Welcome to Purdue Physics and Astronomy
We have had an amazing year in Physics and Astronomy. The Department continues to ascend in our sciences and work as a collaborative unit. We continue to produce outstanding science and to attract significant funding resources.
We are celebrating the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and we are highlighting our achievements in this field. We are proud of the recent results from Microsoft Quantum West Lafayette and recognize larger grants our PQSEI-affiliated faculty are involved in, such as the DOE funded Quantum Science Center and the NSF-funded Center for Quantum Technologies. Furthermore, our faculty play leadership roles in two recently awarded prestigious Keck Foundation Grants in the quantum area.
We are also celebrating outstanding research, such as those resulting from tracking mercury in the mammalian brains and a host of new results enabled by the James Webb Space Telescope which expand our understanding of the universe. Our outreach program continues to impress in mid-central Indiana but also went all the way to Colombia this past year to spread our love of astrophysics to children around the world. Furthermore, we are recognizing new funding secured from the DOE for the CMS Experiment, another large grant for work on relativistic heavy ion collisions and for geomechanics research funded by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the DOE.
With our highs also came sorrow this year as we said goodbye to faculty who have passed such as my predecessor, Professor John Finley. Although he has passed, we will always feel his presence in our classrooms, halls and labs, and at our Colloquia.
In this edition of Interactions, we present you with this snapshot of our department, but there is so much happening it is difficult to contain in one newsletter. Our faculty members are constantly devising new ways to keep the public informed. Whether it is publishing a new book about interference, starting an astrophysics podcast, creating a website and videos for quantum physics, or working with media to help lay audiences understand what we are doing here at Purdue, our faculty hope to deliver the next giant leap in science to the public.
As head, I am proud of our alumni, faculty, staff and students and honored to watch as they progress. I see every day one Boilermaker after another helping the next generation of Boilermakers ready themselves for their own successful careers. This is the way we collectively and boldly move our sciences forward. I want to say thank you to the alumni who continue to show up, mentor our students and help them achieve their own academic and career successes. If you are an alumnus who’d like to become more involved, please do give me a call or email, I look forward to our conversation.
As always, to all current faculty, staff and students, thank you for all that you are doing to elevate our program.
Boiler up!
Gabor Csathy
Professor and Head of Purdue Physics and Astronomy