Category: Physics & Astronomy

Texas A&M physicist and Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering member Girish Agarwal is part of an international effort to quantify wave-particle duality in photons that has been selected as a "Physics World" Top 10 Breakthrough of 2021.

For the second consecutive year, the Texas A&M Society of Physics Students chapter has been recognized by the association's national office 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.

Congratulations to Texas A&M physicist and Cyclotron Institute member Ralf Rapp, 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.

Chemist Emily Pentzer and astronomer Louis Strigari are among 20 campus-wide faculty unveiled October 28 as Texas A&M's most recent class of Presidential Impact Fellows, a coveted title recognizing the development of and excellence in one of the university's greatest strengths — its faculty.

Congratulations to Texas A&M mathematician Peter Kuchment and Texas A&M astronomer Casey Papovich, who have been elected as 2021 Fellows of the American Physical Society in recognition of their 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.

A team of physicists and learning scientists at Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin surveyed more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students involved in presenting multiple physics outreach programs at Texas A&M, determining 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 and preparation for 21st century careers in science and other areas.

Three academic programs in the Texas A&M College of Science are among the world's top 50 in the Shanghai Ranking 2021 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS), an annual survey of more than 4,000 international universities in a total of 54 subjects across the natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences.

After being honored as Fish Camp namesakes in 2013, Texas A&M physicist Dave Toback and his wife Katherine '88 '00 were inspired to create an endowed Toback Fish Camp Scholarship aimed at supporting future Aggies interested in participating in what for many Texas A&M freshmen is their first tradition with lifelong impact — whoop!

Texas A&M physicists led by Rupak Mahapatra have been awarded a three-year, $1.27 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy 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.

Texas A&M astronomer and Associate Dean for Undergraduate and International Programs Lucas Macri is one of four emerging faculty leaders across the campus selected as Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows for 2021-2022.

Sophomore physics major Connor Bowerman '24 has been selected as one of two 2021-22 Texas A&M Beckman Scholars, a prestigious award intended to recognize and support exceptional undergraduate students in chemistry, biological sciences or interdisciplinary combinations thereof at selected universities across the United States.

Congratulations to Texas A&M physicist Tatiana Erukhimova, one of three faculty members who have been appointed to 2021 University Professorships in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence (UPUTE) at Texas A&M University.

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, which recorded its first images on April 10.

A landmark gift from Jon Hagler ’58 empowered the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study to invite top-tier researchers to Texas A&M University in perpetuity, including globally renowned astronomer Robert Kennicutt Jr.

The latest milestone in Giant Magellan Telescope construction history is underway in Tucson — the casting of the project's sixth mirror at the University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at Steward Observatory.