finished this will be the most powerful ground-based telescope in the world when complete the gmt mirrors together will provide a bigger aperture and better resolution than any telescope now in operation lambert said the telescope will have four-and-one-half times the collecting area of any current optical telescope and the resolving power of a 256-meter (84-foot) diameter telescope – or 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope the university of texas at austin contingent to tucson will include rankin and lambert as well as provost sheldon ekland-olson astronomy department chair don winget several astronomers and a few members of the astronomy programs board of visitors the texas a&m contingent includes newton physics department head ed fry physics professor george kattawar and science development officer don birkelbach the casting is scheduled for this week the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab has inspected and loaded 40 000 pounds of borosilicate glass into its huge spinning furnace the furnace has been fired and will reach its maximum temperature of 2 150 degrees fahrenheit (1 178 celsius) on saturday by then the glass will flow like honey at room temperature the thick liquid glass will flow between the dividers in the mold to create a honeycomb structure the ovens rotation rate determines the depth of the curve spun into the shape of the mirror the final honeycomb mirror will weigh about a fifth as much as a solid glass mirror of its size the mirror will take about three months to cool then the lab will wash the dividers out of the mirrors glass honeycomb cells and grind and polish the mirror to an accuracy of plus-or-minus 15 to 20 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) the mirror ultimately will be coated with a layer of reflective aluminum only 100 nanometers thick at the observatory site before the telescope becomes operational the giant magellan telescope consortium includes the university of texas at austin texas a&m university the carnegie observatories harvard university smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona the university of michigan and the massachusetts institute of technology detailed information about the gmt design and science goals is online at http://wwwgmtoorg/ -atm- contacts: keith randall texas a&m university (979) 845-4644 or kr@univreltamuedu rebecca johnson university of texas at austin (512) 475-6763 or rjohnson@astroasutexasedu the post texas a&m ut join in celebrating magellan telescope milestone appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a swirling vat of molten glass is bringing officials and scientists from the university of texas at austin and texas a&m university to tucson this week along with their other five partners the two flagship universities are celebrating the casting of the first of seven mirrors for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) on saturday july 23 slated for completion in 2016 at a site in northern chile the gmt will use its powerful resolution and enormous collecting area to probe the most important questions in astronomy including the birth of stars and planetary systems in our milky way the mysteries of black holes and the genesis of galaxies were excited to be attending this kick-off event with our partner institutions said mary ann rankin dean of the university of texas at austins college of natural sciences this is the beginning of a long journey to construction added david lambert director of the universitys mcdonald observatory its the first very large telescope thats started construction the casting of the first mirror is critical because everything else depends on getting this one just right said joe newton dean of the college of science at texas a&m university its such an exciting project once finished this will be the most powerful ground-based telescope in the world when complete the gmt mirrors together will provide a bigger aperture and better resolution than any telescope now in operation lambert said the telescope will have four-and-one-half times the collecting area of any current optical telescope and the resolving power of a 256-meter (84-foot) diameter telescope – or 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope the university of texas at austin contingent to tucson will include rankin and lambert as well as provost sheldon ekland-olson astronomy department chair don winget several astronomers and a few members of the astronomy programs board of visitors the texas a&m contingent includes newton physics department head ed fry physics professor george kattawar and science development officer don birkelbach the casting is scheduled for this week the university of arizonas steward observatory mirror lab has inspected and loaded 40 000 pounds of borosilicate glass into its huge spinning furnace the furnace has been fired and will reach its maximum temperature of 2 150 degrees fahrenheit (1 178 celsius) on saturday by then the glass will flow like honey at room temperature the thick liquid glass will flow between the dividers in the mold to create a honeycomb structure the ovens rotation rate determines the depth of the curve spun into the shape of the mirror the final honeycomb mirror will weigh about a fifth as much as a solid glass mirror of its size the mirror will take about three months to cool then the lab will wash the dividers out of the mirrors glass honeycomb cells and grind and polish the mirror to an accuracy of plus-or-minus 15 to 20 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) the mirror ultimately will be coated with a layer of reflective aluminum only 100 nanometers thick at the observatory site before the telescope becomes operational the giant magellan telescope consortium includes the university of texas at austin texas a&m university the carnegie observatories harvard university smithsonian astrophysical observatory the university of arizona the university of michigan and the massachusetts institute of technology detailed information about the gmt design and science goals is online at http://wwwgmtoorg/ -atm- contacts: keith randall texas a&m university (979) 845-4644 or kr@univreltamuedu rebecca johnson university of texas at austin (512) 475-6763 or rjohnson@astroasutexasedu " " college station juntao chang a graduate of chinas peking university and the chinese academy of sciences in physics did not expect that one day he would help teach in classrooms in the united states but chang said despite some difficulties he felt it was an interesting job to have chang a doctoral student in physics came to texas a&m in the fall of 2003 soon after his arrival he became a tutor in the physics department while doing research chang said he started to explain physics to people who came to him asking for help i realized it takes skills to teach somebody on a thing that you know better chang said i think that is why we have a discipline of education in his second year chang taught four physics classes as a teaching assistant (ta) chang said his main responsibilities were to conduct a weekly review for the students in the sections and instruct them during their weekly lab experiments chang said that in the weekly reviews he explains the main points of lecture that had been covered in past week illustrates how to solve homework problems gives a quiz in every class and grades the quizzes after class besides supervising the students laboratory experiments chang teaches students how to organize and compose their lab reports the right way with charts and tables chang said that as an international ta he first must overcome language barriers and must work harder to fulfill his tasks chang prepared for every class comparing it to a rehearsal chang said sometimes his ta job was pretty intense and that he would work continuously from noon to 6 pm my throat got sore every monday in that semester he said i had to steal some time from sleeping to make up the time i needed sometimes i need to spend a whole sunday or saturday to grade the lab reports but it was worthwhile it was very interesting to interact with the students helping them with what they needed chang said this past spring he was a ta for physics 689 special topics in electricity and magnetism chang said it was a beneficial experience as his job was to help grade graduate students homework it turned out that it consolidated my knowledge in physics a lot chang said zhiwei chong a doctoral student in physics and fellow ta said chang does not only take teaching as a job but as an honor as well he spends much more time on preparing for teaching than other tas chong said he wants his teaching to be as perfect as possible when he found the data table in the lab manual (was) not satisfactorily helpful to the students he improved the table and one of his students did tell me that it really helps a lot chang said he recently started coordinating with some chinese students studying at us universities to create a program that will allow both chinese and american volunteers to teach and construct libraries in primary schools in some underdeveloped areas in china every volunteer would stay at a designed school for a month or so chang said funding needed to help schools there comes from charity we volunteers pay airfares ourselves i think that our being there would broaden eyes of the students in the poor areas even if they dont teach very much joseph newton dean of the college of science said that being a ta is a wonderful part of being at a research university as long as they are well trained and well advised a research university like texas a&m is helping to train the next generation of faculty newton said -atm- for more information about other people and programs that help make texas a&m university unique visit thebattcom the post physics ta focuses on perfecting his teaching skills appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " juntao chang a graduate of chinas peking university and the chinese academy of sciences in physics did not expect that one day he would help teach in classrooms in the united states but chang said despite some difficulties he felt it was an interesting job to have chang a doctoral student in physics came to texas a&m in the fall of 2003 soon after his arrival he became a tutor in the physics department while doing research chang said he started to explain physics to people who came to him asking for help i realized it takes skills to teach somebody on a thing that you know better chang said i think that is why we have a discipline of education in his second year chang taught four physics classes as a teaching assistant (ta) chang said his main responsibilities were to conduct a weekly review for the students in the sections and instruct them during their weekly lab experiments chang said that in the weekly reviews he explains the main points of lecture that had been covered in past week illustrates how to solve homework problems gives a quiz in every class and grades the quizzes after class besides supervising the students laboratory experiments chang teaches students how to organize and compose their lab reports the right way with charts and tables chang said that as an international ta he first must overcome language barriers and must work harder to fulfill his tasks chang prepared for every class comparing it to a rehearsal chang said sometimes his ta job was pretty intense and that he would work continuously from noon to 6 pm my throat got sore every monday in that semester he said i had to steal some time from sleeping to make up the time i needed sometimes i need to spend a whole sunday or saturday to grade the lab reports but it was worthwhile it was very interesting to interact with the students helping them with what they needed chang said this past spring he was a ta for physics 689 special topics in electricity and magnetism chang said it was a beneficial experience as his job was to help grade graduate students homework it turned out that it consolidated my knowledge in physics a lot chang said zhiwei chong a doctoral student in physics and fellow ta said chang does not only take teaching as a job but as an honor as well he spends much more time on preparing for teaching than other tas chong said he wants his teaching to be as perfect as possible when he found the data table in the lab manual (was) not satisfactorily helpful to the students he improved the table and one of his students did tell me that it really helps a lot chang said he recently started coordinating with some chinese students studying at us universities to create a program that will allow both chinese and american volunteers to teach and construct libraries in primary schools in some underdeveloped areas in china every volunteer would stay at a designed school for a month or so chang said funding needed to help schools there comes from charity we volunteers pay airfares ourselves i think that our being there would broaden eyes of the students in the poor areas even if they dont teach very much joseph newton dean of the college of science said that being a ta is a wonderful part of being at a research university as long as they are well trained and well advised a research university like texas a&m is helping to train the next generation of faculty newton said -atm- for more information about other people and programs that help make texas a&m university unique visit thebattcom " " college station senior mathematics and physics major zorawar wadiasingh of humble has been recognized as one of three 2005 barry m goldwater scholars from texas a&m university wadiasingh along with fellow a&m seniors agustin mohedas of ponca city okla and brian sedio of san antonio was one of 380 recipients of the prestigious scholarship selected from a national field of 1 100 applicants wadiasingh who holds a welch undergraduate fellowship and is actively involved with texas a&ms george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics also is a winner of the presidents achievement award academic excellence award and academic incentive award he plans to earn a phd in theoretical high-energy physics and cosmology and wants to focus on fundamental physics and obtain a tenured faculty position to conduct research and teach at a university the barry m goldwater scholarship program was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics the natural sciences or engineering and to foster excellence in those fields in awarding scholarships the foundation board of trustees considered each nominees field of study career objectives for more information contact texas a&ms office of honors programs and academic scholarships at (979) 845-1957 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post math/physics undergrad named 2005 goldwater scholar appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " senior mathematics and physics major zorawar wadiasingh of humble has been recognized as one of three 2005 barry m goldwater scholars from texas a&m university wadiasingh along with fellow a&m seniors agustin mohedas of ponca city okla and brian sedio of san antonio was one of 380 recipients of the prestigious scholarship selected from a national field of 1 100 applicants wadiasingh who holds a welch undergraduate fellowship and is actively involved with texas a&ms george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics also is a winner of the presidents achievement award academic excellence award and academic incentive award he plans to earn a phd in theoretical high-energy physics and cosmology and wants to focus on fundamental physics and obtain a tenured faculty position to conduct research and teach at a university the barry m goldwater scholarship program was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics the natural sciences or engineering and to foster excellence in those fields in awarding scholarships the foundation board of trustees considered each nominees field of study career objectives for more information contact texas a&ms office of honors programs and academic scholarships at (979) 845-1957 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station for anyone whos ever wondered what albert einstein was like in his youth enlightenment is just around the theoretical corner courtesy of one nobel laureate analyzing another on wednesday mar 30 dr dudley r herschbach 1986 nobel prize winner in chemistry and professor of physics at texas a&m university will present einstein as a student at 7 pm in the annenberg presidential conference center on the texas a&m campus the free presentation which is open to the public is sponsored by the department of physics and the institute for quantum studies herschbach one of the worlds top molecular chemists shared the nobel prize with two other scientists for their work in detailing how chemical reactions take place in molecules he will begin teaching in the department of physics in the fall as only the third nobel laureate in the universitys 129-year history free tickets for the lecture are available through the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 msc box office hours are monday through friday 11 am to 8 pm and saturday 10 am to 2 pm for more information on the event contact jennifer holle in the college of science deans office at (979) 845-7361 * * * * * * * * * * * for more on herschbachs background and hire at texas a&m go to: https://sciencetamuedu/story3aspstoryid=458 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post nobel winner to deliver public lecture on einstein appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " for anyone whos ever wondered what albert einstein was like in his youth enlightenment is just around the theoretical corner courtesy of one nobel laureate analyzing another on wednesday mar 30 dr dudley r herschbach 1986 nobel prize winner in chemistry and professor of physics at texas a&m university will present einstein as a student at 7 pm in the annenberg presidential conference center on the texas a&m campus the free presentation which is open to the public is sponsored by the department of physics and the institute for quantum studies herschbach one of the worlds top molecular chemists shared the nobel prize with two other scientists for their work in detailing how chemical reactions take place in molecules he will begin teaching in the department of physics in the fall as only the third nobel laureate in the universitys 129-year history free tickets for the lecture are available through the memorial student center box office at (979) 845-1234 msc box office hours are monday through friday 11 am to 8 pm and saturday 10 am to 2 pm for more information on the event contact jennifer holle in the college of science deans office at (979) 845-7361 * * * * * * * * * * * for more on herschbachs background and hire at texas a&m go to: https://sciencetamuedu/story3aspstoryid=458 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " college station texas a&m university professor of physics dr william h bassichis is one of five university faculty members who have been appointed to university professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence announced executive vice president and provost david b prior the three-year appointment carries an annual salary supplement of $5 000 provided by the university as well as annual discretionary income to support the recipients teaching program and related professional development bassichis who will hold one of two thaman professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence has been a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1970 on student evaluations he has been either the highest or second-highest-ranked teacher each year that he has been on the faculty last spring bassichis was asked to teach a group of students at texas a&m university-qatar covering two semesters of physics in four months the students voted bassichis as their favorite professor despite the amount of work he assigned in 2003 bassichis was honored as one of the two inaugural recipients of texas a&ms presidential professor for teaching excellence award these professorships are being conferred upon some of the universitys most distinguished teachers who have exhibited excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students at texas a&m university prior said outstanding teaching of our undergraduate students continues to be a priority with texas a&m and the new appointees signify this commitment in its highest sense for the complete story go to http://revtamuedu/stories/05/031505-6html -atm- the post bassichis honored for teaching excellence appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university professor of physics dr william h bassichis is one of five university faculty members who have been appointed to university professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence announced executive vice president and provost david b prior the three-year appointment carries an annual salary supplement of $5 000 provided by the university as well as annual discretionary income to support the recipients teaching program and related professional development bassichis who will hold one of two thaman professorships in undergraduate teaching excellence has been a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1970 on student evaluations he has been either the highest or second-highest-ranked teacher each year that he has been on the faculty last spring bassichis was asked to teach a group of students at texas a&m university-qatar covering two semesters of physics in four months the students voted bassichis as their favorite professor despite the amount of work he assigned in 2003 bassichis was honored as one of the two inaugural recipients of texas a&ms presidential professor for teaching excellence award these professorships are being conferred upon some of the universitys most distinguished teachers who have exhibited excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students at texas a&m university prior said outstanding teaching of our undergraduate students continues to be a priority with texas a&m and the new appointees signify this commitment in its highest sense for the complete story go to http://revtamuedu/stories/05/031505-6html -atm- " " microchip-based diode lasers have had a good run theyre at the heart of cd and dvd players computer disc optical drives and a host of medical devices together these and other applications add up to a sweet $35 billion market but diode lasers cant do it all researchers have struggled to get them to produce the long-wavelength light ranging from the mid-infrared to terahertz frequencies that is highly sought after for applications from explosives detection to biomedical imaging researchers have also had a tough time making the lasers out of silicon the workhorse of computer technology an advance that could vastly improve computer processing speeds by enabling chips within computers and local networks to send signals through high-speed glass fibers instead of metal wires now a spate of advances could finally help chip-based lasers leap those hurdles in recent months groups at the university of california los angeles (ucla) and intel corp have reported major strides in making raman lasers out of silicon like other lasers the new silicon-based devices trap light waves force their peaks and troughs into orderly alignment and then release them in energetic beams the one downside is that in order to work these lasers must be primed by light from another laser but 2 weeks ago a group at harvard university in cambridge massachusetts reported creating a chip-based raman laser that works when fed electricity over the past 5 months this field has exploded says philippe fauchet an optics expert at the university of rochester in new york the lasers take their name from the indian physicist chandrasekhara venkata raman who discovered the principle behind them in 1928 when monochromatic light passes through a transparent material he found most of the photons emerge with their wavelength unchanged others though collide with atoms in the material and lose or gain energy causing them to emerge at a shorter or longer wavelength the effect lies at the heart of fiber optic-based commercial devices called raman amplifiers which boost longer-wavelength optical signals streaming through glass fibers for long-distance data transmission and telecommunications the devices work by using an initial high-energy pump pulse to prime the fiber so that when photons in a data pulse pass through they stimulate the release of additional photons at the same energy amplifying the pulse by reflecting the growing light pulse back and forth through a transparent fiber engineers can create a raman-based fiber-optic laser but because the raman effect is so slight in glass fibers these devices typically require kilometers of fiber to work the good news is that the raman effect is 10 000 times stronger in pure silicon than in glass we can do in centimeter-sized devices in silicon what is done in kilometers in glass says mario paniccia who directs intels photonics technology laboratory in santa clara california at least thats the theory unfortunately silicon has an appetite for eating laser photons when an incoming laser pulse known as the pump pulse is trained on silicon silicon atoms can absorb two photons simultaneously the energy excites one of the atoms electrons freeing it to roam through the crystal such mobile electrons are strong photon absorbers and quickly quench any amplification of laser photons in the material last fall ucla optoelectronics researchers ozdal boyraz and bahram jalali were the first to overcome this problem and create a silicon-based raman laser in the 18 october 2004 issue of optics express the pair reported that to prevent the buildup of excited electrons they zapped their silicon chip with a staccato of pulses each lasting just 30 trillionths of a second or picoseconds between pulses they gave the excited electrons time to relax back to their ground state so they wouldnt reach a level that kept photons from building up in the material the ucla device however wasnt pure silicon: it also used 8 meters of optical fiber to carry the emerging laser light back to the silicon crystal for additional passes in order to boost the output of the raman-shifted pulse three months later researchers at intel did away with the optical fiber in the 20 january issue of nature a team led by paniccia reported creating the first all-silicon-based raman laser like the ucla device it relied on pulsing an incoming beam but mirrors in the silicon bounced the light back and forth without the need for the fiber the intel team also added another trick: they routed the light down a path within the chip lined with positive and negative electrodes when the researchers applied a voltage charged particles swarmed to the electrodes sweeping the mobile electrons out of the path of the incoming photons as a result the team could blast the silicon chip with a stronger pump pulse to increase the output of the raman-shifted laser light last month in nature the intel team reported another improvement the first silicon raman laser that emits a continuous beam of photons boyraz and jalali jumped back into the fray as well reporting in the 7 february issue of optics express that they had incorporated an electric modulator into their optically pumped device to switch their new lasers on and off the string of advances fauchet says sets the stage for a host of innovations such as silicon-based optoelectronic devices to replace copper wires in speeding short-distance communication between computers as well as other military medical and chemical detection applications by leveraging the semiconductor industrys decades of experience in fabricating silicon components the new work could help slash costs for optical components its a potential sea change that allows you to do new things because they are cheap fauchet says the new lasers have their drawbacks the major limitation of raman lasers is that to get a laser you need another [pump] laser fauchet says ideally you would like to have an electrically pumped laser that would be the holy grail as if on cue in the 24 february issue of nature researchers led by federico capasso of harvard reported just such a device unlike the previous lasers however the new one is made from alloys of aluminum gallium indium and arsenic rather than silicon and works in a different manner known as a quantum cascade (qc) laser it consists of hundreds of precisely grown semiconductor layers as electrons pass through the layers they lose energy at each step giving up photons which combine to create the laser beam capasso and his colleagues at harvard and lucent technologys bell laboratories in murray hill new jersey had spent a decade building qc lasers that emit light in the mid-infrared range in hopes of extending their reach to longer terahertz frequencies capasso teamed up with theorist alexey belyanin of texas a&m university in college station who had suggested modifying the device by adding new sections that use the raman effect to shift the initial laser light to a longer wavelength in essence the group created a pair of raman lasers on a single chip: one that converts electricity into an initial pump laser and a second that shifts the light to longer wavelengths the new qc raman lasers turn out beams of infrared light with a wavelength of 9 micrometers capasso says his team is working to create similar devices that turn out beams at terahertz frequencies which are widely sought after for use in detecting explosives and other chemicals fauchet notes that the advance doesnt produce the shorter wavelength photons ideal for telecommunications but it demonstrates you dont need an external laser to get a raman laser he says no matter which of the new raman lasers proves most successful the devices look likely to extend diode lasers run for a long time to come [complete article viewable at wwwsciencemagorg] the post new generation of minute lasers steps into the light appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " microchip-based diode lasers have had a good run theyre at the heart of cd and dvd players computer disc optical drives and a host of medical devices together these and other applications add up to a sweet $35 billion market but diode lasers cant do it all researchers have struggled to get them to produce the long-wavelength light ranging from the mid-infrared to terahertz frequencies that is highly sought after for applications from explosives detection to biomedical imaging researchers have also had a tough time making the lasers out of silicon the workhorse of computer technology an advance that could vastly improve computer processing speeds by enabling chips within computers and local networks to send signals through high-speed glass fibers instead of metal wires now a spate of advances could finally help chip-based lasers leap those hurdles in recent months groups at the university of california los angeles (ucla) and intel corp have reported major strides in making raman lasers out of silicon like other lasers the new silicon-based devices trap light waves force their peaks and troughs into orderly alignment and then release them in energetic beams the one downside is that in order to work these lasers must be primed by light from another laser but 2 weeks ago a group at harvard university in cambridge massachusetts reported creating a chip-based raman laser that works when fed electricity over the past 5 months this field has exploded says philippe fauchet an optics expert at the university of rochester in new york the lasers take their name from the indian physicist chandrasekhara venkata raman who discovered the principle behind them in 1928 when monochromatic light passes through a transparent material he found most of the photons emerge with their wavelength unchanged others though collide with atoms in the material and lose or gain energy causing them to emerge at a shorter or longer wavelength the effect lies at the heart of fiber optic-based commercial devices called raman amplifiers which boost longer-wavelength optical signals streaming through glass fibers for long-distance data transmission and telecommunications the devices work by using an initial high-energy pump pulse to prime the fiber so that when photons in a data pulse pass through they stimulate the release of additional photons at the same energy amplifying the pulse by reflecting the growing light pulse back and forth through a transparent fiber engineers can create a raman-based fiber-optic laser but because the raman effect is so slight in glass fibers these devices typically require kilometers of fiber to work the good news is that the raman effect is 10 000 times stronger in pure silicon than in glass we can do in centimeter-sized devices in silicon what is done in kilometers in glass says mario paniccia who directs intels photonics technology laboratory in santa clara california at least thats the theory unfortunately silicon has an appetite for eating laser photons when an incoming laser pulse known as the pump pulse is trained on silicon silicon atoms can absorb two photons simultaneously the energy excites one of the atoms electrons freeing it to roam through the crystal such mobile electrons are strong photon absorbers and quickly quench any amplification of laser photons in the material last fall ucla optoelectronics researchers ozdal boyraz and bahram jalali were the first to overcome this problem and create a silicon-based raman laser in the 18 october 2004 issue of optics express the pair reported that to prevent the buildup of excited electrons they zapped their silicon chip with a staccato of pulses each lasting just 30 trillionths of a second or picoseconds between pulses they gave the excited electrons time to relax back to their ground state so they wouldnt reach a level that kept photons from building up in the material the ucla device however wasnt pure silicon: it also used 8 meters of optical fiber to carry the emerging laser light back to the silicon crystal for additional passes in order to boost the output of the raman-shifted pulse three months later researchers at intel did away with the optical fiber in the 20 january issue of nature a team led by paniccia reported creating the first all-silicon-based raman laser like the ucla device it relied on pulsing an incoming beam but mirrors in the silicon bounced the light back and forth without the need for the fiber the intel team also added another trick: they routed the light down a path within the chip lined with positive and negative electrodes when the researchers applied a voltage charged particles swarmed to the electrodes sweeping the mobile electrons out of the path of the incoming photons as a result the team could blast the silicon chip with a stronger pump pulse to increase the output of the raman-shifted laser light last month in nature the intel team reported another improvement the first silicon raman laser that emits a continuous beam of photons boyraz and jalali jumped back into the fray as well reporting in the 7 february issue of optics express that they had incorporated an electric modulator into their optically pumped device to switch their new lasers on and off the string of advances fauchet says sets the stage for a host of innovations such as silicon-based optoelectronic devices to replace copper wires in speeding short-distance communication between computers as well as other military medical and chemical detection applications by leveraging the semiconductor industrys decades of experience in fabricating silicon components the new work could help slash costs for optical components its a potential sea change that allows you to do new things because they are cheap fauchet says the new lasers have their drawbacks the major limitation of raman lasers is that to get a laser you need another [pump] laser fauchet says ideally you would like to have an electrically pumped laser that would be the holy grail as if on cue in the 24 february issue of nature researchers led by federico capasso of harvard reported just such a device unlike the previous lasers however the new one is made from alloys of aluminum gallium indium and arsenic rather than silicon and works in a different manner known as a quantum cascade (qc) laser it consists of hundreds of precisely grown semiconductor layers as electrons pass through the layers they lose energy at each step giving up photons which combine to create the laser beam capasso and his colleagues at harvard and lucent technologys bell laboratories in murray hill new jersey had spent a decade building qc lasers that emit light in the mid-infrared range in hopes of extending their reach to longer terahertz frequencies capasso teamed up with theorist alexey belyanin of texas a&m university in college station who had suggested modifying the device by adding new sections that use the raman effect to shift the initial laser light to a longer wavelength in essence the group created a pair of raman lasers on a single chip: one that converts electricity into an initial pump laser and a second that shifts the light to longer wavelengths the new qc raman lasers turn out beams of infrared light with a wavelength of 9 micrometers capasso says his team is working to create similar devices that turn out beams at terahertz frequencies which are widely sought after for use in detecting explosives and other chemicals fauchet notes that the advance doesnt produce the shorter wavelength photons ideal for telecommunications but it demonstrates you dont need an external laser to get a raman laser he says no matter which of the new raman lasers proves most successful the devices look likely to extend diode lasers run for a long time to come [complete article viewable at wwwsciencemagorg] " " nobel prize-winning scientist dudley herschbach wanted to be a cowboy since he was 6 years old my dad would call me ‘high ho silver because i thought i was the lone ranger he said ive identified with the romantic notion of texas for many decades in the fall herschbachs dream will come true in part as he will come to texas a&m to teach chemical physics classes and work at the institute for quantum studies herschbach is a molecular chemist and a professor at harvard university he will remain on the faculty at harvard on a leave that he calls a perpetual sabbatical i am very impressed with a lot of scientific notions going on in texas he said it will be a new adventure in 1986 herschbach and two other scientists won the nobel prize for developing methods to test how chemical reactions take place between molecules herschbach explained how his research techniques contributed to the study of chemical elementary processes suppose you could only study human psychology by flying a blimp over a football stadium and listening to the murmur of the crowd he said you would not learn as much about human psychology as if you could eavesdrop on people in the crowd we developed a method equivalent to eavesdropping on the people that allowed us to study what the molecules were doing he said people didnt think that could be done but now those methods are used worldwide marlon scully physicist at a&ms institute for quantum studies said herschbach is a world-class teacher and an expert on the history of science hes an asset in the research arena and in fostering the intellectual development of graduate and undergraduate students scully said dudley is a very interdisciplinary eclectic intellectual herschbach said that promoting work in the area of chemical physics and interacting with scientists and students at a&m to bring new perspectives on research in chemistry are goals joseph newton dean of the college of science said herschbach has a wealth of knowledge and experience that will attract students to a&m science is like a football team newton said if you get some really good players more will follow growing up as one of six children herschbach said his family did not know anyone who had gone to college and he had no idea he would become a professor or a scientist he said his interest in science started when he was 11 years old and his grandmother gave him a national geographic magazine containing star maps herschbach said he was inspired by the magazine and began making his own star maps often climbing trees at night to look at the sky i got more and more interested in science and math as i went through school he said i joined the football team in high school thats what got me interesting in studying how molecules collided herschbach was a talented athlete who played football for stanford university his freshman year although he decided not to continue his sports career herschbach said he was invited to try out for the los angeles rams but for all of his accomplishments herschbach said his most recognized achievement occurred last year theres something that tops everything he said i was a guest voice on ‘the simpsons i was on one of their halloween programs the ‘tree house of horror the post nobel prize winner to become a visiting faculty member appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " nobel prize-winning scientist dudley herschbach wanted to be a cowboy since he was 6 years old my dad would call me ‘high ho silver because i thought i was the lone ranger he said ive identified with the romantic notion of texas for many decades in the fall herschbachs dream will come true in part as he will come to texas a&m to teach chemical physics classes and work at the institute for quantum studies herschbach is a molecular chemist and a professor at harvard university he will remain on the faculty at harvard on a leave that he calls a perpetual sabbatical i am very impressed with a lot of scientific notions going on in texas he said it will be a new adventure in 1986 herschbach and two other scientists won the nobel prize for developing methods to test how chemical reactions take place between molecules herschbach explained how his research techniques contributed to the study of chemical elementary processes suppose you could only study human psychology by flying a blimp over a football stadium and listening to the murmur of the crowd he said you would not learn as much about human psychology as if you could eavesdrop on people in the crowd we developed a method equivalent to eavesdropping on the people that allowed us to study what the molecules were doing he said people didnt think that could be done but now those methods are used worldwide marlon scully physicist at a&ms institute for quantum studies said herschbach is a world-class teacher and an expert on the history of science hes an asset in the research arena and in fostering the intellectual development of graduate and undergraduate students scully said dudley is a very interdisciplinary eclectic intellectual herschbach said that promoting work in the area of chemical physics and interacting with scientists and students at a&m to bring new perspectives on research in chemistry are goals joseph newton dean of the college of science said herschbach has a wealth of knowledge and experience that will attract students to a&m science is like a football team newton said if you get some really good players more will follow growing up as one of six children herschbach said his family did not know anyone who had gone to college and he had no idea he would become a professor or a scientist he said his interest in science started when he was 11 years old and his grandmother gave him a national geographic magazine containing star maps herschbach said he was inspired by the magazine and began making his own star maps often climbing trees at night to look at the sky i got more and more interested in science and math as i went through school he said i joined the football team in high school thats what got me interesting in studying how molecules collided herschbach was a talented athlete who played football for stanford university his freshman year although he decided not to continue his sports career herschbach said he was invited to try out for the los angeles rams but for all of his accomplishments herschbach said his most recognized achievement occurred last year theres something that tops everything he said i was a guest voice on ‘the simpsons i was on one of their halloween programs the ‘tree house of horror " " college station dr dudley r herschbach 1986 nobel prize winner in chemistry and frank b baird jr professor of science at harvard university will join texas a&m universitys department of physics effective september 1 2005 announced dr edward s fry professor and head of physics herschbach has accepted a position as professor of physics for one semester each year in the departments chemical physics program marking only the third nobel laureate in texas a&ms 129-year history and one of the college of sciences biggest recruiting coups thus far under the universitys multi-year faculty reinvestment plan it is fantastic to have someone of dr herschbachs stature joining our department fry said he is one of the leading chemical physicists in the world and i am elated his interactions at texas a&m university with the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and the institute for quantum studies will be important elements in our departments continued drive toward excellence he will also have a significant positive impact on many other programs at the university especially in the department of chemistry one of 146 laureates honored for achievements in chemistry since the inception of the prestigious nobel prize program in 1901 herschbach shared the 1986 nobel prize in chemistry with yuan t lee and john c polanyi in recognition of their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes their research proved to be of great importance in the development of a new field of chemistry research reaction dynamics and has provided a much more detailed understanding of how chemical reactions take place in his proven record of excellence from scholarly research and teaching to science outreach and service dudley herschbach personifies the very professor texas a&ms faculty reinvestment plan was intended to recruit said h joseph newton dean of the college of science i have no doubt he will bring the same type of groundbreaking results to texas a&m university as he has to the field of chemistry although not scheduled to arrive at texas a&m until the fall herschbach already is quite familiar with the department and many of his soon-to-be colleagues in fact he cites his collaborative research with the universitys institute of quantum studies directed by distinguished professor of physics and fellow national academy of sciences member marlan scully as a key factor in his decision to come to texas a&m already ive had two encounters with marlan scully and some of his texas a&m university colleagues in meetings at princeton herschbach said the caliber and scope of their work and zest in its pursuit are very impressive it will be a pleasure to do all i can to enhance chemical physics at texas a&m a member of the harvard faculty since 1963 herschbach has served as chairman of the chemistry department and of its chemical physics program his teaching includes graduate courses in quantum mechanics chemical kinetics molecular spectroscopy and collision theory as well as undergraduate courses in physical chemistry and general chemistry for freshmen which he describes as his most challenging assignment he also is engaged in several efforts to improve k-12 science education and public understanding of science herschbach is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the national academy of sciences the american philosophical society and the royal chemical society of great britain in addition to the nobel prize his many international awards include the american chemical societys pure chemistry prize and kosolapoff award the linus pauling medal the michael polanyi medal the american physical societys irving langmuir prize the national medal of science the jaroslav heyrovsky medal the sierra nevada distinguished chemist award the william walker prize and the council of scientific society presidents award for support of science nearly two decades after receiving his nobel prize herschbach continues to advance the field of chemical physics to date he has published more than 400 papers on related research topics ranging from collision stereodynamics and molecular slowing to catalytic supersonic expansions and strongly correlated many-particle interactions we are delighted to welcome a world authority in the molecular dynamics of molecular reactions to our campus said dr emile a schweikert professor and head of chemistry dr herschbach is a valued colleague and a friend of many of the chemists at texas a&m our physical chemists are looking forward to stimulating discussions and fruitful collaborations a native of san jose calif herschbach earned both an am degree in physics and a phd in chemical physics at harvard after receiving a bachelors of science in mathematics and a masters of science in chemistry from stanford university -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-7717 or fry@physicstamuedu the post nobel prize winner to join physics faculty appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr dudley r herschbach 1986 nobel prize winner in chemistry and frank b baird jr professor of science at harvard university will join texas a&m universitys department of physics effective september 1 2005 announced dr edward s fry professor and head of physics herschbach has accepted a position as professor of physics for one semester each year in the departments chemical physics program marking only the third nobel laureate in texas a&ms 129-year history and one of the college of sciences biggest recruiting coups thus far under the universitys multi-year faculty reinvestment plan it is fantastic to have someone of dr herschbachs stature joining our department fry said he is one of the leading chemical physicists in the world and i am elated his interactions at texas a&m university with the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and the institute for quantum studies will be important elements in our departments continued drive toward excellence he will also have a significant positive impact on many other programs at the university especially in the department of chemistry one of 146 laureates honored for achievements in chemistry since the inception of the prestigious nobel prize program in 1901 herschbach shared the 1986 nobel prize in chemistry with yuan t lee and john c polanyi in recognition of their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes their research proved to be of great importance in the development of a new field of chemistry research reaction dynamics and has provided a much more detailed understanding of how chemical reactions take place in his proven record of excellence from scholarly research and teaching to science outreach and service dudley herschbach personifies the very professor texas a&ms faculty reinvestment plan was intended to recruit said h joseph newton dean of the college of science i have no doubt he will bring the same type of groundbreaking results to texas a&m university as he has to the field of chemistry although not scheduled to arrive at texas a&m until the fall herschbach already is quite familiar with the department and many of his soon-to-be colleagues in fact he cites his collaborative research with the universitys institute of quantum studies directed by distinguished professor of physics and fellow national academy of sciences member marlan scully as a key factor in his decision to come to texas a&m already ive had two encounters with marlan scully and some of his texas a&m university colleagues in meetings at princeton herschbach said the caliber and scope of their work and zest in its pursuit are very impressive it will be a pleasure to do all i can to enhance chemical physics at texas a&m a member of the harvard faculty since 1963 herschbach has served as chairman of the chemistry department and of its chemical physics program his teaching includes graduate courses in quantum mechanics chemical kinetics molecular spectroscopy and collision theory as well as undergraduate courses in physical chemistry and general chemistry for freshmen which he describes as his most challenging assignment he also is engaged in several efforts to improve k-12 science education and public understanding of science herschbach is a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences the national academy of sciences the american philosophical society and the royal chemical society of great britain in addition to the nobel prize his many international awards include the american chemical societys pure chemistry prize and kosolapoff award the linus pauling medal the michael polanyi medal the american physical societys irving langmuir prize the national medal of science the jaroslav heyrovsky medal the sierra nevada distinguished chemist award the william walker prize and the council of scientific society presidents award for support of science nearly two decades after receiving his nobel prize herschbach continues to advance the field of chemical physics to date he has published more than 400 papers on related research topics ranging from collision stereodynamics and molecular slowing to catalytic supersonic expansions and strongly correlated many-particle interactions we are delighted to welcome a world authority in the molecular dynamics of molecular reactions to our campus said dr emile a schweikert professor and head of chemistry dr herschbach is a valued colleague and a friend of many of the chemists at texas a&m our physical chemists are looking forward to stimulating discussions and fruitful collaborations a native of san jose calif herschbach earned both an am degree in physics and a phd in chemical physics at harvard after receiving a bachelors of science in mathematics and a masters of science in chemistry from stanford university -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-7717 or fry@physicstamuedu " " college station in the blink of an eye an experiment was conducted last week almost 700 feet underground that could help reveal some of the secrets of the universe and a texas a&m university professor has played a key role in the process robert webb professor of physics is part of the fermi lab team involved in the minos experiment that sent a beam of subatomic particles from a site in batavia ill to a site in minnesota about 450 miles away the minos (main injector neutrino oscillation search) experiment didnt require a very long waiting time the entire process took about 25 milliseconds but the results could help explain about how the universe was created and where it goes from here webb explains this entire experiment has been five years in the making and the results we get from it could be exciting even life changing says webb who helped design the minnesota facility a 6 000-ton stack of plastic and steel plates that caught the neutrino beams the site is located in soudan minn in a former iron mine the whole idea is to study neutrinos learn about them and how they interact and what they do neutrinos are one of the basic building blocks of the universe and about 5 percent of all matter in the universe is made up of neutrinos yet we know very little about them webb says in the experiment a beam of neutrinos traveled at near the speed of light from the fermilab site in illinois to the minnesota site each burst lasts only about 10 millionths of a second the invisible neutrinos leave no trace as they make the 450-mile trip from illinois to minnesota the two sites will record about 1 500 such collisions of the neutrinos during the next year the minos experiment is an on-going process webb explains the $170 million project uses hundreds of scientists from around the world webb adds we are bombarded by neutrinos every second of the day and we know that neutrinos were present at the very creation of the universe webb notes we know much more about electrons and protons than we know about neutrinos yet neutrinos are much more common they are very mysterious yet very vital and we know almost nothing about how they work and what they do we are hoping this experiment will tell us some of the secrets of neutrinos its the largest such experiment of its kind ever undertaken fermi lab is a division of the us department of energy -atm- contact: dr robert webb (979) 845-4012 or robert-webb@tamuedu the post unique fermi lab experiment could unravel secrets of universe appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in the blink of an eye an experiment was conducted last week almost 700 feet underground that could help reveal some of the secrets of the universe and a texas a&m university professor has played a key role in the process robert webb professor of physics is part of the fermi lab team involved in the minos experiment that sent a beam of subatomic particles from a site in batavia ill to a site in minnesota about 450 miles away the minos (main injector neutrino oscillation search) experiment didnt require a very long waiting time the entire process took about 25 milliseconds but the results could help explain about how the universe was created and where it goes from here webb explains this entire experiment has been five years in the making and the results we get from it could be exciting even life changing says webb who helped design the minnesota facility a 6 000-ton stack of plastic and steel plates that caught the neutrino beams the site is located in soudan minn in a former iron mine the whole idea is to study neutrinos learn about them and how they interact and what they do neutrinos are one of the basic building blocks of the universe and about 5 percent of all matter in the universe is made up of neutrinos yet we know very little about them webb says in the experiment a beam of neutrinos traveled at near the speed of light from the fermilab site in illinois to the minnesota site each burst lasts only about 10 millionths of a second the invisible neutrinos leave no trace as they make the 450-mile trip from illinois to minnesota the two sites will record about 1 500 such collisions of the neutrinos during the next year the minos experiment is an on-going process webb explains the $170 million project uses hundreds of scientists from around the world webb adds we are bombarded by neutrinos every second of the day and we know that neutrinos were present at the very creation of the universe webb notes we know much more about electrons and protons than we know about neutrinos yet neutrinos are much more common they are very mysterious yet very vital and we know almost nothing about how they work and what they do we are hoping this experiment will tell us some of the secrets of neutrinos its the largest such experiment of its kind ever undertaken fermi lab is a division of the us department of energy -atm- contact: dr robert webb (979) 845-4012 or robert-webb@tamuedu " " college station dr emil wolf wilson professor of optical physics at the university of rochester and a world renowned authority on physical optics will visit the texas a&m university campus next week to deliver two presentations on optical science as part of the department of physics distinguished lecture series on wed mar 9 wolf will present scientists who created the world of optics an overview of the lives and contributions of 21 great scientists from galileo galilee to paul dirac who helped define the science of optics the lecture scheduled for 1:45 pm in room 202 of the engineering physics building will feature portraits of these scientists as well as drawings and other photographs that will help to place their work in proper perspective on thurs mar 10 wolf will focus on another of historys great scientists thomas young as he sheds new light on one of the most beautiful physics experiments of all time performed by young nearly 200 years ago and its continued relevance today in youngs interference experiment two hundred years later the presentation will begin at 4 pm in room 202 of the engineering physics building dr m suhail zubairy a professor of physics at texas a&m who completed his phd thesis under wolfs supervision describes wolf as one of leading figures in optics of the 20th century also one of its most prolific writers wolf is the co-author of two popular books principles of optics considered one of the best books in classical optics ever written and now in its sixth edition after first being published in 1959 and optical coherence and quantum optics published in 1995 in addition he has served as editor of the 45-volume ongoing series progress in optics since its inception in 1961 a member of the university of rochester faculty since 1959 wolf has held research positions at cambridge university the university of edinburgh and the university of manchester his many international professional honors include the optical society of americas frederic ives medal and max born award the franklin institutes michelson medal the italian national research councils marconi medal the czechoslovakian academy of sciences gold medal and the union of czechoslovakian mathematicians and physicists medal wolf is an honorary member of the optical society of america for which he served as president in 1978 as well as the optical societies of india and australia in addition he is the recipient of seven honorary degrees from universities in the netherlands great britain the czech republic and canada both presentations are open to the public for more information on either topic or on wolf please contact the department of physics at (979) 845-7717 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george kattawar (979) 845-1180 or kattawar@tamuedu the post world renowned physicist to address optical science appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr emil wolf wilson professor of optical physics at the university of rochester and a world renowned authority on physical optics will visit the texas a&m university campus next week to deliver two presentations on optical science as part of the department of physics distinguished lecture series on wed mar 9 wolf will present scientists who created the world of optics an overview of the lives and contributions of 21 great scientists from galileo galilee to paul dirac who helped define the science of optics the lecture scheduled for 1:45 pm in room 202 of the engineering physics building will feature portraits of these scientists as well as drawings and other photographs that will help to place their work in proper perspective on thurs mar 10 wolf will focus on another of historys great scientists thomas young as he sheds new light on one of the most beautiful physics experiments of all time performed by young nearly 200 years ago and its continued relevance today in youngs interference experiment two hundred years later the presentation will begin at 4 pm in room 202 of the engineering physics building dr m suhail zubairy a professor of physics at texas a&m who completed his phd thesis under wolfs supervision describes wolf as one of leading figures in optics of the 20th century also one of its most prolific writers wolf is the co-author of two popular books principles of optics considered one of the best books in classical optics ever written and now in its sixth edition after first being published in 1959 and optical coherence and quantum optics published in 1995 in addition he has served as editor of the 45-volume ongoing series progress in optics since its inception in 1961 a member of the university of rochester faculty since 1959 wolf has held research positions at cambridge university the university of edinburgh and the university of manchester his many international professional honors include the optical society of americas frederic ives medal and max born award the franklin institutes michelson medal the italian national research councils marconi medal the czechoslovakian academy of sciences gold medal and the union of czechoslovakian mathematicians and physicists medal wolf is an honorary member of the optical society of america for which he served as president in 1978 as well as the optical societies of india and australia in addition he is the recipient of seven honorary degrees from universities in the netherlands great britain the czech republic and canada both presentations are open to the public for more information on either topic or on wolf please contact the department of physics at (979) 845-7717 -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr george kattawar (979) 845-1180 or kattawar@tamuedu " " physicists in europe and the us have performed a novel version of the double-slit quantum-interference experiment with single electrons in the classic version of the experiment which was recently voted the most beautiful experiment of all time by readers of physics world electrons pass through a mask containing two parallel slits and produce a pattern of bright and dark interference fringes on a screen now gerhard paulus of texas a&m university and co-workers in berlin munich sarajevo and vienna have observed an interference pattern with electrons that pass through a double slit in time not space as a result of being ejected from an atom at one of two possible times by a laser pulse the double-slit experiment was first performed with light by thomas young over 200 years agothe formation of the fringes can be explained by the interference of waves travelling from the two slits when the peaks of the two waves coincide on the screen the interference is constructive and the result is a bright fringe however if the peak of one wave coincides with the trough of the other destructive interference results in a region of darkness the spacing between the fringes depends on the wavelength of the light and the separation of the slits similar interference fringes have also been observed with electrons atoms and molecules with the fringe spacing depending on the de broglie wavelength of the particles (see pages 35-40) experiments have also shown that an interference pattern builds up even if there is only one particle in the apparatus at any time and that the pattern disappears if we try to determine which slit it passes through this process is now understood in terms of interference between the two possible paths through the apparatus rather than between two waves or particles: if we know which way the electron passes through the slits we do not see interference and vice versa the latest experiment is radically different because the slits exist in time not space and because the interference pattern appears when the number of electrons at the detector is plotted as a function of their energy rather than their position on a screen the work was performed at the technical university of vienna in collaboration with physicists from the max born institute in berlin the max planck institute for quantum optics in munich and the university of sarajevo paulus and co-workers focused a train of pulses from a ti:sapphire laser into a chamber containing a gas of argon atoms the pulses were so short – just 5 fs – that each one contained just a few cycles of the electric field the team was able to control the output of the laser so that all the pulses were identical the researchers could for example ensure that each pulse contained two maxima of the electric field (ie two peaks with large positive values) and one minimum (a peak with a large negative value) there was a small probability that an atom would be ionized by one or other of the maxima which therefore played the role of the slits with the resulting electron being accelerated towards a detector if the atom was ionized by the minimum the electron travelled in the opposite direction towards a second detector the team registered the arrival times of the electrons at both detectors and then plotted the number of electrons as a function of energy the researchers observed interference fringes at the first detector because it was impossible to know if an electron counted by the detector was produced during the first or second maximum there was no interference pattern at the second detector because all the electrons were produced at the same time at the minimum however when the phase of the laser was changed so that there was one maximum and two minima interference fringes were seen at the second detector but not at the first we have complete which-way information and no which-way information at the same time for the same electron says paulus it just depends on the direction from which we look at it other physicists are impressed by the work this experiment should be included in every textbook on quantum mechanics says wolfgang schleich a quantum physicist at the university of ulm in germany it certainly will be in mine [complete article can be accessed online at http://physicsweborg/articles/news/9/3/1/1] the post new look for classic experiment appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " physicists in europe and the us have performed a novel version of the double-slit quantum-interference experiment with single electrons in the classic version of the experiment which was recently voted the most beautiful experiment of all time by readers of physics world electrons pass through a mask containing two parallel slits and produce a pattern of bright and dark interference fringes on a screen now gerhard paulus of texas a&m university and co-workers in berlin munich sarajevo and vienna have observed an interference pattern with electrons that pass through a double slit in time not space as a result of being ejected from an atom at one of two possible times by a laser pulse the double-slit experiment was first performed with light by thomas young over 200 years agothe formation of the fringes can be explained by the interference of waves travelling from the two slits when the peaks of the two waves coincide on the screen the interference is constructive and the result is a bright fringe however if the peak of one wave coincides with the trough of the other destructive interference results in a region of darkness the spacing between the fringes depends on the wavelength of the light and the separation of the slits similar interference fringes have also been observed with electrons atoms and molecules with the fringe spacing depending on the de broglie wavelength of the particles (see pages 35-40) experiments have also shown that an interference pattern builds up even if there is only one particle in the apparatus at any time and that the pattern disappears if we try to determine which slit it passes through this process is now understood in terms of interference between the two possible paths through the apparatus rather than between two waves or particles: if we know which way the electron passes through the slits we do not see interference and vice versa the latest experiment is radically different because the slits exist in time not space and because the interference pattern appears when the number of electrons at the detector is plotted as a function of their energy rather than their position on a screen the work was performed at the technical university of vienna in collaboration with physicists from the max born institute in berlin the max planck institute for quantum optics in munich and the university of sarajevo paulus and co-workers focused a train of pulses from a ti:sapphire laser into a chamber containing a gas of argon atoms the pulses were so short – just 5 fs – that each one contained just a few cycles of the electric field the team was able to control the output of the laser so that all the pulses were identical the researchers could for example ensure that each pulse contained two maxima of the electric field (ie two peaks with large positive values) and one minimum (a peak with a large negative value) there was a small probability that an atom would be ionized by one or other of the maxima which therefore played the role of the slits with the resulting electron being accelerated towards a detector if the atom was ionized by the minimum the electron travelled in the opposite direction towards a second detector the team registered the arrival times of the electrons at both detectors and then plotted the number of electrons as a function of energy the researchers observed interference fringes at the first detector because it was impossible to know if an electron counted by the detector was produced during the first or second maximum there was no interference pattern at the second detector because all the electrons were produced at the same time at the minimum however when the phase of the laser was changed so that there was one maximum and two minima interference fringes were seen at the second detector but not at the first we have complete which-way information and no which-way information at the same time for the same electron says paulus it just depends on the direction from which we look at it other physicists are impressed by the work this experiment should be included in every textbook on quantum mechanics says wolfgang schleich a quantum physicist at the university of ulm in germany it certainly will be in mine [complete article can be accessed online at http://physicsweborg/articles/news/9/3/1/1] " " cambridge mass engineers and applied physicists have laid the foundations for a new type of plug and play laser the raman injection laser and in the process several key innovations in laser technology the device combines the advantages of nonlinear optical devices and semiconductor injection lasers with a compact design and may one day lead to wide-ranging applications in imaging and detection published in the february 24th issue of nature the proof of concept model was developed by mariano troccoli ertugrul cubukcu and federico capasso of the harvard university division of engineering and applied sciences; alexey belyanin of texas a&m university; and deborah l sivco and alfred y cho of bell laboratories lucent technologies the finding was supported in part by texas a&ms telecommunications and informatics task force initiative conventional raman lasers depend on a fundamental phenomenon in physics called the raman effect the change in the frequency of monochromatic light (such as a laser) when it passes through a substance when light from an intense exciting laser beam known as the pump deflects off the molecules of certain materials some of the incident photons lose part of their energy as a result a secondary laser beam with a frequency shifted from that of the exciting laser emerges from the material raman lasers have been used for a long time troccoli says in general they require a large and powerful external pump to compensate for the beams attenuation or weakening as it propagates through the material in our work we were able to put the pump and the material itself into a single device the teams ability to combine the power source and the raman material together literally creating a laser-within-a-laser has resulted in several key innovations the injection laser is the first current-driven raman laser; in essence it can be plugged in the current generates an internal laser beam (the pump) within the material which in turn generates the raman laser radiation because the pump laser is self-generated the device is highly efficient with 30 percent of the pump power converted into the raman laser beam this ‘matryoshka design nesting a layer within a layer enables a crucial physical innovation explains belyanin who co-authored key theoretical ideas for laying in the foundation of the novel devices and has been collaborating with capassos group on their implementation since 2001 now the pump laser radiation can be tuned to a strong electronic resonance in the material this boosts the gain for the raman laser by five orders of magnitude as compared to conventional raman sources in which the resonance had to be avoided because of strong absorption in addition to being more efficient the device is also very compact despite its small size however it packs a powerful punch everything is contained in one single cavity only a few microns wide and a couple millimeters in length says capasso who co-developed the groundbreaking quantum cascade laser more than a decade ago this means theres a very strong interaction and that you do not need a very high-powered source to get the desired effect as a result the apparatus needed to generate the laser can be made much smaller with a footprint of less than around 1 millimeter this is comparable to the size of commercial diode lasers that are found in everyday applications such as dvd players and bar-code readers or used by physicians for procedures such as laser eye correction the new device was created using molecular beam epitaxy (mbe) the thin film growth technique pioneered by bell laboratories cho in the late 1960s that is now widely used in commercial products such as lasers for cd players in mbe atoms are spray painted on a substrate to produce semiconductor films only a few atomic layers thick perhaps whats most important is that the new laser is not dependent on the conventional raman shift troccoli notes instead we use an internal electronic oscillation mode that can be designed or tailored over a broad range by changing the layer thickness of the constituent materials this makes the device far more flexible and allows us to use it in room temperature conditions we can design it to emit in the mid-infrared range where most molecules have their telltale absorption ‘fingerprints and eventually broaden it to work in the terahertz range (a wavelength between 3 and 003 millimeters) where many materials appear transparent although the current version of the injection laser is not as powerful as standard raman lasers it overcomes fundamental barriers to practical use ultimately by better understanding the physics involved and improving the devices design the researchers hope their work will lead to a new generation of tunable compact lasers that can operate at almost any wavelength of the invisible light spectrum including the terahertz range because terahertz radiation can easily penetrate through packages and clothing they may also have broad future potential applications related to areas such as homeland security while our paper merely has demonstrated proof of concept one day it may lead to the sort of security experts dream of having a portable device that you could use to detect things like weapons or explosives simply by shining an invisible light to see what someone might be hiding capasso explains the work also represents an important advance in quantum design since we are now able to engineer from the bottom-up a new raman material and laser and tailor its property for a given application according to belyanin the same strategy of integrated quantum design can be applied to a variety of other nonlinear optical sources paving the way for even greater ramifications of the discovery [complete nature article available at http://wwwnaturecom/nature/links/050224/050224-6html] -atm- contact: alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu the post harvard and texas a&m scientists develop plug and play laser appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " engineers and applied physicists have laid the foundations for a new type of plug and play laser the raman injection laser and in the process several key innovations in laser technology the device combines the advantages of nonlinear optical devices and semiconductor injection lasers with a compact design and may one day lead to wide-ranging applications in imaging and detection published in the february 24th issue of nature the proof of concept model was developed by mariano troccoli ertugrul cubukcu and federico capasso of the harvard university division of engineering and applied sciences; alexey belyanin of texas a&m university; and deborah l sivco and alfred y cho of bell laboratories lucent technologies the finding was supported in part by texas a&ms telecommunications and informatics task force initiative conventional raman lasers depend on a fundamental phenomenon in physics called the raman effect the change in the frequency of monochromatic light (such as a laser) when it passes through a substance when light from an intense exciting laser beam known as the pump deflects off the molecules of certain materials some of the incident photons lose part of their energy as a result a secondary laser beam with a frequency shifted from that of the exciting laser emerges from the material raman lasers have been used for a long time troccoli says in general they require a large and powerful external pump to compensate for the beams attenuation or weakening as it propagates through the material in our work we were able to put the pump and the material itself into a single device the teams ability to combine the power source and the raman material together literally creating a laser-within-a-laser has resulted in several key innovations the injection laser is the first current-driven raman laser; in essence it can be plugged in the current generates an internal laser beam (the pump) within the material which in turn generates the raman laser radiation because the pump laser is self-generated the device is highly efficient with 30 percent of the pump power converted into the raman laser beam this ‘matryoshka design nesting a layer within a layer enables a crucial physical innovation explains belyanin who co-authored key theoretical ideas for laying in the foundation of the novel devices and has been collaborating with capassos group on their implementation since 2001 now the pump laser radiation can be tuned to a strong electronic resonance in the material this boosts the gain for the raman laser by five orders of magnitude as compared to conventional raman sources in which the resonance had to be avoided because of strong absorption in addition to being more efficient the device is also very compact despite its small size however it packs a powerful punch everything is contained in one single cavity only a few microns wide and a couple millimeters in length says capasso who co-developed the groundbreaking quantum cascade laser more than a decade ago this means theres a very strong interaction and that you do not need a very high-powered source to get the desired effect as a result the apparatus needed to generate the laser can be made much smaller with a footprint of less than around 1 millimeter this is comparable to the size of commercial diode lasers that are found in everyday applications such as dvd players and bar-code readers or used by physicians for procedures such as laser eye correction the new device was created using molecular beam epitaxy (mbe) the thin film growth technique pioneered by bell laboratories cho in the late 1960s that is now widely used in commercial products such as lasers for cd players in mbe atoms are spray painted on a substrate to produce semiconductor films only a few atomic layers thick perhaps whats most important is that the new laser is not dependent on the conventional raman shift troccoli notes instead we use an internal electronic oscillation mode that can be designed or tailored over a broad range by changing the layer thickness of the constituent materials this makes the device far more flexible and allows us to use it in room temperature conditions we can design it to emit in the mid-infrared range where most molecules have their telltale absorption ‘fingerprints and eventually broaden it to work in the terahertz range (a wavelength between 3 and 003 millimeters) where many materials appear transparent although the current version of the injection laser is not as powerful as standard raman lasers it overcomes fundamental barriers to practical use ultimately by better understanding the physics involved and improving the devices design the researchers hope their work will lead to a new generation of tunable compact lasers that can operate at almost any wavelength of the invisible light spectrum including the terahertz range because terahertz radiation can easily penetrate through packages and clothing they may also have broad future potential applications related to areas such as homeland security while our paper merely has demonstrated proof of concept one day it may lead to the sort of security experts dream of having a portable device that you could use to detect things like weapons or explosives simply by shining an invisible light to see what someone might be hiding capasso explains the work also represents an important advance in quantum design since we are now able to engineer from the bottom-up a new raman material and laser and tailor its property for a given application according to belyanin the same strategy of integrated quantum design can be applied to a variety of other nonlinear optical sources paving the way for even greater ramifications of the discovery [complete nature article available at http://wwwnaturecom/nature/links/050224/050224-6html] -atm- contact: alexey belyanin (979) 845-7785 or belyanin@physicstamuedu " " in 1971 mikhail dyakonov and vladimir perel of the ioffe institute in leningrad proposed a new transport phenomenon (1) if one applies an electric field to the ends of a semiconducting strip they reasoned electrons would scatter off impurities in a spin-dependent way as the electrons make their way along the strip those with up spins would veer to one side while those with down spins would veer to the other side the result is a transverse flow of spin a spin hall effect unlike the traditional hall effect and its younger quantum cousins the spin hall effect doesnt cause a transverse voltage nor does it need an external magnetic field the polarization relies instead on the relativistic coupling of the electrons spin and orbital angular momentum but the predicted polarization is modest for two decades after its debut dyakonov and perels proposal languished as a curiosity all but ignored by theorists and experimenters alike interest picked up when physicists began looking at ways to exploit electron spins to carry store and process information although magnetically controlled ferromagnets offer the easiest path to spin-based applications electrically controlled semiconductors may have the greater potential electric fields can be produced and controlled on far shorter time scales and in far smaller volumes than magnetic fields can and semiconductors through gating doping and other techniques are more adaptable materials than ferromagnets in the envisioned world of semiconductor spintronics the spin hall effect looks like a useful tool to have in 1999 unaware of dyakonov and perels work jorge hirsch of the university of california santa cruz came up with the same idea (2) then in 2003 shuichi murakami and naoto nagaosa of the university of tokyo and shou-cheng zhang of stanford university claimed that a potentially stronger and more useful spin hall effect occurs even without impurities (3) independently and in parallel jairo sinova of texas a&m university allan macdonald of the university of texas at austin and their collaborators made a similar claim (4) macdonald coined the terms intrinsic spin hall effect for the impurity-free version and extrinsic spin hall effect for the impurity-dependent version the intrinsic effect proved controversial more than 50 papers appeared arguing for or against its existence but now at last the spin hall effect has been observed two independent groups one based at the university of california santa barbara; the other based at the hitachi laboratory in cambridge england have reported convincing evidence that an electric field can indeed cause spins of opposite sign to accumulate on opposite sides of a semiconductor (5 6) intriguingly the effect seen in santa barbara seems extrinsic whereas the effect seen in cambridge seems intrinsic kerr probes and leds the santa barbara team consists of david awschalom his graduate students yuichiro kato and roberto myers and art gossard to observe the spin hall effect they opted to use a kerr probe when linearly polarized light reflects off a magnetized surface the lights polarization axis rotates by an amount proportional to the magnetization: the kerr effect mapping the polarization of light bouncing back from a strip of semiconductor would in principle reveal the telltale accumulation of up and down spins near the edges the team fashioned a strip of n-doped gallium arsenide 300 µm long 77 µm wide and 23 µm thick to map the strips polarization they imaged each 1 µm × 1 µm patch of the strip figure 1 shows part of the setup one full scan takes 30 hours the kerr signal from the polarized spins turned out to be feeble to raise it above the noise the team forced the signal to vary at two predetermined frequencies the electric field that drives the spin hall effect was turned on and off at a frequency fe of 1169 khz at the same time a weak magnetic field perpendicular to both the electric field and the polarization of the accumulated spins was applied at a frequency fb of 33 hz when not equal to zero the magnetic field reoriented the accumulated spins and quenched their kerr signal the spin hall effect shows up therefore as a fluctuating signal of frequency fe ± 2fb the map of the peak amplitude shown in figure 2 constitutes direct proof that polarized spins accumulate at the strips edges the hitachi team consists of experimenters jörg wunderlich and bernd kästner of the hitachi lab and theorists sinova and tomas jungwirth of the czech institute of physics in prague and university of nottingham in england they also exploited the coupling of spins to light but used light-emitting diodes rather than a kerr probe to observe it an led consists of n- and p-doped layers stuck together across a narrow gap when the led is biased electrons and holes recombine to emit radiation which passes through the material if the electrons and holes are polarized the light itself is circularly polarized leds have been used before to observe polarized spins but their usual sandwich configuration is unsuitable for spotting the accumulation of spins at the edges of a sample wunderlich and kästner realized they could observe the spin hall effect by reconfiguring an led in their device a p-doped channel lies above n-doped material but not directly above when spin-polarized holes accumulate at the edges of the channel they recombine with electrons that jump up and sideways from the n-doped material to meet them the resulting circularly polarized light originates from the edges of the led the chip-like device is shown in figure 3 leds including the novel hitachi device emit a spectrum of light with several peaks careful calibration identified the appropriate peak (at 1512 mev in the experiment) the results appear in figure 4 as expected when the direction of the electric field is reversed the polarization signal at one edge switches sign (top panels) and just as expected when the field direction stays the same the polarization at the two edges is opposite (bottom panels) weak and strong coupling spin-orbit coupling the key ingredient of the spin hall effect originates from paul diracs famous union of special relativity and quantum mechanics in 1929 two years after diracs theory appeared nevill mott applied it to the problem of scattering spinning electrons off atoms (7) roughly speaking as an electron swings by an atom it sees an effective magnetic field -(v/c) × e due to the atoms coulomb field the coupling of an electrons spin to the magnetic field sends spin-up electrons one way and spin-down electrons the other this skew scattering as mott termed it is used to produce spin-polarized particle beams at accelerators in dyakonov and perels extrinsic theory impurities serve as skew scatterers in the intrinsic theories spin-orbit coupling of electrons to the lattice atoms acts with the applied electric field to change the band structure as a result the electrons group velocity acquires a spin-dependent transverse component that leads to a transverse spin current the stronger the spin-orbit coupling the stronger the spin hall effect for semiconductors that means heavier atoms with their larger coulomb potentials are better than light atoms in addition valence-band electrons which occupy p-like states have far stronger coupling than conduction band electrons which occupy s-like states a further boost to the coupling comes from breaking the up-down symmetry of the lattice silicon has inversion symmetry but gaas does not confining the charge carriers in a thin layer with a strong electric field also breaks up-down symmetry and strengthens the coupling in the santa barbara experiment the spins belong to conduction-band electrons whose spin-orbit coupling to the atoms of the gaas lattice is weak despite the lack of inversion symmetry here the spin hall effect most likely originates extrinsically from skew scattering off impurities rather than intrinsically from the gaas lattice the santa barbara team checked this hypothesis by repeating their experiment on a strained sample if the effect originated in the lattice then it should depend on the strain direction it doesnt the charge carriers in the hitachi experiment are holes whose already strong coupling to the gaas lattice is increased by their confinement in a narrow layer having measured the impurity concentration in their sample the hitachi researchers believe it to be too low to account for the polarization they observe the spin hall effect in their sample is they believe intrinsic in origin the controversy surrounding the intrinsic effect doesnt stem from the effect itself but from what happens when impurities are present when the electric field is switched on the spins polarize and head off to different edges of the strip in the absence of impurities the electrons would continue to accelerate down the strip but in a real impurity-ridden lattice the electrons must decelerate to stabilize the current either by scattering off impurities or by slamming against the sample boundary and when the electrons decelerate the intrinsic effect reverses direction and could in principle cancel itself out in some models the steady acceleration caused by the field doesnt necessarily cancel the abrupt deceleration that occurs when electrons slam head-on into a few sparsely distributed impurities but in other models the cancellation is exact and in some cases originates from the lattice as well as impurities even the notion of a spin current is somewhat problematic as an electron travels through the bulk to reach the edge its charge remains the same but its spin thanks to spin-orbit coupling is not conserved relating spin accumulation observed at the edges to a spin current through the bulk is not straightforward sankar das sarma of the university of maryland in college park has been closely following the controversy as its unfolds the theoretical situation is a complete mess he says references 1 m i dyakonov v i perel jetp lett 13 467 (1971); phys lett a 35 459 (1971) 2 j hirsch phys rev lett 83 1834 (1999) 3 s murakami n nagaosa s c zhang science 301 1348 (2003) 4 j sinova d culcer q niu n a sinitsyn t jungwirth a h macdonald phys rev lett 92 126603 (2004) 5 y k kato r c myers a c gossard d d awschalom science 306 1910 (2004) 6 j wunderlich b kästner j sinova t jungwirth phys rev lett (in press) 7 n f mott proc r soc london ser a 124 425 (1929) the post two groups observe the spin hall effect in semiconductors appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in 1971 mikhail dyakonov and vladimir perel of the ioffe institute in leningrad proposed a new transport phenomenon (1) if one applies an electric field to the ends of a semiconducting strip they reasoned electrons would scatter off impurities in a spin-dependent way as the electrons make their way along the strip those with up spins would veer to one side while those with down spins would veer to the other side the result is a transverse flow of spin a spin hall effect unlike the traditional hall effect and its younger quantum cousins the spin hall effect doesnt cause a transverse voltage nor does it need an external magnetic field the polarization relies instead on the relativistic coupling of the electrons spin and orbital angular momentum but the predicted polarization is modest for two decades after its debut dyakonov and perels proposal languished as a curiosity all but ignored by theorists and experimenters alike interest picked up when physicists began looking at ways to exploit electron spins to carry store and process information although magnetically controlled ferromagnets offer the easiest path to spin-based applications electrically controlled semiconductors may have the greater potential electric fields can be produced and controlled on far shorter time scales and in far smaller volumes than magnetic fields can and semiconductors through gating doping and other techniques are more adaptable materials than ferromagnets in the envisioned world of semiconductor spintronics the spin hall effect looks like a useful tool to have in 1999 unaware of dyakonov and perels work jorge hirsch of the university of california santa cruz came up with the same idea (2) then in 2003 shuichi murakami and naoto nagaosa of the university of tokyo and shou-cheng zhang of stanford university claimed that a potentially stronger and more useful spin hall effect occurs even without impurities (3) independently and in parallel jairo sinova of texas a&m university allan macdonald of the university of texas at austin and their collaborators made a similar claim (4) macdonald coined the terms intrinsic spin hall effect for the impurity-free version and extrinsic spin hall effect for the impurity-dependent version the intrinsic effect proved controversial more than 50 papers appeared arguing for or against its existence but now at last the spin hall effect has been observed two independent groups one based at the university of california santa barbara; the other based at the hitachi laboratory in cambridge england have reported convincing evidence that an electric field can indeed cause spins of opposite sign to accumulate on opposite sides of a semiconductor (5 6) intriguingly the effect seen in santa barbara seems extrinsic whereas the effect seen in cambridge seems intrinsic kerr probes and leds the santa barbara team consists of david awschalom his graduate students yuichiro kato and roberto myers and art gossard to observe the spin hall effect they opted to use a kerr probe when linearly polarized light reflects off a magnetized surface the lights polarization axis rotates by an amount proportional to the magnetization: the kerr effect mapping the polarization of light bouncing back from a strip of semiconductor would in principle reveal the telltale accumulation of up and down spins near the edges the team fashioned a strip of n-doped gallium arsenide 300 µm long 77 µm wide and 23 µm thick to map the strips polarization they imaged each 1 µm × 1 µm patch of the strip figure 1 shows part of the setup one full scan takes 30 hours the kerr signal from the polarized spins turned out to be feeble to raise it above the noise the team forced the signal to vary at two predetermined frequencies the electric field that drives the spin hall effect was turned on and off at a frequency fe of 1169 khz at the same time a weak magnetic field perpendicular to both the electric field and the polarization of the accumulated spins was applied at a frequency fb of 33 hz when not equal to zero the magnetic field reoriented the accumulated spins and quenched their kerr signal the spin hall effect shows up therefore as a fluctuating signal of frequency fe ± 2fb the map of the peak amplitude shown in figure 2 constitutes direct proof that polarized spins accumulate at the strips edges the hitachi team consists of experimenters jörg wunderlich and bernd kästner of the hitachi lab and theorists sinova and tomas jungwirth of the czech institute of physics in prague and university of nottingham in england they also exploited the coupling of spins to light but used light-emitting diodes rather than a kerr probe to observe it an led consists of n- and p-doped layers stuck together across a narrow gap when the led is biased electrons and holes recombine to emit radiation which passes through the material if the electrons and holes are polarized the light itself is circularly polarized leds have been used before to observe polarized spins but their usual sandwich configuration is unsuitable for spotting the accumulation of spins at the edges of a sample wunderlich and kästner realized they could observe the spin hall effect by reconfiguring an led in their device a p-doped channel lies above n-doped material but not directly above when spin-polarized holes accumulate at the edges of the channel they recombine with electrons that jump up and sideways from the n-doped material to meet them the resulting circularly polarized light originates from the edges of the led the chip-like device is shown in figure 3 leds including the novel hitachi device emit a spectrum of light with several peaks careful calibration identified the appropriate peak (at 1512 mev in the experiment) the results appear in figure 4 as expected when the direction of the electric field is reversed the polarization signal at one edge switches sign (top panels) and just as expected when the field direction stays the same the polarization at the two edges is opposite (bottom panels) weak and strong coupling spin-orbit coupling the key ingredient of the spin hall effect originates from paul diracs famous union of special relativity and quantum mechanics in 1929 two years after diracs theory appeared nevill mott applied it to the problem of scattering spinning electrons off atoms (7) roughly speaking as an electron swings by an atom it sees an effective magnetic field -(v/c) × e due to the atoms coulomb field the coupling of an electrons spin to the magnetic field sends spin-up electrons one way and spin-down electrons the other this skew scattering as mott termed it is used to produce spin-polarized particle beams at accelerators in dyakonov and perels extrinsic theory impurities serve as skew scatterers in the intrinsic theories spin-orbit coupling of electrons to the lattice atoms acts with the applied electric field to change the band structure as a result the electrons group velocity acquires a spin-dependent transverse component that leads to a transverse spin current the stronger the spin-orbit coupling the stronger the spin hall effect for semiconductors that means heavier atoms with their larger coulomb potentials are better than light atoms in addition valence-band electrons which occupy p-like states have far stronger coupling than conduction band electrons which occupy s-like states a further boost to the coupling comes from breaking the up-down symmetry of the lattice silicon has inversion symmetry but gaas does not confining the charge carriers in a thin layer with a strong electric field also breaks up-down symmetry and strengthens the coupling in the santa barbara experiment the spins belong to conduction-band electrons whose spin-orbit coupling to the atoms of the gaas lattice is weak despite the lack of inversion symmetry here the spin hall effect most likely originates extrinsically from skew scattering off impurities rather than intrinsically from the gaas lattice the santa barbara team checked this hypothesis by repeating their experiment on a strained sample if the effect originated in the lattice then it should depend on the strain direction it doesnt the charge carriers in the hitachi experiment are holes whose already strong coupling to the gaas lattice is increased by their confinement in a narrow layer having measured the impurity concentration in their sample the hitachi researchers believe it to be too low to account for the polarization they observe the spin hall effect in their sample is they believe intrinsic in origin the controversy surrounding the intrinsic effect doesnt stem from the effect itself but from what happens when impurities are present when the electric field is switched on the spins polarize and head off to different edges of the strip in the absence of impurities the electrons would continue to accelerate down the strip but in a real impurity-ridden lattice the electrons must decelerate to stabilize the current either by scattering off impurities or by slamming against the sample boundary and when the electrons decelerate the intrinsic effect reverses direction and could in principle cancel itself out in some models the steady acceleration caused by the field doesnt necessarily cancel the abrupt deceleration that occurs when electrons slam head-on into a few sparsely distributed impurities but in other models the cancellation is exact and in some cases originates from the lattice as well as impurities even the notion of a spin current is somewhat problematic as an electron travels through the bulk to reach the edge its charge remains the same but its spin thanks to spin-orbit coupling is not conserved relating spin accumulation observed at the edges to a spin current through the bulk is not straightforward sankar das sarma of the university of maryland in college park has been closely following the controversy as its unfolds the theoretical situation is a complete mess he says references 1 m i dyakonov v i perel jetp lett 13 467 (1971); phys lett a 35 459 (1971) 2 j hirsch phys rev lett 83 1834 (1999) 3 s murakami n nagaosa s c zhang science 301 1348 (2003) 4 j sinova d culcer q niu n a sinitsyn t jungwirth a h macdonald phys rev lett 92 126603 (2004) 5 y k kato r c myers a c gossard d d awschalom science 306 1910 (2004) 6 j wunderlich b kästner j sinova t jungwirth phys rev lett (in press) 7 n f mott proc r soc london ser a 124 425 (1929) " " college station an international team of physicists has announced discovery of a new spintronic effect in semiconductor chips the intrinsic spin hall effect which puts a new twist on future technology and the possibility for novel circuits with low energy consumption the team includes physicists dr jörg wunderlich and dr bernd kaestner from the hitachi cambridge laboratory uk; professor tomás jungwirth from the institute of physics of the academy of sciences of the czech republic and the university of nottingham uk; and professor jairo sinova from texas a&m university usa in a normal hall effect a voltage is created perpendicular to an electric current as it flows through a conductor in a magnetic field the magnetic field deflects the moving charges to the sides of the conductor resulting in an observable hall voltage a different type of hall phenomenon the spin hall effect was first predicted in 1971 here the moving electrons which carry with them a tiny magnet called the spin collide with impurities and deflect to the right or left depending on the orientation of their spin these collisions generate opposing magnetizations at the conductors edges despite its intriguing ramifications the theory disappeared into virtual obscurity until 1999 when it was rediscovered and further elaborated four years later two independent teams one including sinova and jungwirth proposed a novel mechanism called the intrinsic spin hall effect in which similar magnetization occurs without the need for collisions the prediction touched off a theoretical firestorm resulting in more than 50 articles arguing for and against the possibility as the heated debate raged on wunderlich and kaestner developed a new type of device to measure magnetization at each side of a high-mobility ultra-thin conducting layer embedded within a semiconductor chip using built-in light-emitting diodes armed with this novel tool wunderlich and kaestner teamed with jungwirth and sinova to observe the spin hall effect their findings will be featured the february issue of physics today along with an independent and parallel observation of the effect in conventional bulk semiconductors team members say the more than 10 times larger signal detected in the hitachi device can be attributed to the special layered design of the semiconductor chip that yielded operation in a regime close to the intrinsic spin hall effect they are both beautiful experiments and one of the most remarkable aspects is that they seem to be exploring opposite regimes sinova adds the possibility of generating magnetization without circulating currents has great implications in many areas most notably the design of information processing and storage devices obviously we are only at the beginning of this journey of discovery sinova explains as you gather more facts the truth tends to reveal itself thats the fun of science were seeking to know and were learning in the process for a full description of the work please see: http://arxivorg/abs/cond-mat/0410295 [to be published in february in physical review letters vol 94 (2005)] -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu the post global breakthroughs: international physics team measures new spintronic effect in semiconductors appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " an international team of physicists has announced discovery of a new spintronic effect in semiconductor chips the intrinsic spin hall effect which puts a new twist on future technology and the possibility for novel circuits with low energy consumption the team includes physicists dr jörg wunderlich and dr bernd kaestner from the hitachi cambridge laboratory uk; professor tomás jungwirth from the institute of physics of the academy of sciences of the czech republic and the university of nottingham uk; and professor jairo sinova from texas a&m university usa in a normal hall effect a voltage is created perpendicular to an electric current as it flows through a conductor in a magnetic field the magnetic field deflects the moving charges to the sides of the conductor resulting in an observable hall voltage a different type of hall phenomenon the spin hall effect was first predicted in 1971 here the moving electrons which carry with them a tiny magnet called the spin collide with impurities and deflect to the right or left depending on the orientation of their spin these collisions generate opposing magnetizations at the conductors edges despite its intriguing ramifications the theory disappeared into virtual obscurity until 1999 when it was rediscovered and further elaborated four years later two independent teams one including sinova and jungwirth proposed a novel mechanism called the intrinsic spin hall effect in which similar magnetization occurs without the need for collisions the prediction touched off a theoretical firestorm resulting in more than 50 articles arguing for and against the possibility as the heated debate raged on wunderlich and kaestner developed a new type of device to measure magnetization at each side of a high-mobility ultra-thin conducting layer embedded within a semiconductor chip using built-in light-emitting diodes armed with this novel tool wunderlich and kaestner teamed with jungwirth and sinova to observe the spin hall effect their findings will be featured the february issue of physics today along with an independent and parallel observation of the effect in conventional bulk semiconductors team members say the more than 10 times larger signal detected in the hitachi device can be attributed to the special layered design of the semiconductor chip that yielded operation in a regime close to the intrinsic spin hall effect they are both beautiful experiments and one of the most remarkable aspects is that they seem to be exploring opposite regimes sinova adds the possibility of generating magnetization without circulating currents has great implications in many areas most notably the design of information processing and storage devices obviously we are only at the beginning of this journey of discovery sinova explains as you gather more facts the truth tends to reveal itself thats the fun of science were seeking to know and were learning in the process for a full description of the work please see: http://arxivorg/abs/cond-mat/0410295 [to be published in february in physical review letters vol 94 (2005)] -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or or dr jairo sinova (979) 845-4179 or sinova@physicstamuedu " " college station imagine an entire chemistry laboratory reduced to the size of a postage stamp it could happen while others may think big texas a&m university physicists don naugle and igor lyuksyutov are thinking small as in micro small they have successfully managed to levitate micron-sized fluids using magnets which could lead to new advances in medicine chemistry chemical engineering and other related fields by using small magnets on a postage-stamp-sized chip naugle and lyuksyutov have managed to move and merge tiny levitating droplets and crystals and to control the orientation of the levitating crystals the droplets used were as small as bacteria or 100 times smaller than a human hair and up to one billion times smaller in volume than has been demonstrated by conventional methods their work was recently published in applied physics letter and featured in several science journals their research is funded by the robert a welch foundation and national science foundation grants it might be possible to do the same thing with a large number of fluids chemicals or even a virus naugle explains the texas a&m team has managed to move and levitate several substances including alcohol solutions oils some types of powders and even red blood cells and bacteria it could be theoretically possible to reduce an entire chemistry lab to a few postage-stamp-sized chips try to picture individual chemical beakers (droplets) being merged into other chemical beakers thats the principal involved here naugle calls the method a lab on a chip and says the possibilities are exciting the lab-on-a-chip device levitates and manipulates diamagnetic objects which are very weakly repelled by magnets he notes these include living tissue and other objects and substances you dont think of as being magnetic the new procedures could be applied to other fields he believes though it has taken several years to achieve the droplet levitation process we need to see if we can make progress with manipulating dna nanotubes and other things using both magnetic and electric fields naugle says it would be exciting to see if we could precisely transport levitating nanotubes into predefined positions on a silicon chip this could open up even more doors for future research the texas a&m teams work can be viewed at http://levitationphysicstamuedu -atm- contact: don naugle (979) 845-4429 or naugle@physicstamuedu the post thinking small: texas a&m physics team creates lab-on-a-chip appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " imagine an entire chemistry laboratory reduced to the size of a postage stamp it could happen while others may think big texas a&m university physicists don naugle and igor lyuksyutov are thinking small as in micro small they have successfully managed to levitate micron-sized fluids using magnets which could lead to new advances in medicine chemistry chemical engineering and other related fields by using small magnets on a postage-stamp-sized chip naugle and lyuksyutov have managed to move and merge tiny levitating droplets and crystals and to control the orientation of the levitating crystals the droplets used were as small as bacteria or 100 times smaller than a human hair and up to one billion times smaller in volume than has been demonstrated by conventional methods their work was recently published in applied physics letter and featured in several science journals their research is funded by the robert a welch foundation and national science foundation grants it might be possible to do the same thing with a large number of fluids chemicals or even a virus naugle explains the texas a&m team has managed to move and levitate several substances including alcohol solutions oils some types of powders and even red blood cells and bacteria it could be theoretically possible to reduce an entire chemistry lab to a few postage-stamp-sized chips try to picture individual chemical beakers (droplets) being merged into other chemical beakers thats the principal involved here naugle calls the method a lab on a chip and says the possibilities are exciting the lab-on-a-chip device levitates and manipulates diamagnetic objects which are very weakly repelled by magnets he notes these include living tissue and other objects and substances you dont think of as being magnetic the new procedures could be applied to other fields he believes though it has taken several years to achieve the droplet levitation process we need to see if we can make progress with manipulating dna nanotubes and other things using both magnetic and electric fields naugle says it would be exciting to see if we could precisely transport levitating nanotubes into predefined positions on a silicon chip this could open up even more doors for future research the texas a&m teams work can be viewed at http://levitationphysicstamuedu -atm- contact: don naugle (979) 845-4429 or naugle@physicstamuedu " " as part of a campus-wide explosion in faculty numbers the physics department at texas a&m university in college station aims to launch a top-notch astronomy program overall the campus is increasing its faculty size by 450 or 25% by 2008 physics faculty will swell from 45 to 60 with at least four of the new positions slated for astronomy and cosmology this is the nations fifth largest university and our goal is to go from no astronomy program whatsoever to one of the worlds leading programs in observational cosmology and astronomy says texas a&m physicist roland allen two alumni are key to realizing the physics departments astronomy plans george mitchell a real estate magnate and petroleum engineer has given nearly $7 million to the department charles munnerlyn a phd in optical engineering and a pioneer in the development of laser vision correction has contributed more than $3 million after hearing stephen hawking say on national public radio a few years ago that his biggest disappointment in 25 years was the cancellation of the ssc [superconducting super collider] says mitchell i talked to people at a&m and we arranged a meeting [with hawking] that led to hawkings ongoing participation in a series of mitchell-financed symposia at the university mitchells donations also go toward among other things endowed chairs and participation in the giant magellan telescope joining the gmt one of several next-generation telescopes under discussion worldwide should help attract smart young people to a&m says mitchell i want to see a&m in general become a more prestigious university will the university be able to realize its lofty dream of having a top 10 astronomy program the idea goes back to a recommendation from an external review panel says physics department head edward fry i think the university will jump through all sorts of hoops to hire extraordinary people the post texas a&m reaches for stars appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " as part of a campus-wide explosion in faculty numbers the physics department at texas a&m university in college station aims to launch a top-notch astronomy program overall the campus is increasing its faculty size by 450 or 25% by 2008 physics faculty will swell from 45 to 60 with at least four of the new positions slated for astronomy and cosmology this is the nations fifth largest university and our goal is to go from no astronomy program whatsoever to one of the worlds leading programs in observational cosmology and astronomy says texas a&m physicist roland allen two alumni are key to realizing the physics departments astronomy plans george mitchell a real estate magnate and petroleum engineer has given nearly $7 million to the department charles munnerlyn a phd in optical engineering and a pioneer in the development of laser vision correction has contributed more than $3 million after hearing stephen hawking say on national public radio a few years ago that his biggest disappointment in 25 years was the cancellation of the ssc [superconducting super collider] says mitchell i talked to people at a&m and we arranged a meeting [with hawking] that led to hawkings ongoing participation in a series of mitchell-financed symposia at the university mitchells donations also go toward among other things endowed chairs and participation in the giant magellan telescope joining the gmt one of several next-generation telescopes under discussion worldwide should help attract smart young people to a&m says mitchell i want to see a&m in general become a more prestigious university will the university be able to realize its lofty dream of having a top 10 astronomy program the idea goes back to a recommendation from an external review panel says physics department head edward fry i think the university will jump through all sorts of hoops to hire extraordinary people " " pasadena calif the carnegie observatories of the carnegie institution and the university of arizona steward observatory mirror lab have signed an agreement to produce the first mirror for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) the first telescope of the next-generation of extremely large ground-based telescopes (elt) to begin mirror production texas a&m university is a partner in the ambitious project the telescope will have a diameter of about 70 feet about as wide as the christmas tree in rockefeller center new york is tall this agreement is historic for the future of astronomy stated dr richard meserve president of the carnegie institution it is the first of many milestones that we and our partners look forward to -both in constructing an enormous ground-based telescope and in the scientific discoveries that will result everyone in the eight-member gmt consortium is extremely excited by this step the eight-member consortium includes the carnegie observatories harvard university smithsonian astrophysical observatory university of arizona university of michigan massachusetts institute of technology university of texas austin and texas a&m the gmt slated for completion in 2016 at carnegies las campanas observatory in chile will have 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope with its powerful resolution and enormous collecting area the gmt will be able to probe the secrets of planets that have formed around other stars in the milky way peer back in time toward the big bang with unprecedented clarity delve into the nature of dark matter and dark energy and explore the formation of black holes the most important questions in astronomy today this is an especially exciting time for texas a&m and astronomy said edward fry professor and head of the department of physics it marks the start of the construction of a new generation telescope that will be ‘the telescope of the next decade i am especially pleased that texas a&m is a major partner in this project which will result in a telescope that will play a major role in expanding our understanding of the cosmos and of our place in it texas a&ms involvement in the gmt was made possible by a $125 million gift from real estate developer and petroleum engineer george mitchell a 1940 texas a&m graduate other mitchell gifts to the department of physics have funded endowed chairs as well as the mitchell institute for fundamental physics which annually attracts eminent experts such as cambridge university physicist stephen hawking and other world-class researchers to texas a&m the giant magellan telescope will allow an unprecedented view of extrasolar planets as well as a window out to the largest scales and back to the earliest moments of the universe adds wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories we plan to complete the gmt so that it will work in tandem with the future generation of planned ground- and space-based telescopes the real distinction of the gmt however is that it is building on a heritage of successful technology developed for the twin 65-meter magellan telescopes at las campanas their performance has far exceeded our expectations the mirrors for the gmt will be made using the existing infrastructure at steward that made the 65-meter magellan mirrors and the 84-meter large binocular telescope mirrors on mount graham the new telescope will be composed of seven 84-meter primary mirrors arranged in a floral pattern to produce a telescope with a 214-meter aperture one spare off-axis mirror will also be made seven of the eight mirrors will be off-axis and require new techniques in casting and polishing the first off-axis mirror will be cast this coming summer (2005) to address the new challenges detailed information about the design of the gmt and the science that it will perform is located at http://wwwgmtoorg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu the post first mirror for giant telescope to be cast appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the carnegie observatories of the carnegie institution and the university of arizona steward observatory mirror lab have signed an agreement to produce the first mirror for the giant magellan telescope (gmt) the first telescope of the next-generation of extremely large ground-based telescopes (elt) to begin mirror production texas a&m university is a partner in the ambitious project the telescope will have a diameter of about 70 feet about as wide as the christmas tree in rockefeller center new york is tall this agreement is historic for the future of astronomy stated dr richard meserve president of the carnegie institution it is the first of many milestones that we and our partners look forward to -both in constructing an enormous ground-based telescope and in the scientific discoveries that will result everyone in the eight-member gmt consortium is extremely excited by this step the eight-member consortium includes the carnegie observatories harvard university smithsonian astrophysical observatory university of arizona university of michigan massachusetts institute of technology university of texas austin and texas a&m the gmt slated for completion in 2016 at carnegies las campanas observatory in chile will have 10 times the resolution of the hubble space telescope with its powerful resolution and enormous collecting area the gmt will be able to probe the secrets of planets that have formed around other stars in the milky way peer back in time toward the big bang with unprecedented clarity delve into the nature of dark matter and dark energy and explore the formation of black holes the most important questions in astronomy today this is an especially exciting time for texas a&m and astronomy said edward fry professor and head of the department of physics it marks the start of the construction of a new generation telescope that will be ‘the telescope of the next decade i am especially pleased that texas a&m is a major partner in this project which will result in a telescope that will play a major role in expanding our understanding of the cosmos and of our place in it texas a&ms involvement in the gmt was made possible by a $125 million gift from real estate developer and petroleum engineer george mitchell a 1940 texas a&m graduate other mitchell gifts to the department of physics have funded endowed chairs as well as the mitchell institute for fundamental physics which annually attracts eminent experts such as cambridge university physicist stephen hawking and other world-class researchers to texas a&m the giant magellan telescope will allow an unprecedented view of extrasolar planets as well as a window out to the largest scales and back to the earliest moments of the universe adds wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories we plan to complete the gmt so that it will work in tandem with the future generation of planned ground- and space-based telescopes the real distinction of the gmt however is that it is building on a heritage of successful technology developed for the twin 65-meter magellan telescopes at las campanas their performance has far exceeded our expectations the mirrors for the gmt will be made using the existing infrastructure at steward that made the 65-meter magellan mirrors and the 84-meter large binocular telescope mirrors on mount graham the new telescope will be composed of seven 84-meter primary mirrors arranged in a floral pattern to produce a telescope with a 214-meter aperture one spare off-axis mirror will also be made seven of the eight mirrors will be off-axis and require new techniques in casting and polishing the first off-axis mirror will be cast this coming summer (2005) to address the new challenges detailed information about the design of the gmt and the science that it will perform is located at http://wwwgmtoorg/ -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu " " quantum mechanics has done it again in an experiment with supercooled helium researchers at penn state say they have found that as a solid ring spins around part of it can remain perfectly still at ultracold temperatures matter often behaves far differently than it does in everyday experience for instance many materials turn into superconductors able to conduct electricity with no resistance because electrons coalesce and move in synchrony without hitting the surrounding lattice of atoms in a similar way other materials at low temperatures become superfluids which flow without viscosity to slow them down the new experiment suggests a new state of matter: a supersolid in the 1970s physicists played with the notion that a solid – a material whose atoms generally stack together in a neat crystal pattern – might also undergo a quantum transformation some suggested that when sufficiently chilled some of the atoms in a solid would melt into a superfluid and effortlessly flow through the surrounding solid they called this state a supersolid most physicists including some who had suggested the idea concluded that although this state was possible it was unlikely to be observed i have written at least one paper in the remote past about the possibility of supersolid behavior said dr anthony j leggett a professor of physics at the university of illinois who was awarded the nobel prize in physics last year for theoretical work on superfluids i would have bet at least 100 to 1 against it in an article published this month on the web site of the journal science dr moses h w chan a professor of physics at penn state and dr eunseong kim a postdoctoral researcher reported that they had turned helium into a supersolid the theorists will be surprised dr chan said but they do not exclude such a possibility helium the same gas that levitates blimps and gives a person donald ducks voice turns into a liquid at minus-452 degrees fahrenheit chilled slightly further and squeezed under immense pressure helium atoms are pushed together into a solid in the experiment dr chan and dr kim placed solid helium in a small ring cooled it to almost absolute zero and exerted pressures ranging from 380 pounds per square inch to 970 pounds per square inch the usual atmospheric pressure on the earths surface is 147 pounds per square inch the ring attached to a rod was then twisted and released the twisting force in the rod caused the ring to oscillate at a steady frequency determined by the mass and size of the ring as the temperature was cooled below minus-45922 degrees – half a degree above absolute zero – the frequency of oscillations sped up as if the ring were losing mass until it appeared that 15 percent of the helium had vanished the penn state scientists believe that 15 percent of the solid helium had turned into a superfluid and according to the rules of the quantum mechanics fell into the laziest possible energy state: motionless as the solid ring oscillated back and forth the superfluid flowed in the opposite direction in such a way that it appeared to remain exactly still to check that some of the helium had not actually escaped the scientists warmed the ring back up and the oscillations slowed again they repeated the experiment with a lighter version of helium helium-3 which is known not to change into a superfluid and they found no shift in the oscillation frequency so far other physicists agree the supersolid explanation makes the most sense but they would like to see more data i think everybody agrees we need more said dr wayne saslow a professor of physics at texas a&m university its calling out for more experiments how a superfluid could flow through a solid defies ready explanation i think its a major puzzle dr leggett said if this stands up then its going to make us totally rethink our concept of what a quantum solid is one possibility dr leggett said is that the helium solid is not perfect that a few locations in the helium crystal lattice are empty and the superfluid is flowing from one empty location to another but higher pressures which presumably would push atoms to fill the empty locations did not diminish the supersolid effect another possibility is that helium atoms momentarily double up at a lattice site before one of the occupants is pushed out to another site three decades ago dr saslow read dr leggetts paper describing how a supersolid might behave and wrote computer programs to explore the idea in more depth before moving on to other research i thought i would never see it again dr saslow said its like it came from the dead when he heard of the penn state work several months ago dr saslow searched for his old computer programs he thought they were lost until he opened a file folder containing printouts of the programs in quantum mechanics a helium atom is not a discrete object but a fuzzy blur of possibilities dr saslow said the superfluid could be thought of as the flow of fuzziness between the atoms nothing here makes sense he admitted the programs which produce much more precise answers today running on his laptop than was possible on a 1970s-era mainframe computer predict a superfluid fraction of 2 percent roughly in agreement with the penn state results the post only in quantum physics: spinning while standing still appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " quantum mechanics has done it again in an experiment with supercooled helium researchers at penn state say they have found that as a solid ring spins around part of it can remain perfectly still at ultracold temperatures matter often behaves far differently than it does in everyday experience for instance many materials turn into superconductors able to conduct electricity with no resistance because electrons coalesce and move in synchrony without hitting the surrounding lattice of atoms in a similar way other materials at low temperatures become superfluids which flow without viscosity to slow them down the new experiment suggests a new state of matter: a supersolid in the 1970s physicists played with the notion that a solid – a material whose atoms generally stack together in a neat crystal pattern – might also undergo a quantum transformation some suggested that when sufficiently chilled some of the atoms in a solid would melt into a superfluid and effortlessly flow through the surrounding solid they called this state a supersolid most physicists including some who had suggested the idea concluded that although this state was possible it was unlikely to be observed i have written at least one paper in the remote past about the possibility of supersolid behavior said dr anthony j leggett a professor of physics at the university of illinois who was awarded the nobel prize in physics last year for theoretical work on superfluids i would have bet at least 100 to 1 against it in an article published this month on the web site of the journal science dr moses h w chan a professor of physics at penn state and dr eunseong kim a postdoctoral researcher reported that they had turned helium into a supersolid the theorists will be surprised dr chan said but they do not exclude such a possibility helium the same gas that levitates blimps and gives a person donald ducks voice turns into a liquid at minus-452 degrees fahrenheit chilled slightly further and squeezed under immense pressure helium atoms are pushed together into a solid in the experiment dr chan and dr kim placed solid helium in a small ring cooled it to almost absolute zero and exerted pressures ranging from 380 pounds per square inch to 970 pounds per square inch the usual atmospheric pressure on the earths surface is 147 pounds per square inch the ring attached to a rod was then twisted and released the twisting force in the rod caused the ring to oscillate at a steady frequency determined by the mass and size of the ring as the temperature was cooled below minus-45922 degrees – half a degree above absolute zero – the frequency of oscillations sped up as if the ring were losing mass until it appeared that 15 percent of the helium had vanished the penn state scientists believe that 15 percent of the solid helium had turned into a superfluid and according to the rules of the quantum mechanics fell into the laziest possible energy state: motionless as the solid ring oscillated back and forth the superfluid flowed in the opposite direction in such a way that it appeared to remain exactly still to check that some of the helium had not actually escaped the scientists warmed the ring back up and the oscillations slowed again they repeated the experiment with a lighter version of helium helium-3 which is known not to change into a superfluid and they found no shift in the oscillation frequency so far other physicists agree the supersolid explanation makes the most sense but they would like to see more data i think everybody agrees we need more said dr wayne saslow a professor of physics at texas a&m university its calling out for more experiments how a superfluid could flow through a solid defies ready explanation i think its a major puzzle dr leggett said if this stands up then its going to make us totally rethink our concept of what a quantum solid is one possibility dr leggett said is that the helium solid is not perfect that a few locations in the helium crystal lattice are empty and the superfluid is flowing from one empty location to another but higher pressures which presumably would push atoms to fill the empty locations did not diminish the supersolid effect another possibility is that helium atoms momentarily double up at a lattice site before one of the occupants is pushed out to another site three decades ago dr saslow read dr leggetts paper describing how a supersolid might behave and wrote computer programs to explore the idea in more depth before moving on to other research i thought i would never see it again dr saslow said its like it came from the dead when he heard of the penn state work several months ago dr saslow searched for his old computer programs he thought they were lost until he opened a file folder containing printouts of the programs in quantum mechanics a helium atom is not a discrete object but a fuzzy blur of possibilities dr saslow said the superfluid could be thought of as the flow of fuzziness between the atoms nothing here makes sense he admitted the programs which produce much more precise answers today running on his laptop than was possible on a 1970s-era mainframe computer predict a superfluid fraction of 2 percent roughly in agreement with the penn state results " " college station texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin are joining the giant magellan telescope (gmt) consortium to explore the frontiers of our universe as the result of a $125 million gift to texas a&m from george p mitchell of houston and matching funds from the university of texas at austin the texas universities will join the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the massachusetts institute of technology the university of arizona and the university of michigan as partners in the giant magellan telescope consortium graphic by: matt johns carnegie observatories the giant magellan telescope consists of six 84-meter mirrors surrounding a seventh central mirror mounted on single steerable platform once completed the telescope will collect 70 times as much light as the hubble space telescope and produce images 10 times sharper mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&ms petroleum engineering department made his career in energy and real estate development he founded mitchell energy & development corp throughout his successful business career mitchell cultivated interests in philanthropy civics and global issues ranging from the environment to the implications of science and technology he provided the $125 million gift to texas a&m towards the gmt project on behalf of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics in the physics department at texas a&m university his gift will be matched with $125 million over the next two years by the university of texas at austin this project sparked my interest because it will allow texas a&m and ut to attract young scientists and students to further their interests in the field of physics and cosmology mitchell said george p and cynthia w mitchell the gmt consortium plans to construct the giant magellan telescope in chile it will consist of six 84-meter mirrors surrounding a seventh central mirror all on a single steerable mounting the telescopes light-collecting area equals that of a single 21-meter mirror todays largest telescopes including the university of texas at austins hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald observatory in west texas have mirrors with effective diameters of about 10 meters the gmt will collect five times more light than the hobby-eberly telescope; it will collect about 70 times as much light as the hubble space telescope and produce images 10 times sharper the gmt will open a path to fundamental discoveries about the origins of the universe black holes and the genesis of galaxies and planets it will have the power to detect light from very faint objects the ability to distinguish fine detail despite the blurring effect of the earths atmosphere and the ultimate sensitivity to infrared heat radiation from the formation of stars and planets this joint project will bring texas a&m to the front line of astronomy research said h joseph newton dean of the college of science we are grateful to mr mitchell for his continued support of the department of physics and the college of science mr mitchells enthusiasm for learning more about the cosmos where we came from and how we got where we are is one impetus for this generous gift said edward fry head of the physics department with his continuing support the spotlight on astronomy at texas a&m university can only grow stronger joining this consortium is a way of keeping the ut astronomy program at the top of us astronomy i shall be delighted to work with a&m said david l lambert director of mcdonald observatory the questions astronomers ask are profound and strike a responsive chord in every thinking human the origin and age of the universe the existence of extraterrestrial life the nature of dark matter and black holes the search for other planets said mary ann rankin dean of the college of natural sciences at the university of texas at austin answers to such questions require extraordinary tools the gmt is the best plan for a major improvement in earth-based optical spectroscopy that i have seen and i want texas to be a founding partner in that effort i am delighted that texas a&m and ut austin are joining the giant magellan and grateful to george mitchell for the enthusiastic generosity that catalyzed and made this extended partnership possible said dr wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories and chair of the giant magellan telescope board george mitchell and his wife cynthia are longtime benefactors of texas a&m generous in giving both funding and time to his alma mater the mitchells are credited with gifts that include funding to establish both the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center and the george p & cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics continuing his support for the physics department mitchell has also established several chairs under the auspices of the mitchell institute: the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics the mitchell/heep chair in theoretical high energy physics the mitchell/heep chair in experimental high energy physics and the schuessler/mitchell/heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics the mitchells have also provided funding for an endowed chair in astronomy/cosmology a second chair in theoretical high energy physics and an endowed career enhancement award for a new young faculty member in astronomy/cosmology as evidenced by the chair titles the herman f heep and minnie belle heep texas a&m university foundation has also been a significant contributor and presently has matches to the latter three mitchell endowments under consideration the mitchells have also made many gifts to the university of texas at austin including support for the university of texas elementary charter school and unrestricted funds and faculty support for the school of architecture and the college of engineering -atm- the post mitchell gift to texas a&m and support from the university of texas at austin; enables the flagship universities to join telescope consortium appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university and the university of texas at austin are joining the giant magellan telescope (gmt) consortium to explore the frontiers of our universe as the result of a $125 million gift to texas a&m from george p mitchell of houston and matching funds from the university of texas at austin the texas universities will join the observatories of the carnegie institution of washington harvard university the smithsonian astrophysical observatory the massachusetts institute of technology the university of arizona and the university of michigan as partners in the giant magellan telescope consortium graphic by: matt johns carnegie observatories the giant magellan telescope consists of six 84-meter mirrors surrounding a seventh central mirror mounted on single steerable platform once completed the telescope will collect 70 times as much light as the hubble space telescope and produce images 10 times sharper mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&ms petroleum engineering department made his career in energy and real estate development he founded mitchell energy & development corp throughout his successful business career mitchell cultivated interests in philanthropy civics and global issues ranging from the environment to the implications of science and technology he provided the $125 million gift to texas a&m towards the gmt project on behalf of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics in the physics department at texas a&m university his gift will be matched with $125 million over the next two years by the university of texas at austin this project sparked my interest because it will allow texas a&m and ut to attract young scientists and students to further their interests in the field of physics and cosmology mitchell said george p and cynthia w mitchell the gmt consortium plans to construct the giant magellan telescope in chile it will consist of six 84-meter mirrors surrounding a seventh central mirror all on a single steerable mounting the telescopes light-collecting area equals that of a single 21-meter mirror todays largest telescopes including the university of texas at austins hobby-eberly telescope at mcdonald observatory in west texas have mirrors with effective diameters of about 10 meters the gmt will collect five times more light than the hobby-eberly telescope; it will collect about 70 times as much light as the hubble space telescope and produce images 10 times sharper the gmt will open a path to fundamental discoveries about the origins of the universe black holes and the genesis of galaxies and planets it will have the power to detect light from very faint objects the ability to distinguish fine detail despite the blurring effect of the earths atmosphere and the ultimate sensitivity to infrared heat radiation from the formation of stars and planets this joint project will bring texas a&m to the front line of astronomy research said h joseph newton dean of the college of science we are grateful to mr mitchell for his continued support of the department of physics and the college of science mr mitchells enthusiasm for learning more about the cosmos where we came from and how we got where we are is one impetus for this generous gift said edward fry head of the physics department with his continuing support the spotlight on astronomy at texas a&m university can only grow stronger joining this consortium is a way of keeping the ut astronomy program at the top of us astronomy i shall be delighted to work with a&m said david l lambert director of mcdonald observatory the questions astronomers ask are profound and strike a responsive chord in every thinking human the origin and age of the universe the existence of extraterrestrial life the nature of dark matter and black holes the search for other planets said mary ann rankin dean of the college of natural sciences at the university of texas at austin answers to such questions require extraordinary tools the gmt is the best plan for a major improvement in earth-based optical spectroscopy that i have seen and i want texas to be a founding partner in that effort i am delighted that texas a&m and ut austin are joining the giant magellan and grateful to george mitchell for the enthusiastic generosity that catalyzed and made this extended partnership possible said dr wendy freedman director of the carnegie observatories and chair of the giant magellan telescope board george mitchell and his wife cynthia are longtime benefactors of texas a&m generous in giving both funding and time to his alma mater the mitchells are credited with gifts that include funding to establish both the george p mitchell 40 outdoor tennis center and the george p & cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics continuing his support for the physics department mitchell has also established several chairs under the auspices of the mitchell institute: the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics the mitchell/heep chair in theoretical high energy physics the mitchell/heep chair in experimental high energy physics and the schuessler/mitchell/heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics the mitchells have also provided funding for an endowed chair in astronomy/cosmology a second chair in theoretical high energy physics and an endowed career enhancement award for a new young faculty member in astronomy/cosmology as evidenced by the chair titles the herman f heep and minnie belle heep texas a&m university foundation has also been a significant contributor and presently has matches to the latter three mitchell endowments under consideration the mitchells have also made many gifts to the university of texas at austin including support for the university of texas elementary charter school and unrestricted funds and faculty support for the school of architecture and the college of engineering -atm- " " college station dr peter m mcintyre professor of physics at texas a&m university has been appointed to the newly-endowed chair associated with the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics mcintyre will hold the mitchell/heep chair in experimental high energy physics endowed with a recent gift from george p and cynthia w mitchell of the woodlands and a matching gift from the herman f and minnie belle heep foundation of college station edward fry department head was very appreciative of the gift and was delighted that mcintyre was appointed to the chair i cannot think of anyone more deserving than peter; he is a brilliant scientist and i know this chair will enable him to accomplish many more research firsts fry said mcintyre received his phd in 1973 from the university of chicago he joined texas a&m in 1981 and leads programs of research in high energy physics accelerator physics and superconductor technology mcintyre was named a sloan fellow in 1980-1982 and a fellow of the american physical society in 2001 mcintyre is known for his invention of proton-antiproton colliding beams the ultimate ‘atom smashers that yielded the discoveries of the weak bosons and the top quark to complete the standard model of fundamental forces; as well as new technology for the worlds highest magnetic fields for accelerators of the future he has invented a way to produce electric power from nuclear fission in a reactor that is intrinsically stable cannot melt down eats its own waste does not produce bomb-capable isotopes and uses a fuel (thorium) that is ten times more plentiful than uranium he also is credited with the invention of a way to destroy toxic organic contaminants in industrial wastewater and lethal bacteria in foods using a new technology for making efficient high-power electron beams on the teaching front mcintyre has created visual physics a new and better way to teach first-year physics to 2 000 aggies every year when told about the appointment to the chair mcintyre commented now i can sit down sometimes! the post mcintyre appointed to mitchell high energy physics chair appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr peter m mcintyre professor of physics at texas a&m university has been appointed to the newly-endowed chair associated with the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics mcintyre will hold the mitchell/heep chair in experimental high energy physics endowed with a recent gift from george p and cynthia w mitchell of the woodlands and a matching gift from the herman f and minnie belle heep foundation of college station edward fry department head was very appreciative of the gift and was delighted that mcintyre was appointed to the chair i cannot think of anyone more deserving than peter; he is a brilliant scientist and i know this chair will enable him to accomplish many more research firsts fry said mcintyre received his phd in 1973 from the university of chicago he joined texas a&m in 1981 and leads programs of research in high energy physics accelerator physics and superconductor technology mcintyre was named a sloan fellow in 1980-1982 and a fellow of the american physical society in 2001 mcintyre is known for his invention of proton-antiproton colliding beams the ultimate ‘atom smashers that yielded the discoveries of the weak bosons and the top quark to complete the standard model of fundamental forces; as well as new technology for the worlds highest magnetic fields for accelerators of the future he has invented a way to produce electric power from nuclear fission in a reactor that is intrinsically stable cannot melt down eats its own waste does not produce bomb-capable isotopes and uses a fuel (thorium) that is ten times more plentiful than uranium he also is credited with the invention of a way to destroy toxic organic contaminants in industrial wastewater and lethal bacteria in foods using a new technology for making efficient high-power electron beams on the teaching front mcintyre has created visual physics a new and better way to teach first-year physics to 2 000 aggies every year when told about the appointment to the chair mcintyre commented now i can sit down sometimes! " " college station dr hans a schuessler professor of physics specializing in optical and biomedical physics has been appointed to the schuessler/mitchell/heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics in the department of physics at texas a&m university this chair was recently endowed with gifts from schuessler george p mitchell of the woodlands and a match from the herman f and minnie belle heep foundation in college station schuessler said he made his donation to honor both his late first wife renate as well as his wife zohreh he said he was also grateful to his students colleagues and dean for helping and sharing the excitement and hard work of research my department is on the verge of several ambitious projects schuessler said in particular one of them will be supported by this chair namely our effort to establish the sibor (stored ion and bio optical research) center at texas a&m and will strengthen our present interdisciplinary effort to pave the way for life science and engineering students to get expertise in biomedical optics schuesslers work is world renowned his basic research is in ion storage spectroscopy on-line laser spectroscopy of short-lived isotopes and quantum optics the applied research covers cavity-enhanced photothermal spectroscopy capillary waves non-linear acoustic phenomena and studies of biomolecular reactions in real time using the surface plasmon resonance we were happy that we were able to find funds for this chair and then appoint dr schuessler to it said edward s fry head of the department of physics schuessler has made many research accomplishments and we are looking forward to his next ones schussler has served as visiting associate professor at the university of washington and visiting scientist at the university of mainz and gsi in germany he has been collaborating on research done at cern in geneva switzerland and currently is performing experiments at texas a&m in optical and biophysics he is leading the laser laboratory at the texas a&m university institute for biosciences and technology in houston on-line nuclear structure laser spectroscopy at triumf in vancouver canada and stored ion spectroscopy at the max-planck-institute for quantum optics at garching germany he was awarded eminent scientist status at riken at tokyo japan for his contributions to study short lived isotope with a novel ion trap which he invented he is a fellow of the american physical society the post schuessler appointed to physics chair which bears his name appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr hans a schuessler professor of physics specializing in optical and biomedical physics has been appointed to the schuessler/mitchell/heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics in the department of physics at texas a&m university this chair was recently endowed with gifts from schuessler george p mitchell of the woodlands and a match from the herman f and minnie belle heep foundation in college station schuessler said he made his donation to honor both his late first wife renate as well as his wife zohreh he said he was also grateful to his students colleagues and dean for helping and sharing the excitement and hard work of research my department is on the verge of several ambitious projects schuessler said in particular one of them will be supported by this chair namely our effort to establish the sibor (stored ion and bio optical research) center at texas a&m and will strengthen our present interdisciplinary effort to pave the way for life science and engineering students to get expertise in biomedical optics schuesslers work is world renowned his basic research is in ion storage spectroscopy on-line laser spectroscopy of short-lived isotopes and quantum optics the applied research covers cavity-enhanced photothermal spectroscopy capillary waves non-linear acoustic phenomena and studies of biomolecular reactions in real time using the surface plasmon resonance we were happy that we were able to find funds for this chair and then appoint dr schuessler to it said edward s fry head of the department of physics schuessler has made many research accomplishments and we are looking forward to his next ones schussler has served as visiting associate professor at the university of washington and visiting scientist at the university of mainz and gsi in germany he has been collaborating on research done at cern in geneva switzerland and currently is performing experiments at texas a&m in optical and biophysics he is leading the laser laboratory at the texas a&m university institute for biosciences and technology in houston on-line nuclear structure laser spectroscopy at triumf in vancouver canada and stored ion spectroscopy at the max-planck-institute for quantum optics at garching germany he was awarded eminent scientist status at riken at tokyo japan for his contributions to study short lived isotope with a novel ion trap which he invented he is a fellow of the american physical society " " college station rural and small-town texas teachers arrived on the texas a&m university campus last week ready to start back to school all for the sake of their students twenty-nine high school physics teachers participated in the second annual rural physics teachers resource agents (ptra) workshop june 7-11 facilitated by the department of physics they are participating in the three-year program to become the best teachers possible in order to transfer their knowledge and excitement about physics to their students these teachers are not only becoming better science teachers said peggy schweiger lead presenter of the american association of physics teachers (aapt) they are learning how to make their students better thinkers as well as to teach them how to be able use reasoning in solving their problems peggy schweiger lead presenter of the american association of physics teachers discusses alternative programs to use while collecting and analyzing data some of the teachers are the entire science department for their schools many not having been originally trained as physics teachers the workshop helps them expand their confidence in the teaching role by demonstrating experiments to conduct in their classrooms showing them different ways and subject matter to teach and allowing them to gain knowledge on new instruments being used in the classroom there were approximately 70 applicants for this three-year program said dr lewis ford associate head of the department of physics and regional coordinator for the event they were narrowed down to thirty in the first year by reviewing their transcripts looking at the courses they teach and the schools for which they work this workshop is part of a national program that includes other sites throughout the country while the one conducted on the texas a&m campus is strictly for rural and small-town schools other workshops are held for teachers in urban and inner city schools the teachers all earn three credit hours for the workshop toward a masters of education degree one of the sessions included instruction on grant writing both for professional development and equipment for their classrooms they will attend a follow-up session again in the spring and ford has established a list-serv which they can utilize to communicate with one another during the year each participant is immersed in the university experience by living in the dorms having aggie bucks etc they are awarded a stipend and not charged for the workshop which is underwritten by a grant from the national science foundation to the aapt gift money to the physics department and the waiver of fees and tuition from texas a&m the teachers attend morning afternoon and evening sessions monday through thursday with an ending session on friday morning i came to this workshop because from previous experience i know that i will be able to add to my ‘bag of tricks in teaching physics to my students said teresa musgrave from tolar tolar has approximately 175 students in the high school with musgrave teaching all the freshmen general science plus additional classes of chemistry and physics until several years ago she was the science department for grades 7-12 in the tolar school system musgrave says she has seen an increase of interest in science from her students which she credits being a direct result from her summer activities including this program teresa musgrave of tolar texas looks on while her lab partner weighs the rocket they had built earlier before beginning to collect data in addition to schweiger physics teaching resource agents who facilitated the sessions were mark kinsey and john treadwell from houston; anne sung from the valley area in south texas and bill franklin from waco all are either current or retired physics teachers who are eager to share their experience with the participants ford praised physics technical laboratory coordinator tony ramirez who arranged the summer course schedule in order for the lab space to be utilized for the workshop and beverly guster program coordinator in the physics department who handled all the logistics of putting the workshop together i also cant thank dr ford enough for finding a way to accomplish everything i ask of him said schweiger a&m through dr ford meets all these teachers needs and answers all their questions -atm- john treadwell physics teaching resource agent answers questions from participants using calculators and programs to analyze lab work each lab included high- low- and no-tech versions of lab work to accommodate the various environments to which each teacher would return bill franklin physics teaching resource agent demonstrates the stomp rocket – a lesson in potential energy which participants can make-and-take back to their districts classrooms the post teaching the teachers appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " rural and small-town texas teachers arrived on the texas a&m university campus last week ready to start back to school all for the sake of their students twenty-nine high school physics teachers participated in the second annual rural physics teachers resource agents (ptra) workshop june 7-11 facilitated by the department of physics they are participating in the three-year program to become the best teachers possible in order to transfer their knowledge and excitement about physics to their students these teachers are not only becoming better science teachers said peggy schweiger lead presenter of the american association of physics teachers (aapt) they are learning how to make their students better thinkers as well as to teach them how to be able use reasoning in solving their problems peggy schweiger lead presenter of the american association of physics teachers discusses alternative programs to use while collecting and analyzing data some of the teachers are the entire science department for their schools many not having been originally trained as physics teachers the workshop helps them expand their confidence in the teaching role by demonstrating experiments to conduct in their classrooms showing them different ways and subject matter to teach and allowing them to gain knowledge on new instruments being used in the classroom there were approximately 70 applicants for this three-year program said dr lewis ford associate head of the department of physics and regional coordinator for the event they were narrowed down to thirty in the first year by reviewing their transcripts looking at the courses they teach and the schools for which they work this workshop is part of a national program that includes other sites throughout the country while the one conducted on the texas a&m campus is strictly for rural and small-town schools other workshops are held for teachers in urban and inner city schools the teachers all earn three credit hours for the workshop toward a masters of education degree one of the sessions included instruction on grant writing both for professional development and equipment for their classrooms they will attend a follow-up session again in the spring and ford has established a list-serv which they can utilize to communicate with one another during the year each participant is immersed in the university experience by living in the dorms having aggie bucks etc they are awarded a stipend and not charged for the workshop which is underwritten by a grant from the national science foundation to the aapt gift money to the physics department and the waiver of fees and tuition from texas a&m the teachers attend morning afternoon and evening sessions monday through thursday with an ending session on friday morning i came to this workshop because from previous experience i know that i will be able to add to my ‘bag of tricks in teaching physics to my students said teresa musgrave from tolar tolar has approximately 175 students in the high school with musgrave teaching all the freshmen general science plus additional classes of chemistry and physics until several years ago she was the science department for grades 7-12 in the tolar school system musgrave says she has seen an increase of interest in science from her students which she credits being a direct result from her summer activities including this program teresa musgrave of tolar texas looks on while her lab partner weighs the rocket they had built earlier before beginning to collect data in addition to schweiger physics teaching resource agents who facilitated the sessions were mark kinsey and john treadwell from houston; anne sung from the valley area in south texas and bill franklin from waco all are either current or retired physics teachers who are eager to share their experience with the participants ford praised physics technical laboratory coordinator tony ramirez who arranged the summer course schedule in order for the lab space to be utilized for the workshop and beverly guster program coordinator in the physics department who handled all the logistics of putting the workshop together i also cant thank dr ford enough for finding a way to accomplish everything i ask of him said schweiger a&m through dr ford meets all these teachers needs and answers all their questions -atm- john treadwell physics teaching resource agent answers questions from participants using calculators and programs to analyze lab work each lab included high- low- and no-tech versions of lab work to accommodate the various environments to which each teacher would return bill franklin physics teaching resource agent demonstrates the stomp rocket – a lesson in potential energy which participants can make-and-take back to their districts classrooms " " college station continuing his support of the study of cosmology and experimental physics at texas a&m university george p mitchell 40 has donated $500 000 to the department of physics which with matching funds from the heep foundation establishes the mitchell/heep chair in experimental high energy physics mitchell former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp is a distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering and a longtime benefactor of texas a&m generous in giving both funding and time to his alma mater he is credited with many gifts that include the mitchell/heep chair in theoretical high energy physics the george p & cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his continued patronage of the physics department at texas a&m said ed fry department head his vision of studying the far reaches of space enables us to bring in the top scientists in the field mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering made his career in energy and real estate development he founded mitchell energy & development corp throughout his successful business career mitchell cultivated interests in philanthropy civics and global issues ranging from the environment to the implications of science and technology george p and cynthia w mitchell one of the contributors to the mitchell/heep chair in theoretical high energy physics mr mitchell continues to support the department in many different ways and we are certain that this new venture will be a success that will generate additional emphasis on advancing the study of physics at texas a&m said h joseph newton dean of the college of science the chair is part of the heep matching funds program at texas a&m and will be credited to the one spirit one vision campaign at the university the establishment and endowment of the heep foundation was the culmination of more than a half century of legendary devotion to texas a&m university by herman f and minnie belle heep herman f heep 20 served on the board of directors of the texas agricultural and mechanical college system from 1957 and at the time of his death in 1960 he held the position of vice president of the board in addition heep was a founder of the texas a&m development foundation serving as its chairman from its creation in 1953 until his death the post george mitchell/heep chair established in physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " continuing his support of the study of cosmology and experimental physics at texas a&m university george p mitchell 40 has donated $500 000 to the department of physics which with matching funds from the heep foundation establishes the mitchell/heep chair in experimental high energy physics mitchell former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp is a distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering and a longtime benefactor of texas a&m generous in giving both funding and time to his alma mater he is credited with many gifts that include the mitchell/heep chair in theoretical high energy physics the george p & cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics and the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics we are extremely grateful to mr mitchell for his continued patronage of the physics department at texas a&m said ed fry department head his vision of studying the far reaches of space enables us to bring in the top scientists in the field mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering made his career in energy and real estate development he founded mitchell energy & development corp throughout his successful business career mitchell cultivated interests in philanthropy civics and global issues ranging from the environment to the implications of science and technology george p and cynthia w mitchell one of the contributors to the mitchell/heep chair in theoretical high energy physics mr mitchell continues to support the department in many different ways and we are certain that this new venture will be a success that will generate additional emphasis on advancing the study of physics at texas a&m said h joseph newton dean of the college of science the chair is part of the heep matching funds program at texas a&m and will be credited to the one spirit one vision campaign at the university the establishment and endowment of the heep foundation was the culmination of more than a half century of legendary devotion to texas a&m university by herman f and minnie belle heep herman f heep 20 served on the board of directors of the texas agricultural and mechanical college system from 1957 and at the time of his death in 1960 he held the position of vice president of the board in addition heep was a founder of the texas a&m development foundation serving as its chairman from its creation in 1953 until his death " " college station dr hans a schuessler was honored at a luncheon yesterday (may 5) for his donation to texas a&m university which combined with a donation from george p mitchell 40 and matching funds by the heep foundation establishes the schuessler/mitchell/heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics distributions from this endowed fund will be used to support the work of the faculty chair holder and can be used at the chair holders discretion to advance the programs of the department of physics the department is on the verge of several ambitious projects schuessler said i wanted to help these projects along i am very grateful to all my teachers colleagues and students with whom i have worked all made possible by a&m and i am very happy to be a part of this institution schuessler said he made his donation to honor both his late first wife renate as well as his wife zoreh both were instrumental in helping him in his work dr hans schuessler (center) is joined by his wife zoreh (l) and financial planner denise fries (r) at the luncheon honoring his gift to the department of physics the chair is part of the heep matching funds program at texas a&m and will be credited to the one spirit one vision campaign at the university the establishment and endowment of the heep foundation was the culmination of more than a half century of legendary devotion to texas a&m university by herman f and minnie belle heep herman f heep 20 served on the board of directors of the texas agricultural and mechanical college system from 1957 and at the time of his death in 1960 he held the position of vice president of the board in addition heep was a founder of the texas a&m development foundation serving as its chairman from its creation in 1953 until his death he bequeathed a substantial sum to the permanent assets of the development foundation and also contributed generously to the association of former students until her own death march 21 1993 mrs heep continued to make numerous significant contributions to texas a&m university in addition to her enduring gifts to the heep foundation the heep foundation has enjoyed the success of the matching fund program aimed at enhancing the endowed positions within the college of science and elsewhere said james b bond president of the heep foundation it is always rewarding to see the funding of third party donors be enhanced to a status deserving special recognition when the product of that generosity reaches the level of a million dollars and creates an endowed chair it is a signal event when the third party generosity comes from an esteemed member of the faculty such as professor hans schuessler whose gift gave origin to the final funding of this chair the heep foundation is unusually proud and pleased to be a part of the process schuesslers work is world renowned he has served as visiting associate professor at the university of washington and visiting scientist at the university of mainz and gsi in germany he has been collaborating on research done at cern in geneva switzerland and currently is performing experiments at texas a&m in optical and bio-physics he is leading the laser laboratory at the texas a&m university institute for biosciences and technology in houston on-line nuclear structure laser spectroscopy at triumf in vancouver canada and stored ion spectroscopy at the max-planck-institute for quantum optics at garching germany he was awarded eminent scientist status at riken at tokyo japan for his contributions to study short lived isotope with a novel ion trap which he invented he is a fellow of the american physical society and a member of both the american and european physical societies and sigma xi friends family and coworkers came out to celebrate dr schuesslers accomplishments at texas a&m many of dr schuesslers graduate students were on hand to give accounts of his guidance and friendship don birkelbach development director with the college of science (left) and henry nemick director one spirit one vision campaign with the texas a&m foundation gratefully acknowledged dr schuesslers gift that will be counted in the campaign -atm- the post schuessler/mitchell/heep chair established in physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr hans a schuessler was honored at a luncheon yesterday (may 5) for his donation to texas a&m university which combined with a donation from george p mitchell 40 and matching funds by the heep foundation establishes the schuessler/mitchell/heep chair in experimental optical and biomedical physics distributions from this endowed fund will be used to support the work of the faculty chair holder and can be used at the chair holders discretion to advance the programs of the department of physics the department is on the verge of several ambitious projects schuessler said i wanted to help these projects along i am very grateful to all my teachers colleagues and students with whom i have worked all made possible by a&m and i am very happy to be a part of this institution schuessler said he made his donation to honor both his late first wife renate as well as his wife zoreh both were instrumental in helping him in his work dr hans schuessler (center) is joined by his wife zoreh (l) and financial planner denise fries (r) at the luncheon honoring his gift to the department of physics the chair is part of the heep matching funds program at texas a&m and will be credited to the one spirit one vision campaign at the university the establishment and endowment of the heep foundation was the culmination of more than a half century of legendary devotion to texas a&m university by herman f and minnie belle heep herman f heep 20 served on the board of directors of the texas agricultural and mechanical college system from 1957 and at the time of his death in 1960 he held the position of vice president of the board in addition heep was a founder of the texas a&m development foundation serving as its chairman from its creation in 1953 until his death he bequeathed a substantial sum to the permanent assets of the development foundation and also contributed generously to the association of former students until her own death march 21 1993 mrs heep continued to make numerous significant contributions to texas a&m university in addition to her enduring gifts to the heep foundation the heep foundation has enjoyed the success of the matching fund program aimed at enhancing the endowed positions within the college of science and elsewhere said james b bond president of the heep foundation it is always rewarding to see the funding of third party donors be enhanced to a status deserving special recognition when the product of that generosity reaches the level of a million dollars and creates an endowed chair it is a signal event when the third party generosity comes from an esteemed member of the faculty such as professor hans schuessler whose gift gave origin to the final funding of this chair the heep foundation is unusually proud and pleased to be a part of the process schuesslers work is world renowned he has served as visiting associate professor at the university of washington and visiting scientist at the university of mainz and gsi in germany he has been collaborating on research done at cern in geneva switzerland and currently is performing experiments at texas a&m in optical and bio-physics he is leading the laser laboratory at the texas a&m university institute for biosciences and technology in houston on-line nuclear structure laser spectroscopy at triumf in vancouver canada and stored ion spectroscopy at the max-planck-institute for quantum optics at garching germany he was awarded eminent scientist status at riken at tokyo japan for his contributions to study short lived isotope with a novel ion trap which he invented he is a fellow of the american physical society and a member of both the american and european physical societies and sigma xi friends family and coworkers came out to celebrate dr schuesslers accomplishments at texas a&m many of dr schuesslers graduate students were on hand to give accounts of his guidance and friendship don birkelbach development director with the college of science (left) and henry nemick director one spirit one vision campaign with the texas a&m foundation gratefully acknowledged dr schuesslers gift that will be counted in the campaign -atm- " " college station the universe is expanding and it is doing so in a rapid manner believes renowned astronomer robert kirshner of harvard university his remarks were part of mitchell symposium on observational cosmology being presented this week at texas a&m university the conference features 40 of the worlds top astronomers and physicists commenting on a wide variety dealing with the universe kirshner speaking monday the extravagant universe said up until about 1917 it was believed the earth and or the sun were the center of the universe robert kirshner professor of astronomy harvard university we know now they arent even the center of our own galaxy the milky way and that our own galaxy is not the center of the universe he adds kirshner said our sun is one of 100 billion stars in the milky way and there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe astronomer edwin hubble showed the milky way was not the whole universe kirshner said which was a revolutionary idea 80 years ago he showed we live in a universe of galaxies each equivalent to the milky way kirshner noted hubble for whom the well-known space telescope is named for was able to use the brightness of stars in galaxies to judge distances from that we learned of supernovas – super stars going through tremendous explosions when we see the universe we see it as it was not as it is kirshner said most of the light we see came from stars from two billion light years ago although weve been able to detect light from as long as 14 billion years ago it is this evidence that shows that our universe is expanding and this expansion is speeding up over time kirshner said recent studies show that the universe is made up of 73 percent dark energy and 23 percent cold dark matter atoms comprise only four percent of the universe he says the conference concludes on friday when john kormendy of the university of texas at austin speaks about supermassive black holes for more information about the conference and individual speakers visit: http://cosmologytamuedu or contact roland allen professor of physics -atm- the post universe is expanding – quickly says harvard prof appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the universe is expanding and it is doing so in a rapid manner believes renowned astronomer robert kirshner of harvard university his remarks were part of mitchell symposium on observational cosmology being presented this week at texas a&m university the conference features 40 of the worlds top astronomers and physicists commenting on a wide variety dealing with the universe kirshner speaking monday the extravagant universe said up until about 1917 it was believed the earth and or the sun were the center of the universe robert kirshner professor of astronomy harvard university we know now they arent even the center of our own galaxy the milky way and that our own galaxy is not the center of the universe he adds kirshner said our sun is one of 100 billion stars in the milky way and there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe astronomer edwin hubble showed the milky way was not the whole universe kirshner said which was a revolutionary idea 80 years ago he showed we live in a universe of galaxies each equivalent to the milky way kirshner noted hubble for whom the well-known space telescope is named for was able to use the brightness of stars in galaxies to judge distances from that we learned of supernovas – super stars going through tremendous explosions when we see the universe we see it as it was not as it is kirshner said most of the light we see came from stars from two billion light years ago although weve been able to detect light from as long as 14 billion years ago it is this evidence that shows that our universe is expanding and this expansion is speeding up over time kirshner said recent studies show that the universe is made up of 73 percent dark energy and 23 percent cold dark matter atoms comprise only four percent of the universe he says the conference concludes on friday when john kormendy of the university of texas at austin speaks about supermassive black holes for more information about the conference and individual speakers visit: http://cosmologytamuedu or contact roland allen professor of physics -atm- " " college station looking to better understand the origins of the universe the george p & cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics at texas a&m university will host an international conference on string theory and cosmology march 14-17 after the conference there will be a public presentation on march 20 of superstrings time warps parallel universes and ‘reading the mind of god by michio kaku the henry semat professor in theoretical physics at the city university of new york (cuny) and visiting professor at the institute for advanced study at princeton as well as new york university (nyu) the presentation will be held in rudder theater at 5 pm admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students and tickets can be purchased at the msc box office kaku co-founder of the string field theory is continuing albert einsteins quest to find the theory of everything a simple equation that would unify all four of the fundamental forces in the universe he is an internationally recognized authority in theoretical physics and the environment and is the author of two forthcoming books: einsteins cosmos and parallel worlds kaku is also the host of explorations in science an hour-long weekly radio program on science technology politics and the environment the conference is part of a month-long workshop that will bring some of the worlds top physicists to the texas a&m campus for intensive scientific discussions and research cosmology is the study of the origin structure and eventual fate of the universe string theory postulates that everything in the universe is composed of excitations or vibrations of tiny strings as the scientists would put it this is the theory of everything established with a gift from the well-known texas businessman and his wife the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics gives the college of science a prestigious platform in theoretical physics the mitchells are longtime benefactors of texas a&m in its inaugural year in 2003 the mitchell institute ran a month-long workshop that hosted stephen hawking the lucasian professor of mathematics at cambridge university and focused on a deep mystery of the universe: what becomes of objects and information trapped inside a black hole when it evaporates george mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering made his career in energy and real-estate development; he was co-founder of mitchell energy & development corp but while he built his successful business career mitchell cultivated interests in philanthropy civics and global issues ranging from the environment to the implications of science and technology prior to the march 20 presentation a hands-on science exhibit will be held from 10 am to 3:30 pm in the student recreation center texas a&m university faculty and students will be on hand to speak with participants at the exhibits and admission is free of charge for more information on the conference exhibits or presentation contact beverly guster at (979)845-7778 or b-guster@physicstamuedu -atm- contact: pat schaub communications specialist college of science texas a&m university email: pschaub@sciencetamuedu ph: 979-862-1237 the post distinguished physicist to give public lecture at close of mitchell institute conference appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " looking to better understand the origins of the universe the george p & cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics at texas a&m university will host an international conference on string theory and cosmology march 14-17 after the conference there will be a public presentation on march 20 of superstrings time warps parallel universes and ‘reading the mind of god by michio kaku the henry semat professor in theoretical physics at the city university of new york (cuny) and visiting professor at the institute for advanced study at princeton as well as new york university (nyu) the presentation will be held in rudder theater at 5 pm admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students and tickets can be purchased at the msc box office kaku co-founder of the string field theory is continuing albert einsteins quest to find the theory of everything a simple equation that would unify all four of the fundamental forces in the universe he is an internationally recognized authority in theoretical physics and the environment and is the author of two forthcoming books: einsteins cosmos and parallel worlds kaku is also the host of explorations in science an hour-long weekly radio program on science technology politics and the environment the conference is part of a month-long workshop that will bring some of the worlds top physicists to the texas a&m campus for intensive scientific discussions and research cosmology is the study of the origin structure and eventual fate of the universe string theory postulates that everything in the universe is composed of excitations or vibrations of tiny strings as the scientists would put it this is the theory of everything established with a gift from the well-known texas businessman and his wife the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics gives the college of science a prestigious platform in theoretical physics the mitchells are longtime benefactors of texas a&m in its inaugural year in 2003 the mitchell institute ran a month-long workshop that hosted stephen hawking the lucasian professor of mathematics at cambridge university and focused on a deep mystery of the universe: what becomes of objects and information trapped inside a black hole when it evaporates george mitchell a 1940 distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering made his career in energy and real-estate development; he was co-founder of mitchell energy & development corp but while he built his successful business career mitchell cultivated interests in philanthropy civics and global issues ranging from the environment to the implications of science and technology prior to the march 20 presentation a hands-on science exhibit will be held from 10 am to 3:30 pm in the student recreation center texas a&m university faculty and students will be on hand to speak with participants at the exhibits and admission is free of charge for more information on the conference exhibits or presentation contact beverly guster at (979)845-7778 or b-guster@physicstamuedu -atm- contact: pat schaub communications specialist college of science texas a&m university email: pschaub@sciencetamuedu ph: 979-862-1237 " " college station dr alexei v sokolov assistant professor of physics in the college of science at texas a&m university has been awarded a $35 000 research innovation award (ria) to support his investigation on the process of creating ever-shorter pulses of light the award was given to sokolov after his proposal underwent an extensive peer review by the research corporation of tucson arizona according to the corporation the rias are so named because innovation is one of the hallmarks of original research the corporation seeks to encourage this innovation by supporting proposals for research that transcends the ordinary and promises significant discoveries the type of research in which the corporation is interested involves projects that the traditional research funding agencies might not accept said sokolov this gives incentive to younger faculty to branch out from what has been done before our research focuses on creating short pulses of light sokolov said for example when you take pictures you need a fast flash to catch something that is moving with the very short pulses we are trying to create you will eventually be able to take movies of molecular and electronic motion – something not currently possible according to sokolov the application of the groups findings may not be known for another 10 to 20 years for example in addition to the creation of shorter pulses of light sokolovs group is working on an idea of using such pulses to generate laser-induced nuclear fusion sokolovs subfemtosecond science lab research group includes graduate students andrea burzo bogdan dobrescu jiahui peng lei wang and miaochan zhi they are all currently studying the process of making short pulses of light sokolov holds a master of science degree in physics from the moscow institute of physics and technology in russia and a doctorate in physics from stanford university -atm- contact: pat schaub communications specialist college of science texas a&m university email: pschaub@sciencetamuedu ph: 979-862-1237 the post physics professor recognized for innovative research appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr alexei v sokolov assistant professor of physics in the college of science at texas a&m university has been awarded a $35 000 research innovation award (ria) to support his investigation on the process of creating ever-shorter pulses of light the award was given to sokolov after his proposal underwent an extensive peer review by the research corporation of tucson arizona according to the corporation the rias are so named because innovation is one of the hallmarks of original research the corporation seeks to encourage this innovation by supporting proposals for research that transcends the ordinary and promises significant discoveries the type of research in which the corporation is interested involves projects that the traditional research funding agencies might not accept said sokolov this gives incentive to younger faculty to branch out from what has been done before our research focuses on creating short pulses of light sokolov said for example when you take pictures you need a fast flash to catch something that is moving with the very short pulses we are trying to create you will eventually be able to take movies of molecular and electronic motion – something not currently possible according to sokolov the application of the groups findings may not be known for another 10 to 20 years for example in addition to the creation of shorter pulses of light sokolovs group is working on an idea of using such pulses to generate laser-induced nuclear fusion sokolovs subfemtosecond science lab research group includes graduate students andrea burzo bogdan dobrescu jiahui peng lei wang and miaochan zhi they are all currently studying the process of making short pulses of light sokolov holds a master of science degree in physics from the moscow institute of physics and technology in russia and a doctorate in physics from stanford university -atm- contact: pat schaub communications specialist college of science texas a&m university email: pschaub@sciencetamuedu ph: 979-862-1237 " " college station the department of physics at texas a&m university will bring together six of the worlds leading authorities on astronomy astrophysics and cosmology at a conference on friday october 17 the objective of the panel is to help design a future role for texas a&m in studies of phenomena at the far reaches of the universe the new program in deep space studies that is envisioned will tie directly into the vision 2020 goal for texas a&m university to achieve top ten status among public universities the prestigious panel consists of charles h townes nobel laureate and university professor emeritus at the university of california at berkeley; wendy l freedman director of the carnegie observatories in pasadena ca; david b cline of the physics and astronomy department at the university of california at los angeles; edward w kolb head of the astrophysics group at the fermi national accelerator laboratory in batavia il and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the university of chicago; tod r lauer of the national optical astronomy observatory in tucson az; and j craig wheeler regents professor of astronomy at the university of texas at austin the panel is chaired by dr freedman on being able to have townes participate in the panel texas a&m professor of physics george kattawar said dr townes is the superstar in physics many nobel prize winners in physics can be traced back to his guidance on friday afternoon the panel will meet with george p mitchell who along with his wife cynthia established the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics in the physics department at texas a&m goals of the mitchell institute include: exploring and advancing our understanding in theoretical high-energy physics; astroparticle physics and cosmology; conducting research in string theory m-theory and particle phenomenology; and exploring the interface with observation in particle physics and cosmology the mitchell institute is sponsoring the conference and this new program in deep space astronomy will be a significant part of its activities the panel is enthusiastic about helping texas a&m develop this new program said edward s fry physics department head we anticipate their help in designing a program in deep space observational astronomy that will complement the current outstanding program at the university of texas at austin the latter is an existing program which includes several large observatories and telescopes the combination of the program at the university of texas at austin the nasa johnson space center in houston and the new program at texas a&m can be expected to create a texas consortium with a major impact on deep space studies the panel will meet in the conference room of the mitchell institute in the physics department from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on friday october 17 attendance is necessarily limited but individuals in the public or media who have substantive reasons to attend should contact beverly guster in the mitchell institute at (979)845-7778 or email: b-guster@physicstamuedu -atm- contact: pat schaub communications specialist college of science texas a&m university email: pschaub@sciencetamuedu ph: 979-862-1237 the post star panel to meet on deep space observational astronomy proposal for mitchell institute appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the department of physics at texas a&m university will bring together six of the worlds leading authorities on astronomy astrophysics and cosmology at a conference on friday october 17 the objective of the panel is to help design a future role for texas a&m in studies of phenomena at the far reaches of the universe the new program in deep space studies that is envisioned will tie directly into the vision 2020 goal for texas a&m university to achieve top ten status among public universities the prestigious panel consists of charles h townes nobel laureate and university professor emeritus at the university of california at berkeley; wendy l freedman director of the carnegie observatories in pasadena ca; david b cline of the physics and astronomy department at the university of california at los angeles; edward w kolb head of the astrophysics group at the fermi national accelerator laboratory in batavia il and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the university of chicago; tod r lauer of the national optical astronomy observatory in tucson az; and j craig wheeler regents professor of astronomy at the university of texas at austin the panel is chaired by dr freedman on being able to have townes participate in the panel texas a&m professor of physics george kattawar said dr townes is the superstar in physics many nobel prize winners in physics can be traced back to his guidance on friday afternoon the panel will meet with george p mitchell who along with his wife cynthia established the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics in the physics department at texas a&m goals of the mitchell institute include: exploring and advancing our understanding in theoretical high-energy physics; astroparticle physics and cosmology; conducting research in string theory m-theory and particle phenomenology; and exploring the interface with observation in particle physics and cosmology the mitchell institute is sponsoring the conference and this new program in deep space astronomy will be a significant part of its activities the panel is enthusiastic about helping texas a&m develop this new program said edward s fry physics department head we anticipate their help in designing a program in deep space observational astronomy that will complement the current outstanding program at the university of texas at austin the latter is an existing program which includes several large observatories and telescopes the combination of the program at the university of texas at austin the nasa johnson space center in houston and the new program at texas a&m can be expected to create a texas consortium with a major impact on deep space studies the panel will meet in the conference room of the mitchell institute in the physics department from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on friday october 17 attendance is necessarily limited but individuals in the public or media who have substantive reasons to attend should contact beverly guster in the mitchell institute at (979)845-7778 or email: b-guster@physicstamuedu -atm- contact: pat schaub communications specialist college of science texas a&m university email: pschaub@sciencetamuedu ph: 979-862-1237 " " texas a&m university is opening its classrooms this week to train physics teachers from rural texas high schools which often turn to teachers with biology or chemistry degrees to teach the physics classes also the department of physics is playing host to a five-day workshop designed to give teachers without degrees in physics a deeper grounding in the subject while instructing them in teaching technologies and strategies thirty-five teachers from high schools around the state are on campus for the american association of physics teachers workshop which began june 9 and concludes friday texas a&m is providing lodging and classrooms as well as logistical support thirty-five teachers gathered from around the state to participate in this years physics teachers workshop the department of physics has a tradition of training physics teachers that extends at least as far back as the physics enhancement program founded several years ago by former texas a&m professor of physics robert beck clark he put so much into it said brian self a physics teacher at allen high school whose degree is in biology self attended clarks program and now is a mentor for teachers in this weeks workshop funded by a grant from the national science foundation in wednesdays sessions workshop leaders such as anne sung a 24-year-old harvard physics graduate now teaching at edcouch-elsa high school in hidalgo county guided teachers through mock lessons at heldenfels hall in one lesson sung invited two burly teachers to pull hard from opposite ends of a rope then she asked a petite teacher to try to push in the rope from the middle the small teacher accomplished it with little resistance why so easy the sample lesson moved to the blackboard covering concepts such as sine and cosine to show how the strong forces canceled each other out teachers worked in team and individual environments to learn various teaching techniques professor lewis ford associate head of the department of physics said texas a&m is one of two texas sites for the workshops a national training program known as the physics teaching resource agents rural teaching initiative improving science education in the schools long a sore point around the country is drawing renewed focus in texas especially now that the state has launched a new school assessment test that includes science for the first time ford said the physics workshops target teachers who are good teachers but who are not as grounded in physics as they would like to be peggy schweiger program coordinator said about eight of 10 physics teachers in texas schools do not have a physics degree teachers attend the session free but commit their time to attend follow-up workshops over the next three years said schweiger who teaches at klein oak high school near houston besides the tutorials the workshops offer attending teachers make contacts with other physics instructors from rural districts schweiger said texas instruments and pasco scientific donated equipment for the workshop ford said -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 696-3833 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; lewis ford at (979) 845-3337 or ford@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m physics department hosts workshop to train physics teachers for rural schools appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university is opening its classrooms this week to train physics teachers from rural texas high schools which often turn to teachers with biology or chemistry degrees to teach the physics classes also the department of physics is playing host to a five-day workshop designed to give teachers without degrees in physics a deeper grounding in the subject while instructing them in teaching technologies and strategies thirty-five teachers from high schools around the state are on campus for the american association of physics teachers workshop which began june 9 and concludes friday texas a&m is providing lodging and classrooms as well as logistical support thirty-five teachers gathered from around the state to participate in this years physics teachers workshop the department of physics has a tradition of training physics teachers that extends at least as far back as the physics enhancement program founded several years ago by former texas a&m professor of physics robert beck clark he put so much into it said brian self a physics teacher at allen high school whose degree is in biology self attended clarks program and now is a mentor for teachers in this weeks workshop funded by a grant from the national science foundation in wednesdays sessions workshop leaders such as anne sung a 24-year-old harvard physics graduate now teaching at edcouch-elsa high school in hidalgo county guided teachers through mock lessons at heldenfels hall in one lesson sung invited two burly teachers to pull hard from opposite ends of a rope then she asked a petite teacher to try to push in the rope from the middle the small teacher accomplished it with little resistance why so easy the sample lesson moved to the blackboard covering concepts such as sine and cosine to show how the strong forces canceled each other out teachers worked in team and individual environments to learn various teaching techniques professor lewis ford associate head of the department of physics said texas a&m is one of two texas sites for the workshops a national training program known as the physics teaching resource agents rural teaching initiative improving science education in the schools long a sore point around the country is drawing renewed focus in texas especially now that the state has launched a new school assessment test that includes science for the first time ford said the physics workshops target teachers who are good teachers but who are not as grounded in physics as they would like to be peggy schweiger program coordinator said about eight of 10 physics teachers in texas schools do not have a physics degree teachers attend the session free but commit their time to attend follow-up workshops over the next three years said schweiger who teaches at klein oak high school near houston besides the tutorials the workshops offer attending teachers make contacts with other physics instructors from rural districts schweiger said texas instruments and pasco scientific donated equipment for the workshop ford said -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 696-3833 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; lewis ford at (979) 845-3337 or ford@physicstamuedu " " college station texas a&m physicist marlan scully has won the quantum electronics award bestowed by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc lasers and electro-optics society (ieee/leos) for outstanding technical contributions to quantum electronics the award includes a bronze medal and a $4 000 honorarium scully a distinguished professor and a member of the national academy of sciences holds a joint appointment in physics and electrical engineering -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m college of science (979) 682-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; or marlan scully (979) 862-2333 the post physics professor scully wins quantum electronics award appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m physicist marlan scully has won the quantum electronics award bestowed by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers inc lasers and electro-optics society (ieee/leos) for outstanding technical contributions to quantum electronics the award includes a bronze medal and a $4 000 honorarium scully a distinguished professor and a member of the national academy of sciences holds a joint appointment in physics and electrical engineering -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m college of science (979) 682-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; or marlan scully (979) 862-2333 " " college station alexei sokolov an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m university has won the adolph lomb medal honoring him as an outstanding young researcher in optics the science of light the optical society of america awards the lomb medal annually to a researcher who has made a noteworthy contribution to optics before age 30 sokolov who is now 32 won for past research that shows that oscillating molecules can produce ultra-short light pulses scientists need to produce ever-shorter light pulses so they can study ever-faster processes in atoms and molecules using laser fields to make deuterium molecules vibrate sokolov and his co-workers discovered a way to create pulses of light shorter than a femtosecond light pulses had not before been produced by this process of highly coherent molecular motion sokolovs research most of which he completed while at stanford university was published in physical review letters and other journals sokolov continues to publish new findings the adolph lomb award includes a silver medal and a $1 500 prize sokolov will claim the award in october at an optical society of america ceremony in tucson contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; or alexei sokolov (979) 845-8519 or sokol@jeweltamuedu press coverage: a&m professor awarded adolph lomb medal – b-cs eagle (05/28/03) the post young texas a&m physicist wins lomb award for research creating light pulses appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " alexei sokolov an assistant professor of physics at texas a&m university has won the adolph lomb medal honoring him as an outstanding young researcher in optics the science of light the optical society of america awards the lomb medal annually to a researcher who has made a noteworthy contribution to optics before age 30 sokolov who is now 32 won for past research that shows that oscillating molecules can produce ultra-short light pulses scientists need to produce ever-shorter light pulses so they can study ever-faster processes in atoms and molecules using laser fields to make deuterium molecules vibrate sokolov and his co-workers discovered a way to create pulses of light shorter than a femtosecond light pulses had not before been produced by this process of highly coherent molecular motion sokolovs research most of which he completed while at stanford university was published in physical review letters and other journals sokolov continues to publish new findings the adolph lomb award includes a silver medal and a $1 500 prize sokolov will claim the award in october at an optical society of america ceremony in tucson contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; or alexei sokolov (979) 845-8519 or sokol@jeweltamuedu press coverage: a&m professor awarded adolph lomb medal – b-cs eagle (05/28/03) " " college station faculty and staff members from texas a&m university will join museum and media colleagues from across the nation on a trip to japan designed to promote public understanding of research the universitys institute for pacific asia (ipa) in partnership with the science museum of minnesota received support from the national science foundation (nsf) to coordinate the 10-day planning and consultation visit to japan july 9-20 the principal objectives of the japan visit are to identify develop and design cooperative programs across the science education and research communities that encourage public understanding of science said richard nader a co-principal investigator on the project and director of ipa this summers visit builds on progress made during two previous visits in 2000 and 2001 texas a&m has assembled a team of top experts from us and japanese science education ventures addressing public understanding of research (pur) nsfs newest science education initiative pur explores strategies for increasing awareness and understanding of current science science that is in-the-news in the united states and abroad the projects sponsor hyman field senior adviser to nsf on pur said our nations scientists are currently engaged in research that will have profound impacts on the lives of citizens globally…yet few people even know what research is being conducted why it is being done and what the potential implications may be universities and the scientific community must be involved in the process it is an honor for texas a&m to be selected as the coordinator for this visit and it speaks well of our faculty and researchers said richard ewing vice president for research at texas a&m university the delegation scheduled to visit japan in july is composed of scientists science education researchers science museum professionals and representatives from science media and international science associations representing texas a&m on the trip will be nader along with texas a&m faculty members edward fry professor of physics and susanna priest associate professor of journalism other delegates include representatives from the exploratorium in san francisco the science museum of minnesota wgbh nova the museum of science in boston wnet new york and earth and sky radio in austin contact: linda edwards (979) 458-4285 or l-edwards@tamuedu or rick nader (979) 845-3099 aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post institute for pacific asia to lead an international delegation to japan in july appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " faculty and staff members from texas a&m university will join museum and media colleagues from across the nation on a trip to japan designed to promote public understanding of research the universitys institute for pacific asia (ipa) in partnership with the science museum of minnesota received support from the national science foundation (nsf) to coordinate the 10-day planning and consultation visit to japan july 9-20 the principal objectives of the japan visit are to identify develop and design cooperative programs across the science education and research communities that encourage public understanding of science said richard nader a co-principal investigator on the project and director of ipa this summers visit builds on progress made during two previous visits in 2000 and 2001 texas a&m has assembled a team of top experts from us and japanese science education ventures addressing public understanding of research (pur) nsfs newest science education initiative pur explores strategies for increasing awareness and understanding of current science science that is in-the-news in the united states and abroad the projects sponsor hyman field senior adviser to nsf on pur said our nations scientists are currently engaged in research that will have profound impacts on the lives of citizens globally…yet few people even know what research is being conducted why it is being done and what the potential implications may be universities and the scientific community must be involved in the process it is an honor for texas a&m to be selected as the coordinator for this visit and it speaks well of our faculty and researchers said richard ewing vice president for research at texas a&m university the delegation scheduled to visit japan in july is composed of scientists science education researchers science museum professionals and representatives from science media and international science associations representing texas a&m on the trip will be nader along with texas a&m faculty members edward fry professor of physics and susanna priest associate professor of journalism other delegates include representatives from the exploratorium in san francisco the science museum of minnesota wgbh nova the museum of science in boston wnet new york and earth and sky radio in austin contact: linda edwards (979) 458-4285 or l-edwards@tamuedu or rick nader (979) 845-3099 aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station the inaugural winners of texas a&m universitys new $25 000 teaching excellence awards – believed to be the highest monetary value in the nation from a single institution making such presentations annually – are professor william h bassichis of the department of physics and professor ludy t benjamin jr of the department of psychology texas a&m president robert m gates who announced the winners thursday (april 24) created the special awards earlier this year to underscore the importance of outstanding teaching at a major research university formal presentations will be made at commencement exercises next month the awards include the title of presidential professor for teaching excellence and the recipient will retain that title for the remainder of his or her career < president robert m gates surprised professor william h bassichis in his classroom on friday with award announcement bassichis has taught physics at texas a&m since 1970 and helped establish the universitys mentor program he is a recipient of the university-wide faculty distinguished achievement award for teaching and two college of science faculty distinguished achievement awards for teaching all presented by the association of former students bassichis is author of a widely used physics textbook series has served as a consultant to the department of energy has had more than 50 scientific articles published and is a founding member of the texas a&m faculty senate benjamin who has taught at texas a&m for 23 years holds the glasscock professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence and the murray and celeste fasken chair in distinguished teaching he has won several national teaching awards among them the distinguished teaching in psychology award from the american psychological foundation and the distinguished career contributions to education and training award from the american psychological association at texas a&m benjamin has received the association of former students distinguished teaching award and the association of former students distinguished faculty achievement award in teaching he has conducted more than 50 workshops in 13 states edited or written six textbooks in psychology and has had 25 articles published on the teaching of psychology when gates announced the new teaching excellence award last january he said the most important criteria are commitment to and excellence in teaching in all its dimensions a great university has great teachers texas a&m has some of the finest teachers in the world and we want to recognize them he added he pointed out that texas a&m already has numerous awards for teaching with many of them funded by the association of former students even so i believe texas a&m university itself must make a stronger statement to the importance of teaching and that is why these new awards are being established he said nomination of the recipients was made by faculty members deans and student leaders -30- contact: lane stephenson office of university relations texas a&m university; l-stephenson@tamuedu or (979) 845-4662 press coverage: a&m professors awarded $25 000 – the bryan-college station eagle (04/25/2003) the post bassichis benjamin receive new $25 000 teaching excellence awards appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the inaugural winners of texas a&m universitys new $25 000 teaching excellence awards – believed to be the highest monetary value in the nation from a single institution making such presentations annually – are professor william h bassichis of the department of physics and professor ludy t benjamin jr of the department of psychology texas a&m president robert m gates who announced the winners thursday (april 24) created the special awards earlier this year to underscore the importance of outstanding teaching at a major research university formal presentations will be made at commencement exercises next month the awards include the title of presidential professor for teaching excellence and the recipient will retain that title for the remainder of his or her career < president robert m gates surprised professor william h bassichis in his classroom on friday with award announcement bassichis has taught physics at texas a&m since 1970 and helped establish the universitys mentor program he is a recipient of the university-wide faculty distinguished achievement award for teaching and two college of science faculty distinguished achievement awards for teaching all presented by the association of former students bassichis is author of a widely used physics textbook series has served as a consultant to the department of energy has had more than 50 scientific articles published and is a founding member of the texas a&m faculty senate benjamin who has taught at texas a&m for 23 years holds the glasscock professorship in undergraduate teaching excellence and the murray and celeste fasken chair in distinguished teaching he has won several national teaching awards among them the distinguished teaching in psychology award from the american psychological foundation and the distinguished career contributions to education and training award from the american psychological association at texas a&m benjamin has received the association of former students distinguished teaching award and the association of former students distinguished faculty achievement award in teaching he has conducted more than 50 workshops in 13 states edited or written six textbooks in psychology and has had 25 articles published on the teaching of psychology when gates announced the new teaching excellence award last january he said the most important criteria are commitment to and excellence in teaching in all its dimensions a great university has great teachers texas a&m has some of the finest teachers in the world and we want to recognize them he added he pointed out that texas a&m already has numerous awards for teaching with many of them funded by the association of former students even so i believe texas a&m university itself must make a stronger statement to the importance of teaching and that is why these new awards are being established he said nomination of the recipients was made by faculty members deans and student leaders -30- contact: lane stephenson office of university relations texas a&m university; l-stephenson@tamuedu or (979) 845-4662 press coverage: a&m professors awarded $25 000 – the bryan-college station eagle (04/25/2003) " " college station stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist famous for his theories on black holes and his best-selling books about the universe will present public lectures march 8 at texas a&m university and march 14 in the woodlands hawking is visiting texas a&m as part of a month-long physics conference to inaugurate the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics established with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands hawking whose best-selling books a brief history of time and the universe in a nutshell have sold millions of copies around the world is renowned as a scientist with the uncommon ability to communicate complex science in a way that touches people the chance to hear the worlds best-known living scientist discuss scientific wonders of the universe is a rare gift for us all said h joseph newton dean of texas a&ms college of science this is the kind of event that will define the mitchell institute as a world-class forum in theoretical physics the mitchell institute part of texas a&ms college of science is bringing 11 of the worlds top physicists to campus for an intensive scientific conference the visiting scientists from across the united states and europe will join hawking four of his cambridge students and faculty experts from texas a&ms own department of physics in an extended scientific dialog scheduled to run from feb 21 to march 21 their discussions are not open to the public but hawking will present two one-hour lectures: at 4 pm on march 8 he will present gödel and the end of physics in rudder auditorium on texas a&ms college station campus the public is invited tickets are available for $3 for students and children and $5 for others tickets are available at the memorial student center box office (979-845-1234 or toll-free at 888-890-5667) the talk will be preceded by an exhibition of hands-on science displays representing work from various departments at texas a&m the exhibition will be open from 10 am to 3:45 pm in rooms 225-226 of the memorial student center the exhibits will feature popular science that is accessible to all ages the public is invited to attend at 7:30 pm on march 14 hawking will deliver a lecture brane new world at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands tickets will be available for $10 for covered seating and $5 for uncovered seating tickets will be available beginning march 1 at big new h-e-b stores in the houston area and at the pavilion ticket office (281-364-3024) contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; press coverage: h=(a&m)2 – houston chronicle (03/14/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – kbtx-tv (03/10/03) physicist hawking wows capacity crowd at texas a&m – austin american statesman (03/09/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – amarillo globe-news (03/09/03) renowned physicist delivers speech to texas a&m students – star-telegram (03/09/03) hawking shares his reflections on the universe – the bryan-college station eagle (03/09/03) universe still an unknown hawking says – the battalion (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – the beaumont enterprise (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – the dallas morning news (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – midland reporter-telegram (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – san antonio express news (03/08/03) science departments hosting ‘exploratorium for kids – the bryan-college station eagle (03/07/03) renowned physicist offering insight – the houston chronicle (03/05/03) the post stephen hawking to give public speeches as texas a&m inaugurates mitchell institute for fundamental physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist famous for his theories on black holes and his best-selling books about the universe will present public lectures march 8 at texas a&m university and march 14 in the woodlands hawking is visiting texas a&m as part of a month-long physics conference to inaugurate the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics established with an endowment from the well-known texas businessman and his wife both of the woodlands hawking whose best-selling books a brief history of time and the universe in a nutshell have sold millions of copies around the world is renowned as a scientist with the uncommon ability to communicate complex science in a way that touches people the chance to hear the worlds best-known living scientist discuss scientific wonders of the universe is a rare gift for us all said h joseph newton dean of texas a&ms college of science this is the kind of event that will define the mitchell institute as a world-class forum in theoretical physics the mitchell institute part of texas a&ms college of science is bringing 11 of the worlds top physicists to campus for an intensive scientific conference the visiting scientists from across the united states and europe will join hawking four of his cambridge students and faculty experts from texas a&ms own department of physics in an extended scientific dialog scheduled to run from feb 21 to march 21 their discussions are not open to the public but hawking will present two one-hour lectures: at 4 pm on march 8 he will present gödel and the end of physics in rudder auditorium on texas a&ms college station campus the public is invited tickets are available for $3 for students and children and $5 for others tickets are available at the memorial student center box office (979-845-1234 or toll-free at 888-890-5667) the talk will be preceded by an exhibition of hands-on science displays representing work from various departments at texas a&m the exhibition will be open from 10 am to 3:45 pm in rooms 225-226 of the memorial student center the exhibits will feature popular science that is accessible to all ages the public is invited to attend at 7:30 pm on march 14 hawking will deliver a lecture brane new world at the cynthia woods mitchell pavilion in the woodlands tickets will be available for $10 for covered seating and $5 for uncovered seating tickets will be available beginning march 1 at big new h-e-b stores in the houston area and at the pavilion ticket office (281-364-3024) contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; press coverage: h=(a&m)2 – houston chronicle (03/14/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – kbtx-tv (03/10/03) physicist hawking wows capacity crowd at texas a&m – austin american statesman (03/09/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – amarillo globe-news (03/09/03) renowned physicist delivers speech to texas a&m students – star-telegram (03/09/03) hawking shares his reflections on the universe – the bryan-college station eagle (03/09/03) universe still an unknown hawking says – the battalion (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – the beaumont enterprise (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – the dallas morning news (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – midland reporter-telegram (03/08/03) stephen hawking speaks at texas a&m – san antonio express news (03/08/03) science departments hosting ‘exploratorium for kids – the bryan-college station eagle (03/07/03) renowned physicist offering insight – the houston chronicle (03/05/03) " " college station marlan scully the texas a&m university professor who applied quantum physics to the automotive engine and came up with a design that emits laser beams instead of exhaust has been tinkering under the hood again this time hes sized up the perfect engine and improved it scully known as the quantum cowboy for his innovations in quantum physics and his franklin society prize-winning research into beef cattle production has invented a theoretical design more efficient than the carnot engine which had stood for nearly two centuries as the standard for efficiency an engine so ideal it exists only in theory in an article published this month in science scully reveals a design that extends it scullys design employs lasers mirrors and a concept known as quantum coherence to drive a piston with less wasted energy than in the carnot model in scullys engine a quantum heat bath supplies the power: beams of hot atoms produce radiation whose pressure drives a piston scully likens the atoms to coal and the radiation to steam that drove early railroad engines scully a member of the national academy of sciences who holds a joint appointment in physics and electrical engineering is world-renowned for his work but even though he and his collaborators have improved the engine that had been considered perfect scully makes clear that they have not rewritten the laws of physics the second law of thermodynamics is not violated he says and perpetual motion is still a dream the new engine model follows scullys recent invention of the quantum afterburner designed to capture energy from a cars exhaust thus improving the efficiency of a classical four-stroke engine the quantum afterburner uses a process that drains heat from the heat engine gases and converts it into laser light -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237 mminton@sciencetamuedu; marlan scully (979)862-2333 press coverage: stories of modern science … from upi: quantum cowboy develops new engine – united press international (02/27/03) texas a&m physics professor who invented ‘quantum afterburner revs up perfect engine – innovations report – berichte physik astronomie (02/27/03) the post texas a&m physics professor who invented ‘quantum afterburner revs up perfect engine appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " marlan scully the texas a&m university professor who applied quantum physics to the automotive engine and came up with a design that emits laser beams instead of exhaust has been tinkering under the hood again this time hes sized up the perfect engine and improved it scully known as the quantum cowboy for his innovations in quantum physics and his franklin society prize-winning research into beef cattle production has invented a theoretical design more efficient than the carnot engine which had stood for nearly two centuries as the standard for efficiency an engine so ideal it exists only in theory in an article published this month in science scully reveals a design that extends it scullys design employs lasers mirrors and a concept known as quantum coherence to drive a piston with less wasted energy than in the carnot model in scullys engine a quantum heat bath supplies the power: beams of hot atoms produce radiation whose pressure drives a piston scully likens the atoms to coal and the radiation to steam that drove early railroad engines scully a member of the national academy of sciences who holds a joint appointment in physics and electrical engineering is world-renowned for his work but even though he and his collaborators have improved the engine that had been considered perfect scully makes clear that they have not rewritten the laws of physics the second law of thermodynamics is not violated he says and perpetual motion is still a dream the new engine model follows scullys recent invention of the quantum afterburner designed to capture energy from a cars exhaust thus improving the efficiency of a classical four-stroke engine the quantum afterburner uses a process that drains heat from the heat engine gases and converts it into laser light -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237 mminton@sciencetamuedu; marlan scully (979)862-2333 press coverage: stories of modern science … from upi: quantum cowboy develops new engine – united press international (02/27/03) texas a&m physics professor who invented ‘quantum afterburner revs up perfect engine – innovations report – berichte physik astronomie (02/27/03) " " college station dimitri nanopoulos a texas a&m physics professor and one of the worlds most noted researchers in high-energy physics has been appointed to a new endowed chair associated with the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics dr nanopoulos will hold the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics which is endowed with $500 000 from the mitchells both of the woodlands and $500 000 from the herman f heep and minnie belle heep foundation in college station the chair was created in conjunction with the mitchell institute a prestigious new forum that will bring stephen hawking and several other world-class physicists to texas a&m this spring for a month-long conference exploring the nature of the universe george and cynthia mitchell gave the texas a&m college of science $27 million to create the institute and two chairs in physics: the mitchell-heep chair and the stephen hawking chair held by physics professor christopher pope nanopoulos is a distinguished professor at texas a&m meaning his peers consider him to be among the top 5 percent of scientists in his field his work in high-energy physics which deals with atomic particles accelerated to high speeds has made him one of the most frequently cited physicists ever in the field he has written more than 500 papers and fellow researchers have cited his work some 26 000 times making him the fourth most cited high-energy physicist ever it is a great honor for me to be the first holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics nanopoulos said ill try my best so that the generosity of mr mitchell and of the heep foundation will be matched by the quality of my research in this great university nanopoulos joined the texas a&m faculty in 1989 after receiving his bachelors degree from the university of athens in greece and his phd at the university of sussex in england his research interests include grand unified theories superstrings and astroparticle physics -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist (979) 862-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; dimitri nanopoulos (in athens) 011-30-210-6867199 or dimitri@physicstamuedu the post texas a&m professor chosen for $1-million endowed chair in physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science share: " " dimitri nanopoulos a texas a&m physics professor and one of the worlds most noted researchers in high-energy physics has been appointed to a new endowed chair associated with the universitys george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics dr nanopoulos will hold the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics which is endowed with $500 000 from the mitchells both of the woodlands and $500 000 from the herman f heep and minnie belle heep foundation in college station the chair was created in conjunction with the mitchell institute a prestigious new forum that will bring stephen hawking and several other world-class physicists to texas a&m this spring for a month-long conference exploring the nature of the universe george and cynthia mitchell gave the texas a&m college of science $27 million to create the institute and two chairs in physics: the mitchell-heep chair and the stephen hawking chair held by physics professor christopher pope nanopoulos is a distinguished professor at texas a&m meaning his peers consider him to be among the top 5 percent of scientists in his field his work in high-energy physics which deals with atomic particles accelerated to high speeds has made him one of the most frequently cited physicists ever in the field he has written more than 500 papers and fellow researchers have cited his work some 26 000 times making him the fourth most cited high-energy physicist ever it is a great honor for me to be the first holder of the mitchell-heep chair in high-energy physics nanopoulos said ill try my best so that the generosity of mr mitchell and of the heep foundation will be matched by the quality of my research in this great university nanopoulos joined the texas a&m faculty in 1989 after receiving his bachelors degree from the university of athens in greece and his phd at the university of sussex in england his research interests include grand unified theories superstrings and astroparticle physics -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist (979) 862-1237 or mminton@sciencetamuedu; dimitri nanopoulos (in athens) 011-30-210-6867199 or dimitri@physicstamuedu " " dr marlan o scully a distinguished professor of physics is researching a better way to detect anthrax while science already can detect anthrax spores in the lab todays devices are not as promising as the one scully and his fellow researchers in the department of physics are pursuing different images of anthraxsource: life saving cures applying the same kind of quantum mechanics that has allowed them to slow the speed of light to a crawl of a few meters per second scully and his team use lasers to make molecules in the air vibrate because different molecules vibrate at different frequencies anthrax has a vibration signature that can readily distinguish it from pollen for instance scullys technology makes the molecules vibrate in a way that produces the tell-tale signatures faster and renders them more clearly the research may one day yield compact anthrax detectors that can be stationed in public buildings to give quick and precise readings for more information contact the physics department -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m college of science; 979-862-1237; mminton@sciencetamuedu the post a better anthrax detector appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr marlan o scully a distinguished professor of physics is researching a better way to detect anthrax while science already can detect anthrax spores in the lab todays devices are not as promising as the one scully and his fellow researchers in the department of physics are pursuing different images of anthraxsource: life saving cures applying the same kind of quantum mechanics that has allowed them to slow the speed of light to a crawl of a few meters per second scully and his team use lasers to make molecules in the air vibrate because different molecules vibrate at different frequencies anthrax has a vibration signature that can readily distinguish it from pollen for instance scullys technology makes the molecules vibrate in a way that produces the tell-tale signatures faster and renders them more clearly the research may one day yield compact anthrax detectors that can be stationed in public buildings to give quick and precise readings for more information contact the physics department -30- contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m college of science; 979-862-1237; mminton@sciencetamuedu " " college station robert w and marianne e hamm the first married couple to earn doctorates in physics at texas a&m university have given the university $50 000 to endow two physics scholarships the marianne 76 & robert 77 hamm scholarships in physics will assist undergraduates who finished in the top 25 percent of their high school class and have at least a 32 grade-point average edward fry head of the department of physics recalled the hamms as colorful students who were always working to improve the situation of the other students on campus it is especially gratifying to see them continuing to carry that torch fry said after earning doctoral degrees at texas a&m the hamms took jobs at los alamos national laboratory where they worked on particle accelerators devices that accelerate sub-atomic particles to near the speed of light after leaving for california the hamms co-founded a company to develop commercial accelerators based on technology from los alamos accsys technology inc based in pleasanton calif has built and sold compact accelerators since 1985 for a variety of uses from locating diamonds in mined rocks to searching for and treating cancer in medical patients the companys primary market is the medical field in may hitachi ltd acquired a majority of the shares but robert hamm continues as the president and chief executive of accsys and marianne continues as the chief operating officer and executive vice president the hamms endowed the new physics scholarships because texas a&m gave a lot to my wife and me robert hamm said they allowed us to pursue our degrees as a couple and treated us very well the hamms were honored with a luncheon monday on campus they were to present a lecture in the department of physics afterward their gift will be counted in texas a&ms one spirit one vision fund-raising campaign to attain top 10 status among public universities 30 contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237; robert and marianne hamm (925) 462-6949 the post first couple of physics: hamms establish two physics scholarships appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " robert w and marianne e hamm the first married couple to earn doctorates in physics at texas a&m university have given the university $50 000 to endow two physics scholarships the marianne 76 & robert 77 hamm scholarships in physics will assist undergraduates who finished in the top 25 percent of their high school class and have at least a 32 grade-point average edward fry head of the department of physics recalled the hamms as colorful students who were always working to improve the situation of the other students on campus it is especially gratifying to see them continuing to carry that torch fry said after earning doctoral degrees at texas a&m the hamms took jobs at los alamos national laboratory where they worked on particle accelerators devices that accelerate sub-atomic particles to near the speed of light after leaving for california the hamms co-founded a company to develop commercial accelerators based on technology from los alamos accsys technology inc based in pleasanton calif has built and sold compact accelerators since 1985 for a variety of uses from locating diamonds in mined rocks to searching for and treating cancer in medical patients the companys primary market is the medical field in may hitachi ltd acquired a majority of the shares but robert hamm continues as the president and chief executive of accsys and marianne continues as the chief operating officer and executive vice president the hamms endowed the new physics scholarships because texas a&m gave a lot to my wife and me robert hamm said they allowed us to pursue our degrees as a couple and treated us very well the hamms were honored with a luncheon monday on campus they were to present a lecture in the department of physics afterward their gift will be counted in texas a&ms one spirit one vision fund-raising campaign to attain top 10 status among public universities 30 contact: mark minton communications specialist texas a&m university college of science (979) 862-1237; robert and marianne hamm (925) 462-6949 " " college station dr christopher pope the texas a&m physics professor and high-energy theorist who earned his doctorate studying under renowned physicist stephen hawking has been appointed to a new endowed chair named for hawking pope will hold the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics established with a recent gift from george p and cynthia w mitchell of the woodlands the mitchells longtime benefactors of texas a&m gave $27 million to endow the hawking chair to endow a second chair in high-energy physics and to establish the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics the gift also provides funding for the institutes initial meeting which will bring hawking and other eminent physicists to texas a&m next spring for a month-long scientific exploration that aims to spark fresh insights into the nature of the universe pope who completed his doctorate under the guidance of hawking his advisor at cambridge university is considered one of hawkings most successful students and one of his closest collaborators said dr edward fry head of the department of physics hawking is famous around the world for his theories about black holes and the origins of the universe he is also widely known as the author of the best-selling book a brief history of time as a student under hawking from 1976 to 1979 pope developed an exceptional relationship with the professor in part because of hawkings physical handicap; he suffers from motor neurone disease a condition that confines him to a wheelchair pope recalled carrying hawkings wheelchair up and down stairs the handicap also made writing difficult for hawking but that drew him closer to his students who listened as he worked out problems in his head and suggested the solutions of course he is brimming over with ideas pope said but he couldnt sit down with paper and pencil himself and do calculations he would sit and think he would be a tremendous gold mine of ideas it was a very very inspiring experience working with him pope said he was honored to hold the hawking chair and he expressed tremendous gratitude to the mitchells who designated $1 million of their overall pledge to establish the chair texas a&m university matched their contribution bringing the hawking chair endowment to $2 million one of the universitys largest pope said the endowment would allow him to bring visiting scientists to college station to collaborate on projects and to share their expertise with students pope is an international leader in the development of strings and m-theory and is considered one of the most active current researchers in high-energy theory 30 contact: mark minton (979) 862-1237 email mminton@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher pope (979) 845-7793 email pope@physicstamuedu the post prestigious stephen hawking chair in physics goes to christopher pope appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr christopher pope the texas a&m physics professor and high-energy theorist who earned his doctorate studying under renowned physicist stephen hawking has been appointed to a new endowed chair named for hawking pope will hold the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics established with a recent gift from george p and cynthia w mitchell of the woodlands the mitchells longtime benefactors of texas a&m gave $27 million to endow the hawking chair to endow a second chair in high-energy physics and to establish the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics the gift also provides funding for the institutes initial meeting which will bring hawking and other eminent physicists to texas a&m next spring for a month-long scientific exploration that aims to spark fresh insights into the nature of the universe pope who completed his doctorate under the guidance of hawking his advisor at cambridge university is considered one of hawkings most successful students and one of his closest collaborators said dr edward fry head of the department of physics hawking is famous around the world for his theories about black holes and the origins of the universe he is also widely known as the author of the best-selling book a brief history of time as a student under hawking from 1976 to 1979 pope developed an exceptional relationship with the professor in part because of hawkings physical handicap; he suffers from motor neurone disease a condition that confines him to a wheelchair pope recalled carrying hawkings wheelchair up and down stairs the handicap also made writing difficult for hawking but that drew him closer to his students who listened as he worked out problems in his head and suggested the solutions of course he is brimming over with ideas pope said but he couldnt sit down with paper and pencil himself and do calculations he would sit and think he would be a tremendous gold mine of ideas it was a very very inspiring experience working with him pope said he was honored to hold the hawking chair and he expressed tremendous gratitude to the mitchells who designated $1 million of their overall pledge to establish the chair texas a&m university matched their contribution bringing the hawking chair endowment to $2 million one of the universitys largest pope said the endowment would allow him to bring visiting scientists to college station to collaborate on projects and to share their expertise with students pope is an international leader in the development of strings and m-theory and is considered one of the most active current researchers in high-energy theory 30 contact: mark minton (979) 862-1237 email mminton@sciencetamuedu or dr christopher pope (979) 845-7793 email pope@physicstamuedu " " college station should terrorists strike with biological weapons how fast scientists could identify the particular bug being used might mean the difference between life and death for untold numbers of victims physicists at texas a&m university are conducting experiments to develop a more rapid method to identify airborne bacterial spores initial results of the groups research called fast cars have been reported in the prestigious proceedings of the national academy of science and offer hope for development of devices to foil the best-laid plans of bioterrorists ‘fast cars stands for femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic techniques for coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy said marlan o scully physics professor at texas a&m and member of the national academy of sciences airborne contaminants like bacterial spores are usually analyzed by time-consuming microscopic chemical and biological assays but the fast cars technique would use lasers to detect and identify the unique spectral signatures of such bacteria in real time the fast cars team led by scully includes texas a&m physicists g w kattawar r p lucht t opatrny h pilloff a v sokolov and ms zubairy scully and his colleagues based their idea for fast cars on recent experiments in which atoms and molecules were prepared by one or more coherent lasers and then probed by another set of lasers the ultraviolet radiation given off by particles in the air when excited by lasers can be used to identify which particles are dust and which are bacteria at present devices are being field engineered that will involve an optical preselection stage based on uv radiation scully observed if the fluorescence measurement does not give the proper signature then that particle is ignored most of the time the particle will be an uninteresting dust particle; however when a signature match is recorded then the particle is selected for special biological assay the good news about the resonance fluorescence technique is that it is fast and simple the bad news is that although it can tell the difference between dust and bacterial spores it cannot differentiate between spores and many other bioaerosols like pollen thats why we came up with the idea to use one particular part of the uv spectrum given off by excited particles called the resonant raman spectra to try to more accurately differentiate between different types of biological particles in the air bacterial spores have been called amazing life forms some of them found to be viable after millions of years apparently the key to spores amazing longevity lies in the presence of an acid called dpa in the spores living core where its dna rna and proteins reside fast cars technology could someday allow scientists to use laser pulses to probe airborne molecules for the presence of dpa thus speeding identification of particular types of bacteria in the air devices using the fast cars model are not yet a reality but scully sees them as promising based on the specific fingerprints of different bacterial spores that could be discovered when they are zapped by laser pulses and yield definitive signatures via analysis with raman spectroscopy because each different type of spore would have its own unique mixture of metals and amino acids it may be the case that the finer details of the raman spectra would contain spore specific fingerprints scully said clearly there are many opportunities and open questions implicit in the fast cars molecular melody approach to real-time spectroscopy however it plays out this combination of quantum coherence and coherent control is a rich field contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post laser technology promises faster identification of bioterror bugs appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " should terrorists strike with biological weapons how fast scientists could identify the particular bug being used might mean the difference between life and death for untold numbers of victims physicists at texas a&m university are conducting experiments to develop a more rapid method to identify airborne bacterial spores initial results of the groups research called fast cars have been reported in the prestigious proceedings of the national academy of science and offer hope for development of devices to foil the best-laid plans of bioterrorists ‘fast cars stands for femtosecond adaptive spectroscopic techniques for coherent anti-stokes raman spectroscopy said marlan o scully physics professor at texas a&m and member of the national academy of sciences airborne contaminants like bacterial spores are usually analyzed by time-consuming microscopic chemical and biological assays but the fast cars technique would use lasers to detect and identify the unique spectral signatures of such bacteria in real time the fast cars team led by scully includes texas a&m physicists g w kattawar r p lucht t opatrny h pilloff a v sokolov and ms zubairy scully and his colleagues based their idea for fast cars on recent experiments in which atoms and molecules were prepared by one or more coherent lasers and then probed by another set of lasers the ultraviolet radiation given off by particles in the air when excited by lasers can be used to identify which particles are dust and which are bacteria at present devices are being field engineered that will involve an optical preselection stage based on uv radiation scully observed if the fluorescence measurement does not give the proper signature then that particle is ignored most of the time the particle will be an uninteresting dust particle; however when a signature match is recorded then the particle is selected for special biological assay the good news about the resonance fluorescence technique is that it is fast and simple the bad news is that although it can tell the difference between dust and bacterial spores it cannot differentiate between spores and many other bioaerosols like pollen thats why we came up with the idea to use one particular part of the uv spectrum given off by excited particles called the resonant raman spectra to try to more accurately differentiate between different types of biological particles in the air bacterial spores have been called amazing life forms some of them found to be viable after millions of years apparently the key to spores amazing longevity lies in the presence of an acid called dpa in the spores living core where its dna rna and proteins reside fast cars technology could someday allow scientists to use laser pulses to probe airborne molecules for the presence of dpa thus speeding identification of particular types of bacteria in the air devices using the fast cars model are not yet a reality but scully sees them as promising based on the specific fingerprints of different bacterial spores that could be discovered when they are zapped by laser pulses and yield definitive signatures via analysis with raman spectroscopy because each different type of spore would have its own unique mixture of metals and amino acids it may be the case that the finer details of the raman spectra would contain spore specific fingerprints scully said clearly there are many opportunities and open questions implicit in the fast cars molecular melody approach to real-time spectroscopy however it plays out this combination of quantum coherence and coherent control is a rich field contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station approval has been given by the texas a&m university system board of regents to establish a physics institute – the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics that will affiliate texas a&m with stephen hawking widely considered the top scientist since alfred einstein the initial proposal was presented in july to regents who approved the concept the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics will be an organizational unit of the department of physics at texas a&m and will begin an endowed workshop feb 24-march 21 featuring hawking whose theoretical work in physics has garnered worldwide acclaim hawking a distinguished professor at cambridge university has originated groundbreaking work ranging from quantum mechanics to the creation of the universe and the big bang theory our physics faculty in the area of strings and m-theory is already in the top 10 in the world for citations of their work explains edward fry professor and head of physics this institute will provide a major boost to their international recognition and promote the collaboration of some of the major scientists in the world the results can be expected to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature mitchell a 1940 texas a&m graduate and his wife are underwriting the annual institute with $25 million to endow the institute and associated chairs additionally they have given $200 000 toward first-year expenses $1 million will go to the creation of the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics which will be matched the university at $2 million the hawking chair is among the best endowed at texas a&m mitchell former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy and development co is a distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering and a longtime texas a&m benefactor he is credited with gifts ranging from 135 acres of land for texas a&ms galveston campus on pelican island to his service as chair of the target 2000 committee in the early 1980s he was instrumental in the development of the woodlands and in the founding of the houston advanced research center (harc) where he has worked with several notable texas a&m researchers for some time now ive had an interest in fundamental physics which was expressed through the superconducting super collider program with harc the universities research association inc and its 77 member universities the us department of energy and texas a&m mitchell says i believe these contributions for the creation of the chair in fundamental physics and the stephen hawking chair will add prestige to the department of physics and to texas a&m university a major component of the new institute will be an extended workshop lasting from one to two months each spring it will bring six to 10 internationally renowned researchers in the field who will be specifically selected for the workshop program aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post regents approve mitchell institute for physics at texas a&m appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " approval has been given by the texas a&m university system board of regents to establish a physics institute – the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics that will affiliate texas a&m with stephen hawking widely considered the top scientist since alfred einstein the initial proposal was presented in july to regents who approved the concept the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics will be an organizational unit of the department of physics at texas a&m and will begin an endowed workshop feb 24-march 21 featuring hawking whose theoretical work in physics has garnered worldwide acclaim hawking a distinguished professor at cambridge university has originated groundbreaking work ranging from quantum mechanics to the creation of the universe and the big bang theory our physics faculty in the area of strings and m-theory is already in the top 10 in the world for citations of their work explains edward fry professor and head of physics this institute will provide a major boost to their international recognition and promote the collaboration of some of the major scientists in the world the results can be expected to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature mitchell a 1940 texas a&m graduate and his wife are underwriting the annual institute with $25 million to endow the institute and associated chairs additionally they have given $200 000 toward first-year expenses $1 million will go to the creation of the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics which will be matched the university at $2 million the hawking chair is among the best endowed at texas a&m mitchell former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy and development co is a distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering and a longtime texas a&m benefactor he is credited with gifts ranging from 135 acres of land for texas a&ms galveston campus on pelican island to his service as chair of the target 2000 committee in the early 1980s he was instrumental in the development of the woodlands and in the founding of the houston advanced research center (harc) where he has worked with several notable texas a&m researchers for some time now ive had an interest in fundamental physics which was expressed through the superconducting super collider program with harc the universities research association inc and its 77 member universities the us department of energy and texas a&m mitchell says i believe these contributions for the creation of the chair in fundamental physics and the stephen hawking chair will add prestige to the department of physics and to texas a&m university a major component of the new institute will be an extended workshop lasting from one to two months each spring it will bring six to 10 internationally renowned researchers in the field who will be specifically selected for the workshop program aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist and author renowned for his theories about black holes and other aspects of the universe is set to begin an affiliation with texas a&m university due to a major endowment funded by george p and cynthia w mitchell of the woodlands texas hawking is expected to visit texas a&m next spring to participate in the inaugural meeting of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics which will bring several of the worlds top physicists to the campus for a month-long exploration of the latest ideas on topics ranging from superstrings to m-theory to supergravity the concept of the mitchell institute was approved at the recent texas a&m university system board of regents meeting held in college station organizers envision an annual endowed series with the debut institute set for feb 24-march 21 2003 our physics faculty in the area of strings and m-theory is already in the top 10 in the world for citations of their work explains edward fry professor and head of texas a&ms department of physics this institute will provide a major boost to their international recognition and promote the collaboration of some of the major scientists in the world the results can be expected to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature mitchell a 1940 texas a&m graduate and his wife are underwriting the annual institute with a gift of $1 million to be combined with gifts from other donors to create a permanent endowment in support of the institute additionally they have given $200 000 toward first-year expenses the mitchells are providing a second $1 million gift matched by the university to establish the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics at $2 million the hawking chair is among the best endowed at texas a&m also the mitchells have committed an additional $500 000 toward endowing a second chair in physics provided that additional sources contribute the remainder of the $1 million endowment mitchell former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp is a distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering and a longtime benefactor of texas a&m generous in giving both funding and time to his alma mater he is credited with gifts ranging from 135 acres of land for texas a&ms galveston campus on pelican island to his service as chair of the target 2000 project committee in the early 1980s i believe these contributions for the creation of the chair in fundamental physics and the stephen hawking chair will add prestige to the department of physics and to texas a&m university mitchell says the mitchells gifts to physics will be counted in one spirit one vision a multi-year fund-raising campaign to help texas a&m attain national top 10 status among public universities one of the main goals of vision 2020 is to elevate the arts and sciences core says h joseph newton dean of the college of science as a result of mr and mrs mitchells generosity our physics department will have two new endowed chairs and the nations first institute featuring stephen hawking their gifts will go a long way toward turning the dreams of vision 2020 into reality not only for texas a&m physics but for the entire college of science perhaps best known for his vision in developing the woodlands mitchell also was instrumental in founding the houston advanced research center (harc) where he has worked with several texas a&m researchers including fry and current physics faculty peter mcintyre marlan scully and dimitri nanopoulos for some time now ive had an interest in fundamental physics which was expressed through the superconducting super collider program with the houston advanced research center the universities research association inc and its 77 member universities the us department of energy and texas a&m university mitchell adds mcintyre whose 15-year friendship with mitchell dates back to their collaborative work on texas ssc project says the idea for the mitchell institute was conceived as a way to reflect mitchells admiration for hawking professor hawking is a remarkable case of personal triumph as well as colossal achievement in one of the most profound and difficult frontiers of modern science mcintyre says his story has long captured mr mitchells imagination fry adds that pairing the insights of hawking who has long been a driving force in the development of new ideas in theoretical physics with texas a&m faculty expertise in these same areas is one key element in positioning his department as an influential force in physics for the 21st century christopher pope a high-energy theorist at texas a&m since 1988 who earned his doctorate working with hawking says he looks forward to another chance to collaborate with his one-time mentor stephen has been a great inspiration to me and to many other physicists pope says it is very exciting for all of us at texas a&m that he has accepted our invitation to participate so prominently in the opening meeting of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute we are looking forward to a lively and productive time and to the developments that can follow from the meeting for more information on the inaugural mitchell institute or other activities of the texas a&m department of physics call (979) 845-7717 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 845-2869 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or edward s fry (979) 845-7717 via e-mail fry@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m to establish physics institute featuring stephen hawking appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " stephen hawking the cambridge university physicist and author renowned for his theories about black holes and other aspects of the universe is set to begin an affiliation with texas a&m university due to a major endowment funded by george p and cynthia w mitchell of the woodlands texas hawking is expected to visit texas a&m next spring to participate in the inaugural meeting of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute for fundamental physics which will bring several of the worlds top physicists to the campus for a month-long exploration of the latest ideas on topics ranging from superstrings to m-theory to supergravity the concept of the mitchell institute was approved at the recent texas a&m university system board of regents meeting held in college station organizers envision an annual endowed series with the debut institute set for feb 24-march 21 2003 our physics faculty in the area of strings and m-theory is already in the top 10 in the world for citations of their work explains edward fry professor and head of texas a&ms department of physics this institute will provide a major boost to their international recognition and promote the collaboration of some of the major scientists in the world the results can be expected to provide insights into the cosmology of the universe and the ultimate unification of the fields of nature mitchell a 1940 texas a&m graduate and his wife are underwriting the annual institute with a gift of $1 million to be combined with gifts from other donors to create a permanent endowment in support of the institute additionally they have given $200 000 toward first-year expenses the mitchells are providing a second $1 million gift matched by the university to establish the stephen hawking chair in fundamental physics at $2 million the hawking chair is among the best endowed at texas a&m also the mitchells have committed an additional $500 000 toward endowing a second chair in physics provided that additional sources contribute the remainder of the $1 million endowment mitchell former chairman and chief executive officer of mitchell energy & development corp is a distinguished graduate of texas a&ms department of petroleum engineering and a longtime benefactor of texas a&m generous in giving both funding and time to his alma mater he is credited with gifts ranging from 135 acres of land for texas a&ms galveston campus on pelican island to his service as chair of the target 2000 project committee in the early 1980s i believe these contributions for the creation of the chair in fundamental physics and the stephen hawking chair will add prestige to the department of physics and to texas a&m university mitchell says the mitchells gifts to physics will be counted in one spirit one vision a multi-year fund-raising campaign to help texas a&m attain national top 10 status among public universities one of the main goals of vision 2020 is to elevate the arts and sciences core says h joseph newton dean of the college of science as a result of mr and mrs mitchells generosity our physics department will have two new endowed chairs and the nations first institute featuring stephen hawking their gifts will go a long way toward turning the dreams of vision 2020 into reality not only for texas a&m physics but for the entire college of science perhaps best known for his vision in developing the woodlands mitchell also was instrumental in founding the houston advanced research center (harc) where he has worked with several texas a&m researchers including fry and current physics faculty peter mcintyre marlan scully and dimitri nanopoulos for some time now ive had an interest in fundamental physics which was expressed through the superconducting super collider program with the houston advanced research center the universities research association inc and its 77 member universities the us department of energy and texas a&m university mitchell adds mcintyre whose 15-year friendship with mitchell dates back to their collaborative work on texas ssc project says the idea for the mitchell institute was conceived as a way to reflect mitchells admiration for hawking professor hawking is a remarkable case of personal triumph as well as colossal achievement in one of the most profound and difficult frontiers of modern science mcintyre says his story has long captured mr mitchells imagination fry adds that pairing the insights of hawking who has long been a driving force in the development of new ideas in theoretical physics with texas a&m faculty expertise in these same areas is one key element in positioning his department as an influential force in physics for the 21st century christopher pope a high-energy theorist at texas a&m since 1988 who earned his doctorate working with hawking says he looks forward to another chance to collaborate with his one-time mentor stephen has been a great inspiration to me and to many other physicists pope says it is very exciting for all of us at texas a&m that he has accepted our invitation to participate so prominently in the opening meeting of the george p and cynthia w mitchell institute we are looking forward to a lively and productive time and to the developments that can follow from the meeting for more information on the inaugural mitchell institute or other activities of the texas a&m department of physics call (979) 845-7717 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 845-2869 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or edward s fry (979) 845-7717 via e-mail fry@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station a physics professors invention to decontaminate industrial wastewater could become a powerful new weapon against anthrax peter mcintyre and a group of colleagues at texas a&m university have developed a cost-effective device to produce high energy electron beams that can break down harmful organic molecules in water – and destroy bacteria such as anthrax in food – or even on mail william cooper at the university of north carolina showed that high-powered beams of electrons are highly effective in destroying organic contaminants in water mcintyre said the difference here is that weve upped the power produced and reduced the cost producing four times more energy at a unit cost per kilowatt five times less than any other such instrument over the past three years mcintyres team has developed the coupled multiplier accelerator (cma) a completely self-contained high-power electron accelerator that produces 100 kilowatts of beam power at one million volts supports multiple independent beams and has a total capital cost of less than $500 000 representing a new more affordable generation of e-beam technology basically mcintyres machine produces an electron beam like that found in crts the beam raster scans the contaminated water like cathode rays scan the inside of a tv tube ionizing the water to produce free radicals and inducing both oxidation and reduction reactions which digest organic contaminants the same process causes double breaks in bacterial dna bonds killing them mcintyre explained it could be used to kill anthrax spores which are five times more difficult to kill than bacteria like e-coli because the spores encase the anthrax in a hard protective shell mcintyre expects the first commercial cma to be in place at a houston-area petrochemical plant by december the technology has been licensed to a small texas company which will operate the system there where it will be used to treat a condensate stream containing methyl terbutyl ether (mtbe) a gasoline additive mtbe is harmful to humans and some of its secondary breakdown products like formaldehyde and acetone are even more toxic the cma is key to making lots of e-beam supporting multiple beams needed for effective treatment in most real-world applications and doing it with a simple reliable system that is economical for industrial applications mcintyre said the basis of the technology is in every automobile – the alternator mcintyres cma uses two 125 hp electronic motors to drive 16 alternators each alternator outputs a three-phase alternating current that is boosted by a transformer and rectified by a voltage multiplier circuit to produce high-voltage direct current the 16 modules are connected in series to produce up to two megavolts of beam energy with up to 200 kilowatts of power the entire accelerator – voltage source electron guns and accelerator col – is housed in a 14-foot-long 9-foot-diameter pressurized steel vessel mcintyres cma project team includes texas a&m professors akhdior sattarov (physics) bill batchelor (civil engineering) and bruce herbert (geophysics) and charles meitzler of sam houston state university as well as six graduate students four undergrads and four professional technicians you might say that man is the easiest organism to kill but anthrax is one of the hardest mcintyre observed we hope the cma can equalize the odds a bit contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu; peter mcintyre p-mcintyre@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post powerful electron beam generator could combat anthrax appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a physics professors invention to decontaminate industrial wastewater could become a powerful new weapon against anthrax peter mcintyre and a group of colleagues at texas a&m university have developed a cost-effective device to produce high energy electron beams that can break down harmful organic molecules in water – and destroy bacteria such as anthrax in food – or even on mail william cooper at the university of north carolina showed that high-powered beams of electrons are highly effective in destroying organic contaminants in water mcintyre said the difference here is that weve upped the power produced and reduced the cost producing four times more energy at a unit cost per kilowatt five times less than any other such instrument over the past three years mcintyres team has developed the coupled multiplier accelerator (cma) a completely self-contained high-power electron accelerator that produces 100 kilowatts of beam power at one million volts supports multiple independent beams and has a total capital cost of less than $500 000 representing a new more affordable generation of e-beam technology basically mcintyres machine produces an electron beam like that found in crts the beam raster scans the contaminated water like cathode rays scan the inside of a tv tube ionizing the water to produce free radicals and inducing both oxidation and reduction reactions which digest organic contaminants the same process causes double breaks in bacterial dna bonds killing them mcintyre explained it could be used to kill anthrax spores which are five times more difficult to kill than bacteria like e-coli because the spores encase the anthrax in a hard protective shell mcintyre expects the first commercial cma to be in place at a houston-area petrochemical plant by december the technology has been licensed to a small texas company which will operate the system there where it will be used to treat a condensate stream containing methyl terbutyl ether (mtbe) a gasoline additive mtbe is harmful to humans and some of its secondary breakdown products like formaldehyde and acetone are even more toxic the cma is key to making lots of e-beam supporting multiple beams needed for effective treatment in most real-world applications and doing it with a simple reliable system that is economical for industrial applications mcintyre said the basis of the technology is in every automobile – the alternator mcintyres cma uses two 125 hp electronic motors to drive 16 alternators each alternator outputs a three-phase alternating current that is boosted by a transformer and rectified by a voltage multiplier circuit to produce high-voltage direct current the 16 modules are connected in series to produce up to two megavolts of beam energy with up to 200 kilowatts of power the entire accelerator – voltage source electron guns and accelerator col – is housed in a 14-foot-long 9-foot-diameter pressurized steel vessel mcintyres cma project team includes texas a&m professors akhdior sattarov (physics) bill batchelor (civil engineering) and bruce herbert (geophysics) and charles meitzler of sam houston state university as well as six graduate students four undergrads and four professional technicians you might say that man is the easiest organism to kill but anthrax is one of the hardest mcintyre observed we hope the cma can equalize the odds a bit contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu; peter mcintyre p-mcintyre@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station affectionately called the quantum cowboy marlan scully rides herd on experiments at the frontiers of physics bringing to life knowledge to spur applications in optics computing and quantum mechanics talk to scully about his top gun physicist status and he responds with the kind of aw-shucks modesty typical of the western hero pressed to talk about himself all scully wants to do is praise his research team here in the college of science and electrical engineering department at texas a&m university weve assembled a world-class quantum optics group said scully distinguished professor of physics holder of the hershel e burgess chair in physics and a proud texas cattleman weve been able to recruit the most wonderful people from all over the world – the united states germany russia pakistan china – and in turn our doctoral students join the faculties of top universities like harvard and become lead industrial scientists at for example intel scully is so beloved by his texas a&m co-workers and colleagues at other institutions that for his 60th birthday two years ago they produced a 600-page book celebrating his most significant scientific achievements the work is titled ode to a quantum physicist: a festschrift in honor of marlan o scully edited by wolfgang p schleich of the abteilung fur quantenphysik at the universitate ulm ulm germany; herbert walther of the max-planck-institut fur quantenoptik at ludwig-maximilians-universitat munich germany; and willis lamb of the optical sciences center at the university of arizona here in college station were not only thinking about physics problems were doing cutting- edge quantum engineering research scully continues we look at problems that span the gamut of quantum physics and engineering ranging from the age-old question of the duality in matter and light (waves vs particles) and challenging the conventional interpretation of the uncertainty relation on the one hand to stopping light and designing the components for quantum computation on the other as an example of his latest research hot exhaust from internal combustion engines could power the lasers of the future if the texas physicist has anything to say about it in an article published in physical review letters scully explains the theory of how a quantum afterburner could induce laser action in such waste gases the process would involve the internal quantum states of the gases working molecules along with the techniques of cavity quantum electrodynamics scully said what goes in are normally useless waste gases and what comes out is coherent laser light which can be viewed as increased horsepower scullys paper deals with the operation of the so-called ideal heat engine using the otto engine a one-cylinder four-stroke heat engine developed in 1876 he performed mathematical simulations using this engine to demonstrate that quantum methods could theoretically increase horsepower which could then be used to drive a laser this thought experiment ala einstein involves an engine hooked to two combustion reservoirs as hot gas expands in one reservoir it lifts an attached weight and heat is extracted at a constant volume by a heat exchanger two cavities one for a laser and one for a maser (a laser which emits microwaves rather than light) are then added to the engines exhaust pipe and energy is extracted from the exhaust gas molecules themselves by cycling gas from left to right back to left through the laser-maser system the process is repeated and finally the lasers radiation focuses coherent – or useful – energy from the gas molecules improving the engines overall efficiency by recycling waste heat and turning it into laser light the maser drains entropy from the exhaust gases; this allows the laser to extract the remainder turning it into a useful work scully explained normally all the heat released in exhaust gases is just wasted we are presently building such a laser/internal combustion engine where all this will lead is anybodys guess; but its great fun! scullys teams most recent accomplishments cover the fields of quantum optics quantum computation teleportation and the slowing down of the speed of light and quantum thermodynamics in addition to his rank of distinguished professor of physics he also holds joint appointments as a professor in the department of electrical engineering and a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station he also serves as director of the center for theoretical physics and the institute for quantum studies and is a member of the faculty of germanys max planck institute scully has been elected to the national academy of sciences and to the academia europaea an international association of scientists and scholars based in london the academia europaea promotes appreciation of european scholarship and research makes recommendations to national governments and international agencies about science and scholarship in europe and encourages interdisciplinary and international research in all areas of learning scully joined the faculty at texas a&m in 1992 as professor of physics he earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics at the university of wyoming in 1962 and his masters and doctoral degrees in physics at yale university in 1963 and 1966 nobel prize winner bill phillips once said he would like to thank god for giving us such an interesting universe to study scully observed and i in turn would like to thank god for the ‘texas atomic and molecular university which keeps the four ‘fs in focus: family friends freedom and physics he quipped contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu; marlon o scully 979-862-2333 scully@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas quantum cowboy explores questions at the frontiers of physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " affectionately called the quantum cowboy marlan scully rides herd on experiments at the frontiers of physics bringing to life knowledge to spur applications in optics computing and quantum mechanics talk to scully about his top gun physicist status and he responds with the kind of aw-shucks modesty typical of the western hero pressed to talk about himself all scully wants to do is praise his research team here in the college of science and electrical engineering department at texas a&m university weve assembled a world-class quantum optics group said scully distinguished professor of physics holder of the hershel e burgess chair in physics and a proud texas cattleman weve been able to recruit the most wonderful people from all over the world – the united states germany russia pakistan china – and in turn our doctoral students join the faculties of top universities like harvard and become lead industrial scientists at for example intel scully is so beloved by his texas a&m co-workers and colleagues at other institutions that for his 60th birthday two years ago they produced a 600-page book celebrating his most significant scientific achievements the work is titled ode to a quantum physicist: a festschrift in honor of marlan o scully edited by wolfgang p schleich of the abteilung fur quantenphysik at the universitate ulm ulm germany; herbert walther of the max-planck-institut fur quantenoptik at ludwig-maximilians-universitat munich germany; and willis lamb of the optical sciences center at the university of arizona here in college station were not only thinking about physics problems were doing cutting- edge quantum engineering research scully continues we look at problems that span the gamut of quantum physics and engineering ranging from the age-old question of the duality in matter and light (waves vs particles) and challenging the conventional interpretation of the uncertainty relation on the one hand to stopping light and designing the components for quantum computation on the other as an example of his latest research hot exhaust from internal combustion engines could power the lasers of the future if the texas physicist has anything to say about it in an article published in physical review letters scully explains the theory of how a quantum afterburner could induce laser action in such waste gases the process would involve the internal quantum states of the gases working molecules along with the techniques of cavity quantum electrodynamics scully said what goes in are normally useless waste gases and what comes out is coherent laser light which can be viewed as increased horsepower scullys paper deals with the operation of the so-called ideal heat engine using the otto engine a one-cylinder four-stroke heat engine developed in 1876 he performed mathematical simulations using this engine to demonstrate that quantum methods could theoretically increase horsepower which could then be used to drive a laser this thought experiment ala einstein involves an engine hooked to two combustion reservoirs as hot gas expands in one reservoir it lifts an attached weight and heat is extracted at a constant volume by a heat exchanger two cavities one for a laser and one for a maser (a laser which emits microwaves rather than light) are then added to the engines exhaust pipe and energy is extracted from the exhaust gas molecules themselves by cycling gas from left to right back to left through the laser-maser system the process is repeated and finally the lasers radiation focuses coherent – or useful – energy from the gas molecules improving the engines overall efficiency by recycling waste heat and turning it into laser light the maser drains entropy from the exhaust gases; this allows the laser to extract the remainder turning it into a useful work scully explained normally all the heat released in exhaust gases is just wasted we are presently building such a laser/internal combustion engine where all this will lead is anybodys guess; but its great fun! scullys teams most recent accomplishments cover the fields of quantum optics quantum computation teleportation and the slowing down of the speed of light and quantum thermodynamics in addition to his rank of distinguished professor of physics he also holds joint appointments as a professor in the department of electrical engineering and a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station he also serves as director of the center for theoretical physics and the institute for quantum studies and is a member of the faculty of germanys max planck institute scully has been elected to the national academy of sciences and to the academia europaea an international association of scientists and scholars based in london the academia europaea promotes appreciation of european scholarship and research makes recommendations to national governments and international agencies about science and scholarship in europe and encourages interdisciplinary and international research in all areas of learning scully joined the faculty at texas a&m in 1992 as professor of physics he earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics at the university of wyoming in 1962 and his masters and doctoral degrees in physics at yale university in 1963 and 1966 nobel prize winner bill phillips once said he would like to thank god for giving us such an interesting universe to study scully observed and i in turn would like to thank god for the ‘texas atomic and molecular university which keeps the four ‘fs in focus: family friends freedom and physics he quipped contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu; marlon o scully 979-862-2333 scully@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station richard l garwin one of the worlds foremost experts on advanced weapons systems and a member of both the national academy of sciences and the national academy of engineering will deliver a lecture titled national missile defense: why how and whether at 4 pm thursday (april 11) at texas a&m university garwins talk to be held in room 100 of the chemistry building will address concerns regarding the deployment of the united states mid-course hit-to-kill intercept system for national missile defense as well as other threats and needs regarding ballistic missile security the lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception in the foyer of room 100 a native of cleveland garwin is the philip d reed senior fellow for science and technology at the council on foreign relations in new york in addition he is ibm fellow emeritus at the ibm research division and also adjunct professor of physics at columbia university he received his doctorate in physics from the university of chicago and has worked in particle physics with liquid and solid helium and superconductors and extensively in technology garwin has spent roughly half his life serving as a consultant to the us government on matters of military technology and security in fields ranging from the technology of nuclear weapons to arms control satellite reconnaissance and the global-positioning system (gps) his work for the government has included studies on anti-submarine warfare new technologies in health care sensor systems military and civil aircraft and satellite and strategic systems were honored to have a man who is both a world-class physicist and an outstanding public servant visit us said h joseph newton interim dean of the college of science a two-time member of the president of the united states science advisory committee garwin is a past member of the defense science board as well as the scientific advisory group to the joint strategic target planning staff he also served as a commissioner on the nine-person rumsfeld commission to assess the ballistic missile threat to the united states in 1998 from 1993 to 2001 garwin chaired the us state departments arms control and nonproliferation advisory board in 2000 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the national reconnaissance office (nro) he was recognized as one of the 10 founders of national reconnaissance in addition to publishing more than 500 papers and being granted 44 us patents garwin has testified to many congressional committees on matters involving national security transportation and energy policy and technology during the past 20 years he has been coauthor of many books including his latest in october 2001 megawatts and megatons: a turning point in the nuclear age with 1992 nobel laureate in physics georges charpak a fellow of both the american physical society and the american academy of arts and sciences garwin is a member of the institute of medicine the council on foreign relations and the american philosophical society his numerous recognitions include the 1983 wright prize for interdisciplinary scientific achievement; the 1988 aaas scientific freedom and responsibility award; the 1991 erice science for peace prize; the us governments 1996 rv jones foreign intelligence award and the 1996 enrico fermi award garwins lecture is sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics for more information contact college of science communications at (979) 862-1237 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or george kattawar (979) 845-1180 via e-mail kattawar@tamuedu the post missile defense expert to speak at texas a&m april 11 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " richard l garwin one of the worlds foremost experts on advanced weapons systems and a member of both the national academy of sciences and the national academy of engineering will deliver a lecture titled national missile defense: why how and whether at 4 pm thursday (april 11) at texas a&m university garwins talk to be held in room 100 of the chemistry building will address concerns regarding the deployment of the united states mid-course hit-to-kill intercept system for national missile defense as well as other threats and needs regarding ballistic missile security the lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception in the foyer of room 100 a native of cleveland garwin is the philip d reed senior fellow for science and technology at the council on foreign relations in new york in addition he is ibm fellow emeritus at the ibm research division and also adjunct professor of physics at columbia university he received his doctorate in physics from the university of chicago and has worked in particle physics with liquid and solid helium and superconductors and extensively in technology garwin has spent roughly half his life serving as a consultant to the us government on matters of military technology and security in fields ranging from the technology of nuclear weapons to arms control satellite reconnaissance and the global-positioning system (gps) his work for the government has included studies on anti-submarine warfare new technologies in health care sensor systems military and civil aircraft and satellite and strategic systems were honored to have a man who is both a world-class physicist and an outstanding public servant visit us said h joseph newton interim dean of the college of science a two-time member of the president of the united states science advisory committee garwin is a past member of the defense science board as well as the scientific advisory group to the joint strategic target planning staff he also served as a commissioner on the nine-person rumsfeld commission to assess the ballistic missile threat to the united states in 1998 from 1993 to 2001 garwin chaired the us state departments arms control and nonproliferation advisory board in 2000 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the national reconnaissance office (nro) he was recognized as one of the 10 founders of national reconnaissance in addition to publishing more than 500 papers and being granted 44 us patents garwin has testified to many congressional committees on matters involving national security transportation and energy policy and technology during the past 20 years he has been coauthor of many books including his latest in october 2001 megawatts and megatons: a turning point in the nuclear age with 1992 nobel laureate in physics georges charpak a fellow of both the american physical society and the american academy of arts and sciences garwin is a member of the institute of medicine the council on foreign relations and the american philosophical society his numerous recognitions include the 1983 wright prize for interdisciplinary scientific achievement; the 1988 aaas scientific freedom and responsibility award; the 1991 erice science for peace prize; the us governments 1996 rv jones foreign intelligence award and the 1996 enrico fermi award garwins lecture is sponsored by the texas a&m department of physics for more information contact college of science communications at (979) 862-1237 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or george kattawar (979) 845-1180 via e-mail kattawar@tamuedu " " college station the texas a&m universitys college of science will commemorate the debut of a unique prize monday (feb 25) and brazos valley science enthusiasts stand to be the big winners the college will host two nobel laureates francis crick of the salk institute and charles townes of the university of california-berkeley who are co-recipients of the first-ever trotter prize in complexity information and inference by virtue of receiving texas a&ms trotter prize they will deliver the inaugural trotter endowed lecture scheduled for 7 pm monday in rudder theatre the lecture which is free and open to the public is presented by the college of science in collaboration with the dwight e look college of engineering crick won the 1962 nobel prize in medicine and physiology for his discovery of the structure of dna while townes was awarded the 1964 nobel prize in physics for his invention of the laser we are indeed fortunate to have two of the most influential scientists of the 20th century give jointly the first trotter lecture said h joseph newton interim dean of the college of science via videotape crick will present the astonishing hypothesis in which he asserts that human consciousness – indeed the human soul – can be explained solely on the basis of molecular biology in a live address townes will deliver the convergence of science and religion which offers insight into modern science and its explorations of many aspects of the universe that are strongly related to religious views since joining the salk institute crick has conducted theoretical work focusing mainly on the visual system of mammals and neurobiology he hopes to bring together the molecular and cellular aspects of neurons the observations of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and the behavior of organisms as studied by psychologists crick is widely published in many areas including the neural basis of attention rem sleep and the visual system of awareness his current research is focused on discovering the neural correlate of consciousness townes recent work at uc-berkeley has focused on astrophysics he notes that while at times it has appeared science and religion seem to clash the two actually are closely related though they can appear very different townes claims there is much parallelism as both science and religion are based on human abilities to understand using postulates or faith intuition and inspiration experimentation or observations and logic or reason endowed in fall 2001 to honor the memory of dr ide p trotter sr former dean of the graduate school at texas a&m the trotter endowed lecture series recognizes seminal contributions in complexity information and inference it was established by trotters son dr ide p trotter jr and his wife luella h trotter to increase awareness of the rapid advances in the physical biological and information sciences and to promote dialogue within university communities and across disciplines regarding the overarching implications intended to enhance the prestige of the lecture series the trotter prize is awarded annually in recognition of pioneering contributions to the understanding of the role of information complexity and inference in illuminating the mechanisms and wonder of nature in addition to an invitation to deliver the trotter endowed lecture recipients receive a cash award plus travel expenses for more information regarding the trotter prize lecture contact the college of science communications office at (979) 862-1237 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or sidney outlaw (979) 845-9642 via e-mail sid@sciencetamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post trotter lecture series to feature 2 nobel prize winners feb 25 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the texas a&m universitys college of science will commemorate the debut of a unique prize monday (feb 25) and brazos valley science enthusiasts stand to be the big winners the college will host two nobel laureates francis crick of the salk institute and charles townes of the university of california-berkeley who are co-recipients of the first-ever trotter prize in complexity information and inference by virtue of receiving texas a&ms trotter prize they will deliver the inaugural trotter endowed lecture scheduled for 7 pm monday in rudder theatre the lecture which is free and open to the public is presented by the college of science in collaboration with the dwight e look college of engineering crick won the 1962 nobel prize in medicine and physiology for his discovery of the structure of dna while townes was awarded the 1964 nobel prize in physics for his invention of the laser we are indeed fortunate to have two of the most influential scientists of the 20th century give jointly the first trotter lecture said h joseph newton interim dean of the college of science via videotape crick will present the astonishing hypothesis in which he asserts that human consciousness – indeed the human soul – can be explained solely on the basis of molecular biology in a live address townes will deliver the convergence of science and religion which offers insight into modern science and its explorations of many aspects of the universe that are strongly related to religious views since joining the salk institute crick has conducted theoretical work focusing mainly on the visual system of mammals and neurobiology he hopes to bring together the molecular and cellular aspects of neurons the observations of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and the behavior of organisms as studied by psychologists crick is widely published in many areas including the neural basis of attention rem sleep and the visual system of awareness his current research is focused on discovering the neural correlate of consciousness townes recent work at uc-berkeley has focused on astrophysics he notes that while at times it has appeared science and religion seem to clash the two actually are closely related though they can appear very different townes claims there is much parallelism as both science and religion are based on human abilities to understand using postulates or faith intuition and inspiration experimentation or observations and logic or reason endowed in fall 2001 to honor the memory of dr ide p trotter sr former dean of the graduate school at texas a&m the trotter endowed lecture series recognizes seminal contributions in complexity information and inference it was established by trotters son dr ide p trotter jr and his wife luella h trotter to increase awareness of the rapid advances in the physical biological and information sciences and to promote dialogue within university communities and across disciplines regarding the overarching implications intended to enhance the prestige of the lecture series the trotter prize is awarded annually in recognition of pioneering contributions to the understanding of the role of information complexity and inference in illuminating the mechanisms and wonder of nature in addition to an invitation to deliver the trotter endowed lecture recipients receive a cash award plus travel expenses for more information regarding the trotter prize lecture contact the college of science communications office at (979) 862-1237 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or sidney outlaw (979) 845-9642 via e-mail sid@sciencetamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station prof edward s fry has been appointed head of texas a&m universitys department of physics announced h joseph newton interim dean of the college of science fry has been a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1969 i am pleased that dr fry has accepted the appointment newton said i feel that both dr fry and the department of physics can help provide outstanding scientific leadership for texas a&m university frys appointment effective jan 1 was the result of an extensive search process that lasted in excess of a year to succeed dr thomas w adair iii professor of physics who has served as head of the department since november 1994 and will return to full-time classroom duties dr frys appointment received strong support from the physics faculty and endorsement from provost ronald douglas newton said i look forward to working with dr fry and the physics faculty and staff to realize the enormous potential of the department fry earned his bachelors masters and doctoral degrees in physics from the university of michigan where he spent a year and a half as a visiting associate professor from 1977 to 1979 in addition to academia fry served his profession as director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands from 1994 to 1997 frys research interests lie in the areas of atomic physics and light scattering foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum optics laser excitation and ionization of atoms multichannel scattered light polarization analysis and ocean optics a fellow of both the american physical society and the optical society of america fry also is a member of the scientific research society sigma xi which recently honored him with its texas a&m distinguished scientist award for 2000 he was presented the 1995 eg&g medal of the society for optical and quantum electronics and received a distinguished faculty achievement award from the texas a&m association of former students in 1993 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-1910 via e-mail fry@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post edward fry named to head texas a&m physics department appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " prof edward s fry has been appointed head of texas a&m universitys department of physics announced h joseph newton interim dean of the college of science fry has been a member of the texas a&m faculty since 1969 i am pleased that dr fry has accepted the appointment newton said i feel that both dr fry and the department of physics can help provide outstanding scientific leadership for texas a&m university frys appointment effective jan 1 was the result of an extensive search process that lasted in excess of a year to succeed dr thomas w adair iii professor of physics who has served as head of the department since november 1994 and will return to full-time classroom duties dr frys appointment received strong support from the physics faculty and endorsement from provost ronald douglas newton said i look forward to working with dr fry and the physics faculty and staff to realize the enormous potential of the department fry earned his bachelors masters and doctoral degrees in physics from the university of michigan where he spent a year and a half as a visiting associate professor from 1977 to 1979 in addition to academia fry served his profession as director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands from 1994 to 1997 frys research interests lie in the areas of atomic physics and light scattering foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum optics laser excitation and ionization of atoms multichannel scattered light polarization analysis and ocean optics a fellow of both the american physical society and the optical society of america fry also is a member of the scientific research society sigma xi which recently honored him with its texas a&m distinguished scientist award for 2000 he was presented the 1995 eg&g medal of the society for optical and quantum electronics and received a distinguished faculty achievement award from the texas a&m association of former students in 1993 contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 via e-mail shutchins@tamuedu or dr edward s fry (979) 845-1910 via e-mail fry@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " the woodlands dimitri nanopoulos head of the houston advanced research centers astroparticle physics group holder of the rank of distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and chair of theoretical physics at the academy of athens has been ranked as the fourth most frequently cited high-energy physicist by spires stanford universitys public information retrieval system on the spires-hep (high energy physics) listing nanopouloss 24 031 citations come only after those of edward wittens 52 473 nobel laureate steven weinbergs 29 718 and john r elliss 28 221 citations a citation occurs when a researchers published paper lists your work as a reference at the end of the paper the spires high energy physics literature database is operated by the stanford linear accelerator center at stanford university the site address for the listing is http://wwwslacstanfordedu/spires/hep/analytics/authorranksortshtml last year nanopoulos was named an original member of the highly cited researchers – database that distinction awarded by isi ® (the institute for scientific information inc) recognized nanopoulos as one of the most highly cited influential researchers in his field having more than 23 230 citations at the time the list published on isis highly cited researchers web site in 2001 is composed of less than one half of one percent of all publishing researchers an international expert in physics nanopoulos is recognized for the development of grand unified theories mathematical models that combine the physical forces that underlie the structure of the universe in a set of equations and the use of those theories in studying the origins and evolution of the universe most recently he has arrived at some unique calculations that are challenging einsteins e=mc2 theory* nanopoulos and his collaborators are finding that the speed of light is frequency-dependent a change in the usual speed of light value of 186 282 miles per second is noticeable only for light coming from astronomical objects situated very far from earth which is why this frequency dependence has not been observed earlier he explains for this research nanopoulos and his collaborators won the 1999 first award of the gravity research foundation in 1997 nanopoulos became the youngest member elected to the academy of athens natural and applied sciences the most prestigious scientific organization in greece he has written more than 500 research articles which have been published in numerous scientific journals he is a graduate of the university of athens and received his doctorate from the university of sussex in england contact: barbara peyton houston advanced research center (281) 363-7908 bpeyton@harcedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post area scientist ranked fourth most highly cited researcher in high energy physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dimitri nanopoulos head of the houston advanced research centers astroparticle physics group holder of the rank of distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and chair of theoretical physics at the academy of athens has been ranked as the fourth most frequently cited high-energy physicist by spires stanford universitys public information retrieval system on the spires-hep (high energy physics) listing nanopouloss 24 031 citations come only after those of edward wittens 52 473 nobel laureate steven weinbergs 29 718 and john r elliss 28 221 citations a citation occurs when a researchers published paper lists your work as a reference at the end of the paper the spires high energy physics literature database is operated by the stanford linear accelerator center at stanford university the site address for the listing is http://wwwslacstanfordedu/spires/hep/analytics/authorranksortshtml last year nanopoulos was named an original member of the highly cited researchers – database that distinction awarded by isi ® (the institute for scientific information inc) recognized nanopoulos as one of the most highly cited influential researchers in his field having more than 23 230 citations at the time the list published on isis highly cited researchers web site in 2001 is composed of less than one half of one percent of all publishing researchers an international expert in physics nanopoulos is recognized for the development of grand unified theories mathematical models that combine the physical forces that underlie the structure of the universe in a set of equations and the use of those theories in studying the origins and evolution of the universe most recently he has arrived at some unique calculations that are challenging einsteins e=mc2 theory* nanopoulos and his collaborators are finding that the speed of light is frequency-dependent a change in the usual speed of light value of 186 282 miles per second is noticeable only for light coming from astronomical objects situated very far from earth which is why this frequency dependence has not been observed earlier he explains for this research nanopoulos and his collaborators won the 1999 first award of the gravity research foundation in 1997 nanopoulos became the youngest member elected to the academy of athens natural and applied sciences the most prestigious scientific organization in greece he has written more than 500 research articles which have been published in numerous scientific journals he is a graduate of the university of athens and received his doctorate from the university of sussex in england contact: barbara peyton houston advanced research center (281) 363-7908 bpeyton@harcedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station the sun not only radiates light all over the place but it also emits millions of tiny invisible particles called neutrinos a team of texas a&m university physicists has reported in the journal physical review c one of the most precise results about the number of solar neutrinos by using an original approach starting a new sub-discipline within nuclear astrophysics the main puzzle about solar neutrinos says carl a gagliardi a texas a&m professor of physics and a leader of the team is that their measured number has always been lower than expected though the main explanation is now that neutrinos have mass (which was not originally predicted) details about how they are produced in the sun still need to be investigated gagliardi and his collaborators have been investigating for about six years how neutrinos are produced in the sun current models predict that neutrinos are produced in the sun through various nuclear reactions so gagliardi and his collaborators studied in the laboratory the reaction for which most of the solar neutrinos are produced called proton capture reaction by measuring a related process called the proton transfer reaction in the laboratory the scientists used a device called the momentum achromat recoil spectrometer (mars) in which a beam of beryllium 7 nuclei coming from texas a&ms cyclotron are projected onto a target of nitrogen 14 nuclei after the collision a proton escapes from a nitrogen 14 nucleus and binds to a beryllium 7 nucleus to make a boron 8 nucleus in the sun when a proton and a beryllium 7 nucleus collide they can make a boron 8 nucleus which in turn decays into a beryllium 8 and a neutrino though the proton capture reaction is the predominant source of solar neutrinos it mostly occurs at the very high temperatures inside the sun while its probability is strongly reduced in man-made nuclear reactions as the probability of the capture reaction is quite small gagliardi says to observe it you need large numbers of radioactive nuclei and protons you collide them together you perform the reaction and then you count the few times that you make boron 8 to determine the probability of producing boron – and in turn the number of neutrinos produced in the sun – the physicists determine the probability of the reaction between the proton and beryllium 7 nucleus as a function of the distance between them this probability depends on the distribution of protons inside boron 8 which is high for small distances and becomes smaller at large distances the distribution has the shape of a hill gagliardi says with the hilltop at small distances and the hillside at larger distances previous experiments looked at the distribution at small distances focusing on the bulk of the hill instead i have been interested in the large distances using the proton transfer reaction to focus on the hillside and the bottom of the hill the probabilities at large distances are much more sensitive than those at small distances indeed small changes in the probability at the center of the distribution are barely noticed but the same small changes can dramatically affect the shape and size of the tail of the distribution gagliardi says because both approaches are not similarly sensitive to changes due to experimental uncertainties the new approach offers an independent insight on the number of expected solar neutrinos gagliardi and his collaborators determined the probability of the tails of the distributions – called asymptotic normalization coefficients – with a 105 percent uncertainty their results published in the may issue of the journal physical review c matches most previous results and exclude values published in 1966 by peter d parker professor of physics and astronomy at yale university and in 1969 by ralph w kavanagh professor emeritus of physics at california institute of technology in pasadena the consensus is now that less boron 8 is produced from the sun which in turn reduces the number of solar neutrinos by around 20 percent compared to previous calculations gagliardi says these new numbers should allow scientists to improve the current model describing how the sun produces neutrinos and ultimately determine neutrinos mass with a better precision a big ambiguity has been resolved gagliardi says this new result sets our calculations of stellar physics on a much firmer foundation which makes the interpretation of the results in terms of neutrino oscillations considerably more reliable than it was before by studying the proton transfer reaction of protons with beryllium nuclei gagliardi has developed an approach that is now being used to study other nuclear reactions occurring inside stars supernova explosions and various astrophysical environments involving radioactive nuclei our goal was to achieve around 10 percent uncertainty and we achieved 105 percent uncertainty gagliardi says but at the same time we have started a new sub-discipline within nuclear astrophysics which was not our goal it is particularly rewarding to see other people pick up what you have been doing and emulate it contact: carl gagliardi (979) 845-1411 or gagliardi@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post physicists count subatomic particles released by the sun appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the sun not only radiates light all over the place but it also emits millions of tiny invisible particles called neutrinos a team of texas a&m university physicists has reported in the journal physical review c one of the most precise results about the number of solar neutrinos by using an original approach starting a new sub-discipline within nuclear astrophysics the main puzzle about solar neutrinos says carl a gagliardi a texas a&m professor of physics and a leader of the team is that their measured number has always been lower than expected though the main explanation is now that neutrinos have mass (which was not originally predicted) details about how they are produced in the sun still need to be investigated gagliardi and his collaborators have been investigating for about six years how neutrinos are produced in the sun current models predict that neutrinos are produced in the sun through various nuclear reactions so gagliardi and his collaborators studied in the laboratory the reaction for which most of the solar neutrinos are produced called proton capture reaction by measuring a related process called the proton transfer reaction in the laboratory the scientists used a device called the momentum achromat recoil spectrometer (mars) in which a beam of beryllium 7 nuclei coming from texas a&ms cyclotron are projected onto a target of nitrogen 14 nuclei after the collision a proton escapes from a nitrogen 14 nucleus and binds to a beryllium 7 nucleus to make a boron 8 nucleus in the sun when a proton and a beryllium 7 nucleus collide they can make a boron 8 nucleus which in turn decays into a beryllium 8 and a neutrino though the proton capture reaction is the predominant source of solar neutrinos it mostly occurs at the very high temperatures inside the sun while its probability is strongly reduced in man-made nuclear reactions as the probability of the capture reaction is quite small gagliardi says to observe it you need large numbers of radioactive nuclei and protons you collide them together you perform the reaction and then you count the few times that you make boron 8 to determine the probability of producing boron – and in turn the number of neutrinos produced in the sun – the physicists determine the probability of the reaction between the proton and beryllium 7 nucleus as a function of the distance between them this probability depends on the distribution of protons inside boron 8 which is high for small distances and becomes smaller at large distances the distribution has the shape of a hill gagliardi says with the hilltop at small distances and the hillside at larger distances previous experiments looked at the distribution at small distances focusing on the bulk of the hill instead i have been interested in the large distances using the proton transfer reaction to focus on the hillside and the bottom of the hill the probabilities at large distances are much more sensitive than those at small distances indeed small changes in the probability at the center of the distribution are barely noticed but the same small changes can dramatically affect the shape and size of the tail of the distribution gagliardi says because both approaches are not similarly sensitive to changes due to experimental uncertainties the new approach offers an independent insight on the number of expected solar neutrinos gagliardi and his collaborators determined the probability of the tails of the distributions – called asymptotic normalization coefficients – with a 105 percent uncertainty their results published in the may issue of the journal physical review c matches most previous results and exclude values published in 1966 by peter d parker professor of physics and astronomy at yale university and in 1969 by ralph w kavanagh professor emeritus of physics at california institute of technology in pasadena the consensus is now that less boron 8 is produced from the sun which in turn reduces the number of solar neutrinos by around 20 percent compared to previous calculations gagliardi says these new numbers should allow scientists to improve the current model describing how the sun produces neutrinos and ultimately determine neutrinos mass with a better precision a big ambiguity has been resolved gagliardi says this new result sets our calculations of stellar physics on a much firmer foundation which makes the interpretation of the results in terms of neutrino oscillations considerably more reliable than it was before by studying the proton transfer reaction of protons with beryllium nuclei gagliardi has developed an approach that is now being used to study other nuclear reactions occurring inside stars supernova explosions and various astrophysical environments involving radioactive nuclei our goal was to achieve around 10 percent uncertainty and we achieved 105 percent uncertainty gagliardi says but at the same time we have started a new sub-discipline within nuclear astrophysics which was not our goal it is particularly rewarding to see other people pick up what you have been doing and emulate it contact: carl gagliardi (979) 845-1411 or gagliardi@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " texas a&m universitys astronomy program enjoyed a brief moment in the sun earlier this week when a photograph created by mark lemmon a visiting assistant professor of physics was featured as nasa astronomy picture of the day for sept 18 lemmons picture surrounded by mars represents a large panoramic view of the mars pathfinder spacecraft and the martian surface behind it it can be seen at http://antwrpgsfcnasagov/apod/ap010918html the astronomy picture of the day is a service of the laboratory for high energy astrophysics at nasa and the goddard space flight center lemmon is actively involved in planetary astronomy and exploration his past and present projects include hubble space telescope observations of mars saturns moon titan uranus and neptune; planetary missions such as mars pathfinder and the galileo probe; and ground-based observations of titan aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m astronomer produces nasa astronomy picture of the day appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m universitys astronomy program enjoyed a brief moment in the sun earlier this week when a photograph created by mark lemmon a visiting assistant professor of physics was featured as nasa astronomy picture of the day for sept 18 lemmons picture surrounded by mars represents a large panoramic view of the mars pathfinder spacecraft and the martian surface behind it it can be seen at http://antwrpgsfcnasagov/apod/ap010918html the astronomy picture of the day is a service of the laboratory for high energy astrophysics at nasa and the goddard space flight center lemmon is actively involved in planetary astronomy and exploration his past and present projects include hubble space telescope observations of mars saturns moon titan uranus and neptune; planetary missions such as mars pathfinder and the galileo probe; and ground-based observations of titan aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station physicists at texas a&m university have joined the battle to fight cancer by studying collisions between particles professor john f reading and three graduate students are trying to understand how to make the best use of radiation to kill tumor cells in current radiation treatments only a portion of tumor cells die while others are free to multiply and spread by looking at the inner mechanisms of how radiation attacks tumor cells the texas a&m physicists think it might be possible to make radiation more effective radiation is thought to kill tumor cells by damaging their dna in the form of a double helix with two strands dna is the part of the cell that carries the genetic code radiation may break either one or both of the dna strands if only one strand is broken the cell can often repair the damage if both strands are broken the repair is more difficult and the cell is more likely to die reading and graduate students jun fu mathew fitzpatrick and bill smith have been working for seven years on the mechanisms that occur when a particular type of radiation made of a beam of ions hits the living target cells once you understand the processes says reading you can act in a more informed manner devise a more effective radiation and therefore hopefully reduce the peripheral damage to healthy cells caused by radiation working in collaboration with a group of physicists led by annie chetioui professor of physics at the university of pierre and marie curie of paris in france the texas a&m physicists are developing computer programs to describe in detail the effects of beams of ions on tumors a focus of chetiouis work is to explain the existence of an optimal ion speed associated with the highest killing rates as you slow the speed of the incoming ions they have much more time to interact with the atoms on the dna strand so the killing rate increases says reading but past a critical point even though the energy deposited still increases the killing stops chetioui theorizes that a special atomic reaction called an auger process is the key to understanding this as a projectile hits one dna strand it may cause an explosion of energetic electrons that scythe through the second dna strand at an adjacent site causing the double break further experiments conducted in france have led to some support for this mechanism but many free electrons with a wide range of speeds are always produced by the impact not just the auger electrons all of these electrons eventually deposit their energy in the target and may also damage the cell to show that fast auger electrons are responsible for cell death scientists need to accurately determine the distribution of electron speeds the texas a&m group is now trying to provide these details graduate students smith and fitzpatrick have written phd theses that predict the onset of the auger process fus masters thesis builds on this work to determine the electron speeds if the projectile is a fast proton and the target atom is hydrogen the speeds can be measured these experimental results are in good agreement with fus work he will now go on to study dna carbon and oxygen atoms we successfully calculated the simplest case: the proton-hydrogen reaction with one ejected electron fu says we are now extending the calculation to many-electron cases and we would need to consider reactions between a proton and carbon and oxygen atoms as well although work is still ongoing the texas a&m physicists are well on their way to developing a tool that can help sort out precisely what happens when living cells are impacted by ion beams if chetioui is right then by choosing the right beam energy you could greatly enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy says reading you could deliver much smaller doses directly to the cancer cutting down on peripheral damage to healthy cells contact: john f reading (979) 845-5073 or reading@physicstamuedu jun fu (979) 845-7018 or jfu@rainbowphysicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post physicists have joined battle to fight cancer by studying collisions between particles appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " physicists at texas a&m university have joined the battle to fight cancer by studying collisions between particles professor john f reading and three graduate students are trying to understand how to make the best use of radiation to kill tumor cells in current radiation treatments only a portion of tumor cells die while others are free to multiply and spread by looking at the inner mechanisms of how radiation attacks tumor cells the texas a&m physicists think it might be possible to make radiation more effective radiation is thought to kill tumor cells by damaging their dna in the form of a double helix with two strands dna is the part of the cell that carries the genetic code radiation may break either one or both of the dna strands if only one strand is broken the cell can often repair the damage if both strands are broken the repair is more difficult and the cell is more likely to die reading and graduate students jun fu mathew fitzpatrick and bill smith have been working for seven years on the mechanisms that occur when a particular type of radiation made of a beam of ions hits the living target cells once you understand the processes says reading you can act in a more informed manner devise a more effective radiation and therefore hopefully reduce the peripheral damage to healthy cells caused by radiation working in collaboration with a group of physicists led by annie chetioui professor of physics at the university of pierre and marie curie of paris in france the texas a&m physicists are developing computer programs to describe in detail the effects of beams of ions on tumors a focus of chetiouis work is to explain the existence of an optimal ion speed associated with the highest killing rates as you slow the speed of the incoming ions they have much more time to interact with the atoms on the dna strand so the killing rate increases says reading but past a critical point even though the energy deposited still increases the killing stops chetioui theorizes that a special atomic reaction called an auger process is the key to understanding this as a projectile hits one dna strand it may cause an explosion of energetic electrons that scythe through the second dna strand at an adjacent site causing the double break further experiments conducted in france have led to some support for this mechanism but many free electrons with a wide range of speeds are always produced by the impact not just the auger electrons all of these electrons eventually deposit their energy in the target and may also damage the cell to show that fast auger electrons are responsible for cell death scientists need to accurately determine the distribution of electron speeds the texas a&m group is now trying to provide these details graduate students smith and fitzpatrick have written phd theses that predict the onset of the auger process fus masters thesis builds on this work to determine the electron speeds if the projectile is a fast proton and the target atom is hydrogen the speeds can be measured these experimental results are in good agreement with fus work he will now go on to study dna carbon and oxygen atoms we successfully calculated the simplest case: the proton-hydrogen reaction with one ejected electron fu says we are now extending the calculation to many-electron cases and we would need to consider reactions between a proton and carbon and oxygen atoms as well although work is still ongoing the texas a&m physicists are well on their way to developing a tool that can help sort out precisely what happens when living cells are impacted by ion beams if chetioui is right then by choosing the right beam energy you could greatly enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy says reading you could deliver much smaller doses directly to the cancer cutting down on peripheral damage to healthy cells contact: john f reading (979) 845-5073 or reading@physicstamuedu jun fu (979) 845-7018 or jfu@rainbowphysicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university was honored tuesday with a reception celebrating his recent election to the national academy of sciences and was praised by a host of top university officials including president ray bowen and executive vice president and provost ronald g douglas the quantum cowboy as his friends and colleagues affectionately refer to him holds the hershel e burgess chair in physics and is a professor in the department of electrical engineering scully also holds a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station and serves as director of the center for theoretical physics as well as the newly formed institute for quantum studies both within the college of science the reception was held at the clayton w williams jr alumni center and was co-sponsored by the college of science and the dwight look college of engineering texas a&m faculty and administration officials were present to recognize scullys career accomplishments this is a great day for science at texas a&m said john p fackler jr distinguished professor of chemistry it is truly a delight to know that one of our faculty members has the honor of being part of the academy scullys recent accomplishments are in the fields of quantum optics quantum computation teleportation and the slowing down of the speed of light [scully] and his team have made many ‘firsts and had an incredible impact in physics and other sciences said richard e ewing vice president for research douglas said the university will need outstanding faculty members who are good at what they do and are able to communicate what they have learned and discovered to people if the university wants to achieve vision 2020 texas a&ms long-range program to be recognized on a consensus basis as one of the 10 best public universities in the nation by 2020 he praised scully as the embodiment of such outstanding faculty members many of the officials present at the reception recognized scullys enthusiasm in communicating his research activities not only can he make discoveries and insights said douglas but he is also able to communicate his enthusiasm in an infectious way and make clear the importance of his work scullys enthusiasm and communication abilities were recently illustrated when he discussed the future activities of the recently approved institute of quantum studies before the texas a&m university system board of regents he managed to present the activities in a very effective way said bowen within a few minutes all the regents were very impressed and were committed to make the institute the success that [scully] anticipated f albert cotton distinguished professor of chemistry a long-time friend said he has been enjoying scullys optimism and enthusiasm he has been like a fresh breeze flowing through this place cotton said he is such a creative and upbeat sort of person scully is also known by his colleagues to be a team leader while being unselfish he is a self-sacrificial person said roland haden vice chancellor for engineering he is the first to acknowledge his team he wants the young faculty members and other faculty members to get attention scully said he is proud the texas a&m college of engineering has been recently ranked 11th nationwide texas a&m is first last and always an engineering school right he said with a tongue in cheek scully thanked many of his colleagues for providing an excellent research environment referring to a friend of his who said: i would like to thank god for giving us such an interesting universe to study scully said: i would like to thank god for ‘texas atomic and molecular university which keeps the four ‘f in focus: family friends freedom and physics contact: patrice pages (979) 845-4618 or patrice-pages@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post marlan o scully honored with reception celebrating his election to the national academy of sciences appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university was honored tuesday with a reception celebrating his recent election to the national academy of sciences and was praised by a host of top university officials including president ray bowen and executive vice president and provost ronald g douglas the quantum cowboy as his friends and colleagues affectionately refer to him holds the hershel e burgess chair in physics and is a professor in the department of electrical engineering scully also holds a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station and serves as director of the center for theoretical physics as well as the newly formed institute for quantum studies both within the college of science the reception was held at the clayton w williams jr alumni center and was co-sponsored by the college of science and the dwight look college of engineering texas a&m faculty and administration officials were present to recognize scullys career accomplishments this is a great day for science at texas a&m said john p fackler jr distinguished professor of chemistry it is truly a delight to know that one of our faculty members has the honor of being part of the academy scullys recent accomplishments are in the fields of quantum optics quantum computation teleportation and the slowing down of the speed of light [scully] and his team have made many ‘firsts and had an incredible impact in physics and other sciences said richard e ewing vice president for research douglas said the university will need outstanding faculty members who are good at what they do and are able to communicate what they have learned and discovered to people if the university wants to achieve vision 2020 texas a&ms long-range program to be recognized on a consensus basis as one of the 10 best public universities in the nation by 2020 he praised scully as the embodiment of such outstanding faculty members many of the officials present at the reception recognized scullys enthusiasm in communicating his research activities not only can he make discoveries and insights said douglas but he is also able to communicate his enthusiasm in an infectious way and make clear the importance of his work scullys enthusiasm and communication abilities were recently illustrated when he discussed the future activities of the recently approved institute of quantum studies before the texas a&m university system board of regents he managed to present the activities in a very effective way said bowen within a few minutes all the regents were very impressed and were committed to make the institute the success that [scully] anticipated f albert cotton distinguished professor of chemistry a long-time friend said he has been enjoying scullys optimism and enthusiasm he has been like a fresh breeze flowing through this place cotton said he is such a creative and upbeat sort of person scully is also known by his colleagues to be a team leader while being unselfish he is a self-sacrificial person said roland haden vice chancellor for engineering he is the first to acknowledge his team he wants the young faculty members and other faculty members to get attention scully said he is proud the texas a&m college of engineering has been recently ranked 11th nationwide texas a&m is first last and always an engineering school right he said with a tongue in cheek scully thanked many of his colleagues for providing an excellent research environment referring to a friend of his who said: i would like to thank god for giving us such an interesting universe to study scully said: i would like to thank god for ‘texas atomic and molecular university which keeps the four ‘f in focus: family friends freedom and physics contact: patrice pages (979) 845-4618 or patrice-pages@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station texas a&m university is hosting a two-week training program in quantum optics for community college physics teachers the program entitled two-year college quantum optics advanced technological education program is conducted by texas a&m lee college of baytown and the national science foundation it is managed by marlan o scully who holds the title of distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m robert b clark professor of physics at brigham young university in provo utah and tom okuma professor of physics at lee college participants receive tutorials on recent discoveries in quantum optics hands-on laboratory experience with tools of emerging technologies and pedagogical training in active learning techniques twenty-one teachers from all over the united states are participating to the program to complete the program the teachers must attend two training sessions the current one that runs through this week and may 14-25 2001 and four follow-up workshops in fall 2000 and 2001 and spring 2001 and 2002 they are also required to develop one at-home project to implement the instruction received at the training sessions and the workshops at the end of the program the participants will receive 12 semester hours of graduate-level credit from texas a&m the participants receive support from nsf in the form of an annual stipend of $750 a subsistence support for room and board as well as textbooks and instructional materials required for the program contact: patrice pages (979) 845-4618 or patrice-pages@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m university is host of the two-year college quantum optics advanced technological education program appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university is hosting a two-week training program in quantum optics for community college physics teachers the program entitled two-year college quantum optics advanced technological education program is conducted by texas a&m lee college of baytown and the national science foundation it is managed by marlan o scully who holds the title of distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m robert b clark professor of physics at brigham young university in provo utah and tom okuma professor of physics at lee college participants receive tutorials on recent discoveries in quantum optics hands-on laboratory experience with tools of emerging technologies and pedagogical training in active learning techniques twenty-one teachers from all over the united states are participating to the program to complete the program the teachers must attend two training sessions the current one that runs through this week and may 14-25 2001 and four follow-up workshops in fall 2000 and 2001 and spring 2001 and 2002 they are also required to develop one at-home project to implement the instruction received at the training sessions and the workshops at the end of the program the participants will receive 12 semester hours of graduate-level credit from texas a&m the participants receive support from nsf in the form of an annual stipend of $750 a subsistence support for room and board as well as textbooks and instructional materials required for the program contact: patrice pages (979) 845-4618 or patrice-pages@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university was elected to the national academy of sciences during the organizations annual meeting in washington dc scully was one of 72 new members and 15 foreign associates from 10 countries chosen at the academys meeting this week in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research election to membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a us scientist or engineer although it is always gratifying to have a faculty member and colleague receive such a great honor i am especially pleased to learn that marlan scully was elected to the national academy of sciences he is truly a leader in the area of quantum optics and i fully expect that his innovations will be critical to the next generation of supercomputers said dr ronald g douglas executive vice president and provost at texas a&m i find texas a&m a totally wonderful place to do research and i wish to thank my colleagues in the lab and the administration for providing the excellent environment which enables us to be better than our best scully said scully is also director of the center for theoretical physics is holder of the hershel e burgess chair in physics and holds a dual appointment as a professor in the department of electrical engineering at texas a&m he also holds a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station in addition he is director of the newly formed institute for quantum studies at texas a&m he has received a number of professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and the charles h townes award from the optical society of america the franklin institute cresson medal and the alexander von humboldt senior faculty award he has been an alfred p sloan fellow a guggenheim fellow and is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science the american optical society and the american physical society scully holds master of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university and is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics he joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post scully elected to national academy of sciences appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " dr marlan o scully distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university was elected to the national academy of sciences during the organizations annual meeting in washington dc scully was one of 72 new members and 15 foreign associates from 10 countries chosen at the academys meeting this week in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research election to membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a us scientist or engineer although it is always gratifying to have a faculty member and colleague receive such a great honor i am especially pleased to learn that marlan scully was elected to the national academy of sciences he is truly a leader in the area of quantum optics and i fully expect that his innovations will be critical to the next generation of supercomputers said dr ronald g douglas executive vice president and provost at texas a&m i find texas a&m a totally wonderful place to do research and i wish to thank my colleagues in the lab and the administration for providing the excellent environment which enables us to be better than our best scully said scully is also director of the center for theoretical physics is holder of the hershel e burgess chair in physics and holds a dual appointment as a professor in the department of electrical engineering at texas a&m he also holds a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station in addition he is director of the newly formed institute for quantum studies at texas a&m he has received a number of professional honors including the adolph e lomb medal and the charles h townes award from the optical society of america the franklin institute cresson medal and the alexander von humboldt senior faculty award he has been an alfred p sloan fellow a guggenheim fellow and is a fellow of the american association for the advancement of science the american optical society and the american physical society scully holds master of science and phd degrees in physics from yale university and is a distinguished alumnus of the university of wyoming where he received his bachelors degree in engineering physics he joined the texas a&m faculty in 1992 aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station in 1905 einstein made major changes to laws of physics when he established his theory of relativity now einsteins laws might also undergo significant changes dimitri nanopoulos who holds the rank of distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and heads the houston advanced research centers group for astroparticle physics established along with other physicists that the speed of light instead of being the constant value of 186 282 miles per second might change in 1905 einstein established that light was the only object to have a constant speed in all reference frames this idea was the cornerstone to his theory of relativity and later to laws of physics if the speed of light proves not to be constant any more even by a very small changeable amount laws of physics – the theory of relativity included – will have to undergo significant changes says nanopoulos nanopoulos who chairs the theoretical physics division of the academy of athens is among the many physicists who are trying to establish the basis of quantum gravity a theory that has been dreamed of by physicists since the 1920s while they were doing mathematical calculations nanopoulos and physicists nikolaos mavromatos of kings college in london and john ellis of the european center for particle physics (cern) in geneva discovered a new expression for the speed of light which depends on its frequency through our calculations we found that the speed of light is frequency-dependent says nanopoulos but a change in the usual speed of light value of 186 282 miles per second is noticeable only for light coming from astronomical objects situated very far from earth which is why this frequency dependence has not been noticed so far physicists are setting up the theory of quantum gravity to put together two major discoveries of physics in the 20th century: the theory of relativity and quantum physics the theory of relativity explains both how space and time are related to each other and how gravitation works quantum physics describes the workings of the microscopic world where laws of probability replace the deterministic view used to describe our everyday world until now physicists have been considering many scenarios for quantum gravity but these scenarios have never been experimentally confirmed the hypotheses put forward by nanopoulos and his collaborators has been under experimental scrutiny and the results obtained during the last few months are encouraging one way to experimentally test our hypothesis is to consider galaxies or other objects in the sky that are very far from us says nanopoulos then we collect the photons (particles of light) simultaneously emitted by these sources and we look at differences of arrival times in a detector on earth between photons of different frequencies the photons of higher frequencies should come later the frequency-dependent expression of the speed of light depends on the gravitational constant a quantity that is known since newton established his law of gravitation by using the differences in photon arrival times of six astronomical sources nanopoulos and his collaborators estimated an upper bound of the value of the gravitational constant from the data and compared their results with the expected value we were amazed to see that if we use all these astronomical data we find very reasonable values for the gravitational constant says nanopoulos that was our first surprise: the fact that put together a bunch of data that had nothing to do with the gravitational constant gave us values so close to what we would expect to find a second experimental encouraging result about the frequency-dependence of the speed of light was provided by the hegra (high energy gamma ray astronomy) experiment which is detecting photons from outer space and is situated in la palma canary islands the frequency-dependent expression of the speed of light was used to solve a problem faced by three physicists: tadashi kifune from the university of tokyo in japan ray protheroe from the university of adelaide in australia and hinrich meyer from the university of wuppertal in germany the problem occurred when hegra physicists detected very energetic photons emitted by the galaxy markarian 501 the most energetic of these photons were expected to interact with other very low-energy photons from the infrared background radiation which is a radiation present since the early universe says nanopoulos when a very energetic photon interacts with a low-energy photon they have just the right quantity of energy to create an electron-antielectron pair but physicists at hegra did not see any of the expected electron-antielectron pairs but did observe very energetic photons instead by using the frequency-dependent expression of the speed of light kifune protheroe and meyer found that the combined energy of each type of photon was not enough to create an electron-antielectron pair adds nanopoulos that is why no electron-antielectron pair has been observed if by looking at more energetic photons hegra never detects the expected electron-antielectron pairs this would provide further support of the new hypothesis put forward by nanopoulos and his collaborators this frequency-dependence of the speed of light changes drastically our view of the theory of relativity nanopoulos says it is also the first time that we have a window of opportunity to study quantum gravity and thus scientifically study the origin of the universe it is a fantastic thing that we can experimentally magnify such a tiny effect nanopoulos says that if the frequency-dependence of the speed of light is further confirmed by other experiments the theory of relativity would still be valid under certain circumstances there is nothing wrong with einsteins theory of relativity if the energy of an object is much smaller than 1019 proton masses or if the distance between two objects is smaller than millions of light-years einsteins equations are still valid he says contact: dimitri nanopoulos (281)-363-7955 or dimitri@sodaphysicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m physicist makes new advance for theory of quantum gravity appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " in 1905 einstein made major changes to laws of physics when he established his theory of relativity now einsteins laws might also undergo significant changes dimitri nanopoulos who holds the rank of distinguished professor of physics at texas a&m university and heads the houston advanced research centers group for astroparticle physics established along with other physicists that the speed of light instead of being the constant value of 186 282 miles per second might change in 1905 einstein established that light was the only object to have a constant speed in all reference frames this idea was the cornerstone to his theory of relativity and later to laws of physics if the speed of light proves not to be constant any more even by a very small changeable amount laws of physics – the theory of relativity included – will have to undergo significant changes says nanopoulos nanopoulos who chairs the theoretical physics division of the academy of athens is among the many physicists who are trying to establish the basis of quantum gravity a theory that has been dreamed of by physicists since the 1920s while they were doing mathematical calculations nanopoulos and physicists nikolaos mavromatos of kings college in london and john ellis of the european center for particle physics (cern) in geneva discovered a new expression for the speed of light which depends on its frequency through our calculations we found that the speed of light is frequency-dependent says nanopoulos but a change in the usual speed of light value of 186 282 miles per second is noticeable only for light coming from astronomical objects situated very far from earth which is why this frequency dependence has not been noticed so far physicists are setting up the theory of quantum gravity to put together two major discoveries of physics in the 20th century: the theory of relativity and quantum physics the theory of relativity explains both how space and time are related to each other and how gravitation works quantum physics describes the workings of the microscopic world where laws of probability replace the deterministic view used to describe our everyday world until now physicists have been considering many scenarios for quantum gravity but these scenarios have never been experimentally confirmed the hypotheses put forward by nanopoulos and his collaborators has been under experimental scrutiny and the results obtained during the last few months are encouraging one way to experimentally test our hypothesis is to consider galaxies or other objects in the sky that are very far from us says nanopoulos then we collect the photons (particles of light) simultaneously emitted by these sources and we look at differences of arrival times in a detector on earth between photons of different frequencies the photons of higher frequencies should come later the frequency-dependent expression of the speed of light depends on the gravitational constant a quantity that is known since newton established his law of gravitation by using the differences in photon arrival times of six astronomical sources nanopoulos and his collaborators estimated an upper bound of the value of the gravitational constant from the data and compared their results with the expected value we were amazed to see that if we use all these astronomical data we find very reasonable values for the gravitational constant says nanopoulos that was our first surprise: the fact that put together a bunch of data that had nothing to do with the gravitational constant gave us values so close to what we would expect to find a second experimental encouraging result about the frequency-dependence of the speed of light was provided by the hegra (high energy gamma ray astronomy) experiment which is detecting photons from outer space and is situated in la palma canary islands the frequency-dependent expression of the speed of light was used to solve a problem faced by three physicists: tadashi kifune from the university of tokyo in japan ray protheroe from the university of adelaide in australia and hinrich meyer from the university of wuppertal in germany the problem occurred when hegra physicists detected very energetic photons emitted by the galaxy markarian 501 the most energetic of these photons were expected to interact with other very low-energy photons from the infrared background radiation which is a radiation present since the early universe says nanopoulos when a very energetic photon interacts with a low-energy photon they have just the right quantity of energy to create an electron-antielectron pair but physicists at hegra did not see any of the expected electron-antielectron pairs but did observe very energetic photons instead by using the frequency-dependent expression of the speed of light kifune protheroe and meyer found that the combined energy of each type of photon was not enough to create an electron-antielectron pair adds nanopoulos that is why no electron-antielectron pair has been observed if by looking at more energetic photons hegra never detects the expected electron-antielectron pairs this would provide further support of the new hypothesis put forward by nanopoulos and his collaborators this frequency-dependence of the speed of light changes drastically our view of the theory of relativity nanopoulos says it is also the first time that we have a window of opportunity to study quantum gravity and thus scientifically study the origin of the universe it is a fantastic thing that we can experimentally magnify such a tiny effect nanopoulos says that if the frequency-dependence of the speed of light is further confirmed by other experiments the theory of relativity would still be valid under certain circumstances there is nothing wrong with einsteins theory of relativity if the energy of an object is much smaller than 1019 proton masses or if the distance between two objects is smaller than millions of light-years einsteins equations are still valid he says contact: dimitri nanopoulos (281)-363-7955 or dimitri@sodaphysicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station texas a&m university physicists have devised a way to stop light an accomplishment that could help develop super-fast computers called quantum computers slowing down light revolutionizes modern nonlinear optics says olga kocharovskaya associate professor of physics at texas a&m utilizing the nonlinear properties of light in a medium is usually not easy because it requires the use of lasers of very high intensity and such lasers in many cases are not available or destroy the medium now by slowing down light we have another way to realize these nonlinear properties without using very intense beams texas a&m physicists olga kocharovskaya yuri rostovtsev and marlan scully describe the method to stop light in an article published in the current issue of the journal physical review letters the slowing down of light is related to the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency (eit) introduced by kocharovskaya in 1986 and experimentally observed the first time in 1991 by steve harris physicist at stanford university the eit phenomenon allows an optically thick opaque medium to be transparent to the light wave of a probe laser by means of another driving laser since 1991 many experiments have been set up to slow down light but none has ever stopped light completely the recently published work of kocharovskaya rostovtsev and scully shows how light can be stopped light is slowed down by sending it in a glass cell filled with gas the interactions between the photons of light and the gas atoms create a coupled photon-atom system called polariton the more photons and atoms interact the more the polariton slows down light is a component of the photon-atom system and thus slows down as well in previous attempts to stop light without using eit the laser beam was mainly absorbed by the gas atoms and could not hold up in the cell instead of one laser we use two lasers a probe laser and a driving laser so that both probe and driving light waves go through together without absorption keeping the same intensity as they entered says rostovtsev in a sense the cell gas is transparent to the lasers hence the name electromagnetically induced transparency (eit) to describe this phenomenon when two laser beams are sent to the cell light from one of the lasers interacts with the atoms which absorb and reemit light continually because the second laser prevents them from absorbing light without reemitting it back to the same probe light wave (as would be the case if only one laser is sent to the cell) the many interactions between light and atoms ultimately slow down the speed of light propagation through the medium interesting experimental results have been published recently on the use of slow light for information storage by two teams of physicists one led by mikhail lukin (texas a&m former graduate student) and ronald walsworth both of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics in cambridge mass and the other by lene vestergaard hau of the rowland institute for science and harvard university both in cambridge mass they explore eit properties of stationary atoms now kocharovskaya and her colleagues show that light can be completely stopped they use the eit phenomenon to selectively use atoms in a hot gas cell which are moving towards the laser beam instead of being at rest to reduce the velocity of light to zero or even to turn it back we tune the frequency of the driving laser to the resonance with the atoms that move in a direction opposite to that of the laser beams kocharovskaya says this results in an effective drift of light backward although the thermal speed of atoms is only 350 meters per second which is much less than the speed of light in the vacuum c=300 000 km/s this effect is very strong since most of the time photons are captured by atoms she says an experimental setup that would provide the first evidence of light stopping is now being mounted in texas a&m by physicist george r welch one of the most interesting applications of light slowing down or stopping is quantum computing says scully it may then be possible by using a driving laser to control and manipulate single photons as new forms of bits (1 or 0) in quantum computers and make further progress in the field of quantum computation contact: olga kocharovskaya (979) 845-2012 or kochar@atlantictamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m university physicists have devised a way to stop light appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university physicists have devised a way to stop light an accomplishment that could help develop super-fast computers called quantum computers slowing down light revolutionizes modern nonlinear optics says olga kocharovskaya associate professor of physics at texas a&m utilizing the nonlinear properties of light in a medium is usually not easy because it requires the use of lasers of very high intensity and such lasers in many cases are not available or destroy the medium now by slowing down light we have another way to realize these nonlinear properties without using very intense beams texas a&m physicists olga kocharovskaya yuri rostovtsev and marlan scully describe the method to stop light in an article published in the current issue of the journal physical review letters the slowing down of light is related to the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency (eit) introduced by kocharovskaya in 1986 and experimentally observed the first time in 1991 by steve harris physicist at stanford university the eit phenomenon allows an optically thick opaque medium to be transparent to the light wave of a probe laser by means of another driving laser since 1991 many experiments have been set up to slow down light but none has ever stopped light completely the recently published work of kocharovskaya rostovtsev and scully shows how light can be stopped light is slowed down by sending it in a glass cell filled with gas the interactions between the photons of light and the gas atoms create a coupled photon-atom system called polariton the more photons and atoms interact the more the polariton slows down light is a component of the photon-atom system and thus slows down as well in previous attempts to stop light without using eit the laser beam was mainly absorbed by the gas atoms and could not hold up in the cell instead of one laser we use two lasers a probe laser and a driving laser so that both probe and driving light waves go through together without absorption keeping the same intensity as they entered says rostovtsev in a sense the cell gas is transparent to the lasers hence the name electromagnetically induced transparency (eit) to describe this phenomenon when two laser beams are sent to the cell light from one of the lasers interacts with the atoms which absorb and reemit light continually because the second laser prevents them from absorbing light without reemitting it back to the same probe light wave (as would be the case if only one laser is sent to the cell) the many interactions between light and atoms ultimately slow down the speed of light propagation through the medium interesting experimental results have been published recently on the use of slow light for information storage by two teams of physicists one led by mikhail lukin (texas a&m former graduate student) and ronald walsworth both of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics in cambridge mass and the other by lene vestergaard hau of the rowland institute for science and harvard university both in cambridge mass they explore eit properties of stationary atoms now kocharovskaya and her colleagues show that light can be completely stopped they use the eit phenomenon to selectively use atoms in a hot gas cell which are moving towards the laser beam instead of being at rest to reduce the velocity of light to zero or even to turn it back we tune the frequency of the driving laser to the resonance with the atoms that move in a direction opposite to that of the laser beams kocharovskaya says this results in an effective drift of light backward although the thermal speed of atoms is only 350 meters per second which is much less than the speed of light in the vacuum c=300 000 km/s this effect is very strong since most of the time photons are captured by atoms she says an experimental setup that would provide the first evidence of light stopping is now being mounted in texas a&m by physicist george r welch one of the most interesting applications of light slowing down or stopping is quantum computing says scully it may then be possible by using a driving laser to control and manipulate single photons as new forms of bits (1 or 0) in quantum computers and make further progress in the field of quantum computation contact: olga kocharovskaya (979) 845-2012 or kochar@atlantictamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station a texas a&m university physicist is developing a technique to identify molecules on the surfaces of metals which could have far-reaching implications in the control of chemical reactions in operations within the chemical and petroleum industries it is possible to get images of molecules today with the scanning tunneling microscope (stm) but until recently it has been impossible to identify the molecules in these images says glenn agnolet a texas a&m physicist who is part of a team doing research on the stm at texas a&m the stm has been an enormous revolution for surface science adds agnolet before the advent of the stm surface scientists used probes to determine the molecule positions averaged over a large sample with the stm scientists can obtain local information on the atomic scale like a phonograph the stm uses a tiny needle that follows the bumps and troughs on the surface of a material giving an image of what this surface looks like as the needle approaches the surface an electrical current flows from the needle to the metallic surface since the current depends on the distance the current variations reflect the topography of the surface the surface of a material is like a landscape made of mountains and valleys agnolet says the stm can detect these changes of elevation and make a topography of the surface although molecules are revealed by the change of topography until recently scientists have been unable to identify the molecules with the stm you get these beautiful pictures says agnolet but the question remains: ‘what am i really looking at in an attempt to identify molecules agnolet is using self-assembled tunnel junctions (satjs) a device developed by stephen gregory a low temperature physicist at the university of oregon an satj is made of two long fine metallic wires with a layer of neon in between the first metallic wire plays the role of the stms needle the second wire the role of the stms surface and the neon layer acts to keep the two surfaces apart if a molecule sits between the two metal surfaces then as the electrons flow from one metal to the other they can cause the molecule to vibrate every molecule has vibrational modes that can be used to distinguish it from other molecules says agnolet from a study of acetylene molecules on platinum agnolet found that the coupling between the molecule and the electrons is ten times larger than expected by understanding the mechanisms of this effect he hopes to be able to identify more complex molecules to improve his measurements agnolet is now studying undesirable effects due to imperfections and defects on the wires the biggest problem is that we do not see the same thing every time says agnolet so we are trying to find the dominant behavior as opposed to materials problems we take lots of data and we try to sift out of this data the underlying features that we are interested in agnolet has published his results in the journals applied physics letters and physica the ultimate goal is to be able to take a metallic surface to add molecules to it and then to be able to find those molecules on the surface with an stm type of instrument agnolet says contact: glenn agnolet (979) 845 – 2386 or agnolet@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post a texas a&m physicist is developing a technique to identify molecules on the surfaces of metals appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a texas a&m university physicist is developing a technique to identify molecules on the surfaces of metals which could have far-reaching implications in the control of chemical reactions in operations within the chemical and petroleum industries it is possible to get images of molecules today with the scanning tunneling microscope (stm) but until recently it has been impossible to identify the molecules in these images says glenn agnolet a texas a&m physicist who is part of a team doing research on the stm at texas a&m the stm has been an enormous revolution for surface science adds agnolet before the advent of the stm surface scientists used probes to determine the molecule positions averaged over a large sample with the stm scientists can obtain local information on the atomic scale like a phonograph the stm uses a tiny needle that follows the bumps and troughs on the surface of a material giving an image of what this surface looks like as the needle approaches the surface an electrical current flows from the needle to the metallic surface since the current depends on the distance the current variations reflect the topography of the surface the surface of a material is like a landscape made of mountains and valleys agnolet says the stm can detect these changes of elevation and make a topography of the surface although molecules are revealed by the change of topography until recently scientists have been unable to identify the molecules with the stm you get these beautiful pictures says agnolet but the question remains: ‘what am i really looking at in an attempt to identify molecules agnolet is using self-assembled tunnel junctions (satjs) a device developed by stephen gregory a low temperature physicist at the university of oregon an satj is made of two long fine metallic wires with a layer of neon in between the first metallic wire plays the role of the stms needle the second wire the role of the stms surface and the neon layer acts to keep the two surfaces apart if a molecule sits between the two metal surfaces then as the electrons flow from one metal to the other they can cause the molecule to vibrate every molecule has vibrational modes that can be used to distinguish it from other molecules says agnolet from a study of acetylene molecules on platinum agnolet found that the coupling between the molecule and the electrons is ten times larger than expected by understanding the mechanisms of this effect he hopes to be able to identify more complex molecules to improve his measurements agnolet is now studying undesirable effects due to imperfections and defects on the wires the biggest problem is that we do not see the same thing every time says agnolet so we are trying to find the dominant behavior as opposed to materials problems we take lots of data and we try to sift out of this data the underlying features that we are interested in agnolet has published his results in the journals applied physics letters and physica the ultimate goal is to be able to take a metallic surface to add molecules to it and then to be able to find those molecules on the surface with an stm type of instrument agnolet says contact: glenn agnolet (979) 845 – 2386 or agnolet@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station texas a&m physicists are devising computer codes and prototypes of quantum computers which may be the next generation of computers an ordinary computer may seem very sophisticated but in fact it is only programmed to gobble large series of ones and zeros and spit out other large series of ones and zeros it is that simple because a combination of zeros and ones can make up all possible numbers all possible operations on these numbers – for example addition subtraction or division – are also simple in principle because they rely on logical rules of combinations of zeros and ones this basic structure of zeros and ones is limited however because only one number is processed at a time the most dramatic example that has been tackled by computer scientists so far is factorization says suhail zubairy visiting professor of physics at texas a&m you have a large number and you want to factorize it if you take a thousand-digit number on the fastest computer today factorizing it would take a few billion years factoring can be important to encryption of numbers which keeps your credit card number secret when making computer-transacted purchases in order to avoid infinitely long calculations and further optimize current computers scientists have started devising a new way to simultaneously process many numbers this is possible for a quantum computer in an ordinary computer every number is represented by a series of bits with each bit taking the value zero or one zero or one means that a switch is set to off or on respectively one bit makes zero or one two bits make the numbers zero one two or three (00 01 10 or 11) three bits make one of the numbers zero to seven (000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111) and so on in a quantum computer each bit which is now called a qubit or quantum bit can be simultaneously zero and one this strange property of quantum physics permits three qubits to hold all of the numbers zero through seven at the same time the bottom line: in an operating quantum computer there is both zero and one in each qubit while there is either zero or one in each bit of an ordinary computer for instance a calculation using three qubits might involve all of the numbers zero through seven simultaneously but at the end of the calculation i get only one number out as with a usual computer says david church professor of physics at texas a&m the one number i get could be random anywhere between zero and seven which does not seem to help me at all which number is the right answer to the calculation this apparent paradox is solved by the way calculation is performed called quantum interference when the final result is read the single correct answer is very probable not random in a quantum computer zero or one might be associated with the internal energies of an ion – a charged atom – which act as a qubit the ion can have low internal energy – called zero – or higher internal energy – called one – or exist in an intermediate stage the intermediate stage corresponds to a qubit that is both zero and one laser pulses are applied to each ion to put it in the intermediate stage church says by studying the light emitted by these ions it is possible to derive the actual number they represent in the case of three bits three ions would hold the numbers zero through seven and each ion would interact separately with the laser light he says the study of quantum computing using singly charged ions is being pursued at the national institute for standards and technology in boulder colo at los alamos national laboratory in los alamos nm and in europe church has been collaborating with the lawrence livermore national laboratory in livermore calif to study the possibility of quantum computing using highly charged – instead of singly charged – ions we have used the facilities of livermore laboratory to confine and cool highly charged ions church says it turns out that these ions have many internal energy states that are accessible to lasers simulations also show that when sufficiently cooled these ions form regular arrays church says that work on quantum computing is just lifting off the ground and is highly interdisciplinary involving at once physicists chemists computer scientists engineers and mathematicians he is currently teaching a course in quantum computing along with walter daugherity senior lecturer of computer science at texas a&m contact: david a church (979) 845-2841 or church@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m physicists devising what may be the next generation of computers appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m physicists are devising computer codes and prototypes of quantum computers which may be the next generation of computers an ordinary computer may seem very sophisticated but in fact it is only programmed to gobble large series of ones and zeros and spit out other large series of ones and zeros it is that simple because a combination of zeros and ones can make up all possible numbers all possible operations on these numbers – for example addition subtraction or division – are also simple in principle because they rely on logical rules of combinations of zeros and ones this basic structure of zeros and ones is limited however because only one number is processed at a time the most dramatic example that has been tackled by computer scientists so far is factorization says suhail zubairy visiting professor of physics at texas a&m you have a large number and you want to factorize it if you take a thousand-digit number on the fastest computer today factorizing it would take a few billion years factoring can be important to encryption of numbers which keeps your credit card number secret when making computer-transacted purchases in order to avoid infinitely long calculations and further optimize current computers scientists have started devising a new way to simultaneously process many numbers this is possible for a quantum computer in an ordinary computer every number is represented by a series of bits with each bit taking the value zero or one zero or one means that a switch is set to off or on respectively one bit makes zero or one two bits make the numbers zero one two or three (00 01 10 or 11) three bits make one of the numbers zero to seven (000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111) and so on in a quantum computer each bit which is now called a qubit or quantum bit can be simultaneously zero and one this strange property of quantum physics permits three qubits to hold all of the numbers zero through seven at the same time the bottom line: in an operating quantum computer there is both zero and one in each qubit while there is either zero or one in each bit of an ordinary computer for instance a calculation using three qubits might involve all of the numbers zero through seven simultaneously but at the end of the calculation i get only one number out as with a usual computer says david church professor of physics at texas a&m the one number i get could be random anywhere between zero and seven which does not seem to help me at all which number is the right answer to the calculation this apparent paradox is solved by the way calculation is performed called quantum interference when the final result is read the single correct answer is very probable not random in a quantum computer zero or one might be associated with the internal energies of an ion – a charged atom – which act as a qubit the ion can have low internal energy – called zero – or higher internal energy – called one – or exist in an intermediate stage the intermediate stage corresponds to a qubit that is both zero and one laser pulses are applied to each ion to put it in the intermediate stage church says by studying the light emitted by these ions it is possible to derive the actual number they represent in the case of three bits three ions would hold the numbers zero through seven and each ion would interact separately with the laser light he says the study of quantum computing using singly charged ions is being pursued at the national institute for standards and technology in boulder colo at los alamos national laboratory in los alamos nm and in europe church has been collaborating with the lawrence livermore national laboratory in livermore calif to study the possibility of quantum computing using highly charged – instead of singly charged – ions we have used the facilities of livermore laboratory to confine and cool highly charged ions church says it turns out that these ions have many internal energy states that are accessible to lasers simulations also show that when sufficiently cooled these ions form regular arrays church says that work on quantum computing is just lifting off the ground and is highly interdisciplinary involving at once physicists chemists computer scientists engineers and mathematicians he is currently teaching a course in quantum computing along with walter daugherity senior lecturer of computer science at texas a&m contact: david a church (979) 845-2841 or church@physicstamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station from diehards to delcos most car batteries are pretty much created equal: they eventually lose their juice two texas a&m university physicists are looking into ways to keep batteries going and going and going and finding answers that embrace both biology and chemistry their project also hints at something that has puzzled biologists for more than 100 years: creation of electrical fields around plant roots while they grow wayne saslow and joseph ross have found that even when a battery is idle it is still electrically active because the voltage profile moving across the battery acid of an idle battery is not a flat line this voltage profile could be the key to making future batteries last longer for their work saslow and ross studied a 12-volt motorcycle battery it was selected because it is dry charged meaning it is stored with no battery acid that could spill out when cut open to study it battery acid is 35 percent sulfuric acid and normally is added at the store at purchase time saslow and ross and graduate student robert haaser added sulfuric acid in the laboratory a car battery usually gets its 12 volts by using six 2-volt cells in a series the researchers say the battery gets additional current capacity by making each 2-volt cell as big as possible for a motorcycle battery each individual cell is really 8 sub-cells in parallel saslow and ross used one sub-cell which contains a positive (red) lead oxide electrode and a negative (black) lead electrode separated by one millimeter of fiberglass immersed in sulfuric acid they increased the separation to about a centimeter inserted five 3-inch long platinum probes and measured the voltage of each probe when they plotted the voltage they found that a battery at rest – neither charging or discharging – showed a quadratic (sloped) curve not a flat line the quadratic curve means there are chemical reactions and ion flow but no net electric current flow saslow confirms the faster such reactions go the more voltage results were trying to use our measurements to learn more about what goes on inside batteries saslow said there are two types of chemical reactions at a batterys electrodes one is faradiac which leads to electrical currents and the other is non-faradiac which are ordinary chemical reactions and no current flow if a battery sits for six months with no activity it goes bad he said because of chemical reactions that demand ions from the electrodes and the battery acid if we can monitor batteries better it might help us learn how to make them last longer he added car batteries he said have not changed much in the last 50 years a battery that claims it has 600 ccas (cold cranking amps) uses that much only when it activates the starting motor it only uses about 6 amps for headlights saslow said batteries have 48 sub-cells saslow said and if only one cell is faulty that can kill the entire battery we need to find a way to locate the weakest sub-cells and then recharge them before they go bad the next step for us is to monitor more batteries and collect more data and match it with previous findings he said but there is no doubt that there is a lot more going on inside a battery than we had thought saslow and ross said their research could result in better design of car batteries and new diagnostic tests to measure a batterys power and longevity and the biological implications i have on my bookshelf a very old book titled bio-electrics and growth he continues it describes an effect biologists have known about for over a hundred years and no one can explain when plant roots grow there are local electric fields with no current flow the faster the roots grow the bigger the local electric fields thats just like what we are seeing when the battery is just sitting there he adds you have to think of biological growth as a fancy chemical reaction that demands ions but no electric current thats exactly what we see in the battery when there is no electric current flow we had no idea this work would relate to biology but it certainly does contact: keith randall at (409) 845-4644 or wayne saslow at (409) 845-4841 aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas a&m researchers studying car batteries appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " from diehards to delcos most car batteries are pretty much created equal: they eventually lose their juice two texas a&m university physicists are looking into ways to keep batteries going and going and going and finding answers that embrace both biology and chemistry their project also hints at something that has puzzled biologists for more than 100 years: creation of electrical fields around plant roots while they grow wayne saslow and joseph ross have found that even when a battery is idle it is still electrically active because the voltage profile moving across the battery acid of an idle battery is not a flat line this voltage profile could be the key to making future batteries last longer for their work saslow and ross studied a 12-volt motorcycle battery it was selected because it is dry charged meaning it is stored with no battery acid that could spill out when cut open to study it battery acid is 35 percent sulfuric acid and normally is added at the store at purchase time saslow and ross and graduate student robert haaser added sulfuric acid in the laboratory a car battery usually gets its 12 volts by using six 2-volt cells in a series the researchers say the battery gets additional current capacity by making each 2-volt cell as big as possible for a motorcycle battery each individual cell is really 8 sub-cells in parallel saslow and ross used one sub-cell which contains a positive (red) lead oxide electrode and a negative (black) lead electrode separated by one millimeter of fiberglass immersed in sulfuric acid they increased the separation to about a centimeter inserted five 3-inch long platinum probes and measured the voltage of each probe when they plotted the voltage they found that a battery at rest – neither charging or discharging – showed a quadratic (sloped) curve not a flat line the quadratic curve means there are chemical reactions and ion flow but no net electric current flow saslow confirms the faster such reactions go the more voltage results were trying to use our measurements to learn more about what goes on inside batteries saslow said there are two types of chemical reactions at a batterys electrodes one is faradiac which leads to electrical currents and the other is non-faradiac which are ordinary chemical reactions and no current flow if a battery sits for six months with no activity it goes bad he said because of chemical reactions that demand ions from the electrodes and the battery acid if we can monitor batteries better it might help us learn how to make them last longer he added car batteries he said have not changed much in the last 50 years a battery that claims it has 600 ccas (cold cranking amps) uses that much only when it activates the starting motor it only uses about 6 amps for headlights saslow said batteries have 48 sub-cells saslow said and if only one cell is faulty that can kill the entire battery we need to find a way to locate the weakest sub-cells and then recharge them before they go bad the next step for us is to monitor more batteries and collect more data and match it with previous findings he said but there is no doubt that there is a lot more going on inside a battery than we had thought saslow and ross said their research could result in better design of car batteries and new diagnostic tests to measure a batterys power and longevity and the biological implications i have on my bookshelf a very old book titled bio-electrics and growth he continues it describes an effect biologists have known about for over a hundred years and no one can explain when plant roots grow there are local electric fields with no current flow the faster the roots grow the bigger the local electric fields thats just like what we are seeing when the battery is just sitting there he adds you have to think of biological growth as a fancy chemical reaction that demands ions but no electric current thats exactly what we see in the battery when there is no electric current flow we had no idea this work would relate to biology but it certainly does contact: keith randall at (409) 845-4644 or wayne saslow at (409) 845-4841 aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 " " college station physicist valery l pokrovsky has been named a distinguished professor of physics by the texas a&m university system board of regents pokrovsky joined the physics faculty at texas a&m in 1992 and his areas of research include scattering theory statistical mechanics two-dimensional systems magnetism superconductivity and the quantum hall effect pokrovsky has made lasting contributions to many areas of physics – his greatest contribution is the concept of scaling which is now of central importance in understanding the behavior of substances near phase transitions notes a colleague after receiving an ms and phd in the former soviet union pokrovsky was the head of laboratory for theoretical physics at the institute of radiophysics and the institute of semiconductor physics in the siberian branch of the soviet academy of sciences he received a doctoral degree in physics and mathematics from novosibirsk university and was a section head at the landau institute of theoretical physics pokrovsky has supervised more than 30 graduate students and is the editor of the international journal of modern physics and modern physics letters contact: tiffany inbody at (409) 845-6746; e-mail: tdi@univreltamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations the post pokrovsky named distinguished professor appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " physicist valery l pokrovsky has been named a distinguished professor of physics by the texas a&m university system board of regents pokrovsky joined the physics faculty at texas a&m in 1992 and his areas of research include scattering theory statistical mechanics two-dimensional systems magnetism superconductivity and the quantum hall effect pokrovsky has made lasting contributions to many areas of physics – his greatest contribution is the concept of scaling which is now of central importance in understanding the behavior of substances near phase transitions notes a colleague after receiving an ms and phd in the former soviet union pokrovsky was the head of laboratory for theoretical physics at the institute of radiophysics and the institute of semiconductor physics in the siberian branch of the soviet academy of sciences he received a doctoral degree in physics and mathematics from novosibirsk university and was a section head at the landau institute of theoretical physics pokrovsky has supervised more than 30 graduate students and is the editor of the international journal of modern physics and modern physics letters contact: tiffany inbody at (409) 845-6746; e-mail: tdi@univreltamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station the optical society of america has presented marlan o scully of texas a&m university the 1998 charles hard townes award for his role in laying the theoretical foundation for laser science free electron lasers and lasers without inversion scully is the burgess distinguished professor of physics and director of both the center for theoretical physics and the institute of quantum studies at texas a&m the charles hard townes award established in 1981 is presented annually for major contributions to the field of quantum electronics scullys award is based on work expanding on his previously formed theory on the laser he studied methods of using lasers to suppress emission noise and also demonstrated the possibilities for new resolution microscopes aggiedaily office of university relations the post scully awarded for laser research appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the optical society of america has presented marlan o scully of texas a&m university the 1998 charles hard townes award for his role in laying the theoretical foundation for laser science free electron lasers and lasers without inversion scully is the burgess distinguished professor of physics and director of both the center for theoretical physics and the institute of quantum studies at texas a&m the charles hard townes award established in 1981 is presented annually for major contributions to the field of quantum electronics scullys award is based on work expanding on his previously formed theory on the laser he studied methods of using lasers to suppress emission noise and also demonstrated the possibilities for new resolution microscopes aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station texas a&m university physicist and texas engineering experiment station researcher dr marlan o scully has won the 1998 charles h townes award from the most prestigious society in the optics and photonics field for his work in quantum electronics scully a distinguished professor in the universitys physics department who also holds a joint appointment in the electrical engineering department in the dwight look college of engineering is director of texas a&ms center for theoretical physics he received the award may 4 in california at the joint conference on lasers and electro-optics (cleo98) and the international quantum electronics conference (iqec98) the worlds most important conference and exhibit on lasers and electro-optics the townes award is named for physics nobel laureate charles h townes the inventor of the maser/laser and a member of the science hall of fame the award is presented by the optical society of america (osa) an 80-year-old society promoting the importance of optics applications its given to an individual or group for outstanding experimental or theoretical work discovery or invention in the field of quantum electronics scully has been at texas a&m since 1992 after serving on faculties of the massachusetts institute of technology university of arizona and university of new mexico he has served as co-director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands his major research interests include quantum optics laser physics foundations of quantum mechanics non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and bioengineering he is the author of more than 300 research articles the standard text in laser physics and a book on quantum optics scully has received the osa adolph e lomb medal the elliott cresson medal of the franklin institute and the eg&g medal of the society for optical and quantum electronics he has earned sloan and guggenheim fellowships and a humboldt distinguished senior faculty award he is a fellow of the american physical society the optical society of america the american association for the advancement of science and a member of the max planck society the german equivalent of the national academy of science scully earned the phd and masters degrees in physics from yale university he holds the bachelor of science degree in engineering physics from the university of wyoming mike downey m-downey@tamuedu tees communications 06/03/98 nr-98-104 the post physicist marlan scully awarded honor from leading optical society appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " texas a&m university physicist and texas engineering experiment station researcher dr marlan o scully has won the 1998 charles h townes award from the most prestigious society in the optics and photonics field for his work in quantum electronics scully a distinguished professor in the universitys physics department who also holds a joint appointment in the electrical engineering department in the dwight look college of engineering is director of texas a&ms center for theoretical physics he received the award may 4 in california at the joint conference on lasers and electro-optics (cleo98) and the international quantum electronics conference (iqec98) the worlds most important conference and exhibit on lasers and electro-optics the townes award is named for physics nobel laureate charles h townes the inventor of the maser/laser and a member of the science hall of fame the award is presented by the optical society of america (osa) an 80-year-old society promoting the importance of optics applications its given to an individual or group for outstanding experimental or theoretical work discovery or invention in the field of quantum electronics scully has been at texas a&m since 1992 after serving on faculties of the massachusetts institute of technology university of arizona and university of new mexico he has served as co-director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands his major research interests include quantum optics laser physics foundations of quantum mechanics non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and bioengineering he is the author of more than 300 research articles the standard text in laser physics and a book on quantum optics scully has received the osa adolph e lomb medal the elliott cresson medal of the franklin institute and the eg&g medal of the society for optical and quantum electronics he has earned sloan and guggenheim fellowships and a humboldt distinguished senior faculty award he is a fellow of the american physical society the optical society of america the american association for the advancement of science and a member of the max planck society the german equivalent of the national academy of science scully earned the phd and masters degrees in physics from yale university he holds the bachelor of science degree in engineering physics from the university of wyoming mike downey m-downey@tamuedu tees communications 06/03/98 nr-98-104 " " from 8:30 am to 8 pm saturday (april 25) the department of physics is having its annual open house for the purpose of recruiting graduate students students from other parts of the texas a&m university system as well as other universities both within the state and in contiguous states will meet in rooms 205 and 206 engineering-physics building (teaching wing) a full day of activities is planned including both theoretical presentations and laboratory tours aggiedaily office of university relations the post physics to recruit graduate students appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " from 8:30 am to 8 pm saturday (april 25) the department of physics is having its annual open house for the purpose of recruiting graduate students students from other parts of the texas a&m university system as well as other universities both within the state and in contiguous states will meet in rooms 205 and 206 engineering-physics building (teaching wing) a full day of activities is planned including both theoretical presentations and laboratory tours aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station michael j duff a theoretical physicist at texas a&m university has been named the universitys outstanding science communicator for 1998 by the texas a&m chapter of the research society sigma xi duff a distinguished professor in texas a&ms physics department and center for theoretical physics will be recognized during sigma xis annual banquet march 26 in texas a&ms koldus building duff writes often about his research interests an article entitled the theory formerly known as strings which discusses current theoretical advances in the search for a theory of everything appears in the february issue of scientific american contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 or by e-mail at e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations the post texas a&m sigma xi chapter names duff top science communicator for 1998 appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " michael j duff a theoretical physicist at texas a&m university has been named the universitys outstanding science communicator for 1998 by the texas a&m chapter of the research society sigma xi duff a distinguished professor in texas a&ms physics department and center for theoretical physics will be recognized during sigma xis annual banquet march 26 in texas a&ms koldus building duff writes often about his research interests an article entitled the theory formerly known as strings which discusses current theoretical advances in the search for a theory of everything appears in the february issue of scientific american contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 or by e-mail at e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station a texas-based theoretical physicist has been ranked ninth in the current publication of the institute of scientific informations (isi) list of most-cited physicists and third in his field of theoretical physics dimitri nanopoulos a distinguished professor in texas a&m universitys department of physics and head of the houston advanced research centers (harc) group for astroparticle physics was among those recognized by isi for having his name cited by other scientists nanopoulos name appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals more than 11 300 times during the period 1981 through june 1997 nanopoulos is widely recognized for the development of grand unified theories mathematical models that combine the physical forces that underlie the structure of the universe in one set of equations and the use of those theories in studying the origins and evolution of the universe last spring at age 48 nanopoulos became the youngest person elected to permanent membership in the academy of athens the most prestigious scientific organization in greece nanopoulos is the author of more than 460 research articles which have appeared in major scientific journals his work has been cited more than 19 000 times by other scientists and during the 1980s he was one of the 100 most-cited researchers in all branches of science in addition to his work at texas a&m and harc nanopoulos also is on the research staff of cern the european center for physics research in geneva switzerland he joined the texas a&m physics faculty in1989 after a stint at the university of wisconsin he also has conducted research at harvard university and the ecole normale superieure in paris he is a graduate of the university of athens and received a phd from the university of sussex in england the institute for scientific information (isi) publishes databases of scholarly research information in the sciences social sciences and arts and humanities contact: barbara peyton at (281) 363-7908 or by e-mail at bpeyton@harcedu gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 or by e-mail at e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations the post texas a&m physicist among most-cited scientists appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " a texas-based theoretical physicist has been ranked ninth in the current publication of the institute of scientific informations (isi) list of most-cited physicists and third in his field of theoretical physics dimitri nanopoulos a distinguished professor in texas a&m universitys department of physics and head of the houston advanced research centers (harc) group for astroparticle physics was among those recognized by isi for having his name cited by other scientists nanopoulos name appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals more than 11 300 times during the period 1981 through june 1997 nanopoulos is widely recognized for the development of grand unified theories mathematical models that combine the physical forces that underlie the structure of the universe in one set of equations and the use of those theories in studying the origins and evolution of the universe last spring at age 48 nanopoulos became the youngest person elected to permanent membership in the academy of athens the most prestigious scientific organization in greece nanopoulos is the author of more than 460 research articles which have appeared in major scientific journals his work has been cited more than 19 000 times by other scientists and during the 1980s he was one of the 100 most-cited researchers in all branches of science in addition to his work at texas a&m and harc nanopoulos also is on the research staff of cern the european center for physics research in geneva switzerland he joined the texas a&m physics faculty in1989 after a stint at the university of wisconsin he also has conducted research at harvard university and the ecole normale superieure in paris he is a graduate of the university of athens and received a phd from the university of sussex in england the institute for scientific information (isi) publishes databases of scholarly research information in the sciences social sciences and arts and humanities contact: barbara peyton at (281) 363-7908 or by e-mail at bpeyton@harcedu gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 or by e-mail at e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations " " thomas w adair iii professor of physics has been named head of the department of physics at texas a&m the appointment became effective july 16 adair has served as interim department head for two and one­half years aggiedaily office of university relations the post adair named to head physics department appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " thomas w adair iii professor of physics has been named head of the department of physics at texas a&m the appointment became effective july 16 adair has served as interim department head for two and one­half years aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station the nobel prize-winning physicist whose theories about symmetry in nature set the stage for todays understanding of how elementary particles behave will present two lectures friday (sept 27) at texas a&m university chen ning yang who won the nobel prize for physics in 1957 will present a general interest lecture symmetry and physics at 4 pm friday in room 202 of the engineering/physics building this will be preceded at 11 am by a research seminar on bose einstein condensation in room 301 of the same building yang received the nobel prize largely for his theoretical assertion (later confirmed by experiment) that nature does not treat right and left equally this lack of symmetry is the basis of modern theories of matter and explains the properties of elementary particles such as neutrinos yangs lecture is sponsored by texas a&ms physics department more information is available from roland allen at 845-4341 or marlon scully at 862-2333 contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 or by e-mail at e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations the post nobel laureate to discuss symmetry and nature appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " the nobel prize-winning physicist whose theories about symmetry in nature set the stage for todays understanding of how elementary particles behave will present two lectures friday (sept 27) at texas a&m university chen ning yang who won the nobel prize for physics in 1957 will present a general interest lecture symmetry and physics at 4 pm friday in room 202 of the engineering/physics building this will be preceded at 11 am by a research seminar on bose einstein condensation in room 301 of the same building yang received the nobel prize largely for his theoretical assertion (later confirmed by experiment) that nature does not treat right and left equally this lack of symmetry is the basis of modern theories of matter and explains the properties of elementary particles such as neutrinos yangs lecture is sponsored by texas a&ms physics department more information is available from roland allen at 845-4341 or marlon scully at 862-2333 contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 or by e-mail at e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station physicist marlan o scully has been named a distinguished professor in texas a&m universitys department of physics scully joined the texas a&m faculty as professor of physics in 1992 after stints on the physics faculties of the massachusetts institute of technology university of arizona and university of new mexico he was named director of texas a&ms center for theoretical physics in 1995 and has served as co-director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands his major research interests include quantum optics laser physics foundations of quantum mechanics non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and bioengineering he is the author of more than 300 research articles the standard text in laser physics and a recently completed book on quantum optics scully has received the adolph e lomb medal of the optical society of america the elliott cresson medal of the franklin institute and the eg&g medal of the society for optical and quantum electronics he has received sloan and guggenheim fellowships and a humboldt distinguished senior faculty award scully is a fellow of the american physical society the optical society of america the american association for the advancement of science and a member of the max planck society the german equivalent of the national academy of sciences he holds a bs in engineering physics from the university of wyoming and ms and phd degrees in physics from yale university contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 e-mail: e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations the post physicist marlan scully named distinguished professor appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " physicist marlan o scully has been named a distinguished professor in texas a&m universitys department of physics scully joined the texas a&m faculty as professor of physics in 1992 after stints on the physics faculties of the massachusetts institute of technology university of arizona and university of new mexico he was named director of texas a&ms center for theoretical physics in 1995 and has served as co-director of the texas laser laboratory at the houston advanced research center in the woodlands his major research interests include quantum optics laser physics foundations of quantum mechanics non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and bioengineering he is the author of more than 300 research articles the standard text in laser physics and a recently completed book on quantum optics scully has received the adolph e lomb medal of the optical society of america the elliott cresson medal of the franklin institute and the eg&g medal of the society for optical and quantum electronics he has received sloan and guggenheim fellowships and a humboldt distinguished senior faculty award scully is a fellow of the american physical society the optical society of america the american association for the advancement of science and a member of the max planck society the german equivalent of the national academy of sciences he holds a bs in engineering physics from the university of wyoming and ms and phd degrees in physics from yale university contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 e-mail: e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station theoretical physicist michael duff is trying to change the shape of the universe or at least the shape of the stuff it is made of if theories proposed over the past year by duff and his colleagues in texas a&m universitys center for theoretical physics hold up particles that are the building blocks of the universe may change from infinitely tiny points to bubbles and sheets and tubes and the mathematical equations that physicists use to describe them could become part of an allencompassing theory of everything such a theory would mean that at the fundamental level we would know in principle all there is to know says duff a distinguished professor in texas a&ms department of physics of course that doesnt mean we would understand biology or sociology or whatever but at the most fundamental level there would be essentially nothing new to say the work done by duff and his colleagues texas a&m phd physics students joachim rahmfeld and ruben minasian wont actually change the shape of these fundamental particles of course but it could transform the way physicists understand and describe them mathematically conventional physics theory says that at its most basic the universe consists of infinitely tiny particles physicists describe them mathematically as dimensionless pointlike objects this idea has recently come under attack duff says one of the most important advances in the theory of fundamental particles came in the mid1980s when theoretical physicists (including several at texas a&m) began to explore the idea that fundamental particles might be described more accurately as onedimensional objects strings together with supersymmetry an idea physicists use to look at what appear to be different kinds of particles as if they are different views of the same particle strings opened the way for the advances proposed by duff and his fellow theoreticians duff and a growing group of likeminded scientists however say when put together with the ideas of strings and supersymmetry new calculations suggest the shapes of these particles may be more accurately described as membranes bubbles and sheets and tubes in fact calculations by duff and his colleagues at texas a&m also suggest the particles exist in 11 dimensions rather than the conventional four (length width height and time) in which we usually visualize the world the additional dimensions are compactified so only the four dimensions we are familiar with are visible these new shapes and additional dimensions are the latest steps in a decadeslong quest for a theory of everything a single mathematical equation or set of related equations that describe the structure and operation of the universe the difference between invisible dimensionless pointlike objects and equally invisible 11dimensional bubbles and sheets and tubes may seem rather pointless to nonphysicists to the researchers who study them however the difference is crucial because it changes the way the particles can behave if you can regard what are apparently different particles and apparently different forces as really being different aspects of one kind of force or one kind of particle then thats progress as far as were concerned duff says the growing acceptance by physicists of the 11dimensional particle world proposed by duff and his colleagues marks a substantial shift in thinking among leading theoreticians one nobel prize winner once said ‘eleven dimensions ugh! and covered his ears when the idea came up during a theoretical symposium duff says he was sold on 10 dimensions by the way that attitude seems to be changing duff and minasian have recently collaborated with renowned theoretical physicist edward witten of princeton university to write an article that vindicates many of duffs ideas witten used to be critical of the 11dimension theory but is now its leading advocate physicists say the idea of 11dimensional membranes is probably the most exciting theoretical development since researchers began in the mid-1980s to investigate the idea that fundamental particles might be something other than pointlike objects the work by duff and his colleagues has been described in articles in the journals physics letters and nuclear physics contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 e-mail: e-charleton@tamuedu texas a&m university one of the top 10 research universities in the country is committed to research and scholarship that is innovative and beneficial to the public well-being aggiedaily office of university relations the post texas a&m physicists ‘re-shape fundamental particles appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " theoretical physicist michael duff is trying to change the shape of the universe or at least the shape of the stuff it is made of if theories proposed over the past year by duff and his colleagues in texas a&m universitys center for theoretical physics hold up particles that are the building blocks of the universe may change from infinitely tiny points to bubbles and sheets and tubes and the mathematical equations that physicists use to describe them could become part of an allencompassing theory of everything such a theory would mean that at the fundamental level we would know in principle all there is to know says duff a distinguished professor in texas a&ms department of physics of course that doesnt mean we would understand biology or sociology or whatever but at the most fundamental level there would be essentially nothing new to say the work done by duff and his colleagues texas a&m phd physics students joachim rahmfeld and ruben minasian wont actually change the shape of these fundamental particles of course but it could transform the way physicists understand and describe them mathematically conventional physics theory says that at its most basic the universe consists of infinitely tiny particles physicists describe them mathematically as dimensionless pointlike objects this idea has recently come under attack duff says one of the most important advances in the theory of fundamental particles came in the mid1980s when theoretical physicists (including several at texas a&m) began to explore the idea that fundamental particles might be described more accurately as onedimensional objects strings together with supersymmetry an idea physicists use to look at what appear to be different kinds of particles as if they are different views of the same particle strings opened the way for the advances proposed by duff and his fellow theoreticians duff and a growing group of likeminded scientists however say when put together with the ideas of strings and supersymmetry new calculations suggest the shapes of these particles may be more accurately described as membranes bubbles and sheets and tubes in fact calculations by duff and his colleagues at texas a&m also suggest the particles exist in 11 dimensions rather than the conventional four (length width height and time) in which we usually visualize the world the additional dimensions are compactified so only the four dimensions we are familiar with are visible these new shapes and additional dimensions are the latest steps in a decadeslong quest for a theory of everything a single mathematical equation or set of related equations that describe the structure and operation of the universe the difference between invisible dimensionless pointlike objects and equally invisible 11dimensional bubbles and sheets and tubes may seem rather pointless to nonphysicists to the researchers who study them however the difference is crucial because it changes the way the particles can behave if you can regard what are apparently different particles and apparently different forces as really being different aspects of one kind of force or one kind of particle then thats progress as far as were concerned duff says the growing acceptance by physicists of the 11dimensional particle world proposed by duff and his colleagues marks a substantial shift in thinking among leading theoreticians one nobel prize winner once said ‘eleven dimensions ugh! and covered his ears when the idea came up during a theoretical symposium duff says he was sold on 10 dimensions by the way that attitude seems to be changing duff and minasian have recently collaborated with renowned theoretical physicist edward witten of princeton university to write an article that vindicates many of duffs ideas witten used to be critical of the 11dimension theory but is now its leading advocate physicists say the idea of 11dimensional membranes is probably the most exciting theoretical development since researchers began in the mid-1980s to investigate the idea that fundamental particles might be something other than pointlike objects the work by duff and his colleagues has been described in articles in the journals physics letters and nuclear physics contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 e-mail: e-charleton@tamuedu texas a&m university one of the top 10 research universities in the country is committed to research and scholarship that is innovative and beneficial to the public well-being aggiedaily office of university relations " " college station superconductors those high-tech materials that were supposed to revolutionize everything from computers to the late superconducting super collider dont seem to have lived up to their advance billing scientists say that didnt seem to bother a group of physicists including a nobel laureate who gathered march 11 at texas a&m university for a daylong symposium honoring physicist charles squire a distinguished former member of texas a&ms physics faculty so far they (superconductors) just havent lived up to the initial hype solid-state physicist allen m hermann of the university of colorado told the symposium audience superconducting materials do offer a fruitful field for research hermann said and several practical devices that use them are in use or being developed the symposium six decades of antiferromagnetism and related topics in solid state physics brought together researchers who had studied with squire or who have been influenced by his pioneering studies in solid-state physics squire was on texas a&ms physics faculty from 1962 to 1969 he also served as associate dean of the then-college of arts and sciences and headed the physics department he was named a distinguished professor in 1968 he also served on the faculties of mit and rice university practical superconductors havent yet brought about the super-fast computers or friction-free railroads predicted by early superconductivity boosters hermann said he noted however that new high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging instruments based on superconducting technology are now in use and devices based on superconducting materials that could be used to make cellular communications more efficient are being studied in university laboratories and private companies in addition to hermann physicists clifford shull of the massachusetts institute of technology (co-winner of the 1994 nobel prize for physics) donald huffman of the university of arizona paul chu of the university of houstons texas center for superconductivity brian maple of the university of california at san diego and james erskine of the university of texas at austin also presented papers during the symposium other researchers presented posters during an afternoon symposium session the event was organized by texas a&m physicist donald naugle and colleagues in texas a&ms department of physics contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 e-mail: e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations the post a&m physics symposium honors former dept head appeared first on texas a&m college of science " " superconductors those high-tech materials that were supposed to revolutionize everything from computers to the late superconducting super collider dont seem to have lived up to their advance billing scientists say that didnt seem to bother a group of physicists including a nobel laureate who gathered march 11 at texas a&m university for a daylong symposium honoring physicist charles squire a distinguished former member of texas a&ms physics faculty so far they (superconductors) just havent lived up to the initial hype solid-state physicist allen m hermann of the university of colorado told the symposium audience superconducting materials do offer a fruitful field for research hermann said and several practical devices that use them are in use or being developed the symposium six decades of antiferromagnetism and related topics in solid state physics brought together researchers who had studied with squire or who have been influenced by his pioneering studies in solid-state physics squire was on texas a&ms physics faculty from 1962 to 1969 he also served as associate dean of the then-college of arts and sciences and headed the physics department he was named a distinguished professor in 1968 he also served on the faculties of mit and rice university practical superconductors havent yet brought about the super-fast computers or friction-free railroads predicted by early superconductivity boosters hermann said he noted however that new high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging instruments based on superconducting technology are now in use and devices based on superconducting materials that could be used to make cellular communications more efficient are being studied in university laboratories and private companies in addition to hermann physicists clifford shull of the massachusetts institute of technology (co-winner of the 1994 nobel prize for physics) donald huffman of the university of arizona paul chu of the university of houstons texas center for superconductivity brian maple of the university of california at san diego and james erskine of the university of texas at austin also presented papers during the symposium other researchers presented posters during an afternoon symposium session the event was organized by texas a&m physicist donald naugle and colleagues in texas a&ms department of physics contact: gene charleton at (409) 845-4644 e-mail: e-charleton@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations "