News

Postings created for publication in the Physics Department web page news feed.

Department Head greeting

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Dear Friends of UConn Physics,

While I look forward to sharing the news and accomplishments of the Physics Department over the past year, I can’t help but say that one word keeps coming to mind: turbulent. There is no getting around the fact that at the university, state, and federal levels, things have been changing on an almost daily basis. This uncertainty has presented the department with many challenges, but two things have helped me immensely. First, in my position as Department Head, I have always appreciated the abilities and dedication of the department staff. However, the past three months have stressed the department in ways I have not seen in all my time at UConn and I am so grateful for how the staff rallied in response and showed the incredible depth of their commitment to the department. Second, despite the difficulties, the faculty and students have carried on doing great work as though nothing unusual was going on and I am excited to share some highlights with you.

Our faculty have been very busy this past year. Prof. Pavel Volkov received the Nevill F. Mott Prize for his work on unconventional superconductors. Prof. Cara Battersby is a team leader on a NASA program, PRIMA, one of two proposals that are competing to become a $1B space probe. Prof. Daniel Angles-Alcazar managed, in one year, to get tenure and promotion to Associate Professor and receive a Sloan Fellowship and an NSF Early Career Award. Prof. Andrew Puckett got promoted to Full Professor and Prof. Niraj Ghimire and Prof. Erin Scanlon were promoted to Associate Professor in Residence. CLAS Awards went to Prof. Matt Guthrie for Broader Impacts, Service, and Visibility and Prof. Sarah Trallero for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success. We had two books published: Mode-Locked Lasers: Introduction to Ultrafast Semiconductor and Fiber Lasers, by Prof. Niloy Dutta, and The Music of Physics: An Introduction to the Harmonies of Nature, by Prof. George Gibson.

Our alumni have also been active. Prof. Manasse Mbonye (Ph.D. 1995) gave a commencement address and received an honorary degree from UConn for his profound contributions to rebuilding the university system of Rwanda. We are lucky to have Manasse come for an extended visit this fall, hosted by Prof. Gerald Dunne. Prof. Ron Mallett was featured in yet another article on time travel, this time in earth.com. Prof. Kyungseon Joo co-organized a workshop on Quantum Information Science with our former Prof. Robin Cote and a second workshop is being planned.

As usual, we gave out two honors to our undergraduate students. Our Katzenstein Prize for the best undergraduate research thesis went to Thomas Tarutin, supervised by Prof. Asli Tandoğan. Our Mark Miller Award for best research proposal went to Ayssar Farah, supervised by Prof. Gerald Dunne. The undergrads also had a busy travel schedule with Grace Gardella spending the summer at Brookhaven National Lab and Michael Frank and Owen Finch went to the Research Center for Nuclear Physics in Japan.

Our graduate students also did well: Provakar Datta won this year’s JSA/Jefferson Lab Thesis Prize, supervised by Prof. Andrew Puckett. Gursimran Kainth spent the summer at CERN, and Alessio Illari went to Los Alamos National Lab. Our students (undergrad and grad) showed up in various press releases representing the excellent research done in the department, including Noah Frese, Cameron Brady, Clark Bray, Bochao Xu, Brenna Petrelli, Danya Alboslani, and Logan Fries.

This past January, we hosted the Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics, sponsored by the American Physical Society and organized by Prof. Nora Berrah. Over 100 students were in attendance, making the conference a big success. Renovations of the UConn Planetarium were completed under the supervision of Prof. Matt Guthrie and we are now hosting regular shows at the planetarium and night viewing sessions at the recently renovated observatory. Responding to the budget situation at UConn, we expanded our summer online offering with a new course created by Prof. Diego Valente and Prof. Belter Ordaz. The course filled up the first day of registration and a second session was added, which also filled up.

Due to the fiscal uncertainties at the university, our special lectures are being postponed until the spring semester. Please look forward to future announcements.

Sincerely,

George Gibson
Department Head, Physics

In Memoriam: Professor Winthrop Smith, 1936-2025

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Sadly, Prof. Emeritus Winthrop W. Smith passed away in Peabody, MA on April 7, 2025, with his devoted daughter Sarah by his side. After growing up in New Jersey, Win received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics from Amherst and MIT, respectively, and then undertook postdoctoral work at the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) in Boulder, Colorado, where he met his late wife Anne. He began his academic journey at Columbia University, in New York City, eventually transitioning to the University of Connecticut, where he spent a long and illustrious career teaching and performing research in physics, officially retiring in 2009.

Win SmithWin’s research was primarily in the field of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. The systems he studied covered a diverse range, including: electrons; ions (both positive and negative); atoms; molecules; and photons. They also spanned a wide spectrum of energies, from relativistic to ultracold. His experiments employed a variety of tools, such as lasers, spectrometers, particle beams, accelerators, and traps for atoms and ions. Win investigated many interesting topics, including: charge-exchange collisions; highly-charged ions; molecular spectroscopy; collision-induced x-ray emission; relativistic negative ion beams; atom interferometry; linear rf traps for ions; and nonlinear dynamics (chaos). He was very productive, with his work resulting in over 100 journal publications. His latest research, performed mainly after officially retiring, involved interactions between overlapping samples of trapped ions and ultracold neutral atoms, and garnered significant attention.

Over the years, Win taught and trained a large number of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, and was a valued mentor to younger faculty. In terms of classroom teaching, Win’s portfolio encompassed multiple areas of physics: classical mechanics; electricity & magnetism; quantum mechanics; atomic physics; optics; lasers; electronics; and introductory physics for various audiences. He took great pleasure in motivating his students and seeing them learn.

Win was heavily involved in the American Physical Society (APS), serving as an officer in the New England Section (NES), the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP), and the Division of Laser Science (DLS). He also played a key role in organizing several large physics conferences in Storrs: DAMOP Annual Meetings in 1984 and 2000; and the International Conference on Atomic Physics (ICAP) in 2008. Win spent a year as a Program Officer for the National Science Foundation, helping set funding priorities for AMO Physics. He also performed significant service for the Department and University, serving in the University Senate, as President of the UConn Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and as a member and chair of many committees.

Win enjoyed traveling and collaborating with colleagues and thereby embarked on several sabbaticals: JILA, Stanford, Munich, Aarhus, MIT, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He also worked with colleagues at various national labs: Los Alamos in New Mexico, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Lawrence Livermore in California, and the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena.

Win’s accomplishments earned him several honors. He received Fellowship in the American Physical Society, an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Research Award to work in Germany, and Membership in the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.

Interestingly, his great-uncle, Percy Bridgman, a professor at Harvard, won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in high-pressure physics, leaving a strong impression on the young Win.

Win had many outside interests including: music, singing in the Hartford Chorale and the UConn Festival Chorus; and hiking and skiing in the White Mountains near Randolph, New Hampshire. He was passionately interested in politics, serving locally on the Mansfield Town Ethics Board and Democratic Town Committee.

Win will be greatly missed, and fondly remembered, by the Physics Department. In his memory, donations can be made to the Anne and Win Smith Fellowship Fund for support of graduate students in physics, or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

An article in Earth.com describes the research and the life story of Prof. Mallett

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A recently published article describes the research and the life story of Prof. Mallett.

“Now approaching 80, Dr. Mallett remains steadfast. “I believe my work will show time travel is possible,” he asserts. “Future generations will build on it in ways we can’t yet imagine.”

His equations, though yet to physically bend time, have bent our collective imagination. Ongoing public interest, evidenced by his continued media appearances and Spike Lee’s film adaptation of his memoir, underscores his ideas’ profound impact.

More than a scientific pursuit, Mallett’s story testifies to human resilience, intellectual courage, and hope’s enduring power. Whether his theoretical time machine ever materializes, his legacy is immeasurable—inspiring countless individuals to challenge conventional limits and perceive time not as an unyielding barrier, but as a boundless frontier awaiting exploration.”

UConn STARs Visits Hartford Public High School in May 2025

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The UConn STARs program had its annual outreach event at Hartford Public High School (HPHS) during the week of May 12-16, 2025. We taught four specially-crafted lesson plans to eight classrooms of students and hosted two lunchtime solar telescope observing sessions. The outreach event was a huge success. We estimate that we reached about 170 students at HPHS during our visit, sparked many curious minds and encouraged considering a career in STEM.

During the academic year, the STARs programs ran 27 events focused on professional development, community building, and mentorship. Members of the STARs program also developed four engaging lesson plans for high school students on the topics of: 1) Mechanics, 2) Light as a Wave, 3) Light as a Particle (Quantum), and 4) Electricity. These topics were selected in consultation with the teacher to re-enforce important concepts from each class. The lesson plans were designed to cater to a variety of student learning needs and background levels. Each lesson plan had a short lecture component, hands-on demos, and stations for small group activities. STARs also hosted a booth at the Hartford STEM fair on May 5, 2025, engaging with many members of the local community.

Below are some photos highlighting the events, please see more on our webpage.

  • STARs group photo
    PXL 20250513 151734872

 

UConn Physics Department hosted the 2025 conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics

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The Physics Department hosted the 2025 American Physical Society Conference for
Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics in January 24-26. This was
achieved with the support of the College of Liberal Arts and Science, the Provost’s Office, and the
Office of Sponsored Programs, the College of Engineering, the Institute of Material Sciences, the
APS and generous donors (the Ed Eyler and Karen Greer fund, the Mark Miller Fund Sponsorship
provided in memory of City College of New York Physicists William Miller and Myriam Sarachik,
Mirion Technologies, the Del Boca family gift, AAS, the New England Section of the APS and
the Startorialist Science and Fashion Shop).

The conference’s goal was to help undergraduate women and gender minorities pursue their
goals in physics by providing them the opportunity to learn about different physics research areas,
career tracks, graduate studies and various professions in physics. The conference brought
undergraduate students and scientists together to share experiences and concerns and receive
feedback and advice. It has been established that students’ experience at a professional conference
enables them to build community through peer networks and interacting closely with speakers and
panelists. The conference provided the students with feedback about their current work and were
mentored about career paths. UConn, which has a strong Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy
made every effort to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all. The conference
program had speakers and panelists from several institutions around the country, faculty, staff and
students from UConn as well as former UConn students who graduated with Bachelors, Masters
or PhDs. The link to the CU*iP conference program is https://physics.uconn.edu/cuwip/program/

The local organizing committee consisted of faculty, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate
students (Sarah Trallero, Lea Ferreira dos Santos, Shohini Bhattacharya, Luchang Jin, Matt
Guthrie, Peter Schweitzer, Alan Wuosmaa, Simone Columbo, Cara Battersby, Tom Blum, Erin
Scanlon, Elena Dormidontova, Asli Tandogan Kunkel, Cameron Brady, Meg Davis, Dani Lipman,
Jessica Mitlehner, Juliette Stecenko, Kaley Wilcox, Andrea Mejia, Liam McDermott, and George
Gibson) led by Nora Berrah. In addition, volunteers ─ faculty (Sylvanie Wallington), staff (Adam
Kolano, Carrie Chichocki, Dave Perry, Ray Celmer), students and postdocs (Noah Frese, Bill
Wortley, Willson London, Jack Conley, Christian McCoy, Tobi Saule, Christian McCoy, Yutong
Geng, Brenna Petrelli) and donors (Karen Greer) ─ provided great support in running a very
successful meeting.

  • Lab tour to CU*iP students
    IMG 8984

UConn Students featured by Press Releases at the American Astronomical Society

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Two UConn students presented press releases at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held in Washington, DC on January 12-16, 2025.

UConn undergraduate Danya Alboslani presented a new method to map the 3D structures of star-forming clouds using X-ray light echoes. This press release resulted from a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal that Danya worked on as part of Prof. Cara Battersby‘s research group.

A schematic showing how X-ray flares illuminate the 3D structure of a star-forming cloud.
A schematic showing how the X-ray flares from our supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, illuminate slices of a molecular cloud over time. Astronomers can use these X-ray echoes to construct 3D maps of molecular clouds, constrain the past flaring history of Sgr A*, and better understand the overall geometry of our galaxy’s center. (Image courtesy of S. Brunker/UConn)

 

UConn graduate student Logan Fries presented new measurements of “black hole archaeology” via the mapping black hole spin over cosmic time. This work was a product of collaboration with Prof. Jonathan Trump‘s research group and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and will be submitted to the Astrophysical Journal.

A graph of redshift vs spin over cosmic history, from when the universe was 3 billion years old to today
Observed black hole spin over the history of the Universe, from past (left) to present (right). The thick colored dots show the observed spins of black holes – blue shows rotation in the same direction as the accretion disk, gray shows little or no rotation, and red shows rotation in the opposite direction. The green oval shows what would be expected from black hole growth by smooth accretion; the pink oval shows what would be expected from mergers (the illustrations on the right show the corresponding physical system. Most spin values are in the green area – especially in the early universe – suggesting that supermassive black holes are built up mostly from accretion. Image Credit: Left: Logan Fries and the SDSS collaboration; Top right: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI); Bottom right: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Congratulations to our outstanding students for producing such notable science results!

Alumni Highlights

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Written by Nora Berrah:

Debadarshini (Jolly) Mishra successfully defended her PhD thesis in May 2024 in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. Jolly gave several presentations at national and international conferences and is the co-author of 8 publications. She is now a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and was hired before her thesis defense to contribute her research and learn new research techniques.

Her PhD thesis, entitled “Photo-induced ultrafast dynamics and non-linear processes in molecules” consisted at understanding the dynamics of various photo-induced physical and chemical processes in molecules, which is fundamental to physics, chemistry, and biology. The studied dynamics occur on the femtosecond time scales and are observable using ultrafast tools like ultrashort laser pulses that can be generated using our tabletop laser as well as using Free Electron Lasers (FELs) at national and international facilities as well as using an Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (UED) facility at SLAC National laboratory. Her thesis work systematically studied photo-induced processes using different laser wavelength and probing the molecular transformation using a powerful experimental technique, revealing new physics and offering insights into potential future control of the measured phenomena. Several molecules were studied such as 1 and 2-propanol, acetonitrile and C60. She used our pump-probe spectroscopy method combined with coincident Coulomb explosion imaging technique using our COLTRIMS instrument, to track and isolate the mechanisms leading to multi-body molecular dissociation. She identified, with our group members, a novel, elusive channel in acetonitrile indicative of H2/D2 roaming, published in Nature communication (Debadarshini Mishra*, Aaron C. LaForge*, Lauren M. Gorman, Sergio Diaz-Tendero, Fernando Martin, and Nora Berrah “Direct visualization of an elusive molecular reaction: Time-resolved H2 roaming in acetonitrile” (Nature communication in press). This work was supported by quantum chemistry calculations by our Madrid, Spain collaborators.

She also studied, with our group members, the energy redistribution dynamics in fullerenes irradiated with intense XUV radiation, using the FLASH FEL from Hamburg, Germany, By analyzing the kinetic energy spectra of ionic fragments from C60 molecules, we observed a transient nanoplasma state, which plays a critical role in energy redistribution within the molecule. This work not only elucidates the complex interplay between molecular and Coulombic forces in large molecules but also provides insights that are applicable to other such large molecular systems. This work was validated by theoretical calculation by the Dreden, Germany collaborators. (A. C. LaForge*, D. Mishra*, U. Saalmann, R. Obaid, S. Pathak, H. Lindenblatt, S. Meister, F. Trost, P. Rosenberger, R. Michiels, S. Biswas, K. Saraswathula, F. Stienkemeier, F. Calegari, M. Braune, M.Mudrich, M. F. Kling, D. Rolles, E. Kukk, T. Pfeifer, Jan M. Rost, R. Moshammer, and N. Berrah, “Fragmentation dynamics of fullerenes upon extreme electronic excitation near the giant resonance with XUV free-electron laser pulses” (Under review with Phys. Rev. Lett.)

Written by Daniel . Anglés-Alcázar:

As part of his Ph.D. project, Jonathan Mercedes-Feliz has made very important contributions to our understanding of the interplay between supermassive black holes and galaxies using state-of-the-art supercomputing simulations that for the first time model the propagation and impact of powerful black hole-driven winds from the very center of galaxies all the way to the intergalactic medium. Using novel data analysis approaches, Jonathan has shown that these powerful winds can simultaneously enhance the rate of formation of stars in localized regions while dramatically suppressing the global growth of massive galaxies, explaining seemingly contradictory results from recent observations and previous theoretical models. Besides excelling in research, Jonathan is deeply committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and he has been an invaluable mentor for undergraduate and high school students from historically excluded groups as part of the McNair Scholars program, the Center for Access and Postsecondary Success (CAPS) Summer Program, and the YSSS Jack Kent Cooke Scholars program at UConn. With his published Ph.D. work already attracting significant attention in the community, Jonathan has accepted a postdoctoral research position funded by the NASA Astrophysics Theory Program to lead the next generation of simulations modeling the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies as part of Prof. Anglés-Alcázar’s group at the University of Connecticut.

2024 Physics PhDs Awarded

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Bren Backhaus
Advisor: Jonathan Trump
Thesis: “Emission-Line Properties of High-Redshift Galaxies and their Black Holes”

Dharma Basaula
Advisor: Serge Nakhmanson
Thesis: “Mesoscale Modeling of Thermoelectric Materials”

Mitchell Bredice
Advisor: Vasili Kharchenko
Thesis: “Kinetics, Nucleation, and Relaxation Dynamics of Ion-Seeded Nanoparticles”

Michael Davino
Advisor: Carlos Trallero
Thesis: “Strong-field Physics from Atoms to Nanoparticles”

Ashok Gurung
Advisor: Serge Nakhmanson
Thesis: “Predictive Multiscale Modeling of Dielectric and Electromechanical Properties in Electroactive Materials”

Zachary “Zoey” Harris
Advisor: Gerald Dunne
Thesis: “On the Application of Resurgence to Effective Actions in Quantum Field Theories”

Tianye Liu
Advisor: Philip Mannheim
Thesis: “Investigation of the Anisotropy of Cosmic Microwave Background Based on Conformal Cosmological Fluctuation and Associated Legendre Functions”

Brean Maynard
Advisor: Peter Schweitzer
Thesis: “Theoretical Studies of Hadron Structure”

Jonathan Mercedes
Advisor: Daniel Angles-Alcazar
Thesis: “The Impact of Quasar Fueling and Feedback at Cosmic Noon in Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations”

Debadarshini Mishra
Advisor: Nora Berrah
Thesis: “Photo-Induced Ultrafast Dynamics in Molecules”

Daniel Norman
Advisor: Philip Mannheim
Thesis: “Investigation of the Analytic Structure of Conformal Cosmological Fluctuations”

Zhanna Rodnova
Advisor: Carlos Trallero
Thesis: “Towards New Mechanisms For The Generation of Long Wavelength Infrared Femtosecond Pulses”

Sebastian Seeds
Advisor: Andrew Puckett
Thesis: “The Two-Photon Exchange Contribution to Electron-Neutron Elastic Scattering (nTPE) and Extraction of GMn at Q^2 = 4.5 (GeV/c)^2 in Hall A at Jefferson National Lab”

Ravi Wickramathilake
Advisor: Vernon Cormier
Thesis: “Seismic Attenuation and Scattering in Earth’s Inner Core : New Modeling and Interpretation”

UConn Celebrates National Academies Members

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Nora Berrah, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Physics, speaking at the UConn National Academy of Sciences Celebration at UConn School of Law on Aug. 27, 2024. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

On August 27, 2024, scholars, trustees, and friends of UConn gathered at the University of Connecticut School of Law to honor members of the university community elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Established by an Act of Congress in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences was followed by the National Academy of Engineering in 1964 and the National Academy of Medicine in 1970, all under the same congressional charter. Collectively, they are known as the National Academies.

“Few honors can compare with election to a National Academy. It is a recognition by peers and the Academy itself of outstanding achievements in research and scholarship,” President Radenka Maric said at the celebration. Six UConn faculty members are elected members of the National Academies, with the most recent being Professor of Physics Nora Berrah, whose election was announced in May 2024.

For more information about the event, see the UConn Today article.

Department Head greeting

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Dear Friends of UConn Physics,

Last year, I wrote to you as a new Interim Head of Physics and only barely a month into my appointment. During the past year, we conducted a search for a permanent head and I was selected. For this, I am very grateful for the trust and support I received from the department. The past year has been a bit of a rollercoaster: on the one hand, the complex budget situation has preoccupied the department heads and upper administration and student protests sparked discussions about free speech and activism on campus. On the other hand, the Physics Department had another excellent year in terms of research, teaching, and outreach and I had the pleasure of meeting several of our generous donors.

The most notable achievements of the past year were the election of Prof. Nora Berrah to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in science, and her appointment as a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, the highest honor at UConn. These will be celebrated at a special Edward Pollack Distinguished Lecture, on October 14, 2024, given by a longtime friend and colleague of Nora’s, Prof. Philip Bucksbaum, himself a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science at Stanford University.

A number of other faculty received notable awards this year. Prof. Moshe Gai will travel to Romania on a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship. Two faculty received awards from the College of Liberal Arts and Science (CLAS): Prof. Peter Schweitzer for Faculty Mentoring of Faculty and Prof. Erin Scanlon for promoting Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. CLAS also funded a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative: “UConn STARs (Science, Technology, and Astronomy Recruits),” Prof. Cara Battersby, PI.

We gave out our two undergraduate awards: the Katzenstein prize for the best undergraduate research paper went to Danya Alboslani and our Mark Miller award to fund a summer research project went to Leilani Ainsworth, working with Prof. Simone Colombo

We are fortunate to welcome two new faculty this year:

  • Assistant Professor Aleksandra Kuznetsova is currently a fellow at the Flatiron Institute and works on star and planet formation. She will join us this August.
  • Assistant Professor Shohini Bhattacharya currently holds an Oppenheimer Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory in theoretical nuclear physics and will join us in January 2025.

This was also a great year for outreach. We welcomed over 100 enthusiastic second graders for a variety of hands-on activities, organized by Prof. Jason Hancock and Sarah Trallero. We held a viewing party for the opening of our newly renovated observatory, spearheaded by Prof. Matt Guthrie and we got permission to officially name it in honor of the late Prof. Cynthia Peterson, who funded and built the observatory in 1980. And, we had another exciting eclipse viewing party organized by Prof. Jonathan Trump – the second in seven years! We are looking forward to hosting CU*IP: Conference for Undergraduate Women and Under-represented Minorities in Physics, sponsored by the American Physical Society. It will take place in January2025 and is being organized by Prof. Nora Berrah, along with a large local organizing committee. Finally, I would like to cordially invite you to attend our 26th annual Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture on Friday, November 15, 2024, which will be held in our department. This year’s speaker is Professor Adam Riess from Johns Hopkins University where he is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor. He was a joint winner, with Drs. Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt, of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics, awarded “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe.” I hope you can all attend and catch up on everything that is going on in the department and the Universe! I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,

George Gibson
Department Head, Physics