Tag: Department of Physics and Astronomy


Invisible “Dark Matter”

From the September 2014 edition of Desktop News | Three University of Alabama physicists are among dozens of researchers planning and developing a new international search for dark matter – an invisible material that scientists believe makes up roughly 27 percent of the universe’s mass. Drs. Andreas Piepke, Jerry Busenitz and Ion Stancu, all professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, are University representatives on the project, which is being managed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. UA scientists […]

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Students Win Goldwater, Hollings, Truman Scholarships

From the May 2014 Desktop News | Five College of Arts and Sciences students recently won prestigious national awards, helping UA to rank once again among the top universities with students selected. Of the eight UA students winning awards, two students from the College were named Goldwater Scholars, two were named Hollings Scholars, and one was named a Truman Scholar. Brian Goodell, a chemical engineering and physics major from Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Lynda Truong, a chemistry major from Grand Prairie, […]

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Researchers Publish on Recent Neutrino Observation

Department of Physics and Astronomy researchers were part of the exciting recent announcement of the scientific observation of 28 very high-energy particle events. These events were the first solid evidence for astrophysical neutrinos which were captured with cosmic accelerators at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a particle detector buried in the Antarctic ice. Details of the research appeared in Science last month. Co-authors on the paper included Dr. Patrick Toale, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dr. Pavel […]

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‘God Particle’ Scientist Visits UA

A&S professors research Higgs boson, particle physics in ongoing experiment From the September 2013 Desktop News | One of the scientists who discovered the “God particle” visited UA August 28 to discuss the milestone discovery. Dr. Albert de Roeck, a scientist on the research team that recently discovered the Higgs boson — aka the “God particle” — spoke about the discovery, and ongoing research, at an event sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The standard model of particle physics was […]

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College Students Earn Fellowships

Three Students with Ties to the College Are NSF Graduate Research Fellows From the May 2013 Desktop News | More than 13,000 graduate students applied for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Seven of those selected represented The University of Alabama and three of those have ties to the College of Arts and Sciences. Jennifer S. Anders, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Jordyn L. Johnson, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, were selected […]

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Mystery of Multiplicity

Series celebrates diversity of perspectives in the liberal arts, across the University The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 22 academic divisions, 100 programs of study, 534 faculty members, and 9,250 students. That’s a lot of specialties, personalities, and interests — and Creative Campus’s Object X discussion series wants to celebrate them. By drawing together faculty and students from the College’s many academic divisions, Creative Campus hopes to “highlight the multiplicity of perspectives present in our daily lives.” […]

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Multiple Grant Opportunities Aimed at Expanding Physics Education for Future High School Teachers

A new partnership between the College’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and faculty in UA’s College of Education is aimed at improving the training of high school physics teachers in Alabama. The partnership is the result of two funding opportunities: a five-year $8 million Alliance for Physics Excellence Program (APEX) grant from the National Science Foundation and a three-year $300,000 grant from the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC). According to Dr. J.W. Harrell, a professor in the Department of Physics […]

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College Physicist Collaborates with UA Scientists to Seek New Source of Magnetism as World Supply Ebbs

Dr. Patrick LeClair, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and fellow researchers in UA’s Center for Materials for Information Technology (MINT), have been researching alternative materials to produce magnets. Their research is a response to the growing concern in the scientific community that the supply of naturally magnetic materials will not keep up with demand. Magnets are used in nearly all electronic devices such as computers, cellphones, and medical appliances. And although these appliances are in […]

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Astronomer Works to Change Public Perceptions of Science

Astronomy professor Dr. Bill Keel is a man with a mission. He’s heavily involved in the Galaxy Zoo Project, which encourages citizens around the world (with or without scientific experience) to evaluate photos taken by the Hubble Telescope. Galaxy Zoo is unique in that millions of people across the globe are encouraged to examine and even classify millions of galaxies. In 2007, Hanny’s Voorwep (an astronomical oddity roughly the size of the Milky Way) was discovered by novice astronomer Hanny […]

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