Department of Physics and Astronomy | News

The world hasn’t yet embraced quantum computing because the technology hasn’t overcome a fundamental issue: Noise. It causes quantum bits (qubits), building blocks of a quantum computer, to lose their information. In a recent study in Nature Electronics, a team led by Dafei Jin, an associate professor of physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, and colla…

Outstanding College of Science students in the Class of 2026 were honored at the Dean’s Awards Luncheon in the Jordan Hall of Science on Friday, May 15 during Commencement Weekend. Steve Corcelli, William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science, presented the following awards. Dean’s…

On Tuesday, May 12, John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at the University of Notre Dame, announced the winners of the 2026 University faculty awards. “This year’s faculty award recipients represent the very best of Notre Dame through their outstanding achievements in teaching, scholarship, and service,” McGreevy said. “Their work strengthens our academic community and furthers …

Congratulations to College of Science faculty who have earned promotions in 2026 in recognition of their outstanding teaching, research, and service, as well as those who have been granted emeritus status.To Professor: Maxime Brodeur,…

The Department of Physics and Astronomy has announced 2025-26 graduate student award recipients. Nominations are solicited from faculty and graduate students, and those nominations are evaluated by a faculty committee. Lauren Henderson is a recipient of the Distinguished…

Department of Physics and Astronomy graduate students Olivia Bruce (advised by Prof. Maxime Brodeur) and Mario Flores Hernández (advised by Profs. Antonio Delgado and Adam Martin) are the recipients of the 2026 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Awards from the…

The 2026 Graduate Physics and Astronomy Students (GPAS) annual conference was held on Wednesday, April 15. The Stavropoulos Center for Quantum Matter presented awards for the best oral presentation and the best poster presentation at the conference.…

Former University of Notre Dame undergraduate Matthew Doty (‘25) has received the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship, one of the nation’s most prestigious awards for graduate students. Matthew graduated with honors from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where his undergraduate…

Roman Gerasimov, a Society of Science Fellow in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame,…

Noah Cabanas is the recipient of the 2026 Cornelius P. Browne Memorial Award in Nuclear Physics. He is recognized for his contributions to the development of novel production mechanisms for actinide thin films along with Prof. Ani Aprahamian and Dr. Khachatur Manukyan, as well as for his work using accelerated beams to study their properties. Noah has already published five publications, includin…

John McDonaugh is the recipient of the 2026 Larry O. Lamm Memorial Award in Nuclear Physics. The award recognizes John’s work and dedication to the Nuclear Science Laboratory and his dedication to the Laboratory Safety Committee. He has been a great advocate for lab safety among the graduate students, and he has served on the Safety Committee for many years. John has also enthusiastically support…

Notre Dame Physics and Astronomy faculty will host 34 international researchers at Kylemore Abbey, Ireland, May 11–16, 2026, for a workshop addressing how metals—elements heavier than hydrogen and helium—cycle through the universe from production in stars to incorporation into new stellar generations. Understanding the cycle of creation, redistribution, and seeding of metals into new generations …

Steven A. Corcelli, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed the William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science by University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., effective April 1. Corcelli, who has served as interim science dean since July, was selected through a comprehensive national search launched after his predecessor, Santi…

The High Energy Physics group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame will host the 20th PIKIMO meeting on Saturday, April 25, 2026. PIKIMO (Phenomenology in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio) is a series of informal phenomenology meetings, with talks primarily given by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers held twice a year. The scope of …

Professor Mark Caprio, of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to the directorship of the Executive Board of the theory alliance for the U.S. Department of Energy's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). He will serve in the director line for three years, successively as Director Elect, Director, and Past Director. He has been a member of the …

The Vortex Trapping and Control in Superconducting Electronics (V-TRASE) workshop will be held March 11-13, 2026, at the University of Notre Dame. Superconducting electronic circuits are rapidly becoming central to a wide range of emerging technologies, from quantum information processors and ultra-low-noise amplifiers to precision sensing platforms and high-speed digital logic. As these systems …

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It is used to collide subatomic particles, with the goal of exploring the fundamental interactions in particle physics by studying the data from the experiments. This research is the main focus of Abhisek Datta, an assista…

University of Notre Dame doctoral student Mohamed El Gazzah has been awarded a highly competitive national fellowship from the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct research on novel magnetic textures at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. As an awardee of the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program, El Gazzah, who works in the lab of Associate Pr…

University of Notre Dame senior Jacob Finley has been named a 2026 Churchill Scholar. He is one of 16 selected for the award from a pool of nearly 160 applicants. He is Notre Dame’s fifth Churchill Scholar overall and second in the past three years. A 2025 Goldwater Scholar, Finley is an honors track physics-in-medicine major from Kentucky with research and clinical interests in radiation oncolog…

The Notre Dame Women’s Basketball team hosted STEM night on Thursday, January 22. The event featured demonstration tables hosted by multiple departments in Heritage Hall before the game, and an on-court demonstration at halftime led by Prof. Kate Biberdorf– better known as Kate the Chemist. Physics & Astronomy Professors Corrine Deegan, Sylwia Ptasinska, and Lauren Weiss, and graduate student Chl…