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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Reporters working on stories regarding tomorrow morning’s announcement out of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland about progress in the search for the elusive Higgs boson should consider speaking with Johns Hopkins experimental physicist Andrei Gritsan, a member of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment) group, one of the two competing teams of scientists working at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
December 12, 2011 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: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy
NVIDIA, the California-based visual computing technology company, has named Johns Hopkins University as a CUDA Center of Excellence, honoring the university’s pioneering use of GPU computing and the CUDA programming model across research within multiple science and engineering departments. The Center of Excellence will be headquartered in Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science, bringing together the expertise of scholars from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of Engineering and the Sheridan Libraries to develop tools and methods capable of mining knowledge from the colossal data sets being produced today. Scientists from the Space Telescope Science Institute, located at the JHU campus are also partnering in the activities of the Center.
October 3, 2011 Tags: Alexander Szalay, CUDA Center of Excellence, data-intensive science, GPUs, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, IDIES, Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, nVIDIA, Sheridan Libraries, Space Telescope Science Institute, The Whiting School of Engineering, visual computing technology
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Engineering, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Technology
Johns Hopkins University astronomer Joseph Silk has been awarded the 2011 Balzan Prize, for his pioneering work on the infant universe. The $950,000 award is given annually to people or organizations that have made outstanding achievements in the fields of the natural sciences, humanities and culture, as well as for peace-promoting endeavors.
September 12, 2011 Tags: 2011 Balzan Prize, astrophysics, cosmic background radiation, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Joseph Silk, the early universe, The Johns Hopkins University, Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
Marc Kamionkowski, considered one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists for his work in large-scale structures and the early history of the universe, will join the faculty in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences on July 1. An endowed professor at California Institute of Technology, Kamionkowski has spent much of his career researching astrophysics, cosmology and elementary particle theory.
June 27, 2011 Tags: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Caltech, Daniel Reich, galaxy formation, gravitational lensing, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Marc Kamionkowski, particle dark matter, phase transitions in the early universe, stellar astrophysics, the epoch of reionization, The Johns Hopkins University, The Robinson Professor of Theoretical Physics
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy
Johns Hopkins astronomer Imants Platais and a colleague conducted a census of stars in the NGC 6791 star cluster and found it is an interesting hybrid that sheds new light on scientists’ understanding of how stars form and evolve. A paper on the study appeared in the May 20 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
June 1, 2011 Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, Center for Astrophysical Science, globular clusters, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Imants Platais, Johns Hopkins University, metallicity, Milky Way, stars
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University is hosting its 8th Annual Physics Fair from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 16, 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 8, 2011 Tags: Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Physics Fair, QuarkNet, Spring Fair
| Category: Events Open to the Public, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Uncategorized, University-Related
Adam Riess, an astrophysicist at The Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute, today was awarded the Einstein Medal 2011 by the Albert Einstein Society of Bern, Switzerland. The society board of trustees recognized Riess for leadership in the High-z Supernova Search Team’s 1998 discovery that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating, a phenomenon widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained “dark energy” filling the universe. Riess, 41, shares this year’s prize with Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, whose Supernova Cosmology Project team published similar results shortly after those published by Riess and High-z teammate Brian Schmidt, of the Australian National University.
February 18, 2011 Tags: Adam Riess, Australian National Laboratory, Bern, dark energy, Einstein Medal, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, High-z Supernova Search Team, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Peter Gruber Foundation, Saul Perlmutter, Shaw Prize, Space Telescope Science Institute, Supernova Cosmology Project, The Albert Einstein Society, The Johns Hopkins University, University of California Berkeley
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Institutional News, Physics and Astronomy
Nadia L. Zakamska of the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University has received a Sloan Research Fellowship to continue her research, which uses Earth and space-based telescopes and large data sets to answer important questions about the universe and its origins. Administered by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the fellowship recognizes early-career scientists and scholars with two-year $50,000 grants aimed at helping them establish their laboratories and advance their research. Zakamska, 31, was one of 118 young scientists or economists to receive the awards this year, in recognition of their potential to contribute to academic advancement. Since the Sloan Foundation began awarding fellowships in 1955, 38 have won Nobel Prizes later in their careers.
February 15, 2011 Tags: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Daniel Reich, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, John N. Bahcall fellowship, Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Nadia L. Zakamska, NASA Spitzer Fellowship, Princeton University, Sloan Researcgh Fellowship, Stanford University
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
A team of astronomers, including one at the Johns Hopkins University, has uncovered a burgeoning galactic metropolis, the most distant known in the early universe. This ancient collection of galaxies presumably grew into a modern galaxy cluster similar to the massive ones seen today. The developing cluster, named COSMOS-AzTEC3, was discovered and characterized by multi-wavelength telescopes, including NASA’s Spitzer, Chandra and Hubble space telescopes, and the ground-based W.M. Keck Observatory and Japan’s Subaru Telescope. Johannes Staguhn, associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Astrophysical Sciences in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, contributed data to uncover the nature of a main cluster member.
January 12, 2011 Tags: black hole, Chandra, COSMOS-AzTEC3, GISMO, Goddard Space Flight Center, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hubble, Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique, James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Johannes Staguhn, Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University's Center for Astrophysical Sciences, Jon Morse, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, modern galaxy cluster, NASA, Peter Capak, proto-cluster, Spitzer, Subaru Telescope, W. M. Keck Observatory
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Physics and Astronomy
N. Peter Armitage of the Institute for Quantum Matter and the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences has received a $2.2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to invent and develop new optical techniques and instruments to explore the characteristics of complex condensed matter such as superconductors, electronic gases and quantum magnets.
December 14, 2010 Tags: condensed matter research, electronic gases, exotic materials, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Institute for Quantum Matter, Krieger School of Arts and Science, MRI, N. Peter Armitage, quantum magnets, superconductors, terahertz, The Johns Hopkins University, transistor radio
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Physics and Astronomy, Technology
Associate research scientist Natalia Drichko, 38, was selected as a recipient of the American Physical Society’s 2010 M. Hildred Blewett Scholarship. A career re-entry grant of up to $45,000, the scholarship—given each year to between one and three deserving physicists—supports early career female physicists whose professional life has been interrupted for family or other personal reasons.
November 1, 2010 Tags: American Physical Society, CERN, Daniel Reich, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Janice Wynn Guikema, Johns Hopkins Institute for Quantum Matter, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, M. Hildred Blewett, M. Hildred Blewett Scholarship, Natalia Drichko, women in physics
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy
A report released by the National Academy of Sciences names several projects involving astronomers and astrophysicists at The Johns Hopkins University as among the most important astrophysics investments in the next decade. Titled “New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics,” the recently issued report represents the consensus position of hundreds of astronomers and astrophysicists nationwide who participated in the process of prioritizing projects.
August 27, 2010 Tags: " Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope, "New Worlds, Adam Riess, Alexander Szalay, Charles L. Bennett, Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor, Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Instrument Development Group, James Webb Space Telescope, JDEM, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins' Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science, Joint Dark Energy Mission, Katherine S. Newman, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, National Academy of Sciences, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pan-STARRS, Shaw Prize, Warren Moos, Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Engineering, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, Technology, University-Related
A website that brings the universe into the homes and onto the computer screens of professional and amateur astronomers alike has won a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education, known as SPORE, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Built by a Johns Hopkins University team led by astrophysicist and computer scientist Alexander Szalay, the SkyServer search tool of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s database makes more than 350 million stars and galaxies available to students, teachers and the public. SkyServer’s Mapquest-like interface allows them to pan through the sky, zoom in and out, and click on stars and galaxies for more information.
August 26, 2010 Tags: AAAS, AAS, Alexander Szalay, astronomy, astrophysics, Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, Human Genome Project, Johns Hopkins University, Jordan Raddick, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, quasars, Science, Science Prize for Online Resources in Education, SkyServer, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, stars, universe
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Physics and Astronomy, University-Related
