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.
The school year started with a total solar eclipse that captivated thousands on Tech Green. For some schools, that would be enough to qualify for a memorable year. But this is Georgia Tech, and events before and after Aug. 21's celestial happening also put a spotlight on the Institute. In addition to the eclipse watch party on campus, the College of Science's contributions to this list of top Tech news stories for the year includes gravitational waves from neutron star collisions, golden nanorods used to fight cancer, robots for exploring frozen moons of Jupiter, and a Rhodes Scholar in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Philonise Floyd 2017-12-22T00:00:00-05:00The organization known as the "world's largest general scientific society" has elected three Georgia Tech researchers as fellows for 2017. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has singled out Joshua Weitz, professor in the School of Biological Sciences; Baratunde Cola, associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; and Mary Frank Fox, ADVANCE professor in the School of Public Policy. Weitz was honored for his research on the effects of viruses on populations and ecosystems. Weitz is also an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Physics, and director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences.
Elaine M. Hubbard Endowed Chair in the School of Mathematics 2017-12-04T00:00:00-05:00Celeste Headlee, host of Georgia Public Broadcasting's On Second Thought radio program, interviews School of Physics Professor Laura Cadonati, and postdoctoral researcher James Clark, about the recent neutron star collision discovered by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Georgia Tech has 17 postdoctoral researchers, faculty members, and students working with LIGO. Cadonati is LIGO's deputy spokesperson.
Whistle Bistro 2017-11-01T00:00:00-04:00
Here is how the Associated Press reported Monday's announcement from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration that scientists had detected the collision of two neutron stars. Laura Cadonati, professor in the School of Physics and LIGO deputy spokesperson, is quoted in the article. Cadonati is also with the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics.
management of technology and innovation 2017-10-17T00:00:00-04:00
The Washington Post publishes its report on the news that the LIGO Scientific Collaboration has detected a kilonova, the collision of two neutron stars. The burst rippled the fabric of space-time and sent gamma-rays and gold flying through the cosmos. School of Physics Professor Laura Cadonati, who is also LIGO's deputy spokesperson, is quoted in the article as saying that scientists feel like "we have hit the motherlode."
cohort 2017-10-16T00:00:00-04:00
Here is how the Los Angeles Times broke the news of the first-ever detection of a neutron star collision and how the celestial event was confirmed by scientists and astronomers around the world. Laura Cadonati, professor in the School of Physics and deputy spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, is quoted in the article.
partner institutions 2017-10-16T00:00:00-04:00
"This is the first time we had a 3D IMAX view of an astronomical event," says Laura Cadonati, professor in the School of Physics and deputy spokeperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. She's referring to more than 70 observatories around the world that helped confirm the first-ever detection of gravitational waves and light caused by the merger of two neutron stars. The resulting explosion and lightshow those astronomers witnessed from the merger is called a kilonova, and it's the source of Earth's heavy elements like gold, silver, and platinum.
sustainability award 2017-10-16T00:00:00-04:00Welcome to the era of multi-messenger astrophysics – a single event in the cosmos that gives off both gravitational and electromagnetic waves. That's what the Aug. 17, 2017, detection by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration of two neutron stars merging means for the scientific community, which is celebrating yet another discovery that confirms a century-old theory from Albert Einstein. Once again, School of Physics Professor Laura Cadonati, LIGO's deputy spokesperson, is proving to be very quotable. "We can now fill in a few more tiles in the jigsaw puzzle that is the story of our universe," Cadonati tells CNN.
McMillan Street 2017-10-16T00:00:00-04:00The first-ever detection of gravitational waves and light from the collision of two neutron stars isn't just setting the scientific community ablaze. It also ushers in a new "multi-messenger" astronomy, with scientists arround the world gathering and studying those waves, light, and subatomic particles at the same time. So says Laura Cadonati, professor in the School of Physics and the deputy spokesperson for the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration, and she explains the significance of this new era. Cadonati is also a member of the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics.
work family interactions 2017-10-16T00:00:00-04:00The Aug.17, 2017, detection of gravitational waves and light from the merger of two neutron stars set off a race against time around the globe. Astronomers scrambled to confirm data that could be seen by telescopes and measured by gamma-ray, x-ray and radio wave detection equipment before they all faded away. Laura Cadonati, associate professor in the School of Physics and LIGO Scientific Collaboration deputy spokesperson, explains how these gravitational waves lasted longer than those from four previous incidents caused by black hole collisions. Cadonati is a member of the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics.
advice for students 2017-10-16T00:00:00-04:00
"This year's prize is about a discovery that shook the world." That's how an official with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences described the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was awarded to the three founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) for the detection of gravitational waves. Georgia Tech has a front-row seat for that achievement, thanks to its membership in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a global team of scientists that helps to confirm gravitational-wave data. Laura Cadonati, professor in the School of Physics and LIGO deputy spokesperson, is quoted in this article, as she is in a separate story for the Verge. Another LIGO member and School of Physics researcher, Karan Jani, reacts to the Nobel Prize in this Forbes article.
work family interactions 2017-10-03T00:00:00-04:00There are black holes, and then there are supermassive black holes that could have played a role in the formation of the universe. How they got so big remains a mystery, but new theories and research may be closing in on answers. A study from earlier this year supports one of these theories: that radiation from nearby galaxies created the galactic monsters. The study was co-authored by John Wise, Dunn Family Associate Professor in the School of Physics. Wise's work is dthe subject of this Scientific American report.
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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
