News: Faculty

Stuart Rowan and other researchers developed self-assembling nanoparticles that deliver RNA and proteins at room temperature, offering a simple, scalable solution for drug delivery.

Astronomers discovered an ultra-metal-poor star, GDR3_526285, in the Milky Way's halo, offering insights into the early universe and star formation.

The James Webb Space Telescope found no atmosphere around the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1d, casting doubt on its habitability and further dimming hopes for the TRAPPIST-1 system's potential to support life.

David Keith and a Harvard team creates sunlight-powered flyers to study the mesosphere, offering new insights for climate science and future planetary exploration.

SOFIA data maps Sagittarius C’s magnetic fields, revealing how star winds shape gas, filaments, and dynamics at the Milky Way’s turbulent core.

James Webb finds no Earth-like atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 d, dimming hopes for life in the nearby seven-planet system 40 light-years away.

AI bots now dominate web traffic, prompting creators to “poison” data to block scrapers, though the same tactic could fuel misinformation.

NASA detects a faint 13-billion-year-old polarized light signal from the universe’s first stars, revealing clues about the cosmic dawn.

Daniel Holz, professor in the Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Physics, serves as a PI on a research project that explores the physics of strong gravity. 

Devices can levitate powered only by sunlight, could explore little-known areas.

Webb telescope helps scientists narrow down the search for “Earth twin” planets.

K1 Semiconductor, which recently took second place in the Polsky New Venture Challenge and Grainger Engineering Tech Startup Challenge, is developing a technique that could drastically improve chip manufacturing.

Ten of the 18 projects awarded grants involve faculty from the Physical Sciences Division. These projects are crucial in tackling climate change.

Congratulations to Robert Wald, Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College, who has received a 2025 Dirac Medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).

This episode of the Big Brains podcast features Chemistry Professor Greg Engel, who helped launch the field of quantum biology. Engel explains how plants and bacteria evolved to exploit quantum effects for photosynthesis—and how understanding these systems could spark a revolution in quantum sensing, medicine, and neuroscience.