News
Synopsis: Evolving Efficient Networks
Professor Eleni Katifori and Postdoctoral Fellow Henrik Ronellenfitsch, collaborate to develop a new model to understand how the growth of the embedding tissue influences the development of the network it contains. The model predicts that as the tissue grows, a hierarchal network develops in stages that resemble the ones found in the human body as well as in plant leaves. The evolved network is close to a global optimum for transport efficiency showcasing that nature can find the best solution to a complicated problem using only simple rules.
Phosphorene makes cover of ACS Nano
Drndic lab work has been featured on the cover of ACS Nano, June 28, 2016 issue
Two pieces showcasing the P&A department featured in Omnia
Penn’s Arts and Sciences magazine, Omnia, highlights our faculty members’ research projects delving into space.
Also check out their new section Origin Stories, featuring Chair, Mark Trodden.
Graduate student Lisa Tran's work highlighted on the cover of the June 28th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
This work, "Lassoing saddle splay and the geometrical control of topological defects," was done with postdoctoral fellow Max Lavrentovich. The two work with Professors Randy Kamien (Physics and Astronomy) and Kate Stebe (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering).
For the full article visit PNAS: http://www.pnas.org
Dr. Dan Beller, Physics and Astronomy alum, won the 2016 Glenn Brown prize from the International Liquid Crystal Society.
The Honors and Awards Committee of the ILCS selected Dr. Beller for his thesis work:
For his outstanding theoretical work to identify the rich
possibilities and outcomes of controlling defects in nematic and smectic liquid
crystals under a variety of boundary conditions. The demonstration of the well controlled disclinations
and focal conics is expected to open up a novel route for self-assembly in soft-ordered
materials.
Royal Astronomical Society spotlights Prof. Mariangela Bernardi's project on black holes
The supermassive black holes found at the centre of every galaxy may be smaller than previously thought. If Mariangela Bernardi and her colleagues are right, then the gravitational waves produced when they merge will be harder to detect than previously assumed.
Prof. Alison Sweeney's paper on open water camouflage just came out and is getting some nice press - a write-up in Science News, and a forthcoming online piece for National Geographic
Deep-sea “glass squids” have cells resembling fiber-optic cable located on the bottoms of their eyes. A new paper by Amanda Holt and Alison Sweeney shows that these cells are “pipes" for light that are deliberately leaky.
$40 Million Grant Establishes Simons Observatory
Mark Devlin, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, will be the spokesperson for the newly formed Simons Observatory. The Simons Foundation funded Observatory will mark a new astronomy facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert that will merge and expand existing efforts to explore the evolution of the universe from its earliest moments, to today. Devlin’s research focuses in the area of cosmology and the evolution of structure in the universe as well as extra-galactic and galactic star formation.
Physics and Astronomy Professor Awarded the 2016 Charles Ludwig Award for Distinguished Teaching
Congratulations to Professor Paul Heiney, the recipient of the Ludwig Award which recognizes his years of dedicated service and committment to our students.
As Dean of the College, Dennis DeTurck wrote in his letter, “The Ludwig Award carries a special significance because the entire process of soliciting nominations and selecting the recipient is carried out by the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, without intervention by the faculty or administration.”