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Rogue Planets - SMAP Live with PhysAstro's Merel van ’t Hoff
YouTube — Did you know that it is common for planets to leave their stellar orbits and to eternally wander through space? Professor Merel van ’t Hoff presented for SMAP, Saturday Morning Astrophysics at Purdue. Research group members, Deniz Kacan, Lauren Warshaw, Anirudh Kumar and Kristian Mrazek, explained how the planets are formed, how their orbits can be influenced by gravity, and even the possibilities of hosted life. SMAP is for students in grades 8-12, monthly on Zoom.
Purdue physicist earns Air Force Young Investigator award for quantum optics research
Qiyu “Grace” Liang, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University, has received the 2025 Young Investigator Program award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for research that could expand how scientists observe and control quantum systems. According to the congratulatory notice sent to Liang, her proposal, “Quantum Optics with Rydberg Antiblockade,” was selected from more than 150 proposals.
Advancing Space Exploration at Purdue 2026 Recap
The 2nd annual Advancing Space Exploration at Purdue Symposium, hosted by the College of Science, brought together leaders from inside and outside Purdue to discuss opportunities for universities to work with industry partners to make the next giant leap in robotic and human space exploration.
Purdue-led team watches a “frictionless” quantum fluid freeze into a solid-like state
Superfluids are the showoffs of the quantum world: Once they start moving, they are expected to keep flowing without resistance. But a team of physicists that includes Purdue University has now observed something stranger, an exciton superfluid that can freeze into an ordered, solid-like phase.
The discovery, led by Yihang Zeng, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue University, is reported in Nature in the paper “Observation of a superfluid-to-insulator transition of bilayer excitons.”
Manfra appointed Purdue’s chief quantum officer
Purdue University announced Tuesday (March 3) that quantum computing expert Michael Manfra has been appointed chief quantum officer, effective Jan. 1, 2026. He is currently director of the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute (PQSEI).
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