Columbia News about Columbia Physics

Fall 2022

A Professor Returns to Columbia, Where She First Explored Dark Matter as an Undergraduate
A Professor Returns to Columbia, Where She First Explored Dark Matter as an Undergraduate

Kerstin Perez joined Columbia from MIT this summer, and is using cutting-edge techniques to identify the particle nature of dark matter.

By Christopher D. Shea

November

Summer 2022

Columbia to Continue Creating Programmable Quantum Materials
Columbia to Continue Creating Programmable Quantum Materials

The U.S. Department of Energy renews Columbia’s Energy Frontier Research Center with a four-year $12.6 million grant.

By Ellen Neff 

August

Quantum Q&A With Max Planck-NYC Fellows Carolin Gold and Xiong Huang
Quantum Q&A With Max Planck-NYC Fellows Carolin Gold and Xiong Huang

Columbia welcomes its first participants in the postdoctoral program to New York this year. Here, they discuss their careers and interests in quantum phenomena in two-dimensional materials. 

By Ellen Neff

June

DIY at the Columbia Physics Design Lab
DIY at the Columbia Physics Design Lab

An old machine shop in Pupin Hall has a new life as a makerspace for scientists to imagine the future of physics.

By Ellen Neff

June

Columbia Physicist Tanya Zelevinsky Wins 2022 Brown Investigator Award
Columbia Physicist Tanya Zelevinsky Wins 2022 Brown Investigator Award

One of four mid-career researchers selected, Zelevinsky will use the $2 million award to advance the use of molecules to study fundamental science.

By Ellen Neff 

June

Quantum Q&A With Leo Lo, CC’22
Quantum Q&A With Leo Lo, CC’22

As he graduates, the Physics and Math double major reflects on his time at Columbia and research experiences in a quantum lab.

By Ellen Neff

May

Winter/Spring 2022

Cracking the Mystery of Jupiter’s High-Energy ‘Northern Lights’
Cracking the Mystery of Jupiter’s High-Energy ‘Northern Lights’

In a new study in Nature Astronomy, Ph.D. students Gabriel Bridges and Shifra Mandel help show that both poles of Jupiter are aglow with high-energy light, likely triggered by the gas giant’s closest moon. Columbia News spoke with them about their discovery.

By Kim Martineau

February 

Finding the Beauty in Condensed Matter Physics
Finding the Beauty in Condensed Matter Physics

Raquel Queiroz, a new assistant professor at Columbia, is setting her own rules as she explores the science of solid materials.

By Ellen Neff

January

Tuning the Bonds of Paired Quantum Particles to Create Flow Without Losing Energy
Tuning the Bonds of Paired Quantum Particles to Create Flow Without Losing Energy

An adjustable platform made from atomically thin materials may help researchers figure out how to create a robust quantum condensate that can flow without dissipation

By Ellen Neff

January

A Toolbox for Creating Quantum Effects: A New Columbia News Article about Columbia Physics
A Toolbox for Creating Quantum Effects: A New Columbia News Article about Columbia Physics

The ability to program desired properties into materials will be key for making quantum technologies work in the real world. At the Programmable Quantum Materials Energy Frontiers Research Center, researchers have come together to create quantum effects on demand

By Ellen Neff

January

Fall 2021

A Tutoring Program for Harlem High School Students Breaks Out of Zoom
A Tutoring Program for Harlem High School Students Breaks Out of Zoom

During the pandemic, a group of Columbia graduate students launched the Physics and Coding Club at Democracy Prep Harlem High School. A year later, they’ve left the virtual world of Zoom to gather in real rooms for the first time. 

By Ellen Neff

December 

A Longtime Search at Fermilab for a Fourth Kind of Neutrino Ends with New Questions
A Longtime Search at Fermilab for a Fourth Kind of Neutrino Ends with New Questions

The long-running MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab has found no signs of a proposed new particle, the sterile neutrino, but the experiment offers insight into unexplained electron-like events found in an earlier experiment.

October

With a Little Twist, Researchers Delve Into a Quantum Physics Puzzle
With a Little Twist, Researchers Delve Into a Quantum Physics Puzzle

In search of the mysterious transition between metallic and insulating states of matter, Columbia researchers find signatures of quantum criticality in a unique material.

By Ellen Neff

October

Theoretical Physicist Ana Asenjo-Garcia Named a 2021 Packard Fellow
Theoretical Physicist Ana Asenjo-Garcia Named a 2021 Packard Fellow

One of 20 early-career researchers selected for the fellowship, Asenjo-Garcia is exploring how light and matter interact at the quantum level.

By Ellen Neff

October

Heating Up Quantum Science Education With Laser Cooling
Heating Up Quantum Science Education With Laser Cooling

A series of interactive workshops developed by Columbia physicist Sebastian Will and STEMteachersNYC will give educators tips and tools to cover quantum science in their classrooms.

By Ellen Neff

October

Searching for Ghostly Neutrinos to Understand Why Matter Dominates the Universe
Searching for Ghostly Neutrinos to Understand Why Matter Dominates the Universe

What's a neutrino and how do you detect one? Columbia physicist and neutrino hunter Georgia Karagiorgi explains and describes what she hopes to learn at the Fermilab accelerator near Chicago.

By Kim Martineau

September 

Spring 2021

From Immigrant to Inventor
From Immigrant to Inventor

To celebrate National Immigrant Heritage Month, we remember Michael Pupin

June

Quantum Materials Researcher Receives $1.6 Million From the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Quantum Materials Researcher Receives $1.6 Million From the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Dmitri Basov will use the award to develop experimental techniques that could lead to revolutionary applications in electronics, computing energy technology and medical devices.

By Carla Cantor

May