Three undergraduate student mentees of the Grad-to-Undergrad (G2U) Mentorship Program – Maria “Flor” Nardone, Vysnavi “Vyshu” Sabbi, and Gerald “Mezzie” Akwuole – attended the Conference for Undergraduate Minorities in Physics (CU2MIP) [https://cu2mip.physics.umd.edu].

The conference was held from April 12-14th at the University of Maryland (UMD) and The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), offering various avenues to personally interact with scientist working in academia, industry, and government and learn about career opportunities available for physicist. The conference offers a variety of workshops and panels focusing on success in physics, applying to graduate school, science policy, efficient networking techniques, and more. The mentees also participated in professional and social activities that included lunch with a Nobel laureate, a poster session, lab tours of different research centers, and a Karaoke night with the UMD Society of Physics students!

One of the tour opportunities at NIST’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology was led by UNC alum and former G2U mentor and program coordinator, Michele Kelley. The mentees were able to have a reunion with Michele and learned about the exciting work being done at NIST, pictured below.

Michele, Mezzie, Flor, and Vyshu (left to right).

Second photo from: https://cu2mip.physics.umd.edu/photo-gallery/

The mentees also shared some thoughts about the conference and what it meant to them:

“Meeting successful minority physicists who have overcome similar challenges was incredibly inspiring. It gave me hope for my future in the field, empowering me to take ownership of my identity and see my future goals more clearly and attainably.”
– Vysnavi

“It was an amazing experience! Physics isn’t the most common major but being able to be in a room where I know we all have that thing in common was inspiring. Being at the conference reminded me of why I loved studying physics in the first place. Whether we do research in labs, work in industry, academia, or for the community, we all embodied one of the core principles physics teaches us: To think outside of the box. Everyone’s reasons to study physics and their area of interest/expertise was unique but engaging, important, and thought-provoking. Being at the conference helped reassure me that my future can take multiple paths and that it’s okay that my path may seem a little different. As a college student whose about to graduate in a year and is always worried about my future, this conference really helped me put things together and see all the options I have out there.”
– Mezzie

The G2U program is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for underrepresented minority students pursuing their passion for physics and astronomy at UNC. With support from staff and faculty, the graduate student-led program hopes to continue to provide mentees with unique opportunities to explore physics outside of the classroom.

Congratulations to Prof. Dan Reichart on receiving the Emmons Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, for “demonstrating outstanding achievement in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-majors”.

More info here.

On August 26, astronomy minor Karsen Kitchen who is senior majoring in communication studies made history by being the youngest woman to cross the Kármán line (an altitude of 100 km above mean sea level) which marks the boundary of where space begins. She was one of the six member of Blue Origin’s NS-26 spaceflight mission.

Congratulations to Prof. Brad Barlow who was recently awarded a 2024-2025 Faculty Research Grant from the NC Space Grant! This funding will support Barlow and several undergraduate students as they use optical photometry from space- and ground-based observatories to search for and characterize new spider binaries.

From the NC Space Grant announcement:

“Spider binaries are a class of compact binaries that typically consist of a pulsar (a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star) and a low-mass companion. The intense, high-energy radiation and wind from the neutron star slowly heats up and ablates material from the companion. In time, the orbital period will shorten, and the companion will be consumed. Studies of spider binaries can provide valuable insights into various astrophysical processes, including mass transfer and evolution, the properties and behavior of neutron stars, and high–energy electromagnetic emissions. Such systems are rare, and most have been discovered through X-ray/gamma-ray detections or radio observations of their millisecond pulsars. Due to a series of serendipitous events, Barlow’s research group has discovered one of the closest (and thus brightest) spider binaries currently known using optical photometry instead of radio or high-energy observations. This discovery was made while investigating high signal-to-noise light curves of hot subdwarf binaries — an unrelated type of binary. As the highly irradiated hot spot on the companion rotates in and out of view, the optical flux can vary by up to a factor of ~10 with a light curve shape that mimics those of hot subdwarf reflection effect binaries. Here Barlow’s team proposes a series of optical search strategies to uncover and study new spider binaries using data from NASA’s TESS spacecraft, the 4.1-m SOAR telescope, and Skynet.

Barlow’s hope is that student participation in this project will foster enthusiasm, collaboration, and a deeper understanding of the subject matter in student researchers. Students will learn how to search and review the astronomical literature on spider binaries and related objects; write basic Python scripts for data analysis and visualization; use TOPCAT to inspect and manipulate tabular data; download TESS photometry from the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes; compute Lomb Scargle periodograms to search for periodic signals in time-series data; obtain, reduce, and analyze time-series photometry from the Skynet telescope network; obtain, reduce, and analyze time-series spectroscopy from SOAR/Goodman; write clear and concise reports summarizing research results and progress; and give engaging and effective scientific presentations to the public and scientific audiences.”

Profs Otto Zhou and Jianping Lu, along with Prof. Yueh Lee, Radiology and Adjunct Prof of Physics and colleagues from computer sciences and data sciences and school of medicine, won one of the five Carolina Creativity Hubs award. The title of the project is:

“Advanced Medical Screening in Underserved Populations Using a Transportable Nanotube-Enabled Imaging System”
The project is based on the nanotube x-ray technology invented in our department.

More information can be found in the CAS announcement.

A new study, co-authored by Prof. Mike Shull, quantifies the true darkness of the cosmic sky. It was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal (Vol 972, 95) and was featured on a NASA press release.

The study is based on observations seen from the distant
vantage point of New Horizons, the spacecraft that flew past Pluto in 2015. At a distance of 59 astronomical units from the Sun (59 times the Sun’s orbit) the
cameras aboard the mission are not confused by radiation from gas and dust in
the inner solar system. They can see the light from the outer portions of our Galaxy
and the radiation emitted by galaxies billions of light years away.

The group finds that the diffuse optical light in the universe is consistent with the integrated
radiation from distant galaxies down to 30th magnitude, as seen in the Hubble Space
Telescope deep fields. That emission is 25 magnitudes fainter than the dimmest stars
visible to the human eye; ten billion times fainter than the dim stars seen in the sky.

Other key points from the study:

– New Horizons is 59 times farther out in the solar system than Earth’s orbit.
(that’s 5.5 billion miles, or light-travel travel time of 8 hrs 10 min)

– The faraway galaxies that contribute to the cosmic optical background emitted
their light many billions of years in the past.

Image: Map revealing the regions in space, marked by circles and triangles, where New Horizons measured the cosmic optical background. The team pointed the spacecraft’s LORRI instrument above and below the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, along the map’s equator, to avoid light from the galaxy. (Credit: Postman et al., 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

Prof. Wei Zhang joins forces in uplifting quantum sciences research and education across NC Triangle and Triad (NCAT).

A recent NSF grant under the NSF QISE interdisciplinary program may help build quantum connections across the NC Triangle (UNC) and Triad (NCAT) regime. The project aims to engineer tailored modes in hybrid magnonics for quantum signal transduction and communication. The research activities will be also complemented by rich outreach activities to engage with students from local high schools and community colleges, and dissemination plans to share the research findings with the public research community.
For more information regarding “magnonics”: please find “The 2024 magnonics roadmap”, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 36 363501

Figure Caption: A microwave photon-magnon chip operating at cryogenic temperatures. (Zhang lab at UNC)

Congratulations to Prof. Carl Rodriguez who received the annual Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement. The prestigious, university wide award was established in 1986 to recognize the achievements of outstanding junior faculty.

From the College of Art and Sciences’ announcement:

“Rodriguez is an emerging leader in a field that is in its infancy — black holes and gravitational waves. This year, he was selected by the American Astronomical Society for the Warner Prize, the highest national award given to early-career astrophysicists. He won for groundbreaking work on the astrophysical origin of the gravitational-wave sources detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

Rodriguez’s work on the dynamical formation of merging black hole binaries from young star clusters, stellar triples, and globular clusters — millions of stars tightly bound together — has been key in the community’s analysis of these events. His 96 peer-reviewed papers, 19 of which he led as first author, have garnered over 10,000 citations.”

Our very own Laurie McNeil has been named as the 2025 John David Jackson Excellence in Graduate Physics Education awardee!

From AAPT’s website announcement:

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) has announced that the John David Jackson Excellence in Graduate Physics Education Award for 2025 will be awarded to Laurie Elizabeth McNeil, Bernard Gray Distinguished Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

This prestigious award will be presented to McNeil during the 2025 AAPT Winter Meeting. McNeil was selected to receive the Jackson Award in recognition of her contributions to graduate education in Physics and Astronomy and related fields. She is a pioneer in graduate physics & astronomy education.

Regarding her selection to receive this award, McNeil said, “I am deeply honored to receive this recognition of my efforts on behalf of graduate education. I have been privileged to be in a position throughout my career to work to enhance education in physics and related fields at all levels, to help all students succeed in applying their talents and training in whatever area they choose.”

Find the full announcement here.

Congratulations, Laurie!!!

A new review article by Tyndall et al is featured on the cover of the Journal of American Dental Association.
The article describes “Four emerging technologies with promise”, 2 out of those 4 come from Otto Zhou’s lab: intraoral tomosynthesis and multisource CBCT.

Check it out here.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill students, David Stilwell and Sophie Kressy participated in the American Physical Society Congressional Visits Day to advocate for legislation that would benefit US science goals and our scientific community.

Grad students and postdocs in physics have long been underpaid — but today, the compensation gap is particularly extreme.

“The salary, or compensation, that students and postdocs receive is about the same as what my husband received 20 years ago when he came to Penn State from Cambridge University as a postdoc,” says Amena Khan, an associate professor of instruction at the University of Texas at Dallas. “It is as though one is being penalized for choosing physics as a profession.”

To change this, it helps to talk to the folks in charge — so in January, 91 APS members flocked to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. for APS’s Congressional Visits Day. In 110 meetings with lawmakers and staffers, attendees advocated for science policy priorities, including the RESEARCHER Act, which would start the process of building compensation guidelines for federal science agencies.

For Ari Jain, an attendee and a doctoral student in aerospace engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, the efforts paid off. After CVD, he spotted an email from the staffer of his congressional representative, Nikema Williams. It felt “a little surreal,” he says. “Our team had just sent a thank you-note to her staffer, and he responded the next day saying that she had agreed to co-sponsor the bill.”

Physics graduate students earn far less money than those with bachelor’s degrees in the field, a deterrent for students considering advanced degrees in STEM. Physics students with bachelor’s degrees working in industry earn a median starting salary of $70,000, while grad students make just under $30,000.

“Their salaries are pitifully low, especially against the rising costs of living in our metros and towns,” says B.S. Sathyaprakash, a professor who teaches physics, astronomy, and astrophysics at the Pennsylvania State University, who also joined CVD.

The RESEARCHER Act was one of several priorities covered in conversations with members of Congress. To make sure the advocates were prepared, APS staffers spent months organizing for the event, providing advocates with extensive training and background information on APS’s policy priorities. These were vital steps for many of the CVD participants, including those who had never advocated on Capitol Hill before, like Khan and Sathyaprakash.

Khan also said she was “lucky to have two experienced colleagues” on her team. “[They] made navigating the day seem almost effortless.” Jain, meanwhile, relied on guidance from seasoned CVD advocate David Stilwell, a doctoral student in physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“Some of it was just little things, like navigating the buildings and making sure our team didn’t get too lost,” Jain says. “But also, David gave us amazing insight on what to actually expect from the meetings and conversations that we have with staffers.”

 

From : https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202404/wages.cfm

Zack is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, to carry out research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The fellowship supports postdoctoral fellows performing impactful research in MPS fields while broadening the participation of groups that are underrepresented in the mathematical and physical sciences.

Congratulations, Zack!!!

You can find more information on Zack’s award here.

See also feature in the Tar Heel Up Close here.