Department of Physics and Astronomy

When the clock strikes 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, iconic international venues such as Times Square, the Sydney Opera House, and the Taj Mahal all will become dark. So, too, will the River Campus’s Wilson Quad.

Alice Quillen and Andrew Jordan have been awarded prestigious Simons Foundation Faculty Fellowships to pursue their research in theoretical physics. "This is a great time to drop everything and go work on the galaxy!” says Quillen.

In 2013, a group of Rochester and NASA scientists proposed the NEOCam, or “Near-Earth Object Camera,” based on an infrared detector developed here in Rochester. This year, NASA announced extended funding for the program.

In an op-ed for the New York Times, Professor Adam Frank makes the case for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's role in earth-centric science. “Without NASA, climate research worldwide would be hobbled,” he writes.

Researchers have developed a "quantum enigma machine" to improve on data encryption. The device manipulates photons to create an unbreakable encrypted message with a key that’s far shorter than the message—the first time that has ever been done.

Experiments have created the conditions capable of producing a fusion yield that’s five times higher than the current record laser-fusion energy yield. The new work represents an important advance in a long-standing national research initiative to develop fusion as an energy source.

When the highly anticipated findings from the Japan-based T2K neutrino experiment were finally presented at the International Conference on High Energy Physics this month, it was Rochester graduate student Konosuke (Ko) Iwamoto who updated the physics world on the puzzle behind the imbalance between matter and antimatter.

Rochester researchers working on the next generation of quantum information processing have received a $2 million boost from the National Science Foundation.

In a review of the state of the research in this field, Rochester physicist Riccardo Betti concludes the goal of realizing abundant, clean energy from inertial confinement fusion remains elusive, despite recent significant progress.

How can we calculate the likelihood of technological civilizations having existed on other planets? That’s a question Adam Frank, professor of astronomy, considers in an essay, “Yes, There Have Been Aliens,” published in the New York Times.