Department News Archive


Graduate Teaching Awards for 2019-2020

Graduate Teaching Awards for 2019-2020
The graduate program committee recognizes an outstanding performance by co-head teaching assistants Melissa Diamond and Joshua Kable who have performed significantly above and beyond the call of duty this term, and have made major substantive contributions to the success of their extremely large course (AS.171.104, Physics for Biological Majors, nearly 400 undergraduates) this semester. Joshua Kable receives this year’s […]


Yi Li Receives 2020 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award

Yi Li Receives 2020 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award
Assistant Professor Yi Li has been chosen as a 2020 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award recipient. This is in recognition of her exceptional work as an early-career investigator, which embodies the spirit of discovery that defines Johns Hopkins University. The 2020 Catalyst Award honorees will each receive a $75,000 grant to support their work over the next […]


Brice Ménard Applies Deep Space Algorithm to Study Deep Earth in “Science” Publication

Brice Ménard Applies Deep Space Algorithm to Study Deep Earth in “Science” Publication
Associate Professor Brice Ménard and graduate student Dalya Baron developed a novel algorithm called the Sequencer originally intended to find interesting trends in astronomical datasets. Now, a new Science publication describes how earth scientists have harnessed the Sequencer to unveil structures deep inside the Earth, paving the way towards a new map revealing what Earth’s interior […]


Katherine Xiang Receives a Hertz Fellowship

Katherine Xiang Receives a Hertz Fellowship
Graduating Physics major Katherine Xiang has won a Hertz Fellowship. The Hertz Fellowship supports the research of PhD students who demonstrate the greatest potential to tackle the most urgent problems facing society. One of the most prestigious awards of its kind, the Hertz Fellowship supports five years of graduate research and the freedom to pursue […]


Peter Armitage and Collin Broholm Receive Grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to Further our Understanding of the ‘Weirdness’ of Quantum Materials

Peter Armitage and Collin Broholm Receive Grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to Further our Understanding of the ‘Weirdness’ of Quantum Materials
Professors Armitage and Broholm will each receive $1.6 million over five years to develop new techniques for measuring intrinsic quantum mechanical correlations in solids. The grants are provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) Initiative.


José Luis Bernal Receives Spanish Astronomical Society’s 2020 Prize for Best Thesis

José Luis Bernal Receives Spanish Astronomical Society’s 2020 Prize for Best Thesis
Postdoctoral Fellow José Luis Bernal, the department’s Davis Fellow, has been awarded the Spanish Astronomical Society’s 2020 prize for best thesis. Bernal’s thesis, “Cosmology on the Edge of the Λ-Cold Dark Matter”, was one of 16 recognized for having the greatest present and future impact in the research area.


Paul Gosling (BS ’03) Addresses Graduating Class During 2020 Commencement

Paul Gosling (BS ’03) Addresses Graduating Class During 2020 Commencement
Paul Gosling (BS ’03) addressed the graduating class of the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics & Astronomy during 2020 commencement. Gosling is Environmental Systems Branch Chief, Flight Operations Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center. Professor Robert L. Leheny, Director of Undergraduate Studies, welcomes the graduating class. Congratulations JHU Physics & Astronomy Class of 2020!


Chia-Ling Chien Presented with the 2020 Achievement Award of the IEEE Magnetics Society

Chia-Ling Chien Presented with the 2020 Achievement Award of the IEEE Magnetics Society
Prof. Chia-Ling Chien has been presented with the 2020 Achievement Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Magnetics Society. This is the highest award bestowed by the IEEE Magnetics Society, given in recognition of exceptional technical accomplishments in the field of magnetics. The citation for Prof. Chien’s award reads: “For pioneering discoveries […]


Surjeet Rajendran Receives two Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards

Surjeet Rajendran Receives two Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards
Associate Professor Surjeet Rajendran is the recipient of two Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards this year. These awards hope to stimulate ideas on innovative ways in which emerging technologies can be used to address pressing problems in fundamental physics. The awards support a variety of ways to bring people together to […]


Sydney Timmerman and Katherine Xiang Co-recipients of the 2020 Donald E. Kerr Memorial Award

Sydney Timmerman and Katherine Xiang Co-recipients of the 2020 Donald E. Kerr Memorial Award
The Department is pleased to announce Physics majors Sydney Timmerman and Katherine Xiang as co-recipients of the 2020 Donald E. Kerr Memorial Award.  The Kerr Award, established in 1979, acknowledges outstanding graduating Physics majors who have distinguished themselves through their performance in the classroom, their accomplishments in research, and their other positive contributions to the […]