News

Wed, 2015-12-02
Kathryn A. Moler, who earned a bachelor's degree and a doctorate in physics at Stanford and joined the faculty in 1998, is the chair of this year's Faculty Senate.
Tue, 2015-11-24

Steven Kahn was one of nine Stanford Professors who were elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. AAAS members are elected as fellows by their peers for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications.  Congratulations to Steve on this prestigious honor.

Thu, 2015-11-19

The newly found 'protoplanet' is 450 light years away, but observing how it collects matter and grows could answer some of the biggest questions concerning how our solar system formed.

Slides available for premajor advising dinner for prospective Physics and Engineering Physics majors

Congratulations to Physics Machine Shop Supervisor Karlheinz Merkle, who will receive the 2015 Marsh O'Neill Award.  This prestigious award is given annually to Stanford staff who have made outstanding contributions to Stanford's research mission.

2016 Applied Physics, Physics and SLAC Summer Research Info Session

Dear Physics and Engineering Physics Students,

If you would like to know more about the 2016 Applied Physics, Physics and SLAC Summer Research College Program plan to attend this information session:

DATE:  Wednesday, November 18
TIME:  12:30pm – 1:20pm
LOCATION:  Physics and Astrophysics Building, Room 102/103

Food will be provided. Please fill out the Doodle form below before noon Tuesday,...

Two of our Physics faculty, Xiaoliang Qi and Leonardo Senatore, were awarded New Horizons in Physics Prizes, each of which are paired with a $100,000 prize. Xiao-Liang Qi, an associate professor of physics was recognized for "outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, especially involving the use of topology to understand new states of matter."...

2015-16 Senior Thesis Application Deadline: Friday 11/20/15

Dear Senior Physics majors,

The deadline for applying to complete a Senior Thesis is Friday, November 20 before 4pm.  Note also that the approval and completion of a Senior Thesis is one of the requirements for the Honors Program.  A Senior Thesis can also be done independently of the Honors program if you do not otherwise qualify for Honors, but nevertheless this requires the Senior Thesis application form.  This link has detailed information about the...

Tue, 2015-10-13

To all members of the Stanford Physics Department:

On October 9, 2015, the news broke that a 6-month investigation by UC Berkeley had determined that Geoff Marcy, a faculty member in the Berkeley Astronomy Department, violated their campus sexual harassment policies between 2004 and 2010. We are writing to you to express our deep concern and support for the victims of this harassment, and our respect for those members of the Berkeley community who reported this behavior. We are...

Thu, 2015-09-03

Monika Schleier-Smith has been selected as a 2015 Hellman Faculty Fellow.  The Hellman Faculty Scholar fund was established to provide support  for junior faculty research.  Congratulations to Monika!

Thu, 2015-08-27

Stanley G. Wojcicki has received the 2015 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize, awarded annually to recognize and encourage outstanding achievements in experimental particle physics.  Congratulations to Stan!

Fri, 2016-02-12

Save the date of Friday, February 12, 2016!  More info to follow.

Wed, 2014-11-26

Congratulations to Tom Abel - elected Fellow of the AAAS

Tue, 2014-11-11

Professors Aharon Kapitulnik and Zhi-Xun Shen Recipients of Moore Foundation Grants for Quantum Materials Research

Mon, 2014-11-10

Congratulations to Professor Sean Hartnoll for winning the 2015 New Horizons in Physics Prize! 

Tue, 2014-11-04

Prof. Shoucheng Zhang has been named a recipient of the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, one of the oldest and most prestigious science awards in the United States.  Zhang shares the 2015 physics recognition with Charles Kane and Eugene Mele, both of the University of Pennsylvania, for their “groundbreaking theoretical contributions leading to the discovery of a new class of materials called topological insulators, and for their prediction of specific...

Wed, 2014-10-01

Stanford Professors Aharon Kapitulnik, Zhi-Xun Shen and Tony Heinz are among 11 recipients of the Moore Foundation Awards, given to Experimental Investigaors in Quatum Materials.  See press release for additional details.

In Thinking About the Universe, freshmen will explore profound questions about the cosmos – its beginnings, structure, extent and fate – with a philosopher, an experimental physicist and a theoretical physicist as their guides. The course is one of the new offerings in the Thinking Matters program, which is designed to help students transition from high school to college by introducing them to a multidisciplinary approach to learning that emphasizes critical analysis,...

Tue, 2014-09-02

Professor Kathryn Moler has been appointed as Sapp Family Univeristy Fellow in Undergraduate Education.  This fellowship is part of the Bass University Fellows Progream, designed to honor faculty who have demonstrated a sustained commitment, at the highest levels, to undergraduate education.  Congratulations, Prof. Moler!

Tue, 2014-09-02

Professor Sarah Church has been appointed the Pritzker University Fellow in Undergraduate Education.  This fellowship is part of the Bass Univeristy Fellows Program, designed to honor faculty who have demonstrated a sustained commitment, at the highest levels, to undergraduate education.  Congratulations, Prof. Church!

Andrei Linde was awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, along with Alan Guth of MIT and Alexei Starobinsky of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow. http://www.kavliprize.no/nyheter/vis.html?tid=61464

Fri, 2014-06-13

On June 13, 2014, Professor Renata Kallosh will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Groningren, on the occasion of the "University of Groningen 400 Years" event.  Honorary doctorates are presented to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to society, academia or politics.  See http://www.rug.nl/fwn/news/fwnactueel/kallosh

Mon, 2014-03-17

The detection of gravitational waves by the BICEP2 experiment at the South Pole supports the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe came to be. The discovery, made in part by Assistant Professor Chao-Lin Kuo, supports the theoretical work of Stanford's Andrei Linde.

Tue, 2014-02-18

Gravitational lensing solves puzzle from the Big Bang’s echo.

Mon, 2014-01-20

Leo Hollberg is a co-recipient of the 2014 Rank Prize for the creation and demonstration of the first chip scale atomic clock.

Election to the Chinese Academy of Science is one of the highest honors that China bestows on a citizen of a foreign country.  Congratulations, Shoucheng!

Mon, 2014-03-03

The 2014 Robert Hofstadter Memorial lecture will be given by Sir Michael Victor Berry, the Melville Wills Professor of Physics (Emeritus) at the University of Bristol on March 3, 2014. More information will be posted here.

Fri, 2013-08-23

We are very pleased to welcome the following six faculty to the Physics Department:
Steven Chu,
Persis Drell,

Patrick Hayden,
Kent Irwin, ...

Mon, 2013-03-18
Fri, 2013-03-08

Maria Giovanna Dainotti, a visiting post-doctoral researcher with Vahe Petrosian's group, has been awarded an Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in an International Women's Day ceremony (press release and...

Fri, 2013-02-15

After a four-year tenure marked by historic expansions in spending on green energy, Chu wrote in a letter to Energy Department employees that many major energy challenges– from a reliance on imported oil to lagging investment in green energy and a lack of action on climate change– still lie ahead. He emphasized, however, his intent to further his accomplishments as...

Wed, 2013-01-09
Bruno Rossi Prize for 2013 will be given:
"To Alice K Harding and Roger W. Romani for establishing a theoretical framework for understanding gamma-ray pulsars."
Wed, 2013-01-02
After a long illness, Stanley Sweet Hanna died December 27, 2012, in Palo Alto.   A brief graveside service was held on Wednesday, January 2, 2013, 1:00PM at Alta Mesa Cemetery in Palo Alto.  An obituary appears in the April 2013 issue of Physics Today.

The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation has announced that Shoucheng Zhang as a 2013 Physics Frontiers Prize winner.

Fri, 2012-11-30

Physics Professor Patricia Burchat and five other faculty at Stanford University have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 

Each year, the AAAS Council elects members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished. Examples of areas in which nominees may have made...
Mon, 2012-09-24
Professors Blas Cabrera from Stanford University and Bernard Sadoulet from University of California, Berkeley, have been awarded the 2013 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics.  The award is in joint recognition of...
Wed, 2012-08-08
Shoucheng Zhang has been awarded the Dirac Medal for 2012, along with Duncan Haldane of Princeton and Charles Kane of the University of Pennsylvania  "in recognition of their many important contributions to condensed matter physics, including their independent work preparing and opening the field of two and three dimensional topological insulators.  Their research and the physical implications of the concepts and theories they developed have been instrumental to exciting...
Tue, 2012-07-31

CONGRATULATIONS PROFESSOR LINDE!

Andrei Linde wins $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize.
Stanford physicist among nine inaugural winners of prize awarded by Russia's Milner Foundation.
Mon, 2012-07-23

The astronaut Sally Ride, who was a Stanford student (BS 1973 in Physics and English, MS 1975/PhD 1978 in Physics) and later a science fellow at CISAC from 1987-1989, has died of pancreatic cancer:  NYTimes obituary and CISAC news

Sat, 2012-06-30

Physics Today article (June 2012)  features new results building on earlier work by Xiao‐Liang Qi and Shou‐Cheng Zhang (January 2010).