Kirill Shmilovich, a UWM senior pursuing a double major in Physics and Mathematics, has been accepted to present his undergraduate research at the 22nd Annual “Posters on the Hill” event in Washington, D.C., presented by the Council on Undergraduate Research. … Continue Reading »
2018 UWM Research Magazine Released
The 2018 edition of UWM Research magazine has launched, celebrating the stories and work of nearly 100 faculty members, students and staff. “I’m amazed every day at the sheer breadth of research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,” UWM Chancellor Mark … Continue Reading »
Physics on WUWM: Entrepreneurial Enterprises and the Hubble Space Telescope
Members of the UWM Physics Department appeared on WUWM twice during the month of February, discussing both research and a program celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope presented by the UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium. On February 8, 2018, Physics Professors Marija … Continue Reading »
Dawn Erb Selected as Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Science
Dawn Erb was selected as a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Science Frontiers of Science Program. The Academy’s Frontiers of Science symposia brings together outstanding young scientists to discuss exciting advances and opportunities in a broad range of … Continue Reading »
NANOGrav on PBS
Hunting Monster Black Holes
by Kate Becker
It’s a basic scary-movie rule: Never show the big, bad monster. Show his shadow, his tooth marks, his trail of slime. But as soon as you show his face, the fright bubble pops.
The universe seems to understand this rule. Its biggest, baddest monsters—supermassive black holes that haunt the center of nearly every galaxy, containing as much mass as millions or billions of stars—are totally invisible. Sure, by looking at the way stars whip around the center of the Milky Way and observing the electromagnetic fireworks going off in faraway galaxies, astrophysicists infer that supermassive black holes are lurking there. But they can never see the black holes themselves. And that’s not just storytelling—it’s physics.
UWM Astronomers to Use New Tool to Hunt Gravitational-wave Events
By Greg Walz-Chojnacki
It’s fair to say good luck played a role in the prompt discovery of an optical (and radio, X-ray, ultraviolet and infrared) counterpart to the gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars found last August.
But it’s also true that scientists don’t like to lean too hard on good luck, so astronomers have been developing a more systematic way to search for objects detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
The of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is a partner in the Zwicky Transient Facility, the latest tool for capturing astronomical observations of short-lived, or transient, phenomena. ZTF recently saw “first light,” taking its first detailed image of the night sky. In February, it will begin a regular program of swiftly scanning the entire sky to search for cosmic explosions, such as novae and supernova. The facility is also well-suited to discovering members of the solar system, principally asteroids and comets.
Continue reading the rest of the article in the UWM Report here
Sugato Ray Wins FACSS Student Poster Award
Sugato Ray, a Ph.D. candidate with the UWM Department of Physics working under the direction of Professor Carol Hirschmugl, recently won a FACSS Student Poster Award at the 2017 SciX conference in Reno, Nevada. His poster, titled Precise Recovery of … Continue Reading »
Biophysics News: The Origami of Life and Nobel Collaborations
The Origami of Life: An Interview with Ionel Popa Ionel Popa, a faculty member and biophysicist in the Physics Department, has recently been awarded a Shaw Scientist Grant for $200,000 in order to study protein folding – an essential process … Continue Reading »
UWM Physicists Part of Neutron Star Discovery
Update: The official UWM report has covered this news – click here to read more about the contributions of the people here at UWM who contributed. The story also contains commentary by the department’s own Patrick Brady, David Kaplan, and … Continue Reading »
UWM Physicist Receives Shaw Scientist Award from The Greater Milwaukee Foundation
Professor Ionel Popa of the Physics Department received a 2017 Shaw Scientist Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation in support of his project, “Study of the Mechanisms of Cellular Mechano-Transduction in Relation to Cancer Metastasis.” The award was established by … Continue Reading »