News
School of Physics and Astronomy

The Rochester Institute of Technology Observatory is hosting an open house to teach members of the Rochester community how to identify constellations, the patterns of stars in the sky that mark the figures of heroes, monsters, and characters from ancient myths.

R&D Magazine talks to Mishkat Bhattacharya, associate professor of physics, about his research to create a laser for sound.

The optical laser has grown to a $10 billion global technology market since it was invented in 1960, and has led to Nobel prizes for Art Ashkin for developing optical tweezing and Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland for work with pulsed lasers. Now an RIT researcher has teamed up with experts at the University of Rochester to create a different kind of laser – a laser for sound, using the optical tweezer technique invented by Ashkin.

The Nobel Prize-winning project that hunts for gravitational waves— ripples in space and time—is about to begin the longest and most sensitive observational run to date. And several RIT researchers are preparing to pore over the new data to help uncover some of the universe’s biggest mysteries.

Assistant Professor Ben Zwickl has earned a prestigious National Science Foundation award to explore how lab-based, project-based and work-based learning environments can teach sophisticated problem-solving skills not attainable in lecture courses.

Assistant Professor Jeyhan Kartaltepe is assuming leadership of a team of more than 200 scientists worldwide collaborating to study how galaxies are influenced by both their fundamental physical properties and the environment that surrounds them. 

Assistant Professor Michael Zemcov is part of a small team of scientists contributing to NASA’s new mission to explore the origins of the universe by performing the first near-infrared all-sky spectral survey. 

RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation and Insituto Argentino de Radioastronomía are beginning new systematic pulsar timing studies. RIT is helping IAR upgrade its two radio telescopes to get them operational again after decades without use.

Futurism features Jason Nordhaus, an NTID assistant professor of physics and a program faculty member in RIT’s astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. program.

A revolutionary technique developed by NTID astrophysicist Jason Nordhaus could allow for a better understanding of the fates of solar systems when their stars cease to shine.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 6: Jeyhan Kartaltepe, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and Brittany Vanderhoof, Ph.D. student in astrophysical sciences and technology, discuss their career paths, the opportunities and challenges for women in the sciences and their own efforts to be role models for future generations of scientists.

RIT researcher Mishkat Bhattacharya is building a theoretical framework to predict how nanoparticles made of graphene, silica and rare-earth compounds behave when suspended within the center of a laser beam.