To request a media interview, please reach out to School of Physics experts using our faculty directory, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts and research areas across the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech is also available to journalists upon request.
Far outside our solar system and out past the distant reachers of our galaxy—in the vast nothingness of space—the distance between gas and dust particles grows, limiting their ability to transfer heat. There may be pockets of the universe where temperatures drop to 1 Kelvin above absolute zero, astronomer Jim Sowell of the Georgia Institute of Technology notes, but so far, the closest measurement to absolute zero has only been observed in laboratories here on Earth.
campus construcation 2020-09-25T00:00:00-04:00It was a long and storied path for Dr. James “Jim” Sowell to get the 20-inch, Italian Officina Stellare telescope installed on the roof of the Howey Physics Building. But he succeeded, and today during Public Nights, young stargazers not only have access to Georgia Tech’s Observatory, they’re also learning about the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the universe, as well as astro-particle, electromagnetic, gravitational, and stellar astrophysics.
Karthik Sundaresan 2020-09-23T00:00:00-04:00Georgia Tech physicist Jennifer Rieser, who studies snake slithering, but was not involved in this new study, tells NPR that the research is a “cool” finding. The paper provides evidence that the way the snake moves in the air "actually seems to have a pretty important consequence for their movement,” she says. Related coverage: NPR.
Pranav Kulkarni 2020-07-02T00:00:00-04:00In a study published in Heart Rhythm on May 28, researchers led by Favio Fenton at Georgia Institute of Technology detailed how the drug affects electrical signaling in the heart of rabbits and guinea pig, and contributes to abnormal heart rhythms; these animals serve as model for understanding heart issues in humans.
EarSketch; code; computer science; CEISMC; School of Music; School of Literature 2020-06-04T00:00:00-04:00The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been promoted as a potential treatment for Covid-19, is known to have potentially serious effects on heart rhythms. Now, corresponding author Flavio Fenton and a team of researchers have used an optical mapping system to observe exactly how the drug creates serious disturbances in the electrical signals that govern heartbeat. Related coverage: Research Horizons, ScienceDaily, Futurity, The Doctor's Channel, Cardiac Rhythm News.
resilient mindset 2020-06-01T00:00:00-04:00A choreography of swimming, walking and rolling could help future rovers, built by Daniel Goldman's lab, avoid getting stuck in loose soil on the moon or Mars. Also featured on CNN, Science News, Inside Science, AAAS, Space.com, Daily Mail, Inverse, IEEE Spectrum, IHS Engineering360, Stars and Stripes.
Extension of Self 2020-05-14T00:00:00-04:00The "Mini Rover," a scaled down 3D-printed model of a NASA rover concept, has a gait that allows it to crawl and successfully conquer tricky terrain.
McMillan Street 2020-05-14T00:00:00-04:00To make fried rice like a pro, use physics. New research by David Hu and Hungtang Ko has analyzed the repetitive movements used to toss the rice.
Read more:
Gizmodo
ZME Science
Science News
ARS Technica
Forbes
American Council on Science and Health
Lifehacker Australia
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Simon Sponberg is back to experimenting with some of his favorite subjects: Hawkmoths. The School of Physics and School of Biological Sciences assistant professor, who studies the neuromechanics of animal movement, has tethered the large moths to video game joysticks in earlier studies to find out how the insects track targets. Now he's gathering data about just how fast the moths decide on which muscles to use as they hover near flowers. Sponberg's latest study also attracted the attention of The Scientist.
reconfigurable transceivers 2019-12-30T00:00:00-05:00Many things about the animal world fascinate David Hu. He's won awards and gained attention for his studies on everything from mammal urination and defecation, to this research involving fire ants and how they build rafts out of their bodies when floodwaters rise. Hu, an associate professor in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Physics, and his team found different fluid behaviors, such as vortexes, could change the size of the fire ant raft in several ways. Hu and members of his team presented at the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics 72nd Annual Meeting in late November.
trauma recall 2019-12-20T00:00:00-05:00Fire ants build living rafts to survive floods and rainy seasons. Georgia Tech scientists are studying if a fire ant colony’s ability to respond to changes in their environment during a flood is an instinctual behavior and how fluid forces make them respond. Hungtang Ko and David Hu will present the science behind this insect behavior, focusing their discussion on how the living raft changes size under various environmental conditions at the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics 72nd Annual Meeting on Nov. 26.
Peter Lott 2019-11-26T00:00:00-05:00Yes, space is vast, infinite, and no doubt very cold. But does it ever reach absolute zero, which is -459°F? Popular Mechanics examines that possibility and gets some expert analysis from two School of Physics researchers: Jim Sowell, academic professional and director of the Georgia Tech Observatory, and Alastair Gent, graduate student in the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics.
campus construcation 2019-11-22T00:00:00-05:00- ‹ previous
- 14 of 24
- next ›
Events
Soft Matter Seminar| Prof. Justin Burton | Emory UN | Host: Dr. Itamar Kolvin
Soft Matter Seminar| Prof. Justin Burton | Emory UN | Host: Dr. Itamar Kolvin
School of Physics Fall Colloquium Series- Dr. Zhenghan Wang(UCSB)
Dr. Zhenghan Wang(UCSB) Topological fault-tolerance in quantum computing
Special CRA SEMINAR| Prof. Paz Beniamini | The Open UN of Israel | Host: Prof. David Ballantyne
Special CRA SEMINAR| Prof. Paz Beniamini | The Open UN of Israel | Host: Prof. David Ballantyne
State of the School Address- Dr. Feryal Ozel
Dr. Feryal Ozel- GA Tech School of Physics Chair
CRA SEMINAR | Vikram Manikantan | UN of Arizona | Host: Dr. Matthew Liska
CRA SEMINAR | Vikram Manikantan | UN of Arizona | Host: Dr. Matthew Liska
Georgia Tech Space Week
A campus-wide celebration of innovation in the space domain, bringing together academia, industry, and government.
Experts in the News
Researchers in the School of Physics, working with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, have found that standard methods for identifying chirality in topological phases fail when applied to mixed quantum states. The study reveals that established diagnostics, including bulk-boundary correspondence and the modular commutator, are unreliable in these complex systems. Consequently, the research presents two new measures, based on relative entropy, to accurately diagnose chirality and determine the chiral central charge in decohered topological phases, indicating a need for a new set of tools when investigating mixed-state topology.
Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-07-16T00:00:00-04:00Bacteria have no neurons or memories in the human sense. Yet in a new study, researchers at Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon University — including School of Physics Associate Professor Shiladitya Banerjee and Postdoctoral Fellow Josiah Kratz — found that individual E. coli cells carried traces of past hardship into the future. When nutrients repeatedly rose and fell, the cells changed how quickly they grew, suggesting that even simple microbes can use experience to prepare for what may come next.
ZME Science 2026-06-10T00:00:00-04:00Georgia Tech researchers have recreated the effects of solar wind on lunar minerals in a laboratory experiment, providing new evidence that the constant stream of charged particles from the sun plays a major role in shaping the moon’s surface.
The team exposed ilmenite, a mineral commonly found on both Earth and the moon, to a synthetic version of solar wind. The experiment produced nanophase iron, tiny metallic particles that are widely observed in lunar soil and are considered a key signature of space weathering.
Interesting Engineering 2026-06-10T00:00:00-04:00A new study led by researchers, including School of Physics graduate student Julia Esposito and Associate Professor Gongjie Li, used 1,500 virtual planetary systems to examine how planet-planet scattering may have influenced the formation of Jupiter-sized planets.
American Astronomical Society NOVA 2026-05-22T00:00:00-04:00Researchers have long known that when two galaxies approach each other and merge, the supermassive black holes at their centers form a pair and are eventually expected to merge as well. It is precisely these mergers that are considered one of the sources of the gravitational-wave background — a faint “hum” of spacetime detected in recent years. However, the role played by the geometry of the collision in this process has remained an open question.
Graduate student Sena Ghobadi of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Physics, along with her colleagues, has developed three-dimensional dynamic models of such collisions.
A similar story appeared in Sky & Telescope.
Universe Magazine 2026-04-28T00:00:00-04:00Research led by Georgia Tech physicist Itamar Kolvin has found that the presence of small imperfections or heterogeneities in materials can have a dual effect on their strength and resilience. While heterogeneities were historically believed to make materials stronger by creating an obstacle course for cracks, the new study shows that in some complex materials, heterogeneities can actually accelerate crack propagation and weaken the overall structure. The findings have implications for how engineers design and reinforce materials to optimize their toughness.
Atlanta Today 2026-02-27T00:00:00-05:00
