The Physics Department is pleased to announce Jonathan Pober's 2023 Early Career Research Achievement Award.

The American Humanist Association (AHA) announced that Stephon Alexander will be awarded the prestigious Isaac Asimov Science Award at the AHA’s 82nd annual conference Crossroads and Collective Futures, in Denver, Colorado on May 6, 2023.

Seven Questions with Danielle Germann, National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellowship Recipient

Dean of the Faculty Leah Van Wey announced that Vesna Mitrović, L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Physics and Engineering, will assume the position of Chair of the Department of Physics on July 1, 2023.

Physics PhD student Shayan Lame successfully defended her thesis "Electrokinetic Noise Driven Dynamics of DNA Molecules and Dynamics of Nanoparticles in Diffusivity Gradients" on Friday, March 24th.

Michael Toomey successfully defended his thesis "Theoretical and Computational Explorations of Beyond ΛCDM Cosmology” on Friday, March 24th, 2023.

The Physics Department is pleased to announce that Brad Marston was selected for the Kavli Foundation Special Symposium at the American Physical Society's (APS) March Meeting.

Watch Brad Marston discuss his talk on waves of topological origin for the Kavli Symposium at the APS March Meeting.

To all Department of Physics women who are postdocs and undergraduate, master’s and PhD students: this is your opportunity to be featured in the next Physics Fundamentals project!

Professor James Valles' research is recognized in China Science Daily as being among China's top ten breakthroughs in science and technology in 2022.

The Brooke Owens Fellowship—a nationally-acclaimed nonprofit program recognizing exceptional undergraduate women and gender minorities with space and aviation internships, senior mentorship, and a lifelong professional network—announces its Class of 2023 Brooke Owens Fellows.

Professor Vesna Mitrovic opened the 2023 CUWiP at Brown on Friday evening with introductory remarks, including a reflection of Dr. Meenakshi Narain’s impact on women in physics: “There isn’t anybody better that you should aim to be like.”

CUWiP at Brown
By Valerie DeLaCámara

The Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) is a network of three-day regional conferences designed to increase participation and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in physics. The conferences connect undergraduate women in physics with mentors who range in age from graduate students to faculty. Through keynote speakers, workshops and activities, undergraduate women are provided with a unique opportunity to learn all that a future in physics can hold for them. The American Physical Society (APS) is the institutional home of the conferences, which are supported in part by the National Science Foundation and by the Department of Energy. The host sites are chosen through a rigorous selection process, in which the APS expects applications to “demonstrate a clear commitment to the goals of the CUWiP program, both on the part of the institution and members of the local organizing committee,” with involvement of both students and faculty.

Brown Physics Professor Meenakshi Narain successfully lobbied for Brown to be named a host site of the January 2023 CUWiP, at which thirty universities were represented, including Amherst College, Baldwin Wallace University, Bowling Green State University, Brown University, Case Western Reserve University, Clarkson University, College of the Holy Cross, Hunter College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Miami University, Mount Holyoke College, Naugatuck Valley Community College, Oberlin College, Ohio Northern University, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Providence College, Southern Connecticut State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Connecticut, University of Dayton, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Rhode Island, Wesleyan University, Williams College, Wittenberg University, and Yale University.

Prof. Narain reached out to those she considered to be outstanding women in physics and her call was answered resoundingly by some of the most prominent names in the field, including Professors Nandini Trivedi, OSU; Toyoko Orimoto, Northeastern; Jenny Hoffman, Harvard; Beth Parks, Colgate University; Julianne Pollard-Larkin, UT Austin, MD Anderson Cancer Center; Mirna Mihovilovic, Syracuse University and Brown Ph.D. Alumnus; Savannah Thais, Columbia; Sarah Demers, Yale; Jung-Eun Lee, Brown DEEPS; Li-Qiong Wang, Brown Chemistry; Geraldine Cochran, Rutgers; Brown University Vice President for Research Jill Pipher; Brown University’s Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity Dr. Sylvia Carey-Butler and Dean Janet Blume.

Since hosting a CUWiP is an enormous undertaking, the APS provides some logistical assistance for each host site’s conference; however, the majority of the work is done by the host site faculty sponsor, along with their team of volunteers. The Brown physics community showed up in numbers, with more than 40 volunteers of physics master’s and Ph.D. students, five faculty, two undergraduates, and two volunteers from Brown DEEPS.

Upon Prof. Narain’s unexpected passing two weeks before the conference, Professor Vesna Mitrović stepped in as the conference faculty lead. Prof. Mitrović relied heavily upon Daniel Li, Prof. Narain’s graduate student of almost five years, as he stepped up as CUWiP at Brown’s chief organizer. Read more about Daniel on page 26.

Prof. Mitrović now faced the difficult task of speaking in a timeslot reserved for her late friend.

With remarks that both elegized and elevated Prof. Narain, Prof. Mitrović quietly opened the conference, saying, “I’m unfortunately standing here because our chair – who really organized everything – Professor Meenakshi Narain, left us two weeks ago. I want to dedicate tonight as an homage to her. She was too quiet about all the things she did, but I can’t think of any better role model – I know you’re going to hear from fantastic speakers tomorrow – but I really cannot think of anybody better that you should aim to be like. My colleague and friend Meenakshi was an amazing physicist, but she also really cared about helping both women and underrepresented groups in physics succeed.”

Brown Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity Dr. Sylvia Carey-Butler reflected on Prof. Narain’s efforts to further opportunities within physics for underrepresented groups, saying, “Losing Meenakshi is a tremendous loss in so many ways. One of the areas of responsibility that I’ve had is overseeing the Brown/Tougaloo partnership; we are celebrating almost 60 years in 2024. Meenakshi played a significant role both in partnership and advancing physics and physics research at Tougaloo College. In early December, we celebrated the award of a grant of just under $1 million that Meenakshi received on behalf of Tougaloo College; we were very excited. I shared that with President Paxson and Tougaloo College's president, Dr. Walters. Meenakshi was just so excited. We were looking at ways in which the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity could support her involvement with a HEP renewable grant. Meenakshi also oversaw the Physics Honors Program Society at Tougaloo College; she was involved in furthering opportunities for women in physics and championing equity and diversity in physics. It is a tremendous loss to both the students and the faculty that she influenced at Brown University and on Tougaloo’s campus. I considered her a colleague and a friend and will miss her tremendously, but in her name the work will continue and we will honor her legacy. She was quietly wonderful in all she did, and I am glad I had a chance to work with her.”

Read more about CUWiP at Brown here: https://sites.brown.edu/cuwip/

It is with deep sadness that we inform you that our colleague and friend, Meenakshi Narain, passed away on January 1, 2023. Meenakshi joined the Brown University Department of Physics faculty in 2007 and served as the first woman to chair the department beginning on July 1, 2022.