News Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Physics & Astronomy

Stargazing at Marble Springs

September 18, 2024

Join us on October 12th from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM for a magical evening under the stars, hosted by our friends at the Marble Springs State Historic Site.

Come and explore the night sky through high-powered telescopes guided by UT’s expert astronomers. Discover constellations, planets, and other celestial wonders, and if we’re lucky, we might even catch a glimpse of a meteor shower!

Bring a blanket or lawn chair, your sense of wonder, and get ready for an evening of fun and learning. Whether you’re an astronomy buff or just curious, this event is the perfect way to connect with the universe.

This event is FREE and open to all ages. Don’t miss out on another chance to enjoy the stars at Marble Springs—see you there!

Event info: https://www.facebook.com/share/q1qAs93p3gRaHUdY/

Harmonic Motion: Physics X Electronic Music

August 12, 2024

If you’ve always wanted to dance in the glow of an oscilloscope, you’ll want to keep August 23 open! That’s when Assistant Professor Larry Lee and Bains Professor Steve Johnston bring their fusion of physics and electronic music to Scruffy City Hall.

Johnston kicks things off at 9 pm with his DJ mastery via Science & Reason, a mix of techno, dance, and house music sure to put everyone in motion. Lee picks up the beat at 10 pm with ColliderScope, where audio waveforms paint images from the scientific world of CERN and sound waves dance across oscilloscope screens. (These humble lab workhouses typically display electrical signals and fluctuations, but here they show off their fun side and illuminate the dance floor.) Johnston will wrap up this physics + music celebration with a second set beginning at 11 pm.

Scruffy City Hall is located at 32 Market Square in Downtown Knoxville and there are lots of parking options. Please note the venue is for patrons age 21 or older.

Johnston and Lee brought energy and motion to music last fall when Harmonic Motion played a starring role in Quantum Canvases, a celebration of arts, humanities, and physics and how they intersect.

Make plans now to catch this show!

UT Future Polarized Target Development

July 15, 2024

(UT/Jlab/ORNL Invited Meeting) | August 12-13, 2024 | Knoxville, Tennessee

Invited Speakers and Topics:

Josh Pierce (ORNL): Overview of Decomississioned ORNL System Capabilities
Mark Dalton (JLab): (E12-20-011) Measurement of the High-Energy Contribution to the GDH Sum
James Maxwell (JLab): Measuring Polarization using NMR
Chris Keith (JLab): DNP Spin Relaxation Studies at Low Temperature
Nadia Fomin (UT): UT DNP Future Development Efforts

Organized by N. Fomin

Graphic for Future Polarized Target Development Meeting at UT

Alumni Association Honors Lee and Siopsis for Teaching and Distinguished Service

July 12, 2024

Joon Sue Lee with Mike McKay and Brian Winbigler at UTAA Faculty Awards Ceremony — Joon Sue Lee (center) with Mike McKay (UTAA) and Brian Winbigler (UTAA Board of Governors)

George Siopsis with Mike McKay and Brian Winbigler at UTAA Faculty Awards Ceremony — George Siopsis (center) with Mike McKay (UTAA) and Brian Winbigler (UTAA Board of Governors)

Joon Sue Lee and George Siopsis joined UT nearly three decades apart, but their shared commitment to the university’s mission transcends generations. The University of Tennessee Alumni Association (UTAA) has honored that dedication by recognizing Lee with an Outstanding Teacher Award and Siopsis with a Distinguished Service Professorship.

“The department was delighted to learn about the well-deserved alumni recognitions for Assistant Professor Joon Sue Lee and Professor George Siopsis, who both exemplify our training and knowledge-creation mission,” said Adrian Del Maestro, professor and department head. “Their passion for teaching and research in quantum technologies has played a large role in UT’s growing national and international prominence in this exciting area crucial for U.S. competitiveness.”

Developing Self-Reliant Thinkers

This is the second teaching honor this year for Lee, an assistant professor. UT’s College of Arts and Sciences presented him with an Excellence in Teaching Award at the annual faculty convocation. Since joining the physics faculty in 2020, Lee has taught undergraduates enrolled in Thermal Physics, Electricity and Magnetism, Electronics Lab, and Modern Physics Lab. His approach—especially to teaching labs—equips students with an understanding of physics fundamentals as well as the hands-on experience they need for careers in academe, technology, and industry.

“What has surprised me most about teaching is the impact that a collaborative and supportive learning environment can have on students’ engagement and development,” he said. “I have seen how nurturing critical thinking and fostering a dynamic partnership can transform the learning experience, and witnessing this has been greatly rewarding.”

Lee’s teaching isn’t limited to the classroom. His research centers on developing quantum materials and devices. Students in his group learn from and contribute to the work.

“What I like best about teaching is the opportunity to guide students as they navigate complex concepts and develop into self-reliant thinkers,” he said. “Mentoring students in my research lab and seeing them grow into independent researchers through the continuous exchange of ideas and collaborative processes is deeply fulfilling.”

Because the UTAA awardees are selected by a committee comprising alumni, Student Alumni Associates, and prior honorees, Lee and Siopsis were chosen in part by their peers, which Lee said is profoundly meaningful.

“The acknowledgement from my fellow faculty members, who understand the complexities and challenges of teaching, affirms the dedication and effort I put into creating an effective learning environment,” he said. “Additionally, being chosen by UT graduates highlights the impact of my teaching, extending beyond the classroom and into the students’ lives as alumni.”

Nurturing the Next Generation

For Siopsis, the UTAA Distinguished Service Professorship has encouraged him to reflect on his many accomplishments while thinking about what comes next.

“Receiving this distinguished faculty award makes me feel deeply honored and appreciated,” he said. “It’s a mix of gratitude, validation, pride, humility, motivation, and a sense of responsibility. This recognition not only celebrates past achievements but also inspires me to continue making meaningful contributions to my field, the broader academic community, and the UT family.”

Siopsis came to UT Physics in 1991 and has balanced teaching, research, and service ever since. He’s taught courses from the fundamental (Elements of Physics) to the complex (Quantum Field Theory). He’s served as director of the Governor’s School for the Sciences and Engineering. A theoretical particle physicist, he specializes in quantum computing and networking, which heavily influences his current priorities. He’s built strong collaborations with partners from other universities, industry, and national laboratories with two aims in mind: developing quantum network applications and drawing on this emerging field to foster economic and technological growth in Appalachia.

Of all his endeavors, Siopsis said he is most proud of his leadership role in the Appalachian Quantum Initiative (AQI) and his work to bring UT to the forefront of emerging quantum technology. The AQI connects university researchers in the Southeast with industry partners to develop quantum software for scientific and engineering applications. This includes a quantum curriculum and workforce development component in partnership with other universities, industry, and national labs. In that vein, he and colleagues from the University of Georgia won $3M from the National Science Foundation to launch an interdisciplinary training program for graduate students. Siopsis develops and teaches classes and seminars in quantum technologies and is currently supervising or co-supervising the work of 11 graduate students.

This, he said, is part of his dedication to “nurturing the next generation of scientists in the emerging quantum field.”

Siopsis also draws on his expertise to lead a university-national laboratory project to develop a quantum regional network and pointed out that the Knoxville Chamber included the installation of a quantum network from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to UT as a goal in their 2030 Protocol plan.

Siopsis and Lee were recognized with their fellow awardees at a Faculty Awards Dinner on May 31. The UTAA presented 11 Outstanding Teacher Awards, two Public Service Awards, and six Distinguished Service Professorships this year, honoring outstanding faculty from across the University of Tennessee family. The association serves more than 445,000 graduates of the UT system through networking opportunities, legislative advocacy, career services, and alumni benefits, among other initiatives.

Knowledge (Gained from) Gaps

July 3, 2024

A persistent shell gap, an impressive instrumental performance, and important student contributions all lead to another PRL for UT’s nuclear physicists

A photo of UT Physics graduate student Ian Cox. — Ian Cox

A photo of Robert Grzywacz — Robert Grzywacz

Ian Cox is proof that you don’t always have to travel far to go a long way. He grew up in Knoxville, graduated from Hardin Valley Academy, and came to UT on a physics scholarship. Now he’s finishing a PhD in nuclear physics with Professor Robert Grzywacz and is first author on a Physical Review Letters publication detailing a new approach to understanding exotic nuclei.

A Touch of Magic

Researchers from 13 universities and five national laboratories collaborated on this investigation at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a premiere research hub at Michigan State University. The nucleus is the heart of every atom, and since 2022 FRIB has produced hundreds of rare isotopes so that scientists can unearth how the most exotic nuclei hold together or decay. FRIB explores this unknown territory by creating extremely imbalanced and short-lived assemblies of protons and neutrons, helping physicists gain a deeper understanding of these quantum mechanical systems. The more complete that picture, the greater the likelihood scientists can predict how nuclei form, what their properties are, and how those properties can be of use. In this case, the starring isotope was chlorine-45. With 17 protons and 28 neutrons, it has a touch of what physicists categorize as magic.

Protons and neutrons in a nucleus are known collectively as nucleons and they’re arranged in shells. When they appear in certain numbers (2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126), scientists call them “magic” because they fill complete shells and make the nucleus more stable (although that may be a lifetime of only a few milliseconds). Magic numbers are like sentinels in what’s known as the valley of stability. A proton or neutron count with a magic number (as in chlorine-45) resides at the border, where on one side you have nucleons bound strongly enough to hold the nucleus together and on the other their imbalance causes it to fall apart. This isn’t always straightforward, however. Magic numbers change for nuclei rich with neutrons, and scientists want to know how that alters the shell structure.

In this experiment the scientific team found that the beta decay of chlorine-45 converts one of its 28 neutrons to one of the 18 protons in argon-45. This lies outside the magic threshold of a 20-proton shell, creating a particularly unstable, unbound system. Grzywacz said “the experiment provided a unique method to study how the protons behave in a very neutron-rich nucleus. Understanding the persistence of nuclear shell gaps is crucial to describe the properties and formation of atomic nuclei.”

A Nuclear Symphony

A combined arrangement of innovative tools, talent, and effort made this work successful.

“This was an important experiment because we tried a lot of new things,” Grzywacz said.

His team was particularly pleased to use the full capabilities of the FRIB Decay Station Initiator (FDSi) for the first time. Grzywacz is the spokesperson for the FDSi, a years-long collaboration that designed, built, and implemented a modular combination of beta, neutron, and gamma-ray detectors to measure the decay of the most exotic nuclei produced at FRIB.

The FDSi played a crucial role in determining the complete decay pattern of chlorine-45. Cox identified the isotopes in this experiment as interesting candidates to show what the decay station could do. A key element was the two-focal plane detection system, which allows for simultaneous measurements and ultimately a combined and consistent data analysis that wouldn’t be possible with a single multi-detector system.

This is what Grzywacz called a scientific “symphony,” where “the instruments combined produce a different result than if played separately and individually.”

That metaphor extends to the scientists involved in the experiment.

Cox and Zhengyu Xu (a UT postdoctoral research associate) helped install FDSi at FRIB from the ground up. They’ve supported every FDSi experiment since, and led the analysis on the work published in PRL. Wei Jia Ong of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) directed the measurement. Her interest was to measure decay of another isotope, calcium-54; this experiment was a prelude to the 2024 measurement.

Navigating multiple instruments and working with a large team were part of the learning experience for Cox.

“Working at FRIB on FDSi, I have learned a great deal about the complex nature of radioactive ion beam facilities and specifically the challenges which come with combining multiple different detector systems for a single experiment,” he said. “The varying types of detectors require a large collaboration of researchers, each with their own expertise to handle the individual detector systems, while also having to work together to ensure a successful experiment.”

Cox explained that frustrations could arise while everyone was trying to optimize their system in a limited amount of time. However, he found that having a sizable collaboration was helpful because in the end, working together, smaller groups could focus on individual detectors. Sharing the responsibility meant the science moved forward more seamlessly. This is the fourth publication based on FDSi findings and the third published in PRL.

To See the World, Stay Close to Home

Cox stayed in Tennessee for his education and ended up travelling far and wide. In addition to FRIB, he’s worked at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN in Japan and presented his research at conferences all over the world. He arrived on campus with a William Bugg Physics Scholarship and a spot in the Chancellor’s Honors Program. Over his undergraduate and graduate studies, he won the department’s Robert Talley Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research, secured a Graduate Advancement and Training Education Fellowship from the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII), and won the department’s Paul Stelson Fellowship for Professional Promise in recognition of his outstanding research contributions as well as his departmental citizenship.

He plans to finish his PhD this summer and work in either the private sector or at a national laboratory. Whatever comes next, his time at UT has prepared him well, especially with the nuclear research group collaborating at laboratories in different states and countries.

“I have really enjoyed both travelling all over the world, for participating in experiments and presenting results, and the ability to meet many different researchers from all corners of the globe,” Cox said. “I believe this will greatly help me in my career, as I have been able to form many connections and establish myself as a young scientist.”

Four UT Physics Students Win DOE SCGSR Support

June 27, 2024

Collage of graduate students who won national and university awards in spring 2024 — James Christie, Love Christie, Andy Tanjaroon Ly, Jinu Thomas, Charles Bell, and Colter Richardson

UT’s campus may be a little quieter during summer, but that doesn’t mean science stops. With help from the US Department of Energy, our graduate students are exploring exotic behavior in materials, measuring why carbon doesn’t fly apart, and testing the limits of the Standard Model of Physics. James Christie, Love Christie, Andy Tanjaroon Ly, and Jinu Thomas are among 86 students who learned this spring their thesis research will be supported by the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program.

Teaming students with state-of-the-art facilities at national laboratories, the SCGSR effort develops a new generation of scientists to lead innovation and discovery critical to the agency’s mission. While the students’ research projects may differ, the overall goal is the same: to learn more about the how nature works at a fundamental level.

Tanjaroon Ly and Thomas are both working with Professor Steve Johnston to investigate the inner workings of materials.

Tanjaroon Ly will develop computational models to study exotic superconducting states, where electric current moves through a material without losing energy. Working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), he’ll use Monte Carlo simulations to carry out his research. Named for the famed casino, these calculations are a powerful tool using random sampling and probability to generate possible mathematical simulations for new states.

Thomas is working with quantum materials—those whose properties can’t be described by the classical laws of physics. He’s focusing on out-of-equilibrium systems that can drive novel phenomena, using time-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (tr-RIXS) to explore that behavior. Under Johnston’s supervision, Thomas will work with Dr. Mark Dean at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

While Tanjaroon Ly and Thomas deepen our understanding of materials, James and Love Christie are studying the carbon present in our cells and the model describing the building blocks of the universe.

Working with Assistant Professor Miguel Madurga at ORNL, James Christie is taking a closer look at the Hoyle state, the source of most of the carbon on Earth (including in humans). In this state, excited carbon can de-excite and turn into ground state carbon-12, which makes up nearly 99 percent of the carbon on our planet. His research focusses on measuring how often that transition happens instead of the excited carbon simply flying apart.

Love Christie will also be at ORNL, working with Professor Nadia Fomin on uncertainty studies for the Nab experiment. Using the Spallation Neutron Source’s powerful neutron beam, the experiment will provide precise testing of neutron decay parameters predicted by the Standard Model of Physics, the framework for the particles and forces foundational to our understanding of the universe.

The Road to Rocky Top

What brought these four students to Knoxville is in many ways a combination of UT’s strengths: the chance to be part of a strong research program at a large university that’s also close to home.

Tanjaroon Ly is from St. Petersburg, Florida, and earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and math at the University of Florida.

“I decided to attend UT based on the strength and diversity of the condensed matter research,” he said, noting the proximity of ORNL and the opportunity for collaborations there.

Thomas is originally from Kochi, Kerala, in southern India. He moved to the United States in 2009 and spent most of his time in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin before moving to Knoxville for graduate school. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in engineering physics, he said “visiting UT gave me the ‘big’ school feel I had as an undergrad. Having been away from physics for four years, the program here felt better suited to help me learn. Plus, it’s beautiful here in East Tennessee.”

For James Christie and Love Christie, who hail from Campbellsville and Richmond Kentucky, respectively, family made the difference. Both graduated from Eastern Kentucky University (James in physics with minors in chemistry and math; Love with a dual degree in physics and math).

Coming to UT meant “I stayed close to home, which is really nice,” James Christie said. “My family’s really important to me, so being close to home is good.”

Love Christie saw twin benefits in UT’s graduate physics program.

“It was the best option for following my passion and staying close to my family simultaneously,” she said.

Success Begets Success

Since 2016, 13 UT physics students have won SCGSR funding to help them untangle scientific questions as they work toward their graduate degrees. These latest awards are among multiple honors the department’s students won this spring, including a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for Charles Bell, who finished an undergraduate degree in May and will begin graduate studies at the University of Michigan this fall. A US Navy veteran, he worked with Assistant Professor Larry Lee in the Compact Muon Solenoid research group, where he helped create a visualization for a possible muon collider detector. The artwork made the cover of Science Magazine.

Graduate Student Colter Richardson also won support through the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute Graduate Advancement, Training and Education (GATE) fellowship program. He’ll work with Professor Anthony Mezzacappa on Bridging Data Analysis and Physical Modeling of Core-Collapse Supernovae. He’s the eighth physics graduate student since 2020 to secure GATE funding.

Learn more about our graduate program in physics.

Yang Zhang Wins Prestigious IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize

June 20, 2024

Assistant Professor Yang Zhang hadn’t planned to go to Greece this summer, much less prepare an invited lecture. But when he learned he’d been chosen for the 2024 International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Early Career Scientist Prize in Computational Physics, he was happy to put together some last-minute travel plans.

Watching Galaxies Form

The IUPAP comprises 20 international Commissions representing different subfields of physics. Each Commission recognizes outstanding physicists in the first stages of their careers with the Early Career Scientist Prize. C20, the Commission on Computational Physics, selected Zhang for this year’s award. He was cited “for his significant and innovative achievements in computational study of topological bands and quantum anomalous Hall states in two-dimensional semiconductors.”

As the C20 website explains, computational physics is where a computer becomes the basic tool for exploring natural laws. When experiments are impossible or impractical, computation provides simulated studies with closely-controlled conditions. Where data are overwhelming or unwieldy in terms of volume or intricacy, computational codes and models can work through them more easily.

Zhang has been intrigued by the field’s possibilities since his early studies.

“I first got interested in computational physics during my undergraduate research internship with Dr. Sverre Aarseth” of the University of Cambridge Institute of Astronomy, he said. “Seeing a galaxy form on the computer screen was mesmerizing. I learned to tweak parameters and to optimize the program even at hardware level, gaining a deeper understanding of the physics and computational techniques involved. The blend of physical intuition, mathematical rigor, and computational creativity ignited my passion for the field and set me on the path to further studies and research in computational physics.”

Zhang has taken that passion and applied it quantum materials, helping build UT’s research and teaching expertise in this growing and critical field.

Physics Professor and Department Head Adrian Del Maestro explained that Zhang “is driving innovation in quantum materials research by translating the latest advances in artificial intelligence and applying them to extraordinarily challenging problems in strongly interacting quantum systems.”

He added that with his strong collaboration network, Yang’s research has a truly global impact, while at the same he has a unique gift for developing new algorithmic methods and communicating these discoveries to UT’s undergraduate and graduate students.

Del Maestro works with Zhang through their leadership roles in UT’s Center for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, a National Science Foundation-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). Both hold joint appointments in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

An Unexpected Honor

Zhang joined UT in 2023 after a postdoctoral appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology following completion of a PhD at the Max Planck Institute Dresden. He has won several awards, including two Overall Winner Awards in the World Supercomputing Contest, the SFB Best Doctoral Thesis Award, the Tschirnhaus Medal from the Leibniz Association, and the Otto-Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society. Now he adds the prestigious IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize to that list.

“Receiving this award means a great deal to me,” Zhang said. “It recognizes my hard work and dedication in computational quantum matter and highlights the importance of my method development, as well as my contributions in semiconductor superlattice. This recognition motivates me to continue pushing the boundaries of knowledge in developing methods for large-scale quantum systems and inspires me to mentor future scientists.”

Zhang was surprised to learn he had won the prize, as nominees may have up to eight years of research experience after finishing a doctoral degree and he was about four years past his PhD when he learned he had been nominated.

“This award was an unexpected but deeply appreciated honor,” he explained. “I believe recent breakthroughs in fractional quantum anomalous Hall effects played a significant role in earning this recognition, and I am grateful for the support and acknowledgment of my work in this exciting field.”

Zhang will accept the prize at the 35th IUPAP International Conference on Computational Physics (CCP2024) to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, July 7-12. As part of his recognition, he’s invited to deliver a lecture. Though his summer agenda hadn’t included the conference, he said he “quickly organized my travel arrangements and prepared for the event.”

About IUPAP

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) was established more than a century ago in Brussels with 13 member countries, holding its first General Assembly in 1923 in Paris. That number has grown to 60 member countries, with the Union being the only international physics organization run by the physics community itself. IUPAP’s mission is “to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the application of physics toward solving problems of concern to humanity.”

Honors Day Awards 2024

May 16, 2024

On May 6 the department hosted our annual Honors Day celebration to recognize outstanding students, faculty, and staff. Professor and Department Head Adrian Del Maestro welcomed guests and shared highlights from the department’s banner year: multiple distinguished awards and fellowships for our faculty and students, 33 graduates for 2023-2024, and milestones like passing the comprehensive exam (a feat 24 students have accomplished in the past year). Physics has a lot to celebrate! Many thanks to Assistant Professor Larry Lee for presenting the undergraduate awards and Professor Norman Mannella for presenting the graduate honors. Read more about our amazing awardees below, and see the photo album at the bottom of the page.

Extraordinary Departmental Service Awards

This award goes to staff members who’ve gone above and beyond their job descriptions to keep the department moving in the right direction. This year the department honored Josh Bell (Machine Shop Supervisor) and Debra Johnson (Business Manager). They were cited “for stepping up and taking over leadership of their respective areas (Machine Shop and Business Office), resulting in a seamless transition and continual excellent service in support of the department’s teaching, research, and service mission.”

Outstanding First Year Student Award

This award recognizes exceptional achievement by a student in the first year of physics study. The faculty considers traditional first-year students enrolled as physics majors as well as transfer students who are in their first year at UT.

This year we were fortunate to recognize three extraordinary students with this honor: Austin Miller, Amelia Sandoval, and Jordan Ashley.

While they have distinguished themselves academically, they also bring enthusiasm, discipline, and diligence to their coursework. They are off to a great start in physics.

Robert Talley Awards

The Talley Awards are made possible by the late Robert Talley, a UT Physics master’s and PhD graduate and a distinguished alumnus honoree.

The first award (for Outstanding Undergraduate Research) goes to a student who has demonstrated a talent for solving problems through physics theory and/or experiment. Charles Bell has worked across theory, phenomenology, and experiment. One of his recent successes was helping visualize a particle detector in the game creation system Unreal Engine. He jumped into an incredibly daunting and unfamiliar framework and took the first steps into rendering these detectors in Unreal. The renderings that came out of this work have since been used in a recent issue of Science, including on the cover. This summer he’ll start graduate studies at the University of Michigan, working on the ATLAS Experiment at CERN to continue his particle physics research. He has earned a prestigious NSF graduate fellowship to support his work.

The second Talley Award recognizes Outstanding Undergraduate Leadership and goes to a student who has made significant contributions to the department outside the classroom, adding depth to our programs and encouraging interest in physics. Jordan Ashley spent time in the workforce before pursuing an undergraduate degree and joined the department as a transfer student. She’s been working in the particle physics group to perform a reinterpretation of an ATLAS search for displaced leptons in an R-parity violating supersymmetry context. She has written her own analysis code, helped merge everything into a GitHub project, and established a workflow for shared usage. She’s developed a fully working setup for event generation and compared results to those from the original paper. She’s working on scaling this up for large amounts of input data. Jordan also represented the department on a high energy physics lobbying trip to Washington, DC.

James W. McConnell Award for Academic Excellence

A bequest from UT graduate James W. McConnell established this Physics Excellence Endowment, resulting in $1 million in gifts to the physics department. The McConnell Award recognizes students who have senior standing and who have demonstrated outstanding performance in academic coursework.

Fredrick (John) Melhorn is a Chancellor’s Honors Scholar who has balanced rigorous coursework with research, including work for his honors thesis. His primary focus is on machine learning applications for direct photon classification in calorimeter clusters, which he tackled with enthusiasm and dedication. He exceeded expectations by delivering a fully functional Convolutional Neural Network model and a streamlined workflow for preprocessing physics data within a week. His proactive approach to learning and problem-solving has been evident throughout the research process, and he has consistently surpassed the goals set for him. He has also excelled in writing-intensive honors classes, building a strong academic record over his undergraduate career.

Douglas V. Roseberry Distinguished Upper Class Major Award

Douglas Roseberry loved physics and extracurricular activities inside and outside the department. He planned to attend graduate school at Princeton when he died unexpectedly in October 1959. In 1960, the department awarded the first Roseberry Award to honor a student with similar gifts and enthusiasm for research, academics, and leadership. The Roseberry Award is the department’s most distinguished undergraduate honor.

Taylor Sussmane has excelled in academics, research, and community service. She spearheaded the effort to revitalize our department’s Women in Physics group after a long hiatus. This group has sprung back to life with active meetings and membership, with support for women across the department. She worked in heavy ion physics before moving to the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN, studying possible new particles produced in the collisions of the Large Hadron Collider. With collaborators from UT and the University of Chicago, she led analysis that sets new unique constraints on such new particles, and remains one of the strongest limits to date in a particle region of model space. Next up, she’ll be a proud UT alumna when she continues her studies as a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, working in experimental particle physics at the LHC.

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards

This year we recognized three outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants for their fine work in the undergraduate physics labs.

Nico Braukman taught PHYS 221 and 222 this past year, inspiring student comments including: “Nico was one of the best TAs I have ever had. Very positive, helpful, and insightful. Made the material much more understandable.” And: “Nico was so helpful and kind throughout the semester! No matter how silly or ridiculous my questions were in lab, they were always kindly answered.”

Ryan Elder was a GTA for PHYS 231 this year, earning student evaluations such as: “Ryan was a great TA and his explanations were very helpful. He created a positive and unique lab environment that challenged me to critically think about how I gauge how well I understand the material.” And: “(Ryan) did a great job explaining concepts and clearly knew what was going on. He made a more fun learning environment by being friendly and approachable. Even when I’d be having a bad day, he always showed that he cared and was willing to offer help.”

Amber Stinson is an astronomy GTA whose student evaulations outlined how she is very good at running and teaching lab. One student wrote: “I was never confused during her explanations of labs, and she was always willing to help if I was stuck on any portions of the labs. She was very kind when helping other students.”

Wayne Kincaid Award

Wayne Kincaid was a UT Physics alumnus who later worked as a research associate in the department. He devoted his energy to developing tools that would make learning engaging and accessible for students at all levels. The department established this award to honor his legacy by recognizing a student who shares his love for astronomy and astrophysics education.

Jordan Jubeck is one of two leads for the telescope labs we host for undergraduate students. In presenting the Kincaid Award, Sean Lindsay, senior lecturer and astronomy coordinator, described how she created an Astronomy Telescope Labs website that provides status updates on if the rooftop will be open, gives weather forecasts, and houses an archive of astrophotography taken from our rooftop observing platform. She has also been a tremendous and enthusiastic driver of astronomy education outreach, helping out with events at local schools, community groups, and our own solar (eclipse) and night sky observing events. She also runs much of our planetarium-based outreach programming.

Stelson Fellowships

Paul Stelson finished a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he was 23. He worked for MIT and then joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a nuclear physicist, eventually becoming Director of the Physics Division. Dr. Stelson especially enjoyed interacting with young physicists, serving as an adjunct professor in the physics department for nearly 30 years. His family established the Stelson honors in his memory to assist aspiring physicists in completing their education.

Each year we recognize two students at Honors Day with Stelson Fellowships. The first of these is for Professional Promise. Abhyuday Sharda began in our department as a teaching assistant, helping new graduate students adjust to the job by sharing all his notes and lab writeups from previous years. He then moved into research on XEM2 experiments at Jefferson Laboratory. He threw himself into data analysis, assembling needed resources, asking the right questions, and sharing everything he learns with his peers. He knows how to calibrate multiple spectrometer detectors, has done several efficiency studies, and recently obtained EMC results for several isoscalar nuclei. He has developed analysis code, collaborated with experts on detector calibrations and analysis techniques, and built life-long relationships with his peer cohort.

The Stelson Fellowship for Outstanding Beginning Research recognizes a student for outstanding progress early in their research. Johnny Lawless has been tackling problems, learning new skills, and producing results since he first joined the graduate program. He spent a summer at Fermilab working with a team doing test beam characterizations of a Compact Muon Solenoid tracker upgrade component. He quickly became a lead on that project, driving the result with his enthusiasm, curiosity, and hard work. He has since jumped into the world of Large Hadron Collider data analysis and Machine Learning for high dimensional input space problems. On top of his personal research contributions, he goes above and beyond to help train the large number of undergraduates to ensure success across the UT CMS group.

Fowler-Marion Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Joseph Fowler was part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Physics Division and also taught physics courses and conducted research at UT. With his colleague Jerry Marion he co-authored the textbook Fast Neutron Physics. They donated the royalties to the department, where the funds helped establish an award recognizing a graduate student who has excelled in scholarship, research, and departmental citizenship.

Harini Radhakrishnan has consistently excelled in all these areas. She has three published papers, (one as first author) with another important first author paper in the final manuscript preparation stage. She works to understand entanglement in condensed matter, including a paper that provides new insights into particle entanglement and will yield new tools able to diagnose the generation of exotic quasiparticles in and out of equilibrium. Her research contributes to a better understanding of how quantum statistical mechanics emerges from unitary time evolution in closed quantum systems, with implications for statistical, condensed matter, ultra-cold atom, and quantum information physics. Harini has contributed greatly to the department’s community, serving as president and vice president of the Graduate Physics Society. She also advised high school students as part of UT’s Upward Bound Program and helped create the Individual Development Plan our students now use.

Faculty Honors

Honors Day offers the department an opportunity to recognize exceptional faculty contributions to teaching and research mentorship. The undergraduates select two awardees through the Society of Physics Students and the graduate students do the same through the Graduate Physics Society. This year’s honorees are:

Society of Physics Students Teacher of the Year Award: Assistant Professor Sherwood Richers

Society of Physics Students Research Advisor of the Year Award: Professor Michael Guidry

Graduate Physics Society Teacher of the Year Award: Professor Anthony Mezzacappa

Graduate Physics Society Research Advisor of the Year Award: Assistant Professor Larry Lee

Sigma Pi Sigma Inductees

Sigma Pi Sigma is the physics honor society. UT’s chapter began in 1954 with Alvin Nielsen among the inaugural members. The society’s four dimensions are service, encouragement, honor, and fellowship. This year we welcomed the following student’s into our chapter:

Joesph Beller
Raghav Chari
Hugh Jones
Amanda Nowicki
Nolan Robertson
James Rogers
Alexander Sizemore

YETI Awards

Assistant Professors Tova Holmes and Larry Lee created the Year End Tournament of Imagination (YETI) in 2022 as an engaging challenge where players analyze data to solve puzzles, unlocking more clues to reveal fun facts. This year the department recognized the tournament champions at Honors Day, where we acknowledged the four finishers: Jordan O’Kronley, Sanket Sharma, Micah Hillman, and Rebecca Godri. Claiming the year’s honors by category were:

Very Delightful: Rebecca Godri
Very Interactive: Jordan O’Kronley
Overall winner: Micah Hillman

Photo of Adrian Del Maestro and Josh Bell — Adrian Del Maestro and Josh Bell

Photo of Debra Johnson and Adrian Del Maestro — Adrian Del Maestro and Josh Bell

Women in Physics Lunch: Spring 2024

May 9, 2024

Photo of the Women in Physics Lunch, May 2024, at the University of Tennessee.

The Spring 2024 edition of the Women in Physics Lunch was held on May 8. A large group of 40 undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs, and faculty gathered despite the challenging weather that we had in the morning.

While enjoying excellent food, we had a chance to catch up with each other and celebrate the end of the academic year learning about the future endeavors of the various members of our group that are graduating. We thank the Department of Physics for the support provided, and we are looking forward to our next meeting, the Fall edition, on December 4, 2024. Save the date!

Courtesy of Professor Adriana Moreo

Honors Day 2024

April 29, 2024

Plan now to attend the department’s annual Honors Day festivities on May 6, 2024!

We will celebrate our staff for their extraordinary service and our students for their academic, leadership, and research achievements. The Society of Physics Students and Graduate Physics Society will also honor outstanding faculty members for exemplary teaching and advising.

The awards ceremony will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Ballroom C (Room 272C) of the Student Union on UT’s campus (please note the change in location from previous years).

You can also attend via Zoom: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/89778052194?pwd=WjUvTzB4Y3ovUU1ZbUFhTmhCWjBNQT09.

Announcement image inspired by research in Wonhee Ko’s group.

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