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.
A Georgia Tech honors graduate who was both a Rhodes and Truman Scholar may have a chance to impact the purchase of new technologies for the Air Force. William Roper, currently founding director of the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office, is President Trump's nominee to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions. Roper, who has argued that the Defense Department should use more commercial software, graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. from the School of Physics in 2001. He earned his M.S. in physics from Tech in 2002, also summa cum laude. Roper has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Oxford.
digital divide 2018-01-03T00:00:00-05:00Yes, last year's detection of neutron stars colliding was indeed "kind of a big deal," especially here at Georgia Tech. Seventeen of our faculty members, researchers, and students were part of the international Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory team that detected the first-ever observation of a kilonova, or neutron star mashup. LIGO Deputy Spokesperson Laura Cadonati, quoted in this story, is also a professor in the School of Physics. (This Newsweek story is essentially a recap of a Science magazine item that named LIGO's discovery as Breakthrough of the Year.)
Elizabeth Kornegay 2017-12-22T00:00:00-05:00The 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
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Events
Special Condensed Matter Seminar | Tuesday, October 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm | Speaker: Prof. Ignacio Salgado Linares | Host Dr. Mourigal | Howey N201/N202
Title: Thermal Transport and Chiral Spectroscopy from Semiclassical Spin Dynamics.
Soft Matter Seminar| Prof. Kimberly Weirich | Clemson UN | Host: Dr. Itamar Kolvin
Soft Matter Seminar| Prof. Kimberly Weirich | Clemson UN | Host: Dr. Itamar Kolvin
CRA SEMINAR | Federico Testagrossa | DESY Zeuthen | Host: David A. Raudales O.
CRA SEMINAR | Federico Testagrossa | DESY Nat'l Institution | Host: David A. Raudales O.
Observatory Public Night
On select Thursday evenings during the academic year, the Georgia Tech School of Physics invites you to observe various bright celestial objects through telescopes.
The Ever-Changing Georgia Coast with President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough
Join us for a special author conversation, reading, and Q&A followed by a book-signing reception with refreshments, Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow swag, and drawing for signed books.
2026 College of Sciences Homecoming Tailgate
Reconnect with fellow College of Sciences alumni, friends, faculty, and students while enjoying food, drinks, and Georgia Tech spirit.
School of Physics Fall Colloquium Series- Dr. Andreas Karch(UT Austin)
Dr. Andreas Karch(UT Austin) Making the Great Desert Bloom
Experts in the News
In an article published by The Conversation, Shiladitya Banerjee, associate professor in the School of Physics, discusses new research suggesting that single bacterial cells exhibit learning-like behavior in changing environments.
This article was also published by The Scientist.
The Conversation 2026-09-10T00:00:00-04:00If you dropped the exact same pulse of food onto two identical bacteria, you'd expect the exact same response. That's not what happened. In a study published in PRX Life in May 2026, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech found that E. coli exposed to unstable, feast-and-famine conditions adapted to new food far faster than bacteria pulled from a stable environment, even when the immediate conditions in front of them were identical.
You may think that one cell has no place to keep things such as memories. Scientists, including Josiah Kratz, a postdoctoral fellow in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics, observed tens of thousands of individual E. coli bacteria through a special microfluidic apparatus and found that the cause was ribosomes, the components of the cell responsible for building proteins and determining the growth rate.
The News International 2026-09-09T00:00:00-04:00Researchers 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 2026-05-22T00:00:00-04:00
