Congratulations to our Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 Phi Beta Kappa inductees: Max Kremer, Giovani Leone, Boyuan Li, Weston Murdock, Jeshurun Luke, Ravi Pitelka, Megan Pramojaney, and Nick Walton! Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most honored college honorary … Continued

A former Tar Heel was recently awarded an NSF Early CAREER Faculty Award, which is a prestigious grant recognizing faculty members’ leadership in research and education. Johannes Pollanen is a 2002 graduate of the UNC Department of Physics and Astronomy. … Continued

Presolar stardust grains found in primitive meteorites are believed to retain the isotopic composition of stellar outflows at the time of grain condensation. Therefore, laboratory measurements of their isotopic ratios represent sensitive probes for investigating open questions related to stellar … Continued

Diversity initiatives at the UNC Department of Physics and Astronomy were highlighted as exemplars in a March 3 Science Magazine article, which was published alongside several stories investigating the underrepresentation of Black physicists. Fix the System, Not the Students draws … Continued

The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the foundation’s most prestigious award aimed at assistant professors. The awardees are junior faculty who will serve as academic leaders in both research and teaching, and it includes a grant for both research … Continued

At its center, our Milky Way galaxy has an ancient black hole that over 10 billion years has gobbled millions of suns. Most large galaxies have one, but those holes are too far away to study in detail so their … Continued

CHAPEL HILL — A Nature Physics article published today features a recent discovery made by an international research team that includes UNC Department of Physics and Astronomy scientists. The team has established a new upper limit of 0.8 eV/c2 for … Continued

A recent paper on stars used to calibrate the just-launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a strong connection to UNC Chapel Hill. The first three authors have a UNC connection, and the telescope is named after James Webb, who … Continued

The Physics & Astronomy Department announces a series of career workshops for students! The workshops will be appropriate for both undergraduate and graduate students at all stages of their studies (i.e. not just for those who need a job in … Continued

Gökçe Başar, one of our assistant professors in Physics and Astronomy, has received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his research on strongly interacting matter in extreme environments. The CAREER Award … Continued

Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is the standard model theory for the production of light nuclides during the early stages of the universe, taking place about 20 minutes after the big bang. The synthesis of deuterium is an essential reaction after … Continued

Giovani Leone, The President of the local chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been named a recipient of the 2021 SPS Leadership Scholarship from the SPS National Office. The purpose of the Society of Physics Students scholarship … Continued