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Welcome to the Department of
Physics and Astronomy

                
                 

Spotlight:

Class of 2009 Graduates with Many Honors

060109: Congratulations to the 2009 graduates of the Department of Physics and Astronomy! In the graduation ceremony held today:

  • 21 students earned BS degrees in Physics (up from last year's 15)
  • 3 students earned BA degrees in Physics
  • 1 student earned a BS degree in Physics and Astronomy
  • 1 student earned a BA degree in Physics and Astronomy
  • 11 students earned MA degrees in Physics
  • 6 students earned PhD degrees in Physics
  • 4 students earned PhD degrees in Physics and Astronomy.

Bachelor's Degrees


(Click here for a high-resolution image.)

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Additional News

NASA Spitzer Space Telescope Moves from Cryogenic to "Warm" Mission

052909: The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope's cryogenic mission is over. At approximately 2:30 PM EDT on Friday, 15 May 2009, precisely as expected, the last of the facility's liquid-helium coolant evaporated. The telescope and instruments began quickly to warm up from the temperature, 1.5 degrees above absolute zero, at which they have been kept for the 5.7-year duration of the mission. The temperature is expected to level off at about 30 degrees above absolute zero, at which the observatory's Infrared Spectrograph and Multiband Imaging Photometer, and half of the detector arrays in the Infrared Array Camera, can no longer function.

The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) was in use as the helium ran out. University of Rochester Professors Dan Watson and Bill Forrest are members of the team that designed and built the IRS under the leadership of Professor Jim Houck at Cornell University. Watson and Forrest have been among the most frequent users of the IRS.

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Weak value measurements by a strong duo
(an in-depth focus on Jordan and Howell's recent work)

042309: Assistant Professor Andrew Jordan and Associate Professor John Howell teamed up this past year with collaborators to make three strong advances related to weak value measurements and slow light. First, they discovered that gravity can push slow light down by about 1 Angstrom in the lab. Second, they demonstrated an optical pi cross-phase modulation jump. And third, they were able to measure extremely small (560-femtoradian) shifts of an optical beam. Much of this work merged Jordan's theoretical research with weak value measurements and Howell's experimental research with slow light and optical systems.

Publishing three papers between October 2008 and April 2009, their work was jump started when Howell posed an idea about gravitational deflection and slow light. Jordan and graduate student Justin Dressel hammered out the mathematics, then worked with slow light expert Howell and gravity expert Professor Sarada Rajeev to smooth out the details.

» Click here for an in-depth focus on Jordan and Howell's recent work

SUNY Geneseo Confers Honorary Doctorate to Professor Esther Conwell

052909: At its graduation ceremony on May 16, SUNY Geneseo awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree to Esther Conwell, University of Rochester Professor of Physics and Chemistry. Conwell is best known for her research in semiconductor physics and transistor design, efforts that propelled her to the forefront of the birth of the computer revolution.

 

 

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PAS Graduate Student Amy Wakim Attends Meeting of 26 Physics Nobel Laureates

050809: Amy Wakim, now a fourth-year graduate student in Professor Bigelow's lab, won the honor of attending the 58th Meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau, Germany in June of 2008. Nominated by the University, Amy was selected by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) from a large pool of applicants sponsored by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, Mars, Inc., and ORAU.

Of the week Amy spent with 26 Physics Nobel Laureates in Germany, she says, "It was extremely inspiring. For example, Professor Dr. Douglas D. Osheroff of Stanford University, who won the Nobel in 1996, told us about his experiences in graduate school. He also said that while it's important to immerse ourselves in physics, it's also important to maintain a balance in life." The key point that Amy took home with her is that, to do well in research, luck is involved but ninety-nine percent of success is due to dedication and hard work.

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Sixty Students Participate in the 2009 Rochester Symposium for Undergraduate Physics Students (RSPS)

April 4, 2009 marked the day of the twenty-eighth Annual Rochester Symposium for Undergraduate Physics Students (RSPS), held this year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Overall, sixty undergraduates from eight colleges and universities participated by either attending or speaking about their research.

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NYS APS Spring 2009 Meeting Held

The April 2009 symposium of the New York State Section of the American Physical Society took place on April 17-18 at the University of Rochester. This marked the 100th symposium. The topic this year was:

Harnessing the Photon: from Energy to Entanglement

The meeting began at 1 pm on Friday April 17th and ended at about 3 pm on Saturday the 18th. After the closing session, we offered a tour of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Following tradition, we had a poster session for papers contributed by students and selected several papers for oral presentations.

Go to the symposium website.

Download the symposium poster.