Recent news from The Johns Hopkins University
This section contains regularly updated highlights of the news from around The Johns Hopkins
University. Links to the complete news reports from the nine schools,
the Applied Physics Laboratory and other centers and institutes are to
the left, as are links to help news media contact the Johns Hopkins
communications offices.
When a solar flare filled with charged particles erupts from the sun, its magnetic fields sometime break a widely accepted rule of physics. The flux-freezing theorem dictates that the magnetic lines of force should flow away in lock-step with the particles, whole and unbroken. Instead, the lines sometimes break apart and quickly reconnect in a way that has mystified astrophysicists. But in a paper published in the May 23 issue of the journal Nature, an interdisciplinary research team led by a Johns Hopkins mathematical physicist says it has found a key to the mystery.
May 22, 2013 Tags: astrophysics, flux-freezing theorem, magnetic fields, solar flares, turbulence
| Category: Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Technology
A team of astronomers at The Johns Hopkins University has used data gathered by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to spot a supernova that exploded more than 10 billion years ago, breaking the previous record by roughly 350 million years. Nicknamed in a nod to Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States and a Johns Hopkins alumnus, “SN Wilson” now stands as the farthest known supernova of the type used to measure cosmic distances.
April 4, 2013 Tags: Adam Riess, David O. Jones, SN Wilson, Steve Rodney, supernova, Type Ia supernovae
| Category: Physics and Astronomy
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University is hosting its 10th annual Physics Fair from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, coinciding with the annual Spring Fair celebration on the Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Events will take place in the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, located on the north end of the campus near Homewood Field.
April 3, 2013 | Category: Events Open to the Public, Physics and Astronomy
The announcement that researchers are closer than ever to confirming the existence of the Standard Model Higgs boson particle was made possible in part by contributions from physicists at The Johns Hopkins University who are members of one of two teams conducting experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
March 15, 2013 Tags: Andrei Gritsan, CERN, European Center for Nuclear Research, God particle, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Higgs boson, Higgs field, Johns Hopkins University, Large Hadron Collider, sub-atomic particle
| Category: Physics and Astronomy
As asteroid 2012 DA14 squeaks by Earth, professors at The Johns Hopkins University are available to discuss what we can do to prepare for – or even prevent – such close encounters in the future.
February 14, 2013 Tags: Andrew Cheng, Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, K.T. Ramesh, Richard Conn Henry
| Category: Engineering, Physics and Astronomy
Johns Hopkins astrophysicists Brice Ménard and Charles L. Bennett have been appointed to the Euclid Consortium, the international team of scientists overseeing an ambitious space telescope project designed to probe the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter. NASA, a partner in the mission, recently announced their selection to the research team for Euclid.
February 12, 2013 Tags: astronomy, Brice Ménard, Charles Bennett, dark energy, dark matter, Euclid space telescope, European Space Agency, NASA
| Category: Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Technology
ince its launch in 2001, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission has revolutionized our view of the universe, establishing a cosmological model that explains a widely diverse collection of astronomical observations. Led by Johns Hopkins astrophysicist Charles L. Bennett, the WMAP science team has determined, to a high degree of accuracy and precision, not only the age of the universe, but also the density of atoms; the density of all other non-atomic matter; the epoch when the first stars started to shine; the “lumpiness” of the universe, and how that “lumpiness” depends on scale size. Now, two years after the probe “retired,” Bennett and the WMAP science team are releasing its final results, based on a full nine years of observations.
December 21, 2012 Tags: Adam G. Riess, age of the universe, baby picture of the universe, big bang theory, Charles L. Bennett, dark energy, Gary Hinshaw, the density of atoms, University of British Columbia, Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, WMAP
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Chia-Ling Chien, the Jacob L. Hain Professor of Physics and the Director of the Material Research Science and Engineering Center at The Johns Hopkins University, is a winner of the first-ever Asian Union of Magnetic Societies Award, recognizing his “seminal contribution to magnetic materials, nanostructures, magnetoelectronic phenomena and devices.”
October 31, 2012 Tags: AAAS, American Physical Society, Asian Union of Magnetic Societies, Carnegie-Mellon University, Chia-Ling Chien, China, Daniel Reich, Fudan University, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, IEEE, Lanzhou University, magnetic materials, magnetoelectric phenomena, Material Research Science and Engineering Center, Nanjing University, nanostructures, The Johns Hopkins University
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Astrophysicist Brice Ménard of the Johns Hopkins University has been selected by the Maryland Academy of Sciences as the Outstanding Young Scientist of 2012. He received the award at a ceremony to be held at the Maryland Science Center yesterday. Ménard, an assistant professor in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, was recognized for his research in extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology.
October 25, 2012 Tags: American Astronomical Society, Brice Ménard, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, cosmology, extragalactic astrophysics, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Maryland Science Center, Max Panck Institute for Astrophysics, Outstanding Young Scientist of 2012, Tokyo University
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Physics and Astronomy, Uncategorized, University-Related
Johns Hopkins University chemist Tyrel McQueen has been awarded a 2012 David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering. The fellowship is one of 16 awarded each year nationwide, and bestows unrestricted funds of $875,000 (over a five-year period) to unusually creative young faculty members in science and engineering.
October 15, 2012 Tags: chemistry, David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, Gerald Meyer, Katherine Newman, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Tyrel McQueen
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Natural Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Two Johns Hopkins University research scientists who use the Japanese art of paper folding, known as origami, as a metaphor for understanding the complexity of the cosmos have been named winners of an award through the “New Frontiers in Astronomy & Cosmology International Grant and Essay Writing Competition,” funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Mark Neyrinck and Miguel Aragón-Calvo, both of the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, were chosen from an international competition led by the University of Chicago’s Donald G. York to receive a grant to explore fundamental questions in astronomy and cosmology that engage groundbreaking ideas on the nature of the universe
October 4, 2012 Tags: Alexander Szalay, astrophysics, cosmic web, cosmology, Donald G. York, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, huge data sets, John Templeton Foundation, Johns Hopkins' Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science, Mark Neyrinck, Miguel Aragon-Calvo, origami universe, University of Chicago
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Supported by a five-year $7.4 million National Science Foundation grant, experts at The Johns Hopkins University are partnering with teachers and administrators in Baltimore City Public Schools on a program to enhance teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and math in city elementary schools by making STEM a community affair. The program, called STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools – SABES for short — not only will benefit more than 1,600 students in grades three through five in nine city elementary schools, but could also become a national model for science, technology, engineering and math education.
September 25, 2012 Tags: Baltimore City Public School System, City Schools, Engineering, Greater Homewood, Highlandtown/Greektown, Johns Hopkins-Baltimore City Public Schools partnership, Katya Denisova, Lower Park Heights, Maryland Science Center, mathematics, Michael Falk, National Aquarium in Baltimore, National Science Foundation, Ronald J. Daniels, SABES, Science, STEM education, Technology, The Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Education/K-12, Engineering, Government and Politics, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Natural Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology, Social Sciences, Technology, University-Related
With the combined power of NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes as well as a cosmic magnification effect, a team of astronomers led by Wei Zheng of The Johns Hopkins University has spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen. Light of the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories shone forth when the 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old. The far-off galaxy existed within an important era when the universe began to transit from the so-called “Dark Ages.” During this period, the universe went from a dark, starless expanse to a recognizable cosmos full of galaxies. The discovery of the faint, small galaxy accordingly opens up a window into the deepest, remotest epochs of cosmic history.
“This galaxy is the most distant object we have ever observed with high confidence,” said Zheng, a principal research scientist in The Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and lead author of a new paper appearing in Nature tomorrow. “Future work involving this galaxy – as well as others like it that we hope to find – will allow us to study the universe’s earliest objects and how the Dark Ages ended.”
September 19, 2012 Tags: California Institute of Technology, CLASH, Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey, gravitational lensing, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Holland Ford, Hubble Space Telescope, Infrared Array Camera, IRAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, most distant galaxy, Spitzer Space Telescope, Wie Zheng
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
The Gruber Foundation announced today that the 2012 Cosmology Prize will be awarded to Johns Hopkins University professor Charles L. Bennett and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission science team that he led. Bennett and the WMAP team are being recognized by the foundation for their transformative study of an ancient light dating back to the infant universe. So precise and accurate are the WMAP results that they form the foundation of the Standard Cosmological Model.
June 20, 2012 Tags: 2012 Cosmology Prize, Adam Riess, Big Bang, Charles L. Bennett, Chuck Bennett, Draper Prize, Gruber Foundation, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, origins of the universe, the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, WMAP
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
The Maryland Space Grant Observatory and Johns Hopkins University are inviting star gazers of every experience level to an event that not only will allow them to view the transit, but also to learn more about it, beginning at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5 at the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, 3799 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, 21218.
June 4, 2012 Tags: Adam Riess, astrophysics, Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, cosmology, Maryland Space Grant Consortium, Peter McCullough, Space Telescope Science Institute, The Johns Hopkins University, Venus transit
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Events Open to the Public, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. Astronomers have spotted these stellar homicides before, but this is the first time they can identify the victim. Using a slew of ground- and space-based telescopes, a team of astronomers led by Suvi Gezari of The Johns Hopkins University has identified the victim as a star rich in helium gas. The star resides in a galaxy 2.7 billion light-years away. Her team’s results will appear in the May 3 online edition of the journal Nature.
May 2, 2012 Tags: Armin Rest, Galaxy Evolution Explorer, GALEX, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Milky Way galaxy, MMT Observatory, Nature, Pan-STARRS1, Space Telescope Science Institute, Supermassive black holes, Suvi Gezari, The Johns Hopkins University, ultraviolet light
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Technology, University-Related
A proposal led by a Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist has been selected by NASA as part of a science instrument upgrade to the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The instrument, the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera (HAWC), will provide sensitive, versatile and powerful imaging capability to the SOFIA user community. The Johns Hopkins-led investigation is one of two that will allow SOFIA, with the enhanced HAWC, to measure the structure and strength of magnetic fields in diverse objects throughout the universe, such as star-forming clouds and galaxies. This will help astronomers better understand how stars, planets and galaxies form and evolve. Johannes Staguhn of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Astrophysical Sciences will lead the team.
April 20, 2012 Tags: aerospace, Boeing 747SP, formation of planets and galaxies, Goddard Space Flight Center, HAWC, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johannes Staguhn, John Grunsfeld, Johns Hopkins University's Center for Astrophysical Sciences, NASA, SOFIA, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Technology, University-Related
All three of the most highly cited scientific papers in the world published in 2011 were from an astrophysics space mission project led by a Johns Hopkins University scientist, according to Thomson Reuters’ Science Watch. The papers cite results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), a NASA spacecraft launched in 2001 that has revolutionized our knowledge of the history, composition, and geometry of the universe. The WMAP mission is led by Charles L. Bennett, Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Johns Hopkins Gilman Scholar
April 16, 2012 Tags: astrophysics, Charles L. Bennett, COBE, Comstock Prize in physics, Cosmic Background Explorer, Daniel Reich, Goddard Space Flight Center, Harvey Prize, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, John Mather, Johns Hopkins University, NASA, Peter Gruber Foundation, Science Watch, Shaw Prize, Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, WMAP
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University is hosting its 9th Annual Physics Fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, coinciding with the annual Spring Fair celebration on the Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Events will take place in the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, located on the north end of the campus near Homewood Field.
April 10, 2012 Tags: astrophysics, Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins, N. Peter Armitage, Peter Armitage, Physics Fair, QuarkNet
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Education/K-12, Events Open to the Public, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
The Johns Hopkins University performed $2 billion in medical, science and engineering research in fiscal 2010, making it the leading U.S. academic institution in total research and development spending for the 32nd year in a row, according to a new National Science Foundation ranking. The university also once again ranked first on the NSF’s separate list of federally funded research and development, spending $1.73 billion in FY2010 on research supported by NSF, NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.
March 30, 2012 Tags: Applied Physics Laboratory, Lloyd B. Minor, National Science Foundation, R&D, research and development, The Johns Hopkins University
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Engineering, Institutional News, Natural Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology, Public Health, Social Sciences, University-Related
A Johns Hopkins University theoretical physicist has been awarded a Simons Fellowship in Physics, which provides scholars with the opportunity to spend a year away from classroom and administrative duties in order to pursue research interests. Mark Robbins, a professor in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University, is among 27 theoretical physicists to receive this highly competitive, honorific fellowship.
March 13, 2012 Tags: Daniel Reich, Eindhoven University of Technology, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Mark Robbins, New York University, Simons Fellowship in Physics, The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, theoretical physicist, University of Pennsylvania
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Students dreaming of careers searching for life on other planets or monitoring global climate change remotely from satellites will be interested in a new interdisciplinary minor being offered at The Johns Hopkins University. Accessed through the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, the new space science and engineering minor is designed to prepare students to enter careers in the aerospace industry or professional laboratories, or to enter graduate programs.
February 28, 2012 Tags: aerospace, aerospace industry, APL, Applied Physics Laboratory, Charles L. Bennett, H. Warren Moos, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Homewood Academic Council, Jessica Noviello, Joseph Katz, Krieger School of Arts and Science, satellites, space science and engineering minor, Space Telescope Science Institute, Stephen Murray, The Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Engineering, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Student-Related News, University-Related
Astrophysicist Brice Ménard of The Johns Hopkins has won a 2012 Sloan Research Fellowship to further support his research on extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology.
February 15, 2012 Tags: Brice Ménard, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, cosmology, Daniel Reich, dark matter, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Institut d'Astrophysiqu de Paris, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, intergalactic space, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Max Planck Institute, N. J., Paul L. Joskow, Sloan Research Fellowship, The Johns Hopkins University, Tokyo University
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of an image created by astrophysicist Miguel Angel Aragon of The Johns Hopkins University, the adage holds true. His vibrant computer illustration, which won the National Science Foundation’s 2011 Science and Engineering’s Visualization Challenge in the “Informational Posters and Graphics” category, brings to vivid life many dynamic aspects of the universe, spanning 240 million light years.
February 2, 2012 Tags: AAAS, Adler Planetarium, dark matter Science, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Julieta Aguilera, Mark Subbarao, Miguel Angel Aragon, National Science Foundation, The Cosmic Web, The Johns Hopkins University, The National Science Foundation;s 2011 Science and Engineering's Visualization Challenge, the universe
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Physics and Astronomy, Technology
To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers.
February 1, 2012 Tags: aerial micro vehicles, butterflies, insect flight dynamics, MAV, Robotics, undergraduate research
| Category: Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Student-Related News, Technology
