News Archives
Cosmic Radio Bursts Yield First Clues About Their Origins
With the help of the world’s largest steerable radio telescope, a team of researchers that includes University of Wisconsin-Madison physicists has produced the first detailed portrait of a Fast Radio Burst – a brief but highly energetic pulse of radio waves from unknown sources in the distant universe.
-Terry Devitt, (608) 262-8282, trdevitt@wisc.edu
CONTACT: Peter Timbie, (608) 890-2002, pttimbie@wisc.edu
UW Selected to Host 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics
The University of Wisconsin – Madison has been selected to be a host site for the 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). Other 2017 host sites are:
- Rice University
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- Montana State University
- Virginia Tech
- Harvard University
- Princeton University
- UCLA
- Wayne State University
AAAS honors Mark Eriksson and Gary Shiu
UW Physics professors Gary Shiu and Mark Eriksson have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Mark Eriksson was elected “for innovative and important contributions to the understanding and development of nanodevices for spintronics and quantum information processing applications.”
Gary Shiu was elected “for pioneering contributions to string phenomenology and cosmology, for leadership in connecting fundamental theory to experiment, and for promoting basic science in the U.S. and Asia.”
UW Alum Dr. Angela Laird (Ph.D. 2002) named APS Woman Physicist of the Month
UW alum Angela Laird was named Woman Physicist of the Month for November, 2015 by the American Physical Society. Dr. Angela Laird is an Associate Professor of Physics at Florida International University and the director of FIU’s Neuroinformatics and Brain Connectivity Laboratory. She was recently identified on the Thompson Reuters’ list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds of 2014,” and she ranks among the top 1 percent most cited for the field of neuroscience and behavior between 2002 and 2012. Laird received her Ph.D. in Physics/Medical Physics from the UW in 2002.
Other UW Physics people who have been recognized include
January 2015 – Marjorie Corcoran (Post Doc 1977-79)
June 2013 – Reina Maruyama (former faculty)
February 2013 – Laura Reina (Scientist 97-98)
December 2012 – Jodi Cooley (UW Ph.D. 2003)
UW Alum Dr. Gene Amdahl, Pioneer of Mainframe Computing, Dies at 92
Dr. Gene Amdahl died today at the age of 92. As a young computer scientist at IBM in the early 1960s, Amdahl played a crucial role in the development of the System/360 series, the most successful line of mainframe computers in IBM’s history. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the UW in 1952.
Winners of 2016 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics announced
Stephen Olson, Ph.D. (UW-Madison 1970, advisor Pondrom) along with Drs. Jonathan Dorfan, Davis Hitlin, and Fumikko Takasaki have been awarded the 2016 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics.
Campus Dining Spots Going Receipt-free
Through the Office of Sustainability, Professor Carlsmith connected with undergraduate Rachel Feil, who developed a receipt reduction project through her sustainability internship and as a class project for an environmental studies capstone course before graduating in 2014. In addition to cutting down on litter and exposure to BPA, housing will cut receipt paper expenses by close to 90 percent, saving about $20,000 to $30,000 per year.
Students create inventions of the future in UW-Madison garage
Some of America’s greatest innovations have come from garages, or basements. The makerspace called Garage Physics at UW-Madison is both.
Garage Physics: a makerspace for undergraduate brainstorms
Duncan Carlsmith (left) discusses an advanced search engine with Josh Cherek, the student who developed it, at the Garage Physics makerspace. The twin copper pipes in the foreground replicate an 1851 experiment that Albert Einstein cited as one foundation for his special theory of relativity.
Photo: David Tenenbaum