Accomplishments: Department of Physics and Astronomy
Howard Yanxon (Physics and Astronomy) was one of 70 graduate students from across the nation selected for the Department of Energy's Solicitation 2 cycle for Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program.
Yanxon's advisor is professor Qiang Zhu. He will conduct his research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the…
Linda Lister (Music), Brian Hedlund (Life Sciences), and Zhaohuan Zhu (Physics and Astronomy) have been selected by the NSHE Board of Regents to receive this year's Regents’ Awards, which honor accomplishments that increase NSHE’s stature in five areas: teaching, academic advising, creative activities, research, and early-career (or “rising”)…
Daniel Proga (Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded a three-year grant for $464,618 from NASA to study radiation-magnetohydrodynamics of clouds in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Proga and his collaborators will continue their quest to develop a comprehensive and quantitative theory for cloud formation, destruction, and acceleration based on…
Bernard Zygelman (Physics and Astronomy) has published A First Introduction to Quantum Computing and Information. This book addresses and introduces new developments in the field of quantum information and computing (QIC) for a primary audience of undergraduate students.
Developments over the past few decades have spurred the need…
Jay Nietling (Physics and Astronomy), Katelyn DiBenedetto (Graduate College), Anabel Chavva (Service Learning & Leadership), Sara Tajalli (Writing Center), Shanna Kinzel (Student Union & Event Services), and Jill Zimbelman (Research and Economic Development) are this year's recipients of the Professional Development Awards.
These $500…
Rebecca Martin and Zhaohuan Zhu (both Physics and Astronomy) are part of a multi-institute research team that was awarded a NASA Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks grant. The grant, "Origin of the giant planet dichotomy: Multi-scale modeling of planetary envelope accretion," is for three years and UNLV will receive…
David Rice and Jason Steffen (both Physics and Astronomy), along with collaborator Fred Rasio, conducted a study on the dynamical instability of planetary systems. Instability is a hallmark of young planetary systems and its effects are imprinted on the orbital properties of the remaining planets in the system. For decades a number of assumptions…
Physics and Astronomy graduate student John Boisvert, along with his advisor Jason Steffen and collaborator Ben Nelson were looking for planets hidden within archival data. There is an important degeneracy where a one-planet model produces the same signal as a two-planet model with a specific orbital configuration. This group developed…
Qiang Zhu (Physics and Astronomy) published an article, Predicting Phase Behavior of Grain Boundaries with Evolutionary Search and Machine Learning, in Nature Communications. The study of grain boundary phase transitions is an emerging field until recently dominated by experiments. Zhu, along with collaborators at Lawrence Livermore National…
Zhaohuan Zhu (Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded a National Science Foundation Early Career Award, which recognizes and supports the early career development activities of teach-scholars who are considered most likely to become future academic leaders. The five-year, $593,489 grant was awarded to Zhu for his research on understanding how the…
Jeremy Smallwood (Astronomy), Sara Black (History), Tyler Stalbaum (Mechanical Engineering), and Cheryl Anderson (Anthropology) are the recipients of this year's Graduate College Outstanding Thesis & Dissertation Awards.
Each year the college gives four awards — within each category, one for STEM and one for non-STEM. This year’s winners are…
Bing Zhang (Physics and Astronomy) recently published a paper in the journal Nature Communications. The most important discovery in astronomy in 2017 was the groundbreaking discovery of a gravitational wave event GW170817 due to the merger of two neutron stars as well as its associated short GRB (gamma ray burst) 170817A and other…