PhD student Gage Erwin was named a U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow. The 2025-2026 incoming fellows will learn to apply high-performance computing (HPC) to research in disciplines including machine learning, quantum computing, chemistry, astrophysics, computational biology, energy, engineering and applied mathematics. PhD students Sam Kramer, Michelle Marrero Garcia, and Isaac Barnhill were …
Leave a Lasting Impact By utilizing a variety of gift planning options, you can leave a lasting impact on the Department of Physics and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From an estate gift to a gift of real estate or a gift from an IRA, you can choose to establish your legacy at Wisconsin through your …
Since 2023, The Wonders of Physics Outreach Fellows program has been training graduate students who are interested in and committed to conducting physics outreach. Fellows receive mentoring from the department’s public engagement staff and participate in one or more outreach events over the course of the year, from presenting demos at local school STEM nights …
William Cottrell earned his PhD in theoretical physics at UW–Madison in 2017 with research touching upon various topics in gauge-gravity duality. Following postdocs at the University of Amsterdam and Stanford, he went on to a career in finance as a quantitative researcher at Jump Trading where he applies machine-learning techniques to construct mid-frequency portfolios. He …
By Bill Nichols, BoV Chair If you’ve considered supporting the Department of Physics, then the Physics Board of Visitors (BoV) wants you! This invitation highlights the crucial and engaging opportunities available to friends and alumni of the department. The BoV, an independent council of dedicated supporters, meets biannually to advise on matters of importance. It …
Doctoral Degrees Fall 2024 Benjamin Harpt Advisor: Eriksson Merritt Losert Advisor: Friesen John Podczerwinski Advisor: Timbie Avirup Roy Advisor: McCammon Victor Shang Advisor: Bose CV Ambarish Advisor: McCammon Vedant Basu Advisor: Karle Shu-Tian Eu Advisor: Everett Zach Huemann Advisor: McMillan/Dasu Preston Huft Advisor: Saffman Bradley Kumm Advisor: Egedal/Stechmann Cody Poole Advisor: Saffman Abigail Shearrow Advisor: …
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Physics professor Mark Saffman, affiliate professor Mikhail Kats and their groups have developed a simplified but ingenious method for trapping atoms of different species to make quantum bits or qubits, they published in Science Advances. Capturing two types of neutral atoms next to each other, the method creates interleaved grids of cesium and rubidium atoms …
Once only a part of science fiction, lasers are now everyday objects used in research, healthcare and even just for fun. Previously available only in low-energy light, lasers now come in wavelengths from microwaves through X-rays, opening up a range of different downstream applications. In a study in Nature, a team led by UW–Madison scientists …
The first images of the greatest cosmic movie ever made were released by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory this past summer, and one of the “directors” was UW–Madison physics professor Keith Bechtol. It’s a story a decade in the making for Bechtol, who served in a leadership role as the observatory’s System Verification and Validation …