Department of Physics

Fourth solar physicist affiliated with MSU wins national prize
Dick Smith 01/23/12

The LIGO collaboration with member Neil Cornish have another article just published in Physical Review Letters, Dec. 30, 2011 issue, titled "Directional Limits on Persistent Gravitational Waves Using LIGO S5 Science Data". Congratulations, Neil!
Dick Smith 01/06/12

Pure Gold Award to Charles Kankelborg Congratulations to Charles on his Pure Gold Award. Charles was nominated by one of his PHSX 261 students as "one of those blessed instructors who can bring brightness and life into any subject...always willing to take time out to speak with his students, regardless of office hours, about anything from homework to hobby electronics...[with only] two expressions from the Professor: a straight face when in serious thought, or a hearty smile at all other times." Congratulations, Charles! Read more...
Link to MSU Pure Gold
Dick Smith 01/06/12

New KITP Scholar
The scientific reputation of Nico Yunes has been acknowledged with selection as a KITP Scholar for 2012-2014. The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics supports research efforts of faculty at non-major-research institutions to participate in high quality scentific symposia on topics of emerging importance in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Assistant Professor Anton Vorontsov was selected as a KITP Scholar for 2010-2012.
Link to the KITP program
Dick Smith 01/06/12

Celebrating Einstein
The Montana Space Grant Consortium has provided support for an Educational Enhancement Project under the direction of Assistant Professor Nico Yunes. Celebrating Einstein will include a week long event held in Bozeman, Montana in March of 2013 with a public lecture series by world-leading experts on black holes, gravitational waves and cosmology, a scientific relativity conference held at Montana State University, local elementary and middle school classroom lectures by MSU graduate students and an Art Exhibit on General Relativity and Gravitational Waves by an MSU professor held at the Exit Gallery. The highlight of the week will be a multimedia music performance held at the Emerson Cultural Center, featuring a live orchestra combined with gravitational wave sounds transposed and amplified to the audible range of human hearing, together with original poetry and film that will include the scientific visualization of black hole collisions and gravitational waves. The performance of the original music score will be professionally recorded and combined with the visual and audio elements to create a multimedia product for use in planetariums, theaters, classrooms, and outreach events. Celebrating Einstein will expose students and the general public to the world of relativity and gravitational waves, one of NASA’s primary research goals. Watch for it!
Dick Smith 01/06/12