Category: Research

NSF Physics Frontier Center for neutron star modeling to include UW–Madison

A group of universities, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been named the newest Physics Frontier Center, the National Science Foundation announced Aug. 17. The center expands the reach and depth of existing capabilities in modeling some of the most violent events known in the universe: the mergers of neutron stars and their explosive aftermath. …

Dark Energy Survey census of the smallest galaxies hones the search for dark matter

This story is adapted from one originally published by Fermilab Today, scientists in the Dark Energy Survey — including UW–Madison assistant professor of physics Keith Bechtol and his research group — released results that have been five years in the making. Researchers used the world’s most complete census of dwarf galaxies around our Milky Way …

UW–Madison named member of new $25 million Midwest quantum science institute

As joint members of a Midwest quantum science collaboration, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and the University of Chicago have been named partners in a National Science Foundation Quantum Leap Challenge Institute, NSF announced Tuesday. The five-year, $25 million NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Hybrid Quantum Architectures and Networks …

Chicago Quantum Exchange, including UW–Madison, welcomes seven new partners in tech, computing and finance, to advance research and training

The Chicago Quantum Exchange, a growing intellectual hub for the research and development of quantum technology, has added to its community seven new corporate partners in computing, technology and finance that are working to bring about and primed to take advantage of the coming quantum revolution. These new industry partners are Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Quantum …

Particle collider experiment CMS — and UW physicists who contribute — celebrate 1000th publication

In June 2020, The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration announced the submission of its 1000th scientific publication since the experiment began a decade ago. With multiple University of Wisconsin–Madison physics faculty involved in CMS over the years, the physics department wanted to use this milestone to celebrate their achievements. CMS is an international collaboration of …

Three undergraduate students awarded Hilldale Fellowships

Congratulations to the three physics undergraduate research students who earned Hilldale fellowships for 2020-21! They are: Owen Rafferty, in Robert McDermott’s group Yanlin Wu, in Peter Timbie’s group Yan Qian, in Sau Lan Wu’s group The Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship provides research training and support to undergraduates at UW–Madison. Students have the opportunity to undertake …

Vandenbroucke group plays instrumental role in proving viability of innovative gamma-ray telescope

Scientists in the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) consortium have detected gamma rays from the Crab Nebula using the prototype Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (pSCT), proving the viability of the novel telescope design for use in gamma-ray astrophysics. The announcement was made today by Justin Vandenbroucke, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, on behalf of the CTA Consortium at …

Keith Bechtol, Rob Morgan win UW’s Cool Science Image contest

Congrats to Prof. Keith Bechtol and graduate student Rob Morgan for their winning entry in the UW–Madison Cool Science Images contest! Their winning entry — one of 12 selected out of 101 entries — earns them a large-format print which initially will be displayed in a gallery at the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s gallery in …

Mark Eriksson earns WARF named professorship

Mark Eriksson has been named the John Bardeen Professor of Physics, through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) named professorship program. The WARF named professorship program provides recognition for distinguished research contributions of the UW–Madison faculty. The awards are intended to honor those faculty who have made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge, primarily …

Profs Eriksson, McDermott, Vandenbroucke awarded UW2020s

Twelve projects have been chosen for Round 6 of the UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative, including three from faculty in the Department of Physics (Mark Eriksson, Robert McDermott, and Justin Vandenbroucke). These projects were among 92 proposals submitted from across campus. The initiative is funded by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate …