In an article titled, “A Pioneer’s Preserverence,” Preston Schmitt describes the inspiring story of Physics Professor Sau Lan Wu:

The UW–Madison Vilas Professor’s story is a lesson in dichotomy. She grew up in dire poverty on the streets of Hong Kong as her wealthy father traveled the globe as the Ginger King, so named for his success in the preserved-ginger industry. She had $40 to her name when she arrived in the United States — 10 years later, she had a PhD from Harvard. And then she devoted her life to a rarely reciprocal field dominated by men.

Wu has played a core role in three major discoveries in particle physics, advancing what we know about the tiniest parts of matter — and therefore, the world around us. Along the way, she’s advised more than 60 UW graduate students and 40 postdoctoral researchers.

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In “A Driving Force,” Stephanie Awe writes about Fatima Ebrahimi’s quest with roots in the UW-Madison Physics Department:

Fatima Ebrahimi PhD’03 is determined to unravel one of today’s most pressing needs. Ebrahimi is a principal research physicist in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Theory Department and an affiliated research scholar in Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysical Sciences. She strives to fully understand what many believe could be the answer to unlimited, clean, and reliable energy: nuclear fusion. She mirrors the very subject she studies, driven by seemingly limitless energy to help direct the future of the field.

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The UW has awarded Professor Pupa Gilbert a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship, an award recognizing distinguished scholarship as well as standout efforts in teaching and service.

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Kimberly Palladino was one of sixteen professors across UW to receive this year’s Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator Award, recognizing research and teaching excellence in faculty who are relatively early in their careers.

Palladino works in the field of direct dark matter searches with the two-phase liquid xenon TPCs LUX and LZ. Her group focuses on detector performance including high voltage and xenon handling. These detectors are generally looking for WIMP (weakly interacting massive particles) dark matter candidates via nuclear recoils. Neutron induced nuclear recoils are studied for backgrounds and calibration. Palladino is also involved in detector R&D for nuclear recoil detection.

UW News

Professor Thad Walker has been elected to be vice-chair of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP). He will serve as the chair starting in 2021.

The university’s large introductory physics classes can be daunting to students, especially those who had limited exposure to the discipline in high school. In collaboration with others, Susan Nossal founded the Physics Learning Center 14 years ago to create a welcoming space for these students. The concept began as the Physics Peer Mentor Tutor Program, now the center’s core. Each semester, carefully trained undergraduates and staff members assist more than 150 students, many experiencing challenging circumstances inside and outside the classroom. The students develop confidence not only in physics, but in university life in general. Some go on to become tutors in the program themselves. Nossal sets a warm tone. Her caring demeanor and devotion to social justice foster powerful connections with students who may feel isolated or frustrated. Tenacious and resourceful, she’s grown the center into a forceful vehicle for student success.

Photo: Susan Nossal works on optical calculations with undergraduate students Matthew McAllister and Hanna Khan in a classroom at Chamberlin Hall.

Photo Credit: Jeff Miller

2019 UW Staff Excellence Awards

The corrugated areas in this stainless steel wall will keep welds from breaking as the vessel is cooled to minus 265 degrees Fahrenheit and filled with 135,000 gallons of liquid argon. The container is a prototype for a neutrino detector that would hold more than 3 million gallons of argon in which neutrino collisions with argon atoms could be carefully studied for clues suggesting why our universe is made of matter.

The photo was captured by Professor Brian Rebel while on a trip to CERN.

2019 Cool Science Images