News

Read the latest news from the Department of Physics

UT News

Surviving a Volcanic Supereruption May Have Facilitated Human Dispersal Out of Africa

Graduate students Jessica Valdes and Keenan Riordan were on a team that found humans may have dispersed during arid times along “blue highways.”

Map of northeastern Africa indicating location of an archaeological site

UT News

The Sun’s Corona: A Boiling Pot On An Ice Cube

Jarrod Bianco and Maile Marriott, two graduate students working with physicist Anna Tenerani, talk heliophysics.

A dark line intersects with rings of color and blackness as a light emenates out.

Announcements

New Quantum Sensing Center Aims to Transform Disease Diagnostics and Prevention

Mark Raizen is part of a new effort focused on translating discoveries from the physics lab to the clinic.

Glowing red device with green arm

Accolades

MacDonald Announced as Winner of Inaugural Hill Prize in Physical Sciences

Allan MacDonald of The University of Texas at Austin received the award for research with high-impact potential.

A man in a blue collared shirt sits at a desk with paperwork, smiling as he leans on his hand, chalkboard with equations behind him.

Announcements

Excavation of Colossal Caverns for Neutrino Experiment Completed

The caverns in Lead, South Dakota, will house the gigantic particle detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

Cranes and other large equipment working in a large cavern

Research

Researchers Discover New Ways to Excite Spin Waves with Extreme Infrared Light

New ultrafast method for controlling magnetic materials might enable next-generation information processing technologies.

Two red waves enter a crystal from the left and on the other side, a blue and green wave emerge, each with a different wavelength

Accolades

UT Austin Physicists Receive Keck Foundation Boost for Quantum Materials Research

Edoardo Baldini leads a team developing a new approach to stabilize useful quantum properties of atomically thin materials for far longer and at higher temperatures.

Headshots of two scientists are in the foreground, while an illustration of a quantum cavity is in the background

Announcements

New Decadal Report Maps Out U.S. Priorities in Particle Physics Research

The Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) whose participants include a UT physicist delivered recommendations to decision makers.

A warehouse-sized set of scientific equipment

Research

Compact Accelerator Technology Achieves Major Energy Milestone

Bjorn “Manuel” Hegelich led the development of a compact laser accelerator that produces an electron beam with an energy of 10 billion electron volts.

A piece of scientific equipment lit from the outside by green light. In a window in the side of the equipment, a pink light glows.

Accolades

Gordon Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Vernita Gordon, associate professor of physics, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society. Recognized for her work on bacterial biofilms and their...

vernita gordon