From the January 2017 Desktop News | Dr. Matthias Kaminski, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy recently teamed up with Nobel laureate Gerard’t Hooft and a group of other international theoretical physicists at the biennial Schwarzschild conference in Frankfurt, Germany, to discuss the mysteries of black holes. “Although astrophysicists have found convincing evidence of the existence of black holes, some other bizarre properties remain behind our experimental grasp,” said professor Bill Keel, a UA professor in the Department […]
Tag: Department of Physics and Astronomy
A&S in the News – Nov. 12–18
University of Alabama students to present dance show Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 12 The University of Alabama department of theater and dance will present a show next week featuring more than 20 student-choreographed works. “Dance Alabama!” is scheduled to run at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15-17 and at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 18 in the auditorium at Morgan Hall. Tickets are $14 for UA students, $17 for seniors and UA employees, and $20 for adults. Tickets are available in Rowand-Johnson Hall at […]
A&S in the News – October 7-13
Fresh take jazzes up venerable Shakespeare play Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 8 Performances of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” are always games of expectation: What fresh take on “To be or not to be” can possibly exist under the sun? Seth Panitch’s production of “Hamlet” at the University of Alabama this week does not disappoint on this score. Setting the play in the 1950s of Greenwich Village, Panitch pits Hamlet’s tortured soliloquies against the stylings of original songs by Tuscaloosa musician Nick […]
A&S in the News – September 2-September 8
Night Sky Viewing At UA Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 7 Members of the public enjoy a free view of the Moon and Saturn through the telescope in Gallalee Hall on the campus of the University of Alabama Wednesday, September 7, 2016. Where Did Trump Come From? Reason – Sept. 8 As George Hawley, a political scientist at the University of Alabama, points out in considerable detail, the post-World War II conservative movement has never been a monolithic bloc. Many of […]
A&S in the News – August 19-25
UA professor receives grant to develop flood prediction system CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Aug. 25 One University of Alabama geography professor is keeping a close eye on the historic flooding in Baton Rouge. Dr. Sagy Cohen specializes in Global Hydrology. His research unit has recently received a grant to develop a flood inundation map using remote satellite images. This grant will allow him to develop a new flood prediction system that can alert people sooner and give them crucial time […]
Where Science Meets Fiction

From the February 2016 Desktop News | When Dr. Jimmy Irwin, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, began his research on the Cheshire Cat group of galaxies, he was interested in more than just the teasing smile of a disappearing cat. “The two bright eye galaxies,” Irwin said, “are actually moving very fast relative to one another, so I thought this may be a collision between two groups.” And if there was a collision, the new galaxy would […]
UA Physicists Share in Breakthrough Prize
From the January 2016 Desktop News | A team of University of Alabama physicists recently received recognition for making key contributions to a landmark study of neutrinos that won the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The $3 million prize, which was divided between five international teams, celebrates a series of experiments demonstrating that neutrinos—neutral subatomic particles and fundamental constituents of matter—have mass and that they change character as they travel through space. Before this work, neutrinos were believed to be […]
Professor Bill Keel discusses the most recent findings from NASA’s New Horizons mission
From the August 2015 Desktop News | The groundbreaking space probe New Horizons has given astronomers a sharp new eye on one of the most remote bodies in our solar system, Pluto. This new source of information hasn’t gone unnoticed in the College’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, with many astronomers interested in understanding the distant dwarf planet and its peculiarities. “In our survey classes, Pluto is more than a blank placeholder — we now know about its history as a […]
Big Answers, Tiny Particles
From the June 2015 Desktop News | A team of international scientists, including a pair of physicists from The University of Alabama, resumed efforts this week near Geneva, Switzerland, to use tiny particles to answer big questions – really big – like how the universe works. Drs. Conor Henderson and Paolo Rumerio, assistant professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, are working much of the summer at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator. Located at the European […]
Woman Physicist of the Month
From the February 2015 Desktop News | Dr. Dawn Williams, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named the February 2015 Woman Physicist of the Month by the American Physical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Physics. The committee recognizes each month exceptional female physicists who have positively affected other individuals’ lives and careers. The award is open to research physicists, students, instructors or any women doing physics-related work. Recipients are featured on the […]