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Illinois Physics graduate student Jared Burleson receives ATLAS Outstanding Achievement Award

Burleson’s research focuses on machine-learning methods for particle tracking at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Physics, Represented: A Luncheon Celebrating Underappreciated Scientists

On Tuesday, October 13, Women and Gender Minorities in Physics (WGMP) hosted Physics, Represented, a PowerPoint luncheon celebrating underrepresented scientists and those whose contributions to science have gone unrecognized or overlooked.

Goldschmidt awarded $1.35M, named 2026 Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigator

Goldschmidt's quantum information science research in solid-state photonic devices combines rare-earth atoms in solid crystals with low-loss nanophotonic structures.

How to control ferromagnetism using light

Experimentalists and theorists unite to develop and model a new technique for controlling a material’s magnetization on extremely short timescales.

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Research Highlights

Click on a research highlight to vote for your favorite submission to the Research Highlight Science Writing Contest for graduate students.

Symmetry energy determines the internal bulk viscosity of neutron stars

Research Highlights
April 23, 2026

Gravitational memory from colliding neutron stars

Research Highlights
March 26, 2026

Using Cosmic Droplets to Unlock the Secrets of Nuclear Matter

Research Highlights
May 15, 2025

New surprises in the Quantum Hall Effect

Research Highlights
May 15, 2025

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Donor support for undergraduate research is funding student participation in cross-disciplinary study of dark matter

Illinois Physics rising junior David Balut, the 2024 A.C. Anderson Undergraduate Research Scholar, has been a member of the Peter Abbamonte research group since November 2022. This summer, his donor-supported research includes collaborating with the Yoni Kahn group on the physics of dark matter, using organic scintillators for anisotropic detection. He will also continue to study strange metals in the Abbamonte lab. In addition to the AC Anderson Award, Balut is a recipient of the T.R. Schlaeder Engineering award, the Robert M. Stephens Engineering award, and has been a James Scholar since Fall 2022.

The A.C. Anderson Undergraduate Research Scholar award is made possible by Illinois Physics donors. The award is named for Ansel C. Anderson, an alumnus (PhD, 1961), faculty member (1962-1992), and department head (1986-1992) who made seminal contributions to low-temperature physics, particularly on the thermal properties of metals and glasses.

Learn more about how to become a donor and support initiatives like undergraduate research opportunities!

Give to the Engineering Visionary Scholarship.

EVS attracts the brightest students, ensures a diverse and talented class, and helps reduce student debt.

“I love cosmology—the study of the large structures of the universe, the Big Bang, and the questions of dark energy and matter. I have a strong interest in developing astronomy instrumentation—telescopes, satellites, and sounding rockets. The Engineering Visionary Scholarship freed me up to pursue these interests while exploring the fundamentals of the universe through physics.”

— Kayleigh Excell, Class of '24, EVS Scholarship recipient

Learn More

Watch Illinois Physics Professor Nico Yunes on ‘The UIUC Talkshow’ discussing his trailblazing theoretical work in relativity and gravity. At Illinois, Yunes is the founding director of the Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe in the Department of Physics and is the Bob Uyetani Professor in Physics in The Grainger College of Engineering.

Last fall, Saturday Physics for Everyone featured Illinois Chemistry and Physics Professor Zan Luthey-Schulten discussing her groundbreaking research in theoretical and computational biophysics. At Illinois, she serves as the founding director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology and is the Murchison-Mallory Endowed Chair in Chemistry.

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